The axe which collided with Micro’s head was shockingly different from the tools he’d carried in the past. It was impractically shaped for chopping wood, but it was clear that they were designed with cutting in mind.

  “Ouch—” Micro grunted as the axed bounced off his head, but it didn’t fall to the ground. Instead, the axe was pulled through the air, back into the hand of its thrower. Micro’s protective arts had saved him from injury, but the impact left him dazed as he glanced ahead.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got in those fancy robes!” a dirty, bearded man shouted with a raspy voice.

  Micro collected himself and scanned the area, locating a small number of people tied to a tree near the axe-throwing bandit. Ignoring the vulgar taunts of the crude man, Micro immediately rooted himself to the ground with the Mycelial Art, gathering as much energy as he could.

  “What the—” the bandit yelped as a box of energy popped out of the ground, quickly enveloping him. Micro then used the Poison Skill to fill the box with a poisonous gas, hoping the bandit would soon lose consciousness. To Micro’s surprise and horror, an axe burst through the wall of the box, allowing the gas to escape.

  “You little punk—” The bandit cursed and coughed as a new wall popped up to replace the damaged one, but he broke through it again. “Stop that!”

  Micro became flustered as the box continued to weaken, and as the other bandits were quickly approaching, he struggled to think of a way to incapacitate them. The screams of the imprisoned villagers were almost deafening as he imagined what abilities to utilize. Two more axes flew toward his head as he thought, and he reflexively raised his hands to deflect them. A loud metallic clang rang out as the first axe shattered against the back of his fist, and shrapnel was flung through the air in every direction. The bandits had retreated several paces after being pelted by the flying pieces of metal, but not only the bandits were hit.

  “No…!” A woman screamed nearby. Micro turned to see a woman tied to a tree with several others. She was bent down over a young man who had fallen to his knees, unable to fall any farther due to the rope still wrapped around his neck.

  “Oh no…” Micro knew immediately what had caused the injury to the man’s chest. Blood trickled down to the ground as the people near him panicked and cried. Micro had no time to apologize or regret the accident, as the number of bandits surrounding him had increased several times, and each one was an amber level cultivator. However, they didn’t attack him right away.

  “What do we have here?” one of them said, laughing crudely as he wiped some blood from his face. The bandit looked back at the cowering villagers after noticing that Micro hadn’t taken his worried eyes off them since the fight began. “Look at that sorry face! He’s here for them!”

  “He’s after the product!” another bandit added, laughing along with his comrade. “Here I was, thinking he was sent by the empire!”

  Lena’s warning flashed in his mind as three of the bandits began rushing toward the prisoners. Micro knew he wasn’t in any danger, but he was sure he wouldn’t be able to stop anything from happening to a hostage in the midst of so much chaos. He wished that all the bandits would simply stop moving. He wished the bandits would trip over rocks on the uneven ground. He wished that helping some people didn’t mean hurting others, but he knew he was the only means of stopping the bandits at that moment.

  “Stop—” Micro began to say, and then something clicked in his mind. He summoned two swords of aura using the Spirit Sword Skill, and threw them as hard as he could at the legs of the fastest bandit. Before they had even made contact, he summoned two more to throw at the other, and then two more.

  “The old man would forgive a tire slasher, right…?” Micro asked himself as the bandits stumbled and rolled to a stop on the dirt, screaming and grasping their bleeding legs. His aim was poor, and it took several more attempts to full immobilize the targets, but he eventually succeeded. “It’s to stop a worse crime, after all…”

  Micro’s hands shook as he continued to summon swords and throw them, and his disgust in his actions gradually turned to relief. The swords simply dissolved away a few seconds after being release from his grip, confusing the bandits further, but he was at no risk of running low on energy.

  “What are you…” one of the bandits grumbled while trying stop the bleeding from his wounded legs, but Micro only sighed in reply as he looked around at the gruesome scene.

  “They looked a lot stronger than they are…” Micro wondered aloud after most of them had lost consciousness.

  “They lack discipline,” Lena said as she ran by, slicing through a bandit with her claws. “If you won’t finish them off yourself, at least make them easy to find.”

  Micro nodded as she disappeared into the crowd of bandits, and he turned away as angry shouts became screams of pain and terror. He made his way to the villagers, one of which was barely conscious, bleeding heavily from a deep cut in his chest.

