“… ye, that’s completely messed up …” Leo agreed.
Currently he and the gang form the Golden city were sitting in the academy’s canteen, having dinner. The guys were delighted he was still alive and well, since him missing for almost half a year made everyone but Alice fear the worst.
“Mhm.” Claude nodded, “Although I have no clue how is it possible for the people of the corrupt path to develop a formation like this. Fan Yun as a runemaster’s apprentice probably can explain it better.”
“How in the world I would know that?” She was delighted Claude mentioned her and at the same time upset at the lack of knowledge in this matter, “In fact, I believe only people at the level of master Shaw might have a clue.”
Everyone instinctively turned their heads towards Kevin, who was long used to situations like this.
He sighed and said, “I’m not my father, you know? But I do have a theory. There are extremely rare occurrences in nature when due to unknown reasons beasts attack human settlements en masse. In children’s tales we call them ‘beast tides’. From the intel the academy received, the Army of Freedom managed to manufacture a large scale formation that mimics the effects and now are harassing the territories of the Immortal Alliance.”
“How come we didn’t invent something like that first? We’re much more advanced!” Alice pondered out loud, but only earned disapproving looks from the rest.
“Why would the Immortal Alliance research something so unethical? There is a reason why we are the righteous and they are the corrupt path!” Fan Yun said with a snort.
“So the Army of Freedom is the corrupt path?” Leo said out loud in a sudden revelation, but the rest blanked out at the obvious statement. He noticed the reaction, blushed and defended, “I’m sorry, but I am a country bumpkin from a mortal realm, you know ...”
“Don’t worry about it!” Kevin recovered first, “Those are the big politics and for now don’t concern us. The basic principle is – everything that’s illegal is from the corrupt path. Simple as that.”
“How does it not concern us?” Alice immediately argued, “We have to go who knows were and fight who knows what!”
“And here I thought you were looking for an adventure.” Harold winked at her, “From where I stand, this is an amazing opportunity. I doubt we’ll get another chance to hone our skills this way in the nearest future. In addition, we’ll travel around the world and help people – it’s gonna be great!”
While the last sentence made Alice’s eyes lite up, Kevin managed to dampen the mood in an instant.
“Probably many will die.” He plainly said.
They hung out till dark and met up again the next evening after the practice. Contrary to the time in the Golden city, now Leo was the one in the group who mostly listened and absorbed every bits of information.
The day after, in the morning, he met up with Alice and the rest of Musa’s squad at the academy’s teleportation hub. Most members had already accepted him or at least tolerated, therefore he didn’t feel as uncomfortable.
“Alright!” Musa called for the squad’s attention, “Our orders are the following. We are to go to the town called Taipaq and observe the activities of the ranked beasts in the region. In case there is a danger of a beast tide, we’ll assist the local enforcement. Even though there have been few beast tides during the past days across the territories of the Immortal Alliance, we don’t know for sure how to predict them accurately yet as well as how to judge the potential scale of the threat. Therefore we have no clue what awaits us.”
After stepping off the teleportation platform, the group found themselves in the middle of a bustling city. To Leo it somewhat reminded of the times when he returned from expeditions and went to the holy city of Avila. The only difference was that the buildings were taller and quite often one could see a Nascent soul stage cultivator rushing somewhere above the busy streets. There were also quite a few tamed ranked beasts, many of which looked peculiar, although mostly resembled wolves and bears, just with different kinds of mutations.
Leo soon got the explanation why.
“This is Dzhurun, the capital of the region. Our goal is further up the mountains.” Musa said and led the group towards the northern gate of the city.
Only upon reaching it, a thrilling view of a high mountain range, covered in thick forests opened in front of everyone’s eyes. To Leo it reminded of the times in Dreadlands when he traveled with Lana’s group. No wonder these parts were infested with wolf-like looking beasts – it was like the environment was hand tailored for them.
With Musa, Lily and Mark, the three Nascent soul stage students, flying above and the rest rushing forth below, the group rapidly moved towards the north, towards the mountains. Fortunately Musa didn’t insist on keeping the formation while on the move thus Alice didn’t shy off to hang out with Leo despite the dissatisfied looks from the other squad members. Of course, ‘hanging out’ was a stretch because she was the weakest member, but her being an alchemist and especially the fact that she was a daughter from the Hubert family gave free pass in most situations.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Already during the first few days in the academy Leo noticed an interesting detail – the girls who joined the combat division were basically treated as the guys and on the training ground no one held back punches no matter the gender. But the runemaster apprentices as well as the alchemists was a whole different story. The guys from all divisions tried to court them and compete for their attention.
