บท 6: Chapter 6
Soon noises and howls could be heard in a bush. The goblins rushed in the direction to help their comrade before the sounds of brawling finally stopped. The goblin fighter, an arrow stuck in his arm, returned, pushing a familiar girl in front of Tolir:
"Alyn?! What are you doing here?"
The girl frowned and turned her head away, determined not to answer. Tolir threatened her:
"Too bad, in that case, I'll take you back to the village to Father Maurias, explaining to them that you were following me..."
"No, please! I followed you because I wanted to make sure that you found the gate... Except that before this one, you strayed from the path. Curious, I followed you here and I saw that you were looking at the status of this strange thing... I wanted to have a look at it but without success..."
Tolir's eyes widened in disbelief. He had been followed for more than an hour without realizing it... Worse, she had caught him in the midst
"Wait, you said something about status? Do you have access to it?"
"Of course, I do... Everyone does... What is this thing? And how do you control the goblins? Don't tell me that it was you from the beginning who..."
"No! Let's say that it's a particularity of my status. But you should know that the ones I control have never attacked anyone. Can you show me yours? In exchange, I'll answer all your questions..."
Alyn hesitated, unable to decide whether the proposal was sincere or not. Finally, Tolir's friendly and relaxed tone convinced her:
"Well, well..."
A status window appeared before her. When he approached to better observe her, he almost choked on her features:
>>>>> Alyn's Status <<<<<
Health: 18/18
Mana: 6/6
Strength: 15
Agility: 18
Stamina: 14
Will: 19
Spirit: 12
Experience: 102
Abilities: -
Skills: -
Title: -
How could she have a better status than him despite her young age? He asked the reason to Alyn who answered:
"I've been training to fight since I was born... My parents wanted me to be able to defend myself at a very young age, for example I killed my first goblin at seven."
"Seven years old? But that's impossible..." He sighed.
"Of course, it is... Certainly with a little help but a goblin, it is not very solid in the end, an arrow well placed is enough. Well, for the ordinary ones, for the strong ones, like the one with the spear, even now, I still need two arrows..."
Tolir carefully noted this information in a corner of his head. Finally, a tangible power scale! He resumed his interrogation:
"You say your parents taught you to fight, have you always lived here?"
"As far as I remember, I always lived in the forest... Well, until I was fifteen when my parents died, three months ago..."
His face became tense and sad. Tolir felt bad for reminding her of those bad memories, but he saw the situation as an opportunity to finally get to the bottom of this story that had been intriguing him for a while:
"I see, sorry to belabor the point, but why did they choose to live outside the village?"
"I don't know the exact reason, but they often complained about the obligations of the village. I never really understood the reasons until I was forced to live there... Life is so much less... fun than in the forest... Here, you don't have to pray, you can fight goblins and you can get up whenever you want!"
He sighed in disappointment at not learning more about this. Seeing that the discussion was going nowhere, he let go. Alyn, realizing that it was his turn to ask the questions, asked:
"So what is this sphere?"
Tolir hesitated, if she ever decided to repeat what she had said, it would jeopardize his plans, but at the same time, he was not a liar and hated it when people betrayed their word.
"It's an aetheric core."
"Oh," she marveled, "and what's it for?"
"To invoke creatures like goblins for example."
Her eyes lit up with fascination for the orb reassured Tolir, who had feared a violent reaction from her. So much so that he was surprised:
"Aren't you afraid?"
"Why should I be?"
"Well, goblins killed your parents and this thing can summon them... Just like me..."
"Yes and? I also killed goblins though, you are not afraid of me..."
While he was about to answer, he stopped surprised by the relevance of the argument to which he found nothing to retort. Faced with his silence, Alyn took the opportunity to start again:
"Can you show me how it works?"
Tolir did not know any more who between her or him had been fooled in this story... Unable to resist to the enthusiasm of the young girl, he agreed to a demonstration that he would accomplish anyway. He opened the window of the core under the amazed eyes of Alyn:
>>>>> Aethereal Core I <<<<<
Aether: 7/50
Upgrade: 10 aether
Knowledge Points: 1/1
Aetheric Bond: 6/10
Summoning: [Goblin Recruit] (1 aether)
He transferred the 13 points of aether into the core and then launched the upgrade while his spectator watched on. Immediately the menu was updated, causing a cry of excitement from her:
>>>>> Aethereal Core II <<<<<
Aether: 10/100
Knowledge Points: 1/3
Aetheric Bond: 6/20
Summoning: [Goblin Recruit] (1 aether)
"Wow, it has changed!"
"Yes, I have improved it and made it more powerful! Now I can do more things with it! He explained while pretending to know what it was about."
"How did you get this power and why are you in this world?"
"It was given to me... so that..."
He paused in hesitation, even though he had said a lot, he couldn't afford to reveal that information. He feared it would scare the girl into turning him in... At least as it stood, he was pretty sure she didn't see him as a threat. At his lack of response, Alyn began to tremble:
"Don't tell me... That you're here to..."
"Alyn..." Tolir whispered in fear of what was to come.
"To rescue us from the Cult?!"
"No! And... What?"
He widened his eyes, surprised by Alyn's surprising conclusion. He collected himself before asking:
"What do you mean by the cult?"
"How can you not know what it is? It is the organization to which Father Maurias belongs, they are the ones who manage prayers and security, among other things."
"It's the village religion, in fact."
"The what? The Cult is a universal organization, it is in all the worlds!"
Tolir scratched her head. So, she didn't know the term religion... Was it because of her lack of knowledge, or was it simply that the Cult was so pervasive that the idea of other people having other beliefs was considered unimaginable? Yet she had mentioned the deliverance of the Cult... He became interested in this point:
"It was my parents who often spoke about it, they hoped that one day, the old deities would return to deliver us from the yoke of the Cult as they said."
He assumed that the ancient deities were the ones Zali belonged to. Thus, some inhabitants supported the idea that the Cult should be overthrown... What a pity that they had died before his arrival... However, they had perhaps left him a most useful contribution. He turned to Alyn:
"And you, what do you think of all this?"
"Before I went to the village I thought they were exaggerating, I wondered what exactly they were blaming them for, but now I understand better... I think they are right, everyone should be free to live as they want and not have a priest telling them what they can and cannot do!"
Tolir smiled at Alyn's statement:
"That's good timing, because that's what I was planning to accomplish with the help of the goblins. So, if you want to help me, you are welcome!"
"Is it true? I'd love to, I can't wait to see the look on Father Maurias' face when we destroy his army of golems!"
"By the way, since you mentioned it, how powerful are these?"
"The golem guards? They're pretty strong, not as strong as me but not far off. They're especially strong, I'd say one of them would be able to fight five normal goblins and come out alive. On the other hand, they'd lose to three tough goblins, I'd say."
He winced at this unpleasant news. He would have to revise his plans, he who had hoped that thirty or so goblin recruits would be enough... He motivated himself before exclaiming while rolling up his sleeves:
"Well then, let's get to work! We have work to do!"
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