Part one:
“That’s completely fine, but since you will be the last one to get the TP, you won’t be able to pick your time with the flower plants. Maybe I can swap with you if the schedule doesn’t suit you. 25:56”
For someone to become a successful paladin, they need not only to excel in their fighting ability but also in their knowledge of architecture, magic plant cultivation, and even certain scripts.
That’s what Ika used to tell him. Not everything was in the muscle.
Aside from treating his scars like the Priest asked her to, Ika also made sure that all of the broken glass fragments were removed from Zafer’s leg as soon as he told her the story of fighting Hydra.
She also bought him the famous 12-slot waistband for potion flasks, so that something like that doesn’t happen again.
These days those were safer and more popular to use than the glass vials.
Once the healing of his scars was completed, and once the Priest made sure Zafer was in the right shape, he was let free to go.
This was to be seen as a token of gratitude and respect for going through the troubles his apprentice Skil and “family” member Nemo dragged him into.
Those two were severely punished by having to spend 1 month with him and Zer Ox made sure that they regretted it to the point of never acting on their own like this again.
Oli, the friend of Skil whom that whole rescue operation was intended to, was also forced to endure the same fate since he was the main reason everything even happened.
It turned out that Skil lied to Zafer.
The whereabouts of Zlatko’s grinder were known to Skil even before Oli got kidnapped.
How he stumbled upon such discovery remained a mystery, but it’s said that he wanted to portray his dear friend, Oli, as the man behind the scenes who not only discovered the location of Zlatko’s grinder but also helped Skil to raid and plunder it.
He hoped that this feat might be enough for Temper to recognize him as a potential new candidate.
This was the only way Oli saw to join Temper.
In the end, he did receive what he longed for, but not in the way he expected.
The Priest was so furious that he just gave up and agreed to give Oli a job, but not as a paladin though, rather as a bookkeeper.
In Nubis numerous bookkeepers and staff members weren’t paladins, whereas in Temper most of these types of jobs were done by the 1st officer or the Banana.
This was mostly because they didn’t want to employ regular people and then use harsh measures to ensure that they stayed obedient and loyal through fear.
Nevertheless, Oli was an exception to this now, since he wanted it so badly.
Obviously, raiding Zlatko’s grinder wasn’t as easy as Skil and Oli thought, since Oli got trapped and Skil barely managed to escape.
Since Skil was too scared of telling this story to higher-ups, he decided to ask Nemo and Zafer to help him rescue Oli and possibly finish the job.
To plunder Zlatko’s grinder.
Nevertheless, that plan also failed, however, if Priest’s rescue team failed, then it would be pretty bad.
They were lucky that Zer Ox was strong enough to enter Zlatko’s grinder and extract everyone alive.
This was the level of strength Zafer wanted to achieve, and although the Priest wasn’t alone, the heights of Zafer’s dream were set right there.
Or even higher. Priest didn’t rescue them alone, of course, he had help.
However, Zafer wanted to get strong enough so that he could do everything by himself, because only then would everyone be able to rely on him.
The closest person to that description was Wabler, but Zafer wouldn’t mind surpassing even that if his limits didn’t restrict him.
The foundation of that goal was to become a good paladin, and that wasn’t possible without knowing how to cultivate magic plants.
He could try to reinvent the whole science behind it, but that would take him several lifespans.
Either way, cultivating magic plants wasn’t something he ever intended to learn, but it was a necessary side quest, and that was exactly how he viewed his whole stay with Ika.
She taught him everything he needed to know about cultivating the flame flowers, from extracting the sap, and pruning the branches so that they don’t overgrow into an intricated mess, to using metal pipes to stabilize the plant when it’s still young.
She even talked about the conservatory the plants were kept in and the type of ground and humidity that was necessary for them to not wither.
After that part of his life was over, it was time to continue his journey, and that was towards the rune library where Mint worked.
Cultivating magic plants without purchasing runes made no sense, and to live a life like this without good gear meant death.
He used the map Mint gave him to find his way to the library.
