Chapter Four

Arden’s gaze flicked between his parents, who were staring at him so intensely he fidgeted.

This felt different. Why did they care so much who won? They always hounded him for his decision, but not to this extreme. It was almost like their life depended on it.

As a last-ditch effort, he asked, “Can we call it a tie?”

Both of his parent’s sharply shook their heads then continued to stare at him. Their eyes somehow seemed bigger as they went into full puppy dog begging mode.

“Could you at least tell me what you bet?”

Yet again, all he received was a sharp head shake from both of them.

“Can I postpone my decision? I need to test my cards to see what fits me best.”

Arden felt the urge to tear his hair out as his parents vetoed his stall attempt.

With a sigh, he made eye contact with both of them. “If you won’t let me make an informed decision, then you can’t complain about who I choose. I don’t want another sand tunneling incident. How was I supposed to choose a winner when both of you hit bedrock at the same depth? It’s the same situation here. A tie with an uncommon and a rare each.”

All he received was a stare, no commitment, causing him to growl in frustration. How did he choose a winner here? Both gave useful cards. Actually, mom’s cards have more current use. He couldn’t use the spore card until he found some fungi.

Though it was the same with seeds for the Convert Seed card. All his cards relied on materials, but mom gave a card that synergizes with his starter card.

Wood Manipulation was an amazing card too. He would say it was the most valuable card he received, though Poison Resistance was a close second. The only reason Poison Resistance didn’t have as much value at least locally was there was a dungeon in the nearest city that dropped it occasionally. Wood Manipulation had to be imported, as there weren’t any locations to obtain it nearby.

In a large city, Poison Resistance had a higher value, though, as Wood Manipulation wasn’t the most popular manipulation card. Mainly because those who had wood attunement stayed in the forests near Magna Vita Urbs.

Also, like all resistance cards, Poison Resistances could be used by anyone. Though without the Poison Attunement, it had a weaker effect. Universal usability made resistance cards highly sought after. Even if manipulation cards were rarer and more useful in the right hands.

The more he thought about it, the clearer the winner appeared. His mother gave a card with good synergy and Poison Resistance had a very slight edge over Wood Manipulation. Though personally he would prefer Wood Manipulation. Fortunately, he didn’t have to choose as he had both.

With his decision made, tension left him replaced with a bit of mischievousness. He was their son, even if not by blood. Who cared about blood, anyway? If he wanted, he could have someone blood bond them in the future when he had extra money.

That way, they really were blood related, but doing that would be pointless. They saw him as their son and he saw them as his parents. Anything else didn’t matter.

Even if his birth mother or father showed up, they weren’t his parents. Love shouldn’t be freely given, but earned.

Arden raised his hand, letting it linger on his mother for a moment, causing her to smile in triumph, only to deflate when he shifted his finger to his father. He sent a smug look at his wife. Just before he could start bragging, Arden smirked and pointed at his mother with finality.

A triumphant cheer escaped his mother as she rocketed upward while twirling, sand rotating around her. When she landed, she put her hands on her hips and puffed her chest while smiling smugly at her husband.

As Arden expected, his father threw a tantrum unbecoming of his multi-century age. He sent a blast of sand at his wife while pointing a finger. Of course, the sand had little force behind it and was easily dispelled. “Oh, come on! I found the Wood Manipulation card. Nothing she gave beat that.”

Before things could escalate, knowing the loser could complain for hours, Arden focused on his father. “Thank you for the Wood Manipulation card, dad. It’s an amazing card. I couldn’t have gotten it without your help. I’m not sure I deserve such a valuable gift, but I’ll try my best to make you proud.”

His father’s gaze softened near instantly. “I’m already proud of you, son.” A teasing smile formed, “As long as you pick me next time.”

From experiencing a similar situation many times before, Arden didn’t bother giving a response. He knew his mother would react the same way if he chose his father as the winner instead. It was better to deescalate things as soon as possible and not goad the winner on.

To ensure this, he asked his next question to change the subject. “Will you tell me what you bet on now?”

Audun deflated as his mother practically vibrated with excitement, blurting out the answer. “The testing rights, of course!”

Arden scowled as he glared at his parents. “Wait, so all of this was over who gets to test me? You pounded everything you could into my head years ago. What is the point in testing me?”

Undeterred, his mother did a shooing motion at Audun, then shot forward, but unlike usual, it was just slow enough for him to leap back.

His foot hit the edge of the bench, causing him to stumble. With practiced ease, he went into a roll, then sprinted toward the weapon rack on the right side of the courtyard.

