ROTLE- Chapter 173- Levels

Standing within a sea of trees, Aiden was left with Tanor who had introduced himself as Alphonset the third, The Mage Radiant Estabel and Clerent the [Saint]. This was a convoluted group by any standard, a group of which he would never had seen himself standing with even in his past life.

When Tanor had introduced himself, there had been some skepticism from Clerent and Estabel. They had not wanted the presence of a man they did not know or trust. Aiden hadn’t cared. While they had deliberated, he had walked off to pick up the scabbard of his sword. Sheathing the blade, he had been intrigued to find that the enchantment he had engraved unto the scabbard with [Unarmed Engrave] was still very much there. He could see the subtle glow of his mana on it, waiting to be activated.

Have I ever dismissed an engraving without using it? he thought to himself as he returned to the group.

It would’ve been his chance to escape the group, but there was no harm in working with a [Saint] and a [Mage] if they were on his side.

Curious, he placed his hand on the mana engraving and wiped at it as if cleaning of a stain from the scabbard. To his surprise, his mana unraveled with each swipe.

He paused. Well, that was easy.

Slipping his sword into place at his waist, he came to a stop where the group remained standing. Tanor had the brightest most amiable smile on his face. Anyone who lived the life lived on the road knew better than to trust someone who smiled that brightly in a place as deadly as where they were.

“It is settled, then,” Tanor declared. “I will go with you until my duty here is fulfilled or your duty here is fulfilled.” He paused. “What is your duty here?”

Clerent’s lips pressed into a thin line immediately. He had no intentions of sharing whatever had brought him to the forest.

Estabel wore a curious expression on her face, eyes still focused on Tanor. She doubted him, yes. But she was also curious of him, perhaps something he had said while Aiden had gone off to get his scabbard.

“Lord Lacheart,” Estabel said, now that Aiden was standing with them. “Alphonset the third wishes to travel with us as there is safety in numbers.”

Aiden looked from her to Tanor. “Alphonset the third,” he mused. “Are you a lord of some kind by chance? Where I come from, we are not titled in such a manner.”

That got him a curious look from Cleret and Estabel. They were not titled in such a manner in Bandiv, but the [Saint] and [Mage] knew that he was not from Bandiv and knew that he could not be referring to Earth because Tanor did not know that he was not from Nastild. Ergo, they knew he was playing an angle.

At least he suspected that they did.

“Not a lord of any kind,” Tanor answered, chuckling. “Just something I picked up along the way. It is something of a monicker. I am Alphonset, but once upon a time, a worked with two lords named Alphonset. Out of respect, I referred to myself as the third, standing beneath the both of them.”

“Who chose to be the first and second then?” Estabel asked.

“None.” Tanor shrugged. “And I couldn’t be bothered to care. I just needed them to show me no interest. Interest, as they often say, is the killer of mystery.”

Aiden cocked a brow at that, remembering another trait of Tanor’s, the beautiful use of made up idioms.

“Do they say that?” he asked.

Tanor shrugged. “They do.”

A knowing smile touched Aiden’s lips. “Where?”

“To the east, past the walking crevice.”

Estabel’s brows furrowed. “You have been to the walking crevice?”

“Just once. I assure you, it is not as fun as most people would think.”

Aiden felt a prick in his senses. His connection to Ted and Valdan had taken some damage. It was not necessarily the connection itself as he could not be harmed through it, it was the bearer of the mark. Someone had taken damage.

Ignoring the present company he found himself with, Aiden focused on his connection. He had used this method long enough to understand how it worked. It was the same marking enchantment that the Order had taught him. The exact same enchantment that Torat had used to track him and Valdan long ago when they’d met him the first time.

In a civilized city a map would be needed to navigate the buildings and the distance and other obstacles that stood in their way. In a place like the forest he found himself in, Aiden could follow them with nothing but a sense of direction. All he had to do was avoid the animals and walk past the trees.