The place he was traveling towards was a small village in the very south of the country, and he was close.
He knew it since he could see the Pashtrik mountains in the distance.
Those hills weren’t something that someone would see every day, because most of the important and big cities were located around the middle of the basin, but once someone saw them, there was no way they would ever forget.
The average height was around 6000 kilometers.
Aside from it being illegal, nobody was skillful enough to climb over those mountains.
The hike was a suicide even for a paladin, and those who were capable were exactly the people who lacked that childish curiosity and thought of it as a waste of time.
Mostly because they already knew what outside of the Pashtrik basin was.
They heard it from those who went outside.
It was similar to a school classroom, where all the students know each other and someone from another classroom would be merely an uninformed outsider who was not part of the whole network of information exchange.
That was Zafer currently.
The only people who were legally allowed to and who were actively venturing beyond the Pashtrik mountains were members of the National Security expedition squad.
In any case, the map that Mint gave Zafer wasn’t very accurate meaning that he knew where the village was but didn’t know how far he was from it.
However, given the fact that the Pashtrik mountain range is now well within his sight and that the last human civilization he came across was 3 days away, it was obvious that the village he was looking for was near.
Two more days of walking at most.
The Book of Runes and Curses: Paragraph 11:
A Patronage rune is a constant-active rune, as long as the item it was implemented in physically touched its user…
…and the main function was to harden human cells, making the body more enduring to physical stress and force.
He was currently on a plateau with his sight only being limited by the Pashtrik mountains in front of him, and an endless horizon in any other direction.
The wild grass that grew here was to his knees, and there wasn’t any other noticeable diversity of plants, except for some bushes and evergreen trees here and there.
This was normally a problem since he had no cover in case of strong wind or rain during the night when he ate, rested, and slept, but not because he would catch a fever or something.
He was a paladin in training after all, and it was widely known that those whose anomalies were strong were always the last to get sick, no matter if it was an euclid or a regular anomaly.
No.
The main issue with staying outside during the bad weather was due to his belongings getting wet and destroyed like the book of Runes and Curses, however, this was not something he had to worry about anymore, thanks to the Miyalin bag Skil gifted him.
It not only made storing his items easier, but also the whole traveling process shorter, since he was deprived of having to carry extra weight.
The sun was slowly settling in, and it was the best opportunity for Zafer to have dinner before the last rays of the sun disappeared behind Pashtrik.
He summoned his Miyalin bag and pulled out 3 potatoes which he then boiled and waited to peel with his knife once they were done.
Just as he was about to finish eating the first one, the scarce fog started to set in, but it was nothing that would disturb him from finishing his meal.
However, something else did, and he spotted it quite late given that he was on a sight-clear plateau.
It was a humanoid figure, and he couldn’t tell if it was walking toward or away from him.
It was toward him of course.
It was a woman, no taller than him, with her black hair in a bun.
She wore regular metal armour which meant that she was not a regular citizen.
What would someone else look for in this wasteland?
“Hey”, Zafer called out and that was when she stopped.
Only her silhouette was visible.
For narration context, her name was Yana, but Zafer didn’t know it yet.
An axe appeared in her left hand and at that same moment, Zafer felt a chill in his ears.
Vroom.
It was a lightning bolt, landing directly on him.
He got hit, and still swiftly dashed sideways hoping that the fog and dust would give him cover, at least until he drank the potions from his 12-slot belt.
He had 5 red potions on the left and 5 blue on the right side, with 2 remaining slots empty.
Those 2 were reserved for the purple potion, but Zafer never bought any since he didn’t need it for training and it was expensive.
Unfortunately, he didn’t even manage to take one flask from the belt before another lightning bolt struck him.
He again suppressed the A-11 activation, since it would drain a lot of his anomalous pool in an instant, but taking the second lightning bolt knocked him down on the ground.
To summon two lightning bolts in such a short period, meant that she either possessed the Purge IV, which was the most advanced version of the rune, or wielded two Miyalin axes.
