Soul Knight - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

As the trio arrived near the portal with his two new Soul Servants in tow, Nick felt a little melancholy and hugged Eirwen from the side and looked back.

“This floor was a lot of fun. Good memories.” Nick counted out on his fingers one at a time, “There was the sack of coins, the boulder, the dream date–”

Eirwen giggled with her ears flicking up and down, and Kaya groaned. “Yes, I’m so glad you two had so much fun. I suppose I should be a bit happy, too. I’m finally starting to get control of my ferality, and should hit the fifth level on the next floor.”

Eirwen frowned. “That’s really weird. There is just way too much essence being gained per floor. The assortment of enemies is way excessive.”

Kaya looked around in worry. “Crap, doesn’t that mean the tower is preparing us for even harder challenges? The Trial is probably going to be very dangerous. Winny–”

“I’m all in already, remember, Kaya? I’m sure Jerome here is going to keep me protected, and even if I go down, I’ll be fine as long as Nick revives me. It’ll be fine! I’m more worried about you now, Kaya. That’ll be solved if you just form a Soul Pact with Nick and become his wife, though!”

Nick frowned. “Actually, I don’t think it’s that simple, Winny.”

“Huh?”

He shook his head. “I feel like we’re both not ready for it. Kaya’s not ready for me, and I’m not ready to spend my whole life with her. I don’t think I’ll be able to walk up to any girl and make them my wife, even if they will accept the pact–unless it’s a Follower Pact.”

Eirwen smiled at Kaya. “That’s okay, I just know you two will hit it off when we have a chance to breathe outside the tower.”

Kaya frowned. “How do you figure?”

“Well, you’ve worked so hard for so long, for me. Nick will help you relax, by taking away the burden from you. For the first time in a long while, you’ll be able to live for yourself, and have  tons of fun together! I think you two would compliment each other well.”

Kaya looked a little doubtful, but Nick asked, “What makes you think that?”

“I just know it! Kaya would have had even more fun on that date we took than I did. I had a wonderful time at the beach.”

Nick suddenly wanted to see Kaya surfing, especially as a red panda.

Kaya looked a little envious. “You went to the beach?”

Eirwen giggled. “I got to ride waves on a bodyboard, and see the water wollywompus!”

Nick groaned. “Alligator! I don’t wanna hear that other name again. You could still become my first Follower though, Kaya.”

Kaya looked a little doubtful, but not completely opposed. “What would that entail?”

“You and I just need to come to an agreement, a sort of equivalent exchange. It can’t be something minor, either, it looks like. I must provide something substantial, something that is meaningful to you, perhaps even life-changing, and you must provide something similar.”

Now Kaya was filled with doubt, but she smirked. “Uh-huh. And just what do you have that I need, and what am I providing you?”

Eirwen chuckled, as she appeared to be reading over something in her Menu. “Well, I think your role as a bodyguard, willing to die to protect him–and thus, me, might be what you can provide him? As long as you aren’t completely dismembered, he’ll be able to revive you.”

Kaya hummed. “I suppose that could work, I take it that means he can’t exactly order me around, I would just feel… what, compelled to protect him? Still, what does he offer me?”

Nick nodded, and he brushed his soul magic over her. He couldn’t read her nearly as deeply as he could Eirwen, the two of them not reaching the same level of mutual understanding and desire.

Still, he found a desire of her heart, one that would be worth becoming his bodyguard for. A means of changing her destiny.

His eyes glowed white, and his soul thrummed with the essence of soul. “Kaya, daughter of Mira and Thorne, I offer you a Soul Pact. Become my first Follower, my guard, and protect me against those that stand against me while adhering to Archaen Law. In return, I will do everything in my power to help forge you into a warrior that would make Mira’s memory proud, helping you become a formidable Beast Warrior she dreamed for you. On my honor, should we succeed within this Trial, I will even use my kingdom’s resources to make it so.”

Kaya sucked in a breath, her eyes pooling with tears. Despite her not having the ability to tell truth from lies with a sort of soul sense, she knew Nick’s words were true. That he would be bound by the same Pact, just as she had to protect Nick, he would have to fulfil his side of the covenant.

She looked at Eirwen, who hugged her from the side with a wide smile. “You can count on Nick, Kaya. Even if the Pact didn’t do it, you better believe I’ll help make sure he keeps his promise! And, you can cancel the Follower Pact with consent of both parties. There’s hardly a downside!”

“Uh, you mean beside the fact I should protect him with my life?” Eirwen only giggled, and Kaya sighed, as she mulled it over.

Then, she gave Nick a look of determination. “I accept your Soul Pact. I’ll protect you and my sister, and in return, you’ll help make me a strong Beast Warrior.”

White light emanated from Nick, connecting to Kaya’s soul. He could feel the connection to her, the restrictions of the covenant being laid on them both. The light eventually dimmed, Kaya taking deep breaths.

