A swarm of stormraptors hovered above a secluded lake. With every clap of their sizable wings that were in contrast to their build, hints of latent electricity crackled. Contrary to the appeal of their name, their flutters did not generate sound.
These creatures were not merely fearsome beasts, as every single one of them was an unranked keeper.
At the very center of the horde floated the leader - Stormwing. With a beak sharp enough to carve through stone and claws that gleamed like daggers, he inspected the horizon with his piercing gaze. Being three times the size of the stormraptors, his presence towered over the others. At the site of his heart, a shimmering blue light glistened.
“WhAGH.” - Go check the waters.
“ghGAH!” - Yes, Sir!
At the leader’s command, half of the stormraptors rushed to the surface of the lake. After closely scanning the surrounding area with their keen eyes, some dove head-first into the lake. Moments later, they reemerged.
“AHAghG.” - Sir, it’s clear.
Despite the subordinates' words, Stormwing did not let his guard down. He cautiously approached the waters with the others. At the lowest depth of the lake, therein lay a newly formed rune. From the emanating elemental energy, Stormwing could tell that the rank one rune was of the highest quality. Moreover, it was the rune he was compatible with, a rune of water.
Even more fortunate was the fact that the rune appeared in his territory. It would take time for others to notice. Undoubtedly, obtaining this rune would aid in his evolution and guarantee his ascension to rank two.
But sunshine and storms share the same sky. Wealth and ruin come hand in hand - wherein there is luck, there is misfortune. Being a moment away from triumph, Stormwing was too late to realize the upcoming disaster. His instincts screamed, his feathers bristled in alarm. He looked above and saw infinitely many enlarging dots.
“GAAAH!!!” - Dodge!!!
At the same time that Stormwing gave a screech, the water splattered as a frosty figure emerged, streaking like thunder. In her hand, she wielded a sword clad in an icy aura that pointed directly at his heart with deadly precision. As the air around crackled with overwhelming energy, her raven hair gracefully cascaded down her back.
Amidst the perilous situation, Stormwing couldn’t help but recall his father’s warning before letting him depart the nest.
“GuHAHHagHw…” - Son, beware of seekers. They…
“Die!”
The ice maiden screamed at the top of her lungs. With no time to dodge, Stormwing shielded himself with his wings, the wisdom of his father ringing in his mind.
“...HGAawA!” - …are extremely treacherous!
The icy sword pierced through his wings and stopped right before his heart. Stormwing tried to distance himself by wantonly swinging his sharp talons. Despite all the effort, the seeker didn’t let go. By this time, one of the flying arrows had randomly fallen on his scapula, worsening the already unsalvageable situation.
Gripping the sword with both hands, she intensified her hold, channeling her power to fortify the ice encasing her pauldrons. It was so thick the hooked claws only left superficial marks on them. His moves were easy to predict; otherwise, he might have wounded the seeker.
She slashed the sword in a broad arc, a blow aimed not to wound but to cripple. The blade sliced through his muscles like butter. Stricken, all the power left his body as he plummeted into the waters.
The figure draped in frosty armor didn’t follow him. Instead, she went on a killing spree, massacring stormraptors while confusion still lingered in the air. Barely any were left unscathed from the onslaught of arrows, and to top it all, a second barrage soon followed.
When Stormwing came to his senses, he saw the corpses of his fallen comrades floating on the surface of the lake. The blue waters were now colored red. He was sinking, yet the surface was just as suffocating. He felt a heart-wrenching anger and grief. Yet, there still was a chance to turn the tables - that rune at the deepest part of the lake!
Taking a final look at the growing number of corpses, Stormwing resolutely dove toward his final hope. Only now did he feel the pain of the cut and several arrows hanging around his body. He could barely move his frozen wings.
Stormwing’s downfall was due to his lack of experience, especially with seekers. He was very young, just four. But thinking back, he had no chance in a fair fight either; the seeker was too strong. Stormwing manipulated the water current to hasten his descent.
...