Did Zafer accidentally stumble upon someone’s territory? A gang? Maybe her grinder was nearby.
Everything was peaceful once again.
Yana observed Zafer lying on the ground before taking slow strides toward him.
He was conscious but scared, calmly lying on the ground.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
This was nothing like the brawl against Hydra or any other men where everyone else could spectate the fight and see what happened.
Yes, even in Arena he could still die, but that was never the main intention of his opponents.
This however was all happening in the middle of nowhere.
If something was to happen to Zafer nobody would even raise any suspicion until several days had passed.
Zafer was still too early on his journey of strength and martial arts. 95% of all paladins were capable of killing him.
He could not allow himself to get killed while still unhatched.
Hit and run was an option here.
Zafer suddenly pushed himself off the ground and attacked her, hoping to finish the fight before the cooldown on her axe ended.
Yana reacted somewhat late but still managed to block Zafer’s swing, after which she pulled out a flask, nearing it to her lips.
“She didn’t drink her potions in advance?”
This was the best opportunity to take her down then.
Zafer risked it all and went directly at her, hoping she would hesitate between drinking or blocking his attack.
After all, blocking while holding an open flask without spilling a drop was a difficult task.
Surprisingly, Yana didn’t contemplate a bit but poured the entire liquid down her throat.
It was over in less than a second!
She threw the flask away and with the help of the blue potion’s effect deflected Zafer’s swing at ease, and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him down on the ground once again.
Zafer rolled on the ground over 2 times and then forced himself to jump right back, ignoring all the pain in order to defend himself from the next session of attacks.
However, it never came.
Yana stood there throwing another flask on the ground, gazing at Zafer.
She already drank another potion.
To be so confident to attack someone without using the advantage to drink the potions beforehand was absurd.
Even adult paladins did this without exception, and she definitely didn’t seem to be someone of that strength.
Furthermore, the speed at which she consumed potions was unfathomable and Zafer never saw anyone before do anything similar.
It was as if she didn’t swallow at all, but only let the liquid slide down her throat.
Was this even possible for anyone to do?
Zafer never tried it before, but maybe this was the perfect time to learn a new skill.
He quickly flicked, pulling his own flask in his hand after which he faked to open it.
Yana fell for it dashing ahead, but Zafer only stepped sideways, summoning his axe just in time to hit her.
She blocked it, but still went flying due to Zafer’s impeccable strength that was granted to him by the Iron Fist anomaly.
As said, Yana went flying but she was still under the effect of the blue potion, which meant that Zafer had to hurry up.
He opened the flask, this time for real, and poured the liquid down his throat, even lifting his head just like Yana did.
However, he was surprised to find out that this trick wasn’t that easy to pull off.
A mere drop fell on his still-opened Epiglottis, the reflex kicked, in and his throat muscles tightened, making him cough the whole potion out.
He was embraced by fear.
He lowered his head, gasping for as much air between his coughs as possible.
The liquid slid down his mouth and his face turned red.
He could not straighten himself up to fight!
His body started moving on its own as if the wind had lifted it.
Yana pulled him towards her.
That was her secondary anomaly, the Force.
Her anomaly was still weak though so she could not completely lift Zafer off the ground.
He dragged on the ground for 2 seconds before hitting Yana's sole.
He was still undergoing the choking reflex but managed to blindly put his axe above himself to block any possible incoming swings.
Unfortunately, the spasm didn’t only affect his throat but also made it difficult to firmly control other muscles in his body, like his forearm muscles, despite the A-6.
Yana swung and knocked his axe out of his grasp.
“Got wet hands?”, this was the first time she spoke.
Was it over? Is this it?
For some reason, instead of finishing him off, Yana threw her axe beside her and kneeled, starting to punch Zafer wherever she could.
She was punching him as if it was out of hatred.
They were currently on a very steep part of the hill but one could still stand upright without losing the balance.
Nevertheless, Yana chose to hold onto Zafer’s sweater with one hand while punching him with her other.
The second potion she drank was the purple one, but Zafer didn’t seem to take as much damage as one would expect, and she noticed this right away.
