Akari scarfed down her soup in record time. Kalden didn’t talk much as they ate, which suited her fine. They’d just had a shitload of stuff dumped on their laps, and she needed time to process it all.
If nothing else, this ‘outside world’ sounded interesting. No badges? No judging people by their birth mana? She could get behind those ideas.
Of course, that didn’t make this world all roses and rainbows, either. Knowledge was still hoarded, and governments still told people which aspects they could learn and how they should train. The Grandmaster had said so in his very first video.
Her foot tapped against the wooden floor as she waited for Kalden to finish his own lunch. Unlike her, he took small bites like a proper little Gold, always dabbing his mouth clean with his napkin.
Every once in a while, she glanced over at the State Martial who sat by the room’s entrance. The middle-aged man scanned the crowd far more often than the average patron. He and his peers had come to White Vale to find the Fugitive, and they didn’t bother pretending otherwise.
Fortunately, he hadn’t spared Relia a second glance as she left. That seemed like a good sign.
“You sure about all this?” Kalden asked in a low voice.
Akari shifted her gaze back to their table. They’d lost their sound suppressor when Relia left, so she kept her next words vague. “Of course I’m not sure.”
“It’s not too late to back out.”
“Do you want to back out?”
There was a short pause as Kalden considered that. “I just wish we had some more reassurances. That’s all.”
“We knew this would be risky,” she said. “Nothing’s changed.”
If anything, things were looking better than before. Relia might be a little cocky, but she’d also lasted several months in the wilderness, dodging Martials and mana beasts along the way. What’s more, her mana count was off the charts, despite only a few years’ difference between them. Hopefully, she’d spill her secrets before the end of the day.
Kalden gave a slow nod. “And if she’s telling the truth, that means my brother was right all along.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Won’t know for sure unless we stick with this.”
Then again, what was Relia’s end game? To escape the island? To free her master from the Martials? Akari didn’t know how high the Grandmaster rank was, but it sounded like several levels above Apprentice.
Freeing him wouldn’t be easy, no matter how much money she saved. Escaping the island might be out of the question, too. Her master had taken the Martials by surprise, and they’d still been ready for him. What sort of defenses would they have now, with two months to prepare?
~~~
The bounty office was a corner shop tucked between two weapon stores. The room itself was barely bigger than her bedroom, and shelves of colorful booklets lined the walls.
Akari snatched up a booklet at random, flipping through the sheets of glossy paper. The cover showed a photograph of a six-legged reptile called an ironscale basilisk. The next few pages listed the creature’s diet, dimensions, and hunting patterns, along with its strengths and weaknesses.
That’s useful.
She returned the booklet when she caught Kalden eyeing the A-tier bounties. Following his gaze, she spotted several subspecies of dragons, ranging from raptors to drakes.
The raptors weren’t that large, but the booklet explained how they hunted in packs of six to ten. And like most dragonkin, each one was a fire artist, capable of forming basic Missiles and Constructs. That, combined with their speed and cunning, made them one of the deadliest creatures out there.
The drake caught Akari’s eye next. Specifically, the reward price below the picture. Two goldnotes for a single core? Did her foster parents even make that much in a month?
Of course, you would need a whole team of mana artists to bring down a full-sized drake. Which begged the question . . .
“Won’t this draw attention?” she asked Kalden.
“What?” he asked.
“Taking the best bounties. Won’t it be suspicious?”
“We’ll be fine,” he said. “I did some research before we left, and it’s common for well-off Golds to fund hunting trips. I could have five veteran mercenaries waiting for me outside, and I’d still make a profit.”
That actually made sense. For a Silver hunter who lived paycheck to paycheck, it might be less risky to take a Gold’s money, even if you missed out on the profits. At least that way, you could put food on the table no matter what you found.
“Besides,” Kalden said, “even if—”
“You in line?” A gruff voice cut in from behind them.
Akari and Kalden whirled to face a tall Gold with a full gray beard. The man was a few inches taller than Kalden, and his biceps looked wider than Akari’s waist.
