Dissonance a litrpg adve.., p.53
Dissonance: A LitRPG Adventure, page 53
part #1 of Unbound Series
Felix Analyzed all of them as quickly as he could, but got back only their names.
Name: Essence Draught of Dragon's Fire
Name: Essence Draught of Dragon's Wing
Name: Essence Draught of Orichalcum
Name: Essence Draught of Sky's Light
Name: Essence Draught of Wind's Grace
Name: Essence Draught of Clarity
"What are those?" Evie's eyes were wide as she held a hand out, fingers splayed like they were in a breeze. "They feel powerful."
"They should. Those're Rare Essences, the lot of em, unless I miss my guess," Harn grunted, obviously impressed. "Put ‘em away. That much Mana surging is noticeable. Don't want it slipping past the wards." Vessilia nodded, embarrassed, before pushing the trays back in and closing the case with a snap.
The storm of Mana that had been building stopped growing, and over the next few seconds dissipated completely.
Rare Essences, huh? Now those were good Essences. As before, Felix felt an unpleasant disquiet when he regarded the silver vials in Harn's case. Harn caught his eyes and laughed.
"Yeah, these ain't so fancy, but they're a solid base. You make a solid foundation, and you can go far." Harn shrugged. "Or don't. Build yer tower on sand, and watch it fall."
Harn had his number, that was for sure. Despite knowing what Harn was doing, Felix still felt his need for the Iron Essences surge in him. Stupid reverse psychology.
"Ok yeah. Gimme the seven, then."
Harn handed them over, and Felix carefully put them away in his own potion case, which was too full. Several empty vials, two filled with blood, and his own Draught of Wandering Spirit. He handed one back to Harn. "Sorry, just six. Forgot I had one."
"Oh?" Harn said, taking the Iron Spirit Essence back. "What one?"
"Essence Draught of the Wandering Spirit," Felix said, holding up the vial. "Uncommon rarity."
Harn sucked at his teeth and nodded. "That's a good one. Don't find those outside Henaar too much, though. How'd you get one?"
Felix tucked the vial back into his case before answering. "Found it in the forest. Someone lost it, I guess." He wasn't sure why he omitted the Henaari corpse, it just felt...inappropriate to bring up. He looked at Harn. "Do you know what Essences it offers?"
"Essence of Wander, for sure, but I ain't positive on the others. Usually offers two related Essences, but that one is tied deep to their goddess. The Endless Raven is known for knowledge and exploration," he said, packing away the case and starting to get up. "Chances are the other two're about one or both."
The women were talking about Vessilia's Essences, but Felix stepped away from them, cutting off Harn before he left. "One more question, Harn."
"Always one more with you. What?" Harn groused, and Felix got the impression he was genuinely tired.
"I'll make it quick, if I can. How long can you put off Tempering? As in, how long after reaching Apprentice Tier before you lose the chance to take an Essence Draught?" If it worked like he hoped, then he thought he'd be ok. If.
"If you ignore yer Apprentice notification, it won't activate. Just like any system prompt. Ya only got so long with that tactic though; at most a day, dawn ta dawn." Harn sighed and glanced at his bedroll. "After that, formation starts as normal, and if you don't have an Essence in ya, then yer outta luck."
Harn started to turn away before he stopped and looked back. "Oh, and ya won't be able to rank up the Skill either, until you finish formation, so that's a waste a time, too. Take my advice: it's better to settle for common Essences in the hand than rare ones ya can't find." With a final, piercing look, Harn stumped toward his bed.
Later that night, Felix spent some more time in the basin room.
He had some ideas about Skill training that he wanted to test.
After filling up the same basin with Acid Stream, he once more dunked his arm into the foul solution. Again, his flesh started to melt and sizzle, making the green liquid bubble furiously. His Acid Resistance was only 22, but his Acid Stream had jumped up to 24 after fighting the Ofrenoks. Now it was all about patience.
And pain.
