That was it then. Hirrus could have one-hundred-twenty-seven active Arcana at one time. He was unsure of why it was that many, and not more or less. There was no additional information to be had. But the discovery that there was a cap was information in itself. He suspected that his cap was higher than what other adventurers had access to, based on what he’d seen. He hadn’t thought about it too much, but with this new insight, it suddenly made a little bit more sense that the adventurers he’d fought hadn’t had the same breadth of options he enjoyed.

He’d only acquired another weak charge attack from the pack of four-legged shark monsters. He almost let it lie in his new Inactive Arcana list. But he had over two dozen random magic damage Arcana that he would never use. He might not use the Selachii Pounce ability, but passively equipping it gave him a moderate increase to BUR, which was much more impactful than the negligible ATT of one of the beam Arcana. A favorable trade.

He took a moment to consider his Arcana list. One-hundred-twenty-seven proved an overwhelming number of options. He had many more weaker beam Arcana that he could swap out as needed, before he needed to touch any of the slightly less mediocre magic damage options, like Flamesplash or TK Bullets. But even with those discounted, he still had an obscene number of options. Even if he wanted to strictly eschew Arcana for damage dealing and rely on his martial skill, he had nearly a dozen options to boost his stats in that arena.

As he managed this and examined his options, they continued through the dark woods. The night was bleeding away faster than Hirrus would have liked, but he couldn’t pick up the pace any further without abandoning Alric, and he wouldn’t do that. Not even when Nidra made her chagrin known.

“I hope he proves worth it in the end,” she said, slowing her pace to move alongside Hirrus rather than ahead. “If Rumi’s process remains consistent, he’ll add three or four more of us to his army before we arrive, thanks to this delay. Can he match that in battle?”

“Hm,” Hirrus grunted.

Nidra knew the answer, obviously. She didn’t need him to tell her that Alric was nearly worthless in a fight, compared to the likes of them. She was making a point, and doing it as rudely as possible.

“Why are you so attached to him?” Nidra asked. “Why sacrifice so much for someone worth so little?”

“And why do you think he’s worth so little?” Hirrus demanded. “You seem so convinced that he’s a waste of time. Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Nidra scoffed. “He’s one of them. How could you need me to explain what they are? What they do? How they treat people like us?”

With a grimace, Hirrus tried not to picture how many people like Alric had asked him for directions and then stopped listening before he could finish talking. How many people like Alric had sprinted past him with monsters in tow, demanding that he put his life on the line for theirs? How many people like Alric overlooked him entirely as if he was background furniture?

How many people like Alric looked at Hirrus and didn’t see a person?

“There is more to being worthwhile than value in battle,” Hirrus said at last. “And there’s more to being alike than being one of us or one of them.”

Time and again, Alric had proved to be a true friend. He was slightly clumsy and awkward at times, but Hirrus would never forget him barring the door of the guild headquarters with his body so that he could get his final revenge against Last of the Strong. Hirrus also couldn’t forget Alric helping the people in that last town, guiding them clear of the fighting so that Hirrus didn’t have to worry about them.

He also remembered Alric being ready to lay down his life to rush to save Dahlia, even if it meant standing up to an enraged Hirrus. And none of that was accounting for the times Alric had stayed by his side even when Hirrus was engaged in a battle with forces that could swat him like a fly.

Nidra didn’t have any further complaint to offer. Hirrus was grateful for that. He wasn’t sure how long it would be before Alric would return, but he didn’t want the adventurer to get a swelled head if he returned right as Hirrus was defending him. Alric had enough ego already.

“So long as you understand the difficulty you’re creating for yourself,” Nidra said with a shrug. “I only object to him as I would any obstacle. His presence doesn’t bother me.”

“That is because he is asleep,” Hirrus countered. “I suspect you would feel differently if he were singing.”

Hirrus expected her to lengthen her steps again, pulling away ahead of him. But she didn’t. She walked alongside him for a time. Despite their disagreements, and the implicit threat he felt from proximity to her, it was strangely comfortable. He stood by the idea that there was more to forging a friendship than being alike, but they were alike, and that put them on an easier footing than he expected. She seemed to like the same sort of silence that he did.

She also understood the challenges he faced in a way Alric had needed to work at. She didn’t need to be told about the decision tree chirping in the back of his mind that it was time to return to Yenon. He didn’t have to be afraid that she thought of him as an imaginary construct.

Nidra also didn’t have to say it out loud for Hirrus to know that she wanted something.

