Mike’s team was rattled. When they took the job to find and eliminate the spawn point, they knew it would be difficult. But things were spiraling out of control.
Running through the forest, Mike saw their archer, Heather, waving for them to hurry. Increasing his pace, he panted as the trees whipped past him. Paying close attention to his footing, he leapt and made it to the outcropping on the cliff face. Pulling himself up, he kept an eye on the forest he had just escaped.
Soon, he saw Jerry and Sarah emerge at a run and leap up beside him. The moment Jerry landed, he started waving his hands and essence gathered into a spell. Mike felt the illusion solidify, and he saw Jerry sigh in relief.
“What are you doing? Where is Victor?” Mike asked in an urgent whisper.
Heather was perched at the edge with her bow ready to unleash hell on whatever monstrosity appeared. Meanwhile, Sarah was running a glowing hand along a gash in her side.
Jerry said, “I’ve cloaked us. We can speak freely, they won’t hear us. I’m sorry about Victor. The ones hiding in the trees managed to hamstring him. Sarah and I saw him get mobbed. At least he didn’t go quietly.”
Rubbing his head in exasperation, Mike said, “What the hell was that anyway. That wasn’t a spawn point. Did you recognize what the essence was doing? I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Sarah spoke up, her voice tinged with worry, “I can't be sure, but I think it was a proto-dungeon. I’ve never seen one, but I’ve read about them.”
Heather didn’t take her eyes off the treeline, and her voice was cold when she said, “That’s not possible. They wouldn’t form out here. There isn’t enough ambient essence to form a dungeon.”
Jerry said, “Over the past few years, the essence has been collecting. You’ve all seen it. The animals are getting more dangerous, and the plants are changing. It’s been 50 years since Dorchester’s seen a beast tide. If the essence in the area is changing, then it’s possible the conditions were met to mutate a spawn point.”
Nodding, Sarah chimed in, “He’s right. The war could have been enough to shake the knots of essence. Essence first pools, then it knots, then it forms spawn points. In areas of dense essence, they can form dungeons. A proto-dungeon makes sense.”
Mike thought about it, and said, “Fine, even if it’s a proto-dungeon, that doesn’t explain the amount of monsters in the area.”
Jerry disagreed, “Yes it does. Proto-dungeons have a small pocket dimension. They’re spawning inside, then the overflow is what we saw. Until the dimension settles, the monsters won’t feel comfortable staying inside. Growing dimensions are very uncomfortable.”
Heather piped in, “That’s really interesting, but that just means we’re not going to get paid. Even worse, you said this might be a prelude to a beast tide. We need to keep our mouths shut and get out of Dorchester.”
Sarah said, “I say we report it. The north has finders fees for dungeons. I’ve never looked it up, but there is probably something on the local board about dungeon bounties.”
Mike nodded and added, “We’re also not going to be responsible for an unreported dungeon. If that ever came out, we’d be executed.”
Looking at each of them in turn, he made sure they knew he was serious.
Heather sniffed in annoyance, and said, “I suppose you want us to stay and defend the city, right?”
Mike gave her a look like she was an idiot. “I’m certain that we can get out before they draft anyone. Why the hell would you think I wanted to be here for a beast tide? We go get paid, then we join a caravan heading east. Bennington is far enough away that we should be safe from the beast tide, and Victor’s crazy-ass wife won’t be able to find us.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. Soon they set a basic camp and went to sleep. They slept soundly, knowing that in a few days, none of this would be their problem.
-----
Lord Bennings was standing in front of a large essence hologram at the head of the conference room table. She was going to be leading the meeting and outlining the rules and regulations that must be adhered to for Lord Walker to complete his trials. Due to his age, his situation was uncommon, and there were many points of interest that she had to cover.
On one side of the table, General Branson sat next to Captain Angelton, along with Sergeants Peyton and Jackson. Across from them were Lord Cosgrave, Arch-mage Jennings, Vera, and Nero.
