Phoenix Flight

by RainyLiquid0202

Summary:

Wondrous magic, powerful artifacts, and ancient bloodlines. Vast riches, deep dungeons, raging wars, beautiful women, handsome men, magical animals, and secrets waiting to be found.

Olivia Lot, a girl said to possess the weakest type of magic, blood magic, dreams of one day leaving her village and becoming an Arcane Knight—powerful soldiers who explore dungeons and slay monsters. By chance, she meets Davi Hawker, a strange Knight who has set out on a quest to slay the Dragon that brought ruin to his homeland. Together, the two of them embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

Expectations:

- Two MCs, an autistic knight, and a useless blood-mage.

- Bisexual female MC and Pansexual male MC.

- Weak to Strong, gathering of powers, skills, and spells.

-Mild LitRPG elements eventually, involving small stats, unlocking and evolving spells, buying spells, and gathering loot and magic items. There won't be traditional EXP.

- Fishing.

- Slowburn throuple romance. FFM.

- Dungeon crawling/adventuring through strange biomes, and collecting rare loot and slaying boss monsters.

- Shadow magic/Blood Magic, Magical Beasts, Dragons, Demons, more magic, and yet even more magic.

Notes:

Hello! Welcome to Phoenix Flight, my newest story. This first chapter is basically a prologue, yes I know those don't normally do well, but I also am stupid, so it cancels out I think.

Anyway enjoy. This will be a very, very, long story, with many characters, arcs, and world building. It will have some dark elements, romance, magic, more magic, and even more magic. I wrote this story while binging Final Fantasy games one through ten while suffering from several fevers.

Chapter 1: The Start Of An Adventure

He was cold. So very cold.

“Spiraling towers. Caves that never end. Cities that stretch on like labyrinths. The life of an Arcane Knight has a lot to offer, doesn’t it, Sieg?” Davi muttered weakly.

The snow's relentless onslaught turned each step into a battle, made even harder by the limp weight of the boy laying on Davi's back. One that threatened to engulf him and his brother should he fail. Time lost all meaning beneath the unyielding grey sky, and Davi's breath fogged before him, the only warmth in the freezing blizzard that embraced him. How many days had it been since he and his brother ventured into this unforgiving realm of snow and ice? He couldn't say, and neither did he care. All he knew was the endless sea of white that he marched through.

“Hey, Sieg, come on and say something already!” Davi felt the cold air crack his lips, but he ignored the pain and did his best to shake his brother awake. Sieg rested on his brother's back, eyes closed, and hadn’t moved in over a day now.

There was so much ice and snow that it was hard to stay awake, but Davi knew that the moment he closed his eyes would be his last. The instant he drifted off to sleep, he wouldn’t be able to wake back up, and then no one would be able to save him or Sieg. They would both die. That was why, no matter how much he was hurting, no matter how blue his skin was becoming, he didn’t stop.

It was his fault they were in this mess in the first place. They were out somewhere in the middle of the Mordheim nation, surrounded by a harsh blizzard that didn’t care how young they were. The freezing cold bit into the preteens just as much as it would for anyone else. It raged on relentlessly, eating away at their energy as much as it did their flesh.

“Sieg, you need to say something. I’m getting worried!” Davi shifted his brother and tried to shake the other boy awake, but Sieg still didn’t respond. “Hey, Sieg, we’re going to be Arcane Knights! You know, like the kind we talked about, who get to see the whole world! Spiraling towers. Caves that never end. Cities that stretch on like labyrinths. Spiraling towers. Caves that never end. Cities that stretch on like labyrinths. Spiraling towers. Caves that never end. Cities that stretch on like labyrinths—” Davi felt his foot drop through the snow and lost his balance, suddenly tumbling forward.

His grip grew weak, and Sieg dropped to the ground, lying as still as the snow. Davi gasped as he sank into the knee-deep snow. It burned and stabbed into his skin, his entire body feeling as though it was going to crack and shatter. The worst of it was on his face. Blood and cracked flesh clung to the side of his head, peeling off when it rubbed across the icy ground.

Weakly, he forced his head up and stared at his brother. Sieg was face down in the snow, his skin a nasty blue color, and his fingers and toes had swollen and looked almost black now. Davi realized his own weren’t any better. Now that he was on the ground, though, he just couldn’t muster up any more of his strength, and even trying to crawl to his brother’s side seemed like an impossible task.

It just wasn't fair to be put in a situation like this. He was only twelve, still a child, yet that didn't matter—not to Mother Nature, which had cruelly forced him and his sibling into this cursed reality.

"Someone!" Davi cried out, the tears freezing instantly upon his face. Somehow mustering all of his remaining strength, he managed to use his chin to drag himself next to his brother and placed his head on Sieg’s chest. Davi's eyes widened slightly as he heard a weak beat. Sieg was still alive. "Please!” He screamed again. “Someone! Anyone! Save my brother! Get him out of this cursed world!”

His legs and lungs had been pushed to their limit, and there was still no gate in sight. They were miles out from the nearest exit to the realm. Despite that, though, he had to do something. Anything. Davi let out a scream as loud as he could. The wind, however, had other ideas. A powerful gust rose as if to mock him and swallow his pitiful cries for help—a last-ditch effort that went unnoticed by the world. His cry died down, his throat tearing, as more of his flesh cracked and broke.

Davi finally gave up.

He felt his eyes grow heavy, and he found himself listening to the beat in his brother’s chest grow quieter. Soon, it would be silent. Strangely, Davi found himself feeling warm now. The cold was fading, and it became easier to drift off and go to sleep. The pain would end that way. It wouldn’t hurt anymore. This journey had been impossible from the start. It had been foolish to think either of them could escape their fate.

Davi felt his eyes shut, and he lay there unmoving. That was until he heard a faint sound. It was almost impossible to hear over the howling wind, but his ears picked it up by some miracle—the sound of wings beating.

His eyes opened painfully, the ice shattering as he groaned. Davi suddenly felt a rush through his body, and his eyes widened. Something stood above him now, massive in height.

The cold was forgotten as he stared up at the thing that now stood above him. It was large and covered in thick, spiky scales. Two gigantic wings jutted out of its back, and a pair of yellow eyes narrowed as it stared down at the two boys sprawled out on the ground before it. The thing stood on four legs, each ending in jagged blades, and one of its limbs rose off the ground. Davi gasped as the claw, bigger than he was, gently pressed into him. Meanwhile, behind the great beast, a tail thundered against the ice.

A Dragon. The very same kinds of ancient beasts that one could read about in stories stood before two dying boys, whom it had spotted while it was flying about.

The entire ground seemed to rumble as it craned its head down and looked closer at one of the boys.

Davi's reflection shivered in the Dragon’s eye as it met his gaze. His body trembled, and he knew then that his life was now in the beast's hands.

“You asked for someone to save you?” A rumble and a guttural growl came from the creature. "Well, you're in luck, boy. I am here." Fire gently dripped out of the Dragon's maws, and steam rose as the ice melted.

And just like that, Davi Hawker was no longer cold.

Chapter 2: A Girl Who Wants To Be A Knight

Screaming echoed through the streets of Oleander City. A woman tripped over her feet and collapsed, letting out a cry of fear. As she dropped back, a chunk of a building went flying past and slammed into a car next to her, flattening it.

The woman let out a whimper and looked up at the beast that was rampaging through the city. It stood on the crushed corpses of a few dozen citizens as it howled to the sky and began to beat at its chest. The thing looked almost like an ape, but it was four times bigger and covered in red fur.

Several police officers lay dead around, and the ones that were still alive were firing away at the creature but were having little success. One officer was flat on his back and screaming into his radio.

“Its hide is bulletproof, and it has high-tier magic resistance! We need a Knight! I repeat! We need a—”

The ape stepped forward and crushed the man beneath its foot, splattering him. The woman let out another cry, and she tried to crawl away when the monster's eyes landed on her. It snarled and lunged forward, and she screamed, throwing her arms out in front of herself as if that would help.

And then a miracle happened.

The ape brought both its arms down, ready to tear the woman into two, but its arms suddenly bounced off a shimmering field of golden light that appeared around the woman. It was like a bubble, only solid. It glowed brightly and burned the monster's arms as they touched it. The creature howled and stumbled back. The officers stopped firing at the monster, and they gawked at who they saw. Even the ape stared.

“You’re making quite the mess of this city.” Stalking through the ruined street, a woman appeared. She wore armor that was so advanced it had to be from the future. It was made out of solid steel, and power lines ran along it, all glowing with a golden energy that gushed out of her suit. In her hands, she carried a gigantic lance that was formed out of pure energy. It pulsed and hummed with power, and the woman casually pointed it at the monster. “Die.”

The ape let out a rage-filled cry before it jumped at least twenty feet in the air and came down toward the woman in the armor. Not even blinking, she pulled her lance back and stabbed up. It spun and twisted, setting the air on fire, and with a single thrust, it exploded through the monster's chest, killing it instantly. She didn’t stop there, though. Her arm kept going up, the creature's corpse hanging on the end, and with one arm, she lifted it up for all to see.

An Arcane Knight had arrived.

One of the greatest warriors in the world—

“What are you watching?”

Olivia felt a sharp kick to her rear, causing her to yelp and fall off the bus bench. She dropped her phone, which had been playing the video of the Knight slaying the ape, and she glared up at her friend, Bruno, who had been the one to kick her. “What was that for?”

Bruno’s smirk only grew, and in the darkness of the forest, his eyes lit up. “What are you watching?”

Olivia glanced down at her phone, which was currently in the middle of an ad for some new armor shop that was opening up and no longer showed the knight. “None of your business.” She finally responded, and she clicked her phone off and tucked it away into her pocket. With a sigh and a slightly sore butt, Olivia stood up and stretched. “It’s about time you showed up. We’re going to be late for school because of you. Just because it’s the last day doesn’t mean we should be tardy, you know.”

Bruno gave a weak chuckle and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’m here now, though!”

Olivia didn’t say anything and turned to look down at the paved road that led to Lotus City. The bus stop she had been waiting at was a few miles away from Fri, the village Bruno and she lived in. Despite being a bus stop, though, no bus actually ran through the area, so they’d have to walk if they wanted to get to the city.

“Well, let’s get this over with.” Olivia finally muttered. “Finals are due.”

“You’re going to do great.” Bruno tried to cheer her up.

“I hope so.” She didn’t have much faith, though.

The two of them made their way toward Lotus, walking down the stretch of road. The city was large, with dozens of stone buildings and a castle in the center where some duke lived. A wall was present around the city, and typically, you’d have to pay a toll to even get in, which most of the village kids couldn’t afford; hence, they’d be taking a secret way in.

Bruno pulled out his wand from beneath his cloak and flicked it casually. “Row Ice Stairs!” He announced as the tip of his wand lit up. The area around him began to rapidly grow cold before a wave of ice started to sprout out from its tip, forming into a transparent staircase that went all the way to the top of the wall and then went over it, bending and making its way down to the other side. When it was done, Bruno gave a casual bow. “Ladies first.”

Olivia rolled her eyes and let out a soft giggle. “Show off.”

The Kingdom of Estiria, being a relatively small kingdom, had but one thing that it could genuinely boast of. To put it simply, Estiria was a place filled with magic! In almost every home or marketplace, magic and technology existed side by side, both thriving off the other.

Olivia stepped off the staircase when she reached the bottom and waited for Bruno to come down. Once he did, he flicked his wand again, and the stairs began to melt and bubble away, simply vanishing into a puff of steam.

Past the wall was the city itself, where they were instantly met with tall buildings, and everywhere they looked was some sort of magical sight. A couple of men were chanting words and causing the earth to twist and bend to their will, while up in the sky, a few witches rode around on broomsticks, flying on currents of air, and further above them were magitech airships that patrolled the skies. Amazing, magical things were going on everywhere, from pillars of flame that danced around to swirling water that formed into different shapes. That was just the kind of place Estiria was. It was a kingdom built with magic.

The street lamps were all powered by lightning magic, and cars drove down the road alongside flying carpets and motorbikes.

“Come on, bro.” Bruno took her hand and let out a laugh as he began to lead her down the street and toward Lotus Academy. “Today is our last day, Olivia! Once we finish the tests today, we’ll be done with school and can go on to do whatever we want! We can even try to join the Knights! Doesn’t that sound great!”

Olivia managed to give a small grin, and she nodded her head. “Yeah. That does sound amazing.” Then her smile faded. “Only if I can pass the exam, though.” She fiddled with her phone and opened up the app she always spent her time on. Her grimoire popped up on her phone screen.

Like all mages, her grimoire was no longer a book. Instead, it was a phone app. On the app, it showed a collection of her 'stats' or at least that's what Bruno and she called them since they thought it sounded cool and was like something out of a LitRPG.

Near the top of the screen, a pitifully low number indicated her market balance. It would’ve been higher than the meager amount if she could hold herself back from buying spells on the grimoire market, just to find out they were incompatible with her magic type.

The rest of the screen had different little tabs she could tap on, one that would take her to a ‘health’ page that displayed things like her heart rate, mana regeneration rate, her mana amount, even things like height and weight. It also showed the current spells she had and the percentage until they would evolve and become better, most of which were low.

Her eyes scanned the app up and down, taking her stats in, and double-checking everything. The part that monitored her heart rate was steadily increasing, but her main focus was on the mana section.

Mana: Grade D. After months of trial and error, it had finally gone up from D- to just D.

A quick peek at Bruno's phone, and she saw the letter A. It had been a C+ last month, but through sheer force of will, Bruno had 'leveled up' quite a bit. She totally wasn't salty about the fact that all of his stats were higher than hers, and he knew more spells.

Not at all...

Bruno glanced back at her and gave a larger grin. “Bro, you’re gonna do great.”

“Please don’t call me bro…”

“Sorry, bro, can’t help it.” Bruno laughed.

Soon, they arrived at their destination. The other buildings were skyscrapers and fairly modern-looking. The only old-fashioned thing in Lotus was the castle where the duke resided. The building in front of them, though, was something straight out of a fantasy novel.

It was at the end of a block and was carved out of a black stone. It was a circular tower that looked like how most people would imagine a wizard's tower to look, and along the brick were dozens of runic symbols all spewing out random nonsense. It was Lotus’s one and only magic academy. A place where people could come to learn and master their magic and attempt to figure out a good use for it so they could go on to better serve the world and the kingdom as a whole.

It was also the last time Oliva would ever be setting foot in the school.

Today was the last test the school would be holding. It was all or nothing. If she didn’t pass here, then she didn’t know what she would do. This was it.

“Hey.” Bruno placed his hand on her shoulder. “Bro, you’re gonna do just fine. Just believe in yourself.”

Olivia forced a nod. Slowly, she walked up to the heavy gates that were the tower's door and took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m going to ace this test!” She declared proudly.

***

She was not acing the test…

A few hours later, after entering the school, Olivia found herself shuffling forward and tried to ignore the pain as the thorns jutted into her side. Her school uniform wasn’t enough to block most of them, and she cursed the fact that she was forced to wear a skirt instead of pants like the boys got.

The thornbush she hid in rustled every couple of seconds as she inched herself forward, but it was the only option she had. The woods were next to impossible to see in at this time of night, and she prayed that the things she was hunting would just assume it was a squirrel or some other critter that was crawling around.

Bit by bit, Olivia eased herself forward, keeping low to the ground, until she was finally able to see her targets. There were three of them in total.

They all stood in the center of the forest, which was surprisingly open, save for the many bushes that were scattered around, one of which she was inside of. Her targets weren’t human, though they might have been mistaken for one if not for the faint moonlight above that shone down, revealing their true forms.

They were hunched over, draped in dirty brown animal pelts, and they carried jagged branches that they had sharpened themselves. They were short, with sickly green skin and pointed ears.

Goblins. A rather low-level type of monster that most farmers with a gun could deal with. She wasn’t a farmer, though. She was a student and barely considered an adult since she had just turned eighteen. Even if such beasts were considered simple creatures by many, she wasn’t willing to let her guard down.

Olivia took a deep breath and did her best to steel her nerves. She’d only have one shot at this. Once she made her attack, she’d need to wipe them out without getting hit. The goblins were facing away from her, and they kept grunting random noises in some other language. With one last moment of hesitation, she sprang out and made her move.

“Row Blood Bolt!” In an instant, Olivia jumped forward and stabbed her wand forward. The tip of it glowed, and a red beam of compressed liquid fired out at speeds so fast it pierced right through the skulls of one of the goblins, killing the creature instantly.

The other two goblins let out loud screeches and roared in anger. One of them whipped around and glared at her, but before it could even think about attacking, she slashed out with her wand as if it were a blade.

“Row Blood Slash!” Once more, red gushed out of the tip of her wand, and Olivia coldly brought her wand up. The red wave that came out was thin and ran along the goblin's body from the crotch to the top of its head, splitting the creature in two. The last one lunged at her, letting out a battle cry, and it stabbed out with the spear it had. Olivia narrowly dove to the side and felt sick as she landed in a pile of goblin guts, but she crushed down her disgust and used her other hand to grab one of the goblins' spears.

Letting out a cry of her own, she brought the badly carved spear up and rammed it into the throat of the last goblin. Its eyes went wide and filled with fear, and it took a step back, thrashing and shaking. Blood dripped down its chin and its wound. Its eyes were wide and filled with fear, but then they stared at her.

If it was going to die, then it was going to take her with it. Olivia gasped as the goblin threw itself onto her and shoved her back into the pile of gore. She screamed out as its claws dug into her stomach, and it began to tear her uniform and skin apart.

She gritted her teeth and tried to fight through the pain. Her hand clutched her wand harder, and she stabbed up, impaling it into the goblin's ear, and she used another spell. “Row Blood Bolt!” The red spell popped the goblin's head, spilling brain matter down onto her. Olivia gasped and was unable to stop herself as she vomited.

She lay there panting and exhausted, lying in filth. She didn't need to pull her phone out to know that her mana had reached zero. Weakly, she wiped her mouth with her sleeve and tried to resist passing out. She didn’t vomit from how disgusting everything was. Instead, it was because she reached her limit. A branch snapping caught her attention, and she painfully looked up, finding dozens of other goblins now crowding around her.

They wouldn’t be what did her in, though.

A loud, piercing roar exploded through the forest. Behind her, a tree was torn down, and she turned just in time to see a truly monstrous creature stomping its way toward her.

The goblins had been smaller than she was, but this creature was just shy of thirty feet tall and had dark red skin that was stretched over its form. It was bulky and carried an entire tree as its weapon, and the pelt that was draped over its legs was an entire bear that had been skinned. It was an ogre.

The beast roared, and it was so loud Olivia felt her ears pop, and on instinct she found herself stumbling back. Olivia’s arms shook, and she raised them up, but it was a futile attempt. The ogre brought the tree down on her.

Olivia felt her head split open and burst, and her body snap and shatter as she became a red smear on the ground.

Or at least that’s what would have happened if this were real.

Olivia gasped and cried out, falling onto her rear. She wasn’t dead, and she was no longer in the forest. Her clothes weren’t stained in goblin blood, and none of what just happened had been real. It sure as hell felt real, though, and Olivia could feel her heart pounding away behind her ribs.

Then she heard it. Laughter.

Hesitantly, Olivia looked around. The forest and the goblins were all gone, replaced instead with a large classroom. On one end of the room, a blackboard resided, and a teacher sat behind his desk. On the other side was a row of stairs leading up to where several desks were laid out, each containing a study of the Lotus Magic Academy.

They were all laughing. Laughing at her.

“The simulation is over, Ms. Lot.” The teacher spoke up. He was an older man with a crooked nose and dark robes. “You can stand up. Once more, you fail.”

Olivia felt her face go pale. “What? No! Please! I can’t fail! One more chance, sir, just give me one more try and—”

“No.” The teacher said flatly. “You've already tried more than any other student. I’m sorry, but I can’t pass you. You fail Magical Combat.”

Olivia felt tears prick at the corner of her eyes. Then she noticed the flashing cameras and saw several of the students were snapping pictures of her or recording. Her humiliation was being recorded for all to see.

Why were kids always so cruel?

“Please return to your desk, Ms. Lot.” The teacher said calmly.

Olivia forced herself to stand, her legs still shaking. None of it had been real, and she hadn’t even felt any pain, but the image of what her body had been reduced to was burned into her mind. Slowly, she stumbled forward and managed to take a seat next to her friend Bruno, who was one of the only students who weren’t laughing at her.

“You did better than last time,” Bruno said, trying to sound a little hopeful.

Olivia shook her head and fought back a hiss. “I failed. That was my last chance, and I failed. I blew it.” There wouldn’t be any more tests, and she was an adult now, so her time at the academy was over. She had taken that test dozens of times but had never been able to get past the ogre, all because of her stupid magic and the fact that she couldn’t cast more than three spells.

“It’ll be okay,” Bruno said quietly. “It’s possible to become a Knight even with bad exam scores; you still have the Knight's test to pass.”

“It’s much harder, though.” Olivia’s fingers grasped her wand. “Mages are judged on how well they do in one of the academies, and that goes a long way to passing the Knights' test and joining them.”

Bruno looked conflicted and wanted to say more but stopped when the teacher spoke up. “Can anyone tell us what Ms. Lot did wrong?” The teacher asked.

“She used her useless magic!” A student called out in the back, and Olivia didn’t even need to turn to know who it was. She could practically feel Ash’s eyes gazing at the back of her head.

“Mr. Anderson, please keep your rude remarks to yourself.” The teacher didn’t even bother to look in Ash’s direction. “Ogres are far stronger than goblins and are shockingly fast. When fighting an ogre, there’s a good chance you’ll die in a single hit, so don’t do what Ms. Lot did and engage it up close.”

More laughter filled the room, and Olivia buried her head in her arms and tried to fight back a groan. She hadn’t done it on purpose. It was just hard to think straight and move once she used three spells, due to her ‘curse’.

“We have time for one more, I think.” The teacher said, clapping his hands together. “Mr. Anderson, since you spoke up earlier, why don’t you show us how it’s done?”

“With pleasure.” Ash’s snickering grew, and Olivia remained in her seat, doing her best to look away as he stalked past her. Eventually, though, her eyes turned to him.

Ash was handsome. She hated to admit it, but he was. Like her and Bruno, he wasn’t actually from Lotus and came from a nearby village called Fri, but unlike her, living in a village did nothing to harm his complexion. He was pretty, with nice fair skin and gray hair that was combed back. The only issue he had was the ever-present smirk that always seemed to be on his face.

By comparison, she was practically ugly. She knew that wasn’t actually the case, but it was how she felt. Her skin was deathly pale, and not in the good way like Ash’s. Her hair was long and snow-white and was constantly in a tangled mess, and her blood-red eyes had heavy bags under them that wouldn’t go away no matter how much she slept. Her school uniform was also dirty and way too big on her, since it had been a hand-me-down from Bruno. The uniform was a red jacket that had the school's logo on the sleeve, which was the image of a hawk. The boys got pants, but she was stuck in a skirt that made combat awkward.

Ash stood in the center of the room, and his lopsided grin grew. “Well? I’m ready.”

The teacher just let out a sigh and made his way over to the wall where a lever rested. He pulled it down, and from above, a projector came to life. It was pointed down toward the ground, and it let out a soft blue light that draped itself over Ash. The entire classroom shifted and changed, and Olivia felt her chair vanish.

She was sitting in thin air, suspended high in the air, staring down at Ash, who now appeared in a familiar forest. She bit the inside of her cheek to stifle a groan when she watched him stalk forward. She had gone for a stealthy approach, using her magic to take the goblins out quickly, but Ash had no need for stealth.

He barged through the bushes, gaining the attention of the goblins. The three creatures screeched and threw their spears at him, but Ash blocked them by casting a spell. “Row Wind Barrier!” The wind itself came to life and twisted around Ash, forming a powerful shield that deflected the spears. Ash didn’t skip a beat and turned his wand clockwise, twisting his entire wrist. “Row Wind Drill!”

The goblins were ripped to bits as the air swirled and howled, jutting forward, and as if a sea of invisible blades went through them, the monsters fell apart. It had taken him less than three seconds to wipe the creatures out. All that was left was the big one.

A roar broke through the forest, but Ash was already acting. “Row Wind Bird!” Silver air glowed and shimmered, forming into a large construct. It looked like an eagle and was made out of a mix of magic and air. It appeared under Ash and soared into the air just in time to avoid the ogre’s club swing. Ash stood atop his beast and glanced in her direction. “Notice how I’ve cast more than three spells.” He taunted. “You would have already been dead by this point. Now let me show you how it’s done, useless Olivia.” Ash held his wand out, gripping it like how a conductor would guide an orchestra. “Row Wind Tornado!”

Both Ash’s wand and the beak of his bird glowed, and the air flowed out and twisted together. They formed into a large tornado, which blasted down to the ground and slammed into the ogre. The entire forest shook, and several trees began to get ripped out of the ground as Ash formed a massive twister.

The ogre grunted and howled, but it was unable to fight against the massive wave of air current. It began to get lifted off the ground, and Olivia’s eyes once again met Ash’s, his smug look growing.

“I doubt you can do this with your blood magic.” He flicked his wand up, and the ogre was launched. It went flying out of the forest and sent well past the clouds.

The forest vanished, and Ash stood in the classroom. He took a bow, and several people clapped. Olivia was not one of them.

“Very good, Mr. Anderson.” The teacher nodded his head. “You knew that your spells likely wouldn’t be able to harm the ogre’s thick hide, and you couldn’t defend against its attacks, so you took to the skies and allowed gravity to beat it for you. Smart thinking. You pass.”

“Of course I do.” Ash snickered. “No one is shocked.”

Olivia couldn’t take it anymore. She jumped up to her feet, and she ran for the door. More laughter followed her as she burst out into the hallway and made her escape.

She was glad the school was doing its final tests because it meant the hallways were empty, so she didn’t have to worry about seeing anyone. She left the school and stepped out into the street, breathing heavily. Ash’s smug smirk was still burned into her mind, and her body wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it!” Olivia yelled out and got several odd looks from the many people on the streets. “It’s not fair! I tried so hard, damn it! Why! Why couldn’t I do it? Why can’t I cast more than three spells?” For a moment, the video she had watched came back to her mind, and she remembered that woman in the armor. “How am I supposed to be the kind of Knight like her if this is my weakness…”

“Are you okay?” A tired voice asked, and Olivia let out a squeak. She forgot she had been screaming in the middle of the city.

“Yeah.” She said, “I’m—” She stopped when she saw who stood in front of her.

He was nineteen or twenty and had messy, raven-black hair. His eyes were a piercing blue, and he wore a black hoodie with baggy pants. He was sort of handsome in a rough sort of way. The type of person that had a slightly crooked nose from spending years growing up on the street but managed to thrive off of it and surpass that sort of life. He wasn’t quite as handsome as someone like Ash, but Olivia still found her breath hitching when those kind blue eyes turned her way. That was also when she noticed his scar. It was a prominent wound that clung to the left side of his face, above his eye, and went down his cheek. His look wasn’t one of concern but was instead mostly blank.

“A-are you trying to enter the academy?” She asked, stepping out of the way. “Wait, you’re not in uniform; you know you need to wear your uniform, right?”

“Oh, I don’t go here.” The raven-haired man said flatly.

“Okay?” Olivia shook her head. The way the man was speaking was quiet and very bland. Almost boring. “S-sorry for being in your way, I guess? I’ll go.”

“Okay.” The man lazily shrugged.

Olivia walked past him and glanced back at him for a moment, but then turned away and kept on going. She just wanted to forget this day and leave the school behind. Soon enough, the stranger was out of her head.

The man remained behind, standing outside the school, and gently he reached up and rubbed his scar. “How odd,” Davi Hawker said quietly to himself. “Was she the one I was sensing? Her mana is familiar. Looks like I’ve found you, Dragon.”

The boy who had marched through the blizzard had become a young man.

Unknown to either of them, Davi Hawker and Olivia Lot had just met.

Chapter 3: The Parade

Magic was everywhere in the Estiria kingdom. Everyone had it and used it alongside the everyday technology that made their lives a little bit easier.

For many, that was as far as magic went. It was nothing more than a tool to make life just a little simpler. For some, though, magic was more. It was like a blade, one to be sharpened and used rather than hung up on the walls as mere decoration. These were the people who wished to become Arcane Knights and join the force, evolving their magic and battling dangerous beasts or exploring vast dungeons for rewards.

But… what happens when you have someone who wants to sharpen their blade, but they’re born with a useless sword? Well, that’s what Olivia Lot was. At least, that’s what everyone in Fri village would say if you asked about her.

Mages were judged on how many spells they knew, how strong their spells could get, and how many they could cast back to back. That last one was why she was considered so useless by everyone that she knew, and had led to her failing every exam that required the use of magic, not just combat tests.

“Olivia!” Bruno let out a sigh of relief when he finally found her. “There you are! Bro, you weren’t answering your phone; I was getting worried when you just ran off!”

“Sorry,” Olivia mumbled and placed another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. She was outside of an ice cream shop, a place she often went to when she was feeling down. The sun had long since set, bathing everything in the colors of twilight, and most stores were shutting down, but this one was always open. “What are you doing here?”

Bruno made a face and folded his arms. “Bro, I came to check up on you. You just ran out of the school!”

Olivia looked away, feeling ashamed. “Yeah.” She mumbled.

Every major city had a magic academy, and even most towns had them. Fri was where Bruno and she grew up, and it was too small to have its own school, so they had to go to Lotus’s academy for the past six years now.

As the name suggests, magic academies served as a place where a mage could learn the best way to use their magic. They didn’t offer just combat and, in fact, had many different subjects they taught. Ages twelve to eighteen were allowed to attend the academy for free and could take lessons in any field they desired, from history to math to even combat. The schools were there to help teach and train students and prepare them for the real world and how they could use their magic in their everyday jobs.

Water mages often went on to become firefighters or would join the navy, while earth mages could take lessons to become architects and create the buildings of tomorrow. Combat classes could be taught, but despite everyone having magic, most people didn’t actually take these classes and would instead spend their time looking into a different program. Those that did take these classes, however, had only one goal in mind.

To become an Arcane Knight. And should that fail, to join the military. And should that fail, to become a police officer.

Most kids wanted to be real-life superheroes, and with magic, they could. At least, until they realized how truly hard it was and how insanely lucky you’d have to get. Olivia was neither strong nor lucky, and in fact, many could say she resided all the way at the bottom.

“Did you pass your exam?” Olivia asked meekly.

“Yeah,” Bruno said awkwardly, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I did. But listen! It’s not over for you yet, Olivia! Sure, you might have failed the test in the academy, but there is still a whole other test for you to take! Don’t give up.”

“Yeah…” Her answer didn’t brighten Bruno’s mood.

The boy looked very worried for her, but he just couldn’t understand how she was feeling. Bruno was one of the lucky ones born with a powerful type of magic and a near-bottomless pool of mana. He could cast way more than three spells, and every time she saw his grimoire, she always got a bit jealous. His stats were way better than hers.

Back in the day grimoires used to be books, and they were safely guarded by a mage. A grimoire was a mage's life story and held all their traits and spells. Nowadays, in the Estiria kingdom, grimoires were very different.

Not just because of the rapid growth in technology thanks to Magitech Industry, but also because of the King's very own magic, which created the internet and allowed grimoires to go digital.

The grimoire app was something all mages owned, that allowed them to rapidly grow and 'level up'.

The app could not only be used by a mage to view their stats, but also make spell or trait purchases. It indicated how much mana a mage had, and any passive effects they also had active. They didn't use numbers for any of this though, and instead used letters as a way of ranking everything.

Notable stats were Mana, which determined how much magical energy a mage had, Strength, which determined how strong a mage could power up themselves or spells with mana, Efficiency, which determined how easily a mage could control mana and how fast they regenerated mana, and Resistance, which determined how easy a mage could resist negative effects, such as dungeon environments, or debuff spells.

Olivia made sure she constantly kept up to date with her own stats even if they very rarely changed.

Mana: Grade D, Endurance: Grade C-, Strength: Grade C, Efficiency: Grade C, and her only good stat was Resistance: Grade A. By comparison, Bruno had Mana: Grade A, Endurance: Grade B, Strength: Grade B, Efficiency: Grade B, and Resistance: Grade C. The fact that his lowest stat was a C was considered very impressive since E- was the lowest something could go, and S+ was the highest.

Besides stats, her grimoire also showed her passives, of which she had only one that was decent: Quick Regeneration: Grade B.

There was also a section for traits, but hers was blank since she couldn't afford any, and her spell list had no good ones within it.

She didn’t know why, but as she looked at her friend, the image of that boy with the scar came back. Both that man and Bruno had the same vibe. She had only bumped into that stranger once, but she had been able to tell he wasn’t your average citizen. Unconsciously, she compared Bruno to him, and she wondered what that man's stats were.

Bruno was a tall, athletic-looking eighteen-year-old boy with dark skin and flowy brown hair. He had an ever-present smile and wore a long brown cloak around his body. He didn’t bother with a shirt, instead showing off his muscles, which were large and bulky from constantly working out, despite the fact that his food portions weren’t that big. In his fingers, he twirled his lengthy wooden wand very casually. He was healthy and powerful. The kind of person that would be a drill sergeant's dream to have on their team. He’d make a great Knight one day.

“Oh, I just had a good idea!” Bruno beamed and reached into his pockets, pulling out his phone. “I totally forgot about this since I was looking for you, but you’re not going to believe what happened!”

“What is it?” Olivia asked, taking another bite of her ice cream. Bruno flipped the phone over and showed her his screen. He was in a group chat with a couple of boys from the academy, who all lived in the same village Bruno and she did. Most of their texts were nonsense, but there was one section that drew her eye and made her gasp. “Seriously?”

“Yep!” Bruno nodded and stuffed his phone away. He reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Come on, bro! No more sulking! Let’s go see them!”

“I wouldn't miss this for the world!” Olivia grinned. “After all, the Arcane Knights are passing through!”

Olivia let out a giggle and allowed herself to be dragged by her friend. Now that she was looking around Lotus, she noticed the city had gotten a lot more lively. The streets were full of people, and the skies had dozens of magitech airships and drones flying around. An event was about to start soon, one she would never forget.

“Hey! Bruno!” A voice called out, and the two of them looked up to find a younger boy with ginger hair waving toward them from a nearby alleyway. “About time! Hurry up; they haven’t arrived yet!”

“Yo, Nev!” Bruno walked forward and clapped hands with the other boy.

Olivia walked a little further behind, her smile no longer present. Nev’s grin vanished as he turned from Bruno and then shot a look at her. “You brought Olivia?” Nev asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course I did! She’s my bro, just like you, and the others are all my bros!” Bruno declared, wrapping his arm around Olivia’s shoulder and dragging her over. “Come on, Olivia, let’s say hi to the others!”

“Right,” Olivia said awkwardly, and she did her best to ignore Nev’s glare as the three of them stepped into the alleyway. “Hey.” Inside, waiting for them, were two more people she wasn’t excited to see.

“Seriously, Bruno, you brought your girlfriend?” At one end of the alleyway, a boy with dyed blue hair snickered, a bit of lightning dancing out of the tip of his wand.

“Don’t be rude, Trent.” At the other end of the alleyway was the leader of Trent and Nev. It was Ash… “Bruno would never be caught dead dating someone as useless as her.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Ash,” Olivia said sarcastically. She felt her blood boil a little as the boy gave her a mocking smirk, but she did her best to ignore it.

Bruno was her good friend and practically a brother. He was also friends with Ash, whom Nev and Trent always flanked. Unfortunately for her, she had the pleasure of growing up in the village with all of them.

“Come on, fellow bros!” Bruno placed his hands on his hips. “We can all play nice, right?”

None of the boys bothered to answer, and luckily for Olivia, she didn’t need to worry about them saying anything else, as a moment later, a loud horn buzzed through the air. She felt her eyes light up, and she stepped past Bruno and Trent and looked toward the city gate next to Ash. “It’s starting.” She whispered.

Lotus’s gates swung open, and the streets were filled with dozens of people, all loudly cheering and waving their wands and phones through the air. A large black car wheeled forward through the gates, its flag proudly displaying Estiria’s symbol atop it: a strong-looking lion made of many different colors that all swirled together in a strange dance of dots.

Behind the carriage, eight more cars drove forward, each having the roof pulled down, allowing the people to see the driver and, more importantly, the person who sat in the back.

To put it simply, they were all breathtaking. Each one was dressed in either stunning armor, long flowing robes, or perfectly stitched leather. Some carried long staffs, while others had swords, and others had heavy guns. Their cars all had flags, each showing off a different symbol, but the one who rode in the front stole the show.

It was a young-looking woman in her early twenties. She wore some rather heavy-looking silver power armor that was so advanced some might think it was from the future. Her hair was a golden color, and in one arm, she held a flag that had the symbol of a sun on it. In her other hand, she wielded a massive lance, taller than any person, with the end of it speared through some sort of beast. A very dead one. It was covered in fur and looked like a giant ape, and at one point might have looked intimidating if the woman wasn’t simply parading it around as she and the others rode through Lotus. She sat on a seat that was raised, putting her above everyone, which gave the people a clear view of her as the car she was in drove along.

Everyone knew who they were.

The Arcane Knights.

There were things in their world that were unexplainable. Strange lands where trees reached past the clouds, literal oceans of blood, flaming rain, and beasts that no mortal could ever hope to battle against. When it came to these bizarre phenomena, only one group hoped to match them.

The Arcane Knights, Estiria’s most potent warriors, were a branch of the military who specialized in hunting monsters, exploring dungeons, and putting an end to dangerous wizards. They were the closest thing to real superheroes.

These Knights were on a quest, traveling to many different cities throughout the lands and showcasing their most recent triumph. The ape monster that was on the woman’s lance was in actuality, a powerful monster that had nearly wiped out a city but was stopped by the Arcane Knights before it could happen.

Cheering filled the air as Lotus celebrated alongside the Knights as they drove through the streets. Each Knight was practically glowing, and even from where she stood in the alleyway, Olivia could feel the arcane energy practically dripping off each member. Not only were they the strongest magically, they also had the most advanced tech that could put anything the military had to shame.

“They’re just as stunning in person as I thought they’d be,” Ash noted. “Of course, I’d expect nothing less. They are the saviors of Estiria, after all.”

“So cool,” Trent said, practically drooling, and he had his phone out recording everything he could.

“That blonde one is so hot,” Nev said shamelessly.

“Those are my future bros.” Bruno punched his hand into his fist and beamed from ear to ear.

Olivia stared ahead at the Arcane Knights and felt her lips curve. “Amazing. Simply amazing.” It wasn’t the first time she had seen an Arcane Knight, since Knights were like celebrities and were constantly featured on the news or would go to places to do charity events, but this was the first time she got to see so many powerful Knights gathered together in one place. It almost made her forget how badly she screwed up all the tests.

The people who stood before her were the best of the best. Real superheroes with godlike stats.

She was just about to run forward and get a closer look, but Bruno grabbed her wrist. “Come on, Olivia. You know, we’re the last people those kinds of guys want to talk to. They’re actual celebrities; we’re just total nobodies from some backwater village. Don’t give them a reason to get mad at us.”

Olivia nodded her head slightly and pouted a bit. Her pout then faded when the woman with the lance looked over at her. Despite holding a massive weapon up with one arm, the armored woman still managed to keep a relatively peaceful and kind smile on her face and nodded to her many fans, one of whom was Olivia.

Olivia grasped at her heart and gasped. “Oh, she nodded in my direction! She totally nodded at me! I could die right now!” She watched the Arcane Knights make it to the end of the city block, where they turned to keep going. Most likely, they’d be heading for the next city, where they’d drive through it and do this all again.

Once the Knights were entirely out of view and the cheering began to slow, the excitement faded, and they all calmed down. “I’ve read about the Arcane Knights.” Ash rubbed his chin. “I’m glad we got to see them. It motivates me more.”

“Yeah!” Trent nodded his head rapidly. “Hell yeah! Uh, what’s it motivating you to do?”

Ash’s smirk grew, and he folded his arms. “It motivates me to join them. Just like Bruno is planning on doing.”

Bruno chuckled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Aw, shucks, you found out that I was going to sign up?”

“Seriously?” Nev raised an eyebrow. “You think you two can become Arcane Knights? We’re all from a lame village that has never produced anything great. Arcane Knights are like nobles and stuff. I know we all took the combat lessons, but that was just to become a town guard or something. Sure, we killed monsters in a simulation, but fighting them for real is a whole other matter, you know.”

“I will become an Arcane Knight.” Ash declared, his eyes filling with determination.

Olivia quietly nodded her head. “Yeah. Me too!” She realized she said it out loud a second too late as everyone turned to look at her. She awkwardly stepped back. “Whoops.”

Nev and Trent laughed, and Bruno looked away, a little embarrassed. Ash, though… Ash looked mad. “Seriously? You think someone as useless as you can be an Arcane Knight?” The boy sneered again. “I would have thought seeing actual Arcane Knights would have put you in your place. Especially after the already embarrassing performance you showed earlier today.”

Olivia felt her blood start to boil again, and she clenched her teeth, stepping forward. “Hey! I grew up in the same village as you did, so there’s nothing putting you above me!”

“Of course there is.” Trent jumped in. “Ash’s magic is awesome, but yours stinks!”

“Yeah.” Nev laughed. “Imagine an Arcane Knight that can only cast a couple of spells.”

“Bros,” Bruno trailed off. “Can we not?”

Everyone ignored him, and Ash reached into his pants pocket and produced a slender-looking white wand. His smirk was back, and he stared down at Olivia. “You think you and I are equals? How about we put your theory to the test?” He declared. “I challenge you to a duel. How about it, little orphan?”

“Olivia, don’t—” Bruno began, but was cut off when Olivia nodded.

Her eyes were filled with anger, and she stepped away, taking a few paces. “You’re on.” She reached into her pouch and pulled out her own wand. “I’m going to take you down a peg!” She turned back and glared at Ash. “I accept your duel!”

Ash’s lips twitched, and his look of rage faded. He now held a smile, one that she really wanted to slap off his face. “You just made the biggest mistake of your life.”

He was probably right.

Meanwhile, across the city, the rest of the Knights continued on. In the back of the car, the woman with blonde hair stared out across the crowd at her adoring fans. She kept waving her hands and kept her smile up, but something was wrong. She could feel it in the air.

Someone was watching her.

Her eyes scanned through the crowd, and she finally found the person she was looking for. Or at least she thought she did.

She saw a young man. One with messy raven black hair and a jagged scar across the left side of his face. A moment later, though, she blinked and he was gone.

“Is something wrong, my lady?” Another Arcane Knight, this one in thick, bulky stone armor that was shaped like a bull, questioned.

The blonde woman forced her smile to stay in place, and she kept staring out at the crowd of cheering people as they turned yet another corner. “No. Nothing's wrong. Let’s just leave this city and hurry up to the next. I’d like to get this parade over with.”

There were some interesting people in Lotus today.

Chapter 4: Dueling Ash

“Are you seriously doing this?” Bruno asked, letting out a wince.

Olivia nodded her head and looked down at her wand as she followed Ash and his posse. Her wand was old and worn down, made out of a nasty red wood that had dozens of cracks all along it from years of use. “I am.” She finally said. “I’m going to show him up.”

“Bro, no offense, Ash is really good at magic.” Bruno gave her an awkward look. “And you’re… Well, you know.”

Olivia fought back a growl and shook her head. “I can do this.” She had to.

The Arcane Knights were the peak of the peak: mighty physical warriors and masters of magic. Many kids dreamed of one day becoming one. She was one such kid. Seeing the Knights in person only caused her resolve to double. That was why she now followed Ash as he led her through the city.

The parade was over, and the Arcane Knights had quickly left. With the Knights gone, the people were starting to head to bed, so it didn’t take their group long to find an empty square lot, outside of some old blacksmith store, where the duel could begin. Olivia forced her heart to steady, and she made her way over to one side of the lot, while Ash stood on the other.

Trent and Nev both stood near Ash, cheering him on, while Bruno stood in the center, biting his lip. Trent also used an electric-based spell to cause the street lamps around them to go out in order to hide their duel a bit easier.

“Alright.” Bruno pulled his wand out and lifted it above his head, letting out a sigh. “On my mark, the duel can begin. If it gets too out of hand, though, I’m getting involved.”

“Just start already,” Ash demanded. He had a sly smirk on his face as he stared at Olivia, sensing her nervousness. Like a shark that smelled blood, he was ready.

Many mages often dueled, especially younger kids. There was something almost primal about clashing magic that always drew attention and heightened emotion. In some ways, dueling could be seen as a beautiful thing. That was, if both people knew what they were doing and it was fair.

This was not a fair duel.

“Begin.” Bruno sliced his arm down and jumped out of the center of the square so the battle could begin.

Olivia tensed up, lifting her wand, readying for an attack, but it never came. Ash instead stayed put and simply watched her. His own wand was drawn, but he kept it lazily at his side, not even bothering to up his defense or cast a spell. “What gives?” She demanded.

Ash’s smirk only grew. “What? Shocked that I’m not bothering to defend myself? Why would I bother when you’re the one attacking me? I can just wait till you drop dead or vomit all over yourself. Oh, but do remember, this isn’t a simulation, so when you do spew your guts, you’ll actually be covered in your own filth.”

Olivia felt her rage surge, and she had to fight back the urge to lash out. Ash was trying to get into her head, and she knew that. “Let’s see if you can still remain cocky after I blast your ass.” She announced, lifting her wand. “Row—”

“Row Wind Blade!” Ash didn’t even let her finish and sliced his arm out, the tip of his wand glowing. The wind obeyed his command and twisted, launching toward her, and Olivia barely dodged the attack at the last second as it sliced into the wall behind her, leaving a large cut across it. Trent and Nev cheered Ash on, and Bruno looked away, unable to bring himself to watch the fight. Already, Ash was waving his wand again, the wind spinning in front of him as it twisted into a drill. “Row Wind Spike!”

Just as he was doing that, Olivia was getting her own spell ready. She brought her wand up and focused. Pain flooded her senses. It always hurt when she used her magic. Blood began to pour from her fingernails and danced across her wand. “Row Blood Bolt!” Her blood flowed out and launched like an arrow, blasting out of the tip of her wand.

Ash’s drill spun through the air and clashed with her attack! Both of them canceled each other out. However, there was one issue: she felt light-headed, whereas Ash was just getting started.

“Kick her ass!” Nev cheered.

“I can’t wait to upload this,” Trent smirked, recording the entire fight on his phone. “This is like the fifth or sixth time she’s fought Ash. The comments love watching her fail.”

“Row Wind Barrier!” Ash twisted his arm, and a barrier of wind formed around him, creating a bubble that sprang up just in time to block Olivia’s next attack.

“Row Blood Cube!” Her blood took on the shape of a cube this time, and she launched it out as hard as she could, but it smacked into Ash’s barrier, exploding against it uselessly. Her body was even paler now, and the world around her blurred. “Row Blood Shield!” Her blood flowed out of her bleeding palm and became a round red shield at the tip of her wand, which blocked Ash’s next wind slash, but that was it. That was all she could do.

“And that’s three.” Ash laughed as her shield dropped and turned into a red puddle. Olivia was on her knees, breathing heavily, her vision fading in and out, and her body felt sick. It was taking everything she had to not lose her lunch. “Do you see why I said you were useless now? Seriously? Three spells? Three! That’s all you can manage before you become totally useless! I mean, I guess you could cast a fourth, but you’d die of blood loss. Come on! Did you really think you could win?”

“Shut up.” Olivia groaned and tried to stand back up, but she couldn’t. She was tired. Exhausted even. The human body only has so much blood in it, and if it loses too much, then it would simply die.

That was part of the irony that was her life. She lived in a world where magic existed and was so bountiful that every person could cast a spell or simply buy an enchanted item, yet she was born with a type of magic that was deemed utterly useless. If her magic was a blade, then it was one that was dull and blunt, lacking an edge, and would never amount to anything significant. The more spells she would cast, the more blood she would lose, which would throw her into a terrible dizzy spell that made it hard to focus and recover.

That’s why people called her Useless Olivia.

“I’m glad I don’t have a useless limit like you do. There’s wind all around us.” Ash stood before her, and once more, he sneered. “You’re playing with a limited resource. You still think you can join the Arcane Knights? Even after you failed all your tests in the magic academy?”

“I do.” Olivia clenched her eyes shut and tried to stop the pounding that was going off in her chest. Her heart was working overtime and felt like it was about to explode. “I will become an Arcane Knight!”

“You’re pathetic.” Ash sneered. “We all know what’s going to happen to you the moment you enter a dungeon. You’ll push yourself too far and become another freak, like the rest of the Magical Mutants.”

“Hey!” Bruno called out. “That’s not cool, bro.”

Ash only scoffed and didn’t stop staring down at Olivia. “Why? We all know it’s true.” He pulled his phone out and turned it over, facing it out toward her. "Look at this. I cast more spells than you did, but my vitals show I'm just fine." He bragged.

His grimoire app was already up. The heart rate monitor showed that Ash was doing just fine. He wasn't stressed, and he wasn't running out of mana either. His phone screen showed dozens of spells he had lined up, and next to each one was a bar that showed his mastery with it and how close he was to getting it to evolve. His stats were also visible near the top.

Mana: Grade A+, Endurance: Grade C, Strength: Grade C+, Efficiency: Grade B, Resistance: Grade C.

Olivia glared up at him, and her eyes met his. She was frustrated that Ash also had decent stats. Life wasn't actually like a LitRPG. A person couldn't actually level up, and increasing one's stats was very difficult; the same went for buying new spells and evolving them. She had worked so hard, yet it seemed like her stats rarely got better.

"What's wrong?" Ash taunted. "Are you going to cry?" Nev and Trent both laughed.

Olivia opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped. She got a better idea. She decided to stop holding herself back. It came pouring out of her as she opened her mouth and threw up all over his legs and his expensive shoes.

“Oh, what the hell!” Ash let out a yelp and made a gross gagging sound as it got into his socks. “You little bitch! You did that on purpose!”

Absolutely, she did.

Ash’s eyes filled with fury, and he lifted his arm, about to cast another spell. “No!” Bruno yelled, but he wasn’t quick enough to react.

“Row Wind Bullet—” Ash never had time to bring his arm down. His spell launched, but it went flying into the air. Trent’s and Nev’s smiles disappeared, and Bruno’s own eyes widened.

Olivia looked up weakly, her mind trying to process what she was seeing. Ash looked shocked and tried to move his arm but couldn’t. Something was gripping onto his wrist. A tight hold that wasn’t letting go.

“Do you mind being quieter? You’ve been yelling pretty loudly.” Standing next to Ash was a young man, who looked about nineteen or twenty years old, that had seemingly appeared out of thin air. “It’s late, and I'm sure some people are trying to sleep.” He had messy black hair and a scar across his face.

“You?” Olivia said in shock, once she processed who it was. The stranger in the hoodie, the one she had bumped into after running out of the academy, was now back, and he had just stopped Ash from blasting her with a powerful spell.

“Who the hell is that guy?” Trent asked in confusion.

“You okay?” The man asked, and it took Olivia a few moments to realize the question was directed at her. The way the man spoke was mostly blunt and quiet. He sounded more tired than concerned.

Ash tore his arm from the other man’s grasp and turned away. “Let go of me. We were just dueling. Ask the girl. It’s not my fault she sucks and that I kicked her ass.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “You were dueling?”

Olivia looked away, not able to meet his gaze. “Yeah. I lost.” It was kind of embarrassing being saved by a stranger. In the shows she watched, the ‘hero’ would be some handsome knight who sweeps the girl off her feet and rescues her, but this guy sounded bored and uninterested.

The man nodded slowly and then pointed to the building near where the ‘duel’ was taking place. It was the blacksmith store, which they had all thought was empty. “I dropped by to get something fixed up here when I noticed what you guys were doing. You were both yelling a lot, you know.”

Ash scoffed. “I don’t have to cater to your needs. Besides, it’s over with. I’ve already taught useless Olivia her place.”

“Wow, you’re a dick.”

“How dare you!” Ash glared at the new guy, who had said it in the same emotionless tone he had been using. “What did you just say?”

The man ignored the glare and glanced back down at Olivia before meeting Ash’s eyes with his own. “I said you were a dick.” Slowly, the man pulled out a pair of headphones from his pockets and slipped them on. A wire connected them to a cassette player he had hanging off his belt, and some loud rock song blasted out of them.

“Um, we can hear your music, bro?” Bruno said awkwardly. “It’s, like, mega loud. Good song choice, though.”

“Duel me.” The man stated in his bored tone, and his eyes remained locked on Ash.

“Excuse me?” Ash stepped away in shock, and everyone turned to look back at the stranger as if he were crazy. “I don’t even know who you are.”

The man rubbed the back of his neck and nodded after a few moments. “Dueling must be pretty fun if you decided to do it this late at night and pick on a little girl.”

“I’m not little!” Olivia said, even more embarrassed now. “I’m a grown-ass woman!”

The man’s face remained mostly blank, but he did squeeze his hand into a fist. “So, what do you say? Want to keep dueling?”

Ash’s eyes narrowed, and he sneered. “You can’t be serious?” The man just looked more apathetic, causing Ash to growl. “Sure. We can duel. Your funeral, you stupid bastard! Draw your wand and—” Red flowed down Ash’s face as the mysterious stranger launched forward and rammed a fist directly into Ash’s face. The punch was so strong that Ash was lifted off the ground and crashed down at the other end of the lot, sporting a broken nose.

Nev and Trent were both in utter shock, both boys gasping. “What kind of spell was that?” Trent growled. “That’s not how a magical duel works!”

The man cocked his head to the side. “Are you two stupid or something?” His words shocked both Trent and Nev, who gawked at him. “If I’m in a fight, why wouldn’t I do everything I can to win? He left himself open, so I punched him as hard as I could. It was faster than whatever he was going to do.”

Ash’s face flushed with even more rage as he felt how much blood was leaking out of his nose. The boy stood up and hissed. “Y-You! What gives you the right to hit me like that?”

“We’re dueling?” The man gave Ash a puzzled look. “You’re kind of slow, aren’t you?”

Ash roared in rage and sliced his arm down, dragging the tip of his wand through the air. “Row Wind Blade!” The wind compressed into a thin blade, able to slice a normal person in two. Ash’s spell launched out toward the man, who countered with his own spell.

“Row Shadow Vault.” The shadow beneath the man bubbled up and twisted. Silently, it shifted and formed into a circular shape, looking like the surface of a pond. Something came roaring out of it and flew into the man’s hand, which he grasped and swung.

It was a sword. A simple iron longsword, which the stranger used to slice through Ash’s spell, canceling it. The very wind was cut in two, the mana fading away as if it hadn’t ever been an attack in the first place.

“What the hell!” Enraged, Ash glared at the other boy and screamed. “How did you do that?”

“Magic.” Was the man’s flat remark.

Olivia stared at her savior in shock. She had been a little happy seeing Ash get mad, but now she was worried. Wands were something most mages had. It helped regulate the flow of mana and made casting a spell cheaper and easier than normal. Most rich people would use a staff, which was like a wand but much better. This guy, though, hadn’t used either. With his bare hand, he had cast a spell. It was possible to do without a wand, but for your average mage, they’d struggle and be exhausted by it, yet here this man was, not even looking tired.

Not to mention, she could tell he knew how to use a sword. Most mages relied entirely on magic to get the work done, but there was one group of people who blended steel and sorcery together.

The Arcane Knights.

Ash looked like he just popped a blood vessel, drool practically dripping down his face. “I won’t stand for you mocking me! Row Wind—” Ash didn’t even get to finish his spell as the man lunged forward, moving across the cobblestone floor faster than Ash could speak.

The stranger's hand shot out and grabbed Ash by the mouth. Ash was a powerful wind mage, but it didn’t matter how skilled in magic he might have been if his mouth was covered. He couldn’t say a spell, leaving him utterly powerless, just like a normal human.

The dark-haired stranger casually lifted Ash with one arm, his fingers digging into the boy's cheeks while his other hand gripped his sword. It was a dirty tactic. Mages were proud of their ability to cast spells, and to prevent that was considered quite rude.

The loud music kept blaring out of the man’s headphones, and his eyes bore into Ash’s. “Dueling is kind of fun after all.” The man still spoke in a flat tone. “Still, I personally think you shouldn’t use this as a form of picking on people. Anytime you do stuff like that, you’re just asking for some guy to show up and beat your ass. After all, you’re just a big fish in a small pond. Now. Allow me to introduce you to the ocean.”

The man lifted his arm up even further and let go of Ash, tossing the other boy into the air. Ash yelled as he dropped, and right as he came down, the man swung out with his sword, using the flat part of the blade, which he rammed straight across Ash’s face. Ash was slammed into the stone floor hard enough to crack it, and his eye rolled into the back of his head as he fell unconscious.

The only reason he survived was because he was a mage, who were more sturdy than typical humans. Despite his skill, though, he had lost after being hit with only two attacks from a total stranger who had cast just a single spell.

“Oh?” The man placed his sword on the ground, and his shadow swallowed it back up, the blade vanishing. “I guess you can’t swim.” He clicked a button on his tape player, and the blaring rock music finally stopped.

For the first time in his life, Ash Anderson lost.

“You can’t do that!” Nev whimpered, pointing his wand at the new guy with a shaking hand.

“Yeah!” Trent nodded. “You’re supposed to cast spells and stuff, not punch people! What kind of jerk beats up kids!”

The man lazily shrugged his shoulders. “My bad. I guess I did get carried away. Come to think of it, I’m an adult and he’s a kid, so I guess this situation looks bad. Next time I’ll try real hard not to challenge a child to a life-or-death battle.” The tone in which he spoke made it hard to tell if he was being serious or trying to crack a joke.

Bruno snorted and stepped past the boy, holding a hand out to Olivia. Olivia took the hand and nodded to her friend. She was about to say something but was cut off when they heard a whistle.

They all turned to find a police officer standing nearby. “Hey! You damn kids better not be getting into a fight back there! It’s way past curfew!”

“Scram!” Bruno yelled. “Row Ice Wall!” He fired a wave of ice in front of the guards, giving them time to run. Olivia leaned on him as they ran, and Trent picked up Ash. The new guy also ran with them as they exited the lot, but he turned about to head down a different part of the street they were all running on.

“Wait!” Olivia yelled out, and the man stopped and turned to her, raising an eyebrow. “What’s your name?”

Her savior turned to look back at her, and she found herself carefully studying his face, from the way his eyes glowed to the nasty scar that clung to it. “Me?” The man sounded almost surprised, and he pointed his thumb at himself. “Davi Hawker.”

“Davi Hawker?” Olivia muttered the name quietly under her breath and stared at the other teen.

Bruno tugged on her arm and let out a laugh. “We gotta go!”

“Right.” She nodded and shot Davi one last look before she and Bruno escaped.

Chapter 5: Fri Village

Like last time, Bruno created a staircase made of ice, and the two of them ran up it, dropping down on the other side, in order to avoid the toll gate.

She had no idea where Trent or Nev was, and part of her hoped they got caught since that would mean Ash also got in trouble.

They didn’t live in Lotus City. Bruno, herself, Ash, Nev, and Trent all came from a little village called Fri. It was a small backwater village up in the mountains that only existed to trade with Lotus.

Just to get to Lotus, a villager would have to climb down the mountain and go through a forest, and there they would find the bus stop and the only road that led into Lotus, though the bus in question never actually ran, so people from Fri would have to simply walk the entire way to the city since they couldn’t get their car through the woods.

Lotus was the only residence nearby that had a magic school, though, so everyone from Fri was forced to do it. It was completely free to attend a magical academy for six years straight, which is what she had done, but once a mage turned eighteen, they’d have to start paying if they wanted to take other classes and lessons. The system was in place so a mage could train and learn their magic and go into a type of field, but then if they later in life changed their mind or wanted to get a better resume, they could pay to take extra classes and advance themselves further.

Since she was flat broke, though, that meant she wouldn’t be able to go back even if she wanted to, so there was no way to get any extra combat lessons for her. She was so poor, in fact, she had been wearing Bruno’s uniform, minus the skirt, which she swiped from another girl at school when they had been in the bathroom.

Even at free school, the uniforms cost quite a lot of Bells, and most people from Fri could just barely afford to send their kids to the ‘free’ school.

Indeed, it could be said that nothing significant would ever come from Fri. It wasn’t even found on most maps and was as backwater as backwater could be. Maybe that was why the current generation of kids who came from it fought so hard to be important.

“Who was that Davi guy?” Bruno asked. He twirled his wand, creating several shards of ice, keeping the branches away from him and Olivia as they made their way through the forest.

Olivia shrugged and pointed the flashlight she always kept with her out in front of her. “Don’t know. Never seen him before.” She mostly leaned on Bruno, still recovering from the blood she lost. “He’s not from our village, I can tell you that.”

“Well, yeah, I know that,” Bruno said, huffing. “I don’t think he’s from Lotus either, though. We head there all the time, and I haven’t seen him before.”

“Maybe he came to see the Arcane Knights like we did,” she suggested.

Bruno just hummed. “Maybe. How are you holding up?”

“I’ll manage.” She wanted to say more but didn’t know what she could or should say. She had lost to Ash yet again, which meant Trent had another embarrassing video to upload. How many times did that make it now? Again and again, it seemed like no matter how many times she tried to fight him, she always came up short. What was worse, Ash wasn’t even the strongest person in her village. That honor went to Bruno.

The only saving grace she had was that Trent was a total nobody even on the internet, so the only people who watched his videos were Ash, Bruno, Nev, and like two other people somewhere out in the world that were likely bots.

“It’s got to be rough having blood magic,” Bruno said sadly. “Most mages use mana and stuff to cast their spells, but you have to use your own body, and humans are so frail.”

“Tell that to the Arcane Knights.” Olivia giggled, and her mind went back to the golden-haired woman who had been holding the lance. “Sweet Haru, it was incredible seeing them all.”

“It was.” Bruno nodded, agreeing with her. “It got my blood seriously pumping. Can you believe it? We’re at the point where we can finally take the test and become real Arcane Knights!” Bruno cheered. “We just need to convince my dad to let us go take the test!”

“You better do that soon because the test will be happening next month,” Olivia said, shooting her friend a look. “If you miss it, you’ll have to wait another year before you can retake it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can handle spending a full year on the internet watching the Knights go on adventures, knowing I could have been one of them.”

“I won’t miss it,” Bruno promised. “I will become an Arcane Knight. I’ll be the first from my village to do it.” His look softened, and he turned to her. “I assume you’re going to try as well?”

Olivia nodded, her face growing serious. “Yeah. I’m going to give it my best shot. I’ll prove that I’m not useless.”

“You don’t have to listen to Ash; he’s a stuck-up ass. The only reason I’m friends with him is because he’s the only other kid besides Trent and Nev in our village.”

Olivia shook her head and gave a somber look. “It’s not him who I’m trying to prove wrong.” Her sad smile vanished once she and Bruno stepped out of the forest and found the path leading up to their village. Something was wrong. Up ahead, the trail grew less dense and soon became a winding path that led up to the mountainside village they called home. Already from where they were, she could smell the smoke. Thick black clouds were rising into the air.

A fire had started.

Bruno opened his mouth to say something when he noticed it as well, but he was cut off when Olivia ran past him. Her blood loss had been forgotten. She was sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her to the village, and it took him a moment to run after her. Fri had a small wooden wall awkwardly placed around it, but that wall was now knocked over, and the smell of ash was heavy in the air along with burning flesh.

The village didn’t have many buildings; fewer than a hundred people lived in Fri, and it was more like a hamlet. The few buildings they did have were made of wood and hay and were highly flammable.

Olivia ran past the gate, and instantly, she saw it. The cattle pen was on fire, and most of the pigs and cows were already dead, turned into blackened meat as red-hot flames danced across the wood, devouring everything. She was almost relieved that the stench of flesh came from them and not any of the villagers.

A few dozen or so villagers were running back and forth with buckets of water they had gotten from the local well, and they were doing their best to put out the fire, but it wasn’t fast enough. Already, the fire was starting to spread to a nearby building. Another villager was holding his wand out, waves of water blasting out of it as he used his magic, and next to him, three people had grabbed extinguishers and firehoses, attempting to help the mage.

“It’s not working!” The water mage shouted. His water was splashing down onto the top of the house as he attacked the fire from above, but the fire was growing too fast, and the others weren’t able to get enough buckets to put the fire out from below in time before it would restart. “What do we do?”

The fire was starting to spread and had started to climb across the wall, around their village, and was now eating away at some power lines, sending sparks everywhere.

Olivia stood there stunned momentarily before suddenly shaking her head and readying herself. “Bruno!” She yelled out. “Form a barrier around it!”

Bruno was just as dazed as she was, but came to and nodded. “Right!” He pointed his wand out and focused. “Row Ice Wall!” His ice sprang up and formed a barrier around the fire, but it wasn’t enough to stop or even slow the flames down. “This must be some sort of magical fire or something,” Bruno said, shocked as he watched his ice wall rapidly melt and the fire devour his water. “A magical beast must have caused it!”

“Bruno!” A voice called out, and the dark-skinned boy turned and found his father. “Together!”

Bruno nodded, flicking his wand out. “Row Ice Wall!” They declared putting up another wall, with the water mage joining in, trying to slow the fire down, but even that wasn’t working.

Olivia narrowed her eyes and looked around. “There he is.” Off to the side, staring slack-jawed, were Nev and Trent. Both boys were totally useless. Lying on the ground face down was the unconscious Ash. She ran over to the boy and slapped at his face.

“What are you doing?” Trent demanded.

“Waking him up!” She reached down and grabbed both of Ash’s nipples through his shirt and twisted them. The boy screamed out with a girlish yelp and shot up with wide eyes, breathing heavily. He glared at her but then stopped when she pointed at the fire. “Ash! Use your magic!”

“Are you insane?” Ash gave one of his trademark sneers and picked himself up. “My wind magic will just make the fire rage more.”

“Listen to me!” Olivia gripped him by his shirt and dragged him over to the burning building. “Form a large dome of air around the building and suck all the wind up to one part!”

“Huh?”

“Just do it!”

“Okay, okay!” Ash raised his wand and took a deep breath. His skin seemed to glow for a moment, and he felt his mana start to bubble up. He flicked his wrist and cast his spell. “Row Wind Barrier!”

The wind formed a large dome around the house, taking on an almost silvery color. The air twisted, and it was like a tornado had taken on the shape of a bowl, roaring around the house. Sweat began to drip down Ash’s face, and he gritted his teeth and clutched harder on his wand as the wind started to rotate rapidly. It got faster and faster, and he was trying to take all the air inside the dome and force it away, shoving it all into his barrier. With one final push, he loudly yelled and snapped his arm up, the barrier consuming it all.

In an instant, the fire went out. Trent’s eyes were wide, and he blinked rapidly. “Whoa! How’d you do that, Ash?”

Ash shot a look at Olivia, who looked smug. She folded her arms and nodded her head. “He spun the air around so fast and pulled it all out of the center where the fire was. This meant there was no oxygen. Magic or not, without oxygen, there can’t be a chemical reaction, so the fire had no way of maintaining its form and couldn’t stay lit! Science!”

“I never would have thought of that,” Ash muttered.

“I watched a famous Arcane Knight do something similar to that in a video the other day,” Olivia admitted a little sheepishly. “It was awesome.”

Ash looked like he was about to respond, but the boy didn’t get the chance to say anything else, and a second later, one of the villagers clapped him hard on the back. “Ash! Way to go! You put out the fire!”

“Yeah! We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you!” Another villager agreed.

“Even Rosco and his son were struggling! Maybe you’re the best mage in our village after all? It might even be possible for you to go on to become an Arcane Knight! I’m rooting for you!”

Ash shook his head and tried to find Olivia in the crowd of villagers, but didn’t spot her. “No? I didn’t come up with that—”

“You’re the best, Ash!”

"Here, Ash, add this spell to your grimoire! It's perfect for your magic type."

Olivia pushed her way through the crowd, making her way to the back where Bruno stood. He grinned, and she smiled back at him, fist-bumping her friend.

It took more time than any of them would have wanted, but they did manage to get the fire out, thanks to Ash. By then, however, the stable had been burned down, leaving almost nothing behind but the blackened frame and the smoldering corpses of the animals. The second building hadn’t gone up, though it was slightly burned on one side. Ultimately, no one was dead, which was a mildly good sign. Another one of the villagers with earth magic formed large clumps of clay and covered the tiny sparks still scattered around.

Most of the villagers were around Ash, praising the boy, but Olivia was looking somewhere else. Her eyes focused on farmer Jermy. He was an older man, cursing up a storm, smashing his shovel onto the ground as hard as he could. It had been his stables, which had burned down along with all of his livestock. The entire village watched as the man’s life's work was snuffed out.

“What could have done this?” A villager muttered once all of Ash’s praise dried up. Somewhere in the village, two more buildings had been burned to cinders. One was a large chicken coop, and the other was a stable for horses. Most of the animals were either dead or missing.

“Whatever it was, it’s bold.” Another villager growled. “I didn’t get a good look at it. The damn thing tore through our wall, and by the time any of us heard it, the fire had started, and there was so much smoke it was able to get away. Bastard practically killed all our animals!”

“What happens if it comes back?” Someone asked in a scared tone.

“I imagine it'll come for us.” Another villager responded. Silence hung in the air for a moment.

“Rosco, you can stop this, right?” Someone asked, shooting a look at Bruno’s father.

Bruno’s dad was a tall, muscular, dark-skinned man. One of their village's best mages, and like Bruno, Rosco was a master of ice magic. If not for the fact he had blown out his knee at an early age, he most likely could have become an Arcane Knight, but those days were long behind him.

The dark-skinned man shook his head as his grip on his wand grew tighter. “A couple of the boys and I tried. Didn’t get a good look at it because of the smoke, but I know I hit it with a spell or two, and Jermy here shot at it with his rifle, and he’s a pretty damn good shot. We hit it as hard as we could, but that bastard didn’t even flinch. Ice doesn’t even slow it down. Whatever it is, it’s huge and very, very dangerous. It ain’t no normal animal, I can promise y’all that.”

A magical beast. It was obvious that that was what was attacking their village. Where it had come from and why was anyone's guess, but if one was here, then that was very bad. Magical beasts were powerful monsters who wielded magic, just like humans did. They came from something known as a dungeon, and some believed they were from another world, sent here as a curse on humanity for the sins of its past. They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and some could be extremely deadly.

Murmurs went through the crowd as dread filled the air. “If we don’t know what it is, then what do we do? We can’t even come up with a plan?”

“I—I know what it is!” The crowd went silent, and all turned to find Olivia standing atop an old, broken-down truck, pointing up to the sky. “It’s a dragon! I’ve read about their kind in an audiobook! They’re monsters that breathe fire! They devour cows and things like that! I’m sure that’s what it is!”

“Don’t be stupid.” Nev palmed his face and let out a loud snort. “A dragon is the strongest magical beast out there. No way a dungeon holding a dragon suddenly appeared out here. I guess leave it to useless Olivia to come up with a bad solution.”

“I—It is a dragon! I’m sure of it!” Olivia shook her head. “I just know it is! It’s a great beast that can blast out fire! Not only that.” She reached down, and without warning, she pulled out her phone, lifting it to the sky. “I know how to slay it!” The moment might have been more epic if not for the fact that, instead of getting the audio she wanted, another ad for a weapon shop started playing. “Damn ads!” A second later, laughter filled the air, all centered on her. Olivia felt her cheeks turn a little pink. “I’m not lying! I read about how to kill dragons! I know its weakness; just wait for this stupid commercial to end!” She tried tapping on the skip-now button, but it wasn’t working, and instead reset the ad. “Damn it!”

“Look, even if it is a dragon, what use is knowing that?” One of the villagers snickered. “And even if you do know how to kill it, I hope you aren’t suggesting that you be the one who kills it?”

“I can!” Olivia tightened her hand into a fist and lowered her phone. “I’ve read all about them and know how to kill one! Arcane Knights always slay the dragon with a sword by piercing its heart! That’s how it goes in all the videos I watched! If I wanted to, I could kill the dragon!”

“Most things die when you stab them in the heart; this isn’t a fairy tale. Also, you’re not an Arcane Knight.” Someone said in a blunt tone. “You don’t have what it takes to be one of them, so there’s no reason for you to try and take this beast on.”

“You’re wrong!” Olivia felt tears pricking at the corner of her eyes as she glared at the other person. “I can, too, be an Arcane Knight! In fact, I’m going to take the entrance exam and become one this year! Then who’ll be laughing?”

“Oh, please.” Farmer Jermy sneered. “You’re a nobody, just like all of us. No one here has what it takes to become an Arcane Knight.” He didn’t just glare at her, but at Ash and Bruno as well. “We’re all nobodies, got that? Though I guess you’re worse than a nobody. You don’t even have a strong magic ability. I bet that’s why you were dropped off here, unwanted by your father—”

“That’s enough!” Rosco’s yell cut the village off. He had an angry look on his face, and he gently helped Olivia off the truck she had been standing on and took her place, looking down at the crowd of villagers. While he did that, his son Bruno placed a hand on Olivia’s shoulder, who now had a hurt look on her face. “Look, we’re all mad, and we’re all on edge. This is my fault for failing to slay this beast when it first came to our village. Maybe it is a dragon, maybe it isn’t. It doesn’t matter, though.” Rosco drew his wand and looked at it. “I can’t kill it. None of us can. This beast defies human nature. If it must be hunted, it must be done by the hands of a warrior who specializes in slaying monsters like this.”

“What do you mean?” Farmer Jermy made a face as it suddenly clicked. “Rosco, don’t tell me that you—”

“As the leader of this village, I’m going to call and make a request for an Arcane Knight to save us.” Rosco declared in a booming voice. “A powerful one at that.”

Murmurs went through the crowd of people, and they all stared up at the man in shock, who had a smug grin on his face.

“That’ll cost a lot, and in case you haven’t noticed, our economy is basically screwed, with the death of all our animals.” Jermy hissed. “Besides, who knows how long it’ll take for a Knight to actually get here?”

“Unless you think you can kill the monster, then this choice is final.” Rosco folded his arms and stared down at Jermy. “I’m the mayor. What I say goes. I say we do this.” He glanced out across the crowd, and for a moment, his gaze settled on Olivia. “Don’t lose hope. We’re going to make it out of this. I promise you all! The Arcane Knights will save us!”

The bit of despair bubbling up began to fade, and a few people cheered or looked relieved. Finally, it seemed as if something would stop this curse that kept burning down all their houses. One person didn’t look happy, though.

Ash balled his hand into a tight fist. “I’ll do it.” He whispered. “I’ll be the one to slay it.” He felt a bit humiliated. He had to be told what to do in order to save the village. He hadn’t been the one to come up with the plan, yet he had still followed through and gotten all the credit. His pride had been wounded, and so he knew of only one way to regain it. He was going to be the one to kill the dragon.

Unknown to Ash, though, someone had noticed the look on his face. Olivia stared past the crowd at the other boy. “What are you looking at?” Bruno asked.

“Nothing.” She shook her head and turned away.

Bruno nodded. “You’re not really going to try and fight the dragon, right? No offense, I think you’re stronger than people realize, but a dragon is… Well, I don’t even think I could beat it.”

Olivia let out a low snort. “No, you’re right. I got heated in the moment and let my emotions get the best of me.” She shook her head. “Don’t worry, I don’t have any plans to do anything stupid.”

Bruno nodded, a little relieved. “Thanks. I don’t want you to give me a heart attack. You’re my bro, after all, and I’d hate for you to get killed by a dragon, bro!”

“You know I’m a girl, right?”

“Yeah? Well, you’re still my bro, bro!”

Meanwhile, unknown to the villagers, at the edge of the forest outside of Fri Village, a tree branch snapped as a figure stepped forward. One that wore ebony armor that covered them from head to toe. The kind a knight would wear.

“A dungeon is nearby. Is this where you ended up?” A soft voice came from beneath the helmet that the figure wore. Carefully, the figure took their helm off, revealing the face of a young man with shadow-colored hair. “Looks like I’ve finally had a lucky break. Stay where you are, Dragon. You and I have unfinished business.” Davi Hawker gently rubbed the scar across the left side of his face.

It was time to go hunting once more.

Chapter 6: A Beast of Fire

A city lay in ruins after a grand battle with a powerful magical beast. Governmental workers dug through the debris, doing their best to clean everything up, while in the background, the corpse of the beast in question lay motionless.

It looked almost like a giant bat, but with the head of a lion. A massive hole went through its skull, where a lance had blown through it.

“Everyone has what it takes if they’re willing to put in the work.” Standing atop the head of the beast was a woman in advanced, futuristic power armor. She wielded a mighty lance, which was currently floating in the air behind her. One hand was on her hip, and the other pointed to the camera. “Are you willing to put in the work? I want you for the Arcane Knights!”

At the bottom of the screen, text rolled out reading, ‘This message is sponsored by the Lance of Victory. Please ensure you register for the Arcane Knights before the end of next month. Ask your local Arcane Knight Office for the recommended stat minimums.’

“Put the phone away, Olivia.”

Olivia jumped when she heard Rosco speak, and she looked around with wide eyes, realizing she had lost focus again. After the fire, she had followed Bruno and Rosco home and enjoyed a nice meal. It had been night when she and Bruno set out for Lotus, and now it was well past midnight.

“Sorry.” She said sheepishly, and she turned the video that was playing off. “Though it was just getting to the good part. I got to see the Lance of Victory again! She’s so cool!”

Rosco twirled his wand and spoke a simple spell. “Row Ice Hands!” The air grew colder, and a few dozen hands made out of ice appeared and began to clear off the table, taking all the plates to the sink, where they started to wash them. “You can browse the internet later.” Rosco chuckled, placing his hands on his hips. “Right now, it’s time for bed.”

“We’re going to have to wake up early tomorrow.” Bruno agreed, nodding his head. “Who knows when one of the Arcane Knights will show up?”

Olivia shook her head and pouted a bit. “I can’t believe you actually hired an Arcane Knight to come here.”

Rosco gave a bit of a sheepish look and shrugged. “We didn’t really have a choice, did we? This creature is clearly a magical beast, and I can’t fight it. I’m not strong enough, like the Arcane Knights are. Those guys specialize in slaying monsters and other things like this. I thought you’d be excited about it. I already made the call, so there isn’t anything to be done. Besides, they have already charged me for the fee.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to meet one. The Knights are expensive, though,” Olivia muttered. “Getting an Arcane Knight to come out to a place like this costs a lot of Bells.” That was one of the reasons she partly wanted to become an Arcane Knight. It’d be great to help the village out since Arcane Knights made such a fortune. Of course, she had another reason for genuinely wanting to be one.

Despite working alongside the government and with them for most things, the Knights weren’t actually a government job like cops or the military. They served under the king of Estria out of loyalty, and both sides shared a deal, but technically speaking, the Arcane Knights were freelancers and hired mercenaries that could do their own thing so long as they didn’t make an enemy of the kingdom. Estiria was willing to let them get away with a lot, since at the end of the day, the Knights were real-life superheroes and the only line of defense left that could hope to match the magical beasts, which not even the military could stop.

Rosco finished putting all the dishes away and turned his magic off. He rubbed his chin a bit and hummed. “Maybe there was a better way, but it’s too late now.” He shook his head. “We can worry about it tomorrow. For now, let’s just focus on getting some rest.”

“Yeah.” Bruno yawned and stretched. “I’m exhausted. That’s the last time Olivia and I stay in Lotus past curfew.”

“It better be.” Rosco snorted. “I’m getting sick and tired of you kids running off in the middle of the night. It was well past midnight, you know. What if something bad happened?”

“We can handle ourselves, old man!” Bruno announced, only to instantly be forced into a headlock by his father. “I yield!”

“You wanna talk back, too?” Rosco teased, glancing at Olivia, who let out an innocent whistle and put her book away, rolling her shoulders.

While Rosco and Bruno talked, she was getting ready for bed. She was just about to lie down when something glimmered in the corner of her eye. Her head snapped over to it, and she found herself looking out the window. The village was silent, all lights off, and not a soul was supposed to be outside other than the guards, yet she was sure that she had seen someone stalking around.

“Is something wrong, Olivia?” Rosco asked when he noticed her staring outside.

Olivia remained in place, staring, before finally shaking her head. “No. Sorry, I just got a bit distracted. I’m going to go to bed; good night.”

“Good night?” Rosco and Bruno shared an odd look as she climbed into her bed. Eventually, they shook their heads and went to bed themselves.

As the house grew silent and the sounds of snoring filled the air, Olivia opened her eyes and slowly climbed out of bed. She was sure that she had just seen Ash sneaking through the village. She made her way back over to the window but didn’t spot them this time. With a sigh, Olivia grabbed her shoes.

“What are those idiots up to?” She muttered.

Though she was pretty sure she had a good idea. They were going after the dragon.

***

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Ash?” Trent asked nervously.

Ash didn’t bother looking back at his friend and kept marching through the village. “Are you doubting me?”

“Of course not!” Trent’s eyes went wide. “But did you hear what Olivia said? What if it’s a dragon?”

“She said she knows how to beat it. Well, so do I.” Ash rubbed his wand absentmindedly. “I know the documentary she was talking about that has the dragons' weakness in it. I once stole her phone from her, and it was in the middle of playing. Surprisingly, it was an interesting listen, and—never mind…”

“So you agree with Olivia that it’s a dragon?” Nev raised an eyebrow.

Ash didn’t say anything and instead kept marching forward through the village. Most of the people in Fri Village were asleep by now, but a few of the guards and farmers walked around with flashlights, making sure none of the kids did anything stupid like the three of them were about to do. One even floated through the air on a flying magitech motorcycle. The lookouts were pretty tired, though, so it was easy enough for the three of them to sneak past them all.

“Row Wind Hand!” Ash flicked his wand out, and the wind took the shape of a large hand, which carried him and his friends up past the wall, setting them down on the forest floor. “I’m going to show Olivia up,” Ash stated. “She dared to claim she could kill the dragon; well, I’ll beat her to it and be the real hero!”

Olivia was an outcast in the village. Not only did her magic type suck, she didn’t even belong. She had been dropped off at Fri nearly eight years ago. She had only been ten when she was abandoned. She'd be alone if not for Rosco, who took her in. Her life was just sort of sucky, which always pissed Ash off more since she kept smiling and declaring that her dream wasn’t dead. Unlike her, he had a chance at joining the Arcane Knights. He was everything she wasn’t, after all.

He was talented. He was the one who passed every combat test that the academy threw at him, and he was the one to slay the ogre in record time.

Figuring out where the dungeon was turned out to be shockingly easy. Dungeons had a powerful EMP field around them that shut down electronics, so before he set out with his friends, Ash had flown a drone up the mountain until it suddenly went dead. This gave him a pretty good idea of where the dungeon’s entrance was.

Ash climbed the trail, getting higher and higher up the mountain. It got colder, and the air got less and less dense. By the time he did reach a cave opening, his legs were killing him. Trent and Nev weren’t in better shape either, both boys gasping for air and struggling to breathe.

At the entrance of the cave was his drone. It had dropped into the mud, and he pulled out his phone, finding it had become totally dead and unresponsive. That also meant he couldn't access his grimoire. It would be impossible to know what his stats were or how low he was on mana once he entered the cave, so he'd need to be careful.

“Are you sure about this, Ash?” Nev asked once they reached the top.

“Not you, too.” Ash groaned and shoved the broken drone into Trent's arm. “Do you two not have faith in me? You saw me take the final exam test earlier today, right? I can kill it. I know I can. I was able to easily one-shot an ogre.” He lifted his wand and forced a smirk on his face. “Just watch me! You’re looking at a future Arcane Knight!”

Directly in the center of the cave entrance was the gate that led into the dungeon. A gate referred to the entrance to a dungeon, and it could appear anywhere and come in any form. Once you stepped past a gate, you’d appear inside of the dungeon, which could look like anything. Most gates were small, and most dungeons were also small and would only contain a handful of monsters. Once the boss of a dungeon was dealt with, the gate would close and seal shut after some time and vanish.

All combat lessons hosted by magic academies offered a magitech deck that could use a mix of illusion magic, conjuration magic, and holograms to simulate pocket dungeons that students could try to beat. Most failed, since many mages weren’t suited to combat or being able to cast more than ten spells, but some were able to do well and pass the exams that were held. It was required to take these lessons and several other ones in order to have the qualification to join the police force. Both the military and the Knights would allow a mage to join without these tests, but it helped them secure a spot in the long run.

The issue with a gate in the real world, which the simulations didn’t do justice to, though, was that monsters could step out of it and leave at any time, just like how humans could enter the gate and appear in the dungeon.

“Did you at least bring something in case the beast is resistant to magic?” Trent pleaded.

Ash let out a snort. “What would I have brought? The only gun in our shitty town is owned by farmer Jermy or Rosco. It’ll be fine. I told you, I know how to take down a dragon.”

Despite the fact that magic was so common, practically everyone could use it, modern weapons were still used heavily during times of war. This was because no matter how strong a spell might be, it was a lot faster to point and shoot a gun. Not to mention, some mages could even combine sorcery with their firearms.

Even though guns did exist, most magical beasts were immune to bullets, and Knights were well beyond the scope of normal guns and only used gear forged from magic that was highly enchanted to get the job done.

“What if we get trapped in the dungeon, though?” Nev asked, trembling slightly. “We could become Magical Mutants?”

“Y-yeah.” Trent nodded. “I don’t want to become a Mutant. They say dungeon air is dangerous for humans.”

“Knights enter dungeons all the time.” Ash sighed.

“Those are Knights! They’re basically demi-gods!”

“Anyone can become a Knight.” Ash barked out and glared at his two friends. “Just as any person can physically train and join the police force or the military, anyone can put in the hard work required and become a Knight. This is the first step. I’m taking it. With or without you two!”

Ash ignored the two boys and stalked toward the cave where the gate resided. It was directly past the opening of the cave, and this particular gate looked like a glowing blue portal. It was a vortex and swirled around, humming softly. He couldn’t see anything past the blue field, not even the rest of the cave, since the portal blocked it, and for a moment he hesitated.

“I can do this.” Ash took a deep breath, forced himself forward, and jumped through the portal. Nev and Trent looked at each other for a moment, then finally they also walked forward and entered through the portal.

It wasn’t how Ash thought it would be. He thought it would be uncomfortable stepping through the gate or it’d feel weird, but it was like going through a normal doorway. He didn’t even feel the blue energy that washed over him. One moment he was stepping into the cave, and then the next he was stepping out into a new, bizarre area.

It wasn’t like the inside of the cave. The floor was made out of jagged red crystals that caused Ash to wince as they dug past his shoes. The crystals kept spreading out, forming walls and a roof. They twisted and stabbed out in every direction, and the strange room he was in looked sort of like a long hallway that stretched out going forward into a much larger section that opened up.

The other thing he instantly noticed was the taste of the air. It was sour and burned his tongue, and his skin felt hot. The air was something he was used to, being a wind mage, but the air inside the dungeon felt wrong, like something was off.

Behind him was the glowing blue portal that would lead him out of the dungeon and back into the real world if he stepped through it again.

Nev and Trent both appeared after a few seconds, and both winced as they felt the red crystals stab into their heels. Ash had a lantern, but he turned it off, since the light kept bouncing off the crystals and going in all directions.

A dungeon was owned by the boss monster that lived within it. Each dungeon was different and made to give the boss an advantage. Knights often entered dungeons and did battle with boss monsters in order to slay the creatures and stop the monsters from coming out of the dungeon and evolving.

“Okay, we’ve checked it out; can we leave?” Nev asked, trying not to sound cowardly.

Ash just snorted. “You’re starting to sound like useless Olivia. Now come on.”

He began to walk down the only path he had, ignoring the pain in his feet. The hallway stretched down, and near the back of the crystal cave, it opened up and somehow got even darker. They hadn’t been very silent as they walked through the cave, and something had taken note of them. It was just past the hallway, in a large room that opened up. This room had no crystals and instead had stone that was covered in scratch marks.

The monster was shrouded by the darkness, making it impossible to see its form, but whatever it was, it was big, and it had yellow eyes that pierced through the shadows and locked onto the three of them.

There was a spark of orange, and Ash realized it was about to unleash its flames. “Row Wind Barrier! Row Wind Bird!” He cast two spells at once. He knew his barrier wouldn’t be able to hold the fire off for long, but he didn’t need to. He just needed it to hold long enough for his attack spell to take the beast out. From the tip of his wand, a barrier of wind formed around him, Trent, and Nev, and then through his barrier, the wind took on the form of what looked like a large hawk, which screeched and blasted forward.

The fire launched out of the cave, and his bird avoided it. The flames rammed into his wind shield, which shook and began to crack, but it didn’t matter because now the dragon was left wide open. Ash screamed out even louder and flicked his wand out, his bird launching to where the weakness was. Its scales would be parted, allowing his spell to pierce it and take it out in one hit, just like the Arcane Knights could do in the stories. This was why dragons had been wiped out, because of how easy it was to exploit this weakness. Ash got ready to brag. The reason he was so cocky was simple. From what he had read, taking down a dragon was deceptively easy.

‘The scales of a dragon are truly formidable. Due to their large size and density, even someone able to wield the Arcane Arts would have trouble breaking through. The scales, however, have a single weakness. When the beast lets out its ferocious roar and unleashes its flames, part of the scales along its chest open just wide enough to allow something small to slide through. In theory, should someone be brave (or foolish enough), it could be possible to stab a sword directly into the dragon’s heart, slaying the beast. Of course, this practice has never happened before.’

Until now, that was. It was an audiobook called Tales From Mordheim that told him of this weakness. This was most likely what Olivia had been talking about when she said she knew how to kill the dragon. She wouldn’t be the one to do it, though! No! That honor went to him!

Ash’s grin grew. He could already hear the praise. The Arcane Knight would arrive only to learn that he had already slain the beast, and all the glory would go to him. The Knight would have no choice but to invite him into the Arcane Knights on the spot. “I win.” His spell faded as soon as it hit the creature and vanished. “Huh?”

“Ash!” Trent screamed as the barrier shattered and the fire roared toward them. The boy managed to grab his two friends, dragging them to the ground, but he wasn’t fast enough and felt the flames lick his shoulder. Trent screamed as his arm caught on fire, and he dropped.

Nev’s own eyes were wide and filled with horror. He flicked his wand out, casting a spell that put the flames on Trent out, but it was too late. Trent’s arm was charred down to the bone, and the pain had caused the electric mage to black out. “What do we do now, Ash?” Nev gulped. “Ash?”

Ash’s body shook, and he remained seated, staring at the darkness in fear as the creature crept forward. “Olivia was wrong. It’s not a dragon.”

The beast stepped forward, and the crystals reflected the fire's light, finally allowing Ash to gaze upon its form. Its skin was pale white, with a few scales across it, but not the amount a dragon had. It walked on all fours, its belly rubbing across the ground, and it had a fish-like tail that whipped back and forth. Its head was that of a snake, lacking wings—a fire salamander.

It was a freaking salamander! A different kind of lizard-looking monster that could breathe fire! Worse yet, they were known for having skin that was extremely spell-resistant. Only powerful magic on the level of an Arcane Knight could break through. Even rockets or anti-tank rounds would barely slow a fully grown fire salamander down.

That creature was also now stalking its way toward them.

“Ash!” Nev looked to his friend, but again, the boy wasn’t standing. Ash just whimpered. Nev shook his head and stood up, letting out a loud yell. Mana began to bubble at the tip of his wand, and he slashed it down. “Row Fire Bolt!”

Within the Estiria kingdom, being able to cast spells wasn’t rare. Perhaps it was because it was so bountiful, which was also the reason why it wasn’t as impressive. Most mages couldn’t do a lot with their magic, simply viewing it more or less as an extra tool they could use to make life a little bit easier. Only people such as Arcane Knights could truly use their magic in grand ways, and Nev certainly wasn’t an Arcane Knight.

The spell slammed into the fire salamander and vanished. Nev gave the monster a sad look. “Yeah, I didn’t think fire would work on a creature that has that word in its name, but I still had to try.” Nev turned to look back at his friends. “Ash! Run—”

Nev was cut off when the salamander casually lifted an arm and swatted out. The thing was about as big as an elephant, and its force tore Nev off his feet. There was a horrible bone-shattering crunch that echoed through the cave, and Nev smashed into the cave wall headfirst. He didn’t get back up.

“Nev!” Ash cried out in horror. His eyes were wide and fearful, and he tried crawling away, waving his wand out uselessly in front of him, casting spell after spell, but all of it just bounced off the salamander’s hide. “Stay away from me!” He screamed. He couldn’t fly away like he did from the ogre. There was no way to escape this thing's reach due to how enclosed the cave was, and even if he did take to the air, the monster would just launch a fireball at him. This wasn’t like the simulations; it was real. “Row Wind Tornado!”

The wind blasted out of his wand and formed a jagged tornado, but he was unable to lift the monster off of the ground like he did the ogre. The salamander’s claws dug into the stone floor, and it stayed rooted in place, ignoring the intense wind, causing Ash to let out a whimper. It stalked ever closer and peered down at him with lifeless, uncaring eyes.

“N-no! Wait! Please!” Ash felt himself having a panic attack, and he lost concentration on his spell, causing it to end. In the simulation, it was always easy. The air wasn’t hot and didn’t burn him, and his attacks always worked. Now that he was actually in a dungeon, he was starting to realize how hard it was to keep casting spells. The wind was heavier, and his mana flow was wrong. His head spun, and he nearly vomited.

How did Knights fight in these conditions every day?

The salamander slammed its hand down on Ash, attempting to crush the boy. Ash cried out, and at the last second, a bubble of red liquid appeared around him. It managed to stop the salamander’s strike, and the bubble popped, splashing Ash in its liquid. It tasted of copper, and he knew what it was instantly.

“Run!” Olivia dove past the boy and ran further into the cave. The salamander's eyes followed her, and instead of using her wand to cast another spell, she chucked a rock at its eye, making it roar in anger at her. “Get out of here, Ash!”

The salamander began to chase after her, leaving Ash alone, who remained seated, staring down at all the blood on him. His hands shook, and he looked up, finding the salamander had left him behind, going deeper into the cave after Olivia.

The girl he had mocked, belittled, and bullied had just saved him.

“Why?” Ash felt his mouth go dry, and a pit in his gut opened up. “Why!”

The answer he received wasn’t one he expected. A scratching sound scraped across the stone floor. Ash felt a sudden, intense chill crawl up his spine, and he knew he wasn’t alone. He turned, shivering, and stared at the entrance of the cave as a new figure entered. One who wore dark black armor.

“W-who are you?” Ash whispered as he stared at the figure, but he knew what this was. An Arcane Knight had arrived.

The knight silently looked at Ash and then at the two unconscious boys. Further in the cave, orange flared up, and Olivia’s yelling bounced off the walls. “Go.” The Knight ordered. “Take them and flee. Now.”

That was all Ash needed. He wasn’t a hero. He wasn’t the person that could slay the monster. He was just a kid. So, without further argument, Ash grabbed his friends and awkwardly dragged them out.

Notes:

Want more from Phoenix Flight? Feel free to check out my Patreon. Chapters go up there first, and there is a lot more of the novel posted!

Chapter 7: A Knight Looking For A Dragon

A few moments before Ash battled the salamander, Olivia breathed heavily as she finished climbing up the mountain. She had a feeling Ash would do something like this, so she had trailed after him and the two other boys.

“Shit.” She cursed when she saw the glowing blue portal that was waiting for her. “It’s actually here.” She reached for her phone and looked down at it and cursed again when she saw it wasn’t responding.

Olivia bit her lip and glanced at the glowing blue portal, which rested in the center of the cave’s entrance. Entering a dungeon was illegal if you weren’t an Arcane Knight. This was because dungeons contained monsters, and messing with them could piss them off and cause them to come out and attack people. It was also illegal because the air within a dungeon was deadly to mages. It wouldn’t cause much harm if a person was in there for a bit or even for a day or two, but stay in one for long enough and it’d get bad…

“I shouldn’t do this.” She knew she shouldn’t. It was stupid. At the same time, though, she really wanted to know what it looked like. Since dungeons broke phones and cameras, it was impossible to get footage of one, and most Knight battles happened inside a dungeon. “Just a peek won’t hurt.” It’d be quick. In and out.

That’s what she told herself, but as soon as she stepped through the portal and appeared on the other side, she heard screaming, and from where she stood, she saw Ash and the salamander, the creature looming over him. They were at the end of the hallway at the entrance to a larger room, and neither of them had noticed her yet. Olivia went to step forward but then stopped.

Was she really about to endanger her life for Ash’s sake? She didn’t hate the boy, but she didn’t like him either. He was a jerk. He always was mean and picked on not just her, but others as well. Besides, what hope did she have to kill the salamander? It wasn’t like she’d be able to come to his rescue.

She was useless, after all. At least, that’s what Ash was always saying. If she fought this thing, she would surely die. And not just because of how crappy her magic was, but also because of how hard it was to even properly use it in a dungeon.

The mana of a dungeon would clash with a mage's, weakening their spells and control while strengthening the monster. On average, most mages got around twenty percent weaker just stepping into a dungeon. She was already pretty weak, so to have a big debuff on top of all that was a little much.

The smart thing to do was to leave. She hadn’t even bothered to tell Rosco where she was. If she hurried, she’d be able to get him, but doing that would mean Ash would die.

Was that bad, though?

It was his life or her life.

The smart thing to do would be to run. Leave Ash and the others and call for help. It would mean three boys died, but in the grand scheme of things, it’d save the others. Staying would be stupid. She’d only put herself in danger, and there was no guarantee she’d be able to save Ash. It could result in all four of them dying, and then no one would be around to warn the town, and after what Ash did, the salamander was likely pissed and would seek out the town to destroy it.

It was obvious what she needed to do.

Olivia watched as the salamander went to bring its foot down, and without thinking further, she slashed her wand out. "Row Blood Barrier!" Her magic flowed out and formed a bubble of blood around Ash. The barrier was able to bounce the salamander’s paw off of it, and she charged into the cave as she chucked a rock at the monster’s eyes. “Run! Get out of here, Ash!” She shouted. The salamander did what she wanted it to and turned to follow after her.

She ran as fast as she could, the creature hot on her heels. The cave grew darker as she forced her way in deeper, and the crystals along the wall grew less and less. Her body felt hot, and she could feel the intense heat coming off the salamander as it began to catch up to her.

“Why am I doing this?” Olivia hissed as she jumped out of the way just in time, dodging another fireball. “Seriously? He’s a jerk! Why am I saving him? Row Blood Ball!” She was already on her second spell and getting light-headed but fought through it and launched her blood at the salamander’s face. She knew the attack wouldn’t harm it, but it would give her the chance to escape. Her blood hit it head-on, and the ball popped, covering the salamander’s eyes in red liquid, blinding it. “Take that!”

Olivia grinned and let out a cheer. Now that it couldn’t see, it was her chance to escape. She had been foolish and hadn’t bothered to wake anyone up. She was regretting that choice now, but it didn’t matter. She ran back through the cave and arrived in the room with crystals. Ash was gone, along with Trent and Nev. He’d likely be heading back to the village and would alert everyone. Now that she knew it was a salamander, she was confident she could tell Rosco how to kill it.

As she ran, she could feel the heat on the back of her neck, and Olivia flung herself to the ground just in time to dodge the salamander’s fireball. The attack soared out of the opening in the cave. She hadn’t been able to blind it for very long, as it turns out.

The salamander roared, and its tail slammed into her back before she could stand back up. Olivia screamed in pain and felt her body twist a bit, her eyes going wide. She felt herself vomit up blood, which was already bad but made worse by the fact that she had used a few spells already. The salamander’s paw came down and swatted at her from the side, throwing her across the cave wall, and she smashed into it back first, dropping to the ground in a groaning mess.

Olivia struggled to lift her arm, the limb shaking, but she couldn’t even muster up a spell. Even if she could, she knew that with how little blood she had left, it’d be over.

Her magic really was useless.

Olivia’s eyes met the salamander’s. She hadn’t warned the others. They wouldn’t know its weakness, and she doubted Ash would be smart enough to tell them. Worse yet, with how pissed off the creature had become, there was a chance it could simply charge at the village and slaughter everyone in it. Bruno and Rosco were now in trouble. The Arcane Knights wouldn’t arrive in time to save them either. Who knew how long it would truly take for them to show up?

All she had managed to do was buy Ash, of all people, time to escape. Was that truly all her life was worth?

As the salamander reached her, Olivia was reminded of a memory. They say that your life flashes before your eyes, and she supposed that’s what this was. She recalled when she had been ten. She stood outside of Fri Village, on the outskirts. Her father clutched her hand, though she couldn’t remember his face anymore. It had been so long since she had last seen him.

She remembered what he said, though, clear as day.

“You can’t come with me.”

“Dad?”

Her father let go of her hand and pushed her forward. “This place is off the map. Nobody would know about it or know that you’re here.”

“You can’t just leave me here!”

“Where I’m going, you can’t follow.” Her father hadn’t looked at her. His eyes had refused to meet hers, no matter how much she cried. “Go.”

“No!”

“Yes.” Her father said sternly. “You’re just not useful, Olivia. There's no potential that I can see in your stats. You can’t stay by my side as you are now.”

“I don’t want to leave your side, though!”

“You don’t? Well? I guess you should become special. Tell you what, just come find me later.”

“What?”

“An Arcane Knight.” Her father turned away from her. “I need the help of a Knight. A powerful one. So, when you become an Arcane Knight and are useful, just come look for me.” And then he simply walked away, still not even glancing at her.

She had cried after he left. Over and over, she wept and wept. He hadn’t come back, though. It wasn’t until Rosco had been leaving to go on a trip to Lotus that anyone had discovered her. She had stayed out of the village all night, crying in the rain. All because she wasn’t special. She wasn’t a master thief, she wasn’t a powerful mage, and she wasn’t a brave knight. She was a complete nobody—a total joke.

She was just Olivia. Not useful at all.

She thought this could have been her chance. She could slay the dragon like an Arcane Knight would in her novels and be useful. She’d have some sort of value and matter. Then, her father would come back and claim her. She’d be allowed to return home, be called important, and not live such a boring life. She’d be someone that mattered.

Instead, though, her actions had just gotten herself and possibly the others killed. She should have never come out here. She should have just stayed useless.

“Somebody.” Olivia croaked out the words as she stared up at the salamander. “I don’t want to die.” She whimpered. Tears filled her eyes, and she dropped her arm, lying there uselessly on the ground. She felt helpless and even wet herself. “Please, someone help me!”

She screamed it as loudly as she could, hoping a miracle would happen. That someone from the village would hear. They were way too far, though, and even if one of them did, it’d take too long to arrive. It was all hopeless. The salamander brought its foot down on her, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

Her eyes instantly shot open when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. The salamander’s foot smashed into the ground, leaving a crater, and the creature stared down in mild confusion when it didn’t find a body. It turned, sensing the new presence. Someone had appeared in the cave, and currently, they held Olivia in their arms.

Olivia stared up at the new person, her eyes wide and filled with shock. It was a Knight. Or at least, they looked like one, wearing thick armor that covered them from head to toe. A muffled voice emerged from the helmet, and the figure gently placed her on the ground.

“You asked for someone to save you? Well, you’re in luck. I’m here.”

Olivia was sure that this was an Arcane Knight. It seemed Rosco’s quest had been accepted sooner than any of them thought. The figure was tall and was covered head to toe in ebony armor. It looked like plate mail, and only a few sections, like the joints, weren’t covered up. Even a novice like her could feel mana coming off of the Knight, a strange, almost bluish fire dancing along parts of the black armor that worked to protect his joints and other weak spots along his suit. The helm itself was rustic and had a thin slit, allowing a set of blue eyes to blaze out.

Olivia felt her heart nearly stop as she took in the appearance of her savior. She had seen plenty of Knights, and the ones in the parade had all been magnificent and could almost be described as delicate. This armor was the reverse, being crude and practical, focusing more on survivability rather than being pretty. It almost looked monstrous, and if this was one of her many novels, she was sure this was how the main villain would look.

“I thought I finally caught a break and found that damned Dragon.” The voice that came out of the suit of armor sounded almost familiar, but it was hard for Olivia to place it. She could tell it was annoyed as the Knight stepped forward and held his arm out in front of him. The salamander actually took a step back and growled softly at the Knight. “Oh, well. Dragon or not, I’m sure I can still slay whatever this thing is.” The blue fire blazed even hotter.

Olivia blinked as she stared at the Knight’s back. She had read stories about them but had never seen one in action before. “You’re one, right?” She felt her voice nearly break, and her body was shaking. “You’re an Arcane Knight! One of the kingdom's protectors!” It wasn’t one of the ones in the parade, but there was no mistaking the feeling of power that gushed off of the figure in black.

The Knight didn’t bother responding. Instead, he cast his first spell. “Row Shadow Vault.” The ground beneath him seemed to bubble and shift as the cave's shadows twitched. The one beneath him, his shadow, almost seemed to rise as if it were a liquid, and something was coming out of the water. The hilt of a sword poked out, and then it began to rise, getting longer and longer, until it reached the Knight's hand, which he pulled, lifting a large claymore out of his shadows. The blade was old, worn down, cracked, and rusted, showing years of use.

The Knight stabbed the sword upwards, and Olivia cringed as his weapon smacked into the cave's roof.

She had to block her ears as a horrible screeching sound echoed around them. The sword scraped along the roof and then stabbed through the stone, impaling it into the rocks above. The claymore screamed and shook, and more cracks appeared along the blade, but by some miracle, it didn’t snap. Once it was stabbed thoroughly into the roof, the Knight took a step forward and began to slice it through the stone above, sending sparks flying out as he approached the salamander, who took another step back in fear.

The salamander let out a roar and opened its mouth. A spark of orange flared, and it unleashed one of its fireballs. Olivia screamed out and threw her arms up to protect herself, but the fire never reached her. Instead, it all slammed into the Knight, smashing into him head-on. It looked like it was about to swallow him whole for a moment and flow past him and toward her, but his armor began to twitch along his body, and the fire started to swirl and get pulled in, sinking into the metal. The armor's surface rippled like a lake, and a tiny bit of smoke flowed around him, but that was it. The rest of the fire was gone, as if it hadn’t been there in the first place.

She had to admit that it was one of the coolest things she'd seen. This was way better than reading about Knights or even the parade she had seen earlier that same day.

The salamander almost seemed to gawk at the Knight as the armored warrior tightened his hold on his sword. “My turn.”

In an instant, the Knight launched forward, tearing his blade out of the roof as he brought it down hard on the salamander. His sword smashed into the snout of the magical beast, and it let out a loud, piercing cry. The blade didn’t cut; instead, it was like a saw, grinding into the snout of the salamander and tearing through its flesh and scales. The Knight pressed his sword down as hard as he could and tore his weapon back and forth, but the dull sword couldn’t rip through fast enough, giving the animal a chance to strike back.

The monster twisted its body and slammed its tail directly into the armored man, hitting him so hard that he was sent flying through the cave. He smashed headfirst into the stone wall, cracking it.

“No!” Olivia screamed out in horror. Her cry faded, though, as the Knight began to stand back up, not even a second later.

Letting out a grunt, the Knight flung himself at the beast, and this time he used the handle of his sword, ramming it into the salamander’s left eye, popping it. Again, the monster screamed, and it unleashed a blast of fire into the swordsman. The flames danced across the Knight's armor, but like last time, the fire was swallowed up by the inky void that formed the metal of his suit.

The Knight grappled with the beast and twisted his sword, the handle digging further into the creature’s eye, and it screamed louder. The monster ripped itself away from the Knight, the handle still stabbing into it. It let out a roar of rage and pain. Some of its scales had been peeled off, and blood gushed down the side of its face as its good eye stared at the Black Knight in pure hate.

“Row Shadow Vault.” The Knight didn’t miss a beat and replaced his weapon. “Get down and cover your ears.” It took Olivia a moment to realize he was talking to her, and her eyes bulged when she saw what he held. It was long and in the shape of a rectangle, with one end going over the man’s shoulder and the other being held out in front of him. “This is going to be very, very loud.”

The salamander looked equally shocked as the man dropped to his knee and pointed a freaking rocket launcher at the magical beast. The creature tried to lunge, but before it could, the man pulled the trigger and fired. His rocket went blasting out, and it rammed into the handle of the sword. The rocket exploded, and the entire cave shook. Fire spread out, as well as shrapnel, and the sword was shoved forward, going through the head of the beast, and poking out the back of its head.

The salamander made a strange choking sound, and then it collapsed forward, dead. Olivia stayed seated, leaning against the wall the Knight had placed her against, and she stared, stunned and slightly horrified at what she had just witnessed.

Letting out a grunt, the Knight threw the empty rocket launcher away and stalked forward. Despite being hit with a powerful missile, both the salamander’s head and the Knight's sword were perfectly intact. With little effort, the man tore the blade out and turned to look back at her.

Most Knights used magical gear or highly durable weapons that were forged out of metal. Their armor and blades were heavier and sharper than standard weapons since Knights were basically superhumans who went beyond normal magic and needed gear that could keep up with them without having to worry about it shattering in the middle of a battle. Since Knights were so fast and strong, most relied on blades and mixed it with their magic rather than using guns, which many Knights deemed too weak and slow.

Olivia got the feeling the Knight who stood before her wasn’t a normal Knight. She doubted most would launch a rocket out in such an enclosed space. It was a miracle the cave didn’t come down on top of them.

“Are you okay?” Olivia snapped out of it and looked back up at the Knight, who was facing her.

“You shot it with a rocket?!”

The Knight shrugged. “Needed to get the sword in deeper.”

“That was really loud!”

“Almost as loud as your yelling.” The Knight said bluntly.

“Hey!” Olivia made a face, but then her eyes went wide with horror. “No! Behind you—”

The monster the Knight had killed hadn’t been the dungeon boss. A dungeon could contain several monsters, but unless the boss was killed, it wouldn’t truly be over.

A second salamander came lunging out of the darkness and screeched as loudly as it could. This one was pitch black and had fiery red eyes. It was nearly twice as big as the last one, and its entire jaw seemed to unhinge, and before the Knight could turn around, it smashed its head down, attempting to bite down and tear his upper half from his lower half. The Knight grunted as the fangs of the salamander began to press in and dent the front and back parts of his armor, and he was lifted off the ground, his legs dangling out of the magical beast’s mouth.

To make matters worse, the salamander began blasting out even hotter fire while he was still in its mouth. The flames started to overwhelm the absorption effect the armor had. The armor bubbled and tried to swallow more of the flames, but the fire was spreading faster than it could absorb.

Olivia stared in horror as her savior was being cooked alive within the monster’s mouth. The Knight struggled to open the salamander’s mouth but couldn’t get a good enough grip. His sword had also dropped down and fallen to the floor, lying there. He forced a hand out of the mouth and tried to reach for it, but he was too far up in the air.

Olivia’s nails dug into her palm, and she thought about casting a spell or doing something to help the Knight, but her body was so weak and she lost so much blood that she knew using her magic would be a death sentence. “Cast a barrier spell or something!” She shouted at the man. “You’re being cooked alive!”

“I can see that!” The Knight’s gruff voice hissed out from beneath his helmet. His armor was starting to bubble more, and it actually looked like it was starting to melt. A normal human would have been reduced to ash long ago, but thanks to using mana to reinforce his flesh, the Knight was somehow still alive, but he was losing the battle. Both his arms were busy trying to fend off the salamander’s jaws, and the fire was just getting hotter and hotter.

“If you can see it, then do something!” Olivia yelled. “Blast a laser beam through it or summon something to kill it!”

“I can’t.”

Olivia made a face and pushed herself up into a sitting position. She thought about running away, but there was no point due to the state her body was in. “What do you mean you can’t?”

The Knight grunted again, and his arms shook as on either side of him, the jaws began to close tightly. “The only shield spell I have is my armor. I’m at a disadvantage when it comes to fighting a monster like this. My magic is sometimes useless.” He said in a blunt tone.

Olivia felt shock ripple through her form. Someone so strong, so powerful, yet he claimed he had useless magic? He was still fighting, trying to keep not just her safe but the others in the village as well. “If your magic is useless, why did you become an Arcane Knight? Why are you fighting?” She demanded.

“Because.” The Knight gritted his teeth and got ready for one last strike. “Even if my magic is useless, that doesn’t mean that I am.” He stopped fighting the jaws and instead grabbed one of the salamander’s teeth. There was a cracking sound, and the beast’s flames died out as its eyes went wide with pain. The Knight snapped the tooth off, shattering it, and instead of trying to escape the animal’s mouth, he pulled himself further in and stabbed up.

The tooth impaled itself into the roof of the monster’s mouth, and it whimpered and howled. It was already over, though. The Knight pulled his fist back and punched up, ramming it into the bottom of the tooth and shooting it through the rest of the way, just like he did to the first salamander.

The struggling instantly stopped. The salamander froze and stopped moving. Through the roof of its mouth, coming out of the back of its head, was the jagged fang. Blood flowed down the top of the beast’s head, its brain torn to bits. Slowly, the monster’s eyes grew dull, and it crashed to the ground, no longer moving. It rested next to the white one, which was most likely its mate.

The Knight crawled out of the monster and dusted himself off. “And that’s that.” He picked his sword up once again and tossed it back into his shadow. “Unless there’s any more monster that wants to pick a fight with me.” He stared into the darkness, but if there were any more salamanders, they didn’t come after him.

Most likely, the black one was the boss monster, so the dungeon would soon close.

Hesitantly, Olivia stood up and nervously made her way over to the salamander corpses. “Are they dead?” She knew the answer, but part of her still had to ask. The creatures just rested there, neither moving, their jaws still forced open, and their eyes dull.

“Yeah. Both of them are dead.” Then, the Knight addressed her. “Are you okay?” He asked for the second time.

“I am now.” Olivia weakly nodded. “Thanks to you.”

“So, this is the second time I saved you.” The voice bounced around the helmet and sounded amused. “Do you make this a habit?”

“Second time?”

“Oh, right. My helmet.” The Knight reached up and fumbled with his helm before lifting it off. Olivia’s eyes went wide when she saw the person beneath the suit. He had raven black hair and bright blue eyes that glowed, along with a jagged scar along the side of his face. “Hey.” Davi Hawker said quietly, still speaking in his typical emotionless tone.

Olivia felt a lump appear in her throat, and she was left speechless. The man who had saved her from Ash was an Arcane Knight? That explained how he beat Ash so easily. Finally, she did manage to say something. “You look cooler without your helmet.”

“What?” Davi raised an eyebrow at her.

Olivia realized she had blurted it out before she could stop herself. In novels or images, whenever a Knight was depicted, they often didn’t have their helmet on, since most people wanted to see the knight's face. From a practical standpoint, it made no sense not to wear a helmet into battle, but seeing Davi’s face, the man beneath the armor, she suddenly got it. He appeared a lot more human this way.

“Nothing! I didn’t say anything!”

Davi kept his blank look. She was starting to suspect he had a tired resting face since he seemed to show little emotion no matter what was going on. “Right.” Was all the man said before he gently grasped her by the shoulder and pulled her closer.

“Um, what are you doing!” She asked in a panic.

Davi looked down at her, keeping one hand on her shoulder and the other on his scar, which he rubbed. “Have you seen a dragon?” He asked flatly.

“A dragon?”

“Yeah. I came when I heard about the fire, thinking it was something else, but it was just that derpy lizard monster. Tell me, please. Have you seen a great big dragon flying around here by any chance?” His eyes narrowed slightly, and his tone sounded a little more urgent than normal.

“N—No! Also, you’re a little close; back up!”

The man sighed at her answer and let go of her, still rubbing his scar as he stepped away. “I guess that Dragon really isn’t here. Damn. Wrong dungeon.”

“You’re looking for a dragon?”

“It’s a long story.” Davi’s explanation left her wanting to know more, but he suddenly glanced back at her and looked concerned. “Are you sure you’re doing okay? You’re kind of messed-up looking.”

Olivia blinked and looked down at herself, suddenly feeling light-headed. She was stained in red, and now that she thought about it, several of her ribs and an arm were broken. Adrenaline was a hell of a thing because she had somehow ignored the pain. “Hey, can you do me a favor?”

“Depends?” Davi asked.

“Could you carry me back to the village?”

“What village—” Davi didn’t get to finish as, a second later, Olivia crashed to the ground, unconscious, her body finally giving out. Davi looked down at the girl and hummed. He hadn’t bothered to look at her until now. She was younger than he expected, with snow-white hair. Her eyes had also been blood red, matching the liquid that flowed from her many wounds, and her skin was pale and ghastly looking. Davi instantly knew he had stumbled upon a treasure. “Well, Sieg, it looks like I ran into someone pretty interesting.”

Chapter 8: His Harsh Words

When she was twelve, she tried to run away. She didn’t get very far before Rosco grabbed her and yanked her back to the village. He had scolded and yelled at her louder than he ever had before. In her attempt to escape, she had stumbled into a wolf’s den and would have been killed if not for Rosco.

When she turned fourteen, she tried again. This time, it was Bruno who dragged her back to the village. She had discovered a patch of berries on the trail she had been walking down and ate from them, not knowing they were poisonous. Bruno had stayed by her side the following week, nursing her back from the pits of the underworld.

Her final escape attempt had been when she turned sixteen. She had stolen one of Farmer Jermy’s horses and ridden off after seeing a movie about a knight who could summon horses with a flute. Watching horses and riding them was very different, though. The animal had bucked her off, and she smacked her head on a rock. Like the previous times, she thought she would die, but by pure luck, she had been discovered by an Arcane Knight who healed her head wound and took her back to her village.

Most of these attempts had started because of the bullying. Ash, Nev, and Trent weren’t evil, but they were cruel to an outsider like her. She had never wanted to be part of Fri. It wasn’t a bad place, but it wasn’t where she belonged, at her father’s side. Meeting a real Arcane Knight had also opened her eyes. For years, she had entertained the idea of becoming one since her father had told her about it, but actually being saved by one and meeting a Knight had truly set her on her path.

That was when Olivia decided she’d truly start trying to become a Knight and practiced with her blood magic every day, constantly passing out and running off to Lotus City to get sneak peeks at the Knights as they’d pass through.

This was all to say that Fri was entirely used to Olivia doing stupid things. This one took the cake, though. Fighting a real-life magical beast.

Olivia groaned, and her eyes opened as she stared up at the roof of Rosco’s house. The home in question wasn’t that big, and growing up in it, she had gotten annoyed at how claustrophobic she felt more than once. Now, though, she was happy to open her eyes and see it.

She was in Rosco’s bed, and her clothes had been changed. She didn’t move, her eyes still adjusting, but she could hear the TV was on, playing some soap opera, since Rosco liked watching them for some reason.

“I’m still alive?” She asked tiredly.

“Olivia!” The next thing she knew, she found herself being pulled into a tight embrace as Rosco held her. “Thank Haru, you’re awake.” The dark-skinned man let out a sigh of relief and then pulled away, looking down at her. His relieved look then grew serious, the way only a father's could. “You white-haired idiot!”

“Ow, ow, ow!” Olivia let out a whimper as the older man grabbed her by the ear and twisted it. “You’re going to pull it off!”

“I should, after the emotional damage you put us all through!” Rosco growled. “Seriously, what the actual hell were you thinking? Are you just suicidal or something? Why did you try fighting a magical beast?”

“I had to save Ash and the others!”

Rosco looked down at her, giving her a serious look. “I was told everything. Ash and his band of idiots were the first to run off, and you followed. Don’t act like you were doing something good by running to their rescue. If you really cared, you would have gotten me or another adult involved, but you didn’t.”

Olivia bowed her head, not looking the other man in the eye. He was right. She didn’t even try to wake him or Bruno up. She had run off on her own despite knowing Ash was attempting to fight the magical beast, which, at the time, she had assumed was a dragon. Part of her wanted to be the one to beat it. To slay it and prove to everyone, especially herself, that she had what it took after how badly she failed the exams. She could have gotten help, but didn’t, and she nearly paid the price for it.

“I thought I could handle it.” She felt her voice break a bit. “I just wanted to show you all that I had what it took. I-I thought that if I killed it before the Arcane Knight arrived, it’d make them think I was special.”

Rosco folded his arms, looking down on her. “Olivia, you need to stop. You’re always throwing yourself into danger, and sooner or later, you’re going to die. Your magic and stats aren't suited for something like this. You’re seriously going to hurt yourself.”

In the end, even Rosco didn’t believe in her. “I have to, though.” Olivia curled up and placed her head on her knees. She could feel some bandages that were clinging to her, most of which were wrapped around her head. Her body still ached, but it wasn’t too bad since Farmer Jermy had healing magic, which likely fixed her up while she had been knocked out. “I want to be useful.” For a moment, her mind went to that strange man. Davi Hawker. “If I were an Arcane Knight like him, I’m sure I’d be special, and then my dad would…” She trailed off and pulled out her phone. It was working again now that she wasn't near the dungeon.

Mana: Grade D, Endurance: Grade C-, Strength: Grade C, Efficiency: Grade C, and Resistance: Grade A.

No change to her stats. Life wasn't like a video game or one of the novels she read. There was no EXP or magical loot. If a person wanted to raise their stats or evolve their mana, they'd have to put in a lot of work and effort in order to overcome their limits or access the item shop with their grimoire and buy an item that permanently boosted stats, but those were usually expensive.

Olivia felt hollow, and she turned the grimoire app off. "I'm still useless."

Rosco looked bummed by her response. He turned away from the girl and shrugged. “I feel like we’ve had this conversation a hundred times now, Olivia. I’m not in the mood to argue with you. Ash and the others are fine, by the way. A bit banged up, but Farmer Jermy went ahead and healed them and you the best he could. Bruno will want to see you now that you’re awake. He’s outside with that Arcane Knight.”

“The Arcane Knight is still in our village?” Olivia felt her eyes widen, and she stood up, ignoring the pain as she ran past Rosco and opened the door. Stepping out, she was met with a shocking sight.

“Good… Now place that slab on top of the other one.” The Knight stood in the center of the village, his arms crossed across his chest, and his ebony armor was now fixed up, having not even a scratch on it, and his helmet was off. A few kids swung off his arms or climbed on him, using him as a swing, something he didn’t seem to mind. He was more focused on something going on in front of him.

Fri was a little mountain village that was as far in the boonies as a place could get. Most of the people who lived in Fri didn’t even bother with a car, and the ones that did weren’t even able to use their vehicles since the forest was way too thick and there weren’t any proper roads built.

The Duke of Lotus was supposed to be working on a project that would open the forest up and connect Fri to Lotus more easily, but that project had been in the works for nearly five years now and hadn’t started. Instead, Lotus was expanding and branching out to other places while Fri was being left behind.

Fri did have technology, like power lines and other such things, but it was very old-fashioned looking for the most part, with slanted buildings, and before now, the only thing it had that was truly worth anything was the wooden wall, which was made to keep them safe from monsters. That wall was now gone.

The wooden structure had been completely removed, and dozens of heavy-looking stone blocks and bags of cement were in its place. Dozens of sleds and ropes were scattered around, along with construction equipment such as cranes and forklifts, which several of the villagers were using to drag the blocks to where they needed to go. They would then stack the blocks on top of one another and use the cement to hold them in place. Davi was giving orders on how to place everything and, like always, was mostly speaking in a dull, tired tone.

It wasn’t just Fri’s wall that was being rebuilt either. Dozens of other supplies were scattered around, like an entire section of logs and tools that could be used to fix and rebuild the houses that were lost. “Where’d all of this come from?” Olivia asked in shock. It wasn’t just all the supplies that shocked her, but the working construction vehicles as well. The closest thing they had to professional equipment was a lawnmower Jermy had made two years ago that blew up.

“It came from that Davi guy.” Off to the side, Bruno walked up to her, already sporting his smile. His eyes focused on the Black Knight, and he chuckled. “He pulled out all these supplies out of thin air and started telling us to use them to expand and rebuild the village. Rosco decided to make a stone wall instead of a wooden one so something like the salamander couldn’t get back in so easily.”

“He pulled out an entire crane?” She asked, still shocked.

“Yep!” Bruno laughed. "That Knight is a bro! He let us all take pictures with him, too! I tried looking him up on the internet but couldn’t find anything, so I think he’s a new member or something.”

Olivia watched in stunned silence. All of the people working on the wall had various safety gear on, which she was also sure wasn’t anything they owned. Davi had given so much to them.

Knights were basically superheroes. They showed up and saved the day. They lived to keep the peace and made it their job to help people. She had expected him to simply leave now that the monster was dead, but he wasn’t. He was here, and he was still helping.

Olivia felt a smile crack her lips, but her thoughts were interrupted when Bruno began to speak once more. The dark-skinned boy turned to look at her, and his smile faded slightly as he took in her injured look. “How are you holding up?”

“Bruno.” Olivia felt her eyes water a bit. “I'm sorry.” She wiped at her eyes, trying not to cry.

“What are you saying sorry to me for? You’re the one who almost died, you know?” Bruno chuckled and flicked her on the head. His gaze turned, and on the other side of the village, Ash stood with his two friends, silently watching Davi. Nev was covered in bandages, and Trent’s arm was in a cast. Thanks to Jermy and his healing magic, both boys survived, though they were going to carry the scars with them for the rest of their lives. “All of you were kind of silly, you know.”

Olivia wiped her eyes and nodded. “Yeah.” Her eyes lowered a bit. Maybe being an Arcane Knight really wasn’t something she was cut out for. If not for Davi, she’d have died for sure. Maybe her father was right. Maybe her life was better spent living as a total nobody in a quiet village like this.

“There is some good news,” Rosco called out from behind them. “We made a small fortune thanks to that guy over there.” Rosco nodded in the direction of Davi, who was still being used as a swing by the kids, and then turned back to the village square, where a pair of familiar creatures resided.

The corpses of the salamanders were sprawled out on the ground. Now that they were dead, the fire in them had gone out, allowing people to touch the once superheated monsters.

Farmer Jermy and a couple of other villagers were inspecting the corpse. The world was filled with all sorts of crazy monsters and dungeons that held vast wealth. Many cities often made a fortune by buying and selling various magical beasts, though this would be the first time their village ever had one. The cost would be enough to pay for all the repairs and get back their livestock if they were lucky, and that was just with one. They had two, all thanks to the Knight in black armor.

“Not only did he give us all this free wood and stone to rebuild, but he’s also letting us keep the corpses.” Rosco couldn’t help but do a bit of a happy dance. “Our village is going to make a net profit even with all of the dead cattle, thanks to him!”

“The Arcane Knight doesn’t want the bodies?” Olivia asked, a little surprised.

“I don’t need them.” Olivia jumped and let out a squeak as Davi appeared next to her. She hadn’t even seen him move; could he teleport or something? “It was on your mountain, so you guys can keep it.” Davi folded his arms and turned to look at Olivia. “Do you mind if we talk for a moment?”

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

Olivia looked back at Bruno and Rosco, shooting them a look. Bruno patted her on the shoulder and pushed her forward. “Good luck, bro!” And then both men scampered off, leaving her alone with the Knight.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” She asked curiously.

Davi began to walk through the village and gazed at it, letting out a soft hum. His look didn’t change, keeping the bored appearance he always had present. “I just wanted to talk.” He shrugged. “You have blood magic, right?”

Olivia flinched slightly, and she gave Davi a sideways look. Most people taunted her for it. Blood magic was rare, but not in a good way. It was borderline useless, and there were so many videos all over the internet about mages with blood magic knocking themselves out or nearly killing themselves after casting a few spells. “Yeah?” She said quietly. “Is that an issue?”

“I just think it’s neat.” Davi’s words shocked her, and he turned, giving a half nod. “That Rosco guy was right. It was a little foolish to try to fight a magical beast, but you were also brave. I saw how you let those boys escape. You did well.” Olivia felt a strange surge of emotions go through her. It was weird being praised. “Have you ever thought about becoming an Arcane Knight?”

Her heart skipped a beat at the question. “Y-yeah!” She said excitedly. “I have.”

Davi nodded once more. “Spiraling towers where evil gods await.”

“What?”

“Dragons who fly through the heavens. Caves that only lead to Hell. Princesses who tempt heroes to settle down. A labyrinth you can never escape from. Vast riches, deep dungeons, raging wars, magical animals, and so many secrets to be found.” Davi still kept his blank look, but something in his eyes was different now. Excitement? “The world is filled with all sorts of things, like that salamander monster. I haven’t seen anything like it since the dragon.”

“Dragon? Have you seen a real dragon? They’re all extinct, though. The last dungeon that had a dragon in it was a few hundred years ago.” Olivia said it as if she hadn’t expected to see a dragon last night. Looking back at it, her actions had been foolish.

“Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t,” Davi responded flatly and placed a hand to his scar. “You never really know what something is until it’s too late. When I was younger, my brother and I always discussed what we would do when we became Arcane Knights and all the things we would get to see and do. If you’ve thought about becoming a Knight, do you have plans for it?”

Olivia’s eyes sparkled a bit, and she nodded. “Yeah! Arcane Knights are the best. They get a pass to go anywhere and always take up quests to explore dungeons and stuff. They get paid to be adventurers! Part of me always wanted to be one since it meant I’d get to see the whole world and study so many magical beasts! More than that, though, they’re useful.” Her happy look faded slightly. “If not for you, I would have died. You saved me. You guys are special, have magic, and are the kind of people my dad would have liked.”

“Your dad?” Davi raised an eyebrow at her, and he actually seemed a little curious.

Olivia nodded her head slowly. “My dad dropped me off at this place because I couldn’t be useful to him.” She looked up at the bright sky above and rubbed her head injury. “He was an Arcane Knight. He explored all sorts of ruins and fought dangerous beasts for a living. He’s one of the reasons I know so much since he forced me to study up on nearly everything. I wasn’t able to keep up with him, though. I wasn’t special like he was. His magic was really strong, just like yours. I have such lame magic.” She admitted, a bit sheepishly. “It’s awful and not good at all, unlike yours, which is useful. I’m really jealous and wish I had something better. My blood magic holds me back a bunch.”

“Oh.” Davi turned away from her, his blank look finally shifting, showing annoyance. “You’re one of ‘those’ kinds of people?” He sounded disappointed. “How boring.”

“Excuse me?”

Davi grabbed his helmet, which had been hanging off his belt. Like the rest of his armor, it was fixed, and he placed it over his head. “I thought you were interesting when I first saw you, but you’re one of those people who don’t see the value in what they have and instead focus too much on other people and what they can do.” His voice came out muffled now and sounded cold. “If you don’t have any confidence in yourself or your magic, why are you even trying to become an Arcane Knight?” The man left her standing there, and she felt strangely hollow now. She had thought maybe he would understand her plight or even offer to take her with him, but he didn’t. He just left her.

“Wait!” She turned back to him, but Davi wasn’t stopping. “I’m not strong, though? That’s not fair. My magic isn’t good at all, not like yours! You claimed your magic wasn’t good either, but it’s better than mine! My father got rid of me because of how useless mine is! All I wanted to do was stay by his side and go on an adventure with him, and he dropped me off at the place and never came back!”

“So what?” The Black Knight said apathetically. “There are loads of people out there in the world. Of course, somewhere out there, someone will have magic that makes yours look like it’s useless. I bet there is someone out there in the world who would kill to have the magic you do because they think it’s better than what they’re stuck with. I know I used to feel jealous when I saw my brother’s magic and how much better it was than mine. I don’t whine about my own magic, though. I work with what I have. I can only cast two different kinds of spells, you know.”

“J-Just two?” Olivia felt her throat go dry. Magic was everything a mage would pride themselves on. The number of spells they knew and could cast was very important. She knew a bunch of spells but was limited by her blood. In the opposite boat, Davi could cast his spells a bunch of times, but he only had a measly two spells. She suddenly remembered what he said in the fight with the salamander. He couldn’t shield himself with magic, or form a powerful weapon, or anything like that.

Yet he had still slain the beast.

Davi’s eyes seemed to stare past her own, and she felt herself flinch and step back. “If your father got rid of you because of your magic, then why are you even trying to return to his side when you agree with him? Maybe instead of spending as much time as you do beating yourself up about how useless you are right now, you work on bettering yourself. You might never be able to go on that adventure with your dad, but at least you’d be able to do what you want and be happy with yourself.” Davi turned away, not looking at her again. “Or don’t; I just find it annoying when someone cries about how weak they are when they refuse to give it any real effort.”

“Well, if you’re so smart, how do I get stronger?” Olivia demanded, fighting back tears. “How? Please! Tell me! Help me!”

He didn’t reply. Davi just walked away.

“Is that what an Arcane Knight is like?” She nearly jumped when she heard Ash speak. He was next to her now, his eyes glued to the Black Knight.

“Ash?”

For a moment, his eyes met hers. “I’m not going to lose again.” Ash shoved something into her arms and then walked past her, his hand clutching his wand. “I’m going to become an Arcane Knight. One who won’t ever be scared again. One who won’t ever be saved by you again.” He declared. “I’m going to surpass you!”

Olivia was once again left standing alone, even more baffled as Ash left. “Surpass me? As if I’m something special.” She chuckled darkly and grumbled. “Yeah, right. Still just useless, Olivia. Maybe that Davi guy was right. Maybe I should just give up.”

She looked down at the thing Ash had shoved into her arms. It was a drone. A very expensive one at that. The very same he had used to locate the whereabouts of the dungeon, but why was he giving it to her?

Was it a peace offering? A way to thank her for saving him? Was he flirting with her?

A few hours later, Davi left the village and headed for Lotus City so he could get a ride to his next destination. She watched him go, not saying anything. What could she even say, though?

In the end, it simply didn’t matter.

Chapter 9: Slaying the Boss

“This thing is freaking badass!” Bruno giggled like a giddy schoolgirl and pressed forward on the controller, causing the drone to lift off the ground and float into the air. “I can’t believe Ash just gave this to you! That boy must have hit his head or is secretly in love with you or something!”

“Maybe,” Olivia said flatly. She honestly wasn’t listening to what Bruno was saying, too focused on her own thoughts.

Now that Davi was gone and things had settled down with the death of the salamander, life in Fri Village was going to return to normal, so she and Bruno were now out in the woods, since Bruno had begged her to let him play with the drone.

Her body felt a lot better now that it had gotten time to rest. One of the few perks of blood magic was that she healed slightly faster than normal. That was why she was now leaning against a tree, watching her friend have the time of his life with his new toy.

The drone was one of the expensive kinds, and was shaped like an airplane. It could go far and had a camera built into it. Bruno had connected his phone to it wirelessly and was watching the feed as it lifted off the ground. It was a little banged up from dropping out of the sky the last time Ash used it, but it still worked.

Bruno flew the drone out of the forest, and he kept his eyes glued to his phone, flying it around and making it head in no particular direction. He kept giggling and shaking, having the time of his life.

“You can make constructs out of ice, and you are one of the strongest mages I know, but this is what makes you have fun?” Olivia questioned flatly.

“It’s the little things in life.” Bruno shrugged.

Olivia gave a weak nod and sighed. She glanced up at the sky, watching the drone get out of view. “What did you think of the Arcane Knight?” She asked after a few moments of silence. “You got to talk to him for a lot longer than I did.”

“He was so cool!” Bruno finally looked up from his phone and gave a large grin. “I never really expected I’d get to meet an Arcane Knight in my life. Seeing them at the parade or on TV is one thing, but actually speaking to one and standing next to him was the best thing ever! What a bro he was! Maybe he and I will be on the same team when I become an Arcane Knight! I wanna be his bro!”

Olivia looked away from the sky and stared at Bruno’s smiling face. He was confident and strong, and so, so talented. If anyone could become an Arcane Knight, it’d be him. He knew what he wanted to do with his life.

“Do you actually think you can become a Knight?” She asked after a moment. Everyone had magic, but even still, becoming an actual Knight was next to impossible. It was like becoming an officer, only much harder. Some people could spend years trying to get physically fit and ready for the police officer exam, only to fail right at the end, and becoming a Knight required a lot more dedication and heart.

“Huh? Where is that coming from?” The boy awkwardly scratched at his chin. “I mean, I guess I’ll do my best to become an Arcane Knight like we’re always talking about.”

“And if you fail?”

Bruno shrugged. “Never thought about failing. If I do, I’ll just try again. Why are you asking these weird questions, bro?”

“What do you think I should do with my life?” Olivia asked hollowly. “I mean, I’m an adult now. Shouldn’t I do something?”

“I thought you were going to become an Arcane Knight?” Bruno teased. His grin faltered when she didn’t respond. “Olivia?”

“Is there even a point to me doing that?” She balled her hand into a fist. “I wasn’t able to be an adventurer back when I was traveling with my father because I couldn’t be of any use to him. When faced with that salamander, I wasn’t able to do anything again. If our world has a bunch of other monsters like that in it, what hope do I have? Ash has a ton of spells and way better stats. But he was just as useless as I was.”

“Are you saying you’re giving up on that goal?” Bruno asked quietly.

“Maybe.” She responded after thinking about it.

She hadn’t bothered when taking any other lessons at the academy. There were some that were required, like math, history, languages, and gym, but all the optional classes she got to pick were related in some way to combat, so she wasn’t qualified for anything else, since all jobs wanted someone whose magic would make it easier, and her blood magic was just too useless. With how badly she scored, it was impossible to become a police officer, and since she was eighteen, she’d need to pay to take any new lessons or repeat them, which was impossible at the moment.

The military was still a possibility since they did look at academy exams but also had their own test that, if passed, could let someone who didn’t go to an academy join up. The Knights were the same. They would look at a person's academic scores, and having good grades would improve the odds of becoming a Knight, but at the end of the day, they also had their own exam that a mage would have to pass in order to join them.

The issue was that it was hundreds of times harder than anything the academy would throw at its students, and typically only mages that came from noble families or went to wealthy, paid schools were able to have the training and mana needed to pass.

“Shouldn’t you be happy? You and Rosco and every other person in this village always stopped me from running away.” Olivia snorted softly and bowed her head even further after the silence stretched on for too long. “I really am useless, huh?”

Bruno snorted. “I don’t know about the others, but I only stopped you because you weren’t ready. You were a kid back then. It’s my job to babysit you. You’re basically my little sister, you know. I can’t let my little sister go and get hurt if she’s not ready. What sort of bro would I be?”

“So you’re saying if I were ready, you’d just let me leave?”

“Sure,” Bruno said, after a few moments of thinking about it. “Because if you can handle yourself, then I wouldn’t have to worry.”

“I’ll never be ready, though.” Olivia looked down at her hands. “I don’t have good magic.”

Bruno looked at her and then let out a sigh. “Do you know what the difference between us and an Arcane Knight is?”

“That they’re strong and we’re weak?”

“It’s the mind.” Bruno poked her in the center of her forehead. “We have magic, and let’s say that magic is a sword. For some, those swords are rusty, useless blades; for others, they’re born with massive, towering hunks of metal that can split mountains in half. At the end of the day, though, the rusty sword is still a sword. It can still kill. I think that’s the difference between us and someone like Davi. Normal people are worried when they go into combat. They’re scared that their spells won’t be strong enough or they won’t have enough mana to finish the fight, whereas someone like Davi just throws himself into the danger without a second thought, not even bothering to wonder if he’s wielding a rusty sword or a greatsword. They just follow their goal. He’s a bro for sure.”

Olivia nodded her head, but she still wasn’t entirely convinced. It was more complicated than it sounded to use your magic to slay a magical beast, and at the end of the day, she was still just her.

Bruno just chuckled when he saw the look she was giving him. He turned back to his phone and sighed. “I think you should do what you want to do.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“Because it is.”

Silence hung in the air as Bruno finished speaking. It was broken, though, by a beep that came from his phone. Bruno frowned and raised an eyebrow.

“What is it?” She asked, eager to change the subject.

“The drone disconnected?”

“What?”

“The drone.” Bruno showed her his phone, and it now kept flashing with no signal instead of showing the footage the drone had been broadcasting. “It just died? I guess I got it too far out of my range.”

“Maybe? Where did it die?” Olivia questioned.

“Near the mountain.”

Olivia nodded, but then suddenly froze as something dawned on her. She felt a chill go up her spine. Without warning, she sprinted past her friend, running as fast as she could. She made it to the village gate and ran inside, nearly collapsing from how hard she had sprinted. She seriously needed to work out more.

The other villagers were still going about their day, a few attempting to carve into the dead salamander’s hide while others were using the construction equipment and were still working on the new wall. They were all oblivious to what was about to happen.

She took a deep breath and yelled out. “We need to get out of here right now!” She screamed out, causing everyone to stop and stare at her. She pointed toward the two dead salamanders. “Neither of them is the boss!”

As if on cue, the back wall of their village exploded as a third salamander came crashing in. The beast was even larger than the black one that Davi had killed, and all along its body were dozens of jagged crystals that grew out of its flesh. The very same kind that had been in its cave.

Olivia cursed when she saw it. She had been such an idiot. The black salamander had been large, so she and Davi just assumed it must have been the boss, but now that she thought about it, that didn’t make any sense. A dungeon was created by a boss monster and was made to perfectly suit its environment. Neither the white nor the black salamander benefited much from being surrounded by crystals, but this beast did.

The gems along its body were jutting out and glowed, filling with a dangerous amount of fiery mana. It let out a hellish screech and unleashed its fire. The flames didn’t just pour out of its mouth but also blasted out of the many crystals that ran along its body, scorching and blowing through dozens of houses and the field, setting everything ablaze in an instant!

Davi had given them the supplies to rebuild so they could make a more substantial wall and prevent an attack like this from happening again, yet that no longer mattered since the monster was able to come crashing through the unfinished wall. Maybe if it had been fully built, it would have worked, but as it was now, the wall wasn’t anywhere near ready to deal with an actual threat yet.

Screams filled the village, and everyone ran in a panic as the beast openly rampaged. The boss was enraged by the fact they killed two of its kind, and it wasn’t going to stop until it avenged its brethren. The fire kept pouring out, relentless torrents of fire pouring from it as it tore its way forward. Worse yet, Rosco had taken Davi personally to Lotus, so their best defender, the only mage that could possibly kill the beast, was absent.

A few villagers fired off spells or used Jermy’s arsenal of hunting rifles on the beast, but that only pissed it off more.

Farmer Jermy stood next to the corpses of the two dead monsters, and he became the main target of the rage-filled animal. He screamed and tripped backward, and the creature was about to take a swipe at him, but something smashed into its eye. Olivia threw another rock at the monster, getting its attention on her. It spat another fireball in her direction, but she had been expecting it this time and dropped to the ground. The fire soared over her, and she had to resist crying out.

Her efforts saved the farmer, but now the salamander was focused entirely on her. It seemed to be able to smell the stench of its dead kind on her because it gave her a truly evil look.

“Olivia!” Ash swung his wand out, smashing a blade of wind down on the salamander, but its hide was still magic-resistant, and the attack had no effect. “Run!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice! Put the fires out the same way you did last time, Ash!” Olivia yelled, and she took off running. Bruno ran alongside her, and the salamander gave chase, charging toward them both. “Bruno, go away!”

“Hell no!”

“Why not! It’s after me! Just go hide or something!”

Bruno shook his head. “If I do that, you’re going to do something stupid that could get yourself killed! If I’m here with you, then your plan has to have a way for us to get out alive!”

“You assume I have a plan?”

“You read a lot, don’t you!” Bruno smirked and clapped her on the back, both of them separating just in time as another fireball was launched their way. The salamander was quickly catching up to them. “I trust you.” He smiled slightly. “Olivia, you’re not useless.”

Olivia balled her hands into a tighter fist, and she ignored the pain in her lungs, running faster. They were making their way up the mountain, the magical beast right on their heels. She could feel the heat coming off it, which thankfully motivated her to run even quicker. The narrow path sloped, slowing the salamander down just enough to allow them to stay in the lead. Up ahead, she saw what she was looking for—the portal to the dungeon where Davi had slain the other one.

“Bruno.”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.” As they ran, Olivia turned and suddenly pushed him as hard as she could. Bruno lost his footing and slipped, tumbling away from both her and the salamander as he dropped off the narrow path. It’d be a painful fall, but he’d survive since he could use his magic to catch himself. She ignored his yell and kept running, the salamander now just chasing her. Now, at least if she failed, Bruno would have a chance to save himself. “Come and get me!” She called out, throwing another rock into the creature’s eye. She still hadn’t cast a spell yet, so she had three chances.

The salamander roared louder and jumped toward her. It hit the ground hard enough to shake it, and she was knocked off her feet, rolling into the cave and going through the portal. Her back screamed at her as the crystals dug in, and she scrambled up to her feet.

It was too risky to fight it in the village or forest, where things could be set ablaze. Here, the only flammable thing was her, so at least if she failed, collateral damage would be lowered. Not only that, but in order to properly close a dungeon, the boss monster needed to be slain in its home turf, which was why Arcane Knights were always entering them instead of trying to lure the monster out.

She turned just in time to see the salamander’s head poke through the portal. Its mouth opened, and a spark of orange began to appear. She wouldn’t be able to reach it in time and attack, so instead, she crouched down. “Row Blood Shield!” That was one spell down, her blood flowing out of her fingernails and forming into a large red shield, which she gripped on her arm. The salamander’s flame spewed toward her, and Olivia gritted her teeth and stood her ground, using her shield to block the fire, the same way Davi had done.

She didn’t create a barrier or something that would fade away; instead, she had made a strong shield that would defend her until it was shattered. The shield bubbled and boiled as the flames poured onto it, but she fought through it and stepped forward. She knew how to kill this thing. Davi had shown her the exact way.

With a yell, Olivia lifted her wand and focused on it. The shape was perfect for what she needed to do. Usually, she would fire out a spell that would launch and burst, vanishing once it was gone, but like the shield she had created, she willed something into existence that would stay until she was either done with it or it was destroyed. “Row Blood Knife!” That was her second spell, and it formed into a long, pointed dagger that came out of her wand, which served as the handle. She gripped it tightly, her shield about to break, but it held out just long enough for the salamander’s fire to run out; the creature was forced to take a deep breath, which left its mouth wide open. The rest of its body was still outside the dungeon, which meant the crystals couldn’t hit her with their fire either.

Olivia let out a battle cry, her shield dropping as she stabbed out as hard as she could with her new weapon, impaling it into the roof of the beast’s mouth. Davi’s blow had been powerful and went all the way through, hitting the brain from inside the salamander’s mouth. She wasn’t Davi, though, and her attack hadn’t gone deep enough, the salamander thrashing around in pain, its furious eyes glaring at her.

The salamander attempted to bite her, but she was ready for it and jumped back, snapping her wand off from her blood knife. The blade remained behind, lodged in the salamander’s mouth, and already a spark of fire was about to gush out as it got ready to burn her. Her shield was gone, and her blade was no longer attached; it was do or die.

The beast jutted forward and forced the rest of its body through the portal and rammed into her. Some of the crystals cut into her flesh, and Olivia cried out as the force of the attack sent her crashing back. More of the jagged crystals that formed the dungeon's walls impaled her legs and side as she slumped down, and the creature opened its mouth, seconds away from unleashing its final attack.

Olivia stabbed her wand out. “Row Blood Scythe!” The fire was about to spew as her blood launched, unleashing into a blade-like shape that blasted from the tip of her wand. It swirled through the air and smashed into the bottom part of her knife, which still poked out of the creature's mouth. It molded and ran along the blade and reached the tip, jutting out into a crescent-shaped blade and cutting right through the salamander’s jaw.

The salamander stood there for several moments, not moving, its eyes wide. It looked stunned. The fire stopped rising and began to flicker and fade out before the beast’s eyes finally rolled back, and it collapsed onto the ground, no longer moving. The scythe had pierced its brain and split its head directly in two.

Olivia breathed heavily and tried to steady her beating heart. The world around her was spinning due to all the blood loss, and the scythe melted, leaking out of the salamander’s mouth.

“I killed it! I killed one!” Olivia cheered and remained seated due to exhaustion. “Too bad it doesn’t matter, though," she responded bitterly.

When a boss was killed, the dungeon wouldn’t instantly close. That was why Davi and she hadn’t realized the gate hadn’t shut until it was too late. If not for Bruno flying the drone around, she’d have never figured it out in time.

A growl pierced through the cave's darkness, and Olivia looked up and saw several smaller salamanders stepping out into the crystals' light. There was a decent-sized swarm of them. About six in total, each as big as the white one had been.

“I still managed to kill one.” Olivia let out a weak laugh and somehow got her back to be pressed against the wall as the babies began to stalk toward her. “Take that, Dad.” Despite her words, she could feel tears spilling down her face again. “Man, I really don’t want to die.” She chuckled. “I—I would have liked to see some other things. How many other magical beasts are out there? What are other dungeons like? How do taxes work? Damn. I didn’t even get to kiss a boy or say thanks to the person who motivated me to become an Arcane Knight. This sucks!”

The creatures lunged at her, and Olivia closed her eyes. A second later, though, they opened as she heard a crunching sound. A large black blade slashed through the air, hitting a salamander so hard it launched it and the others back.

“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this.” Olivia looked up weakly and saw a pair of blue eyes blazing out from behind a black helmet. “I don’t even know your name, and I’ve already saved you three times now.” The voice was flat, cold even, lacking all emotion, yet she knew it was an attempt at a joke.

“Davi?”

“Yeah.” The Knight turned back, and his eyes fixed on the salamanders. “Sorry, I’m late. I didn’t even consider the possibility that the one I killed wasn't the boss. Good work taking that big one down.” He gently patted her head and then stepped toward the remaining creatures, his other hand clenched around his claymore. “Vil Shadow Vault.” His shadow spread out, using the darkness of the cave to expand and form a circle around the monsters.

Out of his vault, several shadowy hands hefted multiple large objects up. They were forged from metal and had a box shape, with a long barrel coming out of the top of them. There were eight in total, and each one was an anti-tank turret, made for cutting through even the thickest of armors.

“Where the hell did you get those!” Olivia yelled in shock.

“Leave the small fries to me. You’ve earned your break.” Davi responded in his usual blank tone, not answering her question. The salamanders all hissed, but it was too late. Mana seeped out of Davi, looking like an intense blue fire, and it flowed over the many shadowy hands still grasping onto the turrets, which took aim and then unleashed a hellish barrage of fire.

Olivia let out a loud yell and covered her ears as the heavy gunfire poured out and bounced off the cave walls so hard that everything shook. The salamanders were normally resistant to mana and most ammunition, but these rounds were so big, and being enforced by Davi’s own mana, they easily tore through the flesh of the monsters, ripping them to bits.

Olivia watched the brutal display once again, shocked. She felt like she was doing that a lot anytime she was with Davi, but she couldn’t help it. This was everything that the Arcane Knights were. Magical warriors who blended sorcery and blades with the advanced technology of today.

In no time at all, Davi managed to kill them. When he was done, he crouched back down in front of her and casually dropped his sword into his shadow, where a shadowy hand pulled it into the inky depths of his vault. The rest of the shadow hands grasping the turrets followed suit, pulling the weapons into darkness. “Are you still with me?” He asked.

“Yeah.” She said weakly. She closed her eyes. “Olivia. My name is Olivia.” She would have said more, but she was tired and hurt after all the fighting. She just wanted to rest—Olivia felt something push past her lips, and her eyes shot wide open. Davi held a small glass vial of reddish liquid and forced her to drink it. She sputtered and gasped, then shook her head away, jumping to her feet. “What the hell was that—wait? Am I standing?”

She didn’t feel tired anymore. Not only that, but her burns were gone, and the wound on her head she had gotten earlier had vanished as well. She felt brand new. Better than that. She was bursting with energy once again.

“Normally, it takes longer for a healing potion to kick in,” Davi said, a little surprised, before simply dropping the bottle into his shadow, which pulled it in. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah?” Olivia took a nervous step, half-expecting her body to explode or something, but it didn’t. “First, you give my village the salamander, and now you give me a potion? Why?”

Davi shrugged. “You asked me to save you.” It was a simple answer because there didn’t need to be any more reason for him. Davi glanced back at the dead creature. “The way you took it down was fast and clean. Your blood magic is pretty useful.”

Olivia felt her breath hitch at his statement. When was the last time anyone had said anything like that? Never. The answer was never. No one had ever complimented her magic. “You think so?”

“Yeah.” Davi’s flat tone lightened slightly. “I told you, I have no offensive spells. I couldn’t have done what you did. Every magic is useless in some situations. Just because you don’t have the right skills for some jobs doesn’t mean you yourself are useless and have to give up.” Davi reached out and poked her in the forehead. “Everyone has a use and a purpose. For some, that’s slaying dragons, and for others, it’s becoming future Arcane Knights. So don’t feel bad about the hand fate dealt you, okay? Make Fate shove her hands up her ass and prove to everyone just how powerful you are. Or don’t; I can’t actually tell you what to do.”

“Olivia!” A voice came from the cave's entrance, and a second later, the cavalry arrived, causing Olivia to tear herself away from Davi. Rosco, Ash, Nev, Trent, and Bruno all came running in, stepping through the portal. They stopped when they saw Davi and the many dead salamanders. Rosco looked relieved. “Mr. Hawker? You saved Olivia and killed the boss salamander?”

Davi shook his head, and his unmoving look had returned. “No. She killed it.”

Everyone snapped their heads to Olivia and stared at her in shock. She let out a sheepish giggle. “I realized their hide was strong, but the inside of their bodies was weak. Davi showed me that if I attacked it through the roof of its mouth, I could pierce its brain and take it out. He also wiped out the rest of the dead salamanders you see lying around. This time, Fri Village should actually be safe.”

“That’s good.” Rosco nodded and then smirked as he looked at the many corpses. “Fri is rich! This calls for a celebration!” The man announced with a goofy grin on his face. “We’re throwing a party as soon as we get back!” Rosco then addressed Davi, almost as an afterthought. “Seriously, are you sure you don’t want any Bells?”

Davi took his helmet off and held it at his side. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t come here for the salamanders, so I wouldn’t feel right taking the Bellsfor their deaths.” He said in his usual flat tone.

“What do you mean you didn’t come for the salamanders?” Rosco raised an eyebrow. “I sent a request out asking for an Arcane Knight, and you showed up and killed them. It was for the quest, right?”

“No.” Davi shook his head again, shocking everyone. “It was a total coincidence that I was here. I came to this place because I sensed the dungeon. I happen to be looking for a specific dungeon that has a monster I’m looking for in it. I never came because of the mission you sent out.”

Rosco hummed. “Still, you’re an Arcane Knight, and you did show up and save the day. I think you’ve earned it.”

Davi shook his head. “I don’t adventure for Bells; I do it because there’s something I have to do.” He stepped out of the cave, looking down at Fri. “It was nice seeing your village.” For the first time in a long time, the smallest hint of a smile graced his lips. “That’s payment enough for me.”

“Really?”

Davi nodded. “I’ll stay and help you guys carry it back, and we can finish the wall around your village. Once it’s up, you shouldn’t have to worry about any more attacks. Your people are now safe.”

Arcane Knights were heroes. They were powerful warriors who used both might and mana to go to places no man dared to walk and battle creatures that threatened the world. Truly they were the closest thing to real-life superheroes, and many people idolized them, Olivia included.

She found herself once again looking into Davi’s eyes as he turned to glance at her. She was pretty sure she had a new favorite Knight. A Knight who barely showed emotions and was dressed in dark and admittedly edgy armor. That was the hero who had saved Fri.

Chapter 10: Let’s Go On An Adventure

‘It’s very loud.’ Davi thought to himself.

Yelling echoed through Fri village as the people cheered. Despite how small the village truly was, they were able to make an impressive amount of noise for such a little community.

The village had been content and satisfied with just a single magical beast, which would already fetch a pretty amount, but now they had nine fully grown salamanders that they could also sell, one of which was an boss monster.

Fri had just gone from a poor village to a wealthy settlement overnight. Assuming they could sell the monster corpses, that was.

Davi had been the one to carry the corpses back to the village. It was easy for him, and he simply dragged the creatures across the narrow slope, down the mountain, and once he reached the gates of Fri, Rosco fired some sort of ice spell into the air that had gotten the attention of everyone else.

‘They all seem happy.’ That was why Davi found himself awkwardly standing in the center of the village with everyone crowded around him. Some people were setting up tables of food, while others were playing loud music, as a quick festival was being set up, but the majority of Fri were circled around him, all asking their own questions or snapping pictures of him.

This had happened the last time he killed the two salamanders, and it was now happening again, only much worse for him, since he killed way more of the monsters plaguing the land. The people of Fri just couldn’t get enough of him.

“Are you a real Arcane Knight?”

‘Sure.’ Davi didn’t actually say that out loud. He just thought it, keeping his blank and silent expression as more people asked him questions.

“Is your armor magical?”

‘Yes.’

“Will you marry my daughter?”

‘Maybe…’

“Do you think our village is finally safe?”

‘I don’t know.’

“Are you really leaving all these supplies with us?”

‘Sure.’

Davi’s helmet was off, allowing everyone to see his face, and his expression remained mostly unresponsive. He just stood there quietly listening to everyone, not actually answering any of the questions out loud and only giving a response in his head. A few kids swung off of his arms, which he held at his side, and Olivia and her friends looked slightly amused.

Everywhere he went, people stared. With or without his armor, eyes always seemed to be drawn to him. Most people stared at the jagged scar he got from a bad frostbite wound. Others would stare at his shadowy armor.

Many people always seemed scared of him. They’d never openly admit it, but he knew that it was true. He was judged to be something he was not because of the way he looked. People always judged. It was easy to label someone by just glancing at them.

He had grown used to it and stopped caring about what people thought. That’s why he was all the more surprised by how he was being treated now. The people of Fri didn’t seem to be afraid of him, and in fact, they couldn’t seem to get enough of him.

They weren’t afraid. Instead, people kept gratefully shaking his hand or clapping him on the back and offering him a drink. He had never been good with people and didn’t really like all the attention he was getting, but it was sort of nice not to be stared at in fear every now and then.

Davi fidgeted, and from the bottom of his helmet, which rested at his side, he pulled out his headphones, the wire of them going into his armor. He often listened to music when he fought and would use it to drown out the noise. As he slipped them on, he hit a dial on them, causing his loud, blaring rock music to come blasting out at full volume.

That seemed to do the trick, because the questions finally stopped.

“Alright, alright, leave the poor man alone.” Rosco barked out, and he cast another icy spell with a twirl of his wand, causing everyone to jump back. “No need to crowd around him. Give him some space.” The village leader placed his hands on his hips and grinned. “Fri has made it through these troubling times. It’s time we celebrate!”

More loud cheering exploded through the village, and the people finally began to disperse, setting up more tables. A few mages with fire magic began to cook up some meat, and those who didn’t know how to cook or lacked the magic to do so got to work helping the others set up cameras or loudspeakers. It was rushed and all quick, but as far as festivals went, it seemed nice, and the people looked to be enjoying themselves.

The setting sun bathed everything in a gorgeous orange light, and Davi and Rosco watched the many people have a good time. Young and old, everyone looked so happy.

“You don’t have to just stand off to the side, you know.” Rosco clapped Davi on the back and then winced when he felt how sturdy the Knight’s armor was. “We’re throwing this celebration because of you. Those salamanders were a pain in our asses for months, but now, thanks to you, they’re dead. Whenever we survive a natural disaster or come out on top against something big, our village likes to party, and this one is being held for you.”

‘I guess I can’t stand to the side listening to my own music.’ Davi kept his bitter remark to himself and removed his headphones. “I really didn’t do a lot.” He lazily nodded his head in the direction of Olivia, who seemed to be arguing with Ash about what type of food should be placed on a table. “That girl over there killed the boss one, which was the bigger one.”

Rosco chuckled. “You don’t show a lot of emotions, do you, lad?” Davi shrugged. “Well, that’s okay. You helped out more than you know. You took out all the other ones, saved Olivia and the rest of the kids, and made the villagers all happy. We’ve seen Arcane Knights in passing, but this is the first time one has done as much as you have for us.”

Davi didn’t respond. By now, most of the food was done, and the people of Fri began to eat. A few others, like farmer Jermy, were tying the salamander corpses to the back of a truck where they could be taken into the nearest city and sold.

Rosco clapped Davi on the back once more. “If you want to stand back here, that’s fine, but no one would mind if you joined in. I think some would even like it if you did.” The man then walked off, leaving Davi alone.

Even as a kid, understanding how other people thought and felt was always a struggle for him. He always thought that he was some sort of entity that had been built wrong. That whatever god came up with the concept of humans had left a gear or two out of his brain that made it impossible for him to understand something others could.

That error prevented him from celebrating with everyone else and left him standing in a section of the village, silently watching everyone else drink themselves silly.

‘I came to help them finish the wall, but no one is working. Should I just leave?’ Davi’s expression remained empty, and his eyes scanned the many happy people. ‘I’m wasting time just standing around here. What if that dragon gets away?’

“Hey…”

Davi turned when he heard the voice. Ever since he stepped foot into the village, people had been constantly approaching him and asking him annoying questions, but this one came from someone he recognized. It was the gray-haired boy he had beaten up.

Ash fidgeted a bit awkwardly. “Can we talk?” Behind him were his two friends, Nev and Trent, who were still injured after that salamander fight.

“Did you want to duel again?” Davi asked flatly. He kept his blank expression as he cracked his knuckles and turned up his rock music, which blasted out of the headphones even louder.

“No!” Ash looked horrified and shook his head. “If I knew you were an Arcane Knight, I never would have challenged you to a fight!” The boy face-palmed. “Listen, I just…” Ash trailed off and looked away, suddenly embarrassed.

“We wanted to thank you," Nev said. The ginger-haired boy managed a sad smile. “We would have died to the salamander. We also wanted to approach you earlier, but we didn’t have the courage. Not only did you help kill two magical beasts, but you even gave us the supplies to upgrade our village. So thank you.”

“Yeah!” Trent spoke up and gave a goofy grin. “You’re one cool dude!”

“Cool? I don’t like the cold.” Davi said in a detached tone. “Can I be something else?”

“What?” The three boys looked confused, but Bruno cut them off when he entered the conversation.

“It’s my turn to talk with the Knight, bros; go away!” Bruno announced. The dark-skinned boy turned and had a massive grin on his face. He was practically bursting with energy that Davi failed to match. “Sup!”

“Sup.”

“So you’re a real Arcane Knight?” Bruno began to look Davi over and reached out, feeling the shadowy armor. “Far out. Can you be my bro?”

“I already have a brother.”

“Got room for one more?” Davi shifted uncomfortably and remained silent. Bruno decided to change the topic. “How’d you get so strong?” Davi looked apathetic, causing the boy’s grin to fade slightly. It was kind of hard getting the Knight to emote or express himself, Bruno was starting to realize. “Okay, do you think I have what it takes to be an Arcane Knight? I’m wanting to become one this year, so what do you think my chances of getting in are?” Bruno asked, flexing.

“As long as you have Knight armor and can travel, I think you’ll be just fine as a Knight.” Davi shrugged once more.

“Is that all it takes?” Bruno asked, a little surprised by how easy it was.

“Sure.”

“Huh? What about the test?”

“What test?”

Bruno made a face and then shrugged, just like Davi kept doing. “Nah, never mind. I’d like to practice a bit more anyway. Thanks for talking with me, though. I really wish I got to see you in action, but just hearing Olivia talk about you and how you dealt with that first salamander gave me some ideas!” Bruno clapped Davi on the back before finally turning and leaving, taking Ash and the other two boys with him.

Davi rubbed the spot on his back where he had been slapped. He remained in place and decided to watch the village a bit more. He wasn’t an idiot; he knew why they were celebrating, but it was all so foreign to him, nonetheless. He wasn’t the type to take breaks. He couldn’t—not when the dragon was still out there. So long as it flew through the skies, he would keep marching until he eventually caught up to it.

Numbly, Davi rubbed his scar and turned away from the celebrating village.

“Leaving already?” Davi stopped when he heard the voice. He turned back around and found Olivia.

“Should I not?” He questioned.

Olivia made a face and let out an awkward laugh. “Well, you can if you want, but I kind of wanted to talk to you some more.” Her smile faded slightly. “If you don’t mind, that is.”

“I do mind.” Davi’s response came out blunt and unforgiving. “People keep bothering me for some reason.”

“Oh… Sorry?”

“It’s fine.” Davi folded his arms and nodded his head. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Did you mean what you said?” Olivia asked quietly.

“About what?”

“You said all magic is useful in some situations.” She repeated his earlier words. “Even my blood magic?”

“Well, you were able to kill the salamander.” Davi pointed out. “I don't think useless magic could have done that. I think it largely comes down to the person and the situation, and this goes for all things, not just magic. A master of the sea would struggle if you suddenly put them in the desert, just as badly as a fire mage might struggle in the rain. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, not just you. I doubt I could have killed the salamander the same way you did.”

“You got mad at me when I said my magic was useless and yours was better,” Olivia winced.

“It wasn’t because you said your magic was useless; it was because you used it as an excuse.” Davi hummed. “It’s okay to be weak. Everyone has a moment where they feel utterly powerless.” For a moment, the image of a massive, scaled beast came to his mind: one that had once towered over him when he was but a child. “Staying weak is the thing I have an issue with. All sorts of people can grow and try to reach their goal, but many won’t. They’ll sit there and refuse to put any effort in because they’re too scared of failing. It’s true you might not get where you wanted to be in life even if you do give it your best, but at least you tried. Maybe your blood magic is the weakest sort of magic. Maybe you really won’t ever become an Arcane Knight. Maybe you’ll die tomorrow of a random heart attack. You can live your life wondering about the maybes, or you can take action and try. People who hate something about themselves or hate where they stand are the same people who can grow but won’t. In order to take the next step forward, it requires giving your all. You have to use everything you have, even the disgusting parts that sicken you. That hatred that you feel for yourself or that aspect of yourself can be better put to use somewhere else.”

Olivia followed what he was trying to say, a little stunned. She didn’t know much about Davi, but she knew he was quiet and didn’t like to speak all that much, so it was a little shocking to get a speech from him. His tone hadn’t changed during it, and he sounded emotionless, but it was still nice.

“Thanks.” Olivia finally said.

Davi raised a hand in order to stop her. “I’ve already been thanked by a dozen other people today. I don’t need any more.” He might have sounded harsher than he intended because he saw Olivia flinch back. It was just so hard to talk like a normal person.

Olivia nodded her head and opened her mouth, about to say something. She closed it after a few moments and then glanced back at her village. She had made so many attempts to leave, and here she was about to make another one, yet in the moment, she was freezing up. She knew what she needed to say, but her mouth didn’t want to work.

Arcane Knights were heroes. They lived the good life and were the kinds of people everyone wanted to be, herself included, and here she was with perhaps the best chance to reach her goal, and she just couldn’t bring herself to open her mouth and say anything.

“Olivia?” Her head snapped back up, and she found Davi was still looking at her. His eyes stared into hers. “If you have something to say, then say it. It’s okay. Ask.” He sounded almost gentle now.

Olivia took a deep breath. She had almost died twice now in a single week. She had gotten into three different fights and used up nearly all her blood in all of them, and she had been saved by Davi Hawker each time. She made up her mind and decided it was time to go. Her adventure was going to start today.

“I want to be an Arcane Knight!” The music suddenly cut out, and Olivia realized she had blurted it out a little too loudly. All eyes had suddenly turned to her. Her face was a little red, and she shook her head and kept staring at Davi.

“Olivia?” Rosco seemed shocked by her outburst and stomped over. “What are you doing? Don’t bother the poor man like this.”

Olivia ignored Rosco and collected her thoughts. “I seriously almost died again, and this time, when I did, I realized I want to see what else is out there! I want to see more of the world and see other magical beasts! If possible, I’d like to explore a dungeon and learn more about magic! Oh, and I’d like to see more of those potions! I want to go on an actual adventure! I… I don’t think my blood magic is strong still.” She clenched her fist, and her look grew serious. “Despite that, I want to improve and see how far I can push myself. Not just because I want to see my dad again, but because I really do want to get stronger, for my own sake. I think I’d like to see what else is out there! All the things I haven’t gotten to read about. I’d love to see a dragon, too, and you said you were looking for one!” Hesitantly, she offered her hand to the boy she had come to call her savior.

Whether he took it or not, she had already decided she was going to take the exam, but she still desperately wanted to be accepted by a real Arcane Knight. He was the first person besides Bruno who claimed she wasn’t useless. It was also thanks to him that she had been able to slay the salamander in the first place.

Bruno let out a laugh, having walked over and slapped Olivia hard on the back. “You want to do it for yourself? I guess you’re ready then, bro.”

“Bruno!” Rosco shot his son a shocked look.

“Dad, come on. We knew this was going to happen. The moment Olivia turns eighteen, she’s going to march off and leave. At least this way, we can ensure she isn’t alone.”

“Isn’t alone? Are you planning on going with her?”

“Oh yeah, by the way, Dad, I want to be an Arcane Knight,” Bruno said sheepishly.

“What?”

“I’m going to be one as well,” Ash stated, nodding his head.

The entire village looked mostly stunned now. Kids were always claiming they wanted to be Knights when they grew up, but something about the situation was different now. The looks the teens had were steeled and more determined. Meeting a real Arcane Knight like Davi had only further motivated them all.

Rosco stared at them all as if they were crazy. “You three are insane. I know you talked about it, but I thought that was just kids being kids.” He shook his head. “I’m not going to allow it. That’s a dangerous life, and talent or not, I won’t let you all get hurt!”

Olivia didn’t look at the man who raised her; instead, she kept her gaze fixed on Davi, who was looking back at her. “I’m going to do it. I’m going to be a real Arcane Knight! So, do you think you could help me out one more time?”

Davi looked down at the hand. Davi grabbed his helmet and slipped it back on, hiding his face. His response was quiet and blunt, just as he always was. “Sure.” Faster than anyone could react, Davi casually grabbed Olivia and threw her over his shoulder. “Let’s go on an adventure.”

“Wait!” Rosco attempted to grab the Knight, but the boy literally jumped into the air, blasting up higher than any person should have been able to jump. He then kicked off the air and launched himself away as if he could fly. Olivia was still flung over his shoulder, and she laughed loudly, clutching onto the other boy. Rosco wondered when he had last seen her look so happy.

Davi was fast. So fast that Rosco knew, even on a horse, he wouldn’t be able to catch up. She had finally escaped, albeit by getting kidnapped by a Black Knight. It was just like one of the novels she was always reading. The entire village was left stunned. Many of the kids were cheering, but a majority of the adults looked conflicted or sad.

“Dad?” Bruno reached out and placed a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Do you think she’ll visit?”

Bruno snorted. “Of course. I’m sure Olivia will find a hundred more books to read and will learn all there is about the world and then tell you all about it. That’s just the kind of person she is. She’s special, after all. And very, very useful. I’ll visit as well.”

“I won’t.” Ash stalked away, followed by his friends. “I’m escaping this village.” He shot a look back toward Bruno. “The next time we meet, I’ll have done it. You'd better catch up as well. You don’t want to be the only one not to reach your goal.”

Bruno got a sudden smug look on his face, and he raised an eyebrow at Ash. “So you think Olivia really will become an Arcane Knight? That's sweet.”

“Shut up!” Ash cast a wind spell and lifted himself and his friends away, leaving father and son behind.

“I always knew this day would happen.” Rosco let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. “After all, her father is… Well, it doesn’t matter.” He took a glance at the table of half-eaten food. “Party's over.” It suddenly didn’t feel right to celebrate, and nobody else argued. “Help me clean all this food up, Bruno.”

“Right!” Bruno’s grin returned, and he pulled his wand out and made a giant hand made of ice that began to scoop everything up. “I’ll visit as well, you know.”

“Eh, I don’t care if you come back or not.” Rosco said after giving it some thought.

“Dad!”

“Make sure you take care of Olivia.” Rosco mumbled, and he numbly tapped his injured leg down onto the ground a few times. Even healing magic could only do so much, and he wondered, as he often did, how different his life might be if he did join the Knights. “Ash, too. That kid's a bit of a dumbass.”

Bruno smirked and helped his father clean up the rest of the mess. Rosco turned away, hiding the faint smile that was on his face. He didn’t know why, but he felt proud.

Rosco went to say something else but was stopped when he heard a loud horn suddenly toll through the village. That sound was reserved for something important happening and had been used when a building was on fire and when they returned with the salamander. If it was going off now, that meant something else was happening.

Rosco shared a look with his son, and the two of them quickly stopped what they were doing. By now, Davi and Olivia would likely be on a ship heading out, so it couldn’t be either of them. When the two of them turned around, Rosco was shocked to see a small commotion going on. Several of the villagers were surrounding a new person who had arrived at the village gate.

The figure looked like the kind you would read about in some sci-fi novel. It was a woman, one with blonde hair tied back and wearing silver power armor with a red flowing cape behind her. She was resting on the back of a majestic-looking white horse that was clearly bred to carry her heavy armor because it was at least twice as big as a normal steed. In one arm, the woman had a golden, lance-looking weapon that was as big as a person, and sparks of golden energy gushed out of the tip of it.

It was apparent what she was right away.

“An Arcane Knight?” Rosco asked in shock.

“Another one?” Bruno said, equally surprised. “Wait! She’s one of the people from the parade!” It was the same woman who had carried the corpse of that dead monster through Lotus City, the one and only Lance of Victory. To think he’d get to see her in person again so soon.

The woman’s eyes locked onto Rosco. “You’re the one who requested aid, are you not? I can see the strings of mana connected to you, so you must be the one who sent the quest out.” The woman spoke in a quiet tone that seemed to dance across the air. “You said your village was being attacked by some sort of magical beast that wielded fire?”

“Yeah? It was a bunch of salamanders.” Rosco said, a little confused. “Did the guild send two Arcane Knights out here?”

The woman shook her head. “No, just me. I’m a Knight from the Shining Sentinels guild. Normally, we wouldn’t arrive quite so quickly for a small job like this, but in truth, we had another reason for coming out here. See, we Knights deal with all sorts of arcane forces, and that includes evil mages. Recently, there’s been a criminal mage running around impersonating an Arcane Knight, and he was last spotted near your village.” The woman explained.

Rosco suddenly felt his face go pale. “Oh? And who is he?”

The woman’s look grew more serious. “He is a young man who wears armor the color of black. His name is Davi Hawker.”

Davi Hawker wasn’t an Arcane Knight.

Olivia had just set out on an adventure with a wanted criminal.

Chapter 11: Sea Sick

Magic has been around since the dawn of mankind. It was thought to have been passed down by the elves, who went extinct around one thousand years ago, during the ruling time of Haru.

It was thanks to Haru, the first Knight, and creator of the Arcane Knight guilds, that humanity was able to use magic, and with it they were able to rapidly develop, creating vast magitech that was powered by mana.

With lightning magic, they made electricity. With earth magic, they created sturdy towers that could pierce the heavens and raised mighty walls. With water magic, they were able to create clean sources and get rid of the pollution the elves had left behind. With fire magic, they became master smiths, combining it with electricity to create grand inventions. Finally, with wind magic, humanity took to the skies and surpassed their limits.

Perhaps it was because they reached the top of the food chain and lost the ability to grow that caused the world to throw dungeons at them. To this day, nobody knows how dungeons truly worked or where they came from or why. Humanity did what it did best, though, when faced with these threats.

They adapted.

In the Kingdom of Estiria, there are a total of eight guilds that all Arcane Knights are part of. Any time a city, town, or village is in need of help, they send a request out, and it will be transferred to one of the eight guilds, and then, in turn, one of the guild members will accept the quest and be sent out on a mission to complete it, earning fame and fortune in their wake.

In other words, Arcane Knights literally get paid to go on quests. They get to explore all sorts of places and are allowed to go anywhere they want, whenever they want, seeing things no other person would ever hope to be able to.

“So,” Davi spoke slowly, his face a few inches from Olivia’s. “What exactly is the game plan?”

Olivia shifted herself, ignoring the way she was pressed into the other mage. “That’s a good question. Also, watch where your hand is!”

“Sorry, but you gotta admit, this is kind of a tight place,” Davi said bluntly and tried to separate his limbs from Olivia’s, but he banged his head on the roof of the box they were in. “Ouch.” His tone held little emotion other than annoyance. “Why are we in this thing?”

The two of them, after leaving Fri village, found themselves in quite an awkward position. A small wooden crate, one made to hold various large fruits, was now tasked with holding both of them. Olivia eased herself onto the heels of her feet and pushed up against the roof of the box, raising it up a bit. Her head poked out, and she scanned around, seeing the deck of the ship they were on was still littered with a few dozen people who walked back and forth. She ducked back down, quietly closing the lid, and tried to make some space between her and Davi.

“We left in such a hurry that I didn’t get any of my supplies, and we had no choice but to stow away on the first ship that was leaving Lotus’s docks,” Olivia explained. “Also, you’re apparently broke. Seriously, what kind of Arcane Knight are you?”

Davi sat down cross-legged. “I tend not to take any sort of payment after I visit a place. I should be a little more greedy and start charging people, I guess.”

Olivia also sat cross-legged and pressed herself to the back of the box, rubbing her chin. “We sort of just jumped onto this boat without finding out where it was going and got lucky that it had an empty crate big enough for the both of us. That said, we really should figure out our next destination. Where were you going next, Mr. Davi?”

“Just Davi is fine; and I don’t know.” Davi made a face and tried to think back. “My brother and I got a bit separated, so I’ve been wandering around on my own.”

“You mentioned you were looking for a dragon?”

“That’s right,” Davi said. He didn’t have his armor on anymore and instead wore simple underclothes, looking like your everyday villager. “I follow rumors of where dungeons are and go after them, but I really haven’t had any good luck finding one that has the Dragon in it.” He rubbed his scar.

Olivia nodded her head. “That makes sense. There are all sorts of Arcane Knights. Some specialize in just doing dungeons, others in hunting mages; I guess you’re the type that deals with magical beasts, like dragons?”

“You could say that.” Davi shrugged. “I’ve only ever seen the Dragon once. That’s why I went on an adventure in the first place. I need to find it again.”

“Dragons were all wiped out long ago,” Olivia explained. “Despite that, though, people still claim that they see dragons every now and then. One hasn’t been recorded in over one hundred years, so who knows if any are still out there? Still, it would be an Arcane Knight like you if anyone could find them! Is your brother also an Arcane Knight?”

“I guess.”

“You guess?” Olivia made a face. Davi was certainly odd, and the way he spoke was always quiet and dull, making it hard for her to tell what he was actually thinking. Still, she had no reason not to trust him. He saved her after all, along with her entire village. “Then the first order of business is for me to take the Arcane Knight entrance exam.”

“There’s an entrance exam?”

“You didn’t know about that?” Olivia gave the boy an odd look. “Yeah, there’s a test held every year in the capital city. All sorts of people are allowed to take the test, and if you pass, you get put into a guild and become an official Arcane Knight. The Knight’s exam determines what guild you’re in. They look into your academic records and see all the things you did and use that, plus their own test, to determine the best path for you. If you don’t have good grades from the academy or never went to a magic school, you can still take the test, but it’s a lot harder. The only people who can become a Knight without taking the test are the daughters of the King or prodigies. For you to not know about the tests is odd. Does that mean you’re some sort of badass?”

“I’ve recently been working out; glad you noticed.” Like always, his voice barely changed, making it hard to tell if he was making a joke.

“So, I’m not just going on an adventure with an Arcane Knight, but a really powerful one!” Olivia felt stars in her eyes, and she giggled. “Awesome!” Her look cleared up, and she eyed her new companion. “You use shadow magic, right?”

“Yeah. Row Shadow Vault.” The box became even more cramped as Davi reached into the ground, his hand sinking beneath it as he pulled out his claymore, which awkwardly thumped against the roof of the box. The rest of it remained poking out of his shadow. “I can store things in my shadow. It’s a bit tricky to use my magic in combat, though. I can only cast spells through my shadow, and their range only goes as far as my shadow does, so I’m limited in the spells I can use. I only know two spells, my vault and my armor, so I tend to store things away in my shadow and let them do the job for me since I have no offensive spells that I can use. This sword is my favorite.”

Olivia ran her finger along the blade. It was nothing special. She had expected a Knight to wield an enchanted sword or something, but Davi’s weapon was plain and rusted, being more like a club than a sword due to how blunt it had become.

“Your magic is still cool, though. Seeing you in combat made me figure out some stuff regarding my magic. Instead of throwing out spells that would fade after they were used, I turned my blood into a weapon. Normally, my spells fade after they’re fired off, but by making a blade like a knife, I could make something that I could keep using in combat to save my blood for later spells. It seriously helped me out in the fight with the Salamander.” She grinned slightly and met the boy's eyes. “What academy did you train at?”

“I’m self-taught. Growing up, I had a different magic type from my dad and my brother Sieg. I’m sure Sieg would have helped, but… Anyway, I never went to a school.” Davi tossed his sword back into his shadow, and his vault shut off.

“Geez, you must be really good then, if they let you in without any sort of background.” Olivia mused. “Then again, you did slay several monsters all on your own. You’re pretty cool, mister. Since we’re traveling together, can I get your number?”

“My number?” Davi tilted his head to the side.

“Yeah, you know your phone number.” Olivia pulled her phone out of the pocket of her school uniform and flashed it to him. “You do have a phone, right?”

Davi seemed almost insulted by her remark. “Of course I do.” He once again opened his vault and pulled his phone out. “See?”

Olivia blinked. “What the hell is that thing?”

“It’s my phone.”