Felix pushed at the pain, letting it drift around him like steam, feeling his Pain Resistance do its job as his Willpower buoyed the entire effort. As he held off the agony, Felix purposely let his mind float into Meditation. Pain Resistance flared, Acid Resistance building, Felix let himself fall deeper into Meditation than ever.
Everything went dark.
No pain. No weight. No scents or sounds or anything at all. It was a perfect void.
Just that ocean-loud roar of silence that was everything and nothing.
When he resurfaced, Felix was unsure if he'd been down for a few minutes or an hour, but his notifications indicated the latter.
Acid Resistance is level 24!
Pain Resistance is level 30!
Meditation is level 32!
"Haha! It worked!" Not only did he rank up three of his Skills, but he didn't have to endure the acrid stink of his own acid. Felix pulled his arm out of the once-sizzling goop and looked at it: it was hale and whole, without a single mark of pink or healing patch of skin. His resistance must have ranked up a while ago, and his Health regen did the rest.
After taking a moment to stretch his back, Felix sat on one of the stone benches and pulled out his two blood vials.
Ofrenok and Ofrehulk. Which to do first? He weighed them in his hands. Both are gonna be gross, I can almost guarantee that. He sighed. Why blood? The Title and Skill both talk about digesting Mana, not blood specifically. I ate the shadow tendril of the Rockstrike previously, and the Wisp didn't have blood at all, just sparky magic...stuff. Could I just eat an enemy's spell instead?
Felix snorted at the mental image of catching a fireball with his mouth. Maybe, but am I getting hit with Mana when a fireball hits me? Or is it Mana that turns into fire? A question worth asking. Maybe Atar will tell me when he stops training.
The mage had been pushing himself and his fire spells hard since dinner, resting only to recover some of his Mana before pushing forward again. He was dedicated, that was for sure. His Mana regen must have been pretty decent as well, since he was risking a low tank when they all got up in a few hours.
Felix's stomach growled, loudly, reminding him of his ever-present friend. This is getting really annoying. I'm eating like a cartoon character, just piles of food, and still I have this...It's even making this blood look tastier. He shuddered, but popped the cork on the Ofrenok vial. Better now than later. "Bottoms up."
"What are you doing, child?"
Felix scrambled to his feet, an orb of acid in his hand before he even turned.
"What?" He asked, blinking and tilting his head. "What are you?"
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Before him appeared to be a child-sized...anthropomorphic ermine. Perhaps only four feet tall, their body was long in proportion but stood upon two solid legs and held small, withered hands folded before them. A series of wrappings surrounded their body, like layered and elaborate robes once elegant, now moth-eaten. They were also old, their wedge-shaped face wrinkled and sagging as their almost emaciated neck strained to hold it up. Their ears were large triangles that flopped down from the top of their head, and eyes the unstained blue of summer sky regarded him with a cool sort of amusement.
They reminded Felix immediately of the Orit. He kept his hand raised, the spell still primed and spinning. He tossed an Analyze at them.
Name: ???
Race: ???
Level: ???
HP: ???/???
SP: ???/???
MP: ?????/????
Lore: Unknown
Strength: Unknown
Weakness: Unknown
So they're either way too strong or have the ability to hide from my Skill. Felix mentally groused. I need to level this up faster.
"Who are you?" Felix asked again, amending his question; this was clearly a person, despite his first confused impression. The ermine face stretched into a sharp-toothed smile, the large blue eyes crinkling heavily at the edges. Felix stifled the urge to call for the Silver Ranks; he'd see where this went first.
"This one is Vvim." Their voice was strong and high, but rusty, creaking with disuse.
"...Good evening, Vvim. Why are you here?" Felix didn't see the need to beat around the bush, the creature had obviously been watching him for at least some time. Probably longer, since Felix had not been able to sense him previously. Curious, Felix flexed his Manasight in an attempt to see Vvim's aura. Nothing appeared. The creature laughed, a dusty cough that seemed kind.
"This one is very old. These eyes have seen many things in many lands, but this one was convinced there was so little left. Then you stepped into Shelim."
