“BRR! BRR! BRRRR!”

  “Come here you stupid baby bird. I promised you wouldn’t get hurt.”

  Gamielle pulled the Cerulean Crow by the wing through the Obsidian Sect’s main buildings. Despite her assurances, it looked terrified at being surrounded by a bunch of robed people with unknown intentions. It gave a warning wing beat at the people watching. Gamille smacked the wing she was dragging.

  “Hey! If you hurt any of them, I’ll start plucking tail feathers, got it?”

  That threat made Cerul quail, it nodded in submission. Now that Artigan had been revealed there was no need to hide the cerulean crow. There was also another matter of business that had been neglected. Gamielle dragged it in front of the main building where a large parchment was unrolled.

  On the top half lay terms in simple words, then simplistic images that moved to adapt to the reader. A black and white image formed underneath the words. It displayed a crow’s skull next to an image where the cerulean crow squawked at other crows or people about the symbol of the obsidian sect.

  Whether the crow could read or not. The message was clear.

  The bottom half of the parchment was the more interesting part. There were footprints of other beasts that had come here. They’d all signed the contract in black ink. A few of the markings made even the blue bird snap in attention. , it was so focused on one of the signatures that it didn’t hear the door open from a building nearby.

  Ryan came out of a house carrying a large inkpot. The crow twitched back up at the presence of another monster and glared. Ryan glared back, unwilling to back down in a staring contest. It wasn’t the most dignified staredown considering he was carefully heaving a massive sloshing pot across the courtyard.

  The crow was the one that broke the staring contest first, it decided that it was childish and lifted one foot in disdain. It stared at its clean and perfect foot then turned it to face Ryan and made a snapping motion with its foot.

  Like a ruler demanding him to hurry up.

  Ryan rolled his eyes but complied. The crow tilted its head in surprise, confused as to why he was being so cooperative. Ryan had to give it to the shitcrow, it was definitely smart.

  Though not smart enough to realize his real plan.

  “Whoaaaaa!”

  Ryan tripped over his own feet and swung the pot in an exaggerated motion. The ink flew out at high speeds as the blue bird attempted to dodge – far too late. It wasn’t half as mobile on the ground and it only had one leg standing on the ground. A bunch of ink splattered all over its feathers as it stood in shock.

  Cerul blinked as it stared at its precious feathers. Then stared at Ryan, who gave it the sneer of a lifetime.

  It trembled, the crow let out a rumbling sound from the back of its throat. Ryan laughed and gave the most sincere apology he could.

  “Oops, ”

  The shitcrow lost its mind. The crow squawked a challenge to the death as it spread its wings splattering black ink everywhere. A barrier formed around the contract, protecting it from the splatter. Ryan summoned his soulsword and bared his teeth, the courtyard had barriers with a limited ceiling. This was the plan, he got ready–

  Only for a spectral hand to slam down on both of their heads.

  –

  Another crowd had formed around the courtyard gates. They weren’t allowed in but the entrance was open so they could stare at another wondrous sight. Inside the courtyard Artigan had a mop and was cleaning the walls of ink. A giant blue bird stained in black ink was on the opposite side doing the same, a large mop in its beak.

  Both were trying their hardest to ignore the crowd watching them.

  Lindred stood in an invisible bubble next to the daughter of the Witch Tyrant, he gave Gamielle an amused look. She shook her head.

  “Don’t say anything.”

  Lindred just scratched his chin in amusement instead. Slowly catching onto Gamielle’s plan.

  –

  “Hey Ryan?”

  “Yeah Milo?”

  “What about a theme song?”

  “What?”

  “You know, a theme song, you kinda already have it in the Dawn of Artigan video. Why not have a theme song, it might synergize well with your, you know ‘I’m the most important thing in the world skill.’”

  “It’s a momentum based skill that boosts my presence for my Epic.”

  “Yeah that.”

  “A theme song sounds stupid, what am I? Some video game villain?”

  –

  “Hey Gamielle?”

  “Yuh?”

  “What do you think about a theme song?”

  “A ?”

  “You know, a theme song for when I make epic entrances or challenge adventurers. I could do that whole thing where Latin starts playing and then they understand that shit just got real.”

  “? Did Lindred give you one of his experimental teas?”

  “No, I mean I thought it could synergize with my Epic… okay nevermind.”

  “Go clean the toilets.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  On his way to the toilets with Jilar’s toothbrush, he came across a very scared cerulean crow staying stock still. It looked more terrified than Ryan had ever seen it before. A bunch of teenagers ran around the bird, jumping around and trying to get its attention.

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  “Please can we fly on your back? You let Taris fly!”

  It shook its head violently, the crow looked like it didn’t want to even take a step in case it hurt the small people around it.

