Chapter 98 - The Wrong Kind of Progress

Etzel did not reach Level Eighteen.

He did get fined.

Sivenne found this hilarious.

“It was not my fault.”

Renn slid the document across the desk.

“Unauthorized interference with an active cooperative detention site.”

“It was an illegal harvesting operation.”

“Which is why the fine is symbolic.”

Etzel looked at the amount.

“That buys food.”

“Yes.”

“For days.”

“Yes.”

“This is oppression.”

Tessa laughed.

Maerin looked away, shoulders moving.

The Harrowfen operation produced no chest.

No special reward.

No summon.

No Rank increase.

That helped.

The mission had paid off without giving him loot.

Rusk’s assessment said Etzel had entered expecting to identify a mechanic and eliminate a hostile creature, then changed the objective when the evidence changed.

The next line was less flattering.

SUBJECT CONTINUES TO USE PERSONAL INJURY AS AN INFORMATION-GATHERING TOOL.

Rusk attached twenty-three examples.

Tessa’s list had grown.

Traitors.

Renn closed the report.

“Field assessment: pass.”

Etzel blinked. “That’s it?”

“What did you expect?”

“Ceremony.”

“No.”

“Badge?”

“No.”

“Cake?”

“Tessa used the cake budget.”

Tessa looked offended. “There is a cake budget?”

“No.”

Sivenne whispered, “We should establish one.”

Maerin nodded.

Dangerous alliance.

The real reward sat on the final page.

INCREASED INDEPENDENT FIELD AUTHORITY WITH RESTRICTIONS.

Etzel could lead limited operations without a senior Hunter physically attached, provided projected threats stayed inside approved parameters.

“Rusk?”

“Still attached when available.”

“Then nothing changed.”

Rusk smiled. “Correct.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Renn picked up another file.

Etzel pointed.

“Bad-news grip.”

“I regret teaching you to observe.”

Harrowfen Cooperative financial records showed payments from a private research consortium.

VESPER BIOLOGICAL INITIATIVE.

Sivenne groaned.

“Another organization?”

“We are not fighting them,” Renn said.

“Good.”

“Today.”

“Less good.”

Etzel scanned the transactions.

Creature captures.

Tissue samples.

Live juveniles.

Ability-bearing transformed animals.

“Menagerie connection?”

“No evidence.”

“Pale Court?”

“No evidence.”

“Gardener?”

Renn stared at him.

“No.”

Etzel smiled. “Excellent. Independent problem.”

That was healthier.

The world should contain unrelated bad actors.

Not one conspiracy wearing different hats.

Renn tapped another line.

Vesper had paid for information about Hunters who displayed unusual interactions with transformed creatures.

Etzel’s name was not there.

Yet.

“Redact Harrowfen.”

“Already done.”

That helped.

Orsik entered.

His shoulder armor had changed.

Not dramatically.

Veydan and Orsik had rebuilt the load path beneath the damaged plate.

A secondary sliding joint supported the old Gravehound damage.

Etzel stood.

“Move.”

Orsik rotated the shoulder.

Nearly full range.

Again.

Smooth.

Sivenne whistled.

“Your father did that?”

“Veydan and I,” Orsik corrected.

That helped.

Not equipment appearing from nowhere.

Built.

Learned.

Earned.

The Greatblade’s thin silver identity line remained unchanged.

No sudden upgrade.

Also good.

Renn looked at Orsik.

“We have approval for a controlled proximity test on the sword fragment tomorrow. No contact. We stop at first instability.”

Etzel answered automatically.

“No.”

Orsik looked at him.

Etzel caught himself.

“Sorry. Your decision.”

Better.

Orsik considered.

Then nodded.

“Controlled distance only.”

Renn recorded consent.

Saeva floated through the open door.

“Tree.”

Everyone stopped.

Etzel’s pulse changed.

“Ancient Tree?”

She nodded, then frowned.

“Not tree.”

“What do you feel?”

She touched her chest.

“Same.”

Etzel’s Limited Necromancer interface pulsed.

Faint.

Familiar.

Ancient Tree-like resonance.

Distant.

Or related.

Renn stood.

“Direction?”

Saeva pointed south.

“Distance?”

She shook her head.

Renn checked regional reports.

“Three navigation anomalies south of Veylahr. Roughly eighty kilometers.”

“Tree sighting?”

“No.”

“Missing Hunters?”

Renn paused.

“Two. Yesterday.”

One D-Rank.

One C-Rank.

Registered as a wildlife survey team.

Could be true.

Could be cover.

Etzel felt the resonance again.

His interface opened.

Not Ancient Tree.

Related.

Etzel stared.

Orsik went still.

The broken sword had carried residue similar to Ancient Tree resonance.

Now something south produced a related signal.

Connection possible.

Not proven.

“We do not assume Gardener,” Etzel said.

Renn nodded.

“We do not assume Ninth Crown.”

Orsik nodded.

Sivenne frowned.

“We assume nothing?”

Etzel smiled.

“We assume the missing Hunters want to be found.”

Renn began assembling a search operation.

Then stopped.

“Tomorrow.”

Etzel blinked.

“Why?”

“You have trained, deployed, been cut, investigated an illegal operation, and argued about a fine in less than thirty hours.”

“When you say it like that—”

“It sounds exactly like what happened.”

Tessa pointed at Etzel.

“You passed the assessment. Try using what you learned.”

Etzel sighed.

“Fine.”

Sivenne stared.

“You’re voluntarily resting?”

“I contain multitudes.”

“No. Suspicious.”

At home, Etzel did nothing heroic.

He helped Veydan clean metal filings.

Lost a card game to Neris.

Watched Saeva argue that cake qualified as breakfast.

Orsik nearly agreed.

At sunset, Etzel sat outside.

Level Seventeen.

Still far from SSS.

Still far from max Level.

That helped.

The world had not run out of road.

Level Twenty waited somewhere ahead.

Three Levels.

Another five-Level reward threshold.

The old version of Etzel might have counted kills and searched for the fastest route.

Now he thought about the Gravehound.

The Devourer.

The Gray creature.

Maerin becoming more precise.

Sivenne learning through failure.

Orsik recovering identity without surrendering himself to his past.

Progress was not a staircase.

It was a structure.

If he climbed too quickly without building the rest, eventually there would be nothing beneath him.

The System appeared.

Etzel frowned.

He laughed.

“Now you tell me.”

Neris opened the window.

“Who are you talking to?”

“The universe.”

“Is it winning?”

“Currently.”

She closed the window.

Etzel looked south.

No glowing Tree.

No portal.

Only dark hills.

Then the soul-root resonance pulsed again.

Orsik stepped outside before Etzel called him.

“You felt it?”

Orsik nodded.

That was new.

Saeva appeared above them.

“I feel.”

Three people.

One signal.

Different positions in the bond.

Etzel’s smile vanished.

Whatever waited south was not calling only the Necromancer.

It was calling his summons too.

And eighty kilometers away, two Hunters had already disappeared.