The final preparations were taking place before we began the next part of our journey, and I was left with nothing to do once again. It allowed me some time to review the events of the last few days. First of all, our convoy had grown to numbers that hadn’t been seen in this world for decades, and the size of the group had long since eclipsed the diameter of illumination that my halo could provide.
The fact that I could still function after all this time was because of a few things I had learned. Meditation was now a key part of my routine, but I also found I could function best when I kept my mind focused solely on the various tasks at hand, no matter how small or trivial that would be. If I allowed my mind to wander even slightly, I risked being overcome by emotion, and Vadeem could snap me out of one of those spells only so many times when he was out of sight most of the time.
What was surprising, however, was that during my sessions of meditation, one of my skills had upgraded. I guess hard work, no matter what kind, pays off eventually. It was my innate talent, the one that was first unlocked by Noe. My old skill, Calm Mind, had somehow turned into something new altogether.
Awakening Mind (B rank Innate Passive): User has endured many hardships of the spirit, and has gained a supernaturally resilient mind. User can use their willpower to temporarily overcome cognitive disruptions, and can think logically under almost any situation.
I hadn’t even known that skills could upgrade, but Noe did not respond when I asked her to explain what was going on. Noe rarely talks much these days. In fact, not very many talked to me these days. Vadeem had been more than busy acting as our vanguard to chat with me, and aside from the regular updates from the Regressor’s side, I had been left mostly to myself. It allowed me a lot of time to get used to that new skill, and to observe my new surroundings with renewed clarity.
Patar had given the orders for each individual village to rotate their positions within the convoy so that each person could take their turn to recover under my light. Every time a new group would come over, a representative would bring me one of their most treasured possessions - which generally amounted to shiny trinkets and the like - and the amount of junk that had accumulated at the foot of my rickshaw was starting to become a problem.
In fact, even the size of the platform I was sitting on had grown to almost impractical proportions. Each time I would enter a village, the people who stayed behind would “upgrade” the thing and now I had to be carried by no less than 14 people. There was a small shrine located directly below my new throne, and an entire squad of the various village elites were tasked to guard me. It was honestly too much.
My small army seemed to be all but ready to move out, but I had to stop them and order everyone to rest before we made our final push into the unknown. Fatigue had built up to levels that were intolerable even for these brainwashed cultists, and I couldn’t afford for them to make lapses in judgement when we were heading into hostile territories.
Patar and quickly ordered his group to set up small camping sites along a clearing just outside of the Deep Woods, and soon hundreds of small fires lit up the gloomy forest floor like little orange stars. I noticed small patrol groups stationed around our perimeter, but that was mainly for show. Vadeem and been very thorough with the monster smashing, and our group had swelled so much in size that nothing had even tried to attack us for days.
With the people so close to Promethean fire, I had the rare opportunity to turn off my halo and finally relax with Vadeem and the twins. Everyone else were at a respectable distance away from our group, while a few solitary guards kept the more crazed devotees at bay. Patar was the only one who didn’t seem to be doing much resting, but I allowed him to be.
“How are you holding up, Walter?” Vadeem asked as he grilled a sausage on a stick. He had several roasting by the fire and handed one of the cooked ones to the girls.
“Better,” I answered and grabbed a warm cup of tea by the embers, “What I had to do became pretty automatic near the end, and I’ve been meditating when we’re on the move. It helps.”
The big man laughed, “And here I thought you were just sleeping.”
The twins each took a sausage and ate quietly by Vadeem’s side. They were still oddly expressionless, even though I knew that they were really enjoying the food. At least Noe’s passive abilities still worked even when she’s in hibernation.
“Tell me honestly,” Vadeem said again, “Do you think our little group of soldiers can do what Jae-Hyun needs? The reports that we’ve been getting have been…”
I winced. The Regressor had arrived at the temple a while ago, but what he saw was far from comforting. The front of the entrance was, to his estimation, defended by at least a few thousand mutants of varying degrees of horrible. His descriptions of the creatures sounded like he was reading off of the character sheets from D&D monsters. I looked back at my rag-tag warriors and didn’t like our odds. We needed a lot more soldiers.
I sighed, “Yeah, it’s not looking good.”
“So we have to hope for the best for the city in the depths of the forest then.” Vadeem answered. He took a few more snacks from his suitcase and placed them near the fire to cook.
“We’d need a lot more in that case,” I shook my head, “Either way, we’ll need our rest and energy then. This will probably be the last bit of peace and quite for a while.”
