After I left I wondered if we would meet again some time in the future. Although it seemed I was immortal, I hardly had the experience to back it up and there were certain things a mortal usually wouldn't have to learn how to deal with. Having your own children die on you? Children? No!
There were things about attunement I had not told Catherine, or which had only come up in our discussion and which I was now starting to consider. There was one more method of increasing affinity or maybe strength of the inner dark and light that I was aware of. Directly absorbing them. I had done that quite a lot in the gray lands and it had somehow increased my strength enough to continue on. Now that I had the capacity to suppress it, I could also consider increasing those two elements.
Going overboard would be a horrible idea, and the amount of aura I would need to suppress amounts like what the angel was holding inside back then were nothing I could gain by leveling up.
I wondered if I had actually increased some of the light or dark inside of me without noticing. By increasing my overall mana regeneration and in addition to that the efficiency of the suppression, I was no longer tracking the actual consumption as closely as before. To know about this was very important, so I immediately set out to test it.
The light and dark inside of me, which were usually completely separated into two groups were released and began their chaotic swirling. I didn't let them cause any damage to my body by suppressing them in the same way I had done originally, by simple pressing down crudely.
My mana pool was filled up and I didn't want to spend much time casting spells to expend it. I simply concentrated on some of my aura, pushed it out and released it. If I had an empty crystal I could have filled it up. It was a real waste this way, but I had enough to spare.
I pulled up my status screen and closely observed my mana rising up again. Without a precise clock with me I was unable to see much of a difference, if any, between the theoretical 12.3 mana per minute and the approximately 7.3 mpm I was currently regenerating after my suppression was counted in. Either the light and dark spell usage so far didn't have an influence, or it was too weak in its effect. Those motes of light and dark certainly contained far more of the essence than I could gain otherwise. Perhaps that was for the best, as I didn't want to steadily increase the conflict unintentionally. I pushed my dark back into my inner parts and let the light fill out the outer area, but still kept it from leaking out, thus keeping my aura from being visible.
When I was done I was paying more attention to my surroundings instead of my insides again, when a crow flew right past me and landed a few meters in front of me on a low hanging branch.
Had it been observing me all this time? I hadn't paid much attention to what was going on around me, as I trusted myself to detect anything with a considerable aura without even trying. I had stopped walking the moment the crow hand flown past me and was now intensely staring at it. There was nothing spectacular about its aura at all. It was a simple animal with a weak and simple aura.
Then why was I so nervous. Even a normal crow might be looking at me directly like this. They were intelligent birds after all and might even do something strange at times. I could have tried to really pierce inside of its aura with my sense and take a thorough look, but in case I was wrong that would be very disrespectful and could cause me serious trouble. Instead I tested out:
“Master Crow, is that you?”
The crow just continued looking at me, but didn't react any further. I slowly walked past the tree, never losing eye contact. Only when I was past the crow by about twenty meters did I turn around and continue walking forward, though my steps were a bit unsteady.
Then I heard the flapping of wings and the crow landed on my right shoulder before I could completely turn around. It cawed once and then just sat there, without hurting my shoulder. I simply stood still and didn't dare to move at all.
“Could you please get off my shoulder again?”
I didn't even get an answer. The crow remained where it was, untouched by the world. Even after I waited a bit it wouldn't get off, so I started walking again, slowly and shuddering. This situation scared me far more than the blunt and direct way the gods used to act towards me. Because I was not sure of the situation. Had it seen my strange play with light and dark? Had it even listened in to the discussion I had had with Catherine? Or was it just a simple crow, just like its aura spoke out and had taken place on my shoulder for some ridiculous reason?
I didn't throw it off, and walked an entire hour through the woods without disturbing it.
“Hahaha, this is hilarious, but I guess I should stop picking on you. To get things out of the way, I was able to see your dual attunement right away when we met, so don't try to talk around it. You can hide your aura well, and even most of the gods won't be able to see the inner layer, especially not when you are hiding it like now.
Don't worry, I won't tell anyone or cause you trouble because of it. But this is really fascinating and I can't pass up this chance to properly make your acquaintance.”
