The Fool's Freedom

The yellow flowers were called Void Jessamine according to Byrr. He seemed to hold deep interest toward them, but still let Alan pick them and stash them away. The two guards were taking their roles seriously even here, not intervening unless it became necessary and not taking anything from him. Alan appreciated that.

Void Jessamine was used for poisons and tinctures with odd properties – an expensive ingredient for some alchemists and the guard assured Alan that he could get quite the price for it, or trade it for something useful.

They spent hours searching for more parasites and going deeper into the sea of hills and mountains. At some point Alan found himself picking flowers more often than he fought. Byrr and Feyrith didn’t protest so Alan figured it was fine. They also met a few other hunting parties on the way but no one seemed interested in a chat. Alan assumed they were part of the reason there were so few parasites.

And Kalyntha. Finding the girl again was a surprise considering her untimely demise… She had spares? What did she mean? Alan shook his head and tried not to dwell too much on it. Things were bound to get weirder and weirder as he progressed and learned more and more. Trying to figure it all out would just make him lose his mind.

They finally managed to find a parasite, but it was lower in level than even Alan, at 46, and didn’t give him a level.

That made 8 cores in total, with 12 left to gather.

“Does this take so long usually?” Alan asked.

“Nope. But Shredder has been angry the past week, so maybe the parasites are hiding,” Feyrith said. He had been staring at his tiny book most of the time, but other than that the two guards didn’t seem to share Alan’s boredom.

“The dragon?” Alan knew the answer but decided to keep the conversation going.

Byrr scratched the back of his head and stretched. “Yea. It hasn’t happened before, but I say I would be pretty pissed off too if I was trapped in a world where no one was even close to being my equal.”

“Has it attacked the outpost before?” Alan asked.

“Ha!” Feyrith laughed and shut his book, while Byrr just stared dumbly.

“Why would he do that?” the green man asked.

Alan shrugged, “I don’t know. Why do monsters do what monsters do?”

There was a pause as the two guards grew sullen and looked at Alan strangely. Their mood changed almost in an instant.

“Don’t call a dragon a monster.” Feyrith almost whispered.

Byrr looked around as if there was a crowd full of people listening to their conversation, then got closer to Alan. “Dragons are noble and dragons are smart. Smarter than most beings, and certainly smarter than humans. It knows we’re here to stabilize this place until we can let it leave. The Dragon Throne used some method to make sure Shredder knew. Unfortunately, they don’t have anyone weak enough to stay here and calm it down.”

Alan kept silent. Even comparing dragons to monsters was deemed taboo. The way the guards feared they would be overheard didn’t speak well of the culture around them. And the Dragon Throne sounded like a very, very prominent power in the so-called Realm.

“They are prideful and strong, and look down on us lesser beings. Often with reason.” Feyrith added almost absentmindedly, making Alan turn sharply. Calling oneself a lesser being struck him even worse. Who would do that? What sort of dystopian bullshit was that?

He was about to retort and go on a tangent when he thought better of it. He had been meeting many people and most have been surprisingly nice and helpful. That didn’t mean he could trust them, and going against the widely accepted views was a sure way to quickly alienate himself even if it was only out of fear that his mouth could bring them trouble.

He chose to keep silent, for now and wondered how the so-called Dragon Throne would react if they learned of Earth's tales of dragon slayers and all that.

They managed to find another parasite soon after. It was once again a lower level, but it managed to provide enough to push him to level 48. Alan was getting bored with all the walking among the brown landscape but at least he was going to have a lot of disposable cores to spend. He planned on stockpiling clothes and all the other useful things he could find in the outpost.

“Does level 50 offer a skill?” he asked.

“Not typically. No skills until the next tier, but it might offer a specialization or something else pertaining to your class.” Byrr said.

What?!

“What?! Why?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because the System wants us to focus on the ones we have before tiering up. You can buy or trade for some if you want them that much. Or figure some out on your own.”

I see some reasoning behind it. I need to focus on developing the ones I already have before I start building up an even larger arsenal. I still have the [Last Glimpse] skill crystal too. Maybe I should use it?

The decision was made for him almost another hour later when they ran into what could only be described as a gruesome battle scene. Scattered remains of bodies lay in places. Two larger pieces still retained their shape enough, but there could’ve been more considering the number of bodily parts thrown around. The largest whole piece was a male’s head and torso. A circular hole was where the heart was supposed to be. It looked crushed rather than disappeared by the parasite’s ability to create void holes.

The guards grew serious and for the first time took point as they looked around. Alan followed behind, careful to not step in any of the viscera and pieces of flesh. Both bodies were missing parts, but it was hard to determine which exactly. The surrounding area was mostly fine, without signs of a long fight.

He wanted to ask Byrr and Feyrith but also didn’t want his voice to be the one breaking the eerie silence that had descended upon their group. He saw a hand between some rocks – a non-human hand. Alan assumed it was lisarni, judging by the small pieces of skin that remained visible.

“A human and a lisarni. Strange combination.” Byrr said.

“Why?” Alan involuntarily asked. He realized he had been holding his breath as the words that left his mouth sounded weak. He was used to gore by now, but it was still weird to just run into it in the middle of nowhere.

The smell was oddly metallic.

