Chapter 8: Preparing for Fort Joy
Crashing waves and shattered wood. Those were the two impressions I received when I ascended to the top deck. I peered down into the roaring sea with reinforced eyes. I don't know what happened, but after becoming a Primeval Sorcerer. My eyes... changed. Whether for better or worst. Whenever I attempted the act of reinforcing them like the past. My vision would erupt with stars and I could see things differently. Especially when it came to any mystical origins.
I could peer deeper into the origins of mystery within them. Which basically meant that it was easier for me to break down and understand how magical things worked.
Like these fucking terrifying giant larvae. Dear gods I hate bugs, this is almost as bad as when I went into the deeproot depths and had to fight my way through giant bugs.
So there was currently some sort of magical giant squid, with scales assaulting the ship. Along with big bug-like creatures. I believe these are all variants of Voidwoken in search of 'Source'. At first, I assumed the source was a type of soul energy. But from my Primeval eyes, that doesn't seem to be completely accurate. It's more like an extra dimensional energy that existed in the world, transforming everything it touches for better or worst. It sort of reminded me of the Primeval Current, a memory of Astel flashed in my head.
Forms of magic become more potent, while animals and insects seem to become more powerful or dangerous. These Voidwoken seem to seek out Source, which a large abundance can come from Sourcerers who's souls have been touched by it. Oddly enough, for some reason it feels as if every living creature besides animals originated from 'Source'. Which I found odd.
"Well done." I nodded to the Mausoleum soldiers who cut down the giant larvae as I stood from a distance. I don't know why, I'm beginning to become partial towards these headless soldiers. I moved passed them, allowing them to disappear into nothingness. I could keep them up forever with the energy I get from the Primeval Current. But that didn't mean there wasn't a strain on my physical body. It's not much, since they are pretty basic summons. But if I don't have to strain myself, then why bother?
I looked at the large, scaled tentacles that were constricting the boat. I kind of wanted to kill it, but I didn't feel like exerting myself before I could get this damn collar removed. Which reminds me, I need to go find one to examine later. I could examine my own, but it's a bit awkward considering that it's currently on my neck.
"Shut yer trap, kid. Children and dwarves first, just like the ol' stories say!" I heard voices on the other side of the deck. There was a lifeboat with a dwarf and a human kid.
"You said there were other people down there. We... we need to help them!"
"You see those tentacles, kid? It's time for gettin' the hell out of here!"
You know, there's something about seeing a kid with concern about other people than themselves in situations such as this. It's... pure? Stupid? Commendable? Definitely stupid? Either way, it doesn't completely sit right with me to just leave either. Granted that the people down there are protected by literal gods. I don't see myself as evil enough to abandon them, especially when there is little to no danger towards myself. Then again it probably wouldn't matter since I'm dumb enough to try and punch a god in the face.
Either way, I like it. "Don't worry kid, I'll check the lower deck for survivors." I flashed the kid a grin as the kid became excited.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! There's a ladder right over there." He pointed over to a ladder nearby.
"You're gonna be the death of us. You hear?" the dwarf grumbled as I made my way towards the ladder.
I found myself back on the lower deck. I quickly scanned the deck for unconscious people. I moved quickly, hefting the bodies of living people to the center. Let's take count. Lohse, Red lizard, Sebille, The human who I assumed was Ifan, and the dwarf who's name was....
"Ohhhh... What... What happened? Must have been the turnips...." The red lizard man groaned.
"Unggh, by my beard. What's all the racket...?" I heard the dwarf who I recalled is named Beast.
"Wake up!" I casted a basic healing incantation. I noticed the rest beginning to stir.
"If you can walk, get yourself up the ladder. There's a b-" I was cut off by the sound of floorboards breaking. "Voidwoken! Get moving!" I ordered as everyone got their bearings enough to run.
"Kill them all." I ordered as the Mausoleum soldiers appeared by my side.
"These beardless bugs won't sink the ship on my watch!" I turned to see Beast running at one of the Larvae.
"I thought Voidwoken were supposed to be scary." I heard Lohse fighting another as sparks flew.
It looks like the Origin characters can defend themselves, in rags or not. I smirked, letting my soldiers disappear.
∞
"Come on, the ship's sinking we need to move!" I heard Lohse call out to me.
"Go on ahead, I have something to take care of." I waved, completely unconcerned. She looked at me for a moment before running off with everyone else.
I moved towards the room of the murder. I glanced at the large bloodstain for a moment before bending down and picking up a broken collar. It was stained by the blood, and it looked broken. But this should be good enough to examine for now.
"Are you quite finished?" I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"What about you? Shouldn't you be making your way to the lifeboat?" I raised a brow at the skeleton.
"Please, the worst that will happen to me is my rags getting soaked. If I drown, I could just walk to shore. Unlike those primitives." He scoffed.