Pointing at a particular section of highlighted text, Lord Bennings said, “You can see quite clearly that there is no accounting for the new noble’s age in the eyes of the law. He must complete a trial within a year.”
The hologram changed to show some different text, and she continued, “As he hasn’t completed a branch of any knowledge trees, he is ineligible for the Trial of Knowledge at this time. I’ve spoken with Mr. Salvatore and he concurs that the wording of the law indicates quite clearly that anything learned ‘from’ Nero cannot be counted as a contribution. Lord Walker must offer something himself, and he can’t publish until he completes a branch.”
Once again, the text displayed changed. She pointed to a section and said, “The Trial of Legacy is also very clear. Lord Walker would had to have already married into a noble family, or completed a courting term. Even if he started today, it would be five years before he could marry a noble to complete the legacy trial.”
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Nero didn’t like this talk of marriage, and was about to speak up, when Vera beat him to the punch.
“Why can’t he marry a commoner? If she is pregnant within a year, it would constitute a confirmed legacy, would it not?” she asked.
Lord Bennings shook her head, “A child between someone of common birth, and a new noble facing the trials wouldn’t be considered a legal scion until the age of awakening. I made sure to explore the inheritance laws quite thoroughly.”
Vera replied, “Then all we ha-”
“Nope,” Nero interrupted loudly. “I’m not marrying anyone. I’ll get to that trial when I get to it. Next!” he ordered.
Several people chuckled, and Lord Bennings frowned at him. Nero just returned a blank stare. He wasn’t going to marry some random person to fulfill some ridiculous law.
With a sniff of irritation, Lord Bennings moved the presentation forward. As the text displayed on the hologram changed, she said, “That leaves the Trial of Combat, and the Trial of Service. In more martial areas of Oglivarch, they are usually completed at the same time. General Branson contacted me earlier today and presented a very clever plan. I’ll turn the meeting over to him at this time.”
Taking the empty seat next to Lord Cosgrave, she joined the audience as General Branson took the spot at the head of the table.
“We all know what is currently happening in the wilds to the east.” he said.
Waving his hand, the hologram changed to display aerial views with highlighted areas and spots. Nero had no idea what any of it meant, but it looked very detailed and impressive.
Listening to the general drone on about the aftermath of the Populators' war with the Dorchen mercenaries, Nero tried to force himself to pay attention. Unfortunately, there was too much he didn’t understand. “Essence pockets” and “knots”, along with “condensation points” sounded familiar, but Nero was lost. When the general started bringing up graphs and data sets, Nero stifled a groan. The last straw was when the general started referencing Nick’s essence collection data.
Nero’s mind wandered, and he started mentally going over spell-forms. While he kept staring at the hologram like everyone else, he wasn’t even remotely paying attention. His mind was separating the spell-forms into their individual parts, in order to find similarities and determine each section’s purpose. In the future, he was planning to start making his own spell-forms. Nero had already had some success, but throwing together simple spells wasn’t the goal; understanding how spells were formed was his ultimate aim.
Rather than watching a presentation on what he’d already figured out, Arch-mage Jennings was watching Nero. The last time the young man’s mind wandered like this, Jennings saw him develop a crude temperature alteration spell. Now, he was waiting patiently for Nero to do something absurd, while sipping his coffee.
Eventually, General Branson started outlining his plan to combat the upcoming changes in the wilds. He based his proposal on how other cities in high essence areas dealt with their dungeons and spawning areas. Lord Cosgrave was smiling as she imagined all of the incoming essence crystals, and what it would mean for Dorchester’s prosperity.
Around 600 years ago, the kingdom had fought a war with Dorchester’s ruler, City Lord Linas Dorchester. The fighting was intense, and the Populators had fought the local forces in the streets. The results were months of essence storms and a city in ruins. The essence in the area was never the same, and Dorchester had suffered because of it. It was a testament to the balance of the world, that when Linas Dorchen’s line was finally ended, the essence seemed to return to Dorchester. ‘Maybe it's time to change the city's name?’ Lord Cosgrave thought to herself.
