Rise of the Devourer

Book 3: Chapter 28 — Quest Reward

Noah and the rest of the group had returned to Kaelan’s estate, and Noah sat in his room, legs crossed, as he practiced his meditation. The suns had set over the horizon, night time taking over the skies, and as Noah focused on his breath, he felt the window in his chambers shift ever so slightly.

“Took you a while,” Noah replied, glancing behind himself.

His shadow stood there, leaning against the wall. “Had some stuff come up. You’ll want to see this,” the shadow replied, as a tome appeared in his hand.

Noah inspected the title.

[Tome of Soul-Harvest (???)]

A forbidden tome of soul harvest.

Noah raised an eyebrow at the tome.

“The old witch running the place immediately knew what I was. Told me she had what I wanted but made me run some errands for it. After that, she gave a dumb prize but I managed to win enough by betting on drake races,” the shadow said.

“You bet my money? How much?” Noah asked.

The shadow shrugged. “We have enough left. But this didn’t come cheap.”

“This cost twelve B-grade crystals. I won four, there’s four left after the costs,” the shadow replied.

Noah’s eyes widened. “What the fuck?” He said. That was nearly everything he’d made so far, including the reward for saving all of Heartilia.

“Why did you—”

“It’s worth it. I wasn’t going to, but I damn well could tell that this was worth it. Have you seen a Tome with question marks on its rarity? And that’s with our upgraded Identify,”

Noah paused. That… was true. The only times he’d encountered that was when he had inspected the Shard, or the scale of the Wyrm. Still… having spent that much definitely stung a little.

“The quest reward better be worth it,” he murmured to himself.

He opened the quest window, looking at his notifications.

Quest completed!

Sub quest completion: 4/4

Rewards:

1x [Skill Book of Advanced Soul Binding (Legendary)]

Noah stared at the rewards in confusion.

His shadow whistled at that. “If there was ever suspicion regarding your Paths, that will make it clear that you’re evil and need to be killed.”

Noah frowned. “Why is this the reward?”

The shadow shrugged. “Why do you think I’d know? We’re the same person. I know about as much as you do.”

“You know what happened at the shop you went to. Your soul-harvest tome may be why this was the reward,” Noah said.

“I seriously

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doubt that. We both did an equal number of quests,” the shadow replied.

Noah felt frustration fill his chest, but before he could speak further, a slip of paper fell from the tome in his hands, fluttering before it touched the ground.

Glancing at the shadow in surprise, Noah picked up the paper slip, reading what was written on it.

Spell of Re-animation: A spell to bring those who have died and departed to the beyond, back to this world.

Below that the steps for the spell were written, explaining the rituals and components needed in brief.

“Oh boy. That’s some not fun magic huh?” The shadow said.

Noah glanced at the shadow, before reading the list of items needed.

“A spectral heart. A spectral soul replica. Advanced Soul Binding. A soul harvest ability, general resistance to all forms of magic. Soul resistance and Soul modification,” Noah said, finishing the list.

“Seems tailored to fit you,” the shadow said. “Maybe the quest system’s looking out for you or something?”

“Or maybe it’s been giving me rewards and leading me in directions that result in this path,” Noah said. He did not like that thought.

The shadow flowed into dark motes, melting as he grabbed the tome in his hand, sitting cross legged across from Noah on the floor, before flipping through the notes.

“Ah shit,” the shadow cursed a moment later, closing his eyes. “Damn thing inflicts madness if you read it.”

Noah grabbed the tome back. “Stop playing with that.”

The shadow clutched its eye, rubbing it a few moments longer. “Alright… lesson learned. The question now is— are you gonna use that?”

“Not without knowing more about it,” Noah said, before tapping his bracelet. He felt the spell fizzle into place as it connected to Zax.

“Zax. I need you here for something. It’s important.”

A second later, the dragon appeared right next to Noah in a blink. The dragon’s eyes instantly scanned the area, before he glanced down at Noah. “Nothing seems to have breached our spell perimeters without our notice. What is the emergency?”

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“This,” Noah said, handing the soul binging skill tome to Zax. “I got that from a quest. Err, quests are a thing I get when—”

“You’ve explained it before,” Zax said, flipping open the Tome as he read through the contents. “Interesting.”

“I had a quest to… explore? And one of the things he got from a sub quest was this tome. And then this spell procedure,” Noah said, a limb of shadow extending from the ground as his shadow specter handed the book to Zax.

Zax looked through everything, frowning as he did.

“Interesting. This is old magic. Older than we thought existed. We assume you can’t see the rarity of this?” Zax asked, holding the tome.

Noah shook his head.

“How much did this cost you?“ Zax asked.

“Nearly everything I had,” Noah replied.

“Hmm, cheap. This here is an Ancient rarity Tome. It’s a special rarity category that does not appear often, similar to Unique and Growth, but even rarer, for things that predate the Astral script’s existence,” Zax said.

You’ve learned of the Ancient rarity.

You’ll be able to identify Ancient rarity items from now on.

Noah looked at the tome, using inspect on it once again.

[Tome of Soul-Harvest (Ancient)]

A forbidden tome of soul harvest from a period of history lost to time.

“This seems like something I shouldn’t be using?” Noah asked.

“Well. We can’t say that. Just for this tome alone— use it for sure. You already have a harvest ability, this will likely fuse with that to produce something new. But as for this skill book and spell…” Zax frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well. There are three caveats to this procedure and ability, Noah. But first, we’ll explain what the spell itself is,” Zax said.

