“You have to be careful what you cultivate,” Inga said, a smile on her normally reserved face. “Still, not terrible as first attempts go.” She offered him a hand up. Logan noticed that she wasn’t covered in grass-blade cuts and didn’t seem at all winded by the exercise. “Before you can actively start cultivating new energy, though, you need to refine your core to at least Rank 6. And to do that, you need to practice the Boundless Wheel. Practice it until it’s second nature. Until you can do it in your sleep. While reading a book. While in combat. Get that down, get to Rank 6, and I’ll teach you how to actively cultivate and purify elemental Apothos without killing yourself in the process.”
“Hey, don’t let it bum you out,” Marko said, slapping Logan on the shoulder. “It takes time, but even I managed to get to Iron Trunk, so you know it can’t be that hard, amiright?”
“Yeah, okay,” Logan replied. “I think I’m wiped on meditation, but maybe we could get in a round of sparring before we call it a day?” he asked. He was feeling exhausted to the core, but he would sure like to have a few moves to pull out against those doomhounds; he was sure he hadn’t seen the last of them.
Inga snorted and rolled her eyes. “As if. You are as weak as kelpie grub. More grub than kelpie for sure. Right, Marko?”
“No idea, moth mama,” Marko shot back, “but I have a better idea. Instead of meditation or martial prowess, I think it’s time for coffee and breakfast! I have a greasy omelet with my name on it.”
The resounding chime of the dining bell off in the distance seemed to agree with Marko.
“Fine.” Inga crossed her arms. “Breakfast it is.”
Chapter Fifteen
AS THEY WALKED TO THE Golden Serpent Hall, Logan realized he wouldn’t need breakfast. While he’d been busy refining his core, the chicken leg in his room was busy filling his stomach. Hurray for Digestion! Neat trick alright. Logan idly wondered how hard it would be to get his own dead chicken. He’d start with an egg—it must have some primal energy to it. He got one from a friendly Treegee.
While she ate, Inga flipped open her DCG. Her hand went to her mouth. “We have a problem. I should’ve read closer about today’s class... but I got caught up in a biography of Professor Bartholomew Nekhbet.” She paused, eyelashes fluttering madly. “It was a spicy read, let me tell you.” She sighed and shook her head. “At any rate, this new class with Professor Hellgazer could be a bit problematic.”
Treacle moaned. “Is this the dungeon decorating class? Please, tell me it’s not.”
“Heck yeah it is!” Marko erupted. “It’s my jam. Who needs murder when you have fashion?”
Logan held up a hand. “What’s the problem, Inga?”
“Well, Professor Hellgazer’s class isn’t at the castle. It’s in the Xiru Forest to the west. We’ll have to run to get there in time!”
“Yes, we could run,” Marko replied with a grin. “Or... we could blow it off, and I could go back to bed!”
Inga looked miserable. “I can’t be late. I just can’t. Maybe I could fly there, but I’d have to leave you three. That would be horrible!”
Logan liked that she wanted to stay together as a team.
Treacle burped a cloud of hay stink. “It’s at least thirty miles to the Xiru Forest. No way we can make it in time. That’s a shame.” He crunched some more, unconcerned.
Marko made a face. “You guys! Let’s just skip this one class. I promise we’ll never do it again.”
Inga was near tears.
“No crying, Inga,” Marko said. “I’m allergic to women’s tears. Fine. I can get us there right quick and in a hurry. We can DIE to get there.”
“Tell me I didn’t hear you right,” Logan said.
Marko rolled his eyes. “And you guys didn’t want me going to Vralkag last night. The Gelatinous Knight showed me the DIE—as in the Dungeon Interchange of Entrances. It’s a way of getting to any dungeon on Arborea.” He paused and shot a smug smirk at Inga. “Looks like you haven’t memorized the entire Dungeon Core Grimoire yet.”
Inga scowled but didn’t correct him. “So you use DIE to get there,” she said. “Now, quit your games and take us there!”
The satyr stood. “It would be my pleasure. Good ol’ Marko, saving the day.”
They headed outside to the northwest practice field. Near the ramparts of the castle was a large stone pavilion with statues of the four clan animals carved into the top. Nice thing here, the grass wasn’t trying to kill them.
They gathered around a stone table under the pavilion’s roof. There were weathered stone steps for the smaller folk, though as far as he knew, Logan was the smallest core at the school. On top of the table was a painted map of the circular continent of Arborea. Demon skull icons lay scattered across the land.
“My boy, the Gelatinous Knight, told me each of the scary demon heads marks the entrance of a dungeon,” Marko explained. “You touch the skull you want and channel your Apothos into the icon. You’ll be taken right to the entrance. From our work this morning, this shouldn’t be a problem.”
Logan studied the map for a beat—land nav had always been one of his strongest suits—and noticed that the deserts to the north had three dungeons. The mountain region had two, as did the sprawling swamp to the south. The grasslands around Vralkag had two more, while the forests to the west had three. Loch Endless had one as well. There were thirteen dungeons in all. The castle was also prominently displayed, and there was a tree icon to the east.
Marko pointed to a building in the Xiru Forest. “That’s the Wayfarer Inn. GK—that’s what I call him sometimes—says it can get pretty dicey there, and it’s hard to get to. But apparently it has the best monster mead anywhere in the multiverse, so there’s our Saturday night plans.”
Treacle appeared slightly amused. “GK?”
“Yeah, man,” Marko said. “I have no idea what that guy’s name is. He’s told me like five times, but I can’t ever remember it.”
“Which forest dungeon do we need?” Logan asked, focused as a laser. Although, admittedly, a round of drinking monster mead didn’t sound terrible. But that was for later, once he’d improved his cultivation and achieved a higher rank.
Inga already had her DCG open. “Well, pluck my feathers, it does talk about the Dungeon Interchange of Entrances. I missed that. The three forest dungeons are Root Kill, the Under Stump, and Cruelwood. Cruelwood is the one nearest Vralkag. We need to get to the Under Stump, which is the southwest dungeon.”
Marko didn’t pause. He touched the demon skull and vanished in a swirl of silver light. Treacle went next, then Inga, and Logan was left alone for a second. He enjoyed the moment. He was about to magic himself thirty miles away. Based on the dungeon locations and the scale of the map, he figured Arborea must be a hundred miles or so in diameter. He’d figured that water surrounded the land, but the painting swirled to life, with white clouds rolling around a void of inky black. Didn’t look like water. Was Arborea floating in the sky? More questions to answer, but not now.