chapter 70
During the bus ride back, I mainly focused on this swirling power around my core that was slowly integrating, making me stronger. It felt like I had just taken a pack of stims for combat; my right hand had all its veins popping.
Closing my eyes helped, as it helped focus me, allowing me to somewhat help the coursing power integrate faster. After about an hour, the intensity of the feeling started to die down, but there was still plenty of power left that needed to be integrated.
The biggest realisation I came to after this hour is that I do not know where this power comes from, this power that is nourishing me and making me stronger.
The second realisation is that I could channel that accumulated power into certain parts of me more than others. So, if I wanted to, I could focus most of it toward my body.
As I am so low in rank, I don’t think it makes much of a difference right now, so improving all three aspects—the body, mind, and core—should be the right thing to do.
The reason why I do not know where this power comes from is because when I kill someone, I get the sense of everything they are and have, turning that everything into currency with my looting ability.
So, what is making me stronger? Currently, I have no idea, but this is definitely something I should figure out sooner rather than later.
The bus wasn’t quite at the town yet, but I still got off a stop before I should have. The walk from here wouldn’t be too bad, and near here was a farm that allowed you to see some of the animals they had.
The walk was nice, as the weather was quite pleasant, and as I got closer to the farm, it was obvious there were more than just the farmers here.
Seems like this place was popular enough with locals for them to bring their children to see the animals. Some of their creatures here were quite strange, but I only had eyes for two species. The goats and sheep did look a bit different from what I remembered, but not by too much.
Now I just needed some blood samples from them. Fortunately, my idea to get it—if I do say so myself—was brilliant. What I did was order some of my excess nano machines to form into clusters. Soon they resembled mosquitoes.
I opened my hand, and six of them flew out, heading toward their target. But I froze when I heard an incredibly familiar sound.
My head snapped to the right, where I saw a rooster, and soon, following behind him, some chickens. Now this was getting ridiculous. Quickly, I diverted two of the mosquitoes to get samples from another species that shouldn’t be here.
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Two similar species I could somewhat accept, but three? No, no, no. Something was really wrong here. How could this be possible?
Before I knew it, the mosquitoes had returned with their blood samples, while I still dumbly stared at the chickens. There were other birds here, but from the report of the planet I got, chickens most definitely weren’t listed as a species originating from here.
My walk to the town went by in a flash, as my mind was so occupied with trying to figure out how this could be possible.
The stories we knew of each other, and now this strange connection with domesticated animals. Were our worlds somehow connected at one point? Or did we all originate from one place?
Those are the only two options I can think of that could make any sense, even if they don’t make any sense at all.
As I finally neared the Adventurer Guild, I needed to make a choice: do I open up about this discovery of mine or not? There was a low chance that this knowledge would help me in any way, but perhaps it would still be better to consult Lola and my other AIs.
As I thought about it a bit more, I realized that I could always reveal this discovery later, so it wasn’t as urgent as I originally believed. Still, the mystery of it all was incredibly appealing, and sharing it would probably help figure out what was actually going on.
Varkun was sitting at his normal table, and as I approached, he finally noticed me and gave a big smile.
“Another portal clear then. Congratulations.” Then his tone got serious. “Unfortunately, I can’t swing any more dungeons for you, at least not here. I apologize. I knew you wanted at least one more clear.”
That stopped me, as I really had been hoping for another one.
“I guess I learned what I needed to learn. Portals will most likely never be profitable for me, which is really unfortunate. But I wanted to ask you about getting stronger. Where does that power actually come from?”
“Come, sit down,” he said, now a bit more jovial. I did what he said, and soon there were drinks in front of us.
“I read up a little bit more on the looting skills, so this question doesn’t come as a surprise to me. In fact, I was waiting for it.” He stopped explaining as he slowly finished his entire cup.
“Don’t look at me like that, I just needed to get my words in order. Look, most believe, and will always believe, that strength—the power, as you said—comes from killing, and what you take from that killing. But that’s not entirely true. The type of power that enhances you comes from the mana around you, and your own will. And honestly, that’s all I know.”
“Wait… is that why you could get stronger just by absorbing mana and meditating on it?”
“That’s exactly right. If you want more information on that, you’d need to find people stronger than me. I’ve barely reached E-rank, and I’m already slowing down. Killing isn’t doing as much as it used to.”
“That’s also the reason why this is usually kept hidden; some people have lost their ability to gather strength by killing just from knowing how things really work.”
That made me swallow nervously.
“Don’t worry, I don’t think you’ll be affected. But here, I got you a bit of a gift. You will find out why you deserve this when you go back to the shipyard.”
He slid over a card. As I picked it up, I was surprised to see what it actually was. This was a license that would allow me to buy out G-ranked portals on this world. Without it, I would always have to go through an adventurer guild that was in charge of that specific area. But now, I could just purchase a portal they had available without making any specific deals with them.
While this wasn’t something that was necessarily needed for me to continue to delve, it certainly simplified things a lot. It was also really hard to get this type of delving license.
“How did you—why did you?”
“Like I said, you’ll find out. But thank you in advance. Now go enjoy some vacation time with my brother, or alone, it doesn’t matter to me. Just rest, as I understand you have a ship to finish building, and that can’t be easy.”
We continued to talk a bit, but he had other people to talk to, so I left and walked toward the beach. I got sidetracked as I started to search for a restaurant that actually served chicken. It took a while, but I did find one, and my god, did it taste good.
The rest of Thoron’s vacation went by quite quickly, and soon I found myself once again on an airplane heading north, toward the space elevator that would take me back up to the shipyard.
I had gotten so used to having AIs in my mind that I was feeling a little bit lonely. It was going to be good to reconnect with them all.