Dante's Immortality: Beginnings

by Antonio Terzini

  After running into the bedroom that was supposedly his, he didn’t see much of a difference from the servant’s room. The room itself was roughly twice the size and filled with the additional furniture of a nightstand and two dressers. To his relief, the bed was the same. He had fallen in love with the other one at first sight, and wasn’t sure if he would have been willing to give it up.

  There was another door to the right, and he was about to go and see what was behind it when the servant walked in behind him and cleared her throat.

  Dante turned to see her giving him a formal, slight bow. “I think we got off to a rough start. My name is Mia, and I am the servant assigned to you by House Calman. Here is your identification card.”

  Mia handed him the identification card, and he looked over it carefully. A few things caught his attention. The Warrior Classification on it was as he thought it would be, and the credits that Alexander and Layla had mentioned were also on the card. The only thing he really didn’t understand was the arena rank. “I am Dante, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Do you know what the arena rank on my identification card is, and what it means?”

  Mia seemed pleased with his normal question. “Your rank determines both the difficulty of your fights in the arena, as well as the rewards you will get from winning said fights. Your rank is bronze, the beginner rank. After bronze, there is silver, gold, and platinum. Most of the older academy students are actually in gold or platinum because ranks are based off total credits earned, not total credits possessed.”

  That made sense, if he went into the arena and fought some of the older students, he would most likely get demolished due to his lack of combat experience. It may be different if he could use his Blink ability, but by just relying on his swordsmanship, he wasn’t much of a combatant.

  Asking questions that Mia could answer seemed to be far easier than having a regular conversation with her. “What is behind this door?” He pointed to the door inside his room, it was the only place in his new living quarters he hadn’t checked yet.

  “It’s a bathroom, used for relieving yourself as well as bathing.” Mia looked at him skeptically, as if prepared to answer his question on what bathing was. “In Housing District 1 all of the bathrooms are equipped with modern enchantments. That includes both heating and waste disposal, so there is no need to use a chamber pot.”

  Dante’s eyes lit up at the news that the bathroom was fully enchanted. He was itching to go and look but had more important things to take care of, the bathroom could always come later. “Is there a place in the academy where I can sell some spare items that I picked up?” He really wanted to get rid of the items he had taken off of the archers, as well as try out the combat simulation enchantments that Alexander had told him about.

  Mia nodded. “There is, but we don’t have time today. It’s almost time for curfew, and we still haven’t picked up your academy uniform.” She indicated toward his tattered clothing.

  “Curfew?” The idea of a curfew was somewhat troublesome. There were a few things that he had wanted to get done before he actually started swordsmanship training the following morning, top of the list was getting his shoulder properly patched up.

  “Yes, the guards will begin stopping anyone out after dark, its fine if you have somewhere that you need to be, but they won’t allow you to wander aimlessly… Of course, since you’re a resident of Housing District 1, I doubt they would dare to cause problems for you.”

  “I’m not sure how long I was asleep, would we have time to get my uniform and get my shoulder fixed before my Swordsmanship training tomorrow?”

  Mia looked at both of his shoulders for a moment, unable to see the arrow wound hidden under his shirt. “Did you get injured?”

  Dante nodded. “About a week ago I took an arrow through the shoulder during an ambush. I got it patched up, but it’s still too painful to fully use my left arm in a fight.”

  Mia smiled at him in delight. “Of course, we can head to the academy healers first. Their services are free for any students within the academy, and you will get the best ones since you’re a resident of Housing District 1.”

  Dante looked at her for a moment, eye twitching.

  Why was she so happy when I told her I took an arrow through the shoulder in an ambush? Does she really hate me that much, or was she just happy that there are academy healers who can help me…?

  “Alright, lets head to the healers first.”

  Mia nodded and walked toward the front door, holding it for him. “I’ll lead the way to the hospital, my lord.”

  He followed her out. As he passed, Dante inspected Mia’s facial expression, trying to determine whether or not she was resentful when addressing him as ‘my lord’. He couldn’t tell, but he supposed it didn’t really matter. “There is no need to address me as if I am a noble, just call me Dante.”

  Mia just nodded. “Of course, Dante.”

  As they walked out of the Housing District 1’s main gate, Mia visibly hesitated for a moment, then a look of determination filled her face, and she snatched his hand before leading him toward the healers.

  He didn’t realize that just touching him would make her so uncomfortable. It made him far more self-conscious about his appearance, but at the same time, he appreciated that she was trying.

  As they headed towards the healers, he noticed that there were far fewer people in the streets, which was a relief. When he arrived at noon, he must have caught the afternoon rush.

  Curious, Dante looked up and checked the location of the sun so that he could estimate the time.

  There were only a few hours left in the day, he had slept far longer than he thought.

  As they began to walk, he noticed that they were getting closer to some of the large stadiums that he had seen earlier. Now that he had a servant who seemed knowledgeable about the academy itself, he didn’t hold back his questions. “What are those large stadiums for?”

  Mia didn’t miss a step, answering him without even looking back. “Those are the arena stadiums, in total there are eight. One for each of the four ranks in both team battles and solo fights.”

