THEOS

With both Women A and Lady B, as Luke had dubbed them, eliminated and returned home, he found himself at a crossroads.

Picking up their scroll, both of which were black, and explained why they had teamed up in the first place, Luke crawled out of the cave. In a hurry, before he tempted fate and a monster did appear and chased him out of it.

Should I make a run back to the others or recover some mana? He mused, idly staring at his status screen.

Status | Skills | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Warrior

Bloodline: Eyes of Insight

Mana: 7 / 133 341

Rate: 17% per hour

Strength: 276 > 277

Agility: 281 > 289

Constitution: 524 > 526

Arcana: 507

Stat Points: 0

Charges: 7/10

His stats had mostly stayed the same, but were improving rapidly when compared to the world outside the Holy Land of Vulcan. Even without the seed storing the excess mana as stat points, he had made very decent progress.

A fact that he was beginning to attribute to his high Arcana as much as he was to the ambient level of Aetherial Mana.

He still wasn’t exactly sure what the relationship between the stat, and a person's natural saturation point was, nor did he think he ever would. Not unless he took on a mortal disciple with no natural talent for the field and watched them train while constantly and intrusively monitoring their progress day by day.

Or unless he asked someone more learned in the act of cultivating, because now that he thought about it, there was no way something like that hadn’t been researched and researched well at that. Just the fact that Cyzicus knew and had created manasinks was proof of that. Even if the results of any such research weren’t in any library he had access too.

Luke shook the stray thoughts out of his head, and looked over at the horizon. Despite the fact that he was being chased all the way to the cave, he had paid attention to where he was going.

He had to really. Otherwise, leading his two pursuers away from the others would have been pointless. But, he only had seven mana points in his body, and about a quarter of his reserves in the sword.

A significant chunk had gone to the activation of the spell, and even more had been spent mapping out the cave, fighting Theseus, and dodging vines.

Resting somewhere seems like a good idea on the surface, but I have four scrolls now. One white, and three black, for a total of four. There are only thirty two scrolls all together, which means I have a solid fraction of them. The white one isn’t that big of a deal, but the fact that I have three black ones so close to eachother…

Luke frowned. He didn’t know the exact odds, or even if his fears were founded, but he knew that having so many scrolls of a single color would mean higher chances that more people with white scrolls would be gunning after him.

Chances were, he was the closest black scroll for more than one person. Not to mention that there were plenty of people without scrolls that would be just as, if not more, eager to fight him.

Except, they don’t have a way to track me, while anyone with a scroll does. Which makes them a smaller threat. Not to mention that the people with scrolls will be stronger than those without.

I doubt that will make people less inclined to attack me though.

Scratching his chin, he looked between the entrance of the cave he had just crawled out of and towards where he had left the others. Briefly, he considered somehow obscuring the entrance of the cave until he recovered more of his mana and hiding within, but–

I’ll go back. He decided eventually. Not only would he be safer with the others if he was attacked, but staying in a single spot seemed like the worst idea between the two. Even if someone couldn’t find him right away, it wouldn’t stop them from camping in the area until he had to leave. Which he would, because leaving Spiros unguarded seemed like a bad idea.

Moreover, If he was flying, at least whoever attacked would have to put in the work to catch him first, and not to toot his own horn, but Luke was a fast flier.

Slower than the likes of Clite and Heracles. A snail compared to Lukeus’s pegasus and Nel’s griffin, but compared to the average steedless cultivator in his tier… very fast.

Not many focused on agility to begin with, and it wasn’t an attribute easy to increase. Especially not in the Warrior tier when it took on greater meaning than just having better reflexes, reaction times, and speed. It still did all that, but it also had a relationship with how responsive his mana was.

Whether or not that's because his mind was just faster, or agility was making the energy flow quicker, or even some combination of both those things. Which was likely the case.

I guess, it doesn’t help that a lot of people don’t really bother with it anyway. Or maybe, that’s just Sylcra not having a great foundation when it comes to nurturing speed.

With the giants attacking every ten years, most people just focus on getting good at killing those. Which is more a marathon than it is a sprint, and being able to take a hit is better than dodging one. No matter what you do, you always get hit when there's that many of them, and moving fast burns more mana. Especially if you're not good at it.

Either way, I can’t, or rather shouldn’t, assume that just because I’m faster than the average Sylcran, that there won’t be agility focused cultivators here.

Joining up with the others is still my best bet then.

With that final thought, he took to the air, and headed back. Flying just high enough to clear the tree line, but not too high that others might spot him in the sky and come after him.

It was a tricky balance.

Between Women A’s arrows and Lady B’s vines, nothing had really bothered him on his way here, and that also explained the vast quantities of dead corpses he had seen along the way.

Unfortunately, the way back wasn’t quite so smooth, but nearly every monster that attacked him was of the mortal tier. Not exactly a threat, but definitely a nuisance.

“SCREEEEEEEEE!” A rabbicorn squealed while Luke tore his sword free of an entirely different rabicorn that had attempted to skewer him out of the sky.

