Rise of the Devourer

Chapter 17: Extending Trust

It took a moment for Noah to register where he was. This wasn’t the cavern he had been in, and neither was it the room he was staying in. The ceiling was made of wood here, unlike the stone structure everywhere else in the village. A sheet covered Noah’s body, and he pushed himself up, when his balance flew off, and he tumbled sideways.

A numbing pain hit him from his left arm, and he remembered once more that he’d lost it in the last fight. Pulling himself up with his other arm, Noah raised himself, the sheets covering his body sliding down. Bandages covered his chest, face and arm, patching him up. Clearly some amount of time had passed since he’d passed out.

“I don’t like how often I'm passing out,” Noah murmured, and paused. His throat was hoarse, quite a bit so. Glancing sideways, he noted a wooden stool next to his bed, with a silver colored bell resting on a tray. Picking it up, he decided to ring the bell a few times.

A moment later, a woman wearing delicate but simple garbs of green and white walked in. Noah instinctively used Identify on her.

[Soothing Healer - ?]

“How do you feel?” the woman asked. Her voice was calm, unnaturally so, and it made Noah relax as he leaned back onto his bed.

“Thirsty,” he replied.

The woman nodded, picking up a jar of water from the wooden table set across the room, and poured it into a glass, which she brought up to Noah’s mouth.

“I can drink it myself,” Noah replied, grasping the glass. To his surprise, his arms shook as he held the glass, but he pushed through, and drank the water. The relief was immediate, as his thirst was parched, and Noah let out a breath. “How long was I out?”

“Hmm. Two days, now. You have a miraculously powerful recovery. I had expected you to take at least a week to recover,” the woman said, giving Noah a kind smile.

“Thank you, for looking after me. I’m not sure what happened after I passed but I doubt I would’ve survived on my own.”

“No need for thanks. It’s my job after all. And the entire village is eternally grateful to the two. If anything, we should be the one thank you,” the woman said.

“You seem used to this,” Noah said. “There’s this… soothing feeling about you. Is that because of your path?”

“It is and it is not. We do live next to a mine. And one that used to be a dungeon at some point. Accidents happen. And limbs get destroyed. I’m the only healer this village has after my father died, so I have to learn how to keep them calm, and allow them to grieve properly for their loss. But my abilities do help.”

Noah nodded. Though grief, he wasn’t entirely sure on. Perhaps it simply hadn’t registered properly yet?

“Can I ask for your name?” Noah asked.

“Leah,” the woman said.

Noah paused at her words.

“I had a friend named Leah,” he said, a strange emotion rising in his chest. “Well, co-worker more than friend. But she was a kind woman. I just feel sorry that I…” Noah trailed off.

What am I sorry for?

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He frowned, trying to think of something. He felt sad when he thought about Leah, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember why. Like someone had poked a hole in his memory.

Is this related to my death again?

Despite his best effort, he could not remember what it was, and a moment later, he realised he was simply staring into nothingness. Noah put the thought aside. “I’m sorry, I’m starting to daze out.”

Leah waved his worry away, moving over to check on his injuries. “Nothing to apologise for. Your body is working extremely hard to heal you, so it is natural to be a bit out of it.”

Noah nodded, before his gaze went to his stump. “Is there anything that can be done about this, or is it too late now?”

Leah looked at Noah’s stump, as her smile finally slipped. “I’m sorry. I could’ve tried to regrow it. With your healing ability there was a chance for it to work, but you had traces of Necrosis Poison which had eaten up your insides, especially your heart. I had to prioritise healing those. I don’t think I can regrow it anymore. It’ll take a full restoration ability to bring it back. And that’s far beyond my abilities.”

Noah nodded. He’d not had much hopes, but it still hurt to hear. “What if I still have my arm? Could you do it then?” he asked, before taking it out of his inventory.

Blood dripped from the cut off limbs, dark lines running across his veins as the sheets were stained red, and Noah cursed for his stupidity.

Leah gasped, before rushing closer. She closed her eyes, touching the limb as a light began to glow from her palms. Silently, she shook her head.

“The poison is inside this limb. It will poison you if I try to reattach it. The arm is still alive, but only barely, and it will die in minutes. I can’t do it. I’m really sorry.”

This time, Noah felt his chest tighten briefly. But he returned a nod nonetheless, sending the arm back to his inventory. “I understand. Thank you for saving my life, Leah.”

The woman nodded, taking the bloody sheets off and replacing them with new ones for Noah. After refilling the water and making sure he was okay, she left his chamber, not lingering for much longer. Noah looked at the cut off arm he held, before putting it back inside his inventory. He wasn’t sure what else he could do with it either way. With a sigh, he leaned back.