He was halfway through his path when an icy gauntlet tore through his heart. Hakan squeezed her hands as the heart burst. Inside her grasp, therein lay a small rune.
Stormwing died.
Adding up to the rune that lay below, it amounted to a great harvest - two rank one water runes, one of middle and the other of the highest quality.
‘With this, I have finally regained the money spent on my nephew’s birthday gift.’
Leaving the corpse of a decimated bird to drown further, she tore through the water, emerging on the surface. There, she saw her disciple Tayfun walking on the surface of the water, tossing the corpses into a black hat. That hat was a relic with a rank two space rune at its core.
“How is it?”
“So-so. Again, only rank one. The Stormwing was a youngling. Go get its corpse.”
“But the smell of blood will attract others…”
“Then hurry.”
Tayfun sighed as he dove into the water. Hakan unhurriedly walked toward the shore with a mound. The archers had already climbed down from the trees. They felt overly agitated looking at her. But none would dare to express it.
“Haha, who would have thought we would stumble upon a newly forming rune on our way here? Those birds are very perceptive. Good job at hiding.”
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Hakan tried to mend the situation. This was the fourth time this kind of thing had happened. She was tasked with babysitting the Union's archer delegation of trainees on their way to the Yan clan. Those were aspiring talents from all five clans in the Heart Isle.
That is why she would use them. It is not every day you can get help from a commendable unit of archers for free.
‘Next is the ravine in the southeast...’
“There is havoc being wreaked in the south by those insects. We will move a bit toward the east to avoid confrontations.”
She didn’t even try to come up with appropriate excuses anymore. These archers were cowards. Who would dare to protest?
Tayfun worked with passion. Since unlike those ruffian archers, he was the disciple of milady. Hakan, too, appreciated Tayfun. Since a lifetime slave had more value than momentary laborers.
Despite being under twenty, he was already a rank one seeker. He had large prospects for the future. He had the potential to climb to the pedestal of formidable rank two seekers. But with it came a daily dose of life-threatening situations.
Case in point: There was a swarm of water leapers eating away at the corpse. They were legless froghead keepers with batlike wings and a gaping maw. Their appetite was boundless, apparent from the state of the corpse, from which almost nothing was left.
‘Thankfully, they have terrible perception.’
Tayfun unhesitatingly gave up on the corpse. Although these unranked keepers had weak bodies and close to no intelligence, they had enough to compensate for it. Firstly, their stingers, which were the size of their bodies, were covered with latent poison. One sting was more than enough to send Tayfun skyward. And more importantly, their lack of instinct for self-preservation would result in unrelenting suicide attacks.
“HAHA! HAHA! HAHA!”
The eerie laugh caught the leapers' attention. They all looked in Tayfun’s direction. It was none other than the unassuming hat that made the fuss. Relics had side effects proportionate to their strength.
Tayfun sighed as he knew that there was no avoiding the confrontation. He whipped the hat off as he reached into it with his hand. In a flashy manner, he pulled a scepter out of it. Its silver form mirrored the color of his hair.
There was a reason Hakan was reassured to let Tayfun into the waters filled to the brim with aquatic keepers. Feeling the overwhelming pressure coming off from the scepter, the hat shut up and shivered. They both were of rank two, yet the difference was staggering.
Ignorant of the imminent danger, the leapers leaped toward their impending doom. There were hundreds of them, the numbers enough to stir the entire ecosystem in these waters. But Tayfun didn’t heed them any attention as he was only worried about the upcoming side effects.
When they were half a reach away from the young man, the scepter opened its reddened eye, frantically scanning the surroundings with its all-encompassing vision. Blood squished out of Tayfun’s eyes. An insurmountable headache took over his consciousness.
“Arghhhhhhh!”
He shrieked as his body burned inside the water. Without being already used to it, he would have lost his consciousness from the pain. Just when several leapers were in close proximity, ready to launch an attack, they were all immobilized.
Spirit Anchor
These leapers were now bound by a luminescent golden chain coming out of the scepter’s eye. In no fraction of time, they lost their luster, and soon enough, they switched sides and attacked other nearby leapers. Some remained in defense beside Tayfun.
