Elian didn’t even look over his shoulders. He immediately dove out of the way and rolled himself upright. The massive faeboar stampeded past him, kicking up dust. It wildly swung its head, brandishing its scimitar-shaped tusks, probably thinking Elian was still in front of it. Faeboars didn’t have good eyesight, their beady eyes hampered by their bony helmets.
Wait, can one creature stampede? Elian pondered this important question as he observed the faeboar turning around for another pass at him.
It was bigger than he expected, standing about three feet at the shoulder, not counting the massive hump of muscles and Aether-sucking chimneys on its back. This hulk enjoyed dominance of the area, filter-feeding Aether and reaching the weight of almost half a ton by his estimate. Looking at its coarse and dense fur, Elian could already tell his cleaver wouldn’t cut through that even if the Elder Giant’s Curse wasn’t holding him back. His Tribulation might not even be strong enough to put this faeboar down.
But Elian had a plan. He always did.
A different question if the plan would work.
The faeboar pawed the ground with its right foreleg. It was getting ready for another charge, leveling its tusks at Elian. Hesitation momentarily flashed in its eyes peeking from inside the helmet. Elian wasn’t running away. This must be the first time in a long time the faeboar had met a creature willing to challenge its bulk and might.
“Come on, now.” Elian bent his knees to absorb the impact better, his cleaver at the ready. Time seemed to slow down as he concentrated on the faeboar’s movement. “You’re going to feed our group for a week. And I’m going to sell your tusks for new equipment.” He touched the necklace that added Health from Borlen. It’d be his ritual at the start of each battle from now on.
The faeboar rumbled in fury, its chimneys spewing black smoke. It charged at Elian.
He waited for the boar while manifesting the Magistrate’s Curse.
Ten feet, five feet, three, two—Elian lunged forward, slotting himself in between the tusks. The left tusk snagged his flank, tearing his leather vest. His chest met the faeboar’s helmet with a loud thud echoing among the trees. The impact coursed through his body. It didn’t hurt much. The beast continued pushing and pushing him back until they both stopped.
“That’s it?” Elian looked down at the faeboar’s head as wide as his chest. Its eyes darted around, filled with confusion. “Bacon, scrambled eggs, Tribulation!”
As the sky became overcast, Elian released the faeboar’s head and ducked below it. He held the cleaver’s blade with both hands and rammed the sharp edge against the throat of the faeboar. He aimed right at the windpipe unprotected by cords of neck muscles. The cleaver couldn’t cut, of course. It didn’t need to.
The first Tribulation descended with a flash of blue. It slammed mostly on the faeboar. Nasty cracks and disgusting squishy sounds were drowned by an agonized squeal. Elian went down on one knee; his feet and knee descended half an inch into the ground.
Heavy faeboar. Stronger Tribulation. Dammit.
The next strike from the heavens came. Elian made sure to hold the blade straight against the faeboar’s throat. More crunching noises. The cleaver sunk into the thick hide but still didn’t cut it. From the feel, Elian was sure he crushed the faeboar’s windpipe.
The faeboar got heavier. Elian rolled out of the way as it collapsed on the ground.
It wasn’t dead yet. Its helmet was broken, blood freely flowing; its head was flatter than before; and the chimneys on its back got crumpled down. But it still tried to stand up, teetering on wobbling legs. It grunted, struggling to breathe.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a clean death,” Elian said. “I’ll make sure to put you to good use.”
The faeboar fell on its side and stopped moving.
Elian exhaled long as he sat down in front of a tree and leaned back on its trunk. His chest was sore and he had bruises. Taking on the faeboar and the Tribulation proved more difficult than he thought, but everything went according to plan. Mostly
This was rare.
He was right that he could call the Tribulation, use the faeboar as a shield, and not violate the requirement of having a clear line of sight to the heavens. After all, Tharguras did use shields, and those would block the heavens if raised above him early. Elian figured it would be fine to hide under a cover when the Tribulation was already called and about to descend. Otherwise, Tharguras wouldn’t have bothered with shields.
