Drifting Embers
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[MGM]: 11 - What Awaits Beyond
🕑 Added 2025-01-17 11:34:11 +0000 UTCThe rest of Amara's talents were as fearsome as regeneration, if not more so. Immortal, besides providing one with eternal life, also made one mentally resilient. An individual with this type of talent would be impervious to fear, death, illusion, the passage of time, and anything that remotely affected one's psyche.
Shadow Dominion turned out to be fairly simple. It provided complete and utter control of shadows, molding and shaping it in any form whatsoever. Although I found it unimpressive at first glance, that was before I had the pleasure of knowing its true limits. And those were sky-high; some might say boundless.
Night Veil was the type of talent that, if given a choice to choose among a few, it would definitely be in my picks. Aside from allowing one to be invisible, it provided protection from other talents geared toward observation or surveillance.
Hunters Guild had World Seer Orbs that could project one's Soul Record for others to see. It was a mandatory requirement for all newly initiated hunters to show their origin and talents.
While I might lack a formal education, the same couldn't be said for the Guilders. Once they saw my Origin Rarity or even the suspicious-looking line added to my race, curiosity was bound to take hold. And that never panned out well for guys like me.
That made Night Veil an awfully tempting talent, since it would allow me to disguise my Soul Record.
Of course I wasn't going to make my choice just yet; there still remained one talent that I needed to assess.
Blood Monarch. The sole SSS-Rank talent among all the others. The only one that matched or rather granted Amara her designation as a SSS-Rank existence.
Unlike the talents before it, Blood Monarch granted three abilities. The primary of which was the ability to summon an army of Blood Wraiths. These formless creatures fed on the vitality of their enemies and multiplied like a plague. An ability like this would be a nightmare on the battlefield.
The secondary effect of the talent was called Blood Manipulation. It allowed total control over the user's own blood and that of the others. Exploding someone into a gory mess with a single gaze was entirely possible.
With better control and more strength, one could even puppet others to do their bidding.
The last effect was the ability to extract vitality from others to heal oneself. Again, a nightmare of an ability to have on the battlefield, geared toward survival.
I let out a tense breath of air and clicked my tongue in frustration. None of these talents were bad. In fact, they were so good that I found myself caught up in indecision.
"Can't decide?" Amara asked.
I shrugged. "This is just too much. Everything is just too good."
She allowed a soft smile to grace her features and said, "If I were you, I would go with Blood Monarch."
"Why? Because it's the highest ranked?"
"That," she nodded, "and the fact that it would effectively make you a one-man team. Blood Monarch provides everything in the way of offense, defense, and support. Even healing, as long as you have availability of blood."
She had made a solid point, but I couldn't help feeling my eyes drawn toward Night Veil. I expressed my concern to her.
Amara put a finger on her chin, a light of contemplation flashing in her eyes. "Hmm? Let me try something..."
Suddenly I felt a pit form within my stomach, a strange feeling taking hold of me. Just when I was about to question her, I saw her eyes shine with excitement.
"I see!"
"What?" I probed.
"Our bond!" She answered, as if that explained everything. Seeing my impassive reaction, she proceeded to elaborate. "We share a bond between us. It's weak but resilient. More than anything, it's a soul bond."
I shook my head. "I still don't get what you mean."
"Ok." She put her hands up in resignation. "Let me explain it this way. We have a bond between us, but not just between us, but between our souls." That only made it more confusing, but Amara paid my expression no heed and continued, "Basically, our souls are mixed, or connected. And that gives me access to your part of the soul."
"It still doesn't clear anything." My lack of education was showing, and I hated every second of the conversation.
She deadpanned at me, sighed, shaking her head. "Do you know why the Soul Record is called Soul Record?"
"Because it's the record of a soul?" I offered.
"Well, yes, but..." Amara shook her head. "Anyway, the point is Night Veil works by concealing one's soul. And since I can access your soul..."
She left the last part hanging, but I got the gist of it. "...You can conceal my soul too?"
"Exactly!"
Seeing the relief on her face poked at the wounds in my heart. I didn't let it show on my face though. It wasn't her fault. She was probably just as confused as I was about this whole situation.
"Was that what you did earlier?" I asked.
Amara nodded and explained that she should be able to conceal my Soul Record from prying eyes as long as they weren't powerful enough.
That was a relief. Since I could only copy one talent from her, I had to make it count.
"Blood Monarch it is, then."
My decision made, I let my talent reach out, and suddenly a system prompt manifested before me.
[SYSTEM PROMPT: Would you like to bind (Blood Monarch - SSS) as your talent?]
Y/N
I acknowledged.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
You have awakened the talent. Blood Monarch (Rank SSS)
The feeling was similar to when I first got my Basic Stealth. There was foreign knowledge inside my head, alongside instincts that I found utterly unfamiliar. The sensation from my new talent dwarfed all that.
The world opened to my senses. I could hear the heartbeat thundering in my chest, the rush of blood mixing with vigorous mana running its course inside my body. The heat and foreign presence prickling at the edge of my sense.
I turned to look at Amara, who was watching me with an impassive look etched on her face. I could hear her heart beating and blood flowing through her veins.
"Fascinating." She remarked. "I have never seen a summoner copy a talent of their summon."
It took me a few minutes to rein in the sensations. The soft pressure at the back of my head still existed, but I could at least ignore it.
"Now that you've completed your objective, let's make haste and get out of here." Amara suggests, with no little amount of enthusiasm dripping from her voice.
"Wait a sec," I said, drawing an inquiring look from her. "Well, you see, my talent Summon is at Rank-D, which allows me to summon two creatures at once."
"You want to summon another one?" I nodded in confirmation.
Amara shook her head. "I would advise against doing that," she said. "My talents are geared toward survival, and even with my current attributes, I'm confident in going up against D or even C-rank hunters and coming out on top. But we don't know anything about this new summon. For all we know, they might be weak or not even suitable for combat."
Her reasoning got me thinking. She had made a valid point. My summoning was completely random, and I had no idea what I would pull. My current situation wasn't desperate enough to warrant more assurances than I already had.
"Anything else?" She asked.
"Actually yes," I said, seeing her adopt a languid posture. "Well, you see, when I received my Summon talent, I was expecting to see monsters or a variety of their kind. But instead I got you."
"And?" She ventured.
"I don't wish to treat you like a summon or order you around, but I want to establish some ground rules."
"I'm listening."
"Since we are in this together, soul bonded effectively, I want you to at least make yourself useful. You're free to voice your thoughts and give advice wherever necessary, but you also have to listen to me." I continued. "Of course you're free to refuse if you find my requests unreasonable, but you have to at least put some effort into making this work." I paused to take a breath. "Basically, I want us to be friends."
Amara nodded and said, "Alright, I can get behind that. Honestly, I don't care much, so as long as you promise to provide comfort."
That much was easy to provide. Eirland always welcomed those with potential with open arms.
"Is there anything else?" Amara asked, calmly. Though something told me anything other than denial would be met with horrendous results.
I calmly shook my head. "No."
"That's good." She dusted off her cloak and cleared her throat. "Now, let's get out of here."
I watched her walk toward the door and stop, then turn to look behind her. At me.
"Why are you not following?" She asked.
"Yeah, I don't think we should leave that way."
