Part Sixty-Seven

Errmm, so tired. Even twelve hours wasn’t enough sleep. I’m not doing night shifts anymore. It’s a good thing watch shifts only last four hours, or I’d need even more sleep. I’ve done a shift every day we’ve been in here, so now it’s up to the others to fill in the rest. I think I deserve some time to myself so I can sleep some more. Yep, back to sleep I go.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

Damn you.

After my talk with Kalia, and the subsequent night watch I’d done, I was dead tired. Considering I’d only gotten a short nap the day before, it was no wonder. For the first time inside the Dungeon, I’d taken off my armor before lying down, though I’d hidden a knife under my pillow. Paranoia and all that.

Now, whoever was banging on my door was being very insistent, to the point where I was afraid that the hinges might break. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who was banging on the door either.

“I’m coming, I’m coming. Keep yer panties on. What the hell do you wa-!? Uh, you’re not Alicia.”

“You’re confusing me with that slip of a girl? Am I supposed to be amused or enraged?”

“You’re supposed to not be here. What the hell do you want, Sampson!?”

“Hostile much? What did I do to deserve that reaction?”

“You did throw me under the bus a few days ago. In what parallel timeline does that endear you to me?”

Granted, it did have one positive outcome. It had kept Alicia and Cameron from getting caught up in the turmoil the attractant caused, but it wasn’t enough for me to forget his transgression. I was definitely one to hold a grudge.

“Calm down. I ain’t here to antagonize ya. I’m here to offer you a deal.”

“Really? Because waking me up by banging on the door is such a good way to do that. What on earth could you offer me?”

“How about money? I’ve got plans, plans which are going to rake in the dough like you wouldn’t believe. If that doesn’t do it for you, then I can get you anything else you might want. I might not look it, but I’m a man of many means.”

“And I don’t doubt it, but I want no part of whatever scheme you’re cooking up. It reeks of danger, and the world is dangerous enough as it is. Go find some other suckers to join you.”

“Hmph, everyone desires something boy. I refuse to believe you don’t.”

“Oh, I do, I do. Just not something you can give me.”

And with that, I slammed the door shut. I could still hear Sampson grumbling to himself, but I wanted nothing to do with that mess. I’d seen him talking to various mercenaries over the last couple days, and it gave me bad vibes every time. He was plotting something, though I don’t think it was for inside the Dungeon. No, he was plotting something for after we got out of here, though I hadn’t a clue what.

Well I’m up now. Might as well get around. I don’t want to be accused of being lazy or something.

Getting ready took only took a few minutes since I already knew what I’d be wearing. I merely picked my armor back up from where I left it, and put it all back on. Though I would need to think about washing some of it soon. Not only was it starting to smell, but there were numerous bloodstains as well.

Damn, I know I said I’d sleep for twelve hours, but I hadn’t meant it! It’s almost noon damnit! I’ve lost half the day. Guess I was just that tired.

Thankfully, it didn’t appear that anything important had happened while I was asleep. I doubt Alicia would’ve let me sleep if it had. Though if she was still upset, then maybe she would’ve. It’s hard to tell with her sometimes.

Fully dressed and ready for whatever was coming, I headed out into the fort. Hm, the Archmage’s lesson should still be going. Maybe I’ll check in on that.

***

Said lesson had had a pretty good turnout. I only got there near the end, but over half of the mercenaries were in attendance. I assumed the other half were either still sleeping, or were on watch duty. Someone had to do it.

But it wasn’t the turnout on its own that impressed me. It was the results I was seeing from the lesson. Here and there among the crowd were people who were clearly using magic, albeit the weakest effects possible. Small sparks, embers, ice crystals, little whirlwinds and more were being conjured and admired by those who’d yet to achieve Awakening.

Well, guess there’s no stopping it now. Humanity will soon be able to use magic, so long as we don’t all die in here. I probably shouldn’t think about that though.

Based on what both Kalia and the Archmage had said, it seemed that the time it took for someone to Awaken could vary. Those who were already used to mana manipulation, like what was required for Aura Skills for instance, would have drastically shorter times. Even just being aware you had mana could cut the training time in half. The hard part was learning to use your magic, but that was a different process.

And as you might even have guessed from what I just said, most of those Awakening were the mercenaries among the assault squad, most of whom had at least one Skill they could use. Though I didn’t actually know what Skills anyone had, as I thought it was common courtesy not to do so, and since I would’ve hated for the same to happen to me.

So even though they were now capable of using magic, it wouldn’t make them any stronger in the now. Without any instruction, it would take most of them a few days to figure out the 1st graded spell for their particular branch, and even longer to weaponize it. Not all magic was as lethal as Grudge Magic was, nor as simple to use.

Though is it actually that simple to use? I mean, it does require Grudge to function. Without it, you can’t even use [Miasmic Cloud], and [Rot]’s right off the table. Hm, maybe having the Twin Swords was luckier than I’d thought? Considering that one of them functions as a Grudge catalyst and all.

I still had a lot of questions about Grudge Magic in general. According to my Grimoire, Grudge-attributed mana didn’t actually have a Grudge attribute, but was just extremely efficient at being converted into Miasma. It did possess a Dark attribute, so I’d be able to use the other Dark magics with no problems. Incidentally, Grudge Magic was the least common affinity among Dark Magics, so yay, I guess.

