I woke up feeling strangely down, like the thrill of becoming a superhero had faded, leaving only the harsh reality: this world, this life, was dangerous.

I lay in the opulent, overly plush bed, staring at the huge gaudy chandelier above me, wondering if I should back out. Maybe I could work at Katie’s bakery, save up, and eventually start my own. I’d still be able to explore this world, just in a safer way. I’d need a map first, though, to see what my options really were.

Wasn’t Cass supposed to have an appointment in the ‘reading room’ today? She’s probably waiting for me in the common room right now. I should get up.

Moving around the room was easier now—not just because I’d piled most of the clutter somewhere else, but because I felt lighter on my feet as my mana control improved. I got dressed and headed down, expecting to find Cass waiting. Instead, I found Erik sitting in one of the chairs.

“Cassandra’s taking the morning off,” Erik said. “She’s saying her farewells to Felix. She asked me to be your dance partner today.”

“He did it?” I asked. “Formed his, uh… his seal?”

Erik nodded curtly. “Yes. It’s been a long time since anyone’s done it before graduating from Sylvarus. Almost as impressive as you, Breaker.”

“Wow.” I wasn’t sure what that even meant, but it sounded important. “I wish I knew more so I could appreciate it.”

“I said I’d teach you a few things,” Erik said, standing up. He was… still in pajamas. “So, you can go for a morning and run around the city, or you can follow me and get your ass kicked.”

He started walking toward the cellars where Doreen had taken me once before. I hesitated only a second before following him.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”

“More than likely,” Erik said with a hint of a laugh. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him smile. But he kept talking as we walked down into the cellar. “A Soul Seal is more than just runes and magic. It’s about choosing your path in life as a Runebinder. Think of it like a vocation—like being a baker, but for your soul. It’s infallible.”

I stopped, trying to wrap my head around it. “So… you give your soul a job?”

“To grow in strength, your soul needs a purpose. From what I understand, you already know a tier two rune—a sigil, correct?”

We reached a heavy metal door, and Erik swung it open, revealing a narrow stairwell that led down to what Doreen had called the old pathways. He grabbed a lantern orb from the wall and motioned for me to take one too.

“Yeah. Bravery,” I said as we started down the stairs. “But I wouldn’t exactly call it a job…”

“That’s because it’s not complete. A Soul Seal must be three runes in harmony, not two. Mine is Resolve, formed from my knowledge of metal, my conviction, and my resilience. It is why the Brine Tyrant did not affect me. And the same for you, I think.”

“Ironheart?” I asked, and he grunted in affirmation.

“My Hunter-Name. You’ll speak yours the day you graduate from Sylvarus. I look forward to knowing it.”

“Those are… rather abstract concepts,” I said, thinking aloud as we descended. “Much more ideological than, say, Felix, who just throws lightning.” Just as I was starting to wonder how many stairs there could possibly be, we stepped into a large, dimly lit antechamber.

The room was lit by several runic lanterns hanging from mounts around polished dark stone walls. Something like hieroglyphs were engraved deeply into the stone and filled with gold. The room had smooth floors and a ceiling that soared high. I felt like I did when I walked into the Temple in Chichen Itza. It was alien and eerily quiet.

The room split off in three directions and we continued straight, moving briskly through expansive empty chambers—each feeling like a cathedral.

“That is why I believe you are the soul of a Guardian,” Erik said. “Arcanists use complex and visible runes preferring to manipulate physical magic using their bracers. Strikers, they prefer more practical. Speed, Momentum, Strength, even Focus.”

“And guardians prefer more internal concepts… ideals?” I asked and Erik nodded.

“You learn quickly. But the soul fights back against the concept, testing if you truly know enough to use it. This is where the danger comes in.”

We were going down and deeper into whatever these Old Pathways were. Soon hieroglyphs transitioned to vast colorful murals in the rooms each seeming to connect to the next.

They seemed carved with supernatural precision, shimmering lightly as if a layer of water covered them. Rather than being a flat painting, the walls had depth with figures and landscapes that were sculpted perfectly in the stone in bas-relief. Huge alien creatures stood on mountain peaks, painted in vibrant colors, each with their own room seeming to be dedicated to them. Some looked familiar—a scaled horse with antlers, a huge white lion creature covered in blue runes, a turtle that seemed to be having a really bad hair day.

