Chapter 53: Fade
Fade stared up at the underside of the great castle high above him, then glanced at the boy next to him. He wasn’t sure what to make of Crimson. He seemed very popular in Falst, something Fade had never experienced. He had at least one reliable comrade, Fade had always been alone.
He was a bit jealous of the man, who seemed younger than him.
Of course, for Fade, even jealousy was rage. Since getting his [Blessing] the gods had cursed him beyond what he was forced to live through each day. They broke open his brain and forced his very being to drink in the endless rage. It seeped from his brain, down his spine, and through his chest.
He spent the first 6 months of his time after getting his [Blessing] in prison. Every time he’d gotten out, he’d immediately picked another fight. His level had been low at the time, so he wasn’t a threat even if he had flown into violent rampages, but whether it was bar brawls or fights in alleys, he still managed to find his way back into prison.
In a way, he’d started to consider that time a blessing. He’d been able to learn to control himself to an extent. It wasn’t perfect, he had to vent the rage frequently or it would continue to build up until it overflowed, but he could live in society. As he refined his rage, not even minor slights would be enough to cause him to lose control. It actually became a driving force at one point. His desperate need to vent his rage had caused him to spend a lot of time in dungeons, and his level had grown quickly.
He had grabbed himself a Mid-Grade [Tenacious Guardian Class], and had been proud that it was something better than Low-Grade. In his home town, hardly anyone had a Mid-Grade or High-Grade [Class], so it had been an empty and worthless pride.
One that was swallowed by rage, of course.
At 17 years old, Fade had probably broken records for fastest person to reach Lv.25 from Lv.1. There had been some others to reach Lv.25 in a year, but six months was practically unheard of.
He was going to throw that all away for someone he was jealous of, and hated against his own will. He’d agreed more or less agreed impulsively, and had hidden his curse from his new party members by disguising it beneath another fatal flaw.
But…
Fade reminisced about the fight he’d had with Crimson during the open category. He’d barely managed to keep his rage in check, almost losing it a couple times, but at the same time…to fight an opponent that slippery and [Skilled] was awe inspiring. Part of him was willing to join the party just to keep access to a sparring partner like that.
That was all before mentioning Crimson’s promise to help him get a better [Class]. As far as Fade was concerned, Crimson’s existence was proof that it was possible. A Lv.1 kid against men and women more than 10 Levels above him shouldn’t stand a chance in any universe - even with the forcibly equalized stats, but he had won regardless.
Well, in the end he wouldn’t regret this decision. It was a hard one, but as he watched Crimson supporting his drinking buddy of the evening Verity, he decided to move quickly.
There were a few [Rituals] for resetting the [Blessing]. The most commonly used one was one that got rid of a single [Sub-Class]. The least commonly used one was a total [Blessing] reset. There were a few [Rituals] between those two extremes. Some targeted specific [Skills], others targeted other aspects of the [Blessing]. There was even one that would only get rid of [Classes] and leave everything else intact.
As he walked to the Temple to get the recipe, Fade mused on which [Ritual] he would ask to use. Frankly, there wasn’t much difference for him, whether it was a full reset or just the [Classes], he only had a [Skill] or two that hadn’t come from his [Classes]. They would be easy enough for him to re-earn, and maybe he could get better ones.
It was late at night, and though the Temple proper was closed to the public, there were some [Priests] milling about the plaza to help anyone who needed it, so he approached one and asked, “Could I conduct the [Ritual] to reset my [Blessing]?”
The [Priest], actually a young Priestess, looked at him with interest, and said, “You’re Fade, one of the winners of the tournament, right? Why would you reset your [Blessing]? You just got some rewards from the God of War, so why would you want to throw it all away?”
Fade grinned and she blushed, “I got an invitation to join a party, and I want to be at their level!”
Still red in the face, she asked, “Oh, really? Whose party?”
“Crimson and Verity.”
“Oh!” The slightly enraptured look disappeared from her face, changing to one of excitement.
“He’s so strange, isn’t he? So powerful, but he spends a lot of time cleaning and taking delivery requests. There were a lot of us in the Temple hoping he would invite us, but even the ones who got directly asked were turned down. If he asked you to join, then you must be very powerful too!”
