Dolan leaned his back against the cave

  wall, flinching as his injured back made contact with the stone. “What I

  can’t understand is how it found us,” Dolan said.

  Sebastian did the same on the opposite side of the small

  cave, leaned his back against the cold stone. “Well, the troll was over

  level 60, and the storm had calmed down. I guess it just heard us, or

  smelled us. Sensed us somehow.”

  Shaking his head, Dolan said, “Trolls aren’t exactly

  known for their senses. Even at rank 6 they are mostly just regenerative

  blobs of pure strength. What makes them as dangerous as they are is

  mostly their aggression if you do attract their attention. We were

  fairly hidden under the overhang. The fence didn’t have the fog effect

  active, or much of anything really, but should have dampened our

  presence somewhat, at least. And the tent itself has some basic stealth

  features. It shouldn’t have been able to hear us. There wasn’t anything

  out of the ordinary—“ Dolan frowned and looked up at Sebastian.

  “Except,” he said, “you had some kind of… episode while you were

  meditating. Well, two actually—the first one was smaller, only Bishop

  and I even noticed, but the second one was bigger. Everyone woke up from

  the shock. What was that? Could that… wave of energy, or whatever it

  was, have reached the troll when it happened to be in the area?”

  “I— I don’t— No… I mean, maybe.” The words caught in

  Sebastian’s throat, he nearly choked from the realization as a cold

  sweat beaded on his forehead. He thought back to when they were attacked

  by the barwendi, a rank 5. He had just reached Peak [Essence

  Consolidation] stage, completely filling his meridian pathways, and he

  remembered feeling a burst of energy. It was fairly small, and there had

  just been a tribulation there, but maybe it was enough for the giant

  stag to sense it and come running.

  All this time he had made sure to keep his cultivation a

  secret. It didn’t matter how much he liked or trusted them, the simple

  fact that cultivation was a means of surpassing your limit was a secret

  worth killing for. Now, it seemed that keeping that secret might have

  led the only people he had in this world to their deaths.

  His mind flooded with what-ifs.

  What if he told them about his cultivation earlier? They

  could have warned him about those waves of energy that erupted when he

  broke through. He would have waited until they reached Celder.

  What if he never took the train to Luxendorf in the first place? They would all still be alive and well.

  What if, what if, what if…

  As Sebastian came to an understanding of what exactly had

  happened, Dolan was watching him intently. Sweat formed on Sebastian’s

  pale face, and his hands trembled. He knew that Dolan wasn’t stupid,

  they had all realized that there was more to his story, that he had been

  hiding something. Now those suspicions would have been confirmed.

  Dolan sighed. “We all have our secrets, Baz, that’s fine.

  We’ve said as much all this time. We never pried or pushed. But now I

  think it’s time to tell me what’s going on.”

  Cultivation helped the body recover quickly from fatigue and physical injuries, but it also helped steel his mind.

  The shock and shame had torn through Sebastian like a

  tsunami, but it receded somewhat as he decided that Dolan was right, it

  was time to tell him at least a part of the truth. He lifted his head

  and looked at Dolan.

  Sebastian opened his mouth to speak but didn’t know where

  to start. He took a deep breath to clear his mind. He decided to go

  back to the beginning.

  “After I was thrown out from the castle, I was lost and alone. I had no realistic hope of surviving. My limit was level 5.”

  Dolan’s eyes opened wide in shock as he exclaimed, “Five?!”

  Sebastian nodded. “I fought the goblins who lived down in

  that gorge, and I leveled up almost to my limit after killing just a

  few of them. Then I searched through their camp, looking for anything I

  could use to survive and find my way back to civilization. Instead I

  found… hope.”

  He paused for a moment, deciding how much of the truth to

  actually reveal. A large part of him truly wanted to tell Dolan

  everything, but an even stronger part told him to keep the manual

  hidden. Dolan was a good man, but the manual was his life, his

  everything. And it was priceless. He didn’t want to believe that Dolan

  would steal it or reveal it to someone else, but he couldn’t help but

  project his own guilt. Sebastian was the reason Dolan’s found family was

  dead. Things might have been different a few days ago, but now he felt

  like Dolan might see it as just compensation. He took a deep breath as

  he made his decision.

