Chapter Eight: Just a Jaunt
My cells were not only packed full of Chi but also with excited energy. These first two days of the apocalypse were thrilling in many ways at many different times, but nothing could beat the euphoria and delighted anticipation roiling like storm waves within me. Not only was I just generally happy to be powerful like I’d never been before—with abilities befitting superheroes and some classical-magic-like capabilities—but I was also in possession of a treasure that would bring me one giant leap closer to my goals of becoming a proper martial arts wizard.
Darkness was upon the world for the second time since the System descended, my people had mostly finished or were finishing their mundane tasks for the day, and I sat alone atop the grocery store’s roof with what might be one of the most valuable kinds of items in my palm.
The fruit had appeared lacking instructions, but with it being a fruit I had a solid guess at how to use it. After calming my nerves with a minute of equal, timed breaths, I popped the orange into my mouth, shell and all.
I had hoped for the Dao treasure to dissolve into mystical energies or something, but reality was tart. Rather, the orange was tart and tough. I ended up enforcing my body in order to more easily turn the disgustingly bitter fruit into mush so that I could swallow it, and once I did…
“Is this what drugs feel like?”
I had expected falling unconscious and being shown a dream or something, but my senses simply grew woozy and unreliable. Random patches of skin began heating up, cooling down, itching, or feeling like they’d brushed against textures that definitely weren’t there. My neck felt as though it’d been given a hickey by a campfire while my left foot screamed danger to my nervous system, fooling me into thinking a long, scaly creature was slithering past me.
For a moment I contemplated jumping off the roof in order to test out my new wings, but after a shocking realization it turned out that I had none! Phantom wings had sprouted from my back and I could move them almost as easily as I could my normal limbs, but part of me was lucid enough to distrust the sensations.
Then as my vision grew dark, my pulse slowed, and I noticed that I wasn’t hallucinating any smells, I remembered to breathe for the first time since eating the treasure.
In-between fighting off false memories that tried worming into my subconscious I wondered what I had done wrong.
……
[You have gained enlightenment into the Guitar Speck (Early)]
My eyelids and arms lifted at the same time, and a great hoot escaped my lungs. I jumped to my feet, cheering with everything that I had as I layered my will onto the world and surfaced gentle guitar strumming from nothing, since my guitar was sitting pretty in its case next to me, safe and sound. It had not yet seen battle, but soon it would.
“HEY! WE’RE TRYING TO SLEEP!”
“SHUT UP, KYLIE! GO TO BED!”
Voices sounded from other rooms in my house as my celebrations woke them, but I didn’t give a single shit about their sleep and continued dancing to the tune of the air Chi that I was making vibrate and play music with my mind!
“KYLIE!”
“DUDE!”
I stopped dancing long enough to smirk at my friends as they entered the living room from different directions, irritation and curiosity burning equally in their eyes. They knew I’d made some kind of breakthrough but still needed their sleep.
“Out with it—why are you…” Terrence trailed off and his eyes widened as he looked between me and the guitar that I wasn’t playing.
“How are you…” Mary asked, a similar expression as Terrence’s on her face as she came to the same realization.
“Read it and weep, suckers!” I cackled as I summoned game screens in their faces.
[Titles]
Early Murderous Bird: The early murderous bird gets the worm. Be among the first one hundred of your people to kill a higher-leveled spirit beast after your world’s integration into the multiverse. +2 Attribute Points.
Punching Up: Level doesn’t mean everything. Slay a wild spirit beast at least 5 Levels above your own without assistance. +5 Attribute Points.
Baby Steps to the Heavens: Every journey begins somewhere. Begin to sense and manipulate ambient Chi before receiving instruction from the Tutorial. +10 Attribute Points and early Quest opportunities.
Ahead of the Learning Curve: You are the ninth of your people to begin sensing and manipulating ambient Chi. +30 Attribute Points and early Quest opportunities.
