“GET DOWN!” Herend yelled as threw up a wall of ice in front of his teammates.

Tracy, Philip, Filia, and Nathanus all ducked behind the wall with Herend. The barrage of quills launched by a gigantic and decrepit looking porcupine monster impacted on the wall while several dozen flew over their heads.

Nathanus threw a set of daggers in the air that curved to fly directly at the porcupine beast. A gale of wind was causing them to fly around like a maelstrom of metal as they cut the Umbral beast in several areas.

The giant porcupine beast cried in pain, but other than some bleeding it wasn’t much worse for wear. The daggers just couldn’t cut deep enough.

“Nathanus!” Philip called out as he held his hands in front of him in a hollow fist. A small red rat sat on his head. It glowed red as it focused its own mana through Philip’s body to enhance the spell he was charging.

“Tosser!” Nathanus shouted as a gray hobby dove down from where it was surveying the battle.

As it reached the group on the ground, it landed in front of Philip and his Spirit. Flapping its wings in front of it, a narrow cyclone of wind stretched from it to the spiky beast in front of it.

“Deus, Now!” Philip breathed deep as the rat on his head responded to his call. The mana he had been gathering in his fist and throat came rushing out, the direction partially controlled by Dues, creating a beam of fire that ignited the cyclone in front of them.

Nathanus pulled back his flying daggers as the flames reached the porcupine beast. Fire seeped into the many wounds on its body, causing both internal and external damage.

The Umbral beast let out a wail of pain as it tried to put out the flames, but nothing it could do would affect the flames that were inside its skin. It toppled over after a couple of seconds, falling silent as it died.

Herend waved his hand and the icy barricade turned into water that surged forward to wash away the greatly charred Umbral Beast before the flames could spread too far. The group then moved on to assist another party with the beast they were facing.

As the groups of hunters from the two Guilds were defending the expedition’s caravan, Ezekiel stayed in the carriage, looking out the window at the battle as Gerome stood next to the carriage.

His priority was to make sure Ezekiel was safe, and the Tier of these Umbral Beasts wasn’t so high that they couldn’t be dealt by the groups of Tier two Hunters that were currently fighting.

This was the third such fight to occur in the past six days. They were still a couple of days out from the outpost where they would resupply before crossing the Turnbout river, and while they were within the borders of the Willowbrush Empire, the number of Umbral Beasts nearby was mind boggling.

Not all the Hunters from the Wandering Titans and Drifting Feathers were fighting though. Between these two Guilds there were roughly fifty people combined. They tended to swap duties when it came to defending the caravan of carts and carriages.

Ezekiel hadn’t gotten to know all of them, but the group of five from the Wandering Titans that he’d shared a carriage with had been sociable enough for him to talk to. At least after that first introduction.

“Ouch...” Ezekiel muttered as he saw a group from the Drifting Feathers take a hit from a large lizard looking creature with a spiked club for a tail. It too had quills, but they were shorter and wider than the one’s on the porcupine looking beast.

The first time the expedition had been attacked, Ezekiel had been surprised, and more than a little bit scared. Gerome was immediately by his side, making sure nothing happened to him, but even so, it was terrifying, hearing the roars of the seemingly mutated beasts that had first attacked them.

That had settled down after the second attack, and he now had confidence in the Hunters that were part of the expedition. He was still concerned but wasn’t as fearful as he was before.

He knew that Umbral Beasts were creatures that were originally normal beasts, or mana beasts, that existed in the wild. But due to the corruption of the Cruor they had been twisted and warped as they became creatures that actively sought out and hunted those with mana for food.

Be they human, Spirit, or mana beast, all were prey for the Umbrals and the Cruor.

“Indeed.”

Gerome’s reply to Ezekiel’s observation was bland and monotone.

He’d seen things like this happen countless times, and he knew that, although he didn’t like seeing his juniors getting hurt so much, it was better to have them suffer like this and learn, than to run into trouble without a Tier four Hunter there to back them up.

