How I cursed! For a long time. With gusto. Until I ran out of breath. Which is really a long time, considering my "Enhanced Body"!
What a wicked elf! But why did he decide to ditch me? Why did he leave me on this island? Why didn't he wait twelve hours to ensure I wouldn't come out of the Defiled dungeon? How could he leave the Story unfinished? That's completely out of character for him! There must be a substantial reason for such an action.
A very substantial one!
Lost in thought, I sat down on the steps of the ancient staircase, continuing to stare at the horizon. To stare, hoping to spot the familiar sails. To no avail.
Alright! Stop!
There's a fact: the "Defector" is not along the island's shores. And what am I to do with this fact? This isn't even a proper island - it's a damn bare rock in the ocean with nothing but moss on it! How am I going to sail away from here? What will I eat and drink?! With this thought, I jumped to my feet and looked around again.
Wow!
How did I not notice this earlier? The staircase I was sitting on, the platform in front of the Gate – all this is dented and broken; many stones are cracked or have moved from their original positions. Even though everything was relatively intact when I was climbing up to the dungeon yesterday morning. Now it looks as though the island had been hit by an eight or even a nine-magnitude earthquake!
Oh! Maybe that's what happened?! When I finally destroyed the altar of Nulgle, the hall was shaken so thoroughly that I was thrown three meters into the air. Could this jolt have transferred from the dungeon to the island? Judging by the broken stones, it could, and it did.
So, maybe Larindel didn't abandon me?! The elf might have simply moved the "Defector" further away from the shore at the first signs of an earthquake. By taking the ship out to sea, he could have saved it. If I'm right in my assumptions, he will return before sunset. This thought significantly lifted my spirits.
To occupy myself while waiting, I went to explore the island. By sunset, I managed to finish this task, having walked around this rock at least five times. Much to my disappointment, when Seguna rose above the horizon, I still didn't see the familiar sails. In fact, I didn't see any sails, familiar or unfamiliar.
Which, if you think about it, is also strange. The island of Gnur is about three times closer to the mainland than Un, and twice as close as Quad. So, there should be quite intense sea traffic in these waters. At least, it seemed to me that it should be like that, but the facts told a different story. I hadn't spotted a single sail on the horizon all this time.
Most likely, all the captains traversing these waters knew well about the Plague curse of the island. And, as a consequence, tried to steer clear of it. Word of mouth and prejudices are such - they can inflate a mouse into a real elephant.
If the "Defector" doesn't appear in the morning, I'm in big trouble! With this thought, I hid from the wind in a crevice and fell asleep.
Waking up with the first rays of the sun, I quickly climbed to the highest point of the island and stared at the horizon until my eyes hurt. The "Defector" had not appeared. So, it seemed, my initial thought that the Sidhe bastard had used and discarded me was correct. I was about to utter a curse when a quester appeared in front of me.
"What the hell?!" I thought, but then I remembered that today was the deadline for the task of Elevating my rank.
"Could you move me from this island somewhere to the mainland?" I asked before the quester could say anything, "I'm willing to swap it for the Tyberian Plateau!"
"I see you've completed the task," the entity said, ignoring my words and inspecting me with feigned curiosity, "We are satisfied. As a reward…"
"Portal to the continent!" I yelled.
Technically, one can exchange questers' rewards for equivalent ones; most earthlings don't know about this nuance yet, but I am an exception. Maybe such a trade would work now?
"No," the quester answered with a smug smile as if to mock me, "We are satisfied with the situation you find yourself in."
"What?!!" I'd never seen these creatures exhibit such blatant personal emotions before.
"You heard me," saying this, the quester bent down, snapped its fingers, and turned into a pillar of light!
"Huh?!" Now I was scared! I tried to step back but bumped into a rock.
"The one calling himself Raven," it rumbled from within the light, "Did you really think we wouldn't know?"
"Wouldn't know what?" I tried to shout, but what came out was more of a squeak, like a small puppy that had yet to learn how to growl or bark.
"Aren't you too cowardly for the Black Raven of Ain, child?!"
The laughter echoing from the light fills me with terror. But this terror is so pervasive, so full, that it overflows within me, and my feelings shut down, unable to cope with such intensity.
"I haven't taken that name yet." My voice is dry, like a robot's.
"Not in this Cycle." The column of light hums.
"So, you really do know." Well, that's it, I'm about to be killed, but for some reason, I'm not scared.
"From the very beginning," the quester confirms, assuming its true form.
"So why am I still alive?" The first feeling that returns to me is not fear but surprise.
"Because we don't care. You are an anomaly. A fluke. An extra. A fluctuation."
