ITEM AWAKENING

The shield’s realm was slightly different from before. It wasn’t that the rooms or the furniture in them had changed, rather, it was the state of everything. Here and there, green and purple veins were visible on the walls and floor, like cracks, but different.

“I’ll be with you shortly.” The dryad’s shout came from the upper floor. “Give me a moment to change.”

“No problem,” Dallion replied. After the battle that had taken place, he was in no mood to give the guardian a hard time. True, there were questions that needed answers, but the dryad had single-handedly won a battle that, by all accounts, would have been lost.

Have you seen any of that before? Dallion asked.

The obvious answer is poison, Nil replied. Other than that, I can only speculate. The substance clearly has the same effect on items and living beings. Not to mention that the effects last in the real world. That’s usually what happens when you face primal creatures.

What’s a—

Primal creatures? Things that appear in artifacts that haven’t been screened by the guild. That’s why it’s dangerous dealing with them. Sure, everyone dreams of the treasures they might get and ignores everything else. You should have never been in that artifact to begin with! In fact, you never should have been dealing with the pool.

The sound of descending steps put an abrupt end to the mental conversation. Dallion looked up. The dryad was wearing green knee-length britches and a white, loosely fitting long-sleeved shirt. The sleeves, however, weren’t able to fully cover the wound that started from his hand and went all the way up to his neck.

“Your hand,” Dallion pointed.

“Ah.” The dryad glanced at it casually. “A minor effect of the battle. Nothing to worry about. Back in my day, I would have healed it in a couple of hours, but due to my current limitations, it’ll take a few weeks. If possible, I’d ask that you don’t take me into battle for a while. Well, unless you absolutely have to.”

A few weeks… A few hours ago, Dallion was worried that the shield could be permanently damaged, even destroyed. It was outright annoying how calm the dryad was about it.

“What are you, shield?” Dallion asked.

“So you’re not just here to see how well I’m doing?”

“You’re not doing well, but you’re hiding it.” Dallion said sharply. “My perception is sixteen now. I can smell the stench coming from your arm. It’s the same that’s coming from the wall.”

“The casualties of battle. You tend to come across strong guardians every now and again. You should know that better than anyone.” The guardian’s smile shrank. “You had to fight the Star during your entrance test.”

“True, but the Star wasn’t terrified by me.” He took a step forward. “I saw the snake, shield. When you appeared in that form, it recoiled from you. I’ve seen guardians afraid from awakened, but not to that extent.”

There was a long moment of silence. The dryad walked past Dallion to one of the walls that was most affected. Slowly, he slid his unhurt hand over the purple cracks. As if sensing his fingers, the ends of the cracks moved away.

“When someone is exiled in an item, there’s usually a reason,” the shield said, his back still turned to Dallion. “I know it’s fashionable to make sweeping overgeneralizations, but in some cases people deserved it. You haven’t seen a real war yet. There’s none of your kind that has. Some have witnessed a few light skirmishes, or some squabbles between nobles, and you confuse that for a war. The wars I and your harpsisword have been through, they can’t compare. You’re like a candle telling the sun that there’s no difference between you. Well, there is.” He turned around. “The reason I became a companion armor wasn’t because of the form I was given. They could have imprisoned me in a cup, or a ring, or even a comb, for all I care. I was simply tired of all the fighting… the real fighting, so I decided to go for change. Quite a few companions and tutor artifacts made that choice. Combat artifacts, like your harpsisword, didn’t.”

Dallion said nothing. He had felt Harp’s strength. Even before being tricked into his leveling trial during the sanitation job, he knew that he was far stronger than she let out to be. However, she had never done what the armadil shield had. On the other hand, she had asked Dallion to let the shield go in battle.

“Vermilion wasn’t someone you could have won against. I doubt any awakened in your guild could have. I had no choice but to intervene… it was like the wars of my past. That’s pretty much all I could tell you.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” the dryad said sharply. “You’re almost an empath, a gift from the Seven Moons. You’ve done me more good than you know, but there are things I can’t tell even you.”

This sounded serious. It wasn’t the usual “you’ll learn when the time comes.” The guardian genuinely didn’t want to talk about it, and as much as Dallion wanted answers, there was nothing he could do on the topic… at least as far as the shield was concerned.

“What was Vermilion?” Dallion changed the direction of the conversation.

“A guard dog, nothing more. They were strong in large numbers, but on their own… well, you saw.”

“So, he was protecting something important…”

“Maybe, maybe not. He wouldn’t be able to stop a high-level awakened. Given the low standards of the present day, who knows. Maybe the person who put him there thought it would be enough. Either way, don’t worry about it.”

“Who says I’m worried?”

The dryad laughed.

“I know you well enough. You’re wondering if the key opens more than the copyette’s prison. In your place, I’d worry more about that.”

“The copyette?”

“The fact that it escaped. Whether it’s weak or strong, that’s not the issue. Even in the current state of the world, there are enough awakened to deal with him. Having the knowledge to release the imprisoned back into the world… that would create a cataclysm none of you had seen before.”

