Chapter 134

Ways of the Odd (I)

//Dragon’s Might leaves you, leaving you weakened! ALL your Stats have been lowered by 50% for the duration of 3 months!//

Cain gasped for breath as he felt the overwhelming strength leave him; he almost instinctively tried to reach out with his own Mana to try and tangle it back within but to no avail. It was never his; he merely had it on the borrowed time. His arm remained outstretched toward the infinity as the invisible strand drifted away, leaving him feeling strangely hollow. He realized he got slightly addicted to the sensation of having nigh-infinite strength at his disposal. One day, he mused. I’ll get there without anyone’s assistance. One day...

Before he had a chance to examine his new items and stats, he was abruptly shuffled out of the, by now, broken-down dimension, falling back into reality. He barely managed to charge some Wind into his back to slow down his fall before landing on the solid ground. This sensation, similarly, was a bit strange now, though he quickly got used to it.

He looked up and saw his group standing there and staring at him with complicated expressions. He hardly had the words of comfort for them; confidence... was never bought or given. In time, he knew that all of them would learn to believe in their own capacity and would learn to offload battles onto others. Until then... they would just have to deal.

Cain’s eyes veered sideways as, to his surprise, he noticed yet another group here -- ten people were standing some hundred feet away from them, staring at him. The especially concerning one was the man at the far front whose eyes... were strange. Love at first sight? Cain mused strange thoughts for a moment before stretching. Yet, even that little action caused him pain as he yelped out, startling his group.

“E-eh?! What’s wrong?!” Emma rushed over and tenderly held him. “Are you hurt?! Where?! Diya, quick, heal him!!”

“Y-yes!” Diya exclaimed and, without even thinking, unloaded over half her Mana to cast her most powerful healing Skill, one that could bring even a man on the brink of death to full health. Cain snickered inwardly but had no heart to tell them that it was just a temporary backlash over his body suddenly losing its previous prowess.

“Is--is it better?” Emma quizzed.

“Yes,” Cain replied as he straightened up, taking a deep breath. “Damn, that was close! If Diya didn’t heal me, I would have died!”

“Holy shit! REALLY?!” Emma exclaimed in horror.

“Nope.”

“... oh go fuck yourself to the thousand suns, you piece of shit.” she stomped off angrily, causing Cain to chuckle.

“Anyway, who are the guests?” he quizzed.

“No clue,” Jamal replied. “They just showed up, their leader asked Emma out, she mulled over it for a second, and then they sat there.”

“Jealousy looks ugly on you, man.” Cain said.

“How do you have so much faith in her?!! She could have flirted!”

“Not everybody is a sad sack of insecure shit like you,” Cain fired back with a wink. “Anyway, they look like they wanna chat. By the way, if the fight breaks out, one of you needs to stand by me and protect me at all times.”

“Huh? Why?” Senna quizzed.

“I’m tapped out,” Cain shrugged. “For the next three months, I may as well suck on my thumb and call myself a mommy.”

“... what the hell does that even mean?”

“Sounded way better in my head.”

“Doubt it,” Senna sighed. “Fine, I’ll protect you. Daddy.”

“Ugh,” Cain groaned, conflicted; on one side, his dream of Senna calling him ‘daddy’ had finally come true... but on the other, there was something off about the way she said it... that locked up his soul for a moment. “I... I... I’ll take it! I don’t care!”

“God, you’re disgusting...”

“Let’s go.”

Cain led others slowly toward the group that remained rooted in place, waiting for them. When he stopped some ten feet from them, everyone flinched and drew back a step, causing him to tilt his head in confusion. He then glanced down and noticed the bloody apparition that he’d become -- there practically wasn’t a clean spot on his entire body.

“Ah, how barbaric of me,” he exclaimed softly. “I’ll get washed up quickly!”

“No--it’s okay,” the man at the front said, suddenly taking a breath. “I have a question for you. No, more of a request.”

“A request?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?” Cain asked curiously. The man seemed a bit familiar, at least his general frame did, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint from where.

“I’d like to pledge my group to you!”

“...”

“...”

“... say what now?” it was Emma that exclaimed as everyone tried to process Kramer’s words.

“Watching you fighting up there,” Kramer elaborated, starry-eyed. “Was... it was... it was beyond beautiful. It awoke something inside my soul! If I could, I’d become a ghost right now and spend all of my afterlife just watching you fighting, over and over again!”

“Boss!!” Sigmund exclaimed. “You’re practically begging them!! We won’t even get any benefits if you’re like this!”

“Shush,” Kramer interrupted him harshly. “We can witness first-hand this God in action! What more benefits do you want, you thankless pipsqueak?”

