Chapter 217

Chapter 217

I searched the faces of the crowd, trying to find an appropriate target. Someone cruel or angry, someone who would test me through nothing more than existing. Leaving them be, without accidentally using or or even would serve as a test of my self-control with the ring equipped.

And yes, I know how that sounds. Ive always seen other people as the enemy, the other, the competition. If they couldnt trade favors, influence, or be useful, they were nothing but the potential to hinderand I was better off stepping on them than over.

It should have been easy to find a target. Someone. Anyone. Follow current novels on novelb((in).(com)

But I couldnt. As I scanned the tired, worried faces, I couldnt single anyone out. Which should have been impossible with this crowd. The best of them are people who gained User status post transposition. Everyone else was a slacker, a nothing, an idiot waste of space frittering away precious hours before the next event hit. And when it did, theyd be worse than deadweight.

So why didnt I hate them?

Maybe because their once smug and carefree faces were laden with worry, but it didnt feel that simple. It felt systemic. As if something within me had shifted. It wasnt Hastur. His influence on my mind had long since faded. It was something else. The people in line were just that. People. They got scared, and didnt manage their time properly, and fell back on vices and empty comforts when they had nothing else.

When did I change?

I shoved the troubling line of thought down, sidelining it for later when I had time to consider it properly, and disappeared further into the forest.

/////

After a few minutes of walking, I found it. An oval clearing in the trees, still partially covered by canopy above. At least a half-dozen abnormally long sprouts of green stuck up out of the ground, scattered around the fringes. Mandrakes.

The Mandrakes themselves werent particularly threatening. Even in a larger group, I doubted theyd do little more than scream and run away. But wed dealt with them one at a time for a reason. The few times wed gotten hasty, their screams had grated together, combining into a stomach churning screech with an effect that was more exponential than additive. And seeing as how I only had a single chance to get this right, I needed as much sensory overload as possible.



Nothing yet. Good. Now the actual test.

I braced myself. Then leaned down to grab the leafy sprout at the root and yanked it out of the ground.

The mandrake squealed immediately. Its grubby fingers latched onto my gauntlet and tried to free itself. I briefly considered using to silence it, then checked the Uses Remaining and found them unchanged. I repeated the process again, uprooting another mandrake with my free hand and feeling my gut tighten as their shrieks ground together.

It was worse than I remembered. The pitch and cadence varied, mixed in with words, but they were always discordant to each other, and the discordance swelled in volume until I could barely hear my own grunts of discomfort. This would probably damage my hearing, but considering the sheer amount of deafening chaos during the transposition and my hearings currently undamaged state, it was a given that a health potion would mitigate damage, as long as I took it immediately after.

I placed the second mandrake alongside its neighbor, taking small satisfaction from watching them smack together as the sprouts on their head formed a strange, flowerless bouquet and pulled the third.

None came.

















That was a lot. More than I could even process. The notification centered on increasing my shielding from the divine concerned me. Because the system wasnt exactly big on handouts. If it was giving me increased protection, it was out of necessity. And from prior experience, it wouldnt come close to adequate. I drew up my ability list, checking the default ability first.



I read the description once. Then again. And again. A cold lance of fear pierced me, chilling me to the bone.

Slowly, I pulled free from my finger and secured it in my pocket, testing to make sure I could feel it through my gauntlets padding. Its circular outline stood out clearly. Id need to check it constantly until I could properly secure it.

Especially now.

From the beginning it was difficult to understand why the Ordinator class was so singled out. If anything, it felt underpowered and had a highly specific use-case, sacrificing almost all offensive potential for the promise of eventual power creep. The details were spotty, vague. And while everyone alive in the dome saw the same footage of Ordinators wreaking havoc, my predecessors had clearly reached their endgame. And it stood to reason that there were more than a few other carry classessuch as necromancersthat didnt fully come into their own until endgame.

Why were gods themselves seem so keen to take me off the board? Id wanted an explanation more than almost anything.

And now, I had one.