After not even five seconds of waiting, she opens the door, a depressive frown on her face. As Naela takes in my form, her eyes widen, shocked at the relevation that I am at her door.
Once more, like a month ago, yet so different.
Her expression changes instantly; she lets out a laugh full of relief, I do as well.
We hug.
[One Wrath Sin effect has been temporarily disabled.]
Moments later when we calm down a bit, she invites me in.
"Want some tea? I bet the past week has been torturous for you."
I nod my head, there can't be more truth to that statement.
As Naela goes to make the tea, I sit on a stool, finally taking in my surroundings. The interior was lit by three candles, one on the book registration table, another on a shelf, in a metal casing to prevent any fires from starting, the third by the door to the restricted section. The books and scrolls are still neatly segregated, the only visible change from two weeks ago was the layer of dust covering the shelves.
Ah shit! I forgot about the Adrenaline effect! How much time do I have before I'm writhing on the ground?
[26 minutes 19 seconds]
Enough to have a short chat with Naela, then hurry to my room and hope she doesn't come.
Fuck, I should've waited it out in the dungeon, regenerated there; instead of rushing to see her.
'She wouldn't have ran off, you know?', I'm so stupid.
Maybe I could tell her about this? Like, it used to be a rare occurence as per the slowness of zombies, their low chance to damage me, but now that there are the skeletons, who're much faster, have a higher likelihood of reaching me, this will become more common.
Wait, there's something different I wanted to tell her.
Naela retuns with two mugs. As she's handing me one, I say,
"Let me tell you the reason we went on that short adventure." I take a sip as she sits down.
"It all started when I heard that the herald of a local lord was asking about a woman with red eyes, a scar, and long black hair. I was out of the city as soon as possible. You see, there's the fear that my powers may attract unwanted attention to me. Considering the attempted kidnapping, I was right to act, no matter how irrational it seemed back then to flee because of unconfirmed, second-hand information." I put the tea away. "I asked myself this question: is facing the enemy worth the risk? It may be, in the scenario where there aren't any alternatives. The best thing to do now is to continue on our adventure, this time avoiding settlements and roads, at least until we become strong enough to take on an army." After some consideration, I add, "...Sorry for endangering you."
"You shouldn't be apologizing, the time I spent with you was definitely /not/ wasted, it was probably some of the best spent weeks in my life actually, haven't had an experience like that before."
We sat in silence for a few minutes, a very comfortable silence- it is a level of tranquility I hope to achieve for all time through my power, having a peaceful life is as important to me as all treasure and strength.
"Wait, you said 'once', 'once' we become strong enough to take on an entire /army/? Even Gazef Stronoff can't achieve such a feat." Inquired Naela.
Shit. Do I want to tell her of my infinite potential? No, better say there is a cap to my power- there's already too much attention on me at this point in time, as well as claiming weakness is a great strategy in a lot of cases. Best 'minimize my potential for growth to the absolute minimum' then. I really feel like I should tell her of /everything/, but it is enough as it is.
"Yeah, that's around the maximum power a real dryad can dish out before collapsing of exhaustion. Stronoff is a human - I, we, aren't." I sighed, internally nervous about the Adrenaline timer wearing off.
"Well, I'll be in my room for some time." I added. Naela shot me a questioning look, but didn't delve further.
-x-
The pain started a few moments after lying on my bed. I feel it lasted less time than before, likely because my stats aren't the same as they were weeks ago. Though, it still was some time; now when I'm still resting after the experience, to my room reach the muffled noises of the bustling street below. The day has started.
I feared this would happen, that the post-adrenaline pain would prolong my stay in this place long enough for the streets to crowd, crashing my plan of getting in, grabbing Naela, and rushing out of this cursed city, out of the possible base of operations of my pursuer.
What to do now?
There are two options. One, to wait till the night comes around once more, and sneak out then, when looking isn't enough to discern who I am. Second, to wear different clothing, include a facemask and a hood, hide my hair; hope not to be recognized as I blend into the crowd coming with Naela.
