Dante's Immortality: Beginnings

by Antonio Terzini

  He had serious misgivings about placing blind trust in the enchanted boots, but in the almost month-long journey to the border, he hadn’t found a single detection enchantment to test them on.

  And for good reason. After crawling out of the predatory dungeon, and through several miles of dense underbrush after that, he had opted to stay away from civilization altogether. Not only did he take an out of the way path to the border, delaying his journey by several days, but every time he even heard a twig snap he would Blink into the nearest tree immediately.

  Thankfully, there were no pursuers. He wasn’t sure what had happened, he was almost certain that after the incident with Jared and Arron that there would be others. They were nothing like any of the other combatants that he had met, both of them had two monster crystals, and the two of them were being wasted on guard duty outside of Grimspeak.

  Still, he wouldn’t complain about finally having a turn of good luck.

  Taking a deep breath, and a step forward, he patiently waited for the enchantment lines to run under his feet.

  It only took a few seconds before one activated, his boots lit up, but other than that nothing happened. He immediately let out a breath of relief. Based on what he knew from his enchantment class, he was in the clear. When a long-range detection enchantment was activated, the area that was activated would usually activate all of the nearby enchantments. Allowing the operators who were watching it to triangulate his position and send out a mounted party to his location.

  This kind of enchanted defense was the only thing that was feasible along the border wall, it was far too long to patrol regularly.

  After confirming that the boots worked, Dante slowly made his way toward the far side of the wall.

  The border wall itself was a monstrosity. From a distance, it just looked like a massive flat mountain that stretched further than the eye could see. It had taken him over thirty minutes to climb the stairs that led to the top of the wall, which must have been a few hundred feet in the air. And now that he had finally gotten to the top, he could see that it was around fifty feet across.

  He was having a hard time understanding how long such a thing could have taken to build, even with geomancers. Grimspeak was almost minuscule in comparison if the total length of the wall was taken into consideration, and that was without even factoring in the enchantments than ran through its entirety.

  The further across he walked, the more of the view he could see on the other side of the border, and the more enamored he became. The expanse of land in view was massive from the height of the wall, and far more open than any he had ever seen. Even though there a few mountains peaking up in the far distance and a few patches of small forests, it was entirely flat.

  Of course, the lack of landforms had a few downsides. There didn’t seem to be any suitable cover within a hundred miles of the wall, but that was unlikely to be a problem with the lack of active patrols.

  As he got to the edge of the wall, he found another problem. There was no staircase to get down…

  It seemed like whoever built it was only worried about access from one side, which wasn’t at all a surprise, but he had still held out hope for an easy descent.

  Dante looked down the side. There was no way he could just Blink down, it was far too large of a drop.

  Thankfully, he had done some testing over the last few days with his Manipulate Blade skill, making the long fall almost a nonexistent obstacle.

  He took a few minutes to create six swords and wait for his mana to recharge. After that, Dante uttered a prayer, then a curse, and then he jumped off of the wall with the swords held to his chest.

  * * *

  Victoria Nix

  Victoria stood atop the wall and watched the boy drop with fingers crossed. She had found a loophole in her agreement with Damian; she didn’t need actually protect him until he got into the Wastelands.

  So, if he died before that, it wasn’t her problem.

  There were so many opportunities on the way to the border, so many near misses, but somehow, he barely managed to survive every dangerous situation he got himself in. And now, after being incredibly careful for almost a month, he was going to solve all of her problems.

  Nothing made her happier than watching him try and kill himself.

  But her excitement quickly turned to resignation as his fall began to slow toward the bottom. He began to decelerate, almost coming to a complete stop, and then touching the ground gently.

  Victoria massaged her temples as she let out a sigh. She knew that slowing the fall with his skill was a possibility, but hadn’t thought that it would actually work. She could feel a headache coming on.

  Victoria spun around, feeling a presence behind her.

  Tobias seemed to materialize into existence, hands held up in surrender. “I’m sorry, did I surprise you?”

  Begrudgingly, she had to admit that he had surprised her. Tobias was getting good, too good. He would need to be eliminated soon.

  Victoria looked at him expressionlessly. “What do you want?”

  Tobias just shrugged and walked to the edge of the wall, staring down at her new ‘project’. “Why don’t I just kill him for you? It would only take me a second… and no one will know.”

  Victoria considered it for a moment. If she let him do it, it would be an easy way to solve two problems. Not only would it keep her from wasting so much time on someone who was barely more than a child, but it would also give her a good excuse to kill Tobias.

  It was too bad. Even though that would have worked out well, she already promised Damian… and she did owe him. “Go away.”

  Tobias just shrugged again, then flashed Victoria a charming smile. “And who will be guild leader while you are gone, oh great leader?”

  Victoria’s fingers twitched slightly toward her dagger, she really wanted to kill him. “No one, cease all operations until further notice. We can’t afford to get dragged into a war when the victor is still undecided.” She glanced back to check his reaction. In a normal situation, he should have been made interim guild leader as the highest-ranking member of the guild aside from her.

  Tobias’ smile didn’t change as he stared into her eyes. He had the look of a predator that was ready to strike, and this time she did draw her dagger.

  After another few seconds of staring her in the eye, Tobias glanced down at her drawn dagger and turned to leave. “As you command.” He didn’t wait for her to dismiss him and instantly vanished by utilizing his stealth skill.

  Victoria continued to stare in the direction Tobias vanished from, but after debating it for a moment, she decided not to kill him.

  She looked back over the edge toward her new assignment. Watching the boy try to sneak across a completely open plain was giving her a headache.

  How am I supposed to teach him how to ‘survive on his own’?

  Not only was the assignment completely vague, but he also seemed like a hopeless case.