Charomera
The 24th of Elaphebolion
The Year 4631 in the Era of Mortals
“Hold him steady, Lyssa. Don’t let him crack his head against the floor!”
Arche tasted bile and blood. It seemed he had not only lost the contents of his stomach but had also apparently bitten his tongue. He also seized uncontrollably as his nerves and muscles fired rapidly and randomly, making him thrash about like a fish fresh off a line. Lyssa had one hand beneath his head and the other on his forehead, stopping him from busting open his skull as he convulsed. His mind already pounded and he wasn’t in any hurry to see what kind of dent his face could put into solid stone.
“Calm yourself. You are in control. Exert your will.”
Lyssa’s quiet voice gave him something to hold onto. He flexed his inner will, feeling out the constraints of his own body in a similar way as when he had brushed against Tess’s mind. He had an awareness of self that would have been unfathomable just an hour prior. The spasms dissipated as his mind felt the limits of his body and demanded it to fall in line.
As his movements calmed. Lyssa removed her hands from his head and let him sit up. Arche promptly twisted to the side and spat out a large globule of spit flecked with vomit and blood. The taste lingered, but he could live with that. He could even live with the pain of his lacerated tongue, which still bled, so long as it meant Tess was still alive. He turned toward her, worried about what he might find when he saw her.
Had he succeeded? Failed? Could he bear to know?
His eyes met hers and he let out a sigh of relief. Tess panted and grimaced with pain but was very much alive. Their eyes met and his blood froze. There was something there, deeper than the pain she was going through.
She was terrified of him and he had no idea why.
Arche looked away. Whatever was in her eyes wasn’t something he could face. Not now. He waved off Lyssa’s questions and sat against the wall opposite Tess, his head pounding mercilessly. A multitude of notifications flashed in the corner of his vision and he welcomed the distraction, turning away as Odelia went back to casting her healing spells.
You have learned a Skill.
Psychic Link — Level 1
Obol for your thoughts?
You have learned how to expand your consciousness past the confines of your own mind. Pushing your consciousness in this way expends Mana over time.
Every 5 levels in this skill improves Wisdom and Willpower by 1.
-0.5% Mana Cost (-0.5%)
You have discovered a Trait.
Psychic
You have the ability to glean insight into the world around you. The benefits of this ability may change depending on how you use it. Be warned, not everyone will take kindly to a surprise connection.
+25% Willpower
+10% Charisma
The new skill wasn’t particularly surprising, given what he’d done, though he couldn’t help but feel like he had been extremely lucky nothing had gone wrong. That space between his mind and Tess’s had been terrifying. It would have been so easy to lose himself in that space, and their minds had practically been touching. He would have to be exceedingly careful using the skill going forward, but he resolved not to be so afraid of using it that he never learned to master it. It was his first epic-tier skill, if the color palate was anything to go by.
He had no idea what the limits of this new skill were and a similar idea of the dangers, but it was too enticing to not pursue, when he had the time.
Spearmanship has increased to Level 15.
+2% Damage with Spears (+30%)
Spear Throwing has increased to Level 8.
+3% Accuracy of Thrown Spears (+24%)
+2% Range of Thrown Spears (+16%)
That was a bit of a surprise. Spearmanship and Spear Throwing had both gained multiple levels. Those were serious improvements from the fight, which was surprising, but it must have been a mixture between the fight itself and the tactics he had employed. Did he get more experience in skills by adjusting the circumstances in which he used those skills? It made a degree of sense, but it seemed very…esoteric.
Arche wondered if anyone studied the circumstances surrounding skill use and how it affected the improvements. He wished he had an idea of how much skill experience he actually had, that would have made calculating everything so much easier, but it would also distract him from things that were happening around him. One more rabbit hole to dive into.
He was faced again with the conundrum that had bothered him from the first skill he had learned in this world. He wanted desperately to know how everything worked and to figure out the most optimal way to master everything, but he didn’t have the time or resources to dedicate to such study. There was too much he didn’t know and he had barely scratched the surface. To make things worse, his personal progress would remain stagnant until he managed to unlock his Profession.
Arche continued looking through his notifications, realizing he had never looked at the after-action report from the fight. With a thought he pulled it up.
You have slain 12 Beastmar.
Your Party has slain 26 Beastmar.