Of course, his mother didn’t make it easy. Geysers of sand shot upward, forcing him to zigzag. With no time to be picky, he grabbed a compound bow and some composite arrows, then released two arrows in quick succession toward his mother. The arrows flew true, but just before they reached his mother, a wall of sand blocked them.

He didn’t expect them to land, though. The moment he released the arrows, he dropped the bow and grabbed a sword and a large kite shield. With the shield raised, he charged through the sand, heavy robe proving useful as extra protection.

A vibration in the ground felt by his bare feet sent him jumping back, just barely avoiding a spear of sand. He rolled back to the rack, this time scanning it over for a solution.

His hand itched to grab the guns, but without control of his own mana until he reached grade one, it was useless. That left mundane weapons as his only option.

He kept the shield, knowing it was essential to block the sand, but dropped the sword for a spear to give him extra reach. With the spear pointed toward his target, he charged once more.

His mother even gave him an open path toward her, but knowing it was a trap, he circled around. He used the pillars to stay out of sight and took light steps to avoid giving away his location. Instead of going for her back, he stalked toward her side, just outside the range of her peripheral vision.

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Just as he reached striking range, a sudden blast of sand forced him to retreat a step. He raised his shield just in time to block it, but the force knocked him back several meters. Cracks formed on the shield, prompting him to toss it away then charge with the spear aimed at his mother’s chest.

She let him reach her and thrust toward her chest, but instead of hitting skin, a thin layer of sand repelled his attack. As if grounded by sandpaper, the tip of the spear rounded off within a moment.

Undeterred, he swept the now staff to the side, aiming for his mother’s waist. The attack hit, but shock shot up his arms from the impact. It was like he hit stone. Knowing his mother, he probably did.

His tingling hands lost grip on the spear, forcing him to leap forward to close the distance to keep up the pressure. If this were an actual fight, he would never risk such a maneuver against someone like his mother, but it was a test.

He sent a jab aimed at his mother’s throat. She predictably dodged with a tilt of her torso only to tilt into his kick, which he pulled back at the last second as he noticed a thin layer of sand form. Off balance from the aborted kick, he couldn’t dodge her leg sweep taking out his plant leg.

With a roll he sprang back up, uppercut sent at her jaw, but again he aborted at the last second to avoid a broken hand on the protective layer of sand.

Done he jumped back and crossed his arms. “What is the point of this? Without mana of my own, I can’t counter your sand.”

His mother nodded her head approvingly. “Good job. One always needs to know when they are outmatched.”

Arden glared. “Really? All of that was just to prove I can’t win a fight against you? We both know you proved that years ago.”

Of course, she ignored him as she used her sand to place the undamaged weapons back on the rack before returning her attention to him. Her eyes drilling into his. “Think of it as reinforcement. You must avoid the mistakes we made when we were your age. Overconfidence is one of the biggest dangers to young mages.”

Her serious expression disappeared, replaced with mischievousness. “Now, time for the actual test.”

Arden jumped back, but he was far too slow to escape his mother. She blurred forward and latched onto his forearm, then sent them rocketing airborne with a geyser of sand.

His robe flipped up, blinding him. Vertigo hit him as he felt himself fall. While pushing away the vertigo, he reached up with his free hand to pull the robe away, but no matter how hard he yanked, it refused to budge.

The familiar feel of another geyser launched them upward. He tried to ask his mom what she was doing, but all that came out was a garbled mess as the robe somehow stuffed itself into his mouth the moment he opened it.

Annoyance flashed, but he took the hint. His mother didn’t want him to see where they were going or ask anything. He thought he outgrew such treatment, but apparently not.

Maybe a part of the test was finding his way back. It wouldn’t be the first time they dropped him in the middle of the desert.

One thing was for sure, he was going to give her an ear full as soon as he could. Until then, all he could do was endure the treatment. It was partially his fault, anyway. He should have ripped off the robe the moment they returned home. It wasn’t like he was naked underneath.

Geyser after geyser propelled them upward as they arced further and further from their home. At least he didn’t feel the urge to puke anymore. That first trip to the city was horrible. Fortunately, that was years ago. The only thing he felt was the gravitational forces pressuring his body. That was probably his parent’s plan.

It seemed like everything they did conditioned or trained him. Even the stupid competitions taught him how to handle troublesome people and make tough decisions. Of course, that was years ago when he still took their competitions seriously. Now he just wanted them over as soon as possible.

Maybe he should have chosen his father as the winner. Though something told him his treatment wouldn’t change. His parents had a lot of similarities, after all. It was hard not to after centuries of marriage.

He didn’t even know when his parents married. The way they talked about historical events, like the monsoon of 4768, made it seem they married long before that.

