Melbourne was a small town at the edges of the great mountain range. Running around it was a tall wooden wall made of thick logs sharpened at the top to make powerful spears at least a meter in diameter each.

Steel constructs wrapped neatly around the pillars like ropes, weaving and binding them together while a thin veil of magic reinforced and preserved the wood with more than a few enchantments.

Alaric had sensed the magic flowing off the wall almost as soon as the brilliant village came into view. Stretching far out on both sides, the wall went as far as the boy could see, wrapping around the large town in earnest.

From what he could tell, the village was also at the very edge of the Barren Mountains, growing more into the relatively flatter terrain on the other side.

Sighing, he pulled up the hood of his cloak to obscure his face. The Face Mask he’d been given by Elder Gregory was already on his face, changing his features subtly to give him a completely different face.

The man in front of him shuffled a step forward, prompting Alaric to do the same. This brought the people in the long line into the city that much closer to getting in.

A breeze from the mountains blew through the line, sending a line of goosebumps down the length of Alaric’s arm before they vanished. Since his body was already Tempered to the Wood Rank, Alaric wondered just how bad it should have been for people of lower ranks.

The cold only barely affected him though it wasn’t nearly enough elemental resistance for his to boast about being powerful. Still, he stole a few glances around and noticed how everyone else was dressed in thick clothing to combat the cold.

The breeze did more than carry cold… It also carried whispers.

‘Did you hear? The Tower of Seekers was attacked last night,’ a woman behind gossiped in hush tones.

‘Who would be that stupid? The Tower will obliterate them,’ another woman argued.

‘I wouldn’t be too sure. Didn’t you notice the weather yesterday?’ a man pitched in, ‘Apparently the invaders had enough magic to shatter the skies. You could see it from anywhere in the Barren Mountains.’

“Could it have been an S-class guardian?” one of them asked.

“I heard it was an A-class guardian that belonged to a Slayer of the Steel Temper Rank,” another woman chimed in.

Alaric’s heart sank deeper and deeper as he heard these rumours. He knew there was almost nothing to them considering these people were convinced the enemy was able to ‘split the skies.’ He could understand why someone would think that though…

‘Steel Rank? Do these people even know what they are talking about?’ Alaric shivered. He’d already witnessed the power of a Stone Temper Rank and was astonished by the power he possessed… but to claim a Steel Rank Slayer with an A-rank guardian had attacked the Tower was just ludicrous.

Just what would someone so powerful hope to gain from chasing after someone as weak as Alaric? Then again, Alaric had survived an attack from a Stone Rank when he’d not even started his Body Tempering.

The longer he thought about this, the more he was convinced of the truth behind the rumours.

He took a deep breath and followed the moving line once more, “Don’t listen to them,” Garin whispered to the boy.

Alaric nodded and didn’t talk about it.

Before he knew it, they’d reached the head of the line and were faced by a pair of guards dressed in chainmail armour. A large man spoke in a gruff tone, “State your business.”

“We are travellers visiting a relative,” Garin spoke up.

“Alright… Belongings?” the man ordered.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As commanded, both Alaric and Garin presented their storage bracelets for inspection. One was a silver bracelet while the other retained the colour of rusty bronze like the kind of hand-me-down a father would give their son.

The guard narrowed his eyes at the two items. Storage items weren’t so rare… but they were expensive. “Where did you say you were from, lads?”

“Earl’s Hollow, sir,” Garin replied without batting an eyelash.

“Names.”

“Gandalow and this here is my nephew, Alistair,” Garin replied with the same measured confidence he’d been using.

The guard stared at the hardened face slightly hidden under the ‘black’ hood. Taking the two bracelets, he spared his partner a glance, “You believe these two?”

His friend shrugged, “Not our job… We paid too little to check everyone’s story. As long as they are not on the Wanted list, that’s good enough for us. We can just check in on them in a few days to confirm they are indeed visiting a relative.”

The guard nodded and brought a smooth sapphire opal close to the items. There was a hum of magic but nothing more, “You’re clear. Enjoy your stay in Melbourne, lads.”

