Chapter 6

Luke eyed his opponent with caution as he raised his fists in front of him in what he hoped was a stance that would protect his face. Breaking a nose or anything equivalent was bound to be an unpleasant experience, and that was something that he wanted to avoid. From the fights he'd seen up till now, though, none had been particularly vicious, which gave him some hope of getting out of the rings with just some bruises.

Should I be bouncing from foot to foot? That's what they do in those MMA fights … No, I'll look stupid if I'm the only one doing it. Why isn't he doing anything, though? Does he want me to make the first move? Fuck it. Might as well get this over with.

Luke stepped forward with his guard still raised, only to step back in order to dodge a sweeping kick. Then he dodged again as his opponent immediately moved in with a jab, pushing Luke to the boundary of the ring.

Luke shuffled to the side in an attempt to get away from the edge, only for his opponent to land a glancing blow on his chest, his knuckles scraping against Luke's skin. Running into the ring, Luke ignored the stinging sensation from the hit as he tried to find an opening in his opponent's guard.

You know what? He can come to me this time.

Growing impatient, the other disciple threw caution to the wind and recklessly closed the distance, swinging his fists wildly. Seeing a punch go wide, Luke repeated his opponent's earlier strategy, stepping in and burying a fist in his stomach with as much force as he could muster. Unexpectedly, the punch was ineffective, and his opponent took it in stride, without showing even a hint of pain. Taking advantage of Luke's compromised position, he moved in even closer and wrapped his arm tightly around Luke's neck.

Gasping for air, Luke knew he should tap and get it over with. Instead, all he wanted to do was win. Throwing himself to the ground, Luke used the added momentum to break free of the hold. Rolling on the floor of the arena, they both desperately tried to maneuver the other into a pin until, finally, Luke managed to get behind his opponent and catch him in a choke hold. He attempted to struggle, and after not finding a way out of Luke's hold, he relaxed his body and gently tapped the stage.

Luke won.

Panting, he stumbled to his feet and watched the referee run onto the stage, inspecting both of them for any obvious signs of injury.

"That was good. I thought I had you earlier."

"You almost did—that was a good fight," Luke replied.

"It was fun! I'm Mykonos, by the way." He extended his hand.

"I'm Luke."

"Good luck on the next fight. Back-to-back fights get exhausting fast!" Mykonos walked out of the ring as the next person in line stepped forward.

Oh, right. The winner just keeps going until they lose.

Acutely aware of the sweat dripping down the side of his face and the prickling pain from where Mykonos had hit and choked him, Luke thought he should feel awful. Instead, he found himself looking forward to the next fight.

Locking eyes with his opponent, Luke raised his fists in anticipation and widened his stance. The battle began.

He won his second fight and lost on his third. Then, in a decision that surprised even him, he walked back into the line and started the process over again, sometimes managing to stay in the ring for multiple matches, and sometimes losing after a single one.

Hours later, when the nine suns of Theos sank below the horizon, Luke stumbled home. He had a smile on his face in spite of being covered in bruises and aching in ways he hadn't known he could.

I did not expect fighting to be that fun.

The next morning, he was happy to see that his suffering came with a reward.

Status | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Mortal

Mana: 7

Rate: 10% per hour

Strength: 9 > 10

Agility: 9 > 10

Constitution: 13 > 14

Arcana: 1

Stat Points: 1

Bloodline: Locked. Conditions not met. (0/10,000)

Charges: 7/10

Gaining a point in every attribute except one was a surprise, a very welcome one. Dropping his spare point back into the Arcana stat, he refreshed his status.

Status | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Mortal

Mana: 14

Rate: 10% per hour

Strength: 10

Agility: 10

Constitution: 14

Arcana: 2

Stat Points: 0

Bloodline: Locked. Conditions not met. (0/10,000)

Charges: 7/10

So my total mana is just Arcana multiplied by my Constitution divided by two. My regen rate is still the same. Ten hours to recover a whopping fourteen mana seems pretty crap, though. The fact that it stayed the same, however, is good. No matter how much mana I have, I'll recover all of it in ten hours. Not that I even have a way to use it now. Is it the same for everyone, though, or is a fixed rate something the Seed gives me?

