The fighting back to the ships was brutal.

  Fur, teeth and claws.

  Green blood gushing.

  Fur, teeth and claws.

  Green blood splattering…

  Even now, in the safety of the wasp, with his eyes closed, Nar could still see the endless horde of psaelis before him. His feet and hands twitched, as even drained leaden, his muscles were reacting to attacks that were now only in his mind. And his head pounded, and his ears and neck were killing him, from the hours pressed inside the helmet.

  At his side, Rel seemed to have fallen asleep, her face propped against his shoulder, and bleeding onto his now deactivated armor. Her penance path granted her great power. Just two arrows, the two that had hit their mark, and the Den Boss had looked like it was about to bleed out to death.

  Rel herself hadn’t been able to explain it, but Nar didn’t think it such a leap to link the bloody mess that hours of fighting had extolled from her, to the bleeding effect her arrows had on the Den Boss. The two of them had to be linked somehow, though he had no idea how yet. Most likely, it was some new skill being unlocked.

  Whatever and however it worked, her path had claimed a heavy price from her, and her HP in his party view was solidly in the red. Even now, a trickle of red was still bleeding from her nose, with drying streaks indicating that she had bleed from her eyes, ears and mouth as well. It made him… Well, something he was too tired and too wrecked to feel properly.

  Instead, he glanced past Rel’s head and checked on Jul. The quam held onto Viy’s hand, and was whispering something to the spear woman.

  I wonder if that dark stuff I saw is like Rel’s bleeding arrows, he thought, staring at Jul in the dark confines of the wasp.

  Each of Jul’s cuts had left behind spreading darkness in her foes, and given how hers was a hybrid debuff/DPS fear affinity path, he wondered if that was what he had seen.

  As for Viy… Well, she didn’t look good. The initial wave of mental attacks had done a number on her, and she was still yet to recover from them. Across from her, Tuk held onto Mul’s prone, strapped in form with a lost stare, though there was a small smile on his lips, which Nar found himself mirroring despite everything.

  In the chaos and despair to reach him and Mul, Tuk had pulled out all of his rings, disregarding his safety and not giving a Pile on whether he lost them in the chaos or not, or his fingers.

  “And I did it,” he later told Nar, as they reached safety. “In the end, I had no choice but to just do it, you know?”

  And he had. It would be a disservice to the ring tosser not to recognize that he had been the one to open their path through the psaelis back to the ships, as they limped, panted and dragged their exhausted selves back, and the other boss killing parties had even followed in their wake.

  As for Mul and Cen, the twins were still knocked out. Cen had never woken back up from the mind-blowing beam of aura she had unleashed with her bare hand, something Nar was still struggling to comprehend, given the limitations of their [Mastery]. And as for Mul, he had run out of aura right before Nar reached him, and had passed out from its overuse in his rage.

  Nar didn’t know what to make of either of the two of them.

  He wasn’t angry at Mul. From the way Kur had explained it, it was simply Mul’s affinity and brawler path evolving into the beginnings of his true path. And Cen’s direct aura use was probably something similar, even though she still didn’t know what her affinity was. However, what really stuck out to him was how impressive they had both been. In comparison, he felt almost lackluster with his fumbling to reach [Sword Aura], having to rely mostly on his [Aura Quickening] for fighting.

  He was a far cry from the advanced champion path skills he had used at the end of the Ceremony, and he had bumped heads against his [Mastery] at every turn. Like a shackle, it had reigned him back whenever he tried to fully call upon his aura, and Crystal, the thought of it set him gnashing his teeth in frustration even now, in the darkness of the wasp. What good was all of his aura for, if he couldn’t even use it?

  He shook his head, clenching his jaw.

  Before the door of the ship had closed and plunged them into darkness, Nar had noticed a heavy expression on Gad’s face. The tank had held onto her left shoulder, the one she used to brace her shield against, and now in darkness, while Nar couldn’t make her face, he wondered what thoughts were running through her mind. As far as he was concerned, she had performed flawlessly, but the expression he had seen on her was neither joy nor victory.

  As for Kur, who held onto Cen, his leadership had been on point. Not only had his new formation worked incredibly well, reflecting the changes in their party, he had also provided the party with the knowledge they lacked at several points in their fight. He had also recognized what was going on with Mul immediately, and had reacted without hesitation.

  All that studying and lectures really paid off, Nar thought. I got to tell him that. Or he’ll just blame himself for what happened.

  Nar sighed and leaned back against the wall of the ship, and closed his eyes. The ride back was a lot smoother and slower, and the buzzing of the engines a lot lower, more a lulling drone than its earlier deafening buzz.

