“I peeked outside. It's safe enough…” the ant announced to the lethargic group of cultivators lounging on the grass. Even Blue was fast asleep atop Micro’s head while the others lay quietly on the ground, though her hands extended in front of her as she dreamed of driving. “Go play somewhere else.”

  “Oh, thanks!” Micro replied, unable to see the source of the voice.

  Micro woke his friends, then led the group back to the portal. Its red glow hadn’t faded in the time since they’d arrived. Kolt was hesitant to pass through the shimmering doorway, but followed shortly after Kira, and the rest went along when they were ready.

  The smouldering landscape under a blue sky felt surreal to the party as they stepped through the dungeon’s portal. As Arbur set foot on the charred ground, the last to leave the dungeon, the red portal quickly faded behind them. Micro was sure he could hear its guardian make a dissatisfied noise as the Ruby Air Ant Art Dungeon disappeared completely, and then he looked around at the desolate landscape.

  Blue complained about finding only traces of the truck which Micro had made for her here and there, while the others simply looked around with wide eyes. Snow had begun to fall, but it did little to cool the fires burning in the field.

  “Wait…” Micro mumbled after taking a deep breath. “Is that—”

  “What is it, master?” Arbur asked quickly, though his voice sounded weary.

  “Chaos, but—” Micro replied slowly. “It’s just a little… Almost none at all, but it’s strange…”

  The others’ ears perked up at the mention of chaos, and Blue joined him in using Spirit Vision to scan the horizon. Micro sighed at the extent of the damage, but was relieved to see trees and snow in the distance. As he turned his eyes in the direction of the road he had been leading his friends toward, he then noticed a single person standing in the distance. He strained his eye to get a closer look, as the figure was too far away to see clearly even with Spirit Vision. He just barely made out the shape of an elderly man with messy, white hair, wearing tattered purple robes.

  “I see somebody over—” Micro announced, but his vision was suddenly obscured. He deactivated the skill and blinked once, looking around with his naked eye, and met the suspicious gaze of the man who he’d just seen in the distance.

  “You dare spy?!” the old man scowled.

  “Fast…” Blue whispered, slowly floating down to the ground and positioning herself behind Micro.

  “I thought I sensed some chaos energy,” Micro replied, his legs beginning to feel numb. The presence of the man felt eerily similar to Cerena, the silver cored being who taught him what real fear felt like. “You have a bit of it on your hand there…”

  “The hero is defeated,” the man replied. “You…”

  “Me?” Micro stepped back, but his legs were heavy.

  “No, it’s nothing…” The man shook his head and frowned. He then looked around at the fearful faces of Blue, Trill, Kolt, Kira, and Arbur, and heaved a sigh. “I long for a normal day, free of strange encounters.”

  “I like normal days too,” Micro agreed. “I miss them a lot.”

  “Oh, really?” The man leaned in to observe Micro more closely with a smirk. “Were you not some eccentric cultist?”

  “I’m Micro.”

  “And your sect?” the man asked, looking at Micro’s robes. “It must be new, yes?”

  “The Truck Sect,” Micro replied. “It’s very new.”

  “Hmph!” The man let out a cheerful noise, somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. “You honour me with such novel information. I am Tamo Drin, Elder of the Silver Sea Sect.”

  “The Silver—” Arbur gasped, but he was unable to find another word to speak as the man’s introduction sank into his mind.

  “Silver Sea… Ah!” Blue said, clapping her hands in realization. “You guys were a fun bunch in the war!”

  “The war, you say?” Tamo grinned. “A blue pixie with something to say about my sect? It is an interesting day indeed!”

  “You pissed off the fairies almost as much as we did!” Blue laughed. “What was his name? That guy with the shiny hat, was he a friend of yours?!”

  “Shiny hat? Do you mean a crown?” Tamo grinned wryly. “What would you say of my king, the venerable Lord of Lavender?”

  “Was he a king? Oh man, he was great!” Blue continued to laugh.

  “You sure do know a lot of people,” Micro said to Blue. “Were you good friends with the purple king?”

  “He was from some island, right? He had a funny accent,” Blue continued happily. “The fairies were moving with a whole bunch of sects, but that king went and destroyed the whole battlefield before we even got there. I didn’t even know what they were fighting about when I arrived!”

  “The fairies…” Tamo began to explain, but he quieted his voice and looked around carefully before continuing. “Those shiny little rats said they’d sink our island if he didn’t lead the battle. They sought to use his unparalleled abilities for their own gain, and they did not ask politely.”

  “Judging by the lake he left behind where I’m pretty sure a mountain used to be, I’d say they got what they asked for,” Blue replied, unable to stop laughing as she recalled the event.

