Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  Seeing the fearless rivals, Soarame sighed secretly. Of course he could clearly see the cluster of Darkness Elements moving on the arena, carefully bypassing all the Resurgers; but he couldn’t just fly there and catch him, because he couldn’t explain how he had found him. And his only Light player, Omifo, was too far away by the base. Just when Soarame was about to give up, he saw something that almost made him scream —

  Far ahead, the chest in the Furyflame’s base was suddenly opened; a figure emerged by its side, taking out a shining gem!

  I love you, Eric! Soarame pounced towards Ericson at his maximum flying speed. Ericson had already started rushing towards Soarame too, and he didn’t even bother to spell shadowcape this time.

  What the hell?! Matt was stupefied to see Ericson holding his gem and running just like that. He had to make a desperate decision — before Soarame took the gem, he must crush Ericson and take both gems back to his base. With that in mind, Matt suddenly sped up and attacked Ericson with his Fire spells. He knew the speed would make him visible, but he had no better choice.

  ‘There we go.’ Ericson cracked a smile while dodging the attack, then spelled a shadowcape in the next moment.

  ‘DAMN! YOU!’ Realizing that he had been played, Matt was as dull as a goose. With a pale face, he raised his head and saw a floating Soarame right above him. Soarame didn’t try to attack him, because he felt his poor rival’s frustration. As long as Matt didn’t move, Soarame wouldn’t make his life even harder.

  ‘Man, what a game!’ Kardiac threw himself on to the couch as soon as he got back. ‘Where’s Eric, anyway?’

  ‘He fled before us.’ Vivarin chuckled. ‘He even had to spell shadowcape to get away from the girls chasing after him.’

  ‘Wow, looks like the Water Captain is history now.’ Kriagon teased. ‘And why didn’t they chase after me? It would have been so much easier.’

  ‘The Water Captain’s not history; but everyone knows they have no chance.’ Catheray dragged Soarame and Jemario together, winking at both. Soarame sent Catheray a grateful signal — he could finally get closer to Jemario again. Seeing Jemario’s meaningful smile, everyone had to titter.

  ‘Ericson? You survived?’ Dileys heard a knock on the door and opened it.

  ‘Yes, and I’ve taken a shower.’ Just after saying that, Ericson was alarmed to see everyone suddenly jump over to hug him — with sweat all over them. ‘No! I just said I’ve taken a shower!’

  ‘You’re the ghost gust! Run back and take another one!’ Kardiac gave Ericson a bearhug to make him wet with his sweat, laughing.

  The friends celebrated for a bit then split for a rest. After a quick shower, Soarame walked out from his bedroom and was surprised to find Jemario still there in the living room.

  ‘Jem, how are you?’ Soarame went quickly downstairs — this was a great sign!

  ‘I thought you would have told us something.’ Jemario humphed, sitting on the couch. ‘I’m surprised that you didn’t.’

  ‘Something… like what?’ Soarame was puzzled.

  ‘Like your insta-cast on mirrorface.’ Jemario looked Soarame right in his eyes. ‘It’s an insta-cast, meaning that you’ve become an Expert in Water, maybe even before the Jankide Quest. Is that right?’

  ‘What… no!’ Soarame hurriedly waved his hands, surprised — no one else had seemed to notice the minor detail about Soarame’s mirrorface insta-cast in the game, but Jemario had — and she actually cared about it so much. ‘I’ve levelled up to Grade 5, but that’s all. I’m far away from an Expert, even in Wind.’

  ‘Is that so?’ Jemario sized Soarame in a meaningful way. ‘You used to be a terrible liar. But now you seem to have improved a lot.’

  ‘Oh god. It’s all true. I swear!’ Soarame was amused. ‘I promise you I’m not an Expert. You can trust me!’

  ‘Okay.’ Jemario checked Soarame’s eyes and lip corners, and decided to believe him. ‘But why didn’t you tell us about your Water grade-up?’

  ‘I…’ Soarame muttered with a blush. ‘I wanna stay in the same class with you.’

  Watching the shy boy, Jemario was touched and at the same time amused. But she held back her feelings and still pretended to be serious. ‘So you still lied to me.’

  ‘No, I didn’t!’ Soarame was anxious. ‘I meant to tell you at a better time… Well, like right now!’

