"The smell of blood, if only it was of the worthy." Geatran The Conqeurer of Old

Chapter 42: Process

Adonin wouldn’t continue talking with me. Even if I wanted to. He had said his peace.

I think just this once I’d just shut up and agree with him. Come to think of it. He’s right.

Isn’t he always? I want to feel tired but the little recoup in nothing made this situation all the more real.

I wasn’t even sleepy anymore and my hunger had been taken care of.

[(Sunny) The skill [Loved by nothing] has leveled from level 1 to level 2! Along with skill [Eyes of the watcher] that has leveled from level 6 to level 7. Ms. Adena, I would also like to inform you that the skill [loved by nothing] has lost more levels than it has gained. A strange occurrence.]

Opening my eyes. I saw Clivent still at my side. A towering mass of white fur with a candy wrapper in front.

Did I feel bad for the Wolfman? I had always seen Clivent as a monster since he was a Beast-kin.

Not caring to ask about his past or who he was. Yup, Adi was right. I think it’s normal to think about the reward for saving Clivent but is it normal to think about the reward first?

“Normal is boring, Adena be yourself.” he voiced.

Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?

After hearing what Adi thought of me, I didn’t feel like myself. Adi saw me as self-centered, and I think he was right. I could disagree but the evidence is there.

“When I killed those people by mistake. I was more bothered about becoming a monster. That’s even what those souls used to torment me. I never in my life thought I'd get called a “murderer”.

Getting up I walked over to the New Clivent and was about to rub his back but before the thought even occurred.

“No! Adena, were you even listening, don't touch him!” Adi warned.

“Oops sorry,” I said aloud causing Glothmin to look my way.

He could eat me or something. Come to think of it, I'm a bit close for comfort. Staying calm, I walked away and decided to just tell him instead.

“I know you don’t have a name right now, but I can’t wait to get to know you after your System Initialization. It’ll hurt but you’ll feel so much better afterward!”

I was awkward but thinking about what fake Papa said in Adi’s world. This is what Adi wanted the favor we talked about. To the best of my ability, I’ll help the furball. I'm sure he would've helped me.

“I can’t wait to get to know you after this is over! We have a lot to talk about! I wonder what Adi will name you!” I was a bit loud trying to lighten the mood in the now dimly lit Adventurers Hall.

New Clivent looked back at me and for the first time, I had looked into his eyes and gazed upon his figure. The mild headache from looking at him had faded away just a bit like a fog had been lifted.

Without using [Eyes of the Watcher] I was able to look at New Clivent for the first time. The White fur shielding his figure had receded considerably.

Took everything in me not to shiver and keep smiling. Everything that I thought I knew about New Clivent had been a lie.

It was all one big Facade.

There was no need to fear the unknown Adi had already tried his best to explain to me the situation, the unusual circumstances behind Clivent's birth.

Seeing Clivent without the huge illusion of white fur or whatever it was. I wasn’t scared anymore.

There only remained a profound empathy for the Monster hiding behind a ball of fur.

“A monster.” Yes, those are the eyes of a Monster. He may look like a child but something in the back of my mind told me not to forget what I was looking at.

Those were the eyes of a monster.

A monster that I had to look after in Adi’s stead. In return, I would get my reward.

Adi wasn’t here to take care of him. He was asking me to do so in his stead. That’s all he was asking. So, looking after the New Clivent was all I would do.

I walked up to the six-foot-looking boy covered in fur and hugged him. I wrapped my hands around what I thought was his waste. It was all a lie he wasn’t six feet at all he just looked like it from afar.

“I’m so sorry everything’s going to be okay. You are safe, and you are loved by him. Hold out a little longer. It felt unnatural to comfort him looking at those differing and hungering eyes. There was a lot more than food that Clivent wasn’t getting.

I spoke with words that came in the wind. Words that needed to be announced in a matter of ceremony. New Clivent wasn’t supposed to exist. He knew it, I knew it, the world had known it.

[Identifying...] [Identification [email protected] ERR0R...]