“So what is your business here?” Estabel asked Tanor. She was polite with her words, strange for a [Mage].

Perhaps she is weak, Aiden guessed. Judging by her fight with the [Illusory Serpent] and the state of her tattered and bloodied clothes, he could say that she had been through a lot since entering the forest.

Clerent, on the other hand, held on to his elated status, the one that made him feel better than everyone around him.

“I am here on a study,” Tanor answered, behaving as if he was having nothing more than a friendly conversation.

Aiden paid a special momentary attention to his new companions. Estabel was a [Mage] from the Mage Radiants. There was a high chance that she was here to study something. Clerent was a [Saint], which implied that his attention here was the rising darkness since the church cared very little for the [Crystal of Existence] and the [Heart of Nosrath]. In fact, not only did they care very little, they were not allowed to claim either of the items.

Tanor was something of an explorer, learning new things and growing his knowledge. Aiden would bet his bottom coin that Tanor was also here for investigative purposes.

“On a study of what?” Clerent said, pressing for an answer from Tanor.

Aiden felt another damage through his connection, a little relieved to discover that it was from his connection to Ted not Valdan and stepped between his three companions.

“We all love to know where and what and how,” he said, not caring if his words coincided with their conversation. “But I’m on a timer here, and I need to get to my destination before there is no longer a destination to get to.”

Tanor gave him a curious look. “Nosrath?”

“No,” Estabel answered for Aiden, “he’s looking for his companions.”

Tanor paused. He looked from Aiden to Estabel. Then, as if vesting his trust in him, he looked to Clerent, waiting for the [Saint] to corroborate the story.

“His friends are missing,” Clerent said. “He knows where to find them.”

“How?” Tanor studied them as if they were a new interest. “Are they waiting for him somewhere? He said destination and no more destination, as if they are in a fixed location. The only thing in a fixed location here that could disappear is the monster.”

“And you think we are stupid enough to want to face Nosrath with an army of three?” Estabel scoffed. “That would be stupidity.”

Aiden pursed his lips in slight embarrassment. He had been concocting a plan that would help him, Oncot, Ted and Elami, to face Nosrath alone if they had to. It had been stupid and he had hoped it would not come to it, but he had been gathering a plan for it.

“I wouldn’t call it stupidity,” Tanor said. “I would just call it—”

“No!” Aiden snapped. “I will not stand here a second longer talking about the stupidity of facing Nosrath.” He looked at each of them, meeting their gaze, before he spoke once more. “If you wish to continue speaking with each other, fine by me. But I will not stand here.”

With that, he turned and started walking off in the direction of the others. If they were already receiving damage, it meant that they were already well within the forest.

Moving with the current crew would definitely be easier and safer for him, so when he heard footsteps following behind him, Aiden was pleased.

“We will have to be careful,” Tanor called out from behind. “In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve seen things.”

“Like?” Aiden asked, not looking back.

“I saw a group of people attack a group of [Mage]s and win,” he said, with a knowing tone in his voice.

“Win is a very strong word to use,” Estabel bit out.

“I guess that is fair,” Tanor conceded. “Their fight was interrupted by monsters, after all. Oh, there are also monsters I have never seen or heard off.”

“Men could not possibly have mapped out all the monsters that exist, here or on the other side,” Clerent said.

Tanor chuckled. “That is true. Not even the church.”

Aiden stopped, hand rested on a tree and turned back. Everybody paused, as if Tanor’s words had somehow offended him.

Ignoring all of them, he looked at Clerent. “Do you have something for scouting purposes?” he asked.

“I am not a scout,” Clerent answered.

“That was not my question.”

“I do,” Estabel chimed in quickly, as if trying to avoid a fight between them. She held up her staff and Aiden noted how she strained to hold it up.

Mana weight? He wondered. The Order had enough members with the [Mage] class that used magical staffs. He knew that having a new staff could be problematic. If you bound too many spells to it, you could end up with a heaviness that was attributed to the spells. The staffs were usually lighter when you were casting spells.

