Chapter 59 - It’s the end of the worlds as we know it.
Back at the Inn, Mayry was napping, but Mason couldn’t sleep. He had too much on his mind. In an attempt to distract himself, he finally looked at the mountain of notifications he had been ignoring.
Notification 1/7
You have slain – Level 15 Kethuli Priest x 2
You have received 300 XP
You have slain – Level 19 Kethuli High Priest
You have received 190 XP
Notification 2/7
You have received partial experience from party members’ kills.
Your clone has slain – Level 15 Kethuli Priest x 8
You have received 1200 XP.
Notification 3/7
You have received experience from party members’ kills.
Mayry Sparks has slain – 6 Level 15 Kethuli Priest.
You have received 300 XP.
Notification 4/7
*Error* has slain Level 15 Kethuli priests x 14
You have received 2100 XP
Notification 5/7
Level Up
Level Up
You have reached Level 27
Notification 6/7
You have absorbed the ability. ‘Teleport’
A tourist’s best friend
Teleport (Advanced) - Active effect: You can travel to anywhere within sight. Scales with Agility.
Notification 7/7
You have absorbed the ability. ‘Sacrificial Healing’
The healer role is a dangerous one, especially when using this skill.
Sacrificial Healing (Advanced) - Active Effect: Drain your own HP to heal another. You will temporarily take on what you are healing. Scales with vitality.
He skimmed through the loot he had received, but none of it seemed worth a special look, so he dumped all of it into his Trunk. It mainly consisted of coins, some weapons, and various hooded robes.
With two levels and two new skills, he had gotten a lot out of the fight. He finally had a movement skill! And with no mention of a cooldown, he could use it to travel long distances. Healing was great, but it would have been a lot more useful when Mayry was lying there dying. That fact that he got it right after felt like a slap in the face.
To make the most of his new skills, he put 3 points into Agility and 3 into Vitality.
Feeling like he had missed something, he read through the notifications again and paused at, ‘*Error* has slain Level 15 Kethuli priests x 14’
What the hell was Error? He had gotten skills from the clone and Mayry, so who… aaagh, a jolt of pain shot through his head when he tried to think back to the battle. He remembered watching Mayry fall, then his clone and then-
This prophecy was really giving him a headache. The bits he had figured out worried him, and the bits he hadn’t worried him even more
‘Both the Greater and the minor, asleep now, but not much longer.’
This bit was pretty obvious: the gods were going to wake up soon.
‘A man from beyond can stop their rise; if he fails, a loved one dies.’
It was almost definitely referring to him because, of course, it just had to be him like he didn’t have enough to do, and a loved one dies? What the hell!? That could only really be Mayry… Maybe Nays? Really depends on what it means by loved ones.
‘While they’re weak, he can fight before they regain their full might.’
This is where he started to lose it. Was it saying that if he failed to stop them returning, then he would have to fight gods? Like actual gods?! Imagine the abilities and XP he’d get for killing a god!
‘Fail again; all hope will fade, darkness eternal, the worlds ablaze.’
And, of course, if I fail, it’s the end of the world as we know it. Oh no, wait; worlds are even better.
He groaned, and Mayry, who was lying beside him, stirred. He put his arm on her and rubbed her back, “Shh, go back to sleep.”
He felt like he needed to get up and do something, anything, but he also knew Mayry was tired, and if he left, she would insist on going with him.
He pulled up his stat sheet to take a look at how far he had come and how he might measure up to fighting a fucking god
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Level: 27
Current XP: 15,830 /19,000
Race: Human
Class: Hunter
Health Points (HP): 430
Mana Points (MP): 375
Stamina: (SP): 255
Stats
Strength:37 (+15) 52
Agility: 36
Endurance: 31
Vitality: 33
Resilience: 28 (+26) 54
Intelligence: 55 (+10%) 60
Perception: 31
Willpower: 32
Free points: 0
Skills:
Identify (Advanced), Mana Control - INT (Expert), Emotional Outburst - PER (Advanced), Camouflage - PER (Advanced), Random Summon - INT (Expert), Word Smith - INT (Expert), Mental Manipulation - WIL (Advanced), Ballistic Touch - STR (Advanced), Division - INT (Expert), Sacrificial Healing - VIT (Advanced), Teleportation - AGI (Advanced)
Base Skills:
Universal Translator, Inventory (Advanced)
Class skills:
Basic Monster tracking, Evaluate Monster, Gather Intel.
He had come a long way from the scared naked man running terrified from a Drake, but it was safe to say he had a long way to go before he would be fighting any gods, big ‘G’ or small. After reading his sheet, he came to the conclusion that if he were to fight a god right now, he would be obliterated before he even realised he was in a fight.
He had no idea how he was supposed to stop the gods from waking up. He highly doubted singing them a lullaby would work, especially not if he was the one singing. He knew Mayry wasn’t going to like it but there was only one person, he could think of that might have any insight on the problem.
******
An hour later, Mayry was awake and acting much more like herself. She was sitting at the end of the bed, running a brush through her hair. It was the perfect time to tell her the bad news.
“I think we need to go back to Sparksford,” Mason said, seeing her tense at his words, “just for a quick visit. We need to speak with your father.”
“But we just got here, and we’re supposed to be on holiday!” she complained.
“I know, I know, but the prophecy is too specific not to be true. Your dad might know something.”
Sighing, Mayry responded, “I know... he might be able to tell us how to keep, you know who, asleep.”
Genuinley confused for a moment. “…Voldemort? Wait, no, ooh…” Mason paused, then said, “Never mind. I'm an idiot. Carry on.”
