Chapter 11
A small group of officials surrounded Kalex while the group of spectators shouted in indignation. “I demand a re-test! That fragment was a fake!” Someone from the onlookers shouted. “Calm yourselves or you will be forcefully removed from the testing ground. I said CALM!” Everyone in the crowd of rowdy test-takers immediately quieted down at the words of the most decorated official.
“The fragment was not a fake, what happened was just a testament to how worthless you all are. This Roamer boy has surpassed you all!” The official was handed another eclipse fragment. “Look here. I have been deemed the strongest test adjudicator in the whole south province of the Realm of Seeds!” The fragment in his hand burst into a small cloud of feather-light powder. “Only the elite can cause the destruction of an eclipse fragment, and this boy did it with ease! What is your excuse, Roamers?” Everyone in the crowd was at their breaking point and sneers could be seen directed at the official. “When an event like this occurs, we have measures in place to accurately measure any incoming elites.” A box was given to the official with a bow from his subordinate.
Opening the box with a flourish, the official took out an identical-looking fragment to the one he had just destroyed, although it was a bit bigger. “What I have in my hand is an eclipse shard. This will be the first and only time many of you will ever see such an artifact, as it is only needed when true elites grace us with their presence.” Holding the shard out and taking on a look of constipation, the official grunted and the shard lit up a vibrant menagerie of rainbow lights. Dripping with sweat, the official slowly lowered the shard back into the box. “As you can see, there are other ways of determining the power of the strong…”
Kalex stopped listening to the man’s tirade and asked Lex for the status of the man. Kalex heard a voice in his head. “Of course, Mr. Wounder. I am aware of your curiousness, so in the future, you can mentally send out the request to see yours or anyone else’s status and I will comply.” Feeling weird about thinking at Lex, he thanked him nonetheless and received a warm tingle deep in his forehead.
Name: Landor Rone
Race: Human (Enternia)
Rank: Silver Sayer
Maturity: 13/200
Path: Garrulous Wind (Novice)
Vitality: 182/250
Myst: 450/500
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 8
Agility: 12
Charisma: 36
Luck: 21
Kalex looked at this man in a new light. He was silver rank but all of his stats were abysmal. If this was the state of this world’s elites, their hierarchy was about to be shaken up. Landor let out a breath as he finished his pompous explanation to the roamers, and walked over to Kalex. Holding out the open box to Kalex, the official made a motion to him to grab the shard lying inside.
Kalex carefully lifted the shard out of its padded enclosure and began pooling his myst to his hand. In hopes of not acting too rash and shoving his presence into the shard, he slowly let out a trickle of his myst. The moment his myst was released, the shard lit up with a bright, sclera-piercing light and exploded in a seemingly excessive manner. The blast made no sound and had no force behind it, but it flooded the outside of the wall with light that made it seem like it had become midday. Every single person rubbed their eyes and stared at Kalex, with the most expressive face belonging to Landor who was standing a few feet to his right.
“Impossible. Sir, you are now allowed through the gates. We have more tests we need to run, but let it be known that you will receive the highest service we can offer. Please, sir, follow me, and let me be the first to welcome you to the jewel of the Realm of Seeds. Welcome sir, to Grangardd.”
Kalex and Lyla walked through the enormous gates accompanied by Landor. “There is so much to see in our fine city, but please sir, we must speak to the Elder. Although we have contingencies for every situation, nobody ever expects a roamer to come along and shatter an eclipse shard. I must say, that was an exuberant showing sir, truly marvelous!”
Kalex and Lyla shared a look. “Landor, is the place you’re taking us safe? Those people outside seemed like they wanted to rip me apart.” Kalex wasn’t too worried about the people outside, he just needed to know that their destination was secure. With what Voric had done, he couldn’t be too careful.
“You must be truly esteemed to know the name I go by! It is truly an honor coming from someone of your caliber. We are going to the Elder’s mansion. He has vacated it in hopes that the residence will be to your liking and it is the most guarded and warded building in all of the Realm of Seeds. The Overlord himself has sung its praises and stays there himself when he grants us his audience.” Landor preened.
Lyla moved to look at a blissful-looking Landor. “The Overlord himself, huh? Well, if it's good enough for him, it should be manageable for us.” Landor took on an incredibly serious expression and spoke to Kalex. “The residence is for you only, sir. Feel free to discard any hangers-on whenever you see fit, or they can be removed at your request.” He pointed his nose upwards and walked at a clipped pace.