“Should I cast a spell for us?” she asked.

Aiden nodded, activating a spell of his own.

[You have used skill Pathfinder(U)]

The whisp of air, trailed a path in front of them, curving around trees and reaching farther in. It was a stark white that he could follow without losing track of it.

As for Estabel, she pointed her staff forward and her lips moved. The orb at the end of the staff glowed a slight shade of yellow, then fired a bolt of mana ahead. It zipped past Aiden to get lost among the trees.

Aiden looked back at her with a raised brow.

“It’s like echo location, something some monsters use,” she explains. “It bounces back to me from where it is at intervals. If anything moves within it, I’ll know.”

Aiden nodded. “I guess that works.”

…

“You have got to be joking!” Torat snapped before he could control himself.

The master of the Order spared him a glance. Then he smiled deeply. “Have I ever told you that you would make an amazing master of the Order some day? You have the… determination for it.”

Torat growled something feral. “The Order dies with you.”

“That’s a horrible thing to say, Tarot.” The master shook his head in disappointment. “What if I decide to ascend? You are saying that my ascension will lead to the death of this beautiful establishment?”

“You will not ascend.”

The master shrugged. “It could happen.”

Torat stalked over to his table and slammed his hands on it. “Do not change the subject!”

“We are still on the subject.” The master gave him an innocent smile. He was like a child who didn’t understand that he was in trouble.

“We are not on the subject.”

The master sighed. “Then what is the subject?”

“You are not allowed to leave the premises.”

The master pouted. “But they aren’t watching anymore.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

The master pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. “It is all that matters. Don’t you understand, Tarot?”

“Torat,” Torat corrected.

The master rolled his eyes. “This thing that we want to acquire, that I want to acquire, is not a simple item.”

Torat paused, willing to listen. The master of the Order had been looking for this item since before Torat had met him. It was even in his search for this item that he had found Torat and killed the dragon that had been watching over him. Still, in all these years, he had never spoken of what the item was or just how important the item was to him.

The only way Torat understood the importance of the item was in how easily the master set aside everything at the mention of the item.

“This item is unpredictable and very powerful,” the master was saying. “I have always wondered how I would do what I needed to do to get it. For all I know, someone not powerful enough could touch it and turn to dust. For all we know someone not powerful enough could touch it and become a [Sage]—a god even.” He ran a hand through his head. “I told myself that if I could work around fates well enough, I could end up orchestrating a method that leads to you or someone else I trust getting their hands on it.”

“You killed my father,” Torat pointed out. “I am not to be trusted.”

The master paused. Now he looked at Torat, really looked at him. “I killed who I killed, Torat. And you will lead the Order when I am gone. That is a truth you cannot refute. I don’t trust you for me, Torat. All this,” he gestured around with a finger, “I trust you for all this. You are the next Order. Whether you like it or not. The Order does not die with me.”

Torat grit his teeth, frowning. Since he’d met the man, this was the first time he was addressing him by his correct name. He was serious right now.

The master watched him. “I don’t trust you with my life, Torat. I trust you with the Order. And the Order is my life. Now,” the seriousness was gone, “we need to talk about how we can get me to that location when we find it.”

“What about orchestrating fate?” Torat asked. He actually didn’t have any issues with the master over killing the dragon that had been caring for him. The dragon had not been an enemy to him but he had also not been a friend either. Torat had been nothing but another treasure in his hoard.

“I cannot orchestrate fate on this matter.” The master shook his head. “The item seems to be preventing it somehow.”

Torat frowned. “The item has a will.”

“Oh, gods, no,” the master chuckled. “Nothing like that. Not a will. It is just the nature of the item. Just as it is in the nature of wood to be hard.”

“It is in the nature of the item to be beyond your power?”

The master nodded. “It is not so out of pocket when you think about the potential of the thing.”

“And what is that?”

“Anything.”

“Anything?”

