Elder Saygren was the youngest of the Elders in Lionshard Sect, looking like he had barely a decade over the oldest disciples in the higher realms. In truth, he was well past his eightieth year.

It was said that those who reached the Primordial realm could live over a thousand years while experiencing barely a decade of aging. Rieren had certainly not lived long enough to test that hypothesis. But it did make her wonder just how long some of her enemies had been alive. Had Akohr and some of the other gods lived for thousands of years already?

For all that she knew of them, the chronicles of their personal life were difficult to determine. Dates of the great events in various gods’ past were memorized and archived in libraries and temples throughout the Elderlands, worshippers often celebrating key moments in history with great fervour. Going by those, one could be easily fooled into thinking the gods had existed for aeons.

But Rieren had found out the truth about one of the celestial beings. A god she had killed had created a vaunted history for himself, his power great enough to influence his followers into believing the chain of events that had led to his ascension had spanned centuries. By the time he had fallen to Rieren’s sword, he was supposedly over a millennia old.

In truth, his entire life had existed for a little over two centuries.

Liars. That’s what the gods really were. Builders of fake identities and images, hiding from a truth that apparently reduced their worth.

Rieren was pulled out of her thoughts when the Elder began speaking more loudly. He had asked them to listen to a short speech about the importance of physical cultivation and how it related to the stats in their system. Rieren knew most of it, had emphasized to Elder Olg much of what Elder Saygren was speaking of.

“Aside from cultivating the body to withstand the effects of the Body stat,” the Elder said, his fingertips steepled together. “Mind and Spirit also require physical cultivation to function properly.

“For instance, there is the misconception that Mind requires knowledge, intellect, mentality, all things that are within, well, your mind. But Mind the stat actually determines certain aspects of your physicality that Body the stat does not cover.

“Perception, the effectiveness and speed of processing various stimuli, reactions, instinct. Honing these is what allows the Mind stat to work correctly. And in return, the Mind stat will enhance your ability to react to all that comes before you. The true masters of the Mind stat perceive time itself at a faster rate, thus seeming to work at a pace unmatched by anyone else.

“The Spirit stat is similar. It determines how well one can channel Essence through the body and use the Essence externally. If you wish to not be burned by the fire that you yourself create, the Spirit stat is essential in ensuring that does not occur. It is imperative that we pay attention to our physical cultivation as we raise our levels.”

Elder Saygren gave them a moment to take it all in. This wasn’t an actual classroom where they could take notes, and he didn’t give them any. Rather, this was where they trained their bodies in the art of physical cultivation. So, it took only moments before the true class began.

“We are here to raise our bodies’ physique.” Elder Saygren said. His bald pate flashed in the sunlight along with his glasses. Rumour had it both of those had supposedly come about as a result of intense, physical cultivation regimens that he had undergone. “As such, we must exercise our bodies to bear great physical burdens.

“I will warn you that we will leave no stone unturned when it comes to taking our physical forms to the peak they can reach. The work will be difficult. Some may call it impossible. But that is what physical cultivation is about. We intend to shatter the barriers that our bodies put on us and claim far greater heights of achievement.

“To that end, let us waste no more time. Some of you know the beginning obstacle course that we take. We are to follow that. For those who are new, there is a path marked by red flags along the mountainside that serves as the track that you must follow as part of this class.

“Some of you will no doubt fail the first time. But there is no true shame in failure when attempting something for the first time. Or for the seventeenth. The only requirement is that you learn from your defeat and exceed your limits. That is all I truly ask of you.”

Elder Saygren paused again, but less to let them take in what he had said and more to bring out a little bottle filled with blue liquid. He gave it a little shake and set the glass bottle down before him.

“This is a Skeletal Fortress liquid,” he said. Some of the disciples went still at the name. Even Rieren’s attention was tugged inexorably towards the little bottle, as were that of Amalyse and Serace. The Elder smiled. “Yes, I can see some of you recognize it. As you may have guessed, this will be the prize for the obstacle course.

“For our new students, this liquid will provide you with the ability to condense your skeleton with Essence. There are other steps one must follow when it comes to Essence condensation beforehand, but one of the final important steps in early realms is infusing your bones with Essence. This will help greatly with that.”

With everything else said and done, they began taking the obstacle course. Rieren knew it well from her previous life, and she had no doubt most of the other disciples did so too. The villagers and the guards might have some problems with it, though.

It began to the left of the end of the field they were currently at, taking a tortuous circle over the mountainside until returning to the other end of the field, made worse by the fact that a simple trek wasn’t all that it involved. There were traps to look out for, supposedly random acts of nature no one could predict, and of course, other disciples.

Everyone eyed the vial of blue liquid with a glint in their eyes. Even Rieren felt adrenaline spiking through her veins. She had only accomplished reinforcing her skin with Essence—which left condensing Essence into her muscles, then her most important organs which needed individual condensing, and finally, her bones.