Luckily, it seemed like Herend, and his group, were able to cover the struck group quite quickly, and the battles were starting to wrap up. Some wounded, but nothing that would stop the expedition.

“I guess the Life Mages will be getting more practice tonight. Kinda wish I could help.”

“Please don’t. I’m fine with keeping you safe, as was agreed, but I really don’t need you throwing yourself into danger needlessly.”

“I didn’t mean that I want to help with the fighting!” Ezekiel said, indignantly. “I know I’d just get in the way. Both because I’m too weak, and because I don’t know how these teams operate.”

Ezekiel looked at Gerome as if he was insulted that Gerome would think of him as such a battle maniac. Gerome just looked at him with surprise, not expecting Ezekiel to be so mature. Then he thought about it and realized that this wasn’t out of character for Ezekiel.

“I just feel useless. I can set up my own tent just fine. And I can use my own rations when I need to, but it just feels like I’m a burden, even if no one’s said as much. I don’t like it.”

Gerome’s face grew a bit softer, sensing the honesty in Ezekiel’s voice as he looked at his ferret Spirit and gave him a nod. The ferret jumped off his shoulder and wrapped around Ezekiel’s neck.

Ezekiel turned to Gerome with a confused look.

“If you promise not to remove Westly from your neck, you can help with the clean-up and the harvesting.”

Ezekiel perked up at what Gerome was letting him do, but his face immediately fell as he thought of something.

“What’s wrong, kid? I thought you wanted to be useful?”

“I don’t have any tools for harvesting. Just my sword. Mess things up and accidentally destroy anything that could be used later on.”

Gerome just gave a barking laugh as Ezekiel explained his worries. He’d thought Ezekiel might be against getting his hands dirty.

“Ezekiel, so long as you have your sword and your mana, that will be enough.”

Ezekiel looked confused. He’d seen others with specific tools taking apart the remains of the Umbral Beasts they’d been fighting previously.

“In most cases, the tools you see used by other Hunters are used to gather hard to get materials from the internal organs. For these Umbrals, however,” Gerome gestured to the very spiky and well armored beasts, “the majority of the useful parts are external, and will be used for armor components, or for weapons. Cut along the ‘seams’, in their flesh and don’t break anything that’s hard. That’ll be enough.”

Ezekiel gave a great big smile as he opened the door to the carriage. He took a look toward Herend’s group, only to see that all but Filia were headed back toward the carriage. Others, who hadn’t taken part in the fight, were moving forward to begin harvesting.

Smiling as they saw Ezekiel climbing out of the carriage, the party waved him over before he could charge out to join the rest.

“Hey, kid, where are you headed too?” Philip asked. None of the group had really seen Ezekiel outside of the carriage during the day. He’d usually be stuck inside, either with them or waiting for the battles to finish up.

“Gerome said that I can help with the harvesting so long as I make sure to stick with Westly.”

Ezekiel shrugged his shoulders to show off the ferret that was snuggly wrapped around his neck.

The party shared a glance between them. Although he’d proven to be very knowledgeable, and Garrad had originally claimed that he was mid-Tier three, none of them had actually seen Ezekiel use his mana before, outside of the one instance where he had meditated.

There were too many possibilities for distractions to accidentally disrupt a person’s meditation as well, so they had only seen him meditate once, before Gerome told him not to do that again.

Though Gerome did cover for him, to allow him to properly absorb the rest of his pure mana crystals. Over the past two weeks, even with his training, he had managed to get himself close enough to the next Step that the last few pure crystals were enough to push him over the edge. He was officially a fourth Step Tier one Mage now.

“Are you sure that you’ll be able to manage? There are Tier two Umbral beasts. Their hides will not be easy to cut through, nor their spikes easy to pull out.”

Herend’s voice was quiet and flat as he spoke. He seemed to embody the ice aspect of his element far more than the water element. Being incredibly hard to read and showing almost no emotions on his face.

