Chapter 2: Snarl

The forest gave way to fields of tree stumps, then farmland, and Noah encountered more and more people on the roads, from peasants and commoners to adventurers and armor-plated soldiers. Guarded by ramparts of hewn logs, about a hundred wood and brick buildings stood next to the Paleon Channel. Villagers and adventurers, both human and dwarf, filled the open streets without fear of the monsters in the woods.

It was like the town of Clive, having the same Medieval charm that enticed Noah’s inner nerd. Of the four inns in the village, only one had a room left available, and he snatched it up before anyone else could claim it. His horse was fed and tended to in the stable out back, and Noah entered the familiar scene of a crowded tavern. All the tables were occupied, so Noah sat at the counter. Behind the bartender were three large barrels full of booze and shelves of bottles and jugs. Nearby was the entrance to the kitchen, with two servant girls tending to the customers.

“I’ll take the house special and a mug of whatever is in that left barrel.”

He was given a pint of ale in a dirty glass, and a plate of burned wolf meat with wheat porridge slopped on the side. He shoveled it down and left a few copper coins on the counter. Perhaps he should have asked Mary to make him lunch for the road.

“Do you know who I can talk to about hitching a ride down to the coast?”

The bartender grunted and pointed his chin to the corner, where a potato-headed bargeman was sitting across from a long line of adventurers, each signing a ledger for guard work. Noah watched from a distance and listened to all the questions being asked and answered.

From what he could tell, guards were paid for the head of every bandit and monster that attacked the ships, and anyone who didn’t fight when things went wrong would be thrown overboard or worse. They also had to bring their own food and shouldn’t expect a roof over their heads. ‘Henry’ was the name he signed after he got in line.

“There is a shipment of slaves heading out the day after tomorrow. Be at the docks at dawn,” said the bargeman.

Noah now had a room and a way down the channel, so the next step was to get a town layout. He went to his room to leave his luggage and perform his usual sweep. He checked every inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling for anything suspicious, as well as the straw mattress for anything hidden inside, living or nonliving, and he tested the reliability of the door. Everything appeared safe, but Noah still hid his possessions under the bed.

Now lightened, he set out into the muddy streets, surrounded by villagers at work and play, and livestock either pulling carts or being carried in them. He passed through the market and examined the wares of each merchant under tents that kept the summer sun at bay. Furs and fabrics, fresh meat and preserved vegetables, weapons and tools for survival, all were for sale and examined and bought by members of all professions.

Took’s location on the channel made it a prime trading hub, allowing goods to be shipped directly to and from the capital from deeper within the mainland. Children, either homeless or freed from chores, hid in shadows and blind spots, searching for loose pockets and dropped coins. They repeatedly bumped against Noah, pretending it was an accident, and he’d swat at their thieving hands.

There were certain things he’d keep an eye out for wherever he traveled. He’d study the ground, looking for areas with bad footing. He’d step into stores, seeing which of them had back exits. He checked the alleys in search of places where he could ambush others or where others might ambush him.

He took note of every way in and out of the village, creating a mental map of the best routes. He wanted to know if there was anything in this town he could use or had to be wary of. Numerous chaotic and violent lifetimes had burned this lesson into his mind.

He made his way to the docks to see the channel, separating Vandheim from Uther. He arrived at a cliff made of stacked logs, where ships were either waiting silently, being worked on, or exchanging cargo. What intrigued Noah was how close the other side of the channel was, maybe just five hundred feet of open water, and if the map was to be believed, it seemed to retain that width with perfect straightness.

He followed the banks, looking for a place low enough to taste the water. It was brackish due to freshwater from the land and rivers forming a layer over the seawater deeper in the channel. The bedrock would have had to be split open for such a thing to occur. It was like a tectonic crack filled in by the ocean. How deep did it go? Whether or not this information could help him, he wasn’t sure. It was merely a little factoid to brighten his day. This world was fascinating, and interest was the closest he could get to happiness.

It was the middle of the afternoon, so Noah returned to the inn. There was still work for him to do. He locked himself in his room and began pulling out all his gear and possessions. It was time for the part of adventuring that stories never told: maintaining equipment. His blades had to be sharpened and oiled, clothing and anything else made of leather or fabric had to be cleaned and mended, and he had bags of harvested plants ready for mixing into useful concoctions.

He worked while invisible, not wanting a chance to train to escape him. The setting sun and his rumbling stomach eventually pulled him from his room, and he went downstairs for dinner. Townsfolk and adventurers packed the tavern, all eating, talking, laughing, and arguing. Servant girls maneuvered around the crowded tables with trays of food and drinks.