There was a lot more for Rieren to do.

“Do I need to keep an eye on your back in case someone wants to stab you?” Amalyse asked quietly as they began the journey.

She was being facetious, at least partly, but she wasn’t wrong. If anyone wanted to attack Rieren, the obstacle course would provide the perfect cover for it.

“I will not turn down any assistance,” Rieren said, as seriously as she could manage.

Amalyse caught the grimness in her voice and nodded, her good humour slowly fading.

The trek was mostly the same as Rieren remembered it being. They took a winding, rocky path through the woods, trying to be fast while still conserving energy for the later portions of the obstacle course. It was a careful balance, worsened by the fact that it was a race.

Rieren ran hard enough to outstrip most of the other disciples, though she didn’t go as fast as she could have. For one, even her quickest pace wouldn’t get her past the truly speedy disciples. For another, aside from the matter of conserving some of her energy, she didn’t want to draw attention to herself by getting ahead of everyone.

There were dangers to avoid too. At one point, their journey crossed a ravine spanned by a rope bridge. Its wooden planks creaked under Rieren’s foot as she hurried along, the heavy wind threatening to tear the bridge itself apart. She couldn’t be too slow lest she fall too far behind, but going too fast and rocking the bridge would court more danger than she wanted.

Several of the guards and villagers hadn’t even made it this far. The bridge was over a third of the way to their destination, and many of them had already tired themselves out.

Eventually, Rieren made it past the bridge and continued onwards. The next few areas were no less hazardous. There was one section of the mountainside where they had to traverse the slope like goats. It took an effort not to fall, especially since bits and pieces of the mountainside collapsed under their weight at random.

Rieren was getting a little fatigued by the time she reached the waterfall. This was one of the ones that brought the water down from the springs at the peak.

“Think that’s still as dangerous as before?” Amalyse asked. She was huffing more than Rieren, though doing her best not to show it. “I don’t trust any of them not to pull something.”

Rieren agreed with a slight nod. “We must keep an eye out, but there is no time to lose.”

They hurried over to begin climbing the waterfall. Little rock outcroppings jutted out on either side, acting like hand- and footholds they could use to reach higher and higher.

“Don’t fall too far behind,” Rieren said as she began to ascend.

“Don’t worry,” Amalyse said. “I won’t let anyone look up your robes.”

“…you’re looking up my robes.”

Her resultant laughter slowly dwindled as Rieren began to climb higher and faster. The person above her was already halfway up. She had no time to lose.

The exercise was good. She was quick, her grip sure and her hands finding new spots to reach seemingly on their own. Just over a third of the way along the climb, the fatigue kicked in, the strain of pulling her wight up pace after pace making its burden known.

Burning muscles weren’t as much of a concern as the other obstacles of the waterfall, however. Its spray had already drenched Rieren but worse than that, her grip on the rocks threatened to slip on occasion. Everything was too wet, too slick. Her heart pounded at the constant danger of slipping, falling, and crushing some vital part of her body.

It wouldn’t be fatal. They had been trained to minimize fall damage, and the Sect’s healers were tremendous at assisting people to recover no matter how grave the injury.

But still. Rieren had no wish to lag behind anyone else.

Thankfully, her ascent was faultless. The higher she climbed, the more she was forced to slow as her fatigue grew, half her body protesting any further movement. But through sheer doggedness, and some careful placement of her hands and feet, Rieren finally pulled herself on top, breathing heavily as every almost single muscle in her body seemed to quiver.

“You made it!” Amalyse said from somewhere below, her voice loud enough to carry over the crash of the waterfall far below. “Now if you haven’t succumbed to death, mind giving me a hand?”

Rieren had enough energy to laugh softly, but not enough to pull up Amalyse. Nevertheless, she dragged herself to the edge of the waterfall and offered her hand down.

Amalyse was smart enough to know Rieren was in no condition to tug her up by herself. Instead, she clasped the proffered her hand and used it as an anchor to pull herself on top of solid ground. They both would have sprawled back then, but any moment spent recovering would make them lose the race.

If only they could have used Essence. They both knew enough on how to use Essence to enhance their strength and burn away their fatigue, but that wasn’t available to them just yet. Not when they had just barely condensed Essence into their skin.

“Come on,” Rieren said, getting ready to move. “I shan’t be waiting for you.”

Amalyse grinned at her competitively. “Just wait and see who’ll be doing the waiting here.”

They began hurrying forward, both to leave their pursuers behind and to catch up to the ones ahead of them. The climb had tired everyone. But just as they swung past the sheer, clifflike edge of the mountainside, Amalyse stopped all of a sudden.

“Something is wrong,” she said, alarm rising quickly in her voice.

