by Dakota Krout
“What are you doing up here?” Dale was shocked at the tendencies of the Headmaster, and this was his first day on the job!
“Cultivating and preparing for my meetings with the other faculty.” Artorian took in Dale’s disheveled appearance, noting the paper in his hand. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh. Right, I need you to sign this.” Dale handed over the form, but after reading it, Artorian recoiled as if he had been handed a snake.
“Are you out of your mind? I can’t devote the required time a direct disciple would need from me. No, thank you for the offer, but I am not interested.” He tried to hand the paper back to Dale, but the young man shook his head.
“I don’t need your tutelage; I need the protection and resources that would come with being your disciple. You don’t even need to provide them, the academy will do that.” Dale looked the Headmaster in the eye. “I know the exact requirements you need to fulfill in order to become the Headmaster permanently. I also need to join the Academy, and I need you to sign this right now.”
“You are bribing me? Or is this blackmail of some kind?” Artorian shook his head… then grinned. “I like it. A cultivator needs to know when brute force will not work and when they will need to turn to other methods.”
Artorian took the form and signed it with his essence signature, eschewing the standard use of a quill. After handing the document back to Dale, he seemed to come to his senses and hesitantly voiced the thoughts in his head. “Now that I think about it, why do you need to be a disciple? You own this place and all the resources…”
“Not anymore.” Dale shook his head and sighed. “The Guild has removed all power from anyone from the ‘Fallen Kingdoms’, as they are calling them. All titles of Nobility are gone, all land ownership contracts are now voided because the Kingdoms are no longer in power. For example: Artorian, get off my mountain.”
The Headmaster stared at him, remaining seated on his overstuffed pillows. He leaned over and took a long draw from the hookah before speaking again. “What was that supposed to accomplish?”
Dale let his head roll back and around to loosen his neck. “Before, you would have been forced to leave my mountain by any means possible, as fast as possible. Now, all I am is a D-rank cultivator with more gold than is typical for my status. I needed to join the academy, else I would have likely been sent to the frontlines by the Guild. I’m fairly certain they want me gone.”
“Son, if the Guild wants you gone, I don’t think this is going to stop them.” Artorian closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. “Ah, that’s the stuff.”
“What are you doing?” Dale looked at the man lying on his pillows and smoking cultivator-specific tobacco.
“Cultivating.”
“Like that?” Dale was scandalized; how was he going to achieve balance when he was draped over a space like that?
“Mmm. Should I be in a rigid lotus position, then?” Artorian blew out a ring of smoke, smiling as it made a perfect circle around the sun. “That’s not my methodology. I’m a starlight cultivator; I need as much of my body open to the sun as possible.”
“Are… are you naked under those pillows?” Dale felt slightly sick about that thought; wasn’t he going to be meeting teachers soon? “Also, starlight? Why aren’t you cultivating at night? What does the sun have to do with it?”
“Is this knowledge that you truly seek to learn? No, no, not that information, I'm clothed. This weave of tunic is loose enough that there is very little impediment to the sunlight. My cultivation is simply different than what you seem to think of as ‘normal’.” Artorian took a deep breath and smiled. “My method is much different than any other, as it was entirely designed and created by me. I was an old man, steeped in corruption and philosophy when I made my first breakthrough. From there, this has always been enough for me.”
“Sunlight? I thought you said you were a starlight cultivator?” Dale was confused enough that he hadn’t even run to return the form. “How is your cultivation method different?”
“A common misconception. The sun is a star. I can cultivate day or night, but I have much better results during the day, as the Essence is more abundant. Of course, this dungeon and my proximity to the dungeon are excellent supplements to my method. My cultivation is focused on the outward instead of the inward. If you look at me with Essence empowering your eyes, you should be able to see that there are no spirals in my cycle, only circles. My entire cultivation base is circling outward and blazing with starlight. I am a beacon to those looking at me, and the light purifies my Core and body daily. This leads to faster breakthroughs, weaker bottlenecks, and longevity that cannot be measured. The downside is that I need to cultivate every day without fail to replace the Essence that is being used. For this reason, I am still in the C-ranks and likely will remain here for years. At least… I would have if I were not here.”
“Purifying light… I don’t suppose you would be willing to share the secrets to the path of sunlight?” Dale hopefully questioned.
“I see no reason not to.” Dale’s eyes widened at the thought of using sunlight as an aura to begin purifying himself. “Twelve parts water, one part air, three parts fire, and eight parts celestial Essence.”
“No way.” Dale shook his head. “Are you telling me that you had four naturally occurring affinities? You would have never made it to your fifties.”
