Thalia’s POV

  How were you supposed to react when someone the world thought dead suddenly came back? When they were both painfully familiar and so clearly changed they might as well be strangers?

  For a long time, for years, Thalia had clung to the possibility that the Ashen Wanderer had been her lost sibling. She had had no proof for it. Just a barely viable hunch that only persisted out of denial. But now, as she followed Miles and the others closer to a nearby hill, questions and realizations kept badgering her, clamoring for her attention. The shock and relief she’d felt when she’d seen him in the flesh had shaken her, and while her barely coherent hope had been vindicated, she hadn’t felt much from it. It still all felt… off. It was all surreal.

  Not that she wasn’t happy he was back, of course. She was. Even now, she couldn’t help the smile on her face as her brother looked around at the space he’d picked, and she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.

  It was as if at any moment, she’d wake up and realize this had been all a dream. Or that he’d disappear and this would have all been some sort of bewildering illusion she was trapped within.

  “Alright this spot would do,” he said, grinning at them as he turned to face all three of them, though he was mostly focused on her and on Brie. “You two are getting ready for the Delver’s Exam, right? What do you two need help with? What are your bad matchups?”

  “Rogues!” said Brie, raising a hand. “I… I know I need to create some distance between them and myself, but it’s tough.”

  The dissonance was so… annoying. As he talked, the goofy and fun kid she’d grown up with peeked through the man he’d become. There was that same cheerful, carefree person he’d been before that fateful day when the Dungeon had designated him as a Torchbearer.

  It had crushed him, and back then, Thalia hadn’t understood why he’d reacted so strongly. But as if that hadn’t been enough, the next day he was confirmed as Corebound, and the happy, go-lucky sibling had winked out, replaced by a taciturn, quiet and irritable individual.

  He wouldn’t spar with her anymore, opting to instead provoke the older Vanguards and Wardens into violent fights he’d lose 9 out of 10 times. He’d practice and train until his skin bled and blistered, refusing to enroll with the Torchbearers and declaring that he’d only apply for the Delver’s Exam when he could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Vanguards of his class.

  He’d been angry. Especially at first. And though so far she hadn’t seen that person under his smile, she felt that it might be gone. She didn’t know how or what happened in the Dungeon, but it was as if that dark turn had never happened. As if he’d gotten the archetype he’d always dreamed of and had never had to suffer the taunts and disdain that had been flung his way.

  “Thals.”

  She stared down at the butt of her spear, tapping it gently on the grass. The bits and pieces of her sibling’s persona were all there. She just didn’t recognize the shape anymore. Especially considering the secrets. Secrets upon secrets. It’s not that she wanted to pry them out of him, she just knew there was a lot she didn’t know about the Miles who’d come out of the Dungeon when contrasted with the one who’d gone in.

  But it was still him. This was unmistakably Miles.

  “Hey! Thalia? We lost you there. How about you?”

  Miles was a little hunched, staring at her. She blinked at him, then realized everyone was staring at her. She cleared her throat as ears warmed. “Um. Right. Matchups? Well… Seekers can be difficult considering its hard to prepare for what they might throw at you. But I’m struggling a bit with Wardens.”

  Miles hummed as he straightened back up, narrowed eyes lingering on her for a second before he nodded knowingly. “Vanguards are often stalemated by Wardens,” he said. “And true, Seekers could either be extremely vulnerable or obnoxiously impossible to beat. It’d really depended on their flavor. But that’s a much more difficult problem than Wardens, so we’ll come back to it.”

  “It is?”

  The words left her mouth before she realized. To her, Wardens were this annoying obstacle that she rarely could solo. To hear him call her problem easy was… disconcerting. She didn’t have an inflated ego for his statement to bruise, but the sheer confidence he spoke with made her believe him instantly. She just couldn’t see how.

  Miles chuckled, an amused glint in his eyes. “Yeah! Wardens are so straightforward I bet you’d win your next challenge against one.”

