Chương 135: Chapter 140: A Talk

"You see, normally I wouldn't bother with these matters," Vix poured a glass for himself, then after making a strange expression and sighing again, he took another glass from his storage and poured one for me too.

"I sense a but here," I said while taking up the glass and sniffing it.

"But she is a good seedling. I was nearly thinking of teaching her one or two tricks before yesterday."

"Aren't you a teacher? You should teach her, or what are you getting paid for?"

"No, I mean like taking her up as a minor disciple or something." He looked at me as if I had to show a particular kind of reaction, one that I obviously didn't show.

"Haa, what am I talking about? You can't possibly understand… but she is not suitable anymore to learn from me, not after yesterday." I rolled my eyes.

"Ok, I'll bite. What changed since yesterday?"

"You tell me!" he said while slapping three of his hands on the table. The force was so much that the nearly indestructible wood splintered and cracked. I had to manifest my aura briefly to avoid some splinters that had more energy than some bullets. A normal man would have died then and there.

"Until yesterday she was promising. A bit too aggressive, but that could be tempered with time. Now though? Her main trait mutated, and she's on the path of a real berserker!" I sipped the floral-smelling drink. It burned like hellfire. What the hell was this stuff? I coughed a little before replying.

"Vix, you need to be more direct if you want me to understand what you're saying. What is a berserker?" He looked at me intently, bright orange aura swirling in his eyes.

"It's a mad warrior. They are consumed by anger and rage, and seek stronger and stronger opponents until they inevitably meet their end. That's making it extremely short, by the way. Alya had a skill and a trait that allowed her to become progressively stronger based on her aggression, mind you, not anger. But now… whatever happened yesterday made her evolve that trait into something working off rage, and trust me, that girl is angry enough to make good use of that thing."

He settled back down again and threw back his glass, drinking it in one go.

"I don't know what exactly transpired between you two, but from the snippets of things I could understand when she raged about, it was your fault, so speak." Fuck it all, how was this my fault? I never professed my love for Alya, never had any intimacy with her. I didn't cheat and I wasn't her boyfriend or whatever. I still couldn't shake that sense of having done something bad, despite logic saying that I wasn't at fault. So I told Vix.

I explained to him our relationship, her nearly dying at the beginning, the feelings, and the not acting on them. Then I told him of the party, and what came after. A look of contemplation was plastered on his face as I finished.

"Did you ever feel something like that for someone else? Even before the Tutorial?"

"No, never," I said simply.

"What does that mean?"

"ᛉ∫⌘ᚢ∇⊗ᛟ⋇≈ᚠ∴∆ᛞ⌬ᛉ∫⌘ᚢ∇⊗ᛟ⋇≈ᚠ∴∆ᛞ⌬∑⊗ᚷ∑ᛟ≈⌬ᚢ∑⊗ᚷ∑ᛟ≈⌬ᚢ" I looked at him. What the fuck was that?

"You didn't get that, right?"

"Not one bit."

"Then there's nothing more to say. It would be up to you to understand it." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. This was something on the level of the letter, right? It had to be. Something crucial was going on here, but I had no idea why. Well, I had a theory, or a shadow of one, but still… all of this left a bad taste in my mouth.

"Let's go back to the crux of the matter. How can we fix her?"

"You can't. It's up to her to follow her path, but getting a skill to contrast her loss of mental faculty when the rage builds up too much should be a must. It's not a good path, Elias, trust me. I saw close friends get consumed by the ire. I had to put one down myself, too far gone to recognize a friend from an enemy." I was starting to feel the need to intervene. My previously satiated curse was beginning to annoy me again, but having a curse of action was already better than nothing.

"Ok, I'll try to do what I can. First, do you want this?" I pointed a thumb to the still floating ball of grey aura.

"Or should I just sell it to the shop?"

"How much?" he just asked.

"It's more or less eighteen gallons. The System priced it at fifty-three k and something." He waved one of his hands off.

"What the hell is supposed to be a gallon? What kind of fucked up measurement system do you use on your planet? The System translated it for me before you can ask. Don't you use decimals?"

"We do. Actually most of the world does. It's just that from where I come from people are used to another system. Anyway, do you want it?" A transfer of a hundred thousand appeared before me. I looked at him before accepting.

"Why so much?"

"For the girl. Take her away, and give the extra points to her. I won't be able to do more than this. My hands are tied." I accepted. With those points, Alya could maybe get started on fixing her problem. As I was about to ask Vix about where to put the potion, I felt my aura slip from my control. The ball of grey suddenly became bright orange. I totally lost control of it, my authority over my own aura superseded in a second.

I felt the curses tied to my aura flare, especially Sovereign's Burden, making me feel a tad weaker than I was just a minute ago.

"Your aura is harder to deal with than expected, but don't make that surprised face. I'm a Lord of the Aurei. If I couldn't do at least this much, my title would mean nothing." I had a feeling there was more to it. He could have asked me to leave the liquid somewhere, in a container or something. No, he was testing me. I remembered his first request. He was here to experience some sort of epiphany, to meet a new first generation and feel their aura.

In particular, mine should be pretty uncommon given the circumstances. He got something out of me after giving me that freebie for Alya. Keeping the balance, he called it last time, or some other bullshit.

"I would like to ask you a couple of questions, and a spar maybe," I told him. He raised a hand.

"I'm afraid that our interactions should end here, Elias Mercer."

"Why?"

"I said too much, in our previous encounter and now. For both our sake, and the girl's, it's better not to test fate." I took a deep breath. I didn't know if he was lying through his teeth or if the situation was just that complicated, but if he didn't want anything to do with us anymore, I couldn't force it. Not with someone like him.

"I don't fully understand, but I respect your decision," I said before getting up from my seat and throwing down the drink. I felt it flow like lava down my throat and pool in my stomach. The heat was making my skin flush pink. I extended a hand.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Vix O'Ran, Lord of the Aurei. You've been a good mentor, and friend, for the little time we spent together." He rose to his full height, towering over me, three hands behind his back and one extended to grasp mine. He looked regal and solemn in this moment.

"It was good to meet you too, Elias Mercer, Cursed Aurei of Earth. May we meet again one day, in friendship." I nodded at him, then released his hand. I went back to get Alya from the side room. She was still out, so I carried her out of the training hall and deposited her into a free bunk bed beside the common room. After asking Mary to check on her, I went out again. I wouldn't stop now. I was fucking pissed. At Vix, at the System, at my curse, at fucking everything.

It was a good day and it got fucked up halfway through. Fuck everything. My curse was pushing me to do something, but I didn't know what. I'd have to think it through. For now, I had to burn some steam, and I had the feeling that if I waited until tomorrow, I wouldn't be able to do anything more for my situation. I was going to hunt that snake and bring it down no matter what. Today.