Chapter 205: Fear of Death

Chapter 205: Fear of Death

That night, Erani and I left town to go meet up with Ainash. We had a new job to do—figure out what happened with those deserted border guards—and this one would likely benefit from her presence, much like most of the other jobs we’d done in the past. However, this one would also probably take a few days at least to do; getting to the border alone normally took around a day, so going out there and investigating a disappearance, then coming all the way back would likely take at least three days, maybe even longer.

We wouldn’t leave until tomorrow morning, but Ainash would need some advance notice and discussion, which was much easier in person. With her project regarding the Goblins, I wasn’t even sure if she could have a couple days away from them right now. Well, of course, she could always bring them with her, but not only was I unsure she had them ready for that, but we’d also be bringing outsiders along, so that’d be inadvisable as well.

Erani had told Ainash the basics already, but it was hard to transfer too much information over the Bond when we were so far away. So we walked the familiar road, cutting off at the right point to head toward the Goblins’ forest where she’d made her home. Thankfully, with that as the main location she stayed at when we were in town, she was mostly safe from adventurers. We’d told the guild that we had “pacified” the Goblins, but they weren’t dead. So most people still avoided the forest when they could.

As we walked, once we got away from the main crowds of people that lingered nearer to the town walls to pick off Gloomspurs, Erani said to me, “Have you used your new Spell yet? It was called Curse of Echoes, right?”

“I haven’t tried it,” I responded. “It says I have to choose another being, so I can’t just practice it on myself. Guess we gotta find a monster that I can Rank it up with.”

“Can’t you just use it on me?”

I stopped and looked at her. “You really want me to do that?”

“You use damaging Spells on me all the time,” she said with a shrug.

“Yeah, but that’s because you have Angelic Shield, which can prevent you from taking the damage. You don’t have anything for this.”

“Right, but it won’t do any long-term damage or anything. Just make me see things that aren’t there. And I know it’ll just be illusions, so what’s the harm?”

I shrugged. “Just seems...I dunno. It makes you see a bunch of versions of me attacking you. I don’t want you to see that.”

She laughed. “I’ll be fine. Besides, it’s probably best if we know exactly what that Spell does, right? Descriptions can only go so far. And I can even transfer the memory to you, so you know exactly what it’s like, too.”

“...Alright, I guess if you insist, I can try. Your Conjuration is lower than mine, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s just an illusion. There’s nothing it can actually do to me. And my Conjuration’s 126. I get 3 per Level, and then 3 more from Stat Points, so my growth rate is pretty high.”

“Mine is...130,” I responded. “I guess my extra Stat abilities push me just a little higher.”

“Those things are so broken,” she said with a chuckle.

“Weren’t you the one who said I shouldn’t have taken Recursive Growth, back when it was offered to me?”

“Well, yes, but that was then. It didn’t do anything to help you in the moment. Now?” She shook her head. “You are certainly reaping the rewards of pushing through the time where it was a wasted Talent choice.”

“See? So it was the correct decision the whole time.”

“Just because it happened to work out doesn’t mean it was the right choice.”

“‘Course it does. Anyway, you ready?”

“Yes.”

I reached into my mind, finding the command to cast my new Spell for the first time. I selected my target, and...

You have successfully cast Curse of Echoes on Level 20 Sorcerer.

240 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 1.8k.

Instantly, Rank-up notifications flooded my perception, so much Mana being poured into it and pushing it past several thresholds at once. And looking at the final one, I saw...

Threshold reached. Curse of Echoes XP has reached 30.

Curse of Echoes Rank has increased to 5.

Due to Curse of Echoes Rank reaching 5, it has undergone the following changes:

Mana Cost: From 264 to 271

Duration: From 24.4 to 25.6

Range: From 12.2 to 12.8

Before I could even read through the notification, though, I heard a yelp.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

“Ah!” Erani screamed. She flinched, shrinking down and shielding herself with her arms.

“You see those people? Group of about a dozen.”

“Oh, shit,” I said. “Yeah, I see them. Obviously armed. Probably adventurers. What’re they doing out here?”

