[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 246 – Honorbound

Your [Heavy Blade] Skill has reached (★☆ Uncommon).

For all the effort he put into that strike, it certainly appeared to pay off. Sam had used [Heavy Blade] frequently since his intense training with the Empress, but this was the first time he saw the skill improve.

It was little wonder since the skill was E-Class now. Unlike F-Class, where he could expect some consistent growth, E-Class clearly had much higher requirements.

Just gotta train all that much harder then, Sam told himself.

“It’s a good thing I don’t gotta poop here,” Komachi told him out of the blue.

Sam looked at Komachi on his shoulder. He gently set her down on the tiled floor. “Maybe you walk behind me then, yeah?”

Komachi looked up at him, her furry face squinting. “Why?”

“Because you will be able to use the bathroom when we cross through, and I don’t want you going on my shoulder.”

“I only did that once!” Komachi cried indignantly.

Sam sheathed his sword and strode toward the twist of light that would take him to the Empire. “One time too many,” he replied.

Standing in front of the twisting ribbon of light, Sam looked over his shoulder at Komachi sitting in the same spot.

She was pouting.

Komachi rarely did anything silently, but now she simply sat there with all four paws trying to occupy the same space. Her thick furry tail curled around them as if trying to hide their existence.

The whole thing tugged at Sam’s heartstrings, and Komachi knew it.

Even if she wasn’t trying to manipulate him, she still was.

Sam threw up his arms and stalked back to her, scooping her up like a football. He held all of her paws in one large hand and cradled her as he passed through the portal without another word.

***

Cripes, I should have stayed in the field, the drow thought to himself, seeing the faces peering at him.

Xero kept that smile fixed on his coal-dark features. He hoped it was dazzling. At least a little impressive.

Was it too much to ask for a drow to be left alone to ponder this new Path nonsense he had just received? It didn’t seem like much to ask.

“Why were you hiding in the wheat?” Raiko asked. She didn’t look too pleased to see him again, but at least she wasn’t furious.

Xero shrugged. What answer could he give the woman that would satisfy her? He always had a weakness for demanding women, but Raiko was too much, even for his self-destructive ways. It took a long time to realize that.

A human turned to Raiko and said, “Do you think Haman would be able to make bread?”

Xero pushed away the thoughts of a deliciously yeasty brew that he knew Haman could make. Not that he ever would.

Haman was resolute about not making any alcohol for Xero.

The little furry bastard was as sweet as purple pumpkin pie unless you asked him to make some wine or beer. It wasn’t like it would be much! He had vineyards of grapes. Fields of wheat. He wouldn’t miss a little, surely.

Xero shook his head, his mane of silvery-white hair flowing behind him as he stalked out of the wheat field and onto the grassy knoll beside Raiko and Haman.

The pobul looked suspiciously at Xero. When the drow shook his head to let the little guy know he wasn’t trying to make bootleg alcohol, Haman looked pleased.

This was, technically speaking, a new body. He wasn’t addicted anymore. Not on a physical level.

Addiction is more than physical, Xero thought to himself. With a force of effort, he brought himself back to the present. “What’re we talking about? Bread? Haman can make bread.”

“Can he?” the human asked, curious. “The wheat that is there alone would be enough to feed us all for months if it can be properly stored.”

“You some sort of grocer, mate?” Xero asked.

The man chuckled and extended a hand. “I’m Matt. Not a grocer, no, but just well-versed in grocery matters.”

That made no sense to the drow, but Xero wasn’t one to be unfriendly. “Xero,” he said, though he expected Matt already knew his name. He clasped the man’s wrist, startling him for a moment. To his credit, the human understood the greeting well enough to reciprocate.

These humans were strange in their greetings. Why did they always want to grip his hand?

“The little bugger just waves a paw and makes flour, mixes it with water, and bam, you’ve got yourself a loaf! You couldn’t believe how easily he makes it.”

“I could,” Raiko said, looking affectionately at the pobul in her arms.

Haman puffed out his chest with pride and reached a paw out to Xero.

He knew just what to do. Xero fist-bumped the pobul.

“Well,” Matt began, “that seems to be one problem solved. What about the other stuff?”

“The Paths?” Raiko asked, sparing Xero a closer look. He felt there was something that needed to be said between the two of them, but the drow didn’t have the words. Even though their past was a literal lifetime ago, Xero didn’t know how to move on and start fresh.

Especially not in front of this human, Matt.

I’m trying, he thought to himself.

“Right now, we’re on top,” Matt told her. “Until we find a group of people who already have Professions and Paths, then we’ll have the same problems as our newest arrivals.”

Xero’s ruby-red eyes glanced from Matt to Raiko, then to the little alcohol tyrant, Haman.

None of them knew he had just received a Path.

Normally, Xero would have bartered the information for some booze or at least some more comfort. He was a mercenary at heart. Altruism didn’t sit well with him.

At least, that’s what he told himself most days.

His Path on the other hand…well, that very clearly said otherwise.

Do I have to act according to my Path then? Xero couldn’t help but wonder. It wasn’t a comforting thought. He was far from noble. The drow wasn’t even in the same room as honorable. His Path suggested otherwise.

The very Shardrune claimed he was honorable! Why else would it give him the Honor Path?

“Do you have a Path–” Raiko began to ask with great interest, making Xero sweat. “Haman?”

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Ginru, mate, I thought I was cooked! It would be just like Raiko to know that Xero had a Path and was holding out on them.