  Thalia swallowed, her heart thrumming in her chest. All worries and concerns aside, the opportunity to learn and grow stronger was right in front of her. Learning from experts wasn’t affordable to someone in her situation and wouldn’t be for years, even if she would have managed to join the best guilds around.

  The thought made her pause for a moment. Was Miles an expert?

  Her sibling clapped his hands together. “So! I’ll work with Thalia. Lott, can you help out Brie with some tips? I bet you could give her a couple of tricks to help her out.”

  The Shadow gave him a crisp nod. “Of course, sir.”

  “Great. Thalia, let’s move over to that hill. We’ll give them a little space.”

  As soon as she took a few steps next to him, Miles nudged her with an elbow, a beaming smile on his face as he gave her a sidelong glance. “We haven’t done this in a while, huh?”

  Thalia couldn’t help the twitch on the corner of her lips. “We’re beyond dry-sticks now,” she said, stopping when he signaled her.

  “Aw man. You were a little monster back then. I still remember that one time we both got grounded from how black and blue I got,” Miles called out as he continued climbing up the slope until he was right at the top of the hill, at which point, he shoved his hand into his pouch for a few seconds before he pulled out a nice looking spear that he planted in the ground. Turning back to her, he came back down, a smile on his lips as he summoned an expensive-looking buckler on his left hand. “Take it easy on me this time, eh?”

  Thalia let out a sound that sounded halfway between a bark of laughter and a scoff. “I should be the one saying that. And it’s not as if you hadn’t been taking it easy on me back then, either,” she said as she took a few steps away. Planting her spear in the ground, she untied her cape and picked up her weapon, a smile on her lips as she dropped her worries to the side and focused on the fight ahead. “I did get better though. I worked hard since the Initiation. I might even score a couple of hits.”

  That actually made Miles pause, and his smile slipped a little as he scratched the stubble on his chin. “Ah. Sorry I missed that, by the way. I’ll have something for you when you pass your exam.”

  The foggy memory of that day came back to the surface, and she let out a shaky breath as something twisted in her chest. Miles hadn’t been the only one she’d always expected to be present in her big day. Her initiation had taken place barely a couple of months after her dad’s passing. It hadn’t been the celebration she’d always hoped for, but… life happens. She wasn’t resentful or anything, it was just that life didn’t always go according to plan.

  She let out a slow breath and regained her smile, looking the shaft of her spear. “Stop it. I don’t know why you never sent word or why it took you so long to come back… but I’m sure you had your reasons.” She looked up to him, and saw his smile slip. “The reason better be good, though,” she added, jokingly.

  Happy to grab on to the olive branch, Miles’ smile widened, and he nodded. “I’ll explain. Someday. Suffice it to say, I couldn’t leave until now. And I mean I physically could not get out even if I wanted to. Not unless I was willing to lose a lot. And as for why I hadn’t said much, it’s complicated. But it was better to let everyone think I was dead. Especially when sending a message had been an option. Or it might have attracted too much attention to you guys.”

  Thalia let out a sigh and nodded. “I won’t pry. But one day, we’re going to need to sit down and talk,” she said, and Miles agreed. “Are you going to see mom when you head to the city?”

  His nod was immediate, though doubt entered his eyes a moment later. “Maybe give her a heads-up before I show up? It’d go down a little easier than me just popping in front of her.”

  Thalia chuckled, and her shoulders relaxed. She would have hated to hide Miles’ presence from her mom. “Good call. But skip a couple of lunches before you go there. She’s gonna stuff you like a turkey” she said. He laughed as she gripped her spear tighter. “So? We’re ready to start? Ready to put that fancy buckler to good use? Looks enchanted.”

