Aiden let himself be occupied by the bow resting on his lap. He studied the intricate shapes and colors, even if it only had the one color. As for the shapes, they were nothing but thin scars that marked the weapon's length. Gentle things, white and thin as strands of hair.

His finger traced a path along the knuckle guard of the weapon. The shamanic rune inscribed onto it thrummed with hesitant power. Whatever [Shaman] had inscribed it had morphed and perverted the rune so that it was constantly trying to draw on the ambient mana.

Aiden frowned lightly at it.

I could fix it, he thought.

It was the Order enchanter in him talking. If you were good at something, really good, it was annoying to see it done wrong. No rune or sigil deserved such perversion.

His finger trailed a path around the rune. The engraving reacted to its presence. It tried to glow a soft purple. It only managed something subtle. Too subtle. Unless you looked very closely, you would not have seen it.

[You have used Class skill Modify Engrave]

[Distorted engraving detected]

[Further enhancements may prove volatile]

Aiden ignored the notification. He had the knowledge required to fix engravings. He also had the skill. There were risks, he knew them. But said risks were also calculated.

[You have used Class skill Modify Engrave on engraving Stealing Wind]

Aiden frowned at the title of the engraving. Stealing wind.

The [Shaman] hadn't even tried to be kind. You didn't get to name your engraving, engravings already had names. And in situations like this where it was a forced engraving, they named themselves.

You could tell a lot about a forced engraving from its name.

Aiden's finger settled on one end of the engraving. He felt the slight whisper of mana there latch onto his finger. He guided it gently to the side, unmaking the extra curves that had perverted it when a purple spark stunned his finger away.

His connection to the engraving broke. His interface lit up.

[Enhancement level is too high]

[Class skill Modify Engrave does not take effect]

[Level is insufficient]

Aiden sighed. I'm too weak.

He let his hand fall from the knuckle guard.

Raising his attention from the bow, he found Fjord standing at the door. They had since left the forest, gone for a few days now. They had walked and talked and conversed the very few times that they could.

Feira had spent most of the trip slightly embarrassed or simply frowning. Occasionally she smiled and laughed when Zen cracked some joke or the other. A good brother, he always knew how to lighten her mood.

Ted was also interesting enough with her. He spent very little time with her during their walks. When he did, however, she always had a smile to give at some points in their conversation.

Heading in the direction that brought them closer to Trackback, their current destination, they'd made a much needed detour. It was into a simple town, small and seemingly commercial.

Finding a stable had not been difficult.

"Sir," Fjord said in an attempt to get Aiden's attention even as Aiden looked at him. "I brought him."

Once his words were done, Zen walked in from behind him.

Aiden took his old friend in even as Zen looked around the small space. Zen truly was young now. The hollowness of regret that Aiden remembered always hovered in the corners of his eyes was gone. He still seemed to love the world and see it as some kind of fanciful playground where every stranger was a potential friend.

If the situation he had met him in at Dentis had been a part of his past life, Aiden could only wonder what had eventually happened to him and his sister, and how they had escaped. Had it been dark? If yes, then just how dark?

Too dark, Aiden concluded.

Zen had never spoken of Dentis in his past life, never brought it up or mentioned it. Not even by name.

"You were looking for me, Lord Lacheart?" Zen asked.

Fjord hovered a little longer at the door before leaving. Aiden smiled at being called Lord Lacheart by Zen with genuine seriousness instead of light teasing.

"Aiden," he corrected him. "Please."

Zen gave him a look but didn't object. Not immediately, at least.

"Kind of a small space," he noted, moving to one corner of the room.

The room was bare. There was neither furniture nor anything to comfortably sit on. The ground was dirty, covered in seemingly discarded hay. Every stable had at least one room like this, a simple empty space with a very small window at the top corner too high to reach.

It was the darkness of stables on Nastild. Earning the class of [Stable Master] gave a person a powerful ability over jepats. They knew how to take care of them, breed them with each other. They also knew how to punish them.

