Chương 12: An invite
Once all the festivities and celebrations were done, Barda finally retired to his room. All through since he came out of the tunnel, he hadn't had any time to himself. To avoid people asking questions, he had to excuse himself from one person or the other.
Despite all that, Barda felt that this was a good thing, all things considered. The family issues were effectively solved, and his place in the society had been solidified. One big wrinkle was that he was now in the limelight, something he did not want.
However, Barda realized the need to change his plans. Coming to this world, Barda had one plan, to get away from it all. The politics and the powerplays, serving ingrates that would kill you once you've served their purposes. He had had enough of this. His idea had been to get away from it all, find a place to hunker down and retire.
The hard fact of the world was, humanity would always try to take something that was not theirs. The more they were powerful, the greedier they got. Barda wanted to be done with all that, but to do that, he had to get not only strong enough, he also needed enough influence. Only then could he stand alone, unopposed.
The good thing was, he had what it took to rise above everyone else on the planet. Getting there would not be much of a hassle, but if he didn't do it right, retaining the power would be hell.
Barda didn't have much desire for power or status, he just wanted everyone to leave him alone. he wanted a place he can be himself without having to make excuses or hide who he was. A place he could call home. He'd never had that before, and maybe in this new life, it was not too late to have that.
Soon as everyone was in dreamland, Barda rose quietly from his bed and went out. This was also one of the reasons why he had taken too long in the cave, despite having finished up with the beast way earlier.
After Barda killed the Queen beast, he had received a brilliant ball and managed to absorb it completely. Once he was done, he had felt a change within his energy levels, as though he had been injected with some foreign power.
A wild thought had occurred to him, but he had to quell his excitement until it was confirmed. Could it be that he had absorbed the beast's magical powers? While such a thing was unlikely, that was the only conclusion he could make based on the evidence at hand. It was a wild guess and a prayer, but if it was true... Barda couldn't help but grin as he thought of the possibilities.
Barda had watched the Queen beast use its stomping powers over and over again. He had been very intrigued, and through observation, he had found the weakness that helped him take it down.
Following the Queen Beast's movement, Barda tried to simulate the Stomping power, and surprisingly, it had worked. He had been underground at the time, and the stomp had barely elicited a tremor, but it worked.
With confidence, he then used his full power. The whole cave almost came down on him. With that, Barda realized that he could make use of magic, and even regulate the output. One thing was bugging him though, could he use it outdoors or did he have to do it underground? When he activated the Stomp skill, it worked.
Barda then proceeded to integrate the skill as part of his arsenal, to be summoned whenever there was a need. This was the advantage of an android body, they did not need to train or practice. The skills were in-built. They couldn't learn or improve by repetition since once was enough.
When he had killed the deer or the numerous ant beasts, nothing fancy had happened, but when he took down the Queen, the weirdness had happened. The ants had seemed magical, but maybe they never had enough magic in them. Perhaps they were just surrogates of the Queen, of they never had enough magic in them.
Barda wondered if he could absorb the powers of other magical beasts. While this was little more than a fantasy, but if it turned out to be true, Barda was even afraid of the possibilities. He had seen mages before in his past life, and he had to admit he had been extremely jealous of such powers, which were out of reach for him. Now, that was no longer the case.
Even if he wasn't greedy, which he was, he would be fairly excited by the Stomping powers. Barda had to admit that he was not content with just this. He needed to prove his theory, and possibly grow stronger. Only then would he have the peace he yearned for.
Markell needed to know whether he was the only one to discover this. He also wondered where he might find another magical beast to hunt and test his hypothesis. There was one big problem. The place he was had very limited information. Most of the people surrounding him, including the Merkalls, could barely read. The vast majority were illiterates. There was no library and the knowledge of the people was marred by myths and legends.
There was an obvious solution for this: get to the other side of the wall. There had to be a library, and the people there must have been better informed, if not educated. However, doing that was easier said than done. Many had spent their entire lives pining away at the gates, with no hope of getting in. If he was going to make it where few others had, he needed a plan and lots of information.
With the materials in place, he was hard at work the next day, working hard to make the quota. He had to first finish the work given before he can cook up some ideas.
"Someone's asking for you." Meena again. At this rate, Barda wondered if he would ever finish his work.
"Coming."
This time, the atmosphere was more relaxed. Even Merkall was smiling at his guest, showing her respect. This was pretty rare for Merkall, but who could blame him. One look at the guest and her entourage and one would understand.
If beauty had a face, it'd be her. A strong powerful woman with the face of an angel. Standing at 5'11, her white skin and long flowing black hair and dark brown eyes captured the attention of anyone looking at her. Her warrior aura was enough to deter anyone from trying anything fishy.
"How would you like to join my adventurer team?" The woman asked after pleasantries and introductions were made. She didn't bother to hide her intention or dally any longer.
"What's an adventurer team?" Barda was taken back. His question rather made the new arrivals appear shocked. Barda also did not miss a few looks of disdain. The word 'country bumpkin' had been thought a few times.
"I heard you took down a monster in a mine. That's what we do, in a nutshell." A man standing behind her answered patronizingly. In his mind, Barda was nothing more than just some lucky asshole, not in any fitting their group of elites.
"So you hunt monsters for a living?" If you are going to be patronizing, then 2 can play that game.
"We'll be in the River View hotel for the rest of the week. Once you've made up your mind, come find us there." The lead woman said and began walking away before saying, "If they give you any trouble, tell them Miss Ellen sent you." Barda then watched her regal figure as she walked out. Her group of 5, 2 men and 3 women following her closely.
"Okay, so what is an adventurer team?" Once she had gone, Barda questioned the father and daughter duo.
"I'll only answer that if you tell me where you came from," Meena answered with a sly smile.
"Never mind then," Barda said and started to walk away.
"Fine, I'll tell you, but you not going to crack? Give me some bit of details, nothing much." Meena continued to prod. Merkall listened on. He had to admit he too had been curious, but he hadn't found the chance to dig some information.
"What would you want to know?" Barda asked, relenting.
"Everything, but for now I will settle for this, why did you leave?"
A look of forlorn sadness appeared on Barda's face. A look that both father and daughter noticed. His mind seemed to wander for a few moments before his attention returned to focus. Looking at her, he seemed to look for words to say but failed. Eventually, he stuttered: "I had nothing left for me there."
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