Chapter 182 Ambush 2

The Emperor walked through his magnificent garden. All the flowers had pitch black stems but pure white petals, creating a beautiful contrast. The purple grass and specifically selected trees that were taken care of on a daily basis filled the garden. It paled in contrast to the nature in the world above, yet was something scenic for the people living in the Underground.

While the scenery was amazing to look at, and most people felt at ease the moment they entered it, the Emperor didn't feel anything. He looked at the flowers in his precious garden and the corpses that were torn in half on the battlefield with the same vacant look. 

Through the thorns of the flowers and the white petals, the man only saw nature for what it was, nothing grand or special, just a plant. The only reason he was here was because he was waiting for his family, or what remained of it. 

Sitting there, he started to stare at the Stars above. He had reached Tier 3 quite some time ago, making him the absolute peak of the Underworld. Yet he wasn't proud in any way. 

"Father, you're here!", a younger man came to the table and first kneeled in front of it. The Emperor waved his hand slightly to make him rise once more. While the man himself couldn't care less about those kinds of formalities, his sons were raised by the scholars since he didn't have the time to do so.

"I've finished my training, I managed to take down a Magma Turtle." 

The boy placed the head of the turtle on the table, the head was bigger than the table, luckily the blood was dried up, so it didn't leave a stain, but the sight wasn't fitting for the garden. The Emperor didn't even look at it once, he simply stared at his son. "Do you know why I asked you to do this training?"

"The first trail is to test your determination and resolution. The second to test your skills. To fight equal against one of the Great Beasts is proof one is ready to face the second Trial... is what you told me.", while the statement was true, it was also the reason he lost his previous son.

In theory one didn't actually need to be capable of handling one of the Great Beasts in order to survive the second Trial, but to the Emperor it was a sign they could reap the biggest benefit from the trail. Not all Tier 2's were equal after all. 

Left with the awkward silence the boy's eyes started to focus on the head on the table instead of his father. The cold look he gave him was something that scared him. 

"Why does a bird fly?", the Emperor said with little emotion in his voice. It was a question that came out of nowhere. The boy didn't know how to answer immediately, letting his father wait was a sin, the longer it took, the more disappointed he would've been.

Even if he studied under the scholars and was very well versed on the different topics, this wasn't something that came up. Still, he had the basic information to answer that question. 

"All animals need to eat on a regular basis in order to survive. A bird needs to fly in order to search for food to satiate its hunger." 

The Emperor didn't respond and simply looked back to the Stars. Slowly closing his eyes he thought back to his first battle against the barbarians when he was a mere greenhorn, excited to fight. 

In his eagerness to fight for the Empire he forgot to care for what he loved most. After the most precious thing was lost to him, he changed completely. The mistakes he made back then never left his mind. The reason why he asked such a question was not for nothing and the answer he received wasn't what he wanted. 

What motivates a bird to fly? Why does a creature with wings feel compelled to use them? The response that birds fly to look for food is a description of what birds do once they're in the air, not why they take to the skies in the first place.

"Go and ask the Scholars to let you take the second Trail, don't disappoint me."

The boy's eyes opened wide, his answer was correct! His father would let him undergo the second Trail, giving him access to Tier 2 strength. He would finally be a step closer to the immovable man in front of him. Through his excitement a question popped up.

"Father, if the requirement for taking the second Trial is killing one of the Great Beasts, what is required to take the third Trial?", since his father was one of the few that succeeded in it, he had to know what it was all about. 

The first Trail were a couple of tests one had to go through and depending on the results you would gain strength. The second Trial seemed to be similar, but what about the third?

"Nothing can prepare you for the third Trial, don't think about it, you won't survive.", his tone was deeper and was filled with anger. The man rarely showed any emotion, but his warning was more than enough for the boy to forget about it and quickly leave.

"Nothing can prepare you." , he said to himself as he watched the Stars above. "Nothing at all."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeing the exploding corps of their leader, the others didn't feel like continuing the fight. One by one they tried to run away into the forest, but Carian made sure that nobody could escape. 