“That thing’s a phone?! Does it even have the grimoire app on it?"

Her own phone was a basic smartphone. It wasn’t anything fancy and was three models behind. It also lacked a case, being a plain black one, and the screen was badly cracked, but it was all she had. She was used to having the oldest phone in her village since hers used to belong to Bruno, but Davi’s was somehow even older. So old, she wondered if he could even check his stats.

Davi’s phone was awkwardly bulky and shaped like a brick. It had no screen, just the speakers and a number pad that ran along it. He had to manually tug on an antenna, pulling it out, and a horrible static sound buzzed from it.

“Where the hell did you even get something like that…”

“I found it in a dungeon.” Davi looked down at his brick and then at hers. “Yours looks different than mine.”

Olivia just sighed. Now that she thought about it, the headphones he had were hooked up to a cassette tape, which most people no longer used, and all of the guns and equipment he had were at least one hundred years old. Davi seemed like one of those guys who wasn’t with the times, and if he had a grimoire, it was likely a book since that's what grimoires used to be back before phones were created.

Before she could say anything else, there was a ding, and Olivia glanced down at her phone. “What is it?” Davi asked when he noticed her look.

“More messages from Rosco and Bruno.” She swiped the text away, not even bothering to read it. “I put them on mute since I know they’d just be begging me to come crawling back. I decided I wouldn’t read or accept any calls from them until I became a Knight. I guess they’re worried about me, though.” She let out a faint sigh before giggling slightly. “The way you just picked me up and ran off with me, they likely think you kidnapped me.”

“It just seemed like something I should do in the moment.” Davi handed his large phone over to her, letting her play with it and putting the number engraved onto it in her own phone.

“Well, here goes nothing.” Olivia handed the phone back, and she dialed the number in and then hit call.

The good news was that it worked. Davi’s phone accepted her call. The bad news was that it was loud. Very, very loud. A piercing ring blasted out of the block at max volume, and it bounced around the enclosed box they rested in, making Olivia let out a loud yelp. Davi didn’t react too much and dropped his phone back into his shadow, which hungrily swallowed it and caused the noise to end, but it was too late.

They had been caught.

The roof of the crate they were in was suddenly lifted off, and both Davi and Olivia looked up, sheepishly staring into the eyes of an irate crew member.

And that was how they found themselves in the middle of the boat with several crew members glaring down at them. Most of the crew wore very generic-looking sailor outfits, but the one who had found them was a boy around Davi’s age with curly brown hair. He didn’t look like the kind of person who belonged on a boat, wearing long white robes and clutching a wooden staff, which he used as a walking stick. One of his hands was on his hip, and the other gripped the staff, smacking Davi over the head a few times with it.

“Do you two have any idea how much trouble you’re in?” The boy huffed out. “This isn’t a ship made for transporting people. This is a cargo ship; we deliver goods, like food or medical aid, to villages in need! Why, in Haru’s name, would you ever try to stow away on this boat of all places?”

Davi shot Olivia an annoyed look. “Yeah, why did you pick this one?” He asked, all the while his head kept getting smacked by the other boy's staff.

“I didn’t know!” Olivia waved her hands. “We were just on the docks and needed a ship! I didn’t give it much thought.”

“Well, nice going.” Davi sighed.

The stranger kept his grip tight on his staff, and he suddenly pointed it at the two of them. “Row Flower Rope!” He spoke softly, and the tip of the staff glowed. Davi raised his arms, going on guard, but it was too late to react. Vines, covered in bright pink flowers, shot out of the tip of the staff and wrapped their way around him and Olivia, tying them both up in grassy rope.

“Hey! What gives?” Olivia tried to flex and break the rope, but despite being made out of vines, it wouldn’t snap.

“Don’t bother.” The other boy said in a flat tone. “My flower rope might be a low-level spell, but it’s been pumped full of my mana. Normal people can’t break out of it.”

“We aren’t normal people, though!” Olivia announced.

The boy’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Don’t tell me you’re trying to claim that you’re Knights.”

“Is that an issue?” Davi asked, also narrowing his eyes. “You’re a mage also, aren’t you? You some sort of Arcane Knight?”

The boy let out a low chuckle and shook his head. “Sorry to break it to you, but no. I’m not an Arcane Knight.”

“But you have magic?” Davi raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that all that matters?”

“No.”

“Oh. Hmm.” Davi made another face. “Then what are you?”

“I just work for this boat.” The boy said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I don’t have what it takes to be an Arcane Knight. Not everyone who has magic has the will or desire to be an Arcane Knight; in fact, most people won’t even try to become Knights. I’m not some rich, noble kid who can pick up my entire life and go wherever I want. That’s why I found a living on this boat. I work more or less as its protector. It can be expensive to hire an Arcane Knight; they are the best of the best, after all, so a lot of times, places will instead cheap out and hire a combat mage full-time, and that’s where I come in.”

Davi yawned, already bored. “You did tie us up, so aren’t we like your prisoners now?” He asked casually. “Got any cool torture or something planned for us?”

“Why are you asking to get tortured?” Olivia yelled and did her best to kick her new traveling companion.

“I don’t know; I’ve never been tortured before. You should try everything at least once, right?” Davi asked in a way that made it impossible to tell if he was joking or not.

“No!” Olivia looked back at the flower mage with wide eyes. “Please don’t torture us!”

The other boy let out a sheepish laugh. “No one’s getting tortured.” His eyes turned to follow the other crew members, who were going about their duties, checking on various boxes and making sure everything was tied down.

“What are you going to do with us then?” Olivia questioned.

“That’ll be up for the captain to decide.” The boy said. “Most likely, we’ll keep you here and then hand you over to the port office once we arrive at the next dock. It’s about two or three days away.”

“That long?” She asked, stunned.

“Did you two seriously just hop on board without knowing anything about our ship or where we’re going?”

Olivia and Davi shared an awkward look. “Well, I saw that it had some empty boxes.” Olivia trailed off.

The boat in question wasn’t huge, having only a few rooms on board, and most of it was loaded with dozens of heavy-looking cargo. It was an old-fashioned vessel, still using steam, and most of its weapons were gone in order to make room for more cargo.

“What’s your name anyway?” Davi decided to just go with the flow and crossed his legs, no longer fighting the restraints that were around him.

“Me? Oh, I’m Olis.”

“Olis? What a weird name.”

“Your name is Davi; that’s pretty weird,” Olivia said flatly.

“Fuck you.” Davi nodded. “Well, Olis. Why don’t you go ahead and undo this spell and let me and Olivia go?”

It was Olis’s turn to make a face, the boy raising an eyebrow. “And I’d do that because?”

“Because.”

“Because?”

“Because you can either have me as an ally or an enemy,” Davi said, and for once his tone sounded almost stern. “You don’t want me as an enemy.”

“It’s true!” Olivia nodded her head rapidly. “He has magic like you! He’s got this cool claymore, and he’s an actual Arcane Knight from one of the guilds!”

Olis’s eyes narrowed, and he suddenly fixed his gaze on Davi. “You’re an Arcane Knight? I find that kind of hard to believe.”

“How come?” Davi’s blank look was back. “I got magic, and I’m always going on an adventure and fighting magical beasts. That’s what an Arcane Knight is, right?” His argument might have made more sense if not for the fact he decided to get up and dangle half his body over the side of the boat, only using his legs to hang onto the railing, for reasons neither Olivia nor Olis could figure out.

“Of course not!” Olis said sternly. “I’m not buying your story at all. I can tell you're a mage. All mages leak a bit of mana, and yours is… Well, I have a hard time believing someone like you could be a Knight. If you are an Arcane Knight, then you should have a symbol of your guild,” Olis said sternly. “There are eight guilds in total in the Estiria kingdom, and all Arcane Knights are required to be part of them. What pocket do you keep your symbol in? I’ll search you, and if I find it, I’ll take your claim seriously.” Olis stared down at Davi, who remained silent.

Olivia looked to the ‘Knight’. “Davi? Go on. Tell him where your symbol is at.”

“He doesn’t have one.” Olis stepped back and pointed his staff at Davi. “He might have told you he was one, but he’s lying. He isn’t an Arcane Knight. I bet he’s a Magical Mutant.”

Olivia gasped at the final part of Olis’s insult. Calling someone a Magical Mutant was a big deal. Magical Mutants were mages who lost part of their humanity and transformed into something inhuman after being exposed to dark magic. They were everything a Knight wasn’t. “He is not!” She yelled out. Davi didn’t seem to mind the insult; then again, he barely seemed to react to anything, so she was livid on his behalf. “I saw him in action! Davi is an Arcane Knight! He’s not a Magical Mutant! He’s a Knight!”

Olis sneered. “I’m done talking.” The boy lifted his staff and pointed it down at Davi. “I’m going to shut you up!”

“Too late.” Davi sighed. “It’s here.”

Before Olis could cast his spell, something happened. The entire boat shook as if it had hit something, but all around them was open sea. Suddenly, there was a shift. One moment it was the blue of the ocean, and then in the next, they saw green. The sky above had changed into a nasty green color, as did the water, which now bubbled and popped. The air also switched, having a bitter taste to it, and Olis felt his mana surge up and go out of control as a force grappled with his energy.

All of the sailors let out yells, and everyone stared out at the now green sea the boat was sailing through. Davi remained over the side of the railing, his legs holding him up as he peered down, and he frowned softly.

“What’s going on?” Olivia asked, her voice cracking.

“What does it look like?” Davi looked into the green water. “A dungeon. This boat just sailed directly into an open dungeon. Brace yourselves.”

Something came down from above. It was water. A large wave of it smashed down onto Olis’s head, causing him to yelp. Olivia let out a yell of her own as she was also splashed, and she glared at Davi, who was somehow missed entirely, since he was hanging off the edge at just the right spot to miss the water. She didn’t have a chance to say anything to him about it, though, as something caught her eye.

Several things, actually. They came out of the water, rising up and taking flight. There were so many of them that as they all emerged, it caused more and more splashes, sending water raining down and causing the crew to panic.

In no time at all, the boat was surrounded by dozens of magical beasts, which all leapt out of the water.

Chapter 12: Courage

Magical beasts could come in all sorts of different forms or shapes, just like how a dungeon could look like or appear anywhere in the world. Since most mages never bothered to learn offensive magic and would instead use their abilities to seek a different career choice, ships would often hire strong mages to defend them, since it wasn't unheard of for a dungeon to randomly appear somewhere out in the ocean.

By luck, this dungeon resembled a large body of water, and the type of magical beasts that filled it were of an aquatic variety.

A vast amount of water came pouring down, and soon the entire boat was drenched, as more and more beasts flew out of the ocean and began to soar alongside them.

“What sort of fish is that?” One of the sailors asked, stunned.

Olis let out a loud squeak and stumbled back a bit, holding his staff out in front of him to protect himself as more magical beasts emerged from the ocean. The things looked sort of like common trout, but they were only about a foot bigger and a little thicker. Most notable about them, though, were the strange, feathery wings that stabbed out of their sides, allowing the fish to take to the sky and fly.

“Sky Fish,” Olivia called out. “I’ve read about them. They’re pretty much harmless.” One flew by Davi, who opened his mouth and snatched it up, biting down on it, as he used his legs to pull himself back over the railing, standing on the boat. The fish flopped around in his mouth, but he bit down harder, pretending he was a bird that had caught its prey in its beak. “Hey! Don’t eat it raw! Spit that out!” Olivia said with wide eyes.

Davi spat the fish out and made a face. “Nasty.” He kept spitting. “Gross.”

“What’d you expect?” She was starting to think Davi might be weird. “Why’d you eat it?”

“I was curious.” Olivia just made a face and sighed. Out of all the Arcane Knights, she just had to get stuck with the weird one. “What?” Davi asked, noticing her look.

“Nothing.”

“Looks like we were worried about nothing.” One of the sailors grumbled. “Can’t believe a couple of small fries actually scared you.” The man clapped Olis on the back, causing the mage to stumble forward a bit. “Come on, you're our guard; shouldn’t you be more useful?” The sailor chuckled. “Then again, I guess there isn’t much your magic can do, can it, Olis?”

Olis let out a weak chuckle himself and nodded his head. “Yeah. I guess. Sorry.”

“What are we paying you for? We’re counting on you to keep us safe.” Another sailor grunted out.

Olis glared down, not meeting any of the men’s eyes, and they soon left him once the excitement of the Sky Fish died down. “Alright.” A different sailor called out. “Looks like we got lucky, and we’re in a weak dungeon. If we keep sailing forward, we’ll hit the barrier and be able to slide right out once we leave the boundary.” The man stated, and he pointed out across the green sea. “We want to get out of here as soon as possible, so focus on our escape. The sooner we’re out, the better.”

The people all cheered, save for Olis, who remained where he was, clutching his staff. The boy looked conflicted, but before he could say anything, he was startled by Davi, who suddenly stood next to him. “You look really bummed,” the raven-haired man noted. “So what gives? You feeling down or something?” His uncaring voice wasn’t very comforting.

Olis let out a weak chuckle. “To be honest, the only reason they even hired me is because the captain is friends with my dad.” The boy explained. It seems he forgot that just moments ago, he was about to blast Davi with a spell. “I’m not actually that qualified to be a protector. I only took a few lessons in combat toward the end of the year and realized I wasn’t cut out for it.”

“Not cut out for it?”

“You saw my magic, right?” Olis’s knuckle turned white from how hard he gripped his staff. “Try to picture taking down a giant monster with some lame-ass flowers.”

Davi glanced down at himself. His arms were still bound by the twisting vines. “It took me out pretty handily.”

“Yeah, because you’re a person. Taking a monster down is another matter.” Olis said bitterly. “My magic is useless. I was cursed with such a pathetic kind of magic, and it’s totally lame.”

Olivia gave the boy a sympathetic look. She understood why he was mad. Mages didn’t get to pick their magic type out, and they didn’t get to decide on the spells they could and couldn’t learn either. It was one of the reasons so many people didn’t actually use magic for combat, since it came down to pure luck or not on if a person's magic could be usable in battle.

A person could be born with a strong magic type like fire magic but be unable to learn to use any offensive or defensive spells simply because of the way they were born. On the opposite end, a mage could have loads of offensive and defensive spells and be able to make a wide variety of constructs but be stuck with a useless type of magic like blood magic or something akin to that. The amount of mana a person had and how many spells they could cast in one sitting were also determined by luck.

Some people were born lucky, and others were useless.

Unlike her, not everyone struggled against the system. Some were fine with the hand they were dealt, like Olis, who didn’t even try to become a Knight or do anything grand and was just letting life coast him where it needed him to go.

“Olis!” A voice called out, and the mage turned as someone new approached. It was a large, portly-looking man who had on what looked like a captain's uniform. He had a hefty beard and stern eyes, which roamed over the two captured stowaways. “Is this them?”

“Yes, Captain.” Olis saluted and nodded his head. “What would you like me to do with them?”

The captain studied Davi and Olivia, looking them both over. “Why are you two here?”

“We were trying to get a free ride to the next city,” Olivia admitted, a little ashamed. “We don’t have any Bells.”

“You picked the wrong boat.”

“Yeah.” Her shame grew, and her face turned a little red. “I know. Talk about bad luck, huh? We’re stuck with you guys in a dungeon now.”

“Who cares about that?” Davi’s eyes lit up, and he stood, walking toward the captain. “You’re going to let us go, right?”

The captain narrowed his eyes. “After we arrive at the city. You’ll be staying in the hull until then, though. I don’t want you two putting my crew in any danger. We should be arriving at the city in three days, so you’ll have to remain tied up until then. Got that? Times are tough, so I’m willing to overlook this crime as long as the two of you behave.”

Davi nodded. “That’s fine with me, but you are going to need someone to deal with that magical beast, you know.”

Olis raised an eyebrow, as did the captain. “You mean the Sky Fish?” The captain eyed the creatures that were still flying alongside their ship. “I think we can manage. I’ve seen this kind of dungeon before. They might look big since they’re an entire ocean, but the barrier connecting them and the real world is small. If we keep going straight, we’ll escape this place and leave the monsters behind.”

“It isn’t these monsters I’m concerned with,” Davi said, and he winced slightly as his scar began to burn.

Olivia’s eyes suddenly flickered with recognition. “There’s something else coming! Predators often hunt Sky Fish, so they avoid most things, yet these ones are flying alongside us! That means there’s something that they deem as an even bigger threat!”

“What!”

As if on cue, another wave of water came roaring down. Davi didn’t bother dodging it this time and stared up at the emerging beast. This creature was much larger than the Sky Fish. It wasn’t quite as big as the boat, but it was large nonetheless and covered in what looked like thick steel armor. Its shape was whale-like, but a massive horn stabbed out the front of it, which pierced through several of the fleeing Sky Fish.

“An Armored Whale!” Olivia yelled out.

Everyone on the boat, besides Davi, let out a loud yell as the magical beast rammed part of its body into the ship. A large section of their boat was instantly torn out, and the entire ship began to tip a bit. Several of the sailors lost their footing and screamed as they fell into the water, including the captain. By some miracle, Olis managed to grab onto the railing while Davi used his teeth to bite into the vines wrapped around Olivia and held her up, stopping her from falling. His own legs remained steady, ignoring the way the boat began to tip over.

Davi flexed, and suddenly, the vines around him snapped and shattered. He hooked an arm around Olivia’s waist and stopped biting down. “Damn, I didn’t expect it to take out the ship instantly.” He said, still sounding bored. “My bad, sorry everyone.”

“You could have broken out at any time!” Olivia yelled with wide eyes.

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t want to make him think his spell was weak.” Davi’s response didn’t help her anger. His finger tore through the vines around her, freeing her. “Less talking, more fighting. You’re smart, right? How do I beat this guy?”

Olivia nodded her head. “I’ll get the crew; you take that creature down. Aim for its eye! One good swing should do it!”

“Got it. Row Shadow Vault.” Davi ripped his claymore out of his shadow and charged forward, leaping off the boat. The Armored Whale let out a roar and twisted its body, aiming to impale the man with its horn. “Row Shadow Armor.” Davi’s entire body was suddenly covered in pitch-black liquid, which flowed and took shape before it formed into his black armor. His chest plate smashed into the whale’s horn, his armor holding out, allowing him to grab onto the horn and twist himself off it, landing on the monster’s back.

On the boat, Olis felt his face pale as he watched Davi. “A Knight in ebony armor?” Olis wasn’t met with a sense of awe or wonder, as most people would be when they saw an Arcane Knight. If it had been any other Knight, he would have been, but seeing Davi Hawker only made his stomach flop harder.

Davi’s feet smashed into the scales of the whale as he landed. Armored Whales were insanely durable and very tough, since they were strong enough to swim and survive at crushing depths with iron armor coating their flesh. A normal sword wouldn’t do anything, so he wasn’t shocked when his dull blade bounced off the metal hide. He didn’t stop, though, and kept ramming his sword down, grinding it across the whale’s back as he approached its eyes, kicking up a wave of sparks.

Right as he reached the top of its head, the whale spun its body and then dove underwater, dragging Davi with it.

Back up top, Olivia ran to the side of the boat, which was starting to sink, and she bit down on her hand, opening the skin up. “Row Blood Rope!” She pulled her wand out and twirled it; a red thread formed and launched down toward one of the crewmates. “Grab on!” She used both her hands and did her best to tug the person up, who also attempted to climb up. Once the person made it to the top, she wrapped her arms around them and pulled them all the way up, but by then, the splashing of the water had ruined her blood rope and dissolved it, so she’d have to make another one. “Seriously? Come on!” Olivia shook her head and turned to Olis, who was cowering away from the edge. “Olis! I need your help!” Olis remained where he was standing and watched where Davi had been dragged down. “Olis!”

That managed to kick the boy back into gear, and his body shook as he glanced back at her. “What can I do?” The boy asked in fear.

“Just do what I did! Make rope and grab as many people as you can!”

“I can’t do that, though. My magic is useless—”

Olivia growled and reached out, grabbing the boy by the front of his shirt. “You want to hear useless? I can only cast three spells. If I cast more than that, I literally die. I have next to zero mana because it’s basically impossible for me to cast spells properly. I lived most of my life being mocked, belittled, and told that I couldn’t do anything because of my magic. I would have been blessed to be born with magic like yours, but I don’t have it.” Olis’s eyes were wide, and he shook, and Olivia’s face softened. “All magic can be useless depending on the situation that you’re in.” Her mind went to Ash and the way he had struggled to battle the Salamander despite having strong wind magic. “In the end, though, your magic is only truly useless if you yourself are. I know it's scary. I know those people haven’t been the nicest to you, and it’d be easy to let them die and say that you couldn’t do anything, but that won’t be true, will it? Because you can do something! So do it, Olis!”

Olis nodded as she let go of him, and he stepped forward, still shaking. “I’ve never had a strong desire for anything, if I’m being honest. I used to have dreams and goals, but that all went out the window when I unlocked my magic. I was always picked on for being able to create flowers, and I guess part of me just accepted the words that were thrown at me.” The boy gave a sad look before his grip on his staff grew tighter. “Even so! I don’t want any of these people to die! Row Flower Vine!” From the tip of his staff, a long green vine fired out and pierced the top of the water. Unlike Olivia’s, it didn’t instantly dissolve, and several of the crew members clung to it.

“Good work! Just like that!” Olivia cheered, and she and the other crew members began to pull the others up while Olis created more vines. It didn’t take them very long to get everyone out of the water, but they weren’t out of the clear yet. Their ship was still missing an entire chunk, and the Armored Whale was still nearby.

Beneath the ocean, Davi’s fingers dug into the armored beast, and he began climbing up it. The monster kept trying to spin its body, creating a whirlpool, but Davi didn’t let up and soon made it to the eye. He clung to the eyelid with one hand and lifted his sword up with the other. It was awkward to swing his weapon out, the water trying to fight him, but he fought past it and jammed the sharp part of his weapon into the beast’s eye, causing the whale to screech. The sound rumbled beneath the waters, and Davi felt a ripple go through his armor, but he stood his ground.

More blue flared out of the gaps in Davi’s armor, and he dug his sword in deeper, gripping it with both hands. He then placed his feet down on the whale’s face and pulled up as hard as he could, tearing his sword out, along with the eye, which was skewered onto it. This finally caused him to be flung off the whale.

Davi’s head burst through the top of the water, and he took several gasping breaths, throwing his helmet off of him. “Row Shadow Vault.” He brought something else out of his vault and shoved the sword with the eye on it back in before ducking back down and letting his heavy armor weigh him down.

The magical beast circled from beneath him, a stream of red coming out of its face, and it let out another deep cry that echoed through the water. It positioned itself and blasted up through the green sea, ramming the tip of its horn into Davi.

Davi let out a loud hiss of pain as the tip of the horn began to dig into his shoulder and punctured part of his armor, but he didn’t fight it and instead wrapped his arms around the whale, attaching the thing he pulled out of his vault to the horn and clicking it in place.

The Armored Whale was strong, but it wasn’t the boss of the dungeon. The boss was most likely deep beneath the waves and was a creature Davi didn’t want to deal with, so he decided to end this fight quickly.

He ripped himself off of the horn once he was done setting everything up, and he kicked off from it, sending himself flying to the side in the water. The whale made a strange growling sound at him and began to sink, trying to twist toward him. That was when it noticed something was still on its horn.

Wrapped tightly around the pointed end was a long chain, each section covered in a vast number of grenades.

The blast that followed rippled through the waters, pushing Davi further back and sending him spinning through the water. The horn of the whale shattered off, and more red streamed out of it. The creature's good eye was wide and filled with shock, and its hide was blistered and burned as the water boiled around it and the shockwaves pierced past its armor. Despite the attack, though, it was still alive.

The whale glanced at Davi, who was also fine. He had layered the inside of his body with intense mana, allowing him to withstand the wave of force that had smashed into him, and his armor absorbed the remaining kinetic energy and sucked it into the shadows. The whale let out a pained cry and then began to sink deeper into the ocean, swimming away. It was running away.

Davi watched it go before finally emerging from beneath the water. Breathing heavily and catching his breath, Davi swam toward the boat and grabbed onto the vines that were hanging off. “It ran.” He breathed out, gasping in air. His armor vanished and faded off of him, making him light enough to be pulled up.

Olivia helped him up and nodded. “I knew it would. It’s an animal at the end of the day, and magical or not, it will still have the instincts of an animal. When faced with prey that can fight back, it would have to consider if it would be worth the effort, so once you seriously harmed it and stole an eye from it, it would give up and flee.”

“Where’d you learn that?”

“I got bored and watched this nature documentary that went into a lot of theories on magical beasts.”

“If you two are done, our boat is still sinking!” The captain yelled out. “We don’t have enough lifeboats for all of us, not after that creature tore through several of them! Do something! You’re an Arcane Knight, right?” The captain asked, staring at Davi.

Davi lazily hummed. “My magic isn’t useful for a situation like this.”

“What! Then what do we do?”

“I dunno, drown?” Davi offered unhelpfully.

“Guess we’re still going to all die at sea after all.” One of the crew members chuckled. The man’s face then grew serious. “Olis.”

“Yeah?” Olis squeaked out and turned to look at the sailor.

The sailor’s face softened a bit, and he let out a sigh. “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, okay?” The man said a little sheepishly. “I heard what you said earlier. I was one of those people that was rude to you, wasn’t I?” He wasn’t the only one who had a guilty look on his face. Most of the crew shifted and looked away awkwardly. “Growing up in our village, part of me was always jealous of the fact that you had magic that could cast a ton of different spells, whereas I only knew how to light candles. I’m sorry for always picking on you.”

“Seriously?” Olis snorted. “You’re telling me this all now?” Olis facepalmed. “In Haru’s name, the only one who should be ashamed is me. I didn’t save this boat like I promised I would.”

The sailor chuckled and went to say something else, but his face suddenly turned pale. He dropped to his knees and vomited, a wave of red coming out of him. He wasn’t the only one, either. Dozens of crew members began to do it as well.

“What’s happening?” Olivia asked in horror.

“T-the dungeon.” The captain groaned, grabbed at his stomach, and winced. He hadn’t started vomiting yet, nor had Olis, but something was having an effect on him. “We’ve stayed in the dungeon for too long. If we don’t escape soon, we’re going to get infected and start to change. We’re going to become Magical Mutants soon.”

Olivia’s face paled, and she gasped. Dungeons had their own source of mana within them that was different from the mana of the real world. Mages used mana to cast spells, and it served as an invisible force of energy that resided within their body. A dungeon's mana was deadly and toxic. Being in a dungeon would cause it to corrode and eat away at a mage's mana, weakening the mage. The more mana a mage had, the longer they could resist the effect.

If a mage was in a dungeon for long enough and started to run out of mana, then they’d be hit with an effect that was similar to radiation. It’d start to eat away at not just their magic but their bodies as well. If they were lucky, they’d die. If they weren’t lucky…

Well, they’d become a Mutant.

A mage could tell how long they could survive in a dungeon by looking at the grimoire app. The resistance stat determined how well their body could fight off the effect. She had a shockingly good resistance since hers was listed as A, though everyone else wouldn't be able to look at their stats since they were in the middle of the dungeon, and phones didn't work.

“What do we do?” The captain gasped. “We’re close to the exit? Should we just swim for it?”

“No.” Olis shook his head, his fear returning. “The monsters could come back. Even if they don’t and we do all make it to the exit, we’d appear out in the middle of the ocean with no boat and still all drown.” He looked at Davi with a pleading look. “There has to be something you can do.”

“I don’t have an entire boat in my dungeon or a plane either.” Davi sighed. “I do have some cars, but they’d sink like rocks.” Then, suddenly, he got an idea. “Just because my magic isn’t useful for this situation doesn’t mean there isn’t one person here who can help.”

Everyone turned to look at Olivia. “Not me.” She snorted. She reached out and gripped her hands tightly onto Olis’s. “Olis, this is your chance. We need your help.”

“Me?” The boy asked in shock.

“Davi and I don’t have the right magic for this.” Olivia shook her head and stared into his eyes. “You’re wrong when you say your magic is useless. You can do this. You can save everyone here. Use your magic again, Olis.”

Olis turned and looked at the rest of the crew, and one by one, they nodded. His eyes landed on the captain, and Olis gave a nod of his own. He stepped forward and closed his eyes, lifting his staff up. His skin glowed a bit, and he focused his mana.

All mages had a type of magic that would determine what spells they could develop. Spells had to be spoken and were broken into three segments. The level, the type, and the intent. At that moment, Olis put all of his intent into helping in the best way he could.

“Row Flower Flow!” Olis slammed his staff down, and the ship's wooden deck twisted and changed, replaced with a vast swarm of green grass. In the center of the boat, an entire tree began to grow and sprout, various flowers growing across it, and vines snaked out, along with twisting roots, which started to plug up the hole in the boat, evening it out until the ship no longer had a hole in it. The vessel was now no longer on the verge of sinking. Olis had saved it.

The boy collapsed to his knees and breathed heavily, gasping in several gulps of air. It had taken most of his mana, but he did it.

The crew cheered, and several of the men lifted Olis up, throwing him into the air repeatedly, even though their bodies were still being damaged. Olivia watched with a grin of her own, and Davi folded his arms and nodded his head, the closest thing he had to showing real emotions. “Well, what do you think?” He asked her. Now that the ship wasn’t sinking, it surged forward, getting closer to the exit.

Olivia looked back at her new traveling companion and smiled. “Yeah. Being on an adventure is the best.” Her smile then faded when she heard a rumble. From the ocean, the Armored Whale was back, and it wasn’t alone. A second one was with it, and they were coming at the ship. Olivia brought her hand up, about to cast a spell of her own, but was stopped when Davi put his arm out in front of her.

Davi shook his head. “No. Leave it to him.”

The rest of the crew noticed the whales, but instead of fear, they were cheering Olis on this time. The boy gripped his staff, mustering up the last of his mana, and he swung it out as hard as he could. “Row Flower Rope!”

Right as the whales were about to reach the ship and ram into it, Olis’s flowers sprang out and twirled through the air, wrapping around both of the whales and tying them to one another. The creatures awkwardly rammed into one another and then began to sink, unable to swim fully. As they disappeared beneath the waters, the crew’s cheering grew louder, and Olis collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily but with a smile of his own.

“I think I’m totally out of mana.” Olis chuckled and fully collapsed onto his back.

At last, he had defended his ship.

The boat jutted forward, and the air rippled. The green sea was gone, replaced with a gentle blue, and the cry of the whales vanished in an instant as they reappeared back in the real world, still on the open sea.

Several of the men all took gasping breaths, their bodies recovering. Luckily, they had left quickly enough to not have any lasting effects, and the damage a dungeon would cause would always fade away as long as the person didn’t die or become a Mutant from it.

Olivia watched and then turned to look back at Davi. “Earlier, you could have killed the whale and been done with it, right? Did you let it go on purpose, and did you know that there was a second one?”

Davi didn’t say anything for a few moments. He turned away from her and looked out at sea. “Catch a man a fish, and he’ll have dinner for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he’ll be able to provide for himself. It isn’t always about just helping people, you know. Sometimes, you have to teach someone how to help themselves.”

Olivia snorted and then gave him a suspicious look. “Did you always know there were more salamanders? The way you conveniently showed up just in the nick of time to save me…” Davi let out an innocent whistle, and Olivia let out another chuckle.

“My dad taught me to do this.” Davi’s mood seemed to shift. His blank look was still present, but something about his eyes was off. Sorrow, maybe? The light in them faded slightly. “My dad helped teach me that saving someone is the easy part. But leaving them better off than they started? Now, that’s really hard.”

“What do you mean?” Olivia questioned.

“I mean, like how I gave your village the supplies to build its wall.” Davi stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared out at the vast sea. He wondered, like he often did, what it would be like to soar above it totally free. Just like how birds did all the time, and just as how he pictured the Dragon did. “I don’t like helping people. Helping people over and over again can lead to them relying on you. They forget how to save themselves or become too dependent on you, despite the fact that you won’t always be there. That’s why, whenever I can, I like to make sure a place is better off than when I found it. I don’t want to have to keep coming to Fri and killing monsters, so I gave the village the supplies it would need so it can help itself and prevent future attacks. We won’t always be here to help this crew, so I made sure Olis could do it on his own.”

Olivia’s eyes shone a bit, and she eagerly nodded her head. “That’s so nice. You’re a good person, Davi.”

“Nah. I’m just lazy.” Davi said in an unambitious tone. “Less work this way.”

Olivia’s smile vanished. She wanted to argue, but didn’t really know what else to say. She stood next to Davi and looked out at the vast sea with him. “Thanks.” She finally said.

“For what?” Davi asked, a little confused.

“For taking me on this adventure.”

Chapter 13: Shame

Why did people like the Arcane Knights? This was a question people who have never met an Arcane Knight might ask.

To some, those who have never laid eyes on the Knights would wonder why they existed. After all, knights and the concept of them were old. The modern world uses war in vastly different ways than the knights of the past, and things like armored warriors riding in on horses were nothing compared to hyper-fast magitech jets. Knights were created in the time of Haru because back then being a knight was the closest thing many had to standing alongside Haru.

Now that she was gone, though, nearly a thousand years later, when magitech reigned supreme and humans lived behind city walls, was there really a reason for Knights to still exist?

Those who did see the Knights would all say one thing. Their faith and hope for a better world would be rekindled.

In a world where nature could change on a dime, portals through space and time could randomly open, and ancient, powerful beasts could awaken at any moment, the Arcane Knights were the only thing there that could stop the threats that plagued humanity.

On a little boat out in the middle of the Estiria Sea, the crew known as the Oak-Sailors had just met who they thought was an Arcane Knight.

“Can you show us your armor again?” One of the sailors asked Davi.

“Well,” Davi rubbed the back of his neck, clearly not used to all the attention he was getting. ‘I could, but I don’t want to, so no.’ At least, that was what he thought, but he didn’t actually say it out loud. Instead, he just remained there, silent as dozens of questions were thrown his way.

“You jumped right at that whale and managed to send it packing in one strike!” Another sailor exclaimed.

‘Actually, I hit it a bunch. Get your facts straight, dummy.’

“Is that a burn mark on your face? It looks so cool.”

‘It’s a frostbite wound, and I hate it; don’t bring it up anymore; it makes me mad.’

“What guild are you in?”

‘Whichever one is the coolest.’

“Will you marry my daughter?”

‘...Maybe.’

“What kind of magic do you have?”

‘The cool kind.’

“How long have you been an Arcane Knight for?”

‘Fuck you, that’s how long.’

“I tried looking you up online, but your name won’t pop up, and I keep getting blocked. Are you a Kingdom secret or something?”

‘Fuck you, as well.’

“Are you planning on traveling with us for a while?”

‘No, I hate it here.’ Davi sighed slightly and folded his arms, looking somewhat annoyed as more questions were rattled off, and he refused to answer any of them out loud. Even putting his headphones on and blasting his music at full blast didn’t cause the men to back down. All it did was make them yell their questions at him louder in order to drown out his rock music.

The battle with the whale had finally come to an end, and both whales were likely sinking to the bottom of the dungeon, trapped by Olis’s spell. The boat hadn’t sunk either since they escaped, so Olis’s magic worked. Now that the danger finally seemed like it was going to be over, the entire crew had suddenly latched onto Davi, asking him all sorts of questions.

“Why’s he even getting any attention?” Olis frowned slightly. He, as well as Olivia and the ship’s captain, were the only three people who hadn’t crowded around Davi. “I get he stopped the whale the first time, but it came back. He didn’t really do much.”

“Are you a bit jealous?” Olivia asked, grinning slightly. She leaned against the railing of the boat casually. “Sad, no one is praising you anymore?”

Olis shook his head. “If anyone should be getting the praise, it’s you.”

“Me?” Olivia looked taken aback and raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

“I could only stop the whale and fix the boat because of you,” Olis admitted. “If you hadn’t said anything to me, I don’t think I would have acted. This ship would have sunk, and we’d all be dead, or worse, Mutants. You helped save everyone. I got some praise, and now that Knight is getting praised as well, but no one even told you, Good job.”

Olivia folded her arms and hummed. Her smile returned slightly, and she shook her head. “In that case, Davi really does deserve it. You’re saying I do because I told you a few words? Well, he’s the reason I was even able to say those words in the first place. He saved my life and helped get me to where I am now. I’d be dead without him. I’m not joking either. He saved me a whole bunch already.”

“Is he seriously that amazing?” Olis asked, stunned.

“Almost as amazing as the Lance of Victory or the first Arcane Knight I ever saw.” Olivia nodded, a little smug that she was getting to go on an adventure with such a strong Knight like Davi.

“I feel a little bad now,” Olis said, fiddling with his staff.

“Why?”

“I think I judged him too harshly.” Olis gripped his staff, his knuckles turning white. “I was just a bit put off by how his mana felt. I didn’t like it. I actually thought that he could have been a Magical Mutant. It only got worse when I saw that armor he summoned.”

“His armor freaked me out a bit, too,” Olivia admitted. “Knights typically wear armor that shines from how polished it is, and they show up on the back of a horse. Davi stepped out of the darkness, cloaked in shadows, ready to tear anything that gets in his way down. He’s more like a dark avenger than a Knight, but he’s still a good person, even despite that. He has kind eyes and is always helping people.”

People were judged by how they looked or what they could do. It was a sad truth, but one Olivia had learned growing up since she was constantly mocked due to her blood magic being seen as weak and useless. Most people would see something and instantly put a label on it and not bother to look deeper. Once a type of magic was labeled as worthless, that’s all it would ever be to the rest of the world, and once a person’s appearance was described as ugly or evil-looking, that was how it would be judged as well.

Outside of his armor, Davi looked a little handsome, despite the scar. He was approachable and seemed chill, at least until you started talking to him and realized he was flat and dull. Once his suit appeared around him, though, it was hard to look at him. The armor sucked in all light and looked almost depressing. It was like two sides of a coin.

Knights were old-fashioned since entering dungeons shut down most magitech, leading to them relying on armor and weapons such as swords, but even Arcane Knights dressed less like actual knights and more like armored superheroes. Davi really stood out because his armor was really old-fashioned and looked like straight-up medieval plate mail.

“Maybe I should tell him I’m sorry.”

Olis’s words tore Olivia from her thoughts, and she turned to look back at the brown-haired teen. “I don’t think you have to. I doubt Davi wants an apology for anything.”

“Do you know him that well?”

Olivia shrugged. “Not really. We just started traveling together.”

Olis managed a nod and smiled. “I see. Well, still, I’m glad you two boarded our ship. You have blood magic, right? Could I see it?”

Olivia looked a little surprised and gently fiddled with her wand, even more embarrassed. “You want to see me cast a spell?”

“Yeah.” Olis chuckled. “They say you can tell how much dedication a mage puts into their magic based on how well they can control their mana.” Olis lifted his staff and held it out. “Row Flower Form!” The tip of his staff glowed with a bright green color, and all along it, pink flowers began to sprout. One in particular grew at the very tip of it. It looked like a white rose and strangely smelled of strawberries. Without missing a beat, Olis plucked the flower and tucked it behind Olivia’s ear. “Your turn.”

Olivia cleared her throat and attempted to steady her heart, which was beating traitorously fast. She hadn’t met many boys growing up, so this was all new to her. Was Olis just being kind, or was he flirting with her? Did it matter? Did she like it? She had no clue.

“Here goes nothing.” Olivia held her wand out, and she muttered a spell. “Row Blood Flower!” She spun her wand, and from the tip, crimson began to swirl together. Her face became a little more pale, and her rapid heartbeat now no longer had to do with embarrassment—a blood-red flower formed at the very tip of her wand, just as big as Olis’s.

The flower lifted off her wand and floated in the air, carried by an invisible wave of wind, before popping like a bubble and splashing into the sea below. Hopefully, it wouldn’t attract any sharks.

Olis’s grin grew, and he tapped his staff down a little harder. “Vil Flower Garden.” From where his staff touched the deck of the ship, the wood glowed, and colorful flowers and grass began to form over the deck of the vessel, coating everything in greenery. Many of the sailors had taken notice of the spell and turned to watch the exchange. Olis looked back at Olivia and nodded. “Your turn.”

Olivia tried to force a smile, but the world was still spinning. She had already cast two spells today and was getting tired. “I think that’s it from me.” She said softly, attempting not to throw up. The ship's rocking wasn’t helping, and she suddenly began to feel seasick. She didn’t always throw up on her third spell and could sometimes hold it in and be fine, but being on a moving boat wasn’t doing any favors.

“What?” One of the sailors looked a little annoyed. “Come on, we don’t get to see any other spell besides Olis’s; show us what you can do.”

“Yeah!” Another said. “Come on, little lady, you can do better, right?”

“Keep the show going! Make like a big tree or something?”

“Make an animal; I’m tired of plants!”

Olivia let out another shaking laugh and rubbed her neck. “I can do something tomorrow; we’re still going to be on this ship for a while.”

“Please?” Olivia felt her heart twitch again, and her eyes met Olis's. He had looked cowardly and depressed earlier, but something about the way he now stood and the smile he had on his face was different. He wasn’t like any of the boys that were in the village. Olis was exotic in a way, and that smile pierced into her soul.

It was a stupid idea. Even if she didn’t vomit, she’d be flat on her back for a bit just from casting another spell. There was no reason she should risk it, and she should have stood her ground, yet Olis’s eyes kept staring into hers, and she wasn’t able to think straight.

“I’d really like to see what else you can.” The boy reached up and adjusted the flower that was in her hair. “One spell? What’s the harm?”

She was such an idiot.

Olivia gulped down the breath she was holding, and she sighed. She closed her eyes, regained her thoughts, and held her wand up. “Row Blood Hawk!”

Creating a construct out of magic, like a sword or armor, was easy for most mages. Creating something sentient, like an animal, was much harder. Ash’s best spell was a bird constructed out of wind. She had never tried to make one before now, and as her mana began to flow out, she began to realize just how talented Ash was.

A mage’s imagination was one thing required for casting a spell. The final part of a spell was known as the intent, and the mage had to visualize what they wanted to cast. When she wanted to make a dagger, she had to not just think of what a dagger would look like, but how it worked and how it felt. She had to imagine the weight and how sharp it was and then picture the blood within her body taking the place of the knife and forcing the construct into reality.

That was the easy part.

After imagining what she wanted to create, she then had to keep that image stuck in her mind without her thoughts wandering and would then need to force her mana out and make it bend and shape. Controlling mana was like having a third arm or hand. The mana would have to take on the perfect shape she had in her mind and fill it in. After that, her type would mold over the raw mana, which in this case was blood, and once it was done, a knife would be born into existence. Some mages could create new matter like Olis did, painting something brand new into reality, while others like her had to use a resource and reshape it.

Creating a knife was easy once she got the hang of it. Making an animal out of her blood was much harder. Not only did she have to imagine the creature, she had to picture it alive. Its organs and cells, all of which would have to be molded and shaped out of her blood, and she had to picture it in motion. It was like building a statue of a bird using only your memory while blindfolded, all the while the bird kept moving, forcing the statue to be destroyed and rebuilt in real time.

The end result?

She failed.

The blood formed out of the tip of her wand and began to take a bird-like shape, but it only got about halfway before it suddenly rapidly began to expand and became some weird blood bubble. It was bloated, and a hawk-like head poked out of it, and then it exploded, sending a puddle of blood crashing down.

Her legs gave out as well, and she lost the ability to control her body. The rocking of the ship proved too much, and as she fell, she also threw up all over herself and crashed down in her blood, landing and lying there in humiliation. Silence descended on the boat, and no one said a word. She remained face down in her own filth, and in that moment, she just wanted to die. Her stomach was killing her, and she felt like she was going to black out. She knew she shouldn’t have tried to show off or cast more than she should have, and now she was paying for it.

The silence was then shattered by laughter. All of the sailors began to laugh their asses off, seemingly finding the entire situation hilarious. It made her cheeks burn even worse, and she tried to look up at Olis, but he looked away from her, unable to meet her eyes.

“Did you see that?” One sailor asked, howling with laughter. “And here I thought all Knights were cool and epic. That was lame as hell.”

“How is that magic useful?” Another one snickered. “She cast two spells and then vomited? Is she a baby or something?”

“Look how pale she is. Is she using her own blood for her spells? That’s gotta suck.”

“Talk about lame.”

“I thought her magic type looked familiar. Aren’t there loads of videos about mages with blood magic draining themselves to near death or something for a few spells?”

“Where did she even come from?”

“I think she was traveling with the Arcane Knight—”

There was a horrible cracking sound, and the entire ship once again went silent. In the boat's center was the mast, and everyone turned and found it now sported a jagged crack along it. A chunk was taken out of it, and Davi Hawker's fist resided in the middle of it.

What made it really scary was the fact that the thing was made out of solid metal. Davi ripped his arm out of the mast and quietly walked over to Olivia. Everyone stayed silent, no longer finding the situation funny.

When Davi reached the downed girl, he glanced at Olis. The brown-haired boy tried to speak but found he lacked anything to say. Quietly, Olis shuffled away. Davi glanced back down at Olivia, who looked even more ashamed all of a sudden.

“Davi? I’m fine, I just need a—”

Davi dropped to his knees, ignoring how he was now in a pile of blood and vomit. Olivia let out a sudden yelp as he casually grabbed her and lifted her up. After that, he made his way to a set of stairs that were on the boat, which led below deck. The rest of the crew remained awkwardly standing in place, none of them following after.

Davi found a quiet corner, and he placed Olivia down. “Row Shadow Vault.” Davi reached through his vault and pulled out a bucket of water and a towel. Finally, he spoke to her. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Olivia said, chuckling weakly. “Just got carried away a bit. It’s my fault.” She let out a squeal as he suddenly dumped the water over her.

“I don’t have any more healing potions, so you’ll just have to make do. I can help clean you up, though.” Olivia half-glared at him but sighed. Some of the filth dripped off of her thanks to the water, and the shadows swallowed it up, sinking into Davi’s vault. She took the towel from him and wiped herself down, getting rid of more of the filth. Her Lotus Academy uniform was basically ruined.

“Thanks.” She glanced back up at Davi, and he looked down at her. The look in his eyes was different from what she had been expecting. She thought it would be full of pity or disgust, but his eyes were strangely empty. They weren’t the tired ones she had come to know in the short time she knew him and were the eyes he had when he was in his armor. “Are you okay?” This time it was her turn to ask him.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Davi asked in his blunt tone. “I’m fine. I didn’t get hit that much in the battle with the whale.”

Olivia meekly nodded. She had meant emotionally, but of course, the boy wouldn’t reveal how he actually felt. He was cold and distant. Like a real shadow.

“Davi?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think I can become a Knight?” She curled slightly into a ball and put her head on her knees. She gently pulled the flower Olis had given her out of her hair and dropped it, the shadows devouring it. “When we first met, you got mad when I said I didn’t like my blood magic, but it seems useless no matter what I try to do with it. I want to become a Knight, but is it possible with the skills I have?”

Davi rubbed his chin, then reached down and pressed his finger into the center of her forehead. “Why do you even want to become an Arcane Knight? You mentioned your father. Is it really just for him?”

Olivia moved her head back and let out another sigh. “He left me at Fri village and told me that if I ever wanted to reach him and see him again, I’d have to become an Arcane Knight. Part of me does want to see him again, but honestly, it’s not my main drive for wanting to be a Knight.”

“Okay? So what is it?”

She smiled softly and closed her eyes, picturing back to a few months ago. “As a kid, Bruno and I always discussed becoming Arcane Knights, but it wasn’t until last year that I seriously dedicated myself to the cause,” Olivia explained softly. “That was when I met her.”

“Her?” Davi raised an eyebrow. He had been expecting a story about a dashing knight from the way Olivia looked so happy, thinking back. She was even blushing a bit. “Was it an Arcane Knight you met?”

“It was.” Olivia giggled. “I stole a horse from farmer Jermy and tried to ride off on my own. Even before I met you, I had this desire to leave Fri. I made it to this town called Violet. I showed up at the wrong time, though. The town was being attacked by a pack of monsters called Hell Hounds. They’re fiery, wolf-like monsters. They scared the horse, and I fell back and hit my head on a rock. The entire town was being overrun by the monsters, and I was bleeding badly from my wound. That was when ‘she’ showed up.”

The image of the Arcane Knight appeared in her mind. It was a pretty girl with long silver hair and bright glowing eyes that looked like they were forged from moonlight. She had been dressed in a witch's outfit, a dark dress that was even topped with a pointed hat. An outfit that would have seemed almost stereotypical if not for the way it flowed with the Knight's movements with almost unnatural grace. With a simple pointing gesture with her staff, she had cast a single spell and tore through all the Hell Hounds, killing them.

In less than a second, an Arcane Knight had saved Violet.

“I got to talk to her,” Olivia said softly. “She said she was on another mission but showed up when she sensed the monsters. In a way, she’s a lot like you, just appearing and saving the day despite not being hired for it. Also, just like you, she refused any Bells and said she just wanted to help. She even healed all the villagers and me free of charge, and then when she found out I wasn’t from Violet, she walked me back to my village!” Olivia practically squealed and clasped her hands together. “She was perfect. Absolutely perfect, and so pretty with her silver hair and moon-looking eyes.” All the villagers had cheered the woman on and heralded her as a hero. The Knight had even fixed up the entire town. That woman was everything an Arcane Knight should be. A hero. “She really made me want to do it.” Olivia’s smile turned soft, and her eyes simmered with a wave of different emotions. “Before I met her, it was just some joke, but after talking to her, I wanted to become an Arcane Knight for real.”

She could still remember every word that silver-haired beauty had said to her. When the two of them arrived at Fri, she had told the woman she wanted to become an Arcane Knight, and the woman had given her some advice.

“Stand tall. Do your best not to fall down, and when you do, get back up. Try. That’s all you can do. Just try your best and make yourself happy with your own choice.” Olivia repeated the words out loud and looked back at Davi. “That’s why I want to be an Arcane Knight. Not just for my father, but for her. She was so nice and helped me out so much, just like you’re doing. I want to properly thank her, and just like you and her, I want to try and help people. I promised her I’d see her again.”

Davi kept staring down at her, and he looked away. She was a little surprised to see he looked a little uneasy and confused. It made her smile fade, but before she could ask him what was wrong, he began to speak once more.

“Then it sounds like you have to become an Arcane Knight. You can’t break a promise after all. My brother taught me that. So, there is no use in crying about your blood magic. Just try your best. If you’re not good enough, just become better.”

Olivia wanted to say more, but Davi walked away, not looking back at her, and Olivia was left wondering if she had said something wrong. She watched Davi head up the stairs and go back onto the deck, but she decided to stay below and not face the rest of the crew for a bit longer.

She just couldn’t bear the shame.

Up top, Davi leaned over the railing and stared down at the water below. He met his reflection in the water, and his mind wandered. The phrase Olivia also said came to his mind. It sounded very familiar.

The sound of a throat clearing stopped Davi’s thoughts, and he turned, finding the captain of the ship leaning on the rail next to him. “Can we talk for a moment, lad?”

“Sup?” Davi turned and hopped up onto the rails, sitting on them. “Anything I can help you with, boss man?”

“You’re fake.”

“Pardon?”

The captain glanced back at Davi, and their eyes met. “You’re not real.”

“I feel pretty real.” Davi mumbled, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

“I don’t mean like that. I mean in the way you act. You’re a robot. Or at least the closest thing a human can be to one.” The captain took a drag on a smoke pipe and blew the mist out toward Davi’s face, who didn’t flinch. “My grandfather kept a journal. One that was passed down through the family since it had all his secrets to being a good ship captain. In it he would sometimes talk about the people he met on his ship.” The captain took another drag on his pipe.

“Okay?”

“Your eyes. They’re the same kind my grandfather described. They hold no light, and your shadow is deeper and darker than anyone else's. Just standing next to you, I feel a chill. You remind me of some of the people my grandpa once documented. He once claimed he met a construct in human form. ‘Unfeeling and fake, yet able to pretend. A horrible creature that resembles us, yet it can not be. It hides its intentions behind a mask, and its eyes pretend to hold emotion when they’re empty.’ That’s how my gramps described it. You’re the same, aren’t you? You don’t act because it’s the right thing to do, but rather because you think you should. Your eyes don’t look at people but instead past them, and your ears don’t listen to what others have to say. You don’t exist. The real you is that armor. You don’t exist outside of it. You just go through the motions of life until the time to slip into your true form appears. You’re an unfeeling, uncaring creature that happens to be human. You’re a robot.”

Davi took everything the captain had to say in. “You’re wrong.” He finally responded in a flat tone.

“Am I?” The captain asked.

“Yeah. I do have emotions, and there are things I feel. I have a heart.”

“Do you?”

‘People judged based on what they first saw, but that was seldom the case. What appeared to be useless blood magic could be the key to creating the strongest mage, and what might look like an uncaring, scary knight could just be a scared little boy who had been hurt so much the pain had become numb.’

Davi didn’t say any of that, though. Instead, he looked back out at the water and once again imagined himself as a bird, soaring through the skies perfectly free.

The captain was about to leave but stopped for a moment. “Please. Don’t be a machine.” And with those words, the man left, leaving Davi to his own devices.

Davi glanced back down at his reflection and thought about how if he were a bird that could fly, he’d use his wings to chase after the Dragon and tear it to bits with his claws and beak.

“I’ll try real hard not to.”

Chapter 14: Guess I'm a Criminal

“Finally!” Olivia threw her arm into the air. “Dry land! Let’s get off this ship!”

“At least wait till we dock.” Davi leaned on the railing, his blank look staring out at the town that was quickly approaching.

Olivia just laughed and practically hung over the ship's side as it made for the dock. “Three days on this boat was way too rough. Not to mention all those rations we had to eat were nasty! A sailor girl, I am not.”

Three days was how long they had been stuck on the ship—three solid days of rocking back and forth, fighting off various sea monsters, and chowing down on military rations. It had been hell for her. Davi seemed right at home, though. He had done similar things in the past, at least he claimed he did, so he was a natural on the ship. Though after what had happened during her ‘demonstration’, most of the crew avoided interacting with her or Davi, except whenever it was strictly necessary.

Olis seemed to still get along with Davi, but Olivia couldn’t help noticing the mage’s awkward glances at her, looks that she knew were tinged with a mix of pity, apprehension, and concern.

The dock they were heading to was connected to a town called Gladiolus. It served as a trade hub, taking supplies dropped off from ships and sending them to other towns and cities throughout the land.

“So, I guess this will be goodbye?” Olis asked, a bit sad, as he stood next to Davi and watched as they approached closer to the dock. “It was nice having an Arcane Knight like you around.” Olis chuckled and nudged Davi in the side with his elbow. “Still, it does make me wonder, why didn’t you just show your guild symbol from the start when we first met?”

Davi shrugged. “Didn’t know I needed one.”

“You didn’t know?” Olis made a face.

“He’s a bit of an oddball, that’s for sure.” Olivia chimed in from the side. “He showed up and gave my village a ton of free supplies, yet he is apparently always broke. Maybe Arcane Knights are just weird.”

“I guess they’d have to be a little crazy to make a living out of slaying monsters and exploring dungeons.” Olis chuckled awkwardly. “Still, I’m glad I was wrong about you, and for what it’s worth, thanks for helping us out.” The boy held his hand out to Davi.

Davi looked down at the hand numbly for a moment before he took it. “You know, she and I didn’t really do a lot.” Davi gestured to Olivia, who had gotten off the boat at the first chance she could, the moment it reached the dock. “You did most of the work, so you should be the one getting congratulated.”

Olis shook his head. “No, I really couldn’t have done it without you. I was scared and cowardly—everything you aren’t. You really are an Arcane Knight, just like the stories always talk about. Thank Haru, you were here.”

“Since you are thanking us and being grateful for the help, there is one thing I wanted to ask you,” Olivia said sheepishly.

Olis raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? What is it?”

“Could you pay for us to stay at a hotel, or inn, or whatever it’s called at this place?”

Olis looked at his captain, who nodded. The rest of the crew was busy unloading the ship's cargo and placing it onto the docks, where several workers were waiting for them. With the captain's blessing, Olis left the vessel and escorted the two of them into Gladiolus.

Gladiolus wasn’t a village, so it was much bigger than Fri had been. It had a great big dock, where several ships were coming and going, and past that was the town itself. It was made up of hundreds of different buildings, all forged from brick and stone, stacked atop one another, and it was extremely spacious. There wasn’t a wall around Gladiolus like Lotus had, showing off a vast field that the town was placed in. The town life thrived with tons of farmers hitting the fields, dozens of dock workers unloading the many ships, and many kids playing around in the street. A food stand was on every corner, and mages walked about casting all manner of spells. Heavy farming trucks, delivery vans, and motorbikes either drove down the bustling road or were parked at the end of every block.

“This place is nice!” Olivia said giddily as she walked the streets. “This is my first time seeing another town besides Lotus! It’s so big!”

Davi looked around, taking in the different buildings and land. He had his typical blank look as he watched Olivia run around. She kept looking at everything and seemed hyper today. “I guess this is your first time seeing a place like this, right? Come to think of it, I bet I acted the same way as you when I first left my village.” He muttered, mostly to himself.

“Oh, you grew up in a village?” Olis asked, raising an eyebrow.

Davi’s eye twitched slightly. “Yeah. I did.” He turned and followed a group of farmers with his eyes, watching them collect boxes of corn. “I lived in a fishing village. My dad taught me everything I know.”

“Why’d you leave your village?” Olivia asked, casually spinning around. She walked backward and had a grin on her face. “You’re looking for a dragon, right? Did you see one when you were a kid or something?”

“You’re looking for a dragon?” Olis let out a snort. “Davi, you know dragons are extinct, right?”

Davi absentmindedly rubbed at the scar that ran along the left side of his face. “I still have to try.” Davi never showed a lot of emotion, but there was a look in his eye now. “It’s all I can do.”

Olivia glanced at him and wanted to say more, but she felt herself trip over her feet as she ran into a cart behind her. “Ow.” She winced. “Guess I shouldn’t walk backwards.”

Olis went to help her up but stopped, his hands barely moving from his side as he looked everywhere but at her as she got to her feet. She turned back to Davi, but he hadn’t stopped. He kept walking through the town, and they had to hurry to keep up with him. He headed straight for the inn. It had been sunset by the time they arrived at the dock, and the townspeople were all starting to clear the street.

The inn was a tiny little tavern that had the symbol of a duck plastered on top. Most cities used hotels, but some places kept the old-timey feel due to the Knights that existed.

The inside of the inn had dozens of tables all scattered about and a set of stairs that led up to where the rooms were. A bar was all the way in the back, and the man who stood behind it was tall and rough-looking, with dozens of scars across his face. He held a wand, and as he twirled it through the air, stone slabs lifted off the ground, having dozens of drinks, which floated over to the various men who were seated at the table. Loud music blared from some speakers, and the people were cheering and seemingly having a good time as they watched a game of blitzball up on the flat-screen TV that hung near the back.

Olivia felt a slight pang in her chest. She had spent three days on the boat and was mainly seasick for that time, but now that she was on dry land, seeing a town full of so much life began to make her a bit homesick. She had left so quickly, not even saying goodbye. Hopefully, the village would understand. Her phone had finally stopped buzzing once she blocked everyone that kept trying to call her. She’d just have to remember to unblock them and give them a call back once she became a Knight.

“Let’s get you two those rooms I owe you.” Olis offered as he led her over to the bar, but Davi stayed behind and instead chose to watch the sporting match that was on TV.

It involved a metal ball and lightning. The players were all flying through the air, using electricity to rapidly shoot the ball back and forth, attempting to slam it through hoops that were on either side of the field. Some of the players also had large and heavy-looking metal shields, which they were using to block the ball and stop the other team from scoring a point.

It was a very strange and dangerous-looking sport.

Davi liked it.

Davi shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and made his way over to Olis and Olivia. “What can I do for you?” The man behind the bar grunted out.

“Two rooms.” Olis reached into his pouch, pulled out a couple of silver coins, and slid them over the counter. “One for her and that guy over there,” Olis said, gesturing to Olivia and Davi.

The scarred man eyed Davi up for a moment, and his eyes narrowed as he sized Davi up before he finally nodded. He pulled out two keys and slid them over to Olivia. “Don’t cause any trouble.” His eyes went back to Davi. “You especially.”

“Sure thing, big guy.” Davi gave an emotionless thumbs-up, and the man growled, so he shifted his hand to the side and raised up his middle finger.

“Okay!” Olis grabbed Davi’s shoulder and began to guide him upstairs. “I promise he’ll behave, sir!”

“That was a little odd?” Olivia glanced at Davi. “He didn’t seem to like you. You do something to him?”

“Never met him before,” Davi said, unconcerned.

“Then why didn’t he like you?” Olivia wondered, looking her companion up and down. Davi’s armor was a bit scary. His helmet covered his face, and his eyes seemed to glow out of it, but he wasn’t in his armor at the moment. He was dressed like a normal person, wearing a black hoodie and pants. His sword wasn’t on him, and he didn’t even seem to carry a wand like she did. “You don’t look that scary. I mean, I guess there’s the scar, but it’s not that bad, and that guy had way more than you!”

“It’s his mana,” Olis said, after seemingly debating if he should bring it up or not.

“His mana?”

Olis gave a nod and poked at Davi’s arms. “Olivia, you said you grew up in a village, so I guess you wouldn't know this unless you get around often, but the way we mages tell each other apart is from each other's mana. You know how everyone has a unique fingerprint? Well, mages also have a unique mana feel, and that mana sort of spills out of them as they move and stuff, fueling their bodies. It's why mages seem superhuman. If you have a keen sense, you can feel another person's mana as they do stuff and get a feel for who they are as a person.”

“Whoa, really?” Davi cocked his head to the side and still sounded detached. “Far out.”

“You didn't know that!” Olis sounded almost annoyed at Davi's naivety. “How does an Arcane Knight not know that? It's the basics!” Davi’s shrug only ticked Olis off more.

“Wait, so you're saying that guy doesn't like Davi because of his mana?” Olivia asked. “I don't think anyone in my village ever used mana to tell people apart; we just looked at them and stuff. And wait, does that mean you can read mine also?”

Olis nodded his head and glanced back at Davi. “Well, they say you can tell who a person really is based on their mana. People's lives are what shape the flow of mana they have, just like how a person’s life determines what spells they have and can cast. Olivia, yours isn't really anything special or noteworthy; it's a bit sharp and constricting. Like it's trying to squeeze me sometimes. Davi's, though, is… Well, no offense, sir, but I found it so hard to believe you were a Knight because of how your mana feels. A Knight is supposed to be kind and reassuring, the type of person you can view as a hero, but your mana is so dark and cold. Like I'm standing in a blizzard or looking into the ocean's depths. It seriously gives me the creeps! I was certain you were a Magical Mutant when I first felt it.”

Davi glanced down at his hand and let out a hum. “I never knew that. I guess that's why most mages I've met always gave me the side-eye. I just assumed they hated me because of my handsome face.” He seemed unbothered by the reveal.

Olivia felt a frown tug onto her face. She had gotten to know Davi for only three days; he seemed to be genuinely kind, though a bit weird. Sometimes he would do strange things or respond in a flat way to something, but that didn’t mean he was a bad or cold person. He also helped her multiple times already, along with her village and all of Olis’s people. He was kind of a big sweetheart. It seemed unfair that people would dislike him because of something he couldn't control. Gently, she reached out and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

He didn't squeeze back or look at her.

When they reached the top floor, several doors were on either side of the wall. Davi opened his room and poked his head in. It wasn’t that impressive looking, only having a small bed, a counter, and a desk. It didn’t even have a chair. Olivia’s room was basically the same as well. It wasn’t anything impressive, but it’d get the job done.

“I guess this is where we’ll be parting ways,” Olis spoke up.

“Leaving already?” Olivia asked.

The brown-haired boy nodded. “I only had enough to get two rooms. Besides, my ship is likely about to finish up with the cargo and will be heading out. We need to head back to our city to get her fixed up properly.” The boy chuckled. “But hey, if you two are ever near Oleander while I’m not on the clock, hit me up!”

“Why don’t I walk you back to the ship?” She offered.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Come on, we can get one last conversation in.”

Olis looked uncomfortable, and she suddenly remembered what happened on the ship once again. “D-Davi can walk you back.”

‘Me?’ Davi thought and felt himself being pushed to Olis as Olivia shoved him a little. ‘Sure, not like I wanted to go to bed. I’ll just walk this grown-ass man back to his boat, I guess.’ He wisely kept his thoughts to himself and didn’t complain out loud.

Olis nodded curtly with an awkward smile and turned to leave. Davi followed the flower mage downstairs. He made sure to poke his tongue out at the bartender, who growled at him again.

He and Olis didn’t say anything else. They walked in silence and made their way back to the ship, which, just like Olis stated, was about to leave. The two of them stopped when they reached the docks, and Davi noticed the side of the ship that was made out of flowers.

“You’ll do good, Olis.” Davi finally spoke and caused the flower mage to jump a bit. “If there’s any sea monster that attacks, I’m sure you can handle it.”

Olis sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and clasped his staff closely to his chest. “Thanks. That means a lot coming from an Arcane Knight.”

Davi’s blank look finally changed slightly as a frown found its way onto his face. “Hey, Olis.”

“Yeah?”

“What’s a guild symbol?”

Olis shot him a confused look. “What do you mean? Obviously, it's a symbol of what guild you’re part of. Like, whatever guild you’re in, it has a symbol. Wait, what guild are you in anyway?”

Davi rubbed his chin. “Can you be an Arcane Knight if you never took the entrance exam?”

Olis shook his head. “I mean, I guess there’s a very rare circumstance of someone being passed without taking the test, but that only happens with the daughters of the king. Everyone else has to take the exam because the exam decides what guild you go into. How do you not know this?”

Davi nodded and hummed. “Yeah, so, turns out I’m not an Arcane Knight.” He said apathetically. “My bad.”

“What!” Olis did a double-take and quietly gasped. He spun around, his eyes wide. “But the armor? You looked just like a Knight.”

“So, does that mean I’m an Arcane Knight?” Davi asked, cocking his head to the side once more. “Like, couldn’t you go buy armor or make flower armor? I bet people would confuse you for an Arcane Knight.”

“N-no, it takes more than having armor and magic to be an Arcane Knight. You have to be able to slay monsters and enter dungeons and stuff.” Olis shook his head, his face paling.

“You beat those two armored whales, though?” Davi noted. “So if someone saw you do that while you were wearing armor, they’d think you were a Knight.”

Olis’s face went from white to green. “D-Davi, it’s not illegal to wear armor, and it’s not illegal to kill monsters, but it is illegal to pretend to be an Arcane Knight!” The boy grabbed Davi and tugged him down, glaring into his eyes. “Look, stop telling people you’re a Knight. I’m sure they got confused because of how strong you are and the armor you wear, but unless you have permission from the guilds to be a Knight, then you’re not one, and you’re going to get your ass thrown in prison!”

“Why is it illegal to pretend to be a Knight?”

“I don’t know; it just is, just like how you can’t pretend to be a cop or a doctor.” Olis hissed. “Seriously! Don’t tell anyone else that you were calling yourself a Knight and doing the duty of one, okay!”

“Sure? I guess?” Davi still looked unbothered. “I got a bit suspicious I wasn’t one when I learned more about them from Olivia. I just assumed I was one after some people asked me about it. I mean, I look like a Knight, and I have magic, so it checked out.”

Olis face-palmed and groaned quietly. “Oh, my Haru. Davi, don’t do that anymore. Look, I gotta go, but seriously, take care of yourself, man. Stay out of trouble.”

Davi gave Olis a thumbs-up, and he watched Olis climb up the ramp to his ship. It didn’t take long for the ship to start to leave the dock. The crew waved out at him, but he didn’t wave back since waving was for suckers. He stood there for a bit longer, enjoying the silence before finally turning and making his way back into Gladiolus. He went back to the inn, flipped the owner off again, and climbed up the steps.

It didn’t take long for sleep to claim him once he was back in his bed. That night, Davi dreamed the same dream he always had. He was a kid again, carrying his brother through a blizzard. Just when all hope seemed lost, and he was sure he’d freeze to death, he found himself meeting a massive beast covered in jagged red scales.

Chapter 15: Setting Out on the Road

‘No.’

Davi’s eyes snapped open, and he stared up at the roof of the tavern. He sat up and felt the cold sweat that clung to his body. His head was pounding, and his heart was racing, but he managed to lull himself back into his usual calm state.

He wasn’t in the cold; he wasn’t surrounded by a blizzard; he was in a nice warm bed.

There was no Dragon.

With a grunt, he stepped back out into the hall. The music from downstairs hit his ears, and he could already hear the people of Gladiolus, who were being quite loud for some reason. Olivia’s door was still shut and locked, the girl most likely still asleep. Unlike him, she hadn’t been able to get a good night's rest on the boat, so he imagined she was exhausted since she seemed to be sleeping through all the noise.

He made his way downstairs and was surprised to not see anyone. The inn was empty, the tables not containing anyone looking to get drunk, and even the bartender was gone. The noise outside got even louder, and it sounded like cheering.

Davi stepped out of the inn, and instantly he discovered why everyone was outside. The streets of Gladiolus had been filled the other day, but now they were tight and cramped. Everyone had left their homes or taverns and piled out onto the street, all celebrating when they saw what arrived in their town.

Davi looked out at the road that went through the town. It was the only part of Gladiolus that wasn’t filled to the brim with people. Two figures casually walked down the road, having the entire way cleared out for them when they arrived.

The first figure stood tall and was wrapped in thick, rocky armor. Stone and jagged bricks shaped together, forming a powerful, sturdy suit shaped like a bull. The helmet had twisting horns, and the boots looked like hooves. Cracks ran along the stone armor, which had an orange glow coming off of it that might have been magma. Heat and power radiated off of the bull-looking Knight, who casually dragged a massive wagon behind them.

On the wagon were the piled-on corpses of dozens of different magical beasts. Most looked like dead snakes, but a few were apes that were way bigger than they should have been or lions with the tail of a scorpion and the wings of a bat.

The second figure walked next to the first one and looked a lot more reserved. Unlike the one in the heavy stone armor, this figure was a man in a suit. He wore a white button-up shirt, black dress pants, and a blazer. He had a red tie on and carried a briefcase with him. The man looked like an average bank worker and oozed an aura of wealth. He might have passed for a typical worker as well, if not for the fact that he had a sword hanging off his belt and radiated an aura of power that matched the stone Knight.

It seemed two Arcane Knights had just gotten back from a mission and were passing through Gladiolus. The entire town was celebrating and cheering them on, but the Knights remained silent and kept marching toward the docks, a boat already waiting for them. No doubt they were planning to head back to their guild and drop off the dead monsters for their reward.

As Davi watched them, he suddenly recalled what Olis had said. He was a criminal, unknowingly or not, since he had been pretending to be a Knight. It likely wouldn’t be good for him to stand out.

Which was why he suddenly twitched when the man in the suit turned to look at him. Davi froze, and his eyes instantly became glued to the other man. The Knight had shaven black hair, and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of black sunglasses, but Davi could tell they were peering right at him.

He thought that maybe he was about to have a fight break out or something, but the man eventually turned away, and he and the one in the bull-looking armor reached the docks.

The people kept cheering, even as the two Knights got onto a ship, which began to sail away immediately as if they were in a hurry to leave the town behind. It was only after the two Knights were gone that the mood in Gladiolus changed. Instantly, the people straightened up, and as if a switch had been flipped, they got back to work, going about their day as they usually would. The streets began to get cleared out, and Davi found himself standing all alone.

His plan was to just walk around the town until Olivia woke up and came looking for him. He didn’t really have a particular destination in mind. He was always on the move, never settling down for too long. It had been ages since he got to just walk around and look at the building and people. He barely reached the town square before something caught his attention. A fantastic aroma that had his mouth watering.

Gladiolus lacked the wall that Lotus had. It was much more like an overgrown village than a town, with dozens of brick houses stacked on top of each other, and was created mainly to harvest wheat and breed cattle and other such things. A few large stone towers were scattered about the town, likely being the barracks, and the streets were bustling with people. There was also a large magic academy placed in the center. It looked just like the one Lotus had. A large tower was bathed in various runes that danced and moved across the stone.

A group of students were all exiting the school, all dressed in uniforms that were similar to the one Olivia was wearing, but their clothes were black instead of red.

None of the students even shot him a glance as they walked past him, and Davi did his best to ignore them for the most part.

What truly caught Davi’s attention, though, was a food stall in the town square. It was loaded with various cooked meats, and a large man stood behind the counter, using fire magic to cook the meat and sell it to passing people. Amongst the meat was a large grilled catfish that had been perfectly cut into dozens of slices. Davi felt his stomach rumble, and he had to fight the urge to drool.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t gotten any food since he was on the ship with Olis. That was over a day ago now.

“What are you looking at, boy?” The man behind the food stall barked out, causing Davi to flinch slightly. “If you want some, then come get some. Just stop standing there with that creepy mana leaking out of you! You’re scaring away all my other customers.” The man was tall, easily over eight feet, and he was bald but had a bushy beard. He wore brightly colored purple clothes, likely to get people’s attention so they’d come and stop by his stall. He had a toothy grin, a few of his teeth even covered in gold, and his wand was twisted and black, looking more like a jagged piece of coal. Fire dripped out of the tip of it, and he swirled it over a piece of beef, perfectly cooking it. “Best meat in Gladiolus.”

Davi approached the stall and looked down at the catfish. He felt his stomach rumble. “Sorry, I don’t have any Bells. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to trade?”

The merchant snorted and gave a toothy grin. “No. We don’t do that here.”

Davi folded his arms. “Guess I’ll have to come back next time then.”

“You a Magical Mutant?” The man asked bluntly.

Davi shook his head. “No.”

“Your mana feels inhuman, like a mutant's.” The man’s grin just grew, and he shivered slightly. “You’re new here, right? I saw you come in yesterday on that cargo ship. If you were on a boat like that, you must have done some jobs or something, right? Don’t tell me you blew all your Bells gambling or something.”

“I didn’t earn any Bells from that ship. I helped them out, but that’s just because I owed them.”

“You did a bunch of work for free? Did you even think about asking for any gold from them?”

Davi gave a shrug. “They needed the Bells to fix their ship. Did you see the state their boat was in? They needed it more than I did.”

“Well, I beg to differ. You’re flat broke, and judging by the way you keep staring at my grub, you’re starving, too.” The merchant snorted. “So now you’re broke and hungry. I’d say you’re in need of full pockets.”

Davi fought his stomach, which was trying to growl. “I guess. I’m used to it, though. Sometimes, I can be on the road for days, so I’ve learned to go without food.”

The merchant nodded. “You said you had things to trade? You also a merchant?”

“Not really. Now that I’ve learned more about the world, I don’t know what I am. I guess you could say I’m a Dragon hunter.”

“A Dragon hunter?” The merchant gave him an odd look, and the man’s smile only seemed to grow. “Well, then, a word of advice. Look, lad, there’s nothing wrong with being a good person and helping those in need, but doing so at a cost to yourself is… Well, there’s a fine line between noble and foolish, especially when it comes to someone like you. I’ve never felt mana as cold as yours before. It chills me to the bone. I imagine most mages won’t be keen on going out of their way to help you. Even that Arcane Knight glanced at you. You should remember that and not let people take advantage of you just because you’re so nice.”

“Oh, I’m not a good person.” Davi turned away and looked out at the town, watching the people bustle around back and forth. “I get tired of saving people. I feel like I do it so much that it annoys me sometimes. That’s why I try to make sure that whatever is causing them the problem won’t happen again, and they can save themselves.”

The merchant gave him an odd look and raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like being a good person to me, lad. You one of those guys with a complex who doesn’t like taking credit for the good they do?”

“No,” Davi said emotionlessly. “I was just raised to think that way by my dad.”

“I don’t really get it, but whatever helps you sleep at night, kid.”

Davi watched a few kids play with a ball, tossing it back and forth, and several farmers returned from the fields, bringing carts full of crops. The town was lively, and he felt much more at ease than he had in Fri. “So, what’s this place's deal?” He asked.

“What do you mean?” The merchant questioned, cooking up a slab of pork.

“The last few places I’ve been to all had something weird about them,” Davi explained. “First, I went to this town that was haunted by these ghost-like monsters and had to fight them off. I ended up helping the town mayor find the bodies and put the ghosts to rest. After that, I went to this city that was taken over by a bunch of bandits and had to fight their leader in one-on-one combat. I got the city to rebel against the bandits and throw the leader out. Then I found this village that a salamander was attacking. I killed it and gave the people the supplies to build a wall around their land so a creature like that wouldn’t be able to get back in. Oh, I also kidnapped a girl from that place, which is pretty cool.”

The merchant blinked, losing focus on his spell and burning the meat he was cooking to ash. “A-are you an Arcane Knight?”

“See, I also came to that conclusion, but apparently I’m not.” Davi balled his hand into a fist and lifted his arm, flexing slightly. “I guess I’m about as strong as one, though, since I’ve been doing their job. They can’t be all that special if someone like me keeps getting mistaken for one.” He was a little annoyed that he wasn’t actually a Knight. Sieg and he had always talked about becoming one when they were kids. He thought about maybe taking the test, but that would take too much time. As long as he could keep chasing after the Dragon, Arcane Knight, or not, he’d be content.

The man silently shook his head, deciding it was best to just move on and pretend he didn’t hear this stranger admit to committing so many crimes. Impersonating an Arcane Knight, accidental or not, was illegal after all. “Look, Gladiolus ain’t as exciting as those other places you went to. If you’re looking for trouble, you’ll find it, though, so keep your nose out of the dirt. You especially don’t want to get the attention of any Knights.”

“Why are you letting me know about this? You worried for me or something?”

The merchant snorted again and folded his arms. “I believe that good deeds shouldn’t be punished. Bad people deserve that kind of treatment, and good people deserve rewards. You did well, helped a ship out, so it’s only natural you should deserve a reward rather than a punishment. It’s the motto I live by.”

Davi gave a lazy nod. “Sounds good to me.”

“What sounds good?” Davi turned when he heard the voice, finding Olivia standing behind him now. The ginger-haired girl looked half asleep, her hair a mess and her eyes nearly closed. She also had a hungry look on her face, staring down at the food on the table, her stomach rumbling a bit. “I’m hungry.” She mumbled.

“We don’t have any Bells,” Davi said flatly. “We’ll just have to starve or become cannibals, whichever happens first.” His detached way of speaking made it hard to tell if he was joking about that last part or not.

“Here you go, little lady.” The merchant tossed an apple over to Olivia, who caught it. “It’s on the house!”

“Traitor,” Davi sighed sulkily. “I want a free apple.”

“No.”

“Curse you, may your bald spot double.”

Olivia bit into the apple, letting out a hum as she began to wake up. She rubbed sleep out of her eyes and felt a few of her muscles pop. “So, what were you talking about earlier?” She asked, eating over half of the apple. She offered what was left to Davi, whose mood had soured more than usual.

“Nothing really.” Davi swiped the apple, but there were only two bites left for him. He finished the apple off and dropped the core into his shadow. His other hand lazily wiped at his face. “I was just making chitchat until you were up and ready to leave.”

“Where are the two of you headed?” The merchant questioned.

Olivia fought back a yawn and stretched, her tired body still taking a moment to respond. “We’re heading to the capital.” She said after a moment. “So I guess we’re walking north.”

“I thought so.” The merchant ran his fingers through his beard and tugged on it a bit. “In that case, do the two of you think you could do me a favor?”

Davi folded his arms and let out a hum. “Depends. What’s the favor?”

“Directly north of here is a town called Daisy.” The other man explained. “It’s the first town you’ll run into if you head down the road. See, the thing with Daisy is that the Baron who runs it is kind of a cheapskate. He’s bad at paying for and maintaining certain features, so Daisy is always going into bouts where they have no power or internet.”

“Reminds me of the duke who runs Lotus.” Olivia snorted. “Lazy bastard still refuses to build proper roads.”

“I got a buddy there; he’s a blacksmith, the best in his town, in fact.” The merchant continued. “I’m guessing Daisy is in one of its blackouts because I haven’t been able to get ahold of my friend in over a month. Usually, the blackouts don’t last this long, so I’ve gotten a bit worried. Daisy ain’t an important town like we have here, and so unless something really bad is happening, the kingdom likely won’t investigate it, and I’d rather not have to hire a couple of Knights since they’re expensive, so do you two think you could just check in on the place for me?”

Davi and Olivia glanced at one another, and then Davi shrugged. “Sure. If it’s on the way. We can do that.”

The merchant's crooked grin returned. “Thank you kindly, sir. One more thing.” The merchant pulled out a rather large crate and set it on the table. The crate was a magitech minifreeze that could keep products cold and fresh. “This here is a crate of fish I’ve been meaning to give to my friend. Would you two be able to deliver it to him while you’re there? As I said, he’s the blacksmith of the town, so it shouldn’t be hard to find him.”

“Hey!” Olivia pouted slightly. “You just tricked us into being your errand runners, didn’t you?” The merchant just chuckled again.

Davi folded his arms and gave the man a skeptical look. “You’re just trusting us with this? What if we just steal the crate you’re giving for ourselves and not turn it in? You were saying not to be too nice earlier. Isn’t this breaking your own rule?”

“Well, to be honest, I’ve always been good at reading people, and I don’t think either of you are bad.” The merchant chuckled. “People put too much stock in how a person’s mana feels. Think of this as a reward for helping that ship. Not to mention, if you two did run off, I’d just blacklist you.”

“Blacklist us?” Olivia shivered slightly as the man’s toothy grin grew. “What does that mean?”

The merchant lifted his wand and tapped it to the side of his head. “We merchants all stick together. You piss one of us off, and you’ve gone and made the rest mad. Just as magicians all have their way of communicating, so do we merchants. You run off, and I find out my buddy didn’t get his stuff, then I may have no choice but to let every other merchant in Estiria know that you ain’t good people and not to help you out.”

“Couldn't care less what merchants thought of me.” Davi picked the box up with one arm, tucking it away. “Sure, though, we’ll drop this off.”

“Thank you kindly.”

Davi casually stuffed the box into his shadow, which swallowed it up. Once he was done, he turned to look back at Olivia. “You ready to hit the road?”

Olivia nodded, and she took one last look at the town, watching as the farmers got ready for another hard day of work. Her heart ached a bit once more, a bit of homesickness seeping back in, but she crushed it down.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” She forced a smile and gave a nod to Davi. The two of them began to walk and head for the outskirts of the town. “I want to ask, though, why’d you agree to help that guy? If it’s for the Bells, couldn't you just find a bounty board in a hub somewhere and do a quest for more cash?”

Davi seemed indifferent and shrugged once more. “I can help him out, so why not?”

“You seem to really like helping people, don’t you, Davi?” Olivia teased. “I mean, you helped my village out for free, just like you did for Olis and his crew. You’re a nice guy. Everything an Arcane Knight should be.”

Davi looked away. “Yeah. Everything a Knight should be.”

He had forgotten one fact. He still hadn’t told her he wasn’t an Arcane Knight.

‘Whoops. My bad.’

Chapter 16: Daisy Town

“Hannah Jones, where in Haru’s name do you think you’re going?” Mrs. Jones demanded.

Somewhere in a small town known as Daisy, a mother and daughter were in the middle of having a small argument.

Hannah rolled her eyes and kept her hand on the door handle, about to head out. “I’m just going to go check up on Susie.” The brown-haired girl huffed out.

“Not anymore, you’re not.” Her mother, Mrs. Jones, stood at the top of the stairs of their home and stared down at the railing toward her. “You know it’s too dangerous to be going out at a time like this.”

“I’ll be fine.” Hannah sighed. “You’re just being worried over nothing.”

“No daughter of mine is leaving the house at night, not when our town has a curfew!” Mrs. Jones hobbled down the stairs and moved to the entryway of the house, grabbing her daughter by the ear. “Captain Garon made it clear he doesn’t want anyone going out once the sun sets! I won’t have you getting me fined!”

“Let go of my ear!” Hannah slapped her mom’s hand away and grunted. “I don’t care about some stupid curfew. Susie needs me more. She’s been getting worse lately. I’m sure Garon will understand; she’s his daughter, after all.”

Mrs. Jones felt her face soften a bit as she stared down at her daughter. Susie was Hannah’s only friend and recently had been diagnosed by a doctor as having some sort of illness that left her bedridden. Hannah often went to go see her friend at every chance she got. At least until the curfew started.

Daisy Town wasn’t like other places. Not anymore. For the past month, the town has been on its own, an Arcane Knight refusing to show and help them, leading to them all having to follow the orders of Garon, who was doing his best to keep them safe from the ‘threat' that endangered their town.

“You really want to go see her?” Mrs. Jones asked quietly.

“I do.” Hannah nodded eagerly.

“Fine, fine.” Mrs. Jones tied the bathrobe she wore around herself and grunted. “But I’m coming with you.”

“Mom—”

“No buts about it, missy!” Mrs. Jones shook her head. “If you want to go out during curfew, I’m walking you to Susie’s house, and then we’re walking back. It’s too damn cold for us to even be doing this, so don’t think you’ll get to chat up your friend for long.”

Hannah nodded and smiled softly. She reached for the handle, turning it. “Thanks. You’re the best mom.”

Not even a second later, the door exploded, something smashing into it from the outside the moment Hannah turned the handle. Hannah screamed as she was knocked down, and Mrs. Jones felt herself being flung back. The older woman crashed into her wall headfirst, and the world began to spin around her.

The world spun around her, and Mrs. Jones tried to focus, but it was impossible due to the head wound she now had. She looked up, her vision blurring, and her eyes widened by what she saw. Fire swirled through the entrance of their home, jutting forward as if it were alive. Hannah screamed as the fire twisted around her and actually managed to wrap fully around her ankle, and it began to drag her out the door. Mrs. Jones scrambled forward and lunged for her daughter’s hand, but she wasn’t fast enough, and the twisting fire yanked Hannah outside.

“No!” Mrs. Jones screamed so loud the entirety of Daisy Town heard it. “Hannah!”

***

‘Why in Haru’s name is it so cold?’ Davi thought to himself, and he resisted the urge to shiver. ‘I hate this.’

It had started off simple enough.

The walk from Gladiolus to Daisy didn’t seem like it would be all that bad. Gladiolus was made up of vast farmlands that stretched out as far as the eye could see, going on and on. It was when the two of them had stepped out of Gladiolus’s lands, though, that 'it' started.

Davi felt a slight chill crawl up his spine, and his scar started to ache. It started in the center of his eyes, and it rapidly worked its way through the side of his face around the nasty circle that clung to him. Olivia was in the same position as him, shivering more and more as they walked down the road.

Crops and apple trees had been on either side of them, but the longer they traveled, the grayer everything started to become. Trees became black and dead, and the grass started to wither and fade. Amongst the gray, the color white began to appear more than any other as a stream of snow poured from the sky, picking up speed the further they walked. Gone were the crops and the cozy warmth of Gladiolus. The closer they got to Daisy, the colder it became, until soon, they were trudging through ankle-deep snow.

There was just one issue.

It was the middle of summer.

“Why is it snowing?” Olivia felt her teeth clack together as shivers hit her repeatedly. “It was sunny and warm only a few miles back!”

Davi opened his Shadow Vault up and pulled out a coat, tossing it to Olivia, who eagerly caught it. “Likely a mage or something who is altering the weather just around this part of the land.”

Olivia forced a nod, still shivering as she looked down at the coat Davi gave her. “That makes sense. Bruno would sometimes do something similar at Fri. He could make it snow whenever he wanted, even on blazing hot days. It was still never this cold, though! Also, this coat is really cute.” It was made for women and felt like a mix of wool and cotton. It was cut off past the shoulders and wasn’t exactly created for winter weather, but it was still warm enough. A black ribbon went through it near the top, forming a bow, and the rest of the coat was a snow white that matched her hair. She doubted Davi would ever wear something like this. “Where did you even get something like this?”

“A dungeon.”

“Huh!” Olivia made a face as she slipped the jacket on over her school uniform. “Is this like a magic item or something? Those are always showing up in dungeons!”

“Nope.” Davi shook his head. “Magic items are only in big dungeons and appear at the end as a reward for finishing it. I get all my stuff when I find it lying around after someone else failed to clear the dungeon.”

“Failed to clear?” Olivia glanced down at the dress, then let out a squeak. “You mean dead people? Like people enter a dungeon and die in the middle of it! Is this a dead girl's dress?”

“I couldn’t tell the gender of the skeleton.” Davi gave a lazy shrug, which didn’t help ease Olivia’s nerves. “Most dungeons will be filled with all sorts of loot and remains of different people I can come along and snatch up.”

“I guess that explains why all your gear is so old and hand-me-downs… I’m pretty sure that’s graverobbing.” She glanced back at Davi, who still wasn't wearing a coat. Now that she looked closer, she noticed he wasn't shivering either. “Did you only have one coat?” She asked, feeling a little bad since he gave it to her. He did have on a hoodie, but it was thin and more for style rather than warmth.

“No, I have others.”

“So why aren't you wearing one?” Olivia questioned. Davi had a strange look on his face. The man’s head was cocked up, staring at the black clouds above, letting the snowflakes fall onto his face. His lips were pursed together in a thin line. She was used to his blank look, but this was the closest he had ever looked to being mad. “Is something wrong?” She asked meekly.

Davi stayed silent for a moment and held his hand out. He watched the snow settle into it, and a lot of different emotions seemed to flash through his eyes. “I’m fine. I just don’t like the cold.” He finally said, though he still didn't pull out a jacket for himself. “Let’s keep going. Maybe we’ll find the source for this cold at Daisy.”

“Okay.”

Davi walked down the path, trudging through the snow. He could feel Olivia’s gaze fixed on his back. The girl was staring at him now because, for a moment, he had let his mask slip. That was a mistake he’d have to not repeat again.

He still needed her after all.

The snow kept coming, getting thicker and colder, and soon it was less snow and just pure ice. That was when the town finally came into view. Daisy, unlike Gladiolus, had a massive stone wall that circled around it. The fields outside of the city were empty, and there were no crops or people plowing about. What really concerned Davi, though, was the fact that the gates were wide open. Normally, guards would be stationed about, yet as they approached closer, he saw nothing. No soldiers or officers of any kind to make sure the wrong sort of people didn’t simply walk in.

“T-this is kind of creepy.” Olivia felt her voice crack slightly as she and Davi stepped past the gate and entered Daisy. “It’s like a ghost town or something.”

Just like outside the wall, there wasn’t anyone to greet them. No guards or villagers going about their day, nor any kids playing in the streets. The buildings were all made from stone, with slanted roofs, and the town itself was a lot bigger than Gladiolus was. It had twisting alleyways and narrow paths that stretched out in winding paths. None of the buildings looked damaged, and the snow past the gate had been cleared out and scooped away. If the entire town really did become some big ghost town, then it would have had to just happen.

And of course, when she pulled her phone out, it no longer responded, which meant either a dungeon was nearby or they were in a dungeon. Since the air didn’t taste wrong, and she didn’t feel the negative effects on her mana, she was willing to bet that meant a dungeon was nearby.

Davi crouched down and placed his hand on the ground. He closed his eyes for a moment and stayed still, not moving. Eventually, he removed his hand.

“Did you sense anything?” Olivia asked.

Davi shook his head. “Nothing nearby. My scar aches when a monster or a dungeon is close. It's an ability I have, Danger Sense. Anyway, that's how I detected the whales, back on the ship. But the range isn't huge, so whatever's going on here is probably too far away. Or it's hiding its killing intent. My Danger Sense doesn't really flag something if they can hide that intent, which is how that salamander caught me by surprise.”

"Oh, okay, that's a helpful ability," Olivia nodded, understanding. “Then why did you touch the ground?”

“Wanted to see how cold the stone felt.”

“What?”

Davi began to walk once more, not bothering to explain himself. He did that a lot; Olivia was starting to realize. It was starting to get a little annoying. Either way, she followed after her companion. As they walked the winding streets of Daisy, it soon became apparent where everyone in the town was. Davi felt his ears twitch as he heard a commotion. He turned a corner, arriving at the town square. It was bustling with people. The town wasn’t actually empty; everyone had all just been gathered in the middle for some odd reason.

All of Daisy seemed present, at least a thousand or so people crowding the area. Every citizen wore heavy coats and yelled at a figure standing up on a stage. The stage was directly in the middle of the town square and had several guards, all wielding spears or magic staffs, who stood behind the person the people were yelling at, who Davi assumed was the baron. He was an older man with wild gray hair and a bushy beard who leaned on an old walking stick. The old man looked like he was doing his best to address the crowd, but it wasn’t going well for him, as the people just kept yelling in rage.

“They seem mad,” Olivia noted, wincing slightly as the two of them arrived at the back of the crowd.

“What’s going on?” Davi asked, turning someone around. It was an older woman who had an annoyed look on her face.

“What’s going on is the baron and the guards aren’t doing their job.” The woman spat out. “He’s trying to tell us to keep calm even though we’ve already lost nine people!”

Olivia felt her eyes go wide, and she gasped. “Nine people? What are you talking about?”

The woman’s gaze shifted over to Olivia, and her look slightly softened. “You guys aren’t from around here, are you?”

“Nope,” Davi responded in a simple tone. “Just got here. What’s going on exactly?”

The woman turned back to look at the baron, who still hadn’t managed to get the crowd to settle down. Everyone was shouting, and with how many voices there were, it was nearly impossible to make out anything anyone was saying. “It started about four or five months ago.” The woman said quietly. Her gaze dropped to the ground, and her lip quivered a bit. “Something started showing up randomly. A scaled beast that breathes fire—”

“A dragon?” Davi casually placed his hands on the woman’s shoulder, and he began to shake her. He might have looked and sounded excited if not for the fact that he still had his typical blank expression and spoke in his quiet tone. “It’s a Dragon, right? That’s what is attacking you guys?”

“Davi!” Olivia grabbed her companion and forced his hands away. “Don’t scare the poor woman.”

“I need to know, though,” Davi said flatly. “A scaled creature that breathes fire—it’s gotta be a dragon, right?”

“It looks more like a giant snake than a dragon.” The woman grunted, causing Davi’s blank look to somehow become even more dead-looking. “Sorry? I guess that’s not the answer you wanted to hear.”

“A snake?” Davi seemed to literally deflate, and he sighed. “Damn, just like that stupid, derpy lizard that was attacking Fri.” He sulked and kicked a rock. ‘Why couldn’t it be you, Dragon?’ He thought to himself. ‘I thought Lady Fate was finally on my side, but nope.’

Olivia patted him on the shoulder and frowned softly. “It seems similar to what was happening in my village. You said this thing was showing up and attacking you guys? I didn’t notice any destroyed buildings. When my village was attacked, we lost buildings and had to extinguish the fire, but your town seems fine.”

The woman shook her head. “We’re hardly fine. Look at the damn sky; it’s been snowing for weeks, even though it’s the middle of the summer.” The lady growled. “That snake has plunged our town into a blizzard. It doesn’t harm any of the buildings because it doesn’t need to. It simply barges in when it pleases, grabs one of us, and runs off.” Olivia looked horrified at that. “At first, it would show up every few weeks, but now it’s appearing constantly. Every week, one of us goes missing. We’ve already lost nine people.”

“That’s horrible! Why hasn’t anything been done about that?” Olivia demanded.

“That’s what we’ve been wondering.” The woman gave a dry chuckle and glanced back at the baron.

“That’s enough!” A loud voice declared, this one piercing past the crowd's yelling, and a bolt of fire blasted up into the air, getting everyone's attention. “This isn’t the time for us to be fighting. We need to come together, now more than ever. Your baron is trying to speak. Please listen to him.”

A younger man in his early forties or late thirties stood beside the baron now. He was dressed in the same mix of winter wear and armor as the guards, but his suit looked a lot more expensive and had a black cape that flowed behind it. His hand was on the hilt of his sword, and his eyes were narrowed as he scanned the crowd, which had finally stopped screaming. He was quite handsome with slicked-back brown hair and piercing eyes that made Olivia take note of how everyone seemed to ease up once the man appeared. Whoever he was, just by showing up, everyone became a lot more confident.

Fire trickled around the man, hugging him tightly, and it expanded out, burning away some of the snow and ice that clung to everyone. His flames started to softly wrap around each person but didn’t burn them. Instead, it helped to warm them up and put them at ease.

The baron cleared his throat. “Thank you, Garon. As always, you’re a great asset.” The elder man stepped forward and took a moment to meet the eyes of his people. “Citizens of Daisy. I know that times are tough right now. We’re all scared. With the recent attacks, it’s only natural. I’m here to say, though, that hope is not lost. It is only a matter of time until an Arcane Knight arrives.”

“That’s what you said last time!” Someone in the crowd yelled.

“Yeah!” Another one called out. “How much longer before a Knight arrives! We’ve lost friends and family!”

“Garon.” The elder sighed. “You speak to them. Please.”

“Yes, sir.” Garon stepped forward, and the yelling stopped. “People, please have faith for a little bit longer. I know that right now it seems like we’re stuck in a hopeless situation, but you need to understand that despair has not won yet. All we have to do is hold out a little bit longer. As days pass, sooner or later, someone from the outside world is going to notice that Daisy hasn’t responded, and that will lead to an Arcane Knight arriving. It’s only a matter of time.” Garon drew his sword, and more fire ran along the blade, superheating it. “Until then! I will keep you all safe! I’ll fight the threat alone if I have to! So don’t give up hope yet! We will survive this!”

Mutters went through the crowd, and a small kindling of hope seemed to bubble up. People seemed to believe in Garon despite everything that was going on.

Well, almost everyone… “Ha. Yeah, right.” The older woman sneered and stomped her foot. “Help isn’t showing up.”

“Why not?” Olivia questioned. “Can’t you guys just send a request in to the Knights? They have their own page on the internet, so it should be easy to reach them.”

“Not for us.” The woman shook her head sadly. “That isn’t the first time the baron and Garon have put on this show. That’s the fifth time Garon’s given the speech. Because of the monster, all magitech has shut down, so we can’t actually call for help or get ahold of the Knights, making it impossible to call one out here. We’re stuck waiting for someone in the outside world to notice what’s happening to us and call one in for us.” The woman bit her lip hard enough to cause a trail of blood to run down her chin. “And because none of those bastards will show up, my daughter, Hannah, is…” The woman trailed off. “She was taken last week…”

“That’s horrible.” Olivia felt her voice crack a bit, and she had to fight back tears. Fri had been lucky. The dungeon that appeared near it had been up on the mountain and was a weak one, so the field that cut off magitech hadn’t hit Fri. The dungeon here, though, was either really close or huge if it was able to shut off all magitech in Daisy, plunging the city back to the Elf Ages. “Your own daughter was taken…”

“She’s about your age.” The woman croaked out. “I don’t even know if she’s dead or alive. I couldn’t do anything.” The woman’s voice quivered. “I was only able to watch it steal her away from me. A hellish flame that took on the form of a snake. It charged straight through our front door and grabbed her, ripping her out of my arms, then left the way it came.” Tears were actively streaming down the woman’s face now. “We’re doomed. Doomed to all die out, unless an Arcane Knight arrives to save us.”

Olivia looked to Davi, but he remained silent and instead watched Garon. The man was speaking to all his guards, no doubt trying to come up with a plan for tonight once the snake came back. There was only so much normal mages and town guards could do, though.

Davi wondered what Garon must have been going through. The man likely knew a Knight wasn’t going to show up this time either, yet he was still trying to keep people's spirits up. That could only last for so long, though. Sooner or later, even Garon would be unable to keep people calm. If something wasn’t done soon, then Daisy would collapse long before the snake took the last person.

A town couldn’t survive like this.

Davi turned away after that and began to march off, leaving the woman and the other townsfolk behind. His hand absently rubbed at his scar. It was throbbing.

“Where are you going?” Olivia asked, running after him.

“We still have that package to deliver, remember?” Davi looked around, taking in the somber faces of the people as they walked the streets, and his eyes scanned the many buildings looking for a blacksmith shop.

“Right.” Olivia bit her lip and glanced back at the sad woman. “Why didn’t you say you were an Arcane Knight? You’re going to do something about this, all right?”

“There’s not much I can do right now.” Davi glanced down at his hand and squeezed it into a fist. It was shaking a bit from the cold. He really hated the cold. “My danger sense isn't picking anything up. Still, I won’t just sit by and do nothing. I’m going to learn as much as I can.”

Olivia nodded her head eagerly. “Right! And I’ll totally back you up! I’ll be like your squire!”

“Olivia… I’m not a—” ‘Not a Knight’ was easy to say, yet he found the word getting caught in his throat. What happens after he says he isn’t a Knight? Does the adventure come to an end? It was just starting, and the truth was, he was having fun. It had been a while since he traveled with anyone. “Never mind. I think that’s the shop.”

Just a little bit longer.

There was no harm in keeping the act up for a little bit longer. Right?

Chapter 17: A Talk With Garon

The blacksmith shop in question was nestled between two alleyways. It was open, and even in the cold, smoke poured out of the chimney above, and an aura of warmth came off it.

The building itself looked more like a stable that had been repurposed, only having a few railings that held it up instead of walls, and there were scraps of iron lying around on the tables. There was an old oak desk inside, and a tall, buff man with a bushy red beard was propped on his desk, reading a book.

“Oh, I read that one!” Olivia’s eyes sparkled when her eyes scanned the cover of the book. “I love how it ends with the main character tragically dying!”

The blacksmith took a deep breath and then closed his book, sliding it away. “Thanks for spoiling it.” Olivia felt her smile fade, and the man let out a grunt. “Now, what the hell can I do for you two? I’m not in the mood to craft anything right now, so if you’re here for anything, you best be on your way.”

In the modern age, blacksmiths were very important since they crafted magical swords and guns for Arcane Knights and the military. It was a noble job, one Davi looked up to since his own father had been a blacksmith.

“Row Shadow Vault.” The man flinched back as Davi activated his spell, but he calmed down when Davi casually dropped a box of fresh fish on his desk. The man opened the box and whistled, finding the food frozen and perfectly preserved. “I was told by a merchant in Gladiolus to bring this to you.”

The angry look on the man’s face faded and was replaced with a grin. “Ah, so that bastard’s still kicking, huh? How is Farkiss?”

“I never got his name.” Davi shrugged casually. “Said he didn’t want to head out here. I know why now.”

The man’s smile vanished, and he winced. “Aye. It’s a dangerous time in Daisy right now, with everything that’s been happening. That beast has been showing up every week now, and it’ll be due tonight.”

“Have you seen it?” Davi asked, raising an eyebrow.

The man shook his head. “Only guys that have laid eyes on it are the town guards and a few folks whose homes it broke into. It's fast and slippery. It never stays for long, always showing up and snatching someone away before it leaves. It can get into any house and always takes one person away each night it shows up.”

“That’s horrible.” Olivia clenched her hand into a fist. “Why are you guys putting up with it? I get you can’t call for an Arcane Knight since phones and computers aren’t working, but can’t you guys leave the town and get out of range and contact one that way?”

The blacksmith made a bit of a face. “Right, you two don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” Davi folded his arms, suddenly feeling worried.

“We can’t leave.” The man said, shocking both Davi and Olivia. “It started the day that snake showed up. There’s a magical barrier around the land. Folks can enter, but people can’t get out. Once you’ve stepped past the barrier, you’re stuck, unable to escape. The dungeon's field is also bigger than the barrier is wide, which is why we can’t get any calls out. We can’t escape even if we wanted to. We’re like a trapped animal, forced to wait for the snake to arrive and gobble us up one by one.”

Davi looked back at the town, watching several of the guards patrol the streets. “They must be running out of soldiers if it’s attacked so much.”

“Nah.” The man smirked. “They’re all fine. Those boys are tough. Managed to all survive going toe-to-toe with it every night. They’re the reason it is only able to take one person at a time. Still, they still aren’t Arcane Knights. Only so much they can do.”

“None of them have died?”

“They get a bit banged up sometimes, but Garon can use his fire magic to heal them.” The man chuckled. “He does a lot for us, picking up so many skills, all to help us out. It’s thanks to him and the other guards that we haven’t lost all hope yet. Poor guy must be going through a lot, though. He lost his wife recently, and his daughter has fallen ill. Now he’s become the protector of our town on top of everything else. I can’t imagine the stress he’s going through.”

“So not only has every guard survived, the town itself is never attacked, yet this creature always manages to steal at least one person away.” Davi rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “Olivia, can you stay here for a bit? I want to go check something out.”

“Sure, but where are you going?” Olivia asked.

“To pay Garon a visit.”

“What are you going to see him for?” The blacksmith asked, a bit suspicious.

Davi glanced back and gave a lazy, apathetic look that didn’t build confidence. “An Arcane Knight has come to save you all.”

Davi left the blacksmith's shop, leaving Olivia behind just in case. It was still the middle of the day, and there were several hours before the sun would set and night would emerge.

Daisy wasn’t small, but it wasn’t that big either. Most people were still going about their day as they normally would, despite everything that was happening. He got a few odd looks, as well as some nasty glances, mainly from the mages, but he managed to ignore most of them. Eventually, he found what he was looking for.

Garon, as it turns out, was a kind man. It didn’t take long for Davi to spot him, and when he did, he was taken aback by what he saw.

Garon was seated outside the library, with dozens of kids in front of him, reading them a fantasy book about the legendary hero Haru, the first Arcane Knight, and the Knight who helped defeat all the elves. All the kids were captivated, and several of the parents waited patiently for it to end. Despite everything that happened, the people seemed to have faith and trust in Garon, the same way they would have faith and trust in an Arcane Knight.

Davi silently watched Garon read to the kids. He stood in the darkness of the alleyway and kept his blank expression. He studied and watched the man until Garon finally finished the book. He wasn’t able to talk to the man, though, because already Garon was moving on to somewhere else in need of his help.

Garon went to a local orphanage and donated a hefty bag of Bells. Apparently, he did it a lot, from the sounds of it. Next, Garon went out to a training field near the back of the city and spent some time showing the various guards how to properly wield a sword and helped them with their footwork. Then he helped a farmer set up a new fence around part of the town and also helped chop down some extra firewood for the endless cold. He went out into the woods and helped the hunters catch some rabbits, and he picked herbs used for medicine.

‘He sure seems to be a likeable fellow.’ Davi thought to himself. ‘The people of his town won’t stop gushing about him.’

Again and again, Davi followed, staying just out of sight, lurking in the shadows, and he watched Garon. Over and over, Garon would go around and help the people out, no matter the task. And the people seemed to love him and cheered him on as he did so. Eventually, though, as it began to get late and the sky turned orange, Garon finally returned to where he truly belonged once the streets started to empty out.

It was a large stone building placed directly next to the baron’s office. It was half of a guard's barracks and half of a police station. Inside were dozens of other guards going about their day, and a woman sat behind the desk looking over paperwork. Davi stepped out of the shadows, and he silently entered the building, taking in the calm atmosphere.

He tapped on the bell. Then he hit it a few more times just because he liked the way it sounded. The woman’s eye twitched, and she shot him a nasty look. “Yes?” The woman asked.

“Yo.” Davi kept tapping the bell. “I’m looking for Garon.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Do you have an appointment?”

“I don’t know, do I?”

The woman let out a huff. “If you don’t have an appointment to see him, then I’m afraid you’ll have to make one.”

“Cool, how do I do that?”

“Maybe you should come back another time.”

“Maybe you should do your job better.” Normally, he would have kept those words to himself, but he was in a hurry.

“Excuse me!”

Davi peered past the woman and looked down the hallway, finding several doors, and one in the back looked fancier than the others. “I’m going to guess he’s in there.” He casually hopped over the woman’s desk and began to walk down the hallway. Instantly, one of the guards took a step toward him, but Davi quietly whispered a spell, opening his Shadow Vault up. The guard's foot sank into the shadows, causing the man to yelp and trip, crashing to the ground. He closed the vault after that, and to everyone else, it looked as if the guy had just tripped over his own two feet. He wasted no time and shoved his way into the room.

It was a large office room, and only a single person was seated inside. “Can I help you?” Garon sat behind an expensive desk and looked amused as Davi broke into his office. He raised his hand, and all the guards who had been about to grab Davi stopped. “What brings you here, young man?” Garon raised an eyebrow. “You’re an out-of-towner, right? I noticed you following me around. Do you have an issue or something, young man?”

Garon was extremely handsome despite being in his early forties with sleeked hair and an expensive uniform. His skin was flawless and perfect, and he had a fancy silver sword covered in a few gems. He had this air about him that was peaceful and calm and seemed like a good person.

Of course, Davi knew better than anyone that looks were deceiving. What often appeared as one thing was almost always the opposite. “I came to ask a few questions about everything that’s going on.” Davi closed the door and took a seat.

Garon kept his gaze fixed on Davi, his grin not leaving. “Of course. It makes sense you’d want to know what’s going on if you just arrived. It’s truly bad luck on your part that you showed up the way you did. I’m sure Daisy looks like it’s in quite a mess right now, but let me tell you, our town is truly a wonderful place once you get past this small road bump.”

“I wouldn’t call this a small bump,” Davi said flatly.

Garon let out a weak chuckle. “Yeah. I guess it isn’t.” The man gave a sad smile. “We’re holding out the best we can, though. If you’re new in town, let me reassure you, we will keep you and your girlfriend safe, just as we would anyone else. I’m here to personally defend everyone in Daisy.”

‘Girlfriend?’ Davi shook his head and decided not to say anything. “I can keep myself safe just fine. I’m pretty strong. That’s why I’d like to know what I’m dealing with. I was told you and the guards fought the snake.”

“Yes. We have.” Garon nodded his head and looked somber. “Every week it arrives; we’ve fought it back, giving it our all. Every time, well, someone goes missing.” The man’s lip quivered for a moment, and he shook his head. “We can repel the beast, but that’s it. Somehow, it always manages to snatch someone away before it goes, no matter how many guards we have. We’re all strong, but we’re still not on the level of a Knight, and so there is only so much we can truly do to a beast such as that. I don’t even know what this thing really is. It’s so fast and strong, it’s been impossible to get a good look at it, even in the middle of battle.”

Davi nodded. He imagined most people would feel sympathy for the situation Garon was in, but Davi was far from normal, and instead, he was met with a wave of annoyance at the fact that Garon seemed to be just as confused as everyone else. “I know you guys can’t leave Daisy because of the barrier, and the dungeon has shut off phones and computers, but wouldn’t someone realize something was wrong with your town when this place stopped paying taxes to the kingdom?”

Garon’s thumbs ideally began to play together, and the man looked bummed. “To be honest, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”

“It isn’t?”

“Well, it’s the first time our town has been in a blackout because of a monster, but Daisy is always losing power.” Garon sighed. “The elder, he’s not exactly competent. He inherited this place because he was the groomer for the king’s favorite hound, thirty or so years ago, and I guess that’s enough to equal baron status nowadays. The king gave this town to the baron, and even before that event, Daisy wasn’t the best place to live. We’ve made do, but the kingdom is used to not hearing back from us for months. Not to mention, with recent world events, I doubt anyone would be looking our way.” Garon glanced down, seemingly out of shame, and let out another heavy sigh. “I told everyone it’s only a matter of time before a Knight arrives, but I honestly have no idea how long it’ll be before one does show.”

“I see.”

“Oh, but don’t get it twisted.” Garon shook his head and forced his smile back in place. The man drew his sword, fire running along the blade, and he pointed it up. “I’m going to defend everyone with my life. I am the captain of the guard, after all. Arcane Knight or not, I’ll save my people!”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about this situation for much longer,” Davi stated. “I’ll help you guys slay the beast.”

Garon shook his head and frowned, sheathing his sword. “I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t accept that. You don’t look like an officer or a guard, and you’re just a kid. I can’t just let some kid who showed up battle a deadly monster. I appreciate the gesture, but I’d be unable to live with myself if I allowed someone so young to get harmed. Please leave it to us, and the Knight that will eventually show.”

“And what are you going to do when an Arcane Knight does show up?” Davi asked, raising an eyebrow.

“My guards and I will back them up to ensure they slay the magical beast. Need you even ask?”

“So when a Knight arrives, you’ll help them?”

“Of course.”

Davi let out a sigh. He wanted to avoid it coming to this, but if the snake was coming tonight, he’d fight it no matter what, so there was no point in hiding. “I’m an Arcane Knight. Row Shadow Armor.” Ebony armor exploded out of his shadow and formed over him, coating him head-to-toe. Silence filled the room, and Garon’s look completely shifted. Davi remained casually seated, his arms folded to his chest, a fiery blue light seeping out of his helm. Olis had told him not to do this. In the past, he had been accidentally claiming to be a Knight, but now this was absolutely a crime. Still, he had run out of options. One last time, he’d pretend to be an Arcane Knight.

He would be the Knight that this town needed.

Garon opened his mouth and then closed it. His smile was totally gone, and he almost looked nervous. “I could tell you were a strong mage. Your body has been leaking a ton of mana, quite intensely as well, but for you to actually be a Knight, I… I once tried out for them myself. Three times, actually...” Garon admitted, a little ashamed. “I wasn’t able to make the cut, though, no matter what I tried or did. I was never good enough for your little group. So instead of living the good life of a Knight, I’m stuck here as a useless guard. How did you get here? What brings a Knight like you here?”

“Does it matter?” Davi hummed.

“R-right. Of course. I—” Garon closed his mouth and forced his throat to clear. The man sweated some more. It had been easy to look collected to a young teenager, but acting that way to a figure draped in bulky, shadowy armor was another matter altogether. Garon shivered slightly as the Knight stood imposingly over him, looking down at the man.

Davi’s armor pulled away, dripping off his body, and slid back into the ocean that was his shadow. Garon stared down at the inky black mass in shock, and for a moment, he swore it almost took on the shape of a bird. He felt like prey that was about to be devoured if he made a wrong move.

“I’m going to stay up tonight and wait outside with your guards,” Davi stated. “When the snake shows up, I’ll slay it, and you can help me do it. No matter how strong it is, I should be able to manage it if all of you guys are backing me up.”

“Great.” Garon gave a nervous chuckle. “I’m glad it could all work out then.” Davi looked back at Garon, and the two had a stare-down for a moment.

“As am I.” And with those words, Davi left the room, leaving Garon behind.

Garon remained seated in his room and looked down at his hand, which was shaking. “T-that brat is a Knight?” Garon grabbed his head and groaned. “No, it doesn’t matter. I’ll get what I want and finish this damn deal. I have to. Knight, or no Knight, this all ends tonight.”

Meanwhile, outside of the office, Davi left the station after that, still getting a few looks from the guards, but none of them did anything to him even after he flipped them all off and stole the bell off the mean lady’s desk.

Davi walked down the path and toyed with the bell, ringing it over and over again as he marched down the street. Playing with the bell was a welcome distraction from the pain that was going through the left side of his face. His scar had been throbbing more and more ever since he stepped foot in Daisy.

Garon certainly looked like a nice man. He looked like the hero of the town and seemed to be doing his best. “I almost bought it for a moment.” Davi drummed away on the bell and winced as the pain in the side of his face grew worse. “If not for how badly my scar reacted, I might have actually believed he was a nice guy.”

He’d trust his gut feeling over how someone actually looked and acted any day. Garon was hiding something. Davi didn’t know what exactly, but he knew that there was more to this puzzle piece than what had been revealed so far, and he was looking forward to getting to solve it.

“Oh, you’re back?” Davi looked up and saw the face of the blacksmith. The man was reading a new book, one about superheroes and aliens called Lords. That wasn’t all Davi noticed, though.

“Where’s Olivia?” He asked. The white-haired girl was gone.

The blacksmith gave a lazy shrug. “She stepped out for something. Went in the direction of the academy.”

“The academy?” Davi poked his head out of the shop and looked out at the town. Most of the buildings in Daisy were short and less than three stories tall. It was very old-fashioned looking and extremely narrow, so much so that there weren’t any cars or motorbikes resting at the end of the street since everyone walked to where they needed to go. The only building that stood out was the magic academy. Like the last two he had seen, it was a jagged tower at the edge of the city. It went all the way up to the clouds above and was covered in hundreds of runes that danced across it. “Right, that place…”

No one knew where these buildings came from. They weren’t built by humans, and all the cities were instead created around the tower. Some people thought the towers might have once belonged to the elves, or maybe the giants or dwarves. In the end, it really didn’t matter since all those races had been wiped out during the time of Haru.

Haru had wiped out all threats to humanity, and it had been because of her that humans were able to master magic and make it to such modern times. She had also been the one to slay the Dragon Emperor and cause the dragons to all go extinct. Of course, despite the fact that dragons died out roughly a thousand years ago, people would sometimes claim they’d seen one, with the last notable recording of a dragon being a hundred years ago.

Davi glanced away from the tower and up to the sky above, which was starting to turn black. Night was rapidly approaching.

“Hey?” Davi turned to look back at the blacksmith, who had now set his book down. “Are you really an Arcane Knight?”

“Do I not look like one?”

“Well, your mana is… No. Never mind.” The man shook his head, and his knuckles turned white as he squeezed down on the book he was holding. The man bowed his head down. “Make it pay. Kill it. Wipe that damn snake out of this world.”

Davi looked back out at Daisy. “Of course.”

He hated the cold. The snake made things cold, and so he hated it.

“It all ends tonight. Daisy will be free after this. You have my word.”

Chapter 18: Cold

‘Yep. That’s a barrier, alright.’ Davi rubbed his chin and stared out at the mana that formed into a solid wall. ‘How did I not notice this earlier?’

After finishing his conversation with the blacksmith, Davi made his way out of the town. He was in a hurry since the sun would soon set, but he wanted to check on the barrier that he had been told about.

Like monsters, dungeons could come in all sorts of different forms. The one that was currently plaguing Daisy was one of the strongest ones he had seen, so strong, in fact, it had taken the mana that was in the air and caused it to become solid, but only on one side, allowing for people to get in but for no one to get out. This solid mana was also the reason it was freezing cold, since it was constantly lowering the temperature and trapping the cold in, not letting it escape.

The barrier in question formed a large dome and was half a mile outside of the city gates. It was impossible to see since mana was clear when not invoking a spell, but Davi could feel it. Whenever he held his hand out, it felt like he was touching glass. It went up past the many buildings, and it was impossible to know how tall it truly was.

Besides Daisy, part of the forest around the town was also trapped in the barrier, and most of the animals, like deer or birds, had long frozen to death. The closer someone got to the barrier, the colder it would get, which was why Olivia had been affected so badly when they were walking down the path. The two of them must have stepped through the barrier without even noticing it, and once they got into the town, the cold had lessened a bit, which was why Olivia had stopped complaining about it.

Davi pulled his fist back, and he punched out as hard as he could, slamming it into the invisible barrier. The air shimmered a bit, and he winced. “Ow.” The wall stayed up, not even dented or cracked. “The only way to take this thing down is to kill the alpha. What a pain…” Davi struck the wall again just to be sure, but it was the same result.

He considered busting out some of his guns or bombs, but he was running out of the good stuff since the last few dungeons he had entered lacked anything worth taking.

“Looks like we’re doing this the hard way.” Davi glanced up and watched as the sun began to dip more and more. The orange was almost entirely gone now, and night was rapidly approaching. ‘It all ends tonight. I was late showing up, and I can’t do anything for the people I failed to save, but I can at least attempt to avenge them.’

Davi left and headed back for Daisy. The streets were entirely empty now, and all the houses were boarded up with wooden barriers or scrap metal. A few people even rolled their dead cars out in front of their buildings and used mana to place them over the door.

Olivia had described Daisy as a ghost town when she first stepped foot into the place, and Davi had to agree with her. The town had this strange atmosphere. One that he didn’t like.

Soon enough, he made his way to the tower that resided at the edge of the city. Strange twisting lines formed runic-looking shapes that ran along the stone and moved across it. They never stayed in one place for very long and kept turning and swirling, forming words in a language long forgotten. The heavy stone doors opened on their own as he approached.

He had been in a tower a couple of times, but he usually avoided them since they always felt off.

The outside of the tower was as tall as a skyscraper and was perfectly round in shape, going up to the clouds above. It lacked windows or damage despite how old it was, and it wasn’t that thick. The inside of the tower was like stepping into another world, almost like a dungeon. It was much larger than it should have been and was extremely wide.

As Davi stepped through, he found himself standing in a large square room that was about as big as a football field. It magically fit inside the tower, and there were dozens of stone pillars scattered through the room that went all the way up to where the roof was. Along the walls were different archways that also led to their own room that defied logic and physics. Each room had a specific purpose, although in modern times, all of the rooms had been repurposed as classrooms. Carved into the stone above each area were words that told what classes would be held.

Math, history, and language were the most common, but there were also classes like economics, alchemy, enchanting, wand-crafting, sword fighting, study of magical beasts, and dungeon crawling.

As Davi stepped through the one listed as Dungeon Crawling, he felt himself suddenly jerk, and the next thing he knew, he was standing on the air. He wasn’t flying; that was something he couldn’t do, no matter how much he’d love to do so. Instead, the air itself had grown solid and supported him. Beneath him was a large forest, with bright green grass and twisting trees. He also spotted Olivia down below.

The white-haired girl was low to the ground, inching herself forward through a bush. On the other side was a small group of hunched-over goblins who hadn’t noticed Olivia.

Without warning, Olivia jumped out of the bushes and let out a loud cry, then cast a spell. “Row Blood Knife!” A crimson red dagger gushed to life at the tip of her wand, and she rammed the blade through the throat of one of the goblins, the monster totally caught off guard by her sneak attack. Before the second one could even think of reacting, she lunged at it again and stabbed up with her knife, getting it in the gut.

Since she always got exhausted and dizzy from casting spells, she was trying to create a solid object that she could fight with instead of sending out multiple spells back-to-back.

Her knife was finely crafted, and Davi could tell Olivia was quite skilled and clearly knew a lot of spells, but her form was sloppy. The goblin she stabbed in the gut was still alive and slammed its club into the side of Olivia’s head, throwing her to the ground, while the third one lunged at her.

“Too weak.” Davi turned when he heard the voice and saw that he wasn’t alone. Standing in the air next to him was Garon. The leader of the town guard stared down at the forest and shook his head. “I knew it would be like this when I saw that she had blood magic. You don’t want to fight goblins up close. Just blast them with a spell and be done with them. She can’t, though, can she? Because she needs to conserve her strength.” Garon looked up and met Davi’s eyes. “I take it she is your squire?”

“Not really?” Davi shrugged.

“She’s not?” Garon looked a little surprised and turned to look back at the fight that was going on down below. The two goblins were smashing their clubs down into Olivia, who was unable to use her knife in a way to kill either of them quickly enough. “It’s a shame. She’s so young and has the same look in her eyes I did when I was her age.” The man sadly shook her head. “But blood magic? Look at that dagger. It’s so finely crafted, yet it doesn’t matter. She can’t win.”

“Why not?” Davi asked, letting out a soft hum.

“Because everyone knows blood magic is useless.”

“Then all she needs to do is make her magic useful.” Davi shrugged. “She hasn’t quit yet.”

“Row Blood Shield!” Along Olivia’s left arm, a round shield formed, which she lifted just in time, blocking one of the goblin’s clubs.

The monster stumbled back as its weapon bounced back, and it let out a scream, but Olivia cut it off by smashing her shield into its stomach. Spikes bubbled up and formed around the edge of the shield, and it began to rapidly spin like a buzz saw, allowing her to slice straight through, and with only a bit of effort, she split the creature in two. The last goblin was the one she had already stabbed, and it stared at her in horror, but before it could attack or run, she pointed her wand at it, and the knife that was attached to the end of it fired out like a bullet and smashed into the center of the goblin's head, killing it.

Garon looked slightly impressed and let out a low whistle. “Well, I’ll be damned.” The man said. “She managed to take out some goblins. What’s her plan when it comes to the big one, though?”

A tree exploded into a hail of wooden debris as a large ogre let out a roar and stomped forward. Olivia had only used two spells, but the damage she had taken earlier left her body weakened, and she couldn’t even use her third spell. She dropped to her knees, let out a sigh, and closed her eyes.

Her eyes instantly snapped open when the monster's club smashed down and rammed into the helmet of a figure clad in black armor.

Davi’s armor twitched, and the surface along the metal rippled as if it were made out of a liquid. The kinetic force of the ogre’s attack faded away as if it had never existed. “Row Shadow Vault.” Davi’s claymore blasted into his hand, and he moved forward at a fast speed. The ogre barely had time to process the fact that its right leg was sliced clean off as Davi appeared on the other side of it. “Row Shadow Vault.” The shadow beneath Davi expanded and opened, and the monster fell into it, the creature’s eyes going wide with horror. It got about halfway, its waist dipping beneath the surface, and then Davi closed his vault.

There was a terrible tearing sound, and the shadow suddenly returned to normal, the ogre’s lower half nowhere to be seen. Red poured out of it, and the creature gurgled and died.

Olivia felt a little sick, and her shoes became red and sticky. Her teacher once told her that you shouldn’t fight an ogre up close, but the rules never seemed to apply to Davi.

“Are you okay?” Olivia glanced up and found those fiery blue eyes peering her way. She fought back a shudder and nodded. “Good.” Davi’s armor vanished, and he dropped his sword back in the vault, and she felt herself ease up once she saw his face.

“You saved me again…” Olivia said, sounding a bit bitter.

“Should I not have?”

“Well, you didn’t need to. None of this is real.” As Olivia spoke, the forest suddenly vanished in a bright flash. Now, instead of being outside, the two of them were in a large stone room that looked similar to the classroom that had been in Lotus, though this one lacked the laughing students. All the injuries she received vanished, as did the blood loss. “That was a simulation.”

“How come it still works?” Davi folded his arms and cocked his head to the side. “I thought Magitech doesn’t work because we’re near a dungeon.”

“Allow me to explain.” Olivia jumped when she heard the voice, and she saw Garon casually sitting on the desk. The pretty man had a smile on his face and looked amused. “Many of these towers lack Magitech since they come from a thousand years in the past. Magitech is in some parts but not all, since most nobles don’t want to mess with them too much for fear of breaking them and not being able to recreate the elven enchantments that allow them to function. This room used illusion magic and the tower's own mana to set up a dream-like state in the people who enter. In the real world, we’re all standing in place and not actually moving or casting spells. It just looks like we are. These simulations are used to create mock battles with monsters and other such creatures. There are a lot of different settings, and the one you saw was level one, and the easiest one to pass.”

Olivia felt her cheeks heat up a bit, and she looked away. She knew that there were other levels, but those were only available to those who could afford them. Poor kids like her got the basic package. Not like it mattered, though, since she had never been able to beat level one.

“W-what are you doing here?” She asked after some time.

Garon let out a sheepish laugh. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to watch. I simply came when I saw the tower was on. I was afraid maybe my daughter was trying to beat her record.”

“Her record?” Davi raised an eyebrow, and Garon’s smile faded.

The older man stood up and walked to the wall away from the door. He reached out and placed his palm on the stone, and all along the cracks, a glowing blue pulse flickered out. Blue lines started to seep out and twisted, forming into more runes, before they shifted and became words that both Olivia and Davi recognized.

It was a list of names followed by a series of numbers. It showed how long it took someone to complete the first test. All the way at the top was the name ‘Susie Nyx. Zero hours, zero minutes, eight seconds.’ Garon ran his finger along the name.

“My daughter used to come here all the time. She took as many free lessons as she could and even got a day job to pay for extra classes.” Garon sounded almost proud. “It all worked out. She finished the first test in eight seconds. The best in our town.”

“Eight seconds!” Olivia gasped. Even Ash had taken about half a minute, and Bruno only got it down to thirteen seconds. “Seriously? She’s that good?”

“She inherited my fire magic.” Garon bragged, and his lip twisted back into a smirk. “She’s almost as skilled as I am. She can use every school of magic and has dozens of spells saved up.”

“What do you mean dozens of spells saved up?” Davi questioned.

“Like she has a lot of spells in her grimoire,” Olivia explained.

“Grim what?”

“Have you seriously been living under a rock?” Olivia questioned, and she made a face. “Grimoires aren’t even a new thing. They’ve been around ever since people first got magic.” She placed her thumb to her forehead. “The human brain is kind of sucky. We weren’t meant to use magic since it was an elf thing, and we only have it because of Haru. Our brains can only do so much with magic, which is why it’s hard for a mage to make a spell. We can’t just wave our wand and say some words and cause something to happen; we need to have the spell unlocked, sort of like in a video game. Most people can only unlock a new spell, though, by either spending years working on a concept or being put into a stressful situation and unlocking it through a strong desire to overcome something. This is why you only have two spells, Davi. It’s super difficult to create a new spell on your own.”

“So then why do you have a bunch?” Davi asked. He had seen Olivia make a knife, a scythe, flowers, rope, shields, and so much more, each one being its own spell.

“That’s where grimoires come in.” Olivia giggled. “I’d show you if I could, but my phone doesn’t work, and that’s where my grimoire is saved. Back in the day, people carried around books, and whenever they gained a new spell, it would be added to their book. Nowadays, though, all our books are on our phones. Since it’s so hard to create new spells, someone got it in their head to start selling spells after he found a dead fire mage’s grimoire and discovered he could add the pages from that mage’s book to his own, and he’d unlock the spells and be able to use them as if he always had them. Mages who unlock spells they don’t want can sell their spells off and have them be extracted, and then those spells can then be sold on the market to someone who has the same type of magic.”

“Why would anyone want to sell their spells, though?” Davi asked. “I thought it was hard to get them; wouldn’t you want to keep them?”

“Most people do, but you have to consider the people who unlocked their spells during a stressful time. Sometimes they don’t want to remember what happened to them to unlock that spell and would rather just get rid of it. Other times, a mage can die, and the spells they have are taken by the government and resold for a profit, or a mage was a criminal, and the spells they know are forcefully taken.” Olivia shrugged. “Spells can come from anywhere, and it’s best not to think about it. The point is, if you have a grimoire, you could look for someone who invented a Shadow Blade spell, and if you were to buy it and add it to your grimoire, you’d be able to cast that spell. The only issue, though, is that the stronger the spell, the more expensive it would be. The same goes for the type. The rarer the type of magic, the pricier the spells will be. The person who invented the spell can also affect the price. If a celebrity or someone famous made it, it’d be worth a lot more than some random guy who works in an office. That’s actually where I luck out. Since blood magic is so bad, most of their spells are dirt cheap, and I was able to pick up a handful throughout the years working random jobs in my village.”

“Shadow magic is scarce,” Garon commented. “Most magic in the Estiria kingdom is based on the five elements. Fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning. Magic that relates to a concept like shadows is pretty lucky, though, because of that, most of their spells will likely cost you an arm or a leg.” Garon chuckled. “You’re better off just spending five or so years trying to make a new spell or throwing yourself headfirst into danger and hoping your instincts kick in and you unlock a new one.”

Davi gave a lazy nod. Nothing changed for him in that case. The concept was interesting, but it felt like cheating if someone with a lot of Bells could just buy a powerful spell so long as it was the same type of magic they used. He also wondered if there were any shadow spells for taking down a dragon.

Those are the only kind he’d spend his money on.

“When we get out of here, I’ll show you my grimoire and the item shop!” Olivia said excitedly. “You can pay for magical items, roll on the gacha, and get new spells. Grimoire’s also show what schools of magic you’re best with and what your stats are!”

“So,” Davi said, eager to change the subject since he was getting confused. “This Susie girl kept working at the first test and bought better and better spells until she was able to be the best?”

“Yep.” Garon’s smile turned a little somber. “She never even needed my help. She did it all on her own. She's a future Arcane Knight. I'm sure of it."

“Earlier, you said you were afraid she’d be here trying to break her record.” Olivia gave the captain of the guard a strange look. “Do you not want her to?”

“Olivia.” Davi shook his head. “Remember what the blacksmith said about his daughter. She’s sick.”

Olivia’s eyes went wide. “Oh! Yeah, I forgot. Sorry.” She winced and looked away awkwardly.

“It’s okay.” Garon turned away. “Now that I know she didn’t sneak out again, I’m a little more at ease. Anyway, we should hurry. It’ll be night soon.”

“Yeah.” Davi nodded. “Let’s go. We still need to get ready.”

The three of them left the tower and made their way outside. The sun had fully set now, and the moon began to bathe everything in a soft silver glow. It was going to start. Any moment now. The streets were now filled with several guards who were running back and forth, setting up some last-second barricades or readying their weapons.

Garon turned to Davi. “We’re counting on you.”

“Don’t worry.” Davi nodded. “I’ll deal with it.”

“That’s what I’m worried about…” Garon muttered quietly.

“What?” Davi looked back at the man, but the guard captain was already leaving.

“Nothing.” The man gave a thumbs-up. “Good luck. Arcane Knight.”

Olivia watched Garon leave, the man heading to talk to some other guards. She shot a nervous look at Davi. “Are you ready?”

Davi gave a soft nod. “Yep. Let’s do this.”

That was how he found himself standing in the middle of the town square, fully cloaked in his armor. Olivia was with him, clutching onto her wand and shivering, though it wasn’t from the cold. Dozens of guards were all scattered throughout the city, holding spears and shields, and a few even had guns. Davi noted Garon wasn’t anywhere to be seen. It seemed that the head guard had gone to the other side of the town in case the magical beast attacked them from the rear.

From what he had been told, Garon always showed up and fought the snake off once it arrived. Since the creature could arrive anywhere, Garon would patrol the outer area of the town and wait for it to arrive and then make his way over to it. Miraculously, despite doing this, no one would actually get hurt, and Garon would constantly scare the snake off, but only after it had taken someone.

Doors had been locked, and windows were boarded up. All of Daisy was tucked away, its people hiding in their homes, not daring to come out. Davi could feel the gaze of dozens of different guards on him. Most were looks of awe, a few of fear, but one or two stood out above the others. They almost looked like they resented him.

“A-are you really an Arcane Knight?” One of the guards asked, fighting back a shiver.

“I look like one, don’t I?” Davi said coldly from beneath his helmet, though he was well aware of just how deceiving looks could be.

“I can’t believe we have a real Arcane Knight here with us.” A guard said, clutching his spear. “I’m pumped up now. Maybe we can finally beat this damn beast. We’ve been fighting it every night, but it doesn't go down no matter what we throw at it.”

“Yeah.” Another guard nodded. “Maybe now will be our lucky break? We’re all counting on you, sir.”

Davi went to say something but stopped when he felt an intense chill suddenly slide up his spine. The air had been cold, and snow was constantly pouring down, bathing the area in white, but in an instant, the temperature had dropped even further. Everyone shivered, and instead of snow, hail started to rain from above. Now that he thought about it, if the snake was breathing fire, why was it also the one behind the snowstorm that surrounded Daisy?

Just as he was wondering this, the sound of ice shattering caught his attention. A guard let out a hiss and raised his spear, and Olivia took a step back, her eyes wide with fear as she saw it.

Wrapped around one of the buildings was a massive snake—so big, in fact, that its tail went past the town's street and vanished into a series of alleyways. It was covered in white scales and had yellow eyes that glared at everyone. Venom dripped down its fangs, and it slithered its way around the building, coiling around it.

Davi was the only one to step forward. “Row Shadow Vault.” His claymore, along with a shield, flew out, and he grabbed them both. “So, you’re the thing causing so much trouble?” He pointed his blade at the snake. “Well. Let’s get this over with.”

The snake opened its mouth, and Davi lifted his shield. He was ready for the fire. He’d block it and then force his way through the flames just like he did with the salamander. Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t fire that blasted out.

White mist erupted from the snake's mouth, covering the city in more ice and washing over him, freezing him in an instant. Davi gasped and winced, and before he could recover, he was encased in a block of ice.

“Davi!” Olivia yelled out in horror. The ginger-haired girl let out a scream, and the snake hissed, and then it lunged forward.

Chapter 19: Battling the Snake

He hated the cold.

He grew up on a little tropical island in the Mordheim kingdom. His village was a little fishing hamlet separated from the rest of the world. It never snowed and was never cold, always leaving him with a warm, fuzzy feeling. As a kid, he would spend days fishing at the local watering holes with his older brother, Sieg.

When he was a kid, the fishing rod he had gotten for his birthday broke while he was at his village's local pond.

At ten years old, Davi Hawker didn’t know how to respond to something he cherished breaking, and so, like most kids, he had cried. He cried and cried and cried until, eventually, his father found him.

“Davi! What’s with the waterworks? Sieg and I have been looking all over for you!” Orion Hawker wasn’t the best dad. He was a man who was trying his best, though, raising two sons all on his own. Orion was a tall man with a muscular build. He was dressed like a blacksmith, with a long apron stained black, and he had messy blonde hair and piercing yellow eyes along with tanned skin. He also always seemed to have a smile on his face, no matter the situation. “What’s wrong, kiddo?”

Davi sniffed and held up the fishing rod his dad had made him. The reel had snapped, and the line had become a tangled mess, making it completely useless.

“Is that all?” Orion raised an eyebrow, then ruffled his son's raven hair. “We can get you a new one.”

“I don’t want a new one. I like this one.”

Orion nodded. “Okay, then let’s try to fix it.” The man gently took the fishing rod and held it up. “When a tool breaks, all you have to do is replace or repair the damaged part. Give me a few hours, and I’ll have this thing better than ever!”

“Really?”

“You bet, kiddo.”

Orion had kept his word and fixed the rod up. That day, Davi caught a massive catfish, and with the help of his brother Sieg, he cooked it up. It was one of the best meals he ever had. A year later, after turning eleven, Davi went out to fish again, and his rod broke. He didn’t cry this time, though. Instead, he took it straight to his dad.

Orion was hammering away at some metal, wiping sweat away from his forehead, when his youngest son appeared in the middle of his forge. “Davi? What’s wrong?”

“My fishing rod broke again.” Davi sniffed, fighting back tears. “Can you fix it?”

Orion laughed and placed his hand on his son’s head. “No.” He chirped.

“Why not?” Davi was unable to hold his tears back now and began to cry.

Orion laughed louder when he saw his son begin to panic. His look grew serious, and he removed his hand. “Davi, I’m not always going to be there for you. You’re a growing boy. It’s only a matter of time before you become old enough to set out on your very own adventure.”

“What do you mean?” Davi cocked his head to the side.

“It means you’ll be on a long journey,” Orion explained. “Everyone who lives their life goes on their own adventure. Going on one means growing, getting older, and experiencing the world. I’m not always going to be there for you. We never know what the future holds. I fixed your fishing rod up the first time because helping someone is the right thing to do if you’re able, but what happens if I fix it again for you this time? A year or two later, it’ll break. So I’ll need to fix it every time it breaks. But will I be around in a year? We just don’t know.” Orion pointed his thumb at a nearby table. “I got a few tools scattered over there. Tell you what, how about instead of me fixing up your rod, I teach you how to do it? That way, in a year or two from now, if it does break, you can repair it and not have to worry about some old fart like me doing it.”

“Okay…” Davi nodded meekly. “But I don’t think you’re an old fart. I don’t want to be away from you a year from now. Not two or three or ever. I want to stay with you, Dad, and Sieg.”

Orion chuckled and once again ruffled his son's hair. “You really are my kid.” He pressed a finger to Davi’s heart and pressed down. “Always so emotional.”

That day, Davi learned how to fix his fishing rod. He was taught what all the different tools were and how they worked.

He once again caught a catfish. It was smaller than last time, but he still cooked and ate it. It was pretty good, and he shared it with his brother.

Two years later, at the age of thirteen, after his village was destroyed and everyone he knew and loved froze to death, Davi once again tried to fish in the aftermath of it all. This time, when his rod broke, he didn’t cry, and he didn’t seek out his father. Instead, he quietly fixed it up because that’s what his father taught him to do. When he was done, he could not get any catfish since the pond had been encased in ice.

He truly hated the cold.

***

“Davi!”

Davi felt himself suddenly snap back to reality. He wasn’t a helpless kid who was scared of a bit of snow. He was a grown man. Everything came flooding back to him in an instant, and he felt his eyes widen. He was encased in a block of ice that was chilling him down to the bone in the middle of Daisy. He could hear the muffled screams of the guards and Olivia. His armor had kept him safe, shielding him from the ice, but it was struggling, the enchantment fading in and out.

‘Did the snake freeze me? It wasn’t personal before, but it is now.’

With a grunt, Davi flexed and shattered the ice around him, forcing himself out of the block. He stumbled out of it and raised his shield up just in time as the snake’s tail slammed into him. His shield creaked and groaned, but it held strong, and he stabbed out with his sword, but it bounced off the snake’s scales. It was gone before he could attack it again, slithering past him at insane speeds. The monster was fast, literally looping circles through the alleyways and going over the buildings.

“Davi!” He turned and found Olivia staring at him. “Are you okay?”

‘No, I’m not okay; it froze me.’ Davi thought bitterly. Then he finally spoke. “I’m fine. Keep your eyes on it.” He muttered. His head spun as he tried to follow the magical beast. Despite its large size, he could barely glimpse it as it went through the alleyways or over buildings. It was shockingly fast, yet somehow didn’t break any of the buildings. The other guards were all shouting out spells, sending various bolts of lightning or wind at it, but just as he suspected, none of them had the power to harm a beast on this level. Normal mages just weren’t cut out for slaying monsters, and even bullets were ricocheting off the monster's hide. “Here it comes.” He said quietly.

Davi wrapped an arm around Olivia’s waist, moving her and him out of the way just in time as the snake lunged again. The beast rammed its way through several of the town guards, throwing them all into the air and sending them crashing down around the town square. The snake loomed over a group of the downed guards and bared its fangs, about to strike and devour them, but it stopped at the last moment and instead let out a hiss and began to slither away once more.

Or at least it tried to.

Davi reached it and struck out with his claymore. He ran his blade along its hide, shoving it past some of the scales, and with a tug, he tore several of them off. The snake hissed in pain and darted forward, circling back toward him. Its mouth opened wide, and another wave of ice launched at him, but he was ready for it this time.

He chucked his shield forward, throwing it. As soon as it entered the field of cold that poured from the snake's mouth, it froze over, becoming a block of ice. Davi then ran forward and leapt up, landing on his frozen shield, and used it to launch himself at the snake. He stabbed out with his claymore, impaling it directly into the snake's snout, going through one of its nostrils.

Red rained down the serpent's face, and it let out a scream, not unlike a person. It thrashed around violently and dislodged the sword from its nose, sending Davi flying back. He crashed into a building, cracking the wall a bit, and the snake growled like a dog and bared its fangs. Its eyes were narrowed, and the blood on its snout froze over as it flicked its tongue.

“Row Blood Bolt!” A wave of frozen blood smashed into its neck, forcing the creature to bow for a moment from the force of the attack. Its entire body curled around, and its eyes narrowed, glaring directly at Olivia, who took a nervous step back. Olivia gulped and felt a powerful chill go down her spine as the snake stared directly at her. Then, suddenly, the snake's scales shimmered, and it faded away. It was a slow effect, spreading through it as it began to blend in. It had gone invisible. “It can do that?”

Davi ran forward and jumped in front of her, lifting his sword, getting ready for a strike from the unseen creature, but before the attack could come, a wave of fire danced through the area.

“Row Flame Wheel!” From the other side of the street, Garon and several other guards who had been stationed on the other side of the town appeared. Garon’s sword was bathed in bright orange fire, and he swept it out through the air.

‘Oh, Garon’s here now.’

The flames spun and twisted, melting ice and snow, and the unseen snake suddenly became visible as the flames washed over it. Unlike the other guards, Garon’s attack actually caused the monster to shudder, and it let out a loud hiss and blasted off in a direction, trying to escape the fire and cloak once more.

Davi was about to give chase, but he stopped when he felt the cold ease up, and his ears twitched as he heard the snake rapidly slithering away. It left, getting out of the smoke and becoming invisible once more, using the chance to escape. Davi lowered his sword once he was sure the snake was gone.

Just like the last few times, no one was dead, and the only damage was the wall he had crashed into. The snake hadn’t harmed any of the houses. Davi wondered if it took anyone. It had left in a hurry and wouldn’t have had time even while cloaked, so surely not, but he had this twisting knot in his gut that something was wrong. For the most part, everyone was fine.

“Sir Knight!” Davi turned when he heard the voice, and he found Garon making his way toward him. “Are you okay?” The guard stopped once he got closer and flinched slightly, looking away from Davi.

‘No.’ Then out loud. “I’m fine,” Davi said coldly, his voice bouncing around his helmet.

Garon gave a brief nod. “My men are going door to door, checking to see if anyone is missing. We’ll know soon. It looks like the snake got away again, though.”

“I see.” Davi absently rubbed his scar.

As the commotion of the battle calmed down, lights began to blaze to life with fire as several of the townsfolk began to emerge from their homes. Many gasped when they saw Davi, staring at his ebony armor and the aura of power he radiated. Even without a guild symbol present, this seemed more than enough to trick most folks. Despite their awe, none approached him and even remained at a distance, looking away when he glanced at them.

“Sir,” One of Garon’s men hesitantly approached. “We went through everyone, and for once, it looks like nobody is missing.”

“So the snake didn’t take anyone?” Davi rubbed his chin. He had successfully chased it away faster than it could act, yet something about the situation still felt off.

“It looks like you did a good job, sir!” Garon cheered slightly and walked over, the handsome man’s smile back on his face. “You being here must have scared the snake away.”

“I didn’t do much though.” Davi said flatly. “I hit it once. It could have kept fighting, but it ran. Why?”

“Maybe it thought it was outmatched and decided to run?” Olivia suggested. “Magical or not, it’s still an animal and would know it’s a losing battle.”

“Maybe.” That didn’t sit right with him, though. The snake had the chance to kill several of the guards and lower the numbers down but didn’t. Not to mention, the only time a building got destroyed was when he went flying into it.

“Either way, it doesn’t matter.” Garon clapped his hands together, and his grin grew. “You did it, sir. The snake ran off.”

“It might be back next week, though.” Davi pointed out.

“Why don’t you head to the inn?” Garon’s voice broke Davi’s train of thought. “I’m sure you’re tired.”

Davi didn’t want to admit it, but he did feel a little sick after getting frozen. “Not yet.” He said after a moment, causing Garon’s smile to fade. Davi looked out at the crowd of nervous people who had been staring at him. One stood out. “I have someone I want to talk to first.”

“Sir, it’s late,” Garon tried to argue. “You should conserve your strength in case the snake does plan to come back—”

“Go away.” Davi’s tone was blunt, and it caused Garon to flinch. The guard stood there for a moment and then awkwardly shuffled away. Once he was gone, Davi looked back at the crowd, and he took a step toward them, but the entire crowd stepped back. “Huh?”

“I think they might be scared of you.” Olivia winced.

Davi glanced down at his hands. “Why?” He asked, a little bummed. “I understand the battle mages being scared of me. After all, they apparently dislike the feel of my mana, but these folks, too?”

“It’s your armor,” Olivia said after a few seconds of awkward silence.

“My armor?”

Olivia nodded. “I didn’t want to say anything since it might be rude, but you kind of look scary.” She looked Davi up and down. “There is a story about a Knight who wore armor like yours. The tale of the Ebony Knight is kind of famous, you know. And not in a good way.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Seriously!” Olivia shook her head and let out a defeated sigh. “Even if someone doesn’t know that story, your armor looks so scary. It’s got all those edges to it, and sometimes it twitches. I know you’re a good person and a kind Arcane Knight, but you can sometimes be off-putting. No offense.”

Davi just hummed. “How can I fix that?”

Olivia rubbed her chin, then looked him up and down. “You could remove your helmet.” She suggested.

“How does that help?”

“You kind of have this baby face going on, and you’re a little cute.” She chuckled nervously. “I’m sure people would be a little more at ease if you removed your helmet when you talked to them. At the very least, it would get rid of that blue fire effect that comes out of your eyes and prevent your voice from sounding so muffled and intense.”

“What about my scar? Won’t people be put off by that?”

“Nah! It makes you look cool!”

Davi stood there, a bit annoyed. His armor wasn’t made to look fancy. It was practical, covering him in plate mail that was made to take a hit. Still, it did hurt his feelings a bit to see so much fear in the eyes of the people. Usually people only saw him in his armor after he had helped them, and so they were no longer scared of him, but this time he hadn’t done anything to gain the people's support or love since the snake had gotten away, so to them he likely did look like the scary Ebony Knight Olivia had mentioned.

“Does this help?” His helmet bubbled and dripped down his face, as if it were a liquid. It faded into the rest of his armor, revealing his face beneath it. His eyes still glowed, lit up with pure mana, and seemed to brighten the darkness around him, but they no longer blazed out of his helm. “Well, does my pretty face make it all better?” He asked, sweeping his hair back into a semblance of neatness.

Olivia nodded and sheepishly chuckled. “It’s worth a shot. People will be too busy looking at your face now to notice your scary armor. So who do you want to talk to anyway?”

“Her.” Davi pointed through the crowd and singled out a familiar face. It was the mother they had first talked to when they arrived in Daisy. The only one who had been bitter and hateful to Garon and the mother of Hannah, one of the missing girls.

The woman jumped when he singled her out, and she squeaked and turned to look at him. “It’s you! You’re an Arcane Knight!” The woman looked him up and down in shock. “I never would have guessed. That armor looks so heavy, but you were in such baggy clothes, I had no idea you were so—”

Davi folded his arms and let out a grunt, cutting her off. “You said the snake uses fire?”

The woman nodded hesitantly. “That’s what I saw. It all happened so fast that I didn’t get a good look at it, but I saw fire twisting and swirling around my daughter. It grabbed and yanked her away from me. You weren’t able to kill it, were you?” The woman asked bitterly.

“No. It got away.” Davi frowned, and he glanced back at the houses. The snake had been massive. It was so big that it was able to wrap around a few houses at the same time. There was no way something like that could fit into a building. Not to mention, it had used ice, not fire. “I have no way to track the thing either now since its cloaking makes it impossible to sense.”

“I can track it!” Davi turned when Olivia proudly held up her wand.

“You have a way to figure out where it went?”

Olivia nodded her head and looked smug. “Yeah! Unlike you, I have a tracking spell! Bruno and I used to go hunting together in our village and would sell what we caught for Bells. I would use those Bells to roll on the gacha in the grimoire app! Long story short, I happen to have a spell just for this occasion! It requires me to hit a target with one of my spells. I hit the snake once, just in case it tried to run.” She flicked her wand out and focused on her spell. “Row Blood Map!” Blood flowed out of the tip of her wand, and she became a bit dizzy as she cast her second spell, but she fought through the pain. The blood shifted and became a thin piece of red paper with a black dot on it and several numbers below it, which were rapidly changing in real time, showing how far away the target was.

The final part of a spell was the intent, which was determined by what the mage wanted to do and how they pictured it. A mage couldn’t just cast any spell, though, with any string of words. Saying ‘Row Shadow Heal’ wouldn’t suddenly allow someone to heal with shadows even if they had shadow magic. It would only work if they had the ability to use healing magic, which required them to have the spell and the right school of magic.

There were six schools of magic: Alteration, Destruction, Enchantment, Conjuration, Illusion, and Restoration.

The school of Alteration was required for a person to shape their magic and enhance it. It could also alter how a type of magic’s mana worked. Making fire burn hotter or turning shadows into a solid substance were things a mage with those magic types could do using this school.

Destruction was the most common type of school and was simple. It allowed a mage to unleash raw power, like firing out beams of lightning or bolts of blood.

Enchantment was the opposite of Destruction, since it was very complicated. Enchantment allowed a mage to program mana, or imbue it into something, giving it a series of commands and allowing their mana to linger or flow on its own. Most complex spells require Enchantment, and it was also one of the rarest schools.

Conjuration was similar to Alteration, where it would shape mana, but unlike Alteration, which was transforming something into something else, Conjuration was focused more on using raw mana and a magical type to create something out of nothing, such as armor forged out of shadows.

Illusion was a lesser form of this school and mixed Alteration and Conjuration, as it shaped and twisted mana, but the school of Illusion only made the outline of something, not actually making or altering anything.

Lastly was the school of Restoration, which was the second rarest right after Enchantment and also simple. It allowed a type of magic to heal. Even should the type be something odd like fire or ice, a person could use it to heal someone in their own unique way should they have this school.

Unlike magical types, which a mage was locked into once they were born, a mage could use multiple different schools, but all at various levels. The schools a mage had access to, like other forms of magic, were based on luck.

Schools could also be combined together since some spells would fall into several categories. A person could be a little skilled in one school but really good in another or average in every single school at once. It varied greatly and was one of the things that shaped a mage. All of this could be viewed in a mage's grimoire, where they could look at their ‘stats’.

The map Olivia created lacked most of the things a map has. It was a thin red piece of paper that was more or less a makeshift compass. It had North, West, East, and South on it, as well as the dot and the numbers, but that was it. It was the sort of thing a child would come up with when they needed to find a way to chase after animals quickly, rather than something practical.

Despite that, though, the fact that she was able to do something even remotely like this impressed Davi. The more complex a spell was, the more mana and skill would be required to cast it. Her map was updating in real time and served as a decent enough compass. The spell itself was in the Conjuration and Enchantment schools.

“Not bad.” Davi took the paper and looked down at it, letting out a low whistle. “I should be able to find where that thing slithered off to now and finish it off.”

Olivia beamed at his praise and chuckled. “Thanks! Let’s go take that snake down—”

“No.” Davi shook his head. “You stay here.”

“Huh? Why!” Olivia whined.

He reached out and poked her in the cheek. “Your face has become really pale. You’re suffering from blood loss. You might be able to cast one more spell, but that’s it. Besides, now that I know what this thing can do, I know how to beat it and can do it faster on my own.”

Olivia wanted to argue, but there was no point. He was right. She had exactly one more spell left in her before she collapsed. “Sometimes, I truly hate having blood magic. Alright, fine. I’ll rest up. It won’t take me long to get all my blood back since I heal pretty quickly, so I’ll try to catch up once I’ve rested.”

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi pulled something out of the darkness of his armor and handed it to Olivia. “Here. In case you can’t recover fast enough and need a way to defend yourself.”

Olivia’s eyes bulged as he casually handed her a heavy-looking handgun. It wasn’t a basic one either. She wasn’t a gun girl, but this one was freaking huge and heavy and looked like it would pack a serious punch. Several of the guards also stared at the massive gun in shock.

“Where—” She began, but Davi cut her off.

“Found it in a dungeon.”

“If you’re leaving, I insist on coming with you.” Garon suddenly forced himself back into the conversation. He looked hopeful and managed a grin. “I can help you slay the creature.”

Davi shook his head, dashing Garon’s hope. “No.”

“Why not?” Garon demanded.

“I have a way to deal with the creature, but it won’t work if I have someone there with me.” Davi said simply. “You’d just get in my way.”

For the first time, Garon’s look seemed to fully shift, and his eyes blazed with fury for a moment before he calmed himself down. “Fine. In that case, you should head out tomorrow. Why don’t you rest up and—”

“No.”

“Why not?” Garon demanded once more.

“You’re annoying, and not listening to you is funny,” Davi said casually. He then turned to look back at Olivia. “Stay safe.”

“Okay?” Olivia glanced between Davi and Garon. She was totally lost on why the two weren’t getting along now. “Go beat that monster!” She clapped Davi on the back and then winced as her hand ached from slapping his armor.

Davi began to leave, and as he did, he could feel Garon’s eyes following him. Davi glanced back at Garon for a moment and then turned away.

“This is ending tonight.” He stated.

Garon’s hand grasped his sword and squeezed down until his knuckles were white. “I don’t think you know how right you really are.”

Chapter 20: The Snake's Dungeon

Davi set out, leaving the town behind. The map Olivia made for him was extremely useful, and he followed the dot that was on it. The number had stopped growing and was now just getting smaller and smaller the closer he got, meaning the snake had stopped running away. He soon found himself in a forest, going through a sea of snow. It put a bad taste in his mouth and reminded him of the Dragon, but he crushed down those thoughts and focused on marching forward.

Eventually, as the trees began to thin out and the snow got thicker and thicker, Davi finally found what he was looking for.

Dungeons were altered spaces that could appear anywhere. Whenever a dungeon would show up near a village, town, or city, it was that place's duty to let the Arcane Knights know about it. This was because all dungeons were filled with powerful magical beasts, and should they not be dealt with, those beasts would eventually be able to walk out and wander the world.

It was theorized that this was how magical beasts came about. They most likely came from a dungeon and weren’t dealt with in time, leading to the beasts' being able to leave their homes and settle down in the world.

Dungeons were dangerous, not just because of the monsters that were said to be contained within, but also because of all the traps. A dungeon would remain until an Arcane Knight managed to slay the boss of the dungeon, whose mana was the thing that kept the dungeon open.

The dungeon in Daisy was strong enough to form the barrier around the town, which stopped it from sending out a cry for help, and it had been opened for so long that the boss was able to escape and wander around freely. It had since returned to its home, though. This was because magical beasts had to eventually reenter a dungeon, no matter how powerful they were. Just like how a mage could only survive so long in a dungeon, a magical beast could only withstand the mana of the world for a certain amount of time before it would grow weaker and need to head back to its home.

The dungeon in question was sloped and built into the side of a hill. It was made of stone and looked like a doorway. It was awkwardly angled and wasn’t that far off the ground, yet somehow, directly past the opening, he could see massive stone stairs, the kind that giants would walk on. They stretched out more considerably than the hill could physically contain, which proved that it was a dungeon since dungeons defied space and could be as big or small as they needed to be.

Davi walked closer to the opening and peeked his head in. The stairs kept going down, seemingly without end, and it was way too dark for him to see properly. He let out a low whistle and heard it echo and bounce off the dungeon's walls.

It was illegal to enter a dungeon unless you were an Arcane Knight due to how dangerous they can be. It was impossible to know what would be in one; plenty of people have died trying to explore them, and even Arcane Knights can struggle. Now that he thought about it, he had been in a few, so that was yet another crime he had committed. Another reason it was illegal to enter a dungeon is because of the treasure they held. The king claimed all the treasure that was in a dungeon, and so everything inside of one was owned exclusively by the Knights, making it highly illegal to take anything inside of a dungeon.

Dungeons were filled with ancient loot from the days of the elves, as well as the treasure of people who failed to clear it and died. The stronger a dungeon, the better the loot.

Should a person accidentally find themselves in a dungeon or discover the doorway to a dungeon, they were to leave immediately and contact the Knights.

The dungeon had been built into the side of a hill, yet past the doorway, it was wide and expanded out further than the slope went. Davi found himself standing on a set of stairs, each one being massive. The stairs were easily ten feet tall and nearly fifty feet wide. He’d have to climb down them and then climb back up when he wanted to exit. The roof was taller than the hill. It went up and up, so high he couldn’t actually see it.

Dungeons were almost like stepping into another world. The doorway to a dungeon would simply appear one day. It could be in the middle of the woods like this one, at the bottom of an ocean, in a cave, or even in the middle of a crowded street. Either way, once the doorway appeared and a person stepped past it, they would find themselves suddenly transported to a place that defied logic and science.

Some dungeons were massive, taking days to reach the end; others were small, with only a few rooms. Some matched the environment they appeared in, and others were vastly different and didn’t resemble any place found in their world.

This particular dungeon looked almost like a giant's tomb. It was made entirely of dark stone, and the massive steps just kept going down, not seeming to stop anytime soon.

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi reached into his shadow and pulled out a torch wrapped in some cloth, which he ignited with a match. It blazed to life and allowed him to see a little bit better. He strolled and jumped down each step. His armor kept him protected, literally absorbing the blow of the fall, and with his torch, he was able to see various marks along the walls, all in a language he didn’t recognize. There were a few pictures as well, some showing towering stick figures and others depicting strange orbs with eight twisted lines coming out of them. ‘I really hate dungeons.’ Almost as much as he hated the cold.

This wasn’t his first, and he doubted it’d be his last. Dungeons were supposed to be filled with vast wealth and riches. Some had powerful and ancient scrolls containing long-forgotten spells and secrets, while others had magical weapons from ages long lost. He only ever entered dungeons to see if he could find any secrets about dragons. Sadly, none of the ones he went into had information regarding them.

At the bottom of the steps, the dungeon opened up into a wide hallway, one created to accommodate beings easily hundreds of feet tall. On either side of the wall were what looked like coffins, each over fifty feet tall and wide, sealed shut with heavy lids the size of towers. They were built into the walls, entombed. It was spooky, and Davi might have been a little freaked out if not for the fact that he had triggered a trap.

As soon as he had touched down, there was a quiet click that echoed around the vast chambers. Small sections of the coffin tore open, the stone pulling back, and the next thing Davi knew, he was being blasted from all sides by a horde of arrows and bolts.

‘Ow.’ The Ebony Knight thought to himself as the arrows launched his way. They were small, meant for people his size, and not the giants that likely rested here. As the bolts smashed into him, his armor easily deflected most, but a few rammed into his head. ‘Maybe I should put my helmet back on…’ None of the bolts were able to pierce his skin or even injure him all that much, aside from a few bruises.

By using mana, he could cloak his flesh in a thin layer, forming invisible armor over it, so even if something could get past his armor, it’d then have to get past a second layer of protection.

‘This is annoying.’ He walked forward, feeling the arrows and bolts bounce and shatter on his flesh and armor. The barrage kept coming, a seemingly infinite amount pouring out. He was used to it, however, and so he didn’t falter walking through the storm of projectiles.

It was odd, though. Everything about the dungeon was built most likely for giants, yet the first trap he triggered was made for humans. Dungeons were always strange like that, seemingly being created to keep people out.

Right on cue, he felt another pressure plate sink beneath his foot, and a thundering boom echoed through the hallway as a boulder dropped. It wasn’t one able to squish giants, being too small, but it’d more than do the trick for a human. Or at least a normal human, since in an instant, the rock was halted by his hand.

Davi’s fingers dug into the stone, breaking past it, and with a grunt, he lifted it up above his head and tossed it behind him. He rubbed his shoulder a bit and then carried on, finally reaching the end of the hallway. There were two gigantic doors, but he simply punched straight through one, blasting a hole in the bottom of it, and stepped into the second room, leaving the storm of arrows behind.

‘Oh. It’s one of these rooms. I hate these rooms.’ Davi sighed as he took stock of what was inside. This room was totally different from the last one.

Instead of being made for giants, this room was much smaller, being a standard-looking stone room. The massive double doors that had been in the previous room twisted and were forced into a small size once he was past them, the dungeon bending space to make it all work. Dozens of suits of armor lined the walls all around, and the moment his foot entered, the suits instantly came to life.

They were rusted and covered in dents, and they shambled, slowly drawing broken swords or spears. Davi lifted a gauntlet-covered arm up and blocked a powerful sword swipe that came down at him. While he did that, he threw his other arm out and muttered a spell. His claymore blasted out of his shadow, and he gripped it as he slashed it out, ripping the suit of armor in two. Three more took its place instantly, all charging at him.

Davi twisted and dodged out of the way as several spears were thrust out at him. His sword smashed through two more suits, and he kicked at a third, hitting it back into a wall. There were still eight more suits, and he didn’t even have time to throw out another attack as a grinding sound filled the air. The room suddenly began to get smaller as the ceiling started to drop.

‘Trying to crush me to death? Boring.’ He thought to himself. The grinding sound rumbled again, and jagged spikes stabbed out of the ceiling, causing Davi’s eye to twitch. ‘Cheater.’ He growled. ‘You can’t add to the trap. Also, did it read my mind or something? What gives? These are private thoughts.’

The room already hadn’t been that big, and the ceiling was rapidly dropping. Davi looked back at the doorway he came through. He didn’t see another door or any obvious way forward. That just meant he’d have to make his own. He launched himself past the other suits of armor and reached the back wall. Letting out a huff, he swung his sword out as hard as he could and smashed it into the stone wall. The wall shook and cracked but didn’t break.

The ceiling dropped lower, and Davi was forced to throw one of his arms up into the air. A spike came down on his hand, and he wrapped his gauntlet around it and struggled to push the ceiling back. It was heavy, hundreds of times more than the boulder, and he felt pain as the spike began to dig through his glove. His arm shook, and the grinding got worse as he and the ceiling had a battle of strength. He was holding it back for the moment, but that was quickly becoming a losing game.

While he did that, the suits of armor charged at him and began to swing at his back. Davi grunted, and his knees buckled, and he almost lost his grip on the roof. “Row Shadow Armor.” His other arm dropped his sword, which sank into his shadow, and the darkness rose and covered the arm that wasn’t holding the roof up. The gauntlet around that arm grew thicker and heavier, forming into a black fist weapon, which he used to smash into the cracked wall. The cracks expanded, and he hit it again, this time putting his all into the strike, shattering the wall entirely.

Instantly, Davi let go of the roof and dove through the hole he had created. The ceiling smashed down, crushing the suits of armor. Once it was done, it began to rise back up. However, Davi didn’t care about that because he was now falling. Past the hole was a drop, and the next thing he knew, he was crashing through water.

The dungeon had yet again twisted and changed, this time forming into a lake. The lake started to swirl, and Davi sank like a rock, his armor weighing him down. Water filled his lungs, and it was so dark he couldn’t see. He spun around and crashed into the bottom. Everything started to twist, and he felt the world itself spin as he was suddenly launched out of the whirlpool and came flying out of the lake.

Davi rammed into the ground head-first and sputtered and coughed. He wiped his face clean and gasped for air. “I hate dungeons.” He said, unconcerned despite everything that had happened so far.

The lake had spat him out into yet another new room. He prayed this would be the last one. It was bigger than the room with the armor but not as massive as the one with the giant coffins. The ground was covered in thick ice, and snow rained down around him from the roof. The room was filled with pillars that were scattered around. The lake behind him, which had spat him out, was mostly frozen over. Near the back of the room, heavy blocks of ice stood; even from where he was, he could see that each one held a body within it. There were nine in total, one for each missing person.

He had found the missing girls.

He couldn’t tell if they were alive or not, but he hoped that they were. They appeared to be sleeping, curled up, eyes squeezed shut, not moving. They were suspended in the blocks.

“You’re not the fire mage.” A hissing voice jittered around the room, bouncing off the walls and swapping which direction it came from with every word. “You’re the one I fought earlier. The one who harmed me.”

Davi shook his body, drying his armor off as he quietly looked around. “Fire mage?” His massive gauntlet shrank back down and returned to normal as he folded his arms. “Explain.”

“The mage I made a deal with.” The voice hissed once more. “You are not them, though. You’re someone else. Someone who isn’t in on the plan.”

“Yep. I’m the new guy. And you are?”

“I have no name.”

“That’s sad. Want one?”

“No, thank you.”

Davi casually nodded. “A monster that says thanks? That’s new? You’re the snake, right? I didn’t know you could talk. Why didn’t you try to talk to me back in the town?”

“Because I had nothing to say to you earlier.”

“Fair. So now you do have a reason to talk to me?”

“Did you bring me a sacrifice?” The voice hissed out.

Davi looked around, but he still didn’t see the snake. The voice bounced around so much that it was impossible to pinpoint it, never staying in any place for very long. “What do you mean by sacrifice?”

“The girls.” The snake responded. “I like their taste.” A pillar cracked, and Davi was about to launch an attack, but then another pillar on the other side of the room groaned as something unseen wrapped around it. The creature was fast, going from place to place, using its cloaking and the shadows to stay out of his range. “I used to hunt them. Always on the hunt. Then I moved in here. Cleared it out. Killed the others and claimed it as my home. It moved, though.”

“That’s no surprise. You’re in a dungeon.” Davi explained. “You likely slaughtered most of the monsters here, and sometime when you were sleeping, the dungeon’s space moved to a new location and made you the boss of it since you were the strongest entity in it.”

“I awoke and climbed out. I made it to the stairs, and that was where I found the fire mage. He was a man, the same as you. I hate the taste of man. I could smell his fear. His desperation. He was no threat to me, not like you. I offered him a deal. Shinies. Trinkets. Useless things. All he had to do was bring me my food. It will be time for the long sleep soon. I’ve been stocking up. Preparing for it. The mage brought me many snacks because he wanted something in my dungeon. I told him that when he brought me enough girls, I’d let him have the thing he wants. We were making a trade.”

Davi rubbed his chin, piecing together most of what he was hearing. “Dungeons are filled with vast wealth and magical items. Ones that put items of today to shame. It’s likely why the Arcane Knights are always so eager to raid these places and why they ban mages from entering, since they don’t want the wrong kind of thing to end up in the wrong hands. So, if I understand what you’re saying, someone has been bringing you the kidnapped girls as an offering, and when you collect enough, you’ll give them something in this dungeon as a way to pay them back?”

“Yes.” The snake almost sounded like it was chuckling. “He and I made a deal. I pretend to attack the city, and he ‘fights’ me off. I don’t harm his place or his people; in return, he finds me the prettiest, most delicious snacks to make my own. The deal was ten. He brings me ten girls, and I’ll give him the thing he wants from my home.”

“So why are you telling me this?” Davi asked.

“Let’s make a deal.” The voice responded. “I’ll offer you the same thing I did the fire mage. Give me enough of what I want, and I’ll let you have anything in here. You’re strong, so I don’t want to fight.”

Davi’s eyes shimmered for a bit, and he nodded. “Do you have any information on how to find a dragon?”

“What is a dragon?”

“I’ll take that as a no.” Davi walked toward the girls. The voice hissed at him, but he ignored it and reached them, looking at each block they resided in. “So you haven’t done anything to them? They’re still alive.”

“...For now…”

“Okay.” Davi nodded, and he counted. “Nine.”

“Nine? Is that how many girls you’ll bring me?” The voice sounded excited now. “We can make a good deal; I’ll give you everything in the vault and even help figure out what this… dragon is. Sound good?”

“You misunderstand. That’s how many you’re going to give me.” Davi stated in a cold, unfeeling tone. “Every girl here. You’re going to hand them back. Now. Do that, and I’m willing to look the other way since you haven’t hurt any of them yet. As long as you promise never to do anything like this again.”

“Never! I won’t hand any of them over!” A loud, guttural hiss blasted from up above, and the room shook, shards of ice raining down. “I will never give up my food! They are mine! Now leave! I’ve changed my mind; no deal for you! Go!”

Davi’s look darkened. “I guess we’re doing this the hard way. Row Shadow Vault.” His vault was only ever as big as his shadow, but in a dark room like this, his shadow was vast and near endless, opening up and pulling in a massive wave of ice and all the girls.

“No!” The snake’s cry echoed through the dungeon. “How dare you!”

The last of the girls faded away as Davi drew his claymore and lazily placed it over his shoulder. “Well? What are you waiting for? Come and get me.”

Chapter 21: The Dungeon He Calls A Vault

Davi had no idea how big his shadow vault truly was. He assumed it was infinite in size since he could always place things into it without limit, so long as he was able to get the vault door to be large enough to fit whatever he was trying to stuff into it.

One thing he did know for sure about his vault was that it was a dangerous place. He didn’t want to keep the girls trapped in there for long if he could help it. The ice the snake had trapped them in would hopefully keep them put into a state where they would remain unharmed, but he was also having to consciously shift and twist his vault to make sure nothing bad happened to them.

His vault worked more or less like a gigantic limb. He could change its shape and size, allowing him to pull anything that was in it out, but he also wasn’t in full control of the vault itself.

With all of this in mind, Davi decided he needed to finish the fight fast.

“Bring them back!” The snake wailed. From up above, something large smashed down, ramming into the top of Davi’s head. Despite the force of the blow, Davi remained standing, not even flinching. The snake's tail finally appeared as it flickered into existence, dropping its invisibility. The dungeon boss screamed again, and the tail tore into the ground, sending jagged rocks flying in all directions. “I’ll kill you! I’ll rip you apart! I’ll do it slowly! I’ll kill you dead! How dare you take my food!”

“Oh, don’t be such a big baby,” Davi responded in an apathetic tone and rolled his eyes. “I haven’t eaten a good meal for a long time either—” The snake dropped down and opened its mouth, firing a wave of frost. “Uh oh—” Davi didn’t even have time to move as the ice smashed over him, covering him from head to toe.

The snake instantly lunged forward and wrapped around the ball of ice tightly, spitting more of its cold mist out and twisting it into a cube shape, just like it had done to the girls. When it was done, it glared down at its creation.

“I’ll shatter you into a billion pieces! Melt your flesh from your bones! Devour your brain and heart! And then I’ll slither out of here and kill everyone in that town! How dare you, mages, betray me!” The snake growled, throwing a hissy fit as if it were a child. It kept glaring down at the block of ice and then froze when it saw that the block was empty. “What? How! Where did he go?”

A claymore stabbed out of the snake’s shadow and rammed into the monster’s eye, causing it to scream and roar in pain. Davi’s hand then came out of the shadow as he climbed out of his vault and back into the real world. He had activated the spell and used his own shadows to escape the ice at the last second, before he had been frozen. Now that he was out, he twisted his sword and dug it in deeper into the snake's eye.

He often went for the eyes when he fought magical beasts since it was the best way to get an edge and a leg up against them. It didn’t matter how strong a monster was; once a vital sense was destroyed, it would freak out no matter what.

“What’s wrong? Got nothing left to say to me?” Davi twisted his blade harder, spilling more of the snake’s blood. “I thought you were going to shatter me into a billion pieces?”

“Shut up!” The snake twisted its head to the side and whipped Davi off it, also causing Davi to lose his sword, which still poked out of the snake’s eye. “Stop talking and die!”

The Ebony Knight tumbled across the ground, and right as he stood up, he was forced to throw his arms up as the snake reared its head back and lunged down at him. Its mouth was wide open, its fangs dripping with venom as it tried to bite through Davi, but the teen stood his ground, dug his heels into the floor, and gripped the sides of the snake's mouth, forcing it open. The snake's body rammed into him, and he began to get pushed back as the two of them had a battle of strength.

“I’ll freeze you down to the bone and shatter you into pieces!” The snake growled.

Davi gritted his teeth and forced himself forward. “Do you have any idea how many creatures have said the exact same thing as you? I’ve fought hundreds of monsters that all think the way you do, and yet I’m still standing.” Davi took another step forward, and the snake felt its scales grind on the icy floor as it began to get pushed back. “I’ve fought and I’ve fought and I’ve fought. Over and over and over again. All for a chance to see it. I’m a Dragon Slayer. What hope does a single snake have?” The snake’s eyes went wide as it felt itself getting pushed into a pillar, and Davi didn’t stop. He kept marching forward, and the stone began to crack and shatter. “Row Shadow Armor.” He announced in a calm voice as he activated another spell.

Once more, his magic flared, and his armor expanded, getting bulkier. His gauntlets grew, and his grip became so strong that he shattered one of the snake's teeth. It screamed in pain and pulled back. Its scales flickered, and then it vanished, getting away from Davi as fast as it could.

Davi scowled and punched the pillar in anger, shattering it to dust. “Using your cloaking is cheating—” Davi was cut off as the snake's unseen form rammed into him from behind. He felt its teeth digging into the back of his armor, and he was shoved into the ground. He got back up, but this time from a different side the snake came down and smashed into his side.

Davi was lifted off the ground, and he rammed back-first into a different pillar, and it was the snake’s turn to smash him through it, as its tail stabbed into his gut and sent him blasting through the stone and ice.

Again and again, the snake would strike as soon as Davi stood up. It remained cloaked and used its insane speed to circle the battlefield, slithering just out of reach and attacking him from a blind spot. Davi tried to block a few of the strikes, but with how big and flexible the snake was, it’d always be just out of his reach.

A pair of the fangs jutted out, flying past Davi and tearing into the shoulder piece of his armor, ripping it clean off. Ice also flowed out, going across the ground, which started to cling to Davi’s legs. He looked around, but it was impossible to see or sense the snake, and with how fast it was moving, by the time he heard it, it’d already be on the other side of the room.

“Did you really think you could beat me?” The snake taunted again and lunged down, smacking out with its tail, which smashed into the top of Davi’s head. Davi barely flinched, even as blood started to drip down his face, and he instead calmly pulled out a red piece of paper from his vault and began to silently look at it. “You’re dead! You should have given me my meal when you had the chance! Now you’ll pay the price!” The snake opened its mouth as wide as it could, and it lunged forward.

Right before it could strike, though, Davi turned and punched as hard as he could. His fist rammed into the claymore that was poking out of the monster’s eye, and he hit it so hard that it went all the way through, the hilt vanishing into its skull.

The snake’s good eye went wide, and it made a choked gasp and shook, screaming in pain, and was somehow still alive. A sea of crimson came spilling out, and it thrashed around wildly, its cloaking fading. It smashed through dozens of pillars, raining snow and ice down wildly as the pain blazed through its brain.

“You thank Olivia for that one.” Davi’s voice managed to still the snake as it glared down at him in pure hate. The raven-haired teen lifted up the red piece of paper he had been looking at. “Your cloaking is useless. She’s already marked you, and because of that, I know where you’re at even when you pull your cheat move.”

“How dare you?” Ice and venom gushed out of the snake’s mouth and rained onto the ground below. “I will make you pay! You’ll pay the price for doing this.”

Davi stepped forward and grabbed a chunk of stone from one of the pillars and threw it at the snake hard enough to shatter the stone. The block rammed right into its open mouth, causing the beast to make a choking noise. As the snake was still processing that, Davi stabbed out with his hand, and his armor once again changed, his fingers becoming jagged, demonic claws, which dug into the scales of the snake, allowing him to rip a chunk out.

“Stop it!” The snake screamed so loudly it shattered the ice. “Stop hurting me!”

“What was that you were saying?” Davi asked calmly. “You said I’ll pay the price? What price? The price for not listening to you? I gave you the chance to leave. Instead, you picked a fight with me. I think if anyone is going to pay the price, it’s you, don’t you think?”

The snake stared down at the man, and its snout almost seemed to quiver. “Truce.”

“What?” Davi made a face.

“Let’s have a truce.” The snake spat out. “No more fighting. You go. Leave. Take whatever you want. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“You tried to kill me.” Davi reached up and rubbed the top of his head, which was still wet with blood. “You cracked my skull open.”

“Should have worn your helmet.”

“Fuck you.” Davi shrugged after a moment. “Fine. We don’t have to fight, but here are the terms. You have to take the barrier down that’s around Daisy and leave. Go find a different dungeon to take over, one that is far away from any town, city, or village, and never harm a human ever again. In fact, don’t go near humans at all.”

The snake made a grumbling sound but nodded its head, or at least the closest thing a snake could do to nodding. “Very well. Now go! You are unwelcome.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Davi rolled his eyes and turned around. “You have until tomorrow morning to leave Daisy or else.”

“Of course.” The snake watched the Knight’s retreating form. “One more thing.”

Davi turned to look back at the snake, which now awkwardly angled its head down. “What?”

“You forgot your sword.” The claymore began to slowly slide out of the snake’s eyehole, along with another fresh wave of blood that made Davi’s stomach do a flip. The sword dropped to the ground in front of the snake.

“Oh? Thanks?” Davi bent down to pick it up, and without warning, the snake struck out.

“You idiot!” The snake laughed and made one last desperate attempt to win. Its entire jaw unhinged, and it slammed down around Davi, who was kneeling. Ice began to flicker across Davi’s armor and flesh as the snake unloaded a wave of cold directly into him. Davi tried to stab up with his arm, but it was frozen in place, making it impossible to swing the sword he picked up.

The snake shoved its weight onto him, and Davi’s face remained blank as he fell onto his back. He was entirely in the snake’s mouth, and its frozen breath was coming out too fast for his armor to absorb. It was the Salamander situation all over again, but this time, he couldn’t grab a tooth to use it as a weapon. Despite that, Davi’s determination didn’t fade.

He had been nice to the salamander. It was a simple-minded creature, and so he gave it a clean death, going straight for the brain. The snake would not be given the same execution.

“I had a feeling you were going to do something like this.” Davi’s words caused the snake to stop for only a second before it got back to attempting to freeze him to death. “I gave you a chance. I even gave you a second one, all because you could talk and seemingly think. You aren’t a mindless monster, and it’s because of that fact that the only being you can blame for what happens next is yourself. No more bargains.” Davi slowly built up his mana, his fiery blue eyes glowing bright, and then he cast his spell. “Row Shadow Vault.”

The darkness within and outside of the snake’s mouth twisted, connecting with Davi’s shadow, which opened up directly beneath him. He was plunged into it, along with the snake, whose eye went wide as the two of them were pulled in. The darkness engulfed them both and swallowed them up, plunging them into the depths. The inside of his vault was almost like being beneath the ocean's waves in the middle of the night. It was pitch black, with little light besides the opening above them, where his shadow had started.

The snake twisted in horror, spitting him out, as it tried to process what was happening. It floated in a sea of black. It wasn’t water, but it felt like it. It was cold, too. It was so cold, way colder than anything it had ever felt. The snake felt its blood instantly start to freeze, and the venom in its mouth exploded into showers of jagged spikes. Its white scales began to crack, and its body began to grow rigid and unmoving as ice began to dance across its flesh. It was a creature of the cold, one who brought blizzards, yet at that moment, for the first time in its life, it was freezing to death.

“It’s cold, right?” Davi rubbed his chin, watching as ice tried to cling to him, but his mana fought it off. “I really hate the cold.” He said lethargically. “I never like entering this place, and I like bringing monsters into here even less.”

In the inky black sea that made up the vault, junk floated around. Hundreds of swords, blocks of stone, and mountains of silver and gold were all scattered throughout the realm. Everything he had ever shoved into his vault was somewhere, even if some of the stuff was out of sight. He was able to bring in a section of his vault to the entrance, which is how he could pull anything he needed out of it. Once something went into his vault, it would either have to find the exit to his shadow, which he constantly twisted and moved at different points in the vault, or it would have to get his permission to leave.

