Amun.

***

“Alright, alright.” I gently shrugged Zakira off of me with a groan. “I’ll start by saying I’m from Maru. From an Empire called Odissi. I was born as the royal heir to the House of Cole. We are a family of Sorcerers and the rulers of the Odissi.”

“So.” Peter shuffled in discomfort. "Winston was telling the truth? You really are the Grand Duke of Odissi.”

“I do not understand.” Slate shook his massive head between Peter, Zakira, and me.

“To put it simply.” I sighed. “My family is the antithesis to the families of light. They are like angels who hold power over everything that is light. We are like Devils who claim dominion over everything dark. All members of my family are sorcerers of darkness as you saw earlier. But me and my great-grandfather command death. Necromancy is our birthright. And we are seen as sovereigns of both the Realm Shadows and the Underworld.”

“Have you ever been?!” Zakira eagerly stepped forward.

“I have.” I calmly nodded, much to Peter’s horror. “The souls and devils that live there run whenever they see me.”

“Yeah.” Zakira nodded and whispered in her usual way. “I can feel something… darker about you. But not like... edgy. You know?”

“M- may I ask!” Peter lurched forward this time. “What is the Necro King like?”

“What have you heard about him?” I asked with a raised brow.

“That his army can never be defeated. And nor could he.” Peter grimly replied. “No one knows what he’s like outside of that. But everyone fears his undead. Even the Empress.”

“Well.” I shrugged in an attempt to hide the devious smirk crawling up my lips. “That is true. And what you said about devils is true too. But not drow. The Dark World starts ten thousand kilometers below the surface. Dragging someone down there is just too much work. It’d be much easier to just kill them where they were found. As for our undead.” I turned my rising laughter away from Peter's unbridled horror to look at the others. “They come in two types. The undead you all know can be killed under the right circumstances. But our sorcery makes undead out of shadows. If they’re defeated in battle, they can reform, at the cost of my mana. In that sense, they are immortal. But that can be defeated by first defeating me.”

“That’s completely broken!” Elsgril slammed his meaty fist against his thigh.

“But it makes sense,” Slate affirmed to himself. “If a family of light sorcerers exists, it would only make sense for a family of dark sorcerers to exist. I find myself surprised to hear you bear such labels. But I am impressed by the wisdom and kindness you've displayed. It tells me that there is much I have to learn. Please.” He held his giant hand out before him. “Continue.”

“Alright.” I sighed. “My sorcery comes from my father’s side. My mother is the one that’s drow. But I was raised in Maru. I was raised freely, but my great-grandfather also taught me how to fight. We fought to the brink of death every day for four years. Then, I took the assessment and came here.”

“You were trained by the Necro King.” Peter shuddered.

“Yeah.” I let out a nostalgic sigh. “It was… extremely painful. But I have an extremely high pain tolerance now. So.” I shrugged to finish off my words and turned my expectant gaze to the others.

“Well, that sure is something. You're from that family.” Els sighed to himself after a few long moments. “I’m glad to hear you're on our team. The Gods know I wouldn’t want to fight against you.”

“I, for one, would love to see how I fair against you.” Slate grinned maniacally before holding up his finger. “But before that, I would like to know what you plan to do after we graduate from here.”

“Oh!” I snorted. “I plan to form a guild and secure the blockaded continent in our realm. Then, we're going to explore the Mortal Plane in its entirety. I plan to visit all the realms. And with my necromancy, I can speak to the dead and unearth the secrets from the ancient past.”

“I would like to join you.” He declared before Peter could voice his inevitable objections.

“Huh?” I shook my head at Slate. Not because I didn’t want him to. Because I didn’t think it’d be this easy.

“It is as you said with Peter.” He smiled. “I can see you are capable of great things. If I follow the winds that blow in your wake, I know I can face and overcome the greatest challenges one could face and learn all there is to know about these realms.”

“Can’t say I’m willing.” Els scratched his beard. “Sure is promising, though. Your weapons are fine, but you’re royalty. So, tell me. Would you help me discover the secrets of my people? Do you have an interest in the artisanal arts?”

“I plan to discover everything.” I grinned at him. “We’ll travel to all the realms and recover as much knowledge that was lost to history as we can. So, naturally. I'll help you in that endeavor. You have my word. And, of course, I have an interest in such things. I'm aiming to be a Grandmaster Artificer, after all.”

“Then you have my word that I’ll consider it.” He harrumphed in an affirmatory way before adding. "Heavily."

“I’ll think about it too!” Peter leaned forward almost impulsively. Then leaned back in the next instant and seemed to shy into himself. “I mean, I’m still unsure of what I want to do. But, I’ll think about it.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I’ll follow you anywhere, My Liege.” Zakira abruptly took my hand in the vice grip that was hers.

“Okay!” I groaned and attempted to pry my grip away from hers to no avail. “At the end of the day, the choice is yours. It won’t be formed for a while, at least. You don’t have to tell me this now. But if you want to, well." I shrugged. "Welcome aboard.”

“Very well. With that, I would say our introductions were successful.” Slate grunted and rose to his feet. Looked at each of us with a warm smile. Then turned for the door, mumbling to himself. “I’m hungry.”

The rest of us more or less followed the same sentiments so we trailed after him out into the common area to where the other teams were going through the same motions. Mingling with each other over snacks, drinks, and games.

After scanning a room a bit, Slate diverged from his path to approach another of his kind, hovering over two humans sitting off to the edge of the bar-like island. After noticing our approach, the goliath stood while pulling something from his dimensional storage and held out a glass bottle full of an amber-colored drink in his rocky palms.

“My name is Kaolinite.” He smiled. “Consider this a token representing my admiration of your courage.”