"It's intentionally small," Aiden said in response. "[Stable Master]s send jepats that would refuse to listen or try to harm other jepats here."

Zen's attention focused on that. "Why?"

"A form of isolation." Aiden shrugged, finger tracing the bow in his lap lightly. "They would lock it up for a day or two, then bring it back out."

Zen did not look impressed. "Sounds cruel."

"It is," Aiden agreed. Then he shook his head, changing the subject to something more conversational. "How's the trip been so far?"

"Fun." Zen paused, thought about it some more. "Stressful on the legs. If there's a [Walking] skill, I would've gained it by now."

Aiden wanted to laugh. There was, in fact, a [Walking] skill. But it wasn't something humans gained. Only certain species on the more magical side of Nastild gained it. There were special circumstances surrounding that, one of which was the fact that they were not a naturally walking species.

"How's your sister handling it?" Aiden asked.

Zen bobbed his head a bit in thought. "As best as we can expect. She did just lose almost everyone she knows. And now she's also dirt poor."

Aiden nodded in understanding. "And how's she taking the wager?"

The question made Zen laugh and loosen up a little. He leaned forward conspiratorially. "Like shit," he snickered. "My sister doesn't make bets she can lose."

Aiden could only imagine. The bet had been completely in her favor. No normal person—prodigy or not—gained a skill from just performing a single act. It was unheard of.

"Who would've thought that you'd get a foundation skill with each shot, then the actual [Archery] skill in six shots. How did you do it?" Zen asked, curious and excited. "Is it something you can teach me?"

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Aiden shook his head. "Unfortunately not," he answered. "My brother and I are… special. Me more than him."

"Oh." Zen was suddenly crestfallen.

"But I can teach you other useful things," Aiden added quickly.

"Like how to fight like you?" Zen asked, perking up once more. "I saw some of the things you did."

Aiden nodded. "I can teach you that."

"I'd like that."

"I can show you how to fight with weapons," Aiden continued, sweetening the pot he had not even offered Zen yet. "I can show you how to fight without weapons. I can show you how to win without even fighting."

Zen's smile grew wider before suddenly dimming a little. "I'm not sure how I feel about killing people… if that's what you require of me."

Even in Aiden's past life Zen had hated killing people. He had been good at it, though. The Order had made sure of that. But he hadn't liked it.

It was good to see that some things hadn't changed.

"I'm talking about monsters, Zen," Aiden said, calming him. "Not humans. Besides, what I require of you is entirely about your class. Nobody befriends a [Time Walker] to kill a person."

"No one befriends a [Time Walker] to kill monsters, either," Zen pointed out with a smirk, as if he'd just won an argument.

Aiden nodded in agreement. "Fair point."

"So, why are you befriending me, Lord Lacheart?" Zen asked, folding his arms over his chest.

Aiden groaned. "Aiden, please."

Zen took notice of that. "May I ask a completely innocent question?" he asked cautiously.

"If it will stop you from calling me Lord Lacheart, go for it."

The title coming out of Zen's mouth seriously just rubbed Aiden wrong.

"My sister," Zen began, "has always been a center of attention. And she's let me know a number of times that men deserving of titles only tell women to ignore the title when they want something."

Aiden cocked a brow at that.

"What I'm trying to ask…" Zen scratched one elbow of his arm nervously. "What I'm trying to say is…"

Aiden kept the brow raised. With someone else, he wouldn't have known what was coming. With Zen, he knew exactly what his old friend was trying to say. Still, he was inclined to make him say it.

"Spit it out, Zen," he said with a sigh. "You're burning daylight."

Zen sucked in a deep breath and let it out. "Are you trying to hit on me?"

"Nope," Aiden said without missing a beat. "Now that that's out of the way, can we move on? Or are you still confused?"

"Still confused," Zen said with furrowed brows.

Aiden rubbed his forehead with thumb and forefinger. He wasn't stressed or annoyed. It was just… muscle memory. At least three out of five conversations with Zen in his past life made him rub his forehead in exasperation.