  “Head that way. My friends are waiting there. Sorry about—” Micro said as he cut away the ropes and chains. The people he freed seemed no less terrified of him than they were of the bandits, but they eventually carried themselves away from the scene and into the woods as directed by Micro. He wasn’t sure how to address the terrified villagers, so he simply resorted to activating his Charm Skill and looked away.

  “Isn’t this fun?!” Blue shouted at him in between explosions, laughing as she always did.

  “No…” Micro shook his head slowly, summoning two more swords of energy. “It’s not…”

  ~

  Micro sat down by a fire in the middle of the quiet camp. He couldn’t smell the smoky air. He couldn’t feel the warmth of the fire or hear the embers crackling. Despite his success in liberating the imprisoned people, none of the bandits whose lives he had spared survived Lena’s thorough execution of her duties. After interrogating several for a while, the bandits’ population was reduced to zero before the dust had fully settled.

  “You did alright, eh?” Blue said, landing on his head with a thud. “Got a bit of blood on you there!”

  Micro continued to sit in silence, staring into the fire. He knew that Blue was probably right about the blood, but he couldn’t find the will to wipe it from his face.

  “We have done all of what we came here to do,” Lena announced with a satisfied look as she approached them from behind. “Thank you for your assistance, Blue.”

  “It was a good time!” Blue replied with a boisterous laugh. “You really are merciless though, eh? I didn’t have much work to do at all towards the end of the party!”

  “Your ability to cause confusion aided me in isolating several bandit leaders who held valuable information,” Lena said with a respectful salute, one hand wrapped in the other in from of her chest. “It would have been like hunting flies in a swarm of bees otherwise.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Bees, eh? I really do think a Bee Art would be fun…” Blue replied casually. She then stomped on Micro’s head once, causing him to stir from his daze.

  “Wha—”

  “You did fine, farm tool,” Blue shouted down at him, then wiped some of the dried blood away from his eyes so he could see her more clearly. “You saved the poor little humans, and the bandits are all gone!”

  Micro nodded, then expanded his senses to confirm the presence of the villagers and his friends. He stood up and looked to his left, and saw Arbur leading Kolt, Kira, and the rest of the villagers through the woods toward the smouldering remains of the bandits’ camp.

  “Oops,” Micro blurted out as he remembered to activate his Charm Skill again. Though Micro had freed the majority of the imprisoned villagers, they remained afraid of him and Lena throughout the battle. The Charm Skill immediately eased the tension in the crowd of several dozen disgruntled non-cultivators, but Micro didn’t feel any more at ease.

  “If I may,” a middle-aged man suddenly declared from among the crowd. Lena seemed impressed by his confidence as he walked forward to address her and Micro.

  “Yes?” Lena replied. “You may speak in our presence.”

  “I thank you on behalf of those you have saved this evening,” the man declared with a bow. Though his clothes were tattered and his hair and beard unkempt, his eyes were sharp and confident. He looked back up at Micro and Lena and continued with a cold tone. “I dare not lay any more of our trivial concerns upon your feet. Though few of us have survived our long journey in captivity, those of us who are here possess the strength to return on our own two feet. We wish not to trouble you any more than we already have.”

  “Help yourselves to what is left of these bandits’ belongings,” Lena said. “I have already received my reward. Where were you taken from?”

  “Most of us come from west of these woods,” the man replied, casting a suspicious glare at Micro. “We will follow the sun to what is left of our homes as soon as we are able.”

  “Then we shall escort you to a road that will lead you near to the western edge of this forest,” Lena explained, then looked up at the stars which had begun to emerge in the sky as an icy wind blew away the smoke and dust. “Make your preparations, and get some rest. We depart at dawn.”

  “What road could—Excuse me,” the man stuttered for a moment, revealing an expression of contempt in his confusion. However, he quickly composed himself and bowed.

  “It is our desire to escort you to safety,” Lena reassured him. “You have nothing to fear from us.”

  “I understand, and I accept. Your grace is immeasurable, and we shall offer no protest. Goodnight,” he replied with his head still bowed. The man then quickly turned and left without waiting for a reply, leaving Lena with a curious look on her face.

