Ralth came to the girl's body with an indifferent expression. Death was nothing new to him—he had seen plenty of it in Gessian Territory through the memories of the old Ralth, even without those, he had seen the corpse of his father. It was the act of murder that left him uneasy . There were two bags beside the girl's corpse. It seemed that one of the unlucky examinees had been attacked before Ralth came along.
The forest floor around the body was disturbed, leaves and soil thrown about in what must have been a desperate struggle. Dark bloodstains had seeped into the mossy ground, already attracting tiny buzzing insects. The girl couldn't have been much older than sixteen, her pale face frozen in an expression of surprise rather than fear. Her clothes were now torn and soiled.
"The strong prey on the weak," Ralth said to himself. "That's the way of the world."
He knelt down and pulled the ring off the girl's slender finger, noticing the slight resistance as it passed over her knuckle. The ring was made of a dull gray metal that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.
It had a small metal holder for a magic stone, which was now empty. The design looked very ancient, with runes etched along its band that Ralth couldn't read.
"It seems that this is the magic item that the nobles mentioned on the airship," Ralth murmured, examining the ring closely. He turned it in the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy above, watching how the strange metal seemed to drink in the light. "It must be the underlying reason why Kevran's alliance was formed."
Ralth had an idea and wanted to use the Felsan Cube he had acquired to analyze it. He hoped to discover how to make such a ring himself. But when he guided the cube's energy to the ring with his mind, there was no reaction, as if the quality of the ring was too low to be noticed by the cube's powers.
"Strange," he whispered, frowning.
After taking off the ring, Ralth searched the girl's body again, trying not to look at her face. His calloused hands moved efficiently through pockets and pouches.
"I'm sorry," he found himself saying, though he wasn't sure why. The dead couldn't hear apologies.
In the end, he found three more magic stones in a velvet pouch and a finely crafted magic dagger with a jeweled hilt. The stones glowed with faint internal light—one blue as a winter sky, one red as sunset, and one clear as water. Like the ring, the Felsan Cube had no reaction to the dagger.
"The nobles are so rich," Ralth remarked, shaking his head as he examined the ornate dagger with its gold filigree and perfectly balanced weight.
"If all the nobles were as stupid as this one, I'd make my fortune hunting them down. Maybe I'd even buy back my family's land that the drunkard sold."
The thought of home made him uncomfortable. The barren fields of Gessian Territory seemed a world away from this humid, primeval forest.
Ralth looked at the dagger in his hand and noticed there was a depression similar to the magic stone socket on the handle. Curious, he put one of the magic stones—the blue one—into it and watched in fascination as a line of glowing runes appeared along the blade that had looked ordinary before. The runes pulsed with cold light, throwing eerie shadows across his face.
"Let's see what this can do," he muttered, his curiosity overcoming his caution.
Ralth swung the dagger experimentally, and to his astonishment, the entire blade easily sliced into the trunk of the nearby tree as if it were cutting through butter. The tree was massive, its trunk wider than Ralth could reach around, and its age was estimated to be over a hundred years old. The cut was so clean that for a moment, nothing happened—then the weight of the ancient tree caused the cut to widen, wood creaking ominously.
"What a sharp dagger!" Ralth exclaimed in genuine surprise, jumping back as the tree groaned. His mind immediately went to the Tiger Forest Sword Technique he had learned from the sword of the first Baron Gessian—techniques preserved in magical memory within the ancient blade. Hours spent in secret practice while other farm boys slept, his hands blistered but determined.
Although he had become a magus apprentice now, Ralth knew his limitations. If someone got close enough to engage him in hand-to-hand combat, he would instantly turn back into that weak farmer's son, vulnerable and easily defeated.
"Even a wolf can be killed by a rat if it gets close enough to its throat," his father had warned him once. The memory of the old man's drunk face made Ralth's grip on the dagger tighten.
"This changes things," he said, making a few practice swings with the dagger. The weapon felt like an extension of his arm, responding to his movements with lethal grace. Although the weapon was not as long as a proper sword, it was still lethally sharp, more than enough for him to use the Three Points of the Tiger Forest Sword Technique he had studied in secret.
The Three Points of the Tiger Forest Sword Technique coupled with this dagger that could cut through iron like mud not only made up for his shortcomings in close combat but also raised his strength to a higher level. For the first time, Ralth felt he might have a chance at true survival in this deadly examination.