I hugged the child covered in a shell of dark matter that I still had trouble seeing through. I tried my best to keep my volume at a minimum.

Thinking about what needed to be done efficiently and swiftly.

“Be in harmony, you are whole, but free this is a transition a renewal you won’t just welcome this transition. We will welcome this transition. Adonin welcomes this transition. You are strong, there is nothing to fear. It is just a process we will endure. Be Born anew, and welcomed by those who accept you.”

“Human what are you doing!?” Glothmin had words to say about my words of power and declaration.

Looking at the white matter inside of New Clivent a process had started Adi didn’t even warn me maybe this was bad timing.

“Whatever you're doing, it's working wonders. I'm kind of busy, you should step back before he pees on you by the way.” Finally, Adi had spoken.

I slowly but surely walked away from Clivent without turning my eyes away from him.

Thinking about the New Clivent’s face. He did look like he was starving. His face appeared a bit gaunt. I felt for the man or kid. Whatever he is.

With that said, I wasn't going to turn my back on a monster. Especially one who would’ve killed me if I had given it the chance.

[(Sunny) thinks it is appropriate to remind you of skill descriptions and recommends taking a look once again at the status menu. Many skills are leveling!!! ]

"Sunny how about you just let the notifications play out whenever it's not distracting for me? Please, lower the volume on those notifications by the way.” I stopped directing my thoughts to Sunny.

I was just happy Adi didn’t scold me for that hug I gave to Clivent.

I took a step away from the furball without turning my back. Oh, he had peed himself after that hug.

“Don’t be embarrassed, it's fine.” I comforted him, trying not to shake and shiver.

“What the hell are you two doing? Bane why are you a grown man peeing yourself you idiot!” The dwarf shouted not yet walking over to the two of us still behind the counter.

“Adena, don’t you dare scream at him. Tell him to go wait outside” Adi had spoken.

I replied with “Fine” and gritted my teeth. Glothmin needed to be knocked down a peg, but it wasn’t my place.

“Glothmin can you wait outside for me please,” I asked nicely.

“What for? Why’s the big guy peeing himself over a hug and a couple of words?” He seemed smug with his silver hair and beard.

“Aren’t you a succubus or something can’t you read the room?” I asked.

“It’s a hall but since you asked no, I can’t read Clivent here’s emotions, all I see are scales covering his body and the smell of abomination. As for you child, I don’t take orders from you or him.” I don't like this guy.

“Fine.” I humphed. “Adi, can we start?” I remembered my old skill description. Adi didn’t need my help. He wanted my effort so that's what he would get.

With no reply from either Adi or New Clivent who hadn’t signed in a minute.

The six-foot furball walked into the center of the room walking from behind the counter. He didn’t show any expression, but I could feel his dissatisfaction with Glothmin.

“You should step back, Glothmin as far as possible.” I did the same.

Glothmin ran this time. I guess this old man had good instincts. The man was so fast he ended up towards the giant door in the hall that stretched for a good walking distance.

I had no clue what to expect from Clivent’s System Initialization.

In silence, I watched the shell of dark matter around Clivent’s body start to expand. The wind in the Adventurers Hall picked up from out of nowhere.

I looked towards the huge Guild entrance that was still close.

My mouth dropped open seeing the amount of dark matter Adi was moving around.

Huge holes were being torn open at the farthest reaches of the guild hall. The black sphere inside Clivent was slowly getting bigger.

“It’s starting.” The familiar voice in my head spoke. And shades of Matter burst from under my feet covering everything in a huge wave. The Adventurer's hall was now overflowing with specks and If there was any more dark Matter I wouldn't be able to see what was happening around me.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”, screaming and shouting, couldn't have been a good sign.

“Fetal position!!!” I shout, forgetting about the task at hand for a second. I caught a glimpse of stone buildings sweeping into grey specks and came back to my senses. Clivent had help everything would be fine, he didn't have to worry about a room caving in on him.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

How much help could I even be when I couldn't see beyond the sheet of Dark matter covering him? As far as I know, whatever was going on inside the dark matter could be worse than getting stuffed with the inner linings of a cave.

