Chapter 30 - Crest
Liesel dropped the malicious jewel onto the wooden floor, taking a deep breath. It took a moment for her consciousness to realign with her mind. She looked at Auram. "What is this?"
It had felt as though her mind was being drawn by something outside, even more personal than the Mindeater, and that had been far too personal in itself.
"He said if you feed it to a demon, that creature can then mutate into something that will give you what you want."
"So there's no demon in the Necropolis that can raise my Dominion," Liesel uttered with some frustration. She'd have liked not to rely on the Custodian to this degree, which was hypocritical. Even the prestige points were given to her, no matter how it was framed. "You don't know what this is?"
"No clue. Except that it feels so distasteful to touch."
Liesel agreed. If it is going to mutate a demon, then that demon would grow even stronger than it is... and I probably would have to kill it alone or risk exposing myself to those damn demons.
I will probably have to wait for this to work out.
"Wait, there's one more thing," Auram teleported away.
Liesel spent the moment of peace wrapping the jade in a cloth and hiding it in her luggage for now. She should first settle on what kind of demon would be easy for her to kill even after the mutation.
Something that I can cut with my sword, Liesel hoped at least. She didn't know if there was a single demon like that in the graveyard.
Once she had a target, she could carry the unknown gem into the Necropolis. If she tried tomorrow, it might put every single person in the expedition at risk. After all, the Custodian had no care for anyone's life, and the nature of the gem felt corrupting to the touch, despite her mind being unnaturally resistant to these things. Someone like Kurvam would instantly fall for it.
Should I feed it to him? Liesel chuckled to herself. Of course, that was absurd. You can't be serious.
Auram returned, dropping a book on the bed. "This is the Threading Technique, and he had a few more words for you. Your undeserving soul cannot develop itself to claim any Dominion, such that, no matter what technique you may master, or ability you use, it will never climb beyond the nature of failure that is your soul."
"Very encouraging words," Liesel shook her head. She picked up the book, and sure enough, she couldn't read it again.
The Archive started twisting the ink into a language that she could read, and this time it was not a standard one, but one of the substandard demon languages that was a necessary course for those who might venture out and interact with the Ascendant Demons.
Threading Technique Volume 1 By The Soulweaver.
Liesel frowned. Weaver caught her attention, but it was the Soulweaver that rang an alarm in her mind. She had heard that name from the Seer before. He had a deck from them.
Is this an Archetype, or a title bestowed upon someone? It could be a single person, too.Liesel refused to entertain the last notion. It's most likely a title for someone with the Weaver Archetype. I am meddling with souls already, and I have only one Archetype Skill.
Settling on that for now, she flipped open the cover.
"He said one more thing. If you are bent on pursuing a damned Archetype, you should look into Crest Chapter. It's something you will need after the second skill, but with your ability, you should be able to work on it right now."
"Damned Archetype?" Liesel blinked.
"I think he doesn't like that you are pursuing the Archetype he didn't guide you towards," Auram said.
"I hope that is the case," Liesel said. Even if that was not the case, she didn't believe in superstitions enough to give up on the absurd power that had raised over fifteen attribute points in total, and this was only the second week with the skill. She couldn't imagine where she'd be in a year or two, once she had an Archetype and her soul started developing.
Now that she considered recovering, that day had to be close, as she'd need to claim the Soulheart before the Scholars from outside arrived. They might seal the entire Necropolis to contain the already subsuming energy leaking from the Tomb. There was always the option of seeking a very weak Necropolis, which would be easier to claim and also less dangerous socially. But she had already set her mind on it, and knowing better didn't do much to encourage her away from what her mind settled on as the natural.
I have to be a little less stubborn, and I should probably expect to fail at claiming this one. It would be better than putting myself in danger.
Even if she told herself, she couldn't rationalize letting this one go. Let's get there first.
Liesel flipped through the book, stopping at the Crest chapter.