The master nodded very slowly. “Anything. The wielder, if they are powerful enough, will get to decide what that will be.”

Torat’s lips pressed into a thin line, a thoughtful line. “And what do you intend on doing when you get your hands on it?”

“I don’t know yet, but I know why I want it.”

“Why?”

“To put the gods in their place.”

Torat blinked. “This thing is powerful enough to help you wage a war on the gods?”

“Not at all.”

“But you just said…”

“I know what I said, Tarot. I meant put them in their place not wage war on them. If I have it, then they will know that Nastild is not some random world somewhere that they can play with whenever and however they please.”

Now understanding the weight of what the master was searching for, Torat took on a more attentive demeanor.

“What is this thing?” he asked, serious. “What does it look like? How do I identify it?”

The master gave him a knowing smile. “Do you want it?”

“No. But I cannot allow some random Order member to get their hand on it. We will secure its location, then, and only then, will we create a temporary teleportation gate to bring you to it. We cannot risk the gods catching you before you get your hands on it.”

The master sighed. “The gods are not watching. And if they were, I couldn’t leave this place for even a fraction of a second without being smote. Under their watchful eyes, I wouldn’t even be having this conversation with you.”

“So you would’ve left it to chance if you couldn’t leave this place?”

“Yep. I’m kind of okay as long as it’s not the gods that get their hands on it.”

“And now?”

“Now, I’ll be present once you find the place. After all, something tells me that you will need me when we get there.”

“And the item?”

“No idea what it looks like,” the master mused. “Even the last few times I saw it I couldn’t make it out. Then again, I was too busy trying to take the guardian down without killing it.”

“Why? Did you have some plans for the guardian?”

“Nah, it was just some random creature.” The master waved the statement aside with an absent gesture. “I just didn’t know what would happen if I killed the guardian.” He sighed, then perked up. “Anyway, that’s how it is. I have no idea what it looks like or what it will be. At this point, I’m just surrendering to fate through negotiations.”

This was actually more serious than Torat had thought, and he had already thought of the matter as serious. With a frown, he reached a conclusion.

“I will contact Rometu,” he said.

The master gave him a curious look. “Why?”

“We are to switch places. I will spearhead the operation and he will do anything else.”

“Will that make any difference.”

“It will make enough.”

“And what if you run into a dragon?”

Torat paused. “Will I?”

The master shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”

“Are you…” Torat bit down on his words with a sigh. “I don’t have any mandate that prevents me from killing a dragon.”

The master burst into laughter. “There.” He pointed at Torat. “Right there is the arrogance of the [Dragon Knight] class. The arrogance that leaves you thinking that you killing a dragon that guards an item that powerful when you are not yet at level three hundred and fifty is what makes your class so interesting.”

“I’m just eight levels away,” Torat said, trying not to sound as if he was pouting.

The master leaned forward, hands clasped together with elbows rested on his table. A wide smile stained his face. “What motivated the decision for quick growth. Is it the boy who lived?”

“No. It was the war almost declared on a [Sage] when you chose to assassinate his king. Then there was the end of the world that never came. I don’t know about you, master, but I do not intend to die helplessly.”

“At this rate I’m worried that you might finish all my monsters.”

Torat couldn’t help but scoff. “I am very aware of the leviathan you have locked away in there.”

“No,” the master warned. “You don’t get to kill the leviathan. They aren’t beings that you can find wandering anywhere like dragons.”

Torat chuckled a little. “Please, I am still too many levels away from killing a leviathan. Your leviathan is safe. My curiosity is in how you have hordes of level five hundred monsters running around in there. Just what level are you?”

“Oh, that.” The master paused. “I haven’t told you already?”

Torat shook his head.

“I find that shocking,” the master said in surprise. “I would think that my heir would know. Anyway, my friends and I have since transcended the realm of numerical levels. If you are still working with levels, making an enemy of us is a waste of your life.”

Torat paused.

There are levels beyond the numbers?