The Grand Hall of Lorri's Arch Academy echoed with the murmurs of two hundred first year students, a sea of nervous energy shifting across polished marble floors. Morning light streamed through towering stained glass windows depicting legendary mages of old, painting the assembled students in fractured rainbows of light.
Kael stood with his group near the middle of the hall. Dominic's solid presence was at his right, Justin and Ellora to his left, their shoulders brushing in unconscious support. Sora stood quietly beside Kael, her subtle dragonkin heritage visible only in the faint amber flecks in her eyes when the light hit them just so. Camila Lockwood bounced on her heels beside Daniel, who looked like he was contemplating shadow melding through the floor to escape her cheerful energy.
"Think Brys is going to make us run laps before breakfast?" Dominic muttered, eyeing the raised dais at the front.
"Worse," Justin said, nodding toward the side entrance. "Headmaster's here."
Eldrin Morn moved through the hall with a quiet presence that nonetheless silenced conversations in a spreading wave. The Sovereign Tier mage didn't need to command attention it was simply given, like gravity. His robes were simple gray, his silver hair swept back, but his eyes held the weight of centuries of arcane knowledge. He stepped onto the dais, and the hall fell completely silent.
"Five days," he began, his voice carrying effortlessly without amplification. "In five days, you will be inserted into the Gloomwilds for your first Field Test. Some of you will return changed. Some of you will not return at all."
A ripple of unease moved through the crowd.
"You have been taught theory. You have practiced spells in controlled environments. The Gloomwilds do not care about your theories." Morn's gaze swept across them, pausing briefly on Kael's group, then on Princess Elara who stood at the edge of the noble section with her usual calm detachment. "The creatures there will test you in ways your professors cannot. Your fellow students may test you in ways you have not imagined."
Beside Kael, Daniel's posture shifted almost imperceptibly. His shadow seemed to darken.
"The academy exists not just to teach magic," Morn continued, "but to forge guardians. The world beyond these walls grows more dangerous by the season. Iron Concord expands its borders. Dark powers stir in forgotten places. And here you stand the next generation who must decide what to protect, and what price you are willing to pay."
He paused, letting the words sink in. Kael felt the weight of them, remembering the chains in the Iron Concord, the dragons screaming in bondage.
"Your Field Test is not an examination," Morn said. "It is your first real choice. Will you work together? Will you sacrifice for one another? Or will you pursue personal glory at the expense of your comrades?" His eyes found Corvin's group near the front. "Remember this: the academy tracks more than your kills and collected resources. We track your choices."
With that, he stepped down, leaving a hall full of sober faced students.
The Planning Session
They gathered in a secluded courtyard behind the alchemy wing Kael's expanded group of eight now, with Camila having essentially appointed herself their chief engineer.
"Okay!" Camila spread a glowing map across a stone bench. "Gloomwilds topography. Standard insertion is randomized, but terrain features are consistent. We'll likely drop here, here, or here." She pointed to three valleys on the map. "All have water sources, but also predator territories."
Justin studied the map. "Silver Lightning Wolf packs here. Thorn Sprite groves here. And... what's that?"
"Fog Wraith nesting grounds," Sora said softly. Everyone turned to her. She flushed but continued. "My mentor, Lady Evander, showed me last year's casualty reports. Three students were lost to soul drain there."
Camila grinned. "Perfect! I mean, not perfect, but data! We'll need spirit warding charms. I can build them if we get the components." She turned to Daniel. "Your shadows can detect wraiths before they materialize, right?"
Daniel gave a single nod.
"Excellent! You'll be on wraith watch."
Dominic leaned over the map. "Survival priorities: water, shelter, defense. We can't assume we'll find each other immediately. We need rendezvous protocols."
Ellora raised a hand. "My flame fox is swift and leaves a faint, warm trail. If we're separated, I can have it mark paths only we can sense."
"Good," Kael said. "But our first priority after insertion is establishing a secure base. Dominic, you and I will handle fortifications. Justin and Ellora, perimeter security. Sora and Camila, resource gathering. Daniel..." He looked at their shadow wielder. "You're our scout. Find the threats before they find us."
Daniel met his gaze. "Understood."
Camila clapped her hands. "Now! Gear! We need better everything. Let's hit the Requisitions Hall."
The Arcane Requisitions Hall
If the Grand Hall was solemn, the Requisitions Hall was chaos incarnate. First years mobbed counters, waving credit chits and shouting orders. The air smelled of leather, and desperation.
"By the Founders," Dominic breathed, staring at a price tag. "Three hundred credits for a basic healing potion? That's two Tier II beast cores!"
Justin examined a rack of enchanted swords. "Valore family discount applies, but still... two thousand for a Star grade blade?"
Camila was already at the counter, negotiating with a harried looking dwarven clerk. "The mana battery on this scanner is outdated. I'll take it at forty percent off, and throw in three packets of glow-moss."
The dwarf blinked. "That's not—"
"I can also point out the flaw in your containment runes." She gestured to the shimmering barrier around a display of volatile crystals. "See that flicker? Harmonic dissonance. One strong vibration and... boom."
The dwarf paled. "Forty percent. And the moss."
"Excellent!"
