Arc | Chapter. 89: Machinations (Patreon)

Chapter. 89: Machinations

On a different place near the Traitor’s Graveyard a group of two people bickered with each other.

“Do we seriously have to kill some fucking skeletons?” Giselle asked, annoyed.

Jake sighed. “Look according to my information there are a ton of strong skeletons so I’m sure we’ll find some S Tier ones easily, making easy progress.”

“Yes but they are super annoying to kill, you think spidey won’t take at least an hour to kill each?” Gisele pointed at the Emera spider behind them.

It was a gigantic specimen that drew gazes wherever they went and numerous adventurers had come to try to slay the monster, but thankfully Jake had ensured nothing would happen. Which Giselle was somewhat thankful for but she’d never admit that. In the end, she found the entire ordeal of raising an SS Tier spider to be a massive pain.

Not like she had a choice…

A sigh left her, as Jake replied.

“Wasn’t the spider’s name Veronica?”

Giselle crossed her arms. “Look, her name changes whenever I feel like it. My point still stands, can't we go to the Dark Forest?”

Jake massaged his nose bridge in annoyance. “The thing is we have already killed quite a lot of S Tier monsters there, any further and the ecosystem will probably collapse which will be bad.”

“What’s so bad about a few towns being attacked by the monsters of the Dark Forest?” Giselle asked only to be given a glare. “Fine, let’s just kill some stupid undead and move on. I hope we can eat something nice at a town tonight.”

“Sure.” Jake nodded and they began to walk into the dungeon with the Emera Spider following closely behind.

Giselle meanwhile just took in the scenery. She actually hadn’t traveled the world in many years, so somehow and in some way she found the place they were in ⁠— the Traitor’s Graveyard ⁠— to be quite beautiful and captivating. But of course, she wouldn’t be mentioning that to Jake, lest he would laugh.

In the end she kept her thoughts to herself.

Though she still did hope the Hero of Arachnids would kick the bucket.

Shaking her head, Giselle decided to stop thinking about things and focus on the situation at hand, there probably wouldn’t be many S Tier undead around so it’s not like it mattered.

* * * * *

The first thing that happened after what I said was, Faral grabbed Meika off the ground and decided to rest her against a tree as she sat down next to her. She turned to me.

“I hope you don’t mind if I keep trying to train her here.”

“I don’t.” I shook my head, essentially giving her my approval.

Then I turned to Ceylon who seemed nervous, but it wasn’t the time to reassure her yet. I regarded the old man for a moment who seemed excited. Then finally, I faced the adventurer we had encountered. She was sitting on the ground looking at the floor.

I didn’t really know what to do with her. If she spread some rumors⁠— well I didn’t think anyone would believe her. Not only was the place we were in at the very edges of Draliz; meaning no one knew of me, but also the fact that she saw a dragon would be very hard to believe. So in the end, anything she said would end up like me telling the Knight Commander I was in the middle of the explosion back then. That said, I couldn’t exactly leave her sitting there.

“So, what will you do?” I asked, raising my brow.

The woman sighed. “I don’t know, everyone is dead and I must report, but I probably won’t make it out alive, at the same time I don’t have rations… I guess… I don’t know.”

“Right…”

I didn’t really know what to tell her, but Ceylon pulled on my sleeve and made me lower my head so she could whisper into my ear.

“Arc, I want to help her, do you think you could hand her some of the rations I brought?”

I blinked, simply nodding as Ceylon extended her hand, offering a piece of bread and dried beef. It was⁠— well I never expected her to help the woman, but somehow I found it endearing. I smiled before turning to Ila, walking over to her.

“Hey, we can share some rations, so you should eat first.”

The woman raised her head and blinked. I handed her the bread and the meat before she could say anything. There was a silence before she nodded.

“Thank you, if there is anything I can do for⁠—”

“It’s fine, just eat,” I instructed her.

She nodded and began to munch on the bread and the beef, it honestly didn’t look very appetizing but she ate without complains and even⁠— shed a few tears. I had no way to understand what she was going through or anything like that, but we decided to wait for her before deciding how we would go about things⁠—

Or so I thought. The old man approached me.

“I heard you want to level your companion, so how about I lure over one or two skeletons or zombies here so she can get started and warmed up?”

I turned to Ceylon who blinked. “Do you want that?”

“I…” She hesitated before nodding resolutely. “I want that, yes.”

“Alright, I’ll be back.” With those words Raynell began to walk away.

It was a bit weird to see an old man march into what was a dreary and bleak landscape where nothing was actually alive, but I didn’t really think too much about it. In the end, Arlas was much different from Earth.

Though, I noticed Ceylon still seemed nervous.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded apprehensively. “I’m just… I don’t think we should be in such a dangerous area⁠— or rather I don’t think I should be.”

“It’s fine, I can protect you.” I smiled. “It will be much different than what happened with the Hero of Flames.”

Ceylon hesitated but ultimately nodded. “I just hope the necromancer isn’t a hero or anything…”

“Well the likelihood of that is low.” I shrugged. “Let’s not worry about it okay?”

“Right, yeah,” Ceylon quietly agreed and with that we got to waiting.

* * * * *

Ceylon didn’t want to voice it out, fearful of the voice listening in. But she wasn’t comfortable being in this place, while she didn’t doubt Arc’s ability to protect her. She didn’t want to be a risk for Arc, or hinder her. But the likelihood with what was happening was high.

