Wind howled about Sven’s body as he plummeted toward his target in a pencil dive posture, his legs aimed straight down, and his arms plastered to his sides.
He knew that such a posture was abysmal for jumping off high places, but he was more interested in the narrow pursuit of hitting his target dead on than minimizing impact damage.
A foolish misplacing of priorities that he soon paid the price for as he heard a great snap upon his collision with the aforementioned dark stone slab target.
“AGH!” Sven roared out in agony as he collapsed, both his legs broken, face first into the hard rock with a loud thud.
However, taking him totally by surprise, Sven suddenly felt a strange force begin to repair his legs, but not only them but almost every bone in his entire body.
Sven lay in awe as he felt his body stitch itself back together again.
If that had been where the force pervading his insides had stopped, Sven wouldn’t have missed the prompt that he received for his successful landing.
—
Rank Up!
Your Realm has increased from the [12th Layer of the Novice] to the [1st Layer of the Apprentice]!
(System Note: You have achieved a breakthrough! Extreme physical and spiritual modifications have begun.)
—
As the prompt said explicitly and Sven learned first directly, the force didn’t just repair his body. Its true objective was far less painless than that.
It began with an odd pressure building up around all of his bones that made Sven squirm as it was without a doubt the most discomforting feeling he’d ever endured.
Well, it had been until that pressure reached a point where his formerly repaired bones began to crack again, and an all-consuming pain engulfed Sven’s entire body.
Every bone that he had, from his skull to his toes, began to crack and then, magically, reform, only to then be cracked again, and infused with a certain force.
Until, at last, his bones didn’t crack again, even after a solid ten minutes of increasing pressure. At which point the pressure abated, leaving Sven to recover from the trauma he’d just endured.
Panting, his eyes frantic in their sockets, and blood streaming from his nose, it took Sven almost an hour before he finally was able to rise to his feet and read the prompt he’d received.
As he did, he let out a scoff before dismissing it with a thought. Which, out of nowhere, generated a whole new prompt for him to read. This one, thankfully, not coming with as much pain.
However, that was only relatively speaking as a strange green symbol appeared on the inside of his left palm, the mark feeling like a hot poker was being pressed against his skin at first.
—
Heavenly Trial Complete!
Having completed the first of Gaia’s heavenly trials, you are now a step closer to attaining her divine inheritance! Continue to walk this path, claimed child of Gaia, and what awaits you shall be power the likes of which you could only ever dream of now.
Trial Name: [Trial of the Initiate]
Trial Difficulty: [Mortal]
Trials Completed: [1/6]
Trial Reward:
-Trait Gained!
[Mark of Gaia] - Rank: [Mortal] - Having completed the first of the many trials of the Earth Mother, Gaia, you now bear a trace of her divine blessing.
-Trait Gained!
[Fruit of the Soil] - Rank: [???] - ???
—
After the pain from the mark imprinting itself on his skin faded, Sven read over the prompt with an extremely heightened curiosity as its contents were more than a little revealing.
Not only did they reveal why it was exactly that he’d progressed his realm just by jumping from an elevated platform to another platform, but it hinted at the existence of literal gods.
And Gaia of all gods at that. The fabled goddess of earth. Did that mean that the other Greek gods existed out there somewhere in this world? What about other mythological pantheons?
Sven had never been much of a bookworm, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t gone through a phase as a youth of obsessing over the various pagan gods and the old myths that went with them.
The idea of all of those old gods being real was thus a tremendously exciting one until Sven gave himself a brutal reality check by recalling all of the horrid deeds the myths spoke of them doing.
So, yeah, maybe them being real wasn’t such an overwhelming positive after all.
Thus, a little more grounded, Sven dismissed the new prompt with a thought, before stretching his muscles and feeling the new power and strength that was contained within them.
If before he had felt as though the clock had turned back a few dozen years in terms of his upper and lower body strength, now he felt as though he was in his physical prime. If not better.
It was a strange feeling to have as his skin was still wrinkled, and he still felt as old as ever. Just the weakness of his body had now been somehow overridden by the strange energy within.
Not exactly knowing what to do with this information, nor how precisely he should react to the sudden transformation, Sven decided to save thinking about it all more deeply for later.
A decision that his stomach seemed to agree with as it let out a desperate growl at him.
Scanning the nearby area with his eyes, Sven was glad to see that it seemed that he’d now cleared the last of the stupid obstacles to get down from the mountain.
Now, all he had to do was hike carefully down the black rock mountain like he would have such an inestimably large chunk of rock back on Earth. By following whatever path seemed safest.
His feet thusly began to move before even his mind was ready to set off, his hunger and desire for a good cup of tea compelling his body forward.
Officially beginning the first leg of his journey throughout the world of Empyria.
