Chapter 305
Ascendance (VI)
It was a few moments later that the entire valley seemed to have realized there was somebody strong approaching. While Cain continued being nonchalant, most others seemed disappointed, angry, and unwilling.
Some minute later, a figure appeared in the sky, carrying with it a booming sound of fire as it encased the specter. It towered over the entire valley, looking down indifferently at the world. As the fire subsided, it revealed a man seemingly in his early twenties, his bearing one of pride and staunch indifference.
Fiery gaze of his light-blue eyes forced all others to look away, terrified they might incur his wrath. Inevitably, the pair of eyes landed on Cain who was currently nestled in the chair, drinking away. Feeling the eyes on him, he opened his own and faced the man in the sky--it was a brief exchange, one that the rest of the world wasn’t privy to. Toward the end, the man in the sky gently nodded, with Cain replying in kind.
With the invisible exchange having passed, the man landed on one of the empty cliffs, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes, seemingly disinterested in everyone and everything else.
“... was I wrong or... or did he nod at you?” Lear asked, glancing at Cain who had similarly closed his eyes and went back to relaxing.
“Just a fellow greeting,” Cain replied. “Implied ‘we won’t bother each other unless absolutely necessary’.”
“...” Lear sighed. The man must have realized that Cain was merely once-Awakened, there was no way to hide it. And it wasn’t as though Cain was trying to hide it, anyway. Nonetheless, even with knowing that, the man still nodded in acknowledgement. It made Lear wonder just how and why Cain was so strong.
Nonetheless, after the valley settled, people went back to inspecting the entrance. It wasn’t yet ready to be used, slowly ‘ripening’, so to say, but it wouldn’t be too long. An hour later or so, Cain once again opened his eyes and looked toward the entrance.
“More?” Lear quizzed.
“Three,” Cain replied. “Eh.” shrugging in disinterest, he closed his eyes once more. Is he suggesting that the three aren’t even worth his attention unlike the previous man?
Just like before, everyone else lagged slightly behind--Lear also tried paying attention to the man opposite of them, but didn’t dare look at him directly from fear of eliciting ire. The three people that showed up did so riding a projection of a silver, coiled dragon, perched on its back, similarly looking down at the world.
They indifferently looked about until their eyes landed on two figures--the man who showed up previously and Cain. Neither of the two actually acknowledged the trio’s arrival, keeping their eyes closed, and yet, all the same, the trio nodded toward the both of them before finding an isolated patch of land and settling down.
Though Lear was aware of some of the cultural ‘ticks’ of the truly strong people, his eyes were being opened up today. Inside the sphere within which he orbited, if anyone actually so blatantly ignored someone else, there would be a fight. And yet, three people that could undoubtedly kill everyone inside his sphere-as all three were actually thrice-Awakened--just acknowledge the two who didn’t even look at them.
“Don’t be so confused,” Cain commented, yawning. “It’s just another precaution. Those three are just as prideful as that other dude, but can only swallow that pride.”
“And you’re not?” Lear scoffed.
“I play by the rules,” Cain shrugged. “I think they’re moronic rules, but nonetheless, I have to play by them. If I had acknowledged those three, it would have fucked up our dynamic from the onset, and the three would have felt obliged to come over and say hi and chatter. Do I want them to come over and chatter? No, of course not. You’re a chatterbox enough.”
“Among the two of us, you are a chatterbox, though.”
“Exactly!”
“...”
“Anyway, them are the rules, I suppose.”
“... okay. But how does a once-Awakened know these rules, though? Especially considering your world is so far behind the rest of us?”
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“... intuition?” Cain cracked a smile and Lear stopped pressuring. Whatever the tale was, the man clearly wasn’t interested in telling it, and Lear wasn’t intent on prying it out of him.
One by one, more and more people began showing up, but most of them were twice-Awakened. Unlike with the four thrice-Awakened, the newcomers hardly paid attention to anyone else, lifting their noses toward the sky and smugly walking about as though they were the crowned kings of the valley.
Eventually, the number shot up to over ten thousand souls, and it was getting quite cramped. It had gotten to the point that several fights broke out already, with more developing as more people continued showing up. Nonetheless, there were three spots that nobody approached--one with a solitary man meditating, cross-legged, his eyes clothes, the other with three people sitting around in a half circle, enjoying some tea, and the last one was where Cain and Lear set up shop.
“Oh?” Cain suddenly opened his eyes, facing the valley’s entrance. Lear, from the corner of his eyes, spotted that the other four were similarly roused, facing the entrance.
“Someone ‘quite strong’?” Lear asked.
“... on the border,” Cain replied, squinting his eyes slightly. “Much stronger than the bird-nosed one. Looks like a quasi-perfect Awakening. Interesting.”