Fade shook his head, forcing a chuckle and a smile through the rage that wanted to twist his face into a scowl or a sneer, and said, “Well, I might be now, but I’m about to throw it all away. He’s promised me that he would help me become even stronger if you can believe it.”
She nodded, “Of course I can! More of us have been getting better [Classes] because of his advice. I can’t even think of a new [Priest] in the past year who took advice from him and got anything less than a Mid-Grade [Class].” Her chest puffed up with pride, and she continued, “I got his help too, you know. I was assigned to cleaning duty with him a lot, so I got to chat with him about it. Because of him, I got a High-Grade [Class]!”
Fade listened with interest, fascinated that this random Priestess would speak so highly of Crimson. She asked him to wait a moment, then raced to the Temple to complete his request.
The [Ritual] could be conducted alone, but for religious reasons it would be better to perform it in the presence of a [Priest]. Fade debated with himself for a moment before deciding that he was willing to do that. He was far from faithful, hardly ever praying or even respecting the gods, and why should he? They had cursed him. His hometown in general wasn’t very religious either, so he had very little exposure to the gods or their worship. After the recent experience of hearing a god, The God of War, speak through Crimson, he figured that it might be a good idea to try a little harder.
Hopefully they would be willing to overlook the lifetime he’d spent cursing at them.
While he waited, another [Priest] approached him, and he struck up another conversation, and brought up Crimson once more to see how the man would react. The man had good things to say as well, but there was something odd about the compliments. Frowning, Fade ended up visiting with several more of the [Priests] milling about, asking about Crimson each time.
To wit, each man and woman would have something to say about Crimson that was very flattering, but in the same breath that they spoke their comments they also insulted him. Words like ‘strange,’ ‘freak,’ ‘odd,’ and ‘monster’ were accompanied with complimentary words like, ‘hard-working,’ ‘brilliant,’ ‘kind,’ and ‘spiritually powerful.’
Fade didn’t get too long to dwell on this incongruous set of interactions before the Priestess returned, a small bag in hand. He met up with her and accepted the bag. Inside there was two [Ritual] materials: a [Holy Shard] and a [Death Shard].
He dumped them out onto his palm and inspected them in the dim light. The materials were very cheap, the cost for the two of them would barely be enough to cover a couple drinks of cheap alcohol, but something this small and insignificant represented two doors to Fade. The first led to his destruction, the second led to his dreams.
Under the watchful eyes of the Priestess and a few other [Priests] who had joined to form a circle around him and provide a modicum of privacy, he conducted the [Ritual], and for some strange reason, he felt lighter. Like a load had been taken off his shoulders. The feeling only lasted for a moment before he got hit with a wave of pain and nausea from his stats abruptly dropping down to where they’d started. He staggered, and one of the bigger [Priests] stepped forward to brace him, helping him barely keep his feet.
The [Priest] asked Fade where his Inn was, but his Inn had burned and was no longer open, though he’d saved all of his possessions safely. He hadn’t yet worked out where to stay, so he sheepishly said that he had just joined a new party, and didn’t know where they were staying. After they sorted exactly whose party he joined, the bigger [Priest] whisked him off, taking him to the Inn where Crimson was staying.
After a moment of discussion, Fade crashed on the floor of Crimson’s room with his permission, borrowed blankets cradling his agonized form, and he slept deeply. More deeply than he ever had in his life.
—————
The next week was a blur for Fade. He spent a couple days coming in and out of a fitful sleep before his body had finally recovered enough for him to move about stiffly.
In that time, he’d had a strange dream of a bodiless God in a dark void, had gotten a new [Title: Blessings of Trans’Du’Niir], and barely got to see Crimson at all. The first time he’d seen Crimson after that first night, the too thin kid had practically skipped into the room while whistling. Fade hadn’t been coherent enough to ask until later, but apparently he’d been paid a lot of money for a request from the Guild.
“A stupid amount of Royals.” As Crimson had put it for him.
When asked what a ‘stupid amount’ was, the answer he got was somewhere in the ballpark of 50k Royals. It was more money than Fade had ever seen in his life, though only by a little bit.
Aside from Crimson, there were two other people he got to see regularly. The first was Verity, who he expected to see, and the second was a wolfkin girl who he was introduced to after a couple days. Her name was Rhea, and Fade was fascinated by her.
