“What have I gotten myself into?”

It took months for the boy to find this place, and here it was, a decrepit stone building in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of smelly ba-ba shogs around the perimeter. He dropped his rucksack and stared blankly at the building. His indecision became his undoing as a hand reached out and grabbed him, slamming him to the ground. 

“Intruder, there’s an intruder in the compound!” 

Bells rang and robed figures emerged from every nook and cranny of said “compound”. They all had their head’s clean shaven and held various objects in their hands. The boy saw a few with some gardening tools and another group with hammers and axes, there was even one monk with a plunger in his hands. The boy was annoyed at the rude treatment and started to yell. 

“What the hell! Aren’t you guys supposed to be monks!?” 

“Shut up! You talk when we let you talk.” 

The boy went silent, and there was a moment of agonizing silence as the monks judged the boy’s discipline. Then a monk, who had an intimidating aura that didn’t match his size, went up to the boy. He seemed a bit different than the others, more refined, regal, and dangerous at the same time. Though the bloodied tenderizer in his hand and the specks of blood over his robe might’ve contributed to his menacing air. 

“So, what are you here for? If not to steal our precious knowledge?”

“I am here to join dumbasses, ' Arkali told me: “tell whoever’s in charge that I sent it to you”. There’s a letter in my sack too.”  

The menacing monk motioned towards the bag and a few monks with short sticks opened up the sack and poked around. Once they found the letter, they gave it to the menacing monk and stuffed his belongings back into the sack, disorganizing his carefully packed bag. As the monk read the letter, the boy began to get agitated.

“What happened to treating guest’s nicely? And can I get out of this position?” 

The lead monk looked up and glared at the boy from behind the paper. 

“Well, we don’t usually have “nice” guests so we don’t prepare “nice” welcomes, and no, you will wait until I confirm this letter.” 

The monk went back to reading the letter. After another long and uncomfortable silence, he lifted up a finger and injected some magic into the paper, revealing a glowing seal. 

“It’s real, let the kid go.”

The monk holding him down hopped off his back and the boy got up and brushed himself off. The lead monk then motioned the boy to follow him and the rest of the monk’s dispersed.

“Kid, welcome to the collective monks, I am the lead monk. I will be guiding you around the compound and showing you the rooms. I will also give you your duties once you get acclimate- .” 

The boy interrupted. 

“Hey, sorry for earlier, I didn’t really know. Also, what’s your name?”

“No need to apologize kid, we don’t get new members frequently, especially ones recommended by Akali. And to answer your question about my name, we don’t use names here, names hold a special meaning in this coven. For now, keep it a secret. I also wouldn’t recommend that you give it out lightly or call someone's name without their permission.”

The boy thought it was weird, but accepted the statement. Walking past the multitude of animals, they both entered the door of the building. 

*****************************************************

A few months went by since the boy had first joined the coven. He adapted pretty quickly to the coven’s rules and learned many things. One being that the bell that acted as an alarm also indicated a shift change, and he hated it. It rang to wake him up. It rang when his jobs changed, it rang before he went to sleep, and it rang to let him know that the food was ready. His entire life was now centered around the one ringing bell. He was sick and tired of it, almost to the point where his dreams were now under the bell’s control. Thus, on this cloudy night, he decided to go up to that damned tower, take the bell, and ditch it somewhere. That way, he could rest for at least a month until it gets found or a new one comes. 

***********************************************

The boy slowly crept towards the tower and up its stairs. Since it was all stone, he didn’t need to worry about creaking of floor boards, but he was careful anyway. Once he got up to the top of the tower, though, he had to worry about the guard up there. Originally, he thought to ask the guard to see if he could switch shifts, but luckily, he didn’t have to since the guard was fast asleep, sitting on the floor with his arms folded and head tucked. 

‘Great, I can just take the bell now.’

Before he could unscrew the bell off, something caught his attention. He went to the edge of the tower and peered off into the distance. He spotted what looked like a fox-like monster. It was at least a story tall and was  in a frenzied state, madly running at the compound. He panicked then decided that the compound's safety was worth more than the avoidance of a punishment and rang the bell. 

DING, DING,DING,DING,DING. 

The guard jolted up and there was chaos in the entire compound as the monks rushed to their stations. The boy ran down the tower before the guard could question anything and joined the vanguard team with the lead monk, who noticed something was off.

“Kid, you seem out of breath. Your room is not far from the entrance, where were you?” 

“I couldn’t sleep so I was up and around.”

“Ah I see, is that also why you don’t have a weapon?” 

“No.” 

The boy channeled magic into his hand and tendrils of translucent blue formed a short paddle. His voice spoke to him in his mind. 

[Path skill “Paddle of denial” activated.] 

The lead monk had a blank stare towards the weapon, then stated. 

“You know that paddles are traditionally used for self discipline in monk culture right?” 

The boy kept staring into the distance, waiting for the monster to come, but still answered. 

“Oh, so when did you get crazy into monk culture? I thought we don’t have the niceties to be monks all the time you know. Also, we have a realllly big fox monster coming over here now, you really think we should be talking?” 

The lead monk chuckled and focused on the task at hand. As the monster grew closer, the lead monk signaled for the ranged attackers to commence and a multitude of glowing projectiles from bows, launchers, and skills soared towards the monster. As the projectiles hit the monster, it roared in pain but kept on its mad dash. 

“Vanguard, advance!!” 

The lead monk pointed his tenderizer towards the fox monster and the two lines of monks shouted and made a dash towards the monster. It was chaos when the two clashed. Some monk’s were able to hold it down but some were bitten and battered away by the monster. Blood sprayed out from the wounds inflicted on the beast and the wound’s on the monks as well. After an hour of fighting the beast, the boy was suddenly knocked over and l landed on the ground with a grunt. At this point, he knew he was done for as a monsterous paw headed straight towards him. He closed his eyes and waited for the impact.

“SHEPHERD OF THE WEAK!” 

“BAM!”

The boy opened his eyes to find the paw stopped by a translucent bubble. 

“R..uu..nnn” 

The lead monk grunted out the word and fell to one knee, struggling to maintain the barrier around them as the monster raked its claws against it again. 

“RUN I SAID!” 

The boy looked at the lead monk, then at the monster, and just as the paw broke through, his voice resounded in his head.

[You have willingly decided to sacrifice yourself in your first battle as a monk. You progressed along the path of the “belligerent monk”. Skills awarded.] 

Suddenly, a red mist surrounded him and he instinctively raised the paddle of denial, blocking the monster’s paw. 

[Path skill “raging monk” activated] 

His body grew lighter, his muscles grew stronger, and his skin grew harder. After knocking back the paw, the boy jumped far up into the air. With the paddle of denial in one hand, a red cloud surrounding his body, and his loose robes fluttering in the air, he looked pretty ridiculous, but nothing mattered anymore. Not at this moment. 

[Solitary strike activated] 

The paddle struck the monster’s nose with a tremendous amount of force, pushing its whole head aside and knocking it sideways. It yelped and fell. As it did, a black mass seemingly leaped out of its head and phased into the shadows, but no one noticed. 

**************************************************

The boy landed on his feet, the red mist dissipating, and a cheer rang throughout the coven. However, the boy didn’t care about it. He ran to the lead monk. 

“Hey, you ok?” 

“Kid, I’m fine… Thanks for saving me.” 

“No problem, you saved me first anyways.” 

The boy reached down and the lead monk grabbed the hand, using it to pull himself up. A he did, the boy softly spoke to the monk. 

“And my name’s Xander, not kid.” 

The lead monk looked at Xander with surprise in his eyes, then his lips formed a soft smile. 

“Then in that case, call me Sarik.”