Being the cutie that Alice was, she obviously had a sea of admirers as well. The older brother’s presence in the academy was a slight deterring factor, but he was similarly an alchemist so most didn’t fear him at all. Leo’s guess was that in their squad the guys had split in two fronts – one that was going after Alice and the other for the girl named Frina, also an alchemist.
From what it looked like Lily, the last female in the squad, was out of reach for the puny footmen, both literally and figuratively. Despite the frail stature, she radiated intensely cold arrogance that inevitably drove away any suitor. Her slim body though, dressed in a tight leather outfit, was rather alluring and Leo allowed himself to steal a glance at her now and then when he was certain no one would notice. Her being at the Nascent soul stage made it rather risky and Leo kept constantly reminding himself of the rule number one, but the fantasy of washing her kept creeping up in his mind over and over.
When the sun set, the group was already high up in the mountains with several members out of breath. Leo though, to his pleasant surprise, was as energetic as when they left Dzhurun, despite running the whole way with the Cleaver on his back. He helped to set up the camp, but then excused himself and ran off.
The youth just couldn’t help it – the more he was in this environment, the more nostalgic he felt. He simply had to hunt something for the old time sake.
When Leo returned a short while later carrying a large stag, he was met with looks of confusion and ridicule. He couldn’t blame the guys – before they left, everyone packed their spacial treasures full with rations consisting of ranked beast meat provided for free in the canteen, but here he was, intending to eat something so ordinary.
Needless to say, after listening to Leo’s stories years ago, Alice was an exception. The moment Leo brought back the stag, she commanded him to ‘do his thing’ and began making another bonfire at the side while continuously salivating. Leo was caught off-guard since at that moment she somewhat reminded him of Anna, but those were pleasant memories and he began to prepare the meat with a smile across his face.
To roast the large pieces of meat took quite a while. Leo used this time to share his self-perfected roasting techniques with Alice who patiently noted his every word. While in comparison to Leo she had an advantage of a wast theoretical knowledge base almost in every area, camping in the wilderness was new to her. They did spend a couple of months in the pocked dimension during the entrance exams, but everyone there was using the rations they brought along, thus she finally could enjoy a true adventurous experience.
Meanwhile the rest had long finished eating and began to cultivate, except for the Musa who sat down cross legged on the opposite side of the bonfire, across Leo and Alice. He didn’t say a word, just stared at the fire deep in though.
“Want some?” Leo asked him when the meat was ready.
Musa was caught off guard, but nodded and flew over, still cross legged, and picked the skewer Leo offered. That immediately caused displeasure in the other two Nascent soul stage students, Lily and Mark, and Leo could swear for a split moment he felt a killing intent directed at him.
A year ago he wouldn’t even notice or assume they were simply displeased, but after the incident with the raging sect master, he knew very well what the killing intent felt like. In an instant the previously alluring Lily turned into a venomous snake in his eyes and from that moment on he could only see her as such. Mark did seem more adequate and Leo decided to not worry about him for now.
The trio slowly chewed the slightly burnt, but still juicy stag meat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
Musa was the first to break the silence, surprising Leo who expected him to be haughty or even conceited similar to the others at the Nascent soul stage.
“This is just a regular stag right?” Musa asked, “How come it’s so good?”
“I just rubbed it with a mixture of few spices, nothing fancy.” Leo shrugged, pleased with the compliment, “A bit of pepper and garlic, and a plant that resembled thyme. I have no clue what it’s called in this realm, but it looks the same.”
“What do you mean?” Alice was confused, “We’re still in the Savage mortal realm. This IS thyme.”
“Oh? Ok!” Was all Leo could say. To hide his embarrassment he asked Musa, “Don’t tell me you never hunted a regular game. You surely don’t seem like you come from a big city.”
“What does a city person look like?” Musa nonchalantly asked, but had to hide a grin when Leo pointed the piece of meat in his hand at Alice who for whatever reason was immediately displeased.
“It was a long time ago.” Musa unexpectedly shared, “My older brother used to take me hunting when I was a small kid. He mostly caught rabbits though and to be fair they weren’t as tasty. He had no clue how to cook.”
“Did he already graduate the academy?” Leo asked, but immediately regretted it.
Musa’s expression darkened and he plainly said, “He’s dead.”
The atmosphere turned awkward and it lasted till they finished the meal, but the next morning it was already forgotten.
The squad rushed further into the mountains and only late that night they arrived to Taipaq. While the Nascent soul stage trio went to report to the local authorities, the rest camped outside the town and Leo used the time to hunt a couple of deer. This time Alice tagged along, but he was forced to carry the game back by himself anyway.
“No abnormalities.” Was the only thing Musa reported after coming back and before picking up one of the skewers and beginning to roast the meat. To Leo it felt like the awkward atmosphere returned again and no one really spoke that night.