She was shocked. “W-Wow, that was really something. But I don’t really feel different?”

Nick shrugged. He got a notification.

[Quest Milestone: Rebuild House Torian - Collected first Follower and Wife]

[Reward: Spell - Remove Affliction]

[Spell: Remove Affliction]
[Mana Cost: Variable]
[School: Soul]
[Target: Follower, Wife, or Soul Servant]
[Send a burst of Soul Magic through your connection, to remove afflictions on your allies. Cost variable based on power of affliction.]

Nick’s eyes went blank, as the method to cast the spell entered his mind. He groaned when he realized he couldn’t even use it on himself. He shared the ability with Eirwen and Kaya, and both thought it was quite useful. Nick could have used it when they were facing the shadow Davon.

Together, they all walked toward the portal to enter its radius, and received the prompt for completion of the floor.

[3rd Floor: Test completed. Individual reward: 3 Silver, Kite Shield.]

The silver and shield dropped to the ground, clanking. “Oh nice, a shield for you, Jerome.” He handed it to his hobgoblin chieftain, and continued, “I’ll feel a lot better with him having that instead of that little buckler. You want the buckler, Winny?”

Her eyes were unfocused again, and so were Kaya’s.

“Aw, c’mon! Don’t tell me you both got skills again? I’m 0 for 3!”

Eirwen’s ears wiggled. “Hehe, I got quick loading! I can spend a bit of my body essence and mana to more rapidly load my crossbow. I’ll be able to fire much more quickly. I’ll take the smaller buckler, since I can still shoot my crossbow while wearing it.”

Nick tossed it to her and looked over at Kaya, who had an odd expression. “What is it, Kaya? What did you get?”

“I got… Camouflage. It’s like Sneak, but has more limitations. In many ways, you could say it is better. You can stay hidden for longer since it costs less essence and mana, and just have to move much more slowly. I don’t think I really… need Sneak anymore.”

Eirwen gasped. “Oh! Maybe you can select the Flanking Strike when you hit five then? It’s much more useful for a Beast Warrior!”

“Nice, you both got great skills. Let’s move on?”

They stepped through the portal, arriving at the next floor. They were in a chamber which was made completely of wood, or the roots and vines of trees covering even the ceiling.

[4rd Floor - Test of Melee Reflection. Many warriors rely too heavily on melee attacks to defeat their foes. Overcome this Test and become stronger, lacking this critical weakness. Defeat Boss in final chamber.]

Nick groaned. “For real? I guess now we see why the bandits carried all these knives with them.”

Eirwen looked left and right, a look of worry. “A Boss? Those are usually every 5th floor! I guess because we are doing the Trial instead… There’s no Safe Zone, either.”

Kaya looked ahead of them. “At least we can take a forward formation. Enemies won’t be able to come from behind Winny.”

Nick looked around at their surroundings. “You sure about that, that they can’t just spawn behind her? These vines and trees seem like they could just dump enemies out.”

Eirwen looked doubtful. “I guess we don’t know for sure. But the archer will keep me protected, right, Nick? Jerome is going to need to be up front.”

Nick shrugged. “We need to use throwing knives anyway, it looks like. Kaya and I will be in the middle, so we’ll close enough to help if there’s an issue.”

They formed up in a diamond formation, with Jerome at the front with his kite shield, Eirwen and Jerry in the back. Kaya and Nick formed the middle corners of the diamond, with Nick on the left and Kaya on the right, giving everyone a decent line of sight to the oncoming enemies.

They moved down the wide corridor, finding a few branching paths up ahead.

They marched until Kaya’s ears flicked. “They’re coming! It sounds like a dozen of them from the corridor ahead on the right!”

Nick and Kaya were ready with their throwing knives, and Eirwen had her crossbow loaded, with Jerry the hobgoblin having his bow drawn.

What looked like some odd silver dog ambled into the hallway at full speed, followed by several others. They were moving so fast they almost crashed into the opposite wall. Jerry and Eirwen released their shots right away, hitting two different creatures.

The struck dogs tumbled to the ground, while others leaped over and ran around them. Nick saw the two were getting up again, to continue their murderous rush.

Nick and Kaya began throwing their knives, the two each having a near-armory of the weapons. Eirwen was filled with essence as her hands moved with supernatural speed, quickly reloading her crossbow and cocking it.

As the first dog neared Jerome, Nick finally got a good look at it. It had an odd metallic skin, that almost looked like that of a mirror. There were no eyes on the creature’s head, and no ears. Only a mouth full of the same metal-like teeth, a chrome-like silver covering the body.

Jerome bashed one with its shield powerfully, knocking the first one back and through the air. An arrow, a crossbow bolt, and knives struck the next several, knocking them down to the ground. Finally, two leaped at Jerome at nearly the same time.