He wasn't exasperated right now, though.

"Alright," he said. "What's confusing you?"

"My sister is said to be beautiful," Zen proceeded very slowly. "I'm not saying that she is. The gods only know what people see…"

Aiden smothered a smile to a half-smile. In his past life, Zen used to say that his flex on the world was his sister's beauty. 'The finest in ten towns' he used to brag.

"And I'm not saying that I want you to hit on her," Zen continued. "It's just that… your brother told her to call him by name the same way you're asking me to call you by name."

I see.

"But she calls me by title, and I don't tell her not to," Aiden finished for Zen.

Zen nodded.

Aiden got up from the ground, and the bow vanished into his storage space with a shrug of will.

"Your little sister is beautiful, Zen," he said as nonchalantly as he could. "You know this. And while men will flock to her for her attention, she looks a little too much like you for my taste."

Zen paused. "But I'm handsome."

"Uhuh. Sure you are." Aiden chuckled, walking up to the door and past his old friend. He placed a hand on his shoulder. "Ten percent of everything we make on contracts and quests to be shared between you and your sister. Fifteen percent if you are an active participant. In months where we get no contract, you get ten gold coins. Your and your sister's accommodation and feeding will be handled by me."

He felt Zen's body tremble under his hand. It was all Zen could do not to let his knees buckle beneath him.

"That's…" Zen gulped. "That's a lot of money."

"Because you'll have a lot of work to do. Now, let's go see if the others are done buying our jepats."

…

Aiden walked out into the brisk afternoon air. The sounds of children playing and merchants trading on the other side of the stable filled the air. The ground was nothing but dirt beneath their feet, brown and oddly… clean. If that made any sense.

Shoving the heel of his boots against the dirt, he dug a small scuff, then tapped the toe of his boot against it. Random motions, nothing that meant anything.

The door closed behind him and he knew that Zen had followed him out.

Together they strolled up to the others, Aiden's sword at his waist. His coat had done much in repairing itself, but it was still missing patches. Its hem hadn't fully healed, and one of its sleeves was currently short.

No one commented on it as he and Zen approached Valdan, Ted, Fjord, and Feira. Feira's brows furrowed in confusion when her eyes settled on her brother. Then they moved over to Aiden suspiciously. The jepats they had just purchased stood quietly behind them already saddled and ready for their trip.

That got everyone's attention

"What did you do, Aida?" Ted asked.

Aiden groaned as to how easily the others now took her side. If she groaned or rolled her eyes or frowned, it was always 'What did you do, Aiden?' or 'Stop it, Aiden' or 'Be better, Aiden.'

Like now, he didn't even have to do anything, and he told Ted just as much.

"I didn't do anything."

At the same time, Zen snatched his sister into a massive hug.

"We're rich!" he declared like a new merchant with enough money to buy a small kingdom. He turned her around twice while she held on for dear life, then put her down. "Rich!"

Ted and Valdan looked at Aiden. They both had the same question.

Aiden shrugged. "I just gave him his offer."

"I didn't feel rich when I got mine," Fjord pointed out. "Should I be worried?"

Ted tapped his lips thoughtfully. "But you didn't get an offer, though. Did you?"

"No," Fjord muttered.

Valdan placed a consolatory hand on his shoulder. "And you have never wanted for anything since joining us. Have you?"

That brightened his mood a little. "No."

During their exchange, Zen had been giving Feira the update on the contract.

"And what exactly is the role you'll be playing for us to be making this much?" she asked in a suspicious voice.

Zen paused. "That's true. Aiden didn't tell me."

"Aiden?" Feira gave him an incredulous look. "Aiden? Since when did you both become so chummy?"

Zen shrugged innocently.

With a shake of her head, Feira rounded on Aiden.

"What are you about to make me and my brother do?" she asked. "He might be kind and trusting, but I'm not."

All eyes turned to Aiden. They were all curious, too, not just Feira.

"As we all know," Aiden informed them with a sigh, "Zen over here is a [Time Walker]."