“His body is way tougher than normal humans”.
Suddenly, Zafer pushed her hands away, standing up.
Because of the hill being steep, their faces were at the kiss distance. Yana was caught off guard.
She gasped knowing what happens now.
Zafer gritted his teeth and rammed his forehead against hers with all his might.
-Death-
The next thing Yana felt after that was a punch in her abdomen.
Her armor sunk in, and she went flying downhill.
Zafer stood in the same place, somehow managing to balance himself.
“What do you want?!”, he screamed at her as she rolled down the hill.
If she wanted to kill him, she clearly could have done that by now, and the only reason Zafer could think of not doing that was that she maybe wanted Zafer to overheat himself first.
This was a common practice when fighting someone to death for a maximal profit.
Once someone enters the last 10 or 15 % of their anomalous pool they start to overheat and bleed from their eyes, but something that also might happen is that their skin reveals the Transport point if they had one tattooed on them.
Once tattooed onto someone’s skin, TP drained a minimal portion of one’s anomalous pool to stay invisible.
Once someone overheats and dies, their TP would stay visible on their corpse for others to copy.
This was similar to preventing someone from dying with a Miyalin weapon in the Void, to avoid its loss.
Zafer had no TP on him, meaning that this practice was pointless.
Yana’s vision slowly returned, and she gazed up at Zafer.
Her axe was still under Zafer’s feet but he dared not to touch it.
He still didn’t trust himself to identify the Splinter rune.
Both she and Zafer started drinking from their flasks at the same time once again, and obviously, she finished way before him, already pouncing towards his direction at full speed.
There was no way Zafer could get to his own axe in time, so he just focused on drinking to blue potion.
Yana reached him in no time, landing a kick on his stomach.
Zafer flew away, but this time at least he successfully drank his first potion during the entire battle.
The blue potion.
The two of them were now even in terms of speed boost, and they immediately went back at it.
Zafer had 5 more red potions and 3 blue ones.
He wasn’t sure if he missed something, but it seemed that the Yana never drank a red potion, only blue and purple ones.
She was confident and brave.
This girl obviously wasn’t here only for the kill, but also to humiliate Zafer.
No, wait.
Was she only here to humiliate Zafer and give him a good beating? Perhaps even to scare him?
While the two exchanged blows Zafer also managed to get to his axe and after about 20 minutes the effect of the blue potion started to wear down.
During these 20 minutes, Zafer was getting overwhelmed, however the main threat only came now.
It was time to replenish his body with the blue potion.
He had open cuts all over his body, and although he wasn’t bleeding out that much, deferring the consumption of his first red potion wasn’t logical anymore.
He had a broken rib, and his shoulder was also feeling somewhat off.
The good thing was that Yana’s blue potion effect was also slowly wearing off.
Nevertheless, Zafer knew that mutual potion consumption was impossible, so he remained close to Yana at all times, putting more pressure on her.
Will Yana still try to drink the blue potion under all this pressure or will she rather fight with no effects?
It was interesting that since Zafer had the Iron Fist anomaly, he had an advantage in close combat, but Yana never let him approach her within a grabbing range, and she also wasn’t running away from him either.
To say that she is more skilled than Zafer would be an understatement, but even being aware of the strength difference, she finally panicked a little bit.
She wrongly calculated the distance between them and went to grab the flask with her hand.
This was the opportunity Zafer had been waiting for.
He revoked his Miyalin axe back into the Void and grabbed Yana by both forearms.
Her heart twitched, but quickly realized that Zafer’s grip strength wasn’t as strong as she thought it was.
Her forearms were covered with iron armor.
Despite focusing on breaking her forearm bones, Zafer wasn’t letting her trip him over with her legs, and to an outsider, it seemed as if they were dancing, constantly pushing, and pulling each other while their legs were entangled.
The armor bent a little, creating a force on Yana’s hands, but don’t forget that she was under the effect of a purple potion, making her a little bit tougher.
That pain was nothing she could not withstand.