Tutorial: Complete Tutorial Objectives to receive better rewards. +80 Attribute Points and +20% to all Attributes.
A Rookie no More: Slay a wild spirit beast at least 10 Levels above your own without assistance. +3 to all Attributes.
Slayer Extraordinaire: Slay a wild spirit beast at least 20 Levels above your own without assistance. +5 to all Attributes and +5 to two Attributes of your choice.
Daoist: The Heavens are only revealed by pondering on the Dao. You are the twenty-third of your people to comprehend the Dao. +20 Attribute Points and +10% to all Attributes.
“You actually…?” Terrence gaped.
“NICE! So which is it?! WHAT DAO DID YOU COMPREHEND??” Mary just about screamed as she jumped in place, shaking the floorboards. “Is it the Dao of Music?!”
“Kind of,” I laughed, increasing the volume of my spiritual guitar-playing so that it sounded like there was a speaker between us…until the drain on my mind was too much to bear, and I ceased controlling the ambient air Chi. “Apparently, Daos can be very specific.”
[Daos]
Guitar Speck (Early): +10 Intelligence
“Only 10?” Mary frowned.
“I imagine that most of a Dao’s value is their actual effect rather than what Attribute Points you gain from them,” Terrence said with a hand to his chin. “Well, okay, nevermind. That might only be the case for elites like us who gained a bunch of Titles early, and then accomplishments in the Tutorial. Assuming the points we get from Daos increase exponentially instead of linearly, the extra points are life-changing for normal cultivators who don’t have many in the first place. 10 free points from Kylie’s Dao is only around 5% more for us, but that’s closer to 18% for poor saps who weren’t lucky enough to get a good head start.”
I nodded. “Sounds about right when you put it like that.” I looked down at my hands, which were itching to get hold of the guitar in order to test my new powers. “So, should we try sleeping or…?”
“Sleep is for the weak,” Crossing her well-defined arms over her chest, Mary scoffed in direct contrast to her irritation from just a minute ago. “We gotta test what you can do!”
“I second this,” Terrence added.
Smiling, I picked up the guitar case and slung it over my shoulder. “If that’s the way of the vote, that’s the way we go. Let’s butcher some spirit beasts!”
……
I awoke groggy and in so much pain. Pushing myself up by my elbows, I massaged my face and took in my surroundings.
‘Okay, still on the roof. That’s good.’
But just barely. One of my legs hung over the edge, and since I had eaten the Dao treasure while sitting in the center of the roof, that meant I had moved around a lot while unconscious.
“Owowowowow…”
Every shift in posture and every little movement made my body ache as though I was bruised, and my mind shook as though it were a gong being struck. I relaxed a little upon cycling my Chi and internally seeing the state of my body. I was indeed covered in bruises and scrapes, but the injuries did not seem to be symptoms of the Dao treasure, but instead of my own doing. Recalling some of my hallucinations, I had little doubt about that inference.
However, my mind’s pain was certainly an effect of whatever the treasure had done to me. I reached out to the ambient Chi with my willpower and was shocked to find myself straining. It felt like I’d been sent back to the System apocalypse’s first day and was attempting to control Chi for the first time.
I sat still and meditated for several minutes, finding that my mind’s—or my soul’s—condition improved with exercise. No longer did I feel like a dirty, wrung-out cloth, but instead like a wrung-out sponge.
……
It was probably around 3 in the morning. After waking up from my spiritually-induced stupor the moon had already traveled a good bit of distance across the sky, and after flexing my spirit for another hour, the capsized canoe that was my head improved to a tiny fishing vessel atop violent waves—unsteady, but manageable. My physical body also felt a lot better after expending Chi to heal myself. The bruises weren’t entirely gone, but I figured that I’d feel good as new with another healing session.
‘But that can wait,’ I thought to myself as I stood up and stretched. ‘I’m pretty sure I wasted that fire-aspect Dao treasure, but at least it invigorated me, somehow. Since I can’t sleep, I should investigate the smoke.’
