CHAPTER 73 - Come out!
Arriving at the alley where the inn is, I start climbing up. I would like to just jump inside the room, but having my legs in such a sorry state it's better if I just climb with my arms instead so as to not damage them further. I climb inside easily enough, being only one floor high.
Once I enter I retrieve the money that I left before while keeping an eye on the child that’s still sleeping in the bed.
I get closer to the bed and stop scanning the area. Instead, I send some qi coursing through my body just as I did before when fighting against the necromancer. I noticed something when facing him, when I am boosted by qi I can more or less grasp the level of strength of my enemy.
No, that’s a lie, it's more like the life force that each living thing has. For example, the leader of the warriors had just a tad more life force or qi than the necromancer inside him, even though neither of them have mastered its use of know-how to control it. They both instinctively used it to fight, and the bandit used it more than the necromancer, which was probably why he had more of it than him even though he was weaker in overall.
What the necromancer lacked in physical strength he made up with mana, while the bandit relied more on qi to reinforce his body by pure instinct, just like it was happening to me at the start. It just so happened that I could get the hang of it and notice the difference in strength and sensations, maybe due to the huge gap in strength that occurred in my case.
In the bandit’s perspective, it probably has been more of an improvement over time rather than an incredible boost over night.
Why do I think about this now though? Cause there's something that I have noticed when facing the skeletons of the necromancer… they didn’t give any kind of qi readings, not even one tiny bit, just like this child who is faking his sleeping in front of me.
“Come out.” I order to the thing that’s controlling the child's body, not daring to create a link with it directly now that I have suspicions on what I am dealing with.
I get no answer, and the child is unmoving, too much even, I am sure that if I really went and tried to see if his heart was beating it wouldn’t be moving. What scares me the most is that my intuition and what I have gathered so far tells me that whatever is messing with me through the child is someone or something far too strong for the current me. That is part of the reason why I didn’t even consider running away.
This guy just happened to be the sole survivor of the attack performed by undead on a nameless village, such a coincidence that it all happened when I was passing by right? The second I realized what’s happening I knew I was fucked, so again, I try and talk to him/it.
“I know you are here somewhere, just show yourself.” I definitely say as I face the bed.
By now, I have already gotten rid of the wooden mask and my trembling legs don’t help create a decent imposing image, but it doesn't really matter if what I am guessing it’s right. If I am right, then I am in deep trouble and with no way out. The only thing that helps me stay calm is that I would be dead by now if I didn’t have anything to be taken advantage of somehow. That, however, doesn’t sound alluring neither.
“Stop playing dumb.” I say again, looking around and in my native language.
Silence ensues, but I still look around, hell-bent on ending this farce right here.
Suddenly, out of nowhere I get chills on my back as a tingling and cold sensation rushes through me, as if some cold breath had just traveled all along through my back and to my neck. I quickly turn round to face the culprit of it all, yet only face the shadows of the night, at least that’s what I first think, as the shadows soon start to mold and change shape, swirling on themselves.
Soon, the overall shape of a shadow humanoid appears in front of me, giving me goosebumps as it looks at me as if its gaze could see right through everything.
I am about to say some more when a connection similar to they link me and Bruma use is forcibly connected to me. I try to fight against it with my qi, but my defenses break instantly and the connection is established in the blink of an eye.
I get a bit taken aback by how easily he breaks my to date unbreakable mental defenses, yet I try not to show it, hoping that the link is based on a more superficial level than the one I use.
Bruma gets spooked too and I have to stop her from attacking the entity that we currently face. I am 100% sure we both will end up dead if we fight against it. Our best chance right now is to convince it after seeing what it wants.
“You seem sure that I was hiding here somewhere. How did you know?” The shadow casually asks me, but I am sure that he expects an answer and only that. The link it made works differently than mine, I can make out the meaning of its words but I can’t feel any of its emotions. Lucky me, it probably is a simpler version where the risks of a deeper one are minimized.
“Intuition.”
“Bullshit. But you do have potential. Tell me, how long have you been practicing your control over life?”
Should I lie? Will that thing be able to tell if I am lying? Forget it, I should tell it the truth.
“A few weeks, maybe a couple of months or so.” I say casually, trying to downplay it. What if it suddenly sees too much potential and takes over my body? I am sure it wouldn’t be hard for it. Anyway, I haven’t been counting the days either way so I don't know the exact number either.
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“...” The entity does not say a single thing, keeping quiet.
‘I don’t like where this is going.
“What do you want?” I use the chance to try and get something out of him.
“Nothing much really, for you to take me along. I want to see how you get better at what you do.”
“I would love it if you told me everything about you, but I know you won’t do that, so I will see it myself. It’s not like you can't say no, I will do it one way or another.”
