Chapter 47: Precursor to Ascension

When Thirteen returned through the front door of the main mansion, he was surprised to find Head Instructor Nicholas seemingly waiting for them with a straight back. The man always carried a sort of overly distant attitude, like he was only here to do what was required of him. This only changed in those few rare moments someone managed to truly impress or anger him.

'Did he know we were returning today? How?' Thirteen thought to himself as he exchanged glances with his friends.

Their horses were outside for now, the camping equipment, waterskins and everything else lent to them by the estate still packed on the mounts, while any personal packs were held by their owners. The giant gourd too was Thirteen.

"Congratulations on your mission" Nicholas said flatly.

"Are you in adequate shape to provide me a debriefing?"

"Yes sir." all three stated at once.

Nicholas nodded, glanced at the strange gourd, but then turned to Nine who seemed eager to speak.

"You can begin."

The next hour passed slowly, still standing in the middle of the manor's main lobby by the door, as Nicholas questioned them on every little aspect of their mission.

Nine spoke about most of it, but when it came to the thief whom Thirteen killed in a small village, he was the only one who had all the information and so he took over at that point. He explained that they left with the body in the dark of night and cut it open outside the village to attract beasts, receiving an approving nod from Nicholas.

Nine then eagerly took over once more as he spoke on the rest of the journey, up until they split up in Helbeck, at which point Thirteen told his part and was soon followed by Ten.

"I had trouble getting anyone to listen, and quite a few of the men tried to shoo me out of the tavern, telling me to find my parents." Ten said, "I got angry and acted irresponsibly, saying words I shouldn't. A drunkard that gave me a bad feeling took offense and tried to grab me so I broke his arm and left."

Thirteen and Nine turned to look at her, the former remembering the drops of blood he had seen on her collar that day.

Nicholas looked at her for a few seconds, but as she did not follow up on her statement, he prodded with a cold voice.

"What are you leaving out?"

"...I also struck him. A few times." she said with a hesitant expression.

"Your actions are fine, so long as he lives. You do not appear intimidating and so you will require a reputation to avoid idiots endangering themselves. However now is not yet the time for you to be well known, so you must keep subtlety in your actions, understood?

"Yes sir" Ten said, her expression relaxing somewhat, only to stiffen with his next words.

"Do not lie to me again."

After fixing her a stare for a few seconds, Nicholas turned his gaze back to Nine and the debriefing continued. They spoke in excruciatingly slow detail about the fight with Lukas Junill, and the Crater Monkeys.

"Sir, I'm worried that the large Crater Monkey may serve to threaten that nearby village if left unchecked. It seemed incredibly wrathful." Thirteen said.

Nicholas fixed him a strange glance for a moment before replying. "I can imagine. It seems you have stolen it's lifetime's work" He said with a glance to the large gourd.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked.

"An alcohol of some kind." Thirteen replied, an ominous feeling that he shouldn't have stolen it creeping into his mind.

"Close enough. It is the internal liquor developed by Crater Monkeys as they employ their abilities. By your description of the events, I would say Lukas Junill had been hunting those monsters to extract the Liquor Sack, a peculiar organ from their bodies in order to drink it's contents." At that he gestured to the gourd with his head.

"Crater Monkeys are monsters, and as such they can only improve their supernatural qualities through devouring others. In this particular case, it seems the chief among them killed the weakest and stored their internal liquor in that. It would certainly act as a wonderful tonic for increasing the chief's power. Like the finest of alchemic goods."

Thirteen's face ran pale as he felt sick. "So, I drank the organ juice of a monkey?"

"You eat monster meat every day 8-13, no reason to feel sick now. Though I'd recommend none of you drink from it again until you come of age or it could prove detrimental to your growth."

Thirteen gulped slightly "Not a problem."

"Well, that's enough. You've all done well. Thirteen, go to the armory and replace the weapons you've lost. The rest of you can return to your dorms, I'll have helpers drop off materials on anything you've missed."

Nicholas began to walk away, but Thirteen called out to interrupt him.

"Ah, Head Instructor. Can I ask, has Four's group returned yet?"

"They have. Though Four is currently indisposed."

"Indisposed?"

Nicholas' eyes squinted for a moment as if annoyed, but he still replied.

"Four is currently speaking with Eudes Clarke. The boy has shown signs of potential ascendance."

"He ascended?!" Thirteen asked, as Ten and Nine each exclaimed loudly.

"I said 'signs' of potential ascendance. Nothing more than a precursor of what COULD happen. You can get the details from him later, when he's done with the snake." He snapped back with a raised tone.

With that Nicholas turned to leave for good, and Thirteen knew not to interrupt him again. In talking about Four and Mr. Clarke, Nicholas' attitude had plummeted quickly.

'Snake?' He questioned inwardly.

"Meet you at the dorm?" Nine interrupted his thoughts.

"Ah, yeah. I'll stop by the armory and the library first, then I'll see you there."

"We'll meet up with Four at dinner" Ten called, already walking off.

