Sharp

“I am told I owe you an apology,” Prince whats-his-face approached me.

“If you had to be told that, then I am not interested.”

“I do apologise for my behaviour. I was rude and demanding when I had no right to be.”

“It is good to hear you admit that,” I said. “Your future actions will show me whether you mean it.” I walked on past him in the hallway.

Melor’s father made me some shirts and trousers. They were made of a different material than the ones Nia got me in Stillwater, but they were soft and loose and didn’t tangle my fur. I still wouldn’t wear them often, but it was good to have something nice to wear occasionally. My fur was fine generally, but we were warned to get some warm clothes and boots for the arctic environments coming up in Wilderness Awareness.

Clothes shopping took care of my first day off, so it wasn’t until the following week that I got to visit Denice and meditate in the gardens of the Temple of Death. I found a quiet, hedged area and went through the Tranquil Axe Meditation. I had been doing this daily in my Tranquil Garden, and it pushed my muscles and exhausted me, but I did come away with clarity.

Then, I went and helped Davu in the Temple of the Lost. Thus, my time fell into a pattern. In my time off, I would work on new designs for my armour. I ‘borrowed’ some books from the academy library and tested different options. This would go faster if I could spend some time with an experienced armourer. However, I enjoyed learning and experimenting, and it raised my Resin Skills.

I also worked on different traps for our Group Tactics and Astral space excursions. The monster-clearing exercises in Group Tactics I was reasonably successful at. I was good at staying alive. Successfully clearing the monsters was OK. The couple of times I died was rescuing civilians, and I was overstretched. I would have a variety of people on sour teams, and my role would change. Sometimes, I had to play defender as we didn't have anyone else suitable. This taught me a lot, and I assume that is why the professor mixed the teams so much. There were a lot of complaints from others.

All the best people in the arena fights had organised themselves into teams and were fighting for the top spots on the leadership board. The rest of us were assigned a team for the week's events, and we were not in the habit of winning. As the environments in the arena-style challenges got more complicated, I became more effective.

Several times, my team were dead, and it turned into a manhunt for me. I actually enjoyed those the most. That was what I was good at, and I pulled out a number of draws for our team by staying alive until the timer ran out. I even caught Rudo in a snare once during one of the manhunts, and my Cutting Web rope was slicing into his legs as he hung upside down, getting more and more tangled in Ardisia. I finished him with a spear thrust. I quite enjoyed that. He should have stuck with his team. More than just Astrid and Rudo were starting to target me.

Our trips into the Astral space now happened fortnightly. We were allowed to stay in our chosen teams, and those of us not in a team stayed in the groups we last were in with the Group Tactics scenarios. We entered this time with a full third-year team, and the object was to kill monsters and harvest resources, not travel from portal to portal.

The third-year teams were a mixture of peak Iron Rank and early Bronze Ranks, depending on who had not yet ranked up. Often, the team members' objectives were to get their Iron-rank members the experience they needed. Us first years were not a priority for them, although they were required to protect us. The third-year teams were rotated around us, so we saw a variety of people in action.

Our objective was to get experience against various monsters and observe the more experienced teams in action. Our mixed teams were always considered the weakest and needed the most babysitting.

The third-year teams were in charge, so sometimes, we only watched as they barrelled on into fights. Other times they were appreciative of me scouting a bit and occasionally my suggestion of a trap was accepted. Those iron rankers using non-conjured weapons were always appreciative of my sharpening. Sometimes, we were encouraged to join the fighting, and sometimes the fighting came to us.

My skill, Reaping Magic, was consistently used every time, and nobody knew I was benefitting from their work. I did not have to be the one to kill the monster. It just had to die within the radius of the skill, which was growing with each level.

I heard that doing well in this could lead to the professors recommending that you take the Adventure Society test, but the chances we are given are slim. This is more about us acclimatising to the space than actually fighting.

There was fighting. Surprise attacks were not uncommon. I ducked under the sweeping dive of the gulls, throwing my net high and tangling wings, sending three crashing to the ground. My fellow first years pounced on them, hacking and chopping and ruining my net. The Senior team was holding back a huge swamp thing and whittling it down as their aeromancer, and we held off the gulls. Bronze-rank monsters had resistances against Iron-rank damage so they were very tough for us to kill. The flyers tended to have less health than most, but that didn’t make them easy. One of the three I brought down escaped and returned to the air. An aeromancer was not the best against creatures with air magic of their own.

