The First Legendary Beast Master novel Chapter 106

Chapter 106 Fate Stairs

The next morning, the team realized that they might not have been as prepared as they thought that they were. They had only packed a week worth of rations, which were now over half gone, and they were almost out of the berries for the oatmeal flavouring, which would leave them with just the dehydrated bits that came in the ration pack.

They didn't have to worry about starvation any time soon with the clerics available, but the variety of their diet would soon begin to disappear if they spent too long in the woods before returning to the train tracks.

But with the time limit imposed by the trials, they would be outside today, and once the cleric trainees had properly marked the spot on their maps as a holy relic, they could be on their way to give the news of their trip to the church.

Before he went to the Fate Stairs, Karl stopped next to one of the Golems, hoping that it would answer a question for him.

"Excuse me, do you know how often this trial can be accessed?" He inquired politely, with the assumption that a bit of courtesy might get the magical construct to answer.

[The Trials open at the will of the World Dragon.]

Karl bowed and stepped away, then focused on being sent to the Fate Stairs. The answer he got was both informative and useless at the same time. If it opened at the will of the Golden Dragon God, the World Dragon as it was sometimes known, then there was no way that he could predict the next opening date for anyone who asked.

But what he could confirm was that it would open again at some point. If the Church kept a close watch on this place, they would probably be able to tell when it would open.

The Fate Stairs were different from any of the other sides. They were cloaked in thick black shadows, which made Rae immediately regret going back to strength training. That darkness looked wonderful to her, but Karl suspected that it had some other purpose.

It was likely something along the lines of everyone's fate is their own, so you could only see your own path forward, and everything else was shadowed, but it could also be intended to change if you stepped away from the path you were on.

Could that be what it was meant to do? Show you ways to change your fate through the decisions that you made? There were Oracles among the Elites, blind seers of the future, and their visions were uncannily accurate. This could be the same sort of magic, but built into a massive temple to show more than just a glimpse of the possible futures.

One step forward brought him onto the first stair, and Karl looked upward, seeing visions of first power and glory, then tragedy in front of him. But to his left and right on the second step were misty figures of himself.

Instinctively, he knew that he could step up toward one of them and see what changes would be made if he changed the first major event along this timeline. From what he could see, he returned to the Academy and claimed credit for leading the team that found a Holy Relic.

It would make him a darling of the church and the media. His fame would rise even faster than his power would, but after some time, that fame would fade, and the lingering resentment of those who had lived in his shadow would leave him alone in the world, discarded by those he had left behind.

Both of the options would reject that next step, but neither were clear to him. Karl's first thought was to step to the left, but he found that he could only move forward unless some condition was set.

Perhaps he needed to make a choice? If he decided not to claim the find, but instead attributed it to the group, the glory would be shared between all of them and the clerics.

He thought that he could also imply that it was the presence of the future servants of the Golden Dragon that caused the trials to activate, but then how could he explain that he knew it was all at the will of the Gods, or keep them from ending up in that same discarded and shunned state he saw for himself?

It was better to put it all down to chance. They had been the first ones here after the World Dragon had willed that the trials be opened, so they were pulled in. Glory to the World Dragon and all that pious sentiment.

Yes, that seemed best.

Karl saw the path to the right begin to become a bit more clear, and resolved to make that the reality. He would instruct the others, and say that he had seen a vision on the Fate Stairs instructing him to give glory to the World Dragon. Few would argue with that, and those in power would be more inclined to listen.

Karl stepped up to the right, and a new future path became clearer in front of him. In this one, the ten members of the team all became much stronger, and began to surpass the average, becoming notable among the Elites of the Academy.

His mind began to spin as the visions of ten different people's futures were slowly played out in front of him, and Karl saw the impact that a single decision could have on the futures of everyone around him.