The laughter could have almost scared me to death, and after listening I was really beat down. After all the effort I went through my deepest secret had been detected. Perhaps the crow was lying and had only just now found out, but that didn't really matter in the end. I sat down on the next best tree stump I found.
“What now?”
“There is no need to be so depressed. This is a happy encounter for both of us. An opportunity to learn! You saw my aura, and you still couldn't detect me. And your abilities are already remarkable but I was still able to see through you. If you accept me as your master, I can teach you those things, and so much more!”
“You mean what you showed Majal? More meditation and focus training?”
“That was child's play. No, I will teach you real secret methods, that will actually increase your capabilities and not just some basic training.”
He had caught me in a situation where I didn't have much to lose in terms of secrets anymore. I was strangely unconcerned about almost anything, now that the shock was wearing off. Strangely, I was still reluctant to part with anything regarding the gray lands or the rituals I had performed to achieve my in game dual attunement and my current overall dilemma.
“I must admit that the offer is tempting, but you surely have your own interests? And I am not willing to share any of the secrets of my attunement.”
“That is a pity, but I won't force you to reveal them. For now I would be happy if you take up my offer of companionship and if you are willing there is the one or other task in the future we could both profit from.”
This was an offer I could not refuse.
“Alright, I accept.”
“Marvelous! Now, to seal our deal I would like to bestow something on you. It is a sort of membership to my cult of the eye. It is an ability to emit a very faint type of energy, and to be able to perceive it as well. That way you can recognize others, if you haven't met already. Do you agree?”
“Yes.”
It wasn't a new experience to me when something settled in my brain, though the process was much more gentle. Immediately afterwards I was able to sense an affinity to the crow, though I couldn't say why.
“You are now an probationary member of the cult of the eye. My lore will enable you to sense other outer members. Proven members will also be able to see you, though that is one sided for now. You can however turn off the characteristic energy you are now emitting any time.
We are a close group and there are many advantages to be recognizable to each other. I would request that you treat the others with respect and courtesy. If you meet any of them, it is at their own discretion if they want to reveal themselves. I will not formally introduce you to them until we have established a certain amount of trust. You may not speak of this cult to anyone, not man nor god nor anything else.”
“Of course not.”
There wasn't really much information I could use on the group anyway. I had learned the name, which might not even be known to anyone outside the cult. I was able to see other probationary members, but the chance to meet one by chance was probably pretty low.
“Are you now interested in becoming my pupil?
I simply nodded, not of any mind anymore what else to think. The abilities he had demonstrated were extraordinary.
“Then we already come to the first lesson and one little task I have for you.”
And finally we reached the crucial point.
“I can already detect the lore to understand organics. Parangante's handwriting I see. That will make the first step far easier.”
How much was this bird able to see? Was it really looking into me like that or just constantly manipulating me with information it had found out elsewhere? Had Parangante herself told him about it. I put my utmost focus on closing myself off from the outside, building a wall that didn't let out any aura as far as I was aware.
“I'm sorry, I don't want to pry, but this is clearly visible to me without even trying and I don't even consider it anymore. Even if you close yourself off like this, I can still look through you. And in case you suspect me of getting my information elsewhere, I will prove my abilities to you right now.”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
The crow looked at me for a moment and then stated:
“You have been unraveling the lore Parangante gave you.”
My shoulders sacked and I let go of my aura, letting it fall into the state I was holding it in automatically. There really was no secret before this crow and anything he had said were things he could find out by himself. I gave up resisting at this point.
“First, I want you to scan your own nervous system, especially the brain and optimize it as far as you can. There will be a lot of pent up memories and emotions you have to deal with, but that can't be helped. Suppressing them won't help you by the way, you will just awaken them again the moment you repeat the process.”
I instantly remembered the woman whose head I had worked on. She was hysterical, and now I was supposed to do this to myself. My childhood hadn't been bad, but sometimes it's just more comfortable to slowly forget things, even if it is just a bit embarrassing. Then there were the horrible events I had only barely gotten through without going utterly mad. No matter what power I could gain, this was a very bad idea. The crow didn't seem to consider that however.
