Kai’s vision darkened. He was aware he had lost a lot of blood. Because he was no longer a blood mage, he couldn’t block the vein leaking his life away or heal. With no other choice, he punched, pulled back, and punched again with the gravitational assistance of heavy blow. He punched his fist into the panther harder and faster than ever. Again and again, his fist drove into its side. Even when he felt his knuckles break, he didn’t stop. Yowling in pain, the beast tried to escape off his body, thrashing about but the vines kept it trapped over him. On his next punch, he felt the bones shatter underneath his fist, sending shards deep inside the beast. With a final yowl, the panther swayed for a moment before collapsing on him.

Your group has slain [Grove Panther – Forging Level 35]

‘Vanguard has reached Foundation Level 33’

…

‘Vanguard has reached Foundation Level 40’

‘Heavy Blow has advanced to [2/10]

8 levels.

Checking his health, Kai saw it was at 44/520. It continued to trickle down by the second as his life bled out.

“Health potion,” Kai rasped to anyone listening.

In a bit of panic, Kai chose to put 30 attribute points into vitality, giving him another 300 health. Only it didn’t instantly heal him, instead, it provided him a longer chance to live as his health still continued to dwindle, his life leaking out through the many wounds. It was a cheat method to delay death, only temporarily slowing his demise.

Kneeling over his prone form, Hector poured liquid into his mouth. Kai sputtered, barely able to breathe under the large beast that lay on his chest. Hector and another student dragged it off him a moment later. After a minute of watching his health dip below 200, the familiar sensation of the healing potion began taking effect. The health continued dropping but began slowing over time until it eventually stopped. The next minute, it started going back up. He could feel the familiar warmth and itchiness working away at his wounds as they sealed shut.

With a weak sigh of relief, Kai closed his eyes as his health reached its new halfway point of 400. Having saved the remaining 10 attribute points in case he needed more vitality; Kai chose to put them into intelligence, in a weak attempt to improve the pull of his gravity since it had seemed wholly ineffective against the panther.

His heavy blow had gone up a level. The first of his skills to do so. The increase would give a small power boost to the skill, making him hit a little harder the next time he used it.

Name: Kaismo Cineris

Realm/Level: Foundation 40

Aspect: Gravity

Class: Vanguard

Race: Human

Health: 431/840

Stamina: 192/250

Mana: 112/300

Vitality: 80 (84)

Strength: 50

Dexterity: 30

Endurance: 30

Intelligence: 40

Wisdom: 30

Unspent Attributes Available: 0

Active Skills:

- Heavy Blow [2/10]

- Gravity Pillar [1/10]

- Domain [1/10]

Passive Skills:

- Burden [1/10]

General Skills:

- Identify

- Pain Tolerance 1

- Sense Improvement 1

- Soul Presence 4

- Elemental Magic Resistance 4

- Physical Resistance 4

Still kneeling next to his form, Hector bent his head down and whispered, “I think Jason Grell tried to kill you when you were trapped. One of his air blades hit you in the shoulder. Actually, a lot of them came close. It’s not like you were moving much under it so I doubt it was a mistake.”

Kai had felt magic hit him during the ordeal, he thought that it was perhaps a misfire. The pain and agony coming from the claws shredding his skin and muscle had been so painful that it dulled most of what else had happened around him. His eyes met Hectors for a moment before giving a subtle nod. He would deal with Jason later.

Sitting up, Kai grunted in pain. His body still felt raw, the injuries, despite having healed, felt like they could burst open if he moved too much or too suddenly.

With a voice full of energy, the instructor asked, “Well, that certainly was a lot more exciting. Everyone ready to move on?”

As it turned out, one student had died during the fight. Zackery, the first student to get mauled had survived with the assistance and healing abilities of Fred, although barely. The other student, named Casey, had been dragged by his leg into the bushes beyond Kai’s vision, only to have been killed. Kai had no doubt the instructor could have saved the young man but choose not to.

I wonder if Garren went through this. Or if dad is aware. Something told him, his father would have told him if he had known. Aren’t they afraid of backlash? If an important noble’s kid dies, then wouldn’t he complain to the king? Take vengeance? What the hell are they thinking?

Leveling up by way of killing monsters was supposed to be fast and dangerous, but they were still in school, under the supervision of instructors and teachers so they were supposed to be safe. It seemed incredulous that they would let their own students die and be completely straight with it. Kai knew his mother would destroy the school in anger if he died. Or would attempt to do so. With the instructor’s unwillingness to intervene, Kai had initially thought they would be using a common ploy for the first expedition, to let the students think they would die, so they could judge them, and how they perform under such pressures. There was also the fact that a person would gain more levels if the risks were greater, or at least if they believed them to be so. But no, the instructor had let a student die thus destroying his theories.

It seemed barbaric to let an untrained student die during an expedition. It was so entirely pointless. The more Kai thought about it, the more confused and angrier he became.

“Everyone,” the instructor called out. “I know some of you have been through something harrowing today. But this is the price you must pay to gain strength.” He held the corpse in his hands, a cloth covering it. “There are still a few hours left. We will take a vote on whether to continue or not. All who wish to continue to raise your hand.”

Everyone had voted not to continue. In his heart, Kai wanted to keep going. But he knew he was woefully underprepared. He needed armor, potions, and his health and mana back to full before he could feel confident about fighting out here next time.

So, the group trekked back to the staging area. Along the way, he kept receiving curious and fearful glances every now and then. Every time he met their gazes, they would immediately look away, almost fearful to be caught looking.

“You scare them,” Hector whispered alongside him.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything to them.” Kai looked around at the other students, but they seemed to be purposefully dodging his gaze.