Speaking of, I still can't feel my mana. Maybe when I enter the middle stage of the Mortal tier that'll change. If I keep getting free points like I am now, though, I should have a lot of mana pretty soon, though.

Falling back onto his bed, he was tempted to sleep the day away. Unfortunately, unlike in his last life, he couldn't afford to take it easy. Things seemed calm for the moment, but that could change any second.

If Nefkha suddenly gets cold feet, I'm fucked. I need to get to the next tier as fast as I can, or else I'm just a sitting duck at everyone's mercy. If I can fly, I should be able to hightail it to some random cave and disappear. Hopefully to someplace where no one knows I'm wanted by the Olympians.

Forcing himself out of his funk, he took a quick shower before walking to his next destination.

Back to working for a living.

The Mission Hall reminded Luke of a fast-food joint. There was a row of white-robed people standing behind a counter, with an assortment of mostly black-robed and a small number of blue-robed people in line. All silently gazed at the wall behind the clerks, reading the pinned requests that hung on it, like a menu.

It had more jobs, and a greater variety of them than Luke had imagined there would be: Hunting down dozens of different creatures that were causing trouble in the surrounding areas. Guarding merchant caravans coming in and going out of the society. A few requests for aid in the forges. Hundreds of herb-gathering assignments. Requests for sparring partners. Repair work and construction. Recruitments for expeditions seeking lands rich in resources and danger. Delivering letters and parcels, and more. There definitely wasn't a lack of options to pick from.

"How can I help you today?" the clerk asked when he finally made it to the counter.

"I want to go on a mission. Preferably a simple herb-gathering one."

"Can I see your bracelet, please?"

"Of course." Luke slid it off his wrist and handed it to him, watching curiously as he dropped it onto a blank sheet of paper and becoming fascinated as words magically appeared in a uniform black ink.

"Just to make sure, you are Luke, yes?" the clerk asked, reading his name off the paper.

"That's me."

"Okay. Welcome to the society! You said you were interested in gathering herbs? That's a good choice—I can't tell you how many of the newer members foolishly choose to hunt a monster on their first missions, only to come back grievously injured if not worse."

"Yeah, someone recommended that I start with a safer mission."

"I'm glad they did. Now, as you can see"—he gestured to the wall full of missions behind him—"we have quite a few of them. Did you have a particular one in mind, or would you like me to choose one for you?"

"If you could, that would be great. Something on the easier end would be nice."

"Of course, let me just … aha. This one shouldn't cause you too much trouble. Blue wildflowers are fairly common in the area. The mission is to collect ten of them, and the deadline is tomorrow before noon. If you fail at the mission, and it is determined upon investigation that it was due to lack of professionalism and or poor conduct on your behalf, you will be docked five merits," he recited dryly. "Am I correct in assuming that you haven't collected any herbs before?"

"You would be."

"All right, in that case—" He reached underneath the counter and with a practiced movement pulled out a book. "This is the society's Compendium of Flora. It has a lot of information that you'll find useful, as well as instructions on how to harvest the plants correctly. I'd suggest you read the entry on any plant you intend to harvest before you head out into the wilderness."

"Thank you." Luke nodded gratefully.

"It's no problem. We do charge two merit points for the book, though, which will leave you with eight. You will be deducted ten at the end of the month. The mission you're going on will give you one merit, so you have to complete at least one more within two weeks."

"That sounds good to me. Thanks again!" Luke waved before walking out of the building, flipping through the book as he did so.