Kalex froze when he heard those words leave Landor’s mouth and without thought, tightly constricted him with his presence. Landor stopped and took on the pose of an uptight statue. Kalex pulled up his status to keep an eye on the status of his vitailty so he didn’t accidentally kill him. “I see no hangers-on, Landor. Only you, me, and my sister to whom no harm shall befall.” Kalex held onto Landor longer than necessary, leaving him only 8 points of vitality. He fell to his hands and knees as he was released and let out a gasp of pain.
Before he could speak, Landor collapsed. Checking his status again to make sure he had just gone unconscious, Kalex and Lyla continued on the path toward the mansion. He had mapped the entire city with his presence sight before he had entered and had a good feeling of the direction of their destination.
“Thank you for that. It’s nice to know someone has my back. Growing up, I never had that. So, thank you.” Lyla said with a meek tone. Kalex gave her a genuine smile. “I told you that I’d be the best brother and I intend to keep that promise.” Lyla smiled and made to reply when a deafening noise interrupted them from further up the street. A procession made up of hundreds of people came into view. People on the street made way and kowtowed as the parade passed. With a chorus of sound coming from a metal instrument, everyone marching in their direction stopped a few dozen feet away.
An elderly man soon exited through the men in the front and walked casually towards Kalex and Lyla. “Greetings, I am Elder Urok of the great city of Grangardd. I see that your escort was not able to follow you. If I knew you were coming, I would have stationed a much better-behaved test adjudicator. Please accept my apologies, honorable scarred child.” The elder bowed as Kalex made to grab Lyla’s hand and run.
“Please relax, honored guests. I have heard of your exploits through the use of that irritable guard’s mind sigil and have no intentions of fulfilling his ludicrous requests regarding you two. He was once a royal guard stationed here, but due to his asinine behavior, I had him sent to Fulrog to spend his remaining indentured time.” This cut some of the tension that was building, but Kalex’s guard was still up. With a thought, he pulled up the Elder’s status.
Name: Urok Tolgin
Race: Human (Enternia)
Rank: Platinum Savant
Maturity: 243/400
Path: Metallic Fist (Adept)
Vitality: 760/840
Myst: 1500/1525
Strength: 24
Wisdom: 18
Agility: 43
Charisma: 19
Luck: 14
Kalex let out the breath he had been holding. Seeing someone at the Platinum rank with such low stats was interesting, so he pulled up his own to compare.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Name: Kalex Wounder
Race: Human (Enternia), Beer (Diat)
Rank: Sage
Maturity: 672/1000
Path: Shifting Wanderer (Master)
Vitality: 25,080/25,100
Myst: 59,780,042/60,000,000
Strength: 310
Wisdom: 830
Agility: 269
Charisma: 120
Luck: 19,200
He smiled as he looked over his status. There was no reason to be scared of this man, even if he was the Elder of this huge city. With the fear lifted from his shoulders, he decided to go along with what the elder had in store for him. In his presence sight, he could see the mansion shining like a beacon and was keen on finding out what kind of things it held. Kalex stood tall and pulled upon his experience as an heir to an empire.
“Hail, Elder Urok. I am happy to make your acquaintance. Our escort was indeed uncivil and had to be left behind. Be assured that his actions did not leave the idea of this city besmirched, and we will accompany you to our temporary residence and location of the testing chambers. If possible, we’d favor the proposal of this assessment starting with haste as we are weary from our travels.” The Elder bowed low. “Of course, honored elite. Please allow me to personally guide you.”
A few minutes passed in silence as the Elder guided them to a giant mansion with a sprawling garden surrounding the main house and small orchards lining the various paths. Seeing this place in person was so much better than with his presence sight and Kalex looked on with awe. “Honored guests, please follow me to the testing chambers. Along with my most trusted advisors, I will see to your test. With the power you exhibited, I’d like no unnecessary prying eyes.”
With a nod, Kalex and Lyla followed. To Kalex’s surprise, the mansion didn’t put its wealth on stage. The rooms and hallways were filled with white walls, muted furniture, statues, and paintings. Although nothing screamed opulence, Kalex’s presence sight told a different story as everything he passed by was filled to the brim with myst. Kalex was taking everything in as they stopped abruptly at a nondescript door.
