Chapter 17 – Life 5 – The Old City

At the end of that night, my teacher recommended that I tell the Camp Master that I had acquired a combined element. I had initially feared being found out, but she assured me that the Empire valued powerful warriors more than just about anything, and it was well known that I was a force to be reckoned with when it came to battle. In fact, she said, the Master was likely mentioned my name as a candidate to present back to his own Grandmaster at some point.

When I was brought before the man, I changed my story a little bit. “You see, esteemed sir, we were all fighting a Magma Scorpion, and I exhausted all of my metal. When I reached for more, and found nothing, well… I don’t know why my head turned to the Yellow Moon up ahead, but…”

The man stopped me there. “What you have done is kept somewhat secret. I understand you have killed many monsters before you achieved a combined element, yes? If word got out, every Initiate and Disciple would jealously guard their ‘final strike’ rights, even if they have a weak talent. For you to do this shows you have a fair amount of talent.”

He continued, “The 3rd Emperor decreed some time ago that any Disciple who reaches a combined element should be next in line to become a Camp Master somewhere else. However, you are an Initiate, which shows even greater talent… I will put in a good word for you.” I bowed. “Thank you, Camp Master.” He chuckled. “For such a talent to have emerged under my watch… perhaps I will be granted the Grandmaster rank sooner than I thought…”

I continued to practice my abilities for 2 months, before an old, bald man walked into the camp. I was unsure why he sought me out until I saw the Camp Master with him… and being deferent to him. When the bald man was directed to me, I unconsciously gulped. The man guided me to a secluded part of the camp before speaking much to me, but when he did… he was different than I expected.

“So, you’re the Initiate who figured out combined elements MID-COMBAT, are you?” I grinned sheepishly. “Ah, yes, it was a fight with a Magma Scorpion that triggered the combination…” The bald man squinted at me. “Ah, a Magma element monster… very tricky, those ones… very tricky to think on your feet while being pelted with molten rock…” I resisted the urge to shrink away from him. He likely suspected that I gained the knowledge of how to combine elements from someone. But how could I tell him that it was from someone in a dream?

He eventually let up on his gaze. “Anyway, I belong to a special force in the Empire. We have been trained to reach combined elements as quickly and efficiently as possible. Our orders are threefold. First, defend the 3rd Emperor. Second, defend his Empire. Third, defeat as many elite monsters as possible.”

I blinked at his last assertion. “As many elites as possible? Is that so we grow in power?” He raised an eyebrow. “Well, it is true that elites give quite a bit more Qi… but that is secondary. The true reason is that elites who gain enough power can inspire others of their kind.” I blinked. “Inspire? What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means exactly what it sounds like, once one elite of an element is allowed to grow, others of the same species will follow its path. That Magma Scorpion you fought? A powerful element like that is very inspirational to the monsters. If it hadn’t been quickly tracked down and defeated by your Camp Master, then in a few months, there would likely be another. In another few months? 3, perhaps 5 more. More and more, each month, until every Rock Scorpion that spawned would swiftly find the power of Magma. You have heard of the Fog Islands, yes?”

I nodded. “I- I thought those were just stories…” The bald man smirked. “Some of the stories are probably just that… but those lands are deadly in their entirety, make no mistake. There are other such lands as well. One in particular, one the Empire borders, has a very dangerous monster indeed… but we can discuss that later.”

He gestured away from the camp. “For now, we must take our leave.” I was startled a little bit. “Leave? As in, right now?” He looked back at me with a confused look. “I don’t think you had anywhere else to be, yes?” I thought back to my teacher, who had helped me… but in the end, I suppose we all had our own paths to follow. Aside from her, everyone else I knew at the camp were essentially acquaintances. I learned their names, and their fighting styles, but not really much else.

As for my possessions, I really only had the clothes on my back, my small clay hut, and my sword. And of those, only the last was really anything worth waiting for. I asked the man to allow me time to get it. “Oh?”, he said, “A Metal-Maker who needs to stop and retrieve a weapon? I suppose stranger things have happened…”

Interesting, it seemed my strategy of reinforcing the same item over and over again hadn’t been discovered, even by the 3rd Emperor’s top men. Still, the bald man humored me, and soon I had my most prized possession back in my hands. He gave the sword a brief glance-over, nodded once in approval, and then motioned for us to be off.

We walked along the remains of a black road, which was surprisingly smooth in some places. The bald man said was made of a strange form of stone known only to the old world. He said there were many such forgotten wonders where we were going. I asked where that was, and he looked at me like I was a fool. “The Old City, of course. Bei Jing. The home of the 3rd Emperor.”

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Despite the good condition of the road, there were still monsters in places. The bald man let me do the vast majority of the fighting, watching and making recommendations about my stances all the while. At least my sword’s impeccably sharp blade made the fighting quick and easy, not to mention the fact that the man let me get every strike on all of them.