Crest is a stabilizing construct that sits within the Soul Form, used by Archetypes who consistently utilize and sustain elements other than True Aspect and Materiality. It also serves as a binding container for those elements.
That was the most basic explanation of the Crest. After reading to the last page, Liesel settled on a very simple explanation. Instead of absorbing the Aspect into her Materiality Core, she would hold it in the Crest. It would enable her to discard the Aspect instead of being tied to one for the rest of her life, as it was functionally impossible to parse the Aspect from Materiality Core without unravelling all the cultivation progress.
It had its problems, of course. First, the Crest was not a permanent fixture that she could build once in her Soul Form and then be done with.
It would require constant maintenance, and it would weigh on her mind like a hot needle. She would eventually get used to the idea of something constantly weighing on her mental fortitude, but for the gains, it was a dangerous pact one could make.
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Though there was no specific mention of it, the chapter did imply that the Crest could be evolved to hold more than one Aspect. That method, however, was not mentioned in this book.
Maybe the Custodian has a different book for it.
Liesel didn't know what other kinds of energy could rest in the soul—probably a potion that temporarily boosted an attribute or things along those lines. Even a healing power, perhaps. She didn't think those would be worth the mental burden.
In some way, the Crest was the perfect construct to go with her Soul Unravelling skill, a little tooperfect.
It's written by someone with Weaver in their title. Of course, it's designed for me. Liesel pushed that thought to the side for now. Even if Auram said Custodian didn't want her to pursue this path, he had the perfect guidance for it.
The book showed a diagram of the Crest, and at first glance, it seemed like a very simple construct. A pendant-shaped thing. But it seemed to have too much texture for such a simple object, and compared to the other diagrams in the book, it stood out for its detail. So she peered closer, narrowing her eyes.
She made out a single rune in it. And then another, and soon she couldn't see the construct anymore, just an array of hundreds of thousands of runes woven so tightly that it seemed like a coarse drawing.
Liesel distanced herself from the page and sipped the water. Her throat had been burning for any liquid, and she had denied it for hours. This seemed about the right time to please it. Because she wanted to scream until everyone in the base woke up.
Why can't you be a simple, just mildly infuriating object?
Sighing, she returned to the page. She had to do it. Being aware of it now, she couldn't just put it off. Without it and her second skill, every time she used Soul Unravelling, it was an inefficient skill. And having to weave a hundred thousand runes would be less unpleasant than the knowledge that she was using her skill to anything less than the maximum value.
Knowing that those were runes, the name of the next chapter, 'The Rune Weaving', made perfect sense. It was not funny, though. She shifted her attention to it, and it started by asking her to read how the Threading Cultivation worked, and all chapters up to five before she returned here again.
Whoever the Soulweaver had been, they knew how someone was going to read the information-heavy book.
It was dawn by the time she went through the first few chapters.
She understood how she was supposed to do things now. She couldn't use the Soul Threading technique yet. One, it was torturous in its application, and second, it would be so quick that she'd form a Materiality Core before she had sufficient energy. One thing the book consistently and pointedly asserted was how important it was to have as much materiality as physically possible condensed in the Soul Form before beginning the Soul Threading Technique. For now, she was spared from attempting it.
The other important information was the necessity for a weaver to always use Materiality in thread form to design the right attitude for the future. And one of those things was materializing the strings.
This was one of those moments when Liesel felt she was given the Weaver Class option because she had stumbled into the right practices by mistake.
When she returned to the Rune Threading chapter, she could understand it easily.
Basically, to create the Crest, she'd first need to weave a rune from the thread she materialized in the real world, and then absorb it back into her Soul Form and let it settle. Then she'd weave another and continue until the necessary runes were woven.
There was an option of weaving a small Crest at first, and then a larger one later.