The snake awkwardly twisted through the air, its entire body swaying back and forth. There was no foothold for it to slither on, but there also wasn’t anything it could swim through. It wasn’t water that it was floating in, nor was it air. It was pure and utter darkness, made manifest.

“Get me out of here!” The snake demanded. “I demand it!”

Davi brought his finger to his lip, and he made a shushing sound. “You should try to keep it down.”

“Human! I’ll come up with a new deal with you! You can keep the girls! I don’t care anymore! Just get me out of here!”

“I tried to warn you,” Davi said, turning away. “Looks like you were too loud. 'They’ heard you.”

The snake kept thrashing around and twirling through the cold darkness before its eye finally caught sight of something. Within the endless void were a few buildings that floated, and on one of them the monster saw something. It realized with horror that it wasn’t the only beast within this place. Perhaps the human had caught others, or maybe these things lived here naturally; the snake did not know, but the monster did know that it had met its match.

On the roof of a jagged stone tower, which was rapidly floating closer, was a large beast. It stood at eight feet tall, and it had the head of a bird. A hawk, to be specific. Its body looked almost humanoid, though, being thin and frail, and where a pair of arms should have been were jagged wings that stretched out. It had human-looking legs that ended in cruel talons, and instead of flesh or feathers, it was made out of pure mana and shadows. It was black and blue, just like Davi’s armor, and its eyes were equally as cold as the man’s.

It wasn’t alone either. Dozens of the hawk-like creatures were scattered across the walls and roofs of the towers, and more began to appear in the darkness.

The snake let out one last cry, but it was too late.

A roaring screech filled the endless void as one of the hawk-monsters blasted forward, faster than the snake could move. The strange humanoid creature came down feet first, its talons digging into the snake’s scales and squeezing down hard enough to crack them. The other shadow beasts copied the first, dozens of the monsters piling onto the snake and tearing into its body.

The snake panicked and thrashed, but it couldn’t get to any of the monsters as they began to tear into its jaw and remaining eye. The last thing it saw was Davi, who floated above it in the void.

“In your next life, don’t hunt people. Just be a little garden snake. One that won’t ever harm anyone ever again.” Davi said quietly.

The snake tried to scream, but its mouth had long since been torn off. The birds got a good hold, and then they began to sink, getting deeper and deeper, causing it to get colder and colder, as they dragged the monster away into the realm of black, flying off with their prey.

Davi remained where he was, floating in the shadows as he watched the snake get smaller and smaller, until soon he couldn’t see it anymore.

‘Sorry. I didn’t want to use them.’ With a sigh, he swam up and crawled out of his vault, returning to the dungeon. He closed it after and took a moment to catch his breath.

His armor was a little banged up, but other than that, he was fine. He lay there for several moments. Those creatures had been in his vault the first day he opened it. He usually would shift his vault around to keep them on the opposite end so he didn’t have to deal with them, because truth be told, they freaked even him out.

He had no clue what they were or where they came from.

Davi panted and caught his breath, letting his mana ease back before he finally stood up. Part of him hoped the snake’s death would be quick, but he doubted it. He stalked his way to the back of the room and tore a lot of the ice down, finding a doorway near the back. Past it, he found what he was looking for. The reason most people would enter dungeons.

It was a vault. Not like the one he would create with his magic, though. This was an actual vault. It was wide and filled to the brim with all sorts of things.

In one corner was a massive pile of gold, silver, and copper coins. They were all old and worn down, covered in dirt and grime. Next to the coins was an equally large pile of cash. Some of the bills were modern-day, and others were old scraps of paper, so badly stained and torn they were worthless now.

Besides all the money, there were also many different weapons that were scattered around. Some were as ancient as the coins, like shattered swords, rusted axes, and cracked bows. Other weapons were older-looking handguns or torn-up rifles. Armor and military-looking clothes were also lying around, along with the skeletal remains of poor bastards that hadn’t been able to reach the end.

Not all dungeons had vaults, but the ones that did were always filled with strange items like this. It was thought that a vault was a place where the elves would store their wealth and loot in order to hide it from the humans. Vaults were heavily enchanted, and whenever a person died in the dungeon, their items would be transported into the vault, becoming part of the treasure that it held.

None of the weapons looked to be in good condition, and they also lacked traces of mana, so they weren’t enchanted or special. Typically, a vault would have at least one magic item, be it a lost spellbook or a powerful blade.

There were a couple of shelves also placed randomly amongst the piles of gold and weapons, but none of the books were in good condition. It seemed this dungeon was full of nothing but junk.

Bad RNG.

What did catch his eye, however, was near the back. It was covered in dust and stood on a pedestal in the middle of the room, and was the only item to have any mana that Davi could sense.

It was a small vial of clear liquid.

Davi picked the potion up carefully and studied it. He wasn’t quite studied up, but even he knew what this was. ‘So this is what that ‘fire mage’ guy wanted? Makes sense. Something like this is rare. After all, those birds have long since gone extinct.’ It was the tears of a Phoenix.

Phoenix Tears were very rare and considered to be the strongest potion in the world. They could cure any disease, get rid of any curse, and regrow any lost limb or heal any wound. Everything was starting to make a bit more sense now that he saw the potion. Plenty of people would do a lot of bad things just for a chance to own something like this.

“Row Shadow Vault.” His shadow sucked up the last of the coins, and he tucked the potion away into it. ‘I have a bad feeling.’ Davi thought, and his hand clenched into a fist. ‘I shouldn’t have left Olivia alone with Garon.’

Chapter 22: Susie Nyx

“So, you must be pretty happy getting to hang out with an Arcane Knight.” Garon gave a small smirk, and his eyes sparkled with amusement. “Are you like his squire or what?”

“In a way.” Olivia hummed. “He’s a bit weird, though.” She awkwardly rubbed at the big-ass gun Davi had casually handed to her. She had the monstrous weapon tucked away beneath the coat he had loaned her.

“Fair enough, I guess.” Garon nodded. “I know I’m an adult and I shouldn’t say this, but I’m a bit jealous.”

“You are?” Olivia raised her eyebrow.

“Who wouldn’t be?” Garon sighed and looked to the night sky. “I imagine all kids want to be Arcane Knights when they grow up. They’re the closest thing to real-life superheroes, after all. Most kids get older and realize that it’s an impossible dream and set their eyes on something else, while others keep chasing after their dream of becoming a Knight, only to end up failing at the last moment.” Garon’s tone changed to a slightly bitter one.

Olivia gave a sad nod. She knew exactly what Garon meant. Growing up, all the kids in her village talked about becoming Knights, but then, once they became old enough to attend the school in Lotus, most of those kids gave up after they failed the first combat test. Only Ash and Bruno were good enough to pass. Even Nev and Trent both gave up and looked for another career path.

It seemed like the only one foolish enough to keep walking down the path of the Arcane Knights, despite so many failed attempts, was her.

“That Knight really was amazing.” Garon rubbed his chin and seemed deep in thought. “His armor was spooky, and I didn’t like the feel of his mana, but watching him in action, even for a short amount of time, was incredible. That snake could kill a person in a single blow, yet he took so many direct hits and got up again and again.”

“It’s a miracle nobody died.” Olivia stared out at the other guards. The ones who had been hit by the snake had been healed by Garon, and now all the guards were on high alert in case the snake was going to come back, while the citizens of Daisy got back into their homes.

She knew, though, that the snake wasn’t going to be alive for much longer. She had seen Davi in action twice now, and without a doubt, he was going to win.

The people had a right to be scared, though. After Davi left, Garon and the other guards went to every home and did a headcount and discovered nobody was missing. For the first time since the attacks began, Daisy was able to avoid a kidnapping.

“Why didn’t the snake kill anyone?” Olivia wondered. It was the same question Davi had asked, but she was also curious.

“Who knows?” Garon shrugged and shook his head. “It’s impossible to know how a magical beast thinks. They aren’t from our world. In a way, they’re like aliens.” Olivia gave another hesitant nod, and Garon seemed to notice her distress because he cleared his throat. “Anyway, I need to get back to talking with my men. Stay on guard, okay?”

“Right.” Olivia watched as Garon made his way over to a group of the town guards and began to bark orders out at them once more.

“He’s quite the looker, isn’t he?” A guard piped up when he noticed Olivia staring for a bit too long. Luckily, Garon and the others were too far away to hear or notice. “Garon’s always been a very pretty man.”

Olivia sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “I guess. He is handsome in a way.”

“He has a daughter around your age.” The guard said, after a moment. “I think that’s why he showed so much interest in you.”

“His daughter's name is Susie, right?” Olivia raised an eyebrow. “I’m still shocked that he actually has a kid. I thought he was like twenty-something when I first saw him.”

The guard shook his head. “No. He’s quite old, even if he doesn’t look it. He’s been taking care of this city all on his own ever since the death of his wife.”

Olivia felt a pain in her heart at the guard's words. “His daughter is also sick as well, isn’t she?”

The guard nodded sadly. “His wife passed away around the start of this year. Sadly, she was sick, and no amount of healing magic was able to save her. His daughter has the same cause now as well. I can’t imagine what Garon is going through. Haru gives her toughest battles to her strongest soldiers.”

Olivia felt some sympathy for the man. She had also lost her mother at a very young age. So young, in fact, she couldn’t even recall what her mom looked like. The death of her mother had been one of the things that caused her father to snap and start his adventure, leaving her all alone. Garon not only lost his wife but was also going to lose his daughter if something wasn’t done.

“I’ll be heading home,” Garon stated to one of his guards, speaking up and tearing Olivia away from her thoughts. “Things have settled down, so there’s no point in standing around doing nothing.”

“What about the snake, sir?” The guard questioned.

“You heard that, Knight. He’ll handle it.” Garon made a slightly sour face, then sighed and shook his head. “It’ll be okay. I’m sure of it. I need to check on Susie, so I’m going to call it here.” The guards all nodded, though they still looked pretty nervous. Garon forced a smile. “It’s okay. This all ends tonight. That’s what the Knight said.”

“Right, sir!” The guards all saluted Garon as he turned and began to head down the winding streets, heading for his home.

He had moved to Daisy nearly twenty years ago after he first failed to become an Arcane Knight. Three times, he tried to take the exam, but three times, he failed. Some mages were just born better than others, and Garon had long accepted that he would never be on the same level as a Knight, unless something about him seriously changed.

Garon arrived back at his home and came to a stop outside the door. His house was a little stone building near the baron’s home. It had only a handful of rooms and was a single story. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it had been his wife’s home to start out as and was the place he had always planned to grow old and die at.

“Why are you following me?” Garon asked, and he turned around when he reached the front door.

Olivia let out a sheepish chuckle. She hadn’t been trying to stalk him or hide, but it still felt like she was doing something wrong, following the man to his personal home. After a moment, her look grew a bit serious. “I—” She stopped and tried to figure out what to say. “I wanted to see your daughter.”

“What?” Garon gave her an odd look, and she felt a fresh wave of embarrassment.

“I wanted to meet your daughter after I learned she had the highest score in this town's academy. I’ve been really wanting to meet her and put a face to the person that did so well.” Olivia admitted, after a few seconds of sitting in silence. “I’d like to talk to her also. You said she wanted to be an Arcane Knight. Well, I do, too.”

Garon seemed to consider what she said for a few moments. After some time, he nodded. “Alright. I think she’d like that. There aren’t many girls left after what happened, and she hasn’t gotten to see anyone her age in quite some time.” Garon opened the door and motioned for Olivia to enter. Once she did, he unstrapped his sword and removed his coat, placing them both on a rack. After that, he began to lead her through the halls of his home.

Olivia looked around in silence as she followed. Garon’s home was rather plain-looking. Even more so than Rosco’s hut. It had no paintings, and the walls weren’t painted. No shelves or chairs were anywhere, save for the kitchen, which had a single table and fridge. The place wasn’t dirty, but it wasn’t that clean either. A thick layer of dust covered most places, and Olivia got the feeling Garon rarely spent time here.

“I’m back,” Garon called out when he reached a room near the back. “How are you feeling?” He asked softly, and he entered his daughter's room.

Olivia stood behind him, and she let out a gasp as she peeked over his shoulder. If Garon had anything noteworthy in his home at any point in time, then it seems it had ended up in his daughter's room. There were dozens of knocked-over bookshelves that looked like they had been burned to ash, and the stone all along the walls was blackened and smoky-looking. Ash was heavy in the air, and all manner of chairs, paintings, and seemingly anything else Garon could get his hands on had been placed here.

In the center of the room was a bed, one that was just as burned as the rest of the stuff, the metal bars of it melting and snapping. Lying on the bed was someone Olivia could only guess was Susie.

She was on fire. Hot, jagged red flames flowed out and formed into the shape of a person. Every now and then, the fire would flicker and show a hint of flesh, and a soft whimpering filled the air. The entire room was superheated, and Olivia felt her eyes and mouth burn just from being near the doorway.

Garon didn’t seem to mind. Being a fire mage, he was able to tolerate the heat better than most people could. The human-shaped fire weakly sat up in bed and groaned louder. “Daddy?”

Garon forced his face to soften. He walked over and knelt by the bed, taking his daughter’s hand. The fire flowed over his flesh and started to eat away at the sleeves of his uniform, but Garon paid it no mind. “Row Flame Feel!” A soft wave of fire dripped off his hand, but it didn’t burn. Instead, it was soothing and warm. It danced over Susie, doing its best to heal her, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. Instead, it just merged with the fire that made up her form.

“Have you found the others yet?” Susie asked, and her voice came out weak and raspy, crackling out of the flames.

“We still haven’t found anything.” Garon shook his head. “The missing girls still haven’t turned up. We don’t know if they’ve been kidnapped or if they just ran away.”

“Hannah wouldn’t run.” Susie shook her head. “She’s my friend. She’d never leave me behind. She said we’d get to see the world together when we become Arcane Knights. Spiraling towers. Caves that never end. Cities that stretch on like labyrinths. We read all about it in a book, and she promised she’d be there with me when I saw them all. You have to find her and the other missing girls, Dad.”

“I will.” Garon forced a smile, even though he knew his daughter couldn’t see him through all the fire. “I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they show up.” He still hadn’t told her about the snake or the deal he had made.

“That’s good to hear.” The fire in the shape of a person gently lowered herself back into bed. “Why haven’t I been taken, though? Nearly every other girl in the town was taken, but me?”

“Because I’m not going to let anything take you.” Garon’s hand grew tighter around his daughter's hand. “No matter what. I won’t ever let anything hurt you. I’m going to fix you, Susie, I swear. I’ll be the first person to cure you.”

“That’s good to hear. Thank you, Dad. I’m glad I have you here with me. Always keeping me safe.”

“Always.”

Garon finished his healing magic and stood back up. He walked back over to the door where Olivia had remained motionless. She couldn’t bring herself to set foot into the room or say anything. She had no idea what she could do. She knew it had been bad, but this was beyond anything she had thought of.

Garon closed the door and let out a heavy sigh. He shuffled through the hallway of his home, and she followed. “It’s a sickness that attacks her mana,” Garon said quietly. “All mages have cores inside of us that build up little lines called mana circuits. Everyone’s core is different and has its own grade and ‘level’. For most mages, they can go their whole lives without worrying about it, but not all are that lucky. Magic comes from the elves, and the human body still hasn’t fully learned to accept it, which is why our magic is so much weaker than elven mana. In rare cases, though, a human will be born with a broken core. That’s what my daughter has.”

“She’s on fire,” Olivia said stupidly, and she felt bad for saying it.

“If a core gets damaged, it won’t work right. Susie’s core is the same type of core her mother had.” Garon made his way over to a closet that resided at the other end of his house, and he opened it, revealing a safe that was in the back. “She used to be able to work just fine with it, but the more spells she uses, the worse it gets, and now mana is constantly flowing out of her. Her fire magic won’t shut off, and she’s constantly set aflame. Even a fire mage isn’t totally immune to fire. I fed the flames everything I had in my house to calm them. It isn’t normal fire and is sentient and able to choose when it wants to burn. So long as it is well fed, it won’t devour her, but every day it requires more and gets hungrier. If it isn’t stopped, it’ll burn her entirely down to ash just like it did to her mother.”

“That’s horrible.” Olivia gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.

“It really is.” Garon kept his back to her and opened his safe. “Sometimes I wish Haru had never stolen the magic from the elves. I wonder if it would be better if humans never had mana. If Arcane Knights never existed. She wants to be a Knight so bad, but because of the way she was born, she can’t. I suppose you know what that’s like, right? After all, you were born with blood magic.”

Olivia suddenly felt uneasy. The room seemed to almost shift and change as Garon popped open his safe. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Tonight was the last night. It didn’t matter if a Knight was here or not. He’d make sure it all ended tonight. Garon grabbed two things out of the safe. The first was a dagger, one that was large and jagged, forged from bone, and looked like a tooth. It was dripping with venom and could put most people down with one strike. The other was a cloak, covered in white scales that sparkled in the moonlight.

He slipped the cloak on and pulled the hood up. The scales shimmered for a moment, and then he felt himself become unseen, his reflection fading away, and Olivia felt a wave of panic wash over her. She turned, but as she did, the air shimmered, and Garon became visible, now standing directly in front of her, holding the knife.

“What are you doing?” She stammered. Her eyes glanced down at the dagger and cloak Garon had. “Those came from the snake, didn’t they?”

The scales of the cloak were obviously from the snake’s hide, and the knife looked like one of the snake’s teeth. If Garon had them and the monster was still alive, it most likely meant the creature had willingly given its pieces up to the man.

Garon let out a weak sigh and looked down at the dagger he clutched. “Yeah.” He said, after some time. “This cloak and this knife are both from the serpent. It gave them to me in order to help.”

Olivia gripped her wand tightly and stared at the other man. He was speaking in a hushed tone, and just across the house was his daughter's room. She glanced back toward the entryway and thought about running. She had already cast two spells but managed to recover a bit, so if she was lucky, she could cast another two spells before the blood loss would down her.

“What do you mean, in order to help?” She asked after a moment.

Garon’s knuckles turned white as he gripped his dagger. “It means exactly what it sounds like. I’ve been helping the snake. I came across it by chance. I happened to be out in the woods looking for some ingredients to cure a rash I had gotten when I stumbled into the dungeon. By pure luck, the snake had been coming out as well.” Garon said quietly. “I thought it was going to kill me, but it said it didn’t like the taste of men. Instead, it took me deeper into the dungeon and showed me the treasure room. It’s a beast that’s smart and knows humans well. It spoke to me and offered me a deal.”

“You betrayed your own people,” Olivia said, trying to take another cautious step back. “What could be worth that?” Though she had a pretty good idea, she knew what had caused him to act the way he was. Only a magic item found in a dungeon could cure his daughter.

“There was something in the dungeon I needed above all else.” Garon hissed. “I-I’m not a bad person, I swear! I had to do this. I had no choice. The snake said it would give me what I sought if I helped it out. Together, the two of us created a system. It gave me this dagger and cloak and would attack the town. When it does, I’d show up and ‘stop’ it. During the chaos, once the snake fled, I’d capture the targets and later bring them to the snake. And it was all going smoothly until that Arcane Knight arrived.” Garon spat and took a step forward. “He ruined everything.”

“Couldn’t you have just asked Davi to help you?” Olivia questioned. “You could have gotten a real Arcane Knight out here and had them slay the snake and get whatever item was in the dungeon for you.”

Garon shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. The snake put up the barrier and made it impossible to get the help of a Knight. If I had refused the snake’s offer, it would have just killed me and then rampaged throughout the town, killing as it pleased.”

“But an Arcane Knight did show up. Why didn’t you ask for Davi’s help when you learned he was here?” Olivia countered.

“Anything in a dungeon belongs to the Knights. They’d never give me an item that was locked away. Instead, they’d keep it for themselves.” Garon hissed. “Especially the one I wanted. I needed to make sure an Arcane Knight wouldn’t arrive. All of it should have gone to plan, but now it’s ruined because that damn Ebony Knight happened to show up!”

Olivia fought back a weak chuckle. It was a bit odd that all of this had started by pure chance. If they hadn’t wandered into the area, Garon’s plan likely would have gone smoothly.

Fate was weird like that at times.

“Why are you even telling me all of this?” She asked.

Garon gave a weak shrug. “I guess I just wanted someone to know. I’ve been holding this guilt in for a while now. Your friend is going to ruin all my plans, so I decided to make you the tenth and final sacrifice. You’re the only one that’s left out of the ten that the snake and I agreed on, and if it turns out he’s beaten the snake and slayed it, then I’ll use you as a bargaining chip to force him to give me the item I seek. I’ll do anything for it. I absolutely can’t lose.”

“You don’t have to do this. Davi will help you. He’s a kind person. I’m sure he’ll give you whatever you want.”

“You’re such an idiot!” Garon let out a loud yell and banged his hand on the wall. “Do you seriously think that the Knights actually care about us? I tried to become an Arcane Knight, but I failed, and that’s despite the fact that I was born with the ability to cast combat-related spells and blessed with a strong type. Do you know why? It’s because the Knights are made up of a select group of people. Barely anyone that isn’t a noble manages to pass their tests, and despite working with the king, the Knights still charge people high amounts of money to come out and slay monsters and close dungeons. They’ve set up a monopoly on the market and refuse to let anyone else access it, including the military. The king lets it be because of the debt he owes them. They aren’t even really Knights anymore. They may still call themselves by those titles, but they don’t actually serve the king or do anything for us. All of them are just greedy, power-hungry bastards who use us as blood banks! The black-haired Knight is no different! The moment he slays the monster, he’s going to take all the credit for it and then sell its corpse himself and keep all the profit. He’ll even ask for a reward and demand we pay for it, despite the fact we’re barely clinging on!”

“Dad?” The voice of Susie called out. “Is everything okay?”

Garon breathed heavily as his rant came to an end. Olivia stared at him with wide eyes. “I—you’re wrong. Davi isn’t like that at all.”

Garon shook his head and gave a smile, one that looked almost sad. “Even so, it doesn’t matter. I already gave the girls to the snake, and it’s only a matter of time until the Knight learns the truth. I bet the monster will try to make a deal with him like it did with me and reveal what I did. If you would have shown up earlier, perhaps I would have listened, but I’ve already gone this far. What’s one more?”

“Wait—”

“No. I’m done waiting! I want my cure!” Garon announced, and Olivia turned and took off running, heaving for a window.

Garon struck out with his hand and aimed it in Olivia’s direction. She was halfway across the room and out of reach, but his fire built up as he cast a spell. “Row Flame Snake!”

Olivia jumped back and dove into the window just in time as fire launched out of Garon’s hand. It took on the shape of a long snake and twisted through the air, heading straight for her. “Row Blood Shield!” A crimson red shield formed at the tip of her wand, blocking the thin, fiery snake, which bounced off. She regretted casting the spell instantly, though, as the world began to spin and her body felt weak. She hadn’t recovered as much as she thought she had, and glass dug into her back as she went through it and slammed into the icy pavement outside.

The snake was thin and small enough to break into people’s homes, unlike the actual beast, and this one slithered across the icy floor and twisted itself back toward Olivia. She rolled across the ground and looked up, seeing several of the guards, who were all shocked. They all stood on the street, and one of them managed to snap out of his funk and yell out.

“T-The snake!” It was the guard she had spoken with earlier who yelled it out. “It just came from Garon’s house! It’s trying to steal Captain Garon’s daughter!”

The fire snake slithered across the ground, and Olivia opened her mouth to scream something, but before she could, she felt a sharp wave of pain. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel Garon’s knee, which pressed down into her back. His dagger stabbed into her shoulder, and she went to scream in pain, but her mouth wouldn’t open. Her entire body was frozen, and she felt a burning sensation coursing through her veins.

The dagger Garon had was laced with a powerful venom that caused the body to freeze up, its muscles going rigid. She couldn’t move an inch or even blink. She was helpless, unable to draw the gun Davi had given her.

The snake made out of fire twisted up, and the guards ran toward her, but it was too late. The snake came down, and Olivia felt it wrap around her. Surprisingly, it didn’t burn. The fire was warm but not hot and felt weirdly gentle. It squeezed around her tightly, and one of the guards jumped toward her, attempting to reach her, but the snake yanked her away.

Unseen by all, Garon opened his cloak, and she was dragged inside, the cloth closing around them both. To the rest of the guards, it looked like she and the snake vanished into thin air.

“Garon!” One of the guards cried out and ran into Garon’s house looking for the captain, but he wasn’t there, for he stood out in the streets beneath his cloak of invisibility.

“I’m sorry,” Garon said quietly. Olivia remained frozen in his arms as he gripped her by the waist. “You’re just unlucky. I swear that I’m a good person. I have to do this. Please believe me.”

Olivia remained motionless in his arms as he picked her up and began to carry her toward the dungeon. She was going to be the tenth and final one. Garon was going to make sure of that.

Tonight, he would get the tears of a Phoenix. Tonight, he would finally be able to cure that which couldn’t be fixed.

Chapter 23: Despair

Normally, his method of taking a target was different. The snake would rampage, and while that was happening, he’d use the cloak it gave him to grab a target and steal them away during the chaos.

Afterwards, he’d arrive to ‘heroically’ fight off the snake and send it running. Once it was gone, he’d then take the person he grabbed, whom he’d keep hidden away, and bring them to the snake. The deal they had was pretty simple. He got to be viewed as a hero by his town for always fighting it off, and once he brought it ten girls, it would finally give him the potion that he needed.

Then that Arcane Knight showed up and ruined everything. So, Garon found himself having to improvise this time and take someone he normally wouldn’t bother with.

“So, you have blood magic?” Garon asked quietly as the two of them walked. Well, he walked, and Olivia was dragged behind him, face down in the snow, still unable to move her body. “That must suck, huh?”

The girl didn’t fight or move. Even when the flaming snake vanished and the fire faded away, she remained utterly frozen. She simply couldn’t move. The knife he had was coated in the snake's venom.

One graze and a target would have their entire body freeze up, their muscles ceasing to function, and they’d go stiff as a board for a full day. They were still aware, able to see and hear everything, but no matter how much they would struggle, they simply couldn’t move.

Garon tightened his arms around Olivia’s wrist and lifted her up. He had to move slowly, ensuring neither of them stepped out of the range of his cloak or that he accidentally bumped into someone. Once he did make it to the town gates, he let out the breath he was holding.

“You and that Knight never should have come here.” He began to walk through the forest, heading for the dungeon. “You almost ruined everything.” Once he was sure no one was around, he lowered his hood, the invisibility effect shutting off.

Olivia tried to move, but she couldn’t. Her body wasn’t working. She couldn’t twitch her fingers or even blink. It was terrifying. Maybe one of the scariest things that happened to her. She was at this guy's mercy, and Davi wasn’t here to save her like every other time she had been in danger.

Garon wasn’t gentle with her either. He was casually swinging her around, and she kept smacking into trees and other things as he dragged her through the snowy forest until eventually stopping at a large hill.

She was totally helpless.

Again…

How many times did that make now? How many times would she endanger herself and have to be saved? She felt frustrated. Still, if it was venom that was inside of her doing that, then there was at least one thing she could do…

When he reached the dungeon's entrance, Garon harshly dropped her, and she crashed face-first into the snow just outside the dungeon. “The tenth,” Garon stated. “You’ll be the tenth and final sacrifice.” He brought his foot back and placed it on her stomach. “I swear I’m not a bad guy. I’ve just tried everything, and you and that brat have really screwed up the only plan that was working.”

Olivia stayed in place, staring up at the roof above, not making a sound, even as Garon’s foot began to painfully push down into her gut.

“Sorry.” Garon eased up suddenly. “I’m a good person, though. I once tried out to become an Arcane Knight, but I didn’t get the part. It was so humiliating for me. I was born with fire magic. Sure, it’s not rare, but it’s a staple. Fire can do a lot of things and is useful, yet even being born with such a strong type, I wasn’t able to pass any of the exams, and they failed me three different times. It made me so mad.” Garon crouched down, and he gently stroked Olivia’s face almost tenderly. “So, I became stuck in this dead-end job serving as the town guard. Gone were my dreams of being a Knight. I’m a nobody now. No one appreciates me or knows my name. I might as well not even exist. I was born lucky, yet it didn’t matter.”

Olivia rested there, still not moving, but her mind was a whirlwind. Plenty of mages cursed the magic they were born with, herself included. Garon was a lucky one, though, born with a solid magic type and decent schools of magic, yet he had also failed.

It made her feel sick at her stomach. If someone like him wasn’t able to make it into the Knights, then did she stand a chance?

Garon took her by the hair and forced her head up, looking down into her eyes. “I knew a guy who had blood magic.” The man said quietly, and Olivia found herself fully focused on his words now. “He was one of the people who took the exam with me.” Garon patted her cheek and gave a fake smile. “He didn’t make it either. Of course. If someone like me couldn’t do it, then someone like him sure as hell couldn’t either. I was born special, and like that man, you weren’t. I felt a little bad at first for setting up this plan. After all, I’m either going to feed you to the snake or use you as a tool to force the Knight to listen to me, but after seeing that you have blood magic, I feel less bad. Your kind shouldn’t exist. You’re all blights on the world. Most people with blood magic turn into Magical Mutants, and I’m sure you’ll be no different. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is.”

Olivia felt tears prick in her eyes. Growing up, she was constantly yelled at and called names, but somehow it felt different coming from a guy who walked the path of the Knights but failed. Everything Garon was saying was true in a way.

People feared what they didn’t understand, and for some reason, blood magic was always linked back to dark mages or people who would become Mutants.

Was she just fated to fail?

No.

Olivia suddenly recalled something someone had said to her once. A beautiful woman with stunning silver hair and eyes that looked like the moon. That woman had seen her blood magic, yet still hadn’t told her to give up. That woman had encouraged her, and so had Davi. Her own father had told her to quit, but if she refused to listen to him, then why should she even consider Garon’s words?

She was going to become an Arcane Knight.

She made a promise.

“I shouldn’t talk your ear off.” Garon let out a weak sigh. “I just get so mad sometimes. I know I’m special. I should be at the top. I’m handsome and was born with a strong type of magic, yet just because I have a bit of emotional issues, I wasn’t fit to be a Knight. It’s utter bullshit.” He grunted and reached down, grabbing her by the back of the neck, and pulled her face out of the snow. “Anyway, we should get you into the dungeon—”

There was a terribly loud bang, and the entire forest went silent. The gunshot echoed out, and Garon dropped Olivia, and he screamed almost as loudly as the gun had. He dropped onto his ass and grabbed at his thigh, which was now gushing out a wave of red due to the bullet hole that had appeared in his leg.

Garon’s eyes filled with pain and rage as he glared down at the smoking gun Olivia held, which was halfway pointed out of her cloak. Olivia’s arm shook as she lifted it, about to fire again, but Garon lunged for it.

Another gunshot echoed through the forest, and this time the bullet rammed into a tree, sending a shower of wood. Garon let out a second howl of pain as his hand gripped the barrel, which had become red hot, and forced the gun to point away from him. He twisted his arm as much as he could, tearing the weapon out of Olivia’s hands, who let out a gasp.

Garon tossed the weapon away as far as he could and turned to grab at the white-haired girl, but before he could make contact, Olivia kicked out and rammed her foot directly into the wound Garon had in his leg, downing him.

He yelled and dropped her, and as soon as he did, she jabbed out with her fist, punching him and breaking his nose. He was shoved down as she jumped forward across the snow, stumbled into the entrance of the dungeon, and crashed down onto the step below. Pain flooded her body, but she fought through it and rolled down to the next step.

“You bitch!” Garon roared out in rage, and he cupped his wound. “Row Flame Feel!” Fire gushed out of his hand, and his flesh began to mend. As soon as it was done, he jumped down after Olivia, but she was already on her fourth step, literally tossing herself off of each one, not caring how much damage she took. She just needed to get away. “How the hell can you even still move?” Garon glared down at the dagger he held. “I stabbed you! I’m sure I did!”

Olivia felt a smug grin cross onto her face as she heard the man’s annoyance and rage. The truth was she had gotten lucky. For once, having blood magic paid off. Even without being able to cast a spell, mages had certain benefits that set them apart from normal humans.

For example, a mage like Nev or Garon, who could use fire, was typically way more fire-resistant than normal people, and it would require high temperatures to burn them. An ice mage like her friend Bruno was basically immune to the cold and wouldn’t need to worry about frostbite.

Since her body was used to using up so much blood, she tended to heal faster than normal people would, and her blood would go out of its way to purify itself.

She discovered this when she was a kid and ate a bunch of poisonous berries during one of her many escape attempts from the village. She had eaten enough to kill a full-grown elephant a hundred times over, but for her, it had just upset her stomach for a few days, and she had been able to recover from it.

In other words, she was basically immune to any poison that wasn’t of the highest quality or the most potent dose. It had taken a bit of time, but she had managed to move all the snake’s venom into a specific part of her body, freeing the rest of it by closing that vessel off.

Olivia tumbled down the final step and heard a click. A second later, she was forced to drop to the floor, letting out a loud squeak as a rain of arrows began to blast directly above her from all sides.

Garon reached the bottom step but didn’t jump down. Instead, he looked down at the floor, scanning it with his eyes. The arrows were explicitly made to miss a particular path so that a person could travel through the room without triggering the trap. Only a fool would simply rush in without a care. Forcing some mana into his legs to strengthen his body, Garon leapt through the air and crashed down on a tile, avoiding all of the arrows. He was now in the front and turned back to face Olivia.

“End of the line,” Garon called out. “Stay where you are, and I’ll come get you when this damn trap you set off stops.”

“Yeah, right! As if I’m going to let that happen.” Olivia winced and debated standing up, but the traps weren’t letting up anytime soon. She glared up at Garon and only saw a cold look in his eyes. “Why didn’t you just get the help of Davi from the start! Whatever was in here, he could have gotten it for you if you just asked him.”

Garon let out a harsh laugh and glared at her. “Yeah, right! It doesn’t work like that. Those bastards may claim they’re for the people, but I know the truth. They take all the monsters they kill and sell them off so they can turn a profit. They do the same with places like this. They enter dungeons and take all the valuables for themselves! They’d simply take what I want and not give it to me! Then everything I did would be for nothing! Don’t even get me started on hiring them for a quest! Those bastards are all greedy! Besides! Even if one were willing to help me, why would I let them steal my chance at glory? I deserve to be the one who saves the day! I’m a good person!”

“Someone who is a good person doesn’t have to keep saying it,” Olivia growled. “Have you ever gone out of your way to help someone even when it inconveniences you? Have you ever tried your best to make others happy, even when the people around you are put off by you because of how your mana feels? Have you ever taken the time to make sure a person is not only doing better but can continue to help themselves in the future? A good person isn’t whatever you are. A good person is someone who would take me on the adventure of a lifetime, all because I asked, and help me every step of the way!”

“Shut up,” Garon yelled. “Things are only wrong because you and that boy screwed it all up! I would have saved all the girls, you know!” Garon punched at his chest and gritted his teeth. “The snake let it slip that it was saving the girls for when it would hibernate.”

“Brumate.” Olivia corrected.

“Whatever!” Garon growled. “It wasn’t going to instantly eat the girls. I was going to give it the ten it needed and get the potion I wanted. After that, I would have found a way to get hold of the Knights once I got what I wanted!”

“How were you going to get the Knights to show up after you were done, though? The barrier isn’t going down? Also, what was stopping the snake from betraying you and killing you when it got what it wanted? Would it really just let you guys all live?” Olivia questioned.

Garon shook his head, refusing to consider what she was saying. “Shut it! You people are the bad guys! You’ve made things worse just by showing up! As soon as this trap ends, I’m going to make you pay!”

She was a little shocked at the way Garon was acting now. It was almost like a switch had been flipped, or as if he had taken off his mask. Gone was the calm, collected guard that was willing to protect his city. This was the real Garon. A desperate man who just wanted to do what he thought was the right thing. She had fallen for his false looks just as everyone else did.

People were never as they seemed, and something was never so simple.

“You want to make me pay?” Olivia announced. “You’ll have to catch me first! Row Blood Cloak!” She had rested enough to regain some of her blood since she healed so quickly, so this no longer counted as her third spell. The blood flowed out of the tip of her wand and formed into a blanket, which wrapped itself around her. She didn’t have the amount of mana or control Davi did to make a full suit, but her blood was still able to harden and defend. Keeping herself cloaked, she jumped to her feet and launched herself at Garon.

Garon’s eyes went wide, and he raised his dagger up, ready to counter her with a spell. He waited for her to cast, but it never came since she wasn’t casting another spell. Instead, she shoulder-rammed him and knocked him off the platform he was on. Several of the arrows dug past his armor, and he howled in pain, attempting to blanket himself in mana, but that was only able to block a few of the arrows. He crashed to the ground, with one sticking out of his back.

Olivia ran forward, holding her cloak tighter against herself. The arrows weren’t able to puncture through it, but it still stung as they rammed into her multiple times. She almost lost her footing but forced herself to keep going. There was another click, and this time, the entire dungeon room shook as a large boulder dropped from the sky.

Olivia stared in shock as it began to roll toward her, about to crush her to death. On the bright side, the rain of arrows had finally come to an end.

“Row Flame Wheel!” Garon screamed the spell and sent a wave of fire flying past her, which began to slice into the boulder, but it wasn’t enough. She flicked her own wand out, casting another spell.

“Row Blood Wheel!” She mimicked Garon’s spell, her blood flowing out into a bladed-wheel shape, and together with the fire, it began to dig into the stone. The two of them gave it their all and let out a yell as they split the boulder directly in two. She breathed heavily once it was done, the two halves falling down. How had Davi done all of this by himself? She was starting to get exhausted from the loss of blood and mana, but she had a slight advantage since Garon couldn’t let her die. Garon yelled something at her, but her senses were all over the place, and she couldn’t process what he said.

Olivia ignored his screaming and forced herself forward. Her back was killing her, her side burned, her legs were aching from the running and the drops, and her shoulder had an arrow that was poking out of it, which she hadn’t even noticed made it past her cloak. She had never felt more alive. This was just like the Salamander. She was living life on the edge. One mistake could get her killed, yet she was strangely happy.

“Get back here!” Garon ordered.

“No!”

Garon gritted his teeth and yelled in anger. “Don't think I haven't noticed how you slowed! Blood magic is useless! That guy I mentioned earlier could only manage four spells. I bet you're even less since you're smaller. You're as pathetic as he was, thinking you can get away!”

“Your words mean nothing to me!” Olivia shouted back.

“Oh, really?”

“I’m going to become an Arcane Knight!” She declared loudly. “Just like my father, just like the silver-haired woman who saved me, and just like Davi, who took me on this adventure in the first place!” She had more hope now than she ever did. “I’m going to do it for myself!” Up ahead was a massive set of double doors. They were sealed shut and fixed from Davi’s earlier rampage. “So this is nothing! Because if he can go through this dungeon, then so can I—”

Pain.

Pain unlike any other.

Olivia suddenly froze and felt her back tear, followed by her stomach, as Garon rammed his knife through her back.

He might not be anywhere near as strong or durable as Davi, but he, too, had once attempted to walk the path of the Arcane Knights, and so, just like Davi, he was far stronger and faster than a normal human.

She never had a chance to escape from the start. As a sea of red gushed from her wound, Olivia’s thoughts suddenly went to the silver-haired beauty who had saved her and set her on this path. She had desperately wanted to thank the woman for giving her the motivation she needed. Her thoughts then went to Davi, who was actively helping and had gone out of his way to guide her.

She had failed them both. In the end, she still didn’t have what it took.

Life just wasn’t fair.

Chapter 24: Magical Mutant

Danial stepped out of Garon's home and took his helmet off. The guard uniform he wore was always hot, with layers of chainmail and a heavy winter cloak, but now it felt almost scorching.

"That's the state Garon's daughter is in?" Danial covered his face with his palm and felt hot sweat pour down his body. He had been the one to search the house after the flaming snake took the white-haired girl away. He knew that Garon's daughter had a broken core, but he never would have imagined it was as bad as it was. "How is she even still alive? She was on fire? She's like a Magical Mutant..."

"Are you okay?" Another guard asked when he saw how queasy Danial looked.

Danial forced a nod and looked back up. The other guards were scattered around Daisy's street, all waiting for what they should do next. No one wanted to make the first move, though. Not with their captain being MIA. "Any sign of Garon?"

"No." The guard shook his head, causing Danial to let out a sigh. "We can't find him or the Squire of that Knight."

"Damn it. I can't believe that snake was able to loop back around and grab them!" Danial bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. "If something happens to Garon, who will take care of his daughter?"

"What are you all doing, just standing around out here?" The guards jumped when they heard the voice, and they turned, finding the baron of Daisy standing on the corner of a street. The small old man held his staff and hobbled over, his eyes narrowed.

"Sir!" Danial gave a salute to the older man. "The magical beast returned and took the Squire of the Arcane Knight. We believe it also took Garon!"

The baron let out a hum and grabbed at his beard, tugging on it. "Really now? It took Garon? That's excellent news."

"It is?" The guards all shared strange looks. They hadn't expected that answer.

The baron nodded, and he crouched down, letting out a groan as his weak bones popped. He took his walking cane and turned it over, placing the top of it on the road, and he gave a crooked grin. "I'm quite familiar with Garon's mana. If it had been anyone else, something like this wouldn't work, but Garon has been throughout this town so much that his mana is everywhere. It should be easy to figure out where he went. Row Bone Compass." The baron grunted, and the flesh around his arm began to tear and break, as jagged bones dropped out of his flesh.

The baron breathed heavily as the bones weaved together and became a small circular compass. A small and thin, spear-shaped bone started to rapidly spin before it suddenly twisted in the direction of the forest. The baron picked it up and let out a grunt.

"Alrighty, men. We're going to go save Garon."

"The Arcane Knight had a way of also tracking where the snake went, but he told us to stay out of it," Danial stated, giving a frown. "I don't know if he'd like us showing up out of the blue."

The baron made a face. "Well, too bad. I'm in charge. That Knight isn't here. Garon is our best warrior. We can't let him die. Now onward!"

"Yes, sir!" The guards nodded and began to head in the direction the compass pointed to.

Danial watched them march forward, and his worry grew. He really hoped the Knight finished the fight before they arrived.

***

“Just as I said. Blood magic is useless. Your own body got so weakened, you didn't even have enough mana to shield yourself from my blade.”

Garon’s poisoned dagger went all the way through her back and out the front of her stomach. Olivia instantly felt sick, but before she could think of throwing up, Garon tore the sword out of her, and she cried out, falling to her knees, clutching at her wound. The venom was trying to freeze her again, but her body was used to it now and fighting it off. It still didn’t help with the hole she had through her now, though.

“Why did you make me do that?” Garon asked, letting out a dark sigh. “Now I have to waste my mana fixing you. You stupid, arrogant girl. Why couldn’t you have just gone down like the rest? This would have all been so much easier! But no! You had to make things difficult!” Garon grabbed the bridge of his nose and pinched it, letting out a rage-filled sigh. “You wouldn’t have gotten hurt if you had done nothing. This is what you get for acting up, though.” Garon kicked out, ramming his foot into Olivia’s gut wound, causing her to let out a scream. “It’s just not fair. Why does an idiot, useless girl like you get to hang out with an Arcane Knight? Why can’t I be special like that? I have fire magic! Why did he pick someone like you over someone like me?”

He kicked, and he kicked, and he kicked, over and over, until Olivia was lying in a pool of red, her face more pale than it had ever been. Her eyes were glazed, and her chest no longer moved. It was hard to tell if she was even still alive.

Garon was done pretending. Like a snake shedding its skin, he was showing his true self. He no longer had his fake smile, and his handsome looks faded away as he grew more enraged with each passing second.

Garon breathed heavily when he was finally done and shuddered in disgust when he saw how red his boots had become. “When I first found this dungeon, curiosity got the better of me. I decided to explore the first room before I called the Arcane Knights. I made it to these big doors, and at the time, the snake was slithering through its home, exploring. It found me, and instead of killing me, it took me to the vault, and that was where it offered me the deal. That bastard is greedy, though, and it knew that I’d do anything to get the potion I wanted. That was why it set the price so high.” Garon sneered again and dropped to a knee, grabbing Olivia by the hair and lifting her bloody face up. “You’re the final one. Honestly, you’re lucky I stopped you when I did. Any time I want to get ahold of the snake, I come to these doors and open them. He’s just past there. Not even I know what other traps are in here. I just saved your life, so be grateful. I’m a good guy. I’m a hero.” Garon dropped Olivia’s head, and it smacked into the floor. He stood up and pointed his palm at the door. “Row Flame Hand!” His hand ignited, and the fire twisted out, forming into a massive hand that quickly pushed against the door.

The door burst open, and instantly, Garon took a step back at what he saw. The darkness seemed to bend and twist past the door, the shadows creeping up, and a pair of fiery blue eyes stabbed out. Garon took a step back out of fear and lifted his dagger, his eyes going wide. The shadows kept twisting and bending, and for a moment, Garon swore he was looking at the outline of a bird.

Davi slowly walked past the doors. He didn’t say anything and instead stared at Garon, then quietly looked down at where Olivia lay.

Garon felt tears stabbing at his eyes, and he fought back a whimper as he struggled to keep himself calm. The air was cold. Freezing even. The Knight’s mana had been intense before, but now it was all unleashed, as if a blizzard had formed out of nowhere.

Finally, Garon managed a snarl. If the Knight was here, then that meant the snake was dead. He’d just have to go with plan B.

“Stay back!” Garon grabbed Olivia by the hair and forced her head up. He placed the dagger to her throat and got ready to slice it open if he needed to. “Take a step, and I'll kill her.” He warned.

Davi stayed in place, not saying anything. His usual blank look was gone, replaced with something a lot colder. He gazed at Olivia’s wounds before finally looking up and meeting Garon’s glare.

“Do you have any idea what you did, you fucking moron!” Garon screamed, pressing the dagger harder to Olivia’s throat. “You ruined everything! I had a deal with that damn snake, and you killed it! This dungeon contains the tears of a Phoenix! Phoenix Tears are among the strongest healing potions in the world! I need it! I must have it.” Garon growled. “So you’re going to give me the potion. Pull it out. Now. If you don’t, I’ll kill this girl. I’m not sure why a useless blood mage is so important to you, but I’ve seen the way you look at her! This is your only chance! I-I’m not a bad guy! I’m the one in the right!”

Silence stretched on for several moments, and neither Davi nor Garon moved an inch. Garon felt a nervous shiver go down his spine as he stared into Davi’s fiery blue eyes. Somehow, being able to see the Knight's face was much worse now.

“W-What are you waiting for? Do it.” Garon demanded. “I’m the hero here! Don’t you get that! I’m the good person, and you’re the one who fucked it all up! So listen to me!”

“...Row Shadow Vault.” Davi held his hand out, and the potion plopped out from his shadow, flying up into his palm. As soon as he had it, Garon stopped screaming.

Garon’s look shifted fully, and the man looked suddenly relieved. His arm shook a bit, and he almost lowered the dagger but stopped. “It’s the real deal. I can tell just by looking at it. That’s the Phoenix Tears. Finally, everything I did will have been worth it. My heroic deeds paid off. Give it to me. Quickly now. I can use it to fix myself, and whatever is left can be used for my daughter.”

Davi didn’t hand it over, though. Instead, he pulled his sword out of the shadows. “Olivia.” Olivia weakly looked up. Her eyes were glazed, and she looked like she was barely clinging to life. “This is going to hurt.”

Faster than Garon could react, Davi lunged forward, and he sliced his sword down. To Garon’s shock and horror, Davi sliced right through Olivia, splitting through her shoulder and side. His blade was blunt and worn, shattering and ripping through Garon’s own body, causing the fire mage to cry out as the arm holding the dagger became mangled and torn, causing the weapon to drop.

Garon’s eyes were wide, and he gasped, trying to process what had just happened. “You monster! How could you—”

“Out of my way.” Davi rammed his elbow into Garon’s face hard enough to send him blasting back. Garon was launched away, and in an instant, Davi caught Olivia. He ignored the sea of red that poured from her and brought the potion to her lips and forced her to drink it.

The effect was instant. Olivia gasped, and her entire body shimmered for a moment. Her flesh changed red as if it was burning, and steam poured from her wounds as her broken body mended. All her cuts and stab wounds sealed closed, and her body refilled with blood as she fully healed. Once it was done, the steam stopped, and her skin returned to normal.

Davi kept an arm beneath her, and he pulled the potion away from her lips. Less than half of it was left. “How are you feeling?” He asked, tucking the rest away into his shadow.

“Did you stab through me to hit Garon?”

“Yeah.”

“Please never do that again…”

“My bad. You good?”

Olivia winced and felt her wounds fade. All of them rapidly vanished. The potion was even better than the last one Davi gave her. “Yeah.” She forced a smile but then looked away. “I had to be saved by you again.” She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, but the potion was still going through her, so it healed instantly, the steam rising out of her wound. “Damn it. I just… I didn’t want to be saved again.”

Davi stood up and dragged her to her feet. “I don’t mind saving you.”

“I do, though.” Olivia sighed. “It makes me feel useless and weak. I hate it.”

“Noted. Next time, I’ll let you die.” Davi responded in his typical flat tone.

“That’s not what I mean!” Olivia shook her head. “I’m glad you had that potion when you did save me. I think I would have died if you hadn’t used it on me. Speaking of which, what do you plan to do with the rest of it?”

Davi was about to say something but was interrupted by Garon, who screamed loudly. Getting their attention. “Damn you, damn you, damn you!” Garon pushed himself back up, his broken arm struggling to heal with the help of his restoration magic. “It’s not fair! It’s just not fair!” Garon screamed.

Olivia glanced back at Garon, and she winced. He didn’t look too good. His hair was a mess, and his eyes were crazed and bloodshot. He was practically foaming from the mouth, and his right arm was twisted and snapped in two.

It was hard to believe she once viewed this guy as handsome.

Garon kept shaking and hissing. “I tried so hard! I worked so hard! I couldn’t do it, though. I couldn’t be an Arcane Knight like you! I don’t have the power you do! Damn you, damn you, damn you! You don’t know what it’s like, do you! You have power! You have strength! Not like us!” Garon gestured at himself and even Olivia. “Not all mages are made equal! If I had even a fraction of your power, I’d be able to change this world for the better! You’re strong, but what do you use your power for? Nothing! You ruined everything!”

“I ruined everything?” Davi asked, raising his eyebrow.

“You did! It could have all worked out if you wouldn’t have shown up! I need that potion!” Garon screamed. “I will have it! One way or another.”

Davi pulled his claymore out once more and stepped forward but stopped when Olivia suddenly wrapped her arms around his. “Davi.” She said quietly, looking away, slightly ashamed.

“What is it?” Davi questioned.

“I think you should give him the potion.”

Davi blinked, taken aback by her words. “Are you sure you fully recovered?” He asked in a blank tone, and he casually grabbed her by the chin and began to forcefully tilt her head back and forth, studying her.

“Yes! Now stop!” Olivia slapped his hand away and huffed.

Davi tilted his head to the side, and his eyes narrowed. “Why? Tell me why you want that bastard to have the potion.”

“I don’t like it either, but it’s not for his sake.” Olivia sighed. She glanced back at Garon, who had gone silent once he noticed she was trying to help him. “I saw his daughter. I also was told his wife died of an illness. The same sort of illness his daughter has now. I get what he’s doing is wrong, and he made a ton of terrible choices, but he was doing it for his daughter—”

“That’s wrong.” Davi’s words suddenly silenced Olivia. Davi pointed his claymore across the room directly at Garon. “Why don’t you reveal the truth?” He said in a blunt tone. “You’re not doing this for your daughter. You want the potion for yourself.”

“F-For himself?” Olivia glanced back at Garon, whose face had turned a ghostly pale. The man’s body was shaking, and he shook his head. “What do you mean, Davi? Why would he need it? Is he also sick?” Now that she thought about it, Garon had blurted out he was going to give what was left of the potion to his daughter when he first thought Davi was going to give it to him. What could be so important that he’d only give it to his child second?

“You can say that he is sick, in a way.” Davi put his claymore down, and his eyes bore directly into Garon’s. “I was confused why my scar ached when I first stepped foot into this town. After all, the snake was cloaked at the time, and my scar only reacted to it once I set eyes on it. Now, the snake is dead, yet my scar is still acting as if there is a monster nearby.” Davi jumped forward and swung out with his claymore. “That monster is you.” He declared.

“S-Stay back!” Garon cried out, but it was too late. Davi’s sword struck out, the blade tearing into the front of the guard captain’s uniform. Davi tore through the jacket and shirt, ripping it open, revealing Garon’s body beneath.

Olivia gasped and covered her mouth as she stared at Garon in shock.

Magical Mutation.

That’s what the condition was called. Garon was in the very early stage, but even the early stage was too far gone for most.

A mage's mana was very important. It determined who they were as a person, how strong they were, and what kind of spells and magic types they could use. The body and mana were connected very closely. The stronger the mana a mage had, the stronger their body would be. The stronger their body was, the stronger their mana would be. It was a cycle with both influencing one another.

Because of this, a person would affect their mana, just as their mana would affect their body.

Olis had explained it best. Mana showed how a person truly felt and thought. It was a map into the person’s mind and could help determine the life they lived. A person's emotions would also greatly affect how their magic felt and acted. Being angry could cause someone's mana to heat up, and being sad could make it feel like rain.

Since mana was linked so closely to emotions, it was the reason most mages would use it to determine what another mage was thinking.

So…

What happens if a person's mana gets tainted…

A Magical Mutant was someone who became tainted. When a mage remains inside of a dungeon for too long and fails to escape or doesn’t have a high enough resistance stat, the cursed mana within the dungeon will latch onto the mage’s mana and begin to mutate and twist it, causing that mage to become something no longer human.

That was how you got a Magical Mutant.

The more they feed this taint, the more of them it takes over, and it begins to take over their mana, corrupting it, which in turn causes the body to also change, due to how linked the mana and the body truly are. A person that undergoes this is called a Magical Mutant because their body twists and changes, mutating in strange ways, and their mind gets corrupted and altered.

Most people believed that monsters emerged from dungeons and took the world over slowly but surely, but another common theory as to where magical beasts came from is that people became them. People kept committing sins over and over again, mutating and twisting, until they were no longer humans and were nothing more than magical beasts.

Where Garon’s abs should have been were scales. Jagged and spiked, blood-red snake-like scales sprouted across his stomach and ran along his chest. They twitched and unfolded, almost seeming to open up as Garon breathed heavily. The sight of them nearly made Olivia throw up. Davi’s look changed as he stared at them. Pity shone in Davi’s eyes as he scanned the scales that ran along Garon’s form.

“Don’t look at me!” Garon screamed, and his arms scrambled to clutch at his gut as if he could hide the scales. The scales were slowly spreading, growing more and more. The stress of everything and Garon’s mental state were causing the tainted mana within him to rapidly grow. It didn’t help that he was also in a dungeon, which was making it worse.

It suddenly dawned on Olivia in that moment. She had been completely wrong about Garon. She had fallen for his appearance just as everyone else had. She knew he was doing bad things, but seeing how everyone acted toward Garon and the state his daughter was in, she had assumed he was walking down a path to save his child.

He wasn’t, though.

He had only invited her into his house so he could try to capture her.

Garon wasn’t doing all of this for a noble cause—to save his dying daughter. If he were really a desperate father, then he would have swallowed his own pride and begged Davi for the potion, but Garon hadn’t. He needed to keep the fact that the potion existed a secret because, from the very beginning, he had just been looking for a cure to his own disease.

Things were almost never as they seemed, and looks could often be deceiving. This was a fact that Olivia was about to come to terms with.

Chapter 25: The Determination To Win

“When did you change?” Davi asked. He slid his sword back into the shadows and began to walk back to Olivia, leaving the collapsed Garon behind.

Garon’s head was bowed, and his eyes were full of rage. “I should never have changed. It wasn’t fair.” The man whimpered out. “I didn’t even do anything bad!” He looked back up at Davi, and his eyes were wide and crazed now. “It’s my wife’s fault!”

Olivia felt sick as she watched Garon pant and the scales along him slowly expand. Olis said mages could read a person's mana to get to know them. She really wished she knew how Garon’s mana felt. Did the townspeople know how to sense mana, and if they did, how did no one notice Garon’s taint? Physically, he could hide it; he just had to wear a shirt like he had been, but if it was indeed linked to his mana, surely someone would have sensed how dark he had become.

“Your wife’s fault?” Davi turned back and folded his arms, now standing next to Olivia, who was staying silent, her face pale and sickly. “The one that’s dead?”

“Exactly!” Garon eagerly nodded his head. The scales along his stomach began to hiss, smoke coming from them, and more started to grow across his skin. “I tried to heal her, but I was never good enough! She and my daughter refuse to get better! No matter what I did, I couldn’t fix her. After she died and I buried her, my daughter went and got the same thing my wife had! I was in the woods looking for herbs or anything that could help her, and that was when I noticed the dungeon.”

Davi gave a small nod, putting the pieces together. “You thought you might be able to slay the monster that was inside, didn’t you?”

Garon went to say something but let out a gasp and grabbed at his mouth. His teeth were changing and twisting, becoming fanged, and flickers of fire started to drip down his chin. Garon spat out an ember and growled.

“That snake found me. It… It grabbed me and forced me deep into the dungeon. I think it was going to kill me. That was when I noticed the potion it had, and that is how I learned about it. I had no choice but to beg for my life! The snake didn’t listen, though. It's smart. Too smart for its own good. It froze me and forced me to stay in its dungeon for hours. That was when the change began.”

“Staying in the dungeon for too long caused you to begin to mutate.” Davi folded his arms and let out a sigh. “Once you began to change, the snake decided to use you. It made a deal that if you brought it enough girls, it would give you the potion so that you could try to cure yourself with it. That’s what happened, right?”

“Yes!” Garon nodded his head rapidly, and more jagged scales started to force their way onto his flesh, and his fingers became webbed, causing the man to gasp. He grabbed at his stomach and groaned, his eye twitching. “I’m the hero. If I didn’t take the deal, the snake would have just slaughtered everyone. It went along with this plan because it didn’t need the food right away and was just stocking up for the winter. The longer a monster stays out of its dungeon, the weaker it gets. It would have had to stay out for hours, collecting each girl that it wanted, one by one, and would have grown too weak and would have eventually been slain. By working with me, though, it could stay in the dungeon, and I could lessen the damage to the town. It was a small sacrifice, but it was worth it in the end! I’m far too important to die!”

Elves hated humans.

Most likely, they hated humanity because humans were the ones who wiped them out. Haru stole magic from the elves and used it to form the first Arcane Knights, who were tasked with bringing an end to the race of elves.

It was the elves who got the final laugh, though. All of their greatest weapons, spells, and wealth were hidden away in spatial dungeons that could randomly appear in the world at a point in history. It was because elves created dungeons that dungeons were also made to be human-repellent. Magical Mutation was a concept the elves made to punish humans for entering their dungeons.

Some people were able to withstand turning into a mutant better than others, but no matter what, if a person stays within a dungeon for too long, they will begin to transform.

It starts with a nosebleed, followed by vomiting up a wave of blood. That is the only warning a person has. When this happens to a person, they need to leave the dungeon as soon as possible. Should they stay, their body will become corrupted, and they will either outright die or begin to get infected with a virus. The virus spreads differently in each person. Some people can get infected, and it’ll take years before they fully transform. Others can have it and become a mindless beast in only a few hours.

A person's resistance stat determines how long it is before they fully change. There are ways to speed up and slow down the change as well. The transformation will happen quicker during moments of great stress, as well as when being low on mana or staying within a dungeon for long periods of time after already becoming infected.

If Garon wouldn’t have made the deal with the snake and lived his life as he should have, it would have taken up to four years for him to fully change.

After chasing after Olivia, using several spells back to back, and standing within a dungeon, his time was already reaching its limit.

“Give me the potion.” Garon spat out and gasped. “I need it. Now!” Scales were ripping their way out of his body. All the stress and depression were rapidly fueling the taint now, and he was transforming more and more into a monster. “Give it!”

“Davi?” Olivia asked quietly when she saw her companion hadn’t moved.

“What about your daughter?” Davi asked after a moment of silence.

Garon flinched, and the man gritted his teeth. “What about her? She’s going to die. It’s her own fault for being born sick! I can be saved, though!”

Davi’s look darkened for a moment, but then he stopped and bowed his head. It was impossible to tell if this was actually how Garon felt or not. Zombies were a common type of monster. Undead beings that, if they bite someone, will turn that person into a mindless zombie that lives only to eat the living. A Magical Mutant was in a similar position. It didn’t matter how good the person might have been before the taint reached them.

Since Magical Mutants become monsters, the more the transformation progresses, the more negative emotions they are forced to feel, and the easier it is for them to hate humanity. Garon could have been a saint in his previous life, and everything he had done and said was only caused by his transformation.

It just wasn’t fair.

“I don’t think you can be saved.” Davi’s voice came out soft. “You’ve gone too far. I think it’s too late for you. Even if you drank the whole potion, I don’t know if it would have saved you, especially since elves hated humans, so I doubt they’d create something that could cure the mutations they created. With how little is left, I doubt it would do anything or even reverse the effects a little, even if it did work. I’m sorry. Truly.”

Garon stood there in utter horror. Olivia looked away, unable to stare at the once-pretty man. Garon kept staring at Davi and watched as the Knight bowed to him. He was being shown pity. Just as he felt pity for a dying animal or a useless blood mage, he was now being looked down upon.

Something inside of Garon snapped.

Davi was on his knees, out of reach, but still in the range of a spell if Garon wanted to attack him. The Knight still had his helmet off, and his entire body was bowed down as he kept his head low.

“Don’t pretend like you’re actually sorry!” Garon let out a cry of rage, and more of his flesh melted and snapped away. Fire was burning in his veins, lighting his body up. He just wanted to yell and feel as if he was right. “Your life is perfect! You’re an Arcane Knight! You got money and riches and fame and anything else you could ask for. You have no idea what it’s like for us normal people. We all strive to be like you, and many of us have to give up because we’re scared of changing, and those who do follow through like I did still get punished for it! Look at me! Look at what I am now! How is this fair? You can’t understand me, though, can you? Because you’re an Arcane Knight! I lost my wife, and now I’m going to lose my daughter, and for having the audacity to feel those emotions, I got punished by Haru and am becoming a monster? How do you think you’d feel if something like that happened to you? How would you react if the people closest to you died in front of you, and another person you cared about was dying, and there was nothing you could do about it?” Garon breathed heavily once he was done, his chest rapidly rising and falling.

Davi’s look barely changed, and he still didn’t meet Garon’s eyes. “Maybe if the people I cared about were in the same state as you, I might have a similar viewpoint as you. You’re right in that regard. That can’t happen, though.” Davi remained on the ground, keeping his head bowed and his hands clasped together so tightly his knuckles were turning white. “Everyone I love has already died.”

“What!” Garon looked suddenly horrified. “But you’re an Arcane Knight?”

“So my life is just supposed to be perfect because of that?” Davi’s words caused the man to take another step back. “Why do you think I became what I am? Did you think I was doing this for fun or for the money? Maybe you thought I just wanted to be famous? Sorry, but no. I just want revenge. Plain and simple. I won’t be happy with myself until I kill the thing that hurt me. An eye for an eye, a life for a life. Don’t label me as a hero. I didn’t come to save you or your daughter. I’m not a superhero. I can’t save the world, and I don’t want to. I just save those whom I see with my own eyes. That’s all someone like me can do. Life isn’t perfect. You were unlucky.”

Olivia whipped her head around to look at Davi in shock. He hadn’t said anything like that before. Come to think of it, she really knew nothing about him, just that he was looking for a dragon. “Davi?” That was when she realized. He wasn’t bowing. He was praying.

A prayer for Garon.

Slowly, Davi stood back up and picked up the dagger that Garon had dropped earlier. “Here.” He said, holding it out toward Olivia. “Take it.”

“Me?” Olivia took the offered blade and awkwardly held it. She had created a similar weapon made out of blood, but Garon’s dagger was almost a short sword and a lot heavier than she was used to. “Why are you giving me this?”

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi held his hand out and summoned another sword. It was a typical longsword and didn’t look all that impressive. He casually tossed it over to Garon, who caught it, still stunned by what Davi had said earlier. Once Garon had it, Davi pointed at the man. “Olivia, beat him.”

“Come again?” Olivia’s eyes went wide, and she looked back up at Davi as if he had grown a second head. “You’re joking, right?

“I’m serious.” Davi folded his arms. “You want to get stronger? You want to stop being saved by me? You want what it takes to be an Arcane Knight? Well, it all starts here. Garon is strong. He’s weaker than the Salamander, though. Remember what I told you on the boat? You can catch a man a fish, and he’ll be fed for a day, but teach a man to fish, and he can fend for himself.” Davi placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face Garon. “Well, it’s time you learned to fish.” Then he addressed Garon. “You want the potion? Beat her and you can have it.”

By now, Garon no longer looked like a human. His entire chest was a mix of red and orange, and his jaw was starting to grow out of his face, while his nose started to shrink. His eyes were yellow, and his hair had started to rapidly fall out. Despite looking more monster than man, he managed to speak.

“Are you being truthful?” Garon hissed out, and his tongue slithered out of his mouth.

“I am. Kill her, and you can have the potion.” Davi said casually.

Olivia looked back at him, and then she glanced over to Garon, who was giving his sword a few trial swings, already used to the weight. She couldn’t help but stare back down at his stomach at where the scales were. Garon’s broken arm had mended, red tendrils jutting out and snapping the bone back into place, and from the side of his head, a horn was starting to stab out.

“What if I can’t beat him?” She whispered.

“Then your adventure is over,” Davi said in his typical cold tone. “Garon is right. There’s a clear difference between mages. He’s wrong that it’s something you’re born with, though. People who use that mentality are the same people who give up easily. He’s too scared to fight and grow, and that’s why he could never become an Arcane Knight. You’re weak, but you don’t have to stay that way or end up the same way Garon did. Grow. Become stronger. It’s up to you, Olivia. Walk the path that you want to walk, and when something gets in your way, remove it with your own hands. The determination to win is required if you want to reach your goal.”

“Are you asking me to kill him?” The room went silent, and she felt her throat go dry. The thought was there, of course. Garon had stabbed her and nearly killed her. She had no sympathy for him, but he was still human. At least for now…

And she wasn’t stupid. She knew that Knights kill. When they go to war or battle with dark mages, Knights sometimes have to take the life of a person, but it was something she hadn’t really thought about until this direct moment. It made her wonder if every monster she had seen or read about used to be a human at one point…

“Yes.” Davi’s quiet response felt like a punch in the gut. “If you don’t kill him, he’ll kill you. I can promise you that.”

Garon had broken several laws already. He had committed crimes, both against the kingdom and against nature. He likely wouldn’t just be thrown in prison and would be given a death sentence already. Especially since he was a Magical Mutant and was radiating dark magic.

That didn’t make it easier, though.

Olivia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood but nodded. “Okay.” She whispered. “I’ll try.” Her body suddenly felt numb. Was this actually happening? Was Davi actually ordering her to kill someone? Could she really do this?

“I’m not going to save you this time. Win.” Davi placed his hand on her shoulder once more and squeezed. “Just remember the fight with the Salamander. You can do this, Olivia.”

That was what she was scared of.

Olivia took a step forward with shaking legs. Garon let out a laugh and lifted his sword. Already, he had gotten used to the weight, his fire running along the blade. “Seriously? You’re throwing her at me? Fine. Once I take her down, I’ll make you feel the despair I do! Row Flame Cutter!” Garon swung his sword down and launched out a wave of fire.

Olivia lifted the dagger Davi gave her and used it to block the strike. Her entire arm shook, and her limb was nearly torn out of its socket as the fire shoved against her weapon, but it held strong. Her skin burned, and she struggled not to let go of the dagger, gritting her teeth. She flung her other arm out, holding her wand. Thanks to the healing she got, all of her blood was back, and she was feeling better than ever. “Row Blood Bolt!” She stabbed her wand toward Garon and launched a thin red beam of blood.

Garon casually blocked it with his sword and let out another mad laugh. He had entirely gone off the deep end now, and whereas she was still grappling with the thought of taking a life, Garon wasn’t. “You’re dead!” He launched himself at her, wanting to turn the battle into one of melee. He twisted and launched his sword, smashing it into her weapon. Somehow, he hit even harder than his spell, and even with how sturdy the dagger was, Olivia felt her hand start to bruise as she was shoved back, and her wrist nearly snapped.

She managed to take a step back and awkwardly swung the knife. She just needed one cut, and the venom on it would do the rest. However, Garon was aware of that and hadn’t let his guard down. His hand shot out, the one that was broken earlier, and to her horror, it jutted and stretched out. Muscles and bones shattered as the limb expanded and twisted like the tail of a snake and wrapped fully around her wrist, stopping her strike. His smirk grew, and his other arm remained at his side, holding his sword, not even bothering to slice at her, since he was that confident he could win.

“The man was an idiot for thinking you could beat me.” Garon practically giggled. “You’ve cast a spell, so I bet you’re suffering from blood loss, right? Useless blood mage, if I wanted, I could burn you alive again and again, but where’s the fun in that! I want to do this up close! You guys are the villains who got in my way, after all! It all could have been smooth! I could have healed myself and spent the rest of my life with my daughter until she passed away, but now, because of you guys, my daughter has a freak for a father!”

Olivia gritted her teeth and tried to yank her arm back, but Garon refused to let go. “Row Blood Knife!” She stabbed out using her other arm, which grasped her wand. Her blood flowed over the tip, twisting into a pointed dagger, which she stabbed up at Garon. The man was faster than her, cocking his head to the side, her knife going past his shoulder. Before she could pull her arm back, he raised his shoulder and lowered his head, pinning her other arm in place and stopping her from moving.

“I win,” Garon responded in a cold tone, and his free arm lifted up. Both her limbs were pinned, and she couldn’t break free since he was stronger as well. The blade pressed into her side, and with just a small amount of force, he began to cut her. The side of her coat and shirt gave way first, the blade sliding against her flesh, and the fire started to eat away at her flesh, causing her to scream out. Davi remained on the sidelines and looked a little worried. “That man I mentioned earlier, the one with blood magic. He was just as useless and annoying as you. So weak and pathetic. He died. Used up all his blood in the exam. Couldn't even land a single hit on anyone, just like you. Why don't you join him?” Garon sneered, which looked even uglier than it normally did since his face slouched off of him, and his skull became fiery and snake-like.

Olivia winced and nearly howled as the sword pressed further into her side. Garon was about to rip her in two but stopped when he saw the look in her eyes. It was a familiar look. He was sure he had seen it before. Then it clicked. The eyes she had were the same the snake had. Not in a literal sense, but in a way, Garon knew he had just been spotted by a predator.

Olivia took a shuddering gasp of breath, and she gritted her teeth. “For Haru's sake, will you just shut the fuck up! Row Blood Scythe!”

In an instant, Olivia’s dagger expanded, a massive, jagged red blade forming out of its tip, placing it directly behind Garon’s head, almost like a guillotine. His eyes widened, and his face paled as he met her eyes. With a yell, she pulled back as hard as she could. Garon could only duck out of the way thanks to years of training. He brought his entire body down, though part of his head was sliced off as the scythe pulled back, ripping into his scalp.

Garon screamed but struck out with his knee, ramming it into her gut and nearly shattering her ribs. She wheezed and gasped and almost fell over. Red dripped down the top of Garon’s head, but the wound wasn’t deep, and it instead had just left him bald and hurting, his skull and brain remaining undamaged.

“You bitch!” Garon jumped back up and went to bring his sword down, but then his body jerked, and he froze. He stood there, his eyes wide, but he couldn’t speak or move. His muscles and nerves had stopped despite the fact that the venom-coated knife hadn’t cut him.

Olivia hit the ground, and her scythe vanished. “I’m immune to poison, but it doesn’t just leave my body. My blood separates and moves it away, containing it until it can eventually be filtered out. The moment I hit you, that tainted blood entered you. It was pretty dangerous stuff. For most, even a small cut would be enough to take them down, and I got a bunch in me since you stabbed me twice.” Olivia giggled slightly and forced herself to stand back up on shaking legs. “You just lost to someone with blood magic.”

And then she smashed her fist straight into the stunned man’s face as hard as she could. Red smashed across Garon’s face as she shattered his nose and broke her knuckle, but it was enough.

Garon collapsed to the ground.

His body twitched and shook, and he gurgled. He was strong, and the higher a mage's resistance stat was, the easier it was for their body to fight off outside effects like poison. Because of that, he was already starting to regain the ability to move, but it would still take him a while before he’d fully recover.

He was alive, though.

Olivia turned back and looked at Davi, and she smiled. “I was able to beat him without killing him—”

“Idiot!” Davi yelled and jumped toward her, raising his voice for the first time since she met him. “He’s not done!”

Olivia managed to turn around just in time to see that Garon had forced himself up on his knees. His body was weak and still slow, so he had lost the fight, but not the battle. His life was over. He knew it, and everyone else knew it, too. Even if he did get out of this alive, he’d be put to death by his own village or, worse, sent to the mage’s prison that the Knights owned. His dream of being a legendary hero was over. Ruined. All by the hands of these two new strangers.

Garon could feel it. He was changing and twisting. Scales were rapidly spreading, and his body began to burn up. His mind was breaking and cracking.

He was about to change.

Everything moved in slow motion as Garon stared up at the shocked Olivia and approaching Davi. He just wanted to make them suffer. Suffer as he did. The world was cruel to him. He was a good person. So, as one last ‘good act,’ Garon muttered his final spell as the scales along his belly opened up once more for one final time.

His body glowed and ignited with a bright orange flash, and then, in an instant, Garon exploded, centering a massive fireball on himself, which expanded throughout the dungeon.

Chapter 26: Too Late

Death wasn’t a concept Olivia was new to.

When she had been just a baby, her mother had passed away, leaving her in the care of her father. At least until he got rid of her and made her Rosco’s problem. She had been too young to remember anything about her mother, and the death didn’t really affect her.

She was sad, of course, but at the end of the day, she had never met her mother or gotten to know who the woman was, so the fact she was gone did little to alter the way Olivia saw the world.

What did affect her, though, was the death of two villagers. When she turned fourteen, Bruno and she had decided to play a prank on an old villager that lived alone at the top of a hill. His name had been Luka, and she didn’t know much about him. What she did learn, though, was that he became a Magical Mutant, something she hadn’t been aware of until she had already broken into his house.

No one knew when it happened or how, but that night, when she and Bruno snuck into his home, she had seen him. He had been in the middle of devouring a bird he caught. Ironically, his own face had become bird-like, a jagged, bony beak stabbing out of his mouth, and dozens of feathers growing along his skin. Bruno had screamed and run away, but she stayed. Luka found her standing there in shock, and despite the situation, he invited her in and made hot chocolate.

He was still able to talk and think, even with his transformation. He had picked up the taste for raw bird and recently hadn’t been able to control himself, leading to him using vine magic to set traps and pull his prey in.

Magical Mutants were still humans, though most people disagreed with that notion. Being a Mutant didn’t make a person instantly insane or evil. It was a slow process. Once the curse found its way into their form, it would slowly eat away at their mind and body until eventually they were nothing more than a mindless monster, but some people were still able to go about their lives as if nothing was happening.

Luka was one such person. His transformation was still in the early stages, and as long as he avoided dungeons or stressful situations, he said he wouldn’t transform anymore. If he stayed isolated like he was, he’d be able to live for another twenty or thirty years without worry.

Because of the fact that some Mutants could keep their minds and slow the transformation down, it was still a crime to murder a Mutant if it wasn’t done in self-defense. Most places would look the other way, though, and silently agree that the Mutant was in the wrong.

Not Fri.

In the middle of her talk with Luka, another villager had heard the commotion and set his eyes on the Mutant. That villager had taken it upon himself to slay the monster and hacked Luka to pieces with an axe.

Luka didn’t fight back.

That villager was later executed for killing a member of Fri village.

Both those deaths lived rent-free in her head. Garon’s would also live there from now on.

Olivia’s body shook, and it took her a moment to realize she was in Davi’s arms. His helmet was back on, and he had wrapped himself entirely around her, shielding her from the blast. Garon’s last desperate act had failed to take either of them out. Slowly, Davi pulled away and turned to look down at the small crater in the ground that had been created when Garon blew himself up. The giant stone hallway was scorched around the spot they stood, and small embers still danced across the stone.

“W-Why did he—” Olivia’s voice shattered.

Davi’s helmet peeled away. The look in his eyes was blank and apathetic. He didn’t seem like the comforting hero she had come to know. “He was a dead man either way. I guess he decided to go out on his own terms while he was still human. Well… mostly human.”

Garon would have been given the death penalty. Estiria didn’t often give that sentence out lightly, but the crimes Garon had committed were severe, and he likely would have earned it. Not only had he entered a dungeon, but he also failed to report the existence of the dungeon to the Arcane Knights, which was a serious offense since failing to clear a dungeon meant the monsters inside would grow and wreak havoc. That was on top of the fact Garon had kidnapped nine different girls, attempted murder, and even made a deal with a magical beast.

Sentient magical beasts were considered very dangerous, and making deals with them was expressly outlawed since they often used dark magic, which could cling and infect other mages. All the crimes Garon had committed were evil, and the man himself knew it. In the end, he had decided to take himself out before he fully changed into a monster. Some Magical Mutants were able to gain control over their new form and live a normal life again, but with how fast Garon was changing, due to the stress and emotions he had been feeling, it would have only been a matter of hours until he fully stopped being human.

“He would have died anyway.” Davi’s words were little comfort, and he knew it. Even so, he guided Olivia and himself forward, walking past the burnt hole Garon left behind. “Don’t feel guilty about this. Don’t let his death burden you.”

“Have you killed before?” Olivia asked quietly. “You seemed eager to make me do it. I’m guessing you took a life before?”

“Do you really want to know?”

Olivia softly shook her head. “No. I’d rather not, actually.” She glanced back at Davi. “Olis once said your mana was cold and inhuman… Are you a Mutant?” She asked softly.

“I could strip and show you my body if you wanted.” Davi managed a half-joke, though it was still in his typical emotionless tone.

Olivia shook her head again. “No. Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. Even if you were a Mutant, that wouldn’t mean anything… You helped me out a lot.” She glanced back at the rubble where Garon’s ashes remained.

She still couldn’t get over what he had claimed to Garon. Was everyone he cared about really dead? Was that why he was seeking the Dragon? She hadn’t really considered why he was looking for such a deadly monster until now. And the way he acted in the entire situation with Garon…

Just who was Davi Hawker?

“So what now?” Olivia asked after the silence stretched on for too long. She was shocked at herself more than anything. She couldn’t tell if she was being too calm or if she was freaking out so much she had looped back to being normal. Either way, she didn’t feel like how she imagined a person should feel when they watched someone die in front of them. “Are we just going to leave the dungeon?”

“Not yet.” Davi looked back once they reached the steps. “Row Shadow Vault.” His shadow expanded and opened up as if it were a bottomless lake. Oliva watched in shock as the dungeon's walls began to crack and shatter, chunks of stone being dragged in as Davi’s shadow gobbled it all up. “Dungeon rooms repair themselves once they're empty. That’s why those big doors are fixed even though I broke them and why the arrow trap reset. Now that the boss is dead, though, this dungeon will close and vanish, disappearing from our world. This usually happens about a day after the boss is killed. Before that happens, I like to harvest what I can.”

“Is that how you had all those supplies to build a wall?” Olivia questioned in shock. When Davi had first killed the Salamander, he had given a ton of stone and other supplies to the village so they could build a proper wall and keep out monster attacks. She had wondered where he got all the supplies to do that from since he always seemed broke.

Davi just nodded. “I tend to gut dungeons and steal as much as I can from them.”

“Can I see what’s in your vault?”

“No,” was Davi’s blunt response. “I can’t even stay in my own vault for very long. I only placed the girls I found into it because they were trapped in a substance that should keep them safe.”

“That sounds like a crazy spell. Your shadow magic is way cooler than my blood magic.” Olivia asked, making a face.

“Just be glad with what you have.”

“Yeah…” Olivia shook her head after some time. “We should get out of here.” Staying in the dungeon for much longer could be bad. She didn’t know how long before the mutation would start, and Davi had been in the dungeon for twice the amount of time she had.

Davi kept sucking up all the stone and other things his shadow could grab. By the time he was done, the area they were in began to crack and collapse, falling apart since he took all the support beams away. Olivia grabbed onto Davi, and he used his super strength to jump up the many steps, carrying her out as the dungeon collapsed.

Olivia instantly drew her wand as they stepped out of the dungeon and back into the forest. They weren’t alone.

Several of the town’s guards circled them all, holding spears. In the center of them was the baron. The elder man looked exhausted, and his hands clutched onto his staff as he eyed the two of them up. Snow rained down from above, but it was a lot warmer than it had been. With the snake killed, the dungeon would eventually close, and the mana would vanish, allowing the weather to return to the way it should be.

Phones were also finally working again, because several of the guards were making calls to loved ones.

The baron’s eyes scanned Davi up and down, taking in the state of his armor. “Is it over?”

“Yeah,” Davi said. “It’s over. The snake’s dead.”

The guards all shivered a bit, mostly from how cold Davi’s mana felt. One of them managed to get the courage to speak. “Sir,” they began slowly. “We sensed Garon’s mana. It rapidly expanded and then vanished. That’s how we were able to find you. Where is he?”

Olivia flinched, and she felt her stomach tilt. “Garon is…” She made a face. “He—”

“He’s dead.” One of the guards dropped to their knees and let out a gasp at Davi’s blunt response.

The baron closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “How?” The baron finally whispered out, and his knuckle turned white from how hard he gripped his walking cane.

“The snake killed him,” Davi responded. The men all nodded somberly, but Olivia gave Davi an odd look. “He and I fought it together.” Davi walked forward, passing the men. “Till the very end, Garon fought to keep your town safe. Stand proud, for his sake.” Several more of the soldiers collapsed, and some even began to cry. Davi left them at the entrance to the dungeon, which had caved in, making it impossible to enter.

Olivia struggled to catch up with him. “Why?” She asked.

Davi stared ahead, his expression unreadable. “I don’t know who Garon was, so I also don’t have the right to condemn him,” Davi said, after giving it some thought. “The mutation clouds a mage's mind and makes them have a harder time thinking rationally. These people viewed Garon as a good man. He was the captain of the guard, a loving husband and father, as well as someone that helped his town out as much as he could.”

Olivia shook her head. “No.” She said sternly. “Even if, toward the end, his mind was being changed and altered, he still made the deal with the snake, and that would have been during the earliest stage of his transformation. That means he was willing to do all those horrible things while he was still sane and even wanted the potion for himself before his own child. The transformation might have made it easier for him to do the wrong thing, but he still willingly walked this path. So why are you letting him be the hero in this situation?”

“You’re right.” Davi weakly chuckled. “He doesn’t deserve to be seen as good. Still, there's no reason everyone else should have to suffer because of him. The people seemed fond of him and respected him. The town will recover faster and stand united, believing they had a hero like Garon amongst them. It’ll also be easier for them not being held down by the guilt of allowing him to roam around for as long as he did.”

Olivia looked conflicted. She knew what this was. Davi liked leaving a place better than it was when he arrived. He had saved the village from the snake, but for Davi, that wasn’t enough. He still needed to do more. In his own twisted mind, this was the best outcome. Garon being celebrated as the hero, letting the town unite over it. She wanted to argue, but she didn’t.

She was just too tired.

Davi eventually made his way out of the forest and reached the settlement. He wasn’t shocked to see the whole town waiting for him. Everyone had noticed the commotion when the mayor and all the guards stormed out. All the civilians had left their homes and were waiting with bated breath for what would happen.

Davi felt all eyes on him and thought about putting his helmet back on, but he was honestly getting drained from all the combat and spells and didn’t want to waste the mana. Instead, he opened his vault again, and out came several blocks of ice, each the size of a person, which crashed down onto the ground. Yelling filled the air as the people stared at the ice blocks and saw what they contained.

Olivia felt her breath hitch. There were nine in total, each holding the unconscious body of a young girl around her age. She felt sick when she remembered that she would have been in one of them if not for Davi. She would have been the tenth. Not skipping a beat, she created a dagger of blood and heated it, using the weapon to stab into one of the blocks of ice poured out along with the body of the girl trapped inside. As the girl spilled out, Olivia caught her.

The girl remained in her arms and didn’t respond. Olivia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, and she muttered a spell. “Row Blood Heal!” Her healing magic sucked, but it would have to do. She gently pressed her lips to the other girl and breathed out, forcing a drop of blood past the woman’s lips.

As she pulled away, the girl’s eyes snapped wide open, and she let out a loud gasp, sucking in air. Olivia held the girl in her arms, helping her not to fall over.

Something was wrong… Olivia realized it a little too late, but she didn’t have time to say or do anything as the sight of the breathing girl spurred the other villagers into action.

“They’re still alive!” Someone yelled in shock, and some of the townsfolk ran forward and used whatever they had to break more of the blocks, freeing the other girls.

“Hannah!” Olivia felt someone yank the girl away from her, and she looked up, finding the woman from earlier—the one who had first piqued their interest. The mother had her daughter back and was hugging the still delirious girl.

Olivia stood back up and awkwardly shuffled away. She felt hollow, and her face was pale. Davi noticed her look and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“We were too late,” Olivia whispered, and she stared down at the ground, feeling a lump of shame and guilt appear in her throat. “We didn’t save them in time.”

“What do you mean?” Davi looked at the girls, and he finally noticed it. He wasn’t the only one who did either, because a second later, one of the townspeople let out a horrified scream. “Damn it.” Davi sighed and closed his eyes. “Why, Haru? Why?”

Hannah’s mother was the one to let out the scream. The older woman was holding her daughter, and all joy had faded from her face as she finally saw her daughter's eyes.

Hannah, for the most part, looked fine, just exhausted and confused. The girl was still dressed in the same winter coat she had been wearing the night she had been kidnapped, and her hair was a tangled mess. Her skin was a little blue, and ice clung to it, but soon that would fade. What wouldn’t go away, though, were her eyes. Instead of the simple chocolate brown they had been, they were jagged and yellow.

Like those of a snake.

Hannah wasn’t the only one, either. The eight other girls were free of the blocks of ice that held them, but no parent dared to approach.

Some had jagged red or black scales that were coming out of their flesh. Another girl had a straight tail that was wildly whipping around, and some had the yellowish eyes Hannah now had.

All nine of them were Magical Mutants. The ice the snake had forced them into had put their bodies into a slowed state where the corruption wasn’t able to progress as fast as it normally had, but even with the slowed effect, the girls had been in the dungeon for days, some weeks, and a few even months.

All the girls were still on the ground, their bodies not fully recovered from the venom that Garon had used to paralyze them. They were all in a state where they would need help and support, yet none was being offered. The parents, friends, and guardians all remained on the sidelines, staring at the nine girls in horror.

Many sobbed, some began to throw up, and others still were unable to move and simply stared in horror, disgust, or shock.

Davi stepped forward and approached one of the girls. He placed his arm under Hannah’s back, who had been dropped by her mother, and helped support her. “How are you feeling?” He asked quietly.

Hannah’s eyes kept rapidly blinking, and the girl groaned weakly. “I… My eyes hurt. What’s happening?”

“You’re still alive.” Davi grabbed her wrist and helped her move her arm back and forth gently. “Your muscles are likely numb, but it should fade. Do you think you can stand?”

“Okay.” Hannah gave a weak nod, and with Davi’s help, she stood up. He kept an arm on her back and made sure she didn’t fall over.

“You're doing great. Your body will recover from the venom and cold soon, and you’ll be able to move around like normal.” Davi gave a gentle smile, his usual cold look seemingly gone. “Olivia, help one of the other ones up.” Olivia remained motionless, staring down at a girl that was covered in spiked scales. “Olivia,” Davi repeated.

“R-right.” Olivia stepped forward, and she tried to do the same, helping the other girl up. Once both Hannah and the other girl were standing on their own two legs, she let go and stepped back.

Davi stayed next to Hannah, who was silently looking around. Her skin was finally no longer blue, and some color was returning as her body woke up fully. “Shouldn’t you be holding your kid?” Hannah’s mother flinched back when she looked up and found Davi’s cold eyes staring down at her.

The mother found her throat had suddenly gone dry, and despite the fact that the snake was dead, the surrounding area seemed to become much colder. “I-I can’t—”

“What’s wrong with all of you?” It was rare that Davi raised his voice, but this was one such occasion. “These are your fellow townspeople, are they not? The transformation is still in an early stage. Their minds shouldn’t be altered, and physically speaking, they’re still human. This is the only stage in Magical Mutation where a person can be helped. They need support right now. They’ll never return back to normal, but as long as they can manage themselves in this state, they’ll be able to live out mostly mundane lives. And if you all can’t stomach the thought of these girls living on like this, then why don’t you just kill them?”

“Davi!” Olivia looked up, horrified at Davi’s blunt response. All the townspeople were shocked by his statement.

Davi didn’t meet her gaze and instead kept staring at the crowd. “You refuse to help them when they need it, and you refuse to put them out of the suffering you assume they’re going through. Sitting there in horror or disgust doesn’t do anything. Make a choice. Either accept them or end them, but don’t just leave them there while they’re in this state.”

This was different from Garon. Garon had done bad things and was actively trying to hurt innocent people. These girls hadn’t done anything wrong yet, and their forms hadn’t progressed as much as Garon’s had. It was still possible for them to live, even if it would only be a small life of ten or twenty more years.

“Y-you can’t get rid of Magical Mutation.” A man in the crowd said, shaking his head. “One day they’re going to turn. It could be a month from now or a year or—”

“Or they could die of a disease, or have a heart attack, or be struck by lightning.” Davi cut the man off. “Everyone dies one day. You’ll die, and I’ll die. We all will die. Maybe it won’t be as long a life as they deserve, but they can still live for another few years as long as they can keep the transformation in check. How many of you didn’t get to say goodbye? How many of you had your children stolen from you by the snake and thought you’d never see them again? You all accepted that your child was dead and gone, but now you have time that you can actually spend with them. And yes, the day will come when they do start to transform and change, and their minds become altered, but isn’t that all the more reason you should be with them now while you still have that time? And when that day does come, you can tell them goodbye.”

“It’s not fair, though—”

“Life isn’t fair,” Davi said flatly. “People die all the time of diseases, in the beds of a hospital. The only difference is that when it is time to pull the plug, it’ll be a Knight that does it, instead of a doctor. And should it come to it, I’ll be that Knight.”

Davi’s words did little to put the people at ease. This wasn’t like a child getting diagnosed with something like cancer. With an actual disease, healing magic could be used to help prolong that person's life and give them time to get their affairs in order before it was time to go, and they’d eventually pass away. The mutation was different, though. A person didn’t die. They became a monster.

One that would harm other people and needs to be put down. It was horrible, it was evil, and it wasn’t fair.

It was one of the many curses the elves left humanity with.

“So what’s it going to be?” Davi asked quietly.

No one dared to move. The town was entirely silent. Then, it was all broken by a single voice…

“Mom,” Hannah said softly, and her mother let out a weak sob. Tears were also streaming down Hannah’s face, who was now fully aware of what was going on and what had happened to her. “I’m sorry.” The girl whispered out. “I-I should have listened to you. I shouldn’t have gone out.”

“Hannah.” The mother took a weak step forward and then gently took her daughter's hand. “This isn’t your fault… It’s… It’s…” The woman broke down and hugged her daughter tightly.

The other eight girls were now all standing, and most still looked a little out of it, but some managed to turn to their parents. Hesitantly, a father stepped forward. He did his best to avoid the scales that clung to his daughter, and he gently reached out and cupped the girl’s face.

“I’m so sorry…”

More parents finally came forward after that.

Olivia watched in silence as the girls were finally hugged and surrounded by their family members, but she couldn’t get rid of the lump that was in her throat because no one had said what option they were picking. Was this them accepting them, or was it a goodbye…

“I wish you could have gotten here sooner.” Olivia turned and found the baron of the town now standing next to her. The bone mage looked exhausted, and his guards had finally returned to the town. “Maybe then some of these poor souls could have been saved.”

“I’m sorry,” Olivia said weakly.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. It’s that damn snake.” The baron spat out.

Olivia had to bite her tongue to stop herself from spitting out Garon’s name. She glanced at Davi, who stood off to the side watching the girls. She wondered if he was still happy with his choice. She wasn’t. Garon was evil. A true monster for forcing all of these girls to be put through the same thing that happened to him.

She no longer felt bad about his death. Hopefully, he was rotting in hell.

“You saved our town,” The baron began. “It’s a shame what happened to Garon and these girls, but Daisy will survive. Now that the barrier is gone, we can get in contact with the kingdom and hopefully have help reach us before the end of the week. Maybe some of these girls can even be given the help they desperately need.”

“Maybe,” Olivia said bitterly.

“It’s a shame what happened to him. Garon, I mean.” The baron rubbed his tired eyes. “His daughter will be devastated. I hope she can make it past all of this.” The man let out another weak sigh.

Olivia flinched when she recalled the state of Garon’s daughter. It would have all been a little better if he had been doing it for her sake, but he hadn’t been. She had been so excited to start her adventure, but now it all felt so wrong.

She wasn’t the hero that saved the day, and neither was Davi. Both of them had arrived too late.

Was this what the real world was like?

“Olivia.” Davi approached slowly. “It’s time to go.”

“Already?” The baron asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Davi held his hand out to Olivia. “I think it’s best if we leave as soon as possible.”

Olivia stared down at the hand in silence. Finally, after some time, she nodded. “Yeah. Let’s leave.”

She didn’t take his hand.

Chapter 27: The Grimoire

“Are we seriously leaving without getting any reward or celebrating?” Olivia questioned as she and Davi slipped past the village gates.

Davi finally allowed his armor to fade, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Do you want to stay?”

“Not really,” Olivia admitted sheepishly.

“So then that settles it. We leave.”

Olivia just let out a dry chuckle. “Of course.” Her smile faded as she began to walk alongside him. “Are you okay?”

Davi shrugged. “Yeah. Not the first time something like this has happened to me.”

“That’s sad…”

“That’s life.” Davi hummed. “Still want to become an Arcane Knight?”

Olivia nodded weakly. “I want to help people. I wish Garon had just asked for help. None of this would have happened if he did.”

“I’m sure Garon was used to being famous in his town. Asking for help for his condition would be accepting what he was in a way.” Davi said, after some time. “I think he knew that he couldn’t be saved, even if he got the full potion, but he still had to do something because otherwise he’d be accepting it. Accepting what he was going to become.”

Olivia glanced back at Daisy. The barrier was gone, so the two of them were walking down the path that led out of the town. The snow finally stopped falling, and everything was starting to warm up, but Olivia decided to keep the jacket Davi gave her since it looked stylish, though she’d need to get it sewn up.

“Do you think the girls will be okay?” She asked after a moment. “I couldn’t tell if the parents were getting ready to off their children or embrace them when we left…”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does—”

“It doesn’t,” Davi said again, sterner this time. “We’re not heroes, Olivia. You can pretend all you want, and you can do the right thing, but at the end of the day, we aren’t the kind of people who can influence or affect an entire town.”

“That’s wrong, though.” Olivia clenched her hand into a fist. “You might not realize it, Davi, but everyone you saved has kept their eyes on you. My village loved you, Olis' buddies were practically worshipping you, and those people in Daisy were listening to your every word. I don’t think you grasp how important an Arcane Knight is. They only acted once you told them to. For better or worse, they all listened to you, and you alone.”

“But I’m not a—” Davi stopped and let out a sigh. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I help people help themselves so that I don’t have to get involved anymore. Daisy is done. The people are acting, and it’ll be up to them to decide what they do next. I’m an outsider. I don’t want to affect them if I can help it.”

He never signed up to be a hero. He wasn’t even a real Knight. He shouldn’t be the one to make choices like Olivia was suggesting. He wasn’t a good person with anyone's interest at heart. What happened was done. Garon was dealt with, and Daisy would survive.

“How did none of the other villagers notice what happened to Garon?” Olivia asked, as if she could sense that he was thinking about the former captain. “I get that his stage of mutation was still early. He was able to hide it with a shirt, but surely his mana would have been affected. Olis made it sound like Mutants have inhuman mana. The guards could sense it, yet they still didn’t notice or do anything about it?”

Davi was quiet for a moment, thinking about it, but finally he spoke. “Do you know what happens when you throw a frog into boiling water?”

“It dies?”

“It jumps out.” Davi corrected. “The frog will escape the heat. However, if you put it in lukewarm water, it will stay. It’ll become used to the water and like it. Heat the water up a bit, but don’t go too far, and the frog will adjust. Heat it up a bit more slowly, and again, it will grow used to it. Eventually, by slowly changing the temperature, the frog will boil alive, not realizing that it’s in hot water.”

“Would that actually happen?”

“I don’t know.” Davi shrugged again. “It’s just a saying. The point is, Garon was part of this community. A person doesn’t wake up one day and become someone else. For a person to truly change, it requires time. Garon’s mana was likely something the people got used to, since he spent so much time in the village, and the only people that could feel it were other mages that stayed near him, like the town guards. His taint would cause a change, but a small one. The descent into what he became would take time, and as it happened slowly, the people would adjust to it, not even noticing the change. To them, they wouldn’t associate his mana with an inhuman feeling since they knew him personally. You don’t react to my mana after all, despite the fact that everyone else does. Olis also grew used to my mana. Something is only alien to a group of people that don’t understand it. To understand means to accept.”

Olivia nodded, understanding it a bit. There were loads of stories about serial killers that lived in cities or towns, going about everyday life, and no one else noticed them. Garon’s situation was sort of like that. It made her wonder if such a thing could happen again, and if it could, how many times had it happened before?

She was learning a lot about the world thanks to Davi.

“When I become an Arcane Knight, I’m going to use my fortune and fame to explore the world like you’re doing. I want to go to as many different places as I can and make sure things like this aren’t happening. I want to do it the way you’re doing it, also, where you make sure the problem won’t be repeated. Can you please help me get strong like you?” Olivia reached out and grabbed Davi’s arm. “Please, I’ll do anything!”

Davi also reached out and flicked Olivia on the forehead. “Don’t be all dramatic. I already told you a while ago I’d help.” He said anticlimactically. “I can’t help you with your magic, but we can start by building your physical strength and stamina. Mana is connected to that, so the more fit you get, the better your magic will be, and it’ll help you out a lot since you need to avoid casting spells when you can. You can start by building up some muscles in your arms, legs, and stomach, and once you have more muscles, I can teach you how to use a dagger since you seem to like that weapon.”

“Where do I start?”

Davi tapped his foot down. “Row Shadow Vault.” His shadow expanded, and out of it a large, fancy-looking carriage lifted up and dropped to the ground, shaking the forest floor. The carriage was sleek and painted red and gold. It looked brand new and very, very expensive. It also looked very heavy. Davi patted the side of it. “Drag this carriage!”

“You really are insane, huh?”

“You don’t have to lift it, just drag it. The wheels will make it a lot easier!” Davi gave an emotionless thumbs-up.

“That’s not possible!” Davi reached up, and his fingers stabbed into the wood. He got a good grip and then casually dragged it behind him. “Oh, screw you! You’re an Arcane Knight; you’re practically superhuman!” Then she stopped. “Wait! I just remembered!” She began to go through the pockets of her coat.

“What is it?”

“My phone!” Olivia pulled the cracked object out and held it in the air as if it were special. “I’ve been dying to know what your stats and other stuff are!”

“My stats?” Davi tilted his head.

Olivia let out a soft giggle, and she casually leaned against the carriage Davi summoned. “I keep forgetting you’re an old dog. Okay, so how to explain this… This is how my father told me. The king of Estiria has a type of magic called Circuit magic. He’s one of the oldest and strongest humans alive since he’s the direct son of Haru, and using his magic, he created one of the strongest Magitech companies in the world, Sini Corp. With his Circuit magic, he brought humanity forward into the age of Magitech, and is the reason grimoires are all online and how we can buy spells so easily.”

Davi nodded, and he stared blankly at Olivia’s phone screen as she showed it off to him. He felt a little weird because her screensaver was some Arcane Knight lady in a very weird pose. There were dozens of different apps across her phone, none of which he recognized, but she eagerly showed some of them off to him.

Olivia scrolled over to a blue box that had a colored sword in it, and she clicked on it. Her screen changed and went to a brightly colored webpage that had dozens of different Arcane Knights featured on the front page as well as hundreds of chat boxes and sections labeled as ‘quests’.

“This is the Knight Page. It’s how people can follow their favorite Arcane Knights and also request them for missions.” Olivia explained. “You can hire a specific Knight, each one having their own price, or you can create a general mission that will be sent to the guilds and then, in turn, given to the Knights. When you make a quest or mission, it creates strands of mana that connect the Knight to you, which lets them find you more easily. You have to let them know what the mission entails, and the guilds will determine what the cost of the mission will be and the fee you have to pay to get a Knight to help you, as well as the strength of the Knight needed. So if you just need to slay a few weak monsters, it’ll be cheaper than paying for a Knight to come and stop a dungeon. You can also use this app to follow what missions the Knights did and what their rating is. A lot of Knights also post updates on this site, so you can see their day-to-day life.”

Davi gave a nod, following along for the most part. “I see. And this is all working thanks to that king guy’s magic?”

“Yep!” Olivia’s grin grew, and she clicked on the search bar. “Watch what happens when I look your name up!”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea-”

Before Davi could stop her, Olivia typed the name out and hit enter, but instead of being directed to Davi Hawker’s Knight Page, something else happened. If you were to look up a name that wasn’t in the system, like a fake Knight, you’d be told that person didn’t exist. Part of her had been expecting that to happen, since Davi always acted so weird, and she had a theory that he wasn’t actually a Knight, but instead of getting the usual page, something weirder went on.

Olivia watched as her screen flashed black, and a series of error messages went over her phone. Then suddenly she was logged out of the app. She looked up at Davi, her eyes wide.

“I can explain?” Davi said awkwardly.

Olivia shook her head. “Bruno told me about this once. Some Knights, especially the really strong and secret ones, don’t have official pages. At first, I thought you might have been a fake, but now it kind of makes sense! You’re actually a super secret Knight, one of the members of the Black Hand, aren’t you!”

Davi blinked, clearly taken aback by what she said. Then he shrugged. “Yep. You got it. I’m a… Super cool, whatever thingy you said I was. Yep.”

The Black Hand was a rumor that had been spread around by a few cities. It was unknown if they actually existed or not; many doubted it, but some claimed they were real. A Black Hand was a Knight who couldn’t be found on the page because they did missions only for a select group of people, and their job was to remain unknown. They were more or less assassins.

Normally, the thought of traveling with an assassin would scare most people, but for Olivia, it only made her more excited and hyped. “Now it makes sense. Bruno told me you guys are constantly going on secret missions. That’s why you’re never around to get rewards and why you always stalk off. It’s also why you don’t know how Magitech works because you guys get all your orders from birds!”

“We do?”

“That’s what Bruno told me.” Olivia shrugged. “He said Black Hand people are anti-tech and old-fashioned because they’re always going into the hardest dungeons.”

Davi decided not to point out the fact that he used guns on several occasions, and his favorite item was a music box.

Olivia shook her head and got back on topic. She scrolled through her phone once more. Next to her messenger app was the grimoire app. She hadn’t gone into it in a while since everything had been so hectic and crazy.

In a bunch of the stories she always read or listened to, LitRPG was a common trope, and in those stories, people would have a system that they could level up with and upgrade themselves. The grimoire app was not like this. It did show off stats and other things, but leveling up wasn’t something a person could just do.

“This is the grimoire app.” Olivia clicked on it, and her entire screen turned black. Davi stared down, suddenly interested, and he watched as writing began to appear across the cracked phone. “No longer do we use books or pages. Everything is all at the press of a button.” Olivia whispered.

The screen showed off a few icons that all had various phases next to them. Up at the top, there was her name, that being Mary Olivia Lot. Next to it was her age, eighteen, and next to that was her balance amount, which was a measly two-digit number since she hadn’t actually earned any money.

Next to her balance amount was a money icon that was up in the top right corner. If she were to click on it, it’d take her to the market. There she could sell or buy things, such as magic spells, potions, weapons, or monster cores. She had nothing to offer or buy, though, so she ignored it.

Down below was where the real exciting stuff was. There were four boxes that would each take her to a new page if she clicked on them. The first was listed as Stats, the second was Core, the third was Spells, and the final one was Traits.

“This is my grimoire page,” Olivia said softly. It felt a little weird having Davi look down at it, since it was such a personal thing. The only person she let look at her stats and other stuff was Bruno. “It’s pretty easy to understand, I think. Stats show how good you are at basic things; Core is what type of magic you have and the schools you’re good with; Spells show the number of spells you know and how close they are to evolving; and the Traits one is pretty much everything else.”

Olivia took a deep breath, and she clicked on Stats. The screen changed and now showed a jumble of words and their grade next to them. They were the small, pathetic level they always were.

Mana: Grade D, Endurance: Grade C-, Strength: Grade C, Efficiency: Grade C, and Resistance: Grade A.

“The lowest grade you can get is a D- and the highest is an S+.” Olivia explained. “In a lot of books, people get numbers and other stuff, but in real life, we use grades. Mana represents the amount of mana you have, Endurance is how durable your mana is and how fast it recovers, Strength is how strong your mana can become, Efficiency is how much of your own mana you can control and how good you are with your spells, and Resistance is how well you can ignore outside effects and dungeons. Each grade is ten times stronger than the previous one. So someone with a B in Strength is ten times stronger than someone with a B- in the same category.”

“Do these really matter?” Davi asked, making a face. “Like, does a person with the higher stats just win?”

“I guess if the difference is big enough, then yeah, but for the most part, it mainly comes down to how you use what you have and the hand you were dealt when you were first born.” Olivia shrugged.

“And do these stats change?”

“If you’re rich, then yes.”

“If you’re rich?”

Olivia sighed and shrugged. “Life isn’t like a video game. If you want to get your grade higher, you have to put in the work. Remember how I said each grade is ten times stronger than the last? Well, if you want your grade to go up, you have to become ten times stronger in whatever category you’re trying to improve. That means you’d need to get ten times the amount of mana you have or regenerate your mana ten times as fast for Mana and Endurance. Alternatively, if you have enough money, you can take this type of Core-improving medicine that can be found in the item shop, but it’s hella expensive and usually doesn’t work, so you have to spend loads of cash just to maybe increase one stat.”

“But if you do put in enough hard work, you can improve yourself naturally?” Davi questioned.

“Sure, but be ready to bust your ass.” Olivia snorted and exited the stat box. Next, she went to Core.

Every mage had a Core within them that was dependent on who they were. Her core was a Blood Core. Davi would have a Shadow Core. The ranking of a person’s Core determined how easy it was for them to naturally improve, since some people could grow a lot quicker than others. The drug she had talked about earlier would temporarily boost a person's Core Grade, which in turn would allow them to power up quicker, though it only worked for a bit and would be harder to increase the more it was used, so in the end, hard work really was the only way to get better, unless someone was a Noble who could just spend a seemingly infinite amount of money to grow.

On the Core page, it had several other lines of text with their own grade next to them. The first was listed as Blood Core, which was her overall Grade. It was a C+. After that were the different schools of magic and the grade she had in them. She had a B- in Alteration, a C in Destruction, a C in Enchantment, a B in Conjuration, a D- in Illusion, and a D in Restoration. Overall, she wasn’t good with any of the schools but was at least decent with Conjuration and Alteration, which was why she mainly used spells that would shape her blood.

“This is how you can see what spells you’re able to learn and which ones will be best for you.” Olivia exited that and then went to the third box listed as spells. “Once you know what kinds of magic you’re good with, you can go to the market and look up all sorts of spells, but they’re usually pricey, depending on what you’re trying to buy. In the box listed as spells, you can see all the different spells you know, in case you forget them, and you can also see how close a spell is to evolving. When a spell reaches its max mastery, that means it can evolve and become a stronger, higher-level version.”

Once again, the screen changed, this time showing off a massive list of spells that seemed to be in no particular order. Davi raised his eyebrow as he stared at them. Olivia wasn’t joking when she said she bought a lot of spells.

Row Blood Knife, Row Blood Scythe, Row Blood Chain, Row Blood Rope, Row Blood Shield, Row Blood Barrier, Row Blood Cloak, Row Blood Hawk, Row Blood Rabbit, Row Blood Bolt, Row Blood Beam, Row Blood Slash, Row Blood Cube, Row Blood Ball, Row Blood Wheel, Row Blood Flower, Row Blood Map, Row Blood Heal, Row Blood Mend, Row Blood Recover— The list just kept going on and on. Most of the spells were just the same thing but worded slightly differently, like knives and daggers, and next to the spells, it showed off the schools of magic they fell in, many having multiple schools, like all the weapons, which were both Conjuration and Alteration. There were also actual numbers listed for each spell instead of a grade.

Each number was connected to a digital bar that showed how close it was to reaching the top. Some spells, like Blood Knife or Bolt, were at seventy percent, while others were listed below ten. Some spells were also listed in categories Olivia wasn’t even good with and had likely never used, like Row Blood Rabbit, which was listed as both Illusion and Restoration and had a measly two percent next to its evolution meter.

“A lot of spells in the market don’t have their school listed next to them when you go to buy them,” Olivia said sheepishly. “So some of these spells I bought thinking I’d get to summon a cute rabbit minion to fight for me, only to learn it was just an illusion and not the real thing. Also, when you buy a spell, it is based on the creator as to what the spell's intent is. That’s why I have so many knife spells, since everyone has a different view on what a knife is to them, and the size kept being wrong or weird, leading to me buying knife spells. Once you do buy a spell, you start off as a total noob with it, having your meter be zero, and you have to learn how it works the hard way unless you can also afford a guide or help book with it, which I never can. That’s why Blood Scythe is my highest and strongest spell. I created that one all on my own.”

Davi blinked, clearly overwhelmed, causing Olivia to giggle slightly. She clicked off the spells list and went to the final box, the one listed as Traits, which was thankfully a lot smaller than the last one had been.

“Traits are all passives, and they basically are everything that doesn’t have to do with spells or stats,” Olivia said as her list came up. “I have a few.”

There were a handful that popped up as the box opened and the page shifted.

Olivia had Knife-Wielding: Grade C, Scythe-Wielding: Grade C, Poison Resistance: Grade A, Venom Resistance: Grade A, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D, Sprint: Grade D, Stamina: Grade D, and lastly, Quick Regeneration: Grade B+. That last one had been ranked as B before she met Davi, which meant she had gotten beaten up so badly by Garon that her healing factor had actually leveled up a bit.

“And that’s pretty much everything,” Olivia said, exiting out of the traits section. “A grimoire is unique to a mage, just like their mana and magic type are. It’s a useful tool for seeing how much you’ve improved, but it isn’t like an actual leveling system or anything.” She sighed. “That would make things way too easy.”

Davi rubbed the back of his head, still totally lost, but he forced a nod. “I guess I understand.”

He had no fucking clue what anything he had just seen was.

Olivia’s smile grew, and she twisted the phone around. “You want to see yours?”

“Isn’t it your app?” Davi raised an eyebrow.

“It’s magic. Whoever opens the app will be taken to their own grimoire, since it’s all done through the king's power.” Olivia giggled. “Come on. Click the app, and it’ll bring yours up. I’m dying to know what secrets you’re hiding.”

“I don’t know…”

“Please.”

Davi let out another sigh and nodded. “Alright. Fine.” Gently, he reached out and clicked the screen. “Here goes nothing.”

The phone screen turned black…

And then in a bright white flash, Davi suddenly found himself standing in an empty void.

Chapter 28: A Girl Who Will Seek Revenge

Davi knew something was going to go wrong before he touched the app. Something always had to go wrong after all…

Still, the last thing he expected when he opened the box on Olivia’s phone was to be transported to a dungeon, yet that’s exactly what happened.

Or at least, he assumed it was a dungeon.

As soon as his finger touched the app, there was a blinding flash, one that hurt his eyes, and then, in an instant, Davi felt a wave of heat slam into him. A few moments ago, he had been standing out in the icy forest with Olivia, but now he was somewhere else.

It reminded him of his vault, but everything was bright and white instead of an inky void of darkness. Rather than floating through empty space, Davi felt white-hot fire swirl around him, the flames holding him up. The white void stretched on for seemingly forever, going on and on in a never-ending stretch, and within the white, brightly colored lights swirled around. They were all different colors and shades. Some were dull, and others were so bright they caused Davi to squint and let out a gasp.

The colors all circled one another, twisting together and forming into what looked almost like a strand of DNA. There were eight more of those strands, made up of every color of the rainbow, and they all stretched out, white fire gushing out of them, which in turn was wrapped around Davi.

He was trapped. Completely held in place by the grasp of the colors. Past the flames and to the other end of the DNA strands was the thing they were all connected to. It was hard to see since it was white and blended in with the white void it floated in, but it had this aura of power that caused Davi to take note of it, and the thing pulsed with various colors as the strands all connected to it.

It looked almost like a ball, being round and fat, and it was made out of pure energy. All the white fire in the void came from this thing; in fact, the entire infinite void existed just to hold this object. The millions of colors were being controlled and turned into strange tentacle-like arms for this thing, allowing it to grasp anyone that appeared before it.

Davi didn’t know how he knew, but he was sure that this thing was a Core. The Magic Core that powered the app and connected everyone together. It was different from his own Core, which he had seen once while floating through his vault.

Davi struggled and winced as he tried to fight against the strands that were wrapped tightly around them, but even after forcing mana through his muscles and bones to strengthen them, he couldn’t get the hold on him to break. He was being pulled in, dragged through the empty space, and toward the massive Core.

Davi reached the Core, and instantly he felt a wave of pain as the mana of the Core forced its way past his flesh. He gasped, and his body burned. It felt like every cell was on fire, and his head was going to split open. Then he heard a voice, one that was loud and booming, and shook the void itself.

“Davi Hawker, son of Orion Hawker, son of Titania Midsummer, child of the Abyss, I accept you. I embrace you.”

Then, instantly, Davi found himself sucking in air, and his butt felt wet as he collapsed into a pile of snow.

“Davi?”

He looked up and found Olivia staring down at him, with a worried expression on her face. The void was gone. He was back in the real world. His body no longer hurt, and he felt fine. The memories wouldn’t leave him anytime soon. Whatever that was, it had totally sucked…

“Are you okay?” Olivia asked, holding her hand out to him.

Davi took the offered hand and stood up on shaking legs, still clutching her phone. “I heard a voice.” He breathed out. “It said my mom and dad's name?”

Olivia nodded and folded her arms as she leaned against the carriage Davi had summoned earlier. “I guess I should have warned you of that fact. The same thing happened to me the first time I opened the app, back when I was eight. ‘Mary Lot, daughter of Arthur Roads, daughter of Olivia Lot, wielder of the Witch Of Red, I accept you. I embrace you.”

“Wielder of the Witch Of Red?” Davi raised an eyebrow.

“It says the name of your core. I guess that’s what mine is called.” Olivia shrugged. “Never really thought about it too much. But yeah, that thing you saw was the magic Core of the king! Thanks to his Circuit magic, he embraces other people’s Core, which is how he connects the grimoire app to each person. The first time you open the app up, that happens since it needs to set the Circuit spell up. That won’t happen anymore, though, so you should be good. I forgot it was your first time; sorry for not warning you.”

Davi glanced down at the phone screen and saw that the app was now open. Just like with Olivia’s, it had gone to a black page that had four boxes for him to click on, as well as the market in the top right. He even saw his name and age up top, Davi Orion Hawker, age twenty, along with his balance, which was listed at zero since he didn't have a bank account for the app to connect to.

Having gone this far, he supposed there was nothing left to lose. Casually, Davi clicked on the list labeled as Stats, opening up the box, which caused the screen to change. “I thought you said the lowest something could be was D?” Davi questioned as he looked down at his list of Stats.

Mana: Grade C, Endurance: Grade B+, Strength: Grade A+, Efficiency: Grade D-, and lastly, Resistance: Grade E1.

Olivia rubbed her neck, seemingly just as baffled as Davi was. She had expected his stats to be higher. At least one or two in the S Grade ranking. His highest was Strength, which was good, but his Stats were shockingly low for an Arcane Knight. Not to mention his Resistance, which just confused her more.

“Well, technically, Grade D is the lowest something can be and still work.” She explained slowly, trying to figure out how best to word it. “Like, someone with really, really, really bad Endurance would be graded as a D-. Grade E is usually reserved for schools of magic, and it means that the grade is so low it can’t be improved at all. Like if you had an E in Destruction, it means no matter what you do, you’ll never be able to use Destruction magic. I’ve never seen a stat have an E grade in it before. Also, yours has a number? E1? Not minus or plus? That’s kind of weird.”

The more she thought about it, the more it didn’t seem to add up. Having a stat that was Grade E would mean that it was so bad it went beyond the category of being the worst. Resistance determined how long a person could survive in a dungeon before they began to get mutated. Having a D in Resistance basically made it impossible to be an Arcane Knight. How had Davi been running around, not showing any signs of Mutation with an E? His Resistance just wouldn’t be bad; it would be nonexistent.

As usual, Davi was weird.

Davi shrugged and moved on. He casually closed the box and opened the one listed as Core. His Shadow Core popped up, along with all the schools of magic and his grade in each of them.

Shadow Core was Grade A, Alteration was Grade A, Destruction was Grade E, Enchantment was Grade E1, Conjuration was Grade A, Illusion was Grade C, and Restoration was Grade E.

“You have so many Es!”

“Is that good?” Davi asked, tilting his head to the side.

“No! It’s actually really bad.” Olivia sighed and shook her head. How was Davi so strong with grades like this? Having two As was good, but again, no S? “Remember what I said. E means that’s a school you can’t use. Having D in a school means you’ll be garbage at it, but you can at least cast a spell from that school. These grades mean you can’t use Destruction or Restoration magic, no matter what you do! Also, why is Enchantment E1? Does that mean it’s double useless?” Olivia shook her head and sighed. “There is some good news, though. Your Core Grade is really high, which means growing stronger should be a lot easier for you than it is for me. Also, your Alteration and Conjuration are both high as well, likely because you are always using your armor spell.”

Davi hummed and clicked out of Core and eagerly went to the section listed as spells. He was hoping he’d secretly have a lot of spells, but sadly, it was just the two that he always used.

Row Shadow Vault fell into three school categories. It was Conjuration, Alteration, and Enchantment. Next to it was a meter that read thirty percent, which meant the spell was far from evolving and becoming something stronger.

After Shadow Vault was Row Shadow Armor, it was just Conjuration and Alteration. Its meter read that it was fifty percent on the evolution scale.

If he wanted any more spells, he’d either need to go through serious life-and-death situations to create one or spend years trying to form a new one in reality. Either that, or he’d have to open a bank account and place all his wealth into it and buy a ton of spells, but that would mean doing taxes and other lame math, so that option was out.

The last box to click on was Traits. Just like with Olivia’s, the box opened up and spat out a jumble of words and their grades that Davi really wasn’t sure what any of them meant. Some also seemed like borderline insults…

Master Hoarder: Grade B, Sprint: Grade B, Stamina: grade A, Sword-Wielding: Grade B, Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword Style: Grade C, Hand-to-hand: Grade D, Way of Self Iron Martial Arts: Grade D, Cold Resistance: Grade A+, Heat Resistance: Grade A+, Danger Sense: Grade B, Loved by Mana: Grade A, and last and most importantly to Davi, Fishing: Grade S.

“I got an S!” He announced, being uncharacteristically excited.

“Just for fishing, though.” Olivia snorted. “Traits are a little different from the other stuff. I explained that they were sort of like passives. Basically, the grimoire scans you and can read your memories and mind, and it selects things that you’ve done and are good at. So when you become at least a novice in something, it’ll appear here. You can also click on a trait to get a better idea of what it does. Like, look at the one listed as Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword. Most people will just get 'Sword-Wielding' as a grade, but you having that means you are decent with a type of fighting style, and the app is using that instead of just how good you are with a sword. Same for the Way of Self Iron Martial Arts.”

Davi nodded. “My dad taught me some basics back when I was a kid. He also taught me how to fish and other stuff. Come to think of it, he kept blabbing about some ancient sword or something based on cutting the sky, but I was more focused on the fishing part and didn’t listen. I guess that’s the sword form I’ve been using, but to be honest, I just swing my blade as hard as I can and don’t really try to do anything special. I guess that’s why it and my Martial Arts are so low.”

Davi excitedly clicked on the trait that was listed as Fishing, and a new box opened up with some text within it. ‘You’ve learned the ancient ways of the Sky Cutting Sword Style and have chosen to ignore most of them in favor of being a better fisherman. You are a master of fishing.’

“Sweet.”

“Check the Mana one.” Olivia offered.

“Nah.”

“Huh?”

Davi casually tossed the phone back over to her and shrugged. “I don’t really care about the other stuff; it isn’t as important.”

Olivia made a face as she caught the phone. Instantly, the app shut off and switched to her grimoire now that Davi wasn’t the one holding it.

Sometimes, Davi could be hard to work with.

Olivia sighed and stuffed her phone away. “Alright, but next time we’re in a city, we’re getting you a proper phone, and you’re checking it.” Davi just shrugged, not helping her mood. “So what now?” She asked.

Davi casually tapped the carriage that was still sitting in the middle of the road. “I told you earlier, you have to drag this.”

“And I told you, it’s not possible—”

Davi dragged the carriage across the stone, closer to him, with one arm. “See. It can be done.”

“Hey, I just saw your grimoire. Don’t act like you’re a normal person!”

“You want to be an Arcane Knight, right?” Davi asked bluntly. He connected a long chain to the front of the carriage and handed it to Olivia. “You said it’s possible for those grades to go up if you work hard. Well, that’s what you’re going to do. Get to dragging.”

“Do I really have to do this?”

“You asked me to help you get stronger. This is what I did when I was younger.”

“Really?”

“No. But you’re gonna do it anyway.”

Olivia sighed and nodded her head. “I don’t think it’s possible for me to do something like that, though.” She wrapped the chain around her hand and turned. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward and tugged with all her might, but the chain grew taut and snapped back, causing her to slip and fall. “Ow.”

“You’re doing it wrong.” Davi lightly kicked her in the butt. “You use mana that’s in your blood, right? When I create my shadow armor, I coat my entire body in a thin layer of mana and pump my muscles, flesh, and bones full of it, which gives me my strength. Try to feel the mana going through your blood and direct that through your body. That’s how mages can mimic superhuman strength and speed.”

Olivia nodded her head and weakly stood back up. She closed her eyes and tried to focus inward. She had an idea of what he was talking about. Mana was a physical substance that was dense and heavy like water. Mages used this substance that their body held to cast their spells and enhance themselves, though she had never really tried. She knew it was in her, though, since it flowed inside her blood. Her heart began to beat faster, and just like when she would shift her blood for a spell or remove tainted blood, she tried to remove the mana from it. Her skin almost seemed to glow, and she felt a weak surge through her. Unknown to her, her eyes lit up with a bright red glow as her mana surged, just like how Davi’s would.

When she tugged on the carriage this time, she felt her arms shake and her bones rattle as she forced the wheels forward an inch. She then collapsed on her knees, breathing heavily.

“Way to go.” Davi clapped her on the back. “Now, just keep that up until we reach the next settlement.”

“You’re insane.”

“Yes.” Davi said casually. “The more physical strength you build up, the more mana you’ll get, and the more mana you have, the greater physical strength you will be able to build up. That’s why Arcane Knights are called what they are. Masters of not just magic but physical might as well. Garon was wrong when he said you have to be born special. Anyone can train and get themselves fit and in perfect shape, but few people will since they can’t be bothered to put all the effort in. That’s what’s going to make you special and set you apart, Olivia. I’m going to train you until your body breaks. By the time we reach the test, you will, without a doubt, have what it takes to be an Arcane Knight.”

Olivia forced a smile on her face, and she struggled to move the carriage another inch or two. “I—I like the praise, but… This still feels too much.” She gasped. “Shouldn’t we take baby steps?”

“Nah.” Davi turned, walking off.

“Where are you going?” She grunted and tried to tug on the carriage once more.

“I’m going to have a quick chat with someone. You keep doing what you’re doing; I’ll catch up.” Davi stepped into the shadows and vanished.

Olivia growled quietly and got back to work. “I can do this. I have to.” The image of Garon came to her mind once more. If she had been stronger, could she have saved him? She doubted it. Still, it hurt. She was trying not to think about it, but watching someone blow up was kind of crazy.

She was going to have to seek therapy eventually.

Meanwhile, back in Daisy Town, there was one person who wasn’t celebrating. Susie stared up at the roof of her bedroom weakly, even though she couldn’t see due to the fire that always covered her flesh. She could hear cheering past the walls, and she wondered for a moment where her father was. Suddenly, Susie felt her eyes narrow a bit. She wasn’t alone.

She could feel it. A mana as cold as hers was hot had just appeared.

Weakly, she shuffled up in her bed, her fiery form twisted and swirling around. She still couldn’t see, but she could tell where the person was and felt them approach closer to her. “Who are you—”

Without warning, a hand suddenly grabbed her by her face. Susie gasped, and her fire surged off her, getting more intense. Something was forced past her lips, and she tasted glass and blood as the object melted and sliced into her mouth. Then suddenly her body felt warm. Not blazing or intense as it always was, but instead warm and gentle like her father’s healing magic.

Susie blinked, and suddenly she could see again. The fire that clung to her was gone, peeling away and vanishing, revealing her human form beneath. Steam poured off of her, and her flesh was red, but it was also healing and mending, her burned flesh turning white once more.

That was when her eyes settled on the person who was in the room with her. It was a man. One with raven-black hair and cold blue eyes. He wore a black hoodie, but the sleeve of it had burned and melted away on the right side, and the hand that had grabbed her wasn’t in good condition. The flesh was badly red and burned in a way that would leave scars. In his other hand he held an empty vial, which was now melted and ruined, and anything that had been in it was now in her.

The man removed his burned hand and muttered a spell, casually pulling out some bandages from his shadow, which he began to wrap around the damaged limb. “I thought my mana would be able to shield me from the fire, but it couldn’t. That stuff was intense. A little while longer, and I think it would have melted through your own fire-resistant flesh.”

“Who the hell are you!” Susie yelled out, and she jumped back. She barely processed the fact she was naked or that she smelled of ash and smoke. “W-what did you do?” She asked, covering herself up.

The stranger pulled out a cloak and threw it over her and shrugged. “Your Core was damaged. It wasn’t hit with radiation, so you aren’t a mutant, but your magical Core is sort of faulty and broken. My mom knew a lot about Cores since she was a— Anyway, your Core became so unstable that your fire magic went out of control and started to burn you up. I fed you one of the strongest healing potions I’ve ever seen, which is why you’re not on fire anymore.”

Susie pulled the cloak around herself, and she poked her head out, taking in the man’s information. “I see. So I’m cured?” She asked hopefully.

“No.” The man’s words caused the smile that had been forming on her lips to vanish. “You won’t ever be cured because this is an issue that was present when you were born. The damage was reversed, but it’ll restart. Also, since your Core is so damaged, try to avoid casting spells if you can or entering dungeons. It won’t be able to handle intense strain. Still, as long as you’re careful and don’t go overboard, it shouldn’t shatter again.”

Susie gave a weak nod, and she felt her heart break a little. Hannah and she always talked about becoming Arcane Knights, but from the sound of it, that wouldn’t be possible anymore.

“Who are you?” She asked again.

The person walked to the door, about to leave, but stopped at her question. “The Knight your father hired.”

“You’re lying.” The figure stared at her from across the room, and Susie stared back. “My father would never work with an Arcane Knight.”

“You knew?”

Susie managed a smile. “Only a small bit. He didn’t tell me, but… Well, I can tell when someone’s lying. A trait I inherited from my mom. I have Lie Detection: Grade S. Just now, you lied. Like my dad did. Where is my dad?” Susie demanded.

Silence stretched through the room for several seconds before the voice spoke up once more. “He’s dead.”

Susie’s smirk faded, and her look completely shifted. It wasn’t a lie. She could tell. The person was speaking the truth. “Row Fire Light!” The room suddenly lit up as a spark of fire lit up at the tip of her finger, and she glared at the raven-haired figure. A moment later, though her spell faded, and she gasped, grabbing at her chest. It burned. Her blood felt like it was on fire.

“Take it easy.” The man said. “Remember what I said. Your Core—”

“Was it you?” Susie demanded, and she fought through the pain, creating another ball of fire. Her voice cracked a bit, and her eyes stung as tears started to flow. “Did you do it?”

The man stared at her, searching her face and taking in her rage. “I’m the reason he’s dead, yes.” It wasn’t a lie, technically. He was the one to order Olivia to do it after all.

Susie almost howled and let out an anguished cry. First her mother and now her dad. She was all alone now. Everyone she cared for had been taken. “I’ll kill you!” She lashed out, and the fire on her finger launched, but the man casually blocked it with his palm, his shadows devouring it. “I’ll make you pay for killing my dad!”

The stranger stared at the angry girl, and a smile managed to twist on his face. He looked relieved, and some tension in his shoulders vanished. “Good.”

“Good?” Susie demanded in rage. “What do you mean, good?” She broke out into a cough and collapsed back into her bed but didn’t stop glaring at the man who had taken her father’s life.

The raven-haired man turned away and let out a soft sigh. “You’ll definitely survive now. I was worried you wouldn’t.” Susie suddenly found herself transfixed on the man’s shadow. It seemed to twist and move on its own as if it were alive. It began to take shape, jagged wings casting their darkness over the walls, and the head of a bird stretched out, its beak wide open, ready to swallow everything. In that moment, Susie found herself staring at a predator. A bird of prey. “Take it from me,” he spoke once more. “The desire for revenge is one hell of a thing. Come hunt me down. If you can. My name is Davi Hawker. Got that?”

Susie let out another scream, but Davi left and slammed the door shut, his shadow returning to normal. It wouldn’t be a good life, but he was confident that she’d survive now, just to kill him. Garon would help his daughter after all.

His father always taught him to leave a place better than it was. To make sure people could help themselves.

There was just one last thing he needed to do.

***

The next day, Daisy was quiet, most of the people enjoying their first truly peaceful morning in ages. Even the baron had a slight smile on his face as he stepped out of his office, enjoying the absence of fists pounding on his door or yelling about missing children. He breathed in deeply, savoring the subtle rise in the village’s temperature. The streets were fairly quiet, most families still enjoying their reunions, and the peace was returning to the town.

“A terrible shame about Garon,” he thought aloud to himself. “But at least the girls are back. Although if this cold weather does go, I’ll have to stop my deal with the coal merchant.”

The baron’s train of thought continued as he walked into the open square, walking up onto the raised platform he usually gave announcements from, getting ready to ring a small bell that hung nearby to call the villagers for a gathering, but as he turned to ring the bell and call for the people, his hand dropped from the bell’s rope and his eyes bulged. Gathered in the town square, with some curious children picking at it, was a heaping pile of treasure, gleaming in the morning sun.

Golden, silver, and copper coins, as well as piles of bills, golden bricks, silvered weapons, and historical guns, were scattered around. In the very center of the pile, a large wooden board had been impaled into the ground with letters carved into it.

‘For the girls who suffered.’

“Did that Knight do this?” The baron wondered to himself as he approached the pile, running a hand over various gems, coins, and gleaming chalices. He eyed the nearby children, playing with silver bangles and rolling gems like marbles. “With this, we can not only expand the town but also give all those Mutants medical help and medication for their radiation.” Without a doubt, this was the treasure from the dungeon. The Knight must have dropped it off. “What a guy.”

The baron couldn’t help but let out a sigh. Things were finally looking up for Daisy. It was a little odd, though. Knights usually earned pay by doing missions and didn’t just hand out money like this. Not to mention, he had tried searching up a Knight that met the Ebony Warrior’s description, but his app kept kicking him out anytime he looked it up.

“What a guy.” The baron shrugged the strangeness away. He was willing to look the other way after getting this much money.

The baron ran his staff over a plum-sized diamond, practically salivating. He let out a soft hum and looked up when he heard someone approach him. His eyes instantly widened, and he stumbled back, stuttering at who he saw.

It was a woman. One who was riding on an armored horse. She wore heavy-looking armor that was so detailed and advanced it had to be from the future, and a cape flowed behind her. She wasn’t wearing a helmet, her blonde hair going down her back, and her eyes were like two suns that bore down into the stuttering man. An Arcane Knight had arrived a day after Davi and Olivia left.

“The mana here is…” The woman’s eyes scanned around the town square before landing on him. “I have a question for you.” The woman’s voice was relatively soft yet stern, and the nearby children had gone uncharacteristically silent.

“Y-yes?” The mayor asked, fighting back a shiver. “H-how can I help?” The mana coming off of her was the total opposite of Davi’s. It was hot and intense, like a blazing inferno that would swallow him up.

Just as there were different levels of mages and monsters, so too were there different levels of Arcane Knights. Some Knights were weaker than others, and others were so powerful they were thought to be living legends. The woman radiated an aura of power, and even without using a spell, she seemed to be almost blanketed in mana at all times. Without a doubt, she was someone who stood near the top in the food chain that was life. The woman also had a lance that was bigger than a fully grown man, which only freaked the baron out more.

Slowly, the woman lifted a hand and held a phone screen out toward the baron. On the front of the screen was an image of an armored figure, wearing dark-looking armor, and clutching a claymore.

“I’ve been monitoring searches and descriptions of this individual, and the last result was this video. Have you happened to look up the name Davi Hawker?” The woman asked, tilting her head to the side.

The mayor quietly nodded his head, feeling his face pale. He wondered what Davi could have done to get such a mighty Arcane Knight after them. Arcane Knights usually didn’t hunt each other, and they were often too busy dealing with monsters. “Th-that Knight? He was here yesterday. You just m-m-missed him and his c-companion.”

The woman let out a quiet sigh, seemingly not shocked. “I see. I suppose once again I’m a step behind.” She tugged on the reins of her horse, and it turned, about to leave.

“W-wait, miss,” The baron called out. “What did that person do? He’s an Arcane Knight, right? He helped us out, yet you’re saying you are hunting him down?”

The woman stopped and turned back, her eyes narrowing slightly, and everyone in the town square shivered. “Well, he’s wanted for a lot.” The woman muttered. “Above all else, though, he broke the greatest sin a man can commit.”

“M-murder?”

“Worse. Tax evasion.”

Chapter 29: An Arcane Knight

“Attention, attention, I’m right outside of a dungeon that has just opened up in Lillian City!” A reporter stood in front of his cameraman, a large grin on his face.

By ‘right outside’, he really meant he was over a mile away, since otherwise the camera that was currently livestreaming him would be dead.

The reporter was a short and pot-bellied man, dressed in a heavy-looking bulletproof vest and other scraps of armor just in case he had to get involved in a fight. He also had a greatsword that dragged along the ground beside him due to how short he was.

Behind him, in the distance, was a large purple barrier. It flicked with power and formed into a dome shape, going over an entire portion of the city. The dungeon had just appeared out of nowhere and without warning. He didn’t know what was inside of it, or the sort of boss monster that called it home, and he also didn’t want to know. His only job was to report about the Knights, who were currently saving the day.

“The dungeon appeared at exactly ten A.M., and in less than one hour, Lillian was able to request the support of some Arcane Knights.” The reporter announced, speaking to the camera. “Knights from the guild, Pantheon, arrived. I’m told three are currently in the dungeon, and they have managed to evacuate all citizens. Of the three Knights in question, one of them is up-and-coming Cinder! She’s been in the guilds for less than two years now, yet has already made a name for herself. It makes me wonder what Myth, the leader of Pantheon, thinks about having such a hotshot like her in his guild-”

A loud scream cut the reporter off, and he turned just in time to see that people were running away from the dungeon. The barrier shimmered, and something came ramming out of it, appearing in the streets of Lillian.

It was as big as a bus and covered in thick grey skin. It looked almost like a dog, but it had three heads, which all oozed with fire. A Cerberus. Most likely the boss of the dungeon. It had emerged and was now rampaging through the streets, shooting out fire in all directions, which easily burned through skyscrapers.

The reporter let out a loud yelp, and he fell onto his ass as the mighty beast came charging at him. It howled and dove forward, but at the last second before it could reach him, a golden blur slammed into it. The Cerberus was smashed into the street and rolled across it. It stood back up and growled, while the reporter stared at the figure who stood in front of him protectively.

“Sorry about that.” It was a young woman. One with long black hair, and blue eyes that were blazing as if they were made out of fire. “I let this guy slip past me.” She wore what looked almost like a black military uniform, but it had a long black cape that was added to it. In either hand, she held oversized guns, each one having enough stopping power to blow through a tank. “Keep that camera rolling.” The woman announced, and casually she pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on. “I want everyone to see how badass Cinder is.”

The hound roared, and it surged forward, and the Knight let out a loud cry of her own and jumped toward it, raising her guns—

The screen turned black as the phone suddenly shut off, stopping Davi from watching the rest of the fight. “Olivia, your phone broke,” Davi said, unhelpfully throwing it at the back of Olivia’s head.

Olivia turned just in time to catch it and huffed. “It’s not broken; the battery just died because you’ve been on it for hours! I regret teaching you how to use the internet…”

Davi shrugged. “Well, since the phone doesn’t work anymore, I guess I’ll just have to do what I normally do and stare at all the pretty colors that are scattered around us.”

There were many different nations and kingdoms throughout the world, but four stood at the top. The Estiria kingdom was particularly famous because it was the land from which Haru, the creator of the Arcane Knights, came. Estiria was a land of magic, and so its land varied greatly. One moment it could be calm and tranquil, but then the next, a traveling merchant could find themselves marching through a storm of fire.

Daisy was covered in ice and snow, all because of the great snake, which had haunted it for the past few months. Its mana was so cold that it had changed the weather. Leaving Daisy, though, caused everything to heat up, and only a few miles down the road, it stopped snowing and became a calm summer day once more.

Olivia’s eye twitched, and she gasped, struggling to yank the carriage forward. It barely budged, moving only a few pitiful inches. Despite how little progress she made, though, she didn’t give up. Mana kept pumping through her blood, and her eyes glowed, and she kept it up. She had dragged the thing all throughout the night, and the sun was finally rising. She didn’t know how long she had been traveling for, but there was still no town, village, or city in sight. She hadn’t even seen any cars or anything like that on the road either since they were in such a backwater part of the Estiria kingdom.

“You need a break?” Davi asked casually, from on top of the carriage, which was where he had been all night, watching videos of Arcane Knights on her phone.

Olivia weakly shook her head. “No. Not yet.” She forced a grin even though she hadn’t slept in over a day. “You said it yourself, if I don’t do this, then there’s no point. I need to get stronger. It’s the only way I’ll be able to become an Arcane Knight like you! I don’t want to be saved anymore; I don’t want to be a damsel; I want to be cool and badass! Like a real Arcane Knight!”

Davi looked up at the rising sun. He still hadn’t told her he wasn’t a Knight. He knew he should, but even he was shocked he wasn’t actually one. He had gone most of his adventuring life simply thinking it didn’t matter. An issue with traveling around so much and never bothering to stick around in one place was that he really didn’t know how the world worked. He also ran the risk of what would happen if he suddenly told his traveling companion he wasn’t really a Knight. He didn’t like lying like this. It wouldn’t matter soon, though. Once the two of them arrived in the capital, he could leave and go back on his solo adventure.

So long as he got to help people and could chase after the Dragon, he didn’t care if he held the real title or not.

The law wasn’t going to stop him.

“You okay?” Olivia’s question broke him out of his train of thought.

“Yeah? Why?”

“Well, for one, you’re covered in bruises, and your hand is kind of fucked,” Olivia said flatly.

Davi sat cross-legged on top of the cart and had taken his baggy hoodie off. His skin was shockingly pale beneath his clothes, not getting a lot of light, likely due to hiding beneath his armor. He had dozens of faint scars crisscrossed across his flesh, along with dozens of bruises, which he had received from being slammed around by the snake. In his armor, he looked bulky, yet outside of it, he wore baggy clothes. Now that his shirt was open, though, Davi had lean muscles, mainly around his arms and shoulders, built up from years of swinging around a heavy sword. His nastiest wound, though, was his right arm. From the hand all the way to just past his wrist, he had received a nasty burn scar that wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.

Olivia had no idea where he got such a wound. After all, Garon hadn’t hit Davi with any spells, and Davi refused to tell her any time she tried to bring it up to him. She suspected it had to do with wherever it was he snuck off to before they truly left Daisy.

Davi dipped his hand into his shadow and gathered up some sort of muscle cream, which he rubbed on his bruises. He had been doing it for a while, attempting to ease his wounds. When he was done, he slipped his hoodie back on. “I ran out of potions a while ago, so try not to get banged up anymore, okay?”

Olivia made a face and dragged the cart once more. “The potion left my bloodstream a while ago, so no more from me either. And since you gave away all the treasure, we basically got nothing out of it.”

“You got Garon’s dagger.” Davi offered, uncaringly.

At her belt was the knife Garon had used, the one made out of a fang from the snake Davi had slain. She still didn’t know how to use a knife fully, but the weapon was too cool to get rid of. Not to mention, she had built up a fast resistance to the venom, which was lucky for her, since she had accidentally stabbed her leg while tucking the large knife away. She wished the cloak Garon had survived, since invisibility cloaks were rare, but it had burned up when he blew himself up…

Olivia shook her head, trying to shoo away the thoughts of Garon. There was no other way that situation could have gone, right? The man had been caught, his plans ruined, with no way out except to dive headfirst into the deep end.

Olivia turned her head to look back at Davi, shocked to find the man’s eyes boring into hers. Davi’s eyes softened, and he shook his head in a silent indication for her to let go of any guilt she felt about Garon. She didn’t know how, but she was certain he could tell she was still thinking about Garon.

“You okay?” Davi questioned.

“Yeah.” Olivia reached for the knife once more. “Yeah, I’m just fine. I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

Despite how grim it all was, Olivia felt herself become giddy at the fact that she got to hold an enchanted weapon. Plenty of objects were enchanted, such as brooms that would sweep the floors for people or carpets that could fly. This allowed people without magic to still use the benefits since mundane enchanted items could be bought. Those items, however, were made cheap and wouldn’t last. After only a few days of use, a broom or carpet would run out of mana and have to be replaced.

The items Garon had didn’t suffer from this effect, though. They were real magical items. The dagger was crafted from the serpent's tooth, being enchanted to always produce its venom, and the cloak had been woven together by some of the serpent's scales, allowing it to make the wearer unseen. Items created from powerful magical beasts lasted far longer. It was one of the reasons selling magical beast corpses was such a big deal, since the stronger the magical beast was, the stronger the item crafted out of it would be.

“Any plans for the next town or city?” She asked, shooting her traveling companion a look.

Davi changed the bandages on his burned arm and shook his head. “We’ll stop at the next place we find, but I have no plans to stay for long since we’re heading for the capital. We’ll get a working car or something while we’re there so we don’t have to walk anymore. All the cars I have in my vault don’t work or were turned into bird nests.”

“Bird nests? Why?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

As usual, Davi was weird. Olivia gave a soft smile and stared ahead. She was glad she got to travel with someone like Davi. There was never a dull moment. “We should pick up some new clothes as well.” She said.

The jacket Davi had given her had a huge hole in it because of Garon stabbing her, and the sleeve around Davi’s hoodie was ruined. They were both in need of an updated outfit.

“Sure, we’ll see what the next place has to offer.” Davi hummed.

“We’ll be nearing Rose soon.” She said, humming. “I guess that means this little adventure will be coming to an end, won’t it?”

Davi dangled his legs over the side of the carriage roof. “That’s correct. I won’t be staying in Rose. I need to keep on the move so I can try to catch up with the Dragon.”

“Have you ever even seen this dragon, besides when you were a kid?” Olivia asked.

“I haven’t.”

“So, how do you know it’s still alive? What if another Arcane Knight, or dark mage, or something already slayed it?”

Davi shook his head. “No. I know it’s still alive. Maybe it’s magic, or maybe just a gut feeling, but I know that thing is still out there. It’s waiting for me. Waiting to finish what it started.” He rubbed his scar.

“And what did it start?”

“So what are you going to do when you become an Arcane Knight?” Davi asked, suddenly changing the topic.

Olivia frowned and shrugged her shoulders. She could tell what he was doing, but if he didn’t want to discuss his past, she had no right to force it. “When I’m a Knight, I might try to look for my dad. I know I want to help people, though. Knights go on quests and can go nearly anywhere, so maybe I’ll even catch up with you and help you find this dragon. That would be fun, wouldn’t it?”

“That would be fun.”

Rose was the capital of Estiria. It was in the center of the kingdom, and the path they walked was supposed to lead to it eventually. There were other towns and villages and places they’d stop on the way, but the end goal was Rose City, the place where the Arcane Knights' entrance exam was held. There was less than a month left before the test would start, which was why she needed to work so hard. Plenty of people from all over the kingdom would try to become Knights, but in the end, many failed and ended up like Garon, giving up or having the mind of Olis and not bothering to take the exam at all.

Typically, it was just the people who came from elite families, had special bloodline traits, or could afford to buy stat-boosting items and spells that made it into the Knights. The Arcane Knights were made up mostly of nobles or special people, but every now and then a country bumpkin like her would somehow pass the exam and get in.

She’d need to work hard to pass the exam. She wasn’t as strong, fast, or durable as Davi was, and if not for the fact that she had that snake venom in her veins, she doubted she’d be able to defeat Garon. If someone like Garon wasn’t able to pass the exam, what chance did someone like her have?

This thought went through her mind a lot as she forced the cart forward over the bumpy trail. After leaving Daisy, the farmlands opened back up. In front of Olivia was a dirt road that had been traveled thousands of times by merchants. On her left and right were a series of different crops, mostly corn. A few farmers were scattered through the fields, which likely meant she was nearing a village of some sort and could finally stop dragging Davi’s carriage around.

“You’re doing well.” Davi tried to encourage her. “Just a bit further.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Olivia groaned and shook her head. She was covered in sweat, and her arms and legs ached like they never had before, but she just couldn’t bring herself to stop. She wanted to do this. Needed to do it.

Luckily for her, though, in the middle of her marching, something finally happened that caused her to stop. A scream echoed out from the cornfield, followed by a rumble that spread across the ground. One of the many farmers who had been working in the cornfields let out a yell.

A large hand forged of dirt and rocks stabbed out from the middle of the field. The hand grabbed hold of the ground, and something began to rip its way out of the ground. It was round like a ball, made out of various metals, roots, and mud. It had a flat head that lacked things like eyes or ears, and stubby arms and legs jutted out of its body. Golems, creatures created when enough mana swirls around the ground long enough for them to gain sentience. Several of the farmers yelled as the creature began to stomp around the field, flinging mud and rocks everywhere. It wasn’t alone, either. Dozens more were starting to rise up.

“Monsters!” Olivia felt her eyes go wide when she saw the magical constructs. “Is there a dungeon nearby or something? Why does it feel like we’ve been running into so many of them now!” Seriously, she had gone most of her life never seeing a dungeon up until the one near Fri appeared, and now it felt like every few days she was finding a new one.

What was going on?

“Stay here,” Davi ordered.

“But—” Olivia didn’t even get a chance to finish what she was saying as Davi took off.

One of the farmers tripped, his foot getting caught on a root, and he dropped to the ground. A golem reached him and lifted its foot, bringing it down, but before it could crush the man, Davi appeared in front of him. “Row Shadow Armor.” Black armor exploded out of the ground and formed around him, minus his helmet, and he brought his arm up, catching the golem's foot.

The farmer stared at his savior in shock, his eyes wide as he watched him shove the golem back, sending it stumbling.

“Go,” Davi ordered coolly. “Get out of here. Now.”

The farmer nodded and took off, making a break for it, along with the other farmers. Davi watched the man leave, and once the farmer was gone, he opened his vault, pulling his claymore out.

Casually, he placed it over his shoulder and stared at all the rock monsters who glared back at him. His other hand grabbed his headphones that he normally kept tucked in his armor, and he slipped them on, his loud, blaring music starting up.

If his music worked, that meant there wasn’t a vault nearby. He wondered where these golems came from, but at the same time, he didn’t really care. It was time to do what he did best.

Davi gripped the handle of his sword and let out a sigh. “Let’s do this.”

Chapter 30: A Knight Named Gray

Cinder wiped some sweat away from her forehead and let out a sigh of relief. The city block she had been standing on was totally ruined, the road having melted, the buildings having fallen over, and any cars that had been nearby exploded, but it was finally all over.

That damned three-headed dog was dead.

Her only regret was that she didn’t get to be the one to finish it off.

“Did you manage to take the other monsters out also?” Cinder questioned as she spun her two guns around and holstered them. In front of her was the corpse of the Cerberus. The magical beast had been covered in layers of ice and frozen, leaving it as an icy statue in the middle of the city it had been rampaging through.

“I left Whisper to deal with it. She was slaying a group of mini-bosses last I saw.” Cinder nodded at her friend’s response, and she slowly turned to see the fellow Knight, the one who had slain the Cerberus. “Uh, you good?” He asked when he noticed she was staring.

Snow stood tall, reaching eight feet in height. Also, despite being named Snow by the guild, he really wasn’t soft or gentle-looking. Jagged, icy armor covered him from head to toe. It was blocky and heavy-looking, with spikes protruding from it, and it was a mix of pure white ice and deep blue glass that formed together into his suit. Slung over his shoulder was a mighty battle-axe, one that radiated so much cold it could freeze a person to death the moment it touched flesh.

By comparison, Cinder felt underdressed anytime she was near her friend. She just wore a basic uniform she got from her father, who served in the military, and unlike Snow, who wielded a powerful enchanted item, she used a pair of guns that she had created herself.

One day she’d be given an enchanted item of her own; she just needed to be patient. She was still new to the guild, barely having one year in as a Knight, as opposed to Whisper and Snow, who had been Knights for three years.

“Cinder?” Snow asked, and she realized she had just been standing there, not saying anything.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Cinder shook her head and glanced away from Snow and the dead monster. Her eyes scanned Lillian, taking in the damaged city block. Anytime a monster attack happened, a group known as the Clean Up Squad would eventually appear, which was made up of mages who served more or less as quick construction. The fact that the city got damaged at all, though, wasn’t good, since as Knights their main job was to stop the monster from escaping the dungeon. “I got a bit careless.” Cinder sighed. “I should have been more careful not to let it slip past me.”

Snow reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “You did well. This was your first B-ranked dungeon. Normally, three Knights wouldn’t be enough to beat something like this. Us doing it at all is impressive. Also, while the city might have suffered, we managed to save a lot of lives. Just look around.”

Snow gestured down the block where a group of civilians had been gathered. There were thousands of them, along with the reporter, who were all cheering. Thanks to how fast they arrived on the scene, they were able to get anyone trapped in the dungeon out, and they did it so fast that no one suffered from the effects of Magical Mutation.

Cinder managed to give another smile, and she nodded her head. “Thanks, Snow. Though I think I would have been happier if you didn’t steal my moment of glory and slay the boss! I was just about to finish it off and would have looked so cool!”

Snow gave a weak chuckle and nodded. “My bad. The next is yours to deal with.”

Before Cinder could say anything else, the air around her and Snow shimmered a bit. “What are you two talking about now?” A new voice questioned, coming out in a calm and peaceful tone. The shimmering began to fade, and suddenly someone appeared out of thin air.

“Oh, hey, Whisper.” Snow nodded his head at the arrival of the Knight.

Whisper, unlike Snow, didn’t wear armor that covered up her appearance. She was dressed lightly, similarly to Cinder. She was also dressed professionally, looking like she belonged in a bank more than on the battlefield. She had on a white buttoned-up shirt, complete with a red tie, and she wore black jeans. Her outfit didn’t look like it was made for combat, yet between her, Cinder, and Snow, Whisper was the only one who didn’t show any combat damage, her clothes and skin being perfectly flawless. Whisper was also fairly attractive. She had a tall physique with some obvious muscle around her arms and legs and silvery hair that was tied back and kept out of her eyes when she fought. She also lacked any obvious weapon. No sword, or axe, or gun.

“Are all the other monsters dead?” Cinder asked.

“Yep.” Whisper walked toward the frozen corpse of the boss monster and casually punched it so hard that it evaporated into dust, small powdery shards raining down. “And now that the boss is dead, the dungeon will be closing soon. We’ll stay and make sure no one accidentally wanders into it or any new monster tries to take it over.”

“Can that happen?” Cinder questioned.

“Yeah.” Snow nodded. “Dungeons don’t instantly shut off when a boss dies. They can stay for a few hours or even a couple of days. If a new monster can enter a dungeon that lacks a boss, it can become the new boss. It has to be a new monster, though. A monster already living inside of the dungeon can’t become the boss even if the boss of the dungeon dies. We think this is because those monsters aren’t actually real and are created out of pure mana by the boss monster, so they’re more like advanced constructs or fleshy robots, but no one actually knows why that’s how things work.”

“Magic.” Whisper nodded. “Anytime something doesn’t make sense or seems weird, just blame it on magic.”

“That sounds good to me.” Cinder chuckled. “So, besides monitoring the dungeon, is there anything else we need to do?”

Snow shook his head. “No. We’re just going to make sure nothing bad happens until the dungeon vanishes, then we’ll head back to the base and report to Captain Myth. I’m sure he’ll give you a big reward for doing such a good job, Cinder.”

“Nice!” Cinder jumped up, clearly giddy and excited. “Can’t wait.”

While she was celebrating, Whisper had pulled her phone out. At first, the Knight went to check her stats to see if any of them managed to improve, but something else caught the woman’s eye. “Oh my.”

“What is it?” Snow and Cinder both asked, looking to their superior.

Whisper’s grin just grew as she read the message she had been sent. “It seems Stone Bull has found himself something interesting.”

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense.” Snow sighed. “What did he find?”

Whisper looked up, and her eyes twinkled a bit. “A Knight in Ebony armor. It seems Stone Bull has found him.”

***

“Go, go, go!” Olivia yelled, and she waved the farmers over, who were running through the field as if their lives depended on it. That was because it did. More golems kept breaking through the dirt, lifting up, which was why she was making herself busy getting every civilian to safety.

“Is your friend going to be okay?” One farmer asked once he reached the edge of the field where she stood.

Olivia glanced back through the corn and other crops where Davi stood. He was surrounded by a large group of the rock monsters. “Yeah.” She said after a few moments. “Davi’s going to be just fine. He’s got this.”

One of the golems took a swing toward Davi, but the ebony-clad warrior dodged out of the way of the blow, showing a shocking amount of grace. Davi jumped toward the golem, twisted himself midair, and used his weapon to split the golem in two.

Taking one down barely did anything, though. There were over twenty of the monsters now. They weren’t swift, and they also weren’t that smart, all bumping into each other as they shambled toward him. They were crazy strong, however, unleashing powerful punches that dented the ground and sent out shockwaves.

Davi avoided their blows, dancing around them, and, with a yell, he brought his claymore up, cutting into one of the golems. His sword suddenly stopped, though, as the golem flexed and got the blade caught inside of it, the mud and stone jamming the dull blade. Davi grunted and tried to rip his sword out, but before he could, one of the golems flanked him and threw out a sucker punch.

The fist rammed into Davi’s back, and he let out a groan of pain as he was blasted back. His armor dented, and he was sent rolling across the field, ripping up a wave of veggies. When he was done falling, he had an annoyed look on his face as he rubbed at the spot the golem had hit him at. His armor had a massive dent in it now, as well as a puncture hole. The golem that had punched him had a jagged, rough-looking spike that came from its fist, which had stabbed right through his armor and impaled his back.

Olivia remained on the sidelines and bit her lip. She wanted to rush in and help, but golems were very magic resistant, and she didn’t have the firepower needed to shatter one with brute strength like a Knight could. It didn’t help that she was still exhausted from carrying that damn carriage for miles.

“Come on, Davi. You can do this.” She pleaded. Davi also wasn’t at full strength due to the beating he had taken yesterday, and the mana he used up hadn’t fully recovered since he never got time to rest, so she wasn’t shocked he wasn’t fighting as well as he usually would. “You can beat them!”

Davi gritted his teeth, feeling blood run down his back. His mana and armor had taken most of the brunt, so the wound wasn’t that deep, but it strangely burned and tingled, and his head was hurting a bit. It didn’t help; he still wasn’t in top shape after the fight with the snake, which had only happened yesterday.

“Bastard.” Davi stood back up and grabbed a new sword, this one a dull longsword. “Well, what are you waiting for?” He taunted the magical constructs as they began to shamble toward him. “Come and get me.”

“Row Earth Shower!” From above, jagged rocks suddenly rained down and began to tear into the golems, ripping them to bits. In an instant, over eight had been killed. “Stand by, civilian.” Davi stared in shock as someone came crashing down from above and landed before him. “I’ll handle it from here. Thanks for holding them off long enough for me to arrive.”

A wave of powerful mana suddenly filled the air, and everything seemed to shift. Davi felt the air leave his lungs, and he stared at the back of the person who now stood firmly in front of him, as if to protect him.

An Arcane Knight had arrived.

A real one.

It was a young man in his early twenties with combed-back brown hair and green eyes that almost seemed to sparkle. He wore a black tunic shirt and a long, flowing cape with the symbol of a mace on it. Rocks twisted through the air, circling him, and he stood on a stone board that floated a bit off the ground. He was extremely handsome, and his eyes almost glimmered, a sly grin on his lips.

The man clasped his hands together, almost as if he were praying, and breathed out slowly. Deep green energy sparked between his fingers as he lowered the two inner fingers of each hand, leaving the index and pinky fingers extended and touching at the tips. “Row Earth Fists!” The rocks swirled around the Knight’s arms, forming jagged gauntlets, and he took off, his board blasting him forward. He reached one of the golems, and the creature threw out a punch, but the man just hit it back. His fist met the creature, and he blew it to bits in an instant, sending its remains scattering out. Then, in another instant, he struck out with his other hand, the rocky limb tearing the head off another golem. In only moments, the man had reduced the golems' numbers by half.

Davi shook his head, forcing himself to focus. He charged forward and jumped over the Knight. As he landed on the ground, he spun his entire body, becoming a whirlwind of black. His sword tore through one of the golems, but just as he took it down, the Knight managed to down another two by launching out spears made of rock that skewered the golems.

“Sir, there’s no need for you to get involved!” The Knight yelled. He threw another punch out with his fist, tearing a golem to pieces. “I can handle this; I do it all the time!”

“Yeah, well, so do I,” Davi said in his uncaring tone. He stabbed out with his blade, impaling it into the head of one golem, and focused his mana. “Row Shadow Vault.” His vault ripped out along his blade's shadow and split the monster directly in two. “I’ve fought way more golems than this. My record is fifty.” He summoned a large shield from his vault and raised it just in time, blocking the golem's strike.

“Fifty, huh?” The Arcane Knight jumped off his board and clapped his hands around a golem's head, crushing it. “That’s pretty good! I think my record is three hundred. I don’t know; I stopped counting once it got that high! Row Earth Mace!” The Knight flattened one hand out and put his fist on top of it, as if he were playing rock-paper-scissors. He slid his fist off the flattened hand, his magic flowing out and causing rocks to jut out of the ground, forming a massive ball on a stick, which the man grabbed and swung, shattering two more golems.

Two more golems remained, and Davi jumped away from the one that was pounding on his shield. He leapt into the air and landed on the mace that Knight was swinging around. The Knight twisted his body and built up speed, launching Davi off of his weapon and sending him straight through one of the golems, using him as a bullet. As Davi crashed out the other side, he held his shield up, and the Knight jumped, using his own inhuman strength to land on it and swing his mace up, blowing the final golem's head off.

The last of the golems fell, leaving the two men as the only ones standing. “Gray.” The man said, smirking.

“Davi.” The two fist-bumped, and just like with all men, instantly had an understanding.

Gray’s eyes scanned the other man up and down. “That’s some impressive armor. Most mages aren’t strong enough to layer that much mana together, especially not without a wand or staff.” His mace shattered, as did his stone gauntlets, and he reached out to touch Davi’s armor. The metal was bulky and large, with shoulder pads and thick armor. It was made to take a hit and usually would have been extremely heavy, but since it was made out of pure mana, it was basically weightless, not hindering Davi’s speed at all. “How many years did it take for you to get this spell?”

“About three or four?” Davi shrugged and looked down at his armor. “I have other versions of the armor also, and I’ve toyed around with them, but this tends to be my go-to.”

“Fascinating!” Gray nodded, his eager grin growing. “It’s rare that you see mages like you who aren’t Arcane Knights. Though, are you sure you want to wear armor that dark? It's a bold choice to dress as a Knight in Ebony, especially when you're not an Arcane Knight. Some people might confuse you for the return of the Ebony Knight, and that’s not a tag you want to be associated with yourself unless you have the backing of the guild.”

“How do you know I’m not an Arcane Knight?” Davi asked. “I mean, I have magic, and I’m in knight armor. I bet I look like one more than you.”

Gray chuckled at the remark and nodded. “You’re strong, but you’re not quite Arcane Knight level. At least not on the level of one who walks around so casually on their own.” Gray then pointed at the cape he wore. “Also, you don’t have one of these. We Knights carry a symbol of our guild on us. I’m sure most civilians wouldn’t think about it, but we Knights use these symbols to tell what guild our fellow Knights are in. This here is the symbol of the Mourning Stars. In other words, that’s the guild I’m from. If you really were an Arcane Knight, you’d also have known not to disobey my order.” The man lightly punched Davi on the shoulder. “Now look, using magic to fight monsters isn’t against the law if you need to defend yourself or someone else, but the manner in which you acted could get some people a bit confused, and it is illegal to impersonate an Arcane Knight. We serve directly under the king and work for the kingdom, so we have a reputation to uphold. I’ll look the other way this time since you helped save my people, but in the future, try to be mindful of how you look, Mr. Davi.”

Davi felt his frown deepen, and he felt a little annoyed. He honestly didn’t even want to be an Arcane Knight anymore. At one point, when he was younger, like all kids, Sieg and he discussed it, and he had just started calling himself one after a few people he had saved mistakenly called him that. He learned people tended to ask fewer questions if he claimed he was one after he saved the day. Now that he was meeting a real one, though, he felt a little guilty about how long he’d been pretending to be one. Especially because Gray didn’t seem like a bad guy, in another life, he might have even still wanted to become a true Knight, but a Knight was noble and kind, all things he wasn’t.

He was bitter, spiteful, and full of hate. That perfect mix of emotions kept him on his path of chasing after the Dragon.

“Also, I’m not sure if you’re aware, sir, but your music is kind of loud. You might make yourself deaf playing it like that.” Gray gestured to the headphones Davi still had on, causing the raven-haired man to take them off. “That’s a song from the artist Pretty Face, right?”

Davi shrugged. “I dunno. I just like how loud it is.”

“Davi!” The two turned and found Olivia running toward them. The girl breathed heavily, and Davi realized just how far away from the cornfield they were now. During the fight, Gray had been using his magic to move them all away from the farmers in order to keep them safe and to reduce damage to the crops. Olivia looked exhausted as she reached him, but then her eyes instantly locked onto Gray, and she squealed. “Oh my Haru! Wait, I know you! You’re the Stone Bull!”

“The stone what?” Davi asked, making another face.

Gray chuckled and looked a little embarrassed. “Yeah, that’s me.” He admitted, a bit sheepishly. “That’s my title, at least.”

“The Stone Bull?”

“Arcane Knights that reach a certain level are given cool nicknames, like the leader of Pantheon, who goes by Myth, or his second in command, Whisper,” Olivia said with stars in her eyes. She had her arms around Gray’s arm and was feeling his muscles up. “It’s to better help their fame and make them go down as living legends. The most famous is the Lance of Victory. She’s the closest thing we have to another Haru, and I saw her once when she was passing through my village, and she nodded at me! Oh, but I can’t believe I’m getting to speak to another legend! The Stone Bull is right here, and he’s letting me touch him! I wonder when you’ll get a nickname like that, Davi!”

Gray awkwardly chuckled and pulled his arm away from Olivia. “Why would Mr. Davi get a name like mine?”

“Because he’s a—”

Normally, he would have moved forward and blocked Olivia’s mouth to silence her. He didn’t want her getting either of them in trouble, since she still didn’t know he wasn’t a Knight. He wasn’t able to cover her mouth, though. Not because he wasn’t fast enough; he was, but because something else happened.

The entire world blurred, and before Davi could even process what was happening, he was falling and collapsing, crashing face down, right as Olivia opened her mouth.

Davi felt himself slam into the muddy ground, cutting Olivia off as her eyes widened in horror. His own closed as he felt an intense burning in his body where that golem had hit him.

Poison.

He had been poisoned.

Everything began to turn dark, and the last thing he heard was Olivia calling his name as he blacked out.

Chapter 31: Confrontation

He had the same dream he always did when he closed his eyes.

Davi dreamed of the dragon. The great beast, with its red scales, set fire to everything in sight, followed by the endless blizzard that sent the Mordheim kingdom back to the ice age. Davi once again woke up in a cold sweat, staring up at a roof, just as he had done in the tavern.

This wasn’t the tavern, though.

Davi groaned and sat up in bed. His body ached a bit, but he was used to pain. He quickly took stock of how he was doing, followed by the room. His shirt and pants were gone, leaving him in some cloth that covered his modesty. A blanket was draped over him, and his back had several bandages wrapped around the stab wound he received from the golem. The bed he was in was shockingly comfortable. He had spent the past few years sleeping in taverns or in the back of farming trucks, so it took him a few moments to get used to how soft the mattress was.

That was when he noticed the rest of the room. It was large and spacious, with stone walls. Unlike the tavern room, which had been nearly empty, this room had something everywhere he looked. A desk made of expensive wood was shoved near the back. A portrait of some blonde-haired man in expensive golden armor hung on the wall. A bookshelf filled with exotic novels and grimoires resided near the desk, and most shockingly, a chair was next to the bed, and Olivia slept soundly, her body half resting at the end of the bed he was on, while her other half was in the chair.

Davi looked down at her in confusion. How long had she been waiting here for him? How long had he been out?

There was a large flat-screen TV that hung up on the wall. It was showing off a trio of Arcane Knights who had battled a three-headed dog monster, but Davi didn’t notice any date that would let him figure out when it was. He eyed the three Arcane Knights up for a moment in silence.

Just like with Gray, the three Knights seemed to have this aura of power around them. One that was obvious even through the screen. The TV was on mute, so Davi couldn’t hear anything, but he watched as one of the Knights, a girl with raven hair who was wielding two large guns, raised them to the air and seemed to cheer.

Seeing them put a bitter taste in his mouth. One that had been present ever since he met Gray. He wasn’t a Knight. It was obvious when he compared himself to the real Knights. He was sturdy and strong, but real Knights, people like Gray, seemed to have this air that surrounded them that drew people in. They were saviors and heroes. Everything that he wasn’t. A Knight would have been able to save Susie, but all he could do was put her down the same bitter path that he walked.

Finally, Davi turned away from the TV, no longer wanting to see people that were better than him. “Olivia?” He asked softly.

Olivia’s eyes fluttered open, and she slowly woke up. She glanced at him, still half asleep, and wiped some drool off her face. “Davi?” Then she fully woke up. “Davi! You’re up!”

“Yeah.” Davi nodded and took the blanket off of himself, standing up. “Where am I—”

“First, put on some clothes!” Olivia chucked a bag at him, and he caught it. The girl had turned her back to him and huffed. “As for where you are, we’re in some castle that belongs to Gray.”

“Gray?” The image of the Arcane Knight came back to him, and Davi felt another headache coming on. He opened the bag Olivia had tossed him. It wasn’t his bag, nor was it Olivia’s, being far too expensive for her. Inside of it, he found some new clothes, which he changed into. It was a white buttoned-up shirt and black dress pants. They were a little big on him, but he just tucked the shirt in and pulled a belt out of his vault and used it to support the pants.

There was also a pair of boots inside, but he opted to instead pull out a pair of backup shoes from his personal stash, pulling them out of the shadows and slipping them on so they’d fit. The shirt and pants were made out of a finer silk than his old clothes had been and practically smelled of money.

“How long was I out for?” Davi asked once he was fully dressed.

“Over a day,” Olivia replied with a sigh and turned back to look at him. It was only then that he noticed she was also in a new outfit. She wore a white gown and had on a similar bag to the one she had thrown at him earlier, which was filled with her and his old clothes, as well as the dagger she had stolen from Garon. Her snow-white hair was also tied back, and she had a black jacket over the dress. “You got infected with some sort of venom or something from one of the golems. After you blacked out, Gray took us to his castle.”

Davi nodded, and he shuffled over to a window and looked out of it. From below, he saw the farmlands, as well as dozens of farmers and guards walking around the fields. The castle wasn’t anywhere near a town or city; instead, it was placed in its own plot of land that Gray likely controlled as a baron or duke.

In other words, not only was he in the home of an Arcane Knight, he was in the home of a very, very rich Arcane Knight.

“Davi?” Olivia asked when she noticed he just remained in place, staring down at the field. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Hey, how much did you talk with Gray?” Davi asked.

Olivia shrugged. “Not a lot.” She admitted. “After you collapsed, I mostly stayed next to you to make sure you were alright. A few of the castle's healers came in and got you fixed up. I’m not sure where Gray went. I assume he was busy with Arcane Knight work.”

“So you didn’t say anything about me being a Knight to him?”

“No? Should I have?”

Davi shook his head. “Listen, I know this will sound weird, but don’t bring up the fact I’m an Arcane Knight to Gray. Just keep that between us.”

“Why?” Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Just… Trust me. Okay?”

The girl stared at him, studying him for several moments, but finally she nodded. “Okay. I trust you. I won’t mention it.”

Davi let out the breath he had been holding. “Thanks.”

As if on cue, the door to the room then opened. Davi wasn’t too shocked to see Gray, but he did raise an eyebrow at the guards that followed the Knight in. Unlike Gray, the guards didn’t appear to be Arcane Knights but were more or less the same kinds of low-level mages that had been in Daisy. They wore simple chain mail, and one held a spear, while the other kept his hand near his belt, where a wand rested.

Gray had changed out of his earlier clothes and now wore a much more casual suit, though the cape that held his guild symbol remained. He held a smile on his lips and extended his hand for Davi to take.

“Mr. Davi. It’s good to see you’re up and moving again.”

“Yep. I feel fine.” Davi shook the hand, but inside he was frowning. It was a little too convenient that Gray happened to show up the moment he woke up. “I guess I got taken by surprise by that golem. They don’t normally attack with poison. That one was a first for me.” He admitted. “Now that I am recovered, though, I’m afraid Olivia and I have to take our leave.”

Olivia awkwardly glanced at Davi and then looked back at Gray. She nodded meekly, even though she really wanted to talk to another Arcane Knight for a bit longer. “Yep. We’re heading to Rose, and we still have a bit of a ways to go.”

Gray let out a chuckle. “I see. Well, before you two leave, you must be hungry, right? I know for a fact neither of you has eaten since I brought you here.” The man stated, his eyes sparkling a bit as he looked at Davi. “You helped me fight all those golems off and even saved some of my farmers. It’s the least I can do.”

Davi shook his head. “No, thanks. I’m not hungry—”

His stomach let out a loud grumble. An awkward silence filled the room.

“You sure?” Gray questioned.

Davi felt his stomach growl again, and he punched it as hard as he could as punishment. That was a very bad idea, though, because that just caused him to collapse to his knees and groan in pain. “Ow. That was a stupid idea.”

“I’ll let the chef know you’ll be staying for dinner.” Gray smiled.

And so, that was how Davi found himself following after Gray and Olivia. The rest of the castle was just as he thought it would be, with an expensive red carpet that stretched across the floor and dozens of heavy-looking suits of armor lined up throughout the hallway. There were paintings hung up on the wall, each one showing a different person in armor. The final, and newest one, showed off Gray, the man wearing the same golden armor the first portrait had been in, with a heavy stone hammer flung over his shoulder.

Despite the castle proving that Gray was indeed a noble, there was a strange, homely feel to it all. Music bounced off the walls, and already the smell of good food rolled through the castle, causing Davi and Olivia’s stomachs to growl repeatedly. Many guards patrolled around, all giving nods to the Knight as he led the two of them toward the kitchen.

“Taking in more strays?” A guard chuckled when he saw his master return with two new people.

“Does he do this often?” Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, Master Gray does this all the time.” The guard nodded. “He always complains he can’t finish all the food that’s cooked and is constantly inviting other people to come eat with him. He’s just kind like that.”

Davi tensed up when one of the guards grabbed his arm. He didn’t have his weapon or armor on, so he felt a lot more exposed than usual, but he calmed down a bit when the guard simply held onto his arm and began to lead him and Olivia down the halls and into what looked like a large dining room.

It was a wide room, with a massive table in the center and more pictures hung up. A few banners had the symbol that was on Gray’s cape, and several servants placed dozens of different glass plates onto the table. Davi’s eye twitched as the guard pulled a chair back for him and made sure he was comfortable. Another did the same for Olivia, while Gray took his seat at the head of the table.

“Well,” Gray began, waving his arms out. “Dig in! It’s good, I promise! All of it is made here, using ingredients we personally grow!” The food in question consisted of grilled meat, jars of milk, steamed veggies, and fruits. There was enough to feed a small army, and Davi felt his stomach flop a bit more and his mouth water. Despite that, though, he held strong.

“Why are you doing this?” Davi asked a bit suspiciously.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Gray raised an eyebrow. “I’m an Arcane Knight. My job is to help people. The two of you are hungry, and I have the extra food. It doesn’t do me any harm to feed you. It’s only natural that you help someone out when they require help, right?” Gray asked sheepishly.

“Wow, he’s just like you!” Olivia said, stunned. “You’re always doing that as well, aren’t you, Davi?”

Davi shot Olivia a look, and her smile faded. Gray chuckled and glanced at the shadow-haired man. “You help people often, Mr. Davi? Are you perhaps a town guard or a mercenary for hire? It would explain your power and your skill, as well as the intensity and feel of your mana.”

“In a way…” Davi muttered. Arcane Knights weren’t hired for every job. Some people couldn’t afford the Knights or preferred to do things in a shady manner and so would employ mercenaries. Guys like Olis were hired mages working full- or part-time to guard cargo or slay monsters. Not all powerful mages sought to become Knights, and so it wasn’t rare to see a mercenary or sellsword. That in and of itself wasn’t illegal, and in a way, he actually was one since he’d slay monsters and get paid for it, and so long as the mercenary turned in any magical beast they slew, it was considered fine with the guild. What was illegal, though, was claiming to be a Knight, selling magical beasts, and entering dungeons. All things he had done, since at the time he didn’t know any better.

Gray and Olivia were already digging in, and hesitantly, Davi placed some grilled pork onto his plate and cut into it before bringing it to his lips. The tastes exploded on his tongue, and he nearly gasped. He had been eating nothing but rations for months. The last good meal he had was some oranges and stale bread, which Olis had given him and Olivia. By comparison, this meal was divine.

“So, you’re heading to the capital?” Gray spoke up once more, attempting small talk. “Any reason?”

Olivia looked up at Davi, and he gave her a hesitant nod. “I’m heading to the capital to take the Knight's entrance exam,” Olivia said slowly. “I’d like to become a Knight like you one day.”

“Oh! So I may be looking at a future recruit.” Gray let out a merry laugh. “That’s wonderful. We need all the Knights we can get, especially with what’s been going on all over the world. And what of you, Mr. Davi? Are you also looking to become a Knight?”

“I’m not taking the exam,” Davi said, picking his words carefully.

Gray’s smile faded for a moment, but the man nodded. “I see. That’s a shame. A strong guy like you, I’m sure you’d get far. You might have even reached the same level as me if you joined the Knights.”

Davi picked at his food. He was suddenly not as hungry. “If I want to get stronger, I’ll just train some more.”

“That will help, but there’s only so much traditional training will get you.” Gray speared a piece of meat on his fork and brought it up to his lips. “After all, we Knights are special. We’re blessed with remnants of Haru’s magic. There’s a reason we’re the ones tasked with protecting the kingdom and not any other random mercenary group out there. We have the backing of the king himself.”

“I’m hoping I can become a Knight this year.” Olivia fiddled with a glass of apple juice, staring at her reflection in the liquid. “There’s someone I want to meet once I do become one…”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to do it.” Gray smiled softly. “The world needs more people willing to try.”

The meal soon came and went, as the three of them finished their food. A few more servants came in, took the plates away, and began to clean up the table. One of the guards also appeared, grabbed Olivia gently by the arm, and began to lead her back to the guest room—just her.

“Mr. Davi, I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to speak with you,” Gray said. “Alone.”

Davi’s eyes narrowed. “Davi?” He glanced back at Olivia, who looked like she was about to fight the guard that was holding onto her.

“It’s okay.” He said after a moment. “I’ll meet you when I’m done, and we can hit the road once more.”

Olivia hesitantly nodded and allowed herself to be dragged out of the room. Gray made for a different door and shot a teasing look toward Davi. With a huff, Davi pushed his chair in and followed the man. The two of them walked through the halls of the castle, only this time it didn’t seem as homely. Gray led him outside, through a pair of double doors, and eventually to a hedge maze.

The maze was large and twisting, spreading out across the ground, and had various rare flowers planted across the ground. All the guards and farmers were gone, leaving just the two of them. Gray stood and reached out, fiddling with a flower, and brought it up to his nose, smelling it slowly. Eventually, though, Gray sighed and turned around to face Davi. “Why didn’t you just tell the truth?”

“Come again?” Davi asked, raising an eyebrow.

“All the times you lied.” Gray met his eyes. “Why couldn’t you just claim to be a mercenary for hire, or a wandering mage training themselves, or even just some psycho bastard who likes to fight monsters? All of that would have been fine. That’s not what you did, though. Instead, you lied and claimed you were an Arcane Knight.”

Davi’s body tensed up. “What?”

“Don’t play dumb.” Gray leaned against the maze and folded his arms. “A Knight in dark armor showed up one day. They didn’t speak to a lot of people, slew the monster, and then simply left. Do you know how often the guild has heard that same story?” Gray frowned softly. “Once or twice, we might have believed it was an accident. Even four or five times, we’re willing to look the other way, but then it happens again, and again, and again. By the tenth time, we’re worried. Then we start getting reports from annoyed citizens. People who claim one of our Knights was too rough, or mean, or creeped them out. Then we’re told how they’re not properly sealing dungeons when they clear them out and are instead just collapsing the spaces, causing all sorts of other issues. People got hurt, you know. You showed up and battled too hard in a street, swinging around a heavy sword and collapsing a house on someone, or you left a dungeon open, and a new monster crawled in and took it over, or you screwed a town's economy up by giving them way too much gold, making it hard to figure out how to tax them properly.”

Davi felt his throat go dry, and a chill went up his spine. It wasn’t just about helping people in the moment; doing something like that was easy. He wanted to help people in a way they wouldn’t require further help, yet from the sounds of it, he failed. The look Gray was giving him was nasty now.

“You guys weren’t there,” Davi said after some time. “You weren’t there to help those people. I was.”

“And that’s fine. If you want to play hero, do it. If you fail or screw up, it’s your ass that’s on the line then.” Gray grunted out. “That’s not what happened, though. Not only did you cause more issues, but you also made it so all the blame fell on us because we couldn’t keep some Knight that didn’t exist in check because you ran around claiming to be one of us. It’s not just their lives you endangered, though. It’s your own. We have these rules for a reason, you know. Do you know how many mages die every year because they get it in their heads that they can fight and kill a monster? And maybe some of them can, but the more they do it, the better they think they become, and it ultimately is only a matter of time before they run into a bigger fish.”

“I’m strong, though. I’ve been doing it for a while.” Davi admitted.

Gray closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I wanted to give you the chance to recover and get to know you before I did anything. Mr. Davi, you’re under arrest.”

Davi’s hand grew tighter. “And if I say no?”

Gray opened his eyes, and they glowed as pure mana coursed through the man’s body. “Didn’t you wonder why those golems suddenly appeared?” Gray raised his arm up, his fingers rapidly motioning as he cast a spell. “Row Earth Mold!”

The ground cracked and twisted, and then a large hand shot out of it as a golem was formed—Gray’s golem.

Chapter 32: A Bird Born From Shadows

A few days ago, in Fri Village…

“No way.” Bruno made a face, his eyes going wide. “You’re saying that Davi guy is some crazy criminal. Seriously?”

Rosco grimaced, and he slammed his fist down onto the table, cracking it. “And to think I let that bastard run off with Olivia.”

The salamander had just been killed and slain by someone they thought was an Arcane Knight. Davi Hawker, the Ebony Knight, had grabbed Olivia and run off, fleeing Fri. He had promised Olivia he would help her become an Arcane Knight, and for a moment, Rosco had felt pride that the girl he had raised was going to be able to follow her dream. That all went out the window, though, when he and his son discovered a real Arcane Knight waiting for them.

She was a tall and imposing woman, with blonde hair tied back and eyes that blazed the color of the sun. Her skin was extremely pale, and most of it was hidden behind silver armor that was shockingly similar to the same suit Davi had worn. A heavy golden lance that glowed floated behind the woman, and she had a long cape that billowed in the wind with the symbol of the sun on it. Rosco had taken the woman back to his home so they could discuss the issue that was Davi Hawker.

