Chapter 108: In The Garden where Important Talks Happened
It took a good few tens of seconds for Nina to twist her head back on the right way.
But once she had her mind ordered the correct way, she had a series of questions to ask .
I an, saying that my soul and levels are damaged and destroyed multiple tis was sothing that would greatly shake most people, even more so if they were stronger individuals who had a greater understanding of souls.
“Can you explain in detail what transpired in both instances of your soul being damaged?” Nina asked.
I wasn’t sure how much Nina knew about souls. Given her level, age, job, and experience, I was assuming she knew at least a little bit.
I replied, “Well, I do need a lot from you.”
“You want to trade?”
“Why not?” I crafted a little flat five-pointed starlight star in my hands. Starlight could still be used without much issue as it didn’t impact my mana supply. “I am broke; I want to murder and destroy Dominous Hood; my freedom and life are slipping through my fingers; I have a lot I need, but no thods personally available to to achieve them all.”
I crushed the star within my hand.
Nina sighed.
There was likely to be a lot of information she was willing to give for free, but I had to let my stance on the matter be known.
I was seeking sympathy points as well; with Nina’s connection to my family and letting my injuries be known, I was hoping that would make Nina more inclined to help my endeavours.
“What do you need for your recovery?” Nina didn’t even try to offer her own healing services because, from what I said, she knew it was a soul problem and she couldn’t help directly with it on her own.
“Nothing that can be provided. For the ti being, it can only be stalled with mana recovery products.” I wish I knew a permanent solution to my problems. Levelling up could do sothing to nd the wounds, but to get the result I needed, I could only assu that would take hundreds of levels.
Nina asked, “What about soul grafting? If it is an issue with your soul. I’ve read in old records that it has been used to heal unhealable wounds inflicted upon warriors by vicious monsters guarding other planets' cores.”
Espr, elaboration.
I had heard of soul grafting before, mostly from stories rather than actual historical or researched studies. People barely understood how souls worked–how would they be expected to know how to graft one onto another?
(“ Out of the two types of soul damage, impact and true damage, the latter of which you are currently dealing with, well, an extre case of it. Certain cases of true damage can dealt with with specific cures ”)
You didn’t bring this up in detail before, so I will assu it won’t solve my issue.
(“ There are various types of soul grafting, my influence on your soul could be considered a type ”)
Which is why you said once you have completely taken over you would be able to save ?
(“ Yes, though, that’s because my essence is a special case. With variant thods of soul grafting, none of them would be beneficial to you. There is the patchwork thod that takes parts of souls off maybe people to add to yours; this wouldn’t help as the quality due to incompatibility would never be enough to solve your issues. Then there is the synchronised thod, where you try and match similar souls. No matter peaceful or brute force ”)
Peaceful or brute force?
(“ Peaceful would be two people connecting each other's similar souls in a cycle, I guess you could call it being soul mates at that point? Brute force would be devouring the energy created when these two souls are near, usually causing harm to the other party ”)
How rare is it for people to have similar souls?
(“ Rarer than you think, but more than you expect ”)
That is such a non-answer.
I answered Nina, “No, I’m not sure what thod of soul grafting you are thinking of, but I don’t believe so. My soul wounds cannot be nded with grafting. There are too many and too deep.”
“You know about souls…” Nina couldn’t hide the worry she felt for , but her curiosity was also visible. It was quite cute and made sense for one of the universe's greatest healers.
“And I am quite proud of that. I had to do a lot of brute forcing to understand how to use mine to protect myself.”
Nina’s eyes still glimred with concern and curiosity.
“We can talk about that another ti,” I said.
Nina nodded. “Okay.”
We moved on to our next topic.
“You want information on Dominous Hood as well?”
I said with a smile, “Of course, and I would be happy to join in on any raiding operations.”
“You sure hate them a lot.”
“You would know by now that they were responsible for my ti being stranded.”
“I do, Lila inford .” Nina nodded. “It was a raid by Dominous to acquire cargo that was being smuggled without the majority of the crew’s knowledge.”
I asked with hesitation. “Did... you learn what they were smuggling?” A part of wished to know more about that smuggling attempt. Where did those arrows co from in the first place? How many were there? How did they even exist?
“That I do not.” Nina answered, “We were able to track down that the ship was smuggling so form of goods, but every lead only took the investigation team to a new dead end.
I sighed, “I feared that was it.”
Nina asked, “Do you know what was being smuggled?”
“Yes, but can you help with my first request?”
“Money?” Nina closed her eyes and debated. “I can have you be paid through proper channels for any raid operations; outside of that, I can help you acquire new equipnt instead.”
I raised my eyebrow.
Nina then added, “Finally, I can pay you a fair amount for the information you provided today.”
I nodded. “As long as it is the fair amount.”
“Agreed. I’ll give you a full report of their known history and mbers later on.”
“Thank you, but can you answer when they first started appearing?”
Nina montarily paused as she ordered the events in her head. “Dominous Hood first beca a known na around my forties–”
“Aren’t you nearly seventy at this point?” I asked, trying to get a tifra of when Dominous Hood’s activities were.
“Yes, still in the first third of my life.”
“Please, you're a healer; they always live longer.”
“Or die first. It can be up in the air sotis.” She replied.