  That was interesting, it seemed that the team fights had the same four ranks as the solo fights.

  They treaded down the stone brick road until they were practically outside of the largest stadium. Just before they reached it, Mia turned into a separate, smaller building to the side.

  As Dante walked in, his senses were immediately overloaded. The sounds of people screaming in pain was the first thing that hit him as Mia opened the door, but the smell came immediately after. It was sterile, yet at the same time smelled similar to a freshly burned corpse. He recoiled, completely unprepared for the mixed smell and grating sound of the screams.

  Mia, who was holding the door open for him, just rolled her eyes. “I’m sure none of them will die, a team battle must have just ended. We need to hurry or we won’t get your uniform before curfew.”

  That screaming is the result of a team battle?

  Although hesitant, Dante followed her in.

  There were four people getting treatment within the building. It turned out that the screaming was coming from a single person. Seeing him, Dante stopped, staring at the screaming boy’s arm. Or what was once an arm, the thing that was connected to his shoulder looked like a shriveled piece of charcoal.

  Mia seemed correct, they weren’t going to die. While two others seemed relatively fine, there was a corpse laying on one of the treating beds, left completely alone. The man, who was clearly dead, couldn’t have been more than 18 and had a gaping wound in his neck that was leaking blood.

  A neck wound… That seems like it was intentional.

  After noticing their presence, a middle-aged woman with a kind smile walked up to the two of them. “How can I help you?”

  Mia immediately took charge, which was good because he was still staring at the corpse and charred arm. “My lord has an arrow wound that he needs to be healed.” She said while flas
hing her identification card, which showed her status as his servant.

  The woman motioned toward him. “Of course, right this way dear.” The middle-aged woman didn’t seem to care much for titles or propriety at the very least. Then again, he didn’t exactly look like much of a lord at the moment.

  As Dante went to follow her, Mia grabbed his attention behind him. “I have something I need to take care of, if I’m not back by the time you’re done, wait for me.” Before he could even reply, Mia darted off.

  Dante just shrugged and followed the woman leading him. She took him into a smaller room, which was empty. “A healer will be here shortly.”

  Only a few moments after the woman left, a wizened old man walked through the door. “How might I be of service, my lord?”

  ‘My lord’ may just be something he needed to adjust to, he couldn’t correct everyone, and even if he did it would only make him look bad.

  Wasting no time, Dante pulled off his shirt and indicated to his shoulder. The wound was beginning to heal, but was threatening to reopen if he overused the limb. “While I was traveling to the academy I took an arrow to the shoulder. We did some rough patchwork, but it’s still not healed properly, and I have training in the morning.”

  “Very well, just give me a moment, and I’ll have it fixed good as new.”

  The old man stepped closer to Dante and put his hand on the wound. At the healer’s touch, an itching sensation seemed to dig into the wound, constantly traveling deeper into it. Dante watched the healer closely, trying to perceive how he was doing the healing.

  The old man noticed his staring. “Not to worry my lord. I have the Cleric Classification, and am quite adept at healing.”

  The old man seemed to misunderstand his prying eyes, so he backed off. He reasoned that there would be plenty of opportunities to watch a healer first hand in the near future, given that he would be fighting in the arena and the healing itself was free.

  The old man took his hand off of his shoulder, and the wound was gone. In its place was a small silvery scar that looked like a dot. Dante looked the shoulder over for a moment, pleased, but noticed that he was feeling slightly drained after it was finished.

  “Excuse me, I feel slightly tired after you healed my shoulder. Is that normal?”

  The old man snorted. “I must be losing my touch…”

  He was surprised by the healer’s reaction, the healer almost seemed angry.

  “How tired a patient is after a healing depends on two factors. The first is how much mana they use. The second, and most important, is their control in mana manipulation. Given how light of an injury you had, you shouldn’t have felt it at all, satisfied?” The healer let out a deep breath, as if calming himself. “Your shoulder is healed. You may go, my lord.” With that, the now disgruntled healer left the room.

  What was that?

  Things had changed quickly. Somehow, his question seemed to thoroughly anger the healer. He would need to find a way to apologize to the old man. A healer was not someone he would want to be angry with him.

  Regardless, he got some useful information. It seemed healing’s proficiency depended on mana manipulation, he might be able to make his Rebirth of the Revenant passive usable if he learned more about it.

  Following the old healer, Dante walked back out to the main room and waited for Mia.

  It had to have been at least half an hour before she reappeared, walking through the front door of the building. It seemed that his absence was rather good for her mood. Compared to earlier, she looked far happier, the change was actually shocking.

  She is that happy after leaving me for less than an hour? She hates being with me that much…?

  Mia was practically bouncing with each step as she came up to him. “Ready to get your uniform?”

  Dante just let out a sigh and nodded.

  Her head tilted slightly in confusion. “What’s wrong?”

  “I think the healer hates me.” And he’s not the only one.

  That didn’t clear up her confusion at all, so he elaborated. “I asked him why I felt tired after he healed my shoulder, and he seemed mad when he explained it to me.”

