Timeless Prominence

It was high noon, and nothing could hide from the bright sun high in the sky. A young man dressed in a frontally-knotted black outfit appeared a short distance away from a city with high walls and towers. This was none other than Rein.

Travelers who saw the figure rubbed their eyes in confusion-- the young man had seemingly flashed into existence from nothing. However, the number who saw the sight were few and all of them simply discarded it as a trick of the eyes.

Rein looked down at the odd compass in his hands. To his dismay, the needle did not point towards the city, but instead pointed towards a location to southwest of him-- likely somewhere south of the city, an area occupied by a rather ominous-looking range of mountains.

The reason for his dismay was simple. Rein had long grown up used to a rather luxurious bed, and going into a city would definitely give him a higher chance of that. His pouch of bronze and copper medallions that he had rescued from that fallen devil beauty would allow him to afford a mediocre level of comfort, for a time.

He coalesced with the other travelers on the path that led towards the city. Quite obviously, he did not wish to attract any sort of attention with his origin skill-- especially not with the potential risk of linking him with the incident at Wolf Syrup Town in addition to his fear of becoming a target of advancers unknown to him.

Looking around, Rein wanted to find a source of information. Although the compass pointed towards a location southwest of him, he still wanted to locate himself-- he had followed the compass’ hand, and had lost track of his exact position despite his geographical knowledge of the Minhr Nation.

The surrounding travelers consisted of people from all walks of life. Some were well-dressed in gaudy fashion, others in rags. A few rode horses, some even rich enough to travel in luxurious caravans.

Regardless of their circumstances, all these travelers were coming to the city in search of something.

He sidled over to a young man amongst the travelers. The young man was robust and covered under a red cloak, with a thick shortsword hanging by his side. Moving closer, Rein could also see a slightly worn leather armor peeking out from under the red cloak. Combined with a tanned skin, Rein could tell that this young man, slightly older than himself, was a kind of martial artist.

Rein hooked the fingers of his two hands together in greeting. The red cloaked young man appeared surprised, being brought out of his own reverie. But, he too, quickly responded with a greeting and a smile after noticing Rein was of similar age to himself.

“Fellow traveler. My name is Rein. May I know the name of the city ahead of us?”

The red-cloaked young man, as well as a few in the vicinity that heard Rein’s question, looked rather bemused. Many had traveled far and wide to enter a city and someone did not even know the name of this city?

The red-cloaked young man, although confused, appeared quite happy to so quickly find someone the same age as him.

“Seeker Rein. My name is Chirh, from the family of Jirn. This is the Green Trout City.” Chirh hesitated for a heartbeat before adding, “so named because it started off as a prime location to fish for the green trout delicacy from the Green Gilded River.”

Rein exclaimed in surprise, further drawing funny looks from those around. By following the compass, he had traveled past quite a few towns. He had only acquired his origin skill, and did not have an accurate assessment of how much distance he could travel in a single night.

He recalled his knowledge of this area. The Green Gilded River’s source was situated in a set of mountain ranges in the wilderness to the Minhr Nation’s west. Although the Green Trout City was not all that close to that wilderness area, it was the largest settlement in the western area of the Minhr Nation. It could be said to be the last civilized region to the western edge of the nation.

Chirh looked up and down Rein’s body shape, noticing that Rein likely practiced martial arts as well. There was also the big hammer tied to Rein’s back. Luckily, the rain had washed off the blood stains off the hammerhead, otherwise Rein would have been immediately reported to authorities.

“Seeker Rein. I came here to join the Hall of Heroes!” Chirh proudly declared. “Is that what you’re here for as well? We are all advancers, seekers of truth, no?”

The Hall of Heroes recruited many advancers to represent them in completing missions that the leaders of each branch regarded as righteous and just. It was said that the Hall of Heroes existed in all major cities of multiple countries in all important realms. Even mortals like Rein had some knowledge of the organization.

That was the limit to his knowledge. Rein had never gone further in his studies of the matter, particularly because he never imagined himself entering the advancer world.

“I am just searching for someone. Unfortunately, I believe he or she is not in this city.” Rein shook his head in reply to Chirh as he gripped tighter onto the magical compass.

Chirh’s initial excitement slightly dimmed. He had hoped to find a few buddies before joining the Hall of Heroes. The Hall of Heroes had many different missions, and it was always best to have teammates that one could trust.

