Chapter Seventeen: Beasts and Bangles

The tub of earth-aligned Race-advancing lotion was almost all used up. I knew that when it was empty Nagorn and I would pack up what we could take and return to the rest of the team, but before that happened I wanted to chat with her a bit more.

“So, about spirit beasts; I kinda forgot to confirm this or I put it off until now, but spirit beasts have randomly distributed Attribute Points, right? Like, they don’t control where the points go?”

“Unless they manifest or are born at Level 50 or higher,” she replied plainly, as though it were common knowledge.

“Oh…”

I pondered on that information and saw the pieces fit together.

“Gotcha. That’s why the bug-like sabertooth had well-organized points, then. And the elite beasts in the Tutorial, despite being low-Level, were artificially minmaxed to prepare us for when all spirit beasts would be that way.”

“That sounds like a reasonable deduction.”

Besides speculations about how powerful I’d be upon leaving the Quest Realm, I could not find anything else to talk about for the last few minutes that the lotion lasted me. When it was all used up I could not even feel a smidge of it on my skin left over, and the only evidence of its existence was the feeling that something about me changed. Something about my body and soul on a foundational level that I could not yet comprehend due to my stagnant cultivation.

I dressed up as Nagorn went another lap around the chemistry room, searching for anything we may have missed. Feeling a need to fill up the the conversational negative space while she did that, I pulled out the earth-aligned jade ring that Abra had found earlier. Although I now had my earth Chi sense and would likely gain an earth Speck later in the Quest Realm, the ring would be most useful to Nagorn, whose entire power set revolved around the earth element.

When I explained as much, Nagorn wordlessly raised her right hand to me with her fingers splayed out while she continued searching for loot with her left hand.

“Uhhh…” I gulped, looking between the ring in my hand and Nagorn’s ring finger.

When I didn’t immediately put the ring on her she turned to me with a small smile.

“Do not worry, I know you are not entirely giving it away. You are loaning it to me while we are in this Quest Realm. I find that acceptable. I gestured so that you may put it on my finger.”

I nodded and hurriedly slid it onto her middle finger, mumbling, “Umm, yeah, I got that and all, it’s just… Well…”

Her smile dropped into favor of confusion.

“Sorry, sorry,” I apologized before laughing nervously and wiping a hand down my face. “It’s just that a man putting a ring on a woman has significance in my world. Err, to most of my Race, I mean.”

“Something romantic, I take it?” she chuckled, before returning to her search for goodies.

“Yeah, it’s like consecrating a romantic relationship with the expectation that the couple would start a family, and stuff.”

“Ahh, for marriage,” she said.

‘Oh, so they do have a similar thing. I specifically avoided saying marriage in favor of describing it in case she wouldn’t understand.’

“Exactly,” I said.

“Although some isolated cultures of my people do the same with rings, most Goblins use bangles to signify that we are taken and no longer looking for serious long-term relationships. Most use cloth or leather bangles for they are more comfortable, but the high society—” I could almost hear her roll her eyes at the term, “tend to fashion theirs of precious metals and jewels. I heard from my parents how the different countries of our old world used different styles of bangles to differentiate between…”

She stopped speaking, and when I looked over I was surprised to find that by dragging her hand along the wall she’d stumbled upon a hidden drawer that was concealed from our energy senses.

“Just a moment,” she said, scrutinizing what I assumed were Chi circuits for a short while before she abruptly powered up and punched a specific spot on the wall. Just like that, my senses picked up the disruption of a circuit before it sputtered out entirely, and Nagorn opened the drawer. From inside she removed a seemingly heavy treasure chest the size of both her hands splayed out.

The wave of earth-aligned Chi it released upon being opened caused us to gasp a little.

