Furthermore, it was fifteen minutes with his body in tatters. He was moving slower than a snail. If not for that, he could cut the time in half.
Diven dragged his body toward the three masked figures. Feline, Dog, and Bird stood at their usual spot by the stone. Their heads were turned in his direction. They saw him, but they made no move to help.
After a painfully long time, he finally managed to reach their position.
“Help me, please,” He begged.
“Why should we do that?” Dog asked.
“Please, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Dog looked at Feline and Bird in turn before answering.
“If we helped you now, it would complete your Facet of the Survivor. It would be cheating on the task we gave you.”
“If you don’t help, I’ll die,” Diven said, straight to the point. “Please.”
“Is there anything we can do, Dog?” Feline asked.
Dog didn’t answer. His stillness, combined with his masked face, made it impossible for Diven to read him.
He couldn’t even see his eyes.
“Come on, he saw through the mist, it would be a waste,” Feline insisted.
“Fine,” Dog relented. “But there is a condition.”
“What is it?” Diven asked.
“I thought you were ready to do anything?” Dog asked, a playful tone tinting his voice.
“I am.”
“Alright, then it's quite simple. The condition is that I get to choose your next facet.”
At these words, Bird turned her head toward the other two.
“Oh, you’re right, Bird.” Dog continued. “Then Bird will get to pick your final facet for the rift. Is that agreeable to you, Feline?”
“Yes.”
Diven’s mind was reeling. He wasn’t expecting something like that. Facets were something deeply personal, he hadn’t heard of anybody forcing someone to choose a facet before.
Of course, as soon as he heard the words, he realized it must exist, even in Kheiron. But the clans usually used gentle methods to steer their scions on the path they wanted.
He guessed it wasn’t that different.
Dog’s suggestion wasn’t that bad. It could even be said to be effortless on Diven’s part. Or he would have considered it effortless if he didn’t have Facet of the Rot Mage on his list.
What if Dog or Bird picked it? He wasn’t sure if his list had grown, but he was quite sure he would be fine with most options. Sure, Facet of the Fisherman wasn’t too exciting but it wasn’t the end of the world.
Facet of the Rot Mage though…
If they picked it, he would be done for. Never to return to Kheiron. He knew his hopes were slim, even without the facet. He had seen what happened to the Cyclops’ corpse. Rot had infected him already.
But still. He didn’t want to make things worse.
“So, what do you say? Diven?” Dog asked.
He wasn’t sure. He didn’t know why they wanted to pick his facets for him. He didn’t trust them. If he asked them to ignore Facet of the Rot Mage, it could make them want it more. Should he say something? Should he agree?
Did he have a choice?
No.
He didn’t.
Either he agreed, or he died from his wounds. He knew it. He could feel it. Deep in his heart, written in his bones, the state of his body was clear to him.
“I agree,” Diven said.
“Excellent.” Dog said. With a wave of his hand, a trickle of mana seeped into Diven’s body. His wounds suddenly stopped bleeding. His clothes were still torn and messy, and he was far from healthy but at least he wouldn’t bleed out and die. He would survive.
“Thank you,” he said.
He didn’t need to look to know that the branch of Facet of the Survivor was fully grown. It was part of him, he could sense it.
Facet of the Survivor completed. You can select a new facet.
“Now let’s see what we have to work with.” Dog said, stroking his chin under the mask.
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“Rot Mage, Exile, Fisherman,” Bird said.
"That's not a lot," Dog said.
Diven still didn’t know how the winged guardian was able to perceive such information about him. Sure, the Leios clan elders could see his bloodline but a list of available facets seemed so much harder. Then again, there was a skill for everything.
“Nothing new since last time,” Feline commented.
“Indeed,” Dog continued. “I need to think. Rot Mage has some potential, I have never heard of rot-attuned magic before. That said, it’s a little disgusting. It’s also quite clear the boy really does not like this option.”
“How do you know that?” Diven asked, mouth agape.
“It’s written on your face. You should pay attention to your facial expression if you want to hide something,” Feline explained.
“Anyway, I don’t care much about your opinion on the matter,” Dog said. “My main issue with Facet of the Rot Mage is that you’d need to study rot magic which would take forever. Especially since we don’t have experience in that specific attunement. It would be guesswork. Not ideal.”
Diven let out a sigh of relief.
“Facet of the Exile and Facet of the Fisherman are both doable inside the rift,” Dog said. “Probably. I don’t know for sure about Facet of the Exile. That said, Facet of the Fisherman is not interesting to me, so Facet of the Exile it is!”
“Do I have to select it now?” Diven asked.
“Of course, you better do that. Otherwise...” Dog explained.
Left with no choice, Diven focused on his garden and pulled up his available facets list.
