[Achievement Unlocked: Triple-team
You defeated three enemies by yourself!
Reward: Tripartite Mind
Skill Already Unlocked]
Honestly, [Way of the Heaven-Shattering Saint] was a little freaky. I'd been anticipating that it would shove a bunch of combat knowledge into my brain and muscle memory into my… muscles. And it pretty much did exactly that. But, like, the knowledge was so extensive and the muscle memory so second-nature that it was kind of like someone else was wearing my skin the moment I engaged the three snakes in a scrap.
It really did make me feel as if I was some ancient martial arts grandmaster who'd fought a million battles with only his hands and feet for weapons, except I was so unused to it that it didn't feel like me. Someone who'd truly fought that many battles and earned that level of skill would have built up to it gradually, and the second-nature sensation would be completely normal.
Perfect control of your body sounded awesome until it highlighted your former imperfections, I guess. The way to get over that was for your imperfections to be so far back in the past that you barely remember what it felt like to be flawed anymore.
Oh well. It was easy enough to turn [Way of the Heaven-Shattering Saint] off and have an uncomfortable shudder about it afterwards. It had done its job of ensuring I could slap about those shitty snakes without blowing away half the oasis with an uncontrolled punch, so I no longer needed it.
The absolute surety that had flooded my limbs vanished the moment I unequipped the Class, and I took a moment to stretch out, give my arms and legs a good shake, did a few jumping jacks, and relearned what my body was supposed to feel like again over the course of a few seconds.
Around me, the three warrior snakes were unconscious. Sssanya was looming over Hasssaya's prone form, breathing heavily, fury still burning in her eyes, one hand clenching and unclenching at her side while the other clutched her disco ball in a white knuckled grip. (Well, not white knuckled. Her knuckles were a lighter shade of green. You get the point.)
Slapping him while he was unconscious hadn't done it for her, apparently, so instead she'd asked me to lay him down instead, and she'd spent a good few minutes venting her rage at him in words instead.
Of course, he didn't hear a word of it, being unconscious and all. But it seemed cathartic for her.
She had raged about how they always looked down on her, the contempt in their eyes, the silent mockery, then went on to monologue about how she'd come back one day and show them the error of their ways with a level that eclipsed anything the Great Green Sea Tribe had ever managed.
Good for her, I guess. They seemed like dicks, from the context I'd gleaned. Didn't want to fall into the trap of thinking her entire tribe was a bunch of evil bozos, since I knew perfectly well people and societies were more nuanced than that, but these three at least gave me the vibe they'd deserved to get knocked down a few pegs.
Now she was done, and she was slowly, gradually getting herself under control. Her breathing was evening out, her shoulders were incrementally loosening, and her grip on her sphere was no longer tight enough to lighten the shade of green in her fingers.
When it looked like she wasn't on a hair trigger anymore, I asked, "Will they be okay? I don't know how it is for Climbers of that level, but I remember something about how getting knocked unconscious for more than a few seconds is actually way worse than a lot of people think."
It'd be a bit embarrassing if I'd gone out my way to take it easy on them, relatively speaking, then killed them anyway by accident. If dudes of this level were still vulnerable to my idea of holding back, I'd have to go much higher before meeting any kind of challenge. Which wasn't necessarily a problem inherently, but it might be tedious if I wasn't willing to smash through the floors like I had on my way up to the 1,792nd.
And, uh, ahem, it'd maybe be traumatising, possibly? I dunno. I'd decide on that later.
"They will be fine," Sssanya said slowly. She drew in a deep breath, and the exhale sounded tired. "They are over level 4,000, and many warriors of my former tribe neglect mana in favour of vitality, dexterity, or strength. Their physical abilities will be high enough to survive much more than this."
"Oh. Okay. That's… good?"
Sssanya gave a nod, still glaring at Hasssaya. After one last curse snarled under her breath, she turned away, dismissing the big red snake from her notice. "Despite my feelings on my sister, I do not wish her brood to be robbed of their father. Her eggs were ready to hatch when I was exiled, so they would still be very young. Growing up with only one parent is… Well, it can lead to problems."
I eyed her warily, dearly hoping I wasn't about to get more of her sad backstory. I'd skipped that shit on the [Observe] screen for a reason. "Uh huh…"
To my immense relief, she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, then laced her fingers over her chest, letting her disco ball rest in them like a cradle. "I have a favour to ask of you, Great One."
Ah. Here we go. I had a good idea what she was going to request, and I gestured to the three defeated snakes. "You want me to beat up your village chiefs like I did to these guys?"
