The interesting thing about death is that it always succeeds in bringing people together, forcing them to unite in honor of their fallen comrades. So, though death is a sad occurrence, it can also be an inspiration for unity and a provenance for strength.

  Hilda Alderman.

  Sector 12, The Warren.

  [Evolved Malefic Shade, Tier 5]

  The shade was an ape-like creature, completely covered in black fur, and as it burst into the clearing, the formation of the villagers scattered, and someone shouted.

  “Raol, It’s an aberrant.”

  Instead of rushing towards the Rizzel furs as the villagers scattered in fear, the shade turned towards the only other aberrant like itself within the clearing.

  With insane speed, it rushed forward, but Aodhán was already on his feet. He had been shocked at the emergence of the evolved creature, but immediately the shade turned towards him; he knew that only one of them would remain alive by the end of the day.

  He had spent the past two hours honing his control over the {Create construct} skill and had managed to improve his control just enough that it was able to create the lightning spears almost as fast as the storm spears.

  Now, even as the malefic shade rushed at him, the storm above boomed with thunder, and four bolts of lightning descended alongside an equal number of storm spears.

  The shade disappeared, only to appear behind him. It lashed out with long black claws, aiming at his unprotected back, but Aodhán reacted instantly, and the four bolts of lightning exploded at once, throwing the shade several feet backwards even as the storm spears shot towards it.

  Shadows coalesced into a large shield that blocked the spears, and the shade roared as shadow spikes jutted out of the ground and struck at him. Borrowing the shade idea, a black shield appeared around him, but it wasn’t large enough to fully protect him, and the spikes pierced into his feet.

  With a shout of pain, Aodhán retaliated, summoning spears of lightning from the agitated storm cloud above him and infusing them with his will. The four spears shot forward with insane speed, and the shade only managed to defend against one of them; the other three stabbed into its chest and nailed it to the ground.

  Aodhán rushed forward, but before he could finish it off, the shade disappeared, traveling through shadows to emerge behind him.

  Once again, Aodhán was prepared, and he lashed out with a storm hammer infused with a large amount of willpower. The hammer struck the shade’s head, and its jaw cracked with an audible sound. It tried to escape again through the shadows, but Aodhán summoned more lightning spears that stabbed into it and exploded on contact.

  The shade let out an agonized wail as it tore itself free and rushed into the shadows once more. Aodhán turned around, expecting it to emerge behind him once again, and although it did, it wasn’t exactly what Aodhán had expected.

  Instead of a single shade, three shades emerged from the shadows and rushed at him. He stumbled backwards, trying to attack the three shades at once, but he couldn’t accurately divide his attention between them, and soon, wounds began to accumulate on his body.

  He turned to see the council members dealing with a Tier 8 creature that had arrived immediately after the shade. It was a large bull-like creature with four horns and razor-sharp hooves that the system identified as Borager.

  No one was coming to help him as the other villagers were busy defending against the persistent wave of crazed monsters, so Aodhán focused on his fight, dodging instead of attacking, and that was when he realized that he could only sense the core of the middle shade.

  Aodhán immediately began to attack the shade while defending against the others. Wounds began to accumulate on their bodies as lightning spears met shadow shields and shadow blades met storm shields.

  For almost half an hour, the fight remained at a stalemate, but unknown to the shade, he had been channeling energy into the storm cloud above him, hoping to recreate the skill he’d used to defeat the Rithclaw.

  The storm rumbled incessantly as energy was funneled into it, and lightning flowed on its surface like a sea of serpents. The storm cloud grew more ferocious as it absorbed more of his energy, and a few minutes later, Aodhán could tell that the storm had reached its limits, so he waited for an opening in the shade’s defenses, and when he found it, he slammed a storm hammer into its chest.

  The middle shade stumbled to its knees in pain as its ribs cracked, and at that moment, Aodhán called down lightning from the storm cloud and further imbued it with his will.

  Lightning flowed down from the cloud like a tide and descended on the malefic shade. Light flashed, blinding him, but he recovered faster than before, and when the spots cleared from his eyes, all that was left of the shade was a headless corpse in the center of a wide area of blackened earth.

  Both monsters and humans had paused as the flash of light had blinded them, but Aldric had used the opportunity to seize control of the Borager’s mind and eliminate it before it could regain itself.

  Aodhán thought Aldric’s abilities seemed very similar to telepathy, but when he’d asked, Aldric had scoffed and said his abilities were nowhere near the level of an actual telepath.

  Aodhán moved towards the shade’s corpse and dug his hands into the abdomen to retrieve a glowing black core that pulsed with writhing shadow tendrils.

  Immediately he touched the core, a line of text suddenly appeared before him, and his eyes widened in astonishment.

  [REDIRECT ENERGY TO ADVANCE CLASS] YES/NO

  Aodhán grinned, happy to have solved another mystery during this expedition. He’d been wondering if he needed to undergo another tribulation to advance his class, but now he has the answer: to advance his class, he needed to absorb the cores of other evolved monsters.

  Aodhán mentally selected the yes prompt, and energy instantly flowed through him, but instead of the normal pathway, it followed a more direct path to reach his core.