“Fuck it... I give up! Just do whatever the hell you want...”

“That’s more like it.”

“Just to get it straight,” Cain mused aloud, stroking his chin. “You wanna join my party?”

“Yes!”

“Three.”

“H-huh?”

“I can accept three of you,” Cain said, lifting up two fingers. “Others will have to become aux-party or something, I dunno.”

“Oi, aren’t you accepting them in a bit too lightly?!” Senna chimed in from the side.

“If you can’t see the pure, raw fanaticism in the man’s eyes,” Cain said. “Then you’re blind.”

“Yes, yes, I see it! It’s giving me the creeps! But still...”

“Of course,” Cain quickly added. “It doesn’t mean they won’t ever join us. I’m sure there will be fights and quests and dungeons and such in the future that will require more people.”

"Deal!" Kramer exclaimed without a second thought. "Anton and I will go with God, the rest of you... what should the rest of them do? Just give 'em an order!"

“...” You’d think being called a God would feel nice... but... it’s kinda off-putting... "Uh, I plan on heading out, for now, so you can join up with the rest of my squad, head back to the city, and grind out those points or whatever to climb higher."

“...”

“Don’t look so disappointed,” Cain chuckled as Kramer’s expression fell. “You may not be able to see me fight, but I guarantee you none of the lads and lasses in my party will disappoint you. If anything, I’m willing to make a bet with you -- each of them could kick your ass in a duel.”

“... eh? Even the healer?” Kramer asked with a faint trace of disbelief in his tone.

“Especially the healer,” Cain’s absolute confidence roused Diya’s spirits, but also shunned them; now, she felt as though there was a mountain on her shoulders to prove herself. “Anyway, you guys stay here for a moment, they’ll be right back.”

Inquisitive eyes awaited Cain as he led the group away from the other. He smiled and turned silent for a moment as he took out a cigarette and lit it up, the first one in a while, he realized.

“So,” he said. “Will you guys be okay with them? You don’t have to trust them. Just, you know, joke around and learn more about them.”

“What about you? Will you really head out?” Emma asked.

“Hm,” Cain nodded. “For the next three months, all my stats have been reduced by 50%. It’s pointless to stay here. One of the rewards I got is an item that allows me to enter and leave Tower without needing to go to the First Floor’s entrance.”

“... of course you did.”

“Dammit, you goddamn cheat...”

“Aah...”

“...” he expected the reactions and smiled lightly at them. “If you want, you can just mess around in the City, build up some reputation and such. I’d recommend, though, listening to Taima.”

“M-me?” the boy who was yet to speak a word exclaimed suddenly as the focus shifted back onto him.

"Hm," Cain nodded. "I'm sure you know quite a few places with a lot of raw materials that you could use to craft them stuff. Oh, speaking of that -- I also got this," Cain took out the 80 pieces of 'Gyffer Ore' and laid them out on the ground. Even if 80 sounded like a lot, it barely squared up to a child's height and width of an ordinary table. "You should find it useful."

“Gyffer ore!! And so much of it!!” Taima exclaimed excitedly as he quickly fell to his knees and started inspecting the pieces. “And with such high purity!! This... you’re... you’re giving this to me?! You could genuinely buy a full-blown mansion if you sold this!”

“Eh,” Cain shrugged. “Use the ore to craft each of them a weapon, and mix the leftovers to use for the other party. Pair ‘em up with some other materials. Order these guys around however you want and tell them to bring you whatever you need. In three months, when I’m back, I want to see them all equipped perfectly. Alright?”

“Y-yes!!” Taima exclaimed, thanking the stars in the sky that he had chosen to side with his Master on that day. “I will make the best weapons anyone has ever made! You will see!”

"I trust you. Anyway," Cain took the last puff of the cigarette and tossed away the butt as he took out the 'Dimensional Talisman' -- it was a paper-thin, palm-sized, metallic plate dyed in faint silver with strange carvings on its surface that appeared to change every other second. "Em', keep 'em grounded. I'll be back in three months." Cain said with a smile as he hastily activated the talisman, a blinding light wrapping him up temporarily as he vanished.

The moment after, his bravado disappeared as he landed near the gates of the Tower; he fell on his knees and vomited a mouthful of blood, though it hardly eased the pressure he felt. Shit, this backlash is a bitch, he groaned inwardly, trying his best to ignore the onslaught of pain that was coming from every inch of his body. I’m even Mana-locked for a couple of hours... shit... shit... aah, good thing those guys didn’t see me like this... Em’ would have never let me leave alone... fuck, it’s gonna take a whole damn week to get back to the apartment... fuck me and my bravado... I should have just passed out from pain...