“Wow, that must mean it’s good, right?” I asked incredulously. Though I couldn’t see it from where I stood, the energy the box emitted was just so rich that I could feel my soul’s proverbial mouth water. From it my mind conjured imagery and sensations relating to earth that were far more effective at putting me in a trance than I was myself. As I moved aside to finally lay my eyes on the dark gray cube of rock in the box, I figured that I could have used this treasure to awaken my earth Chi sight even faster…

But that had passed… I’d already awakened my earth Chi sense… Yet this feeling was still useful…?

“Niko?” a distorted voice, as though spoken underwater, seemed to call to me, but I gave it little mind. Too focused…

I was back in the mountains where I’d unlocked my earth senses, surrounded by stone, with the sky as distant from me as the Heavens themselves…

“W-what? How…”

There was a deep wellspring of power to be found in the ground. In the earth. The foundation of all we stood upon. Of all we were.

Everyone comes from the ground, and everyone will return to it.

‘Well, not me.’

I opened my eyes and sharply inhaled, only now realizing I’d been so out of it that I’d stopped breathing, exactly like when the universe had become just a little clearer to me two times before.

I smugly shared my latest System notification and character sheet update with Nagorn, who stared at me with her jaw agape and a hand clutched tightly to her chest, fingers twitching.

[You have gained enlightenment into the Bedrock Speck (Early)]

[Daos]

Kindling Speck (Early): +10 Wisdom

Sharpness Speck (Early): +5 Strength, +5 Wisdom

Bedrock Speck (Early): +5 Endurance, +5 Wisdom

Snatching the treasure chest containing the dense earth treasure of some kind from the frozen Goblin’s hand and putting it away in my spatial storage bag, I snootily turned my nose up.

“I hope—“

“Stop, please,” Nagorn immediately said, expression still vacant. “Just…give me a moment.”

She turned her back to me, apparently unable even to look at my face. Her shoulders trembled slightly as she regulated her breathing and slowly moved her hands in front of her as though she were conducting a phantom orchestra. I felt no Chi fluctuations from her and was thus not worried about her charging up an attack or anything of the sort. She just seemed to be gathering herself.

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Which was disappointing, to say the least. I had just comprehended another Dao Speck from merely studying an earthen treasure not too long after her relatives had shit on me after daring to suggest I was a genius. I very much wanted to brag straight to her face, which I couldn’t do if she was this detached from reality after the experience of watching me blow all her expectations out of the water. I’d have to make do with the reactions of the others.

I finished storing all the other Race-advancing spirit herbs and whatnot from the room before making my way to the door, preparing as arrogant a speech as possible to share with the absent Goblins. Nagorn caught my arm before I’d fully stepped out. Then she pulled me back into the room and wrapped me in a tight embrace, her head on my shoulder.

I would have powered up and started throwing hands had she emitted even a smidge of Chi, but she remained mercifully powerless, so I did the same.

“Um, Nagorn?” I squeaked, heart rate increasing.

“You really are a genius,” she breathed, and a shiver swept down my spine.

“Uhhhhh, c-correct. I am,” I stammered.

She remained silent for what felt like ages before she let go of me and held me by my shoulders, staring me dead in the eye.

“Niko Tess, you are not fool enough to think that the Matriarch would let you live if she saw you as a threat, I’m sure.”

It took me a few seconds to realize she expected some kind of response, so I nodded.

“Good. So far, she sees you almost as a useful, if naive lizard hatchling—or whatever kind of creature your Race typically kept as a pet on your home world. You have a bit of a temper, but you are cute, can perform tricks, and will likely bring her a few treats later on for her troubles in raising you. Yet we all know that if you survive long enough you will far surpass us all in power.”

She swallowed, taking a moment to consider her words.

“Somehow, you’ve proven to possess even more potential than we already speculated. Having seen it myself I would be slow of mind to consider your claims of extreme talent without merit. You really, actually, legitimately might soon be leading your entire Race against whatever enemy the System has designated for you, and after that… You could change everything for Goblinity. Given time, maybe our entire planet.”

I nodded again, having already imagined all of what she described, and waited for her to get to her point.

“Please, I beg of you…promise me that you are a good person.”

I blinked at that.

