Soulweaver 136: Congratulations! You’re a Winner!

Aerion glowered as she scrambled back to her feet and stomped off, but I didn’t have the time to worry about her.

Activating [Snap], I sprinted over to where Aerion had dropped Rogar and Philip off.

“How’s he looking?” I asked, kneeling beside the injured blacksmith.

“He’ll pull through just fine,” Richard said. “Philip’s canteen was enough to heal his face, and poured Rogar’s down his throat. Think he’ll pull through. He’s just resting now.”

I let out a breath. This was my fuckup. Before I could say something, though, Richard cut me off. 

“Not your fault, Greg. I think I speak for all of us when I say you’ve done more than we could’ve imagined. Doubt any of us thought we’d survive… Let alone defeat that thing,” Richard said, jerking his chin at the fallen dragon.

“Hear hear,” Philip said. “Thought I was a goner, to be honest.”

“Wait,” I said, as the elf pushed me away and stomped off. “Wait, Aerion!”

“Well, uh… Just doing what we can. Right, Aerion?”

I sighed when she didn’t turn around, instead stomping off into the distance.

“The hell did I do now…”

“Pretty obvious, innit?” Richard said, sidling up beside me.

“I don’t get it,” I said. “Things didn’t used to be like this… Between us, I mean.”

I glanced back at the corpse of the Obsidian Dragon. The beast that was supposed to be the Trial Guardian had randomly shown up on the fifth floor. I had so many questions. Questions best answered by a pointy-eared elf. An elf who was currently peeved at me for no reason I could understand.

“Greg… Friend… Have you never been in love?”

My cheeks flushed. “Obviously. I’m not…”

I paused and sighed. Who was I kidding? I’d felt it several times already. That hot, tingly feeling in the chest. The racing of the heart. The random thoughts… The coconut bikinis.

Okay, well, maybe not that last one. Fuck you Cosmo. But as immature as that bastard was, he hadn’t sparked anything new. I’d felt this before. I’d been in denial before. Which meant I jut had to accept these feelings for what they were. Just that…

“Alright, fine. Maybe I do have a thing for Aerion,” I muttered, barely loud enough for Richard to hear. “But so what? It takes two to tango, yeah? Aerion clearly doesn’t like me.”

“Oh?” Richard asked, an amused smirk plastered across his face. It pissed me off a lot more than I thought it would, for some reason. “And what makes you say that?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? She likes Eskil. Big, strong guy. Who wouldn’t like a guy like him?”

Richard shook his head. “Mate, afraid I’m gonna have to pop your cherry. she’s waiting for you to confess.”

I… snorted. “Uh, huh. And this is just a VR experiment by artificially intelligent machines to make the masses think they live in some utopia when they’re really just unwitting batteries for the machine superintelligence.”

Richard gave me a concerned glance. “Tell me you just made that up.”

“I didn’t… But don’t worry. We’re not there. Yet. Just the plot of one of the best movies of all time.”

“Thank god. What movie?”

“The Matrix. 2002. Check it out when you get there. That reality won’t happen for another fifty years or so. Well beyond your time.”

“I… don’t know if I ought to be relieved or terrified.”

“Probably both,” I said with a wry smile.

Richard shook his head. “Talking to you is like flirting with the devil. But… Ah yes. Flirting. Let’s talk about that more, shall we?”

I groaned. I’d hoped the talk of machine overlords displacing humanity as the number one intelligence on the planet would make my friend forget about our original conversation… Apparently not.

“Okay, so I like her. Maybe. But what does it matter?”

“It matters, Greg, because she’s head over heels for you!”

“Yeah, right.”

Richard sighed. “Do I have to spell it out for you? God, you’re as dense as a rock. Alright, so have you ever noticed when she—”

The ominous sounds of shouts and yells coming from the other end of the cavern stopped Richard.

Aerion’s ears stood on end, and all signs of her previous sulky behavior vanished as she rushed back to Philip and the unconscious Rogar.

“Maybe we have this conversation once we’re on the sixth floor?” I said, remembering to walk over to the dragon’s corpse to grab its soul crystal.

“Reckon so,” Richard replied. “Same as usual?”

“Time to boogie,” I said, crouching down.

“No worries, Greg. I got your back!”

— —
As we trucked up the stairs, I used the downtime to go over my latest gains, which were not insignificant.

Congratulations! Grace has increased from 54 to 58 (Max: 74)

Congratulations! Basecrest City Guard Suit [Uncommon]’s ability [Snap] has leveled up from Foundation - 7 to Foundation - 9!

Congratulations! Blessing [Initializer] has leveled up from Divergence - 0 to Divergence - 1. Maximum Essence increased from 370 to 410. Current Utilization: 355/410.

Finally… It was the first Blessing levelup of the Trial… The monsters here just didn’t yield enough experience at my level to do a whole lot. Still, between the dart that had been destroyed in the previous fight and my levelup, I finally had more of an Essence buffer now. Maybe even enough to initialize Aurora.

Aerion had seen some good gains as well, with her Vigor, Grace, and Dominion all seeing good gains. Her Dominion now maxed out at 59 points. She’d also leveled from E - 6 to E - 7, netting her an additional 10 free stats.

We made it up the stairs and into the next Sanctuary room without issue. The moment we did, each of us damn near collapsed. Those of us who were still conscious, that was. Rogar hadn’t yet recovered, so we dunked him into the fountain’s pool of healing liquid and called it good. As I’d learned firsthand, it was impossible to drown in those things. Rogar might not appreciate waking up sputtering and coughing, but he’d live. 

