Chương 3: Chapter 2

Contrary to my initial belief that I was going to be sacrificed on an altar by these crazies, the following few days were boring. Cut away from the nourishing food pipe that had once been connected directly to my stomach, I found myself falling asleep more frequently. I fought it every single time, trying to claim those sweet, sweet points in my Path of Endurance, but I still lost. I was one man, or baby I guess, trying to hold back an ocean, and eventually it would swallow me up. If I dreamed, I didn't remember.

Being awake wasn't much better. With the two mental Paths, Basic Numeracy and Literacy - English, that I had been focused on for so long now completed, I had little to occupy my mind with. I was already searching for new Paths to replace them, but apparently flexing my chubby little fingers and toes did not count as a form of exercise. Instead, I turned my attention towards the Path of Eavesdropping.

No longer was there a fleshy wall between me and the outside world and, while I couldn't see shit beyond maybe a metre in front of me, that didn't mean I couldn't hear through the walls. Not that I understood a word of it. Whatever language they were speaking was definitely not English. But I could now separate out the different individual people. At least those who were allowed near me. Farther away I could occasionally hear chanting, music, and raucous noises like those you might find in a crowded restaurant.

I say restaurant, not bar, because I had never been in a bar, so I wasn't sure exactly what they sounded like. Dying young in my last life had robbed me of such pleasures. Of the cultists that were nearby, I had isolated four distinct voices. There was the rasping feminine voice I associated with my Birther. She'd been downgraded from mother after I had figured out that this was some sort of cult.

I had wanted a kind and loving mother, instead I got a woman who had been willing to let her unborn baby be possessed by a demon. That crazy woman was no mother and as soon as I had the words to tell her… I probably wouldn't. I'd be too busy running as far away from this place as I could before they figured out that I was not the demon they had summoned. Plus, it's never a good idea to tell someone they're crazy to their face. Besides Birther, there was King.

His voice was deep, and though I didn't understand the words, they still felt like honey dripping in my ears. Just listening to him talk to the others in his deep baritone was enough to let me see how this cult had gotten started. His was the voice of a man who could sell water to mermaids and razors to dwarves. The other two were Rat and Echo. Rat, as far as my eyes had been able to discern, was even smaller than Birther. A tiny man with a sniveling voice that constantly dripped with worry.

Even his hands shook when he talked as though he was a rodent worried about losing his cheese. Echo was taller than Rat, though not by much, and named because he was just sooo boring. I may not understand the words they spoke, but I was smart enough to hear the repetition in sounds. Echo often repeated the words of the others, whether those same others were around or not. I was already fighting off another bout of sleep when they gathered for their daily discussion near my stone bowl.

Birther had fed me, dripping milk, or something like it, through a sack into my mouth. The drips had been enough to tide me over, and now with a full stomach I felt sleep calling. As I had for the past few days, I tried to listen to their words and make sense of them while resisting the sweet, somniferous siren's call of unremembered dreams. Instead, we were all interrupted by the sounds of terrified screams down the hall.

The clang of metal echoed from somewhere in the distance, along with shrieks of pain and what I thought sounded like the meaty thuds of falling bodies. Birther and King said something hastily to Rat while I lamented not being able to understand a word of it. One side of me thought I should start crying. After all, maybe the sounds were from people coming to save me. Doubtful, but as a helpless baby all I had were my distant hopes that I would be rescued from this literal hellhole.

The other side of me, the winning side, told me to shut my gob as whoever or whatever was coming was likely to put me in the ground along with the rest of this cult. I remained silent as I was scooped up by Birther, still swaddled in ratty blankets. A shiny glint told me she was holding a dagger, though thankfully she pointed it at something in the distance that I couldn't make out. The screams in the background had fallen silent, and the tension in the air was palpable.

My baby urge to cry rose once more, and I squashed it with a force of will. The notification in the corner of my vision was ignored for now. I was too focused on what was going to happen next. The rising clangor of an impending crescendo. The door exploded inwards, and Echo screamed as a large portion of the wood crashed into the man. Rat had been more careful, and I thought the blurry form lunging forward was him based on the height.

If it was, his death was quick and ignoble as the distant form slumped to the floor beyond my sight. The clamor of steel rang out in quick succession like a bell. Suddenly, I felt something touch my throat. The shiny blade that Birther held was pressed against my little neck as she shouted threateningly at the newcomers, clearly warning them to stay back. The bitch! She was going to kill her own child?! Demon-possessed child as far as she knew, sure, but still, her own child!

Birther was too nice a name for her, even if she was bluffing! I didn't have the time to come up with another name though as I felt her collapsing to the floor, along with the gentle drip of blood from my own neck. The blood flow was slow, but I was tiny and without much blood in me. I cursed fate and my early return to the Ocean of Souls. Maybe my next life would be better. Darkness claimed me.