"An anomaly that killed one of you!" I interrupt angrily.
I've nothing left to lose, and gripping the spear in both hands, I take a battle stance. My chances of victory are less than zero, but I'll die fighting.
"A fluke. A fluctuation. A ludicrous coincidence." The light hums.
"You're stuck on repeat, you magical robot!" I laugh genuinely.
I'm really not scared. Just a while ago, I was trembling all over, but now it's as if it was all cut off.
"Your naivety is even amusing," a light clap, and the quester reassumes its human form. "Your mind grasps a small part, doesn't understand the whole, but is sure of its rightness. It's so funny."
"So, you're not automatons..." This revelation doesn't please me, not at all.
Questers capable of making their own decisions and thoughts unsettle me much more than magical golems subordinate to an unknown program. The recently subsided fear begins to creep up again, squeezing my throat and making it hard to breathe.
Wait! If they knew from the very start, why am I still alive? There's only one conclusion: since they didn't kill me before - they won't kill me now. At least they won't do it with their own "hands." Because if they wanted to, they could have done it long ago and easily.
Exhaling, I lowered my spear and, looking fearlessly into the quester's eyes, said:
"So, you won't kill me." I glanced around, once again sweeping my gaze over the deserted island. "More accurately, you won't kill me with your own 'hands'."
"The reward for completing the last task, for you personally, is your life."
"I don't understand," I said aloud involuntarily.
"It's a personalized reward." Why does his smile seem so sincere? After all, I know for sure that it's not! "That's why you can't exchange it for anything else. Or do you really want to trade your life for something?"
"No!" I immediately respond. "I take back my offer to trade!"
"Accepted," the quester nods calmly, but at the same time, as it seemed to me, mockingly.
"And you don't care that I know the future?" I need to close this question right away, while this entity is so talkative.
"The future?" My interlocutor once again transforms into a three-meter column of light. "The future that you know has already changed. The Dice of Fate have been rolled again, and they have landed on different values."
"So, there won't be a demon invasion?"
The pure light in front of me quivered as if in deep irritation:
"There are things that remain constant."
I think I understand what he's talking about. There's no predetermined future for each individual, but there are global things that will happen anyway. It's like, no matter how many times you go back to the past, changing something, if an earthquake is meant to happen, it will happen anyway. Just as I exhaled, the light approached me closely.
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"As long as you don't interfere with us with your knowledge, don't trumpet it around - we won't interfere," the quester said, waiting for his words to fully reach me before resuming his anthropomorphic form. "Right now, you're even interesting to us."
"But I'm just a fluctuation, a coincidence!" I couldn't resist reminding him of his own words.
"Exactly. And by reaching the Bronze rank faster than any other sortudo," an image of an hourglass appeared in front of his face for a moment, then disappeared, "and by beating the first of the twelve by forty-two minutes, you, the one calling himself Raven, have proven that you're an interesting fluctuation. A coincidence worthy of a chance, despite 'some violations'."
His hand reached out to me, I wanted to back off, but I realized I couldn't move. His icy fingers touched my chin.
"From now on, you're known on our list as the Thirteenth. As long as you're worthy of this name, you live."
I want to ask a question but can't move my lips or tongue - his touch has paralyzed me.
"I see you understand," the quester nods.
What's there to understand? Everything is perfectly clear. As long as I keep up with the Shards, I'm of interest. As soon as I fall behind, I'll be erased.
"The next task, common to all the sortudo," as if the past conversation had never happened, the quester's voice is formal again, "is to gain affinity with one of the Powers or Elements within a month, which you have already accomplished, so I'll replace it with an individual mission."
The touch of the stranger's icy fingers disappears as the quester reverts to his true form again.
"Acquire the right to a personal motto; the term is the same, one month."
I want to yell that this is too much, that such a thing is unattainable in such a short time, but remembering one detail, I swallow my objections. Instead of indignation, I ask:
"The reward for the general task is my life. That's clear. But don't I deserve another for being the first of, as you said, the sortudo, to reach the Bronze rank?"
"Your reward will be a lesson," the quester hums.
A beam of light pierces my chest. I look down in disbelief and see a huge hole in my chest. A hole through which my head would easily fit. And then I am hit by a slightly delayed pain. I want to scream but can't because my lungs are burned to a cinder. My dying body falls to the ground. My fingers scratch the stone, tearing off nails. Darkness descends upon my eyes. But a moment before I die, all of that is gone. I can breathe again. It's as if the hole in my chest was never there. Even my chainmail and gambeson are intact. The nails torn off on the rocks are also in place.