"First point: strike at the throat," he whispered, executing a perfect thrust. "Second point: pierce the heart." His movement was fluid as water as he demonstrated the technique to invisible opponents. "Third point: sever the spine." The final movement was a spinning slash that would have decapitated anyone standing behind him.
Ralth suppressed the urge to laugh out loud at his good fortune and removed the magic stone from the dagger's handle. The runes faded immediately, leaving just ordinary steel.
"Good steel should be used on the blade," he reminded himself. "My magic stones are not abundant enough to be used casually."
After putting away the magic stone, Ralth slipped the ice cone ring onto his finger, tucked the magic dagger into his belt, and continued on his journey.
The other things on the corpse were of little use to him and would have been a burden to carry, so he simply left them where they were, waiting for the next traveler to find them.
"May the gods grant you peace," he whispered to the dead girl, a brief moment of respect for a fallen opponent before turning away. He hesitated, then added, "And may they grant me the strength to avoid your fate, I suppose."
Having learned his lesson, Ralth was no longer so reckless in his travels. He moved more cautiously now, keeping his eyes and ears open while walking through the forest. Every rustle in the undergrowth, every snapped twig made him tense, his hand flying to the dagger at his belt.
"The dead don't need good luck but the living still do." He said to himself.
Although this method of travel was much slower, it was safer. In a test where only the survivors passed, safety had to come first.
In this way, Ralth spent the first day of the exam, constantly alert, using his magic sparingly, and making steady progress toward his goal.
As night fell, the forest was filled with the chirping of insects and the occasional hooting of night birds. Strange glowing fungi appeared on tree trunks, casting an eerie blue light over the forest floor. Some of the mushrooms were as large as dinner plates, their caps dripping with luminescent fluid that smelled faintly of honey.
Ralth piled up a heap of fallen leaves under a massive hollow tree as his bed for the night. The hollow would shield him from view and offer some protection from the elements.
Although the temperature in this primeval forest was not as high as during the day, it was much warmer than the Gessian Territory in the cold winter he had left behind. Even at night, Ralth was only a little cool, nowhere near the bone-deep chill that had been his constant companion growing up.
"No frostbite tonight," he said, remembering the last time he slept in the cold.
Ralth opened a bottle of nutritional potion and took a cautious sip. The taste of the nutritional potion was very strange - it felt like diluted aged vinegar mixed with grass juice and then sealed and fermented for a month. The bitter liquid made him wrinkle his nose in disgust.
"Tastes like sh*t," he muttered, forcing himself to swallow, "but beggars can't be choosers."
Although the taste was bad, the effect was remarkable. After taking a test tube of nutrient solution, Ralth instantly felt a warmth spread through his stomach, and the hunger that had been gnawing at him disappeared instantly.
After drinking, Ralth lay under the tree, staring up at patches of night sky visible through the canopy. The stars looked different here than they had in Gessian Territory—brighter, somehow, and arranged in unfamiliar patterns. He tried to find the Hunter's Bow, the constellation that had guided him on late nights returning from the fields but couldn't spot it among the strange stars.
"Different stars, different gods," he whispered to himself. "I wonder if they're listening."
The fatigue of the day came over him like a tide, making his limbs feel heavy and his eyelids droop.
But instead of giving in to sleep, he sat up cross-legged and chose to meditate. On the airship journey, Ralth had discovered that meditation could eliminate mental fatigue much more efficiently than regular sleep. Two hours of deep meditation was even more restorative than eight hours of sleep.
In this primeval forest full of dangers, staying alert and aware was undoubtedly a good thing.
Moreover, meditation itself could enhance mental strength, so it offered double benefits. The best of both worlds.
Ralth closed his eyes and began to slow his breathing, focusing his mind inward.
He visualized his magic reflux as a small pond, slowly filling with power. The events of the day began to fade away as he sank deeper into meditation.
But just as he was about to enter the trance state, a strange beast's roar resounded through the forest, so loud and so close that it seemed to shake the very ground beneath him. The sound was like nothing he had ever heard before. It was unnatural.
Ralth's eyes snapped open.
"So much for meditation," he growled, rising to his feet in one fluid motion.