I spent another few minutes filling my cells to the brim with Chi before powering up and hopping off the roof, landing just close enough to an unsuspecting guard that he could see me thanks to the moonlight and discern my identity before sounding the alarm.
“WHA—Oh, Niko! You scared me!” the nameless night guard hissed through his teeth as he stood up from his “sentinel” chair. “Do you need anything?”
I regarded the ordinary man for a few seconds, pondering over how coincidences and random chance had led him to be in the same grocery store—or any of the other, smaller buildings that used the same parking lot—in time for the System’s descent. And now he was here, beside me—one of the world’s strongest Humans.
“I think everyone will be safe for the night after me and the rest of Alpha Squad cleaned up the surrounding area, so I’m going out on a jaunt to explore something I saw in the northeast,” I replied as I wondered whether this man would survive long enough to see our Race prosper once again.
“But it’s dark,” he said with worry in his voice. “Umm, are you sure you’ll be safe out there? There’s only so much a flashlight can do…”
I gave the man a reassuring smile. “Yes, I’ll be fine thanks to a technique I have.” I honestly hadn’t even considered bringing a flashlight.
Having vaguely informed at least one person of my plans I went to my car to grab the same backpack of supplies from earlier, then sped off at full speed to the north.
Not even twenty seconds passed before my foot caught on an exposed tree root, sending me tumbling like a cartoon character.
“Thank the Tutorial for my +70% in everything,” I mumbled as I brushed dirt off my clothing. “68 Endurance makes me immune to fall damage, I guess?”
I summoned and sustained a Fireball above my palm before continuing my journey at a more sedate pace—less than a quarter of my top speed but still something mortals could not achieve.
The experience was surreal.
I was not an outdoorsy person, but having never been out in the wilderness at night, even I appreciated the ambiance now that beasts were running from me and I didn’t have to kill them. No bloody, acrid scents assaulted my nose—only Mother Nature and her earthen aromas. No gory sights blemished the scenery—only a beautiful, moonlit forest partly revealed by flame. No high-stakes battles stole my attention—only my destination was on my mind.
Just a man with a flickering fireball in his hand running through a birch forest under the watchful gazes of the stars.
……
The stars shined brightly tonight, and though I would have loved nothing more than to place my trust in the warning formations around our camp so that I could gaze upon the night sky’s beauty during my watch as the campfire warmed my skin, an ill feeling kept me alert.
My boots padded softly as I slowly circled my subordinates’ tents, listening to both their snores and the rustling vegetation around the concrete road we’d set up on. The recruits had been excited to explore long lost remnants of our Race’s civilizations, and odds were that this road was such a piece, yet…most of our old-world nations had long since done away with roads designed for transporting personal vehicles, which the wear and tear on this concrete looked like the result of.
‘What are the chances that this road is a result of another technologically advanced Race’s integration onto Yorgefan, compared to the simpler answer? Almost nothing. I worry for little, like a fool.’
I sighed, finding myself unconvinced of my own logic. I simply couldn’t ignore my gut when it is what kept me alive for so long.
My ears twitched at the same time as the formation eye in my pocket vibrated, alerting me to an intrusion of the small variety. Just a middling spirit beast, then. I could likely take it out without making much noise. The recruits needed their sleep.
Dagger in hand and shortsword at my belt, I crept south down the road for maybe twenty meters before facing west and unleashing a wave of Chi riding atop my Dao-enhanced willpower that took control of the surrounding darkness, weaving it into a net that ensnared the nocturnal beast. The recruits under my care, squeamish as they were, preferred to eat the flesh of beasts slain by blades rather than shadows, claiming they could taste the difference despite my shadows doing nothing like poisoning enemies. They’d spent too long training under our toxic Commander.
