After a few hours of conversing and resting in the Horrol wagon with Tamas and the others, Christopher figured that he should walk and socialize with some of the other people in the caravan. He wanted to make the most of this time since it might very well turn out to be permanent.
His most important goal right now was to build some relationships with the people around him. Christopher figured that it would be nice to have some people that remembered him the next time that he looped.
Looping again seemed very likely after experiencing the invasion, he was probably not going to turn such a one-sided battle around on the current loop. Not that he would not give it a try though.
He could not tell anyone about his real background without receiving the mother of all headaches, so sharing details of a future attack would be very challenging, if not impossible. He would love to inform the generals of what he had seen, but they would likely suspect him of being an agent of the Blight before locking him up.
That did not mean that he could not alert others at all, maybe he could do it anonymously in some way. There should be some options available to him, but it would require some thought and careful planning. Maybe he could write letters with the date of the attack, which should at least heighten alertness even if they were skeptical. Maybe he could try setting off the Giant Soul Alarms early on the day of the attack. Luckily, he had some time to think about what to do.
They were making good time on their journey. The Horrol were pushed hard and breaks were kept to a minimum, all of them wanted to make it to Lumen quickly. Kata was apparently healing the Horrol with Soul Heal, which allowed the plated horse-like creatures to move longer without rest, it was an interesting application of the Soul Heal effect. He found an opportunity to speak with Kata, who was walking next to Naan.
Kata thanked him for his help with the Goblins. The red-haired woman looked only a few years older than him, which made her Soul Force abilities all the more impressive. He eventually managed to steer the conversation to the Soul Heal Effect, curiosity getting the better of him.
“The Soul Heal Art is really amazing. I’m impressed that you managed to learn it at such a young age already.”
“Thanks, my father and I ran the only temple of healing in Stonehill. He taught me everything he knew before he passed away a few years ago. I have been the town doctor ever since.”
“I am sorry for your loss; I am sure he would be proud of how you are helping these people survive.”
“I always take comfort in knowing that my family is with the goddess.” She said solemnly. “I’m just glad that I can help out a little.” He nodded his assent at the remarks.
“Still, I wish I was able to heal. What is even required to learn the Soul Heal Art? The few books I read had very little information on anything beyond the first tier of Arts”
“It’s certainly not easy to learn, it requires you to be skilled in Soul Manipulation, Soul Boost, and Soul Sense. When using Soul Heal, you are speeding up the natural healing rate of the body by pulling on Soul Force to provide the nutrients. It also requires a dedicated study of anatomy if you don’t want to make things worse for your patients. My father taught me everything he knew in his clinic.”
That did indeed not sound easy, he was impressed that Kata was able to use the skill so freely. Christopher thanked her for the information. He conversed a few more minutes on some lighter conversation topics before separating. Naan meanwhile answered questions and addressed the problems of the other refugees.
Christopher considered some of the barriers to him learning Soul Heal as well. He would need to do quite a bit of studying if he ever wanted to learn the useful Soul Art. If only he had studied Biology and human anatomy on a deeper level before coming here, he felt that he would have been able to amaze with his healing if he had a modern understanding of anatomy and medicine. Still, he had not been all that bad in Biology, so he had a decent grasp of human anatomy on a broader level, which might already be amazing compared to many of the people here. Would they even know about red and white blood cells?
Christopher continuously scanned his surroundings while they walked.
He was well aware that the danger from the Blight had not passed them by. On his last journey towards Lumen, they had moved far from the normal road to stay hidden from pursuing monsters. There was the very real possibility that more creatures of the Blight would find them, especially now that they were travelling in greater numbers, and now that they were forced on the more well-trodden path winding its way through the trees. Hopefully the Goblins had been the only pursuers.
Christopher refrained from training his Soul Force during all this time, despite it once again being full. He wanted to be fully charged in case something came at them from the trees.
There was also no opportunity to flee with [Bookmark] right now. He still refused to separate from the caravan just to reduce the danger to himself, that just didn’t feel right. He would rather make a stand with the people here if another attack came, fleeing would just leave him with regret.
The hunter named Willox was sitting on top of one of the Horrol drawn carriages, after he had been constantly scouting their surroundings. Christopher had been impressed by the accurate marksmanship of the archer; he had killed the most Goblins of everyone here. Willox was a short and stocky man with black hair, and piercing green eyes set in a broad face. He did not have the physique that Christopher had associated with someone so skilled at moving silently through the forest, but his steps had proven gracious. He would be a great addition to Lumen’s defenses, Christopher realized.
Christopher tried to strike up a conversation with the man during one of his rare appearances back at the caravan, but the man almost only answered his questions with one-word responses.
Christopher told him about his own basic skills with the bow, but his efforts at striking up a conversation continued to be futile. He had to quickly give up on those efforts. He suspected it was merely the man’s normal disposition but it was hard to be sure, at least his face did not betray any irritation at his continued prodding. At least he had been able to introduce himself to the man.
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Naan commanded them well on their journey, making sure that all of them had what they needed and that everything kept moving somewhat smoothly. The leader had quite the challenge since they were very much understocked on food and water. They had to severely ration the little food and water that they had, even on their short remaining journey. He did not hear any complaints from the other caravanners. Their escape from Stonehill had clearly been rather hasty.