I get up on my knees, leaning on my hands. I'm swaying. I lift my gaze to see this creature and give it a piece of my mind, but I find no one. I'm alone again on this damned rock in the middle of the ocean!
For some reason, this pissed me off even more than the "lesson" from the quester.
"Bastard," my lips whisper quietly. "Don't even think that I will forget this!"
And then I start laughing. I fall on my back and guffaw until I can't breathe. Why am I laughing? Because I just repeated verbatim the words Miranda told me after our first training session. The very training session that I conducted very harshly.
Realizing that I had fallen into slight hysterics, I calmed my laughter and performed a set of breathing exercises. The desire to laugh quickly subsided, but I was shaking for a long time, and no calming practices could help get rid of this tremor. I was almost killed just now, burned a hole through my chest. Or maybe the quester didn't burn it, and it was just a mental attack - that's not so important. What's more important is that I felt everything fully.
It was painful.
It was scary.
To calm myself down, I decided to get to work. I walked around the entire island again, this time looking for wood, any wood. I needed to get away from here, so I was looking for something to help me build a raft, if not a boat.
Unfortunately, I didn't find any logs or boards washed ashore. The reason for this was probably that three precious rank mages came to Gnur once a month and burned everything to hell. Probably for the same reason, nothing grows here except for quickly regenerating moss and weeds that have hidden in narrow rock crevices.
This is bad, I can't make a raft out of air or stones, and I wouldn't risk swimming away from here. Yes, Gnur is "just" forty miles away from the mainland, and I know the direction, due west. But even considering that I was a decent swimmer back on Earth and gained an "Enhanced Body" in Ain, I still wouldn't risk such a swim. Because the ocean is unpredictable, and its currents are so strong that they would drift even the best swimmer aside. Plus, to swim away would mean to leave all my things here: the spear, the dagger, the armor treated with alchemy, and I wouldn't do that, not even under the threat of death!
Thoughts about how to leave the island brought my mind into a business groove, calmed me down. And as soon as I regained the ability to think sensibly, I sat down on the nearest stone, remembering the meeting with the quester in all the details. I ran the past dialogue through my head three times. And I came to the conclusion that everything is not as bad as it seemed at first. Yes, the questers know that "past me" killed one of them. But, to be honest, I've long suspected this, as these creatures retain memory from Cycle to Cycle. Therefore, the quester that "I" killed, having been reborn in this time loop, remembered his death. I was just hoping that the questers were emotionless machines and they didn't care. Alas, reality turned out to be different.
They also know about my "memory of the future." And they don't care. Well, actually, it's not that they don't care; they're even curious. So much so that they gave me a personal name, putting me on par with the Shards. But there's nothing to be joyful about this. I understand perfectly well that, in their eyes, I'm a mouse trying to outrun cats. And not only is it trying, but it is also succeeding so far. And the key word here is "so far." Even I myself don't believe that my equality with the Shards will last long. Moreover, my strategy to save Ain is only partially tied to my advancement. Its core is more about helping the Shards and possibly ordinary earthlings rather than focusing on personal power.
As for the quester's threat that if I slow down, all my "sins" will be remembered, it brings nothing new to me. I had no intention to stop or slow down anyway. So in that sense, nothing has changed for me. It's probably even a good thing that they know everything, as I no longer need to think about how to hide it all from them. But! All in all, I wouldn't call this meeting "positive". Even without considering that I was almost killed.
I was due a reward for completing the task! And formally, I received it - they granted me life. But I was counting on some kind of bonus, perhaps even a permanent one, and they conned me with that. I'm sure there was supposed to be some sort of reward for being the first to reach Bronze. And again, formally, I did receive one - a "lesson." The only question is, what was this lesson supposed to teach me by almost killing me? Moreover, this "lesson" was something I asked for from the quester.
Wait! So is that the issue? The fact that I started to demand something, "flex my rights"? As the saying goes, "Don't ask for anything from those stronger. If they need you, they will come to you themselves and give you everything.[1]" Damn! Maybe that's the lesson, or maybe it's something entirely different; who can understand them? One thing is clear: the quester didn't nearly kill me for no reason. It wasn't an outburst of emotions, as I initially thought. It was indeed a lesson, the meaning of which is unclear to me for now.
I spent over an hour thinking about this until I realized I was probably too dumb and shifted my focus to something else. The new task.
There are three ways to obtain a personal motto. The first, most obvious, you become a squire or a knight, that is, a noble, and you earn the right to this motto.