He took an open seat at the counter adjacent to a cloaked figure and ordered himself a plate. This wasn’t like a modern restaurant with a menu—everyone ate whatever the cooks happened to have on hand. Dinner was bread, sausages, and a baked potato.

While eating, he listened to as many conversations as possible to pick up information. ‘Ogre,’ that word was being muttered. One had been spotted prowling around the streets before dawn, a scout checking the town’s strengths and weaknesses. As always, Noah went to bed that night with a knife under his pillow.

The crying of a rooster, such an ugly sound, but every sound is atrocious when it pulls one from a pleasant slumber. Noah sat up in bed and yawned, finally enjoying a full night’s sleep since leaving the last town. Despite being a teenager so many times, no amount of experience could alleviate his adolescent circadian rhythms. He had to exhaust himself every day to have any hope of falling asleep before midnight. Living without screens helped.

He got out of bed and splashed water on his face from a nearby wash basin to pry sleep’s tight fingers off his mind. He put on his clothes and gear and left his room. The inn’s employees had just woken up like him and were lighting the kitchen flames. Breakfast was not on his mind right now. He stepped out into the street, yet to receive the sun’s direct light, and devoid of all but the earliest risers. Noah stretched and then cast both of his spells. He set off in a jog, using his depleting mana as a timer.

To adventurers, running was for chasing down prey or escaping predators, so Noah did his workout with all of his weapons and anything else he might carry in the field. He ran through the town, putting into practice everything he had learned the previous day and testing out every escape route he had concocted. With both spells going at once, Noah’s fatigue accumulated faster, but he pushed through. He had reached a wall in his magic training, one he hoped to break through with enough practice.

Out in the village outskirts, his strength finally left him. He sat down beneath a tree growing at the side of the road and closed his eyes. Meditation seemed to be the best method of restoring his mana without falling asleep or using potions, and Noah was closing in on the breathing pattern that would best rejuvenate him.

The sun had fully risen, and the birds were making their presence known, each screaming desperately to have sex. It reminded Noah of high school. His stamina was slowly replenishing, and his altered breathing no longer required his focus, allowing his mind to wander.

His thoughts drifted to the farm and the words of the bandit he had interrogated, how they spoke of gods. Noah had searched for a hint of the divine in countless realities, whatever power may help him understand his reincarnation ability. Lifetimes of searching, all of it fruitless, yet this world offered him some small hope. To claim that magic came from the gods was no different from any other faith declaring the influence of their deities, but since no other reality had magic, perhaps his search had not yet lost its meaning.

Once rested, he returned to the inn, grabbed a quick breakfast, then returned to his room and pulled off his gear. Next, he performed an exercise routine that he had cultivated over several lifetimes, incorporating yoga, calisthenics, and various other techniques for the rest of the day. It developed specific muscle tissue, oxygenated the blood, and purged his body of lactic acid and toxins. As an adventurer, muscle mass accumulated naturally, though not always how he needed it to. Adding this workout would push his body in the right direction.

Like during his run, he performed the routine with both spells activated, wringing every drop of mana out of his body. The floor became damp from his pouring sweat, and its evaporation fogged the nearby window. When he ran out of strength, he’d meditate like before. This was how he spent his time from dawn to dusk, stopping only to eat and run errands.

Sleep came quickly that night, and the sunrise, all too soon. He left the inn with breakfast in his pocket and headed to the docks. He had already sold his horse, his riding gear, and anything he couldn’t carry. The morning was foggy, and the overhead clouds meant it wouldn’t clear up soon.

At the docks stood four adventurers: an adult man, two young men, and a young woman. Farther off, he saw the cloaked figure from the inn, carrying a rucksack over one shoulder and a cloth-wrapped bow over the other. Beside the dock, a ship was being loaded with supplies. It was about a hundred feet long, with triangular sails and two levels below deck.

“You guarding this ship too?” The question came from one of the adventurers, a teenage boy with a short sword and a shield.

“That’s right, I’m Henry. So, I’m guessing the four of you are a party?”

“Fought through thick and thin for over a year now!” said the young woman beside him. Judging by her robes, she appeared to be a mage. “I’m Jen, and this is Pinot, Steven, and Jock.” Steven was taller than Noah and a few years older. He was armed with a crossbow and a confident grin. Jock, the final member, had a thick beard and a mace but looked friendly.

“You folks ever do guard work like this?”

“I’ve guarded ships on the open sea. These three have never guarded anything bigger than a chain of wagons,” said Jock.

“I’ll have you know that those wagons attracted every monster in the area, and we fought tooth and nail to keep them safe,” Steven replied.

“I know. You brag about it in every bar we go to.”