The lack of food very much bothered him; he had been ravenously hungry ever since using [Bookmark]. His body felt as if it was screaming for food at the moment. Well, he would have to manage for now, it wouldn’t feel right to ask for a larger share.
He was glad that he was bringing a few more competent people into Lumen, which should be of some help when the Blight attacked once again. Hopefully, such small improvements would all add up to something more significant by the end.
Christopher periodically looked at his interface during their journey to Lumen. He excitedly looked through his options now that he suddenly had a treasure trove of Soul Points. It was not that long since he had bought [Soul Mark], but there was still plenty that he had his eye on. The truly cheap skills were quickly running out, but every skill should be useful to him in some capacity. There were also plenty of weapons and armor pieces that he was interested in as well.
He had however realized that there was somewhat of a limit to what the Interface store could help him with. Not that many skills remained to be bought. Whatever balance the Forces of Creation and Entropy maintained might be reflected in the limits to the store as well.
His growing knowledge of the world and its magic made clear that the interface was not simply an easy road to power, it merely gave him a push when used accordingly, the rest had to be learned the hard way like anyone else. Many of the skills looked to be geared towards utility and training, they would not exactly give him the power to destroy the creatures of the Blight. His current abilities were no exception.
Nothing came even close to being as broken as his unique ability. He wondered why the administrator had chosen him for something so monumental, was it really merely the luck of the draw? It would be strange if they had given the skill that callously. Maybe he would never know, but he was certainly curious.
He would just have to acquire the techniques to fight the Blight from the world itself. At least some of the skills seemed geared towards speeding up his progress. He once again felt that developing his magical abilities should be his number one priority. He could continue working on his Soul arts once they reached Lumen.
He had been planning on buying some equipment as well, but he was still feeling very hesitant to buy something with Soul Points that he might be able to acquire with regular money.
Many of the armor pieces contained metal. There were metal vambraces with protrusions in the middle, allowing it to catch weapons. But there was also a nice pair of sturdy leather boots with metal soles. He was pretty sure that these could be used to enhance his fighting somehow with the proper Soul techniques, but such things were still far beyond him at the moment. He was currently walking barefoot so he could use the boots, although the others in the caravan would surely think it rather strange if he suddenly started summoning Soul Bound armor.
He was still not quite sure how rare soul-bound items really were. He knew summoning and dismissing weapons was not allowed in the Arena for some reason, so it was difficult to gauge how many fighters had such weapons.
He looked at his Soul Point balance. After purchasing [Soul Mark], he had been left with 920 Soul Points, but the Abyssal Wolf and the many Goblins had boosted his balance further, which now stood at 1860 Soul Points. They had been working in teams to defeat the creatures, so many of the Goblins killed had only given him a partial contribution. Still, it was a good haul of points for a battle in which he had not been at a high a risk of dying. He should be able to make another purchase in the future.
The caravan continued to make good time towards Lumen, and he continued becoming friendly with the members of the caravan. Eventually they had to bunker in for travelling by night was both incredibly slow and dangerous. Christopher still refused to sleep on this potentially permanent time, he was better off doing something more productive. Most people were asleep, but he joined some of the others on watch. They kept silent during this time, but he saw some approving glances from the others at his help. Christopher had by now managed to talk to quite a few people in the caravan already. Het got along well with most and he thought that he was starting to fit in better. He considered his mission of building relationships mostly a success.
They were able to pass the night without any incidents, but he was rather tired when they continued the next morning, he still thought that he had spent his time wisely. He felt confident that he had developed some trust from the people of the caravan. For Tamas and her family, it would likely take much longer to get anywhere near the level of trust that they had developed previously.
The cooldowns of his [Bookmark] commands were now getting closer to completion. He had watched the cooldown timer like a hawk during the entire night watch. His thoughts had kept going back to the ability during the entire journey. He did not want to fight the Goblins again, but he still kind of hoped that he would soon find himself back in the clearing of the forest, giving him the peace of mind that he had all the time in the world. He kept the countdown on his retina, not wanting to waste any time after being able to use it.
The time soon arrived and he softly spoke the words ‘use bookmark’.
[Failed to use Bookmark. No bookmark is currently placed.]
‘Shit, this confirms it.’ It no longer gave the error message for both the placement and cooldown as before, now it was only the lack of placement that was apparently the problem. It seemed as if he really was on a time limit. He felt nausea, even though he had somewhat been able to mentally prepare himself for this outcome. That left him only one recourse.
“Place Bookmark” he spoke.
[The Bookmark has been placed.]
It was good that he had discovered this information as quickly as he had. It would have been a nightmare if he had discovered the disappearance of the placement on the day of the next attack. The next time that he looped he would have another full day of permanent time, his bookmark pushed forward another day!
He would have loved a better explanation of his ability before they send him here. He wondered whether they were just unable to help him, or if there was something else going on. He could only accept his situation and keep going. He comforted himself with the knowledge that he still had plenty of time left. He would still have almost a month before he reached the day on which the Blight attacked once again. That time would just get shorter after every loop.
They finally reached their destination after only a few more hours of traveling. Christopher and the rest of the caravan felt relieved upon entering the massive clearing with Lumen in its center. Safety at last, or at least for a little while.