His speed and strength were remarkable, yet paled in comparison to the man Lucas just fought. It meant that either there were perhaps stages between the different Tiers or that it had to be training. 

Lucas stood still as he changed internally and spread his willpower. There were some problems at the very back of the convoy, but there was something strange happening there, so he left it. Instead, he didn't bother with the rest since Carian could handle it on his own. 

What he wanted to do was inspect the corpse of the man. Since the explosion happened from inside his body, it should've been blown to pieces, yet the carcass wasn't spread wide. Only the blood reached far, but the skin and bones stayed compact as if they couldn't be pulled apart. 

Dousing the flames Lucas inspected the skin. It looked similarly gray to Carian's yet was different in a strange way. Very tiny sparkles were present in the skin, it was almost unnoticeable. Storing the body in his ring he moved back. Not a single tattoo or any marks were visible, leaving him with a loose end. 

He was upset by seeing he was a lot weaker than he expected, but perhaps this one was simply a unique example. Seeing another ambusher run away from the fight Lucas shot his test replica of the Dark Griffin's Dark Beam at him. He didn't hold his mana back like during the fight, making the beam a lot larger at the cost of his energy reserves. 

The middle of the man's body disappeared as the two remaining halves fell to the ground in a quickly forming puddle of blood. The soldier who ran after the man stopped in his tracks as he looked at Lucas in fear.

Lucas on the other hand didn't look satisfied, the spell was way too consuming and the results weren't so great in actual combat. It would be a trump card in the beginning of a fight when he still had a lot of energy, but become useless as the fight dragged on. 

Then he suddenly realized. There was a clear gap between the Ranks and Tiers. He could toy with the people weaker than him yet had trouble with the ones on his level. So he was offered a choice, stay in the pond as a big fish or join the ocean and become a small fry.

He started to feel disinterested with dealing with the people weaker than him. They weren't worth his time, and what could they possibly offer him of value? As darker thoughts started to invade his mind, he slapped himself awake.

Lucas pushed those feelings aside, because he knew that if he indulged in them or let them run free, he would go down a dark path and his was already thorny enough. He already hated the idea of nobles, having similar thoughts of them only made him hate himself more. 

The rest was easily dealt with, the biggest attack force was at the front, and it had been taken care off. Thurin was surrounded by the strongest of the group excluding Lucas and Carian of course. At the back Galen was present. 

Of course, that would only be the case if what Lucas assumed were to be true, as he saw a saddled soldier rush towards them. Thurin followed him from behind. Seeing Thurin safe, there shouldn't be any issue, yet the nervous face of the man told him enough. Spreading his willpower far and wide he could tell what happened. 

"Scholar Galen has been kidnapped!"

"Galen?", Carian was confused, he was a Tier 2 like him, even if he didn't have any kind of training, a Tier 2 was still powerful by default. He quickly glanced at Lucas who only shook his head.

"Everyone, regroup for a moment, Galen has sacrificed his own well-being in order for us to move forward. Let's collect our thoughts and quickly move forward. We're close to Frontier, we can rest there."

With only a few words, Carian brought everyone together and created a clear goal that should be easy to accomplish. While losing Galen was a terrible event, his healing skills were incomparable to Lucas and his constant nagging wasn't appreciated by many. Still, it was someone they lost, which hurt their morale more than Carian wished for.

After everyone was settled down and the horses were brought back together, they started to move forward again, they were close to a nearby town, which would be the safest place for them right now. 

Thurin looked at Carian and Lucas with a strange look. Even if he kept quiet, both Lucas and Carian knew that something was troubling him. While Lucas would've loved to talk to him again, they assumed the same formation as before. 

Riding alongside the scholar, Lucas pushed Carian to bring Thurin up to speed. "Carian, it's time to come clean, I don't think it's smart to keep it hidden any longer.", to which Carian seemed hesitant to answer. While Lucas suggested it, he was simply diverting the attention to someone else so he had some time to think clearly. 

'Why was there an ambush?'

'What do you mean? If you wanna kill someone, you pull nasty tricks, that's just how the world works.'