  “His words to the fairy who threatened him were ‘I’ll get started right away’, or so it is said,” Tamo continued, stroking his dirty beard with a nostalgic smile. “The fairies didn’t bother following him home. Though the war was, as you know…”

  “Meh, when it rains it pours.” Blue shrugged. “How’s the old fart doing? I should thank him for that lake.”

  “He died spectacularly, as it happens,” Tamo replied with a broad smile. “I avenged him just now, in a way.”

  “Hard to imagine the lake maker dying…” Blue smirked. “Let me guess, heroes?”

  “Heroes were entertaining at first, but alas, their number increases, and their personalities leave much to be desired,” Tamo explained. “The hero I just fought raved about a mission of justice, as he described it. He claimed to be the saviour of this entire world. From precisely what he sought to save it, he never quite articulated.”

  “Nora probably told him cultivators are mean to people who don’t cultivate,” Micro said, beginning to feel less wary of the man. “That’s what she told me. Magicians aren’t all that great either though…”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “The emperor said as much, but it’s strange hearing that from a summoned child in a field,” Tamo replied. “Of all the deities who have blessed or cursed our history, Nora bothers me like no other.”

  “Lena and Feng weren’t happy about her either… Something about cultivating bandits and the end of the world,” Micro added, but the details were difficult to recall in order. “I’m sure they’ll figure it out.”

  “I won’t ask why such names are counted among your acquaintances, for it exhausts me enough to know that they do,” Tamo said, shaking his head quickly before taking a deep breath. “I fear that if I hesitate to take my leave at this precise moment, this conversation may bind me to a fate which I would much rather observe from afar.”

  “What kind of core did that hero have anyways?” Blue asked. “We saw one with a silver core recently. That was fun.”

  “He had no core at all,” Tamo replied bitterly. “His power was borrowed. It felt as if the energy in his sword was taken from some far away place. Nora’s tricks are tedious to counter.”

  “Weird,” Blue said.

  “Very strange indeed,” Tamo added with a wry smile. “No fun at all, as your kind would likely put it.”

  “Don’t let us keep you,” Blue said, waving her hand dismissively. “We were on our way to lunch when you set everything on fire.”

  “So there actually were people down here,” Tamo said with a look of concern. “I thought I was mistaken after losing track of you. You did well to survive that last attack.”

  “We hid in a dungeon for a little while,” Micro said. “The guardian was very accommodating.”

  “That Amber Sparrow Art Dungeon over there?!” Tamo shouted in surprise. “Those are not a safe place to hide at all!”

  “There was a Ruby Air Ant Art Dungeon nearby,” Micro said, pointing behind him with his thumb.

  “You survived that hero’s most powerful attack by taking shelter in a—” Tamo said with a blank stare, but he stopped talking and closed his eyes tightly. “No, I won’t ask. I know your type. I refuse to be pulled along on some tour of madness by yet another generation of oddities. Excuse me.”

  Tamo began to levitate, holding his hand in front of him as if to block out the sight of Micro and his friends. Micro waved, but Tamo Drin was already flying away before he could say goodbye.

  “Huh, that guy really gets it,” Blue said with a tone of approval. “Rare for a human that age…”

  “Alright,” Micro said, turning to look at his pale-faced comrades. With a reassuring smile, he clapped his hands and pointed to the horizon. “Let’s hit the road.”

  ~

  “Excuse me, Master Blue…” Arbur muttered after the party had walked in silence for a while. The air had finally begun to cool again, though they hadn’t reached snow yet.

  “You called?” Blue yawned, having returned sullenly to riding Micro’s shoulder in the absence of a vehicle.

  “I have been dwelling on the words of a late master of mine, regarding agents of fate…” Arbur explained slowly. “I always trusted fate blindly, but recent events have caused me to consider it more deeply…”

  “I haven’t had anything to do with fate in ages,” Blue replied. “The fairies really, really wanted that job, and they got it.”

  “The war for fate was a literal battle for the control of fate?” Arbur asked. “But what exactly does that mean…?”

  “Even I don’t know much about it, to be honest. Something about our home made things clearer to us,” Blue explained, looking up at the sky with a tired expression. “It was fun.”

  “What does it mean to be in control of fate?” Arbur asked with wide eyes. Kolt and Kira also listened closely.

  “We saw bits of the future, some of the past…” Blue recalled. “You see all sorts of nonsense going on in the world, but not with your eyes. It’s more like…”

  “Did you see anything of Master Micro’s fate back then?” Arbur asked. “In the short time I have known him, I have lost count of the number of ways in which he seems to have defied fate. But I considered that I might be mistaken.”

  “Of course you might be mistaken. You’re human!” Blue scoffed. “But nobody could have seen that farm tool coming, that’s for sure.”

  “Thanks, Blue!” Micro replied.

