Barry gasped for air so desperately, feeling his throat that he assumed had been grievously wounded by the knight that stabbed him just moments ago. ‘What?’ His fingers felt around, noticing that nothing was wrong and that he was completely fine. ‘But I…’
He looked at his surroundings and saw that he was still in the same white room he’d always go to when he was dreaming in his sleep. “I died from that knight, didn’t I?” Barry could not find the woman that had just killed him. “Where did she-”
Suddenly, he felt something knock on his head, causing him to stand back up and away from his position with his greatsword drawn. “You!” Barry tensed up and focused his gaze on his unsuspecting intruder.
It was the knight that had killed him, she used her sheathe to bonk his head. “Yes, it’s me, angry one.” She mocked in a condescending tone. “Did you enjoy the humiliation gave you? Or are you hard-headed enough to go another round, hoping to best me?” The knight was hoping that he would actually try to fight her again.
Upon hearing her taunt, Barry recklessly charged at her after activating “King’s Commanding Presence”. He took off in a burst of speed, sweeping his weapon across her chest level, but missed with a graceful maneuver by the knight. “So predictable, you are. Madman.” She mocked.
Barry continued to give go all out against her, he figured that since he was able to come back to life again after being killed, then there was no need to hold back. He wanted to get at least one good hit on the knight to be satisfied. Yet, every attack he threw out at her was easily avoided with minimal effort by the knight. It seemed in his eyes as if she was gracefully dancing with every movement she made. ‘Am I really just that slow? She’s not even fighting back.’
The knight laughed, causing him to get even more agitated. “I can see that you must want to land one strike on me before submitting to defeat, but mindlessly swinging will get you nowhere. This is why I tell you to simmer down on that temper of yours. Because without a clear mind, your enemies will take advantage of your blind fury and have you executed.”
“Simmer down!?” Barry was getting heated. “I don’t think you understand how fucking helpful my anger within me as gotten me to this point in my travels. Every time I get my shit rocked, every time it seems as though I just might die, I am reminded why I refuse to go down!” He gave another heavy sweep of his sword, which was still evaded with an effortless back step.
“Then tell me…” The woman paused in place away from him. “What reason do you have to allow yourself to be consumed by this festering, unchecked rage within you.”
Surfacing his thoughts were the gods that decided to not only put him in this life-or-death entertainment show, but also, that they had taken away his memories of his past life. Memory fragments would appear in his mind at times, but were not enough to piece together who he actually was. Barry wanted to know exactly who he was, and the gods took it all away, despite being revived from the dead. “You wouldn’t understand! You’re a knight, not a damn therapist! And frankly, I don’t need one to tell me to calm the fuck down!”
He gripped the handle of his weapon in a firm hold, getting into the same stance that the woman had taught him before when fighting against the giant spider in the underground cave. Barry was planning on venting his anger into performing the same technique she had demonstrated before.
The knight cackled once more, she could see that he was trying to achieve the same technique as she once showed him before. “You buffoon, it’s impossible for you to perform the same technique I’ve tried teaching you. That madness within you must be quilled. How many times must I tell you, that you need to have a clear mind in order-”
“SHUT THE HELL UP!” His voice boomed throughout the white room, even startling the knight with his unexpected outburst. “You barge into my dreams, start attacking me from out of nowhere, and tell me that my rage isn’t good for me!” His body tensed up, as was about to enact the technique. “Well, I’m about to show you that I can imitate the same technique as you once showed me with my rage because…”
Rumbling occurred within the white room they were in, the knight was caught off guard by this strange phenomenon that was happening. ‘What is this!?’ She wondered, almost falling to her knees from the tremors. ‘Is this connected to the rage within him? What could cause him to be so angry to cause this occurrence?’
Fuming with a desire to unleash his anger upon the knight, drawing more strength from the hatred within, he executed the same form of movement as he once remembered. “MY RAGE IS MY STRENGTH!” He shouted at the top of his lungs.
And from the woman’s perspective, she couldn’t believe her eyes from what she was seeing. Two giant wind blades in an X-shape were being sent her way at astonishing speeds that she had to use her buckler shield to block the projectiles. The wind blades collided with her shield, pushing her back, despite her legs being planted firmly on the ground in perfect form. ‘H-How is he still able to do it!? I don’t understand! It’s this strong even though it’s amateur at best!’