Pulling out a flashlight, I stepped off the road and into the trees, finding a feline beast with orange fur and light stripes. Strangely, it didn’t even empower itself to aid its struggle. It used only its raw physical might to claw fruitlessly at its restraints as it hissed aggressively, unable to comprehend what had happened. Perhaps the feline beast had run out of Chi earlier in the day, but that possibility seemed unlikely considering the lack of wounds.
“Matters not,” I mumbled as I raised my dagger, pondering over how to best cook its flesh.
Then the creature noticed me and stilled, looking up with large, adorable eyes before it meowed pitifully. My hand froze.
“Hmm?” I didn’t know what to make of the cat, puzzled by its behavior, acting as though it were a trained pet…
On a whim I channeled Chi into my eyes and activated Peep.
[Level 0]
‘No Levels at that size? It might very well be a pet. But who would go through the effort? Does that mean we’re close to an unknown community? Or…’
I stored those thoughts away for later, putting down my dagger and moving the other hand close to the cat. To my surprise, the beast did not rouse from a ruse and attempt to bite me through the net of darkness like I expected. Instead, it…what was the word? It purred. I’d only witnessed a feline spirit beast purr a few times in my life, and only from those beasts under the care of tamers raising creatures to later fight for them in battle. Then again, this wasn’t a spirit beast if it didn’t have Levels.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I hesitated for a moment before throwing caution to the wind, allowing my curiosity to take the lead as I cut off the flow of Chi to the shadow net and allowed it to dissipate.
The cat was puzzled and cautious for just an instant before rising on unsteady feet, sniffing my hand, and moving closer to rub its face against my leg. If not for the cat’s proportions I would have thought it the newborn cub of a much larger kind of feline.
Overcome by the animal’s charm I scooped it into my arms and scratched its back, reminiscing on the time in my youth when my family had kept a pet, until it died in a beast wave that destroyed my home. I hadn’t forgiven my parents for abandoning our fanged lizard for quite some time.
My ears twitched again, and I quickly turned to shine the flashlight south down the road, catching a blur hundreds of steps away as it almost dodged the beam of light before ducking behind a tree. With my heartbeat quickening I shouted, retreated to the camp, tossed the cat into my tent, then zipped up the flap.
“GET YOUR SORRY ASSES OUTTA YOUR ROLLS!” I hollered with a tinge of fear as I equipped both my weapons. It was one thing for a powerful spirit beast to assault our camp, and it was entirely another to fight an unknown enemy that was intelligent enough to avoid being exposed by a flashlight. Either the blur had been an Ogre assassin on our tail despite being nowhere near their territory, a dangerously intelligent spirit beast, or an unknown option that could present any level of danger.
“SIR!” a recruit behind me hollered back upon my charges all clambering out of their tents. “Your orders?!”
“CIRCLE, HOLD, OBSERVE!” I commanded, causing the six young adults to form an outward-facing circle between me and the campfire. My instructions included the orders not to engage any opponents and simply gather information, implying that I did not know enough about what we faced.
Finally the warning formation eye vibrated in my pocket again, and when I sent a wisp of Chi into it, I was surprised to find the potential enemy at the very edge of the Chi circuit formation, keeping still.
“Intelligent enemy, possible cultivator,” I relayed to my team. The warning formation did not give me much to glean that information off of, but my gut told me that the entity knew it had stepped into a field of artificially controlled Chi and understood its purpose. A mere spirit beast, regardless of whether it awakened sapience, could not possibly know what a formation was unless it had survived many encounters against cultivators, in which case it would probably not be so weak as to fear our little scouting team.
“Attempting communication,” I informed the recruits, before doing just that. “FRIEND OR FOE? WE ARE AN EXPEDITION PARTY OF NON-COMBATANTS FROM YAYGER CITY! IF WE ARE TRESPASSING INTO YOUR TERRITORY, WE WILL LEAVE IN HASTE WITHOUT COMPLAINT!”
A dozen breaths passed until the entity moved, and beads of sweat began to form on my face. The formation eye showed the entity slowly leaving the cover of the trees in favor of the road as it slowly walked toward us, and I returned my dagger to my belt, grabbing hold of the flashlight again.