“It won't be easy, but once you are finished the second part will become easier. Your energy pathways and soul are overlapping with your physical body. Bringing your brain to perfection will automatically have an influence on the energy paths that flow along it, and increase your perceptive ability. With that you should be able to improve on those pathways even further.
They don't have to be identical to your physical body, but for now just use your body as a base and build them up accordingly. From what I can see, everything inside you has an excellent form, and you won't have to change any part completely for now. These are things you can experiment on if you want, but that is not the priority right now.
Once you have improved everything, you will be able to see so many aspects of your aura you aren't hiding properly right now and can manipulate them in far greater detail. With enough practice not even I will be able to look into you then.”
I never would have thought that the lesson the crow had promised would be so scary. If it was this bad, what was the task he wanted me to do in return?
“There was something you wanted me to do?”
“It's just a minor thing really. The next time you visit Majal, show her something to make her curious. Transform into something she has never seen before when the situation is right. Tell her an interesting story about it. Grow that spark of fascination for the unknown inside of her. That's all really.
It might take a few days until you are called again, I am keeping her busy right now, but I won't stay forever.”
That was not even any extra effort for me. I had to attend to Majal whenever I was called anyway, if this little duty was all that was required of me, I would do it. The real dread laid in the teachings I had received.
“Now don't waste what I have taught you. It will take you a lot of time, for doing it, and then for dealing with what you release. But when you finally push through it will be worth it. Take care, my new pupil.”
“Stay safe - Master Crow” I added the last part after the crow had stared at me in an expecting manner. Apparently satisfied he took off.
I really had to stop for a moment and think about options and choices. What was binding me currently and did I have to stick to it? What did I seek? From time to time it was good to consider why I was actually doing the things I did, and adapt. It felt necessary because of all the things unfolding around me that left me disoriented.
What I wanted to do right now was to learn inscription, I really did, because it interested me. That was basically what held me here in Barlaine, even if the situation might escalate soon. The moment I couldn't advance there any more I might just as well leave for greener pastures, though it would be a bit sad to sever the connections I had begun to build around here.
What I needed to do was find information about light and dark, because it affected me deeply, and could have severe consequences for me. For that I needed rare sources of knowledge, and the crow seemed to be just that. He also appeared to be approachable, which was another point urging me to follow him. Even if I was able to make out an excellent library or got to know about some knowledgeable person, I might still be stuck in front of closed doors.
Another goal, if a bit minor, was comfort. I wanted to earn a good amount of money to purchase things which were no immediate needs, and I should also start to make use of my abilities for means that were less combat related, now that I could defend myself against many of the dangers that were in my range of power. I should work towards this, if I got the spare time.
It would be nice to learn about plane traveling and gain some understanding of how I ended up in this place, but the world to explore was large, and there were no other places I really had to go back to. I would look out for it on the side.
The last thing that came to my mind right now was power. Sooner or later I wanted to be free from any outside influence I didn't approve. It had also felt very nice to wield huge amounts of mana. This was the most distant goal right now, as simple leveling had very real limits. I still liked this world more than earth, because at least there seemed to be these possibilities. To breach past the limits of the system however, I would need to find alternative ways, and that came down to information again.
I had to look out for the most special applications of magic. Learning to cast more efficient fireballs was irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. So there was yet another reason to stick to the crow. Not only did he probably have knowledge, he even shared one such path with me. I sighed. In a way I had already known that for great power, I might also face more difficult challenges than most other people would.
My reflection didn't really yield the conclusion I had hoped for. Everything only reinforced the decision to continue on the path I was already walking. Of course I could still delay for a little bit, before I got really serious about it...
Right now I had the upcoming night to pass. I had been around all day, so I didn't mind spending a bit of effort on things that were not too radical. Before I got to those though, I first wanted to finish something that had taken me far too long already. For that I headed back to my room and did the finishing touches on my self healing. It felt really great when the itching finally stopped altogether.
Then I pulled out the little piece of the monolith I had taken along with me. I had already analyzed it before, so it wasn't difficult to understand the finer mechanics with a bit of effort. One part drew on the surrounding energy. It didn't actually leech from other things, but only condensed what energy there was available in the area.
