Too bad he didn’t have a clear plan. If he had been reborn as Aigon, as he had always dreamed, his path would have been laid out in perfect detail. But now? Every step forward had to be felt out carefully. And all the while, he had to make sure not to give himself away.

  What a trap this all was. Still, the first step was obvious: get as far away from the camp, the Tower mages, and his own squad as possible. That is… Aigon’s squad. Enough thinking of him as himself. Now he was Kelmire.

  “Kiana, are you tired?” he asked the girl.

  “Not a bit. Do you need help with anything?” Kiana replied instantly.

  “I don’t want to stay in the camp. Too many memories.” That much was almost true. “So… let’s go now.”

  “Can I grab my things first? And say goodbye to madam Janet? Then we’ll go wherever you want.”

  As a famed hero, Aigon had never really ventured into this part of the camp – where the servants stayed and did all the dirty work. Someone had to manage the supplies, cook meals, and wash clothes. In a regular army, warriors often did it themselves, but in the Alliance’s elite forces? Why waste a Guard’s strength on chores?

  It turned out this was how Kiana had ended up in the Archmage’s castle. She had spent weeks trying to find her brother on her own, until Janet found her.

  “I stumbled into a little adventure, and she helped me so much. She made me help in the kitchen – I washed dishes, carried firewood, even cooked. Giant–huge–cauldrons!”

  “Though I think your kind aunt held back on giving you normal food,” Kelmire thought, remembering the girl’s frail shoulders.

  “We’re going this way,” Kiana said, tugging on his hand to lead him. A sharp smell of burnt porridge hit his nose. Pushing through the crowd, they reached the corner where meals were prepared.

  Outside, a long table had been set up, with three girls cooking at it. The oldest looked about thirteen.

  “Bina, Mona, Sixth – I'm back! And I’m not alone. This is Kel, the one I told you about!” Kiana shouted as soon as she spotted them. Judging by their looks, Madam Janet clearly skimped on food for everyone.

  At Kiana’s shout, a short, slender woman stepped out from the tent next to the table. Madam Janet.

  “My dear! I’m so glad that –” Her gaze fell on Kel, and she froze mid-sentence. Her pale gray, almost translucent eyes narrowed, studying him as intently as a Tower magister during an interrogation. Kel didn’t like that look one bit.

  “Hello,” he cut through the silence. “I wanted to thank you for looking after my sister, but now we’re leaving.” Janet nodded and exhaled. Kel could clearly read the thought behind her breath: “No, that can’t be right…”

  “Strange, ” Kel thought again. Just in case, he glanced at her with a vision spell designed to show adventurer ranks, mage levels, and monsters. Nothing changed. No labels appeared above her head. Just a woman… slightly unpleasant.

  While Kiana hugged the girls goodbye, Kel spoke with Janet and learned that several wagons would be heading toward the town soon. He decided to join them.

  “Did she treat you well?” Kel asked his sister once they were a short distance from the camp.

  “Of course! We worked, but Madam Janet gave us plenty of food. I haven’t eaten this well in ages. Oh…” The girl trailed off, glancing shyly at Kel.

  Of course. How much could a “Copper” make? That’s what they so disrespectfully called adventurers of copper rank. Only the “Tin” newbies were below them. Even if a Copper had the skills, clients preferred experienced, higher-ranked adventurers. No completed quests – no points. No points, no promotion exam. No promotion, no lucrative assignments. A vicious cycle.

  There was another option – joining cleanup missions. Zones with monsters popped up all over the continent. The strongest were handled by mages and knights, while adventurers got the numerous minor threats. Specialized mages had learned to predict spawn points for these zones, and more often than not, a prepared squad of warriors or mages awaited the monsters.

  Even without an official assignment, an adventurer could earn extra points by taking part in clearing these monster zones. The problem was, the mages had long turned it into a business, selling information about where the next zones would appear. On your own… considering the size of the continent, you could search for years and find nothing.

  It was even more inconvenient with a little sister tagging along. You needed extraordinary luck for a zone to spawn right near where an adventurer happened to be – or extraordinary misfortune, if you looked at it from an ordinary person’s perspective. Monsters were still monsters, after all. Many never returned from cleanup missions.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you. I like everything. I don’t need the food. I don’t need anything… Just… don’t disappear again.” Kiana couldn’t hold back her tears any longer.