Well, it would be smarter to just use the night option, and incorporate the clothes from my day plan.
...Yeah that's probably the best way of getting out of this place.
Then it's decided; I'll be waiting till darkness returns.
Hm. Let me try something.
...
[Access denied - you have already completed a dungeon today.]
What a bummer. And here I thought the dungeon done at night was started before midnight.
I guess the safest option for avoiding detection is out the window.
Looks like I gotta wait out the day in Inhocepi then.
-x-
I can be seen drilling my eyes into a gem, one of the fakes from that lucky find in the forest. A rune sequence is carved onto it.
In the time of absolute boredom, the most brilliant ideas come to mind, what I thought of isn't revolutionary by any means, but with how much stuff has been happening, there just wasn't enough time to create it.
What that is?
It is a powerful rune program. For 30 MP, it deals 205 damage.
The base 26 damage of the energy orb rune, combined with the 790% power augmentation of the fake gems makes for a strong projectile.
[Rune Program]
[Material - uI09y7ls]
[Contents]
[Start] - [Summon Energy Orb] (205 DMG)
[MP Cost Sum]
30 MP
I cannot wait until the time I get to try this baby out, if 79 DMG was enough to leave a meter wide hole in a wooden wall made of thick, full logs, how damn powerful would 205 DMG be?
I remember reading of the magic tiers once, it's almost certain this rune, or 'spell' would be around third tier, if the descriptions of destructive incantations are to be believed.
A month and a half here, I already have power on par with the most skilled human mages.
Sure, it's agonizingly slow for a Game system, but it still is /quite fast/, considering in most cases what I achieved is backed by decades upon decades of studying the arcane.
I shouldn't get too ahead of myself as well; there are tiers up to tenth, and why would such notations exist if there weren't any users of those magicks in the past?
There are many dangers in this world I am certainly not prepared for, hell, there may even be a blink-and-yer-gone entity hiding somewhere.
There is no certainty if this world is a low powered world, or a death trap, so it would be wise to assume the latter.
Truly hoping I'll get lucky, that all the other tiers are simply speculation...
No, that's denial.
I have seen the players in the village, Carne I believe it was called.
A large sorcerer with a mask, and a woman in dark armour.
That Death Knight they were controlling felt as if it would be capable of shrugging off even my most powerful chain runes, that everything I could dish out, even now, would do nothing to that beast.
I feel a sliver of that rage from before, along with excitement it surges through me.
Such powerful enemies to challenge...
What was that? What am I thinking? I need to stop that, it might bring me to my doom.
...That anger was the Wrath sin. One of its effects.
This sin is shaping up to be much more problematic than Greed.
-x-
With the few hours there was left till sunset, I helped Naela with some tasks, but never in the main shop area. It was almost as if nothing had happened, and we were in our daily routine from weeks ago, a bit of nostalgia surfaced.
Though we cannot stay here, and it is almost night, the streets are clear.
I told her that we should get going, she didn't question it: for it was her desire as well. She did ask me to take several books with the use of my inventory, though.
So I dressed myself in my most concealing clothing, as it was described earlier, and took Naela out to the road.
We walked with haste, not enough to draw much attention, but still faster than normal.
When we were crossing an intersection, and I looked far to the darkened streets, spotting a glimmer of silver.
A person fully clad in armour, far away from me, but enough we could look each other in the eyes.
Deja vu hit me with full force.
I forced myself to continue walking.
Just who was he?
I walked faster.
It really feels like...
Like I spent a lifetime with him.
But when?
There were no parts of my life when I was with a man, certainly not with those eyes...
My old world? No, that deja vu was too strong, and the only male I knew then was my father.
I know my father, he wouldn't wear armour; he despises anything to do with history.
Walking out of the city gates, I put that encounter to the back of my mind. Whoever he was, it isn't important in the grand scheme of things.
I think so at least.
Instead of going on the main road leading out of the gate, we instantly take a ninety degree turn, and head straight to the forest on the left.
And so it begins.
-x-
One week passes.
I returned to my nightly dungeon routine, Naela coming with me.
