《In Range》Chapter 32: Meeting And Pasts
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You have gained the Title: [The Twin Goddesses]. The Twin Goddesses: Appearing for the first time in centuries, the Twin Goddesses' return will bring upon great change and mark the start of a new era for Novus. +30 to All Stats.
"I don’t know what this title will do, but at least it gives another ridiculous Stat boost." I thought to myself, turning my attention back to the floating figures in front of us.
Speaking with a very warm and soothing voice, the figure on the left introduced herself to us. “My children, I am Goddess Luci’El.”
“And I am Goddess Noxi’El.” 13 continued, her voice startlingly cold and hollow, yet equally captivating.
Goddess Luci’El spoke again, “Our gratitude was offered to you by one of our most devoted and loyal followers.” gesturing to Sister Maebel who continued to bow down, “So we have come to thank you five in person for your selfless and kind deeds.”
“Sadly we cannot offer you anything we see you valuing, or is worthy of showing our gratitude.” 13 then held her left hand out, with the other Goddess doing the same with her right hand. “Instead, please accept this small blessing.” Five small purple and gold lights each appeared in their respective hands, and the lights then floated and disappeared into us.
You have gained the Title: [A Blessing From The Twin Goddesses]. A Blessing From The Twin Goddesses: As a show of their gratitude, the Twin Goddesses have gifted you a chance to speak to one of them and ask a single question you wish to be answered.
"Not that I'd want to, but could they even answer anything not about this world?” Then thinking, “I wonder if they're also treated like Npcs, and if I can see their levels." When I switch to my Eyes Of A Seer, the Goddess Luci’El’s eyes suddenly widened, and she said to all of us “We must go now.” As another flash of light blinded us, followed by a loud boom, and disappearing before I could see her level.
However my eyes recovered faster than the others, and at that moment I saw a glimpse of 13’s name and level; as she said to us "Until we meet again." Giving me a smile and a wink before disappearing with another blinding flash and echoing boom—prolonging the blindness of the others.
“What the hell, my eyes! I can’t see again!” Faust yelled out, loudly rubbing his eyes.
“Yeah, the no warning flash bangs were not appreciated.” I said, recovering faster again.
“Hey, didn’t you guys think they were super pretty though?” Dream asked, casting Cleanse on herself and clearing her blindness.
“In all my years, I have never seen two women be so drop dead gorgeous before, and I’ve seen many.” Tobias said, shaking his head from the blindness.
“They were Goddesses after all.” Lavie pointed out, before saying “Now imagine if we didn’t help out, we wouldn’t have met them or got those titles.”
"Just a coincidence we got something out of it." Tobias replied.
With everyone's eyes returning to normal, Sister Maebel got up and ran to us shouting “Saviours! You five must be the chosen ones to mark the start of a new era for Novus!”
“I wouldn’t say—” I was interrupted by Faust and Dream.
“We are definitely the chosen ones.” Faust declared.
“We are pretty special.” Dream said, agreeing with Faust for once.
“Indeed!" Sister Maebel agreed loudly, "For the Goddesses to appear and speak to all of you personally, even gifting you their blessings! You all are nothing less!” continuing, “It must mean the world is about to change, or maybe it already has! This hasn’t happened since the time of the Five Great Heroes!” Sister Maebel began rallying everyone else about the world changing, and about us being chosen. I couldn’t think straight with all the noise, so I snuck back to the front of the castle.
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Now alone, I thought to myself “13 is the Goddess Noxi’El, which means more than likely Goddess Luci’El is also one of the Guides too. But from the lack of reactions when the others saw her, she probably wasn’t their Guide. Does that mean the other Guides are also pretending to be something else in this world? The most worrying thing was what was above 13’s head.” Remembering what I saw.
The Goddess Of Death
Lv.1000 Noxi’El
Keeping that daunting memory at the back of my mind, I walked around the courtyard and started collecting some of the eyes from the dead goblins. After collecting a few dozen, and thinking “This is gonna take forever.” my eyes were suddenly filled with a surge of power and the light tendrils went out of control. Bursting out of my eyes, thousands of more light tendrils appeared and immediately branched themselves out to the whole area—even to places I couldn’t see. The tendrils then swiftly grabbed hold of every goblin’s eyes they could reach, and almost simultaneously they began to pulsate.