She was sure of it…

Ceylon sneaked a glance at the frozen undead, and its mere presence was terrifying. While she didn’t recognize what it was, she was certain it was S Tier. Faral had landed on top of it and it had regenerated. For an undead to survive that, Ceylon was certain it had to be strong. And the idea of a necromancer being around filled her with anxiety.

Maybe Ila, the adventurer, was right. It was best for them to turn around and leave. At least, Ceylon didn’t think it was worth the trouble, but in the end she had to try her best. She wanted to do so for Arc, who had gone out of her way for her and who also had accepted her…

For a moment, Ceylon felt a warmth in her chest before she shook her head and decided that it was best to not think about those things right now. She could hug Arc later, but for now she had to focus on the situation at hand, and that was to level up. With a deep breath, Ceylon took out the spear she had gotten with Malz and held it tightly.

Arc nodded approvingly, and after a few minutes of idle waiting the ex-Guildmaster came walking back with all the calmness in the world.

Ceylon blinked only to see a zombie and a skeleton following closely behind.

The old man spoke. “A B Tier zombie and a C Tier skeleton, for you both to kill.”

“Huh, right. Okay.” Arc flicked her fingers and in a single moment both had its feet bound.

Ceylon hesitated holding onto the spear. Maybe it was best for her to attack the C Tier skeleton and kill it first? She took a breath, but Arc spoke.

“Actually use this.”

Next thing she knew, an ice spear was being offered to her. Ceylon blinked at the SS Tier weapon in surprise.

“Won’t it be too easy?”

“Well we are leveling you up, not trying to train you.” Arc smiled. “Training can come later, focus on this first.”

“Alright…”

Hesitantly, Ceylon accepted the cold weapon. She felt as if her skin was burning while she grabbed it, but she paid it no mind as she approached the skeleton whose yellow bones were fractured. She saw its dead gaze with two mana orbs, and for a moment Ceylon felt apprehensive.

It was scary…

But Arc was here…

Taking a deep breath she thrust the spear forward and broke one of its ribs. The skeleton let out a weird noise that sounded like an ethereal shriek of pain, but Ceylon paid it no mind as she kept stabbing it and stabbing it⁠—

Then a minute or so later, the opponent fell, and system notifications came.

[ You have defeated: Baleful Skeleton. Tier: C. ]

[ You have leveled up. ]

…

Ceylon sighed. It was a weird feeling. She didn’t deserve any of the levels but she had gotten them anyway. It bothered her slightly, but she told herself this was necessary in order to not hinder Arc. She wanted her to be free from worries at least when it came to her safety. And for that, Ceylon had to grow stronger.

Though she’d need battle experience down the line, and… she wasn’t looking forward to it.

Then, unexpectedly a delayed system notification came.

[You have learned a C Tier skill: Light Aura Coat.]

Ceylon blinked, knowing what the skill did. Though… again. It was a C Tier skill when she was barely E Tier. It was a bit… Too rewarding? Then again, her class was a bit weird so perhaps she didn’t need to think too much about it.

That said, she felt dissatisfied knowing that she wasn’t actually working for anything…

She wanted to earn her class advancement which would be soon…

Ceylon frowned thinking about her new skill, it had defensive properties but also it had offensive properties too. So perhaps…

She looked at the B Tier zombie before turning to Arc.

“Can you unbind the zombie? I want to fight it with just your spear.”

* * * * *

I blinked hearing Ceylon’s request, but seeing the resolution within her eyes I decided to not argue against it. That said, it made me slightly… nervous. And that was putting it mildly. But in the worst case scenario I could interfere, without making her mad hopefully…

After hesitating for a moment I nodded. “Alright.”

And with a flick of my fingers the ice bindings at the zombie’s feet disappeared, and it immediately pounced upon Ceylon. She narrowed her eyes and the spear began to shine in a golden light, much to my surprise.

Then without hesitation she dashed and stabbed into the zombie’s shoulder and the creature shrieked. She drew back with a deep breath, but before she could react it pounced; unhindered by the burn-like wound on its shoulder.

Ceylon gasped as she threw herself to the ground in order to dodge, and in the end I couldn’t help but grow anxious as I watched her fight.

In the end, even though I had the full capacity to save her.

I couldn’t help but wonder if she would be alright…

* * * * *

Meanwhile far away, in the Mount of Dragons a rebellion was forming. Deep below the lava, on the world below where the lesser dragons resided, the Dragon of Nature was present at the fiery pit filled with dragons⁠— a cylindrical tunnel that hosted the entire species, filled to the brim with S Tier and even SS Tier dragons.

And he was feeding them lies of a looming threat, all in order to accomplish his goals.

“We have a common enemy, and she wants to kill us all! My brethren, we are soon going to be extinct and she is our executioner”

It was a ploy for revenge. The Dragon of Nature wasn’t going to let Arc get away with making Faral her servant. Not if he could do something about it, and he definitely could. With his influence, the dragons listened to him.

“She calls herself the Queen of Dragons in spite of being no dragon, she slew the Dragon of Frost and we have to make her pay.” His eyes narrowed. “The other elders have betrayed our race, that’s why they aren’t present, but worry not, I shall guide us towards a greater future.”

And at that moment, enthused roars came in reply. Then, the Dragon of Nature sensed someone approaching with one of his skills⁠—

The Dragon of Earth.

He grinned to himself, first he would dispose of him and then come to kill Arc.

“The Dragon of Earth is on its way here!” The Dragon of Nature roared at the world below. “Let us kill him!”

And the enthusiastic roars grew louder only for his ears to hear.