HideousGrain
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Path to Prosperity - B2 Chapter 1
🕑 Added 2024-07-27 10:00:07 +0000 UTCTheir arrival at the Wintermoon estate had been interesting. Percy learned a lot about the Kingdom of Kainesh, the noble families, and their Ego. Considering his past, Percy got to know a lot.
Almost everything was new and exciting to him. Unfortunately, the excitement didn’t last long. After he traveled with the heiress of the Reeze Dukedom and her retinue of Glacia Knights to the Wintermoon estate for weeks to join the Imperial's training, Percy had expected more from the weeks following their arrival.
But maybe the main problem wasn’t the Imperials' training. The issue was more the rejection he had received. Percy was not permitted to join the Imperials' training. The Glacia Knights had told him not to expect much, but the Glacia Knight Captain’s stories about the Imperials and their combat prowess had been etched in his heart. Percy would have loved to participate in the training of those legendary figures.
Unfortunately, nothing went according to his plans and hopes. The Glacia Knights constructed several comfortable tents near the Wintermoon estate, where they camped for the last few weeks. Other than the Glacia Knights’ camp, Percy discovered the retinue of the other nobles and groups of commonbirth Egos camping outside.
Apparently, Percy wasn’t the only Ego who had been rejected to join the Imperial's training inside the Wintermoon estate, where all important lessons were taught.
The situation was unpleasant, to put it into simple words. Percy’s mood was at an all-time low point when one of the instructors rejected his request to join the Imperial's training. Percy wasn’t allowed to show his strength and that he met the requirements to join the Imperial's training. They didn’t allow him to show his worth and rejected him mercilessly. No matter what he tried, Percy was denied until he was forced to give up. One of the instructors threatened Percy to cripple him and sever his mana paths.
That was a line Percy didn’t want to cross. Joining the Imperial's training would be an excellent opportunity to grow stronger, but Percy would much rather keep his mana paths unscathed and where they were. He swallowed his ambition and pride and accepted his fate.
Percy accepted the rejection, but that didn’t mean he gave up. Nobody could stop him from growing stronger. With that in mind, Percy approached the Glacia Knights with a request. The Glacia Knights fulfilled their mission by escorting Melissa Reeze to the Wintermoon estate and were given a few months of rest before the Imperial training would end. They had enough time to spare for Percy.
It didn’t take long before Percy hated his ambition to the core. The Glacia Knights weren’t bored enough to start training independently, but they certainly enjoyed torturing Percy for weeks.
Weeks in which he didn’t see Melissa once.
Percy didn’t miss Melissa, or anything like that, but his initial hope was to ask her if she could introduce him to the Imperial training. That was out of the question after the Imperial training instructor threatened to cripple him, but Percy was confused why Melissa and the other nobles never left the Wintermoon estate.
Even if she could help me participate in the Imperial training…would she do it? Does she have the authority to force the instructors to accept him?
Some questions similar to these two flashed through his mind occasionally. The Glacia Knights, especially old knight Liam, had taught him a lot about the politics in the palace, the scheming of nobles, and the fact that all nobles had at least ten aces up their sleeves. Old knight Liam reminded Percy of the old man. It had been months since he thought about Greg, but the more he talked to Knight Liam, the more often he was reminded how much Greg influenced his uprising.
He taught me a lot about combat, spatial awareness, how to read patterns, and much more… he also isolated me from others and kept me in the dark about so many things. Why did he do that?
There were so many things Percy didn’t understand. He knew Greg wasn’t his father, but the old man never told him about his real family. Were they dead? If not…were they searching for him? How did he end up with Greg in the first place?
Whenever Percy questioned his past and upbringing, only questions flashed through his mind. Not a single answer popped up.
That was even more true so for his Ego. Percy had learned much about Egos, but nobody ever spoke about an Ego acting without the User’s command. Some effects of Egos were passive and thus always active, yet it wasn’t like [Consume] was a passive ability. The abomination of [Consume] acted on its own when the human Adventurers were killed. It consumed the Adventurers and used the Prosperity he’d gained to empower him…thus saving his life.
If it had been for another reason, Percy would have been scared witless, but his Ego didn’t act without his command again. It had only acted when Percy had been on the verge of death…fighting his kin. Even though he made some mental notes of certain comments from the Glacia Knight Captain, who also had an Ego, and some other commonbirth Egos, whom Percy had chatted up after gathering his courage for several days, most answers to his well-hidden questions were either useless or confusing.
Egos were inborn abilities representing the user’s wishes according to some commonbirth Egos. Maybe it made sense for them, but Hereditary Egos were similar to their parents' Egos. Furthermore, Percy doubted he wished for an Ego with a devil’s disgusting grimace on a golden coin.
His Ego’s power suited him, but it would have suited everyone who could use their head for something other than looking good. Well, some didn’t even look all that good.
Percy’s point was that the commonbirth Egos’ commentary sounded like a fairytale. At the same time, the Glacia Knight Captain mentioned something about a mixture of personality, fate, desires, and the User’s corresponding compatibility with the Mixture of Fate. That was what Ulfhar called it whenever Percy asked the Glacia Knight Captain about Egos, their origin, and why the difference between commonbirth Egos and Hereditary Egos was so great.
Ulfhar’s answers often displeased him, but his training certainly didn’t. After Melissa left to stay in the Wintermoon estate, Ulfhar made it a sacred mission to transform Percy into a powerful Ego. It was almost like the Glacia Knight Captain wanted to show the Imperial’s instructors what kind of treasure they were missing out on.
Weeks of harsh training passed in the blink of an eye until Percy was allowed inside the Moonlight Forest. Some advised him against it, but Ulfhar and Knight Liam told him to go, hunt as much as he pleased, and return safely.
They never doubted him or their gut feeling. After all, the man before them was much more than an average Ego. The Glacia Knight Captain and the old knight had realized that over the last few months. They knew something Percy had yet to understand, but it didn’t seem bad. On the contrary, the duo gave their utmost to help him grow stronger.
He trusted them.
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean the Moonlight Forest was going to be a walk in the park.
Percy realized that as soon as he left the Wintermoon estate. He left the clearing and returned to the densely grown forest where all kinds of terrors were waiting for him.
You guys are sorely mistaken if you think I will be your prey! Watch me closely, or you will become the hunted instead!