I had never considered leeching energy off something before. I could pull it out of crystals easily, so what stopped me from doing the same with other things? The difficulty was mainly in getting enough energy to make it worth the while. Things or beings without considerable amounts of aura didn't have much energy to spare, and I didn't really sense the dispersed energy all around me that well. When I had released everything that had been contained in the monolith, there had been a difference in the concentration of unshaped energy. Normally it wasn't something I became aware of.
Perhaps it was because I had never focused on it before. I looked at the table and tried to get a grip on the energy inside of it. Then I pulled and soon held a minor amount of tably energy. There was a sort of depression in the density around the table, but that filled itself up again on its own. I released the mana I had taken. Using this method to quickly replenish my reserves was out of the question, it would only be useful as part of a construct for self recharging.
I might be able to build a crystal recharger, but I could just as well fill them up myself in a second. It might be useful to recharge items with a great capacity, which I could just leave there for a few days, but I didn't have anything like it at the moment. Then I realized, that the most valuable material I possessed, aside from a little gold, was the piece of the monolith itself. I moved the energy condenser construct over to one of the crystals and then I poured mana into the black sphere, which was now empty. And I continued to push more into it until I ran dry and it still wasn't filled up.
My eyes might have gleamed lightly. Someone had expended great amounts of wealth on this project. It was a pity I had only taken this little piece along with me. Could it be that this was the actual reason some soldiers had stayed behind to destroy the monolith, and not to stop it from being used again. I had been a fool to take nothing but this piece with me. There was no way the soldiers had been able to take more than a little bit of the material away. So either everything was still lying around, or the owner had come to reclaim it by now.
I wasted no more time and dashed out into the direction of the monolith in my energy form. First I had to take a look at the situation, I could still come up with a plan on how to transport the material afterwards. My body right now was very faint, so I wouldn't be able to do more than scout out the situation.
When I was up in the air, my priorities changed immediately. I focused on blocking out any release of my aura, which was a bit easier under the current circumstances. The entity that had kept itself in the far distance had gotten far closer. It was somewhere in between the closest, now two, monoliths. It might be risky, but I had gotten close to it before and by now was sure that it was far from the most perceptive being I had come across so far. As long as I stayed out of the immediate range and didn't focus on it directly too much, I doubted it would be able to detect me.
I sped up and took in the situation. Beasts had begun to horde around again, and the number this time far exceeded what we had fought at the monolith before. There was no other conclusion to me than an imminent attack on the town. Catherine didn't have a bad sense of premonition. If I didn't want to leave immediately, I had to issue a warning at once. This time the threat was great enough that I wouldn't allow myself to sit still even if it didn't concern me personally. I felt responsible for at least warning the authorities about this.
I returned to my body and wrote five notes, all of them stating: 'Many, many beasts are hording, and their master is with them.' I chose to write more than one to make sure they wouldn't be overlooked. I knew that my last message had been noticed, so the path of delivering it was acceptable to me this time as well.
Fortunately paper weighs very little, and by now I had regenerated enough mana to hold it easily. I flew them the entire way from my place to the town hall and slipped them under the door. There I laid out two of the papers on the receptionists desk, and three on the floor right behind the entrance. Tomorrow was only Thursday, so I was sure someone would come across the papers in the morning.
Now that I considered my duty done, I had to make my own plans to deal with the situation. I had no interest to get involved in the fighting, but when an attack was of such a large scale, it might still affect me, so preparation was very important. The bigger my mana reserves were, the better. I would use every bit of excess mana and store it in the black sphere. I didn't yet know how much I could store inside, so I still had my interest in getting more of it.
I headed over into the deep forest again, this time to inspect the former campsite. What I found there was surprising. First, there were only large chunks of the material. The entire monolith had really been broken up into pieces. Then there was a group of humans around who were gathering them up and loading them on horses. It couldn't have taken them this long to destroy the monolith, so I estimated they were already back for a second haul, although they would have had to be fast to do so. They were in grave danger and any moment they stayed longer might be decisive. They had to at least be aware of the danger they were in, and I doubted they were on this task on their own volition. A look at their auras revealed a vigilant and hectic mood.