Now that he thought about it, he didn’t know much about his parents at all. Not for a lack of trying, though. They had a knack for causing the subject to change at the perfect time to avoid answering anything.

Still, he knew they loved him, and despite their quirks, he trusted them with his life as a good son should. Because of that trust, he felt no danger as he arced through the desert blind. He knew his mom would never endanger him, knowingly or unknowingly.

Soon growing bored, Arden focused inward for the first time since his induction into Ortus. Unlike all the times he stared at his inert mana core before his induction, his core glowed in shifting shades of green, proving his multiple attunements.

He wasn’t sure he liked the instability of the shifting colors, but there was nothing he could do about it. Even if he focused on one attunement, his core would act like this. He knew going in core instability could be a problem in the future.

As he was, it wouldn’t cause any issues, but down the road, he needed to keep an even distribution of cards from his chosen attunements. Building one’s deck had to be taken with great care.

He sometimes envied the large families of the cities. They spoon-fed their children cards with perfect synergy to improve their core’s development.

This was another danger of his affinity in a desert. Nature-based cards were scarce, and he needed to create a stable deck as soon as possible to ensure a proper foundation for future growth. The problem was he didn’t even know all his attunements, though he was only missing one more that he knew of.

Nature was a highly versatile affinity almost on par with the elemental tree. Its Achilles’ heel was it relied on nature mana, which wasn’t the most abundant in cities or the desert. Unfortunately, those were the only environments nearby.

At early levels, he would also need materials to make use of his cards such as seeds, fungi, and wood. If he played his cards right and got a few lucky breaks, this wouldn’t be an issue in the future, unlike the lack of nature mana.

With how far they traveled so far, he was sure his mother had a plan for that. If it was just some simple test, they would have gone to their typical test spots.

Did they hold back some sort of secret location until his induction?

That seemed unlikely, as they didn’t know his affinity unless they planned for every contingency and had several locations planned out. He wouldn’t put it past his parents doing that. They never did things halfway.

Almost a year ago, they said they had nothing to teach him. Instead, they forced him to refine his mana control to extreme degrees to prepare for his induction. Despite their constant doubling down when he questioned them, he doubted that was the case. He was only just past his twenty-fifth year. How could they teach centuries of knowledge in such a short time?

Suspicion grew as they traveled further and further. Something fishy was going on. They would have reached any of the nearby cities by now. In fact, it was almost impossible to not run into a city if one traveled in any direction.

That meant she bypassed the city borders, which shouldn’t be possible. If the guards with their perfectly curated decks for their job didn’t detect and stop them, the enchantments on the border walls should have.

He tried to yank the robe away from his face once more, this time finding he could. What greeted him was a majestic sight. For as far as the eye could see, there were nothing but stone trees, each one dwarfing the largest tree from the villages. It was like their village was only on the outskirts of a massive forest.

Something wasn’t right, though. Why didn’t he hear of such a place before? There’s no way he would miss a place like this in his geography lessons.

Before he could ask, his mother smiled at him with smug satisfaction. Despite the wind buffeting, he heard her voice as clear as day. “Welcome to Exclusion Zone Five, also known as the Great Stone forest.”

While staring at everything with wonder, he mumbled, “Exclusion zone?”

“Hundreds of locations throughout the world appear blank on Ortus provided maps. To protect their citizens, Magna Vita Urbs walled off these locations and struck them from public records. At least that was the official story.”

Arden’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How do you know then?”

As usual, his mother deflected. “If you were to unlock an Elemental Affinity, we would have traveled to Exclusion Zone Three. Fortunately, you didn’t. That place is a hell zone. Still better than some of the more exotic exclusion zones further away, though. Some of which are really a danger to anyone but those of certain races.”

Refusing to give up, he drilled his gaze into his mother just as they rocketed upward via a geyser of sand. “If it’s blocked off, how did we get here?”

She smiled in response. “An elf needs her secrets.”

The urge to pull his hair grew stronger by the second, but he instead released a long sigh, knowing it would do him no good lashing out or trying to pry away secrets. His parents divulged nothing they didn’t want to.

When they arced downward once more, they continued to fall past the point she would usually create a geyser. Still, he remained calm as they plummeted toward the ground, knowing what would happen next.

As he expected, a pillar of sand cushioned their fall, then lowered them to the ground. However, the moment he touched down, another geyser exploded from below, except this time, it only launched his mother upward.

She let go of his hand and gave him a cheeky smile while waving goodbye. “Good luck Ardy. Hopefully, you find something interesting.”

Before he could reply, he lost sight of her as she rocketed herself away, far faster than she did with hi