Riding atop a monster goose as it waddled threateningly about the square at the Vivomancer college, Kaden had never felt such wonder. With a fifty foot goose at his command and the extreme desire of the Dungeon Core to kill all the adventurers, he urged his feathered disaster forward. Hundreds of Vivomancers decided now was a great time to head indoors, under doors, anywhere a [Murder Goose] wasn’t stalking.
Which wasn’t to say there weren’t Adventurers.
A [Shield] seven feet tall rushed the [Murder Goose], only to find [Thundering Wing Slap] was a counter to anyone without [Shield Bash]. Kaden fought the urge to send Goosel (as his friend was now known) after the stunned [Shield]. After all, there were [Vivomancers] available to punish, several of which the [Murder Goose] recognized from the lecture that had afflicted it. Inflicted it. Whatever, they were responsible.
“Get ‘em!” Kaden shouted, clinging to Goosel’s head and pointing in a way that wasn’t really necessary. If, say, it decided to devour a different [Vivomancer], Kaden would still cheer Goosel on in his quest for revenge and also killing all Adventurers for entering the dungeon.
They weren’t in a dungeon.
The thought hit Kaden and then was overwhelmed by the pleasure of a [Bearserker] ambushing a [Rogue] who thought they had stealth but really had level five [Present Self As Meal]. Which was also weird, because there weren’t any [Bearserkers], those were in—A blast of saltwater struck Kaden from behind, sending him flying off Goosel.
Kade twisted and rolled with the impact, ready to split the skull of—Ashi. No, wait. that wasn’t going to happen. For the first time, he grasped the edge of emotion that had flooded him. The ease of giving in and letting it take control called out. And his mana recoiled, jangling in ways that made his limbs weak as Ashi hefted a globe of aqua. “No! Who is the Dungeon Master? Are you weak, that it should be the one in control? Rise up! Take charge!”
With a flourish, Ashi absorbed the orb of mana she held.
Kaden focused now. Goosel halted, his beak closing on a [Vivomancer]. Now it was a war of will, and Kaden knew will. He forced the [Murder Goose] to step back and turne to face him. “You can go. If you stay, they’ll kill you. Or even worse, they’ll make you small. But if you leave now?”
The monster goose knew how to negotiate. It focused on an image, one Kaden wouldn’t deny even if he could.
“Yes, you can eat him. And that one. And those three,, if you’re quick about it, it’s a long flight south and you might get hungry otherwise. But only if you leave immediately afterwards!” Kaden shouted.
The beak snapped shut on the helpless professor. A thunderous HONK rang out, and the air rushed with powerful wingbeats as Goosel stretched out its neck and sprinted along the street, rising up as it smashed everything in its way, then flop-flapped up off what was probably a cathedral and heaved itself into the air. It circled the city and headed south west, rising higher and higher, until it was only a distant speck of rage and feathers.
All around the square, [Vivomancers] wept or cried out for healing, or argued in ever louder voices about who was responsible or got credit for creating Goosel. Then attention pivoted to Kaden and Ashi.
*Follow my lead. I learned from the best,* Kaden sent to Ashi as he approached the every growing knot of high-level [Vivomancers]. The key was to speak first, loudest, simplest, and imply that whatever had happened, it was obviously someone else’s fault. “You! What’s the meaning of this? My friend and I arrive here at a supposed hallowed hall of learning and instead we’re attacked! I was nearly killed by that…thing. And if it weren’t for my [Polymage] friend driving it away, there would be a lot more of you dead. Where does she collect her bounty? And I’ve been injured. By a beast you unleashed, all trying to protect you.”
“Yes!” Ashi added. “You are fortunate the [Beast Master] was present. Such a will cannot be tamed but he slowed it down so I could drive it off.”
One man glared at them. “It looked a lot like you hit him with that [Rogue Wave] spell. If he’s injured, that’s on you.”
That was fine, the goal had always been to deflect blame. “But Ashi’s [Wave of Fear] is what sent Goosel flapping. I mean, the goose. Whatever its name might be. Goosel is as good a name as any. That’s what I’m calling it.”
“[Flame-Fueled Ravian],” said a woman. “It was right there under [Identify]. It wasn’t supposed to be that large. Or that vicious. Or that angry. All of those, absolute successes.”