'I know, it's just.. the initial presumed goal was for us to stay at the fort. But we didn't stay and moved out, because of that, we landed in an ambush.'

'Oh, I see, so we didn't fall for their trap and ended stepping into another one.'

'It doesn't make sense, how did they know, and most importantly, why kidnap Galen instead of killing him?'

'They weren't slaves, yet had a different fighting style compared to the soldiers that Carian trained.'

'Meaning they're barbarians?'

'That looks like it's the case, but that still doesn't explain why barbarians were capable of making their way so far from the front lines and planning an ambush on a potential heir for the Empire. None of this makes any sense.'

Suddenly, Lucas was hit by a revelation, the pieces of the puzzle seemed to almost fit. Suddenly he felt someone approaching them from behind, checking on who it was, Lucas spoke up again.

"How long are you planning on holding back Carian? Thurin deserves to know the truth, he's stronger than you think."

"Ah, that's right! I beat the pack leader of the Terrabears! I'm sure I can pass the Second Trail now and achieve Tier 2.", Thurin said out of nowhere. He sneaked up behind them and left the formation to get close to them. Right after he said it, he immediately realized he gave away his position.

He didn't know what this so-called secret was, but if Lucas said he was strong enough to hear it, he had to know. 

Carian looked strictly at Lucas, "You knew he was behind us, right?"

Lucas merely smiled deviously while hunching his shoulders. "It's inevitable anyway, the earlier, the better in my opinion."

"Then I'll tell you when we get to the town, now please go back in formation, we're not out of the woods yet."

"Yes, sir!", Thurin put his hand up exaggeratedly and moved back to the center. The group started to move forward again with a decent speed, they would reach the next town very soon. It would be the first contact with the normal citizens that Lucas would have. He wondered if his appearance would make his either ostracized or worshiped. 

Since he was a Starborn, he was already a tourist attraction for everyone. Even those that didn't know what that status meant, just the fact that his skin color was different was already strange enough for the people here. 

Even the barbarians in the south had the same skin color, though their language, culture and traditions were different, making them stand apart. 

While they were moving along, Carian started to think about how Lucas acted lately. Without thinking first, he blurted it out softly. 

"I guess if you want something, nothing will stop you, huh?", Carian critiqued Lucas, but he didn't really mind, what the scholar said was true. Lucas changed the topic to something he had been interested in for a long time and could provide him with what he was looking for. All the while, a part of Lucas was trying to comprehend the Light runes. 

"If you don't mind, could you tell me how you achieve these Tiers? Are there differences between people in the same Tier? The Tier 2 I just fought against felt stronger than you, no offense."

"None taken, I'm a scholar, remember, not a soldier, well, I used to be one, but I never got the proper training. It's normal for me to be weaker than a trained assassin.", Carian was proud of what he had accomplished. He might be weaker than most actually trained soldiers, but his strength compared to other scholars was leagues above. 

If he compared to the people who trained daily he would only lose, so he saw that as an unfair comparison. 

"When one wants to step into the first Tier, you have to face the first trail. Depending on how you perform during the trail, you'll gain more power. Same goes for the second trail, for the third we have no information on that. Every person who was capable of completing that trail never spoke a word of it, keeping it a secret."

"I see, then can I also partake in those trails?", Lucas didn't bother hiding his intentions, according to the contract they signed, there wasn't a reason to anyway. 

"You very well could, but you'll need the approval of the scholars, which shouldn't be that hard. Since you're a Starborn, you'll have a few fanatics that will hang on every word you'll say. Of course, there are also the scholars that despise the Starborn and there are those in between."

"I'm assuming you're in between?"

Carian didn't answer, he started to think about where he actually stood in this debate. He remembered the times when the scholars would get together and debate on what the actual stance against the Starborn should be. At first, arguments and logical reasoning was used, but the longer the debates were, the more emotional they got. 

Even Carian remembered his time when he was just yelling against the others. He didn't look back on those times as embarrassing since it was mostly tradition, he just found it annoying that that's how they operated at times. 

Not long after they arrived at the entrance of the town.