You gain 5,420 experience.
Experience is held until your Profession is unlocked.
It was quite a bit of experience, but it may as well have been nothing. What meant the most was how many they had killed. Arche checked his quest progress, seeing that, indeed, thirty-eight beastmar had been killed, with the thirty-ninth having become their prisoner.
Arche’s gaze flicked to the injured beastmar. Its gaze was locked on him as it sat against the wall, its one remaining arm limp from where Arche’s sword had severed the nerves. Abraxios was keeping an eye on it, ready to blast it with lightning if it moved too quickly.
The beastmar had dark, gray fur and lighter skin. It regarded Arche with fear and fury. He had crippled it and it knew that its life was likely soon to be over, but it had the intelligence to hate him for it. Arche could use that. He wasn’t quite ready to interrogate it for all it knew, though. He needed a few more minutes for himself and there was no way that Lyssa would let him move on without him explaining what he’d done. As it was, she was helping Odelia treat Tess, but she was throwing glances back toward him, which he did his best to ignore.
A few notifications still flashed in his vision so he pulled them up.
Divine Body has increased to Level 12.
Divinity has increased to 25%.
Arche froze, staring at the last message. His Divinity had increased, but how? Was it because he’d leveled his Divine Body skill or was it because of what he’d done for Tess?
“Fuck me, just more questions,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes.
It was a good thing, he decided, because he was closer to getting his profession, but he only had a general idea of what to do to increase this new parameter and he sincerely hoped he wouldn’t have to petition extraplanar entities on the regular just to unlock his own powers.
That would be unfair, not to mention time-consuming.
A pair of legs stood in front of him. Looking up, he met Lyssa’s green eyes boring into his own. They left no room for his protestations, so he let out a breath and let her pull him to his feet.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“What happened?” she asked, her voice made it clear that she would accept no distractions until she got answers.
“A lot, and I don’t understand the half of it.”
“Then start with what you do.”
Arche took a deep breath.
“All right. So you know how I used to have bad dreams? Sometimes in dreams I see a different world. It seems to be parallel to this one and I’ve met people there. Well, people being a loose term because they seem more like super-powerful entities, maybe even deities.”
“Deities?” Lyssa asked slowly, as if sounding out the word.
“You know, gods?”
“What’s a god?”
Arche stared at her, his mouth slack.
“I…I don’t know if I know how to explain that concept. Incredibly powerful beings? Creators and destroyers of life itself? Sound familiar?”
The look of absolute confusion on Lyssa’s face was priceless. If Arche himself hadn’t been so dumbfounded and confused himself, he would have burst out laughing. Instead, he was caught in a web of bewilderment to which he was actively contributing.
“Anyway, I met one harvesting the soul of a dying person back when we first found the village. Tess was dying, so I thought I would try to bargain with it for her life. Only problem was that at an earlier time I met another such entity that called itself the Oneiroi and it prevented me from traveling there in my sleep. Not to mention, I can’t exactly fall asleep on command like that.”
Lyssa blinked several times with each new wave of information.
“So if you couldn’t get to that realm, what did you do?”
Arche shrugged.
“I tried. But first, I…” Arche paused.
Lyssa had warned him about traits and how it was dangerous to share if you had one. He trusted her implicitly, and the others he trusted with certain knowledge, but he had only really known Odelia and Abraxios for about a day. Tess, well, they had things to talk about when or if they ever got some privacy. Lyssa’s initial warning about traits still echoed in his head, there were those that would try to kill him just for the chance at taking his traits.
Arche dropped his voice to an almost inaudible whisper, leaning in so that only Lyssa could hear.
“I discovered a new trait. Turns out I’m psychic.”
Lyssa, to Arche’s relief, didn’t make a huge deal out of that information, but she did grab his arm and lead him down the passageway to have some privacy.
“Tell me everything.”
“I’ve had a tenuous connection with the Tridory, but I thought that was just because I had bonded to it, but now I think that’s only part of it. I managed to project my consciousness outside of my body and into Tess’s.”
Lyssa’s fury was so sudden and great, that Arche tried to step back and smacked his head against the wall.
“You did what?”
Arche threw up his hands placatingly, hoping to cut off Lyssa’s ire.
“I knocked. That was all. She chose to let me in.”
Lyssa’s face softened slightly, but her eyes still blazed.