"Shelim? Is that the name of the city? You're..." Felix assessed the creature's size and proportions. "The carvings and statues. You're one of the original inhabitants of this city?" Felix was somewhat amazed; he'd expected any people from this ancient ruin to have long been dust.
"Ah. So soon our name is forgotten. Yes, that was unavoidable. We flirt with the edge of Ruin here." The creature shifted slightly, but Felix saw their face twitch in discomfort. They're in pain and their movement is slow. If this goes sideways, I should be able to get out the door before they can kill me...maybe.
"Ruin? You're Lost?" Felix pulled himself back in, recalling the term bandied about the Nym.
"Not quite," Vvim's tone softened slightly. "But soon, perhaps."
Felix didn't know what to say to that.
"My...condolences, if that means anything," Felix frowned, feeling a reluctant pity kindle in his chest for this odd creature. Still, he kept Acid Stream in his raised hand, ready to use. "You still didn't answer my question, though. Why are you here?"
"This one is an Eye of the People. Long have we watched the city. A vigil measured not in days or years, but in centuries. The Eyes were told to wait for one thing, above all others, one sign that the end we sought might soon come," Vvim fixed Felix with a gaze at once both mild and unyielding. "We wait for the return of the Nym."
Felix's breath caught in his chest, and his heart hammered wildly. What? Is he saying...? "You wait for the return of a—a Lost Race? I'm told they're all gone."
"Not all," Vvim said softly, eyes turning to the southwest before flicking back to Felix. "Not all."
Felix's mind worked furiously, trying to find a way through this conversation. Vvim is waiting for the Nym. Do they know I'm Nymean? They can't, right? The fog should still be interfering.
"Vvim's eyes are old, but not blind," the creature continued, shifting their weight from foot to foot. "The fog does not blind this one as it does those poor mortals who wander into our land. The Geist are strong, they are wise, and they see much, Nym Who Is Not."
Surprise after surprise, this Vvim was delivering them like knockout punches. Felix reeled slightly, his secret exposed...but after a moment of thought, a number of ideas rushed to the fore. "You see through the fog? Like me?"
"Oh yes. The fog is an old friend, an ally to the People when we needed one the most." Vvim didn't appear to move, but Felix was startled to realize that they had somehow gotten within five feet of him. He took a hesitant step backward.
"So you see my Race, yeah? You can see that I'm Nymean, obviously," Felix half-laughed, but Vvim made a short slashing motion with one small hand.
"No. You smell of something else, of somewhere else." Vvim's nose wriggled. "The Grand Harmony names you Nym, but you are not."
"Then what am I?" Felix asked, irritated yet genuinely curious. For the first time, it felt like someone had answers to his core questions.
"This one...thinks you are a promise kept."
"That's vague." Felix frowned. "But I wasn't sent here by anyone. I'm here by accident."
"Are you? How do you know, child?" Vvim tilted their head, blue eyes earnest as they sought Felix's own. "Do you truly know why you are here?"
"...Do you?" Felix asked.
Vvim shrugged. "This one can only guess. And hope." The...Geist, was it? The Geist spread its arms wide, as if in admission of some failing. "You appear as the Nym once did, and the Grand Harmony sings that truth into being. Perhaps you were something else once, perhaps not. But this one has watched you, Nym Who Is Not, and this one finds themself...curious."
"Watched me? For how long?" Vvim didn't answer. "What makes you so curious? And what gives you the right to spy on me?"
"You are the one who entered this one’s Tower, no?" Vvim answered with some mirth. "And this one is curious about your relationship with the Large One and her metal attack dog."
"Magda and Harn?" Felix raised an eyebrow. "I've only known them for a couple days."
"And what do you think of their plan? Their rescue attempt?"
Felix was immediately on guard. If this creature heard everything, they could easily tell the giants. If they haven't already. "I think it's the right thing to do."