The sharp cuts from having rubble fall on me. Getting smothered as if there was a hard wall pushing up against me, closing in on me. "Back to Clivent, focus!" The outer sphere surrounding the thin layer covering Clivent was all I could see through. Peering any further than that led to a dead end, "the sheet" of pure dark matter got in the way.

Poor guy, I could barely breathe when had went through system initialization I didn't have any time to. 'Enough, thinking about what happened to me. I need to get my head in the game!

“Brace yourself, think about slowing some of the matter flowing into the sphere. The whole building is about to be broken down, so brace yourself.”

“What!?” I yelled hearing a dreadful creaking directly underneath me.

“What the hell is happening?!?” Glothmin shouted from afar the man looked ready to leave us. Some help he was. Not like he could see the Dark Matter being moved around. How much of the show was he even catching?

The room was creaking as wooden planks were pulled upward, glass and metal objects in the room were being broken down, the Hall's stone ceiling crumbled but never fell, as wooden chairs and tables had been splintered and ground into dust in mere seconds. The sphere covering Clivent would be brown before all of this was over. With all the mixing of matter, it would be unlikely for black to remain the dominant color in this minute-made painting. Everything was happening too fast, pouring inward toward Clivent hidden away in that black sphere.

I was at a loss for words, more importantly, a loss of action. What was I even to do here but stand in the free-flowing rubble with my hand raised above my head like a maniac?

“Imagination Adena, what can you use at your disposal!”

“Adi I can’t!” I shouted in opposition. “No, you can. Keep calm,” he reassured as giant swarms of matter moved for the sphere, plucked from the air by an invisible current. It was all going toward one person, one ominous black sphere.

The sphere was blocking my view of the man and for all I knew he was dead.

“No, he’s not. Keep it together.” I didn’t have the choice of screaming at Adi. He was busy, I could see that much. Wherever he was. It was up to me to hold myself together.

“Be strong. Let it all in. I’m safe. Trust the process.” Trying and failing to lay on words of encouragement I've heard over the years.

As I watch matter from this very building or what is left of it, and plots of the ground beneath being broken down and converted by the system. I wondered why I wasn't being swept away into dust. The Dark matter was protecting me. That was the only guess I could come up with. Why else would I be covered in it? [Lesser Matter Manipulation] was at work and the name didn't just include Dark matter. Does it!? Why was Adi only moving Dark Matter and not everything as a whole?

'Was he moving everything as a whole?' I viewed the entire guild hall. Choosing to look at myself inward from another perspective.

Adi was right every inch of The Adventurers Hall was being broken down along with everything in it. Some of the books from downstairs that were locked behind that book were seeing the light of day or the dim light of this cavern, wherever the city light from above came from. 'Focus,' it's not the time.

'I could just tell the matter to stop, right? Was that an option?' [Memorist] made me remember my system initialization in an instant, I was still stopping myself from recalling the event to a degree. Dang skill! The different shades made me want to hurl. This is crazy! I can’t order around something that doesn't exist, that isn't alive. Matter is just a concept on earth who’s to say it’s real, there’s no proof!

The Black sphere was soon buried under various colors of browns and greys. Looking at everything around me in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree radius. I just imagined turning the matter into another sphere. How hard could this be? It was just a bunch of colors, right? It's not like I have to break down a building.

Easier said than done, Focusing on every speck surrounding the black sphere was giving me a slight headache. While [Memorist], decided to remind me about my mishap. "Just great!" What great timing! I wasn't trying to kill anybody! It was an accident, I had only said something in frustration that couldn’t be taken back! Where was Papa to comfort me when I needed him

“No, screaming Adena inside voice or no voice at all!” My mouth closed shut as if someone had used invisible hands to shut me up. There were no invisible hands, just hands made out of Dark matter formed from the black mass already covering my lower body.