Available Facets:
- Facet of the Rot Mage
- Facet of the Exile
- Facet of the Fisherman
He wasn’t too bothered with Dog’s pick. He didn’t like his autonomy being taken away, but he recognized he would have made the same choice. For different reasons, but in the end, it didn’t matter.
The issue was that Bird would decide the final facet before he could leave the rift. Right now, he wasn’t confident she would pick Facet of the Fisherman over Facet of the Rot Mage. Based on what Dog said, they were looking for something interesting. As much as he hated the idea, Facet of the Rot Mage was more interesting than Facet of the Fisherman.
It wouldn’t do. He needed to unlock another option before completing Facet of the Exile.
He selected Facet of the Exile. The tree shook, and a new branch was sprouting. But that wasn’t all, within its trunk, close to the dark, corrupted, rotten streak, an echoing beat resounded.
The new beat overlapped the Rot Heart's rhythm.
Skill Acquired: Echoes of the Heart – Basic – Lv1
Diven didn’t know what the skill was. Only, its representation was inside the tree, awfully close to the rot. He hoped it wouldn’t become a problem. Still, Trap Detection’s ivy was also there and nothing seemed to be happening. It was probably fine.
With all that, Diven was left with two new skills he had no idea how to use. He had a few hints about The Fifth Direction but Echoes of the Heart was a complete mystery.
Should he ask the guardians? They wouldn’t demand payment again, right? Pushing aside his doubt, he spoke up.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Yes,” Feline said.
“But we will only answer as we see fit,” Dog warned.
Bird nodded along.
“When I saw through the mist, I received a skill called The Fifth Direction. Can you tell me what it is?”
“You should know already,” Feline said.
“Indeed, you should know since it’s your skill,” Dog agreed. “Focus on the skill and knowledge within you should surface.”
Diven was skeptical. If it was so easy, it would be common knowledge. However, since he was exiled from the clan as soon as he awakened, it was possible he wasn’t taught this critical information.
He did as instructed and focused on the dirt path meandering inside his inner garden.
The Fifth Direction - Basic - Lv1
Just focusing on it only reminded him of the skill’s status. But if he added a conscious intent to understand its effects, a vague notion of it surfaced in his mind.
It was complicated, unclear, and hard to grasp. But it was there. Diven opened his mouth to ask more questions but was interrupted but Feline.
“North, south, west, east,” Feline said. “The four cardinal directions. Then, there is the fifth direction. Much like the others, it is always there. Now that you’ve seen it, you walk upon it. Sometimes, it will lead you nowhere, into a wall or off a cliff. Most of the time, it's a very efficient way to dodge attacks as most people or monsters won’t know it exists.”
The pieces slowly connected in Diven’s head. So with this skill, he always had an extra option for movements. It was really hard for him to wrap his mind around it, he’d have to train to use it properly.
Dog added further explanations.
“The mist was forcing you on said fifth direction. Where you will end up after going this way is hard to predict, but if you can do it, the skill is incredibly useful.”
“It’s a miracle you even managed to obtain it,” Feline added.
“How is it that the spearfish could walk in the fifth direction then?” Diven asked.
“You’re mistaken, you were the one forced to walk in the fifth direction. The Frostcrawler Spearfish was not doing anything special,” Feline said.
This explained a lot. The chaotic nature of his footprints was because he had been walking in the fifth direction all along.
Diven turned his gaze to look around him.
“It’s no use,” Feline said.
“What do you mean?” Diven asked.
“You will not gain much by practicing The Fifth Direction here. The black stone anchors the fifth direction onto the four cardinal directions. It’s as if it does not exist here.”
“So, I’ll need to go further from the stone?” Diven asked.
“Yes,” Feline said.
“What about my other skill? Echoes of the Heart,” Dive asked.
“What about it?” Dog asked.
“Well, what does it do?”
“We don’t know. Never heard about it,” Dog said.
“But…”
“You can’t expect us to know about every skill there is,” Dog said. “Figure it out yourself.”
Taking this as a dismissal, Diven dragged his body to the other side of the stone. He was spent. His injuries were not in a critical state, the bleeding had stopped since the guardians had intervened.
However, he was far from healed.
He could barely move his left arm. The pain was debilitating.
With no warning, he was hit by a powerful feeling of derealization. This life over the past few weeks in the wilds, the past few days in the rift, was that really him?
He could barely recognize himself. It hadn’t been that long but he felt so far from home, so far from the Diven of Kheiron he knew.
What was he doing here?
Passing a hand over his face, he tried to make sense of it all. There were times where thinking did more harm than good, and Diven was convinced it was one of those.
What else could he do? He needed to find the rift’s exit, there was no way around it. Then he’d need to continue surviving in the Wildlands.
He didn’t need to overthink it.
He needed to rest.
But first, he wanted to figure out his newest skill.
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