Fjord raised his hand. "I did not know that."

"Now you do." Aiden made a vague gesture at him before returning his attention to everyone. "But he is a special type, with a special skill." As he spoke, worry and concern crossed Feira's face, while Zen was nothing but surprised. "This skill makes him the perfect non-combat scout. It will keep us prepared and on our toes, and always ready for potential ambushes. At least, almost always."

"How do you know about—" Feira began to protest before Aiden cut her off.

"I left a kingdom in search of your brother, Feira," he said simply. "I wouldn't embark on a journey this far to find him if I didn't know almost everything I needed to know. I'm here for your brother as much as I am here for that skill."

"Say the name," Zen said suddenly.

Aiden turned to him. "What?"

"You said you know the skill," Zen said, eyes hard. "Say the name."

Aiden understood his sudden change in emotion. It was the first skill that Zen had gotten as a [Time Walker], and to him it was a useless skill. Useless until the Order had found its use.

"[Borrowed Guest]," Aiden said.

Zen shook his head. "I've tried to use the skill, and it has no useful purpose." He paused. "But you're of noble blood. Maybe there's a record of it that I just don't know about, and how to use it."

[Borrowed Guest] was a non-combat skill at heart. It worked in a simple fashion. It was also a unique skill. Once activated, Zen pulled an instance of himself to the present, creating a time doppelganger of sorts. This time-clone lasted for only two to three seconds before dissipating. The skill had a two-second delay before activation and a two-minutes cooldown time period. It also cost him fifteen percent of his mana, limiting how much he could use it.

But only in its early stage.

It was seemingly useless, but it was the best scouting skill to prepare for ambushes. It had prepared Aiden and his teammates in his past life too many times.

With that out of the way, he moved to a jepat of his choice and mounted it. The others did the same with varying expressions, most of which were confusion.

"Where to?" Valdan asked, pulling out a map.

Aiden didn't bother looking at it. "First, we'll go get your sword. Hopefully, that nasty enchantment's taken care of."

"Then?"

Aiden looked ahead, past the crowd of people and the market and the life of the city.

"Then, to Trackback."

They rode forward after that. The young boys that worked at the stable opened the gates and let them out.

As they rode, their jepats moving in slow gaits, Aiden moved his mind to something he had put off for too long simply because he hadn't deemed it necessary yet.

With the massive jump in stats due to his leap in levels, he had not yet allocated his stat points. He felt strong already, unrushed to get stronger. He would like to claim that he was keeping the stat points to use at a crucial moment, but he was not. What he had actually been doing was acquainting himself with his new level of strength.

His sword swings were stronger now—faster too. He needed to relearn control and restraint before growing some more. Increases in stats weren't disorienting. But when you considered that most people took weeks, sometimes months, to move ten levels, giving them time to grow accustomed to their new growth, it only made sense that he needed some time to adjust to twenty levels of growth.

It was months of growth crammed into barely ten minutes of combat. Even killing fellow humans, people didn't grow that fast.

As he had already deduced long ago, his increased growth speed had something to do with his existence as a regressor. Somehow, regressing made him relearn skills that he once had faster and gain more levels for every kill he made—human or monster.

He was about to pull up his stats when Zen pulled up next to him on his jepat. Feira was right beside him, his ever-watchful caretaker.

"I know you mean well," Zen began. "And I know that you probably know a lot of things that I don't know. But that skill is kind of useless as far as useful skills go."

Aiden nodded as if it didn't matter. "I know, Zen."

"But you're going to make it useful?"

"I am."

"How?" Feira asked. There was a touch of imploration in her voice. Hope.

Zen suddenly flickered like a broken light bulb. His physical form blurred, flickering in and out of reality.

Then he was gone, vanished as if he had never been.

Everybody froze.

"What just ha—"

Zen reappeared on his jepat wide-eyed.

Aiden leaned over his jepat to look his old friend in the eyes with unbridled seriousness. He had only one thing to say.

"What did you see?"

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