“Noone! Sarah!” A cheerful and slightly accented voice called out to the party as they passed through the main rode in town. The group looked over to see a tall and well-armored dragonborn approaching them. Tobias glanced at them, seeing if they recognized this individual.
Noone noticed him immediately and proceeded to wave him over, giving Tobias a nod. Sarah had been caught up in her own thoughts, so the sudden interruption caught her by surprise.
As the dragonborn approached, his cheerful smile widened when he noticed Tobias staring at him. They shared a nod, making it clear that he wouldn’t keep them for long.
“Are you two headed out of town now?” he looked Sarah and Noone up and down. The power exuded from the two had increased since they met last giving Patrin pause for thought.
“Yes, we are headed towards the capital.” Sarah said. Patrin nodded, coming to his own understanding.
“Well. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I hope you find what you are looking for.” He flashed a well-meaning smile, which looked odd on his scaly face. “And you as well Noone. If you ever find yourself up near the northern desert, my clan name is Norixius. We are well known throughout the desert regions.” He put a hand on Noone’s shoulder, giving a look like he was trying to make sure Noone remembered his words. “I don’t much believe in coincidence; the universe is too crazy for something like coincidence. I have a feeling we will meet again.”
Noone nodded, not shying away from making eye contact with the electric-blue reptilian pupils. He used a bit of divine sense to increase the power of his sight. Suddenly a pressure built up in the minds of them both, causing them to glance away.
Finally, Patrin took his hand of Noone’s shoulder chuckling to himself. “Ah. It seems I was worried over nothing!”
After wishing the party safe travels, his tall figure managed to disappear into the crowds. Noone kept his divine sense on the man for as long as he could, trying to understand what just occurred.
Tobias gave Noone a look but said nothing. He also kept a close eye on the dragonborn. Although it seemed he came with no ill intent, Tobias was able to see clearly how strong that being was. Finally, he shook his head, continuing to lead them out of Ardglass.
“Sarah? When did you meet a guy like that?” Feylin asked. He had never seen such an intimidating dragonborn before, but that Patrin seemed rather familiar with Sarah and Noone.
“Noone and I went to the tavern a few nights ago where we ran into him. He’s an adventurer or mercenary. I’m not really sure. But he shared many stories with us about the eastern continent.
“The eastern continent?” Everyone in the party turned their heads, paying close attention to what Sarah said. The eastern continent was no joke.
“Yeah. He said he had lived there amongst a race of goliaths.” Sarah looked back to where Patrin had disappeared, she quietly wondered how much of his stories were true. Something told her… that he wasn’t the type to exaggerate too much.
Raelith whistled, she couldn’t help but glance back either. “He was quite strong…” A small smile broke on her lips that only she could understand.
“And rather well spoken for a dragonborn.” Sally said. She had initially been shocked by how naturally common escaped his lips. Noone and Sarah were too inexperienced to understand, but Common was a particularly difficult language for the dragonborn. If anything, it showed he was well studied.
Noone listened quietly to the banter of the party. He thought about the look they shared, and the pressure that had impacted his mind. He felt like Patrin had been trying to tell him something secretly, however he didn’t understand what it was. Eventually all he could do was commit ‘Norixius’ to memory in case it became useful in the future, and leave it at that.
By the time they passed through the town and were past the crops and fields of Ardglass, the sun was casting deep shadows within the forest. The trees danced with a nightly wind.
“By the way Noone. What are your clothes?” Sarah asked, looking at the odd ways the fabric of Noone’s pants folded while he walked. Everyone glanced back at Noone. They all had noticed the oddity earlier, but no one thought to bring it up in lieu of other events.
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“Mm. Rae took me to a tailor’s, it was a long-shot but I asked him to help me recreate some of the clothes from my home.” Noone’s voice was steady as he talked. However, he couldn’t help but be reminded of Tapestry as he spoke. His hand delicately stroked the tie on his pants.
“They’re quite different from anything in the common realm according to him.” Noone continued. “However, as far as I am concerned, they’re much more comfortable than the clothes here. Easier to move in.”
