As Locke worked alone. He cursed himself for a fool.

Just when he was becoming friends with the new guy, Gust sequestered himself in the Swordsman’s home. Locke was already beginning to accept that Gust would never come out. The Demon would cower behind an impenetrable wall of sword mana and keep his master’s powers for himself.

In the end, everyone was disappointing. They always left Locke behind, sent him away, or betrayed him. Locke knew he could only rely on himself and the thousand allies he would perfect over the next few hundred years.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t lonely. His queen ant couldn’t talk, even if she seemed to understand him.

Locke sighed as he pushed his mop in the exact same pattern as yesterday, and several hundred days before. Today, though, he was pleasantly surprised.

Locke perked up when he heard footsteps coming from the south. He glanced at the portion of the courtyard he had already cleaned. “Jonas doesn’t usually come this way until I’m three-quarters done,” he thought. “And the elders sure don’t give a shit about me.” The mop slipped out of his hands when he saw who it was.

Gust had come back. Locke felt something that only registered as mild happiness hours later. He wasn’t the type to jump for joy, but he did give Gust an acknowledging nod. “Wasn’t sure I’d be seeing you again.”

Gust grinned despite the mild greeting. His gray sleeves hung loose as he spread his hands. “You almost didn’t.” When he reached Locke, Gust held out his fist. Locke instinctively fell into a defensive position and Gust laughed. “No, no, you just bump it with your fist. It’s a greeting.”

Locke eyed Gust’s hand warily. He looked up. “What happened to your eye?”

“That’s a… bit of a long story.” Gust answered. It was a question he’d been expecting. Gust let his fist hang in the air for a few seconds before raising an eyebrow.

Slowly, Locke relaxed. One hand gingerly crossed the distance between the two boys and lightly bumped into Gust’s knuckles.

The Demon smiled. “See? Not so bad.” He launched into the same explanation he gave Masters Ephraim and Christos. Starsoul, sword space, and all. He was careful not to deviate from the story he had already provided, as he could never know whether the Masters were listening in.

Gust was already growing used to keeping his dark eye closed, but he opened it for a moment to show his friend. Locke’s confused fear made Gust laugh, and the look on his face when Gust mentioned his cultivation level was even better.

Locke scanned the boy with his mana sense and his eyebrows shot up. His eyes flared with a mix of jealousy and awe. “A mage already? You may have paid with an eye and a piece of your soul, but this is just insane.” He stared into Gust’s dark eye. “Is he… watching me?”

Gust thought fast and shook his head. “He’d bore himself to death watching my life all day every day.”

Locke sighed but was still uncomfortable. “Do you think you could… stop pointing it at me? That thing’s creeping me out.”

“Ah, sorry.” He closed the dark eye and opened his mana sense to scan Locke.

Locke looked up briefly as he felt a light brush against his soul. He raised an eyebrow. “Find anything interesting?”

Gust squinted as he focused. The mana sense was a strange thing. It allowed him to see without seeing. He could aim it behind his own head or spread it around himself and see a vast area within his mind’s eye.

Or he could look into a fellow cultivator’s soul. In this case, Gust found what could only be described as a blob of blue energy with a tendril reaching toward Locke’s meridian.

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The only difference between Gust’s soul and his friend’s, was the strange, maroon core that sat in the center of Gust’s soul. No one else could see it, they merely found a dark void, but the Demon couldn’t stop seeing the bloody aura it emitted.

“You’re in the first stage, right?” Gust asked, referring to Pathway Establishment. Identifying anyone’s cultivation level within this stage was simple. He would only need to check how many meridians they opened.

Locke glanced in the direction of the Swordsman’s home. He nodded his head slightly, then let out a snort. “Well, congratulations. We’re equals, now, but at this rate I don’t think it’ll last,” he added bitterly. “Whatever. You’ll need every advantage you can get. Isaac won’t be happy you killed one of his slaves.”

Gust paused. “Master Christos said he would deal with that.”

