Chapter 9: The Shortcut

Kren angrily shoved the branch in front of him aside, eyes narrowed in annoyance as he stared at Bernice and Aki’s backs ahead of him. When he’d told them they had to leave, walking and running through the wilds for three straight days and nights was definitely not what he’d expected. He already knew he was a pauper prince — this just made it so much worse.

So the moment they broke free of the forest, finding their way out of the trees to a hill overlooking a small fishing village, Kren couldn’t help the sigh of relief that escaped him as he dropped back onto his rear. Aura or not, their pace had been brutal, and neither Aki nor Bernice had slowed for a moment. It said something that they barely looked out of breath — only tired.

"We’ve reached Oro Village, Your Majesty. From here it’s just a matter of taking a boat downstream to Lasthold. Three more hours and we’ll be home." Aki said it with a small smile, as if to reassure Kren, but Bernice put a stop to that.

"We can’t enter the village now. One of those assassins escaped. I wouldn’t put it past Prince Selvin to try again — we need to be careful and prepared. My gut tells me there’s an ambush being prepared, and it’ll probably be a lot worse than what we just escaped."

Aki grunted in response while Kren sighed in annoyance. He was under no illusions that their enemies hadn’t gotten ahead of them. For one, they’d lost their carriage. For two, the enemy had access to automotives that could travel far faster than horses, or even a Beast Manifestation realm fighter. And Bernice and Aki had been forced to travel much slower than they otherwise could, just so Kren could keep up.

That realization burned. It made him feel weak. Even more so now that Bernice had regained some measure of her former cultivation — the lion in him railed against the idea of a lioness, of his woman, being far stronger than him. He wasn’t stupid; through that entire fight, both Aki and Bernice had been focused solely on keeping him safe. That knowledge vexed him, knowing it was now his responsibility to keep them safe instead. It seemed he’d have no choice but to rely on the one tool he didn’t fully understand. The shortcut he didn’t want to take. But he had no choice.

"Can we at least rest? I’m filthy, and I need a change of clothes and some time to myself." Kren said, but Bernice was already shaking her head. She stood ramrod straight and at attention — sometimes Kren forgot that in both her old life and this one, she was a soldier. Her discipline was unmatched by anyone he’d ever met, not even the soldiers serving the Zar Empire.

"We step into the city at dusk. Aki will go ahead and secure transport for us. You can rest here and have your time to yourself. But no change of clothes, no proper establishment. That village sits on the border between Ale-controlled Kora lands and our own territory.

"The felines down there are our family, but they’re just as powerless as we are in the face of our enemies. Letting them know you’re there, or even passing through, would cause more harm than good." She paused and made sure to hold his gaze. "They’ll throw themselves in front of a blade to protect you — even the children. Feeling their inner beast stir, being able to cultivate again, means the king has returned. A black lion has risen to lead us all once more, and not one of your people will let that reality slip away, no matter how long they’ve had to wait. So bear with the discomfort. Study and master your new spell while you’re at it. And get ready — we’ll make a run through the village for the pier. If everything goes smoothly, we should be home by midnight tonight. And tomorrow... we ready our people for war."

Aki let out an exasperated sigh, turned, and bowed to Kren, then to Bernice. "I’ll see you both in a few hours." Then he turned and jumped off the cliff. It wasn’t a great height, but thirty feet was still nothing to take lightly. Kren watched as Aki landed without so much as a sound and continued onward, heading for the village in the distance.

Kren turned to Bernice. She swung a satchel off her shoulder and handed it to him. "There are supplies in there for you — food, medicine, stitches, in case you need them. Eat, find some shade, and rest. Regain your strength. I’ll stand guard and cultivate. In the meantime, prepare yourself." She turned to leave, then stopped and faced him again.

"Considering your attainments with the sword and that musket, I’d expected you would go for an Aura art, not a spell." Kren shrugged and met her gaze, pulling the crest from his pocket to look at it. "I asked it for an art. It gave me a spell instead. Nothing I can do about that — besides, there’s not a sword in sight to use anyway." Bernice nodded.

"An oversight on my part. I didn’t anticipate the imperial princess’s decree, or the far-reaching consequences it would have for you and our people. From now on, you won’t travel without a small arsenal of weapons to aid you. Now eat. I need to think."

Kren huffed, but frankly, he was grateful for the time. They’d been running for their lives — or rather, for his life — these last couple of days. He’d had neither the time nor the chance to properly use his system or his newly acquired spell. Sleep had been scarce, and even when he was allowed to rest, it was never for more than two hours.