He had an appearance that was appealing to most women, and he could even get good deals when buying stuff if the clerk was a woman. He didn’t think much of Verity’s lack of interest. Something about her made it seem natural that she wouldn’t be attracted to him, but Rhea was odd. She had stiffened up at the sight of him, something he’d seen plenty of times before, but instead of then greeting him with a lovestruck look, she had growled at him.
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He had no idea what to make of her.
—————
Crimson had spent the last week leading an expedition team through the secret passages under Falst. They were exploring a few hours at a time each day, their slow progress the result of extremely detailed mapping offered by the team. Even with the maps, they still needed him as a guide to get through the passages. Many overlapped each other, going over or under each other, so even with an accurate map it was extremely difficult to read. It was much faster and more convenient for them to defer to him to lead the way.
For the most part, it was quiet, with him guiding the team through different tunnels, first leading them straight to the Astral Library, then following their whims this way and that as they explored in a seemingly random pattern. After two days of wandering, they’d asked him to lead them to any landmarks he could think of. They’d seemed defeated when they asked him to do that, and the only explanation he received as to why was that the passages were “more complex than expected.”
It was a good thing they asked, as he’d been warned not to use them unsupervised anymore, but there was a place he wanted to inspect.
There were hundreds of minor entrances into the secret passages, but of all those minor entrances, there were only five ‘major’ entrances. The first led to the fountain at the center of Falst, the second let to the Guild, the third led to the Graveyard, the fourth led to the main passage that went in a large loop around the entire city, and the fifth and final one led to the Astral Library. He’d led them there first as it represented a security risk to the castle, and he figured he’d get in trouble if he held off on showing it off.
Now, those were the entrances, where did they all lead? To a door, a little taller than him, and very wide. That door was the most likely suspect in Crimson’s mind of the origin of the menorah that caused the riots in Falst. He wasn’t worried about what was behind the door, he was accompanied by the Uluu Richard, who was Lv.83, so almost any danger would be blown away by him instantly.
Now, assuming that the door was the source of the menorah, then that small metal piece that Damus had stolen while he was in Lupaken was the key to that door he’d been wondering about. He’d been informed that it had a cylindrical center, which was probably the key that was meant to be used to get through the passages normally. Crimson’s method of bypassing the [Mana Locks] using his [Mana Pincushion] technique was a surprisingly effective substitute, but not enough to get through the main door he’d been wondering about for a year.
Once they arrived, Crimson’s suspicions were validated. The once empty lock in the center of the door was filled with bits of silvery metal, matching the description he’d been given of the stolen item.
The ground was scraped from where the door had opened outwards, but that was the only other sign that it had been opened. Even when Richard pulled on it, it remained sealed shut. Whatever Damus had done in there, the room had sealed itself off afterwards.
The rest of the exploration was pretty typical, but part of him couldn’t stop lamenting the loss of the Astral Library. It was a location in the castle, and while he didn’t need to bring up how much time he’d spent up there, he was certain he wouldn’t be allowed back in the future. Not without very special permission at least.
Aside from the exploration, he was very happy with the payout he’d gotten. The Guild Master, Lars, had called him in, changed his rank to Bronze from Brass, and provided two separate rewards and a request. The first was for reporting the first kill of Mulgis, Imp Overlord, and that was worth 15k Royals. It wasn’t a common event in the Falst branch, but it was Guild Rules to pay a lot for a detailed explanation of a first boss kill in a Godmade dungeon. The second was a payout for finding Damus which allowed the madness to end. That one was worth 35k.
It was a stupid amount of money, but he was then further promised another 20k for showing all of the secret passages. It would probably take a full month, but he couldn’t earn 20k in a month with his old methods, so it would be time well spent.
He even got weekends off.
Unfortunately, Crimson ran into a very emotionally difficult problem. He’d just gotten a windfall of 50k Royals. Selling the drops they’d gotten from their first dungeon trip - and splitting it evenly with Verity - got him 63 Royals. Added to his preexisting savings, he had about 60k Royals to his name. He really wanted to burn through it all buying new gear, and most especially high quality weapons. However, he gritted his teeth and held himself back.
