Realising that there was no way around it, the carapace demon leapt from stone to stone as far as it could into the river before it took the plunge. Its injuries from its fight with the panther took their toll as it struggled to fight the raging current. Felix tracked its progress as he moved back downstream to his prepared area.

  Just past the halfway mark, Felix noticed shadows in the water approaching the creature.

  The bait had done its job. Soon, a frenzied battle broke out as the creature fought to get out of the water. Even after all his attempts, Felix still hadn’t figured out what kept showing up to attack the thing. He was just happy that there was something in the river that could cause some damage.

  Blood and chunks of carapace drifted downstream as the creature fought to get away from the thing that lurked in the river. Felix knew it would make it, and yet every time, he couldn’t help but cheer the thing on, hoping that this time, it would somehow manage to kill it.

  Alas, it wasn’t to be. As soon as his competitor got into range, Felix prepared his first javelins. He tried his best to slow the thing down, giving the river monster more time to tear into the flailing demon.

  The monstrous beast sent him a glare that promised a painful death as one of the javelins managed to pierce into the creature's hip, successfully slowing it down. Felix held back a cheer. After he first figured out that the water softened the things' carapace, he thought the battle would be easy. After all, with all its injuries, it shouldn’t be much of a fight.

  He’d died enough to know that just because it was weakened didn’t mean it was weak. He kept throwing javelins at the struggling beast while the thing in the water tore at it from below. Some managed to find purchase, but most were swatted away with ease.

  When the thing reached the shore, it was covered in wounds, several nasty bite wounds bled profusely, while javelins stuck out from its back. Whole sections of carapace were torn away to leave open wounds that bled into the shallows. Most of the creature’s spikes had been torn away, and one arm hung uselessly at its side.

  Felix quickly retreated to his next position and continued the onslaught, with no chance to rest, the creature pursued. It tried climbing after Felix, but he’d been ready for that, yanking on a length of vine at the perfect moment, a knot loosened, dropping the thing onto a jagged stone below.

  With a sickening crack, more of its exoskeleton shattered on impact. The creature let out a shriek of pain that left Felix’s ears ringing.

  He didn’t relent. He seized the opening and managed to land another javelin in the thing's shoulder.

  The fighting retreat continued as Felix hurled ammunition, slowing the creature as their battle moved deeper into the forest. Most of his attacks missed, but a few hastily assembled traps served as enough of a distraction for Felix to slowly whittle away at the thing’s defence.

  When Felix dropped from the tree and took shelter in his last position, the thing still slowly ambled towards him. Even as close as it looked to death, Felix knew that if he left it in this state, it would still recover and catch up with him before he reached the mountain.

  As the thing swatted away Felix’s last javelin, he could feel the creature's malicious glee. Even in its horrific state, it knew it could end him.

  Felix backed away in terror. He’d grown intimately familiar with that feeling of being hunted, that feeling of imminent death. The taste of iron on his tongue as the thing took pleasure in plunging its arm into his chest.

  All the creature's focus was on Felix. When he tripped over a tree root and shuffled backwards, the thing let out a chittering noise that sent chills up his spine.

  So great was its anticipation for the pain it was about to inflict that it didn’t notice when Felix pulled a length of vine. The simple action loosened the jagged stone Felix had painstakingly dragged up the tree, dropping it on the creature.

  In the last moment, the thing managed to dodge out of the way, taking a glancing blow that tore apart the protective carapace over its abdomen, leaving a jagged tear that poured blood onto the forest floor.

  As it hissed in rage, blanketing the clearing with a terrible pressure that let every living thing know of its thirst for blood, a javelin slammed into its chest, cutting the hiss short. Three more javelins quickly followed as Felix pulled them from behind a tree root.

  “Twenty-nine, thirty. Please be dead, you piece of horse dung.”

  Felix waited and watched for movement as the thing that had haunted his nightmares slumped forward. After it stayed still, he fished around for a stone and chucked it at its head. It harmlessly bounced off its carapace, leaving Felix to wait for a response.

  Nothing…

  He waited long enough for his ragged breaths to calm and his heartbeat to slow. Finally gathering the courage, he slowly crept towards it. Grabbing a branch on his way, he cautiously poked it before jumping back.

  It didn’t move.

  Growing bolder, he poked it a few more times until it collapsed.

  “Dead. It’s actually dead! Hahahaha! Yes!”

  Felix immediately dropped out of the Ways. He’d spent so long repeatedly bashing his head against the challenge that he’d long lost track of the days. He paused only long enough between attempts to analyse what went wrong, plan his next go, and try again.

  Occasionally, he’d quickly run out to grab something to eat when the hunger became too much or for a much-needed bathroom break, but other than that, he hadn’t left the Ways. When he was in need of sleep, he’d just cast his spell and take a nap on the cobblestone path in front of the first gate. No point in wasting time by going back to his room.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  With it finally done, he was looking forward to speaking to some actual people again. Knucklehead had been his only company for so long that he’d started going mad.

  Checking the ever-stationary sun, he realised the breakfast rush was starting soon. On a whim, he decided to go help out Agrona. He’d long figured out that she didn’t really need the help. Why would you want to wait for someone to chop you a bunch of vegetables if you could cast a spell and have a hundred knives do it for you in a fraction of the time?

