Alan knew he needed to say something to clear the air. To be honest, he wasn't exactly sure where to start, but anything at all would've been preferable to the oppressive silence he was currently stewing in. It was so complete that the sound of Su'ong taking her frustrations out on the fire pit was becoming unbearable. Using what Alan recognized as his half-assed attempt at a making a spear, she was repeatedly stabbing away at the glowing coals. The atmosphere was so still and uncomfortable that each impact sounded like she was taking a hammer to fine china. It was really starting to grate on his nerves.
Noticing the pleading look Alan was giving him, Reggie shook his head firmly in the negative, tossed the human a look that plainly said “You've already got me in enough trouble as it is,” and gestured with his eyes for Alan to get off his ass and go figure out how to appease the fuming Snake-kin. Her display of unrelenting attacks was undoubtedly impressive, but at the rate she was knocking tiny embers out of the pit, it was quite clear that she was about to set fire to the campsite if nothing was done to calm her down.
With apprehension bubbling just below the surface of his calm facade, Alan Rose to his feet. It wasn't until he was standing right behind Su'ong that she finally broke her silence.
“It's about time you got up. You've been unresponsive for the last five hours." She said in a flat, emotionless tone, switching to a more private form of communication before Alan had a chance to respond.
“Instead,” she said, turning to flash Alan a hostile stare. “While you slept off all the excitement, I had the privilege of restraining myself from putting a spear through my ears as I was being subjected to several hours of that senile Wraith repeating his rambling theories about what might have maybe happened."
Reggie gasped and pointed at himself before pursing his lips. It was quite obvious that he didn't agree with the sentiment. "Face it Reggie…,” Su'ong stated seriously, her canteen suddenly in hand, being used to douse several small fires that had sprung up outside the confines of the fire pit. “…most of your scatterbrained ideas were utterly ridiculous, and I had a pounding migraine within five minutes of trying to make sense of what little I understood.“
It was a relief to see Su'ong finally stop abusing the fire pit long enough to put out the smoldering chunks of wood she'd absentmindedly tossed about the camp. Even better, she was even calm enough to poke fun at the Wraith. Alan knew it was mostly thanks to Reggie's quick thinking that he'd gotten off so lightly. Whether Reggie's actions were out of a sense of companionship, or were simply calculated and enacted upon for no other reason than to improve his odds at escaping the Dungeon, it didn't change the fact he showed up to help.
That pill Reggie begrudgingly offered up for Alan's recovery was obviously something special. It would not have surprised Alan to learn it actually caused Reggie physical pain to part with such a treasure. Yet, without it, Alan felt it safe to assume that he'd still be a motionless heap lying mostly defenseless in the Plains Zone. There was no denying the effectiveness of the Jade Dryad Blood Pill.
Aside from Alan's unease about the strange fairy in his Core, there weren't even any noticeable side effects. It would have to be enough that at least for now, that eerie being felt neither hostile nor dangerous. That reasoning made it easier to stomach the unwanted intruder although he also knew enough to know that in reality he didn't actually know anything about Realm Seed's or Nature Spirit's. He just didn't have sufficient information to make any worthwhile conclusions. For all he knew, that fairy could be actively trying to cause him harm and the only way he'd know before it was too late was if the System saw fit to notify him of the issue.
As things currently stood, the Nature Spirit was still trying to find a way to come into contact with that green orb it was so fascinated with. Alan was doing his best to ignore the anxiety that came with having an unknown entity within what was likely the last place a trespasser should be allowed. Yet that was easier said than done when he could clearly feel faint pulses of energy radiating outwards through the depths of his Spirit as the mindless being impacted the inner wall of his Realm Seed again and again.
Providing the Jade Dryad Blood Pill was just what the doctor order to get Alan back up and moving, but Reggie's generosity hadn't stopped there. It was plain to see the Wraith wasn't overly fond of Su'ong, and neither was she his biggest fan. Yet regardless of his personal feelings he still stuck around to give her someone to vent her worries to.
Like it or not, Alan knew he'd fucked up. He felt like an asshole for making Su'ong worry. He had no idea how or why his connection to her had been temporarily severed, but Reggie had said something about sensing Alan's presence consumed by intense flames, so he had no reason to doubt her words. In hindsight the entire situation was avoidable, but hindsight wasn't going to get him out of this current predicament.
I really should've at least tried to ask her for help instead of being stubborn… At least she's talking to me… That's gotta count for something right?
Although he knew he could've done things differently, all Alan could do was own up to his mistakes and try to work at communicating better moving forward. A part of him was still clinging to the idea he'd made the correct choice regardless of how shitty he felt for making Su'ong worry. That Scumbag was fast as fuck, and if it had managed to trap both himself as well as Su'ong, there was no way he could've enacted such a risky method of escape.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Although there were many things Alan would've preferred to do, of which satiating the growls of complaint from his stomach, inspecting his Personalized Body Tempering Manual and putting his unused Class Upgrade Points to work were the most prevalent, he knew the least he could do was provide his companions an explanation. He briefly considered embellishing the truth just enough to make his decision seem a bit less rash and idiotic, but that idea was discarded within the span if a heartbeat.
When taking into account the results of his most recent and needless fib, Alan bit back his first response, simply telling the truth instead. There was no way he was about to unwittingly sign himself up to eat another sapient creature. One was already too many.