Dallion was incapable of describing what he felt. It would be easy to call it fear, but it was so much beyond that, to the point that the threat itself was deemed unreal. It was like saying that the Sun would consume the Earth in several million years—hopelessly terrifying and yet waved away. The difference here was that this wasn’t an event that would take place in the far future, but could occur any day now.

If the snake was to be believed and the copyette had been free for years, allowing it to do all sorts of havoc, including slowly building up an army of others like it. Even Arthurows—the Star—was terrified of the prospect, unless that too had been an act.

“What do you suggest?” Dallion asked.

“You’re asking for my advice?” The dryad looked at him, then laughed. It was a low, bitter laugh that continued for close to half a minute. “The blind leading the blind. You really want the advice of someone who was imprisoned in a shield because of things I’d done?”

“You have experience in that matter. I don’t.”

The harpsisword probably also had experience, but was that someone Dallion should ask? If she knew anything on the topic, she would have told him.

“Do I try to find him?” Dallion asked directly.

“Don’t you have enough problems already?” the dryad frowned. “I know you’re going to try and do it no matter what I say. What you really want to know is how to find the copyette and what to do once you do. Let me save you some trouble. There’s only one thing you can do once you find it—kill it. Are you prepared for that?”

That was the big question Dallion feared. So far, he hadn’t killed anyone, in this world or back on Earth. Cracks and similar beings were the only exception. If he were to continue along this road, he would have to do just that…

“I will be,” Dallion said firmly. “Unless you lied about the upcoming war.”

“Oh, I didn’t lie. But you might find it more difficult than you think. That’s the weakness of empaths. Despite all your strength, you tend to shy away from problems. You pretend to have a reason, or to be clumsy, or whatever other excuse you can find.” The dryad moved closer to Dallion and placed his left hand on his shoulder. “I quite like you, you know. You’re different from a lot of people in this age, but you’re not ready for this.”

“I said I will be!” Dallion shook the hand off. “Will you tell me, or not?”

“Sure,” the dryad replied with a sigh. “You’ll need a working kaleidervisto. You’ve cleared a few for your guild, so they should be findable. They won’t work on their own, mind you. You’ll need to be close to the copyette and get it to experience a strong emotion. Fear, anger… you know the drill.” The guardian waved his hand. “Do that and you’ll spot the copyette. Of course, it’ll spot you as well.”

“Thanks.” Dallion turned around. There was no reason for him to do so. He had the power to leave the realm instantly if he wished, but for some reason, he felt he should. Seeing the dryad look at him as he left felt uncomfortable.

Anything to add? He asked in a bitter tone.

No, you did quite well on your own, dear boy, Nil replied. Of course, there’s no way of knowing whether anything he said is true, and I’m not well versed in that field to say anything different.

It’s true. Do you think I’m ready to face a copyette?

Definitely not. If you fight it now, you’ll lose. Maybe if you get to level twenty and—

Thank you, Nil, Dallion cut him short.

As usual, things had a way to get more complicated. Having at least one point of stability in his life would be nice. Instead, Dallion was plagued by all sorts of problems, from the trivial personal, to the end of the world.

“Dal,” the dryad said. “If you’re serious about this, there’s one thing you need to do.”

Dallion looked over his shoulder.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“You’ll have to get rid of a lifetime of bad habits. Advancing so much so fast has helped you a lot, but it has also pushed you deeper in a state of uncertainty.”

“You’re starting to sound like Nil…”

“The kid is right. You should listen to him more and rely on him less. The truth is that you’ve reached the point at which you can no longer advance your level, and it’s starting to affect your life. If you really want to see this through—or any of your plans and dreams for that matter—you need to stop running and face your fears.”

“I’ve heard the lecture before. If that’s all you have to—”

“Level up and tell Gloria and Eury about each other.”

The sentence caught Dallion by surprise. For a split second, he felt completely defenseless, as if he had just finished fortifying his castle only to realize that his enemies were behind him all along.

“When you manage to do that without feeling any anguish, you’ll be able to say that you are willing to do what it takes,” the guardian continued. “No avoiding the matter, no waiting for things to resolve on their own, no running away to another city, hoping that you’ll leave your problems behind that way. It’s more difficult for you because of your empathy, and that’s why you’ll have to work that much harder to break through to your next level.”

“You’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Dallion lied, putting up a fake laugh. “The poison must have affected your mind.”

“Sure, that must be it.” The dryad kept looking straight into Dallion’s eyes. “Wasn’t that why you left your village? You could have stayed a while and helped improve the buildings. You could have helped find and unseal others who had lost their awakened powers. Instead, you rushed to Nerosal in search of a new start and now you don’t even remember the reason you even got here.”

Reality shifted, returning Dallion back to his room. He was breathing heavily, the heart in his chest beating so fast, forcing him to sit down.

There’s no need to get so excited, dear boy. Don’t—

Dallion quickly slid on the blocker ring on his finger before Nil could finish. He didn’t need more advice right now. In fact, he didn’t need anyone. No one in this world knew him in the least. They didn’t know what he had gone through in this world or on Earth. The only thing Dallion really needed was calm. Calm and sleep.