I observed them from the air and tried think of a way to frighten them away and also how to get my own loads of the material. An idea came to my mind, but I would have to test out if it was workable. If it was, I might be able to use it for a variety of purposes in the future. I looked around and was soon able to find another wolf scout the soldiers hadn't detected so far. It was by no means one of the stronger specimen and wouldn't be difficult to kill with a simple searing light. My intention was to leave the body as intact as possible however, and so I tried to target its core instead.
My mind penetrated into the wolf and my aura was even strong enough to withstand the resistance the wolf instinctively put up. I almost felt bad for acting this way, as I was used to being this helpless myself. If I wanted I would even be able to overpower the direct control of the body, but that also meant that someone else might be able to do so to me. I searched for the core and extinguished the life. My mind was set on the plan and I would need the wolfs body for it.
I floated out again and then tried to mimic the body as well as I could in my energy form. I tried running a few rounds on all fours, just like I had hopped around in the ridiculous form of a rabbit before to entertain Majal. It didn't feel natural, but in some way I adapted at least somewhat. Then I stepped into the wolf.
There was a certain danger I was very aware of. If I was actually able to possess the body, I might adapt it as my real one and leave my own behind as an empty shell on the bed. I was reasonably sure that as I was this self aware in my energy form, I wouldn't lose my mental capacity in the process. So if I felt that the connection I built was stronger than a simple possession, I would immediately cancel any further plans and go on to repossess my elven body. It might not be my first choice, but was still by far preferable to that of an animal.
In the end the opposite was the case. Although I was able to somewhat possess the body, moving it proved to be very difficult. The connection between my being and the body was tenuous, and my control was lacking at best. The best I could manage was to keep up the body and slowly move around without directly falling over. I had to let go of the head and just carried it along while it hung down as lifeless as it was. The torso was mainly stabilized by the four legs into which most of my concentration flowed.
What made this type of movement different from just directly controlling things with energy, was that this way I used the body's own strength to move, which was far more difficult to control, but also had far greater capacity for physical movement. I thought how it would be if I had the power to move physical objects around by thought as much as I wished. There was a certain danger I might get to lazy to even move normally, but actually using energy instead of just thinking was a strenuous act as well, so that might balance itself out.
I headed over to the rubble heap. My first goal was to scare the soldiers. I let the wolf drop on the ground and completely focused on the vocal cords. I wanted to give out a howl, but nothing happened. I needed air pressure as well. Adding the lungs, and the mouth I tried to make noises, but that was all I succeeded in. It was at most pitiful wheezing, but no use to me.
A more direct approach was in order. I regretted all the energy I would have to spend on my next plan, as moving the wolf around wasn't free of cost to me even in the way I did it and my reserves weren't that large right now. I still put what I could into a blast of wind and then stepped out into the field of vision of the soldiers.
Before I could hide my puppet again it had an arrow shot through the head. Those assholes should just run away, and not damage my wolf. I just let it drop down and waited while they frantically packed up and left just one minute later. Now I was out of energy and the wolf would decompose quicker as well. My original plan had been to eat a few pieces of the monolith and carry it back to town. It was a long way and I wouldn't be able to do it in one go, but there was no way I was going out here on my own and risk my well being, so I either had to come up with a better idea or put in the time that was necessary to do it in this way. Probably with more than one different bodies. At least I had given the soldiers a good chance and was content with myself as I returned to Barlaine.
The hordes of beasts I had seen from the distance were like a word of warning to me. I had seen a few actual battles by now and knew how serious things could get. Even while I had stood on the sidelines I had become involved and my participation might even have been a necessity both times. I couldn't slack too much. The last few days I had a good excuse, but it was time I went back to training myself physically. I might never reach the highest peaks of battle prowess, but as the saying goes, mens sana in corpore sano, and I needed to warm up again.
I got my lazy bum off the bed and left the house for the woods, where I trained hard until the sun began to rise. After that I cleaned myself with some conjured water and headed into the city to work after several days of absence.