Beastforged Bond

Do I have to get up earlier to add a pre-workout? I wondered, hands firmly against the ground as I pushed upward, ignoring the additional weight pressing me down.

The adjustable weights were already at their limit. Taking matters into my own hands, I triggered Gravity, adding the slightest hint of a challenge to the Warden training.

It had only been one day since everyone was assigned to their respective departments, and I already felt like an outsider. The Wardens were a respectable group, but I was surrounded by hundreds of reserve members. I, too, was one of them, though I couldn’t have been more different.

First of all, I was the youngest reserve member. There had to be others. Like Journeyman-ranked Blessed around my age, possibly even younger, but they were nowhere to be seen. For all I knew, they could be members of another unit or participating in a later training session. Regardless, it was odd to be the youngest and possibly the strongest reserve member attending the morning training session.

Scanning the barracks, the underground hall that had been cleared to accommodate hundreds of Blessed training, one could see Blessed from all around the Bastion. All appeared somewhat accustomed to training, but it was painfully obvious that close to two-thirds of the reserve members hadn’t had a good workout for a while now.

They didn’t emit the slightest bit of pressure, their danger level so low it made me wonder how they were going to survive if violent Outsiders with high combat strength attacked the Bastion. Those people could not even protect themselves. How were they supposed to safeguard the Bastion in an emergency?

Then again, the training itself was not too bad. It was effective and did exactly what the Warden training was supposed to; it kept active hunters combat-ready while pulling retired soldiers and their equivalents back toward their prime. That didn’t stop me from thinking it was too easy. Sure, it was efficient by providing every Blessed with weight-adjusting vests and bands to wear around their arms and legs, yet the equipment I was given was simply too light.

I was told the equipment had been adjusted to my Rank, but the additional weight was far from enough to push my body to the brink of collapsing. That was not what the Warden training was there for. I knew that much, but it was what I needed.

At least nobody has been bothering me about Gravity.

Sweat pearled to the ground, the satisfying burn of sore muscles ravaging my entire body. Phoenix fire coursed through my veins, boosting my natural regeneration just enough to push both efficiency and gains to their limits.

Two hours later, the captains assigned to get the reserve members back into shape concluded the training.

“That wasn’t too bad for the first day,” Captain Olivear said.

He was a bulky, middle-aged man with bronze skin and a smile that didn’t fit his monstrous physique in the slightest.

“Please don’t be late tomorrow. Rest a little and don’t overextend yourselves in the coming weeks. We need you all to be ready to fight if the Outsiders attack.” He paused, still smiling. “Before you go, I would like to say that I am happy to be assigned to put every single one of you back into shape. Not everyone would be willing to join the Wardens when they have other responsibilities to take care of. That makes me all the more happy to see so many of you here. You made the right decision. I promise you will not regret it!”

That was odd. Captain Olivear made it sound like we wanted to be here. Even stranger, no one appeared as confused as I was.

Wiping my sweaty forehead with a towel retrieved from the onyx ring, I approached a nearby Blessed. He looked like a hunter, his physique sharp enough to tell that he still left the Bastion to hunt.

“Sorry to bother you, but I think I misunderstood something the Captain said.” The hunter looked up, his eyes narrowing when he took me in. “This might sound stupid, but did you volunteer to join the Wardens?”

He regarded me for a moment, a multitude of emotions flashing across his face. “Hmm? Yeah, I joined the Warden reserves voluntarily. Someone needs to protect my family, and I certainly won’t trust others to do that for me.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, which seemed to urge the hunter to add quietly, “The pay is fairly good as well. My wife doesn’t want me to leave the Bastion, worrying that Outsiders might be out there hunting Blessed.”

“But what are you doing here, kiddo? The reserve team is nothing for a kid like you. I cannot sense your Rank, so you must be stronger than I am. That–” He winced as soon as he said the words out loud. Envy flashed on his features, but it lasted only a moment. “Why are you not with the active units if you’re that strong? What obligations do you have that they didn’t assign you to the active Wardens or another department?”

The last words felt like an attack. The hostility in the hunter’s voice was unfounded and unreasonable, so I turned away, keeping my thoughts to myself.

Was my appointment a mistake?

I walked up to a few more reserve members as they gathered their equipment to leave it at the entrance on the way out, and while they did not react as severely as the hunter, my questions still confused them.

All reserve members were volunteers. Some did it for the money; others wanted to protect their loved ones. Then there were the Blessed who had not been assigned anywhere else by the Council. They were either too weak, too inexperienced, or had other issues that made them fail the military service’s minimum requirements. The reserve team was not as strict as the Strikers, the active Wardens, or the Bastion’s armies, yet it was all some Blessed needed to join the military system. They clung to the opportunity, hoping to turn their lives around.

