POV Aron Brightcloud

The next few days went by quietly. Bones started his lessons with the recruits and I concentrated on magic, working on my old spells to make them second nature. I occasionally interacted with my new teammates, but kept a certain distance. Jane should see me as a loner, not as someone who particularly avoided her.

I and Luana quickly found a way to work with each other. We both pursued our targets quietly and single-mindedly. We didn’t let worldly pleasures distract us. She left me mostly alone, and I supported her, giving my official best during our spars and group exercises.

Today after school I sat once more in my chamber and practiced moving my energy through my root-system. The practice was tiring, but necessary. The longer I stayed at the school, the bigger the divide between the normal magicians and me became. Soon I would be unable to compete in raw destructive power. At the moment I could still hide it, yet I felt their growth in our spars. Their shields got sturdier and their spells increased in raw power.

I had known from the beginning that this was bound to happen, yet it irked me. Somewhere deep down I had still hoped to best them. I worked more than all of them, but it was not enough. On the bright side, the control over my energy improved, albeit slowly. I felt that at some point I would easily uphold a continuous mana-stream and cast charged spells. Sadly, that was still far away.

If we only compared my control over magic, I was light-years ahead. But they didn’t need it to be able to cast their spells and charge them. I worked with a scalpel, they with a sledgehammer.

‘Big Brother, I am back!’ Bones’s excited mental voice yanked me away from my dark musings.

Infected by his happiness, my lips curved up.

‘Hey, little brother, how did the training go?’

My skeleton materialized out of thin air and jumped onto my lap. Excitingly, he told me all about his fights and happenings of the day. Most fights he had lost, but some he had won as well, especially towards the end.

I grinned in response. My little brother was growing!

‘Great, this fits into our schedule splendidly. Tomorrow we will have our first dungeon-dive with Luana’s group. Are you ready for it?’

‘Yes! I will show them my might!’

His motivation blazed through our bond, ridding me of my last dark thoughts. I would make the most with what I had.

My emotions back on track, I went through my list of potential future problems. Right, I had completely forgotten about that one!

‘Bones, how is your stomach doing, holding on? I am sorry I forgot about it! Soon we will get you some food!’

His skull bobbed up and down ‘It’s okay, I am doing well. You can relax, big brother.’

Although I was surprised, his answer took away another fear of mine. It seemed I worried too much. My little brother had grown already, getting partial control over his urges. I felt proud of him. Today was truly a great day!

______

POV Torsk Forus

Today was a disaster of a day! Someone had stolen practice armor and weapons from the armory. Torsk hated thieves with a passion. As a righteous and hardworking man, he loathed dishonorable behavior the most.

This meant that there were still some bad apples in his flock of recruits. They needed to be weeded out at all cost. Only real men were allowed to graduate from his course! As a first measure, he would increase the trainings difficulty and push them to their limits. Exhausted recruits didn’t have the energy to steal. If it repeated itself, he would have to think about other measures.

The stout warrior shook his head, grumbling annoyed.

On another note, he was pleased with his decision to include the four-armed familiar of young novice Aron into the training routine. It had given him access to an exotic beast for free, providing his recruits valuable experience and a sturdy training-partner with whom they could cut loose and not fear hurting him. That skeleton’s bones were something else. It shrugged off all the blows of their attacks easily. Naturally Torsk could injure the summons with little effort, but that was not the point.

Grinning to himself, he stashed some papers. Luckily, the magician didn’t seem to understand how much value he and his familiar possessed. He even agreed to help them out in their training. Only Torsk knew how much energy he had invested to get magicians to help out in his soldiers' training in the past, but he had always been rebuffed. Now he had gotten one for free! He would have walked around with a permanent smile on his face hadn’t it been for the stolen goods. The thief had been surprisingly accurate; he had only stolen high quality gear. So in the end Torsk had won little by getting the free service of Aron and his familiar as he had to replace the equipment. Tensing his hand muscles he let go again. He would catch them, he always did.

_____

POV Aron Brightcloud

I stood in front of the dungeon entrance and waited for our group’s turn to enter. Mason and his group had pushed to go first.

