Chapter 26: An opportunity, and related obstacles

Runes were incredibly difficult to learn, comprehend, and properly master.

According to Steve, most ordinary Evolvers would spend an enormous amount of time mastering even a single Rune, and some would never succeed at all.

And before Frost could even worry about mastering one, there was the first obstacle.

He needed knowledge of a Rune in the first place.

Usually, that meant obtaining a Rune Tome containing the knowledge and understanding necessary to begin learning a specific Rune.

Acquire the tome, absorb its knowledge, and understand that knowledge.

Then somehow put that understanding into practice. And even after doing all of that, there was no guarantee of success.

A person still needed sufficient inherent talent and enough astral energy to actually invoke the Rune.

Frost stared blankly at the ceiling.

"It’s obstacle after obstacle..."

He sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today.

Still, Harod had offered them an opportunity.

Anyone serious about pursuing the path of an Evolver was supposed to declare their intention by tomorrow through Earth’s envoy stationed here in the slums. Harod would then see what assistance Linden was willing to provide them.

It wasn’t much time to make a decision. Then again, Frost understood why.

Time was a valuable resource that they couldn’t afford to waste. Some people from Earth had already been in this world for several days.

They had a head start.

And if Harod was right about the temporary grace period, sitting around contemplating his future for the next few weeks wasn’t exactly an option.

Strangely enough, despite all that uncertainty, Frost felt the anticipation growing inside him. He suddenly realised that he was smiling.

Frost slowly raised one hand toward his face.

It was trembling.

He stared at it for several seconds before letting out a quiet, wry laugh.

"Is that fear... or am I actually excited about all the possibilities?" He wanted to tell himself it was the latter.

And in part, it definitely was, but Frost wasn’t stupid enough to lie to himself completely.

"Maybe it’s both..."

His hand slowly fell against his chest, but his smile remained.

Maybe this really was an opportunity.

A terrifying, completely insane opportunity that had already nearly gotten him killed several times within the first few hours, but an opportunity nonetheless.

Perhaps this was his chance to finally climb up the food chain.

After all...

His future back on Earth hadn’t exactly been looking very bright.

His stomach suddenly rumbled, bringing his thoughts to an abrupt halt.

"Fuck, I’m so hungry..."

Now that he was actually paying attention to it, his throat was parched as well, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten or drunk anything.

Frost reluctantly pushed himself up from the uncomfortable bed.

’I guess I should go and see how they go about feeding people here...’

He glanced toward the narrow doorway.

’Hopefully, they actually have edible food and clean drinking water.’ Frost let out a dry laugh at the thought.

Still, he had some hope.

People from Earth had already been living here for several days, so unless the population was slowly dying from starvation and dehydration, they had to be eating and drinking something all this time.

Walking over to the metal door, which looked like it was only a few hard kicks away from falling apart completely, Frost grabbed the handle and had to force it open before stepping straight out onto a dirty street illuminated by flickering, dying lights.

Frost paused.

’This part is so disconcerting...’

There was no hallway, lobby, fence, courtyard, or even a small stretch of pavement separating his room from the outside world.

This flimsy piece of metal was all that had been keeping him separate from the dirty streets. One step through the door, and he was already standing right in the middle of it.

Frost glanced back at the pathetic excuse for a room before looking ahead again.

The sun was just about to set, hanging low in the distance and casting an eerie reddish glow across the settlement.

The two moons he had seen earlier were also becoming increasingly prominent as the sky darkened, although much of the view above was obscured by the grand city towering around them.

Even from all the way out here, those impossibly tall buildings were quite glaring.

Some of them seemed to stretch so high that Frost had to crane his neck just to see their peaks, their illuminated surfaces and enormous screens beginning to stand out more clearly against the darkening sky.

He could only wonder how he hadn’t noticed them while they were flying with Syrn.

’Probably just that far away...’

The scale of everything here was still messing with his perception.

Clink!

Clank!

Frost’s attention was drawn toward the sound of metal coming from his left.

A fair distance down the street, he noticed a large furry figure hunched over a massive metal container that most definitely served as some sort of trash can.

Frost’s brow twitched.

The creature had a long, mostly hairless tail hanging behind it, along with rounded ears and a distinctly rodent-like head.

Its hands were currently buried inside the container as it rummaged through whatever rubbish had been thrown inside.

’Right...’

He had noticed a similar figure while walking through the settlement with the others earlier. Rat people were a thing here.

Humanoid-sized rodents that could walk, talk, wear clothes, and dig through rubbish like regular rats.

Frost wasn’t quite sure how he was supposed to feel about that yet.

Before he could stare for too long, the door directly beside his suddenly opened with a long metallic creak.

Frost instinctively turned his head as a familiar figure stepped outside.

He found himself standing face-to-face with Jason. Neither of them said anything for a moment.

Of course, the two of them just had to be neighbours...

’Just great...’

Jason clicked his tongue, looked away, and folded his arms across his chest.

"How is this idiot still alive..." he muttered.

Frost’s brow twitched.

Perhaps Jason thought he was being quiet, but he certainly wasn’t. Frost stared at the side of his face for another moment.

’I was wondering the same thing about you.’’

He wisely kept that thought to himself.