Chương 159: Chapter 164: A Great Time (Not)

"Are you sure you want to do it?" Mary asked Alya in a worried tone.

"I feel like I need to, after… nevermind. But I want to take down a Baron, and I need to start working on my problem, I think that if I manage to take down a stronger monster without using my trait, I would get offered something that would help me avoid becoming crazy while fighting, if that doesn't work, I'd have to buy some skill or a bloodline…"

"Oh love, I'm sure it would be fine, but please, don't get yourself killed ok? Your life is more important than anything else, who cares if you have to spend some skill slots fixing this thing, as long as you're fine everything else doesn't matter."

Mary's words were trying to be encouraging, but I could see from Alya's tension that she didn't think the same, she didn't want to waste resources on this, she wanted to fix this problem by herself, control it, make the rage that empowered her stay under control, she was already managing quite well. In the previous fight against that Corpse Collector or whatever it was called, she fought clinically, without the furious anger that was typical of her.

I was with her in thinking that the System would take it into account if she managed to fell a superior opponent without tapping into that power.

"I don't plan on dying Mary, you don't have to worry, and Elias would accompany me, he can prevent anything bad from happening, and heal me too if needed, right?" Mary was looking at me strangely, but in the end just nodded.

"Fine, but still, be careful, the both of you." Rhea took Alya's hand in hers.

"I'm coming too, I can hel-""No." She said while taking her hand in both of hers.

"No please, I need to have a word, you know… about that."

"I understand. Be safe." The two girls hugged. I was not liking where this thing was going at all. Is it that hard to have a little peace in my life? I can't get a breather here.

"Let's go then, we'd have to travel faster to rejoin the others later." It was already late afternoon, if we had to deal with this, we would have to be quick, I couldn't really say no to this, after Alya asked me personally, first because of my curse, adding more strain after what I was already suffering would be a disaster, but at the same time I wanted to help her and make her grow stronger, that would only be helpful in the long run, especially if she could start to fix her anger issue.

Lastly, I had a feeling about this thing, it was the least dangerous of the monsters drawn on the map, the "avoid" mark was better than the "nope" "absolutely not" and "I died a lot here." With danger would come rewards, and I wanted to see how they compared to the serpent, this would be a test not only for Alya, but for Adrian too, it was time to verify some of the things he wrote, for now he had been totally right about everything, but I had to be sure.

Me and Alya separated from the group, we went east as the others proceeded forward in a wobbly line, they would have to avoid the last part of the swampy pools full of mosquitoes, and proceed towards a zone that was inhabited by giant toads instead, I just hoped they won't all die stupidly, but they were mostly managing, I had to intervene very little during this trip, I saved someone from dying only a couple of times, the rest I just prevented injuries, but they improved, so I had some hope.

We ran in silence as I killed any monster coming closer, I was still experimenting with my new skills and I thought I made some good leveling progress, probably bringing bore to the next evolution, but I was wary of opening my notifications and triggering whatever achievement I got for killing that guard I still didn't know the name of, it would make my aura more unstable, I was sure of it.

For now I just enjoyed the quiet before the storm, because I would have to deal with headache-inducing problems in a bit, I was sure of it.

"Elias," Ah shit, I knew it…

"Yes?" I said while I shaped my aura into a giant hand to swat a couple of mosquitoes away. She was silent for some seconds, as if to prepare mentally for the conversation.

"Thank you for helping me, you know you didn't have to…" If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Unfortunately I'd have to, I couldn't do otherwise even if I wanted to.

"Don't mention it, you'd do the same for me, and it's not like I'm not curious about this thing here, I want to see how powerful it is for being labelled 'Avoid', you instead should be very careful, you're strong Alya, but you don't have an impressive number of achievements yet." She nodded, then added "You're right, I didn't accrue as many as I would have liked, not the ones that give you more stats, but I got others…

that work quite well with my new trait, the power granted by that is quite a lot, too much actually, the real problem are the side effects, mainly the lack of control." This conversation was much less painful than I anticipated.

"Mmm, maybe it would have been better to buy something from the shop before, don't you think? There's no point in having a great power if you can't use it properly, trust me, I'm realizing it now after my last power-up."

