Seth hurried to keep pace as the old man led him through the crowded thoroughfares. They'd just begun crossing a particularly opulent district of Asethka when the sound of a large, excited crowd drew Seth's attention.
In the center of a vast plaza, hundreds of people were gathered before a redwood dais. Seth didn't recognize any of the crests stitched into the fine clothes or gleaming equipment borne by most of the groups, but the glitter of the crowd's jewelry made it clear they were people of both wealth and prestige. At the front of the stage, an impeccably dressed man stood beside two items displayed under shimmering glass domes. Each was flanked by two guards in black plate armor, the weight of whose presence dwarfed the Royal Guards back in Western Castle.
Seth slowed his pace, his curiosity piqued. One of the items was a single, magnificent feather that glowed with a soft inner light and seemed to radiate waves of pure Fire aether. The other looked like a gnarled vein of a strange, rainbow-hued metal.
He instinctively cast Intermediate Identify on both.
The man on the dais at the front raised his hands, his voice booming across the plaza with some aetheric amplification: "And now, for the climax of today's auction! Two magnificent Seeds! We will begin the bidding with the Iron one, the Heartvein of Salavarus' Dark Mountain!"
Before Seth could even process what he was seeing, Marcus grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the crowd. "We don't have time to gawk at an auction, boy."
"Why?" Seth asked, trying to look back. "Did you see those things?"
"Because I said so," Marcus snapped, his grip tightening. "And yes, I saw them."
Seth bristled at the sharp reply but followed the Alchemist while letting himself be dragged into a less-crowded street. After a moment, he moved closer. "Can you tell me more about Seeds?"
Marcus grunted without glancing at Seth. "No."
"Why not?"
"First, because they're one of the main reasons the world of Wielders is the violent mess it is today. Second, they are strictly forbidden in Kastal, and if I tell you what they are, you'll want to find one."
"I already have a general idea of what they are," Seth retorted. "And why would that be so bad? Plenty of powerful people already want me dead. Would having one of those really make things any worse? Especially with my… well, what my father left—"
Before he could finish, Marcus stopped in his tracks and clamped a hand over Seth's mouth. "I told you not to talk about that in front of me," the old man said, grumbling beneath his white beard. "It'll be easier to hide the truth if they ever get to me."
Seth frowned. Marcus had always insisted he never mention what his father had left behind… Yet Seth knew the Alchemist was aware it was a Legacy. And if people could see the past, like the earl from the Oracle Guild had, then not mentioning it didn't seem all that useful anymore.
"Who's 'they'?"
"It's not important," Marcus said. The man then hesitated for a moment before letting out a long, weary sigh. "Seeds are elements of a beast's corpse or of nature—like a stream of water, a stone, a flower—that have absorbed an abnormal amount of aether. Unlike Essences, which are bound to the very fabric of the world, they can be harvested… and consumed."
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"Consumed? You mean you eat the flower? Or drink the water?"
"No," Marcus scoffed. "You let yourself bathe in its aether and absorb it slowly. Its effect depends on how well you manage that part. A single Seed like those could take days to fully consume."
"So you can just absorb a crazy amount of these things and get hundreds of attributes?"
"No. They're far too rare for that. And there's a limit. Your body can only handle a certain number of Seeds per Tier."
"How many?" Seth pressed.
"One Copper, two Iron ones, three for the Silver Tier, and so on," Marcus answered.
"So I should try to get a Copper Seed once I have two Iron ones," Seth said. "Can beasts consume those?"
'No,' Nightmare immediately corrected through their Link. 'You need to get mine first.'
'One for me too! With Toughness!' Colossus chimed in.
'Yeah, yeah,' Seth answered.
"You're talking as if they are easy to come across," Marcus said beside him. "And yes they can."
Seth pressed his lips together. "Are they only sold in auctions like those?"
"Yes, and you won't be able to buy one," the Alchemist answered as they left the luxury neighborhood and entered a more modest district. "Even Copper Seeds aren't sold for coins. Their worth is measured in favors, artifacts, resources, territories, concepts of that nature. Your best bet is to find one yourself in a Rift. A temporary one, which has not yet been explored."
Seth's mind flashed back to his conversations with Celine and Toren. Temporary Rifts… According to the duo, they were nearly impossible to find since their portals only appeared at specific times of the month or year because of some strange interaction between their Domain Flower and their surroundings. The Artificer had also mentioned it was within one of those that the Noble Houses had found the Legacies in the Bridan Empire's territory. Those special Rifts were notorious for holding many treasures, since they were often unexplored.
After a few turns, Seth suddenly realized they weren't heading back the way they had come. "Where are we going?"
"An Escape scroll could send us back to Kastal," Marcus answered without slowing his pace, "but we would end up in the middle of those Royal Guards we passed through the first time. And my potion wouldn't make them sleep fast enough."
"So we have to use a different portal? Somewhere without any guards?"
Marcus shook his head. "Kastal doesn't have any portal to a Rift city which isn't heavily guarded. We have to use another way back entirely."
