Even with his left arm basically disabled from the arrow, he easily massacred the entire group of archers. A few of them managed to throw down their bow’s and pull out daggers, but they were easily overpowered as he swiped his sword across each of their necks.
As soon as he was done, Dante fell to the floor, clutching his shoulder in pain, and taking in the battle around him. To his surprise, the fight was almost completely over. Two attackers stood side by side fending off the attacks of three guards, while another three held their hands over their heads in surrender.
He was relieved at the turn of events in the battle, he had no interest in resuming the fighting with an arrow firmly wedged into his shoulder.
Deciding he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, he immediately began to loot the archers he killed, taking everything he thought might have some value. Aside from their bows and a few articles of clothing and armor, the men didn’t have much. Three of the men had rings, but they seemed like wedding bands and were made completely out of iron. They did have a few coins each though, and he emptied all of them into a single coin purse and counted them. A total of 127 coppers, which was equal to 1 silver and 27 coppers.
He wasn’t sure how expensive the enchantments at the academy would be to use; but if Layla, a noble, thought that it was expensive, he could almost guarantee what he just looted from these archers wouldn’t amount to much.
Dante picked up his meager rewards from the fight and went to rejoin the group at the carriage.
Chapter 14
Dante’s Immortality - Chapter 14
He was in a rather good mood, despite the arrow wound in his shoulder that was still flaring in pain as he was jostled by the bumpy carriage. Sir Andres had said that they would make it to the academy within the next few hours, and he was more than happy to be done traveling.
After the attack on the carriage, Layla immediately had their new captives questioned. It was somewhat surprising, to him at least, that the attackers were rebels targeting the academy’s supply lines. Apparently, not everyone was happy with the way House Calman was running things. The mere fact that there were rebels at all was slightly worrying.
Still, their opinion didn’t carry much weight with him after seeing the desecrated bodies of those they killed.
After some more initial questioning, Layla had two of their captives killed, while keeping the one who seemed the most afraid alive for further questioning when Sir Andres returned.
That done, Layla then forced the group to continue moving toward the academy, and further from where the attackers said their main camp was. He was more than happy to continue move further away from the potential threat. Not only was there a hole in his shoulder, but four of their Warrior guards had serious injuries that would limit them during a fight. Thankfully, they were still fit for riding.
After that, the trip had actually started to go somewhat smoothly.
Four days after they resumed their journey, a pissed off Sir Andres rode into their camp with three of the original nine guards he took with him in tow. Sir Andres didn’t say much after he arrived, and when Layla and Alexander explained what happened to him, he simply turned to their tied-up captive and executed him by chopping off his head.
After that, the knight turned to them and told them that the situation with the brigands had already been dealt with before walking off.
He didn’t really think killing the last captive was the best decision. After all, there were still a lot of questions that were unanswered. But after seeing Sir Andres’ angry expression when looking at Layla, he decided that he wasn’t going to be the one to question the knight’s decision.
The trip after that was far quieter, everyone seemed to be in a somber mood. The guards were depressed from their lost comrades, Sir Andres was pissed that he had thrown away his men’s lives to deal with a group of ‘common bandits’, and Alexander and Layla regretted ordering him to do so.
He seemed to be the only one unaffected by the subdued atmosphere. Compared to the others he was actually happy with the way the situation had progressed. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about the guard’s lives, but the tradeoff didn’t seem that bad. If what the captives had said was true, the brigand was made up of almost two hundred combatants. If Sir Andres had ‘dealt’ with them, he wasn’t going to complain about the casualties.
And that was how the rest of the journey had gone, until earlier that morning when Sir Andres announced that they would make it to the academy around noon. The mood after that quickly shifted, and everyone was visibly enlivened by the news.
Even without the Sir Andres’ warning, it was quite clear that they were closing in on Kenguard. The large expanse of trees on either side of the road that they were traveling on was beginning to give way to massive flat farmlands. Even the road was becoming far busier in the last few days.
He was surprised by the number of people who actually traveled in Aleria, especially after his experience in the past weeks. They had even run into the occasional patrol from Kenguard, but those troops seemed more interested in keeping the farms secure than worrying about brigands like the one they had run into.
It was nice to see Alexander and Layla in a better mood, they had been sitting in almost complete silence since Sir Andres had returned. Thankfully, the prospects of finally arriving at the academy broke the awkward silence.
He still had a lot of questions that they hadn’t answered yet. The last few days of silence crushed his plans of learning more about the academy before he was inevitably dumped off to be handled by some servant, but now that the mood had changed, he wasn’t going to lose his chance to get more information before they arrived.
Dante looked to Alexander, his preferred target for questioning, or just conversation in general for that matter. “You told me that people in the Outer Edge region come from all over to go to the academy because it has resources that they wouldn’t have otherwise, but why are you and Layla going?”