For a moment Alan closed his eyes to gather his scattered thoughts. Ready to make his case, he pulled up his PSA and went over the list of his most recent notifications with Reggie and Su'ong as he detailed the unexpected conflict with the Scumbag.
While he was at it, Alan also let them in on his numerous theories about what the notifications meant. Noticing their skepticism, Alan then spent several minutes trying to put into words what he'd experienced after eating the Jade Dryad Blood Pill.
By the time Alan finished his explanation, he'd been forced to stop mid-sentence so he could answer about a thousand random questions. It was irritating, but he picked up quite a bit of information in the process. First, and most importantly was Body Tempering. From what both Reggie and Su'ong let on, Body Tempering was an ancient form of Elemental body modification. When perfected, it could allow a mortal to stand on equal footing with a Cultivator. At least for a period of time.
Unlike Cultivation, or to a lesser extent, System Evolutions, Body Tempering didn't increase the practitioner's longevity. When the two met in the arena of battle, unless the Body Tempering practitioner managed to kill the Cultivator outright, which from what he'd gathered thus far was next to impossible to accomplish by most conventional means, the Cultivator could just go into seclusion for a few decades, heal up, and wait for their tempered adversary to die of old age.
From what he learned, Tempering one's skin with flames, and sometimes caustic poison, was how to lay down the foundation for the Body Tempering journey. This would increase the body's first layer of defense, the skin. Each subsequent tempering would be focused on improving another part of his body.
If Alan chose to walk this path to its end, he could look forward to tempering his organs, muscles, tendons, bones, marrow and veins, his mind, and finally, his Spirit. As to whether or not he would have to temper his Core, or Realm Seed, that was a topic that Reggie and Su'ong weren't able to see eye to eye on.
Another subject of contention was the proper order he was supposed to temper his body in, and what element pertained to which tempering. One thing they both seemed sure of was that no matter the purity of a single wisp of Primordial Fire, that shouldn't have been enough to provide Alan with a basic tempering Title, let alone a tempering so complete it came with a Unique Title.
As they bickered back and forth like an old married couple, Alan was finalizing a theory for why the tempering had been so thorough. He was fine with admitting he was no expert on Elemental Tempering or anything else for that matter, but the way he saw things, ever since he'd stepped into the Sandstone Palace Dungeon his body had been subjected to copious amounts of fire.
From the ignorant usage of spells, the Dungeon itself interfering with said spells, and his body being ravaged both inside and out by Demonic flames, Alan had realistically been tempering his Body for quite some time without even knowing it. It was only because he completed the first step in the process and the System saw fit to acknowledge the accomplishment that learned of it at all.
Alan gasped, leaning back on his tail for support, unwittingly drawing all eyes to himself as he suddenly remembered his Hidden System Quest reward. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't help but feel it odd that even after showing Reggie and Su'ong his most recent notices, they hadn't so much as asked to see the personalized Body Tempering Manual before comparing random theories and conjecture.
And it wasn't only them that were affected by whatever was going on. Now that he was actively considering his reward, Alan clearly remembered being eager to memorize every single word in the tempering manual. Until he revealed his notifications, his mind had been erratically fluctuating between wondering if Su'ong saved him any food, ideas of how he'd use the three Class Upgrade Points he was currently sitting on, and more than anything else, a deep desire to learn all he could from his tempering manual. If personalized meant what he thought it did, this was a method formulated specifically for him.
Those three subjects were practically all he had been able to focus on, but somehow once he began recounting the Scumbag situation, his brain had blanked out the entire train of thought with him being none the wiser.
“Are you alright Alan?" Reggie asked, cautiously taking a step back. “You look like you just soiled your pants…” Another step back. “Time is growing short, but perhaps we should continue this conversation after you've washed up?"
“No, Reggie. I didn't shit myself,” Alan said, barely holding back the urge to kick the Wraith squarely in the nuts, or whatever alien sensitive bits were nestled between his legs. Instead, he changed the subject entirely. “I know this might seem a little odd, but I have another question… Can either of you remember what the reward for the fire tempering was?”
“The reward was twenty-five hundred experience." Su'ong stated factually while giving Alan a puzzled look. Reggie merely shrugged his shoulders and grunted. It was a confusing turn of events, but it fit in perfectly with what Alan was currently experiencing. For some reason, the System was going out of its way to keep the Body Tempering Manual concealed. And while he didn't understand why, it led Alan to believe his best bet was to keep it to himself for the time being.
No matter how he considered it, there was no rational reason to keep it from Su'ong. It's not like she was going to try and steal it. Perhaps that wasn't the point. Reggie on the other hand…
What if the System isn't trying to hide it from Su'ong? Could it be that Reggie is the reason? Does the System think the Wraith would be unable to restrain himself from attempting to absorb and reproduce the manual? Or maybe it fears the Dungeon finding out? Fuck man... It could also have something to do with not wanting to give Tutorial Administration another reason to target me…
There were far too many possibilities to choose from, and each one had enough merit that he didn't feel comfortable taking a chance. He wasn't even willing to risk mentioning it to Su'ong through mental communication on the off chance someone could listen in.
If this manual was important enough for the System to keep secret, then Alan was going to do his best to do so as well.