Sharp

“Come into the side room, and we can sort the urgent things, and then you can rest and see a healer etc.”

There was a healer there who checked Melor and said, “You need to go to the clinic, but there is no rush.” She made him drink something. It was probably for the pain.

The next room had a table and chairs. “Put your collection of valuables on the table. Sisi here will assess them and make you an offer. You can either take the offer or go and sell them yourself. The offer will also be used to calculate the Academy’s percentage.”

I drew on the table, pulled out the sack of goodies we had collected, and pushed it down the end to the lady called Sisi. She started going through it.

“Let me reiterate,” the professor continued, “I am impressed. You completed the exercise, and we only get one team a decade who does that.”

“What?” we said.

“Yohan,” said the professor, and suddenly, there was another man in the room. “Newly iron-rank teams do not survive in a bronze-level zone even with the third-year students we assign. We are not interested in killing our students when they do stupid stuff. We prefer they learn from it. The lessons are usually painful, and five students lost limbs this year, but we rescue them so they live to learn the lesson. Yohan is the gold-rank staff member who was following you to rescue you when you failed.”

She paused. “Congratulations on not failing”

I turned to Jaha, “You knew?”

“Of course, I was a first-year once and learned my hard lessons as well.”

A few anomalies slotted into place.

“I am impressed,” said Yohan, “especially in you, Theo. Your leadership and the way you used all the abilities of all your team members was inspired. However,” he looked at the professor, “this has totally made me miss my wife’s dinner party, so I will leave the recording with you and take my leave.” He tossed a recording crystal to Perfiti and left with a “Well done, kids.”

“I look forward to reviewing it,” the professor said. “Now, you have certainly all passed Group Tactics. Yes, including you, Nassor. Take tomorrow off. I will schedule a debrief and review. That is the only compulsory thing left for you to attend for my class. The remaining class times are free until the end of the semester in two weeks, which applies to the Introduction to Monsters course as well. Most of my students need it to heal. Now go and get cleaned up and get some rest.”

Sisi said, “I will have this tallied up, and the list and prices will be available at the student finance office from midday tomorrow. You can then decide if you want the coins or to sell them yourself or if there are any particular items you want to keep.”

“OK, thanks.”

We trooped wearily out of the building into the bright sunshine of early afternoon. We portalled back to campus and delivered Melor to the healing clinic and then myself to a bath and some sleep. The water stung my cuts, but the squirrel meat was helping.

I fell asleep in the afternoon, totally missing dinner. I woke with the dawn. I got up. I was stiff, but my injuries were mostly healed. I spent some time meditating in my Tranquil Garden and felt a number of skill increases. All of them except for the Tranquil Garden if I wasn’t mistaken. I will update my paper later. Right now, I was hungry.

I went out to the small kitchen area and started making a breakfast with harvested materials.

I heard a door and footsteps behind me. “There is a rumour going around,” said Val, “That you and Akemi and your team of crafters succeeded in travelling from the Swamp Edge Portal to the Meadow Portal without having to be rescued.”

I turned around with my bowl. She was standing there with her hand on her hips.

“You should never underestimate crafters because they are, you know, crafty.” It was the best I could come up with, as my brain was still a bit foggy.

“You are telling me it is true?”

I nodded.

“Oh, shit. I should have stayed with you.” she threw herself onto the couch. “We had to be rescued after two hours, and that was the upper river portal. The professor said that was the bare minimum to pass. I can’t believe it. How long did it take?”

“Twenty-eight and a half hours, apparently, it is a new record.”

“You were in there for twenty-eight hours? How?”

“Because of Theo,” Akemi said, coming out of her room. “It is all because of Theo. He kept us going. He found solutions to the problems. It is all because of him, Kai, and Ardisia.”

“Everybody did their part,” I said.

“Yes, but only because you worked out what their part should be.” She turned to Val. “It is all because of him. And we are rich. You should have seen the bag of stuff we collected! There was an essence, multiple awakening stones, and piles of quintessence.”

“Oh man, I am so jealous. Come on, sit down and tell me all about it.”

Akemi used to be this quiet girl, but now she wouldn’t shut up. She kept heaping praises on me, and I really wanted someone to rescue me.

Our team all met at the Student Finance office, and my mind boggled at the coin we were offered. We settled it between us, and they tried to make me take a second share. I refused. They didn’t know I had all the stuff from my Reaping Magic skill to sell yet. I could almost afford to pay for next semester myself, although I am pretty sure my scholarship is not going to be taken away.

