Chapter 38: Journey to Safety

*Date: 33,480 First Quarter - Iron Confederacy*

About thirty people began the journey to Thalia's hidden settlement. "It will take three days with your group," she explained, her red hair catching the morning light as she surveyed the mixed band of survivors and fighters.

When Demir asked how they had found out about the goblin outpost, Thalia explained they'd heard rumors from a scared, lost trader who had barely escaped with his life.

Demir put two seriously weakened friends onto the cart and began pulling it despite their protests. "I can do it," he said firmly, his muscles straining against the weight but his determination unwavering. Thalia and her people were also on foot, but they had a horse-drawn carriage for their pile of loot from the goblin raid.

"This loot will give us some edge for surviving the new order in Aethyros," she explained as they walked along the mountain path. The morning air was crisp, and their breath formed small clouds as they spoke.

Finally, when they made camp for the evening, Demir pulled Marco to a secluded place behind some boulders to examine the glowing, uneven etched stone he'd received from Killgor.

Marco put on his special glasses, the lenses glinting with inner light as they activated. "Wow, neat find. I don't know how you can use it though. Here, take a look."

Demir, emotionally and physically drained from the raid but still carrying a sliver of excitement from his gamer side, took the glasses and looked at the stone. Text appeared before his eyes in glowing letters:

[Stone of Power] [C Grade] [+12 Force (Tier 8)] : null before attachment. Attachable: Weapons.

"Wow, this is amazing! Plus twelve Force! How can I attach it to a weapon though?" Demir asked, his voice filled with wonder.

Marco smiled knowingly. "I know a way."

"What is it?"

"You need to forge a weapon with a rune slot," Marco explained, his expression growing serious. "It's advanced crafting, but with your skills and Brovick's training, you might be able to manage it."

---

*Date: 33,480 First Quarter - Chalice Theocracy*

The scene of kids beaten up after the hard solo dungeon run was a sobering sight. Most had made it through, which showed how far behind Aris truly was. He had thought coming here with his healing touch gave him a false sense of confidence about his abilities.

Even sixteen-year-old timid Nevyre, the halfling girl, had made it through successfully. "They all had potential as locals, and most came with some kind of edge," Aris thought bitterly. "What was my edge?"

The realization hit him hard: "I can't level, and attaining one or two stats from titles is nothing compared to what others have. Every day I'm falling further behind. Those stupid slugs almost killed me because my vitality was probably terrible. The stupid blood puzzle almost killed me too."

Orric saw Aris approaching and waved his hands enthusiastically. He was with two other beastkin Aris didn't know, sharing water and food. Aris joined the group of misfits, grateful for their acceptance.

"It was easy, right?" Orric asked with a grin, his wolf ears perked up with interest.

Aris, still aching from everywhere, replied honestly, "Not really. slugs almost got me."

A bearkin student looked at him with disbelief. "You're kidding, right? They're the weakest monsters in the first trial. How could you have managed that badly?"

"Well, I'm a healer. I never learned to fight," Aris explained, feeling heat rise in his cheeks.

The bearkin's expression grew serious. "Well, you have to learn how to show some grit. Otherwise, even on the scribe route, you can't find a group to carry you through dungeon five."

A lizardkin female spoke up, her voice more gentle. "Give him a rest. He can learn, right? He managed to survive here. He's among the last ninety-seven."

"Two died?" Aris asked, his stomach dropping.

Orric's expression grew somber. "A1 didn't come up yet when we left. But C-8, a kid named Karlo, didn't make it. The teachers said he couldn't manifest healing properly and bled himself to death in the blood chamber."

The weight of that revelation settled over the group like a shroud. Someone had died doing exactly what Aris had barely survived.

When they finally brought up the A1 student, he was coughing blood and barely conscious. The priests healed him but also explained that he was expelled from the Academy. The shepherds took the failed students back to Chalice city center, then to the Academy through another portal near the gathering area.

On the way back, Aris tried to join the friendly conversations, but his mind kept returning to the same troubling thoughts: how could he develop his talents in this frozen game system? "Stupid system," he thought. "Even if I had entered just one month ago, I probably could have gained twenty to thirty levels and survived easily."

When he arrived at his room, Fox jumped at his feet with obvious relief. "Thank the Light, I was so worried, kid. You made it!"

"You had doubts?" Aris asked, managing a weak smile.

