The Gravecaller Who Levels While Sleeping

Chapter 5: A Bow for a Gravecaller

Adrian claimed the experience the moment the clock struck twelve.

Warmth rushed through his body. The number in his status window changed, and he stared at it as though it might disappear if he blinked.

Level 1. Experience available: 39,603.

In his first life, he had needed three years of crawling through low level Rifts, begging parties to take him, and losing most of each kill's reward to shared experience. Three years for fewer points than he now held after one afternoon and one night.

He almost laughed aloud.

Instead, he lay back on the bed and watched the ceiling until sleep finally took him. He did not spend the experience yet. The academy's Briarwood Training Rift awaited in the morning, and arriving as a level six Gravecaller would raise too many questions. Better to use the power once he was beyond the gate.

He woke before sunrise.

Marcus's bedroom door was shut. A folded note sat on the kitchen counter in his father's uneven handwriting.

Do not come home late. Do not trust the Voss family.

That was all.

Adrian read it twice, then tucked it into his pocket.

Northbridge Academy's courtyard was already crowded when he arrived. Combat and support students stood in groups near two academy buses. Some wore cheap protective gear from home. Others had clearly visited an outfitter the moment their classes appeared. Dorian Cross carried his new energy blades with open pride. Lucas Voss leaned against a bus door with his arm around Tessa, making sure Adrian saw them.

Adrian looked past them.

Ben Carter was not there.

Relief loosened a knot in Adrian's chest. Ben had listened, or at least his mother had. It did not tell Adrian what danger waited in Briarwood, but it meant one friend had a chance to survive it.

Principal Reed counted the students twice. "Forty-four," he said. "Carter is absent. We will deal with his paperwork later. Listen closely. Briarwood is a training Rift, not a playground. Stay with your assigned group. Do not chase monsters. Do not attack other hunters. If you lose sight of a faculty guide, stop moving and activate the emergency beacon in your academy badge."

Four licensed instructors led the trip. The most senior was Owen Hart, a level fourteen Spear Warden with a heavy jaw and an exhausted expression. During the drive, he explained the rules every new hunter heard.

The Rift reset at midnight. Any monster killed before then could return after the reset. Nobody remained inside after midnight without a good reason. The primary monsters were level-one goblins. The Rift Lord was level two and could kill a careless student in seconds. Other academies used the same entrance, so fights with people were just as dangerous as fights with monsters.

Adrian had heard it all before. He watched gray warehouses and wet streets pass the bus window while the Continuum marked every second in silence.

Thirty minutes later, the buses stopped outside the Briarwood Reserve. The actual reserve had been fenced off years earlier. Beyond the parking area, armed Rift Control officers checked licenses beside a tall, rippling gate of green light.

Instructors opened locked equipment cases and began handing out basic weapons.

When it was Adrian's turn, an instructor named Ms. Bell held out a plain wooden focus staff. "For the Gravecaller. It gives one point of Focus. Better than nothing."

"Can I take a bow instead?" Adrian asked.

She stared at him. "A bow?"

"Yes."

"You are a summoner class."

"I do not have a summoning skill yet."

Lucas laughed loudly from the next line. "Give him a shovel. At least he can dig his own grave."

Several students laughed with him.

Ms. Bell sighed, then found a training bow and a bundle of arrows. "It adds one point of Agility. Do not complain when you discover why classes use appropriate gear."

"Thank you," Adrian said.

The bow was cheap ash wood. The string felt rough against his fingers. It was still useful. A Gravecaller did not need Focus to control the dead, not once the class's true rule had been discovered. Until then, a bow gave him reach and his Agility gave him a way to survive.

Adrian checked his badge, then walked toward Owen Hart.

"Mr. Hart," he said, "I am entering alone."

The instructor blinked. "You are doing what?"

"I am going to work solo."

"No. You are a level-one student with no starter skill. You will remain with the academy group."

"I accept responsibility for the risk."

"That is not how responsibility works."

Adrian kept his voice calm. "Please record that I declined academy supervision."

Hart's expression hardened. "Vale, you are not the center of the world because you tested Apex. Your class is dangerous to you, not to anyone else. Do not make me drag you back from a goblin nest."

Adrian considered arguing. Then he decided it would waste time. He stepped around Hart and headed toward the gate.

"Vale!" Hart called.

Adrian did not stop.

At the checkpoint, an officer scanned his badge. The woman in gray Rift Control armor studied his record and frowned.

"Level one. Solo entry. Gravecaller," she said. "Are you certain?"

"Yes."

"This is not a game."

"I know."

For a moment, she looked as though she might refuse him. Then she returned the badge. "Do not make us recover a body."

Adrian stepped through the green light.

The world changed.

Briarwood smelled of damp soil, pine sap, and old magic. Tall trees crowded together beneath a gray sky. The sounds from the parking lot vanished behind him. Somewhere deeper in the forest, something small shrieked.

Adrian gripped the training bow and walked away from the entrance.

Leaves rustled to his left.

A goblin stepped out from behind a fern. It was short and green, with a chipped cleaver in one hand and a mouth full of uneven teeth. It sniffed at Adrian, deciding whether he was prey.

Adrian smiled.

"Now," he said softly, "we begin."