From Moving Crates to Killing Gods-Chapter 95: Three Questions

The window read.

Name: Wip

Species: Mythical Dark Keshnel

Rank: Aspirant

Level: 1

Strength: 2

Agility: 13

Constitution: 5

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 1

Luck: 19

I stared at it for a long time. Mythical. Whatever that category meant, the system had used a word I had never seen before... though I had only seen a handful of things, so maybe, maybe it was common?

I read the stats again.

Intelligence at fifteen.

I had sixteen.

I had spent months combining Sense and Switch targeting, doing rock training sessions, navigating outpost after outpost using spells.

Meanwhile this small pale creature that communicated exclusively in one syllable was sitting at fifteen intelligence after doing nothing more demanding than choosing which rock to bring back to me.

I had worked for those points. I had earned them through actual effort.

Maybe I should just sing wip wip wip and my intelligence would increase, problem solved. I’d stand in the middle of Argent, arms spread, chanting WIP WIP WIP until I reached level thirty in intelligence. Damian would probably have me committed to some kind of facility first, but the gains would be worth it.

At least her wisdom was at one. If her wisdom had been higher than mine I would have had to sit with the genuinely uncomfortable reality that my pet was wiser than me. I briefly considered whether I should get her small glasses like Rolen’s just so she looked like an intellectual creature. Add some tiny spectacles and she’d look like she was about to lecture me on advanced magic. Then she’d open her mouth and go "wip" and the illusion would shatter.

And luck at nineteen.

Nineteen.

My luck was eight, which I had been quietly proud of given that it started at five. Wip had nineteen. Maybe that’s how she found us, and stuck with me, the person that would give her enough double servings of meat and throw rocks to play with her.

I closed the window.

Wip was curled up on my bed with her nose tucked under her tail, completely unconscious, snoring in a way that was too quiet to be taken seriously as a sound.

Mythical creature, a lucky one with intelligence she had absolutely no plans to use.

I thought about what would Damian do if he found out.

He was the Citadel Master. Level five or more, he had more than twice my age, a man who was the sole survivor of his and past generations. If he heard the phrase Dark Keshnel, maybe he would understand what it meant. Then, she would probably stop being my pet and turn into a fluffy killing machine.

At least I thought of Damian as someone who just wanted to weaponize everything he could. He would surely start militarizing birds if he could. Squads of trained crows dropping rocks on Corruptors.

That was not going to happen... at least the part about Wip, the thing about the birds would be something that even I would support, they just steal seeds, we might as well have a use for them.

As long as Rolen and Kira hadn’t told Damian about Wip, I could keep the idea that I had found a small passive mob in an abandoned outpost. She fetched rocks, ate a lot for her size, and could fly.

I looked at Wip one more time.

"You’re a normal passive mob if any one asks." I told her dryly. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

She didn’t answer, mostly because she was asleep. Also because she probably didn’t understand.

I lay down, pulled the blanket up, and went to unconscious land, beautiful place.

Morning arrived with the particular quality of light that came through Spire windows, green tinged rays of light. I lay still for a moment, enjoying the fact that I wasn’t in the wasteland anymore. Then I got up, put on clean clothes, and went to find Damian.

The list in my head had three items.

First, the sixth outpost lab. What exactly is the nuclear coupling, since we could maybe turn it on and get three more safe zones.

Second, the portal on the mountain. The obsidian rectangle pulsing violet inside a cave, the thing that Sense had registered as an absence rather than a presence. Wip had recognized the material. The Spire was built from the same material.

Third, what was cleansing, I had an armor and a helmet that looked badass, but I had to cleanse them, whatever that meant.

Three questions. Damian was the only person in Argent who might have answers to any of them.

I had another question, about where Corruption came from, and if we were Hibrem, the same as Eric and Rue. But somehow I felt like asking that to Damian wouldn’t be a good idea.

Wip had decided to come. And I had decided she wouldn’t. Thankfully her strength was only at two, so she wouldn’t be able to fight her way through the door.

Also I’d left two meat servings on the floor, so she would have something to eat and maybe forgive me for leaving her this time.

The walk to Damian’s office was short. The Spire’s upper corridors were quiet in the morning, dark stone and red light.

I knocked.

A pause, there was no immediate answer. He probably liked making people wait.

"Come in." Damian said calmly from inside.

The office was the same as always. Every object inside was placed where it would be useful rather than decorative... so there was a mess. Damian sat behind the desk with white hair falling across his shoulders, hands folded, the expression of a man who had been awake for a long time. Or the expression of someone older, he was the only reference I had on how older people looked.

He looked at me.

"Allaran, you’re back." Damian said on a flat tone. Seemed like didn’t have an emotion about us returning at all.

"Yes, we’ve finished building the eight outposts." I said with a hint of pride in my tone, I didn’t know why I was trying to show off. I probably just wanted to see a reaction from him.

"So you did." He said, his expression changing marginally. "That’s good news, but I thought you would be back sooner. I’d already planned creating a clear path from the Exile point to Argent and we’re a couple of days behind schedule."

This guy. I’d like to see his wrinkly old ass build eight outposts in a month while killing a couple of monsters that were previously unkillable.

I crossed my arms. "We ran into a few complications." I said flatly. "Turns out that building massive vines, silver bunkers and killing nests of monsters that attack us isn’t exactly fast."

His eyes lingered on me for a moment, then he simply nodded. "Fair enough."

The room went quiet for a few seconds.

I broke it. "There are a few things we need to understand." I said. "Three things... and they might sound a little strange."

He changed his sitting position and then looked me in the eyes. He didn’t look surprised.

"First." I continued. "What does ’The item requires cleansing before appraisal’ mean?."

His fingers tapped slowly against the arm of his chair.

"Second, the Sixth Outpost." I added. "What exactly is that place?"

I leaned forward slightly. "And one more thing."

He didn’t move.

"When we explored the mountain near the seventh outpost." I said slowly. "We found something... a big, dark rectangle that felt ominous..."

I watched him carefully.

"The rectangle was made of obsidian, the same material as the Spire."

His eyes slowly lifted to meet mine.

And the calm expression he usually wore disappeared.