There were many tales of backstabbing on missions, sometimes for riches, fame or more.

Chirh had immediately felt camaraderie with Rein. The slightly confused Rein who did not even know the name of this city could be quite trustworthy.

Of course, this stemmed from a misconception. Rein only did not recognize the city in front of them because he had been following a random compass he had received...

Rein thanked Chirh and bid him farewell. Rein had no intention of entering Green Trout City. Firstly, the compass did not point towards it. Secondly, if the draconic metamorphose bead could be detected.

He fully understood the issue with this bead after the dragon Mystrygon informed him of the possibility of him being identified as a demon beast, due to the bead’s energies having transformed his body’s elemental affinity.

As he left the pack of travelers and veered southwest, he was shocked to discover in a backward glance that a sudden needle-like solid white aurae stabbed into the crowd at the speed of light.

A traveler in the crowd let loose a squeal of pain, transforming into a demon with a fish head. The demon then tried to leap upwards toward the city wall.

An austere female advancer dressed in white robes on the top of the city wall raised her arm and stabbed forward with a finger again, releasing another condensed looking point of silver aurae that struck the fish head demon midair.

The fish head demon fell back into the crowd, and the next moment, the surrounding travelers immediately reacted and stabbed weapons into the demon, ending its life, though its limbs still twitched ever so slightly.

Humans had always seen demons as enemies due to historical incidents of demons consuming humans for their both intelligence and sustenance. Humans brains, especially, had long been considered a delicacy to the demon beasts. It was a common practice to immediately attack these transforming demons that attempted to infiltrate human society.

“Well done!” The austere female on the wall praised as she barely cracked a smile. The city would do well to have citizens that responded quickly to resist any demons-- particularly since many of these travelers might become permanent citizens.

Rein was visibly relieved to have escaped a similar fate to the fish demon, until his heart spasmed on the appearance of a male figure who blocked his path. The male was also dressed in a white robe similar to that austere woman.

Rein could only lament in despair. He wasn’t even interested in entering the city! Were these white-robed figures busybodies that stuck their noses into all affairs?

“Elder has ordered me to test you.” The white robed male then gripped Rein’s wrist with a finger against his pulse. “I will be monitoring your aurae flow. Deceive me and you will die.”

The white robed male said all this in a matter-of-fact manner--this was a daily standard procedure.

“Are you a demon beast?”

When Rein heard this question, he could not help but roll his own eyes at his own nervousness. His mind calmed as he realized that he had already been examined, and only triggered minor suspicion. His truth would stand.

“I am clearly a human,” he confidently replied.

“Are you now?” A silvery voice then interjected. At an unknown time, the austere white-robed female had appeared close by.

Up close, Rein could see that although the male had called her an elder, appearance wise, she looked to be in her thirties with a rosy mature oval face. Of course, as an advancer, she was likely much older, probably in the hundreds. His impression of her as ‘austere’ was formed from the permanent slight frown on her face that iced any that dared to look into her eyes, as well as the controlled and decisive manner in which she acted from the wall.

“I can detect a hint of demon beast aurae from you,” the silvery voice said pointedly. 

“He is telling the truth, elder.” The white robed male informed his superior.

“Hmmm…” The white robed female contemplated for a few heartbeats before then gripping Rein’s wrist herself. “Tell me, why do you have a hint of a demon beast aurae?”

Rein controlled his expression, though internally, his mind raced with nervous abandon. So, his transformation had led to a hint of a demon beast aurae, which was rather likely to increase after full assimilation of the bead. Still, the fact that he hadn’t been promptly executed meant that the austere female could sense his humanity as well. He must be giving off mixed signals.

There was no way Rein could actually escape from these two experienced advancers without causing an uproar. The white-robed lady might be just as strong as the dragon Mystrygon.

“I traveled the Black Wolf Forest not too long ago, and came upon an extremely powerful demon that had changed form into a human. Is there a possibility that that powerful demon is related to its aurae on me?” Rein posited in response.

This was all true. There is a relation between the draconic bead and the dragon Mystrygon.

The white robed lady squinted her eyes. A demon beast powerful enough such that its aurae might affect the youth in front of her? At least, that was how she interpreted Rein’s words.