He nodded and we spent the rest of that evening in silence. The anticipation of the coming ordeal was an ever looming concern, and my meditations did little to assuage the dread. I tried to rest as much as I could in any case, and eventually, exhaustion won out and I passed out for just a little bit.
* * *
A distant bell tolled, awakening me from my slumber. I saw that I was the last one to wake up, as every other able bodied man and women was preparing for the departure. Looking at things, it seemed like it would only be minutes before we departed now. I hurried to my feet and reoriented myself, shaking my head and focusing on my present situation again.
Once I was feeling relatively awake, I remembered that there was one thing that I wanted to check out before I went in further, which was the new ability I had unlocked through my Soul Title. It had seen a rapid growth spurt partly from my own endeavors, and partly from this mysterious Prophet figure who was spreading my worship in some other place. My new title looked like this.
Primary Soul Title: Level 10 Xollon Idol [Devourer of Truth]
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Progress to next level: 55,402/100,000
Progression requirements: Have 100,000 individuals idolize you
Title Passives:
Xollon Anatomy Stage 1: Your body has begun to incorporate a Xollon’s internal anatomy. You take 10% reduced damage from all sources and are unaffected by most poisons.
Xollon Physiology Stage 1: Your body has started to incorporate a Xollon’s external anatomy. You can utilize and extend your primary feelers through your human hands.
Title Skills:
Idols Voice (Soul Passive)
Secondary Xollon Form (Level 10 Soul Active): The user assumes the Secondary form of the Xolloid Race. The user gains all the physical characteristics of the race and will have all physical attributes increase by a factor of 5 for the duration of the skill.
Transformation Time: 6 hours
Cooldown: 12 hours
Aside from the fact that the cooldown doesn’t seem to be going down anymore, 12 hours seemed to be the minimum that it could reach, and the increased skill duration, a new passive had popped up. I forced myself not to think about any of the implications of those titles and only on their practicality. I can worry about everything else when my emotions are not all over the place.
I had noticed earlier, after one of my many meditation sessions, that a strange gash had formed on the palms of my hand. It was near undetectable to anyone else, appearing like one of the natural wrinkles on my hand, but I knew that it wasn’t there before, and I could feel something wiggle just underneath the surface. It had taken me a moment to figure what had happened before I saw the levels I had gained with my Soul Title.
Noe had long since stopped giving me notifications, but I knew instinctively that she was still with me. It was lonely without her.
Once again, I did not allow myself to think about the implications of Noe’s absence, choosing again to simply focus on the raw data. It was tiring going from one extreme to another, to go from feeling so much emotions to the forced nothingness that I was enduring now. I sighed and chose to not dwell on it.
Checking to make sure that no one was looking too closely at me, I looked at that new gash in my hand and tried to move the wiggling sensation underneath the skin. As if it was the most natural thing in the world, no different from taking a step forward with my legs or lifting a cup of coffee to drink with my arms, the gash opened up, and a slender Xollon feeler appeared. It was the same one I had when I activated my Soul Title’s skill, albeit shrunk down a considerable bit.
Yet it felt just as deadly. I could feel its deadly serrations and sheer power, and just like how I could always feel where my arms are without looking at them, I knew that I could stretch my new feelers out to several meters.
A wave of uncontrollable joy started to spread in me, but once again I closed my eyes and forced those feelings away. It had become more manageable ever since I had obtained that skill upgrade, but I felt my willpower quickly sapping from the constant need to regulate my emotions. Whatever was causing Noe to change so quickly was affecting the speed that I experience these changes as well, but at least I now had a way to mitigate some of that.
I had to remind myself that I had only obtained a new tool, nothing more, nothing less. I just needed to come up with an explanation on why I had tentacles growing out of my hands, but any number of reasons could be used, such as gaining a new skill through level ups, or simply getting a new title due to all the worship I was receiving. I doubt even the Regressor would make the connection between a weak human being and the godlike Xollons off a single tentacle.
“Hey, Walter, just wanted to check up on you before we head off,” Vadeem said as he approached my side with the twins in tow. Lately those two would follow the big man like baby chicks. I have no idea that he was so good with dealing with children, and he was even able to develop a rudimentary method of communication. I would have been more impressed, however, had his new sign language consisted of more things than the flexing of random muscle groups.
