บท 22: Insanity
Aldric turned back the way he came.
It was an easy decision to make.
His [Insight] screamed to him that he was not ready to brave these doors.
He could feel beyond those gates that large amounts of danger were present but an equal amount of reward.
The [Tesseract] was also guiding him there for some reason.
With his calm and rational mind, he knew that he could always return to this place when he was stronger.
The only thing he was dreading was the long staircase back.
----------
Aldric was now back at the clearing.
He studied both of the entrances that were to his left and right from where he entered.
Focusing on his [Insight] attribute, he tried to assess each side for potential danger.
Now more experienced with his attribute, he could now focus on it to ascertain different things and receive feedback from it in the form of signals.
Danger, opportunity, life, and creatures. This was an extension of the attribute's ability to guide with a "subtle sense of the unseen".
The ability was not omniscient. It gave very vague feelings for everything except danger.
Aldric used his ability to decide which path to take.
The left entrance gave him a low indication of danger. Something he could manage easily but nothing of life.
The right entrance was much more dangerous. A sharp pulse of warmth spread from his gut at the thought of entering it. When Aldric thought of life similar to his own, there was a very faint feeling of warmth.
Aldric concluded that the right path led to somewhere where life existed but was very far away.
It seemed Aldric had to prepare for a long journey.
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It was now a few hours later when Aldric made his choice.
He concluded all his business before his journey. He made note of all his memories and prepared the carcass of the [Queen Spinner] in bulk for his voyage.
Stored in his trusty [Stone Coffer], he prepared his food.
With his armour and weapons fully repaired and equipped, Aldric took a step towards the cold dingy cavity.
"Let's do this"
----------
It's been 50 days since he set out on his journey.
He must have covered hundreds or maybe thousands of kilometres since he entered the dream realm.
Aldric's high hopes were slowly dulling. Using that sliver of feeling from [Insight] to guide him, he struggled in absolute solitude.
The classes of the awakened creatures were slowly rising and Aldric was coming up on a few fallen creatures. Just in proximity, the murmurings were a horrific staple in his life.
He believed the evolution of his attribute would help alleviate the eldritch murmurings however he was simply too naive.
His flaw worked at the very core of his soul. A place even he couldn't reach let alone his attribute.
All it could offer was to somewhat combat the aftereffects but it did nothing to stop Aldric from slowly losing his mind to the whispers.
Aldric decided to just get used to it as much as he could. Now that he felt the worst of it, as long as he did not prolong his exposure to the fallen creatures.
'Meditation and pain.' He concluded.
The gradual loss of sanity did have one positive.
Aldric lived like a true strategist. He only fought when he could guarantee victory. Having now encountered creatures of both awakened and fallen rank, his [Inisght] could be used to gauge the rank of creatures without having to fight or slay them.
He used his knowledge to ascertain the class of the beasts based on intelligence and abilities.
Like a ghost, he attacked and fled in equal measure without being seen or noticed.
This tactic reduced the maximum amount of Dark Sprites he could have received however the amount he was receiving from the increased rank and class of creatures made up for it.
He could draw parallels between how he was fighting to how Sunny fought in the Dark City.
Aldric was not as sneaky as Sunny though.
Sitting alone in his thoughts most of the time allowed him to think.
The reason why the government asks sleepers for information about their nightmare.
Sure one story about a girl being hunted in the woods by a nightmare creature isn't that valuable however through other nightmares you can learn context. The country she was in, the era based on her clothes, the political state of the surrounding countries.
When combined, it truly allows the government to make the most of those interviews.
Another thing that Aldric had thought about was his mysterious memory.
From the description, he concluded that whatever was calling him to that door beneath the staircase probably led to whoever built the thing. Maybe even a piece of them.
Aldric didn't know who the lineage was of. He had hoped that it was a divine lineage. A God or a Daemon, he didn't care.
"It better not be another human's legacy." Aldric thought.
The memory itself hasn't done anything since the day he received it.
He received many memories since. He had received 12 memories and 2 echoes.
The echoes were destroyed in an experiment of his.
'They were weak anyways.' Aldric reassured himself.
He had a wide array of weapons and armour that were weaker than his current set. He decided he would trade them when he had the chance.
2 Memories he actively used were his [Charm of repose] which helped him sleep at a thought and his [Bell of Null] which was a white bell that formed a room of silence around the user. It allowed outside sounds to come in but didn't allow any sound made in the room to be heard outside.
He had killed 5 fallen rank beasts and only one gave him a memory after their death.
It was an annoying creature weaker by normal fallen standards.
It was a giant floating eyeball with wings attached to it. The eyeball could shoot beams of destructive light.
It was here that Aldric learned that true light was his worst enemy. His powers were weakened and harder to use when he was struck by the beam.
After a long fight, he gained a Charm memory in the form of an earring.
[Memory: All-Seeing Eye]
[Memory Rank: Ascended]
[Memory type: Charm]
[Memory Description: Allows one to see the unseen.]
This Charm allowed Aldric to see beyond the descriptions of memories and view the enchantments attached to them. He could not see the descriptions of them but could make an educated guess based on the name.
'It makes sense.' Aldric thought.
There was no way that Bloodweave and having a memory crafting aspect were the only ways to view enchantments.
He doubted only Sunny and Clan Valor could do it.
Aldric thought that there must be rare memories that allow you to view details about others.
After all, there is a memory that boosts the ability of other memories so his one wasn't that farfetched.
Another thing that he did when he was bored was that he entered his soul sea.
It looked as beautiful as ever. The only change he noticed was in the deep abyss below the clouds. It was darker than even the darkest of seas. It looked like an empty expanse of space.
At the surface, where a small modicum of light could reach, Aldric could make out large concentrations of darkness of varying sizes. They were all lined up and spanned a large distance forming a spiral with the first one in the middle.
Aldric couldn't think of a single purpose for these and so he thought he would worry about it later.
----------
Following his attribute, he came across the back of a cavern. From sight alone, he could see that it was hollow.
He chose to be cautious and silently chipped the hollow wall by hand.
Aldric cleared the wall and stepped through.
"MURMUR"
"MURMUR"
He could see the back of a mountain.
A mountain of bones that emanated feelings of death and despair.
Immediately, Aldric coated his skin in a shell of darkness.
Silence.
His presence was null.
This ability was derived from his first nightmare after which he learned to reduce his presence.
Combined with the properties of True Darkness, it erased him from the world.
It would not mask his sounds though.
He was completely silent and slowly went around the apostle of death towards the exit on the other side.
Taking 1 small step each time, it took Aldric 10 minutes to exit silently enough to not alert the fallen rank creature.
Aldric exited the death room and got as far away as he could.
He knew that the senses of a fallen creature were not that bad for him to not be noticed.
'It must be because of my necklace. It said it wards off the undead.'
A small grin formed on his face.
Aldric had an idea of where he was.
*********
Thanks for reading people
What did you think?
Do you know where he is? if you do don't spoil it in the comments
If you don't then guess you will have to wait for the next chapter.
As always, any thoughts or theories?
Till the next one.
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