They entered a deserted alley where the shops on either side loomed like skeletal remains. The buildings, made of blackened wood, ranged from three to half-a-dozen stories in height, each with a few grimy windows and a 'Closed' sign. Deeper in, Marcus stopped before what looked like an old, abandoned potion shop. Like the others, it was unnaturally large and tall, yet devoid of any life.
Marcus placed his palm on the door, and aether swirled from his hand before he pushed it open.
A thick cloud of dust billowed out, making Seth cough as he followed the Alchemist inside. Within, the shelves were lined with countless potions, but the bottles were so coated in grime that none of their contents or the labels underneath were visible. Before Seth could say anything, Marcus waved him toward a staircase leading down.
The basement was pitch-black until the old Alchemist raised a hand; Light-lamps flared to life in the four corners of the room, revealing a large stone circle identical to the Recall Altar they had appeared on when arriving in Asethka.
"This altar is linked with a few others," Marcus said, seemingly guessing what Seth was about to ask. "There's one in Oskon. We couldn't use it to get here because its activation would have revealed its location to any Gold Wielder with decent sensing… but on the way back, it shouldn't be a problem. The receiving altar barely produces any aether burst."
The old man gestured at Seth to step inside the circle with him.
"How many shops do you have, Marcus?"
"Too many," the Alchemist answered, his mouth twisting. "But they are all closed now."
"Why?"
Instead of answering, Marcus raised a hand again. Azure aether erupted from around the man and scorched a large, six-foot-radius circle of glowing runes on the altar. The air near them began to vibrate before evolving into a violent shaking, and the room became warped into a blur. Seth's stomach churned, ready to expel the ale he'd downed with the Champions of Chaos two hours earlier. Then, a flash of light forced him to close his eyes for an instant, and when he opened them again, he found himself on another altar in a nearly identical basement.
Marcus was already walking away, tearing through spiderwebs. "Come."
Seth trailed after him, climbing the stairs and stepping out of the new shop. As the Alchemist sealed the door, Seth caught a glimpse of his reflection in a dark, grimy window—his eyes had shifted back to their natural golden hue. He turned sharply to Marcus. "When did the potion's effect wear off?"
"Back when we were in the alley," the old Alchemist answered, heading toward a busier street in the distance ahead.
Seth strode to catch up, but his steps felt heavy, dragging against the pavement. Something deep in his chest felt off, like a familiar wrongness settling back into place. As if, once again, he didn’t belong.
Asethka’s dense aether was pleasant, sure—but it wasn’t just that. This feeling ran deeper. Kastal, with its paranoid king and venomous nobles, had never truly felt like home. And it would have been better if he had never returned.
"To be honest," Seth admitted, his gaze lingering on a boarded-up shop window, "I was hoping it would run out while we were there."
Marcus stopped and spun around, and what seemed to be anger appeared on his face. "Why?"
"I would have been forced to leave Kastal and hide in some Rift," Seth answered. "It would have been the perfect excuse not to participate in this absurd war."
The old Alchemist rubbed his face, dragging the wrinkled skin down. "And you would have become an exile without a country. That's not something anyone should aspire to."
"It doesn't seem so bad," Seth countered.
"Not having a place to call home? Yes, it is."
The wild can be my home, Seth thought as he bit back his comeback. "It also would've kept me from getting killed in one of those warfare Rifts."
Marcus arched one of his brows. "So, you believe you can reach the top of Shenlong Tower's rankings, yet you think you'd die in a war against one of the world's weakest nations?"
"The Bridan Empire is one of the weakest nations?" Seth repeated, taken aback. If they were that weak—and Kastal was still expected to lose—what did that say about his own kingdom?
"Probably in the bottom twenty percent," the Alchemist answered.
"Despite them being weak, Rank is what's important," Seth finally replied a few seconds later. "I'll be Rank 35, and there will be Rank 50s and 60s against me. That would be different for the tower."
"You still have a month left," the Alchemist said as they stepped into the bustling street. "Ask one of your branch members to take you into a temporary Rift. Fight something at the very limit of what you can handle. As a Primalist, you could gain more than a Rank in a single fight."
Seth's brows knit as he pushed through the crowd. Professor Albert had once said that Temporary Rifts were especially valuable for a Primalist's growth—yet those were so rare most people would go their entire lives without ever encountering one.
"Why would any of the other members bother babysitting me?" Seth asked. "And how would we even find one? I heard it's nearly impossible."
Marcus let out yet another heavy sigh. "I could probably give that professor of yours a potion to convince him to do it. And as for finding one… well, I might be able to—"
Before the Alchemist could finish, Seth's shoulder brushed against a passerby. A familiar voice made him turn.
"Seth? What are you doing here?"
He froze. Elena stood in front of him, emerald eyes wide. Beside her were two figures—a woman with the same crimson hair and a man whose brown hair was streaked with gray. Seth had met them earlier that morning, just before the skirmishes against the empire. Leonard and Marissa Surani.
Before Seth could speak, Elena's father's gaze locked on him—on his eyes. Something then flashed across the man's face; color drained away, and his lips began to tremble. "Golden eyes…"
Seth's heart slammed against his ribs as Leonard's hand drifted toward the sword at his belt.
Shit.
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