The more this went on the more Zafer realized he wasn’t going to do anything except overheat himself.
This made him furious.
If only he was stronger. If only he trained his Iron Fist more.
Nevertheless, Zafer wasn’t giving up, and seeing this, Yana had no other choice but to activate her primary anomaly.
The A-1, Synthesis.
Three sharp iron blades penetrated her own armor from the inside and extended into Zafer’s shoulder and chest.
They penetrated his body. It hurt.
He groaned and then stiffened his whole body before smashing his skull against Yana’s once again.
Only then did he let her go and backed away.
Yana cried out. The second time her head went numb.
The 3 iron blades got separated from her body and were now only sticking out from Zafer.
They both tried their best to stay balanced, but Yana couldn’t endure it anymore.
She knelt, groaning in pain.
Zafer on the other hand remained calmer, pulling the blades out of his body, drinking his first red potion, and renewing the blue one.
This left him with 4 red potions and 2 blue potions.
Yana couldn’t see properly but figured out how Zafer was using this time to his advantage.
So, she merely touched her axe.
Vroom.
The Purge rune fell on Zafer once again, neutralizing all potion effects.
This only bought Yana more time to recover, since Zafer now had to drink his potions once again.
He was left with 3 red potions and a single blue.
This ratio was bad because he had no use of red potions if he wasn’t fast enough to prevent getting hurt.
If he fought her with no blue potions at all, he would quickly run out of the red ones as well, that was if he even managed to drink them.
Yana straightened herself, but her vision was still blurry. Zafer was in no hurry to attack her anyway.
He knew he could not prevent her from drinking the potions.
They stood about 30 meters away from each.
This battle had become quite exhausting.
Due to the blue potions, they covered great distances at ease.
The blue potion, however, didn’t make one more enduring. This was why Mio had Zafer jogging every day.
Had that not been the case, his stamina would have been depleted a long time ago.
Yana opened her first flask of red potion, pouring it down her throat.
“When Sir Simra rejected me, I somewhat did understand”, she spoke, “I could never match someone as strong as him or probably most of the other paladins. But then they accepted a new candidate…”, she squeezed her hand that was holding the axe, “I wonder why that was”.
Zafer paid no attention to her words, instead rolling up his trousers as much as he could.
Experiencing the winter breeze on warm, perspiring skin was both refreshing and delightful.
He then blew his nose in his naked hand and whipped it off of his leggings.
Yana wore armor, had the effect of the purple potion, and even possessed an axe with the purge rune.
On top of that, she always managed to finish her potions right in front of him, and the only way he could stop her was to risk getting severely hurt.
But if that was the case, then let it be.
He was angry and frustrated, and his eyes were wider than normal, with enlarged pupils, and it seemed as if something starred right through them.
Yana stared back, watching Zafer strip the upper part of the body.
He first removed his thick black scarf.
This scarf that Zafer carried all around, just like officer Uk, was not for looks.
Regular runes could technically be implemented into any material other than Miyalin.
Some paladins used to implement a Patronage rune into an article of clothing they could always wear around.
This way, they were somewhat protected even when not wearing the Miyalin armor.
Yana had it as well right now but did not dare take it off.
Why would Zafer do that? She could not figure that out.
She frowned.
Was it some kind of trick? Maybe his scarf possessed no runes after all.
By this time Zafer pulled his sweater over his head. He had no shirt underneath.
This was the moment when Yana’s heart skipped a beat.
Her facial expression got caught in shock.
She stared at Zafer’s naked body with many questions in her mind.
His abdomen was full of fresh scars that she dealt to him, but there was another wound in the middle of his stomach that was utmost disgusting.
It was half rotten and intertwined with messy sewing threads as if an amateur threatened the injury.
It was something she could not describe
Did he do this to himself? How?
Zafer pulled down the empty flask from her lips revealing a smile.
Zafer’s whole body emitted visible heat.
He was only starting to get caught by the mood.
He suddenly disappeared.
“Shit!”, she screamed.
Zafer has gotten way faster.