  It had let the Taris girl fly on its back? Ryan doubted it, it was probably the teens making up shit.

  The crow noticed him, and with its focus so did the teens. They screamed as they took sight of Ryan. Though he did notice it was less of a ‘oh shit I’m going to die’ scream but a ‘oh shit it’s a scary adult’ scream.

  “It’s Artigan! Run for it!”

  The kids giggled as they ran from the scary monster.

  Ryan sighed and walked through the sect, ignoring the looks from the adults on the way. The staring had surprisingly stopped bothering him fairly quickly. Artigan was just a mask after all, who cared what the people here thought of him? The world already saw him as a monster anyway.

  A silly monster? That was the opposite of what Gamielle had been setting up for him on realmnet. It was likely that she was planning something. His mind wandered as he tried to figure out what it was.

  Then there was a whisper from behind him.

  The stalking he couldn’t ignore. Ryan turned a corner. He waited for a few seconds until the footsteps came closer. Then he pounced.

  “Boo!”

  “AHHHH!”

  The stalking teens and a giant blue bird shrieked as they all turned and ran. Ryan scoffed then coughed as he realized literally everyone within earshot was staring at him. He put his chin up and went back to acting like an uncaring villain.

  When he did enter one of the somehow many communal toilets he was surprised to find someone already working there cleaning the walls to make it spotless. Taris froze as she saw him, then relaxed again when she noticed the toothbrush in Ryan’s hand.

  “I’m mostly done here, you can do the women’s side.”

  “Nah we’ll finish this together then we can both work on the women’s side.”

  There was no way he was going to work on the women’s bathroom by himself. He’d seen things in his work at Manaburger that would make even adventurers shudder in disgust. Apparently Taris did too if she was thinking she’d be able to trick Ryan into working alone. Ryan stared at the studious cultivator teen that was trying her hardest to keep up a calm facade.

  “What are you even doing here? I thought you got your punishment removed when me and Larix messed up.”

  Taris dared a look at Ryan then flicked away, “I rode the crow and fell off when it went too fast.”

  Ryan blinked. Now that wasn’t fair, it took an entire argument and Gamielle to get the proud crow to let him ride it.

  “How’d you manage to do that? That shitcrow’s so prideful I can’t imagine anyone letting it ride it.”

  Now it was Taris’ turn to look at him in confusion.

  “I just complimented its feathers and gave it some food. Have you never learned about basic beast taming?”

  “BRREEE”

  There was a large angry squawk from the outside. A large blue beak shoved into the entrance, pushing other younger teens squealing into the bathroom. The supposedly ‘tamed’ basic beast lowered its head to glare at Taris. The kid froze, realizing that she had bragged about taming a proud crow.

  Ryan stepped back and laughed.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. The shitbird’s stalking me.”

  Taris spluttered at the furious beast, “I-I didn’t mean it like that!”

  The betrayed Cerul accepted none of the apology, it turned around at the entrance and kicked hard at the ground. Clawing a bunch of dirt into the bathroom. Then it sauntered away, with its beak high in the air.

  Ryan looked at all the dirt and sighed.

  “Damned shitcrow.”

  –

  Ryan set fire to a room attempting to do a fire marrow visualization technique. Not only did he find out that he could ignite things with his aura, but he’d completely mess his arm up. He could barely grasp his broken sword. Gamielle seemed unbothered by it all.

  “It happens, don’t let it discourage you.”

  The burning, cooked feeling in his own bones was more than a little discouraging. The worst part? Ryan was pretty sure Gamielle knew it was going to happen. The [Mage] rolled her eyes.

  “Oh don’t look at me like that. You want a tip?”

  “Anything’s better than what just happened.”

  He massaged his arm. Even the skin was hot to touch, the fact that he couldn’t even feel it was horrible.

  “I thought you’d have trouble with infinity, not burning marrows. You should try to get some sort of a binding agent alongside your circulation technique. Something about yourself that is core to you is said to work best.”

  “I’m going to need a little more than that to go off of, Gamielle.”

  He was starting to get a little frustrated with her vague teaching methods. Sure it was all fine to tell him that he had some sort of prodigal talent due to the Trial System. It just didn’t feel like it when he smashed into a wall with his arm on fire.

  The [Mage] scratched her head, uncertain how much she should be telling him.

  “When you visualize things like infinity and fire those are considered concepts. Things you might think about but don’t truly understand. Sometimes people find it easier when they make it relate to something they believe in. Something you believe to be true. For example you might have the belief that human greed is never ending. You can use that belief to bind the idea of infinity. That belief can help bring a concept down into reality, something relatable.”

  “That’s so confusing. I just made my aura flow in a figure eight and it worked.”

  “Some things come naturally to others while others take more time to figure out. Sometimes an idiot decides that infinity is a shape and it works out.”

