Chapter 16

  Oliver sat in his dorm room, with only two days left before their trial was to begin, his nerves had become increasingly shaken. Their unofficial team leader had been asleep for almost 24 hours now, with only a small note slapped over his face to tell them not to be concerned.

  Will be dream training until Monday morning, read the notebook on the desk. Don’t wake me.

  That was all the note said. As directed, Oliver had been looking through the brand-new notebook left on Rex's desk.

  “How did he get all this?”

  Oliver muttered aloud. The book, clearly bought just for the trial, had been filled with notes about the wildlife, where to forage, sources of clean water, and, most importantly, the locations of all three tribes. It also showed where a smaller tribe of goblins had set up camp.

  There were even multiple maps drawn in remarkable detail.

  Oliver was memorising the various notes made about kobolds and goblins. The section on the imps was almost totally barren, to the point that Oliver was able to add his own knowledge of them to the notes.

  “...I see now why he wanted the goblins so bad.”

  Out of the three options, their team would undoubtedly have the easiest time working with goblins. Imps would likely backstab them immediately, and the kobolds would have ignored any directions they gave due to their own belief system.

  Goblins, renowned for their malice and craftiness, can’t be considered reliable in any sense of the word. But controlling them temporarily would just require proof of strength. Rex had already outlined a method to ingratiate them towards us that seemed doable, and the list of benefits he wrote for goblin allies doubled that of the kobolds.

  “Some of these are absurd though…”

  Oliver frowned at phrases like 'hilarious', 'pyromaniacs', and 'merciless'. It looked like Rex had a personal bias in their favour from the tone of the notes. Pyromania certainly didn’t seem like a good thing when they would be in a forest. How 'merciless' was meant to be a good thing was also lost on him.

  He slumped in his chair and sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. He just wanted to become a scholar and live a quiet life researching the theory of magic, yet now he was being told he had to join a three-way battle between vicious monsters.

  “...Uuurrrgh…”

  Oliver turned to see Rex stirring and twitching in his sleep with a pained expression. It was the same behaviour he was exhibiting when Oliver first found him last night.

  Dream training, huh? What exactly does that mean?

  He tilted his head, curious about what his Druid classmate could possibly be experiencing.

  “Meow…”

  “...What the…”

  Oliver was certain Tiara wasn’t in the room a moment ago, yet she suddenly appeared right by Rex’s head, mewling sadly before walking out of the room. The way she jumped to pull the door handle and let herself out never failed to impress Oliver.

  ***

  Axel arrived back at the dorm late, having been stuck in another of Kuhn’s lectures about wasted potential and narrow-mindedness.

  He wasn’t stupid, he knew Kuhn’s reputation was well-earned. For him to be saying these things meant he must have seen something in Axel that he was neglecting. But Axel hated the idea of following the ridiculous private lessons that were meant to improve him. As far as he was concerned, they were just more of the same attempts at control that his father and uncle tried forcing onto him.

  When he entered the dorm, the first thing he saw was Bridgit and Zachariah speaking in hushed whispers. Seeing an opportunity to annoy the royal family again, he loudly interrupted them.

  “If it isn’t my favourite pair of siblings!”

  He strode towards them, basking in the openly hostile glare from the younger sister.

  “The time to compete has nearly arrived. Do you really have the time to gossip here?”

  He threw an arm around Bridgit’s neck and pulled her in, easily ignoring her attempt to resist.

  “...Stop it Az.”

  Zachariah looked to be fed up with him as well after nearly a month of these taunts.

  “Az? Tsk tsk Zac. Your daddy taught you better than that. That name is forbidden, remember?”

  “What is it you want from us, Axel?”

  Bridgit spoke through gritted teeth.

  “Simple. I want a fight. A real fight. There aren’t many people out there I can let loose against, so that just leaves you two. Won’t you just cooperate? I know you want to kill me, so why not put your heart into it?”

  Zachariah stepped forward and aggressively pushed Axel’s arm away.

  Axel grinned at the prince, who finally lost his cool. Just a little longer, and he would forget their past and fight like a real enemy should.

  “Fine, fine… I’ll leave it at that for today. Make sure you don’t get knocked out by anyone else, yeah, Bridgit?”

  He ruffled her hair and went upstairs, merely laughing at the flurry of curses that left her mouth.

  A small black cat peered down at him from the top of the staircase.

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  “...Cute kitty.”

  He chuckled and moved past her. He could still feel those mana-infused eyes watching him all the way to his room.

  Those eyes seemed to be watching him often lately. He assumed it was Team 3’s way of scouting the other teams, similar to how Bridgit had bribed a bunch of students to repeatedly challenge others to learn their fighting styles and weaknesses.

  Axel wholeheartedly approved of such scheming. What he has always sought is a true, all-out fight, not one chained down with rules of chivalry and honor. Traps, cheats, and even killing intent… whatever could be used, should be used if it meant a chance to fight with his life on the line against worthy opponents.

  But this didn’t mean he would just reveal all his cards for no reason. Nobody here, not even the royal siblings, truly understood the strength of his Gift.

  ***

  Poggy surveyed the area around him. Deep cracks in the earth and scorch marks scarred the land.

  “Hm. Good enough.”

  He nodded at me with approval.

  “Can you do it with Soot though?”

  He pointed to the Molten Coiler wrapped around my body—a giant centipede with a carapace akin to lava. I had to rely on its help to carry out my practice for dealing with Axel.