“I should be alright. I think I’ll be able to successfully harvest at least one of these Umbrals without holding us up. Although, I’ll probably have to give the harvest to Filia, as I don’t have a Void Pouch.”

“Hmm... I guess I’ll come with you, just so you can have a Pouch nearby, rather than having to run back and forth to Filia.” Philip said after a moment's thought.

The two began marching forwards toward one of the beasts that Philip’s team had slain. Deus was sitting on his shoulder, while the rest of their team continued going back to the carriage.

“So, do you know what you’re doing?”

“Well, Gerome said that I just need to not break anything that’s hard, mainly the spines and shells, as those are the most valuable parts on Umbrals like these.”

Philip and Ezekiel walked up to the large Umbral Beast that had previously clubbed a team of Drifting Feather Guild members.

As it had been Philip’s team that had gotten the kill, after the Drifting Feather’s team had been taken out, it was considered to be their harvest per the agreement between the two Guilds.

Ezekiel began examining the large beast. It was roughly double the size of a full-grown elephant, so even on its side it dwarfed Ezekiel.

“I guess the best thing to start with would be the spines that aren’t directly a part of the larger carapaces, right?”

Ezekiel looked to Philip, who gave him a nod of encouragement. Although he looked nervous as Ezekiel reached forward to grab a spine attached to one of the beast’s shoulders.

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“Do you need a hand?” Philip asked as he moved forward to assist.

“Nope!”

Philip watched in shock as Ezekiel’s eyes changed color. The dull brown eyes that did not indicate his elemental affinity brightened until his irises became pure white surrounded by a black ring.

Up until this point, neither Philip nor his team members had seen Ezekiel’s eyes indicate his elemental affinity. The only thing they had to assure them that Ezekiel was actually Tier one was Garrad’s word.

As well as Gerome’s after Herend had secretly asked him during the night they had spent at the Upper Crossings bridge.

Ezekiel also knew that he didn’t exhibit the standard trait of a Tier one Mage. But given that one’s eyes tended to exhibit properties of their element via the color of their iris, in a way, this could be expected, as Void mana immediately took on other properties when exposed to the elements.

Ezekiel had actually been worried at first, when it was finally touched on that his eyes didn’t stay white. His family had almost taken him to the Church to get checked, but after seeing them change color when channeling mana, they figured it was just another quirk of Void mana.

For Philip, seeing Ezekiel’s eyes glow white was shocking enough that he almost didn’t notice as Ezekiel levered his body to rip out the spike he was holding onto with his bare hands.

‘krk-shlorp’

The spike made a small cracking sound as it was broken from the skeleton it was attached to, and a wet, sucking sound as it came free from the Umbral’s shoulder.

“Well, that’s one.” Ezekiel cracked his neck as he announced this.

“Wha-”

Philip couldn’t finish asking his question, as Ezekiel seemed to become a blur as dashed around the Umbral Beast’s body, grasping and cracking horns and spikes of the beast at a rapid pace.

There was a total of eight spines located at the large joints of its body, as well as two horns.

Ezekiel grabbed his sword, preparing to cut off the large carapaces, but paused for a minute before realizing something.

The best had fallen on its side, before partially rolling onto its back, meaning he wouldn’t be able to take off the large spiny shell without turning it over first.

“Ah, give me a moment, I’ll get a few hands to come over and help flip this thing so you can get the shell off. Hey Filia!”

Philip had recovered from his shock at seeing Ezekiel’s harvesting speed. He had clearly shown physical strength well beyond that of low Tier two Hunters. Which meant that his natural strength must be low Tier two at its base, and he could enhance his strength to probably high Tier two, maybe even peak Tier two strength.

This meant that he could match the physique of an Umbral Beast of equal Tier, something that Mages, and some Spirits, just couldn’t do, as their powers focused more on manipulating their mana to perform different spells and feats to control the elements themselves.