"Heh, I imagine it wouldn't be a very pleasant walk though." I chuckled in response.
"Indeed, but at worst it will be an annoyance."
*SHATTER sfx* The walls shattered as more tentacles flew into the room. The ship was going down.
"Well, I'll see you at Fort Joy then." I nodded to him, stuffing the broken source collar into a bag.
"I still find myself questioning how you plan to survive this." He shook his head.
"I have my methods." I smiled before leaping out towards the destroyed wall, into the sea itself.
∞
"You know, I didn't expect you to follow me." I eyed the skeletal man riding behind me.
"Yet you made no attempt to rebuke me."
"Everyone is free to do what they choose."
"Quite."
I didn't expect Fane to literally follow me after I jumped into sea. I swam up, created glyphs on the surface of the water and just kept repeating that as I rode Torrent towards Fort Joy in the distance.
"By the way, where did this steed come from? I've never heard of a summoning spell for something like this." He asked as he was riding with me.
"It's my own personal steed that comes to me when I whistle."
"If that's the case, what happens to it after death?"
"Then I'll bring him back to life, although I would rather not let Torrent die. It can be tedious to bring him back." Now that I think about it, how would I bring Torrent back to life? I still have my flask of sacred tears but.... I don't have any sites of grace to refill it.
Eventually we reached the shore of the island. It took about 50 minutes, roughly.
"You have my thanks. Now if you'll excuse me, I must find a solution to my missing mask."
"No problem. I need to figure out how to get this damn collar removed." I sighed before taking a seat on a large rock and examining the broken source collar.
"Until we meet again then." Fane nodded before leaving to do his own thing.
∞
Interlocking parts, constructed completely with metal. The magical effect doesn't seem to come from any sort of etched runes or written language. If anything it's literally just a collar, enchanted with a type of source magic in order to 'mute' the caster's soul. Not very meticulous, and now I take back some of my compliments that I gave it back on the ship.
I already figured out how to take it apart, I'm now trying to figure out if there's any failsafe for removing it. Like what if it blows up when I remove it? But then again, I remember there were people in the game who could remove these collars with no consequences. Well none besides the patrolling magisters attacking you for not having a collar on.
My Primeval eyes scanned every inch of it, then I held up a mirror in order to see if I could discern it's mysteries through a reflection. The answer was that I could, although it seems less effective.
Ultimately, I couldn't find any rigged trap that would kill me for removing it manually with tools. I projected some tweezers, and other corresponding tools before me. A larger mirror was set in front of me as I went to work.
Some short tinkering later, the collar was removed. I rubbed my neck, much better. There seemed to be a mark on my neck, damn that was on a bit too tight after all.
I took out my scroll and withdrew some bread, lamb meat and water from the inventory. Was beginning to get hungry, all the food around here isn't exactly delectable. I took a moment to light a fire with magecraft. Projected a cooking pan and started cooking the lamb. My stomach was actually beginning to growl.
I stuffed the bread and cooked meat in my mouth to sate my stomach's growling. Much better.
Taking a moment to check my inventory, I decided against using my spear for this place. I don't know, there's something that irks me the wrong way to have to use my best weapon for a place like Fort Joy. Although I'm not about to go full on murder hobo, I imagine I'll have to kill some people here.
I took out the Sword of Night and Flame. Pretty nice and elegant weapon. Nice to have as a backup incase something gets passed my summons. I changed my clothes to a more casual wear than rags. Nothing fancy, just a regular T-Shirt, Baggy pants and boots for comfort. I didn't want to incite anyone to rob me, so it was all very plain looking.
I checked my dirty hair and frowned. It was shoulder length white hair, sort of a shorter version of Siegfried's hair from fate. It was dirty and dark now from the grime. That wouldn't do. Although I'm not trying to stand out, I'd rather not walk around with an itchy head.
I'm beginning to regret not bringing any shampoo with me before I left the Schnee manor. I took a bucket of clean water and dumped it on top of my head, using magecraft to move the water around my body. All the dirt and grime became trapped in the now dark glob of floating liquid.
"Much better." I smiled as I didn't feel like complete shit anymore.
I tried to see if I could project a collar around my neck, but it was difficult to get the same thrumming magic from the original collar. I guess I could recreate it with some light from my own magical energy.
After a few minutes in the mirror, I nodded with satisfaction. Although it doesn't look completely the same, it's hard to notice the difference. I stashed the sword into my soul space to take out later if necessary. Only an erdsteel dagger was visibly sheathed on my hip.
Now then, let's see if I can find some magic books in this place. I actually took hundreds of books from Raya Lucaria Academy into my inventory before I left the tutorial. So collecting more books was starting to become a personal hobby for me.
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