Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

Wulf ran to Ján's side and knelt beside him. He pushed Ján onto his back, and looked for breathing. The boy's chest didn't move. He reached for Ján's neck and felt for a pulse. Nothing.

Wulf shut his eyes and leaned back, then fell onto his hands. There were [Healers], and sometimes, they knew how to shock the newly-dead back to life with a Skill…but Wulf wasn't a healer. He could try to move Ján, but no way was he getting the body out of the canyon like this, and not in time to get help.

He stayed completely silent and stared forward blankly. His fingers went numb, then his head, and though he wasn't dressed for the late night chill, he didn't move.

After a few minutes, maybe hours, someone appeared behind him and set a hand down on his shoulder.

"Hrothen, are you alright?" It was Dr. Langold's voice. Footsteps sounded, snow crunched, and others ran around. A professor placed a hand on Ján's chest, then felt for a pulse, and reached the same conclusion: Ján was dead.

Wulf blinked for what felt like the first time in hours, and a furnace blazed in his chest. "It was Umoch—"

"I know," Langold said. "His friend came clean and warned us."

"Where is he?" Wulf pushed up to his feet. An old, righteous rage blazed in his limbs, and he clenched his fists. "Where—"

"Mr. Hrothen…" Langold warned, holding out a hand.

Wulf pushed through the headmaster's arm and marched toward the ravine wall.

"Wulf!" Langold snapped. "You must listen to me carefully. We know the truth of the situation, but it shall not get out. It shall not leave this ravine. Everything that happened tonight was an accident. Ján left the academy boundaries, and a wild widowlob chased him into a ravine, where he died—and where you found him."

"That's not true!" Wulf snapped.

"I am aware. But unless you want to encourage the Fletchers to alter the account against you, to make this look even worse, you'd best play along." He crossed his arms. "Umoch's friend told me of your deal with him. If you want revenge, you need to play your cards right. For your bravery tonight, you will receive an extra helping of mana-water every week, and I suspect you earned a Mark for this."

Wulf hadn't even checked. Ján had been more important.

"Get stronger than him, Wulf, and help me get that little bastard out of our school. He and his family cannot fight a Field pact, no matter how much political influence they have. If you want to avenge Ján, then get Umoch out of this school."

Wulf blinked slowly. The anger didn't fade. It wouldn't; that he knew well enough. But the longer he stared forward, the more his fists loosened, and the cooler his head became. He began shivering.

"Go back to your dorms. Clean yourself up, and do what you have to," Langold said. "I know you may hate me for this, but in time, you'll understand."

~ ~ ~

On the way back, Wulf had enough wit remaining to collect his supplies. He stored his flask in his haversack, then snapped off the widowlob's fangs when no one was looking. They still contained a great many doses of venom, which he would need in potion-making.

Then, reluctantly, he marched back to the Academy, turning his back on Ján.

~ ~ ~

Wulf didn't sleep. He may have cleaned himself up, but he couldn't go back to his dorm yet. He just wasn't tired.

He sat in the common room well into the night. It was empty, though the brazier still burned, and he warmed himself beside it.

Mostly, he just stared forward, unable to break his gaze on the flickering flames or the wall behind.

But nearly halfway through the night, he became aware of a presence behind him. Maybe he heard the footsteps, the thud of callused feet on stone, or the click of claws and the swaying of clothes. His mind didn't register that he heard it, only that someone was there.

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By the sound of the footsteps, he was pretty sure it was Kalee.

When she placed a hand on his shoulder, he finally knew it was her. Not exactly a gentle touch, but it was unmistakably her hand. She didn't say anything—probably had experience with this, just like he did.

After a few more minutes, with neither of them moving, he whispered, "It shouldn't be like this. I've seen it before. I've lost comrades before…I've seen Ján die before."

"Things have changed," Kalee whispered back. "You've changed, and I'm pretty sure I have, too."

"For the first time in…forever, I wish I had my old powers back," he whispered. "I wish I was a simple stone mage, with the strength to pound Umoch to a pulp."

"You didn't want your powers?" she whispered.