Umbral Beasts couldn’t actually cast spells like Spirits and Mages could. Instead, upon losing their mana, an Umbral Beast would have their physique altered into something huge and monstrous.

Thus, if Mages found themselves in combat with Umbral Beasts, or their makers, the Cruor, they had to do everything they could to stay at range, and fire spells to do any damage.

For Hunters, it was a bit different. A Hunter had a Spirit, and most Spirits had their physique tied to their Mana, so they were much stronger, physically, than Mages.

People who wanted to travel the world still had to learn martial arts, though, as there were other Mages and Hunters that might turn on them, and in the event that they did find themselves in melee range, it was better to at least be able to fight back than it was to just roll over and die.

As Philip was thinking about what Ezekiel had just done, and what it meant, Ezekiel just shook his head before moving to the back of the Umbral Beast.

“No need, Philip. But thank you for the offer.”

Ezekiel squatted down, channeling more mana throughout his body to make it as strong as he could. This cost him a couple dozen motes of mana to do, as his body wouldn’t be able to handle any more without breaking something.

As ever so slowly lifted the corpse to roll it over, it wasn’t just Philip that was staring at him in shock. Nearly everyone who had caught a glimpse of Ezekiel heading out to help was nearly gaping as they watched a ten-year-old kid perform a feat that would take at least two or three of them to copy.

Not including the Tier three Hunters, of course.

“Whew.”

There was no crash as Ezekiel turned the large body onto its front. The only sound heard was Ezekiel letting out a sigh of relief after his exertion.

He then looked it over for a moment before nodding his head and drawing his sword. Channeling roughly the same amount of mana into his blade as what he had used to flip over the body, Ezekiel slid his blade into the area between the plates in the carapace.

It wasn’t an especially clean job, and Ezekiel found it difficult to get every single piece of the Umbral’s carapace, but he managed to finish it in a fairly decent time. Sooner than the groups that hadn’t stopped staring at him at any rate.

Gerome, Garrad, and Naeri, having witnessed the whole thing, but having also known what Ezekiel was capable of before he had become Tier one, were laughing at the faces of the other Guild member’s shocked expressions.

Philip and his group in particular couldn’t believe that the boy they had grown accustomed to during the past six days of travel was so capable. They only thought he was there to help them with any Void based traps or enchantments when they returned to the Ruins.

“Excuse me... Guild Leader Mountloch?”

Nathanus shook off his shock while watching Ezekiel begin handing pieces of the carapace over to Philip, who had opened his Void pouch to start placing the harvest in.

“Can all Void Mages do stuff like that?”

Gerome said nothing as he thought about it for a minute. He didn’t really know the answer, as the only Tier one Void Mage he knew was Ezekiel.

In actuality, if not for the fact that Naeri had informed him that the Church of Ten sometimes took in volunteers to activate Void Relics, he wouldn’t have thought that there were any Tier one Void Mages since before the Age of Despair

“None have been trained to the extent that young Ezekiel has, so it’s really unknown to us.” Naeri spoke up before Gerome could respond to the question.

“Given how expensive it is for a Void Mage to accumulate mana, it was never a practical thing to do in Ages past. But thanks to Ezekiel, we might be able to change that.”

Nathanus fell silent when Naeri finished speaking. He was only Tier two, and he was aware that there was little he knew of the world compared to the amount that the two Tier fours in front of him did, but even he could see that the world was likely to change in the coming years.

So long as the Church of Ten was able to spread the methods for Void gathering meditation, there would soon be Mages that would be able to match Ezekiel in capabilities. Mages that could fight the Cruor without the aid of a Spirit dealing with them in melee.

“For now, however, Ezekiel is still a child. Naive and inexperienced, when it comes to the dangers of the world outside the cities. I think the both of us would appreciate it if you could help him out with that.”

Naeri gestured to Gerome as she spoke, and he responded in kind by nodding in affirmation to what she was requesting.