Several rooms passed until I stopped dead and inhaled sharply. Pure gold adorned this huge circular room, the walls carved into a breathtaking bamboo grove, each stalk accented with runes made from precious metals. Lotus blossoms were carved into the stone intricately through the bamboo creating a three-dimensional effect. But none of this is what impressed me. My eyes were on the small orange fox sitting atop a small rock to the center left of the room. It looked to be sculpted of the same orange metal my Acolyte pin or Winchester’s orb was. But even those details were pushed aside for the tail—or rather tails it had. Nine of them.

“Huli Jing?” I asked and there was a shifting feeling inside me. My Bravery spell didn’t register anything, but I knew something had changed.

“You know her?” Erik asked and I nodded back. “Then we have a captive audience. Here will do.”

“For what?” I said turning from the fox to see Erik had removed his shirt, revealing his bandaged shoulder and an inhuman amount of muscle.

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Wait, this wasn’t a room anymore.

The halls had disappeared and the bamboo forest around us blew in the wind, and I could smell the sweet lotus blossoms. The air was tranquil and serene, light crackling could be heard as the bamboo shifted around with the breeze.

“Are you fucking serious?” I asked laughing. “Training in a bamboo forest? Some kind of spirit realm? It’s amazing.”

Erik almost smiled. I saw it, a quick smirk that he immediately suppressed.

“A dueling room,” He explained. “Most prefer to train in the tower since there’s more mana. But I’ve always preferred nice scenery instead of unearned gains. Is there a reason you’re not wearing shoes?”

I looked down at my bare feet, now standing in soft dirt and shrugged. Why the hell did this keep happening?

“So we’re going to fight?” I asked, hesitantly. Erik was significantly larger than me and I was confident that a few years of martial arts with my Aapo wouldn’t help.

“We are going to experiment. A soul trial is deeply personal—some have dreamed of having to jump across mountain peaks or find one’s way out of a maze. But Guardians? We get our ass kicked. Every time, in creative ways.”

Erik started to walk around the clearing we stood in towards the large rock with the fox and bowed deeply towards it, his hands crossed over his navel. I approached and thought to bow but noticed so many more features this close. It was intricately sculpted and didn’t look quite the way I had expected based on artwork and stories. It looked more like a wolf up close with a wider snout than a fox. I thought to bow, but instead decided to reach out and touch the statue, running my fingers over its cool, metallic head and ears. It felt calming, like the bamboo forest around us.

“Hmph. You really are brave,” Erik said from behind me. “Stupid, but brave.”

The statue didn’t seem to react at all, and I turned to him. “What’s this metal? I’ve never seen that color before.”

“No? It is Orichalcum,” He lectured. Wasn’t that supposed to be bronze or brass? “Most call it Spirit Steel. Valuable in its raw form, but once put to task it becomes a darker orange like the statue but infused with spirit. Spiritually, it is a real Huli Jing that you are touching.”

I looked back to the statue and saw it staring at me. I jerked my hand back with a shudder and the statue’s head instantly was back in its original position. I let out a breath. I had to remember that I was on the other side of the universe. Just touching things was a dumb idea.

“Yeah, that was stupid wasn’t it,” I said with a grin. “So, you want to kick my ass because you think I’m a Guardian? I’m not even sure I want to do this.”

Erik’s face softened noticeably. “Hunter or not, Ben, I think you’ve figured out how we solve disagreements by now. We fight monsters with our weapons but each other with our fists. Breaker or not, if you keep stepping in front of Cassandra you had better be able to take a hit. Even from her.”

That tracked I guess; it seemed like people on the island loved to fight. I guess healing potions and pills made it a lot less daunting to scrap outside of a bakery.

“It sounds a lot like you are trying hard to justify wanting to hit me. What if I hit you?”

“Then I’d be impressed,” he said as we walked back to the center of the clearing. With a nod, he bowed. “I will not use my superior mana.” He said taking a wide stance.

“Oh, its superior is it?” I said with a laugh. It was like something out of an artistic martial arts movie. Like he was saying his Kung-Fu was stronger.

The clearing was calm, with soft dirt underfoot and bamboo gently swaying in the breeze, but I could sense the tension building. Erik's stare bore into me as we stood in the center, his stance wide and ready. I matched his bow and felt my heart race as the Bravery rune burned in my mind's eye. This was the first time I'd really used it against an actual opponent that wasn't a monster.

