Chapter 69: 68. Whispers

I was alone inside the bathroom; I sighed.

Now I am left with more mysteries to solve.

I stood in front of the mirror and stared at it for more than a minute, but nothing was weird about it. I looked at its description, but the system said it was a regular mirror.

If the system was telling the truth, then ‘Albert’ the Glitcher was on Earth.

Maybe he can access the mirror from distance and use it as a medium to video-call people?

I wondered why he wasted his time visiting this planet only to act mysteriously; he could’ve explained the goal of their organization or the reason why they told me not to trust Loki all that much. Realizing that I could do nothing about this, I shook off my thoughts about the subject and put it on my back-burner

I stared at my potions for a moment, then examined them; their descriptions cost me two thousand tutorial points each.

[Permanent Vitality Potion: Troll Ver.]	(Uncommon)
This is a potion made by the hands of a skilled Gnome who happened upon its original recipe. Using Troll’s Vitality essence as the base material and other valuable catalysts and stabilizers, he altered the original recipe and successfully created an original brew! The vital mana of the Trolls is still abundant in this potion, and the other components magnify its effects. -This potion increases VIT permanently (+4)
Warning: it’s advised not to consecutively drink too many potions of this kind.

 

[Permanent Magic Potion: Troll Ver.]	(Uncommon)
This is a potion made by the hands of a skilled Gnome who happened upon its original recipe. Using Troll’s Vitality essence as the base material and other valuable catalysts and stabilizers, he altered the original recipe and successfully created an original brew! The pure mana of the Trolls is still abundant in this potion, and the other components magnify its effects. -This potion increases MAG permanently (+4)
Warning: it’s advised not to consecutively drink too many potions of this kind.

 

It’s four times stronger than the regular essences! I can price it even higher than I thought I would.

I suspected that the potions differed in potency, so I checked them one by one. To my surprise and joy, I found them all to be as good as the first ones that I examined.

I grinned and put all the potions back in the storage ring. I decided to give Akeniska one potion of each kind as a freebie and to tempt her with more of them when she convinced the citizens to immigrate to a place more suitable for humans to live.

The Sahara has the potential to be a good spot for a guild, but I can’t live in a stranded place forever.

I still didn’t decide upon the exact location for my guild, but the best place that came to mind was Europe. It connected two other continents, and it was a strategically important place for the events that would unfold in the future.

Besides, the first breakout would happen in less than a year and take place in southern America. The dungeons in that continent would implode, allowing the monsters inside them to escape. I couldn’t risk building my businesses there; as the ensuing chaos ruined both of the American continents.

Hundreds of millions of humans died before the stronger ones found a solution; it was a disaster that brought despair to many people’s hearts, including mine, despite not being directly affected by the consequences.

Now that I had enough strength to affect large-scale events, it was one of my priorities to prevent the breakout, both to preserve the human race and to help Earth prepare for the coming breakouts.

The meeting of the top rankers would reveal the conditions to prevent the breakout, but I don’t know them yet, and I am not sure why Stella and the others couldn’t do anything about that event.

I could only imagine the destruction that the coming breakouts would cause. The foreign races spread rumors that the second breakout was at least five times as destructive as the first one, but I died before witnessing it.

Still, I must first focus on the present and improve my guild.

I put the potions back inside the storage ring and went out of the bathroom. Akeniska was sitting on the bed, and she looked at me the moment I opened the door.

“Hello,” she said, “Did you prepare the items you told me about?”

I grinned, then pulled the potions from my bag of holding; one of each type, then threw them next to her on the king-sized bed. She held them and stared at them for a couple of seconds, before opening her eyes widely.

So, she can identify items herself… I am curious about her class…

I decided to postpone buying information about her class; the time wasn’t suitable for that and I couldn’t afford to be distracted.

“How…Just… it shouldn’t be possible for someone like you to have this,” she stuttered, “Where did you get this from? What do you want in return for these two?”

“I have more of these, and I can create an endless number of them,” I grinned, “Consider these two potions as gifts; you can drink them to try their effects, or you can give them to an expendable servant if you think it’s too good to be true.”

She stared at the flasks as she held them in her hands, then put them carefully on the nightstand.

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“Thank you for the gift, Jason. It’s generous to give me such a valuable potion,” she spoke, “I’ll give them to one of my promising guards later, as it would be a waste for someone like me to drink them. You opened my eyes, and now I realize that we should cooperate. I’ll make sure everyone in the town agrees to immigrate to your eventual guild location, just give me a couple of days to accomplish it. You can enjoy yourself in the meantime; I am sure our city has many things that you’ve never seen before.”