She glanced back at the counter and realized they’d been slowly wandering in that direction. Now, they stood directly between the hunter and his destination.
“After you.” Kalden smiled and gestured the older man forward.
The hunter eyed him suspiciously. It was strange to see someone look at Kalden with anything but deference, but this guy was also a Gold, not to mention three times his age.
“It’s my first time here,” Kalden explained. “I might be a while with my questions.”
The man seemed to accept this answer, and he strode forward with a nod, pressing his license on the wooden counter. “Four B3s and a B9.”
“Comin’ right up,” the woman replied. She was a hefty Silver with chin-length hair, the same color as her badge.
Akari craned her neck to get a better look at the chalkboard behind the counter. Those codes corresponded to specific bounties. In this case, four frostwolves and a basilisk, all from the B tier.
“Don’t forget,” the woman said, “it’s open season on raptors right now. We’ll take every core you bring in.” Then she gestured back to the board. “There’s even a bonus for taking down a full pack.”
The Gold man grunted his acknowledgment, and the woman began subtracting numbers from the bounty list.
Holding back had been the right move on Kalden’s part. Not only would this let him see the checkout process, but the other hunter wouldn’t hear him order the most expensive stuff on the menu.
“Which ones were you getting?” She leaned over to see the booklets in Kalden’s hand. As expected, he’d grabbed the drake, along with a black panther and some giant insect called a zylusk.
“Any objections?” Kalden asked.
Akari shook her head, but her chest tightened at the thought of facing those creatures in battle. She wanted to get stronger, and every fight would help with that. Still, she’d almost died that day in the tunnels, and memories of claws and mandibles bubbled up to the surface of her mind.
And what if someone got hurt out there? Kalden had packed some potions, but they wouldn’t have Maelyn to heal them.
Another part of her couldn’t wait to see Relia in action. The girl still hadn’t explained her aspect, but it must be amazing if she could take on A-tier mana beasts.
Metal clinked against wood as the Silver woman placed a stack of tokens on the counter. Kalden had explained this process during the train ride; it was illegal to carry beast cores in White Vale without the appropriate tokens.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“So what if someone stumbles on a dead one?” Akari had asked. “Or if they kill one in self-defense? Do they just hide the core until they have the token?”
“I’m not sure,” Kalden said. “Probably something like that.”
“Sounds like a stupid system.”
He shrugged. “That’s bureaucracy for you.”
Akari’s focus snapped back to the present moment as the older hunter left the shop.
Kalden stepped forward, setting his license on the counter along with the small stack of booklets. “We’ll take these,” he said. “Plus an A4, A5, and an A6.”
“Sure thing, hun.” The lady swiped up Kalden’s license before turning around.
Kalden seemed to stiffen at the name, and Akari couldn’t help but snicker.
As she worked, the Guild employee gave Kalden the same reminder about the raptors. After some consideration, Akari ran back and grabbed the raptor booklet from the shelf, adding it to the pile. You could never know too much about your enemies, after all.
The lady returned with the tokens a second later, then she rang up the booklets one at a time. “Total comes to one silver and fifty.”
Well, that’s one way to stop people from hoarding all the bounties.
“These expire next Kelsday,” the lady said as she passed Kalden his tokens and change across the counter. “Good luck out there.”
~~~
Once they’d finished their business in the Guild Hall, she and Kalden stepped back out into the cold. The wind blew strands of hair across her face, and her teeth chattered with every step. She zipped up her hoodie as high as she could, then shoved her hands into her pockets, curling them into fists.
Once again, Kalden didn’t seem half as bothered by the weather. His jacket probably had some built-in heating sigils, or some other bullshit like that.
They passed a few shorter buildings as they walked. There was an infirmary to their left, a core processing plant to their right, and a military barracks beyond that. The sorts of places you’d expect to find with so many mana beasts around. The wall loomed above everything else, dividing the city from the Contested Area beyond.
