Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

The others around the campfire began to stand as the sounds of crashing came through the forest, warnings ready to be shouted on their lips before Ben waved them down.

“Stop, it’s not what you think.”

Still too far to connect to them to read their mind but that didn’t matter. He had his soul sight and his sacrilege, both not limited by a mere few meters of range that told him all he needed to know about what was coming as a mass of flesh and bones threw itself into the clearing, shape warping back to a young woman as she landed by his side.

“Number two, I thought I smelled you! What are you doing out here?” Abel laughed while slapping his back. “Miss having me around that much?”

“Ha, not exactly, Abel. I ended up out here for the same reason as you. I was sent to look for Foast.”

“What?” she asked, her happy expression instantly changing to a scowl. “What the hell? Was I not good enough for the gods when they already went and sent my butt out here?”

A good question, why were we sent when she was already sent off to handle it? The part of him still within his god’s realm asked. And why weren’t we at least told to meet up?

“They said you stopped to eat too much,” he told her bluntly, getting to see her expression change once more from her scowl to guilt and embarrassment.

“I mean, I was just a little snackish is all. It’s fine.”

“Foast’s goddess is pretty worried about him.”

“And if he dies, then she’ll know exactly where he is, but I don’t see why they’re so worried; he’s not so weak.”

“No, but the fact that he’s missing is still a pretty bad sign.”

“Okay, but I’m doing it still. I’ve got his scent, I’ll find him.”

Hmm, realistically she’s probably going to be better than any of our current trackers, and I’ll be able to keep her on task.

“Okay, well, want to stick with us then?” he asked her, nodding the direction they were following. “We’re resting for the night, continuing on tomorrow. Could definitely use a hand. I’d feel a lot safer with you too.”

“Sure!” she agreed, instantly invested for the bit of faith he was showing in her. “But if you’re going that way, you’re wasting your time. He circles back.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, he fought something in a swamp and from the bits I found, it looks like he won. Not taking the exact same way back, but he’s got the general direction.”

“...Yeah, okay, I’ll get you to show us in the morning,” he told her, even as he grappled with what she’d said.

He won? Did he find the thing he was hunting and kill it? Then why’s he gone no contact? Why’s he turned back? I’ve been operating on the assumption that since I couldn’t control him that nothing else would be able to, but maybe I’m wrong? Maybe what he killed wasn’t the thing he was hunting but something else under its control, and now he’s under its thrall too? God, it’s obvious I’m missing something, I just really don’t want it to be another demon with mind control.

Whatever the truth might have been, Abel’s presence created options that he hadn’t previously had that could hopefully speed up their journey to find him, they could figure out the rest when they did.

But I will need to tell the rest of them in the morning. For now though…

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He took off his necklace and handed it to Abel, watching her look at it in curiosity before he clarified.

“Job crystal, you saw me using it before. You should be done yours, right?”

“Right!” she jumped, brightening up as she did. “Fantastic work with that, I appreciate the hand.”

“No worries. In exchange, you mind if I peek a bit?”

“Go for it.”

He looked in her mind as she took the crystal, seeing what options presented themselves considering her unusual skill list and wasn’t disappointed by the selection. A good ten he’d never heard of before and plenty more he had, he would have been curious to see how many of them might have turned out for her but already knew what she was going to take, not needing to hear as she said it.

“I want queen of weeping.”

He heard as the system gave her massive bonuses to that particular attribute, and while he was sure that would have been enough to leave her practically glowing, what really set her off was what came with it. A new skill she’d hoped for but hadn’t actually expected, gaining weeping enhancement.

Hmm, I wonder if her primordial corpse fragment improved her odds of getting a skill like that or if it was a coincidence? He pondered while doing his best to keep her from actively cheering out of consideration for those sleeping around them. Either way, some excellent luck for her.

With her instantly using the very attribute it enhanced to improve it. The only one like it in the world, her weeping both created and stored tears and she let herself use them freely, immediately setting off a chain of new notifications in her head as she brought it from the zeroth level to the ninth and looked all of the smugger for it.

“I suppose congratulations are in order, that just went super well for you.”

“Hell yeah it did! I continue to stand above the world, crushing everyone else underfoot! Oh man, I wonder if changing jobs and getting this skill is going to improve how much I can get, and I mean, I can smell the amount I would have been able to get from you has already grown but you really should still give me a taste, just to see.”

“...Whatever change you think you can smell in me, do me a favour and ignore it, please?”

“Nope. You get another third-tier skill?” She asked, paying no mind to the other four there who’d heard her casually drop the word ‘another’ as if such an idea wouldn’t be ridiculous. “You were already smelling among the best, but now-”

“No, I just leveled a bunch of my second tier skills,” He said, trying to play it off the best he could since she was still unaware of his sacrilege along with the levels he’d gotten to it, even if that concession had left those he was sitting with aware that not only did he have multiple second tier skills still despite but having reached the third tier, he’d also recently leveled them. “I’m sure I’d change what you get a bit, but… if you can find me a demon out here, then I can give you a way to check how you’ve changed. You’d just need to bring it back alive.”

Instantly she was sniffing at the air, only to deflate when she found nothing nearby despite her heightened senses, leaving him to chuckle while he ruffled her hair. Condemning a demon had been an option, ripping its soul from its body and then filling the empty shell with Quox to see how that changed things but it seemed she wasn’t going to get to enjoy that, at least not that night, even if that didn’t stop her from trying.

“Well, even if I can’t tell for sure with you, you could at least give me a little taste, right? You’ve gotta be a little curious too, don’t you?”

“I’ll give you a cup in the morning so long as you don’t wake anyone tonight,” he told her, willing to compromise that much and practically witnessing as she resolved to lower her volume just a bit. “I’d prefer to have Thera awake and well rested to heal me. Before that though, I’d strongly recommend awakening your weeping enhancement. Trust me, an awakened attribute enhancement is nothing compared to one at the first tier. The difference in growth is insane.”

“Ugh, I believe it but I can already tell that I’m short,” she groaned. “Awakening feels like it costs more than leveling an awakened skill from the zeroth level, this is crap.”

“Ha, it’s a bit of a hump, but if you get it then it will be worth it. Who knows, maybe awakening it will even help me out. We do have our deal, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, if I can then you’re getting weeping, but don’t go expecting me to die first, odds are way better it ends up with your next of kin.”

“That works for me too. Then let’s see, for now, do you need sleep?”

“Nah, I’ve got a good few days before I’m going to need any rest, I’ll hang out.”

“Okay, that makes things significantly easier. The rest of you can turn in now,” he told the adventurers with him. “This is Abel, a fellow third-tier. Don’t worry about waking anyone to replace you, the two of us can be on watch. It’s better for you all to be rested.”

“You sure?” Wosh asked, eyeing Abel as he did. “We don’t want to slack off.”

“With her here, we should have a significantly faster time finding Foast. I’d rather you all be rested for however that turns out. We’ll be fine so get some sleep.”

Considering they were being offered the chance to rest, none wanted to argue any more than that and saying good night, the four slipped away to their tents, leaving the two of them to pass the time until morning when they’d need to begin their search anew.