Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘Kardy, sit.’ In contrast, Soarame was calm. ‘It’s not worth arguing with someone beaten by a one-finger spell.’ With that, Soarame’s crew started snickering too.

  ‘Oh I’m sorry, I forgot the one on the butt!’ Casavin gritted and squeezed out a fake smile. ‘And I thought the mad bear was gonna make friends just like Saja did last time? Why is he behaving like a duckbear now?’

  ‘Casavin, the duckbear is me.’ Kriagon tried to settle this confrontation. ‘So, if you don’t mind, we were still having dinner.’

  ‘Who the heck are you?’ Casavin stared at Kriagon. ‘You can’t even catch a ball, but you still want your doggy treat?’

  ‘You dare to say that one more time?’ This time, the entire crew burst into anger. They all stood up at once, approaching Casavin.

  ‘What?’ Casavin stood straight, making himself a bit taller than Soarame so that he could look down on him. But unfortunately, his vision was blocked by the mad bear’s chest so he had to look up eventually. Damn it, this bulky no brainer!

  ‘You can’t even make two fingers, but you still bark around everywhere with no leash.’ Soarame’s voice sounded as he walked by. ‘Is it because this is the only pet-friendly restaurant, so that you have to come here?’

  Seeing that the leader had arrived, the mad bear fell back to his side, looking like a loyal follower. This reminded the rest of the crew; they all encircled Soarame, staring at Casavin’s crew, in a stalemate.

  ‘Sweet.’ Casavin would normally have sworn in retaliation, especially since he had levelled up to Grade 6 a while back, and there was hardly anyone that he had to watch out for. But this time, his momentum was halted by the Resurgers’ united mind. Soarame’s best friends were all there, so they had advantage in numbers; no need to mention that none of the Resurgers was easy to deal with, especially since the captain was actually a Grade 6 too. Casavin knew he didn’t have a chance today, so he stared Soarame in the eye. ‘The championship is coming. I guess we’ll have fun there. Oh, but make sure you make it to the quarter final first!’

  ‘Same. Don’t disappoint us there.’ Soarame sneered back. ‘Oh, and don’t forget to put on the muzzle next time before you see us!’

  Casavin’s eyes turned red upon hearing this. He almost burst with rage but, after pausing a while, he chose to walk out of the door straight ahead.

  ‘Wow, Soar, that was really hard.’ Kardiac mocked Casavin’s back. ‘I can’t believe he just took it like that!’

  ‘You’re the man, dude!’ Vivarin punched Soarame’s shoulder. ‘That’s Casavin! But you made him tuck his tail between his legs!’

  ‘He needs to get used to it.’ Soarame turned around and smiled at his friends. ‘Good job, guys. We are the Resurgers, and we are afraid of no one because we resurge!’

  ‘To the Resurgers!’ Jemario watched Soarame with great adoration; she felt her heart going out to him. This brave young man, once a negligible Water Boy, had become a formidable leader of one of the best teams in the institute. Even the wildest troublemaker on this campus had to give way to him.

  All Soarame’s old friends were praising him inside for the same thing, especially Dileys, as she could feel this even more than everyone else. After all, Dileys had been the first one to meet Soarame, when he was a complete fresher. Back then the boy had even stammered when he first talked to her, but since then she had witnessed his gradual but marvellous growth and maturation. On the other hand, Kriagon was the most emotional one at the moment — what Soarame did was for him! Kriagon couldn’t help recalling the old days when he’d tried to mess with this boy, but thank god he’d decided to switch sides.

  ‘Soar, when are you selling your next painting?’ Alice asked, as the dinner continued.

  ‘One painting per day, from now on.’ Soarame was in a really good mood — kicking Casavin and getting paid for practising mind-painting, what a promising future.

  ‘I suggest that you don’t do it that way.’ Ericson had been quietly watching everything until now. ‘Remember why Dafinol is famous and his work worth so much?’

  ‘You’re right!’ Soarame’s eyes brightened at once. ‘I should limit the amount. Thanks, man!’

  ‘Exactly. Plus, you should build your reputation and try the auction.’ Ericson suggested. ‘An auction can sometimes increase the value by loads, I’ve heard.’