The thousands of pulses were unexpectedly strong and forceful, knocking me back to my knees as I felt every single eye ripped from their sockets and siphoned into mine. But along with the eyes came hundreds of horrifically vile and sickening memories of the goblins, and all of them rapidly coursed through my mind—forced to watch and experience their atrocities from their point of view.
“Stop…” But the horrible memories continued.
“That’s enough…” Feeling my outside body throw up.
Unable to watch any longer, I shouted in a commanding voice. “I said ENOUGH!” And instantly I was brought back to my body in the courtyard; where I saw the light tendrils had stopped themselves from collecting the rest of the goblin eyes, and slowly whimpered their way back to me. “Looks like they can listen to me.” I thought to myself, removing the vomit filled cloak I had wrapped around my face. “Even with just a low chance of seeing their past, collecting thousands of eyes at a time made those chances increase a lot, and if I can help it, I don’t ever want to see those experiences again.”
I then noticed the light tendrils were all just floating outside of my eyes, reluctant to fully return, and a feeling inside told me they really didn’t want to leave all those eyes uncollected. Not really wanting that either, I said to them “If you can promise not to show me any of their memories I'll let you go.” The tendrils suddenly all became more lively again, and the same feeling told me that it would be okay. Hesitantly waving my hand, the tendrils all went back to collecting the eyes, and this time I didn’t see a single memory.
You have mass collected multiple eyes to add to your [Eye Collection(7,242)]. Seer’s Eye Collection increased by 1 Level. Eyes of a Seer increased by 1 Level, and you now have vision of a Player’s Level. Seer’s Visions increased by 1 Level.
“What? I collected that many eyes and the Seer Skills only leveled once?” Disappointed, I watched everyone come back from the garden.
“There you are!” Dream shouted, “We’ve been looking for you.”
“Sorry, I just needed a quiet place to think.” I responded.
“I know, that lady wouldn’t shut up.” Faust whispered, rolling his eyes.
“And whose fault was that, Mr.Chosen One?” Lavie called him out, but Faust just held his head up high.
“I know the gratitude paid off, but a job’s a job, and we finished it so...” Tobias held his hand out and gestured with his fingers.
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“Oh, me too.” Faust added.
“Me three.” Dream also included herself.
“Keep mine.” Lavie said.
Laughing a little at their greediness, I took out 75 Gold from my inventory and handed 25 to each of them, and they happily took it. “Let’s get going then.” I said, pointing in the direction of Asheton.
Before we made our way, it was decided to bring the weakest and most malnourished women back to Asheton first, while the stronger ones could walk for a day; Dream called out her dire wolf again, and Faust turned into one. Fitting only about 10 people per wolf, we guessed with the dire wolves' increased size and speed they could make it to Asheton during the night, and with that Dream and Faust set off. Forcing me to lead the way back, Lavie and Tobias made a triangle perimeter around the women, and our group of 124 people started making our way back.
Walking for hours, I noticed that the sun was beginning to set, and we quickly found a clearing to make a camp for the night. I left Lavie and Tobias to make a fire and watch the group while I went hunting for enough food for the whole group. Running through the forest before it got too dark out, I was able to find four Lv.2-4 Deer, but I only hunted the two older ones—never wanting to overhunt. Carrying both deer back to camp, Lavie offered to levitate the bodies while I skinned them, and Tobias offered to cook the pieces I butchered off again.
While we were preparing the food, I looked over to see that more than half of the group were saying a loud and thankful prayer to the Twin Goddesses. I also strangely noticed the elves in the group were not taking their eyes off me, and secretly whispered to each other—unable to hear them because of the loud prayers.
“Well someone’s popular.” Lavie noticed too.
“No, no, they’re probably just hungry.” I said, butchering another piece.