One-fifty to two hundred was the average life expectancy, though high-level individuals could live even longer but also usually ant more chances to die. Then there were the truly high-level individuals who were over level 400. I had no idea how their lifespan worked, as so had been around for nearly five hundred years.
“Back to the topic at hand, they started to create a na around thirty years ago, but I believe the group was active for at least twenty years before they went public.”
Nina explained what she believed the basic tiline of events was, from how long she believed they were active to so of the more public-facing activities. I nodded and left the rest of the information to be explained through the report.
I don’t know if I was shocked or expected it when she said they had been active for at least fifty years. It made sense, but also crazy that so fucking lunatics had wasted fifty years making life worse for everyone they ca across.
My anger boiled, but it was a good question to ask. It inford I needed to stay away from people when I read the full report.
Nina said, “Now, it’s my turn for so answers.”
I smiled and replied. “And I am happy to provide so, but I will ask you to not react until I have completed my story.”
Nina nodded, and I began my story.
I explained I would start with the less important information first. I had to, because I reached the arrows, and I knew the conversation would be nothing but about those. I recounted all the nas and abilities I knew of–baring one. Then I went over what I knew about Juptar Base before it got exploded by soone.
Nina recorded the conversation so she wouldn’t miss a beat, but it was enjoyable watching how she wanted to ask questions, but I stared at her each ti. I had to, as there was sothing more important to get to.
“Now, the big one, the arrows…” I took out the arrow that was teleported into . I had kept it all this ti.
The black shaft and the red arrowhead arrow spun around in hand.
Nina finally spoke as I showed the arrow. “I rember you storing that away; the scanners didn’t pick up anything from it.”
“Well, it has been used after it was teleported into –and no, that is not the power of these arrows. These arrows were what was smuggled aboard my ship, and they have been used against twice now. The first was a test of their effectiveness, and the second was in combat.” Staring at the arrow only brought bad mories. “This arrow attacks the soul and reduces the level of the one hit by this bastard to zero, removing everything in the process.”
Nina’s eyes darkened as stared at the arrow, “...This the weapon that can take down anything…”
“They are practically one-ti uses. I don’t know how many arrows they have, but it is sothing I would assu they would use sparingly. I did see two of these arrows used on Jelannax station, but the first one might’ve just been a used arrow that was kept around due to how tough these arrows are. The second was used on yours truly.”
“Wait, it was used on you?!”
“Yes, the first ti I went to level 0, that’s why I have a new Vocation because I had to choose a new one, [Stargazer]. The second ti, well, as you can feel, I am not level 0 again.” I warned, “That is due to my knowledge of souls, my previous experience, and plugging the holes with so much mana that would cause soone to blow up.”
“Still... you were able to prevent it.” The doctor in her wanted to know a solution to the problem.
“I still lost basically fifty levels. Going from three hundred to the two-fifty range is not good, especially when I am on a clock based on my levels.” I looked into her eyes. “But I don’t think people will be as lucky as .”
Nina looked down, downtrodden.
I added, “It’s been a few years, so I would like to hope they have used most of their collection, but that is very wishful thinking.”
“Do you know how high-level individuals have gone missing in the last few years?” Nina asked, not expecting an answer.
“No, but it is likely too many.”
“Those who exist in the four-hundred plus range, who are all very elusive, while it is normally hard enough to contact them, three of them have gone completely radio silent. Then those who have are in the two-hundred range; the number of missing individuals has increased by one thousand percent in the past five years.”
Nina's statent was dreadful. That was too many people.
“...How many people above level 400 do you know about?”
“There are at least fifty, but the number could be up to a hundred. With their lifespan, it is how to know how many are still around.”
I downed the rest of my drink. “Thanks for the information.”
“Is that everything you want to know?” Nina asked. Clearly expecting to ask more questions.
“For the ti being, yes. I trust your report to give everything else I need to know.”
I stood out of my chair, prepared to leave the building.
I got everything I needed.
(“ Leaving your conversation partner so soon? ”)
What else would I ask?
(“ Many things. I was just curious to see what else you would be asking ”)
I might just ask you directly about those. Now that I know about these Witches…
“You are worried you won’t be making it back to your family, aren’t you?” But Nina had to hit with a hamr of a question before I could leave.
“Was it that obvious?”
“Yes.”
I can’t say I was that surprised. I was definitely pushing a bit asking for that money. The information converted into currency was surely going to be massive. That wasn’t enough for soone to assu I was desperate, but if Nina spent any extended amount of ti with my mother, which she certainly has, then she would’ve known I’m not monetarily greedy. Of course, I liked money, but as long as I had enough to do what I enjoyed, that was good enough.
“Is your deal the reason why, or the soul injury?”
“Technically both,” I answered.
Nina asked, “How long do you have?”
“If things go well, maybe five months; if they go horribly, it will at least be less than two.”
“No…”
I sighed. “The reason why is if my mana reaches zero in my current state, then I would automatically lose the deal because of its influence.”
Nina continued, “And due to your complete lack of ability to naturally recover mana, even the potions and crystals have their limits.”
“Correct.”
…At least I now know there would be people around to help them if I am gone.
“But I will, of course, be doing my best. I ain’t going down without a fight.”
I left the conversation on a high note at least.
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