“Uh, thanks,” I reached for the liquid and held it up before my eyes. “What is it?”

“It is ancient water that has been squeezed from deep crevasses by the weight of a mountain and sweetened by a specific type of algae. It is known to our kind as Sweet-rock Wine.

I took a sip and was immediately blessed by a nutty, honey tea taste and recoiled in surprise. I wasn’t one for sweets, but. “Damn!” I beamed at both him and the bottle. “This is good!”

“Yes.” He nodded proudly.

“We were just going for our meal.” Slate gestured for the door. “Care to join us?”

“Next time.” Kao waved. “I only just returned.”

“Very well.” Slate continued on with another wave and we followed behind.

At the cafeteria, I made a quick note of what everyone ate before I ordered for myself. Zakira ordered a flask of blood while Peter had a platter of rare thick steak and an assortment of vegetables. Slate and Els ordered a larger, modified version of what Peter got. A grilled cow leg and no vegetables for the Goliath, and a plate full of bread, a few mugs of mead, and a plate of seared meats that was half as large as the dwarf was.

“Now that our introductions are underway.” Els slurped his food. “Let’s say we talk about abilities, eh? I’ll start.”

Despite his words, he took a long moment to down his first chalice before turning his hands back to his plate to pick the meat from the bone. “As ye saw, I use a war hammer and shield.” He smacked loudly. “That means I like to fight up close and personal. Like this one.” He nudged Slate with his elbow.”

“With a claymore.” The Goliath affirmed with a nod. “It is a simple weapon of steel. But I am quite skilled in wielding it. However, my goal is to master the usage of magic. Long ago, I read that our ancestors were said to possess powers of ice and stone. I vowed to one day master these abilities. Until then, I will use my body and sword as my weapons. I am, what the academy would call, a future Barbarian.”

“Oh!” Els slammed his mug down. “In that case, I’m a Fighter in the making. But I plan to fall down the Artificer route next year as well.”

“Uhm.” Zakira hummed to herself as she tapped at her chin. “I’m really strong and I fight with a mace. And my magic allows me to use blood as, like, strings. I can fight anywhere, though.”

“Interesting." I nodded. "I have the sorcery I mentioned earlier. But I also have four other affinities, like Winston mentioned. They’re Space-Time, Gravity, Electromagnetic, and Nuclear Magic. With my affinities comes a preference to fight from a distance. But I've been training in the martial arts for over a decade so I can fight at close and mid-ranges as well.”

“What are those magics, exactly?” Els leaned forward with a flair of insurmountable interest.

“Void magic is a step above my necromancy, which in itself is a step above my shadow sorcery. It destroys whatever it touches so it makes fights boring. Thus I use it sparingly. As for the others.” I sighed. “I have control of both time and three-dimensional space; as well as the force that keeps our bodies tied to the ground.”

“Electricity is lightning, yes? Then, electromagnetism is self-explanatory.” The Goliath rocked in his seat. “The combination of electricity and magnetism. But what of nuclear magic?”

“It’s a bit difficult to explain.” I sighed again. “But essentially, it's what powers the sun and creates the natural elements. It also keeps the blocks that make up all matter held together and…” I dismissively rolled my hand. “A bunch of other things.”

“I see.” Slate rocked again after a few moments of silence. “In essence, you have the power to manipulate reality as you see fit. Not only that, but you are respectful and courageous; knowledgable and wise; I only hope you have humility as well.” His rocky face curled up into a smile as he raised his bottle in a toast. Then looked to Peter after the exchange was complete.

He was a bit in shock after being silently called out but quickly recovered and put on a face of confidence. “I told you my affinities before, but I have no experience in fighting or using them. But!” He looked at each of us with steely eyes. “I’ve devoted myself to training as best as I can. I promise I won't hold any of you back.”

“Experience is beside the point. Aptitude is what’s important. More so is the fact that you are the only one of us without the ability to see in the dark.” Slate curtly said to Peter. “We will need to overcome this through enchantments.”

“We?” I habitually snorted.

“We are a team.” Slate turned to me with a flat expression. “Is that a problem?”

“Not at all.” I shrugged. “But we need more than just enchantments. We need to grow accustomed to each other's abilities, we need to train and share knowledge with one another. We need to make battle formations, calls, and signals.”

“Indeed.” The dwarf grunted.

After holding onto my words for a moment, Slate wound down after letting out a sigh of relief “ I agree. That will come in due time. For now, our orientation still continues. Let us part ways for now and reunite at the dinner tomorrow.”

After we all voiced our agreement, we loitered behind one another on our way back to the rooms. Along the way, I contemplated making a stop by the library but decided against the possibility of going on another bender and missing the dinner. So instead, I walked next to Zakira behind everyone else.

In all, she was quite curious and annoying to most of the others. But her… chaotic behavior was quite hilarious to me, making my vampire teammate quite a pleasant surprise. Perhaps it was because of my attitude back home, but Toril and the others were far too serious; which was another reason why I wanted them to make their own contacts. As for Zakira, her clinginess had a strong potential to become annoying over time. But it wasn’t something I was tired of just yet. Aside from that, though, I knew next to nothing about her. But like everything else, that would change in due time.

As we made our way into the courtyard, my thoughts were pulled to the ground by Zakira tugging at my arm and looking up at me with her large, red eyes. “Uhm.” She mumbled. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Why?” I coyly smiled. “Do you know someone interested?”

“Maybe.” she hummed.

“Well.” I shrugged. “I’d tell her I’d have to get to know her first. And I have some ambitions that will always be most important to me. She can’t be clingy either. I need my personal space, after all.”