“This is the testing chambers. When we walk in, the test will begin as soon as possible. Please prepare yourself.” The Elder opened the door that led to a darkened room with a podium in the center. Following the Elder, Kalex walked in and was shown to the platform on which he would test. A large eclipse fragment quickly rose through the air to meet Kalex. Looking over to the Elder as if to ask what to do, the Elder looked at the fragment and gave a nod. ”This is an eclipse stone. A large city in the realm usually only carries a handful of these, as only the truly powerful, like myself, can be graded with them. Please do as you did before with the previous tests.”
Lyla looked over to Kalex with worry. For all her time as a roamer, she had never heard of private tests, or even fragment shattering for that matter. All she could do was trust that Kalex would handle the situation well. Kalex was already aware of what he needed to do. As he reached out for the stone, he could feel everyone's eyes glued to him. A small bead of sweat dripped down his temple as he sent his available myst to his hand. As his finger made contact, Kalex felt a wave of his myst going into the stone and a bright light, preceded by a booming crack, followed.
Once Kalex’s hearing and sight came back to him, he was stunned at what he saw. Nobody in the room was a lower rank than Silver, but everyone was grabbing at their eyes as blood poured from their ears. Seeing Lyla in the same distress broke something in Kalex. He had done this. He had hurt all of these people. He had hurt Lyla. This couldn’t be happening. He needed to fix this. From the depth of his core, he pulled every available resource he had and shouted his intentions.
“MEND!” A golden mist covered everyone in the room and took them into the air. As quickly as the restorative mist had come, it faded into everyone’s skin, gently dropping the bodies onto the polished marble floor. Lyla was the first to wake up. Kalex leaped from the testing platform and went to her side. ”Can you see? Are you alright? I’m so sorry.” Lyla wearily seemed to come to and rubbed her newly healed eyes. “I’m fine now. One moment you were reaching for that stone and the next…” A slight shake took her over for a moment. “The next, there was darkness and pain. It went away as quickly as it came, but I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
Everyone in the room started to rouse. “I can’t express how sorry I am for doing that to you. If I knew that was going to happen, I wouldn’t have done it. I’m just grateful that I was able to heal you in time.” Elder Urok was the first to his feet. “I never thought I’d see the day when two miracles happened one after the other. No one, not even the Overlord, has caused an eclipse stone to shatter. The theoretical blast from a stone shattering should have been a death sentence for us all, but you boy, you saved us from fatal wounds and showed us that what we thought was the pinnacle of power was lower than we expected. You're hurt, please take any room in this residence and recover. The Overlord will have sensed the blast and I’ll be sending for him immediately as well. Your power may be exactly what we need to push the rank of the Realm to new heights and prove that the Consolidation was a success. If I know the Overlord, he will be on his way immediately and should arrive in half a day to administer another test. Please rest until then, and please feel free to ask for anything your heart desires. We will have wait staff at your call at any time.” Kalex helped Lyla stand and weaved her arm around his neck for support. “Thank you Elder, We will take your offer and wait for the Overlord.”
The duo turned and exited the testing chamber. Waiting for them was a man in professional-looking attire. “Sir, may I show you to your room? I believe I have the perfect one that will cater to someone of your distinction.” Tilting his head a bit to the side Kalex replied. “A room with two beds is all that we need.” The man straightened his back. “Of course, sir. Follow me please.”
They walked for almost four minutes before they made it to their room. The man opened the door and Kalex was struck with the fragrant aroma of herbs and wildflowers. Peering into the room with his presence sight, he was astonished at the density of the myst that flowed through the air. Nodding at the man, he walked in and shut the door. Four massive beds were the centerpieces of the room, each with headboards carved into shapes reminiscent of crops swaying in a field. Kalex helped Lyla into one of the beds. Moving to one of his own, he noted that they were the most comfortable beds he had ever laid in.
The thought of stashing one away in his storage flitted through his mind, but he decided against it. With one of the most important people in this world coming to see them, he did not want to give off the impression of a lowly thief. His mind turned to the myst floating invisibly in the air. It seemed to stick to him and it felt like it was nurturing the healing of his various cuts. Closing his eyes, he began to shallowly ponder his presence. The myst in his presence sight started to funnel towards him and looked like a whirlpool, with his core as the center. Surprised by this, he delved into his area of darkness where his core sat.