“Few lisarni tolerate humans enough to partner with them,” Feyrith mumbled while he was crouching down and examining a piece of cloth. “Both were dressed in the same robes. Part of a team?”

Then what was Riasko doing with three humans? Assuming Kalyntha is human. There are bound to be exceptions to the rule, of course.

“Even if it is a new one, no one would leave their remains lying like that. There’s usually a reward for bringing back bodies,” Byrr added.

So practical.

Alan took out the skill crystal of [Last Glimpse] and hesitated. It sounded like a depressing skill to have, but it would be useful in many ways. He assumed those would not be the last corpses he ran into, and information was a great thing to have for anyone, especially someone like him. “Say, how much does a rare skill run for?”

Byrr looked up from the pile of squashed blood and flesh he was staring at and, “What a ques – ah, you got a skill that might shed some light?”

Alan nodded. He doubted they would want the skill for themselves.

“It’s hard to say. Depends on the skills and the market for it. You cannot just go and browse skill crystals. They are rarely traded for resources unless someone is desperate. Skills are one of the most valuable things in the universe. Hell, there are planets out there dedicated to the cultivation of skills for the wider market. Those might be within reach. Skill for skill is the most common though.”

Old Greyheart mentioned something like that too, but for traits. He made it sound like it was quite a brutal affair. Fuck it.

“I see,” Alan said. Then consumed the crystal like he had with [Mana Zap]. He didn’t hold any notions of improving this particular skill anytime soon. It was situational but it would probably see a lot of use when he went back to his Sanctuary. It took some time as the knowledge flowed into his mind.

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill: Last Glimpse (Rare)

Last Glimpse (Rare)

See the last five seconds of the life of the dead body you touch.

Huh. This was probably the first time the skill hadn’t come with additional information after he had learned it. Maybe there was nothing more to it.

“Alright, here it goes,” he said and knelt next to the male torso. He chose one of the cleaner areas and extended a single finger. It was cold. Then he activated [Last Glimpse].

Everything shifted and Alan found himself in a blurry black and white place. No, this was the same place they were currently standing in only devoid of color. A lisarni woman was next to him. It felt a bit disorienting and Alan tried to move and speak, but it was not himself that was there. He was just a passenger in another’s body.

The man turned and cursed under his breath. Then he drew his weapon with speed and skill Alan himself was not capable of. The sword started glowing and the man swung it in a strange arc as something very fast rushed toward him. His blade left a trail of fine mesh that stopped the first attack with a loud bang.

Then something flew out of the man’s chest and he looked down. There was a hole where his heart had been. He dropped the sword just as something else took out most of his lower half, separating it from his body. His companion was screaming next to him and strange liquid metal tools were tearing her limb from limb.

Just as the vision ended, Alan saw Kalyntha’s form hovering above the two. She was humming something. Darkness took the man and Alan.

Alan gasped and pulled his hand away from the corpse. Experiencing death like that was strange. He had felt nothing, although some part of him wished that he did despite the agony that would probably be present. It would’ve made the experience much more valuable, especially if he could know how the skill with the sword was done. If he could advance the skill in a way that allowed him to experience that… he could learn quite a lot of things, as long as he kept running into dead people. He didn’t think that would be an issue any time soon.

He found Byrr and Feyrith staring at him with wonder.

“The girl from earlier did this – Kalyntha,” he said. He saw no reason to hide it. She was crazy, that much was true, but he doubted she would slaughter someone without reason.

“Oh? Then we’re done here,” Byrr said. Alan could swear the man was relieved to hear that it was another person from the outpost who was responsible. His next words confirmed that. “If it isn’t some weird mutation or a very strong monster, it isn’t our job.”

Alan nodded. She must’ve had a good reason for doing what she did. There seemed to be nothing of value left around the gruesome scene so the group continued searching for more of the parasites. They were lucky as they ran into a group of three just after taking a few short twisting turns.

Alan had to be careful during the fight and even cast [Monochrome Armor] for the first time since his meditation. The skill made him feel much better in his own skin, and he ripped apart through the parasites after turning his staff into a large-bladed spear.

One of them managed to drain some of his mana before Alan reached it with [Synaptic Failure] but it was not too bad.

The fight finally brought him to level 50.

The first message he received was nothing surprising considering all he had heard.

You have reached level 50. You can now choose a class specialization, which will lock in your current class until Tier 3.

You have qualified for the following class specialization: Shadow Warlock

Specialization: Shadow Warlock

You have chosen to commit to the path of shadows, discarding any other elements for the sake of empowering your shadow skills.

All of your skills will be transformed to take on the element of shadow upon picking this option.

Skills that are unable to be transformed will be lost.

Light will weaken you.

Alan frowned. It was the path he had been walking down for a while now. But he had [Synaptic Failure], his bone ritual, [Sacrificial Attack] and [Mana Zap], and his curse. The risk of losing his curse was the biggest factor in his decision to reject it. Changing some of the others into shadow-based skills sounded quite nice though.

And light weakening him sounded like bullshit. He was pretty sure the man from his shadow vision wouldn’t flinch because of a little light.

But there was another message waiting for him. It was quite strange and had to do with one of his earliest titles. One that hadn’t seen much use apart from getting him into the Transient Bazaar.

Alan carefully read it.