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Ch195-Scenic Route

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As Sylver made his way towards the small piece of land Faust’s sect called home, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Not the big spine, that was currently compressed in such a way as to make it look like Sylver had a bad back, but the small one, Sylver’s “real” spine, so to speak. He continued walking as if nothing was wrong, but sent every single shade out to find whatever was watching him.

With every step, he could feel the almost uncomfortable sensation increase in strength, until it got to the point that it was as if someone was running the tip of a dagger up and down his spine.

Finally, just as Sylver decided to use [Fog Form] out in the open, his foot hit something, and he looked down to see a tiny brown creature that he had accidentally kicked. It didn’t make any sound as its tail slapped against the ground, and it almost looked like it was drunk, from how uncoordinated its attempts to stand up appeared.

Once Sylver focused his soul sense on the small rodent, he almost, almost, erased it from existence, and only the fact that it took him more than a second to gather his mana into his hand stopped him.

Sylver relaxed the various bits and pieces of him that had tensed up to prepare for a fight, and after a glance at his surroundings, Sylver crouched down near the shuddering creature, and gently picked it up. He held it in his palm and turned it around, so it was facing him, as he brought the small brown mouse up to his face.

Its left eye was glowing with a flickering white light that made the struggling rodent freeze each time Chrys took control.

“It’s a mouse Chrys, don’t ask for permission,” Sylver offered, as the flickering stopped entirely, and Sylver was left holding an ordinary mouse, who was now pissing on his palm from the sheer amount of terror and confusion it had experienced.

Sylver closed his hand just as it was about to run away, but was careful not to crush the struggling rodent. It squealed at him, as he muted it using a spell, and hid behind a somewhat secluded wall.

Sylver lifted the mouse out of his hand using [Deadly Darkness] and washed the piss off his hand, while the mouse’s left eye flickered with light for a split second.

“Tell it I’m going to crush it if it doesn’t stop fighting you,” Sylver said quietly at the tiny rodent.

The squealing mouse’s eye flickered with white one more time before the light started to flicker at a fast rate, and eventually, Sylver was left holding a calm and relaxed mouse that was staring at him.

“One squeak for yes, two squeaks for no,” Sylver said at the rodent, who squeaked once in response.

“Did something happen in Arda?” Sylver asked the mouse.

It squeaked twice, no.

“Did someone ask you to contact me?” Sylver asked as he made a platform for the mouse to sit on, as opposed to keeping it wrapped up in his shadow.

The mouse squeaked twice, no.

“Is everything alright?” Sylver asked.

The mouse squeaked once, yes.

“Oh…” Sylver just looked at the mouse, as he felt Ria slither up his shoulder.

She formed a small head on his shoulder to look at the brown rodent. He could hear the raised eyebrow in Ria’s voice.

“Is Chrys inside this mouse?” Ria asked as the mouse squeaked once at the black and gold woman’s head.

“Not quite inside. Actual possession is different; this is more of a puppeteering kind of thing. Do you know what you’re doing Chrys?” Sylver asked the small mouse, as it squeaked once in response.

“Is it part of your training?” Sylver asked as the mouse squeaked twice in response.

“Is this normal?” Ria asked.

Sylver and the mouse both looked at Ria.

“For a clairvoyant, yes. In the future, she’ll be able to look through its memories, alter its memories, and lastly, implant memories. But I’m going to guess her range is a result of the eye,” Sylver explained, as the mouse squeaked yes.

The light in the mouse’s eye flickered for a moment, and the tiny rodent nearly managed to jump off the platform. He caught it just in time and then used his other hand’s finger to help the Chrys controlled animal get back onto its feet.

“You’re being too gentle. Find the part that will cause it pain, and hover your hand over it,” Sylver said, and after a short pause, could see that the light in the rodent’s eye intensified a bit.

“Why does she need to hurt it?” Ria asked, as Sylver looked through his [Bound Bones] storage, and found what he was looking for.

“Not hurt, threaten. With this kind of magic, the defender has a huge advantage over the invader. Until you’re past a certain level of power and ability, your only option is to threaten the city into opening its gates. A sort of “open the gates, or I’ll burn it all down,” kind of thing,” Sylver explained, as the light in the mouse’s eye dimmed for a moment, and then returned to its earlier intensity.

