Mel turned her arms over, flapping them madly. “Hah! It kinda tickles.”

  With a look of utmost curiosity, one befitting of any Magi, Gwen reached out to touch the fire. Because of course she would.

  Her fingers passed right through the flames harmlessly, though Mel did notice that the fires pulled back from her fingers, as if they were reacting to her presence. “Huh,” she said thoughtfully.

  Gwen turned to Thomas. “You’re being awfully quiet.”

  “I think it’s the beginning of an aura.” Thomas leaned in to get a closer look at the flames. Mel always thought he should be wearing glasses for some reason. There was no good reason for it, but it really seemed like he could be adjusting his glasses at a time like this. For that extra nerd cred.

  “Feels fine,” Mel said, more to confirm to herself than to assuage any concern they might have.

  After a few moments, the flames burned themselves out. “You think maybe it’s soul gas?” Mel asked, delighting when Thomas cringed. “Kind of like a soul poot, y’know? Honestly, that ‘empty feeling’ you talked about is unsettlingly like the sensation you get after you—”

  “Do you feel relieved?” Gwen asked innocently, interrupting Mel’s line of thought.

  “...you know that feeling when you fart away a stomachache?” Mel asked.

  She stared with a very straight face.

  Huh, reminds me of that anime where the girl lost her wallet at some amusement park.

  Mel looked at Thomas. “You’re a dude. You know what I’m talking about.”

  Thomas stared at her with an equally straight, stony face.

  “Ya’ll having a stroke or something?”

  They didn’t respond.

  “Oh, come on!” Mel yelled at them. “Everybody poops! It’s a children’s book for crying out loud. Everybody does it. Even that really cute barista at the corner coffee shop you’ve had a crush on for the last week. She probably holds it in then rips ass in the break room. I bet it smells like rancid pickles.”

  Mel got a gentle pat on her head from Gwen, who could barely keep it together. She snorted a few times, trying in vain to not laugh.

  Oink, oink girl, you mine now.

  Thomas was rubbing his temples as if he just suffered severe psychic damage. “I think that’s enough meditation for one day,” he said, getting up and stretching out his limbs.

  Mel cleared her throat, trying to return to something approaching a normal human being. “So what’s next?”

  “Rip–” Gwen started to say.

  “No! No.” Thomas looked at Mel, then Gwen. “We go out and grind.”

  Gwen glanced at the campsite. “We’re moving on?”

  Thomas nodded.

  “Why aren’t we staying here?” Mel asked.

  “Did you see a lot of monsters around the camp? We need to go somewhere with a high density of High Copper monsters. If I had some sort of ritual that would detect monsters, we could go by that. As it is, we’ll rely on Gwen’s nose and random fate.”

  Mel shook her head. Knowing that the gods were plotting against her, she didn’t want anything to do with fate or random chance. The odds were high that it would be the result of some asshole god meddling against her.

  “You probably scared ‘em all off with your gem aura,” Gwen said, rolling to her feet and piling the boxes together. “I could use a heart to manage my [Wolfblood] anyway.”

  “I technically have something that can point us toward a really strong monster,” Mel said slowly. She didn’t know if she wanted to reveal her blessing just yet, but neither did she want to go roaming around the countryside looking for monsters to slay.

  They needed something to guide them. Why not use her blessing?

  [Blessing of the Hunt]

  (Blessing, Common)

  Spirits of ancient beasts predate the Realmtree’s birth. These creatures are unknowable, but ultimately interwoven into the very fabric of the multiverse. They may not possess Anchor Runes, but the power they wield is something that even the Kindred struggle to comprehend.

  The phenomenon of their existence lies outside the guidance of the gods, both Inner and Outer. As such, these primordial creatures are capable of rarely bestowing blessings upon individuals they feel a connection to. How and why these creatures choose their champions is a mystery to all but the primordial spirit.

  Your spirit has taken on a portion of the primordial’s power, bringing your soul in line with those great and mysterious creatures both vile and sublime.

  Imprint(Common): You can sense exceptionally powerful creatures near you. Whenever you engage in battle with a creature of great power whose strength eclipses your own, you ignore a portion of the rank disparity. The more hunts you partake in, the greater power this blessing will bestow upon you.