  Nothing happened after the core crumbled to dust in his palms, but when he reviewed his status, Aodhán immediately spotted the difference and realized that he had a very long way to go before reaching the next class of evolution.

  ….

  [STATUS]

  Name: Aodhán Ashoka

  Title: Neophyte

  Class: Evolved storm awakened: 2%

  Tier: 5–2.27%

  Skills: {Innate}: [Storm Creation and Manipulation] [Lightning Creation and Manipulation]

  {Other}: [Lightning Descent] [Create construct]

  Bloodline: Nil

  ….

  Aodhán shook his head sadly. After absorbing the evolved core of a Tier 5 monster, his class had only advanced a single percentage. Maybe this world wasn’t so cruel after all, but it definitely wasn’t generous either.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Aodhán turned to see the battle dwindling as the number of monsters had been severely reduced. Many villagers just stood around, resting, while the others fought the monsters that were left.

  He took a seat on one of the stone chairs crafted by one of the earth-attuned villagers, but just as he breathed a sigh of relief, a loud screech echoed out, and a winged lizard-like monster flew through his storm cloud and into the clearing, its sharp claws aimed at one of the hanging furs, and floating above its head was a line of text that identified it as a Tier 8 winged raptor.

  Elora reacted instantly, and a cyclone of chaotic wind smashed into it, or it would have if space hadn’t rippled as the raptor teleported and reappeared on the other side of the clearing. At the sight of the conceptual monster, Aldric instantly focused on it, intent on being the one to kill it and absorb the core.

  The raptor fell an instant later, after it moved into the path of several metal javelins conjured by Carvahl, and one managed to pierce through its heart. It let out a piercing cry, but the sound was soon cut off as Aldric stabbed his spear into its throat, killing it instantly.

  Aodhán sat back down, as he hadn’t even been needed, and a few hours later, the battle finally came to an end.

  Many of the villagers were wounded, but all of them were alive, and some were even healing. They let out a cheer of victory, and even the mayor gave a small smile in satisfaction.

  “The battle is over, and the horde has been defeated.” The mayor announced. “But we are not out of the woods yet. We still need to scour this forest for anything still living that is above the 3rd tier.”

  “It is unlikely that we’ll find any, but we’ll feel better if we confirm it.” Carvahl added, and the villagers agreed.

  Soon, they were split into groups of six and sent off in various directions. Aldric and the earth-attuned girl were in his group, along with a trio of girls who seemed like siblings.

  As they began their journey through the forest, the girl nudged Aldric and asked, “So what’s the deal between you and Councilor Elora?”

  Aldric sighed as if he’d been asked that exact question a thousand times already. “There’s nothing between me and the councilor, and I know you think I’m lying, but I’m not.”

  “Yay, I won. You owe me two Tier 3 cores, Tyla; I told you there was nothing.” One of the siblings said to the girl, and she groaned in frustration, but Aodhán was just happy to finally know the girl’s name.

  She wasn’t particularly beautiful, but something about her called to him. He had no plans to pursue her or anything, but, well, maybe or not, whatever happens.

  “When did my life become a source of entertainment?” Aldric asked mournfully. “You know, back in my day…

  Aldric droned on as they scoured their designated part of the forest but found nothing above Tier 1 and soon returned back to the clearing.

  Some of the council members had remained behind to count and distribute the cores they’d gathered, and as people returned, they handed them fur pouches literally bulging with cores.

  Some of the villagers had reached their limits, but it was still extremely valuable, as they could exchange it for food or other necessary needs they might have.

  Aodhán watched with eager eyes as Carvahl handed him a fur pouch, and he immediately opened it to count just how many cores he’d gained from this expedition.

  After a few moments of counting, he realized that he’d only gained 30 cores, but his pouch was already heavier than average, so he closed the pouch and went to stand next to a scowling Aldric.

  “This has to be the least profitable expedition I’ve ever been on.” He complained as he shook the pouch angrily. “There are only 7 conceptual cores in here, and half of them are below Tier 4."

  "Don't you have a ton of elemental cores in there?" Tyla asked as she peered into Aldric's pouch. "You should be grateful; I only got about two dozen cores in total."

  Aldric grimaced, and Aodhán frowned, wondering why Aldric was so fixated on conceptual cores. What had elemental cores done to him to make him hate them so much?

  Not thinking too much about it, Aodhán checked his pouch again and found out that he had about a dozen conceptual cores in his pouch, but only one was above the 6th tier.

  He pulled Aldric to one corner of the clearing and said, “I’ve got nine conceptual cores, so we can exchange.”

  Aldric’s expression brightened, and a minute later, Aldric handed him a total of seventeen elemental cores in exchange for his conceptual cores. He winked at Aodhán and said, "The extra is for luck.”

  Aodhán sputtered and glanced up at Aldric in shock. Aldric had exchanged almost all of his elemental cores for nine conceptual cores, none of which were above the 6th tier. No, something wasn't right. The thought he'd been having all day returned to the forefront of his mind, and Aodhán wondered if the answer was that simple.

  Bringing his voice down to a whisper, he asked, "Don't you need these cores too?"

