Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (13 page)

The second and third
enemies discussed are the ones on the second floor of Theore Substructure: the
Frostbite Wolf and the Serf, a goblin-like demi-human species that have an
extremely low intelligence.

Regal takes notes on each
and every enemy Mr. River teaches the class about in a separate notebook. His
thoughts are to make a compendium of mutant beasts and monster that can be used
as a reference for tactics when fighting them. Right now, it only contains a
dozen different enemies, but it will only continue to grow the more he adds to
it. He keeps these thoughts to himself, hiding his ambitions under the cover of
being a Soulless to avoid unnecessary attention.

The next day, Regal
arrives at Bluemist Academy and enters his classroom with high spirits. It
isn’t long before Mr. River also enters the classroom, quickly gathering the
students and bringing them outside.

“Class 4 students, group
together with everybody else and don’t cause me any problems,” Mr. River points
toward a large group of students already prepared to depart in front of the academy.

Regal is standing with
Veronica to his side, mixed into the middle of the students of class 4 as they
hurriedly approach where the rest of the students are heading. Once the classes
gather together, the students form into their usual friend circles. Very few
are left standing by, as even Kilde and Astore quickly group together with
Regal and Veronica.

The teachers form their
own small group in front of everyone and quickly lead the students away from
the academy. They form a procession through the main streets as they head
toward one of the eastern city access gates. Many Immortalis take note of the
people, and several hunters who are planning on leaving the city join in with
the teachers at the head of the group.

“Ah, so the children are
going for their first ‘Cartography’ practical lesson outside the city,” one of
the hunters, a handsome man with a long rifle slung over his shoulder, laughs
aloud. “I remember doing this back in the day. I wonder if anyone will venture
too far out and get eaten. There is always one.”

Ms. Yatta seems to be
attracted to this hunter, drifting closer to him to share a few words. Regal
gets a few glimpses of the two, but is shorter than most of the students so his
vision is mostly blocked by their heads.

Regal glances to his side,
where Veronica is walking alongside him. Memories of the times Veronica has
been unnaturally close to him flow through his mind. Feelings of infatuation
invade his thought process, and he realizes that she just may be interested in
him.

Lost in the mood, Regal
turns to Veronica and awkwardly asks, “Big sis, I have, umm, been wondering. Do
you perhaps… like… you know, me?”

“Yes, I do,” she answers
as if it is the most natural thing in the world.

“Why- I mean, why do you
like me?”

“Because you’re my little
brother.”

Regal, whose head was
currently spinning while blushing, instantly sobers up while thinking to
himself, ‘Of course, it’s like that. Why am I even thinking such things?’

He realizes that before
the change within himself, which he has taken to referring to as soul forming
due to gaining what the Soulless are accused of lacking, he never considered
things like love or even considered the feeling a possibility. His
misunderstanding arose from the times Veronica has been overly close to him,
which, because of his rebirth, Regal now looks at as possibly being
infatuation.

Kilde and Astore witnessed
the exchange between the two, and look at Regal curiously. They also have no
interest in, or comprehension, of love, but they can accurately judge what
Regal’s intentions were. They notice something seems different about him,
glancing at each other in the process, but don’t mention anything.

There is a chance Veronica
noticed the change within him as well, but she doesn’t show it on the surface
at all.

The academy students
eventually reach Grand Theore Access Gate 25, one of forty entrances leading in
and out of the city. The gate itself is 150 feet wide and 300 tall, a massive
opening in the city wall with seven hardened iron gates, as thick as a person
is tall, that can be dropped at any time in case of a mutant beast swarm or
sandstorm.

Around the gate is golden
arch made of hexagonal plates. One either side are lifts, built into the city
wall, large enough that everyone from the academy could fit on them. A
clattering can be heard as steam turns the crank to raise them to higher
levels, and whistling air from an array of air pistons that slow their descent.

Regal stares at the
enormous scale of everything before him in awe. He doesn’t notice as the
teachers speak with the guards stationed at the gate before leading the class
toward the outside world. Veronica notices that he isn’t paying attention,
grabbing his hand and pulling him forward.

She continues to hold onto
his hand and lead him, as she has an impression of him being someone who forgets
where they are supposed to be going. Regal, however, blushes as this beautiful
girl holding his hand erodes the grandeur of the gate as they walk out into the
vast world.

It takes several minutes
to cross to the other side of the gate and step into the world outside Theore.
Regal, thinking he had prepared himself, is now completely slack-jawed.

The world is far bigger
than he has ever dared imagine. The landscape is full of rocks, as small as a
fist or as large as a small hill, and dead trees with only a sparse few brown
leaves still attached. The hard-packed dirt road leaves the city and extends to
a horizon edged with desolate mountains.

The sun, seen for the
first time by the students, is hanging above the mountains in the distance.
Sunlight is distributed throughout the city, and they are all used to the soft
reflected light within the city, but the ball of white flame is so bright it
hurts their eyes to look at it directly.

The sky is an enigma to
Regal. He stretches his free hand up toward it. It feels as if it is right in
front of him, and he can nearly grab onto it, yet at the same time it feels
infinitely far away. Unlike the ceiling of Grand Theore’s first floor where he
can perceive how far above him it is, the sky gives him an inexplicable sensation
that the value of distance does not exist.

“Oi, what are you doing,
Soulless?” Frederick, standing nearby, sneers at Regal.

Regal flushes with
embarrassment of how foolish he must have looked and hurriedly lowers his arm.
A few students look over in response to Frederick’s  words, but they all
remain silent.

Regal gives one more look
at Grand City Theore before lowering his head. The city from the outside truly
appears to pierce the heavens, especially when looking from the base. Some of
the airships that the students have only heard rumors about are docked against
the city’s port, over six thousand feet high.