----------------------------------------
Godfrey fell lazily back into his finely cushioned armchair of the common area within the Eleventh Royal Knight Squire Core Barracks, his two half-empty glasses of ale clinking together as he did so.
Calling the place a barracks though made it sound far grubbier than it was. The barracks were a former royal estate that had been converted into barracks for R-Squires at one point or another.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Such places were provided for the Royal Squire Cores as to be one, one had to be a noble child or else you’d be relegated to the ordinary squire cores. Who, needless to say, didn’t get palaces to stay in.
As Godfrey raised one of his glasses to his lips, he heard a familiar soft voice from the corner of the room say, “You seem to be drinking a lot recently, Frey.”
Godfrey’s eyes went wide as he shot up and immediately saluted his captain.
“C-captain?!” He stuttered out as he at last noticed the casually lounging man who sat, reading an old book, in the corner with a somewhat amused expression on his lightly tanned face.
“Please, retake your seat.” The man replied, his words followed by a soft thud as he closed the big book he was reading, his royal emerald green eyes both focusing directly on Godfrey.
Having been trained since arriving at this academy when he was eight to obey orders, Godfrey was quick to retake his seat. Even a little too enthusiastic as he accidentally spilled ale all over himself.
He didn’t let that distract him, however, as the captain of his company of squires spoke up, “You’re suddenly drinking a lot more now, Frey, might something be bothering you?”
Godfrey couldn’t help but gulp as the other young man stared curiously at him. While the other man may not be the most intimidating physically, Godfrey had seen his swordsmanship first-hand. That alone convinced him that His Highness was deserving of all the praise that his father, and the instructors, heaped upon him. Something that very much could not be said about some other high noble heirs.
“Come on, Godfrey, we’ve been comrades in arms since we were but children playing as soldiers. It truly cannot be that bad that you must keep your troubles from me, your captain.” The young man then said, dragging Godfrey out of his thoughts and drawing a sigh from his lips.
“Captain, what troubles me is a highly personal matter.” He tried to evade, but the prince did not allow him any of his excuses.
“Frey, we’ve buried fallen comrades die together, we’ve huddled under the same tattered tent amid winter-claimed territory together, and we’ve both saved each other’s lives on so many occasions that I am not sure either of us know who is in the other’s debt more. I thus think we’re long past keeping personal secrets from each other.”
Godfrey let out another sigh as he placed his two glasses of ale on the nearby table and replied, “I received an urgent letter the other day from my family.”
His Highness raised an eyebrow at his words but he didn’t say anything, allowing Godfrey to speak uninterrupted for as long as it took. However, he didn’t have much more to say.
But, what he did say, came out only as a faint whisper, “My father is dying.”
The Prince’s face, which was usually as calm as a serene lack front became softer as he asked, “Is it the wound or old age? The former is curable, the latter… not so much.”
Godfrey’s voice cracked as he responded with a fake laugh, “Old age. The old man is too stubborn to die from some old battle wound. Even if it would be much quicker for everyone.”
His Highness gave him an empathetic smile, simply saying, “I see.” Before letting the room fall into a state of almost total silence for a few long minutes.
“Is your father’s tragic condition the only reason for your drinking, Frey?” The Prince then inquired in a tone that tried to convey that he didn’t mean to suggest that his father dying wasn’t already enough of a reason for bereavement.
Godfrey partly cursed how well the man knew him as he shook his head, and everything just came out in a stream of self-indulgence, “I… don’t think I want to inherit my father’s title. Not now. If I become the Baron now, I’ll never be able to bear the seal of a Royal Knight.”
Godfrey paused as he clutched at the sword sheathed at his waist, “All of the time and effort that I put into making a name for myself here, all of the big battles that I’ve fought by your side and under your command, and all of the sacrifices that I’ve had to make along the way. All of it will be rendered null and void.”
His voice grew more strained as he continued, “For what? So I can return to a land I barely know? To head a family I haven’t seen since I was a boy? To exist as a low-ranking nobleman who can be pushed around due to his minuscule power? Is that the kind of life that the Law and the Heavens has seriously doomed me to have? I cannot abide it! Not after all I’ve done! Not after I’ve gained my mark at long last!”
Sven was shaking with rage by the end of his speech, his words indignant and rapturous. Yet, as silence once more fell over the room, he couldn’t help but regret his outburst. It reeked of self-pity, a sentiment he rarely ever indulged in as it went against everything a knight should feel.
But, as powerless as he felt to stop what felt like an inevitable outcome of his father’s death, there was little else he could feel but self-pity. At least, in his mind.
“I didn’t know that you were an only child.” The prince eventually replied, clearly trying to provide Godfrey with a way out of his situation. But, Godfrey only shook his head in response.