In this time, I leveled up twice, at the end of the first dungeon, as well as at the start of the sixth dungeon. Looks like I amassed some EXP from killing that skeleton boss, because a single zombie dungeon isn't enough to raise my level any more, and hasn't been for five weeks.
Through the increase in stats, the power of my most powerful singular rune rose to 229.1 DMG.
I love this growth effect the energy orb has.
-x-
As we walk through the dense forest, I notice something.
A boulder.
That seems to be moving.
It...
It's breaking apart...?
Are those arms?
It stands up, and turns towards us.
It's no rock, that's a stone troll!
"Let me handle this." I say to Naela.
"Are you sure? Shouldn't we run?" She was quite scared. "I don't think your magic bolts are enough to harm this beast."
"That may have been true before we went on the first adventure."
I smiled, an expression of sick pleasure crossing my face, as I took out the energy orb rune, pointed it at the charging giant, and fired.
Never tested it.
It didn't matter now.
The orb appeared in a flash of light, and soared to the enemy, slower than the missiles, but still really fast compared to throwing stuff. It kind of looked like a ki blast from dragon ball.
As it connected to the monster's torso the orb expanded, an energy explosion, and a thunderclap was heard. The coming shockwave almost sweeped me off the ground, but I managed to stay steady. As the flash died out, there were two legs standing there, with nothing above, they collapsed after a second.
I wasn't that worried of alerting anyone with that noise, there weren't any roads that I knew of in a radius of at least a dozen kilometers.
I looked over to Naela, seeing her on the ground, stunned in both meanings of the word.
"You alright?"
"I ...think so."
"Sorry, I shouldn't have gotten carried away, there were less flashy options that could have killed it without harming you." I got too excited by the prospect of testing out my new weapon.
After helping her up, I glance at the work of the rune. What would a chain rune of this look like? Would it breach into 4th tier spell cathegory? That's likely, provided enough repeats.
Making that program boosted my class exp level significantly -
Runecrafter - LVL 1 [31%]
I wonder what I'll get for finally leveling this thing up.
A month and a half of making runes, and its not even a third the way to LVL 2.
It better give me some good reward
-x- Naela's POV
She killed it so... effortlessly.
That spell was comparable to the more destructive ones of tier three.
Of course, she's half dryad, but it's still strange to see someone become so powerful, so quickly...
But there's also that strange glint in her eye, like she enjoyed ending the life of that creature.
I refuse to believe it, no. That isn't the case.
But; a thought managed to slip around my barricades of belief in her.
...Is Suisei truly a Dryad, the guardian of forests? Is she really a being of good?
-x- Suisei's POV
Ah, that troll gave quite a bit of EXP, that's nice.
"Come Naela, there's no need to stay here, near this corpse." Plus there's always the possibility of someone being near, coming to investigate this place.
So we continued walking, my companion shooting a look at the corpse as we go past it.
-x-
We stopped for the night near a small water stream, disappearing from this world into a zombie dungeon.
-x- Unknown (but you'll probably know who it is within the first sentence) POV
From the time I saw her at that bookstore, that look in her eyes, it was like I knew who she was, yet a complete stranger to me...
Being unable to discern fantasies from reality.
Unable to discern fantasies from memories.
It is told one may see a person's soul if they look into their eyes.
If that is true, then I am familiar with her etheral form.
...Just who is she?
I have been searching for her for almost a month now.
Even hired kidnappers once, after a strange dream of us leaving this world together. Don't know what came through me, maybe I was possessed? That was truly a desperate day.
What's done is done, there's no reason to beat myself up because of past mistakes.
What matters is, me along with my three most trusted guards; a spellcaster, a sword fighter, as well as a tracker, have been following the woman's trail for the past week.
Having such an obsession over a singular person may seem fanatical, creepy even; but the people who comment such do not understand what I feel. it is not love, for I have felt that emotion before, and understand the difference between it and what I feel now.
My current feelings can be described as a mixture of deja-vu, nostalgia, fulfillment and curiosity, all of that condensed into a single emotion, and released with the strength of seeing a loved one die.