“Errr, yeah, sure. I like to think of myself as a good person. I wanna get strong for fun, but also to help as many people as I can, like the two hundred people I came to this planet alongside. None of them know how or want to live out in the wilderness, so I wanna move them to your Hamlet. Then when I’m powerful enough, when my sphere of influence increases, everyone within my reach will be in my care…”

I trailed off as a couple tears clawed their way out of Nagorn’s eyes, and she brushed them aside.

“Ignore that,” she said, her voice emotionless. “I hope what you say is true. Not just for your sake. For everyone’s. You have only seen a fraction of the wider worlds and the System, yet contain so much potential. The rest of us grasp and fight for every bit of power we can reach, meditating for hours on end every day for so long…” She trailed off for only a second. “You have already surpassed so many in so few days. I hope you really mean what you say about yourself.”

It was quite apparent from how Nagorn opened and closed her mouth that she had so much more to say, so many emotions to get off her chest, so many grievances and thoughts and requests… But she let them go, having said what she felt comfortable saying. Perhaps she thought that pressing me further would worsen my opinion of her.

I almost told her to let it all out, but we were pressed for time. I wanted to loot and exit the Quest Realm as soon as possible in order to find Sahndo Bedri again before my personal Quest expired. Even with our relative time slowed so much I was reticent to spend any more than a single real time day inside here.

Nagorn let go of me and we silently sped back to where Gayhn slammed now-blunt axes against a visibly damaged metal door.

“An hour and counting!” he shouted angrily without even turning to look at us. The air shook with every collision, forcing the man to amplify his voice to be heard. “Present to me my Dao elixir! Or at the very least, a new axe!”

Grinning smugly again I said, “Oh I’ll present something to you alr—“ but was cut off by a touch to my shoulder from Nagorn, who shook her head at me.

“Later.”

I stared at the woman flatly before shrugging, accepting that it would be better to show off my talents when everyone reconvened, because then I wouldn’t have to repeat myself.

“No Dao elixir yet, buddy!” I yelled over the racket. “But the first one will go to you, and it won’t count against the treasures you guys get to choose, I promise!”

For some reason, that made Gayhn pause and look at me. The sudden lack of metal banging against metal, along with his stare, was jarring.

“What?” I asked, scratching the back of my head uncomfortably. “It only makes sense, right? You’ve been sitting here ruining your axes for an hour so that we can get in the biodome to further my personal Quest. And the party Quest requires that you take a Dao elixir or fruit, so it’d be pretty fucked up if I held that against you guys.”

My response didn’t cause a change in Gayhn’s expression, but I seemed to have satisfied him, since he wordlessly continued working on getting through the door.

‘There better not be another door behind that one,’ I prayed to the System before turning to Nagorn. “I guess we should go back to searching for open rooms?”

……

[In the interest of keeping the environment challenging as you grow stronger, the formation rates of stable and unstable spatial anomalies are now increased. This will occur again every 25 local hours.]

Everyone released some variety of reactionary noise to the prompt. I giggled, Nagorn sighed, Gayhn and Abra grunted, and Moz stopped striking the nearly destroyed door with light beams from his dagger to hum thoughtfully.

Since comprehending a third Dao Speck Nagorn and I looted a second room relatively close to the earth biodome entrance before Abra and Moz returned with loot from their own looting runs. By then Gayhn’s axes were basically hammers and Moz had volunteered to continue beating on the door. A few minutes into Moz’s shift was when the prompt shook everyone from their thoughts.

“This is probably about your Title,” Gayhn said, looking at me accusingly. “You’re going to max out and lose points before advancing your Race and make the trial more difficult for us?”

I bent over at the waist, unable to contain my laughter.

“What is that? Why are you laughing?” Gayhn asked. “I didn’t expect that kind of reaction…”

I looked toward Nagorn with a suggestive smile, to which she sighed.

“Niko comprehended an earth Speck by staring at a rock.”

“WHAT?!”