  “Really?” Gwen asked, interest greatly piqued. She seemed to forget the freshly baked loaf in her hands.

  “They’re called plateau beasts. Creatures that are exceptionally powerful, but there’s usually just one per plateau.” Mel could tell from the looks of recognition in their eyes, they had seen them too. “I can tell where they are if I’m close enough, and if I’m not, I get a vague sensation as to their direction.”

  Thomas patted the air between them. “Hold on. You mean to tell me that you can sense powerful monsters?”

  “I don’t know if sense is the right word,” Mel said.

  “Do you feel something now?”

  Mel nodded and pointed to her left. “Somewhere over there.”

  “That’s so much better than my aspect skill!” Gwen said excitedly. “Why don’t we go check it out? See how bad it is. It probably won’t be an absolute monster like that dragon.”

  Thomas grinned from ear to ear. His whole face lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning.

  No wonder Askara called him the Sun.

  “I don’t think that was a plateau beast,” Mel admitted. “It was something beyond that. I did meet one though. It was a swamp plateau beast. Think it was a sobekile, big nasty crocodile mixed with like…bugs. Gross swamp bugs.”

  Gwen shivered.

  “Did you kill it?” Thomas asked.

  “Hell no! I tricked that bitch into eating these turd nozzles who were trying to kill me. We kinda…had a moment, I guess you could say.”

  Thomas slowly mouthed the colorful phrase Mel used, then shook his head.

  “You and the…turd nozzles?” Gwen asked.

  “No! Me and the sobekile,” Mel explained. “It’s kinda like that story where the guy goes, ‘I keep adopting cats from the local animal shelter because the coyotes keep eating them when I let them outside.’ And then somebody points out that it seems more like he’s feeding the wild coyote population.”

  “I’m lost,” Gwen admitted.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “She fed the…this was the Bloodletters you told us about?” Thomas asked. “Right. She fed the Bloodletters to the sobekile and it let her go without fighting her. Probably because it was too full to care.”

  “Pretty much!” Mel said brightly.

  “Was it stronger than the naga?” Thomas asked with interest.

  “Vastly stronger,” Mel explained. “It said it was a High Copper, but it…didn’t feel like it. It felt like it was meant to be taken down by a much larger group. If we want to hunt them, we’re going to need a plan.”

  Thomas finished packing up the campsite that wasn’t being handled by Gwen. “If you can tell where they are, I don’t see why we can’t scout them out and learn their behaviors and hunting patterns before we attack.”

  Mel wasn’t sure how they would do that without being killed. If the sobekile was like any of the other plateau beasts, Mel wasn’t confident they would win against it.

  Even after her enhanced meditation raising her stats a full grade, and the [Primeval Brew] filling her with power and warmth, Mel didn’t like their odds against a plateau beast.

  She kept her thoughts to herself as they set off away from the campsite. Gwen and Mel waited at the exit of the camp, waiting for Thomas to finish with a ritual spell.

  It was amazing how much faster he was at setting them up than Mel. Even though she only had the one spell still, it took her at least three or four times longer than Thomas. And by the looks of his spells, they were infinitely more complex.

  “What’s he doing?” Mel asked, her eyes sweeping the amber hillside.

  “Setting up a trace,” Gwen said, watching him. She often let her gaze linger on Thomas when she didn’t think anybody was watching her. Mel wondered if she should say something, but she didn’t feel it was her place.

  She had no problem screwing around, but when it came to something serious, she struggled. Especially when she could easily do real damage with a misplaced word.

  “What’s that?” Mel asked.

  “Magical breadcrumbs is how he explained it,” she said, examining her claw weapons. With star affinity applied, the blades trailed glittering stardust light. “If one of the Magi finds our previous camp, they’ll be pointed to this one, then the next in a chain. If somebody who isn’t a Magi finds the camp, they won’t be able to make sense of the trace anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

  Mel snorted. “They’ll probably think it’s haunted or something.” She jerked her chin toward a group camping out in the open on the side of a hill. “I bet they’re eyeing our camp. It’s out of the wind and more protected. Even has fresh running water.”

  “Yeah, I’ll miss that waterfall. Oh well.”

  “Did you pick the camp?”