Lear’s attention was driven to the entrance as he expectantly awaited the arrival of the newcomer. This was the most ‘praise’ Cain had given to anyone, and though it was still... questionable, it had gotten Lear interested. Around five minutes later, the entire valley suddenly quieted down as a brash onslaught of Mana swept through it. Cain hurriedly lifted a shield around Lear, with the man not reacting in time. Unlike him, who remained perfectly safe, almost everyone else in the valley was forced to step back, most even vomiting blood.
“Sheesh, what a show-off,” Cain groaned, rolling his eyes. Just as he rolled his eyes, a figure rolled into the valley--it was a woman, appearing to be in her early thirties, garbed in resplendent, golden robes with a trident-like staff held in her hand. Between the staff’s peak, an orb of holy light shone, spinning unto itself, dousing the staff in the golden shine.
The woman disinterestedly looked over the valley, including the other four who all respectfully nodded toward her, but she dismissed, until her eyes landed on Cain. He’d just withdrew the shield from Lear when he noticed the woman looking at him. He looked back, his gaze inquisitive. Just a moment later, the woman headed over toward them, causing Lear to freeze up. Even if Cain wasn’t afraid of fighting her, if he got caught up between the two... he would die.
“Relax, stiff boy,” Cain chuckled. “She’s just really attracted to me and wants to say hi. I mean, look at me. What woman wouldn’t just swoon immediately?”
“If only your appearance actually matched your confidence,” the woman spoke with a firm and yet soft voice at the same time. “I might even pursue you truly.”
“It’s not my appearance,” Cain said. “It’s your eyes. If you can’t see the handsomeness... alas. All the same, I am already taken, I’m afraid.”
“Mighty is the woman willing to put up with you,” the woman said, nonchalantly sitting down next to the stone-turned Lear.
“... did you just give yourself a compliment?” Cain cracked a smile. “Smooth.”
“My father was a lot like you,” she said. “He taught me well.”
“A good man,” Cain said, pouring two cups of wine. “Let’s drink in his name.”
“... a lot like you,” the woman said, finally cracking a smile and taking the cup. “Ander.”
“Wow, that’s a mighty masculine name for a woman,” Cain said. “Appropriate, I suppose, for the mighty woman that you are.”
“It’s my father’s name,” she sighed. “Which you already knew. Hundreds of years of experience, and yet I still get baited. I am truly weak.”
“Hey, you said it, not me,” Cain chuckled. “To Ander. In hopes I might raise my daughters just like he had raised you.”
“To him,” the woman said. The sight left the entire valley feeling beyond confused, especially the other four thrice-Awakened and chiefly Lear. He was still a statue. “What’s with him? Is he not confident in your ability to defend him if I attacked?”
“Not in the slightest, it seems,” Cain sighed. “I don’t know why, but I find it that people are quite... fickle with their trust in me. In some moments, they think I could fuck a mountain-sized hole in the sky, and in another, they think I couldn’t protect them from a squirrel or something.”
“To those people, then.”
“Ah, you just wanted to drink. You like the wine, eh? I’m starting to despise you less and less.”
“So, what do you think is inside?” the woman asked, glancing at the still-developing entrance.
“A treasure,” Cain replied simply. “I can guarantee that much.”
“A blind, recently resurrected corpse of a racoon could guarantee that much.”
“Well, I don’t see any blind, recently resurrected corpse of a racoon guaranteeing a goddamn thing, so I guess that leaves only me. What do you think’s inside?”
“An opportunity.”
“Ah, a woman of synonyms.”
“A learned woman is the expression, if you don’t mind.”
“I never got your name, o’ ye learned woman,” Cain said. “This handsome one’s is Cain. But you can call me ‘handsome’, ‘amazing’, ‘awe-inspiring’, or any of the variations.”
“Quinn,” the woman said. “O’ ye handsome Cain. So, would you like to pair up and split the rewards? I don’t feel like fighting you, and two people roughly as strong as me will soon be here.”
“I get the first choice,” Cain said with a smile.
“... fine,” the woman relented with a sigh. “You men and your ‘I gotta be first’. First in everything.”
“...” Cain played dumb to the implications, instead focusing toward the valley’s entrance. “They’re slightly weaker than you,” he said. “Individually, at least. Still, you should be fine against them. They’ve got complementary classes?”
“Something like that,” Quinn nodded, seeming impressed at Cain’s intuition. “Anyway, forget about them. Do you... do you have any more of that wine?”
“Of course!” Cain exclaimed, forgetting. “Oi, Lear, I know that the sight of two extremely good-looking people chatting has left you in shambles, but care to join us for a drink? Lear? No? Alright, I guess he’s out. So, let me tell you a story about this wine: supposedly, ‘twas brewed during a war...”