Garin… or rather, Gandalow, bowed his head and led his ‘nephew’ in through the gates. Alaric wasn’t shocked in the slightest by the scene as it had been a part of his discussions with the stalwart knight.

From this day on, Alaric would go by the name ‘Alistair’ and it would remain that way for as long as he’d not yet reached the Steel Body Temper rank as per his agreement with Garin.

Given all that Alaric had heard, getting to that Temper Rank was going to be immensely hard… but his resolve wouldn’t allow it. He wanted to accomplish it in a year at most.

As he walked away from the guards with Garin, he held his cloak, feeling the black fabric beneath his fingers. “I still don’t get why we had to change the colour of our cloaks,” he said.

“Because grey cloaks are known for being used as camouflage in the Barren Mountains. Now enough of that talk. Try to enjoy this city… It might not look like much, but it’s one of the most prosperous cities this far north,” Garin explained with an excited grin.

‘Prosperous, huh,’ Alaric thought to himself. Anything looked prosperous when compared to the sparsely-populated Five Hills.

The town of Melbourne was just even more impressive than its famous wooden walls. The air was humming with magic and the streets were bustling with people moving up and down. Children darted here and there, playing or going about whatever mischief they had planned. Alaric particularly saw one nab a man’s wallet before a soldier chased him down. It took everything in the boy’s body to keep himself from reacting to the way the little thief was treated.

Shifting his attention from the people, he looked to the infrastructure which was unlike anything the Five Hills had to offer.

The buildings and the streets were made of the same barren grey stone as the Barren Mountains around. Alaric guessed the people of Melbourne probably had quarries and mines littered in the mountains to mine them of stone and minerals.

‘I guess even the Barren Mountains have a use,’ he thought to himself.

Every now and then, he noticed little patches of green—little gardens of greenery that had been trimmed and shaped into forms that were far too neat to be natural.

The streets were abnormally clean with guards scattered about the city so much that Alaric realised littering was a crime without being told.

Garin walked at a measured pace and prompted the boy to keep up, “Gar… Gandalow, this relative of ours… What kind of work does she do?”

Garin allowed a small nostalgic smile to appear on his face, “Her name’s Sariah. Or at least, that’s the name she goes by these days. She’s an adventurer from my old party. When Marla eventually grew tired of the constant danger and left the party… Well, we all pretty much went our separate ways,” Garin explained.

Cutting a corner away from the busy marketplace in the distance, Garin led Alaric to a less populated street. “Why did the party break up when Sister Marla left?”

“Marla was a talented Healer. And with her around, we’d survived more than our fair share of near-death encounters. None of us were still so confident about going out on daring missions without her healing power backing us up. We tried hiring another healer… but none ever really fit our party’s dynamics, so the Hurricane Oaks party was dissolved.”

“Hurricane Oaks?” Alaric asked. He’d heard this name before but never ventured to ask what it was all about.

“The name’s not that great but there was a long debate and that’s what we ended up with. We had to add something related to nature because Marla wouldn’t let Thomper go unrepresented,” Garin groaned.

Alaric chuckled, “I didn’t realise you and Sister Marla knew each other that well.”

“Ah, yes. We had many adventures… Though I’ll admit she was never meant for the battlefield. We all knew that… and it was only after she came to that realisation herself that we knew it was over,” Garin replied with a sigh. He bore that expression of someone who missed the good old days, yet knew it was for the best that they were over.

Bracing a tight smile, Garin spoke, “We’ve arrived.”

Alaric turned to look around for their destination. It was obvious really. Standing alone at the edge of the city was a brief stone cottage cosy enough to house at least three people. It had beautiful windows, and a nice cosy garden at the front that had been allowed to go a little wild.

It reminded Alaric a lot of the vine cottage he’d spent six months in, undergoing a Tempering Ritual.

The door swung open to reveal a short girl dressed in black and wearing a furious scowl on her face.

“A whole year… GARIN! What the hell could you want now?” the girl yelled at the man.