He could buy weapons and armor right now, but with his [Blade Spirit] elevating any sword he held, he could wait a bit more, and buy a higher leveled sword. It was difficult to be patient, but he could only grin and bear it.
It was actually fascinating for him to note that his love of swords outweighed his hatred of spending money. In his right mind, even thinking of dropping a couple hundred Royals put him in a foul mood, and here he was thinking of spending 50k. The phrase “easy come, easy go” was starting to make a lot more sense to him after this emotional battle.
There was one thing during this week that excited him even more than that windfall though, and it was a small thing, but both Fade and Rhea had reported to him that they had a weird dream and a new [Title] after they’d woken up. Raften had accepted both of them as his party members.
Crimson could only be thrilled.
At the end of the first week, on this world’s equivalent of Friday, Crimson sat down with everyone in his party for the first time. Verity to his right, Rhea to his left, and Fade across from him as they sat on the floor in his room.
He first looked at Fade and asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Better, I’ll be back in full fighting shape in a few days.” Fade responded comfortably.
He turned to Rhea, “When is your birthday again?”
“Next week.” She responded with a big grin.
He grinned back. It would work out well that both Fade and Rhea were working toward their [Class] at the same time. It would give them the opportunity to compete and encourage each other like he and Verity had. He wanted one more party member, but unless he had a reason to recruit another, they wouldn’t get the same opportunity to compete with someone on their level.
“Okay, I expect you both to get training as soon as possible after you’ve recovered. Our goals aren’t as pedestrian as a mere High-Grade [Class], I want to help you both achieve a Hidden-Grade [Class]. We need to determine what kind of [Class] you want so we can set goals to help you get a [Class] of that kind of Grade. Rhea, you still thinking about what you want to do?”
She nodded, seeming a bit frustrated.
“Okay, keep thinking about it. I want one more party member, so choose whatever you want to do, and I’ll recruit someone for that last spot to fill a need. Though it’ll probably need to be some kind of ranged or magic-using [Class].”
Verity chimed in, “What about Mortimer then? He’s got a magic [Class], and it’s both powerful and unique.”
“Do you know what Grade it is?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s High-Grade.”
“Do you think he’d be willing to discard it to try for a better Grade?”
“I don’t know, I can ask though.”
“Please do.”
She nodded, then leaned back, seeming pleased.
That could be a problem solved provided that all goes well. There was just one last order of business for this mini meeting. He reached into his [Inventory] and pulled out the [Skill Stones] that neither he nor Verity had touched. [Cut] and [Fling].
Showing them, he asked, “Do either of you two want these [Skills]? Verity and I don’t have a use for them.”
Rhea immediately held out her hand, “I’ll take them if you’re offering.”
“[Cut] is only useful for claw-type weapons, and [Fling] seems to be used for slings.”
“Then I guess I’ll use a claw weapon. I’ll try one out at the Guild tomorrow and see if I like it or not.”
Crimson shrugged, then handed her both of the [Skill Stones]. He did glance at Fade to see if there were any objections, but like both Crimson and Verity, he didn’t care about the [Skills] despite displaying some initial excitement at the sight of the [Skill Stones].
Rhea tucked them away, and Crimson turned to Fade, “So, are you after another [Guardian Class]?”
He nodded, “Yeah, I think it’ll help me most as I try to become a hero.”
Rhea sniggered at that, and his expression immediately turned hateful before he forced it back to neutral under Crimson’s watchful gaze. He seemed to be a lot more on edge than he had a few days ago. A little less in control.
Crimson’s eyes narrowed. He’d need to keep a close eye on that. Fade had demonstrated that he could control it, and more importantly Crimson could see how much he wanted to control it and how hard he worked to do so. It was the main reason he was still willing to give Fade a chance, despite the potential danger.
“You can laugh,” Fade said darkly, but with a composed expression, “but heroes are the best. They will always stand up for the weak, and no matter how many times they’re knocked down, they get back up again until they win.”
Crimson nodded, “Ergo the [Guardian Class], a VIT based defensive [Class] focused on regaining lost health as opposed to not losing it to begin with.”
Fade nodded, “I considered [Defender] for a while too, but the issue I saw with people who had it was that they became useless quickly as the damage added up. They became too reliant on [Healers], and quickly got beaten down once they lost that [Healer].”