Their relationship might have ended on a sour note, but she could still push his buttons as easily as his old crone of a mother. If not easier.

No, his best option would be to tell them immediately.

Xero stopped the thought in its tracks. Did I really just think that? What would be the gain?

Deep within his soul, a small spark of the child he had once been–before the Undergloam beat it out of him–told him that he could help them.

Raiko was great at puzzles. He always held to the belief that she saw him as a broken puzzle she could fix.

Didn’t work out that way, but you didn’t win all the bets you placed.

Haman shook his head. “Just a Profession,” he told her.

Raiko scratched behind his rounded, bear-like ears. “Just? Most have yet to find Professions. What you’ve accomplished, my little pobul, is amazing.”

Haman puffed up with pride again, making those chirps that everyone found so adorable. Xero included, though he wasn’t about to admit that.

“What’s so important about a Path, anyway?” Xero asked.

Matt shrugged. “So far, only Raiko and Sam were able to get Paths. The other people we’ve met have all been the same. Most don’t even have Professions. From what we can tell, each of the three is like a pillar of strength. If you’re missing one…” He lifted his palms up and shifted them around to represent an unbalanced foundation.

“Aye,” Xero said, catching on. He looked to Raiko. “What’s your Path then?”

She turned her violet eyes on him, half-lidded with suspicion. “Chaos.”

Xero sucked in his breath through his teeth. That would explain the look.

“It has served me,” she tried to tell him. “And it’s better than the alternative.”

It was a good spin, but Xero didn’t buy it. She must hate having that apocalyptic stuff inside her. He didn’t know how he would stand it if the situation was reversed.

Then again, Raiko was always able to withstand more punishment than he could.

It would have been a tremendous loss to Islegard. The Sacred Sage succumbing to apocalyptic forces. One of the last bastions of life turning into a bleeding Shard Slayer.

For a crystallized moment, he feared for the Sacred Tree, but its boughs and leaves were as hale as ever. And Raiko hadn’t turned into a monster.

She resisted the corruption.

“Wait, what’s the alternative?” Matt asked.

Raiko looked away. “Being dead. Chaos mana running free in the realm.”

Haman broke the silence that followed with affectionate chirping, distracting all of them but Xero.

Xero couldn’t help himself any longer. His Path was eating him up inside as surely as if he had eaten an undercooked [Skulgrap Liver].

“I just gained a Path,” he blurted out before it was too late.

The two slowly turned to regard him. Haman was busy gnawing on his paw.

There was interest in Raiko’s eyes. And something else in Matt’s that he hadn’t seen for a long time.

Hope.

“Aw, don’t look at me like that!” Xero cried.

“But if you just got it, you might be able to tell us how you did,” Matt explained. “And if we can figure out how you gained a Path, then we might be able to find out how others can as well.”

“And if we do that,” Raiko said, continuing the thread with remarkable enthusiasm, “then we can improve the lives of everybody on Sil’mara. Even the people who hardly have a handful of levels to their name.”

“We’ve thought all Paths were mana-based in some way,” Matt told Xero. “You know, basic elements. Sam and Raiko both got advanced types of mana, but it’s still just well-known mana, right?”

“I guess,” Xero said. “I don’t think mine fits that though, mate.”

“Please tell us what your Path is, Xero,” Raiko said.

Xero raised his palms up to fend them off. “I didn’t mean t’keep you waiting. It’s…” Xero mumbled the rest, hoping neither of them heard.

Raiko had the ears of a bleeding bat though. Her eyes went wide with suspicion and no small amount of mirth. “Honor? Really?”

She clearly was trying not to laugh at him. Xero couldn’t blame her. How was a disreputable mercenary like himself able to get an Honor Path? It made no sense.

Only it does, a tiny voice told Xero. You told yourself that you would see Haman safely back to Raiko, and you did. You could have left at any point.

Every monster, every threat that went their way, Xero dealt with. He protected that pobul, no matter what.

Xero snorted. Left at any point? Yeah, right. Go pull the other one mate. It’s got bells on.

As if he could have abandoned Haman!

Even if his soul wouldn’t be irreparably damaged by forsaking a soul aeder, what sort of bastard would leave a defenseless creature alone to the horrors of a newly uplifted world?

In Xero’s mind, he had about as much choice as breathing.

The Shard, and therefore the System, clearly saw it differently.

“Honest horror,” Xero told her. “Level 1 Honor Path is what it says. Happened as soon as we joined up with you.”

Raiko’s eyes narrowed in that familiar way that always made his heart race. It was the same look she had when they found their target or when a trap was sprung on them in the middle of a Dungeon.

It was the look of a woman excited for the future.

Matt looked at Raiko. “What’re you thinking?”

“I’m thinking,” Raiko began, “that there are more ways than we first thought to get a Path.” She looked Xero up and down. “Tell me exactly what the prompt was, word-for-word. Everything you can tell us is instrumental.”

Xero didn’t like being the subject of such a piercing gaze. He reminded himself that he had willingly walked into the jaws of an umber lion this time.

Apparently, it was the right thing to do. As soon as he started to recite the prompt he had about his Path, a notification popped up in the middle of his vision.

Level Up!

Your [Honor] Path has reached Level 2.

+1 Skill Talent.

Xero’s eyes lit up. What is that?

For once, the Shard provided an answer. It was more glorious than anything Xero could have expected.