Alexander shrugged. “Training. Not the same as the rest of those attending the academy though, me and Layla were sent so that we could lead on our own and gain some experience. The academy is also the best place to get combat experience for us as well, but honestly, that’s secondary. There are only few students at the academy that could match us.”
“How is the academy the best place to get combat experience?” Combat experience should be easy to acquire anywhere in Aleria, much less in the Outer region where they were from.
Layla chose that moment to jump into their conversation. “The academy actually incentivizes combat between students. In order to gain the largest benefit from the academy, you need to win duels and team fights in the arena to get credit. There is no other place where we could get the same amount combat experience against those who are around our strength.” Layla shrugged. “It’s not as though the constant fighting is safe, but there are certain restrictions on the fights to limit casualties.”
What Layla said made sense, if you could constantly fight different people who are around your strength without losing your life, the experience would be invaluable. Unfortunately, she only mentioned limiting the casualties. It was still somewhat better… but he would need to be careful before jumping into any fights headfirst. “What do you mean by getting ‘credit’ by fighting in the arena?”
The question made Alexander visibly excited. “While meals and housing are free for the first semester, by the courtesy of House Calman, everything else has to be bought through credit. You can get access to food or medicine that gives world essence, multiple enchantments, and sometimes even access to dungeons through credit when they are available.”
Layla saw the questioning look on his face and added to what Alexander had told him. “It is a special enchantment that we learned about from travelers that came from the inner Aleria. It’s pretty much a currency that can be carried around on a single card and is only useful at the academy, you’ll see when you get to the academy later today. Apparently, in i
nner Aleria, something similar is the main form of currency.”
The credit system itself was interesting. If the only way to get more credit was by winning fights, and it would aid you in gaining more world essence or better training, it seemed like a situation where the strong get stronger, and the weak getting weaker in contrast. The competition in the academy would be far fiercer than he had thought, and the fighting would be far more dangerous as a result.
It also seemed that he might have wasted his time looting the archers so thoroughly. Layla had told him that the enchantments would be expensive, but it never occurred to him that she might have meant a different currency that he had never heard of. “When you said that enchantments would be expensive to use at the academy, did you mean that it would cost more credit?”
His question elicited a wince from Layla. “No, the credits are easy for us to produce, but the essence crystals that power the stronger enchantments are not. We have to charge actual money to get a return on the massive cost associated with operating them. Truthfully, those enchantments are meant to only be used by wealthy nobles.”
Her answer made sense to him, and it just meant that he would still need to find a way to earn money when he got to the academy.
There was still one more thing that he was curious about though. “You said there were travelers from inner Aleria in the Outer region?”
His question was met with an awkward silence that Layla eventually broke. “We get them occasionally, but recently there have been more along the border surrounding our territory. They are all surveyors who were scouting the Chaos region. Apparently, there is going to be a new campaign soon.”
Dante froze. “Did they say when the campaign would start?”
Alexander frowned. “No, but we should still have a few years…”
All conversation came to a halt after that discussion. It was for good reason too, a new campaign into the Chaos region meant there would be a lot of deaths in the outer regions.
The information meant that he would have to change his plans drastically. He was going to prepare for years before attempting to cross the Chaos region, but if he didn’t make it to inner Aleria before the campaign started, his chance of surviving as a combatant that didn’t belong to a powerful house was almost nonexistent.
It wasn’t until several quiet hours later that their carriage began to slow to what seemed like a crawl. A smile lit up on Alexander’s face. “Finally!” He immediately got up and shot out of the carriage.
Layla’s mood also improved drastically, she stood and stretched. “This arduous trip is finally over.”
They weren’t the only ones happy to finally arrive at Kenguard, he was ready to finally see the academy. Stepping out of the carriage, Dante took in the startling scene around him. Every inch of the road was crowded with people. The reason their carriage was crawling forward was because it was stuck behind a long line of different wagons, carriages, and carts that led up towards a hill where they were cut off from view.
Alexander, who was bubbling with excitement next to him, grabbed him and began dragging him towards the top of the hill. “Wait until you see how amazing the academy is!”
He was just as eager as Alexander, but nothing could have prepared him for the scene in front of him.
What he had thought to be a hill was just the rim of a massive crater that had Kenguard sitting in the middle of it, the entire city must have been four times the size of Alazel. Dante just stood there, absorbing the scene in front of him for a moment, there must be tens of thousands of people inside of it. The entire city was bustling, looking almost as though someone had kicked over a giant anthill. It was filled with massive buildings and vast open fields that people were training in.
He was trying to identify which of the massive building were the academy, but giving up, Dante turned to Alexander and Layla. “Which building is the academy?”
In response to his question, Alexander began to laugh. Layla waved her hand, motioning to the entirety of the city in front of him. “That is the academy.”
Chapter 15
Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 15
It didn’t seem conceivable to him that the entire city could be the academy. He was taken completely off-guard. “Where is Kenguard?”