  “Coiler not close enough to you. Won’t follow you into boring world.”

  “I know, but Soot can’t follow me back here yet. This was the only way to practice without Axel catching on.”

  The centipede unwrapped from my torso and burrowed away into the broken ground, satisfied we had accomplished our task.

  “Tia can follow me between realms on her own, but Soot has no talent for that kind of thing.”

  “You blame the boar? You could bring him. Just stay and learn properly this time.”

  Poggy was half right. There is a way to bring creatures with me between realms, just like how Soot followed me from the Feral Abyss to the material world, where he lives now.

  It was Poggy who cast the spell necessary for Soot to cross over with me, and it was the same spell I had failed to understand even after years of practice.

  “I don’t have any innate mana, master. A spell as complex as your portal needs an insane level of mana control and capacity. My soul is too weak to fuse with anything capable of doing what you do.”

  “So we strengthen your soul first. One more year will be enough. Why go back to boring world?”

  He pouted while voicing his disapproval for the hundredth time.

  “We’ll never make any progress reviving the Stag Lord here. Seven years was the maximum amount of time we could delay, you know this.”

  “...Yes yes, whatever.”

  He relented and pulled something familiar from his cloak.

  “Here. A parting gift. You have plenty of practice in the Crucible, yes?”

  The weapon he held was indeed familiar to me. It was the same axe I held when he first found me here. The same axe I wielded eight hours at a time in the Crucible.

  “You reforged it? I didn’t know you were a blacksmith.”

  “Ridiculous apprentice. Your master does not hammer iron like a barbarian!”

  He thrust the axe up at me.

  “Apprentice must have slain many with this weapon. Has developed a soul of its own. Simply linked the soul from the Crucible to the original remnants.”

  Poggy made it sound so simple, but everything he just said was terrifying for different reasons.

  There are different methods for a weapon to develop a soul. The hardest to achieve would be to slay a considerable number of souls. No standard weapon can hold out long enough to meet this condition, regardless of the user’s strength.

  It was odd that my axe would be eligible for this to begin with. I thought it was just a mental replica created for use in the Crucible only, not a real physical weapon.

  Also, everybody I “killed” with this axe was similarly in the Crucible, and they just respawned right away. The condition for killing others, as far as I knew, was required because the weapon would retain a portion of the souls it destroyed, eventually culminating in a new soul being born within.

  If I was right… I didn’t like the implication here.

  My thoughts crossed to the man I killed two nights ago, the one who was praying desperately. I only did what the Crucible commands of all who enter, but I did it with the knowledge that he would be fine anyway. Sure, the mental trauma of dying is a burden, but death through comprehensible means— like a murder between humans— is a mercy compared to what the monsters would do if I left him alone.

  That is what I told myself until now. But what if I had been shaving away pieces of their souls this entire time?

  Poggy must have noticed something in my expression, as he only hit me half as hard with his staff.

  “Idiot apprentice. Life is hard, requires hard heart to survive. Countless more will suffer and die on this road. Yet we walk it anyway, because we must.”

  I think about his words.

  Labouring for the good of all, though it may demand deeds most foul. Doing what is needed, regardless of our morals. Permitting the wheel of nature to turn unhindered, even should it flout the will of the divine. Such are the tenets of we who pursue the Stag Lord.

  I mentally repeated the oath Poggy taught me so long ago and felt my nerves settle.

  “...Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, master.”

  I took the axe, and the familiar weight in my right hand felt right.

  “Hm? What’s this?”

  My fingers brushed over a new addition at the base of the handle. The letters RJ had been engraved into it.

  “Your initials. This axe must become one with you. Do not reject or fear it, and it will serve you well. This way you will never forget.”

  “I’ll need a way to carry it.”

  Poggy wordlessly tossed a belt and an axe sheath to my feet. I equipped them and slotted the axe handle into the belt's loop. It hung at my hip, ready and eager to be drawn.

  “It seems we are out of time. Your soul will be called into the Crucible any minute.”

  “Yeah… You want to join me?”

  My master cackled at my joke.

  “Unlike you, I have the option of coming and going as I please.”

  To prove his point, he tapped his staff on the ground, and a green portal opened next to him. What realm it lead to, I did not know.

  “Bye.”

  He sees me off with a single word and hopped through, right as my side of the portal begins to shift once more.

  The nightmare began anew, but even with my newfound suspicions, I did not hold back. My axe was home, and it wanted to celebrate.

  ***

  Monday arrived, and all the teams gathered at the eastern gate to Borderton. Here, Professor Kuhn gave us our final directions.

  “Naturally, you can’t all head off at once. I don’t trust some of you to hold yourselves back.”

  He looked at Axel and Bridgit in particular.

  “To that end, there will be 15 minutes between each team’s departure. To keep things fair, we will go in order of which tribe requires the greatest travel time. Team 3, you will go first, followed by Team 1, then finally Team 2.”

  I stepped forward with Oliver and Fleur, ready to go anytime. Compared to the other teams, we were lightly packed. Fleur and I were used to sleeping and foraging outdoors, so we only had one bedroll and a small amount of rations between the three of us. In fact, one of the satchels I wore was just for Tiara to sit in.

  The second the whistle was blown, we started running to our first destination:

  The other goblin tribe I discovered two weeks prior.