  “An intriguing individual,” she remarked as he mobilized the villagers. However, her interest quickly waned.

  Kira and Kolt didn’t hesitate to assist the freed villagers in looting the bandits and packing supplies. At first, many were reluctant to interact with the children in immaculate cultivators’ robes, and who radiated the familiarly oppressive aura of a cultivator. The children were still unable to fully restrain their own auras, but they continued to help while explaining their own background, and the villagers eventually began to appreciate their help.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Before long, the camp was full of gossip about the two young members of a powerful sect who were nothing but orphaned villagers not more than a season ago. Curious children among the recently freed gathered around Kolt and Kira, asking too many questions for the two young cultivators to answer, and Blue was happy to tell them tales, mostly true, of her own adventures with Micro’s odd party. Despite Micro’s Charm Skill alleviating some of the tension among the camp, he decided not to interfere with their preparations. Together with Lena and Arbur, he approached the dungeon portal to observe its eerie, amber glow.

  “Fire Blade Art…” Micro read aloud with his Appraisal Skill.

  “It certainly does feel… sharp…” Arbur marvelled at the portal.

  “I am familiar with this art,” Lena stated. “It is a formidable art, but dangerous. I was well defeated by a cultivator who took pride in this art. That was many years ago…”

  “I wonder how different it would be from the sword card I already have,” Micro said, though he couldn’t bring himself to summon an example. “So many sharp objects...”

  “Your Spirit Sword Skill allows you to summon a simple blade,” Lena replied. “But the nature of a sword is not the nature of all bladed weapons. The Blade Art allows one to intuit the nature of any blade. Fire energy is also a particularly effective catalyst for blade techniques.”

  “That sounds useful,” Micro said happily. “I wonder why fire energy would be useful for a blade though. Fire isn’t usually sharp.”

  “Elemental energies are a matter of taste, or talent, I suppose,” Lena replied, scratching her chin as she considered the matter. “I hadn’t given it much thought in recent decades, as I have never heard of someone having a particular need for mastery of more than one or two elemental forces. But seeing you master Core Cards at such a rate, and having heard the dungeon guardian’s words regarding the strength of a soul…”

  “Well, the old man spent a lot of time learning how to use all sorts of sharp tools…” Micro continued, giving up on following Lena’s train of thought.

  “Some dull ones too!” Blue shouted back at Micro while flying in circles above a group of laughing children.

  “Okay, okay…” Micro sighed.

  “I would warn you that challenging the amber level Fire Blade Art Dungeon before mastering the jade level of the same art is equally unprecedented and foolish, but I cannot be certain whether or not it is impossible for you,” Lena declared.

  “What’s the difference?” Micro asked, surprised by his own lack of enthusiasm for the dungeon standing before him. “We’ve done alright so far, haven’t we?”

  “The creator of these dungeons intended for them to be challenged in order for a reason, or so it is assumed,” Lena began, her voice returning to its comfortably teacher-like tone. “Jade dungeons require mental fortitude. There, you gain knowledge and experience which serves as a foundation for future cultivation.”

  “Right, jade makes you smarter,” Micro replied. “Like a puzzle?”

  “That—well, sure,” Lena continued. “Amber dungeons require physical mastery, not just of an art or skill, but of yourself.”

  “That makes sense,” Micro agreed. “I had to learn to trust my new body more in the Serpent Art Dungeon. I feel a lot better about it now, even if legs will always be inferior to a good set of—”

  “Master?” Arbur called out as Micro began to mumble. “Are you alright?”

  “Right, sorry,” Micro said. “You were saying, Lena?”

  “The next stage, sapphire, requires a more refined approach,” Lena continued. “You must master your spirit.”

  “How does that work?” Micro tilted his head.

  “You will come to understand the requirements of a sapphire core in due time, I am sure,” Lena replied. “It is a natural progression. For now, I would advise you to consider that this dungeon will test your physical capabilities in the context of an art about which you know virtually nothing. Will you risk your life in this way?”

  “I see…” Micro replied. He thought about what challenge may be waiting beyond the glimmering doorway for a while.

