PreCursive

  We took the time to bury the members of the patrol. Not just because it was the right thing to do, no. But because we o ceal the evidence of our battle with them. If there was orol in these nds, there was a good ce that there were more. We couldn’t give them any reason to increase suspi in the area, at least until we’d aplished our mission.

  Still.

  There was something unspeakably grim about digging a mass grave.

  We’d gathered all thirty-two members of the patrol and sort of…stacked them together o the spot where they’d be buried. We deliberately didn’t do much to their bodies, trying to afford them the barest amount of respeo looting of any kind happened.

  We were taking turns on the digging. Currently, it was Azarus and Venix out there, shoveling away at the earth. I was watg them, sitting up against one of the wagon wheels, having just finished my turn and handed my shovel to Azarus. I’d been surprised that we had a feart of our supplies, but when I’d questioned Azarus about it, he’d just gru me dourly.

  I didn’t bme him for being standoffish. I think everyone in roup rocessing the battle differently.

  I know I sure hell was having a hard time of it.

  I crossed my arms, letting my gaze drift away from the two digging. Grey was above me somewhere, where he had pulled out a pipe for the first time since we’d met. I couldn’t see him from my position, but I khat he was gazing out onto the horizoarus was beginning its dest and puffing away. I don’t know where Sylvia was. Sometimes she just…vanished into thin air and we would only see her ter.

  I won’t lie, I was tempted to do the same. I’d discovered that hunting was a very meditative thing for me, and I longed for that kind of focus right now. Anything to drive the thoughts from my head.

  I was knocked out of my introspe by someone plopping down into the dirt o me. Casting a gaze sideways, I found that it was Aurum, the st member of our little party. Despite being our healer, he hadn’t o do much for us post-battle. Grey had been telling the truth to Captain Dallens, right before his death. None of us had been injured, beyond a few minor scrapes and bruises. I hadn’t seen much of him after the battle, having been busy with digging.

  Whenever I’d spoken to Aurum, he had seemed like a fairly friendly kind of guy. None of that was evident on his goldeures right now, though. Instead, the usually jovial Sculpted was solemn. He was sittio me with his knees drawn up to his chest, hugging them like a child.

  “This isn’t my first battle, you know,” He told me quietly. He g me from the er of his golden eye. “Was it yours?”

  I drew in a slow breath, memories of Addersfield flooding my brain. In particur, I was remembering our frantic escape from the town, and the guard that I had killed then. “I guess…it depends on what you call a battle,” I told him, just as quietly. “This isn’t the first time I’ve had to kill, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Aurum nodded slowly. “I get that,” He murmured. It was sileween us for a few moments before he broke it again. “I…haven’t really had the ce to know much else than this, you know?” He told me, letting his metallic head thunk bato the wagon wheel. “Since we all woke up, it’s been nothing but battle after battle, in more ways than just…fighting,” He waved a limp hand at the pile of corpses that we’d made of the patrol. “Sometimes…”

  I turo face him more, since he’d trailed off. I saw that the Sculpted man had a troubled look on his face. “Sometimes what?”

  Aurum gazed out into the su with an unfocused gaze for a moment before turning to face me. I was surprised at the level of sadness I found in his eyes. “I wonder If any of this is worth it.”

  I furrowed my brow. “You mean the Uprising?”

  Aurum roubled. “So much death. So much suffering. Ever since we woke up, I’ve never seeal in a state other than…bickering, and fighting ah,” He drew in a shuddering breath, even though I doubted he . “Sometimes I think we’re a curse on this nd. If we had never existed, none of them would have had to die today.” He finished, nodding at the remains of the patrol.

  I sighed, turning to face Aurum. “I get it, but let me ask you something,” I said to him, trying to be as passionate as I could. “Do you think the Sculpted deserve to be sves?”

  The golden Sculpted reared back as if I had struck him. “What?! No!”

  I tilted my head at him. “But that’s what they,” I nodded over at the remains of the patrol. “Want you to be. That’s what they died fighting for. The right to ensve aire race of people, at the and of a bunch of greedy nobles. Let me tell you something that I’ve learned. You know all that stuff the Captain talked about before his death? Honor, and loyalty, and oaths?”

  Aurum me hesitantly. “Yes? I’ve had many people try and tell me about them since I woke up. They’re supposed to be really important.”

  “It’s all bullshit,” I told him bluntly. “It’s not that they’re not important in some way. I won’t argue that they ’t be motivating factors for some people, but they get twisted into worthlessness so easily. What honor is there in c another person? What oath could possibly be worth signing ao a life of svery? Any person that demands that kind of twisted loyalty isn’t worthy of it in the first pce!”

  Aurum stared at me with wide eyes. Blinking, I noticed that I had gotten to my feet and been shouting at the end, and had drawn attention from Azarus and Venix. Slowly, I sat back dowing the diggers get back to work. I let out a heavy breath once I’d drawn my legs baderh me. “They’re all just trappings of society. And when that society is broken in some way, hypocrites twist words like honor to justify their atrocities. When that happens, they don’t matter at all. Let me ask you something else. Have you ever wondered why there are humans that are fighting for the Uprising as well? Why so many of the noble houses are split on the issue, and threw their lot in with you at all?”

  “Um,” Aurum stuttered. “Yes? I asked some humans why they were helping us, and they just told me it was the right thing to do.”

