Planar Linguist [Rare] [Soul Forged] [Partial Integration]

Your experiences with a multitude of entities from different planes of existence have primed you for this skill. This skill allows the user to understand and speak all spoken and written languages of all entities.

Partial Integration: The integration of this skill is incomplete. Possibly due to shell incompatibility or misguided implementation. Use of this skill may be unwise depending on the level of integration. The creator of this skill applied several contingencies in case of this occurrence that will attempt to complete the integration with your core.

Integration: 98%

Kal sighed. He knew from the moment he started soul forging that the skill would be a hard one. He guessed he should be happy that he managed to keep it at rare. The partial integration was concerning but seeing that the integration was so close to completion it sounded like it would be fine to use but he did wonder what effects it would have if it wasn’t fully integrated.

Honestly, that barely registered in Kal’s mind. Now that he had a chance to think, his thoughts immediately returned to Quotz’s words and anger rose up in his chest. His family was in danger.

It was something he had known was a possibility but he never thought a god would be so petty to go after his family since he was out of reach.

“If they are hurt. I am going to” Kal ground his teeth, “Do what Kal? Kill a god? Don’t be an idiot…”

Kal seethed. There was nothing he could do from here. He was still trapped and even if Dalen and the others were close to getting him back home, gods know how long he will still have to wait. He may not be able to kill Dhinir but he could certainly kill his fucking followers.

“Kalum? Are you ok?”

The voice startled Kal and he turned to see the still wounded Nyx. She was wiping sleep from her eyes as she looked down at him. Guilt at the sight of her wounds rose up to replace the anger Kal felt.

“Uh, Yeah I’m fine. Did something wake you?”

Nyx nodded, “I felt your wrath. It startled me awake.”

Kal winced, ”Great Kal, even if they're asleep they can feel the monster in you…” Kal shook his head, “What about Ander?”

“He didn’t seem to notice,” Nyx smiled, “I can stand watch for a while if you like. When did you last sleep?”

Kal shook his head, “I’d rather avoid it for now. As for when, uh… Maybe two months?”

Nyx laughed quietly, a sound that Kal just realized he had missed but then she quietened, “Wait… You’re serious!?”

Kal hadn’t really thought that hard about his sleep requirements, it had quickly become less important the stronger he got. The use of his longevity cycle had dragged out the need even further but he would need sleep eventually. However, even if he could sleep, Kal didn’t want to.

It felt like a waste of time, time he could better spend improving himself with Soul Forge or fighting. That wasn’t the only thing stopping him though. The nightmares that had plagued him for so long back in Fallen Kartha made him wary. To Spit in God’s Eyes the ring that hid him from even the eyes of the gods should protect him from the gods memory manipulations but that didn’t stop his mind from summoning them on its own.

Kal still didn’t know what Dhinir did to him but just thinking about sleep conjured images of the writhing wall of gore reaching out towards him. Calling for him. It was something he would have to deal with sooner rather than later but right now he had enough problems to deal with. He couldn’t control when the memories returned while he was awake but he could avoid the sleep-induced ones for a time.

“I suppose it does sound like a long time but trust me. I will be fine for a few more days at least. You should rest while you can,” Kal said, shrugging off her shock.

Nyx’s eyes were still wide for several seconds as Kal watched the gears in her spin. He could tell she still wanted to talk about his sleep but whether it was her foolish ideas of his supposed importance or fear she held it back.

“I would prefer to stand watch with you.”

Kal sighed but nodded and Nyx took a seat next to him. They sat silently for a time while Kal gazed out into the blue hue outside of the cave. He could practically feel Nyx’s desperation to speak to him about something or other but Kal didn’t feel like talking about whatever her cult wanted with him.

Then a thought came to him. He remembered seeing several half-elves and even dwarves among the cult’s number.

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“I saw several dwarves and half-elves among your cult’s members on Fyborh’s Path. Do you happen to know a language other than basic?” Kal asked, turning his gaze to Nyx.

Nyx looked taken aback by both the sudden ending of the silence and the off-hand question, “Language?... oh, ah, yes. I know a good bit of both elvish and dwarvish as well as the order’s hand-cant.”

“That’s good. I have just acquired a skill that should allow me to understand and speak other languages. Can you say a few phrases so we can see if it works?”

“Just acquired? At level seventy-two?” Nyx asked, her eyes lightening up slightly.

“Damn, she is observant…”

“I haven’t exactly had anyone to speak to for a while now,” Kal said

“Of course…” Her face and tone were enough to know she didn’t buy it but she nodded and spoke.