"Are you not afraid? Or are you so stone-hearted that the threat of four hundred giants does not touch you?" Vvim steepled their hands, tapping short black claws at the tips.
Felix didn't answer, and instead stared stonily at the Geist. He waited for their point.
"What is your goal, child? Not the Large One's goal, the safety of a paltry few from the hands of one of countless threats in this world. That is nothing. A few lives means little in the end." Vvim stared at him, his wide blue eyes searching Felix for...something.
What is this? Felix felt a hot, skin-prickling anger heat him from the inside out. The back of his neck itched and his jaw clenched. "What-?" Felix started to ask, but the Geist kept speaking in that same high, creaky voice.
"Why do you not run? Why save prey that has fallen into the hands of predators? Unless you mean to take them yourself." Vvim paused, nose wrinkling. "Is that your plan, Nym Who Is Not? Do you seek more meat for your fire? More blood for your belly?"
Felix’s back went cold, his freehand that held the vials suddenly feeling clumsy and obvious.
"No! Of course not!" Felix protested, but he felt as if his guilt flashed across his face; he easily recalled considering the consumption of his allies' blood to learn their Skills. "I would never."
"Then why? You are mighty. This one saw what you did to the corrupted Ofrenok. Why not flee this place? Why risk your life for prey? Why defend those you have never known, for whom you have no reason to care?" Vvim's voice rose, not in volume, but in depth until it shook the air all around him. Felix couldn't think. Couldn't process even as icons flashed in his vision.
"Why?"
"Because I'm terrified!"
Felix's voice felt gunshot-loud in the basin room, echoing slightly against the stone. Silence had fallen, the Geist's voice gone. Once more, they were only a small creature, more than a dozen feet away.
"Because ever since I arrived here, I have fought against everything." He dropped his spell and considered his right hand, calloused and coarsened by his experiences. "I have survived on luck, on Skills I barely understand, and on a hope that it's all been leading somewhere. That I can find a way out."
Felix looked up at Vvim. "But I can't leave someone else here. To be killed and eaten and-and-and used up? For what? More power? More Skill levels?" He shook his head. "I couldn't live with myself if I did that. I wouldn't want to."
Vvim was silent, their raspy breathing the only sound in the basin room. Felix swallowed several times to soothe the lump in his throat, his emotions still a frenetic ball in his head that he couldn't quite parse.
Vvim nodded at the vials in Felix's free hand. "What do you intend to do with those, Nym Who Is Not?"
Felix narrowed his eyes, anger rising to the top. "Why do you care?"
"Mana lies within blood; life-force itself. Within that Mana is an ancient cry, far older than this one or even the People themselves," Vvim continued, not quite explaining. "The music, the lilting sounds of the Mother, the Song that ties the universe together. It calls to us through Mana."
"The Mother?" Felix repeated. "That's what the Risi called it. I don't."
"But you hear it, yes? A soft sigh beneath every movement, every action? A trumpet blast beyond victory, a lilting note with each sad ending."
Felix felt those emotions, one after the other, as Vvim described them. He was dizzied, his mind boiling with excess feelings. He answered honestly, too disoriented to do otherwise. "...Yes."
"Good. Then you are not beyond hope." Vvim shifted their weight, leaning back and...smiling at Felix. Their teeth were sharp and very white. "Hold tight to that feeling in your chest, the one you felt for the weak. It will serve you well."
Vvim snapped a clawed finger, the sound startling Felix into blinking, and when he opened his eyes again, they were gone.
"And beware the hunger, Nym Who Is Not," their voice creaked across the room, though Felix could no longer sense them at all.
"It is not to be trusted."
The silence after Vvim's departure was loud. It stood prominent in Felix's senses as he strained himself to perceive the tiniest of evidence that the Geist was still there. He found nothing.
All the while, Felix's heart hammered in his chest, his blood still roaring and adrenaline pumping into his veins. That messy ball of emotion still tangled his thoughts, and only after a few more deep breaths did he feel a wobbly sort of balance form. Meditation levels are paying off, I guess.