Noah nodded.

“After using this spell, or rather, this ritual, if you were to ever die, you would find your soul in the underworld. This cannot revive you immediately. What it can do, is give you an anchor which you can use to return,” Zax said.

Noah had assumed as much, but a revival spell still surprised him.

“Will I still be me? Or would I become a zombie?” Noah asked.

“Most undead are dead, their souls have moved on. But no, you will not be a revenant… at first. If you were to die a second time… there are chances,” Zax said.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Noah said.

“Depends on how you look at it. But that’s not a concern as of now. Just the revival alone has a lot of risks. The Watcher’s domain persists over souls. It will try and call for you, try and grasp you. The reaper, and the underworld exist to protect souls from the madness of the watcher, but it is a treacherous journey to reach the inner sanctums. Your body would also be in danger, for the duration that your soul exists within the underworld.” Zax said.

Noah nodded. He’d expected there would be some catch.

“The second… the pact you have formed would break, even if you can come back to life. The consequences of that… are difficult to say.”

Noah stirred. He’d definitely been hoping to break his pact if possible, but now that he had a potential path in front of him, he had to consider the choice carefully. Did he truly want to? Or was he being hasty? He let the thoughts dissolve, returning his attention to Zax.

“And lastly… your shadow will fuse to become one with you, and will no longer be independent. The two of you will merge again to truly become one,” Zax said.

Noah glanced at his shadow, who was surprised at the words.

“Well, that’s a bit surprising,” The shadow said, scratching his head. “Guess you won’t need to find a name for me then huh?”

“I’m not—”

“Oh shut it. We both know this is good for us. I’ll make you do it if you don’t on your own,” the shadow said.

“Noah should get some time to consider his choices at the very least,” Zax said.

The shadow shrugged. “I think we both know this is something that’s good for him- but yeah I agree. Some time is good. I’d like a little bit of time as well,” the shadow said, before glancing at Noah. “But if you decide not to because of me, I’m gonna be mad.”

“Big words coming from you. As if I think that highly of you. I’d be happy to get rid of you,” Noah replied, snorting.

“I take it back. Zax, can I take him over instead? This guy irritates me,” the shadow said.

“Zax, can you destroy him? I think leaving him alive was a mistake,” Noah spat back.

Zax sighed, shaking his head. “Stop acting like children you two. And stop fighting like siblings.”

“Who’d have an awful sibling like this guy,” Noah said, making a disgusted face.

“Well, I’m like, not even a month old so…” the shadow said.

The two of them looked at each other a moment later.

“Alright, I guess we do act a little like bickering siblings,” Noah admitted.

“Kinda weird. I’d always thought what it’d be like to have one, but never imagined it would be… like this.”

“Like you cannot stand them, but would still give your life for them?” Zax asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uhh, yeah,” shadow replied. “It is a bit one-sided though.”

Noah looked at him in surprise.

“What? Shut up. You know I will. That’s why I exist. To protect you,” the shadow said, blushing ever so slightly.

“Well, I appreciate that. It’s hard to say I would die for you, because my death would kill us both. But I wouldn’t want you to die,” Noah replied.

“I doubt I can, as long as you’re alive. I’ll simply return to you instead,” the shadow replied, shrugging.

A few moments of silence remained after that.

“Let’s get back on topic,” Zax said, handing Noah the ability tome. “We believe you should use the ability tome right now, and then wait for some time before making a decision.”

Noah frowned, looking down at the tome. A moment later, he looked up at Zax.

“Do you think… my quest system has been leading me towards things that would lead to this?” Noah asked.

“That is… difficult to say. Fate is difficult to read, as we’ve already mentioned, but especially yours. Even gods would struggle to see your fate clearly. It is possible that it may have, or more likely, your quest system is adapting to events that happen around you and charting a path that it thinks you will head towards. But ultimately the choice has to be yours.”

Noah looked down at the tome, before nodding. Sending a pulse of mana, he saw the prompt appear.

Would you like to absorb [Tome of Soul-Harvest (Ancient)]

Yes/No?

Yes.

A pulse of energy, stronger than any he’d felt before from a tome pulsed into Noah’s soul, etching something into it.

Ability [Soul Harvest] unlocked!

No ability slots available.

Ability fusion available.

Fuse [Runic Harvest] with [Soul Harvest]?

Yes/No?

Yes.

Ability [Soul-Rune Harvest (Ancient/Unique)] unlocked!

[Soul-Rune Harvest (Ancient/Unique)]

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Harvest the soul of your enemies, capturing them into runes that adorn your Arcane Body, allowing you to summon phantoms and specters that will obey all your commands.

Noah let out a breath, feeling the power settle into him.

Zax nodded, before handing the skill book and the ritual procedure back to him. “This should go without saying, but do not take those out in public, or let anyone find out you have them.”

Noah nodded.

“Well, then, we’ll be heading back. Let us know if you need something else,” Zax said, teleporting away.

Noah sat in his room, his mind going through stuff. His shadow specter melted into the shadows as well, flowing into him, leaving him alone in the darkness.

I’m not suited to this much thinking.

Deciding not to worry about it for the time being, Noah went back to his meditation. Whatever might happen, he’d just need to deal with it as the time came.

Before long, his thoughts were soon replaced by the thoughts of wrestling a wyvern and killing it before forming a soul mount out of one that he could ride on.