“No idea. We never see people out this far from the town walls. They have to be here for the Goblins, right? Or maybe they’re just looking for Gloomspurs out where there’s less competition?”

“No way they’d need fifteen people just to kill some Gloomspurs.”

Erani shrugged. “Some people like to keep safe.”

“Well, that doesn’t matter right now regardless. You think we should leave and try to enter the forest from another direction? Probably not a great idea to let people know we’re hanging around out here. I mean, I guess it’s not like we’d get in trouble for doing it, but it’s weird enough that I imagine it’d draw some unwanted attention.”

“Yes, that might be a good idea.” Erani turned to leave, making it seem like we were simply wandering the fields, same as that other group.

But while she did that, my eyes lingered on the people. Did they look...familiar? I swore I’d seen them before. It was too far between us for me to make out any specific facial details, but something about that crowd just seemed...

I unconsciously took a couple steps forward.

“Hey,” Erani said, grabbing my arm and tugging me toward her, “what are you doing? I thought we were leaving.”

“...Right, yeah, sorry,” I said after a moment’s hesitation. Even if I did recognize them, it probably didn’t matter. I’d seen plenty of people wandering the floor of the guild lobby, so it was likely just a few of them all working together for something.

But then, just as I turned to walk away with her, I saw the group of people start heading in our direction. I frowned, watching as each of the group of more than a dozen all tapped each other’s shoulders, getting their attention and headed pointedly straight for us.

“Hey, I think they’re coming to talk to us,” I said to Erani.

“Hm,” she grunted, pursing her lips. “Suppose it’d be weirder for us to just run off without talking. Let’s just try to make this quick?”

“Sure.”

My mind kept twinging at me as the group got closer and closer. So many of these people just looked barely familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Then I caught a glimmer of a face among the crowd, and I instantly knew who we were dealing with.

“Hey!” I called out to the group, walking forward to meet them halfway.

Erani trained behind, glaring at the group in a similarly curious way that told me she probably had her suspicions about who these people were, too.

“I know you people, right?” I asked. A murmur spread among them, and I saw the familiar face almost shrink back at my statement. I continued, “Yeah, I do know you. You guys are that group that tried to mug us, right? ‘Bout a week ago?”

The familiar face took a step forward, breaking out from the center of the crowd and facing me. He raised his hands. “Listen, we just—”

“Right, you definitely are,” I interrupted him. “You, you’re the guy we knocked out and talked with. Your name was...Ugh, sorry, I’m bad with names. Don’t tell me, though. I think I remember. It was...Loin?”

“...Loik,” he said plainly. I could practically see the tension rippling from his tightly-wound face.

“Man, I told you not to tell me. Ah, I was close, though. Anyway, Loik, I remember having quite the lengthy conversation with you.”

“Yes, and we—”

“I remember talking about some very specific things in that conversation,” I continued. “I mean, I obviously told you to stop mugging people. And, judging by the fact that you’ve got the whole gang back together, I have to assume you haven’t done what I asked in that area.”

“No, please just listen,” he said, hands raised. “We’re just out here hunting Gloomspurs, okay? Haven’t taken a single coin from anyone. L-listen. I wanted to come and talk to you because I saw you staring at us, and...And, look, I’ll just cut to the point. Have you been following us?”

I stared at him for a few moments. “Loik, I don’t actually care about whether or not you’ve been mugging people.”

He visibly relaxed at my words. “You don’t?”

“No, I don’t. Now, forgive me if I’m mistaken here—I’ll admit I don’t have the best memory, especially after the busy week we’ve had—but I do believe I spoke to you about another issue entirely, back when we had out heart-to-heart. I think, if I remember correctly, I told you that if I ever saw you, for any reason, at any point for the rest of my life, I would kill you.”

Silence rang through the fields.

“Loik,” I said, “I know I said I didn’t care about you mugging people, but I have to mention this. There’s blood on your handaxe.”

“Th-there is. It’s from the Gl—”

“Loik, Gloomspur blood isn’t that shade of red.” I took a step forward. “Who else would you have been killing out here, in the middle of the night?”