Chapter 89

Rain watched the red-scaled Kobold and the fluffy wooled sheep girl as they pushed branches and leaves aside and emerged from the forest.

Red was definitely still angry with him, giving away some of the gold had not gone down well, and he kept giving him suspicious looks just like those he had been giving Lyra after her, according to him, misuse of gold.

Lyra waved as she made her way up the rise and Rain let the shadow cat sink into his fur.

“I found what we’ve been looking for. You know, I really think this was a little unnecessary.”

Rain promptly climbed to his feet and set off down the hill, ignoring the sheep girl who had to make a surprised about-face and hurry to catch up, going back the way she had just come.

“It’s important, I can’t go on like this, you have no idea,” said Rain.

“Wha- It’s not that important! I should know I have fluff!”

Rain turned back to her.

“You’re not the one who is filthy right now, and besides you don’t have fur all over. Now show me where the hotspring is or I’ll put you in a tree and leave you there.”

“You wouldn’t dare! Wait- h-hangon!”

“Red. Show me.” said Rain, switching to the Kobold as Lyra was being far too slow for his liking. The Kobold jumped in surprise, then seeing Rain’s serious steady gaze scuttled off into the woods.

Rain followed, pushing tree branches aside and kicking through the undergrowth. Being so large made going through forests a touch more inconvenient than being human sized. Still, he kept the flashing red scales of Red’s back in sight and after a ten minute walk, with Lyra frantically trying to keep up behind, they came out into a gap in the trees.

It was a small glade filled with steaming turquoise water, the warm summer sun streaming down onto the pristine pool surrounded by lush long grass a vibrant emerald in colour, bright blue butterflies fluttering through the warm air.

Rain felt a little emotion well up in him as he eyed the water, it was good for tired eyes to see such a thing.

He approached and carefully dipped his toe. It was the perfect temperature, easily as good as the baths in the Ranker’s mansion. Without preamble he slipped into the water, or at least, that was what he had intended, being so large it was more like a kersploosh! Sending a wave of turquoise to slop over the edge of the pool and wash up through the grass.

To his surprise he found the pool deeper than he expected, much much deeper, and he was soon well below the water line. He blinked and looked up, the shimmering dance of the summer sun on the rippling water above was almost hypnotising and he found himself after a time becoming calm, truly at peace, the warmth of the water soothing the aches and pains of his body in a way that left him a little unravelled, and then, as he slowly relaxed, his thoughts turning inward, introspective...

He could sense and direct the dark hungry thing in himself now, whereas before it was just out of view, uncontrollable. And after the Demons he had also gained a better sense of what that hunger wanted. It didn’t just want to feed, it wanted ... everything, to consume the world, it was the purest form of predator, a predator without limit.

He moved his claws in the water and a small shadowy catfish shimmered free from his fur before circling around his paw in curiosity. He’d seen catfish growing up in his past life, like their counterpart-in-name on land they were ruthless and successful hunters who ruled the streams and ponds they inhabited. He watched it for a moment then let out a mental sigh, a few bubbles escaping his lips with the motion.

He wasn’t sure how to feel about any of this, especially what had happened after he had slaughtered the demons, he had thought of things he was sure he wouldn’t normally and it had raised an uncomfortable thought: If he could manipulate the hungry darkness that was a part of him, who was to say that its hunger could not influence him back?

Nibbling his lip he let the catfish disintegrate and become a nebulous cloud of shadow. He made it move around, drifting, then he had it split becoming two smaller clouds that spun around each other, then split again. It didn’t seem very useful in this form but he did have excellent control over it. He let the clouds of darkness slip back into his mane. He could sense them there, rejoining the darkness inside, filling him, a mass of terrible shadows, overwhelming everythi-

He paused. That ... wasn’t true. Even now as he extended his senses inward he could sense the leveling system still there, trying to survive, being continually shredded apart by the monstrous darkness he now knew it was buried in, building as fast as it was torn down, unable to co-exist.

Curious, and not sure exactly what he was doing, Rain pushed his will into the darkness inside himself, commanding it to move. The darkness resisted, unwilling to change in such a way. He furrowed his brow and forced the matter and after a moment a dot appeared, a dot inside himself that was clean and clear. He worked at it and after a difficult struggle the dot expanded, becoming a sphere, a bubble of nothing in the suffocating dark.

A bubble that surrounded the leveling system and isolated it.

A place where the leveling system could function.

The colourful chromatic menu blinked fully into existence in his mind’s eye completely of its own accord and so suddenly and abruptly that Rain flinched back, losing his breath, a stream of fat bubbles rising to the surface. He choked and realising he could either rise to the surface, or stay and drink the hot spring dry, he struck out, his feet striking the water bed and shooting him up like a cork, much like when he had originally left the lake at the bottom of the dungeon.

He broke the surface with a gasp and drew in air, padding water as he floated, the turquoise waters rolling around him.

Still not quite believing it was true he took in the menu in his mind’s eye.

It was ... well a functional leveler system, one that seemed to be better than the one of his human life. His name, his spe- well it didn’t give his species, that part was still a mess of artefacting. But it did give his Mana, a grand total of two out of two mana, which was not a heck of a lot, but he hadn’t even had that metric in his past life, in fact he knew it was something usually reserved for those that acquired a mage type Class. For his Class it had N/A much as it had been in his human life as he had never attained a Class. For Level he was Level 2.