“And somehow, you, an inner realm mortal, escaped this incredibly powerful demonic beast?” She narrowed her eyes as she pushed for answers.

Rein had fully calmed his mind now, though his heart still beat slightly rapidly. But a rapid heartbeat meant nothing-- who wouldn’t have a faster heartbeat due to slight nervousness in an interrogation?

“To be frank, the demon beast was in a hurry to leave. I saw him jump into a black sphere floating in the sky! He then vanished!”

Once again, this was a true statement. Though, of course, Rein had played a part in it. Mystrygon had used some sort of magical art-- that disgusting breath, to wipe away any residue clues in the area. Rein believed that the austere white-robed lady would discover nothing even if she were to visit the location.

The white-robed lady squinted her eyes. Her finger had been monitoring Rein’s aurae flow, and this told her that Rein had told the truth. There was no way for Rein, an inner advancer, to obscure his flow of aurae and trick her into believing lies as truth, ludicrous as his tale was.

“Investigate this new information!” She ordered the accompanying white-robed male. 

The white-robed male hooked his fingers then immediately left to accomplish his task. Although his steps were rapid and his movement swift, he gracefully and weightlessly floated away.

At this very moment, the white robed lady noticed the compass in Rein’s hand.

Rein’s heart skipped a beat, worried that the lady would notice something suspicious from the compass.

He berated himself for being careless. He should have hidden the compass.

However, when he handed over the compass to the lady, oddly, the compass was now heavier as if it was made of mortal iron instead of its original unique weightless property.

When the lady examined the back of the compass, the original mysterious symbol was no longer there. And when the lady rotated the compass, the needle simply pointed northwards, as all compass needles should.

“Be careful out there, young man.” She handed back the compass. She leapt into the sky, and with a simple extension of a leg, created an eardrum-bursting sonic boom followed by raging gusts that threatened to topple the trees surrounding Rein.

Rein had to close his eyes in response to the sharp wind, and by the time the trees had calmed and Rein could open his eyes safely again, the lady had vanished into the city.

Rein breathed a sigh of relief once he had traveled farther in the southwest direction.

His back was drenched in cold sweat from the interrogation. In that respect, Rein was truly lucky. Even though he had skillfully told the ‘truth’, if that elder advancer was just a tad bit more suspicious… Perhaps Rein was simply too weak and the austere woman believed him to be not much of a threat.

You could say that Rein had successfully flown under the spiritual sense of advancers, harmless to the point of being ignored-- that was Rein’s best method to avoid drawing attention.

On another note, the mysterious compass was truly magical. It was as if the compass knew when to disguise itself through some magical means.

The compass, now back in his hand, had returned to its normal appearance. The needle, too, no longer pointed north, but southwest, regardless of how Rein shook and turned it.

Rein then sighed. His only path forward is to find the mysterious expert that supposedly created this magical compass. Otherwise, it would be impossible to find those responsible for his family, hometown’s massacre, or to even have a chance at saving his younger brother. He needed help in obscuring the hint of demon aurae in his body.

He continued following the needle point while snacking on a crunchy advancer bun that he had pulled out from his travel sack. The stressful interrogation had made his belly ache from nervous hunger, and the hard and chewy texture of this odd advancer type bun helped calm his nerves.

After a quarter of a day, he entered thick woods, at which point, he returned to forming a circle with his two palms and popping across the top of tree branches.

These woods were part of a vast uninhabited mountainous area. In Rein’s memories, this area was called the Bleak Mountains, located a good distance south of the Green Trout City. West of these Bleak Mountains ran the Green Gilded River, but it was currently obscured by the mountain peaks. 

The reason for the name of this mountain range was simple. While the current area that Rein was traveling through had sky-piercing trees with trunks as wide as an elephant’s length, the closer one traveled to the mountain peaks, the more desolate the scenery would become.

The woods he was currently traveling through were thick to the point where Rein would have to walk at a snail’s pace and twist his body like a snake through the trees, unless he traveled on top of the tree branches.

As the jagged peaks of the Bleak Mountains grew larger and larger in Rein’s sight, the vegetation became increasingly thin and lifeless, with leaves and grass turning yellow and brown.

This transition might have occurred quite quickly, but that was because of Rein’s heavenly travel speed with his origin skill.