“Proceed.”
“After Tess let me in, I focused on what I remembered of that parallel world and that entity that I met. I managed to travel both of our consciousnesses there and was able to speak with the thing, which might be Death itself.”
“Death is a person?” Lyssa frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a reassuring thought.”
“Definitely not, can attest. I initially intended to try bargaining with it but it made itself pretty clear from the get-go that it was there to collect her and wasn’t going to be distracted. I interfered and it froze me, somehow. It was about to take her when someone else showed up. I couldn’t see or hear them but Death spoke with them. Apparently, some favor was called in to spare us and that’s when we woke up here.”
“Something from that world intervened on your behalf and wouldn’t let you see it? That’s troubling.”
“You’re telling me.” Arche looked back toward the others. “I think we need to finish our business here and get out. There will be some fallout with Callias because of the bounty-quest Theodorous gave us but I think we need some downtime to figure out what the fuck is going on and what we’re going to do about it.”
“Agreed.” Lyssa rubbed her eyes. “I’m growing tired of this dungeon, it feels like for all we’ve gone through, we’re no closer to reaching its end.”
“Then let’s get some answers and finish this fucking thing.”
Arche took a step toward the beastmar but Lyssa grabbed his shoulder and held him back. He frowned a question at her but she met his eyes with a look of fierce determination.
“Allow me. I will question it; I want you to probe its mind.”
Arche blinked in surprise.
“You want me to use my new trait to rip information from the mind of a prisoner without their consent?”
“Is that going to be a problem?”
Arche paused.
“Not this time, but I want to make sure you know what you’re asking me to do.”
Lyssa let out a sigh and nodded.
“I know, and I won’t ever ask you to use it on a person, but my instincts tell me that thing will be either unwilling or unable to help us without your newfound insight.”
“I’ll follow your lead.”
Lyssa turned and walked back to the others, making a beeline straight for the beastmar, who growled at her approach. Arche followed a half step behind, moving to stand next to the creature as Lyssa bore down on it. She withdrew a kopis from her inventory and held the curve of the blade against the beastmar’s throat.
“Where is your leader?” Lyssa asked in a flat voice.
The beastmar continued its growl and made no effort to answer. It was mostly humanoid, despite elongated limbs it still had the basic assortment of two legs and two arms. Rather, it had two arms until it had attacked Arche.
Lyssa moved her sword down to the beastmar’s exposed groin.
“Tell me where to find your leader, or I will cut you.”
“Foolish she-elf,” the beastmar spoke with a voice like falling stones. “The master will destroy you and all your ilk.”
“The scum speaks. Wonderful. If you think your master can defeat us, then let him prove it. Tell us where to find him.”
“You will die without ever seeing the light above. The darkness of our caverns will consume you. We will sup on your flesh and our newborns will suckle the milk of your bones.”
Lyssa’s gaze flicked toward Arche, who inhaled deeply and placed one hand on the beastmar’s head. He extended his consciousness outwards, pushing against the gate he had constructed in his own mind and allowed his awareness to enter that space between minds. Once again, he felt the emptiness. A void that stretched beyond understanding, farther than even Tartarus could reach. Full of questions never voiced and answers that had transcended comprehension.
His consciousness brushed against the beastmar’s mind as Lyssa threatened it again.
“This is your last chance before things get painful. Tell me what I want to know.”
“My people will consume you. You think you scare me with threats of pain and death? You know nothing of my people, and soon you will know nothing but the taste of worms as they burrow into your corpses.”
Arche didn’t bother waiting for Lyssa to signal him. He hardened his consciousness into a point and attacked, battering against the mental walls of the beastmar. The beastmar reacted physically to Arche’s assault, its defiant grin turning into a moan of anguish as Arche slammed his mind against the creature’s mental defenses.
“Where is your leader? What do they have planned?”
With every strike against the mental walls Arche managed to map out more of the perimeter of the creature’s mind. Like some strange form of echolocation, every strike brought back a host of information that Arche interpreted intuitively. The defenses of the beastmar’s mind were not dissimilar from Arche’s own, made from some kind of mud substance that chipped away with every strike.
It was a frightening mirror to his own mind. Arche promised himself that he would take the time to shore up his defenses when he next had the chance as the mud walls of the beastmar were barely keeping him at bay.