My rival’s group took their place in the marked area of the formation around the portal. Mason’s fiery red robe easily attracted everyone’s attention. Inlaid with golden strips, it functioned more as a taunting device than protection. He was going to be a great tank… as a magician… I hope someone else noticed the irony.

His teammates paled in comparison. Mouse, one of the commoners in his group, seemed especially mediocre. Garbed in gray robes he would have slipped my attention had I not trained specially to take note of such people. Only two kinds of individuals fell into that category, actual mediocre people and professionals. The later enjoyed my full attention.

Mouse’s familiar sat lazily on his shoulder, its appearance a small rodent, maybe a mouse or a rat? Somehow it felt familiar, yet I couldn’t remember why.

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Before I could invest more into the thought, they vanished and the way was free. Absentmindedly, I scratched the familiar on my shoulder. Olivia had started to massage it in agitation. Someone must be impatient to go hunting.

“Let’s go, the portal is cleared.” Luana’s voice signaled the start of our next adventure.

With a bright flash we arrived back in the exotic monster’s “stomach”. Before I had been in cave systems and a forest, this time a swamp opened up before our eyes. Luana had briefed me beforehand, so I came prepared. Our main enemies would be crocodiles and over-sized mosquitoes.

As the new “Shield-mage” of the group, my objective would be to ward off the mosquitoes and support the others where needed while Bones could hog all the fun as vanguard.

The dive went mostly uneventful until we had reached the first boss. Most of the monsters we encountered no match for our firepower. The only interesting moments came from a creative crocodile and some very flight-savy mosquitoes. Those pests passed my shields with their adventurous flight-techniques, alleviating Manor of some of his precious blood before we got rid of them. The young earl didn’t enjoy that at all.

Luckily for us, the crocodile had chosen the wrong target and had broken most of its teeth on my embarrassed familiar’s skeleton. Bones had walked into its mouth without even realizing that it was there. It had camouflaged itself so well. Still, my little brother should have been able to spot it. I counted it as a positive encounter, better for him to make the mistakes now than in the future.

All in all there were more enemies, but with our bigger group we got it sorted easily. We pushed our way further. Soon we reached the first boss’s layer.

The monster had made its nest in a depression, half its body submerged in muddy water. With a size of over six feet while lying and a length of fifteen feet, the crocodile impressed on everyone how bad an idea it was to mess with it. I pitied our familiars who possibly had to block this overly large beast.

On the positive side, our group was well equipped to handle the threat. As long as we kept it away, the fight was going to proceed smoothly. My shields would come in very handy in that regard.

Luana motioned for everyone to spread out. We had taken care of the strategy beforehand so we knew what to do.

Silently we positioned us around its nest and glanced over to Luana.

Our group leader inspected us one last time. Satisfied with our preparation, her right hand rose and came down fast, signalizing the start of the engagement.

Immediately spells rained down on the colossal monster. Enraged, it tried to stand up, but crashed down again as a thick shield filled the space above its head. The size of a cube, it blocked its assent perfectly, yet didn’t hinder our incoming ordnance. The shield broke as a result, the beast too powerful for my magic.

The additional seconds cost it dearly as many spells crashed into its snout. One even hit the left eye, blinding it partially.

Bones, Avra and the wind-wolf had used the time to attack its flank, injuring its hind-leg. They immediately retreated, evading the sudden whip-attack of its tail.

Now standing, the furious beast pushed its way towards Luana, yet its progress got impeded repeatedly by my shields, which I threw into its way. My shield affinity made them far stronger than they would have been otherwise, still they broke. As it reached the top, Erik’s earth-elemental engaged. Its stocky and hard frame making it the only option for going head to head with our enemy, although not for long. The beast dismantled it with rapid speed. Soon Erik had to withdraw his summons.

In the meantime, more spells rained down on the crocodile, injuring it further. Bones, Avra and Shor, the wind-wolf did their part on its flanks. They cut deep wounds into its hind-legs.