  He had flicked away his gains window as the battle ended, as someone, somewhere, killed the last of the psaelis. He had been too tired to look at what at first glance had looked like a pretty significant list of gains.

  “Attention, apprentices, this is your COO speaking,” Tys voice said from the speakers in the ship. “First and foremost, good job everyone. I mean it. That was amazing, and each and every one of you should’ve unlocked [Ego]. This attribute is one of the most crucial components of an auramancer’s path, and the only way to unlock it is through a substantial and continuous mental and psychological assault. [Ego] has huge defensive benefits, and we wanted to unlock it as soon as possible. This attribute was most likely the one, or one of, the unknown attributes in your stats.”

  Nar opened his status, ignoring his gains, and searched for the two [???] attributes listed. He found only one [???] unknown attribute remaining, and the other one indeed now showed as [Ego].

  So that’s what it was all this time, Nar thought.

  And given that he already had a sizable sum of 34 points of [Ego], that probably explained how he had been so easily able to brush off the mental and psychic attacks from the psaelis.

  He snorted.

  So much for [Toughness]... he thought, though in fairness, part of him thought that having that much [Ego] might just be a whole lot better. He didn’t like the sound of that reference to being “controlled”... Not at all.

  “As for the Navy taking the win, don’t worry too much about it. We never expected you to actually win. We just wanted to rile you up a bit, and motivate you… All guilds compete fiercely against the Navy’s much bigger and better supported organization,” the COO said. “And just so you know, those kids were selected in their early teens and have been brutally training for years. While you guys are strong, you don’t know squat about proper fighting yet, especially not about fighting in large scale encounters such as this. But don’t worry, that’s why you’re here, and we’ll whip you all into shape! And you’ve done great! Every party has downed at least two of the psaelis leaders, and as reward, everyone in the party gets back 1% of that 10% Scimitar XP cut per leader downed! If you killed ten or more, then you get to keep all of your XP! Isn’t that a great reward? Plus, no casualties amongst the Scimitar this time around! A few close cases, sure, and a few limbs to be reattached here and there, but overall, well done!”

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  Nar nodded mutely. Those were both really nice to hear.

  “But don’t get complacent! This was just the easiest of your assessments! Now, once we arrive, go back to your rooms, get cleaned up, dump the combat gear in the laundry chutes and get some food. Tomorrow is a rest day, and this time we mean it. But the day after is back to training, and your second assessment is coming in two weeks.”

  “So soon?” Kur asked, dismayed.

  “Fuck’s sakes,” Tuk said. “Let us rest, man…”

  “Oh, and congrats on your gains! They were massive all across the board, and the final kill count exceeded our expectations. Over seventy thousand dead psaelis! Now that’s going to fill up the cargo holds! Not to mention, this area of the Labyrinth is going to be safe again. The psaelis were crashing ships sailing through the area, as you saw from the wreckages, and it should be safe now, so well done everyone! COO, out!”

  Seventy thousand? Nar thought.

  In the dust covered den, he hadn’t been able to tell how large that endless horde had been, and considering that there were two other apprentice-ships there with them, of sizes similar to the Scimitar, then he could assume that meant another two thousand apprentices on the field. And a thousand of them were Navy… Which meant that there could’ve been half a million psaelis in that den.

  Everything is big out here… he thought.

  The ships were big. The gateways were big. The numbers were big… Everything came in baffling quantities and sizes, belying just how massive the Nexus and the Labyrinth that surrounded it was. And how tiny he was in comparison, and how little he knew of the Creation he lived in.

  I wonder how many I killed, he thought. And if our party even made a difference today…

  Maybe they had. Rel had definitely weakened the Den Boss… But then again, the Navy apprentices looked perfectly capable of yanking down the big psaelis and finishing it on their own, so maybe not…

  It was a depressing thought, considering how hard they had fought, but maybe he was just being too harsh on himself. His hybrid path had performed to its promises, and unlike that other nameless guild, they hadn’t suffered any casualties, and he had more than ten heads in his ring alone, so maybe it wasn’t all that bad.

  He sighed, allowing his jaw to relax, and curious he checked his gains notification.

  Now that I think about it, how did they get calculated so fast this time? It took ages in the Climb, he thought, opening his notifications tab. Maybe it's faster out here…

  He closed the window with a sigh, and a little stream of joy bubbled within him.

  She’s right. The gains are good.

  The attribute gains weren’t as drastic as the post-Ceremony ones had been, and fair enough, that Ceremony had been something else, but the skill upgrades were huge, especially with his [Aura Quickening] finally upgrading, and he succeeding in upgrading his [Aura Attack] to [Sword Aura]. The Master of Blades was going to be very happy, and perhaps, so should he. And as expected, he really hadn’t earned an attribute modifier into his [Agility], meaning, they would all truly fall within his [Aura], which was a good thing, right?