“How can we do that?” Tracy asked in confusion.

“Simply telling him stories of your own adventures would suffice for now. Tell him about the Ruins you’ve delved. The cities you’ve visited. What else there is besides the empire, the Spirits, and the Cruor and their Umbral Beasts. Hell, tell him about the Mana Beasts that sometimes roam the world where the Broods haven’t spread their corruption.”

Naeri grew more intense as she started describing what she thought the Guild members in the carriage should talk to Ezekiel about.

“I know you’ve tried to avoid such things over the past few days, and have instead been talking about your lives, and a few fights you’ve had here and there. But as much of a child as Ezekiel is, he is also not. He can handle whatever you intend to tell him. He’s willing to get himself knee deep in Umbral Beast Ichor just to not be useless after all.”

Herend, Nathanus, and Tracy all nodded their heads in agreement. They might not have been the best at book smarts, something that Ezekiel had actually been helping them with, but they were all well-traveled when it came to their own experiences. They’d help Ezekiel learn more about the world.

“Good.”

Naeri was fairly pleased with the Guild member’s responses. She almost wished that she could take the time to teach Ezekiel herself, but due to her position as a Grand Scholar, she had to be slightly more neutral when it came to prospective up-and-coming Mages.

The regular scholars of the Church of Ten were able to interfere a bit more directly, but even then, they still had to form a give and take relationship. Too many would turn on the Church if they started affecting things like imperial affairs after all.

By this point, Ezekiel had finished with his harvesting, and had moved on to help Filia with hers, which was easier in some ways, as the spikes on the Umbral she was harvesting weren’t attached to bone and were more quill like.

Ezekiel was able to quickly pull out the several hundred quills still attached to the Umbral’s back, and after wrapping them up and packing them safely, they were put away so they could be distributed between the team later.

“Agh, it looks like I’m tapped out for the day. I’m sorry I can’t help out any more than this.”

Ezekiel’s exclamation took Philip and Filia by surprise. Ezekiel had finished harvesting the two Umbral beasts far faster than either one of them could do so on their own.

“You helped us quite a bit.”

Filia and Philip had actually been so impressed that they hoped that Ezekiel would help them more in the future.

Looking down at their Ichor covered clothing, Philip and Filia started moving back to the carriage at a faster pace. Gesturing at Ezekiel to move faster as well.

“C’mon, Ezekiel, we need to wash this sooner, rather than later.”

“Okay. I guess this stuff would stain pretty badly.”

Ezekiel looked at himself as he saw how badly soaked through small parts of his clothing were. Luckily nothing had affected the enchantments his mother had put on them, but it was still disgusting.

“It doesn’t stain, actually, but it sucks away your mana as it sticks to you. You’re probably feeling the effects right now.”

Ezekiel nearly came to a stop as he heard that. This was information he hadn’t known before.

“What?”

Philip and Filia turned to look at him as they reached the carriage. Herend was already gathering a fairly large amount of water to soak and wash them in.

“Oh! I guess you wouldn’t know this. I don’t think they teach this anywhere outside of the Guilds and the Academies. Umbral Ichor contains traces of Cruor Ichor, which is anathema to Mana. It absorbs the stuff like crazy, and until you run out. It doesn’t seem to affect Spirits though, so that’s why most of the time they’ll go in first. Of course, that’s usually only for Tier three Mages. Tier twos like us need to team up and keep them distracted to fight from afar. Our Spirits can’t change size yet after all.”

Ezekiel still looked confused as he waited for his turn to get washed down. Filia had already finished and had been dried when Herend pulled the water off her body.

“Is that supposed to happen right away?” Ezekiel asked.

“Well, it depends on the difference between your Tier and theirs. The greater the difference, the greater or lesser the speed, depending on who’s Tier is higher.” Philip explained. “Ichor also disappears as it eats your mana. Like it cancels each other out, but not the same way you form Void mana. The mana and the Ichor just stop existing.”