Finding the section on blue wildflowers, he committed their appearance to memory before reading up on them. The flower, while not rare, wasn't super common in the region. It grew quickly, but only in the wild. According to the book, attempts had been made to cultivate them in greenhouses, but like most other plants useful for alchemical purposes, the properties that made it useful were lost by doing so. The blue wildflower in particular was a common ingredient in many potions, and it needed to be fresh. As such, the society always needed more. Unlike some of the other plants in the book, this one didn't require any particular method to harvest. Only its petals were valuable, so simply tearing the stems was enough.

So I'm basically an errand boy, Luke thought as he walked into the forest on the east side of the society. Finding a trail, he began to hike. He nodded politely as he passed other disciples along the way, many of whom, like him, were also delving into the forest.

"Hey! Luke, right?" He heard a voice calling his name.

"Oh. Hey, Mykonos," said Luke, smiling as Mykonos and two other people walked into the forest behind him. One of them, he recognized as the person Ethan had pointed out in the arena, the one likely to become the society's next Inner Disciple.

"Let me guess, you're gathering herbs?"

"Yup."

"Blue wildflowers?"

"You called it."

"I'm just smart like that. We happen to be looking for them, too. Uh, this is Spiros, he's my cousin, and that's June, who's also my cousin," he introduced. "That's Luke. He kicked my ass in the arena yesterday."

Luke waved at the cousins.

"Why don't you come with us, Luke? Last time we came, we noticed a bunch growing near a small lake."

"Uh … yeah, are you sure it's okay for me to tag along? I don't want to intrude."

"Yeah, I'm sure. We're sure, aren't we, guys?" Mykonos turned to his cousins.

"Yeah, it's fine," said Spiros.

"Let's go." Mykonos led the way into the forest.

"So how long have all of you been in the Luminous Sky?" Luke asked, ducking under a branch.

"We joined two months ago with all the other new disciples. Didn't you?" asked June.

"No. I was just kind of minding my business when Nefkha—he's one of the Elders here—asked me to join."

"You're lucky. The test to get in sucked. They made us run laps until there were only five hundred of us left," Mykonos said.

"That sounds brutal."

"Oh, trust me, it was. There was even this one kid who shat his pants while he was running." Luke looked at him with wide disbelieving eyes. "I'm not kidding. I swear on the deities." He grinned.

"That's insane."

"I know, right? You know what's even funnier? You've actually met him alrea …" Spiros threw a stone at his cousin.

"Will you ever stop telling that story?" Spiros yelled. "And you know what? I did shit my pants, and I'm proud of it, too. I did what I had to do to get here. I have something called resolve! I have commitment!"

June burst out laughing. "You had poop running down your legs."

"Gggghhhh! You guys are so annoying. Never let yourself slip up with them, Luke. I'm telling you, they will hold everything they can over your head. Right now, it's that I shat myself. Before that it was because Helen turned me down."

"Helen is forty years old."

Luke laughed out loud at the absurdity of the situation.

"Not you, too!" Spiros cried.

"Sorry, I tried really hard not to laugh, it's just …"

"Guys! Look." June pointed to a large batch of blue flowers.

"Awesome, there's a bunch of them, too. Enough for all of us." Spiros started walking toward them.

"Wait," Luke called out, pulling him back. "You see it?"

"I do," said Mykonos, running his hands through his hair. "That's one big snake."

"Big is an understatement." Luke took a step back. His eyes locked on the undulating black tube. Just barely visible from behind the trees, its dark scales let it hide near perfectly in the shadows. He didn't know much about the creatures, but he was sure that they weren't supposed to be wider than two humans hugging, or as long as a bus.

"It looks like it's full." Spiros pointed to a large lump halfway through its body.

"It's staring at us awfully hungry-like, though," said June.

"I heard snakes have good noses. Maybe you should poop yourself again and it will just go away?"

"Shut up, and that's not true."

"Move!" Luke shouted, pulling both Mykonos and Spiros back. Just in time, as the snake whipped its tail where they were standing seconds later.