“After my elder brother died, I swore to be an heir worthy of my parents’ trust and love. To try and pawn off that sacred duty to my siblings would dishonour me more than death ever could.”
His Highness nodded in understanding, before saying, “Then I must confess that I do not know if a solution exists to your problem, but, if I may, I’d like to offer some correction, Frey.”
Straightening up at the young man’s final words, Godfrey answered, “P-please, Captain, go ahead.”
“You are my friend and comrade, Godfrey Emilia Narses, and so long as there is breath in my lungs and mana flowing through my meridians, we shall always be brothers in arms. So, remember that.”
Godfrey was somewhat taken aback by the man’s words as they meant more to him than any sort of word or action could ever express, but he still felt as though he had to try anyway.
He thus rose to his feet, before swiftly dropping to one knee, “And so long as I live, I shall be yours to command Your Highness. Even to damnation and back again if you so desired.”
The other man’s emerald green eyes seemed to glimmer as he rose to his feet, and walked over to Godfrey and helped him rise back up onto his feet.
“As a Prince of this Empire, I shall do everything to earn the loyalty you’ve placed in me. But, for now, let us share a drink of ale and perhaps forget both of our problems for a bit.”
----------------------------------------
Sven couldn’t help but stretch out his back as he reached the bottom of a steep, root-infested, hill whose bottom tree line also happened to be, as far as he could tell, his final destination.
Emerging from the tree line with a smile a moment later, Sven couldn’t help but smile upon being confronted with a fully flat plain that stretched out before him, faintly illuminated by the moon.
That smile lasted until he noticed something about said flat plain.
A frown replaced his earlier naive smile as the familiar sensation of sand being blown against your skin suddenly inundated Sven as an evening breeze blew in his direction.
‘How is this even possible?’ He wondered to himself as he turned his head backwards to see a lush forest covering the slope of the mountain, and then looked ahead to see a barren desert.
After spending way too long thinking over the implausible science of such a sudden ecological shift, Sven just shook his head and decided that there was no point thinking about it.
Especially as his throat was beginning to protest almost as loudly as his stomach.
He had been about to debate whether or not wading into a desert all alone was a good idea when he suddenly received a new blue pop-up containing actually useful… stuff. Sven didn’t know exactly what to call it.
—
Quest Completed!
Quest Name: Descend! Descend! Descend!
Rank: [Profound]
Objectives:
-[Reach the bottom of the mountain (1/1)
-HIDDEN: [Clear Gaia’s First Trail (1/1)
Reward:
-[(Profound) Intermediate City Scanner] - With a single click of a button, you can scan the horizon for any nearby settlements within a hundred miles.
-[(Profound) Basic Cornucopia] - Within this horn is the very essence of satiation, fill it with mana to drink from it to meet your everyday dietary needs.
-(Note: This item is automatically soul-bound.)
-[(Gold) Gaia’s Heavenly Foundation Forming Pill] - A pill to be digested by a person near the beginning of their journey, grants the consumer an immediate qualitative and quantitative boost to their cultivation.
Claim all items?
-YES / NO
—
Sven mentally selected yes without even really thinking about it, and lived to regret it when he felt a damn metal stick fall onto his head as well as a hard little box.
He thus had to pick the two things up out of the sand before he could make use of either one.
Before he did any of that, however, he scanned the nearby area in search of the third item, but its presence was either very well masked or well, non-existent.
Sven then received an explanation via another popup.
—
System Note: Soul-bound items are stored within the confines of your soul. To extract any desired soul-bound item, one need only desire it to be free.
—
“I guess that makes some sense,” Sven mumbled before trying to do as the prompt instructed.
Even if, as he most definitely was, he was unable to make heads or tails regarding the whole souls existing bombshell that he really should have gotten from the Heavenly Transfer prompt.
But, then again, he hadn’t really taken in all of the info that prompt had given away as he hadn’t even thought it was real. It was thus only now, looking back, that it had any real meaning to him.
Sven didn’t want to waste any more time, however, so he quickly willed the so-called cornucopia out of his soul, before marvelling at it as it appeared in his hand.
The Cornucopia took the form of a short white ram’s horn with an open mouth. Sven glanced inside but couldn’t see anything resembling a liquid within the strange item.
He thus returned his gaze to the system prompt before muttering, “I have to feed it my mana?”
It was only upon saying these words that Sven realized he had been a damn idiot not to think of it sooner. The strange energy he had begun tapping into was... mana.
No wonder he’d never experienced it before.
Unfortunately, though, just realizing that hardly helped him as so far he’d only figured out how to infuse his body with mana, and not anything outside of it.
However, he guessed, if he wanted to be certain of satiating his hunger any time soon, he needed to figure out how to do just that.