The students stop at a
location half a mile away from the city. A merchant wagon being pulled by two
balrots, four legged mutant beasts often used to pull carriages due to their
high strength and ease of taming, pass by them and capture the attention of
many of the young children.

“Students,” Mr. Razor
steps forward from the other teachers to give instructions, “You have all
learned about the ‘Cartography’ skill yesterday. Today is the first practical
lesson.”

“Using your ink and map
parchments, your task is to start mapping the surrounding area as much as you
can. Do not travel further than five miles away from away from the city, that’s
where the mutant beasts start appearing. Well, some occasionally wander closer,
but that would just be your bad luck. You have ten hours to practice, after
that, meet back here.”

“But Mr. Razor, I didn’t
bring any food or water,” a random student in the crowd helplessly calls out.
“How can we stay out here for so long?”

Mr. Razor seems to want to
assist the student, but a glare from the other teachers stops him, only
allowing him to say, “Outside the city walls, food and water can be difficult
to come by. This is an experience that is better to be learned now, rather than
later. Regardless, twelve hours without food or water won’t cause you to
starve.”

“Now, go start making your
maps.”

While the students weren’t
told to form official squads, many still travelled in groups with their
friends. Each and every one has a depressed look as they leave the teachers.
Regal, Veronica, Astore, and Kilde form their own group, walking northward.

Ten minutes later, the
four Soulless stop walking and sit down on the barren ground. All the groups
have split up in separate directions, so only a few groups of students can be
seen from where the four are sitting.

“How big of a scale should
we use?” Regal asks the others, hesitating to dip his quill in the ink.

“Five miles.”

“Twenty miles.”

“Twenty miles.”

Astore, Veronica, and
Kilde respond in order without hesitation. They understand Regal is questioning
how far from the city should the map extend. Regal thinks five miles would be a
good measurement as they shouldn’t go further out than that themselves, but
twenty miles will broaden the scope and make the mapping of a smaller area
quicker.

Accepting the majority
vote, but still feeling undecided himself, he asks, “Big sis, why do you think
twenty miles is better?”

“It will be quicker to
draw.” Her reasoning is the same as Regal’s.

With the plan to map
twenty miles of ground away from the city, Regal dips his quill in the ink and
draws a large octagon in the center of the parchment. This octagon is a third
as wide and high as the parchment, and is the general symbol used to represent
the grand cities.

At the top right of the
map is a small arrow pointing North for orientation. Going from his memories,
Regal quickly draws a cross section where the city gate is, the point the
teachers took them to, the road, and the surrounding area that they travelled
through.

Only a minute section of
the parchment is filled out, but Regal is extremely satisfied with the detail
of the map. Some of the lines are a little crooked, and the area of dead trees
doesn’t quite look as it should, but the significant landmarks are drawn
thicker than everything else and it is good enough to be used as a map in the
future.

Finished twice as fast as
the others, Regal looks across at Veronica’s map and is aghast. The city symbol
is the shape of a broken egg, and everything else is out of place and out of
proportion – the only straight line is the road leading toward where the
teachers are.

Veronica is the last to
finish, almost three times as slow as Regal. She look over at his map and
widens her eyes in surprise. They quickly return to their usual calm, and she
speaks to Regal with a hint of pleading in her voice.

“Little brother is really
gifted in drawing maps. Won’t you teach big sis how to draw better?”

Regal looks at her map one
more time and feels like she is beyond help. Despite this, he politely
responds, “How about we practice a bit tomorrow evening? We haven’t trained
together yet this week so it will be good.”

“Yes!” she responds with a
gentle smile, making his heart flutter involuntarily.

Regal never paid attention
to her expressions before the soul forming. He is aware of the diminished or
entirely lacking of emotions that the Soulless have, yet is amazed once again
at her showing so much joy. The look in her eyes tells him it’s not a fake
smile.

‘Could there be
differences between each Soulless? Astore and Kilde are usually quiet, but
there are definitely differences between them.’ Regal secretly wonders to
himself, this time ensuring he didn’t say his inner thoughts aloud.

An hour passes and Regal’s
map now covers five times the area that it previously did. He is still
unsatisfied with it, as what has been mapped is like a snake path. None of the
other areas have been mapped as he has not been able to see them past trees and
rocks. The furthest he can see at any point is between 1200 to 1400 feet away,
beyond that is always blocked by a trees, rocks, or a random gust of wind
kicking up a cloud of reddish brown dirt.

Suddenly coming up with
inspiration, Regal turn to the others and says, “Quick, this way, I have an
idea.”

He leads the group to a
moderate sized stone about a hundred feet in height. It is much larger than it
appears, but the majority of the rock is buried beneath the ground.

“What are we doing?” Kilde
asks while tilting his neck to see the top of the rock.

“We’re going to climb up
it. From there, we will be able to see much farther and draw more of the map.”

“We can’t climb up it
though.”

Kilde points out that the
entire surface of the stone is smooth, weathered from every sandstorm that has
passed through. Regal takes his time studying the rock, slowly walking around
it. His answer is found on the other side of the rock facing Grand Theore, as
sand has not eroded the rough surfaces.

“Let’s climb up from this
side… But, we need more places to grip with our hands.”

Veronica, Kilde and Astore
follow Regal as he takes ten steps back, curious as to what he plans to do.

Checking his inventory,
Regal sees that he currently has two full .38 bullet cases and a new ‘M3 Simple
Revolver’, replaced by the academy once again due to him using all the bullets
practicing and wearing down the durability of his weapons. Regal could use his
money to have the gun serviced, or buy cheap bullets in bulk quantities, but he
decides to save the money instead as the academy will replace them regardless.