“Save humanity… from the Giants…?” Jadewell fidgeted with her fingers. Elian spotted the ring of invisibility she was trying to hide. He wouldn’t blame her if she disappeared and ran away. “Giants are extinct,” she said. “They have descendants of diluted blood, but true Giants are long gone. No one has seen any for, I don’t know, hundreds of years. Perhaps a thousand. Unless you mean their mutated cousins roaming the snowy scape of Granaja?”
“True Giants. They’re still around, just not here. They live in the Forgotten Lands.”
Elian noticed that Jadewell was about to roll her eyes but stopped herself. “You’re telling me that an extinct race will come from an island mentioned only in legends to wipe out humans?”
“Exactly,” said Elian, trying not to sound sheepish. Sounded very unbelievable putting it that way. The vision-of-the-future plan seemed more defensible. He’d try it with Thorren during their trip. “The first of the Giants will arrive less than seven and a half months from now on Sarnival Port.”
“A long time to confirm your story,” said Jadewell. She closed her fist around her ring. She might not believe what he said, but she seemed willing to continue listening. “Taking your words as hypothetically true… why were you chosen by this mysterious Timekeeper to be the savior of humanity?”
“I-I don’t know the answer to that.” Elian lied because he was angry at the truth. “If I succeed in my mission, then the Timekeeper would be correct. Maybe he saw something in the future?”
The Timekeeper told him the choice was completely random. His magic worked best on someone not bound to Fellenyr’s life wave—some complicated explanation Elian didn’t understand and couldn’t remember—and so he picked someone from Earth, the homeworld of humans. The Timekeeper’s power was diminished breaching the veil across worlds, so he didn’t know who he was pulling.
“Lady Fortuna showered me with luck,” the Timekeeper had told Elian while they were at the In-Between dimension. “An infant could be standing in your place right now.”
“Firstly, an infant can’t stand,” Elian angrily replied then. “Secondly, what if you did pick a baby, you asshole?”
“But I picked you. Your choices are either to do it or not.”
Deities really didn’t care about anything other than what they wanted.
“In your previous life,” Jadewell said. “What happened when the Giants came to Sarnival?”
Elian briefly narrated how the Giants destroyed the port town and made it their staging ground. From there, they swept through Raelyon and beyond.
There were other places they’ve landed as well. They came in their hundreds on island-sized ships and then in their thousands when they established portals on the mainland. Humanity was disorganized and many kingdoms fell. Expeditions were sent to find the Forgotten Lands, hoping to bring the fight to the Giants and lure them back to their homes to no avail. It wasn’t until one of the Giant portals was captured and reversed that humanity gained access to the Forgotten Lands.
The night was falling as Elian neared the end of his tale. He thought Jadewell would leave—perhaps she’d wildly assume he had some unsavory plans for her in the darkness—but she didn’t. She listened to his every word. He could tell he wasn’t convincing her of their truth, but she was still transfixed by the tale.
“There were several campaigns to the land of the Giants,” Elian said. “All failed, the human armies were wiped out. The last was an attack on Blunderbore, the Giants' capital. This was where I died at the hands of the Giant King. I woke up two weeks ago at Ambervale and found that I no longer could travel back in time.”
“You lost the Boon?” Jadewell must think he was making excuses not to demonstrate its power. “What Divine Bestowal did you bring with you from the future?”
This can be my proof! Angry red tattoos bloomed on Elian’s skin, shining brightly in the darkness enveloping them. “This is a Greater Curse from the Abyssal Eye. This isn’t someone of my level could obtain.”
“I’m not familiar with this deity you speak of,” Jadewell said, dashing Elian’s plan in one swoop. “But why did you choose that Curse?”
“I’ll start my journey with boosted Attack Power,” Elian explained. “Same as how money can make more money, I’ll gain strength at a faster rate than before, not even counting the penalties of the Timekeeper’s Boon. But it didn’t go as planned because—”
“Why didn’t you choose the Timekeeper’s Boon?”
Elian’s mind ground to a halt.
“Isn’t that why you no longer have it?” Jadewell continued. “I may be misunderstanding some parts of your convoluted and complicated story, but shouldn’t you have chosen the Timekeeper’s Boon to preserve your ability to redo those fifteen years?
He closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands. “I… am… an… idiot!”
His mind or spirit or whatever it was came from the future. He wasn’t the same person whom the Timekeeper granted his Boon—this was the reason he lost it. The solution should have been to keep picking the darned Timekeeper’s Boob for infinite retries so long as he fulfilled its conditions. He could have been the penultimate expert of all things magic on Fellenyr after a century or two of rewinding.
It should’ve been an unlosable situation for humanity, and he dropped the ball… so fucking hard.
“Are you alright?” Jadewell tapped his shoulders.
He looked up. She was shining a glowing blue ring on him. He was so buried in his thoughts that he didn’t notice her come closer. “I… I’m not sure. If humanity is doomed, blame it on me.”
“We should return to the Cauldron,” she gently said. “It’s not safe this deep in the forest at night. Creatures more dangerous than the jarlion prowl hereabouts.”
Elian was silent the entire time they walked back to town. He wasn’t even thinking of where he was going, just a small part of his brain directing him to follow a step behind the woman with the glowing hand.
What if he had retained the Timekeeper’s Boon? He could’ve rewound time to get rid of the Elder Giant’s Curse. After that, he’d learn all the rights moves until victory was assured. Then he’d go for a final run, picking the winning Divine Bestowal, and end the Giants for good.
That wasn’t happening now.
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Look on the bright side, was what he’d always think in these shitty situations. There had to be a bright side.
For starters, he didn’t have to level up for the needed Favor Points to rewind while penalized by both the Timekeeper’s Boon and the Elder Giant’s Curse. A large chance he’d die before then since he’d be incredibly weak and couldn’t even attack. That was a decent bright side.
“I’m not inclined to believe your story,” said Jadewell as the walls of the Cauldron greeted them. They ascended the ramp to the gate. “The Giants, rewinding time, it’s all difficult to take in. However, your reaction to me pointing out your mistake—”
“Exceedingly colossal mistake,” Elian chimed in.
“—appears genuine. It makes me afraid. If your story is true… I-I don’t even know what to think. I pray to the Storm God you’re weaving an elaborate prank or just touched in the head by the sun.”
“I’m afraid not,” Elian said.
She looked over her shoulder, peering through her curtain of hair. She had untied her bun. “Say, you haven’t finished your story. Why did you ask the Hundred-Armed Magistrate for a Curse? Something about a plan. Is killing Quillhusks with a Tribulation part of it?”
“You can say that,” said Elian with half a snort and half a chuckle. Amusing how things got this way. If he picked the Timekeeper’s Boon, he wouldn’t be out here squishing giant bugs with a palm strike from the heavens. “It wasn’t only the Abyssal Eye’s Curse I brought with me from the future. Before I died, the Giant King—no, it was the Elder Giant. Probably. Whoever it was, they placed a Curse on me.”
Elian told Jadewell about the Greater Curse of the Powerless Physical Immortal and its interaction with the Greater Curse of the Berserking Abyssal Eye. She made no comments about his plan to use the Tribulation as his attacking skill while making himself stronger through its rewards.
Since it sounded like a good idea at that time, wouldn’t it be better to make the Tribulation stronger? And so, he asked for a Curse.
“To be honest, I didn’t think the Magistrate would agree just like that,” Elian said. “This is now how things are, and I’m hunting using the Tribulation to level up. I know you don’t believe my story; I’m not forcing you to. But what do you think of… my mistake, assuming it were true?”
Jadewell turned away to think as they entered the gate; he could only guess her expression. “What can I say? Hmmm… I commend your ingenuity in making the best out of your unenviable situation. That’s the most important part. We can’t control what fate—before I go on, you won’t be offended if I give you advice? You seem down.”
“Very much down. Beating myself over my mistakes. I doubt your words can pull me up, but let’s hear it.”
She stopped walking and turned around to face him. “As I was saying, we can’t control what fate throws our way. Even if you pick this Timekeeper’s Boon to redo your life several times—and I’m not saying I believe such a deity or Boon exists—you can’t fully predict the outcome. As you rewrite the book of time, the future pages also change. It might very be only in this book you have both the Abyssal Eye’s Curse and the Elder Giant’s Curse. Other books could be worse and—”
“The bright side!” Elian blurted.