‘Damn, I already know that, it’s not like it had to rub it on my face.’ I think as I look over at the unmoving child.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, I will take care of him for you.” He turns to the child as he says so, and a small chunk of its body stretches to the bed and surrounds the body. I hear the crunching of the bones inside the cover of the shadows and remind myself not to anger the thing in front of me.
‘Just what did I get myself into?’
Once the shadows leave the bed, nothing remains on it apart from the clothes the boy was wearing when he died. Such a cruel sight to see. This creature should stay out of my business as long as it is intrigued by my plans, but I should think about something in the long run or I am screwed.
Once the body is nowhere to be seen it continues.
“You keep doing your own thing, I will keep watching over you, but I won’t bother you, don't worry.” It then starts to seep into the ground and melt with the shadows on it as it wasn’t even there in the first place.
“Do your best.” Its creepy voice rings one last time in the room before I feel the connection that once bound us together disappear and I finally allow myself to breathe.
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???
I should have been more careful. To think that he would see through my disguise.
I should stop comparing him to the rest of the humans. Life force is such an intriguing thing. I need to push him further, I need him to get stronger before the war is lost. Why couldn't he have arrived a couple of decades before.
No. If what he said is true he might be able to pull it off, I just need to give him a push as I was planning.
Yessss.
Let 's do that.
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Leo
Now that things quieted down I should get some sleep. Tomorrow I will go ask for information at the mercenary guild. If there are enough things to gain from them it may be worth it to work as one.
It will probably be one of the best ways for me to get around knowing that it is a big company that spans pretty much everywhere. I need a job anyway too. The problem still stands with the language barrier though, but if there are really people with different abilities I should pass just fine as one more.
They are supposed to carry badges with their ranks, so that would help me a lot while getting around. Following what the leader of the bandits said, the higher your rank the higher your status. I may not want the highest of the ranks, but one in the last steps of becoming a big deal may be the right call to not be questioned most of the time.
Anyways, I still need to see how things really are. That information came from criminals, so it’s not like I take it at face value. Even so, it should be truthful to some extent.
‘Whatever, I will go there tomorrow to get my rank checked and see how it all works.’
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The next morning I wake up early, not used to having 24h nights. The innkeeper comes early in the morning to open each of the rooms that have someone inside, giving all of them more than enough time to go do whatever they want before launch.
I don’t even know if I can ask for breakfast, but I leave first thing in the morning, not wanting to give explanations. I don't know if the owner of the place will mind that the child that came yesterday with me had vanished in thin air, but I prefer not to know to be honest. I am currently a nobody and I want to keep it that way some more time.
I leave the place and start searching for the mercenary guild right away. If what I have been told is true, it should be already open by now. On the way there I think about my later improvements.
When it comes to qi control, I have gotten a bit better, being able to sense the qi that the people around me exude more or less, even if that’s still not a bulletproof strategy to follow.
Then, I have a new improvement of firepower without using mana and qi to create explosions, currently being the beam of qi, which as his name suggests does, well, that. It’s pretty much me shooting all the accumulated qi on the spot, creating a beam of it that goes as fast as it can get and carries an amazing piercing power as I have already tested last night.
I am always getting better in one way or another, but I can’t show too much when I get tested or I will get questioned, I am sure of that. I currently have a lot of useful things that will come in handy in the future, but now what I need it’s to get better at using the energy itself, using qi itself.
It may have seemed like I had been making huge steps forward with it, but even though it’s mainly true, that’s only right when accounting for new uses of it, not improving the ones that I am already using.
Take the creation of weapons for example, before I could barely create a small knife using qi, and I have yet to get better. The mace I crafted on a whim in my last fight was crude, bad looking, and worst of all, unstable. Having an unreliable weapon is the fastest way to die in a fight.
That’s why I plan on getting better at the basics during my first days as a mercenary while I climb the ranks. I will focus my attention on the cycling of qi, trying to search for a better ratio of absorption from the outside world to try and get more of it at my disposal.
Then I have the infusion of it into my body and the creation of weapons, both being equally important. I can even imagine myself in a few months time, clad in an amazing armor, having inhuman strength and being able to swap weapons with a mere thought.
‘That would be such a cool and efficient way of fighting.’ Once I have thought of that I can’t get rid of that image.
While I am engrossed in my thoughts, I reach the entrance of the building I was searching for. The mercenary guild, with a huge hanging sign outside that represents the mercenary emblem.
The image on the emblem is the representation of an armored man bearing both a shield and a sword in his back. He is shown grabbing a pouch filled to the brim with coins from a merchant.
‘Simple enough, ain’t I right?’ I kind of am able to guess how the whole concept of the mercenary guild started just by having a look at the emblem. In the end it all revolves around money.
‘Well, it works for me.’ I push it aside as I enter.