Kal felt the skill activate instantly and as Nyx spoke the short harsh words of what somehow immediately recognized as dwarvish smoothed out in his mind and the meaning became clear.

“A mead would be good right now.”

Kal smirked at Nyx’s choice of phrase and said, “Agreed. That’s another thing I’ve missed.”

Strangely he found the words he actually spoke were not in basic and Planar Linguist flared as it guided him through the words of another tongue.

It was a strange feeling but with each word, it felt more natural.

Nyx smiled, “Either you know dwarvish or the skill works just fine. Even better than fine if I’m honest. You sounded like a native speaker.”

“That’s good but I still want to test it further. Can you say a few more phrases in quick succession and if you can, switch between elvish and dwarvish.”

Over the next few minutes, Nyx went through her dictionary of random elvish and dwarvish phrases. At first, they were all fairly basic proverbials like, “A watched man never plays”, and “Memory is the treasure of the mind” but after some coaxing for more, she started saying the kinds of things you’d only expect to hear in the dingiest of bars.

For some reason, she seemed embarrassed about the odd curses and innuendos but honestly, Kal was too focused on the workings of the skill to care about the actual phrases.

So far the skill worked fine. Even when Nyx switched between the two different languages there was no kind of delay or loss of comprehension at all and the few times he responded he noticed by default he spoke in the language Planar Linguist last detected. It was possible for him to ignore that default and reply in elvish to a dwarvish phrase but it didn’t feel as smooth.

Kal was pretty sure that was something that would become less of a problem as he went but it did lead him to wonder what was missing with the partial integration. Maybe all it was was the ease of control, or maybe there was a hard limit on how many speakers he could handle at a time. Either way, for now, he was happy with the test run and glad he had chosen the skill.

Kal raised his hand to pause Nyx as she struggled to think of another phrase, “That’s enough. Thanks for the help. It was good to see how effective the skill is, now my next test will be to see if I can understand the language the demons use.”

“It was an honor Lo- Kalum,” Nyx replied.

She caught herself but it still made Kal grimace. He ignored it for now and they both fell back into their silent watch while Ander slept. Kal wanted to head back out and start his next hunting session, something he hadn’t had a chance to do properly since The Trial of the Slayer but with Nyx and Ander literally tied to him he didn’t think it was a wise thing to do.

He would be dragging an unascended boy and wounded and severely handicapped woman into combat against tough opponents but at the same time if Kal knew anything about the abyss it was that no place stayed safe for long. They were lucky an event hadn't spontaneously started urging the demons to hunt them down.

Well, at least Kal thought that hadn’t happened yet. He hadn’t been on this layer for very long so it still remained to be seen. Either way, Kal wouldn’t begin a demon slaughter without finding a relatively safe place for Nyx and Ander but also didn’t want to bring any heat down on his head when he had no idea what the general strength of this layer was.

From what he had already seen the average level was much higher than Fallen Kartha and all he had slain so far were beast-type demons. Judging by what the hound demon had said and the frankly surprisingly common seeker demons, odds are that seeker shadows were common as well.

Kal was confident in killing them one on one but if all the demons were gathering for this “Great Task” the strongest intelligent demons were probably there, probably at one of the towers.

“Kalum?”

Nyx’s voice dragged Kal from his thoughts and looked over to her,” Yeah?”

“How did you survive? When you were first taken?” Nyx asked and by her expression, Kal could see she was expecting him to evade the question.

He thought about it for a moment. At first, he had wanted to keep her knowledge of him to a minimum. She was a member of a kidnapping cult that apparently worshiped Fyborh or something. The latter was something he could forgive them for even though his memories of the man or god were few and far between; he now felt a kinship with Fyborh. The former however, he would not.

But was it really worth keeping the first person he had seen properly in months at arm's length? Even if Dalen and the cult were close to getting him back home the time differential could easily drag it out for a month or more assuming it was similar to the difference in Fallen Kartha.

No, he didn’t think it was. If he was going to be spending a significant amount of time with Nyx and Ander hiding everything would be a pain. He wouldn’t tell her everything but he would tell her some of it at least. But first, he wanted to know more about the person who had saved his life once and was now trapped alongside him.

Kal sighed,” Ok I will tell you what happened but first I want to hear more about you and your order. If Dalen hasn’t been talking shit since I last saw him you should know my feelings about what your order has done.”

Nyx paled slightly but her expression firmed and she nodded,” Of course, I understand some of the order’s actions are unsavory, to say the least and I will not defend those who ignore the initiative set by elders.”

Kal frowned but nodded,” Fine, let's start with that then. Why did you take Harlm’s boy?”