Rieren never got the chance to reply. She sensed it then too. The wind turned sharp. She froze, sensing a surge of Essence not far from them, her heartbeat rising along with the sudden feeling that she was in grave danger.

It came invisibly. The only thing that alerted Rieren was a keening sound that grew louder and sharper in moments. She reacted near instinctively. A quick use of Fray Passage forced her several paces closer to safety against the mountainside’s wall, and she turned her head enough to see air rippling viciously through where she had been a second ago.

But though Rieren had saved herself, her movement had left a dangerous gap. One that allowed the whip of wind to strike Amalyse head-on.

She shouted as she was bashed backwards, tumbling towards the edge. Rieren’s eyes widened. She used Fray Passage again, this time flashing to her falling friend. Amalyse did go over the edge, her voice bubbling out in a scream, but Rieren reached her just in time, grabbing her hand before she could plummet.

“Don’t let go,” Rieren hissed. As tightly as she was trying to hold on to Amalyse, her friend’s weight was trying to break apart the grip, despite Amalyse’s return vice grip.

Amalyse’s eyes widened, her face a mask of shock. “You’ll be attacked!”

“Forget about me. Anchor yourself before you fall.”

Amalyse gathered her wits and dug her foot into the mountainside, relieving a minuscule amount of strain on Rieren’s muscles. They were both too far over the edge. Rieren could barely hold on and prevent them both from falling, while Amalyse was too far down to grab the edge and pull herself up as she had done with the waterfall.

Worse, Amalyse wasn’t wrong. Her precarious position had left her completely vulnerable to another attack. So why hadn’t—

“Oi, what’s going on?” a loud voice asked. The boy got closer, then cursed and dived at them, quickly doing his best to help with Rieren’s predicament.

The little commotion had drawn more attention. A few more disciples gathered around them, all of them joining in the effort to get Rieren and Amalyse back onto safe ground.

There was too much chatter going on, but Amalyse threw herself around Rieren, affecting heavy, relieved sobs. In truth, all she had intended to do was whisper, “I didn’t see who it was, but it came from higher up the mountain.”

Rieren held herself still, waiting for her heart to settle back into place. As much as Amalyse was attempting to get a hold of herself, she was shaking too. They had been attacked. Not just Rieren. A person she was close to as well. They had been assaulted in broad daylight.

“What exactly happened with you two?” Serace asked, getting through the crowd to kneel beside them. “Are you alright?”

It was Rieren’s turn to whisper back into Amalyse’s ear. “Tell them nothing.”

After a slight nod, Amalyse peeled herself off Rieren and groaned. “All my fault. I became a little too excited about the race. And… then I accidentally slipped and nearly fell off the edge.” She glared at the mountainside as though it had tried to drag her down. “There should be a hazard sign here. Don’t run when wet.”

Serace stared at her, then slowly shook his head with a sigh. Some of the others groaned. For her part, Rieren was glad that everyone had come out of it unscathed. They had been blessed to have been met by friendly disciples.

If it had been Folend who had seen them first, Rieren wouldn’t have been surprised to receive a swift kick to her back instead of a helping hand.

“Why aren’t the rest of you running?” Amalyse asked. “The race is almost over. You’ll lose if you don’t hurry up.”

The boy who had come to their aid first tutted. He ran a hand through the mop of curly dark hair on his head, not looking as disappointed as Rieren might have expected. “The ones who would have won the race are going to win it anyway. No need to tire myself out for no reason.”

All the others nodded. Most of them felt the same way. However, they still needed to complete the obstacle course, which meant circling to the other end of the training field. Thankfully, it wasn’t far from their current position, and they all got going.

Rieren jogged along beside Amalyse, her muscles still shaking a little thanks to their little incident. She really had lost much of her physical instincts. This sort of thing didn’t mentally faze her much, but her body was a different matter, and that disconnect between her mentality and her body’s capacity was beginning to feel strange.

“Are you truly alright?” Rieren quietly asked Amalyse.

There was no need to give voice to pointless apologies. They had both known that this would be dangerous, that being near Rieren was inviting danger. Of course, Rieren still felt a twinge of regret that she wasn’t dealing with it on her own. Next time, she would remember to use Fray Passage a little more judiciously.

“Alright?” Amalyse grinned at her. “I doubt I have ever been better. Someone decided to attack you and ended up attacking me as well. Whoever it is made the biggest mistake possible.”

Bemused, Rieren smiled at her. “Is that so?”

“Oh, yes. One doesn’t attack Amalyse Arraihos and get away with it. Believe me, Rieren, there is a world of pain awaiting the cowardly swine.”

With the backing of her friend bolstering her spirit, Rieren focused on completing the Elder’s obstacle course. But she had been attacked. Essalina had been right. There were dangers for Rieren within the Sect’s walls. She would have to find a way to deal with their mystery attacker before the danger became fatal.