They clashed once again.
Yana did not hold back on her anomalies anymore, but Zafer paid no attention.
He got penetrated multiple times by her Synthesis iron blades, and still attacked her with all his might, as if the pain didn’t exist.
Those wounds were actively being regenerated via the red potion, yes, but this approach was still highly risky.
Even under the regenerative effects of the red potion, nothing could heal a damaged heart quickly enough to prevent death.
Nevertheless, Zafer was just dashing around, finally forcing Yana to take the defensive side.
He was moving too quickly and recklessly for her to accurately penetrate his heart.
Zafer’s eyes never stopped from moving and observing and it seemed as if his every movement was done one purpose, consciously.
He has finally reached the flow state.
Maybe even beyond that.
Yana panicked so much that she decided to drink another red potion despite the 10 minutes not passing yet.
She should be stronger than him, but his Iron Fist anomaly made up for the absence of a purple potion in Zafer’s blood.
It was also important to note that even if both of them were way faster than a normal human, this didn’t mean that they were more enduring.
Only during the current session, did they cross over 8 kilometers.
This was a huge strain on their legs, liver, heart, and lungs.
Zafer was very thankful to Mio for making him jog and train his body without potions.
Zafer suddenly made a very risky move, breaking Yana’s hand, but also getting hit by her axe and blasted away.
For her hand bones to reconnect and merge it would take just enough time for Zafer to consume another red potion and his last blue one.
Yana frowned staring at Zafer realizing the risky trade-off he pulled off just now.
“I get it now… You are just like him!”, she screamed, “you are crazy! You are fucking crazy!”
Zafer smiled slightly at her, feeling something sliding down his cheeks.
It wasn’t sweat, but blood.
He wiped it with his hand.
He was starting to overheat, which meant that any further usage of his anomalies could make him burn out and cause terrifying consequences.
“Heh… I might have to go for a kill”.
Yana gritted her teeth.
Both of their throats were burning in pain from inhaling the cold mountain air.
Breathing through the nose just didn’t supply them with enough oxygen.
They weren’t experienced enough.
Zafer could even taste blood in his mouth, and there wasn’t any wound in there.
He stepped forward but suddenly felt an intense pain spreading from his calf to his chest.
His legs were burning, and he had a feeling as if his muscle fibers were intricated into lumps.
Running with a mediocre pace was one thing and sprinting at full speed was another.
His facial expression froze, unable to step neither forward nor backward.
Yana took continuous deep breaths, also tired and terrified from the encounter.
Although Zafer still didn’t reach his peak performance, he was physically exhausted and on the verge of falling apart.
He had to train more.
Yana wasn’t aware of this, however, and with Zafer’s sudden increase in strength, she didn’t know what to expect next.
“What’s your name?”, Zafer asked calmly.
He was aware that it was over. Yana had more endurance than him.
“Yana”, she responded standing across him, “why did you want to join Temper? Why become a paladin”.
At this point, it was clear that she gave up on killing him if she even planned on doing that.
Sometimes when we feel that life treats us unfairly, we get a need to take that frustration out on someone who might be a part of it.
But in the end, not everything is as it seems when viewed by an angry eye.
Zafer indeed proved not to be a spoiled someone with privileges, but rather a man that would become quite fearsome if he continued his journey.
Yana hated it, but that was the reality.
“Never mind…”, she said after reflecting a little bit on their fight, “I know already”.
To become a paladin one needed to devote his whole life to acquiring the necessary skills, which was a perilous path, and even after becoming one, the risk of losing everything while constantly giving endeavors to keep a place in society never went away.
That was the reason why many found the fortune of paladins not worth it, hence all the paladins have an excellent reason for pursuing this kind of a lifestyle, abdicating any normal relation- or friendship.
Still, in some cases, those reasons weren’t that noble.
Sometimes they were similar to why gamblers keep returning to their bad habit, despite the fear of losing everything.
However, after observing the individuals who have nothing to lose, and nothing to do with the time their life granted them, it might start to make more sense.