  He sighed. Was he being unfair to himself in comparing his fever-dream six months Climb, plus his single month of basic training with the Scimitar, to the years of professional training that the Navy apprentices had undergone?

  No… That’s not it, is it?

  What had shocked him was not how much better the Navy apprentices had fought. What had stunned him was how they, apprentices like he was, were so much further ahead than him. And if there was that much of a gulf between other apprentices and himself, then how much road was there still left for him to traverse, to finish his apprenticeship? To reach the level of his instructors? Of his masters? Of the Named Few?

  Two years was not enough.

  It had been stupid of him to think so. A naive hope, fed on by his ignorance of reality.

  He was weak, a little boy amongst giants, spouting nonsense about his goals to become like them. And yet, now, for the first time, his eyes opened just a smidge to the enormity of what it was that he was trying to accomplish.

  Forget two years… Would even five be enough? And that was if his dad managed to even live that long, his body slowly failing him as the Wasting consumed him from within… Turning his blood into acid poison. His every breath, an agony, and his mind into a slow leaking container, as he lost himself into darkness.

  Nar’s eyes burned in the dark of the wasp.

  This is all great, but I need more… And I will work harder, he told himself. I. WILL. WORK. HARDER!

  He would stop complaining about his shattered legs, stances, and steps. Even if he never voiced such complaints in the Blades Hall, he couldn’t deny that they had been there, lurking and whispering in his mind as he went through the motions, and he had given them plenty of voice in the privacy of their party room!

  Yes, he had worked hard! But he had dreaded his classes rather than embrace them! Instead of his training and practices, he had looked forward to hot showers and a comfy bed and a belly full! All things his dad didn’t have!

  How could he enjoy them himself! Since when did he have that luxury? That right?

  He didn’t have five years to grow strong enough. He needed it done sooner! A lot sooner!

  Tomorrow… Tomorrow we start. He would most likely not be allowed to train that night, so that pushed it onto the morrow. I’m going to get it done. I’m going to climb, I’m going to grow stronger, and I’m going to save my dad. Even if it kills me.

  *********

  Hidden from the sparkling eyes of the apprentices, to whom everything was new and shiny, and taken the turn to right, instead of the left, where K entertained his guests, the old man, now divested of all pretence of tactile requirements and access, lay upon the reclined couch-bed he almost never left, with a neat array of multi-colored colored wires and cables, most of which light blue, running the length of the small room, and coming to connect into several ports now revealed on his skin, scalp, and back of his head.

  His eyes closed, eyes fluttering beneath his trembling eyelids, he floated in a sea of data, colors, distances, meanings and entire landscapes flashing by him in speeds that would have melted a normal sapient’s brain. Flying through this digital-scape, he guzzled and processed through quantities of information that were so vast it would be impossible to comprehend to any not a D-Diver, and it would have to be an accomplished one at that.

  Hmm, some traps could be an interesting addition to…

  A soft chime rang across the vastness of the space he zipped through, data flowing freely past him, becoming a part of him, before being let go behind him once more, in a blazing trail of light blue. A tremor ran through his virtual being. That sound only ever announced a certain kind of message.

  Priority 0? He asked himself, a shiver running through his aetherdata avatar. Now what in the Abyssal Halls in Priority 0?

  There was no sender attached to the message, nor even a subject line, but what was to be expected with Priority 1 communications within Tsurmirel. However, Priority 0? He hadn’t even known such a thing existed…

  WIth some trepidation, K closed the communication, allowing it to be scrubbed clean from his systems, and opened the encrypted spread-text file that had comme attached with it.

  Well, well, well… What have we here? He thought, his eyes growing wide as he scanned through the lines of new data that had been sent to him.

  Amidst those lines, two words jumped out to him, again and again, screaming for his attention in their bright, deep crimson. The first word was “Champion”, and the second one read “Deceased”, and every single data entry in that file contained both of those words.

  Damn, he whispered to himself. What did we just find?

  *********

  Several decks apart from K’s digital cocoon and workspace, Tys was woken up from her meditation by approaching footsteps to her door, and then receding ones. Rising from the small mat of black and brown positioned by the length-wall window in her bedroom, she stalked towards the door. Upon opening it, in the dark and silent late hours of the night, she found, as expected, a slip of paper on the floor.

  She crumbled the message in her hands, and stepped back into the room. It was the exact same message she had received a month prior, upon reporting her discovery of Nar, and by all the Radiants, she didn’t know for how long she would feel inclined to obey those orders.

  gargantuan world, I want to have one that is full and overflowing. Plus, somethings happening in these next few chapters will be very important later on...