“Don’t blame yourselves.” The woman replied in a cool tone. “Haru knows; he’s fooled many people. This Davi Hawker is wanted for many crimes. He’s caused widespread destruction in dozens of towns by getting into fights. Normally, when a Knight goes on a mission, it’s their job to fix and repair the damage to the town or village they cause, but he hasn’t been doing that, leading to a rash of property damage. Not to mention his greatest crime, tax evasion.”

“Tax evasion?” Bruno snorted and raised an eyebrow.

“The king taxes villages, towns, and cities, but of course, you have people who travel around.” The woman explained. “People like Arcane Knights or merchants. They’re given a bit more leeway. Normally, such things are mostly hand-waved for them; however, the issue with this false Knight is he’s been reportedly entering dungeons. Dungeon wealth directly belongs to the Kingdom, which is why it’s seized by the Knights. They contain magical items that can benefit our soldiers, old spell scrolls that can improve magic, and vast wealth. This man has been stealing all the loot from the dungeons like some sort of goblin and hasn’t paid any taxes for it, meaning we don’t even know how much he owns or owes.”

Bruno rubbed his chin, his look growing serious. “Sounds pretty bad.”

“More than you know.” The woman nodded.

“That’s not what I’m concerned with.” Rosco shook his head. “It’s the fact that this bastard took one of my kids.”

“He kidnapped someone?” The woman raised an eyebrow, a little taken aback. “I see. This is more serious than I thought. I’ve been tracking him for nearly three years now, but he always manages to slip out of my grasp since he never stays in a place for longer than a day. It doesn’t help that I keep getting distracted with other missions. Still, I want to be the one to capture him.”

“Why you, specifically?” Bruno asked.

“A personal matter.” The woman explained, letting out a sigh. “I was busy taking the corpse of a monster to a nearby city and happened to pass by your village. How bizarre that he and I were so close to one another, and I had no way of knowing. It’s infuriating knowing how much destiny has mocked me.” The woman growled slightly, and the floating lance behind her twitched and spun around, knocking over a few shelves.

“Whoa, watch it!” Rosco barked out.

The woman stood up from her chair and folded her arms. “I’m going to be setting out at once. Hopefully, I can catch up to them before he escapes again.”

“I’ll come with you, bro!” Bruno offered, but the woman shook her head.

“No, you’ll just slow me down. You’re too weak.”

“Rude, but okay, bro.” Bruno watched the woman as she left the house, her lance closing the door behind her. When she was gone, his father collapsed in his chair and covered his face with his hands. “You okay?”

“No! Of course, I’m not okay!” Rosco barked out. “Olivia was kidnapped by some psychopath, apparently!”

Bruno gave a faint nod and turned to look out the window at Fri Village. A large stone wall was starting to surround their village, and the workers were all working tirelessly to use the supplies Davi had given them. “I don’t think so.”

“What?”

“I don’t think Davi is a bad person,” Bruno admitted. “Even after everything I heard. He gave us so many supplies and even showed us how to use all those tools to build the wall. He even let us keep the Salamanders and sell them for our own benefit, and Olivia looked so happy when she was with him.” Bruno gave a lopsided grin. “I think he’s just a bit of a dunce. Guys that seem to know what they’re doing always turn out to be the biggest idiots after all.”

“What sort of stupid logic is that!”

Bruno just laughed and shrugged. Later that night, Bruno left Fri Village as the moon settled above their village. He left a note behind for his father, but he was sure the man already knew what he was doing. He wasn’t alone either when he left.

“Can’t you make it any bigger?” Ash hissed.

Bruno just rolled his eyes and flicked his wand out, creating a bridge made of ice over the ocean, allowing him and Ash to leave their little island behind. “Alright.” Bruno declared, pointing out ahead. “If there’s one place I know where to find Olivia, it’ll be the Arcane Knight entrance exam! Come on, Bro! Let’s go make sure she’s okay!”

“I’m not doing this for stupid Olivia!” Ash yelled out, his face turning a little red. “I’m going to become an Arcane Knight! A powerful one that won’t ever have to be saved ever again!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever! Come on, bro! Our very own adventure is just now beginning!”

***

Present Day…

He figured something was wrong the first time he saw the golems. They had just appeared out of nowhere. That was because they weren’t created by a dungeon but rather another mage's own magic. Magic that could create magical constructs or beasts was extremely rare, and only allowed to be used by Arcane Knights or nobles.

The ground shattered as the golem's fist stabbed out of the floor. It wasn’t alone either, four more ripping their way up. Davi already donned his armor and dodged one of the strikes and swung out with his claymore, splitting through one of the creatures as they began to form around him.

“Let me get this straight, you attacked your own farmers?” Davi growled out and dodged another strike as the four remaining golems began to swing at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be a hero?”

Gray stood in the back watching his golems chase after Davi, who moved shockingly fast despite being in bulky armor. “In truth, those ‘farmers’ were just my castle guards.” The Knight explained. “They would have been able to take a hit. I’m still glad you jumped in and saved him the way you did.”

“You are?” Davi questioned, cutting through a third golem. “Care to stop attacking me then?”

“The reason I only summoned five this time is because I learned that’s all I can manage. This is a new spell I learned recently from a grimoire that was in a powerful dungeon I soloed.” Gray explained. “A few of my guards heard reports of something going on in Daisy and went to check it out. I was getting ready to head to the town and fix the issue myself, but to my shock, it had been settled by a Knight in black armor. I knew who it was instantly and figured you’d be coming this way, so I set my trap. It didn’t work out, though. I got a bit cocky with the new spell and summoned too many golems, which is why they attacked my own people. I’m serious when I say this, Mr. Davi. Thank you for saving them. That’s why I didn’t simply arrest you after you blacked out. I… To be honest, you don’t seem like a bad person. Still, I have a job to do. I can at least give you a chance to fight back, though, as thanks for what you did. No good deed should go unpunished.”

Davi blocked a strike from the third golem and tore its arm off with his sword. He punched out with his hand and dug his fingers around its throat and tore its head off, tossing it at the fourth one so hard it exploded. “I’m assuming you’re the reason I got poisoned?”

“That’s right.” Gray nodded as the fifth golem grew a jagged spike out of its fist. “This spell is pretty good at taking guys out, since the rock the golems are made out of is toxic.”

The final golem jabbed out at Davi, but Davi sidestepped it. “Row Shadow Vault.” His shadow expanded and opened up beneath the golem, pulling half of it in, before it instantly closed, slicing it in two. He lifted his foot up and brought it down, stomping on the golem's head and shattering it. “And that’s five. You’re out of your toys.”

Gray unfolded his arms, his smile fading. “Don’t get cocky. I could make more, but doing that wouldn’t be fair. I don’t want just to swarm you with a never-ending army. That’d be boring for both of us.” He began to unbutton his shirt and opened it up to reveal a honed body, one made for combat. “Let’s settle this like men,” Gray announced. “That is, unless you’re willing to give up now?”

“If I surrender, what happens?” Davi questioned.

“You’ll be sent to a prison created to hold mages, and we’ll decide what to do with you. Most likely, you’ll be forced to repay your debt.” Gray explained. “You’re in trouble for a lot of stuff and have quite the bounty. There’s a chance you could be thrown in jail for at least five years, maybe more.”

“Sorry, but that’s not happening.” Davi shook his head and readied his sword. “There’s something I’ve been looking for, and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. Besides, my brother taught me never to go back on my word, and I promised Olivia I’d help her.”

Gray’s look softened a bit. “That other girl? I'm guessing she’s not in on any of this.”

“She isn’t. I made sure she didn’t go into a dungeon, either. Her only crime is following an idiot like me around for as long as she did.”

Gray nodded. “In that case, after I beat you, I’ll personally ensure she makes it to the entrance exam, and I’ll do my best to help her. I still owe you for helping me earlier, after all.”

“You talk as if you are going to beat me. Row Shadow Vault.” Davi held his other hand out, and a heavy-duty shotgun came flying into it, which he lifted and pointed at Gray, who didn’t even flinch.

Gray’s sly grin came back, and the Arcane Knight nodded, quietly making a series of motions with his hands. “That’s because I am. Row Earth Spikes!” The entire field rumbled, and Davi stumbled a bit as a wave of rocky spikes stabbed out of the ground.

Davi fired the gun, but the shells missed Gray and instead slammed into the ground, which was bubbling and crawling toward him, more spikes growing out that stabbed into him. Or at least they would have, but he vanished, dropping down into his shadow and rising up out of Gray’s a second later.

Davi jammed the gun into Gray’s back. “Move and you’re-” Gray spun around, and on reflex, Davi pulled the trigger. The weapon went off and tore through Gray’s shirt, but it didn’t harm his flesh. The bullets shattered on his stomach, and Gray grabbed the shotgun and twisted, ripping the entire thing off. “Huh?” Davi stared down at his gun.

Gray slammed a fist into Davi’s stomach, and Davi winced, his armor groaning as he was sent crashing back. With another flick of his hand, Gray caused the earth spikes to twist around and launch toward Davi, who stood back up.

They weren’t aimed at any vitals and were instead aiming to halt his movement and keep him trapped, but he was far too fast for that. Davi spun around and sliced out with his claymore, which he coated in an aura of mana, making it stronger and sharper. This allowed it to rip into the spikes and shred them.

As soon as he was done, Davi watched as Gray kneeled down and slammed his hands into the ground, calling out another spell. “Row Earth Wave!” The ground shook even more, and this time, the entire field exploded up as Gray smashed his fist down. The ground launched up as if it were a tidal wave, and Davi felt a wave of pain as it smashed into him.

Stone and rocks flowed out of the ground, twisting like water, carrying Davi through the hedge maze. He felt his armor dent and tear as jagged stones tore into it, and blood dripped down his cheek as a few stones nicked him across his face. The real pain came when he reached the back of the maze, which had a large stone wall on the other side. The wave kept going, smashing him through it. He came tumbling out and crashed down into the ground, but he barely had time to process that before several stone disks came flying out of the hole that had been created through the maze.

One of the disks smashed directly into his head, and the world spun, but he forced himself to stay focused and shouted out a spell, vanishing out of the rock tidal wave, which kept tearing across the land.

Gray came flying out of the hole, riding a stone board, and looked around with wide eyes, not spotting Davi. His board touched down, and he pressed his hand to the ground, about to cast another spell, but then a claymore stabbed out of his shadow and tore into his shoulder. He yelped in pain and flew up, his board rising off the ground just as Davi came flying out of his shadow, having used his vault to escape.

Gray clutched at his bleeding shoulder and made a face. “The gun didn’t hurt me, but your sword did?” That meant either Davi was able to swing harder than a shotgun could go off, or his mana was able to reinforce his weapon to the point it was able to counter Gray’s own mana, which he was coating his entire skin with to make his flesh harder than steel. Gray gave a pleased grin. “You really are strong.”

“Get down here and fight me like a man.” Davi declared, waving his sword up at Gray, who was now easily fifty feet off the ground. Using a gun would be pointless. Some mages could pour mana into bullets or arrows to boost them to supernatural levels, but he had always been bad at doing that and could only affect things he was holding or his shadow was connected to. Once the bullets got out of his shadow's range, he’d be unable to keep boosting them, and they’d return to normal and be unable to harm Gray.

“I’m good.” Gray grinned and pointed a hand down with a series of finger movements. “Row Earth Shower!” Jagged stone arrows blasted out of the bottom of his board, raining across the battlefield.

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi lifted his free hand, and a greatshield came flying out, which he held up in front of him. The shield began to dent and crack as the rocks tore into it, but it bought him enough time to grab something else out of the vault. With a grunt, he threw his claymore at Gray as hard as he could. Gray twisted through the air, stopping his attack and dodging the sword at the last moment. “Got you.” Davi pulled back, revealing a chain that was now around the handle of his sword. The chain pulled the blade back toward Gray, about to stab him in the back, but Gray spun around and caught the blade with his hand.

Rocks grew out of Gray’s flesh, forming thick stone gauntlets around his arms. “No, I got you.” Gray yanked on the chain as hard as he could and forced Davi off the ground, dragging the man toward him. As Davi reached him, he slammed his other fist down. Davi tried to block it with his shield, but Gray simply punched through it, tearing it to bits and smashing his fist straight into Davi’s face, breaking the man’s nose. His other arm dropped the sword and grabbed Davi by the wrist, and he held the man up and began to punch him in the chest, caving the armor in and shattering it. “Let me guess,” Gray began. “You thought that just because you were able to do a few dungeons and fight monsters, that you were strong? I hate to tell you, but most of the dungeons you entered were likely low-tier ones, which is why we didn’t detect them in the first place. The same goes for most of the monsters you fought. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still strong for a mage, and given enough time, you could maybe one day even be an Arcane Knight, but that’s just the thing. You aren’t a Knight!” Gray’s fingers dug into Davi’s chest plate, and he tore it fully. “You’re just a big fish in a small pond. Allow me to introduce you to the ocean.” Gray let go of Davi’s arm, and he slammed his fist down once more.

Davi was rocketed down toward the ground, and he smashed into the grass hard enough to shatter most of the back part of his armor. He coughed up a wave of blood and gasped, somehow still awake.

“Is that all you got?” Davi groaned.

Gray sighed and stepped off his board. “Can you just stop?”

“No,” Davi grunted and got to his knees. He wiped away some of his blood. “That’s not something I’m good at. Row Shadow Vault.” His shadow expanded out and opened up like a wild beast trying to devour the world. Gray felt his foot slip in, and he began to fall into the shadows. He wasn’t planning on killing the man with his vault, like he did the snake, but he did plan on using it to almost drown Gray and knock the man out. “Fall.” He responded in a cold tone.

Gray was stubborn, though, and summoned up more rocks clinging to the edge of the vault, and he began to climb out. With a growl, Davi began to close the vault. He’d seal it shut just enough to put pressure on Gray and break a rib or two, but as his vault began to close, Gray’s hands wrapped around the ground and the other side, and to Davi’s shock and horror, he shoved it back. Gray’s mana gushed out of him, a bright white light that forced Davi’s shadow to open up, and the Arcane Knight fully stepped out of the vault. Davi tried once again to pull him into his vault, but the mana around Gray compressed around the Knight’s feet, and he simply stood on the shadow, not being pulled in at all.

Gray let out a soft hum and began to walk across the shadows. “That’s quite a neat spell. You’re using your shadows and shaping them to stretch and flow like water, pulling things in. You’re above normal mages for sure and have a lot of talent, which is why it’s a shame you did something like this. If you had just taken the exam from the start, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“I didn’t even know about the stupid exam until recently.” Davi spat out, and he threw a punch toward Gray, but the Arcane Knight simply caught it and squeezed down, crushing Davi’s hand and shattering the gauntlet.

“Really? If you had just said that from the start instead of picking a fight, we maybe could have avoided this. I mean, you’d still be in trouble, but I would have gone lighter on you. Too late for that now, though.” Gray rammed his other arm into Davi’s gut, causing the teen to gasp and double over, clutching at his stomach. “You freaking stabbed me so… I’m kind of ticked off.”

Davi gasped and struggled to suck in air. He knew Gray was strong, but he didn’t think the difference would be this extreme. He had arrogantly assumed he was on a similar level just because he hadn’t struggled in forever. As if the training he and his brother did would actually put them above all other threats. How was he going to help Olivia reach this point if he himself wasn’t anywhere close?

He was outclassed. He could tell Gray had been toying with him and taking the fight easy. This wasn’t even truly a fight for Gray. It was only in this moment it began to occur to Davi just how truly weak he was in the grand scheme of the world. It was also in this moment that a choice was made.

A thought went through Davi Hawker’s mind. He wanted to grow more. He wanted to not just reach the same level Gray was but surpass it. He had to.

Gray was strong. That much couldn’t be questioned. Despite the power that Gray had, it was still nowhere near the goal he had set for himself. As Davi kneeled and panted, he managed to chuckle as the image of a dragon burned itself into his mind. One that was massive, covered in red scales, and burned the world around it. One that had once saved his brother and him from a never-ending blizzard.

“What’s so funny?” Gray asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did I knock you silly or something?”

Davi looked up, his eyes almost glowing with a blue light, and his mana flared out, a flicker of a white aura surrounding him. “Compared to the Dragon, you’re nothing special. See, you got it wrong earlier.” Gray took a step back, feeling a little surprised at the amount of mana Davi began to unleash, but Davi reached out with the hand that wasn’t broken and grabbed Gray’s wrist, holding him in place. “I’m not just some big fish in a small pond. I’m not a fish at all. The thing I’m hunting doesn’t stay in the ocean. I stared into the depths and decided I was going to escape to the skies where its domain lies. I’m not in a small pond or a big one. I’m not a fish; I’m the thing that swoops in and hunts them. I’m a bird.”

“What the fuck?” Was all Gray could say.

“Row Shadow Vault.” The shadow beneath Davi expanded, like an endless sea, creeping across the field, and everything began to grow extremely cold, ice seeping out. It was like a black hole had opened up beneath the two of them, attempting to swallow everything up.

“Trying to suck me back into your vault?” Gray forced a smile, despite suddenly feeling nervous. “That won’t work—”

Davi inverted his vault. He turned it upside down and poured everything out. The darkness surged up like a tidal wave, as if something massive was ripping its way out of the depths, and in an instant, everything exploded.

Chapter 33: The Lance of Victory

“So, how long have you guys worked for Gray?” Olivia asked curiously.

“Several years now.” One of Gray’s guards said, giving a small smile. “He took several of us in when we had nowhere else to go.”

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked as she and the other guards walked through the hallway of Gray’s castle. She was being escorted by three of them, two men and one woman. All of them wore simple chainmail and leather and had a shield strapped to their arm and either a spear, sword, or wand at their belt. They had been walking her around the castle for a while, and she knew they were going in circles, but she was following along since she still had to wait for Davi to get back from his talk with Gray.

The guard she had been speaking to rubbed his chin. “Well, as a kid I grew up hearing stories about how strong and epic the Arcane Knights were. I naturally wanted to be one. I took the exam, but I wasn’t able to make it.” The guard chuckled, and he reached into a pouch that was at his side. He pulled out a flute and placed it to his lips, gently blowing on it. “I have melody magic.” He said after pulling it away. “I can only cast a spell while playing on this flute.”

“Wait, but if you are playing the flute, how do you cast spells?” Olivia asked.

“I can’t.” The man said sheepishly. “That’s sort of the issue. I’m basically magicless aside from the fact I can use mana to improve myself. Naturally, because of this weakness, I was unable to pass the exam and failed to become an Arcane Knight. That’s when Gray approached me.”

“Gray often comes to people who fail the exam.” The female guard spoke up. “A lot of mages can stress and despair about taking the Knights exam. Typically, commoners or villagers do this the most. Unlike nobility, commoners and the poor have less mana and fewer connections, making it harder for them to pass the exam. They also don’t have special or rare types of magic since those are specific bloodline-based, which only the elite of the kingdom have. The less mana a mage has, the easier it is for them to become corrupted and turn into a Magical Mutant, and most mages will go crazy trying to farm dungeons or other places to train after they fail, so Gray offers us jobs as a way to try and prevent this process from happening. He saw the core root of the problem and helped remove it!”

The third and final guard nodded his head eagerly. “Anytime someone fails the exam but catches Gray’s eye, he offers them a job as his guards, which is what the three of us are. We’re sort of like squires, I guess, but we don’t have any of the perks Knights do. We get to follow him around on some missions and guard his castle. He also pays us super well, which helps ease the nerves and helps our families.”

Olivia wanted to disagree with what the guards were saying, but she held her tongue. On paper, it sounded good, and certainly it was, giving jobs to these people in order to stop them from pushing themselves to the breaking point and becoming Mutants, but if Gray really wanted to help, wouldn’t it make more sense to do so by training the mages who couldn’t make it?

Giving them a job was good; it gave them income, but she was willing to bet there were plenty of people who wouldn’t take Gray’s offer. She knows she wouldn’t. If she failed the exam, becoming a guard for a Knight would be seen as a failure to her, and she imagined a lot of other kids would have the same viewpoint and not want to settle for that. They’d still go off and enter those dungeons and push themselves too far in order to chase the goal of becoming an Arcane Knight.

Yes, Gray helped some of the people by giving them a place to stay, but those were only the people who were willing to give up on their dream and not become Knights. ‘The core root of the problem’ would be stopping the Knights that failed from entering the dungeons in the first place or helping them grow so they could later take the test. That’s what she would do if she were in Gray’s position. It might have been a childish and foolish way of thinking, but it was a way that would allow people not to give up and have other chances.

Of course, this was just how Olivia viewed it. She decided to keep her thoughts to herself and instead hummed. “That’s interesting. He really does all that?”

“Yeah.” The first guard, the one with the flute, nodded again. “He does.”

“Lord Gray is just amazing like that.” The female guard stated. “That’s why it’s our duty to protect what he owns.”

“Yeah!” The third guard announced. “No matter what, we won’t let anything happen to him—”

The windows along the wall exploded in a shower of glass, and a loud, thundering boom echoed out for miles. The entire castle shook, and the stone crumbled as from outside something massive came crashing down.

Olivia felt herself get slammed back by the shockwave, and she gasped as her head smacked into the wall. She saw stars for a moment, and she looked up to see a gigantic avalanche outside, made of pure scrap and stone, that was pouring down.

“W-what the hell?” She squeaked out. “What happened?”

Meanwhile, back outside where Davi and Gray were fighting, both men let out a loud yell as everything in Davi’s vault came exploding out of his shadow, which had connected to the darkness of the castle, making it massive in scale.

Swords, axes, shields, bullets, guns, rockets, bits of armor, clothes, shoes, food, spears, cars, boats, planes, manga books, scrolls, TVs, fridges, bombs, piles of treasure, stacks of money, empty boxes, stone bricks, dead monsters, including the snake, and even an entire house, half a city block, an undetonated warhead, and so much more all came pouring out, exploding through the ground and blasting high into the air. A rain of swords dropped from the sky as gravity took hold, and massive bricks smashed down along with the tidal wave of cold darkness. An entire building dropped and shattered when it smashed into the ground, sending jagged shards of debris everywhere, and still more rose and fell. The bombs all exploded, causing more junk to go flying, and fire engulfed the air, roaring out before the shadow dropped on it and froze it over.

Both Gray and Davi were caught in the chaos of it all, bricks and blunt weapons slamming into their heads and arms, as the two of them began to get buried underneath a pile of rusted gear, which Davi had collected over the course of his many years of adventuring. Entire dungeons' worth of stone was shoved onto them as the vault spat everything it had out.

Gray’s front yard looked like a brutal battlefield that might have once contained entire armies when it was all done.

There was enough destroyed debris to build an entire second castle, and all manner of swords and spears littered the field, impaled into the ground. Both Davi and Gray had been blasted away from the sheer tide of wood, stone, and metal that had poured out, and when it was finally over, the vault closed, leaving Davi panting on the ground, his vision blurring.

A thin layer of frost clung to everything, and as Davi panted, his breath came out like a mist, ice sticking to his skin. His already destroyed armor was basically gone now, and the clothes he had gotten from Gray were tattered and stained in his own blood. Scraps of twisted metal poked out of his flesh, and a jagged spike of wood impaled its way through his side, but other than that, he had gotten lucky since all the sharp objects dropped closer to Gray.

“Well…” Davi croaked out and numbly looked up at the sky. “There goes everything I owned.” With a grunt, he managed to roll himself over onto his stomach. He winced as more metal pierced his flesh. The ground was made up entirely of destroyed swords, which cut into his palms as he pushed himself up. “Did Gray survive, or did I accidentally kill him?”

Davi turned and looked at the largest pile of debris, which had all been dropped on Gray. It was a literal hill of stone, built like a mountain. His scar throbbed a bit, and the traces of Gray’s mana came from beneath the hill.

He had buried the man under an ocean of junk.

Unfortunately for Davi Hawker, he was fighting an Arcane Knight.

A deep rumble emerged, and cracks began to appear along the stone. Davi felt a fresh wave of shock hit him as the stone began to shake and something began to rip its way out of it. The pile of junk broke away, a fist smashing out of the top as Gray roared, and like a demon being born, he crawled to the top of the pile and stood up.

“What the hell did you do to my home!” Gray bellowed out.

He was donned head to toe in jagged rock armor that hummed with veins of magma all along it, smooth rock forming a sleek helmet adorned with curved horns, his cape being molded out of lava. Mana danced across his suit, looking like pure fire, and the Arcane Knight took a single thundering step forward, shaking the field.

Davi felt his face pale. This wasn’t the first time he had seen Gray. He thought back to when he had been in Gladiolus and he had seen two Knights. One was a man in glasses, and the other had been in armor shaped like a bull. Just like Gray was wearing.

What were the chances he’d run into the man again? Unless it wasn’t a coincidence at all. After all, Gray had been nearby and mentioned Daisy. Just how long had the Arcane Knight been watching and planning this fight for? Gray already admitted he had set up the ambush with the golems. Had Gray been there during Daisy?

From the beginning, he was destined to fight Gray since the moment he stepped out of that tavern in Gladiolus.

“You managed to make me bust my Knight armor out.” Gray might have sounded impressed if not for the pure venom that danced out of his mouth. “And look what you did to my yard!” Lava blazed out of a pair of eyeholes that were in the helmet as Gray glared down at Davi.

“How did you not get knocked out from that?” Davi hissed, trying to stay standing. The air was thick with mana, which bubbled like the magma that clung to Gray. It was heavy, and Davi was getting hurt, feeling his skin burn just by being close to Gray. It was insane just how strong a real Arcane Knight was.

“I told you, I’m an Arcane Knight,” Gray grunted. His fingers twitched into motion, recreating the motions for his spells, and he held his hand out. “Row Earth Mace!” A jagged rock formed out of the ground, shifting itself into his weapon, which he flung over his shoulder. “We aren’t just normal mages. Haru’s mana resides in us. This is the gift the king bestows upon us when we reach the rank of Knight; our stats are massively increased. I told you, there was only so much training a person could do. We Knights are evolved and well beyond the level of traditional mages. Don’t feel bad, though.” Gray sauntered toward Davi, each step shaking the ground. “You never stood a chance. It’s over. You lose—”

Pain exploded through Gray’s senses, and his eyes went wide. He stared down in shock as a spot of red formed across his side. A knife had lodged its way into him, somehow stabbing past his stone armor. That wasn’t the worst part, though. His nerves stopped obeying him, and he felt his body freeze up.

“Leave my friend alone!” Olivia rammed herself into Gray’s side as hard as she could and caused Gray to slip and fall back. As soon as he was down, she scrambled for Davi and stared down in shock. Davi was still conscious somehow, but he was in bad shape. “Davi!” She grabbed his arm and forced it over her and struggled to pick him up. Even without his sword or armor, he was heavy. Luckily, he had shown her how to enhance her body with mana, so she was able to move herself. “Let’s go!”

“Olivia?” Davi croaked out. “What the hell are you doing?”

“What does it look like! I’m getting you out of here before that crazy guy kills you!” Olivia said with wide eyes as she dragged him across the field of swords. “I can’t believe that there’s a fake Stone Bull running around here!”

“Fake?”

“Yeah!” She nodded and continued to carry him. “That guy's a fake for sure! No way two Arcane Knights would have a brutal fight like this.”

“Olivia… He’s not a fake.”

Olivia’s eyes went wide, and she glanced back toward Gray, who was getting back up. “Really? So the Stone Bull is actually evil!”

“No.”

“What?” Olivia grunted as Davi shoved her off of him. She collapsed to the ground and looked up at the man in shock. “Davi?”

She knew what was coming. She had known. It was hard not to tell the longer she was around Davi. Even after making an excuse for him, it was obvious. She had looked the other way, pretended to be dumb, and acted like she couldn’t see through the act because of how much fun she had been having, but that was all over now.

Davi’s lips were moving, and she knew the words before they even came out of his mouth. The words that ended it all.

“I’m not an Arcane Knight.”

Olivia shook her head. “No. You helped my village. Davi, you’re—”

“I lied!” Davi yelled, raising his voice. “I’m not really a Knight. I’m not part of a guild and never took the exam. I know almost nothing because I never bothered to study up on this stupid country, so I barely know what’s what. I only kept you around because I was bored. I get lonely traveling on my own so much and just wanted someone to talk to.” Olivia’s red eyes met Davi’s blue ones, and her body shook as she stared up at him in shock. “Go.”

“But—”

“Go!” Davi kicked out and sent Olivia flying back. Once she was launched away, he turned back to Gray and ripped one of the many swords out of the ground. “Now. Where were we?”

Despite the venom, Gray managed to stand back up, his mana so pure and powerful it already cured such a weak debuff. His resistance stat was likely off the charts. “Why did you send her off like that?” Gray frowned. “Do you want her to hate you or something? You could have just told her you didn’t know, like you did to me.”

“Just shut up and fight me,” Davi growled, and he adjusted the sword in his hands.

Gray grimly nodded. “Very well. You did pretty well to get this far, but in the end, you’ve only managed to hit me twice. Three times if we count that girl's attack. I hate to tell you, but the cuts aren’t deep.” Gray lifted his arms, showing the flesh that had been sliced into, as his rock armor unfolded. The cuts were shallow and already starting to heal. “I coated my entire body in a layer of mana. Mana is tied to physical health, so you must be running low after all the spells you cast and the beating you took. To honor how far you got, I’ll end this fight here and now.” Gray held his arm up and summoned another mace of stone as his armor formed back up. “The moment this armor formed around me, you lost.”

“So what, who cares if you have armor? I can summon some too.” Davi reforged his shadow armor, though it was cracked and dented, his mana struggling to hold it together.

Gray just shook his head. “Since you’re about to lose, I’ll let you in on a secret. Your armor and my armor are different. You created your armor out of your own mana. It serves as a way to protect you, but that’s it. My armor, on the other hand, is proof that I am an Arcane Knight. This suit is crafted by Haru’s mana, rather than my own, and allows me to tap into her ancient power. When an Arcane Knight busts their armor out, it means only one thing.” Gray got ready to swing his mace. “We’ve decided it’s time to achieve victory. Get ready, Mr. Davi! This is it!”

Davi let out a yell and charged forward, swinging his sword out as hard as he could. Gray used another spell and caused the ground to shake and rumble, launching the Knight forward as he also swung out his weapon.

The two came at each other, launching out everything they had, but at the last second, before their strikes could land, something slammed into the ground directly between them, stopping their exchange and canceling Davi’s spell. A wave of bright light shone out, blinding both men and causing them to grunt.

“That’s quite enough.” A new voice interrupted.

Gray’s eyes went wide as they adjusted to the light, and he gasped. “M-My Lady? Lady Tori?”

Davi grunted and rubbed the stinging feeling out of his eyes, and he looked up at the new person who had arrived. It was a woman in bulky silver armor. She carried a lance bigger than him, and her white cape flowed behind her with the symbol of a sun on it.

The Lance of Victory had arrived.

The woman ripped her lance out of the ground, rays of light twirling out of it. It was bright, and it glowed and flashed as an intense heat began to flow off of it. Her armor lit up, turning white hot, and the stone beneath her started to bubble and melt. She rested her lance on her shoulder and gave an annoyed look at Gray.

“I thought I made it clear at the last guild meeting, but I guess you decided to ignore me then.” She pointed at Davi. “The second Ebony Knight, the pretender Arcane Knight, is mine to deal with, and mine alone!” The woman declared. “I put his name on our list so no one else could search him up on the web, and pictures of him would be deleted if anyone tried to look into him, yet here you are? Explain Stone Bull.”

Gray let out a sheepish chuckle and shrugged. The main reason Davi had been able to avoid capture for so long was simply because, for whatever reason, the guild's up-and-coming had set her gaze upon him, declaring it her mission. Most other Knights weren’t too keen on getting in the way of the Lance of Victory, especially since Lady Tori was connected to some seriously powerful people. “Sorry, but he just showed up here, and he’s a criminal. I figured I had to capture him.”

The woman shook her head. “No. I claimed this mission years ago!”

“I don’t really care who I’m fighting; can we just get this over with?” Davi asked. The woman suddenly stopped, and her eyes narrowed as she turned to look back at Davi. “Are we going to fight or what?” Davi asked bluntly.

Gray looked a little shocked at the way Davi addressed the famous Knight. “Watch your tongue!” He growled. “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”

“Nope.” Davi pointed his claymore at the blonde woman. “I just want to get this over with.”

A twisted smile broke out onto the woman’s face. “You’re just as I hoped you’d be.”

“Huh?” Davi made a face. “Are you a pervert or something?”

“Don’t call the Lady that!” Gray said in horror.

The woman let out a low chuckle, and she lifted her lance, and the tip of it touched the tip of Davi’s own blade despite the fact she was several meters away. Her grin was sadistic, and her eyes were shining with a joyous light. “My name is Lady Tori of House Estiria. I challenge you, Knight of Ebony, to a duel. Do you accept?”

Gray let out a low sigh and placed his hammer down. He folded his arms and looked away. He knew exactly how this was about to end.

Davi frowned and kept staring into the woman’s eyes. “Sure—”

“Vil Light Beam.”

A golden beam blasted out of Tori’s finger and tore through Davi’s stomach, making him gasp. It was a thin wound, but in a flash, a dozen more followed, riddling him full of holes and going past his armor. Davi collapsed onto his back in a puddle of red, and Gray just shook his head as Tori looked shocked.

“Why didn’t he dodge or block?” The woman asked, stunned. “He just let them hit him? Is this part of a secret trait or power he has? Can he absorb damage? Oh! I bet he has a healing factor, right?”

“That attack was light speed; even I couldn’t dodge it.” Gray responded flatly. “My Lady, he might look like the Ebony Knight, but I assure you he isn’t. It’s simply a weird coincidence that another shadow magic user decided to forge armor that looked like that.”

“Seriously?” Tori scowled, and she began to stalk forward. She loomed over the downed man and let out a soft growl. “Do you have any idea how long I spent chasing you, and you’re not even half as good as the real deal?” She stopped when she saw that Davi was no longer conscious. His eyes had finally rolled into the back of his head. “Die.” Coldly, Tori stabbed her lance out directly toward Davi.

“Row Blood Beam!”

Tori lifted her lance up, easily blocking the blood beam that was launched her way, and her already sour mood grew worse. Blood magic? Someone with blood magic actually had the gall to attack her? In front of Davi, someone stood. A girl with reddish-brown hair and bright red eyes who had her arms out, ready to use herself as a shield to keep the downed man safe.

“There are two of them?” Tori asked, raising an eyebrow. Tori then shrugged. “Oh well, she’s probably a Mutant anyway; I’ll just get them both.” She raised her lance up.

“W- We surrender.”

Tori stopped her weapon, halting. “You give up?”

“Yeah,” Olivia stated, not backing down. She barely processed the fact that this was basically her idol. “You’re an Arcane Knight, right? Well, we give up. Take us to jail.”

Tori remained standing there, and then she laughed. “So that’s how it is.” Tori struck out and lightly flicked Olivia on the forehead. It wasn’t an attack, but her fingers were laced in mana, and in an instant, Olivia’s eyes slammed shut, and she collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. “Stone Bull.” Tori barked out.

“Yes, My Lady?” Gray asked, totally lost as to what was happening.

“Arrest them.”

“Both of them?”

“Yes.” Tori turned away. “Both of them.”

Chapter 34: The Sword in the Ground

‘Oh? I always figured I’d end up here when I died.’

Davi Hawker wasn’t shocked by what he saw. One moment, he was about to engage with a Knight, who he knew was well above his league, and the next, he was filled with holes and rapidly bleeding out.

It had been over in an instant. He hadn’t even been able to process the attack, aside from the words that came from the woman’s lips. Light magic was… Well, it was made of light, and light was quite fast, so he had no chance of blocking or defending himself.

Not to mention the spell the woman cast didn’t start with Row, which meant that it was a higher level. He was screwed from the start. Even Gray would have been impossible to beat, but that woman had been on a level hundreds of times above him. As everything faded and turned black, Davi found himself in a familiar place.

He floated in his Shadow Vault. A sea of black stretched out in all directions, and in the very center was him. He didn’t breathe since there was no air in this realm, nor did he sink into the infinite abyss that was beneath him, since it also wasn’t water. The vault just consisted of pure mana.

He had always wondered if he created this place or if it was something that all users who had shadow magic had access to. Either way, growing up and discovering such a thing existed was enough to convince him that this was the place he would end up at once he died. He didn’t know why or how, but Davi always suspected that when he finally closed his eyes, it wouldn’t be some grand afterlife or warm place waiting for him. Instead, it would be this vault. A frozen, empty sea that existed to torment him.

‘So, I guess this means I’m dead?’ Davi thought and looked down at his hands. They weren’t made of flesh, and he no longer had blood. Instead, his entire body was outlined in black and filled in with his blue mana that almost made him appear as if he was on fire. It was as if he had tried to create his shadow armor but in the image of himself. ‘I sure look like a ghost.’

With nothing left to do, Davi decided to take stock. In the battle with Gray, he had turned his vault over and allowed everything within to spill out, yet he could still feel the presence of two things that remained inside the vault.

The first object came to him when he thought of it. The vault twisted and altered, reality shifting around him to his whim, and it appeared before him.

It was long and thin, with a bit of thin wire running along the edge of it and a hook connected to the end of it. The object in question was a fishing pole. His most treasured item and the one thing he would never get rid of. It was old and worn, showing years of use, and needed to be fixed almost constantly. The only reason it even worked still was due to all the mana he had poured into it. The thing was practically a magic item and would likely have the grade of C or even B if someone else were to appraise it. To Davi, though, it was the best tool in the world.

This was because it had been a gift from his father. Orion not only passed down the Way of Self-Iron Martial Arts and the Way of the Sky-Cutting Sword Style, but also this fishing rod.

Davi reached out, and his fingers wrapped around the handle. It felt right in his hands, and he flicked his wrist out, letting the rod loose. The lure fired out and swam through the air, his mana coating the wire and rod, allowing it to flow as if it were alive. He flicked his wrist again, and the wire pulled back and coiled itself around the rod, shrinking down.

It was thanks to this fishing rod that he was still alive. It had allowed him to fish once he climbed out of the ruins of his home and kept him and his brother well fed. That was most likely how he got such a high-grade fishing trait. It had been so long since he had gotten to fish.

Now, though, it didn’t really matter.

Davi sighed and let go of the rod, allowing it to sink back into the abyss where it faded away from him. He turned away and shook his head, crushing his memories and emotions back down like he always did when he felt anything. There was still one more item in his vault that hadn’t gotten blasted out.

This object didn’t come to him when he called upon it and, in fact, actually ignored his call and moved further away from him, the space growing. If he wanted to get to it, then he’d have to head to it himself. How did he know all of this? Maybe it had to do with the body he now had being closely connected to his vault or a gut feeling; he did not know, but Davi floated through the nothingness, heading in the direction that he vaguely guessed was down.

It felt like swimming. He was able to will his body down, and he dropped, getting deeper and deeper. At least he thought he was going down. In truth, he didn’t know which way was which since there was no way to tell the directions. Eventually, though, Davi reached what he was looking for.

He could have been traveling for a few hours, a couple of days, or even hundreds of years. Everything blurred together as he glided through the darkness, and the only reason he knew he reached his destination was that he saw a faint glow in the void. Then, Davi felt his feet touch down on some sort of floor. It was black, just like everything else in the realm, but it allowed him to stand rather than float.

He had reached the very bottom of his vault—the place where it was the coldest. He shivered once again, but not because of the cold; rather, it was because of what he saw.

Scattered down at the bottom were the shadow beasts. He didn’t actually know what they were called; he just dubbed them that since they were made of pure mana and darkness. Most mages could make constructs, and some could even make living constructs, using enchantment to program them, but what always confused Davi was the existence of these creatures.

He hadn’t summoned them, nor did he control them. A time or two, they even tried to attack him when he was a kid and had first discovered his vault spell after his mother taught it to him. They were here long before him, which was why he thought that his vault might be something other shadow magic users had.

The shadow beasts looked like a weird mix of a human and a bird. They had a human body and human legs, but talons replaced feet, and wings replaced arms. Like him, they lacked flesh, being made entirely from shadows. They would have been pitch-black if not for the fiery blue mana that outlined them. Of course, their most notable thing, at least to Davi, was their head. It was hawk-like and stared blankly ahead.

There were hundreds of the weird beasts, all scattered at the bottom of his vault where he always kept them. Usually, they’d attack him, but this time, they didn’t. They didn’t even acknowledge that he was there. They all just stared blankly out into the sea, not moving. Some were seated, and others were standing, but all of them crowded around the only item left that was in his vault.

‘Pardon me. Coming through.’ Davi awkwardly shuffled past the creatures. He expected them to attack him or something, but none did. Eventually, he made his way to the center of the crowd of shadow beasts and saw what they were standing around.

The reason it was so cold was because of this final item. It was also the object that had once sent the Mordheim Kingdom back into the ice age and caused him and his brother to march through a blizzard. The item itself was likely why everyone said his mana was so cold. Just by having it in his vault was enough to render his mana icy and dark, masking his real mana’s feel.

It was a sword, one that was stabbed into the ground, but not in the typical way that most would think of.

The sword in the stone was a common trope in fairy tales. Haru’s legendary blade was a powerful weapon that she stored away by impaling it into the ground, and most stories copied what she did. Those sorts of swords were always described the same way: half the blade was impaled into a rock, tree stump, or other object, and the sword remained in place, waiting for its rightful owner to draw it.

This sword wasn’t like that. It was buried all the way through the black floor that made up his vault. Not an inch of the blade poked out, and even the crossguard was beneath the floor of the vault. A small portion of the handle that poked out was the only indication that a sword even resided in the floor. It was rusted, worn down, and coated in layers of ice. Even if he did have a body, he wouldn’t be able to get the sword out. The day he first opened his vault was the same day he discovered the sword.

The mana that gushed off the blade was ominous and cold. Even in his ghostly state, he was freezing just being near the thing. Despite that, Davi felt his blood boil slightly at the sight of the blade. He always hated the cold, and this sword was something that existed to simply freeze things. He didn’t know how it got into his vault, but ever since Olis told him of how people could sense mana, he was convinced this sword was the reason everyone always looked at him in disgust or fear. He felt emotions, he wasn’t cold, and he did care about things, but this tainted burden, which he was forced to carry, spoke for him, and most people were content to hear it instead of what he had to say.

‘Perhaps that was why I lied to Olivia.’ The thought had occurred to Davi. He knew the right thing to do would have been to tell her he wasn’t really a Knight once he learned the truth, yet it had been nice to have a mage who didn’t judge him for once. Someone who wasn’t bothered by how cold he felt. She even praised him and congratulated him. It felt good.

Now, it was over. Olivia knew the truth, and he was likely dead or dying, with the number of holes that had been blasted into him by that blonde woman.

As if on cue, a cracking sound echoed through the empty vault, and Davi looked down, finding a jagged wound had opened up along his shadowy chest. It was followed by dozens of other breaks, which started to expand, and the mana that formed him started to flicker and break. If he wasn’t dead before, then that meant he was dying now. His form was coming undone. He was fading away.

‘Sieg’s going to be pretty mad…’ Davi let out a bitter chuckle. ‘Hopefully, he can find the Dragon without me.’ Davi closed his eyes and let out a sigh. ‘Oh well. I tried my best. It wasn’t the greatest life, but it wasn’t that bad either toward the end. I’m content.’

Yet, this wasn’t the end of his story. It would have been easy for him to simply bleed out and die. In a way, it could even be described as a fitting end for the life he lived, dying alone and fading away in his vault.

Davi Hawker wasn’t alone, though.

Someone was with him.

Someone was calling his name.

“Davi!”

Davi’s eyes snapped open, and he looked up. There was a light. An opening in the vault. He could hear yelling, and the cold was fading. His body was still cracking, but it was slowed now. Davi floated through the vault, going higher and higher as he reached out for the light and the voice that called his name.

And then Davi Hawker woke up.

Davi sat up and gasped, his eyes going wide as he sucked in air. His entire body ached, and for the second time, he found himself waking up in a new location with Olivia next to him.

“Olivia?”

“Finally! You’re up!” The white-haired girl cried out, and she hugged him before he could process what was happening. Davi awkwardly patted her back and weakly looked around, still feeling flashes of pain go through him. “I was getting worried when you wouldn’t wake up.” Olivia didn’t let go of him and hugged him tighter. “I—I thought you were going to die…”

Davi awkwardly winced and pulled away from her. He definitely felt like he was on death's door. The Knight hadn’t been gentle with him, that was for sure. “Where are we?” He asked quietly.

“Somewhere in Daffodil,” Olivia whispered. “They threw us in the dungeon.”

The room they were in was small and cramped. It wasn’t made for two people, and it only had a bed on one side and a bucket in the corner for using the bathroom. The floor was a dirty, cold stone, as were the walls, and instead of a door, there were large iron bars that were rusted and old-looking, with a slot near the bottom for plates of food to be slid through. A flickering torch on a wall past the bars illuminated the cell. The room smelled awful, and Olivia didn’t look much better now that he eyed her up.

Olivia had been a little pretty in a sort of tomboyish way. She never wore makeup or did her hair that much, and she also didn’t wear dresses; she wore practical clothes for traveling. Now, though, her hair was a tangled mess, and her skin was covered in dirt. She wore dirty brown rags that were falling apart and barely covered her, and her eyes were bloodshot and accented with heavy bags.

His own condition was the same. His clothes had been removed, leaving him in the same rags Olivia had on, and the time spent on the dirty floor hadn’t done his pale skin any favors. His clothes were also sticky and stained red, his body still littered with cuts and wounds that were scabbing and bleeding.

He felt like hell.

“How long was I out?” Davi asked. He tried to stand, but his legs were asleep.

“A week,” Olivia said sadly.

“A week!” Davi’s eyes went wide with shock. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Olivia nodded. “That woman riddled you with holes, and then those Knights tossed you in here. You were bleeding so badly that I thought you were going to die, so I’ve been healing you over and over again, three times a day.” Olivia was always pale, but she was deathly so now, and Davi wondered how much blood she had used on him.

“It uses your blood for healing as well?”

“Yeah,” Olivia said bitterly. “That’s why I can’t just heal myself to get my blood back. If I want to recover a pint of blood, it takes a pint of my blood. But my blood can transform and become a perfect match for anyone. I’m really not that good at healing, so I just kept transferring my blood to you whenever I could to make sure you didn’t bleed out. Since my body heals naturally thanks to my blood magic, giving you my blood lends you a watered-down version of my healing factor. It was barely enough to keep you alive.”

Each mage was born with a certain grade for each of the six schools. Most mages tended to be completely in tune with one school, which was the one they were best at, and entirely unattuned to another school, which was the school they couldn’t use at all and would be ranked as E. Naturally, having a school that was an S grade was considered the best.

Like stats, a mage could improve the grade of a magic school so long as they worked hard on it and it wasn’t of E rank, since anything that was listed as E was impossible for a mage to use. Theoretically, if a mage trained and worked hard enough, they could possibly have S as a grade for all magic schools. It was believed only Haru was able to reach such a level in magic.

“Don’t feel too bad.” Davi flexed his arm slightly and tried to stand once more, this time managing to do so, though his legs wobbled. “You saved my life. I can’t even use healing magic.”

“It’s not okay.” Olivia shook her head. “I can’t believe the Knights were so harsh on you! They nearly killed you!”

Davi rubbed his neck weakly. “To be fair, I kind of forced that Gray guy's hand; he kept trying to get me to stop, but I was a stubborn bastard who thought I could win.”

Olivia nodded weakly. “The Lance of Victory… Do you know her?”

The image of Tori came to Davi’s mind for a moment. “Never seen her before. She seems to know me, though. Kept giving me weird ‘fuck me’ eyes. Creeped the hell out of me.” He shuddered.

Olivia balled her hand into a fist. “I always looked up to her. She’s one of the top five strongest Knights in the whole world and is considered to be the next Haru by a lot of people. I was so happy when I first got to see her in my village, but then she went and did this to you? I really don’t know how to feel.” Olivia sighed and curled up slightly. She glanced back at him. “Gray came by to see you while you were unconscious.”

“Oh yeah?”

“He told me everything.”

Davi felt a pain in his stomach. “Yeah?”

“You’re not really a Knight.”

“I am not.”

“Why did you lie?” Olivia demanded.

Davi awkwardly looked away and shrugged. “I didn’t know at first. I was called an Arcane Knight by a few random villagers I saved. Growing up, my brother told me how cool and strong the Knights were, and the two of us wanted to embody those ideals. I thought I was a Knight, the way I ran around in my armor, saving people.”

Olivia let out a snort. “Davi, you have to be knighted by a king or lord to be a Knight.”

“Well, I know that now.” He grumbled.

Olivia laughed again and shook her head. She opened her mouth and went to say something, but a loud bang echoed into their cell. Davi’s eyes narrowed, and he turned, going on guard, but his body felt weak, and his mana still hadn’t fully recovered, since mana was tied to physical health, and he was still basically on death's door.

Past the cell was a stone hallway. Their cell was placed at a corner, and they couldn’t see much past it, other than the dirty floor outside. The sound of a door slamming shut, though, got both of their attention, followed by the sound of footsteps bouncing off the walls.

Eventually Davi looked up and saw a familiar face staring down at him. “Hey, Mr. Davi.” Gray nodded. “I hope you’re feeling better, because you and I seriously need to talk.”

Chapter 35: Let's Make A Deal

“You’ve got to have some sort of spell or something,” Davi muttered. “This is the second time you've appeared the moment I woke up.”

Gray stood on the other side of the cell and had a smirk on his face. He was fully healed and dressed in fine robes, with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He also looked even more like a rich douchebag in Davi’s opinion because he now had a bluetooth ear piece connected, and was messing with some sort of touchscreen watch, seemingly checking something.

It all just screamed money and was the kind of impractical tech that only people who didn’t have to worry about money could afford.

“Yeah, I do have a spell.” The Knight admitted, still messing with his watch. “I placed a spell in the area to detect tremors so I could know when you were moving around, and it sends me alerts and shows me your vitals. I had one placed in my house too, which was how I showed up when you woke up then as well.” Gray explained. “The spell also keeps me updated on the state your body was in. If you began to get too weak, I would have rushed over here with my personal healer and gotten you fixed up. Luckily, though, Miss Olivia over there was able to heal.” Gray finally looked up from his watch.

“I think I would have taken the other healing.” Davi spat out and glared up at Gray. He was usually better at keeping his emotions in check, but he was cranky and pissed off with everything that had happened “I was out for a week.”

“Exactly.” Gray chuckled. “If my healer had treated you, then you would have been fine and fully healed. Miss Olivia’s healing, though, has kept you in a weaker state. This way, we don’t have to worry about you trying to run off on us. You're too weak to break the bars now. I would have healed you if you were about to die, but you pulled through all on your own. You really should thank Miss Olivia for that.” Davi didn’t look amused, and Gray awkwardly rubbed his head. “Look, you can trust me, okay? I’m not here to hurt you anymore.”

“I kind of have a hard time trusting someone that nearly got me killed,” Davi said bluntly.

Gray winced. “To be fair, you were the one who started it. I gave you a ton of chances to stop. Besides, if we really wanted you dead, you’d be dead. At the very least, if we truly had no care for you, we could have cut out your tongue.” Gray poked his tongue out and pointed at it. “Normally, when a mage commits enough crimes and is caught, their tongue is removed to stop them from casting any more spells, but as you can see, you’re ‘mostly’ fine now. That’s because we’re still deciding what to do with you, or if you’re useful, so now’s a good time to play nice.”

Davi glanced back at Olivia. “Why is she in this cell?” He demanded. “I get why I am. You guys don’t like me running around claiming to be a Knight, but she didn’t do anything wrong.”

Gray plopped down and casually created a chair of dirt to catch him. He folded his legs and shrugged. “She insisted on staying.”

“What?” Davi stared at Olivia, who looked a little sheepish now.

“It’s true,” Olivia admitted. “I was offered the chance to leave this cell a week ago, but I stayed to ensure you were treated. I didn’t know they were just going to heal you on their own and thought they were going to leave you for dead…”

“We’re good guys.” Gray chuckled. “We’d never let him just die. He might have done some bad stuff, but he isn’t a monster.”

Davi glanced around at the dirty cell. “This place is pretty awful, you know. A good guy wouldn’t throw someone like Olivia in here.”

“It wasn’t meant for her,” Gray said, his look growing serious. “As I said, I offered her several chances to leave, but she refused. This cell is where you belong, though.”

“He didn’t know, though,” Olivia said, shaking her head. “I get he shouldn’t have run around calling himself a knight, but that’s hardly worth all this treatment or almost killing him!” She was shocked by how cruelly Davi was being mistreated. She always looked up to the Knights. They were symbols of light. Heroes. Yet here one was claiming Davi deserved to die. “This is insane. He nearly died at the hands of the Lance of Victory! That was punishment enough.”

“Lady Tori went too far,” Gray admitted. “I can hardly blame her, though. After all, you were basically taunting her, running around in your armor.”

“How was I doing that?” Davi questioned, raising an eyebrow. “I’ve never even met her. Also… I don’t think I ever want to meet her again.”

“It’s probably because of your armor,” Olivia said quietly, getting Davi’s attention.

Davi’s eye twitched again. “My armor? Seriously? This again.” It always came back to the damn armor.

“She’s right.” Gray nodded. “You, in particular, look very similar to the Ebony Knight.”

“There’s that name again.” Davi sighed. “Does someone want to fill me in? Who the hell is the Ebony Knight?”

“The Ebony Knight is the traitor of the Estiria kingdom,” Olivia said after an awkward moment of silence stretched on. “Most kids are told stories about him to scare us growing up. How do you not know about him?”

Davi shrugged. “I grew up in Mordheim, not Estiria.”

“Oh…” That explained a lot of Davi’s old tech. Mordheim wasn’t as advanced as Estiria and instead walked down a different path. A path that made them enemies to the rest of the world.

The four major kingdoms of the world were Estiria, Mordheim, Gallenth, and Rossum. Each kingdom had its own rules and leaders, but Estiria was led by the King of Estiria, a man said to be the descendant of Haru Estiria, the first Arcane Knight and the creator of the Estiria Kingdom.

A person could only be knighted by the king’s hand, and so the Arcane Knights themselves worked closely with the kingdom of Estiria due to the connection both parties had with Haru. A Knight's job above all else was protecting the kingdom and stopping any criminal who could threaten its rule. Besides the king, there were many other noble families in Estiria. None of the other nations had Arcane Knights and instead had their own elite group of warriors that made them special.

“Haru is the creator of our kingdom and the first Knight.” Gray commented. “She served as our nation's great leader less than a thousand years ago, and the people who followed her are all famous noble families today. All but one. The Ebony Knight was a soldier of Haru who betrayed her. I won’t bore you with the full story, but Lady Tori comes from a very powerful noble family, and so when a criminal starts running around, breaking the laws of her kingdom, and happens to look like the Ebony Knight… Well, it’s no wonder she would become so focused on stopping you, since the traitor is known for nearly destroying the kingdom.”

“I’ve never even heard about this guy; how the hell was I supposed to know I looked like him?” Davi demanded.

Gray awkwardly shrugged. “We actually don’t know what the Ebony Knight looks like since there are no statues or paintings of him that have survived to today. All we do have are accounts from journals that were passed down through generations. These books describe him as a Knight in armor forged from shadow. His mana was cold and ominous and had the appearance of blue fire, which would crackle out of his helm, and he stood imposingly in plate mail. Sources claim he was a shadow magic user, and he fought with a claymore.”

‘You’ve got to be shitting me.’ Davi didn’t say that out loud, but inside he was low-key seething. He had created his armor the way he did because it was practical and made to take hits. He even ditched his helmet because people were scared of him.

“You must admit, it’s a weird coincidence.” Gray let out a small snort. “A shadow mage who fights with a claymore and armor made out of his shadows. That in and of itself wouldn’t mean anything, but said mage also happens to have mana that feels cold and looks like blue fire. Everyone has their own unique mana, and so even someone with shadow magic likely wouldn't have the same color, look, or feel of your mana, yet everything about you is almost a one-for-one. The only way it could be worse for you was if you were an elf, since history claims the Ebony Knight was a descendant of the king of elves. Not only did he help Haru slaughter his own kind, bringing the elven race to extinction, but he also later betrayed the very same people he worked with, all in an effort to chase power for his own gain. People aren’t too fond of him, if you couldn’t tell.”

An awkward silence filled the cell, and Olivia stared down at the ground. Most people would approach Davi once he saved the day and had his helmet off, but even she had hesitated when he wore his helm. The way it hid his face and blazed with those fiery eyes. She couldn’t feel his mana, but he did look ominous and scary.

He wasn’t, though. He was a good person. At least from what she had seen.

Gray looked at Davi, who stayed silent. “Most of the Arcane Knights know about the Knight in black armor who’s been claiming to be part of our group. Many took notice because of the tale of Du’Lac, the Ebony Knight, and how close to his armor yours looked. Some of the people in the guild have even started calling you the second Ebony Knight. Most people aren’t keen on having a Knight like that run around. None of us did anything, though, because of Lady Tori.”

“What are you saying?” Olivia frowned. “You didn’t try to capture Davi because of the Lance of Victory?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Gray nodded. “Davi didn’t get as far as he did through luck or skill. I’m sure that was all part of it, but what really helped him out was Lady Tori. See, she wanted to be the one to bring him in. More than any other Knight, she made it her mission and would constantly set out anytime news of a Knight in shadowy armor reached her. She’s one of the strongest Knights in the kingdom, and because of that, she gets swamped dealing with powerful monsters and dungeons, so she kept getting sidetracked by other stuff, which stopped her pursuit of Mr. Davi. Despite that, though, she still refused to let anyone else try to capture him. She insisted it had to be her. I think she wanted to be the one to defeat the Ebony Knight if Mr. Davi really did turn out to be a new one in the making. For the most part, we Knights were all going to leave Mr. Davi be and let Lady Tori deal with him. That changed, however, when I learned he was near my area. I decided to personally get involved and try to defeat him myself. Of course, then Lady Tori happened to show up in the middle of our battle. She used some of her connections to hijack the manaweb that is generated by the king. Anytime someone tried searching up Mr. Davi’s name or uploading a picture of him somewhere, it would be taken down and scrubbed clean, and only she would get the alert. She was pretty desperate to stop him herself. Alas, sadly for her, Mr. Davi didn’t live up to the rumors.”

Davi rubbed his wounds and winced. His chest still had dozens of scabs across it from where Tori’s lasers pierced through him. “So, what happens now?” Davi asked after some time. “Do I rot in this cell, or am I waiting to be executed? What’s the deal?”

“I hope we’re not about to be executed!” Olivia squeaked out. “I like living!”

Gray stood up, and the rock chair he had formed crumbled and shattered, sinking back into the ground. The Knight grabbed the bars of the cell and peered down at Davi, who was seemingly unbothered by whatever news Gray would reveal.

“We’re in a bit of a tricky situation,” Gray explained slowly. The man’s eyes went from Davi and then down to Olivia. “See, Lady Tori technically never filed any charges even after you were captured.”

“So?” Davi raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“Is that good for us?” Olivia asked, managing to sound a bit hopeful. “Please, tell me that’s good for us!”

Gray stayed silent for several more seconds, seemingly debating something. “Besides the Knights and a few villages, the rest of the kingdom doesn’t know about you, and even the people that did complain about you all said you helped them out in one way or another.”

“That is good!” Olivia let out a breath of relief. Her joy faded, though, as Gray continued.

“That said, you still committed a ton of crimes, Mr. Davi.” Gray took a deep breath and then began to rattle them off. “You’re wanted for destruction of public property, trespassing, tax evasion, unlawfully entering a dungeon, impersonating an Arcane Knight, hoarding dungeon wealth for yourself, unlawfully selling monsters, littering, failing to tally your monster kills, and the kidnapping of Ms. Mary Olivia Lot.”

“I don’t press charges for that!” Olivia said quickly. “So that one can go!”

“Unfortunately, your legal guardian, Rosco Moore, does press charges for you being taken.”

“He’s not my dad, though!”

“You have lived under his roof, and you’re still not considered an adult yet,” Gray said, shutting her argument down. “As such, he’s the closest thing to a legal guardian the guild was able to find, and he is very, very unhappy with the fact that Mr. Davi kidnapped you. He even personally sent in a quest to have you defeated, Mr. Davi, which is one of the reasons I acted, despite Lady Tori ordering us not to. When I learned you had kidnapped Ms. Olivia, I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.”

“I didn’t get kidnapped, though; I asked for him to take me!” Olivia shook her head. “So it’s fine!”

“Even if that crime does get taken off, Mr. Davi here is still dealing with loads of other issues,” Gray said casually. “You know, the Arcane Knights entrance exams are starting soon; you can still leave, Ms. Olivia, and not have to worry about any of this coming back to you.”

Olivia hesitated for a moment. She glanced down at Davi, who still hadn’t moved, then back to Gray, who was smiling softly. “N-no.” She finally said. “I’m staying with Davi.”

The Knight shrugged, “Sorry, but we simply don’t have any reason to keep you. Can’t afford to waste good prison food on innocent people.”

It was obvious what Gray was trying to do. Olivia saw through his act in an instant. He was throwing her a bone. Willing to look the other way and let her walk away from the situation, because Gray thought she was a good person.

That meant it was easy to manipulate him since he had such a black-and-white view of the world. All she would have to do was make him hate her.

The girl went silent, her eyes dropping to the floor. “But, you do. I… I did something bad.” She whispered. Gray’s eyes narrowed slightly, and his smile faded. Olivia continued, “His name was Garon. I—”

“Don’t be an idiot.” Davi cut her off before she could speak of her crime, and he flicked her on the head. “Being a Knight was your dream, wasn’t it? There’s no reason for you to stay here. Don’t be stupid and throw that away. And stop blaming yourself for Garon. The guy went out on his own terms, so get him out of your head.”

Olivia clenched her hand into a fist and shook her head. “I know. I know that Garon was in the wrong and it didn’t matter, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it either.” That guilt still clung to her no matter how foolish it was. Garon was evil. He had tried to kill her. He would have died no matter what. And it wasn’t like Knights didn’t kill. Plenty did. Her idol Tori had nearly killed Davi for such a small crime. “I want to be a Knight.” She said after a few moments. “A really strong one that can help people. Maybe if a Knight like that existed, Garon wouldn’t have done what he did. He would have asked for help.” The image of the silver-haired woman came to her mind once more.

“That’s all the more reason you can’t stay here then,” Davi responded sternly. “You want to be a Knight, yet you’re willing to give that up and stay in this cell with me? What gives? You’re not making any sense. Don’t be dumb.”

“I know!” Olivia rapidly shook her head and growled. Her look softened after a moment, and she sighed. “I’ve been having fun.” She admitted. “I grew up in Fri, and I was so bored for most of my life that I thought I was going insane. I did have friends there; well, at least I had Bruno, but that was it. I felt alone for most of my time in Fri, and I just wanted to leave it. I still want to be a Knight; that’s not going to change any time soon, just like how you’re looking for a Dragon, but I also want to keep going on this adventure with you. I’m not happy you lied, and I’m still mad at you, but… It was a lot of fun. Maybe I’m just insane or something, but even the short amount of things we’ve seen has gotten my blood pumping. I’ve been happier these last few weeks than I have my entire life. Even the bad stuff has taught me something. I want to walk down this path because it’s the choice I’m making, so please stop trying to change my mind!”

Davi looked slightly stunned by her outburst, and Olivia felt her cheeks flush a little. Eventually, he snorted. “Alright. Yeah, sorry, Olivia, my bad. I shouldn’t have tried to pick what path you walk for you. I’ll try not to do that again.”

“G-good!”

Gray cleared his throat, reminding them both that he was still outside the cell. “So, I guess it’s settled then, Ms. Olivia, you’re going to stay here with Mr. Davi?”

Olivia glared back at him and nodded. “Yep. That’s right. Got an issue with that?”

Gray shook his head. “None.” He held up two fingers. “In that case, since things are settled, let me explain what’s going to happen. Mr. Davi, you have two options right now.”

“Yeah?” Davi raised an eyebrow. He debated trying to break out, but his body and mana still hadn’t recovered. He’d need a few more days before he could use his magic again. “What have you got for me?”

“Option one, you can rot in this cell until your trial. You’ll be found guilty, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. After that, you’ll be sent to Nightshade, the prison we throw all criminal mages into, though there’s also a chance you might get the death penalty, at which point your head will come off.” Gray said it a little too cheerfully as he lowered one of his fingers. “That’s option one.”

“And option two?” Davi asked, hoping it was slightly better than the possible death penalty.

“You become an Arcane Knight.”

Chapter 36: Their Story Starts Now

The biggest prison in the kingdom was called Nightshade. It was a place where very powerful and very evil mages would end up.

Since magic was so common and practically everyone had access to it, there were a wide variety of bad people who would use their gifts to hurt the innocent. Arcane Knights were not just tasked with hunting monsters and entering dungeons, but also stopping these people. This is because many ‘dark mages’, as they were often called, were people who delved into forbidden magic or ritualistic magic, making deals with magical beasts or, in some extreme cases, even attempting to contact demons or devils.

Davi had a feeling he wouldn’t be sent to Nightshade. The crimes he committed were plentiful and bad, but they weren’t as vile or evil as dark mages. Because of this mindset, he had been pretty confident he’d just serve some time and be able to either escape or leave once his time was up and get back to exploring the world.

The last thing he expected, though, was for Gray to offer him a chance at becoming an Arcane Knight.

Gray stood there, with his hands on his hips and a large grin on his face. “So? What do you say?” The man asked, tilting his head to the side. His eyes bore into Davi, studying the raven-haired man. “Care to become a Knight?”

Davi and Olivia shared a look, both equally stunned as Gray declared the second option. They had only one thing they could think of saying. “Huh?”

Gray’s smug grin just grew. “Look, it’s pretty simple. A majority of the crimes you committed could be covered or hand-waved if you were a Knight. The more severe ones, though, can be fixed by putting in work. You have a debt you need to pay back, mostly from the damages you caused, so you can pay that debt off by serving the community and the kingdom. Knights are given some leeway when it comes to taxes and unlawfully distributing monster corpses. Becoming a Knight would also cover the crimes of entering dungeons and claiming to be a Knight as well.”

“So, because I pretended to be a Knight, you want me to become an actual Knight?” Davi questioned, trying to see the logic in what Gray was saying. “I don’t think it works that way.”

A person couldn’t rob a bank and then turn around and become a cop in order to get rid of the charge they had for robbing a bank. At least Davi was pretty sure.

Gray chuckled slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll admit, it does sound a little goofy, but I do have my reasons for it. You’re strong. Not on the level of a Knight, but stronger than your typical mage. Things are a bit tense right now. Not just in our kingdom, but the whole world. Especially with what’s been going on in Mordheim.”

Davi just frowned as he heard the other nation's name. Olivia had a different reaction to the country.

“Mordheim…” Olivia whispered the name and shuddered a bit.

Unlike Estiria, Mordheim wasn’t a kingdom since it wasn’t ruled by a king or queen. Mordheim was a country to the north. It was across the sea, requiring Estiria to sail through a blood ocean to reach it. As in, a literal ocean of blood. That part of the world had a massive dungeon that opened up, and no one had been strong enough to close it, which polluted the waters and corrupted them. This pollution clung to Mordheim, closely blocking it off from most of the world.

Mordheim was often called the Cursed Lands due to all the disasters that were around it. Not only did the country have the blood ocean, which was completely circled around them, but it was also plagued with the most dungeons, with a few hundred opening up randomly each day. Worse yet, though, it was also a nation that was cold and frozen to the bone due to an intense blizzard that had appeared back during the age of Haru. The blizzard never left, leaving the country stuck in the ice ages.

All this was to say, Mordheim was not a good place to live. It was a bitter hellhole and sucked. Most of its people were stuck, doomed to never escape their country, and it was next to impossible to enter the country from the outside. It’s considered bad land by many people, and most recently, it has been the talk of every town, including her village, since the country began to invade Rossum, another of the big four lands.

Even her backwater village was getting reports of Mordheim’s invasion. Many people were afraid the cruel kingdom would soon set its eyes on Estiria. No one knew how it was invading Rossum since, again, it was next to impossible to get out, but what was known was that Mordheim got a new leader, one who was as cruel as the lands he had been born into.

He was simply calling himself the Monarch.

“With the way Mordheim has been, we could use a bit of extra help,” Gray explained, speaking in a serious tone as he stared down at Davi. “To be frank with you, we need stronger Knights. More and more dungeons have been appearing all over the kingdom, and new monsters are starting to show up as well. You’re not the first person I’d go to, not even the second or third, but if we could use the power you have to help the kingdom, I’d be willing to overlook some of your more serious issues.” Gray spoke softly. “You’d still need to repay your debts, and you’d be watched closer than any other Knight, but this is likely the best outcome for you. You’d start at the bottom as a squire and possibly be able to earn the glory you pretended to have.”

Davi glanced down and bit his lip. This really did sound like the best outcome. It had always been his dream growing up to become a Knight, and now he was just being handed the chance. He couldn’t help but feel as if something was wrong, though. There was more to this than Gray was letting on. Not to mention, he didn’t even know if he still wanted to be a Knight. The more he learned about them, the more they seemed to be the opposite of what he was. He wasn’t some noble hero; he was just a bitter warrior looking to slay the thing that hurt him. A bunch of responsibility came with being a Knight, and he’d get sidetracked a lot from the sounds of it, so it’d be harder to look for the dragon.

That Tori lady had been so busy doing side stuff that it took her years before she had finally been able to reach him, and finding him was far easier than finding the dragon.

If he became a Knight, just like his brother and he used to always talk about when they were kids, would he be happy? No. He was almost never happy. Not anymore. All he would do is stay bitter and hateful but not be able to chase his goal.

It had always been Sieg’s idea to be a Knight, not his. Sieg heard stories of Haru and how great she was, and even though they didn’t live in Estiria at the time, Sieg came up with the goal of becoming one. Most likely because their father, Orion, was the closest thing to a Knight the Mordheim kingdom had. Orion had been a Spell Sword, one of the highest ranks in the country, but threw that all away in order to live a quiet life as a blacksmith and raise his two kids alongside his second wife.

No matter how much Davi tried to think about it, it just didn’t sit right with him. He wasn’t someone that should be a Knight.

“Is there any other option?” He asked quietly.

Gray shook his head. “Not from me. You are either put on trial for your crimes, or you make yourself useful and help the Estiria kingdom out. Which will it be, Mr. Davi? This is your choice to make.”

“Davi?”

He glanced over at Olivia, who had said his name. This was still her dream. Unlike him, who had given up on it and instead walked a needless path of revenge, Olivia still had a noble goal. She was kind and willing to do the right thing. Everything he wasn’t. Despite all her goodness, though, she had set herself up for failure by following him and continuing to do so. There was really only one way he could pay that kindness back.

“Alright.” Davi nodded. “I’ll take the exam and try to pass, but Olivia’s coming with me.” He said flatly. “She and I are buddies now.”

“Of course.” Gray nodded. “The test is a week and a half away from now. You’ll stay right here until the day it arrives, and I’ll personally escort you both to take it and make sure you don’t try anything funny. Also, this goes without saying, but if you do fail the exam, you’ll be thrown back into jail.”

“Guess I won’t fail then,” Davi said simply. If the exam was made up of the typical mages he often fought, then he was confident he could win.

“I like the confidence.” Gray turned away and gave a half-wave. “I’ll leave you two to yourselves and let you chat for a bit. Eventually, a guard will show up to take you to separate cells now that you’re both awake. After all, we can’t have a boy and girl share a cell; they might screw.”

“We would never!” Olivia said, horrified by the thought. “Definitely not in a filthy place like this; I haven’t showered in days!”

“Sure, sure.” Gray chuckled. “Enjoy what little time you have left. Seriously, you better be ready for what’s to come, Mr. Davi.” Gray looked back at Davi one last time. “Also, pray you didn’t make the wrong choice.”

Davi and Olivia both watched the Knight leave down the hallway, finally giving them both a moment to themselves. Olivia let out a sigh of relief and fidgeted with the cloth she wore. “I can’t believe we got such a lucky break.”

Davi gave a half nod. “It feels a little too convenient, though. I mean, he’s offering up a pretty big deal to someone he shouldn’t trust, all because I’m kind of strong?” He even mentioned he was from the Mordheim country, yet Gray didn’t question it or bat an eye? It was as if the man didn’t care. “Something is fishy.”

“Well, you do have an S grade in fishing, so if anyone would know, it would be you.” Olivia gently placed her hand on his back and focused her mana. Some blood began to leak out of her fingers as she muttered a spell. “Row Blood Mend!” Davi flinched slightly as he felt the blood flow over him, and some of his more serious wounds began to mend. “We’ll need to get you feeling better before the exam.”

She could still cast spells even without a wand, though it would use up more mana and be a lot weaker. A wand augmented spells, making them easier to control. Most magicians used a wand for this reason. The staff was even better, making spells cost almost no mana at all. The issue with wands and staffs, though, was that they were costly and hard to maintain. A wand would last a few years and then need to be replaced. She imagined it was why people like Davi never bothered using a wand and would just use the magic on their own.

“You’re still willing to help me out even after everything that happened?” Davi looked back at Olivia. “You’re being a little too nice, don’t you think?”

“Hey, I’m still mad at you for not telling me the truth.” Olivia flicked him on the nose and huffed. “You owe me for not telling the truth. I have just the way you can repay me!”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” She grinned. “Stone Bull said it himself. We have one week before the exam. I know it’s not a lot of time, but it’s still something.” She reached out and gently took Davi’s hands. “Please. I need to get strong enough to pass the exam. I want to reach the same level as you or at least something close to it.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible.” Davi trailed off awkwardly.

“I have to try.” Olivia shook her head. “I can raise my stats higher if I just work on it; I know I can!”

She knew the difference between her and Davi was vast. She had Mana: Grade D, Endurance: Grade C-, Strength: Grade C, Efficiency: Grade C, and Resistance: Grade A. Most Knights typically had at least two traits that were Grade A or one that was Grade S. Despite her low stats, she was still confident she could reach her goal now more than ever, and that was because of the way Gray had treated Davi.

Davi had Mana: Grade C, Endurance: Grade B+, Strength: Grade A+, Efficiency: Grade D-, and Resistance: Grade E1. He had a high strength score, but that was it. He lacked two Grade A scores or an S, yet Gray treated Davi as if he were someone that would be able to pass the exam. Her Efficiency and Resistance were a higher grade than Davi's as well, so if she could just raise her Endurance and Strength up a bit, she’d stand a chance.

Not to mention, she could improve her other traits, like using knives or basic combat.

Davi finally squeezed her hand, and he stood back up and moved to one corner of the cell. “In that case, I’ll do everything I can. We have a week to improve your blood magic and body and pick up some new tricks.” Davi finally gave a real smile. “Let’s do this.”

Unknown to Davi and Olivia, someone was watching them. A small orb of light stared down at them above the cell, just out of their view. Outside of the stone hallway where the dungeon resided, Lady Tori rested against the wall and scowled as the image was beamed into her mind.

“Blood magic? Really? That girl thinks she can seriously join the Knights with magic like that?” Tori scoffed. “What an idiot. Then again, I’m not shocked that’s what she has. She’s the companion of that bastard after all.” Tori bit her lip as the image of Davi came to her mind. She could see his smile as he leaned against the wall, yapping orders at Olivia. “Damn him.”

“What are you mumbling about now?” Gray asked, letting out a sigh once he opened the door.

The room Tori stood in was just as dirty as the rest of the dungeon. It was at the end of the hallway where Davi’s cell resided and was normally used to watch prisoners, though since Davi arrived, Tori had been stalking about the room, not leaving. It was the kind of place a noblewoman definitely shouldn’t have stayed at, yet Tori refused to leave.

“None of your business, Stone Bull.” Tori spat out. “Did you speak to him, like I asked you to?”

“I did.” Gray nodded. “I offered him a chance to take the exam just as you told me to.” He raised an eyebrow, giving the other Knight an odd look. “Is there a reason you wanted him to take the exam, my lady?” He actually hadn’t planned to let Davi off the hook for any of his crimes and had only made the offer to join the Knights because Tori had demanded it, and she was too important to say no to.

“You keep your enemies close,” Tori mumbled. “The tale of Du’Lac is a cruel one, following the story of the Ebony Knight and his downfall after he betrayed Haru. I think it’s fitting that Davi Hawker has a similar fate. I’ll need him to be extra close for that.”

The Ebony Knight had been defeated by Haru, and that act was what truly made Haru so famous and made many consider her to be the strongest. No matter what Tori did, though, she was always going to be second best to the real thing.

That was going to change, though. She’d create her own famous tale. This time it would be her who slew the next Ebony Knight, and for that, she’d ensure Davi Hawker played his role perfectly.

Chapter 37: Meanwhile

“I really need to thank you two for agreeing to do this!” Farkiss said, his typical merchant smile on his face. “It was high time I left my town, and the two of you showing up when you did truly helped me out!”

“Don’t worry about it, bro.” Bruno chuckled and fist-bumped the man. “Ash and I were glad to help, isn’t that right, Ash?”

Ash let out a scoff and folded his arms, looking away. “Whatever. I just want to get paid.”

It had been a full week since he set out with Bruno, and Ash was not having a good time. The cash Bruno had packed was used up three towns ago, and the two of them were forced to set up tents and camp out in the woods since they could no longer afford to stay in inns or pay for bus stations. Ash was even forced to hunt for his own food like some sort of peasant.

Despite how awful everything was, Ash was forcing himself to keep up with Bruno, who was right at home in the wilderness. They were making good time and would soon arrive at the capital, Rose City, where the Arcane Knight exam was held every year. Once they reached the city, they’d just have to take the exam and pass, which would allow them to join a guild. Bruno was also planning on looking for Olivia, but Ash was content with moving on with his life. Once he became part of a guild, he wouldn’t have to worry about anything else. He was close to reaching his goal.

During their travel, they kept getting sidetracked since Bruno went out of his way to help strangers out. Their latest side mission was helping a merchant named Farkiss out. Farkiss was a tall, plump, dark-skinned man. He wore bright purple robes and had dozens of golden rings and necklaces draped all over his body. A few of his teeth were golden. He stank of money and wealth, yet instead of hiring some Arcane Knights to get him to his destination, Farkiss had instead opted to pay Bruno and Ash, since the two were far cheaper. Ash got the feeling Farkiss was one of those guys who would try to spend as little Bells as possible.

This fact was solidified for him by Farkiss’s wagon. There was no car or truck, or anything that would make traveling to a different city easier. Instead, Farkiss just used a shitty wagon.

It was old and worn down, covered in dozens of boxes, all containing various types of meat. The boxes were all specially enchanted to keep them frozen and make sure they’d last longer, like a fridge. There were no horses or anything else to drag the wagon, so the walk through the woods was especially slow since the wagon had to be dragged, the wheels so old they no longer spun.

It was important for traveling merchants to get hired help in case a dungeon opened up on the path they were traveling, since that happened a lot, but usually the merchant would actually hire mercenaries or Arcane Knights. Farkiss had opted for kids to keep him safe instead, since they were cheaper.

“How much longer until we reach the city?” Ash asked, letting out a sigh. His legs were killing him. He had been forced to walk well into the night.

“Not too much longer,” Farkiss promised. The merchant had his wand out, and its tip held a large glob of fire, which lit up the forest around them, allowing them all to see. The path they walked down was a winding trail, with woods on either side of them. Farkiss had traveled it a few dozen times before, so he knew all the right ways to turn and the best shortcuts. “Once we arrive there, I’ll give you guys your earnings and point out a good place to stay!” The man gave a toothy grin.

“You’re a real bro, my bro!” Bruno grinned back. “What city are we even heading to?”

“Daffodil,” Farkiss stated. “It’s a bit of a large city, and right next to Rose. It should be easy for you three boys to hitch a train ride and make it to Rose in order to take the exam.”

Bruno nodded happily. “Are you also planning to take the exam, spearman?” He asked, turning to look at the last person Farkiss had hired.

On top of hiring Ash and Bruno, one more person came along with them and was the one dragging the wagon. It was another guy, though Bruno had no idea what he looked like since the man was decked out head to toe in old, ragged black robes. The guy's hood was pulled up, and he wore a red, oni-like mask for whatever reason. Beneath the robes, dozens of bandages crisscrossed over his flesh, many of which were wrapped around his arms and legs. Besides the mask, the other notable thing about the man was the weapons he carried. Three spears were strapped to his back, wrapped around him thanks to the bandages he had. They weren’t hunting spears, though. They were heavy, forged out of a black metal, and were the kind of weapons you’d see a soldier carry.

Bruno’s question went unanswered, as the man in the oni mask ignored him.

“Okay?” Bruno frowned slightly before forcing his smile back in place. “Either way, I guess it doesn’t matter.”

The masked figure hadn’t spoken since the job began and remained silent for the entire walk. The only reason Bruno even knew he was a guy was due to the small grunts he would make anytime the wagon he dragged got snagged on a rock or stump.

The masked figure didn’t complain, or whine, or do anything really. He just stayed quiet and dragged the carriage behind him, not showing an ounce of emotion.

Ash kept shooting the masked man a dirty look, but still, the man did not speak or react, no matter how many questions were thrown his way. That just made Ash more suspicious. He was starting to wonder if the person was covered head to toe in order to hide the fact that they were a Magical Mutant.

Farkiss cleared his throat, getting the attention back on him. “Either way, I’m glad you three offered to help me. I was content with staying put but decided it was time to move after I changed my mind.”

“What brought on the change, bro?” Bruno asked curiously.

“Well, we merchants are rather well informed about each other.” Farkiss chuckled and twirled his wand. “I happen to know a person I met once is heading to Rose, after a friend of mine sent me the message. That’s why I needed you guys to help me get to Daffodil. Once I’m there, I can take the train to Rose on my own.”

“Is this person a friend of yours?” Bruno raised his eyebrow. “I mean, you’re going out of your way to go see them?”

“Not exactly.” Farkiss snorted. “I only met them once, but they did help me out by bringing a package of mine to a friend, and that friend later told me how they saved the town. I’m the type of person who thinks good deeds shouldn’t be ignored. Besides, I have some information for them I think they’d like. He mentioned something about a dragon, and well… Never mind. It’s for their ears only.”

“Well, I don’t get it, but this guy must be pretty special if he caught your eye!” Bruno laughed.

“Indeed.” Farkiss also laughed.

Ash just sighed and shook his head before once again turning to look at the robed figure. The man in the mask still refused to speak and just kept dragging the wagon of supplies behind him. Ash didn’t know why, but he was getting ticked off. Something about the robed figure was rubbing him the wrong way. Perhaps it was the fact they wore a demon's mask, or maybe it was the strange, stabbing, static feeling he got from standing next to the person. He truly wasn’t sure, but Ash knew this guy was bad news.

Luckily for him, he didn’t have to stand next to the figure for much longer, as eventually the forest path began to clear out and Daffodil City came into view.

“Whoa!” Bruno let out a whistle. “Impressive.”

Lotus City was the only city anyone from Fri would get to see. It was rather large, with a castle in the center and dozens of stone buildings scattered about, and it had a large wall wrapped around it. Daffodil was very different.

Daffodil also had a castle, but it was way bigger, massive in scale, and placed near the edge of the city. It had large, towering stone structures that rose off the ground, going high into the air, likely created through magic. There was a wall around the city, but it was split in half, and running through the streets was a series of railroads. A lot of major cities had train stations that connected them to the capital. Many of the buildings were large, and bronze pipes poked out of several sections, spewing waves of smoke and steam.

The path Farkiss took them on led to a section of the wall around the city that was made for merchants and caravans. Two guards stood on either side of the door. Both held large-looking rifles. The guards didn’t even bat Farkiss an eye, and one of them used his rifle to bang the butt of it against the metal doors, which glowed with a blue light and then began to open on their own.

Once they were actually in Daffodil, Bruno let out another whistle as he looked around. Daffodil was large, but everything was packed tightly together. There were dozens of roads and alleyways that people walked through, and hundreds of different carriages or wagons were dragged down winding streets. At the end of each corner was some sort of merchant shop, and the entire city had a smoky smell due to all the pipes. The men wore expensive black suits, while the ladies were decked out in fine dresses. Magic existed in Daffodil; many of the buildings only existed the way they did because of it, but it was more reserved and not being shown. The train's constant buzzing also filled the air, followed by loud blaring music.

“Well, boys,” Farkiss began. “It was a pleasure spending the last few days traveling with you three, but I’m afraid this is where we’ll be parting ways.” Farkiss reached into his robes and tossed out three wads of cash, one for each of them. “If you’re looking for a place to stay, I’d recommend finding an inn called the Horse-Stall. I’ll be heading there myself, actually. In the morning, the train will be arriving, so perhaps we’ll all see each other when we board it?”

Ash remained silent and instead counted the wad of cash he got. Five hundred in total. Neither Bruno nor the masked man bothered to check theirs and instead just shoved the wads into their pockets.

Bruno pocketed his, far too trusting, and just grinned. “I do have a question for you, Mr. Farkiss!”

“Yes, what is it, my boy?”

“Earlier, you said merchants had a way of knowing stuff, right?”

Farkiss rubbed his chin and tugged a bit on his bushy beard. “That I did. Is there something you want to know?”

Bruno nodded. “Yeah! I’m looking for a friend! I’d like to know she’s doing alright.”

Farkiss hummed. “I see. If you want to know where someone is for sure, I’d recommend heading to a nightclub called the Mellon. The owner there is a mage named Biggie. Word of advice, though: try not to get on his bad side. I personally don’t like him, but even I’ll admit, when it comes to information, he’s the best of the best.”

Bruno threw his arms behind his head and let out a slight cheer. “Alright! Will do, bro. Come on, Ash!” He grabbed Ash’s arm and began to tug the grey-haired boy after him.

“I can walk on my own.” Ash yanked his arm out of Bruno’s grasp.

Farkiss watched the two boys leave and couldn’t help but let out another laugh. “Ah, to be young again. I remember the good old days. Now. What are you planning, my friend?” He stopped when he saw that the third boy was gone. The one in the oni mask had wandered off earlier. “Hmm. A shame. Oh well!”

It didn’t take Bruno and Ash long to find a club called Mellon. The two of them just followed the music. The streets of Daffodil were crowded and full, so they had to twist through the crowd, but they soon stood outside of a set of stairs that led down beneath the ground.

Mellon was built like a makeshift bunker, though it had been expanded and turned into some sort of depraved party place. Blaring lights shone up from the stairs, and massive booming music blared through. The stairs led down quite a bit, and at the bottom was a man in a suit. Most likely a bouncer. Luckily for them, all were welcome in Mellon, and the bouncer opened the door for them both.

Bruno’s nose wrinkled once he was inside, and he made a face. Everything was dark but bright at the same time. Dozens of glass orbs connected to the roof, each enchanted to shine a different color of light, and they spun around at high speeds. The ground felt like it was made out of glass, and the room was rather large but still extremely crowded with hundreds of different people all scattered about.

The music was extremely loud, and Bruno had to cover his ears. People were also yelling, cheering, and singing, making it all the worse. The entire place stunk of cheap booze. Besides the dance floor, there were dozens of tables scattered around where people sat and ate expensive food or drank fine wine. Finally, near the back was a bar.

Ash sighed and wiped at his eyes, which stung from all the different colors. “Let’s get this over with.” He grumbled and made his way over to the bar.

Bruno followed the boy, and soon they took a seat. Only one other person was seated at the bar: a short man, barely three feet in height, who was wearing an expensive black suit and black tinted sunglasses. The man had on a fedora and was smoking a cigar, tapping the ash into a tray. Past the bar was the bartender, who was a tall man dressed in a simple uniform with an apron. He had pale skin and white hair and bored-looking blue eyes, thin hands running a rag across a dirty glass cup.

“Aren’t you boys a little young?” The bartender asked, though he didn’t sound like he actually cared.

“We’re both adults,” Bruno said, giving a grin. “We’re old enough to take the Arcane Knight’s exam now.”

“Fancy.” The man said, not actually listening.

“We’re looking for a guy named Biggie,” Ash spoke up.

“What do ya need 'em for?” The small man in the fedora grunted out.

“You, Biggie?” Bruno raised an eyebrow and looked the tiny man up and down. “So is it like a nickname or…”

Biggie took a drag on his cigar and puffed out the smoke. “Just answer the damn question, brat. What do ya need ol’ Biggie for?”

Bruno rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and tried to force his smile back on. “I was told that you’re the guy to come to if we need to find anyone.” Bruno held his hands up and started motioning. “I’m looking for my friend Olivia—oh, her real name is Mary, if that helps. She has white hair, red eyes, and is kind of curvy in a way, but she’s always wearing baggy clothes so you can’t tell.”

“How do you know she’s curvy then?” Ash frowned.

“We take baths together.”

“What!”

Biggie took another drag of his cigar and stayed silent for several seconds. Finally, he spoke. “Five.”

Bruno nodded. “That’s not too bad—”

“K,” Biggie added on.

“Oh… Yeah, I can’t do five thousand.”

“Guess ya better come back when y’er a Knight then.” Biggie shrugged. “Them's the rules.”

Ash’s eye twitched, and he was about to say something, but suddenly someone else sat down at the table next to him. He looked over, and his eyes widened when he saw the man in the oni mask. Not missing a beat, the spearman reached into his dirty robes and smashed down a fat wad of cash. Ash, Bruno, and even the bartender all gawked when they saw at least five thousand different bills.

“Milk.” The figure’s voice was shockingly soft. The way he spoke was calm and quiet, barely audible.

Bells were the main currency in the Estiria kingdom. They were thin pieces of paper that ranged in various prices which could be determined by the color. Bronze bills were the lowest, silver the common, and gold the richest. The stack the oni figure slammed down were all silver, the light reflecting them.

It took the bartender a few moments, but he managed to process the command and finally acted once Biggie gave him a look. He poured three glasses of milk and turned his back, muttering some sort of spell, before setting the three glasses down and handing one to the oni and the other two to Ash and Bruno.

The spearman tilted his mask up just a bit and took a sip of his drink before setting it back down. Ash awkwardly drank his own glass and kept his eye close on the masked man, while Bruno had already finished his and was licking his lips. The oni adjusted his mask and shifted it back down. Then, he reached into his robes and produced another brick of Bells, just as full as the last one.

Ash nearly did a spit-take when he saw it. Even most Knights or nobles wouldn’t simply carry this much money on them at once, yet here the masked man was. That kind of money was the kind of wealth a person could only get through raiding a powerful dungeon and keeping all the fortune for themselves or slaying a powerful magical beast and selling it to the right buyer.

It wasn’t the only thing the robed figure had, either. The oni also produced a picture and slid it over to Biggie along with some golden coins.

Biggie picked the picture up and stared down at it. It showed a young boy, only about fourteen years old. The boy had raven black hair that was swept to the side and bright blue eyes, and he wore rusted chainmail and carried a heavy claymore.

“I’m looking for him.” The masked man said quietly. “He’s older by about five years but still has a baby face.”

Biggie raised his eyebrow and nodded. His other hand reached up and casually took off his hat, revealing what was beneath. For the second time that day, Ash nearly did a spit take. Biggie’s head was entirely bald, and metal coated it. An antenna stabbed out of the top of it and glowed with a red light, which hummed.

“What’s up with your skull, bro!” Bruno said, having no filter.

“He’s a Magical Mutant.” Ash hissed out.

“He is?” Bruno looked even more shocked. “Cool?”

“Not cool!”

Biggie just smirked. The man’s fingers came up, and he poked at the rod that went through his head. “Row Telepath Pulse!” The red light grew brighter and then expanded out rapidly, going across the club and outside in a bright flash. Biggie hummed again, and then his antenna started to glow once more. “Yeah, I found yer target.” The oni-masked man nodded and turned, waiting for Biggie to go on, but the man’s smile faded. “Sorry, kid. That information is classified. All I’ll say is that guy belongs to the Knights now, and I ain’t looking to get my arse beat by ‘em.” Biggie then swept the bags of Bells into the jacket. “No refunds.”

“Sorry, spearman.” Bruno winced. “That was a ton of cash, too. I feel bad for you, bro.”

“I’m not a spearman.”

“Huh?”

The spearman scooted his chair out and stood back up, letting out a sigh. Despite not getting what he wanted, he gave a bow to Biggie. “I’ll be heading out then, sir.” He spoke in his soft tone. “Thank you for trying—”

“Actually, you’ll stay right put.” Biggie blew on his cigar again, this time sending the smoke directly into the oni man’s mask. “See, my little spell tells me all I need to know when I cast it.” He slipped his hat back on. “I see not just what my light touches, but that which remains unseen as well. Surface thoughts and memories. One of the reasons I’ve been in the business for so long despite the number of crazy bastards trying to steal my life. Y’er not as clever as ya think ya are, boy. I know who you are. The stench of Mordheim clings to ya.”

“Mordheim?” Ash shuddered a bit and glanced back at the masked man who stood there silently.

“Someone like you is a bit of a prized catch,” Biggie said again. “I ain’t letting ya get away.”

Without warning, the masked man ripped one of the spears off his back and twirled it around. Ash stood up, knocking his chair over, and drew his wand. Bruno rapidly raised his hands, attempting to calm everyone.

“Whoa, whoa, let’s not get crazy here! Look, we were just leaving.” Bruno chuckled.

“Nah.” Biggie blew another puff of smoke, which shifted in the air and formed a middle finger. “None of you three is leaving.”

“You really want to do this?” Ash hissed, lifting his wand.

Biggie shrugged. “Oh, we already did it.”

“What?” Ash frowned, but then suddenly he felt something. His head began to ache, and his vision started to blur. Bruno was the first to collapse, crashing to the ground unconscious, and before Ash knew it, he was also falling over, his eyes rolling back.

Lastly, that left the man in the mask. He dropped to a knee, and his spear slipped out of his hand and crashed to the floor. The music in the club didn’t stop, and no one seemed bothered at all by what was happening. “What did you do?” the masked figure demanded, somehow still managing to sound calm and collected.

“Shouldn’t have drunk the milk,” Biggie smirked.

The figure looked up at the bartender, who was whistling quietly. “Poison?”

“Yep.”

“Why, though? You didn’t know until you used your spell.” The figure grunted.

Biggie patted the pocket where he had slipped the two bags of coins. “A person doesn’t just carry around this amount of Bells unless they’re important. You doomed yourself the moment you flaunted your wealth.”

“I see.” The figure chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”

“Next time?” Biggie also chuckled as the masked man finally collapsed unconscious. “There won’t be a next time.”

Chapter 38: Just A Rat

One Year Ago…

Lotus City wasn’t one of the biggest cities in the world and, in fact, was quite worthless compared to many of Estiria’s other populated areas. Lotus existed entirely to send and receive shipments to other kingdoms, countries, and nations out in the world, and most recently, it has gotten overbloated due to the number of citizens from Rossum who have taken up residence in the city, like many other refugees from Rossum were doing.

Because of how small and unimportant Lotus City was in the grand scheme of things, its one and only magic school wasn’t given as much funding as other places would have, and in fact, not a single person who went to Lotus’s Magic Academy was ever able to become a future Arcane Knight. That didn’t stop foolish kids who kept trying.

“You are walking down the street, and then a dungeon opens up. Twelve chimeras all come pouring out.” The teacher of the few combat classes Lotus’s school did have casually rested on his desk and attempted to wipe his sleepy look away. “Can anyone tell me what you do if faced with so many powerful monsters? Mr. Ash?”

Ash gave a smirk and leaned forward, casually twirling his wand. “Isn’t it obvious? You kill them all.”

“Wrong. Also, a stupid answer.” The teacher took a sip from his mug of coffee, and several students laughed at Ash, whose face heated up a bit.

“That’s not wrong.” Ash spat out and shook his head. “I’m taking these lessons to get the combat credit I need to become an Arcane Knight. Knights fight monsters, especially ones that come pouring out of a dungeon! It’s only natural I would kill them.”

“That maybe, but you’re not an Arcane Knight, are you?” The teacher asked, raising his eyebrow. “Last I checked, you were still a rotten little brat. Let me make one thing clear.” The teacher's eyes roamed over the classroom, and he stared at many of the students who were no longer laughing or talking. “None of you will ever amount to anything great. Even if some of you do somehow make it into the Knights, I know for a fact you’ll all serve as nothing more than mere squires, following actual Knights around. These simulations aren’t to actually train you for the real deal. A real monster is scary, dangerous, and above all else, strong. The air in a dungeon is toxic and thick, making it hard to draw breath and focus, and it isn’t anything like the simulation. These are beatable, but a real dungeon isn’t. A real dungeon exists to slay humans. I’m not training you guys to fight monsters, especially armies of them. If it’s one or two goblins or hobgoblins, then sure. Kill them, but if you find yourself fighting dozens of other large monsters, fighting them isn’t an option, and these simulations just can’t live up to the real deal. These classes are here to beat common sense into you all. You shouldn’t fight a monster. You should run. Live. Flee with your life. Otherwise, you’ll end up dead.”

Silence filled the classroom, and no one spoke another word. The teacher kept his serious look and looked at each student who fidgeted in their seats.

He had been in the same position as them all at one point. Several years ago, when he had been a kid, he took as many combat lessons as he could. He tried so hard to become a Knight and did simulation after simulation. He didn’t make it, though.

On the day of the exam, he failed the test.

He hadn’t bothered with getting a job since he assumed he’d be a Knight and be able to live off that sort of money, and it didn’t take long before he blew through all his savings. Because he only took combat lessons, he wasn’t able to get any good jobs since no one wanted to hire him. He could have gone into the military, but that would be borderline suicidal since very few soldiers were able to survive for long due to the war with Mordehim that was plaguing the world. The police force was also out of the question since they were mostly made up of spoiled rich kids who hadn’t been able to join the Knights and didn’t want to go to the military, so they used their influence to get a spot in a police academy to open up for them.

That left just one job left. Working as a teacher who taught combat lessons in one of the magic academies. It was at this job he truly saw how many kids wanted to become Knights and thought the same way he did, but all of them failed the tests.

They always did.

Life just wasn’t fair like that.

“So,” the teacher began. “Does anyone have the right answer for what you do in the situation I listed earlier? ‘You are walking down the street, and then a dungeon opens up. Twelve chimaras all come pouring out.’ What do you do?” He looked around the room, but only one student raised her hand. “Ms. Lot?”

Olivia gave a grin and casually flipped her hair. “You fight them!” She announced proudly, giving the same answer Ash did.

“Wrong.” The teacher pinched the bridge of his nose. “What are you idiots not getting—”

“I think it’s you who doesn’t get it,” Olivia said, cutting the teacher off. “It isn’t about if you can or can’t. In the situation you listed, we’re walking down a street. That implies that we’re in a city. If a dungeon opens up in a city and monsters come spilling out, then it’s only logical that I would give my all to stop the monsters that showed up at random. Not because I think I can or because I’m strong enough, but because if I don’t, people will get hurt. How many people die because they’re too slow and can’t run away fast enough? I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself if I ran, knowing the people next to me aren’t going to escape with me. That’s my answer!”

“You fail.” The teacher said flatly. “Ms. Lot, Mr. Anderson, you both have detention for giving such reckless answers.”

“Way to go, useless Olivia!” Ash let out a growl and stood up, glaring up at the snow-haired girl. “You couldn’t have just kept your mouth shut!”

Olivia scowled and shook her head. “I said what I said!”

“Ha! Well, we all know you wouldn’t be able to take a monster down anyway!” Ash let out a mocking laugh. “You wouldn’t even buy anyone a few seconds; you’d just end up dead!”

“I would not!”

“Would so!”

Olivia growled and whipped her wand out. “Do you want to go?”

Ash already drew his wand, a bit of wind twisting in the air. “You want to be put in your place again? My, my, quite the masochist you’ve become, huh?”

Olivia felt her cheeks heat up, and the blood in her veins burned. By now several students already had their phones out and were recording the display. “You’re going down!”

The teacher pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “I hate kids…”

***

Present Day…

Olivia lost that fight. She lost quite badly. So much so she became a small meme for about a week.

Ash honestly didn’t know why he was thinking back to that day. It really made no sense, yet his mind wandered. The answer Olivia gave was one he had wanted to say. Perhaps if he had been the one using the argument, the teacher would have liked it and gone with it, but since it was said by useless Olivia, it was basically brushed off.

Now that he thought about it, why was he even thinking of her? Everything was dark and black, and he couldn’t feel his body… Was he dreaming?

He was waking up if so. His mind and body were stirring. Then he remembered the situation and that Oni boy, who was most likely a mutant. That bastard had gotten him knocked out.

Ash had never been a lucky kid. He knew that.

Growing up, it seemed fate was always out to stop him. He knew he had what it took to go on and do great things if he had the chance, but things constantly got in his way.

Instead of being born into a rich or noble family, he was born as a peasant in some backwater village. Instead of inheriting a powerful magical weapon or tool to help him on his journey, he had an abusive father who had beaten his mother to death and left him with a ton of debt. Instead of adoring fans, he had people who pitied him and looked at him as if he were a scared child, or Nev and Trent, who only followed him because they were both so worthless and could only be fulfilled by helping a superior lifeform.

It just wasn’t fair.

He should have gone on to be able to do great things. He had a powerful type of magic and good stats, as well as having an A grade in both Alteration and Enchantment, yet instead of living the good life, he was a nobody. He wasn’t even the strongest mage in his shitty village, since Bruno existed.

He hated it.

He truly did. Above all else, though, there was one person he absolutely despised. She had shown up one day and was taken in by Rosco. Her magic type was one of the worst ones ever recorded, and her stats were lackluster, not to mention she wasn’t adept in even a single school, having not a single A-grade trait or school. She was an idiot, weak, worthless, and, above all else, someone who would never amount to anything great.

She was useless.

So why?

Why did everyone treat her so well? She was best friends with Bruno, she was able to get away with leaving the village the most, and she was the one who had caught the eye of the Ebony Knight, who had arrived in the village.

It wasn’t him; it was her. A girl with useless magic, low stats, and not a single good trait was the one being favored by the world.

Several of these thoughts went through Ash’s mind as his eyes slowly opened, and he found himself staring up at Bruno's face.

“Ash!” Bruno stared down at the ash-haired boy and looked concerned. “Are you okay?”

Ash tried to sit up, but the world was still spinning. Bruno offered him a hand, and he slapped it away and grunted. After a few moments, he forced himself to take a calming breath and used his lungs to absorb the mana that was in the air. Just as how Olivia healed quicker due to her blood magic, he was able to rapidly recover mana simply by breathing. As the purifying mana coursed through his veins, he finally took stock of where he was.

“Oh, what the hell,” Ash grumbled at what he saw. “This can’t be real life.”

As village kids, they were all often told that cities were places they should avoid. The world wasn’t made equal, and things could be unfair depending on what you looked like or where you came from. Most Arcane Knights came from powerful cities or noble bloodlines. There were a few famous Knights who came from towns, and then there were fewer than ten known Knights whose roots started in a village.

Adults often scare kids by claiming that city folks are stuck-up rich people who need to be avoided because they constantly try to take advantage of village folk. Ash had never believed those stories.

Until now, that was.

The ground he was lying on was coarse and rough, being made out of sand. The air that he tasted told him that he was underground, and next to him was Bruno, as well as the oni-masked man. All three of them still had their wands, and in the case of the hooded figure, their spears. The room they were in was large and circular, and the sand itself was stained red, with dozens of bones and other skeletons of people jutting out of the ground, which caused Ash’s stomach to flop when he saw it.

They were corpses. Real-life corpses. This wasn’t fiction, and this wasn’t a story. Wherever they were, people had died in this location, and something told Ash that if he wasn’t careful, he too could end up dead.

The room's walls were made of solid stone and looked extremely sturdy. At each corner, massive doors carved into the stone had various chains connected to them, which would drag the doors open, allowing whatever was on the other side to enter the room.

Lastly, above, a series of lights shone down, and there was a massive glass dome that formed the roof. Past the glass, Ash spotted what looked like stands and bleachers that were above them. The seats were all filled with various people, all of whom wore fancy suits or dresses, as well as masks that hid their identity. Some of the masks were plain and white, while others were animal-themed or demonic, like the oni man that was stuck with them. Biggie was also above, sitting on a large throne, which made him look even more comically short.

The tiny man was still wearing his suit and hat. Next to him was a lever, which his hand was on.

“Nice going.” Ash hissed and glared at the masked man. “This is your fault.”

The masked man silently glanced at Ash but did not speak. Ash growled and held his wand up, about to cast a spell, but Bruno jumped in front of him.

“Whoa, whoa, let’s all calm down, bros!” Bruno said, attempting to look calm himself. “We don’t need to blame anyone right now; we’re all stuck in this situation. Maybe if we ask nicely, they’ll let us go?”

“Of course they aren’t going to let us go.” Ash hissed out. “Take a look around you, you dumbass. This is some sort of arena. I bet those fuckers up there are rich bastards that get off on watching people like us die. There are cameras everywhere that are going to record this.”

Biggie had used a form of telepathic magic, which the man claimed allowed him to discover information. The man likely realized that Bruno and Ash were total nobodies from a backwater village that the world wouldn’t bat an eye at if they went missing. That’s what Ash assumed at least, and judging by the skeletal corpses, he was willing to bet he was right. The guys above were here for a show.

Bruno scratched his chin and winced. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m pretty sure this is illegal, bro. These guys are bad people.”

“Of course they are; their leader is a Magical Mutant,” Ash spat out. He glared back at the masked figure. “This is all because you ran your mouth. He only captured us because you made him use his magic. You better not let us die, you bastard.” Again, the masked man stayed silent.

Bruno opened his mouth and was about to say something but was stopped by a loud static voice. From up above, Biggie had started to speak, using his magic to make his voice loud and booming.

“How are you three feeling?” His voice came out as if it were made of static, unseen magitech speakers letting it reach the three contestants who were beneath the glass dome. “Are you all wide and awake?”

“Fuck you!” Ash yelled. “When I get out of here, you’re dead!” He glared at Biggie and then at the other people who were all watching. “All of you are going to die!”

“Looks like we got a feisty one! What do you say? Should we put these kids in their place?” Biggie chuckled, and the people started to cheer so loudly that it could be heard even through the glass dome. Ash got the feeling they were all nobles or criminals—the sorts of people who got a kick out of dark stuff.

He hated it. More than anything, though, he despised how he wasn’t up there, being one of the ones who was watching the show. He was nothing more than a rat. A rat that was smarter and more skilled than most rats but still a rat when it came to the food chain—that was the human race.

“Um, bro!” Bruno began and yelled up to the glass roof. “Can you not?”

Biggie just snorted. “Sorry, no can do. All these lovely people have already paid for their tickets. We’ve got to give them a show, don’t you think?”

“Row Wind Blade!” Ash stabbed his wand up at the roof and blasted out a wave of compressed air. It sliced into the glass but didn’t even leave a shallow cut, making his eyes widen. “What the hell? Row Wind Bullet!” Again, his attack bounced off.

“Row Ice Sword!” Bruno thrust his wand up, ice forming at the tip into a large blade, which flew up and shattered uselessly into the glass. “Damn, it’s durable.”

“Got a buddy who has glass magic.” Biggie bragged. “He’s a master of Alteration and Conjuration and can create ice so durable it’s harder than diamonds. He’s got an A+ in both schools. You guys aren’t going to be able to put a dent in it unless you have at minimum an S grade in Destruction or Conjuration.”

Ash fired another three spells up at the roof before he finally gave up and huffed. “What the hell do you want?”

“I already said it. I want to put on a show.” Biggie stated. His voice was loud and booming, despite how far away he was, as if he was speaking directly into their heads, which, due to his type of magic, he likely was. “Mages like you guys are all over the place. Young upstart kids that get cocky and think they can take the Knights exam. You ran away from home without telling your family, and nobody important knows where you are. If you all die here, your families won’t find you and will eventually assume the worst and think you were eaten by a magical beast or killed by a dark mage. I always hate it when dumb brats like you get it in their skulls that they can go on to do something great. You can’t, and I’m here to prove it.” Biggie grabbed the lever, and his grin grew. “Let me show you the real world.”

“Wait—” Bruno tried, but there was no talking to people like this.

“Try not to die too quickly.” Biggie’s smirk just grew. “Suffer. Flail around. That’s what your kind is best known for, after all. Oh, and make sure to put on a good show.”

And with those words, Biggie pulled the lever.

“It’s showtime!”

Chapter 39: The Lost Brother

The sound of stone grinding on stone made Ash shudder, and he turned just in time to see one of the doors start to grind up, kicking up a few sparks. A horrible guttural growl came from beyond the walls, and something large stepped out.

It looked like a wolf but was much bigger and taller than a horse. Its fur was badly torn, and it looked starved and wild. It wasn’t alone either, as four more followed after it, all in just as bad a shape. They were dire wolves, a relatively low-tier monster, though like most magical beasts, their fur was dense enough to block normal swords or bullets, and these ones were also particularly magic resistant.

There was a good chance that, unless you were an Arcane Knight, you wouldn’t be able to harm a beast like this with a spell.

The wolves instantly spotted them and launched forward wildly. They were starved and beaten, no longer able to reason; the beasts just wanted food, and the mutts no longer cared what kind of food it was.

“Row Wind Barrier!”

“Row Ice Wall!”

A wall of ice jutted out of the ground, reaching all the way up to the roof, and solid air formed over it, adding a second layer to it. Bruno and Ash both winced as they felt their mana shake when the wolves rammed into their protective shield. The dire wolves howled and clawed, snarled and scratched, their fangs shattering the flimsy wind shield, allowing them to bite into the ice and start to tear past it.

When a mage used their mana to create a construct like a suit of armor made of shadows or a weapon made of blood, it would continue to drain the user's mana for every second the construct was out. Also, each time the construct was damaged, it would drain the mana faster. Every hit the wolves unleashed into the wall of ice and wind shook Bruno and Ash’s cores, rattling their bones and causing them both physical pain in their stomachs, which in turn caused their focus to start to wear down, making the walls become even weaker.

Dire wolves weren’t just resistant to magic; they were also really good at breaking magic since their claws could tear through most constructs. The monsters themselves were graded as a Grade C threat.

Ash took a weak step back and glanced at the spearman, who still hadn’t moved. “Don’t just stand there, stupid! Do something!” The wolves were already halfway through the ice. “Help us or something!”

“Yeah, bro.” Bruno nodded. “We could use a hand. Use your spear.”

“It’s not a spear. I’m not a spearman.” The oni-masked man said softly, still speaking in a calm and collected voice.

“Well, whatever it is, fucking use it!” Ash yelled. “I don’t want to become dog shit!”

The wall shattered, and one of the wolves lunged forward. “Row Electric Aura!” A massive burst of orange and gold filled the arena, and everyone flinched, even the people up top. The hooded figure's entire body was suddenly enveloped in a bright orange glow that wrapped around him, sparks of golden lightning zapping out. The ground beneath him bubbled and popped slightly, turning to glass, and the man burst forward faster than the eye could follow.

The wolf howled, but it was cut off as the spear the man wielded tore right through the beast as if it were made of wet tissue paper. The wolf’s body was torn in two, and the other four monsters halted in their attack, actually looking shocked. They only had a moment to process the fact that their alpha was dead before the hooded man once again lunged, moving inhumanely fast.

He literally zipped across the arena, and his weapon was bathed in so much mana that each swipe and strike was able to bypass the monster's resistance, rendering them into chunks of dog meat in mere seconds.

When he was finally done, the hooded figure appeared back in the middle of the arena, dropped to a knee, and let out a huff, the aura around him fading.

“What just happened?” Ash asked, stunned. He wasn’t the only one; the crowd above and Biggie were all left gawking.

“You good, bro?” Bruno asked, running over to check on the panting man.

“Tired.” The oni-masked man huffed out. “That spell takes a lot out of me.”

“Well, I hope you can keep going. It looks like there is more coming our way,” Bruno urged.

Up top, Biggie shook his head and growled. “No way. No freaking way. You guys are just brats. Die!” He grabbed the lever and pulled on it once more. This time, the second door began to grind open. “You’ll die. Everyone dies to this part.”

The door wasn’t even halfway open before something came crashing out. It was far bigger than the wolves and looked almost like a spider. It had eight sharp and piercing jagged legs, stabbing into the stone wall and the sandy floor, and venom dripping down its face. It let out a horrible screech, and from behind it, dozens of other smaller spiders, each still the size of a small child, came pouring out. A Grade B threat.

Ash nearly vomited and shook his head. “Fucking spiders! Row Wind Whirl!” A tornado blasted out of his wand and began to swirl out, kicking up a wave of sand and the jagged shards of glass the masked man had created earlier. The little ones were easy enough to take out, and Bruno also helped.

“Row Ice Barrage!” A series of bullets jutted out of the tip of Bruno’s wand, tearing through the babies, but both his attack and Ash’s barely fazed the mama spider, which jumped up onto the wall and began to scurry around. It spat out a glob of compressed venom, but Bruno rapidly formed a wall of ice in front of him that blocked it.

The spider jumped toward him and stabbed out with its legs, digging into the wall and shattering it as it tried to bite Bruno’s head off. A hand grabbed Bruno by the back of his hair, and the masked man yanked him out of the way, tossing him to the side. Bruno tumbled and looked up just in time to see the spearman get rammed by the spider, which began to stab into the man’s robes, tearing at them and spitting up more venom.

“Bruno!” Ash called out in a panic. An endless sea of the baby spiders kept coming out, and Ash attempted to blast more of them away with his wind, but the horde seemed like it wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

“I’m on it, bro!” Bruno jumped back to his feet and ran toward the opening. Ash cleared him a way through the horde and used the wind to shield him. As he reached the door, Bruno pointed his wand out. “Row Ice Freeze!” A wave of cold air launched out, and ice rapidly sprouted from the ground and filled the gap in the door, blocking it off. “Row Ice Seal! Row Ice Barrier!” He formed another wall in front of it, and chains forged from ice wrapped around it, locking it down and stopping any more of the baby spiders from coming out.

“Row Wind Bird!” Ash called out. This was his best spell and the one he was most proud of. The wind twisted and took shape, becoming the outline of a large eagle forged from silver light and pure mana. The bird was as big as a normal eagle and, for the most part, was just as fast. It let out a loud cry and flew into the air. “Row Wind Bullet!” Ash called out, and not only did the spell blast from the tip of his wand, but it also launched out of the bird he had created.

Creating a construct was easy for most mages, but making a moving construct based on an animal or person was much harder. It was an advanced form of Conjuration and Enchantment, requiring the caster to program the creature’s thoughts and movements in real time. It also used up a lot of mana to maintain, but if a mage could pull it off, they’d be able to use a powerful ability.

Dual casting. Not only could a mage cast a spell out of their wand or hand, but they could also cast a spell through the conjured mana beast they created. This meant any time they cast a spell, two of the same spell would be fired off simultaneously instead of just one, allowing for double the power. It did, however, also use up double the amount of mana, but mana was barely an issue for Ash, since he could breathe and absorb more.

Between him and his bird, Ash began to easily blast away the remaining little spiders, using two spells at once. When he was done, he turned just in time to see the spearman had managed to slay the big spider.

The oni-masked man was glowing again, bathed in his lightning. He jammed his spear into the spider’s eye, rapidly twisting his body with inhuman speed and easily tearing the creature's head off. The spider crashed to the ground dead, and once again, the oni-masked man knelt and breathed heavily.

“Yo, spearman,” Bruno began. “Maybe cast a different spell if that one keeps harming you?”

“I told you, I’m not a spearman.” The oni-masked man grunted and tried to stand, but he tumbled a bit. That was when the man noticed a sizzling sound and looked down to find that his robes were starting to burn and melt. The spider's venom clung to his clothes and began to eat away at his outfit.

Without skipping a beat, the spearman grabbed the bottom of his robes and ripped them off of himself along with his mask, which had gotten hung and caught on the fabric. As they tumbled off of him, several people up top gasped, and some even whooped. Bruno did a double-take and looked stunned. As for Ash, he felt a bit of pride at being proven right. He wasn’t exactly shocked to see a few scales littering the other boy's body; he had been expecting that, but everything else did catch him off guard.

As the robes and mask tumbled off of the tired spearman, Ash felt his heart nearly skip a beat before he forcefully reminded himself that this was a boy. As it turned out, the masked man was pretty. Like, really, really pretty. It could be said he was handsome, but it seemed almost more innocent than that.

The man had soft blonde hair, and his eyelashes were a little long and feminine. He had a smooth-looking face as well, and his eyes were almost innocent-looking and the color of lightning that had been caught in a bottle. He was tall but not lanky, he was fit but not muscular, and he was heavenly but spoiled.

Beneath the cloak, he wore black robes that clung to his body. They looked like the sort of clothing you’d see in Rossum. The only piece of ‘armor’ the man even had was a leather chest piece that fell over his right shoulder.

Now that the cloak was gone, it also became possible to see the scales that covered the man. If not for the scales, it could have been said that the golden-haired man was perfect, but these scales took away his angelic look. They were red, and a few were on the lower part of his face, going down to his neck, where they seemed to snake around it like a serpent. From a distance, it almost looked like a tattoo, but the longer someone looked at them, the more they’d realize the scales would twitch and unfold slightly.

Ash was shocked at the fact that the man was prettier than most of the girls he had seen in his village growing up. In fact, the man was even lovelier than the majority of the Arcane Knights he had seen. If not for the fact that the boy was a Magical Mutant, with a few scales scattering his body, he would have been almost perfect.

Everyone was staring. Not just Ash or Bruno, but the people up top, Biggie, and even a few of the spiders stopped and gawked at the nearly perfect man.

“What are you looking at?” The golden-haired man asked, clearly annoyed. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to him. It was his curse to bear after all, the curse of beauty. “Haven’t you ever seen a Magical Mutant before?” The voice was even softer than before and sounded almost divine now that the mask was gone.

Ash sputtered and looked away. “Are you really a guy?”

“Sorry, I’m not showing you my penis; I’m not into dudes.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Up top, Biggie didn’t look amused and growled. “They cleared two rounds? Who the hell did I pick up? I should have been able to tell how strong the pretty one was, but he blocked it all out? How? Who the hell is he really?” Biggie grabbed the lever and tugged on it as hard as he could, pulling it all the way back. “Screw it! Let’s just skip straight to the end! A genuine Grade B+ threat! Die!”

The last two doors both began to open, and Ash turned just in time to see a wave of fire come blasting out of both ends. He gasped and stumbled back in horror as a salamander and an even bigger salamander both stepped out. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

“What are the chances?” Bruno sounded almost impressed.

“You two,” The soft-spoken boy said, standing back up and grabbing his spear. “Do me a favor. Try to get your Salamander in the air. I’ll take the bigger one on and finish them both off in one strike.”

Ash wanted to argue, but he didn’t have time as two waves of fire launched out. He twisted his wand, and he and his bird cast their barriers, but he already knew they wouldn’t last long. His body shook, and part of him wanted to run away, but he couldn’t. ‘She’ hadn’t run. Even after she almost died, Olivia had stayed and fought the second Salamander all on her own and even managed to beat it.

Ash gritted his teeth and slammed his wand out, launching a blade of wind into the smaller beast. “Bruno! Do your thing!”

“Will do, bro!” Bruno called out, and the boy began to mutter and twirl his wand, getting ready to cast a spell. “Let’s beat this game!”

Ash ran forward, letting out a loud cry, and began to launch more spells at the salamander. Even with his dual casting, he wasn’t making a dent, but the beast was unable to fight back since he kept trying to target its eyes. The salamander kept its eyes closed in order to protect itself, leaving itself wide open. Ash reached it, and both he and his bird attacked at the same time.

“Row Wind Barrier!” He formed it beneath the salamander and used it to try and launch the creature up. His barrier formed a dome shape and spun rapidly, generating a wave of air like a fan, and was just enough to barely throw the creature up a few feet.

As the creature began to fall, Bruno finished his spell. “Row Ice Pillar!” He swished his wand, and a jagged frozen structure jutted out of the ground and lifted up, smashing into the bottom of the Salamander. The creature thrashed and screamed as it was lifted all the way up and pinned to the glass wall. “Alright, spearman, do your thing!”

Over with the pretty boy, he once again glowed and moved as if he were literal lightning, flowing in and out of the larger Salamander’s attacks. There was a tearing sound, and red dripped down his back as something began to pull its way out. Ash felt sick at his stomach when he saw a tail start to sprout from the boy. It was long and thick, reaching over ten feet in length, and it whipped out and wrapped around the snout of the Salamander.

With his insane speed, the boy spun like he did with the spider, his tail fully twisting and twirling around the salamander. The creature was trapped, and it hissed and clawed, but the boy simply caused his tail to lift up and unwrap, throwing the salamander. It went flying through the air and rammed into the second one that was up top.

In under a second, the pretty boy released his spear and charged up more lightning. “I told you, I’m not a spearman. I don’t use spears. Row Electric Bow!” The mana swirled and formed into a crackling greatbow, the size of the boy, which he wielded with one arm, and in his other arm, he placed his spear onto it and began to pull back. It really wasn’t a spear, but rather one massive arrow. He took aim and then fired.

A jagged boom exploded through the arena, kicking up a wave of sand, and the arrow crashed forward, blowing the first and second Salamanders to bits, and then kept going, ripping through the glass roof and reaching past it. The people in the bleachers screamed as shards of glass sprayed out. Past the glass roof was another large stone room, which the entire arena had been built into. It was an underground cavern, but the arrow didn’t care about any of that and kept going, going all the way through the stone and forming a hole above, which allowed sunlight to pour down.

The people in masks all let out loud yells and took off running now that they were in danger, and Biggie tried to stand up, but his legs gave out as he collapsed onto his ass. “H-How!” His eyes were wide and full of fear. “That glass shouldn’t be able to be broken! You’d need a Grade S in Destruction! There’s no way he can have that sort of firepower—”

“You’re right. My Destruction isn’t Grade S. It’s S+.” In a flash, the boy jumped up, going through the glass roof, and appeared next to Biggie, all in under a nanosecond. The boy’s reptilian-like tail reached out and wrapped around Biggie’s throat, lifting him off the ground, choking the small man. “At least, it’s S+ once I build up to it. It took me a while, but I reached the charge I needed to break out. Now… One reason.” The tailed boy said softly. “One reason as to why I shouldn’t snap your throat?”

Biggie sputtered and gasped, grabbing at the tail, and his eyes were now wide and pleading. “P-Please?” He begged. “Y- You and I are the same! We’re both Magical Mutants!”

The golden-haired boy clicked his tongue. “You truly should not have brought that fact up.” The tail grew tighter and pulled the short man closer. “I rotted in a dungeon for years. Over and over, I felt my flesh change and twist and snap, and yet I was too frozen to do anything, forced to watch as the world forgot about me and my brother. I was supposed to be a protector. Growing up, it was my job to keep my little brother safe and ensure nothing bad could happen to him. I failed, though, and instead strayed off my path chasing after something that is likely already dead.” The boy smiled. “So my punishment from Lady Fate was to become this.” He gestured to himself. “You, on the other hand, are a cruel man. I have no doubt you and I are two very different Mutants.”

“W- Wait!” The man begged.

“Goodbye.” The boy’s tail tensed, about to snap the man’s neck, but before he could, jagged rocks stabbed out of the ground, forming cuffs around his arms and legs. The boy froze and grunted.

“That’s enough.” A voice from above announced. A platform made out of stone floated down, coming through the hole the arrow had blasted through, and on top of the platform, Gray stood, his arms folded behind his back. He had a sly grin on his face, and his eyes looked the pretty boy up and down. “I got a tip that Daffodil had a crime ring going on beneath the city and was ready to take it out today, but it looks like you beat me to it.”

Down below in the destroyed arena, Ash and Bruno both gasped as they took in the appearance of the Arcane Knight. A real one had shown up, and a powerful one at that.

“What’s your name?” Gray asked calmly, stepping off his platform.

The boy’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he sighed and finally answered. “Sieg.” He said. “My name is Sieg Hawker.”

Gray’s grin only grew, and he walked forward and grasped Sieg by the chin, looking down into his eyes. “Well, what do you. Lady Tori might have been right; fate really does seem focused on that fake Knight, if you’re here.” Gray chuckled, and his eyes sparkled. “Alright. How about we make a deal?”

For the second time, Gray was about to make a deal with a member of the Hawker family.

He had just found Davi’s older brother.

Chapter 40: A Warrior Full Of Spite

When he was a kid, a dragon had destroyed the village he called home…

It had appeared out of nowhere and tore through the island, burning it all down. Everything was reduced to ash before its might, and he was forced to watch the world he loved be destroyed.

Fire and ice had rained upon all that he knew, and in a way, Davi Hawker died.

Gone was the little boy who had cried when his fishing rod broke, and instead, a warrior had taken that child's place. One who would stop at nothing until the thing that hurt him paid the price. That was when his quest for revenge first started.

It was also when he first met ‘her’.

He had been a stupid kid back then. He met ‘her’ only a year or two into his quest to hunt the dragon. Maybe Lady Fate had guided them to meet, or perhaps it was pure dumb luck, but she had been in a random village called Lillies back then.

Even as a kid, he knew she was gorgeous, wearing a witch girl uniform and having her silver hair tied back. Her eyes were two moons, and she carried a basic wand.

The two of them had traveled together for over a year, seeing all sorts of places and pushing each other as far as they could in order to become Knights. She had even been the reason he created his armor spell and made it look the way it did. Together, they were unstoppable, darkness and light coming together.

The difference between them, though, was apparent…

After they separated, she took the Knights' exam and became a full-fledged member of the Arcane Knights. He knew that this was the case because Olivia had talked about the very same girl he had first met. That amazing girl he had met had become a hero. One that had caught the eye of his new traveling companion.

Meanwhile, he had done nothing. His strength had barely increased after they separated, and he had falsely claimed he was a Knight when in reality he was just another cocky mage who thought they were strong because they were a little more skilled than the typical masses.

He was a failure.

It was humiliating in a way, but Davi wasn’t going to just sit down and take it. This was his chance to finally grow. To evolve and reach the level he needed. He wasn’t concerned with being some holy Knight or good person; instead, he would become the dark avenger that could finally catch up to the Dragon, and he’d use the Arcane Knights to do it.

That woman’s words came back to him for a moment. The final thing she had told him before they separated.

“Stand tall. Do your best not to fall down, and when you do, get back up. Try.” Her silver hair flowed in the wind, and she stood at the edge of a cliff, staring down at a village the two of them had just saved. “That’s all you can do. Just try your best and make yourself happy with your own choice.” She turned back to look at him, and her grin grew. “And. Let’s meet again one day.”

And then she was gone.

They had separated and followed different paths.

‘I wonder if I’ll get to see her again.’ Davi let out a sigh and allowed his daydreaming to come to an end. He sat in his dirty cell and looked up at the roof. ‘It’ll be different this time.’ He promised himself, and the image of Olivia came to his mind. ‘I’ll really do it. I’ll become a Knight with her. I’m not cold or unfeeling. I’m not a monster… I’m me. I’m Davi Hawker.’

He had been in his cell for over a week now, all alone. Olivia had been moved to a different one, leaving him alone. He had given her a series of exercises to do over the week so she could prepare for the test. It wasn’t much, but there was no more time to do anything.

The only time he got to talk to or see someone was when one of the guards would bring him his food. Other than that, he was totally alone and stuck. His body had finally healed, and he likely could break the bars and bust out, but that would just mean having to fight Gray again, who he knew was lurking about. Not to mention, Gray openly admitted to having a spell on the cell, so the Knight would know the moment he tried to break out.

He wasn’t strong enough to fight Gray. Not yet anyway. He promised he would one day, though. That was his current goal. To become strong enough to defeat Gray. If he could do that, he’d be one step closer to being able to slay the dragon that had ruined his life.

Once he was done with Gray, the next one to fall would be that Tori chick. He needed to pay that bitch back for the wounds she left him.

He was happy in a way that he was caught, since it had shown him a whole new world of power. He just needed to grow more. At the moment, he was a mere fish swimming around the ocean, but soon he’d unfurl his wings and take flight like a bird.

Davi shook his head and forced himself to stop daydreaming again. In the silence, his thoughts were the only true thing he had. Luckily for him, enough time had passed, and he no longer had to wait around in silence.

A door opened in the hallway past his cell. Davi looked up, expecting the usual guard to be there with his food, but instead he found Gray.

“Hey.” The Knight said, smirking.

“Sup.” Davi said flatly.

At the bottom of the bars was a small square hole, used to give food to the prisoners, but today it was stuffed with a bag, which Gray tossed in. “Get dressed.”

Davi grabbed the bag and opened it, looking at the clothes inside. They weren’t like the outfit Gray had lent him when he first blacked out. They weren’t even like his original clothes. They were cheap and looked like they had been pulled out of a lost-and-found.

The tunic shirt was brown and looked like something a peasant would wear. The pants were also baggy and faded, with a few tears in them. It was still better than the rags he was currently dressed in, though, so Davi gladly slipped it on, along with a pair of boots that were in it. He used to own a bunch of different clothes, but they had all been lost when he threw his entire vault at Gray, an action he now deeply regretted.

He was basically starting at square one all over again. Gone were his weapons and treasure. He still had his armor since that was made out of his mana, but he was having doubts about if he should wear it or not, now that he learned about the Ebony Knight.

Once he was dressed, Gray cleared his throat. “Hmm, how odd.” The Knight muttered quietly. He had watched Davi strip down and put on the new clothes. “I was expecting to see something on your body. Like scales or some other sort of marking somewhere. Maybe feathers?”

“You thought I was a Magical Mutant?” Davi asked bluntly.

Gray sheepishly looked away. “I wouldn’t be against you if you were. Most people don’t actually know how Mutants work. They think all Magical Mutants are people who committed crimes and were cursed by the gods for their sins. In reality, though, a Magical Mutant is created when a mage is exposed to dark magic over and over again. Honestly, seeing you without any signs makes me more concerned.”

Davi frowned and raised an eyebrow. “Because I’m not a Magical Mutant, you’re more scared of me?”

“I didn’t say I was scared of you.” Gray corrected. “I was secretly hoping you were one, though, since it would explain everything. Dark magic is found in dungeons and works similarly to radiation, harming a mage's magic core and soul. This change causes a person to transform into a Mutant and have their mana be tainted.”

“Why are you rambling about this?” Davi asked flatly.

Gray chuckled at the cold remark and looked back at Davi. “Your mana feels inhuman. All mana has a feel, and even soldiers have mana that feels approachable. Yours doesn’t feel like it belongs to a person, though. I’ve felt similar mana come off of monsters. It just made me assume you were a Mutant.”

“Well, as you said, it isn’t good to assume. You shouldn’t just judge based off of first appearances.” Davi said, pointing a thumb at himself. “I’m a human. I feel and think just like a person does, and I get a bit sad when people assume I’m a bad person or a monster without getting to know me.”

“You broke dozens of laws; you are a bad person,” Gray said in a slightly harsh tone.

Davi didn’t say anything and instead finished tucking his shirt away and created a belt made of shadows to hold his pants up.

“That all has a chance to change, though.” Gray folded his arms and kept on talking. “When a person becomes a Magical Mutant, they’re stuck in their new state forever, but if they can keep their mana and emotions in check, as well as stay out of dungeons for long periods of time, they can slow or even stop further corruption from taking place. Like that, you have a chance not to grow your list of crimes and even erase the sins that were committed. It’s been nine days since you’ve sat in this cell. Tomorrow is the day of the Knight's entrance exam. This is your one and only chance for you to do something worthwhile with your life.”

Davi steeled his nerves and balled his hand into a fist. “So, what are you waiting for? You going to let me out or what?” He asked. ‘Also, I really wanna punch you in your stupid face.’ He kept that thought to himself.

Gray snorted and tapped his foot. “I actually came to let you know something.”

“What’s that?” Davi asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’d like it if you could please fail!” Gray announced in a cheerful tone.

“What?” Davi looked a little shocked. “You want me to fail the Knights' entrance exam? You’re the one who offered me a chance to take it; what gives? Are you two-facing me?”

“That’s right.” Gray nodded. “I’m sorry to say this, but I kind of had a change of mind. You see, there are four types of Knights that exist. At the bottom, you have Squires, who are people who first pass the exam. They’re the lowest of the low and aren’t even proper Knights. They’re the ones who are sent out on the most low-level missions. After them, you have official Knights who get knighted by the King of Estiria. These are mages who have earned the ability to use Haru’s mana and form their armor and are sent on missions typically of grade A or higher. Above them, you have the elites like Lady Tori and myself who serve directly under the Captain of a guild, and then lastly, at the very top, you have the Captains themselves who command one of the eight mage guilds.” Gray explained, holding up four fingers.

Davi processed what he was hearing and nodded slowly. “Right, and the deal was I would become a Squire, but now you’re saying you want me to fail the test? Why are you now changing your mind?” He demanded.

“The position Lady Tori and I hold is very special.” Gray dropped his fingers and let out a sigh. “All over the world, there are plenty of powerful mages, many of whom don’t join the Knights. Besides serving under a Captain, my job is also to find these powerful warriors and try to persuade them to take the exam and become a Knight. This is especially a big thing now since Mordheim has been making more moves, and the nobles want newer, stronger Knights. At first, I was offering you the chance to take the exam since it would fill my quota.”

That was half true. Gray had, in fact, been talked into it by Tori. Due to his standing, he had to invite at least one person to take the Knights exam each year as part of his job requirements, and he had yet to do so, which was why Tori used that to get him to offer Mr. Davi a chance.

Now, though, there was a slight change in plans…

“Unfortunately for you, I happened to meet someone else, whom I happen to like more,” Gray said with a sly grin. “I offered him the chance to become a Knight, and he took it. So my quota is already filled, and I no longer need you. He was quite the looker as well. I’ve never fancied another man before, yet with him…” Gray cleared his throat and shook his head. “Anyway, you’re not needed anymore.”

Davi let out a soft growl, and his mana bubbled up and trickled out beneath him. “So are you planning on leaving me in this cell and being done with me?” He definitely decided he was going to beat the shit out of Gray once he was stronger.

“Of course not; I wouldn’t have given you spare clothes if that was the case.” Gray snorted.

“So then what’s the new deal?”

“The deal really hasn’t changed.” Gray shrugged. “You’ll still get to take the exam, and if you pass, you’ll become a Squire for one of the eight guilds, and if you fail, you’ll be thrown into prison once more. The only difference now is I’m no longer rooting for you, and I won’t be helping you as much as I might have previously. You’re a nice enough guy, but you still did wrong, and I believe that people who do bad things should be punished, just as I believe a person who does good should be rewarded. You’ve done more bad than good, though. A Knight must take down bad guys and ensure they can’t do any more harm to the world. Why, just this week, I put a stop to an illegal underground arena the mafia was funding. In fact, that’s where I met the boy I decided to recruit. I think you’ll be a little shocked when you see him.” Gray chuckled. “Try not to get mad just because he took your place in my heart, okay?”

Davi let out a sigh but nodded his head. “Alright. I’m glad you told me this.”

“You are?”

“Yeah.” Davi nodded again, and his eyes met Gray’s. “At first, I was just going to try and become a Squire to get out of prison time and to help Olivia, but now I have another reason.”

Gray lifted an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”

Davi stepped forward and gripped the bars so tightly that the metal began to creak and snap. “I’m going to become a Knight just to spite you now.”

Gray’s eyes narrowed slightly, but the man didn’t stop smiling. “From how your mana feels to how you look and fight, you’re everything a Knight shouldn’t be. You’re more like a rough warrior who does good at his own convenience and not because it’s the right thing to do. Still, perhaps in the times we live in, it isn’t a Knight that we need, but instead a hateful soldier who will let their wrath let them go above their peers. I hope you fail, but if you do pass and become a Squire, I also hope you become the worst Knight in history.”

Gray casually produced a key from beneath his robes, inserted it into the lock, and turned it. There was a click, and the door swung open.

“Well?” The Knight asked, turning and making a motion for Davi to follow. “Come on. It’s time your story properly starts.”

Davi followed along at a slower pace. He kept his eyes glued to Gray’s back and thought about attacking the man, but that wouldn’t do any good. Even if he did get the jump on Gray, he doubted he could win. The difference between them was just too great. ‘One day… One day, I’m going to beat the shit out of you. That’s a promise.’

Gray wasn’t a bad person. Not fully. The man was following his own beliefs and doing what he thought was right. Davi understood that, but that didn’t make the fact that he lost to Gray, or the man’s earlier taunting words, hurt less. The world was a dog-eat-dog place, and only people with strength seemed to be able to walk the paths they wanted. If he wanted to get closer to his goal and truly walk down his road, he’d need to not just reach the level Gray was at but also surpass him.

Perhaps if he were anyone else, he could simply ask for training or try to form a budding friendship, but he wasn’t anyone else. He was Davi Hawker, and the only thing Davi Hawker was good at was feeling hate. Spite and other negative emotions were what fueled him. He couldn’t understand people, and he didn’t want to. He just wanted to kill the dragon. Nothing more, nothing less.

There was nothing noble or just about it, nor was it an act of perseverance. At the end of the day, whether he liked it or not, he was still that young child who had their life ruined by fire and ice.

“What are you thinking about?” Gray casually asked over his shoulder as he and Davi walked through the halls.

“How I’m going to beat you.” Davi hummed, having nothing to hide.

Gray’s grin just grew. “Good luck with that.”

Eventually, Gray led him out of the hallway and into a room that looked a lot better. It had an oak floor and walls, and the ceiling above had dozens of magical lights that hung from above. Also in the room was Olivia.

“Davi!” Olivia’s eyes lit up when she saw him. Like he was, she was dressed in plain clothes. Her hair was once again tied back, and her tunic shirt and pants were clearly meant for a boy, being baggy, with a makeshift belt that was actually just some rope being used to keep them held in place. Due to her clothes, he couldn’t see the state of her body, so he had no idea if she followed the workout he gave her or not. He’d just have to ask. “Are you okay?” Olivia asked, walking up to him.

Davi forced a smile. “Yep. I’m just fine.” He was not fine.

“That’s good.” Olivia let out a sigh of relief. “Then I guess this is it, huh?”

“Yeah. It looks like it.”

Despite the situation, Olivia managed a weak grin. “Our adventure starts now.”

Davi managed to give a weak nod. “Yeah. It does.” Then he thought to himself. ‘Though, in my case, it feels more like I’m being shackled to it.’

Gray walked toward a wall and muttered a spell under his breath. The stone wall shifted and altered, a large door forming into it. Gray placed his hand on the door and began to push. “Alright, you two. This is it. Our next destination is the Arcane Knight’s entrance exam.”

It was time…

The future of Davi Orion Hawker and Mary Olivia Lot was about to be decided.

Chapter 41: Rose City

Davi quietly stared out the window, watching the buildings rush by as the car rapidly drove past them all.

It wasn’t his first time being in a car, but it was his first time sitting in one that was so fast.

After leaving the prison, Gray had taken Olivia and him to a street corner where a cherry-red sports car was waiting. The vehicle was slim and lean, and the sunlight constantly bounced off of it and was reflected outward. Most people would take trains or magitech airships to get to nearby cities, but Gray was an Arcane Knight, and as such, he had access to a special roadway that was exclusive to Knights that connected each city to one another.

The car they were in blitzed down the road at insane speeds. Davi was in the passenger seat, sitting up front with Gray, who was behind the wheel. That left Olivia in the back. The snow-haired girl was also transfixed by the view and had her eyes glued to the window.

It didn’t take long before they eventually arrived at Rose City. It was as stunning as Davi had suspected it would be.

The city was gigantic, far bigger than any other in the kingdom, with a massive glass dome that was placed directly over it that was reinforced with so much magic that it might as well have been unbreakable. The buildings inside were also huge, reaching all the way up to the clouds, which the dome was also placed over. The city looked almost like a mix of the future and the past, with thousands of different roadways and neon skyscrapers, yet it was also filled to the brim with castles and walled-off areas.

Rose City was so massive that a person could spend a whole month just walking from one end to the next, and it was also tightly packed together. Blimps flew through the sky, just short of touching the dome, as well as other magitech airships, or brooms. On every building was a screen that showed off either a news broadcast of some of the most famous Knights in the world or an ad for a product.

The streets were also full of hundreds of thousands of people. Rose supposedly had a population of over ten million, and it showed. Everywhere, there seemed to be something going on. It was a place that would be very, very easy to get lost in.

The grandest sight, and the one that stood out the most, was in the very center of the city, surrounded by the other castles or skyscrapers. It was a tree. One so thick it took up at least three or four city blocks and so tall that it brushed the top of the dome. The wood was sturdy and strong, and all along the branches, sections had been carved out, forming many different hallways. The tree was the castle in which the king of Estiria lived.

Olivia felt her heart nearly stop as she saw it, along with the rest of Rose. The car Gray was driving was on a massive stretch of highway that went across the ground and connected to the barrier around the city. Davi was also shocked by the sight of the city. It was almost too much, and he couldn’t fully process everything that he was seeing.

One thing was clear to him, though.

The most important man in the world called this city his home.

Gray’s car finally came to a stop once it reached the dome. The road was blocked off by a tollbooth that was connected to the massive glass wall, and several people stood outside, all looking bored. They weren’t typical guards, though. Each one had as much mana as Gray did and was decked out in heavy-looking platemail armor, carrying either massive greatswords or guns.

One of them approached the car slowly. It was a woman with long red hair. Her silver armor hugged her body nicely, and a red cape flowed behind her. A claymore rested on her belt, and it was so long that its sheath touched the ground and was dragged along as she walked.

When she reached the window, Gray clicked a button and lowered it, flashing the woman his best, award-winning smile. “Hey. Gray Buster, looking to enter Rose City.”

The woman’s look was mostly stern, but her lips did curve slightly. “Gray? What are you doing here? Your guild usually takes an airship.”

Gray pointed a thumb at Davi, who gave a lazy wave from the passenger seat. “Taking some people into Rose.”

“More charity work?” The woman sighed.

Gray’s grin just grew. “I can’t help it. I like helping people.”

‘Help my ass.’ Davi kept his thoughts to himself and peered out at the woman. His eyes roamed over her form before settling on something.

The woman noticed his look and frowned. “Hey. Watch where you’re staring-”

“I like your sword,” Davi said, nodding his head.

“My sword?”

Davi hummed. He was currently out of weapons. That meant he’d need to refill his vault. He didn’t have any guns, bombs, or swords and only had a lone fishing pole that he could call his own. “Can I have it?”

The woman’s confused look just grew. “No? You can’t just have my sword. It’s mine.”

“Try to ignore him.” Gray held his hand up before Davi could say anything else. “Can we enter, Lin?”

Lin sighed but nodded her head. “Sure. Just keep an eye on that one; he’s quite odd, Gray. I don’t like the feel of his mana.”

“I don’t like your face,” Davi responded.

“Excuse me!”

“Well, it was good seeing you, Lin. Bye!” Gray stepped on the gas, and the car surged forward. The dome glowed, and right before they hit it, a strange white light seemed to shine over the glass, and Gray’s car went right through as if it wasn’t even there. They appeared on the other side of the glass dome, where a large stretch of road went down, and they had finally officially arrived in Rose City.

Olivia’s eyes sparkled as she stared at the many buildings and people. Women in cute witch outfits flew around on brooms, while men in heavy-looking golden armor stood on flying carpets. Cars and motorbikes filled the roadways, and on every corner, something was happening.

“Oh my Haru, I can’t believe I’m actually in Rose! This is a dream come true.” Olivia squealed.

“It kind of hurts my eyes.” Davi rubbed at his eyes and suppressed a wince. The city was way too bright, with dozens of colorful lights radiating everywhere. It was also loud. Very, very loud. He had no idea how people were able to call this place home.

“When you’re taking the actual test, try to be on your best behavior, okay?” Gray stated, shooting Davi a look.

‘Nah.’ Davi didn’t respond and slumped down in the chair, letting out a tired yawn. He was glad his body had fully healed and recovered. He was a lot more confident that he could defend himself and Olivia now that he was actually here.

Gray just let out a sigh when he saw that Davi didn’t bother with a remark. The car continued down the road and soon pulled to a stop when they reached their destination.

On the corner of a street near the middle part of the city was what appeared to be a massive colosseum. It was huge, made of white marble, and stretched out, occupying a lot of space. A mini wall had been built around it, and there were large sets of stairs that led up to it, where an entranceway resided, with several more guards, like the one at the dome entrance, waiting outside.

Many cars were parked all along the street, and dozens of groups of people were walking up the stairs and entering the colosseum. Davi winced slightly as his scar burned, and he could feel a massive amount of mana practically dripping off of the building. The tests were held inside and were what would determine which mages could go on to become Knights.

“Get out,” Gray spoke and opened his car door. Davi and Olivia did as they were told, and when they were out, Gray walked around the car and reached into his pocket. “Here. You’ll need to show the guards your grimoire to enter and sign a few waivers as well once you climb up those stairs.” Gray pulled out two sleek, pitch-black phones.

Olivia let out a gasp as she took hers and stared down at it, her hands shaking a bit. This was the newest Sini-Phone model. It was costly and one of the fastest phones in the world. “You’re just giving us this?” She asked in shock.

Gray just shrugged. “Yep. Have fun.”

Olivia happily shook her head and turned hers on. Instantly, she felt a slight pain in her thumb as a tiny prick stabbed her, drawing a small portion of her blood. The phone buzzed for a moment, and then the screen lit up. It was the same screensaver her old phone had, that being a lewd picture of her favorite Arcane Knight, and it even had all her old apps already installed in the exact place she liked.

This was because of magic. The king’s magic is what created the internet and all services on phones, and so when a person picked up an electronic device or something akin to that, it would connect to that person's mana and remember them. That was how Davi was able to access his grimoire on her phone the first time she showed it to him. When he was holding it, it was connected to his mana, not hers, and so the phone was his during that time.

It was also because of this process that when Davi opened his phone, it was pretty much blank. It had no screen saver and only had the basic search engine, the call app, and the grimoire app installed, as he had never used anything else.

Since each person could only access their own data on a device, it was impossible to take another person's phone and use any of their apps, as the phone would always connect to the mana of whoever was holding it and adapt itself to fit that person. People also used this method to determine someone's identity since they could only open the grimoire profile that belonged to them.

“The phone is cool and all, I guess, but could I have a sword, too?” Davi questioned, cocking his head to the side.

Gray just let out a low chuckle. “Sorry. That’s all you’re getting from me. If you want anything else, you’ll have to get it yourself. We’re done from this point on.” Gray pointed toward the stadium that stood directly in front of them, and Davi and Olivia looked toward the stairs. “This is where we part ways. You two are on your own going forward.”

Davi gave a nod and stared at the many guards who were looking over the people that were trying to enter. His gaze then turned to a statue that rested near a section at the halfway point of the stairs. The statue was of a woman, and she was crafted from the same white marble as everything else. She appeared to be in very light-looking armor, and her hair was tied back. One arm was at her side, clutching a helmet, while her other hand held a sword that stabbed downwards into a stone on which the blade rested.

Olivia noticed him staring, and she also looked at the statue of the woman. “Davi.” She said quietly. “You seem to never know what’s going on, but you at least know who that is, right?”

Davi snorted. “Of course I do. That’s her.” The first Arcane Knight, the slayer of the elves, dragons, and demons, and the woman who was in charge of the kingdom nine hundred and ninety years ago. Haru Estiria. “She’s the mother of that king guy, right?”

“Please don’t call him ‘that king guy,’” Gray said, letting out another sigh. “But yes. Haru was the strongest Knight in the world, and she was the mother of the current king.”

“How does that work, though?” Davi made a face. “She died a long time ago, at least that’s what I heard.” Haru’s rule ended nine hundred years ago, and she had only led her kingdom for ninety years. “If the current king is her son, he’d have to be older than an old geezer.”

“Magic,” Gray said flatly. “The current king has ruled our kingdom for over eight hundred years straight. Sini is the longest-living ruler in the world, and thanks to inheriting his mother's magic, his life has been vastly extended beyond anything anyone has seen before. Haru wasn’t just a great knight. She was practically a goddess. It is hard to say if she was even really human. Some legends claim she was sunlight itself, forged into the image of a person. She would have ruled forever if not for being betrayed by the Ebony Knight, which brought about her eventual end. Her son took her place, and though he lacked the gift Haru herself had, he still possessed many of her talents, including a long lifespan. It is thanks to him and him alone our kingdom still stands and has been able to fight off the other three great nations.”

“He’s really that amazing, huh?” Davi asked, giving a soft frown. His father told him some tales of Haru. Even in their backwater village, news of the great knight’s deeds reached them. The tales never mentioned anything about a son, though.

“The king still holds some of Haru’s magic within himself,” Gray said softly, and the Knight reached up and placed a hand over where his heart was. “Only King Sini can knight us and turn us into true Arcane Knights. When he does that, it gives a small fraction of Haru’s mana to us and awakens new abilities inside of us. That’s why Arcane Knights are so powerful, and it’s also why only certain people can become them. We only have so much of Haru’s mana to go around after all.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Davi gave a lazy shrug. “So if we pass this test, we get some of her mana?”

Gray let out a laugh. “Sorry, but no. You’ll get some benefits for passing the tests, but Squires don’t get the mana. You have to earn it.”

Olivia took a calming breath, trying to steel her nerves. “We’ll do it.” She promised. “We’ll pass not only this exam but all challenges thrown at us, and we’ll make it to the top. Right, Davi!” Olivia began to walk up the steps but stopped when she realized Davi wasn’t following her. She turned to look back at her friend. “Davi?”

Davi kept his eyes on the statue of Haru, and his hands were casually in his pockets. “Hey. What happens if I run?” He asked after a few moments and shot a look at Gray. “You turn your back and leave, and instead of taking the test, I just make an escape. Have you thought about that?”

Gray had been about to get back in his car but stopped at Davi’s words. The Knight looked up slowly, and his eyes met Davi’s. “If you wanted to run, you should have done so long before you stepped foot in this city,” Gray said in a blunt tone. “I hate to break it to you, but your life is basically over unless you pass the exam. You won’t be on the run for anywhere near as long as you were the first time.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” Gray nodded. “You got lucky last time. Lady Tori wanted you all to herself. She rigged the systems so that no one else could go after you. It was pure dumb luck that I found you first. The thing is, though, Lady Tori won’t be doing that anymore since you didn’t live up to the hype she set for you. You try anything like that ever again, and you’ll have the full wrath of every Arcane Knight coming after you.” Gray warned. “And let me tell you something. If you thought Lady Tori was strong, well, you haven’t seen anything. She’s not even in the top ten.”

“B-but she’s the Lance of Victory!” Olivia said in shock. “She has to be the best, right?”

Gray shook his head. “She’s the most famous Knight, but fame doesn’t equal power. Remember this. There is always a bigger fish. There are people hundreds of times stronger than Lady Tori who are half your age.”

“Seriously?” Olivia said in shock.

Gray’s serious look didn’t fade as he stared at Davi. “Don’t mess this up. I’m serious.” The man finally got into his car, and after a few more moments, he started it up and began to drive off.

Davi remained where he was, looking calm and collected. After some time, he turned away and began to walk up the stairs where Olivia was. “Why did you bring that up?” She asked him, confused. “That ticked him off, and if you were planning on escaping, that basically blew any chance you had.”

“Don’t worry, I never planned to run away; I’m going to take the test one way or another,” Davi said, and he casually stretched his arm out, getting muscles and joints ready for what was to come as they climbed the stairs.

“So then why?” Olivia asked, even more baffled. Why was Davi always so weird?

Davi gave a slight grin. “I just wanted to get under his skin.”

“Seriously…”

“Serious.”

He was not serious. In actuality, he wanted to know how Gray would react. Gray told him the information he wanted, which was a rough ranking of where he stood in the grand scheme of things. He knew he wasn’t as strong as people like Gray, but the man made it clear that the other Knights could stop him as well if they wanted to. Not only that, but Gray even told him that Tori girl wasn’t the strongest either. The guilds were all run by Captains, from what he had been told, and there were eight Captains in total. If Tori really wasn’t in the top ten, then at least eight of those people were most likely the Captains, since they were likely the best of the best. Ranked just under the Captains was the position of power that both Tori and Gray held. That also meant there were at least two more people stronger than Tori who weren’t Captains.

In other words, his list of people grew from just Tori and Gray to twelve people now. If he wanted to beat the Dragon, then he knew he would need to be the best.

Davi reached the top of the stairs and balled his hand into a fist. “Let’s do it, Olivia.” He said, turning to look back at the white-haired girl. “Let’s become Knights.”

Chapter 42: Identity Trouble

Children, no matter where they grow up, are always bound to have dreams. For many, life will rear its ugly head and snuff out these epic adventures before they can even begin, but for the lucky few, they may find themselves able to march forward even after a numerous amount of hardships are thrown their way.

Today in the Estiria Kingdom, a special event was being held. Kids from all over the nation, be they city folk or country bumpkins, all came to Rose to do one thing.

Become Arcane Knights.

Olivia was still amazed that she got to be one of those kids.

“Name.”

The colosseum was directly up the set of stairs, and standing in front of the entrance to it were several tired-looking guards. The entryway sort of looked like a tool booth, with a slab of magical metal that was thin and round floating in the air in front of the doorway, and all the guards were dressed in heavy-duty SWAT gear and had large magitech firearms strapped to their backs. They also had mana that was practically dripping off of them. Not as much as Gray or the woman at the dome’s entrance, but enough where it was clear they could take down normal people with ease.

Olivia stood directly in front of the guards, and she nodded her head. “Olivia Lot- Oh, actually my name is Mary Lot, Olivia is my nickname, and was my mother's name, and-”

“You’re rambling,” Davi said flatly, and he placed a hand on Olivia’s shoulder. He stood directly behind her and kept his calm and collected look, which he usually had, while Olivia was basically having a mini panic attack.

Olivia let out a sigh and tried to force her heart to steady. She reached up and placed her hand over Davi’s and gave it a slight squeeze. “My name is Mary Olivia Lot. I’m here to take the Arcane Knight’s exam.”

The guard let out a low grunt and stared down at a tablet he had in his arms. He typed a few things on it, and the web page turned and shifted. “Mary Lot, daughter of Arthur Roads and Olivia Lot. Age eighteen and holder of blood magic.” The man said, reading off a list. “Your current residence is Fri Village, and Rosco Moore is your current guardian. Is this all true?”

“It is,” Olivia stated.

“Let me see your grimoire app.” Olivia pulled out the phone Gray gave her and turned it on. She flashed the screen to the guard after booting up the grimoire. It showed her name and age, as well as the pages she could click on for her stats, traits, and spells. The man’s eyes roamed over it for a moment, and he clicked something else on his tablet. “I need you to sign this. It states that you’re of sound mind and acknowledge the risks that can happen when you take the exam.” The man turned his tablet over to her.

Olivia looked down at it and quickly scanned it up and down. It was mostly a bunch of corporate words saying she couldn’t sue if she got harmed or died while taking the test, and all results were final and couldn’t be changed in any way. She ignored most of it and hit the accept all button, and then used her finger to draw a very poorly done signature on the page. When she was done, a small prick jutted out of the bottom of the tablet and cut her thumb, just like when she first turned on the phone Gray gave her.

The devices always did that because mana could be found mostly in blood, and so by getting a drop of a person's blood, it could be used to figure out how their mana and magic type worked. This method was also used by the police whenever they were dealing with a crime that had left DNA evidence at the scene of a crime.

The guard took the tablet back, and he muttered a quiet spell. Metal twisted and formed in the air, millions of tiny iron particles fusing together. It formed into a thin bracelet that wrapped around Olivia’s wrist and squeezed down on it tightly. It had the number ‘Eight hundred and eighty’ carved into it.

“Alright.” The guard said. “You’re good to enter. Follow the hallway straight down.”

“I’m with him, so I’ll go when he’s also done,” Olivia explained, and she stepped to the side, letting Davi pass her.

“Name?” The guard asked Davi, still bored out of his mind.

“Davi Hawker.”

The man typed on his tablet, and the screen turned red and let out a loud beep as the message ‘no results’ popped up on his screen. The man’s bored expression faded and became a frown. He typed again, but the results were the same. The screen flashed red and beeped. “How do you spell it?”

“David minus the final D and Hawk like the bird, but it’s visiting the ER.”

“Who describes it that way…” Olivia snorted.

“Do you go by a different name?” The man asked, getting a little more frustrated when the name still didn’t pop up.

“Not that I’m aware of.” Davi cocked his arms to the side and folded his arms. “Try Mister Handsome or Sir Badass. That might do it.”

Olivia looked a little worried and leaned in to whisper into Davi’s ear. “Is this because of the Lance of Victory?” She asked. “Gray mentioned she did something that stopped people from being able to look your name up?”

Davi shook his head and whispered back. “No. I think this is different. Whenever someone tried to look up my name or search for me, they’d just be kicked out, but he seems to be getting no results. Also, I don’t think that Tori lady is still doing that since I was already captured.”

“Can I see your grimoire app?” The guard asked after the fifth attempt yielded the same results.

“Sure.” Davi pulled the phone out and flashed the screen toward the man. Just like with Olivia’s, it had his name, age, and the other pages all listed on it.

“So your name really is Davi Hawker…” The man rubbed the back of his neck. “Give me a moment.” He reached up and pressed a button on his earpiece. “Sir, we have a six-sixteen.” Then he looked back at Davi. “Just a moment, my boss is coming.”

Davi let out a sigh and pocketed his phone. “Always something.”

It didn’t take long for the man’s boss to arrive. She stepped out of the hallway that was past the guards and ducked down under the metal rod that blocked it off. She was quite the looker, with long, raven-black hair and a pair of deep green eyes. She wore a white buttoned-up shirt that was obviously too big on her, along with baggy pants that were only held up thanks to the three belts she had on. Her hair was a bit messy, and bags rested under her eyes, and she was chewing gum. At her belt was a silver rapier which kept bouncing back and forth since it wasn't properly held in place.

“Wassup?” The woman asked tiredly.

“Sir, this guy’s name isn’t in my system.” The guard explained, and he handed the tablet over to the woman.

“Name?” She asked, looking even more exhausted at the fact that she had to do work.

“Davi Hawker. I like your sword, can I have it?"

“No, my sword is mine, now is Davi Hawker spelled like David minus the last D and a Hawk that has to go to the ER?”

“Yes, exactly.” Davi nodded, and Olivia just sighed. "Can I please have your sword."

"Still no." The woman typed the name into the tablet, but just like with the other guard, the screen buzzed red and the words ‘no results’ appeared. The woman hummed and clicked on something near the top of the tablet. “What nation do you come from?” She asked.

“Mordheim.” The other guards all jumped and stared at Davi in shock, but the woman didn’t look surprised and typed something else in.

This time, the screen flashed blue. “There we go. We were looking for names only in the Estiria kingdom.” She hummed. “Finally got a result.”

“You can’t actually be about to let him enter, right, Sir Sune?” One of the guards said in horror. “He’s from Mordheim!”

“So?” The woman, apparently named Sune, made a face and cocked her head to the side. “I’m from the land of Gallenth, yet I’m still an Arcane Knight since I moved to Estiria. Additionally, at least a few dozen people taking the test this year are from Rossum. Anyone can become an Arcane Knight, should they be willing to work for the kingdom.”

“What if he’s a spy, though?”

“Are you a spy?” The woman asked Davi.

“No. I don’t think so, anyway.” Davi looked down at himself and frowned. "I'd tell you I was one if you gave me your sword, though."

"Davi!" Olivia exclaimed with wide eyes.

"What? It's all silver and stuff, what if I have to fight a werewolf, I want it." Davi shrugged.

“He’s not a spy.” The woman nodded her head. “Besides, even if he does take the test, that doesn’t instantly mean he’ll become a Knight. There are several tests, many of which weed out those who are not worthy or hold ulterior motives. It’d be impossible.” The guard looked like he wanted to say more, but knew that it wouldn’t matter. Sune was always difficult to talk to, and she wanted to minimize the amount of paperwork as much as possible. The woman finally looked back down at her tablet. “Still, it is kind of odd. Are you really Davi Hawker?” She asked.

“Again, last I checked.” Davi looked back down at his hands and then pinched his cheek to make sure he was still him and not someone else. "Yeah, still me."

“Estiria keeps files on all of its citizens since they’re all connected through the king, but looking up information on people from other nations can sometimes be tricky.” The woman explained. “Especially when it comes to Mordheim. It’s not impossible to get in or out of the country, but it’s difficult, so only a small amount of information is made public knowledge. I still haven’t found any name belonging to someone called Davi Hawker, but I did find some reports on something called the Hawker clan.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, but it says that particular clan died out hundreds of years ago.” The woman said as she read over the file.

“I guess in a way that is true.” Davi rubbed his chin. “I don’t know everything, but my dad said most of his clan was wiped out during some political incident. He never knew any members of his clan and grew up on a little island that was at the very edge of Mordheim. It wasn’t even connected to the mainland and was so insignificant that I doubt anyone knew we were living on it, so the kingdom probably just assumed the clan died out.” With the death of his father, that likely meant he and Sieg were the last two people on the planet who were part of the Hawker clan.

“Can I see your grimoire?” Sune asked. Davi showed it to her, and she nodded. “Well, you are named Davi Hawker. You couldn’t be able to fool the king’s mana.” The woman switched to a new page on the tablet and held it out to Davi. “Go ahead and sign your consent form.”

Davi took the tablet and began to read quietly. And read. And read… Seconds passed, which then ticked to a few minutes, which then ticked to several minutes-

“You don’t actually have to read it!” Olivia spoke up after a full ten minutes had passed, and she saw that Davi was still on the first page. “You can just skip straight to the end, hit accept, and sign!”

“Shouldn’t I read through this all carefully, though, and know what I’m accepting?” Davi asked, still scanning over the words with his eyes. “This looks like serious stuff, talking about lawsuits and how I could get harmed.”

“Davi!”

“Okay, fine,” Davi grumbled a bit and sped his reading up, quickly skimming everything. It took him another five minutes, but he finally reached the bottom and clicked 'confirm'. Then he wrote his name, erased it because he didn’t like how it looked, wrote it again, erased it again, and-

“That’s enough.” Sune yanked the tablet out of his hand, and she motioned for one of the guards. The man still looked a little uncomfortable, but eventually used his spell to create a bracelet around Davi’s wrist. This one had the number ‘Eight hundred and eighty-one’ on it. “Alright.” The woman nodded her head once it was done. “That should be everything. Go on now; you’ve wasted enough time here.” She pointed behind her with her thumb, and the metal pole began to lift up and move out of the way, finally allowing them to step into the hallway. “Oh, and good luck.”

“Thank you so much!” Olivia eagerly took Davi’s hand, and she began to drag him into the colosseum.

As the two entered, the guard turned back to his boss. “Sir? Are you sure it’s wise to let him in?”

Sune rolled her eyes. “Don’t be racist.”

“I’m not—”

“If he is bad, the Captains will figure it out. If they don’t… Well, there’s always ‘that thing’ that will do the trick.” The woman’s lips curved upward slightly. “If he is a spy, letting him take the test will actually be the easiest way to figure it out.”

“And if someone gets hurt?”

“Literally every Arcane Knight Captain is going to be present today.” The woman looked up to the sky, where several magitech airships flew around, all carrying large banners showing off the eight Arcane Knight guild symbols. “This is likely the safest place in the entire world right now.”

“I don’t know about that.” Another guard snorted, and he pointed up to one of the banners. This one was a red banner with a golden outline of a bird forged out of fire across it. “After all, Phoenix Flight is here today. Things always go wrong when those bastards show up.”

Sune gave a lazy shrug. “I guess only time will tell.”

Inside of the colosseum, Olivia walked through the halls at a steady pace. She kept her hand on Davi’s and squeezed it tightly. It was a single straight line, one that went all the way to the end, where a set of heavy metal doors resided.

Now that she was actually walking toward it, though, she found herself slowing down. Was this actually happening? Was she really about to take the Arcane Knight entrance exam? Her heart was pounding so fast that it hurt, and she could feel her blood burning in her veins.

What if she failed? What if she wasn’t good enough? She hadn’t really improved all that much. Besides, she hadn’t passed any combat tests at her old school, and all the Captains were going to get to see that.

Each year that the Arcane Knight entrance exam was held, the tests were different, but there were always four, and they all had a theme. The order of the tests would always be random, and what they contained would constantly change, but they would always have a particular theme. They were the test of the soul, the test of courage, the test of skill, and the test of knowledge.

Several Knights were going to be present for the tests, along with the eight guild Captains who would be watching. Each test would be observed by the Captains, who would have records on every person who was taking the test. That meant having good scores before the exam was important. The more combat lessons you took and passed, or the more noble deeds you were known for, would help boost your final score. People like her, who failed every test, or someone like Davi, who had no record, were at a significant disadvantage and would have to hope they did well in the exams and impressed the Knights.

The exam was the most crucial part, and so in theory it was possible to get into the guilds by just taking the exam, but it was much harder.

It didn’t actually matter how well you did in the exam, as they didn’t have a traditional points system. When all the tests were done, the Captains would all place their vote on whether a person could join their guild or not. If a person got at least one vote, they would go into that Captain's guild. If they got more than one vote, that meant that person impressed several Captains and would be placed in the guild that was best for them. If a person got no votes, then that meant no Captain wanted them, and they wouldn’t be placed into any guild. If that happened, it meant a person had failed.

Captains only had a limited number of votes they could distribute, which was intended to prevent a Captain from simply sending a guild invitation to every member. Since a Captain only had so many votes, they would often spend all of them on people who had the best records before the exam and then spend the rest on people who impressed them during the actual part of the exam. This was why so many nobles became Knights, since their record was so grand, they were basically given the pass before the exam even properly started.

These tests weren’t just about doing well; they were also about impressing the eight strongest people in the kingdom.

Olivia stopped once she reached the doors, and again her mind raced. She could only cast three spells a day. Would that be enough? She trained and exercised, but it had only been for a week. That wouldn’t be enough to get stronger. Also, even if she did make it to the end, it didn’t matter if she didn’t impress any of the Captains. Would a Captain even let someone with blood magic in? What if they knew who her father was and-

“Olivia.” Davi let go of her hand and placed it on top of her head. He turned her and forced her to look at him. “You've got this.” Davi raised his leg up and placed it on the door. “Let’s show them all what we can do.”

Olivia stood there for a moment but then managed to give a grin. “Right.” She lifted her own leg up and placed it next to his. They both kicked out as hard as they could, and there was a loud creak as the door swung open and slammed against the side of a wall. Light poured in, allowing them to see out of the hallway they stood in, and Olivia stepped forward, trying to be confident.

Davi had his moment earlier where he made his declaration and promise to become a Knight, and he didn’t even care for them as much as she did. It was her turn. She was going to do this. No more hesitating and no more being scared. She’d give it her all, and no matter what, she’d be proud to do it.

“Let’s do this!” Olivia declared. “My name is Olivia Lot, and I’m going to become an Arcane Knight!”

Chapter 43: Starting Off On The Wrong Foot

Olivia regretted her words instantly. In all the comics, books, or shows she was constantly consuming, the main character would declare their name as loudly as they could and then announce that they had what it took to achieve their goals. She had always thought something like that was badass, but now that it was her doing it, she realized how cringey it sounded.

Her embarrassment only grew when she saw the looks everyone was giving her. They weren’t the ones she had been expecting. She thought maybe someone would laugh or snort at her, or someone would cheer, but instead, it was an awkward silence, followed by a brief moment of judgmental stares, before the crowd returned to its previous activity.

“Why did you yell that out?” Davi asked as he stood next to her. “You said it really loudly. Who was that for?”

“I just thought it would be cool.” Olivia turned away from the raven-haired boy, and she quietly took stock. “I guess we’re here.”

Past the doorway she and Davi stepped through was the colosseum itself. It was a large, open area that was circular and about the size of a blitzball field. The ground was made out of sand, and there was no roof showing the sky above. Up where the walls were, sections had been carved out, forming bleachers and stands where people could watch and stare down at those in the field. They were currently mostly empty, though, with only a few guys in suits or low-ranking Knights standing around.

Despite the large field, the entire area was also very crowded, as many people had come to take this year's test. At the minimum, the number of people that were scattered around was in the triple digits, possibly even the quadruple digits. People all over the world, not just those in the Estiria Kingdom, would come to try to become knights.

Every nation, kingdom, and country had their own form of protectors, like Mordheim, who had the Spell Swords; Gallenth, who had the Sovereign Philosophers; and Rossum, who had the Martial Cultivators, but none of those could compare to the gifts becoming an Arcane Knight could provide, which was why people from other nations, even Mordheim, would pay top dollar to arrive in Estiria and take the Knights entrance exam.

Very few foreigners would be able to pass, with most heading back home and joining their nation's group rather than retaking Estiria’s exam the next year. This was because there was only a limited number of spots available every year.

The only way to become a Knight was for a Guild Captain to vote for you during the exam period; however, the Captains only had eight votes they were allowed to use. Since there were eight Captains, that meant in total only sixty-four people could actually become a Knight.

That number was even smaller, though, since if a person taking the exam showed great promise, two or even more Captains could vote for that person.

This was primarily done to prevent the Knights from becoming too large. There was only so much of Haru’s mana that could go around, and the Knights also technically didn’t work for the kingdom itself and instead were more like hired help the kingdom constantly kept around. Some people in power were afraid that if the Arcane Knights gained too many members too quickly, the Knights would overthrow the government, which was why they limited the number of possible Knights each year.

These same individuals often ran the police or military forces and would ‘offer’ jobs to promising people who got unlucky and didn’t receive a vote from any of the Captains, taking those people for themselves.

The system was a bit disorganized…

Olivia quietly eyed each person up and down. Depending on the type of test they were given this year, some of these people would either be her teammates or her enemies.

Many of the people in the crowd were her age. Most looked like they were young adults who just finished their final year of combat lessons and were excited to try and face the Knights' exam. A few others in the large crowd were a bit older and looked more stern. They wore bits or even full suits of armor and had their weapons ready to go. This likely wasn’t their first time taking the exam. Also scattered throughout the crowd were young or older people dressed in traditional armor or clothing from their homelands, but it was the last group of people that Olivia truly settled her gaze on.

Scattered through the crowd were men and women who were well past the age of twenty. They had sunken eyes or pale skin and often wore scraps of armor or cheap, hastily put-together gear. Their eyes held no light, and they looked like they would collapse at any moment.

They were the people who tried taking the exam every year, and each year they would fail. This would lead to them spending more money taking extra combat lessons, buying new spells or magic items, and putting in more work, only to once again fail to become a Knight. The people who failed so much that they gave up but still showed up because it was all they knew how to do anymore.

The kind of person she knew she would become if she didn’t pass.

Olivia felt disgust.

“I’m going to do this.”

Davi patted Olivia on the back, and together the two of them stepped forward and began to make their way through the crowd of nameless faces. “I have no clue what I’m getting into,” Davi admitted. “Are we going to be in a dungeon or something? Do we fight a boss?” Davi looked around, and then he spotted something.

“I don’t know,” Olivia admitted. “The tests are never the same. It’s always something different, but they tend to follow a theme. Hopefully, if we’re lucky, it’ll be a team-based test that we can join forces on and beat together. What’s important right now is we stick together.” She reached up to pat Davi’s shoulder, but her hand only slapped at empty air. “Davi?” She turned and found the raven-haired boy was no longer next to her…

Davi had wandered off.

“Wow, Master Rowan, I can’t believe your father actually bought you that armor.”

“Yeah! It looks so good on you!”

Many people in the crowd that filled the colosseum mostly kept to their inner circle or friend group and formed small sections where they could be alone. It was in one of these sections that Rowan Zyne casually leaned against a wall, a sly and confident smirk on his face.

He was a rather handsome boy, and he knew that. He had brown hair that was straight and neat, as well as a pair of eyes that looked like two pools of crystal-clear water. His skin was fair, and he wore light armor that draped itself over him. It consisted of a silver chestplate as well as gauntlets and boots. It looked more stylish than practical and would require the user to expend their own mana if they wanted to prevent the armor from being scratched or banged up.

“Yes, well, my father wanted me to be ready for today,” Rowan said, speaking in a slightly smug tone.

Standing before him were his two admirers. Sera was a little short with raven-black hair and green eyes that were transfixed on Rowan. Ashley was the second girl, and she was significantly taller, with blonde hair and yellow eyes. Neither of them was dressed in armor, but they also weren’t dressed in the expensive gowns many of the noble ladies wore. Instead, both girls wore a black and white maid outfit.

The two of them were personal servants of Rowan and had been tasked by Rowan’s dad to watch over him and ensure he passed the exam no matter what.

“It makes you look very dashing, Master Rowan,” Sera stated.

“Yes, you look just like your father.” Ashley agreed.

Rowan’s grin just grew. The two girls were literally paid to follow him around and compliment him, but he still enjoyed having his ego stroked. “Well, my dad is a Knight, so he was, of course, able to pull some strings and get me gear that was vastly above my typical grade level. If you think my armor is great, then take a look at the sword he gave me.” Rowan reached for his belt and casually drew a blade that rested at his side. “Behold!”

The sword, unlike his armor, wasn’t as pretty or stylish. It was designed to be a real weapon, and merely holding it caused Rowan’s wrist to hurt. The blade itself wasn’t all that big and was a double-edged straight sword that lacked the reach or thickness a typical longsword would have. It also lacked a crossguard that could keep someone’s hands safe while they swung it around. Despite this, though, there was no doubt the weapon itself was sharp and dangerous, the very air around it seeming to bend and twist. It whistled as Rowan swung it around in the air. Despite the blade being slightly thinner and smaller than a longsword, the handle was designed to be held with two hands, even though such a sword was typically used alongside a shield or held in a fencing style. This was because there was only one proper way to use this sword.

“This is an A-grade magic item,” Rowan explained. “It’s a sky-cutting sword from Mordheim. A dungeon had opened up in a city my father was guarding. Space and time got so messed up that the dungeon existed in both that city and a city in Mordheim, connecting the two places together for a bit. Naturally, my father easily dealt with the boss of the dungeon, but while he was doing that, he was attacked by a warrior of Mordheim who wielded this very blade. It was a tough battle, but of course, my dad came out on top, and so he gave me this weapon.” Rowan bragged. A weapon that was ranked as an A-grade was scarce, and usually, only Knights would be allowed to carry a blade such as this. “This sword has a special enchantment placed on it. It’s made to be extremely sharp and durable, and it greatly improves anyone who holds it, giving them a boost to their physical power. Just by holding this sword, I’m at least twice as strong.”

“That’s amazing,” Sera said with wide eyes. “I can’t believe your father gave you such a powerful item.”

“Wow!” Ashley said, also in amazement. “With something like that on your side, you’re bound to pass the exam for sure, Master Rowan.”

Rowan snorted, and he lowered the sword and held it out sideways. “Would you like to feel it? Careful, the blade is sharp.”

Sera and Ashley both let out nervous laughs and were about to say no, but before they could, a hand reached out and clutched around the blade, catching not just them but also Rowan totally off guard. The hand ran along the edge, feeling the sturdy metal.

Rowan shook his head and followed the arm that was connected to the hand, finding a man with raven-black hair, blue eyes, and an ugly burn mark around one of his eyes, who was now standing between Ashley and Sera, casually toying with the magic weapon Rowan held.

“Who the hell are you?” Rowan pulled his arm back and sheathed his sword, not letting the stranger touch it anymore.

“Davi Hawker,” Davi said casually, and he finally pulled his arm away. “That’s a cool sword. Gimme.”

“W-What?” Rowan asked, baffled.

Davi let out a hum. “Oh, so you’re a little dense, huh? I guess that explains why you have two maids with you.”

Rowan’s face turned red in rage, and Ashley and Sera both gasped at Davi’s blunt remark. “Who do you think you are!”

“Are you also deaf? I said my name was Davi Hawker.” Davi made a face and stared at the noble boy, who was getting more and more ticked off by the second. “So? Can I have your sword?”

Rowan growled louder and stepped forward. He grabbed Davi by the front of his shirt and pulled him forward so he could glare into the man's eyes. “I don’t care who you are; you can’t speak to me like that. I’m part of the Zyne household, do you understand?”

“Nope.”

Rowan’s eye twitched when he heard that. It didn’t help his anger that Davi’s face was blank, primarily, and his tone seemed a bit mocking due to the little emotion he showed. “You little shit.” Rowan’s eyes roamed over Davi up and down, taking in the cheap clothes he wore. “Why the hell are you even here? You’re not someone who has a chance at passing this exam. You’re just a sewer rat.”

“Wanna know a cool fact about rats?” Davi asked.

Rowan’s anger only doubled. “Are you stupid-” Then Rowan felt a wave of pain as Davi’s foot rammed into his ankle. The next thing the nobleman knew, the arm that was clutching onto Davi’s shirt twisted as he was flipped over and smashed down onto the ground.

“Rats don’t like it when they’re insulted,” Davi said sternly. Then his body glowed with a faint blue energy. His mana sprang up just in time and blocked Ashley’s strike as the maid rammed her fist into the back of his head. Due to how much mana he poured into his body, though, all Ashley managed to do was hurt her hand, causing her to let out a loud yelp and stumble back. “Sorry for messing with your sword.” Davi placed his hands in his pockets and turned away. “Next time, just say no, though, okay?” And then he casually walked away.

Rowan pushed himself up, his eyes glowing with restrained mana as he glared at Davi’s back. Several people had noticed the exchange, and Rowan could feel their mocking stares. He clenched his hand into a fist and then stood up. “Ashley, are you okay?”

Sera was looking over Ashley’s arm, which was a little bruised and banged up. “I’m fine.” Ashley winced. “That guy had a crap load of mana, though. I didn’t even harm him.”

“How dare he attack Master Rowan!” Sera said, offended. “We need to tell one of the Knights or something what that guy did!”

“No.” Rowan shook his head.

“Master?”

“I have a better idea.” Rowan looked out at the crowd, but he no longer saw Davi. He placed his hand on the handle of his sword. “I’m going to deal with that bastard myself. Not only did he harm me, but he also harmed one of my precious servants. He. Will. Pay.”

And that was how Davi Hawker made a sworn enemy out of the Zyne family.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, Olivia was shuffling through the crowd, doing her best to find Davi, but there were just so many people that it’d be next to impossible. Worse yet, she kept bumping into people, and some of the exam-takers this year were the kind of individuals who had a lot of money and power and would likely be jerks about it simply because they could.

“Davi!” Olivia shouted, but it didn’t do much good. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, and some people were even doing mini sparring sessions or doing last-second training sessions before the tests, so between all the spells that were going off and the volume of voices, no one could hear her. “Damn it! Why did he have to run off!”

Right as Olivia was starting to sulk about this, she felt herself crash into someone. She had been so busy looking for Davi that she hadn’t paid attention to where she was going. This wasn’t a simple bump either. She felt her forehead smack into someone, and she completely stumbled back and grabbed at her head, wincing.

“Ow!”

“Watch where you’re going.” Olivia groaned when she heard the tone of the voice. Already, she could tell this was one of those rich people. “You made me lose concentration. Now I have to start my focus all over again.”

Olivia looked up, about to say something, but stopped when her eyes landed on the person she had crashed into. Growing up, she was always someone who could appreciate the looks of both men and women, and the woman who stood above her was quite beautiful.

Not to the same extent as the silver-haired Knight she had come to admire or Lady Tori, but this woman was definitely a close third. She also had the typical mean-girl face, which was just bonus points in Olivia’s book. She liked girls who were a little mean to her, and she should probably consider seeing a therapist about that.

The woman in question was a little taller than her and looked to be a year or two older, likely being around Davi’s age. She had fair and beautiful skin, as well as short, shoulder-length, reddish-brown hair. The woman’s green eyes were filled with annoyance, and most notably, she was wearing an outfit from Rossum. It looked like a mix between a martial arts gi and a royal dress. It hugged the woman’s body nicely and showed off some skin but was still relatively modest. It was red, save for a sleeve that was black, and various golden lines formed along it, woven together into symbols. It screamed of money, and hanging from the woman’s ears were a pair of ruby gems that were worth a small fortune at the very least.

The woman’s hands were clasped together almost as if she were doing a prayer, but her fingers were perfectly straight, like she had clapped.

Since Mordheim was currently in the middle of a war with Rossum, many of Rossum’s citizens had ventured across the sea in order to escape the fighting. A lot of those people ended up in Estiria, and some even used this as a chance to build a new life for themselves and take the entrance exam, but this woman was different. Olivia could tell. She looked more like a noble than a refugee and likely came here willingly rather than being forced to, like the rest of her people. She also doubted that this woman struggled all that much.

“Sorry for bumping into you,” Olivia said sheepishly. It was best just to say sorry and move on with these types of people.

“You should be.” The red-haired girl said, cocking her head to the side. “I was building up my spirit and gathering up my chi when you ruined it all by bumping into me.”

“Sorry?” Olivia said again, a little more confused. She went to stand up, but the woman kicked at her feet, causing her to let out a yelp as she landed painfully on her butt. “Ow! What was that for?”

“You need to say sorry properly.” The woman folded her arms under her chest and looked down at Olivia. “You can either beg for forgiveness or kiss my boots. That’s the proper way to show respect to a superior in Rossum.”

