[Piss Off – Eat Shit + ??? – 261]

[HP: ??? – ???%]

[MP: ??? – ???%]

[Stamina: ??? – ???%]

[Corpse – Unique]

[Soul – Unique]

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been used!]

“What even is a “[Koschei]?” I feel like I’ve heard that word somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on it,” Edmund asked, as he flew a bit closer so Sylver wouldn’t have to shout.

Edmund was slower than Mora was, but only because he was carrying Sylver with him.

But that was fine, they had left Krist territory a while ago, and neither of them was in any real rush.

“Neither living nor undead. Your life is bound to a silver needle, your greatest strength, as well as your greatest weakness,” Sylver quoted.

“So you have a needle-sized phylactery?” Edmund asked.

“Pretty much. Does it do it automatically? When someone tries to read your status, they get their status read instead?” Sylver asked, and Edmund nodded.

“[Bird’s Eye For An Eye]. I keep it on low most of the time, but I can set it to burn the eye out of whoever tries to [Inspect] me,” Edmund said.

“You said you got a unique class too?” Sylver asked.

“Yeah, I did,” Edmund answered.

They flew through the air, leaving behind a thin streak of gold against the blue sky, and white clouds.

“What is it?” Sylver asked.

“Promise not to laugh,” Edmund said, barely loud enough for Sylver to hear him over the sound of roaring flames.

“You know I can’t promise that,” Sylver answered.

Ed rolled his eyes, and for a few seconds, debated whether or not to tell Sylver the name of his class.

“Can you promise to not make any jokes about it until we’ve arrived, so I’m not tempted to drop you?” Edmund asked.

How bad of a class can it be?

“Sure,” Sylver said.

“Look at my status again,” Edmund shouted, as he moved away from Sylver, so he wouldn’t hear him laugh.

[Human* – Fire Bird (Unique) + Royal Flame (Legendary) + Day Blade (Rare) – 261]

[HP: 85,500 – 100%]

[MP: 90,753 – 91%]

[Stamina: 100,322 – 100%]

[Corpse – Unique]

[Soul – Unique]

“Holy shit…” Sylver said under his breath, but somehow, his words still reached Edmund’s ears.

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been used!]

“Wait, what? Why is your HP and Stamina so low? How is your mana only at 19 thousand?” Edmund shouted, in a voice that made it sound as if he was offended.

“I don’t know!” Sylver shouted back and only now saw what Edmund’s unique class was.

It would have been funnier if he hadn’t been blown away by the sheer size of his HP, MP, and Stamina.

“What have you been fighting?” Edmund asked.

“For the most part humans!” Sylver answered.

“Why?”

“Because I needed their corpses! And I was too busy gathering resources to find you to go on a proper monster hunt!” Sylver shouted back.

Edmund’s face didn’t change, but Sylver could tell he struck a nerve.

“I know you can’t use enchantments, but I know a couple of ways to increase your… everything,” Edmund answered back, with an almost protective tone in his voice.

“I’m looking forward to it!” Sylver shouted back, as all of a sudden, Arda came into view.

***

Sylver almost flinched with each step Edmund took because he plain and simple forgot how loudly the man walked.

Or “boy,” in this case, since Edmund looked like he was 14 years old, 15 at most.

“Lola Aeyri…” Edmund repeated as the gravel crunched underneath his barely covered feet.

“I’ll tell you the full story after we’ve had some time to rest. I helped free her from a prison of sorts, then made her open a company, then abandoned her for 5 years, and now she all but owns Arda, and its surrounding territories,” Sylver explained.

Edmund was making a face. He’d been making it since the moment Sylver mentioned Lola.

“You found her by accident, you said. The king of cats asked you for help?” Edmund asked.

Sylver nodded.

“You don’t remember her either, do you? The thing is, she wasn’t lying. I had a firm grip on her soul for almost a month, and she told me repeatedly that she was Layla’s daughter. If she was lying, I would have known it,” Sylver said, but Edmund kept making that face.

“I don’t know how to say this politely, but Layla never had a daughter,” Edmund said.

“Whoever she is, I trust her,” Sylver countered.

If he were talking to anyone else, the conversation would have ended here.

“See the thing is… Lola died,” Edmund said, with a mixture of inarguable confidence, and equal parts confusion.

“About 300 years before we did, yes,” Sylver said.

Neither of them said anything for a while.

“When you went to Layla to retrieve Oska’s staff, above the fireplace, did you see a pot of white sand, with a piece of dried bark stuck in it?” Edmund asked.

“I know what a burial gierth is… I think I saw one, yes…” Sylver said.

“That was for Lola. Adema sent me to help Layla, but by the time I got there, there was nothing to be done,” Edmund explained, and with every word, Sylver’s image of the burial gierth became clearer and clearer.

Lola’s name would have been carved on the piece of bark sticking out of the sand, but Sylver was in a rush back then, and for the unlife of him couldn’t remember if he had seen the name on the bark. Either way, the gierth wasn’t for an adult, an adult would get a twig, children got bark.

And the Lola Sylver knew might not be an elder, but she was very much an adult.

Sylver reached towards the bone where he kept his various IDs, and discovered that that particular bone was empty, on account of having been disintegrated.

“Getting in is going to be a bit of a hassle… Then there’s the fact that we’re coming from Krist-controlled territory. I can crack my skull open to show them there’s nothing,” Sylver said, as Edmund ran his hand along the top of his head.

“I would prefer not to,” Edmund said.

Sylver knew the reason.

It would hurt. And for all his toughness, Edmund wasn’t fond of pain. Especially pain that could be avoided.

“I’ll figure something out then, don’t worry about it,” Sylver said.

Smuggle him inside through Ron, and when we come back next time, make certain we’re coming from the North, not the south.

“After we rest, what’s our next move?” Edmund asked.

Sylver shrugged his shoulders.

“Celebrate so hard we need another rest,” Sylver said and grinned as Edmund chuckled.

“Good enough for me,” Edmund said, as Sylver wrapped his arm around his young companion as they continued walking towards Arda’s gates.