Chapter 6

Jaune didn't know what woke him up: the crackling fire, the smell of meat being grilled, his stomach wound throbbing, his feet being unused to the steel greaves, or the Deathstalker he was leaning against shifting noticeably.

Probably the Deathstalker. Yeah, definitely.

He tried not to show that he was awake, slowly and subtly opening his eyes to take in his surroundings. Damn it, he was still in the desert, which meant yesterday hadn't been a bad dream.

That meant he was in Vacuo.

"You know, the Deathstalker is tamed. It won't attack even if you start moving." The voice sounded bored, the age indiscernible.

Jaune tried to speak, but no matter how hard he tried, his mouth only ended up opening and closing like a fish on land. Heh, fish.

"You want some water?" Water sounded nice, but he couldn't quite bring his head to nod. The stranger, however, seemed to be able to read his answer from his face. Or he was reading Jaune's mind, you never know.

The voice stepped into his field of vision, giving the mage a clear view of his saviour. Young was the first thing that popped into his head, the second being that this guy, Jain, was not a tamer, because Jain was a swordsman.

Begging the question of how exactly a swordsman had tamed a Deathstalker of all creatures. A swordsman who looked to be in his late teens at that.

All those thoughts flew from his head as Jain put the bottle to Jaune's mouth and tipped it back, bringing a steady flow of liquid into his dehydrated body. When he was done, Jain sat back and started unbuckling something along Jaune's body, making him finally notice that he had been bound. He threw a questioning gaze at the man.

"Your body is in pretty bad condition. I didn't want you to thrash around in your sleep and hurt yourself." How considerate. It probably had nothing to do with the fact Jaune was still covered in dried blood that, despite his short swim in the lake, hadn't managed to come off. Or the well-worn sword attached to his waist that had obviously seen a lot of use.

Breathing through his mouth, Jaune decided that he could try to speak now. "Deathstalker, how?" His voice sounded raspy and unused, like the voice of a hermit who smoked a bit too much tobacco.

Jain raised an eyebrow. "You mean how I tamed it?" A weak nod. "Well, normally, Grimm are unable to be tamed. They have an overpowering instinct to kill and really hate humanity. Ancient Grimm, however, are different. They have some rudimentary intelligence, making it possible to trigger their survival instinct."

If Jaune had been drinking anything at the moment he would have spat it out. That answer didn't clarify anything! It was like someone asking if it was raining and another person answering that rain is water vapour that condenses in the atmosphere before falling to the ground in droplets.

But going from the non-answer, the swordsman was implying that he had triggered the survival instinct of the Deathstalker somehow, which also revealed that he was smart enough to not show just anyone his cards. Well, he could just be paranoid, but in the world they lived in, it was probably a well-founded paranoia.

Of course, this revealed that this man in some way, shape, or form, had managed to reach at least A rank before he reached his second decade of life. Which was, in all honesty, absolutely broken. Who did that? More importantly, could Jaune do it too? Maybe if he stayed close to the man, he would find out.

If that really is what happened, of course.

Not letting any of his intentions or thoughts show on his face, he simply commented on how amazing that was and tried to think of questions he should ask.

"Where are we?"

"You don't know?"

Jaune wanted to tell him off. If he knew where, then why would he have asked? But he steeled himself and simply shook his head.

"Well, my young patient, you are currently in the desert of tranquillity, the most northern part of Vacuo. Incidentally, it's the closest part of this dreary desert country to the Final Continent."

"The Final Continent." His voice broke, which was understandable if you considered what the Final Continent represented. Namely death, destruction and a countless amount of dungeons that had been given millennia to gather power and become gates leading to true monstrosities.

"Sadly, I will have to delay my journey there to bring you to the nearest town. Truly unfortunate." He said it with such a straight face that Jaune almost believed him.

"Haha nice joke, heading to the Final Continent, you almost had me, haha." Jaune was as close to getting a heart attack as he ever had been. Jain's face wasn't changing though. Could he possibly not be joking?

Jain sighed and then grinned. "You're right, I'm not serious. I'm actually in this area because I've been searching for a specific ruin, one that is rumoured to be in the area. It should help with my class advancement quite a lot, considering it's called Sword God's Pyramid." A light bulb lit itself above Jaune's head.

Yes! If he remembered correctly, swordsmen, like all classes, had ways to gain levels other than killing things. Namely, by winning duels (with swords) and studying swordsmanship in general. And a ruin with Sword God in its name was definitely something inhabited by a dungeon containing sword-wielding monsters, or at least some murals or ancient texts.

"I've had some trouble finding it though." Jain said with a sad face. "I've been able to narrow it down to a small area, but I just can't seem to find a pyramid."

This was Jaune's chance to repay his life debt towards Jain, but did he want to reveal his ability to sense dimensions? Not yet, first he would need to learn what kind of a person Jain was, while being escorted to the nearest town.

-/-

"No."

Jain rolled his eyes at Jaune's blunt refusal. "C'mon, it doesn't bite." Jain frowned. "I think?"

