Alice was a crazy woman.
Rain had come to that realization after watching her knockout the madman not long after he’d woken up, not even giving him a moment to collect most of his thoughts.
All Rain had wanted to figure out was what the madman’s ravings had been about, how he can to know him, and why his emotions of revenge towards him had been heightened, but the man had given him nothing to work with.
As it turned out, he’d never seen Rain before.
Alice had told him then that the actions a person took when a brain-eater was in them was catered to lead them to death, so it never made sense; worse was that it was forgotten as soon as they’d gotten themselves back. This was the main reason for her knocking the man out since she was not interested in engaging in his blabbering.
Imagine not wanting to give a confused person answers?
Well, if that had been too little for him to consider her crazy, he now had a more solid reason.
When he’d asked her to be his mentor, he had not been expecting to be turned into a battle slave in return.
During his request he’d made sure to place emphasis on his realization of the feasibility of gaining Experience Points through normal physical training, so why… Why in the world was she doing this to him?
[Side Plot: Completed]
Side Character Rain Leclair has successfully eliminated his adversary.
[Bestowed Reward(s)]
+2 Experience Points (Assignable).
[Proceed to assign?]…
With a tired grunt, Rain pulled his knife out of the deceased Mutated Badger sprawled on the ground.
This was the fourth one already since they’d arrived at Bathgate from Dechmont, and they were yet to be five hours into their journey. He couldn’t take it anymore.
Just like the wharf rat at the hospital, badgers relied on their agility, making his tussle with them quite hectic.
Due to the mutation they’d undergone, their bodies had become more pronounced, their claws longer and sharper, and their spiky furs needle-like sharp. Furthermore, their squat bodies made it easy for them to break his defenses in a single move, even faster than the wharf rat at the hospital.
It was only for two Attributes and a singular reason that he had not died to their onslaughts, and those were his Durability and Speed Attribute and the fact that he only fought a single badger at a time. Unlike the Coyotes, they did not attack in packs, and for that Rain was glad.
Also, no matter how much they slashed at him, their claws could not seem to do any significant damage to his skin. The cuts were always so shallow. Despite this, he did not enjoy being cut, so he always tried to evade their attacks whenever he could by timing his steps correctly and pushing himself back when an attack came at him.
His battles with the badgers made him realize that he had been neglecting his Agility. If there was enough points assigned to them maybe he would have been able to dodge every attack that was thrown his way, possibly even the madman’s headbutt.
Now, if only Alice would let him do what he needed to do to improve his capabilities.
Was she trying to kill him?
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Rain turned around while panting. Alice was seated on a log of wood with her legs crossed while reading a book. Sean was beside her, and J…
The Jaguar raised its head from the languid position it had been in and locked eyes with Rain for a moment. Then it yawned and turned away. Steam rose from Rain’s head.
Damn Jaguar! Don’t just eat my kills, help!
He exhaled and approached. “It’s getting harder. I’m exhausted.” Rain’s words were directed at Alice, and she knew it.
“Sean, pass him a can of juice, would you?”
“Sure.” Sean leaned over and dug his hand into Alice’s backpack, bringing a peach one and tossing it at Rain.
He gulped greedily, emptying the can before throwing it away. “Can I not assign my points to my Attributes yet?”
“Is that your question?” Alice looked up from the book she was reading, her eyes peeking from the upper rims of her rectangular glasses.
Rain had not been expecting her to be someone who read with glasses, so he had been surprised when she’d first brought it out along with a book. In all honesty, maybe his surprise had come from her nudging him to fight alone when they’d come across the first badger he’d slain. All in all, he was used to seeing her with glasses now. Not like he had a choice in the first place.
“No,” he replied with a shake of his head.
They had made a deal. For every beast he killed, he would get to ask her a question. This was because she did not let him assign his Experience Points to his Attributes, forcing him to continually fight in his current version even though he could make himself stronger.
Of course he could just assign his points in secret and she wouldn’t notice, right?
Wrong.
There was an Attribute called Perception within the Plexus; he was not going to risk losing his mentor out of stubborness. If only she would tell him the reason why she was forcing him to fight the way he was instead of teaching him the ins and outs of handling a blade. It was for that particular reason he had asked her to be his mentor.
“So, what’s your question?” Alice closed her book and took off her glasses, putting them both back into her backpack. “Hurry up. We don’t have the time to be dawdling about here.”
This was a chance for him to find out why Alice was doing this to him under the pretext of training, but just like the prior three times before now, Rain did not bring it up. Instead, he focused on clearing the saved up questions he’d been itching to ask for two days now. And he’d already gotten answers to three from them.
The first question of his was why exactly she had chosen the route they were following currently. He had seen on the map that passing through Newcastle would have been quicker than through Edinburgh, and so he had been confused on why she’d chosen the longer one. The answer? The path through Newcastle was filled with more beasts than the path through Edinburgh. This was apparently confirmed by a survey done at the GEF.
It seemed that those guys did a lot of surveys. Well, they were the biggest faction, right?
His second question was on how she’d gotten to Edinburgh from the GEF. Precisely what brought her there in the first place. This question had been seemingly hard for her to answer, but she’d finally given a vague reply that she had wound up there during an expedition. Rain had felt like he shouldn’t push further, so he’d stopped.
Why her sword was blue lustered had been his third question, and her answer was one that fascinated him. It had been made from the core of a monster from a Glade.
This short answer changed the whole narrative of the question he had had ready for his fourth.
His initial intention had been to push his luck and ask Alice what her Division and Skill was. She’d promised to answer any of his questions, after all. But now, he wanted to know about this Glade of a thing. In fact, it was something he should have asked about long before now. It was one of the first things the Plexus had shown to him. Why had he forgotten to put something so important first?
“The Glades,” Rain said without hesitation. “Tell me about the Glades.”
Alice uncrossed her legs and looked up at the sky as she pondered. Rain could see the same pensive expression she’d had when he’d asked her how she’d come to be in Edinburgh from the GEF.
The expedition, it’s related to the Glade, isn’t it?
He’d come to realize that most of the time his thoughts were always right, so he had a bit of surety that he was also correct about this too. And that made him sigh.
Seeing Alice’s usual stoic expression waver tugged at his heartstrings more than he could imagine. If the answer to his question would be at the price of her emotional state, then he would rather put a hold on receiving that answer. Or rather, he would just wait until they got to the GEF. There he could ask someone about it. The fact that Alice herself had not brought up the Glade meant that it would not pose any troubles to them on this journey. He had no reason to rush it—well, besides the urgency the Plexus had tagged it with. But that was a problem for later.
“There's no need to—”
“Portals to other worlds,” Alice interjected. Rain nudged a brow up, and she looked down from the sky and at him. “They are simply portals to other worlds.”