Every attempt to brew [Fire Soul] took Trella longer. Each time she studied more, prepared longer, focused and cursed herself, but Kaden had stopped watching from outside, and stood next to Trella, calm, focused, cool, as she prepared the final attempt.

“Everything is stable right here, but it’s always been stable,” Trella said. “The next step is to invert the essence, and the moment I do, it goes from bitter cold to explosive. Every attempt to end the brew only causes it to explode.”

Kaden shrugged and summoned his [Eldritch Shield]. “Ready.”

“Inverting at the count of three, two, one,” Trella said.

The potion in its flask incandesced, swapping from blazing blue to brilliant orange.

For the slightest moment, Kaden’s entire soul longed for the potion, the first true desire he’d felt since Frost infected him. Then the ember of orange pulsed and glowed and flickered.

“It’s destabilizing,” Trella said. “I’m going to try and extract the fire essence.” She drew long tweezers from Inventory and gingerly probed the mouth of the flask, then thrust downward.

[Split Second] gave Kaden his warning, and he thrust the shield between Trella and the flask as a deafening roar accompanied the pop of his eardrums bursting. Only a whining silence remained as Kaden picked up Trella and carried her through the smoke, up the stairs and out into the warm winter wind.

She clutched the stump of a hand, and he couldn’t hear Eve sigh, but he knew the expression as she went to work. Eve glanced to Kaden, and his ears filled with blood as they healed, then drained.

“She is truly an [Alchemist?]” Drokor asked. “I am not used to such…learning.”

“The profession, not the class. It grows slower and Trella has to put a lot more effort into it. How have some of your clan lived with Frost for decades and I’m on a slide to zero in a week?” Kaden wasn’t upset about it, just curious.

“We live with passion. You live with caution. The fire in our souls is always burning. If it’s a fist-fight with an enemy, an affair with a paramour, the brutal hunt of prey, or the stubborn defiance that lets us carve a groundhouse, there is fire in our soul that does not easily go out.” She tsked at him. “You look like one of us but you don’t live like it.”

Kaden considered options. Being turned into living ice wasn’t ideal. “So I should get drunk, deck all seven of your warriors, ravage all your women, and kill everything for miles.” He shrugged. “I’ll start with the warriors.”

“No! You must find your passion. All of those are fine, but you must stoke the fires inside to slow Frost.”

Very few of Kaden’s passions could survive in this bitter environment. The love he held for Trella remained neither a blazing fire nor a dwindling ember, but a constant of his life. Finding new Beasts was a passion but also a core part of his soul. Most of what the Resyr called passions he called impulses.

He stood and approached Trella, who cupped freshly grown eyelids, then wrapped his arms around her, kissing her. It was exactly as it should be, the strength of a relationship forged and reforged.

“Still got it,” Trella said as he set her on her feet. “What spawned that?”

“Testing passions.” Kaden turned and lifted Ashi, gently kissing her on the lips—then stronger as she returned the favor. The memory stirred a gentle warmth in his chest that remained as he gently released Ashi. “Not what I expected.”

Kaden turned and stalked away.

“Hey!” Sara called. “What was that? I’m plenty passionate! Shouldn’t you have tested me, too?”

He needed a battle, something that would have his blood pumping, his body sweating. The edge of life and death as a razor to whittle away the things that didn’t matter.

And in that moment [Detect Lies] triggered.

On his own lie.

Battle was fine and growing stronger was great, but what truly mattered were people. The reason he’d wanted a class, the reason he’d wanted to grow stronger had never been for the gold or glory. “Town!”

Kaden sprinted back as fast as he could, hurdling the dead crab, where Resyrak labored to harvest meat. “Sara! I’m passionate about resisting demons. Talk to me about the town.”

“That’s what you want from me?” Sara asked, pseudopods on her hips, arms crossed. “Everyone else gets kissed and you want to hear about quest logs? Fine.”

“Didn’t you have company last night?” Kaden asked as he followed Sara to a stone worktable.

