The fiery wretches in front of Einar wore ancient and broken armour, wielding axes, spears and swords. They all rushed toward him, glowing-tipped spears cutting through the air and piercing halfway through his ice shield that began to melt apart. He willed his own sword to enlarge to its full size, swinging it in a wide arc to destroy the spears. Einar swung low to maim his enemies, a furious flame appearing on his own weapon to fight the fire his enemies wielded. The edge of an axe managed to lodge itself between two of his armour pieces, cutting and scorching his flesh near his side.

The giant roared in anger as his ‘draconic pride’ awoke, raw fury and power filling him as he tore his enemies apart with both sword and bare hand. As the rage passed and his mind cleared, Einar found himself standing alone in the arena once more, the remains of his enemies turning into ash that drifted away. He let out a deep and heated breath before heading back toward the riddle on the wall with his sword still in his hand. ‘You might be gods but you can't expect people to just... people?’ His inner reprimanding was halted as his mind grabbed onto the word.

“People.” He said out loud as the thought finally settled in his mind and a bright golden fire awakened in the braziers.

With the fourth riddle solved and the fourth piece of flame floating over to the altar, the seeker felt a weight fall from his chest. He did it. Although the thought behind the word was vague, it seemed like the Gods understood what he meant. Shambling over to the altar, Einar found a head-sized floating blue cloud, which he ushered toward his out-held drinking horn. As the cloud rained into the horn, the seeker drank it out, his wounds healing as his mind sharpened beyond what it was before. He could feel that his thoughts were just a bit clearer and faster.

The altar had several items, the first being a small pile of gold coins. The young giant threw the coins into his pouch before taking a closer look at the remaining rewards. One of them was a rune stone with an unfamiliar symbol. There was also a strange glass bauble the size of his thumb with sand in it that trickled down from one half of the item to the other one. The last reward was yet another scroll. As he unfurled it, Einar found himself looking at a runic symbol that was surrounded by several lines of description.

He wasn’t a craftsman himself but from what he understood, this scroll was meant to explain the making of a specific rune with the power to further refine talismans, making them draw a bit less spiritual strength than before. ‘Rúna might be able to use this to strengthen my talismans later.’ He thought as he put away the scroll before sitting down to meditate in the safety of the trial ground. Once he entered his inner world, Einar soon found the small sand and glass bauble on his own altar. Focusing on the thing, he could see golden words form above it.

{Hourglass of the Mind}

{Lesser Divine Relic}

{The ancient sages created this small hourglass to help them keep the time in mind as they delved into their studies. It bestowed the 'mental mastery' feat on its owner.}

Reading the words made the seeker frown for a moment, but as he held the hourglass, a new indent appeared on the stone wall behind his altar. He socketed in the hourglass and glowing words appeared on the wall.

{Mental Mastery}

{Time flows constantly but some can slow or hasten it to some extent. Those who master their mind often feel like their thoughts move faster than the world around them. Mental mastery allows one to control their thoughts and make decisions in a split second if needed.}

As usual, the description was vague, leaving much up for him to interpret it. Putting the matter aside, he checked up on his heraldry as well and found out that his mind attribute rose by three and his divinity by one. As expected. Another important change was that his sword mastery reached the point where he would have to choose a path for it.

{Sword mastery}{Specialization pending}

{The path of the sword is narrow and sharp, yet long and gruelling. Wield your blade with skill and determination. Every fifth rank increases the harm you cause with your weapon by 1. Every tenth rank increases your deftness by 1 and grants a minor perk. Every twenty-fifth rank allows you to choose a specialization.}

{Rank: 25 (beginner)}

{Rank progression: 20/20}

{Deftness increase: 2}

{Harm addition: 5}

{Perks: firm grasp, firm stance}

Two new descriptions appeared as he willed himself to see the possible paths blades.

{River Snake Sword Path}

{River snakes glide on the water with quick and precise movements. Those who follow the path of the river snake similarly move fast and dextrous with their sword. The perfect choice for those favouring one-handed blades.}

{Mountain Bear Sword Path}

{Mountain bears might not be the fastest of animals, but they might more than make up for it. Those that follow the path of the mountain bear are willing to sacrifice fast movements in favour of heavy ones, rending forests and cleaving mountains apart with each strike. The perfect choice for two-handed blades.}

It was a hard decision to make as Einar tended to use both the one and two-handed forms of his sword. Reflecting on his previous fights however made him realize that he leaned a lot more toward wielding his weapon in its full-length form, making use of his already fearsome strength. In the end, he chose the path of the mountain bear, and the description of his sword mastery changed with it.

{Mountain bear sword mastery}

{The path of the sword is narrow and sharp, yet long and gruelling. Wield your blade with skill and determination. Those who wield their sword like a mountain bear swings its paws will rend the world apart if need be. Every fifth rank increases the harm you cause with your weapon by 1. Every tenth rank increases your deftness by 1, might by 2 and grants a minor perk. Every twenty-fifth rank allows you to choose a specialization.}

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

{Rank: 26}

{Rank progression: 01/30}

{Deftness increase: 2}

{Might increase:}

{Harm addition: 5}

{Perks: firm grasp, firm stance}

{Specialization: mountain bear style}

With the choice made, Einar left his inner world and turned into his raven form to fly away. From high above the forest he could see a vast expanse of trees with a few distant meadows and the old path snaking its way across the land. Ahead of him loomed the second mountain, still days away if he'd rely only on walking as a human. The seeker flew forward as fast as he could, trying to make the most of his short time as a winged creature. Hours went by switching between his human and raven forms before he reached the first small dale that anything truly worth his time besides the usual groups of smaller wolves and elk.

