The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 316: Sharpness
‘Still Refined, huh?’
Percy wasn’t too surprised by the lower tier, since the runework on his new scythes wasn’t as extensive as his cauldron’s, and even that hadn’t reached Masterful yet. But there was no doubt in his mind that both spells were getting closer.
It wasn’t just the self-repair enchantments he’d added to the weapons either. He’d alternated them with another pseudo-enchantment of his own creation. One composed of three different runes.
The first, were the concealment runes he’d always drawn on the Soul Harvester. Combined with his mana’s natural invisibility, they turned his weapons exceedingly insidious, catching his opponents by surprise. Maybe not the rhino though, since its bulk would have made it difficult for it to avoid his attacks regardless.
Next were the hardness runes he usually drew on his armour. They made his weapons more durable too. He would have loved to add some preservation runes into the mix, but that was a luxury he couldn’t afford at the moment. Fusing more than three runes together was still a challenge for him: at least if they weren’t mostly control runes. In any case, the preservation runes weren’t necessary, as the self-repairs provided him with a better way to maintain the constructs.
Instead, he’d saved the final slot for a brand-new type of runes he’d mastered recently: the sharpness runes. They were described in one of the books he’d bought from the Vault during his last trip there, though he hadn’t had much time to study them during his stay in Twilight City.
That’s why he had cheated.
Percy had handed the book, the translation device and some teal powder to one of his clones, asking him to search for a demi-human host. Bribing the creature with some food, he then spent a few days to upgrade his scythe while he worked on his armour with his main body.
Ideally, he would have liked to outsource the armour too, to save a couple more days. Sadly, the Phantomscale Regalia needed a lot more time and mana than the Soul Harvester, so the clone’s limited stash wouldn’t have sufficed.
Regardless, the clone had completed the task without fail, bringing the scythe back upon his return. The sharpness runes were one of the main reasons Percy had been able to slice the rhino’s soul with such ease.
“Are you done playing with your scythes?” Nesha asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.
Elaine was standing by her side, having woken up at some point during his fight.
“Go back to sleep. I promise we’ll wake you up if we run into more trouble than we can handle.” he said.
But his cousin pointed at the rhino’s corpse.
“Should we move to a different spot first? The bodies are going to attract scavengers soon.”
“They won’t.” Percy shook his head.
None of his own kills had shed a single drop of blood, since their injuries had been dealt directly to their souls. Walking up to the colossal body, he slashed at it a few more times, to accelerate the degradation of the silver flame. As soon as it had fully dispersed, he placed his hand on it, causing the corpse to vanish.
At the same time, it appeared inside his seal. It couldn’t contain living things, but the rhino wasn’t alive anymore, its soul already gone. Of course, it did take much of the space in there. Percy didn’t have the full seal on him, as he’d given a quarter to Micky, and another quarter to his latest clone. He currently only had half, which meant the cube was only about five metres across. By the time he stuffed the rest of the bodies into the seal, it was almost full.
‘Oh well… I’ll dump them later. After we all get some sleep.’
There were a couple of bodies drenched in blood: the ones that Nesha had slain at the start. Elaine washed them with her mana, before Percy stored them too. They probably hadn’t eliminated the stench entirely, but Percy was sure the rest of the Valley smelled just as strongly, if not more, given the constant carnage transpiring everywhere. Satisfied with that, Elaine went to sleep, as the others guarded her.
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The next few hours were relatively uneventful. They did get attacked by more Yellow beasts, but Percy didn’t have much trouble dealing with them. By the time Elaine woke up, the dome of bubbles and foam above their heads had gone dark, the sun having already set. For the rest of Remior, it would rise again in a few hours, but for the three of them, it wouldn’t do so for another week.
Shrugging, Percy took a short nap next, followed by Nesha. None of them had had their fill, but they’d rested enough to at least be functional. They all understood the first few months would be quite exhausting. Either Percy or Elaine had to be awake at all times, as they were the strongest combatants: the only ones capable of handling the Green beasts. In the future, Nesha would be able to sleep at the same time as one of them, but only after they learned to instinctively keep the globules at bay. Until then, they needed a third person to watch over the one who slept.
‘We’ll get there in due time...’
Once everyone was feeling better, they decided to take a short break to grab a bite. Taking out the corpse of the rhino once more, Percy asked Elaine to chop a leg off, before storing it in his seal again. The blood attracted more beasts, but the two of them fought side-by-side this time, to fend them off. Meanwhile, Nesha took her sweet time roasting the meat over a campfire. It took ages for the monster’s flesh to cook, and it was still hard enough that they nearly broke their teeth on it. At that point, they vowed to only eat the Yellow ones from now on.
With their minds somewhat rested and their bellies somewhat full, the trio then headed off, looking for more shelter. The rock formation they’d used up until now wasn’t terrible, but they figured it would be a good idea to explore the area, and to find a few more potential camping spots, in case one of them was compromised.
Consulting with Micky, Percy led his companions to the southwest, after confirming the Holy Child’s entourage was elsewhere.
One thing they all made sure to stay on top of, was their cleansing sessions. Whenever their cores stopped burning, they drank a dose of Aurora Dew, ensuring they never delayed their advancement by a single second. Developing their spells would definitely help when they clashed with the Holy Child, but reaching the next grade was the easily the most important factor that would determine whether they managed to rescue Micky. Getting there a few days earlier might be the difference between having to face three Blues, or five.
Other than that, they decided to take it a bit easy during their first week here, to give themselves a chance to adapt to the bizarre environment. And there was a lot to get used to: the endless onslaught of beasts, the floating globules, the lack of sleep. It wasn’t just the static stuff either. They had to constantly be aware of Acton’s movements, and to also face the influx of beasts coming into the Valley from the east and west sides every few days: whenever the Divine Root dumped a new shipment into the Decree. By all accounts, this place was a living hell, gnawing at them both mentally and physically.
But they persisted.
They fought.
And they slaughtered everything dumb enough to attack them.
Percy hadn’t started working on the Dance yet. It was a big project, and he needed to fully have his mind in the game before he tackled it. He wanted to get over the sleep deprivation and the globules first. But that didn’t mean he’d remained idle. He focused on his scythes for now, honing his fighting style.
Nesha hadn’t worked out the Circulation patterns for either of her cores yet. She hadn’t even finished tempering the earth channels, though she had cleared them all. Right now, she was working on something different though. It was something to do with her butterflies, but Percy wasn’t sure what exactly.
Meanwhile, Elaine didn’t have any new affinity or channels to work on, and she couldn’t improve her boosting art either. Not until Percy made some progress with it, to pave the way forward. But that didn’t mean she was lazing around. According to her, her Slippery Step had upgraded to Refined when she flew up the cliff, leaving no more Crude spells in her Status. She was already working on reaching Masterful.
Needless to say, all of their projects were ambitious. Each would likely require months: if not years: to complete.
But that was fine.
They had plenty of time to get there. After all, this was exactly why they’d fought so hard to reach this place.
If there was one sour spot, it was Percy’s clones. He continued to send them out whenever possible, of course. Sadly, they took much longer to return. From their perspective, they only spent a couple days away each time. But for him, they always took over a month to get back.
It was something he’d already expected, though it still stung to imagine all the opportunities he was giving up on.
Alas, this was the price he had to pay to train here. Besides, a decade was a long time. Sure, he’d miss out on a lot of adventures in that time, but he should still be able to send out over a hundred clones before his fight with Acton. One of them was bound to find something useful.
Yet, the first round of improvements in the group didn’t come from outside Remior, but from inside the Thirsty Valley, just a few months later…
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