“Okay! I like mean girls as much as the next pervert, but I draw the line at sadists.” Olivia went to stand up again, and this time she jumped back, avoiding the woman’s leg sweep. She went to draw her wand, but before she could, the red-haired woman moved with blinding speed and reached her. Olivia felt a sharp pain as the woman grabbed her wrist and stopped her from reaching any further for her weapon.

“Damn Estirians, always so uncivilized.” The woman said, her eyes growing sharper as her hand squeezed down on Olivia’s wrist.

“Oh, and you’re racist, okay, I’m not into you anymore at all!” Olivia winced as the hand grew tighter around her, and she tried to pull her arm back, but it wouldn’t budge. Even after using mana to improve her stats, the woman holding her was just way too strong. The people in the crowd also weren’t willing to do anything since, like her, they could smell the money on this woman.

This wasn’t just any random Rossum citizen she had pissed off. This was likely a full-on noble.

“Do you know how hard it is to gather chi in this awful place?” The woman asked, cocking her head to the side. “Back home, doing something as trivial as gathering energy can be done while breathing, but your lands are so terraformed and corrupted that it’s basically impossible. I had to put in serious mental work meditating and gathering that power up in preparation for the test, and you ruined it.”

“How is it my fault your stupid meditation can be ruined because some random person accidentally bumps into you? That just seems like a shitty skill!” She really needed to stop hanging around Davi because she had just spoken without thinking and didn’t filter anything she said.

The woman gave a dangerous smile. “I can tell we’re not going to get along. Why don’t I save future me some trouble and get rid of you now-”

“That’s enough.” A voice said sternly, and the woman stood still as a wand pressed into the back of her head. “Let her go. Now.”

Chapter 44: The Eight Captains

The woman with reddish-brown hair made a face as she felt the wand press to the back of her head. Her eye twitched slightly. She’d likely be able to coat her body in enough chi to block the attack, but doing so would take her a few moments, and that would be all it took for the other person to slam a spell point-blank into the back of her skull.

Slowly, the woman let go of Olivia’s arms. “You really don’t know who you’re dealing with, do you?” The woman kept her gaze on Olivia, but it was clear she was speaking to the person who stood behind her.

“Oh, I know who you are.” The voice said, and the wand cautiously moved away from the back of the woman’s head. “You’re Ken Yuan. Member of the Yuan clan. That’s why I’m all the more confused why someone like you is here.”

The woman, apparently named Ken, gave a faint smirk, her lip curving up slightly. Casually, she turned around and stared at the person who still had their wand drawn on her. It was a rather handsome boy, though not as good-looking as herself, of course. He had grayish hair and bright silver eyes and wore a white buttoned-up shirt with black pants and held a long, slender ivory wand.

Olivia felt her eyes widen in shock as she took in the appearance of her savior. “A-Ash?” She said in stunned silence.

Ash didn’t even bother to glance at her and kept his wand trained on Ken. The woman had her head cocked to the side and seemed to be studying Ash, her eyes scanning him up and down. Ash could feel the mana in the air shift and could tell that the woman had some sort of trait or ability that was currently active. Some magical effect in her eyes.

“You’re nothing special.” Ken finally concluded. “Not a single useful trait.”

Ash growled and squeezed harder on his wand. He thought about casting a spell but knew that wouldn’t end well. This person wasn’t someone he could beat. The Yuan family was very, very famous in Rossum. He had read about them during history lessons at Lotus Magic School. “Why is someone like you even here?” Ash demanded. “You should be in your homeland becoming a Martial Cultivator and helping fight back the invasion, yet here you are trying to become a Knight?”

Ken’s grin faded for a moment, and her eyes narrowed. Olivia also pulled her wand out just in case a fight did break out, but thankfully, the tension in the air faded. Ken spun around and looked away from them. “I take it you two know each other. It would be unbecoming of me to get in the way of a reunion between lovers. Good day.” And with that, she walked away, leaving a horrified Ash and Olivia behind.

“We’re not lovers!” They both screamed out at the noble woman, but it was too late, as she simply vanished into the crowd.

Once the woman was gone, Olivia turned to look back at Ash. He finally pocketed his wand, and some of the anger in his face faded. “Still getting into trouble?” The boy sneered slightly and stuck his nose up at her. “Why am I not surprised? This one really takes the cake, though. Seriously, getting into a fight with a member of the Yuan family? That’s like picking a fight with the Lance of Victory.”

Olivia folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. That woman is nowhere near as great or epic as the Lance of Victory.”

“Maybe not now, but give it a few years.” Ash mused. “The Yuan are all legendary warriors. That clan creates some of the finest soldiers for their nation. Someone like her being here is very troubling.”

“Speaking of being here, why the hell are you here?” Olivia demanded, and she pointed at Ash. “Did you come all this way for me?”

“Don’t be stupid.” Ash gave her a deadpan look. “I told you, I’m going to become an Arcane Knight.” The boy clenched his hand and balled it into a fist. “It was pure dumb luck that I found you.” Then Ash gave a smirk. “I also can’t help but notice I beat you here. You left days earlier with an Arcane Knight, yet Bruno and I arrived first. How sucky can you be? Still useless, huh?”

“Hey!” Then Olivia stopped. “Wait? Did you say Bruno was here-”

“Bro!” Olivia grunted and felt a wave of pain as a force suddenly tackled her to the ground, and she was slammed down. “I found you!” Bruno declared, sitting on top of Olivia now.

“G-Get your fat ass off of me!” Olivia gritted her teeth and used some of her mana to boost her strength, allowing her to toss Bruno off of her, who let out a groan as he smacked onto the ground. Olivia sighed and stood back up. “So you’re here also, Bruno?”

Bruno looked just how she remembered, with dark skin and combed-back hair. He was still lacking a shirt and instead kept on a black cloak that he used to cover himself up. He had his typical goofy smile and was already back on his feet. “Yep! I came all this way to save you!” Bruno declared. “Olivia, where’s that fake Knight that kidnapped you?”

“Davi?” Olivia looked around and made a face. “Good question. That jerk totally ditched me! Also, he didn’t kidnap me; I willingly left with him.” She huffed out.

"Stockholm syndrome.” Ash coughed into his fist, getting a dirty look from Olivia.

Bruno reached out and placed his hands on either side of Olivia’s shoulders and pulled her closer, looking deep into her eyes. “Olivia.”

“W-What?” She asked.

“That guy isn’t actually a Knight. He’s a—”

“Fake Knight, yeah, yeah, I already know.” Olivia rolled her eyes and slapped Bruno’s hand away. “I know way more about the situation than you do, trust me.” Olivia placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward, giving a smug smirk. “Also, he’s not going to be a fake Knight for much longer. It’s only a matter of time until he’s the real deal!”

“You mean he’s taking the test?” Ash asked, a little surprised.

“Yep!”

Bruno frowned and rubbed his chin. “That Davi guy was crazy strong. I don’t know if I can beat that bro in a fight, but if it’s a match between bros, I’ll bro-down and beat his bro-ass.”

“Please stop saying ‘bro’…”

“No.”

“So you two are both here to take the exam just like me.” Olivia couldn’t help the smile that broke out onto her face. It wasn’t a smug one or a smirk but rather the real deal. “Just like we always discussed. This is actually happening.” She looked down at her hand. “I trained a lot, just so you two know. I have zero plans on losing. I’m going to become a Knight.”

Bruno also gave a smile and pointed his thumb at himself. “Bros. We've got this. We’re all going to become Knights. I know it. We all worked hard.”

“Some of us more than others.” Ash stated, and he turned away from the two of them. “Honestly, Olivia, I’m shocked you actually did show up. I don’t think I could do it if I were in your position. Then again, if I were born with useless blood magic, I would have killed myself long ago.” Olivia made another face but didn’t say anything. After the insults Garon threw her way and that fight, all of Ash’s words meant very little. “Don’t feel too bad when Bruno and I are Knights and you have to return to Fri. Maybe I’ll put in a good word with my new Guild and get you hired as the stable girl. How good are you at cleaning horse shit?”

“Most Knights don’t even use horses anymore and drive cars.” Olivia huffed. “Still, get your insults out while you can, Ash. It’ll be all the sweeter when I prove you wrong.”

She had been into three different dungeons, slain a boss monster, fought a powerful fire mage to the death, and was trained personally by Davi. Even if her training wasn’t what it should have been, she no longer felt scared or nervous. After seeing the many people who had given up after failing, she had been, in a way, reborn. It wasn’t confidence that she now had. Instead, it was something more.

It couldn’t even be called determination or a desire.

The closest thing it could be compared to was a path. One that she was going to walk, no matter what. Either she would become an Arcane Knight or her story would come to an end.

It was as simple as that.

Ash looked a little shocked at the look she was giving him, and for a moment, he felt a weird feeling. Almost like a coiling sensation around him. He shook it off, though, and deliberately looked away from Olivia. “You better hope none of these tests have any rounds that involve combat.” Ash stated, and then he walked away.

Bruno watched him leave and sighed. “Bros, why can’t you two just get along? Rivals to lovers would be nice.”

“Never!”

“Just joking.” Bruno snorted and folded his arms. He nudged her slightly, and Olivia glanced back at him. “I’m glad you made it. When I first showed up, I spent the first hour running around looking for you, and when I didn’t see you in the crowd, I got worried. Just when I thought hope was lost, I heard your voice and how you declared yourself to be a Knight.”

Olivia felt her cheeks flush a little red. “You heard that?” She said, embarrassed once more.

Bruno just laughed and clapped her on the back. “You’ve changed a lot.” His look grew serious again. “I know you said you willingly left, but that Davi guy really didn’t do anything bad to you, did he?”

Olivia shook her head. “I’m telling the truth. I asked him to leave with me. The only bad thing he did was lie and claim he was a Knight. He’s a good person once you get to know him, though.”

“Is he?”

“Yeah! He’s always helping people. Like he helped this flower mage grow more confident in order to protect his ship, and he went out of his way to do a favor for this merchant guy we met, and also helped this town that was in need, and helped train me. He’s also doing everything he can to help people and is super nice.”

Bruno raised an eyebrow and looked around slowly. “Wow, I never heard you talk about someone like that before. You must be into this guy. Where is he anyway?”

“I said it already, but he wandered off and totally ditched me.” Olivia also looked around, but there were just way too many people scattered around, making it impossible for her to see anything. “Who knows where he is?”

As it turns out, Davi Hawker was bothering more people. “Can I have your sword?”

“No?” One of the people who carried a generic-looking longsword gave Davi an odd look and then scampered away before Davi could try to take the blade.

Davi frowned and folded his arms. “I figured none of the nobles would give me their swords, but even these guys who look all dead inside? I just need one weapon, and I’ll be set for the rest of these tests.”

“I doubt anyone here is just going to hand you a sword.” Davi turned, and he found Ash was now standing next to him. The gray-haired boy had his usual sneer on his face and was looking Davi up and down.

“Oh?” Davi looked at Ash and then cracked his knuckles. “You again. Are we going to fight?”

“Why do you keep assuming I want to fight you each time we speak?” Ash grunted. “Look, I just came to make sure you were really here. I guess Olivia wasn’t lying. You really aren’t an Arcane Knight?”

“Not yet.”

“So, how did you do it?”

“Do what?” Davi asked.

“How did you become so strong?” Ash said, and the boy stared directly into Davi’s emotionless gaze. “I don’t get it. You’re not a Knight, but you’re so powerful. I was pathetic. I couldn’t even harm that damn lizard, yet you showed up and beat two of them along with a bunch more like it was nothing. You’ve fought so many monsters and done so much. You’re clearly strong. Way stronger than me. Yet you aren’t a Knight. The thing I don’t understand, though, is why you picked her. Out of anyone you could have taken with you, why was it Olivia?”

Davi was silent for a moment. He seemed to process Ash’s words, and slowly he reached up and rubbed his scar. He thought back to Lotus City and how he first met Olivia. “I just had a gut feeling when I first saw her.” He said quietly. “Her mana was familiar. Then she asked me to help her, so I helped her. That was it. If you would have asked to go with me, I would have taken you as well.”

“Really?”

“No. Actually, on second thought, I viewed you as an asshole back then, so I would have just left without grabbing you.” Davi said almost sheepishly.

Ash looked annoyed by that answer and might have said more, but before he could, a loud horn suddenly blared, getting the attention of everyone who had shown up for the tests. Davi looked up and found that the stands were no longer empty. More men in suits had shown up as well as other Arcane Knights, all wearing different gear. Above the stands, at the highest peak of the arena, eight thrones were also brought out.

Each throne was large and forged out of solid stone. They also had a banner of some sort of them, each one having its own unique design. The thrones were also all empty.

The horn kept blaring, getting louder and louder, the sound growing in volume with every passing second. Davi looked up, and something caught his eye. It was small but rapidly growing, and as it got bigger, so too would the noise grow. Other people in the crowd all gasped when they saw who it was that was coming down.

It was a woman. One with long, snow-white hair and fiery red eyes. She was just as pale as Olivia was, and she wore a long white gown that was made out of feathers. In her hands, she held a long, bull-like horn, which was thick and curved, and the tip of it was in her mouth, which she was blowing into, creating the massive amount of sound waves that were filling the colosseum. The thing Davi noticed the most, however, were the long wings that came out of the woman’s back. They looked like they belonged to a dove and were spread out, gently flapping, as the woman came down and floated only twenty feet above them all and finally stopped blowing on her horn.

Ash stared up at the woman intently. “That’s Pretty Face.” He said after a moment. “She’s a very high-ranking Knight in the Shining Sentinels Guild.”

Davi nodded, though he wasn’t actually listening since his ears were still ringing from how loud that horn had been.

Pretty Face looked down at the silent crowd of exam-takers who were all staring up at her wide-eyed. A smile broke out onto the woman’s face, and she brought a hand up to her head, giving a salute. “Yo! What is up, everybody!” She announced, catching Davi completely off guard with the way she spoke. “Good to see all of you that made it!” She casually tossed her horn into the air, and it spun around and glowed. As it fell, two things came down. The first was a microphone, which the woman caught, and the second was a sleek black drone that had a large camera mounted on it. “Are you all ready to get this party started?”

The drone buzzed to life and dropped further down, its camera going up and down across the people in the crowd. Cheering filled the air as several people whooped and hollered up at Pretty Face. In the stands where the other Knights stood, many of them pulled out tablets or other devices that were hooked up to the drone, allowing them to see everything more easily. The tablets also had a scroll wheel and hundreds of different names that ran all along it that would allow them to click on a person’s name and do a full background check, seeing a list of their stats, traits, magic type, and items, as well as how many combat classes they took and passed and their overall score.

None of these people were Captains, but they all worked for the Guilds, and it was their job to find any notable people in order to then pass those people on to their Captain, so the Captains could then properly vote once the test was done.

Pretty Face pointed down at the crowd and twirled the microphone in her hands, her smile growing. Her eyes sparkled a bit, and she scanned all the various people. Thanks to a trait she had, she could see the mana coming off of everyone, allowing her to judge who did and didn’t belong here. “Many of you have come here all for the same thing! You all want to be Knights! Isn’t that right?” Louder cheering filled the air. “Unfortunately, only some of you are going to be able to make the cut. Cheer if you think you have what it takes!” The screaming got even louder, and Davi winced and covered his ears. “Yeah! That’s the spirit, babies! Give it your A game! At least a few of you are going to reach your dream, so be sure to give it everything you've got!” Pretty Face raised her other hand to the sky and pointed up as a series of fireworks blasted up. “Before the tests can actually start, though, there are some people that need to be introduced! The eight strongest people in the world!”

Davi groaned and pressed down harder on his ears as the screaming grew deafening. “You good?” Ash asked, slightly concerned.

Davi gritted his teeth and shook his head. He never liked loud noises or flashing lights, and this was really starting to set him off. It didn’t help that his scar was burning hotter than it ever had before. He felt sick. Like he was going to throw up. No one seemed to care about him, though, besides Ash, as everyone was utterly transfixed on the woman up above.

“You all know their names, but they’re so important we’re going to introduce them anyway!” Pretty Face’s voice was already loud and booming, but it felt like a bomb going off each time she spoke into her microphone. At least that’s how Davi felt. Everyone else seemed to be loving this. “Let’s start with a classic! You all love this Guild, and this year its Captain was ranked as the number one hottie! Give it up for the one who makes legends and fables, the one and only Myth, leader of Pantheon!”

There was a great big flash, and one of the stone chairs ignited. This chair had the symbol of a large bull-like head on it. Its banner flapped in the wind, and suddenly it wasn’t empty. Many people, especially the girls, all cried out when they saw the man who was seated on the throne. He was tall and extremely muscular, looking like he could easily pick up a horse. He had dark skin and long, flowing black hair. White robes barely contained his muscles, and in one of his arms he held a book that was made out of solid stone, each page being literal slabs of rock, that he casually turned with his fingers. Next to him was a woman with long silver hair who wore a white buttoned-up shirt that was a little tight around her chest. She casually leaned on the throne next to the man and had a grin on her face.

Myth and his vice captain, Whisper. Members of the Pantheon Guild, currently ranked as the seventh-best Guild.

Pretty Face gave everyone a moment to admire Myth before she moved on to the next person. “Men want her, women want to be her; let’s give her a warm welcome! Gorgon!”

Across the stands, a few feet away from Myth’s seat, was the second stone chair. Its banner had the symbol of a golden coin that was swarmed with snakes all across it. In a flash of light, a woman suddenly appeared on the throne. Her hair was long and black. It flowed as if it were alive, moving and twisting through the air like dozens of snakes, and the clothing she wore was actually forged out of her own hair, which formed an elegant black dress around her. In her hands, she toyed with a golden coin, casually flipping it into the air. Next to her was a man who wore a pair of black sunglasses and was dressed like a banker, wearing a black coat and pants. At his side was a simple longsword, and in his other hand he held a silver briefcase.

Gorgon and her vice captain, Briefcase. Members of the Wandering Coin Guild, currently ranked as the sixth-best guild. What concerned Davi, though, was the vice captain. The man in the suit was someone he had seen before. Both that man and Gray had been the two Arcane Knights he passed by in Gladiolus. That meant there was a chance that man knew who he was and what he had done.

“Next up, who can forget this guy!” Pretty Face began, gassing the crowd up for the next celebrity. “He’s single-handedly fought off dozens of boss monsters all at the same time, created his very own guild in under a year, and is the current youngest Captain in history! Give it up for Dye!”

This throne had a black banner that had a decoration that was kind of hard to figure out. It was a little too detailed, with dozens of different shapes and colors all placed along it, twisting together, as if a person just kept adding more and more to it. The figure that appeared on the throne also seemed to be way too busy painting to actually notice them. He was young, barely even twenty, and had colorful hair that was dyed dozens of different colors. He wore a white, gown-like costume that was stained with every color of the rainbow, and he held a paintbrush, painting away at a canvas. Unlike the other Guilds, there was no second person who stood next to the throne. It was just the lone mage and his painting.

Dye, a member of the Hydra Storm Guild, the newest Guild to be created, ranked as the fifth-best but was rapidly rising through the ranks and would soon become rank four. Many people were yelling encouraging words to Dye or trying to get his attention, but the boy just kept painting in silence.

“And now for the oldest living Arcane Knight!” Pretty Face snapped back into talking once the hype died down a bit. “The coolest GILF around, Grampa Green!”

Unlike the other thrones, this one was made out of wood instead of stone, and various flowers grew along it. It had no banner, and the Knight that appeared in the chair was not what Davi had been expecting. The man had wooden skin that was bark-like, and he was so frail he practically looked like a corpse. Where his hair should have been were various vines that were jutting out, and the man appeared to be mostly sleeping. Next to him was a slender woman who wore what looked almost like a nurse's uniform. She had long pink hair and tired-looking eyes.

Grampa Green and his vice captain, Paragon, members of Oak Watchers, ranked the fourth-highest guild. Most of the cheering and screaming that was being done was all sent Paragon’s way, with many people, mostly the men, all simping for the cute nurse girl that looked done with life. Davi was more concerned with the tree guy, though. Was he a Magical Mutant? He couldn’t be human anymore; that much was obvious at least…

Pretty Face gave a few seconds for everyone to calm down. Her wings were starting to hurt from how long she had been flying, but luckily for her, this was almost over. “And now, the ones you’ve all been waiting for!” Her words once again caused a roar to ripple through the crowd. Unlike the others, the last three Guilds always came out at the same time because they were constantly swapping places, and their order was changing due to how good they were. These were also the three top Guilds of the eight that everyone wanted to end up in. “Do I even need to give them all an introduction?” Pretty Face asked, and the yelling doubled. “Well, if you say so! We all know who they are, and they’re the reason no other nation has been able to bother us! The three strongest mages in the world! They grow in power every day and outdo each other constantly! These three have been locked into a rivalry, and they serve the king himself directly! Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the leaders of the Mourning Stars! The Umbra Mortis! And the Shining Sentinels!”

Two of the thrones had symbols Davi had seen before. The first was a symbol of a sun, which that Lance girl had on her, and the second was of some sort of hammer that was pointed like a star, which Gray had worn. The third one, though, looked almost like a moon and was curved and pointed.

All three thrones lit up, and six people appeared. The Mourning Stars guild was led by an older woman who had stress lines all across her face. Her hair was turning white from years of stress, and she wore black armor that was practically just like the kind Davi would make, but hers was made out of real metal instead of shadows. Next to her was Gray, already in his stone armor, which made him look like a bull. The woman in charge of this guild was dubbed Dark Star, and Stone Bull was her loyal right hand.

The Shining Sentinels were currently the number one ranked Guild, but that would change since Umbra Mortis and the Mourning Stars were always stealing its top spot. The vice captain of this guild was the Lance of Victory. Tori stood, holding her lance, and looked down at the crowd before her eyes finally settled on Davi. She frowned when she saw he was kneeling on the ground, clutching at the side of his face. Next to her was her Guild Captain. If you were to look up the image of a paladin, he was likely what would come up. Neat black hair and golden armor that was glowing. He had a long red cape, a heavy shield that was attached to his arm, and a longsword that rested at his belt that was giving off so much mana it was for sure an S-grade item at the minimum. He was known simply as the Father.

Lastly was the final throne and was the only one of the three that had the symbol Davi didn’t recognize. The vice captain was a woman with long blue hair who wore a dress made out of water. A pipe was in her mouth, and as she blew on it, bubbles rose up. Her name was Mermaid. The man in the chair was the one who had Davi’s full attention, though. He had messy red hair, and one of his eyes was covered by an eyepatch. A cigar hung in his mouth, and his shoulders were slumped a bit. Unlike the other two top captains, he wasn’t in armor and instead wore a black T-shirt and long black pants, looking very comfortable. As he puffed on his cigar and his ashes fell, the shadow beneath him lifted up and swallowed it.

The leader of Umbra Mortis had Shadow Magic. His name was Crow, and he was easily one of the greatest Shadow Mages in the current era.

If the yelling had been bad before, then it was downright awful now. Davi had to literally jam his fingers into his ears just to stop it, and he hissed loudly as everyone screamed up at the seven Guild Captains-

“Wait, seven?” Davi did a double take. There were eight thrones, and the woman had started with the second-worst-ranked guild and worked down but had failed to mention the eighth Guild itself. Only seven Captains were seated. “What about the last Guild?” He asked.

Ash somehow overheard him, even with all the screaming, and followed Davi’s gaze to where the final throne resided. It had a long red and gold banner that had the image of a bird made out of fire across it.

Ash made a face when he saw it. “Normally, that Guild isn’t even invited to this event. Most people don’t even consider it a proper Guild.”

“Why not?” Davi asked, confused.

“Because it’s worse than trash, it’s straight up cursed.” Ash snickered. “They call it Phoenix Flight, and the name is very fitting because this Guild has been destroyed and rebuilt since the time of Haru. Honestly, you’re actually better off not becoming a Knight if your only option is Phoenix Flight.”

“It’s that bad?” Davi looked closer at the throne. He saw something, but it was hard to make out. He began to focus mana into his eyes, rapidly boosting how far he could see.

“Oh yeah, it’s that bad.” Ash nodded. “I’d sooner kill myself than end up on that Guild. The only reason it still exists is because it was one of the first four Guilds, and before, for whatever reason, the king kept placing people in charge of it. The current person leading it isn’t even a proper Knight, and every time she’s made a public appearance, she’s screwed something up and caused mass destruction. Seriously, that Guild sucks. They mostly just throw Magical Mutants or other trash mages into it and call it a day.”

Davi’s eyes finally made out the object that sat on the throne. It was a small stuffed toy that looked like a bright orange hawk. A note was taped to it, and thanks to his eyesight, he was able to read it.

‘Had to take a fat shit; just start without me :-)’

Davi decided that the Captain of Phoenix Flight was now his favorite person.

Chapter 45: The Start Of The Exam

The Arcane Knight Guilds existed in order to more easily manage all the various Knights that were within the kingdom. A Knight was required to work for a Guild in order to maintain their license, and in return for working alongside their Guild, they would be offered extra resources.

The Guilds were often ranked amongst each other. Typically, the top three were always the Shining Sentinels, Umbra Mortis, and Mourning Stars. The worst Guild was always Phoenix Flight, also known as the cursed Guild.

There was an app that was created where a person could view the various Guilds, see their members, total quests completed, and various other rankings. This app also allowed users to look up specific Knights and even post quests. When a quest was created, that person could either pay a high premium price and specifically select a Knight or Guild to send the quest to, or they could just put the quest out as a bounty, which would then be handed out to one of the eight Guilds by another group of people who monitored all quests and came up with the prices.

Due to this method, Phoenix Flight rarely received any important missions, yet the ones they did receive always resulted in failure anyway.

In the beginning, there were four Knights who served directly under Lady Haru herself. These four Knights were some of the mightiest warriors the world had ever seen, and even to this day, while those Knights are no longer around, their family names and titles have all been passed down, save for one…

Each of these four Knights left behind the first ever four Guilds. These Guilds were the Shining Sentinels, Umbra Mortis, Mourning Stars, and lastly, Phoenix Flight.

That’s right. The failure of a Guild used to be one of the original four. So what happened?

All its members died.

After Haru passed on to the next life, followed closely by the Ebony Knight, the four Guilds made it their mission to serve the king and the newly formed Kingdom of Estiria, but trouble would rise when an S1-grade dungeon opened in a city.

Phoenix Flight was the nearest guild, and their Captain took all members into that battle, and every single one of them was slaughtered. They all died, and the kingdom mourned, for it had lost some of its finest soldiers and the original Knights who served under Haru.

And so, there were only three guilds left. In order to fill the hole Phoenix Flight left, Oak Watchers would be created, and the kingdom would move on and continue to thrive. That was until one hundred years later, when a new group of people rose up. They had been raised on the stories of Haru and the legendary heroes of Phoenix Flight, and they decided it was time for the group to reunite.

These people rapidly rose in popularity and fame as unofficial Knights, and even gained the attention of the king, who was so impressed and moved by them that he made them all official Arcane Knights, and once more, Phoenix Flight’s Guild was reborn!

Then an invasion of the Gallenth nation occurred near the border of Estiria, and all the rookie Knights in the newly formed Phoenix Flight Guild were slaughtered, with their heads hung up on pikes.

Yet again, the Guild died.

The people were in shock and mourned yet again. Then, not even a hundred years later, Pantheon had been formed, but some of its members got caught up in controversy and were forced to leave the newly created Guild. These Knights didn’t want to quit their job, though, and so instead they decided it was time for an old favorite to appear again. That’s right, they became members of Phoenix Flight, and a week later, they all died when a severe natural disaster occurred at their Guild base, resulting in all the members burning alive under an ocean of lava.

By this point, rumors of Phoenix Flight being a cursed Guild began to spread through the kingdom, and when, yet again, a new iteration of the Guild was created and all its members were cursed by a mighty dragon and turned into rocks two years later, the rumors seemed to be confirmed.

Phoenix Flight was destined to fail.

Sometimes it would be around for a week. Other times, it could last a year or two. On infrequent occasions, it could even last up to ten years, but no matter what, it always ended the same. All members in the Guild would either be outright killed, cursed, or put through things so bad they’d never be able to function as Knights again.

In the nine hundred years that the Guilds have existed, there have been over one hundred different Phoenix Flight Guilds.

A question must then be asked. Why?

Why did the Guild still exist? If it really was being wiped out, why would the kingdom allow it to stick around?

Unknown to most of the public, a horrible truth had been discovered. If Phoenix Flight weren’t around, then another Guild would simply become the target for this wave of awful luck. The King had stopped allowing the Guild to exist, but in doing so, a freak accident happened that nearly wiped out every Shining Sentinels, Umbra Mortis, and Mourning Star member and almost resulted in the top three Guilds being destroyed for good. It wasn’t just the top three Guilds that were suffering either. The other four Guilds were hit with bad luck as well, all losing dozens of members on a daily basis until a new Phoenix Flight Guild was created.

No one understood how it worked or even why it worked, but the message was clear. If Phoenix Flight didn’t exist to be destroyed, then none of the other Guilds had a right to exist either. Perhaps it was a curse from an evil god or maybe a devil, but the universe seemed to require that Phoenix Flight exist so it could have a punching bag.

That was how Phoenix Flight became the eighth ‘unofficial’ Guild.

The Guild now served as a placeholder, and it usually didn’t gain any new members, since even if the Captain for the Guild voted, exam-takers would rather end up with no Guild than become a member of Phoenix Flight. The only sort of people who did join that Guild were the absolute worst of the worst, who were desperate to be a Knight, even one that was doomed, Magical Mutants, or straight-up criminals whom the kingdom would throw into the Guild as a form of punishment since everyone in the Guild always ended up dying.

Every now and then, a Captain of the Guild would try and reorganize and form Phoenix Flight into a respectable Guild and get them to do actual missions, but it never lasted long before the Guild was wiped out and a new sucker was forced to take over as the head of it.

There was one good thing that came out of the Guild, though.

Now that the age of magitech had arrived and recording things on a phone was possible, dozens of ‘epic fail’ videos were all over the internet, showing the members of Phoenix Flight failing their missions.

All of this was being told to Davi by Ash, who had his phone out and was eagerly showing Davi one of these epic fails. The video showed a woman with blue hair who was fighting a large, bear-like monster. At first, she had been doing well, but then she suddenly tripped on a branch, and the bear managed to get her.

The video ended just as the bear grabbed one of her legs and started to rip it off. Davi stared blankly at the screen, the woman’s screams still haunting his ears.

“Why did you show me that?” Davi asked.

“Thought it would be funny?” Ash shrugged. “I love watching epic fail videos. They’re great.”

“You’re a messed-up dude.” Davi hummed and shook his head, forcing the horrible sight out of his mind. He forced himself to snap back to the reality of what was happening and looked back up at where Pretty Face was. The woman had been blabbing about random stats and other fun facts about the Captains and Vice Captains, but Davi didn’t really care about it, even though the rest of the crowd seemed transfixed and kept cheering. He was more focused on the empty throne. “Does bad luck actually exist?”

“Of course it does.” Ash nodded and pocketed his phone after he sensed Davi wouldn’t want to watch another gore video. “A Guild being destroyed seldom happens. Sure, a Guild can lose a ton of members and almost be torn down, but only Phoenix Flight has managed to wipe itself out so many times. Once or twice it might have been a freak accident, but there have been way too many Captains who have taken their entire crew with them to hell.”

“Bad luck can be used if you know what you’re doing, though.” Davi rubbed his chin. “For example, if the Guild always gets destroyed, then the thing that destroys them has to be powerful enough to do it.”

“I don’t think I follow what you’re saying.” Ash frowned.

“Well, if I were in that Guild and became as strong as I needed to, anything thrown at me wouldn’t be able to kill me,” Davi explained. “So, for the ‘curse’ to actually hit me with a wave of bad luck that would result in my death, something perilous would have to set its eyes on me. Something like a dragon.”

Ash made a face. “Dragons don’t exist anymore; they’ve all been wiped out, but if one were around, it would for sure set its eyes on Phoenix Flight and wipe the Guild out. Don’t worry about it, though; you won’t end up on that Guild. The current Captain doesn’t care about recruiting people, and she hasn’t done so in the two years she’s served.”

“She hasn’t died yet?” Davi asked, surprised.

“Not yet.” Ash let out another snort. “That just means it’ll happen soon, though. The record is ten years. No other Captain has survived for that long.”

“This one must be strong, then.” Davi’s eyes scanned the stuffed bird that rested in the empty throne. ‘Strong enough where only a dragon would be considered enough bad luck to kill you.’ Davi hoped.

He had an idea.

A terrible, terrible, idiotic idea.

“Alrighty, alrighty!” Pretty Face called out. She was once more speaking into the microphone she held, her booming voice drowning out the cheering crowd of exam-takers. The drone began to fly over the crowd once more, and more of the men in suits scrolled their tablets and began to send results directly to their captains. “I think it’s time we get this party really started!” The woman’s wings flapped, and she took to the skies, getting higher up. “What do you all say!”

“Yeah!” People cheered.

“We’re ready to take the test!”

“I can see your underwear up your skirt!”

“Throw your best at us!”

“Let’s do this!”

Pretty Face casually flipped her hair, and she shot a look at the Father, who rested on his throne. The leader of the Shining Sentinels nodded his head. As did the Crow, and Dark Star.

Pretty Face nodded back, and she turned to look down at the crowd. “Okay! So here’s the deal! As always, there are four tests that you must pass in order to become an Arcane Knight! These tests are important, but I will say they aren’t as important as standing out! Each test has a number of points that you can gain! The more points you have, the better off you’ll be, but as always, it doesn’t actually matter how many points you have by the end of this exam; hell, you can even fail all the tests and still become an Arcane Knight! Why? Because the system is rigged, babies! The only thing that really matters is catching the eye of one of the seven—sorry, eight—captains! Obviously, you should do well, but at the end of the day, it is the pretty boys and girls with good looks, talent, and epic powers that make it into the Knights! Do you have none of those things? Well, that’s too bad! I guess you’ll have to work ten times as hard to get the spotlight on you! There is one way you can do that, though! Why don’t you just… eliminate the competition!”

Davi frowned slightly and raised an eyebrow. ‘This is a little more cutthroat than I first thought it would be.’

For the most part, he got what they were going for. If all that mattered was standing out, then the nobles had an advantage, as they came from wealthy families and had better grades, magic powers, and items. In order to even the score, Pretty Face was basically telling anyone who wasn’t a Noble to target the popular people who stood a high chance of winning.

Many of the people who weren’t that good-looking or didn’t reek of money were already glaring at the nobles and the elites. They were falling into the trap Pretty Face was setting.

By instilling in everyone the idea that they can attack those who are better than them and eliminate the competition, it would cause people to rank everyone as either elite or not, subconsciously. By doing this, the people who weren’t elites would have to team up with each other and form groups since they weren’t nobles or lacked strong magic, meaning they’d have to form a crowd in order to stand a chance against the elites. That was the opposite of what someone should do, though. By creating too large a group, you’d just be a face in the crowd, and the attention wouldn’t go to you but instead to the lone person you and everyone else were jumping, and should that person manage to beat you and your group, they’d stand out even more.

That’s what Pretty Face was doing. She was getting people to form a mob mentality, and those who were too smart, too strong, or too full of themselves to go along with it and not join a group were the ones who would really stand out.

As the crowd grew increasingly riled up, Pretty Face began to speak once more. “The four tests, for those who don’t know, are the test of Skill, the test of Knowledge, the test of Courage, and lastly, the test of the Soul! As is tradition, the King himself comes up with the test of the Soul, while the Captains of the top three Guilds are randomly selected for the other positions. This year, the Father has created the test of Skill, Dark Star has created the test of Knowledge, and Crow has come up with the test of Courage. They’ve had a full month to come up with ideas, and I have to say, as someone who has gotten to see them all, I’m eagerly looking forward to it.” Pretty Face licked her lips in a way that some people might find hot, but Davi just got more uncomfortable.

Ash took a calming breath and tried to steady his heart. “It’s happening.” He said. “The test is really about to start.”

Pretty Face lifted her hand to the sky and twirled her finger in a circle. “Vil Wind Roulette!” She called out.

Ash gasped and stared with wide eyes as a ton of wind magic swirled around Pretty Face. Her mana was a bright gold color, which lit the air around her as it twisted and began to form into a solid object. Above the winged woman, it evolved into something that resembled a slot machine. It was some sort of golden screen-like device with a lever poking out of it.

Pretty Face flew up a bit higher, getting herself above the machine, and then she floated down, using her legs to shove the lever down. As soon as it dropped, the screen started to glow and spin rapidly. Everyone watched with bated breath as it got faster and faster. This was it. The first of the four tests was about to be selected.

A loud dinging noise echoed out of the magical construct, and the screen finally stopped spinning. Across it, the words ‘Test of Skill’ were etched. Pretty Face looked at them, her eyes sparkling with amusement, and she turned to look back at all the exam-takers.

“Oh, I’m delighted we got this one first. This will start things off with a bit of a bang, that’s for sure.” She laughed. “As I said before, this test was created by the lovely Father, so if you have any complaints, be sure to take it up with him! Oh, and also remember to do your best! And I don't just mean give it your A-game! Look left, and then right! Everyone you see could either be an ally or an enemy, and there's only one thing to do with an enemy! You take them out, as brutally as possible!"

A murmur went through the crowd at those words, and some people looked a little shocked or afraid.

A man with spiky black hair, dressed in brown robes, raised his hand up and spoke as loudly as he could. "Are you asking us to kill the other exam-takers?" He questioned.

"Of course I am!" Pretty Face announced happily, shocking the people even more. "Only if that's the point of the test, though! Oh, but don't worry! None of you will actually die! You've seen the magic schools, right? It's a similar thing here! You'll be in a simulation, so if you die, you'll just get booted out of the simulation! You'll be in this simulation for the first two tests, also! So if you're afraid of getting in trouble or going all out, then you have no need to worry! Nothing like a little bloodshed to start the day, am I right? Several drones will be hooked up and watching, and those little bracelets you have are connected to your mana, allowing us to see your stats and traits in real time!”

Davi looked down at the chunk of metal that covered his arm. ‘Well, now I want to break it…’

“Remember to do your best!” Pretty Face clapped her hands together, and suddenly, there was another deep rumble, and the entire colosseum began to shake rapidly. It worsened, and some people tripped over their feet and fell, which in turn knocked over more people. The sand started to glow with a bright red rune, which rapidly encircled the area, forming dozens of symbols. Davi squeezed his eyes shut as the light began to hurt him, and he heard Ash gasp. “Oh, and most importantly.” Pretty Face folded her arms together and cocked her head to the side. “Remember to have fun!”

The shaking suddenly stopped, and the glowing light died down. Davi opened his eyes and then instantly widened them. He was no longer in the stadium, and Ash wasn’t sitting next to him either.

Instead of the stone walls and sand-covered ground, he was standing in what looked like a large cornfield. Thick walls of corn rose up all around him, forming some sort of maze, and in the distance, there were large hills and forests, and he even heard the sound of running water, meaning a lake of some kind was likely nearby. He hadn't been transported away, and instead, this was like when he had entered the magic school in Daisy. He could tell that he was in a fake world because the air was richer and less bitter.

‘Well, what do I do now?’ Davi wondered.

His question was answered moments later as a glowing blue square suddenly formed into existence directly in front of him. He jumped back, but the square remained in front of his face. It was bright blue and somewhat see-through, and as thin as paper. He tried to swat at it, but his hand just went through it. Something flashed on the screen, and then suddenly writing began to materialize before his eyes.

‘A new quest has been issued. Quest: Test of Skill. Objective: Defeat as many of your fellow participants as you can in the allotted time. Each participant is worth one point. Time: One hour. If you wish to forfeit, simply say the words 'I give up' and you will be removed from the simulation. Participants who remain unconscious for one minute or die are automatically removed from the simulation.’

“That’s what the test of skill is?” Davi chuckled and nodded his head. ‘I think I can do that. I guess this makes sense. They want to see us all fight. That winged girl even riled everyone up just for it. I bet that means she was always planning for this to be the first test, and the slot was rigged. If everyone is watching, then you’ll stand out more by taking out large groups of weak people who will all team up to stand a chance.’ Davi looked around him, eyeing the field of corn and the expanse of greenery that lay beyond it. He needed to find Olivia. “How do I get rid of this thing? It’s kind of annoying.”

The blue box remained in front of his eyes, and the time on it kept ticking down rapidly. However, as he complained, it suddenly vanished.

“Oh, cool. It’s voice activated—” Davi stepped to the side, and the spot he had been standing on exploded in a wave of rubble as a jagged spike of earth fell from the sky.

“Ha! You’re unlucky that I’m your first opponent!” Standing at one end of the cornfield was a large man. That was the only trait Davi really took note of, though, since a moment later he blitzed forward and rammed his fist into the man’s face and sent him blasting back.

Davi looked down at his fist, which was coated in a large amount of mana, and then at the unconscious man, who was out cold. “I guess I am pretty strong.” He noted. "Or that guy just sucks."

‘You’ve gained one point!’ The blue box appeared in front of him once more.

“It keeps track of my points as well—how handy.” Davi watched as his blue screen's countdown got lower and the symbol '1' appeared on his screen. He gazed back at the unconscious man. He had made sure to hold back so the guy would survive.

Pretty Face had said this was all a simulation, and it was fine to kill, and it wasn't like he hadn't taken a life before, but he had the feeling that he shouldn't. The woman seemed to have a way of twisting her words, and if Knights were Superheroes, then killing their fellow exam-takers would probably be looked down upon by the Knights that were watching. It was possible that if he took a life, he'd automatically fail the test.

Then again, it was also possible that he was wrong and looking too much into it. Maybe Pretty Face really did want them to go all out and slaughter their fellow exam-takers.

The unconscious man's body glowed with a flickering blue light, and then he suddenly vanished, being yanked out of the simulation.

'Congrats on defeating your first enemy!' The blue box was written out in a way that made it sound almost cheerful.

Davi was about to dismiss it, but before he could, several metallic objects blasted through his screen, catching him off guard. They weren’t traced in mana and had been physical objects, not a construct like the other guy had thrown at him, so he had no way of sensing them until they already stabbed into his shoulder. His blood spilled, and he stumbled back as three spiked needles poked out of his arm. “Ow.” He said flatly.

“Oh, thank Haru, I found you.” A familiar voice announced, and Davi saw that someone else was in the cornfield with him. Ashley, one of that Noble guy’s maids, stood before him, a grin on her face as she produced three more jagged needles from beneath her maid's cloak. “Now I can avenge the shame you left on my Master and end you myself!”

The first exam of the Arcane Knights was in full swing.

Chapter 46: Putting On A Show

“Well, what do you think?” Whisper asked, casually leaning back in her chair. “Anyone caught your eye, Casey?”

Briefcase pushed his glasses up and stared down at the tablet he held, which displayed a live view of hundreds of hidden cameras and drones scattered throughout the exam area. It had various pages he could rapidly switch to, and each new page showed a different section of the battlefield where the exam was taking place, featuring multiple people all engaged in combat.

“I’m still just looking.” The man said after a few moments. His eyes flickered across the various feeds, watching as several unconscious figures flashed with blue energy and disappeared, teleported away to a medical wing. With a slight frown, Briefcase noted a few figures that remained motionless, the overlay on the drones noting them as deceased, as well as listing which participant killed them. It wasn't technically against the rules, but Briefcase knew to closely watch anyone willing to kill in an exam.

Luckily, this was just a simulation, so the people who 'died' would only remain so until they were taken out of the test. This sort of magic could only be performed by the magic towers that were scattered around. The Knights had taken a few apart and used them to build the testing area. It was thanks to that they were able to hold these tests and push the people taking them to their limit.

Mermaid blew on her pipe and remained where she was, leaning against the wall. Bubbles flew into the air around her, all floating higher and higher. “This year does have a few potential recruits I have my eye on. I hope Crow makes the right choice. We have people from Rossum, Gallenth, and even Mordheim taking the test this year. How many of them do you think are spies and are going to get caught in the final test the king set up?”

“Who cares about a bunch of small fries?” Tori mumbled quietly. She had her own tablet out and stood in a corner of the room. Her knuckles were white, and she was glaring at it, seemingly not happy with what she was seeing. “None of these people matter. They’re nothing more than fodder trash we’re using to fill out our ranks for the brewing war with Mordheim. I can’t believe my father let people from other nations take the test this year with everything that is going on.”

“My Lady,” Gray began. “Do try to remember that even you started off as an exam taker back in the day.”

Tori just scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

There were five of them gathered in total, out of the seven Vice Captains. Once the exam-takers had all been teleported away and sent to the exam area, many Knights moved further into the stadium, where hidden rooms were scattered around. That was where Tori currently stood, along with her fellow Vice Captains.

The room was a comfortable office space, featuring a table, a couch, and various chairs, along with refrigerators full of food and a TV screen that rapidly flickered through the many cameras.

Hydra Storm didn’t have a vice captain at the moment, and Paragon, the vice captain of the Oak Watchers Guild, was too busy keeping her captain on life support, so she was unable to hang out with the other five Captains. Finally, the current vice captain of Phoenix Flight hadn’t been sent an invitation since no one wanted to be around any members of that guild. The bad luck Phoenix Flight members had could be transferred to anyone who was near them, which was why most of the kingdom avoided them like the plague, and no other Knight wanted to work with them.

Gray plopped his feet up on a table and peeked over Briefcase’s shoulder to look at the tablet. “Have you taken a look at Ms. Yuan yet?”

“I have.” Briefcase nodded and clicked a button. The camera shifted and changed, showing a lakeside view. Next to the lake was a woman with reddish-brown hair who had a smirk on her face. Around her were dozens of boring, low-level mages who were all failing to land any notable attacks as the girl easily dodged past them. She wasn’t even bothering to fight back, simply letting the guys attacking her tire themselves out. “She’s one of the ones most captains have their eye on, I think. Her stats are quite impressive, but I am worried that a Yuan is here. It feels a little odd that someone like her would come to our nation. Her family is the inventor of the Martial Cultivators group, after all.”

The screen changed slightly, and it brought up Ken Yuan’s grimoire. Rossum’s people didn’t use the same magic that Estiria did and had other names for things. Still, since she was in Estiria, her core was able to produce an Estiria grimoire, just like how Davi Hawker also had one, despite technically being from Mordheim.

The people of Rossum had magic and cores, but they referred to it with their unique name and used it in vastly different ways. Their cores could still be read like any others, though.

Mana: Grade B, Endurance: Grade B+, Strength: Grade S-, Efficiency: Grade A, Resistance: Grade C.

Traits: Flame Core: Grade A, Heat Immunity: Grade A+, Sprint: Grade A, Stamina: Grade C, Wall-Walking: Grade C, Water-Walking: Grade C, Hand-to-Hand: Grade A+, Way of the Sun Open Palm Martial Arts: Grade S, Bearer Of The Title Of Ken: Grade C-, Loved By Spirits: Grade S+, Sealing: Grade A-.

“These stats and grades are what I would expect from an Arcane Knight.” Briefcase mused. “Someone like her being here almost has an unfair advantage with the amount of Grade As she has, not to mention the two S grades she has.”

Tori shook her head. “No. She’s nothing special. She might be a little strong for a rat, but she’s still a rat. Until someone's stat reaches the looping point, they’re trash.”

“Expecting anyone without Haru’s mana to have a 1 in their stat just isn’t fair.” Whisper frowned and rolled her eyes. “You have too high expectations.” The girl pulled her phone out and flipped through several of the cameras. “Speaking of expectations, did anyone notice that we have another blood magic user this year?” She questioned as the image of a white-haired girl appeared on her phone screen. “Mary, Lot! Mana: Grade D, Endurance: Grade C, Strength: C+, Efficiency: Grade C, Resistance: Grade A+. Traits: Blood Core: Grade C+, Knife-Wielding: Grade C, Scythe-Wielding: Grade C, Poison Resistance: Grade A, Venom Resistance: Grade A, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D, Sprint: Grade D, Stamina: Grade D, Quick Regeneration (Physical): Grade B+, Determined: Grade A. She’s got a lot of traits, but only a few of them are worth anything, and her stats are quite low. Combine that with her blood magic, and I don’t see her getting far.” Whisper giggled.

Gray frowned at the mocking way Whisper said that. This was noticed by the white-haired girl since he didn’t have his bull armor on.

“Something wrong?” She asked.

“No.” Gray shook his head, and he stood up. “I’m gonna go take a walk. Let me know if anyone else catches your eye.”

Mermaid made a face as Gray slammed the door. “What’s his issue?”

“No clue.” Briefcase shrugged. “We got a few other notable people this year also, like Rowan Zyne and a man named Bruno Moore, who has crazy high stats. This year is shaping up nicely, I think.”

“I wonder who will be my new guildmates.” Mermaid mused and once again played with her pipe. “I hope it’s someone interesting.”

Outside of the room, Gray stalked through the hallways. They were long and wide, with various lights hanging above, and every few feet, there would be a new door that would lead into another private room. All sorts of Knights were using the spaces to hang out with their friends or make bets on the exam-takers this year.

Any other year, Gray imagined he’d be interested in doing the same, but this year was quite different. He stopped in front of a door all the way near the back and opened it. “Hey, I’m back. How are you holding up?” Silence met him as he entered the room. It was significantly smaller than the others and resembled an inn room more than anything else. It had a bed, a desk, and a bathroom, as well as a stand for a TV, which hung up. “You don’t like to talk much, do you?”

Seated on the bed was a figure dressed in a long black cloak, who wore a red oni mask. They were sitting motionless and holding a remote. Their gaze was fixed on the TV, which had a live view from all the cameras. They had paused the shuffling, though, leaving the cameras on only one viewpoint.

Gray walked over and looked at the TV and found a familiar face within it. A man with raven black hair and a nasty scar stood in a cornfield, about to face down some girl in a maid outfit. “Ah, so that’s what you’re focused on, huh?” Gray mused. “You found him.”

“Why am I not taking the test?” Sieg asked quietly. “I should be out there. I want to see him.”

Gray folded his arms and shook his head. “That’s not how it works. Magical Mutants usually don’t become Knights, as people are often scared of them. When a Mutant shows promise and is strong like you and catches the eye of a Knight like me, they’re invited to take a special test once the other exams are over, and if they pass this special test, then there is only one Guild that will take them. Of course, if you wish to leave, you can still do so. We’re not going to force you to join Phoenix Flight against your will.”

“No. I’ll stay. If he becomes a Knight, so will I.” Sieg said simply.

Gray nodded. “I understand. But do you really think he can do it?”

“Of course.” Even with the mask on, it was obvious Sieg had a smile on his face. “After all. My little brother is almost as strong as I am.”

***

‘Ow, I can’t believe she stabbed me with several needles. What the hell?’ Davi remained silent as he reached up and grabbed the sharp metal bolts that stabbed out of his shoulder. ‘Rude.’

“What’s wrong?” Ashley taunted. “Got nothing to say?”

Davi looked back at Ashley and continued his silent act, though in his mind, he was constantly speaking, repeating ideas back to himself. ‘She’s far away, and I don’t have a means to close the gap. I could try to move toward her, but she likely saw my speed when I knocked out the other guy, and she’s confident from where she stands. That likely means she can make distance if she needs to. She threw her attack at me without mana to catch me off guard, so she’s not stupid either. I don’t know how many needles she has or what her magic type is. She doesn’t know mine either, but she likely guessed that I don’t have a weapon since I tried to steal that one guy's sword. These walls will also make it hard for me to get away, since any direction I move in, the corn will shift with me, giving my position away. Not to mention, I don’t know what’s waiting for me outside of this or if there are any other people waiting for me. She was with at least two others, so they’ll likely try to back her up if they show up, and if they don’t know where she is now, they’re probably going to be looking for her, so I should assume that I’m about to be jumped. Alright. I got it. I’ll see how close I can get before she tries something and go from there.’

Ashley frowned when she saw that Davi didn’t budge an inch. He just stood there with his blank look on his face. “If you’re going to make it easy for me, then be my guest!” She held three needles in each hand. Her right arm suddenly lit up as she poured mana into it, and she launched the needles out as hard as she could. Now that she was using mana to boost her strength, they blasted out like a bullet going off, and as they went flying, she also threw out the other ones in her hand, but didn’t use mana to boost them. She made sure they lagged behind the first three, hiding behind them in a blind spot where Davi couldn’t see.

Her plan worked perfectly. Davi put mana into his legs and boosted them, allowing him to dodge to the side. The first three needles blasted back at him, and he was about to launch himself toward her, but before he could, the other three needles stabbed into his stomach, piercing past his shirt and spilling more of his blood. The sudden pain caused him to overstep and mess up his running start, which slowed him down just enough for Ashley to draw six more needles.

This time mana covered both her arms, and she launched the six needles out at the same time, sending them all toward Davi, who was rapidly approaching. Due to how close he got and how fast the needles were moving, he no longer had the ability to dodge them. The needles were also spread out, so he had to cover his entire body in mana, which caused his skin to glow with a faint blue light.

By coating a body in mana, it could be boosted and strengthened beyond normal human limits. If only one part of the body were covered in mana, it would be significantly increased, but if a person covered their entire body in mana, all of them would be boosted, but to a much smaller degree. Since his whole body was now bathed in his mana, Davi was able to increase his defense; however, it wasn’t to the same degree it would have been if he focused it on one area, so when the needles hit him, they tore into his flesh, leaving him with six more wounds. This time, Davi was ready for the pain, and he didn’t slow down.

He finally reached Ashley, who didn’t have time to grab any more of her needles. She had remained standing and didn’t try to dodge or run. Instead, she used her first spell.

“Row Dust Barrier!”

A wave of grayish dust erupted out of the ground. Dirt and ashy-looking flakes flowed in the air, forming into a large circular shield that sprang up just in time to block Davi’s punch. The barrier cracked and shook, and Davi said a spell of his own, but Ashley wasn’t able to hear it from how loud her shield creaked. Now that the construct was formed, she sent a pulse of magic through it and altered it, causing jagged spikes to stab out where Davi was in order to pin him down or outright kill him. Then she jumped to the side and drew more of her needles, ready to throw them out at Davi, but all she found was empty air. He wasn’t impaled on her dust spikes.

Ashley barely had time to process that fact before her entire shadow jutted upward, and Davi came blasting out of it and rammed his fist directly into her stomach, pouring all of his mana into his arm. The pain nearly caused Ashley to vomit, but it was nothing compared to the intense stabbing sensation. She was launched into the air and crashed back to the ground. As she hit the ground, she groaned and stared down at her stomach in horror, which now had several of the needles poking out of it.

Davi had taken them and held them between his fingers when he stabbed her, impaling her with her own weapon.

“Y-You bastard.” She hissed out. “Shadow magic? You can teleport through people's shadows?”

“Sure.” Davi held his hand up, gripping three more of the long needles between his fingers. He punched the air a bit and made a stabbing motion. “Let’s go with what you said.” He, of course, didn’t have such an ability. He could open his vault and go into it and then leave his vault, but that was it. The way he stepped through Ashley’s shadow was the same way he had lifted himself through Gray’s. When two shadows came together, the bigger one would devour the smaller one, and his shadow was infinite in size; therefore, any shadow that came in contact with his was part of his shadow. His shadow had touched the shadow of the dust barrier she formed, which in turn touched her own shadow, thus allowing him to step through hers. Now that her shadow was no longer touching his, it meant he couldn’t do that trick again unless he got close to her. “The test said I had to knock you out, so don’t take this personally, okay?”

Ashley reached into her uniform to grab more needles, but before she could, Davi casually threw the needles he held and forced mana into his wrist. They impaled Ashley’s arms, pinning them to her chest and stopping her from grabbing anything. “Row Dust Blades!” In a panic, she screamed out a spell, summoning up more dirt and dust.

The dust swirled together in the air and formed jagged blades that Davi would have loved to use as his weapons, but they were sadly missing the handles. The blades spun and whirled through the air as they launched themselves at Davi, who jumped to the side in order to avoid them. His earlier strike had sent Ashley flying back, and now that she had the distance, she wasn’t going to let him get close again.

“Row Dust Blades! Row Dust Blades! Row Dust Blades!” Her arms were still pinned to her chest, the needles going all the way through her wrists, her clothes, and into the flesh underneath. She could have attempted to pull her arms free, but the pain was too great for her to muster, so instead she focused on just spamming her spell over and over again. “Row Dust Blade!” Each cast summoned three of her dirt swords, and with how fast they fired out, Davi was forced to stay back constantly and couldn’t approach her without risk of being impaled. Her swords were loaded with enough mana to rip through him, and she could speak the incantation faster than he could run.

Davi dodged and weaved through the literal barrage of swords. They were being launched much faster than the needles, and if he got any closer, he’d have no time to dodge. Even from where he was, he kept getting nicked by the blades due to their sheer speed.

‘Would be real handy to have a gun right about now. Could just shoot her or something.’ He thought bitterly. ‘I could put my armor on, but if everyone is watching, then that means they’ll all see me in my Ebony swag, and I don’t think that would end well for me. That’s okay, though. I don’t need it. If they want a show, I’ll give them a show.’

Davi dodged once more, and he reached for one of the ears of corn.

“Row Dust—” Ashley opened her mouth to speak, and Davi struck, throwing his arm forward and forcing all his mana into it. The ear of corn launched out like a spear and rammed itself directly into Ashley’s mouth, whose eyes went wide with horror. She choked on the object and gasped. Several of her teeth broke from the force of the strike, and tears streamed down her face. She had no choice.

Pain exploded through her as she ripped her arms up, yanking them across the nails. The white of her maid's outfit was stained red, but she managed to grab the corn that was impaled in her mouth and ripped it, along with several teeth, out; however, it was too late.

Davi slammed his fist down and rammed it directly into Ashley’s face, shattering her nose and knocking her out in one punch. “Davi wins.” He announced and posed for the camera. "Shit, I hope I didn't accidently kill her."

Back in the room with the vice captains, Briefcase wrinkled his nose. “What sort of bastard hits a woman that hard?”

“Did he use corn as a weapon?” Mermaid snorted.

Whisper scratched her chin. “Something tells me this guy is a bit nuts. He totally let himself get stabbed, and he looks a bit scary. I don’t think he’ll be a good Knight. What do you think, Lancey?” Whisper looked to Tori, and her smile faded when she saw Tori’s expression.

Tori’s face had turned a deep red, and the blonde woman almost looked to be drooling. “He’s perfect. Just a bit more.”

Whisper looked away, deciding not to ask why Tori looked so aroused. "Has anyone checked his stats?" She asked.

Briefcase shook his head. "I tried looking into his file, but it kept coming up blank. He isn't from our kingdom and doesn't have any notable records. It's like he just appeared out of thin air. My guess is he's from outside the Kingdom and wandered in. A total nobody, like a street rat or something. Would you like me to pull his stats up?"

"Nah." Whisper shook her head. "No point. If he doesn't have a serious record, it won't matter what his stats are. Total nobodies can't become Knights. Once a street rat, always a street rat."

"He's not a rat." Tori's words caused Whisper to look back over to the woman, an action Whisper deeply regretted since Tori was practically panting now. "He's a bird."

Mermaid looked deeply uncomfortable and shifted away from Tori. "Can we go view someone else?"

Back over in the cornfield, Davi rubbed at his wounds, which were still bleeding. He got the notification that he now had two points, but he didn’t know if that was good or not. He stood over Ashley and looked around the field, which was now mostly destroyed and torn apart due to all the blades the mage had launched at him.

He could see more of the battlefield he had been placed in, and his scar ached, allowing him to sense dozens of mages who were all engaged in battle. He could even hear shouting and explosions. It was also thanks to his intuition that he was able to sense someone was watching him. Someone full of bloodlust who wasn’t holding their mana back.

“You! You hurt her! How dare you hurt her!” A voice screamed out. Davi made a face, and he found Rowan standing before him. The man had his hand on his sword, and his eyes were red and bloodshot as he stared at the unconscious Ashley, who rested at Davi’s feet. “You hurt what was mine!”

“Oh.” Davi’s eyes lit up as he saw Rowan draw his sword. “You’re the sword guy, nice. If I beat you, am I allowed to take your weapon, or is that illegal in the test? It didn’t say anything about it, so—”

Rowan screamed and launched himself forward with shocking speed, catching Davi off guard. He swung his sword out with both hands, his body being boosted due to the enchantment that fueled his blade.

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi opened his vault and grabbed something just in time, and he raised it.

Rowan’s sword came down, but to the nobleman’s shock, something blocked it. It wasn’t a sword or even a weapon that Davi held, though.

It was a fishing pole. One filled with so much mana that it was able to withstand the strike.

“A fishing rod? Are you mocking me?” Rowan demanded.

“Yes,” Davi said flatly. “I’m about to show you what it means to have an S-grade fishing skill.”

Chapter 47: Magic Vs Chi

Olivia had been having the time of her life. Not only was Bruno, her best friend, back, but she was also standing in the Arcane Knight’s exam area, just like they always talked about. It was perfect. Pure and simple.

She was totally fangirling also when all the captains and their vice captains came out, and Pretty Face flew through the air introducing them all. She hadn’t even considered which guild she wanted to be on. As long as it wasn’t Phoenix Flight, she’d be happy for the most part.

Shining Sentinels, Umbra Mortis, and Mourning Stars were likely out since they were next to impossible to get in unless you were a mighty noble and blessed with high stats and a powerful core. Oak Watchers and Hydra Storm were also hard to get into but manageable for normal people. Finally, Wandering Coin and Pantheon were the typical guilds nobody got placed into. Of those two, she’d like to join Pantheon since Myth, its leader, was kind of hot, but she’d be happy with the Wandering Coin, too.

Just as long as it wasn’t Phoenix Flight…

Not even she was dumb enough to try to join that guild.

Bruno reached out and squeezed her hand as Pretty Face used her magic and summoned a construct. “Are you ready?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Olivia said, right as the floor began to shake and glow rapidly. “I’ve been ready for a long time.”

As the words left her mouth, she felt Bruno’s hand be yanked away from her own, and her flesh tingled a bit. Everything felt like it was cracking, and then she felt herself spinning out of control.

Olivia squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could. She had been expecting something like this to happen.

The Knights, despite not technically working for the kingdom, basically had the full funding behind them and were able to buy crazy rare magic items or steal them from dungeons. The arena floor was one such item that would send a person into a specially created simulation. It required a lot of mana, so it was rarely used, but the throne all the captains had been sitting on allowed them to fuel their mana into the magical floor and send all the exam-takers away.

There were many different arenas and fields that the Knights would have set up, with each test being in a new location. The testing arena changed every year, as did the tests in general, but she had seen many of them. After the exams were all over, the results would be uploaded online, along with various videos of the exam that had been recorded.

Everyone in the arena would be randomly transported to a new spot, and it wouldn’t matter who was standing next to you when it happened. Bruno had been to her right, but when the transportation ended, he was no longer near her.

To make matters worse for her, she wasn’t alone either.

Olivia felt herself drop a bit, since she appeared a few feet off the ground, and she landed in a grassy field. There was a large lake that rested near her, and scattered through the field were various other exam takers. Many of them were like her, young and wide-eyed. A few others were older and had already drawn their weapons, looking around. Fewer still were calm and collected, not showing an ounce of worry.

“So, the tests started?” Olivia jumped a bit when she heard the voice, and she turned, finding a man standing next to her. He was looking around and looked mildly bored. He wore brown clothes that were more like robes than anything else, and at his side, a sleek-looking katana resided in the sheath. He had black spiky hair, and his eyes were dull and brown. They barely glanced at her before they looked away. “What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know.” Someone else mused. “Is a monster going to appear? There are at least twenty of us around, so maybe they’ll throw a big threat at us, and we’ll have to team up to take it down.”

Right as everyone was debating what they should do, there was a flicker in front of all their faces. Olivia blinked as a blue-looking screen suddenly appeared before her. It was a real stat window! Or, in this case, a quest window. The kind of thing you’d see in a LitRPG or something. She was so happy to see it, she nearly squealed, but managed to keep it in somehow. Text began to appear across the screen, and she read it as fast as she could.

‘A new quest has been issued. Quest: Test of Skill. Objective: Defeat as many of your fellow participants as you can in the allotted time. Each participant is worth one point. Time: One hour. If you wish to forfeit, simply say the words 'I give up' and you will be removed from the simulation. Participants who remain unconscious for one minute or die are automatically removed from the simulation.’

Olivia felt her smile slip away instantly. “Uh oh.” She should have expected something like this. It was kind of a classic way to see how strong people were. Make them fight a bunch of people and see who can take the most fodder out. Unfortunately, she was well aware of the fact that she was likely one of the fodder trash.

Instantly, the mood in the crowd changed. Muttering began to break out, and people started to look around as if they were waiting for the real quest to be issued.

“Is this some sort of joke?” Someone demanded. “Do they really just want us all to fight each other here and now? We’re not bandits!”

“Yeah!” Someone said. “Knights fight monsters and enter dungeons, and sometimes enter and then fight monstrous dungeons! We shouldn’t fight each other!”

“Eh. That guy kind of has a punchable face.”

“What—”

Olivia cringed as she heard the sound of a fist smacking into a face. That was all it took, as it turns out, to turn the crowd into a bloodthirsty mob. Yelling broke out, and then dozens of spells were cast as everyone began to fight.

“Row Sand Shower!”

“Row Flower Seeds!”

“Row Blade Singing!”

All sorts of magical effects filled the air and blasted out as various elements rained down. It became total chaos with everyone attacking one another. Some people tried to remain out of the fighting or run away, but those who did were sniped from behind. Others banded together to gang up on other exam-takers, and more just started spamming out powerful spells like their lives depended on it. With a grim feeling, Olivia spotted a few people drop already to the ground, limp and covered in a worryingly copious amount of blood. She knew that it was all fake and these people weren't actually dead; she herself had died in a simulation dozens of times, but it was still kind of nerve-wrecking seeing so many corpses suddenly pile up on the field.

It was insane how quickly people jumped to murder to solve all their issues.

“Row Glass Barrage!”

“Row Wood Hammer!”

“Row Mushroom Soup!”

Olivia let out a squeak, and she dodged to the side as a mix of glass and wood slammed down where she was. Thinking fast, she dove behind the man in the gray clothes. He had been one of the few people who didn’t instantly break out into a fight and remained calm. He barely reacted as she grabbed onto him and used him as a shield.

Another large hammer of wood came flying forward, and the man lazily lifted his palm and held it out. “Row Steel Flesh.” His skin shifted and changed, gaining a silver tint to it, and turned into solid metal right as the hammer reached him. The wood shattered on his new metal arm, and he remained standing. “How’d you know I had magic suited to defense?” The man asked casually, looking over his shoulder and down at Olivia, who kept herself perfectly behind him.

“Well, I didn’t know you had magic like that,” Olivia said a bit sheepishly as she glanced up at his metal hand, which he was using to block a wave of sand that launched itself at the two of them. “I could tell you were strong, though, by the way you were standing. You were either a powerhouse or someone good at acting, and I decided to roll the dice.”

The man gave a sly grin. “Really now?” He brought his other hand up and swept his black hair back. “Well, miss, stay behind me and I’ll keep you safe.” The man said in a calm tone. “I shall be your shield—”

“Row Blood Knife.” Olivia stabbed her dagger out and rammed it into the man’s side. His eyes went wide in shock and pain as she pierced him in the stomach. “Sorry." She said coldly. "This is a competition, though. I didn’t just dive behind you to use you as a shield. I did it because I could tell if we were to fight, you’d win, so I’m just going to take you out now, okay?” Before he could speak, her hand looped around his face, and she shoved it into his open mouth. He tried to bite down on her hand, but she had ripped some of her shirt apart and wrapped her hand in a thick bundle of cloth, stopping his teeth from going through. She wrapped her legs around him as well and pressed the hand holding the knife harder into his side while her other arm shoved itself further into his mouth.

‘Davi’s rules to combat. Rule one: Never play fair. Fair is for idiots, and idiots are people who die. Cheat. Go for the throat, block a mage's way of speaking, or claw at their eyes.’

Olivia felt some pain go through her as the man’s knees buckled and he threw himself onto the ground, using her to cushion his fall. She remained strong, though, and coated her body in mana to boost it. He was trying to do the same, but unlike her, he was having a much harder time focusing since she was attacking not just his side but also his mouth.

If a mage couldn’t focus or stay calm, then their mana wouldn’t be sturdy or strong. He was stronger than her and likely had more mana, but in this situation, she was keeping her cool, and he was in full-blown panic mode.

"If you struggle, it'll hurt more." Olivia twisted her knife. "I'm not trying to kill you, just knock you out, so do me a favor and stop, okay?"

The man struggled some more and gagged. He tried reaching for his sword, but he kept fumbling. His metal hand balled up, and he punched back, attempting to slam it into her head, but he was blindly swinging, and she was able to move her head out of the way and avoid it. She let go of the knife she was holding and brought her arm all the way around to where his neck was and forced her wrist into his throat.

‘Davi’s rules to combat. Rule two: Choking people out is pretty effective for beating them. They’ll go into a state of pure panic and forget how to fight properly. You can apply pressure to their neck, and eventually, they’ll black out if you do it for long enough. Just make sure you don’t do it for too long. Trust me, I found that out the hard way.’

The man tried again to hit her, but again she avoided his strike by moving her head to the other side. She was on the ground, and he was perfectly on top of her, which also kept her safe from the barrage of spells that were flying out. Soon enough, his thrashing began to slow to a crawl, and then it stopped entirely.

‘You’ve gained one point!’ The blue box appeared, but she quickly sent it away.

Olivia stayed there and kept her wrist pressed into his throat for a few more seconds until she was sure that he wasn’t faking. Slowly, she pulled her hand out of his mouth. It was covered in his saliva, and he had managed to finally bite through most of the wrapping and into her hand, spilling her blood, but she hadn’t even noticed. She gently rolled him off of her, and she pulled the knife out of his gut.

He wasn't dead, and she had made sure her knife didn't pierce any of his organs. Pretty Face had said it was okay to kill, but she was hoping that was just part of the test, and leaving your victims alive would be viewed more honorably.

“Sorry again, but I really need to win.” Olivia stood back up and let out a soft sigh. “Whatever it takes.” She promised herself. She couldn’t end up like Garon or the others who failed and lost all hope. Then she suddenly noticed something. The fighting had stopped. “Huh?” Olivia looked around and found everyone was staring at her in stunned silence.

“D-Did she fucking stab that guy? That looked so brutal.”

“That was so lethal? What if she killed him?”

“What’s with that mana coming off of her… It’s so tight. Like a snake is wrapping around me.”

“Look at that creepy smile and the pleased way she looks.”

“She’s a blood magic user? How did she even get a win?”

Olivia took a hesitant step back. She knew what was about to come. “We need to take her out.” Someone said.

“Yeah. She doesn’t play fair!”

“Get her!”

“Oh boy.” Olivia winced and raised her knife, but it wouldn’t matter. She could only cast two more spells before she was down, so she’d need to make her knife last, but with how many people there were around her, there was no way she’d be able to take them all down. At least fourteen exam-takers, all wielding weapons or wands, were about to attack her. “I guess I should have seen this coming.”

“Row Glass Spear!”

“Row Wood Falcon!”

“Row Sand Bullet!”

The attacks all launched, but before any of them reached her, a figure suddenly appeared before her. It was a girl in a red, black, and gold martial arts uniform who also had brownish-red hair and bright green eyes. It took Olivia a moment to realize that she was looking at Ken Yuan, the girl she had bumped into earlier and the one Ash had been freaking out about.

Ken struck out with her palm and didn’t even bother with a spell. Her body lit up with a bright orange glow, and her palm shattered a wooden falcon that had been blasting toward her. Not even a second later, she twisted her body and kicked up with her leg, sending a sharp gust of wind out that sliced a bullet made of sand in two. It hadn’t been wind magic that she used; she just kicked that hard. Lastly, her other hand lifted up, and she caught a long glass spear out of the air.

The people in the crowd all froze in shock, but Ken wasn’t done. She twirled the spear around her as if it were some sort of quarterstaff, and she blitzed forward with inhuman speed. Olivia’s eyes stung just trying to watch it, and she was forced to pour some mana into her eyes in order to keep up. The others were all hopelessly outclassed as Ken smashed the glass weapon into kneecaps or shoulders, hard enough to crack bone and tear skin.

Those people had been the lucky ones also, as when the weapon broke, Ken started to beat the people down with her bare hands. She wasn’t punching, though. Instead, she would launch out a palm strike, ramming her hand forward and twisting it. The force of the attack was the same as Davi’s mighty punches, lifting the people up off the ground and ripping through clothing or flesh. Ribs were shattered, and limbs were snapped as Ken danced forward.

All in all, it took her less than four seconds to knock out the entire crowd of people.

‘You’ve gained fourteen points!’ The blue box chirped as it appeared in front of Ken’s face. ‘You now have thirty-nine points! You are currently in fifth place.’

“I guess I should hurry and catch up.” Ken reasoned with an amused look. “The last group of fodder trash I fought, I took my time dodging around them until they were all so weak I could wipe them out. This trash was even worse, though. I feel so gross knowing my flesh touched theirs. Still, it wasn’t a total waste, though.” Olivia became nervous when Ken’s head suddenly snapped in her direction. “After all. Amongst the trash, I found a diamond.”

Olivia let out a small chuckle, and she held her knife at her side. “Yeah. I kind of figured you weren’t coming to my rescue. You want to fight, right?”

Ken’s grin just grew, and the aura around her blazed to life. “My chi is overflowing! I feel like I’m on fire. I don’t know what it is, but your chi has got me really excited. I haven’t seen anything like this since old man Feng!”

“Chi? Oh right, you guys call mana that, don’t you?” Olivia knelt down next to the man she had knocked out, and she sliced her knife out. She cut his belt off and removed the sword he had just, in time, as a moment later, he flickered and disappeared, being dragged out of the simulation. Calmly, she tucked her wand back into her shirt but kept the knife spell going. It would keep eating away at her mana, but this way she wouldn’t have to recast it. She drew the katana and stood back up, awkwardly holding it. “So I guess if we fight, this will be like a battle between mana and chi, right?”

“I prefer chi versus mana myself.” Ken snickered. “But yes. As usual, chi is going to win.”

Magic didn’t just have different names depending on where you were in the world; it also had other ways of being used. Rossum still had mana, though they called it 'chi', and they still performed spells, which they called 'techniques'. Just like a mage, they could use chi to boost themselves to godly heights significantly. Because of this, one might think that mana and chi were one and the same, but with different names, yet that wasn’t actually true.

The way the people used chi was different from how the people of Estiria used mana. Somehow, Rossum’s people, perhaps because of the lifestyle they lived or the way they trained, were able to refine their chi and do things with it that mana simply couldn’t do, as well as naturally draw chi in by focusing and meditating. The thing that made the people of Rossum stand out the most, though, was their connection to the spirit realm. A mage could learn how to draw mana in from the air, like Ash could, but Rossum’s people, and only Rossum’s people, held a unique connection to a special realm that they alone could tap into.

Martial Cultivators were very dangerous, and often, Knights didn’t engage with them, since the Cultivators were constantly improving, drawing in more power, and developing new techniques or stronger spirits.

The Yuan family were the first Martial Cultivators and could even trace their ancestry back to the elves. All members of the Yuan family were trained since birth to be brutal killers, able to kill a fully armed man with just their bare hands.

And Olivia was about to fight one…

“So why do you want to fight me exactly?” Olivia asked, holding the sword up in an awkward way. It was heavy and a bit painful for her wrists. Blood sword spells were always too expensive, so she had never actually held a real sword before, despite how iconic and cool they were. The closest she ever came was her blood-scythe, which was a spell she created herself.

“Your chi is speaking to me,” Ken said casually, and the girl began to walk forward slowly. “It’s practically begging me to beat your ass.”

“I doubt it’s saying that.” Olivia snorted. Ken was still walking toward her, and the girl had her guard down. “I do have to ask, though, why you—Sneak attack!” Olivia lunged forward and swung the sword down as hard as she could, right into Ken’s shoulder. The weapon bounced off of Ken and didn’t even cut her flesh. “Well, that’s not good.”

Ken casually slammed her palm out and rammed it into Olivia’s stomach. Olivia felt her eyes bulge, and the strike was so intense she nearly vomited. This was despite the fact that she covered her stomach in mana.

The force of the attack launched her off her feet, and the next thing Olivia knew, she was crashing down into the lake. The cold water consumed her, and her body remained motionless as she began to sink.

Chapter 48: Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword

The body of Ashley faded and vanished in a flickering light. Enough time had passed, and she hadn’t woken up quickly enough, which meant she was now out of the simulation.

The only two people who remained in the cornfield were Rowan and Davi. Both men paced back and forth slowly, each keeping their eyes locked onto the other. Rowan’s were full of hate, while Davi’s were mainly blank.

“Ashley better not fail the exams because of you.” Rowan hissed. “She and Sera are going to become Knights with me!”

Davi hummed and shrugged his shoulders. “She attacked me. I just defended myself. What was I supposed to do, just let her kill me?”

“Yes!”

“Well, that’s stupid,” Davi said flatly.

“You’re stupid! Row Water Slicer!” Rowan stepped forward and sliced his sword out. The air around him grew colder, and water formed along the blade before it launched out in a thin and slashing motion that went side to side. The slice expanded and grew in speed as it fired out, tearing through what was left of the cornfield and flying toward Davi. Davi was forced to drop to a crouch in order to avoid the slash, and as it went over him, he felt a wave of pain as Rowan charged and swung his sword down, stabbing it into Davi’s shoulder. “Row Water Bullet!” Rowan tore his blade out and pointed the tip at Davi, a compressed ball of water forming and blasting out, ramming into Davi’s damaged shoulder.

Davi fought through the pain and swung his fishing rod out, but Rowan blocked it with his sword. Their mana clashed, blue meeting blue. Rowan’s was more like a deep sea blue, though, while Davi’s crackled out like blue flames. Davi got back up to his full height and forced his arms out, shoving Rowan back. As Rowan backed away, Davi slammed his foot down into the ground so hard he kicked up a wave of dust, trying to blind the noble, but Rowan countered with another spell.

“Row Water Skin!” Water formed over Rowan’s flesh and armor, layering him in a skin-tight suit of armor that upped his defense. The dust bounced off of it, not getting into his eyes, and he charged once more toward Davi. “Row Water Bullet!” Again, Rowan stabbed his sword out and launched the bullet, but he kept thrusting his sword out as well, so that if Davi blocked it, he would still be stabbed by the sword.

Davi realized this and took the bullet to the shoulder, twisting his body, and then he swung his rod out and deflected Rowan’s thrust. As both their weapons bounced off of each other, Davi punched out with his other arm and slammed it into Rowan’s face, but the mage’s water armor absorbed most of the blow, rippling it out, keeping Rowan safe.

“Row Water Slash!” Rowan turned and sliced his sword out again, point-blank at Davi, barely giving the man time to dodge, but even still, Davi was able to react to it.

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi opened his vault and vanished, sinking into his shadow as the slice flew out. The vault opened further and tried to pull Rowan in, but the noble jumped away and got out of its range.

“Row Water Flood!” This time Rowan lifted his sword up and pointed it to the sky. A big ball of water flowed into existence at the tip of his sword, and he slammed it down. The water exploded and crashed into the vault's opening, flooding it rapidly. “Row Water Tendril!”

Inside of the vault, Davi saw the wave of water invade his realm, and it began to twist and change, becoming a long tentacle that wrapped around his waist. It squeezed down hard enough to crack some of his ribs and yanked him out of his vault and back to the real world.

“Did you really think that would work?” Rowan sneered. “Do you have any clue how many spells I’ve bought? I have dozens! Literal dozens! I have a counter for anything a peasant like you could throw at me! Row Water Cloak!” Rowan held his palm out, and the water tendril popped. The water sprayed out and flew toward Davi, who began to drop. Just like how Rowan covered himself in a skin-tight layer of water, Davi, too, became cloaked in it. His eyes went wide as he realized he couldn’t breathe. Rowan brought his arm down, and the water around Davi moved to obey, ramming Davi into the ground. “This is my favorite spell.” Rowan laughed and slapped his hand to the right, and the water followed the direction, dragging Davi across the ground. “Isn’t it neat!”

Rowan moved his hand up and down, left and right, and again and again. Davi would be jerked along, flying through the field of corn, and slamming into the ground hard enough to bruise his skin. He wasn’t protected like Rowan was, and he could barely move his body since the suit of water was compressed tightly around him.

‘Should I bring my armor out? It’d be easy to break out if I did. What will the captains think, though? Davi felt his back slam down into the floor, and he began to get pressed into it. ‘Man, why did I have to create it in a way that looked like the Ebony Knight guy? I could change and tweak the armor, but that would take me a while to figure out and picture. If I cast it now, that suit is the only one that will come to my mind, and I’ll be seen in it. Will I be kicked out instantly? If the test really is about popularity, all the captains will learn that I’m the fake Knight running around. I doubt any of them would want me in their guild after that. What a pain… In that case, I’ll use my other method to win.’

“It’s time to end this,” Rowan announced. The man covered his blade in mana and pulled the arm holding the sword back. He then slammed his other arm in his direction. Davi was dragged across the field and sent flying toward him, and Rowan stabbed his sword out as hard as he could. “Die!”

“Row Shadow Vault.”

Davi used his spell at the last second, but it seemingly didn’t matter. The water around him vanished, but it was too late. Rowan’s sword rammed directly into his chest right where his heart would be, and Rowan forced the blade in all the way down to the hilt.

***

Orion Hawker was not a good man. He wasn’t even a semi-decent person.

Orion Hawker was rude, arrogant, selfish, greedy, and full of wrath. Orion Hawker cheated on his first wife, cheated on his second wife, cheated on his third wife, stole from over ten different banks, committed blackmail against his superior officer, abandoned his country when they needed him, stole from his country when they needed him, ran away from his country when they needed him, lied, cheated, stole, and so much more.

At one point he could have become a world-famous swordsman, he could have been the hero that his people needed, and he could have lived the life that he wanted to live, but instead Orion threw his fame, his fortune, and his self-respect away, being kicked out of his country's military and forced to live on a trashy, remote island with his fourth wife, raising two bastard sons that weren’t even related to his current wife, working as a mediocre blacksmith, since that was the only job he was even semi-good at.

Orion Hawker was a terrible human being. But he was at least a good father. The kind of father who would stop at nothing to ensure his sons succeed.

“Davi, have you even been paying attention to a word I said?” Orion huffed out. The blonde man had his hands on his hips and frowned as he watched his youngest son play with his fishing rod.

Davi turned to look back at his dad and cocked his head to the side. “I’m fishing the way you taught me.”

“I didn’t take you out here to fish, though.” Orion’s look changed as the man gave a smile. For once, he wasn’t in his typical blacksmith uniform and instead wore long black robes, which were the exact same clothes he had forced his son to wear. A wooden training sword rested at his side, and Davi had one as well, but the boy didn’t have it drawn and instead gripped his fishing pole. Orion had his own fishing rod, and he had it casually placed over his shoulder. “The fishing rod was just to show you the basics; you’re supposed to put it down and draw your sword. Don’t you want to learn my cool sword technique?”

Davi shrugged. “I’d rather just keep fishing.”

“Well, too bad!” Orion’s eye twitched, and he walked up to his son and stared out at the lake. “Sieg’s mom made me promise not to teach him the way of the sky-cutting sword, but your mom never said anything about teaching you. As a parent, it is my duty to make sure that my son knows his family's signature sword style.”

Davi made a face, and the eleven-year-old's nose twitched in mild anger. “I don’t want to use a sword, though. They’re heavy and clunky. Can’t I use a spear? You can use spears to fish.”

“No! Spears are for sissies!”

“Sieg uses a spear, though.”

“Well, Sieg is lame and boring!” Orion huffed. “His mom’s already corrupted his mind and sunk her claws into him. He’s too far gone to teach the epic ways of the sword, but you’re not, Davi! Unlike Sieg’s mom, your mom is based, and she appreciates the beauty of a sword. With my genes and her genes pumping through you, you’re bound to become a world-famous swordsman. You just need to put the work in, okay?”

Davi pouted harder. “I don’t wanna be famous, though.”

“Yes, you do! Trust me, you get bitches and money if you’re famous!”

“What are bitches?”

“Don’t worry about it…” Orion rubbed the back of his neck and hummed. “Look, let me show you one more time, okay?” Orion took a deep breath, and he raised his fishing rod up. He lifted it up into the sky and gripped it with both hands. “Mordheim is a nation of swordsmen. We all take pride in how well we can use our weapons. Our family, the Hawker clan, is one that is old and nearly wiped out. Do you know why that is?”

Davi set his fishing pole down and shook his head. Something about his father’s look changed. Orion’s golden eyes were narrowed and focused.

“It’s because they weren’t good enough,” Orion said in a simple tone. “Mordheim only respects those who are good with a sword, and so the only things of worth are swords or sword techniques. Our family had a cherished sword, but I gambled it away before you were born, so the only thing I can teach you is our sword style, or in this case, sword technique, for unlike other fancy ways, the way of the sky-cutting sword has only a single move. Just one single swing. A downward swing.” Orion’s body faintly glowed the slightest traces of mana forming over his flesh before it began to run along the blade. “This is the way of the sky-cutting sword. A lone attack that will split the sky itself!”

Orion slammed his arms down as hard as he could. The fishing rod came down hard, and the line blasted out with tremendous speed from how hard he brought his arms down. The line sliced through the water, and a ripple-like effect flew out, going up and down in a single straight line, ripping through the air and tearing the lake before him in two, causing the water to part.

It was a single, powerful swing.

The water only stayed parted for a moment before it closed back and gushed together. Orion let go of a breath he held and reeled the line back in.

“In fishing, you raise your rod up and bring it down to throw the lure out as far as you can. The movement is sort of similar to the downward swing you need to perform, which is why I took you out here. It isn’t just about swinging the sword or the rod as hard as you can. You need to perfectly cock your wrist up and out right as your arms come down while also forming enough mana along the blade's edge and then rapidly causing it to twist and expand out. If you do this right, then you’ll perform the correct attack and unleash a powerful shockwave that will extend in a line. If you go above and beyond, you’ll even split the skies themselves in two.” Orion announced. “Well? What do you think?”

Davi lifted his arms, raising his pole up, and then he brought it down, throwing the lure out, but he didn’t use any mana, and he didn’t do it anywhere near as hard as his father had. In fact, he didn’t even attempt the downward slash and just got back to fishing, calmly waiting for his lure to dip below the water's surface.

“It was kind of cool how you split the water, but it’s not very useful for fishing,” Davi said flatly.

“It’s not for fishing!” Orion yelled out, and he waved his arms up in anger. “It’s to slice the sky in two! That’s the meaning of the sword style!”

“You didn’t cut the sky, though.”

“What?” Orion stopped and frowned.

Davi glanced back at his dad. “The sky didn’t budge. It’s so far away; you didn’t do anything to it. Is it actually possible to split the skies? Can mana even travel that far?”

Orion snorted. “Of course it’s not possible.” The man looked down at the fishing rod he held. “No one could actually slash the skies themselves in two. That’s a silly idea.”

“So why the name then?” Davi asked curiously. “If it’s actually impossible to cut the sky, why is it called a ‘sky-cutting’ sword?”

Orion folded his arms and let out a hum. “See, now that’s a good question. The reason my great-great-great-grandpa picked the name was simple. It’s something for us to strive for. Sure, it might not actually be possible to unleash a single strike that can reach the heavens themselves and tear through them, but because that is what we are striving for, that is what each of us trains to do. Just now, I was able to split an entire lake with just a fishing rod. Pretty cool, right? Imagine unleashing a strike like that on the battlefield. This naming method is the same reason things like ‘Dragon Hunting Blade’ or ‘Demonic Mountain Cutter’ have the names they do. People strive to do what they can’t, and for many people, they use this as a way to push them to grow and do better.”

“So, I should set a goal for myself if I want to grow? One that is hard to reach and impossible?”

“Well…” Orion awkwardly rubbed his chin. “Geez, I suck at talking. I mean, yeah, you can set a big goal, but you’re still a kid, you know! Pick something you think is doable first and go for that.”

Davi nodded his head, and his grip grew tighter around his fishing pole. “In that case, I've decided.”

“Oh?”

“I’m going to be the best fisherman.”

“Davi, you’re killing me! Please pick up a sword! I’m begging you!”

***

Davi wasn’t sure why that memory came to his mind, but it did. Perhaps it was because he was using his fishing rod as a weapon, or maybe it was just dumb luck, but it gave him an idea.

Rowan’s sword impaled Davi’s chest, but it was Rowan who screamed in pain. The nobleman’s eyes went wide, and he stared down at the ground in shock. Davi’s shadow had changed, and something was stabbing out of it. A sword. Rowan’s sword. The blade impaled Rowan’s foot, slicing off half his toes, since he was standing on Davi’s shadow.

“W-What the hell?” Rowan’s eyes were wide in both shock and pain. “What happened?” Rowan tried to stab his sword in deeper, but instead of going further into Davi’s body, the sword in the shadow raised up and cut off more of his foot.

Davi grimaced slightly and pulled at his shirt, which was torn open. Beneath his flesh, a bluish light blazed. Inside of his flesh, directly in front of his heart, he had opened his vault up. He could open it up anywhere that there were shadows, and since the inside of his body was dark, it had been easy enough. He also switched the entrance of his vault and made it his shadow, so when one thing entered the vault from the entrance in his chest, it would then stab out of the shadow beneath him, which Rowan was standing on.

Davi reached out and grabbed Rowan’s wrist. His fingers curled around it tightly. He still couldn’t hurt Rowan thanks to his armor, but Rowan was able to hurt himself since his mana could bypass his shield, which was how he stabbed himself in the first place. Davi began to violently shake Rowan’s arm, which caused the sword to go up and down, making it saw into Rowan’s leg.

Rowan screamed louder, and he yanked his arm back and ripped the sword out of Davi. He stumbled back, his water skin rapidly turning red as his blood mixed with the liquid. It was no longer see-through, making it hard for the mage to see properly, but he didn’t have to worry about that for long.

Calmly, Davi lifted his fishing rod into the air. His mana coated the edge of it, and as it reached the sky, he took a single step forward and slammed his arms down as hard as he could. The reel launched forward, the line glowing from how much mana was wrapped around it. A thin shockwave launched up and down and flew forward along with the rod’s line, and Rowan felt a horrible ripple effect course through him as his water skin was split perfectly in two and parted.

His mouth opened, and he went to scream out a spell, but Davi was faster. His rod finished its slash, and he pulled his arms back. The line bounced off of the ground and deflected up, wrapping around Rowan’s neck. Rowan’s eyes met Davi’s, and he knew what was about to happen, but there was nothing he could do.

“Row Water Bubble!”

Davi pulled his arms up further, and the line grew tighter. A line of blood ran along Rowan’s throat before the line fully sliced through, and in a single tug, Davi decapitated the other man.

Rowan’s severed head hit the ground, and his body crashed to the floor, spraying out a wave of blood. “So much for not killing.” Davi sighed. Rowan’s water skin would have reformed if another second would have passed, which would have made it next to impossible to harm the man, and Rowan was also extremely tough and sturdy, so Davi knew he wouldn’t have been able to knock him out. His only solution in the moment was to go for a single strike that would instantly kill the man. He just hoped the part about killing being allowed wasn’t a secret test. Besides, this was a simulation, so technically Rowan wasn’t dead. “Hang on, where are my points?”

Davi frowned when he noticed the blue box hadn’t appeared. He wondered if he had messed up after all, but then he heard a voice.

“You bastard!”

Davi blinked, totally caught off guard, and he looked down, finding Rowan’s head was glaring up at him. The noble was in a small bubble of water, which was sucking in oxygen, keeping his brain running for a bit longer.

“Oh, a talking head… Neat.” Davi nudged the bubble with his foot, which caused Rowan to growl louder. “I feel a little less bad now.”

“How dare you! Do you know who I am?” Rowan yelled. “I am a member of the Zyne family! I will have you serving as my dog by the time I’m done with you! You had to cheat and play dirty to beat me! I am better than you! My gear is better! I have more spells! My stats are higher as well! I know they are! You cheated! You’re pathetic!”

Davi stared down at the head and hummed. “You’re rich, right?”

“Richer than you’ll ever be!”

“Cool.” Davi crouched down and began to go through Rowan’s pockets, searching the corpse.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing!” Rowan demanded, but Davi ignored him.

Davi pulled out an expensive phone from Rowan’s pocket, and he tossed it away. Next, he pulled out some random candies, which he pocketed for himself, and then he finally found what he was looking for. He produced a black wallet and opened it up. He dumped most of it out until a thin black card dropped into his hand. “Bingo.”

“Let go of that!” Rowan demanded. “That’s mine!”

Davi pulled his own phone out. He opened his Grimoire app and went straight to the market. It was in the top right corner and was a shopping cart icon. As soon as he clicked on it, he was taken to a web page filled with various items, along with a search bar located at the top.

Sword of fire, axe of frost, thunder underwear, mittens of iron, flame sword spell, helmet of future sight, minor healing potion, potion of superior lovemaking, potion of gender swap, coat of warmth, gun of infinite bullets, time watch, spacial bag, gravity boots, fire car spell, lightning plu spell, earth shower spell, axe of fire, sword of fire, thunder underwear mark two, card of pranks, sword of light, sword of dark, dark sword spell, light gun spell, holy panties, hat of truth, glasses of lie, and so many other options that were all listed out. The shop had spells and magic items, as well as potions and anything else that held a hint of arcane that could be sold.

Davi tapped on the search bar, and he typed in the word ‘shadow’. Instantly, a bunch of new items appeared.

Potion of shadows, shadow sword, shadow axe, shadow helm, glasses to see through shadows, shadow panties, shadow scarf, shadow remover potion, shadow cloak, shadow sword spell, shadow scythe spell, shadow tiger spell, shadow recover spell, shadow growth spell, shadow shrink spell, shadow cutter spell, shadow absorption spell, and the one that caught his attention. Shadow robes spell.

Everything that had the word shadow appeared, some being items and some being spells. Ultimately, he clicked on the shadow robes spell.

“Stop it!” Rowan yelled. “Whatever you’re doing, I command you to stop!” He couldn’t cast any spells since it was taking all his mana just to keep himself alive. “Stop!”

Davi kept ignoring the head, and as he clicked the spell, he was taken to a new page. ‘Row Shadow Robes, a spell made to create what I hope is a fashionable and protective outfit that will make you look stunning and powerful. Unfortunately, this spell isn’t suited for me, so I decided to put it on the market. Feel free to send me any pictures of you in the outfit. Here’s my number; call me.’ There was a phone number listed, as well as the name of the spell creator. Alvin Black.

At the bottom of the page was a buy button, which Davi pushed, but he then received an error message since his account lacked sufficient funding. Luckily for him, it also provided a way to add funding. If he had a card with money on it, he just needed to put the information into it.

“Man, look at all the zeros.” Davi whistled as he read how expensive the spell was. “One, two, three, four, five—”

“I’ll kill you!” Rowan screamed.

Davi finished typing in the information, and he clicked Buy. This time, he was given the success message. “Oh, I guess you had enough money on your card, cool-”

In a flash of black, Davi found himself in a familiar place. He was floating in a bright, colorful void, and in front of him, a massive orb of light resided. The Core that connected everyone together. The thing he had seen when he first opened the app. Its tendrils rapidly grew and wrapped around him, and Davi felt a sharp pain in his head. Words and images began to flood his mind.

He saw a life, one that wasn’t his, and he saw a spell, one being forged that he had never made. Row Shadow Robes. It dug in deep into his mind, and he gained an understanding of it as if he had always been able to do it. The next thing Davi knew, three spells came to his thoughts. Row Shadow Armor, Row Shadow Vault, and Row Shadow Robes. These were all three of his spells.

Row Shadow Robes was now one of his spells.

Davi shook his head and gasped as the vision faded, and he found himself standing in the destroyed field once more. He rubbed his head and groaned slightly. Did that always happen when someone tried to learn a new spell? The memories, emotions, and intent of the spell had been literally slammed into his mind. It was worth it, though. He now had a third spell.

Rowan was still yelling at him, so he casually kicked the head and sent it flying away. With one last grunt, Davi turned back to the phone. He searched for another spell. Something offensive that had range, so he could launch an attack at the dragon next time he found it, but whatever spell he tried to buy failed.

‘Due to suspicious activity, you have been temporarily locked out of the card you provided.’

“Ah, darn, they caught me.” Davi threw the card, along with the rest of the wallet, into his vault. Then he grabbed the sword from Rowan’s corpse, along with the sheath, and placed it at his side. There was only one thing left to do after that. Davi took a calming breath and focused himself. Then, he spoke his new spell. “Row Shadow Robes.”

Darkness exploded around him, and a new outfit began to form.

Chapter 49: The Bloody Fangs Of A Snake

Olivia felt herself sink further into the body of water. She didn’t fight to stay afloat; instead, she let her weight carry her downward. This was primarily due to the pain she was feeling in her stomach.

She had coated her belly in her mana, but Ken hit just as hard as Davi. The woman’s palm strike had pierced past her defense, and Olivia could tell at least one rib was broken.

And so much for trying to preserve her blood dagger; the water ate away at the red weapon and slowly broke it into bits, leaving her wand without its blade. It was just her luck that someone like Ken would show up to fight her. The girl was a serious powerhouse and was practically a shoo-in for the position of Arcane Knight should she be able to pass the final and most crucial test.

‘Davi’s rules to combat. Rule three: You’re going to run into someone stronger than you eventually. This happened to me when I fought Gray. No matter how strong you are or how weak you think your enemies are, assume that you’re just a tiny fish in a big pond and there is always a bigger predator waiting to gobble you up. If you run into one, there are two things you can do. The first, and the one I’d suggest, is to run away. It isn’t cowardly; it’s smart. The second thing you can do should only be done if you aren’t able to escape, and that’s fight back. You’ll either be given a swift defeat if you’re lucky, or the predator will be one of the ones that get cocky and let their guard down. If they’re the second kind, you can use that to your advantage.’

Davi had made it sound so simple when he explained it to her back when they were stuck in the cell together. He had drilled her on dozens of different exercises and told her what to do if she got into a fight, yet in this moment, none of it seemed to matter because Ken was just that strong.

Even if the woman was cocky, what could be done to defeat her? Slamming a sword into her shoulder hadn’t even cut her clothes, due to the sheer density of Ken’s mana.

Olivia felt her back finally touch the bottom of the lake. One of her hands still clutched the katana she had stolen from that spiky-haired metal mage. Her other hand reached beneath her shirt and pulled her wand out. Gray had given her wand back the day of the exam, though he had refused to give any of Davi’s weapons back.

It was a good thing she did have her wand as well, since her weak magic was even weaker when casting it out of her hands.

Olivia silently looked at both the wand and the sword and tried to come up with some sort of plan, but she kept blanking.

A construct made out of magic was more potent than a basic weapon. That meant her blood knife would be a lot sharper and able to hit harder than the metal sword she now held, despite the fact that it was smaller. This was because when boosting a physical object like a sword, a mage would have to pour mana into it to strengthen it. Still, a weapon made out of magic, like her blood knife, was forged from solid mana and already boosted, and could then, in turn, be increased even further by mana. This meant the sword wasn’t able to harm Ken, but the knife might be able to, and if it couldn’t, her scythe would absolutely be able to harm even Ken’s durable skin due to how sharp and deadly it was.

It wouldn’t do much good, though.

She didn’t have the venom inside of her, so her blood didn’t hold the same effect it did in her fight with Garon, and without something like that, her attacks wouldn’t be strong enough to down Ken Yuan in one hit. It would take many hits before the girl went down. If Ken realized she had a way to hurt her, Ken would likely take her out in one attack, which meant she needed to finish the fight quickly.

It just seemed like this fight was unwinnable. Ken was just too tough, and her attacks hurt a lot. The girl likely wouldn’t go down from one stab, and Olivia doubted she could choke Ken out.

There was one thing she could try, though…

One single attack. If it didn’t take Ken down, then she’d lose for sure.

Olivia tucked her wand back into her shirt, and she finally lifted herself through the water, swimming up. She broke past the surface and took a deep, gasping gulp of air. She had been so busy trying to come up with a plan that she almost let herself drown. That would have been embarrassing.

“Finally.” Ken’s voice drew Olivia’s attention, and she found the red-haired girl standing near the edge of the lake. “I knew you weren’t knocked out since my box didn’t give me any extra points, but for a moment I thought you couldn’t swim or something.” Then Ken casually stepped forward. Her foot lit up and glowed with a wave of intense mana, or in this case, chi, and instead of dipping into the water, it touched the surface of the lake as if it were a solid. Olivia’s eyes went wide as Ken began to walk toward her, standing on water. “Here. Need a hand?” Ken asked, her smirk growing as she reached Olivia and held a hand out to the white-haired girl.

Traits came in many forms and were sometimes referred to as skills, depending on the person being spoken to. Traits, to put it simply, weren’t spells, and they also weren’t basic stats. Instead, a Trait was something that a person could do well.

Most people had basic Traits like Sprint, which was graded on how fast and how long they could run, or Stamina, which was like mana but less magical. When a person practiced something and became proficient enough to make it noteworthy that they could do that thing, they would gain the Trait of whatever skill it was they were practicing. So, if someone practiced throwing a punch, they would gain the trait Hand-to-Hand. Anyone with arms could punch, but it was only after a person became at least semi-decent at it that the Trait would appear.

If a person who practiced punching also eventually learned a martial art, then they’d not only have the Trait for Hand-To-Hand but also a Trait for the type of martial art they had, like how Davi had the Trait Way of Self Iron Martial Arts.

Some traits, however, couldn’t be gained naturally through practice and instead were something you’d be born with. Olivia had one such trait. Quick Regeneration was one such Trait and was an ability she got for having the Blood Core. Special Traits were very rare and either came from a person's Core or, in rare cases, their clan. Some Traits, especially the Special ones, could be used with mana, but they weren’t spells and didn’t need to be spoken aloud.

The trait Ken used was an example of this. Wall-Walker was a basic mana skill anyone could learn if they put enough work in. By focusing her energy on her feet, Ken could defy gravity and walk up walls. Water-Walker was the advanced form of this, and as the name implied, it allowed Ken to walk on water. Gray had used this Trait to stop himself from being sucked into Davi’s Shadow Vault, since the properties of the Shadow Magic were similar to water.

“Well?” Ken raised her eyebrow when Olivia remained in the water. “Give me your hand, don’t be shy.”

Hesitantly, Olivia reached up and took the hand. She regretted it in an instant as Ken’s fingers locked around her hand. Ken’s smirk turned into a sneer, and the red-haired girl pulled her arm back, dragging Olivia out of the water, and she casually twisted herself and let go, sending Olivia flying through the air once more.

Olivia flew over the wall and spun, unable to control herself as she slammed into the grass field and rolled across it. She barely managed to draw a tight cloak of mana around herself and groaned as her skin became bruised and battered.

“Did you really take my hand?” Ken laughed and began to walk across the water again, heading toward Olivia. She sauntered, swaying from side to side, her eyes staring intently at the downed Olivia. “You know we’re fighting, right? You backstabbed that other guy without hesitation, but you fold after getting hit by me once? Are you that useless?”

“I knew you were going to do something like that.” Olivia stood back up and ignored the way her bones popped. “I just sort of assume all your actions are bitchy in nature and plan accordingly.”

“Okay, smartass, then why’d you take my hand?” Ken frowned.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Olivia pointed her stolen sword at the other girl. “All I’ll say is it was for a tactical advantage. I knew you’d throw me. If I didn’t take your hand, you’d have just attacked me the moment I tried to swim away, since you’d be offended by my actions.”

Ken placed her hands on her hips and looked Olivia up and down. “You wanted to get out of the water because it would harm your blood technique. You’re a follower of the Blood-Path, just like old man Feng was. Unlike old man Feng, though, you don’t seem to know how to use your Path properly.”

“You know someone who also has blood magic?” Olivia said, a little stunned. Ken wasn’t speaking in a mocking tone either. In fact, she seemed to be speaking of this Feng guy as if he were important.

“We don’t call it magic. That’s just some stupid name your dead leader came up with.” Ken scowled. “Now you’ve gone and put me in a bad mood. I think I’ll break that pretty face of yours. It’s ticking me off.” Ken’s body glowed orange once more as her mana came rising up. “Try not to go down so quickly this time, okay!”

Olivia knew that Ken was going to come at her quickly, so she decided to capitalize on the only chance she could and instead threw herself forward toward the other girl. She was still sloppy when it came to using mana to boost herself, and she also had improper footing. She had no sort of Sword-Wielding Trait, and that showed since her swing was sloppy.

Like last time, her sword bounced off of Ken’s body, dealing no damage. She tried to jump away and dodge the strike she knew was coming, but Ken was way too fast for her to escape. Ken’s fist flew out, and the palm struck her where her lung was. The force of the attack rippled out, and Olivia gasped and felt her shoulder nearly dislocate. The ground was knocked out from under her, and she flew back.

Thankfully, this time she didn’t crash down into the water and instead slammed into the hard ground several feet away. Olivia stayed flat on her back and weakly stared up at the blue sky, trying to breathe.

Ken’s attacks weren’t just hard-hitting. The girl was coating her hand in so much mana and then shoving that mana out that when she would hit, the energy would course through a person’s body and attack them from the inside.

“You’re so boring,” Ken whined, and instead of attacking again, she began to stretch. “I was never able to beat old man Feng, but you suck. You walk the same Path he does, and your Chi is so wavy like his, but you two couldn’t be any different. The old man is like a snake. Some people think he’s like a spider because of the web-like nature of his Chi, but that isn’t right. A spider is easy to deal with if you know what you’re doing. Feng is different, though. Fighting him is like he's constricting you, wrapping you up tighter and tighter until eventually your bones feel like they're breaking. The next thing you know, you’re flat on your ass, and Feng stands above you, spotless and clean, while you lay there in a pool of your own blood, drifting in and out of consciousness.”

“Cool story, but I forgot the part where I asked.” Olivia finally pushed herself back up. Somehow, she managed to lift her sword and kept her gaze steeled. “You really shouldn’t be talking until you’ve won, you know. As long as I’m still conscious, you haven’t gained any more points, and there’s a chance I can win.”

Ken’s eyes narrowed. “Oh yeah? Big talk coming from someone who needs a stick to use her techniques. What happened to it anyway? Did you lose it? I noticed you haven’t tried any of your precious ‘spells’.”

Olivia didn’t say anything, and instead, she jumped toward the girl once more. She tried to force all her mana into her arms and struck out. She didn’t even wait for the strike to bounce off of Ken before she attempted her next trick. Instead of swinging her sword again or trying to dodge, she did her best to wrap her arms around Ken’s neck and hug the other girl, but it didn’t work. Her arms didn’t even get all the way around Ken’s neck before the red-haired girl struck out.

This time, Ken jammed her knee up. Olivia was pressed so close to her that she was able to ram her leg all the way up into the white-haired girl’s stomach. The force of the attack caused Olivia to wheeze, but Ken didn’t give her a chance to recover.

Ken grabbed the girl by her hair and yanked her head up, forcing Olivia to look up toward the sky, and then Ken jammed her other arm out, ramming her palm straight into Olivia’s heart.

Olivia was unable to stop herself from throwing up this time. The pain was intense, and it hurt. She wasn’t actually bleeding, at least not on the outside, but her bones were twisting and snapping with every strike, and her flesh ached so badly. She tumbled across the ground, and this time she didn’t get back up.

It just hurt.

It hurt almost as much as the beating she had received from Garon. That had been a life-or-death fight, though. This was just a test. A test that she could fail and still become an Arcane Knight. It was possible to become a Knight, even if you did fail a test or two, so long as you impressed all the captains. That meant if she did black out, she’d still have a shot at making it in if she performed amazingly on the two tests that were waiting for her after this.

The only test that truly mattered, whether a person failed it or not, was the final test, the Test of the Soul, which the king always came up with every year.

If she closed her eyes and drifted to sleep, the pain would stop. She’d be healed the moment she left the simulation and still be able to compete. It would lessen her chances of getting in, but it would be a hell of a lot better than this beating she was taking.

She couldn’t settle for that, though…

She would never be able to live with herself if she threw in the towel. The pain might hurt now, and it might be driving her mad, but it was nothing compared to the hatred she’d hold for herself if she allowed herself to give up like this, and so Olivia did the only thing she could do. She stood back up. She spat out a glob of vomit and blood and looked back at the stunned Ken.

“Well? I’m still standing. Guess you still haven’t won.”

Ken actually took a step back before the red-haired girl caught herself. “What the hell are you?” Ken demanded. “How are you still standing? I held back so I wouldn’t stop your heart, but no person could just walk that off. What gives? It doesn’t make any sense. Your chi keeps growing. Are you getting better the more beaten down you get? Who are you?”

“Olivia Lot.” Olivia readied herself right as Ken came charging toward her. “And this time I mean it when I say that I’m going to be an Arcane Knight!”

Ken’s entire body was glowing with her bright orange mana, and she got ready for Olivia’s strike, but it never came. The first time, Olivia tried to dodge, and the second time, she tried to wrap her arms around Ken. For this third and final attempt, she devised a different plan. As Ken reached her, Olivia stabbed out and curved her arm, making sure the sword went past Ken’s back, missing her. Her other hand then shot out and went around the other side of Ken, grabbing onto the blade. She did this just in time as Ken reached her, and she punched out as hard as she could, ramming her palm directly into Olivia’s face.

Olivia could feel her nose shatter and her teeth rattle inside of her mouth. She got the world’s worst headache, and her eyes felt like they were about to explode inside of her skull, but she fought through the pain and gripped the handle and the blade of her sword for dear life. All of her mana went to her feet, and as the hit reached her, she angled her legs down, using her heels to try and slow herself from being blasted back. The sword followed with her, but since it was behind Ken, it rammed into the red-haired girl’s back. Ken was still too strong, though, and the blade was unable to cut into her.

Olivia felt her palm be sliced open since one of her hands was clutching the sword, but she still didn’t let go, and thanks to her brace and Ken’s own body, she wasn’t blasted back. She had used the sword and Ken’s strength to keep herself in place.

Olivia pushed forward as hard as she could and shoved her head off of Ken’s arm. Blood was literally gushing down her face, but she didn’t care. She slammed herself into Ken and pressed into her as hard as she could, almost in some sort of twisted hug. Then, Olivia struck.

“Row Blood Scythe.”

There was a tearing sound, and Olivia felt the front of her shirt tear completely open and rip as a massive, red scythe erupted from the wand hidden in her clothes. The handle of it jammed down and rammed past her side, cutting through it, but the blade grew outward, and Ken’s eyes went wide in shock and horror as her right side was sliced open. The blade expanded all the way out, tearing past Ken’s muscles and bones, and it went through her back.

The wound was brutal and deadly. The kind that would require immediate healing. It only got worse when Olivia twisted her weapon and pulled it out of Ken’s body. Olivia panted and struggled to breathe. Her clothes were a mess, and she had to tie her shirt together just to keep it in place and cover her modesty. She was also forced to lean on her scythe in order to stay standing and had a horrible stab wound in her own side, which was bleeding. That was her second spell, and with all the damage she took, she doubted she could cast a third. Still, no matter how bad she was, it was way better than Ken.

Ken Yuan’s face was pale, and the girl was shaking, clutching at her torn-up side, which was gushing blood.

“Give up,” Olivia said weakly. “You’re going to die if you don’t. You lose either way, but if you give up now, the pain will end sooner."

Ken glared up at her, the girl’s green eyes full of hate.

Rossum’s people were different from the mages of Estiria. The people of Rossum were born with Cores that worked in a unique way. This was because the culture was built upon gathering spirits. Unlike Estiria or other nations whose people had Magical Cores, Rossum’s people could not perform spells in the same way as everyone else. They didn’t have the ability to control the elements or alter reality like most mages. They employed techniques to compensate for this, utilizing mana or chi to perform supernatural feats, such as the way Ken sent out her shockwaves.

There was, however, one group of people in Rossum who did possess traditional magic. They could perform spells or advanced techniques, as they called them. These were the Martial Cultivators, Rossum’s version of the Arcane Knights. When a person became a Knight, they were given a piece of Haru’s mana, significantly boosting them in power. In Rossum, when a person became a Cultivator, they would be allowed to bond with a spirit, and this and only this would allow someone from Rossum to gain a proper Core and utilize their form of spellcasting.

Only Martial Cultivators got this permission, though. Because of that, it was seldom seen outside of Rossum, and any Rossum citizen taking the test was at a severe disadvantage since, while they had mana, they lacked the Cores the other test takers did.

That’s why Olivia was completely and utterly shocked when Ken used a spell.

“Row Flame Feel.”

It happened faster than Olivia could react to. One moment, Ken was sitting there bleeding out, and then the next, she grabbed at some sort of gourd that had been hanging off her belt. The gourd was heavy-looking and forged from solid iron. Ken uncorked it right as she spoke the spell and her body quite literally erupted in fire. It was red and hot, gushing out and sending a powerful shock wave. Olivia felt her skin burn, and she gasped, stumbling back.

Ken stood up slowly and breathed out. Her hair was on fire and had taken on a golden glow, and her eyes were a bright, fiery red. Steam was rising off of her flesh, and her gut wound was gone, fully healed. From the gourd she held, hot flames gushed out. It kept coming, forming in the air and twisting.

It crackled and hissed and took on a ball-like shape. It got to be the size of a large car and floated perfectly in the air next to Ken. Then, to Olivia’s shock, a face began to form on the fire, followed by a head. The ball began to distort and lengthen, and four cat-like legs jutted out of it along with a tail. A mane of fire began to form around the newly created head, and the fire's color distorted and became a deep golden shade, with fiery red eyes blazing out just like Ken herself had.

Standing tall and proud was a lion. One that was easily as tall as a horse and as long as a truck. Its four legs pressed into the ground, and its golden fur flowed in the wind. Olivia felt the lion's red eyes gaze at her, and a deep rumble came from the lion, and she realized it was speaking.

“Lord Ken Yuan, you’ve summoned me?” The lion bowed its head down.

“I did, Yujin.” Ken reached out, and she began to run her fingers through the fur of the lion and casually pointed forward, giving Olivia a cold and unforgiving look. “Kill her. Reduce her to less than ash.”

“As you command, my lord.” The fire-spirit, also known as Yujin of a hundred forms, opened his mouth. He howled and then unleashed a massive wave of fire directly toward Olivia, all without casting an actual spell.

Olivia tried to move, but her body wasn’t obeying her. Her limbs were heavy and numb, and the only thing keeping her standing was the scythe she still held. The fire came at her, and everything seemed to slow to a crawl.

“Row Shadow Robes.”

The flames rammed into Olivia, but they didn’t burn her. Instead, she stared down at herself in shock. The fire was being absorbed and pulled into her clothes. No… Not her usual clothes, but instead the outfit she now wore. Shadows had lifted off the ground and wrapped around her body tightly, replacing her torn clothes with a new set of fabric.

The clothes began with her legs, forming long, black boots that reached up to her knees. A skirt formed and replaced her pants, and instead of a shirt, black cloth wrapped around her upper body, creating some sort of dress that left her arms and shoulders exposed—lastly, a pointed, witch-like hat formed on top of her head. Despite the outfit being very tight and showing off way more skin than she would have liked, it somehow kept her entirely safe, mana seeping up over her flesh, and just like with Davi’s armor, it absorbed the fire.

The flames died down, and Ken looked just as stunned as Olivia. Olivia stared at her new clothes with wide eyes, feeling a little embarrassed. The skirt was too short for her liking, and it was cold outside.

“Tadaah,” Davi said in an emotionless tone, and he was suddenly standing next to Olivia. “I present: sexy witch-girl, Olivia.”

“Why the hell do you have this spell? I thought you only had two spells!” Olivia yelled in mild horror. “Also, when the hell did you get here?”

Davi gave a lazy shrug. “I beat up some rich guy and robbed him. While I was going through his pockets, I found his credit card and I wanted to buy some cool stuff with it on the Grimoire app, like how you taught me. I was only able to get one spell, though. You could've warned me how expensive some of them are. I thought this one would give me cool, badass robes, but whoever made it had a witch-girl fetish, I guess.” Davi shrugged. “It came in handy just now, at least so it wasn't a total waste of that guy's money.”

“Davi! Get me the hell out of this!”

“Well, if I do that, it’ll leave you naked,” Davi said in his usual blank tone.

“What?”

“Yeah, it destroys the clothes when it turns on; I found that out the hard way.” Davi shrugged again. Now that Olivia got a better look at him, she saw that her ‘friend’ was in new clothes. He had ditched the outfit Gray had given him and instead wore very expensive-looking noble armor. “Oh, yeah, I also totally robbed that guy's clothes after I beat him as well.”

“I hate you so much.” Olivia sighed and sagged her shoulders in defeat.

Ken and Yujin shared an odd look. “Alright,” Ken said slowly. “I’ll play along. Who the hell is this guy?”

“Sup. I’m Davi.” Davi drew his sword. “Since you have that fire cat, can I join this fight and make it a two-on-two?”

Ken flipped her hair. “Do whatever the hell you want. I could give a rat's ass. I’m going to beat both of you anyway.” Her confident smirk returned. "Yujin and I have only ever lost to Feng, so I doubt you can do anything to beat us."

“Davi…” Olivia said, suddenly serious.

“Yeah. I know.” Davi didn’t look back at her and instead kept his gaze fixed on Ken and the lion. “Any idea how long it’ll take you to recover enough to move?”

“A few minutes.” Olivia winced and placed her hand on her gut. “My Quick Recovery leveled up a bit, but it’s still too slow for something like this.”

Davi nodded. “Okay. When you can move at full speed, tell me, and we’re going to run like our lives depend on it.”

“You don’t think you can beat her?”

“I know I can’t.” Davi’s eyes traced Ken up and down. “Out of everyone I’ve seen today, she’s the closest thing to Gray’s strength. I don’t think someone like her should be here. She’s way too strong for this exam.”

“It’s because of the fire spirit she has,” Olivia said quietly. “Only Martial Cultivators should have one. Those guys are all the equivalent of an Arcane Knight. In other words, she’s basically already Knight level. Why did they let her take this exam?”

It just wasn’t fair, no matter how it was sliced. Ken was too strong.

“You know,” Ken said quietly. “I’m being very nice letting this conversation happen.” The girl teased. “That said, I’m a little pissed that I got fucking stabbed.” Her gaze turned hard. “Yujin.”

“Yes, my lord?” The lion asked the now golden-haired woman.

“Burn them both.”

Davi drew his sword, the one he had ‘borrowed’ from Rowan, and raised it, entering a combat stance. “Olivia.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m counting on you,” Davi said quietly. “It’s up to you. You’re going to have to save us.” And with those words, he launched himself forward right as the spirit readied its next attack.

Chapter 50: The Other Fights

The TV cycled through the cameras rapidly with a click of a button. So many different fights were happening all across the simulated battlefield that it was next to impossible to watch them all.

One moment the screen showed a woman with long blonde hair and a white gown, sitting atop a pile of sleeping exam takers, and the next it would switch to a man riding on a horse forged out of solid wood, swinging the blunt part of his sword out hard enough to knock people out in a single hit.

More people appeared on the screen, this time showing a very beautiful-looking man with jagged wings made of glass coming out of his back, who was engaged in battle with a cloaked woman who was rapidly firing bullets out of the two handguns she held.

Eventually, though, the screen changed yet again and got back to a familiar fight. Ken Yuan was bathed in flames, and from her gourd a lion forged of fire twisted out, unleashing a powerful roar.

“That doesn't look like a normal construct, is that a monster?” Mermaid asked, shocked. “Did she summon an actual magical beast onto the battlefield?”

Briefcase had hooked his phone up to the TV, allowing him and the other vice captains to all watch the various fights, but the one in question that drew all of their attention was the one involving the noble from Rossum, Ken Yuan. Even Tori looked a little shocked at the giant golden lion, which had been summoned from Ken’s gourd.

“It’s a monster, but one under the girl’s control.” Briefcase said, pushing his glasses up. “I’ve seen this before. Mages in Rossum have mana, but their cores are blank, lacking a magic type. In order to gain a type, they make deals with these monsters and can connect their core to the monster's core. This allows them to use their mana to keep the monsters alive without the use of a dungeon, and in return, they get to use the type of magic the monster in question has.”

“Making deals with monsters is outlawed, though,” Whisper said, scratching at her chin.

“Only in Estiria,” Briefcase pointed out. “And that’s because making a deal with a monster and sharing its core will corrupt you and turn you into a Mutant in no time at all. Rossum, however, has a secret method for bonding with monsters that makes it a flawless project. This is a secret invented by the Yuan family and something only passed down to Martial Cultivators.”

“So that girl is a Rossum Cultivator?” Tori questioned.

“No.” Briefcase shook his head. “She wouldn’t even be able to take the test if she were, since the king’s mana would instantly flag her.”

“So then why does she have a monster?” Mermaid demanded.

“She’s from the Yuan family.” Briefcase hummed. “Just like how Lady Tori never needed Haru’s mana to receive the blessing, I’m sure Ms. Ken Yuan was able to skip her nation's test altogether and gain a monster simply because of the family she was born into. Not to worry, though; the scans indicate that the lion is quite weak. It’s only a Grade B. All Martial Cultivators have at minimum a Grade S or, in some cases, even an E1 Grade monster as their familiar, yet she doesn’t, so she can’t be part of the Cultivators.”

“Why would she have such a weak monster with her then?” Tori sighed. “And here I was getting my hopes up with her. Her monster is fodder trash, though.”

“Would you like me to change the channel then?” Briefcase asked.

“Yeah.” Tori nodded. “Go back to the silver-haired boy.”

“As you wish.” Briefcase clicked a button on his remote, and the channel changed to a different camera.

This camera was placed on a rocky field at the top of a mountain. The area was sloped and stained red from blood. Two boys were both panting and looked exhausted. The first one was listed as Ash Anderson, while the other was Bruno Moore.

Standing before both boys was a lone figure. One who wore a black skin-tight suit that covered them from the neck down, covering every inch of their skin. Only their head was visible, showing ashen skin and bored-looking eyes that looked like the moon itself had been trapped within his gaze. His hair was long and silver, and in his hand, he held a sword, though it lacked the handle or guard, meaning he was just gripping it by the blade.

“Is that all you two can do?” The silver-haired boy asked, sounding exhausted. “I let you both team up, yet that’s it? A pity. Truly.”

The name, ‘Cain Lunar,’ was listed next to his image.

“Whoa, Bro, you’re like crazy strong.” Bruno chuckled. He had sixty points now, while Ash had thirty. Cain had one hundred and seventy-two points and was the first person to gain points, as well as the person who currently held the most amount of points. The test wasn’t even over yet, and at least three captains had also already voted for him.

Cain nodded and let out a sigh. “It’s a pity, isn’t it?” He lifted his sword up to the sky and gripped it with both hands as tightly as he could. “I’m just too strong.” And then he unleashed a single downward slash that launched out a ripple effect, cutting both down and upwards in a straight line.

The way of the sky-cutting sword.

All the vice captains watched the match as Cain’s perfect strike cut through the mountain and kicked up a massive wave of dust and dirt. Debris rained down, and the message of Ash Anderson dying appeared on the screen as Cain gained another point.

“He’s strong.” Briefcase noted. “Very, very strong.”

“Well, he is from one of the five branch families.” Mermaid snorted. There were many noble families that existed within the kingdom, but there were five main branch families that could all trace their bloodline back to the king, which in turn meant they could also be linked to Haru. “He’s a cousin of yours, right, Tori?”

Tori shrugged. “I dunno, I don’t keep track of the Lunar family; they’re all a bunch of edgy weirdos.”

“Like you’re any better… The Helios family is just as bad.”

“What was that?” Tori asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Nothing.” Mermaid shook her head and turned back to the camera, her smirk growing. “As cool as that guy is, though, I’m more interested in the other guy.”

“The other guy?” Whisper frowned. “What other guy?”

As if on cue, a wave of ice blasted through the dust and narrowly hit Cain, who barely blocked it. Bruno came sprinting out with a grin on his face, one hand clutching his wand and the other holding onto a massive ice sword, which he swung out. Both blades clashed, and Cain’s eyes met Bruno’s.

“Bro, you’re like totally awesome!” Bruno laughed. “I’ve never felt this on edge before! You’re even better than that pretty spear boy!”

“You’re annoying.” Cain took a step back and pointed his blade. “Row Moonlit Slash.”

“Row Ice Wall!” Bruno smashed his foot down, creating a giant wall of ice just in time to block a wave of silverish light that launched out of Cain’s sword.

“Why won’t you die?” Cain grunted out.

“Sorry, but I just don’t feel like it.” Bruno shrugged. “Now come on, bro, I’m having the time of my life! Vil Ice Fist!” From his wand, a jagged arm made out of ice exploded out, going through his wall, and it actually forced Cain to stagger when the silver-haired boy blocked it.

“Vil? That’s a second-level spell.” Whisper said in shock. “Who is this guy? Is he a noble? I know he isn’t a branch member, but for him to have second-level magic already, he’s got to be crazy good, right?”

“As I said earlier,” Briefcase gave a slight smirk. “This year is shaping up nicely. We have several good options.” He clicked a button on his remote, and the channel changed to a new person. “I believe she’s someone who will be a shoo-in for the Knights this year.”

The camera image changed once more, revealing a large, jungle-like area. Dozens of trees, all covered in vines, were scattered around, and people screamed as the vines wrapped tightly around them and pulled them crashing into the trees so hard their heads would smack into the wood and knock them out.

A lone girl wandered the woods, ambling and humming a melody as she did. She wore silver and red armor, along with a blood-red cape, and her hair was fiery and long. Every now and then, she’d twist a finger, and more vines would slap at people and yank more of them into the trees.

Her name was listed at the bottom of the screen as Ruby Marsian. Current points: seventy-two.

“Another branch noble?” Mermaid questioned.

“That’s right.” Briefcase nodded. “Even before this test, she’s been making a lot of public appearances. She even has an unofficial nickname already. The Druidic Paladin.”

“Some sort of plant magic, huh?” Whisper raised an eyebrow. “That’s kind of neat. Still, I’d like to see someone who’s not in the branch succeed for once. Can we see someone else?” She asked.

“You’re a noble also,” Mermaid said flatly. “All of us are.”

“Yeah, but only Tori here is part of the branches.” Whisper shrugged. “I just want to see someone else who’s cool and not all noble and stuff, you know?”

Briefcase rubbed his chin. “In that case, there is one guy I think you’d be interested in. Feel free to tell your captain about him also.” Briefcase clicked a button on his remote, and the image changed. “Some of you might recognize this guy. It’s his seventh time taking the test, but this year he’s doing a lot better.”

This time, the camera revealed a vast underground area that resembled a network of mines. Stone walls stretched out along with a rocky roof, and dozens of tunnels formed out, twisting in all sorts of directions. Dozens of mages were all screaming out various spells, trying to hit a target that was scurrying through the tunnels.

The figure was a blur, weaving in and out of any of the spells that came near them, and they unleashed powerful strikes to the throat, knocking all the mages out in only one hit each. When all the figures finally dropped to the ground, the blur stopped, allowing the cameras to get a clear view of them.

“Man, I’m doing super well this year! I guess my training is really paying off!” The figure was an older man in his early thirties, with messy black hair and a bit of stubble that coated his face, giving him a half-beard. He was extremely jacked, with massive muscles, and wore a black T-shirt that had some famous rock band on it and ripped jeans. Wrappings covered his palm, and his eyes were bright and filled with joy. What truly stood out about him, though, was the fact that he wasn’t glowing, nor had he been glowing during the beatdown of the other mages.

His strikes and his speed had all lacked mana.

The name ‘Max Power’ resided at the bottom of the screen. Current points: fifty-one.

“He’s been taking the test ever since he first turned of age.” Briefcase explained. “Each year he fails the test and never passes, but unlike many who give up, he’s shown back up time and time again, and he gets bigger each time. I’m not sure what sort of training he does, but it’s gotten to the point where he’s punching hard enough to knock out mages wrapped up in mana skins while he himself doesn’t use any mana.”

“Trash is still trash.” Tori snorted. “If it took him this long just to take out some fodder, then I’m not that impressed.”

Briefcase opened his mouth and was about to say something but stopped when he noticed the TV screen flicker. A moment later, the screen exploded, sending shards of plastic everywhere, causing Whisper and Mermaid to both let out yelps.

“What happened?” Whisper asked in shock.

Briefcase eyed the destroyed TV up also confused, but thanks to a special trait he had, he was able to see things others would miss. “A faulty wire.”

“Huh?”

“A faulty wire,” Briefcase said again. “A wire snapped, created a spark, led to a short circuit, and blew up.”

“I don’t think a wire being faulty would do that.” Mermaid frowned.

“You’re right.” Briefcase nodded and let out a sigh. “It’d have to be an incredibly unlucky event for something like that to happen the way it did.”

It dawned on everyone else a moment too late. The door to the room burst open as a figure entered. “Yo!” The voice announced. “What’s up-” The figure slipped on a faulty piece of the raised floor and let out a loud yelp, stumbling forward. They then tripped over the couch that was perfectly in the center of the room, falling over it and twisting headfirst into the open TV, landing directly onto the faulty wires, which instantly sizzled and blasted the person with a wave of intense electricity that caused all the lights in the room to flicker and then explode, sending shards of glass raining down.

“Oh great,” Tori said flatly. “A member of Phoenix Flight is here.”

“Don’t worry!” Slowly, the figure pulled themselves out of the TV, yanking shards of melted plastic and wires out of their flesh. “I’m a-okay—Ow!” As they were getting back up, they stepped onto the shards of glass that had rained down earlier. They lacked shoes since their shoes had been stolen by a pissed-off bird earlier, so the shards of glass stabbed directly into their foot. “I’m fine, I got it, I—” They began to hop on one foot and tried to twist their leg up to pull the glass out, but that just caused their other foot to hop up and down in a puddle of the melted plastic, which yet again made them lose their footing. This time, they went flying into a nearby fridge and slammed into it skull-first before smacking into the floor. The refrigerator then wobbled before creaking and somehow managed to tip over, perfectly landing on the downed Guild member.

An awkward silence filled the dark room as everyone stared at the person who was under the fridge.

“A-Are they dead?” Whisper asked.

The fridge suddenly rolled to the side, and the figure jumped back up to their feet and placed their hands on their hips. “I’m okay!” They announced for the third time.

Now that excitement had died out, Briefcase was finally able to get a proper look at this person. He knew they were the newest vice captain of the Phoenix Flight Guild, but that was all he knew. Since the last eight vice captains had all died so fast, one after the other, he stopped trying to keep track of them.

This new vice captain was a man. Not just a man, but a Mutant. He was lanky and extremely skinny. His clothes were mostly destroyed, burnt fabric barely clinging to his flesh, which was a deathly pale from the amount of blood loss he was likely always suffering. Since his clothes were so ruined, it made it easy to tell his Mutation. All across his skin were zippers. The kind you’d see on a jacket. Some were silver, some were gold, some were zipped, some were open, some were long, and some were short. They danced across his body, from his palms to his chest to his back. There were at least ten of them, including one directly in front of his mouth, which was open, allowing him to speak. He had jet-black hair, the tips of which were adorned with various zipper sliders, and his eyes were a dull black, with heavy bags resting under them, revealing evident exhaustion. Despite that, he still had a smile on his face and maintained his goofy pose even as smoke rolled off his burnt flesh.

“Hey!” The lanky figure said in a cheerful voice, and he waved, causing the many zippers on his body to jingle. “How do you do? My name is Pock! Ms. Paragon told me I could find you all here. I’m super excited to meet you all; it’s my first time in a vice captain meeting!”

“Fucking Paragon, jealous she can’t leave her captain’s side, so she threw the walking disaster at us.” Whisper pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Hey, so it’s your first time here, right?”

“Yep!” Pock eagerly nodded his head. “I just became an Arcane Knight this year! I didn’t even have to take a test or anything; they just let me out of jail and told me I was the new vice captain. Isn’t that cool?”

“Very, now listen.” Whisper went to place a hand on the man’s shoulder but decided against it in case his bad luck would spread. “You, uh,” she stopped trying to think of an excuse. “You need to have permission from your captain to be here. Have you spoken with her at all?”

Pock cocked his head to the side and shook it. “No? Not since we got here? She’s been stuck on the toilet all day because she accidentally ate spoiled food. And on the day of the exam, talk about bad luck, right!”

“We don’t want you here,” Tori said in a blunt tone.

Pock’s kind smile faded, and he seemed confused. “Huh?”

“Leave,” Tori grunted out. “Now. Before you bring the entire room crashing down.”

“B-But this is the vice captain's meeting room, right?” Pock gave a nervous laugh. “We’re supposed to sit here and watch the matches. I know I showed up late, but that’s because a mean dog ate the map I had on the way over.”

“You don’t need to worry about the matches.” Briefcase raised his hand and tried to be at least semi-respectful. “Your captain doesn’t need you to report back to her either. Honestly, I’m shocked she even came this year; she skipped last year's exam. You guys don’t get recruits, so just go do something else, okay?”

Pock’s shoulders slumped a bit. “Is this because of the bad luck curse?”

“No,” Briefcase said hesitantly, in a tone he hoped was reassuring, but it was destroyed by Tori, who was still blunt.

“Yes.” The woman snorted. “We don’t want to catch it. Go.”

Pock gave a weak nod. “Okay. I’m sorry for bothering you.” He gave a soft bow. “I’ll go.” He turned to leave, but since the fridge had been knocked over, all the drinks inside had come spilling out, making it slippery. Pock lost his footing and slipped, falling directly onto the table, whose legs had been getting eaten by small termites for the past month, causing the table's support to give out and shatter. Pock slammed into the floor with a grunt. Then he smiled. “I’m okay—”

The roof above him exploded and shattered, burying him underneath a pile of rubble.

“Still okay!” Pock’s muffled voice announced proudly from beneath the rubble. “Also, can someone please help dig me out?”

Chapter 51: The End Of The First Exam

Davi knew going into this fight that he was at a disadvantage. His scar was burning, and he could feel a large amount of mana coming off the golden-haired girl before him. He had never been good at sensing mana or reading it, but every hair on his body was standing up. Whoever or whatever Ken Yuan was, she was a dangerous individual.

It didn’t help that he wasn’t at full strength. He had already gone through two big battles and had been stabbed, cut, drowned, slammed around, and much more. His chest had a sword-sized hole in it where his heart was, and he had been forced to use a lot of mana to fight off Ashley and Rowan.

It didn’t help that he couldn’t fight at his full strength either. Not just because he lacked his armor, but also because he didn’t have a proper sword. The weapon Rowan used was nice, but he was used to bigger, heavier blades and not a short sword, which felt awkwardly small in his hands. Even so, though it was an enchanted weapon, it was having an effect on him.

The effect of the blade seeped into his muscles, and Davi could feel them swelling slightly, as supernatural power was being added to his own strength. The sword was making him stronger and sturdier, empowering him with its own magic. It wasn’t a powerful effect, and it couldn’t do anything else, but it meant he’d at least be hitting harder than he usually would.

As Davi approached Ken, he couldn’t help but curse the fact that he wasn’t able to use his armor. It wasn’t just because of the fact that the captains were watching; against an opponent like Ken, he was willing to risk it, but Olivia being here was holding him back.

His Efficiency was grade D-, which meant his control and usage of his spells wasn’t the best. Some mages could have dozens of constructs up at the same time, but he couldn’t. He was limited to just one, and since he was maintaining Olivia’s clothes, he could no longer activate his armor spell without dropping the mana he had on her. Doing that would leave Olivia butt-naked, and he had a feeling she wouldn’t be happy about that. Not to mention the amount of fire Ken was unleashing and the injuries Olivia now had; if she weren’t covered in the shadow robes, she’d surely burn to ash in an instant.

All of this was to say, Davi knew he was going to really struggle in this fight.

“Burn him,” Ken announced.

“As you command, my lord.” Yujin puffed up, the lion opening his mouth as wide as he could. A wave of intense heat came blasting out, scorching the ground and rolling out toward Davi. It was so fierce and bright, and even before the fire reached him, Davi could feel his flesh starting to sizzle.

Davi bathed himself in his mana, and he focused most of it into his legs. He threw himself to the right, narrowly dodging the wave of fire, but Yujin simply cocked his head to the side and began to turn, the wave following his movement. Davi was forced to run, escaping the rapidly approaching fire.

“Look at him run.” Ken mused. “He’s pretty fast for such a big guy.”

“What even is that thing?” He called out. He ran in a circle, unable to get closer to Ken, who remained in the center of the field, keeping her arms folded while the lion blasted away. Thankfully, Olivia had managed to be out of the danger zone, being in a spot far enough away where the fire wouldn’t reach her. “It used a spell without saying anything, so it’s got to be a monster, right?”

“Yujin is no monster,” Ken said, offended. “You’re right in thinking that he’s not a human. Unlike other people, he has no need to announce the names of his techniques. He’s just going to keep attacking without pause. It makes me wonder who will reach their limit. Can you outlast Yujin’s chi, or will your stamina run dry?”

Davi kept running as fast as he could, looping around the battlefield, all the while the fire was hot on his trail. At this point, he had circled the entire area twice now, and his feet were starting to hurt since the ground was ablaze. He was also left completely confused by what Yujin was.

Some mages could make constructs that they could then fire their spells out of, but the way Ken was speaking, it made it sound like Yujin was using his own mana and not her own. Not to mention, when a mage wanted their construct to cast a spell, that mage would have to use the spell themselves and channel it through the construct they made. Ken didn’t do that, though, and instead had given a single order, which the creature had obeyed without question.

It was some sort of sentient monster that Ken had summoned out of the gourd that was willingly working for the Rossum fighter.

“Are you seriously planning on running until you get tired?” Ken asked, growing bored. “If that’s the case, I’ll assist Yujin and end this quickly.”

Davi didn’t react to the taunt and instead held the arm holding the sword out. There had been a reason he ran in a circle. It was impossible to approach since the fire grew larger the closer it got to Yujin and Ken, and running away wouldn’t do any good, as that would risk Ken getting annoyed and taking Olivia out. That meant if he couldn’t go forward or backward, there was only one spot he could go.

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi stopped and waited until the fire was just about to hit him before he dropped into his now open vault.

For once, he was glad it was so cold because it instantly wiped away the burning sensation that had been dancing across his flesh. All around him was the inky black void, and above him was the opening to his vault. In the real world, his shadow would remain behind when he did this, so if someone paid attention, they’d be able to tell something was wrong. That was why he normally only jumped into his vault when he was surrounded by other shadows that he could connect to, something he lacked this time; however, Yujin’s flames had left the ground totally scorched and black, allowing his lone shadow to blend in.

Above him, Davi could hear the fire die down, followed by Ken’s grunts and the sound of ash being stomped on. “He stopped?” Ken’s voice muttered out. “Did he think he would be sturdy enough to survive the fire blast? Nothing of him is left, not even his bones. Way to go, Yujin.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

Davi tensed up. The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and then right when he felt his shadow grow and connect with a lesser one, he struck. He blasted up through his vault entrance sword first and instantly was met with a wave of pain as Ken’s palm connected with his face.

The fiery-haired girl spun the moment he came flying out and dodged his strike. Her palm soared out and connected with his face so hard he was slapped out of his vault and tumbled to the ground. “Nice try! I’m not stupid; I heard you scream the word 'shadow.' Obviously, you were casting a spell!” Ken said flatly. “I didn’t expect you to come flying out of the ground like that, but I knew you’d try something, so I focused all my chi into my brain and eyes in order to greatly boost my reaction speed,” Ken smirked and placed her thumb to her head. “A neat trick, right?”

Davi frowned and stood back up. He held his sword out but stopped when he saw Yujin stand above Ken once more, the lion staring down at him. The girl had her usual sickly sweet smirk and cocked her head to the side right as Yujin opened his mouth. The fire came blasting out again, but this time, he was a lot closer to it. “Row Shadow Vault!”

“Trying to escape into your shadows again?” Ken frowned and watched as the fire erupted forward, blocking sight of Davi. She waved her hand, and Yujin stopped, waiting for her next order. “That won’t work. I’m faster than you.” Ken called out, glaring down at the ground. “You can’t win by sneak attacking me—”

Yujin let out a sudden cry of pain. Despite being made out of fire, he had a solid physical form, one that was suddenly sliced into from above him as Davi came crashing down from the sky, sword first. He hadn’t opened his vault and instead used the fire blocking Ken’s view as a chance to jump into the sky as far as he could and catch the girl off guard.

“Yujin!” Ken cried out. Davi was now standing on the large lion, using the truck-sized creature as a foothold so he could drive his sword further into its back. “No! Get off him, you bastard!” Ken rocketed forward and jumped toward Davi, slapping out with her palm, but Davi was ready for it and tore his blade out and dodged the strike, leaping off the injured monster.

Yujin let out a groan, and the lion smashed down into the ground. His wound was starting to fix itself, but it was slow, and it was clear that the damage had taken a serious toll on the spirit.

Ken stared at the lion, a mix of emotions coursing through her eyes, before she growled and glared back at Davi. “How dare you!”

Davi didn’t miss a beat and took his chance to strike. He raised one of his arms and revealed several jagged needles that he had swiped off of Ashley. He then coated his arm in mana and sent them blasting toward Ken. The girl was fast enough to block them and did so easily, covering her palms in mana, which allowed her to smack the needles out of the air, but it was Davi’s next attack that caught her off guard. He threw his sword as hard as he could, using it like a spear. He wasn’t aiming for her, though, and instead sent it flying toward the downed Yujin.

“No!” Ken threw herself in front of the lion. Usually, she’d be able to block such a strike with ease, but deflecting the needles had stolen her reaction time. Her chi was also unable to simply deflect Davi’s mana, which was wild and chaotic. The sword stabbed into Ken’s stomach as she used her own body as a shield.

“My Lord!” Yujin cried out.

Ken winced from the pain, but she fought through it and glared up at Davi, who was sprinting toward her. Davi lifted his hand up and pointed his palm out toward her and Yujin. “Row Shadow Beam.” He announced loud enough for Ken to hear. Ken flinched and threw her arms up, ready for the spell, but it never came. Instead, Davi reached her and threw his fist out, punching directly into the handle of the sword that was inside of her.

Ken spat up blood, and her eyes went wide. She tried to throw a proper strike out toward Davi, but he dodged past her, and then, to her horror, he slammed his foot out directly into the head of Yujin. Yujin howled in pain as his eye was stomped on. Ken screamed again and went to attack Davi once more as he raised his leg up, but it was a feint, and Davi instead twisted his body and dodged Ken’s palm strike. His hand grabbed the sword handle poking out of her and twisted it, ripping through her stomach and spilling more of her blood.

Ken crashed to the ground and gasped, clutching at her gut wound. She went to cast a healing technique on herself like she did the last time Olivia cut her, but in the moment she was down, Davi got back to attacking Yujin and slammed his sword down into the creature's neck. Ken roared and ignored her own healing, throwing herself back at Davi and tackling him away from her friend.

Under any other circumstances, Ken should have absolutely won with minimal effort; however, she was cocky and hadn’t used her full power right from the start. This is what led to her being sliced open by Olivia. That had forced her to power up, but that just gave Ken another weakness, which Davi was now exploiting.

He honestly hadn’t expected her reaction when he first targeted the lion. It had been done simply to try and get rid of the weakest link, since he could tell that Ken was way stronger than the beast she had with her. The way Ken had acted, however, after he stabbed the lion, made him shift his plan. It was dirty, it was cruel, it was even downright a little evil, but the woman had shown a weakness in a fight, and that was much worse than being a cheater in Davi’s eyes. He had made sure Olivia could escape the battlefield and recover, specifically so he wouldn’t be busy having to risk his life and save her. That was something Ken didn’t do, though. The girl allowed her companion to be injured, and because she genuinely cared for the monster, she was even willing to take hits in its place. Her weakness was so bad that she even threw caution to the wind and wasn’t healing herself, instead throwing punch after punch down at Davi.

Davi could eat a punch, though. He took it to the face and countered by wrapping an arm around Ken. His other arm angled his sword down, and he tried to bring it down onto her head and take her out, but his arm suddenly stopped.

Just as Ken was willing to risk her life to save Yujin, so too was Yujin willing to risk his to save Ken. The lion’s mouth was open, and a thread of hot fire gushed out, wrapping around Davi’s wrist. It burned into his hand, and Davi winced.

Ken used that as her chance, and she broke out of Davi’s hold and rolled off of him. She panted and clasped her hands together. “Row Flame Feel!” Fire and steam gushed out of her stomach wound, which faded and sealed shut.

Davi wasn’t concerned by that, though, since he was facing bigger troubles. The fire around his arm grew more intense, and it tugged, and the next thing he knew, the hand holding the sword was burned clean off. The wound was sealed shut, so he didn’t have to worry about blood loss, but he was now down a hand.

‘Sieg’s rules to combat. Rule four: Hey, Davi, sometimes it didn’t matter how cocky the enemy you were facing was or how many weaknesses they had that you could exploit. Some people are just way too powerful, and no matter what you do, you’ll lose.’

Ken was one such person. “Row Flame Fist.” Ken’s arms were set ablaze in bright golden fire, and she surged toward Davi. Her palm struck out, the first strike efficiently burning through Davi’s chestplate and shirt, and her second strike went straight through him, piercing past his stomach and back and coming out the other side. Ken didn’t stop at just one severe wound, though. She ripped her flaming arm out of Davi’s stomach and slammed her leg into his, walloping him so hard she shattered his leg and sent him flying away.

Davi rolled across the field, and he groaned. Maybe if he had been at full strength, he’d be able to win. Maybe if he had busted his armor out when he should have, he’d be able to win. Maybe if his Vault had all his proper weapons, he’d be able to win.

There was no point in wondering about maybes, though.

The fact was that he lost. He still wasn’t strong enough. He was still lacking what was needed to truly be powerful. Ken was just too strong for him. Her fire wasn’t something he could deal with, which only angered him, for surely the dragon's flames would be much hotter.

“I’ll admit, you almost got me.” Ken chuckled. The fire on her arms died out. “You’re clever like Feng, but nowhere near strong enough to use that mind. I’ve seen plenty of guys like you, though. Let me guess, you fought through a couple of ruins, slayed some spirits, and were able to beat other martial artists with ease, and you let all of that get to your head?”

“Yeah, yeah, big fish, small pond. I’ve said it before and had it said to me.” Davi pushed himself up with his elbows and managed to get into a kneeling position.

“You’re quite confident still, even though you’re about to die.” Ken cocked her head to the side. “I know we’re in a simulation and this death won’t mean anything, but for you to keep your cool despite the pain you must be feeling? You’re a little more interesting than I first thought, but to be honest, you’re not as good as the white-haired girl. I’d much rather have her all to myself.”

“Well, too bad, she’s mine.” Davi shook his head. “I already called dibs. Her mana is… Well, it caught my interest.”

Ken giggled and began to walk forward slowly. “Well, for what it’s worth, you do have an eye for treasure. Did you even tell her that you’re interested only because of the feel of her chi? I doubt many people recognize it for what it is, but I’ve been around one of ‘her kind’ thanks to Feng, so I know the stench when it pops up. You’re aware of it too. The chi of a dragon clings heavily to her.”

Davi shrugged. “Speaking of awareness, you know I was never trying to win this fight, right?” His remaining hand grabbed a large fistful of dirt, which he threw out toward Ken. She stepped to the side, but then he pointed his palm back out toward her. “Row Shadow Ball!”

Even knowing it might be a fake spell, Ken still was forced to put her guard up just in case a real attack came her way, or worse, Yujin’s way. Nothing came through, and she growled, but before she could react, a scream came from above.

“Davi!”

Ken looked up just in time to see a flash of red as Olivia came crashing to the ground. The witch-girl wasn’t alone either. Wrapped around her waist was a large, winged boa constrictor made out of blood. The tail of the snake was curled around Olivia’s back, and as she came down, she wrapped her arms around Davi’s arm and barely managed to pick him up. Ken went to jump toward them, but Davi used another spell.

“Row Shadow Vault.” Ken’s foot slipped as Davi’s shadow briefly touched her own. It caused her to lose her footing, allowing the winged snake to lift up into the air, carrying both Davi and Olivia off. Davi’s shadow disconnected from Ken’s as it got too far, allowing Ken to move again, but just like Davi, Ken had a limited number of spells, none of which were range-based.

“Yujin!” Ken yelled out, but she stopped when she saw her lion wasn’t in any good shape still. Ken cursed and looked back at the snake, which was carrying Davi and Olivia. They were both forty meters off the ground and rapidly rising. She could jump that high, but she’d be at a disadvantage since either mage could attack her while she was midair, and if either of them had a ranged spell, there’d be nothing she could do. “Whatever.” Ken huffed and walked over to Yujin. “Yujin, are you okay?”

“I’ll manage, my lord.” The lion tried to stand but stumbled to a halt.

Ken shook her head and slowly grabbed the gourd at her side. “Rest. I’m sorry for pushing you too far.” Her gourd glowed, and the lion was pulled back into it. As soon as it faded, her hair and eyes returned to their standard reddish-brown and green color, and the fire around her died down. Ken let out a sigh and looked back at where the blood-snake was. It was far, far away now. “Those two were kind of cute.” Ken finally smiled again. “I want them.”

Up in the sky, Olivia struggled to hold onto Davi. She had recovered a bit, but this was her third spell, so she was already at her limit.

“How can you make a flying creature?” Davi asked, a little stunned.

“A lot of practice over the week,” Olivia grunted out as she struggled not to barf. “Kept casting it over and over again in my cell after I finished the training you told me to do. The only reason it’s working now is that I had a lot of time to build it. On the fly in a battle, I won’t be able to do this.” The construct was different from the one Ken had. She had to actively control and fuel this one with her own mana, and it couldn’t think or act for itself. It was basically just her scythe or knife, but in the form of a snake. “I always wanted to fly, but it’s so hard making something actively defy gravity. I kept trying to make a bird, like a hawk or something, but that never worked. So, I decided to try something else. I heard about a winged snake monster, and for some reason, that one worked—and yep, that’s it, that’s my limit.”

There was a ‘popping’ sound, and the snake suddenly erupted, sending blood out everywhere. Davi and Olivia rapidly dropped from the ground and crashed down into a rocky field near a set of mountains that Olivia had been flying toward. Davi landed first and slammed into his back.

“Ow.” He said flatly.

Olivia came down next and landed on her feet. Unfortunately, both her ankles snapped and shattered, and she crashed down next to Davi, screaming in pain.

Olivia whimpered and slowly managed to roll herself over onto her back, lying on the ground next to Davi. “How many points do you have?” She asked weakly.

“Two. Actually, maybe it’s one; that talking head might still be alive. You?”

“One.” Olivia let out a tired sigh. “So much for doing well in the first exam.”

“Well, look on the bright side, if any of the captains are pervs, you’ll impress them for wearing such a revealing outfit—”

“I’m only in this because of you!” Olivia cried out.

“My bad.”

Olivia stared up at the sky in silence. Eventually, she spoke again. “Are we weak?” She asked.

“Maybe.” Davi mused for a moment. “Or, maybe Ken is just freakishly strong. Who really knows? It doesn’t matter, though. We gave it our best shot.”

“I guess. I kind of wish I did a bit better, though.” Olivia admitted sheepishly. “I’ll just need to do really well on the other two tests, though.”

“That’s the spirit.” Davi nudged her with his shoulder.

He then stopped when he heard the sound of gravel crunching. Both he and Olivia looked up and found that someone had made their way over to them. It was a dark-haired girl who was short and dressed in a maid's outfit.

Sera, the final guard of Rowan, was clutching Rowan’s severed head—the head that was glaring down at Davi.

“You have got to be shitting me,” Davi said, taken aback. “Really?”

“Do it, Sera.” Rowan hissed.

Casually, Sera tossed the head into the air above Davi and Olivia and used her spell. “Row Size Alter.”

The head expanded to the size of a large boulder and came crashing down onto the two of them.

And that was how Davi and Olivia failed the first exam.

Chapter 52: A Chance Encounter

Irene Lunar sang softly, her calm and soothing voice putting waves of exam takers to sleep as they heard her.

Across the field, now riding his wooden horse across the sea, Simon Saturen swung his lance up and sent out a tidal wave of water and vines that smashed down onto a large crowd of enemies, the sea becoming his shield and blocking all the spells.

Even further, in an open field, Nori Jupitari let his glass wings fade as he sat across from Emma Marsian, who had her guns down. The two were no longer fighting and instead shared a drink together.

All three of these zones were of particular interest and unknown to the exam-takers; far, far above, past the clouds themselves, several figures were watching the shows that were going on with great interest.

“My, oh my, this year really brought in a lot of eager-eyed recruits.” Gorgon couldn’t help but grin and lick her lips. Strands of hair twisted around her suit, forming tendrils that held up dozens of screens, all showing various views of the battlefield that was unfolding in the simulation below.

“Only a few this year have caught my eye.” Myth grunted. Unlike Gorgon, he didn’t have a screen; instead, he rested in his throne, staring down at the battlefield.

All seven captains were seated in their chairs, and it was their mana that kept this simulation running. One of the many magic towers had been torn down, and its insides were torn out in order to build the testing grounds. The power source that once ran the tower had unfortunately faded out, so the only way to keep the arena’s simulation running was if five captain-level mages all used their own mana, something they could do while sitting on their provided thrones.

The thrones in question would drain a bit of a captain's mana and use that energy to generate the simulation in which all the life-and-death fights were taking place. It also served as a means for the captains to look upon the battlefield while seated on their thrones. From hundreds of miles above the simulation, they could pour mana into their eyes or ears to stare down at the land and see and hear all that was happening.

In Gorgon’s case, she found it far easier just to use screens since it would drain less mana that way. Unlike the other captains, she didn’t have anywhere near the amount of bottomless mana they all did, and just helping to keep the simulation running was draining enough.

“Who do you have your eye on this year, Myth?” Gorgon demanded. “Last year, you got lucky by recruiting that fire mage. She’s been a Knight for only a year and has already received the mana of Haru and a name from the king. The year before that, you also got that ice mage!”

Myth gave a nod, a smug smirk forming onto his lips. “Yes, Cinder and Snow, the two of them were quite the lucky draws. They’ve done well, especially when I send them both into the field together. Perhaps Lady Luck will once again smile upon me, and I’ll be blessed with another excellent pick.”

“Sorry, Mythy, but Crowy and I got our picks already done.” Dark Star called out. The older woman gave a toothy grin, revealing a mouth that was missing many teeth, and she slapped her knee. “Ain’t that right, Crowy?”

Crow took another drag on the cigar, holding it in one hand. The eye-patched man was lazily slumped on his throne, half-dangling off of it. “Eh, a few of them pretty gals with the low-cut skirts caught my attention. The one girl with the cape and druidic magic already got my vote.” In his other hand, he lazily held his phone and watched as he got a notification. Someone had bought his Shadow Robe spell. Maybe if he was lucky, it would be a bombshell of a babe, and she'd send him a pic.

Gorgon let out a whine. “Crow., you’re supposed to wait until all the tests are over before you give out votes! Any person who gets a vote from one of the big three Guilds will jump at it, and it means we don’t get to compete for them properly!”

“Ya snooze, ya lose.” Crow shrugged.

“Try harder, deary.” Dark Star laughed. “This ain’t my first rodeo; ya gotta vote first and ask questions later. That’s why Father picked this to be the first test that’s taken, ain’t it, daddy-man?”

The largest throne, the one that flew the Shining Sentinels banner, was in the center of the other thrones. This was because Father’s mana was bigger than every other captain's combined, and he was doing the majority of the work maintaining the simulation. The armored man remained on his throne, and he had his gaze fixed down. A small smile was present on his face. “Well, I may or may not have asked Pretty Face to rig the tests so mine would be first.” The man sheepishly admitted. “But only because I thought it would be the best way to start the exam. By having all the exam-takers fight each other in a stakes-free battle, we’ve gotten to see what they can do, and it’s already given me a few ideas on new members I would like. Of course, I’ve decided to play by the rules and wait until all the tests are done before I cast my vote.” The man clapped his hands together. “Enough about me, though. How does it feel to be up here, Dye? You’re the newest captain, so this is your first time seeing the exams in action, is it not? Is everything to your liking?”

Dye’s only response was a low grunt. The man was covered in even more paint and clearly hadn’t been paying attention; instead, he was scribbling away at his canvas with a marker in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, which was magically changing colors every few seconds.

“Yo, Dye, we asked ya a question,” Crow called out.

“What? Yeah, whatever, I don’t care.” Dye shook his head and poked his head out. “I’m in the zone.”

“What are you even making?” Myth asked, raising an eyebrow. Due to how all the thrones were floating, it was impossible for him to see Dye properly.

Dye kept weaving his hands out as fast as he could and didn’t look like he’d be stopping anytime soon. “My masterpiece.” He breathed out. “I don’t know why, but her mana spoke to me when I laid eyes on her. It was a little tricky since she had a costume change, but I think I’ve almost gotten it down.”

Gorgon was able to use her hair to send a strand out Dye’s way. It was wrapped around the handle of a mirror, and she angled it in such a way that she could see what he was making. The painting itself depicted a young woman with snow-white hair and blood-red eyes, who, for some reason, was dressed in a black, witch-like outfit.

“Is she one of the exam takers?” Gorgon asked, frowning softly. “I think I recall someone that looked like her, but they weren’t that interesting and had shit stats, so I scrolled past them.” Dye was back to ignoring everyone, his eyes transfixed on his painting as he continued to add details and make improvements. “Whatever. Yo, Grampa Green, how do you feel?”

The smallest throne of the circle was also the lowest down since it provided the least amount of mana. Two people were actually on this throne. The first was Grampa Green, the withered old man literally attached to his chair with roots and vines, and the second, hanging onto the throne for dear life, was his caretaker, Paragon, the only vice captain allowed to sit in on Captain meetings.

Grampa Green’s eyes rolled around awkwardly in his skull. He opened his mouth, about to speak, and there was this horrible popping sound as his entire lower jaw snapped off.

Paragon’s hand shot out, and she caught it and jammed it back in place. She muttered a spell under her breath, and a thin grass-looking thread jutted out of her palm and began to sew the jaw back onto Grampa Green’s face. “Please stop asking him questions.” The healer said flatly.

“Everyone,” Father began. “Please direct your questions to Paragon if you want to ask Green anything. Remember, she is his eyes, his ears, and his mouth, now and forever.”

Crow blew out a puff of smoke. “Aye, I give it a week before old man Green is dead and gone.”

Dark Star let out a snort. “That old bastard will outlive us all. That elf blood that pumps through his veins is serious shit, ya know. He can’t die even if he wants to.” She laughed.

“The exam will be ending soon, won’t it?” Myth asked. A blue screen appeared before him. It had a timer that was rapidly counting down. “Less than five minutes left. I imagine most of the small fries are out of the game now.”

“Well, them and some of the unlucky guys who happened to wander into the wrong lion's den,” Crow said, sighing. “Rip to that gray-haired wind mage for running into the one guy that can split air apart.”

“I wonder how the losers are doing.” Dark Star snickered again.

“Hey,” Father shook his head. “We do not call them losers; they are people who tried their best. Just because they failed this test doesn’t mean they don’t have a chance to pass the other upcoming tests.”

“Nah, they're losers,” Crow said, pulling out a new cigar from his shadows and lighting it up. “Never has there been a mage in the history of these tests who has become a Knight after failing the first exam.”

Father folded his arms and frowned. “Well, that’s the thing about history, isn’t it, Crow? There is always someone who will be the first to do it.”

Crow was about to say something but stopped when a screen of his own flashed before him. Every Captain got one. The test was finally over. The simulation was about to end, and those who died would reappear.

***

Davi tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn't budge. He tried to move an arm or a leg, but again he got no result.

Only one thing was certain for him. He was in pain. His body ached, and he could feel his blood pouring out of him. Enough to where he was sure he should be dead, yet he wasn't. He was still alive.

Above him, or rather on him, he could feel the thing that was crushing him. Massive and bulky, like a boulder, but made of flesh, it pressed down into him hard. His organs groaned and popped, and his bones erupted in a shower of splinters piercing past his flesh, and yet he still wasn't dead...

Olivia was gone. Unlike him, the impact had killed her instantly. All the agony, all the pain, it was all his to bear, and it was horrible. Almost as horrible as the day he had become frozen in ice. The day the Dragon had ruined his life. He wanted to die, but he couldn't. He was crushed and broken beneath a giant overgrown head, forced to live, just like how he had survived, encased in the ice alongside his brother for Haru only knows how long.

Luckily for Davi, mercy smiled upon him.

In the darkness, he saw a flicker of blue.

'Congratulations. You made it to the end of the first exam without dying. Your total points: One. You have gained the eye of one Captain. The simulation will now come to an end.'

Back in the colosseum arena, Davi felt his feet touch the ground. He was in the exact same place he had been standing at before he left, tucked away in a corner. Ash was next to him, too, the grey-haired boy screaming as if he had just been sliced to bits.

Davi blinked and looked down at both his hands, which were still attached to him. He also looked down at his clothes, which had changed back to what he wore before he stole Rowan’s armor. He was back in the shitty shirt and tunic.

“Row Shadow Vault.” He held his hand out, but to his sorrow, Rowan’s wallet or sword didn’t come flying out. “Damn, now I have to rob him twice; he’ll totally see it coming the second time.”

Ash dropped to his knees, hyperventilating. “I’m alive? Oh, right. It was all fake. I didn’t get my head sliced clean off.” The boy patted his neck as the image of the silver-haired swordsman flashed through his mind. He shuddered. He wasn’t the only one screaming either. Dozens of people were yelling and having borderline panic attacks as they came to in the arena. One moment, they had been dying a brutal death, and the next, they were back to life. Most people were used to exams, but very few people constantly died in them like Olivia did, so this experience of death was a first for many of them. Ash tiredly looked at Davi. “I’m guessing you did well?”

“Nah, I got crushed to death,” Davi said flatly.

“Why aren’t you screaming then?”

“I guess I’m not mentally sound.”

“Well, that checks out…”

“Speaking of which,” Davi cracked his knuckles and frowned down at Ash. “Did you come to fight me again?”

“What did I do for you to assume I’m ready to throw hands with you?” Ash yelled.

“So you’re not here for a rematch?”

“No!”

“Well, then, leave me alone.” Davi turned around and began to casually walk away, leaving a confused Ash behind.

“What did I do?” Ash yelled out. He then frowned as he watched Davi leave. There was a flicker of blue, and Ash was a little shocked to see the blue box from the simulation return. It was likely some enchantment set up by the arena.

'Thanks for participating in the first exam. Unfortunately, you failed to reach the end of the test. Better luck in the other exams. Your total points: thirty. Zero Captains have set their eyes on you.'

Ash clenched his jaw. Even after fighting alongside Bruno, he hadn't gotten the eye of a single Captain on him? "Damn it." A bit of blood dripped down his lip from how hard he bit it. "No. This isn't fair. I tried so hard, though."

Davi began to weave in and out of the crowd. As he did that, he pulled his phone out and looked through his grimoire app. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that he still had three spells. Even if everything else in the simulation had been fake, him buying a spell from the market with Rowan’s money had been real, which also meant he gained the ire of Rowan—bonus points.

“Davi!”

He looked up when he heard Olivia holler his name and found her and her friend Bruno running toward him. Like him, Olivia was back in her usual outfit and no longer sported the witch-girl clothes.

“Sup, bro.” Bruno gave Davi a nod and grinned. “Olivia told me about the test; how in the hell did I make it to the end, but you didn’t?”

Davi shrugged. “Bad luck.”

“Nah, I ran into this dangerous bro, and I still survived; maybe I’m just better than you.” Bruno chuckled and winked. “We should have a match; I wanna know how I stack up against you.”

“Sure.” Davi pulled his fist back, about to throw out a mean right hook.

“Not right now!”

“Oh, whoops.”

"I did pretty well, though," Bruno smirked, and as if on cue, his box appeared.

'Congratulations. You made it to the end of the first exam without dying. Your total points: Two hundred and thirty-two. You have gained the eyes of six Captains.'

"How did you get so many points?" Olivia asked in shock. She knew Bruno was powerful, but the number of points he had was crazy.

Bruno let out a laugh. "I found out that if you beat someone, you get the points they had! The guy I fought had a butt-load of points, and it was a mega close fight, but in the end, your bro managed to squeak out the win!" Bruno flexed, and his smirk grew.

Olivia couldn't help the jealous flame that stirred up inside of her. She was happy for Bruno, she truly was, but her own results were awful.

'Thanks for participating in the first exam. Unfortunately, you failed to reach the end of the test. Better luck in the other exams. Your total points: one. One Captain has set their eyes on you.'

It might sound good to have a Captain have their eye on you, and in a way it was, but it didn't mean you'd get in. The Captains could vote at any time of the exam, but they were technically only supposed to do that once all the tests had been finished. In the case of someone doing well, the Captains would break this rule and give their votes out early. This is what happened with Bruno, and it was impressive that he had six, since that meant six Captains had voted for him.

So, having one set of eyes on you would be good?

Wrong. The reason it was bad if only a single pair of eyes were on you, especially in a case like hers, where she did bad, was because it was most likely Phoenix Flight.

Since half the time, the Captain of Phoenix Flight was either MIA or dead, an AI had been built which was programmed to vote for the worst of the worst, since Phoenix Flight needed to use their votes up as well, even if they usually didn't get members. Having zero eyes on you was better than having one, because there was a good chance that one pair of eyes was the worst Guild in the world.

Even then, having a vote from Phoenix Flight didn't mean anything, since the AI would give votes out to everyone that did bad, which typically disqualified Phoenix Flight from getting any members, thus leading to no one even being able to join it, despite having a vote. Not like anyone would want to join that Guild, that anyone who did finish the exam with the eyes of Phoenix Flight on them would often turn the job down at the end and try again next year.

Olivia sighed and folded her arms. She looked around at all the panicked people who were only just now starting to calm down. She had been through a ton of simulations and even almost died a whole bunch in the real world, so the fake death that had happened to her barely even caused her to pause. She hoped the captains would notice that cool trait about her, but she had a sneaking suspicion she was already standing in the shadows of the people they had already voted for.

The captains in question were all sitting on their thrones, back up top, while the stands of the stadium filled with many of the Knights who had gone to the backrooms. Many of the Knights went to their vice captains or their captains, showing them clips they saved. Even though the captains and vice captains had watched the fight, it was impossible for them to truly see everything, which is why they had various other people watching and taking notes for them.

“Alrighty!” A loud booming voice announced, and Pretty Face once again floated through the skies, clapping her hands together. “That’s the first test down! I have to say, I’m a bit scared at how many of you went for the kill right away! A couple of sickos, huh? That’s okay, though! We Knights don’t judge!”

“You totally do, though,” Davi said flatly, though his voice went unheard from all the yelling and cheering. The gloomy looks were fading from everyone's faces now that the test seemed to be entirely over. “I hate the loud yelling.” He sighed and plugged his ears.

Pretty Face stood in the air, her wings extended, and she gave a large grin and struck a pose, pointing down to the crowd. “Alrighty! Now that you've finished the test, I think it’s high time you all take a break! You didn’t physically use up any energy, but I’m willing to bet you’re all mentally exhausted; am I right?”

More cheering exploded through the stadium, and Pretty Face clapped her hands together. Once more, there was a deep rumble like last time, but it was a lot more manageable. Sections of the ground began to open up, and from metal platforms, dozens of tables rose.

Smoke rapidly started to spread out along with the aroma of expensive-looking food. Several bellies all growled, and mouths filled with water. Several of the people who had all taken the exams before all managed small grins, some relief flooding onto their faces, and Olivia couldn’t help but giggle as she saw all the options.

“The rumors were true.”

“What rumors?” Davi asked.

Olivia’s eyes scanned from massive steaks to giant stuffed turkeys. “The forum posts all talk about how the Knight exams create one of the greatest all-you-can-eat buffets for the recruits every year.” Her own stomach rumbled as she saw rows of buttered lobster and massive plates of colorful fruits and veggies. There were even entire bowls filled with nothing but ice cream. “This is one of the reasons I wanted to come here! Well, besides all the other more important ones, I mean…”

“We had all of this stuff prepped for you!” Pretty Face said happily. “For the hour, the captains will be reviewing the footage that was taken of the matches and looking it all over! This means you all have one hour to eat, rest, or talk amongst each other! If you want to use any of the bathrooms, find one of the many doors and just walk in a circle until you stumble across one! We knew Phoenix Flight would be here this year, so hundreds of additional rooms were all built just in case!” She stayed floating as everyone stood there motionless. “Well? What are you waiting for? Dig in!”

The first soul walked forward cautiously. It was a tired-looking man who reached out and took a crab leg. He sucked the meat out and let out a moan. That was all it took for everyone else to surge forward and start grabbing food as well.

“Bros, this looks amazing!” Bruno let out a girlish giggle and rubbed his hands together eagerly as he made his way over to a table, followed closely by Davi and Olivia. “I’m pumped! First, I beat that silver-haired boy, and now I get to enjoy amazing food. Sign me up!”

Olivia nodded her head. “Oh yeah, I’ve waited my whole life for this food; I hope it’s as good as my dad told me it was! What are you going to get, Davi?”

“Fish.” Davi casually smacked some poor guy, sending him flying back several meters so he could pick up the entire plate that was full of grilled catfish. He was just about to enjoy it before something slammed into the top of the plate, knocking it to the ground. “...”

“You jackass!” Davi felt someone grab him by the front of his shirt, and he was forced to look at Rowan, who was glaring at him. Standing behind the noble boy were an equally angry Sera and Ashley. “Do you know what you did? Did you seriously think you’d get away with robbing me? You did that on camera, you know! Those exams were all streamed, and I’m going to get a copy of that and show everyone how you used my card! That was real money you stole from my account! I’m going to have to call the bank and get a refund and complete a lot of paperwork because of you as well. And until I do, I can’t even use my card! Wait until my father hears about this!” Rowan breathed heavily and glared at Davi, who kept his blank look. “Well! What do you have to say for yourself?”

Davi slowly reached up and then patted Rowan’s shoulder. “My bad. Sorry.”

Olivia awkwardly looked around, hoping she could get help from somewhere, but Davi wasn’t the only one in danger of starting a fight. Plenty of people were beginning to get the courage to yell at the people who killed them during the test, and mini-fights had started to break out all throughout the arena. The Knights weren’t doing anything about it either.

Rowan’s angry look only grew, and he placed a hand on his sword. “The first two tests are held on the first day.” He spat out. “After the second test, exam-takers are given rooms where they can sleep and rest before the last two tests, which are held the day after. I don’t want to see you here another day, though. After the second test, you and I are going to duel. One-on-one, me versus you, we start at midnight. Got that.” Rowan hissed. “And when I beat you, which I will, you’re going to step down and stop taking this test.”

“You can’t just challenge him to a duel.” Bruno cut in but was stopped when Davi held his hand up.

“What do I get when I win?” Davi asked, giving a confident smile.

“When?”

“Yeah, you said I have to leave the test if you beat me, so what do I get ‘when’ I do beat you?” Davi asked. “If you don’t have a response, we can make it something simple. You give me the money I borrowed from you and forget about it. Sound fair?”

“No! You already stole that money! Do you know how many Bells I lost?" Rowan reached into his pocket and he pulled out a golden bill. The paper was square and thin, and on the front of it, there was the outline of a man in a crown. Rowan tugged on the Bell bill in between his fingers, threatening to tear it. "One golden Bell is more than your kind should ever see, and you spent nearly one hundred of these!"

“Alright, then I’ll just pay you back.” Davi shrugged. “How about that? If I win, you forget about pressing charges and give me the chance to pay you back.”

Rowan finally pulled away and gave a deep frown. “Well, I guess it was just chump change, so it isn’t a total loss.”

‘There were so many zeroes; that’s what you call chump change. Fuck you, rich bastard, eat shit.’ Davi kept those words to himself.

“Master Rowan, you’re not considering his suggestion, are you?” Sera asked, still glaring at Davi.

Rowan turned away and let out a snort. “It doesn’t matter. He only won because of a dirty trick.” Rowan began to walk off but stopped and shot a glare back at Davi. “I won’t make the same mistake a second time.”

Davi quietly opened his vault, sucking in the catfish and plate that had been dropped on the ground. He then turned and found Olivia and Bruno giving him looks. “What?”

“You seriously agreed to duel that guy?” Olivia asked, sighing. “He seemed pretty confident he could beat you.”

“I’m confident I can beat him also,” Davi said, flicking Olivia on the forehead.

“Yeah, but you don’t have a sword, unlike him,” Olivia said, huffing. “Or any weapons, for that matter.”

“That’s true.” Davi folded his arms and tilted his head to the side. “I'd better go find one then.”

“What do you mean by find—” She didn’t get to finish as Davi took off, walking shockingly fast as he dodged and weaved through the crowd.

“Think Davi can win?” Bruno asked.

“I do.” Olivia nodded her head after a moment. “I still don’t like the idea of him dueling another guy, though. That was a member of the Zyne family. They’re not one of the five noble branch families, but they’re closely tied to the Helios family. It’s bad news. Even if Davi does win, they might throw him under the bus. Why did he have to steal, and all for a stupid witch-girl outfit?”

“Hey, that outfit was good,” Ken said casually. "I liked it."

“Was it?” Olivia asked. “I guess I didn’t get a good look at it, but it wasn’t that bad to wear it. Maybe if I could tweak it a bit, I’d like it more. There is this Knight I look up to who also wears a witch-girl outfit, and—wait a second? Ken Yuan!”

“Sup. How’s it going?” Ken gave a grin and lifted her hand.

Bruno grabbed his wand, ready to fight, but stopped when he saw the casual look Ken had. “Bro, did you befriend her?”

“I don’t think so?” Olivia said hesitantly. “Why are you here?”

“Hey, we had a life-and-death battle.” Ken snorted and folded her arms. “I’m sure that doesn’t mean anything to you, but in Rossum, that’s how friends are made.”

“The more I learn about Rossum, the more it sounds like a violent place…”

“Now you’re getting it.” Ken winked. “Seriously, though, no hard feelings, right? I mean, I knew I beat the ever-loving shit out of you because you suck, but you can look past that, right?”

“I see you’re still a total bitch.” Olivia sighed. Then she forced a smile and casually slapped Ken’s hand. “Whatever. Sure. I can look past that. I did blow a hole through you, after all. That said.” Her fingers suddenly grew tighter around Ken’s hand, and she stepped forward, getting into the girl’s face. “If you hurt one of my friends like that again, I’ll stop you for good.”

“Scary,” Ken said sarcastically. The red-haired girl yanked her hand away, her smirk only growing. “But, I hear ya. Loud and clear.” The girl reached down, and for a moment, her fingers curled around the gourd that was at her side. “If anything happened to my friend, I’d be livid as well. You should tell that black-haired man that he’s lucky that was all a simulation. For that reason alone, I will look the other way. Next time I cross his path on the battlefield, though, I won’t hold back.”

Olivia narrowed her eyes and watched as Ken left. Bruno cleared his throat after a moment. “So, I take it you two aren’t friends?”

Meanwhile, Davi found himself walking the halls of the stadium. Along the sandy floor, there were several doors that led to enclosed sections of the building. The hallways were made of white marble and had various lights that hung up above, and the entire building looped in a circular line, with multiple stairs appearing every now and then, presumably leading to higher floors.

He had just started walking and taking random flights of stairs, hoping he’d stumble across a weapon room. He knew the chances of that were slim, so he also hoped he’d randomly run into someone who would be willing to give him a sword.

Surely, a Knight or two would be willing to give him something, right?

At least, that had been the plan, but as he arrived on a new floor, it became clear something was wrong. All the doors along the wall were torn off, and past them, Davi found himself peering into destroyed rooms that might have been a bathroom at one point.

The entire hallway had become flooded with water, and each bathroom he passed was the same as the last. The toilet was torn to bits, and all the pipes had exploded. Even doors that hadn't been opened were ruined when he checked in on them.

It was like this entire section of the floor had been built to contain nothing but bathrooms, and every single bathroom had a bomb go off within them.

‘Who keeps blowing up all the bathrooms?’ The water was all the way up to his ankle, so he quickly opened his vault, sucking it all up in order to rapidly dry the hallway off, but more water just kept coming, and even more doors would burst open, shooting out more torrents of water.

He was about to continue on but was stopped when one of the doors directly next to him exploded open, and he had to duck down to avoid it. More water came spilling out, and the door was ripped off its hinges, the wooden object shattering when it slammed into the wall behind him. A groan came from the now-open door as someone stepped out.

“Damn seafood, constantly running through me.” Davi blinked, completely taken aback by what he was seeing. “Sweet Haru, why does this keep happening? How has it not left my body yet? This feels like an E1 Grade poison.”

It was a woman. One who was a hot mess, in her early forties, clearly having the worst time of her life.

She was dressed in white robes that were mostly soggy now, and torn to ribbons, as if someone had taken a pair of scissors to her clothes. On the sleeve of her outfit, the outline of a bird was etched into the fabric out of a mix of red and gold, with its wings extended outward.

The woman's hair was a platinum blonde that at one point had been done up in a bun, but strands were poking out every which way now. Her face was a little green, and bags resided under her eyes. Resting at her side was a katana, one that kept slipping off her belt, which was the only thing holding her robes together since there was a massive tear across the back. She had to hold the belt up and keep catching the sword that tried to slip off. She had only one shoe, a wooden sandal, and her other foot was completely bare, kicking up small puddles of water.

The woman stalked forward, wobbling slightly, and kept one hand on her belt and the other on her stomach. She walked directly past Davi and then stopped and turned, a frown on her face as her eyes met his.

“What do you want?” She asked flatly.

“You smell like shit,” Davi said casually, and he plugged his nose. "This is toilet water I'm standing in, isn't it..."

And on that day, perhaps through fate or dumb luck, Davi Hawker came face to face with the leader of Phoenix Flight.

Chapter 53: The Start Of The Second Exam

Sieg was a very interesting person.

In a lot of ways, Sieg was everything that Davi was not. His mana was soft and gentle, yet he was a Mutant; he was quiet and soft-spoken, but not in the same way Davi was. Sieg would actually show emotion, even if it was just the way his finger twitched or the scales along his flesh flickered. Then, of course, there was the boy’s raw and unnatural beauty.

Without a doubt, it was brought on by the Mutant he was slowly becoming. Of this, Gray was confident. Surrounding Sieg’s flesh was a low-level enchantment, one that made all eyes drawn to him and want to bask in his beauty. Sieg was literally too good-looking.

Even Gray could tell the enchantment was having an effect on him in a very subtle way. Perhaps not romantic in nature, but he could feel thoughts that weren't his coming to the surface. It made sense why Sieg wore such an ugly mask to hide his face now.

He had left the pretty man behind in his room. Sieg was in a foul mood after the first exam ended and seemed quite angry at his brother. Gray decided it was best to let him cool off, and so that was how Gray found himself wandering the halls, heading up dozens of flights of stairs. There was someone specifically that he wanted to see.

The entire stadium was round, with each floor looping around, and flights of stairs that went upwards. The first floor was the arena where all the exam-takers were. The second floor was where the Knights would go to sit in rooms and watch the matches. The third floor was where Magical Mutants were stored and given the opportunity to join a Guild if they demonstrated sufficient skill. From there, the floors would jump with nothing on them until the second to last floor, where the captain's thrones were. Above even them, on the last floor, a single Knight could be found. One who had also been eagerly watching the exams take place.

Gray found her all the way up at the top. She wasn’t near the balcony, so anyone down in the arena wouldn’t be able to look up at her like they could with the others. Instead, she was in the center of the room, with a series of mirrors set up that reflected the scene below, allowing her to see.

As always, she was quite beautiful. Even more so than Sieg. Long flowing silver hair fell down her back, and her eyes looked as if they were a pair of moons. Unlike typical Knights, she didn’t go with an armored look and instead had on white silken robes, with various black ribbons tying them together, and a long pointed hat. It was a very witch-like costume, and beneath her, a strange glass-looking staff resided. It floated off the ground and was turned to the side, allowing her to sit upon it. Her feet kicked out every now and then, and her eyes were dull and tired-looking, yet a gentle smile remained on her face as she stared at the mirror.

Gray dropped to a knee before her and bowed his head forward. She wasn’t the strongest person in the Arcane Knights; that honor went to Father, but she was still far above his level. Formerly, she had been known as the Moon’s Reflection, but she had recently gained a new title.

“Captain Evelyn Lunar,” Gray began, using her real name, and not her title, since he hadn’t been informed what it was. “How are you doing?”

Evelyn’s lips curled up slightly, and she let out a soft hum. “Stone Bull, you know that I’m not a captain anymore. I stepped down as the leader of Hydra Storm.”

Gray chuckled and shook his head. “You’re still the captain in my eyes.” Evelyn was the reason Hydra Storm didn’t have a vice captain. She had been the leader of the Guild and, in only a year, caused it to rise through the ranks rapidly. For a little while, it even looked like her Guild might reach the number four slot, but that all stopped when she suddenly stepped down. Dye, the Vice Captain, was forced to take over the Guild, and sadly, he was a very picky man. So picky, in fact, he refused to let any of his guildmates fill in the vice captain role.

