The four kids stood over the broken remnants of the skeleton, breathing hard, their faces streaked with dust and sweat.
Two impure mana crystals lay among the scattered piles of bone dust. One of the boys bent down, picked them up, and slipped them into his pouch.
"With these, we have three crystals," he said. "We need one more before we take a break."
Ivor's interest sharpened instantly.
"We could've finished that fight much faster if you'd practiced the skill properly," the girl said as she sheathed her sword.
"Leizel, how did you learn the skill so fast?" one of the other boys asked, turning toward her.
"What do you mean, fast, Reiner?" Leizel raised her voice slightly. "I practiced nonstop. Even at night. I was preparing for the Scar, and I stupidly assumed you three would do the same."
"I did practice," Reiner shot back. "It's just… hard. Give us another day. We'll catch up."
"No, you won't," Leizel replied flatly. "I'll be better by tomorrow. I'm not slowing down for you."
"I think we should head deeper," another boy cut in.
"Deeper?" Reiner frowned. "You mean the Aberrant layer?"
"No. Deeper into the Wild Layer," the boy said. "We're already behind the others. Nara was saying some of them already have seven or eight attuned nodes. If we don't push harder, we'll fall behind."
The group fell quiet.
"But deeper still means more danger," Leizel said after a moment.
"She's right," Reiner added. "Let's get one more crystal, absorb them, practice the skill properly, and then think about pushing further."
They began arguing, weighing risk against progress.
Ivor ignored the argument.
His eyes stayed fixed on the pouch where he'd seen Reiner stash the crystals.
Three of them.
"Ugh," one of the boys groaned. Ivor caught his name, Vance, from the discussion. "Sometimes I wish I were a beast."
The others glanced at him.
"Think about it," Vance continued. "They don't have to deal with mana like we do. Practice costs mana. Advancing costs mana. Even surviving costs mana. Beasts just follow instinct and grow stronger."
Leizel didn't slow as she answered. "If you were a beast, you'd be a slave somewhere. Collared. Controlled. Forced to act against your instinct so you don't advance."
She turned and started moving deeper into the forest.
Reiner followed. Then Arlo.
The discussion ended there, but something lingered with Ivor.
He had never seen Grunty use mana. Never seen her train it, shape it, or practice control the way humans did. And yet she had been strong. Stronger than most people around her. He had seen awakened beasts too, creatures that dwarfed human fighters in raw power without ever touching a mana technique.
He had never understood why.
It wasn't something his parents had explained, and it wasn't something he had ever read about. The thought settled quietly at the back of his mind, unresolved but persistent.
Ivor pushed it aside for now and began moving. He followed at a careful distance, never close enough to be noticed, never far enough to lose them.
The four moved through the forest with an ease that stood out to him immediately. They talked while they walked, voices low but relaxed, sometimes laughing quietly as if they were on an outing rather than inside a Scar. Their steps were light, unhurried. They weren't constantly checking their backs or flinching at every sound.
Too lively.
Compared to the children of the Shrouded district, it was almost jarring. In the Shrouded, movement was cautious by habit, eyes always down or darting, bodies tense even at rest. These kids carried themselves differently. They had room to breathe. Room to make mistakes.
Ivor slowed without meaning to.
Something shifted in the air.
At first, it was subtle. The forest still smelled of damp soil and old leaves, but layered beneath it now was something else. Human scent. Sweat. Metal. Not one. Several. The smell felt thicker, as if the air itself had been disturbed too often in too small a space.
His steps stopped completely.
He crouched behind a fallen trunk and let his breathing settle, eyes scanning ahead instead of the group.
That was when he saw it.
A tree just off the path the four had taken bore faint scuff marks along its trunk. Not deep cuts or broken bark—controlled damage. Handholds. Toe placements. Someone had climbed it recently, and carefully.
Ivor adjusted his angle and moved quietly to the side, keeping low. He circled wide, avoiding dry leaves, until he could see the tree from another angle.
High above, half-hidden among the branches, a boy lay pressed against the trunk. Black training clothes. Watching the same path the four kids were walking down.
Ivor's stomach tightened.
Another sign followed almost immediately as he heard faint breathing which did not belong the group of four.
Ivor stayed where he was.
Ahead, the four kids kept walking.
The ambush came without warning.
A figure dropped from above, landing hard behind Vance. At the same time, two more shapes burst from the undergrowth on either side. There was no shout. No threat.
Just movement.
Vance barely had time to turn before a blade slashed across his thigh. He cried out and went down hard, blood splattering across the leaves. Arlo took a blow to the shoulder almost immediately, stumbling backward as his weapon slipped from his grip.
"Contact!" Leizel shouted, already moving.
She lunged forward, activating her skill in a sharp burst of speed, blade flashing toward one of the attackers. The ambusher twisted aside at the last moment, the edge missing by inches, and struck back low, forcing her to retreat.
Reiner stepped in to cover her, daggers crossing with one of the attackers in a rapid exchange. Sparks flickered as metal met metal, but he was driven back, footing unsteady as another opponent closed in from his flank.
The fight was fast. Too fast.
The attackers moved like they'd done this before. They targeted legs, arms, hands. Disabling blows.
One of them slammed a kick into Arlo's knee, sending him crashing down with a shout of pain. Another twisted past Leizel's guard and struck her across the ribs, hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs.
Within seconds, two of the four were on the ground.
Leizel and Reiner tried to regroup, backs nearly touching, but they were already off-balance. A blade nicked Reiner's forearm, then another strike drove him to one knee.
"This isn't over," Reiner snarled through clenched teeth as he was forced back. "You'll pay for this."
One of the ambushers laughed softly. "Sure."
Another crouched beside Vance, yanked the pouch from his belt, and dumped its contents into his own hand. Three impure mana crystals glinted briefly before disappearing into his pocket.
"Clean," he said.
They didn't linger.
The four attackers withdrew as quickly as they'd arrived.
There was silence, broken only by labored breathing and Vance's muffled groan of pain.
"Damn it," he cursed.
Ivor stayed hidden, eyes locked on the scene.
He took in the blood. The injuries. The way the four kids struggled just to sit up.
Then he looked toward the direction the attackers had gone.
Without hesitation, he shifted his weight, turned away from the injured group, and began moving, slowly at first, then faster, following the trail of disturbed leaves and fading human scent deeper into the forest.
The crystals were gone.
But the people who took them weren't.