He didn’t know what. There was not an unspoken dialogue between them, like the threats and banter Alric had received from Fire. But there didn’t need to be words for him to sense that she wanted to say something. To ask something. But she wanted him to ask, if she was going to speak now.

For his part, Hirrus wasn’t interested.

If Nidra needed something, it was going to have to wait. Hirrus’s priorities were not difficult to rank, and the single most important thing in his life - as ever - was Julissa. Nothing Nidra could ask for would be more important than stopping Rumi so that when the mystical world reset happened, he would still be there for her. And then several of his runner-up priorities would also only be satisfied when he tore all of Rumi’s limbs off. Protecting Dahlia. Freeing the misguided souls Rumi had brainwashed. Revenge.

Revenge.

Revenge.

If Nidra had some other task for Hirrus, or wished to form some kind of alliance to chase a larger goal, then she would have to wait. Making new friends had never been one of Hirrus’s priorities. Nor had he been overly concerned with helping people who felt the insecure need to announce that they could kill him in a fight.

That said, she seemed to have no hesitation about helping him deal with Rumi. Hirrus was a man of honor, and if Nidra was smart - and she clearly was - then she would want him in her debt before asking for a favor.

It didn’t matter, so long as Rumi died, and Hirrus was spared oblivion.

They traveled like that for a long while. Companionable silence. Request unasked. Moving inexorably towards a battle the likes of which no living soul on this world had ever seen.

The sun barely came over the horizon before Alric suddenly started. The man flailed energetically, flinging himself off of Hirrus’s shoulder and to the forest floor before Hirrus could secure him. Despite her earlier protests, Nidra was there, and caught the adventurer’s shoulders to make sure he didn’t land on his head on the way down.

“Holy shit fuck ass,” Alric sputtered. “I’m so fucking sorry holy shit.”

“It has been much longer than you promised,” Nidra observed. With one smooth motion she lifted him up roughly to his feet. “We’re nearly at our destination and you’ve just now returned.”

“I fucked up, okay?” Alric said. He immediately started to break into a jog, and Hirrus and Nidra didn’t hesitate to start moving again. “I’m sorry. What do you want me to say?”

“What happened to you?” Hirrus asked. “Is everything alright?”

“I fucking fell asleep,” Alric said, rubbing his eyes. “As soon as I hollowed out my entire fucking abdomen, I needed more than just a granola bar. I thought it couldn’t hurt to slap a cup noodle in the microwave. Five minutes? That’s fine, right? Definitely not a big game changer. It would even give me a minute to flop down on the couch. Come right back with my cuppa noods and a box of granola bars for later, and I won’t be whining the whole time when I get back.”

“Do you know how few of those words mean anything?” Hirrus asked.

“I got ya, I got ya,” Alric snapped, making a dismissive gesture. The gesture distracted him just enough that he tripped over a tree root and almost fell. Without thinking, Hirrus grabbed Alric’s elbow to steady him. “Sorry. So I stretched out for a minute because all the tension in my shoulders is killing my neck, so I tip my head a little bit to the left and boom! Pop pop pop! Fireworks. Better than sex. Holy shit. As soon as I could move again I go to the right and get that side, too.”

“Informative,” Nidra said from Alric’s other side with a disgusted grimace. Hirrus was surprised to see her running alongside them instead of sprinting ahead to set another breakneck pace.

“Sorry,” Alric said, pausing for a moment to shake his head. “I gotta stop apologizing. Whatever. Anyway, I hear the microwave beep, and my whole body is floating. Cup noodles gotta sit for a minute when you microwave them, so I figure I’ll just chill for a bit. Next thing I know, I wake up. I don’t even know when I fell asleep. Skinned my knee and wrenched my shoulder hurling myself off the couch to get back here.”

Hirrus wasn’t sure this was an adequate explanation. Alric spoke of moving around, wandering some external space - a meat-space, he’d called it - when his body was a limp weight on Hirrus’s back. But he had long since acknowledged that sometimes adventurers just spoke in riddles and gibberish.

“Hush,” Nidra said, right before Alric started talking again. “We’re nearly there. Until we know the reach of Rumi’s defensive perimeter, we need to move and speak with great care from here on.”

“Okay,” Alric confirmed, lowering his voice as the trio slowed their pace. “But let me just say one last thing: I fucking love cup noodles. I don’t know what witchcraft goes into these Styrofoam cups, but this shit sat in the microwave for three hours and is still warm!” He paused for a moment. “Makes you appreciate how delicious these noodles really are.” Alric continued a moment later in a different tone of voice: “I know I sure do.”