"Turns out, the climb is more satisfying than the power itself," he said. "I told myself I'd be happy when I reached Iron, but I wasn't. I told myself I'd be happy once I had ten Marks. I wasn't. I was happiest while working toward them, moving myself forward…" He shook his head. "Only now do I actually wish I had my powers back, appreciate what they were, when I need them. Ironic."

After a few more seconds, he asked, "You heard what happened?"

He leaned on the back of the chair, and her warmth radiated on the back of his neck. "I heard what happened. Irmond and Seith are coming."

Wulf nodded.

"Don't push us away again," she whispered. "We're here to help you."

"I won't," he replied, leaning back in the chair. A couple of his messy strands of hair brushed her chin. "But…Kalee, I…"

"Don't do that. You know it wasn't your fault."

"Don't worry." He sighed. "I've had my fill of blaming myself for my comrades' deaths."

Still, he shouldn't've have made Ján sign a Field pact. That sealed Ján's fate.

No, he insisted mentally. The blame is on Umoch. You couldn't have known.

"They chose," Kalee echoed his thoughts. "It's the Fletchers who did this, and you know it. They could've turned back. Nothing was making them kill him."

"And I know how to get my revenge," he replied.

"That doesn't sound like the advice you gave me," Kalee replied. "About revenge, that is."

"I'm not going to hurt him," Wulf said. "Not physically. I'm going to win our bargain, whatever it takes. The sting will fade eventually, but…it won't go away. But most of all, Umoch won't be able to do this to anyone else. He'll lose everything."

Kalee nodded. "I…I'm not sure if I'd be able to do the same."

"We'll see. I get the feeling that you'll have a chance to prove yourself in the coming years." He leaned his head forward. "I'm our Pilot, by class or not. And it doesn't matter if I want to—I will lead by example."

After a few more minutes of silence, Irmond and Seith burst in, but they didn't say anything. By the time morning came, Wulf was truly exhausted, and he was certain the others felt the same, but they didn't complain. They just sat around the brazier, keeping a silent vigil for Ján.

Wulf pushed himself up finally, and said, "I know what I have to do. I can't stop improving, now. I'm going to keep advancing, and when it comes time to leave for Clegghold, we still have to help. Nothing about that can change."

"You're not like…going after him?" Irmond asked.

"I'm not." Wulf shook his head. "He probably wants that, anyway. He wants me to give them a reason, just one more slight misstep. Then they'll kick me out. No, I'll play by the rules, and I'll destroy Umoch with the pact we made. That means I need to get stronger. Much stronger."

~ ~ ~

Over the next few days, Wulf experimented with making primal material. Creating xerion had, so far, been the largest boost to his rank, but aside from the mana gains, he needed the resources. After all, he still needed a weapon.

Stealing the chaos from potions worked decently. And the stronger the potion, the more primal material he drew from it.

But potions weren't the only poisonous substances.

Or venomous. He doubted the Field made a distinction.

Sure enough, he drew the chaos from the widowlob's venom with ease. At least thirty units of chaos swirled in his hand, burning and popping against the surface of his skin—even with his enhanced resistance. He poured crystals of primal material out of the fang and onto a flattened steelglass ingot that he was using as his workstation. Then, when they had formed up completely into primal material crystals, he pumped the chaos back into them, converting most of it back to venom.

But, same as before, not all of it wanted to change back. He stored the un-bent (it wasn't part of his will) xerion back in a test tube.

While he worked with the primal material and xerion, he also continued expanding his mana well, using the constructs Kalee and Seith had provided. To do that, he drank a pure poisonous potion, made from the blood of the colossal fiends.

That, of course, would've killed a regular human. Hell, it would've killed a regular Middle-Coal Ascendant. But after his fight with the widowlob, he'd earned a new Mark:

[Look the Widow in the Eyes] You showed no fear in the presence of a widowlob's venom. Your resistance to all poisons and venoms has greatly increased.

Now, his basic nausea, sickness, and blindness potions had no effect on him. He could drink them freely, with no side-effects whatsoever.

He just had to do all this a couple thousand more times.

It was a good thing he had a few months left.