Alaric took in the world around him. This far from the capital, the main economic activities were agriculture, mining and hunting.

Once in a while, they spotted mighty fields, covering acres of land and filled with vibrant healthy crops. Large swaths of overturned land were being ploughed by powerful machines that appeared to be brilliant amalgamations of magic and technology.

Here and there, a few quarries and mines could be seen dotting the world below them.

Alaric had read of many of these from books and wasted no time in looking straight down. ‘Ugh, I can’t see anything.’

[Hmph! And you claim to be my master,] a feminine voice scoffed in his mind.

[I love you too, Alia,] he chuckled.

“Wow… Everything looks so tiny from up here,” Finn gawked.

Letting the gears in his mind grind, Alaric thought up an idea before closing his eyes, “Let me try something.”

“Huh,” Finn turned to his friend to find that he’d closed his eyes in concentration, “Oh! Darla, he’s showing off again.”

“Yeah, I know,” Darla sighed.

“No, I’m not,” the dark-haired boy chuckled.

When Alaric opened his eyes, Garin tensed and looked back at the boy who’d just emitted the slightest pulse of aether.

Alaric’s green eyes had gained a slight resplendent glow to them, a bright smile gracing his surprised face.

The boy looked down once more and gasped, “Woah! I can see the men working in the mines… Oh dear, is that a stone elephant— No… What is that thing? I don’t know what that is. It looks like an elephant made of stone… and like a rhino at the same time.”

The creature he was staring at did, in fact, resemble a perfect fusion of the two creatures, however, that’s where the resemblance ended.

The magnificent beast easily towered several feet higher than the average elephant or rhino would ever hope to and sported a body made of earth and padded with metallic armour.

It bore armoured tusks, a frightening pair of steel horns in a line roughly after its forehead and a powerful trunk.

A deep guttural laugh filled the air, startling kids.

“That’s a chimera-type Guardian. You’ll see more of those than SwiftWind here. They come in all shapes and sizes and have even more abilities to boot,” the man explained.

Alaric let his eyes linger on the menacing guardian for a bit. It rammed into rocks with its armoured skull and horns, drilled into the ground with its powerful tusks and trampled over the fallen boulders with its earthen hooves, raising large dust plumes like a living natural disaster.

With a little more focus, Alaric saw a glimmering shimmer coming out of the stones, “What are they mining?”

“Wild Aether, Minerals… Anything they can get their hands on honestly. See that glowing machine at the centre of the quarry?” Garin pointed out an odd large device humming with powerful magic.

“Yeah?”

“It’s called an Earth Miner. It pulls valuable minerals from a hundred-kilometre radius closer to one place without damaging the land. These miners are then tasked with getting those minerals out of the ground surrounding the Earth Miner,” the knight explained.

Moments later, the mines were far and Alaric was searching for more interesting landmarks. It wasn’t long before they witnessed more of these mines, each with a unique armoured guardian decimating the rocks and making the work that followed easier.

Finn leaned over and whispered into Alaric’s ear, “I want to see, too.”

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The boy, who had already been thinking of a way to grant his friends the benefit he’d just attained, held Finn’s hand and concentrated for a bit.

A bead of sweat formed on his brow before something clicked within him…

“Don’t let go of my hand.”

Before the pair could return to watching the passing features, a chuckle interrupted them.

Garin turned to the boys with an amused smile, “So the rumours are true then. There really is an orphan who managed to summon his guardian in the Five Hills,” the man laughed out, “Not only that but he can use magic already. This is rich.”

“You can tell I have a guardian?” Alaric asked.

“Using magic is usually a dead giveaway. But there are exceptions like that kid, Cody,” the man shrugged.

“Then how did you know?” Alaric asked.

“Your Concealment Spell is good for a novice. Only very powerful A-class and above slayers will be able to detect your guardian. A few B-class exceptions might be able to tell as well. You can rest easy. Almost everyone at the Appraisal Ceremony has something to hide. You won’t even stand out that much,” Garin winked.

