In the [core], Gron is still near the monolith.
Its eyes are wide open and it recoils at the sight of my two companions. Despite the adventure cat, it's a big wimp!
“Gron, come on, they're my friends…” I hold out my hand to the cat and lower myself, sitting on my heels. Friends isn't the most correct term, but it's the one that came out spontaneously.
Ci-cin.
I feel my head spinning and struggle to keep my balance in that pose. The battle tired me.
I should undo the [Necromancy] spell but there are some things I'd like to talk about first.
As with [Cosmic regeneration], [Immortality] also works when I stop consuming [hp], [ap], or [ip]. Each value is unique (so I don't risk that using [ap] will prevent me from healing from a wound, or vice versa), however as long as [Necromancy] is active I can only get more tired.
“Friends?” Gron relaxes, its fur droops, and steps out from behind the slab.
“Yes, they are undead like the ones I summoned to hunt you.”
“Prr is there still something to fight? Why do they carry your swords?”
I smile and reach out to pick Gron up. It allows itself to be taken. I pull myself up, rocking it slightly. Gron is a nice, well-fed cat with a soft body.
“Let's say it's a long story—Awahh, how sleepy…”
“Hmm, so I don't know if that's the case…”
Ci-cin.
I walk towards my undead thralls. They look at me without saying or doing anything. They haven't said a word since the battle is over.
It seems true to me that they have a glimmer of their own will.
Mircalla spat at me contemptuously while Ilnerio eagerly claimed his revenge. What if that's not the will?
Hmm… what if it's just my projection?
Looking at them now they just seem like empty puppets.
What if it was my will that moved them? My desire to make peace with them spilling over into the undead, making them act as I wish?
HA! What a disturbing prospect!
Better not think about it!
Rather…
“For what should this not be the case?”
I stop among my undead and Gron climbs onto my shoulder. It whispers in my ear.
“There are still many deaths missing, it's true. However, before that alarm sounded and you catapulted me here… I spoke to the Leviathan and it told me that where it rests, Dal-Dazzer already rests.”
Oh, I see.
The [Leviathan] who waits in the desert is a [lv: 99] and will therefore rest beyond the Golden Doors.
Ergo.
Clear.
It cannot be otherwise.
Dal-Dazzer is past [lv: 90] and is already dead.
Ci-cin.
“How do you know?”
“Because they met. My creator has traveled beyond the normal boundaries of space and time. His science took him to the abyss and he was killed there. Prr.”
“You don't look sad.”
“I mean, I died too and, all things considered, it's nothing that serious.”
It makes me laugh.
“Pr-Prrr. What's so funny!?”
“Nothing nothing. It's just that you always act heroic and arrogant and then—he-he.”
“And then!?”
“Hahe!”
Laughing it off, I put my hands on Ilnerio and Mircalla's shoulders. They are taller than me and I feel small in their presence.
In particular Ilnerio. There must be some sort of natural difference between elves and [Bakenekro].
Ci-cin.
[Dungeon path]
The four of us reappear in the living room of the house.
Ilnerio and Mircalla remain motionless and make no expression. Gron looks around and meows.
“Of course…” it gets off my shoulder. “…here is full of fish… if I were alive I would be in heaven.”
“I don't think they'd let you do that. Some of them are as big as houses and have many levels more than you.”
While I answer I go and sit on the bed.
It's nice to find a familiar surface under my feet, the dear dust that rises as it falls onto the mattress.
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“Open.”
I open the grimoire and check.
The danger warning has disappeared. Whatever that final appearance was, it was not an imminent threat. Not for the System at least.
“N!”
“What's up?”
“You soiled the bed all over!”
“AH! I forgot to clean myself!!!”
[Dungeon path]
I appear in the river where Gron washed itself some time ago.
I go in and wipe off the pungent-smelling oil.
I get out of the water.
Ci-cin, Ci-ci-cin, Ci-cin…
I shake it from the tips of my ears to my fingers to get it dripping and then I squeeze my hair in my hands. The smell of oil hasn't gone away, but I don't mind it.
Having a smell is nice, at least for a while I can indulge in it.
[Dungeon path]
I reappear in the room. I was rushed and I'm still dripping.
Ilnerio and Mircalla are still and don't even look at me. Gron instead got on the pillow of the bed. It moves its tail up and down.
Gron too would need a bath. Now that I see it well it's clear that when I picked it up on my shoulder I messed up its fur.
“You were quick.”
“Afterwards I'll wash you too.”
“You don't trust leaving me alone? I know how to wash myself, but on more and more occasions I have found myself left alone during my adventures. Yet I have always survived.”
“It's not your survival I'm worried about.”
Relaxing my wet hair and throwing it behind my shoulders I head to Ilnerio and Mircalla.
“Aren't you saying anything?”
Mircalla grimaces. That's all.
With some dismay, I understand that my [Necromancy] [skill] is still too rudimentary. I need practice and experience.
My father possessed [Necromancy: 9] when he awakened my mother. A power no less miraculous than that which created Gron.
Hmm. But my father was [Time] type. Oh, strange…
Anyway, giving or restoring life is something granted to very few by the System.
“Awah…” I yawn and stretch my arms and back. “Okay, I'm very tired. You can go.”
At my command, the two undead dissolves. They return to blackish mush, with greenish hues. The inert matter in which they were evoked.
“Now you've dirtied the floor too. Pr-prr.”
“Gron…”
“Come on, I was joking. It is not my intention to offend you.”
Ci-cin.