She eventually gathered her bearings and shoved off his attack with more effort than she would have liked to use. Her eyes shifted to Barry, she was confused as to how he was able to perform the feat with his rage. ‘Hmm…your strength you say…’
Barry was on a knee, exhausted after doing what he just did. Even so, he felt good about himself, despite being told from the knight that he wouldn’t be able to mimic the technique with a bad temper. He smiled, knowing that the knight had to block his attack for once. “What did I tell you…I can still do what you did with a mind full of hate…”
She started approaching him, drawing her draconic long sword from her sheathe, seemingly prepared to attack him again.
Barry saw her coming closer and stood back up, greatsword in both hands as he slightly tilted the tip of the blade towards her. “I’ll keep fighting on like this…no matter how many times someone like you tells me to calm down. It’s what motivates me to push through all the crap I have to deal with…”
The knight was now standing in front of him a couple of feet away within swinging distance, she remained silent. “I know who you are now…you’re one of the three black knights that I defeated during the tutorial back on my world. The reason why you are here…is because of the potion I drank that was made from you and the other’s black knights undead cores.” Barry continued. “I’ll admit, I never would have bested you three if it wasn’t for your queen’s necklace that empowered me.”
He then saw her sword arm gesture slightly, as if preparing to attack him, he steeled himself to anticipate her next move. “I never would have expected for you to become a lingering spirit around me. It all makes sense now, you could have killed me if I hadn’t obtained your king’s power inside of me…you probably want to know the reason why I have it…”
She paused, wanting to hear what else he had to say about her king. “In truth, I was never able to defeat your king. I was overpowered by his might, the skill gap was too great even with my raw physical prowess at the time. But even still, I enjoyed the fight that we had, it was thrilling. And even though all I had to do to end the quest was to destroy the queen’s precious mementos, I decided to hand them back over to the king. And in return, he allowed me to live and granted me his power before moving on to the afterlife…”
Barry’s eyes locked on to her visor, she could see in his eyes how much he genuinely meant every word he said. ‘There’s a different aura I see from him, something other than hate and malice towards those that oppose him…is this what my king saw within him…’ The knight pondered.
His sights turned back to her sword arm once he saw even the tiniest of movement and prepared to block her next attack. Only to watch her sheathe her sword and continue standing in place.
He assumed that his words managed to convince her to stop fighting and eased up on his guard, stowing away his weapon. “I was only able to see glimpses of your kingdom, and I’m sorry for what happened during its downfall. I don’t know what the cause for it was at the time, but your king was a benevolent one, it seemed. I don’t know why your king granted me his power, I’m not sure what he saw within me. I’m hard-headed just like you said, I DON’T know the meaning of defeat because I have my reasons for being so rageful. And that will never change, so if you’re here to teach me how to fight by cleansing my rage, it's NOT happening!”
Barry turned his back on the knight with a heavy sigh. “I appreciate the technique you have taught me, even if it’s not as perfect as I would have liked it to be. I’ll get better at it overtime. You don’t need to give me advice or any sort of teachings anymore because I am determined to see the end of this horrendous game that the gods put me in and crush them for what they’ve done to me.” He then plopped down and took a seat, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.
A couple of moments passed by without anything happening, he waited patiently for the time his physical body would wake up from his sleep. ‘Is she still here?’ He wondered, thinking that the knight might have left, and so he opened his eyes to take a peek.
Standing in front of him was the knight herself, leering over him. “What is it this time? You can’t leave or something?”
“No…” She sat down in front of him, keeping some space in between them before speaking in turn. “It’s that I don’t want to, especially after what you said about my king. Your words speak true, am I wrong to assume so? Or were they lies?” The knight questioned.
He shook his head. “Listen, I may come off as an arrogant son of a bitch with a cursed mouth. But when I speak highly of someone, or show a manner of respect, it’s all true. Your king, along with the other royal knights that found by your side, must have all been honorable people during their time of living. Hell, I wish I had even a fraction of their skill set.”
And to his shock, he heard the woman laugh. This time, it wasn’t in a condescending tone, but rather, a wholehearted genuine laugh. “At least you admit your faults, I think I’m beginning to see somewhat as to why my king parted his power upon you, Barry.”
