(TLO) Chapter 146: Locked Skill (Patreon)

Seth woke up with a headache so strong he could hear it.

He laid in a bed he had no idea how he’d gotten into. Around him were walls with colors he could barely make out. Unable to turn his head to survey his environment without disturbing his headache, he tried something else.

He reached out to his senses and grimaced. The action had brought him a moment of discomfort enough to deter him with its suddenness. Now that he was aware of it, he prepared himself and reached out again. This time, what he felt was not discomfort. A splitting pain ran through his body so that his senses gave out on him and he groaned in controlled pain.

What exactly had happened to him?

He sent his mind through his memory, seeking out an answer. Most of it proved spotty and incomprehensible. There was pain and confusion and anger and a need to destroy. Shocking as it was, he continued to go through his memory, tracking back until he found something coherent. Amongst all the emotions he found at the heart of it all, a complete and utterly uncontrolled rage. Standing beside it, a companion in its chaos, was a sensation he knew only a shadow of. There was a complete dissonance of mind. An inability to agree with any decision made, a dying craving to complete contradicting tasks at the same time. It was akin to activating [Quick Step] and [Quick Strike] while choosing to lie down peacefully at the same time.

If he was to describe it in one word, it was simple: Madness.

When he found a comprehensible memory, it was of him with his hand down the chest cavity of a shroud wraith. The rest of it was spotty and he pieced them together. The final result was both elating and terrifying.

He had finally perfected what his mind had spent countless months trying to figure out. And with whatever it was, he had absorbed a fragment. But something had been off. While he’d absorbed a fragment, he knew he hadn’t absorbed it.

He had destroyed it.

He dived deeper into his mind, turned it from side to side in an attempt to comprehend what had happened. He found nothing. All he gained was the knowledge of what he had done and how he had done it. What followed was a speculation that whatever outcome had been born of it, the headache that plagued him was the result.

He was about to abandon the memories for more present problems when another rose unbidden. In it he watched the lifeless and empty teal eyes of Tao Mei stare at nothing. Then slowly his mind reminded him of the room where stronger mages than himself had died. The room with a single survivor.

It sobered his mood.

Then he remembered the stranger and the quest and the nest. He didn’t remember leaving the nest. Then again, there were a number of things he couldn’t remember.

“What time is it?” he asked.

Silence met him. However, he knew he wasn’t alone. He could feel it in the silence. His minds wracking themselves in search of something. Whatever it was, they seemed to find it. When the response came, it was shameless and precise.

We have no idea.

That was a terrifying oddity. His minds always knew the time, down to the barest fraction of a second. It didn’t matter what situation he found himself in or how much time he had skipped. It didn’t matter if he was just waking up from sleep or had fallen unconscious or had been drugged. They always knew.

“Let’s try something different, then. Where am I?”

No idea.

“A safe house,” someone answered in the darkness.

He knew the voice well enough to reply. “May I ask how I got here, Reverend?”

“You may,” Jim answered into the darkness. “But before you do, I will ask why you were in one of the Dead Accords without informing me.”

Seth opened his mouth to answer, unsure of what to say, when his minds stopped him.

Lie.

His minds often didn’t know much in the way of human interactions, but they had proven over the years that if there was one thing they knew, it was when to lie.

Seth chose ignorance over a blatant lie. “What’s a Dead Accord?” he asked, buying himself time to fabricate the lie his mind expected him to give.

There was a stretch of silence in the darkness he didn’t mind.

Then Jim spoke again. “There is a nest you’ve been frequenting with the team for over a week. It is in a place called the Dead Accords. It was a fissure nest. Now tell me why you ventured into a fissure nest without my permission. I’m certain the seminary has taught of it and the dangers surrounding it.”

Seth kept his silence. The seminary had.

“Now,” Jim continued. “Why would you venture into a silver rank fissure nest that looked so suspicious as far as nests go.”

Seth took a deep shaky breath. “The team said it was a great way to build experience. At first, I didn’t want to go, then they reminded me I was merely an Iron and they were silver. If I caused them the chance at the nest I only needed to remember I’d still have to go to more nests with them after that. That my safety was in their hands.”

Another stretch of silence followed and something about it seemed thoughtful.

After another while, Jim broke it.

“That sounds reasonable,” he said. “And there’s a reason adventurers are usually advised to join teams of the same authority. It’s to avoid things like this. Silver authority mages have been known to strongarm lesser mages just to get what they want. If they were still alive I’d have relieved them of my patronage.”

Anyone ever tell you you’re a horrible person? A mind asked.

