by Aaron Oster
“Warn me next time,” he yelled, feeling his entire arm go numb with the cold.
“You’re welcome,” Sarah said with an eye roll. “To answer your earlier question, it’s actually quite simple. Just place your hand on the core and the energy will flow into you.”
“How much do you think is in there?” Morgan asked, rubbing his hands together to get some feeling back into them.
“The largest I’ve ever seen was only about a tenth the size of this one and it had just over two hundred.”
“So, what you’re telling me, is that this core likely has over two thousand points worth of energy?”
She shrugged, non-committedly. “That would depend on the beast’s rank.”
She placed her hand on the core and motioned him to do so as well. Morgan complied and did the same.
It felt warm and seemed to pulse under his hand, as if it had a life of its own.
“Now close your eyes and do as I say,” Sarah said, closing her own eyes.
“Concentrate on your status, but instead of trying to see your stats, try and see the core.”
Morgan concentrated on bringing up his status, feeling the two energies combine within his body. Then, as the purple mix of both mana and chi started moving toward his eyes, he concentrated on seeing the core instead of his status.
Morgan blinked as he opened his eyes. A purple status floated in front of him, but instead of seeing his usual stats, he saw the core displayed instead.
Name: Dire-flame bear core
Rank - 8
Total available energy - 3,254/3,254
This core was taken from a dire-flame bear on the cusp of evolution, as such, the amount of energy in the core at the time of its death was greatly increased.
Morgan felt his jaw drop as he read through the description.
The bear had been a rank 8? No wonder it had been so hard to kill.
He looked past his screen to see Sarah staring at what he assumed was a similar screen, with her mouth hanging open.
She finally looked over at him and a wide smile spread across her face.
“I’m guessing you saw how much was available?”
Morgan nodded.
With that much, he could rank both his abilities at once.
He was snapped out of his contemplation as Sarah cleared her throat.
“Since we both killed the bear, I believe we should each get half.”
Morgan inwardly cringed at the lost opportunity, but begrudgingly nodded.
After all, if Sarah wasn’t there, he likely wouldn’t have been able to take it down.
Turning his attention back to the core’s stats, he watched as the amount of available energy dropped to 1,627.
It was still a massive amount of energy, but he wished he could have had all of it.
Concentrating on the core, he willed the remaining energy into his body as Sarah had told him. A message popped up in front of him.
Would you like to absorb 1,627 energy from the dire-flame bear core?
Yes/No
Morgan, surprised to see this message, mentally selected yes.
Another message appeared.
You have 1,627 available energy, where would you like to assign it?
Super - 466/1,300
Mage - 1,042/1,300
So he actually had a choice where the energy went? He could see the appeal of hunting these beasts for energy even more now.
He stopped for a moment, thinking.
Could he assign energy to each?
Excited by this new idea, he focused on assigning 200 energy to his mage ability.
He felt the tingling sensation of ranking up and felt the boost in power as his attributes increased. He quickly checked the available energy once more, and was relieved to see that 1,427 remained.
He quickly assigned the remaining energy toward his super ability and felt himself rank up once more. He heard a sound like cracking glass and closing the status, he could see that the core had shattered into thousands of tiny fragments.
“What happened to the core?” he asked, surprised that it had shattered.
“When all the available energy in a core is used up, it breaks,” Sarah said with a shrug. “Not really sure why, though.”
“Did you rank up?” he asked her, getting slowly to his feet and testing his injured leg. He winced as he did so, feeling a sharp pain from his ankle.
It was definitely sprained.
Sarah sighed sadly and shook her head. “Like I said before; it becomes significantly harder to rank up as you go. How about you?”
She got to her feet as well, dusting off her pants, checking for tears.
“Yup, ranked up in both of my abilities,” he said with a grin.
“So you’re what now; rank 4 in both?” she said, incredulously.
Morgan nodded, feeling his good mood dissipate slightly. “I only wish I could rank up faster. This is taking forever.”
“You’ve moved up a total of 8 ranks in a few weeks and you’re complaining about it? It took me three years to get where I am today! Years, Morgan!”
Morgan had the good grace to look sheepish at that. He held his hands up in surrender as she stalked over to him. “Alright, alright! I’m sorry!”
“You should be!”
She prodded him in the chest with one of her fingers, her bright green eyes flashing in the sunlight.
She glared up at him for so long that he began to fear another dousing of icy cold water, when Sarah snorted out a laugh.
Morgan blinked in surprise as she backed away from him, her head thrown back as peals of laughter echoed out.
“You should have seen your face!” she said, doubling over as Morgan began to realize that he’d been duped somehow.
“That wasn’t very funny,” he mumbled, but she ignored him; instead, walking over to pick up their discarded packs as she continued laughing.
He tried to walk, but winced as his leg flared up in pain once more. So instead of walking, he used fly and floated over to her. He folded his arms, glaring at her as she finally seemed to calm down.