Up until now, he had never really understood the purpose of them in the trial. Blinky had killed them much too fast for that to be the case. It was obvious now though, that they were meant to attract attention. To prevent people from sneaking around silently.

But I’m the only one it seems who doesn’t have a good solution for making them shut up. Luke grumbled internally, before slicing another one clean in half.

The things traveled in herds of a dozen, and whenever he was spotted they would leap into the sky in an attempt to skewer him. Which in itself wasn’t a problem.

Using the First Stance on Mortal tier creatures was practically free, and the cost was so low that he didn’t even notice the dent in his regeneration.

The problem was, that whenever one died, either by sword or falling head first into the ground after failing to hit him–

“SCREEEEEEEEE!”

They did that.

Which inturn, acted like a call to get more of the monsters after him.

Sooner than he would have liked the phenomena turned into a vicious cycle. One that he was forced to escape by flying higher into the sky. Something that risked exposing him to the greatest threats in the trial– other cultivators. Making it so that he couldn’t linger in the air for long.

Except, coming back down would inevitably lead to the same screamfest that he has escaped to the sky for in the first place.

Holy fucking hell this is annoying. Luke thought, wanting to scream, and overcome with a desire to sock Hephaestus in the face for coming up with something so annoying.

It was on the fifth such cycle, that his worst fears came true. He rose into the sky to get away from the incessantly annoying rabicorns, and not a minute had gone by when someone rose out of the forest with their sword drawn and what looked like a cape fluttering behind them, making a beeline straight towards him.

The worst thing about them was that Luke was confident they didn’t even have a scroll. If they did, they would have snuck up on Luke from within the forest– ideally from behind. Making what would follow a fight that had zero upside for him. Even if he beat them, he stood nothing to gain, and only to lose. If he won. There were no pushover’s this far into the tournament, and his mana was dwindling as it was.

“Ugggh.” Luke groaned, unable to withhold his annoyance. Now really was a bad time.

When the person got close enough that Luke could make out their features, he only got more irritated.

It was a girl with white hair, white angel-esque wings, and wearing a white dress.

With his mana levels still so low, and not at all interested in fighting anyone that might have a direct line to Arke, he shook his head and pressed on.

Theseus can deal with her. He thought vindictively. It was his fault that they were all as low on mana as they were. Or Arya can fight her. She should still be pretty fresh.

Unfortunately, for Luke, his fantasies to pawn the upcoming battle to his allies while he cheered from the sidelines and recovered his strength, remained just that.

Maybe she was just faster, or maybe her wings did something more than trick unsuspecting souls into thinking one of her ancestors was an angel. Either way, she caught up with Luke in short order.

Contrary to what he suspected though, she didn’t immediately attack him. Keeping a respectful distance away, she instead cupped both her hands under her chin as if she was in prayer and just asked–

“Can I have a scroll, please?”

Looking over his shoulder, Luke came face to face with puppy dog eyes. He blinked, then he blinked again, and just to be sure he plugged one of his ears with his fingers rolled it around to remove any wax that might be making him hear wrong.

All while the angel-lady stared at him with wide silver colored eyes.

“Excuse me?” He asked, and made sure the First Stance’s were activated. Only the technique didn’t react, meaning she was either a robot or not intending on attacking him. Which couldn’t be the case, could it?

This has got to be a trap, right? No, it’s definitely a trap.

Determined that her request was indeed some kind of ruse, he raked his eyes over the treeline. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for her friends to come bursting out of the tree line.

None came.

“Can I have a scroll please?” She begged again. “All my friends are out, and some mean girl with vines took my scroll while I was eating. Without it, I can’t find anyone else. I’ve been looking all over the place, and it's impossible. And… and you have four!” She said, her eyes traced over the four bulges concealed in the tattered fetters of Luke’s red robes.

You know what, I just realized that there isn’t a rule about changing clothes. So I’ve been flying around looking like a hobo that got mauled for no fucking reason.

More importantly, did she say vines? Huh. Small world.

“Look… Sorry, what was your name?”

“Ella!” She responded with a little too much cheer. “I’m fourteen and I’m from Iliad. So can I please have a scroll?”

“Hi Ella, I’m Luke.” He said, mulling over her words, and deliberately not mentioning Sylcra. Just in case she did know Arke, and happened to know something that risked souring what was so far a peaceful interaction. No matter how unlikely that was.

Even as he slowly came to the conclusion that he didn’t want to fight her. Not when she was so… earnest.

Who the fuck just comes and asks you so politely in a competition, man. I didn’t even like fighting Blinky, and she’s an eye monster that I’m confident will eat me the second Rex looks away for even a second. I don’t want to stab a fourteen year old girl. What the fuck Hephaestus, couldn’t you make this capture the flag or something less grusome?

“So… what do you say?” She asked again.

Dragging his palm over his face, Luke sighed. This was a bad idea. It was going to bite him in the ass. He knew he should just shank her then and there while she wasn’t expecting it, and be the cold blooded killer that he knew was inside him.

“These scrolls aren’t all mine. I’ll have to ask my friends, just follow me, and they can decide.”

She smiled triumphantly.