Still, he hadn’t been eager to use the system while they traveled. He remembered too well what happened the last time he’d raised his attributes — he hadn’t been able to help himself as the changes tore through his body. And while he trusted Bernice and Aki completely, Kren had no idea how he’d even begin to explain the system to them, especially given the measures it had in place to ensure he could never tell anyone about it.

But there were still things he had to address. He needed to come up with a lie to explain his growth. He pulled out the crest and studied it once more. He’d wanted an Aura art — something physical, something to match his training, or at least half of it. Even though the kingdom crests allowed for both, some individuals were simply more suited to arts than spells, and others the reverse.

Kren had carried a lot of anger to work through when he was younger, so Bernice had spent considerable time on his martial training. She’d taught him a great deal, much of it unrecognizable as any form used by the beast tribesmen. But to the matter at hand — he could easily claim any growth came from the crest itself, since it had given him a spell when he’d asked for an art. He could use that as cover for the system. Besides, outside of the kings, queens, emperors, and empresses themselves, no one truly understood how the crests worked. With that settled, Kren brought up his status page — something he hadn’t done since the very first time it appeared before him.

SYSTEM STATUS

Name: Kren N’kora Blackmane

Cultivation: First Awakening — Low Grade (10,000 SP)

Bloodline: Black Lion — Low Grade (10,000 SP)

Inner Beast: Royal Black Lion

ATTRIBUTES: First Awakening

• Physique: Mid Grade (500 SP)

• Mind: Mid Grade (500 SP)

• Aura: Mid Grade (5,000 SP)

KNOWLEDGE:

• Military Arts: Low Grade (1,000 SP)

• Agricultural Arts: Low Grade (1,000 SP)

• Crafting Arts: Low Grade (1,000 SP)

• Commerce Arts: Low Grade (1,000 SP)

• Medical Arts: Low Grade (1,000 SP)

• Love Making: Low Grade (1,000 SP)

AFFINITIES

• Wind: Low Grade (10,000 SP)

• Earth: Low Grade (10,000 SP)

• Darkness: Low Grade (10,000 SP)

TECHNIQUES

• Aura Arts: None

• Aura Spells:

1. Summoning: Spirits of the Wind (North, East, South, West) — Low Grade (10,000 SP)

BLOODLINE TRAITS

• Pride Bond: Dormant

• Feline Sovereignty: Active

SOVEREIGN POINTS: 41,000 + 5,000

Not much had changed, save for the new spell now listed — currently Low Grade. Bringing it up to Mid Grade would cost 10,000 of his current points. But there was a lot to be said for the spell already; he’d managed to hurt a Beast Manifestation-level inner beast with it, and from what he understood, that was largely thanks to his higher attributes. His affinity and the spell itself were both still Low Grade, and while it might look like a lot to track, it really wasn’t.

Some beasts simply had a different quality than others — the same way some people were taller, or someone who trained physically ended up stronger than someone who didn’t, even within the same realm. Attributes were what set a person apart from their peers before arts or spells even entered the equation.

It essentially meant having a sturdier foundation than your peers. All of that, Kren could easily overcome, thanks to the system and the points he’d earned from it. Of course, given the sheer number of things he could upgrade, Kren realized the roughly 46,000 points currently sitting in his pool probably wouldn’t stretch far enough to cover everything. He had to choose — and whatever he chose to improve had to work together well enough to keep him alive.

Raising his attributes wasn’t even a question — he had to do it. He’d already seen the difference it made, even if Bernice and Aki hadn’t noticed. Pitted against a beast tribesman at the same cultivation level, Kren was likely stronger, faster, sharper in perception, and carried more usable Aura than they did. He needed to build on that foundation; attributes were the bedrock everything else was built on. After that, he needed to raise his wind affinity.

It irritated him that all three affinities tied to his bloodline sat at Low Grade. That meant he’d never be able to draw out the full potential of any art or spell he gained. Affinity determined how quickly, and how far, a person could master a given spell or art. A Low Grade fire affinity, even paired with strong attributes, would only unlock about 50% of a spell’s or art’s true power. Mid Grade brought that to 75%, High Grade to a full 100%. Peak affinities effectively doubled that, to 200%, and an Ascension affinity multiplied everything by a factor of ten — 1,000% of its base power.

As for his knowledge stats, Kren decided to leave those alone for now. Survival was the priority, and making sure his spells hit as hard as they possibly could was what mattered most. With this system behind him, Kren could already tell — he was probably going to end up like those legendary heroes who crossed grades and realms just to survive a single fight. He looked at the status page one final time before settling on his choices.

Guess he was taking that shortcut after all.