  “Yeah, whatever,” Blue mumbled, returning her attention to the nervous young man beside her. “Fate only takes you so far. The fairies can have it, for all I care.”

  “Such a thing—” Arbur gasped.

  “Listen, we fought for a home we didn’t need, to protect visions of fate that didn’t really do anything for us. It was fun for a while, but it got old when the fairies shook up the cultivators,” Blue continued, her tone still characteristically bright. “If I’d foreseen anything as fun as following this farm tool around back then, I wouldn’t have bothered with another war. For all the time I’ve spent in this life, doubling down on that war is the only time that felt wasted in the end…”

  “You don’t talk about your past much,” Micro said to Blue as Arbur fell silent. “Weren’t you the boss?”

  “The past isn’t where I look for fun,” Blue replied. “That’s all ahead of us. Why do you ask? I’m not bored enough to answer stupid questions all day.”

  “Well, as long as you’re okay,” Micro said. “The old man said it’s important to talk to people about the past sometimes. And whether it’s good feelings or bad feelings, it’s good to share them before they fill you up and you pop like an old tire.”

  “If I explode, you’ll be the first to know!” Blue laughed loudly.

  “That’s because you’re always sitting on me,” Micro replied. “And you already make explosions all the time, even when you’re driving!”

  As Micro and Blue began to laugh and argue about who makes more explosions, Arbur fell farther behind the group. Eventually he was walking alongside Kira and Kolt, who were equally shaken. If not for Trill continuing to supply Kolt with energy from his pocket, Kolt may have fallen to his knees already.

  “Arbur…” Kira whispered as he met her empty gaze. “Is cultivating always like this?”

  “No… I don’t think it is,” Arbur replied quietly. “Our master’s path is dissimilar to all others I have known. We are fortunate to be witnesses to his journey, for however long we are able.”

  “I’m not going to leave him!” Kira snapped defensively at Arbur. “I’ll get used to it, eventually!”

  “My apologies…” Arbur quickly replied, jarred from his own dazed state. “I also have no plans of betraying Master Micro. I merely worry that there will come a time when we are unable to keep pace with him.”

  “I’ll never slow him down!” Kira argued. “I’m training every day, and I survived a dungeon! I’ll get strong enough to keep up with him and even help him! I’ll—”

  “It is not a matter of how strong we may become,” Arbur shook his head and spoke softly. “But will we ever be strong enough?”

  “What do you mean?” Kira asked with a frown.

  “Were you able to anything more than breathe in the presence of the powerful cultivator we only just met? Were you able to stand and speak honestly to him without fear?” Arbur asked with a dark tone. “I was filled with nothing but thoughts of an honourable death. I could not imagine surviving. I may as well already have been dead when the venerable Tamo Drin appeared before us.”

  “That—that was…” Kira stuttered.

  “But master Micro spoke to that powerful force with the same confidence he showed in front of every dungeon guardian we have met, every monster we have faced, every challenge we have encountered,” Arbur continued. “However strong we become, will either of us ever stand so firmly at Master Micro’s side?”

  “I’ll slay dragons one day…” Kolt muttered as Kira fell silent.

  “You have now seen dragons with your own eyes, have you not?” Arbur asked Kolt with more friendly tone. “Visualization is an important step towards realization, but you should accept the world as you see it.”

  “Next time I see them, I’ll… yes…” Kolt nodded, only partially reassured by Arbur’s words. “I have a plan now. I just need to train a bit more.”

  “I have some friends who can help with that!” Micro called back to his friends. “We’re getting closer to the road now. We’ll turn left and make our way to the turtle fire—”

  “The Fire Turtle Mountain Sect?” Arbur asked.

  “It’s the Jade Fire Mountain Turtle Sect,” Trill corrected him from Kolt’s pocket.

  “How did you remember that?” Blue called back with a look of genuine surprise.

  “It’s a particularly dumb name,” Trill replied. “And it’s so long…”

  “That’s the one!” Micro laughed, and stopped for a moment to turn and look at the sullen faces of the friends behind him. “And don’t worry about all that other stuff.”

  “Other stuff?” Kira asked.

  “As long as you obey the speed limit on public roads and drive defensively, you can take whatever route you like to where you’re going,” Micro said with a thumbs up. “And keep your eyes on the road, not just the vehicle in front of you.”

  “Truck Sect wisdom?” Blue asked sarcastically.

  “Yes, it is,” Micro replied happily.

  “Understood, Master Micro,” Arbur answered with a bow.

  “Ah—Understood,” Kira said, mimicking Arbur’s display of etiquette.

  Kolt continued to wander forward at his own pace with a blank expression, but Micro patted him on the back as he passed with a grin.

  “I hope we meet Tamo again soon,” Micro added. “He seemed to know a lot of interesting things!”