  Miles glanced down at the silver and gold plated buckler and at the glowing glyphs engraved neatly around the diamond-like gem in its center. He chuckled then shook his head. “It is. If I recall, it can enlarge its shielded zone with mana. But obviously I can’t use it.” Looking back up at her, he nodded toward her spear. “Let’s get started then. Your goal’s to get through me and grab that spear up there,” he said as he rolled his shoulder before he raised his shield, taking his stance. Then something happened that Thalia had no explanation for.

  The air rippled around the buckler for half-second, gaining a muted, ghostly hue, as if the armament had grown hotter, then that shimmer seemed to sink into the shield, making it seem… more real than its environment. Its edges seemed sharper. The metal brighter, the shadows of its engraving and designs darker. As if something had a taken a brush and add some colors to it.

  Seeing her frown, Miles’ posture relaxed. “What?”

  She looked up at him, jabbing her spear in the direction of his buckler. “What was that? Didn’t you say you can’t use mana?”

  It took a beat for the words to click for Miles, but while she expected an explanation, a smirk lifted the corner of his lips. “I’m not using mana.”

  “Then what is that?”

  Miles raised his brows, looked down at his arm, then back at her. “This is a buckler,” he said, raising the buckler as if she’d been a particularly dim child.

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  Thalia just glared at him. She knew he got what she was talking about, but he was being difficult on purpose.

  She sort of had missed this.

  Suppressing the smile that tugged on her lips, she crossed her arms, spear against her shoulder and waited, feet tapping the grass.

  Miles kept his facade for a couple of seconds before he rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Fine. It’s aura. I’ve been wrapping it around weapons and shields for… a while. It’s literally muscle memory at this point. It’s overkill but it’s not as if I’m attacking, so it’s no big deal.”

  Aura?

  “Didn’t you say you weren’t that good with it yesterday? When you did… the thing,” she said, waving her arm around. To her, it had felt like a literal monster was breathing down her neck, and even if she had wanted it, she wouldn’t have been able to raise her weapon. And that was him being ‘bad’ with it?

  Miles winced. “Ah… well. This form of aura is different,” he said, lifting his buckler. “I’ve had it for a bit, so I’m used to it. But recently it evolved. A couple of months ago, actually. That’s why my control’s still iffy. When it had changed, I started being able to project it out in the air around me. Past my skin and weapons. It’s a little more challenging to control, so I’m still working on it.”

  Thalia was like a sponge. These were answers. Answers she didn’t need to sign years of her life for guilds and Houses before she could get. “What does it do, when used on a weapon, I mean? Can I learn it?”

  Miles grinned and made his brows dance. “Get the spear back there and maybe I’ll tell you. You have five minutes.”

  Thalia glared at him, then lips pressed into a line, she pointed her spear at him. “I’ll make you sing, then. You sure me using a real spear isn’t dangerous?”

  Miles laughed in her face, exaggerating to get raise out of her. When he failed, he winked and raised his guard. “Trust me. It won’t matter.”

  ***

  Thalia blurred forward, most likely sped up thanks to a Skill and immediately, Miles was delighted. Her speed of course was nowhere near enough to surprise him, but a movement Skill was already a huge boon for a Vanguard. It was common enough, sure, and just like himself, one could make do with anything, but this was a good starting point for her. It was a great base to build from.

  The spearhead moved toward his face and he simply stepped to the side, slowly guiding the Vanguard away from the hill and the spear that was to be her target. His taunting grin made her grit her teeth and increase her speed as she came after him, the blade blurring as it tried—and failed—to find perch on his skin or clothes. She flowed nimbly between jabs, thrusts, and the occasional swipes with the butt of the spear which he comfortably parried with his buckler.

  That hits hard. She probably has a form of Enhanced Strength as well, he mused. While he did want to taunt and keep her attention on himself for the goal of this exercise, he couldn’t help but genuinely smile at her performance. If he had had half of her talent when he got stuck in the loop, he might have come out much faster.

