Chapter 92: Through the Ashes

Chapter 92: Through the Ashes

After some time, we arrived back at the wasteland proper. I’d explained to Erani what’d happened with the Dryad, but neither of us had the courage to speak with her ever since she’d broken down. I didn’t even know what I could say if I did talk to her. Sorry for calling your life meaningless? Sorry for saying everything you’re working for is worthless? How could I even word something like that? And how could I do it without condoning her continued murder of people?

I’d be fine if it was just the Demons, but... could I really just stand by and watch her murder innocents? Even if I was okay with that, blatantly telling her it was fine to just do whatever she wanted without asking didn’t seem like it’d promote teamwork.

At the end of the day, I had no idea. And it didn’t seem like the Dryad wanted to talk about it, anyway, considering she hadn’t said anything to either of us.

So we just walked back into the wasteland, ready to take on the familiar challenges ahead of us. With my much faster Mana/Minute, I could easily handle the Ghouls without needing the Dryad’s help, which was good, since she didn’t even try to kill a single monster – she didn’t even seem to notice them, simply trudging along with hollow eyes.

We avoided the Mountain Troll caves like normal, too. I may have powered up a decent bit thanks to my new Spell and Talent, but I still wasn’t sure if it’d be worth it to go intentionally provoking one of those guys. I only had one more use of Time Loop for the day, and it was only barely past noon by now. It wouldn’t do me any good to go getting into frivolous fights now. Maybe later on, when it was closer to midnight, I could try. But not now.

While we walked, a jingling in my pocket reminded me of the ten silver rings I’d confiscated from Nantuth – supposedly one-time-use rings that could grant invisibility. He said that some of them had already been used up, but there were probably a few that hadn’t been. So I took them out of my pocket and examined them.

They looked hastily-made, with their bumpy, uneven edges and cheap-looking forge work; even if I was only ever a manual laborer for a forgemaster back in my old village, I still knew shoddy craftsmanship when I saw it. It made sense that they weren’t very high-quality, though. If they were as mass-produced as Nantuth made it sound, there wouldn’t be enough time for anyone to actually care about what they were making.

“Those the invisibility rings?” Erani asked, glancing over to the ten trinkets held in my palm.

“Yeah,” I said. “Bit hesitant to try wearing them, though. There’s a possibility they could be trapped and inflict a curse or something when we put them on.”

“The scout was wearing them though, right?”

“Yeah, I guess, but still. There’s alway a possibility. Maybe it isn’t a curse that harms you, but just one that transmits your location or something.”

“Hm. I guess that makes sense. So will we ever even try using them? Maybe we could just save them for an especially dire situation, or something.”

“I mean, I was thinking I’d just hang onto them until I’m about to activate Time Loop, then I can put them on, see what they do, and go back without facing the consequences if they are trapped.”

“Oh. Right. Damn, I keep forgetting that the stuff you experience with Time Loop... actually happens. Like, you don’t just have some random piece of knowledge beamed into your head. You can actually plan around using it and take actions with the knowledge that your timeline isn’t going to continue.”

“Yeah,” I laughed. She’d said something along those lines a few times before, back in some of those doomed timelines. Really, it was starting to get a bit scary, with how much I had to watch her relive the same conversations with me. She’d told me not to tell her about that, but I was starting to think I should.

But either way, now wasn’t the time. For now, we needed to just get through this wasteland.

So we simply marched across the empty field, with me earning a small bit of XP from the Ghouls as we did – 20 here, 30 there – as the sun continued to drift along the sky. I realized during our march that I’d gotten a bit too used to moving in the forests. The natural cover from enemy sightlines was nice, but the true natural cover I realized I’d been unknowingly enjoying was the shade. Out here, with nothing above but sky, the sun beat down on us relentlessly.

And it seemed like Ethereal Armor did nothing to truly protect against the sun. The Light Plate I was wearing visually covered my skin, sure, and it even seemed to create some sort of darkening effect on my body underneath the armor, but whatever it was doing, it wasn’t creating actual shade.

I really had no idea how the intricacies of it all worked, since, when I activated Noxious Grasp while wearing it, I noticed that the smoke seeping from my skin did, indeed, only ever pour from the cracks in the armor or from the hole left for my face. It didn’t pass straight through the armor as though it was intangible. However, it also seemed like the armor didn’t trap heat inside – at least, I didn’t feel any hotter when wearing it – so somehow it was stopping the smoke from getting through, but heat could pass through the glowing armor as though it was nothing.

Regardless, the point was that it was hot. The mountains of Kingdom’s Edge were still far away – maybe a day or two’s walk – but I was already considering climbing one of those things once we got there, just so I could feel the cool air of the snowy peaks.

Speaking of the snowy peaks, the Dragon that we’d gone back because of in the first place was still around, resting itself atop one of them. It hadn’t been living there back when I’d first seen it come by, but now it didn’t seem to want to budge, flying into some sort of cave in the side of the mountain and staying there for the hours that we moved. I had a feeling it was so it could keep an eye on whatever was in the valley.

Though, considering what we’d heard from the interrogation, I had a feeling I knew what was there. The Dragon happened to be attacking the only pass through Kingdom’s Edge that was located even remotely nearby, and I doubted that whatever was there was there by accident.