“What?” she asked, the smile still on her face. “You deserved much more than that for almost getting us killed.”
Morgan raised an eyebrow at her. “Last I checked, it was the bear trying to kill us; not me.”
She walked over and patted him on the cheek, as though comforting an especially dense dog.
“I’m not the one who could literally have flown us away when the bear attacked.”
Morgan stared at her retreating back, feeling like he’d just been punched in the stomach.
12
Despite what she’d said, Sarah didn’t actually seem upset with him. They sat together, back in the shade of the trees, eating lunch and talking as they always did.
He had fashioned himself a splint from two branches and bound them together with strips of the pants he’d ruined while fighting. There was one thing still bothering him about what he’d seen on the core’s stat screen, so he decided to ask Sarah.
“What did it mean, that the bear was on the cusp of evolution?”
Sarah leaned back against a tree, her eyes drooping sleepily.
They had been up all night and had only gotten a few hour’s sleep before the bear attack. Now that the adrenaline of the fight had worn off, she was likely ready to drop.
“All beasts will evolve as they grow. Every time they reach a certain rank, they gather up a massive amount of energy and evolve into something new.”
“So what you’re telling me is that somewhere out there, there is a max ranked beast with a core just like this one?”
Sarah yawned once more, her eyes beginning to drift shut. “What you’re talking about are called pinnacle beasts. They are very rare, but every once in a while, one will show up. When they do, a massive hunt is called; usually sponsored by the kingdom. Aside from the threat that such beasts pose, their cores have so much energy that they can push someone from rank 0 to rank 30 al
l at once. To someone who is already at the point where ranking up is measured in decades, finding a beast like that would be priceless.”
Morgan’s mind was already racing with possibilities.
If he could somehow find one of these beasts and kill it, he would be able to avoid years of effort. And once he was strong enough, he wouldn’t have to be afraid of people like Simon. He would no longer need to run.
He looked up as he heard a loud snore and saw Sarah sprawled out on her back, with her mouth wide open; sound asleep. He debated going over and waking her up, but decided it was best to let her be.
They would be traveling in just a few hours and he should likely get some sleep himself. He wanted to take a peek at his status first, however.
Concentrating for a moment, the purple screen flickered into his vision.
Name: Morgan
Super: Rank - 4
Energy to next rank - 593/2,300
Mage: Rank - 4
Energy to next rank - 42/2,300
Super ability - Gravity
Mage ability - Air
CP - 170/170 (Regen - 1.8 per second)
MP - 170/170 (Regen - 1.8 per Second)
Strength - 16
Agility - 21
Constitution - 16
Intelligence - 17
Wisdom - 18
Super skills - Fly, Heavy handed
Mage skills - Wind blade, Tailwind
Morgan closed his status and leaned back against a tree. He placed his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, letting his mind wander.
His agility seemed to be increasing at a much higher rate than any other attribute. Was there a particular reason? He wondered if there were ways to raise attributes other than through ranking up. Right now, he was lacking in both strength and constitution. He desperately needed to figure out how to increase both.
He was still thinking about different ways to increase in power when he finally drifted off.
∞
Arnold scowled as he downed another mug of ale. He was sitting in a tavern in the speedier part of City Six and he was not in a good mood.
Three days, and nothing, he thought bitterly as he downed his fourth mug in as many minutes. He slammed the mug down and motioned to the bartender for a refill.
“I think you’ve had enough,” the man said with a scowl.
Arnold moved so quickly that the bartender didn’t even have a chance to blink before he was dangling a good foot off the ground; the front of his shirt bunched up in Arnold’s fist.
“Do I look drunk to you, bartender?” Arnold asked, wrenching the trembling man over the counter and glaring at him.
The bar went silent as he did this, everyone’s eyes fixing on the spectacle unfolding before them.
“Not at all, sir!” he squeaked.
It was then that he felt a light tap on his shoulder. Not releasing his grip on the bartender, Arnold turned his head to meet the gaze of the two bouncers standing behind him.
“I would recommend letting the man go,” one of them said, cracking his knuckles and making a visible display of his bulging muscles.
“Oh? And what if I don’t want to?” Arnold asked, as the bartender kicked and struggled in his grip.
“Then I guess we’ll have to remove you,” the man said, a nasty smile stretched across his lips.
The other patrons began cheering as he pulled a stout wooden club from his belt and took a few practice swings with it. They had seen this done several times before, and it always ended the same way; with the bouncer’s victory and the aggressive party laid out flat.
The bouncer gave an exaggerated bow to the crowd. Then, spinning on the spot, swung it at the side of Arnold’s head with all his might. The club connected with a sharp crack and a howl of pain echoed through the tavern.
The entire room went silent as they stared at the incomprehensible scene before them.
The bouncer was on his knees, clutching his broken wrist and screaming in agony, while the stranger looked on. His expression hadn’t changed and his grip on the bartender hadn’t loosened.