He grumbled, rolling his eyes. “Of course, I’m not as mad as everyone thinks I am all the time. Now tell me, are you really choosing to stay?”
The knight stopped laughing and continued speaking. “Yes, I made my decision the moment you drank that potion. It was a difficult decision for not only me, but my brothers as well. I am not the only one that has entered your mind.”
“Brothers? You mean the other two knights are here as well!? Why haven’t they shown themselves or even talk to me yet?” Barry asked with a confused expression, thinking that they must have been watching their own little fight and talks.
The knight nodded in response. “Correct, they are here with us. But, they refuse to reveal themselves because they don’t believe it to be true that our king bestowed upon you his will. Had I agreed with them to deny you any help, you would have died on the spot.”
“So that was you that I heard call out the king’s will…” He then thought about her offer to help guide him into becoming a proper fighter than what he was now. Barry figured that she probably still wanted him to let go of his rage within. “Sorry, thanks for keeping me alive, but it's like I told you; I’m not letting go of this anger. That’s final.”
“Sure.” She replied without any sort of hesitation, agreeing with his condition.
“Huh?” He was befuddled.
The knight rose up, tapping the hilt of her sword. “Come, you have much training to do if you wish to stand on equal footing with those far more skilled than you.”
“W-Wait, are you serious? So you’re respecting my decision to keep my rage?” He wanted clarification.
She sighed. “I respect it enough to know that it does in fact provide you the sort of strength you say it does. You have proven to me that you are capable of performing the same technique as I have shown you with that temper of yours. Whatever it is that makes you angry, was capable of shaking this very dream realm of yours. This will be a first for me to try and develop a different training regiment compared to what I’ve taught my soldiers in the past.”
Barry stood on his feet, he couldn’t believe that she was willing to put aside her ideals just for him. “Is that all? That can’t be the only reason why you’re deciding to help me, besides the king giving me his will and accepting my rage for what it is.”
There was a pause, as he watched the knight slowly walk away to make some space. “There is…but I’m not telling, at least, not until you tell me why you’re so angry.” She turned to face his direction. “ We’d have to earn each other’s trust to share each other’s reasons, wouldn’t you think?”
He thought about what she said, agreeing with her words with a firm nod and smile. If she was willing to work with his temper, then he was willing to listen to her teachings and accept her other reason for wanting to help him. “Couldn’t have said it any better; I’ll follow under your guidance. So please, make me a better fighter than what I am…” He wasn’t sure what to call her. “What do I call you?”
She drew her sword, placing it close to her chest. “My name…” A dramatic pause was given. “Is Thalia Myrridin! Defender of Adelgard!” Her sword was then pointed directly at Barry’s chest. “Now draw your weapon! Class is now in session!”
As dramatic as the way she answered him was, he had to admit that he did feel inspired by the way she presented herself. He grinned and drew out his greatsword with even greater motivation than ever before. “Ready!”
And so began Barry’s training under Thalia’s guidance. They trained without breaks for hours until Barry would eventually wake up from his sleep. He would soon understand that the injuries and exhaustion that he felt or received would recover much faster once he realized that it was all in his mind, so being too tired was never an issue.
Another thing that was unique to him, was that he was able to manifest objects, structures, the environment, and even enemies that he had fought in the past into the white room they were in. Thalia found this incredibly helpful for his training, making it easier for her to plan out a proper training regiment for him in particular.
The first thing that Barry decided to do was shift the environment into a flat plain with a clear blue sky and very light wind, he wanted it to be simple without any fancy stuff. Thalia requested to start off with some training dummies to practice his swordsmanship. She informed him that even though she was master of all weapons, her specialty was with swords of all kinds. Her brothers also had their personal weapon of choice themselves that they used all the time.
Thalia knew that there was much work that needed to be done on Barry, he told her that throughout his battles, he just did whatever he felt worked for him based on his instincts and anger. “I have so much work to do…oh dear king, may you please give me the strength to bear through this…” She teased, causing Barry to feel as if his heart had been stabbed.