One was shoved to the side with his shield, and Jerome cut the next one in the front shoulder. Essence shimmered, and a splash of glass shards erupted from the creature, cutting into Jerome’s own shoulder.

Nick hadn’t seen that happen for any of his ranged attacks, so this reaction was the effect of some ability, from essence.

Jerome’s wound wasn’t nearly as bad as the one inflicted, but it was surprisingly dangerous. What if Jerome removed their head? It looked like the glass explosion wasn’t impossible to block or dodge–just difficult.

Nick and Kaya kept throwing their knives, until they ran out. By that time, the dozen enemies were all wounded or dead. Nick directed Jerome to finish off the wounded enemies, him blocking the return attacks with his shield placed closely to the dying creature as he struck it.

“Damn, those things are crazy. I don’t wanna know what happens if I cut one in half with my Soul Blade.”

“Let’s hurry up and retrieve our knives–you never know when more might come,” Kaya said, as she began acting on her words. Nick moved to retrieve his knives, and Eirwen went forward and started looting the creatures.

He sent an order to Jerry, to retrieve his own arrows. The hobgoblin made to do so, the mana leaving him to accomplish the task.

Nick inspected one of the corpses. Prodding it with his knife, he felt like rather than metal, the creature was made of plants. It had a sap-like blue blood within. “These things are gross. I don’t wanna be on this floor any longer than we have to be.”

Eirwen giggled, as she held up a bundle of what appeared to be blue fruit. “But they are dropping high-essence fruit! These are really useful, aiding in recovery and filling, too. They will be really helpful in the Trial.”

Kaya growled, as she appeared to realize something. “The bandits didn’t keep the seeds from these, or share them in the town. People would have been much healthier if they grew these!”

Nick frowned. “So this is another control thing? They kept these fruits under lock and key too, huh? Would people level up and become stronger with them?”

Eirwen nodded. “That’s right. Each level is relatively minor, honestly. Your attributes might be double or triple most folks in town–but that doesn’t mean you’re twice or thrice as strong, unless you activate a skill. Then, it could be a very close thing, but you add that up over dozens of people, and Davon would have a reason to be worried.”

Nick flexed his arms. “I do feel like I’m stronger, but going from 4 Body to 8 Body is definitely not double. I might be able to lift twenty percent more, or something? So I really need some kind of offensive skill to take advantage of my stronger Body and Soul. Can I learn Dash from Kaya?”

Kaya hummed. “You can, but it would likely take a long time–weeks or months to do it well, probably. When you can just learn it from a skill crystal or from a floor reward, it won’t feel all that worth it.”

Eirwen added, “It may be better for you if you in the long run to learn it that way, but it’s better to just move forward. If you have a tower available to you, moving to the next stratum can occur in days rather than months. You’d learn better skills and have higher stats while in the second stratum anyway. It’ll make it easier to learn them, and people tend to spend a lot more time there too.”

Nick supposed that made a lot of sense. Since they couldn’t die in the Ordeal in the first stratum normally, people could keep trying it until they progressed and succeeded. But the second stratum they could die even within the Ordeal, so they would take things extra slow, maxing out their skills and equipment.

They continued moving through the floor, fighting another pack of the mirror dogs. Nick and Kaya got better at more rapidly throwing their knives, and even Jerome seemed to better handle controlling the dogs.

The hobgoblin kicked one heading toward Kaya, and bashed another also trying to run past with his shield. Then struck out with his pommel, crunching a third creature’s head slightly. Due to the pliability of the plant-like flesh, it seemed this only disoriented and shoved the creature, not harming and causing a splash of glass-like shards.

The archer finished off these dogs rapidly, and Eirwen focused her attacks on those she had a clear shot at. Easily finishing off the pack, they were collecting their weapons when Kaya’s ear snapped to attention.

“They’re coming from behind!”

Jerome charged over, ready to protect Eirwen as a few stumbled into the corridor not far behind them. Nick only had three knives to throw at this point, but grabbed another from the corpse nearby.

The pack of dogs was smaller, but they had less ammunition. Eirwen’s shot hit its mark, but Jerry’s shot went a little wide. Six dogs arrived around Jerome, two leaping high and one ducking low as he blocked the ones going up.

Jerome’s body was shoved, and one bit and latched around his leg, causing him to fall to the ground. Nick and Kaya’s throwing knives flashed, knocking two that ran around Jerome down.

A final charged for Eirwen, but Nick kicked out from the side as it tried to pass him, knocking it into the wall. It quickly recovered, but Eirwen rapidly loaded her crossbow and struck the creature with her bolt.

The three dogs had been attacking Jerome while he was knocked prone, but he held them at bay using his shield and pommel, combined with Jerry taking one of them down an arrow. Kaya finished another with her throwing knife, and Nick finished off the last.