“How did she find us?” Ria asked.

They both looked at the mouse, but it didn’t seem that this was a question that could be answered with a series of squeaks.

Sylver lifted the mouse a little closer to him, so it would hear him when he whispered.

“There might be a dragon here… And possibly other clairvoyants. I’m very happy to see you, and I’m beyond glad to hear everything is alright, but please don’t do this again, unless something’s wrong. It’s very dangerous, especially when you’re struggling to control a rodent,” Sylver whispered at the mouse.

It somehow managed to scrunch up its face in such a way that Sylver could tell it was initially excited at the prospect of a real dragon, but as Sylver continued speaking, it started to look angry and insulted. Thankfully Chrys seemed to trust Sylver’s word, since the mouse’s glowing left eye lost its shine a moment later, and the mouse went back to acting like a regular mouse.

Sylver crouched down with the mouse still in his hand and summoned a piece of dried cheese into his other hand. He moved it up towards the struggling rodent’s mouth and waited until the mouse bit it. Sylver put the tiny creature down and watched as it scurried away with the piece of cheese clutched in between its jaws.

“Are dragons clairvoyant?” Ria asked, as Sylver stood up from his crouch, and went back to walking towards Faust’s sect.

“Extremely. It’s how they communicate with those who aren’t a dragon. But telepathy isn’t a clairvoyant-specific ability, it’s just that there are very few clairvoyants that don’t have some form of mind magic. Clairvoyancy is basically mind magic, just a specialized version,” Sylver tapped out, as he remembered to squint his eyes and considered adding a limp.

“Is she in danger?” Ria asked.

“She’s small enough that it shouldn’t be able to notice her, but who can say? It’s like leaving a defenseless kitten in a locked room with a giant python, nothing good comes of it. She clearly just missed me, and accidentally used her eye to find where I was,” Sylver explained, and knew what Ria was going to ask before she did.

“Why didn’t you ask her to find Edmund?” Ria asked.

“Because the risk of her accidentally trying to get into the head of someone who knows how to defend their mind is too great. I also got the feeling she can’t control this all too well at the moment. The girl’s got skill though. She will be one of the greats one day,” Sylver explained, as he looked up in the sky, but couldn’t see anything but fluffy white clouds.

***

Once he was inside the barrier, that Sylver could feel had been altered by Faust, he funneled through the crack underneath the patched together door and reappeared on the other side.

The reincarnator was sitting in the middle of a large circle his students had made around him. No one made a sound, no one moved, and after a couple of seconds, Sylver could see that all of their breathing was just short of synchronized.

They all copied Faust’s cross-legged way of sitting, and had their right fist in the palm of their hand, slightly pressed up against their stomach. It was a little creepy, but at the same time, looked very relaxing.

Sylver just watched for a while, and at one point Faust opened one eye and nodded slightly at Sylver.

Whatever he was doing was probably very technical, and more likely than not, very impressive. However, to an undead like Sylver, a creature that naturally lacked Ki, it looked rather boring.

With magic at least there were sparks, smoke, fire, something bubbling, but even after waiting for 5 minutes, the best Sylver got was a blade of grass growing unnaturally tall, near the foot of one of the girls.

Sylver silently wrote a note and walked over to the meditating Faust, and carefully placed it into the man’s left pocket.

After that, Sylver walked around the partially repaired and cleaned up house, and found a good corner to create a shelf out of solidified mushrooms. Sylver took his time cleaning out his [Bound Bones] storage and provided the sect with an assortment of canned fruits, vegetables, meats, and a large amount of dried meat he had collected from Ron.

Mora followed Sylver around, and when he was done with his inspection, guided him towards a wall that had been falling apart, but was forced back into position due to a net-like lattice of strings. Sylver rubbed the horse-like creature’s neck and at her request, went to the area behind the house, and used [Advanced Earth Manipulation] to create two large pillars.

Sylver watched as Mora slowly began to use her threads to create a hammock-like structure between the two pillars, and after some back and forth, left her a couple of blankets to use as padding. She wasn’t thrilled at being left here to babysit, but she knew Sylver wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t necessary.

With the suns high in the sky, Sylver waved goodbye to the meditating Faust and left the sect grounds.