Jaune was pretty sure if his health hadn't been so poor, he would have had the energy to be outraged. "I will not put my hands anywhere near the mouth of a Deathstalker." A pout blossomed on the swordsman's face. It would have been cute if he hadn't been a nineteen-year-old man who looked like he killed people for a living. If you considered bandits people, that is.

"Okay, be that way. I just thought you would be less afraid if you actually fed it for once… chicken."

A tick mark formed on the mage's head. "I don't think refusing to put yourself anywhere near the mouth of a Deathstalker is being chicken. I think it has more to do with being sane." He turned to the Grimm and shuddered at its protruding mandibles.

"I mean, look at the thing. It looks like it could bite off my arm by accident. Isn't it enough that I'm already riding on it?" Jaune wasn't sure, but the thing looked hurt by his words… somehow. Grimm didn't have emotions, except hatred. And even if they did, they would have no way to convey such feelings. "Wait, do Grimm even need to eat? I've never seen one actually do it."

The swordsman put his tanned hand beneath his chin in a mock thinking position, jostling his shoulder-length brown hair. "You know, I have no idea, but he seems to like it, so I just give it food. That doesn't matter though, we're close to Sanshu now. By the way, you never did tell me, where do you come from?"

Jaune grunted and wondered if he should answer that question."Small village in Vale."

Jain's eyebrow twitched. "And how come you're here, then?"

Jaune hesitated for a bit, then told him everything. The dungeon he'd found, his contemplation about whether he should enter it, the Ursa, and the teleportation arrays within. Through his unbelievable tale, Jain just nodded along, and when Jaune was finished, stayed silent for a while.

"Well, no doubt about it. You're pretty unlucky."

"Oy, that's a completely useless observation. I already knew I was unlucky." Jaune didn't receive an answer. His companion was staring into the distance.

"Here's a not so useless observation. I see Sanshu."

"That's nice. How's that important though? You already said yesterday that we were close."

Jain game him a look that seemed to say, 'Are you stupid?' "It's important because we're going to have to leave the Deathstalker here and walk the rest of the way. The only reason we haven't found any travellers to scare the shit out of is because Sanshu in itself is a bit of a final frontier."

"That makes sense."

Jain suddenly seemed concerned. "Will you be able to walk alone?"

He didn't know. His body felt mostly fine, if a bit stiff. Curiously, he pulled up the shirt Jain had given him to look at his stomach wound.

A bit tender, but the scar was already forming. He poked at it if only to feel slight pain. Was this his regeneration at work? "Should be fine."

Jain still looked skeptical. "If you say so." Then he hopped down from the Deathstalker. After a few seconds, Jaune did the same.

As they watched the arachnoid run back into the desert, Jaune couldn't help but wonder. "Oy, isn't it a bit irresponsible letting a Deathstalker back into the wild? It's a Grimm, it's going to be surrounded by death at some point."

A wistful look entered the swordsman's eyes. "Yeah, I hope he'll be okay." Then he promptly turned around and started heading towards the town.

"Not what I meant," Jaune couldn't help but mutter to himself as he trudged after him.

As they neared the town, guards came into sight. "The young hero returns! Has he conquered the ancient Sword Gods Pyramid?" one guard asked out of the blue, in slightly too loud of a voice.

The other one couldn't seem to hold in his snicker. "Sure doesn't seem so, but he seems to have found a trusty companion who will help him. Sadly the companion seems to be a brat, not even old enough to be weaned of his mother's teat."

Jaune bristled and was going to start railing at the plebeians who had just insulted him and the man he had grown to like and respect over the last few days. As if sensing what he was about to do, Jain just laid a hand on his shoulder and led him forwards somewhat forcefully. It was awkward because Jaune was several feet shorter than him, but Jain managed.

They ignored the guards, and they seemed content to let them pass without any inspection.

As they entered the city (though it was honestly more of a town), he turned to the now-silent swordsman, ignoring the variety of new sights and smells that assaulted him. "Why did you let them disrespect you like that? I know for sure that you're strong. They insulted you, you had every right to cave their faces in!"

Jain looked at him weirdly. "Do you really think that would have solved anything?"

Jaune shook his head. "No, but you would have defended your honour, and no plebeian would have ever dared to disrespect you like that again."

"Is that how things work in Vale? Well, this isn't Vale, kid. There are no differences in class. The only one who has any right to defend his honour is the Sun Emperor." Jaune felt as if he'd been slapped, as he hadn't been referred to as a kid in a long time.

"Whatever, cultural difference I guess. Let's go find an inn. I didn't talk much about your situation in the past few days, because I can't really think if I haven't had a warm meal." Jain walked forth as if it was only natural for Jaune to follow, which he did.

-/-

"So, what do you want to do?"

The mage averted his eyes from the man sitting opposite of him and stared at the wooden table they were sitting at as if it held all the secrets to the universe. "I want to go home, I guess."

Jain raised an eyebrow at that. "You guess?"

"Well, I know some people who are probably worried about me." He thought of Emmon, Ray and his Mum. "But the dungeon showed me how weak I really was. If I come back the way I am, won't it just happen again?" Jaune asked and shrugged his shoulders, earning another raised eyebrow.

"I think you overestimate the chances of you finding another dungeon, and the chances of basically falling into one again."

