The Monarch

Chapter 7

The new group: Rose, Josh, and Constantin, grew to be decent friends after we bonded around the campfire for a few hours. They were really curious about Snow, and I told them everything they wanted to know. However, I didn't remove my hood or lower my mask. For now, I was going to try to hide my appearance.

For the first few days, we tried different ways of climbing up to the top. Climbing up from the side was simply impossible due to the surface's slippery texture. The tower was also too tall to start a human-powered ladder, especially with only four people. All of our attempts ended in failure. As our food started to run out, so did our ideas.

Around one week in, we started to get more visits from the other contestants. None of them interacted with us peacefully and always chose to fight. As the days went by, I had the opportunity to watch each of the party members fight those intruders. They took turns fighting each intruder on their own. Rose was the first to fight. She wielded two heavy gauntlets, each enchanted with elemental magic. She was a good fighter, but it seemed that her gauntlets were always stuck in a grip. She always struggled to take them off of her hands.

Josh was up next. His entire stance screamed martial artist. I was intimidated just watching him stand still, sword outstretched before him. However, he was rather slow and finished his first fight significantly slower than Rose.

Constantin was last. When he began fighting his opponent, nearly two days after Josh had fought his, we were already exhausted. My eyes couldn't exactly register the fight. Before I knew it, Constantin sat back down and his opponent was on the other side of the field, laying dead in the mud.

When it was finally my turn, the rest of the maze was open to us. Several hundred competitors flooded the arena at the same time, as if almost on cue. I quickly dashed toward Snow and safely hid her underneath my armor. She shivered as I turned to my bow.

I quickly grabbed my bow, knocking four arrows at a time. The others also stood up, holding their weapons tightly. Soon after, a fierce battle commenced surrounding the iron tower. The number of fighters greatly outnumbered the number of allies behind me. Within a few minutes, I had lost sight of Rose, Josh, and Constantin. My attention was focused directly on the enemy in front of me, not on the area behind me.

Within ten minutes, I ran out of arrows. I quickly threw the bow on the ground and reached into my cloak. I pulled out the two longswords hanging from my side and shrugged off the hood at the same time. I carefully pulled my mask down, throwing the long piece of linen onto the ground.

"What the f**k?" my opponent gagged, taking a small step back. His eyes widened in shock as he saw my face.

The battle didn't end for nearly two days. During that time, almost a dozen people had made it halfway up the tower. Most of them used some strange form of magic that made them cling to the surface in different ways. One person simply walked up, as if gravity had been manipulated in their favor.

I lost count of how many people I killed. As the battle stretched on, my exhausted body nearly gave up several times. Each time, I was painfully reminded of my situation with a close call to death. I kept an open eye for the other three, but I never found them. I also never found their dead bodies, so that was a plus.

By the end of the battle, the ground was littered with bodies. I didn't care, though, and fell asleep right where I was standing.

I had a dream that night- a very vivid one. I was standing in a large field of wheat. The wind blew steadily through the air and carried a sweet scent to my nose. I looked down and saw my leather armor and weapons. I could see my cloak hang off my shoulders, but my hood wasn't on. I moved my hands to my hair, feeling the antlers there. My armor wasn't dirtied with blood or dirt, but it was instead cleaner than it had ever been.

I looked around the wheat field, confused and seeking answers. Where was I? Why was I here? I started walking forward in no general direction. I heard a small patter of footsteps following me. I looked behind me, then recognized Snow.

I turned back around and kept walking, unsure of what my purpose was. Then, the wind kicked up again and I felt a hard object underneath my shoe. I looked down and slowly picked it up as I moved my foot aside. I held the object in front of my eyes, then recognized it as a small hair clip of a flower petal.

Then, I heard a voice echo through the air, as if it was carried by the wind, "Find me, Mr. Monarch."

I woke up the next morning, surrounded by the stench of death. I nearly vomited just as soon as my eyes opened, but I somehow kept it down by covering my nose and mouth. I quickly stood up and took my two longswords. They were covered in blood, and it angered me that there was no way to clean them immediately.

After putting my hood and mask back on, I started looking for the rest of the party.

After the battle ended, it seemed that around twenty other rangers gave up. They wandered the battlefield, each looking for a different thing. None of them fought each other. In the middle, I spotted Josh. His face was dirtied and his armor was stained brown from the mud. I walked over to him, making sure not to trip on limbs or dead corpses.

"Hello," I greeted. Josh nodded after noticing.

"You're still alive?" Josh asked. I nodded, stretching my back, "Have you seen the other two?"

"No. I just woke up. Last I saw you was when the battle started," I answered. I saw josh's eyes scan the ground, "What are you looking for?"

"My weapon. I dropped it a few hours ago by accident," Josh answered.

"During the battle?" I asked. Josh nodded as he started to look around faster.