“Real Cruor Ichor is different, though. It tends to burn like acid, regardless of what kind of Cruor it comes from. What’s even worse is if you get it into your bloodstream.”

At this point Herend had jumped into the conversation, taking Naeri’s advice and telling Ezekiel about things he’d seen in the world.

“That’s how things like Ghouls are formed. Humans that are captured by the Cruor are drained of their mana, and then injected with Cruor Ichor. If they don’t just die, then they become abominations that mindlessly fight for their masters. Luckily, they tend to be fairly weak compared to Umbral Beasts. But, just like Umbral Beasts, Ghouls grow stronger by eating mana from Mages and Spirits.”

“Radiant mana is more effective at combating Ichor, but Radiant Mages can still be turned. The cost is just much higher.”

Ezekiel was a little freaked out by what Herend was saying.

“How has humanity survived then? If these things get stronger by fighting and killing us, how do we survive?”

Gerome and Naeri chose this moment to step in, as they knew those at the lower Tiers wouldn’t know the answer to this one.

“The Cruor cannot reproduce naturally, Ezekiel, as such, for every one of them killed, that’s one less member of their armies that can attack us. They also can’t grow naturally like we do, so that is another advantage. The only exceptions to this are the Broodlords and their peerage.”

Herend had slowed down his washing for a moment to listen in as Naeri spoke up. This was information regarding the Cruor, humanity’s ultimate enemy. The more he, and the rest of his Guild mates knew, the better.

“There’s also the fact that, as far as we can tell, it is impossible for there to be more than nine Tier five Cruor in existence. These are the Broodlords. The leaders of the Cruor. They can reproduce, but at a cost to their personal power. Similarly, since there can only be nine Broodlords, lesser members of the Brood’s peerage at Tier four and below, will often try to usurp those at a higher Tier.”

Most of the party gulped in unison. Such a cutthroat and self-destructive means of living was truly alien to them. How could anything survive when your own kind tried to kill you.

“As it is, they can only grow to Tier four without becoming stuck unless they take the life of the previous Broodlord, or they gain a blessing should an old Broodlord be killed by humanity. This has happened a few times in the past.”

Naeri then fell silent as she let Ezekiel and the rest of the party absorb her words.

“I wonder...”

Ezekiel’s soft utterance attracted the attention of those around him.

He was staring at his hands and arms that were still soaked in Ichor. Herend still hadn’t washed him off.

“Ezekiel, what’s wrong?”

Ezekiel looked spooked and disgusted as he continued to stare at his hands.

“I think I know why only Void Mages can become Broodlords.”

The people around him were shocked by his words. Even Gerome and Garrad straightened up as they looked at Ezekiel. Naeri’s eyes narrowed as she stared down at Ezekiel, but didn’t interrupt him, knowing his possible insight may be very useful.

“The Ichor, it’s supposed to be draining me of my mana, isn’t it?”

Everyone’s looks became confused for a moment. Naeri was the first one to get what he was saying, Followed by Gerome, then Herend, then the rest.

Looking at his hands, the group saw that the Ichor wasn’t disappearing as it took away his mana, like it had for Filia and Philip.

“I think... I think I can sense the Ichor, not that I’m thinking about it. Also, I think that Void Mages are immune to Ichor.”

Ezekiel then channeled his mana, using it to reinforce his entire body. His eyes changed to their black ringed white irises.

The ichor immediately turned to an oily colored smoke that drifted away from him.

“I think that the only way for Ichor to affect Void Mages is if they try to absorb it like they would mana.”

Ezekiel’s statement was met by silence as no one wanted to believe what that ultimately meant for humanity, and Void Mages especially, if it was true.

If it was, then that meant that every Void Mage that had ever joined the Cruor, even the ones that had been kidnapped during years past, had willingly thrown away humanity, and had joined the Cruor of their own free will.