  But man is she falling for it, he thought as the blade passed half an inch away from his nose. By now, Miles had lured her far from the hill. Panting, she doggedly followed him, unrelenting in her assault as time went on, and when he felt the five minutes were nearly up, she blurred forward again but this time, her spear crackled with white lightning.

  And that’s a third Skill, he grinned as he met her eyes. Her face was flush, and she was baring her teeth as she matched his own excitement. Unfortunately, her eyes bulged when her spear suddenly refused to move forward. Her step stuttered, and her mouth moved wordlessly when her eyes landed on the hand he’d used to grip the spear to completely kill her momentum.

  Releasing the spear, he nodded to her. “That’s five minutes. You fail.”

  “Oh… screw… you,” she said, dropping down to the grass as she panted for air. “Wh—”

  Miles chuckled, cutting her off. “Just take a breather. I’m not going anywhere.”

  She tilted her head up, mouth open as she gasped for air and as she recovered, Miles thought back of her showing.

  Thalia was good. He could easily see her holding her own against Vanguards two or three tiers above her own. Right now, he’d put her core at tier-3, though that’ll quickly change as soon as she starts delving.

  She would need to prepare, he thought, stowing his buckler back in storage and already, he was tempted to pull out one of his lower-grade elixirs to give her an easy tier-up or two, but he refrained for now. Oh he was absolutely going to help her. She would have the resources he’d never gotten. He just had to moderate his help. As much as he wanted to dump all the answers and resources at her feet, he knew very well that hardship and struggle were necessary to progress. Especially with what she’ll have to deal with once she was down there.

  Surviving and prospering in the Dungeon wasn’t just about strength and resources. Otherwise, Great Guilds and Great Houses would have been producing Experts and Masters like hot-cakes.

  “How was I even supposed to beat you there?” she asked, having finally gotten her breath under control. She was still breathing hard, but it wasn’t anything bad.

  Miles shrugged and grinned at her, eyes twinkling. “You weren’t.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, shoulders still moving up and down as she tried to parse through his words. “Explain?”

  “Well, what did I say the goal of the exercise was?”

  “Beat you and grab the spear?”

  Miles wagged his finger at her. “Nope! I said ‘get through me and grab that spear’. And when we were done talking, right before we got started, I said ‘get that spear and I’ll answer your question’.”

  Thalia looked at him, a little surprised at first, then the surprise turned to annoyance as if she thought he’d been messing with her. She was about to sass him—he assumed—when her eyes widened a little as a look of realization went through her face.

  Miles leaned forward toward her, amused, which only made her half-heartedly swat at him with the butt of her spear as she grumbled soundlessly. “You see it? You got it, right? I bet you that’ll be the gist of the challenge if they pit you against a Warden. And they might, because of how Vanguards love to fight. You have to pay attention to the scenario. If you’re pitted against a Warden, you can’t waste your time fighting them.”

  “Unless I can beat’em,” she muttered.

  Miles mock-glared at her, then he sighed. “While I’m not gonna lie and say that’s a bad attitude to have, there’s a lesson here. There’s a reason why the Delver’s Exam puts you in these… difficult scenarios. Guess what’s the lesson in the Vanguard versus Warden matchup? Come on. Humor me,” he added when he saw her crumple down on the grass.

  “So that we learn not to pick a fight with everything that moves?”

  “No. Let’s look at this differently,” Miles patiently explained. “What’s the job of the Warden in a party?”

  “Defend his party,” she recited.

  “Sure. But what does that look like in a real scenario? Let’s say you and your party got ambushed by a pack of wolves. There’s more of them than you. What’s the Warden going to do.”

  Still sitting on the grass, she slowly straightened up as her eyes narrowed in thought.

  “There’s too many for the Warden to play defense. They’d try to get the attention of most of the threats and stall until… the Vanguards and Seekers can come help.”

  Miles smiled. “And in this scenario, when you’re told to go grab the spear or anything else of the sort. What would be the Warden’s job? Yours is to reach the spear. What’s theirs?”

  “Stall.”