She raised her hand with the light ring and peered at him. “Is there something wrong with what I said?”
“No, you’re right. This might be the only timeline I have both of these Curses.”
Could he obtain the Abyssal Eye’s Curse again? Most of the events leading up to it were outside his control. If he’d change the present, the future would as well. That infuriating abstract existence of an eye might not even be in its volcano lair the next time he would visit.
What about the Giants?
As Elian would thwart their attacks time and again, one of those murderous bastards would realize there were time magic shenanigans on the humans’ side. They know of the Timekeeper. Heck, the Giant King discerned it just from one encounter. Lucky Elian was about to die that time, his bomb primed to go off, so the most the Giant King could do was inflict this pesky Curse. If the Giants had time to prepare, they might come up with something much worse to impede his time travel.
Could be better, could be worse. Useless to think of what-ifs, really. What he had now was an amazing synergy of Curses. He should make the most out of it.
“This was a day full of epiphanies,” Elian said, a smile disrupting his gloomy face. He called up his Covenant with the Gods.
Elian Ward | Human | Level:7
Health: 2,103/2,260
Energy: 1025/1025
ATTRIBUTES:
Attack Power: 0
Magic Power: 0
Armor: 18,632
Magic Resilience: 0
DIVINE BESTOWAL:
Greater Curse of the Berserking Abyssal Eye III
Greater Curse of the Powerless Physical Immortal II
Lesser Curse of the Overzealous Judge I
If Elian had brought his enchanted cleaver, it would’ve given eight thousand more Armor after the multipliers. But even without it, the Attack Power from his Tribulation rewards and the Armor of his helmet and armguard put in the work.
“Uh, Elian?” Jadewell waved at him. “Are you still right in your head? That is, if you ever were.”
“I’m very grateful for your help,” Elian told a very confused Jadewell. “But I have to leave now.”
“Help? I brought you more misfortune than aid. Good luck with your, um, plans. But I hope more that your story is untrue. I’ll assume it is so for my peace.”
“Yeah, that’s probably better for you.” Elian rushed back to camp to get the cleaver and max the tier of the Elder Giant’s Curse. He’d buy a better weapon. Weapons—plural. Better equipment. Enchantments and the works. He’d push this mistake to be his greatest strength.
In the shadow of Borlen’s wagon, Elian called up his three Curses. To the symbol of an angry giant bound by chains, he offered three orbs of light, his Favor Points. The Elder Giant’s Curse reached its maximum tier of three.
Greater Curse of the Powerless Physical Immortal
Transfer all your Attack Power and Magic Power to your Armor, becoming helpless in a fight while gaining durability beyond measure. Suffer the ultimate vulnerability to magic in return for octupling your Armor. So wills the Elder Giant, whose skin is impervious to steel but not magic.
“Octupling? That means multiplied by eight, right?” With the cleaver grasped by his hand, Elian checked his Covenant. He whistled in amazement, rapidly blinking his eyes several times to make sure he read the right number. “More than fifty-three thousand Armor?”
This much Armor is like wearing a suit of enchanted plate armor from the prime Forges of Berakan. In comparison, he had utter trash gear. Could he take on a shot from a dwarven ironboomer?
Oh, wait. No time rewind. Better not try.
He checked the details of his Armor to make sure the Elder Giant’s Curse worked perfectly.
ARMOR
Internal: 10 (Base), 6,288 (Powerless Physical Immortal)
External: 360 (Equipment)
Multiplier: x8 (Powerless Physical Immortal)
Elian grinned. His misfortune might just turn out to be a fortune. Those words were antonyms, right? Who cared if he was wrong if he had this much Armor?
“Brother Elian, are you there?” Borlen called. “Join us for dinner.”
“I’m here!” Elian answered. Then he muttered. “I’m getting tired of faeboar meat. Better than Quillhusk… the Quillhusk!” He forgot about it and the jarlion. He had to return to it tomorrow before going to mass.