CHAPTER 32: NOVICE TWO

The rattling continued for a few minutes before Charon had the energy to get up.

He pushed himself to his feet and looked down at the chains crossing his chest. They were jangling by themselves, wiggling across his chest like a snake.

Now that he was focusing on them, he realized his whole robe was moving.

The fabric jerked and bent, shifting up his legs, chest, and arms, as if it were feeling itself out.

’What’s up with the Warden?’

Then he heard a new voice in his head, booming out with uncontrollable intensity.

’Awake!’

Charon fell to his knees, clutching his ears as the word exploded across his mind.

Instantly, he looked at Red, confused at why she would attack him so suddenly.

To his shock, she was staring back, her mouth agape. She was shaking profusely, and Annie was struggling to hold her upright while speaking.

"What’s wrong, Red?"

The scarlet-haired girl didn’t respond and just turned to look at Annie before stabilizing herself. She shot one last glance at Charon before descending the hill to stand by Liam, who was busy wiping the blood off his arms.

He watched her go, perplexed at everything going on.

’Did she not cause-’

His thoughts were interrupted as the voice returned, still loud but more bearable.

’Sorry.’

Charon’s eyes instantly flicked to Red, but she was distracted with helping Liam to his feet.

’So it wasn’t her, but who else could it be?’

The chains on his chest jerked again, his robes fluttering with them. A fresh draft of wind caressed his body, cooling him down.

Realization dawned on him.

’Warden? Is that you?’

The voice returned, now almost too quiet to hear.

’Yes.’

A wide smile split his face, ecstatic at the thought of his first summon gaining sentience.

’You’re finally awake! What caused this? How are you able to speak with me now?’

This time, the voice was far more pleasant, not being too loud or too soft to understand.

’Rank.’

It was a simple response, but it explained the recent surge of energy.

’So I ranked up! That makes me Novice Two now! It must have ranked the Warden up as well, and given him the ability to talk and move.’

It was a huge advancement, made all the better depending on the answer to the next question.

’Does this mean you can use your abilities now?’

Seconds passed in tense silence, Charon growing slightly worried that the Warden had expended all of its energy, but a response came eventually.

’Yes.’

The answer made Charon so happy he was liable to start dancing on the spot.

’Yes, yes, yes! Finally! Now I can finally start using my summon in combat!’

Although he no longer had a holopad, he distinctly remembered the effects of the Warden’s abilities.

’One of them referred to blocking the energy within my enemies, and the other was something related to defense. Having access to those will change everything!’

After just having gone through a battle, Charon was overjoyed at having more options for the next one.

Smiling from ear to ear, he looked over and froze, seeing Emerius and Darius lying still on the hillside.

’Shit! I forgot about everyone else!’

Rushing to his companion’s side, he checked his pulse again to make sure he was still breathing. Feeling the steady beat, he moved and checked Darius’s as well, happy to find he was also alive.

He sighed, looking over at Annie and Red helping Liam stand.

The giant warrior stared back, a strange look in his eyes.

With pained movements, he shrugged the girls off and stepped towards Charon. His waraxe was left on the grass behind him, but the huge muscles covering his arms and chest made him no less intimidating.

He approached with purpose, every step causing a light thud in the hillside.

Charon gulped, worried about what the man might do.

’Is he upset I didn’t get involved until the end? Is he less restrained now that Darius is unconscious? Or did Red tell him I was considering whether to run or not?’

As he had those thoughts, Liam finally made it close enough to grab him, his hand extending.

Wincing away, Charon opened his eyes to see the giant’s hand held out, inviting a handshake.

"I didn’t think you had it in ya, but you actually managed to kill a few of them shits. Without that, I might’ve lost my head. They ain’t strong, but they are vicious."

Momentarily stunned, Charon met the hand with his own, giving it a slight squeeze and shake.

By comparison, Liam half-crushed his own limb, yanking it up and down with vigor.