“She’s not wrong, they’ve been staring at you ever since you took off that mask and showed them your face.” Tobias commented, rotating a few skewered venison.
“Really? I did feel people watching me earlier, but I thought it was just because I was leading the way.” I explained, waving to them but only causing more whispers.
“Can’t blame them with a face like that around.” Lavie said, pointing to me.
“What I’d give to be in my prime again.” Tobias said, sounding a little envious.
“Aren’t you only like in your late 30s or something?” I asked, not looking that old to me. “Your prime can’t have been that long ago.”
Tobias laughed, “It’s amazing what picking a Race with a longer lifespan can do for you. I’m actually still 65 years old right now, or so my Guide confirmed to me.”
“Really!?” I exclaimed, and he shook his head.
“If you were that old, what’d you do to end up here with us?” Lavie asked, grabbing and eating a piece of cooked venison.
“Oh you know, getting a call for one last job before I truly retired, being betrayed by my trusted protege, and getting killed before I could complete the contract.” Tobias explained nonchalantly.
“Oh...I’m sorry to hear that.” Lavie said softly.
Tobias laughed a little again, “Don't be, top hitmen like me don't just get to retire, we always get a sendoff…” Then changing the subject, Tobias asked “What about you, Lavie? I don’t think you’re as ordinary as you like to play yourself off to be, what’s your story?”
Lavie’s face suddenly got serious for a moment, showing a bit of caution and wariness of Tobias, but her faced relaxed, and she said “I really was just an ordinary girl, an aspiring fashion designer in Paris, nothing more...” Levitating another piece of cooked venison to herself.
Tobias and I both shared a look, and recognized that Lavie was hiding something, but I just said to her “I’m sure you can still be a designer in this world if you want, you could even bring a new sense of fashion to this place.”
“I know I can, and I’ll do it as a hobby, but why waste this world on something as simple as designing some clothes? Here in Novus, I think we should do whatever we want, and take everything it can offer us!” Taking a huge bite out of the meat.
“Now that’s something I can toast to.” Tobias said, raising a skewered venison to her words.
“What about you, Eyes? What were you doing before this?” Lavie asked.
“Nothing much, I was just rendered blind from an accident that put me in a coma for 3 years, and after a year of rehabilitation I jumped off a roof because I was alone...” Acting sad, with my words causing them to be completely silent. “They actually bought the sad act?” Seeing their faces pitying me, “It’s a true story, but this world has shown me there are new things for me to look forward to, new things to experience, and new things to overcome. And for someone who felt they had everything taken away, that’s enough to be happy for now.”
About to tell them I was joking about being sad, the group of women praying had finished and came asking politely for some of the cooked food. We gladly handed out all of the food to the women, and they were all overjoyed to have a decent meal again. With everyone filled, we decided to rest for the night, and I offered to keep watch for the night. Strangely, Lavie and Tobias refused my offer and told me to rest. “Are they still feeling sorry for me? Oh well, they offered. I can tell them I'm alright later.” I thought, resting for the night.
Waking up to the early morning, Lavie and Tobias told me that Faust and Dream sent us messages during the night.
Faust- We arrived at town and freaked out the guards
Lavie- Why?
Dream- I told dog brain 2 switch back b4 running 2 the gate but he doesn’t listen
Faust- She never said a thing
Dream- No u just didn’t listen
Lavie- I see...
Dream- And they didn’t just freak out they shot him with arrows!
Lavie- Are the women okay?
Dream- Yeah they’re all good and we dealt with the guards and sent the women inside with them
Faust- We’re still feelin good so we’ll meet up with u guys by morning
In the far distance, I suddenly saw and heard Dire Wolf Faust racing against Dream’s Dire Wolf—both running as fast as possible in our direction. Seemingly not slowing down at all, I realized they were gonna crash straight into the sleeping women. Panicking, I pointed in their direction, and shouted “Tobias chain up Faust, Lavie stop Dream's wolf!” Seeing the wolves, they both realized the same thing and rushed forward. Tobias pulled out his chain and began attaching a few chains between two trees—far away from the camp—and Lavie just ran towards them starting to glow in red.