I saw three more incoming, so I waited and then cast Hunter's tether, which the two upper fliers just blasted straight through, but the lower one got tangled enough to land, and I shield bashed it using Mighty Oak and Quick Sharp then plunged my axe into it cutting through most of a wing. It would not be flying again soon, and the others piled on to it to try and kill it. I saw the team's aeromancer divert the other two gulls, so they missed their target, being the back of one of her teammates.

Fighting bronze-rank monsters is very good for levelling, even if we only had a fight every second or third time we came in. The rule with this third-year team was you keep what you kill or harvest, but as iron-rankers, we couldn’t generally kill alone, so I stored the joint monster cores for general distribution later. Kai occasionally turned up with some goodies for me, personally. This was the cause of some envy, so I hate to think about what would happen if they knew I had Reaping Magic.

I was rich. I wasn’t noble rich, but I was definitely rich. Bronze-rank materials generally brought in more coins than converting the energy to iron-rank coins did. This was dependent on my being able to sell it at a good price. Denice directed me to the Temple of Deaths, regular merchants. They would buy most things at a reasonable price. I also asked Davu, and he would sometimes direct me to a less affluent craftsman, where I would give them a good price and pass on the goddess's blessings. I am sure some of them thought I had stolen the goods, but whatever.

The good news was the idiot prince left me alone. I probably have Keon to thank for that. And of course, I spoke too soon.

We were about three-quarters of the way through the Semester, and it was our rest day. As I exited the Temple of Death and headed toward the Temple of the Lost, I noticed I had a follower. The temple square was busy, but I passed a person I thought I recognised the smell of. I didn’t see the face, and there were a lot of smells in the busy square.

I smelled the same thing three more times while walking to the temple. Something was nagging me about it. It was just after eleven at night, and I headed back to the academy. The scent was more obvious, and it clicked on what was bugging me. It was masked by a perfume I had smelt on Val, but it wasn’t Val’s underlying scent.

I figured I would see if I could turn the tables on it. I turned into a side street and used Hunter Step to duck into an ally, grabbed a dirty rag from the street, and rubbed myself down with it to mask my scent. It is not as nice as perfume, but it is more natural in this area. Three Kais ran off to scout.

I moved, doubled back a bit, Blended into the shadows, and waited. Kai soon informed me they were coming. They walked past me, and I could tell when they lost my scent. They searched the area for a bit, and I heard a snarl.

“After the dinner dishes, I usually head back to the academy. If you hurry, you can probably catch me.”

Another snarl as she whirled to face me.

“Or you could have just asked. My roommates know where I go. You are no hunter. Why are you here?”

Chuki snarled, “Why are you so special.”

“I am not. I am a weak, vegetable-eating peasant with no respect for royalty. Why are you here?”

“You just visited two temples. Are you a priest?”

“I am not answering your questions. Just leave me alone.”

“My husband won't leave you alone. He thinks you are the key to saving our people.”

I laughed, “That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard yet. Don’t you have a diamond-ranked Father-in-law?”

“Who packed his seventh son with the rare Moon, Sun and an epic Omen essence to create the Oracle Confluence to clarify this prophecy. This son is fixated on you.” She almost spat the last word.

“If he wanted my help, why was he such an arrogant bully.”

“He is a Prince. Why should he be denied.”

Bullies will always be denied.”

“You are an ignorant peasant.”

“I have told you that several times. So what?”

“Bah, I will tell him he is wasting his time.”

“Please do.”

“I should kill you now.”

“What kind of barbaric kingdom do you come from?”

“It is not barbaric. We are the pinnacle of the Leonid race.”

“If you go around killing peasants for saying no to princes, then you are definitely barbaric.”

“Peasants disappear all the time.”

“No, they don’t because the nobles protect the peasants in this city, which is actually a civilised way to act. Look,” I said, “I don’t want to be part of your prophecy. You don’t want me part of it. You are the one who can go away and make that happen. He is your husband.”

“He is my prince.”

“He is your husband first.”

Her eyes narrowed, “You stay away from us.”

“I have been. You followed me. Next time, get your hunter wife to do it. She would probably succeed.”

I left on that line. I was so sick of these people.