As for the cause? Many advancer sects were located in ‘paradises’  in the mountainous regions to the west, between the Green Gilded River and the Wilderness. Those areas had abundant aurae and were highly beneficial for advancers trying to improve their advancers' realm.

Some of these sects had surveyed the Bleak Mountains. No one could find the cause of the area’s desolation. The scholars in Rein’s readings could only conclude that something inherently wrong in the Bleak Mountains that made it lifeless.

This was why there were no advancer sects in this area. Instead, it was inhabited by a number of bandit gangs. All of this made Rein rather uncomfortable-- bandits participated in the Golden Desert Town massacre.

Looking around, Rein could see that the woods had become increasingly thin, revealing the  jagged and uneven ground that was coated in an ominous black soil.

As for the rocky areas not covered with soil, the ominous black color instead displayed itself as a messy zigzagging pattern across the surface of the ground.

The sky was now dim and not even the edge of the setting sun could be seen on the horizon to the west anymore.

The odd compass in Rein’s hands started spinning, and Rein sucked in a breath of cold air before looking around with bated breath.

A shadow of a masked man appeared from behind a thin and gray tree trunk. Then a second, and a third shadow appeared.

The three figures appeared blurry to Rein’s vision, and Rein could not help but rub his eyes, thinking he was seeing things.

Before he could even ascertain the situation fully, the three masked figures dashed toward Rein in a triangular attack formation.

His initial thought was that the demonic dragon had used the compass to bait him into a location of death. Where was that mysterious expert?

Dragons were seen as noble in the more ancient folktales, but ever since the human race had grown and exerted their will across the numerous realms, the increasing conflict had relegated some of the originally more respected legendary beasts to the ‘normal’ view across demon beasts.

Rein wanted to yell out and get the three figures to cease their aggression, “I’m just trying t--” only to hear a derisive snort right next to his ears that cut off his words.

Rein turns his head left and right, thinking for a second that a bandit had sneaked up behind him. However, there was no sign of a shadow beside him. This action costed Rein precious time, and by the time he switched his sight back onto the three figures, they were too close for comfort.

Although Rein had taken the lives of the group of mercenaries in Black Wolf Town, he had done so through sneak attacks while abusing the teleport skill. Not to mention, many of those mercenaries had been dead drunk. At this juncture, he found himself unsure of how to fight against three at the same time with his measly skills.

Rein's only real combat experience had been when he was one-on-one against that bandit back in Blacksmith Tiehr’s forge-- which he would have lost his precious little life in if not for a last moment rescue by Blacksmith Tiehr.

Although the guards hired by House Hehr had taught Rein some martial arts and body advancer techniques, they were basic punches and simple weapons skills.

Rein barely maintained his wits and desperately used his teleport skill to create more time to plan his actions. He couldn’t avoid using the origin skill under such a dangerous situation.

Rein reappeared a few kilofeet away with a swirl, before reassessing the situation.

“Disappointing…” The gruff voice whispered in Rein’s ears again. Rein chose to ignore this bothersome voice. He had judged that the voice was likely there to distract him from the movements of the three bandits in front of him. Nothing but a bandit’s dastardly trick!

Facing the current situation, Rein realized the limitation of the current state of his origin skill. He could not wield both his weapon and activate the skill at the same time! He needed to form a circle with his hands in order to activate his origin skill. However, the three bandits’ coordination with each other made it impossible for him to sneakily take them out one-by-one through teleporting then swapping to his weapon.

He understood that the only way he could get out of this dire situation would be to separate the three to diminish their cooperation.

Rein formed his hand circle and teleported another kilofoot, back to a part of the woods where there was more greenery and obstacles to hide behind. He shifted his body behind a trunk barely wide enough to obscure the vision of the three bandits and paused for a single breath, to calm his heart and grip the heavy hammer off of his back. He then quickly switched positions to another trunk.

His choice of action was to create the situation of the bandits breaking formation to search for him. If that were to happen, then he might be able to use the origin skill and crush their skull with the hammer.

As Rein glanced out from behind the tree trunk corroded by black soot, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the bandits had indeed split up and were moving towards his direction at slightly different angles.

Rein had a slight advantage in that his area had slightly thicker vegetation, which covered his location much better than the bleaker area that the three bandits were approaching from.