I always liked rare and uncommon things in games. There’s just this sense that they’re better than common gear, even if they aren’t. But here, I’m not all that sure. I mean, I think Grudge Magic could easily be categorized as a WMD or a chemical weapon of some sort. They banned the use of white phosphorus in battles for a reason, you know.

Even without worries of that nature, there were plenty of things about Grudge Magic to worry me. If the spells weren’t so damn useful, I’d swear off from using it ever again. I mean, you all saw the list of symptoms from Miasma Poisoning, right? It’s definitely not something I want to experience any time soon. Though at the same time, I was also using the Coat of Dark Wrath, which says it’ll inflict Miasma Poisoning in the description!

And yet, I’m not going to stop wearing it, or stop using Grudge Magic either. I used to laugh at people who still smoke even though we know about the ill effect it can have on your health, but here I am messing with something that could do far worse damage to me. Haah, the ends we go to.

I was so preoccupied with my spiraling thoughts that someone managed to sneak up on me from behind. Well they didn’t really sneak up on me. I was just too preoccupied to notice them.

“There you are lad. I was beginning to think you were going to sleep all day. Weren’t you the one who said we needed to keep a regular sleep schedule?”

“Er, I may have said something to that effect. But considering the extenuating circumstances of the last two nights, I hereby pardon myself of any wrongdoings. Court is adjourned.”

“What?”

Haah, this is why I spend so much time with Alicia and not you Cameron. You can’t keep up the witty banter that I thrive off of. Or at least, you don’t play along with my jokes.

“What about you, though? I’d have thought you’d be with Alicia, learning all about magic.”

“Haha, I thought about it, but eventually decided against it. I have a hard enough time with just Aura. I don’t need another Skill I can’t completely grasp.”

“Ah, well, I guess that’s one reason. Um…”

This was really awkward. I shouldn’t have said that. I knew Cameron was having trouble mastering Crushing Aura, but I went and put my foot in it. He’d come to me a few weeks ago for advice on it, but nothing I’d suggested had worked.

To be fair, I didn’t completely understand how Aura worked myself. Aura was both similar and different from magic. Both originated from Mana, but magic was called forth from glyphs you made from Mana, while Aura was directly created from it.

I only had three examples to draw from, but I thought that each Aura Skill was generated by converting mana in different ways. A while back, I’d tried to relearn Sword Aura. Dual Sword Aura was great and all, but it had a slight drop in overall performance compared to Sword Aura. If Sword Aura strengthened a sword’s performance by ×2, then Dual Sword Aura did it by ×1.85, though those numbers were arbitrary, as I didn’t know the exact levels of strengthening. Also, spreading Sword Aura to two swords had caused the strengthening to drop to less than half, so Dual Sword Aura was still better for me personally since I dual-wielded.

Anyway, it meant that if I was in a situation where I’d lost one of my swords, then my attacks wouldn’t be as strong as they could be. So I’d tried to reacquire the Skill, only I couldn’t. Try as I might, I hadn’t been able to remember how to use it. The only explanation I could find was that when I’d used the Skill Catalyst that gave me Dual Sword Aura, it had mutated my memories of how to use the Skill. The implications of that were horrifying, but were, again, a separate issue.

What I was trying to explain with this long tangent, was that Aura Skills were similar to a chemical reaction. Even if you had the exact same inputs, if you changed the way you combined them, you might get different results. Meaning that what worked for one Skill, might not work for others. And since it was hard for us to explain how we used each Skill, it was difficult to help each other when we ran into hurdles. As much as I wanted to help him, I was completely unable to for now.

Though it was possible that these hurdles would eventually be overcome. The System was extremely complex, with layers that I’d yet to even witness. I still didn’t understand what Skills even were. Just about every one the three of us had gotten, was given to us by various mechanics of the System. Only my Grudge Magic, Alicia’s Accuracy, and Cameron’s Crushing Aura were different.

I sort of understood what led me to unlocking Grudge Magic, though I wasn’t certain of the specifics. Malignant Aura clearly had had something to do with it, but I didn’t know what. Did the Skill merely cause me to Awaken, or was there more to it? I just didn’t know.

But the other two's Skills were just spontaneously acquired between one moment and the next. They had no idea how they got them either. Alicia had said something about her eyes tingling just before she’d gotten it, leading me to believe it had something to do with mana or something. Though that didn’t really explain Crushing Aura.

Yeah, I’m just spinning my wheels on this one. It definitely doesn’t escape me that their Skills are remarkably suited for their battle styles. There’s just something about Skills that I’m not understanding. I wonder if there’s an Insight equivalent for Skills?

***

Michael had gone strangely silent ever since he’d brought up Aura. Cameron knew that he felt bad that he couldn’t help him with Aura control, so he was now kicking himself for bringing it up.

Mmmn, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s bad enough that I’ve been dragging them down in battle, but I can’t be adding to their worries as well. Maybe I should consider the offer I got last night.

After the mercenaries had returned from fighting the Orc General, a certain someone had pulled him aside to talk. He was seriously considering it, especially when they’d offered a way for Michael and Alicia to continue their mercenary activities. He’d need to thoroughly consider all the variables that could affect his decision.

“WAAAH!”

A blast of wind swept across the plaza, knocking everyone over or messing up their hair. The poor sap at the center of it was spun around in circles for several seconds, and came out looking like he was drunk. The whole moment was rather comedic, and Michael had to turn around to keep himself from bursting into laughter, though he could still hear him snickering. A little bit of mean humor, but at least the lad's recovered now. I need to do better than that. I can’t be adding my worries to his own. He and the lass can’t know