"Well, you're not renowned for your might," Fox said with typical bluntness.

"Let's go to Lyra. I found stuff," Aris said, his voice gaining strength as he remembered his discoveries.

Without resting, he wanted to tell Lyra about his crazy findings and discuss what routes he could take to actually improve his abilities.

When they reached the library, Lyra was working on a weird design involving a ladder system with rails and pulleys.

"What are you doing?" Aris asked, curious despite his exhaustion.

"Well, before the head librarian comes back, I want to test this system. The stupid ladder climbing up and down to remove and add books has made my back hurt. This rail system will make our job much easier," she explained, wiping sweat from her brow.

"You know you're not really a librarian, right?" Aris pointed out.

"Oh right," Lyra said with a laugh. "Today was the first dungeon day. Congratulations - you lived."

"But I was almost killed by slugs," Aris said, the memory still fresh and terrifying.

"Yeah, because you're level one," Lyra replied matter-of-factly. "You need to step up your game."

"How?" Aris asked desperately.

"I mean, there are ways, but you need serious money, gear, runes, high-level titles, Witness Stones..." she trailed off, seeing his expression.

"How am I going to survive the other dungeons?" he asked, fear creeping into his voice.

"You won't be alone on those. Pick good teammates," she advised.

Fox interjected with irritation, "Maybe he should have picked a better handler. What's wrong with you, placing all the spying burden on the kid?"

Lyra turned to Fox with a sharp look. "How do you know I'm here playing only librarian?" She then turned back to Aris. "Anyway, did you find anything in there?"

Aris began explaining his discoveries to the group. He described the almost-dead people on slabs and the secret hatch with beaten-up technology from their real world.

Lyra's expression grew grave. "So they have creator tech and are making expendable people." She paused, thinking hard. "This correlates with their experiments. Crazy bastards. This is everything we wanted to stop."

"What experiments?" Aris asked.

"People experiments?" Fox added with concern.

"I don't know yet, but it's the High Priestess doing this, I'm sure of it. We need to dig deeper before jumping to conclusions. I don't know more than you about the experiments, other than that they exist." She turned back to Aris. "Did you look at the faces they can produce?"

"It's set to one face for every race, like your shapeshifting power," Aris replied.

"Yeah, but did you look closely? Can you remember the details?"

"Only the halfling, fae, and human faces I saw openly. But you could go to that control room and check it out yourself."

Lyra shook her head. "It's across the world. How can I go and check it out? They probably created people loyal as dogs under their control. I wish we had a way to see those faces."

Aris pulled out the diamond-shaped stone and showed it to Lyra. "I also found a satchel filled with these and took one."

"What the hell?" Lyra was puzzled, examining the stone closely. "This is a Witness Stone. It is one of the ways to power up I was talking about."

"What is it? What's it good for?" Aris asked eagerly.

"We can't tell before you integrate it," she replied.

Fox immediately objected. "Integrate without knowing what it does? No, no - too much risk."

"It's probably for the blank people. Even the machine loads them with generic memories. The stones are probably filled with spells and stats to put them in the Chalice build," Lyra explained.

"What do you mean?" Aris asked.

"This is used for charging yourself with a temporary build - to test your abilities in that class. But the Chalice probably either generated or created Priest or Templar builds for their hand-created lapdogs."

"Are you sure? Is this permanent?" Aris asked nervously.

Fox was adamant. "It could be created for a student as well. No way to tell. Don't use it, Aris."

"Every student here is stronger than Aris, except probably Will. But it's not permanent it shouldnt be permanet after use, it lasts a day. And I don't know how to charge it again," Lyra said.

Fox remained opposed. "It probably charges itself, but I'm still against it."

"How can I use it? I want to see the effects and be ready for the next dungeon. I don't want to be carried by others," Aris said with determination.

"Strap it to your chest and sleep with it. I don't know exactly how long it takes to consume its power," Lyra instructed.

"I also got another title, but I'll look at that after we see the stone's effects," Aris added.

"No, no. It might get mixed with the stone's progress. Let's look now," Lyra insisted.

When they made sure no one else was in the library, she plugged her device into Aris to check his status.

They saw the new title: "Blood Initiate" with the explanation: "Give your health to increase your power."

The implications of what he'd discovered, combined with this new title, painted a disturbing picture of the Academy's true methods and intentions.