Jerome now had bite marks all over his body, and was unable to stand.

Eirwen bounded over, and cast Reinvigorate. Electric blue energy floated from her hands, and covered Jerome’s body. The bleeding seemed to stop rapidly, but took some time to knit the wounds as the energy lingered.

They went back to looting, the answer about whether enemies could come from behind answered. It was certainly true that they hadn’t entered every corridor.

As they were looting and finishing up, Nick’s Essence was starting to feel full. He was close to level five, he could feel it. If he absorbed all the Essence from the last fight and perhaps some from the fruit, he would probably level up to five.

It was as he had this thought, that the walls began to shift. Nick readied himself, and Jerome limped to the front. However, only an archway had formed, a thin red barrier covering the entrance.

[Optional Solo Test: Prince Torian - Battle of Reflection]

[You are pathetic. How dare you come into the Ordeal unprepared, with no skills and such poor equipment, and without proper Followers and Soul Servants? You are not worthy of the Torian name, treating the Ordeal without proper respect. Your swordsmanship is passable, but your usage of essence is like the stumbling of a child and lacking conviction. If you do not attempt and succeed this Test, you will fail the upcoming Trial, your race and lineage extinct. Your family gave up so much and suffered for you to have this chance, only for you to squander it so foolishly. I refuse–]

The text flickered, and the tree-like corridor they were in groaned and twisted before returning to normal. The girls looked around in alarm, though Jerome just stood at the ready.

Nick barely had a chance to read much of the prompt. His eyes had focused on one detail, that if he didn’t succeed the Test offered, he would for sure fail the upcoming Trial. He caught a few of the other details, but the prompt had quickly shifted, giving him a new one.

[Optional Solo Test: Prince Torian - Battle of Reflection]

[Face your reflection, a Test that can only be completed if you surpass yourself. As death is possible, the reward for success will be commensurate. Time for Entry: 4:50]

The countdown timer was ticking, Nick only had under five minutes to enter.

Eirwen looked at Nick, wide-eyed. “What’s going on? Did you get a prompt?”

Nick shared the current prompt, and mentioned what he had read.

Kaya’s ears were flat on her head, and she looked over at Eirwen worriedly. “You can’t do that Test, Nick. If you take on that challenge and fail, Winny would die with you!”

Nick rubbed the back of his head. “But if I don’t do the Test, failing the Trial coming up is likely anyway, right? The Test is supposed to prepare me for it.”

Eirwen looked at Nick, her eyes set firmly with determination. “Tests and Trials forge the steel of the soul, and to back down is to risk future failure. Every Test embraced is a step towards true strength, Orion’s rewards a stride towards personal ascendancy and resilience for unforeseen dangers. The Hero’s Path is daring, facing the odds again and again to master the crucible, forsaking inaction and safety for the promise of triumph over inevitable Tribulations.”

Her words sounded ancient, and Nick understood their meaning. Even without the specific warning, if he didn’t take on this Test today, a future challenge, or Tribulation, would eventually come: and he would be too weak.

Sure, he could die today as a result of the Test, but Tests gave fair odds. He would be rewarded if he won, and this would make him stronger for it, more likely to succeed in life and ascend to Eternity. When he faced a danger in the future, he would be more prepared than if he hadn’t.

Even if it didn’t result in his death if he wasn’t strong enough, it could result in him being too weak, causing the deaths of others. This was the burden of being a hero, to rise to challenges no matter how difficult. To be as prepared as he could be, he would need to take on all Tests and Trials, even if it meant risking it all.

Kaya still wasn’t on board, looking over between Nick and Eirwen worriedly. “I know the Hero’s Path, but Winny, you just got healed–you still have your whole life ahead of you! Don’t… You don’t need to risk it all yet!”

Eirwen sighed. “I wish we had the context before entering this Ordeal, but we didn’t have a lot of options. It’s not as if things were exactly safe for us near Havendale either, Kaya. We were living, but it wasn’t great–us always hiding, or me being sick–something Nick changed. Nevertheless, we’re here now, and I have faith in Nick–that he will be victorious. I’d put my life in his hands, inside or outside this Ordeal.”

Kaya looked resigned, and Eirwen walked up to Nick. She straightened and tightened his leather tunic, making sure he was ready to fight.

“Now you go in there, and come back to me–stronger than ever. This is your first challenge walking the Hero’s Path, the first of many.”

She kissed him on the lips, him returning it. He strode to the portal and said, “I remember my promise. I’ll surpass myself, and become the hero you wish for me.”

He walked through the red barrier, finding a large circular room for combat. Essence gathered, until a version of his current self appeared in front of him. Only, he was better armored, and he drew his soul blade immediately.

As Nick drew his own soul blade, he prepared his essence within. He would have to surpass himself, if he had any hope of coming out of this alive.