“Kenguard is still half a day’s ride east of here.” Alexander was clearly enjoying his reaction.
Dante stood on the edge of the crater, staring at the city in a new light. He began looking at all the massive buildings and open fields with a newfound interest, wondering each one’s purpose. He hadn’t been overly excited to stay at the academy before, just interested in using it to gain knowledge in the short term, but after seeing it for himself, his attitude couldn’t help but change.
Layla glanced over to Alexander. “We need to go meet with Headmaster Tolli immediately.” She looked back to Dante. “I’ve already told Sir Andres to help you with your application, as well as find suitable accommodations.”
That was convenient. Waving goodbye to Alexander and Layla, Dante went back to the carriage where his possessions and Sir Andres were.
His possessions didn’t account for much, just a bundle of items he took off of the archers after the attack as well as the weapons he had borrowed. He was still hoping to sell the looted items for a decent amount of money though. After taking them out of the storage compartment in the back of the carriage, he went to Sir Andres, who was giving orders to the rest of the guards that would be staying behind.
It took Sir Andres a moment to notice him. “Are you ready, boy?”
Dante nodded somewhat hesitantly. He couldn’t help but find Sir Andres intimidating after their sparring session.
“Alright, let’s be off then.” Sir Andres dismounted his horse and gave the reins to the guard next to him, then began walking toward the academy. The man didn’t say another word on the entire trip, and he wasn’t going to complain about it in the slightest.
He was too preoccupied taking in every detail of the academy anyway. Unlike Alazel, there were no walls surrounding its perimeter. It seemed like the massive crater combined with the thousands of combatants inside were deterrent enough. That wasn’t to say that there weren’t any guards patrolling though. It seemed like there were patrols everywhere, pushing through the bustling crowds that filled the streets, constantly on the lookout for anyone causing trouble.
The people in the crowds themselves were almost all young as well, only occasionally would he see someone who wasn’t in their teens or early twenties.
The thing that took the most of his attention were the different types of buildings. There were some that he could tell their use, like buildings used for housing or different shops. But there were some he had never seen before, like massive towers and large circular shaped stadiums. As he trailed behind Sir Andres, he was busy pondering over how they might be used.
After walking through the academy for around twenty minutes, Sir Andres turned into a relatively large building. It seemed to be far more extravagant than the others around it. The bricks on the outside were covered with white stone decorations, and although it was only one story, it was still larger than most of the others. After looking it over for a moment, Dante followed behind the knight.
Stepping inside and looking around, he had never felt so out of place in his entire life. Even in Alazel, where no one would even talk to him unless in admonishment, he felt a greater sense of belonging.
The room he walked into was completely filled with people that were standing in a line that snaked side to side as it slowly made its way towards the back of the room where an old man with powder white hair was filling out paperwork. The people themselves were what made him feel so out of place though.
Each and every one of them were dressed in fine coats or dresses, openly showing their sigils that indicated which noble house they originated from. Not only that, but it seemed that they all had at least one retainer next to them. Dante stood by the door, in stark contrast to all
of them. His tattered clothing, bundle of looted items, and strange appearance already collecting the glares of any of the nobles in the back of the line that noticed him.
Sir Andres seemed to have none of his misgivings though. As soon as Dante stopped to stare at the nobles in the room, the knight put a hand on his shoulder and began shoving him toward the old man in the back. Dante looked on in horror as the two of them sliced through the snaking line undeterred. He, at the very least, tried to avoid bumping into any nobles in his path; but the Sir Andres just trampled over anyone who was standing in his way.
By the time they finally made it to the old man, the entire room was in an uproar. Nobles all over the room were shouting in indignation at the fact that two rugged men had cut them in line, and the ones that Sir Andres had walked directly through were shouting the loudest.
In a tone that brooked no nonsense, the old man addressed Sir Andres. “I’m afraid that you-”
Sir Andres put his combatant’s glove in the man’s face, and as soon as the old man saw the black deer sigil that represented House Calman, he froze. “I am Sir Andres of House Calman.” His voice carried over the crowd, and as soon as they realized what he had said the entire room went silent. Sir Andres indicated to Dante. “I need you to enroll this boy, his name is Dante and he has a Warrior Classification. Put him in Housing District 1, he is a personal guest of House Calman.”
Warrior Classification? There is no way I can fake being a Warrior Classification with how high my Agility and Dexterity are.
Upon hearing that he was a guest of House Calman, the nobles in line were now looking at him with newfound interest.
Sir Andres looked down at him and saw the confused look on his face. “Don’t worry, your Classification only indicates what type of tutelage you receive for free. Any melee Classifications learn world essence manipulation, which focuses on the basics of swordsmanship, unless they specialize in a different type of weapon.”
Dante's Immortality: Beginnings Page 14