  “I gained a Talent.”

  “What?” Dolan asked, his face scrunched up as if doubting

  what he just heard. “You gained a Talent, just like that? Just by

  defeating some weak goblins?”

  “Yeah, I’m guessing it’s hero stuff. The Talent makes it

  so I can gain experience and level beyond my limit by meditating. That

  burst of energy you all felt was me reaching level 40.”

  He took a moment to observe Dolan’s reaction. It seemed

  as though the ranger went through an entire emotional journey, starting

  with surprise and moving to doubt followed by envy and ending in some

  mix of a sense of awe and—unless Sebastian was completely off

  base—acceptance and genuine joy.

  “So, you gained a Talent that lets you surpass your

  limit—and level up in general—just by sitting around doing nothing? And

  this Talent, you don’t actually know how you got it? Cause there are

  plenty of noble houses, academies, and various other Groups whose

  foundations are built on developing methods for how to acquire their

  associated Titles and Skills. A method to gain a Talent, especially one

  like that…” He shook his head in disbelief. “If you could remember how

  you got it and figure out a way to recreate it, not only would you make a

  fortune, but you could build a true powerhouse of a Group.”

  “Honestly, even if I had an idea of how to get someone

  else to earn the Talent, it would have to happen when they were still

  around level 5 or under. It wouldn’t be much use for anyone stronger. I

  suppose if we’re talking long term I guess I could try to get a bunch of

  children together to earn the Talent but that’s… kinda evil.”

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  Dolan chuckled. It sounded much like any other chuckle,

  but there was a sadness behind it. Like it hurt his very soul to laugh

  after everything that happened, but he forced himself to do it. “You’re

  not wrong. And yet that’s actually what a lot of noble houses did, and

  still do. They either produce their own or adopt a whole litter of kids

  and raise them to be loyal members or soldiers.”

  Shaking his head, Sebastian said, “I’m not even surprised. People will do just about anything for power.”

  “That’s true, and some day you might have to do something

  like that yourself, whether you want to or not.” Dolan’s eyes were

  fixed onto Sebastian’s, his gaze heavy. “Unlike most who are only in it

  for personal benefit and power, you are practically Lumeria’s most

  wanted with multiple heroes hunting for you. You’re gonna need some way

  to protect yourself in the long term.”

  “I guess, but none it matters if we can’t make it out of this forest,” Sebastian said in an attempt to change the subject.

  “True.” Dolan turned his attention back to the map. “It

  looks like we overshot it a little when we ran west. Usually, or at

  least back when this passage was used more often, they would pass over

  the mountain around here.” He pointed to a section of the forest.

  “There’s a path here which can shave off a day's worth of travel.

  Problem is, that brings us closer to the troll.”

  “Yeah, I’ll pass on that unless we absolutely have to.”

  “Agreed, which means we’ll just have to continue

  southwest from here until we can go completely around this section here,

  by the edge of the mountain. It might be possible for me to go directly

  over the mountain around here.” Dolan pointed to a area filled with

  cliffs. “But even if you’ve reached level 40 you still don’t have the

  Movement Skills to traverse that.”

  Sebastian sighed. “Alright, so we go southwest. If we move quickly we should be out of the woodlands in under a week, right?”

  Nodding, Dolan said, “We’ll be further west than we’d

  like and would have to spend several days traveling back east to reach

  Celder once we’re out but yeah… that should work.”

  That night, they didn’t get much sleep. They spent most

  of the night talking, in very hushed tones, about all sorts of things.

  Sebastian reminisced about his life back on Earth. Dolan talked about

  his old life, and his sister. They shared stories about the other

  hunters, although most of those stories came from Dolan. They didn’t

  have the luxury of being able to properly grieve—they wouldn’t let

  themselves drop their guards—but they couldn’t pretend it didn’t happen

  either. So they focused on the future instead. Dolan spoke of a shop he

  wanted to open when he retired. He had everything planned out already.