“Heh. Dale, Dale. Why do you think that I am still using my Essence to purify myself?” Artorian made a ‘go away’ motion at Dale. “Thirty years is not enough time to remove fifty years of taint. Now, shoo. My instructors should be arriving anytime now.”
Dale nodded and did a backflip, landing on the ground dozen feet below. Artorian’s’ voice floated down after him. “Showoff!”
Dale took off, returning to the administration building. He was apparently expected because the bureaucrat that had helped him previously was now glaring at him. “Ah. Hello there, Baron Dale. I’ve been informed that there have been some changes to your status recently. You should have never been admitted to the school; you have no backing, no extraordinary talent, no-”
“Indeed, there have been some changes,” Dale cut the man’s rant short. “I am now the direct disciple of the Headmaster. Here is the form.” After handing over the paper, Dale waited until the man grudgingly gave him his room assignment and the tasks that he would need to complete in order to remain enrolled in the academy.
“As the Headmaster’s disciple, you have extra quotas and deadlines for advancement. You can attend any classes you want, but the only tests are advancement. Miss the deadlines on what you need to give to the school, and you are gone.” Now that Dale was no one of importance, the attitude toward him had already shifted dramatically. “Good luck.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Dungeon, if you don’t start flying toward the coordinates I’ve given you, I will knock this mountain out of the sky and drag it to where I want it to go.” This was the third time he had shouted this order, and I was starting to think he was a bit too full of himself. Sure, he was an S-ranked individual, and I had no idea what he was actually capable of, but I highly doubted he would kill everyone here just because I was ignoring him. “I’m told that you have some slight intelligence, so I’ll give you a small demonstration.”
He was now on the floor my Goblins called home - level three - and I instantly gave the order for them to evacuate. I was too late. He huffed - just a light exhalation of air - and a miasma of green light appeared in front of him. He blew on it, and from there, the light expanded to cover the entire floor. His body went rigid, his eyes glassy, and his jaw slack. Odd. I watched everything that was going on, and it was easy to see that a few students saw the strange energy cover them. They looked down and around in confusion, but a sharp word issued from the S-ranker - somehow not from his body but from the mias
ma directly - and they no longer worried about anything.
I was confused. I had just lost all connection to everything on that level. There was an enormous hole in my influence that perfectly fit the bounds of that floor. I quickly shunted my influence through a makeshift portal between floors to recapture my control and worked to re-establish a tiny bit of connection on that floor. When I could see into the room, I still couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing. The entire floor was empty. No fortifications, no Goblins, no people at all. The strange part was: I didn’t get any Essence from the loss, which was even more confusing and disturbing.
Did he not kill everything? Just then, the green light finished returning to the man, condensing in front of him. When it was all there, it shrank down to a small ball of energy. He opened his mouth again, and the energy flew in, vanishing as he swallowed. Did he just eat my floor? He ate other humans too! Cannibal! Wait a moment… that was an illusion! Not in a good way, the eating of my floor and such, I meant his ears! This was a High Elf, not a human! Not a cannibal, technically. Still, I… I didn’t know what to do. I have nothing that could even scratch this guy, nothing I… all I could think of was to get the word out, perhaps sully his reputation?
I concentrated on what was above me, way up to the surface, and created a statue in a public area. Technically, I made it underground and pushed it upward on a slab of stone, but the idea is the same. The figures were a detailed representation of what had just happened, showing the panic on the student’s faces, the Goblins, the empty area around this Elf. I even placed his ears as they really were, showing that he was a High Elf. Then I returned my attention to his threats. He was sitting down and absorbing the energy he had just consumed, but after a moment, he stood and belched. Gross.
“As you should be able to tell by now, I have no qualms destroying every single person here if it means that I get access to a mobile flying fortress like this. Being able to launch our initiatives from the air would grant us battle superiority in most situations. One of the great weaknesses of the undead is that until they reach incredible heights of power, they are cursed to remain upon the ground. You will comply, or I will pluck your Core out of its position and seal it in a weapon. If the Guild cannot use this as a base, no one will. Ever.” The dark undertone of his words was freaking me out. He whirled around and left the dungeon with a sonic boom trailing after him.
I made my decision.
“We should be there tomorrow, Great Spirit,” Navigation Bob confirmed for me quickly.
“As far as we know,” Bob confirmed once again.
“Great Spirit?”
“…What?” Oh right, I was still next to Navigation Bob.
My resolve set, I spoke grimly,
“What should I tell the others this is about?”
“That’s… ambitious.”
“I prefer the version of freedom where we remain alive.”