She could go for a smaller one, but that would be destroyed if she captured a very strong Aspect, and she'd be wasting her effort of weaving the Crest as well as capturing the Aspect from the demon, so Liesel decided she'd weave the largest one. It wasn't like an Aspect was waiting for her tomorrow. She was weeks away from finding the right demon, mutating it, and then taking its soul. Only then would she have the opportunity to buy the second skill.
Just as Liesel materialized a thread to attempt a rune as a way to measure the difficulty awaiting her, a knock on the door jolted Liesel out of her trance.
The string shattered into dust. Liesel, again, realized how thirsty she was as she tried to speak, but choked on her drythroat and started coughing.
"C-coming," she croaked, and then swallowed all the water in the jar.
It was morning, and breakfast was prepared.
"Did you not sleep?" Fiya asked as she regarded the vice captain of the expedition.
"I will wash my face at least," Liesel mumbled as she returned, picking up the book and rushing into the bathroom.
She, of course, made sure not to open the book again or try materializing another thread for now.
I don't want to do the expedition today.
Unfortunately, with Kurvam out and about, Liesel couldn't imagine that going well without her presence. And if everyone were killed today, that would be worse for her tomorrow. So after washing her face and drinking the fish soup, Liesel changed into her gear.
And here comes the trouble, Liesel uttered to herself as she walked out. Because they'd need to decide who was going to lead today. She and Kurvam had opposite notions of leading the team. He wanted everyone to trail behind him.
He didn't say anything as everyone gathered in the hall to leave. But first, the adventure started with another morning session around the meeting table. Everyone took their seats.
The broken chair had been fixed, and Garvin was sitting on it for now. They had also covered the stab mark on the table. It looked much livelier than the first day after all the abuse.
They all waited for Kurvam to start with his ideas, but he didn't. He sat around, somewhat calm.
Then all eyes shifted to her.
"Are you not going to start?" Liesel asked.
"What's the point? They all are going to nod like mindless puppets to whatever you prattle on about. Go ahead, I don't give a damn."
Liesel nodded. With Kurvam, they could be more aggressive and try to go deeper into the maze. It hinged on whether he was really willing to be part of the team, rather than a spoiled, upset child.
As they reached the graveyard, it appeared he wanted to do both. It was apparent he didn't want to travel alone without anyone else, and now that Verka was significantly injured, Kurvam had no stomach to bet his life on his guardian alone.
At the same time, he didn't follow Liesel's advice for positioning, and stayed a dozen meters ahead of the rest of the team, and so did Verka, for he would not abandon the captain.
Liesel tried to have him stay a little closer once, but he didn't listen.
"He's going to fall back if he feels endangered," Yehia uttered, disdain dripping from her words.
"It is fine. So long as he can be a valuable asset during the fight, we can be happy about it."
They had several weak encounters with spider creatures. They were something that Jaisel and Fiya could easily handle without even exhausting much of their stamina. Except Kurvam wanted to have his fill first, becoming an obstacle for the mages. Verka's warding ability had not been harmed substantially, though he was slower and slightly off. But once he got over the initial hindrance, he would be a better Warder without the hand gesture, as he'd not have to hide his intentions from a smarter opponent.
The most upsetting part was that when Farki Jan stopped to draw the map and the landmarks of the area, Kurvam would complain nonstop about how it was unnecessary, and that they could just reach the end before the day ended if they didn't stop every three minutes.
From the top, it was possible to make a straight passage to Sirmal's Tomb, but on the ground, it seemed impossible. Spider webs shut the straight passage, and though the mages could destroy them, they were equally resistant to magic. The few that they had destroyed the previous day had been woven back into barriers. So they had to give up on it and take the winding paths, spending much of their energy either fighting tiny spiders or somewhat bigger ones that the close combatants could handle.
"Something dangerous is ahead," Farki Jan said.
Kurvam took it as a cue to pick up his pace.
Liesel glanced at the team, making sure they were not half-prepared before following him.
A giant arachnid slept atop the web wall blocking the path ahead. Coincidentally, thousands of its eggs were hatching beneath it.