“That’s because it works. Women love adventurers’ scars.”

“The women you meet just love adventurers’ money,” Jen said.

Noah detached himself from the conversation, quickly devolving into an argument that had probably already happened several times in their group. It was ended by a crowd approaching the ship, though most of its members were bound in chains. The cargo shipping to the capital was slaves.

Slavery was common in these lands, though the four adventurers still went silent at their approach, perhaps because of who was leading them. He was a gruff man with a scarred face, missing fingers, and numerous kills under his belt, judging by the look in his one good eye. He approached Noah and the adventurers, accompanied by soldiers to keep the slaves in line.

“I’m going to say this quick. I’m the captain of this vessel, and you don’t need to know my name, but you do need to know my rules.

First rule: none of you go below deck for any reason. I don’t care what falls from the sky, be it rain, hail, snow, or arrows; you stay up top where I can see you.

Second rule: unless I say so, or we come under attack, you will remain at the stern for the duration of this voyage. I don’t want you getting in my men’s way.

Third rule: if we come under attack and I catch one of you trying to hide or avoid the battle, you’re going overboard, either on your own or with your pockets filled with stones.

Fourth rule: you won’t get any food from us, so I hope you packed well for your sake.

Fifth rule: your job is to guard my ship, my men, and my cargo, and should any of them receive so much as a scratch, I will hold all of you responsible. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Captain,” said Jock, the only one to reply.

Men, women, and children were brought below deck, and Noah noticed something as they passed by. Many of them weren’t entirely human. Animalistic features, such as tails, scales, feathers, and pointed ears decorated many of their bodies. Beastmen, Noah had heard of them before, but this was his first time seeing them in the flesh.

They were the result of humans dabbling in shamanism—magic that channeled the power of nature through the body, allowing the caster to take on animal characteristics. This faith opposed the worship of the elemental deities, adding another level of complication to Uther’s war of expansionism.

Noah, Pinot’s group, and the cloaked figure were the last to get on board, and as the ship left the docks, they took their place in the very back of the deck, out of everyone’s way. There was no current to carry them south, only a persistent wind coming in from the west that filled the sails. Unless something happened, there was nothing for Noah and the other adventurers to do but try to make themselves comfortable for the voyage.

Noah glanced at the stranger from the corner of his vision, keeping their distance from everyone else and not making any movements, allowing them to blend in perfectly and slip from people’s memory. He had watched them since he arrived at the docks, noting their actions. The large hood did well in hiding their face, and what it couldn’t conceal, they compensated for by subtly turning their head or looking away from everyone else, controlling what angles they were seen from. Even Noah had barely caught a glimpse of their complexion, and the gloves on their hands offered no clue.

Whoever they were, they were good at avoiding detection, which, ironically, interested Noah. Stealth measures allowed one to hide from those weaker than themselves, but it drew the attention of those with equal or greater skill.

“So, Henry, what brings you down to the capital?” Jen asked, pulling his focus from the stranger.

“I’m just traveling, you?”

“The three of us are enlisting in the Utheric Knight Academy.”

‘Now we’re talking,’ Noah thought. Information on the academy had been spotty during his travels, so meeting these youngsters was a stroke of luck.

“This will actually be our second attempt,” said Pinot.

“What, did you get kicked out or something?”

“You could say that. None of us managed to pass the screening program last year. That’s how we met. We decided we would train together and give it another shot.”

“What’s the screening program?”

“Well the only way to get in is to receive a letter of recommendation from a noble,” said Steven, “but there isn’t a limit on how many letters they can give out, so plenty of lower-ranked nobles will back a large number of applicants in the hope of increasing their influence and power. The academy needs to weed out the weaker ones or else they’ll be overwhelmed.”

“What did they have you do?”

“Tests of strength and mana, that kind of stuff. Ugh, I still remember the laughs of those rich kids when I was given the boot,” Jen groaned.

“Most nobles send their own kids if they can, but the upper-ranked don’t have any kind of screening. It’s more like they just buy their way in.”

“Not true,” said Jock. “The situation is improving from how it used to be. The academy was originally founded for noble houses to earn prestige and titles, or at least something to brag about. Those who graduated returned home with their ceremonial swords and no real experience. However, when Uther started growing its borders and its list of enemies grew, the regular army could no longer deal with all the internal and external threats, so something had to change.

Around twenty years ago, Sir Adwith Tarnas warned the king that our military strength was severely lacking and that the academy needed reforming. No one knows why the king listened to him, this man who came from nowhere, but authority over the academy was taken from the nobles, and all graduating knights fell under the direct order of the royal family. Likewise, the training methods were drastically harshened to create a new, stronger league of knights to protect Uther.