The one exception to this was when we came across elites. At one point, there was a pair of giant horned toads that could belch out blobs of pure darkness. Fearing something like the figure from my nightmares, I tried to dispatch them as quickly as possible, but the bald man’s help was required.

His element was quite interesting. He was also a Metal-Maker, which is why he had been sent to retrieve me. But instead of combining Metal with Earth, he combined it with Water. His metal was a silvery liquid that he could harden in an instant. It flowed around the beasts and then trapped them, and he formed a liquid spear to stab them to death while they struggled.

I asked him once to test how my metal faired against his. He simply chuckled, saying that there would be plenty of time for sparring once we reached the Old City. And so, we continued down the road.

There were other camps that we came across. One had a master who was a boisterous man, who invited us to taste some of his homemade alcohol. The drink was terrible, but the company was good. Another time we stayed in the guest hall of a reserved woman who seemed to inspire quite a bit of fear in her Disciples. A few days later, we stayed with a man with two wives, one a Fire Maker and one a Water Maker. I didn’t ask how they got along, as the answer was clearly ‘terribly’.

At one point, I thought we had made it to the old city, as it was a ruin of glass and metal. But the bald man informed me that it was actually Tian Jin, widely considered a cursed city as 3 monster crystals had landed within what was then its most populated areas. The Flame-Maned Horses and Slicing Eagles were problem enough, but the Tunneling Ants required regular extermination at their nest to make sure no elite queens would form.

A few short days later, we made it to the true Old City. What I saw blew past my expectations. Giant walls of stone, which the bald man assured me were reinforced by metal, encircled a massive area. The bald man told me that, once upon a time, an even larger wall was constructed by the ancients, but it took significantly more time and hardship.

But what really took my breath away were the buildings. Giant pillars that seemed to scrape against the sky itself. The man laughed when I told him that, and said the ancients thought along the same lines. For these were the same buildings that the ancients had built, painstakingly restored by the 3rd Emperor’s Metal and Earth Molders. Even the glass panes the ancients seemed so fond of had been restored.

I wondered at the practicality of this, but the bald man said, “Remember, boy, that while Makers like you and I gain power by fighting monsters, Molders gain power by working with their element. Only by honing their abilities can they rise to a combined element. I would say… there are 18 Master Molders in the city who have a combined element. Some of them, like the fool who changed his element to Magma, are really only useful against Magma-based elites. Others, like the 3rd Emperor’s head scout, have powers beyond what you think possible…”

As if to prove the bald man’s words about the scout, a group of people wearing Master colors came to meet us at the gate. As far as I could tell from their quick discussion, this mysterious head scout informed them that we were here… but I hadn’t noticed anyone approaching us for miles! Could this scout hide from people’s sight?

As we marched through the city, we went through an actual marketplace, like I had only heard of in stories. People were selling weapons, clothing, armor, monster materials, even specialty cooked foods. The bald man was amused at my gawking but warned me not to buy anything. “To survive as a merchant in this era, you have to be willing and able to take everything a person has. There are people here who would exchange your prized sword for a pittance of noodles and make you think you got a good deal.” I clutched my sword a bit closer when he said that. He noticed and laughed.

We eventually made it to a tall tower, which the bald man informed me was the tallest. Strangely, it narrowed in the center, then widened out again at the top. I wasn’t sure if that was somehow needed, or if it was just an extravagance afforded to the 3rd Emperor. After all, this was his palace.

At first, I feared that we would actually be *meeting* the 3rd Emperor, but the bald man assured me that we would only be meeting the leader of the elite fighters instead. Interestingly, he told me, she also worked with the combination of Metal and Earth, though she had started as an Earth-Maker. I realized that was likely part of why I had been invited to this group.

After waiting in an opulent room for at least an hour, I suddenly felt a strange feeling in the back of my neck. I instinctively brought out my sword and blocked the sudden attack that came from behind. To my surprise, I realized it was a woman with a sword similar to mine, except entirely colored blue. She laughed.

“So, it seems you have ventured on the path of Titanium as well, boy?” I blinked. Had that attack been… a test? Ah, I had sensed her blade behind me before it hit. But it really felt like I would have been wounded if I hadn’t blocked… I had to be careful with these people. “Ah, I have the combined element of Metal and Earth, but what is… Titanium?” She nodded. “A shorthand for what we call the Blue Metal. It’s not quite what the ancients called the same name, but close enough. A powerful metal, unbending and unrelenting. It was a good choice, boy. You have good instincts. I accept you as my Disciple.”

I blinked. I hadn’t even asked to become her Disciple, she just ‘accepted’ me all of a sudden. Plus, weren’t people with combined elements supposed to be Masters? But… I didn’t particularly want to complain. Staying on the good side of this woman was probably important. Plus… she had the same powers as me, but with presumably years of experience. She could likely teach me things I never would have figured out on my own.

I bowed to her, as a student would to a teacher. She grinned. “Welcome to the Elite Strike Force, kid. The best job you can have in this fucked-up world.”