She would use a pointing stick to tap on different parts of his body, telling him to fix his posture and stance as he swung his weapon at the training dummies. There would a lot of times when she made fun of his mistakes, she found it very amusing to see him get heated every time he was corrected. But as funny as it was, it actually helped him improve and she took notice. ‘Perhaps this might actually work…’ Thalia felt hopeful.
Thalia continued to make him work on the basics until Barry felt his body being shoved. He looked in Thalia’s direction with an irritated look, pausing his simple swings. “What did I do wrong this time!? You just told me my form was fine.”
She was confused by what he meant, she had not moved from her spot. “I have no clue what you are…” Thalia then felt the same type of sensation that he was probably talking about. “...one moment…” Barry saw her disappear for a moment, but returned with an answer. “You appear to have guests. I suppose training is over for now.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Guests? What do you- Oh…that’s right, I’ve been sleeping this whole time.” He stowed away his weapon and looked back at Thalia. “Well, I’ll be sure to come back as soon as I have some downtime.”
“I’ll keep planning out your training regiment while you are busy, but don’t forget I could still be watching your every move. So be prepared for some criticism here and there.” Thalia replied, sounding like his personal manager.
And just as he was about to close his eyes and focus on returning to his physical form, he heard Thalia call out to him. “Barry, hold on.” She said as if something was urgent.
“Yeah? What’s up?” He looked back at her.
He then saw her fiddle with her hands a bit, it seemed as though she was hesitant to say what she wanted. Barry found this sort of behavior very strange to him, given her disciplined and sensible nature. He asked again. “Thalia, what is-”
“Never mind, carry on.” Thalia waved a hand as she turned around to do some personal training of her own. “You wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.” She added, before getting into practice.
“Um…okay?” Barry wondered what she was going to ask him but shrugged it off. He closed his eyes and focused on exiting his dream world.
He felt his mind being pulled apart from his current body like an elastic band till it was removed completely, now feeling his mind drifting into a sea of nothingness.
It would take a couple more moments before he started hearing faint voices. “Wake up Barry…he must be very tired…just flip him out of his bed.”
‘Flip me out of bed? Who’s suggesting that-’ His thoughts stopped as he felt his body crash out on the floor face first. “Gah! Fuck!” He shouted, now wide awake.
“Who did that!?” He quickly stood up from the floor and looked around to see who it was that threw him out of his bed. Barry saw that Luna was the only person in the room besides him. “It was you? You pushed me out of-”
“It was Anna, she did it and teleported out of here.” Luna explained, waving her hands nervously. “We tried waking you up by shaking you, but then she had the bright idea of rolling you out and skedaddled.”
Her explanation sounded true enough to him, so he started making his way out the room to go hunt down the fool who pissed him off. “Thanks for being honest, now I’m going to get back at her.” He told Luna as he exited the room.
Barry searched the entire house for Anna, using his pulse scanner from his eyes to make the process much easier but couldn’t find her aside from the other Nightwalkers that were inside. And when he stepped outside, he saw that the rest of his group were finishing up breakfast on a picnic table near the lake. His eyes immediately latched onto Anna, who seemed unaware of his appearance.
Puck had just finished eating his food and saw Barry exit the house, he then grabbed a fixed plate of food next to him that was for Barry and ran up to him with it. “Barry! You late for breakfast. Here, eat this-”
“Hold that plate for a moment, I’ve got something important to do right now.” Barry told him in a low but serious tone, as he walked over to Anna in a calmly manner. He didn’t want to alarm her that he knew what she had done.
Kat and Ron were sitting with Anna as well but were across from her, as they looked at Barry’s approach from behind Anna. Kat was about to greet him with a good morning, but he placed a finger to his lips to tell the two to be quiet. They got the message, continuing to eat their food while they watched what Barry had scheming for Anna.
Anna’s rogue senses were going off like a constant alarm, she got the feeling that someone or something bad was sneaking up behind her. ‘That’s strange, what’s so bad that could appear here in camp?’ She was puzzled.
And before Barry gave her a chance to turn around, he immediately yanked her off the picnic table by the waist, taking her by surprise, and chucked her into the lake for a nice morning swim. “W-What the!?” She screamed, as she looked back at land and teleported before the water even touched her. “W-Who did that!?”