Evelyn tilted her head to the side. “Well, you can still call me that if you want, but it won’t change the path. I’m no longer in any Guild anymore. I can hardly be called a Knight.” She giggled.

“You’re wrong.” Gray’s fist clenched tightly at his side. “You’re the closest thing to a real Knight! The king himself gave you a mission!”

“An impossible one.” Evelyn sighed. She softly flipped her hair, and the staff she sat on rotated, allowing her to face Gray. “Enough about that, though. Why’d you come to see me?”

Gray slowly rose to his feet and folded his arms. “Your little brother is taking the test this year, is he not?” Gray asked. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see his match since Mr. Sieg was insistent on hogging the TV screen…”

“Mr. Sieg?” Evelyn tilted her head to the side.

“Oh, nobody important; don’t worry about it.”

Evelyn’s smile returned, her eyes sparkling a bit. “I just found the name fascinating. Someone I used to travel with had a brother named Sieg.” She softly tilted her head and tapped her chin. “Answering your earlier question, though, yes, my brother Cain is taking the exam this year. Sadly, he didn’t pass his exam, though.”

Gray winced. “Yeah, that figures. I assume another Noble Branch member took him out?”

“Something close.” Evelyn shrugged her shoulders. “Not a Branch, but something similar.”

“Well, it must have been sad for you.” Gray sighed. “Watching your little brother lose.”

Evelyn shrugged again. “Eh, I wasn’t really watching his match.”

“Seriously?”

“Someone else caught my eye.” The girl’s eyes seemed to sparkle again, and she looked back at the many mirrors that floated around her. “A familiar face.” In the reflection, she saw a young man—one with a terrible burn mark across part of his face and dark black hair.

Gray rubbed the back of his neck, very confused. “Alright?” He tried to peek at the mirrors, but whatever Evelyn was seeing, he didn’t get to view, as the glass was glowing with way too much mana. “Well, I just wanted to check up on you and ensure you’re doing well.” He turned away after giving another nod. “If you need anything, let me know and I’ll come running.”

“Of course.” Evelyn didn’t pay much attention to him, though. Instead, her focus was still on the mirror.

Gray felt a pang of jealousy, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he stepped forward, about to leave, but then he stopped. He glanced back at the woman who had long since stolen his heart. “Oh, one more thing. While I’m here, if I might be so bold as to ask, what is your new title?”

Evelyn looked away from her mirror, caught off guard by the question. Her smile was gone, and her head tilted to the side once more. She seemed to debate the question for a moment in her head before finally answering. “My title? The one that the king gave me after I stopped being captain of Hydra Storm?” Gray nodded. Evelyn’s answer was soft and bleak. “Dragon Slayer. My new title is the King’s Dragon Slayer.”

The King of Estiria had given her a simple goal. He just wanted her to defeat and slay a dragon.

***

“Finally! There you are! Where have you been?” Olivia asked, clearly exasperated.

Davi stepped out of the doorway and back into the open field that was the exam area. He lazily shrugged his shoulders. “I told you, I went looking for a sword.” He responded in his usual flat tone.

“Did you find one?” Olivia asked. She looked him up and down. He didn’t have a sword at his belt, but then again, he’d just stuff it in his vault if he did find one.

“Yeah, someone let me borrow their sword.” Davi nodded. “I just needed to help her with an issue. She wants it back after the match with Rowan, though, so I’m still going to be down a weapon for the last two exams.”

“It’s better than nothing, I guess.” Olivia nodded. “If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to team up again, and I can make you a blood knife to use or something.”

“Could you make me a blood sword?”

“Don’t have that spell.” Olivia shook her head.

“Can you make me a blood dagger, but make the handle bigger and the blade longer and thicker?” Davi asked. “I’m able to mold my shadow armor to make parts of it change. Can you do that?”

Again, Olivia shook her head. “I was able to change my blood hawk spell into a blood snake spell and give it wings only because the type of snake it was is called a Hawk-Snake. When you try to cast a spell, it uses your intent, and while that intent can change, the more you try to alter and shift it from what it should be, the more erratic the spell will turn out. I’ve made plenty of knives and have seen them in action, so in my head, I have a good idea of what a knife is and should be. I can alter my knife shape and design, but if I do it too much and my subconscious decides it isn’t a knife anymore, the spell will break or explode. The snake I made eventually popped because it was also unstable due to the intended use being a hawk and not a Hawk-Snake.”

“Magic sucks sometimes, huh.”

Olivia snorted and turned away, leading Davi further into the arena. By now, the crowd had reformed, and all the food was gone. The break was about to end, and she didn’t know where Bruno wandered off to, so she was glad Davi was back now. It felt awkward just standing around by herself.

“You made it back just in time.” She nudged the man with her elbow and gave a grin. “I was getting worried you weren’t going to show and tried to run off.”

“I did think about it,” Davi admitted, causing Olivia’s smile to vanish. “I don’t think it would end well for me, though. I’d rather just get all these exams over and done with. It’ll be easier to figure out my situation once I know if I’m going to be a Knight or not.”

“That’s fair,” Olivia hummed and looked up at the various captains. “We still have three tests that we have to take. There will be one more held today, and the other two will be tomorrow. We didn’t do too well in exam one, so we need to lock in for the second one onward, got that, Davi!”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Olivia placed her hands on her hips and looked Davi up and down. “Try to smile more also, and look like a hero. You need to make the captains take notice of you. Use that handsome mug you were born with and—”

“You!” Olivia was cut off by a loud voice. The next thing she knew, someone was grabbing her by her shoulder and forcefully yanking her around. “You backstabber! How could you!” It was a man in grey robes, with black spiky hair and a katana resting at his side. His eyes were filled with anger as he glared at her. He was the Iron-Mage, the one she had choked out during the first round. His eyes were filled with hate and anger as he gripped her shirt and glared down at her. “I was there to protect you, and you did something like that to me!”

Olivia winced slightly. “It was just a simulation—”

“That doesn’t make it better! You’re heartless! What kind of cruel person does that?” The man growled.

The man’s hand was forcefully yanked off of Olivia’s shirt when Davi grabbed his wrist and squeezed down hard enough to cause the man to wince. “That’s enough,” Davi said simply.

The spiky-haired man glared up at Davi. “Do you know who this is? She’s evil, I’m telling you. She might be pretty, but she’s twisted on the inside! She’s using you to keep herself safe!”

Davi opened his mouth to say something, but Olivia stopped him. She shook her head and pulled his hand away. “I don’t need you to save me, Davi.” After that, she turned to look back at the spiky-haired man. “As for you...” The look in her eyes caused the man to take a step back, and he winced. It felt like something was slowly coiling around him. “What I did was dirty. I attacked you while your back was turned. So what, though? Do you think the Knights who fight monsters every day care? Do you think they wouldn’t attack a monster's back just because its guard was down around them? The rules were simple. It was a battle royal, a free-for-all. It isn’t my fault that you were unable to understand that.” She poked her finger out and jabbed the man in his chest. “Maybe if you were more careful, I wouldn’t have been able to take you out so easily? Maybe if you didn’t let your guard down just because you viewed me as a weak, helpless girl? I really hope that you don’t become a Knight, because you’re the exact person who always appears in the newspaper when a Knight does something foolish and pays for it with their life. So, how about you don’t judge me and I won’t judge you, okay? I did what I had to do to survive. It’s not my fault you let yourself be prey.”

She breathed heavily once she was finally done. She had gone off on a long rant and it made her chest hurt a little. Her face was flushed and she felt strangely angry.

It was just like when Garon had died. She didn't know what was up, but she knew she probably shouldn't feel this annoyed.

Since when did she get this emotional?

The man with spiky hair sputtered a bit, clearly caught off guard, and then he growled and turned around on his heels. “Y-you’re insane! You better hope we don’t see each other in a combat test again!” And with those words, he left, marching away.

“Was that too much?” Olivia asked.

Davi folded his arms and watched the retreating man in silence. Then he spoke. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more attracted to you before this moment.”

“Excuse me!”

Before Olivia could fully process that, there was a loud rumble, and the arena shifted once more. The tables of empty food began to pull themselves into the ground, and the sounds of wings flapping caused everyone to look up and find Pretty Face floating in the air. Her hands were on her hips, and she had a smile on her face as she stared down at the crowd.

“Alrighty!” Her voice came out loud and booming. “Break over! You know what that means, right?” She tilted her head to the side, her eyes sparkling. “It’s time for the next test to begin!”

Loud cheering exploded through the arena, and once more, Davi plugged his ears, making a face. He really did hate loud sounds and blaring lights. They always set him off. Crowds like this just didn’t do him any favors.

Pretty Face waited until the screaming had calmed down a bit and then resumed speaking. “The captains have heavily reviewed the first round of the exam! Many of you did well! Some of you… Well, you tried your best! Don’t worry, though; you all still have three more exams to try and reach your goal! Will the captains take notice of you? Well, I guess we’ll find out!”

Davi snorted softly. It was ridiculous how stacked these tests were against normal people. The captains would have their eyes on the nobles who did well in the first exam. Going forward, it was more likely that those individuals would have eyes on them rather than anyone who had lost or performed poorly in the first exam. The whole ‘you still have three more chances’ was basically a lie, unless you really stood out suddenly and got the eyes forced onto you. It was annoying that these tests were more like a popularity contest than an actual battle of skill.

Pretty Face’s wings stretched out behind her, and once more her magic surged forward. She used the same spell she did last time, creating a large slot machine that began to spin. “We’re going to go straight into the next round! Is that okay with everyone? No? Well, too bad!”

‘Better to just get this shit over with.’ Davi thought bitterly. ‘I wonder how it’ll be rigged this time?’

The machine stopped, and etched onto the mana-screen, letters began to form. Pretty Face’s smile grew as she read them. “Ah, this one is next, huh?” She pointed up to the Captains, and her finger landed on Crow. “You can thank the captain of Umbra Mortis for this exam! The Test of Knowledge!”

Olivia let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, this is one of the tests that doesn’t change as much every year and usually remains mostly the same. It’s a written test, but the format changes every year. As long as we’re clever, we should—yeah, never mind, you’re cooked, Davi, I’m sorry.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Davi sounded genuinely offended by her remark, causing her to snicker.

Up top, Pretty Face snapped her fingers, and like the first time, the arena began to shake rapidly, and the sand glowed once more. The simulation was starting back up. Davi closed his eyes from how bright it was, and when he opened them, much like the first time, he wasn’t in the exam arena.

He wasn’t in a cornfield either, though. Olivia was also standing next to him, and she was in different clothes. So was he, now that he looked down at himself. Olivia wore a black skirt and a long-sleeved, red school uniform that lacked a logo. His clothes were the same, but he had long black pants instead of a skirt. All the other people taking the exam were also present, lined up, and instead of being outside with the sky above, they were now in an enclosed room.

It was long and wide, with wooden walls and various desks where they could all sit. Paper rested on each desk, along with a pen, and all the way in the back was an even bigger desk, which Pretty Face sat on. Her clothes had changed as well, to a typical teacher's suit, complete with glasses and a cup of coffee she clutched in her hand.

Pretty Face lifted a finger and wagged it. “Alright, kiddos, you've got one hour to finish the test before you. Go ahead and start.”

The blue boxes appeared in front of everyone, containing a countdown, which kicked everyone into gear. Everyone began to take their seats at the various desks, and Olivia sat down next to Davi. She grabbed the paper and the pen and then turned them over but stopped when she saw the test.

Like all the other exams, the test would change every year, but the test of knowledge usually did involve something akin to this. A paper that you’d have to fill out in order to pass. Sometimes, it could be history questions, other times military tactics, or other combat-based quizzes. This year, it was a little different…

“What kind of question is this?” Davi asked, tilting his head to the side.

There was a single question. It wasn’t a massive test, and it wasn’t based on extensive knowledge anyone could know. Instead, Captain Crow had devised a test that asked a single question that anyone could answer.

‘In one word, describe what an Arcane Knight is.’

That was the entire test that Crow had come up with.

"Well, this is an odd test." Davi couldn't help the slight smirk that found its way onto his face.

"Go ahead kiddos!" Pretty Face announced, her grin only growing. "Begin!"

Chapter 54: The End Of The Second Test?

The first exam had been created to test the skills of all the Knight-wannabes. It had lasted for a single hour and forced people to do battle with each other in order to determine the type of magic everyone had, as well as the tactics in battle they would use.

For many, it had been a nerve-wracking experience, and a lot of the exam takers found themselves being filled with despair once they ended up losing.

The second exam, the test of knowledge, by comparison, should not have been as bad, yet somehow it was and might have even been worse.

All it was was a single piece of paper asking one question. ‘In one word, describe what an Arcane Knight is.’

Many of the exam takers gave Pretty Face an odd look, but she wasn’t paying attention. She was lying down on the desk, holding her phone above her face, and kept chuckling as she watched funny cat videos. The blue status screen that floated in front of everyone kept counting down.

Davi gave a casual shrug and picked up his pen. He brought it down on his paper and wrote something, and then rapidly covered the page with both his arms when several people all looked back at him.

“No cheating.” Pretty Face lazily called out. “Eyes on your own paper.”

That finally kicked everyone into gear, and more people started to write. It only took a moment for everyone since it was literally one word. In less than a minute, over ninety percent of the class had finished and had their paper flipped over. Olivia was one of the people who hadn’t finished yet.

Her eyes stared down at the page in silence, and she traced it up and down, trying to make sure there wasn’t some hidden secret that would reveal the real test. She even attempted to force mana into her eyes to see better, but the page did not change. As far as she could tell, it really was this single question.

“In one word, describe what an Arcane Knight is,” Olivia muttered. She bit down on the pen and tapped her finger on her desk. “How can I describe them in only one word?”

Davi nudged her. “Just put something down.” He said flatly. “Does it really matter?”

“Of course it does! This test couldn’t be that easy, could it?” Olivia bit down harder on the pen, cracking part of it. “Do I call them heroes? Warriors? Nobles? Sexy? Honorable? What would the captains want us to put down?” She glanced back at Davi, and he suddenly covered his paper again and shot her a sour look. “I’m not trying to cheat off of you!”

One word.

Describe the Knights in one word…

Saviors, protectors, defenders, shields, swords, strong, amazing, powerful, incredible, loyal, super, divine, grand, killers, hunters, explorers, healers, and so many other words could be used for them. Yet she needed to figure out one way to describe them? What answer did Crow want, though? She tried to think about what she knew about Crow and kept coming up blank.

Unlike Father and Dark Star, Crow was relatively new to being a captain. He had only started leading Umbra Morits last year. As the vice captain, he had an impressive record, but she couldn’t remember anything he said or did after becoming a captain. In fact, he seemed to have become a lot lazier, no longer going on missions or quests and just sending his people to do it for him.

One thing she did know about Crow was that he was the only captain who wasn’t from one of the Branch families.

Father, Grampa Green, and Dye were from the Helios family; Dark Star came from the Saturen family, Myth was from the Jupitari family, and Gorgon was from the Marsian family. Crow didn’t come from any of the Noble Branch families but instead came from a low noble merchant family. The previous Captain of Hydra Storm had been from the Lunar family, and so all five of the biggest houses had a Captain, but after the former Hydra Storm Captain stepped down, no Lunar family member was in charge of any of the Guilds.

The Nobles sought a Lunar member to assume the Umbra Mortis position. Since Crow was the vice captain and had received his captain's approval, the king appointed him to the role instead. This caused some outrage, but for the most part, it died down.

Also, it went without saying, but the leader of Phoenix Flight wasn’t a member of the Branch family, and in fact, the current captain wasn’t even a noble. The rumor was that she had been sharpening a sword, and the previous captain slipped and fell onto her blade and accidentally sliced his own head off. The other rumor was that the current captain actually brutally murdered the last one.

She had been placed on trial and, instead of being sent to Nightshade, willingly chose to take up the mantle of Captain of the Phoenix Flight Guild and has been the leader for the past two years.

So with all of that in mind, if this was indeed Crow’s test, what answer was he seeking? What sort of captain was Crow? What kind of Knight was he? What morals did he hold? What was he looking for in the next generation of Knights?

Davi elbowed her again. “Seriously. Just answer.”

Olivia gave a brief nod, and she took a deep breath. She went to mark her answer down but stopped when Pretty Face’s voice rang out through the classroom. “You know,” the woman said slowly. A smile was present on her lips, and her eyes scanned each exam-taker slowly, not lingering on any of them. “I heard this year, Crow is being very picky. This test lasts an hour. There’s still a lot of time left if any of you want to scratch out your answer and change it. I can say for sure, after using my wind to see everyone’s answers, not a single person gave the response Crow was looking for.” The woman cocked her head to the side. “What a shame. Oh well!”

There was a moment of silence followed rapidly by the sounds of pages being turned back over. A lot of answers were scratched out, and people began to give new answers. By now, everyone had an answer on their page, save for Olivia. Her teeth bit down harder on her pen, cracking it worse, and she kept staring down at the blank page.

Most of the exam-takers were changing their responses. Not everyone, though. The silver-haired boy, Cain, was now asleep, not bothering to change his answer. Next to him, Bruno sat using both his pen and Cain’s to drum away on his desk. His answer was massive and took up most of the page, simply saying the word ‘Bros’ in huge bold letters. Across the room, Ken Yuan had summoned Yujin. Her familiar was tiny, barely the size of a small kitten, and she was using a piece of string to play with him as he chased it around on her desk. Ash somehow got stuck next to her and looked extremely annoyed and had already scratched his answer out four times now.

It was Davi that got most eyes on him, though, when he stood up. Everyone stopped what they were doing as he took his paper, and then, to everyone’s surprise, he began to fold and bend it, twisting it until it took on the shape of an airplane. Even Pretty Face seemed caught off guard. It only got worse when he threw it across the room, and the paper plane flew directly into Pretty Face’s outstretched hand.

“I don’t wanna change my answer, so I’m just going to head out now, okay?” Davi asked, walking away from the desk and towards the wall.

Pretty Face blinked before snorting. “I mean, sure, anyone that wants to can stop if they want. Good luck getting out, though. This room is a simulation and has no doors, just walls, so it’s impossible to—”

Shards of stone exploded everywhere as Davi rammed his fist into the wall. He punched a massive hole through it, large enough to let him walk out.

“Okay, ya freaking jackass, I guess you can just fucking blow the wall up.” Pretty Face sighed. “You’re lucky this is just a simulation and not a real classroom; otherwise, you’d be disqualified for that.” The woman said, letting out a huff.

Davi was about to leave but then stopped and turned to look back at the classroom of exam-takers, most of whom were still staring at him. His eyes locked onto a single one, the only person who was glaring at him. “Hey Rowan, don’t forget.” Davi gave a slight smirk. “We’re having our duel soon.”

“A duel?” Someone in the crowd asked in shock.

“Yep.” Davi turned away. “I don’t really know who he is, but Row claims he’s important, so I guess you can all look forward to when I take him down.”

If Davi hadn’t had the captain's eyes on him before, he was confident he was about to now. By declaring something like that, it was bound to cause a lot of people to want to come and see the fight between him and Rowan, and wherever the people went, the captains' gazes would follow. Unlike the first exam, it would also just be a one-on-one match. The captains, all of them, would be forced to watch him and see what he could do, whereas in the first test, there was a chance none of them had even seen him take down Rowan.

Of course, this plan could backfire if Rowan disagreed and called the fight off, but he knew the man wouldn’t. As if on cue, Rowan let out a loud laugh. “Are you trying to make me scared or something?” Rowan taunted. “Do you think I’ll suddenly call off the fight because you let everyone know about it? You’re an idiot! All you’re doing is showing your cowardice! Everyone can come and watch if they want! I’ll give them the show of a lifetime when I defeat you!”

It was just like fishing, Davi couldn’t help but snicker. Throw out some bait, and they do the rest. Now all he had to do was win the fight later tonight. Everything was going well. Above all else, though, he knew for a fact that at least one captain would be there to watch the fight up close.

Davi left the room, and he wasn’t the only one to do so. A few other people who hadn’t changed their answers also stood up, gave their paper to the Pretty Face, and walked through the hole Davi created. Among them were Cain, Ken Yuan, Bruno, and a few others.

Bruno gave his paper to Pretty Face and then made his way over to Olivia. He placed his hands on his hips and looked down at her. She still hadn’t written a single answer. Time was still ticking, and there was plenty of time, but she was the only one who hadn’t even tried yet.

“Bro.” Olivia looked up, and Bruno flicked her on the forehead. “Don’t be dumb. You got this.”

Olivia rubbed the top of her forehead and frowned. “I know. It’s just…” She glanced down at her blank page. “I’ll get it done.” She forced a smile and looked back up.

Bruno nodded his head, and he turned and walked toward the hole in the wall. He let out a whistle when he saw it. Sometimes he forgot how crazy strong Davi was. The man was a serious powerhouse. The wall was extremely thick and made of solid stone, yet Davi’s single punch had blown it to bits, and beyond it was a blank white void, nothing.

Taking a deep breath, Bruno stepped forward and felt a weird spinning sensation go through him. The next thing he knew, he was back in the arena. Only around a dozen people had followed Davi out.

Davi stood in the center of the arena, and he looked around. Up top, all the captains were gone, likely dragged into their simulation. A lot of the Arcane Knights were gone as well. Most likely, they went into the back to wait for the test to end. There was one reason he had decided to come out so much earlier, though.

He had felt ‘her’ mana.

Davi glanced up even further past where the captains were. He didn’t see anything. A moment later, he was forced to turn away when someone spun him around. Davi blinked as he came face to face with Ken Yuan.

“Hey!’ The red-haired girl announced.

“Hey?”

“We need to talk!”

“Do we now?”

“Yep!” Ken grabbed Davi by the wrist, and she began to drag him toward one of the doorways that led into the backrooms.

“Help,” Davi said in his typical emotionless tone. “I’m being kidnapped. Send help.” No one helped him. Ken dragged Davi completely out of the stadium and then pressed him against the wall. She kept her hands on his shoulders and stared into his eyes. “...So, we gonna kiss or what?”

“What do you know about dragon chi?” Ken asked.

“What the hell is chi?”

Ken sighed and closed her eyes. “Dragon mana.”

Davi gave a nod of his head. “Why do you want to know?”

“I told you during the first test, didn’t I?” Ken huffed and let go, slowly folding her arms. “That snow-haired girl you seem fond of. The chi of a dragon is clinging to her. Do you know how something like that happens?”

“Do you?” Davi asked flatly.

Ken’s eye twitched. “My Han, you’re useless.” The woman glared back at him. “No, I don’t know how it happens. That’s why I’m asking you. Old man Feng would never tell me.” She growled. “The only reason I know what dragon chi feels like is because the elders of my sect would whisper about it behind his back. That led me to the conclusion of what it is. It’s a curse.” Ken stated. “Old man Feng came in contact with a dragon, and it cursed him. The curse lingers deep in his core and has taken root. That snow-haired girl has something similar, though, with how young she is, I doubt she knows that she’s been cursed. It’s why she can’t create blood and instead has to use her own. Feng was the same. Both of them have been cursed by a—”

“You’re wrong.” Davi casually brushed past Ken and didn’t look at her. “They’re not cursed.”

“They’re not?”

“Did this Feng guy ever say he was cursed?” Davi asked.

“Well, no?” Ken frowned again. “That’s just the conclusion I came to. Feng rarely talked about it.”

“It isn’t a curse,” Davi said again. “It’s something different, and I’d rather you not bring it up at all, okay?”

Ken’s look changed again. “Why is that? She’s special, right? Or at the very least, she’s unique because of the chi she has. Wouldn’t you want word of that getting out? It could help improve her chances. Unless you’re afraid of what would happen if the captains found out?” Ken’s smirk returned.

Once more, Davi shook his head. “The captains wouldn’t care. It isn’t them I’m worried about. It’s someone else. Also, Olivia’s mana isn’t as special as you think. Many people possess mana that contains traces of a dragon, just as many can have the mana of an elf within them. It’s rare, but not unheard of. Case in point, that Feng guy you mentioned. She isn’t the first person I’ve seen with mana like that, and I doubt she’ll be the last.”

“So then what is it?” Ken demanded. “Why do you look at her the way you do? I’ve seen your look plenty of times! It isn’t one of love or kinship. It’s the same look the people of my sect would give Feng! A look of utter hate. It’s deep in your eyes, but it was there. I saw it. So why? Why do you keep her around? Why is she your ally?”

Davi reached out and placed his hand on the wall next to him. Gently, he pressed down, and the wall filled with spiderweb-like cracks as his strength seeped out. “It isn’t the fact that she has the mana of a dragon, which is clinging to her heavily. Instead, it’s the type of mana it is in general that I despise. Just as there are a dozen different mages, so too were there hundreds of different dragons, all with their own type of mana. The mana that clings to her is something I’ve felt before. She doesn’t just have the mana of a dragon; she has the mana of ‘the Dragon.’” The one that had ruined it all. The beast of fire that plunged him into an age of ice. “I’m going to slay it. No matter what. And I’ll use her to reach that goal.”

Olivia Lot was his bait.

***

“Less than five minutes left.” Pretty Face called out. “Though I guess it doesn’t matter if it’s just the two of you, now does it?” The woman giggled.

Only two people remained. By now, everyone had either given up or decided that their answers were good enough and turned the pages in and left through the exit Davi had created.

Naturally, Olivia was one of the few who remained behind. She wasn’t the only one, though. All the desks had closed in together, leaving just her and the final member shoulder to shoulder.

The second person to remain was another girl, though unlike Olivia, she seemed remarkably calm. The girl wore a long white gown, along with a white fur coat that hugged around her body. She had blonde hair that was tied back into a flat ponytail, and she smelled heavily of money, having two large diamond earrings that hung off each ear. What stood out the most about her, though, at least to Olivia, was the woman’s voice.

The blonde-haired woman was humming softly to herself, over and over again, while she kept her pen on the page. Her eyes were blank and lifeless, having no light in them, and were the total opposite of her voice, which was serene and graceful.

Olivia couldn’t help but glance down at the other girl’s paper since it was right there. She wasn’t shocked to see scribbles on the page. This woman was obviously blind and a noble, so it was very likely she had never learned to write for herself since she’d have servants that would do it for her.

Despite how rough the lines were, there was an almost beauty to it. The blind woman kept trying. Again and again, her fingers clutched her pen, and she’d try to scribble something, only for her hand to awkwardly fumble. It wasn’t perfect, but she was doing her best.

“How is yours going?” Olivia jumped when the woman finally stopped humming and spoke.

“What?” She asked stupidly.

“Your paper.” The woman didn’t look at her and instead kept staring off into the distance, but a smile was on her lips. “Have you finally figured out what you wanted to say on yours?”

Olivia glanced down at her blank page and winced. “No, not yet.”

“Really? You’ve had so long?” The woman let out a soft giggle. “That’s so shocking. I had my answer in my head since before the test started, yet I can’t seem to figure out how to write it. I know what I want to put down, but I can’t do it.” She said almost sheepishly. “The pen feels awkward in my hands, and they keep shaking. I wasn’t always blind, so I have enough skill to know I’m screwing it up, but years of neglect and laziness have left me with no way of recalling the correct shape of the letters.”

“One more minute.” Pretty Face called out.

Olivia gave a small nod. “What are you trying to write down?”

“Irene.”

“Irene?”

“It’s my name.” The woman said, tapping her chin. “I’m Irene Lunar. I was told by the person sitting next to me earlier that we needed to describe what a Knight is in one word. Irene is perfect to describe it correctly! After all, that’s who I am, and I’m going to be a Knight!” The girl beamed.

“I-I guess that’s a good answer.” Olivia laughed. Her fingers tightened around her pen. “Um… D-Do you want me to write it?”

Irene tapped her chin again. “That would be helpful. I guess I didn’t think about asking someone else for help. Would you mind?”

Olivia smiled, and she slowly wrote out the word ‘Irene’ onto the blonde woman’s page. Her handwriting wasn’t the best, but it would do the trick. “There. Hopefully, they like that answer, Ms. Irene.”

Irene’s smile grew. “Thank you! And what’s your name?”

“Olivia. I’m Olivia.” Olivia turned back to her own page and took a deep breath. She’d just copy what Irene did. Her name would be a good enough answer. Slowly, she placed her pen on the page-

“And that’s time! Papers down!” Pretty Face called out.

“Huh.” Olivia blinked and then felt her stomach flop. Her page flew forward, still totally blank, being carried by the wind alongside Irene’s, and it landed straight in Pretty Face’s hands. “No! Wait, I didn’t put anything on mine yet!”

“Alright! The second exam is now over!”

Chapter 55: The Dorms

“Crow? What exactly was the point of this test?” Myth questioned. Typically, the three top captains would draw straws a month before the exam and use that time to come up with whatever their selected test was. Most of the exams were simple and easy to understand, but he was struggling to see the value in Crow’s.

“You don’t see the value in this test?” Crow said, sounding almost hurt. He held a stack of papers, which he was going through. All the captains remained on their thrones near the top of the stadium and had printed sheets of all the answers that had been given, allowing them to review them all. “I think this is the most important exam that has ever been held.”

Dark Star slapped her knee, and the old woman let out a squealing laugh. “He’s bullshitting you! He and I have been drinking the month away and didn’t actually come up with our exams until the last day.”

Father gave a deep frown. “So, I was the only one who bothered coming up with a good test?”

“Good test, my ass; yours was just a battle royal.” Crow huffed. “Dark Star’s also wrong. I’ve had this test in mind since I became a captain.”

“Really?” Gorgon frowned and tossed the papers behind her, allowing them to scatter. “Because honestly, this test doesn’t tell me anything; most answers are all the same. Also, why did we bother printing out an extra stack for Phoenix Flight? She’s still not here.”

The plushie of a bird rested on top of its own stack of papers, slightly tipped over. Paragon awkwardly cleared her throat as she held her own stack up for Grampa Green to look at. She had to physically reinsert one of his eyes into the socket. “Should I look over the papers myself?” she asked.

“Yeah, yeah, and can you read the answers out loud?” Dye stated. He was still awkwardly turned in his throne, painting away. He had four full portraits, all of different exam takers who had mana that caught his attention. One of them was the snow-haired girl from before, wearing a witch outfit, but he also had portraits of Ken Yuan, Bruno Moore, and Irene Lunar. It made Gorgon even more confused about why the snow-haired girl’s painting existed, since the other three pictures were all of powerful exam takers.

She had tried to keep an eye out for the strange snow-haired girl, but it got so tedious sorting through all the tests, especially when that scarred-faced man left and took most of the class with him.

“I still don’t get why this test is so important.” Myth said after a moment. “One word feels like it isn’t enough. Most of the people said the same thing.”

“So then look at ones that are different.” Crow shrugged. “A few people left replies that were wholly unique.”

Most of the answers were things he expected. A lot of people had said ‘Strong’, ‘Brave’, ‘Powerful’, ‘Epic’, ‘Heroic’, or similar things. A few were things like ‘Incredible’, ‘Magical’, ‘Wealthy’, ‘Handsome’, ‘Pretty’, and ‘Determined’. Fewer still had only two or three people who answered the same way. ‘Divine’, ‘Warrior’, ‘Hunter’. Even ‘Knight’ was used a few times, which just seemed lazy.

It was the papers that had unique answers, though, that caught Crow’s attention. There weren’t many, but there were a few.

‘Name: Bruno Moore. Answer: BROS'

‘Name: ____ Answer: Irene’

‘Name: Ken Yuan. Answer: Foreign’

One answer even caused Crow to pause. Unlike the others, which were one word, this page had a picture on it. Poorly scribbled down on the page was some long stick figure that looked like a child’s attempt to draw a dragon. ‘Xs’ were placed over the drawing's eyes, and above it was another stick figure holding up a poorly drawn sword. An arrow was pointing at this stick figure, which led all the way to the top of the page, where the exam-taker's name was. The name had been written in, but then scribbled out and replaced with a new name. Davi Hawker.

The one that really drew Crow’s attention was a bold statement.

‘Name: Olivia Lot. Answer: ______’

Whoever this Olivia person was, she had refused to answer his test. Everyone had been so busy trying to come up with the perfect answer, and yet this woman practically looked him in the eyes and spat at him! To have the guts to do that, knowing everything could be on the line, was truly impressive.

That did raise an issue, though. He had tried looking up the name Olivia Lot but got no results. No one in the test went by that name. Lot was a widespread name in some parts of the kingdom; a lot of people had it, which was why it was called ‘Lot’ in the first place. As a result, many people appeared when he typed the name in, such as Brave Lot, Fate Lot, Mary Lot, and others, but not Olivia Lot.

Not only had this person refused to answer, but they had also given a fake name.

Little did Crow know that this was actually because Olivia’s real name was Mary, and she had forgotten to include her full legal name.

Crow set all the papers down and lit up another cigar with shadowy black flames. “Tomorrow will be the last two tests, right?” He asked the room.

“Yep.” Dark Star gave a crooked smile, showing her many missing teeth. “Tomorrow is my last test, then the king’s test. We’ll all know our new squires then!”

“And just what sort of test did you pick, you old goat?” Crow asked, smirking. “Knowing you, it’s likely something deadly.”

Dark Star let out another laugh. Besides Grampa Green, she was the oldest living captain and had been around when Father and Crow were still just squires. Back in her day, the exams didn’t include simulations since it hadn’t been discovered how to properly utilize the elf towers until very recently in history. Because of this, Dark Star’s tests were usually the most extreme and were the main reason the waivers had to be signed to take a test. Some people even lost their lives in her test…

“I had a brilliant idea.” The old bat announced. She pointed up to the sky and let out a cheerful squeal. “We give them their Knight gear early!”

***

Olivia let out a loud scream. Her voice echoed through the pillow, and she kicked her legs up and down, having what could only be described as a mini tantrum.

Ken rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “Seriously,” the red-haired foreigner huffed. “You’re acting like you're five. Stop being a baby.”

Olivia sniffled and rolled over onto her back, shaking her head. “I’ve already blown my chances at two tests! How do I recover from this?”

Ken scowled. “Quit crying. You and that scarred-faced bastard made me waste a lot of time in the first test, and I doubt I did well in the second, so I’m in the same boat as you.”

“To be fair, Ms. Ken Yuan, you are quite notable.” Irene giggled softly. “I imagine all the captains have their eye on you already.”

“Well, they can go look elsewhere.” Ken turned her nose up. “I don’t care what they think of me. I do not need to impress them. Compared to the Martial Cultivators, Arcane Knights are nothing more than a cheap defense force.”

“So why are you even taking the test?” Olivia asked flatly.

“And who said a mutt like you could speak to me?” Ken glared down at Olivia.

“And we’re back to you being a bitch.” Olivia sighed.

Ashley hummed and brushed her hair back. “I miss Sera.” The maid said simply.

After the second exam had come to an end, the recruits were all led away by a few Knights in suits. Instead of standing out in the open, sandy field, they had been taken to the back, where several rooms awaited them all along the hallway. The area was divided into two sections, one for boys and one for girls. Four people also shared one room.

That was how Olivia found herself stuck in a room with Ken Yuan, Irene Lunar, and Ashley Dyrt. The room itself was shockingly fancy and quite spacious. It had a closet filled with various outfits, which Olivia had helped herself to, changing into a long black nightgown. It also had four queen-sized beds, all placed against the wall, as well as various drawers and a bathroom. The room was meant to last them one day, and tomorrow they’d be back to taking the exams, but for this one day, Olivia was confident she would get to sleep like a queen.

All four of them had already bathed and showered, going in groups of two. She went with Irene, while Ken got stuck with Ashley, and the two girls did not get along, bickering the entire time.

The sun was already starting to set, and the moon was rising up, which Olivia could see through the window. She remained on her bed and sighed. Just two tests were left. The next test would be the final captain test, and then all that remained was the king’s. That basically meant she’d have to do well in the next exam, or her chances of being a Knight would come to an end.

While she was pondering this, Irene sat quietly on her bed, humming a soft song, and Ashley sat in front of a mirror brushing her hair back. The maid already didn’t like Olivia because she was friends with Davi, so combining that with having to share a room with her and Ken Yuan made it evident that Ashley was not having a good day. Finally, that left Ken, who kept pacing around in the room, back and forth.

The woman was almost like some sort of predator, keeping her eyes locked on everyone as if Ken was afraid they’d all try to jump her. Ken also kept her hand next to her gourd in case she needed to summon Yujin.

“Why are you walking around so much?” Olivia asked boredly. “With how strong you are, you could probably beat us all. You’re acting way too paranoid.”

“Yeah.” Ashley sneered slightly and looked at Ken’s reflection in the mirror. “Go ahead and sleep. Nothing bad will happen. Promise.”

Ken forced a smirk. “Martial Cultivators can go without sleep for months. I might not be one yet, but I’ve also trained my body. Everyone in Rossum is able to stay up for at least a week before the body demands sleep. You won’t be trying anything on me, you damned Estirian mutt.”

Ashley let out a low growl, and a faint glow covered the woman’s skin. The hand holding the brush stopped, and her eyes narrowed. “I do wonder, why is a Rossum musclehead all the way out here taking this test?” Ashley’s angry look faded, replaced with a smirk as she turned in her chair to stare Ken Yuan down. “After all, they claim the people of Rossum train and train until their muscles swell and even their brains have biceps. It’s all they're good for. Yet where has all that training gotten them?”

“Watch your mouth.” Ken barked out.

“Invaded.” Ashley glared down at Ken. “Rossum is quickly losing the war to Mordheim. I heard they even had to beg Gallenth for help, but those metal-lovers ignored Rossum’s plea. Rossum is being burned to the ground as we speak, its people dying in the streets, as the cancer that is Mordheim devours it, and yet instead of being there and helping, you’re here?”

“Shut up,” Ken demanded.

Ashley didn’t shut up and instead kept talking. “It’s pretty obvious why you would come to Estiria. You know that the Knights can actually handle the forces of Mordheim, and you’re safe here, unlike in Rossum.”

“Shut up!”

“You keep calling everyone here mutts, but you’re the dog that ran with her tail tucked between her legs, so how about you start begging your superiors like the proper bitch you are?”

Ashley was smashed back-first into the wall faster than the girl could react. She had at the very least thought she’d be able to get a spell off before Ken was on her, but the Rossum warrior was seriously no joke. Ken’s eyes were practically blazing, and the girl looked like she was about to murder Ashley, who suddenly didn’t look as confident or smug as before.

“Do you think I wanted to come to this shitty place?” Ken’s voice bounced through the room as she made no effort to lower it. “You think I like being in such a shitty area where there is almost no chi? Estiria is shit! The air tastes awful, and these cities are so loud and bright—I hate it! But I didn’t get a choice! Feng lied! He said he would come back, and he didn’t! What was I supposed to do? He controlled the boat, not me!”

Ashley tried to shove Ken off of her, but she wasn’t even able to get Ken to budge a little. “Row Dust Orb!” Ashley practically spat the name out, and swirls of dust twisted and launched, ramming directly into Ken’s head, but again, the girl didn’t budge. A bit of blood trickled down Ken’s face, but that was it. She was way too strong for such an attack to cause her serious harm. It did piss Ken off, though.

Ken growled and pulled her fist back. Mana exploded through her arm and swirled around her fist, taking shape. It almost looked like a gauntlet of light had encased her hand, and she took a step forward, about to cave Ashley’s face in, but before she could, a pair of arms wrapped around her arm. Ken whirled around, her eyes full of rage, but they softened slightly when she saw Olivia standing behind her.

“What do you want?” Ken asked through gritted teeth.

“Come on, you idiot.” Olivia grabbed Ken’s hand, and she dragged the girl out of the room. Somehow, she actually managed to pull Ken along, and the door slammed shut behind them as they stepped into the hallway.

Ashley remained standing, her legs shaking, and slowly she slumped down, falling onto her ass. Her face was pale, and she looked as if she had almost wet herself.

“So,” Irene’s voice awkwardly carried through the quieter room. “Maybe in the future we don’t piss off the girl that can murder all of us? Huh? I might be blind, but even I can see that that was a bad idea.”

Outside of the bedroom, Olivia dragged Ken through the halls. A few girls had been outside chatting, but most had heard the screaming and banging, and so none of them said anything; they simply watched Olivia cart the powerful girl away.

Ken didn’t say anything and allowed herself to be dragged, but eventually she made a face and yanked her hand back once she was out of sight from everyone else, and it was just her and Olivia. “Where are we going?” Ken demanded.

Olivia turned to look back at Ken and shrugged. “Dunno. Just gonna go for a walk.”

“What? Why?” Ken asked, narrowing her eyes.

Olivia shrugged her shoulders again. “Well, you’ve calmed down, haven’t you?” Ken opened her mouth to retort but then stopped and made a slightly sour face at the realization that Olivia was right. “I get mad a lot also,” Olivia said quietly. “My blood can start to boil, and I’ll feel this pounding in my head. The names Ash calls me always set me off, and I demand a duel with him, only to then get my ass beat. Bruno suggested that I should always just walk away if I start to get pissed. I never do, but I figured I could try to force you to take a walk, and it might help. That Ashley girl is kind of a jerk, huh?” Olivia asked, then she lifted her finger and poked Ken in the nose. “Just like you.”

“Me?” Ken made another face and shook her head. “How am I the jerk?”

“You go around calling people mutts. You even suggested I should worship your boots at one point, and on top of all of that, you’re kind of racist.” Olivia said, listing everything off with her fingers. "So yeah, you’re a jerk also. That said, I can say that girl should have stopped when you told her to, but you also need to do that, you know.” Olivia placed her hands on her hips, giving Ken a stern look. “If you aren’t nice to people, how do you expect them to be nice to you?”

“Why should I be nice?” Ken hissed. “That kind of thought is for losers.”

Olivia sighed. “Okay, then just don’t be an asshole? You know you don’t have to say something rude? If being nice is too hard, then just shut up and look pretty or something, I don’t know.” Olivia turned away. “I like the Arcane Knights. Not everyone has to, but try to respect that some people do okay. You don’t need to like my kingdom, and I’ll admit it has flaws, but this place is my home. I’ve seen both good and bad come from this place, and I want to help it improve. That’s why I’m trying to become a Knight. I’m sorry if being an Arcane Knight isn’t your dream, but it’s mine. I don’t know why you’re here, and I don’t know what happened to you, but try to make the most of it, okay? It sounds like that’s all you can do right now.”

Ken looked down at the ground, almost seeming ashamed. The girl muttered something under her breath.

“What was that?” Olivia asked, with a knowing smirk already present on her face.

“You know I said I was sorry!” Ken growled and turned around.

Olivia giggled and watched as Ken began to walk, but then suddenly they both stopped when they heard a loud noise. It sounded almost like cheering? Ken was the first to reach a window, and the woman groaned.

“What?” Olivia asked.

“Take a look,” Ken grunted.

Olivia stepped forward and peered out the window. Her eyes went wide when she saw that, down in the courtyard, a massive crowd of boys had appeared, forming a large circle, and directly in the middle, two people stood. Rowan and Davi stared back at each other.

“Oh yeah.” Olivia blinked. “The fight.”

The match between Davi and Rowan was about to begin.

Chapter 56: The Deal He Made

“So, are you sure about this, bro?” Bruno asked. The dark-skinned boy almost sounded nervous.

“Don’t you have any confidence in me?” Davi raised an arm and kept his hands stuffed in his pockets as he walked down the halls that led to the open field all the exam-takers had been in earlier. He wasn’t alone, either, flanked by several other men, most of whom were village folk or commoners who were cheering him on. Up ahead, past the hallway, he could hear more cheering as most of the elite stood behind Rowan and were rooting for him.

The upcoming match had been the talk of the boys' dorm, and since it was a noble against a random, no-named commoner, it had seemingly split into two different fan bases.

Bruno shrugged. “It’s not that I don’t think you won’t win; you’re strong, there is no doubt about that, but nobles are born with more mana or unique traits. They also have tons of money, allowing them to buy their way into having a full grimoire. It’s hard to take them down. Not to mention, this isn’t a simulation; it’s a real fight, and you can’t just kill him. Can you even hold back when you fight?”

“I took that one guy down when we first met and didn’t kill him.” Davi pointed out.

“That ‘one guy’ has a name.” Ash huffed out, flanking behind Bruno.

Davi turned his head when he heard the voice and cracked his knuckles. “Are you here to try and get a rematch with me after I finish with Rowan?”

“No! Stop assuming I want to fight you!”

Davi ignored the weird boy who always sought a fight with him and instead focused on his upcoming match. The dorm room he was in, he shared with Bruno, along with two other boys, one named Max and the other named Cain. Max was a grown-ass man and a little weird, and Cain was super edgy, so Davi just ignored both. Cain also seemed to have some beef with Bruno, so sadly, Davi found himself constantly being followed around by Bruno, who was seemingly ready to use him as a human shield if Cain tried anything.

Also in the dorm, there had been a change of clothes, which Davi eagerly switched into. He wasn’t sure if he got to keep any of the clothes, so he made sure to steal as much as he could and stuff it all in his vault. His current outfit was entirely black, just like his armor. Black boots, black pants, a black shirt, and even a long black jacket, which he could whip around, creating extra shadows.

He was as ready as he could be. The only thing he needed now was the sword he’d be using.

“About time,” Rowan called out as Davi and the other men exited the hallway. “Are you ready to get your ass kicked?”

“No.” Davi shook his head. “I’m ready to win, though.”

The sandy arena was filled with dozens of nobles who all stood on one side. All the bleachers and thrones were empty, and up in the sky, the moon was starting to reach the top of the sky. Pretty Face had permitted them to do the duel since they were both consenting but made sure also to tell them that no Knights would be watching it or considering it, so it wouldn’t be used to tip the scales of any captain's favor.

Of course, Davi already figured out a way around that…

Naturally, killing also wasn’t allowed, and any injury that prevented them from competing in the two tests tomorrow was on them.

Some people cheered for Davi as he approached Rowan, but most were cheering for the noble. Most of the girls decided not to come watch the fight or had forgotten about it, and several boys, like Cain or Max, didn’t want to stay up for it and went to bed early. As a result, the arena was vast and spacious, unlike earlier.

There was also one other thing that Davi hadn’t accounted for. Rain. A heavy drizzle was coming down from the sky, making the sand hard and clumpy. He was about to fight a water mage in the rain.

Davi sighed, cursed his luck, and then stopped when he was only ten feet away from Rowan. The noble boy had a smirk on his face and one hand on his short sword. His armor sparkled due to the droplets of water that hit it in just the right way.

“Go ahead,” Rowan stated. “Pull out the fishing rod. Let’s see if this fight ends the same way it did last time.”

Davi shook his head and clicked his tongue. “Oh, I won’t be using a fishing rod this time.” Davi held his hand out, and his shadow began to expand slightly. “Row Shadow Vault.”

The shadow bubbled, and the black rose up as something began to lift out of it. It was the handle of a sword. It kept coming, revealing a sheathed blade. Davi grabbed the handle and opened his mouth, about to say something, but the sword wasn’t the only thing that came lifting out of the shadow. Suddenly, a fist flew forward and rammed itself into Davi’s stomach, hitting the man hard enough to make him grunt and nearly double over.

Everyone stared in shock as the hand grabbed at the edge and a woman pulled herself out of the vault, letting out several deep gasps of air. Her skin had turned slightly blue, and frost clung to her body, and she kept shivering. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, and she shot a death glare at Davi.

“You bastard! You didn’t tell me how fucking cold it would be!” She yelled out, throwing her arms into the air as she stood up. Her frozen state was made all the worse due to the rain that was pouring down. “You almost killed me! Also, what the fuck were those bird things!”

Everyone was extremely confused by what was going on, especially Rowan. “What the hell is happening?” The noble demanded.

Davi grunted and tried to pick himself back up, but the frozen blonde woman roughly kicked him in the side. “It’s a long story.” He finally managed to say.

***

Earlier that day…

“You smell like shit,” Davi said casually, and he plugged his nose. "This is toilet water I'm standing in, isn't it..."

After going to look for a sword, the last thing he expected was to run into some woman who had managed to flood the entire hallway. The blonde woman’s glare just grew sharper, and a low growl came out of her.

“Yeah, well, I feel like shit, too.” There was a loud rumble, and the woman clutched at her stomach harder, and her knees buckled. “Damn, Guild bathrooms. I told them to enchant them to be indestructible, but they ignored me. This is the ninth one that blew up on me, and I don’t think I’m going to make it to the next one.” The woman’s face turned a little scarlet as she tried her best to hold her guts in. “Damn, damn, damn.” She attempted to stand once more and began to hobble off.

Davi cocked his head to the side and looked her up and down. “You know, I think I can help you, but it’ll cost you.”

“Not now, kid; I’m not interested in a pyramid scheme. I’m about to do something we’ll both regret being present for if I don’t hurry.” The woman huffed.

“Just so you know, I’m pretty sure the other toilets on this floor are also blown up,” Davi responded. "I saw a lot of destroyed ones that still had the door shut. Talk about bad luck, huh?"

The woman stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes watering a bit. Slowly, she turned to look back at him. “What exactly was your deal? You selling adult diapers or something?”

“I’ll tell you, but first, you’ve got to do something for me.” Davi folded his arms.

The woman's eyes narrowed slightly. "If the next words that come out of your mouth are something sexual, I swear I’ll cut your willy off."

Unfortunately for the captain of the Phoenix Flight Guild, she has just met Davi Hawker. A reasonable person would have helped a lady in need, no questions asked, but Davi was not a good person.

Slowly, he raised his hand and pointed at the sword that hung from her belt. "I want your sword."

The woman blinked, taken aback by the question. Then she laughed and shook her head. “Yeah, no, not happening.” Her laughter stopped, and she groaned again, grabbing at her stomach. “This sword is worth a hell of a lot of Bells. I’m not letting some brat own it. I’d rather that the L and just sh-”

“Alright, let me borrow it!!” Davi said quickly, trying to stop something horrible from happening. The woman paused and winced again, her eyes narrowing even more. It was impossible to tell if it was because of suspicion or effort. “I just need it for one fight,” Davi stated. “Just one fight and you can have it back.”

The woman gritted her teeth and thought about it for a moment. “Fine! But you don’t get it until right before the fight, and I’m watching it, so you don’t get to run off! Got it!”

“Sure.”

“S-So how can you help me? Do you really have diapers?”

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi stomped his foot down, and his vault began to expand and spread open. The woman felt a chill as the shadow started to envelop her slowly. She could have stepped out easily, but she decided not to. Even if it was a trap, she had a way of getting out after all. “Out of sight, out of mind, just find somewhere to do the deed,” Davi said casually. “I’ll open it back up when it’s time, so just sit tight, okay?”

Letting a woman use his vault as a toilet wasn’t really classy, but his vault was literally infinite in size, and he could shove anything that was in it to any part. It was basically no different than someone taking a dump outside in the woods. Now if only it weren’t shameful…

It was worth the shame, though. This woman was obviously a captain. At least, his scar ached the same way it did when he first saw the Captains. Combine that with the fiery bird on her sleeve and the horrible luck, and he had a good idea of who he ran into.

A captain was going to watch the fight he had with Rowan, one way or another.

***

Present day…

The blonde woman let out a huff and finally stopped kicking Davi. She looked away and took a moment to gaze at all the baffled faces. “So, which one is the guy you’re fighting?” She ordered.

Davi finally stood back up and dusted himself off. Casually, he pointed at Rowan. “Him.”

“Oh?” The woman cocked her head to the side. “Yeah, he looks like a pompous noble.”

“Excuse me!” Rowan gasped, his eyes going wide. “And who the hell do you think you are!”

“Go ahead.” The woman unclicked the sword that hung on her belt, and a twisted smirk formed on her face. “Kick his ass.”

Davi caught the sword and wrapped his fingers around it tightly. Unlike Rowan’s sword, this one felt right in his hands. It was a katana, one that didn’t look particularly special. There was nothing fancy about it, and the handle was wrapped in the same cloth most of the swords were in. These sorts of weapons were most popular in Mordheim, but a few had made it to Estiria. The metal they were made out of was special in the Mordheim kingdom, allowing them to absorb and benefit from mana a lot more than other swords, so even with an enchantment, they could slice through solid iron if the wielder knew what they were doing.

This one was clearly not a new blade, though, a fact that became obvious when Davi drew it. The blade was worn down, slightly chipped, and cracked, and was also covered in hundreds of scratches that stained the steel. It was a sword that had seen great use, but more importantly, it was also just a blade. There was no enchantment on it.

Davi tossed the sheath back to the woman, and the crowd backed away, making room for him and Rowan. Davi twirled the sword, getting used to the weight, and then finally, he pointed it at his enemy.

“Well,” Davi cocked his head to the side. “What are you waiting for? Let’s do this.”

Rowan stared at the worn blade, and he snorted, drawing his own sword. “Do you really think a blade like that can beat me?”

“I kicked your ass with a fishing pole last time. What do you think’s going to happen now that I have a real sword?”

Rowan’s eyes flashed with rage, and he sliced his sword down as hard as he could. “Row Water Cutter!” The rain allowed the nobleman to cut down on how much mana would usually be used. His energy grabbed the natural water source and made it his own, swirling it all together and pulling it all down into a thin line that was over ten feet long. The blade whipped through the air and shot toward Davi, who remained confident even as the rest of the crowd hit the deck.

A brilliant wave of blue surrounded Davi, most of it swirling around the sword, which he swung up with one hand. His sword sliced through the blade of water like it was nothing, and he began to walk toward Rowan slowly. Rowan used another spell and sliced down with his sword, trying to send a whip of water Davi’s way, but the raven-haired man side-stepped it.

The people watched the fight, many yelling out cheers. A majority were for Rowan, who kept throwing spell after spell out. Each one would be different. One moment he’d create blades of water, the next he’d build a giant fist of liquid, and then a moment later tendrils, but no matter what he threw, it didn’t work. Davi just kept cutting through it or dodging it with ease.

Rowan was starting to get worried because it really didn’t feel like he was fighting the same person he had been able to go toe-to-toe with earlier that day.

“We didn’t actually discuss the terms of the duel, did we?” Davi asked, and he casually tore through another water cutter. Rowan went to take a step back, but Davi suddenly stepped forward much faster and slammed his sword down toward Rowan, who barely blocked it. “How about we go till first blood? Does that work for you?”

Rowan was about to say something, but his arms struggled to hold his sword up. Davi’s blade was above him, and he kept pressing down. “H-How the hell are you this strong!”

“Do you have any idea how much mana I had to force into that fishing rod so it wouldn’t explode on your weapon?” Davi asked coldly. “That was mana I could have been using to reinforce my arms, my muscles, or even an actual weapon, but instead, all that mana was wasted so that I would be able to clash with you. You really didn’t consider what would happen when I got my hands on an actual weapon, did you? Instead, you just got cocky and thought that you saw everything I could do in the simulation. I wonder, do any of these people who are cheering you on know that you already lost to me? That with some fishing wire I sliced your head clean off your body?”

“Shut up!” Rowan’s mana flared up, and he finally shoved Davi off him. He jumped back, getting several feet away, and used another spell. “Row Water Skin!” The liquid formed around him, creating his skintight armor. Once it was on, he took a calming breath and forced a grin. “Ha! Good luck hurting me now. I’m not going to let you hit me with the same attack you used last time! Row Water Blade! Row Water Spear! Row, Water Tiger!” Rowan rapidly used three spells, water twisting and bending itself to his will, firing toward Davi, who began to dodge the rapid strikes that kept coming his way. “Ha! Look at him run! That’s all he can do!” Rowan laughed again, but he stopped when he saw the crowd.

Most of them had been giving him their support, but now their looks changed, and he couldn’t help but hear the muttering that was happening around him.

“Did he really lose to a commoner?”

“How has he not hit that nobody yet?”

“That guy’s name is Davi, right? Has he even used a spell? Don’t tell me a member of the Zyne family can’t even deal with someone who isn’t using spells.”

“What were we expecting, though? His father is a failure of a Knight, after all.”

“Their whole family is rotten to the core.”

“Maybe it’ll be a good thing if that nobody beats him.”

“Yeah…”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah!”

“Davi!”

“Go, Davi!”

“You can beat him!”

Rowan watched as most of the crowd began to change and root for Davi, who was running and dodging past his attacks. Some did it because they wanted the underdog to win, others did it to spite nobility, and the majority still did it because, just like his father, Rowan was a failure.

Rowan felt his arms shake, and sweat started to pour down his face. He slurred a word and messed his spell up, not casting anything, which gave Davi the chance to launch toward him once again, but Rowan quickly forced himself to get back into the jam. “Row Water Spear! Row Water Cutter! Row Water Wave! Why can’t I hit you? Row Water Cutter! Row Water Cutter! Row Water Cutter—”

“All those spells, and you’re just going to keep spamming the same one over and over again?” Davi stopped dodging and got back to cutting through the spells.

“Shut up! Row Water Cutter! Row Water Cutter! Row Water Cutter!” Rowan yelled. “Just one attack and you lose! I just need to hit you once!” He laughed. “Thanks to this rain, I can do this all night! You’ll tire, but I won’t! Row Water Cutter! Row Water Cutter! Row—”

“You know, you’re not the only one who can use the environment to their advantage.” Davi tapped his foot down. “No more putting on a show.” He lifted his sword, raising it into the air, and got back into the stance that could slice through the skies themselves. He was far away, though, having no way of hitting Rowan, who used this as his chance to throw another attack out at Davi. The water blade soared through the air, about to hit him, but Davi’s spell was faster. “Row Shadow Vault.”

Rowan felt an intense chill, and suddenly he began to sink into the ground. The entire area was flooded in darkness due to the clouds above that poured down rain. He tried to force mana into his feet, but then Davi used another spell.

“Row Shadow Robes.”

The shadows appeared around Rowan’s legs, a sexy-witch girl outfit, stretching out and tying itself around his ankles, causing the noble to lose his footing and fall forward face-first into the vault. He wasn’t in there for very long, though, as a moment later he was lifted up directly above Davi, who had twisted the inside of his vault’s space to force Rowan to pop out next to him. If he couldn’t get to Rowan, he’d just bring Rowan to him.

The blue mana around Davi forced itself into his blade, running along the edge, and he brought it down on the knocked-over Rowan, who tried to raise his own sword up.

Sparks flew, and there was a horrible snapping sound as Rowan’s sword was sliced right through. Davi’s sword kept going, stopping just short of actually hitting Rowan, but the blade easily tore through his mana shield, splitting it in half just like last time.

Everything moved in slow motion for Rowan as he watched the sword come down toward him. For a moment, he didn’t see Davi, but instead he saw his father. An elderly man with a very disappointed look on his face. Then he was suddenly snapped out of it as white-hot pain exploded through his face, and Davi’s sword left a thin cut across his cheek. The rain kept pouring down, and red droplets dripped to the ground as Rowan bled.

“I win.” Davi turned around, not looking at Rowan. He stopped for a moment and seemed to hesitate. “Good job. You did better than I thought you did. You knew it was going to rain tonight, so you set the fight out here on purpose? You’re pretty smart. If I didn’t have my shadow vault or my sky-cutting style, I don’t think I could have beaten you. You’re strong, Rowan.”

“Davi!” Davi turned, as did most of the crowd, just in time to see Olivia, along with Ken, running forward. “Why didn’t you tell me the fight had started! I would have come and watched!” Olivia huffed out.

Ken raised an eyebrow as she noticed the downed Rowan. Rowan remained on the ground, and his hand was shaking as he felt the side of his face. “You beat him? I guess the Estirian nobility isn’t as good as Rossum's.” The woman smirked.

Davi casually placed the sword on his side. “Yeah, the fight’s over—”

Pain tore through him as Rowan’s broken sword rammed into his side. Rowan let out a loud scream as he tackled Davi to the ground, and the two fell back. He twisted his blade and let out a screech. “I won’t lose!” He screamed. “I’ll show you! I’ll show you all!”

Chapter 57: The Duel Goes On

‘Isn’t that Rowan Zyne? Heir to the Zyne family? He looks nothing like his father.’

‘If you can even call him an heir. After all, some claim-’

‘What do you mean? Are you saying he is a-’

‘Oh? Haven’t you heard the rumors-’

‘His father. They say that he is actually-’

‘I guess Mistress Zyne was lonely and-’

‘Serves Charles right. He isn’t any better. You know that he-’

The Zyne family was not one of the five Branch families. Instead, it was a much smaller house that had once served under the Helios branch. Today, they still worked for that family, but House Zyne had lost most of its respect, and there were even talks of stripping it of its noble status.

This was all due to one man. Charles Zyne had made the biggest mistake of his life, and his actions had nearly cost him everything.

Rowan saw it. His father’s face peered down at him. His father, Charles, always had the same look on his face. Disgust. Disgust in his ‘son’.

Memories flashed through Rowan, over and over, stuck on loop. He recalled every slap, every jab, and every cruel word that his father threw his way. It all contrasted with another memory. A recent memory.

The memory of his father giving him a brand new set of armor and a sword. Rowan was thrilled to receive it. It was the first gift his dad had ever given him, and for the first time in his life, he felt a sense of pride. His dad would always treat him as if he didn’t exist, but now that he had come of age, it was as if a switch had been flipped. Charles wanted him to become a Knight. His father wanted him to join him. His father had given him this expensive gear all in an effort to help his son.

For the first time in his life, Rowan Zyne felt love.

Yet, Davi Hawker was going to take it all away. Davi Hawker was going to beat him. Davi Hawker. A nobody. A commoner. Scum. Rowan felt pure and utter hate. The exact same hate his father always felt for him, and so when he saw his chance, he pounced. He didn’t think; he just screamed and stabbed forward with his broken sword, jamming it right between Davi’s ribs.

The blow would have been fatal; however, Davi possessed the trait Danger Sense, which detected the bloodlust that was directed at him. This allowed him to curve his body just in time as the sword rammed into him. The twist in his posture made it so the blade avoided any vital spots, and he crashed to the ground with Rowan on top of him.

Screaming rang out in the arena, and the rain kept pouring down, turning the sand into a muddy mess that made both men slip and lose their footing even further. Rowan was entirely on top of Davi now, his eyes glaring down into the scarred man’s own.

“You think you’re better than me because you can get past my water magic?” Rowan demanded.

“When did I ever make fun of your water magic?” Davi grunted out.

“Don’t lie! I’ve seen the way you look at me!” Rowan screamed out. “You’re disappointed in me, aren’t you? Because I have water magic!”

“What?” Davi winced as the sword in his side twisted. “I am very lost right now.”

“It’s not my fault, Dad!”

“Very, very lost.”

A red bolt of blood launched toward Rowan, but the man quickly muttered a spell and put up a barrier of water. The rain swirled together and formed a single, massive bubble that both he and Davi rested in. The blood bolt bounced off of it, along with a few other spells, as a couple of people tried to break up the fight, since this was no longer a duel.

Olivia winced when she saw her attack had no effect. “Can someone break—”

Ken was already at the bubble, and she rammed her fist forward as hard as she could. A burst of intense mana exploded out of her knuckles, and rapid cracks formed along the barrier. It collapsed in an instant, and her hand kept going forward, slamming directly into Rowan’s face. His nose exploded into a sea of blood, and he was picked up off the ground and sent rolling across the muddy field.

Everyone stood on the sidelines, stunned for a moment. “Holy cow, did she just break through a mana barrier with her bare hands?” Someone questioned.

Ken folded her arms and let out a sigh. “Yo, scar face, you still alive?” Davi managed to get to a knee and nodded. Ken let out a sigh of relief and nodded. “Duel’s over, I’m dealing with this bastard now—”

“No.” Davi threw his arm out in front of Ken and stopped her from stepping forward. “The duel isn’t over.”

“Like hell it isn’t!” Ken shot him a nasty look. “It was first blood. You already drew it. That last attack was aimed at killing you or seriously harming you. It went well past a duel.”

Davi shook his head. “We never actually agreed that the duel would be to first blood.” He looked toward Rowan, who was trying to stand up, but the man was clearly out of it after the strike he took from Ken. “I’ve changed my mind. I want it to be the last one standing wins.” Davi tore the broken weapon out of his side and tossed it over to Rowan, much to Ken and the other people in the crowd's shock.

“Davi!” Olivia shook her head. “You can’t just change the rules to a duel!”

“I just did.” Davi shrugged, then winced again because of the pain in his side. “Deal with it.”

“Bro, are you mad he stabbed you and just want to beat his ass?” Bruno asked, giving Davi a suspicious look.

“...Maybe.” Davi sounded almost sheepish.

“Classy.” Ash shook his head.

Davi turned back to Rowan, who had finally picked up his blade. “You cool with keeping this match going?” He asked, pointing his on-loan sword toward the noble.

Rowan gave Davi a look of pure rage once more and was ready to go, but Ken got in the way of both men. “No,” Ken said, shaking her head. “I’m not just going to sit by and let this happen—”

“Vil Thread Plushie.”

Ken suddenly felt something smash into her back, and the next thing she knew, she was flat on her stomach. Everyone, even Davi and Rowan, was totally caught off guard, as a large five-foot-tall stuffed teddy bear sat on Ken’s back. It had bright pink fur, and its arms were crossed. The red-haired girl let out a hiss and tried to stand up, but the plushie was shockingly heavy, straining her back. The thing was even heavier than an actual bear.

“What the hell! Get this thing off of me.”

“After the fight.” A voice sighed out. Ken glared up and found herself looking at the blonde woman who had climbed out of Davi’s vault earlier. Her arms were folded, and she seemed mostly bored. “They’re both grown men; if they want to keep beating each other senseless, then they can. Just sit by and watch the show. That goes for the rest of you. Any of you try to get involved in the fight, and I’ll personally have you become one of my plushies' chairs.”

Olivia frowned and really wanted to object, but she knew there wouldn’t be a point. Davi had already made up his mind, and whoever this strange woman was, her spell was able to instantly take Ken Yuan out, who was probably the strongest person in the arena, so it wasn’t like she could do anything anyway.

Around them, several people readied barriers of various magic types, steadying themselves for the second bout.

Davi turned back to Rowan. “Now that that’s been settled, where were we?” A bullet of water launched through the rain, and Davi felt a wave of pain as his shoulder was pierced. Rowan wasted no time, restarting the fight in an instant. Davi winced as the pain hit him, and he swung his sword up just in time to block the next bullet that came his way. “Row Shadow Robes.”

The outfit twisted and jutted out of the dark floor, attempting to bind around Rowan’s legs once more, but the nobleman was ready for it and placed mana into his legs, allowing him to jump back, avoiding the trap. As he did, he slashed his sword out again, sending a large vertical wave out. “Row Water Tendril!”

The tendril appeared in the air, the droplets of water forming into the shape of a long tentacle that swiped down at Davi. The black-haired swordsman was fast, though, and he side-stepped it, the tentacle missing. That didn’t matter to Rowan, though, because he had another reason for creating the large object, one that only Ash realized.

Rowan pointed his shattered sword in Davi’s direction and used his second-best spell. “Row Water Slicer!” He announced. The blade formed in front of him, but it also formed directly behind Davi, coming from the tendril. Dual-casting. Both attacks launched at the same time, and with how wide they were, Davi wouldn’t be able to dodge them, nor would he be able to cut through both, leaving him with only one option. He would either have to go up or down, and Rowan already knew which way Davi was going to go.

“Row Shadow Vault—”

“Vil Water Ignite!” Rowan yelled, lifting his sword to the sky.

Several people in the arena screamed out in pain as every bit of water within a thirty-meter radius suddenly exploded in a wave of brilliant light. It sparkled and shone, and it was as if the sun itself had taken root on the planet. Even if one were to close their eyes, they’d still see the mass of light that poured out in every direction, and all the shadows were wiped away, leaving no pit of darkness for the vault to open up into.

This spell was of the Vil level, and thus it took a considerable chunk of mana, sweat already pouring down Rowan’s face just from using it. He didn’t stop, though, and forced the lights to stay on, everything being turned a nasty white color as he watched in glee as Davi’s escape attempt failed. The blades closed in, about to tear Davi in two, who was now a shadow mage without a shadow.

After the last match with Davi, Rowan had managed to resolve the issue with his bank, and he had bought this spell just in case. It was his trump card, though he had wanted to avoid using it, since Vil-level magic took a serious toll on the body. He had also bought one more spell just in case, which would be his final gambit in case this plan failed.

Davi felt himself enter a crouching position as he tried to enter his vault, but the sudden blast of light made that impossible. It was like fighting Tori all over again. Without the ability to use his vault, he instead thought fast, and he punched the ground as hard as he possibly could. The muddy sand absorbed his blow and resisted the effect, so he moved to plan C and rammed the sword into the ground and twisted himself up onto the handle, using it to vault up into the air just in time for the slashes to reach him.

Davi managed to get above them, and the sword was stabbed into the ground below the slashes, so they missed both him and his weapon; the two attacks met in the middle and canceled each other out.

Davi landed on the ground and tore the sword out of the sand and took off running toward Rowan, who was shocked that he managed to dodge it. Rowan stabbed his sword out again and screamed. “Row Water Arrow!” The attack was launched toward Davi, but he blocked it with the sword. The second one still came at him fast from behind, the tendril launching it out, and that one did hit him, jamming into his shoulder, but that barely slowed Davi down.

Davi smacked the ground as hard as he could, getting his sword coated in clumps of sand, and when he swung his blade again, the sand clumps were sent flying off the sword and hurled in the air, smacking directly into Rowan’s eyes. The noble howled in pain as the sand burned and tried to rub it away.

Usually, hitting him with an attack like that would have been impossible since Rowan kept his water skin spell on during combat; however, because he was maintaining both a Vil-tier spell and a Row-tier construct, as well as using dual-casting, his Core was too strained to maintain his proper defense, something Davi had easily noticed and saw through.

Rowan got the clumps of sand out of his eyes and glared toward Davi, only to see that the man was no longer in front of him. Rowan looked up just in time to see Davi falling toward him from the sky, the man’s blade raised above his head once more in order to cut the sky. Rowan knew that if he were to launch his cutter spell, the first one would be sliced in two before it could hit Davi, and the second one wouldn’t make it to the raven-haired man before he landed and got a hit off. A hit that would likely take Rowan out of the match.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Rowan as he watched Davi fall toward him, and for a moment, just like earlier, he saw it. A flicker of his father. A flicker of a man who hated him. A man who had been born with gem magic, a gorgeous type. Not water magic…

“For the first time in your life, you can finally make yourself useful.” Rowan found himself staring at the face of his father. He was a tall and imposing man with long red hair and bright blue eyes. His armor was forged out of various gems, such as rubies, emeralds, and even diamonds, that all twisted together into his suit. “House Zyne hasn’t had another member join the Arcane Knights since myself. With the hole that has been caused by the Hydra Storm’s captain stepping down, the position of vice captain is now up for grabs. That is a position that I’ve decided I earned. Here.”

Rowan’s arms awkwardly shook as his father shoved the short sword into his grasp. He had never held a blade, and in truth, he had never been given something from his father. It was strange.

“Don’t screw this up.” The man said sternly. “You have lived a life you don’t deserve for the past twenty years. It's time for you to repay your debt. ‘Son’.”

His father had given him a task. House Zyne was in ruins, all because of the sin Charles committed, but Rowan could be the one to fix it! His father believed in him. His father had given him a gift. His father had ordered him to become a Knight.

House Zyne wasn’t worthless. House Zyne wasn’t going to remain in ruins. Ashley and Sera also believed in him. They were with him since the start.

Rowan didn’t want to disappoint them more than he disappointed his father.

He snapped back to the battlefield, everything moving in slow motion as Davi came down toward him. Rowan knew what he needed to do. Besides the light spell, he had also spent the rest of his money on one more spell. Rowan raised his arm, and he dropped concentration on the tendril, causing it to fade as well as the light spell, bringing the shadows back. It didn’t matter, though. Davi was in the middle of the air and would have no way to dodge. This particular spell was unruly and hard to control, only launching in a straight line.

“Vil Water Dragon.”

Davi’s eyes went wide as he fell toward the oncoming spell. A tremendous amount of water flowed and twisted. It became long and serpentine, having a slender body and two small, stubby arms that poked out of its side. It wasn’t what he had been expecting, but the head was one he was very familiar with. A dragon-like skull formed at the end of the construct, and it let out a hellish roar as it blasted toward him.

The spell would be impossible to cut through. Row was easy, but Vil was another level altogether and could only be matched with equal or greater force.

There were five levels of spells. The weakest and most common was Row. Every mage could use Row grade magic. It was as simple as it could get. If a mage got particularly strong, they could either gain a new spell that would be a higher grade or upcast an old spell as a higher tier. Vil was the stage above Row, and it was ten times stronger than Row was and also required ten times the amount of mana. The only reason Rowan had been able to use two Vil-tier spells back-to-back was because of the heavy rain, which was cutting the cost down by a lot, but even a second Vil spell was pushing it, and his body was reaching its limit.

Above Vil was a grade of magic that only people on the level of Arcane Knights could use. This grade was Ril. It was ten times greater than Vil and thus one hundred times greater than Row. Like Vil, it also had a high cost, costing ten times more than Vil, or a hundred times more than a Row spell.

Above Ril was the fourth grade of magic, which only captains could use. Vow was the final grade many would reach and was one thousand times stronger than a Row spell and one thousand times more expensive as well. In any war, a single use of a Vow spell could end the fight before it even began or permanently alter the planet.

There was one more grade above Vow, however. A grade that had never been seen, but legends spoke of it—the final tier of magic. Full magic. A grade of spell so powerful that it was stated that when Haru would use it, she would alter the very universe itself and bend it to her whims.

These were the five grades of magic. Stopping a spell on the level of Row wasn’t that hard, but once a spell hit the tier of Vil, it could only be countered with equal force, meaning another Vil spell, or something just as substantial or greater than the level, like a higher-grade spell.

Davi knew he didn’t have a strike that was on the level of Vil. Therefore, he did the next best thing.

The water dragon’s mouth opened, ready to swallow him whole, but Davi focused his mana and used a trump card of his own.

“Vil Shadow Vault.”

Chapter 58: His Loss

Olivia realized she had made a mistake.

After the battle with Garon, she had taken a look at Davi’s list of spells. The grimoire not only allowed a mage to refresh themselves with all the spells they owned, but it would also inform them how close a spell was to evolving and becoming something stronger.

In order to cast a Vil-level spell, a mage would need to have one unlocked as well as possess enough raw mana to cast the spell in the first place. Some spells could only be found on a level beyond Row, but Row-level spells could still be upcast if the spell had managed to evolve. In order for a spell to evolve, the meter next to it, which was in the grimoire app, would have to reach one hundred percent. Only then could that spell be used at a higher level.

Some spells could evolve quicker than others, while some could take weeks or even months of nonstop practice just to get to the halfway point. When she had first seen Davi’s spells, his two had been relatively low on the evolution meter, and so she had assumed that it meant he was far away from evolving his spells, when in actuality, it was the opposite.

Davi’s Shadow Vault had already evolved, meaning it could be used at the level of Vil. The meter she had seen was the percentage it would take for it to evolve again and reach the level of Ril.

That, however, made Olivia more confused. After all, if Davi really did have such a spell in his back pocket this entire time, why did he never use it? Surely in his fight with Gray, he would have deemed that a worthy cause, or his battle with Ken? Yet he hadn’t, which told her something. Either he had decided to hold back for some reason, or his spell wasn’t that good, and this was a gambit that he was about to take.

Davi was forced to play his hand because he had no other choice.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and Davi watched as gravity carried him down toward the massive dragon forged out of water. Its maw was wide open, ready to devour him, but it would never have the chance. He felt his mana erupt and drain out of him. A moment ago, he had been like a cup that was brimming with water, but just one use of his Vil-level spell, and he felt himself practically empty, the entire cup spilling over, leaving only a few pathetic drops left.

He really did hate how costly this spell was, especially since it was seldom worth the cost.

Davi braced himself as he got closer to the dragon, and his Vil Shadow Vault surged out, the shadowy floor beneath him seeming to turn even darker, and any light that was in the arena was sucked in.

A Vil-level spell was ten times stronger than a Row-level spell and would cost ten times the amount of mana. When upcasting a weaker spell, that spell would rapidly increase in power and become ten times stronger. The tricky part with Shadow Vault, however, was how it became stronger.

Shadow Vault fell into three schools of magic. It was Alteration, Conjuration, and Enchantment. Increasing a spell that was in the school of Destruction or Restoration was easy since those spells would just become ten times better, but Vault was neither an offensive, support, nor defensive spell. It was also hard to imagine what increasing it by ten would actually do.

Alteration allowed the shadows to change their behavior, becoming weightless and open like the sea. Increasing that by ten would have no effect. Conjuration allowed the Shadow Vault to manifest itself as an infinitely sized realm of nothingness where anything could be stored. Increasing infinity by ten would do nothing. The only school of magic that truly mattered in this case was the school of Enchantment.

An Enchantment was almost like a program or a code in a computer. It was a series of lines that formed rules on how the spell would operate and function. By multiplying this by ten, the Enchantment would grow and gain ten new lines of rules, or ‘codes’, that it could now do, allowing it to rapidly improve.

In other words, upcasting a spell of the school of Enchantment would drastically alter the way that it worked.

The Vault opened, the shadows growing deeper. The Row Shadow Vault allowed objects to be placed or sucked into it. Vil Shadow Vault would put things in it of its own accord. In an instant, something blasted out of the ground. The shadows twisted and flowed together, taking shape, and they became a long, gangly hand. Fingers wrapped around the water dragon, which rapidly froze solid, and the arm dragged itself back down into the vault, pulling the dragon in. That wasn’t all that got dragged, though.

The Vault almost seemed to roar and screech, the air being pulled in from all sides, and space twisting for a moment. More hands began to fly out wildly, grabbing at anything.

Rowan let out a grunt as one wrapped around his waist. It was large enough to pick him up, and the next thing he knew, he was being dragged across the ground and forcefully yanked into the open Vault. He wasn’t the only one, either. Davi winced as several hands snatched him out of the air. They were brutal and not gentle, grabbing him by a leg and an arm and forcing him down into the cold black void before it finally sealed shut, the spell ending.

Everyone in the arena remained in place, stunned and trying to process what they had just seen. “What the hell did he do?” Ash was the first to speak, and it caused the crowd to begin to mutter. Davi and Rowan were gone, and the shadows and rain had returned to normal.

“Alright.” The sound of hands clapping caused everyone to jump, and the people turned to find the blonde woman. “Show’s over.” The weird stuffed bear was no longer keeping Ken pinned down, but the girl wasn’t in a better position as she was on all fours, with the blonde woman casually sitting on her, using her as a chair. Ken’s face was red with anger, but weird threading had tied itself around her, forcing her to remain in place. “Go on and get.” The blonde woman ordered.

“And who are you?” One person in the crowd asked.

The woman made a face and stood up, getting onto Ken’s back and using the woman as a stool. “Who am I?” The woman pointed her thumb at herself.

“Will you get off of me!” Ken screeched.

“No.” The woman ignored her and continued to point at herself. “Listen up, the name is Laerton! Laerton Eman, or Laer for short, and if you guys have an issue with obeying me, I’ll get some of my friends to sit on you!” The blonde woman threatened. She grabbed the sleeve of her torn-up robes, showing the symbol of the fiery bird that was stitched into it. “I’m an Arcane Knight—”

“Oh shit, she’s with Phoenix Flight!” Screaming filled the arena, and that was all it took for over half the crowd to run in terror.

The woman watched them leave, her eye twitching. “Seriously? Why does everyone do that? The curse isn’t that bad—” As if on cue, a bolt of lightning dropped from the sky, smashing directly onto the woman, electrocuting both her and Ken, who she was still standing on. The Knight was fine, the lightning barely phasing her as it coursed through her body, but it sent Ken’s nerves running in overdrive, causing the redhead to shake and twitch and collapse face-first into the ground rapidly. Laer finally stepped off of Ken and dusted herself off, even as steam poured off of her. “Ow.”

Bruno sheepishly scratched at his chin. “Well, at least I know the curse isn’t a myth. That was crazy unlucky, right, bro? Bro?” He turned to Olivia, who still hadn’t taken her eyes off the spot where Davi and Rowan had been pulled into the shadows. “What’s with that look?” Bruno asked, tilting his head. “You worried for him, bro?”

Olivia didn’t say anything for a moment, and instead, she thought back to what Davi had said and done earlier. Why had he given Rowan his sword back? Why did he agree to let the match keep going? “He’s an idiot.” Olivia sighed after a moment. “Even after everything that’s happened, he’s still following his stupid rules.”

“What rules?” Ash asked.

“He’s trying to help someone help themselves.”

***

Rowan felt an insane chill smash into him from all sides. As soon as he dipped fully past the shadows, he felt ice start to cling to his body, and he was forced to cloak himself in mana to stop the frostbite from taking him.

All around him was a never-ending sea of black that stretched out in all directions. Only one thing was actually in this realm. It looked like a large square platform, which was thirty feet wide, where the hands tossed him onto. He flipped through the darkness as if he were falling through the ocean, and he crashed back-first into the stone.

Rowan groaned and gasped and shivered as the cold tore into him. A moment later, Davi landed on the platform as well, standing on the other side. He looked pretty banged up from all the attacks he took, and the hands had bruised his skin, but the cold wasn’t affecting him as badly.

“Sorry,” Davi said, placing the sword over his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to take us here; I just panicked and didn’t know what else to do after you used that Vil spell.”

A block of ice rammed into the stone platform, exploding into a million pieces. It wasn’t the only one, either. The entire water dragon had also been dragged in, frozen into a sculpture that had shattered into a hundred pieces. Rowan glared up at Davi, and he still shivered from the cold as he gave the black-haired swordsman a death stare.

“What the hell did you do?” Rowan demanded.

“I used my Shadow Vault spell at a higher level,” Davi explained. “Normally, I try to avoid this spell since it’s kind of useless. It takes a ridiculous amount of mana to use, and all it does is drag me and everything around me into my vault forcefully and place them onto this arena. At first, I thought it was useful since I could try to force people into this realm, but since it takes so much mana just to cast, I’m basically put at a huge disadvantage the moment I use it. Additionally, being here doesn’t grant me any power-ups or benefits, so I can’t even consider it a real trump card. It’s honestly just easier to open the Vault up the normal way and shove people into it by force if I need to get them in here.”

Rowan gritted his teeth and took a step back, about to hop off the arena and get away, but stopped when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

Something was lurking in the darkness. Something that blended in, and he was only able to make it out due to the blue flame-like mana that danced across their feathered form. It wasn’t alone either. Somehow, seeing them caused an even bigger shiver to crawl up Rowan’s spine, one that put the cold to shame.

“I wouldn’t leave this arena,” Davi called out, getting Rowan’s attention. “That goes for me as well. This little platform is a safe zone, but if we step out of it, they’re going to come get us. They’ll rip me to shreds and eat me alive. That’s despite the fact that this is my spell, so if they’re going to do that to me, what do you think they’ll do to you?”

Rowan glared back at Davi and let out a scream of frustration. “What the hell are you? You were able to beat me with a fishing rod, but you have a spell like this? You’re better with a sword than I am; I don’t get it! I’m a Zyne! I—I’m a Zyne! How the hell are you this strong!” Davi began to approach. He strolled and held his sword down. Rowan couldn’t even step back because he had already reached the edge of the arena, and those creatures creeped him out more than Davi. “Stay back! Row Water Slicer!”

There was no rain or water here for Rowan to use, and he had already used a ton of mana before arriving here. His muscles ached from trying to force the spell out, but it worked. The water blade twisted into the air but didn’t fire. Instead, it froze, becoming solid ice and floating off into the darkness, no longer under his control.

This was the worst place to fight for him. Rowan realized with horror that any spell he used would be frozen and turned to ice. He could try to force more mana into the spell to boil the water, but most of the small amount of mana he had left was cloaked around him just to keep himself warm. To make matters worse, it also meant he couldn’t use his water skin spell; otherwise, he’d freeze himself to death. Davi Hawker had countered him with one single spell.

“S-Stay back!” Rowan screeched as Davi took another step forward. “D-Don’t get any closer!” His arms shook, and he raised the broken short sword. The only weapon his father had given him, and he allowed it to break. “Stay the hell away from me!” Davi didn’t listen and took another step forward, so Rowan let out a roar and launched himself at the man. He knew it would be pointless; Davi had already proved he was the better swordsman, but he still had to try. To Rowan’s shock, his attack landed. The broken sword jammed directly into Davi’s stomach, who hadn’t raised his guard up at all. “W-Why did you?”

Davi stood there, the sword stabbing into him. Rowan tried to pull back, but Davi grabbed his wrist. “Your dad gave you this sword, right?” He pulled Rowan’s hand off the blade and shoved him further onto the platform. “You were babbling about him earlier.” Rowan stumbled to the ground and looked up just in time to see Davi pull the sword out of him. He stared down at it in silence and then tossed it into the air and swung the katana that he had.

“No!” Rowan cried out as the handle was sliced in two. Davi didn’t stop there, though. He cut it again, and again, and again, each slice tearing through the metal and leather as if it were wet butter until all that remained was scrap metal, which dropped to the ground. “Why did you do that?”

Davi finally turned to look back at Rowan after he had destroyed the sword. “The way you were talking made it sound like your father was disappointed in you.” The man said, looking down at the trembling Rowan. “I used to get mad at my dad a lot. I would take my frustration out on things he gave me and destroy them, like the fishing rod he gave me. I’d always feel bad, though, and beg him to fix it when I was done. He got so tired of this, he taught me how to fix it myself. I don’t think you care about the sword the same way I cared about my fishing pole, though. When I beat you in the first exam, you were more mad about the money being stolen, so that was more valuable to you, right?”

“What?” Rowan blinked, trying to process what Davi had just told him. It felt so random and like it was coming out of nowhere. “What are you babbling about?”

“What’s your relationship with your father?” Davi asked.

“Why in Haru’s name would I tell you!”

Davi jammed his sword down, poking the tip of the blade to Rowan’s throat. “What’s your relationship with your father?” He said again, still as blunt as the last time. “The way you were acting and screaming makes me think it isn’t good. What’s up with that? You hate him or something.”

Rowan made a face and thought about trying to cast another spell but knew it would be useless. His magic was meaningless here, and he no longer had a weapon. He lost. Plain and simple. With a sigh, he bowed his head. “It’s the other way around. He hates me.”

Davi tilted his head to the side and lowered his sword. “Why do you say that? A dad is supposed to love their son.”

Rowan let out a bitter laugh. “I have water magic.” The man spat out and looked down at his hands. “Do you get it now?”

“Nope.”

Rowan’s eye twitched again. “You’re an idiot, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Don’t agree so easily!” Rowan sighed and sagged again. “My mom has wind magic.” He said after a moment. “My dad has gem magic.”

“Oh.” Davi clicked his tongue. “I see.”

Magic was tricky, but there were rules in place. When two mages had a kid, three things would happen. Option one: the child would have the mother's type of magic. Option two: the child would have the father's type of magic. Option three: the child would be born with a brand new type of magic that was a fusion of the two parents. This was how new magic was created. Someone with fire magic had a baby with someone with earth magic, and it eventually produced a child with lava magic.

That raised a question, though. Gem and wind didn’t equal water…

“My mom loves me,” Rowan whispered, almost as if he were ashamed of what he was saying or implying. “She’s loved me since the day I was born and is the reason I’m a Zyne at all. She took care of me, raised me, and gave me my friends, Sera and Ashley, to watch over me. She married into nobility and came from a lesser house that often served nobles, so Sera and Ashley were her cousins whom she secured a job for, letting me grow up alongside people my own age. She loves me because I’m her son. My father, though… Well… Do you know the story of House Zyne?”

“Do you even have to ask? Of course I don’t,” Davi said flatly.

Rowan managed to laugh before his bitter look returned quietly. “Long, long ago, they say that a member of House Zyne engaged a demon from the underworld in combat. He won the fight, but he bore a terrible curse. His seed would be reduced.”

“His seed?”

“It’s hard for members of House Zyne to have kids,” Rowan explained. “Many of them fail no matter how hard they try. It is a house's duty to produce heirs, but with Zyne falling so far behind, it has become disgraced. This can often leave the men frustrated. My father fell into this category and further disgraced our house. It was long before I was born, but everyone knows the story… While away at war defending his country, instead of thinking of his loving wife who he had back home, he was found with his pants down, engaging in activities with an enemy soldier. Worse yet, the woman he did the deed with was a Magical Mutant.” Rowan’s lips almost cracked into a smile before he frowned once again. “He disgraced himself, his kingdom, and his House. Worse than that, he broke the trust with his wife, whom he had grown frustrated with since she still had yet to bear him a child.”

“So your mom also went and shagged someone else for revenge, huh?” Davi asked casually.

Rowan flinched a little and didn’t meet his eyes. “No one knows. What is known, though, is that one year later, I was born, looking nothing like my father and having a type of magic neither of my parents had.” Rowan let out another sigh. “Go ahead. Say it.”

“Say what?” Davi asked, confused.

“I’ve heard it all before,” Rowan said bitterly. “Sera and Ashley say I shouldn’t treat my father like my dad. They said I shouldn’t be doing what I am for his sake. They say all sorts of things, over and over again, in some effort to get me to stop. You’re the same, right? You’re going to tell me I shouldn’t be trying to become a Knight for my father’s sake? That I shouldn’t be doing this for his affection?” Rowan spat out. “But you don’t get it, do you! He believes in me! For the first time ever!”

Davi lazily shrugged. “You’re right. I don’t get it. I don’t care either, though. I was just curious about it; you can do whatever.”

“What?” Rowan suddenly gave the other man a confused look. “What do you mean you don’t care?”

“I mean, you have your reasons for why you want to do what you’re doing,” Davi said again. “I don’t know your dad. I don’t know you. I don’t know why you want his attention or why it’s so important to you. Maybe it’s toxic and you should stop, but we’re just two strangers who were trying to kill each other a moment ago. I doubt there is anything I could say to change your mind.” Davi casually placed a finger to his head and tapped it. “Why waste the brainpower? Your choice and what you do won’t affect me.”

Rowan didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt mad. He had been expected to call him a fool or an idiot for his worldview, but somehow the dismissive way Davi brushed him off hurt worse than anything Sera or Ashley had said to him over the years. “What’s your reasoning then?” He asked through clenched teeth. “Why the hell are you doing what you’re doing, huh? What made you this strong?”

Davi’s dull blue eyes met Rowan’s rage-filled ones. “If the roles were reversed and my parents lost a son, I know that they’d stop at nothing to get revenge, even if it killed or corrupted them. Don’t I owe it to them to feel the same way?” Rowan felt another deep chill course through him at Davi’s bleak words. “That’s the only advice I can really give because it’s the only perspective I have,” Davi admitted. “So maybe you should think about it. If the roles were reversed for you and your father, would he go through the effort that you are?”

“I…” Rowan felt his throat lock up. “Who the hell are you?”

Davi shook his head. “It’s not important. You said you want to help your father? You want to become an Arcane Knight for his sake? In that case, this will be easy.” Davi held both his arms out as he collapsed backwards, crashing to the ground in a heap. There was a bright flicker, and suddenly the vault collapsed, shunting both of them back into the real world. The small crowd that remained saw Rowan still on his knees and Davi Hawker flat on his back.

Davi just said three words.

“It’s my loss.”

Rowan Zyne won the duel.

Chapter 59: The Start Of The Third Test

Going into the fight, many people had been expecting Rowan Zyne to win. A lot of the elite didn’t like the Zyne family because of the sins the head of the House committed, but many had been willing to give the son a pass if he proved himself worthy.

After witnessing his magic type, however, this had changed. The rumor of House Zyne still not producing a proper heir had been just that—a rumor. Yet here Rowan Zyne was casting water-based spells, not wind or gem-based, like his parents. Not only that, but he also failed to achieve anything significant in power, and the reason was apparent.

Nobles were born with more mana and rare traits than the lesser class, yet if Rowan’s mother wasn’t a proper noble and Charles Zyne wasn’t his actual father, then that raised the question. Was Rowan even of noble blood? Here he was failing to hit some no-named man who was barely using spells to win the fight.

The people who had been rooting for Davi had been the weak—the ones who weren’t the elite. Slowly, though, there was a shift as more and more people on the side of the Nobles also started to cheer for Davi because to them this was no longer a Noble versus a Rat. This was just a battle of caged animals. Rowan and Davi were both dogs, and it was only natural to cheer for the bigger hound.

After the reveal that there was a member of Phoenix Flight standing nearby, most of the people had fled, and barely half remained. There was always a chance a meteor would drop from the sky and blow up any area a member of Phoenix Flight was standing in, which was why so many people were scared of just being in the same place as them. Those who remained were far too interested in the outcome of the fight. Either because they wanted to see Davi take down a noble or because they wanted to see the false noble Rowan lose, the only people left standing around were those who despised Rowan Zyne.

That was why it was shocking for everyone present when the shadows that had swallowed Davi and Rowan up expanded, and the two men were spat out. Rowan was on his knees, looking stunned, and Davi remained on the ground, badly bleeding from the two stab wounds, the bullet wound, and the other cuts he had gotten throughout the fight.

“It’s my loss.” Davi’s words rang throughout the mostly empty arena. “I guess fighting a Noble is harder than I thought.”

“That guy actually lost?” Someone in the crowd muttered.

“I don’t know what we expected. I mean, he’s still just a street rat, right?”

“He used a Vil spell, though?”

“I bet he blacked out instantly from it, and that’s how he lost. His kind never has a lot of mana.”

“He was skilled with a sword, though?”

“Was he? He barely got any hits in on Zyne.”

“Yeah? Now that you mention it, was he even that good? He’s a shadow mage at night, and he lost? That’s got to be the biggest advantage? I don’t remember seeing him in the first round either; I bet he died somewhere early.”

“He sucks.”

“He’s trash.”

“A dog is still a dog.”

‘It’s good to know nobles all think alike.’ Davi closed his eyes and sighed. ‘I’m not really acting, though. My body fucking hurts. Why did I let him stab me again? Was it worth it to farm the aura? Work on that, Davi. Sieg would be so disappointed in you.’

Rowan remained on his knees, staring down at Davi. “W-Why did you—”

“Master Rowan!”

The man turned around just in time to see Sera and Ashley. Both women grabbed him by his arms and yanked him back to his feet.

“Master Rowan, are you okay?” Sera asked in a panic and began to rub at the cut on Rowan’s neck. “Row Size Alter!” Her hands glowed with a flicker of green energy, and she shrunk Rowan’s cut wound closed, sealing the flesh and fixing the wound.

“You won, right, Master Rowan?” Ashley asked before she noticed the smoking and still twitching Ken, causing the maid to let out a slight giggle. She turned back to Rowan, her smile growing. “Your father knew you would win.”

Rowan blinked, still processing everything. “My father?”

“Yeah!” Sera nodded and pulled her hands away once she was done shrinking all of his wounds. “I’m sorry, I should have told you.” The girl looked down at the ground, a bit embarrassed. “I called him and told him about the duel, hoping he would put an end to it in case you got hurt or lost. He told me not to worry, though, because you’re his son, and Zyne men don’t lose.”

Rowan blinked again, feeling a strange warmth in his chest. “He said that?”

“Yeah.” Sera nodded and giggled softly. “He was so confident in you. He wants to talk to you now that the duel is over.”

Rowan felt himself begin to get dragged as Ashley and Sera both gripped his arms and tugged him along. He shot a look back at the downed Davi before turning his head and allowing himself to be dragged away. As he was being pulled, his ears twitched, and he heard the sound of his peers, who were all staring at him.

“Rowan brought his maids? Damn, they’re good-looking. How did he score them?”

“Did you see that one with the size magic? That’s an uber rare type? Are the Zynes not as broke as we thought?”

“That girl mentioned Charles? Were we wrong? Does Rowan actually belong to the Zyne family? He has water magic, though?”

“Could his mother have water magic? Or maybe her father has water magic, and it skipped a generation? His water magic was strong! Did you see that dragon spell he used? Only a noble could bust something like that out!”

“That’s right. Rowan Zyne. He’s definitely one of us. Of course, he beat that mutt over there.”

The praise was back. Just as easily as they had doubted him, once more, he would be put back at the top where he belonged. Something was wrong, though. Rowan felt hollow. The words Davi said to him rang through his mind.

‘If the roles were reversed and my parents lost a son, I know that they’d stop at nothing to get revenge, even if it killed or corrupted them. Don’t I owe it to them to feel the same way? That’s the only advice I can really give because it’s the only perspective I have. So maybe you should think about it. If the roles were reversed for you and your father, would he go through the effort that you are?’

Rowan gritted his teeth and shook his head. He decided that he didn’t want to think about it right now. It didn’t matter. What did matter was that his dad wanted to see and speak to him. Rowan forced a smile on his face and left the arena, leaving the street rat who had made him question everything behind.

It didn’t take long for everyone else to leave. Even the people who had believed in Davi. All that remained in the arena now were Davi himself, who was still lying on the ground, Ken Yuan, Bruno, Ash, Olivia, and the Captain of the Phoenix Flight guild, Laer.

Davi opened his eyes when he heard the sand crunching. He looked up, finding Olivia staring down at him. She had an annoyed look on her face and was shivering since it was raining. He felt a little bad since his fight had brought her out here.

“Was it worth it?” Olivia asked, and for once, it was she who spoke in a flat tone.

“Not at all.” Davi groaned and sat up, clutching at his still-bleeding stomach. “Shit, this hurts.”

“Why’d you do it then?” Olivia questioned.

“Because he needed help.”

“Did you even help him?”

“I don’t know,” Davi admitted. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I don’t like helping people, though. I like to get them to help themselves so the issue gets resolved. Rowan might be better off, or he’ll be worse. Or, maybe nothing will change.” Davi shrugged. “I tried, though. I’m happy with myself.”

“You okay, Bro?” Bruno asked, walking over along with Ash.

“I’m fine.” Davi nodded.

“How did you let that guy beat you?” Ash frowned. “You should be so much stronger.”

Davi was about to answer but then saw that it was Ash. He closed his mouth, cracked his knuckles, and grabbed the sword he had left on the ground. “Round two?”

“I hate you.” Ash sighed.

Off to the side, Laer watched the exchange unfold. A faint smirk was on her lips, but it quickly faded when a hand grabbed her ankle. She looked down, finding the still-smoking Ken glaring up at her. The girl was mostly fine, though her hair was a mess and her eyes were full of hate. “Whoops. My bad. Need me to heal you?” Laer asked, which then drew Davi’s attention over to her.

“Oh, shit—lady, I almost forgot; thanks for letting me use your sword. Here.” Davi tossed it through the air, which caused Laer’s eyes to go wide.

“No! Wait, you bastard, it’s still storming-” On instinct, her hand caught her sword just in time for another bolt of lightning to come crashing down directly onto the blade that was pointed straight up. Just like last time, the lightning crackled through the woman’s body, not actually hurting her, but it did manage to shock Ken Yuan a second time since the girl was still clinging to Laer’s ankle.

Ken spasmed again and twitched. Laer was fine, however, and brushed her spiked hair back down, shaking off the effects. She resheathed her sword and cleared her throat.

“Alright, alright, everything is done now, right?” The woman asked, crossing her arms. “If so, head back to your dorms. You dumbasses know there is another test tomorrow, right? You’re all gonna be hella tired if you keep this up.” The woman pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Kids. I’m glad I ain’t gotta deal with any of you.”

“You’re the captain of the Phoenix Flight Guild, aren’t you?” Olivia asked hesitantly, causing the woman to look back up at her.

Laer’s eyes narrowed slightly. “So what if I am? You got an issue with Laerton Eman?”

Olivia let out a sheepish chuckle and looked away. “Nope. Sorry. Just wanted to confirm.” She was shocked at how pretty the woman was. She had been expecting a brute or some horribly scarred burn victim to be the captain. This woman had some flaws and was a bit vulgar, but it also couldn’t be denied that she was a total hottie. Why was the world so cruel sometimes?

Laer shook her head and turned away. “Alright. That’s really enough. Go back to your rooms before my friend makes you.” Off to the side, the large bear plushie flexed and showed off its muscles, ready to use them if needed.

Bruno helped steady Davi and gave a nod toward Ken. “You got her, Olivia?” The boys and girls dorms were on opposite sides, so this was where they’d be parting ways until tomorrow came. The last day of these exams. It would finally come to an end.

“Yeah.” Olivia walked over to Ken and tried to help her, but Ken growled and got up on her own. The girl wobbled a bit, and she smelled of smoke, but she was mostly fine. “You good?”

“I’m going to bed.” Ken hissed through clenched teeth and began to stalk away. Olivia glanced back at Davi’s retreating back before she turned and followed after Ken.

In one of the spare rooms, Rowan paced back and forth slowly before taking a calming breath and putting the phone up to his ear. “Father?”

“...Did you win?”

Rowan closed his eyes and tried to settle his beating heart. “Yeah. I did.” He said, forcing a smile on his face. His arms shook as he held the phone. “I won the duel.”

“I see.” He waited for his father to say good job, but the subject changed. “I was told your card had an issue. A suspicious spell was bought. Shadow Robes. Explain.”

Rowan opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. It would be easy to tell his father the card was stolen, but that would mean admitting he let someone take it. Not to mention it would mean admitting it was Davi Hawker who took it. Davi, the man who let him win…

“I won’t ask again.”

“It was for Crow.”

“What?” His father actually sounded puzzled.

“Captain Crow,” Rowan said slowly. “He’s someone who has Shadow Magic.”

“Why in Haru’s name would you buy a spell for a captain? You know how expensive Shadow Magic spells are? They’re the fifth most expensive spells, directly behind Soul, Time, Space, Moonlit, and Light. Such a cost was spent on a mere gift?”

“It wasn’t a mere gift.” Rowan had to use a sleeve to wipe away the sweat that was pouring down his face. “It’s a stepping stone. One that will get me in his graces.”

“And why would you need to be in his good graces?”

“Because the plan has changed, Father.” Rowan decided to go all out in his approach. He was already too deep in the lie, so it was go big or go home. “You wanted me to join the Hydra Storm guild to help you become the vice captain of it and bring honor back to House Zyne, but I think that isn’t where we should be aiming for. Captain Crow already proved it. Someone who isn’t of the Branch families can become a captain. Zyne doesn’t need the position of vice captain to bring honor back to us. We need to aim higher. House Zyne will be a House that has a guild captain residing in it.”

“...And you think you can manage to place your foot into the Umbra Mortis Guild?”

“I do. Because I know something no one else does.” Rowan’s hand grew tighter around the phone he held. “You already told me that this year's exam was going to be different. This year, the Guilds we will end up in are the ones we are destined for. I’m a member of House Zyne. We’re destined for greatness.”

“...Very well. Don’t disappoint me.”

The call hung up, and once more Rowan was alone. The sinking feeling in his gut had grown, but his heart had turned to stone. He was a Zyne. He had to do something grand. He was the one who would bring honor back to his family after all.

***

The night came and went, and the sun began to rise. At the crack of dawn, it was time for the final two tests to begin.

Exam-takers entered the arena, which had been cleaned up since the battle between Davi and Rowan. The people roamed out like ants, none even noticing that up top, an eighth person had arrived where the captains were.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t little Laerton.” Dark Star gave a large, toothy grin, and she slapped her knee as Laer walked up the stone steps and made her way over to her throne. “Finally joining us, huh? You know you went and missed the first two tests! The second one was boring as hell, but the first one was something awesome!”

“I didn’t miss it, dumbass.” Laer rubbed her stomach and winced slightly. She had to go take a dump again but decided to hold it in since the last time she needed to take one, she ended up in that raven-haired man’s shadow vault and had to fight off an army of bird-like monsters while taking a shit. That hadn’t been very fun. “I left Birdy to watch it all.” She stopped when she reached her throne and looked down at the orange bird plushie that rested in the center of her chair. The small stuffed animal twitched and then flapped its wings, flying up and landing on her shoulder. “I saw through her eyes and heard what she heard, so I get the gist of it all.”

“Why are you even here?” Crow asked, raising an eyebrow.

“To fuck your mom, that’s why.” Laer collapsed on the throne and groaned again, grabbing her stomach.

Father, for once, didn’t have a smile on his face. “I see you still haven’t changed after all this time, Laer. I hoped being in a Guild would give you a more knightly image, but you’re still the same mutt that crawled out of Mordheim.”

“Mutt? I prefer bird.” Laer flipped the man the bird.

Dark Star laughed again and shook her head. “Oh, Laer, I’m glad you’re one of us. You always remind me how lucky I am to be an actual Knight.”

“And you always remind me what a bitch old age looks like,” Laer said flatly. “Thank Haru, I won’t live long enough to look like your crusty ass. Honest to Haru, I think if I looked like you, I’d crave death. You’re courageous for going on living, Dark Star.”

“Well, fuck you, too, you bitch.” Dark Star’s amused look was gone.

“Maybe after I’m done fucking Crow’s mom.”

The three top captains all glared at the lowest-ranked captain, who met their stare head-on. Myth, Gorgon, and Dye decided it was wise to stay out of the exchange, and Grampa Green was asleep, unaware that he was still alive.

Father went to say something, likely to put an end to the arguments, but he was stopped by the sound of a horn blaring. Back in the sky, Pretty Face flew around, her wings extended and a large grin on her face.

“Boys and girls! I hope you’re all excited because this is it!” She announced, pointing up to the sky. “No rolls this time; we’re going straight into the second-to-last test! Created by the one and only Dark Star! Let’s give it up for the test of Courage!”

Down below, the arena began to shake and glow. The next test was about to begin.

Chapter 60: An Unlikely Team

“Okay. This is it. You can do it.” Olivia placed her hands on her face and gently slapped at her cheeks. “You got this, Olivia. This is the final test.”

“It’s not the final test, though.” Ken raised an eyebrow. “It’s just the third one. There’s still one after this.”

“Ms. Olivia is correct,” Irene spoke up. The blind girl kept a hand on Olivia’s sleeve, holding onto it. “While there is technically one more test after this, the test of the Soul is very different. The first three tests are the only ones the captains view, which they use to decide on what members they want to recruit, while the test of the Soul exists to see if you’re worthy to be a Knight at all. This test is also used to make sure no traitors try to enter the ranks of the Knights. People from all over the world crave the power that Haru’s mana can provide, and so naturally, soldiers from other lands will be sent by the masters they serve to try and steal that mana for their homeland. The test of the Soul helps place a wall, one that makes sure an event like that won’t happen.”

Ken grunted and folded her arms. “Then why not have that test happen first? Why have the first three tests happen and then test someone’s loyalty? Do it from the start.”

“That’s a good point, bro!” Bruno let out a loud laugh. “Why don’t they do it at the start?”

“The only one who would know something like that is the king himself.” Ash sighed. “He’s the one who decides how the test of the Soul works, and his word is law.”

“This is why I’m an anarchist.” Davi chimed in. “Laws are stupid.”

“Oh wow, the tax evader doesn’t like laws. Who saw that coming?” Ash face-palmed.

“We gonna throw down or what?”

“Stop asking that!”

“...No.”

Olivia couldn’t help but smile as she looked back at the group she was with. It was shocking to see how large it had gotten. Davi and Bruno being with her didn’t surprise her, but Ash tagging along was a bit odd. Even weirder was the fact that Ken and Irene had come with her as well. All of them had made their way to the arena and were now waiting for the third test to begin.

She had changed out of the gown she wore the night before and was now wearing a mostly generic outfit. It was a simple long-sleeved white shirt and black pants that fit her better than the clothes Gray had given her. Davi was still rocking the all-black fit, while Ash wore an outfit similar to hers, featuring a white button-up shirt and black jeans. Bruno wore shorts and didn’t bother with a shirt. Irene and Ken were in the same outfits they were yesterday, Irene wearing her long and elegant dress, while Ken was in her robes.

Olivia was content for the most part. Even if she didn’t do that well in the last two exams, she had more fun now than she ever had in her life. For the first time since her father left her behind, she felt an actual connection. Davi and Bruno were her friends, and Irene might also count amongst them. Ken and Ash were no longer yelling or picking on her.

Life was good.

“Boys and girls! I hope you’re all excited because this is it!” Olivia perked up when she heard the voice, and she looked to the sky, finding Pretty Face flying around. The beautiful woman had her wings outstretched and was spinning her microphone around on the tip of her finger. The crowd below cheered and hollered, everyone excited for what was about to happen.

Olivia took a deep breath. “Is everyone ready?” She asked.

“Of course, bro!” Bruno announced.

Ash nodded his head. “This is my chance. I’m going to show them all. Here and now.”

“Let’s just get it over with.” Ken yawned tiredly into her open palm.

“I am excited.” Irene cheerfully responded and gripped Olivia’s hand. “Hopefully, it’ll be a team match or something akin to that, and we’ll end up together, Ms. Olivia. You are very kind.”

“Davi?” Olivia turned to look at the final member of the team. He had remained silent and instead stared up past Pretty Face and even the captains, looking to the top of the stadium. “Is something wrong?”

Davi shook his head and looked back at her. “Yeah, I’m ready for this test. Good luck, Olivia.”

Pretty Face let out a cheer into her mic, which boomed out across the crowd. “No rolls this time; we’re going straight into the second-to-last test! Created by the one and only Dark Star! Let’s give it up for the test of Courage!”

The test of Courage was sort of like the test of Skills. It varied greatly each year, but in most cases, it would involve a monster or a dungeon, usually having some sort of combat related to it. Dark Star looked carefree and casual, but most people knew that the old woman was the strictest Knight that could be found. Her Knights were treated like soldiers and worked as a combined force, allowing them to excel in war-based combat. It was likely one of the reasons Gray had been so strong and had a spell related to summoning golems, since he would be used to controlling small forces.

The arena began to rapidly shake, and the floor glowed. The simulation started to boot up, and people struggled to stand as the floor became unsteady. There was a bright flash, but this time Olivia was ready for it and covered her eyes. When the flash died down, she slowly removed her hand, ready to see where she had been sent this time.

Like everyone else in the arena, she became instantly confused when she saw that she was still standing in the sandy colosseum. Mutters went through the crowd, and people looked around, unsure of what was happening. The floor had stopped shaking, and the lights were out, but the simulation had seemingly not started.

Laughter pierced through the confusion of the crowd, and everyone looked up to see that Dark Star was no longer seated on her throne. The other seven captains were giving the old lady odd looks as she now stood on the railing and looked down at everyone. Her laughter was deep, and she puffed her entire chest out. It took her several seconds before the laughter finally died down, and she looked back out at the crowd of onlookers.

“You’re all shocked, aren’t you?” The woman gave a crooked grin, showing a mouth full of missing teeth. “I bet you all thought you’d be sent away! Nah! Not this time! We’re going to be doing things a bit differently for this exam! See, I’ve seen most of you in action during the first exam, and I have to say, you’re all utter dog shit! I’d sooner kill myself than have any of you freaks serve on my team! Not a single one of you even stood out to me.” Her words kept their cheerful tone, and she chuckled after every sentence, but there was a look in her eyes. An unsettling one that stared daggers down at the people below. “Since I’m so nice, I decided that you’re all going to get one last chance to prove yourselves. You all want to be Knights, right? Well, why don’t I show you what it’s like to be a Knight? Good luck!” The old lady then turned around and walked back to her throne, taking a seat.

A stunned silence filled the arena, and it was only broken when Pretty Face cleared her throat and began to speak once more. “R-Right. As Dark Star just said, this test is going to be different from the last two and won’t involve a simulation. In other words, you’ll be put in real danger. If you want to back out, now is the time to do so. In a moment, you’ll be given the quest! Please read what it says carefully and await further instructions!”

The silence of the crowd ended as people began to murmur in confusion, clearly unsure of what was happening.

“Can she just do that?” Olivia asked in shock.

“She’s strong; the strong make the rules.” Ken snorted. “She can do whatever she wants.”

“I honestly don’t care what the test is,” Davi spoke up. “This sounds kind of interesting, though. The simulations were getting boring and lacked danger.”

Olivia went to retort, but she was stopped when a flicker of blue appeared in front of her face. She wasn’t the only one, either. Everyone in the arena all had the quest screen form before them. Text began to fill the box in quickly, and she read it, taking it all in.

‘Warning: This test may result in physical or mental harm, and possibly even death. If you wish to back out, please tick the box at the bottom. Backing out will be an instant forfeit. Quest: Participate in an official Arcane Knight quest. You will be following the guide of a Guild member and placed into teams of four. You will be assigned a team role. Find your teammates by following the thread of mana. When all four of you come together, wait for your guide to come find you and take you on the official mission.’

At the bottom were two boxes. ‘Do you wish to participate? Yes/No?’

Olivia clicked the ‘yes’ box, as did everyone else in her group. She imagined a majority of the people would accept this mission even knowing the danger. As soon as she hit the confirmation, the metal bracelet she had been given yesterday began to glow, and a faint thread of glowing mana seeped out of it. It stretched out, three lines shooting out, which would be her teammates. One of them connected her to Ash of all people, but he was the only one in the group that the line went to, which instantly pissed her off since that meant she wouldn’t be in a group with Davi, Bruno, or Irene.

Ash seemed just as ticked off and gritted his teeth. “Are you freaking kidding me?” He spat out. “I’m on useless Olivia’s team?”

“I’m not thrilled about this either.” Olivier sighed.

“I’m not on anyone's team here.” Bruno blinked down at his bracelet, which had three lines extending outward toward the crowd. “Guess I’m gonna be working with some new bros.”

Ken raised her arm and stared down at the thread, which went to Davi’s bracelet. “I wanted Olivia, but I guess you’ll do.” The smile she gave was like a predator, and Davi debated ripping the bracelet off of him to get out of it, but he suspected it was too late.

“What about me?” Irene asked innocently.

Olivia took Irene’s arm and glanced down at her bracelet. “Your three lines are going west. I’ll help you get to your teammates.” She offered.

“Thank you, Ms. Olivia; you’re so nice!” Irene beamed.

Ash huffed and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I’ll come with you, and after we drop her off, we can find the last two of our teammates. Hopefully they’re not as useless as you are.”

Olivia gave the boy a deadpanned look but held her tongue. Bruno gave a wave and was already walking off. “I’m going to go look for my new bros, bros. This bro will see you bros later!”

The group soon broke apart, leaving just Davi and Ken standing behind. “Should we go look for our two teammates?” Davi asked.

Ken shook her head and folded her arms. “No. They can come to us. We’re the dominant ones here; it is their job to find us. Naturally, it goes without saying, but I’m going to be the one in charge of this little group, got it?” Davi shrugged and looked away. Ken gave him the side eye and let out a small sigh. “Are you good, by the way?”

“What do you mean?” Davi asked. Ken reached out and pressed her palm into his stomach. He winced and pulled away. “Ouch.” He said flatly.

“I thought so.” Ken nodded. “You’re still banged up from your battle, aren’t you? You have no recovery magic.”

“I’ll manage. I’ve been a lot more hurt than I am now; no need to worry for me.”

Ken held her hand up, silencing Davi. She pulled the gourd off her belt and uncorked it. “Yujin. Come on out.” A small puff of fire blasted out of the hole, and it began to take shape. Yujin looked different from the last time Davi had seen him. Instead of an enormous lion, the spirit now looked like a tiny wolf. Embers fused together along his body, and he was barely a foot tall. His tail wagged back and forth, and he opened his mouth, spitting out a ball of fire. The small spark hit Davi, and he felt his wounds begin to seal shut as his body recovered. “There,” Ken stated. “Flame Feel isn’t a strong healing technique, but it should do the trick and fix your body up.”

Davi flexed his arms slightly, lifting them up and down. His stomach felt a lot better, and he was no longer bleeding. His body had fully healed. “That’s handy. Thanks.”

“It is the job of a leader to take care of her slaves.” Ken flipped her hair and smugly smirked.

Davi ignored the slave remark and poked his finger out at the flaming wolf, which floated in the air. Yujin began to lick his finger. “Is this the lion from yesterday?”

Ken nodded. “Indeed.”

“Why’s he a dog now?”

Ken placed her hands on her hips, and her smirk grew. “It’s a technique he has. Your people call it Polymorph, but where I’m from, we call it Mask Creation. Yujin’s full title is Yujin of a hundred forms. Unlike you and I, Yujin here is not made of flesh and blood. He is a spirit, one forged entirely out of fire. As such, deciding what he looks like is as simple as changing the shape of his fire. Yujin is an eagle, a lion, a wolf; hell, he can even be a fish if he wants. His weight, his height, his length, his body—all of it is his alone to decide. Sometimes Yujin can even be the mighty Ken Yuna.” Ken placed her hand under the small wolf’s body, and Yujin settled in it as she brought him up to her head. “He is free. As free as he wants to be. Isn’t that right, Yujin?”

“I am here to help Lord Ken Yuan.” Despite his small size, Yujin’s voice still came out loud and booming. “I will provide her with the help she needs and ensure that she is kept safe.” The wolf took root in Ken’s hair as if it were some sort of makeshift nest. “She alone is my owner.”

“That doesn’t sound very free.” Davi pointed out.

Ken’s smile faded, and she looked annoyed. “Hey, I didn’t force him to serve me.”

“That’s cool, but don’t say he’s free if he isn’t.” Davi hummed. “He seems kind of like your pet—”

Ken grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and glared at him. “Want to say that shit again?”

“Your breath smells awful. Do you know what a toothbrush is?” Davi made a face and wrinkled his nose, causing Ken to growl loudly.

She was about to ram her fist into his face but stopped when someone cleared their throat. “Please don’t tell me two of my teammates are already about to kill each other. What a drag.”

“These two aren’t what I was expecting, Cain.” A second voice responded.

Ken and Davi both turned and found where their threads led. Their last two teammates stood before them. The first was a slightly short young man. He had messy, spiky silver hair, and his eyes were a silvery blue, like the moon. He wore a black bodysuit for some reason, and a longsword hung off his belt. Bags were under his eyes, and his look was blank and emotionless, just like Davi’s.

The second person was a woman, one who was quite well endowed, Davi noted. She was quite the looker with long red hair that flowed down her back. She wore silver and red armor that was clearly struggling around the chest area, and a flowing cape followed behind her. All along the metal of her suit were various symbols that looked like roses.

“And who the hell are you two?” Ken grunted.

The woman’s smile just grew. “I’m Ruby, and this here is Cain. You’re Ken Yuan, right?” The woman leaned forward, her eyes scanning Ken from head to toe. “You’re the closest thing your backwater nation has to royalty, so I guess that puts you in the same boat as Cain and I, since we’re of Noble blood. It makes me wonder, how did the three of us get stuck with a beaten mutt?” The woman’s joyous smile faded, and her eyes, which held warmth, became bleak and cold as they turned to Davi.

‘Fuck you, rich bitch, eat shit.’ Davi kept those words to himself.

Ken let go of Davi’s shirt and frowned. “The only mutt I see here is you,” Ken said coldly, and she wiped at her nose with her thumb. “You smell like a bitch in heat. I’m not shocked with how lewd of a body you have.”

Any positive feelings Ruby might have had for Ken instantly vaporized, and the biggest scowl formed on the woman’s face. “I beg your pardon?”

Cain let out another sigh and sagged his shoulders down. “Our team has already devolved into infighting. Great. Why couldn’t I have ended up on that ice mage's team?”

“He’s right.” Davi lifted his hand. “Let’s stop fighting.”

“Oh, the mutt is trying to order a noble around?” Ruby cocked her head to the side.

“I prefer being called a bird, actually—”

“That’s funny.” Ruby tapped her chin. “I don’t recall asking the dog to give me his opinion.”

“...Ken. Beat her ass.” Davi nodded.

Ken smirked and cracked her knuckles. “Don’t gotta tell me twice!” Ruby’s eyes narrowed, and the woman looked like she was ready. But before the fight could break out, a quiet ding echoed out, and the blue screens once again appeared before the four of them.

‘You have successfully found your teammates.’ The screen read. ‘You will now be assigned a team role.’

Chapter 61: The Roles Of The Party

In a video game, the term ‘role’ was often used to describe the job a person would have in a group. Oftentimes in RPGs or MMOs, something called a party would be formed, which was a collection of people, and in order to maximize their efficiency, a person would be given a job to do in the group based on their skills.

In the real world, the Arcane Knights used something similar. This was because many of the current generation of Knights had grown up playing these types of games, and what started off as slang evolved to become typical terms that would be used. A lot of Knights viewed the ‘system’ that they had as a real-life video game, and it helped blur the lines between fiction and reality.

Most Arcane Knights, when doing quests, would form a party of four. Sometimes the party could be larger or smaller depending on the members and who was involved, but the standard number was always four. This was because there were four roles that were recognized. They were: Attacker, Defender, Support, and Face.

The role of the Attacker was simple. An Attacker was a Knight suited for offense. They were basically DPS. Attackers could either cover large distances with their spells or dish out massive, powerful attacks. It was the job of an Attacker to wipe out whatever threat the group was fighting.

The role of Defender was to be a shield for the group. A Defender was built sturdy and needed to take heavy hits. They often would fight alongside the Attacker, and either they would be the first member of the party to fall or the last.

The role of Support was someone who would stay in the background, often using various spells and enchantments to heal damaged members of the party or to boost their skills and power.

Lastly, there was the role of the Face. It was the most crucial role and also the oddest. A Face was someone in the party who would either be able to fulfill any other role equally or couldn’t do any of the roles at all. The Face was the de facto leader of the Party, and they were responsible for giving orders and formation commands. The Face was also the person best suited to speak to clients whenever a quest was taken up and would be the one to negotiate payment and rewards.

In other words, the Face was the one in charge and would be the literal face of the party. Because of this, the role of Face would often be given to either the most persuasive or the most ‘good-looking’ member of the group.

That was why Olivia was baffled when her screen flashed and her role was assigned to her.

‘Congratulations! You have been selected to take on the role of Face in your party!’

Olivia blinked, utterly confused by what she was seeing. “How did I get this role?”

She knew that she wasn’t that bad-looking, but she had never really looked at her reflection and thought that she was anything noteworthy. By no means was she ugly, and in some ways, one could maybe call her pretty, but now that she was with her teammates, it made her even more weirded out by the fact that the quest system selected her to be the Face of the party.

Her three other teammates were all total hotties! The first one was Ash, who was always good-looking, but somehow the two people who stood next to him were even better. One was a slightly older man, who had long silver hair and a pair of glass-looking eyes that were more like mirrors. He wore white robes and looked elegant and calm, a faint smile on his lips. The beauty he held was collected and reserved. Next to him was a woman around his age. She had jet-black hair and dull-looking eyes. Her skin was pale, and she wore a heavy black cloak and kept fiddling with a pair of guns that were holstered at her belt. In a lot of ways, she looked similar to a female version of Davi.

The man’s name was Nori Jupitari, while the girl was Emma Marsian. Both of them were from the branch family and were the closest beings to a perfect ten out of ten in terms of looks.

Usually, the Face was the most good-looking person, but sometimes the Face could be the most persuasive person. Olivia doubted that she was that persuasive. She had anger issues that would flare up a lot, and her blood would boil sometimes. That sort of thing wasn’t something that would lead to a person being a good Face. For her to be a Face, it meant only one thing.

Everyone else in the current party was suited to their roles so well that the system just gave up and handed her the last slot that was left.

“So,” Nori said, giving a faint smile. “It seems this is our little party?” Next to him, his box read out: ‘Congratulations! You have been selected to take on the role of Support in your party!’

“Two nobles? Sharing the same team as me?” Ash seemed uneasy as he eyed the two pretty people up. His box read: ‘Congratulations! You have been selected to take on the role of Defender in your party!’

“Are you two at least strong?” Emma questioned. She had the final role. ‘Congratulations! You have been selected to take on the role of Attacker in your party!’

“Olivia is as useless as they come,” Ash responded flatly. “As for me, I can handle myself.”

“You don’t have to be an asshole!” Olivia huffed out.

Ash shot her a dirty look. “I am wondering, though, how on Earth did you get stuck with the role of the Face? It’s easily the most important one. You have healing spells, so you should be support, and he should be the face.” Ash pointed his thumb at Nori.

Nori tilted his head and let out a small chuckle. “I am more suited to the role of Support.”

“I think I got the role I did because the system saw that I couldn’t do anything else.” Olivia sighed. “Spells aren’t my strong suit since I can only cast three, so I’d make a horrible Attacker, Defender, or Support.”

The system was an advanced form of AI created by the King and powered by flickers of Haru’s mana. It allowed Knights to use the Grimoire app even without a phone and inside dungeons despite the anti-tech field they had. The system also would scan a Knight's body in real time and offer feedback and keep track of their stats, spells, traits, and core. Since it had access to it, it also meant the system could tell with a glance what role someone was best suited for.

If someone had a lot of offensive spells, they’d fall into the Attacker category. If they had a lot of barrier spells, they’d be a Defender. It was a handy tool, one that allowed Knights to communicate and plan while out in the field much more easily than they’d typically be able to.

“You can only cast three spells?” Emma tilted her head to the side, and her dull eyes turned to look at Olivia. “What do you mean?” Her tone was emotionless and blank. It really was like she was a female version of Davi.

“She has blood magic,” Nori explained.

“How do you know?” Olivia asked, shocked.

Nori’s calm smile grew, and he tapped at his left eyeball. “These eyes see all.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a trait he has,” Emma said flatly. “I fought him in the first test. He can see a person's core.”

Nori poked his tongue out and gave a sheepish laugh. “Guilty as charged.” Nori’s eyes then turned back to Olivia. “I agree with what you said. Your magic is worthless, right? A maid of mine had blood magic. Poor girl couldn’t do anything. The system likely saw the flaw that is your existence and decided that the only way you could be of use was to be a semi-pretty face, and in that regard, you do fulfill that role quite well. Of course, you don’t hold the same beauty someone of noble birth does, but the way you hold yourself is quite intriguing. I permit you to stay on my team.”

Olivia’s eye twitched. She was always starting to hate this test the most. This guy was a rich bastard. He was somehow even more arrogant and dickish than Ken Yuan had been. “Thanks, I guess.” She tried to make the sarcasm not super obvious.

“You’re welcome.” Nori’s eyes then turned to Ash and narrowed slightly. “Now, I think you need to give a reason why you should stay on my team.”

“What?” Ash was caught fully off guard. The boy who was always trying to fight Davi stared at the pretty noble, baffled. “What do you mean I have to explain myself?”

“Ms. Olivia here has a pretty face, and I like the feel of her mana,” Nori explained slowly, as if he were speaking to a child. “That makes up for her possessing the worst type of mana and being a commoner. Emma here is of noble blood like myself, so she also gets a pass. You, however, are a nobody, with boring wind magic and a boring face.”

“A boring face? I am way better looking than Olivia!” Ash practically screamed.

“I completely disagree.” Nori reached out, and Olivia became helpless as he casually grabbed her by the chin. She tried to pull away, but he held on tight and even stroked her lips with his thumb. “Her skin is flawless and pale, and her lips are quite nice. Not to mention her eyes are perfectly spaced and have an exotic red color to them that matches well with her white hair. If she were of noble blood, her looks would be even better, but when it comes to commoners, she stands out.” Nori patted her on the head.

“I hate it here.” Olivia hummed. “Any chance I can swap teams?”

“You, on the other hand, are boring.” Nori was looking at Ash once more. “You’re bland. I don’t really like you. Sadly, I must share the spot with you. You’ll do well to know your place, got it, boy?”

Ash gritted his teeth and looked like he was about to lose it, but Emma finally raised her hand. “Can we try to be a little nicer to each other?” The girl asked in the same apathetic tone that Davi always had in his voice. “We’re stuck until this exam ends, after all.”

Olivia gave a cautious nod of her head. “She’s right. Let’s try to at least pretend like we all like each other. We can all tear each other apart once the test ends, right?”

Nori flipped his hair. “I’m okay with that.”

Ash growled and turned away, folding his arms. “Whatever. Let’s just get this shit show over with.”

As if on cue, the blue box flashed and changed, new text appearing on it. ‘Now that you have successfully formed your party, wait until your guide approaches you. Quest: Complete the task that your guide provides.’

Up in the sky, Pretty Face clapped her hands together and giggled. Down below in the arena, everyone had split off into groups of four and were scattered about. She waited until everyone’s attention was focused on her, and then she began to speak. “Alright! As your system should have just said, you’ll be given a guide for this test! They’re in charge and are above even the Face! This guide will be taking you out on an official mission, and your job is to follow all their orders and do what they tell you! That’s not all that will be happening, though! You see—”

“That’s right!” Pretty Face was cut off as Dark Star once again stood on the railing, the old lady throwing her arms up into the air and waving them back and forth. “Since I’m the one who came up with this trial, I decided it would be fun to give out a good reward! Passing this test comes down entirely to your guide. You do anything wrong, and they can fail you on the spot! I instructed all the guides to be harsh and cruel! They’re going to be downright mean and look for any chance they can to fail you! Should you do well, though, and pass the trial they give you, you’ll all be earning something real special.” Dark Star pointed up toward the sky and struck a pose. “I’ll personally make sure you get your Knight gear!”

A shock went through the crowd of people, and Olivia's eyes widened as she heard that piece of information. Knight gear was a big deal when it came to the Arcane Knights.

Knight gear referred to special equipment that was specifically created for the user. Most Knights didn’t have Knight gear, and only Knights who were high up in the Guilds got this special equipment since they were potent magic items. She had only seen three Knights who had Knight gear in her entire life.

The first was the silver-haired beauty who had saved her. That woman had a staff that was beyond anything a regular focus item could reach. The second and the current most famous piece of Knight gear was Tori’s lance. The Lance of Victory was almost as well known as the Ebony Knight’s armor or Haru’s sword. The last piece of Knight gear she had seen was Gray’s armor. That armor had been filled with the mana of Haru, just like all Knight gear was, and it had allowed him to casually shrug off Davi’s strongest attack as if it hadn’t even happened.

Knight gear was no joke and was a serious boon for the Guild. It was one of the reasons they didn’t just so casually hand it out, yet here Dark Star was, wanting to give some away?

“That got your attention, didn’t it?” Dark Star’s smirk grew, and the old woman placed her hands on her hips. “It’s not a lie either. We got some special low-level shitty gear, but it’s still leagues better than anything the rest of you little fucks got. You pass and you get it; just remember one thing, though. Your entire team has to pass. If one of you fails, all of you fail. Good luck. You’re going to need it.”

Excited murmurs went through the crowd as everyone got hyped up. Most of the exam-takers had been excited at the prospect of seeing a real Arcane Knight in action, but now that hype had shifted to the chance to win authentic Knight gear, even crappy knock-off ones. It was enough to get everyone pumped and ready for it.

Olivia didn’t feel the same joy everyone else was feeling, though. Something felt… Off? She didn’t know what it was, but now that she was here in the moment, there was just something that didn’t seem right. It was a big prize that was being handed out, which likely meant passing the test would be next to impossible. Dark Star was always cruel and mean like that. So that made her wonder, just what was the woman really after? Every test had been slightly odd up to this point, and she was willing to bet it was the same.

The stadium walls opened up, unfolding and twisting, revealing extra doorways where various Arcane Knights began to enter. Each Knight was different. Some were men, some were women. Some wore armor; others went with standard suits. A Knight would walk up to one of the groups of four and introduce themselves.

Olivia and her group eagerly awaited their turn, and eventually, a Knight made their way over. Olivia raised an eyebrow when she saw the Knight, because it was one she recognized.

She was quite the looker, with long, raven-black hair and a pair of deep green eyes. She wore a white buttoned-up shirt that was obviously too big on her, along with baggy pants that were only held up thanks to the three belts she had on. Her hair was a bit messy, and bags rested under her eyes, and she was chewing gum. At her belt was a silver rapier, which kept bouncing back and forth since it wasn't properly held in place.

“Wassup?” The woman asked tiredly.

“At least she is consistent,” Olivia muttered.

It was Sune, the Arcane Knight, who had to help Davi when he was trying to enter the stadium yesterday. The woman looked just as bored and put off as she had the first time she had seen her.

Nori looked at Emma and then at Sune. “Dear Haru, there are two of them now.”

“Three if you count Davi.” Ash snorted.

“What’s a Davi?” Emma questioned.

“A sad pretty boy,” Olivia said casually.

“You think he’s pretty?” Ash raised an eyebrow.

“Yes.” Olivia turned back to Sune. “Are you the guide?”

The woman rubbed the back of her neck and let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah. That’s me. I’ve been placed in charge of your little group.”

“So how exactly does this work?” Ash asked.

Sune let out another deep sigh, clearly bored already. “I took a small quest, one that is weak and low-level. You guys are going to come with me, and I’m going to have you do the test the way a Knight would. It’ll be like training. I’m going to watch over you and make sure things go well. Sound good?” It took Olivia a moment to realize the question was directed at her. If she were the Face of the party, then that meant she was also the one in charge, and it’d be up to her to handle responses.

Olivia looked to the rest of her group, and they all nodded. She looked back at Sune. “So what exactly is this mission?”

Sune’s blank look faded slightly, and the woman gave the faintest hint of a smile. “Have you ever fought a goblin before?”

Chapter 62: An Imaginary Knight

“You came up with an interesting test this year, Dark Star,” Crow spoke up, lighting another cigar in his mouth. In front of him, a glowing blue screen materialized, displaying various numbers. Each number would show him one of the exam teams.

“Yes, I read over the report.” Father chuckled. “It was interesting to say the least, especially with how you did it. I wonder how many of them will figure the ‘twist’ out?”

Dark Star gave another toothless grin and tapped a finger on her head. “I tried my best to come up with something fun. Had to make sure those little piss ants got the scare of a lifetime. After all, this is the test of Courage. I look forward to seeing how they get around the obstacles that have been placed in their way.”

Laerton wanted to say something, but the captain of the Phoenix Flight guild held her tongue. The other captains were enjoying the show that was being put on for them, since most of the teams had infighting that was already starting. She was too busy going over last-second paperwork that she had missed while on the toilet.

Each page she held had the name of a different Arcane Knight on it. There were over twenty different groups of four, and each group had a guide that came from one of the eight (seven since Phoenix Flight wasn’t allowed to make one of their members a guide) guilds. The guides were all Knights who had at least five years of experience and ranged in different levels of power.

The mission in question that each group would be going on was a low-level quest that the guide would be able to solo by themselves without any help; that way, if the group got into hot water, the guide would be able to save them.

The role of the guide was to be a driving instructor, basically. They would be tagging along with the group and seeing how they handled themselves on a real quest.

Most of the paperwork had been what Laer was expecting. Each guide was rather bland in her opinion until she finally turned to the final page. “What the hell?”

“Shocked that someone like him agreed to take this job?” Gorgon asked, already knowing which page Laer had turned to.

Laer scanned the document up and down. “Myth, this is one of yours, isn’t it? Why is someone like him here?”

Myth let out a small snort. “He said he was bored and happened to see the paperwork on my desk when the mission was first being created. He agreed he’d fill in the role of guide for one of the groups.”

Laer frowned as she read the file a second time over. Even she knew who this guy was, although he wasn’t in her guild and she rarely dealt with drama. He was an infamous Knight, one who had rumors constantly clinging to him.

Finally, she set the paper down. “Well, I feel bad for whichever group gets stuck with him.”

Meanwhile, back in the stadium, Davi flicked his finger through the air casually, causing the blue system box that had his role and quest written on it to appear. He’d then flick his finger again and cause it to fade, only to reopen it a moment later.

The box would flash and glow as it appeared and disappeared in rapid succession. Doing this was something Davi seemed to find amusing because he had been repeating the action for almost an hour now.

“Can you knock it off!” Ruby growled out.

“No,” Davi said in his usual flat tone.

Ruby’s eyes narrowed, and her hands balled into tight fists at her side. “Excuse me?”

“Are you deaf?” Davi tilted his head to the side. “I said no.”

Ruby practically growled, and the noble girl looked like she was about to blow a fuse. “I am the Face of the party,” Ruby announced, and she pointed a thumb at herself. “Do you have any idea what that means?!”

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Davi flicked the air, summoning the box into existence. “It makes a funny whooshing sound whenever it appears.”

“You’re amused very easily, aren’t you?” Ken sighed. In her arms, she held Yujin, who had now taken on the form of a large and plump raccoon. The fire spirit also had a pipe that was now poking out of his snout, and he was smoking something up, sending puffs of black clouds out the tip of it. “I have to wonder, though, how in Han Yuan’s name did I get stuck with this role?”

Ken’s own box appeared with her role written in bold letters. She was a support. The role that was made for healers and buffers. It ticked her off that she had been assigned that job, as she would have much preferred being the Attacker or the Face.

The role of Face went to Ruby, which made some sense to Ken at least. Ruby was beautiful and had the divine beauty nobles all had. Of course, Ken was confident that she was better looking than Ruby. The real reason Ruby had likely gotten the role was for two reasons.

The first was that Ruby was relatively well known and even had an unofficial title—the Druidic Paladin. Ruby had gained a lot of eyes on her even before the start of this test and was viewed as a noble and pure soul. The second reason the woman had most likely been given the role of the Face was that she was skilled with her magic.

In Rossum, Ken had heard some faint rumors of Ruby, just like how people in this kingdom had heard legends of Ken Yuan. Ruby was a well-known fighter and a shoo-in for the Arcane Knights, having an arsenal of offensive, defensive, and support spells, which meant that woman was able to back up and assist any other role, which was an essential quality for the party Face.

The last two spots on the team were the Attacker and Defender roles. Ken had a feeling Davi would get one of them since he had no support spells, and he was way too awkward and socially dumb to fill the role of the Face. Davi could take a hit and constantly seemed to get back up, so she wasn’t shocked to see that he had been given the role of Defender.

It was the Defenders' job to be either the first or last line of defense. The Defender needed to be the hardest to kill and was required to be able to take heavy hits since they would be the shield of both the Face and the Support. A Defender also needed to be able to fight alongside the Attacker and make sure they could stay in the game.

It was the perfect role for someone like Davi, whose body was borderline like that of a machine and wouldn’t slow down no matter how hard he was hit.

Lastly, that left Cain, who, of course, had the role of Attacker; Ken knew nothing about the boy. She could tell he was a Noble and powerful from the chi that leaked from him, but that was it. He didn’t have rumors that followed him like Ruby, but he seemed like he could handle himself.

Ken was relieved to be on the team she had found herself on. Sometimes a Knight could fall into multiple roles, but it would still only be given the role that best suited it. She knew Davi was powerful, so he was a Defender that could also be a sub-Attacker, and Ruby was a Face who could also take on any role. She might not have liked being in the Support role, but she also knew she was strong and could be a sub-Attacker as well. That just left Cain as the unknown variable, but he was giving off a substantial amount of chi, so she was confident he would be strong.

All in all, this was a better party than she first thought.

Ruby let out a scoff, the woman keeping her arms folded as she shot daggers at Davi, who was still playing with the box. “How did we get stuck with these two, Cain?” She asked but got no response from the silver-haired boy. “Cain?”

Cain had stayed silent for the most part since he arrived. He had looked out at the other groups, studying them, and then, when he was done, had been silently staring at Davi. The man’s lips were in a thin line, and he seemed to have something running through his mind, but he didn’t speak it aloud.

“Cain!” Ruby said again, finally snapping the man’s attention.

Cain looked away from Davi and frowned as he stared at the noble woman. “The teams are all the same.” He finally said.

“What?” Ruby and Ken both asked.

“He means the teams are all built the same way.” Davi casually spoke up.

“You noticed also?” Cain went back to looking at Davi.

“I was keeping my eyes on Olivia.” Davi shrugged. “I noticed her setup was the same, and that got me looking at the other groups.”

“What are you two babbling about?” Ruby demanded.

“Think about it for a moment.” Davi looked around at all the people who had formed groups. Most were gone since the guides had come to collect their groups, but a few remained like them, awaiting the appearance of their guide. “Isn’t it weird that this is the four-person group? We were already sorted into groups of four last night.”

“That was for sleeping arrangements,” Ken said, shaking her head. “They put four girls and four boys together.”

“They did the same thing with what they’re doing here, though,” Davi stated. “Each group consists of two boys and two girls. They made sure it was a perfect even split. On top of that, last night I noticed people got paired in rooms that they shouldn’t have. You and Olivia got into a fight during the first match, yet they put you two into the same dorm? Bruno and Cain also fought and were placed in a dorm room. Either that’s a coincidence, or they deliberately put two people who should hold grudges with each other under the same roof, and they’re doing the exact same thing now.”

“They are?” Ruby looked confused.

Cain nodded, and it became his turn to speak. “I noticed each group has at most two nobles, and they also seem to have done their best to pair those nobles up with foreigners or commoners. They haven’t let teams of three or four nobles exist here. Ken Yuan is a noble in her home country, but here she would be a foreigner. They also seemed to make sure that at least two people on a team fought each other at one point. Mr. Davi fought Ken Yuan, for example, and over in another group, I saw both Nori and Emma, and I know they did battle with each other as well in the first round.”

Ruby scoffed. “Are you two sure that it’s just not some coincidence? I mean, from the sounds of it, you’re making it sound like they tried to make bad teams on purpose.”

Davi and Cain looked at one another, and then both nodded. “Yep. That’s exactly what they did.”

“What?”

Davi shrugged his shoulders. “Think about it. That old goat from earlier said that in order to pass this test, we have to impress our guide, and one mistake can lead to failure. They’re offering up a big reward as well. Knight gear is crazy rare for high-ranking Knights, so why would they give it out to a couple of exam takers? The answer is obvious. They don’t plan on giving it out. If every team fails, then every team loses the ability to get the Knight gear for this test. If the guide needs one excuse to fail a team, then it’ll be easy for that excuse to come up because every team has been made to cause infighting. They’re putting nobility with commoners and also making sure people who would hold grudges are paired up first. I also wonder if they put someone in the wrong role on purpose to further add fuel to the fire. Ken would be better suited as an Attacker, in my opinion, but yet here she is in the role of Support.”

Ruby let out a heavy sigh and tapped her foot down. “I see. The real test isn’t actually to finish whatever mission they’re taking us on, but instead to play nice, is that it? They’ve made teams that can’t work together as well, to try and get an easy fail on us?”

“What does any of that have to do with courage?” Ken asked, raising an eyebrow. “This is the test of Courage, isn’t it?”

“Have the last tests followed the rules?” Cain questioned. “The test of Skill had combat, sure, but in reality, it was a test built on seeing how people would stand out. They made the weak gang up on the strong, knowing the strong would win, and just wanted to see who would stand out amongst the crowd. The test of Knowledge could hardly be called a test examining Knowledge as well. It was just one answer, and once again, it’s likely they wanted to see which ones would be unique. None of these tests has actually been about passing or not. Since the beginning, it hasn’t mattered how many points we got or whether we passed or failed, since we’ll still be taking the last test no matter what. They made it clear from the start that the only thing that truly matters is to get the eyes of a captain to land on you. There is only one way to do that for this exam.”

“And what’s that?” Ken raised an eyebrow.

“We do exactly what we were told to do.” Cain snorted. “They want us to be a good team and follow the guide and impress them. Every team is going to have infighting or someone that won’t be able to follow their given role properly, so if our team is the only one that does the job well enough, we’ll be the team that stands out the most.”

“So I should fulfill my role as the Defender,” Davi said. “Cain should be an Attacker, and even though Ken is better suited to another role, she should try to be a good Support. That lastly leaves Ruby, who…”

Ruby suddenly smiled. “I’m the Face. So if we’re going off of the assigned roles, I’m the one who is in charge of the group, and you guys have to obey and follow my orders.”

“I think I’d rather fail,” Ken responded flatly.

“I guess it won’t matter until we’re out in the field,” Cain said, rubbing his chin. “We should try to make an effort to be on our best behavior, though. I have a feeling we’re all strong, so let’s just not step on anyone’s toes and do our best, okay?”

Ruby snickered but nodded her head. Then her look grew serious. “Speaking of being out in the field, where the hell is our guide?”

Davi looked around and frowned. Most of the groups, including Olivia’s, were gone now. There were only five remaining, counting them. Every other group that was still here had an Arcane Knight with them who was still going over the rules of the mission. They were the only group that didn’t have their guide. Was their guide running late, or was something wrong?

More time passed, and the four other groups eventually left, leaving just team Ruby behind. It took another full hour of waiting before their guide finally appeared.

By that point, all of them were totally bored. Cain had taken a seat on the ground and was polishing the sword that was at his side. Ken was playing with Yujin, who kept flickering through different animal forms. Ruby had her phone out and was scrolling through funny epic fail videos. Lastly, that left Davi, who discovered he could make multiple of the same system boxes appear simultaneously and was now putting on some sort of strange song since the boxes would let out flickering beeps when they appeared and vanished.

It was to the sight of all of them relaxing or goofing off that the guide for team Ruby appeared.

“Stand up straight, and fall into formation.” A voice barked out.

Ruby let out a squeak and stuffed her phone back into her shirt. Ken stumbled up as well, Yujin taking on the form of a snake and wrapping around her neck like a scarf. Cain calmly sheathed his sword, put his tools away, and stood up. Davi reached the end of the song and closed all the boxes. When he was done, he looked up at the Arcane Knight who stood before them.

“You’re late,” Davi said simply, causing Ken and Ruby to shoot him nasty glares.

“Sorry about that. I had something important I needed to take care of. I’m here now, so we can start.” The Knight in question was a handsome man who seemed to be in his late forties to early fifties. He was lean and well built. He had reddish-brown hair and a pair of eyes that glowed with an intense blue flame behind them, as well as a bit of red stubble around his chin. He wore relatively normal-looking clothes, black jeans, and a black buttoned-up shirt, but he also had on a long, flowing white trench coat. On the sleeve of his jacket was the symbol of Pantheon’s guild, the black image of a bull's skull. Lastly, two swords hung from the man’s belt. Both were longswords, one looking like a standard sword that wasn’t all that special, while the other had a slightly longer and thicker blade, like a half-claymore, with a handle that was pure white. “I’m here now, so we can start. Go ahead and introduce yourselves.” The man said, fishing around in the pockets of his coat.

Team Ruby stood there awkwardly, mostly confused. It got even worse when the man pulled a sucker out of his pocket and unwrapped it, placing it into his mouth. Davi was the first to recover and shrugged. “Davi Hawker.”

“Cain Lunar.”

“Ken Yuan.”

“Ruby Marsian.”

The man tilted his sucker down and nodded his head. Casually, he pointed his thumb at himself. “Jack Larison. The Knights call me Battery, though.”

“The Battery?” Ruby asked, stunned. Even Cain looked a little amazed.

“Is he important?” Davi asked.

“How do you not know who he is?” Ruby hissed.

“I also don’t know who he is,” Ken said sheepishly.

Ruby’s glare doubled down as she stared at the two ignorant members of her team. “How do you two not know about him? He’s a big deal—”

Jack raised his hand and shook his head. “Rumors don’t matter. Make your own judgment for yourself. Now that I’m here, I guess we should start?”

Davi nodded his head at the older man. “That would be nice. What exactly are we doing?”

“Good question, you get a sucker.” Jack tossed one to Davi, who eagerly opened it and placed it into his mouth. “I was told that I have to take you four on a quest. It’ll be a low-level one, and your job will be to finish it to the best of your abilities. I’ll be mainly remaining on the sidelines watching you all. I won’t be getting involved unless I have to. If I do have to get involved, then consider that an automatic failure.”

“What sort of quest are we going on?” Ruby asked.

“Good question, have a sucker.” Jack tossed her a sucker as well. “A village near the edge of the city has been having an infestation problem with goblins. A very low-level dungeon likely appeared, and you’re going to be tasked with putting an end to it.”

“What the hell is a goblin?” Ken asked.

“Bad question, have a cigarette.”

“What?” Jack tossed a cigarette at Ken, and she stared down at it, baffled.

“When do we leave?” Cain questioned.

“Good question, sucker.” Cain raised his hand up and caught the sucker. Jack tossed his way, and like Davi, he instantly put it in his mouth.

“Why did I get a cigarette? I want candy!” Ken demanded, but she was ignored.

“Do any of you have anything you need to take care of?” Jack asked. When everyone shook their heads, he nodded and raised his hand up. “Good. In that case, we’ll be leaving right away. Normally, we’d go out the front door, but since I took so long to get here, I’ll speed us up a bit.” Jack balled his hand into a fist, and his mana began to wrap around it, intense and thick. It looked like blue flames, much like Davi’s own mana, but way more intense, and it actually heated the air. Bits of lightning also seemed to zap out of it. “Row Imaginary Portal.” Jack lazily punched the air, and the energy exploded off of his fist.

The air current blew back, causing Team Ruby to wince as their eyes stung. Despite how low-level the spell was, the amount of mana it held within was tremendous. Cracks began to appear along the air where Jack’s fist touched, and suddenly a shimmering blue portal formed into existence. The portal hummed and was bright, revealing nothing on the other side.

“Cool.” Davi nodded.

Jack placed his hand back into his pocket. “There we go. One portal straight to our destination.” A faint smirk crossed onto his lips. “So who’s ready to slay us some goblins?”

Chapter 63: A Village In Need

The third exam hadn’t started off quite how she wanted, but even being on a team full of three people she didn’t like, Olivia was still having a good time. As a kid, she had often looked up at the many airships that flew through the air, but this was the first time she had gotten to be in one.

Sini Corp created airships, which were one of the many ways Arcane Knights would get around. Magic that could create portals or teleport was scarce, so Magitech ships were the next best thing. Only certain Knights were allowed to use them, though. Lower ranks like Squires would be stuck using brooms or other enchanted objects to fly.

Sune wasn’t a Knight who had a title yet, which meant she lacked the mana of Haru or Knight gear, but she was high enough on the pecking order that she had her own airship. After introducing herself as their guide, she had led them out of the arena and to a nearby airport where the ship in question was waiting in a hangar.

It had a name that disturbed Olivia a bit since it was called the Fall of Mercy. Fall wasn’t exactly a word you would want to be associated with something that was supposed to fly. The ship itself was a bright silver color and looked sort of like a box on wheels. Wings that could come undone were folded up, but the airship was shockingly small, being about the size of a van. Along the side of the metal was where the words ‘Fall of Mercy’ were written.

Sune had taken the wheel, and up front, Nori took the passenger seat, claiming it was where he belonged. That left her, Emma, and Ash to all cram into the backseat. She somehow got sandwiched between the two of them, stuck perfectly in the middle. To make matters worse, the backseat was extremely narrow, made only for a single person… Sune’s ship kind of sucked. It was also extremely messy in the backseat since Sune threw all her trash there, so tons of fast food bags and other junk filled the floorboard, while up front, everything was spotless.

“Why do I have to sit next to useless Olivia?” Ash bemoaned.

“You’re welcome to sit on the roof.” Emma’s voice was finally no longer flat and held a bit of annoyance to it since her face was pressed up against the window.

“Someone’s hand is where it shouldn’t be.” Olivia sighed. “...That meant move it, not squeeze harder!”

The airship eventually started up, gently rolling out of the hangar before lifting into the air. Sune remained entirely silent, and her head almost dipped a couple of times as if she were about to fall asleep, but that luckily didn’t happen.

“So!” Nori announced, placing his hands on his hips, clearly enjoying the legroom he had. “Where are we going exactly?”

“Are you the Face?” Sune asked, not bothering to look at the strange-eyed boy.

Nori’s smile faltered. “Well? No, but—”

“It’s the job of the Face to ask details,” Sune responded. “Kindly don’t step over the role of your Face unless they are unable to do their job.”

Olivia was tempted to make a biting remark about not being able to do her job since she was being shoved into the floorboard by Ash and Emma, but she held her tongue and instead cleared her throat. “I’m the Face, so I guess where are we going exactly?” She forced a smile on her face.

Sune’s eyes looked up at the mirror that hung above, and the woman stared back at Olivia. Finally, she spoke. “We’re going to a small settlement. It’s called Tulip Village.”

Olivia nodded her head and casually elbowed Ash in the crotch, causing him to gasp and double over. She used that as her chance to take more of the seat for herself, and now he was the one being shoved down. “You said the incident we were going to be handling was goblins, right?”

“That’s correct.” Sune hummed. “My guess is that a small dungeon has opened. Goblins are rather weak monsters, and the dungeons they own are typically low-level. The village has managed to fight all the goblins off without any issues, but until a Knight arrives and puts a stop to the dungeon, the goblins will keep coming since those bastards reproduce like rabbits. Typically, it is illegal for you guys to enter the dungeon since you aren’t Knights, but that restriction will be lifted since I’m here. I’m going to remain on the sidelines and watch your four. For this exam, you will need to learn as much as you can from the villagers and ask them the right questions. You’ll also need to discover the location of the dungeon on your own. Lastly, you’ll need to slay the boss of the dungeon. If I have to get involved at all, it’s an automatic failure.”

Olivia nodded her head and felt a slight lump appear in her throat. Dungeons often had minions that would come out and attack while the boss remained locked away. Rarely you’d have cases like the snake that was attacking Daisy, but that wasn’t common. If the minions were goblins, she had a good idea of what the boss would be.

“Are you okay?” Olivia jumped a bit when Emma spoke.

“Yeah. I’m fine.” Olivia forced a calming breath and steadied her heart. “Alright. Since we’re doing this, let’s do this right. We’ve already introduced ourselves, and we know each of our roles, but we should figure out what we all can and can’t do. As I said earlier, I’m a blood mage. I can cast three spells. My specialty is creating weapons, specifically daggers and a scythe, which I’m at least a little good with. I also have some healing magic and barrier spells if it comes to it. I can use all schools of magic.”

Ash let out a snort of air and shrugged his shoulders, trying to look cool despite the fact that he was sitting on garbage. “I’m a wind mage. My specialty is Conjuration and Alteration magic. I have plenty of barrier spells and attack spells, and I excel at dual casting.”

“Dual casting?” Nori glanced back at his three teammates, and his smile was back. “Aw, you’re still a baby.”

“What?” Ash gritted his teeth.

“I do quad casting.” Nori held up four fingers. “Being able to cast four spells at once is the best way to use magic in my opinion.” The boy’s smug look made Ash’s scowl grow. “I have glass magic! I’ll admit the power output of it isn’t the best, but by casting the same spells over one another, I can layer them together. If an arm or leg is sliced off, I can put it back on with my recovery magic, which I specialize in.”

If Nori was telling the truth, then Olivia was impressed. Healing magic was very rare and often costly. Most mages could heal scrapes and bruises. A few prodigies like Garon or Nori could fix lost limbs as long as the limb in question was able to be recovered, allowing it to be reattached. Fewer still could even close serious wounds such as massive holes or damaged organs. That tended to be the extent of Restorative magic, less then five mages throughout history could fully regrow limbs out of nothing or replace missing organs. When a person lost something like an arm or leg, it was most likely gone forever unless they knew a potent healer.

“So, that just leaves you?” Olivia glanced at Emma. “What can you do?”

Emma reached toward her belt and pulled out a pair of guns. They were both revolvers and were old and worn down, showing years of use. The cylinder had faded and been cracked a bit, and the triggers looked a little loose. Emma popped the cylinder open, showing that it was empty. After that, she twirled the guns on the tips of her fingers.

“Spatial magic.” Emma said softly. “I have spatial magic. It’s only good for attacking and harming.” Emma casually pocketed both of the guns and waved her hands. “Tadah.”

“My Haru, she really is just like Davi,” Olivia muttered. She then shook her head and got her mind back on target. “Okay, so we all know what we can do for the most part. I think it goes without saying, but I’m the weakest link here. That said, I have a pretty good idea what sort of creature we’re going to be fighting, and I know how to beat it, so if you guys trust me, I think we can do this.”

Nori let out a chuckle. “Naturally, you’ll have to earn your trust, but for now I’ll play the role of the puppet since you’re the Face.”

“I’ll do the same.” Emma nodded and reached out, patting Olivia on the head, much to the white-haired girl’s annoyance.

Olivia looked down at Ash, who had a large frown on his face. “Ash—”

“I’ll listen.” Ash spat out. “Let’s just get this stupid mission over with.”

Sune almost cracked a smile but managed to stop it at the last moment. “I’m glad you four are getting along now because we’re about to arrive.”

“We are?” Olivia glanced out the window and let out a whistle at what she saw. “Wow? Is that Tulip?”

Tulip village was way better looking than Fri village! It was bigger than a hamlet but still so small that calling it a village might be an exaggeration. It was built around a large lake in the middle of a forest. All the buildings circled the lake, and there was a large water wheel that was set up, which used a form of magic to rapidly lift the water up and splash it back down every few hours to water the grass and plants. A heavy windmill resided near the back, which was spinning, and the people down below all looked like farmers, walking around with tools, some modern and some old-fashioned. Kids were playing in an open field using water magic or water guns to splash each other, and a few more were out on the lake swimming around. It looked extremely peaceful and not at all like a place that was being attacked by dungeon monsters.

Several of the villagers all looked up as the airship began to land. It settled down slowly, and Sune let go of the wheel. “Alright. Here we are. Remember, from this point on, I’m an observer. Got that?” She glanced back at Olivia. “You’re in charge. What do we do?”

Olivia gulped but steeled her nerves. “Well, I think we should start by asking some questions.” She forced on her smile again. “Let’s figure out what’s going on.”

It was time for the mission to begin. She’d have to focus and clutch up. She just hoped Davi and his group were doing well, too.

***

The blue portal swirled into existence within the middle of a village. Jack Larison was the first to step through it, and he was followed by Davi and then Cain. It took Ruby and Ken a moment to get up the courage, but soon the two women also stepped through.

Ken couldn’t help but take a refreshing breath of air as soon as her feet touched grass. “This place is nice. It doesn’t smell of pollution, and I can feel the chi practically pulling its way into my body.”

“Welcome to Tulip Village,” Jack said, lazily pulling out another sucker. “Something, something, I’m on the sidelines; you guys figure it out.”

‘He’s not very helpful, is he?’ Davi kept the remark to himself, and he looked around. The village wasn’t anything too extraordinary, especially compared to the one he grew up in, but it was a fairly nice-looking fishing place from what he could tell. The lake was vast and reflected the sunlight, and dozens of fish were swimming through it. The villagers had all stopped and were staring at them, which annoyed him a bit, but he ignored their looks.

Ruby also looked around, a frown present on her face. Despite being rich, she loved to hang out in the outdoors and visit villages and other peaceful places so she could help them out through the use of her Bells or magic. She had seen a lot of places, but something about Tulip was weird. It looked almost story-perfect in how it flowed, and the people weren’t put off too much, even though they were apparently being attacked by goblins.

Before she could think about it more, a surge of mana grew next to her. “Row Shadow Vault.” Davi held his hand out, and from his shadow, a fishing rod blasted out, which he caught.

“What are you doing?” Ruby asked, confused, as Davi walked toward the lake.

“I think he’s fishing?” Ken cocked her head to the side and watched as Davi reached the water and pulled his arm back, throwing the line out.

“Why?” Ruby demanded.

“Maybe he likes it?” Ken shrugged.

Cain rubbed his chin and hummed. “Row Moonlit Thread.” Silver and blue light ignited in his hand, forming into a long glowing rope that had a hook-like blade on the end of it, and he casually stood next to Davi and began to spin his rope before tossing it out into the water. Both men casually fist-bumped and then began to fish.

“What the hell are they doing?” Ruby asked.

“Maybe it’s a guy thing—” Ken was cut off when she saw Jack was also now next to Davi and had created a long blue fishing rod out of mana, which he was now using. “Yeah, it’s a guy thing.”

Ruby looked like she was about to lose it, but thankfully, at that moment, one of the villagers worked up the courage to approach. It was an older man in his early thirties who had messy brown hair and a bushy beard. He was carrying a fishing rod and had also been about to go out to the lake before they all showed up. “Excuse me.” The man spoke in a thick bumpkin accent. “Y'all folks wouldn’t happen to be the Knights, would ya?” He looked Ruby up and down, who was actually in armor, unlike the rest of them.

Ruby flipped her hair back and gave a grin. “That we are. We were told your village was being attacked? We’re here to help. Do you mind answering a few questions?”

“Whoa, really, you guys got here fast!” The man said, shocked. “We sent that request in a bit ago, but the issue wasn’t that important since we’ve been able to fight the threat off on our own, so we figured none of y'all would be showing up for a bit. Thanks for coming out this way.” The man held his hand out, and when Ruby didn’t take it, Ken reached out and shook it. “The name's Frank. Ask any question, and I’ll do my best to answer it.”

Ruby placed her hands on her hips. “When exactly did the attacks start, and what’s been attacking your village? I was told it’s a goblin threat, but they come in a few varieties.”

Frank nodded and made a motion to follow him. He led the two women over to the lake, and then, much to Ruby’s frustration, he began to fish alongside Jack, Davi, and Cain. “Aye, it’s been goblins that have been attacking us.” The man spoke in a hushed tone now, trying not to scare the fish away.

“I still don’t know what a goblin is,” Ken muttered.

“The attacks themselves started maybe less than a week ago,” Frank explained. “Northeast from here, the goblins have been showing up every night. They’re not too much of an issue, though. They’re all quite weak, and our village guards have been able to fight them off without any issue. Even someone like me can fight them off easily enough.”

Ruby nodded her head. “What color were the goblins?”

“Green.”

“Did they use any weapons or have armor on?”

“Well, they had clubs and I guess spears, but we had guns and more guns, so we blasted the fuckers to bits. Didn’t even need to pop out any spells on them.”

Ruby let out a hum. “I know what kind of goblins they are then.”

“Seriously, what the hell is a goblin?” Ken asked again but went on to be ignored.

“The fact that they were green and using basic tools tells me all I need to know.” Ruby bragged and flipped her hair. “This is a threat we can definitely handle. Goblins come in a few variants, but the most basic kind are the green ones. These ones are quite dumb and wear thrown-together pelts and have barely figured out how to use stone tools. The fact that they’re the ones attacking this place also means I know what the boss is. It’ll be a greater green goblin.”

“Are you sure?” Davi asked.

“Of course I am.” Ruby nodded her head in confidence. “Great goblins are like the regular goblins, but bigger and even dumber. One has taken charge of its horde, and it’ll be the boss of the dungeon.”

There were five goblins in total. At the bottom of this list were regular green goblins. Above them were greater goblins, which were more or less alphas in the pack. Above those goblins were ogres. Ogres were big, strong, and dumb. They were serious powerhouses and slightly smarter than a normal goblin, but still dumb. Usually, a dungeon would have a greater goblin as the boss, especially if it was a low-grade one, but every now and then, a dungeon would appear that had an ogre as a boss.

The reason Ruby was confident that the boss of the nearby dungeon was a greater goblin and not an ogre was that greater goblins led packs of goblins, while ogres led packs of greater goblins. The village had been able to fight the monsters off, which meant they had to be regular goblins, as a greater goblin would be bulletproof and would require a powerful mage or Arcane Knight to handle. Since it was regular goblins that were attacking the village, that meant they weren’t greater goblins, and if they weren’t greater goblins, then the boss couldn’t be an ogre.

There were two more ranks above an orge as well, but both those ranks were so powerful that only Arcane Knights could deal with them. The first was a hobgoblin. Hobgoblins were special because they were mages who had been stuck in a goblin dungeon for so long that they became Magical Mutants and fully twisted and transformed into a hobgoblin.

Hobgoblins were extremely powerful, since they always had a body similar to a greater goblin but also knew how to boost it further with mana, and they kept their magic type, meaning they were able to surpass the strength of an ogre easily. The humanity in them was gone, but they often kept their knowledge. A hobgoblin would usually take over a dungeon and turn the goblins and ogres within it into a robust workforce. Hobgoblins would teach them how to use better tools and to blacksmith, which always made their dungeons very dangerous, as the goblins within would go from using pelts and sticks to using shields and swords. In rare cases, they could even reach low firearm levels and learn how to imbue bullets with mana.

Hobgoblin dungeons could only be dealt with by Arcane Knights, and a hobgoblin and his army could threaten an entire city if they weren’t dealt with quickly enough. The goblins attacking Tulip, though, were still using sticks, which meant they couldn’t belong to a hobgoblin.

The last rank of goblin was the rarest and strongest. The blue oni was created the same way a hobgoblin was. A mage would get trapped in a goblin dungeon and then eventually mutate and twist. If they were a normal mage, they would become a hobgoblin, but if that mage was of a power level equal to or even greater than your typical Arcane Knight, they would become something far greater.

A blue oni was even bigger than a normal oni. Like the hobgoblin, they kept their mana and ability to use it, so their new Godlike body could be pushed even further beyond. They were also smart like a hobgoblin, and some even had the power to create brand-new dungeons out of thin air.

The goblin king had been a powerful blue oni, who ultimately met his end when the warrior Haru faced him in combat and she reduced him to less than atoms. Since then, a blue oni has only appeared a few more times throughout history. They’re almost always dealt with as soon as possible due to the power they wield.

“Seriously, what the hell is a goblin?” Ken asked again, still not in the loop.

Ruby once more ignored the girl and looked out toward the woods. “Okay, so we know they’re just regular goblins, and they’re likely being led by a simple greater goblin. I’m pretty sure any one of us could handle this threat alone, but we’re going to keep our guard up. Does anyone have a sensing-based spell that could help us locate the dungeon?”

Cain twisted his arm and pulled a fist out of the water. He tossed it next to Davi’s pile. Davi had somehow caught over ten fish already, while he finally caught his first one. Jack and Frank still hadn’t even gotten any. “I have a sensing spell. Need me to use it?”

“Yeah.” Ruby nodded. “Try to find weird mana signatures. See if you can find the dungeon.”

Cain nodded, and his thread spell faded. He dropped to one knee and held both his arms out. “Row Moonlit Pulse.” There was a bright flash of silver that erupted from him, blasting past everyone and spreading through and molding over everything it touched. His light created a feedback loop in his mind, showing him everything it felt, and in no time at all, he scanned the entire forest, seeing everything that was within. “Alright. I found it.” Cain stood back up. “I can’t look inside of it though since dungeons mess with my mana. I can lead us there, though.”

Ruby gave another nod and this time had a large grin on her face. “Alright. Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go kill us some goblins.”

The water exploded suddenly as a giant fish came blasting out on the end of Davi’s hook. Davi yanked his pole and reeled the fish in. As soon as it got close to him, he casually sucker punched the fish, killing it instantly.

The thing was easily over four feet in length and was very wide. It looked like some sort of catfish, and blood leaked from its face as Davi gripped it by the tail. “Finally.” He said. “This will do nicely.”

“What is it?” Ken and Ruby both asked.

Davi flipped the fish over and ran his mana through it, causing it to straighten up and grow rigid. His fingers curled tighter around the body, and he raised it to the sky. “Fish sword.”

“What?”

“This is my new weapon.”

Chapter 64: The Plan

Finding the dungeon had been shockingly easy. It annoyed Davi a bit since things were going way smoother than they usually did for him.

He had the trait Danger Sense, which allowed him to get a bad feeling when something was about to target him with an attack, but that was the only sensing-based skill he had, and it wasn’t very good at locating things. Because of that, in the past, he would wander around until he happened upon the dungeon or the monster came to him.

With the help of Cain, though, locating the dungeon was child's play. Cain led them through the forest and away from the village. The trees became dense and sturdy, yet that didn’t stop the silver-haired man, who casually carved through them with the sword he carried with him. Davi debated on stealing it but decided against it for now.

Eventually, trees opened up, leading to a small section of the woods that had been carved away by human hands. All the trees were already cut down, creating a small plot of land. In the middle of the land, an abandoned home resided.

It was a small brick building that was old and worn down. The chimney was torn to bits, and the roof was practically caved in. One of the walls looked like it was about to come down, and mold as well as vines clung to the stone. Grass grew out of the ground, thick and long, coming up to everyone’s waist.

It was likely that this home had once belonged to someone years ago. Perhaps they wanted to live on their own, or they were an outcast of the village; Davi didn’t know, but it was clear nature had reclaimed this place. Just by being near it, he could also feel the thick mana that coated the air. It felt like he was walking through water. The energy was about the same as the Salamander one had been in Fri. This was it. The dungeon had been found.

“So it’s in that house?” Ruby asked.

“Yep.” Cain nodded. “My Moonlit magic doesn’t allow me to send my particles out as well as I can in the real world since the dungeon space lacks an actual moon. I have no idea what the dungeon is going to be like, but I was able to brush the door. It’s near the back. No monsters are guarding it.”

“Are goblins strong?” Ken asked, cocking her head to the side.

“No, they’re quite weak and dumb.” Ruby shook her head. “Still, I’m not going to go in gung-ho. A cocky mage is a dead mage.” She glanced back toward Jack, who stood several meters away, leaning against a tree. “We’re going to show him just how good we are, but in order to do that, I need to know what you can all do. What are your types of magic and any notable traits?” She shot a look at Davi. “You go first, mutt.”

“Hawk actually.” Davi corrected her. “I have shadow magic. Only have two—make that three—spells, though. Anyone want to be put in a sexy witch girl outfit?”

“What can you do?” Ruby sighed. “Like, what are you good at? Bring up your traits.” She lifted her finger, and the blue box appeared out of thin air for her. “Since we’re wearing these metal bracelets, we have access to the advanced grimoire that the Knights use. These ones can be brought up with just a thought and even work in dungeons since the tech that powers them was made out of a recycled elf tower. Just think about your traits, and it’ll show up.”

Ruby’s own blue box listed her trait page, showing off all the grades she had and what she could do.

Traits: Nature Core: Grade A, Sprint: Grade B, Stamina: Grade C, Wall-Walking: Grade C, Water-Walking: Grade C, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D-, Flawless Beauty: Grade A+.

“This is what I can do.” Ruby puffed her chest out, clearly proud.

“These suck.” Ken snorted.

“What was that?” Ruby growled.

“I said they suck.” Ken folded her arms. “All your traits are just as good as or worse than mine. Hand-to-hand is pathetically low. You don’t have a martial arts trait or any weapon traits and their styles either. Seriously, can you even fight?”

Ruby huffed and turned her nose up at Ken. “I’ll admit, I’m not a muscleheadlike you, and I lack physical power, but I more than make up for it with my magic and the spells I have. Don’t underestimate me. If yours are so much better, go ahead and show me.”

Ken pointed a finger up casually and summoned her box. Traits: Flame Core: Grade A, Sprint: Grade A, Stamina: Grade C, Wall-Walking: Grade C, Water-Walking: Grade C, Hand-to-Hand: Grade A+, Way of the Sun Open Palm Martial Arts: Grade S, Heat Immunity: Grade A+ Bearer Of The Title Of Ken: Grade C-, Loved By Spirits: Grade S+, Sealing: Grade A-. None of it had changed since the exams started, which she was more than fine with since her stats were still far better than Ruby’s.

The sight of so many high-level traits actually managed to silence the arrogant noblewoman. “I told you I should have been the leader,” Ken smirked.

Davi let out a low whistle. “Oh, cool, you have an S grade also; that’s the best, right?”

“That’s right—” Ken stopped and instantly turned to look back at Davi. “You have an S-grade path of cultivation?”

“I don’t know what the hell a cultivation is, but I have an S-grade trait.” Davi nodded.

“Pull it out,” Ruby demanded. “I refuse to believe some dog has one.”

Traits: Shadow Core: Grade A, Master Hoarder: Grade B, Sprint: Grade B, Stamina: Grade A, Sword-Wielding: Grade B+, Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword Style: Grade C+, Hand-to-hand: Grade D, Way of Self Iron Martial Arts: Grade D, Cold Resistance: Grade A+, Heat Resistance: Grade A+, Danger Sense: Grade B, Loved by Mana: Grade A, Fishing: Grade S+.

Davi rubbed his chin as he stared at his sights. “Neat.” Fishing, Sword-Wielding, and Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword had all gone up by one.

“What the hell is ‘Loved by Mana’?” Ruby asked.

“I dunno, but check out my fishing skill.” Davi clicked it, and the box expanded and opened further.

‘You’ve improved your use of the Sky Cutting Sword Style and continued to ignore most of the lessons in favor of improving your ability to fish.’

“The words changed; it said something slightly different last time.” Davi nodded.

Ken and Ruby shared a deadpan look before Ken reached out and grabbed Davi by the wrist. She forced his hand to close out the fishing skill and then made him click on the Loved by Mana one. Both women watched as the box changed again and new text appeared.

‘You are the child of (error), and that allows you to use (error). When the right conditions are met, your (error) will open.’

Most of the text was unreadable due to static and lines that crossed out the words. Ken looked back at Ruby. “Is that normal?”

Ruby’s eyes scanned the weird trait. “Not really. It does happen sometimes. Usually, it means it’s a trait the user doesn’t know. Our traits are things we can do, and so naturally, if we can do something but do not know it, it can confuse the trait list. It’s rare, but I’ve seen it before. I never heard of one called Loved by Mana, though. It might be a placeholder name that the system itself chose? After all, your Core is way too low for someone who is supposedly loved by mana. Loved could mean something else in this context, or mana could even be the name of someone else? Maybe some entity or something? Honestly, I have no clue. This is one weird mutt.”

“Hawk.”

“Shut it.” Ruby glanced away from Davi and looked toward Cain, who was the last one left who hadn’t shown their traits off. Cain let out a sigh and nodded. He held his palm up, and his box appeared, shimmering into the air.

Traits: Moonlit Core: Grade S, Spring: Grade A, Stamina: Grade B, Sword-Wielding: Grade A, Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword Style: Grade A, Way Of The Moon Divider Style: Grade A, Hand-to-Hand: Grade C, Way of Self Iron Martial Arts: Grade C, Radiation Resistance: Grade A+, Heat Immunity: Grade D, Wall-Walking: Grade B-, Water-Walking: Grade B-, Flawless Beauty: Grade C, Fishing: Grade C.

Everyone was silent as they took in the impressive number of traits Cain had. Davi felt a frown tug its way onto his face when he saw Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword and Self Iron. Those had been things that were taught to him by his mother and father? There was only one other person in the world who would have those traits since he had taught them to her. What made him more ticked off, though, was that Cain’s were of a higher grade than his! He had the original, and no doubt Cain had been taught them by ‘her’ of all people. Just how high had ‘hers’ gotten, Davi wondered.

Ken didn’t look as impressed, but the girl did have a shit-eating grin on her face as she glanced back at Ruby’s pathetic list. “Wow. So you’re rocking the smallest, huh?”

Ruby gritted her teeth, and her face turned a little red. “I-It isn’t the size that matters, but how you use it!”

“Something tells me you don’t have the skill to use it well enough.” Ken’s grin only grew. “Look at it, all tiny and pathetic.”

“Are we still talking about traits?” Davi questioned. “Because this kind of sounds like you’re describing a d—”

Jack Larison cleared his throat, getting the banter to stop instantly. Ruby shot a look toward the Knight and could tell he was growing annoyed by the lack of action. She closed her trait screen, as did the others, and she nodded back toward the hut. “Alright. We’re going to enter the dungeon now. Since we don’t know fully what we’re expecting, let’s enter a basic formation. Davi, you’re going to go first since you’re the Defender. After you will be Cain. He should be able to fight alongside you easily enough. I’ll take up the rear behind Cain as the Face. I’m more suited to medium range, and my magic takes time to build up. Lastly, that leaves Ken Yuan; you’ll be all the way in the back, and your job will be to support us. If you have any attack-buffing spells, use them on Cain while casting your healing magic on Davi. I’ll use my own healing spells to try and close any wounds Cain gets since he isn’t as durable as Davi. Understood?”

Ken wanted to argue. She wasn’t suited for the support role and only had the basic spell of Flame Feel. She would have preferred the role of Attacker or even Face, but she was stuck with the hand she was dealt, and they had all agreed to play their roles the right way in an effort to do their best. That meant she’d have to suck it up.

She could ignore the orders and do what she wanted, but truth be told, she actually liked Davi a bit and didn’t want to throw him under the bus because of her arrogance. Ken gave a hesitant nod when Ruby looked her way.

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi held his hand out and summoned his new fish sword—

“Yeah, no.” Ruby shook her head. “Get an actual weapon.”

“I literally have none.” Davi sounded almost sheepish.

“Cain,” Ruby said simply.

“Row Moonlit Sword.” Cain clasped his hands together and then slowly opened them. Silver light danced between his fingers, and as his hands fully came undone, a sword appeared out of thin air, forged from the glowing particles. He gripped the blade by the handle and then handed it out toward Davi. “Here. I can maintain this spell for four hours. Less if I have to cast multiple high-level spells, but it should last at least one hour no matter what.”

Davi placed his fish back into the vault and took the sword. It felt weird to hold. It buzzed in his hand, vibrating softly, and felt warm. It wasn’t like carrying a real sword and instead felt more like the air itself had become solid around the blade. It was a simple longsword, and aside from the fact that it was glowing, it didn’t seem all that special.

“What even is Moonlit magic?” Ken questioned. “I have the path of fire and use flame chi thanks to Yujin, and understanding the path these two follow is easy.” Ken pointed her thumb at Davi and Ruby. “One controls shadows and the other nature, but what is moonlit? Is it just moonlight? How is that different from light magic?”

Cain reached out, and he ran his finger along the edge of the sword he made for Davi, not minding the pain as he sliced it open. “It has a bit to do with moonlight. The light of the moon is reflected sunlight. In this case, though, it’s what the light carries that is actually important. Moonlit magic is solidifying the light of the moon that carries cosmic radiation. It’s like how ice magic is the solidification of water magic. I’m taking that radiated light and giving it a solid form.”

Davi suddenly felt uncomfortable holding the glowing sword. “Do I need to get tested?”

Cain shook his head. “Don’t worry, I can control how toxic the radiation is. The dose is trillions of times weaker and smaller than the radiation you’d be hit with from an X-ray. Even if you carried that sword for a hundred years, you wouldn’t be affected. That said,” Cain’s lips quivered slightly. “If I wanted to, I could make that bit of radiation so potent it’d give you every type of cancer in the book. Just remember that if we ever go up in arms for whatever reason.”

“Noted.” Davi nodded. “I’ll be sure to kill you before you can cast a spell.”

That caused Cain’s smile to falter. Before the man could say anything else, Ruby pressed her hands to both Davi’s and Cain’s backs. “Alright! Seriously, no more talking! Let’s get this stupid mission over with!” She glanced back at Jack, who gave her a nod. “We’re going to put an end to these goblins.”

***

Nori twirled through the air, flying through the skies. Long wings forged out of shards of glass grew from his shoulders, giving him an almost angelic look. His eyes reflected everything he saw as he danced through the forest. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for.

“Ms. Olivia, I believe I’ve found it.” Nori spoke to the air, but the very fabric of space twisted, sending his words down to the forest below.

Emma had her hand out, and the air bubbled as she used her spatial magic to shift the place of the sound waves around her and that of the sound waves around Nori, allowing his voice to appear next to her. Standing in front of Emma were Olivia and Ash, who both looked slightly uncomfortable at the many air bubbles that kept cracking into existence around Emma, but this was the best way to communicate with Nori at the moment.

After speaking with the people of the village and learning what type of goblins were attacking the place, Olivia had set out to find the dungeon. After getting far into the forest, her phone had gone completely offline, the battery within shutting down. That meant the dungeon was nearby since its field would be canceling out all magitech. After learning it was nearby, she had sent Nori into the sky so he could scout out the place from a better angle. Due to the phones being dead, they couldn’t call each other, and so they were using Emma’s spatial magic to bend and twist space itself to allow their voices to bounce around one another.

“What do you see, Nori?” Olivia asked.

“It looks like an old home,” Nori replied. “It’s trashed beyond belief. I can feel the mana coming from it.”

“Okay. Land somewhere safe, but stay away from the building in case it’s a trap. We’re on our way.” Olivia looked to Emma. “Can you teleport us?”

“You want us to get there in one piece?” Emma asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Yes?”

“Then no. I can’t teleport us.” Emma fiddled with her guns. “My magic is hard to control. I can’t properly teleport living matter. Voices and stuff like that are easy, but moving a person is harder. I’m more likely to teleport them but not their skin.”

“That’s a horrifying thought.” Ash’s face turned a little green.

Olivia nodded and turned to Ash. “Make a disc of air for us to all stand on.”

Ash looked like he wanted to argue, but he glanced at Sune, who was leaning against a tree, and held his tongue. He pulled his wand out and muttered a spell. The air came together and formed into a large square-shaped platform that could fit him and the other two girls. “You’ll have to walk.” He called out to Sune.

“That’s fine.” The woman nodded. “I’m faster than all of you anyway. I can keep up.”

With that settled, Ash caused his platform to lift off the ground. It was extremely slow and wobbled. Olivia felt like she’d slip off any second now, but she forced herself to stay standing on it. Emma seemed unbothered. Because of how slow they were moving, Sune beat them toward the dungeon and was standing next to Nori when Ash finally set them down.

“Took you long enough.” Nori teased. His wings were still attached to him, but they folded back and wrapped around his waist, forming a bit of armor. His look grew serious, and his glassy eyes looked toward the broken-down brick house. “It’s there.”

Olivia felt her hair stand up slightly. She couldn’t sense mana, at least not the way other mages could, but she could still feel that something was wrong. The air was the same as the Salamander.

“What’s the plan?” Ash asked, glancing at Olivia.

Olivia gripped her wand tightly at her side. “You and I are going first.”

Ash raised an eyebrow at her statement. “The Face usually is in the back? The Attacker and Defender go first.”

Olivia shook her head. “Emma is an Attacker, but she’s a long-range one. She uses guns.”

“Olivia is right.” Emma sighed. “I can’t really do much up close. I prefer to keep my distance.”