"No," she denied, shaking her head vehemently. Presumably picking up my shock from my expression, she hastened to add: "I wish to do that myself."
"Oh. Okay." I shrugged. "I can respect that. So what are you asking of me?"
Determination turned her wide eyes sharp, the molten gold gaining an edge to it that was hard to explain. She didn't bow her head or beg, meeting my gaze unflinchingly. "Great One, I, Sssanya Sssarilizarus, formerly of the Great Green Sea Tribe of the Najavi Union, daughter of Warchief Vacasssa, humbly request that you power level me."
Silence fell. The lake shore was utterly still. Beside us, the lake was a great pane of glass, clear and utterly unmoving. Below us, the verdant undergrowth was frozen, not a breath of wind daring to intrude on the small clearing and stir even a leaf. Around us, the trees seemed to lean in anticipatorily. High overhead, the sun blazed, big and red and beautiful.
While I didn't know exactly what she meant, I could gather from context and some residual knowledge from my gaming days that she wasn't referring to Dragon Ball. Essentially, she wanted to tag along with me on my Great One business and leech some of the XP by giving a tiny bit of assistance against monsters that were high above her own level, thus levelling her up faster. Like getting your top-tier friend to play on a smurf account and carry you in your noob lobby, ranking you up.
But that kind of sounded like a pain in the arse? Like, yeah, keeping her alive while fighting against mega powerful monsters would be a challenge, but not necessarily the fun kind. Even being not much of an RPG or MMO gamer, I knew through osmosis that everyone fucking hated escort quests. Who the hell wanted to slow down their tempo to help some dumb NPC got from point A to point B?
Referring her to as an NPC was a dick move, and I internally winced the moment I thought it. Everything I'd seen of her so far made it clear she had her own internal world, dreams, motivations, sad backstory, and blah blah blah, but the point stood. Getting tied up in helping her would be burdensome. I didn't want to sound like a selfish prick or anything, but… Well, I owed her nothing.
I opened my mouth, prepared to reject her.
"I am very knowledgeable about the Najavi-inhabited floors of the Eternal Tower," she said quickly, "and I can point you towards the most 'fun' activities known to me and my former tribe."
"Deal!"
If she was one of those NPCs that gave out quests, that changed everything!
Her lips twitched into a small smile that spoke of the kind of carefree joy only a child could exhibit, and there was a brief war in her expression as she tried to school her features. Eventually, she gave up, simply bowing her head so I couldn't see her growing grin. "I humbly thank you. I will ensure you don't regret this. It will be mutually beneficial, I assure you."
"Sure," I said, tingling with anticipation. "So, what's first on the agenda? What's something fun that your Najavi people know about?" I paused. "Don't give me the absolute most awesome thing you know of, yet. Build up to it. I don't want to go do something so amazing it makes everything else pale in comparison." I paused again, briefly frowning. "I guess it probably has to be more awesome than the water dragon."
Sssanya took a moment to reply. "Water dragon?"
"Yeah? The King of… the Lake. Yinyin. He was a water dragon. A baby one."
"A baby one."
"Yup. Well, it felt that way to me, anyway. Could be wrong."
"I wouldn't dare question your judgement on such matters, Great O—" She cut herself off, wincing at my unimpressed look. She glanced at the lake. "I wouldn't question your judgement, Dan. If you say it is a juvenile, then it must be so." She seemed to hesitate, her forked tongue flickering out several times in rapid succession.
"What is it?" I asked, increasingly impatient.
"It is just that… You have reminded me there is a rather large gulf in our experiences and expectations. This measly floor is practically alien to you."
"You're not wrong." This floor was indeed completely alien to me, but so was the entire tower, really. I debated telling her the truth, but figured informing her that the tower had fucked up and practically unlocked everything for me would be more trouble than just pretending to be one of these 'forerunners'. Deception felt icky, but fuck it.
"So… It may be best to… Explain some things to you. About these floors. How society functions down here."
I leaned my head back and groaned.
"It would be prudent to minimise misunderstandings," Sssanya hastened to continue. "We wouldn't want to impede on your adventuring by attracting the ire of local authorities, yes? Slowing yourself down with such distractions would be immensely frustrating."
She has a point there. If my experience in the Great Green Sea was anything to go by, I could step on other Climbers' toes pretty easily if I wasn't careful. The fight with the trio hadn't been a huge detour or anything, but I could imagine it would have annoyed me a whole lot more if I hadn't had the chance to play around with Yinyin first.
"Okay, sure, whatever," I said, activating [Levitate] and [Gravity Tyrant]. "We can talk while we walk."
Then I lifted us both into the sky.