Arnold slowly stooped down and lifted the man’s club. He took a few practice swings with it, then looked down at the now sobbing bouncer.
“Here, let me show you how it’s done.”
He pulled his arm back to take the man’s head off his shoulders; when the door banged open. Arnold looked up to see his tracker, Weasel, walk in.
“I see you’re making friends, as always,” he said with his trademark sneer.
Arnold shrugged. “They refused to give a drink when I asked for it.”
“Well, you can put him down. I found the man who reported our quarry to the city guard.”
“Isn’t this your lucky day,” Arnold said dryly, finally releasing the bartender; who crashed to the ground, sputtering and coughing as he gasped for air.
The door slammed shut behind the two men and everyone in the tavern breathed a collective sigh of relief.
∞
Morgan awoke just as the sun was beginning to set. Seeing that Sarah was already awake, he yawned and stretched, getting slowly to his feet and testing his sprained leg. The brace seemed to be doing its job, so he limped over to where she was sitting and plopped down next to her.
She looked up from a book she’d been reading, and smiled.
“Sleep well?”
He nodded and leaned sideways to dig through their packs. Emerging with a piece of flatbread and some dried meat, he leaned back and began eating.
Sarah closed the book with a snap and stowed it away in one of the bags.
“Since we no longer have horses and you can’t walk very well, it looks like you’ll need to be our mode of transportation.”
Morgan shrugged, taking another bite of the tough meat and chewed slowly.
“As far as I can tell,” she continued, “it will take us another three and a half weeks to reach the border of the North Kingdom and another week after that to reach the capital of Heraldia, where the academy is located.”
Morgan nodded, popping the last piece of meat into his mouth and swallowing.
“I think you’re right about flying the rest of the way. It’ll let us stay off the roads and we’ll be able to take a more direct path. I can carry a few more pounds since I ranked up, but I think we should leave everything that we don’t absolutely need.”
“You’re probably right,” Sarah said with a sigh. “I was really hoping to be able to hold onto some of these books, though.”
“I’m sure you can replace them once we reach the academy,” Morgan said with a grin. “You’re rich, after all.”
She laughed at that and punched him playfully in the arm. The two of them then set to emptying their bags of all non-essential items. Books, extra clothes and even food that they thought might not be needed was left. By the time they were done, the bags were a good deal lighter and Morgan was fairly confident that they’d be able to make good time.
He held out his hand to Sarah and hid a wince as he helped her up. She nodded her thanks and they were soon flying low over the treetops as they headed south toward the Central Kingdom.
∞
Arnold stared across the table at the small, greasy man. They were sitting in another tavern, this one even nastier than the last.
“Couldn’t you have picked a better meeting place?” Arnold asked, glaring over his shoulder at Weasel, who just shrugged.
He sighed and turned back to the man sitting across from him.
“So, Weasel tells me that you have information about our quarry.”
The man leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table. It was covered in so many different stains that Arnold couldn’t even begin to guess at what it may have originally looked like.
“Aye, I’ve got information alright.”
The man’s accent was so thick that Arnold was having a hard time understanding him.
“But it’s gonna cost you. Don’t want no bronze or copper either; I want
gold.”
Arnold could see the glint of greed in his little piggy eyes and shrugged. Pulling a coin pouch from his belt, he dropped it on the table in front of the man.
The pouch made an audible clink as it hit the table and the grubby man quickly snatched it up.
Arnold watched as the man quickly checked the contents of the pouch, before looking up once more.
He recognized that look. It was a real shame, too; he had really been trying to avoid another spectacle.
“I would recommend you think good and hard about the next words you’re going to say,” Arnold said in a conversational tone. “After all, I just paid you handsomely, so just give me the information and I’ll be on my way.”
The man seemed to think for a moment, and Arnold could see the battle between greed and common sense going on behind the man’s eyes. In the end, greed won out.
“I do agree that you paid me nicely, but this money would just be for my time.”
The man leaned forward across the table and Arnold wrinkled his nose at his rank odor.
“If you want the information, it’ll cost you a platinum.”
“Are you sure that’s your final answer?” Arnold asked.
“Yeah, and fork it up quick. I am a busy man, after all.”
The next moment, the man was slammed against the wall; his feet dangling a good few feet off the ground as Arnold stared up at him with cold eyes.
“Now I’m going to ask you one more time. What do you know?”
The man struggled and kicked, his eyes bugging out of skull as Arnold’s grip tightened around his neck.
“What was that? I couldn’t hear you,” Arnold said nastily, as he spun and threw the man across the room; where he smashed into the opposite wall with the sound of crunching bones.
One or two people looked up as the man went flying, but soon went back to their drinks. This was not the kind of place where people would interfere in someone else’s business.
The man moaned as Arnold hoisted him up from the ground by his hair.
“You ready to talk now?”
The man whimpered and nodded as best he could.
After the man finished speaking, Arnold reached down and took back his coin pouch. Reaching in, he fished out a copper coin and dropped it on the whimpering man.