In less than a minute, he pierced the barrier, creating a small hole into the beastmar’s mind. He kept striking, widening the hole until he could filter down his consciousness into smoke and slip through.
Sensation bombarded him. Memories bled through their newfound connection. Arche recoiled, trying to shove the memories away and erect a barrier around himself. It wasn’t a counterattack, not exactly. It felt rather similar to what had happened with Theresa, but he didn’t want to experience this creature’s entire life. He was searching for very specific information and didn’t care to learn about its formative years. One interesting piece of information, however, was that the creature had not been born a beastmar.
The awareness from back then was dim, almost a shadow, but from what Arche was able to piece together the beastmar was originally a creature called a troglodyte, a small, cave-dwelling creature with a strange insectoid diet that was apparently capable of running extremely quickly. Anything further, including how the troglodyte had become the beastmar, was blocked when Arche had erected the mental defenses around himself.
He’d managed to wall himself off before he shared anything of his own life with the creature, to his relief, but now he was encircled by a shoddy construction of mud with no awareness of what was going on in the mind outside. Arche pushed himself up against the barrier in all directions, forcing the mud to strengthen and reinforce itself, transmuting it into wood.
Arche pulled back, satisfied with the current strength of his mental fortifications despite the increased focus they now required. Narrowing his will, Arche focused on one small portion of the wall, forcing the wood to grow translucent and allow him a peephole to see. It took a considerable amount of effort and Arche didn’t get it on his first try. Nor on his second, which nearly lost him the entire barrier, but on his third he managed to change a tiny piece of the wall and grow it until he had a translucent window the size of a porthole with which to look into the mind of the beastmar.
Now that he had no longer truly melded with the beastmar’s mind, it appeared different. Rather than an ineffable, ethereal substance with which his own consciousness had permeated, the beastmar’s life was spread before him like a twisting river of white-gold light that looped and twisted throughout. With some effort of focus, Arche was able to move his consciousness alongside the river, traveling forward through the beastmar’s life without absorbing the memories within.
Shortly, he came upon a point where the white-gold light muddled into a blue-black mess. He knew he should keep going, that this was too far back in the beastmar’s life to be relevant to their current situation, but curiosity got the better of him and he peered in at the river of this creature’s memories, which flowed through the translucent wooden window he’d created and flooded his barrier.
Fire. Heat all around. Run. Needed to run. Friends ran. Family ran. Terror. Dark ones. Murder. Darkness. Fear. Pain. Captured. Taken away. Magic. Great magic. Powerful dark one. Torture. So much pain. Mangled limbs. Death.
Arche expelled the memory from his fortifications, his consciousness reeling from what he’d seen and felt. Someone had stolen this creature away and experimented on it, turning it into what it currently was. The ‘how’ was hazy, concerning some kind of magic he had never encountered before. The troglodyte had been transformed in what had clearly been a traumatic process that involved dying and being revived. The magic involved in that immediately made Arche worry because, so far, the only power that came close to that was wielded by the entities from the other world.
Arche filed the information away for later examination and continued traveling along the memory river, forcing his consciousness to fly quickly until he reached the near past. At a greatly enhanced speed, Arche sifted through the beastmar’s memories, mapping out the dungeon as well as marking the areas they congregated in. He was careful to keep a leash on what he allowed in so it wouldn’t overwhelm him. He was even more careful not to let anything about him pass back to the beastmar. It might have been paranoia but he had the feeling that, without his barrier, he would leave himself vulnerable to a counterattack, even if the mind he was invading wasn’t inherently psychic.
Arche withdrew from the river of memories and floated to the edge of the beastmar’s consciousness, searching for the breach he had made upon entering. He found the hole without much difficulty and squeezed his consciousness through, keeping hold on his defenses. The vastness of the empty space between minds called out to him again, trying to tempt him, but its ethereal voice was muted through his barrier. Relief flooded through him as he slipped back inside his own mind and shut the gate behind him.
Psychic Link has increased to Level 2.
-0.5% Mana Cost (-1%)
Arche opened his eyes to find everyone staring at him. The beastmar was in front of him, unconscious. He removed his hand from its head and it slumped to the ground. Arche met their eyes—all except Tess, who refused to look at him—and offered an uncomfortable smile.
“I know where we need to go.”