He could still feel his fingers, like they were all still there, and he could even try and move them. But the action would only bring pain, and make the muscles that should’ve connected to his hand twitch painfully. His eyes went to the health bar on top, and he saw roughly one tenth of it greyed out. It seems the injury had cut down on his maximum health as well.

Noah closed his eyes as he rested in silence. Thoughts churned inside his head, frustration, annoyance, anguish. But he couldn’t really make himself regret trying to help. The relief he had felt from the miner’s memories, as he’d finally been freed in death. The sensation made Noah’s heart sink, the thought of death being so peaceful and kind made him afraid, like it invited him into it as well. In some ways, he was glad he didn’t remember his own death.

A gentle breeze rustled the windows in Noah’s room, as the door opened with a click around him. Noah opened his eyes, and saw Aurelia walk in. Her face and arms were covered in some bandages as well, but she was in far better shape that he was.

“How’re you doing? The healer told me you were finally awake,” Aurelia asked, pulling a wooden chair for herself as she sat next to Noah’s bed.

“Good, I think. Besides the whole, one arm down thing,” He said, raising the stump with a wry smile. Aurelia nodded. “It’s not as big of a deal as you may think. Regrowing an arm is possible with full restoration, it’s just costly to find a healer who has that specific ability. But you also have a blood based path, so chances are, your Rank up or your Path evolution will also allow you to simply grow your arm back. And there are quite a few magical prosthetics that’re quite good too. As they say, better an arm than a head,” Aurelia said.

“I guess you’re right,” Noah replied, though he still couldn’t help the bitter feeling that rose in him.

Aurelia looked at Noah, her eyes studying him. “To be quite honest with you. I have intentionally not been asking much about your abilities. Outer-worlders tend to have strange powers, that much is known, and you’d saved my life, not once but twice. So I was grateful for your help and didn’t want to pry into anything you didn’t share on your own. But… I don’t think I can do that anymore.”

Noah glanced at Aurelia, wondering what this was about.

“Let’s start with the easy stuff. I can feel three distinct mana types in your aura. You don’t have enough control to hide it, and so they pop right out as well. So from the start, I could see you had three paths. It wasn’t difficult to guess from your abilities either. A strange thing, but not the strangest in the world. But not only did you have three paths, they also felt fairly powerful. More so than normal. You also fought like you had prior experience in this. People who’ve never fought before don’t fight like that. That combined with the fact that you appeared in an Abyssal Cult with void abilities… I had always had concerns. So I’d kept an eye out, but even when you had the chance, you went out of your way to fight alongside me, and didn’t run away or abandon me when things got tough,” Aurelia said, her eyes remaining at Noah.

Noah shuffled, unsure how to react. "I practiced martial arts in high-school. Kick-boxing, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Taekwondo. Never stuck to one for long, but I liked to fight. I'd always been good at it too. As for the Paths... I wasn't sure what to say about them, so I kept my quiet. I was in an unfamiliar place, and people had just tried to kill me," Noah replied.

Aurelia nodded. “I understand. And that's why, I'm going to trust you with something I have not shown almost anyone else. And in return, I’ll have to ask you to trust me as well. Because, if by the end of this talk, I do not have an appropriate answer. I may become forced to something I really do not want to,” Aurelia said, extending her finger and a ring manifested on her hand. “I was trying to determine who you were Noah, and whether I was going to trust you to travel with me. This ring was what let me do it. Try and inspect it,” Aurelia said.

Noah did.

[???]

An unknown ring with unknown properties.

Noah looked up at Aurelia in confusion. “I can’t see anything,” he replied.

“Try again,” Aurelia said.

Feeling confused, Noah still went along with it, and tried once more.

Veil dispelled!

[Ring of Second Chance (Legendary)]

Made from the frozen tear of an ancient life Dragon. The ring heals the bearer if their health reaches under 1% and teleports them to a predetermined safe location.

This item can only be used once.

“This was what the team who’d betrayed me didn’t know. And the reason I’d felt comfortable putting myself in a vulnerable position,” Aurelia said.

Noah looked up at Aurelia, before glancing back down at her ring. “Given that you’re telling me all this. I assume I passed the test then?” he asked.

“Or so I’d thought. But in the mines, you’d commanded the void creature. Not to mention that strange letter you’d brought out again, oozing with the more pure void mana I have ever seen. That is not normal… and I’m starting to wonder if when we’d first met, you had some method to deceive my abilities.”

“I didn’t,” Noah replied. “I was being honest.”