  Aldric shrugged. "Not really. Now take the extra and think of it as me sowing good karma."

  Aodhán had no idea what Aldric meant by good karma, but that wasn't his concern at the moment. He glanced at the pile of elemental cores Aldric had casually handed to him, and his mind spun. His suspicions reared up, and all the hints he'd gathered slowly came together to form a whole—a single conclusion that seemed so right, yet was so scary.

  Bringing his voice lower, Aodhán reasoned aloud. “You do not need them because they aren’t conceptual cores.”

  "That's what I just said." Aldric chuckled, but Aodhán wasn't listening as the words repeated themselves in his mind. He looked at Aldric, and with an expression begging to be proved correct, he whispered. “You don't need elemental cores because the absorption of unaligned cores is the cause of the limit.”

  The words hadn't completely made sense until he said it, but when he did, Aodhán knew he was absolutely right. Aldric's expression of shock only proved it.

  Aldric’s eyes widened in surprise, and he hissed. "How do you know that? You're not supposed to know that."

  "I... I just figured it out. It makes so much sense!" Aodhán shook his head in amazement, but then he suddenly realized something very odd. He frowned in confusion and asked. "You know? If you know, why haven't you helped all these people?

  Aldric's expression of growing excitement shut down almost immediately, and he quickly glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to hear them. Certified that they were alone, Aldric leaned forward and said. "You have no idea how amazing it is that you found this out on your own. Regardless of how simple it sounds, we've been taught that no one can ever figure it out on their own."

  "You didn't answer my question." Aodhán glared at Aldric, refusing to be swayed. If the limit could be so easily prevented, and Aldric knew, why hadn't he told the village? Why hadn't he spread the information far and wide?

  Aldric sputtered and shook his head. "I... you can't understand. There are certain secrets that even I can't share, but this is not a safe place to talk about it. Let's discuss it later when there are fewer people around."

  Aodhán wasn't willing to let the matter go, though, and with a glance at the awakened council, he asked. "Even if you had told no one, what about your father? Why didn't you tell him?"

  "Because I can't." Aldric hissed. "Do you think that if I could, I wouldn't?"

  Aodhán paused, frowning at the implications of Aldric's statement, and after a moment he asked. "What is stopping you?"

  Aldric hesitated for a moment, and after another glance to make sure no one was eavesdropping, Aldric replied. "When I joined the 12th academy in the sector capital, they told us that they knew how to prevent the limit disease, but we had to take oaths not to spread the information. I took the oath, and that knowledge has helped me greatly, but I couldn't share it with anyone else."

  It would be an understatement to say Aodhán was shocked. He stared at Aldric in surprise, not even sure what to think at this point. The fact that the kingdom itself was the one withholding this information from the public was deeply troubling. But what Aodhán couldn't understand was why no one else had come to this conclusion before. It seemed so simple. Was it really possible that before him, no one else had ever thought of it?

  Aodhán contemplated the matter for a while before coming to a simple conclusion. "I have to tell them."

  Aldric winced in pain and said, "I... there's a little problem with that."

  "What problem?"

  Aldric gritted his teeth in pain and nearly doubled over as small wisps of energy gathered around him. Aodhán tried to help, but Aldric waved away his concern and said, "My oath, it wants me to force the oath on you so you can't tell anyone."

  Aodhán glanced from Aldric to his belly, where his core was located, and asked. "What are the repercussions of not following that suggestion?"

  "Pain." Aldric gritted out. "Severe spiritual pain that will eventually lead to my death the longer I delay."

  Aodhán just stared at Aldric, not really sure what to do. It seemed that Aldric's life was literally in his hands right now, and of course, he could run away and keep his core unshackled by an oath, but he couldn't do that to Aldric. Not after all that the Brystions had done for him.

  He spent the next few minutes thinking, but when he failed to come up with a decent alternative, he asked. "What do you suggest?"

  "I want to tell them." Aldric replied immediately. "I want them to know, even though I'll have to force them to take the oath too, but better they know than not. That way, they can help and guide new awakeneds to avoid the limit for as long as they can. Perhaps even find a loophole."

  Aldric winced again, and Aodhán grimaced, not really liking the thought of shackling himself with an oath, but at this point, he didn't seem to have an option. Regardless of whether he told the Awakened council or not, he would still have to take the oath for Aldric's sake. Was it not better to inform the council and let them deal with it instead?

  Making up his mind, Aodhán replied. "Then that's what we'll do. As soon as we get back to the Warren, I will tell the council, and then we can all take the oath."

  His words seemed to ease Aldric's pain, and he nodded. "I can endure for a while longer."

  With their minds made up, Aodhán and Aldric sat down on one of the earth stools, waiting for the other villagers to arrive. While they waited, Aldric constantly groaned in pain, and his expression grew pale.

  When Aodhán suggested they walk up to the council right now and tell them, Aldric shook his head and said, "There are too many people around. We can't afford the risk of someone else hearing because of impatience. Don't worry about me; I can endure."

  Aodhán nodded, and despite how hard it was, he leaned back in his chair and waited, wondering how the next few hours of his life would play out.