Eventually the sun set, and the forest was submerged into darkness. Due to the canopy of leaves overhead, much of the moonlight and starlight was covered, causing the forest to seem even more isolated.
Noone was able to expand his divine sense six meters, giving him a perfect view of his immediate surroundings. However, he was forced to rely on his normal senses to view anything further out than that.
Raelith and Tobias had no problem seeing in this level of darkness, although not perfectly. Only the other three were forced to stay close to the cart while Tobias took the lead. Luckily, they seemed to be staying on a dirt trail, allowing travel to be a bit easier than if they were trekking uncharted land.
The plan was to walk through the night and day, then rest on the next night. According to Jakobson, they wouldn’t need to worry about any monsters or beasts out here because they were so close to the edge of the forest. It wouldn’t be until they got closer to the next town that they should need to be careful.
The deeper into the forest one goes, the more likely it is to run into higher level creatures.
After advancing, Sarah and Feylin would have no trouble staying awake for a couple days. Let alone Noone who had already been able to subvert his exhaustion using the energy he absorbed. As long as he was able to absorb a bit of the natural energy of the universe, presumably he could outlast anyone else in the party.
After an hour of being submerged in darkness, Sally finally used a miracle to light up the area around them. A soft blue white light cast shadows outwards, allowing everyone to see what was ahead.
So late into the night, no one bothered to try and force conversation. Instead they just let the serene atmosphere creep into their party. Everyone was too busy with their own thoughts to care.
“I was able to advance into the fourth level of qi condensation by a fluke, mainly.” Noone thought. “If it weren’t for Sarah advancing into a paladin, I wouldn’t have been able to absorb such an intense energy. But… doing so not only allowed me to level up, but also pointed me in the right direction.” Noone realized after breaking through, that he didn’t necessarily need to absorb the thick black and red threads of universe energy. All that did was help to speed up the process.
“If I had taken it slow and forced the energy within my core to absorb more and more of the smaller level natural energy, I would have eventually reached the same level of qi condensation suffused throughout my meridians.” Noone considered this. It seemed that at the stage he was at, his sole goal was to increase the sheer amount of universe energy flowing through him. As he did, the increased density would force the vapor-like energy to humidify and condense into liquid.
Noone looked into his own body, watching the energy pulse through his core.
“At the level it is at now, I would be lucky to form more than a few drops of liquid energy. And it doesn’t help that I can only absorb energy passively while sitting in meditation.” He frowned, considering his possibilities. “I can’t go around stealing energy from gods… that’s going to be a good way to get myself killed.” His frown deepened. “Then again… if I could manage to get a god’s blessing before doing so…”
Noone continued to muse to himself through the night. He wouldn’t be able to absorb more energy until they stopped the next night, so it was the most he could do.
Noone scratched his chest, fingers knocking into the pendant which hung from his neck under his shirt. On a whim, Noone pulled out the pendant, staring at it as he walked. He tried raising it above his head, but as soon as it reached neck-level he was unable to lift it any further. Unsurprised, Noone put the pendant back under his shirt.
“The woman who gave the grand priest this pendant… was this how it was meant to be used?” Noone thought about the inner devil of his sealed inside. If it weren’t for this pendant, and the power of the seal which had constrained him for a full month, Noone was unsure if he would have ever been able to regain himself.
He chose to give himself over to that violence and cold hate when he broke through in Tapestry. The power which had coursed through him… not only was it intoxicating but it fueled Noone’s desire for revenge. To pay back the death of Tapestry a thousand-fold.
Despite that devil being sealed away… the feelings were still in Noone. Having been ‘possessed’ and then regaining his own consciousness, Noone understood a few things about the power he had given himself over to.
It was a raging flame which burned through him like, molten metal, and a cold pain like liquid silver. The hate was the flame, a flame that did not need oxygen. But there was a cruel and cold calculation behind that. People failed to be people, innocents were not safe, anything that stood between him and his goal was to be removed.
There was an inherent power to that kind of existence. Noone had felt this firsthand. But this was not a power Noone needed at the cost it came. Hate and cruelty still existed within him, but it was not blind. Noone understood that there were innocent’s in this world. His hatred was not blind anymore.