The second method is also quite clear – reach the precious coil of the Spiral, and you'll get a similar right. In the Tunnellers' Guild, for example, when you're registering and your personal Page appears in the Book of Names, they enter your full name. In my case, the entry would be: Raven, son of Alexander from Seattle. When I reach the precious coil, a motto will be added to my Page. In the previous Cycle, the motto chosen was: "I am the terror that flaps in the night!" The "past me" found this amusing. To be honest, it really is funny, but the locals didn't get the joke, and the motto can't be changed. As a result, the "past me" had a lot of trouble with this entry because, in Ain, they don't joke with words, especially with a combination like "terror" and "night." Moreover, when "I" reached the Itildine rank and earned the right to a heroic name, I called myself "Black Raven of Ain." I don't argue, it's beautiful, and it matched my main Power - Shadow, but sometimes it seems to me that the "past me" was fundamentally ineducable and simply loved stepping on rakes. How?! How!!! Having had enough of such a motto, why would you take a name that includes the word "Black"?!
This time I need to think more carefully, and when choosing a motto, I should focus more on the image it creates rather than: "Oh! This is cool and fun!" However, the "past me" is excused by the fact that the motto, taken from the cartoon "Darkwing Duck," was chosen in Dice's company. It's another argument in favor of avoiding crossing paths with the former friend in this Cycle. And if it happens, under no circumstances should I drink, eat, or smoke in his company!
The third way to get a personal motto was to win a tournament. Not just any local competition but one that takes place under the patronage of one of the great Guilds. Such contests are often held all over Ain. But the problem is that they always occur in different parts of the planet. Larindel mentioned that a big tournament, which will take place under the Sign of the Alchemists' Guild, one of the great Guilds, is soon to start in Tries. The trouble is that it begins in four days, and I'm stuck on an uninhabited island with no prospect of escaping from it. If I miss the registration, the next similar event may not take place for a month, and it will likely be on the other side of the Great Ridge. And I need to get a personal motto within a month.
I immediately discard the second path - reaching the Precious coil within this timeframe. No memory of the future, no talents, no achievements will allow me to ascend three ranks in such a short time. Neither Nate, Arien, Katashi nor even dead-drunk Dice could achieve such a feat. Although… I'm not so sure about the latter. When it comes to an intoxicated Dice, logic and even laws of physics shy away.
Getting to my feet, I surveyed the island again and sighed heavily. I'll most likely be late for the tournament. Because the only way to escape Gnur that I can think of is to wait for the dungeon to Reset and haul out all the wood I find. The shields of the goblin warriors, spear or axe shafts. Load myself up to the capacity and pray that it will be enough. Most likely, what I bring out in one run won't be sufficient, which means I'll have to Reset it twice. And that's if I manage to get anything out because going solo through a dungeon with goblin archers is, in my case, a coin toss. But what can I do? I see no other way out. And even if everything works out, if I don't get shot, that's two weeks gone and another day or two for raft-making. Plus a couple more days to swim to the mainland, if I'm really lucky. So it turns out that to complete the questers' task, I'll have to take the first path.
For most people, this "first path" is virtually unattainable. Kings are not in the habit of granting nobility to random petitioners. But in my case, it's quite simple. I'm sure if I were to show any ruler who is fond of flattery the "Pure Palm of Five Empty Fingers" and promise to dedicate my next feats to their crown, asking only for knighthood in return, three out of four kings would agree to grant my request.
So, if I can get off this rock in a reasonable time, I can handle the quester's task. Once I reach the continent, within a week, I can somehow secure an audience with some king who would want to have in his list of knights a man who repeated the feat of one of Eyrat's sons. There are plenty of such rulers on Ain, keen on external manifestations of their greatness. I just need to find one, secure an audience, and show the Sign of the achievement, then ask the monarch for knighthood.
No sooner had I thought this than my chest ached sharply, reminding me of the sizable hole recently burned into it. A revelation, like a hammer, struck the back of my head.
"Bastards!" I roared at the top of my lungs.
A flash of light before my eyes, and then a quiet voice is heard:
"The lesson is learned."
A new entry appears on my Core. And my past achievement, "Understanding the Unsaid," gained for the second individual task, moves on to the next level, transforming into "Understanding the Hidden." It retains the original bonus and also adds the passive adamantium skill "True Attention." It allows me to see the true rank of people, even if they are hiding it. But most importantly, I am now able to see and hear through Sacred Barriers imposed by those who outrank me by no more than one Coil of the Spiral. Right now, it's not very important, but when I reach the Valirium rank, I will be able to see through divine barriers!
The potential prospects took my breath away, my head spun, and I said sincerely:
"Thank you."
The quester didn't answer, simply disappearing, leaving me alone again on this barren rock.
[1] TLN: A quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita