The Fool's Freedom

It took them a few hours and it was almost time for the sunset when Walter finally reached level 25 and got ready for his class up. His level 20 skill advancement had been used on [Backstep] which was now omnidirectional and took him even further.

It was a great skill. A really great skill, and Alan felt himself wishing he had a similar one. Mobility coupled with his [Shadow Slash] and [Synapse Failure] would make him a terror to fight, even if he lacked great physical attributes. It would be even better after he acquired some proper experience and technique. Even now he didn’t see himself losing a one-on-one battle with anyone who couldn’t counter [Synapse Failure].

The process of leveling Walter had been grueling, to say the least. Alan didn’t do much apart from fry the synapses of a particularly large dusk wolf that shrugged off the first few arrows Ashlyn shot it with. It helped that she was only trying to prepare it for Walter.

The hard part was watching their targets burn alive. The sounds were worse than the screams of the Wailers. For once Alan felt like the evil villain in the story, as he watched and listened to the various beasts turning into charred remains. Walter really should have advanced [Ember] instead, even if only to spare everyone the awful experience by making it deadlier. It needed to be done though, and the man was happy with the progress if a bit traumatized by his own skill.

Alan and Ashlyn escorted him back to the barrier so he could go and choose his class in the safety of his new home, before turning and venturing back into the forest.

Both moved in silence through the trees for quite a while, still feeling the mental impact of what they had done.

“This was fucked,” Alan finally said.

“I don’t think I will ever forgive myself,” Ashlyn agreed.

“Should’ve leveled him using Wailers or something.”

“Their screams would pop his head right off.”

“The demon I told you about, Xil, has a skill that removes all sound in a certain radius. I don’t want to reveal him to anyone else but you, but I would have done so if only to save us from the atrocities we committed.”

Ashlyn opened her mouth to answer but instead jumped to the side and in a too-quick series of movements had her bow pointed toward Alan.

No. She was pointing it to his bag.

Alan took a step backward, raising his hands. “What the hell, Ash?”

Ashlyn’s face was contorted in bewilderment and she slowly lowered her bow and met Alan’s eyes.

“The demon… does it talk in your head?”

“Yeah?”

“Oh.”

“Is it speaking to you? Fuck, Xil, really?” Alan took out the silent cube and shook it. He knew it wouldn’t do anything, but it was the symbolism of the action that mattered.

“Sorry, when he made the connection I acted on instinct,” Ash said, and frowned even more, “he’s hitting on me.”

Alan blinked, “What?”

“He is giving me weird compliments. This is creepy, how do I stop it?”

“Okay, Ash, listen. Try to focus on the connection until you can sense it, then imagine yourself cutting it in two,” he turned toward the cube in his hand, “Xil, I swear to whatever you believe in, stop bothering her.”

He felt the connection form and watched as Ashlyn visibly relaxed, “I waited until now but I can’t help myself anymore! She is so beautiful... those facial curves, those eyes. And that fierce aura… I have never seen a person so beautiful! Please, you have to help me. I haven’t slept since you two met. I am dying here, man.”

Alan frowned. What the actual fuck? The demon sounded like a whiny teenager, with none of the arrogance or even wisdom it had shown before.

“Ash,” he said after a pause, “I think he has the hots for you.”

There was a gagging sound, “Fucking ew.”

“What does that mean? Does ‘ew’ signify her agreeing to be my mate? I don’t know your customs; I should have asked you more about your planet. Please, teach me!”

“Xil, man, listen. It’s a lost cause. Being obsessed with her features will only push her away and make you sound like a creep. You are not her type, I assure you.”

What did demons look like? Huh.

“But-,”

“Xil, for both of our sakes, please.”

“Ugh, I will try. I will have you know I am one of the more handsome representatives of demonkind.”

“I am sure of that.”

The connection snapped off and Alan took a deep breath. That was not a problem he had anticipated.

“I don’t think you have to worry about him, for now,” he said.

“I sure hope so.”

They kept going deeper and deeper into the forest as the sun was setting down. Alan saw some of the moon beetle cages hanging on the trees and tried to remember their general direction if things went south. He was sure glad he was not alone right now.

“Hey Ash, I’ve been wondering, how do you deal with a mental attack?” It seemed like a major problem in this world. So far, he had met four people, if he included himself, who could use mental attacks. For a person with no defenses that could spell trouble.

“I can sense danger so I try to react before that, but I haven’t met or fought many capable of that except for Florence. Her skill works slowly though, so I can pretty much kill her as soon as I sense something off.”

“Huh, my skill takes a while to cast, but it's only a few seconds.”

“The one you fucked Dusty with? That looked kind of overpowered,” Ashlyn stopped by a tree and looked for things Alan couldn’t even notice. He stopped behind her and used another chunk of mana to get rid of the tiredness.

“It is. I managed to learn a mind-shielding skill on my own, we should work on that when we’ve got the time.”

“Does working on it include you blasting my brain with that skill of yours?”

Did it? Alan wasn’t sure how to go about it without the weaker [Mind Jab]. There was also the fact that he had been able to observe the whole process, while Ashlyn would simply feel the effects. This was tricky.

He also wondered how to improve what he already had. He had only recently been reborn, but that did not mean he had to wait for levels or the happenstance to get stronger. It was painfully obvious that would be a mistake.

“I will figure something out,” Alan finally said.

They reached another batch of ruins, consisting of a few broken square pieces of stone. The forest seemed to be littered with such places, some larger, some smaller.

“We can rest here,” Ashlyn said, “The sun is almost down so the wailers will be coming out soon. You sure you can deal with them?”

“Well, Xil, can. We just have to stay close to each other. Ain’t that right, Xil?”

The demon didn’t respond. Was he mad? That would be bad. Very bad.

“Come on, don’t be like that.”

No response. Alan sighed and looked toward Ashlyn. She returned the look and frowned, having seemingly read his mind.

“No.”

“Oh, come on. It’s preferable to having our eardrums blown off.”

“Ugh,” she fixed her hair with both hands, an action that threw Alan off by how it contrasted with the aura of a dangerous hunter Ashlyn seemed to exude at all times now. It was almost as if she was still just a girl, only capable of murdering everyone.

She cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable, “I wish I could see how useful that demon magic you were praising is. Only if there was a strong demon around, but I guess he needs his naps…”

Alan could barely contain himself and he covered his mouth with both hands to stop himself from laughing out loud.

There was the foreign sensation of hairs poking at his hand, reminding him of the short beard that had appeared. Funny how one stops paying attention to such things.

Ashlyn gave him a look that felt like an arrow through the skull, mouthing a ‘Fuck you,’.

Alan gave her a thumbs up.

A minute later he felt the connection form.

“Hey, Xil.”

“You know, I was disappointed in you. But you seem to have my back after all. You’re alright for a human.”

“Ashlyn is a human too, you know.”

“Psh, you are hardly the same species. Look at her grace, her murderous aura, her-“

“Alright, alright. Just remember, human females take a long time to seduce. Don’t be too persistent, show off from time to time, but ONLY when she asks you. Most of all, and that is very important, don’t bother her! She will talk to you when she wants your attention.”

“Damn, that sounds exhausting. No wonder you are so miserable. Fine. Call on me when you need [Soundless].”

Fucking demon.

“Good job, Ash.”

“Shut it.”

“Who knew your womanly charms would be the key to fighting rotting undead monsters?”

Alan ducked as Ashlyn threw a stone towards him, and laughed. There was a smile on the corner of her mouth too.

They spent some more time bantering, feeling like they were back home. It was great and Alan felt better for it.

The walk through the forest continued at a slower pace. Alan wondered how fast Ashlyn could go if it wasn’t for having to match his pace. It would be great to experience having such agility one day.

The first scream came just as the sun set down. It was not human this time, but it strikingly resembled the screaming of the burning beasts Walter had set on fire to level up. Alan didn’t know how to feel from the fact that he much preferred listening to the wailer instead of going through that experience again.

“Xil, are you ready?” Alan asked, talking out loud for Ashlyn’s sake.

“Yes!” there was uncanny enthusiasm in the voice projected in Alan’s mind and he smirked.

“Save your skill for when we go close to them. They are annoying to listen to, but it’s better to hear them coming.”

“Right!”

The screams gradually rose in number and they saw the first Wailing Carrion appear soon after. It did not come from between the trees or the depth of the forest, instead crawling out from a patch of wet dirt just meters away, throwing wiggling maggots everywhere in the process.

Are they corpses reanimated by the maggots? No, that’s not it.

The Wailing Carrions all seemed to look the same, as if the maggots took the rotting flesh of the dead and remade it according to some blueprint they had. The only difference was that it was somewhat smaller than the one Alan had killed.

Ashlyn shot one of her arrows at the wailer as soon as it was halfway out of the ground. The arrow exploded its head with its power and stuck a tree behind it. Alan watched in amazement, able to see much better this time as the body reformed into an open maw, flesh wiggling and maggots dancing.

“Disgusting,” Ashlyn said.

“Yep.”

Alan took a few steps forward, ready to call for the demon to activate his skill. When he was in range he slashed with his spear, sending a [Shadow Slash] right in the middle of the thing’s chest. It split into two easily and fell apart with a disgusting sound.

You have slain Wailing Carrion (18)

He took one of the moon beetle spheres from his belt and let their light wash over the twitching worms. They shriveled and gave off acidic smoke just as they had before. Finally, all that remained was a small dark crystal pebble. It was mostly round, but not a perfect sphere.

Alan carefully picked it up and examined it. He jumped when he felt Ashlyn’s breath beside him and tried to pretend he hadn’t. When had she approached him?

There was a smirk playing on the girl’s lips.

“Nice skill,” she said.

“It is, isn’t it?” Damn right, it was. Proper magic!

“A lot more are coming. You might have to finish the ones I disable. I don’t want to get into melee with these things, and damaging the crystals with empowered arrows would be stupid. I don’t know if the maggots go for living things but I don’t plan to find out.”

“Fair. I don’t think I would enjoy it either. Let’s take positions.”

Ashlyn climbed on the single larger stone, while Alan remained on the ground and waited. She would disable them with her arrows, he would finish them off with his [Shadow Slash] if the arrows didn’t. While [Shadow Slash] had a much lesser range it had a much larger surface area and worked amazingly on the soft and rotten flesh that was barely held together by the maggots.

It didn’t take long for the monsters to appear. Some more crawled out of the earth between the trees, while others walked over calmly, screaming from time to time as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Alan once again felt the excitement before the battle.

“I might get Xil to cast his skill when I am in there, so I won’t be able to hear anything at all, Ash. If things go sideways and you have to melee, just rush close to me so he can get you into the area of effect of the skill.”

“Sure.” She sounded calm, with not a hint of the excitement Alan felt. Granted, he was sure she was at least somewhat enjoying it too.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

The first kills felt too easy and Alan even felt a bit disappointed. The Wailing Carrions, true to their name, simply stood and wailed. He could almost feel the vibrations of their screams, but a nice shot from Ashlyn often ended their song.

[Soundless] made sure he was unaffected. It was a silent slaughter filled with flying shadowy blades and half-assed spear jabs. Alan made sure to position the light of the moon beetles so the maggots would burn, instead of burrow back into the earth, taking the crystals with them.

The fight was boring, at least until the first Wailing Carrion shut its mouth mid-scream and threw a powerful swipe at Alan.