The area was stuffed full of myst and was slowly integrating with his core. He felt the rush of myst stop abruptly and moved to his shallow ponder to see what was happening. Everything seemed normal as the myst in the air quickly became placid as his funneling stopped. He continued to rotate his core to assist in the absorption of the foreign myst and peered in Lyla’s direction. With his sight active, he noticed that Lyla’s core felt dim.
“Lyla, are you awake?” Lyla raised her hand and made a grunt of confirmation. “There is a lot of myst in the air. If you ponder your presence, it might help with your recovery.” Lyla rolled over to put Kalex in the periphery of her vision. “Ponder my presence? Is that a Diat thing or a ‘Kalex is weird and calls things by weird names’ thing?” Kalex’s cheeks flushed. “It’s a little bit of both actually. On Diat, we didn’t refer to the source of our power as a spark, we called it a presence. One difference is that our presence is felt everywhere in our bodies and not just in our cores. Pondering is the act of circulating that power throughout your body and reflecting on what you’ve learned. Here on Enternia, when I ponder, my presence circulates through my body like normal, but it also causes my core to spin. While it spins, It attracts any ambient myst nearby and fortifies my core. I feel a lot stronger every time I do it, So I thought it might help you as well.”
Lyla perked up at the explanation. “Give me a moment, let me try. I can send my myst to any part of my body, but I’ve never tried to spread it through the whole thing. When I've tried to spread it over a larger area, I get a headache and have to stop and recover.” A white light blinked from under the pillow of Kalex's bed. “Do not worry about any after-effects Lyla, I have a record of every time Mr. Wounder has pondered and will assist you where I can.” Lyla looked wide-eyed at Lex. “Thank you, Lex. That’ll help a lot.”
Lyla closed her eyes and began to spread her myst throughout her body. Shifting her myst had never felt easier and she quickly spread it evenly through every part of her body. Remembering what Kalex had said, She soon began to circulate it and think about the past few days. In Kalex’s presence sight, he saw a small vortex form over the area where Lyla’s core was located. In an attempt to not disturb her, Kalex rolled over and fell asleep thinking about what would happen in the coming hours.
A slight nudge on his arm gently woke Kalex from his slumber. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he saw Lyla, who looked awake and refreshed. “Kalex! You have to see this! Open my status! Also, Lex gave me the ability to open other people’s status as well as my own at will! You might want to see yours too!” With a smile at seeing an energetic Lyla, Kalex opened her status.
Name: Lyla Graves
Race: Human (Enternia)
Rank: Silver Seer Sayer
Maturity: 196/200
Path: Mystknit (Master)
Vitality: 900/900
Myst: 7,400/7,400
Strength: 32 (Diat’s Bounty)
Wisdom: 56 (Diat’s Bounty)
Agility: 33 (Diat’s Bounty)
Charisma: 29 (Diat’s Bounty)
Luck: 81 (Diat’s Bounty)
“You’re a Seer! Lyla, this is amazing news! Congratulations! It looks like your stats elevated too! Though, I meant to ask Lex what Diat’s Bounty meant but never got around to it.” Lyla looked like she was about to burst with the answer. “I asked Lex about that and it appeared the first time you healed me. Lex said that you imparted some of your myst to me and gave me a small signature from Diat. From the explanation I got, The myst here is of slightly lower quality than on Diat, but there is a lot more of it. Because you formed your presence with the stronger, but less prolific myst of Diat, you became accustomed to the volatility of the higher quality myst there. When you started absorbing the native, more stable myst here, it allowed you to gain more power than would usually be normal. According to Lex, giving me the signature of Diat has strengthened my core and shored up my weaknesses, so thank you for that!”
Kalex was ecstatic. He had helped Lyla greatly without even knowing it. That took the edge off of the regret he was feeling for blinding her earlier. A knock at the door threw Kalex from his thoughts. “The Overlord has arrived. Quickly gather your belongings so we may escort you to the courtyard. The Overlord is awaiting your attendance to begin the test. Please do not leave him waiting.” Lyla and Kalex looked at each other for a moment, then rushed out the door to meet the Overlord.