Ren awoke with an odd feeling within his chest. A small piece of joy that burned with life. It was both the call of morning songbirds, the dawn, and a supernatural sensation that awoke him. At his side, Cella slept wrapped in her bedding. He nudged her arm, she slowly peaked her eyes.

“Good morning!” Ren smiled widely.

“I see my trick must have worked well then.” Cella replied. She slowly lifted herself from her coverings and stretched.

“What do you mean?”

“I used… something I don’t quite understand, to help ease your nightmare.” Cella looked half asleep, and half worried.

“Oh? Something you learned studying the orks?”

“Yes, I took a piece of life affinity, though different from the normal kind, and passed it from myself to you.”

“You… gave me part of your life?” Ren said startled.

“I don’t think it was quite like that, but somewhat?”

“Well, for now, let’s avoid that, alright? I don’t need you accidentally sharing a soul with me or something. I don’t say that to sound ungrateful, it’s just that I’m not worth the risk.” Ren sighed and stood up.

Cella fought an urge to protest his words, but she decided it better not to.

The two left their tent and went to the chief who stood outside his tent. He spoke in quiet words. The two waited as they finished speaking to approach.

“Ren, how have you felt since the night has passed?” The ork chief Juto asked.

“I feel much better, thank you. So, what can we do today to learn from you, chief?”

Cella watched patiently as Ren began speaking the guttural language, while she was incapable of understanding the smallest bit of it.

The chief replied. “Those who I was speaking to before you came, they will go on an important journey today. You will follow them, and you will participate in the trial.”

“What do you mean by trial?” Ren’s brows furrowed as curiosity had him buzzing.

“That I will not speak of, it will be something to be done, rather than something to be spoken of.”

“Well, when do we go?”

“Now.” The ork nodded and Ren turned to see the orks readying themselves for travel.

“Thank you, I’ll do my best.” Ren turned and took Cella towards the preparing orks.

“He didn’t say what but I suppose we’re going to take some test. What it will be, and how we’ll have to go about it is the mystery we’ll be solving.” Ren sighed as they got closer towards the orks.

“A mysterious test? I thought that was the whole point of what happened last night. You know, drinking the poison and hallucinating, trying to not go mad with fever as you see an all-but-dead history.”

“You’d think, but I suspect this will be more of the physical test of sorts.” Ren nodded to the orks as they met up.

“I am Ren, this is Cella.” He gestured towards her. “We’ll be your tag-along today.”

The tallest of the three orks grasped Ren’s forearm with terrible strength. “I am Ukkar. Today we travel, tomorrow we return. Hopefully, you live.”

The man was point-blank about it, he didn’t believe Ren would. To be fair, without magic, these guys would probably crush him. In the back of his mind, Ren knew he could slaughter them in a real fight. A fight on his terms that was. Whatever they thought might go wrong, Ren felt little doubt he could not handle it.

It was three hours later when Ren felt the true struggle. They had run as fast as they could, slower than the orks of course. Yet the big green giants still mocked at their slower pace. Ren even struggled heavily, he couldn’t believe Cella made it so far. She was far more adept at magic than swift movement. Her power lay in her ability to grow nature and utilize tactics, not running along behind a pack of giants.

While they took a small break, Ren noticed Cella was barely worse off than he was. Confused, he looked at her closely. Pulsating beats of life affinity flowed through her, and the sense of her mana burning strongly came off of her.

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Some sort of mana burn to reduce stamina consumption? Ren was puzzled. Looking more in depth, he watched as the nature affinity coursed through her, it followed parallel pathways through her body working alongside the stamina. It reminded Ren of the orks, yet it was different.

Cella felt Ren’s gaze on her and she internally smirked. He had noticed. She was utilizing her mana to pump her body full of life energy. It felt as though her body had gained three times more energy than it normally held. She was no slow weakling, but she did heavily focus on magic in combat. Her mana burned quickly using it this way, but it was the only way she could keep up.

It took her a while to notice how life followed through the orks, and had been trying to replicate it for nearly two hours now. In the last half-hour, she had managed to get it working, and she already felt the huge toll on her mana that it had caused.