I watched as Faust leading the race came rushing towards us, not noticing the multiple chains on the trees, and getting all four of his legs wrapped together by them. At the same time, Lavie ran past Faust and jumped over Dream and her dire wolf, and when she landed behind them she quickly grabbed the wolf by the tail and dug her feet into the ground. With his wolf body tripping over, Faust came tumbling towards us as he shifted back to human mid crash—now having his hands and feet chained together. And with the sudden slowing and stopping of her wolf, Dream flew forward and came crashing down right onto Faust.
“Ow, ow, ow, that hurt...” Dream groaned, sitting herself up.
“Urgh...tell me about it.” Faust also groaned and sat himself up.
Lavie came up from behind and hit both of them in the head, and started to scold them. “Are you two crazy!? You could’ve hurt someone!”
“Sorry Lavie, we got caught up in the race.” Dream apologized, healing herself.
“At worst we would’ve just jumped over them.” Faust said, struggling to get out of the chains.
"That's not the point!" Lavie said sternly. "The point is you endangered innocent people!"
"Okay we get it, we won't endanger others. Now can you please let me out?" Faust asked, still struggling to get out.
"Just leave him chained up, we don't need him to shift to get back to town." Lavie said, leaving to inform the women who woke up because of the ruckus.
“You won’t get out like that, kid.” Tobias smirked, amused by Faust's struggle. “With those many chains it’ll be nearly impossible to break.” Chuckling as he walked away.
"Hey! Don’t leave me like this!" Faust cried out, with Dream laughingly healing his minor scraps.
“Okay, now that you're here, shall we get going to Asheton?” I asked, picking up Faust and putting him over my shoulder. The Party agreed and I threw Faust on top of the dire wolf, and we woke up the rest of the women and made our way back to Asheton together.
Making up really great time with almost no breaks and basically knowing where to go, we arrived on the road to town in the late afternoon. As a punishment instead of being chained up, we used Faust as a ride for the weaker women, but we thought it’d be best to not provoke the guards with seeing the dire wolves again. Faust turned back into a human, and Dream’s wolf went back into her forearm as a tattoo. Approaching the gate entrance, the guards recognized Faust and Dream—giving them a cautious look—but ultimately let them through with us.
Half the women thanked us again and decided to leave together as a group to find shelter, while the other half waited for Sister Maebel who approached us. “We will let it be known to all that the Twin Goddesses have appeared and spoken to the chosen after all these centuries, and that the world is once more changing. Thank you again, Saviours.” They all bowed to us and left. We just shrugged at each other and headed for the Guild building.
While we walked through the streets, again I saw the elves I walked by acting strangely. Some pointing, others whispering to each other, and even a few kneeling or bowing their heads to me. It even got to the point that the Party noticed.
Dream getting creeped out, asked “What’s happening right now? It's kinda freaking me out.”
“Same.” Faust added. “Did they already hear about us meeting the Goddesses?”
“I don’t think so, it looks like they’re reacting to Eyes again.” Lavie said, stepping away to check if she was right, and she was.
“You do something to them, Eyes?” Tobias asked, also stepping away.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of it last night, but I think they're reacting to the crown.” Pointing to my head.
“Oh yeah, we never asked about it. So what does it do?” Dream asked.
“We know it gives us a huge stat boost, but anything else?” Faust also asked.
“All it did was take half my lifespan, and I think it made me Elven Royalty. That’s probably why the Elves are acting like that.” I explained, trying to ignore the stares and talks now.
“Aww lucky, it would be so cool to be an Elven Princess.” Dream fantasized.
“In your dreams.” Faust laughed, and the both of them started to fight again.
Stepping in the way, Lavie hit both of them in the head and stopped their fight early, and Tobias just laughed at the both of them. Slightly concerned, Lavie asked “Half your lifespan? That doesn't sound good, are you alright?”
“Think so, I should still have at least 240 years to live at best.” I assured her. “Perks of being an Elf.” And the Party continued to the Guild.
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