Fighting on the front lines for king and country turned the knighthood into a more respectable profession, one based on merits and abilities that earned prestige. If not for that, the nobles would have pulled all support from the program or outright rebelled into a civil war. Just opening it to the public on the condition of being backed by a noble nearly started a bloody coup.

Instead, it galvanized them into making their children as skilled and powerful as possible before reaching the academy. Their parents wanted to give them a head start for when they became knights and made names for themselves. No one, not even future dukes and duchesses, can get in and graduate without adequate abilities. Still, the great families fight tooth and nail to hold onto their influence in the academy to get their children preferential treatment.”

“Is this common knowledge or should I applaud that explanation?” Noah asked, prompting Jock to chuckle.

“This year, things are really getting exciting,” said Pinot. “I heard one of the Zodiac twins is going to be teaching, so anybody who’s anybody is going to try to get in and train under them.”

Noah remembered when he arrived at Took and how crowded it had been. Most of those adventurers were probably like him, riding the channel down to the capital to enter the academy. He looked over to the hooded figure, sitting away from the others and keeping so still that it was easy to forget they were there. Perhaps they were also planning on entering the academy as well. He then noticed they were up to something.

It was done with little movement, pulling a small bottle out of their robes and letting the dark liquid inside spill onto the deck. Noah cast both of his spells and got up with his clone saving his space and giving everyone the impression he was still there. The figure didn’t sense Noah’s approach or see the liquid on his fingers as he examined it. It was blood, but from what?

Should he rock the boat on the chance that this is something dangerous, or see what comes next and enjoy the ride? He had made his choice before he even came over. He returned to his spot and canceled his spells without anyone suspecting his movements. He kept the stranger in the corner of his view, curious about what would happen next.

Several hours after leaving Took, a wordless snarl echoed from above, drawing all gazes to an ogre standing at the top of a nearby cliff. It glared at everyone on board with its single hate-filled eye, then put a horn to its mouth and released a thunderous bellow that swept across the landscape.

“Steven!” Pinot yelled.

“I know!” he replied, raising his crossbow and taking aim.

Before he could shoot, an arrow was planted in the ogre’s chest, and Noah turned to the stranger, armed with a bow like none he had ever seen before. It was made of a material he couldn’t identify, forming web-like struts that gave it the shape of a compound bow. Two large monster talons extended from the ends like Karambit knives.

“More will be coming,” the stranger said. It was the voice of a woman.

“Captain,” said Noah, “if you have any tricks to make this ship move faster, now’s the time to use them.”

Gripping the steering wheel with his knobby hands, the captain shouted to his men. “Extend the oars! Put the slaves to work!”

Below deck, the slaves lined up on benches with their hands bound to long oars extending out of the ship’s sides. They began rowing with all their strength out of fear of getting beaten. Noah could hear shouts and roars from either side of the channel. Their enemies had the high ground.

Noah turned to the young woman and conjured his bow from within his ring. “You take port, and I’ll take starboard. Steven, if any of them try to swim towards the ship, you deal with them. Can any among you use magic?”

“I can use offensive and defensive water magic at medium range,” said Jen.

“Then you, Pinot, and Jock will fight any that manage to get on board. Here they come.”

Alongside the channel, the ogres appeared, chasing after the ship with weapons taken from their victims, and arrows soon began to rain down. “Water Shield!” Jen cast, producing a blue magic circle. A protective dome of water formed over her head for her and her friends to hide under.

Noah and the woman moved across the ship’s deck with agile steps to keep from being targeted. Even with arrows falling, Noah’s curiosity made him glance at the woman whenever he could. Her movements were light and trained, similar to his, but she was doing it spontaneously; there was no communication between them, and neither was imitating the other. Interesting.

They countered with arrows of their own, the two only taking a moment to focus each shot. Her speed and accuracy proved her to be the superior archer. She was pulling arrows out of her rucksack and firing them with a speed he had never seen before.

Up above, the ogres were taking hits and retreating from the banks. Anything short of an instant kill failed to stop them, and they had no trouble keeping up with the ship. The captain kept the ship sailing down the direct middle of the channel, his one eye swerving back and forth between the narrowing sides. They were passing through the roots of a mountain, where the bedrock was exposed. When the land cracked open, the areas with more soil widened with time because of erosion, but the cliffs were closing in here.

Now in range, the ogres began throwing spears and stones, each impact damaging the ship. The captain ordered his men to go below deck, though Noah and the others had to fend off these predators. It became all the more difficult when some ogre’s lucky arrow struck Noah in the back of the leg.