Hector gave Kai an appraising look. “When you were under the beast... during that minute I felt... more fearful of you than the panther. You were terrifying. Under threat of death, you unleashed wrathful savagery that chilled my bones watching,” Hector shivered, he brought his hand up to his arm and began rubbing it. “Kai that monster had over a hundred levels on you, and you...”

The whole incident was a blur. All Kai remembered was the instinctual desire to live. It had been just like the day he died in his past life. The same feeling of teetering on the edge of death, only to defy and fight to live. Only the last time he did die, the challenge had been too great to overcome.

Looking to his side, even Jason was giving him looks of consideration. Maybe this will get him off my back from now on.

After a few minutes of travel, the group arrived at the staging area. Surprisingly, they were not the first group back.

“Hector, Kai,” Andre called out, his voice sounded tired. His face was smeared with dried blood. He walked toward them with an obvious limp.

“Andre, what the in the nine happened to your group?” Hectors inquired.

Not only Andre, but his entire group also looked like they had been through a long campaign of fighting even though it had been a few hours. Each was bloody and roughed up in their own right. Andre’s armor was slightly marked up, but it was not even close to being as bad as Kai’s shredded one.

[Human – Foundation Level 26]

He gained some levels too.

“Came across a swarm of needle birds, nasty little things. Everyone needed a health potion after the fight. One of them got Chloe in the neck.” He pointed to a girl whose armor was dyed red. “We came back to grab some more health potions before heading back out.”

While Andre’s group looked ragged, they were all joyful and excitedly talking amongst each other. Some imitating moves they had performed, pretending to slash their weapons around as they vanquished their imaginary foes.

“How about you guys, why are you back so soon?”

The mood darkened.

“Kai almost died. And another student was killed,” Hector replied somberly.

“What...” Andre looked wide eyes between the two, expecting someone to say, “just kidding,” but when no one did, the realization came across his face. “Is that why you look like that?”

Kai nodded his head. His leather chest piece was completely trashed, just shredded strings of leather barely hanging on at this point.

“The instructor did nothing to protect us. He knowingly took the students into a Forging level 35 Grove Panther’s territory, knowing full well we were not ready,” Kai angrily spouted. His glare turned onto the instructor, who as if sensing it turned to Kai mid-conversation, and gave his own glare back, unwilling to back down to his student.

“It took out two students before it jumped on Kai, I don’t think we could have defeated it without Kai and that vine girl,” Hector added on, thumbing the girl crying gently on one of the logs, the others consoling her.

“That doesn’t make sense. Why would they allow students to die!” Andre’s forehead was creased with worry.

“That’s what I want to know,” Kai narrowed his eyes at the instructor who had resumed talking to the other group’s instructor.

A few hours later every group had come back. With the news of the dead student, Andre’s group had agreed not to go back out for the day. As more groups came back, word had gone around very quickly about the dead student. Casey had been the only person to die throughout all the groups it seemed.

Kai had been getting a wide berth from many of the students except for his roommates. Apparently, tales of his escapades had been spread around.

“Students,” Sven addressed the groups with a melancholy tone. “As I’m sure most of you have heard. Today a student, Casey McAdams, died during the field training.” Sven paused as the whispering began. He waited until they died down once again. “You must be wondering, why? Why didn’t the instructor of that group protect and save him?”

Sven shook his head. “I will be completely forthright with you. Because life is filled with unpredictable factors, you can’t control. You can only do your best to adapt and survive. One group at random every trip will have their instructor commanded not to interfere with the expedition at all. That means he will not save you if you find yourselves in danger.” Sven looked didn’t look happy delivering this news. “This is a new policy, enacted by the headmistress. But, be assured the instructors will not take you to fight anything your group can’t handle.”

“Damnit,” he heard his roommate whisper.

“Those of you who do not want to risk your life out here will not be obligated to come on these trips again,” Sven said, his voice even. “Live and survive or become food, the future is up to you. Now let’s return home.”

On the way back to the academy, the carriage was quiet. Everyone sat in contemplation, thinking about what Sven had informed them. As it turns out, their little adventures would be a lot more dangerous than they had all thought.

Now that he thought about it more, it had been stupid to save Hector, as cold as it was to say. When the panther had jumped at him, he had pushed Hector to the side, blocking the way to the robed mage. He hardly knew the guy and had risked his life to save him. It had been a somewhat unconscious reaction to save Hector. Saving people was something he had done often in his old life. It had been an unstable turbulent time when many died unnecessarily. He did what he could to help people survive despite the risks and became a hero along the way, saving many.

Ben had been a hero. But Kai couldn’t be. He needed to live so he could keep his promise to his family to survive, and for his quest for revenge.

Because he had been born as Ben, and then died and was reborn with his full memories intact, it wasn’t a stretch to say he was still Ben in essence, whose memories and experiences molded him into the person he was today. Thus, Ben could be said to be the real him, wrapped in a shiny new paint masquerading as Kai just because he had lived first. Living as Kai, in his new life had undoubtedly influenced him greatly, making new memories and experiences, but his soul and the pain inside definitely belonged to his first life too.

He wondered if it was the soul, the very essence of that person that made them who they were, or was it their memories and experiences, or perhaps something else entirely? The soul may have started off as solely belonging to Ben, but now with a different life, he wasn’t the same man as before. After all, Ben had died almost 1250 years ago and in approximately 10 years, he would have lived longer as Kai than he did as Ben.

Whatever the answer, Kai could feel the ever-conflicting emotions of not knowing what the future held. After all fighting monsters was deadly. And even the idea of revenge felt so far away that it was an impossible dream.

But Kai knew deep down, he would keep ascending. For better or worse, he could not sit down and enjoy an easy life. The desire to fight, to explore, to enact his revenge would drive him forwards.