  Mia began to laugh and quickly covered her mouth. “Of course he hates you. He thought you purposefully insulted him, but probably answered your question anyways because he thinks you’re a noble that he can’t offend.”

  Now he was confused. “Why would he think that?”

  “Every noble house employs at least one healer, and even commoners should know how healing works. You implied that he was inferior to the healer your house employs, while simultaneously making him tell you why he was inferior.”

  Her explanation just made Dante heave another sigh, this time more of a groan. It was hard enough to behave appropriately when people didn’t have any expectations of him, but now they expected him to have the full knowledge of a noble as well.

  Dante turned around, preparing to go back into the hospital and explain himself to the healer, when Mia tugged on his shirt. “You can apologize later, we still need to get your uniform.”

  Dante gave a defeated nod and allowed Mia to pull him out of the building.

  As they were walking, he noticed that the others around him weren’t wearing similar clothing. Curious, he asked Mia. “Why do I need a uniform so badly? No one else is wearing one.”

  “Of course they aren’t. The semester doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, so until then, they would prefer to wear their own clothes.”

  That was understandable, but he had no idea what a semester was. “What do you mean by ‘semester’?”

  “A semester is just how long the academy’s classes last. There are four of them in a year, broken up into roughly three months a piece.”

  That basically meant he would only have three months to learn swordsmanship in the world essence manipulation class Sir Andres had signed him up for, which wasn’t nearly long enough. “A class only lasts three months? How do you sign up for more?”

  “Yes, a class only last 3 months. Your world essence manipulation class will only last for three months as well. The only way to get more classes in the next quarter is to buy them with credits. If you do not have any classes when a quarter starts, you will be evicted from the academy. It’s a good way for the academy to sift through combatants. Those who can’t win fights in the arena are kicked out. To stay for another quarter, you will need to win at least 13 fights in three months, or you won’t be able to afford even the cheapest classes. It’s the reason over half of the academy’s students are about to start the first quarter. Many either don’t earn enough credits, or are unwilling to stay for the second semester.”

  That wasn’t good news, he had been seriously second-guessing the arena since he saw the corpse with its throat slit in the hospital, now it seemed he had no choice.

  Just staying in the academy was secondary though. Taking more classes, like mana manipulation, which seemed important from the healer’s words earlier, was his real motivation. That knowledge could prove invaluable and wasn’t something that he could just pick up through trial and error.

  His thoughts were cut off as Mia turned into a building on the side of the road. Surprisingly, it was almost directly across the street from Housing District 1.

  He had been expecting to just pick up a uniform in his general size, perhaps used, from a storage shed somewhere. What he saw when he walked into the building with Mia was the complete opposite.

  A perky woman standing in the middle of the room was holding a pin cushion in her mouth and seemed to be torturing a noble that was around his age.

  The seamstress was scrambling over the noble with different patterns and sizes of cloth, making measurements and checking styles while also managing to accidentally stick him with a needle every couple of seconds. It was easy to tell, because every time she did, he would let out a soft whimper.

  Even though he felt bad for him, he couldn’t help but feel some amusement at the noble’s p
light.

  Dante watched, mesmerized as the woman seemed to dance over him, slowly pinning more and more cloth to him until it looked like he was actually wearing clothing.

  After that, she stopped, took a few steps back, then rubbed her chin and nodded. “Not bad, not bad.” Stepping forward, the seamstress began plucking out all the needles she placed in the cloth, causing it to fall off as she collected them one by one. Then, taking out a piece of paper, she started to write down different measurements.

  That was amazing.

  Her agility and dexterity must have been at least twice the average at 20 a piece to move that quickly and precisely.

  As the woman finished scribbling on her paper she smiled and shooed away the noble, who was now standing in his undergarments, away. “Next.”

  The noble, who was covered in small puncture wounds from the needle, picked up the clothes that he left on the floor. As soon as he did, he seemed to regain his confidence, and began cursing the woman as he got dressed and left.

  Dante hopped into the line that was formed to the side of the shop. It wasn’t really much of a line, there were only three other people in it, but he was eager to watch the seamstress’s masterful work again.

  The next noble in line, clearly hesitant, stepped slowly toward the seamstress. He looked almost afraid of the woman. Dante soon found out why, although the new noble she was working on continuously flinched, he didn’t get stuck by her needle a single time.

  When she finished and shooed him away, instead of cursing her like the other noble, the boy heaved a sigh of relief and picked up his clothes.

  Lesson learned, don’t piss off a seamstress.

  The next person in line was a girl, the seamstress led her into the back where she could undress and not be seen by prying eyes. It was somewhat of a disappointment, watching the woman work was entertaining, and he had nothing to do as he and Mia just sat quietly in the back of the line.

  While they were waiting in the line, loud voices arose from the doorway of the shop. Three nobles walked in, unattended and full of swagger. They were quite an interesting trio, one was tall and lanky, another soft and pudgy, almost like a more refined Greggory. The last one held his attention though. He had never seen anyone more ‘perfect’. His short cropped pitch-black hair and cultured features were matched with a seemingly perfect build, even his voice was perfectly masculine and filled with self-confidence. The only thing he could find wrong with the noble was his eyes, they just felt… sinister.