“Two different sets of company, very pleasurable, but both of them were terrified of my Horror, which is tantamount to being terrified of me.” Sara spread the quest journal and began to speak, explaining about the need for a mayor, and a council, and guards, and even the necessity of their own town [Thieves] so that other, more unscrupulous [Thieves] didn’t move in. “You’d love our best candidates for [Mayor]. It’s a husband and wife duo, so when one of them dies of a monster attack, we’ve still got a mayor!”

“Smart.” Kaden looked through the merchants. “This healer. He’s an outcast?”

“And the priestess has sworn an oath not to come within fifty feet of farm animals, but it’s fine, the butcher will be on the other end of the town!” Sara flipped forward to the mana ore miners. “A [Blacksmith] and [Alchemist] will be hard to come by, but I’ve been searching the Kingdom jails, looking for convicts with final-death sentences who would be willing to swear oaths.”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

The Justari had sworn to help protect the people, and Kaden would make sure it happened. The longer the discussion went on, the better he felt about the situation. “So all we have to do is clear a mine and we can start?”

“Not exactly.” Sara paused. “The mine monsters won’t be over level twenty five.”

Kaden knew the problem immediately. “I’ll handle them myself. My responsibility to help other Adventurers get stronger isn’t present if I’m the only one. Trinity, Scully and I will clear the mine.”

“I do not agree with this plan,” Ashi said. “There must be chances for the young to grow strong. It is our honor to provide this. The cost cannot be an issue. Is it your impatience?”

“I just want to get it done,” Kaden said. Which wasn’t exactly a ‘no.’ “Not everything has to be a production. Not everything needs to be a dozen parties working together. [Agony Cloud] gets the job done.”

“May I offer counsel?” Eve asked.

Which was remarkably gentle for her. Kaden dipped his head. “Please.”

“First off, thank you for not testing my passion. It’s limited to Vip and cooking, and occasionally state negotiations. Second, I want to offer a different perspective,” Eve said. “The perspective of a young group of Adventurers who are growing on a much more normal trajectory. They don’t destroy Torrod breeding corals. They’ve never descended into a Formicidean colony. They want to grow and earn and learn—but slowly. Safely.”

“These operations—” Sara stopped to wait for Eve’s nod. “They offer opportunities for growth. You, I, our entire party would walk straight into the mine and begin killing. They’ll work as part of a greater team. They’ll rely on each other and fall back, then push forward together. You?”

Kaden shrugged. “Head to the bottom of the mine. Kill everything on the way there. Probably break through a crack in the wall and discover a hidden temple to an ancient god and some evil hiding there. Loot it all. Isn’t that what happened last time?”

“We’ve never been in the mine, but it’s a reasonable guess,” Sara said. “That’s exactly the opposite of what most Adventurers want, and so, we’ll coordinate. We’ll cooperate. We’ll arrange and get quest XP for arranging.”

That cooled the passion that had been surging in Kaden, the desire to make the world better for people and worse for demons. “Ashi?”

“As long as I have Fire Mana, I will warm you.” Ashi cupped her hands again, spreading warmth through his soul.

“Not how I thought you’d keep him warm,” Trella said. “This is my fault. I should have succeeded, but I didn’t. And without my fingers, I’m not certain if I’m a help or a liability tonight.”

“There’s plenty of blame to go around. Some for you and some for Kaden,” Sara said. “Really, there’s exactly enough blame for you two. If you’d been patient, we would have killed all three crabs and no one would have gotten [Frost].”

There were upsides to having everything dulled. “You’re right. Come dark, I’m going out and I’m killing crabs. Or wolves. Or snakes. If it’s blue and glowy, it’s getting an axe to the skull until it stops moving.”

“I have a different idea,” Sara said. “It’s impossible that every [Alchemist] is on board with the Hall’s decision to avoid the Beserkers. There has to be at least one who is more gold motivated who I could pay to come and brew enough [Fire Soul] potions to let us hunt these beasts safely while Trella learns.”