"I guess you're right, but I want to get stronger." Jaune knew where his desire was coming from, and he also knew it was silly to delay his homecoming just because he felt weak in that dungeon. But, did he really have a choice? He needed to grow strong. It wasn't like his class was that obscure; there were book entries about it.

And there was a one-hundred percent guarantee that someone knew about the capabilities of a dimensional mage, and the opportunity to have what basically amounted to a dungeon detector under your control was too much to pass up for any organisation that had any sort of ambition. He didn't have much trust in people. His family was made up of knights that practically breathed honour. Even if it was twisted, and they still did evil things if they could justify it. People who didn't have such a personal code of conduct? No chanc-

"Why not do both then?"

Jaune looked up with a questioning expression. "What do you mean?"

"Do you know what an adventurer is?" The mage rolled his eyes. He was young, not uneducated. An adventurer was someone of the hero class that registered himself at the adventurers guild. They received quests that were issued to the guild by NPCs who sought either protection from, or extermination of, Grimm.

The adventurers guild was also an institution that sought out dungeons, forming giant parties to loot them, and they would be very happy to 'acquire' him.

"I know what the adventurers guild is, but I fail to see how they could help me."

Jain grinned smugly at him. "One word: escort missions."

"That was two words."

A tick mark appeared on the swordsman's head. "Whatever. Before your apparent need to gain strength, I was simply planning to give you enough money to join a caravan to a port town, where you could take a ship to Vale, where I'm sure you would find another caravan or somebody from their hero corps to guide you home. I'm sure the journey would take, at most, about three months."

He would do that for him? The amount of money that would need was nothing to sneeze at.

"But what I meant with escort missions was, you could register at an adventurer's guild, do a few quests until you're rank D at least, and then start escorting people into the direction of Vale. Eventually you would reach it, and you would be fighting Grimm along the way as well with other, more experienced guards, so you wouldn't actually be in much danger."

Jaune stared at him dumbstruck, causing the man to puff out his chest and preen like a peacock. "You put a lot of thought into this, I see." He looked down again, at his stew that had gone cold. Damn it. "Thank you."

He didn't see the reaction, but he heard the words."You're pretty grounded for a kid, but don't worry, it's the job of the older generation to protect the new one. For one day, we will be forgotten and the new ones will be the ones protecting and guiding humanity."

"You're seven years older than me."

"I'm old enough to be your father."

"I don't think you understand biology. You growing senile already?"

"Brat, respect your elders."

-/-

Jaune gave a great sigh as he sunk into the warm tub of water the inn had prepared for him, purposefully ignoring the fact that there was a slave in the same room to cater to anything he needed… a female one. He let his muscles relax for the first time in what felt like an eternity and began scrubbing his body of all the accumulated grime and blood.

Looking down at the water, he noted that it had gone from fresh to not so fresh in about a minute. He turned to the slave, who nearly flinched at his gaze. "I'm going to need another tub."

A relieved expression made its way into her face. "Of course young master, immediately young master."

Jarring. Vacuo, the only place where slavery actually existed, legally at least. He himself was safe from ever meeting that fate. Hero classes couldn't be enslaved. Oh sure, the law was that only criminals and their offspring were bound to slavery, their class actually changing to slave after a while.

But the slaves avoided making offspring simply to spare them a life of servitude, which begged the question of how seemingly every slave he had noticed so far had been fairly young and attractive. All criminals for sure, he thought sarcastically to himself.

After he was done taking his bath, he gazed wistfully at the blonde locks he had lost. They shimmered in his palm, almost a handful; truly, adventuring was the enemy of beauty.

At least regeneration would help with that. It promoted hair growth, something he'd found out after looking at the information given to him about it by the natural order.

A useful Stat, Jaune thought to himself as he entered the room he would share with Jain for the night. It wasn't that late yet, but neither of them had the energy to do anything today. Sleeping in a bed was something they both wanted as early as possible.

He found Jain hunched over some maps strewn about the small table in their room. "What are you looking at?" Did the maps have information about the location of the pyramid?

"These maps. I found them in a dungeon with the journal of someone who had visited the Sword God Pyramid in the past." Jain sighed.

"You know why the guards were making fun of me?" Jaune didn't, but he could guess. Jain simply shook his head, not giving him a chance to answer. "The sword god labyrinth is a myth, a folktale, at least that's what the town people think and tell everyone. I know it exists though. I found a very convincing journal belonging to one of the former sword emperors of Mistral who found the place." His hands were shaking as he spoke.

"I've followed his exact route at least three times already, but I haven't been able to find it. I guess I'll simply be remembered as another failed adventurer who wasted his time running after a myth."

He sounded like he was giving up. "Are you giving up?"

Jain smiled bitterly."At this point, what other choice do I have? I've wasted five months on this, Jaune, five months! Oh, I've been getting stronger; you wouldn't believe some of the Grimm I've encountered out there. But the pyramid itself will forever be out of my reach."

Those words sparked something in Jaune's head. Crystallised a purpose of sorts. He owed the swordsman a life debt, plus he also liked him. Jain was a good person.

"It won't be forever out of your reach." With each moment his determination grew. " I'm going to help you find it."