I just cannot let her go, no matter how manic, or insane it may sound.
The tracker, Mavael, has returned from scouting forwards where we're going.
"You won't believe this, sir." he said in an urgent tone, "there are remains of what may have been a troll on this trail."
"An old, rotting corpse? A skeleton?" I furrowed my brows "or perhaps, may that have been Her? Is She even more interesting than I expected...?"
I smiled.
"Just what my imagination crafted, a powerful woman."
My companions did not seem to share my view on this quest- although they were close to me, and were truly good people, they didn't understand my current state of mind. Perhaps they believed it was blind love.
"No, but I doubt you'd believe me if I told you..."
"Well, let us go see it then."
-x-
A few minutes later, we arrived where the tracker saw it.
There were two legs, collapsed on one another, with no sign of other bodyparts anywhere.
"It is difficult to comprehend, She may even be a third tier spell caster. If it was Her." That is likely; there are no monsters in this part of the forest that are capable of vaporizing two thirds of a full grown troll, and She is the only person of which I have certainty that is in the area. "We shall continue on, we may be closer than I believed, if the blood still leaking out of the legs is any indication." I added.
-x- Suisei's POV, eleven hours later
That dungeon was quite easy, with my new super powerful rune, even after a power boost the zombie boss was defeated in a few hits.
Actually, all the most recent power boost to the monsters did, is make them number in the thousands. That made the dungeon take a bit longer to complete, but also made it give much more EXP - I'd bet that I'll level up within the next two zombie dungeons.
The boss is defeated, there aren't any more regular zombies, and it's probably day by now, there's no reason to not leave the ID.
And so we do, the forest forming around us once again.
But, there is something off; is that a tent?
And why is it two meters from us?
The second I connected the dots, I took Naela's hand and started running as fast as my legs allowed.
I slowed down after a second, why would I be so afraid of them now, that there are such powerful runes in my inventory? Now that my physical prowess is roughly equal to an olympic gold medallist?
Naela should be kinda strong as well by now.
I stopped completely.
Taking out my strongest chain rune, and the energy orb rune, I slowly return to the camp - better face my fears now instead of running from something that may not even be a threat by this point. Visualise it like this: at first, there was a wolf cub running from a fox, now it is more akin to a full grown wolf running from the same fox, a childhood fear ingrained into its psyche.
I feel powerful enough to take on most mundane threats of this world, don't know if I'm right, but some noble with a few armoured knights is likely to be vulnerable to total annihilation from the power of the energy orb rune.
It feels unusual to be walking straight towards my fears, with murderous intent instead of the heavy anxiety that comes with it.
"What's going on?" Naela asked, confused by my actions.
"I just experienced a relevation." I responded.
After that I stopped, raised my hand gripping the rune, let out a short laugh and shot the tent.
The orb disintegrated it completely, and dug a shallow pit in the ground.
[Level up!]
...Level up? Why?
The tent was of the smaller scale, there couldn't have been more than five people inside.
...
Then, I remembered.
The Path to Evil judges how good of a person it is, and rewards accordingly; higher multipliers for killing better, more honorable people, weaker multipliers for ending the scum of earth.
Huh. This is the first time I killed a good guy.
I... Don't feel much after doing it.
Maybe it is because I didn't see the person? Or maybe the Path to Evil is progressing more quickly than I realised?
Probably a mixture of both.
[Damn it.]
Game!
[One of the people in that tent was important to you.]
What? There isn't anyone in this world I consider important, except maybe Naela.
[...]
[Naela. She should not have joined you. You were destined to adventure with him.]
Him? Naela isn't supposed to be with me? What are you on about?
[The power of Fate Vingnish wields carves the path for all new Gamers; through his will Naela was supposed to be a random shopkeeper you wouldn't even glance to. The man, Voruo, was destined to become close to you.]
[Yet you killed him just now.]
[Somehow, you are immune to the effect my creator placed on all of your kind.]
That is...
I don't know how to feel about this.
It is a lot of things to think about.
