The New Bond

Aster

I looked over the barren landscape. Most of the vegetation was small bushes and grass that dotted across the rocky surface of the mountain's base. I personally thought it was a bit bleak and would look better in winter when snow covered the ground and hills, but the cool air that flowed down and across the hills and past our camp was worth the lack of trees.

We were at the northernmost point of Karvum land, where no one lived. The possibility of farming was out with how rocky the soil was and with a lack of any nearby dungeons to fuel the economy. The abundance of grade three and higher monsters also made the area all the more dangerous.

To my side, Kat shivered, which reminded me that the temperature here was also unbearable to most.

“This place is amazing.”

“This place is terrible.”

We paused as we both spoke, then laughed until a shadow passed overhead. Umbra was returning from her flight. In the past two days since we had arrived, she had done nothing but fly, stretching her wings and building up the muscles that had dwindled. I didn't blame her and, in fact, encouraged it. With her size, she was finally big enough to support a person my size, which meant she would be able to carry me. I turned around, looking down to where Graves had made the camp we lived in. With only six humans and Umbra, the camp wasn't very big, with four tents and a campfire next to a small river, but it would be my home for the remaining months until the event.

That was another thing; the hesitancy Kat had telling people about the token didn't apply to Graves, and she had told him everything we knew. It led to the discovery of the fact the tokens couldn't be given away to anyone, with the token disappearing and reappearing in a pocket or storage later.

“You know Graves is going to do everything he can to prepare me for the event and, by extension, you. Even as dangerous as it seems, he says it can't be missed. I don't know what his initial plan was, but it's obviously changed.” Kat said as she sat on the ground, her new winter clothes blending in with the rock.

We were wearing almost identical clothes, thick jackets, and pants with fur stitched on the inside to keep warmth in. Her clothes were reinforced with chainmail that had been fitted in between the fabrics, and a series of runes added that reduced the weight and made the fabric harder to rip. My clothes lacked the chain mail and were probably a spare pulled out of storage, but I also had the flight suit under my clothes, which gave me extra protection.

I shrugged at their words. “I haven't been told much and feel like I wasn't expected to join until the last minute, but I can't really complain. It beats staying at the academy with Umbra stuck in the tower.” My response was the truth. I didn't really know the full extent of what was going on and honestly didn't care. From what had been told to me, there was going to be a lot of learning about skills, monster hunting, and weapons practice. All things that I needed and wanted to do. Reaching grade two was only a few high-level monster kills away, after all.

Kat shook her head, and her voice grew a bit angry. “Aster, you could have been killed by the people who showed up before Uncle Graves! If you didn't accept coming with us, there's no telling what could have happened. While you're not a prisoner or anything of the sort you don't seem to understand what's happened the past few days or the position you're in.” She gave me a serious, almost exasperated look.

“People have tried to kill you multiple times, probably because you're an important person. There's never been a human child of a Grand beast, and no one knows what it means. If you don't get stronger, then you're not going to be able to explore the world like you want. I know you don't care for politics, but you need to understand how, no offense, normal people think.”

I sighed, rubbing an ear as the tip of it burnt with a bit of shame.

“She's right. There's a lot we still don't know and need to learn,” Umbra said through the bond, and I groaned.

“I know, I know, But I can't just not be who I am. Acting like everything they do is normal to me isn't exactly easy.”

I felt understanding through the bond, and I knew she understood where I was coming from. Looking up at the sky and then at Kat, I nodded. “I'll do my best, but it hasn't even been a year, Kat, and already I feel like it makes even less sense, but I know, and I'm trying.”

Our short conservation came to an end as someone made their way out of a tent below and turned his head towards us, Graves. He didn't rush as he made his way up the hill, instead seeming to take his time and passed a moment as he reached us before he spoke

“Let us get started.”

Kulni

Kulni was out on a hunt with her pack in a sized-down version of her true self when the note appeared near her. She had felt the rift in the fabric of mana, but the size and runes in the object didn't provide enough of a threat to worry her about stopping it, even if it was an annoyance. In truth, she wasn't really worried about anything in this realm, a realm where not even a fraction of runes were refined enough to pose a slight threat. She blinked in surprise when another movement in the mana resulted in a second note falling near her feet, and she found her curiosity was piqued.

Still, she had to spend the time changing form to pick the notes up and, with a thought, sent the other wolves she had been with ahead. Popping the seal of the Kingdom, read it, frowning. The Kingdom was at least honest when it made a mistake, but preventing a bonded dragon from leaving a small area was an excellent way to create problems.

Before she let her mind jump to conclusions and worry about Aster, she cracked open the other piece of folded parchment that lacked an emblem on the seal. This letter wasn't nearly as official as the first, and the writing had no elegance, but it had her smile, and as she finished it, she started to laugh. She had no clue who had sent the letter to her, but there was no mistaking that Aster had written it.

Kluni's laugh sent birds flying and various prey running in every direction. Storing both notes, she felt a grin form on her face as she let the skill holding her human form end, returning to her true shape.

Her daughter had been out less than a year and had already met royalty from both countries, almost been killed twice by means outside her ability to handle, had run a dungeon, and started on one of the only meaningful paths that the academy had, which was the path of runes, found a token for the realm event and so much more.

While she was proud of her, she wouldn't directly interfere in Aster's life until she returned or asked for help, probably a trait she had picked up from her parents. Still, having someone seeming set on killing her daughter couldn't be accepted, and she would have to deal with them, even if in a less personal way. Having them disappear would be fine.

As she moved into a sprint, she wondered what her daughter would do once this little realm was forced into its proper place. Any way things went, it seemed her daughter would be making quite a bit of noise.

Void

Void felt anticipation as he watched the tokens he created spread about, claimed by those in grade one and two who had quests and found them as dungeon rewards. He didn't much care who took the tokens. The rune script he had written would sort that out. Those that died with his tokens before entering his event disappointed him, but there would always be those who got a token without deserving it. Turning his head, he looked at another screen that always stayed active.

It was the screen that had access to the proper realm and, with it, the up-to-date system where his tokens were just now being claimed. While rewards for the two realms would be vastly different because of their difference in current system patches, it would be fixed when the realm was finally strong enough to forge itself back together and reclaim what had been split from it during the war.

While this job was almost done, the fun was just getting started. As a god who, in the past, visited various realms that the system had opened up, he had plenty to work with to create an event never seen before, even if his domain was a bit more specific than other gods.

Void was a god that didn't interact with the races, at least not before the realm was split. Now that he had been chosen to fix it and left for so long alone to do the work, he found the idea of speaking to even the lesser races almost irresistible.

As the seconds ticked down on his mental clock, he felt his anticipation grow even more. Since he was finally returning, he had a chosen to pick.