Noah gave the surroundings a quick scan, and after he saw nothing alarming, walked over and picked his sword back up. Then, he quickly looted the three goblin carcasses to claim his loot and started moving deeper into the forest.
He willed his notifications tab to open, though he wasn't really expecting anything too surprising.
Killed Goblin Skirmisher (Level 1) x 3 - 75 XP, 30 EP Awarded
Looted- Goblin Knives, Inferior
Spiked Bludgeon, Inferior
Goblin Short sword, Inferior
"Kinda disappointing" Noah sighed, though he had expected it. "So, what now?" he asked Liam, as he proceeded deeper into the forest after crushing the remnants of the wooden box that he had worked so hard for under his foot. There was no reason to give anyone free hints, after all. Jake didn't exactly seem like the person who'd go around making friends and telling people how to get stronger, and that worked out perfectly fine for Noah. He preferred to milk this advantage for as long as possible, especially if he was going to keep running into monsters like The Safer.
"Hmm, I guess you're ready to know more now" Liam answered, and Noah's ears perked up. "You see kid, if you were to ask me whether I was dead or alive.... Well, you're not gonna like this answer."
"Tell me. I can handle it" Noah shot back, as this was one of the questions he had been curious about. But demi-god or not, 'are you dead' was still far too brazen of a question to ask for Noah, and he suspected that behind The Eternal Lion's holier than thou attitude was a pretty normal person who felt emotions the same way he did.
"Well, technically I am alive, but in reality, it is fair to say that I am more dead than alive. I don't really understand how time travel works, but I have a few conjectures based on what little information the Tower offered me. My soul was essentially ripped from my body, and if you were to equate Time to a continuously flowing river, thrown back towards a fixed location while taking the full brunt of the rapids head-on as I moved against the flow of the water" explained Liam with a solemn expression.
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"Can you explain what that implies in layman terms?" Asked Noah, knowing that this wasn't the best time to express his scientific curiosity.
"Well, my soul is severely fractured, and about half of it has been completely eroded. It takes quite a bit of divine sense to maintain the shape of my soul, and I can only maintain this physical form for roughly half a day. Don't fret too much though, because it's honestly better than expected.... I didn't really expect to survive after using [The Inheritance] skill. I don't know why I'm still alive, maybe it's because time travel isn't an exact science, or if the Tower's arrangements have deteriorated with the passage of time. But in layman's terms, you're on your own for the night shift." said Liam, as he waved his hands and a pair of silvery-white headphones materialized around his ears.
"What!? You're joking, right!? This has to be in exchange for calling your jokes shitty. I'm sorry, okay? This isn't funny." Noah started protesting, hoping against hope that this was just a prank in poor taste.
"Ah, the pure, unadulterated glory of British Rap. You tasteless Americans could never find it within yourself to appreciate true art" Liam muttered contentedly, as he admired the beautiful forest scenery around him.
Noah gave a defeated sigh, finally accepting that Liam was not bluffing. Earlier he had been wondering how scary and unnerving it would be to face Gridlocked completely alone, and now he'd be forced to find out. His tendency to overthink everything now came back to bite him in the ass, and he felt like kicking a brick wall.
"Do you know why I did it?" asked the Eternal Lion, as he absentmindedly stared at the false sky.
"Did what?" Noah asked, exasperated by this point.
"Swallowed my pride and sacrificed myself to go back in time, only to reduce myself to this pathetic state," The Eternal Lion asked, slightly chuckling as he finished the question.
"Because you wanted to save humanity?" Noah asked as if it were obvious.
"Save humanity. What are you lad, five years old? The Eternal Lion was many things, but a saint was not one of them. I didn't do it to save wankers that I'd never seen or spoken to like that rat Jake from before, and neither did I have much hope that the tosser that inherits my memories will actually use them for the 'greater good' and follow my instructions instead of becoming a power-tripping asshole. I didn't even think I'd be alive to see it happen, so it wasn't my problem to deal with." The Eternal Lion calmly admitted that his decision wasn't originally made for some noble or selfless cause, and his admission left Noah speechless.
"Now that I've been given another chance, I will do everything in my power to help you save both the people you care about and as much of humanity as we can. But, I'd be lying to you if I said that was my original intention is what I mean kid, sorry for sounding so harsh." he apologetically explained.
"Just, why then?" Noah asked, unable to discern the reasons behind his self-contradictory actions.
"Because... I am just as daft as you kid" replied Liam, and burst out in a peal of loud, mocking laughter. "In a world where The Eternal Lion never existed, would the companions that he had convinced to accompany him to the top have a less miserable end? Even if it was only a hundred years before humanity's fated end came regardless of his sacrifice to prevent it- if they could pass those years in peace and away from the carnage... it was all I could ever ask for, is what I thought as I condemned myself to this fate."