What met my eyes when I dispersed the darkness was a seemingly young male cultivator at least one and a half handspans taller than I with pale skin and ears like a fucking Ogre’s. Then to my surprise, a semi-translucent prompt I lacked the option to ignore obscured a corner of my vision.
The Human before you has personally opted out of the System’s guaranteed protection against your specific post-integration Race.
Icy dread slid down my spine and froze my nerves—as unlikely as it was, my gut had been one hundred percent correct. This road was not of our old planet.
The recruits facing the cultivator sucked in air through their teeth behind me, no doubt having received the same message and coming to the same conclusions as I.
With the integration of more Races came only more conflict, and if this “Human” was so confidently approaching us even after being warned by the System of our post-integration status…he could either be a great fool, or one of his Race’s elites.
“Line up. Hold,” I ordered the recruits as I spread my mental energy out to the surrounding darkness Chi, preparing to make it come alive at a moment’s notice. If there was one advantage the Shadow Speck had over most others, it was the Dao’s ability to hide from only the keenest of senses. But though the Human cultivator was not currently cycling Chi I stayed my hand, unwilling to be the first to make a move, even if I felt confident in landing a stealthy strike.
I gulped. “Fellow cultivator, what—“
“A fine night, isn’t it?” the Human interrupted, smiling as he spoke, illuminated eerily by my flashlight. “Sorry for just staring at you creepily, but I was testing whether any of you would try to attack me first. Since you haven’t, I’ll take that as a form of goodwill and shall return the favor by showing you all I have. Please don’t be alarmed.”
The recruits gasped as the Human clumsily flooded his body with Chi in a way that indicated he lacked a Cycling Technique, which would normally have been a sign that he was terribly weak if not for the sheer potency of his small aura making it terribly clear he was no front-line fodder. I cast Peep on instinct.
[Level 1]
It was my turn to gasp—we’d encountered a true elite. With fear and a tinge of shame I glanced at my own stats, wondering how they compared to the Human’s and how advanced his Specks must be.
Sahndo Bedri
Strength: 38
Endurance: 26
Chi Condensation (Level 56)
Agility: 79
Vitality: 25
Race: Goblin (Tier 1)
Intelligence: 133
Wisdom: 42
Attribute Points: 0
[Titles] Slayer Extraordinaire
[Quests]
[Daos]
Shadow Speck (Middle): +15 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom
I could feel from his aura how he had many more Attribute Points than me, even if they were scattered between his various stats. Knowing I had around 340 total points, I figured that I would need at least one Peak Speck to close the gap between us. Unfortunately if the Human chose violence, I would not be able to advance my Shadow Speck two times even if he gave me a year to meditate, much less in the few minutes our battle would probably last.
I was tempted to surrender right then in order to secure the recruits’ safety, but the Human had not yet even made demands, so I knew nothing of what he was after. Praying that he was a peaceful sort was all I could do until he made his intentions known.
“From your auras and expressions I get the feeling that I’m significantly stronger, right?” the Human asked upon slowing down his internal cycling and alleviating the pressure on us. I heard the children behind me release exhausted breaths, the poor sods. If the pressure was intimidating to me, I could only imagine how they’d felt.
The Human didn’t follow up on his question, so I took it as my place to respond.
“You are,” I confirmed honestly, figuring that forging truths would not be in our best interests. “Now, may I… I have my own questions to ask.” I probed carefully.
“Of course! A question for a question. What’s on your mind? Well, I guess I just asked a question, so I’ll give you two.”
The Human’s cavalier attitude might have made some sigh in relief, but it only made me more unsteady. The man was a member of a newly integrated Race and dared act so frivolously in the face of new kinds of people when, more likely than not, he had only ever known other Humans back on his old world? I worried that this Human might have had something wrong in their head, which would do me and my team more harm than good given the potency of his aura.
“Thank you. Umm…” I struggled to choose which of my countless questions was most important for a moment before deciding that I should not press this powerful cultivator too much and should begin slowly. “I’d like to know…your name, sir. So that I may have something to call you. I am Sahndo Bedri.”
The Human nodded. “That’s not a question, but whatever. Hi Sahndo, I’m Niko Tess, but please, call me Niko.”
I nodded. “And for my second question… What are your intentions here?”
Without hesitation, Niko Tess replied, “I found you guys out here while searching for my fellow Humans, who were scattered across Yorgefan at random, apparently. I don’t know if that’s normal for newly integrated Races, but that’s how it is. So, my intentions were just to find other people, and I guess I succeeded. For my next question… What is your Race’s integration history? I mean, if you can summarize it that’d be great. Stuff like whether you guys were also scattered far and wide and what I can expect from here on out.”
I noted how Niko Tess mentioned nothing about whether he was alone or how many other Humans he was transmigrated into this area with but chose not to dwell on that. They were important questions, but ones he was likely not to answer, or simply exaggerate in order to mislead me for his people’s safety.
“Summarizing many decades of history is not easy, and I would not consider it all under the purview of a single question. In return for the summary, I want…four simple questions,” I said, testing whether a little bit of disagreement was enough to irritate him.
Thankfully his expression didn’t change as he said, “That’s reasonable. I’ll allow three questions in exchange for mine.”
I nodded.
“Our entire planet’s denizens were transported to Yorgefan over half a century ago, scattered over a distance of…” I paused, thinking about something I’d rarely had to consider outside of my few exchanges with Ogres. “By now I hope you’ve figured out that the System translates our speech. It also translates distances and time, though the System has its own units of measurements it prefers people to learn. So, our planet’s population was scattered across only this specific continent within a rough surface area of 8,000 kilometers squared. However, now that new Races and their planets have been integrated, the size of Yorgefan has undoubtedly increased yet again. Don’t ask me how the System manages such feats—it just does.”
“One moment,” the human suddenly requested as he removed a backpack from his shoulders that I hadn’t paid any attention to, meaning his people were likely between the first and second stages of the Tutorial given his lack of spatial storage. From the pack he removed paper and pencil, before motioning for me to continue.
“Where was I? Umm, we were scattered, and I’m sure you suspected that my people were gifted the opportunity to attend a Tutorial to kickstart our cultivation growth, which lasted four sessions. After that it became apparent that our Race had been integrated at the same time as another, which had been scattered across different portions of the same continent so that our two peoples were close but not atop each other. Unfortunately, diplomacy fell through with the Ogres many times because the System encourages conflict via Quests, and we’ve been enemies since. Your own people will have to keep an eye out for whatever Race will provide your competition—before you ask, I don’t know of them. This encounter is the first I’m hearing of yet more Races.”
I paused to gather my thoughts, picking more information that I would not get in trouble for releasing.
“Your people will be regularly challenged by the System for the next decade until your protections run out. Most challenges will come in the form of sudden and unpreventable beast waves that will seek to destroy everything in their paths. Some will take the shape of established cultivators transported from across our planet and potentially the multiverse who were given their own Quests to complete here. In my opinion, the beast waves are the biggest cause for fear.”
I swallowed the saliva that had built up while I spoke, lubricating my dry throat. “That is all I think you need to know about your Race’s future tribulations. Any more details about my people will cost more questions.”
The Human tapped his chin with the butt of his pencil, seemingly pondering over whether he was satisfied with my answer. After a few tense breaths he nodded and gestured for me to take the lead.
“Thank you,” I said reflexively, before internally rebuking myself for cementing his power over us further. “Um, may I…” I coughed into my hand before continuing with more authority in my voice. “I wish to confirm whether you received a Quest regarding me and my team.”
My back itched as the Human’s smile faded, and I reaffirmed my control over the surrounding darkness Chi.
“Unfortunately I have. It is a branching Quest telling me to either kill all you Goblins, take you prisoners, or let you go free. I’ll let you know straight away that I’m a peaceful man, so I’m going with the latter, but I’d still like to come away from this with useful information.”
It was as I feared. I could not tell him that only the first option of killing us all would award him anything.
As a full drop of sweat ran down my face I said as gruffly as possible, “Then you have some brains in you. You’re unlikely to come away from a fight against seven with your life.”
The Human nodded along as though I hadn’t just tried intimidating him.
“Anyway… What is the general stance your community takes on other Races? You might be peaceful, but I know nothing of your fellows and whether they are…distrusting of people who look different to them.”
At that, the Human deeply cringed.
“Uhhh… I can force my current community to do whatever I want regardless of whether they like Goblins. But for the rest of my Race…well, there were seven billion of us on our old planet, and a lot of them proved to be quite…racist against each other even for trivial differences. We had 200 nations and barely any of them worked well together to combat global issues that affected everyone.”
I shuddered, trusting my gut feeling that Niko Tess was telling the truth. That was not good. Even if 80% of their population died in the scouring planned by the System, they would still have a higher population than my Race. I couldn’t help but curse internally.
“Okay… For my third question: what are your personal ambitions? You are undoubtedly one of your Race’s most powerful cultivators and will become someone incredibly important so long as you survive whatever the System deems a worthy challenge.”
I had many more pressing questions, but this Human seemed willing to swap questions and answers for a while, so I played this game cautiously by asking something relatively useless.
“My plans are simple: become as powerful as possible, find as many people as possible, make as many allies as possible, rule all Humans, build an empire with me at its head, and repeat.”
I nodded as seriously as I could, despite his answer meaning nothing, exactly like I’d intended. His was the same goal as every other power-hungry cultivator.
“My turn now! Are you currently using a Dao, and what are the prerequisites to comprehending one? Because I ate a Dao treasure earlier today and it only poisoned me.”
I and the recruits behind me audibly gasped at his admission. He had over 400 Attribute Points WITHOUT any Dao Specks?! That could only mean he had a ridiculously high percentage increase to his stats! And if he gained enlightenment into one or more Specks his advantages would only increase further! Not to mention the fact that he was still only Level 1 and lacked a Cycling Technique…
For the first time since meeting the Human, my legs trembled. I could hold my composure in the face of a more powerful opponent, but this… This young man represented infinite potential. I couldn’t see how anyone could have a more fortuitous assimilation into the multiverse. Maybe only the scions of those far off clans on the other side of Yorgefan, or even the ones from higher plains, could be his match.
“At ease, recruits… You can rest. If this man wished us harm, we wouldn’t be able to stop him,” I sighed. Of course, I wasn’t entirely telling the truth, because I had a Middle Speck while he had none, but with the gulf in our Attributes he would probably be capable of at least escaping.
After some grumbling and fearful replies by my recruits, they relaxed, lowering their weapons and situating themselves around the campfire, still watching and listening, but no longer wasting energy remaining fully alert.
Looking up, I realized I hadn’t answered his question.
“You consumed a Dao treasure? What form did it take?”
“A fruit. I ate it whole. Should I not have?”
“No, no, that doesn’t seem to have been the issue. You always eat natural treasures the System gives you whole.” I pondered for a few moments before an idea came to me. “What element was the Dao fruit of?”
“Fire.”
“And are you very proficient in fire-aligned techniques?”
“Uhhh,” he considered the question for a breath before beginning to cycle Chi, casting a ball of flames above his palm. “This is my only fire technique, but I wouldn’t say I’m particularly…proficient with it? I’m mostly a melee combatant.”
“Ah.” It was clear what he had done wrong. “You cannot see fire Chi, can you?”
“Uhh, I can sense it when it’s being used in techniques, like right now.” He waved the fireball around.
“There it is; that was your mistake. Your affinity with fire is not high enough. Dao treasures can make up for a lack of talent, but only to a certain extent. One must first be connected to their chosen element enough that they can sense it in order for the Dao treasure to have an effect.”
Niko Tess snapped his fingers with an expression of shock. “Oooooh, like how in order to begin taking in Chi you must first sense it!”
I nodded, surprised at the slight bit of joy that came with teaching the Human as though he were my student. I missed my days in the academy. “Exactly like that. You should be able to sense ambient fire Chi just like you can sense the ocean of neutral Chi that pervades everything. When you look at that,”—I pointed at the campfire behind me—“you should see a higher concentration of fire Chi. And that goes with every element.”
The Human nodded with a serious expression before staring intently between the fireball in his hand and the campfire. He even walked past me and sat beside the flames, causing me to flinch and the recruits to scramble away. Several minutes passed of the man seemingly attempting to burn holes in his eyes before my patience grew thin and I found it time to ask my next question.
“Niko Tess, how did you…“
My jaw slackened as the tall cultivator shot to his feet, and the familiar aura of enlightenment encompassed him. He turned around to face me with an overjoyed smile that covered his face.
I looked on in horror as the Human… No; the genius comprehended his first Speck in just minutes before my very eyes. He hadn’t even been under the effect of the Dao treasure anymore, because from what I understood, the effects of those were quite short lived.
I babbled nonsense in my confusion for a moment before shutting my mouth and refocusing. I had a question to ask, and that was all that mattered. There was nothing I could do about this Niko Tess, especially now that he’d comprehended something related to fire when there were many potential hostages present.
“So…how did you know…I had my own Speck?” I choked out, deathly curious of how he’d known I had access to a Dao when he hadn’t even known the basics of how to comprehend one.
The Human’s eyes twinkled with mirth. “From the way you were concentrating hard combined with the fact that I could just…feel something was wrong. Like I was standing atop your hand.”
I gulped. He hadn’t seen me controlling the darkness Chi through a darkness affinity like I suspected. He’d just…sensed something wrong? Talented, fearless, overpowered far beyond his Level would suggest, and possessing keen spiritual senses.
I knew that if some of the more cautious of my people were present instead of me, they would have stopped at nothing to kill this man. He embodied everything a nation in the multiverse feared—stiff competition. If Niko Tess was allowed to walk away from here and survive long enough to complete the Tutorial, who knew to what heights he’d grow? He would quickly rally his innumerable peoples under the banner of a shared Race and build a force to be reckoned with.
Yet I was not such a cautious, bloodthirsty, and depraved individual. Yes, I feared the inevitable obstacle Niko Tess would face to Goblins as a whole…but I could not sacrifice the children around me when I could dare to hope…to dream that Niko might become a friendly existence.
“I think it’s my turn to ask another question,” the Human began while playing with a Dao-infused fireball, tossing it between his hands. In truth, the sight was more intimidating than anything I could do. I could tell from the fireball’s aura that it possessed about as much power as the most condensed shadow attacks I could perform, since I had specced into Intelligence for the volume rather than Wisdom for the density. “So, what’re the differences between Intelligence and Wisdom?”
I would have laughed had I not been so tired. What were the odds?
As I opened my mouth to answer, I saw one of my recruits opening my tent’s flap after noticing something within move around and make noise.
“Spirit beast!” the young lad yelled as he raised his weapon.
“NO!” I screamed, but I wasn’t fast enough to react.
The Human transformed into a blur that separated the recruit from my tent. Eyes wide, I took a moment to make sure the recruit had been relocated without being harmed before turning to regard the savior of my new pet.
‘Oh, wait…did he save it because the cat is his?’
I frowned at the thought until the Human turned around to regard me again. “So, you guys also keep cats as pets?”
Despite my emotional exhaustion, I found the energy to chuckle. Perhaps Niko Tess would prove a boon to the world after all, assuming he never lost his relaxed way.