A force wrapped around Seth's body, dragging him up to the stage. Fifty nine others had also been brought up to face the grandmaster. The pressure on his soul was immense, and Seth had a feeling the grandmaster was restraining himself. His heartbeat echoed throughout his body. His cancer throbbed in time.

  "The next testing will be in three months. As things stand, you are next." The grandmaster's voice entered his ears and reverberated through his skull. A memory flashed through his mind. The doctor diagnosing him with terminal cancer. The fear and helplessness he felt then was nothing compared to what he felt now. The sound of initiates leaving snapped him out of his memories. Looking around, the grandmaster had already left. Seth trudged back to his room, thoughts refusing to form, replaced by looping memories. Memories that didn't leave him even once he closed his door.

  Frerren POV

  "Elder Frerren, thank you for taking the time to meet with me," said Johan, with a bow that was appropriately deferential. Barely, but he had long since abandoned any expectations of these children.

  "Yes, yes initiate. What do you want?" He tried, and failed, to keep the annoyance out of his voice. The pup hadn't directly asked for this meeting. Instead, he had gotten his lapdog Timmon to set up this meeting under the guise of "discussing concerns about the karmic seal." As if he hadn't been Frerren's biggest source of problems on that front. At least he hadn't started barking yet.

  "I'm here to commission one of your apprentices to do a job," said Johan.

  "Initiates cannot post jobs for disciples. Your ignorance is excusable, while yours," said Frerren, turning his gaze to Timmon, "is not."

  "I apologize for not being clear, honored elder. I was referring to your initiate apprentice," said Johan.

  "Why him? Other than being passable at formations, he's completely unremarkable." Annoyance crept into Frerren's voice. This pup had not said anything out loud, but he was aware of their dispute. He was of half a mind to throw them both out, but his thoughts turned to Seth. Seth was competent, and had progressed acceptably, yet had made surprisingly little cultivation progress.

  "I've heard of his studiousness and his skill with arrays and formations. Someone I know has gone missing investigating a lead on some ruins, and I would like some help to recover them, if they are still alive," said Johan.

  "I didn't know you cared."

  "Personally, I don't. But he is one of mine."

  Frerren leaned back in his chair. He knew what ruins Johan spoke of. The failure of the life preserving treasures to bring the initiates back during the testing had vexed him. The legacy he found had been an unexpected surprise, as were the strength of its defenses. He definitely wasn't strong enough to break them, though he suspected they would fall if the grandmaster got involved. Thankfully, after some discussion they had decided to leave the ruins. The initiates weren't dead yet, and may yet be salvageable.

  "You will give me five thousand contribution points for the privilege, and offer initiate Seth a reward of the same upon completion."

  "That's excessive." Timmon had finally decided to start barking. Johan stayed quiet, though he didn't look happy about the concession either.

  "Then you are free to go elsewhere."

  "I accept," said Johan, after a moment of hesitation. Frerren verified that Johan had the points, and took all ten-thousand of it from Johan. In exchange, he gave Johan a writ temporarily assigning Seth to this task, as well as spelling out the compensation terms. He made sure to specifically state that Seth could bring outside help at his discretion, more to frustrate Johan than anything else. With any luck, he'd frustrate the boy enough to make him think twice about using Frerren in future plots or schemes.

  "If initiate Seth refuses, I will refund the whole amount, and his apprenticeship to me will immediately end. If he fails, I will refund half," said Frerren. Johan looked like he wanted to object, but stopped. He quickly checked his connection to the karmic seal, and smiled. Under most circumstances, this level of blatant favoritism would strain the seal. However, Timmon had been so blatantly helping Johan that even going this far did a lot to balance the karma. Not enough to completely undo the damage, but enough.

  "Such blatant favoritism will put pressure..." started Timmon.

  "No, it won't," said Frerren, turning a glare at Timmon. "Unlike you, I am not trying to bring our enemies down on our heads."

  "That is not what I am doing," growled Timmon, his presence filling the room.

  "You say that, yet your every move lately has twisted the karmic seal to the point of breaking."

  "Which is your job to maintain. My job is to ensure important supporters remain...supportive. I'll do my job, so do yours properly."

  "I am doing my job properly. If I werent...are you truly this stupid?" Frerren had had enough, and let his presence fully fill his office.

  Johan was immediately forced to his knees from the pressure, struggling to breathe, which was natural. What was less natural was Timmon struggling, then failing, to keep his footing. They were both core formation cultivators, but Timmon had achieved that by allowing the Thrisbane family greater and greater influence in the sect in exchange for cultivation resources. The hidden price for this speedup was he had a shaky foundation. At this rate, Timmon wouldn't be able to properly form a core. And if by some miracle he did, that core would crack under the weight of forming a proper dao spirit.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "I believe you have gotten what you came for. Take your dog and leave. If it shows up in my office again, I will put it down." Frerren released his spiritual pressure after saying that.

  "You can't..." Timmon started.

  "Who would the grandmaster rather lose? The only formation master on this rock, or a groveling sycophant putting us in danger with every waking breath?"

  Johan and his dog left without another word. After the door closed behind them, Frerren let the smile he had been hiding show on his face. That had gone better than he hoped. Not only did he drain a brat of contribution and release some pressure on the karmic seal, he also got his apprentice Seth an opportunity. It was unfortunate that he hit an early bottleneck, and he would most likely die trying to overcome it. If Seth managed to overcome, however... well, Frerren looked forward to having such a man working for him for once.