How could you put such a heavy blame on the dead? another added.

“That’s good enough,” Jim continued. “That’s the story we’ll tell at the hearing when you’re asked for the reason for your action. It’s believable enough and it’ll only get you a slap on the wrist, not that it matters. Now, remember who I am and the fact that I know who you are, and try not to insult me with such a useless lie. So try again. Why did you go into a fissure nest of such suspiciously horrid proportions and not deem it fit to inform me? Try not to lie this time, because I won’t ask again.”

We should’ve known it wouldn’t work, one of Seth’s minds grumbled.

Seth took a moment to comport himself, finding his hands trembling at the possible consequences of offending his handler. When he did, his answer came again. “Since joining the team, I’ve been playing the role of support, pulling a trigger more times than I can count. It has given me experience in one direction but has done nothing for my growth towards evolution. I don’t use my skills and I don’t fight. I don’t hold it against you, but how am I expected to grow under such terms?”

“And how does that relate to you entering the nest without my permission?”

“If I told you, there was a high chance you would’ve said no. And entering the nest with all those adventurers and its constant replenishing, I knew I’d find a chance to use my skills. If I couldn’t grow over time, then I was going to stress myself enough. Force my own growth.”

Another silence filled the room. As usual, Jim broke it after a while.

“I guess I’m partially to blame for this,” he sighed. “No matter. There is a hearing to judge your actions along with the silver adventurers and you and I are going to rehearse what you will say and how you will say it.”

“Yes, Reverend.”

There was a mild creaking off to Seth’s side and he turned his head. It was the sound of someone rising from a chair, yet the room remained too dark for him to see in.

“Before I forget,” Jim said. “When the nest was explored, they found your teammates in a room far from the rest of the adventurers. They were dead, along with some other adventurer. The report says they were all killed in one cut. Any idea how that happened?”

If their deaths worried him, it showed nowhere.

Seth frowned, unsure of how to report this. The Reverend had already shown he would no longer take kindly to being lied to. However, the man had displayed in his wisdom and his acceptance of the reason he’d ventured into the nest that the truth was only what he could believe. Thus, it didn’t matter if he lied or said the truth. What mattered was if he said what the man would believe.

“There were too many silvers, and while I was using my skills, it wasn’t enough,” he said slowly. “So I went in search of areas known to have been cleared. I hoped to find weakened beasts or very few beasts. Then they came looking for me.”

“And did you find what you were looking for?”

“A few. Then more.”

“Explain.”

“I ran into a gold beast. It seemed to have made a resting place of the room. They found me just in time and sent me to get help while they held it off for as long as they could.”

“And did you see them fight this beast?”

Seth shook his head, remembered it was pitch black, and said, “No.”

The sound of footsteps told Seth the Reverend had begun moving. After a short while the sound of a door handle turning filled the room. When a door opened, a mild touch of light spilled into the room. It was enough for him to see the silhouette of the priest who was turned to him.

“Something happened to you in that nest,” Jim said, hesitant. “I’m not sure what it is, but I doubt it was good… What I’m trying to say is, I’m surprised you didn’t wake up Silver.”

Then he stepped out and closed the door behind him.

Darkness embraced Seth once more.

New Quest: [Beast Glade]

There exists out in the calmness of a nest, a crack in the world. It is the world broken, unable to heal. From it spawns greater wounds and greater rewards. Find this crack and heal it before time runs out.

Time Remaining: 00:00:00:00.

Objectives: 6/6.

[Find a Clue to the Glades] 1/1.

[Find the Glades] 1/1.

[Play a part in Clearing the Glades] 2/2.

[Exterminate Soul Beasts] 7/4.

[Fissures Found] 2/2

[Fissures Closed] 2/2

Hidden Objective: [The One Who Doesn’t Belong]

You have stumbled across a being who has no place here. His existence threatens more than just you have found him and his prolonged presence threatens the birth of another fissure. Insurmountable as he is, one must lead him back to whence he came. You cannot. However, there exists a silver lining. His time here is limited and he has not come for war. He has come to teach. Learn from this being so he can be on his way.

Hidden Objective [The One Who Doesn’t Belong] Passed.

Objective: [Learn a Skill] 1/1

Evolving Skill [Phantom Strike] (Quick Strike) Has Been Learned.

Skill [Phantom Strike] is Locked. You do not meet the requirement to use this skill.

Main Quest [Beast Glades] Passed.

Objectives: 6/6.

Unique Skill [Carnage] Has Been Learned.

Unique Skill [Carnivore] Has Been Unlocked.