DALE
“Baron Dale!” A messenger was running up to the new cadet, but Dale held up a hand to forestall any information.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but I am no longer a Baron. Is this message still applicable?” Dale questioned the heaving courier.
Hesitating, the man eventually made a ‘no idea’ gesture and relayed the information. “A statue came out of the ground in the main courtyard. It shows Guild Elder Sorbere… it depicts him killing a dozen students along with nearly a hundred Goblins and… and…”
“Spit it out!” Dale barked at him, already disgusted by the details. It was nice to finally learn the man’s name, though.
That had been a poor choice of words, even if Dale didn’t know what had happened yet. The messenger paled further and looked a bit sick. “It shows him eating them, sir.”
“You’re joking,” Dale flatly responded, not quite able to comprehend the joke the man was telling him.
“I’m not.”
“Alright. Um. Hmm.” Dale went silent for a moment. “Please go find Hans, Tom, Adam, and Rose. Do you know who they are?”
“I do. Your party is well-renowned. That is, many people talk about you. Ah…” Now blushing after saying a little too much, the messenger almost ran off right away but was stopped once again.
“Thank you for letting me know you think of us, hopefully in a good light. Can you ask them to meet me at the entrance to the dungeon as soon as possible? After that, find one of the council members, not Tyler, and ask them to retrieve that statue. I am going to go down and take a look at what happened.” Dale waited until he got a nod, then tossed the man a silver coin and went to get prepared. “Why are we fighting this guy? Why is he randomly killing people? It doesn’t even make sense for the Guild to be acting like this.”
Dale waited patiently for everyone to arrive and explained the situation to all of them. Hans, as usual, was the first to speak up. “How about we get the heck out of here before we piss him off? Do you know who he is? His name is Sorbere, but he is known as Barry the Devourer. He is able to infuse his entire cultivation and soul into an attack, converting everything affected into Essence or Mana. Do you know why he can just kill anyone or anything he wants? Because that was part of his contract to get into the Guild. He was so strong that they were forced to recruit him instead of sending an army of fellow S-rankers after him. For this guy to be here… something must have gone really wrong. The war must be going worse than we expected or were told.”
“Are you telling me that sending proof that he killed a dozen people out of hand to the Guild will be ignored?” Dale froze up at Hans’ nod, entirely uncertain how to deal with this situation.
“So, if we do nothing, we go to war. If we do something, he might eat us?” Rose almost gagged at the sickening thought.
“At least we know why he isn’t going up against the necromancers directly.” Adam shook his head, then flicked his eyes back and forth at the people giving him strange looks. “What, seriously? You just said that he invests his soul in his attacks. Don't you think a necromancer would be able to take advantage of that? Especially one as powerful as this ‘Master’ fellow?”
“Well… that was just a rumor. But… it does make sense.” Hans rubbed at the stubble growing on his chin. “So now what?”
“I don’t know about
you, but I joined the Academy so that I wouldn’t be sent off to war at my current ranking.” Dale tossed his gauntlet-clad hands into the air in frustration. “Apparently, it’s just as dangerous to stay here, though!”
“Dale, I hope you will not let this fear control you, even if the Guild controls us all right now.” Tom stepped forward so that all eyes were looking up at him. “Listen, what have we done every single time something horrible and unexpected is happening? We persevere. When that Distortion Cat attacked us, when a horde of infected attacked the city, when you personally bet your life on rescuing a Wisp… why would we now let a single known threat stop us? We will get past this, through this, as a team.”
Rose nodded at Tom’s inspiring speech. “I agree. It is like my Grandma likes to say: everything you’ve ever wanted, everything that will make you happy, is on the other side of fear. If we don’t take risks, if we don’t power through this, we will never find what we need.”
A new voice interrupted them, making the blood freeze in their bodies, “What pretty sentiments.”
Barry was shaking his head at them as he strolled forward. “Do you have nothing else to do? A war to prepare for, perhaps? Move.” He continued forward, not bothering to stop while talking to them. The party scrambled out of his way, which was for the best. If they hadn’t, the S-ranked man would have walked through them. In a far more literal fashion than they would have liked.
Chapter Eighteen
“So. Now what?” Hans grinned nervously as Barry sauntered away. The others gave helpless shrugs and made as if to leave.
“Hold on.” Dale had a bit of fire coming back into his voice. “The only way out of this sort of situation is to become stronger. When we finally get to a point where we can feel safe from that sort of person, then we can go relax in a corner or hide from the world.”
“You do realize that he has likely been cultivating for several hundred years to get to the point he is at now?” Adam queried with resignation in his voice.