Melor’s leg would be fine in a week. All of them were talking me up. We were student celebrities, and everybody wanted to hear the story multiple times. I had to escape to the Temple of Death to get some peace.

In fact, I asked Denice to book me a room in the Temple for two weeks between semesters. I needed to get away and find some peace. Val wanted me to go and stay with her family, and Akemi also invited me to stay with her relatives, but I needed to get away and be alone for a while.

It was at the Temple that I finally updated my skill list.

I was right. All my skills went up once, except for Tranquil Garden. Seven of my skills went up twice, including Kai's and my two reaping powers.

I looked over the list and thought that was a good start to my studies.

Sharpen [Speed attribute] Level 3

Razor Sharp. Level 5

Iron rank: Sharpens any cutting or piercing object to a razor edge. Bonus penetration and cutting through material up to Iron Rank. Cost mana, Varies.

Resistant Fur {Hair Stone} Level 4

Iron Rank: Fur becomes resistant to cutting and piercing.

Pierce {Hand stone} Special Attack Level 3

Iron Rank: Use melee weapons in a piercing strike to penetrate, especially through armour.

Quick Sharp {Flick Stone} Level 3

Iron Rank: Boost movement speed for high mana/sec cost.

Cutting Web {Web stone} Level 3

Iron Rank: Produce strands of thin, sharp web. This is hard to see, but it has iron-rank strength. Designed for cutting. Low Mana

Hunt [Spirit attribute] Level 3

Senses of the Hunter [Perception]. Level 5

Iron Rank: Improves Sight, xxxxxx senses.

Hunter’s Step {Foot stone} Level 5

Iron Rank: Move swiftly, lightly and quietly through the terrain. Muffles movement noise. Cost low mana/sec.

Hunters Feast {Feast Stone} Level 4

Iron Rank: Consume what you kill or harvest to replenish health, mana and Stamina.

Blend {Chameleon Stone} Level 4

Iron Rank: Changes skin and fur to blend in with surroundings. Changes are slow, restricting movement. Low mana/sec

Hunters Tether {Trap Stone} Level 3

Iron Rank: Create a rod that sends out tethers, restricting movement and stopping stealth. The tether rod binds enemies, dragging them to the centre, and explodes if destroyed.

Plant [Recovery] Level 3

Blood Root Vine Summons - Ardisia Level 3

Iron Rank: Summon a Blood Root vine. Resides in the skin may produce thorns from the skin. When it manifests, it entraps with piercing and bleeding effects. Feeds on blood to heal. Can move through the ground as roots emerge and entrap. Can’t move through non-earth or non-plant material.

Tranquil Garden {Divine Stone of Peace} Level 3

Iron Rank: A small garden in a dimensional pocket. Increased growth rate. Summons can enter and heal.

Shield {wood stone} Level 3

Iron Rank: Create solid wooden shields of various sizes at the current Rank.

Resin {Pine Sap Stone} Level 3

Iron Rank: Create and manipulate a sticky resin that hardens over time. Hardening can be sped up or slowed to a small degree. Hardening control improves with level, as does volume and manipulation. Manipulation is more difficult the harder it is. Resistant to impact, water and corrosion, weak to heat and light.

Mighty Oak {Mighty Stone} Level 3

Iron Rank: The power of the oak increases Strength - High Mana/sec

Reaper [Power] Level 3

Reapers Aura Level 5

Iron Rank: Increases allies' Spirit attribute in aura range, Increasing perception and judgment. Helps keep a calm mind.

Devourer Rat Summons (Kai) {feast stone} Level 5

Iron Rank: Summon four devourer rats. Chew and claw through any material of the same rank or less given time. Absorbed in summoners' claws and teeth, strengthening them. And enabling them to boost them up a level. Can breed to replenish numbers over a week.

Rend {Claw Stone} Special Attack Level 3

Iron Rank: Use claws to rip open things. Claws reach beyond the physical to rend the incorporeal.

Reaping Magic {Reaping Stone} Level 3

Iron Rank: Collect the magic from recently killed monsters to form relevant natural objects. Magic will dissipate quickly. The amount collected depends on the Level and Spirit Attribute.

Reaping Power {Preparation Stone} Level 3

Iron Rank: Damage caused by using weapons created or enhanced by a Skill creates the Blessing of the Reaper - Boon, Stacking up to a limit defined by Spirit attribute.

Blessing of the Reaper - Iron Rank: Syphon a small amount of health from the one damaged to create instances of the blessing. Bestow the blessings on a skill to increase its power, proportional to the instances used.