"I thought you wanted me to help!!" I thought, unable to move my lips, with Adi working his weird Matter magic. It's official, Adi knows how to use magic, what else could this be called? If not-

“You're helping just fine by being here.” Are you kidding me?! This isn't working for me!

Telling me to focus on keeping my "Mind over matter" was a scam I spoke the word “Slow.” And nothing happened. It didn't work in the slightest.

“Start small Adena then build on that.” At least he was comforting when he decided to speak up.

I stared at my hands raised above my head. And watched passively as Matter blew past me towards Clivent.

Everything around my hand first. start with one speck at a time.

Focusing on the Dark and colorful particles and specks floating past my fingers without stopping I spoke again.

“Slow.” It was just a bit, but it stayed in place for a split second. [Eyes of the watcher] allowed me to see the tiny difference that my effort had made.

“Slow,” I said again causing the dust to stop flowing for a second past my hands.

Focusing on the larger whole surrounding the sphere no matter how many times it took.

“Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow.” It's working!

“That’s right, keep it up. As long as the job gets done.” I was doing it. I was finally making a difference. All I had to do was imagine the specks as crowds of people rushing toward a given direction, towards New Clivent's direction.

It had caused clumps of the rampant matter to slow but most of it was still swarming towards the brown sphere. I was about to take a step closer when I looked down and saw that I was on a steep hill of Darkmatt er. Not even the ground was spared, why would it be? I could have broken my leg or something falling from this height.

We were going to get in trouble for the Guild Hall's complete and utter disappearance. It was nothing but a sand pit now. A giant dome of matter was covering the sphere that withheld New Clivent. I couldn’t see what was going on inside but I hoped everything would turn out okay. Deep down I knew it would.

Adi had made it so that the building wasn't allowed to collapse in on itself. Every brick to the smallest speck of dust was taken by the system like a sandcastle hit by a tsunami. A tidal wave wouldn't be able to do this much damage. How long was this going to take? I can’t keep this up. I can only slow some patches, this is impossible.

“Are you done trying?” There Adi goes talking as If this was no big deal. New Clivent could die if we ended up failing.

“Yes, he could have died. That is true but thankfully you were possessed.”

“What did you say!?” It’s starting to sound like a bad catchphrase.

The ugly dome made of different shades of matte suddenly stopped moving altogether as if time itself had stopped. I hadn't noticed how loud the silence was in the city until I heard myself take in a huff of air. After I was done taking that breath brown dome of matter spanning a whole street started compacting itself, smoothing out like it was just clay to be molded. The Dome of Matter half the size of the guild hall began to shrink. It was hard to believe that this used to be a black sphere the size of a six-foot man.

I wonder if it was going to go back to being a little sphere. It was still shrinking going through some slow and steady process of swirling inward.

Looking at the surrounding matter that began to dissipate. “I miscalculated quite a lot regarding how many buildings Adi or the system had demolished. A lot of people were now homeless.”

“You knew this was going to happen!” I thought, still unable to speak. This was why I got the intuition to go someplace unoccupied by people. A part of this city had been completely undone.

“No one died. The only thing we need to worry about is getting away from the crime scene.” How was he so inconsiderate and I'm the "selfish one"? The dust had finally cleared from around me and all that was left was a giant pit.

While I was left standing over thirty feet in the air on some hill made from dark matter.

Glothmin sat on his but blankly staring at the dome. His mouth hung open speechless like nobody was home.

I was just as shocked, but you didn’t see me looking so lost. It was creepy, but I had already established Glothmin as the sort. He appeared "clueless" to the word. Using [Eyes of the watcher] everything looked fine with him. That was until I saw a wisp or something floating around him. Thread maybe? A Black thread was just floating in space attached to Glothmin's head like an overly long strand of black hair.

Clivent’s system initialization must have done something to him. Or was it... Him.

“Ah, you got me!”

"Adi?!" I screamed, and that's when he went on another rant.

