Karl stepped out of the shadows without warning, nearly giving Simone a heart attack.

  “Don’t look so down,” he chuckled, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “He’ll be fine. After all—he’s the only one who kept practicing after you dragged him away. The rest of them are under their partners’ thumbs.” He laughed heartily. “If anything, he’s about to set unrealistic expectations for the others. The next batch is in for a hell of a time.”

  Before Simone could answer, he bent down and scooped up his grandchildren, squeezing them as they giggled. “Come on, you two. Let’s head to the lodge. It’ll be a while before he gets here.”

  He glanced at them with a grandfather’s mischief. “Now, what do you want to drink?”

  “Cola! Cola!” they begged, tugging at their mother’s sleeves.

  Simone straightened, her voice firm. “They will have tea.”

  Karl snorted but didn’t argue. Some battles weren’t worth fighting.

  In the Forest

  Dennis moved from shadow to shadow, every step measured. Years of training returned instantly, guiding his breath, his timing, his instincts.

  Just as he shifted to move again, something flickered at the edge of his vision—a brief flash of light.

  A person?

  A trap?

  Either way, he wasn’t stupid. If he triggered something, the entire forest would descend on him. And even his father couldn’t fight the whole clan at once.

  So he froze.

  Five minutes passed.

  Ten.

  Twenty.

  For an hour he stayed perfectly still, blending into the bark of an ancient cedar as hunters slipped past him like ghosts. They were searching for him—he felt their eyes, their steps, the pressure of their presence.

  Eventually, one of the hunters—Rik—wandered toward the source of the light flicker.

  An arrow thudded into his chest a heartbeat later.

  “Out,” someone called from the trees.

  Dennis almost burst out laughing. Rik would never live that down.

  He waited until the patrolling hunters turned on each other—too sloppy, too careless—before slipping through their chaos like smoke. Fair was fair. In this game, no one hunted just one target. If you were careless enough to expose yourself, you were prey as well.

  Three more hours passed before Dennis finally emerged from the forest, exhausted but victorious. His family sat at a wooden table near the clearing, sipping tea with his mother.

  He exhaled in relief—

  —and felt a sharp prick between his shoulder blades.

  “You lost.”

  His brother’s voice came from behind him.

  “You’re only safe once you sit,” the man added.

  A bell rang somewhere deeper in the woods—

  the end of the hunt.

  It called all participants back, announcing those who succeeded… and those who didn’t.

  Dennis turned just in time to see his father ringing the bell, wearing a face that was somehow both proud and disappointed. He hadn’t known a human could make such a conflicting expression.

  His family swarmed him with hugs and congratulations.

  Dennis accepted them gratefully… even as he silently pitied everyone still out side the forest. They were now competing against the bar he had set—and after seven years of almost no practice, he had still made them look terrible.

  The rest of the day and night passed in waves of returning hunters—each more battered and humiliated than the last. The record for worst performance went to Jill who had only made it a hundred meters beyond the forest’s edge before being tagged.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  The clan offered Jill’s family a warm welcome.

  Jill herself however, was dragged away almost immediately by Aunt Lilly, furious that her own daughter had done so terribly even though she had not practiced for seventeen year.

  In her mind, Jill’s seventeen-year break was no excuse. She was expected to be perfect.

  They only saw her again a week later, when she was finally deemed “passable for now.”

  Day 5 Since the Awakening

  Sofie returned to the lodge with a government negotiation team. With the System emerging, taxes, land rights, and control had become urgent issues. that needed to be delt with they had more to do.

  “Hello, Karl,” she greeted the old man seated at the table. “We’ve brought the government’s counter-offer. After reviewing the laws, we can grant your gathering tax exemption and inheritance rights for three generations. But we can’t stop civilians from buying land here. That would be a constitutional crisis.”

  Karl’s expression tightened, but he didn’t interrupt.

  Sofie continued, voice tinged with irritation. “The people you’re worried about will behave for now. Conveniently, the man who bribed the army ‘fell’ out of a window. The rest claim they knew nothing.” Her eyes glinted dangerously. “We’re still watching them.”

  Then her tone shifted instantly to professional brightness.

  “So—are the terms acceptable?”

  Karl nodded. “Yes. As discussed, the army will send two thousand troops here every month for training. You’ll swap them out after thirty days, and we’ll handle all logistics. Training begins on the fifteenth.”

  “Yes,” she replied with a smile that said, Sign the papers already, old man.

  Karl smirked and shook her hand. He invited them to stay for dinner, but they declined—they had another appointment with a blacksmith who refused to leave his forge for the government summons.

  As they prepared to leave, Sofie muttered darkly about their next headache.

  Karl perked up. “Erik Norheim?”

  “We aren’t supposed to tell you his name, but—you know him?” the negotiator asked nervously.

  “Know him?” Karl laughed. “He spends every summer here. We’re his biggest customers. He forges our arrowheads, daggers, armor…” He paused. “Let me guess—mana works better with handmade weapons than mass-produced ones?”

  The negotiator froze.

  “How—how do you know that? That’s a state secret!”

  His colleague slapped a hand over his mouth far too late.

  “Oh please,” Sofie sighed. “Enough with the theatrics.”

  Karl shrugged, clearly amused. “Easy. Our knives are all handmade. But with so many family members returning, we had to distribute mass-produced ones. We noticed the difference instantly when channeling mana.”

  He winked. “Relax. Even I wasn’t sure until your little performance.”

  The negotiators groaned.

  Karl continued, “Just invite Erik to work here. Bring his mother too—set up a hospital. The mana density will help her. She’s a better blacksmith than him, and a wonderful teacher.”

  Sofie exhaled, masking her concern.

  She suspected that once Erik came here, he would never leave again.

  And judging by Karl’s pleased expression…

  that was exactly what he intended.