  Still, he would take some orders, letting her focus on cooking. She might not need the help, but he felt like she enjoyed the change of pace. Even for her serving so many people day after day, meal after meal must grow monotonous.

  “Agrona!”

  “Oh, good morning, child, come to pick up more supplies?”

  He shook his head, smiling so wide it hurt his cheeks.

  “No. I did it! I killed it!”

  Agrona looked at him in shock for a moment before rushing around the counter to wrap him up in a hug.

  “Fantastic work! I’m so proud of you!”

  Felix gave her a tight hug back.

  “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  She patted him on the back and let go.

  “No one walks their path alone, child, but it’s ultimately your path to walk. Take pride in every step. C’mon, let me make you some hot chocolate to celebrate.”

  He quickly joined her for a celebratory cup before the rush started. As he’d expected, Agrona was happy to have him helping out. After quickly cleaning up, he joined her downstairs to start taking orders. The task had become so routine that Felix started tending to his memory garden out of habit.

  Since he figured out he could use it to speed up learning how to fight, he’d been improving rapidly. Still, he hadn’t quite gotten to the point where he could learn while he was in combat. He’d partially solved the problem by committing the fight to memory directly after it happened, but it wasn’t the same.

  He knew from using the spell while doing other tasks that using it during a fight would be far better. He could only imagine the improvement he’d get if he were actually able to relive every battle, every twitch of a muscle, every breath, every consideration and observation. If he could relive it, he’d be able to analyse every second of the fight until he’d learned all there is to learn.

  For now, he’d have to settle for just committing whatever he remembered during the fight to memory. But he spent every free moment practicing the skill in the hope that he could learn to use it in combat faster.

  He already had a memory plant for his fights with the carapace demon, so he slowly added everything he could remember about his last fight to it before the details faded. He’d no longer need to use it to plan for future battles, but he’d spent so long tending to it that it would feel incomplete without adding his victory.

  By the time he finished, Lara and Aster made their way downstairs. Lara was over the moon to see him, making him wonder how long it’d been since they last spoke.

  The two of them had changed over the past few months as well. Felix couldn’t help but remember how much more grown-up the Knight who’d given them the demonstration during the festival looked. He’d already noticed a change in the aspirants who were trying to become martial artists.

  It wasn’t just them, the martial artists and those still trying to become Travellers were affected the most, but the changes were happening to everyone to varying degrees. Everyone was growing up rapidly, except for Felix, that is. He was pretty sure his life affinity had something to do with the fact that he’d gone from being average height for his age to being one of the shortest people at the Crossroad in a matter of months.

  While everyone else was growing up rapidly, he looked like he was getting younger. One of the many reasons he wanted to pass his first gate was to have another chat with Alvara and finally learn more about his affinities.

  He managed to track her down over the past months. Surprisingly, she was working in the café. They’d had few opportunities to speak since he didn’t have time to hang around instead of training. Still, he’d learned that she also worked as a gardener.

  Using the plant magic from her elven lineage, the role didn’t keep her too busy. So she did double duty running the café. He’d have loved to talk to her about the garden, but beyond learning that it was a common way for elves to handle gardens, he couldn’t learn much.

  The restrictions the Ways placed on what Alvara could say were heavier than any other guide. At least when it came to sharing any information that so much as had a chance to be useful to him. The fact that she had already given him guidance when he arrived meant that, unless he passed his first gate, she wasn’t allowed to offer him any help.

  Lara shook Felix’s arm.

  “Hey, stop zoning out. Honestly, you hardly ever step outside the Ways, and when you do, you’re so wrapped up in your head that we hardly get to speak to you.”

  With a sigh, Felix decided to stop lamenting his lack of growth. He hadn't seen the girls in what felt like weeks. He wasn’t going to ruin it by brooding over something he had no control over.

  “Sorry, you’ve got my full attention.”

  After giving Agrona all three of their orders, Felix sat down with the girls.

  “How have you two been? It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

  There was a slight pause as the two looked at each other before answering.

  “Great, how about you? Have you made any progress?” Lara quickly responded with false cheer while looking guilty.

  Aster didn’t answer. She kept staring at Lara.

  “Ok, what’s going on?”

  “Nothing!” Lara responded far too quickly for it to be nothing.

  Felix looked at Aster, who just nudged her head at Lara.

  “Lara, did something happen? You know you can tell me.”

  “Nothing happened, really, you don’t need to worry.”

  “Ok, seriously, what happened? Is it Eugene? Did he do something? Is it the Ways?” Felix started getting anxious. It wasn’t like her to be so evasive.

  Lara looked down at her plate, shoving her food around without eating it. When it became clear she wasn’t going to respond, Aster let out a sigh.

  “Lara’s been holding back.”

  “Aster!”

  “He should know.”

  “That’s not up to you!”

  “It is when you’re throwing away your future!”

  The two argued in a way that clearly suggested this wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation.

  “Excuse me! Could one of you please tell me what’s going on?”

  Lara pressed her lips together, making it clear she wasn’t going to say anything.

  “Lara is close to her last gate. She could probably clear it already. She’s been stalling because she doesn’t want to leave you behind.”

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