Seeing as one of the bandits was casually walking towards his direction, Rein remained hidden behind a tree trunk and lifted his hammer in preparation for a surprise attack. His multiple teleportations should prevent the bandit from knowing his exact hidden location.

He kept his ears open to ascertain the closeness of the bandit through the sound of footfall, not daring to peek even a hair out and potentially give away his position. 

The footsteps gradually grew louder, and then there was a loud thump accompanied by the sound of snapping branches right next to the trunk that Rein was hiding behind.

Rein immediately jumped out, ready to swing his heavy hammer at a bandit.

Yet… the bandit was actually a few feet away with a mocking grin on his hazy and blurry face.

On the ground was instead a fist-sized stone that rested upon a few dry branches. No doubt, the bandit had used a stone to bait Rein into preemptively striking!

Rein lambasted his own foolishness. On reflection, the sound of the falling stone was slightly off from a normal footstep. If he was more meticulous, he might have noticed that detail.

It was too late for Rein to hide again. Seeing as the bandit was separated from the other two, and this bandit appeared unarmed, Rein immediately charged the remaining few feet forward and swung his heavy hammer.

The bandit turned incorporeal as the hammerhead struck his waist and passed through with minimal resistance. A rainbow cloud of aurae was swept out in the direction of the hammerblow, leaving the bandit’s top half body detached from his legs. Rein felt like he had hit nothing but air, nearly losing his balance in the process.

This wasn’t a bandit! It was abundantly clear that these ‘bandits’ were just objects formed from a manipulation of aurae-- some form of advancer magic!

The aurae bandit now formed a fist with its hovering top body and threw a punch right at Rein’s head.

Rein judged that the aurae fist was nothing much-- his hammer had easily swept through the aurae bandit’s waist. He raised a palm just to block the weak aurae fist as he tried to identify the location of the other two bandits. If he were to get surrounded, that would be the end for him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Rein noticed the aurae fist go through his palm, yet he felt no sensation. Rein blinked his eyes and suddenly, the top body of the bandit appeared to slightly shift to the side as if it had always been in that position originally. In Rein’s eyes, It appeared as if this aurae bandit had teleported sideways by half a foot.

The top body of the aurae bandit then became nearly incorporeal as its aurae density traveled up the body to strengthen the now incoming aurae fist, which became rock solid in the blink of an eye..

It was too late for Rein to correct his erroneous judgment.

The aurae fist felt hard as iron as it connected with Rein’s head, sending him flying while side-rolling through the air.

As Rein flew, his mind attempted to piece together what he had seen. Was it some kind of illusion that created his wrong impression of the aurae bandit’s position? Or, was the aurae bandit capable of instantaneously shifting position mid-punch?

By the time Rein got back his bearings from the ground, and picked up his hammer, he had become surrounded by the three aurae bandits. The one that had his top body separated from his legs was now back in one piece.

Oddly enough, the three bandits were not positioned equally from three directions. They were advancing toward Rein directly in front, and forty-five degrees diagonally to the left and the right.

Rein stepped backwards toward the empty direction as he nervously kept an eye on the three aurae bandits. They all had their heads cocked with a sort of funny expression on their face. Rein could tell that something was off-- it made no sense for the three aurae bandits to leave an opening for him to escape.

Rein took another step back, only to have his vision turn white as a stinging sensation arced through his whole body.

When his vision cleared, Rein’s found himself on all fours with his whole body numb. Looking around, he saw a group of sticks with inscriptions on them surrounding him in a circle.

A chortle sounded right next to his left ear.

So. This was the expert. That was the conclusion Rein eventually reached. He had already fallen for quite a few tricks and yet, somehow he was alive. He felt stupid for not realizing earlier, but no doubt, these weren’t real bandits. It was probably the so-called advancer expert that was messing with him!

Feeling humiliated, he threw his hammer to his side as he leapt upwards onto a tree branch. If this expert advancer was going to set some kind of trap on the ground, he was not going to play along!

Rein landed on a sturdy-looking tree branch… then the tree branch in Rein’s vision became a thin, sickly grayish branch, and naturally snapped under his weight. Rein tumbled back onto the ground before he could even form a circle with his hand to activate his teleportation skill.

With a groan, Rein sat back up. In front of him now stood a man in a brownish murky green robe. He looked up to try to see the face, only to see a bamboo stick strike toward the dead center of his forehead.

Bonk!

He was knocked out.