  ‘That’s right!’ Dileys clapped her hands. ‘Soar, you should see if you can sell them at the Cylone Auction Hall. If you make it once, people will start to know your name and your future work will sell even higher!’

  ‘That’s a great idea!’ Soarame was excited to hear this. ‘But I can’t leave the campus yet. Does the owner have to be at the auction to sell his work?’

  ‘No. You can assign someone to represent you for the auction.’ Ericson said. He had heard about Mr Principal’s restrictions on Soarame. ‘I can help if Dafinol doesn’t have time.’

  ‘That’s great!’ Soarame was happy to hear that. ‘Dafinol is busy, so please do — are you familiar with the auction hall?’

  ‘Not particularly, but it’s easy.’ Ericson smiled with confidence. ‘I’m not good at games but I’m good at many other things, and you’ll see!’

  After splitting up with his friends, Soarame arrived at the secret corner again for his private Water practice. Sending his mind power into the space-ring, the boy visualized the broadsword once again —

  With the same whirr, in Soarame’s mind vision, the broadsword expanded in size drastically, and Soarame found himself falling towards the boundless land again. Being prepared, this time Soarame wasn’t scared; instead he focused on observing the details during the expansion of the sword. The conclusion he got made him marvel and thrill — Soarame was convinced that the sword didn’t really become bigger in size. What happened instead was that Soarame was visualizing a world where he, himself — actually, his mind power, which was shaped like the boy himself — was shrunk to the same size as Magic Elements.

  ‘Dear god… Dear Godmade!’ Looking around this mind-visual world, the details of which he hadn’t had time to check out last time, Soarame’s mouth was wide open. Moving his sight back to the countless triangle-shaped “bricks” on the land, Soarame still couldn’t get over the fact that they were actual Water Elements. Just then, the cold voice sounded again —

  ‘What are Magic Elements?’

  Hello to you, too. Soarame made a grimace, and quickly organized his words. ‘They are the source and resource of magic. Without them, magic wouldn’t exist in the first place.’

  ‘Without them, magic wouldn’t exist?’ the voice asked.

  ‘I believe so.’ Soarame was pretty complacent about his answer, because he was actually reciting Scankeen’s original words.

  ‘Or the whole world wouldn’t exist?’ the voice asked again.

  ‘Pardon?’ Soarame was puzzled. ‘The whole world?’

  Pausing a bit, the voice changed the question. ‘What is the world made of?’

  ‘I… don’t know?’ Facing the bewildering question, Soarame found himself clueless. ‘It’s made of many things?’

  ‘Think!’ The voice offered a hint. ‘What is this sword made of?’

  ‘Water Elements.’ Soarame answered this one at once, but he still didn’t have a clue.

  ‘Is this sword part of the world?’ The voice was guiding the boy step by step.

  ‘Yes, of course.’ Soarame’s eyes suddenly lit up. ‘Hold on… You mean the whole world is made of Magic Elements, just like this Godmade?’ He suddenly realized that he had never really appreciated the special vision that he had — it had been offering a vivid truth about the world, right in front of him, all his life!

  ‘It’s a little more complicated than that. But, basically, yes,’ the voice answered. ‘The world was made from Magic Elements, in both their active and inactive form.’

  ‘Active? Inactive?’ Soarame was completely confused.

  ‘It’s hard for you to understand it righ
t now, but it is what it is. In brief, Earth Elements formed the ground so that people can stand on it; Wind Elements formed the air so that people can breathe; Light Elements made the world bright so that people can see.’ The cold voice wasn’t too loud, but it sounded like thunder in Soarame’s mind because of what it said. ‘Fire, Water, Darkness, Lightning; they all play their roles in building the world together. Without them, we wouldn’t be talking here in the first place.’

  Soarame was silenced, as dull as a goose. He had never really thought about this, but thanks to the voice, it all made sense now. Giving it a quick thought, Soarame himself had been summoning Water Elements to form drinkable water all the time — he always treated that as no more than a magic spell — but thinking about it now, the water he summoned was also part of the world!

  ‘So I actually created a part of the world?’ Soarame looked at his hands and muttered.

  ‘No. It’s not creation, but transformation.’ The voice sounded. ‘The Magic Elements were already there, so you didn’t create anything, but you did gather them and changed their appearance.’