  “I will also mention that the survival rate of that dungeon was among the information I collected from the bandits,” Lena added. “Less than half of the bandits who entered that dungeon in the past month returned, and many failed to receive any Core Card in a single attempt. Of course, a cultivator with any honour at all would have less trouble, but it would be unwise not to acknowledge that these bandits, despite their disgusting nature, were by no means weak.”

  “I think I should back to this one later…” Micro said quietly, noticing the rusty smell coming from the motionless bandits all around him. “Let’s get back on a road first.”

  Micro retreated from his friends and the villagers as the snow grew heavier. The camp became lively for a while as small groups gathered around campfires with food and alcohol they had found, but the celebrations ended as the cold night settled in. A growing layer of snow seemed to bury every sound as Micro’s eyes wandered. He had been tempted to enter the amber dungeon as its portal glowed warmly, but he knew he wasn’t ready deal with any more weapons for a while.

  Lena and Arbur spent some time meditating before going to sleep, while Kira and Kolt fell asleep with a group of children in a large tent. Micro had begun to accept the reality of his encounters with bandits, and his guilt had begun to fade. However, it was a familiar feeling which replaced it.

  “You look lonely for a punk with his own sect,” Blue mocked him as she landed on his head. “Being human getting you down?”

  “I think you’re right,” Micro said after wondering for a while what exactly he was feeling. “They all seem to get along well, like they belong together. Even Lena…”

  “You want me to find you a shovel to talk to?” Blue smirked. “You did like that hammer, but would a rock do?”

  “I never needed to talk to the old man to enjoy our time together back then, but now—” Micro stopped talking as he felt his voice constrict. “Just being together wasn’t this complicated before…”

  “Humans are like that, eh?” Blue said while yawning.

  “Not pixies?” Micro asked.

  “Not before the war, at least,” Blue replied. “We do our own thing usually. That might get old though. Who can say?”

  “War…” Micro repeated. “I don’t like fighting at all.”

  “Fighting can be fun. Humans tend to go overboard with it though,” Blue said. “I don’t see how they don’t get bored of it after all this time. I’ve seen strangers kill each other to death just for the heck of it. Don’t try and understand what they mean by the word ‘honour’ either. Waste of time…”

  “They kill each other for no reason?” Micro gasped.

  “One time these two old guys were on two walking trails that intersected,” Blue explained, making the shape of a cross with her arms. “Neither would wait, so both fought. I forget which of them won…”

  “People just go when it’s their turn at an intersection where I’m from. There’s a light the flashes and everything…” Micro reminisced. “And road rage is a crime in the first place. I’ve only seen a few people shout at each other, never mind trying to kill each other…”

  “Huh, and they drive those things around, what were they called?”

  “Trucks, cars, bikes… There are a lot of options these days.”

  “And you sit on top of them? And they just go…?”

  “You sit in the seat, usually.”

  “And who pushes them?”

  “The engine moves it.”

  “Are you sure you know what you’re talking about?” Blue frowned, but she couldn’t imagine the process. Just before she lost interest, Micro started to draw in the snow with his finger, but the image was messy and Blue only grew more confused.

  “Wait a minute,” Micro said, standing up quickly. “Wood!”

  “Wood?!” Blue shouted back as she fell off his head and landed gracefully in the snow. “I’ve heard of that!”

  “The old man liked to make toys out of scrap wood during winter,” Micro explained as he walked into the forest. “He made wind up toys too, but with these things, and…”

  “I didn’t ask, but okay!” Blue tilted her head.

  Micro’s eyes brightened when he came across a short tree with a thick trunk. He knocked on it a few times and smiled, then cut the tree down with a single swipe of his Spirit Sword, making sure to catch it before it could hit the ground. He quietly cut the branches off, then started to slice it lengthwise into thin planks.

  “I thought you said you didn’t like swords,” Blue called out to him with a laugh as he continued to work.

  “It’s not a weapon,” Micro countered with a smile, waving the tiny sword of energy around playfully. “It’s a tool!”

  Blue watched curiously from atop a pile of scrap wood that formed near Micro as he worked. He gradually became more adept at adjusting the size of the Spirit Sword in his hand, though it’s shape was limited, and the process of carving pieces of wood into strange shapes sped up as the night dragged on. She fell asleep around the time he began work on several energy crystals, but Micro kept working without rest.