Why would I be immune? What's so special about me?
{Time.}
This font...
Vingnish?
What do you mean 'time'? Why tell me one word?
[New quest]
[Objective] -
Find out who you are.
[Rewards] -
"True immortality - not only eternal youth."
Wha...
That was something I didn't expect.
This reward is crazy, but if it's so good, then that means the objective will be particularly difficult to achieve.
I'll try to complete this quest, don't know how I'll do it, but maybe...
Finishing this quest would be a great advantage in the Battle, being unable to die is one hell of a boon in such a fight.
Of course, there's the possibility that some Gamers have the ability to trap me somewhere, a pocket dimension or something like that. That would be a thing I'd have to watch out for when fighting my way through the grand event.
...
Going back to that guy I killed, I wonder how would my story have gone if all was destined to be?
Ah, no matter.
What I am doing now, is what matters; paving my own way, deciding my own fate in the most literal way.
My detachement from fate may be the thing that'll allow me to succeed in my quest to win the final fight, or it may be my doom.
Or maybe it'll change nothing, as other Gamers are doing similar things, even if they're bound.
Either way, I have to work towards it if I really want it.
Yeah, common sense.
'Common' sense.
Like love; 'if you love someone, be with them, if you don't, then don't be with them'.
It is all truly easy to understand.
Reality is simple, it is us who make it complicated.
We may be able to understand it instinctively, harness it without thinking.
Wait. That's the way of Nature.
The way of Humanity is to try explain everything.
I have no idea which one's correct.
Maybe both are.
Maybe neither is.
"Sui!" Naela was jumping in front of me. "Snap out of it!"
"Huh?" Was she saying something?
"You weren't responding, just standing there looking into space." She said, with a hint of worry in her voice.
"I.. was thinking."
"You should try meditating more, too much thinking is as bad as not enough of it."
"Yeah.." I replied, still wondering on the nature of progress.
-x- Voruo's POV
One moment I was in my field tent, then nothing.
A pitch black void, all encompassing.
Well, except for two objects in front of me, bottles.
First filled with a liquid that reminded me of the night sky, a celestial mixture.
The second contained a misty white ...gas? Liquid? It's like the clouds.
Somehow, I know how they are called.
The Archmage Essence.
The Blank Essence.
I feel movement, my own arm's reaching out for one.
I start drinking, until the bottle's empty.
I do it again.
Then everything changes, once again.
-x- Suisei's POV
After I allocated my newly acquired stat points, we continued walking.
If that really was the noble who had been following me, then I can once again show up at civilization with nothing to fear.
Though, how will I find it now?
Eh, a few hours of walking and I bet I'll encounter a track.
If not, then following a river is also a possibility.
-x-
Not even a full day later, we come across an unpaved road.
It is strangely wide, more than ten carriages would be able to fit on it side to side.
It's odd, I can't imagine what it might be used for that demanded such a range.
-x-
We've been walking on the road for a few hours, the lush forest becoming less and less dense, and after a while it's plains we're walking on; the occasional tree on a hill, and a small stream of water, all cast upon a giant expanse of knee-high grass.
It is much larger than the valley that leads to E-Rantel.
It encompasses at least a few dozen kilometers to each end, and the front's end can't be seen.
-x-
We've reached a strange phenomenon occuring across the plains; all grass, trees, everything; all life just... ends.
It's like there's a barrier preventing life from reaching any further.
On one side there's nature, on the other there is only barren ground.
Looks like a glitch from early PC games, or a low quality biome change.
It's strange, feels kinda ominous.
And there's quite the possibility there are undead roaming this unusual place.
And if there are undead, then that means free exp, without entering a dungeon.
...I'm hoping the monsters here, if there truly are any, aren't too strong for us.
Eh, we should be fine - I've got the powerful orb rune, and Naela should be almost olympic level in physical stats by now. Plus, even if there'd be true danger to us, we can always escape to a dungeon. Attempting to resume my stride, Naela's hand stops me.
"You have anything against going there?" I turn to my friend.