"Let me help."

An hour later, Josh and I found his sword along with the two other companions. Constantin looked more exhausted than everybody else, but he still supported Rose with his shoulder. Rose chuckled, hiding the pain of a bruised shin with a smile.

After we had regrouped, we relaxed far from the iron tower, near one of the hedges. Here, the smell of the battlefield wasn't as strong. I pulled Snow from the comfort of my cloak and carefully set her on my lap. Her back steadily rose and fell with her breathing. She was asleep. Then, I took a small piece of meat and held it in front of her nose.

I felt relief when I saw her nose twitch. Snow then slowly opened her mouth and munched on the small piece of dried meat. I slowly started to caress her fur.

I looked up at the Iron Tower. Then an idea suddenly popped into my head.

"Hold on tight," I told the others. Twenty people gripped the rope tightly, their backs against the Iron Tower. Josh pulled on the two ends of the rope, tightening it even further. Then, he carefully wedged himself behind the rope and tied it together. Then he pulled one more time, tightening it even more. I could feel the rope squeeze my stomach against the tower.

"Is this gonna work?" Rose asked, her face turning blue. I nodded, showing a thumbs up while holding back my pained tears.

"Alright everybody!" I yelled, the pain from my stomach growing stronger, "Push!"

With twenty people, slowly inching our way up the tower became successful, although difficult. To do so, we brought a giant rope and used it to get us as smooshed against the tower as possible. Then, those twenty people would alternate between pushing and relaxing.

The rope, because of Josh, had been tied tightly enough to suspend us in midair with no worries, even if it was terrifying. Whenever we relaxed, though, the rope would dig into our sides. It was nearly impossible to truly relax.

It took us nearly five painful hours to reach the top.

After the trial was complete and the body recovery teams had arrived, the ranger officials let us off the tower by lowering it directly to the ground.

"Congratulations!" Alistair greeted, his voice echoing through the air, "eighty eight of you have passed! From now on, you're officially a ranger! Now, I will explain everything you need to know. There are eight ranks inside the rangers guild. The ranks go as follows: E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS. Ranks inside the guild will determine the value and difficulty of quests that will be assigned to you. The higher rank you are, the more difficult but more rewarding assignments you'll be given. All of you who have passed today have automatically been given the E rank, the lowest. However, during these last few years, we've been watching your progress carefully, to evaluate your performance accurately. Those that performed well by showing grit, determination, intelligence, bravery, and leadership will be given D ranks. Their party will be promoted instantly as well."

"When your name is called, please step forward and collect your guild IDs." Alistair started calling out names. Whenever somebody would go up, he would hand them an iron necklace. When he got to the bottom of the list, he finished without calling my name. Confused, I stepped closer to him.

"Now," Alistair said, "We will announce the D ranks. William Vercotti, please step forward."

For a moment, I froze, unsure of what to do. Then, I felt josh push against my back, helping me forward. I stopped in front of Alistair. He looked much older than the last time i'd seen him. He seemed to have almost a dozen more wrinkles.

Alistair took a Brass necklace from a small box and brought it above my head. As he slipped the necklace around my hooded head, he leaned in and whispered near my ear,

"We know you're a monarch. We'll be watching your career with great interest."

I didn't understand why, but my chest felt heavy with dread. That word, monarch. I had heard it in my dreams many times before. Just recently, Bal had called me a Monarch as well.

What did it mean?

I returned to the crowd, holding my necklace tightly as my mind was occupied elsewhere. 

"Hey, are you ok?" Josh asked, tapping my shoulder. I gripped tighter, nodding in response to his question.

"Rangers only operate while participating in parties of four or five. One of those members will be voted the party leader and will answer under the region commander. All eighty eight of you, separate into those parties now! If you're having trouble finding members, talk to me or try to get in a party yourself."

The moment Alistair dismissed the participants to their own devices, I was shocked by how many people came forward, asking if they could be in my party. They all must've wanted a free promotion to D rank. When they proved too much for me, Josh came over and shooed them away. Constantin and Rose also came with Josh and explained that we were already in a party beforehand.

The mob walked away, disappointed.

"Thanks guys," I sighed, slumping.

"No problem," Josh shrugged, "So we're a party huh?"

"We've got four members?" Constantin shrugged, "That's as many as we need."

Alistair walked behind us and interrupted our conversation, "Technically, you have five members," Alistair pointed to me, who blinked at him in confusion, "The white panther you have hidden underneath your armor will mature to a C ranked monster, maybe a B ranked. Under the guild's guidelines, monsters can participate as party members only if one, they've been tamed. Two, they aren't undead. And three, they must been a D rank or stronger. Your panther falls perfectly under every category."

"Really?" Constantin gasped, shocked. He looked at me, then chuckled. I lifted my cloak a bit, revealing a resting Snow underneath., "That's awesome."