“Madness,” Ashi said under her breath.
Opportunity, as Kaden saw it. He took the opportunity to head back to the main hall, where [Vivomancers] were an inch from breaking out daggers as they argued over whether the answer was more mutation or a lot more mutation.
“There. She is not a [Vivomancer].” Ashi pointed to a side alcove, where a woman in sleek white leather waited, carving the desk with a shortsword.
“Excuse me.” Kaden asked politely. “I need two things. First, I need to claim a bounty. Second, I’m looking for Treadle Barnes.”
She almost choked. “After what you just went through? Down the center hall, lecture room zero. As in there are zero students because of what nearly happened last week. Bounties are over there.” She adjusted a bracelet, and new doorway opened in the hall as letters carved themself into the stone.
Just inside the doorway alcove stood a curved metal fence separating a young man on a chair from…everything. He tapped the desk. “What bounty, what did you bring? It goes in the cube.”
Kaden drew the dead triterrors. “I understand you’ve been looking for one of each color. You need to understand that this species is under my protection. Here’s a blue and a green. If you want red, I’ll make one red.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The attendant sighed. “This is Leshamite. Empowered Leshamite. Nothing from that side comes to this side, and if you want the bounty, it goes—”
Ashi tapped him on the shoulder as she stepped through a portal from their side to his. “Kaden, you have heard him. Deliver the bounty.”
Kaden stepped through her portal, which collapsed, and dropped the dead TriTerrors. “You want one of these to be red? Give me your arm and a moment. I’ll make one red.”
“I—I think we already have a red one.” The attendant dug in Inventory and handed out bags of gold. “If you hurt me, the entire college—”
“Did you see what I did with just a goose? Drop the threats. Cancel the quest for TriTerrors.” Kaden made his own portal back. It might not have been stable. It might not have stood still. It might have smelled like rotten fish, but it was a functional portal. “If anyone has questions and needs problems, we’ll be down the hall with Professor Treadle.”
“No questions,” the man whispered.
Perfect. Kaden headed down the hall, oddly excited to see his old mentor—and also angrier by the moment. He didn’t open the double doors to lecture room zero as much as obliterate them. “Treadle!”
“Kaden Birch.” Professor Treadle’s voice was soft. He’d always been a frail, thin man with wispy hair, but he hadn’t regained the weight he lost while working on undoing the bindings. “I saw. I saw you handle the [Flame-Fueled Ravian.] You seemed to be enjoying it as much as working to lop that head off. Come to lop another head off?”
The sorrow in Treadle’s voice was like driuving cold rain.
Kaden summoned the Destruction Wyvern. “The only survivor of a brood. It can’t even eat without its own aura destroying food. It’s not growing healthier, even exposed to my title and stored in my soul. I need you to change it.”
“You want it bigger? Or angrier? Or you want that aura more powerful?” The Professors eyes grew wider with each sentence.
“I want it to be immune to its own aura.” Kaden felt pity for the poor wyvern, which cried out in pain as the effects of [Destruction Aura] made its skin turn raw. He stored it away. “Can you do it? I contacted five other [Vivomancers]. All of them said it was impossible.”
“Normal auras have a radius where they do not function. That’s why being swallowed by a [Void Beast] is safer than being outside one!” Professor Treadle approached. Every step he took, he groaned with pain and leaned on his cane. “Let me use [Analyze Life] on it. A minute won’t kill the Beast.”
Kaden reluctantly summoned it again.
He’d rather have listened to a human child wail as the Destruction Wyvern cry in hunger. “How much longer?”
“Almost.”
That wasn’t a timeframe. “Almost what?”
A pale, see-through echo of the wyvern stumbled sideways, and stood, shaking itself. Professor Treadle waved. “That will do, I can study its abilities. [Destruction Aura] is a stock aura skill, but there’s a flaw in the skill itself. Tampering with skills is frowned on. Elsewhere. Here, it’s celebrated. Any great attrocity requires time and dedication. I’ll let you know if I make progress.”
“Perhaps, a [Nullify] artifact?” Ashi asked. “Could you not nullify its power while it eats? It is not a mana type, I cannot absorb it.”