  ‘Err…’ Soarame scratched his head.

  ‘Give it some time, and you will understand it finally. For now, just focus on your Water practice.’ The voice seemed to understand the boy’s confusion. ‘From now on, you will have some control of your vision here. Try to observe the Water Elements well, and see what you can learn.’

  ‘I can?’ Soarame was overjoyed to hear this. Sending an instruction in his mind, Soarame found the land shrink as he wanted, until it became a broadsword again; sending another, he made the sword expand once more. This excited Soarame so much that he started to do it back and forth and enjoyed the play-around — it definitely felt much better to drive his own journey than to simply be taken.

  ‘Wait… What is this?’ During the play, Soarame found that as he “zoomed” in and out, there seemed to be some pattern formed by the “bricks”. The pattern looked so complicated and obscure that, just by staring at it, Soarame felt a pulse of dizziness.

  ‘Nice catch. It’s a profound pattern on how Water Elements assemble and function.’ The voice sounded pleased this time. ‘This is the very thing that you are supposed to learn from here. Learn from it as much as you can, so that your Water magic can improve.’

  ‘This pattern can help improve my Water magic?’ Soarame asked in amazement. ‘Aren’t we supposed to learn new spells to improve it?’

  ‘What are spells?’ Once again, the voice asked profound questions that Soarame had no clue how to answer. Fortunately, this time the voice seemed not to expect anything from Soarame, but continued right away. ‘A spell summons Magic Elements to form magic — for example, an icearrow. Most of the time it utilizes an incantation and hexagram to help. But if you know how to form it well enough, you don’t need that help — that’s why there’s a thing called insta-cast.’

  Soarame nodded subconsciously as the voice went on and, in a quickening breath, said, ‘So the pattern can help to form Water spells like icearrows, because the sword itself is actually kind of a big icearrow?’

  ‘It’s a Water Godmade, not a big icearrow.’ The voice seemed not to understand Soarame’s analogy. ‘And the pattern helps with any Water spell, not just icearrows.’

  ‘Okay, I got it.’ Soarame was amused. This time he was really wondering about the true face of the voice. ‘May I ask who you are, sir?’

  ‘Master only asked me to answer your questions on magic.’ The voice said. ‘My mission is to guide you to the pattern, which is done now. Good bye.’

  ‘Wait, what?’ Soarame was stunned to hear this. He hurriedly shouted out, but it didn’t seem to help — the voice was gone — probably forever this time.

  ‘It can’t be true…’ After trying several times, Soarame had to accept the fact with a sad face. He then switched his mind to focus on the cryptic and obscure pattern again, and soon he realized that the pattern was not just on the surface of the “land”, but also underneath — in other words, inside the body of the Godmade. Therefore, although he could control his vision in this new world now, he couldn’t see through the surface and realize the true face of the pattern. The only way to do that was to infiltrate it using his mind power, so the boy gave it a try —

  ‘Ouch!’ Soarame screeched in the next blink. He had to instantly cut off his mind power stream, because the Godmade tried to “eat” all of it and drain his mind ocean via the connection — just as it had taken away half of his mind ocean last time.

  ‘Holy!’ Soarame shivered with cold sweat. Thanks to his precaution he didn’t lose much this time, so he pulled himself together and recalled the three-dimensional look of the Water Element alignment pattern that he had merely got a glance at — it was a beautiful grid-like pattern that Soarame had never seen anywhere before. Soarame could clearly sense the unique gorgeousness and spectacular nature of the pattern, but for some reason, he just could not manage to describe it in words.

  Surprisingly, the pattern suddenly became much vaguer in his memory, and then completely faded out in a second, so that Soarame could no longer recall what it looked like, even before he was aware of its disappearance. This was a very odd thing because a wizard can usually memorize all kinds of things clearly, as long as he really wants to, thanks to his exceedingly strong mind power compared with ordinary people. Yet this cryptic pattern just faded from Soarame’s memory regardless, so Soarame had to do the infiltration one more time and cut off the mind power stream as soon as it got “eaten” again.