"Have you decided on a party leader?" Alistair asked. The other three looked at him in response, an expression of confusion on their face.

"Isn't that obvious?"

When we traveled back to the capitol, every member of our party wore brass necklaces with a giant 'D' engraved in the center. The other members seemed happy with it, and most of the trip back was full of awe and admiration for the brass necklaces of identification.

Most of the rangers followed suit in their own carriages. Some special cases left immediately after the third trial, toward their assignments. I was curious where I would be assigned. The woodlands, hopefully.

Alistair rode in the same carriage as us but didn't speak a word until we passed through the front gates of the capitol city.

"William," Alistair said, "a meeting with all of the other party leaders will begin at the guildhall in three hours. Be there when it begins."

The carriage stopped in front of the city stalls. A moment later, servants opened the doors for us, revealing the familiar city to us once again.

None of us had been here for three years. Constantin spent his second trial on a small island off the east coast, while Josh and Rose both trained under the same master on a snowy mountain, far to the west. When we all saw the city again, everybody sprang into action, traveling the city as if we were tourists experiencing the wonders of the capitol for the first time.

However, I didn't have much time to spend. Within minutes of a happy tour, I already left for the guildhall.

In total, there were eighteen party leaders. All of them seemed to be stronger and more threatening than me. However, each of them had an iron necklace, while I had a brass one.

"Now then," Alistair stated, walking into the meeting room. The room itself was organized very nicely, with a large roundtable in the middle. The party leaders nearby chose to stand, up until Alistair was the first to sit down, "Concerning your region assignments. Most of you don't know how these work, so i'll explain them. Each ranger party's number one priority is to protect humanity from the monsters of the wild. However, we can't do that without organization. That's why we assign a small region for ranger parties to patrol and make their home. On rare occasions does a party ever leave that region. At the end of every year, we explore each region and pay your party according to it's condition. Make sense?"

Everybody in the room nodded.

"Good," Alistair started handing out small sticks to the party leaders across the table. As I picked up mine, I saw a number burned onto the side, "Only E rank and D rank rangers will be assigned regions. If you feel uncomfortable with your assigned region, the best advice I could give you would be to level up and get promoted as fast as possible. Now then, I'll start calling off numbers and their assigned regions now."

I walked out of the guildhall holding a map of the country. A small circle had been drawn on the map, near the bottom left corner. Region #343, the laboratory, D rank region. After I had been assigned a region, I walked to the city library and did research on the region. After thorough research, I wrote down all the facts I'd learned and returned to the party.

"So it's an abandoned science facility?" Josh guessed. I shrugged, not sure if he could be counted as correct or not. The sound of his voice echoed far through the inn room. The room itself had three beds, meant for the boys. I stood in the center of the room, holding my library report, while the other three sat on the beds.

"Sure, but that's kind of vague. The man who ran the old laboratory, Dr. Brune, was an expert on human anatomy and physiology. The laboratory was built nearly three centuries ago when the purple locust plague was still active in that region. After years of producing research to the country, it was shut down because of suspected torture and black magic practices," I explained, "The laboratory is vast and dangerous inside. Our job is to scout the outside while living in the nearby Torro Village. The guild is cautious of undead wandering outside of the place."

"Makes sense," Constantin nodded, "are the undead difficult?" Rose nodded, her face turning pale.

"They aren't supposed to be. This region was among the weaker D ranked. Now, if they're true undead, as in they were summoned by a Necromancer, then we'd need a silver weapon to fight them," I shrugged, "We've been scheduled to depart in a week."

"Yay!" Josh and Rose yelled, both of them falling backwards onto the beds below them, "That means a week of vacation!" Josh yawned.

"Alistair also gave us 10 small gold coins to pay for equipment upgrades, if we need any," I turned to the rest of the party. Everybody but me had already dressed out into leisure ware, but I was able to see their bloodied equipment placed near the room door. Josh's sword was missing from the pile of equipment, "We'll need that to clean all of our armors and to get Josh a new weapon."

"Ten small gold coins is a lot for equipment," Josh told me, "My dad's a merchant, so you can let me handle the haggling."

"That works for me," I said, tossing him the bag of money. Then, finally relaxed, I quickly sat on my bed. Snow was already sleeping on my pillow a few feet away.

"Hey William," Constantin said, grabbing my attention. I turned to him.

"Yeah?" I asked. He pointed at my boots, then my body.

"Your armor?" he asked. I gulped, dreading this moment.

"Right," I shook, slowly taking off the cloak. The mouths of the other three slowly opened wide, full of surprise. I then took off my armor, exposing the skin on my shoulders. Luckily, I was wearing a tank top and shorts underneath my armor. But now, the green veins and antlers that had grown on my body were fully visible.

"You fucker." I heard a voice mutter as I dropped the armor on the floor.