Mayry glared at him and rolled her eyes. “It’s true he might know something. But we aren’t staying in town. I’m worried I’ll keep making my mum sick, and I’m still mad at him for keeping everything a secret for so long.”
“Okay! We’ll talk to your dad and figure out what we can do from there. I’m sorry you never got that holiday; I promise I’ll make it up to you. We’ll even spend the rest of the day here and leave tomorrow. How does that sound?”
Looking thoughtful, Mayry asked, “Are you sure we can wait? The prophecy says ‘soon’, which could mean months, years or even decades when talking about immortals, but it could also be days. We have no way of knowing.”
“I think we have some time,” Mason said, shrugging. “Anyway, if they were to wake tomorrow, there would be nothing we could do about it. If it’s in a few years, then who knows? If we are going to go fight all-powerful deities, then I think we deserve a day of relaxing without Others, without snake worshippers and without Monsters trying to eat me.” He sighed, “Then we can go save the universe.”
*****
The rest of the day was spent trying to take in as much of the city as they could. They passed Trilil’s Hunter association, but the line to register as a National member was long enough that they decided to give it a pass.
They visited a restaurant that served all sorts of flavoured living slimes. Mayry absolutely loved it, while Mason refused to take a single bite of the wiggling thing starring at him.
By the end of the day, they hadn’t scratched the surface of Trilil, but Mayry seemed more relaxed and happier than he had ever seen her.
It was nice to take a break and put off worrying about the fate of the universe for a few hours.
At the end of the day, they saw a theatre show that Mason was shocked to see resemble a children’s film he had seen on Earth. He mentioned it to Mayry, but she brushed it off, saying the show had been a classic for over 100 years.
The night ended, and they made their way back to the Inn. Mayry looked deep in thought as they walked. “I think we should leave now.”
“Really? Now, why?” Mason asked, “Aren’t you tired?”
Sighing, “I'm scared if we stay any longer, something bad will happen like it always does. I want to remember today as a nice day. It was not because a giant octopus fell from the sky, and you had to run out and kill it or something.”
Mason laughed, “Oh, now you've jinxed us. If we go outside and there's a giant octopus, I'm going to blame you.” Mayry slapped his shoulder, and he continued, “Yeah, we can leave now, but first.” He leaned over and kissed her, “I hope we have many more days like this.”
She kissed him back, and a long while later, they exited the end and walked to the city limits.
*****
“It's pretty dark. Do you want to travel in the trunk?” Mason asked. "I think I'm going to test out my new teleport skill. If it works the way I hope it does, then the trip back should be a lot faster than on the way here.”
Mayry considered and asked, “Do you know if you can take other people with you when you use it? I'd rather stay out here with you, just in case anything happens, and it's really boring in there.”
“I don't actually know, but it shouldn't be too hard to test” Mason grabbed her hand and willed himself to teleport. Nothing happened. just like the other abilities he had absorbed it hadn't come with any instinctual knowledge on how to make the ability work.
Trying again, he imagined himself and Mayry a hundred yards away. Again, nothing happened, but this time, he felt a pull, as he almost had it.
Trying one last thing before he tried it without Mayry, he closed his eyes and pictured where he wanted them to be and then used his Mana to take them there. Sighing, he thought nothing had happened until he opened his eyes and saw that they were both standing exactly where he had envisioned. He let out a whoop of excitement and tried it again. It took a bit of practice, but after a few minutes, he was blinking in and out of existence in quick succession. Suddenly feeling dizzy, he stopped and was hit as a jolt of pain shot through his head.
*DING*
Status effect: Affliction - Mental exhaustion has been added – Mana regeneration -50% for 5 minutes.
It had been a long while since he had seen that. Teleporting must have taken far more Mana than he had thought. He would need to be careful using it while in combat; it was probably why the teleporting Kethul had only used it a few times during the fight. His Mana pool was quite large, so once he was full, he could still use it to travel, just not as far as he would have liked.
Mayry looked at him with concern, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah fine.” He explained what had happened and took out a Mana potion and downed it. It mostly refilled his Mana but the regeneration was still far slower.
Once his Mana was full and the affliction was over, they were on their way. They would teleport a few times in one direction, and then Mason, using his mini-map, would make sure they were still on course. They would walk for a while while his Mana recharged.
All in all, the journey back was proving to be a lot quicker than the journey there. They were over halfway back, walking, waiting for Mason’s Mana to recharge, when Mayry held out a hand, signalling Mason to stop.
“Hold up; there's someone over there.”
“Where? I don't see anyone.”
“I… I think they're invisible, they're definitely there, but I can only see them through my magical sense not my eyes.”
“Do you think we should follow them? It could just be a coincidence.”
“Mason, when will you learn. nothing with you is ever a coincidence, you're the literal definition of a trouble magnet.”
*DING*
Quest Received! Ooo mysterious
Quest Objective - Follow the mysterious stranger and see what they’re up to.
Reward - Dependent on performance.
Accept? Y/N
Mentally selecting yes, he sighed audibly and replied to Mayry, “Whatever, let’s go, I can’t see them so you'll have to guide me.”
Mayry took Mason's hand and pulled him forward. It wasn’t long before they stopped in front of a deep hole in the ground. They walked right up to its hole and peered in.
“They just jumped in?” Mason asked.
The hole looked like man-made; it was about 9 feet wide and was too perfectly round to be natural. Mason considered throwing a coin in but didn’t want to tip off whoever was at the bottom.
“Yep, didn’t hesitate in the slightest, just jumped right in”, Mayry replied.
Mason frowned, “surely, that must mean it's safe, right?”
“Yeah, or that they have the ability to negate falling damage,” Mayry suggested.
“Ah fair, or that.” With a cheeky grin he added, “Ok, Ladies first?”