That was reasonable. That was even logical. “It’s a plan.”

Eve spent the afternoon cooking. The domain beasts had meat just like any creature, and crab was crab. Kaden found it flavorless and cold, but everything was flavorless and cold. How the Beserkers lived like this he didn’t know. Drokor had said almost all their older warriors had [Frost] most of the year and survived by the strength of their internal passions.

By sundown, Trella’s fingers weren’t stumps, but they didn’t move right, and she consistently dropped her daggers. “My Deceptions can still act as decoys. I’m going. [Shadow Step] and [Dark Deception] can keep the domain creatures busy. My plan to use [Agony Cloud] on the domain gate was good, but I didn’t keep it blocked.”

“I’ll handle that,” Eve said. “Wounds are probably either fatal or directly survivable. Of course I’ll heal, but the goal is to keep the domain creatures from retreating.”

“My fire spells will obliterate,” Ashi said as they filed out of the village. “I will not attack unless your lives are in danger. I have Geo mana and will use that. We should test before battle, how [Mana Conduit] will transform [Landslide]. But if we do, I may not have enough mana to use it again.”

“Save it,” Kaden answered. He’d seen a [Geomancer] use [Landslide] once, a hail of boulders exploding behind him to crush victims. [Mana Conduit] broadcast spells all around Kaden. “If you see blue, say so.”

An hour out, the moon had yet to rise and the night lay dark and cold. Not that the cold bothered them, wrapped in their [Letydir]. Kaden’s wounded one remained in Inventory until he could figure out a way for [Confirmed Guardian of Life] to heal it. Why it wasn’t curing [Frost], Kaden didn’t know. The title seemed to effect long term growth even more, though it mentioned status effects expiring sooner.

Trella ghosted ahead, the darkness giving her [Shadow Blade] class an extreme edge. [Shadow Chains] hadn’t harmed the crabs in the least but her job was to find the enemy.

The moon had fully risen before she returned, running instead of using skills. “I found our target. The crabs had seven essence each and were huge. We have to bypass three other gates, but I found one with a mini-swarm. Lower risk, lower reward, greater numbers.”

“Perfect.” Sara waved for them to follow. “When we arrive, strategy first, attack second.”

The journey took them past the first gate with only two crabs, around another where a golem twenty feet tall stood alone, and far from one where Kaden was near certain human figures in glowing blue stood, holding spears and swords.

“There.” Trella stopped at a snow drift. “The form is [Razor Geese], and they will cut. They have an aura attack that will infect you with [Frost], so don’t get close unless you’re Kaden. My Deceptions will lure them together for the first [Agony Cloud].”

“I can get close,” Sara said. “The Horror can’t be inflicted with [Frost] and it’s unlikely I can. Don’t let them escape.”

Kaden used [Stealth Aura] to peek over the dune.

A cluster of [Razor Geese], each as tall as he was, stood about the gate. Their feathers dripped pink blood where the inter-flock battles had already resulted in death. “How are these creatures outside the domain?”

“Dungeons break and errupt monsters,” Ashi answered. “Domains are more powerful dungeons, but without cores to control them. This one has overflowed. Kaden, if you are among them, I will unleash [Landslide] but you will be beset from all sides. Or we can fight from a distance and let them attack.”

“That one’s safer,” Trella said. “Let’s not make more mistakes than I already did.”

Kaden didn’t mind either way. He summoned Thorn Caster. “I go when it explodes.”

Trella disappeared into the darkness, as Kaden drew back his bow, which crackled with chrono mana. A whoosh of air, a blossom of orange that turned purple in the blue light of the gate, and [Agony Cloud] enveloped the gate at the same time a black figure appeared in the flock.

Eve didn’t hesistate to hurl her own potion, which errupted around the Deception.

Monsters screamed and honked and slashed. Pink spurts of blood flung from the [Agony Cloud] as the flock savaged itself in a panick, then strong wing-beats drove back the acidic gas.

The flock rushed straight at them.