  Seeing this pure boy trapped, Jemario couldn’t bear to play him anymore. She stood up from the couch and walked to him, then did something that burnt Soarame’s face like an overheated iron plate —

  She kissed him… on the cheek.

  ‘I… I…’ Soarame found the entire world spinning in his eyes; it was hard for him to keep balance. His widened eyes and disordered breath matched well with the trembling body, which altogether made him look like an idiot.

  Soarame took a little while to clear up his mind, and saw a chuckling Jemario sitting back on the couch already.

  ‘Jem…’ Soarame clenched his fists and walked step by step to Jemario. He seemed to be making extra efforts for a pending action, and he looked as if he was still not sure if he should do it. But finally, the “bravest” boy in the world arrived at the couch, and leaned towards the Water princess —

  ‘Uh-uh…’ A finger showed up on Soarame’s lips, blocking them from moving forward. ‘Don’t take advantage, boy. You are not ready yet.’

  ‘What?’ Soarame suddenly felt his heart chill. He had to lean back up slowly, with overwhelming embarrassment on the face, stupefied.

  ‘Don’t get me wrong.’ Seeing this, Jemario sighed inside at the naïvety of the boy. She had to quickly clarify it before he got confused. ‘It’s fine, but it’s not the right time just yet.’

  ‘Oh… ahh… ahh. Ha-ha, ha.’ Soarame was still puzzled, but he felt much better than he had the second before. ‘Sure, sure. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Poochee!’ Jemario finally couldn’t hold back her laughter. She stood up and passed by the bewildered boy. ‘It’s late, I’ll see you tomorrow!’

  CHELONAD

  What just happened? Soarame stayed where he was for a few minutes before he made any movement. Jem kissed me? Really?

  ‘Ouch!’ Soarame punched his own stomach, and ascertained that it was real.

  ‘Dude, what happened?’ Omifo had just finished his shower and walked out of his dorm, catching this scene right on time. ‘You were testing the punch on Ben for yourself?’

  ‘What? No.’ Soarame woke up. ‘I’m just warming up for the practice this evening. Anyway, gonna go, see ya!’

  With that, Soarame ran out of the building. He kept running to let out the heat in his body, until he arrived at his secret corner near the boundary. With overwhelmingly mad joy, Soarame had to loop around and yell aloud again, just as he had last time when he first received the Godmade in his space-ring.

  ‘Okay, okay.’ Soarame finally decided to lie down on the grass, breathing heavily. Although the sky was getting dark, Soarame found the entire world looked bright in front of him. Moreover, he realized something that made him suddenly sit up —

  My mind ocean… it got expanded? Soarame visualized his own mind ocean, and noticed that it had become a little bigger. Although the difference was not that significant, it was still great to see. After all, it’s mind ocean, the most important thing to a wizard. Right then, Soarame saw his mind ocean in total robustness, choppy and surfy; the tides were pushing towards the coast, wave after wave, and bit by bit increasing its size. Thinking back, Soarame recalled that Scankeen had once told him about this, that one’s mind ocean could evolve upon drastic or ardent emotion; it could be either overwhelming fear or sadness — like when Soarame resurged years ago — or mad joy and happiness — such as what had happened earlier.

  Thanks to Jemario, I just improved like that? Soarame was stunned. Since he had learnt about Rodka’s incident, his heart had been immersed in indignation and nervousness, and he never really got any relief those emotions in the way that he did
now. Even the success at the Jankide Quest, at the auction hall and at the quarter-final never really helped. However, Jemario’s kiss just had!

  Soarame took a long heavy breath and tried to calm down. He couldn’t wait to test how much better he was now, by trying on the broadsword again. So he sat down on the grass, legs crossed. With total concentration, his mind power reached the familiar surface of the broadsword once again, and carefully infiltrated it —

  ‘Humph.’ As expected, the Godmade instantly started to drain Soarame’s mind power and made him groan. However, this time it felt less painful and more bearable, thanks to the evolvement of the mind ocean, so Soarame decided to carry on. The consequence was that he could observe the obscure pattern for longer, and the memorizing of it was thus easier. This greatly benefitted the latter part of the learning loop, as the retention of the pattern in memory got prolonged and the comprehension progressed exponentially. As a result, the recovery of the mind ocean was enhanced too, thus a positive loop was formed.