I conjured additional shields on top of the monster, combined with its injured legs we gained more and more control of the fight. Soon the monster would be too injured to move.

‘Olivia. Go. you know what you have to do. Don’t be seen.’

My camouflaged spider slowly made her way down my shoulder. She stealthily closed in on the bleeding crocodile. Nobody saw her. Not my friends, their familiars, Bones or the crocodile itself.

Soon she had vanished below its hind-legs. As a response, the half dead monster’s attacks gained an additional frantic note. Yet, because of the fight, nobody wondered about its trashing.

I repeatedly observed its state. Being responsible for the killing blow gave especially much experience, so it was a must have.

Different to my last group, this group was one that had been set up simply because of benefits. So I didn’t see a problem with taking as much as I could. Luana and her noble friends did the same. They needed an additional member to go diving because of the new rules and felt that my skill-set was good enough for the task. Their flowery words hadn’t fooled me. They had included me in their group out of necessity. It didn’t mean that it couldn’t change in the future, but it left my consciousness clean to do what I planned to do now.

The arcane arrow burrowed its way through the destroyed eye, into its brain, ending the once majestic beast’s misery. My manipulation skills so far ahead that I could hit the smallest targets, performing surgical attacks.

We all felt energy flood our cores. I gained especially much due to the last hit I delivered.

The rest of the group convened on it, I discreetly intercepted my glossy eyed skeleton that was on devouring course with the death beast and forced him back. I wouldn’t allow him to make a scene this time. My little brother had grown, yet apparently there was still more than enough room for improvement.

Afterwards, I kept my distance and guarded the group. As the newest member, I would have no chance to get an item. Furthermore, it was important to not leave a connection between me and what was about to happen.

With their combined strength they pushed the crocodile onto its side, making the way free to the loot that had spawned below the dead monster.

A beautiful silver bracelet, mounted with black spinel gems, lay on the ground. It improved the caster’s speed, casting darkness magic. Naturally Manor gracefully turned to Luana and offered it to her with a flourish.

“Thank you, Manor. Erik, open up the beast’s chest to check for its core. It will net a high price.”

Erik immediately went to work on it.

The stronger the monster, the higher the chance it had formed a core. One could say cores were the crystallized power of a magic beast. Men, familiars, and monsters coveted them. Humans could use them to recover energy, improve a formation, or in alchemic reactions. Familiars and monster took a much more straightforward approach. They simply ate it and absorbed the energy, it allowed them to grow stronger.

As soon as Erik had cut through the ribs and opened them, Manor pushed him to the side to look into the wound.

“What! There is none!” Manor’s perplexed and angry shout informed me of Olivia’s successful mission.

“Are you sure? The guardians of a floor normally have one.” Luana tried to ascertain his claim.

The noble moved out of the way while holding the crocodile’s chest open. There in the middle a natural hole for a core had formed, but it was empty.

“Maybe it was still too young? They need a certain age to have built their core.” Erik the commoner commented from the side, still on his knees.

I could read the unwillingness in their eyes, but Erik’s explanation made sense. And as there was no core, they couldn’t refute it.

The before elated mood quickly changed to dejection. Cores were very sought after.

I felt my invisible spider climb up my leg. The eight-legged creature’s stealth and hunting skills made me proud each time I witnessed them.

‘Have you gotten the core?’ Her affirmation came immediately, followed by a feeling of filled sleepiness.

Great, this would push her further. As a first strata beast, she was weaker than most of the other familiars. Olivia had only defeated Fenrix because of catching the beast off-guard. The elemental fox strength lay in its maneuverability and ranged attacks. Had Olivia been up against Shor or Avra, she would have had no chance. Hopefully, the core would increase her strength.

“Enough, let’s go. We can’t gain anymore from this.” Luana’s cold voice forced the sullen group back into action.

We made our way down into the nest of the former king of the swamp, there a portal had spawned. I kept myself at the end of the group, Bones had discreetly stayed behind as well. We planned to get as much as we could from the encounter. And with Bones that was to be understood figuratively. He would utilize the entire corpse to its fullest degree.