I took note of them, because why not? They were among the weakest and had their fair share of problems to deal with, but as long as they worked hard, treated their Soulkins nicely, and had a decent personality, I could help them with some funds, and counseling during my working hours in the Beast Temple, of course.

Anyway, my assignment was stupid. It was still better than having to join the active forces, though.

Use the training to work on your body and socialize with others. You might make friends or find suitable candidates to aid later. Helping others become powerful will put them in debt to you, and if they grow strong enough, you can ask for a favor in return.

Volix chirped sagely in my head.

Making friends was not on my agenda. Neither was indebting others. Socializing was not high on my priority list, but spending a few minutes every morning chatting with others couldn’t hurt. As long as I could refine my World shortly after the training regimen, everything would be alright.

Thinking about my inner World, I rushed out of the barracks and returned to the Zerog estate in a hurry. Since the barracks were in the main sector, the trip home didn’t take long, and I could still maximize the profits from working my body to the bone.

That was part of why it had been so simple to work out my schedule. Being able to adjust it rather freely was great. Sure, it took a while, but it all worked out in the end.

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I considered my estimate of five hours of sleep rather generous, considering my Rank, although my mother would have disagreed. If she knew.

Using Gravity extensively, as well as applying phoenix fire, increased the Warden training’s intensity just enough to reach the threshold needed to extract more gains from World refinement. Those sections occupied most of my morning, since I planned to push Blastor Refinery to the 8th Volume as soon as possible.

At the 6th Volume, my daily gains were already enormous. The strain on my World was extensive as well. That, however, was not the point. I had to reach the 8th Volume of Blastor Refinery to start liquefying my ether and to use liquid ether in the refinement process.

As soon as I reached that level, I could fill the Gates with liquid ether, further improving the efficiency and potency of every Gate. My physical strength would increase, but I was mostly interested in the improvements to the Blazing and Earthen Gates’ special properties. Considering how useful the World Tree’s thick, viscous mass of life-attuned ether had been–and still was–I could only dream about the changes once the branches of the weave were filled with liquid ether.

Highly compressed ether coursing through my body, pulsing with raw power. That was what I wanted. Alas, creating liquid ether required time. Reaching the 8th Volume of Blastor Refinery was not a simple task. Neither was keeping the leaks in my weave in check.

The Gates filled with the World Tree’s viscous ether mass did not leak as much as the others, which was only one more reason to liquefy ether as soon as possible, but they still leaked. Refilling the Gates had been simple outside the Bastions, but in here? In here… it was atrocious, and it was only going to get worse as more refugees from the most endangered Bastions sought asylum in our Bastion.

The more refugees found themselves in our Bastion, the scarcer the ether density within the dome. That carried its own set of problems, which others would have to solve. I had only one major problem: my Gates needed ether, and feeding endlessly on invaluable resources like the Monarch jerky from Kazriel’s onyx ring would only last for a while. A long while, but a while nonetheless.

Even then, using the Monarch jerky was no perfect solution. It still took time to refill all the Gates, courtesy of my ether mastery, which was yet another thing on my to-do list: improve my ether control, circulation, and about a dozen other things to accelerate the refilling process, and my combat efficiency while I was at it.

Anyway, my schedule was simple. I refined my World and ate a simple lunch on my way to the Beast Temple. In the Beast Temple, I was given no specific task to do. An elderly staff member checked my records and left after a brief tour through the Beast Temple. He did not show me the Sanctuary, since that wasn’t necessary for my job, and he didn’t bother asking whether I knew what I was supposed to do. The only thing he was adamant about was the check-in terminal. Apparently, that one was really important–to log my hours.

So… what now?

The Bastion was still in a mess from all the changes happening. It was also the first day everyone was set to join their appointed station. It was no surprise nobody visited the Beast Temple. Hence, I focused on my leaking Gates.

My biggest hope was to combine the refill process with my work at the Beast Temple. I had to try, or my future in the Bastion would be troublesome. More precisely, I would lack a lot of sleep, or my Gates would dry up, leaving me as weak as I had been two years ago.

Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be much of a problem with my initial plan. I spent three hours filling my Gates in silence, and I didn’t see a single potential customer.

A few Blessed came by to visit the Beast Temple, but most only checked the catalogues or asked the receptionists a few questions. Nobody required my help, until a mother with a child stepped into the establishment.