“It’s the same for Nori as well.” Olivia nodded to the glass mage. “He’s a Support, and glass magic won’t be suited for defending all that well. The role of the Face is not just to be a leader but also to be a sub-role. In this case, I’ll fill the role of a sub-Attacker. I’m also the weakest here, so I think I’m expendable.” Olivia chuckled darkly.

“I won’t disagree with that.” Nori laughed. “All you have going for you is your good looks and that fun mana feel. Try not to die, but if we have to lose a member, you’d be the best bet!”

Olivia looked a little annoyed at Nori’s harsh words, but she had agreed with him. Instead of arguing any further, she took charge and marched toward the building. In one hand, she held her wand. In the other, she gripped a sturdy knife made out of solid glass, which Nori had given her. Hopefully, it would let her save her a spell or two and prevent her from passing out before the boss.

Ash followed, and she motioned for the door. He understood what she needed and used a weak blast of wind to blow the door down and put up a barrier in case any goblins came charging their way. None did, and after a few moments of waiting, Ash entered the hut. He looked around and gave the all clear, allowing the rest of his team to enter.

Olivia glanced at the inside of the house. It had been what she had expected. It was totally destroyed and run down, with cracked walls and debris scattered everywhere. Dust coated every inch, and her lungs ached a bit the further she got into it. Spiderwebs hung from the rafters, and furniture was ripped to shreds.

The thing that stole the show, though, was in the kitchen. Like the rest of the house, it looked like a bomb had gone off, but one thing was still shockingly fine. The oven was clean and spotless, not an ounce of dirt on it. It was also open. A crawl space stretched out going forward an impossible distance.

The dungeon had opened up and appeared inside of the oven itself. The oven was now the door to the goblin’s lair. Luckily, the oven itself was large, but it’d still be a bit hard to crawl into it, and getting out would also be tricky…

“Why did it have to open in such a stupid place?” Olivia sighed.

“I think it’s kind of funny.” Emma cracked a rare smile.

Olivia walked closer to the oven, and she dropped to a crouching position, staring into it. The crawl space was narrow and thin. Once they went into the oven, they’d have to shamble across the stone and dirt on their bellies just to get out on the other side. Past the stone, the path kept getting more and more narrow before it finally opened about twenty feet away and dropped down where the rest of the dungeon would be.

Since it was a low-level one, it wouldn’t have that many floors in it. At least that’s what Olivia hoped.

“Alright.” Olivia looked back at everyone, and she forced another smile. “Let’s do this.” She forced on a brave face, and then, against her better judgment, she began to crawl into the oven. 

Chapter 65: The Lost Castle

Olivia decided she hated caves. She had never thought much about them throughout her eighteen years of life, but now that she was lodged in a tiny crawl space, she was starting to realize how horrible this was. Seriously, how did cave divers do this crap?

She was on her stomach, forced to inch her way forward like some sort of worm. The oven had already been a tight squeeze, and past the door, the stone only grew thinner. Luckily, she was in long pants, but her elbows were bleeding and aching as her skin was peeled off. Her clothes became filthy, and she kept bumping her head. The real pain was in her fingernails, though, which were cracking and being pulled off as she tried to get a hold of the ground in front of her and pull herself forward.

The heat made it all the worse. She should have expected a dungeon that appeared in an oven to be hot, but somehow it didn’t occur to her until she was halfway through the tunnel.

The rock was getting hotter and hotter, and sweat began to pour down her body. It was a deep pain, but she forced herself to go on, and eventually it was worth it. She reached the end of the narrow tunnel.

By that point, the tunnel had become so narrow that she was forced to keep her head tilted to the side. One ear touched the roof while the other was on the ground. It felt like she was being born again, with how tight the squeeze was, and she nearly let out a cry of relief when the tunnel began to expand and get larger once she arrived at the ledge.

Past the tight squeeze was a drop. It wasn’t very far, being less than five feet off the ground, and the room opened and expanded massively on the other side. Olivia gritted her teeth, and with one last push, she forced herself over the edge and dropped down. She landed painfully on her knees but ignored the damage, pulling her knife and dagger out in case she needed to fight off any goblins. Shockingly, though, the room she was in was totally empty.

She kept her guard up for a bit longer just in case and then finally turned around to peer back down the tunnel and help the others. She stopped, though, when she saw that the tunnel was empty. All the way across on the other side, where it opened into the oven, she saw Ash, Nori, and Emma, who were all peering toward her.

“Get your asses in here!” They had just watched her crawl through literal hell! “Now!”

Her three teammates scrambled to obey. Ash was first, followed by Nori, and then Emma. Like her, they kept getting scraped across the ground since they really didn’t have any way to get through the tunnel besides the tight crawl.

Ash could have maybe used a spell to carve through the stone, but that could risk an accidental collapse. He did have barriers but didn’t have the ability to form a skin-tight one around himself like Rowan could, so he was forced to peel his skin and crawl like some sort of rat.

Ash did smirk, though, when he heard the whimpers or groans that came from behind him. Nori and Emma were clearly having a rough time. Eventually, though, the trio made it out onto the other side.

Olivia helped them get back on their feet. She looked back in the tunnel where Sune was, ready to help the Knight, but in a flash, the woman was already standing next to her. She jumped a bit and let out a squeak as Sune dusted herself off.

“We’re in the dungeon.” Ash pulled his wand out and looked around, ignoring his aching body. “What now, ‘Face’?”

Olivia put her serious ‘face’ on and focused. “Nori, got any healing spells?”

“Of course I do.” Nori snapped, white mana crackling around him. “Row Glass Mold.”

Nori’s magic looked extremely beautiful and intense. His white aura bubbled up around him and filtered its way into the air. It looked almost like molten glass and appeared to be gooey, but it began to solidify, turning into solid glass. It would then shatter and melt once more, pieces coming off and dancing through the air. Olivia felt a strange sensation as the liquid glass touched her skin.

It wasn’t hot, despite looking like melted glass, and was very cool to the touch, especially with the environment she was now in. It swarmed over her ears, elbows, and any other part that was scraped or bruised. The glass became solid again and flickered, turning a different shade, before eventually fading away entirely, leaving flesh where it had been. All the damage done to her by the tunnel was reversed.

Nori didn’t just heal her. He also used the same spell on himself, Emma, and lastly, Ash, though the noble seemed to hesitate and debate leaving Ash in an injured state before he finally did it.

Once they were all fully healed, Olivia let out a sigh of relief and then took stock of the room that she was in.

She had only ever been in three dungeons. The first was the Salamander one. That dungeon looked like some crystal cave. The second had been an open dungeon, which was when an area would drag someone into it the moment they entered it. That had been the dungeon with the whales. The final dungeon she had seen was a greater dungeon, which was a dungeon that would form a barrier around an area. That had been the snake's dungeon.

In all of those cases, she hadn’t really gotten to see the dungeon as clearly as she wanted to. It was always just the first room that she saw. This would be the first time she actually got to go through a proper dungeon.

Like all dungeons, the air tasted a bit weird and twisted. Her mana was being weakened as well, as was the others' mana, so they’d all be weaker just standing in the dungeon. Luckily, they all had a decently high resistance stat, so they could stay in the dungeon for a while without having to worry about it twisting them into mutants.

If the magical mutant process did happen, then they’d all be turned into a hobgoblin, since a person would always turn into an apex version of whatever species owned the dungeon they were in when they changed. It was why Garon had also started to look snake-like, and why all the girls in Daisy had also had scales or snake eyes.

“This is the dungeon that was created for the goblins?” Ash raised an eyebrow, clearly confused at what he was seeing. “This doesn’t look like a place goblins would want to live in?”

“It’s possible the goblin boss just took this dungeon over and cleared it out.” Nori hummed. “That said, you are right for once; this place doesn’t seem good for their kind.”

The room they were in was like the tunnel. It was made entirely of stone, but unlike the crawlspace, it was wide, allowing for plenty of room. There was a rocky ceiling above, and a chandelier of all things was hung up with various candles all along it. They were all out and melted. Dust covered most of the room, which looked similar to the room Davi had rested in when he was at Gray’s castle.

It took Olivia a moment to realize that the room she was standing in wasn’t just any random dungeon room, but instead a bedroom. A noble's bedroom.

Expensive wooden cabinets were scattered around, along with dozens of bookshelves. There was a finely carved table near a massive pair of windows, and near the back of the room was a king-sized bed that had thick red sheets across it and dozens of pillows. The room was still put together and clean, save for the dust, and everything screamed ‘rich’. It was the total opposite of a dungeon, especially compared to the snake and salamander one, which caught Olivia totally off guard.

Emma and Nori looked right at home and began to walk around in awe, gazing at the expensive silken curtains and sheets. Ash looked confused and stayed put, keeping close to Sune, who was leaning against a wall. The Knight kept her blank look, but her eyes were darting around, taking in the sight. Even she seemed slightly caught off guard or in awe.

Olivia took a hesitant step after a moment, and she walked over toward the window. A loud gasp escaped her, and the other wandered over to see what caught her attention. Emma let out a quiet whistle as she also peered out.

“I guess that explains why it’s so freaking hot.”

The window showed off fire and a sea of lava. Whatever room they were in, it likely belonged to some castle that was built into the side of a freaking volcano! The stone was on fire, and the flames were rapidly spreading out in all directions, and there were entire lakes and rivers of molten magma that gushed downward.

Seeing it caused Olivia’s body to become even hotter, and she grabbed at her shirt, fanning off a bit. She wasn’t the only one. Ash also looked uncomfortable now.

“What’s with you two?” Ash asked, shooting a look toward Nori and Emma, who were both flawless and not even sweating. “Why aren’t you two burning up?”

“Heat Resistance.” The nobles shrugged.

Olivia frowned. “You both have that?”

“I was born with it since I can use molten glass.” Nori grinned and muttered another spell, causing a bubble of superheated, liquid glass to spawn into existence at the tip of his finger. “Most mages gain resistance to an element because of their core as a free passive effect.”

“I can see how that makes some sense,” Olivia nodded. “How come Emma has it, though? Is Spatial magic just so good you unlocked it?”

Emma shook her head. “I spent good money to eat a flame pill.”

“A what?” Ash made a face.

“It’s a medicine that was created in the Rossum kingdom.” Emma shrugged. “Those people are really into body-based skills and things called cultivation. They use a type of advanced drug they call a pill that they make out of monster cores. It’s something only Rossum can do. These drugs are how a mage can boost their core's strength by giving it a temporary boost. Some pills have effects that last forever, but they’re usually just things that will force your body to gain a resistance. I’m not shocked that neither of you have heard of it. Even a basic core-enhancing pill costs a small fortune. I’ve only ever taken one resistant pill in my entire lifetime, and it had been a special birthday gift from my mother. Even in Rossum, they’re expensive, and they have to be exported to the other kingdoms, where they’re sold at crazy high prices.”

“Don’t feel too bad.” Nori laughed. “With how hot it is, you two might naturally gain the resistance.”

“Can that happen?” Olivia winced and kept fanning herself off.

“It’s hard, but not unheard of.” Emma nodded. “I’ve never seen it done but have heard about it. If you expose yourself to something for long enough, your core will eventually adapt and force your body to evolve. Cores are able to sometimes gain random traits as the mage improves and grows, and these traits are often used to keep the mage in question alive. You’d have to be burned quite badly before the trait would become available, and by that point you’d likely be reduced to ash.”

“Let’s avoid that.” Ash hummed.

“You think we would have run into goblins by now.” Olivia looked around the room, doing her best to ignore the intense heat. “We’re not being quiet and have used spells that would send out a pulse of mana, yet the goblins still haven’t shown up?”

“It’s also weird that this is the entrance they use to get in and out,” Ash grunted. “Most dungeons can have multiple entrances that are scattered throughout the world since they can exist in dozens of different spaces at the same time, but if the goblins have been attacking Tulip, they’d need to exit through the Tulip gate, which is right here. They’re not here, though? What gives?”

Olivia looked toward the back wall, where a heavy set of oak doors resided. She walked toward it and gently opened it, peering out. Often, a dungeon could have several areas that were all smashed together. This was especially the case if it was a high-grade dungeon, but this one should have been a relatively weak one, and so all the rooms would be layered together in a way that was meant to make sense.

The room beyond the door was just like the room she was in. It was made of the same black bricks, and windows showed off the lakes of fire. The hallway in question had an expensive red carpet and more fancy, rich-people things like old suits of armor. It stretched out to another door at the end, and there was a section of the hallway that twisted into a balcony that would overlook a room of the castle.

Also, along the walls were four portraits. Olivia found her eyes instantly drawn to them. Each picture was of a person, and even through the paint, she could feel the aura that they radiated.

The first was of a man. He was tall and imposing, wearing smooth white robes that were parted just enough to hint at rippling abs. He had fiery red hair and a beard. His eyes were yellow with slits for pupils, and in his hands he held a mighty war axe that looked like it could easily slice through a man and the horse he was riding on. Tucked under his arm was a large black tome, its cover worn and obviously showing its age. The landscape that was painted around the man was that of lava. Words were carved at the bottom of the portrait. It read as Sigurd of Gallenth.

The second picture was actually of two people. One of them was a woman with long black hair and eyes full of joy. She had a flirty look on her face, and her hand was raised up almost in a greeting. The clothes she wore were an outfit similar to what Ken Yuan had been wearing, that being traditional Rossum robes, but they were black and silver instead of the red and gold Ken had. What was truly striking, though, was the fact that the woman was standing in someone's palm.

A giant creature that had been wiped out along with the elves stood tall, holding the pretty woman. The giant was a man, and he had inky black skin and hair that looked like it was made out of clouds. He wore massive white robes and was casually seated on a throne carved into the side of a mountain. Just like the first picture, words were carved into the bottom. Han of Rossum. Loudest Thunder of Rossum.

The third picture was impossible to make out. Unlike the others, it was ripped apart, a blade having been taken to it. A bit of black and blue was the only thing Olivia could see. The last picture was the one that truly caught her eye, though.

The woman in it was beautiful. Actually, that wasn’t right. She was beyond beauty. She was divine. Angelic. Holy. Pure. Uncorrupted. Perfect. Haru. She was Haru. Even without reading the name at the bottom, Olivia knew who it was.

The woman’s skin was flawless and elegant. Thin white robes barely covered her modesty, and she rested on the ground, her long blonde hair cascading down her back like a river of gold. Despite being a painting, the sun sparkled outward, perfectly capturing every detail about her. Her hand was extended, her finger held out, and from above, another arm was coming down from the painting, its finger also pointed out, ready to touch the tip of the woman’s finger—Haru of Estiria.

“What the fuck kind of dungeon did we stumble into!” Olivia’s trance was broken when Ash’s voice cut through the haze. He, along with Nori and Emma, was staring at the painting in stunned silence.

Even Sune had stopped being quiet and was now standing before the picture of Haru, looking up at it. The woman hesitated for a moment and placed her hand upon it. “What are the chances this was the dungeon that was selected… I know Father preached that he had been to it, but for this to be the one that was chosen for the exam is…”

“What?” Olivia asked.

Sune snapped out of it and shook her head. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything. Carry on. You’re still on a mission. Being in a dungeon for the long term is bad. Remember that. You can’t afford to wait around.”

Olivia nodded. “She’s right. We need to keep moving. We still don’t know where the goblins are or how big this castle really is.”

“I’m more concerned about whose castle this is now.” Nori whistled. “I wish my phone worked; I’d have loved to record all of this. Alas, I suppose it will have to be a fleeting moment in my memory.”

“Anyone else creeped out by what we’re seeing?” Ash muttered. “This feels a little much for a low-level dungeon.”

“That’s why we need to hurry up and finish this,” Olivia stated, and she walked further down the hallway, reaching the balcony. “We need to—Holy shit!”

“What is it now?” Ash grunted, and he and the others marched over. “What are you seeing—holy shit!”

The balcony was designed so that someone walking down the hallway could peer down and see the dining room that resided below. The room was the largest one so far, being even bigger than the large bedroom, and had a massive table that ran along it as well as dozens of chairs. It was also a total mess.

Hundreds of dead goblins were scattered around. Their bodies had been torn and twisted apart, some looking like they had been crushed to death. Each goblin had been rendered to total pulp, and the room was bathed red. Further past the carnage, a massive set of double doors that would lead to a courtyard had been torn to bits, and more gore was dripping down the stairs.

“What the fuck happened!” Ash squeaked out.

“Shit.” Nori grabbed at his head and winced. “I just sensed something crazy strong. There’s some wild mana here. Damn it. The goblins likely stumbled into this dungeon by pure chance and took it over. Now something else has found the dungeon and is doing a hostile takeover. It’s killing all the enemies here, so this can be its dungeon.”

“So then the issue is solved, right?” Ash asked, trying to sound hopeful. “It’ll kill all the goblins for us, and that’ll be that?”

“It’s not that simple,” Olivia said, shaking her head. “When monsters take over a dungeon, it becomes their new home, and they get a serious power-up from it. One ability they have is the power to create new lesser monsters based on their species. If this thing is able to kill the goblin boss, that means it’s stronger than the greater goblin that owns this dungeon, so its species will also most likely be stronger than regular goblins. The space of the dungeon might shift, but it might also not, and if it doesn’t shift, then Tulip Village will be attacked by a wave of stronger monsters.”

The snake had been a rare exception of a monster not creating smaller monsters. The snake wanted to hoard all the food for itself since it was greedy and saving up for something. It was likely that once it was done with whatever it was waiting for, it would spawn all the babies it could and take over Daisy Village.

“We were just supposed to fight goblins.” Ash hissed. “Whatever this is, it's a serious threat.”

“That’s all the more reason you need to deal with it now,” Sune spoke up, getting the attention fully on her. “Stuff like this is very common. I’ve entered dungeons assuming I’ll fight one type of creature only for it to be another. You want to be a Knight? This is what it means to be a Knight. Shit happens. Deal with it. The test is still going on. As a reminder, if any of you are in real danger, I’ll step in, but if that happens, it’ll be an automatic fail. Got that?”

Ash held his tongue and nodded. Olivia forced her heart to settle and steeled her nerves once more. “Let’s go.”

They hurried through the hallway, making their way toward the door on the other side. More dead goblins greeted them, but they ignored the sight and went through the castle, climbing down a large flight of stairs until they reached the dining room. Olivia did her best to ignore the sick feeling in her stomach as she walked through the gore and made her way toward the torn-down doors.

Outside was the courtyard. It was wide, with massive stone walls spread out, and rocky ground that was steaming. The sky above was black, filled with smog and other dark clouds. The courtyard was also a total mess with yet even more dead goblins.

Craters layered the ground, and in the middle, a creature stood, on its last leg. It was a greater goblin. The thing was green and muscular and was wearing random bits of armor it had likely taken from the suits that stood in the hall. It also had a sword, which was now shattered, and the goblin itself was severely beaten and close to death.

Standing in front of it was a massive beast. It stood on two legs and reached nearly twenty feet in height. Red skin stretched across its flesh, and pelts barely wrapped around its waist. It was wielding a giant pillar of stone that had ripped out of the castle, and a few dead goblins were poking out of its mouth.

A red ogre had stumbled into the base and was now making its claim. Olivia felt her body shake, and she suddenly got dozens of flashbacks to all the times she fought this creature. Every single time, it killed her. Again and again and again. Through all the simulations, she saw her death.

The ogre lifted its club and brought it down on the goblin's head, splattering the greater goblin into a red chunk. Then it turned to look at them. This ogre was way stronger than any of the ones in the simulation. It was easily an alpha, being the biggest and strongest of its kind. With how powerful it was, there was a good chance it would just start to spawn other ogres and skip straight past greater goblins.

More flashes of death went through her mind, and Olivia almost took a step back on reflex, but she stopped when someone placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked over and saw Ash looking back at her.

“Didn’t you say you improved and got better?” Ash questioned. His hand gripped her shoulder tighter. “Go on then. It’s time you show us. Show me. You’re the Face. Do what the Face does best.”

Olivia managed to give a smile and nod. “Yeah.” She glanced back at the monster. “We can beat this thing. I already know how.”

The ogre roared, a deafening explosion coming out that shook the entire mountain, and it began to charge.

Chapter 66: Fear

Davi stared at the entrance to the dungeon with an annoyed look on his face. The rest of the people in his group all stared back at him when they noticed he wasn’t entering the dungeon.

“Davi, what’s wrong?” Ken asked, folding her arms.

“It’s cold,” Davi grunted. “I don’t like this dungeon.”

“Well, tough luck.” Ruby sneered. “The entrance is here; we’re entering through it. Suck it up and come on.”

The house had been just as ruined as they all expected. What wasn’t expected, though, was the entrance to the dungeon. The fridge was the only thing in the building that was still functioning somehow. Its doors were open, and it stretched out into an icy tunnel with frost filling the air. The others had already started to enter the dungeon.

The tunnel was extremely narrow, so Cain had to walk from side to side, keeping his body curved. Ken and Ruby, on the other hand, weren’t even able to enter correctly due to their… assets. Because of that, Ken pulled out Yujin, who now looked like a large, plump skunk. The floating fire spirit glowed softly and was melting through the ice, forcefully expanding the tunnel to allow both women to enter, and that was when they noticed Davi hadn’t even budged.

“Don’t tell me you have something against ice?” Cain called out from the other side of the tunnel. “Your mana is even colder than this cave! I assume with how chilling it is, you have to have cold resistance or even cold immunity?”

Davi inched forward after a few moments and sighed. “The cold and I don’t really get along very well. I do have a decent cold resistance trait, though. Heat resistance as well.”

Ken’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Did you take a heater pill?”

“No.”

“Then how did you heat resistance?” Cain questioned with a confused look.

“I had to melt my way out of the ice somehow…” Davi muttered quietly, and for a moment, harsh flickers of fire went through his mind.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Davi shook his head. “Let’s just get this over with. The sooner the better.”

“That’s right.” The four of them turned when Jack Larison spoke up. The Knight had remained a few meters away from them and kept his arms crossed the entire time. “Remember, being in a dungeon for the long term isn’t healthy. As Knights, our bodies can naturally withstand it longer, but it’s impossible for us to have a real resistance to the dungeons' cursed mana. It’s important you finish the mission as quickly as you can so as not to risk mutation.”

“He’s right.” Ruby nodded. “Let’s move out.”

Ken used her own energy to boost Yujin’s fire, and soon enough, the tunnel was wide enough for both women to make it to the other side. Davi followed behind at a slower pace. Past the fridge and the cold tunnel was an even colder ice cave.

The floor was a bit slippery, and the air dropped massively low. Davi was fine due to his resistance. Ken and Cain were also fine since they had magic that could produce heat. Ken ran her flames over herself while Cain made a jacket of superheated radiation that kept him cozy. Ruby was the only one who was clearly having a hard time. The woman’s arms circled around herself, and her teeth were chattering as she shivered. Her skin was also turning a little blue despite the fact that she had just set foot in the cave.

Much to the woman’s embarrassment, she was forced to practically stay pressed between Ken and Cain just so she could share in a bit of their warmth. Jack was the final one, and like Davi, he didn’t seem bothered at all, probably having a resistance to the cold.

“Davi was right.” Ruby shivered even harder. “The cold sucks.”

“Told you.” Davi patted the girl on the shoulder, which only made her colder since his mana was so dense. She shot him a nasty look, and he removed his hand. “My bad.”

“L-Let’s j-just f-find t-this s-stupid b-boss,” Ruby growled.

The cave itself was a typical dungeon, save for the frosty look it had. It wasn’t a castle or a tomb or anything like that. It was just a big frozen cave with lots of twisting tunnels.

They walked through it at a slow pace due to Ruby. Davi and Cain kept their guard up while Ken was doing her best to make sure Ruby didn’t freeze to death. Despite keeping their eyes open, though, neither of the men saw a single goblin. They didn’t hear any of them either. Davi was confident none were hiding out of sight either, thanks to his Danger Sense trait.

Danger Sense basically worked by sending out a small pulse of mana in all directions like a radar. It would only go off when something with hostile intent was coming close to him. Because of that, if something didn’t have the intent aimed at him or was able to mask it, the ability wouldn’t go off. Goblins were quite stupid and unskilled, though, so it should have been impossible for one to mask its aura of hate toward him.

Danger Sense could work on people too, but it wasn’t as useful since people could mask their emotions. It had gone off in his fight with Rowan, which is what saved him. Danger Sense was mainly just used for monsters since they were programmed to hate and despise humans. Even creatures like the snake, which were willing to work with humans, would still view humanity as scum that needed to be wiped out; it would just first use the scum to benefit itself before anything else.

They also weren’t being quiet as they walked through the cave, which made the fact that no goblins were showing up kind of confusing. Davi was starting to get a bit concerned until he turned the corner. “Oh.”

“What the fuck?” Ruby wasn’t able to hold back her curse, and she even forgot about the cold for a moment as her eyes roamed over the intense gore.

The cave had opened up into a large section, which looked like it had been made into a makeshift camping area. Dozens of tents and rolls were scattered around, and campfires had been set up. The floor was also a crystal red as the goblin blood froze and mixed with the icy cavern. Corpses littered the ground, mangled and crushed beyond belief.

“Oh.” Ken nudged one of the corpses with her foot. “So that’s a goblin. Neat.”

A loud crashing sound echoed and bounced off the walls. Near the back, an entire section of the cave had been torn apart. The group hurried over just in time to see a massive red ogre bringing a pillar of ice down onto a greater goblin, crushing and killing it in an instant.

The dungeon was having a hostile takeover. The ogre must have come in and slaughtered the other goblins. This ogre was also clearly stronger than normal ones. Most ogres were massive, and while this one was huge, it was a lot smaller, yet even more muscular, having all that power and weight compressed down. It was a rare anomaly of the species that could sometimes show up. Just like how goblins could have greater goblins be born, this was a greater ogre.

It was a creature most mage squads would be scared of.

Team Ruby wasn’t like most mage squads, though.

Ruby raised an eyebrow as she glanced at the creature, which turned to look at them. “Oh? That’s it? Seriously? Cain, Davi. You two got this.”

Davi and Cain stepped forward, both drawing their swords. Cain held his katana out while Davi twirled his sword of moonlit energy around. “I’ll go for the legs,” Davi said casually.

“Alright, I’ll take its hands out, and then we can both take its head out.” Cain nodded.

“Sounds like a plan.”

The ogre roared and charged as both men got ready to slaughter the prey that was coming toward them.

***

Olivia gave the command, and her group scattered just in time as the ogre jumped toward them. The red monster slammed its giant stone club out, but by that point, they had all dodged, so its strike missed entirely.

“Ash!” Olivia called out. “Get its attention! When I give you the chance to do the thing, do it!”

“What thing?” Ash asked.

“You’ll know it when you see it!” Olivia yelled back. “Emma, you’re the Attacker, do your thing! Nori, back Emma up with attacks, and do your best to shield Ash.”

Nori gave a grin, and he muttered a spell. Glass wings grew out of his back, and he took to the sky, getting out of the danger zone. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure the little rat doesn’t get hurt too badly. Row Glass Armor!”

Olivia gasped as shards of glass swarmed around her and began to mold into a reflective chest piece. The same happened for Emma and Ash, as Nori gave them all glass armor. The glass itself wasn’t tough or durable, but a thin layer of mana draped its way over their body, giving them a weak barrier that could let them take a blow they otherwise couldn’t.

While Nori was doing that, Emma drew both her guns and raised them up. “Row Spacial Shift.” The air flickered, and suddenly bullets appeared in the chambers of her revolver. She began to pull the trigger rapidly, and the gun would go off, sending mana bullets directly at the beast. The bullets kept coming as well, new ones constantly reappearing within the gun, effectively giving Emma infinite ammo. So long as she could pull the trigger, the gun would fire.

The bullets rammed into the ogre's back but didn’t do much damage to the beast. Its attention turned toward Emma, and it roared, but before it could charge, Ash used a spell.

“Row Wind Spear!” The wind compressed and fired, flinging through the air at a high speed and ramming into the ogre’s head. It also didn’t hurt the ogre all that much, but it did cause the monster to whip its head around toward Ash and swing its club out at him. “Row Wind Barrier!” Ash barely put up his shield as the club smashed into him. The air formed a dome, and he was sent flying back, but he was mostly unharmed and landed on the heels of his feet, flicking his wand out again. “Row Wind Tornado!” Ash sliced the wand down and launched his spell.

The air rapidly twisted and bent to his will, roaring out as it launched toward the red beast. Ash had used this same spell to defeat the ogre in the simulation countless times, and he assumed this was what Olivia had meant when she said he would know what to do. This ogre wasn’t like the one in the simulation, though.

The tornado smashed into it, but the creature flexed, and its toes stabbed into the ground, holding it in place. It wasn’t going to be launched away into the sky so easily. Ash cursed and put his barrier back up as the ogre took a swing at him. He braced himself this time, and his shield stood firm, but his arms shook.

Emma kept firing at the ogre, and while her shots were leaving minor bruises across its back, it wasn’t enough to actually halt the monster.

Ogres, like most powerful monsters, had mana-resistant flesh that could cause low-level spells or magical attacks to bounce off. It would take serious firepower to actually harm them. Emma’s bullets packed a punch, but they were just regular rounds that were being boosted with mana, so the damage output was too low.

Olivia clutched her wand and scanned the monster up and down. “Emma, focus your fire on its ankle! Nori, help her out!”

“If you say so.” Nori nodded and raised the tip of his finger up. “Row Glass Blade.” He flicked it out, and the glass formed, becoming a long-bladed weapon that was nearly invisible due to how thin it was and the way it reflected everything across its surface. Emma did as she was told and focused her bullets on the ogre’s ankle. She hit the same spot, the bullets nailing it over and over again thanks to her marksman trait.

The skin along the ogre’s leg started to peel and crack, and it hissed in pain but kept swinging at Ash, who was still on guard. That was when Nori’s attack came flying out. The glass blade sliced out and rammed into the ogre’s ankle. The weapon shattered and exploded, dealing minor damage, but it did cause a tiny papercut to appear along the bruised skin that Emma had left. Emma’s bullets started to pepper the cut, making the wound grow.

Olivia took that as her chance. She had remained on the sidelines watching the fighting, but it was now her time. She ran forward and used the glass knife to cut part of her wrist in a shallow slash. Blood flowed down the hand that clutched her wand, and she reached the ogre, dodging past its legs, which kept stomping down. The ogre also noticed her and went to swing its club at her, but Ash was faster.

“Row Wind Bird!” The air shifted and became a large falcon made of wind, which draped itself over Olivia, using itself as a shield. The ogre’s club bounced off the bird, which cracked and shook, nearly shattering, but the construct held on, giving Olivia the chance to slide.

She got behind the ogre and twisted around, thrusting her wand out. She rammed the tip of it directly into the wound the ogre had on its foot. The wound was shallow and not deep, less than an inch of the wand getting in, but it didn’t matter. Its skin was tough, as was the inside of its body, but unlike the outside, the inside wouldn’t have the same magic-proof flesh.

“Row Blood Scythe.” Red erupted and exploded out of Olivia’s hand, crawling along her wand and forming into her blade, directly inside of the monster's ankle. More blood spilled out, and the ogre screamed in pain as the weapon tore through it.

Her blade would usually not be sharp enough to cut the monster, but in this case, the forming of the weapon made it more deadly than the blade itself. This was because the blood would flow remarkably thin and at rapid speeds. In an instant, that thin blood would shape itself into a long scythe, and if anything were caught in the way of that shaping, the blood would just cut through it. Even a pebble could become a dangerous weapon if it were thrown fast enough, after all.

Olivia gripped the handle of her scythe, which was lodged in the ogre’s ankle. She gave the monster a cold look, no longer afraid of it as it roared in agony. She attempted to tug on the blade, but she wasn’t strong enough to move her weapon, so instead she turned away. “Emma, Nori, take out its foot.”

Nori and Emma stood, and in Nori’s case, floated there, stunned for a moment before they snapped back into the action. Nori used another glass blade while Emma started to launch her bullets around the scythe, digging into the ankle wound even more. Nori’s sword smashed down and rammed into the handle of the scythe, and since Emma made the wound start to grow, the scythe was able to be pushed in further.

Olivia lifted her foot up, and she brought it up to the butt of her weapon once Nori’s glass blade vanished, and she kicked forward with her might. Between the damage that was already caused and the worsened state Emma left it in, the scythe slid further in, getting deeper and deeper until it reached the other side and sliced the foot clean off.

The ogre collapsed to the ground, missing its foot, and it rolled around howling. “Alright, Ash,” Olivia began. “Toss it.”

Ash gave a hesitant nod. “Row Wind Tornado.” This time, the ogre wasn’t able to stop itself from being lifted into the sky. It tried to hold onto the ground with its remaining foot, but Olivia brought her weapon down on its toes. She wasn’t able to slice through them, but she did cause it enough pain that it let go and went flying away. It was carried into the air, where it spun. “Want me to launch it?” Ash asked.

Olivia shook her head. “With how tough it is, it could survive even if you blasted it miles away.”

“So then what?”

“Put it down.”

“What?” Ash looked at her as if she were crazy.

Olivia casually pointed to the molten pits of lava that were scattered throughout the mountain they were on. “Let’s see how good his fire resistance is.”

Ash opened his mouth to retort but then stopped. Olivia usually came up with ideas and plans, but was she always this twisted? It was a monster, so it wasn’t like it mattered. Ash flicked his hand out, and the ogre was sent smashing toward the ground, the wind shoving it down. It rammed headfirst into a pool of magma.

Magma was more like a syrup than an actual liquid, and the ogre didn’t instantly sink. Its body ignited in an intense flame, and it began to thrash, slowly going under. Its skin became black and peeled away, and parts of it exploded as it got deeper and deeper, revealing bones by the time it dropped down entirely.

Nori stayed up in the sky, and he stared down at the pit before finally letting out a relieved sigh. “Its mana is gone.” He called out. His glass wings started to flap as he dropped from the sky and landed on the ground. “It’s dead.”

“Yes!” Olivia cheered and raised her scythe up. “Wow! That was crazy easy! I didn’t even have to use my second or third spell!”

“We’re lucky we had this arena to fight it in,” Ash muttered. “I don’t know if we could have beaten it otherwise.”

“I’d have come up with something.” Olivia chuckled.

“That was a good plan.” Emma walked over and nodded. “It was quick and easy and allowed us to take the beast out without a prolonged fight. Good job.” Then Emma turned to look at Sune, who had stayed on the sidelines, close enough to get involved if she was needed, but also out of range. “Are we done? Did we pass?”

“Not yet.” Sune folded her arms and tapped her foot down. “Just because you killed the boss doesn’t mean it’s over. The dungeon will begin to fade and will vanish, going back to wherever it is they go when they’re beaten, but our job isn’t done yet. We still have to report back to the village and inform them what happened.” Then a small smile managed to cross onto Sune’s face. “You four did well, though. You were faced with something scary, yet you managed to get the courage to beat it. Good job.”

“Nice.” Olivia cheered again. “I finally did well on a test.”

“Yes, you weren’t bad.” Nori laughed. “You impressed me pretty well.”

“Don’t laugh like that. It ruins the message.”

“I thought your magic would be useless, but that scythe of yours is strong,” Emma said, casually poking the blood scythe Olivia was still holding.

Olivia gave a sheepish grin and shrugged. “Thanks. It was a spell I made myself.”

“Making a spell is extremely hard,” Emma said, almost sounding impressed.

“Yeah.” Olivia nodded and looked at the scythe almost lovingly. “There is this super cool girl. She’s pretty and an Arcane Knight. She saved me, and she fought with a scythe. She also had this cute witch outfit on as well! She was the best!”

“We can talk about this all later,” Ash grunted. “Let’s get out of here.”

Olivia gave another nod. “Yeah. You’re right.” She turned toward the castle entrance, where Sune was still standing. They’d have to leave the same way they entered. “Let’s get out of here—”

It happened in an instant.

One moment, they were all standing out in the courtyard, talking and smiling, and then the next, a massive surge of mana hit them all head-on. Even Olivia, who didn’t know how to sense mana properly, felt it. A chill crawled up her spine, and she let out a whimper on instinct. She wasn’t the only one who was hit with a wave of fear. Emma’s face turned pale, and Nori looked like he was about to collapse. Ash did collapse and drop to his knees, vomiting.

Sune was instantly on full alert, and she was in front of all of them, her sword out, but it was too late. Everything changed and began to twist. Then Olivia blinked, and she was no longer outside. Instead, she was somewhere else. Somewhere familiar.

“You’ve got to be shitting me.” Sune spat out, her eyes wide as she glanced around. “This shouldn’t be happening! This is a one in a million!”

“W-What is it?” Olivia whispered, but she already knew the answer.

Sune’s teeth ground together, and her hands shook. “A dungeon.”

“W-We were in a dungeon.” Nori forced a nervous laugh.

“Yeah.” Sune nodded grimly. “A dungeon just opened up inside of another dungeon.”

***

“Way to go.” Jack lazily clapped. “You took out the ogre.”

“That was way too easy,” Cain said flatly.

“Agreed.” Davi removed his shiny new sword from the ogre’s skull. The poor monster had been hacked to bits in under one minute.

“S-So we’re done?” Ruby demanded, shooting a look toward Jack.

“Yep.” Jack nodded and tossed a sucker her way. “Good question. You’ve slain the boss so that the dungeon will close. All that’s left to do is leave and report back to the-” Jack’s sword was in his hand, and he lifted his palm out. “Row Imaginary Portal!” The energy crackled, but then it fizzled out. “Fuck!”

While he was doing that, Ruby, Ken, and Cain all suddenly looked extremely sick and shaken. Davi had it the worst, though. He grabbed at his face and suddenly screamed. It was loud and wailing as his head felt like it was about to explode. His scar burned, and Danger Sense screamed at him to run and escape, but there was nothing he could do.

One second, he was in the icy cave, and the next, he and everyone else found themselves in a new dungeon. Davi shivered as he felt cold. Really, really cold. The others were already freezing over, their skins starting to crack and turn blue, and Ruby already looked like she was dead, her chest no longer moving. Even Jack looked to be in a bad state, as he shivered and lines opened up along his flesh.

Davi craned his head up and nearly vomited at what he saw. He was ankle-deep in snow. A blizzard formed around him, blanketing him in a sea of white. He was in a dungeon. A very familiar dungeon.

“A dungeon in a dungeon?” Jack cursed and shivered and forced his energy out, attempting to heal and warm the rest of them up. “Only someone like Father can deal with this.” Jack bit his lip so hard it bled, and instantly the blood froze. “What the hell took notice of us?”

His question was answered moments later as a rumble echoed through the blizzard. Jack looked up, as did the others, and they all screamed—all but Davi.

Something massive was making its way toward them. The boss of the dungeon had already spotted them.

It was gigantic in nature, so big none of them could fully see it, and it walked on four legs, each one ending in massive black claws. Harsh red scales covered its body, and a tail whipped back and forth, cracking the ground. Its head craned down at them, steam rising off its body as the ice around it melted, and suddenly the group no longer found themselves cold. They were burning. Even Ken winced as her flesh started to smoke.

It was a dragon. Beasts that should have only existed in legends. The monsters Haru slaughtered. The dragon craned its head down and stared at the crowd of terrified people. Among them, though, it could tell that one stood out. Its eyes landed on the only human that was glaring up at it. Fire gushed out of its snout as it snorted.

“Oh? Little Davi? Have you come to be saved once more?”

Davi found his Dragon.

Chapter 67: Fire And Ice And The Thing That Killed Him

The land of Mordheim had always been considered an unsavory place. Many people all over the world looked down upon the small country even before it became a frozen wasteland. This was because the cursed being known as the Ebony Knight was said to have called this place home. It was also said that upon the final battle with the hero Haru, the Ebony Knight fled deep into his homeland, giving up his sword and his armor, in order to escape Haru’s wrath.

Mordheim had always been despised by the rest of the world for this reason. Its people were viewed as savages—mad and bloodthirsty warriors who were willing to follow their monarch into hell itself.

Its elite force was able to rival that of the Arcane Knights. It used soldiers known as the Spell Swords, who were masters of the blade, learning to trace their mana into their swords better than any other.

Their land was a harsh arctic climate that was only able to house the strong. It was rumored that its people even delved into the dark arts, attempting to call upon the demons and devils of the old world, who once nearly brought about an end. The only reason the country still stood was also because of just how harsh it truly was.

The space around Mordheim was constantly twisting across the sea, land, and sky, as dozens of dungeons overlapped, creating a wall of infinite space that would have to be navigated just to enter the land. The only ways people would get in and out of the country were through the use of a mage that had the ability to create portals or teleport.

It didn’t always used to be this way, though.

At one point in history, Mordheim was an innocent nation. One that lacked the blood that had stained its hands. It had dozens of islands that each had its own customs and cultures. It was on one of these little islands that a small fishing village stood—a village known as Chrysanthemum.

It was smack in the middle of the nation, scattered away from the other land that formed the country, and had never been sullied. That was until the day of the incident…

Gone was the lake. It was replaced with a sea of frost and ice. Gone was the lush green grass. It was replaced with snow. Gone was the warm summer air. It was replaced with a chilling cold that would crack even the strongest mage’s flesh in only a few seconds. Gone were the homes, the people, and the life Davi Hawker had come to know.

It was replaced with hell. Hell, that was brought on by a single child and his foolish mistake.

Chrysanthemum had once been beautiful with sprawling plains and lakes. The village lacked any sort of wall since a monster had never attacked it, and children played in the streets while the elderly would stand on the sides and watch with warm smiles on their faces. All the while, the adults would get to work, constantly helping the community that had slowly been growing.

It was all gone now, though, stolen away by fire and ice.

Frozen red mist scattered in the air. Fire mixed with the ice, creating a wave of hot steam and smoke that poured out in all directions. The village was in ruins, half covered in snow and the other half charred black beyond belief. Corpses littered the streets, most destroyed to such an extent that it was impossible to make out who they used to be.

Davi stood, shivering in the cold, his teeth clenched, and his arms shaking as he held up a pathetically small sword as if that would actually save his life. He suddenly regretted in that moment that he had never actually learned how to use a sword. All his father’s attempts to teach him the Hawker Clan’s style had gone to waste. Not like it would have actually mattered in that moment, though.

Davi stood ankle-deep in snow, and his eyes were wide with fear. In front of him stood what was left of the village’s protectors.

A few swordsmen remained, all wearing tattered robes. Most of them sported blue skin, and just moving was enough to crack their flesh and snap off fingers, blood pushing its way out of their body as if it were alive. One in particular caught Davi’s attention above all else.

Orion’s skin was the only one that hadn’t turned into the same nasty blue as the others. In fact, he didn’t look to be freezing at all. Despite that, though, he was in the worst condition out of everyone else. His face was stained with blood, and his chest had primarily become black and charred from the heat. He was missing his left arm, and his right leg was severely mangled. It was a miracle he could even stand on it still. Despite that, the man still somehow looked powerful and ready.

Clutched in his remaining hand was a sword. Not just any blade, though. This was truly a disgusting weapon, unfit for a hero. It wasn’t quite as big as a claymore, but it was longer than your average longsword. It was thicker as well and double-bladed, if you could even call it a proper blade. The handle of the sword was also slightly longer than usual, with the pommel being the only thing that was of standard size. The weapon would require two hands to wield, yet its owner had been reduced to only one.

The sword wasn’t made out of metal either. From the handle all the way down to the blade, it sucked in the light that was around it. It looked as if it were made out of glass, but it was a deep black color, able to blend in with the night sky that hung above. A powerful enchantment hummed along the edge of the black, and black fire poured out, rivaling the orange sparks that were scattered around.

Orion Hawker was a terrible man.

He had done a lot of bad things in his life. He hurt a lot of people, some deserving, some not so much. He had committed acts that could be viewed as evil, and he had done it without a second thought. He wasn’t a good man.

He was a good father, though.

“Davi.”

Davi flinched when he heard his father’s voice. It broke through the chaos. The screaming and the crying. He didn’t know where the beast was anymore, but he could hear it. It's roaring. The way its wings flapped. The thundering beat of its tail on the ground. He heard and smelled its fire as well. Thick and bright, it would come pulsing out and wipe away another section of the village. Any moment, that loud monster would arrive, and yet somehow he heard his father’s soft voice.

The black flames that dripped out of Orion’s sword crept up his arm, and he glanced back at his son. Despite everything, he was smiling.

“Dad?”

“Go.” Davi flinched at the words that left his dad’s mouth. He tried to shake his head, but his dad ignored his pleading look. “Get out of here.”

Davi felt his body shake some more, and it wasn’t from the cold. “N-No. I—I can stay and help. Sieg helped. I’ll help too. B-Besides. W-Where would I go?” Davi forced himself to stay standing where he was. “We’re all trapped in its dungeon. T-There isn’t anywhere to go.”

“You don’t have to stay.” Orion lowered the arm that held the sword, and the flames that surrounded him began to go out. “You never liked it, did you? Holding a sword.” His eyes sparkled a bit, and he seemed to remember the past quite fondly for a man who was about to die. “It was always impossible to get you into a suit of armor and even harder still to put a sword in your hands. You’re a good kid. One not fit for war or combat. That’s okay. You don’t need to try here. You’re not like Sieg, and you’re certainly not like me. You take after your mom. You don’t have to die on the battlefield with a sword in your hands. Go. Go and die somewhere else. Somewhere away from here. Away from all this destruction and violence. Die the way you want to live.”

Davi couldn’t stop it. At twelve years old, he began to cry. The tears flowed down his face, and he was unable to hold himself back. His arms, which had been shaking, dropped the shortsword he had found on the ground. It crashed to the snowy floor just in time for a massive boom to echo out.

Debris rained down, and many of the swordsmen screamed as it tore through their bodies and ripped off limbs. Fire washed out across the field, and Orion turned back just in time to swing his sword out awkwardly. The black flames spilled forth and met the orange ones head-on, and that was all Davi saw before he turned and ran.

He ran and he ran and he ran, and he didn’t look back. Even as the screaming grew louder and the black flames vanished completely. He just kept walking forward. When there was a corpse in his way, he stepped over it. When someone was dying in the streets and pleading for help, he ignored them. When he came across someone else who was in need and could be saved, he abandoned them. All he did was run.

Davi only stopped when he reached the house he lived in with his mother. It had once been a tall wooden hut, but it was now totally destroyed beyond belief. He didn’t know where his mother was, but he saw his brother.

Sieg was just as bad as the swordsmen. His flesh was blue and cracking, and it was impossible to tell if he was still breathing or not. He was only a year older, yet he wanted to die a warrior's death like the rest of the swordsmen in the village. If he had stayed where he was, he would have gotten his wish.

Sieg had already been injured by a piece of stray debris, which he rammed into his side. The cold was saving his life right now since it stopped him from rapidly bleeding out, but it wouldn’t be enough. He’d soon die, having engaged the Dragon. Sieg would get his heroes' end.

If not for Davi.

He was a coward. One unable to cope with the fact that he was going to die here no matter what. He didn’t want to die on the battlefield doing something he hated, and he also didn’t want to die alone, so without thinking any further, he placed his brother upon his back and began to carry him.

Once again, Davi walked, and he ignored letting everyone else die around him as he struggled forward. He hadn’t been the only one with this idea. Others had also attempted to escape the village, some running for their lives, others carrying their loved ones, but they hadn’t gotten very far before the snowstorm turned them into statues or the creeping flame ate them alive. The village had become a place of death.

Davi didn’t know how, but he managed to push through it all, dodging the fire and fighting through the cold. He ran, then jogged, then walked, and finally, he was barely able to take any steps as he left the walls of his village and walked across what had once been an ocean but was now a frozen block of ice.

The dungeon had appeared and engulfed the village, pulling everything in. Davi didn’t know how big it was, but he knew deep down that he wouldn’t be escaping. Wherever the barrier was, it would be too far away for him to reach. The Grade of this dungeon was, at the very least, in the high S-tier.

Soon, the village was entirely out of sight, yet still Davi marched through an endless stream of snow and ice. The frozen ocean creaked as he walked upon it, and snow was rapidly piling onto him. Carrying Sieg was starting to get hard as well. He honestly didn’t know how he had managed to do it up until this point. Why had he survived while so many died?

How was that fair? Sieg was already in bad shape, and part of Davi wondered if he had been carrying a corpse the entire time already.

He was cold and getting worse. Soon, he wouldn’t even be able to take another step forward, much less carry Sieg. Davi tried to speak. He wanted to say something. Anything. Not even to check on his brother, but to just make sure he was awake and wouldn’t black out.

“Spiraling towers. Caves that never end. Cities that stretch on like labyrinths. The life of an Arcane Knight has a lot to offer, doesn’t it, Sieg?” He didn’t know why he brought that up, but those were the words that escaped past his lips in his final hour.

It was odd that he found himself thinking of that group. Mordheim didn’t have the Arcane Knights; they had the Spell Swords. Sieg and Orion never got along, however, always getting into fights, and even far out in the middle of nowhere, they had all heard the legends of Haru, the mighty hero who slayed the Devil. Sieg was always talking about becoming a Knight, and he would do it in earshot of Orion to piss his father off.

Being an Arcane Knight and exploring the world was never something Davi wanted. He never had big dreams. He never had a wide-reaching goal. Besides fishing, it was hard to say if he even had any real desires.

He still couldn’t stop himself, though.

He talked about the Knights. He said all the things Sieg had told them and tried to remember any stories he had heard about Haru. He kept talking as he stumbled forward, and that was likely one of the reasons he had managed to get so far. Eventually, though, his body gave out, and Davi collapsed. He was unable to hold onto Sieg, and both of them crashed down into the snow.

Davi soon gave up and was ready to die, but by pure chance, the beast had found him. He didn’t know when it arrived, but it loomed over him, massive in size. Its body was superheated, melting away the ice and snow and making it the opposite of cold. Instead of freezing to death, Davi could feel his body starting to heat up. He was becoming hotter and hotter, and he even began to smoke.

Instantly, Davi’s attention was drawn to its chest. The beast had been sliced open, its blood still leaking, and black flames still clinging to its scales. Orion might have fallen, but he got in at least one solid hit.

“You asked for someone to save you?” A rumble and a guttural growl came from the creature. "Well, you're in luck, boy. I am here." Almost cruelly, the dragon lifted one of its hands, and its jagged nail came down. “You’re the brat of the human that dared to scratch me, aren’t you? Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you don’t die from the cold. Here. Let me kill you myself.”

Davi glared up at the monster. He wanted to scream or cry or beg or anything, but nothing came out. Even as the claw pierced his chest, and it began to sink in. Crimson flowed, and Davi was unable to scream as his throat filled with blood and bile. He felt his heart burst and explode, and then it was over.

Davi Hawker died.

Or at least that was his final memory of that awful place. One moment, he was being stabbed and run through, the Dragon doing it deliberately slowly, and the next thing he knew, he had woken up outside of the dungeon alongside Sieg, fully healed and still alive. Somehow, he had made it out alive.

He was different, though.

A shift had been made. Davi Hawker did die in that dungeon, because the boy that woke up wasn’t the shy coward who wanted to run for his life. With the gift of life that he now had, all that remained was a spiteful human being who decided they were going to use this second chance to hurt the thing that hurt them.

Davi Hawker died, and Davi Hawker was reborn.

Now, eight years later, at the age of twenty, Davi Hawker stood before the beast that had taken everything from him, once again in the place he always went to when he slumbered. This was the dungeon he stood in during his nightmares. The Dragon was the monster that was always ahead of him. The only difference this time was that he wasn’t alone.

Jack had managed to cast another protective barrier around himself and the others to stop them from instantly burning alive just by being near the monster. That did little to help with the aura of fear that filtered out from each of them.

Jack was the oldest and most experienced and had instantly drawn both his swords, standing in front of the recruits as if he could somehow shield them from this. Ken looked like she was ready to bolt and run for her life but remained rooted to the spot since she knew the moment she ran off by herself that it would get the Dragons' attention focused solely on her. Ruby was practically foaming at the mouth and had collapsed to her knees, already wetting herself from fear. Cain had completely given up and checked out, part of his brain realizing that there was nothing to be done, and instead he spent what little time he had left thinking fondly of his favorite memories and wondering what his older sister would feel when she learned he was slain by a dragon.

He hoped she cared. He doubted it, though.

Lastly, that left Davi, who was the only one not filled with fear. This was because he was full of rage. Pure hate filled his veins, and his heart began to beat faster and faster, and his vision turned red as the dragon stood across from him in the field.

Jack Larison, also known as Battery, was by no means a weak Knight. He was very powerful and had earned a title and wielded Knight gear along with another mighty magical sword he had looted from a dungeon. As far as it went, compared to most Knights, he could be considered one of the best.

A dragon was still too much.

There were books on how to slay dragons, filled with their weaknesses, and he had studied them, but it didn’t matter. Standing before an actual dragon, Jack instantly knew that all those books that spoke of ways to pierce through a dragon's scales simply didn't matter. Those books had been created during the time of Haru and were the method Haru and her Knights would use to slaughter the dragons, but Haru was a goddess among men. The methods she used were not the same as anyone else's.

To make matters even worse, this was a double dungeon. A normal dungeon was already evil since it would drain the user's energy and start to corrupt them, but double dungeons were consistently ranked at the highest grade, even if both dungeons were vastly weaker than each other. This was for one simple fact.

The effects of a dungeon would stack.

A double dungeon would occur when, by pure dumb luck, two dungeons would overlap. Since they were twisting space around them, this rarely happened, but every now and then a dungeon would appear, and then another dungeon would appear on top of it. The first dungeon would be layered on top of the second one, with the second dungeon's barrier being placed somewhere in the first dungeon. When a Knight got too close to that barrier, they would then be pulled into the second dungeon, but they were still inside of the first dungeon at the same time, since the two dungeons were occupying the same space.

A mage would have twenty percent of their power and mana reduced by being in a dungeon, and then they’d have those weakened stats be reduced by a further twenty percent. If a mage could survive for one day in a dungeon without becoming a mutant, then they’d only be able to survive for half a day inside of a double dungeon. To make matters worse, monsters were given a buff by being in a dungeon and claiming it. The apex monster, usually the one in the second dungeon, would be given that buff twice as well.

So not only was Jack Larison being weakened twice, but he was also fighting a dragon, one of the strongest beings in the world, who was being enhanced twice. The dungeon he was in was also perilous and hostile, being a wasteland of ice that made it impossible for him to fight at full strength since he had to use a majority of his mana just to keep himself alive. The weird spatial effects of the dungeon were also cutting off his ability to use his portals.

With all of that in mind, Jack Larison decided there was only one thing he could do.

“Run.”

“W-What?” Ken managed to squeak the word out.

“All of you run,” Jack said, gripping both his swords. “I’ll try to buy you a few seconds. Dragons are cocky and arrogant, according to the books. It’ll pick us all off one by one and take its sweet time doing it, even though it can kill us all right now. Just look at it. It’s standing there watching, knowing we’re going to try to flee. It’s like a cat that has found a mouse and is toying with it. Most of us are going to die. In fact, we might all die, but if one of us is lucky, they’ll be able to make it to the edge of the barrier and step out of this dungeon and into the first one. It shouldn’t be able to give chase then. All of you run. While it’s busy ripping me off, use everything you have to try to escape. When it finally kills me, it’ll come after one of you and will select whoever is in the back and start the game over again. It’ll try to kill you slowly. If the pain gets to be too much, just kill yourself, but try to last as long as you can so the others can try to get away. Ideally, two people will be able to escape, but likely it’ll just be one.”

Cain almost laughed. “So you’re saying four of us die? That we’re fucked no matter what?”

“Only if you’re the slowest.” Jack kept his eyes on the dragon. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to last as long as I can. I can likely buy you twenty, maybe even thirty seconds.”

“Oh, by all means, each of you run.” The dragon almost seemed to snicker. It was flat on its belly now, casually staring at each of them. “One little piggy, two little piggies, three little piggies—”

“W-What’s it doing now?” Ken asked. She was sweating despite having flame immunity, and her legs were shaking. “Is it purring?”

“Four little piggies.”

“It’s counting us.” Davi finally spoke up. “It’s about to start.”

“Can you understand it?” Ken asked in shock. “It just sounded like it was growling to me—”

“Five little piggies.”

“It’s starting.”

The ice cracked and sizzled as the dragon began to push itself back up onto its legs. Jack lifted both his swords, forming an ‘X’ shape in front of him. “Alright! Run! I’m going to form my strongest barrier and—”

Davi stepped past Jack, and his eyes met the reflection of himself in the dragon. The others screamed at him, but he ignored them all and kept his gaze fixed on the thing that ruined everything.

“Oh? Little Davi grew up.”

It all came to this moment. His life only existed for this purpose. Davi exhaled. “Vil Shadow Armor.” The darkness exploded and lifted up like a tidal wave as he summoned out his strongest suit of armor.

Ebony mail formed around him, and any light that was around was instantly drawn into him. Like a black hole, his armor ate everything up. It was thicker and more refined than his normal suit. It thoroughly covered him from head to toe, his helmet and all, and the shadows even seeped out and wrapped around his sword, changing the moonlit blade into a shadowy longsword. Feathers coated parts of his armor, and his gloves looked more like talons. Even his helmet had changed, bending and twisting at the front into the beak of a bird. Blue fire spilled out of his armor, and Davi stepped forward, radiating as much mana as he could. Every drop of his power was bubbling out.

The others stood on the sidelines, and even Jack looked completely dumbfounded as he stared at the new Ebony Knight, which was now facing down the Dragon. Black hands kept lifting out of Davi’s shadow, clawing at the air and pushing him forward.

Davi marched, and the others stayed rooted in place as they watched the hellish Knight. He looked more like a villain, but in that moment, he was a hero—one who would slay the dragon and bring an end to this nightmare.

The warrior of spite was here. Hope was somehow returning. It was unlikely, but they all found themselves suddenly believing in Davi.

With a roar, Davi lifted his sword and—

He suddenly felt empty.

It was over faster than he could even blink. One moment, he was looking up at the dragon, and the next, he was looking at his back.

His severed head dropped to the ground, landing in the snow, and blood erupted from the now headless suit of armor as the dragon’s tail flicked forward and decapitated the warrior of spite in a single instant.

It loved tormenting humans, but it loved destroying hope even more, and the looks on everyone else's faces were priceless as they all realized the same conclusion a second after the attack was over.

Davi Hawker was dead.

Chapter 68: She Killed Him Once, She'd Kill Him Again

It was a place she had seen before. That was the first thing that Olivia realized as the second dungeon appeared, dragging her and the others in.

It wasn’t unheard of for a dungeon to reappear in the world after it was conquered and sealed away. There wasn’t an infinite number of dungeons. It was unknown how many truly existed, but rooms or areas would often be repeated and used as dungeons stacked on top of each other, and appeared. When a Knight slayed the boss, the dungeon would shift and alter, leaving the world behind and entering into what was believed to be a pocket realm.

This realm hadn’t been thoroughly studied since the Knights couldn’t make it over, but the elves had research that had been left behind when they were all wiped out. The ‘pocket realm’ appeared to be something that the elves had been able to enter and leave freely and was thought to be where all the natural monsters of the world remained. When a dungeon was cleared, it would reappear in this zone, and eventually, a new monster would find it, claim it as its own, and cause it to reappear somewhere in the real world once more randomly.

Despite all of that, though, it was next to impossible for a mage to stumble into the same dungeon twice due to the random nature of dungeons. They wouldn’t just reappear randomly in space but also in time. A dungeon that had been cleared out in Estiria could suddenly appear in Mordheim seconds later, or it could appear in the middle of the ocean hundreds of years later. The probability of it appearing in the same nation and time that it had previously been in was already minuscule. Because of this fact, Olivia knew right away that something had to be wrong because the dungeon she was in was one she should have never seen again for as long as she lived.

It was a stone hallway that stretched out. She, along with the others, all stood in the center of it. Behind them were massive steps that led up, and in front of them, further down the hallway, was a giant door. On either side of the walls were coffins, each bigger than a house, and the floor was lined with dozens of pressure plates that could trigger any number of attacks.

All the resolve she had built up faded as Olivia’s eyes stared at everything in horror. The others were also looking around in fear, but for a much different reason. The horror that gripped them was the fear of the unknown, but for her, it was the opposite. She knew this place very well.

This was where Garon died.

Nori let out a nervous chuckle, and he tugged on his robes, feeling a bit flustered all of a sudden. “I always thought a double dungeon was a myth. The air feels so thick and heavy as well.” He groaned a bit and took a step back.

“No!” Olivia suddenly snapped toward him. “Don’t do that—”

Nori’s foot stepped down a second too late, and there was a loud click. The room rumbled, and a massive boulder dropped from the sky, ramming into the ground and rapidly rolling toward them.

Sune finally acted and drew her sword. It was a long and silver rapier, which she thrust out. Despite the weapon being so thin and the boulder being a giant ball of stone, her weapon pierced right through it, causing dozens of spider-like cracks to form out. The rock shattered into dust, but unfortunately, while she had been doing that, she triggered another trap from her fast movements. A click echoed through the chambers, and a hail of arrows began to blast out in all directions.

Sune’s body glowed with traces of mana, and she barely flinched as the arrows bounced off her skin. The others weren’t quite as skilled in protecting themselves as she was, but luckily, Ash was able to act fast enough to save them all. “Row Wind Barrier!” A ball of wind exploded out of the tip of his wand and formed a bubble of air around himself and the rest of team Olivia. The air spun fast enough to block the arrows and send them flying away before they could reach them.

“Good thinking.” Emma let out a sigh of relief and patted Ash on the back.

“Don’t thank me yet; we’re not in the clear.” Ash winced as the arrows rammed into his barrier over and over again. “These arrows are also a pain in the ass to deal with.”

“They’re going to last for a while, from what I remember,” Olivia muttered.

“You remember?” Nori stared at her with sudden suspicion. “Have you been here before?”

“Yeah, I have.” Olivia nodded.

Ash raised an eyebrow. “You were in a dungeon besides the Salamander one?”

“I was.”

“And isn’t that strange?” Nori’s eyes narrowed further.

“What are you trying to imply?” Ash shot the noble a dirty look.

Nori folded his arms. “A double dungeon is already statistically unlikely, but not only did one happen, it’s the same dungeon one of us has been to?” Nori stared at Olivia, his eyes flashing through different levels of suspicion. “Your mana has felt strange, but it’s been getting thicker the longer I’ve been around you. It’s suffocating. Like it’s trying to squeeze around me. It feels off as well. I’ve heard of mana like this. It’s rare, but some people have mana that is inhuman due to having the ties of elven blood within their veins.”

“Are you saying one of my parents was an elf?” Olivia raised an eyebrow.

Nori shook his head. “It’d be an ancestor. The elves were all wiped out hundreds of years ago, after all.” The man rubbed his chin. “Despite that, though, some people have the blood of those pointy-eared bastards since their ancestors were traitors and mated with those abominations. These people are extremely resistant to the air of a dungeon but also attract dungeons to their location. Some say they can even summon it. So what are the chances you happened to fall into both a double-dungeon and a dungeon you’d been in before versus you being cursed?”

“If you want to think I’m cursed, then go ahead.” Olivia turned her back on the man. “I was born with blood magic. Anything you could insult me with is something I’ve heard before.”

Nori looked away, suddenly ashamed. “Yeah, that’s true. I guess I got ahead of myself. This place has me troubled. Even if you are the reason, I doubt you did it yourself.”

Olivia blinked, taken aback. “Did we just come to a peaceful agreement? That almost never happens.” She shook her head and glanced back at Sune. “Are you okay?”

Sune stood outside of the barrier, still being hit with arrows, but they weren’t bothering her. The woman nodded her head and casually brushed her hair back. “We need to head for the exit. This dungeon, luckily, doesn’t feel like a powerful one. If we can make it to the gateway, we can step out and reenter the first one. When a double-dungeon is made, the boss in the second dungeon can’t leave due to the layered barriers of twisting space, so anything in here won’t be able to escape. The dungeons will become unseparated when the one you cleared fades away, and both should return to the void they came from.”

Olivia pointed toward the large stairs. “Luckily, the way out should be up there.”

“We seriously lucked out then.” Emma let out a sigh of relief. “We could have appeared anywhere in this dungeon, but arrived directly at the exit? That’s lucky.”

Olivia frowned, feeling a bit uneasy. She was never this lucky. “We should go now.”

Ash winced as his barrier shook. “I’ll try to keep this shield up for as long as I can. Let’s hurry, though.”

The moment they took a step, that uneasy feeling Olivia had in her stomach expanded, and she felt a shiver go down her back. A grinding sound echoed through the tunnel, and the large doors behind them began to unfold and open. Flickers of orange mana began to seep through the cracks, and the group stopped and turned. The aura in the air changed, becoming thicker, and it almost pressed down on each of them.

Sune narrowed her eyes and winced. Everything began to grow hot as well. Fire seeped past the door, and with every second that passed, the mana and heat grew more intense. Something was walking forward.

Olivia had already been afraid just by being here, but what she saw next made her let out a cry of pure terror.

“Oh? Olivia? Have you come to watch me die again?”

Garon’s face twisted into a smirk that was far too big. At least it sort of looked like Garon. Gone was his handsome face. His teeth were jagged and mawed, twisting out of his mouth. Half his face was covered in red scales that danced along his flesh. One of his eyes was bulging out of his skull and was wide and yellow. His limbs were also longer, jutting out of his body, his right arm touching the ground. It still clutched the dagger he had used when he first fought her, and fire was pouring out of various cracks that were along his body. His left arm was massive, and where his hand should have been was the pale white head of the snake Davi had slain, a frosty mist pouring out of it. Finally, a snake-like tail jutted out of Garon’s back and smacked the ground as he walked.

“You came back for me, didn’t you? You wanted seconds, right?” Garon’s twisted face cocked to the side. “Killing me once wasn’t enough for you, was it, you sicko? You had to see it twice? Well, get a good look at me! I’m what you made me!”

Garon laughed and launched himself forward with blinding speed. Fire gushed out of his body, sending him out like a rocket, and he blew past Sune and reached the barrier. He swung out with his arm, and the knife smashed through Ash’s wind shield, shattering it. Everything moved in slow motion for Olivia as the knife came toward her face, but at the last second, Sune twisted forward and swung her rapier up, deflecting Garon’s blade. At the same time, she pointed her hand back toward the others.

“Row Gravity Pull!”

Olivia, Ash, Emma, and Nori all found themselves smashed into the floor by an invisible force just in time as the barrage of arrows launched above them, narrowly missing.

Garon let out a cry and attempted to swing at Sune, but she used more gravity magic to boost her body's natural speed, allowing her to zip past him. She rammed her weapon forward, and it met true, but Garon’s scales were tough, the blade bouncing off his neck. His large snake arm opened its mouth and attempted to bite Sune in two, but she ducked under it, dodging it just in time.

She took several steps back and grunted. The monster she was fighting wasn’t very powerful compared to others, but two different dungeons were enhancing it, and she was being weakened by two dungeons as well, leaving her only with a little over half her normal power. Even so, she was confident she could win if she had to go all out.

“Alright, game’s over, you four get out of here,” Sune called back.

“We can help, though,” Ash argued.

Sune shook her head. “No. You can’t. Now leave. That’s an order. The exit is right up there. Go and—” Sune was cut off as Garon roared and sent out a wave of fire. He was more monster than man and no longer needed to say a spell name. The fire simply roared to life and danced through the air. “Row Gravity Wall!” The air grew exceptionally compressed and dense in front of Sune, blocking the fire that rammed into it as if an unseen barrier stood before her. “Go! Now!”

Garon lifted his snake arm, and a wave of frost exploded out of its mouth, mixing with the fire and slamming harder into Sune’s barrier, actually making it crack.

Olivia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood but finally nodded. “Ash, create your bird for you and me. Nori, you carry Emma. We’ll all fly toward the exit.”

“What about the arrows?” Nori asked flatly.

“Emma, you can deal with them, right?” Olivia asked.

Emma gave a hesitant nod. “I can twist space for a moment and cause the arrows to go a different way, but it won’t last long. We’ll have to be fast.”

“One wrong move and we’ll be full of holes.” Nori hissed.

“Then don’t make a wrong move.” Olivia shrugged. “Emma.”

Emma took a deep breath. “Row Spatial Clearing.” The area above her shimmered, and suddenly the arrows that were flying forward vanished and reappeared in front of Garon, smashing into him but not harming him. “Okay! Now!”

“Row Glass Wings!”

“Row Wind Bird!”

Nori sprouted his wings, and Ash created his falcon of wind, expanding and growing it to as big a size as he could. The air twisted and shaped beneath him and Olivia, and the bird was large enough to hold both of them on its back as it flew up. Nori wrapped his arms around Emma’s waist and carried her up as well. The four of them got just high enough to avoid the storm of arrows as Emma’s magic ended and they began to fly toward the exit.

While they did that, Sune dropped her barrier and used another spell. “Row Gravity Lift.” She launched into the air, flying up, allowing her to avoid the wave of fire and ice that blew through the tunnel. She twisted herself and then used another spell. “Row Gravity Pull!” She came rocketing down, her body way heavier, and she rammed her rapier forward, using it as a spear and stabbing it straight through Garon’s eye. It came out of the back of his head, and if he had still been a human, that would have been the win, but he wasn’t.

Garon laughed and attempted to stab Sune with his dagger, but she used her gravity magic again to lift herself up above him. She was floating in the air, holding onto the rapier that was going through his head, and she pulled herself down, planting her boots on his shoulders. Her other hand came down, and she gripped the blade that came out the other side of the monster’s skull. Once she had the weapon from both sides, she twisted her arms.

“Vil Gravity Pull.” Sune pulled Garon’s head to the side, and there was a terrible snapping sound as his head twisted all the way around. She didn’t stop, though, and kept going. “Vil Gravity Lift.” His head began to jerk up while she kept twisting, and eventually the flesh around his throat fully snapped, and with one final yank, she pulled his head off. Garon’s body dropped back, and Sune flipped off of it, landing on the ground. She flicked her rapier out and sent the head flying off and used one more spell. “Row Gravity Crush.” The head twisted and popped as an intense force pressed down and popped it.

Sune let out a sigh of relief and lowered her weapon. She was about to turn and head toward the others, but before she could, Garon’s body jerked forward and his arm expanded, growing out in size. Sune jumped to the side, avoiding the attack, but the knife he held grazed her, cutting into part of her stomach.

She winced and grabbed at her wound but was mostly fine. “Damn? You’re still alive?” The snake's head hissed, and the body began to stand up. “I guess I’ll need to take that head out as well.” Sune sighed. “I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy—”

She couldn’t move.

One moment, she had been talking, and the next, her entire body froze, her mouth still wide open. Her muscles locked up, and her body stopped responding to her commands. The knife had done its trick.

In a panic, she surged her mana through her body to filter her systems, and her body began to move, but before she could react, the knife rammed into her side again, this time stabbing her head-on. If she had a moment, she’d be able to get the venom out of her, but Garon’s body wasn’t going to give her that chance. She froze up again, and the snake's head also grew and expanded. In an instant, its jaws wrapped around the arm that held her sword up, and it twisted. Bones snapped, and Sune would have screamed if she could have, as her arm was torn clean off her body.

Back at the staircase, Ash and Nori landed and placed Olivia and Emma down. “Alright.” Nori nodded toward the exit. It was right up ahead. At the top of the stairs was what looked like the opening to a cave, and directly past, he could see the lava fields of the last dungeon. “Let’s go—”

“Wait.” Olivia caused them all to stop. She turned back and stared out across the tunnel. “Sune needs our help.”

“She can handle herself—” Nori was cut off when he turned just in time to see Sune’s arm be torn clean off. “Oh fuck.”

“She lost?” Ash asked in horror.

“If she couldn’t beat that monster, then what hope do we have?” Emma asked.

Nori nodded. “Emma is right. Sune is sacrificing herself so we can escape. We should go.”

Ash hesitated but slowly nodded. “She gave us an order. We need to go—”

“Are all three of you stupid?” Olivia shocked herself with the words that came out of her. She couldn’t help it, though. She stared back at the three others. “This is the test of Courage.”

Ash clenched his teeth and shook his head. “This isn’t part of the test!”

“Okay?” Olivia nodded. “So we leave, and what? We head back to Rose? ‘Oh yeah, that Knight you gave us is dead because we ran away and let her be killed.’ Yeah, I’m sure the Arcane Knights are going to be totally cool with that outcome.”

“Who the hell cares about what they think!” Nori finally raised his voice and yelled out. “It’s life or death right now!”

“So it wasn’t earlier?” Olivia’s eyes narrowed. “We went into this mission knowing we could die. That was what we were told over and over again. This isn’t a simulation. It’s a real test. One to see how we handle ourselves. Nothing has changed since this test started. The only difference is your resolve. Was all it took to break all of you a single serious threat? Damn, I didn’t realize you guys were all such big babies.” She turned away from them. “I’m going to go help Sune.”

“Wait.” Ash hesitated and growled. “What can you do? You’re useless! You only have two more spells, right? Do you really think that will be enough?”

Olivia glanced back and shrugged. “Maybe I am useless. If I am, though, it makes me wonder what you three are.” She looked down the stairs and toward the monster. “I might die. I’m scared, of course. Still, if I can, shouldn’t I do something? I said I want to be like Davi, and he’s always helping everyone he can, even if he says he doesn’t. I want to be an Arcane Knight. A Knight that can save everyone. So that’s what I’m going to do.”

She had already made up her mind before this test had even begun. She was either going to become an Arcane Knight or she wasn’t. To Olivia Lot, death and failure had become one and the same. She wasn’t risking her life in this moment because she had been doing that since before the very first exam.

She was going to do it.

She was going to become an Arcane Knight. Or, she would meet her end and die here.

Either way, she was going to try.

“I killed him once; I’ll kill him again.”

Chapter 69: Her End

Sune felt herself smash into the stone wall. The barrage of arrows kept coming, many smashing into the back of her head. Luckily for her, even with her body frozen, she was able to keep her mana circulating around herself in order to protect her flesh.

Unfortunately, that did very little to block Garon’s attack, which dug into her body. The snake's head kept attacking, frosty mist gushing out of its maws as it tore into her side, freezing part of her stomach and tearing a chunk off. She tried to cry out again, but she couldn’t. Just as her body was about to be able to move, the other arm lunged out and rammed its dagger into her shoulder, freezing her up again.

If given enough time, her body would be able to build up an immunity to the effect and not freeze up, but the monster wasn’t giving her the chance. It just kept attacking.

It was kind of a terrifying fact to know that she was about to die, but Sune was also able to stay calm and keep her emotions in check. This wasn’t the first time she had been nearly killed, but it was the first time her body had been ripped apart in such an ugly way.

With the state of her arm, it was next to impossible for it to be recovered through healing magic, meaning it was likely gone forever. Healing magic could reattach limbs, but regrowing them from nothing was something only people in Haru’s time could do. Her days as a swordsman were over.

This mission should have been simple. She and the other Knights were supposed to serve as guides for the new recruits and go on a simple mission. She didn’t know what quest she had been given, but she knew it had been a fake one in order to test the recruits out properly. She should have known something was wrong the moment she entered the dungeon and saw that it was that damn castle.

It was a dungeon only Father had ever seen, and one he had preached about, for it was where the four Rulers used to meet during the times of old. This mission was anything but simple.

Sune often wondered if her life would have been better if she had remained in her homeland. She hadn’t been born in Estiria and instead came from Gallenth. As a kid, she worshipped the Titans, much like most of Gallenth’s people did, and she had the desire to become a Sovereign Philosopher and pilot her very own Titan, but her dreams were cut short, like many in her nation, when she learned she didn’t have the spark of Prince Sylas, meaning it was impossible for her to become a Sovereign Philosopher.

Instead, she did what many did when they weren’t able to join their nation's group. She lashed out and ran away from home and pledged her allegiance to the kingdom that openly accepted strays. Haru’s mana could rival any Titan, any spirit, or any magical sword that any of the other nations might try to unleash.

Somehow, Sune had been able to join, and she served on the Knights for years. She didn’t have any Knight gear, but she was soon going to be promoted, from what whispers said. She just had to be patient.

Now, as she lay dying, the monster looming over her, Sune couldn’t help but wonder if she made the right choice. In a lot of ways, the Kingdom of Estiria was corrupt, but it was still far better than the other lands. Still, was betraying her home country the right move? Would her life have been better if she had stayed where she was and joined Gallenth's military instead?

Unlikely.

It hadn’t been the best time, but she had fun as an Arcane Knight. She laughed, she played, she made friends, and she lived. The monster might kill her, but Sune was confident that she would have managed to get everyone the time they needed to escape. So, even as the beast began to loom over her and aimed for her head, Sune did not falter.

“Row Spatial Clearing!”

The arrows suddenly flickered and twisted, all of them ramming into the monster. The head of the snake twisted, Garon’s limbs jerking around as it roared. From up above, Ash and Emma landed.

“Row Wind Barrier!” Ash jumped in front of Emma and lifted his wand up, forming a barrier of compressed wind around himself and Emma. While he did that, Emma pulled her guns out and pressed them directly into Ash’s back. She began to pull the trigger, but bullets never hit Ash and instead reappeared behind the snake monster, jamming into its spine. It was insanely enhanced, though, and she was crazy weak, so her attack did less than nothing.

The snake hissed, and it fired forward, heat launching out of its feet. Its knife jutted out and rammed directly into Ash’s barrier, shattering it, but before the knife could go further, it was stopped by a second barrier!

Up above in the air, Ash’s bird flew around, and so when he put his shield up, he had actually used two, each one stacked on top of the other.

“Row Wind Blast!” Ash jutted his wand out and canceled his barrier, sending two blasts of air that didn’t damage the monster but did shove it back. He was only able to do this thanks to Emma, who kept her other spell going, causing more air to funnel into his attack, making it far stronger than usual. It still wasn’t enough to damage the enemy, though. “Row Wind Barrier!” He put his two shields back up, and once again the monster charged.

While that happened, Olivia and Nori landed next to the injured Sune. “Vil Glass Bug.” He held the tip of his finger up, but nothing happened, causing him to curse. “Shit. I can’t even use a spell on the level of Vil?”

“We are being weakened.” Olivia winced. “Just do what you can.”

Nori nodded and used a weaker spell. “Row Glass Bug.” This time, his molten glass twisted off his finger, and two ants, molded out of clear glass, dropped to the ground. Normally, he could make four, and with Vil, they’d be a lot bigger, but he was being hindered by the dungeon. “Row Glass Mold.” With his two ants, he was able to use his spell three times in a single instant, but doing so instantly made him feel sick. He was already almost out of mana just from that. It made him wonder how Ash was doing so well and how Sune had been able to use so many high-level spells while under the same effect he was. “Okay. I’m healing her.”

Glass shards danced out of Nori’s flesh as well as the two tiny ants, and they began to piece themselves into jagged cuts and wounds along Sune’s body. He was too weak to properly heal her, and even at full strength, he couldn’t recover her missing arm, but he could, at the very least, ensure she didn’t instantly die.

While he did that, Olivia looked down at Sune. “Sorry, Ms. Sune… This is gonna be kind of awkward and weird, but… Anyway.” Olivia got on her hands and knees and hesitated for a moment before forcing her face forward and sinking her teeth into Sune’s gut wound. She shivered from how gross it was but forced herself to drink, consuming some of Sune’s blood. Her body suddenly twitched for a moment, and Olivia could feel a new substance taking root in her veins. She pulled away and wiped her mouth and placed a hand over her heart, focusing. “Row Blood Recover.”

For once, using a spell didn’t actually drain her. When she used Blood Recover, she would use her own blood up to an equal amount of the blood she recovered. Because of that, the spell was useless for the most part since she’d use a pint of blood to regain a pint of blood. That blood she would remake, though, was a perfect replica of the blood she was trying to recover. This was good for when she was healing other people. She could give up a bit of her blood and recover that person's blood equal to the amount she gave up, but if she ever used it on herself, it would basically do nothing, as if she were damaged and bleeding, she’d be using her own blood to restore her blood.

Maybe if she were better at the school of Restoration or could cast the spell at a higher level, that wouldn’t be the case, but she couldn’t do that.

Today was a very rare exception, however. She used her blood to restore and multiply the blood she had just consumed from Sune. In a single instant, a pint of her blood faded away, and a pint of Sune’s poisoned blood refilled that gap.

Filling her veins with someone else’s blood likely wasn’t healthy, but she was a blood mage, and it should be fine.

Probably…

Olivia kept the spell up over and over again until at least half of her blood was filled with the venom. She had already built up a tolerance to it and had an exceptionally high poison resistance, so she could handle it. Her body still shuddered, and she turned just in time to see Garon’s body launching itself at Ash and Emma again.

The monster’s arm struck out. It shattered the first barrier, and Ash tried to do the same thing he did last time, but Garon learned his lesson and dodged to the side, totally avoiding the strike. He struck out again and shattered the second barrier. Ash would have had his head torn clean off, but Emma wrapped her arms around his waist and yanked both of them down just in time.

Olivia jumped forward and landed on Ash’s back. “Row Blood Scythe!” The snake looked startled to see her, and the arm wrapped around its own body dozens of times, covering it in a layer of scales right as she brought her scythe down. Her weapon did nothing. Her plan had been to aim for the neck where it was wounded, but the snake blocked Garon’s neck off by filling in the gap with its arms and its body. She couldn’t pierce it. Her attack failed.

Olivia gritted her teeth and tried to muster up all the mana she could, but it wasn’t enough. She pressed down on the scythe with everything she had, but the scales were just too tough for her. The other arm struck out, and she nearly cried out in pain as the knife rammed into her stomach. She felt her arms weaken, and it began to twist the weapon, spilling her blood down her stomach, but she didn’t stop; she kept trying.

She couldn’t do it, though. She just wasn’t strong enough to get through the scales. Maybe if the dungeon hadn’t been a double dungeon, she could have done it, but she was just too weak. The knife began to dig into her stomach, getting further in, and Olivia felt tears of frustration pierce her eyes, but she still didn’t stop.

There had to be something she could do, right? Luckily for her, there was. She just needed to keep her weapon steady.

“V—Vil Gravity Pull.”

In an instant, Olivia felt her scythe suddenly double in weight. Then it tripled. Then quadrupled. More and more, her weapon grew heavy and dense, and her arms gave out, unable to hold it. But it had gained so much weight that the snake scales could no longer withstand the tip that was pressing into them. The snake hissed as several of its scales cracked and twisted, and then the weapon pressed further into it before fully stabbing down and ripping into its throat.

The beast roared in pain, but Olivia yelled and shoved on her weapon even harder. It wouldn’t be enough to kill the monster, but that was okay. She wasn’t aiming to kill it. Just halt it.

She used a lot more blood than she normally did to create her scythe, pulling out all the venom that she could. Of course, the venom came from the snake, and so it was only natural that it would have a tolerance for its own substance. Still, she forced all the venom along her weapon to enter the wound she created, pumping it full of its own substance, and then she used her final spell for the day.

“Row Blood Recover.”

She used as much blood as she could without dying and forced the blood in the snake to rapidly double. Her own body had already been pumped full of such a ridiculous amount of venom that it should have killed her, and now all of that substance was shoved into the snake and then further doubled. Snakes had evolved to be resistant and immune to their own venom, but if more of their blood was poisonous, then they’d eventually fall victim to it.

The snake’s eyes suddenly went wide, and it dropped back, collapsing to the floor. It didn’t freeze up, but the amount of poison in its veins was definitely having an effect because it began to spasm and twitch, shaking all over the place. It was even foaming a bit, having a seizure, but it wouldn’t be long before that ended, and it recovered. Maybe only a few seconds max.

Olivia slid off the knife and dropped to the ground, smacking her head on the stone floor. She vomited her guts up and nearly blacked out. That was four spells. Two uses of the scythe and two uses of the recover, one of which didn’t actually drain her. What little blood she had left was leaking out of her through her stomach wound.

Ash quickly jumped up and managed to scoop her up into his arms. Emma had been using the same spell over and over again to keep the arrows from hitting them, but it was clear she was getting low on mana because she also wobbled. Ash cursed, called his bird down, put Olivia and Emma on it, and caused it to fly up. He reached up and grabbed it by the talon, letting it pick him up as well, but the construct was awkwardly slow and barely able to lift above the arrows.

Nori regrew his wings and grabbed Sune, also lifting into the air. The five of them rapidly began to head for the exit.

“Why did you come back?” Sune groaned.

“Blame the Face.” Nori sighed. “She somehow managed to convince us to help. Came up with this plan as well. You said the monster can’t escape the dungeon, right? So all we have to do is get to the exit.”

Sune gave a weak nod. “Yeah. I guess all of us living is better than one of us dying.”

They were just about to make it to the stairs when the roar pierced out. Due to Ash carrying three different people with his construct, the group was moving a lot slower than usual. The snake came crashing down from the sky right as they got to the top step. The beast had already recovered and was more pissed than ever before. It rammed down into the bird and shattered it, sending Ash, Olivia, and Emma to the ground.

Nori also landed, but only because Sune forced her way out of his arms and landed on her feet. The entrance was right there, but she lunged for the monster instead.

The snake ignored her, though, and wrapped Garon’s body around the downed Olivia. Then it began to glow and pulse, sparking in a bright orange glow as fire started to radiate off of it. Olivia weakly glanced at the monster, knowing what was about to happen.

Just like how Garon blew himself up the first time, the monster was planning to do the same. Sune was trying to make her way over, but the woman wasn’t going to make it in time. The corpse of Garon would have killed one or two of them, but with how close they were to the door, several of them would have been able to escape, but the monster didn’t want that. It wanted to take them all with it, because that’s what Garon had wanted.

Everything seemed to slow down. Olivia couldn’t move. Her body was way too weak. Her regeneration was working overtime, going faster than it ever had before, and some blood was returning, but not enough to cast a spell without dying. If she did anything, she’d die. If she did nothing, she’d die.

She was already dead. If she was dead, then she failed. She wouldn’t be a Knight. So, in other words, she had nothing to lose. Olivia wrapped her arms around the waist of the snake and held it close.

“Row Blood Barrier.”

It was small and pathetic. It was barely able to cover her and the snake up. Her blood formed a tiny dome over herself and the monster, pressing them further into the ground. It appeared just in time as the creature exploded into a hail of fire. It didn’t matter to Olivia, though. That had been the last of her blood.

She was already dead.

Everything faded away in a blinding flash, and for her, the third exam came to an end.

Chapter 70: His End

‘I feel empty?’ Davi felt different. It was hard to describe, but one moment he was staring at the dragon, and the next thing he knew, he was looking at his back. ‘Oh? Is that me?’

Davi’s head crashed to the icy floor, and he watched as his suit of armor collapsed to its knees and then fell over. His head had been torn clean off.

‘Shit.’

He was dead.

Dead before he could even come up with a plan or figure out what he needed to do. It wasn’t fair. He finally found the beast that ruined everything, and then in an instant, he was dead and gone. What sort of cruel joke was it?

Davi was forced to watch as the world began to fade away. He was dying. Losing control over his brain functions, everything was shutting off. He felt his rage double and triple and grow even more, but it wasn’t enough. As a head, he could do nothing but fade away.

Davi felt himself lying down. He felt himself bleeding out. He felt his brain shutting off. His nerves ending. Still, his rage grew.

‘I just wanted to do something. Anything. Please. Move.’

The others were screaming now.

‘Move.’

The dragon turned to look at the rest of the group. Ken stepped away in fear, and her body shook.

‘Move, move, move, move.’

The dragon was laughing, and Ken shuddered. Was this the end for her? Was she about to die here?

‘Move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move—’

Ken’s eyes flashed before her eyes, and at the same time, unseen by everyone else, Davi’s body moved.

***

Eight years ago…

“What is an Arcane Knight?”

“Oh? And why are you asking about this, Lord Ken?” Feng gave a soft chuckle as he walked down the forest path. “Are you perhaps interested in joining them?”

Ken Yuan felt her face heat up a bit, and she let out a soft hiss. “Of course not, you idiot!” She would have swatted her teacher, but unfortunately, her arms were wrapped around his neck, as he carried her on his back due to the broken ankle she currently sported. “You once told me that you were hunted by the Knights, though?”

Feng let out a soft hum, and the tip of his nose twitched slightly as he suddenly recalled a bad memory. “Yes, Estiria was my homeland. That was years ago, though. Your father’s father’s father wasn’t even born yet.” The man let out a soft chuckle. “I doubt the Knights even recall what name I used to go by.”

Feng was a very old man, though he didn’t look a day over thirty. He had pale skin that was almost the color of snow. Long black hair cascaded down his back, and he wore white robes that clung to his skin. What was most notable about Feng was the jagged scar that went across his eyes, leaving him blind.

A wound he had received during his time in Estiria.

“They drove me out of my home.” Feng's smile faded for a moment, but it soon returned. “Luckily, the Yuan family took me in. I suppose I should count myself lucky that Han’s bloodline is so kind. I got to serve your family, and in turn, I got to teach you. Of that I am grateful. You alone will be the Lord who stands at the top. There is always a silver lining, huh?”

Ken let out a huff and shook her head. “Those people sound terrible. The Arcane Knights are truly disgusting if they ran someone as nice as you out of their land.”

Feng gave a light chuckle. “It’s not so simple, Lord Ken.”

“How isn’t it simple?” Ken hissed. “The Knights attacked you and drove you out of your land, forcing you to come here?”

Feng stopped for a moment and stood on the path he had been marching through. The forest was enclosed and dark, with hundreds of oak trees all around them. Eventually, he looked up and spotted what he had sensed. A hawk flew through the air. Ken also spotted it watching the animal fly around.

“Do you see that bird?”

“Yeah?” Ken asked, confused. “What about it?”

“Do you ever think the other animals get jealous of it?” Feng questioned.

“What kind of question is that?” Ken made a face.

Feng’s kind smile returned, and he gave a lazy shrug while still holding her on his back. “I think they do get jealous. They live down here, while the hawk lives up there. They always see it, totally free and unburdened from the rest of the world. Despite that, they leave it be because there is nothing they can do. Their lives and the life of the bird are separate. To the bird, the animals down here hardly matter as well. It hunts when and what it wants as it wants, and that’s as close as it gets to being part of the world that is this forest. What happens when it gets greedy, though?”

“What do you mean?” Ken asked softly.

“The hawk gets hungry, so it swoops down and it eats its prey,” Feng explained. “It’s a mighty creature, and the other animals can’t do anything to stop it, so they sadly have to lose one of their members. Life moves on, and things remain in balance. What happens if the bird isn’t happy with the meal it caught, though? Maybe its belly had grown fatter, and it requires more. Maybe it isn’t even about the food now, but rather the rush it gets. The hawk swoops down and takes another prey hostage on the same day. Again and again and again it does this over and over, getting more and more until it isn’t even about survival or a circle anymore. Suddenly, the world the animals have come to know is forced to change. Before they stood by and allowed their kind to die and be eaten, for there was nothing they could do, but when pushed to the brink, the animals will have no choice but to fight back. After all, if they’re going to die, they might as well take the hawk out with them, right?”

“This isn’t about the hawk, is it?” Ken winced.

Feng just chuckled again and finally began to walk. “The hawk gets away, but not unscathed. Its wings have been ripped off, and its eyes torn out. It escapes the forest and flees. Are the animals who fought back in their hour of need to blame for what has become of the hawk, or is it the foolish bird who grew too wrathful and failed to understand that prey can fight back?”

“I still don’t think the Knights should have done what they did to you, though,” Ken said after a while. “You’re one of the nicest people I know.”

Feng let out a soft snort. “Lord Ken, you barely know anyone. You’re quite antisocial, aren’t you?”

“Hey!”

Feng’s look softened. “They were protecting what they held dear. I can still remember seeing it for the first time. It almost makes me regret my actions, as I’ll never see something like that ever again. They did the best they could with what they had, and I paid the price. Maybe one day you’ll see them in action as well. It’s truly a marvelous sight, watching a Knight do everything it can to protect that which it holds dear.”

“Protect that which it holds dear?” Ken’s look changed slightly, and she wrapped her arms tighter around her teacher, holding him. “That does sound nice…”

Feng stepped out of the forest, the winding path leading to a large palace in the distance. “Well, shall we get you home, Lord Ken? I’m sure your brother is worried sick.”

“Yeah.” Ken nodded. “Let’s go home.”

***

Ken didn’t know why that memory went through her mind. It ticked her off a bit that she was recalling such a thing. Was this what they called ‘having your life flash before your eyes’?

If that was the case, then did that mean she was about to die?

Of course she was. There was a fucking dragon in front of her.

She was going to die. There was no way around that fact. The blizzard she stood in was insanely cold, but it was nothing compared to the heat that was coming off of the dragon’s body. Even with her natural fire resistance, it wasn’t enough. If not for Jack Larison’s mana barrier, she likely would have burned alive. That alone was a scary fact.

Cain was doing about as well as she was, but Ruby was having a full-blown panic attack. The red-haired girl was on her knees, breathing heavily, had already thrown up, and looked to be completely shut down.

Ken could hardly blame her, though. The same thing nearly happened to her when she watched Davi’s head be torn clean off his body. One moment, he had powered up so much that she was convinced the chi he was giving off was greater than her own, and then the next, he was dead. Killed by the Dragon in a single hit.

The dragon itself was already terrifying just looking at it, but the enormous amount of chi that was radiating off of it nearly made Ken lose control of her bladder. If not for Feng’s training, she likely would have.

Davi’s body was on the ground, blood still pouring from the neck wound, and near her feet was his helmeted severed head. She had been looking down at it instead of the dragon the entire time. His shadowy armor remained behind, one hand still clutching its sword, but that’s all it did. Without a doubt, he was dead. Killed in an instant.

“Go.” Jack took a cautious step forward. “The plan doesn’t change. We’re just down a member now. Go and I’ll—” The dragon almost seemed to snicker, and it began to stand up on its four legs. “Go!” Jack yelled, and his blue energy crackled out of him wildly and untamed. “Now! Row Imagination Hand!”

Jack’s mana surged out and filled the air, twisting into what looked like a massive hand. It was made out of pure magic and landed in front of him, its palm out. The giant hand was ready for whatever attack the dragon would throw his way, or at least Jack thought it was, but the dragon only chuckled more and casually lifted a hand.

Slowly, it brought its arm forward, its claw poked out, and it began to easily puncture into the construct. While that happened, the others took off running, leaving Jack behind.

Ken was in the lead, followed by Cain, who was forced to fling Ruby over his shoulder since the girl shut down and looked to be in an unconscious state despite her eyes being open. Ken glanced back, watching as Jack yelled out another spell and swung both his swords at the dragon, but it wasn’t enough. The dragon’s nail jerked forward with sudden blinding speed and rammed directly through Jack’s stomach and out his back. Then it twisted and tore the man’s upper body off of his lower one, ripping him straight in two.

So much for the Imaginary Knight…

Ken nearly screamed in frustration but focused on running ahead. She looked around wildly, like an animal that had been cornered, but she saw nothing for miles. It was just snow and ice that stretched on and on. How big was this dungeon? Where was the barrier? These were questions she didn’t know, and she doubted they mattered, as the dragon took a single, thundering step forward and flapped its wings.

Everything exploded in a hail of ice as the force of the wings shoved Cain and Ken down and sent Ruby flying out of Cain’s arms. Tornados ripped through the area, and Ken forced herself to look back and see the dragon was already halfway toward them with just a single step.

Ken was about to get up and sprint away again, but something else caught her attention. When the Dragon flapped its wings, Davi’s head had also been caught in the blast. The helmet rolled her way and once more landed in front of her. She didn’t know why, but her eyes were drawn to it. She felt a twist in her gut as she looked at it. She barely knew Davi, but he had been friends with Olivia, and that white-haired girl had caught her full attention.

Davi had jumped to the rescue when she first fought Olivia, and in the battle with that noble brat, he had allowed himself to lose, even though she knew he could win. He also didn’t seem hostile to her despite the fact that they had fought and even threw himself at the dragon first as if he could save them all.

What confused her most, though, was the armor he was now wearing. How long had he had something like this up his sleeve? The spell was potent, all the more impressive since he was being nerfed into the ground by the two dungeons, yet still managed to pull it out. It frustrated her to no end because he hadn’t bothered to use such a thing on her. Was she not worthy? Was he mocking her? It didn’t matter anymore since he was dead, but it still caused her blood to boil. Even she knew the tale of the Ebony Knight, and this armor was precisely how she had pictured that cursed warrior to look.

“Ken!” Cain’s words caused her to tear her head away from the severed head, and she looked toward the silver-haired man. He once again had Ruby over his shoulder and was running. “Come on!”

Ken got up and was about to run but stopped and glanced back at the dragon. It was watching and smirking.

An arrogant hawk that was going to eat more than it should.

“Cain.” Cain didn’t stop running but looked back at Ken just in time to see her throw something his way. He caught it and stared down at a gourd. It was red and gold with various letters in an unknown language going across it, and it felt warm to the touch. Just holding it fought off the cold that was biting into him. “Get Yujin and yourself out of here.” Ken hadn’t budged an inch and instead raised her arms up in front of her. “I guess I’ll buy you a few seconds.”

Cain wanted to argue, but he couldn’t. The truth was, he had actually been planning to dump Ruby if it came to it to buy himself an extra second. Cain looked away and kept running.

Ken stood in the blizzard feeling colder than ever, even as the mighty beast of fire stood before her. “Alright.” She called up to it. “Get ready because I’m going to kick your ass—”

Instantly, Ken felt a wave of pain explode through her, and she tumbled back several feet. Her chi had been on full blast, but it didn’t matter. The entire left side of her stomach was now gone. A sea of red flooded out of her, and Ken nearly vomited. The dragon’s tail lazily flicked the ground. Just like Davi, faster than she could see, it had torn through her. Her blood was flowing out rapidly.

Ken felt her arms give, and she fell face first into the snow and ice, the chill crawling through her body. She weakly glanced at the creature. She was about to die.

“Damn it.” Ken squeezed her eyes shut and hissed. “I—I still haven’t gotten to see Feng. I-I haven’t gotten to live my life. I should have been the head of my clan, damn it. I deserve a harem of men and women whom I can have whenever I want. This isn’t fair. I-I don’t want to die.” Ken cried out, feeling the tears burn her face as she began to flow. “P-Please.”

The dragon raised its palm above her, and it brought it down as hard as it could.

Ken didn’t die, though. Instead, she felt a cold pair of arms holding her. Her eyes weakly opened, and she found herself staring into the chest plate of black, shadowy armor.

“D-Davi—” Ken’s eyes went wide with horror when she looked up fully and saw that the suit was still missing its head. Blood flowed and bubbled out of the neck wound. “What the fuck?”

From the suit's shadow, more of those inky black hands rose up. They were long and wavy, their fingers digging into the arms and legs of the suit and forcing it to move, even though all it contained was a long-dead corpse. The arms of the suit dropped her, and it jerked and twisted, its limbs bending, and the bones inside snapping and breaking, as the armor took a wobbly step toward the dragon.

Ken stared in fear as the suit lifted up one of Jack’s blades, which it had stolen off the Knight's body. The dragon’s eyes narrowed, and it watched as the suit began to limp toward it, dragging across the ice and snow.

Vil Shadow Armor was the advanced form of Row Shadow Armor. Like all Vil spells, it was ten times greater than Row Shadow Armor, but where did these ten times fall into? Davi’s armor was already impressively strong and able to be improved further through the use of mana and other forms. Making the suit ten times stronger could have been possible, but wouldn’t have done much for him, as the strength of a dragon would be able to tear through it just as easily as Row Shadow Armor. Because of that, Vil Shadow Armor had the tenfold increase placed into the use of the creation of a construct.

Not only would the standard armor be created, but the very gates of Shadow Vault would be brought forth and twisted over the suit and the surrounding area, using the shadows from within his vault to create his armor instead of the shadows from the rest of the world that he usually had access to. This allowed the spell to fall into the school of Enchantment while it was cast, and the Enchantment was simple yet effective.

Fight.

The shadowy hands of the Vault would control the suit and force it on even if the wearer died. That was Davi’s solution—his trump card. A warrior full of spite who knew he stood no chance in the fight with the dragon, yet still sought some sort of outcome, no matter how pathetic it was.

The dragon growled, and its tail came down again; it tore the left side of the armor and arm clean off, but the armor didn’t budge or stop. It moved forward. The tail came back around and tore a leg off, but shadows lifted and twisted, the palms of the hands forming at the missing spot and turning with the armor, giving it support, allowing it to still walk forward!

The dragon’s maw opened, and this time it unleashed a hellish blast of fire. The armor melted and cracked, shattering, and the corpse inside began to explode and become pure ash, but still the armor didn’t stop. It held the arm that was clutching the sword up, and it stabbed it forward, aiming for a nasty scar that ran along the dragon’s body, the same place Orion had wounded all those years ago. The sword shattered and broke, unable to pierce the dragon’s scales.

The dragon almost laughed, and the fire cut out. It didn’t matter how stubborn the spell was. Nothing could stop it—

Massive shadowy hands lifted up, some grabbing at its wings, others its tail, and the largest one wrapped entirely around the dragon’s maw. It thrashed around, tearing at the constructs, but more came. The suit's shadow was now touching the beast’s, and as such, the dragon’s massive shadow now belonged to the dead mage.

The Shadow Vault opened…

More hands kept coming, as if Vil Shadow Vault had been cast; they attempted to drag the monster into their depths, but the Dragon wasn’t having any of it. It howled and tore, ripping through the arms, and its wings expanded out, sending waves of fire everywhere as it scorched the land. It shattered the vault and broke it into a million pieces, finally landing back on the snowy ground.

Its eyes filled with rage, and it glared down, but it stopped when it didn’t see the armor. The girl was gone as well…

Cain and Ruby had reached the edge of the barrier after enough running and had long since left. Ken stared at the edge in shock as the suit hobbled forward. It was barely scrap now, being held together with pure mana. Davi’s body wasn’t even inside of it, yet it still felt like his spirit. In a way, this suit was more him than he was himself.

The barrier glowed and shimmered with a bright white light. It was like a dome going down, and it formed a wall, one that if she were to walk through, she’d be back in the real world.

Ken grunted as the suit dropped her to the ground. She was about to say something but stopped when she watched as it began to crack and shatter, turning to ash, leaving nothing behind. Ken stood there silently, listening to the wails of a dragon.

“Thanks…” Quietly, she turned around and left through the barrier, leaving the dragon behind in its realm.

Davi felt fingers going through his hair. He felt grass touching his back as well, along with warm summer air that brushed the side of his face. He let out a satisfied sigh but kept his eyes closed.

“Davi?” The voice that spoke made him pause. It was beautiful, soft, and kind.

“Mom?” Davi tried to open his eyes, but they didn’t work.

“Davi…”

“Mom.”

“Davi. Why didn’t you do it?”

“I? I don’t understand…”

“Why didn’t you avenge? You worthless son.”

Davi’s eyes suddenly snapped open, and he found himself staring ahead at the dragon. He couldn’t move or even speak, yet somehow he was still staring at the beast that ruined his life. His severed head was turning blue now, and his brain had long since stopped, but something in him kept going. Something full of pure malice.

The dragon glared down at the head, its eyes staring into those pure blue orbs that glared right back at it.

“When we really meet, it’ll be the same, you know.” The dragon let out a soft snort. “You’re just a cursed child. A miserable brat waiting for death. Are you cold?” The dragon sneered and lifted its palm up. “Here. I’ll make sure you don’t freeze to death!” And stomped onto Davi’s head, crushing it to less than dust.

And just like that, the third exam came to an end.

Chapter 71: Live

One moment, she was struggling. It was for just an instant, but Olivia was able to do something at the very end of her life. She had always felt so weak, so helpless, so… useless.

Growing up, she watched as other people rapidly rose above her, and she fell behind because of the magic she had been born with. Her own father even abandoned her so he could run off and do whatever it was he wanted, without having to look after someone as worthless as her.

It felt like no matter what she did, it was never enough. She struggled, she fought, and she lived, all so she could push forward and do it all over again the next day. Only one thing had even forced her down this path in the first place.

A chance encounter with a witch that had hair the color of silver. The woman who saved her life was the one who opened the door for her. The one who caused her to want to reach it. The goal of becoming an Arcane Knight.

Maybe in a way, it was a curse. Perhaps it was a dumb choice from the beginning. Very few mages that didn’t come from noble families had what it took to become a Knight, and even fewer had a type of magic as terrible as hers. She had been dealt a bad hand. Still, though, isn’t it her duty to play with the hand she was dealt?

That’s what Davi Hawker taught her, at least. A mage born with mana so dark that people assumed he was a magical mutant. His best spell reminded people of one of the greatest villains in history, and on top of all of that, he was from the same land as that villain.

A lot of her thoughts went through her mind in the heat of the moment, but the one that stood out above all others was that she was about to die. If she was dead, then she failed, and if she failed, none of it mattered anymore. Her story would be over.

So, with nothing left to lose, Olivia used her final spell and formed a dome of blood around Garon and herself. She was only able to do this by using the last bit of her pathetic life, which had only surged in her final hour due to her body's natural regeneration.

She didn’t even know if this counted as a sacrifice. The others would likely be caught in the blast still, but it made her feel a bit better knowing that she at least did something in her final hour, even if that thing was just as useless and worthless as her own life.

Olivia squeezed her eyes shut and felt everything come to an end. A second later, she felt something under her. She was no longer lying down. Instead, she was sitting. It was a wooden log, and as her eyes cracked open, she found herself looking at trees. They were scattered all around her as far as the eye could see. She was in a forest. She also wasn’t alone. They were behind her, seated on the same log she was, and her back was pressed into theirs.

The other person was much bigger than her, and Olivia realized that she was also much shorter. She glanced down at her hands in shock, finding them to be small and pathetic. She was a kid? The sound of a quill touching down on paper made her want to turn her head, but she couldn’t. Her body didn’t want to respond to her. It was like she was dreaming, watching the world go by through her young self's eyes.

“That last dungeon wasn’t it either.” Olivia would have gasped if she had control over her body. She recognized the voice that was coming from behind her younger self. It was the voice of her father. Suddenly, she knew what memory this was. “Finding the right dungeon is going to be a lot harder than I first thought. It could be anywhere on this small rock. Any place, any time. I knew going in it would be an incredible feat, yet I still didn’t expect it to be this bad. It seems like I’ll never be able to undo the mistakes that I made.”

Olivia wanted to scream. She tried to yell or throw a fit, but her body wasn’t responding because she was just watching all of this unfold. She couldn’t change the past after all. Was her life flashing before her eyes as her brain ceased to work? If so, why did it have to be this memory?

Any other moment would have been better. This was the only one she didn’t want to remember. This was it… The final conversation she had with her father before he left her, abandoned at the entry to Fri village.

“How are you doing, Mary? Are you okay?” Olivia felt a hand touch the top of her head as her father ruffled her hair, but her younger self still refused to look in his direction and instead was focused toward the forest floor. “That last dungeon was intense, huh? I almost wasn’t able to protect you.” The other her still did not respond. “What are you looking at?”

Olivia felt her arm jerk up, and she pointed toward the thing that was on the ground that had her young self's full attention. On the floor of the forest was a hawk. It had been trying to hide, keeping itself tucked low on the ground in a crouching position. Its feathers were specked with bits of blood, and its beak was cracked. The worst damage, though, was on its side. It was missing a wing.

The mighty creature of the sky had been brought low, forced to dwell with the critters on the ground and hide lest it be discovered by a stronger predator.

“Oh? What’s this?” Olivia heard shuffling, and she finally saw her father again. Or at least, she saw part of him as he walked toward the bird.

Her younger self was more focused on the bird, so she was only able to see her dad from the neck down. Unlike her, his skin was healthy. He was also decently well built with lean muscles that were hidden behind the white buttoned-up shirt he wore. He had a thick jacket and a backpack filled with all sorts of junk, and his hood was pulled up, blocking the back of his head as he crouched down to look at the animal.

The hawk let out a sound that was close to a hiss and tried to back away, but her father’s hands were faster, and he scooped up the bird, looking down at the injured animal.

“It’s hurt.” Little Olivia muttered.

“So it is.” Her father hummed and ignored the way the bird tried to claw and bite itself out of his grip. “That’s okay, though. Nothing a bit of polymorph can’t fix, just like I do to you when you get banged up. Let’s fix this little guy up.”

Her father finally turned to her, and she was able to see part of his face, which had a smile on it now. He placed a hand on the part of the bird that was missing a wing, and his hand glowed with a faint gold light. He didn’t mutter a spell or focus his mana at all. Instead, magic surged out of his palm, and the golden glow began to envelop the bird. When the glow was done, her father raised his arms and let go.

The hawk's wings fully outstretched and opened, its form totally healed. It looked to the sky and let out a screech, and then lifted up and began to fly away. Olivia watched it fly, the bird getting smaller and smaller until it became impossible for her younger eyes to make it out anymore.

“See, it’s just like when you get hurt, and I always fix you up.” Her hair was ruffled once more as her dad placed his hand on the top of her head.

Olivia wanted to say something. She had the strong urge to give a bitter remark or at least look up and fully see her father’s face, but still her body did not obey her. She had no clue why she was seeing this memory again or why it was coming to her at the end of her life, but she did know what was about to happen next.

“Arthur.”

A sudden voice made her father’s hand pull away from her, and the younger Olivia turned around. A dark-skinned man hobbled forward, holding a cane made of ice. Rosco’s eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the young Olivia and her father.

“Yo, long time no see!” Her dad let out a chuckle and raised his hand. “It’s been a while!”

“Not long enough, if you ask me.” Rosco let out a sigh. “Alright, let’s talk.” He gestured with his cane and pointed to a section of the forest that he and her father began to walk toward. “Why are you here, Arthur? Don’t tell me that child is yours.”

“I came to talk to you about Olivia, actually. That little girl is her child, and I would like if you could…”

Unfortunately, she couldn’t hear what was said next as the two men moved further away and their voices dropped low. She couldn’t remember what came next either, but she knew the aftermath. Tonight her father would leave her at the steps of Fri village, making her Rosco’s problem.

In the present, she wanted to know what her father and Rosco discussed. However, her younger self was simply not interested, still unable to even process the fact that her father would eventually leave her behind.

Olivia watched through her eyes as her younger self stood up and walked over to a tree. She didn’t remember any of this and was a little confused as to what she had found so fascinating about the tree. Her younger self reached out and placed her hand on the bark. It was old and worn down with a large gash coming across it, leaving a splintered cut in the side of it. The tree had no leaves and was withered and old, looking to be at the brink of death.

Despite that, the little girl let out a soft giggle, and suddenly her hands lit up with a faint golden glow.

Olivia’s eyes went wide, and suddenly she wasn’t seeing through her young self’s eyes. In an instant, she was in her own body. She was still in the forest, but she was herself. Her older self was in front of her, and so was the younger her. It was like the dream had shifted, or in another way, the memory had stopped, and she was seeing something else. This wasn’t a memory she had, and instead it was a Path, a different road untraveled.

Olivia watched the other her giggle, and that strange golden glow seeped out and began to crawl up the tree. It blanketed the entire thing in a bright light, and then in a flash, the light ended, but the tree was different.

No longer was it dead and worn down. Now the slice that had been across it was fully fixed and mended, and the branches were greener than any other tree within the forest. A new form, a new reality, a new Path, had been selected for the tree.

Polymorph had been used.

“See. It’s simple, right?” It took Olivia a moment to process the fact that her younger self was talking to her. She blinked and looked down at the little girl who was staring at her. “Do you understand?”

“I-” Olivia felt her throat go dry. “What is this? What are you? This isn’t a memory? What’s going on? Am I dead? Are these my final thoughts?”

“You could be dead.” The little Olivia hummed. “Or you could live.”

“I can live?”

“Of course you can, silly.” The little girl giggled. “I just showed you how, didn’t I? All you have to do is live. Do you want to live?”

Olivia stood there awkwardly in the forest, feeling the cool breeze on her body. “Of course I want to live? What sort of question is that?”

“So then live.” The forest began to fade away slowly. Everything started to thin out and grow dim, and Olivia felt as if she was about to wake up from a dream.

“...I will.”

“You will?”

“Yeah… I will! I’m going to live!”

“Good girl.”

“Huh?”

And then everything broke.

The forest entirely vanished and was replaced with an inky black void. Time instantly kicked back in, and suddenly Olivia felt her body. It ached and burned worse than it ever had before, and in real time, she could feel herself being burned alive. That memory had happened in an instant, while in the real world, her body was being ripped apart by Garon’s blast. Somehow, her Quick Regeneration skill had kicked in and was keeping her alive even after all of her blood was gone, since the brain would still function for a few more seconds, but it wouldn’t be enough. Not when her body was being destroyed in such a rapid way.

Everything began to turn black, and Olivia felt her consciousness start to fade as, for the second time in a row, her world was ending.

What had been the point of all of that? In her dying state, she had seen some vision urging her to live only to instantly be shoved straight into hell!

What gives!

Just when everything fully turned black, there was a new color that forced its way into the empty void—a flicker of blue. Olivia found herself staring at the screen. The magical blue status window that would appear that was connected to her grimoire.

It had seemingly appeared to her in her subconscious. She knew it was her subconscious because in the real world, her eyes had exploded and melted, so she was blind.

Text began to rapidly form across the screen as her grimoire updated, and the magic that connected to her decided this was the best method to inform her.

‘At the brink of death, the trait “Determined” has activated. You have searched for a Path that leads to survival. An outcome has been gained. Your trait will be activated.’

The text suddenly stopped. The box flashed.

‘You do not have the trait required for this Path-’

Another flash.

‘Determined has been activated. The trait Polymorph has been added.’

‘At the brink of death, the trait “Determined” has activated. You have searched for a Path that leads to survival. An outcome has been gained. Your trait will be activated now.’

… What the hell just happened? Was that normal? That didn’t feel normal? What the hell was the Determined trait? Had her stats upgraded? She hadn’t looked at them in a while since she’d been distracted, but that one sounded new. Had she gained it while traveling with Davi? Why? How?

Either way, she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The black void suddenly started to break, replaced with a golden light.

Then Olivia felt air hitting her lungs as she took in a big gasp and shot up to a sitting position, her eyes wide. She heard screaming all around her and looked over, finding Ash, Nori, and Emma were all yelling as they stared at her in shock, and even Sune looked freaked out.

“Olivia!” Ash asked in shock.

“How the hell did she survive that?” Nori dropped back onto his butt. “She was at death’s door, right? Was she holding back?”

“Her outfit changed?” Besides Sune, Emma was the first to fully calm down. “Olivia, are you okay?”

Olivia stupidly nodded her head and looked around, more confused than ever. She was still in the dungeon along with the others, and she was exactly where Garon had tackled her. The ground beneath her was scorched black and still hot to the touch, and ash scattered around her. What was weird, though, she was fine. Better than fine, actually. She wasn’t just alive but fully healed. Her blood was back, her gut wound was gone, and her mana was flowing more than it ever had through her body.

“What happened?” She finally asked.

“I was kind of hoping you could tell us.” Sune still looked to be in bad shape, missing an arm and part of her side, but Nori’s magic had ensured she wouldn’t bleed out. The woman looked tired and was leaning on Ash for support. “You formed that blood dome over yourself and Garon. I thought you were dead for sure, but then suddenly, as the blast went off, I saw a flash of light, and when the dome faded, you were lying there, fully healed and complete with a new outfit.”

“New outfit?” Olivia glanced down at herself and then let out a squeak when she saw what she was wearing. “Davi! What did you do?!”

She was in the witch outfit again!

Although the more she looked at it, the more she realized it wasn’t the same outfit Davi had put her in. His had been shadowy and black, forged out of darkness like his armor. This outfit was actual cloth and was a mix of different colors. It also thankfully covered her up a bit more, having a slightly longer skirt. The outfit had long boots and some ribbons that were tied along the dress piece that she was in, and even if it was more modest, it still felt embarrassing to be in the outfit.

As a kid, she used to be into magical girl comics, but she had thought she had grown out of the phase… She had no clue why this outfit had appeared on her, but it was better than being naked.

“D-Do you have some spell that fully heals you?” Emma asked after a moment. “That would be advanced magic, but it’s the only explanation I can think of.”

Ash bit his lip, suddenly feeling pissed. Had Olivia been holding back? If she was able to fully heal herself through an explosion, then that easily meant she had more mana than any mage he knew. What had Davi done to her to get her so strong?

Olivia shook her head at Emma’s question but then stopped and frowned. She flicked her hand and summoned the blue box once more. It shimmered into existence with a list of her traits, and sure enough, there was a new one.

‘Traits—Blood Core: Grade C+, Knife-Wielding: Grade C, Scythe-Wielding: Grade C, Poison Resistance: Grade A, Venom Resistance: Grade A, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D, Sprint: Grade D, Stamina: Grade D, Quick Regeneration (Physical): Grade B+, Determined: Grade A. Polymorph: Grade D.’

“Polymorph?” She quietly clicked on it, and the box opened.

‘Polymorph: Reality is what you make of it. Select the outcome that best represents you. Polymorph is currently activated. Time until it shuts off: four minutes and six seconds. Four minutes and five seconds. Four minutes and four seconds—’

She had no clue what the timer meant, but if Polymorph was the reason her outfit existed, did that mean when it faded, her clothes would vanish? Not to mention, she felt strangely stronger. Not by a lot, but her mana felt more intense and free. As if she was breathing in good air for the first time in her life. When the timer reached zero, would it fade away?

Was it like a buff spell where the power-up would only be temporary, and she had a total time limit for how long she could keep it up for?

These were all questions she was wondering, but they were pushed back to a secondary problem as a loud roar pierced through the dungeon. She, along with the others, turned to see that even though Garon had blown himself to bits, he was somehow still alive! The monster was right back where he started on the other side of the dungeon, stepping out of the double doors as if he had respawned or something!

He glared across the room, his eyes fully fixed on her, and he let out another roar, fire and ice exploding out of him as he tore forward.

“Can we just run?” Nori squeaked out.

“Yep!” Sune turned and pointed toward the exit. “Go!”

They all took off running and jumped through the doorway right as Garon reached them and launched a wave of fire in their direction.

The air was superheated, and Olivia winced, feeling her skin burn, but then it all faded as she stumbled out of the doorway and exited the dungeon.

Everything turned white, and she now stood in a vast, empty void of light. The others were scattered around and looked just as confused. This wasn’t the first dungeon? Where were they?

There was a loud buzzing sound, and the void rumbled as text flashed in front of them.

‘Congratulations! You finished the third exam! The simulation will now come to an end.’

Olivia stared at the box, and slowly her expression darkened. “Oh, you have got to be shitting me!”

It had all been a simulation…

Chapter 72: The End Of The Third Exam

“Davi.”

Darkness…

“Davi.”

The shadows hugged around him from all sides once more. Davi felt their arms wrap tighter and tighter around him. The screeching of the birds was the first thing he heard as the vaults bloomed into creation around him. Davi’s eyes cracked open, and he wasn’t shocked to see the body he now had. One forged entirely out of shadows and his mana, black and blue fire twisting together into the shape of a person.

“Davi.”

Wings flapped around him in the shadowy field, and flashes of blue filled Davi’s vision. He saw the monstrous hawks flying madly in all directions. He felt the hands of the vault swatting at several of them as well, and he could feel more of those hands growing tighter around him or caressing him.

“Davi.”

Just like in the fight with Tori, he was back where he always knew he’d end up. He was back in his mother's embrace.

“Davi.”

The arms were squeezing around him, tighter and tighter, and if he had his normal body, he would have been crushed and broken, but thankfully, he was anything but normal while in here.

“Davi.”

Davi ignored the way the shadows whispered his name. Last time he had ended up here, it hadn’t been this bad, but after seeing the dragon and having memories of that ‘woman’, he was once again faced with the harsh reality that was his existence.

“Davi.”

Davi allowed the shadows to pull him along. He descended, getting lower and lower as the sea of shadows moved for him. The birds kept screeching, and many tried to fly toward him, but those invisible hands would shatter them to bits with just a mere slap. It wasn’t through a mother’s love that this was happening, though. Not out of a desire to protect or cherish that which they held dear. The hands here had another goal.

“Davi.”

Soon, Davi saw what they were dragging him toward. At the bottom of infinity, where everything ceased to make sense, and the bottomless pits' bottom appeared, there was a floor, and within that floor, there was a sword. A rusty blade, useless to all, save for one.

“Davi.”

The area became colder, ice seeping out of the hilt of the sword and filling the unlimited-sized void with a chilling effect. Only the tip of the handle poked out of the ground. The shadowy hands forced his feet to walk, holding him by the ankles and making them lift up and then down. They held his wrists and forced his arms to lift, and Davi was brought to his knees, the sword resting before him.

“Davi.”

The darkness grew colder, even more than the blade, and Davi felt his hands wrap around the small part of the handle that was waiting for him. The hands caressed his face, pushed on his fingers and made them tighten around the sword, and they tugged. They were trying to get him to lift the sword. To pull it out of the ground.

“Davi.”

To take up his destiny. His legacy. His wish.

“Davi.”

The sword almost wiggled as he tugged on it. It wanted out as much as the hands of his mother wanted him to free it. Something was wrong, though. This wasn’t him that was doing it. He was conscious, and he was aware, but he wasn’t the one ordering his body. He was a puppet. One who was forced to watch as their strings were tugged and twisted at. He suddenly tried to fight back, but it wasn’t enough. He was being forced down a path, guided by his mother’s will.

“Davi.”

Seeing the Dragon again had been what reminded him of his mother and her ‘love’, so it wasn’t shocking that her effect was coming back in full force now that he was thinking of her again. She always had been so controlling after all…

“Davi.”

The sword started to lift. He tried to stop it, to pull away, but he couldn’t. He was never able to disobey. She had been the one to put him on this path after all—the one who forced a sword into his hands.

“Davi.”

The sword was about to lift out of the ground entirely. To rise up and be his, or rather hers, once again. Right before it could come out, though, something happened. Something that made the darkness hiss and shrink away.

“Wake. Up. Davi.”

Davi woke up.

***

Davi sat up and gasped. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, and he breathed heavily, but that fact alone shocked him since he shouldn’t have been able to draw in any air at all. His hand flew toward his neck, and he shakily felt his head.

‘I’m not dead?’ Davi felt his heart beating faster and faster. He felt cold, and a pit had opened up in his stomach. ‘What the hell is going on?’ It took him a second to realize that he wasn’t in the dungeon and was instead sitting on a sand-covered floor. There was muttering and yelling all around him as well.

“Davi!” The next thing Davi knew, he suddenly had a pair of arms wrapped tightly around him, and his face was pressed into someone’s shoulder. “Y-You’re alive!”

Davi blinked and slowly pulled his head out of the shoulder, and he looked up, finding the face of Ken Yuan staring at him. “Ken? Why are we hugging?”

Ken opened her mouth, about to say something, but then closed it. Her cheeks flushed slightly, and without warning, she suddenly shoved him toward the ground. She awkwardly coughed into her fist and cleared her throat. “I was slightly worried when I saw you lying on the ground. Then again, I guess you must have been in shock from dying, right?”

Davi slowly forced himself back up, his legs wobbly as he did so. “How am I alive? My head was completely smashed in? Not even I could survive that…”

“My guess is it wasn’t real,” Ken said quietly. The girl folded her arms under her chest and let out a sigh, bowing her head. “After you—well, if that even was you—carried me to the edge of the barrier, I stepped through expecting to arrive back in the first dungeon, but instead everything went white, and then flashing letters appeared. I saw the words ‘Congratulations on finishing the third exam’. The next thing I knew, I was lying here on the ground back in the arena.”

Davi glanced around and saw that everyone was back as well, and a large majority were all freaking out.

“What the hell? Didn’t I get stepped on by that giant?”

“I swear that vampire drained me dry.”

“I’m alive? But we were all infected by that zombie? How am I not dead?”

“That beast tore you limb from limb. How are you here?”

“That damn ogre was too strong, and it wiped half the team out, yet we’re all still alive?”

Davi frowned as he heard the yelling and panicked screams of the people. From the sounds of it, everyone had encountered some obstacle. Several people also looked out of it as if they had just experienced their greatest fear.

“Row Shadow Vault.” Davi held his hand out and opened his vault, but nothing came out. The fish he had caught weren’t in there. “It was a simulation.”

“Are you sure?” Ken asked.

“Yeah.” Davi nodded. “That explains how I’m alive.” He looked past Ken and found Cain standing next to Ruby. Ruby was on the ground, her body still shaking and her face pale white. Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself, and she was rocking back and forth. She looked completely fried and out of it. Cain met Davi’s eyes, but a second later the silver-haired man turned away. “Cain?”

“Don’t talk to me.” Cain turned his face and folded his arms. “You freak.”

Davi’s frown deepened, but he shrugged. ‘I guess he’s still freaked out about what happened.' It was likely everyone’s first time seeing a dragon. He decided not to hold it against Cain. Learning how powerful of a creature a dragon truly was had filled him with rage as well. It was a hard pill to swallow knowing something like that existed. ‘What of the others? Is Olivia okay?’

He could hear a bit of the conversations the other groups were having. Most people were in a panic, but a few managed to keep calm and collected. From what he heard, it was a lot of different monsters, not just a dragon. Some found themselves facing a horde of zombies, some encountered a vampire prince, and one group even claimed they ran into Lord Medora, one of the great Cultivators of the Rossum nation.

It seemed like everyone faced an ogre, though, and Tulip village kept coming up, so part of the simulation had been decided from the start, but the rest hadn’t? What exactly was the test?

While he was wondering about that, up top where the captains were, Dark Star was in a deep fit of laughter. She was on her side and kept kicking her feet out, laughing on and on.

“Is it really that funny?” Laer asked, making a face.

“Leave her be.” Myth let out a sigh. “She’s still as cruel as ever.”

“It’s a little funny.” Gorgon giggled. “After all, not even the guides knew what was coming. Which one was your favorite Dye?”

“More red.” Dye’s tongue poked out, and he kept bringing red paint onto a white canvas. It was impossible to make out what he was attempting to create, but whatever it was, it had stolen his full attention.

“I didn’t expect you all to be so cruel,” Paragon muttered. She was clutching a bottle, gently placing it past Grampa Green’s lips in order to feed him a healing potion to keep his falling-apart body stable. “You likely freaked a lot of those poor recruits out, and some of the Arcane Knights.” She shuddered a bit, still remembering the footage. None of the guides had been ready for the horrors they’d be facing.

Crow rubbed his chin. He had a blue screen in front of him that floated in the air, showing off the different groups and the dungeons they entered. “I agree with the vice captain over there. Hazing the new recruits is bad enough, but doing it to our own people? I know a few Knights aren’t going to be happy with you, old goat. You better watch yourself.”

Dark Star’s laughter just grew louder, and she clutched at her side. “Haru, it was so funny! Especially the one that famous guy got stuck with! Hey, Myth? I thought that Battery guy was tough!”

Myth let out a grunt and folded his arms. “That’s not fair. You can’t expect Battery to deal with a dragon! Why the hell was that creature even selected?”

“I’m not the one who picked it.” Dark Star giggled, and she snapped. Her own screen appeared, showing a picture of a man with raven black hair and blue eyes. “Blame this creep. Hey, Crow, he’s got a shadow core like you? Know him?” The old lady smirked.

Crow’s frown grew. “Don’t lump me in with that bastard. How did we not notice him before now?” The screen shifted, showing the image of a knight in ebony armor. “This freak was in the exam the entire time?”

“He didn’t use his armor,” Laer spoke up casually. The leader of Phoenix Flight slumped her head back and sighed. “You all likely didn’t pay attention to him because he didn’t do much in the first exam.”

“How do you know?” Crow demanded.

“Because, unlike you, I’ve had my eye on him,” Laer smirked.

Crow’s scowl deepened. “You would, wouldn’t you? A stray mutt from Mordeheim with a spell that gives him ebony armor. Blue fire that pours from an endless shadow. Yeah, a freak like that is honestly perfect for your little group. Go ahead and recruit him so he’ll die off and we won’t have to worry about him.”

Laer stretched, feeling her back pop a little. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but I have zero plans to recruit anyone this year. I’ve been captain of this shitty guild for a while now, so I know what’s coming. We’re all gonna be dying off soon. No reason to drag anyone else with me. You want him dead so badly, kill him yourself.” She shot the captain another grin. “Unless you’re scared.”

Crow growled and was about to say something but was cut off when Father’s fist rammed into his armrest, cracking the stone. “That’s enough, you two. Knock it off.” The man grunted. “None of us were planning to let him in anyway, so it’s not like it matters.”

Like every year, people from other nations were allowed to come take the exam, but it was silently agreed upon that no citizens from Mordheim would be selected for any of the guilds. This had now become doubly the case for the man with the shadow armor. Father was a bit shaken up after seeing the armor, but he had managed to calm himself down.

After all, unlike everyone else, he actually knew what the Ebony Knight looked like. That armor was similar but not the real deal. It was flawed and broken, much like the current wearer of it. Not to mention the real Ebony Knight would have had no issue tearing a dragon apart if they were at full strength and wielded the Sword of Wishes.

What concerned him more was a different trial. In front of Father, his screen shifted to the team Sune led. His eyes traced the familiar walls of the castle.

The test had been one created by Dark Star, and she didn’t hold back. The woman was as cruel as they came and didn’t want to just push the ones taking the exams but also the Arcane Knights who had volunteered as well. She claimed this was to keep them on their toes, but in reality, it was to watch them squirm and suffer. All the ‘guides’ had one thing in common. They all came from different lands. Not a single guide was actually from Estiria. Dark Star had made sure of that fact.

The guides had been told that the test would be a fake dungeon. They were informed that it would be in Tulip and that the group would discover an ogre had wiped out the goblin clan that took the dungeon over, but that was all the guides had been informed of. The guides, like the exam-takers, also didn’t know that they were in a simulation.

The test had first started, and the stadium had shaken and glowed, lighting up. All the people had been confused why they hadn’t entered the simulation when the lights died down, but the reality was they had. From the moment the third exam started, everyone was already in the simulation.

The test of courage was simple when it was fully broken down. As the name implied, Dark Star wanted to see how the recruits would handle a situation that was terrifying. By making them think the test was real, they’d believe that one mistake could cost them their lives. The recruits would be told they’d be fighting goblins that invaded Tulip village. Goblins were weak, and it would make them confident, but that confidence would fade when they actually arrived at the dungeon.

Each dungeon had been a high-ranked one that a captain had visited. Some were frozen caves, others vast fiery cities. One was even an old castle built on a volcano. Each dungeon was extremely high in ranking and the type of dungeon that a powerful monster would take over. This was to freak the recruits out and cause them to make mistakes.

The next part of the test came in the form of an advanced ogre. It wasn’t that strong by any means, but for a bunch of normal mages, it would pose a threat. Especially considering they went in expecting goblins. It was after the ogre was dealt with, though, that the real test would finally begin.

Unknown to the ones in the simulation, the machine was digging deep into their core. Thanks to the traces of mana the king had access to, the machine was able to trace something called a ‘Path’, which was a collection of memories and events that shaped a person's core. The simulation would scan these Paths, and it would decide amongst the five people in each group which one would have a fear that would generate the strongest emotion.

For many groups, it was the guides who were selected. After all, being Arcane Knights, they had seen a lot of terrible things within dungeons or on the frontlines of war. The simulation would take whatever fear would generate the most significant emotional response by the group as a whole and then force the four exam takers and the guide into a sudden double dungeon.

Most groups faced a dungeon that was invaded by warriors from other lands. Many of the guides feared soldiers like Medora or the Monarch. Some groups faced actual monsters, though, like the fearsome minotaur and his labyrinth or the hydra that resided within the ocean of blood. Some groups even had a fear that was selected based on one of the exam takers, but that was extremely rare.

Only four had actually been selected. The first and the one all the captains focused on was a dragon—a fearsome beast trapped in a frozen dungeon. When the beast appeared, many of the captains had been shocked, but they quickly got over it.

Not all the fears that were selected were ones someone had physically seen. The simulation stated that the shadow mage was the one whose fear had been chosen, so Father assumed that he had read a book about a dragon or heard stories about it growing up, and that fear clung to the young man years later. That had to be the case, since dragons were long extinct. The last time a dragon had been seen was before he was even born, and it had been torn to bits and driven out of Estiria. It was simply impossible for that mage to have seen a real dragon. It was shocking that the fear was so advanced that the simulation selected it over anything the other four had seen, but Father figured that the shadow mage was really freaked out about dragons and anything to do with them.

The other three groups that had a fear based on a member and not the guide had been just as odd. One was like the Dragon, a fear that came about from stories. Father had been watching this group, as it had a powerful ice mage in it who had scored the most points in the first exam. Sadly for the ice mage, someone on his team had grown up hearing the horrors and tales of the Ebony Knight, and so that group faced a shadowy figure that tore through them all. Since the fears were based on what people thought the Ebony Knight in the test looked like, it looked nothing like the real one.

The other two tests were sadly less interesting. One group faced some weird snake monster that blew itself up, while the other group faced a giant shark that could swim through the ground.

Each encounter also had something in common. It was impossible to win. The simulation made sure that whatever fight a group would encounter, the enemy would be stronger and unkillable.

When faced with a horrifying situation, where even the guides were outclassed, that is where the actual test would start. It was up to the Face to get their team to work together and either do the impossible and win or escape. No group had been able to escape without losing at least one or two members. In fact, a majority had been totally wiped out.

The guides died in most of the tests as well, since they tried to buy time for their party to escape. In a few groups, though, they managed to go back to the guide and try and save them. It was those whom Father had his eye on the most.

“We have a lot of discussing to do.” Father hummed. “There is a lot that needs to be considered.”

Down below, back in the arena, Davi looked around with Ken, trying to find Olivia, but he still didn’t spot her. There was something he wanted to confirm. He hoped he was wrong, but it was eating away at his insides.

Ken also looked around, but she shot Davi a look. “That exam… Can we talk about it?”

“No.”

“But—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Davi grunted. His eyes then lit up when he saw someone, but it wasn’t Olivia. “Mr. Larison.”

Battery stood in the center of the arena. The man’s face was pale, and he looked shaken up. Instead of a sucker, he had a cigarette between his lips, and he was smoking. Several of the other guides were in the same shape as he was. It felt like a cruel joke had been played on all of them.

Jack turned when he heard his name called, and his eyes flashed when he saw Davi. The black-haired man approached. “Sir, are you okay—”

“That’s close enough.” Jack held a hand out, stopping Davi. He took another puff on his cigarette and shook his head. “Stay where you are.”

Davi frowned but nodded and folded his arms. “Sure. I didn’t think you were in the simulation, either. I thought the you that had been there was a fake once I learned what the test was, but they put you in it?” Jack didn’t respond. His eyes seemed glossy and distant. “Thinking about the Dragon?”

“No, actually.” Jack dropped his cigarette. “That armor spell… Is that a spell you use a lot?”

Davi rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Why?”

“Are you from Mordheim?”

Davi’s look shifted again. He let out a sigh. “Yeah. I am. But I’m not the—” Davi suddenly gasped and nearly threw up as Jack’s knee rammed into his stomach. The man was on him in a second and hit him as hard as he could. Davi felt his ribs shatter and break, and his gut felt like it was about to pop.

He dropped to his knees, wheezing, and looked up just in time to see Jack’s foot flying toward his face.

Chapter 73: No More Hiding

‘Look at that armor.’

‘Did you see that ugly scar?’

‘His mana is so cold. Is he even human?’

Davi Hawker was used to it.

People always judged what they didn’t understand. His aura was cold and harsh, so naturally, that meant he must be a cold and harsh person. His face was ugly and scarred, so naturally that meant his soul was ugly and scarred. His armor was forged of ebony shadows and radiated fire so cold it froze all chances he had at forming connections, so naturally, his personality was just as rotten.

Even if none of these things were true, because people would believe, it would become the truth for them. A fact that would require hard work in order to change that view.

Humans were simple creatures. They saw him, and, in an instant, they decided who he was and what his motives were. Only after he saved them and did something they viewed as worthy of their praise would they finally look past the shell that they created around him and see who he truly was. A person’s appearance is the way people would judge them, but a person’s actions determine who they are.

Humans were mean. They were cruel, and they were just as filled with hate as they were with love. Davi Hawker knew all of that. It didn’t make it hurt any less, though.

The physical pain he felt was nothing compared to the emotional pain. His ribs ached and cracked as Jack Larison’s knee rammed into his gut, and Davi gasped and nearly threw up as he collapsed to the ground.

He weakly looked up, and for a moment, his eyes met Jack’s. He had seen that look plenty of times—a look of pure hate.

Jack had no reason to like him. He hadn’t done anything to save the man or defend him. As far as Jack knew, he was someone who was pathetic and ugly who went and got himself killed. People would always view him as the second coming of the Ebony Knight when they saw his armor, his face, and the feel of his mana. Until he earned their favor, they would have no reason to change how they saw him, and Jack was a person who had fought in Mordheim and seen the worst that the horrible nation had to offer.

He had no reason to feel remorse or sympathy for Davi Hawker, and yet Davi had assumed that the simple fact they had been on the same team, no matter how short that time had been, was enough to earn him favor.

His time with Olivia and the others had made him forget for a moment what people were like. Jack reminded him, though, and Davi once again recalled why he hated people.

Davi winced as Jack’s boot flew toward his face, and the man went to cave his head in. Thankfully, the attack was stopped by Ken. The heir to the Yuan family barely had enough time to throw herself forward and kick out with her own leg. Her attack clashed with Jack’s, but no matter how strong she might have been, Jack was a Knight. He was Battery. A legendary hero.

Ken’s leg was shoved back, and Battery casually slapped her away, throwing her across the room and sending her into a crowd of people, which got everyone’s attention on the fight that had broken out. Gasps echoed through the room as they watched an Arcane Knight lay the beat down on a random recruit. It was a shocking and brutal sight.

Davi lifted his arms and defended himself as Jack’s foot rammed into him again. His arms ached and nearly broke just from the one kick, and Jack got ready to throw another one out. The people in the arena were startled by the sudden attack, and some freaked out and panicked, yelling loudly, which in turn got the attention of the guides and a few of the other Arcane Knights who were up in the stadium.

“What the hell are you doing, Jack!” One of the guides yelled.

“Are you insane? You can’t just hit a recruit! Even if they did piss you off in the exam!” Another guide growled. “Trust me, the team I dealt with was utter shit as well, and I’d like to slap one of them around, but they’re still just green! They don’t know any better!”

Jack clenched his teeth and slammed another kick into Davi’s side, hitting past his guard. “You don’t understand! This guy is bad!”

“Calm down!” A guide tried to use a spell, causing stone hands to lift out of the ground, but Jack dodged past them and avoided the attack, reaching Davi, who attempted to block again, but Jack easily tore through his defense and began to lay the beat down again.

A few of the other guides jumped in and tried to stop Jack. One or two even tried to grab him, but Jack’s mana flared up and rapidly expanded, throwing the other guides back. “Stay out of my way.” Jack hissed out, and he rammed his fist past one of the guides and straight into Davi’s face. Davi was launched off his feet and collapsed in the sand back first. The crowd separated and backed away, not wanting to get caught in the fight. Some of the guides finally gave up trying to hold Jack back and went to attack the man before he got someone killed, but Jack was faster than they could react. “Vil Imaginary Arena.”

Davi gasped as the blue energy seeped out of Jack’s hand, and the next thing he knew, he and Jack were trapped within a small box, forged entirely out of mana. The other guide’s spells bounced harmlessly off the box or were absorbed by the barrier spell's power.

Imaginary Arena was just a simple spell, made to trap Jack and his opponent in a confined space so he could have them all to himself.

As soon as the box appeared, Jack was on Davi in an instant, and he grabbed the man by the hair and rammed his fist straight into his face. The other guides kept trying to break through the barrier, but Jack simply fed it more mana, powering it up even further.

“Shit! What the fuck is he doing?” One guide threw a bolt of lightning at the blue wall, but his spell died out, not even cracking it. “What could that recruit have done to set him off like this?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Another guide shook his head. “We need to stop him before he does any more damage. This isn’t a good look for anyone. Where the hell are the captains?”

“They’re distracted by the test results.” A third guide hissed. “I saw Father put up a barrier that blocks sight and sound so they could go over the different footage from the other exams!”

“Okay, then, where the hell is Pretty Face!”

“She left on a smoke break!”

“Haru, damn it! Someone go find a vice captain!”

Inside of the barrier, Jack’s fingers grew tighter around Davi’s hair, and he yanked his head forward, ramming the black-haired man’s face into the side of the energy wall. “I had my eye on you since I first saw you,” Jack growled. “Your mana tipped me off. I kept waiting for the reveal to be a Mutant, but it never came. Still, I doubt someone like you is human. You’re a freak. Just like those bastards in the country you come from.” He threw Davi across the barrier and sent the man slamming into the back of the wall.

Davi slumped down and groaned. “Stop.” He finally said.

Jack’s scowl grew. “Begging me to stop? Come on, I’ve barely hit you.”

“I’m not begging.” Davi shook his head, and his eyes met Jack’s. The look in them caused the Arcane Knight to take a sudden step back. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to hurt you. I’ve been defending myself, but I haven’t thrown out an attack yet, have I? Let’s just call it even and drop it.”

“Did you know the country of Mordheim has its own version of Haru’s mana?” Jack spat out. “See, Arcane Knights, when they reach a level of strength, they are deemed worthy enough to have Knight gear granted to them, giving them a piece of Haru’s mana. Mordheim has its own version of that. They infuse their finest warriors with cursed energy equal to Haru’s power. It isn’t Haru’s mana they use, though; instead, it’s the one that brought her life to an end. You can guess who it is, right? I’ve felt the Ebony Knight’s mana firsthand before; I’ve slaughtered countless bastards from that land who have the same feeling your mana does.”

“I’m not a soldier from the Mordheim kingdom.” Davi shook his head. “I barely know anything about that land as well. I can hardly be called a citizen of it. As far as I know, I’ve never had anything done to me. I don’t know why my mana feels like his, but it’s honestly really fucking annoying, considering I don’t give two shits who that bastard was.”

Jack shook his head and clicked his tongue. “As if I would ever believe a lie like that. Your being here is proof enough that you aren’t a nobody. Mordheim requires an advanced mage able to bend space to let its people in and out. Within the country, there is only one such mage that currently exists. Thorn Heavenfall. I’ve never met him, but you have, right?”

“Nope.”

“Lies. Thorn would be the only way you could get out of the nation.” Jack yelled. “His service is only to the elite, though. That’s why all you bastards from Mordheim have been watched since you got here by various Knights. A random citizen from the nation would never be able to flee the country, and only those within its inner circle can use Thorn to get out. You're a spy from that land.”

“I’m not.” Davi shook his head again. “I didn’t meet whoever this Thorn guy was. I escaped by exiting through a dungeon. It existed within two places at once. I entered it in Mordheim, and when I stepped out of the dungeon, I was in this shitty kingdom. It happened when I was twelve.”

“Dungeons can be connected to several locations at once; that fact is true, but it requires a powerful one. You expect me to believe you made it out of a dungeon like that when you were just a kid?” Jack scoffed and folded his arms. “If you’re going to lie, at least give a believable story.”

“It’s more believable than yours.” Davi frowned. “You think I’m some big-shot warrior? So what? I’m a spy?”

“If you are a spy, you’ll be found out in the final test.” Jack placed his hands on his hips and glared down at the other man. “You and the other bastards from that kingdom will be found out and dealt with as you deserve. That said, I don’t believe you’ve gone through the same infusions the soldiers of Mordheim have.”

“So then what the fuck are we fighting for!”

“It’s the same as the great Lady. The Lance of Victory never needed the blessings of Haru.” Jack grunted. “She herself is a direct descendant, as are the other branch family members; however, Lady Tori is special. She awakened mana close to Haru’s all on her own. Just as how some humans are able to randomly gain the mana of an elf because an ancestor was one, Tori, too, was able to gain the mana of Haru naturally. You’re the same as her, aren’t you? You naturally have mana similar to the Ebony Knight. Not to mention the dragon that appeared. You’ve seen it before, haven’t you? I saw the way you looked at it, and it looked at you. I can’t accept it, no matter how hard I try.” Jack’s mana crackled out, and he lifted his arm up. “Something is telling me that if I don’t deal with you, you’ll turn out to be an issue.”

“Wait—” Davi tried to stop the man, but Jack seemed dead set on finishing what he started.

Jack took a stomping step forward until he was directly over Davi and got ready to unleash a powerful spell. “Row Imaginary Blast—”

His spell never launched, though, as suddenly a new source of mana filled the arena. It made Jack instantly pause, his eyes going wide. He wasn’t the only one. Davi’s scar suddenly rapidly burned and ached, and he grabbed at his face. Outside of the barrier, Ken and Cain both shivered, and Ruby once again let out a loud cry and collapsed to the ground. Only the five of them reacted to the new mana that appeared, because only the five of them had felt the dragon’s mana.

This new one was different but similar. So similar it triggered the wave of fear that had been imprinted upon all of them. The mana was tight and suffocating, like a snake, and it began to wrap around each of them and squeeze. Jack stopped and glanced back, and that was the biggest mistake he could have made.

“Row Shadow Armor.” Davi saw his chance, and he took it. There was no more point in hiding if the captains had seen, and Jack was making a big deal about it. All he could do was do what he did best. Fight.

Jack whipped back around toward Davi, but it was too late. The shadowy armor exploded around him right as he swung his fist out as hard as he could.

Meanwhile, outside of the barrier, Olivia suddenly reappeared in the center of the arena. Ash, Emma, Nori, and Sune also all appeared with her. It was for sure a simulation that she had gone through, because as soon as she was back in the arena, she noticed that Sune was fully healed.

Ash, Emma, and Nori also all had their mana fully restored. Not only that, but as Olivia looked down at herself, she was no longer in the witch outfit since she had technically not used the trait, since it was a simulation.

She quickly flicked her finger out and caused the status screen to appear, shifting it to her traits. She was almost not expecting the Polymorph trait to be there, but it was. Its countdown was no longer visible since the skill had never actually been used, and yet the trait was still one she had.

That was definitely shocking. Gaining a new trait was something that could be done, but depending on what the trait was, it would be complicated. Sprinting and stamina were ones almost everyone had. Some traits would be instantly unlocked when a mage was born, due to the type of magic they had, while others would be picked up through training or by spending a crazy amount of money and having a trait surgically inserted into you.

By training with a knife, she was able to get the knife training trait; however, she didn’t have a fighting style, so unlike Davi, she only had one knife trait instead of the two sword traits he had.

She had no idea how she got the Determined trait, and she had even less of a clue how she got Polymorph. Her father had that trait, but if it had been an inherited one, it should have been one she always had. Not to mention, she gained it during a simulation.

Usually, it was impossible to gain a trait while in a simulation. This was because while in a simulation, the mind, body, and core would be aware of the fact that they weren’t actually doing the actions. Because of this, a person couldn’t fight a dragon over and over in order to be hit with its fire and gain fire resistance, since they would be aware of the fact that they weren’t in real danger, so their core wouldn’t evolve.

A simulation could be used to train specific skills, such as weapons or their styles. If she practiced knife-wielding while in a simulation and learned a few skills, then that could transfer into the real world and even out due to the muscle memory being remembered, but the trait itself would still need to be leveled up and raised through actual training.

The only exception to this rule was if a person didn’t know they were in a simulation. An experiment was conducted when a doctor put someone in a simulated battlefield without their knowledge. Because the person didn’t know it was fake and thought they were in danger, their body responded at its full force and was able to gain a resistance-based trait.

Sadly, this process wasn’t able to be repeated very well, which was why it was seldom used. It was hard to trick a person into thinking a simulation was real. The force needed to awaken a trait would kill most people. When they died, they’d instantly realize they were in a simulation, and it would break the effect of the illusion. Those who did gain the trait would also likely discover they were in a simulation soon after, and putting a person who had been tricked into a simulation into a new simulation twice was next to impossible.

That’s why Olivia was confused as to why she had a new trait. She didn’t know about the simulation, so her body thought she had been in danger, which meant it could technically earn a trait, but how on earth had she gotten something like Polymorph? It was because of the trait Determined, but when and how did she get that?

She was just about to click on it and try to learn once and for all where it came from, but before she could, there was a loud ‘boom’ that echoed out.

Olivia and the others turned, and she just now noticed that the crowd of people had all been staring at something. A box of pure mana had been formed, but in an instant it exploded and shattered, sending mana out in an arching wave of force.

The next thing Olivia knew, a body was flying past her as Jack Larison rammed into the back wall and slumped down.

Olivia’s eyes went wide, and she gasped. Several of the people in the crowd let out yells of shock at what they saw. Standing, covered head to toe in Ebony armor, was Davi. His fist was extended, and smoke was coming off of it. His helmet blazed blue flames out of the slits, and he slowly brought his arm down.

All eyes were locked onto him.

These tests had never been about doing the best. They were always about standing out. Well, he was definitely standing out now.

No more hiding. Davi Hawker finally had enough.

Chapter 74: A Pair Of Witches

“So, any recruits catch your eye?” Snow, of the Pantheon guild, asked as he nursed a can of beer. He had his icy armor on still but was lacking his helmet, revealing a young boyish face with curvy red hair and thick glasses that covered his eyes.

“Nah.” Frank took a puff on his cigar and let out a loud and meaty burp. “None of them little bastards did anything to impress me.” He took a swing from his own glass of beer. “Got a lot of foreigners this year, though. Think any of them are gonna pass the final exam, or do we have a few spies running around?”

Frank looked nothing like an Arcane Knight. Snow, while not having the face for it, was at least tall, buff, and decked out in armor forged out of thick ice. Frank, on the other hand, was downright bizarre.

He was small, barely standing over four feet in terms of height, and he was extremely fat, with stubby little legs and meaty arms. He was mostly bald as well, with clumps of hair clinging to his skull, and he had a crooked nose and a mouth filled with missing teeth from years of smoking and whatever other drugs he could get his hands on. What was odd about him, though, was his choice of clothing. He was dressed in a gown forged from stitched-together feathers that was struggling to keep itself held around him.

Snow let out a hum and downed the last of his beer before tossing it behind him into an open garbage can. He then reached down, fished out another glass from the pack he brought, and muttered a spell, freezing part of it and making it ice cold in an instant.

He had been in the stadium earlier watching a few of the matches but decided to go hang out in an alleyway behind the stadium to get a quick buzz. Knights were meant to look professional and collected at all times, so being seen slacking off or drinking like he was currently doing was always against the rules, but he and Frank still made time for it whenever they could.

“You might not have seen any diamonds in the dirt, but I sure did.” Snow grinned. “Maybe we’ll get another breakout star like Cinder. I have a feeling she was one in a million, though.”

“Eh, don’t remind me of that bitch.” Frank sighed and shook his head. “I still owe you a ton of Bells for being wrong about her. Thought for sure she’d sign up for my guild.”

“The Shining Sentinels might be one of the best guilds, but you’d be shocked how popular Myth is.” Snow’s eyes twinkled. His look soon changed, though. “Oh yeah, are you holding up well? Your enchantment was up for a long time these past two days.”

“I’ve kept the enchantment up for far longer.” Frank’s lips curled slightly into a grin. “Four days is my best record. That was how long it took me to screw my way through a Gallenth church as well. Those scholarly bastards never saw the betrayal coming when I slaughtered their teacher.” Frank let out a chuckle and lifted his leg, letting one rip. “I’m just cool like that.”

Snow took another swig of his beer. “You definitely hit the jackpot when it comes to your spell. It’s one of the best ones for sure. One of a kind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another mage have a transformation-based spell quite like you do.”

Frank went to say more but was cut off by a loud yell. “Pretty Face!” Someone cried out, running into the alleyway. It was one of the guides from the previous test. His face was pale, and he was breathing heavily. “There’s an emergency! It’s Battery! He’s gone wild! He might seriously kill someone!”

Frank let out a sigh and dropped his cigar, stomping it out. He dropped his can of beer as well and adjusted his dress. “Always some shit. Oy, Snow, you’re coming with me. Battery’s from your guild after all.”

“Right.” Snow nodded and used another spell, creating a helmet of ice, which he donned. “Let’s go.”

“Not yet.” Frank lifted his finger, and he twirled it. “Ril Wind Spirit.” A wave of intense mana exploded out, rapidly filling the alleyway as the short man used a spell of the third level. The air rapidly twisted and began to form various symbols. “Gift of beauty.”

The symbols flowed out and began to circle around the man, and then, in a bright white flash, a powerful enchantment was cast. Where Frank once stood, an extremely beautiful woman now took his place. The feathery dress hugged her body nicely, and she flipped her long silver hair and gave a wink, twirling her microphone between her fingers, which had suddenly appeared. Long white wings jutted out of her back, and she lifted into the air.

An Arcane Knight was a monster slayer, a dungeon explorer, a proper Knight, a superhero, a protector of the kingdom, and, most importantly, a celebrity. They existed to be swooned after and worshipped, as if they were gods. Because of this, appearance and personality were everything.

It was why someone like Snow kept his full suit on and refused to remove his helmet. If the world were to see his ugly face, some of the magic would be lost, and so he built a persona up as a tall, buff, and handsome knight. This was his alter ego. His persona.

Of course, the Knight who had the best persona was Frank, better known to the rest of the kingdom as the one and only Pretty Face.

“Alright.” Pretty Face giggled. “Let’s go.”

***

None of the Knights that were in the stadium were able to shatter the barrier, yet it broke in an instant the moment Davi slammed his fist into Jack’s attack. To everyone on the outside, it looked as if the force of Davi’s strike had shoved Jack straight through his own barrier, and he had done what no one else could in one blow, but that wasn’t actually what happened.

The reason the other Knights couldn’t break the barrier was because they were forced to hold back so as not to unleash an attack that would harm the recruits that were scattered around the arena. On top of that, they were attacking the shield itself, whereas Davi caught Jack off guard and hit him with his strongest punch. This strike caused Jack’s concentration, which had already been low after the arrival of the intense mana source, to fully slip, leading to his shield dropping and running out of power.

Logically speaking, Davi Hawker was not strong enough to actually break through an Arcane Knight’s strongest barrier with his bare hands. Unfortunately for him, though, no one was thinking logically in the moment. To them, a figure wearing ebony armor just slammed a mighty Arcane Knight through his own spell.

Screams filled the arena as several people in the crowd stumbled back, trying to get away from the shadowy figure. Several of the guides went on guard but thankfully didn’t openly attack Davi, since they were able to figure out he wasn’t the one who started the attack. They still looked uncomfortable and tense around him, though.

Davi quietly looked around, finding the crowd staring at him, some in shock, some in horror, and some in rage. He glanced down at his gauntlet-covered hands and squeezed them into a fist, feeling the metal creak.

The smart thing to do would have been not to bust the armor out. He had gone to a lot of trouble hiding its existence after all, but to be honest, Davi didn’t really care about being smart anymore. He was, to put it mildly, very pissed.

Ever since the exams started, it felt like one BS thing after another. He was getting tired of it all, and his rational mind had shattered after seeing the dragon and learning that it was all a simulation. His own trauma had been used against him, and he wasn’t very happy with that fact. He had tried being nice and offered Jack several chances to stop, yet as always, he was denied and deemed a horrible person because of how his mana felt, how his armor looked, and how he himself looked.

If they wanted something to hate, he’d give it to them all. He’d like to say their looks and remarks meant nothing, but that wasn’t true. It was because he himself was a human who also felt that he was affected by the way people reacted to him.

Like all humans, he was also selfish and bitter, and instead of doing the right thing, Davi Hawker also lashed out and snapped.

His Shadow Armor was a spell that not only boosted his defense but also greatly powered up his striking power, allowing him to punch above his pay grade or swing a sword far harder than he should have been able to. Of course, when faced with the power of someone like Gray or Tori, who were so out of his depth it wasn’t even funny, being able to hit a lot harder did very little. Luckily for Davi, though, while Jack was leagues stronger than him, the man wasn’t as monstrous as a vice captain.

“That armor he’s wearing… Is he insane for putting something like that on? Is he trying to mock us?”

“Did he knock a Knight out in one blow? Why aren’t the guides doing anything? Kill him!”

“H-He’s so scary. What’s a terrorist doing here?”

Davi let out a tight breath that he had been holding. Everyone was still looking at him, and mutters were going through the crowd. No one was approaching, and no one was looking away from him.

Finally, though, the silence was broken. “Davi!” Davi’s head jerked to the side, and his scar ached, and his brain felt like it had been stabbed. There was a pressure that was going through his body as well. It was beneath his armor but still affecting him, wrapping around him tightly. “Are you okay?”

Standing before the ebony warrior was Olivia Lot. The white-haired girl looked up at him with wide eyes. Davi’s fiery blue gaze burned out of his slits, and slowly his shoulders slumped. The armor he wore twitched and then slid off his body, as if it were a liquid, getting dragged back into his shadow. Davi gave a hesitant nod. “I’m fine.” He said quietly.

“Good.” Olivia let out a sigh of relief and smiled. She placed her hands on her hips and got a slightly smug look on her face. “That guy was your guide, right? What did you do to piss him off? I passed mine with flying colors, I’m sure, so something must have gone wrong for you? I bet it was Ken who caused problems, right?”

“Hey!” Ken’s voice came out of somewhere in the crowd, the red-haired woman sounding a bit offended.

Olivia giggled, and she lightly elbowed Davi in the stomach. “Seriously, spit it out. How did your test go?” The crowd watched in confusion as the scary Knight seemed to fade away, and he even shrank down a bit now that he was in front of the girl who was teasing him.

“He attacked me first,” Davi said after a moment. He then gave a flat look, which he shot at the rest of the crowd who were eavesdropping. “You all understand that, right? It was self-defense; I was protecting myself, so this better not come back to bite me in the ass, got that?”

“I can vouch for him!” Olivia turned back to the crowd and waved slightly. “He’s a big softie, trust me!”

The crowd hadn’t calmed down, but the screaming had finally stopped. The guides still hadn’t done anything, and Davi hadn’t struck at anyone besides the guy who started the fight. That said, the looks of fear or disgust didn’t fade, and some were even directed at Olivia now. When she noticed, her smile twitched and nearly faded.

Davi finally stopped paying attention to the crowd and kept his eyes focused on Olivia. ‘She’s changed. I wasn’t sure before, but I’m dead certain now. She’s like Evelyn. Damn it…’

Olivia noticed him looking and turned back, her smile fully fading. “Is everything okay? Do I look bad or something? You’re kind of giving me an intense look.”

Davi never got a chance to reply, as a second later, a wave of blue light exploded from the back. Mana rapidly began to fill the air, and Davi looked back at where he had sent Jack flying to. The man was back on his feet now and was mostly fine save for a fist-sized hole in his shirt. One of his hands was on the handle of the two swords that hung off his belt, and he drew it, pointing the blade at Davi.

“Playtime’s over.” Jack drew his sword and blasted forward. “You’re done—” Before Jack could even get close to Davi, Sune appeared in front of him and blocked his path.

“Stop,” was all she said.

“Out of my way, Sune!”

“No,” Sune said flatly.

“You don’t understand!”

“I do.” The woman rolled her eyes. “For Haru’s sake, why is everyone such a baby? It’s just armor. He’s clearly not the Ebony Knight or anywhere close to his level of strength. If he were, you wouldn’t be alive right now; his punch would have torn you in two.”

“The feel of his mana is—”

“So what?” Sune made a face and drew her rapier. “Let me get this straight. He has armor that might be what the Ebony Knight looked like, and his mana might be how the Ebony Knight’s felt?” She lifted her sword. “Even if all that is true, why does that change anything? Because the Ebony Knight is dangerous? So is this sword that I’m holding. A sword can kill people. It can pierce through them, chop them into little bits, and end lives. A sword is a weapon of war, used by soldiers to slaughter other soldiers and innocent people alike. Do you want to destroy my sword because it is evil? What about the two swords you have? Didn’t one of them belong to a warrior called the Butcher? You slaughtered him and took his weapon. That sword at your belt has seen more blood than any other blade in this kingdom, I bet. Shouldn’t it be judged by you? You won’t, though, because a sword isn’t a person. A sword is an object, a thing to be used by people, just as armor and magic too exist to be used. It isn’t how a person’s mana looks, it isn’t how it feels, and it isn’t their spells that determine who they are. It’s what they do with it. So how about you stop embarrassing the Arcane Knights, you pull up your pants, and you quit bitching like a baby?”

Jack’s glare didn’t fade, but the arm that was holding his sword slowly lowered to the ground. As he did so, the flapping of wings could be heard, and everyone looked up just in time to see Pretty Face flying down.

“Oh my, I seem to have missed quite a lot.” The beautiful woman giggled as her feet touched down. “Whoops! Sorry about that; I was redoing my makeup. Got to look good for TV!” She winked at one of the many cameras that were set up in the arena. “Speaking of TV…” Her voice dropped as she stood next to Jack, and her pretty look suddenly darkened into a scowl. “What the fuck are you doing? This stuff is recorded, you dick! These exams are shown to the public to get ratings up. You better hope they cut the broadcast before you pulled your shit, or so help me! If a single point of my overall rating drops, it’s your ass on the line.” She growled out through clenched teeth. “Understand.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Whatever—”

Pretty Face’s hand came down, and she grabbed the front of Jack’s pants and gave a harsh squeeze, causing the man to let out a squeak. “I said, understand?” Her grip grew tighter, about to pop something…

“Y-Yes.” Jack gasped out.

“Yes, what?”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

“Good boy.” Pretty Face let go and then kissed him on the cheek, her innocent look back. She let out a giggle. “Why don’t you go cool off, Battery! Your pal Snow will escort you to the back! I’m sure your captain wants to see you!”

Jack felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned, finding Snow standing behind him. “Alright, big guy, let’s get out of here.” Snow tugged on Jack’s arm, and slowly the red-haired man turned and began to leave.

As the man was dragged away, Pretty Face twirled and spun until she was in front of Davi. “Now, let’s get you fixed up. Vil Wind Spirit. Breath of life.”

“Breath of what—” Davi was silenced as Pretty Face casually kissed him. Olivia’s mouth dropped open, and several people gasped. Some even pulled out a phone and tried to snap a quick picture.

The kiss thankfully didn’t last long, and Pretty Face pulled away and wiped at her lips. Davi’s body glowed with a faint silver light, and his wounds faded and mended, leaving him fully healed.

The woman then lifted into the air and placed her hands on her hips, looking down at everyone. “Okay, okay, show’s over! I know things got out of hand, but hey! The test is finally over! As many of you likely figured out, surprise, it was a simulation! I feel like Dark Star could have done with giving you all a heads up, but hey, I’m not someone in charge of that! Why don’t you all take a quick break? It’ll be another hour or so before the final test begins, and in the meantime, to make it all up to you for what happened, I’ll put on a concert!” Pretty Face winked down at the crowd and twirled her microphone, causing nearly everyone to let out loud booming cheers as music kicked in from out of nowhere and fog began to roll in.

The atmosphere that had been built up shattered as the pretty woman began to sing some catchy pop song.

Olivia nudged Davi in the side. “I’m kind of jealous you got to kiss the legendary Pretty Face. Maybe I should get beaten up and see if she’ll heal me?”

Davi gave a lazy shrug. “Honestly, the kiss wasn’t that good; she kissed like a drunk man.”

“How do you know what a drunk man kisses like?”

“I’m a man, and I’ve been drunk.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Olivia also shrugged. She looked back at Davi. His look seemed distant and off. Like he was deep in thought. “Everything okay?”

Davi shook his head. “Nope.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Nope.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright.”

“Really?”

“Nope.” Davi turned and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m going to go take a walk.”

“Want me to come with you? You’re going to say nope again, aren’t you?”

Davi looked back at her and lightly elbowed her in the side. “I’ll see you later.”

Olivia gave a hesitant nod. “Yeah. See you later.” She watched as Davi walked away, pushing through the crowd of people. She hoped the reason he was leaving was just because he didn’t like loud noises and not because of something she did.

Davi made his way to one of the doorways and stepped into the halls of the stadium. Like last time, he walked down a winding path, letting fate take him where it needed. He didn’t pay attention to where he was going, and he didn’t care either. He knew what was about to happen after all. If he had sensed it, then she did too.

Soon enough, he turned the corner and came face-to-face with her once again. She was just as beautiful as he remembered. She stood in the hallway and was waiting for him, a sly grin on her lips.

“Hey, little Davi.”

Davi sighed and closed his eyes. “Hey, Evelyn. It’s good to see you again.”

Chapter 75: The Start Of The Final Exam

“Battery!” Jack Larison allowed himself to be dragged through the halls by Snow as they headed upstairs to where the captains were, but someone else stood in their way.

“Great,” Jack grunted. “It’s the boy wonder.”

Standing at the top of the stairs was Gray, also known as the Stone Bull. The vice captain of the Mourning Stars took a step forward and allowed gravity to carry him down the entire flight as he jumped. He landed at the bottom and straightened up, folding his arms. Snow looked uncomfortable and backed away a little, but Jack stood his ground.

“What happened?” Gray asked sternly.

Jack gritted his teeth and also folded his arms. “What happened is I discovered your little secret. I heard the reports. There was a rumor going around that you helped Lady Tori capture the false Arcane Knight. The one who was running around causing issues for everyone. The thing is, though, no matter how much digging was done, the report ended there. No mention of a sentence or a crime, or even what the person's name was. That’s who they are, right? That’s the missing false Arcane Knight.”

Snow’s head jerked to look at Gray in shock, and a gasp escaped his helm. “Are you serious? That young shadow mage was the fake Knight who was causing the guild so many issues? Isn’t that guy a criminal? I heard he committed a lot of property damage, did a ton of trespassing, and most importantly, was in some tax evasion scheme.”

Gray’s look shifted slightly as he stared at Jack. “What happened in the simulation?” Gray ordered in a smooth tone.

“You don’t know?” Jack frowned.

“No one does.” Snow shook his head. “I guess you haven’t been told yet, but the rest of the Knights weren’t given the recording of this exam like we were with the other ones. The captains are keeping the footage to themselves. I don’t know what that boy did to set you off, but it had to be bad, right? I guess if he’s the fake Knight that was running around, that explains a bit of your reaction.”

Jack shook his head and hissed. “It’s not just that.”

“It isn’t?”

“I didn’t instantly die.” Jack shuddered a bit. “That monster tore me in half, but I was able to survive and cling to life for a little while longer. Do you know what I saw? I saw that headless bastard moving around. The way his body twisted and reacted. The way it moved. The way it kept fighting even after death. Magic ends when the mage’s life fades away. The only magic that can last after the user's death is the mana of the four rulers of old. I felt something inside of me snap as I watched his spell—those hands. I’ve seen them before on the battlefield of the Mordheim nation. I’m telling you, whoever that man is, he isn’t someone who belongs to the Knights. He shouldn’t be here.”

Gray hummed softly and let out a sigh. “Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong. It isn’t for you to decide, though, is it? These exams have always existed for one purpose. The final test determines it. It’s what’ll decide who is fit to be a Knight and who is fit to be a failure. If he is a spy, if he’s corrupted and evil, we’ll know and we’ll deal with him. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t, but either way, attacking him in front of a room full of people was quite the stupid move. Especially when that man has so many eyes on him already.”

Jack sneered. “Do you think I’m scared of you or Tori?”

“It wasn’t us I was referring to.” Gray turned away and gave a casual smirk. “Just so you know, Evelyn has her eyes on that man you attacked.”

Jack felt his face pale, and his knees shook as Gray began to walk away. “S-Seriously?” Jack clenched his teeth and shook his head. “Who the hell is he?”

Meanwhile, back in the stadium, Olivia watched as Pretty Face’s performance began to come to an end. The woman had gone through two different songs and had successfully gotten the crowd to be chipper once again.

It was kind of hard to believe people had been afraid and in a panic moments ago, because now they were cheering loudly and waving their phones around. A mage with light magic had caused the room’s lighting to shift, making it appear night, and various colors and mist filled the air as Pretty Face danced through the sky, now singing a love song. Humans, at the end of the day, were simple creatures, and it didn’t take much for the crowd's mood to shift.

All the guides had left as well, save for Sune, who stood near the doorway keeping her arms folded in case any more sudden fights broke out. The rest of the Knights were all up in the stands. The barrier the captains had was still up as well, and Olivia wondered if they even knew what happened under their noses. Surely they did, yet nothing had been said or done. It was the same when Davi had challenged Rowan. No one stepped in either.

Did the Knights not care? They seemed to be annoyed that Jack had harmed their image, but that was as far as it went.

It put a slightly sour taste in her mouth. Knights were supposed to be superheroes. The silver-haired beauty who saved her was a prime example of this. That woman had not only slain all the monsters but also fixed the village and then even took her home. The woman in the witch outfit was a prime example of what a hero was.

Davi also fit the role. She didn’t like how people judged him. He wasn’t some mad beast but instead was a good person who helped people a lot. He even let Rowan win in his fight, just to help the guy.

Speaking of Rowan, the boy had become slightly famous and now had a massive crowd around him of people wanting to speak to him. Rowan had entered this arena being the least favored noble, and now everyone wanted a piece of him for one simple fact. He beat Davi Hawker.

Whether it was true or not, or there was more to the story, that didn’t matter. In the minds of the people, it was simple. Jack Larison was an Arcane Knight able to make a shield that the other Knights couldn’t break. Davi broke through it in one punch. That meant Davi was stronger. Rowan beat Davi. That meant Rowan was stronger.

Of course, that’s not how any of it worked, but that was beside the point.

Olivia let out a sigh and folded her arms, still annoyed. “I hope Davi gets back soon.” She muttered. “Besides that, though, how did your guys' test go?”

She had separated herself from most of the crowd and was with her little group. Ash, Bruno, Irene, and, shockingly, Ken, all stood with her.

“My test ended in us all dying.” Bruno chuckled. “I wasn’t even able to do anything.”

“You fought something that crazy?” Ash frowned.

Bruno’s usual smile was gone, and he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. It was a Knight that reminded me a lot of Davi, actually. I’m pretty sure I know who it was, but I didn’t get a good look because that thing killed me in one punch. “

“Our test also didn’t go well.” Irene hummed. “Sadly, I died as well. We fought someone called Medora.”

“Medora?” Ken raised an eyebrow. “White Wolf Medora?”

“You know her?” Irene cocked her head to the side.

Ken shook her head softly, an action the blind girl failed to notice. “I’ve never met her, but she’s considered a big deal. She’s basically the equivalent of those bastard captains. Rumor has it she didn’t just gain a spirit but bonded with it, becoming something like a mix between man and beast. You guys call them Mutants here. Though where we’re from, controlling the spirit side is something many learn to do. Not everyone can walk the physical or spiritual path, and some, like Medora, decided to walk the path of the beasts instead.”

Irene let out a soft hum. “Interesting.” The girl tapped her chin. “I don’t know fully what happened since I’m blind, but apparently, we appeared in a forest, and this Medora lady hunted us down. I was left last since she wanted to take the stronger prey out first. My music magic failed to work on her, and she ended up killing me. Luckily, it was rather quick and painless.”

Ken let out a snort. “Well, that’s how you know it was a fake Medora then. The real one would have taken her time tearing you apart and would have eaten you alive.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh yeah, that woman is insane.” Ken laughed. “She’s more like a wild animal that the elders of her sect sick on Knights. I wonder if she can even speak. I know she hates my family.”

“Why does she hate your family?” Olivia asked.

“My dad chucks dog biscuits at her anytime he has to go to elder gatherings.”

“I see…”

Ash raised an eyebrow as he stared at Ken. The woman was a lot more chill now and even smiling sometimes. “So you were with Davi, right? What happened?”

Ken’s smile faded, and the woman folded her arms and let out a huff. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“And she’s back to being her usual self.” Olivia chuckled.

“Watch it,” Ken growled, but the woman didn’t actually do anything. Her eyes had been locked onto Olivia since she joined the group, studying the white-haired girl. Olivia had been doing her best to ignore it, but it was kind of unsettling. She couldn’t tell if Ken’s look was calculating or just hungry… “Looks like the flying girl is done.”

Olivia jerked her head up and instantly regretted it as the darkness in the room switched off and the sun's natural lighting came back. “Ah! My eyes!”

The fog ended, and the barrier around the captain's seated area dropped, allowing the eight of them to be seen again. Pretty Face stopped dancing and slowly came down but remained above the crowd, still just out of reach. Her smile changed to one that was more professional, and she brought the microphone up to her lips.

“Ladies, gentlemen, and anything else in between, I’ve just been informed that the captains are done reviewing the footage. Due to some incidents that happened in this exam, the public will unfortunately not be given viewing access, nor will any Knights not classified in the level of vice captain. Worry not, though, because you all just got a free showing of a Pretty Face concert, and the footage is going to be uploaded online for you all to see!”

That got a lot of the crowd to cheer and celebrate. Not everyone was happy, though. Those who failed the test would often look up the exam online to study the recruits who passed and watch the live stream of the various other exams. Missing out on a full test was quite shocking, and it also looked bad on Dark Star since it was her test that was having everything go wrong in. Despite the mild negativity, though, many people in the crowd were excited and ready for what was about to come.

Pretty Face’s wings grew out, and her smirk got larger as she lifted herself higher into the air. “Are you all ready?”

Cheers erupted from the crowd.

“I said, are you all ready!”

“Hey!” Someone in the crowd yelled out. “What about our Knight gear?”

Pretty Face’s smile faded slightly. “Oh? Yeah, uh, why don’t you take it up with your future captain! If any of you get on Dark Star’s guild, ask her why she made that promise, because that’s sure as hell something I’m not about to deal with! Now! Who’s ready to get this part started?” The cheers got even louder, and Pretty Face chuckled. “Aren’t you all precious? Alrighty then. In that case, I think it’s time to begin!”

Down below, Olivia bit her lip and looked around. “Shit.”

“What is it, bro?” Bruno asked.

“It’s Davi.” Olivia winced. “He’s still not back.”

Ash frowned. “Surely he made it back. Maybe he wasn’t able to find us. We are in a big crowd.”

Olivia shook her head. “No. He’d find me. I’m sure of it.”

Irene tapped her foot down and pondered for a moment. “Should one of us go look for him?”

“That would mean we’d run the risk of missing the test ourselves.” Ash pointed out.

Ken rolled her eyes. “Oh, for Han’s sake.” She pulled her gourd off her belt and shook it. Yujin flickered out, his body taking on the form of a flaming wolf. He was extremely tiny, though, being only a foot wide and big.

The spirit bowed its head. “You called, Lord Ken Yuan?”

“Go and find the stupid idiot known as Davi and bring him back here,” Ken ordered.

The wolf’s ears twitched, and he sniffed at the air. “As you command, Lord Ken Yuan.”

“There.” Ken huffed. “As long as he hurries, he’ll make it.”

Olivia smiled. “Thanks.”

Ken seemed caught off guard and shook her head. “I owe that fool that much for helping me in my test. It’s the least I can do.”

Olivia nodded and looked back up toward Pretty Face as the woman finished hyping the crowd up. The woman gave a sly look as she stared down at all the eager faces. “Well, if you’re all really ready, then I think it’s time we begin.” Pretty Face cleared her throat, and soft music began to play. It was a beautiful melody that danced across the room, and the woman gripped her microphone with both hands. “Three tests are determined by the captains.” The woman said softly, her voice gentle and soothing.

Olivia gasped, and she felt a soft wave of mana caress against her. It wasn’t coming from Pretty Face, though. Instead, it was coming from every direction. Up, down, left, right, and all around her, it twisted and danced. Unlike the other tests, the arena didn’t shake, and this time a simulation really wasn’t used.

Pretty Face continued to talk. “The test of skill exists to see if you have the power required to be an Arcane Knight. The test of knowledge exists to see if you’re smart enough to be an Arcane Knight. The test of courage exists to see if you’re brave enough to be an Arcane Knight. There is one last test, though. The most important one. The king's personal exam. The test of soul. A test that exists to see if you yourself are even worthy to be an Arcane Knight. The first three tests were a warm-up. They were there for you to show off your skill, your knowledge, your courage, and if you can impress the captains. This next test, though, you have to impress someone far above the captains. You must impress the king himself and show him why you are worthy to be knighted. If you succeed, then you’ve successfully done it. You’ve become an Arcane Knight, and starting tomorrow, you will live out the rest of your existence serving this kingdom and its people. If you fail, though, then don’t despair, for that just means you have more growing to do.”

Olivia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She hadn’t done well in the first or second exam, but she at least got her entire team through the third one. That had to mean something, right? Surely that was enough. She prayed it was.

She wanted it so badly. She wanted to be a hero. Someone who could help people. Someone who could inspire others. She just wanted to reach that goal and do what she couldn’t. Maybe then her father would finally come back for her…

“Damn it… Why am I still thinking of that jerk who left me…?”

Pretty Face brought the microphone down and winked. “Alright then. It’s time it begins. The test of the soul is starting now. Good luck.”

Meanwhile…

“He said that I had the same mana as the Ebony Knight,” Davi muttered quietly. “I still know nothing about him, but people keep comparing me to him. Over and over and over. That man even claimed I might be a descendant of his.”

“Jack Larison is a fool,” Evelyn said softly, and she ran her fingers through Davi’s hair. “He’s a useful fool, but still a fool. He’s wrong about you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Have I ever been wrong before?” Evelyn purred softly. “I haven’t, have I? Not since I found you and took you under my wing. Look at you. I leave you alone for a few years, and you’ve become so lost and helpless.”

“I’m not,” Davi said quietly.

“You are.” Evelyn insisted.

Davi wanted to say more, but he held his tongue. There wasn’t a lot he could say due to the position he was in. After meeting Evelyn in the hallway, she had moved their conversation to a private room. It was a simple-looking bedroom, small and enclosed, meant for the Knights to sleep in during the break between tests two and three. Evelyn was seated on the bed, and she had forced Davi to sit next to her. Her arms were wrapped around his head, and she kept it pressed into her shoulder, muffling him slightly as she held onto him.

“Leaving you was a mistake.” Evelyn hummed. “I should have kept you by my side.”

“I left you,” Davi responded flatly, and the fingers that were going through his hair stopped for a moment.

Evelyn clicked her tongue and tilted her head. “And how did that turn out for you? Did you find your dragon? Did you slay it like your mommy commanded? No. You didn’t, did you? Instead, you wandered, lost and alone, going nowhere with your life, being accused of having the seed of the Ebony Knight within you. Of course, that’s impossible. I know your full bloodline, and I know his as well. The Ebony Knight was truly a pathetic man who died alone, not leaving any children in the world. He has no sons or daughters who could lead to you. Your mother's bloodline is still quite interesting, though. After all, the blood of an—”

“That’s enough,” Davi grunted, and he forced his way out of Evelyn’s embrace. He folded his arms, and his scowl deepened. “You know why I came here, right? Why I wanted to see you.”

Evelyn let out a soft huff and puffed her cheeks out. Slowly, she lifted off the ground. She didn’t cast a spell, and unlike Pretty Face, she didn’t have wings either. Like all witches, she could fly naturally, even without mana. She fully lifted into the air and lazily spun around to lie on her back, hovering at perfect eye level with Davi so she could look back at him.

“This outfit I’m in barely covers me, you know. I bet you can see my cleavage if you—”

“Evelyn,” Davi growled.

The silver-haired girl giggled softly and rolled her eyes. “You’re no fun.” She reached out and poked him softly on his nose. “You want to ask about the snow-haired beauty, right?”

“You met Olivia, right?” Davi demanded. “She’s talked about you before.”

“Yes, yes, I met her.” Evelyn’s smile returned. “She’s gorgeous. Of course, that’s not what caused you to have your eye on her, is it?”

“Is it true?” Davi asked, and for a moment his voice cracked. “Is she…”

Evelyn’s own smile faded. “Yes.” She said, and her words caused Davi’s eyes to close. “Of course, just you and I are aware of that fact since we’ve alone felt its mana. Not even your brother knows the correct feeling like we do. The other Knights might be able to guess what kind of blood runs through her veins, but they’ll naturally assume that it’s an ancestor of hers. After all, plenty of humans have had the blood of elves, giants, demons, and angels pumping through their veins, so a human with the blood of a dragon isn’t that shocking, and there are plenty of examples, myself included. Dragons have the polymorph skill after all, able to take on the forms of humans and hide amongst them, which is the only reason they haven’t been able to be fully wiped out yet. That’s a fact the general public doesn’t know, though.”

“The Knights won’t do anything when they find out, will they?” Davi pleaded.

Evelyn shook her head. “Again, as I said, they’ll think it’s just an ancestor. My great, great, skip a few greats, grandfather was also a dragon, which is how I became a witch. All witches are the descendants of dragons, and while we’re extremely rare, we’re not unheard of. In fact, there are at least two other witches in the guilds, one of whom is even a captain. Witches are actually useful, just like people with the blood of giants or elves are, so as long as your little girlfriend stays useful, she won’t be mistreated. Dye even found out she’s a witch since he’s familiar with the mana dragons give off, and now wants her for his own guild. Of course, unlike you and I, he has no idea of the exact dragon whose mana she is giving off.”

Davi let out a heavy sigh. “Will sticking close to her work? Will it attract it? Will it all be worth it in the end?”