  She nodded. “The fresh water was easy to smell, even with it hidden in that slot canyon.”

  “Heh. Slot canyon.”

  Gwen snickered at that.

  Thomas came up to them as they were stupidly snickering. “What’d I miss?”

  “Nothing,” Mel said, wiping a tear from her eye. “You sure you want to do this?”

  “I can’t think of a better way to improve. What’s your standing now?”

  Mel glanced at her status. “Thirty-seven.” She really expected to be much higher by now. There were hardly three weeks left of the trial! Though she was deeply curious why her standing jumped up seven places.

  Hadn’t she been #44 before using the [Primeval Brew] and meditation?

  Maybe increasing your strength has an almost equal weight as Battle Points?

  [Mel Harper]

  Race: Human

  Standing: [#37] Exile (G-League) [1st Echelon]

  Class: Mystic

  Rank: Copper

  Next Rank: Iron (54%)

  [==Attributes==]

  Strength [Divine Aspect]: Copper (Grade 5)

  Agility [Mist Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)

  Vigor [Blood Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)

  Sense [Serpent Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)

  Arcane [Omen Aspect]: Copper (Grade 5)

  [==Aspects==]

  [Divine Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 5)

  ? [Tempest Heart] (Grade 5)

  [Mist Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)

  ? [Hidden Mist] (Grade 8)

  [Blood Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)

  ? [Sanguine Coat] (Grade 8)

  [Serpent Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)

  ? [Gaze of the Serpent] (Grade 8)

  ? [Avatar of Askara] (Grade 1)

  [Omen Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 5)

  ? [Omen Mark] (Grade 5)

  ? [Bane of Tartarus] (Grade 6)

  “We’ll get you there,” Gwen promised her. “That’s only thirty-four spots you have to move up through.”

  “Past both of you, no doubt,” Mel said. “And you said there were thirteen Magi.”

  They exchanged a worried look when Mel turned her head to pinpoint the location of the plateau beast here. She barely caught it out of the corner of her eye.

  What’s going on there?

  “We’ll have to cross that bridge eventually,” Gwen said, unusually serious.

  Mel’s attention snapped to her. “What bridge?”

  “Think about it, Mel,” Thomas said, as they followed her lead through the fields of amber grain waving under the setting sun. He reached a hand out and grazed the tops of the wheat. “There are only three spots for the prize you want. Technically four, if you count the top spot. That means at the very best, only us three and one more person can possibly be in the top four ratings.”

  “To surpass our ratings, you’ll have to achieve something worthy of greater Battle Points than any of us,” Gwen said solemnly. “Or you’ll have to beat one of us in a duel. Killing isn’t necessary.”

  Mel paused on top of a hill. “What? You can duel somebody without having to kill them for BP?” She did vaguely recall seeing evidence of that before. Not that it ever applied to her. Most people she fought would have gleefully bled her dry.

  “Yes!” Thomas said sharply. “Killing somebody probably gets more, but you don’t have to do it.”

  “Otherwise, you’ll have to trust whatever Magi that makes it to the top three will give you their [Revival Scroll].” Gwen studied the sky, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. “And Charlie Asleton won’t do that for sure.”

  Mel frowned at her. “She a Magi?”

  “...Of course,” Gwen said, smiling sadly.

  Mel tapped the side of her head. “Brain don’t work, remember?”

  “I don’t know many Magi that would give up something so valuable,” Thomas warned. “Maybe half of our number would.”

  Gwen looked away. Mel had a strong suspicion that if Gwen was willing to give up a branch, it wasn’t that much more to ask for a revival scroll.

  Okay, it’s a lot more to ask, but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take…or some shit. “And that includes the both of you?” Mel asked too sweetly, too innocently.

  Thomas laughed. “For you to bring back your friends? I would find that a noble cause to get behind. The problem is the other Magi. We’re technically allied with each other…but at the same time there are only so many places. We’ll eventually come into conflict no matter what we do.”

  “Unless they don’t do well enough to place high,” Mel said.

  Thomas gave her a dry look. She knew as well as any of them that she would find the Magi occupying all the top ratings.

  And I’m going to have to beat them if I want to get that scroll.

  Gwen laughed bitterly at that. Practically reading her thoughts, she said, “As if anyone can beat the golden boy.”