Then, she extended her right hand toward me. I grinned and shook her hand. Her scales felt solid and firm, but they were smoother than glass.

“I am excited to work with you,” I said, “However, I advise you to have more respect for Ratska; he’s the one who brewed those potions. If you cross the line and hurt the people that I care about, you’ll end up begging me to kill you.”

Her eyelids twitched for a moment, but she recovered before her surprise became too apparent.

“Understood, Mr. Jason,” she nodded hastily; I could feel her hand trembling, “I’ll make sure to apologize sincerely to your friend. I really hope the relationship between you and me ends up being fruitful for both of us.”

I smiled, then walked away from her. I was headed toward the room’s exit when she called me once more.

“Mr. Jason,” she said, “I would’ve like to offer you a room in my castle, but none of my other rooms are good enough for you, except this one. You could spend the night here if you’d like; I am excited to hear about your adventures, and I’ll tell you more about the Lizardfolks’ culture.”

I doubt that telling stories would be the only thing happening in this room later; she even tried to justify asking me to sleep with her.

It certainly was an interesting chance to try a new experience, but I couldn’t be complacent at this point. The Great Church might send another hooligan for me, and I’d better keep my mind sharp.

“We’ll see about that later,” I said as I waved my hand at her, “I’ll go to the Garden; there is something that I need to do.”

I wanted to practice my mana control, as it was the only way for me to learn more about my latent ability. I had a hunch that knowing more about my ‘Legion’ would help me unravel the mysteries of the Glitchers.

Besides, I might be able to learn more interesting information if I could meet the Jasons once more.

I opened the room’s door when its handle was within my reach and descended the spiral stairs. I entered the castle’s hallway and found Ratska standing there talking to a Lizardfolk.

“Hello, Zinnia,” I waved my hand, “How are you?”

“I am good,” she spoke, “I am glad you’re doing well. I came to the castle as soon as Quaya told me that Rauchlim took you here; I was curious about the outcome of your meeting with our Lady, and I wanted to chat a bit.”

“She surprised me,” spoke the Gnome as he smiled, “I was standing in the hallway when I heard a commotion in the garden. I went out and found the guards trying to get her to leave the castle, but she was adamant that she wanted to meet ‘her saviors’. Rauchlim allowed her to enter after I asked him to.”

I scanned the hallway for Rauchlim, and he was standing next to the throne with a small book in his right arm. He waved at me as soon as he saw me, then he went back to reading his book.

I told Ratska and Zinnia that I was going to the Garden to train, then left them. They seemed excited to speak with one another, but I couldn’t understand why they kept arguing about the superior race; Lizardfolks or Gnomes.

Of course, it’s humans, right?

I smiled at my immaturity; I thought that the latest events jaded me, but I was still the old silly Jason.

I exited the hallway through its exit and found myself inside the garden once more. I walked for a while until I reached the largest tree that I could see, and sat beside it.

It was about twenty meters tall, and it cast a large shadow on its surrounding area. The heat of the scorching sun didn’t both me much, but I appreciated the cold air around the gigantic tree.

I sat there, close my eyes, and focused.

Ambient mana was moving around me, and the fog was thicker than the one I witnessed inside the inn.

I wonder why this place has a richer mana concentration…

I concentrated once more, trying to empty my mind and avoid scattered thoughts. The mana was clearer than ever, and I felt like I could control it somewhat.

I tried the trick that Loki told me about; to control all the mana that I could feel. My perception of mana allowed me to clearly visualize the ambient mana within a radius of thirty meters away from me at most, and the range was already better than it was at the start of my training.

I willed the mana to move, and it moved to my surprise. For some reason that I didn’t know, the mana in this area felt much easier to control than before.

The ambient mana within half a meter away from me could be controlled with ease, but my control worsened the farther the distance between me and the mana.

Still, the quantity of mana that I could control was much better than my expectations. I tried to move it around me in swirling patterns, and I succeeded in that.

After that, I willed the mana to interact with the strange tattoo on my back. As soon as they made contact with one another, I could feel the mana disappearing ‘into’ the tattoo and that experience was somewhat painful for me.

Suddenly, I started losing control of the ambient mana, and the fog that I accumulated around the tattoo was about to disperse. I clenched my jaw and pushed all the mana violently into the tattoo.

The pain was incredible even with my high Endurance, but it disappeared after about a second when my control of the ambient mana slipped away.

I feel disoriented and dizzy, and I fell to the ground feeling weakness all over my body.

Then, I heard whispers.

#

Special shoutout to:

chris

Bladesunder

GenericKane

Water Dragon

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