  Seth POV

  Seth was on his way back from dinner when he felt that something was off, but couldn't put his finger on it. He was by himself, having promised to meet Therus later for some sparring. Lately he had gotten into the habit of stopping to watch the lightfall, which calmed his nerves. As the orchid light turned deeper and deeper shades of purple, Seth heard a group approach from behind. When he turned around, he was faced with a group of seven. All Johan's people.

  "Do you need me for something?" Not waiting for an answer, Seth grasped his brass knuckles.

  "Yes, you have been assigned a job," said their leader, his voice baritone and nasal.

  "Assigned? I don't remember you, or Johan, having authority to assign jobs." He recognized the man as one of Johan's inner circle, but couldn't remember the guy's name.

  "Here," the man said, holding a sheet of paper out to Seth. "

  It was a job contract. His name was there, clear as day. A job requested by Johan. Elder Frerren had even signed off on it. Had he made a mistake somewhere? Shaking his head free of the spiraling thoughts, he took another look at the paper. The contribution award was...pretty good, actually. At least the elder hadn't sold him out cheaply.

  Seth took a final look to see if there were any surprises. The only one he found was an explicit clause that allowed him to refuse the job. It would only cost him his position working for the elder. That, and the unspoken promise of immediate retaliation from these seven initiates. He had fought a few of them in the past. They looked all too eager for him to say no.

  "I need some time to prepare," Seth said.

  "You have until tomorrow morning. We want to maxim...get our friend back safely."

  Seth spent the next hour procuring basic supplies for a month-long trip. Along with the life preserving treasure, the sect also provided basic survival gear for initiates heading out. He still had to use some contribution to get some extra waterskins.

  His next stop was reporting in to elder Frerren's office. The elder wasn't there, but Elise was relaxing in a chair, glancing at a book on formations.

  "I've been told about your job."

  "I see. Are there any formations or arrays one can use to clean clothing on a smaller scale?"

  Elise looked at him for a second, then chuckled. Standing up, she gracefully went to a shelf and pulled a book down, handing it to Seth.

  "The knowledge in this book is free for initiates who ask. Your cleaning array is in here. You can't leave here with the book, but it shouldn't take you too long to get what you need."

  "Can I come back to learn this later?"

  Elise pursed her lips in thought. After a few seconds, she answered.

  "I'll be here for another two hours, then will be leaving for the night."

  "Thank you, senior sister."

  "Just try and come back alive. It's been nice having some time to do things other than scramble to fix the sect's arrays."

  He was already late for his meeting with Therus. Seth ran, hoping to avoid worrying him too much. When he got there, Therus turned to Seth with a playful grin. He opened his mouth to start talking, then hesitated for a minute.

  "What's wrong?" asked Therus, the playful smile slipping off.

  "Getting ready to head out on an expedition," said Seth.

  "That's...sudden."

  Seth spent the next few minutes informing Therus of what had happened. Therus didn't say anything, though his expression flickered between anger and worry. When Seth finished, they both sat in silence for a minute.

  "So, are you here to ask for help?"

  Seth thought for a long moment before saying, "No. Just wanted to let you know." He also wanted to say goodbye, but left that part unsaid.

  "And if I were to insist on coming along?"

  Part of Seth wanted nothing more than to accept. Another part urged him to refuse. He didn't want Therus to throw his life away. But he also didn't want to face this alone. An image of him dying alone in the dark flickered in his mind, fighting for attention with the image of him watching Therus throw his life away.

  "I'm coming," said Therus, bringing Seth out of his thoughts.

  "You sure?"

  "Let me say it this way. If you try and take whatever's in the ruins for yourself, I'll never forgive you."

  "You realize that..."

  "Yes, Seth, I realize that we're probably going to die there. But you know what? We're probably going to die in this initiation. If what you're saying is true, then the thing in there is strong. Maybe strong enough to change our situation."

  "You're right. Sorry about that. Let's go take what's in those ruins."

  "I knew you'd come around. See you tomorrow?"

  "Yeah, and thanks."

  Therus strolled away with a nod and a wave of his hand. Seth returned to the office, happy to find Elise still reading. Not wanting to interrupt, he picked up the book and started practicing the cleaning array. It was a relatively simple array, though it took most of Seth's qi to power it, and left him feeling drained for an hour. He didn't have time to practice any other arrays before Elise ushered him out of the office. Seth practiced the array two more times in his room before drifting off to sleep.

  The next morning, he went to the arranged meeting spot near the sect gates. Johan was there, as were five of his lackeys. Therus was already there, though he was keeping his distance from the group.

  "Good morning, Seth. Thank you so much for accepting my request," said Johan, not a hint of sarcasm on his face.

  "I appreciate the opportunity," Seth said, pushing his actual thoughts down. "I enlisted some help."

  "Seeing such capable help, I look forward to the day I see my friend Aaron again. Shall we depart? It is a long trek, after all." Johan stepped aside, and Seth could see one of the flying boards he had ridden into the sect on.

  "If it's far enough to be a long trip on that, how will we get back once we succeed?"

  "We will pick you up in two weeks, of course."

  "And if it takes longer?"

  "As much as it pains me to say, we'll have to assume the ruins have claimed you as well. It took a lot of my resources to get this job posted, and borrowing these boards is also not cheap."

  With no further questions, Seth got on the board, Therus following closely behind. When everyone had gotten settled, the board launched away from the sect. He kept his eyes peeled, taking in every detail he could, burning it into his memory. Seth had no illusions that he'd be able to get out of what had been trapping other initiates for months in just two weeks. He'd have to figure out how to get back on his own.