The Fool's Freedom

“I think improving [Last Glimpse] sounds interesting. I should be able to handle the others in time. It is the strangest of my skills by far and one I was going to sell but decided to learn by pure chance,” Alan finally said.

It made sense to him to improve what he understood least. [Last Glimpse] offered him a vision of someone’s death and the idea of building up on that was … both disturbing and strangely attractive. What would such a skill lead to? How much could he learn about potential enemies and different skills? What would its growth be like?

“Very good, that was my choice as well. It’s not something I work with often, and will prove good experience. It will take a while, possibly, and I never guarantee results as a lot of it is dependent on you, but we’ll do our best!” Isind smiled as if about to feast. “Now, judging by the description I have some work to do. I don’t have enough corpses lying around.”

Not enough? Alan raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t worry, it won’t take me more than a few hours. You’re free to look around or roam the Bazaar, and I’ll find you. Don’t get snatched up by someone else though. You’re my project now!” The man cackled as he stood up and headed out.

Alan tentatively followed him outside. Where was Isind going to acquire corpses? Was there a place that sold them around, or could you hire a corpse for a time? He shuddered at the thought, but curiosity almost made him want to put in a request. The Bazaar was just too… vast.

Alan had enough to deal with, and some time for himself sounded like a good thing. He briefly wondered if visiting Old Greyheard now was a good time, but ultimately decided against it. There was time for learning, time for catching up, and time for rest, and as much he wanted to go back and see Ashlyn, he wasn’t dying of desire to meet the rest.

Someone had messed with him, and if the current Alan met them, it would quickly turn into bloody revenge. He wasn’t certain that was a good thing, even though many of his now unrestrained feelings and thoughts wanted it.

Plus, it hadn’t been all bad. The forced trip to the fractal had given him a lot more than Alan could’ve dreamed about and quite possibly saved his life. He’d met interesting people, gotten to know more about the universe at large and what awaited, and was somewhat excited to explore the opportunities new Earth had in stock.

None of that made what had happened okay, of course. The witch would pay one way or another, and if Cole was involved… Alan distinctly remembered the man’s nasty smirk as the strange skill that had come from the girl’s scroll had taken him away.

It made the anger from back then and the echo of his promise revive inside of him, and the shadows joined in on his anger by increasing the intensity of their whispers as if trying to instigate the brewing storm. Then all was gone and he calmed down. Alan took a deep breath and walked into the myriad shops of the Bazaar.

He moved aimlessly and gazed at the strange sights popping up and out of his vision. Few places seemed to choose him as a potential customer and lingered before sensing he’d lost interest. There was no sight of the strange hall he’d been sent away from the first time or Old Greyheart’s hut though.

He was soon assaulted with the sounds of metal striking metal which distinctly reminded him of Ig-Thun. How was the forge slave doing? Was he still alive?

Alan shook his head and neared the smithy that had popped up. It was a shoddy wooden structure made with straw and whole tree trunks and surrounded by two massive billowing furnaces. Two strikingly similar giants of men were hitting their respective anvils with large hammers one after the other. Billowing ice rose from one, and sparks of flame from the other.

They stopped as one as Alan neared them, then only after a glance lost interest and continued their craft.

Alan opened his mouth to speak but gave up and shook his head. This was not a place for him. Each of their strikes was enough to make his bones shudder.

Just as he turned about the surroundings once again shifted and now there was a middle-aged lady with a loom before him. Hers was a simple house of a strange shell-like material. Warm broth was boiling on a small fire next to her while she weaved thread after thread on her loom.

She looked at him with two eyes as white as snow and smiled wide, revealing missing teeth.

“Shadows walk the lands lost and angry. You need to grow smarter, young [Scion],” she said.

The whispers around Alan died down under the weight of her strange words, but then she was gone as if she had never been there and all was well in the world. Alan looked around in wonder. The Transient Bazaar was the strangest place he could imagine, even though he’d just spent months on a piece of a shattered world, and then some more in the void itself.

For a moment a hint of worry about Isind and what the strange self-proclaimed Skill Trainer was planning, but the Bazaar was a safe place. Alan felt it deep inside of his bones. It was a place of wonder, and a place of strange people to offer their services. The only thing that worried him was the ‘payment’, but from what he’d seen there was little he could offer the titanic existences living in this place.

What were the chances some of them were just passing their time and finding things to do? Maybe there were also those in hiding. He still didn’t know what the Transient Bazaar was at its core.

He wondered if he could do that with the two ritual skills he had. Though, he certainly had to try [Infuse Flesh] on himself first.

Maybe I should figure out what insight into emptiness brings me. It won’t be smart to start practicing on the streets though, and I don’t know how long I have. Or I could go for a cup of coffee and some pastry? Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten in a while. Or… both?