  This is Jem’s real magic power? Soarame couldn’t help marvelling inside. A kiss, on the cheek, had turned out to be the greatest gift that he had received so far. It took the boy a while to settle the numerous thoughts that were buzzing around his mind, but finally he managed to bury himself in the learning loop again. So another day passed just like that, and Soarame woke up upon feeling the warmth from the sunshine again.

  It’s still early for class, good. Soarame stretched for a yawn, happy. He subconsciously checked his mind ocean, and surprisingly found that it hadn’t only increased in size, but also seemed to have become… denser?

  ‘What!’ This seemingly trivial finding suddenly stunned Soarame, because it reminded Soarame of Scankeen’s very first magic lesson —

  ‘A wizard’s rank is according to his magic power: from a Novice, to an Adept, then to an Expert, and finally a Master. Each level demands a larger and denser mind ocean to qualify.’

  Back then, Soarame hadn’t understood this — until one day, he levelled up from Novice to Adept. That day, his mind ocean did exhibit a density difference; so if the same thing happened again this time, it probably meant…

  ‘Not possible!’ Soarame jumped up upon reaching this guess. I… I’ve become an Expert?!

  After several rounds of double-checking, Soarame was not sure if he should laugh or cry. Years of hard work hadn’t made him an Expert, but a cheek kiss from Jemario did it just like that?

  ‘I must test it to make sure.’ Soarame ruffled his hair. ‘There’s got to be a way to test it, but I can’t… ’ Soarame suddenly realized he was talking out loud to himself. But I can’t ask the school for help!

  Wait a minute… Soarame seemed to get something. Ecrif! He said only an Expert can take the sword out!

  Thinking of this, Soarame instantly peeked around to make sure no one was around, then he walked into a cluster of trees with higher grass on the ground. He sat down there, satisfied to see that he was almost invisible, then carefully reached the broadsword in the ring once more with his mind power —

  ‘Humph!’ With a grunt once again, Soarame sent his will to the sword via his mind stream. Come out here, into my hands!

  WING… A hum sounded in Soarame’s mind. The hum was overwhelmingly loud and made him feel uneasy. Gritting his teeth and persisting with the effort, Soarame found to his surprise that the sword, for the first time, shook its body and started to move upon his call.

  ‘Get out here!’ Devoting himself totally, Soarame subconsciously yelled as he saw the sword about to come out, but just in need of a bit more of a push. Soarame let go of everything else to push the limit, and the sword was finally coming out of the space-ring —

  ‘Ahh!’ Soarame suffered from a sudden quiver in the next instant, and the sword dropped back into the ring due to the interruption.

  What the heck? Soarame didn’t have time to complain about that, because he was panicked to see his hands were almost frozen — the sword handle only had emerged from the space-ring, just for a split second, but its over-spilling severe coldness dispersed and spread out during that moment — which was enough to freeze up Soarame’s hands!

  What is going on?! Soarame was sweating. Fortunately, he could still feel his hands, so once Snower licked and healed them, they ought to recover.

  ‘HUMPH?!’ Before Soarame got a chance to take a breath, a loud voice sounded in anxiousness. ‘WHAT’S THAT?!’

  PONG LONG LONG! The next second, the ground in front of Soarame was split apart, and a scary cavity emerged as the entire land shook badly. Before a petrified Soarame managed to do anything, a giant figure pounced out from the cavity and rose up high, shadowing the entire area Soarame was sitting in.

  WHAT!! The boy almost wet his pants. Although he’d just levelled up to become an Expert wizard, he still could not resist the overwhelming threatening feeling from the giant figure. His body was shivering uncontrollably, due to instinctive fear

  A boa-like creature was towering over Soarame — like a cobra would do — locking him with its green-coloured eyes, ready to attack!

  ‘Soarame?’ The giant boa didn’t attack, thank god. Instead, it sounded surprised. ‘It’s you again? What trick are you playing this time?’

  ‘Che…’ Soarame couldn’t believe what he was hearing or seeing. ‘Chelonad?!’

  ****

  Creak.