My hyena cackling reverberated through the halls at Gayhn’s shout and the others’ expressions. Abra stared at me wide-eyed while Moz looked down to the ground and gulped. Nagorn massaged her face as she said, “Yes, I had trouble believing it as well, despite being close enough to sense a familiar Dao suddenly emanate from him.”

While Abra stared slack-jawed and Gayhn demanded to see my Dao screen, Moz suddenly rushed forward to grab me by my elbows. Being a normal-sized Goblin—unlike Gayhn and Nagorn—his head only reached my chin, so it felt a little like a child asking his dad for sweets at the store when Moz looked up to me and begged, “Please, share just a morsel of your deep affinities…”

Now wheezing, I struggled to push the man away and respond, “What I have…can’t be…taught…”

“Come on, man, prove it!” Gayhn interjected, pulling Moz off me so that he could stand green nose to white nose with me.

With a smirk I projected my Dao screen behind the brute for just two seconds so that Moz and Abra could see it, and upon their gasps Gayhn whirled on his heel, but he was too slow. Instead of turning back to me angrily like I expected, he asked Abra, “Did he really…?”

She nodded. “It…could have been the work of a Dao elixir or fruit, but I simply do not believe Nagorn to have reason to lie.”

“Fortunately, I am being forthright,” Nagorn said evenly, having accepted my astounding talents for what they were. “Niko Tess awakened his senses for earth Chi so that he could absorb the Race-advancing contents of an entire barrel, then comprehended the Bedrock Speck by staring at an unidentified but valuable earth treasure for a few minutes. Just like that, he was ten Attribute Points and a Speck stronger.”

‘Minutes, huh?’

I expected the gaggle of Goblins to burst into discussion about what my talents meant for them, my Race, and the world, but just like Nagorn had, they all fell silent.

“Let them think on it,” Nagorn whispered in my ear before pulling a long stave of wood with metal caps on both ends out from her spatial storage bag. Then she empowered herself and took over for Moz, whaling on the door with simple yet effective strikes. From her attacks I felt both an earth Speck and a basic technique that covered her weapon with a dark sheen, complimenting each other like butter on toast. As low as my cultivation was, even I could sense the difference in quality between her technique and what the Sedokeit and Dryad had used.

Remembering that I had my own earth technique that I’d yet to test the durability of when enhanced, I drew the internal circuits for Stone Skin. Soon bits of both my Chi and Dao energy were consumed to maintain a thin layer of dark gray—almost black—stone that covered my entire body including hair and clothes, garnering some glances from the Goblins.

“Gayhn, punch me.”

To his credit, though the man did not hesitate to attack me, he neither activated techniques nor went for my face. His empowered fist merely slammed into my abdomen with a rush of air and a thump. When he stepped away, crumbs of dark stone fell away and disappeared from a circle on my belly and his fist before I refreshed the technique to fill in what was destroyed. The strike itself was only as effective as a child’s punch.

“Solid,” he grumbled. “But not enough to keep your head on your shoulders after a real attack of mine, so don’t think yourself invincible.”

I chuckled. “No shit, dude. I’m going for an Agility and Wisdom build, so this kind of Endurance is plenty. At least, for now.”

Eventually my main stats would climb far higher than the rest and leave them near useless for the kinds of fights that could pose a threat to my life. However, that was the future. At the moment I was nigh-invincible to all those who had their main stats as high as mine.

And Gayhn recognized that, if his envious frown meant anything.

“Good that you know that much,” he muttered before walking away and sitting with his back against the wall.

It was Abra’s turn to approach me, and to my surprise, she lightly bowed her head.

“You have my apologies,” she began, expression reluctant. “We ridiculed you for your speculations and comments about your Dao talents earlier. I maintain that trusting your judgment would not have made sense, but given that you very quickly proved us wrong, I realize that we should not have been so harsh with our reactions.”

With that she, too, turned away to think.

A few minutes later, Nagorn’s stave busted the heavily damaged door open, and everyone shot to their feet.