It had only been a few days, and the economy was already booming with the influx of essence from the monster hunters taking advantage of the surrounding spawns. General Branson made a point of how these next few months would be critical in establishing a local structure of city-sponsored monster hunters.
Outlining the expansion of the army, he finally got to why he was bringing this up now. He wanted Nero to join one of the elite monster hunting training programs. Listing all of the benefits that this cooperation could have for Lord Walker, he made note that 6 months of service would fulfill the Trial of Service. There was precedent that ‘hostile territory’ training was graded differently than regular service. Furthermore, if he managed to personally kill a dangerous beast or monster of class 3 or higher, it would fulfill his Trial of Combat.
As the general was detailing his plan for Nero’s squad training, he focused on speaking to Vera. She seemed nervous, but she was listening to the proposal. He highlighted the command structure, and even added that Captain Angelton would personally be teaching Nero the sword. Furthermore, Nero would have a chance to focus on his magic, while living in an environment filled with essence and potential for growth. It would be dangerous, but Nero could survive the wilds with some training.
While the general did his best to convince House Walker’s proxy, Lord Walker was subtly creating spell-forms behind his chair. Using his psychic field, Nero wasn’t paying attention to what his eyes were seeing. His focus was on what his field was showing him. With a light touch, he was trying to not draw any attention to what he was doing. As no one was yelling at him to pay attention, he figured he was getting pretty good at being sneaky.
It was much easier to hide his spell forms if he used his own essence. Slowly, he created balls of earth in the air, then reversed the spell form and broke the earth back into essence. It was a useless spell technique, but Nero was enjoying watching the coalesced essence form and then break apart.
Jennings was watching Nero play, but he couldn’t figure out what Nero was trying to accomplish. It looked like Nero was just condensing and releasing essence, but he was sure there was more to it. Nero was too brilliant to just be playing. Right?
Jennings’ focus was broken as he heard Vera ask, “What do you think Nero?”
He watched as Nero blinked a few times, and mentally returned to the room. The boy looked around, and saw that everyone was waiting for his response. He adopted a look of intense thought and started rubbing his chin.
With total seriousness, he said, “The general makes many good points. The charts were particularly well done. But after careful consideration, I have to agree with whatever Vera thinks is best.” Nodding to himself, Nero looked like he fought hard to reach that decision.
Almost everyone in the room was stunned to silence. Lords Cosgrave and Bennings shared looks of confusion. Jennings couldn’t help but hold a hand to his mouth to cover his chuckle. General Branson was just smiling, he didn’t seem surprised at Nero obviously not having heard a word he had said over the past hour. Captain Angelton just stared at Nero, trying to see if the young man was joking.
Vera, however, was holding back a tidal wave of anger. Her eyes were nearly closed as she squinted at him in fury. “About his proposal Nero. What do you think about his proposal?” she asked through gritted teeth.
Nero, staying true-to-form, replied, “Oh, that. Well I can see both sides. I think there is a lot to consider.” Rubbing his hands, he continued, “We should order another pot of coffee and talk more about it. Really explore the proposal, consider all the angles. Maybe we could get some food too, I’m sure we’re all hungry. Just not those pastries from the waiting rooms, they were too sweet. I’m thinking sandwiches. Can’t screw up a sandwich. What do you think?”
That did it. Captain Angelton’s face fell into his hands, as he realized that Nero hadn’t been listening. Lords Cosgrave and Bennings just stared at Nero in shock, unable to comprehend his audacity. General Branson’s smile seemed to grow even wider. Meanwhile, the Hunter-Sergeants Peyton and Jackson were still confused.
As Vera verbally laid into Nero for ignoring the seriousness of the situation, Jennings burst into laughter. Arch-mage Jennings hadn’t had this much fun in years.