Kael found himself drawn to a display of unfinished weapon blanks. Among them was a shard of petrified heartwood, dark as night but with a faint golden grain. His hand went to the pouch at his belt where a similar piece rested the World Breaker's Seed, still unfinished, still waiting.
Flashback: The Iron Concord Forges
Heat. Always the heat of the forges. Kael, fifteen, covered in soot and sweat, hauling dragon scale ingots for the master smiths. His hands blistered, his back ached, but he learned. He learned how magic could be forced into metal, how wills could be broken into obedience.
The day the World Tree fragment arrived was the day everything changed. A rebellion in the northern woods, a fragment of the ancient tree captured, brought to the forges to be made into weapons to bind more dragons.
Kael was assigned to clean the workshop after the master smiths failed. "The heartwood resists shaping," they said. "It refuses to hold enchantments."
Alone in the workshop, Kael touched the dark wood. It was warm, like living flesh. And it whispered. Not in words, but in feelings: ancient, patient, waiting.
When the overseer found him still there at midnight, he raised his whip. But Kael was holding the fragment, and for the first time, his strange power responded not destroying, but understanding. The wood softened in his hands, taking the rough shape of a sword blade.
"Freak!" the overseer spat, but there was fear in his eyes. He let Kael keep the shard. "Maybe it'll kill you instead."
That night, Kael named it. World Breaker's Seed. Not because it would break worlds, but because it grew from a world that had been broken. And perhaps, someday, it could help mend one.
"Kael?" Sora's voice pulled him back. She was looking at him with concern. "You were... glowing."
He looked down. His fingers on the display case were emitting a faint ember gold light. The petrified wood inside pulsed in response.
"Interesting," Camila said, appearing at his shoulder. "Resonance with unworked materials? That's a rare trait. We should test—"
"No time," Dominic cut in, dragging them toward the equipment section. "We have credits to spend, and I'm not getting eaten because we were philosophizing about wood."
What followed was an exercise in economic horror.
"Boots with basic stability runes: four hundred credits," Dominic read, aghast. "They're BOOTS. They should keep your feet dry and not fall apart. That's it!"
"Ah, but these have enhanced stability," Camila said cheerfully. "See the helical runic pattern? Reduces ankle sprain probability by thirty percent!"
"Or I could watch where I'm walking and save four hundred credits!"
Justin was more practical. "We need communication crystals. Standard pairs are fifty credits each."
"Or," Camila produced her custom stones, "my design with schematic transmission. Materials cost: twenty credits each. I'll make them for everyone."
Ellora picked up a spirit amplifying talisman, then paled at the eight hundred credit price. She set it down carefully.
Sora found a set of spatial expansion pouches. "For herbs and cores," she said softly. "They keep things fresh."
Kael made the hard choices. "Two healing potions each. Basic mana restoratives. Rations for five days. And..." he looked at the group, "one emergency teleport crystal. Just one."
The single crystal cost fifteen hundred credits. More than everything else combined.
Dominic stared at it. "If we use that, we fail the test automatically."
"If we don't use it and we're dying, we're dead," Kael said. "We pool credits."
They did. The total left them with eighty-seven credits between eight people.
"Right," Dominic said, deadpan. "So when the legendary beast comes, I'll hit it with my eighty seven credit stick."
The Last-Minute Drills
With gear acquired but funds depleted, they spent their remaining days in intense preparation but not against simulated wolves.
Instead, Commander Brys ran them through brutal, practical drills in the academy's obstacle fields.
"Campbell! That flaming tail is a beacon!" Brys barked, pointing at the small fox of soft flame dancing around Ellora's ankles. "In the Gloomwilds, light draws predators. Can your vine weaver or moss-turtle scout instead?"
Ellora nodded, dismissing the fox. In its place, the humanoid figure of woven vines unfolded from the ground, moving with silent, rustling grace. "Better," Brys grunted.
"Valore! Your sword shines like a beacon! You might as well ring a dinner bell!"
Justin practiced suppressing his Sword bound magic's natural glow, fighting with refined efficiency rather than brilliant displays.
Kael focused on spell diversity without resorting to unmaking. He practiced the basic elemental spells fire bolts, ice shards, kinetic pulses until he could chain them seamlessly. Gareth Stoneheart, his physical mentor, watched with crossed arms. "Better. You're not relying on that strange power as a crutch. Good."
During a water crossing exercise, Dominic's earth magic created a stable bridge while others struggled. Sophia Vlad Skynyrd, training nearby with her new spear Storm's Verdict, watched with grudging respect. "Your constructs are... solid," she admitted reluctantly.
"Foundation matters," Dominic replied without looking up. "Flashy collapses."
Sophia didn't argue.
On the final night before deployment, they gathered in Kael and Dominic's dorm.
"Tomorrow," Kael said, looking at each of them. "Remember the plan. Survival first. Objectives second. Watch each other's backs."
Sora nodded, her hands clasped tightly. Camila checked her devices one last time. Daniel melted into the corner shadows, already scouting mentally.
And across campus, Theron Von Gale packed his own gear, including a small vial of Ember Lily extract, while Corvin Hale plotted sabotage.
The Gloomwilds waited. And in its mist shrouded valleys, Silver Lightning Wolves prowled not training simulations, but real, hungry Initiates of tooth and lightning.