  “And they’re right, it is. But I guarahat’s not all. I don’t know this try very well,” I said to him, fetting for a moment that Aurum didn’t know I recursor and was thus o Herztal. I cursed to myself mentally, when he gave me a strange look but fed on anyway. “But this try had to be broken in some way, for things to have gotten to this point. There had to be deep-seated grudges and ideological issues that divided them. A civil war like this doesn’t just pop up out of nowhere, even over issues as evil as svery. In the end, I think that the Uprising was just the excuse that some of the houses tched onto, in order to effect ge. And it’s a damn good one. Any ruling body, any King or cil that tries to defend svery deserves to be ousted. By force.” I finished, snarling. I couldn’t help but rub at my left shoulder when I was done, aware of the false brand that still lingered on my skin.

  I didn’t want tet what had been doo me.

  Aurum bli me rapidly. “Are you saying that you think the war…isn’t our fault?”

  “I don’t know for sure,” I told him darkly, calming down slightly. “But historical examples tell me it’s likely.”

  Aurum staggered to his feet. “I o think about this. Um, thank you for the talk, Nathan.” Having said that, the Sculpted man wandered away from me, with a strange look on his face.

  “Yeah,” I said to his retreating back. “No problem…”

  I sat in silence for a moment, growing embarrassed. That guy hadn’t needed me going off on him about my own doubts and bitterness. I had to keep in mind that most Sculpted were only a few years old, and were likely extremely lost about their p the world. I wasn’t surprised that some of them were uain about societal structs like ‘honor’ and ‘loyalty’.

  I was knocked out of my stewing by a voice from above me. “A very ical worldview, Nathan.”

  Looking up, I found that Grey was leaning over the side of the wagon and gazing down at me with a raised eyebrow. I flushed. I’d fotten during my ranting that Grey was sitting up on a bench above us. He likely heard every word I’d subjected poor Aurum to.

  I stood up to meet Grey’s gaze better. “Yeah, but am I wrong?”

  Grey took a puff of his pipe ahe smoke in his mouth thoughtfully for a moment. Breathing it out into the evening sky, he met my gaze. “irely. I will admit that things in the Kingdom had been strained for some time, even before the Sed Initialization. With hindsight, I see that the iion of the AutoVant was an unintended destabilizing factor on the fabric of Herztalian society. Despite my iions, the reality is that the rich were growing richer and the poor were growing poorer. Tensions had been running high for some time, even before the introdu of the Sculpted as a unified force. However,” He said, raising a brow at me. “I would advise you to keep your thoughts on honor and loyalty to yourself. It would fair poorly amoain audiences.”

  I rubbed the bay neck. “I get it. I wasn’t even trying to say they’re ily bad, you know?” I told him awkwardly. “It’s just…I think they’re ofteo justify atrocities, like what happeo both of us.”

  Grey smiled wryly at me, tapping his pipe on the railing of the wagon. Ash fell from it, to rest in the dirt below. “I didn’t say I entirely disagreed with you. Merely that it’s a ical worldview, not very popur ial. I don’t ofte in the young.” He sat his pipe down on the ben order to cp his hands together twice. “Now! Enough gabbing. I believe our patriots are doh the hole. We’ll o properly y the deceased in it now.”

  I turned around to see that he was right. Azarus and Venix looked to be done, and had started to haul bodies to carefully y in the grave they’d been digging. Grey swung himself over the railing of the wagon to nd on the dirt below, surprisingly spry for su old man. With one final nod to me, he walked over to them to assist.

  I hung back for a moment, one final thought running through my mind. There was something that had happehe st few times I’d killed another person, and I was anxious to see if it had happened again. I called up Hidden Amidst the Spheres in order to see my Status.

  You have gained 6 levels!You are now level 40!Spear Proficy has reached level 6!Knife Proficy has reached level 4!Ag has reached level 5!You have sixty u Virtue points. Level 40 Css ability ied. Would you like to review your Status? Y/NShit, like I thought. I selected yes.

  I allocated my points in the same ratio I’d been using for months. Why fix what had worked for me so far? I took a look at my Status once I was done.

  haniel Eugene HartTitlesUnbound LiberatorLevel40Age24 SolRaceHuman (Precursor)

  Affinity TerrestrialCssesThornbde Acolyte (Unon)Professioherial Meldih490/490Stamina100/100Vitality 49Strength10Spirit10Dexterity88Perception 49Intelligence127Wisdom127Free Points 0Options[Talent Page], [Skill Page], [Profession Page]Well, I was level forty now. I'd even gotten a new css ability. And those levels had without a doubt e from killing other people. Something that was supposed to be nearly impossible.

  I didn't care to see what ability I'd even gotte, from killing all those people.

  Months ago, around when I’d first arrived on this p, Grey and Azarus had told me that only killing other monsters granted a signifit amount of level Aether. Something about how the Aether released on the death of a person was too personalized to ie. I…don’t think that was the case for me. I’d noticed ba Addersfield after I’d killed Magnus that I’d gotten a few levels from it. I’d been too busy at the time to think about the implications too deeply, but I couldn’t deny the faow.

  I could level from more than just killing monsters and crafting. I could level from killing people. Hell, I even got way more Aether from my Professions than others did.

  Not only that, but I’d somehow stolen a skill from Magnus at the moment of his death. That hadn’t happeoday, which was holy a little fusing. But it was something that I could do. Once I did that, I had a ‘special’ skill that allowed me to bine some skills together.

  My skills and talents were too powerful, they had too much synergy between them. With the extra sources of level Aether I had access to, I could grow much easier and faster than most could as well. This was all too much to be a ce.

  There had to be a guiding hand beyond the System granting me all this power.

  I felt a chill run down my spi the thought.

  What the hell recursor that someone, or something, wanted me to grow so powerful, so quickly?