His eyes teared up, and his cheeks turned red as he bit back a scream.

Seeming to notice, Liam let him go, taking a step away.

"Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt ya. Seems your bravery outweighs your strength. Don’t worry about that, I’ll get you fixed up real fast."

Liam grinned menacingly, but there wasn’t as much malice in it as he expected.

Charon looked down at the two bodies and then at the nearby hills.

"What do we do with them? We can’t just leave them here, can we?"

Liam shook his head.

"Ain’t our decision to make. That’s up to princess over there."

He jerked his thumb behind him at Annie.

Peering over at the beautiful girl, he saw her glance back before approaching, a frown on her lips.

"We will have to make camp here for the night. Given the size of the ratling packs, they were probably the dominant predator for at least a few miles. We should be safe for the night."

Charon’s eyebrows knit together.

"Only one night? Will they be awake by then? I’ve never seen this happen before."

She nodded.

"It will be for Emerius, at least. His ability is very mana-intensive. He will be suffering the mana-withdrawal effects for a few hours, but after that, he should be fine. As for your friend, I couldn’t say."

She seemed to hesitate before continuing.

"It’s not good that they were forced to use magic so early in the journey. It will be a while before they can safely do so again. We will need to be more careful in our movements."

Charon listened intently, doing his best to memorize the new lesson on magic.

’So if you overuse your mana, you lose consciousness until it regenerates. It seems simple enough, but why wasn’t stuff like this in the hero stories? Surely they faced similar difficulties.’

Another, more pertinent, question also ran through his mind.

"Why did you and Liam not use your abilities during the fight?"

Her eyes darted away for a second, and she started fidgeting with her arm.

"Liam’s first ability is a passive effect that lets him regenerate his energy through killing things, so he was using it already. His second, however, would have been too dangerous to use while we were nearby."

’So that’s why he didn’t look tired!’

The second ability also answered a question of his, particularly about why Emerius seemed worried at the mention of a Blood Reaver.

’So he can do something strong, but it can’t be controlled. If he is a blood mage, does he go into a blood rage? Attacking everything around him?’

It certainly fit the image.

It was all too easy to envision Liam losing all control, charging around with his waraxe and attacking everything that moved.

"What about yours?"

She turned away, shame flashing through her eyes.

"I can’t use it yet."

Charon’s head snapped back, disbelief crossing his face, followed by a wry grin.

"That’s a lot better than I thought! I was expecting some kind of revelation that your ability would cost your own life force, or it needed some rare resource."

He wasn’t even sure if abilities could necessitate those things, but as far as he knew, magic could manifest as anything.

She chuckled, the sound high-pitched. It made Charon’s heart skip a beat.

"No, nothing like that! Darius thinks that my rank is too low to have the mana required to use it."

He smiled at her, happy to be having a normal conversation.

"Why didn’t you try and fight the stragglers, then? Surely ranking up is a priority for you."

It was a bit of an odd question to ask why someone wasn’t throwing themselves at the sword-wielding rat monsters, but if his first ability was locked beyond a battle, he would have been all too happy to charge in swinging.

’Ironically, it kind of was, and I didn’t know it.’

She sighed, her freckled cheeks slightly puffing as she breathed in.

"I don’t have a relic. Without one, anything I kill won’t help me advance at all. I used to have a few, but none were soulbound. We got attacked a month back and had to abandon camp, including the relics I was keeping there."

The thought of losing multiple relics at once boggled Charon’s mind.

’I was happy to just have one, and she lost multiple? I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I recovered them all!’

He also noted the tidbit of information she provided; you could only rank up if you were using a relic, which helped explain why he had never heard about them.

’The churches probably monopolize them and don’t let information leak.’

His brow furrowed as he had another thought.

’Or maybe I just didn’t learn about them because I lived in the outer ring. I bet they are common knowledge where Emerius is from.’

His shoulders sagged as he exhaled.

’So much more to learn...’