  Kel stroked her hair once again, as he had countless times that day.

  “I’m not upset. And I’m not going anywhere.”

  “What should I do?”

  ***

  They reached the small town by evening. The wagon driver didn’t charge them a single coin, even though Kel offered to pay from his own purse.

  “Here’s the deal, boy,” the man said. “In the morning, you help me load the wagon, and that’s it – we’re square. Better buy your sister something good to eat. Look at her – she’s skin and bones. You look hungry too. Be here at dawn.”

  With that, they parted ways. The wagon driver headed to the warehouse, and Kel went off to find a place to spend the night.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  It was easy to assume that the lands around the Dark Archmage’s territory would be a scorched wasteland stretching for hundreds of miles. The castle itself and its immediate surroundings were certainly deadly, but the farther he went, the more life he saw. The Wastelands weren’t as empty as their name suggested.

  After all, this was the Archmage’s domain – royal laws didn’t apply here. Greed soon overpowered fear, and the Wastelands became a meeting place for smugglers and shady traders. Fugitives joined the ranks, and then came the opportunists who realized there was money to be made off both groups.

  Hidden meeting spots evolved into settlements, some even into towns, little different from the backwater villages of royal lands. People got used to anything–even to horse-sized spiders. But with the Archmage’s fall, the locals’ ordinary life ended. Tower mages would purge the land of dark magic – most of it, anyway. Guards would hunt down smugglers and fugitives. And in four years’ time, neighboring kingdoms would fight over this territory.

  Kel sighed. He knew very little about all of that. Aigon’s hero would have faced a completely different path, moving forward with his friends toward the capital of Concordia and a glorious future. But Kel didn’t have that luxury–he had to leave the Wastelands behind, fast.

  They approached a building that looked every bit like a local inn. Kel had seen plenty of inns in his time as a hero.

  Inside, the patrons eyed them warily at first. But the moment they realized these weren’t Alliance soldiers, the tension faded, and people returned to their business.

  “How much for a room for the night?” Kel asked the man behind the counter – probably the innkeeper.

  “Two silver. That includes dinner.”

  Kel’s only significant coins. After paying for the night, he’d be left with just five copper pieces.

  “Whatever,” he decided. Tomorrow they would leave the Wastelands. Beyond its borders, the magical threads woven by the Tower mages over the entire region would no longer function. Those threads tracked surges of powerful magic, allowing them to detect any of the archmage’s servants who had slipped through their net.

  Once outside their reach, Kel would be able to teleport to any city he wished and activate his letter of credit there. Money wasn’t a problem.

  “Do you want dinner here, or in your room?” the innkeeper asked.

  The room would have been quieter, but the common hall offered more information. Kel decided to stay. A small spell, and he could hear clearly what was whispered at the far end of the hall.

  Nothing particularly interesting. People were talking about what would happen next, how to avoid the Guards, and what to do now. Until today, it seemed nobody in the Wastelands had believed the Archmage could fall – they’d been living as usual.

  “Such a lack of faith in the commanders’ talents,” Kel thought, amused. Even as Aigon, he had never liked those pompous fools. No quest had ever made him tolerate them.

  The roast they brought for dinner grabbed his attention far more than the chatter. He hadn’t realized just how hungry he was. Alongside the meat came a juice made from forest berries. Ale or beer cost extra. The juice, however, was good enough that he asked the server to bring more.

  “You sucker,” laughed a man at the neighboring table. “Boy, what are you doing out here? Lost your mommy?”

  He was drunk, angry, and looking for someone to take it out on. From the conversation Kel had overheard earlier, he recognized him as the leader of a smuggler group. They had recently brought goods here to send to a neighboring kingdom. But now they were stuck – Alliance Guards were making their lives miserable.

  “What’re you staring at?” the drunk smuggler kept provoking.

  Kiara grabbed Kel’s sleeve in fear. The man stood, wobbled a few steps toward him… and then collapsed flat on the floor.

  “Ready!” someone at his table laughed.