She’d seen mana walls before, but she’d never been this close to one. The wall itself stood over a hundred feet high, and it stretched on for hundreds of miles in both directions. Like all protection mana, the surface emitted a pale blue light, rippling like water on a windy day. The sight drew her in, demanding to be seen. It felt like staring at storm clouds or stars in the night sky.
Kalden stopped walking ahead of her, and she almost slammed straight into his backpack.
“Sorry,” she muttered as she staggered to the side. Up ahead, a dozen more hunters waited in line.
Her teeth chattered again, and Kalden shot her an amused look.
“Shut up,” she said.
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Didn’t say a word.”
“You were thinking it.”
“Here.” Kalden unwrapped the brown scarf from around his neck and held it out.
“I don’t want your scarf,” Akari said.
He shrugged, not retracting his hand. “I’m getting warm, and I’m sick of carrying it.”
“Sucks to be you.”
“Sucks to be you,” he countered. “I bought you lunch, so carrying my stuff is the least you can do.”
Akari rolled her eyes and accepted the scarf, wrapping it around her own neck in the same way he’d done. She couldn’t pull it up too high without fogging her glasses, but her cheeks immediately felt warmer. It also had a faint cedar scent, which she didn’t actually mind.
Up ahead, a dozen soldiers worked to open the shield segment. Whether they were Border Guards or Guild members, she couldn’t say. A few more minutes passed, then they followed the others through the newly created opening.
How often did Relia come through here? If she was sleeping outside the wall, then it wouldn’t take long for someone to notice. Then again, maybe she hid her face? That might make her look more suspicious, but—
“Hey,” a guard’s voice snapped. “Lower your scarf.”
Akari glanced up to see a bald man in green camouflage. He gestured to the nearby camera.
So much for that idea, Akari thought as she lowered the material below her chin. Was this always a rule, or did it just start when the Fugitive showed up?
They passed through the wall without incident after that. No one even asked to see Kalden’s license. A snow-covered field stretched out in front of them for a quarter-mile, and she and Kalden followed a trail toward the forest’s edge.
There, beneath the cover of the trees, a thin, red-haired figure waited for them.
“Hey!” Relia gave a cheerful wave as they approached. “How’d it go?”
Kalden held up the booklets and passed them her way. “You sure you can handle these things?”
“No problem.” She leafed through the glossy pages. “I already killed a few zylusks that tried to get cozy in my cave. Selling the cores was the real headache. Didn’t realize how strict things were at first.”
“Speaking of cores,” Kalden said, “you know it’s open season on raptors, right?”
“Seriously?” Relia almost seemed offended by the news. “Since when?”
He shrugged. “That’s what the lady at the bounty office said.”
“Darn it. That would have made things so much easier.”
“How so?”
“I tried selling zylusk cores to other hunters, but everyone thinks I’m trying to scam them. I’ve had better luck with raptors, but no one told me why. This explains a lot.”
“People hate raptors?” Akari guessed.
“They threaten the wall itself,” Relia said. “They’re smart enough to attack the weak points from range. Drakes are way stronger, but they only hunt for food.”
If nothing else, that made Akari feel less bad about putting them down.
“But this is good news.” Relia clapped her hands together in a sudden show of enthusiasm. “These guys love to ambush hunters. That means we’ll probably run into a pack or two along the way.”
“Sure,” Kalden said with obvious reluctance. “Good news.”
Relia glanced down at the booklets, nodding to herself as she read. “Okay, let’s start with the drake. Their territory’s not far, and we can stop by my cave on the way back.”
~~~
Apparently, ‘not far’ still meant three or four miles of hiking. Hiking through snow used different muscles than walking on pavement, and Akari’s calves protested with every step. She tried cycling her mana, but the exertion offset any physical benefits it might’ve given her. It would be that way until after the Novice realm, according to the Grandmaster.
That might explain why Relia always had a spring in her step. Akari would be spunky too if she had supernatural strength.
Up ahead, Kalden was asking if they ever had strangers show up on Espiria or Cadria’s western shores. She’d missed his exact words, but he was obviously fishing for news about his lost brother.