"Got it."

The armory, like the library, was held in the eastern wing of the mansion. There was nothing too special within, just a vast array of mundane weapons. According to Instructor Diores, if they developed a dependency on mystical arms now that would hinder their potential.

After retrieving a new longsword, Thirteen opted to take a greatsword longer than he normally would. He noticed his height growing quite quickly lately, and decided to pick one sized just long enough that he won't have to replace it anytime soon. Every sword had subtle differences and he'd like to avoid replacing it too often.

After that he returned the legend of creation book to the library and made his way back to the dorms, still thinking about Four and the "potential ascendance". They still didn't know much about ascendance or evolution, or whatever. Apparently it would be just like it was with animals becoming monsters and spirit beasts, but that thought worried Thirteen slightly. He could name a few monsters that went from normal animals to giant, horrific looking demons. Would they do the same?

As his thoughts wandered, he soon found himself back at the dorms, where he cultivated and spoke with Nine until dinner.

——

When Thirteen entered the dining hall together with Nine, he immediately spotted Four. It was hard to miss him as the largest among the eighth generation. While Thirteen had taken the #2 spot in height, Four wasn't just tall, but 'large'. The kind of large that would be stressful to clash with in battle.

After spotting Four's frame, Thirteen then saw both Forty-five and Ten sitting next to him, the former of which excitedly half-stood at the table to wave him over, a large smile on her face.

"Long time no see. That's the first time I've been able to say that" Thirteen greeted.

"Good to see you brothers" Four replied as he stood to give Thirteen and Nine a bear hug each.

"Welcome back" Forty-five added from the side with a smile.

Taking his seat at the table, Thirteen asked "So? How was your hunt?"

"Simple" "Boring" Four and Forty-five replied respectively.

"Big dumb monster rampaging through the countryside, so they send out big dumb Four to punch a hole in it." She said, her head slumping down to rest on her left hand.

"Dumb? Who was it that tried to block the strike of a lizard the size of a house?"

"Wah– Only because you ran at the thing without any plan! I was left trying to play catch up! And poor Three, he almost died for your recklessness!"

"He needed a wake up call anyway, he's too weak."

Forty-five gave up with a deep sigh, her shoulders slumping.

Thirteen could barely stifle a chuckle at their exchange. It seemed their encounter had been a rather simple one– wait.

"Punch a hole through it?"

Four grinned ear to ear, as if waiting for Forty-five to announce his exploits, while the girl in question simply directed a sidelong glance at him in exasperation.

"Yes… punched a hole. It should have been a difficult fight, especially with no plan of attack, but the oaf did something admittedly crazy."

"Is this…" Thirteen looked to Four, "The reason Mr. Clarke spoke to you?"

With a short harrumph, and a nose pointing to the sky, Four nodded. "Boy have I got things to tell you."

Dropping the playful attitude, he lowered his gaze from the roof back to Thirteen and spoke normally. "That man is unnerving, but he seems to know a lot. He said that sudden spikes in power can be a precursor to ascendance or unique mutations. I really did punch a hole through that monster. Something I definitely couldn't do again if you asked me to."

Thirteen's attention was sufficiently hooked as he leaned in.

"Wait, what's a unique mutation?"

"I don't really know, but that Eudes guy said that those with a lot of potential who fall flat of true ascendance may achieve a unique mutation, some kind of uncultivated power."

"Okay, then do you know what the chances are of you ascending?"

At that, four leaned back and exhaled. "No clue. It might not mean anything. Apparently there is no way to know if someone will ascend. Oh, but he did say that he has high hopes. He reckons I could at least achieve a unique mutation given my progress so far."

With that last sentence, Four became animated again as he leaned forward once more and continued to speak, this time in a whisper.

"And something else. That man knows things. He said that the other worlds, those higher ones, are completely ruled by ascendants. He said that if I manage to ascend, the other worlds would accept my migration there. But how would that help the Demia Kingdom?"

Thirteen thought back to Nicholas' bad mood on the topic of Eudes Clarke and had an idea.

"Perhaps, he's not recruiting for the kingdom?" He said slowly.

As silence rained for a moment, their thoughts were interrupted by the delivery of dinner, and the topic of conversation soon changed as Four and Forty-five asked the three about their own bounty and how it went.

Like this, the night passed peacefully, once again under the large roof of the Clarke Estate.

The next day classes continued as if nothing had changed, with Thirteen, Ten, and Nine being delivered materials on things they missed, mostly theory class topics. Not all of the eighth generation had gone on a mission, only the highest achievers, but gradually all the other students too were assigned tasks, usually ones with shorter durations such as a week long task or even just a few days.

After two months, when everyone in the eight generation had been sent on a mission and returned, new classes were introduced to the curriculum, such as basic etiquette, fine arts, classes on deception, and more.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Chalky

Uploaded pretty late today but it's a double release so by bird law I can't be held accountable :) Checkout the discord below for announcements whenever a chapter goes live:

https://discord.gg/6uMCzRf

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