Chapter 78: 77 Insert title here

Walking after Cho, we eventually come across a well travelled path leading up a short mountain, more a large hill really, along the path are innumerable statues of chameleons, some of which look oddly humanoid, or have human features. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that I am looking at my predecessors who failed to become a Sage.

When we reach the top I see how there stands an enormous tree, easily thick enough that you would need five of me holding hands to be able to stretch all the way around it's base, and it's canopy is so vast that I can only wonder how I did not see it earlier.

Especially since as we've walked I've started noticing the benefits of Sage mode, I can sense everything around me with incredible clarity, well, except for that tree I guess, it's good to know that my new senses aren't flawless earlier rather than later I suppose.

My body also feels amazing, like I could bench press a mountain and most importantly is my ????????????????????????. It feels like it's on steroids, like every use of chakra has been enhanced one hundred fold.

I feel amazing.

But I ignore that for now and focus on our destination, Cho stops before the tree and although I cannot sense or see anything, even with Sage mode, I don't doubt for a moment that someone is before us, so I stand and I wait.

A thick, low hanging branch quivers and the air seems to fall apart as an even bigger Chameleon appears, lounging on the branch without a care, eyes closed and for all intents and purposes, ignoring us.

The most recent appearance is about the size of a van and looks to be a mixture of red and purple with dull yellow stripes striking out horizontal lines across his body.

He finally opens his eyes with a languid sort of grace and sets his eyes upon me and the bowing form of Cho and opens his mouth.

"You will not bow?" His voice a deep timbre questions me, and I can tell that is is not a demand, simply curiosity as to why I don't follow Cho's lead and bend the knee, most in my situation would after all.

"I already bow to my village, to bow to you would be insincere as I will only bow to one entity at a time, I figure it's best to avoid such insincerity by simply ignoring the problem altogether."

He quietens as he mulls over my words, pondering them with all the speed of a monk reaching enlightenment.

When he finally speaks again he sounds just as curious as he did before.

"And if I insisted you kneel?"

"I have already learnt how to become a Sage, you don't have enough to offer for me to betray my village." I answer with full honesty, I don't see a reason to lie, it's not like these guys get many human visitors.

"So you would betray us should you be offered enough?" He asks of me, still sounding only curious rather than accusing. I get the feeling he doesn't get out much and this conversation is a novelty to him.

"Everybody has a price, friend, at least that is the case with humans, but the gratitude of what I have learnt here as well as the promise of what more I can learn has built up quite the amount of credit, it would need to be one hell of an offer to get me to betray you, and I don't think anyone is capable of making that offer. At least, not anyone who would need my betrayal to cause you harm."

He seems taken aback at my complete honesty, but as I've said, I see no reason to lie, and I am grateful so I figure some honesty is the least they deserve.

He spends some more time turning my words over in his heads, during which I look over to Cho, to see if it's normal for him to be so slow to respond, only to find that he has already fallen asleep.

Clearly he knows what this 'old man' is like already.

After far too long, the conversation finally moves on.

"Well then, I am Cham and you are the new Sage. You should know that you are the first human Sage that we have ever produced, but just because that is the case, that doesn't mean I know not of what that will entail for you."

Cham finally seems to be having an actual conversation where he doesn't need to spend so long considering his words.

"First I should tell you what it means to be a Sage, in terms of what benefits it provides. I'm sure you have already discovered the general enhancement, yes?"

I nod my head at his prompt and he continues.

"Other than that, Sage mode gives access to varying techniques and any who are contracted summoners will gain access to the Sage techniques of whomever they are contracted with. For example the snake Sages gain the ability to breathe life into their surroundings and control them.

"We, however, have not that ability, you see, to be a chameleon is to place a large amount of focus on what you can and cannot see, as well as ensuring that your enemies can never see you. With that in mind, a chameleon Sage gains the ability to erase presences, either your own or your surroundings, we may erase their presence from reality itself."

At his words I can't help the way my eyes are drawn to the tree that I didn't notice until I was standing directly underneath it. If that is something I could do, it would make my job a whole lot easier, that's for sure.

I focus back in on Cham as he keeps talking.

"To fight a chameleon is to fight an enemy you cannot see nor sense, if you are good enough, or your enemy lacking in skill, then you can even bypass finely honed instincts for danger. Chi will teach you for the next month how to fight like one of us, then you will have learned everything there is for us to teach."

I am not even mad about more training even when I've been gone for so long, I'm sure Takeshi will understand.

I get up to go, Cho rising with me before Cham's voice sounds out again.

"One last thing, are you truly a human? Because your body is like nothing I have seen before, are you sure one of your parents was not a spirit in disguise? I have never heard of a human becoming so lost in the nature of the world as to spend years in meditation."