‘Damn it, of course she can just do that.’ Barry hated the fact that she was able to teleport out of trouble at any given moment.
“What the hell, Barry! I was sitting down eating!” Anna shouted at him, clearly mad that she could have gotten soaking wet.
He faced her direction, heated that she was trying to play dumb. “Don’t try to hide it! You rolled me off my bed, just when I was about to wake up!”
Her expression turned red with embarrassment, but still tried playing innocent with a poor poker face. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s kind of rude of you to assume that I was the one who did it.”
“Yeah you did.” Luna had appeared on the scene as well. She found her sister’s demeanor very amusing, the guilt was literally written all over her face. “She wanted to go wake you up for breakfast because you were sleeping in for too long and said ‘This grouch sleeps like a rock, just flip him out of his bed.’ and did just that before blinking away.”
Anna was so shocked to hear her little sister snitch on her, she felt betrayed. “Luna! Why you tell him-” Her attention shifted back to Barry, who dashed forward in an attempt to grapple her. She back stepped, just barely avoiding his clutches.
“H-Hey! I’m sorry-” He kept up the pressure on her, making Anna give it all she could to keep distance. “It was a harmless joke! Calm down!”
Barry did not care about Anna’s apologizes and kept trying to catch her. The rest of the group and some of the Nightwalkers nearby found the show they were putting on hilarious. It was like watching a game of cat and mouse.
Eventually Anna would tire from a lack of stamina, her mana had also been expended completely from teleporting all over the place. Barry, however, was doing just fine and lunged towards Anna after seeing her slip up. His right hand managed to grasp one of her legs and pulled her close to him so that he could send her flying at the lake for a full powered throw.
She soared in the air, no longer able to teleport to safety and accepted her fate, as she came crashing down in the water. “Maybe you’ll think next time before you decide to roll me out of bed!” Barry yelled at her, taking his win and walking over to the picnic table to eat his cold food.
Anna resurfaced above the water and took her time swimming back with her tired body. She had to admit that what she did was rude, but it was the only other thing that she could think of to wake him from his deep sleep. Then she thought about Luna. ‘Why’d you have to snitch on me, Luna? Now I’ll have to dry myself…’
Barry sat down on the picnic table and silently ate his food from Puck, it was his fault for eating it cold but even so, it still tasted good. “Who made this?” He asked Ron and Kat.
“U-Uh…that would be Anna.” Kat replied with an awkward smile, she watched as Anna finally got out of the lake with Luna’s help.
“Hmm…” He looked at his Kobold friend. “Puck, help dry off Anna with a small campfire.”
Puck agreed to his request and offered Anna his assistance. She had heard Barry asked him to help dry her off and gladly accepted it. ‘How nice of him…’ She thought.
As Barry was eating, Ron spoke to him. “Sherry had finished brewing the two potions last night, but right now she’s talking with the Nightwalkers about her mother. She came to eat something for a bit before leaving with them about an hour ago. She’ll probably be back a couple of hours later. So for now, we’re killing time.”
“Killing time, huh…” Barry then thought about Ned and Oswald and quickly checked his inbox if he had received any messages from them. And to his shock, he did in fact receive a response from Ned. ‘Ned! What did he say?’ He immediately checked his message.
In the message that Ned sent to him, it read the following:
“Ah, Barry, my boy! It’s great to hear from you again, I knew you would be able to meet my old friend Oswald. It brings me relief to know that he’s still alive and kicking, I also have no doubt he’ll survive the chaos you described at Haglethorn. If he doesn’t, I’ll personally share humiliating stories of him from our adventures to everyone of Scion. As for the Nightwalkers, I had hope that they even a few of them would survive the explosion that we caused by mistake…I will never let go of that guilt till the day I die.
But enough of that, I’m sorry to have responded late. I’ve been working on training the Kobolds and my people here at the treehouse every day. It brings me relief to know that my people can now get stronger since they are now affected by this game, but also sorrow because they ARE now a part of it. It saddens me. So Barry, please inform me about this calamity when you know more with the potions of future sight that you plan on making.
I await your next message.”
Barry was relieved himself that nothing bad had happened on Ned’s end, rather, he was glad to know that he was training everyone there to prepare for the challenges to come from the god’s twisted sense of entertainment they had in store for them all. Satisfied with Ned’s response, he closed it and began messaging Oswald about his situation.