Relia didn’t have much for him. Apparently, the outside world had billions of people, so one stranger wouldn’t make the news. And despite her master’s interest in the subject, he couldn’t research it too publicly. Professional reputations and all that.
Their conversation dwindled, and Akari seized the chance to ask her own question. She wasn’t good at small talk, so she just blurted it out. “How do you advance from Bronze to Silver?”
“What do you mean?” Relia glanced back over her shoulder. “There’s not much to it, really.”
“Your master didn’t talk about it in his videos,” Kalden clarified for her.
“There’s a reason for that,” she said. “Going from Novice to Apprentice is a headache and a half, but the smaller jumps are easy. Just increase your mana supply and widen your channels. The rest takes care of itself.”
Akari frowned. “Then why hasn’t anyone done it before? On this island, I mean.”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they have, but they kept it quiet? Or maybe something’s blocking them? I’m the only Apprentice here, but I’ve seen plenty of Golds with their mana maxed out.”
In other words, she was still flying blind until she hit the peak of Bronze. Still, this barrier sounded like state propaganda. She’d believe it when she felt it for herself.
“Your master’s methods are different from the schools here,” Kalden said. “Maybe these lessons are stunting people’s growth?”
Relia seemed to consider that, but she didn’t look convinced.
“Or what if it’s the badges?” Akari suggested.
“The badges are harmless.” Relia waved a dismissive hand. “I pulled one apart, and it’s just metal and mag strips. No anti-mana sigils.” She glanced over at Kalden. “It’s technically possible to stunt your growth with bad habits, but that would be more unpredictable.”
“Bad habits?” Akari asked.
“Yeah. Do you guys have soulshine here?”
They both nodded.
“Some people use that to force more mana through their souls.” Relia’s face twisted as she spoke, and it was clear what she thought of the drug. “They sacrifice long-term growth for short-term gain.”
“But soulshine’s a black-market drug,” Kalden said. “Most people aren’t taking it.”
“Good form makes a difference too,” Relia said. “And bad form can make you plateau.”
Akari thought of her gym class, and how the teachers corrected nitpicky things about her body placement, all the way down to the angle of her fingers. Mana arts were a hundred times more complex, and there was no one to tell her when she was messing up. Unless she counted Kalden, but he wouldn’t know any better than she would.
“Mind looking at our form sometime?” Akari asked.
“Sure.” Relia paused, glancing at something in the distance. “And I think I have the perfect targets.”
They came to a halt when they reached the top of a ridge. From there, they overlooked a valley filled with snow and bare trees.
“See them?” Relia asked.
Akari frowned, scanning the distant tree line. “See what?”
Relia gestured more insistently with her head. “To the right, behind those pine trees.”
“Raptors,” Kalden said in a low voice.
A few more seconds passed, then she spotted dark green feathers beyond the pine needles, rising and falling in rhythmic breaths.
“They’ve been following us for a few minutes now,” Relia said, “waiting for the perfect time to strike.” She turned to Akari. “Alright, let’s see that form of yours.”
“What?” She couldn’t help but glance around. “You want me to attack A-tier mana beasts?”
“Might as well do it while we have the high ground.”
“That’s not what she meant,” Kalden broke in. “You said you’d handle the fighting.”
“Yeah, and you wanted me to critique your forms.”
As they talked, a full pack of raptors emerged from their hiding spots. Apparently, they’d abandoned subtlety once they realized they’d been spotted. Dark scales covered the lower half of their bodies, and green feathers covered the top, from their snouts to their long tails. The creatures blinked up at them with their pale yellow eyes.
“Tell you what,” Relia said, “we’ll make a game of it. If either of you takes down a raptor, you keep all the profits. And don’t worry, I’ll protect you if things go bad. Which they probably will.”
Akari pushed aside her fears and fell into her Missile stance, cycling her mana through her limbs. Kalden did the same beside her.
The raptors hurried forward with impressive speed. Their leader stopped a short distance from the ridge and gave a bird-like battle cry. The others raised their claws in unison, forming a half-dozen spheres of flaming mana.
Another shriek from the leading raptor, and they launched their Missiles in a volley.