Choose two of the following rewards:
+ 190 Health
+ 140 Energy
+ 50 Attack Power
+ 50 Magic Power
+ 50 Armor
+ 50 Magic Resilience
Elian assumed that the Penitents with Boons also had the same reward choices but could only pick one. Even then, the attributes of Tharguras from the Magistrate’s Boon must be monstrous. It also spoke volumes about the overwhelming power of the Tribulation that Tharguras needed all those protections to survive it despite being already incredibly powerful.
“Attack Power and Health again,” Elian said, waving his hand at his choices.
Attack Power was tons of Armor. Health was for when something got past the Armor. Being hard wouldn’t matter if he was dead. And being beefy was somewhat of a solution to the restriction of the Abyssal Eye’s Curse on healing spells and potions.
“Looks like I’ve leveled up.” He opened his Covenant with the Gods to check his stats.
Elian Ward | Human | Level:5
Health: 1086/1,225
Energy: 325/325
ATTRIBUTES:
Attack Power: 0
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Magic Power: 0
Armor: 15,896
Magic Resilience: 0
DIVINE BESTOWAL:
Greater Curse of the Berserking Abyssal Eye III
Greater Curse of the Powerless Physical Immortal II
Lesser Curse of the Overzealous Judge I
Two free Favor Points. He needed one more to level the Greater Curse of the Powerless Physical Immortal to its maximum. From multiplying by four, he suspected it’d multiply by eight. That was usually how Curses progressed with their boosts. The Magistrate’s Curse didn’t need Favor Points, so Elian would have to look for Boons to level up.
Would the Magistrate give him a Boon too? Was that even possible? He hadn’t heard of a deity giving both a Boon and a Curse to the same person.
Health and Energy increased with physical and mental training respectively. His time inside the vat plus the all-nighter meditation added plenty of Energy, though he didn’t have any use for it. He was sure his Attack and Magic Power also increased through training, the first adding a bit to his Armor and the latter just getting turned to zero by the Elder Giant’s Curse.
Elian examined himself and his equipment. The cleaver was fine, surprisingly. He thought it’d break from the faeboar’s weight. The enchantment must’ve improved its durability. The same couldn’t be said for his leather vest with the huge tear on its left side, going from front to back. It had done its part protecting him from an injury worse than a shallow gash on his flank.
He patched the wound with medicinal herb paste he got from Borlen—he told the pilgrims he was allergic to potions—and returned to their camp with haste. No way he could move this faeboar without help.
“Did you kill this behemoth of a beast on your lonesome?” Borlen asked. He and several pilgrims accompanied Elian to his kill. They chased away scavengers prowling around before examining the faeboar’s body.
“I did, yes,” replied Elian.
“With what?” asked another pilgrim. “That butcher’s knife of yours is used after a kill, not before. It couldn’t have smashed this beast’s skull.”
Borlen stood up and turned to Elian. “This is due to the Tribulation, is it not?”
Elian nodded. There was no other explanation for this unless someone would believe he managed to trick the faeboar into running headlong into a boulder. And there were no boulders around. If Elian could skin and cut up the carcass on his own, he wouldn’t have asked for help.
“I chose this area for my Tribulation,” he explained. “I was about to call for it when this faeboar charged me out of nowhere. There was no time to act. I continued with the Tribulation and managed to wrestle the faeboar above me so it’d get hit by the heavenly strike.”
“An incredible feat of bravery and quick thinking,” said a pilgrim holding a spear. “If that were me, I probably would’ve run.”
“A faeboar attack and a Tribulation.” The pilgrim next to him whistled in amazement. “And you came out with only minor injuries. Truly a miracle.”
“This is only your third Tribulation, correct?” Borlen felt the flatted head of the faeboar and picked a shard of its broken bone helmet. “It shouldn’t have been this powerful…”
“Uh, I also know some martial arts,” Elian said. “That’s how I can endure the Tribulation. I finished off the faeboar with some of my own strikes.”
“Is that so? You should’ve chosen the Path of Vigor instead of the Immaterial to augment your martial arts.”
Borlen’s overthinking this. Annoying. Elian kept his face straight. “I have a master for my martial arts back home. I don’t want to replace him. In this foreign land, I’ll learn of magic systems yet unknown to me to further my knowledge. Actually, I’m going to be late to my Aether Magic training.”
“Is that so? You should hurry along.”