“You could train it to the extreme,” Crimson noted, “Get it to the point where you don’t ever take damage from anything.”
Fade snorted at that, then said, “Sure, but there’s levels between 1 and 100. I need something that can carry me there.”
“Fair enough.” Crimson murmured, inspecting Fade.
After a moment, he said, “Give me a few days to do research, and get me a list of as many [Skills] as you can remember from the [Class Skills] that you got to choose from. I’ll create a list of goals for you that will guarantee that you get a Hidden-Grade [Class] by the end of it. I also highly suggest you keep a close eye on you [Blessings of Trans’Du’Niir] and let me know as it develops.”
Speaking of which, he opened his [Blessing], ignoring a couple alerts, and inspected his [Blessings of Trans’Du’Niir].
—————
-[Blessings of Trans’Du’Niir]: [Fortune], [Tolerance], [Mana Sensitivity], [Language], [Influence]
—————
[Tolerance] would explain his pain tolerance. [Mana Sensitivity] spoke for itself, and [Language] is probably the reason why he could learn new languages so quickly. Raften had told him that these [Blessings] would take an inherent talent that he possessed, and enhance it to a supernatural extent. So, by that logic, maybe [Fortune] would explain why his luck with enemy drops was so good? His LUC was impossibly high to begin with, but it didn’t fully explain how much he saw for rewards.
Verity had told him that she expected a single common drop for every two enemies she killed, but he hadn’t yet killed an enemy without it dropping something for him. This could explain it.
He still had no explanation for [Influence]. He hadn’t notice its affect in any way, but he’d keep looking.
Verity chimed in, “How many did Raften say would we get?”
“Five.”
She nodded, then said, “I see three right now. [Keen] which apparently boosts my PER stat, [Vigor], which allows me to recover from Ailments more quickly, and [Aura], which boosts my [Aura Viewing Skill].”
Crimson nodded, and Fade chimed in, “I see one. It’s called [Entice], and it boosts my CHA stat.”
Well, there had been a very firm pattern established. The first [Blessing] was related to a stat, which meant that [Fortune] was ‘blessing’ his LUC stat. With that in mind, he asked, “Did you see a jump in your stats when that [Blessing] settled in?”
Verity and Fade shook their heads. That meant that his LUC stat was likely naturally that high, so it had another affect that he couldn’t yet see. Again, his best guess was the enemy drops, but it might have other effects.
All of the stat ones seemed useful. Since Fade was a Tank, CHA was a required stat for him, so anything that boosted it would be phenomenal. Verity having boosted PER could be very useful too, but he would have to ask her what that meant.
They all turned in for the night after chatting for a bit longer to finalize plans and get to know each other better.
—————
First thing the next morning, Crimson went to the Temple with Verity. It was finally open for normal operations, and he was grateful because he had to make a request that had likely never been made before. The [Priest] he asked immediately escalated his request to Rei, who entered the conversation swinging.
“You what a WHAT?”
“A [Ritual] to prevent EXP Gain. I want to be able to fight monsters without Leveling Up.”
“Just…why?”
“So I can challenge myself.”
“You’re seriously a monster, you know that?”
“If you keep saying it, I might actually turn into one, you know.”
Rei sighed, “I’ll go ask the gods, hopefully they won’t endorse this insanity.”
“Thank you.”
It didn’t take long. Five minutes later, Rei returned with two small bags. She handed one to Crimson, and looked at Verity, seeming to hope that Verity wouldn’t request one, but ended up reluctantly placing it into her awaiting palm.
Crimson peeked inside, and spotted a [Purity Shard] and a [Purity Stone]. The [Shard] wouldn’t be worth much, but the stone was, so he looked up and asked, “How much do I owe you?”
Rei sighed, “25 Royals each, and this is as much as I can discount it for you. I should be charging 100 Royals, but favoritism wins again. The [Shards] are free of course, a service from us, but [Purity Stones] are not common around here. I do need to get some compensation for them. This [Ritual] should give you a shackle you can put on your [Class], and you can remove it at will. Please remove it as soon as possible.”
Crimson nodded and paid up. They had a dungeon to hit up.