"I told you to wait," Halkur growled, eyes burning with anger as he stared down Falkon. Blood continued to leak from the four dead cultists, adding a dark red stain to the already dirty stonework of the ancient and derelict outpost they had used for a hideout. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Falkon glanced up from where he was extracting his dagger from the dead woman's eye socket.

"She was clearly a cultist. I wasn't about to spare her," Falkon replied, the adventurer's eyes drifting to the bleeding throat of the baby as Melody attempted to heal it.

"And we already knew what they were trying to accomplish before we arrived here. Little bastard's a demon. Killing it now is a mercy."

"And I told you I sensed no taint within it!" Halkur roared.

"When we return to the Adventurer's Society to report our success, I will be including a report on your behaviour during this job."

"Do what you gotta do, Boss. But I don't report to you, and to be clear, it was the cultist bitch that cut his throat, not me. Everybody here saw that. Tell them whatever you want, but I was doing the world a favour and my Guild will see that," Falkon said with a sneer.

"He'll live," Melody whispered breathlessly. Halkur watched as Falkon's face transformed into one of anger, the thin man drawing a dagger and stepping towards the blood-soaked, but breathing, baby.

"You touch that baby, Falkon, and you won't leave this room," Halkur growled, his hand tightening around his hammer as golden light leaked out of his eyes. Falkon halted, his strides slowing along the ancient stone floor, looking from the baby, to Halkur, to the other three adventurers in the room. Not a single one looked ready to step in and assist him.

"You're making a mistake. All of you. Just because he can't sense the demonic taint on that child doesn't mean it isn't there. You're allowing evil to fester in this world because none of you are willing to do what it takes to cut it out at the root," Falkon yelled, pointing his dagger at all of them.

"Only evil I see in this room is you, babykiller," Melody said quietly as she scooped the sleeping child up and fixed his swaddling.

"Will he be fit for travel?" Halkur asked.

"He's going to have to be. I'll find what they were feeding him and bring it along. He needs rest, a lot of food, and somewhere warm. The cut was small, so fixing it was easy enough, but he'd already lost a lot of blood for such a young baby. If we're not careful he might die anyway," Melody replied while rocking the newborn gently. Halkur nodded, glancing at the rest of the team he was working with. Only Melody was from his own Guild.

The other two were from the Steelbrothers, swordsmen both and the shields to protect Melody. Finally, there was Falkon, who'd only been brought along for his abilities as a tracker. His Guild affiliation had remained a secret, but since this job had been thrown together at the last minute, Halkur hadn't really had a choice in whom he was forced to work with. Still, as members of the Shining Light Guild, he and Melody couldn't turn down a job to root out a nest of demon cultists.

"Search the place. Anything you wish to take has to be run by Melody and I to confirm it doesn't carry any demonic taint. Once you're done searching, break up all the wood from the tables and chairs. We're burning this place down when we leave, along with everyone and everything in it."

"It'll be as you say, Ser Halkur," Jonathan replied before tapping his Steelbrother as they exited the room. Falkon followed a few seconds later after one final glance at the swaddled baby, a burning hatred still polluting his gaze. Finally alone, Melody voiced her own concern.

"The baby won't survive a long trip. He needs time to recover."

"I know. There is somewhere closer than Ajinport. A stopover in the mountains above. It's in the wrong direction, but it should only be a two day ride from here if we don't stop to take breaks. You and I will take the baby alone and meet up with the others back in Ajinport."

"You don't want Falkon knowing where you took the baby," Melody noted.

"Would you?"

"No, I suppose not." Halkur just hoped the old man was still alive and could find the innocent child a home.

I woke to the feeling of bobbing up and down in a steady rhythm. All around me was a blur of green and brown that was too far away for me to make out. I was nestled against someone's chest, my neck swaddled so tightly that it couldn't move. I was thankful for that since we were clearly moving quite fast and I lacked the strength to support myself. Being a baby, I decided, was a lot like being a passenger in someone else's vehicle - you were just along for the ride.

But that mattered little to me at this moment because I was alive! Blessedly alive! Wherever this was, it was definitely not the Ocean of Souls. I proved it by opening the notification that was still blinking in the corner of my vision. There were two now. Path Unlocked! Path of Willpower (0/10) Achievement Acquired! Survive a Fatal Blow. Reward: 1000 Steps on any Stamina related Basic Path. Only one Path available. 1000 Steps added to Path of Endurance. You have advanced the Tier of your Path!

Path of Endurance III (1267/50) You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Endurance IV (1267/100) You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Endurance V (1267/250) You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Endurance VI (1267/500) You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Endurance VII (1267/1000) Reward: +5 to Stamina Interesting, I thought. They're called steps by the system. Not points. It seemed that there were other ways to advance Paths besides just grinding them out.

I just had to risk almost dying to get it. Then I glanced at the math and my tiny face scrunched up ever so slightly in confusion. The Achievement had awarded a thousand steps, but the results were clearly twelve-hundred-and-eighteen steps. I knew that was the amount it had increased because I knew I had been at forty-nine steps in my Path of Endurance. What the hell was going on?