Their presence promised trouble, which couldn’t have been much worse. The mother and her spoiled brat were adamant about seeing the newly hatched batch of Starry Lemurs. It was obvious, but I rejected her demand, which ignited a furious rage that rivaled phoenix fire.

At first, it was fun to watch her fume, but that quickly devolved into frustration when she didn’t back off. Why was it so hard to understand that Starry Lemurs had to be left alone for the first few weeks of their lives? In the first place, neither mother nor child had suitable Worlds to bind beasts. They had only come to watch the animals. That alone was irritating enough, but when I didn’t cave in, they simply shifted their target to some other newly hatched beast.

Nobody wanted to bother with that idiot of a mother, so I joined them on the fruitless journey through the Beast Temple’s first floor. It was quite nice to see the mother struggle to contain her anger whenever I denied her “request” to watch shy and scared juvenile beasts, feed them the snacks she brought with her–some of which were highly poisonous for the newborns and juveniles she wanted to feed–and caress them.

After the better part of an hour had passed, I threw mother and child out of the Beast Temple.

“Good job, rookie,” an elderly woman, another staff member, said. “You were very professional and a lot more patient than most of us would have been.”

I grimaced at her, realizing only now that this encounter may have been the staff’s way of testing me. Or perhaps they simply loved seeing their colleagues struggle with mothers like that.

“Thanks,” I exhaled deeply. “I should have thrown her out a lot earlier. Next time, she won’t have it this easy.”

“Next time?” The elderly woman chuckled. “There won’t be a next time. She’s been blacklisted as of…two minutes ago. She tried to feed the Blackstar Hound pups with her ‘self-made, hyper-delicious chocolate cookie’ made with chocolate concentrate, didn’t she? Don’t look at me like that. I have good ears. My nose has smelled better days, but I still caught the scent of that delicious chocolate cookie across the floor. If you hadn’t followed her, I would have thrown her out and blacklisted her a long time ago.”

Her smile disappeared. “I don’t understand people like her. Why do they treat this place like an attraction? The Beast Temple is a place founded for both beasts and humans.” She shook her head. “We are the bridge that connects humans and beasts. Protectors of both sides.”

It was hard not to like the elderly woman. She was just too pleasant.

“Please tell me all I need to know about this place. I’m very interested in the part where I get to throw out people for acting up.” I walked over to her, my hand held out for a shake. “I’m Adam. I worked in a Beast Temple for a little while, but I was mostly on the lower floors tending to problem cases and the like.”

“Tanja,” she said as she shook my hand, her eyes studying me with curious wisdom. “You’re young, yet you say you worked in a Beast Temple?”

I nodded slowly, feeling like this conversation had just transformed into an interrogation.

“The Grand Camp?” She hit the bullseye.

Her smile only widened when I nodded. “I knew it. You have something dangerous about you. To be honest with you, I was a little worried about that mother-and-son duo. I’m already very patient, yet I wanted to wring their necks. Not that I could do that. I’m only an Adept with non-physical Soulkins. Still, I felt like doing it.”

Tanja let out a chuckle even though her words weren’t funny at all. I stared blankly at her, which prompted her to wave dismissively.

“You tend to look oddly at people. Is that normal, or am I too much for you to handle, Adam?” She snickered, which only grew louder when I didn’t respond.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you. How about you show me your schedule and designated responsibilities before I give you a tour of the premises? On the way, I can tell you everything you need to know about our customers and how to separate idiots from genuinely interested customers.”

While the elderly man from earlier had already given me a basic tour, I accepted Tanja’s proposal. She talked a little much, but I was already used to that. Daniel was a chatterbox, and so was Aureus when given the opportunity.

That is not true.

Aureus denied the accusation before going off about the mother. His chattery nature soon veered in a different direction, and he began adding information about the Beast Temple, the ether devices they used, and just about everything concerning the beasts raised in the temple as Tanja’s tour continued.

Tanja and Aureus talked over each other, which was solely the Earthheart’s fault. It wasn’t as if the elderly woman knew that my Soulkin was talking to me.

Stop that nonsense! I know you’re doing that intentionally! I hissed at the Earthheart after no more than ten minutes, silencing Aureus at last.

Two hours later, I was spent. My mind was smoking, and I wanted nothing more than to return to my bed.

Alas, Bert was waiting for me in his shop. So was the Elemental Phoenix. He wasn’t physically there, but his impatience to teach me all about alchemy seeped through the bond.

It was time to rack my brain and become a proper Beaster apprentice.

Alchemist! You are not going to become a stupid Beaster!

Volix chirped angrily, which I pointedly ignored.

Alchemist. Beaster.

I just wanted to learn all about serums. The source didn’t matter, as long as the results worked out.