“I don’t buy it. How can some no-name orphan learn magic? He has no patron and there is no one to teach him in the Five Hills,” the blonde boy in the back yelled out.

“There is more than one way to learn magic, Aiden. Once in a while, you’ll find prodigies that naturally excel at magic, especially elemental magic. In even rarer cases, it’s said a guardian can teach their masters magic. That’s if they are of a high enough level. I don’t know where this young lad falls but I’m interested to see where he goes,” Garin explained.

Alaric’s stomach twisted. What was this man saying? This callous carefree harebrained knight of a man was exposing everything about him without any restraint. Was he trying to make him a target?

At this rate, Garin was bound to make these kids his enemies. Did Alaric care though? Maybe. For now, all he cared for were Darla and Finn.

“Then let him show us his all-powerful guardian,” the blonde boy argued.

Alaric huffed, “I don’t think I will.”

“Aiden, play nice. I think I mentioned he was using a Concealment Spell,” Garin chuckled, “If I were you, I’d try to get along. You six are from neighbouring villages and have been in the care of old friends of mine. It would do you good to become friends.”

Alaric thought through the man’s words. He knew nothing about these children… nor did he feel the need to make friends with them. He didn’t even know where they were from.

He did not need some blonde hothead he’d just met on the ride to the Tower of Seekers. But from what he’d heard of the Guardian Academy, there was talk of squads, captains and teamwork.

There was no telling what squad he’d get assigned to. Making enemies with someone who could be his potential squadmate was not ideal.

‘Why does life have to be this complicated?’ he internally cried.

[You could put your trust in Garin] Alia pointed out.

Garin was good friends with Sister Marla-friends enough for the overprotective caretaker to trust with their safety. Perhaps Alaric was not giving the man enough credit.

Oblivious to the boy’s inner turmoil, Garin continued, “You keep up the miracles lad and you just might grow to be as strong as some hero I once met. The bastard was a resourceful cockroach who wouldn’t go down no matter how often he was beaten down.

Unfortunately, he died. You see, kids… In this world, you must know when to fight… and when to run. You don’t pick all your battles and you can’t win them all either.

However, you choose which ones you’ll take part in and that can mean the difference between life and death. There is no shame in running from a battle beyond your capabilities.”

“Everyone knows the story of Hero Caspian, the only hero to stand against the Demon King. His statue stands in the city square at the centre of the Capital of Valeria. I don’t mean to be too disrespectful, Garin, but this kid is nothing compared to the hero,” Aiden snorted, “Hero Caspian summoned his S-class guardian at the age of five. It’s never happened again.”

“You’re well-informed, Aiden. I underestimated you, however, age has nothing to do with talent. Not always anyway,” Garin chuckled.

Alaric didn’t feel like saying anything after all this. He’d heard the stories of the hero that nearly defeated the Demon King too and had looked for as much information on him as he could, with next to no luck.

After Jared’s death, the destruction of all demons had been all he could think about for months. He’d trained hard and studied whenever he had the chance so nothing Aiden said struck him as extraordinary.

“Do you think the Demon King will ever be defeated?” Darla finally spoke up. Her tone was low but her words were carried far.

“That’s not something we can just accomplish overnight. Become a part of the Elite Guard, then you can worry about such matters,” Garin replied, “To do that, you must first get an impressive appraisal at the Tower of Seekers… and speaking of the Tower, here we are…”

The landscape had changed significantly since the start of their journey, from smooth hills with quarries, mines, fields and forests to a rocky mountainous range.

With a deep guttural grunt, the guardian flew higher and higher into the sky as they came across an especially tall peak that pierced the sky. When it seemed as though the mountain was too high to crest, the stingray banked to the side and went around it.

Emerging from the other side, the scenery instantly changed, exploding right before the children’s eyes. The other side of the mountain had been completely cut and in the pocket formed, a massive structure of pristine white alabaster had been built.

They had arrived at the Tower of Seekers.

Alaric’s jaw dropped and the tense conversation they’d just had was all but a ghost of the past.