Letting herself relax, she slowed the flow of mana through her. Some relief came to her, but she felt noticeably weaker. It was not much, but it was there for sure. A small fatigue had built up for the extreme exertion of stamina, and the strange application of mana. She knew practicing the magic would make it easier, but it felt unnatural. Perhaps with time, her body could adapt and it would even become a constant thing she could always use.

Maybe this was all heat exhaustion-induced daydreaming, but she pictured herself full of life just as the orks were. Adapting to a point where her life affinity mana permeated her so well, that she was indistinguishable from the orks in her ability to use the power innately.

Ren let out a deep breath as he tried to imagine how he could replicate such a feat himself. He never felt like he could use the life energy she and the orks loved so much. She used it in everything, and while the orks didn’t use magic, supposedly, they were full of the stuff. Though it did not feel like normal magic, something was very different about how the energies within an ork’s body flowed.

Ren tried to imagine himself using his own affinity to strengthen himself. The idea was nice at first, but then the idea of eldritch corruption slowly burning away his body and soul reminded him of why he was in such a predicament. Can Tayin use life affinity? Can wind do such a thing? What of my fire? Ren tried to think of any ideas that he could use, but he was dead in the water.

The idea of utilizing his affinity for fire did seem possible, it would be a deal abstract though. The concept of fire he tapped into was the idea of destruction and ruin. It was why he could create fire akin to a dragon’s own. His fire was death and ash. To tap into the idea of a burning energy, one that fuels and empowers was far from his perspective. He knew it was possible, but he doubted it was for him, not until he was far stronger. Such an ability would likely have a terrible backlash, making it even further from the current possibilities.

Ren resigned himself to struggling behind the orks and running his heart out. It was at the calls and taunts of the three orks that Ren began to run again. Cella swiftly followed him, her life affinity mana empowering her body along the way.

They fought themselves, a war of attrition where every step was a painful thud against the ground. They had to push themselves beyond what limits they believed themselves to have. It was the way of the orks, to live at the maximum, to the extreme. Every moment is a moment of exhilaration and triumph. Every step the two felt the urge to stop, and so the triumph over their own weak bodies was won again and again. Every step was a chore, and so every step was a great achievement. Such was the way of the orks.

The way of Ren said that this was shitty. His feet hurt, and his legs ached. He wanted to do anything else but this, but he had to. It would really piss off Cella if he gave up and stopped only to delay her learning. For her, he kept going.

To Cella, this was a test and she was winning. She felt the power flowing through her, even if the lingering exhaustion kept building, she was powerful. She was learning, and it was only a small stretch of time until she could fully understand the power within the orks.

Ukkar stopped a distance ahead of them., The two smaller orks followed suit. They spoke softly amongst themselves as the two humans caught up.

“What is it?” Ren asked as he slowly caught up.

Cella looked carefully around them as she felt an odd presence.

Ukkar spoke up. “We are here, soon the testing shall begin. Today we prove ourselves. We are many, but our energy is great. Be ready, this will be no beast of the forest.”

Ren looked around with his lightless eyes. The black voids were half-lidded as they captured the lingering presence of the world around him. In the distance, the trace of an odd mana caught his attention. It was the remains of a great quarry where great sections of stone had been cut. It was an odd sight far out here.

Looking carefully the mana was centered strongest around a great mound of fallen stone near a collapsed cliff. He was unable to see any details, only the odd presence was felt.

The group of five slowly made their way closer to the quarry. It was odd, such a powerful sense of energy coming from a rockslide. The collapsed cliffside held power far greater than either Ren or Cella themselves. None of the orks either held nearly as much energy as dwelled within the boulders.

Whatever was buried under the stone, was powerful. There was no doubt that this would be a true test. Ren looked at the levels of the three orks.

Young Ork Lv 14

Young Ork Lvl 13

Young Ork Lv 13

It was then that Ren realized the three warriors were not yet full adults. It was hard to tell of orks, let alone when they were so physically powerful. Orks experienced no ascensions, and so Ren realized what was going on. This was a test to be declared an adult in the orkish society. The implications of their levels made him wonder, but his mind was distracted as a great rumbling sounded throughout the forest.