  Miles pointed at her. “Exactly. They stall. And in a real scenario, that means they’d waste your time until their colleagues come and help. In a real-life scenario, around the same power levels, a Warden can stall out a Vanguard four times out of five. Yes, you can brute-force it sometimes, but that won’t take you far. Got it?”

  Thalia nodded. “Yeah. Thanks,” she said as she got up. She stretched her hands above her head, then glanced back up at he spear for a second before she turned back to him with a sheepish grin as she examined the shaft of her own spear. “Sooo… I know I didn’t get past you, but can you get back to my question?”

  “Which one? You asked a lot of questions?” Miles asked, crossing his arms as he haughtily looked down at her. The nodding up at the hill, he quickly added. “Mind getting me that spear?”

  Miles had the pleasure of seeing the retort flash in her eyes, only to realize she wouldn’t get any answers if she refused. She smoothed her features, seething below the surface, and turned away, climbing up the hill. “Aura. How do you get it? What does it do?”

  With a quick jog, she grabbed the spear and wrenched it out of the ground. She twirled it in one hand, nodding appreciatively at the weapon before making her way back down, sliding down the slope. Frankly, Miles didn’t even remember where and how he’d gotten it, though he knew it wasn’t enchanted. Just good craftsmanship. She tossed it, and Miles grabbed it out of the air and spun the spear once before he rested the butt on the ground as he rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Well, it’s a little soon but it’s a good thing to know about. So. Aura. Well… It’s basically an expression of willpower. Some say it’s an expression of the strength of your core. I think it’s a mix of both. It’s a way for you to… impose your will on the world. When you wrap it around a spear, that spearhead would have an easier time stabbing through Skills and defensive enchantments, especially if those aren’t being empowered by aura. It’s a multiplier, of sorts. And at some point it becomes necessary. Because eventually, monsters as well obtain it, and unlike us, their attention and motivations aren’t as divided as ours. Their auras are powerful, and it empowers their hides and claws and weapons. If your aura can’t get through theirs, or if you can’t defend against their attack, then you’d just be… done.”

  His early forays past the twentieth floor flashed in front of his eyes. Not all monsters and people were experts at using aura of course. It took practice. Patience. Time. But if one managed to have all three and survive for a while? Then you were as good as dead if you faced them while not being ready yourself.

  “It sounds important to master,” Thalia said, snapping him out of his thoughts. Her back was as straight as her spear, and her eyes were nearly shining with greed. “When would it show up? Is there something I can do to start early?”

  Miles hummed, recalling some of his early research about the subject. “Some Great Houses have developed a few methods. I’ll prep something. It might allow you to get it around tier-15 or 16. As for when it naturally develops, I’d say around tier-20. Give or take a couple of tiers.”

  A sharp inhale drew his attention back to his sister. Her eyes bulged, jaw hanging limply. She closed it, opened, then closed it again before she found her words. “You’re telling me you’re past tier-20,” she whispered, looking around as if someone could hear them. She blinked, then frowned. “Wait. You said it recently evolved,” she mumbled. “When did it evolve, Miles?”

  Miles scratched his cheek, wondering if maybe he should have hoarded his secrets a little better. “A few months after tier-29?”

  Thalia just stared at him, blinking silently every few seconds, and Miles wondered how she was going to react when she’d learn about some other subjects. How to get Transcendent Skills and Soulbound items. How she’s going to get to practice against the Dungeon bosses before she would face their weakened, puppeteered versions.

  A smile tugged on his lips. He was actually looking forward to all of that. Glancing down at the spear in his hand, he spoke up. “Oh, and keep this thing,” he said, tossing the spear back to her. “You should always have spares.”

  Thalia snapped it out of the air. She stared at the engraved shaft, then shook her head for a moment before a laugh escaped her throat.

  It was nice to be back.

  It really does helps with the algos. There might be another bonus ready in a day or two, otherwise see you Friday.