Still, a piece of paper appeared in his hand after he poured some mana into the Bazaar token, and he threw it in the air after focusing on what he desired.

It was not much later that a beautiful field of grass and flowers stretched before him. There were rows of tables set far apart enough that each was an island of solitude for the few patrons sitting on them.

Then, a creature appeared next to Alan. He blinked as the bursts of vibrant colors and the shift of reality assaulted his eyes. It was a short creature with rabbit ears, red smoldering eyes, and a large top hat. Was it a human, or was it a rabbit? Alan squinted but the face of the creature remained a mystery, as if his brain was refusing to process the information. The more he tried, the worse the tension in his mind grew until finally, he gave up.

“Welcome dear customer, to our humble café. Would you like a pastry or some tea? It’s on the house, of course.”

“Do I not have to pay?” Alan asked. The sky above swirled and the distant shops of the Bazaar seemed to tremble in dissatisfaction as the field of green pushed at them.

“No, no. Payment has already been secured by you simply being here. Of course, you may lose a small amount of mana, so don’t stay too long,” the creature said. Alan got the vague sense it was smiling but it was too hard to tell.

He picked a table and sat down. Immediately he felt it – his mana pouring slowly out of him as if it was being drawn out. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant and he focused on observing its path as it seemingly sank into the atmosphere around it after flowing freely for a couple of seconds. It was a dance different than the typical when skills were involved.

What was left after it was gone was just nothing. Alan was a bit confused as typically mana was everywhere, and he simply noticed the currents better thanks to his insight into Flow. He could feel it change and adapt and he could feel it when some affect it. That was about it.

Here though, it simply disappeared, leaving strange pockets of emptiness. It was not the same as the void, but it was similar.

At some point, a piece of beautiful cake topped with something quite similar to strawberries appeared before him along with a cup of dark coffee. Its aroma distracted him from the observations and almost made him forget about the mana drain he was experiencing.

The first sip was heaven and Alan signed in pleasure as the bitter goodness covered his tastebuds and reminded him of times that seemingly belonged to another lifetime. He felt much better now and doubted he would’ve gone back to Earth as it was even if he could, since that would mean being weak, depressed, and on the edge of death.

The System had changed all of that, and whether his path led to a gruesome death at the hands of some monster, an angry dragon, or because he was trusting everyone and anyone, it didn’t matter.

The cake was amazing too, and Alan closed his eyes in pleasure. It was the best cake he’d ever had, and the coffee was up there too. As if both had been taken straight out of his unconscious dreams.

Before he knew it, the cup was empty, the cake was done, and surprisingly, he was satisfied.

“Here you are! I warned you not to get snatched up, it’s been hours!”

Alan opened his eyes in confusion at the familiar voice. Isind Felmor was standing before him with a large black box slung over his shoulder. It was the size of a desk, or if one was grim enough – a coffin.

“Hours?” It hadn’t been hours. He just got here about ten minutes ago. Alan looked around but found no sign of the creature or any of the other patrons. There was less than a quarter of his mana left, which was odd. He didn’t remember losing so much.

He stood up, stretching his body and groaning in pleasure.

“Come, come. I got us plenty of dead ones to work with. I’ve gotta return them after so, we better be careful,” Isind said with excitement.

Just as I thought things couldn’t get any weirder… Alan thought as he threw one last glance at the field with tables. It had been a nice experience, and despite the loss of mana, he felt as if he had gained something from it all.

Emptiness, huh?

Thankfully the walk back to Isind’s place was simple, as the Bazaar’s many buildings and twisting roads did their best to make the trip as short and as interesting as possible. Even more so than when Alan was on his own.

Once they were safely inside Alan gaped. The gym was almost clear of the previous mess of machines and implements, and instead, there were tens of differently-sized coffins littering the smooth floor.

“Are these all…?” What had Isind done? Were there truly places that just offered corpses for hire? It seemed… wrong. If Alan died right there then would his corpse be used similarly? He shuddered at the thought. For some reason Xil’s absence swam up in his mind, the demon would’ve had quite a few jokes to tell on the occasion.

“Now,” Isind clapped his hands after putting the last coffin down among the rest. “I’ll be observing with my skills while you use [Last Glimpse]. If you feel something intrusive, don’t let it disrupt your concentration. Pay attention to your mana, to the effect, and try to focus on the full experience. We’ll go from there.”

The man led him toward a normally-sized coffin and slid off the lid. There was a normal-looking body of a young man inside. Alan didn’t have much of a reaction, but the act itself was oddly wrong when it was not done in the field of combat.

“Come on, do it,” Isind said with a slight tremble of excitement in his voice.

Oh well, here goes nothing.

His vision swam as he touched the dead man and cast [Last Glimpse].