  “Thanks Gamielle.”

  “Anytime.”

  –

  “Yes, I’m fine mom. You saw the pictures of the farm. It’s a secret, you’ll meet her sooner or later okay? Yes, yes she’s an adventurer and she’s busy. Okay fine you can talk to her the next time you call if she’s on Earth.”

  Ryan hung up with a sigh. He did feel bad but she had called, suddenly worried about him the day after he had injured himself with the marrow ignition. It turned out his arm was even worse than expected. It was in a makeshift splint and Gamielle had made him promise not to use a high grade healing potion on it.

  He shook his head.

  “Moms man, I swear she knows I hurt myself.”

  “Maybe your mom, I bet I could go a year without my mom calling me.”

  Milock was still typing away at his laptop. It actually looked like he was working hard and focusing on something. Notes were written neatly next to the laptop, dates of adventurers and… corporations?

  “Why are you researching companies?”

  “A lot of companies have been buying up sponsorship slots for the Trials. It goes beyond just having them on payroll, they’re effectively keeping them on a leash if I’m reading these contracts right. I’m just seeing if there’s anything here you can use.”

  “Me?”

  “Big corporations lease land from The Realm and make up the majority of trade between the worlds. They’re actually pretty entrenched in the infrastructure. If you can hit one of these adventurers transporting goods across sectors then there’s honestly a good chance you can hit it big.”

  “I’ve heard of that, don’t they split it up between the adventurers and use interrealm portals?”

  “They have to go through a baggage check and the portals can’t take too much weight. Couriers are needed for larger mats and things they want to keep hidden from the Guild. Hit one of these [Rogues] and you not only have your dimensional bag but you might get a huge bonus as well.”

  “And you think you can find all of this online?”

  “I guess we’ll find that out won’t we?”

  “Huh, well tell me if you find anything interesting.”

  It was good that his friend seemed so motivated to contribute. Not that Ryan was expecting miracles from him.

  –

  “Pre-class tournament date’s been confirmed. They slotted it in five days before the highest Trial due date. Ten days from now.”

  “Makes sense. They’re trying to give the top performers as much time as possible to complete their Trial before the expansion. Some of them might even go for the mutated Trial completion.”

  “Going to suck missing out on it right? I mean everyone knows you’d be the strongest.”

  “I won’t be the only one at realm four with an Epic. But yeah, I’d definitely be the strongest there with a crowd watching me. It would also never happen, even if I showed up as Ryan I’d get found out by my skills.”

  “Sucks.”

  “Yup.”

  –

  Ryan settled into a routine after that. Half of his days were spent in The Realm and half on Earth. He would have liked to say that he had spent most of the time blazing new paths for his future aura arm. Unfortunately his arm being mutilated meant that he could really only practice on Earth with his uninjured one.

  The time wasn’t without gains though. Ryan stretched.

  As with everything in his life, the gains didn’t come without losses. The members of the Obsidian Sect no longer treated him with any sort of fear or respect.

  The teens started using his aura as more of a fun dare to ‘test their mettle’ against. The adults in the sect started treating him like another unruly teen.

  “Hey Artigan! Want to go a few rounds in the arena?”

  “No thanks.”

  “Come on big bad Trialist too afraid of a talentless Realmer native?”

  He twitched at the word Trialist but refused to take the bait. Ryan walked away, ignoring the taunting bastard. This was the sixth challenge he’d declined in three days and somehow they knew just the right words to poke him with. It had to have been Gamielle. Ryan wouldn’t fall for it.

  He made his way into the sitting room to do their daily meeting. Though this time he stepped up with a different purpose.

  He gave the floating Gamielle a nod and sat down opposite Larix. Once again, the sect leader was dutifully sitting across from him with a pen in his hand, ready to write down Ryan’s words.

  They continued, this time Ryan was pointing out his experience with a visualization technique for coral. Yes, coral. He didn’t understand it either. It had been the worst one yet. At first it felt like nothing had happened, then he moved his arm, then his bones had all cracked under the pressure.

  He shuddered, that one had actually needed a superior healing potion to fix.

  At least it had made one thing clear for him.

  Gamielle had been sabotaging his progress, lulling him into some sort of peaceful life where he had to take longer and longer breaks. It unnerved him how quickly he’d settled into a routine. Even a crazy one where he lived in a sect full of cultists stopped feeling alien.

  Ryan could almost imagine himself continuing to live like this. Unfortunately, it was time to end it here.

  “Hey Gamielle?”

  “Mhmm?”

  “What’s dying like?”

  Gamielle fell from midair as Larix snapped his pen. It was a good thing Lindred wasn’t here or Ryan was certain he’d be cleaning the entire sect.

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