But we’d just have to deal with that once we got there. For now, we needed to worry about actually getting to Kingdom’s Edge, first. Then we could see whatever trap the Demons had set for us, and plan accordingly.

I tried to keep my eye out for any more scouts – even if they were invisible, they’d still kick up the ash covering the ground and leave footprints – but didn’t ever see anything to suggest there were any of them nearby. Maybe they got scared after one of them failed to return, and stopped sending them out. I hoped that was the case instead of the other possibility – that they just developed some other method of trailing us completely unseen.

One exciting thing did happen while we traveled, though, and was the main thing lifting my spirits.

Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 461.

Mana Cost: From 24.4 to 25

Damage: From 59.1 to 62.1

Dexterity Debuff: From 7.4 to 7.77

With a new Ray of Frost Rank on top of my Rank in Noxious Grasp, I was feeling more confident than ever. And I hadn’t even been practicing Ray of Frost – that was just from my passive use while fighting off the Ghouls. The next Rank was 10, so I’d need 355 XP to get it there – and I wouldn’t even reap the rewards until I got a Cold or Curse Spell Crystal for it. But the extra boost in numbers was absolutely welcome.

With the skies clear of clouds and trees to block the pale light of the moon, our eyesight wasn’t entirely compromised, but we were all tired anyway after the long day, so we decided we should go ahead and set up camp.

I wouldn’t go to sleep just yet, though. I still had one more use of Time Loop I didn’t want to waste. But with the couple hours left I had before it refreshed, I wouldn’t use it just yet. Instead, I’d wait until it was getting close to midnight, and then I’d go out and fight a Mountain Troll or something to get some XP before bed.

But first I’d just help everyone set up camp while I waited. Out in the wasteland, things were a bit more complicated than normal – we could use a basic watch system to keep us from getting overtaken by Ghouls, but out in the dusty, rocky mess, we couldn’t really sleep. Well, the Dryad could sleep just fine, of course, but Erani and I couldn’t.

So we took some time to clear the thick layer of ash coating the dry, hard ground in a circular area around us, and then used our own bundled up clothes to make a makeshift sleeping mat and pillow. The thin layers of fabric weren’t much, of course, but it still helped. We were effectively sleeping in our underwear, too, but with the hot air and sweat covering my back, getting rid of those layers was a welcome change.

Still, it was a bit awkward to lie down with Erani half-naked, especially considering the unique sleeping arrangement we needed to set up in order to effectively practice her Angelic Shield. Apparently, this would be the last night she needed to practice it before she got it to Rank 10, so this would probably be the last night we’d sleep like this, anyway. Still, that didn’t change the amount of awkwardness I felt doing it. With my arm curled around her body and so much of my skin touching hers, how could I not feel weird?

I wasn’t trying to fall asleep, instead staying up to go fight something later in the night – and also to stay on watch – but we still needed to keep in contact for practice, so I just kept my eyes open and head up, occasionally reaching up my unoccupied arm to shoot off Rays of Frost at the approaching Ghouls. They didn’t seem to be quite as active at night, which was nice. That, or they just thinned out as we approached Kingdom’s Edge more and got closer to the more dangerous areas that got frequently cleared out during fights between Dragons.

Erani and the Dryad eventually fell asleep as the minutes passed by, or at least that was what I thought. After a while of staying up and killing Ghouls, I heard a voice.

“Hey, Arlan?” It was Erani, speaking sleepily while still lying down.

“Hey. Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping? You’re taking next watch, you know. Don’t want you dozing off when you’re supposed to be protecting us.”

“Can’t sleep,” she yawned.

“Hm, yeah. I guess even compared to sleeping on the dirt, sleeping out here on hard stone would be worse.”

She nodded wordlessly, then said, “do you think the Dryad will ever care about us?”

“What?” I blinked. “What do you mean by that?”

“When you talked to her before, she said that everything she loved and cared about had been killed. So she doesn’t have anything left but things to hate. Does that mean she hates us?”

“No, no, I don’t think so. Maybe... Well, she just hasn’t known us for long. Maybe she just feels apathetic.”

I heard her sigh, still facing away from me as she lay on the ground. “Is it weird of me to feel like that’s worse?”

I pursed my lips. “No, maybe not. But I doubt she’ll stay apathetic for long. I mean, you’re obviously a caring person. She probably just needs time to process all of this, right?”

“I guess,” she groaned, and shifted around in her makeshift bed.

A few minutes passed, and she didn’t say anything else. I supposed she’d drifted off to sleep once again. It was obvious that this whole Dryad situation was eating her up inside, and it made me feel even worse for being the catalyst. Though, maybe the Dryad had always felt that way, and I was just the one to bring it to light.

Anyway, enough time had passed that it was nearing midnight – around 11:30, by now. So it was time to go find a worthy opponent.

Normally, I’d have asked Erani and the Dryad to come along with me, but this time I wanted to do it on my own. After the massive upgrade I’d gotten, I wanted to see exactly what I could do, without any interference. One of those trolls had almost killed me beforehand, and I could only beat it because of how much Erani and the Dryad had weakened it beforehand – and I’d sustained severe injuries anyway. Now, it was time to see how I shaped up with a new Talent and Spell.

It was time for a rematch.