Hah, that's funny, like a spirit would be so stupid, at least I hope I can hold spirits in higher regard than that. Also, I guess spirits do exist then, good to know.

"Nah, I'm fully human, I just saturated myself with chakra my whole life." I inform him.

"I see, then I should say, you will likely gather natural energy faster than anybody I have ever heard of, as your body being as it is, is already rather in tune with nature by itself." He says that and then immediately disappears from all of my senses.

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I spend a moment standing there squinting, trying to focus my senses to see if I can find him to no avail. I can't wait to learn to do that.

I turn around and follow Cho back down the hill as we head to another part of the forest.

Now that I have time to think though, how am I not emancipated, or just dead? It's not like I've eaten anything. I voice my concerns to Cho but he just tells me how the Natural energy nourished me and that in the state I was in, one could meditate for centuries without adverse effects.

It's good to know that if I ever get bored of this era I can basically just go to sleep and wake up in the next one.

A short and silent walk later and we are in a new clearing, this one doesn't have a central rock but makes up for it by having the ground be rock instead of grass.

The clearing is empty and surrounded by trees and grass in a way that makes it clear that it isn't natural, it's also about the size of a football field and I still feel like I can cross the entire distance in a single step.

Unfortunately, my admirance for Sage senses is once again insulted as I get sucker punched in the gut, knocking the breath out of me slightly but not doing anything else, despite me being sure that if I took a hit like that normally I would have a broken rib at the least.

Alert I swivel my head to look around but I see nothing but Cho slowly walking away to go nap on the side. At least that tells me it isn't actually a hostile.

The impact to the back of my head makes me reconsider that statement briefly.

I still can't sense where the attacks are coming from, which means Chi is also a Sage.

How many Sages do they have anyway?

Since I can't sense them, I decide to try the diplomatic approach.

"Cham sent me to learn from a 'Chi', if that is you can you please stop attacking me, I cannot sense you, I know, I know, 'how disappointing, you can't even do this much', no, I can't. Not until someone teaches me how to, so will you help me, or keep testing me for something with which I have never been educated?"

I think it's best to just get everything out there, to avoid misunderstandings and to hopefully speed things along.

It seems like the right choice too as another chameleon appears in front of me, suddenly becoming visible to my Sage senses as if she was already there.

She has a pink body which I both respect and find slightly stereotypical, as a female she has a smaller head and doesn't have any stripes, instead being a solid, if dull, pink and stands shorter than Cho, about the size of a large dog.

I resist the temptation to call out 'pink buddies!' and instead just give her the same calculating look she is giving to me.

"My name is Chi. I will teach you how to erase your presence and the presence of anything else you want. I will not do so for more than a month, if you have not mastered it by then, then that's too bad for you."

How charming.

Still, a little intimidation isn't going to stop me at this point, though I do feel like I have to ask at this point.

"How many chameleon Sages are there anyway?"

She just scoffs and turns around to walk to the centre of the clearing, calling back to respond as she does so.

"There are only two Sages among the chameleons, three if we count you. And since the old man is too lazy to teach you himself, that unfortunate duty falls down to me."

Something tells me she isn't happy about being assigned as my teacher, I'm not sure what it is, just a vibe I suppose, best not to make assumptions and all that.

The next month is spent with Chi ruthlessly abusing me until I could go invisible like her, then it was more like a game of hide and seek but we are in an open field and not allowed to leave it.

Chi won all of the games, but I could actually start to notice her towards the end, the idea of 'sense where there is nothing' works a lot worse in practise. It's not like my sage sense is a blank piece of paper and someone hiding from it is a splotch of ink.

It's more like they put a hole in the page but then fuse it back together so you can't even see the hole. The point is, you have to learn to sense someone without a presence which honestly feels like trying to peek into a higher dimension, which our brains are not wired to do.

But it goes well, and after a month, I am ready to return home, see what's changed, what's still the same, and then go kick Raven and Crows asses simultaneously with my eyes blindfolded, just to really rub it in.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Man, I think what i've got planned is really cool, but it might just be my fetishism for legends and such, like, I'm the kinda guy to watch those 'the indominable human spirit' edits on youtube. I thinkg the way I'm gonna end this fic is super awesome and something I would love to read, I only hope you guys will think the same when the time comes and that my writing is good enough to express what i have in my mind.

Also at the start of this fic I mentioned how people rarely write stealth focused mc's because the fights are boring and I was like 'so?' But now I understand. I want to do cool intense, flashy fights, but I can't do that if his powerset revolves around not being seen lmao.

https://ko-fi.com/bored_works

https://discord.gg/Pj3Dttwses

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