The event quest had to have ended because twelve hours had passed, meaning either the city of Haglethorn had fallen under the wrath of mother nature, or it overcame its forces with their own. In his message to Oswald, Barry basically asked if he was alive and that he was about to know more about the calamity because his granddaughter was finished making the potions.
‘Done, now I wait for Sherry to get back. What to do…’ He figured that he could practice on his wind blade technique with his greatsword in the meantime, and that’s what he planned on doing.
“Where are you off to now?” Ron asked, genuinely curious.
“Training, I need to improve, be ready for whatever we face next.” Barry stepped away from the table and made his way into the woods. “Let me know when Sherry is back.”
Kat felt silly sitting around when she could have eaten her breakfast quickly and train like Barry was about to do. “I-I’ll join you, I need to be work on being more efficient with my magic.” She had promised him that she would get stronger.
She followed him through the forest until they stopped in front of a giant boulder that Barry figured would be sturdy enough to practice his attacks on. He informed her what he would be working on, and she understood, giving him his personal space while she practiced somewhere nearby.
He got into the proper stance that he was instructed to be in by Thalia with his greatsword, remembering the flow of motion he performed the past few times he did to achieve the technique. Once he felt that he was ready, Barry then thought about his ever burning fury within at everything he despised and hated. ‘The gods, the backstabbing doctor known as Judas, my memories of my past life…all of it…’
His temper within rose, letting his inner rage flow throughout his body without any resistance. ‘I WILL dominate this messed up game of the gods and take back what was rightfully mine.’ He felt empowered by these intense emotions. ‘NOTHING WILL STOP ME!’
Barry then executed the same maneuvers as before with near perfection. Two crescent-shaped blades of compressed wind overlapping each other in an X-shape were launched at the boulder, he did not feel as overly exhausted as he was the other times he did it, but it was still taxing on him. The projectiles struck against the solid rock, pressing against it as he watched them cut about 6 inches deep into the boulder, imprinting an X.
‘Not bad, at least I’d say so. The more reps I get in, the more fluid it’ll be, as well as less energy will be needed when I perform this.’ He was motivated to continue perfecting his move and got back into his stance to try again.
This would go on for about two-hours with five-minute breaks in between each rep, sweat was already pouring down from his body from the exertion he was putting on himself. ‘Again…gotta keep pushing…’ Barry kept telling himself, the surface of the boulder had dozens of deep cuts that made it look as if it was being abused badly. He watched his stamina bar with each stroke of his greatsword, noticing that the amount of stamina he was using each time was being reduced very, very slightly.
There came a time when he was feeling light-headed and fumbled one of his attempts at executing his move. His weapon stabbed into the ground in order to catch himself from falling. “Come on…one more…just one more…”
And as he stumbled to get back into the swing of things, repositioning himself into his usual stance, something strange happened. “What the?” His weapon was not budging an inch when he tried moving it. “How-”
Suddenly, his greatsword was yanked free from his tired arms and floated in the air. He watched as the weapon moved on its own, the way that he moved it when he launched his ranged attacks. “Am I just tired? I can’t be seeing things…”
Barry made an attempt to snatch his weapon back, but it quickly zipped away from his grasp. “The hell?” He tried again, but his sword kept avoiding him. He was mad. “Get back here!”
His legs were already shaking from being so fixed into the ground during his practice that he could no longer lunge or jump as far as he wanted to in order to regain possession of his weapon. ‘What is going on!? I can’t make sense of this!’
Kat would then appear with a worried expression upon seeing what was happening. “Hey! Stop! D-Drop it!” She shouted.
Barry was puzzled upon hearing her words, but then saw his sword drop to the ground. He looked at his weapon then back at Kat, unsure of what happened. He then picked it up and inspected it like it was possessed but found nothing out of the ordinary. “Kat...mind explaining what was going on.”
Kat fidgeted with her hands nervously upon being asked his question. “U-Um…t-this might sound crazy but- wait, wait, stop!” She rushed to Barry’s side, trying to shoo away something that wasn’t there with them. “Leave him alone, he doesn’t want to be bothered.”