The twins, and most of my followers now that I thought about it, had improved dramatically over the course of our travels. Not fully healed, that would take a lot longer, but better. The twins now had a healthy, albeit pale, complexion, and I could see the stubble forming on their heads where new hair was growing. Their faces were still marred by some of the oldest scars, but the worst of the damage had been fixed, and they wouldn’t be too eye-catching even in modern society. These changes also made me finally realize just how young they actually were. No wonder Vadeem was so protective of them.
And it was under his care that they had even regained some of their lost weight. The food from his storage had done wonders. However, the mutations might have disappeared, but the damage done to their vocal cords or mentality could not be fixed. They were still always on edge, although I could see that they allowed themselves some rest when Vadeem was near.
“Walter?” Vadeem asked again, seeing that I was still deep in thought, “Should I come back later?”
“No, sorry Vadeem,” I answered as I snapped out of my lingering thoughts, “What did you say again?”
Vadeem showed a concerned look, but quickly caught himself and changed back to his usual jovial smile. It was clear that he didn’t want to concern me any more than necessary, given my unnatural state.
“Just wanted to see how you were doing was all,” he said, tone light, “Glad to see you managed to get some good sleep in before we left.”
I smiled back, “Yeah, although you should have woken me up earlier.”
My friend chuckled, “We all thought you might need the extra rest. You didn’t miss anything, so don’t worry.”
“Thanks,” I said, “It’s… exhausting trying to keep my emotions in check all the time.”
He nodded, “Hear anything new about Jae-Hyun and the others?”
“No,” I shook my head, “At least nothing new. Last time he checked in with me he said they’re at the Temple, but he’ll be busy for a while. He wouldn’t give me any specifics, but he never does. Communication’s been scarce since. He say anything to you specifically?”
“Nope,” he sighed, “It’s pretty much the same. But don’t you find it weird that only Jae-Hyun’s talking in the party chat? I can understand Yoona staying quiet, but Noel?”
I frowned, that was strange. Noel’s not one to stay quiet in any situation, yet I haven’t heard from her since the start of the Trial. Jae-Hyun had said that he managed to find the others, and there was no reason for him to lie, especially when it came to his sister’s well being.
“The whole situation’s already messed up,” I answered, “I think Jae-Hyun’s dealing with as much, if not more, trouble than we are. Let’s just focus on our part and trust that our leader will fix things on his end. We'll know everything once we meet up in any case.”
“Not much else we can do,” he grumbled, “Just remember to keep things in perspective. Our little army…”
I nodded and cut him off, “I know the expectations, I won’t let it affect my emotions.”
“Alright,” he said tentatively, “Just stay close to me, you still don’t have a weapon.”
“No,” I answered, “I have that part covered as well.”
I help my hands palm facing skywards and willed the feeler to exit my flesh. The black limb moved rhythmically, oozing some of the classic Xolloid secretions and looking deadly. My tentacle wiggled a few inches out of my palms before I allowed them to retract back into my arm.
Vadeem took a step back with a terrified look of concern on his face. He stared at the tentacle before eying me up and down with a grimace. Even the twins showed a rare hint of worry in their eyes.
“Walter…” Vadeem said, teeth clenched, “Our situation might be worse than I thought.”
“It’s just from a skill,” I said, unsure why he was acting that way, “and now I have a way to defend myself.”
“Just from a skill? Growing black tentacles out of your arms is a skill?”
“It’s from the title I got from the villager’s worship,” I clarified.
Vadeem took a deep breath, his face still showing immense concern, but finally nodded, “Yes, from the worship of mutated villagers in a world consumed by supernatural darkness! How are you so unconcerned?”
He took another deep breath before composing himself, “Never mind, we can discuss this after we’re done here, when we’re out of this damned void. We'll get you properly checked out then. It’s clearly affecting you in more than one way. I know you can’t emote right now, but… forget it, now’s not the time.”
I looked at him in confusion, unsure what he meant, but quickly shook that thought out of my head. I can worry about Vadeem’s concerns later.
The last of the able-bodied fighters were in place, and it was finally time for us to enter the Deep Woods proper. I took my position at the front of the gathered people, ignoring the whispers of awe and worship, and addressed the gathered warriors one final time.
“My followers!” I said, trying to infuse as much awe into my voice as I could, “We now march towards the abyss! Be prepared for anything but know that we all stand ready to face the Darkness and bring Light to the last bastions of Humanity! We march to bring Light back to this world!”
The last sounds of cheers faded, and I took the first step into the unknown.