"I noticed, you don't fly around anymore like a butterfly." She said while chuckling.

"But what is with that new style of yours? Are you trying to cosplay someone?" I looked at myself, actually it was pretty neat in my books, totally unfit for living outdoors, but at least it was clean and elegant, the noble garment having transformed into a nearly modern version of its original.

"It's all magical, it helps mainly with external magic and environmental conditions, it's not pure armor, but it has its uses, and it's elegant, I don't like to dress casually, I'm not used to it."

"Because of your work? You were quite the famous character they told me, did a lot of charity work too. I… sorry if I'm being rude, but I don't see you as the charitable type." I'm not, and I'm getting sloppy. I had to cultivate this unapproachable persona all this time, making myself charitable enough to keep my curse at bay, and cold enough that people weren't coming to ask me for help every three seconds. Now here, I was really going to suffer from my own stupidity.

I shouldn't have abandoned my way of doing things so easily, I should have kept my distance from these people, and minded my own business. But I couldn't help letting myself slip more and more as I increased my resistance to the curse, and I got more power. In my quest for freedom I lost the protection of my acting, of my more calculative mind, always tracking everything and everyone around me, preventing myself from getting too bogged down by others' problems.

Not having to constantly help others was a bliss, if it was some days ago, before my boost, I would have to constantly help make or disband camp, doing menial chores and stupid things for others all the time, now instead it seemed that those little things had no more effect on me, or if they had, it was minor and I couldn't really feel it that much.

"It actually comes from my time in uni," I told her, "The law professors required us to come in a suit, so it's since I was nineteen that I wear it every day, all the time, and this," I pointed at my ensemble, "It's actually really comfortable, as for the charity part, I had my reasons for doing so."

"Umm, ok, so… we have a bet going on, Quinn said that you are from a rich family, like a lord or something, but most of the others just think that you're kind-hearted, that you had to deal with some shit and want to make the world a better place." Were they really betting on this bullshit? They didn't have anything better to do?

"And what is it that you bet on? I'm sure you didn't avoid chipping in."

"Ha! I said that you were taking those cases pro bono just to fuck with the companies and politicians, because you like the risk, and challenging yourself, am I wrong?" Her tone was smug, as if she had me all figured out.

"I can say that you are not completely wrong, I enjoy a good challenge, but it wasn't the real reason I took those cases, or did what I did, so no, you don't win the bet, how much is this bet anyway?"

"Damnit, I would change it later, it reached nearly ten thousand points by now." What the fuck?

"You serious?"

"Dead serious, there is always someone who wants to join, actually Rhea is the one who's keeping the points, she didn't tell you?" I wasn't about to let the jab go unpunished.

"No, actually we don't talk that much…"

"Then what do you-" Realization bloomed on her face, then she soured. Yea, not nice right? Next time try not to play your games girl. It's not my first rodeo.

"We mostly talked about magic you know," I continued smoothly, "we theorize how we could combine her ritual and my curses together for a greater effect, things like these, but you instead, what were you talking about the other night? She told me you went to visit." She scowled at me.

"Those are things that are meant to stay between me and her, suffice to say that you were a big part of the conversation." Alya took a calming breath.

"She's too good of a person for the both of us, god knows if I was in her shoes I'd have killed everybody by now…" Yea, Rhea was great, tell me something I didn't know, but the only person with a problem about it here is you girl, don't make it as if this thing is my fault.

"So, everything is all right between you two?"

"Yes, she's like a sister to me, despite the little time we've known each other, and you would not be enough to break our friendship." Her tone was angry while she spoke, nearly snarling. There were many great things I wanted to say about it, but anything would not work in my favor, and I was inclined to give Alya the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was her trait that was enhancing the anger she felt.

"Glad that you worked it out, anyway, we're here." We stopped at a little hill, it was completely devoid of the lush grass that grew everywhere, instead it was made of bare rocks and was dotted with a thousand holes that led deeper into the ground. It was a giant hive, and the monsters that went to and fro were deserving of the moniker in full.

"Wha-what the fuck is even that?" Yea, I could see it… she would not have a great time here, for sure.