For my part, I sat down heavily in the bed of grass, and let myself fall onto my back. Before I knew it, my eyes slid shut, and I was asleep.

I awoke with a startle… To find a certain elf drooling over my breastplate, snoring softly. She must’ve fallen over at some point. I looked up to find Richard and Philip smiling wryly at me from across the Sanctuary chamber.

Well, shit. As gently as I could, I extricated myself from being Aerion’s pillow, then stood up and dusted off my armor. Not gently enough, unfortunately. Aerion had always been a light sleeper, and so she awoke almost as soon as I’d slipped out. I opened my mouth, but unsure what to say, I closed it again. She gave me a somber glance before bringing her knees to her chest and burying her face, curling up like a ball.

“Must’ve… uh, been as tired as I was, ha,” I said as I walked over to them, smoothly playing off our awkward exchange. When their smirks grew wryer, though, I realized my acting skills must’ve left something to be desired.

“How’s Rogar?” I asked, deftly switching topics.

Richard rolled his eyes, while Philip cleared his throat. Okay, so maybe not as deftly as I’d thought…

“Rogar is, well…”

I followed Philip’s gaze to the loudly snoring blacksmith, drooling in a corner of the Sanctuary. 

“Looks like he’s doing just fine.”

“Woke up cursing in the fountain,” Phlip said, chuckling. “He’s just resting now.”

“Alright, I’d say we’ve earned ourselves a break,” I said, eyeing the sanctuary. This one was pretty similar to the previous ones with the mini forest, fountain, and fruits and vegetables… With the notable exception of floor to ceiling windows spanning one entire wall. Windows that looked out into an inky black abyss. 

This floor held a lot of memories for Aerion and me. The innumerable times we nearly died, the harrowing submarine ascent… Emma’s failed rescue.

I glanced at Aerion, who stared forlornly into the darkness. I wondered if we’d come across the Sanctuary room we dug Emma’s grave in. Was it still there? Or would it have been wiped when the Sanctuary reset?

My thoughts moved on, but Aerions clearly hadn’t.

“You’d best have a chat, Greg,” Richard said. “She needs you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Told you about Emma’s death, did she?”

“Emma?” Richard asked, raising his brow. “Can’t say she did. But it’s plain as day that she’s not right at the moment. I daresay you’re the only one among us who can.”

Our conversation from earlier popped into my head. “You mean, because she, uh, y’know… I dunno, Richard. I don’t see it.”

Richard sighed, while Philip chuckled. 

“Plain as day,” Richard repeated. “She’d head over heels for you, mate.”

I glanced at Philip, who nodded, giving me a wry smile. “I’d say it’s pretty obvious. Well, obvious to anyone not in love, I suppose. That’s the way these things go. Ah, youth. I miss those days…”

Philip was staring at Aerion, though it looked like his eyes were a million miles away. It didn’t take much of an imagination to guess where.

“Wait… You knew Aerion’s a girl?” I asked. As far as I knew, she’d been in her boy disguise around him and Rogar.

Philip shrugged. “Had me fooled at first—got to hand it to her, she knows how to work a disguise. Just that, well, it’s tough to stay in character every minute of every day. The way she moves, the intonation of her words… The way she interacts with you. Didn’t take long to put two and two together.”

I glanced at Rogar, but Philip shook his head. “Dense as a lead brick, that one. I daresay she’d have to tell him outright for him to notice.”

“That… makes sense,” I replied. “But still… Aerion likes me? Really? Always thought she didn’t care about things like this.” 

“Whatever do you mean?” Philip asked. “While it’s not my business to meddle in such affairs, she’s clearly of courting age, yes?”

“Well, sure, but… I mean, we’re fighting a battle for the fate of the world, for crying out loud. We’re in the middle of a monster-filled den right now, and that isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Any of us could be dead tomorrow. Hardly the sort of environment to be thinking about romantic feelings.”

“And what of it?” Richard asked. “Is that not precisely the time to forge strong bonds? As you said, none of us know what God has in store for us. Carpe Diem. Seize the day!”

I frowned. “Sure, that all sounds well and good. All the stories of soldiers going off to war after proposing, to give them a reason to stay alive and come back home, safe and sound. Never got behind that, though. Sure, the ones who come back make for incredible stories… But you and I both know there are plenty who never do. Plenty who make their new wives widows… I refuse to do that. To anyone. Let alone someone I care about.”

“Think you’re a little off there, Greg,” Philip muttered. 

I was about to argue when he raised his hands. “Not that I don’t understand where you’re coming from. I do. Seen it myself. Just… This situation’s a bit different, don’t you think?”

“How’s that?” 

“You’re both risking your lives against the Cataclysm. Not like she’s staying home safe while you go out and fight, yes? She could make the same argument you just made.”

“That’s… Even worse, isn’t it?” I said. “If I were to go down in the middle of a fight, or vice versa… The emotional impact would be so much worse. And in the middle of a fight, that could be lethal.”

Of course, that concern might have been moot, at least in the case of me dying. It was very possible Aerion’s life was linked to mine, seeing how the System considered her a living weapon.

I… clearly had a lot to think about. A whole swamp of emotions to wade through. Whatever my feelings for Aerion, whatever she thought about me, I wouldn’t do anything until I was sure that any changes in our relationship dynamic would result in something better, not worse. We had a great thing going right now, after all.

That didn’t mean I couldn’t do anything for my friend, though. Aerion missed Emma. What kind of friend was I if I couldn’t even be there for her?