“…you're a…”
♦
Despite what has happened recently, the [Emperor] still won't talk to me. When we met it only told me to leave it until last, and there is no way to make it change its decision.
There are many things I would like to ask and I try to dialogue with the most suitable fish, crustaceans, and mollusks.
However, none of them know much, even though many think they have a unique affinity with divinity.
Who knows why a god like it retired to live on a distant planet?
Maybe its role is different, although it has my System privileges, it doesn't necessarily mean it's its duty to use them.
Even now that I look at that enormous hill of dark flesh—no, I don't see it welcoming and consoling the dead.
It seems more like a ferocious being whose every gesture is dreaded.
Anyway, corpse after corpse and [Judgment] after [Judgment] I'm going up [lv].
Not only in general, but also in specific [skills] such as [Dungeon path], [Poison cloud], [Poisonous bite], [Shadow wall], and, above all, [Judgment].
Now it's at [7].
I can judge deaths together as long as their overall [lv] remains below [lv: 70].
Very comfortable.
Streamlines the procedure. Many smaller fish seem ready and don't want to waste my time. It's like everyone knows about my desire to talk to the [Leviathan].
The average rating is: [Dream].
In general, it is like this for animals and only small magical aberrations get [Nightmare].
Life goes slow and monotonous, as always.
As if nothing strange happened.
Even the normal deaths continue to rain and I witness other events of extinction of insect-like beings, or in any case autonomous concerning my authority as [Empress].
Ci-cin.
“AAH! How many are still missing!?” I put my hands in my hair and drop to my knees in the sand.
“If you keep depressing yourself like that, you'll never stop. Prr.”
“Gron, what are you saying!? Look, you are part of those ‘how many’.”
The cat digs a small hole in the ash and sticks its nose in. It seems intent on ignoring my provocation.
“However, it is true that the ash covers the smell. It is full of dead fish, yet all you have to do is dig a little and every smell disappears.”
“Gron what are you doing here? Why aren't you at home?”
The cat raises its head.
“Well… I'm not sure how to tell you, but… I would like to go and see my creator.”
“Hmm, you've seen the limits of my necromancy, haven't you? Even bringing you to him, I could not give him the flowing voice of life.”
“It does not matter. Well, it's really difficult to admit, understand me—it's a journey that I would like to face alone.”
Ci-cin.
“Eh?”
“I would like to take the journey alone, level up. I will arrive independently from Dal and will be able to summon him with the acquired power.”
“How come? But then can you, do it?”
Gron nods.
“I can do it. I changed my job: Chef, useless in this world, to Priest. I put Priest: N that, among the gods I know, you are the one for me. I have already unlocked Necromancy and Poisonous bite. I lost my culinary skills, never mind.”
One moment! What is it babbling about!?
“Can you change job!?”
Already having two [jobs] is rare, being able to change them is the first time I've heard of it.
Quietly, Gron licks its paw. “It's an Explorer skill. Since each land has its own needs, it is normal that I need a subordinate job interchangeable with the surrounding environment.”
What a remarkable [skill]. Who knows how many things I could do, like [Bakenekro] if I were an [Explorer]… I would certainly venture into those caves closed to the dominion of [Empress] and then…
“Hold on, you pass the new job… but you want to explore the dungeon alone? It will take millions of years and then, even if you leveled, exceeding fifty would put you in antagonism with the System. I should stop you in that case.”
Gron seems to shrug, as much as a cat can.
“I am in no hurry and then, as your priest, I can always reveal my position to you with Prayer. You with Dungeon path would reach me in an instant.”
I look around. The desolate expanse of fish. I raise my nose to the sky; the bubbling membrane is about to rain something big. The orange twilight on the horizon, the [Leviathan] mountain casting a long shadow.
Melancholy, a slight tremor takes possession of me.
“Do you want to leave me alone?”
“Prr… I'm not ready to die, but I can't stay here forever either. There is one last thing I would like to do, one last undertaking.”
Ci-cin.
My gaze falls on the house. The door is open, I know there is a trapdoor in the room even if I don't see it.
Gron is at [lv] high enough, that it can enter.
“You will find only darkness, desolation, and forces of nature waiting for you…”
“I will pray to ease the loneliness of both of us, prrr.”
“Sure…”
It won't do it.
I know it won't.
Gron speaks to convince me, to reassure me. What matters to it is leaving. It lived years away from its creator without suffering. What claims can I make? Reproach Gron for not judging it immediately.
Have I listened to it? To have played with it?
The more I think about it, the more indebted I feel.
But I know that's not the case. We spent time together and had fun.
Now we have to say goodbye.
It's so difficult…
“Why…?”
“Prr?”
“Why did you tell me this? Your level is high enough, you could have snuck in alone… with all the work I have to do, I'm sure I would have noticed your disappearance too late.”
Gron turns over in the sand, then walks forward and steps over some fish. It turns to me.
“Because we are friends. Despite everything, I have a code of honor. If you want to stop me, do it now, or let me go. In any case, I want to give you the choice, I owe it to you. I don't want you to have regrets. You have been very kind to me and I know I have asked for a lot.”
I hold back a sob. I feel my eyes watering and I clap my ears a couple of times.
I try to stick my chest out and give Gron a proud nod.
It seems to laugh like cats. Under the fur, masking it with «Prr-prrr.»
It leaves.
It becomes an increasingly smaller orange and black dot until it reaches the house where it disappears.
Softly, after a while, I hear the words coming out of me. “Goodbye, Gron. I hope you find the adventure you were meant for.”