Aether sighed, taking out Voidpiecer from the body of the dire.

[You have-]

‘I know, I know, just shut up.’

Looking around, you could see the bodies of many other beasts.

Aether glanced at Kade, who had just finished off a monster on his own.

The boy had come a long way ever since he got that blade. But it was hard comparing a wooden blade to an actually well-crafted blade, or rather, mediocre; it wasn’t that good. But it was enough for the boy.

Even if the blade wasn’t that powerful, his Will helped him a lot; it made the blade deal a lot more damage, not to mention it burned his enemies, which proved to be really helpful.

It made him wonder if the boy had a blade as strong as Voidpiecer; how strong would he be? After all, soul poison alongside burn, it was a pretty strong combination, as the burn weakened the body, which of course meant the soul also became weaker, making the poison more powerful.

“Kade, can you skin some of them? We can sell their fur. Winter has started, and people are going to buy clothing, so we can make some good money from selling the material.”

Kade glanced at him and nodded before taking out a knife from his backpack.

In the meantime, Aether sat down on a rock nearby, cleaning the blood of his blade.

It has been around two weeks since they decided to live in the Wilderness, and it has been going quite well for them. They had saved up six hundred embers; well, half of those were from his ‘selling his mantle,’ but he could only do the trick one time, as the rumors had probably already spread around.

The other half of them had gotten from doing some jobs and selling materials from the beasts they killed.

Plus, they had also spent money, so it wasn’t like it was all they got.

However, some of their money was going to be gone soon. After all, Winter was coming.

Luckily for him, his mantle was probably better than anything in the market at keeping him warm because of its ability. Of course, he knew that in cold zones, he would probably still be freezing, but that is probably the case for most people.

Which, if you think about it, you have to wonder just how cold it got, for a relic of the Bearer rank to not be able to keep up?

But that wasn’t the problem, Kade; he needed something to keep him warm.

And they were probably going to be expensive.

Aether sighed, looking at the sky.

‘We should soon head towards the next piece…’

But were they prepared to do so? They were lucky the first was close to them, so they didn’t have to navigate the Wilderness that much; however, even then, they came across a very powerful thread.

And not to mention the thing that was guarding the piece, what if the next also had guardians, stronger than the one he faced? After all, the further you went inside Stromfell, the more likely you were to die, which was funny, because most die at the beginning of this place.

However… they were stronger.

Knowledge Rank — [Echo]

>1264/2000- knowledge shard

It didn’t seem like he had gained that many shards, but he had gained over one hundread shard in these two weeks, and while it was true that he had fought many monsters, in the first week he hardly fought, since his hand didn’t allow him.

Of course, after it healed enough, he did try to regain the lost time, but still, he had gained all these shards in mostly a week.

Was he still far away from ranking up… duh? There were still over seven hundred shards that he still had to get, but at the same time, he wasn’t that focused on getting to ranking up. Did he want to get shards so he got stronger, yes, but not to rank up.

Even if he got to the shard requirement, he wouldn’t be able to do it.

The Beast rank is the first of many important ranks in the Knowledge system. To ascend to it, it’s not as simple as it was with the Echo rank. The Beast rank requires the killing instinct of an animal, of a beast.

He had no idea how his instinct stacked up to this so-called beast killing instinct, but it was better to think that he didn’t have it yet; that way, he didn’t just leave it out of his progression.

After Beast, the next important point in Demon, which needs a destruction instinct instead of a Killing instinct, which again he didn’t know how to reach.

But it’s not like it’s something a Reader should be thinking about; he wasn’t sure, but if he had to say, there has probably not been one Reader who had reached that rank before going up in class.

Even getting to beast, for a Reader, it was unheard of.

But of course, what would you expect in a society where most who are able to rank up get help, and are hardly able to get any shards? Most start killing when they reach the Seeker class.

‘Wonder if that would have been the case for me too…’

If though about it, the Codex was really a corrupted system, funny.

But it was always this way; it favoured the rich, the nobles.

After all, royalty was able to awaken early… of course, it wasn’t because it was a rule in the Codex, but rather because one of their parents was a Breaker, and it wasn’t like an early awakening helped that much, as even if you awaken as a child, you can’t use your abilties, it was why so many things were locked up when he was nine.

He also wondered, just how many Bearers or even Harbingers have been artificially made, in the sense of being carried through Books and trials.

He knew that the Codex didn’t award a lot of sync if you didn’t do anything, but it was pretty easy to go around this rule.

And to think that such a flawed system was created by the guards, what were they even doing?

‘Make a better system next time.’

…

“Wait, are you talking to me? I didn’t partake in making the Codex, dumbass.”

The Abyss said, a little irritated.

Which made Aether chuckle.

Kade also finally finished getting all the fur.

“You want me to carry the backpack today?”

The kid glanced at him with a relieved smile on his face.

“That would be nice.”

But of course he would, he has been carrying this backpack for three days straight now.

“Do you think we should head to the next shard?”

The boy stretched his body, especially his shoulders and back, which had been the most affected by the constant weight that was put on them.

“I mean, why not. It’s probably going to be pretty far away, so it’s good to make some ground. Plus, I think were prepared, either for whatever is there, or the path to the shard itself.”

He was right, it would be good to make ground, even if they weren’t focused entirely on going there, they could make some progress while making stops and all the things they did now.

“Alright then its settled.”

Kade nodded.

“Also, don’t you think a map might help us? Maybe we can find one that gives us a view of the whole Stormfell, and if not, at least of what’s close, so we can prepare.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, plus, they had to make a stop either way, to get food and probably some clothes for Kade, and the map probably wouldn’t cost that much.

“Why not. When we reach the next city, we will split the money, and you will buy some food, and I will go find a map, and some clothes for the winter.”

…

…

Really, because of how many villages and small cities they have seen until now, he had gotten bored with them. They haven’t come across one of the important ones inside of Stormfell, so they have been stuck in these small cities.

Aether looked around the city until he found a rundown building.

“Fallen Maps? What kind of name is that?” The owner probably thought it was genius to use the Fell inside of Stormfell from their store, but it seems like it didn’t work that well, as the shop looked close to going bankrupt.

‘Well its not like it would find another with the condition this one is in.’

Inside Aether, an old man was found, who looked covered in dust.

“Another kid? I don’t have time for you guys, just get out-“

“I wanted to buy a map of Stomfell, or if not, one with the zones close to this point.”

The man looked at his surprise, even confused, almost as if he didn’t expect him to want to buy a map.

…

…

“A shithole that place was.” Said Aether, after leaving the shop.

He hadn’t been able to get a map of the whole of Stormfell, but it was to be expected, given the sheer size, but he had gotten one of the regions nearby.

Opening the map, he matched the direction of the compass to the map, allowing him to see what they would cross next on their journey to the next shard…

…

“A… desert?”

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