Spectral Feast
The crimson eye sucked the blood and spirits of those who had fallen in battle through the chains enveloping them, channeling it to Stormwing’s corpse. In a short duration, the body was wholly restored and was a corpse no more.
‘What is happening?’
Didn’t he die? He observed the area and found that he was lying in the deepest parts of the waters. Hearing the commotion, he looked above and saw a human figure surrounded by an army of keepers. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - he was instantly consumed by a thirst for revenge. But something felt off. How could he breathe underwater? How was his heart restored?
He then took a glance at the scepter the human was holding, and the scepter looked back at him with its murderous eye. Chills ran down his spine.
‘Blood! I want blood! Lots of it!’
His mind was overtaken. He was filled with mania and leaped toward the closest leaper, mercilessly tearing it apart with its beak. Despite being stung several times while on his march, he advanced without faltering. Even without his rune, Stormwing was a former rank one keeper to whom the likes of leapers could not be compared.
The fight was short. All that was left was the keepers under the commandment of the scepter. They were all burning, both their bodies and their very essence.
Life Siphon
No.53, the relic, otherwise known as Bazbala, drained all their spiritual energy and sucked their blood. It shook as if it were euphoric. Pleased, it retracted the chains and closed its eye.
Tayfun shoved the scepter inside the hat in haste and concentrated on his body and mind. Not only was he burning, but he was also taken away by frenzy.
He had wielded the scepter many times before. The problem was that Bazbala was a growth-type relic, and the stronger the relic, the worse the side effects.
But who were seekers? While keepers command runes, seekers get their power from souls. Tayfun was a rank one seeker, and thus, there was one more soul inhabiting his body.
Glimmery scales grew out of his body as his skin was shed. Those scales were resistant to fire. His hair started to fall out; his bones refractured as they were reforming. The saving grace was that he was currently inside the water.
‘That’s right, give me your body, human!’
Merrow’s soul wailed, disrupting his flow of mind. As soon as the fire was off, Tayfun started to suppress the soul with his spiritual energy. Since he was using Merrow’s soul to activate and control Bazbala, his opponent stood no chance.
‘If I don’t get stronger the next time, either Bazbala or Merrow will consume me.’
Tayfun smiled self-deprecatingly as he glanced toward the hat.
“Haha…”
The hat could only laugh, yet it was obvious from its tone that it wanted to cry. It knew the next thing that was going to be shoved inside it would be a pile of shit.
----------------------------------------
“Happy birthday, Fatma.”
“Thanks! You too. Be happy!”
Today was Damian’s birthday. He was turning four. Yet at the same time, Fatma was also having a birthday.
“How unfair! You are the only one who remembers it. But the whole clan will be celebrating yours. How I wish I were born a noble! Lucky bastard!”
Damian was already used to these rants. Heck, he was not only good at counterarguments but was also proficient in being toxic.
“You are the luckier one, though. How old are you? Are you sure you’re seventeen this year? You haven’t changed since the moment I remember you.”
Fatma froze in her place while the tray she was carrying fell to the floor.
‘Here goes the breakfast.’
Damian let out a heavy breath. Now, he had to go to his studies with an empty stomach. Well, at least she didn’t make a fuss this time. She was weirdly silent. When he looked at her face, he was taken aback. Fatma was crying. This was a first.
“Sorry, I went overboard.”
“You are not even denying it! What about my looks… I’m still growing! But why does it even matter!? What truly matters is character - character! But that bastard never even looks my way… They are even having a kid. Can you imagine? That bitch gonna become a mother! Elvan knew I loved that bastard from baaack before like when we were seven. She still stole him! It’s gone… all gone…”
Fatma sobbed, her voice broken by tears. Damian remembered a saying from back on earth. There are three taboos when talking to young women. First, never talk about their age. Second, never talk about their weight. Finally, and most importantly, never talk about their looks.
What followed was a sight to behold - a four-year-old kid trying to comfort a seventeen-year-old. It was awkward, to say the least.