Erik's first move was swift, lunging with an open palm aimed at my shoulder. But he was moving much slower than I anticipated, and with the rune, it felt like time had slowed. I twisted to the side, redirecting his attack with a quick sweep of my arm and an uncomfortable amount of mana. Erik's momentum carried him off balance, and he launched into the bamboo, breaking a few shoots as he crashed into them. Shit, he was heavy.

He recovered almost instantly, standing up and brushing dirt off his shoulders. His eyes narrowed slightly, and there was the ghost of a smile on his face.

"Have you been binding that rune all morning?"

"It's habit," I admitted, shrugging. "Diana said I do it in my sleep, too."

"Interesting," Erik said. He took a step forward, his expression shifting to something more focused. "Show me what you've learned about it."

Move!

He moved in again, this time faster. I dodged, the rune pushing my reflexes to their limit. I ducked under a punch, feeling the air rush over my head, then twisted around to strike at his exposed side. But Erik was already gone, his movements fluid and precise. I couldn't land a hit on him no matter how quickly I moved. He was impossibly fast, his feet seeming to dance over the dirt instead of through it.

Then, out of nowhere, his fist connected with my side, Bravery seemed to shudder with the impact. The rune hadn't been fast enough to warn me, and for the first time, I realized it had limits. The impact sent me sprawling, landing painfully near the broken bamboo shoots. I gasped, trying to catch my breath. "Fucking ow," I muttered, struggling to get back on my feet.

“What happened to not using your ‘superior mana’?” I asked.

Erik actually grinned this time—a real smile, the first I'd seen from him. "Now you know how that throw felt," he said, amusement in his voice.

I pushed myself up, my hand brushing against one of the broken bamboo shoots. It was thin but sturdy, almost like a staff. Not a bad makeshift weapon. I wrapped my fingers around it, feeling a familiar weight. I remembered swinging Winchester before—like an idiot, more like a baseball bat than anything resembling skill. It had been a while since I practiced, but I felt like I was in the best shape of my life these last few days.

Maybe this time, I could do better. Either way I was going to get my ass kicked.

Let’s see how he does against some Taijigun.

Did I know Taijigun?

I settled into a clumsy low form, the bamboo held out in front of me. Erik watched, his eyes narrowing with interest. I shifted into Rooster Stand, teetering on one leg, the staff poised to strike. Was I always this good at this stance?

As Erik moved, I noticed something—mana had spread out around my body but was concentrated in my feet, almost like it was waiting for the next movement. I kicked my foot out and spun the staff as Erik approached. He came in low with a kick and I automatically kicked his foot out of the way, my mana seemed to rebound from the impact and fly into my hands pushing some into… the staff?

Stepping forward I spun the staff and brought it down returning to a low form. When it connected with the ground, a thud echoed through the clearing, with spray of dirt flying up from the impact. Erik's eyes widened slightly, a real look of surprise crossing his face.

"Well done!" he said backing off, his grin widening. He moved in again, faster, the pressure intensifying.

Spinning the staff again, I stepped forward thrusting it like a spear, aiming for his chest, but Erik didn't even flinch. He took the strike head-on, his feet planted firmly in a Horse Stance. The bamboo split against his chest, splintering with a sharp crack. He kept moving, his hand lashing out in a blur, and grabbed the shoot. I barely had time to react before he pulled me towards his foot and connected with my ribs. The bone-cracking impact sent me flying across the clearing. I hit the polished ground hard, pain radiating from my side.

How the hell did I do that? Even when I was practicing twice a week, I wasn’t that good.

Groaning, I rolled onto my back, trying to catch my breath. We were back in the carved room and Erik stood over me, his grin now fully formed. His eyes shone with something that looked like excitement.

"Consider me impressed,” he said as he tossed me a vial with a pill in it.

“Great,” I said coughing, which caused more pain in my ribs. Now that I hadn’t been knocked out in a few days, I really needed to stop breaking my ribs.

Swallowing the pill, I lay there panting up at Erik who seemed to be coming down from adrenaline.

“Where did you learn to move like that?” He asked. “It reminds me of the Vildar.”

“My grandmother taught us,” I laughed, painfully, remembering how over the top she could be. “She once put a guy twice her size on the ground with just a wristlock.”

“Hm. I’d like to meet her,” Erik said with an approving look.

I could feel the healing pill start to take effect now, it was intense.

“Somehow, I think she’d enjoy it.” I replied with a cough.