The other boy let out a sardonic laugh. “You think he’d give up that easy? Isaac’ll just lie low for a while and wait for the right opportunity. If he lets you off easy, people will think he’s getting soft.”

“What level is he at?” Gust knew little about his fellow disciples’ abilities.

“The fourth. And before you ask, no you aren’t even close to being strong enough to fight him. Plus, you’d be outnumbered.”

Gust leaned in. “Ah, but if we found a few more mages to join us, that could change.”

Locke rolled his eyes. “Good luck with that. Most of us want to live as long as possible, so we don’t pick fights we can’t win. And Gust, this is a fight we can’t win. Not yet. Just keep your head down and focus on cultivation.”

That wasn’t what Gust was hoping to hear, but he didn’t let it get him down. Despite almost dying recently, Gust was feeling better than ever. He finally felt like he knew what he was doing and had several progression paths laid out before him.

He would cultivate Demon Blades in the Void every morning and night, taking some time to practice Mage Hand, and whenever the full moon showed itself he would cultivate the Wolf Star Howling Body until he fell asleep.

But he would always be looking for ways to move faster. Gust had little understanding of what the Patrons were truly doing on the lowest layer, but he doubted they were simply waiting for him to get there. They would be striving to get stronger, just as he was, and they had a hell of a head start.

As Gust lifted the empty water vat into his hands, he paused. “Have you done any missions? I want to rack up as many merits as possible. Do you know which ones are easiest?”

“Sure,” Locke returned to his work and didn’t look up from his mop. “But they also reward the least. Courier jobs are easy. At least, the ones we’re qualified for are. It’s just running to one of the closest towns. Collecting herbs is a better one, but you need to know where to find them. Theo should be able to give you a general location, but the best spots are closely guarded secrets.”

“And that’s it? I can either carry packages or pick flowers,” Gust replied with distaste. “What if we worked together? Would we be able to do harder missions and split the merits?”

“Sure, technically. But Gust, you literally just became a mage. Do you even know any spells?” When Gust nodded, the young mage said, “Good. Practice them on your class’s sparring days. When you win more often than you lose, we’ll talk about working together.”

“Fine, fine.”

Locke noticed the disappointment in those words and tore his attention away from his work. “It’s more dangerous out there than you know. People aren’t the only beings who can cultivate. Could you imagine running into a wolf whose cultivation is even higher than your own? They aren’t common, but by the time you notice one it’ll be too late. Don’t get in over your head, man.”

Gust laughed lightly and thought of his mother scolding him. “Alright! You’ve convinced me. I’ll do the easy stuff for now. Let’s get to work, though. I want to visit Theo before sundown.”

When Gust first arrived, Locke had only finished half of his day’s work. When he was alone, that meant half the courtyard, but now that Gust was back they would need to clean the entire thing. While at first, that discouraged the two of them, their moods improved quickly.

After reaching Pathway Establishment, Gust’s body was stronger than ever, but particularly his heart. The water vat felt lighter than ever, even when full, and no matter how quickly he ran, Gust’s heart rate barely rose. He didn’t even break a sweat.

Now that he could retrieve the water far more quickly, Gust had time to help Locke mop before the water got dirty. As a result, they worked nearly twice as fast as before!

The young mages parted ways with a few hours of sunlight left. As Gust reached and entered the chore house, several students passed him, returning their tools for the day.

The first room housed the mission board, but Gust had a hard time focusing on it. Instead, his eyes rose to the mural painted above.

Eleven god-like mages covered the wall, culminating in a golden eyed cultivator in the center. He wore the simplest robes and merely sat with his legs crossed. His hands rested on his knees. One palm facing up, the other facing down.

Gust fought back the nerves the Patrons gave him. They were powerful, sure, but he wouldn’t need to face them for countless years. If Gust gave into his anxious fears and let them get in the way of progress, he might never be ready.

Still, it was difficult to keep his eyes from straying upward and thinking about all those magnificent spells pummeling him one after another.

A hand clapped down on Gust’s shoulder, and he nearly leapt into the air.