  Once dawn came around, they packed up what little they had and moved out.

  The biome remained fairly monotone with simple trees with

  normal green and yellow leaves. There were no patches of colorful

  flowers or hanging vines. The ground felt mostly solid as they ran

  across the dried leaves on the coarse dirt.

  The day went by quickly, and they didn’t encounter a single monster.

  When the sun set they looked for a good place to shelter

  but couldn’t find anything good. After some discussion, they decided to

  simply keep running through the night. Usually you don’t want to be out

  in the open during the night in the woodlands, due to the simple fact

  that most monsters became more active during the night, but they figured

  they could make an exception with how quiet it had been lately.

  Monsters were attracted to Titan’s territories but

  avoided the titans themselves like the plague for the same reason as

  hunters avoided them—they would kill anything that caught their

  attention, man or monster. They decided to gamble on the hope that

  whatever natural disaster pushed the monsters east had left the area

  mostly empty. The troll, as the strongest and proudest, would likely be

  the last monster to abandon its territory after all.

  Their gamble paid off.

  They continued through the night without incident and

  didn’t slow down the next day either. With the exception of a few pauses

  to get some water and to check for any surprises, they just kept going.

  The more time they spent running, the sooner they would be out, after

  all.

  With their travels uninterrupted, they

  began to talk as they ran. They continued their conversation from before

  and stumbled onto new topics as they went. Dolan was every bit as

  curious and interested in learning about Earth as Sebastian was to learn

  more about this world.

  He had learned a lot during his train ride to Luxendorf,

  and during his time with the hunters, but there were still plenty of

  things he still didn’t know, especially about Calindor.

  From what he had heard before, the Calindor Federation

  had countless sword schools and magic towers, but he didn’t know exactly

  what that meant. Dolan explained that Calindor was quite different from

  a monarchy like Lumeria. It was a federation governed by a union of

  noble families. Although in reality, an alliance of 7 academies held

  more influence. The alliance consisted of 3 sword schools, 3 magic

  towers, and one more general academy.

  Outside of that were several powerful mercenary companies

  and other organizations who were strong enough that the neither the

  ruling nobles or the Calindorian Alliance of Academies could truly

  control them. There were also countless lesser sword schools and magic

  institutes that had no choice but to follow the rules laid out by the

  alliance.

  Although Calindor seemed to have less of a social

  hierarchy than Lumeria, it certainly wasn’t some paradise. Generally

  speaking, only highborn nobles and the ultra wealthy could send their

  young to the 7 academies, the rest had to settle for smaller schools.

  With that came a natural gap between the two. Still, Sebastian was

  already daydreaming about getting some more formal training for his

  swordsmanship.

  As far as magic was concerned, he had never tried it, but

  it would be a lie to say he wasn’t interested. Besides, some of the

  Techniques mentioned in passing in the manual could definitely be called

  magic, so it was certainly something he would look into. Luckily he

  would have plenty of time to try it all once they arrived, once he

  finally had a place to settle down.

  Their conversations and daydreams were interrupted by the

  realization that they had been distracted enough that they had failed

  to notice that not only had the sun begun to set again but the biome had

  shifted to an increasingly sparse area with trees many times larger

  than before, both in circumference and in height.

  They slowed to a walk to let Dolan’s Detection Skills

  check the area. As empty as it had been these past two days they weren’t

  too worried, but before the Detection Skills had even had a chance to

  spread to their full range they both felt a wave of energy ripple past

  them.

  Whroom!

  Tyrannic Domain in effect

  All the hairs on Sebastian’s body stood up at once. The

  air in his lungs felt twice as heavy as before. Drops of sweat formed

  across his skin. A single thought entered his mind, Oh, shit!

  “Fucking hell! That’s a Domain! We’re fucked!” said Dolan with an unmistakable tremble of panic in his voice.

  “A what?” Sebastian asked, but he understood the severity of the situation from the color that drained from Dolan’s face.

  “The aura of an Overlord… That’s what drove all those monsters away from their territories, a fucking Overlord.”

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