Whatever was going on was strange to Barry, so he asked her again. “Kat, who are you talking to?”
She looked back at him with a nervous look. “Um…a ghost…” Kat saw his expression shift into a look of uncertainty. “I-I know it’s hard to believe, b-but it’s the truth. It wasn’t me who was messing with you, i-it's this…little ghost that you can’t see.”
‘So only you can see it…well, what if I try using my detective mode…’ He then activated one of his eye features and scanned the area around him for anything unusual. ‘Gotcha, you tricky bastard.’
Barry wasn’t able to see its exact form, but he was able to see a cold spot in the air that was a shimmering blue color based on his thermal vision. His pulse scanner could not highlight the ghost, but seeing the shifting movement of the cold temperature was enough to know that it existed. “I believe you, it’s right there, isn’t it.” He pointed, keeping his finger aimed at it as the ghost moved around.
She looked at where he was pointing and was shocked. “Y-You can see him!?” She watched as Barry kept focus on where the ghost was exactly. “Wow, you can.”
“Well, not exactly. I can’t see what it looks like, but I know enough with my eyes that it’s real.” He saw the ghost floating around him and stuck his hand at it, now feeling the coldness that it gave off before it retreated back to Kat. “But why can’t I see what it looks like, and why is it here?”
The ghost started playing with her hair, making her embarrassed as she tried both explaining and stopping the ghost. “T-This ghost is my Class passive. Apparently, it's my…own personal friendly familiar. And as you can see, it’s very childish…” She then picked up a pebble and threw it at a tree, the ghost chased it and possessed it, floating it towards Kat like it was playing fetch.
“As for not being able to see it…” She continued talking, playing fetch with the ghost to keep it busy. “It could be that my ghost is shy, like me. That’s my only logical explanation…”
Barry found it very neat to have a personal summon that was invisible to everyone else, he wanted to know what it’s limitations and abilities it might possess. “Do you know anything about its abilities or limitations? Because this little guy could be pretty useful.”
Kat smiled upon hearing him referring to her ghost as useful. “R-Really!? Oh, um…” She checked the description for her passive to check for any specifics. “Well, the passive doesn’t really specify what my ghost can do. But it does say that my ghost will continue to grow stronger as I do through leveling up and will assist me, however it can.”
“So then, testing out it’s limitations and abilities should be something to work on…” He then thought about her Class and how her stat scores were at the moment. “I’m assuming your Class prioritizes in the Intelligence and Wisdom stat score?”
She nodded and explained about her Class a bit more. “Yes, they are. I had been saving up some of the stat points I’d gain from leveling up and put them all into both those scores once we arrived here. My current Intelligence and Wisdom are both [+17] and [+19]. I am able to utilize the same sort of magic that the witches use but only to a limited degree. I would need to rank it up more in order to cast stronger and better spells.”
Barry thought about the “Magic Mike” books that he had obtained from the catacombs, he thought about the benefits of investing into her since her Class seemed like it had a lot of potential. ‘Her abilities could prove to be valuable later on, I’ve seen what a witch can do…sure, I’ll let her read the books. I’ll treat this as an investment.’
He then brought out the stack of “Magic Mike” books. “Here, read these.” Barry handed her the books to her, she was slightly confused. “You’ll gain some Intelligence and Wisdom points from them. You should see an option prompt that’ll ask if you would like to use them for points.”
Curious as to what he was saying, she placed the books on the ground and observed one of them and was met with a prompt that he was talking about. It asked her if she would like to [Read] it or not, for [+2 Intelligence]. She was shocked. “W-What? Barry, how did you find these?”
“This world, including Earth, have items that we probably wouldn’t think are useful, but in fact are. My eyes have many unique features, one of them allows me to discern these types of objects. So always keep a look-out for anything you might think could be valuable, especially if they’re books published by a ridiculous author like ‘Magic Mike’.”
Kat was happy to be gifted with such items to boost her scores, she could not let Barry down after helping her so much. “T-Thank you, Barry. You’re investing so much into me, I can’t let it all go to waste!”
Barry acknowledged her thanks with a slight nod before receiving a message from Ron telling him that Sherry had returned after her chat with the Nightwalkers. “It’s time we head back, Sherry is waiting for us.”
