Gods of Death suck at giving directions but I do suppose that it isn't part of the job.

Kara and I have been wandering the Swamps for two days with occasional directions from Siro, who as it turns out can read my mind. Vona and Stan can do it as well, they just say a lot less.

It took me half an hour and twice my maximum Mana Capacity in messages to make them understand how incredibly invasive that is and get them to leave me alone.

I still can't get my head around their sheer ignorance. They said that they've been scouring their followers' thoughts since they can remember. It raises a ton of questions but I am just glad they agreed to keep out of my head unless I contact them.

We come across another lake, swampland devoid of vegetation, when Siro helpfully chimes in.

[Siro: No, this one's too small. Go further north.]

[Grant: Are you sure you know how it looks after all these years?]

[Siro: Yes. North.]

I sigh, letting the stress flow out with my breath. Aone, Merahs Patron, sounded so nice and I am stuck with those two.

Stan is nice.

[Siro: I am nice! It's not my fault that your kind tore all of the landmarks I used down!]

So you were reading my thoughts.

[Siro: No.]

Please stop. I know that you and Vona are deities and are trying your best, just let me do my thing and I'll ask you for guidance when I need it. I work best when left alone.

[Vona: Alright, I'll keep them out of your thoughts.]

Please stay out yourself.

Kara bursts out laughing. She must've been following my increasingly exasperated expressions. "You've got one hell of a Patron there."

"They are still gods," I reply, "Cursed one."

Her laughing stops abruptly. "Very funny. I still don't get how I am supposed to wreak mayhem to level."

I take a sip of my canteen and offer it to Kara. "I could help you figure it out if you told me your Skills from the Class."

"Fat chance of that," she denies, accepting the canteen, "unless you want to tell me your god-given skills."

I quickly rattle off my skills from [Death] with a short explanation, watching her face quickly morph from amused to sheer disbelief. It's the first time I've heard anyone openly describe their skills but she's earned that much.

"So you keep the souls of those you kill?" She asks, kind of worried.

"Kind of," I explain, "only those killed by specific skills and I can't really do anything with them. They just increase my stats."

[Vona: You shouldn't tell anyone your skills.]

[Grant: She earned it. Keep out.]

"Alright," she concedes, "one skill strengthens my body if I drink blood, one allows me to drink blood from living beings and gives me fangs and the last, I'd prefer to keep secret."

So she has to drink blood for levels, that seems to be the focus of her skills so I assume that she is meant to kill a few strong people instead of many like Idanu. "Can the last one become problematic?"

She chuckles like I've made a joke before answering "Not for you."

"Good enough but what's so funny?"

She hands me back my canteen. "Nothing."

I start walking along the edge of the lake, wading through the mud. They said to go north until the highest star is that of Surmon and seek the nearest lake. We've been travelling from Lake to Lake during the day and correcting our path during the night.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It doesn't take long for us to reach another Lake, twice as wide as the last one. You could probably fit Jacksonville into it. The moon and stars are reflecting on the water's surface, a beautiful image of the sky unpolluted by the factories in the big cities.

[Siro: This is it.]

"This it?" Kara asks, sitting down onto a root.

[Siro: We've got to go to the bottom of the lake and find the remains of my temple. If any of my followers survived, they will show you the way. Just don't mention me]

[Grant: You know I can't breathe underwater, right?]

[Siro: Of course! You can easily hold your breath until reaching the bottom though, they've got a bubble of air down there!]

I- I don't think they know what humans can do.

[Siro: I've just been informed that you can not hold your breath for over an hour nor swim. There is a tunnel just east of here that starts as a Hydra's lair, follow that and you should arrive at the hidden city.]

Hidden city? I thought it's just a temple.

I hope the Hydra lair is the one Vikram's group took care of, I don't have the gear to take down a Hydra.

I really can't take down anything that's that large, I barely took down the older Dragon with Loonas help and a few well placed shots but I wouldn't even know where to aim to kill a Hydra, their Regeneration is crazy.

"Hello?" Kara asks, waving a hand in my direction.

"Sorry," I apologise, offering her a piece of jerky, "I was talking to Siro. We've got to take a detour unless you can dive to the bottom of the lake and survive."

She slaps her knee and stands up, accepting the jerky. "Lead the way, my fearless leader."

I ain't leading anything, if anything, I am being led. Divine guidance is a hell of a thing.

I turn east, departing with a scoff. "I am anything but fearless."

The thought of Idanu catching up to us still delays my sleep, keeping me awake for ages. Forced to indulge in his psychosis, I wouldn't be able to sleep or rest, searching for scraps to feed myself.

Something I am far too familiar with, rifling through the pockets of innocent folk who got caught up in his play, last rites torn away from them as he tears them limb from limb.

The short moments of respite, when he seemed almost lucid or slept, as rare as they may be, kept me alive, hoping for him to be cured, hoping for a [Bounty Hunter] to save me.

Maybe he can still be cured, if I finish my mission, maybe I can cure the corruption and help him.

A sharp pain races through my arm as Kara pinches me.

"Oww," I yell, jumping away from her, "What?"

"You're all gloomy and it's creeping me out."

I whack a few vines out of my way before jumping on a root, trying my best to avoid the mud and Kara before she decides to punch me again. "Sorry, just thinking about the future."

"Stop that," she says, "What good is the future if you die today?"

"You were the one that told me to plan ahead!"

She exhales sharply before replying "I was talking about bounties, not your entire life! A stray bullet could kill you at any moment, no matter your level. Enjoy the day, don't ruin it with your worries for the future!"

"That's what I was doing," I reply, jumping to another root, "but now I've got all that responsibility and don't know how to handle it!"

"Oh," she replies, probably not expecting my outburst, " You wanna talk about it?"

"I've been trying to free myself of Idanu for years and now Gods come along and tell me to kill him," I rant, getting myself worked up about it, "I mean they've been gone for ages, I was only barely aware of them, and now they want to tell me what I have to do. They never did anything for me and they still don't!"

"You wanted to kill him either way, didn't you?" She asks.

"I don't know! He isn't completely bad, he…" I trail off, searching for the right words, "he seems like he isn't himself, controlled. There were times where he didn't ramble on, he almost seemed damaged."

Like a hurt animal, he sometimes huddled up in ruins, rocking himself to sleep. He woke up if I tried to run but his ramblings reminded me of the old people telling stories of their life in saloons.

Full of Dread.

She jumps from her root into the mud and leans down to pick some plants. "Give me a second. You don't want to kill him if there is a chance that you can save him?"

"I- yes. Even if I am not actually his son, he treated me like one when there was no one around. I want to give him a chance."

I jump from my root and lean against it, looking at what she is picking. Herbs for her cooking, as always.

She swiftly cuts them and lets them vanish into her [Pantry]. "Can you cure him from his class? I've never heard of something like a forced Class change."

I sit down on the root, seeing as this is as good a spot for a short break as any other. "I don't know but I've got to try."

"We'll figure something out," Kara says.

I am not sure if she believes it herself but I make a noncommittal noise either way.

"I assume you can't swap your class, can you?" I ask.

Kara looks at me, unamused,"Don't you think I would have swapped my class if I could?"

"Fair enough," I concede, "maybe there is a potion that can help him?"

"Maybe," Kara says, standing up.

I return to jumping from root to root, leading Kara to the entrance of the tunnels. I just hope that Siro knows which tunnels to pick and doesn't get us lost down there.

They wouldn't be so irresponsible as to have us starve to keep their pride, right?