Since his fight with the giant bear, Einar hasn't seen any of the large beasts along his travel. The clearing he reached held one such wolf. He landed at the edge of the clearing, returning to his human form and unsheathed his sword. The young giant began to walk toward the wolf that was in the middle of drinking from a small steam with its pack of four smaller wolves. One of the smaller animals noticed him approaching and the pack leader raised its head to look at him as well. The wolf let out a low growl as it began to walk toward Einar with its fangs showing.

The two got closer to each other and the wolf began to sidesway him, lowering itself for a moment before it lunged toward the seeker. Einar watched as the beast pushed off the ground with its maw open. Then it happened. As he gripped his sword’s hilt, he felt as if time itself began to slow down around him. It wasn’t by much, maybe a fifth or so, but he still noticed the change. The wolf soared through the air toward its prey that stepped to the left. The giant swung his sword low with all of his strength, its blade glowing up for a moment before it met the large wolf’s neck.

A moment later the beast landed with its head snapped back, barely attached to its body as Einar’s sword cut more than two-thirds into its flesh, almost completely beheading it. The wolf collapsed on the ground, twitching and bleeding out as its pack rushed toward the giant. He swatted the first of the smaller wolves aside with the flat side of his sword before stomping the second in the snout, a sickening crunch resounding as the beast’s skull shattered. The rest of the beasts had no chance either as the seeker’s seemingly slow yet terrifying swings cleaved them apart.

A minute after the fight started, there were only corpses left around the slightly huffing giant as he wiped his sword on the fur of one of the dead wolves. He held out his drinking corn towards the large corpse, its blood turning into a mist that formed a tiny cloud which flew toward the horn. The seeker drank whatever the bloody cloud rained into his horn and began to look for the glowing mark on its fur. It turned out to be the same mark that would become a swiftness rune under Rúna’s power.

Not wanting to waste his world eater pouch’s space with the whole corpse, the giant pulled out his seax and skinned the part of the hide from the carcass with the glowing lines on it. He scraped the excess flesh and fat off before shoving the hide piece into his pouch. Other than that the glade had nothing else of interest to him, so he left. Einar spent several more hours travelling through the forest before he reached the ruins of what seemed to be a small outpost. It had walls made of hardened and overgrown dirt with rotten wood poles lined up to hold the packed soil wall.

Behind the wall had found a few rundown buildings, some housing an angry draugr or two which he destroyed without mercy. The main building of the outpost had stone walls and an inner space similar in size to his old home, except this one had a few draugr soldiers inside. Once he cleared the ancient dead out, the giant began to look for firewood to light up the cobweb-covered fireplace in preparation for the fast-approaching night. He barricaded the door and windows as best as he could after drawing up some water from a broken well, using the water to wash off the dirt and blood from himself.

A meagre dinner later the seeker laid out his bedroll near the fire and fell asleep with his weapon in hand. When morning came the young giant packed up his things and left the round-down house, taking flight in his raven form to see his next goal. The forest seemed vast and the nearest clearing was hours away. He switched between flying and walking, sometimes stopping to fight with a beast or two in hopes of gaining a new rune. Two more glowing fur patches later he got closer to a meadow, and the scent of blood drifted towards him.

Some movement could be seen below him as he noticed some ruins that were laid out similarly to the previous proving grounds. The bloody scent came from the fighting that took place at the edge of the clearing. Einar recognised the armour of those fighting, a clear sign of them hailing from the Falling Sun Empire. ‘How did they get here before me and why are they fighting each other?’ The seeker thought to himself as he watched one of the warriors, a hulking large figure wearing a half mask send another man flying using a giant spiked club.

Seeing this, Einar couldn’t help but stop to hover just above the trees. ‘How is he not getting struck by lightning for shedding God-marked blood?’ Was the question that came to his mind as he watched the empire’s giant crush the other three with a savage growl. The fight was over in a minute, leaving only the spiked club wielding warrior standing. As if it was able to sense his presence, the warrior looked up at the seeker and threw a knife toward it. The blade cut through the air, hitting Einar in his left wing when he tried to dodge.

He fell from the sky, barely gliding lower before he returned to his human form, crashing into the ground. The youth rolled on the ground, trying to stand up as the warrior walked toward him with lumbering steps. The spiked club rose into the air as the warrior prepared to take a swing at the injured seeker but he rolled to the side, right hand clutching the bleeding wound on his left.

“Who are…” He tried to ask but the stranger from the Falling Sun Empire kept growling at the seeker as he attacked with the club, forcing Einar to back away.

He summoned his ice shield but it barely lasted for a second when it got struck by the club. It shattered and the top of the weapon hit the giant in the shoulder, piercing his armour and skin alike before knocking him aside. The pain made Einar see red as his hair flared with dark red fire, the youth stopping in his tracks before rushing at the enemy. The two bodies collided and the stranger slid back a few steps before coming to a halt, but it was the seeker that ended up worse as his already injured shoulder hit the hard armoured body.

Looking up, he found himself staring at a pair of blood-red eyes. The man growled at him and took a heavy step forward, making the seeker stumble back once again. It prepared to take a swing at him again but Einar was faster and summoned a fire spear which he stabbed forward with, impaling his attacker in the chest.