The echo twisted and turned, growing larger. “Observe the damage to the scales. And those muscles should be larger. Freshly hatched, have you fed it?”
“I have. But it kept crying. Like I said, I think the food is being destroyed before it can digest it.” Kaden regretted every moment he’d left it in the real world. “Can you help?”
“It’s hard to say yet. I’m guessing you want something boring. To create an [Immunity] skill, I’ll need a supply of active Destruction Mana. Testing the skill is easy enough, acquiring the mana is…well, you’ve met the beasts.” Professor Treadle limped in a circle around the echo. “Bring me a corpse, I’ll work with it. I don’t need much.”
Kaden drew shards from the egg shells. “Will this do?”
His skin began to crack and bleed under the shell, but it was points of health among thousands.
“Fascinating.” Treadle resembled—and was—a very old man, but he was also a Centurion. He took the egg shell fragment. “If all you needed was a bigger monster, or an angrier monster, or one with three foot spines or noxious gas spewing from every body orifice, this would simple. All of those are standard, any surviving third year student could handle that. This is complex.”
“If anyone can, it would be you.” Kaden wanted to say more. He wanted things to be like they’d been once, where he admired and learned and looked up to Professor Treadle. And all those wants would never amount to a mound of wyvern shit, because Kaden wouldn’t forget. “Do you like being back here at the Colleges?”
Professor Treadle thought for a while. “It’s nice to be feared. It’s acceptable to be respected. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but I suspect one of my lab assistants is a snitch, reporting to the Board.”
Hopefully they all were. “Well, this should be the kind of experiment that makes Vivomancers famous.”
“In a good way,” Ashi added. “Not the way we all speak of them now. Not ‘What horror have they done this time?’ or ‘Who invited the [Vivomancer?]’ or ‘Someone hit the [Vivomancer] with [Death Bolt] while no one is looking!’”
“But those are the best ways!” Professor Treadle said. “I suppose. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to do occasional good. But only sparingly, I don’t want to get a reputation for responsible research. It would kill any hope of regaining my full standing.”
“Please,” Kaden said.
In the silence that hung over Lecture Hall Zero, Kaden was almost willing to pray.
“I know. I know you bargained to allow my return,” Professor Treadle said. “I know the [Burning Dream Queen] was the price. I never meant for what happened with Trella to occur. Usually disasters are only good news, but those are disasters I visited on strangers. Or the guilty. Or at least someone who reminds me of someone else who offended me. Usually not the entirely innocent.”
This was not an apology, but Kaden needed the Professor. If Trella still felt the need to stab Treadle, Kaden would support it. “Send a bird if you have any success. I don’t know if I ever told you. [Beast Knowledge] was a skill I gained because of what you taught me. Now I’m adding to it.”
Your skill with Beast Soul has increased (Treadle Barnes).
Build your bonds to progress.
Kaden had always considered the Professor a mentor, and student and teacher were bonds he could accept, even with Treadle’s crimes. “We’ll be in touch, I’m sure.”
“It will be my highest priority. Except getting drunk. And eating. I do so enjoy both of those.” Professor Treadle looked up as bells rang out “Oh, it’s attrocity hour! Young aspiring [Vivomancers] are given one hour and a fully stocked lab to create their application to the College. Come, you’ll want to see this. There’s almost always a mutant beast, or an accident! Or an accident that creates a mutant beast!”
Kaden shook his head. “We have a Quest. I wish I could. I need to learn to customize my beasts for my dungeon. I’ll come learn at some point.”
“I’d like that.” The Professor waved, and the echo of the wyvern disappeared. “I’d like that a lot.” He limped out of the hall and joined a throng of professors and students carrying shields and wearing armor.
Ashi watched him go. “It is not always so easy to divide a life into good and evil. He committed a crime of the highest order. A permanent death would not be too harsh. And yet, it is not the desire in your heart.”
There were so many things Kaden couldn’t answer in that. “We need to get back to the Holding. Sara’s probably jumping to head north.”
“You do not wish to speak of this.”
“Jagi hated you. Jagi went out of his way to kill you. But was he always your enemy? Was he always out to kill you?” It was of course a possibility. “Or did you ever look at him and remember better moments?”
“We should hurry back,” Ashi said. “There is no magic here I desire.”
That was answer enough for Kaden.