  “Drag him aside, let him sleep it off,” one of his companions shouted. Nobody paid any more attention to Kel after that.

  “All good,” he said to Kiara. “Finish your drink, then let’s get some sleep.”

  On the way to the stairs, they passed by the drunk again. His friends had dragged him to the nearest wall and left him there. His face was pale, beads of sweat glistening, but otherwise, he was fine.

  By the way, it had cost Kel an enormous effort. Realizing the man wasn’t going to calm down on his own, Kel had decided to intervene with magic – and then remembered the problem. The Archmage’s knowledge was deeply entrenched in his mind, pushing all of Aigon’s accumulated experience into the far corners of his consciousness.

  Stop him? Easy. His memory immediately suggested spells that could tear an opponent apart, or the exquisite cutting charms. He could have also cast a curse that would turn a person into a living corpse in an instant.

  None of those options felt right. Luckily, at the last second, he remembered the old, reliable sleep spell. Though, if he were honest, he really wanted to try one of those curses on the jerk.

  Of course, a proper bath was out of the question. Getting hot water – like getting ale – cost extra. All they had was a small basin and a jug.

  “It’s fine,” Kel reassured himself. “This is the last night like this. Tomorrow, I’ll book the most luxurious room in the capital’s inn.”

  For today, he had only one more task. Kiara had eaten well, but her gaunt appearance still bothered him. He was sure he had a potion that could restore her health.

  Guilt gnawed at him – both for the girl and for the dead Kelmir. Too bad, no amount of care would bring her brother back.

  Kel opened his inventory and tried to pull out the potion he needed.

  [Access Denied]

  “But why?!”

  He tried another potion. Nothing worked. Feverishly, he flipped through the tabs–potions, books, weapons. Nothing.

  [Access Denied]

  But he was using the inventory. He had just added a small box and a cloak earlier today. Their icons blinked mockingly at him.

  He pulled out a pencil from his bag, focused, and sent it into the inventory. It went smoothly. But when he tried to retrieve it… the same irritating message popped up:

  [Access Denied]

  “What the hell is going on here?”

  “Kel, are you okay? You look upset,” Kiara asked, stopping her washing.

  “My inventory…” he started, then abruptly fell silent.

  “Well, traveling would be a lot easier with one. It’s fine–I believe you’ll get a new rank soon, and with it, your own inventory.”

  Kiara misunderstood him, and that was good. Kelmir wasn’t supposed to have an inventory. Activating one through the Guild cost a pretty penny. Adventurers from wealthy families could buy their inventory as soon as they reached the Tin rank. But most members only gained the option once they reached Bronze. Until then, they carried everything themselves, like normal people.

  “All right. I’ll go get some fresh air. You go to sleep.”

  Stepping into the yard, Kel lifted his gaze. The stars looked both familiar and strange at the same time. In the distance, just on the edge of visibility, a flash lit the sky–a salute. The camp was celebrating the victory over the Archmage. It was hard to even imagine the level of revelry. Then again… why imagine? Kel knew exactly what it would be like.

  “Why is this so unfair?” Kel fumed. “Why me? I, a person who always chose to be a hero… ended up reincarnated as a dark archmage. And this problematic one, at that.”

  The system stayed silent.

  “Okay, calm down… figure out the next step. How many times today have I told myself to calm down? And this is just the first day. What’s going to happen next?”

  Well, at least his powers were still intact. Kel felt the mana flowing through his body like an endless stream. He closed his eyes and sensed the energy core, gathering mana, feeling it spread through every fiber of his being.

  He muttered a spell and opened his eyes–the fireworks now seemed so close, as if he were standing right next to the castle.

  He had magic. That was what mattered most. Everything else could be figured out later.

  Kel closed his eyes again. He tried to trace the mana streams flowing toward his body.

  The archmage had been a renegade, exiled from the Tower’s Source. Yet his power was terrifying. The mages had tried to figure out where he drew his mana from, but failed.

  Kel reached out along the flow, trying to track where it led… and collapsed to the ground, clutching his head.

  [Unauthorized Access Attempt!]

  Kel gritted his teeth. His head throbbed painfully. Looks like he had ventured somewhere he really shouldn’t have.