Capítulo 48: 9.4 Skill Tree?

On second thought, this was probably a mistake.

"How... How much farther, Stranger?"

"How am I supposed to know? Aren't you the quest giver?"

Picture the scene... Two idiots stuck in the middle of absolute nowhere as the one that needed to do their thing had no map or navigational tools to speak of. Idiot number two is right behind idiot number one, whining and complaining in ways that the latter had never heard from the former before. And that wasn't to mention that idiot number two was the one that gave out the location in the first place.

Yes. That was us right now.

[Main Quest Accepted: Journey North]

[Reach the Kattleynan Outpost]

Truly, such vaguery was gonna be the death of me...

"But this is your quest, Stranger..." Shizu panted out, her feet dragging across the ground as she lagged just behind me. "You didn't even listen to me when I said we're going beyond north."

"Then why didn't you stop me?" I asked, my annoyance actually coming out for the first time in a while. "Don't you have that future vision of yours?"

"It didn't show us being stuck in the middle of a swamp, you know," the princess whined, her royal upbringing really starting to show with how her tone was becoming that of a bratty kid. "It's already night too!"

I couldn't help but wince. Shizu was right. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no clue as to where we were. The city was probably miles away behind us by now, and the extraordinary darkness of the night was barely bearable due to the twinkling night of the [Stars] above. What was even worse was that there was absolutely nothing in terms of wildlife in the area, which meant I couldn't feed Shizu once she starts complaining about food.

"And I'm hungry!" Well, speak of the devil and she shall oblige... "I'm not picky, Stranger, but even I wouldn't eat something off this swampy mess."

I let out another sigh for like the fifth time in the span of half an hour. "How are you gonna survive being an adventurer then?"

"I'd at least pack days' worth of supplies before setting out," Shizu sassily replied, her kimono now caked with mud as she waded through the swamp beside me. "Not unlike now where you just dragged me out here with you."

"Well, I didn't tell you to come with me," I fired back with a scoff, my feet sinking annoyingly into the mud as I took another step. "You're the one asking for adventure back there..."

Even through the darkness, I couldn't help but chuckle at Shizu's bright blush as she hurriedly turned her head away from me. Heh... I've won this exchange, at least.

"Oh, [Eld God] Guidance... Please show us the way..."

I rolled my eyes as I heard Shizu pray to the dev again. She's been doing that ever since we got lost. But too bad for her, Guidance was just as human as the rest of us. And speaking of which, where was she anyway?

"Calling out to her like that won't work unless she's already here with us," I snickered, taking the princess out of her reverent prayer. "You have to yell at her to make her appear. Like this...." Cracking my neck, I breathed in the cold air of the Kattleynan air before I shouted out, "GUIDANCE!"

*What?! Who?! Where?!*

...Huh. I didn't even think that would work right now. "Are you availabl-"

*Oh no! I missed my train stop!*

Oof... Now that was a blunder and a half... "Can you talk or..."

*I.... I can talk now, I guess....* the dev dejectedly spoke. *It won't be for a while before I reach the next stop anyway...*

Yikes...

"A God..." Shizu whispered out. Oh right... This was the first time she'd heard Guidance speak since she suffered through that glitch a while ago. "[Eld God] Guidance, can you please show us the way out of this swamp?" she immediately interjected, her tone filled with utter reverence and hope as she spoke. "We've been here for a few hours now, and we are nowhere in sight of the Kattleynan Outpost that Moriya's quest has requested of him to reach."

I blinked at the princess's colorful choice of words. She sounded like a statesman just now. I guess that was just her royal upbringing kicking in.

*[Eld God].... Eh?*

"I already told her to stop calling you that," I clarified. "If you want her to stop, you'll have to do it yourself."

"Are you not one of the [Eld Gods], My Lady?" Shizu practically prostrated herself into the mud, completely uncaring if her face got dirtied in the process. "You hold complete sway over the [Shallow Deep], a feat that only someone of your caliber is capable of."

Oh wow... Shizu's really pulling out the thesaurus now.

*Shizu, right? I can't exactly see you guys right now since I'm not in front of a monitor,* Guidance tiredly called out. *I can only hear you guys in my head. And can you please stop calling me a god? It's kind of inappropriate.*

"But My Lady-"

*And none of that 'My Lady' stuff too,* the dev weakly chuckled. *I'm too poor to be called that.*

Beside me, I watched Shizu freeze up as she raised her head back up to the stars. "Do you not deserve respect? Why deny your true nature?"

I would've snickered, but I decided to keep my mouth shut for this conversation. Shizu badly needed a reality check, and hopefully, Guidance would just be herself and shoot her down.

*Shizu, I'm just a poor programmer working on her own game,* Guidance soothingly explained. *I don't have these powers that you think I have. Hell, I can't even do my own job properly.*

Oof.... Even I could hear the burnout happening in real-time...

"But you're still an [Eld God]!" Shizu reasoned, her mind visibly shattering with each revelation. "You saved me back then! You even gave me the gift of far sight in the form of [Code Watcher]! A [Manifest] in all but name!"

*That? That's just something I didn't know how to fix.*