“As we talked about on the way here, keep the prime pieces of meat from the faeboar and sell the rest including its tusks and chimneys. I hope the Aether organs inside didn’t get damaged too much. Those could fetch a pretty penny. We’ll divide the profits.”
“That’s too generous of a share on our part,” said Borlen. “You’ll already feed us for days.”
“The Magistrate’s blessing allowed me to take down this beast. You led me to the Magistrate and changed my life. Sharing the spoils of my inadvertent hunt is only the beginning of my repayment. I won’t take no for an answer.” Please no more questions, Elian thought as he waved goodbye.
----------------------------------------
“Elian Ward, you’re horribly late.” Lyra turned around, her lush blue hair bouncing, when Elian entered the hall. “Two hours late, in fact. Look at Thorren Wilts already inside the—what happened to you?”
Elian’s clothes mostly hid his bandaged bruises, but there was a purplish patch on his cheek. “I’m sorry for being late. I was hunting this morning and—”
“It was a rhetorical question. I don’t care even if you’re fighting a dragon. You shouldn’t have been late. Your spot in this school is a privilege paid for by donor-followers of the Hundred-Armed Magistrate. Show your gratitude by arriving on time. One point docked, even though I’m not grading you.” She stretched a glowing purple hand and swiped it an inch from his cheek.
“I’m fine, Teacher Lyra.” Elian stepped back. “You don’t need to heal me. It’ll go away on its own.”
“Your injuries will hamper your—what?” Lyra frowned. Her hand glowed brighter. Then it changed colors. Elian recognized that she was trying stronger forms of healing. She touched his cheek with hot fingers and frowned. “Is a Curse stopping my healing?”
“Ye-yes… I have a Curse that does that.” He looked to the side. If he acted embarrassed, Lyra wouldn’t pry.
“I suppose that your low Energy is also caused by a Curse?”
Elian nodded. “A different Curse.”
“A different one? Two Curses?” Lyra looked around for a few seconds before sighing. “It appears you’ve been a very busy man, Elian Wards. I’m not going to ask about your Curses, for that is your business. But I have to point out the insanity of becoming a Penitent with a Curse that prevents healing. You’re crazier than Thorren Wilts here.”
“It’s a big problem,” Elian said. “But the Curse also gives benefits for surviving the Tribulation.”
“I find the whole Penitent culture illogical, so I’m going to leave it at that. My job is to teach you, and teach you I will. But you need Aethersense first. Enter your Eyoneir Maghindr and waste no more time.”
For his second day inside the vat, Elian used an even deeper meditative training. It toed the edge of deep sleep. Staying up all night helped him descend into this state, opening himself to the Aether to enter his pores and fill his relaxed body. This was an exercise that King Idum-Ani taught Elian when he tried the Sarhat vats. His training, thought it was for Aether Magic, helped enhance his Energy Magic before fighting the Giants.
Elian snapped out of his almost-sleep as the condensed Aether drained from the vat. Hard to pull together his groggy mind. He was surprised that suits of armor with no people inside them helped him stand before he remembered what was going on.
“Thorren…” Elian looked for his classmate. The other vats were empty.
“Thorren Wilts has awakened his Aethersense two and a half hours ago.” Lyra strode forward with her Manifested Armor. “I didn’t awaken you, Elian Ward, because you were deep in a trance. Commendable that you followed my instructions with such precision. However, the second day is done and you’re yet to fulfill your task. No matter. You can continue to meditate in the garden and—”
“What about the fuel for the vats of Jadewell and Thorren?” Elian asked.
“Are you saying that you want to use those and prolong your meditation in condensed Aether?”
“If you’ll allow it…” He put on puppy dog eyes. “The school has budgeted two days worth of fuel for each of us, right? Jadewell got done early, and Thorren has some leftovers, I think? If I can use their vats, I’m sure I’ll awaken Aethersense soon. I can feel it.”
“Your Energy has indeed grown relatively rapidly since I first laid eyes on you. The Eyoneir Maghindr counteracts your Curse to some extent, is my hypothesis. I’ll allow it, Elian Wards. You have one more day tomorrow. After that, no more chances.”
“I won’t let you down, Teacher Lyra,” Elian said, bowing low to hide his smile. “Tomorrow. I swear.”