  Obtaining the unique pattern once more, Soarame made extra efforts to memorize it. However, it still faded in a couple of seconds, no matter how hard he tried to keep it. This oddness stimulated the boy’s stubbornness; Soarame started to make the same efforts again and again. However, although he completely exhausted himself, he still didn’t make much progress.

  What the heck is going on here? Although so reluctant, Soarame had no other choice than to give up, for now at least. And whose is that voice anyway? He referred to Ecrif as ‘master’? So he’s a… magimal?

  ‘But how can a magimal live in a Godmade?’ Soarame muttered to himself, totally confused. Ruffling his hair back and forth, Soarame had to curb his strong curiosity and withdraw his mind power from the space-ring. The boy knew that his priority for now was to improve his Water magic — once he became an Expert, Ecrif would show up again, and perhaps offer all the answers.

  Therefore, starting that day, Soarame got busy with the mysterious pattern inside the Godmade. Every day he carried out his unique learning loop on the Godmade dozens of times — infiltration, observation, disconnection, memorization, and comprehension. The hard work started to pay off gradually, and Soarame found himself seemingly catch something subtle and indescribable about the pattern bit by bit; smiles subconsciously climbed up the corner of his lips from time to time.

  One day, Soarame was waken up from the learning loop by Snower’s voice in his mind. {Soar, Soar!}

  {What?} Soarame was not very happy. He had told Snower not to interrupt him. {It’d better be important.}

  {Meow. I don’t know, but they woke me up,} Snower said. {There’s a package for you.}

  {Package?} Soarame was puzzled but soon decided to go back, because it’s likely to be from Filton — the old man had not sent his third letter, and Soarame had been waiting. It seemed that Filton had been enjoying his adventure around the world — hopefully with cash in his pocket. So Soarame arrived at his dorm soon, and all his friends were hanging out there, as usual.

  ‘Where were you all this time, Soar?’ Catheray asked as soon as Soarame came in. ‘If not for the package, would you ever have come back this early?’

  ‘You’d better not be hanging out there with some other girl.’ Vivarin looked Soarame up and down. ‘Or you know what I would do to you.’

  ‘Don’t.’ Jemario elbowed her brash friend, then handed over a wooden box to Soarame. ‘Can we watch you open it?’

  �
�Of course.’ Soarame stepped away from Vivarin and opened the box. ‘A crystal ball? Really?’

  A crystal ball delivery usually meant that a wizard had sent a message with recorded scenes in it. Soarame hurriedly triggered the crystal ball, and a hologram was cast into the air. The friends looked at the hologram and puzzled about it for a second, wondering what exactly that was. But the next second —

  ‘AHHH!!!!!’

  ‘WHAT THE HELL?!’

  Everyone suddenly jumped up from the couch and screamed in fear — the hologram turned out to be a broken arm, with blood all over it!

  The screaming went on non-stop for a few seconds, until a deep and grave voice sounded from the crystal ball. The voice hadn’t been there at the very beginning, as if the speaker was intentionally providing some time for the fear to rise and spread —

  ‘Soarame, the next one will be you!’

  The voice sounded like a curse, full of hatred. The friends shivered and looked at Soarame, whose face was also pale because of the abrupt and creepy scenario.

  ‘Ping!’

  The next second, the crystal ball suddenly exploded. This relit the fear; everyone screamed while dodging the debris. Fortunately, when they checked each other out after a few seconds no one had been hurt. However —

  ‘Poison gas!’ Soarame suddenly yelled. ‘Hold your breath and get out of here!’

  ‘Wait, the little ones are upstairs playing!’ Kardiac had arrived at the door, but he suddenly stopped.

  ‘I’ll get them! I’ll fly out from the window!’ Soarame pushed Kardiac out and rushed upstairs for the young magimals.

  The friends dashed out of the dorm, yelling and sobbing. Fortunately, everyone was safe out there, and Soarame sent a message to Gazbell after landing with the terrified little ones.

  ‘Soar, what happened?’ Soon enough, Gazbell showed up from the sky and landed in front of the friends. Since the MagiMax incident, he had given Soarame different kinds of special treatment. One of them was to establish a chat channel between his Libral Emblem and Soarame’s, so that the boy could reach him in no time. Hearing Soarame’s statement, Gazbell rushed into the dorm for a thorough check, and he did find some poison gas remaining.