Chapter 14: Chapter 14 - Information, and The Exception.
While the party packed up within the following minutes, I carved through the beast carcass, and it was a good while before I eventually found the damn thing, hidden behind a collection of organs to the bottom left of its abdomen.
The shard was tiny, only about half the size of the marble-sized Tremor-Class cores, but the red, pulsing glow made it unmistakable.
I chucked in my mouth straight away.
[You have consumed a Squall-Class Beast Core]
[Absorption has begun...]
[EXP: 250/750]
[EXP: 300/750]
[Squall Class Beast Core has been fully absorbed.]
It was gone as if it had never been there at all, leaving only the faint taste of blood in the back of my throat.
It really is only worth a tenth of a Tremor-Class core...
I headed back to the camp, used some water to wash all the gore off my hands and body, and not long after, we departed.
The canopy closed over our heads in layered sheets, those same rare shafts of the morning light the only things that lit an otherwise pitch-black environment.
We moved single file, Arthur led as usual, Freya behind him, then Gerard, his axe riding his shoulder, and I brought up the rear, half a pace back, watching the space between their shoulders and the dark beyond.
I let some time pass before I began my bid for information.
"I have...more questions," I said simply.
"Go on, shoot." Gerard replied.
"Mana. How do I use it? I can feel this sphere of it in my body, and I can move it around a little, but it doesn’t do much else."
Arthur turned back from the front of the line, "That’s because you haven’t understood any laws. And until you do, it’ll only reinforce your body a little."
"Laws?"
"The Laws of Magic. It’s just knowledge really. Understanding of an element, or of a process. You can learn them yourself through observation, or experimentation, or alternatively, if you’ve got the coin to spare, you can buy the Manuals to get you started. But there’s no shortcut to progressing a law. Everyone understands things differently."
"Anyway, when you’ve got initial understanding of any of the laws, the Words will let you know. And only then can you use your Mana to start learning Skills."
It seems complicated, and quite abstract.
"But I’m pretty sure you’re an exception to that rule, Axel. You don’t know anything about the laws, but you’ve maxed out Bronze Ranked Fire-Resistance."
Gerard jumped in, "And that’s why you best keep your Gift under wraps, lad. The Hunter Guild Association monitors those with gifts at the S Rank and above. Has them sign a contract while they’re weak so they can control them when they’re strong. You’re not given an option."
"And if they can’t chain you..." he continued, dragging a thumb across his throat in a slitting motion, "...they make sure no else can either."
Freya spoke for the first time since we left the camp, "And your gift is far beyond the S Rank, which is why this information will never leave our party. Not even a whisper. We can’t have you dragged away to the capital with all that’s at stake."
"I’ll make sure to do that," I said with a gulp.
The party fell silent again. The forest pressed in, the air as damp as ever. Another thought that had been idling at the edge of my mind stepped forward.
"What about Titles?"
It came out like any other question, but its effect wasn’t like the other questions.
All three of them stopped so abruptly I almost walked headfirst into the blade of Gerard’s Axe.
Freya turned her head slowly, "You... have a Title?" she asked.
"No..? I just...heard mention of it in the Words..."
"The Words make no mention of them," Gerard said immediately, "Not unless you already have one. " His mouth pressed into a line, "We know of ’em through word of mouth but, you... you didn’t even know what a plate was."
Arthur dragged a hand down his face, "Of course the wildling has one," he muttered into his palm.
"What is it?" Freya asked directly.
My gaze flicked to my Status screen, to the words ’Professional Crash Tester’
"It’s Private."
We stood there in a ring of dull light and damp leaves for three heartbeats. Then Freya nodded once and faced forward again. Gerard exhaled through his nose. Arthur clicked his tongue and didn’t say what he wanted to.
We moved on.
But I now had one more question.
"Arthur."
He sighed, "What is it?"
"That was the second time you called me that. A Wildling. What is that?"
"Ah. Just a slightly derogatory term for the good people on the other side of the Divide."
"People live on those plains?", I blurted, recalling the razor-sharp grass that covered everything.
"Not on the plains. Past them."
Gerard looked back at me again, "They’re a barbaric bunch, but unlike the humans on our side of the Divide, they’re all Hunters. Every single one of ’em. And the harsh environment makes it so they’re all strong. Its brutal here, but you’ll find it’s far worse out there."
I didn’t have any more questions, so I thought deeply about all that I had learnt.
The ground began to rise in long, slow steps. The trunks thinned. Sunlight widened from strings to sheets. The air lost its wet weight and turned clean at the edges. When the last mesh of branches gave way and we stepped out from under the canopy, all three of them breathed like they’d surfaced from water.
The chirps of birds and clicks of insects in the background could only be appreciated this much after a journey into the core.
White noise is...comforting.
Human psychology could be awfully strange sometimes.
I looked up to the skies, the twin suns back at their apex.
A full day had passed since I arrived in this world.
I saw Arthur stare up at the suns just like I had, except he had his hands up against the sky, making a variety of different gestures, likely to figure out which direction we needed to head in.
It only took him a few seconds, as he pointed straight ahead of us, announcing, "Lysha’el guides us! We need only go straight through to the outpost! I estimate it’ll only be another hour or so."
The Party continued to walk, the ravine walls climbing higher and higher as we approached, and then there it was.
There, in the distance, carved into cliff-face itself, was a cave shaped by far more than nature.
The Outpost.