  The door opened. Soarame came back to his dorm, but he looked as if he was dream walking. This frightened Kardiac, who was having his breakfast and almost spilled the milk. ‘Dude, you are not really dream walking again, are you?’

  ‘Ah!’ Soarame woke up. ‘Nah, just got tired.’

  ‘I thought you had Water class today?’ Kardiac asked. ‘You’re skipping it? With what excuse this time?’

  ‘Diarrhoea… no, constipation!’ Soarame’s words made Kardiac decide to abort his breakfast.

  On the other side, Soarame wasn’t in the mood to care about that. He locked himself in his bedroom and couldn’t help recalling what he had just witnessed —

  ~~~~

  ‘Chelonad?’ Although Soarame recognised the voice, he wasn’t really sure about it. ‘Is that you?’

  ‘Satisfied, aren’t you?’ The gigantic boa was silent for a bit before he spoke again. ‘You always wanted to see me, and finally you have.’

  ‘Yes… but…’ Soarame stared at the giant boa. Its head was as big as a dorm building; its lower body was still in the cavity down there under the ground. ‘This… is your body?’

  ‘A part of it, obviously.’ Chelonad sighed. ‘Why did you have to make me show up?’

  ‘I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry!’ Soarame said hurriedly. ‘I didn’t even know you were there!’

  ‘I told you before — I’m always beside you, everywhere on campus.’ Chelonad sighed again. ‘Now that you see me, what do you think?’

  ‘I… I don’t know?’ Soarame found his brain not working as fast as usual. Chelonad was a… magimal?

  ‘It’s super!’ Soarame had to take a little while before he got totally excited. ‘Chelonad, so you were always hiding and guarding the campus? That’s why you are the security guy?’

  ‘Hide… humph. That’s not the right word!’ Chelonad lowered his giant boa head to get closer to Soarame, petrifying the boy with his scary green eyes. ‘I protect the school because I’m capable of doing so.’

  ‘Of course!’ Soarame shivered. The visual impact of two lethal green eyes was just too scary.

  ‘Humph, a fawning boy.’ Chelonad leaned backwards to stop intimidating the boy — though it had been an intentional punishment. Soarame sighed with relief; he could tell from the voice that Chelonad was actually glad to hear it.

  ‘Okay, it’s time for my question.’ Chelonad’s words cut Soarame’s brief joy and sank his heart in the next second. ‘What did you just do?’

  ‘I… was practising Water magic.’ Soarame had to toughen himself for the lie. ‘And lost control.’

 
‘Huh! You lost control so that a Godmade emerged? If it hadn’t been for that, you think I would have bothered to show up?’ Chelonad’s words smashed any hope Soarame still had that his secret hadn’t been discovered. ‘Boy, as I told you before, I’m not an “everyone”! Especially not an “everyone” that you can fool!’

  ‘I… I’m sorry.’ Soarame blushed. He was surprised that the Godmade had only showed up for a brief moment, yet Chelonad had spotted it so clearly.

  ‘I know Scankeen well, so I don’t want to step in between you two.’ Chelonad continued. ‘That’s why last time I let you walk away with your naughty kitten, using my friend’s feather as a cover. But don’t you ever think I am foolish, okay?’

  WHAT! Soarame was astonished. With a reddened face and forehead, Soarame really had to laugh at himself now. ‘You know my master?’

  ‘I also know Volsta.’ Chelonad seemed delighted to see the boy’s shock. ‘As I said, he’s my friend.’

  ‘So… do you know where my master is now?’ Soarame felt his world flipped — the only one that he had been fooling turned out to be himself.

  ‘I don’t. Last time I saw him was when you first came here.’ Chelonad said. ‘The second last time was about 50 years ago.’

  ‘What!’ Soarame barked. ‘50 years ago?’

  ‘Well, it’s not that long to us.’ Chelonad opened his mouth for a yawn. ‘Every time I take a nap, it lasts a year or so.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ Soarame was not sure if he heard it right. ‘What do you mean you take a nap for a year? You always talked to us every day… Or was that your dream-words?’

  ‘As I told you, if you see me one day that means something really bad has happened. But I didn’t expect that the first bad thing would be an action of yours.’ Chelonad didn’t answer Soarame’s questions this time. ‘So keep your Godmade well hidden and don’t do that again, okay? Bye for now.’