“That’s not for me to say, but I can tell you this.” Evelyn closed her eyes and hummed before opening them. They were sharper now. More cruel. “That girl will serve her purpose.” She reached out and cupped Davi’s face. “Don’t forget what that monster did to us, what it took from us. What it turned us into.” She hissed quietly. “That girl is connected to it. Let the others assume she’s a descendant, but you and I know the truth. She’s the offspring. Maybe it’s her father, maybe it’s her mother; either way, I’m certain, without a doubt in my mind, the Dragon that ruined both our lives is her parent, and we’ll use her as the bait she is so we can both have our revenge.”

Davi gave a hesitant nod. It had all built up to this. From the very moment he saw Olivia, he could sense the faint traces of dragonic mana lurking within her. Not just any dragon, though. The Dragon. The one that set him on this path in the first place. The one that turned him into the warrior of spite.

What would happen to Olivia, though? "Will she be okay?" Davi asked after a moment.

"What do you mean?" Evelyn's look changed, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"Olivia Lot," Davi stated. "Will she be okay, being the child of that monster? I know you also have the blood of a dragon, but the dragon in your family history is long since dead, and that was hundreds of years ago. She's a direct offspring, and the blood of that monster is starting to awaken. Will she be safe?"

"That doesn't matter." Evelyn sneered.

"It does," Davi growled.

Evelyn growled back and then leaned forward and spun around once more. She gripped either side of his face and suddenly kissed him. Her lips were on his, and Davi felt his eyes widen a bit. She settled into his lap and hugged him tightly before finally breaking the kiss off.

“You keep doing what you’re meant to.” Evelyn purred once more and kissed his cheek, working her way down to his neck. “You’re my sword. So you do your job, and you do it right. You’ll kill the ones I point you at, and together we’ll get our happy ending. That girl will serve her purpose and be used up when we’re done.”

She kissed him again, harder this time, but Davi had enough. He shoved her off of him, sending the silver-haired girl down. Davi placed himself over her and stared down, his stern look not fading as Evelyn looked up into his eyes.

“If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it my way,” Davi stated. “I’ll use Olivia, and I’ll lure the dragon to me, but she’s not going to get hurt. Do you understand?”

Evelyn’s smile returned. “Maybe you did change while I was away.” Her fingers danced across his back, and she tugged at his clothes. "Do you really think you can keep her safe? You can barely protect yourself, little Davi-"

Davi cut her off when he leaned down and harshly bit into Evelyn's neck, causing her to gasp. He sunk his teeth in hard drawing blood.

"I wounded a big shot like you." He finally muttered, before he set up again and placed his hands on either side of Evelyn. "We will get our happy ending, I'll make sure of that, but we'll do it in a way that helps the most people."

"Fine, fine." Evelyn wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "We'll do it your way. Go on then, Knight. Claim what's yours."

He and Evelyn had a special relationship… Calling it love was wrong. Love was sacred and holy. Lust, too, would be incorrect. This was something else. It was a desire. One for control. Both parties wanted to hold onto.

It was not healthy.

Chapter 76: The Test of Soul

The eight captains all remained on their thrones, watching the arena. The crowd was transfixed on Pretty Face, who was still in the air. Dancing around her were various lights. They were tiny, around the size of a golf ball, and flickered in and out, taking on all sorts of colors. Once more, the sun seemed to dim in the arena, everything becoming darker than it should have been, as more and more lights swirled around.

This was it. The final exam. The one that the other tests had been building up to. The test of skill, knowledge, and courage existed so the captains could vote on what members they wanted for their guild while also seeing them in action. The test of the soul, though, would determine who was and wasn’t allowed to become an Arcane Knight.

This test was far above the others in terms of magic, as it used the king’s mana, who, in turn, had the most considerable amount of Haru’s mana flowing through his veins. In other words, this test was the closest thing that existed to an official spell that Haru could have cast.

The test would determine the life someone lived, who they were, what they wanted to do, and where they should end up. It would see and hear all, and a person would both come undone and be remade when it was through with them. If someone held malice for the kingdom in their heart or was a spy or traitor, the test would figure that out in seconds and alert the other Knights. If a person from another land were genuine and wanted to become a Knight and help save the day, the mana would embrace them and officially make them a full citizen of the kingdom. The test of the soul judged all and knew all.

That was the test that was about to begin.

“Who do you think you’ll get on your team?” Crow asked casually.

Father rubbed his chin and hummed. “There are only two I really have my eye on this year. One of them is Cain Lunar. It goes without saying, but I’d like him.”

“Let me guess,” Dark Star let out a soft chuckle. “The other is Bruno Moore.”

“Of course.” Father nodded his head. “Though he might be a commoner, the mana he showed off makes him more than worthy.”

“He’s like Grampa Green.” Crow whistled. “I could tell just from feeling his mana; he’s got the blood of an elf pumping through his veins. It explains the unique trait he had that was activated in his battle with Cain. Shame he wasn’t able to survive long enough to use that power in his third exam. I doubt he would have won, considering the threat he was forced against, but he would have put on a better show. Still, the results from the first test alone have me curious about him. I assume we all want him.”

Myth let out a bitter chuckle. “I thought about voting for him, but I know that there isn’t any point if you three are also going to try and snatch him up. I decided to shoot for a different noble. She did well in the first exam. I believe Ms. Irene will be a good pick. She also comes from the Lunar family and is a cousin of Cain.”

“Yes, this year had a lot of nobles.” Gorgon chuckled. “I was interested in Ruby Marsian. She showed enough skill in the first exam, and I liked her answer in the third. Sadly, she made for a shit face and caused too many issues, on top of the fact that she seems to have shut down after seeing something like a dragon. Perhaps it was her fear that was selected for the simulation? Either way, she turned out to be a failure. I’ve since moved on to Rowan Zyne. His display in the first round wasn’t great, but he made up for it in the third by leading his team out of the dungeon he had been in. What about you, Dye?”

Dye grunted and had finally quit painting. He flexed his fingers and twirled a paintbrush. “A lot of people have the blood of ancients this year. I’ve spotted some with the blood of elves, some with the blood of giants, and some with the blood of something even more special… There’s one I have my eye on, though.”

“Who?”

“It’s a secret.”

Gorgon sighed and rolled her eyes. “Right. Scared we’ll poach them, huh?” She smirked.

“A bit.” Dye chuckled.

Paragon cleared her throat. “I tried speaking to Grampa Green, but he wasn’t able to focus on the matches… Should I just pick for him?”

“Do what you must.” Father nodded. Finally, he turned to the last member of the eight captains. “Anyone you want, Laer?”

“Piss off.” The woman waved the strongest man in the world off. “I already told you, I ain’t going to get any little bastards in my guild. I’m just here because that royal bastard asked me to come.”

“I wonder why.” Crow hummed. “We would have all been better off without you.”

Father kept a calming smile on his face, and he folded his arms. “Now, now. Let’s focus on the test at hand. It’s about to start after all. If Laer doesn’t want to grow her guild, then that is on her.”

Back in the air, Pretty Face lowered her arms and stretched them out as the lights grew brighter and began to swirl around. They touched the ground and began to mold into each other, connecting and forming into what looked almost like a glowing doorway. It grew brighter and brighter and rapidly expanded in size, and Pretty Face flew up and landed on top of it when it was finally done.

Unlike the other exams, there was no simulation, and instead, a gateway of light would lead them to the next test. “Alright, everyone!” Pretty Face called out. “I hope you’re all comfortable because we’re going to be here for a while! See, this test is one at a time! When I call your name, please step through the doorway! For you, it’ll take a while for the test to end, but for the rest of us, only a few minutes will pass out here! That said, there are over a hundred of you bastards to go through! So strap in!”

People began to mutter and get hyped as excitement filled the air. This was it—the final test.

“Oh, I should also mention something.” Pretty Face suddenly smirked, and her eyes sparkled a bit. “See, there’s something different about this test. The king decided to spice it up a bit.” Her words instantly caused all eight captains to frown, and Father sat up fully. “In previous tests, you’ll enter through this gate and be judged. From there, the votes you received from the captains will be tallied if you got any. If you didn’t get any votes, you’ll be booted and will have failed this year's test. If you did get a vote, you’ll be able to accept it and become part of that guild. If you got multiple votes, you can pick which guild you wish to join from those votes. Of course, you can also choose not to join any guilds in the event that your only option is Phoenix Flight. That’s how it has worked every year. Until now.”

“What are you saying?” Father stood up now and walked toward the railing. “We weren’t informed that there was any change going on? What are you doing, Pretty Face?”

Pretty Face looked back at her guild captain and let out a sheepish chuckle. “Sorry, but this came from the big man himself. Take it up with him.” She looked back at the crowd. “I’m sure you were all told that all that mattered was getting the attention of the captains? Well, that’s wrong. This year, the captains' votes will not be considered. The king himself has decided to determine which guild you belong to. When you enter through this gateway, you will be judged and viewed, and the guild that is best suited for you will be the one you are placed into.”

Father’s cheerful smile was gone now, and his eyes blazed with a golden light. “I never agreed to this. We’ve done things through votes for years. Why would the king suddenly decide now to change how we handle the rite of selection?”

Pretty Face turned back, and her smile grew slightly. “Well, normally the king wouldn’t get involved, but sadly, there have been rumors recently that you guys were going to exclude some people from a certain country. Of course, these are just rumors, right?” Pretty Face asked, her smile growing. “After all, the king accepts all to his land and values freedom above all else. It’s why anyone can become a Knight, so long as they value this land and its people and hold the desire to protect it. Haru created Estiria to be a land that accepts all, and it wouldn’t do if anyone from any land were suddenly excluded for an unjust reason.”

Father felt his scowl deepen a bit. The truth was, it had been his idea to exclude anyone from Mordheim, and he told the other guilds to follow his lead. In the past, people from Mordheim had been allowed into the guild. Anyone could technically become a Knight, but things were different now. Mordheim was openly attacking Rossum. Rumor was its people were even delving into demonic forces and utilizing the cursed power of the Ebony Knight.

Its people were evil. This was a fact in Father’s mind. They couldn’t be sane or reasonable. They weren’t fit to be Knights. On top of that, the only people who could get out of Mordheim would be the kind who were wealthy and elite. The ones said to be delving into the dark arts the most. Father was confident all of them would fail the exam anyway, so there was no point in sending a single vote their way, since the test of the soul would deem them traitors.

“That’s just a rumor.” Father finally stated. “I have no idea how such a silly notion was even thought of, but of course it isn’t true.”

“Of course.” Pretty Face giggled. “That said, just to be sure, the king will be stepping in for this year's test. You understand, right? Don’t worry, everything will be fair and judged. If a person belongs to your guild, they’ll be added in.”

Father wanted to argue, but there was nothing he could say. If it was coming from the king, then it was a direct order.

The king valued freedom above all else. Ironic, considering he ruled a nation. This view he held, though, was one of the reasons the Knights were technically freelancers who didn’t work fully with the kingdom or serve it in the typical way a military would. If the king wanted to, he could order them as he pleased, but he mainly let them operate as they saw fit within the kingdom's law and even let them skirt it a bit.

This was a rare moment of him putting his foot down, though. Evil or not, Mordheim, at least in the eyes of the king, still deserved a chance at redemption.

Father huffed softly and took a seat back on his throne. “Very well. Proceed. I’m sorry for interrupting.”

Pretty Face winked at her captain and turned to look back at the confused faces of the exam takers. “You all have nothing to worry about. The test will do its job. It’s the king’s test after all. You’ll all enter and be judged. If you’re worthy of joining a guild and the king deems you so, you’ll be given a cloak that shows what guild you belong to. If you’re unworthy, you’ll receive nothing. If, for whatever reason, the cloak you get is of a guild you don’t wish to join, then you are allowed to forfeit and opt out; however, you will be deemed a failure and have to retake the test next year.”

“Shit.” Someone in the crowd muttered. “So when we all get placed in Phoenix Flight, we’re basically fucked? We either join it or fail?”

“Failing is the obvious answer, right?” Someone else asked.

“Of course it is.” Another person agreed. “You’re going to die if you join that worthless guild.”

Up on her throne, Laer’s eye twitched slightly. “I don’t want any of you bastards in my guild anyway.” She muttered.

Over with Olivia, she rubbed her chin and slowly processed what she had heard. If she understood correctly, then that either boosted her odds or entirely made it impossible to join the guilds.

The vote from the captains was always required, and so all the tests weren’t about doing the best but instead about making an impression on them. If that wasn’t the case here, though, then it was likely that the test of the soul would look at how well she did in the other tests. She failed the first and second ones, but what she heard was that the third was the hardest to pass, and she made it into that one. That was good for her and would hopefully boost her chances of getting in.

It was also possible, though, that it wasn’t based on how well she did at all in the tests and was instead based on something else. The king’s mana is what allowed the grimoire app to work and was the reason only Estiria had such a thing. It was possible the test would look at her grimoire and view her stats, traits, and spells. If that was the case, then having a blood core, low stats, and only a handful of good traits wouldn’t get her very far and would likely result in her being failed on the spot.

It could also be a mix of the two, which would still be bad for her since she failed over half the tests and had bad stats on top of that.

She was getting worried the more she thought about it. “Are you okay, Ms. Olivia?” Irene asked innocently. The blind girl was holding her hand and had noticed her body shaking.

“Y-Yeah.” Olivia let out a soft chuckle. “Just a bit nervous.”

“Well, don’t be,” Ken said flatly. “Just do well.”

“Oh gee, why didn’t I think of that?” Olivia sighed.

Ken’s eyes narrowed once more, and a low growl escaped her. “Don’t mock me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Bros,” Bruno began. “We’re going to be fine. We got this. I believe in all of us. Just have confidence.”

“Bruno’s right.” Ash nodded. “There’s no use being worried. Let’s just do our best when it comes to our time and hope we make it in. I, of course, know I will.” Ash smirked slightly and shot Olivia a look. “You'd better pray extra hard.”

“What guild do you all want to get in?” Irene asked innocently.

Bruno threw his hands behind his head and let out a laugh. “Obviously, the Shining Sentinels, Umbra Mortis, or the Mourning Stars. They’re the top three. Besides them, though, I guess I wouldn’t mind getting stuck in Pantheon.”

Ash looked toward the captains. “My answer is the same as Bruno’s, besides Pantheon. I’d rather get placed in the Wandering Coin.”

Irene tapped her chin. “I thought I was going to end up in Umbra Mortis, but now that the exams aren’t based on votes, I don’t know.”

“Why’d you assume that guild?” Ken asked.

“Captain Crow is known to pick cute girls.” Irene shrugged.

Olivia nodded her head. “Honestly, I’m fine with any guild.”

“Even Phoenix Flight?” Bruno joked.

Olivia frowned but eventually nodded. “I wouldn’t like it, but if that’s what it takes. Haru, I hope it’s not Phoenix Flight.”

Pretty Face cleared her throat and began to speak up once more. “As I said, when your name is called, step through the portal. Kyle Aarush.”

Hesitantly, someone began to push their way through the crowd. It was a young man with caramel skin and bushy brown hair. He looked at the gateway made out of pure light and seemed extremely nervous but finally stepped forward, entering the field of energy. One moment he was there, and then the next he was gone.

Everyone began to mutter, all their eyes locked onto the gateway. It was so bright that it was impossible to see past it, and no sound came out either. Pretty Face hummed softly. “It’ll take a few moments. When Mr. Aarush is out, we’ll move on to the next name.”

More muttering filled the air as everyone wondered what was about to happen. Finally, in a flash, though, Kyle Aarush reappeared. Instantly, it was apparent that something was wrong. His face was pale, and his body was shaking.

Pretty Face looked down at him, and her look almost seemed to be one of pity. She quietly clicked her tongue and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mr. Aarush, but it seems the king has spoken. You are not worthy of being an Arcane Knight. You do not have what it takes. You are allowed to stay and watch, or you can leave. Better luck next year.”

Frustrated tears appeared in the man’s eyes, and he stood there still shaking but eventually managed to turn and leave. Olivia felt a twisting knot in her stomach, and she winced.

“Shit. Just like that?” She asked.

“Just like that,” Ash grunted. “He failed so easily. It’s kind of scary.”

“I’ll say.” Olivia shuddered. Nothing happened from her point of view. He entered full of spirit and then walked out a second later, totally defeated and broken. Was that going to be her?

“Let’s keep going down the list!” Pretty Face called out. She began to list more names off. It was in alphabetical order, using family and clan names. Since her last name was Lot, that meant she’d be in the middle, and it’d take a bit to get to her. It also meant Ken would be the last one of their little group to go up.

Pretty Face called out name after name, and many people walked forward. Some were men, some were women. It all ended the same, though. They’d enter, and then they’d exit looking defeated and broken, shriveled up and barely functional. They all failed.

Over and over, people would go, and they would leave not in a guild. Each time it happened, Olivia felt as if she had been stabbed. Was this going to happen to her? Would her spirit be broken so easily? She wasn’t the only one getting nervous. Bruno and Ash also got worried looks. Only Irene and Ken seemed calm and collected.

Eventually, though, a name from their group was called.

“Ash Anderson.”

Ash flinched as his name was called, and he stood there not moving. Bruno reached out and placed a hand on Ash’s shoulder and gave a smile. “Ash. Bro. You got this.”

Ash sucked in a large amount of air. Then he began to march forward. Olivia bit her lip as she watched him walk toward the gate. He stopped in front of it and stared ahead. It had always been his dream to become a Knight. He was strong but born unlucky into a common family. He could do it, though. He knew he could. He just had to take the next step.

“I’m going to become a Knight.” Ash closed his eyes and stepped into the light.

“Think he can do it?” Ken asked lazily, looking at her nails.

Olivia gave a soft grin. “Of course he can. I hate the bastard, but… Ash is amazing. He's smart, talented, and brave. He has faults, but he strives to do better and fix them. He works hard and gives it his all. Ash can do it. I know he can.”

“He’s my bro!” Bruno announced proudly, and he punched his open fist. “I believe in my bro.”

It took only a few seconds later for another flash to appear, and Ash stepped out of the gate. He wasn’t as pale as the others, and he didn’t shake either. His eyes were different, though, compared to when he went in. They almost seemed to hold some new light within them. What was most notable about him, though, was what he had on. It was a piece of black cloth that wrapped over his shoulders like a small cloak. On the front of it was golden threading in the image of a bull’s head.

“Congratulations.” Pretty Face called down, and her smile was genuine this time. “It seems we have our first new Knight. Mr. Anderson, you’re now part of the Pantheon guild.”

Ash did it. He had become an Arcane Knight.

Chapter 77: Why Do You Want To Become An Arcane Knight

Ash did it. After years of growing up in a backwater village, he had done something no one else in his village had managed. He became an Arcane Knight.

“Suck it, Jermy.” Ash muttered. He glanced down at his hands, balling them into a fist. Despite being an official Arcane Knight now, he honestly didn’t feel different.He didn’t gain some new power-up, spell, or magic item. He was just given a cloak, one with the symbol of Pantheon’s guild on it. Despite that, though, he had a new look in his eyes. A massive confidence boost had been gained within him, though. “So what happens now?”

Most of the crowd was shocked that a random commoner had been the first to join the guilds. There were only so many positions that could be filled, and so each time someone became a Knight, it took away a spot. With the number of nobles that were present, none of whom had gone yet, some of them would have had to lose out on a chance this year, which already made many of them annoyed, but for a spot to be filled by a total nobody… That rubbed salt in the wound—a fact Ash noticed, as he had the smuggest smile on his face.

Pretty Face sat upon the gateway, her legs dangling over the side, and she softly hummed. “Well, now that you’ve passed the test of soul, you’re officially a squire for the Pantheon guild.” The woman explains. “Your fate is now in your captain's hands. When these exams are all over, a member from his guild will come to fetch you, and you’ll be taken to the base. From there, who knows what’ll happen? Until then, though, please refrain from leaving this room. Several other people have a chance to be placed into the same guild as you, so it’ll be good for you to meet your official teammates.”

Ash gave a nod, and he slowly wandered back over to his group. All eyes were on him still, and he fist-bumped Bruno, who was laughing. “Way to go, bro!”

“Obviously, I did it.” Ash snorted. “No doubt in my mind.”

“You were nervous a few seconds ago,” Olivia said flatly, doing her best to copy Davi’s usual way of speaking.

Bruno’s smile just grew, and he clapped Ash on the back. “I’ll be joining you in a moment. Maybe I’ll even be placed in the same guild as you, bro!”

“Good luck.” Ash gave a nod, and he glanced back at the gate. “The test was… It wasn’t what I expected.”

“What do you mean?” Ken frowned at his vague remark. “Spill it. What happened?”

Ash softly shook his head, seeming out of it for a moment. “It just talked.”

“What?”

“That was it.” Ash sighed. “It talked with me. Over and over and over. I don’t know how long I was in there, but it asked question after question and quizzed me so much that I thought I was going to snap.” He glanced down at his hand, which was shaking. “This test has a fitting name. It forces its way deep into your soul and makes you question things about yourself. In the end, though, I guess I did it. I reached my goal. I’m an Arcane Knight now.”

Bruno nodded and patted Ash on the back. “That’s right. You did it. I’m proud of you.”

Olivia also smiled and nodded. “Way to go, Ash.”

Ash’s face flushed a bit, and he stared at the ground, unable to meet either of their gazes. “Whatever. You two just hurry up and pass.”

“You two?” Olivia gave a cheeky smirk. “So you think I’m going to become a Knight as well now?”

Ash growled, but before he could say anything else, Pretty Face began to go down her list of names once more. All of the nobles were somewhere in the middle. The first branch family was the Helios clan, which obviously started with ‘H’, and the Knight just now got to the ‘B’ group, so it was still going to take a bit of time before any nobles stepped up for their turn.

Now that new people were entering the gateway, attention had finally shifted off of Ash, and everyone focused on the doorway. Again and again, new people entered only to leave defeated and depressed, with no guild. Five went, then ten, then fifteen, and finally, on the twenty-second name, someone else finally entered and exited with a symbol.

It was a young woman with long black hair and green eyes. She was rather pretty, even for a commoner, and when she entered the gateway, she looked confident. As she exited, though, that look was totally shattered.

The others had stepped out looking depressed or defeated, but as she came out of the gate, she looked like she was full of terror. It wasn’t shocking either, for she had on a small black cloak that had golden threading imbued into it, showing off the symbol of a bird made of fire.

A squire for Phoenix Flight had been selected.

Instantly, the girl was screaming and crying, which caught everyone else off guard before they noticed the cloak around her neck.

Pretty Face winced slightly. “Oh, Phoenix Flight, huh? Well, you can either stay or—”

The girl was already ripping the cloak off her and threw it to the ground. She was still crying and screaming as she ran out of the stadium, leaving an ominous silence behind.

Pretty Face awkwardly sat there watching the girl leave. “As a reminder, if you end up in a guild you don’t like, you are allowed to quit instantly.”

That didn’t help the mutterings that spread through the crowd.

“This is bullshit. Without votes, we all have a chance to end up in that cursed guild.”

“That girl took another spot as well! There are only so many positions! Phoenix Flight shouldn’t even be allowed to be picked!”

“We’re all dead if we end up in it!”

“What do we do?”

“You quit, obviously!”

Olivia folded her arms and shook her head. “Talk about unlucky. It’s got to be bad enough watching the other commoners all fail, but to be the second one to pass only to end up in the cursed guild. That poor girl.”

“She was screaming a lot.” Bruno gave a nervous laugh. “I know Phoenix Flight isn’t ideal, but is it worth that reaction?”

Ken snorted. “That girl was pathetic. If she can’t handle a little bad luck or superstition, then she simply isn’t deserving of being in a guild.”

Irene frowned at Ken’s words but decided not to say anything to the crazy, strong lady with a short temper. “Hopefully, more people will begin to pass. I’m getting nervous hearing so many failures.”

“I hope Davi shows up soon as well.” Olivia sighed. “He’s running out of time. What the hell could he be doing that’s more important than this?”

More names came after that as Pretty Face moved up the alphabet. Again, none were nobles, and all but one failed. The one that passed was another commoner. A boy Olivia recognized. He was dressed in long robes and a sort of boxy head and had black hair. It was the metal mage she had stabbed during the first exam. When he exited the gateway, he was draped in a green and pink cloak that had the outline of a tree on it.

“Looks like we got a member of the Oak Watchers!” Pretty Face whistled as the man looked down at his hands, which were still shaking a bit. “Congratulations.”

“Looks like two commoners made it.” Ash hummed and gave a nod of approval. Olivia, meanwhile, did her best to hide behind Ken, hoping the man wouldn’t look her way.

Some people, mostly the commoners, clapped for the metal-mage, while the nobles scowled that yet another spot was taken. There were a few more names called after that, and once again, another person stepped out with the cloak of Phoenix Flight. Like the last girl, this person tossed it on the ground and ran away, screaming and crying.

Finally, though, Pretty Face reached the letter ‘H’. “Davi Hawker.”

Rowan suddenly paid attention, as did his two maids. Over with Olivia and her group, they all also grew tense. The commoners who had cheered him on in the fight with Rowan, and the nobles who had also watched the battle, grew tense. Cain placed a hand on his sword almost out of instinct, and Ruby bit her thumb. Everyone waited, but nothing happened.

Pretty Face raised an eyebrow. “I said, Davi Hawker?” Again, nothing. No one approached. “Davi? Hawker? Davi Hawker? Anyone there? It’s your turn?”

Ash face-palmed. “Oh my Haru, he’s about to miss it.”

“Ken, anything from your spirit?” Olivia asked hesitantly.

“We’re close, but we’re not physically bonded.” Ken chuckled. “If Yujin found him, I’d have no idea until Yujin showed up.”

“Anyone got his phone number?” Bruno laughed awkwardly.

Up with Pretty Face, she frowned as no one approached. “Davi Hawker.” She tried one last time before grunting. “Alright then. I guess he decided to forfeit. We’ll move on to the next—”

Loud, blaring music suddenly pierced the air. It was booming and caused everyone’s head to jerk up. That was when they saw him. Davi was standing on the ledge of one of the open floors that went up along the stadium. He had his arms casually in his pockets, and around his neck was a pair of headphones that were connected to a cassette player he had hanging off his belt. The music was on full blast, allowing everyone below him to hear the heavy-metal rock song he had playing. Fire also danced around him, as Yujin had now taken on the form of a long serpent and wrapped around Davi’s neck, looking as if he had a scarf made of fire. Shadows danced along his hands and arms, his gauntlet and boots already formed from his armor as he stepped off the ledge.

Davi rammed into the ground, the bits of his armor he had on absorbing and negating the impact, and he fully stood up and dusted himself off. “I’m here.”

Olivia and the others all blinked, taken aback by the sudden interest. Ken was the first one to speak up. “Did he wait till the last moment on purpose so he could make an entrance?”

“It’s Davi,” Olivia sighed. “There’s no point to wondering what goes through his head.” She smiled softly and giggled. “I’m just glad he made it on time.”

Davi’s armor faded, and he began to walk forward as the snake around him unwrapped and flew back to Ken. All eyes were locked onto him now, and more mutters were going through the crowd. None of them were good. Pretty Face looked amused as he finally stood in front of the gate.

“So, I was busy doing someone. What exactly did I miss?” Davi called up.

“You mean doing something?”

“No.”

“Oh? Oh!” Pretty Face shook her head, processing what she had just heard. “Long story short, step through this gate. You either end up in a guild or you don’t.”

“That’s it?” Davi frowned.

“That’s it. What? Don’t believe me?” The woman asked innocently.

“Not even for a second.” Davi reached out and hesitantly touched the gate. His hand went through the light and vanished on the other side. It was strangely warm. Not hot, warm. It felt soothing and familiar as well. “Here goes nothing.” Davi took a deep breath and stepped forward.

He was greeted by a familiar sight. The gateway pulled him in, light wrapping around him, and the warmth grew, rising up and becoming slightly hot now. His eyes burned as everything was bathed in white, and tendrils of holy fire twisted around his arms and legs just as the shadowy hands would do in his vault.

He was in a blank void now, and it was like the total opposite of his shadow vault, being pure white instead of pitch black. Within the void of nothingness, a wellspring of colors suddenly began to appear all around. They were tiny and took on the form of orbs, no bigger than a golf ball, and each one shone with its own intensity and color. The orbs connected and fused, stacking on top of one another and becoming what looked like a massive strand of DNA.

More DNA strands appeared, all jutting outward from something in the center as if they were arms. It was a core, one that blazed with a never-ending wave of energy, that created this vast, infinite void so it could connect and view all that came within its grasp.

It was the same sight he had seen when he first used the grimoire. This was the core of the king. Just as when he first used the app, the strands of DNA tightly embraced him, and he was dragged over to the core. This time, there was a deep rumble, and the void itself seemed to shake.

“Davi Hawker, son of Orion Hawker, son of Titania Midsummer, child of the Abyss, welcome back.” The voice, unlike last time, was a lot more gentle and soothing. In fact, this time his body really didn’t hurt at all, and he wasn’t burning up like the first time he had been here.

Davi remained suspended in the void, the DNA still binding him in place. He waited for the core to speak or do something, but it didn’t. It just left him standing there. “So,” Davi trailed off awkwardly. “Am I supposed to fight you?”

“You could.” The voice was slow, as if a teacher were trying to explain a concept to a child. “Of course, you would die in an instant.”

“That’s fair.” Davi hummed. “Then what is this test?”

“It is the test of the soul.”

“And what does that mean?”

“What do you think it means?” The core asked.

“I don’t know.” Davi shrugged. “I don’t usually think things through unless it comes to a plan. Can you just tell me what I need to do?”

“Who are you?”

Davi frowned at the question. “You said my name; you know who I am. You know of my parents as well. Clearly, you know me.”

“Yes, I know the you that I am looking at, but not the you of tomorrow or the day after.” The core mused. “I have seen all that you have and all that you are, and I wonder, does Davi Hawker know who Davi Hawker is?”

“Davi Hawker is getting pissed with all these questions,” Davi responded in his usual flat tone.

Two strands of DNA lifted up and brought themselves before his eyes. One began to mold and break apart, black and gold shimmering around it, as it suddenly turned into what looked almost like a card. On the surface of the card was the golden outline of a young boy who was sitting next to an older man, the two of them fishing. Words appeared at the bottom of it saying, ‘The Child Who Loved To Fish’.

A second card formed out of the other strand of DNA. This card only had a single figure on it. A suit of rusty armor, kneeling, totally defeated, clutching a shattered sword, yet it still tried to stand up. Writing twisted down at the bottom. ‘The Warrior Of Spite’.

Davi’s eyes traced both cards in confusion, and the core spoke up once more. “This test exists to judge you. To see who you are and what it is you can do and will do. It is my job to see if you are worthy of becoming an Arcane Knight and if the Paths that you can walk are ones destined for greatness. How will your story turn out? Who is Davi Hawker? Who will he become tomorrow? Who do you consider yourself to be now? Who were you in the past?”

Davi looked between the two cards, and his look changed slightly, almost bitter or full of pity. “So one card is my past and the other is my present?”

“If that is how you view it.” The core hummed softly. “At one point, there was a boy. One who was born out of wedlock. His father used to be a great general and a master swordsman but let greed and misfortune destroy his life. His mother was unlucky. Cursed by what she found and forever altered and twisted. She took up the forbidden blade in an effort to make those who made her suffer pay. This child was born with a sword in their hand, trained by both father and mother, who only craved a weapon that they could use to get revenge with one day. Despite this, though, the child did not like holding a sword. They despised violence and hated the thought of having to draw blood. When left alone, they would fish. They would find joy in that, and it was something they learned from their father. Something they liked far more than swordplay. The father would see the light and discover his son was unfit for the blade, but his mother, who was bitter and full of anger, would refuse, and so he was still forced to train and fight. The child put up with it because it meant they got to spend time with their father, and unknown to the mother, the father would take his son out to the lake over and over, and they’d spend all day fishing.”

“Are you trying to sum up my life story?” Davi demanded bitterly. He had been listening in silence, but now he was getting mad.

The golden card of the child and the man fishing ignited. White flames ate away at it, reducing it to dust, and the core went on, moving to the second card. “In this moment, there is a man. One who is full of hatred for himself and for the thing that hurt him. One who has become like his mother and allowed the bitterness to rot away at his soul. One who walks forward, not because he himself can do anything, but because he has nothing else to do. This man has run out of reasons to give up. He is a machine. One who obeys the final orders instilled into him by his parents. He hunts the thing that hurt him, and he saves people because he can’t save himself. He looks like a Knight, but there is no honor to be had. He is a warrior, one of spite who will bring about an end. Rather, that is an end to himself or to the monster he chases; that remains to be seen.”

The second card lit up and burned away into ash just as the first one did. Davi gritted his teeth, and he flared his mana out, trying to break free of the strands that were around him. There were no shadows within this hell, as everything was so bright it destroyed any chance his magic had. He still possessed his raw power, though.

“Can you just hurry up and get to the point on why we’re here?” Davi demanded.

The core flared a bit, almost in annoyance, and more DNA strands lifted up, some wrapping around Davi to hold him in place. “Why do you want to be an Arcane Knight?” It didn’t ask, and instead, this time it demanded.

“You’ve seen who I am and everything I've done; you know the answer to that.” Davi’s eyes narrowed as he stared into the ball of light. “I have no desire to be a Knight. This is a path forced on me.”

“Why do you want to be an Arcane Knight?” The orb ordered again.

“I don’t!” Davi hissed out. “Sieg always wanted to be one, but I never cared for this group. He was the one always talking about them so that he could get back at Dad. There’s only one thing I care about, and it’s killing the dragon. I’m only taking this test because I’m forced to. I was stupid and arrogant, and I allowed myself to be caught by Gray, and he beat me. If I don’t become a Knight, I’ll be thrown away in prison, but to be honest, I don’t care about that.” Davi shook his head. “I know I can escape, and I’ll get right back to doing what I’m meant to do. I’ll kill that dragon no matter what.”

“Why do you want to be an Arcane Knight?”

“You’re not listening to me at all, are you?” Davi sighed.

One of the strands of DNA came up and suddenly pressed into his chest as if the orb were poking him. “It is you who is not listening, Mr. Hawker.” It said gently. “Indeed, your goal to kill the dragon has not wavered, and you still hold a deep desire for that, and yet you haven’t run away. You remained here, taking these tests and giving it your all.”

“That’s because Gray said I wouldn’t be able to be on the run again.”

“Since when did you trust the word of Gray?” The core pondered. “Moments ago, you said if you were thrown in the prison, you would find a way to escape. Wouldn’t that mean you’re on the run again?”

“Well—”

“Why do you assume you could escape Nightshade, the mage’s prison, but not escape Rose City? If you wanted to run, you could have, yet you didn’t. You stayed put. You, who claims he only wants to hunt the dragon, nothing more, nothing less, did more and did less. You showed skill, you showed knowledge, and you showed courage. You, who says he doesn’t care to join the Knights, set up plans to have the attention focused on you. You gave it your all and even went beyond. So, I will ask once more, why? Why would you do all of that? Why would you go through all of that pain? Why do you want to join the Arcane Knights?”

Davi’s shoulders sagged a bit. He went to say something but stopped and closed his mouth. He floated there in the void, trying to think, and finally he let out a tired sigh. “I still don’t want to join the Knights. That said, there’s someone I know who does.” Davi looked back up at the orb. “I want to see her reach her goal.”

The core let out another loud hum, and its colors all shimmered and flickered again as if it seemed to agree with this answer. “Do you think you would make a good Knight?”

“Absolutely not.” Davi let out a snort. “You know it as well as I do. You’ve seen my memories. I might be a warrior, but I’m not a Knight.”

“A warrior who wears armor, who saves people without thinking, who strives to do better, who keeps pushing forward—that sounds like a Knight to me.”

“Knights are full of chivalry.” Davi shook his head. “I’m not.”

“Are you a good person?”

“Again, you’ve seen my memories. You tell me.”

“Do you view yourself more as a person or a sword?”

“Whatever kills the dragon. I can be the person who swings the sword or the sword itself; it doesn’t matter to me.”

“I see. And what about being a shield?”

“Yeah, I guess if I were a shield, I could be bashed into the dragon hard enough to kill it.”

“What do you think of Estiria?” The orb asked.

“I don’t like it,” Davi admitted in a bland tone. He made a face and shrugged. “To be honest, the nobles are dicks, the Knights have beaten me up and looked at me funnily, I haven’t found any cool loot in the dungeons of this kingdom, it has so many issues that keep popping up in all the towns and villages, and everyone seems entitled until they get their asses kicked, and even the commoners are mean bastards.”

“Would you ever try to fight the Estiria kingdom?”

“If they tried to fight me or got in my way, yeah.”

“Would you ever support the Estiria kingdom?”

“Again, I would if they helped me or backed me, yeah. I’d do anything to get close to the dragon.” Davi grunted.

“You claim you don’t like it or its people, yet you constantly save as many of its citizens as you can?”

“They needed my help. It doesn’t matter what I think of them; if they need aid and I can offer it, shouldn’t I?” Davi questioned. “It has nothing to do with where they’re from. I’d do the same no matter what land I’m in. That’s just the way my father taught me.”

“Would you offer this help to a kingdom itself? If Estiria was in need and you could do something to save its people, would you?”

“If I saw it happening in front of my eyes, and my body had the ability to do something, but I chose to do nothing, I’d hate myself more than I already do.”

More flashing lights came from the orb, and it jiggled and twitched slightly. “So you claim you’re not a good person, yet you would offer help simply because you can? Just as how you refused to admit to wanting to become a Knight, could it not also be true that you would make a good Knight and are, in fact, a good person?”

Davi frowned softly and pondered the words. “I don’t think so. Yeah, you view my actions as good, but does that make them good? A good person can do bad, and a bad person can do good. If a person saves someone’s life, does that make them inherently a good person? What about someone who accidentally kills someone else? I save people because it’s what I was taught to do. I don’t do it to be good or to actually help them. I get frustrated and annoyed, in fact. I only do it because my father told me to. A child who takes the trash out on time because his dad told him to isn’t suddenly more responsible or well-behaved. The child who does it without having to be told is the real good kid.”

“Lessons are meant to be instilled and followed.” The core raised its DNA arms up, and they began to shift into more cards. “You still walk this path even without your father telling you to. What I’m really curious about, though, is which path you will end up on. We’ve seen your past, we’ve seen your present, now let's look at the future. One that is ever-changing.”

Unlike the previous moment, where two cards were made, dozens formed, and more kept coming. Each was gold with some sort of symbol on it and words carved at the bottom.

The first one showed an armored Knight standing on the corpse of a dragon. ‘Dragon Slayer’ was carved in the bottom. The second showed two men, two brothers, fishing at a lake. “A Man Who Loves To Fish’. A third had the armored figure again, but his body was sliced to bits, and he was dead. ‘The Corpse’. After that was a card of the Knight’s body twisted and malformed, their entire body compressing down into a weapon. ‘The sword’. Another one showed the Knight standing atop a city, with his sword raised high and people cheering him on. ‘The hero’. The next one was the same scene, but the people were dead, and the Knight held a severed head up, jagged horns jutting from his head. ‘The demon’.

More kept coming, flashing faster and faster. The Knight standing all alone, the Knight without his armor, wearing flowing robes and holding a staff, the Knight as an old man dying peacefully in his sleep, the Knight’s body twisted and mutated into a horrible monster, the Knight slitting his own throat, the Knight drowning himself in alcohol, the Knight—

Over and over and over, the cards kept coming, future after future after future. Paths upon paths. It was a never-ending sea.

“So.” The core spoke. “Which do you think will be your—”

“This one.” Davi grabbed the card that had him killing the dragon. “I’m going to be a Dragon Slayer, no matter what.”

The core seemed to let out a sigh, and its colors faded slightly. “I see. Besides that, though? Do any of these cards resonate with you? There will come a time when you come back here. A moment in your life when you’ll see a road with all these paths, and yet only one can be walked. Which do you think you’ll pick in your final moments? What gift do you think you’ll be given?”

Davi looked at the many cards, and most of them blended together. He held the Dragon Slayer card close to his chest, but eventually his other hand reached out and he grabbed another card. “This one.” He said. “I’d like to pick this one.”

Unlike the others, it didn’t show a Knight. Instead, it had the outline of a bird. A hawk whose wings were spread wide as it flew through the sky. ‘The One Who Is Free’.

“Ah, of course. That one.” The DNA strands began to wrap around him once again, and Davi was pulled closer to the core. “I should have known. Yes… I can work with this. Very well. Davi Hawker, son of Orion Hawker, son of Titania Midsummer, child of the Abyss, I embrace you. Welcome, my Knight.”

Davi winced as he was forced entirely into the core, and he drowned in a sea of white. Then, suddenly, he saw something. A flicker of blue, as a box appeared before his face.

‘Congratulations! You have passed the test of the soul! You are now a squire. Your guild is being selected… After reviewing the results of your four tests, the king has decided which guild is best suited for you.’

Davi blinked as color faded back in, and he stepped out of the gateway. He heard the gasps all around him, and everyone was staring at him before some began to laugh. Wrapped around his neck was a cloth. It was black and had the outline of a bird on it.

‘Davi Hawker, you have been selected as the newest member of the Phoenix Flight guild.’

Chapter 78: Acceptance

“That’s the guy, right?”

“The one Rowan beat?”

“Is this some sort of joke? He made it into the guild?”

“Wait! Look at what’s around his neck.”

“That symbol… It's—”

Davi glanced down at his hands and frowned slightly. He was the same as when he entered the gateway. He had been expecting some sort of power-up or a form of enlightenment. Nothing seemed to change, though, other than the annoying cloth wrapped tightly around him. It draped over his shoulders and sported the same symbol the leader of Phoenix Flight had on her sleeve.

Pretty Face remained seated on the gateway and watched him with critical eyes. “Aren’t you going to remove it?” She finally asked.

Davi looked up, confused by her words. “Am I supposed to take it off? Isn’t this my guild symbol?” Olis had made a big deal about them and said Knights carried them as a way to show which guild they were in. Gray also mentioned they were important, so why would he take it off?

Pretty Face let out a small laugh. “Yes, if you were in a good guild, I could see why you wouldn’t want to take it off, but young man, that symbol belongs to Phoenix Flight.”

“I know.”

“So, I assume you want to quit the guild and forfeit?”

Davi cocked his head to the side, and his confused look grew. “Why would I do that?” He lifted his arm and pointed up to the captains. Specifically, he pointed to Laer. “She’s the only one up there I’ve taken a liking to. I decided if I had to be stuck in a shitty guild, I’d like to be part of hers.”

That managed to catch everyone off guard, and the entire arena, along with the captains and every other Arcane Knight that was present, now looked at Davi as if he were insane. In a way, they were correct, as no sane person would ever willingly join Phoenix Flight. Davi had done so, though, all in hopes that its string of bad luck would somehow result in him finding his dragon. Of course, no one else but the test of the soul understood that, and it was his resolve and desire to reach that creature that the core placed him within this guild.

It wasn’t that Phoenix Flight was the best guild suited for Davi; instead, it was the only guild, as the core was able to read his heart and knew that if Davi were to be placed into any other guild, he would simply leave the Knights, having no reason to serve them. As he was now, Davi was nothing special, but the core knew that if given the time, it would have a diamond. A diamond that would eventually shatter and break since it was in Phoenix Flight, but still a diamond nonetheless.

“Why would he want to be in that guild?” Olivia face-palmed. “Why didn’t I see this coming?”

Bruno frowned and, for once, was speechless, unable to say anything to lighten the mood.

Ash was just as baffled. “How was it that he got stuck in that guild? I thought that when I made it into Pantheon, someone like Davi would likely be put into one of the higher-up guilds? That’s a waste of talent for him to end up there.”

“Oh dear.” Irene sighed. “He had such a lovely-sounding voice as well. I’m sad that this is his fate.”

Ken glanced at the others, raising an eyebrow. “It’s just a guild. Who cares which one he ended up in?”

Their group wasn’t the only one muttering about Davi, though. Lots of other people had something to say.

“Rowan, look!” Ashley said in glee. “He’s in that cursed guild. He’ll die for sure.”

“Yes!” Sera eagerly nodded. “Isn’t that great?”

Rowan wasn’t smiling, though. “Damn it.” He cursed and turned away, unable to look at Davi. “What the hell. How am I supposed to get a rematch now? I wanted to make him pay, not watch him die.”

Over with Cain, he let out a sigh of relief. “I figured he’d end up in that cursed guild. It’s where the freaks belong after all.”

“D-Davi.” Ruby had the decency to look a little conflicted.

Even the captains were getting in on the whispering. Father’s face was twisted into a deep frown, and the man looked extremely annoyed. “A member of the Mordheim country made it into a guild? This is the worst possibility. How did he bypass the test?”

“Maybe he’s not a spy?” Crow shrugged. “Could he just be some rich brat who wanted to leave his shitty home and came to our great kingdom?”

“He’s insulted Estiria every chance he’s gotten.” Dark Star snorted. “I don’t think he finds this place great.”

“I wish we knew what happened in his test.” Dye hummed, tapping his chin with a paintbrush. “Not even we can view the final exam, though. There’s no way of knowing what the king’s core saw in him.”

The core of the king was the core that connected everyone together through the grimoire app. It wasn’t the king himself and was instead its own separate entity, but it did survive off the king’s mana and knew everything the king knew. The king was far too busy to look at a couple of squires, and so the core made choices on his behalf, since in a way, it was a second him. If the king’s core placed someone in a guild, then the rest of them just had to accept it.

“How does it feel now that you have three new guildmates, Eman?” Gorgon asked teasingly.

Laerton’s frown grew, and the blonde girl’s arms clutched tighter around the plushie she was holding. “He won’t stay long. He’s being cocky right now; the fear will get to him, though. As soon as he sees the guild base, he’ll break down and leave my guild. Of course, by then it’ll be too late. The curse has already clung to him. He’s a walking corpse, just like I am.”

“It’s a shame.” Myth let out a soft sigh. “I still don’t agree with throwing innocent people into the guild. What was the core thinking? This is hardly fair.”

“Don’t tell me you’re feeling soft on the boy.” Laer gave a slight smirk. “What happened to being scared of the big bad Ebony Knight?”

“He’s just a boy.” Myth grunted. “Practically still a kid. I don’t agree with the way my guildmate treated him, and I don’t agree with him being in that guild at all.”

Father’s look of rage faded, and something else appeared in his eyes. He gave a mild smirk and stood up. “I’d like to have a word with him.” He hummed. “Just to make sure he didn’t use any tricks to make it past the core. Perhaps I can also convince him to leave the guild and return home while he still can.”

“Sit back down.” Father went to take a step, but a sudden voice made him pause. His entire body froze up in shock. He wasn’t the only one, either. All the captains jumped up and turned, staring in shock. Paragon’s eyes were wide, and she stared at the wooden throne in amazement. Grampa Green’s eyes finally held clarity, and they stared directly ahead at the Shining Sentinels guild leader. “Do I have to repeat myself, boy?” Grampa Green’s voice came out, broken, yet somehow strong and intense. “I won’t ask again. Sit. Down.”

“G-Green? You can talk?” Father asked in shock, all thoughts of Davi Hawker totally gone.

Grampa Green was more corpse than man, with wooden skin that was attached to his throne and various vines and branches that grew out of him. No longer was he staring blankly ahead, and his frail body was somehow moving again, as it pushed up on its elbows and leaned forward.

“What’s done is done.” Grampa Green croaked out in a weak voice. “Don’t stand in the way of fate. The core has spoken. He’s in the guild he is meant for. Whatever happens is now out of all of our hands, save for Lady Rin. Let it be.”

Laer opened her mouth to say something, but she quickly closed it. The truth was, she really didn’t want any new guild members. The curse of Phoenix Flight was one no one could escape, not even her, yet due to her power, she had been able to survive it for longer than most. Sooner or later, though, her time would run out and she would die. Would that be before or after the new members, though? That was the question. She was tired of seeing people die.

There was still a tense moment, but after some time, Father let out a defeated sigh and took a seat at his throne once more. “You’re right. Forgive me, I let my despair blind me for a moment.” He grunted. “I don’t like the idea of anyone from Mordheim being in this kingdom, though. All they bring is ruin and disaster. I suppose it doesn’t matter now, does it? He’ll die all the same. His fate is sealed.”

Grampa Green didn’t say anything else. The man’s eyes closed, and if not for the fact that he was snoring softly, Paragon would have thought he was dead. Hesitantly, she wiped some drool and blood from her captain's lips. “That was spooky. It was the first time in a long time I heard him speak.”

“He has a habit of only saying what is needed.” Myth spoke up once more. “If he talked here, then perhaps all of us made a mistake.”

“What mistake?” Gorgo asked, frowning softly.

Myth nodded his head down toward the boy with raven black hair. “None of us bothered to notice him till the very last test when he pulled that cursed armor out. It makes me wonder. How many other noteworthy people have managed to slip through the cracks? This year is turning out to be very interesting.”

Meanwhile, in the room with the vice captains, Lady Tori, also known as the Lance of Victory, looked like she was about to lose it. Blood was trailing down her lip from how hard she bit it, and her phone exploded due to how hard she had gripped it. The few remaining vice captains who were in the room looked very nervous.

“That armor that boy had,” Mermaid began. “Isn’t it the same as the Knight you captured—”

The entire room shook, and the wall exploded as Tori’s fist smashed into it, blowing a hole through the room as well as the other three rooms that were on the other side. “Why, Haru! Why would you put him in that guild? How am I supposed to get my fight now?”

Her precious Knight, the one she dreamed of doing battle with and putting down one day, had now been placed in the worst guild ever. Her dream of slaying the next Ebony Knight was quickly going up in smoke because he’d now likely die from something else before ever reaching his true potential.

Back in the arena, Pretty Face hopped off the door and landed on the ground next to Davi. She reached out and gripped the man by his chin, turning it and looking into his eyes. “No, you’re not under the effects of a mind-altering spell.” She muttered quietly. “If you were, the test would have spat you out, but you passed? Tell me, does mental illness run in the family, because why in Haru’s name would you ever want to be a member of Phoenix Flight?”

“Fire is the opposite of cold,” Davi said flatly.

“You’re gonna die.” Pretty Face responded, just as flat. She let go of his face and flew back up to her spot. “Whatever, your funeral, I guess. Go spend time with your friends and family; who knows how much longer you’ll get to see them for?” Then she addressed the crowd. “Alright, people, forget about the dead man walking; let’s keep these names rolling! I’d like to get done with this sooner rather than later!”

Davi looked around, and instantly he noticed the looks people were giving him. Some were full of fear, others rage, and some pity. Eventually, he spotted his friends, and they had the same looks as everyone else—pity, rage, sorrow, and, in Ken’s case, boredom.

“Davi!” As soon as he reached them, Olivia grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “Are you okay?” She asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Davi raised an eyebrow.

“You’re in Phoenix Flight,” Ash grunted. “The bad luck guild, remember?”

Davi nodded and looked at Ash, noticing his guild symbol. “So, I guess since we’re in different guilds, you want to fight me now, huh?”

“I feel less bummed about the guild you ended up in now.” Ash sighed.

“Seriously, bro,” Bruno reached out and placed a hand on Davi’s shoulder. “I know you’re tough, but even you gotta know this isn’t good.”

“Good, bad—does that matter?” Davi asked, looking away. “We’re all dealt a hand in life. Some of us have good hands, are blessed with money, and have a strong magic type. Some are dealt bad hands, having nothing, and a type of magic looked down on. We all play the game to the best of our ability. Joining a guild is no different. If I don’t join, I’ll be hunted down for the rest of my life by the Knights for being a criminal, especially now that they’ve all seen me in my armor. If I do join the Knights, then it means sticking around with the worst guild in the world. Both hands are bad, but this is the hand I have been dealt and the one that I’m going to play.”

“Stick to your guns.” Ken gave a nod of approval. “These people are all just cowards anyway. They didn’t see your Vil Shadow Armor like I did. I’m sure that could help you stay alive.”

“Vil Shadow Armor?” Olivia raised an eyebrow at that.

“It was the spell I used in the last exam,” Davi explained.

“You’ve had that up your sleeve the entire time!” Olivia demanded, suddenly annoyed. “Now that I think about it, didn’t you also have Vil Shadow Vault too? Why didn’t you bring those spells out earlier?!”

“More importantly,” Ash’s eyes narrowed slightly. “How were you able to use a Vil-level spell? I’m guessing you were in a double dungeon, right? Don’t get me wrong, I get you’re strong, but your mana isn’t as deep or plentiful as the mana the branch families give off, and I saw Nori struggle to cast a Vil-level spell. For you to be able to cast a Vil-level spell while under those constraints would be an incredible feat. Don’t tell me, can you use Ril-level magic?”

Davi shook his head. “Sadly, no. Both Vault and Armor are only at the level of Vil, and the last time I looked at them, they weren’t close to evolving. The reason I don’t use Vil Shadow Vault that often is because it’s a waste of mana in my eyes. All it does is drag me and the enemy into my vault so we can fight. Before I fought Gray, no one had ever been able to escape my vault before, so I never saw a point in using it. When Gray did escape, I was low on mana due to the beating I took and wasn’t able to use it any longer. Especially since I hadn’t been at full strength before that fight either due to being poisoned.”

“I guess that explains not using Vault, but why didn’t you ever try to bring your armor out?” Olivia asked. “Surely it would have helped in a lot of earlier fights? The snake or even the fight with Gray could have gone completely different if you used a higher form of your strongest spell.”

“Well, it’s simple. I can’t use Vil Shadow Armor.” Davi said casually.

This time it was Ken’s turn to frown. “Now hang on, I’m sure I heard you say Vil.”

“You did; I used Vil Shadow Armor in the exam.” Davi nodded again. “But I can no longer use it.”

“I’m at a total loss.” Bruno chuckled. “You could use a high-level spell in a double dungeon, but now that you’re out of the dungeon, where it should be easier to cast spells, you can’t?”

“He used an enchantment,” Irene spoke up, catching everyone off guard. The blind girl nodded her head after a moment. “That’s how you did it, right? An enchantment.”

“You mean like the school?” Olivia asked.

Irene frowned and let out a soft hum. “Not exactly. The school of enchantment is very unique, as it involves programming magic and spells, allowing them to do things they otherwise couldn’t. People with a high grade in the school are called Enchanters, and they can use enchantments to tweak and alter their spells, allowing them to greatly change.”

“You talked about something similar to the method, Olivia,” Davi stated. “After the first exam, I asked you if you could make a sword, and at the time, you said you couldn’t because a spell that changes its fundamental formula becomes too unstable. You were still able to change your spell up, though, like when you created the flying snake. The reason I asked about it is because I’ve changed how my spell works before and never had an issue with it, though I also didn’t know it was an enchantment; I just sort of did it and assumed anyone could.”

Irene shook her head again. “Anyone who has the school of enchantment can use it to tweak their magic, but the lower the school’s grade is, the less they can do. Suppose a spell is changed too much to where it becomes a different spell entirely. In that case, it’ll become far too unstable, but if a mage keeps the spell at its base but adds onto the spell, they can give it multiple additional effects, such as increasing its size, its power, or even causing it to activate other spells in a chain sequence.”

Ash gave a slight nod of his head, seemingly following along. “So, enchantments can change spells. I do something similar with my falcon, which lets me double cast, but how did the enchantment help Davi with his armor? He still shouldn’t have been able to cast a Vil-level spell.”

“If I had to guess, he set a condition.”

“A condition?” Bruno frowned.

“Oh, I get it.” Ken suddenly perked up. “Where I’m from, we have something similar. We call them Wills. Think of it like a contract, but you make it with qi. You make a vow or promise, giving up something but gaining something in return. Some people in my homeland do this. They’ll give half their life force in exchange for mastery over a type of martial arts, or they’ll give up the use of a limb in order to exchange that for more attack power. Medora, the one I told you of earlier, used a Will to give up pieces of her humanity in exchange for power.”

“It’s sort of the same as that.” Irene rubbed her chin, a little surprised. “When using an enchantment on a spell, there’s always a give or take. If the thing you’re trying to add is too powerful, it’ll require you to give something like a restriction. For example, a mage with fire magic could use enchantment to greatly boost the strength of his fire spells beyond what they normally are, but he’d have to put a restriction on it equal to the benefit of what he is gaining. Since he’s getting a lot of power, this restriction could be something like he can only use these enhanced fire spells when the sun is up at its highest peak. By putting a restriction on his spell, it’s able to be added onto with enchantments.”

“If enchantments are that powerful, why haven’t more mages used them?” Olivia asked with wide eyes. “And why didn’t I learn about them?”

“We likely didn’t learn about them because the school we went to was shitty.” Ash snorted. “As for why nobody else uses them, it’s because it’s hard. I don’t get it fully, but I can tell you this: creating my bird and getting it to cast the same spells I did was a pain in the ass, and it costs a crap load of mana. I imagine that’s a form of enchantment as well, and the restriction would be the price, though I still don’t know what Davi did for his.”

Everyone turned to look at Davi, and he sighed. Finally, he held up three fingers. “There are three effects that are placed onto my Vil Shadow Armor, and they all are connected to the same two restrictions. The first effect is that the spell is as cheap to cast as the tier of school below it. So if I ever use it at the level of Ril, it’ll have the mana cost of a Vil-level spell. This also means that when I use the Vil level, it costs as much as a Row level. The second effect is that it will be powered up half a stage higher than it should be, with the exception of Row. Row is unaffected, and this only pertains to Vil. The final effect is that it will automatically use my Shadow Vault spell at the level of Vil, which is also affected by the first two effects while in this state.”

That last effect was how his body could keep moving even after it was dead. The hands from his vault would force him forward.

Irene frowned as she heard all the effects. “Those are quite powerful sounding. What in Haru’s name did you have to do to make that work?”

“It was easy, really.” Davi tapped his brain. “I just needed to give it two big restrictions. My first restriction is that Row Shadow Armor can’t be tweaked or boosted the same way the others can. It can only be improved the way all other spells get improved, which is just making myself stronger, rather than increasing its power or durability with an enchantment. The second restriction is much bigger and was the one that made it possible. I put a lock on the spell. Vil Shadow Armor and all higher-level versions can only be used if a certain condition is met. The mana of a particular enemy has to be touching me. If that condition isn’t met, then I simply can’t use the spell.”

“That’s kind of a bad oversight, isn’t it?” Bruno snorted. “I mean, if it has to be that specific mana type, then you’ll only be able to use it once, right? Why not just keep the spell how it is and only put the enchantment on it once you’re done?”

"I didn't make it and because of that, I don't know how to undo it." Davi awkwardly scratched his chin. "I guess I can enchant my spells, but the one who taught me how didn't do a good job. She made the spell for me based off what she needed and never explained it."

Shadow Armor was a spell Evelyn made just for him. Through trial and error, it was a spell that in theory would let him match up to the dragon slightly better. Her goal had been to make something grand with his lack of talent.

“You can’t undo it.” Irene sighed. “When an enchantment is put in place, it’s permanent. Again, think of spells as a computer code. You’re jamming new lines of code into it and also altering how the rest of the code works on a fundamental level. Once it’s added, it becomes a part of it. If you wanted to remove it, you’d have to take the entire code apart piece by piece and rebuild it from the ground up, and that would require a master enchanter. I doubt even an S grade could do it easily.”

“So, basically, Davi fucked up.” Ash nodded.

“I did not.” Davi shook his head. “My spell will help me beat the thing I care about. That’s all that matters to me. Besides, I can still use Row just fine and have no issues. Row Shadow Armor grows stronger the better I become. As long as I improve, so too will it, which in turn will make the higher-level versions even stronger as well.”

Olivia was silent while the others talked to Davi about his armor and whether it was a good or bad idea. She had a pretty good idea what the enemy he spoke of was. It had to be a dragon. That meant if he had used his armor like Ken claimed, then the creature they fought was a dragon. Why hadn’t he told her? Why didn’t Ken tell her? The two had kept it secret for some reason.

In the end, it didn’t matter. If Davi wanted to tell her, he would. Her attention soon turned back to the test as more names were called up. Finally, nobles started to be called, and unlike before, where it was sparingly that someone got placed into a guild, the nobles began to instantly get sorted.

One ended up in Pantheon like Ash, and another in Hydra Storm. More nobles kept coming after that, one ending up in the Wandering Coin, another in Oak Watchers, and once again another ended up in Pantheon. Over and over again, they kept coming, and they kept ending up in one of those four guilds. None of the nobles ended up in any of the top three, nor did they end up in Phoenix Flight.

Eventually, though, a branch noble was called. One she instantly recognized.

“Nori Jupitar.”

The Helios family should have been the next one, and a member would have gone after Davi, but strangely enough, this year had no Helios clan members who were taking the exam. Because of this, Nori was the first branch noble to saunter toward the gate.

No one was shocked when the man entered and then stepped out, wearing a cloak that bore the symbol of Umbra Mortis upon it. The branch families always ended up in the three best guilds and almost always went on to take up captain positions for other guilds at a later date or even start their own brand-new guild.

Commoners were lucky to get in any guild at all, while nobles always got in at least one of the bottom four, but for main branch families, they always made it into the best of the best, and this was no different.

The arena exploded in cheering for Nori, who looked smug and formed his glass wings, flying over the crowd like some sort of angelic being.

More names came after that, as other Jupitar members took the test, being placed in either the Shining Sentinels, Umbra Mortis, or Mourning Stars. Each member of the family looked confident and entered with an air of smugness around them. Soon, though, the Jupitar family ran out of members. The next branch family would be the Lunar, but before Cain or Irene’s name could be called, once Pretty Face reached the Ls, another name was said first.

“Mary Lot.”

Olivia remained standing in place. Her legs didn’t want to move. Bruno pressed her forward, but she still didn’t move.

“Mary Lot?” Pretty Face called out again.

“That’s you, right?” Bruno gave her a grin. “Come on. Step forward.”

“I-I know but…” Olivia stopped. It suddenly felt so real. This was the moment. It was pass or fail. Either she’d be a Knight or she wouldn’t. “What if I don’t make it?” Silence filled the air. She hadn’t done the best in the previous tests. What if that all came to bite her in the ass here and she failed? She had wanted to ask Davi about the tests, but got distracted.

“Maybe you’ll fail.” Ken nodded. “Or maybe you won’t. You have to try at least, right?”

“I know…”

“Olivia.” Davi looked toward her. “You got this. Just do your best. That’s all you can do.”

“Mary Lot? Final chance.” Pretty Face yelled out.

Olivia took a deep breath and she stepped forward. “I’m here!” She called out. People looked to her as she began to walk to the gate. “I’m ready to take the test.”

Chapter 79: What Could Have Been

Some people recognized her as she slowly walked to the light gate. To them, she was that weird snow-haired girl who managed to calm the scary black knight down. To others, she was their teammate. Nori and Emma gave her respectful nods, and Emma even clapped her on the back as she walked by.

Eventually, though, she reached the imposing gateway. The mana that came off of it was unlike any she had felt. It was warm like the sun and rubbed across her body, as if a hundred hands were reaching out to clasp her.

“You can start anytime.” Pretty Face giggled from up top where she rested. “Go ahead, dear.”

Olivia nodded, and, with nothing left to lose, she forced herself to take another step. Fail or pass. It was all about to reach its end.

Instantly, as soon as she stepped through the gate, Olivia felt a sharp twisting knot in her stomach. It was the same feeling she’d get whenever she stepped into a dungeon. She felt a weight on her shoulders, and her eyes burned slightly as they adjusted to the sunlight. The next thing she saw, once her eyes fixed themselves, was a looming castle.

A gasp escaped her as she stared up at it. Just like a dungeon, she had seemingly been transported somewhere else.

The castle was just as grand as the one in the lava dungeon had been, but it was less horrific and gothic. White marble stretched up to the sky, and there were dozens of pillars all connected together. It looked like a lot of the magic schools had all been gathered in one place and stacked on top of the same mountain, with new walls built to connect them all.

She stood on a sloped mountain, and it was covered in lush green grass, with various trees jutting out of the ground all around her. A path led up to the castle, which really wasn’t that far away, and a heavy set of stone doors was open, almost as if it were inviting her. Down the mountain was another shocking sight that made her gasp and stare in shock.

A battlefield. Unlike the mountain, it was rough, full of destroyed earth and burnt land, which seemed to go on for miles. Screaming filled the air, and there were hundreds of people, all dressed in heavy-looking armor, carrying swords, axes, or spears. They all charged at a lone figure that was above the battlefield.

She wasn’t able to get too good of a look at them, but they stood upon a crimson red cloud that had been plucked from the sky and twisted into something new, and they wore long, flowing white robes and had on a circular hat that blocked most of their head. The figure was also turned away from her, facing the rapidly approaching army.

Casually, they reached into their robe and pulled out a small, thin piece of paper that had red ink written across it in some sort of symbol. Wordlessly, the figure threw paper toward the group, and it exploded and expanded into a hail of raging red liquid that began to tear into the armored soldiers, ripping them to bits.

It was blood! The red liquid snaked and hissed, taking on a serpentine-like appearance, forming many snake-like heads that tore into the armored men, breaking past their armor and flesh, and painting the ground red.

The figure pulled out more pieces of paper and tossed them around. One of them flew into the air and exploded, sending waves of blood knives down across the ground, while another became a large, twisting crow that swooped down and peeled the scalps off of the warriors.

While this all happened, the figure in white remained on his cloud and watched as the soldiers were slaughtered. Olivia felt sick at her stomach, and she resisted the urge to vomit. The smell of blood filled the air, and the sound of flesh tearing kept ringing through her ears. These weren’t monsters she was watching die. They were people. These soldiers were all being slaughtered en masse by what she assumed was a blood mage.

It was hard to tell, though, for while they used blood, the size of their spells was massive, having far more range than hers. Not to mention, they weren’t casting any spells, or at least they weren’t saying anything out loud, which should have been impossible.

Also, what exactly was this? Was she in another simulation? She somehow doubted it, yet the sight that was happening to her couldn’t be real, could it? Just as she was wondering this, the sight before her changed in an instant. One moment she was looking at the war-torn battlefield, and then the next, she was standing somewhere else, the moment she blinked.

Olivia let out a gasp and looked around in shock. Now she was standing in a new forest. This one was covered in snow and ice, which raged on around her, and in a clearing of the forest, she saw several men circling around a single figure. The men all wore black silk and looked sort of like how you’d expect a ninja to look from a children’s story. They had on masks and carried short curved swords and were all giving off a tremendous wave of mana.

“The Shogun has ordered your death.” One of the men hissed out. “Are you prepared to lay your life down and allow your head to be taken back?”

The person who stood before the ninjas was a woman, though she too was dressed in a black silk outfit that covered her body, along with a flowing cloak and a bamboo hat. A red oni mask covered her face, and instead of saying anything, she quietly drew the katana that rested at her side, causing all the men to tense up.

Her sword was pure red, lacking all color, and once again, Olivia realized it was made of blood. The woman almost lazily twisted her wrist in a clock-like motion, and with her other hand, she motioned for the men to come.

“You’ve chosen death!” One of the ninja screamed. “For the shogun!”

The men charged, and what happened next was a massacre. The woman was faster and reached one of the men and sliced out with her blade. It cut into his side, and he let out a scream before suddenly he exploded, sending a wave of red. The woman then twisted her sword again, and it rapidly grew in size, extending and expanding, cutting through several more men and causing them to also blow up.

One of the ninja managed to block her strike, but the woman’s sword twisted like a whip and bent fully around his blade, slicing his head clean in two.

By the time the woman was done, the white forest was bathed in scarlet. This time, Olivia was unable to hold back, and she threw up. Her feet were stained in the blood from how close she had been to the battle, and the smell burned her nose and made her eyes water. She gagged and covered her mouth but couldn’t stop the shaking.

When she did finally look up, she froze. The woman in the mask was looking right at her. She shivered and felt a sudden wave of fear as the woman cocked her head to the side. Now that she was able to get a better view of the woman, she noticed a bit of snow-white hair poking out of a tight bun she had on. The woman stepped forward and raised her sword, and Olivia screamed, but before the blade could come down, everything twisted and changed once more.

Now, instead of a forest, she was seated on stone. Screams filled the air, and Olivia jumped to her feet, studying the new environment. She was in a city, just like any other, with tall stone buildings and cars that were on the street. The city looked destroyed, though, with fire clinging to the towers and cracks snaking their way along the street. There were also hundreds of people running around in a panic, and Olivia instantly saw why.

A monster was ripping its way through the city, tearing through the buildings as if they were made of wet paper. The creature was massive and was even bigger than some of the buildings. It looked like a giant praying mantis, but it was covered in black scales and had four arms that sliced through the air, sending blades of sharp air out that cut through the crowd of people, splitting them to bits.

The mantis monster went to take a step forward, but before it could attack another crowd of people, a wave of red smashed into the side of its head as a massive blood rocket exploded against the side of its face. Some of the people let out cheers, and suddenly Olivia spotted a new figure.

This one stood in the middle of the road and was decked out from head to toe in what looked like armor. It reminded her a lot of the kind Tori wore, as it was highly advanced and made out of tech, but it also flowed across the figure, and like the last two visions, it had the scent of blood coming off of it. This person was wearing advanced blood armor.

The helmet had a black visor across it, and the blood armor was mixed with the tech, with glowing mana lines running across the suit. The armored warrior held a red rocket launcher, which was still smoking, but they casually tossed it to the side and did a pose, pointing into the air.

“Activate, blood core!” A female voice announced from the suit. “Manifest, my Titan! Blood Beast!”

The giant mantis monster struck down at the warrior in red, but before its claws could reach her, there was a rumbling sound, and suddenly a beam of white light fired down from the air and formed around the woman. The mantis was shoved back, and Olivia openly gawked at what she saw next.

Where the woman had been now stood a giant. It was as big as the mantis, taking up the entire street, and was forged out of a red metal. Where its head should have been was a platform on which the woman now stood. Her arms were folded, and the armored beast she stood on copied her movements.

The woman grabbed at her side, and the suit followed, drawing a sword as long as a skyscraper. “Blood-Saber, online!” The sword hummed and caused the air itself to scream as a tremendous amount of mana ignited the blade, casting it in blood-red flames, and the woman stepped forward and raised her arms, the suit following her commands. “You’re finished! Killer move, Bleeding Slash!”

The woman sliced down, and the mantis monster attempted to block the strike, but it never stood a chance. The sword ripped through it. The monster was sliced in half, and the suit spun dramatically, turning its back on the beast. A second later, the creature exploded. Not like the ninjas did, this was an actual explosion with fire, which the woman on top kept her back to, looking cool as the fire died out.

The people in the crowd were all cheering and chanting, but Olivia was too focused on the woman to hear what they were saying. She watched as the massive suit lowered to a knee and bowed its neck, allowing the woman in armor to step off and fall to the ground. Her red suit absorbed the impact, and when she stood up, a camera crew was already surrounding the woman, filming her.

“Worry not, citizens.” The woman exclaimed, and she placed her hands on her hips. “So long as I am here, you are all safe. That I swear!” The woman slowly reached up and grabbed her helmet, taking it off. “No monster will get past the great Mary Lot.” The woman smiled, and Olivia gasped when she saw her pale skin, blood-red eyes, and snow-white hair.

It was her? The woman in the red armor? She was looking at herself.

“What the hell?”

And suddenly it was gone. Just like the last two times, everything shifted and changed. She was at the end of whatever this was, though, because she wasn’t in a field, a city, or a forest. She floated in a sea of white fire, and all around her were strands of DNA, forged from glowing lights.

Finally, it was a sight she expected. The core she had seen so long ago when she first awakened her grimoire. The tendrils wrapped around her, and she turned, seeing the familiar orb of light—the core of the king.

“Mary Lot, daughter of Arthur Roads, daughter of Olivia Lot, wielder of the Witch of Red, welcome back.”

Olivia breathed heavily, her eyes still wide and full of shock from what she had just seen. “What was that?” She demanded. “That was you, right?”

The core flashed with several different colors and seemed to hum. “For some, the path they were set on is simple and easy to explain. A single moment is what molded them and made them who they are. They’re someone who showing them the past would do nothing to. Your friend Davi Hawker was one such person.”

“Davi?” Olivia blinked, slowly calming down. “Right, he was in here as well, wasn’t he? You didn’t show him things like you did me?”

“His path was already set. I gave him a little nudge and showed him enough, but you’re different. Another friend of yours was the same as you. Ash Anderson. He required being shown a lot. The two of you are a lot alike. A single event set you on a path, but you continued to change and go forward, unlike others. For Mr. Hawker, his event changed when the world he knew came to an end. I could have shown him other versions of himself, but it wouldn’t have done anything for him, as he simply can’t picture a version of himself that isn’t who he is. You and Mr. Anderson, on the other hand, both allow your minds to run wild.”

“So those were other versions of me?” Olivia frowned. “I find it hard to believe I could ever be like that.”

“And why is that?” The core questioned her, its tendrils easing up on its hold.

“Those versions were all strong. They were so powerful and able to use their blood magic in ways I can’t.” Olivia shook her head. “They can’t be me.”

“Whether true or not, at times you pictured yourself like that, did you not?” The core glowed again and shimmered. “What would have happened if your father didn’t leave you in this kingdom? What if he left you in a different land? Would you still be the you that you currently are, weak and pathetic, or would you be able to evolve past your level of skill and become something greater? Those were your thoughts.”

Olivia was forcefully turned, the tendril twisting her, and in front of her, the air shimmered and glowed. A person appeared, dressed in white robes with a circular hat on. The person she had seen slaughter the men. She could see their face now, and sure enough, it was her—a Rossum Martial Cultivator.

Next to that version of her, the samurai appeared, one hand clutching her blade, which was at her side. Her mask was off, hanging from a strap from her belt, and Olivia cringed when she saw how horribly scarred that version of her face had become. A Mordheim Spell Sword.

The last figure was the version of her in the blood-red armor. The woman had her helmet off, holding it at her side, and was doing a goofy pose again. A Gallenth Sovereign Philosopher.

All three versions of herself remained standing in place, looking lifeless. “Could these have been you?” The core seemed to read her mind, and she was willing to bet it could, as it said what she was thinking. “If your father had left you somewhere else, could you have adapted and grown differently? Would you move past being useless and become a great warrior, or would nothing change? These women are all so strong, but can you really be like them? What do you think, Mary Lot?”

“I don’t know what to think,” Olivia admitted.

“You’re in the present.” The tendrils began to place her down and let go of her arms and legs. She stood on the air, just as her lookalikes did. “You’re you, and they are them. It’s possible to change, though. To grow. Which one would you like to be? What Mary Lot is the best Mary Lot?”

Olivia took a hesitant step forward, and she eyed the girls up. It was a little creepy how they stared ahead with blank looks, not reacting to anything. She waved her hand in front of their faces, and yet they still did nothing.

“Go on.” The core urged. “Pick. Which version of yourself do you like the best?”

Which version was the best? They were all stronger than her. One could use spells without saying the name and fire waves of blood magic with paper. The other version wielded a sword and the skills to use it, easily slaughtering a group of trained ninjas, and the final version of her fought with a literal giant and swung around a sword with so much mana it felt like the energy the captains had. Compared to who she was, each version was better in every way. Certainly not useless.

Eventually, though, Olivia made up her mind. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

“Do you now?” The core asked, sounding almost amused.

“I do.” Olivia nodded and smiled softly before looking back at the core. She slowly brought her hand up and pointed at herself. “I pick me.” She stated. “The version I am right now. Sure, those other three might be better than me, but that doesn’t matter because they aren’t Arcane Knights. The version of me I want to be is the version that fulfills my dream. So how about it? How’s that for an answer?” She smirked.

The core glowed. “I see. In that case… Mary Lot.”

Olivia gulped slowly. “Yes?” Was this it? Was she about to pass the exam? It felt easy? Shockingly so—

“You fail.”

“...Huh?”

The core flashed black. “I’ve decided you’re not fit to be an Arcane Knight.”

Chapter 80: The Witch of Red

Everything seemed to stop. She felt her blood freeze and recoiled as if she had just been slapped. She stared back at the core with stinging eyes, and it just glowed and remained shimmering in place.

“W-What?” Olivia asked hesitantly.

“Are you deaf as well?” The core let out a hum. “I said you failed. You’re not suited for being a Knight.”

“I—I failed the test?”

“It seems you are quite dumb.” The core glowed with a faint blue light. “Yes, you failed. Please leave.”

“W-Why did I fail?” Olivia yelled in frustration now. “What even was the test? You just showed me other versions of myself and asked me to pick? I gave you the answer I should have! Those other versions of me might be stronger, but they’re not Arcane Knights! I want to be the version of me that becomes an Arcane Knight! How is that the false answer?”

The core’s color changed, this time to a bright red. “Yes, you are correct in the fact that your answer was good. Trying to become a version of yourself from a different path isn’t something the you that exists right now can do. That said, even if the answer was good, why would I let you in any of my guilds?” The core asked again, and its tone almost sounded mocking. “You have blood magic. You can only use three spells. You vomit when you use your magic. You can even die from it. You lack talent. You lack skill. You lack money, and you especially lack power.”

Olivia bowed her head, feeling a wave of defeat wash over her. Her hands clutched at her side, and she fought back tears. “Why are you saying that? If you just wanted me to fail, then get it done with.”

One of the tendrils suddenly slapped out at her, and she let out a yell as she was thrown back. She rolled across the ground made of white fire and grabbed her cheek, which stung now. “All I did was state how you feel.” The core glowed with a bright yellow shimmer now. “Isn’t that how you truly think? You know that deep down you’re utterly useless. It is why your father got rid of you in the first place. Because you couldn’t keep up. An Arcane Knight is strong. They’re able to save everyone and are beacons of hope. Do you truly think you can be that?”

Olivia stood back up, and her look of sadness was gone, replaced with rage at having been hit. “You just showed me versions of myself that all reached a realm of power I never thought possible. They’re all part of a group. If they can do it, then shouldn’t I be able to?”

“Yet you’re not, are you?” The core hissed. “You sit and wallow in your pity. You’ve said it over and over again, but do you think you can become an Arcane Knight? You are useless, are you not? Those versions of you were all ideal versions at the end of their story. Even if you have that same power within you, that is the you of tomorrow. I am not concerned with the you of tomorrow, though. The only thing that matters to me is the you that stands before me now. The version of you that calls herself useless and despises the hand she was dealt.”

Olivia gritted her teeth, and her wand appeared in her hand, sliding down her wrist. “It’s been my dream to become a Knight. You’re right, Knights aren’t useless, so if I want to reach that point, I have to stop being useless myself. I’ve been working my ass off trying to get better.”

“I already told you, I don’t care about the you of tomorrow. All that matters is the you that is here and now!” More tendrils stabbed out of the orb, and they suddenly stabbed toward her. “If that version is useless, then there is no point!”

“Row Blood Shield!” Olivia stabbed her wand out just in time as a shimmering red barrier formed in front of her. The tendrils stabbed into it and broke past it, but it gave her enough time to step to the side and dodge them. “Then I’ll prove to you that I’m not useless! Here and now! Row Blood Scythe!” Her blade sliced out, almost on instinct, and it tore through one of the tendrils, slicing it off. Usually, it felt awkward in her arms, but strangely enough, it now felt right.

The core glowed with a mix of lights, and the tendrils pulled back. It let out a loud scoffing sound. “That was your second spell, was it not? Do you think you can actually win with one more? Of course you can’t. You are useless, Olivia, are you not? You’re already feeling tired.”

Olivia gritted her teeth but didn’t say anything. The core was right. She had one spell left, and then she’d be unable to move. Could she win with that? Could this thing even fight? Why was it being so hostile to her suddenly? What was going on?

“Even landing a single hit on me won’t be possible.” More tendrils jutted out of the magical core, and they began to hum and light up. “I have no need to move from this spot. Just try to hit me if you can. Of course, this goes without saying, but defend yourself as well.” Without warning, more tendrils stabbed out and began to spear toward her.

Olivia forced her already tired body to move, and she swung her scythe around as if it were second nature. She still recalled the version of her that had a sword, and she copied it, using her weapon to cut through more of the tendrils. They kept coming, though, in a never-ending sea, and some managed to make it past her guard, lightly cutting into her side or her cheek. The wounds were shallow, but her arms were already starting to ache and slow while the storm of attacks didn’t.

All the while this happened, the orb stayed floating off the ground, flashing through hundreds of different colors as it launched attack after attack out, hoping to overwhelm her with sheer numbers alone.

It just made her madder, and Olivia let out a yell, forcing herself forward. The orb was dozens of meters away, and the tendrils would never let her get too close, so instead she came up with a different plan.

Her scythe stabbed down, ramming into one of the tendrils, and she pointed the blade toward the orb. “Row Blood Bolt!” Without warning, her mana surged, and she launched her attack out, firing a thin beam of fast-moving blood. The other tendrils were still focused on her and had gone to strike since she let her guard down, meaning they had no way of stopping her attack, which surged forward. At the last moment, though, before her attack landed, the orb flashed again, and three new tendrils formed, easily blocking her attack. “No—”

Olivia was cut off as a wave of pain exploded through her. One tendril instantly punctured a hole straight through her stomach, and the others followed suit, tearing into her and cutting her up. The pain made her scream out, and the tendrils kept smashing at her, breaking bones and flesh, and by the time they were done, they left her body mangled and shattered.

She was lying in a pool of her blood, twisted and totally broken. Her vision faded in and out, and she knew that if her eyes closed, she’d be dead. Just like in the fight with Garon, she was out of blood, barely kept alive by her regeneration. She was at her limit.

“Three spells, and that was all you could manage.” The orb hummed. “You can’t even heal yourself, can you? Always viewing yourself as useless. Perhaps you’re right. You’ve had the thoughts before, haven’t you? You know that you’re not worthy to be a Knight.”

Olivia nearly cried out as she forced her body to move. Most of her bones were cracked and broken, but still she pressed her arms into the ground and began to struggle to pick herself up. More blood leaked out of her, and her eyes stung from the tears, but she fought through the pain and shook her head. “I’m not done yet.”

“Oh? And what do you think you can do?” The orb hissed.

“For someone who saw my memories, you seem lost.” Olivia managed a smile. “I got a new trait. Don’t you know?”

Using a trait that was unlocked was like second nature. Her palm glowed with a golden light, and suddenly it began to dance along her flesh. It all came naturally to her, and she breathed in. The light flashed off of her, and just like the last time, she used the polymorph trait. Olivia stood up, fully healed, and now dressed in a familiar witch outfit. Her wand had changed as well, becoming a long wooden staff, which she twirled around her, a smirk forming on her lips.

“Row Blood Scythe.” Her staff became coated in red, and the blood blade formed out of the tip of it. “I can keep going. Four spells in.”

“So you managed to get back up? So what?”

Olivia frowned and placed a hand to her stomach. “If I have polymorph, I have unlimited blood since I can keep healing myself with it.” She announced. “Check this out—”

She tried to use the trait again, but suddenly a blue box appeared in front of her and let out a loud beeping sound.

‘Error: The trait polymorph can only be used after reaching its cool-down period. Time until cooldown: Twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and forty-eight seconds.’

“What?” Olivia’s eyes went wide as she read that. “It has a cooldown? What gives?”

‘Your core can only manage the mana required to use polymorph once before rest is required.’ The box flashed again, its text scrolling out. ‘Time until polymorph wears off: four minutes and—’

Like last time, there was a countdown on the polymorph skill. That told her something interesting. It was a buff spell and not a traditional healing spell, and when the timer reached zero, it would end. She also couldn’t simply spam it since it had another time before it could be used again, which was insanely huge! A full day! So she’d have to wait twenty-four hours to use it again and could only manage staying transformed for five minutes.

“What happens when the count reaches zero?”

The system answered her with another box. ‘Polymorph will end, and you’ll revert to the form you were before it was activated. The toll of mana will also be taken.’

Shit. She figured it was something like that, but seeing it written out was still a slap in the face. So when the timer reached zero, she’d go back to being in her damaged state. That meant polymorph wasn’t as overpowered as she first thought. Sure, it got her back up, and it allowed her to keep fighting, but only for a bit, and she’d be back to whatever state she was in before she used it, but even worse off since it would then drain a considerable amount of her mana. That also meant that in the fight with the fake Garon, she still died, as when the countdown reached zero, her body would have shattered and broken apart, being burned away once again…

Polymorph really just gave her the ability to use three more spells, one of which she already wasted on recreating her scythe since she had stupidly thought she could spam it over and over again. Her big trump card was just three more spells…

Of course, the core knew all of this, and its lights glowed and flashed again. “Well, are you ready to give up yet? You couldn’t even hit me once, and you only have two more spells. How useless you are.”

Olivia bit her lip but steeled her nerves and shook her head. “No.” She announced. “I’m not done.”

“And why not? You only have a few moments before you revert back to your broken form. Even then, you only have two spells left. Do you think you can win?”

“I don’t know until I try.” Olivia took another deep breath. “I’m not willing to stop yet, though. I’m going to become an Arcane Knight!”

“Knights are useful.” The orb declared, and a swarm of tendrils began to stab out toward her.

“Then I’ll show that I’m not useless!” Olivia yelled out. Her mana exploded and surged, being thicker than it ever had been before. Her eyes lit up, a red fury in them just like when Ken or Davi used their full power. Davi’s mana looked like blue fire or shadowy hands, and it was cold. Ken’s mana looked like golden flames and light and was hot and powerful. Her own mana looked like tendrils of red snakes, which filled the air and swarmed around her. “I’ll show you everything I can do.”

Davi had taught her how to increase her strength with mana, but instead of sending the energy throughout her entire form, she focused it all along her blade, a blaze of red coming out of the scythe. This was just like how the version of her in the armor used her mana. She focused it all into her weapon and swung out as hard as she could. Her strike was far stronger than it had ever been before and tore through the horde of tendrils. They were already starting to reform, and more were forming, but she used the opening she had and focused all the energy into her legs, shooting herself forward as fast as she could.

The tendrils sprouted out before she even made it halfway to the orb, and they all got ready to stab into her from all sides, but before they could, she took her scythe and focused more mana into it and rammed the hilt down into the ground, using it to pole vault up into the air with her weapon.

As she flew through the air, the lights shot up toward her, but before they could reach her, she swung her scythe out again, focusing her mana along it. Suddenly, the handle twisted and bent as if it were a rope, and it wrapped around one of the DNA strands. She used it to twist herself in the air and swing forward.

The version of her that was fighting the ninja had done something similar with her sword. The weapon was made entirely of blood, and she forced it to be in the shape of a scythe, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be twisted or altered. After all, she had changed her bird spell into a snake, and this was the next step of that, learning to do it by watching the other her.

By swinging, she was able to avoid the other tendrils and use the momentum to get herself above the orb. She yanked her weapon again and reformed it into its shape, cutting through the tendril it was wrapped around, allowing her to fall toward the orb with her weapon. Its tendrils pulled back and wrapped around each other, but she focused her mana into her weapon again and swung it down as hard as she could.

“Row Blood Bolt!” Her energy came out as a wave this time, and it tore through the DNA strands below right as she came down and swung her weapon out. Before she could slice the orb, though, it glowed, and without warning, it fired out a beam of energy, which flew perfectly in a straight line across her right shoulder. She felt a wave of intense heat, and her arm was sliced clean off, her weapon falling to the ground. The wound was also instantly burned closed, and the pain made her lose focus entirely, and her weapon turned into a puddle on the ground, next to her missing arm.

“It’s over.” Before she hit the ground, the tendrils reformed and wrapped tightly around her. One forced its way around her throat while another one grabbed her by her remaining arm and her ankles, holding her up. “You lose.” The core stated.

Olivia gasped and gagged, unable to speak as the tendril began to squeeze down on her throat. She couldn’t move her arms and legs either. She was running low on blood, especially after losing a limb, but even without that loss, the hold that was around her was too intense. The squeeze on her body began to grow worse, and she gagged again, her throat starting to break.

Her mana flared out, but it did nothing. She couldn’t break free or get past the power difference that was between her and the core. There was one thing she could do, though. Out of her body or not, it was still her blood, and her mana was still within it… It was worth a shot.

“Do you see now why I failed you?” The orb taunted. “You knew this would happen, didn’t you? The one who hates you the most is you. You despise yourself above all. Isn’t that right? You’re useless. Pathetic. Weak. Everything a Knight isn’t-” The orb stopped talking when it noticed her face. She was smiling. “Do you find something funny? You can’t even cast a spell right now. You’re helpless—”

On the ground, the puddle of blood still contained traces of her mana. Her core’s energy was always in her veins, and just like how she could fire a spell out and it would survive outside of her body, so too did the blood she spilt. It began to change and slide across the ground, forming into letters. Three words were said.

‘Row Blood Bolt.’

The blood flowed up and blasted out from the puddle, ramming into the bottom of the orb. It actually managed to catch the orb off guard, and its tendrils loosened, allowing her to force herself out of its hold. The blood she had used for that last spell had also been the one from the scythe. She honestly didn’t ever consider that the blood would still be hers until she had seen the Cultivator version of her.

That woman had used paper with red ink on it. Of course, the ink was blood. Usually, writing a spell down wouldn’t cause it to go off, even writing it in blood, but her blood was special. A blood mage, like a wind mage or a water mage, could mess with the blood inside of them naturally, as it was filled with way more drops of mana than a normal mage had. Just as Davi had been able to control the shape of his shadow without a spell, so too could she influence that blood. The mana in the blood was also so great that it had been able to awaken and force the spell to go off, as if she had said it herself, as the intent and words had been given to the world just through the form of writing and not verbal communication.

As she dropped to the ground, Olivia pulled her fist back and focused as much mana as she could into it. She let out a loud yell and stepped forward, striking out with her remaining fist and ramming it into the ball. Since the blood earlier had been recycled, that meant she still had at least one spell left.

“Row Blood Scythe!” Her weapon exploded into her hand, splitting through the orb and slicing it directly in two.

Meanwhile, far, far away, in another realm, a castle stood. A man in shadows sat upon his throne and slowly reached up to wipe the trickle of blood that leaked out of his nose.

“K-King Sini!” A servant exclaimed when they noticed the nosebleed. “Sir, are you okay? Are you feeling ill?”

A soft laugh filled the room. “Quite the opposite, actually.” The king’s hand balled up into a fist, and even in the shadows, the servant could see a thin smile appear on the man’s lips. “This year's test. Truly, it has some interesting people.”

Chapter 81: The Knight Known As Mary Lot

Olivia breathed heavily as she watched the orb glow and shimmer as it broke apart and faded away. She did it. She actually managed to win—

“Are you feeling better now?”

She gritted her teeth and spun around, finding the orb fully healed and restored, several meters away from her. That wasn’t all, though. Her own body was healed, her arm was back, as well as all her blood, and her witch outfit was also gone, replaced with her regular clothes. Even her mana had been fully restored.

This realm belonged to this being. The king’s core was like a god here. That was how it could do the test and make time outside feel so slow. It had complete control of everything in here. There was no way to beat it, no matter what she tried. Part of her knew that going into the test, but she had still tried her best. Why, though? Why was she trying so hard when it was impossible? Wasn’t she just throwing herself at the wall now?

“Row Blood Scythe!” She reformed her weapon and got ready to charge again, but a tendril raised up as if telling her to halt.

“No. That’s enough.”

Instantly, Olivia felt all the fight leave her and drain away as she heard the core’s voice. It sounded disappointed. “What? Scared that I’ll beat you this time?” She snapped at it, but she also felt tired and disappointed. Nothing had changed. She still failed.

The core shimmered, a dozen different lights and emotions going through it. “Do you know why I said you failed earlier?”

“You said it was because I was useless?”

“That’s correct. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I wanted to see how you would react.” The core hummed once again. “You’re quick to anger, but one thing I will give you is that you’re fast at improving. You watched those other versions of yourself fight, and you were able to pick up how to use magic similar to them in an instant. It isn’t just them, either, is it? You’re constantly learning and watching, yet you call yourself useless? I can see into your soul, your memories, and your thoughts, and I know how much you hate the hand that life has dealt you. You believe that the Arcane Knights are inherently superior, and you yourself are useless because of this flaw that you can’t control. Why?”

“Have I really failed the test?” Olivia asked in a shaky voice.

“Answer my question.”

Olivia hung her head and stared at her feet, feeling slightly ashamed. “Of course, I hate myself. I despise the magic I was born with. This magic that only lets me cast three spells is bad. Yeah, I’ve been able to get better with it, sure, but I always wonder, how much better would I be if I were born with someone else's magic? If I had wind, or ice, or shadow magic, would I have to try as hard?” Olivia spat out. “I was taunted and picked on and called names and belittled, and Haru, it made me mad. I was happy for him, but I was also screaming inside when I saw Ash become a Knight because, of course, he made it! He’s not even that special, but…” Her vision turned slightly blurry, and she rubbed at her eyes. “He was always so mean. I was born like this, and yet he despised me. Now he’s acting friendly, but he still calls me useless, and it hurts. Why wouldn’t I think I’m useless when I saw everyone around me do better?”

“What of your achievements?”

Olivia let out a bitter laugh. “I know, I know, I know, I fucking know! I get it! I’ve done some good with my magic. Blood magic allowed me to survive Garon’s venom, and it also helped me beat him in that final exam, but that was it. It hasn’t done a single thing for me.” She glanced down at her hands and dropped her weapon. “Would I have even been in those situations if I had a different type of magic? I know that I can improve myself; I get that, I really do. I can get better, but that doesn’t change all the struggles that I went through at this point that I wouldn’t have gone through. Those other versions of me showed me how strong I could get, but what horrors did they go through to reach that level?” The memories of all three flashed through her mind. Two of them had murdered groups of people so easily, while one had so much mana that even if she trained for a million years, she doubted she’d reach that level. “Can those other versions of me even be called me?”

“They were created from your subconscious.” The core explained. “I do not know if they’re actual representations of you, but there is a part of you that longs to be something special. A part that doesn’t even care if it’s an Arcane Knight or not, you just want to reach it. Let me ask you something. Why do you think I let you fight me in the first place?”

Olivia frowned. The king’s core raised a good point. What was the reason they had that fight? She was ticked off, sure, but why did it suddenly turn mean and hostile and even let her do that? It said she failed, but it didn’t kick her out of the test? It allowed her to remain and battle it? To prove something? It already knew everything she did, so it couldn’t be to prove herself to it?

So then what?

“It was a test?” Olivia said slowly, and she lowered her weapon. “That’s it, right? You were testing me?”

Suddenly, the space before her shimmered, and she stood before the core much closer. Her weapon was gone, and also in front of the core were the three other versions of herself. The people she could have become if she had been placed somewhere else by her father.

“Earlier, I asked you which version of yourself you liked most.” The core said softly. “And you selected yourself, but that was a lie, wasn’t it?” Olivia flinched at its words, and she looked down, not able to look at the other versions of herself. “Everything I said was taken from your own thoughts about yourself. You have a dream to become an Arcane Knight, but you view yourself as useless and worthless, even as you claim otherwise. Even after you used polymorph, you hated yourself the moment you saw its weakness.”

“I still pushed forward, though,” Olivia argued. “You said it yourself. I was able to learn from those stronger and better versions of myself.”

“You did, and I commend you and your strength, but it is also that same fact that I told you: you failed.” The core shimmered. “You thought it earlier as well. You instantly saw those other versions, and you assumed that they were better than you. That you couldn’t be them.”

“They were stronger than me, though. I’m not a Knight, and they are all part of whatever group they come from. One even had a giant golem of some kind!”

“You assume they were stronger than you because they are part of an official group. If you were a Knight, would you not be of the same rank as them?”

“I guess.” Olivia balled her hand into a tighter fist. “You’re not going to make me a Knight, though, are you?”

Silence filled the air. The tone he had was the exact same tone her teacher would have right before he failed her. It was a slow talk meant to point out her mistakes and gently tell her she failed, but she saw straight through it. The fact that the core didn’t say anything else only confirmed her suspicion. She had failed the Knight exam. This time, though, it wasn’t a trick.

“Mary Lot,” The core’s tone tried to be gentle, but that only stung more. “You’re not useless. I think deep down you do know that. You resent Mr. Anderson for the things he did, and you have a right to feel that way. Let me ask you, though, why haven’t you challenged him again?”

“I didn’t have a reason to?”

The core’s color changed to a bright silver. “You have a soul that is good. You want to help people, and you have a desire to grow. That’s something we do look for in Knights. Also, you’ve managed to grow in such a short amount of time and even unlocked a new trait allowing you to use twice as many spells as before. But…”

“There’s the but.” Olivia sighed and deflated, her shoulders sagging.

“There is one thing you lack.” The tendril went from poking at her chest to poking at her head. “Mary Lot, you lack confidence. Even when you do grow and get better, you find a flaw in it and compare yourself to those around you. It’s not a bad thing to want to be stronger, but you never appreciate your own strength. Worst of all, however, is your view of failure. When you win, you don’t let yourself remain happy for long because you instantly assume the next challenge is one you will fail. When you do fail, you let it eat away at you. Failure can be a teacher, but you rarely learn from it and just use it as an excuse to despise yourself more. One mistake on your end is enough for you to want to give up. In the last exam, to you, failure and death were one and the same. It wasn’t just there, was it? Ms. Lot. You’ve walked this path, and yet I am still not fully convinced. I can see your past, and I can see your present, but I cannot see your future. I can simply make guesses. I could bring out a wave of endless cards based on what I think you’ll be, but there would be no point because, as you are now, you’d walk down the same path that you’re on. You made up your mind before the first test even began. Either you’d become a Knight or you’d die.”

It had been a stray thought. A bitter one that entered her mind when she first arrived at the exam area with Davi. She knew before anything that he and Bruno would make it into the guild. She also knew that Ash would likely join as well. The idea of being the only one left behind while they walked away from her was a bitter pill to swallow, and so the idea had come to her head. Either she’d pass or…

It was a thought she had dismissed, but it appeared again during the battle with Garon. Faced with no other option, she had gladly given up her own life because she was going to die anyway. It hadn’t been a noble sacrifice, though. She didn’t do it to save the others; instead, it was because what else could she have done? She was going to fail the test either way, so she might as well do something.

That action had led to the gaining of a new trait, yet that same trait was one she harbored negativity for once she figured out it wasn’t as good as she wanted it to be. It wasn’t a trait that would put her on the level of other mages and instead was just something that would offer her three more spells.

Didn’t she have a right to be frustrated and feel like failing was the only option? It was as if everything was working against her.

“Of course, you have a right to be angry and mad, but you also need to keep marching forward.” The core spoke up, seemingly reading her mind. “This sense of failure causes you to hesitate and make mistakes. In the third exam, failure and death were one and the same. In the second exam, your thought of failing caused you not even to write a single answer down. In the first exam, your thought of failure caused you to not even consider the fact that a captain had his eye on you.”

“Did one?” Olivia asked, suddenly sitting up. She recalled that in the first test, once it was done, it said a guild had its eye on her, but she assumed it was Phoenix Flight. The core was making it sound like a captain, though, which meant it couldn’t be Phoenix Flight since it was the AI. Not to mention he said ‘his’, which meant they were male, and the captain of Phoenix Flight was a woman. Olivia suddenly felt a tight knot appear in her stomach. Had she had the eyes of a captain on her since the very first exam?

“It isn’t even just these tests that the seeds of failure take root within you.” The core glowed with a bright white energy, and the surrounding area began to flicker and fade, and the next thing Olivia knew, she was standing in a familiar place. “Behold.”

Olivia found herself suddenly in a small stone cell. It was the room she had been placed in after being taken out of the one she and Davi had been shoved into by Gray. On the floor was a version of her, bruised and battered, yet trying to do push-ups, despite the fact that she was drenched in sweat, deathly pale, and her fingernails were gushing blood.

Davi had given her tips on how to train, and she followed his guide, but it hadn’t been enough for her. She pushed herself far further than he instructed, casting her spells as soon as her regeneration gave her enough blood, and punched the walls of her cell over and over again, jumping around and doing push-ups until she vomited.

When her body finally collapsed, she’d only allow herself a few moments to rest before doing it all over again. It had been hell, and it had nearly left her unable to compete. Thankfully, Gray had come to her aid on the final day and used various potions he had on him to fully heal her and even let her shower and get changed before he went and got Davi. She also made him promise not to tell Davi the state he had found her in because she was nearly dead.

“Why are you showing me this?” Olivia demanded, and she looked away. Seeing the broken version of herself made her stomach sick. “I was training. Isn’t that good?”

“Ms. Lot, you trained until you nearly died.” The core said sternly. “You didn’t eat, you didn’t sleep, and you didn’t drink. You almost died of dehydration, and if not for your trait of regeneration, you surely would have.”

“Pushing oneself to their limit is good.”

“You pushed well past your limit and gained nothing from it.” The core’s stern words grew thicker. “You resented the fact that you weren’t able to beat Garon the way you wanted and that you became a failure. You let your failures consume you and wipe away your good achievements, and it causes your hatred for yourself to grow. If I do make you a Knight, what happens? If you lose once, do you suddenly give up? I can’t see the future; I can guess at it, but that’s it. To you, Knights are perfect, and you are the imperfect being, so if a Knight suddenly lost your worldview, would they be destroyed? Isn’t that right? Would that loss break you? You’d become more destructive and want to improve so much that it could even kill you.”

“If I don’t get better, though, then I will be useless,” Olivia said, shaking her head. “I want to help Davi. I don’t want to have to keep getting saved by him. He’s done so much for me, and yet I can’t think of a single way I’ve managed to help him.”

“Then get better.” The core rumbled. “It’s fine to train and improve, but don’t push yourself until you die. Don’t let a single loss consume you and make you think that you’re so utterly pathetic. You don’t even want to challenge Mr. Anderson anymore because you’re scared that, yet again, he’ll beat you. You work too hard to avoid failure, and you fear failure, so naturally everything becomes the thing you fear and despise, leading to more failure and a sense of frustration and the feeling that you’re not growing. You are full of contradictions as well. When faced with failure, you’ll give it your all to succeed, but the moment you do fail, you suddenly give up. You’re both brave and a coward.”

Olivia wanted to argue, but the core was right. She felt tired, exhausted, and frustrated. Her shoulders sagged again, and she let out a grunt. “So what happens now?”

The orb’s tendrils came out again, and they wrapped around her, the strands of DNA lightly squeezing on her arms and legs. “Why do you want to be an Arcane Knight so badly?”

“You can read my memories?”

“Just humor me.”

Olivia managed to give a smile. “I want to thank the person who saved me. She’s the one who put me on this path.”

“Yes, your meeting with Evelyn Lunar.”

“Evelyn? Is that her name?” Olivia muttered.

“You saw her, and you wanted to be a Knight.” The Core switched to a soft pink color. “It is a contradictory mindset, though, is it not? You want more than anything to become a powerful Knight, as they aren’t useless, but you yourself think that you are. Do you think that you will magically become useful the moment you become a Knight?”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Olivia trailed off. “I don’t know what will happen to me. I know I’d get to help people, though.”

“What will you do if you become a Knight?”

Olivia folded her arms, the tendrils letting her move them around. She tilted her head and tried to think about it. “Well, I’d like to help a lot of people, as I said. I also want to thank the woman, Evelyn, who saved me, and I want to help Davi out with his issues.”

“Noble. But can you do that? You’ve fought hard to get to this point, but what happens when you do become a Knight? Is your dream over? Will you stop trying as hard?”

“Of course not. I want to keep getting better.” Olivia managed a grin. “If I become a Knight, then my next goal will be to become a vice captain. If I become a vice captain, then my next goal will be to become a captain. If I become a captain, then my goal will be to make my guild the most heroic one around.”

“Childish. A good cause, but still childish.” The tendrils began to poke at her again. “And when you fail?”

That caused her smile to fade. “I—I don’t know.”

“You’re going to fail eventually.” The core stated. “I want you to understand something. Failing isn’t something to be ashamed of. The best of the best constantly fail, and you are right that getting back up and trying your best is good, but you also have to accept that sometimes you’ll fail, and there is nothing you can do. Don’t let it put you down forever, though, and don’t break yourself trying to right those wrongs. Just be. You are you, and it is who you are that you should want to be. The you of tomorrow is a you you’ll reach, but the you of today should be the you that you focus on. Grow. Live. Enjoy your life. Have fun. And when you do suffer or do find yourself losing, look to those who can help you grow and rise back up.”

Olivia gave a hesitant nod. “Okay. I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

“I know you will; I can see who you are.” The core almost joked before it grew serious once more. “Only time will tell if you actually listen to me, though. For now, I think I’ve made my choice.” Olivia felt herself being pulled into the core, and she tried to hear what he was saying, but the intense heat and pain that followed stopped her from hearing.

Did she pass?

Did she fail?

Suddenly, light hit her eyes, and the next thing she knew, she was standing outside of the gate. All eyes were focused on her, and she found herself staring at the crowd of people who were just… Staring?

The blue box appeared, but nervously, Olivia ignored it because she felt something touching her. A cloth was wrapped around her shoulders, which she looked at and felt with her fingers.

Excitement exploded through her, only to instantly vanish when she saw the symbol written across it.

The core had decided. It didn’t know fully what to do with her, so it made a gamble. A fiery bird was embroidered across her cloak.

She was in Phoenix Flight.

“Aw, fuck me!”

Chapter 82: The End Of The Final Test

“Not Phoenix Flight.”

That was a sentiment most people taking the test all held. For many, being an Arcane Knight was a dream. Being placed into Phoenix Flight, however, was the equivalent of a nightmare. No one wanted to be in Phoenix Flight.

Members of Phoenix Flight weren’t even considered real Knights. They didn’t get Knight gear, and they were always given the scraps of missions no one else wanted. Being put in the guild was a death sentence. A sentence that had been shoved onto her.

She had wanted to be a Knight above all else, and the king’s core could sense that, so it had placed her into a guild, but at the same time she wasn’t worthy of being in any of the powerful ones due to the negative mindset the core said she had, so there was really only one place left for her.

It hadn’t been out of a malicious intent, but the core had still signed off on her death by placing her into Phoenix Flight. Naturally, when she saw the cloak that was wrapped around her, the looks everyone was giving her made a lot more sense.

Unlike Davi, whom some people had been happy to see when he was in Phoenix Flight, people looked at her with pity. Instantly, her body did the only rational thing it could do.

Olivia Lot blacked out. In front of everyone, she collapsed and crashed face-first into the ground.

She should have known it wouldn’t be easy. Of course, she wouldn’t just end up in an actual guild. It was a cosmic joke. She had made a big deal about the fact she’d be content and settle for Phoenix Flight, but that had been an arrogant boast. The reality was that she was absolutely terrified of being in this guild.

Would a meteor fall from space and blow her up? Or would she suffer a fatal heart attack and die on the spot? Maybe the next meal she would eat would be full of poison that would get past her trait and kill her? It could even be something as simple as a dungeon appearing in front of her that had a monster that was way too powerful.

Being in this guild freaked her out. At the same time, though, she had done it. She managed to reach her goal, even if it wasn’t done in a way she would consider ideal or good. She was still, technically speaking, an Arcane Knight.

Speaking of which…

“I blacked out, didn’t I? Why am I able to think so well and process what happened?” Olivia blinked and looked around with wide eyes.

She knew for a fact she had blacked out. The shock of seeing the guild symbol had fried her brain for a moment, and her legs gave out. The last thing she had felt was the ground smacking her in the face as she dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Despite that, though, she was standing. Or rather, she was swimming. All around her was a sea of red. The liquid made it impossible for her to truly see anything, and despite being submerged within it, she could still breathe and move normally. At first, she thought that it might have been blood, but it didn’t cling to her skin and instead went through her. It also wasn’t as warm as blood, nor did it have the taste of iron.

It was mana.

Pure red mana. Her mana. Just like she had been in the realm created by the king’s core, she was currently in a realm created by another core. Her core. The blood core.

“How the hell did I get here?!” Olivia questioned, and even though she wasn’t expecting an answer, one quickly came to her.

In the sea of red, something shimmered in front of her. The bracelets the Knights gave them for the exam were super useful, as the status screen that was connected to their grimoire could even appear in their subconscious, just like it did when she had first used polymorph. It reappeared before her eyes, shimmering and glowing as text rapidly ran along it.

‘Note: The trait, Determined, is being used. Mana will be continuously drained from you to keep this ability activated.’

There it was again! The Determined trait. With a growl, Olivia flicked her finger and caused the box to shift and change. “What the hell is this thing?” The box flashed, and it brought up the trait.

‘Determined: Grade A’. The fact that it was already of grade A was shocking, considering she had only used it a few times. Most traits started off either as D-, D, or D+. Sometimes, through a bloodline ability, such as a clan, or a magical ritual or item, a trait could be gained of a higher grade, but that required making deals with powerful magical beasts or using an expensive magic item to force the trait into the body. As far as she knew, she had done nothing of the sort.

She flicked her finger again and caused the box to shift, revealing the description of the strange trait.

‘Determined: Through blood, you aided our kin. You’ve sacrificed your life force to the one we love, and we took notice. A contract has been forged through mana. Determined to live, the ability to view the paths is yours to use as you please. You are an honorary kin.’

“What the hell?” That just made her even more confused.

From what she could figure out, she had healed someone or something. Her mana was all in her blood, and she used to heal, so in a way, it would sacrifice her life force. Giving up one's life was a big deal and was one of the reasons a lot of dark rituals were banned, as sacrificing life or stealing it was a big no-no in the world of magic.

By willingly giving up her life force through the use of blood magic, it was possible that a magical being of some kind viewed that act as making a pact, and in return for healing, it gave her the trait of Determined. What magical being could do that, though? And who had she healed?

The only one she could think of was Davi. She didn’t have the trait after the battle with Garon. She had looked at her grimoire when she was showing the app to Davi, and it hadn’t been there. After that, she hadn’t looked at her grimoire again, being too distracted. She did heal Davi, though. After his battle with Tori and Gray, Davi had been on death's door, and she kept healing him over and over with her magic.

Nothing unusual seemed to have happened from what she recalled, and Davi never brought it up, so if it was him that did it, did he even know?

The main thing that made her wonder if it was Davi or not, though, was the fact that he had a weird trait. ‘Loved by Mana’. She didn’t know what it did, but the Determined trait claimed she healed ‘kin’ to the one ‘we love’.

There were stories of people who were related to magical beasts or old bloodlines, such as the elves. The elves were all considered to be loved by mana, so could it be possible that Davi was connected to the elves? It wouldn’t be that strange and could also explain why he was so powerful, since every now and then, elven mana would surface in a person, making them a lot stronger.

It didn’t fit, though.

The elves were all dead. Not to mention, she was pretty sure that Bruno was connected to an elven bloodline. Not a big one or a famous one, but she recalled Rosco talking about it. Most people who were connected to elves never gained anything from it, but every now and then, someone like Bruno would appear who awakened their bloodline's mana. Davi was strong, but his strength was vastly different from Bruno's.

Bruno was constantly getting stronger and stronger, improving every second. Davi was already strong, but he had put the work in and never seemed to grow rapidly in battle. In fact, she didn’t know if he had gotten stronger at all compared to the version she first met. Had he even improved a little?

So what was up with him?

In the sea of red, a spark of blue appeared once more.

‘The trait, ‘Determined’ has been further activated. The paths will show you the outcome.’

“What?”

Suddenly, in an instant, everything seemed to twist and change. The sea of red faded, and Olivia found herself standing on something darker than black. A void of darkness stretched before her, endless and bottomless, and instead of a sea of red mana, she now stood in an infinite ocean of black energy. Her body shivered, and she felt ice start to cling to her. It was cold. Colder than anywhere she had ever been.

Her flesh instantly started to crack, and her foot snapped off her ankle as she tried to step back. She was shattering and breaking to bits, frozen a hundred times over. The last thing she saw before she crumbled to dust was a sword's hilt poking out of the ground…

‘You no longer possess the mana required to keep Determined activated. The trait will now shut off.’

Everything went dark again. Then, she heard several voices.

“She’s been unconscious for a while?”

“She’ll wake up soon.”

“Is she even breathing?”

“Quick, bros, give her CPR.”

“Okay.”

“Wait, why do you get to do it?”

“Do you want to?”

“Well… no, but—”

“Rock, paper, scissors for it?”

“...Sure. Shit! I lost!”

“Alright, Davi, you won. Kiss useless Olivia awake.”

“It should have been me!”

“Quit sulking, Ken.”

Olivia felt a hand cradle the back of her head, and another one gripped her chin. She stirred slightly and opened her eyes, staring into a pair of dull blue orbs. She was in the arms of Davi, and his face was extremely close to hers now.

“Oh, hey,” Davi said flatly. “She’s up.”

“Kiss her anyway, Davi!” Bruno announced.

Olivia blinked and slowly stood up with the help of Davi. She rubbed her head and groaned slightly. “What happened?”

“You stepped out of the gate, screamed, and then blacked out,” Ken said casually. The girl then flicked her finger out. “Row Flame Feel.”

Olivia felt her body ease up, and she let out a relieved sigh as the pain faded away. “Thanks for that.”

“We healed you a bunch, but you didn’t stir,” Ash spoke up. “You were out cold. Something happen?”

“I felt a little woozy when I saw the fact that I was in Phoenix Flight,” Olivia admitted, and she reached up to grip the cloak that was around her shoulders.

“Looks like we’re in the same guild.” Davi offered her a nod.

“You know this guild isn’t good, right?” Olivia said bitterly. Then she recalled what she had seen. That weird red ocean, the sea of black. The frozen sword. It was cold, like Davi’s mana. If she wasn’t sure about it being him, she was almost certain now. “Davi, I have a question.”

“Yeah?” Davi raised an eyebrow, and Olivia frowned.

“No. Actually, never mind. I’ll tell you when we have a private moment.” She didn’t want to bring it up in front of the others in case it was something serious. She could just ask Davi when the two of them were alone.

Davi stared at her for a moment and nodded. “Actually, I had something I wanted to ask you in private about your father. It can wait, though. No rush.” His usual blank look was gone. “I’m glad we’re in the same guild.”

Olivia rubbed the cloak once again. “I still don’t like that I ended up in this guild, but if I had to, then I’m glad you’re in it with me.”

“Are you really okay with this?” Ash asked, suddenly frowning. “You know this basically means you’re going to die.” He said, giving her and Davi worried looks. “You’re basically cursed.”

“Everyone dies eventually,” Davi said casually. “Besides, nothing bad has happened yet. The captain of Phoenix Flight is also a strong woman, and she’s been able to stay alive despite all the crazy stuff that has happened to her. I’m strong, and I’ll do everything I can to keep myself and Olivia alive. It might even be a good way to get stronger. Being put through life and death, we’re bound to grow if we want to survive.”

“I don’t really see it that way,” Olivia muttered. “I’m fine with this, though.”

“You are?” Bruno winced.

Failure and death were one and the same. Despite what the king’s core said, her view and outlook wouldn’t suddenly change overnight. She had reached her goal and became a Knight, even if it was a cursed one. Her life could end, and she’d still be happy, because at least for now, she had done it. She might die in the next few years from bad luck, but the her of today was at least happy and content.

“For now.” Olivia nodded again. “Maybe when the shock wears off, I’ll have a panic attack again.” She hummed. “So what did I miss?” She looked around at the crowd, which wasn’t focusing on her and was instead looking at the gates as more nobles stepped out. “What did I miss? What letter are we on?”

“Z,” Bruno stated.

Olivia’s eyes went wide. “What! I missed that many!” She spun around and took note of her group once again.

Irene was nowhere to be seen, the blind girl having seemingly vanished into the crowd. Davi and Ash both had their cloaks on, Ash with Pantheon’s and Davi with Phoenix Flight. Bruno now sported a cloak as well, though. Her eyes nearly bulged when she saw that it was the symbol of the Shining Sentinels. Bruno was the first person ever to reach one of the top three guilds despite being a commoner.

Suddenly, it made sense why the rest of the crowd was ignoring her group. All that remained were a lot of the nobles who were refusing to look in Bruno’s direction, likely all pissed off that he had done something they couldn’t.

She knew Bruno was always awesome, but this level of skill was insane. She had been confident he’d make it into a guild, and he went ahead and blew past her expectations.

“Wait, if it’s in Z?” Olivia turned to look at Ken, only to not see a cloak on her. “Ken! You failed.”

Ken’s smug look faded, and the biggest scowl appeared on the girl’s face. “Of course I didn’t. They’re saving me for last.”

“Doesn’t your name end with Y, though?”

“Yuan is the family I’m from, but it isn’t the sect,” Ken said simply. “I’m part of the Zzhang sect, focused mainly on the rapid growth of a cultivator and their spirit through the mutual growth of yin-yang energy. To put it simply, my full name here would be Ken-Yuan Zzhang.”

“Weird.”

Ken’s frown grew. “I think it’s weird that you guys don’t take pride in your community and put its name on yours.”

“Well, either way, if we’re in Z, then you’re bound to come up soon, right?” Olivia turned to look back at the gate.

It glowed and shimmered, and stepping out of the gate was Rowan Zyne. Olivia wasn’t surprised to see the cloak around him; she figured he’d make it in, but she was caught off guard by the fact that it had the symbol of Umbra Mortis on it. A noble, not of the branch family, made it to one of the three best guilds?

It was shocking, but not as much as Bruno reaching that point.

Nobles usually ended up in one of the four main guilds, while commoners would rarely get into any guild besides Phoenix Flight. The top three were traditionally reserved only for the branch families. A noble making it there was rare and impressive.

Had Rowan’s mindset managed to impress the king’s core? Just as she was wondering this, Pretty Face began to speak once more.

“Alright! We’ve made it to the end. One last name!” The woman declared. “Then we’re finally done! Let’s get this over with! Ken-Yuan Zzhang!”

Ken sighed and finally stepped forward. Olivia watched her, feeling a strange twist in her gut all of a sudden. Ken was strong, but would the woman pass the test? Did she have a mind the king’s core would accept?

As it turned out, no.

It was barely even a full second. Ken entered the gate, stepping past it, and then in an instant, it erupted with a thick red light. It caused Pretty Face’s smile to fade away in an instant, and the woman stood up, staring down just as Ken was spat out. The woman was on the ground, thick silver chains wrapped around her arms and legs.

Not only did Ken fail the test, but she had been utterly rejected and deemed a criminal by the gate…

And just like that, the final test came to an end. 

Chapter 83: Her Hatred

“You’re an adult now, yet you still barely qualify as second-rate. Sometimes I’m left wondering if you’re truly my daughter.”

Ken Yuan, a low-ranking member of the Zzhang sect, held her tongue and kept her head bowed down. She was on her knees, forced to prostrate herself before the man she hated most in the world while the carriage rolled forward through the woods.

Despite the burning rage she felt, she managed to force out a tone of respect. “Forgive my incompetence, great elder.” Ken Yuan said softly. “I apologize that my uselessness has caused you such error.”

A heavy foot pressed into her bowed-down head and began to grind itself into the top of her skull, the wooden sandal causing her great pain, but she managed to hold her cries in. “You should be ashamed. You’re my fifty-fifth child. Don’t you know how important the number five is? You should have reached a realm of power not seen since my fifth son. What was his name again?”

“B-Brother Seoh Yuan.” Ken Yuan spat out.

“Yes, him. Se-what’s his face. He was a child I could be proud of. A shame he wasn’t able to grasp the principle of self-rejuvenation. He might still be alive, and I wouldn’t be stuck with a worthless tool like you. Now I’ll have to wait till the five hundred and fifty-fifth child if I want to pierce past the barrier and leave a lasting mark on Mordheim's Shogun. It’ll take me another one, maybe even two hundred years at least now.”

Standing on her head, pressing it further into the ground, was her father. He was an old man, almost ancient, with long gray hair and a matching gray beard. His skin was full of wrinkles, yet his body still possessed incredible muscles, a testament to years of martial arts training that had been ingrained in him. A body that, no matter how much age ate away at it, only grew stronger and stronger. It was a body that was also flawed, though.

Not only was her father’s flesh covered head to toe in scars, but the brown gi he wore had its left sleeve empty, for he had lost an arm long ago when he first attempted to engage the king of Estiria in combat. Despite such damage, he continued to cultivate, much to the dismay of Ken Yuan.

Her father ran his fingers through his long beard and kept his foot pressed over Ken Yuan’s head as he looked down at her. He was currently seated in his personal carriage, and the only other person, besides the horses pulling the carriage, was his daughter. His eyes raked over her form and settled on the gourd that hung off her belt.

“You still insist on using that worthless spirit?” Her father mused. “You’re an adult now and married; how about I give you one of mine as a wedding gift?”

“I’m not getting rid of Yujin.” This time, Ken Yuan was unable to suppress the wrath in her voice.

“Fine, fine, but at the very least, you could do what that barbaric whore, Medora, did and devour that worthless spirit and fuse with it.” Her father hummed. “The balance of your qi lines would be less unstable, and you’d be able to function. You might even gain the Path of Mask changing, which could be a good boon to the sect.” Her father stopped speaking when he saw the look in her eyes. No longer was she staring at the ground; now her eyes were cast up at him and held a fire behind them that made even him hesitate. “So, that is out of the question as well? You’ll continue to remain in a state of mediocrity?”

“I’ll continue to do my best.” Ken Yuan corrected.

At last, the pain in her head faded as her father mercifully lifted his foot. He clicked his tongue and turned away, looking out the window as the scenery passed. “It seems we are nearing the Reanjiao clan palace. How have your meetings with the son been?”

Ken sat up and adjusted her hair, trying to smooth it out. “We haven’t talked much, but he is very handsome. I suppose he’ll make for a good husband.”

Her father let out a laugh. "Too bad you won’t make for a good wife. You’ll be nothing more than a tool he can use to stabilize his own qi lines.”

There were many ways to cultivate qi. Some were more barbaric than others. Her father kept trying and trying to force her to grow better and better. Still, her body had reached its peak, and her progress of qi refining was slower than the rest of her many siblings, so her father had decided that instead of further training her, he would simply use her in another way.

Her father set up a political marriage for her.

She knew this would come one day. All members of the Zzhang sect did it to make amends and bonds with the other factions around Rossum, and in some ways, she had been looking forward to it, but that had been when it was on her own terms with people she selected for herself. She didn’t get the luxury of deciding who her lover was.

There wasn’t even a celebration or fancy event either. She got to meet the man she would be living with once, and that was it. Jin Reanjiao was her new husband.

“There it is.” Ken Yuan looked up when she heard her father speaking, and for a moment her breath was stolen. “Your new home.”

“It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” Ken muttered.

The Reanjiao palace was placed at the top of a large hill that wasn’t quite big enough to be called a mountain. It overlooked a nearby village, and the palace itself was fashioned out of white stone, and a bamboo forest surrounded the path that led up to it. Servants were already waiting outside, and rain lightly sprinkled down, brought on by a reverse waterfall. As the name suggested, it was a waterfall that lifted into the air instead of falling down. It went up and up, piercing past the clouds themselves.

Her father tugged on his beard again, clearly annoyed. “Show-offs. They act all high and mighty, yet they’re barely qualified to be their own clan. They’re lucky they have such talent, or I’d have never considered giving them one of my kids, not even a worthless one like you.”

Reanjiao was a small but powerful clan. Unlike the Yuan clan, which sought to make bonds with spirits, the Reanjiao clan focused more on gathering qi naturally for the art of joint cultivation.

In Rossum, there were clans, and then there were sects. A sect was formed from various clans, which came together and placed their trust in one another. She herself was part of the Yuan clan, which was in charge of the Zzhang sect, which had a lot of other smaller clans scattered within. The Reanjiao weren’t associated with any sects and were relatively small but still quite resourceful.

That was why her father was so eager for this marriage, even if he didn’t show it. If they could get the Reanjiao family under their thumb, it could help them in defeating not just the other sects but also Mordehim, which was currently invading, and there was almost nothing they could do other than attempt to drive them back due to the massive barrier around the country and how far across the sea it was.

Soon enough, the carriage stopped, and Ken Yuan, along with her father, stepped out. Several of the servants all bowed. “Greetings, great elder,” and then to her, “Lord Yuan.”

“As I promised Elder Reanjiao, I brought one of my daughters.” Her father patted her on the shoulder and shoved her forward. “She’s an adult now, and it’s about time she pulls her own weight. I believe she and the young master have already met, and now that they’re joined together, I’ll be leaving her in your capable hands.”

Ken Yuan had to bite her tongue as hard as she could to hold in the bitter remark that wanted to force its way out of her lips. She somehow held it in and gave a nod to the servants, allowing them to rise up. Her father was already seated in his carriage and didn’t even bother with a goodbye, leaving her all alone, now belonging entirely to the Reanjiao family.

“Take me to the young master,” Ken ordered, folding her arms.

“Of course.” A servant nodded and led her into the palace.

Beyond the gates lay the courtyard, which featured a large hedge maze and a sandy field, with the servants hard at work to keep it looking clean and pristine. The inside of the palace was comprised of various halls, featuring an expensive red carpet and multiple paintings and gems that resided in cases. Although the clan was small, the Reanjiao family had rapidly risen through the ranks, and where there was power, there was wealth.

The servant continued to lead her through the halls, and soon enough, they arrived at the young master’s bedchamber. After being allowed to enter, Ken Yuan slowly stepped into the room and came face-to-face with her husband.

Jin Reanjiao was a rather handsome young man in his early twenties. He had flawless, pale skin, as most young cultivators did, and a lean, fit build. His blonde hair was tidy, and his eyes had a faint green light in them. White robes lazily clung to his body like silk, waiting to be taken off, and he was seated at the edge of his bed, looking up at her with a faint smile.

The bedchamber itself was what she had been expecting. The bed was designed for two people, and the room featured a carpeted floor that was soft to the touch. Everything screamed of money, and also in the air was a faint smell. It was pleasant and tickled her nose. Likely a type of medicine meant to be used to get people in the mood.

“Ah, so you’ve finally arrived?” Jin Reanjiao asked, almost purring as he spoke. “Welcome. I’ve been waiting for you, Lord Ken Yuan. Out of all your father's daughters, you alone managed to capture my eye.”

Ken cringed at his words. She gave a faint nod, though. “I am honored to be of assistance to you, young master. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know.”

Jin Reanjiao stood up, and he grabbed the front of his robes, tugging them open. He proudly placed his hands on either side of his hips. “Now that we’re married, it’s only natural that we finalize our marriage. Care to join me in joint cultivation?”

Ken Yuan wasn’t shocked when he stripped before her. She knew this had been coming and had expected it. It was only natural that her new husband would want to sleep with her, especially since she knew how attractive she was. Many men, as well as women, wanted her. There was one issue, though.

Jin Reanjiao wasn’t packing much.

“Well.” Jin Reanjiao cut through her thoughts when he noticed she hadn’t moved. “Go on. What do you think of it? Beautiful, is it not?”

“It’s very… Delicate looking.”

“Go ahead and take yours off.” Jin Reanjiao instructed as he folded his arms. “We’ll engage in joint cultivation and see how far we can both grow.”

“I doubt you’ll be doing any growing,” Ken muttered under her breath.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Ken Yuan sighed, and she began to undo her robes.

Everyone had a unique type of qi, but in Rossum, it went further. The balance of qi that men and women possessed was vastly different, with each side having only half of what the other was lacking. Of course, a coin was only complete when both halves came together, and that was where joint cultivation came in. It was a common practice in Rossum, involving a man and a woman sharing their qi with one another to help each other develop. There were many ways to do this, but of course, the most common was through the use of physical touch. The more, the better.

Naturally, it didn’t take long before humans did what they did best and found a way to make it involve sex. That’s right, joint cultivation was essentially two members of a clan coming together and doing the nasty dance to improve their qi. This was because qi was strongest during bouts of intense emotion, and sexual intercourse was a shortcut to building up those emotions.

It was better if the two people doing the act loved each other deeply. In fact, if the love and feelings were strong enough and entirely mutual, then it would be possible to trade a large amount of qi with just the simple act of holding hands.

When it came to strangers, though, let’s just say, one-night stands were extremely popular in Rossum.

“Let’s get this over with.” Ken’s own robes dropped to the floor, and she stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Jin. His own limbs snaked around her, and their lips connected as they fell back onto the bed.

When it was all said and done, Ken Yuan and Jin Reanjiao rested under the covers. Jin Reanjiao was utterly out of breath, his face flushed, and he was panting, his eyes very heavy. She sat next to him in the bed, lying beneath the covers with a dissatisfied look on her face.

Jin Reanjiao wiped his brow and let out a grunt. “How was it, my wife? Was it good for you?”

“Uh huh…” She hadn’t finished. It lasted less than ten minutes. Ken Yuan slid out of the bed and grabbed her robes, slipping them back on.

“Where are you going?” Jin Reanjiao tried to ask, but he was cut off by a yawn and looked as if he would fall asleep at any moment.

Ken Yuan put on another false smile. “I’d like to walk around my new home. Is that okay with you, young master?”

“Yes, yes, do whatever you want.” Jin Reanjiao rolled over, and his eyes closed. “I’m gonna…” His voice trailed off as he fell asleep.

Ken quickly left the room. In truth, she had no plans of walking around and instead would find a servant who could fulfill her needs. Male or female, it didn’t matter. Jin Reanjiao had been totally lacking. They were barely even able to exchange qi due to how short he lasted as well. Pathetically small, and lacking stamina…

Right as she stepped out of the room, Ken Yuan suddenly noticed something. A flicker of orange caught her attention, and she walked over to the window. Her eyes widened when she saw it. In the direction of the village, a fire had suddenly started. It was massive in size, growing ever larger.

“How did a fire that big start?” Ken questioned in horror. “Why didn’t the palace cultivators do anything to put it out—”

Suddenly, the glass in front of her shattered as something pierced through it. She was barely able to dodge it, spinning out of the way just in time as a massive arrow slammed into the wall next to her. Ken Yuan stood up and turned just in time to see the arrow light up, bright red runes scattering across it. A runic formula used by the Spell Swords!

She raised her arms up, but it was too late. The arrow exploded in a massive, bright red flash, blowing the entire hallway to bits…

Everything faded and twisted, but Ken Yuan wasn’t dead. Instead, she suddenly found herself in someone’s arms.

“T-Teacher?” Ken questioned in total shock when she glanced up and saw her teacher.

As always, Feng’s eyes were squeezed shut, but his usual calm look was gone, replaced with a look of rage. He held her in his arms, and she realized they were outside now. Not only that, but the smell of smoke had grown intense.

Ken’s eyes went wide when she saw that the palace was on fire, and the sounds of screaming filled the air. They were under attack! How out of it had she been that she had missed everything up to this point?

“What’s going on?” Ken asked.

“Your father.” Feng practically snarled out. “That bastard. I can’t believe he used you like that. He was willing to let you die.”

“F-Feng? What are you saying?”

Feng didn’t stop marching. He was in the courtyard making his way to a set of heavy doors that would lead to the bamboo trail. “He knew there was an attack coming, but he didn’t warn anyone. His talks with the Reanjiao clan didn’t go the way he wanted, so he decided to get rid of their strongest member, hoping that would weaken the clan to the point where they’d fall in line and obey him. Even knowing Mordheim was going to attack this palace, he still placed you in it so you could tire the young master out. Your father wants Jin dead but knows he can’t do it himself! If he died from a Spell Sword’s attack, then the Reanjiao clan wouldn’t have any way to pin it on the Yuan clan and would be weakened to the point of obedience. Worse yet, they wouldn’t even be able to pin it on your father, since no one would assume he’d throw his own daughter into the trap, yet that fucker did!”

Ken felt her face pale at Feng's words. Her father always hated weak children, and she was one of the weak ones, so was it shocking to hear that he’d use her as a pawn just on the off chance he could kill Jin? Her father had left in a hurry as well, now that she thought about it. Did she truly mean so little to him?

The palace itself was being torn to bits, waves of qi and aura clashing as people were cut down. Mordheim’s Spell Swords were no joke, wielding pure and refined sword aura, mixing it with elements and runes, allowing them to weave powerful bursts of energy into existence that cut down foes. They all wore various black robes and carried different styles of swords that could slash even the great flesh of a cultivator.

Two Spell Swords noticed her and Feng fleeing and appeared in front of the gate, holding their weapons up. They didn’t even have time to do anything, though, as Feng supported her with one arm and lifted his other hand up, making a slashing motion. He didn’t speak any words or form any hand signs, but a thin red line of blood split both men in half, along with a majority of the wall that surrounded the palace.

Feng stepped past the dead bodies and held her with both arms again as he left the palace walls and began to march down the forest path. More men tried to stop him, but again, more red lines appeared, all so thin they were almost impossible to see, and each functioning like a razor wire that reduced the Spell Swords into chunks before they even knew what happened.

Feng wasn’t holding back. He was pissed. Angrier than he had ever been in his life. “Thank Han, I was able to get to this palace in time,” Feng growled. “Your father sent me away on a mission, but when I heard about the attack, I flew back here as fast as I could.”

“W-Where are we going?” Ken asked.

“Anywhere but here.” Feng hissed. “Your father broke the last bit of trust I had in him. He’s lucky his father isn’t around anymore, or he’d be beaten senseless by the great elder. We need to get out of this nation while we still can. I’ve enchanted a ship; it’s down at the docks, and it’ll take us far away.”

The forest led down from the palace to a lower town district. Like the palace, it was also on fire, burning down and crumbling to bits. Dead scattered the streets, and yet Ken didn’t feel all that sad. The truth was, she hated a lot of Rossum. The lands were beautiful, and she truly loved the nation itself, but its people, the ones who ruled it, and the ones who held power, were all rotten to their core.

In Rossum, you were either strong or you were weak. You were either a mighty lion or you were a pathetic mutt that existed only for breeding. Growing up, she had been kicked around by a lot of the people in the town, especially when Feng wasn’t around. She wasn’t happy that the people were dead, but she also didn’t feel sorrow.

Feng kept going and soon passed through the town where the docks were located. No ship was visible, but as Feng got closer, he placed her onto her own two feet and held his hand out. It glowed with a golden light, and the air shimmered and twisted, and suddenly a ship appeared. However, calling it a ship was a little much. It was made out of bamboo and had several large bags on it that likely had food and water, but that was it. It glowed and shimmered with runes that would allow it to sail on its own, a destination already built inside of it.

“Alright,” Feng placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s leave while we still—”

The sound of whistling cut Feng off, and he went silent. His face scrunched up, and the blind man spun around. Ken did the same and saw the man who was approaching them.

It was another Spell Sword, but this one was different. He was lean and calm-looking, wearing emerald green robes, and clutching a sword that hung from his belt. He had black, messy hair and dull brown eyes, as well as a bit of facial hair. He was also covered in red. Blood clung to him, staining his robes, his flesh, his hair, and even his teeth when he smiled.

Ken Yuan felt her face pale because she knew who this was. He was a great general of Mordheim known for his cruelty. He was simply called Wolf.

“Well, well, well.” Wolf’s voice came out in a taunting tone, and he casually drew his katana. “I thought this mission was going to be boring, but I seem to have spotted a rare sight indeed. The mighty Blood Serpent stands before me.” Wolf pointed his sword directly at Feng. “Care to dance with me, lizard?”

“Lord Ken Yuan.” Feng began to roll up the sleeves of his robes. “Please get onto the boat.”

“But—”

“That’s an order. One from the teacher you respect so much.”

Ken clenched her teeth and felt her hand ball up into a fist. “You’re coming as well?”

“I’ll catch up.” Feng smiled. His hands glowed with a golden light, and the flesh around his arms began to twist and change, as red scales grew along his arms and claws jutted from his fingers. “Go, my Lord, go and find yourself. Go and live.”

Without warning, Feng stabbed his arm out, and a wave of red blood launched toward Wolf. Unlike the other Spell Swords, Wolf cut through the attack, a massive wave of green aura exploding around his body. The swordsman laughed and raised his blade up, and his other hand went over his face.

“Oh,” black energy seeped out of his palm, and suddenly his shadow began to lift and mold, swimming into the palm of his hand and taking on a new shape. “This is gonna be fun.” The shadows became a black wolf-like mask, which the man donned, and he smashed his sword down as hard as he could. “Ril Kinetic Slash!” An unseen force launched from his blade as an invisible energy launched forward!

Feng clasped his hands together, and a wall of blood formed in front of him, blocking the unseen strike, but it quickly crumbled as Wolf met the blind man in melee and began to dance around Feng, slicing into his shoulder; black fire gushed out of his sword.

Feng gritted his teeth and ignored the burning flame and clapped his hands together, firing out a thin beam of blood that sliced through hundreds of buildings, but Wolf ducked under it, not getting hit by the attack.

“Casting a spell without an incantation?” Wolf laughed, clearly in bliss. “The rumors are true about you, aren’t they! You’re a monster! A magical beast!”

“That black flame that screams out of your blade,” Feng growled, and he rammed a powerful punch into Wolf’s stomach, launching the man back. “You bastards really are using the corpse of the Ebony Knight to fuel yourselves, aren’t you?!”

Wolf just laughed even louder, not phased by the punch that sent him flying back, and the black flames grew larger, coating his entire sword. “So what if we are! It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and right now, you’re going to be my next meal!”

Feng glared back at Ken, who had remained frozen in place. “Go, you stupid girl!” He screamed again, and this time Ken obeyed.

She took off running and dove into the boat just in time for Wolf to unleash another Ril-level strike, slicing most of the town apart. The magic in the boat caused it to go flying through the water at an incredible speed. She had to hold onto something so that she wasn’t blasted overboard.

The last she saw of Feng was him opening his mouth and unleashing a wave of intense fire in the direction of Wolf.

Her body finally gave out after that, and Ken Yuan blacked out.

“Why are you showing me this?” At the same time, Ken Yuan watched the scene play out, far above, standing in the sky.

Everything twisted and broke, and the next thing she knew, she stood in a field of white fire, with the king’s core floating behind her.

“It’s on your mind a lot, isn’t it?”

“So what if it is?” Ken asked, frowning.

“I find it interesting, is all.” The core mused. “You hate your homeland, right?”

“I don’t hate the land itself; its air is rich and clean, especially compared to here.” Ken snorted. “The people could all go die, though, and I couldn't care less.”

The core hummed. “I allow people from all over the world to come to my land and be part of my kingdom. Closing yourself off stops the ability to learn and grow. That said, you seem to harbor only hatred for your homeland. If you cannot feel love for the place you grew up in, why should you be expected to feel love for this land?”

“Isn’t it normal for people to seek something better?” Ken asked. “My homeland is shitty, so naturally I’d look for a better place to stay.”

“And yet, that’s a lie.” The core hummed. “In fact, you not only don’t have love for this land or yours, but you have no love or desire to seek a better solution. To you, the ideal outcome would be to arrive back in your homeland and live happily in the mountains. That’s what you’re planning to do as well, aren’t you? Once you kill your father. You’ll leave it all behind.”

“You’re annoying,” Ken said flatly.

“You have no thought of helping my land out, do you?” The core glowed red, and this time the air around it seemed to crackle. “You don’t view anyone here worthy of your respect either.”

“That’s not true.” Ken hissed.

“I can see your thoughts. Even the ones you have your eye on, you just view as a means to an end.” The core spat back at her. “The Lot heir could make for a great refinement pill if she is harvested properly. The young Hawker could make for a decent sword if taught a bit more. Perhaps I can get him on my side and let him meet Feng.” The core spoke some of the thoughts she had. “You don’t view them as people. They’re just a means to make you stronger—even us Knights. You didn’t join this guild to become a true Knight. You just want the chance to earn Knight gear, and as soon as you get it, you’ll drop everything and run back to your land in order to kill your father.”

“He deserves to die!” Ken yelled out.

“Then do it with your own power.” The core flashed again. “I don’t want you in my land. Get out.”

Ken went to argue, but suddenly, silver chains wrapped tightly around her arms and legs. The next thing she knew, she was blasted out of the gate and crashed to the floor in a heap. The gate didn’t just reject her; it completely blacklisted her.

She didn’t even have a second to clear her thoughts before two Knights suddenly appeared and grabbed the chain, forcing her up.

“Get off of me.” Ken hissed, but one of the Knights casually smacked her in the back of her neck, and instantly she was knocked out.

“I’m shocked only one exam-taker got spat out.” The Knight muttered. “I thought for sure several of those Mordheim freaks would be selected, and yet only a member of the Yuan family got offered up. How odd.”

“Nothing to see here, folks!” Pretty Face called out as the crowd stared on in shock. “It seems we had a terrorist in our ranks! Don’t worry, she’ll be dealt with accordingly!”

Olivia felt shock go through her. “Ken was a terrorist—”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence as Davi took off. He rapidly tore his way through the crowd, who were all muttering and seemed confused by what was going on. He was about to step out and reach the Knights, but a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. Davi whipped around and saw the face of Sune.

The Knight shook her head. “Where are they taking her?” Davi demanded, his voice cold, as he watched the other Knights pick Ken up and begin to head to the exit. “What are they going to do to her?”

“Don’t worry.” Sune kept a grip on Davi’s shoulder, preventing him from running off. “She’ll be fine.”

“I don’t believe you,” Davi said flatly.

“I’m telling the truth.” Sune nodded. “The core didn’t like her and viewed her motives as interfering with our kingdom. She’s part of the Yuan family, so they won’t kill her. She’ll be sent back home, where she belongs, and banned from ever entering the kingdom ever again.” Sune hesitated for a moment. “Did you like her?”

“Not really,” Davi said after thinking on the question. “She was kind of an asshole. That said, she was still my teammate. It’s only natural for me to get worried about her.”

Sune let out a soft snort. “I see. So that’s why you were picked.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Look, kid, I’ll make sure she’s okay. Go back to your friends. Ken Yuan will be just fine. You have my word.” Sune placed her hand over her heart and nodded.

Davi’s frown grew, but realistically, what could he do? The captains were all present, so if he did start a fight to try to get Ken, he’d likely be killed in an instant. He didn’t like it, but he had to accept it. Slowly, Davi nodded and turned away. “Okay, but if I find out she got hurt in any way…”

Sune was about to make a joke, but the look in Davi’s eyes caused her to pause and shiver. It wasn’t the look a new recruit should have. She silently watched Davi head back to Olivia and the others.

“This year has been interesting.” Sune mused, and she looked back toward the gate. “I see why the king made the choices that he did.”

Chapter 84: The New Knights

The test of skill had them all competing to gauge their strength. The test of knowledge had them all be quizzed on how they viewed the Knights. The test of courage had them all face something that was beyond them, designed to overwhelm them with a large amount of fear. Each test, though, had something in common.

It was the same for every user. Even the test of courage, which threw different monsters and themes, was all still made to achieve the same goal as all the others. The first three tests were truly equal, because a person had control over whether they failed or lost and could shape the path forward with their own hands.

The final test, though, the test of soul, was completely different. Each person who took it, despite all meeting the king’s core and having a conversation with him, was asked various questions.

For some, the core wanted to talk about their past. For others, their present, and for some, still their future. Some, it took one look at and allowed them to pass, and others had to fight tooth and nail to convince the core. Each thing they saw, the whispers it said to them, was all unique. 

No test of the soul was the same, which led to one question.

What was Ken Yuan’s test?

Olivia wouldn’t say that she and Ken Yuan were friends. Just as she wouldn’t say she was friends with Ash. She still harbored some resentment for what the girl had done. That said, she also didn’t want Ken to get in trouble. There was nothing that could be done about it, at least not right now.

Ken Yuan had been knocked out and taken away due to holding a malicious intent in her heart for the kingdom and its people. That was why the final test was considered so important and why everyone was required to take it. It was impossible to hide from the king’s gaze while in his realm, allowing him to see the life a person had lived, their thoughts, and their emotions. That gift had allowed him to see the darkness in Ken Yuan’s heart. 

Typically, a person was killed if they were viewed as a dangerous threat to the kingdom. Ken Yuan not being killed meant that her malice wasn’t to the point where the king outright viewed her as an enemy, but she was still seen as a threat that could twist the will of the land. 

The king wanted a land where all could live and be equal. Sadly, that wasn't the case, due to greedy nobles or beggars who refused to improve their lives, but the system did allow people to easily become part of the kingdom, so long as they didn’t fail the final part.

Failing it meant Ken would be sent back home. Because she was a noble from her homeland, it would be easier just to blacklist her and send her back home. They could even attempt to extract money from the head of the Yuan clan for her return, since the father would most likely pay a substantial amount to have his daughter back. Especially with the state Rossum was in. They couldn’t afford to lose talent like Ken, who everyone assumed ran away. 

Most likely, Ken Yuan would be forced to fight in the war against Mordehim in her homeland and would either grow up to become a fine member of the Yuan clan, or she’d tragically die in combat. 

Either way, Olivia knew, she would likely never see the woman again. That didn’t exactly make her sad, as Ken could be a bitch at times, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she could have somehow prevented this from happening. If she spoke more to Ken, would Ken’s heart have changed, and would the woman have become a Knight?

What could she do now, though? Not even Davi had been able to stop Ken from being taken away. 

“You okay?” Davi questioned.

“I am.” Olivia nodded and folded her arms. “I’m just wondering.”

“Wondering what?” Bruno asked, throwing his arms behind his head and giving a smile. “What’s on your mind, bro?”

“Nothing.” Olivia shook her head. “I don’t want to say it out loud.”

Growing up, she had been told stories about the Arcane Knights. Every kid wanted to be one, and she thought that if she did become one, her father would finally accept her. She got it in her head, all because a single Arcane Knight saved her. Since then, she fell down the rabbit hole, constantly looking up various Knights, watching them in action as they saved people. They were superheroes. 

Right?

Would a superhero treat Davi badly? Would a superhero take Ken Yuan away the way they did? Would a hero act the way the Lance of Victory did?

The Knights were the good guys, right?

She didn’t have a lot to compare them to, but the core had shown her other versions of herself. Mordeheim and Rossum’s versions slaughtered other humans so easily. She doubted they were good. Gallenth’s version of her seemed like a hero, but she was also pumped full of so much mana that Olivia doubted they could even be called the same person anymore. 

Also, she was stuck in Phoenix Flight…

Whatever. It didn’t matter. Suno was a good Knight. The Knight who saved her was also a good one. Tori, despite the harm she caused to Davi, also saved millions of people, right? This was still her chance to do good. They say that if you want to change a system, you should do it on the inside. She didn’t know enough about whether the Knights were truly corrupt or not, but she decided that she wouldn’t regret her choices, and she’d live her life the best she could while in Phoenix Flight. 

She was an Arcane Knight now. She was going to be a superhero who would save everyone in front of her.

“Everyone, line up.” Father declared. “Get in formation.”

The arena had cleared out. Once Ken Yuan was taken away, anyone who no longer had a cloak on was asked to leave. Some people, enraged by the fact that they failed, attempted to pull some stunt but were quickly knocked out by the Knights.

Now that all the failed members were gone, the only ones remaining in the arena were those who had passed the final test—official Arcane Knights. Over three hundred people tried out for this year's test—some nobles, some commoners, and some not even from the kingdom. Only thirty passed.

Of that thirty, only seven were commoners. Finally, of those seven, only two members were from different lands. One was, Davi Hawker, while the other was a young girl from Gallenth. Twenty-three of the thirty recruits were all nobles. Ten of whom were Branch members. Every Branch member this year had also passed the exam.

Now, all thirty members stood shoulder to shoulder and stared ahead. The eight captains had come down from their thrones and stood before the new recruits. Next to them were their vice captains.

Father and the Lance of Victory, for Shining Sentinels. Crow and Mermaid, for Umbra Mortis. Dark Star and Stone Bull, for Mourning Stars. Grampa Green, though the man was in a movable hospital bed, which his vice captain Paragon pulled, for Oak Watchers. Dye, who had no vice captain yet, stood alone representing Hydra Storm. Gorgon and Briefcase, for Wandering Coin. Myth and Whisper for Pantheon. And finally, Laerton Eman, who, similarly to Dye, stood alone. 

All the recruits stood at attention as the Knight's eyes roamed over each of them. Father had his arms folded, and the paladin studied the people before him slowly. He took in every detail. A heavy frown appeared on his face when his eyes landed on Davi, but he didn’t say anything and moved on. All the captains waited for him to begin.

“I’ll go ahead and say it,” Father began. “Welcome to the Arcane Knights.” He gave a smile, and most of the people cheered loudly. Not the commoners or the branch nobles, but the regular nobles all looked excited and pumped up. When the excitement died down, Father’s smile faded. “It is a grand achievement that you made it this far, but do try to keep in mind one thing. From this point on, you are forbidden from failing.”

Mutters went through the small crowd, and several of the nobles all shared confused looks. Father’s face turned more stern. 

“Arcane Knights are perfect. We protect people. We save the day, slay the monster, put an end to the war, and close the dungeon. We. Are. Heroes. You must act like it.” The man announced, and his voice boomed loudly due to the intense strength of his mana. “Whoever you were before this moment no longer matters. You now live and die for the kingdom. Laws do not bind us, nor are we legally owned, but through our oath, through honor, and through duty, we gladly serve and give our lives to the foundation that Ruler Haru cultivated. As Knights, you must be perfect. You must stand and fight and show the people that you are worthy of their praise. I look at all thirty of you, and I see not a single soul worthy of being called a Knight yet, so get ready, because when we’re done with you, you will no longer be the person you were. You will be a true Knight.”

Crow stepped forward next, and the shadow mage puffed out a wave of smoke from the cigarette he had between his lips. “You all likely feel like big shots now that you’re Arcane Knights, but don’t get it twisted. Each of you are still babies. I could kill you all with a single wave of my hand. Of course, I’m not going to do that; it’d be a waste, but you all get the point. Going forward, you’re going to be put through the training required to become real Knights. You’ll follow your captain to your new guild base, where you’ll stay and train properly. They’ll have you go through various missions and other things, and if you survive for long enough, you’ll be an official Knight.”

Finally, Dark Star stepped forward. “Crow is right. Just because you passed the exam, don’t suddenly think you’re powerful or some sort of big shot. Let me in on a little secret. There are five kinds of Knights. At the very bottom are what we call Squires. This is what you guys are. Though you are within our ranks and will be going on missions, you’re viewed more or less as still in training. Above the Squire position are the actual Knights. Most of you likely have stats and traits that are ranked at grade A or S. Well, to be qualified to rank up to the starting Knight level, you have to serve as a Squire for the minimum of one year, go on at least ten different missions, and you need one stat or trait that is ranked at the grade of E1.”

Olivia’s eyes went wide. E1? She had heard that before and even seen it. Davi had a stat that was E1, didn’t he? Was that an actual thing? She assumed it was a bug. She was about to ask about it, but Ash beat her to it.

The wind mage frowned and raised his hand. “Excuse me. What’s an E1 grade?”

Laughter filled the air as several of the nobles and even some of the branch families shot Ash judgmental looks. Dark Star’s lips were formed into a line. “Right, commoners aren’t aware of it because it very rarely happens for them. We mainly discuss it in royal families. To put it simply, the king’s Circuit magic has a flaw.”

“A flaw?” Olivia asked, shocked.

“That’s right.” Dark Star nodded. “It can only grade things at the lowest point of E and the highest point of S. That said, statistics can vary greatly and may lean toward one side more than the other. They say that if a stat is grade E, it means it’s impossible to raise; however, that’s not true. For some, it can be impossible, because the grade is so far below E that it would take trillions of years of training to reach the left of D- but for others, their grade could be slightly below D- and they’ll be able to push out of that gap. Since the king’s magic can’t properly calculate all the grades, however, it caps out at E. This issue is true for S, though. S+ is not the final grade. When a mage reaches a point where it surpasses S+, the app experiences issues, and it’ll ‘soft’ reset. This is known as an E1 grade. The one represents the fact that the stat has looped. If S+ is the best humans can do, then an E1 grade means you’ve surpassed what normal people can reach. It’s still E1, though, because while you did reach a new realm of power, you realize you’re all the way at the bottom. Naturally, stats can keep climbing. D1-, D1, D1+, C1-, C1, C1+, and so on. The grade will keep going up all the way to S1+.”

Olivia felt like she had just been slapped across the face. This finally explained Davi. Both his Resistance and his Enchantment were listed as E1. He never seemed to be affected in dungeons, and now she knew why. This also explained why his armor spell and vault were so powerful. With an E1 Enchantment grade, he’d be able to code his spells way more naturally than anyone else. Yet, his Enchantments seemed weirdly weak in comparison. She’d need to see them more, but he should have been able to do a lot more, from the sounds of it. 

“As I said,” Dark Star kept speaking, a bit annoyed at the interruptions from the lower class. “Knights have at least one E1 stat. Their main stats are also usually at the S grade level. This varies, obviously, as some Knights completely focus on one area, while others are spread out. Above the Knights, you have Title Bearers. These Knights are special.” Dark Star smirked. “To be a Title Bearer, you have to serve as a Knight for at least five years. Title Bearers are given a personal name from the king, along with receiving their Knight gear, which is a powerful magic item made just for them that will have the mana of Haru imbued into it. Stone Bull, show them.”

Gray gave a slight bow, and he stepped forward. He rolled his sleeve up and revealed a metal bracelet around his wrist. “This is my Knight gear,” Gray stated. “All Knight gear is a magic item that is at least C1 in terms of grade. It’s hard to control, so only the best of the best get it.” He flexed and activated his mana. “It’s worth it, though, because it allows me to do this.” Gray flexed, and his mana surrounded his bracelet. 

There was a bright flash, and all the recruits felt a sudden surge of mana that made many of them stumble back. Gray now stood, decked out in thick rock armor. It clenched around his body, and a helmet shaped like a bull covered his head. Horns stabbed out, and a flowing cape of lava twisted down his back. Davi and Olivia both shuddered when they saw it. This was Gray’s armor.

“Knight gear comes in two forms,” Tori spoke up now, and she stepped forward, her floating lance following. “Either it is a weapon or it is armor. Due to how powerful they are, a person can only use one Knight gear at a time. It makes up for it, though, because not only does the Knight gear give you a massive boost in power, it allows you to access a second type of magic through the gear. Stone Bull here is an earth mage, but while his armor is activated, he gains the ability to also utilize lava magic. I myself have light magic, but my lance allows me to use psychic magic.”

Stone Bull pounded at his chest and grunted. “The second magic type is gained because of the powerful enchantment placed in the item. There are various magical enchantments that an item can have, but they’re rare, as it requires an enchanter with the Enchantment grade of A1 to properly make. If the enchantment is simple, like wands or staves, anyone can use them, but if the enchantment is something more complex, like its own magic type, it can only be used by a mage who has the same type. For example, a sword with the enchantment to cut could be used by anyone, since it’s just a stronger sword, but a sword with the enchantment of fire magic within it could only be wielded by another fire mage. Knight gear is the exception; this is because of the traces of Haru’s mana that are in it. While we have the gear activated, her mana enters us. Haru possessed True Magic, the same magic type as the elves, and as such, she could use every type of magic. With her mana, we can mimic a fraction of her power, allowing us to utilize Knight gear that has a second type of magic within it.”

The two stepped back, and Gray’s armor vanished in a flash. Olivia was stunned. She had seen things like that, Knights using multiple kinds of magic, but she didn’t know how in-depth it went. 

Davi, meanwhile, was frowning. Tori was one of the people he planned to eventually fight and defeat, as she had beaten him. She hadn’t even used her lance on him when they fought, so how much stronger was she compared to him? Could she beat the dragon? He doubted it. The gap was growing larger, and he’d need to take serious action if he wanted to keep up.

“All title Knights have Knight gear.” Dark Star began to speak once more. “Title Knights are also extremely powerful. At this point, all their main stats are at least grade E1, and they’re likely to have a stat that is A1 or higher. Above them are the vice captains. To be a vice captain, you have to be a titled Knight, and the captain of the guild you’re in has to pick you. Sometimes, title Knights from other guilds will be swapped around and be promoted to vice captains as well. A vice captain has broken through the barrier yet again and has a stat that is at least E2.”

“E2?” Bruno’s eyes went wide, and even a few nobles looked shocked. “It breaks through the limit again?”

“Of course.” Dark Star’s smirk grew even larger. “Now, the final type of Knight is, the captain. To be a captain, you either have to be a vice captain who gets promoted, or the king has to give you the position. Your average captain has several stats that are piercing the barrier and reaching E2. Also, it goes without saying, but the best of the best—the top three—are doing even better. I happen to have an E3 stat.” Dark Star laughed.

“Just one.” Father snorted. “Unlike me, who has two E3s and one B3.”

“What’s the highest rank?” Davi spoke up, and several of the captains frowned at him. Despite that, though, Crow offered an answer.

“Well, we really don’t know. Stats and other things are fairly new in terms of the way they’re graded. It's likely there are many mages from history who had powerful grades, but were unable to be graded at the time due to a lack of a proper system.” The shadow mage hummed. “That said, it is believed that if Haru were alive today, her lowest stats would be at least S5.”

That blew everyone’s mind. Father was, without a doubt, the strongest person in the kingdom. The only two who could match him were Grampa Green and the king himself, and yet even then, it was widely speculated that Father would win that match, due to the other two being rusty and past their prime. Besides Haru’s original Knights, Father was considered to be the strongest Arcane Knight that had ever lived, and yet, he only reached B3? Not even E4 or even E5, which Haru had likely surpassed. 

If Haru had kept living and hadn’t been betrayed by the Ebony Knight, would she have reached the barrier of E6? E7? S5 had been her lowest, so had she already reached it? What about S10? Was such a stat even possible? Would that being even be human, or would they be a god?

Who was Haru? How had such a being been born?

“Alright,” Father called out again. “That’s enough with the shocked looks. Remember, you’re all Knights. We serve this kingdom, we serve this king, and we serve these people. We are swords, we are shields, we are heroes. We’re the first and last line of defense. Spiraling towers where evil gods await. Dragons who fly through the heavens. Caves that only lead to Hell. Princesses who tempt heroes to settle down. A labyrinth you can never escape from. Vast riches, deep dungeons, raging wars, magical animals, and so many secrets to be found. You’re all Knights. It's time you defend your home.”

Crow flicked a finger out, and a powerful wave of mana launched forward. All the recruits gasped as it flowed over them. Davi glanced down at his wrist, where the metal bracelet they had been given was. Suddenly, it flashed, and it began to change. Black water surged out of it and surrounded their arm. When it faded away, the bracelet was gone, but in its place was a tattoo. It wrapped entirely around the wrist and was part of their flesh.

“The king’s Circuit magic has been stored within you,” Crow spoke up. “Now, you’ll be able to activate the status window even while in a dungeon. Those earlier devices were enchanted with his magic and use his core to turn on, but with them inside of you, over the next few days, your own core will naturally be able to activate this. Also, just so you know, that mark is hooked up to a powerful magic item. If we want to find you, we can. That is, unless you chop your hand off.”

Davi naturally got to work and flicked his hand up and down, causing his status screen to appear and vanish rapidly. 

“Go ahead and separate now,” Father said. “Get into groups with the others who have the same symbol as you. It’s time we moved out.”

Everyone scrambled to obey the powerful man and got into formation. When it was all said and done, there were eight groups. 

Shining Sentinels had Bruno Moore, Emma Marsian, Irene Lunar, and Alexander Jupitar.

Mourning Stars had Simon Saturen, Ruby Marsian, Blake Lunar, and Law Jupitar.

Umbra Mortis had Rowan Zyne, Cain Lunar, Nori Jupitar, and Rin Marsian.

Oak Watchers had Triston Dow, Oliver Tol, Kuro Dar, and Lupin Uscle.

Hydra Storm had Astrid Gold, Kevin Dyrt, Moa Zedon, and Lucy Case.

Wandering Coin had Nick Ale, Fate Williams, Brave Larison, and Kale Blue.

Pantheon had Ash Anderson, Ashley Dyrt, Sera Grow, and Max Power.

Lastly, that left Phoenix Flight with just two. Davi Hawker and Olivia Lot.

At last, all the guilds had their new members. Thirty new Squires were about to start their brand-new life. 

Chapter 85: Phoenix Flight

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...So, are you going to say anything?” Olivia asked awkwardly.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...I think she died?” Davi hummed.

The arena was finally empty save for the cleanup crew and three Knights who remained behind in the sandy field. Davi Hawker and Olivia Lot both awkwardly looked at one another, wondering what they should do, while their new captain, Laerton Eman, stood perfectly still, like a statue. The woman had a heavy frown on her face, and already, stress lines were forming. Her arms were folded so tightly, veins could be seen through the tearing of her clothing, and she didn’t blink or say a single word. She just stared at them.

All the other captains were gone. Each captain and vice captain took their members and left the stands, likely heading back to their guild base.

It was just Phoenix Flight that was left.

Davi shrugged and reached up to poke Laerton in the face, but the woman was fast and slapped him. “Ow,” Davi said flatly, as a red handprint suddenly appeared on his face. “Dick move.”

“Are you two fucking stupid?” Laerton Eman finally let out a heavy sigh. “Or maybe you’re both suicidal?” Olivia flinched at the accusation and looked away. “Why the hell are you both still wearing that symbol?”

Davi reached up and brushed the cloak. “We’re in your guild. Also, it’s shockingly comfortable. Can I get my symbol in blue instead of gold?”

“Could I get mine in red?” Olivia chuckled sheepishly.

Laerton didn’t look amused by their banter. “You two know what Phoenix Flight is, right? Don’t tell me you’re both idiotic and have no idea what you’re getting into.”

“Look,” Olivia let out a sigh and folded her arms. “I don’t like it either. I would have rather been in Pantheon, but I got placed into this guild.”

“So then leave,” Laerton growled. “Take the cloak off and come back next year and get put into a new guild.”

Olivia’s eye twitched, but she managed to calm herself down and snorted. “Be honest. Would that actually change anything?”

“What do you mean?” But it was clear; Laerton already knew where Olivia’s mind had gone.

Olivia touched the symbol of the bird on her cloak. “Once you’re in Phoenix Flight, does it matter if you leave? If Davi and I were to suddenly take these cloaks off and throw them away like those other two did, would we no longer be affected by the curse of bad luck? I somehow doubt that. After all, wouldn’t it be easy to fix if that were the case? You could just rotate members in and out between guilds and switch them out of Phoenix Flight when the curse got to be too much. There would be stories of people joining the guild and quitting, but those don’t exist, do they? Because it doesn’t matter. The moment this cloak appeared on Davi and me, our fates were already sealed. I’ll still be hit with a string of bad luck. Eventually, it’ll kill me too. So, if I’m going to die, I might as well stay in the guild. At least that way I’ll be able to be around people who are in the same boat as me. Also, I’d get to put my life to use and save people.”

Laerton stayed silent for a moment but eventually nodded. “That’s right. I don’t know how the curse works exactly; no one does, but the moment the king says you’re in Phoenix Flight and marks you with this symbol, you’re stuck in it. Even if you say you quit the guild, the curse still crawls toward you.”

“If that’s the case, then why not weaponize it?” Davi said casually.

“What?” Laerton made a face at his suggestion.

“Couldn’t the king just declare enemies a part of Phoenix Flight and let the curse hit them?”

Laerton actually chuckled at his remark. “That’s not a terrible idea if it worked, but it doesn’t. In order to be a Knight, even a squire, you either need to have the king’s mana within you or Haru’s mana and then be assigned a guild by the king. It takes a lot of time for the mana to join with your core properly. Those bracelets you had were created out of the king’s mana. The reason the tests are broken between two days is so that twenty-four hours can properly pass, and the mana will be stable enough inside of you so the spell can be activated to form the marks around your wrist. The king could attempt to brand someone as a member of Phoenix Flight, but it would take the same amount of time to do so. This method is sometimes used on prisoners who are given the chance to join Phoenix Flight instead of dying in prison. Still, it’s never been used on enemies of the country because if the king has them in his grasp for that long, it’s easier just to kill them and get it over with rather than brand them as part of the guild. Besides, the curse takes a while to activate and grow.”

Davi nodded, though he still didn’t look entirely convinced. “Does the curse even exist?”

“Of course it does.” Olivia gave Davi a wide-eyed look. “There are tons of videos of Phoenix Flight members losing!”

Davi shrugged again. “Sorry, but I just don’t really believe in curses all that much. I was excited when I heard all the members died because it could help me with something, but if it’s just bad luck, is such a thing real-” Davi suddenly made a choking sound as a bug flew into his open mouth! His eyes went wide, and he grabbed at his throat, gagging.

“Davi!” Olivia went to hit his back and help him out, but she stepped on a loose piece of the ground, which caused her to slip, and she smashed headfirst into Davi’s nose, breaking it and sending them both tumbling to the ground. “Ow!” Olivia cried, grabbing at her head.

Blood trickled down Davi’s nose, and he finally spat out the bug right as Olivia looked up, causing it to fly into her eye, making her yell even more.

“Ew, ew, ew!” Olivia cried and rubbed at her eyes.

“In Phoenix Flight, there is one rule we follow.” Laerton held a finger up. “Never, ever, say that the curse isn’t real. I am at least thirty percent sure it hears us, it laughs at us, and it bullies us. Respect the curse.”

“Okay.” Davi nodded. “I’ll assume it’s real. A little more scared now, not going to lie.”

“So, is it too late to quit?” Olivia chuckled. “That stuff I said earlier was wrong, right? Can we back out?”

“Welcome to your new lives.” Laer hummed. “Go ahead and bring your trait screen up.”

Olivia got an ominous feeling in her stomach but waved her finger. Davi did the same, and the two of them stared at their traits. “Shit.”

“Oh, cool.” Davi poked at his trait screen. “I got a new trait.”

“Not cool, Davi.” Olivia sighed.

‘Traits: Blood Core: Grade C+, Knife-Wielding: Grade C, Scythe-Wielding: Grade C, Poison Resistance: Grade A, Venom Resistance: Grade A, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D, Sprint: Grade D, Stamina: Grade D, Quick Regeneration (Physical): Grade B+, Determined: Grade A. Polymorph: Grade D. Cursed Life: Grade D-.’

A new trait had appeared on her trait list, all the way at the bottom. Cursed Life. That didn’t sound good. She wasn’t the only one who had it either.

‘Traits: Shadow Core: Grade A, Master Hoarder: Grade B, Sprint: Grade B, Stamina: Grade A, Sword-Wielding: Grade B+, Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword Style: Grade C+, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D, Way of Self Iron Martial Arts: Grade D, Cold Resistance: Grade A+, Heat Resistance: Grade A+, Danger Sense: Grade B+, Loved by Mana: Grade A, Fishing: Grade S+. Cursed Life: Grade D-.’

Davi noticed two things. The first, his Danger Sense, went up in rank. It had been just a B, but now it was a B+. The second thing he noticed, just like Olivia, was that he had the Cursed Life trait just like Olivia. He clicked on the trait, letting the box shift.

‘Cursed Life: The battle with Sleetdrazer has left its mark upon you. You bore the sin of his curse. The closer his gaze gets to you, the worse that curse will be.’

“Sleetdrazer?” Olivia frowned and stared at her screen, a puzzled expression on her face. “Is that a name I should know?”

Laer shook her head. “Some say he was a general. Others say he was a master of necromancy. The most widely believed theory is that he was a demon. Like us, monsters and magical beasts can all be given a rank. The same goes for dungeons. A dungeon is ranked based on the weakest monster that is in it, since those are the mana signatures that can be detected first, and it’s assumed that the boss is at least ten grades higher. For example, a D-grade dungeon would likely have a boss that is grade A. Sometimes it varies, but that’s usually how it works. Dungeon rank and Knight rank aren’t equal due to this. An A-grade dungeon and a Knight with grade A skills will likely die instantly. The first Phoenix Flight fought a dungeon that was ranked as S1.”

“So the weakest monster in there was S1?” Olivia felt sick to her stomach. “And the boss would be C2+?”

“It could have been much stronger.” Laer sighed. “It’s impossible to truly know how strong the boss is unless it leaves the dungeon. Sometimes they’re weaker than ten grades; other times they’ll be far greater. We can only go off the first layer of mana, which is always the weakest monster. Phoenix Flight fought this dungeon, and the story goes that they faced a great demon by the name of Sleetdrazer. This creature brought the guild to an end, but before it did, the captain left a mark across the monster's hide. Sleetdrazer was so enraged that he left a curse upon the entire Phoenix Flight guild so that they would crumble and fade away. He cursed their very life.”

Olivia gulped as she heard the stories. Demons were always something that spooked her, but thankfully, they weren’t around anymore. Demons were considered to be the worst created life forms and weren’t exactly normal monsters. This is because demons were actually made.

Initially, it was stated that the Almighty used their power to create everything. The first life that populated the world were beings made out of solid light. They were known as the Angels. They served the newly created world but eventually left it when the Almighty had to depart and rest. In their place, the Angels made their own creation—the dragons.

The dragons were mighty beings, each having the heat and wings that the angels wielded. They could fly through the skies, swim through the seas, and forge the mountains themselves into their own homes. Eventually, though, the dragons grew bored. They were all that was in the world. They were grand and powerful, but that was because there was nothing else for them to be above.

The dragons came together and used their power to create brand new life. Ones that they could rule. This life was known as the giants.

Just as how the dragons received gifts from their creators, the giants inherited the raw power and height that the dragons had. To ensure the giants couldn’t overthrow them, though, the dragons didn’t give them scales or wings, nor did the giants have tails or claws. The giants roamed the world, getting into fights and making their own kingdoms, and at last, the dragons had a race they could control and force to serve them.

The giants didn’t like being servants, though. It got in the way of their own infighting and wrath. The king of the giants decided that the only thing that could be done was to create a new race that could serve the dragons in their place. He gathered his energy and his strength, and he created the elves.

The elves weren't much stronger than the giants, as the giants did not want anything that could threaten them. Instead of raw power, the elves were granted a strong mind. They used this mind to serve the dragons and the giants faithfully, and it is said that their worship was so grand it even brought a few of the angels back. The angels were moved by the elves' existence and blessed them with a gift of their own, creating the first beings that could properly wield magic, something neither the dragons nor the giants could do.

With this new gift, the elves decided they needed to study, learn, and cultivate, so they created a brand new race to take their place alongside the dragons and giants—a race known as the humans. The weakest of all races, the humans lacked the power of the giants, the bodies of the dragons, the light of the angels, and the magic of the elves. They were truly at the very bottom of the food chain.

Then a miracle happened. Perhaps because the Almighty gazed at the world, or maybe it was pure luck, a human was born who could wield it all. The one and only, Haru. It is said she had flesh harder than the scales of a dragon, and no place in the world could halt her. It is said she had the strength of the giants and could rip them apart with her bare hands. It is said that she had the magic of the elves, able to cast all forms of spells just as they could. And, it is said she possessed the intent and the light that the first angels did. With her sheer power and skills, she passed her miracle on to the rest of the humans who were enslaved by all.

She gave humanity the gift of magic, and under her lead, they slaughtered the other races. The elves, the dragons, and the giants were all brought to an end. Even the angels were driven out of the world. Humanity stood at the top, but it didn’t last for long, for Haru was betrayed by one of her knights.

Stabbed from behind, a warrior in ebony armor ran her through. They say that when her blood spilled, this cursed Knight used the gift of magic that Haru gave him, and from those droplets of blood, the demons were born.

Creation was a line. The Almighty was perfect, and the angels were almost perfect. The dragons, created by the angels, were not, and the giants that the dragons made were full of rage and wrath. Even the elves, whom the giants created, were full of sin and gladly created a new race to take their own place. Humans sin. They can be evil and cruel to their own kind, and they kill one another, so of course, if each race is worse than the creator, then it should be no surprise that the demons were the evilest of all the races.

Born from betrayal, birthed with cruelty, they lived to torment and cause absolute despair. Unlike humans, who used magic, demons held the power of enchantments. Haru’s final act was to cast the demons made from her blood away, sending them to the abyss. Every now and then, though, just like a dragon, it is said that a demon will appear and cause absolute destruction. A single drop of demon blood will cause a curse to be placed, permanently altering the world.

“So, Sleetdrazer is a demon, and he cursed the Phoenix Flight guild?” Davi hummed.

“That’s what I believe.” Laerton nodded. “The Cursed Life trait is one that grows just as it said. Here, let me show you.” Laer flicked her finger out and brought up her own traits. Olivia nearly did a spit take when she saw them. She knew captains had insane traits, but Laer’s were just nutty.

‘Traits: Thread Core: Grade A2+. Foreigner: Grade A+. Sprint: Grade S2. Stamina: Grade S2+. Venom Resistance: Grade B2+. Poison Resistance: Grade B2+. Fire Resistance: Grade B2+. Cold Resistance: Grade B2+. Lightning Resistance: Grade B2+. Holy Immunity: Grade B2+. Slashing Resistance: Grade B2+. Bludgeoning Resistance: Grade B2+. Piercing Resistance: Grade B2+. Curse Resistance: Grade D-. Hyper Regeneration (Physical): Grade S2+. Hyper Regeneration (Mana): Grade C2-. Hand-to-Hand: Grade S1-. Boxing Style: Grade A+. Flow Wind Karate Style: Grade S. One Finger Death Strike Style: Grade E1. Knife-Wielding: Grade E1. Glass Assassin Style: Grade E1. Bow-Wielding: Grade E1. Archer Of The Stars Style: Grade E1. Quarterstaff-Wielding: Grade E1. Organ Rupture Style: Grade E1. Axe-Wielding: Grade E1. Mountain Splitter Style: Grade E1. Sword-Wielding: Grade S2+. Throwing Sword Style: Grade S2+. Demon Hunting Blade Style: Grade S2+. Sword Dancing Style: Grade S2+. Three Dimension Slashes Style: Grade S2+. Demonic Mountain Cutter Style: Grade S2+. Hidden Weapon-Wielding: Grade S2. One Thousand Sudden Strikes Style: Grade S2. Hidden Intent: Grade S1+. Wall-Walking: Grade S2. Water-Walking: Grade S2. Sky-Walking: Grade S1+. Mana Sense: Grade S1+. Mana Step: Grade S1+. Mana Skin: Grade S1+. Mana Muscles: Grade S1+. Mana Bones: Grade S1+. Mana Blood: Grade S1+. Mana Strike: Grade S1+. Instinct: Grade S2+. Sword Silk: Grade S1+. Sword Soul: Grade S2+. Cursed Life: Grade A1.’

Laerton’s traits were insane. Her list was full of so many! Most of them were exceptionally high as well! Dark Star wasn’t joking; captains really were powerful. Laer only had a few that weren’t above E2. She also had a remarkably high amount of resistance-based stats and a diverse range of styles. These were just her traits? How big were her actual stats, and what about her spells? It was said that all captains could use spells at the level of Vow, while titled Knights and below could all use Ril.

“These are some of my grades,” Laer said casually. “Notice Cursed Life?”

“It’s A1.” Davi hummed.

“That’s right.” Laer sighed and closed her trait window. “Grades E to S+ are created with humans in mind. S+ is the best a human can get to. E1 onwards means you’re beyond the level of humans. You’ve stepped into the next realm. It’s why Knights are viewed as the best of the best. They all possess stats and traits that surpass those of normal humans, making them superhumans. They’re able to do this thanks to going into dungeons.”

“Dungeons make them stronger?” Olivia asked, puzzled.

“They do.” Laer hummed. “The air is toxic, and it weighs on us. If we stay in it for too long, we become a Mutant, which is why normal people aren’t allowed. Dungeons have a purpose, though. I’ve reviewed both your statistics. Hawker, you have some that are E1. That’s impressive since you’re still a squire. The reason they got to that point is likely because you kept going into dungeons.”

Davi grunted and rubbed his neck. “You know about that?”

“You’re in my guild; I read your file,” Laer replied, simply. “Dungeons work sort of like weights. They force our cores to work overtime to help us survive. The more danger a Knight is in, the stronger their stats and traits will grow. Traditional training helps, but almost dying repeatedly in live combat is the most effective way to improve. You’re even bound to gain new traits and skills if you do it long enough and can survive. The stronger you are, the more bad luck you might be able to survive. Of course, there's a point where being strong won't help you. Eventually, you'll just have a heart attack or something."

Cores were, in a way, alive. The more danger their host was in, the more they would do their best to keep the user alive. Knights were superhuman compared to normal mages because of how much fighting they were constantly being put through. Battle, after battle, it would cause their cores to have no choice but to evolve and grow, leading to higher levels of power.

This was also the reason a lot of self-enchantments worked the way they did. A mage had to put a restriction on a spell or themselves, forming a vow with their core. By giving something up or placing a restriction, they would be in more danger due to them technically weakening themselves, and by doing this, the core would swell and try to make up for this weakness.

Laerton kept speaking. "I bring this all up to also mention the Cursed Life trait. As you can see, mine is of a higher grade than yours. The trait will increase as you age. Currently, it’ll be a mild inconvenience. You’ll have bad luck more than a normal human, but it’ll still be things a normal human can expect to have happen to them. When it reaches E1, it surpasses the level that humans can handle. The world itself will be out to get you, and things will constantly go wrong for you. It’s enough to drive you mad. It’ll be as if reality itself twists to mock you. Most die at this point. If you’re strong, though, you can make it to E2. Sadly, there’s no level beyond that, as it’s where everyone dies. Your luck becomes so bad that you’ll die of either a random heart attack, a brain aneurysm, a stroke, or anything else. Your body will just shut down, and you will die. Typically, it can take about ten years for it to progress to E1, and then another ten to reach E2. Sometimes it’s slower, and other times it’s faster. Mine is pretty fast, for example.”

Quietly, Olivia wondered about the idea of the curse hitting her with a heart attack. Could she keep her heart beating with her blood magic? Would her healing magic help her to keep living after the curse reached E2?

Laer continued. "There are, of course, exceptions. One of our members, Vlad, has survived for thirty years. The rumors all claim it can't be done and they tell horror stories about us saying we all die constantly. The truth is, we will all die one day, likely sooner than others, but just being a member of this guild isn't an automatic death sentence if you're strong. Anyway, knowing all of this, do you two really want to stay in the guild?"

“We already told you we were,” Olivia said sternly. “The curse won’t go away, right?”

Laer shook her head. “It won’t, but think about it. You've basically got a ticking clock on your life, now. Wouldn’t you rather spend that time with your family?”

Olivia and Davi both locked eyes. Davi spoke up. “I don’t really have anywhere else to be. I’ll stay. Besides, I’m pretty hard to kill.”

“I’m living the life I want.” Olivia turned back to Laer. “I’m staying also.”

Laer sighed. “Fine. Come on. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though.”

Olivia smiled, and she gripped Davi’s arm as they followed Laerton outside. They finally left the arena and stepped out into Rose City. They barely made it to the bottom of the stone steps and stood on the street when something went wrong.

A loud horn blared, and a truck came crashing toward them. Olivia almost screamed, but before she could, Davi focused his mana around his arm and took a step forward, throwing his palm out. The truck's front exploded, but with one arm, he held it back, keeping the large vehicle at bay. It shut off, and several cars all came to a screeching halt as they watched the crash.

A man stumbled out of it, shaking, his face pale. “I—I’m so sorry! I was driving for the past three days without sleep, trying to make this order, and I dozed off—wait a second.” The man suddenly stopped, and he looked back at Davi. His eyes narrowed when he saw the cape Davi was wearing. “Haru, damn it! I should have known! You’re the reason I crashed! You bastards! What are your kind doing in our city? My truck is totaled now because of you! Your guild better pay for the damages-”

There was a flash, and suddenly Laer stood behind the man and casually sheathed her sword. Without warning, lines appeared all over the man’s clothes, and they were sliced apart, leaving him totally naked. “Get out of here before I cut your willy off,” Laer grumbled. The man screamed and took off. Laer then glared at the other cars. “That goes for the rest of you.” People shuddered, some said mean words, and some snapped pictures of her, but they eventually all left. “Get used to that.” Laer sighed. “It happens a lot.”

The woman looked a little cool, the way she clutched her sword, and the subtle mana that clung around her. Sadly, the image was ruined because, before the truck even crashed into them, a bird pooped on Laerton, and her hair was covered in it.

That also happened a lot.

Davi was the only one who noticed this, though, because Olivia was choking on another bug that had flown into her mouth when she went to scream earlier. Unlike Davi, she wasn’t able to spit it up and accidentally swallowed it.

“Ew!” Olivia cried. “I ate a bug.”

Davi snorted and turned to Olivia. “Don’t worry. It’s protein-” Just then, a bird, which had been blinded by the glare of Laerton’s sword when she swung it a few moments ago, came swooping down, still dizzy, and flew right into Davi’s still-broken nose. “Ow! Son of a bitch! What the fuck?”

“How are you liking your new life?”

Davi covered his nose, more red streaming down. “This sucks.”

“Yeah.” Olivia sighed. “I knew it was gonna be bad, but… Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now, right?”

“Sure, you can,” Laer smirked. “All you have to do is get stronger. So strong things like this won’t happen to you.” Her smirk faded when another bird pooped on her as it flew over her. “For fuck’s sake, Pock!” Laer screamed as loud as she could.

Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Who’s Pock?”

Just then, the zipper of her jacket came undone, and suddenly a hand stabbed out of her clothes. She screamed, and even Davi’s eyes went wide as a second body crawled out of her jacket, bigger than even she was. The body dropped to the ground headfirst and rested on the ground.

He was a lanky and pale man who had dozens of zippers all attached to his flesh, even on his eyes and mouth, and he was wearing burnt clothes and had torn flesh. Despite being on his back, he had his hands on his hips and grinned.

“What the fuck is going on?” Davi demanded. “I’m getting really pissed.”

“Hi! I’m Pock! I’m the vice captain of the Phoenix Flight guild!”

“Why were you in my jacket?” Olivia screamed and kicked the man as hard as she could.