"...Why would we want to go there? We don't have any destination, so it's not like we're shortening our journey by going straight through Katze plains."
Ah, now I know what this place is, I read about it, just didn't imagine it looking this way.
Naela would know such things, she's lived on this world for decades.
I do remember mentions of skeletal dragons roaming the area... They're terrifying monsters, apparently immune to all magic, though I find that hard to believe. Well, the dungeon argument still applies, and being so powerful, they should be pretty rare even in places like this.
"We can get stronger by killing undead, as I told you we're partly entities of light, of earth and of life - it is only natural that we grow in power by ending unlife, decay, darkness; the antithesis to what we stand for."
"I remember that, no need to remind me. We still go to those dimensions of yours to train, and there are zombies there, why would I forget your 'teachings'? We can go through the wasteland if you want, but I feel kinda negative about walking on such a bloody battlefield"
"It'll be fine." I responded with certainty.
-x-
Hours later we have only killed a few dozen skeletons, all of them not nearly as fast as the ones in the dungeon. Some of them had magical gear, but it still wasn't enough to protect them from my orb rune- it wasn't like I was wasting my mana when firing, it only costs 10 MP more than a standard missile rune.
Though, even if the amound of enemies wasn't enough to acquire any proper amound of EXP, it was still better than nothing.
That was when I heard a roar in the distance, noticing something flying in my direction. At first it looked like a silver bird, a giant silver bird, comparing it to the clouds.
But it's obvious what that thing is, a dragon.
Taking Naela's hand, we jump dimensions, and the danger is no more.
Well there are zombies, but those can be easily dealt with.
-x-
Ending the dungeon some time later, we return to the regular world, the overgrown lizard no longer there.
-x-
After a day, and a bit over a hundered more monsters killed, we leave the plains. Wasn't nearly enough to level me up, probably Naela neither.
I wonder if I shouldn't have fled from that dragon, maybe it wasn't that strong? Maybe it was possible to fell it with what I have now?
How good is dragon bone as a rune program material?
But then, there was a large possibility of the things documented in books being true; its magic immunity being /quite/ the detriment to my ability of defeating it.
-x-
We are currently a few miles away from a village, seeing it far away in a forest from an elevated location. It's been a goal to stay away from civilization for the past week, but with the pursuer probably gone, and all the quests I have that having intel from people would push to completion, there shouldn't be much danger to us now.
Even if the noble wasn't in the tent, which is unlikely, and is still hunting me, then I have nothing to fear; they sent hired kidnappers after me, regular mercenaries, and those weren't that much of a problem even for my past self, and now with my new runes and being stronger than then by a sizable margin, as well as Naela being almost as strong physically now as I was at the time, their chance of successfully containing us is so low that it isn't even worth considering. We're no longer regular humans, we won't get caught by mundanes, for fucks sake!
Anyways, the point is that the danger isn't what it used to be, and we can focus on adventuring much more than running as I had in the recent past.
"Naela, this is where our journey truly begins." I turn to the setting sun, gazing at the beautiful sunset that just started, a few clouds floating lazily near the horizon.
"Huh? We've been on the road for a few weeks though, even with the brief kidnapping hiccup..." She raised a brow.
I sweatdropped.
"You just had to ruin this moment."
Turning to her, a smile on my face betrays the tone of the words I said.
"There's a village ahead. Wanna rest there?"
"Oooh, civilization!" she responds excitedly, with a relieved tune to her voice.
And so we set off to the settlement, walking with the day's fading light.
A/N -
There will not be a new story with Voruo as the MC.
There will not be POV changes to Voruo.
Voruo is not in the same multiverse as Suisei.
But he /will/ be important later.
(Though not in the sense you may think)
Overall a kinda cute chapter, with a few darkish elements.
I've got pat reon, there's nothing on it that you can't find on here- I dislike the idea of paywalling.
Tho I'd love the money, it'd likely make me work a little faster, not to sound greedy, if I have any money left over from buying stuff, and that's likely; I don't buy much, I'll probably use it on charity or sth like that.
Pat reon loudsilence