“I think so too. But I’m not sure. I want to trust you Noah, I really do. But I’ve already been betrayed once, and I’m finding it hard to. It’s why I need to know. Just… what are you? Why do you have all these strange abilities, and why do you keep throwing yourself into these dangerous situations? You could’ve easily let me handle the mines, or the quest of going back. It would’ve made sense to do so. But you went out of your way to interfere, as if driven by some sort of goal or purpose. Yet, despite your seemingly righteous qualities, you can command the creature of the abyss, and seem to utilise their powers. I’m just not sure what to make of you,” Aurelia said, looking into Noah’s eyes.

Noah met Aurelia’s eyes, glancing back. Could he trust her? Yes, he had been frivolous with speaking about things, but that was about him bring from a different world, a relatively understood thing, if Aurelia was to be believed. But having a pact with the void, having no memory of his own death, and then the shards… should he tell her? What would happen if he did?

Well, she might kill me right here. But if I don’t, I doubt she’ll take me along with her. And… maybe I could navigate this place all on my own, but it’s an entirely new world. I’m not sure how far I’d make it without someone’s help.

Noah sat in silence, before making his choice. He liked Aurelia. She was a bit strange, but her hesitation made sense, and he could see the reasoning behind her actions as well.

“I cannot say,” Noah replied, watching Aurelia’s expression as he spoke. "I don't have the memories of my own death, not just my death, but also, things in general as well, as if holes have been cut out from my mind. But I can promise you this. The reason I can command void creatures is because, as I told you, I woke up in the void after my death. It is why I have my Path, and it is part of why I have that letter as well. I don't intend to cause you any harm, I do not intend to kill any innocent people, and I am not a raving mad lunatic who's trying to plot the end of the world. I'm just a lost man in an unfamiliar world, trying to explore my new surroundings. You can use your lie-detecting ability to check," Noah said, looking into Aurelia's eyes as he spoke.

"I'd bluffed, I don't have anything like that," Aurelia replied, then paused as if considering something. "Hold our your hand."

Noah felt a bit confused, but extended his hand. A mana stone appeared in her hand, and Aurelia ran it across his palm. "Hold this in your hand and press it over your heart. Let your mana flow through the stone."

Following along, Noah pressed his fist at his heart, keeping the mana stone balled up in his hand, as his own mana flowed into it.

"Repeat this after me. I have not said anything that is untrue today, I swear this on my Astral soul," Aurelia said.

"I have not said anything that is untrue today, I swear this on my Astral soul."

Noah felt the stone in his glow brightly before settling down.

You've sworn an Oath of Honesty!

Noah looked down at his hands in confusion. "What did this do?"

"When you lie, your mana and aura waver. Only masters of aura can hide that, and a mana stone can detect strong wavering. If you were lying, that stone would've cracked," Aurelia said, taking the mana stone from Noah's hand, before nodding. "Very well then. I'm going to trust you Noah. I owe you my life, and I'm not going to be any more ungrateful to my saviour."

Noah shrugged. "Seen worse, dealt with worse. Water under the bridge."

"That is a strange sentence, what does that even mean?" Aurelia asked, frowning.

"It means to let bygones be bygone," Noah replied.

"I see. Water under the bridge. A curious expression," Aurelia said, before looking back up to Noah. "I know that I said I'll trust you just now, but I'm still curious about something. Why did you butt into the affairs of this village. There was no reason to put yourself at risk like that."

“Well… I don’t know. I didn’t expect it to be this dangerous. I guess I got cocky after I survived two dangerous fights unharmed. Magic has also been… addicting. I can just teleport now. It’s so wild. And I let it get to my head. But at the same time, that’s also just how I am. I don’t remember how I died, but the last memory I have of before my death is punching my boss right in the face because he was harassing a co-worker of mine,” Noah said, smiling. “I just like to butt into other people’s business.”

“And you lost your arm. Or you could've died You’re not invincible Noah,” Aurelia said, and then paused. “Are you?”

Noah snorted. “No. I seriously doubt it.”

“Okay. I’m still adapting to all of this. All of you, really. But if you’re going to be an adventurer, especially one that will be traveling with me, then you cannot take risks like that. I understand wanting to help, but your life and survival should be your priority. You can’t help anyone if you’re dead. So, no stupid risks and gambles without thoughts given to it.”

Noah nodded. “That’s fair,” he replied, and then paused, before shrugging as he added. “I guess I really went out on a limb there huh?”

Aurelia looked at Noah with a surprised expression, before a snort escaped her. Her face contorted with a groan as she cupped her face in her palm, laughing as she did.

An amused cackle burst out of Noah’s mouth at her expression, as he felt significantly better than he had done before.

“You’re the worst,” Aurelia said, standing up from her chair.

“Sure, but you haveadmit, that was really funny,” Noah said, still smiling from ear to ear as Aurelia began to walk out.

Shaking her head, she let out a sigh. “I can’t believe I just agreed to put up with you for any longer.”