  ~

  “Good morning, Blue!” Micro greeted the pixie as she awoke, having rolled down the pile of scrap wood into a pile of leaves at some point during her rest.

  “Ah? What did I miss…” Blue yawned, then her eyes fell on the strange object sitting between her and Micro. “What the heck is that?!”

  “It’s a Micro,” Micro replied, then chuckled. “Well, kind of. It’s definitely not exactly the same model as me.”

  “I thought you were Micro,” she said with a blank expression, her eyes still fuzzy.

  “This is a Micro too,” Micro replied. “Well, sort of—”

  “You were that small?” Blue asked curiously as she approached the object.

  “No, I was the same shape, but much bigger. Big enough for two human passengers,” Micro explained. “This one is your size.”

  “My size?!” Blue gasped, her confusion giving way to curiosity.

  “It doesn’t burn gasoline, obviously, but the way it works is just about the same,” Micro explained, picking up the toy-sized truck and pointing at the parts as he described them. “Pull this handle to open the door, then sit here. You turn the wheel to adjust the angle of the front tires. These pedals are the brake and accelerator.”

  “Mmhmm?” Blue nodded, listening intently.

  “I put a crystal inside that recharges over time, but you can add your own energy if it gets low before it refills. It’s convenient to use ambient energy, because it just recharges by itself forever, but it’s easy to use it up faster than it can recharge,” Micro continued. “The energy shoots out the back, and it turns this wheel here, like a water wheel.”

  “What’s a water wheel?” Blue asked.

  “Just a wheel that turns when water flows over it. Don’t worry about that though. I noticed when I tried burning a piece earlier, but this wood really is durable!” Micro adjusted his grip on the toy and pointed into the cab. “This lever adjusts the angel of the exhaust pipe, so it either hits the bottom of the rear axle or the top. Move the lever back to go forward, and move it forward to go back.”

  “Why doesn’t moving it forward make you go forward?” Blue asked.

  “Th—that… is a good point…” Micro stopped talking for a moment and looked down at his creation with a blank expression. Micro scratched his head, then continued. “I suppose I’ll fix that in next year’s model. Anyways, the pedal on the right controls how fast you go. When you aren’t pushing down on the accelerator, all the energy coming out of the crystal will just come out of the grill instead. Otherwise the truck would never stop.”

  “Of course,” Blue replied, not sure whether or not she understood. “What’s that one over there for?”

  “The brake will slow you down, you see?” Micro said, pushing down on the tiny pedal with one finger. Blue stared at the truck intently for a while, her eyes widening as if she had finally woken up fully.

  “Put it down,” Blue suddenly ordered.

  “Oh?” Micro said, caught off guard. “Okay, here—”

  The moment he put the wooden truck, freshly carved from white hardwood, on the soft snow, he grew concerned that it may not be able to function in the snow with such small wheels made of wood. However, Blue flew into the cab of the miniature truck, slammed the door, and pressed her foot against the pedal on the right until it wouldn’t go any farther.

  “Bye!” Blue screamed in delight as the truck’s rear wheels spun in the snow for a moment, then accelerated so quickly that Micro almost lost sight of it.

  “Wait!” Micro shouted. “You don’t have a license to—”

  Micro gasped as Blue came close to colliding with a tree, lamenting that he hadn’t thought of what material to craft seat belts with, but she placed her hand through the windshield, where there was no glass, and the tree exploded in time for her to keep driving in a straight line.

  “Oh, I guess it works a bit like a rocket anyway…” Micro said, smiling wryly as Blue swerved between boulders and tree stumps, driving in circles around Micro and kicking up clouds of snow. “It would be tricky to reverse that fast though.”

  As the energy poured over the wheel on the axle which drove the rear wheels, it expelled enough power to simply propel the truck forward like a rocket, but Blue apparently had no trouble steering it safely, even when she entered the villagers’ camp, creating a moment of chaos as they awoke from their peaceful slumber to the sounds of explosions and Blue’s laughter.

  “Master, are you alright?” Kira asked as she approached Micro. She stifled a yawn, then pointed at the noisy pixie kicking up snow nearby. “And what’s Blue doing…?”

  “She’s driving a truck,” Micro replied anxiously. “Without a license…!”