“Adena we will eventually have the ability to get back home and do things we never could have imagined. when we get there. Well, when I get home, I’m taking the longest nap but that’s not the point. The quicker you make this world your garden, the faster we'll be able to go back home. It’ll take years probably but at least we’ll be back." Years? Here?

“I can’t live like this.” I was worried because of the years Adi was saying it would take to get home but also the expectation.

“Adena this is just the power of our Racial trait [Gemini shift] allowing me to act through you. Laying waste to a building is a fraction of what you'll be capable of...In time you’ll see.” I don't want to see anything. I want to go home! I couldn't say that to him why couldn't I say it?

I sat down on the rock and watched the brownish-black dome covering Clivent continue to shrink.

“Can you explain what's happening Adi? Also, do fill me in! I feel like there’s so much going around me right now. What’s with Glothmin? What’s with me being possessed? Help me!”

“I’d be obliged. When you were stranded in the cave everything came crumbling down on us. Initialization felt like torture because you and I were being stuffed with mass to equal are base stats. The reason why Clivent’s initialization is so tame is because I learned from our past experience.”

“You’re really smart, like "genius" smart.”

“No, Adena I’m just creative. The system doesn’t care if the user dies or not. Our lives are not a priority, so it just soaks up all the matter in the surrounding area like a sponge. What I did was encase Clivent in multiple shells of Dark matter using them as a stopper and filter, to the faucet I had already made on the inside of his body.” It didn't make sense. None of this makes sense. “The leftovers from his failed Class-up are like a placenta that he needs to eat. His base stats haven’t stopped rising since his birth. The System initializing is unique to us three because we weren’t born through normal means. To take up space in reality we have to take on our appropriate mass in reality represented by the system’s aspects.”

"I get it you don’t have to explain anymore." I lied. This is when I decided to pretend. [Memorist], I tried and failed.

“You sure?”

“We aren’t from this world, dimension, or universe, one of those has to be it. We were never normal, to begin with. Last but not least we have more base stats than the average human by a long shot. I get it, Adi.” I sat in silence looking at Clivent’s system Initialization. A murky dome of matter slowly coalesces back into a sphere. There was nothing else that needed to be broken down. No more buildings to topple, no more land to uproot.

I could only guess that Adi was somehow keeping the city Guards busy. As for Glothmin, his state was Adi’s doing.

“So, who’s Izocol?” I ask, watching the black dome continue to shrink.

Sitting on the black hill in my white linen shirt and brown pants Adi had created. I took notice of the empty spaces in buildings that hadn't completely disappeared from our surroundings. At least I didn't have to worry about my hair getting in the way since I had tied it up our way here. If I used a rubber band, my hair wouldn't have stood a chance before blowing in my face.

"huhhh", it sucked trying to hold in a sigh.

Raising my right hand into the air on top of the boulder I grabbed a flake, some transparent substance I had never seen before floating in the air. Didn't look like Matter or any color I'd seen before. It wasn’t falling snow that I touched either. The transparent flake was absorbed through the tip of my finger leaving a warm tingle and a light sensation.

Maybe things would start looking up since Clivent's initialization would soon be over. Even (Sunny) the system must have thought so, my one piece of respite having a say in when I'd get my system notifications.

*Ping!* The skill [Mind Over Matter] has leveled up! Lvl 3 to Lvl 4

*Ping!* The skill [Lesser Matter Manipulation] has leveled up! Lvl 2 to Lvl 3

*Ping!* The skill [Dark Matter Affinity] has leveled up! Lvl 3 to Lvl 4

*Ping!* The skill [Make peace] has leveled up! Lvl.1 to Lvl Lvl.2

*Ping!* The skill [Voice of an Angel] has leveled up! Lvl. 2 to Lvl 3

*Ping!* The skill [Taker of Tongue] has leveled up! Lvl.1 to Lvl 6

*Ping!* The skill [Fear Resistance] 2nd Tier has leveled up! Lvl. 2 to Lvl 3

Would you look at that? I wonder what having a class will be like. Ahhhh, "Another problem for later."

(Sunny) Acquiring a Class is not the problem.