Rise of the Devourer

Noah opened his eyes, finding a light headache pulsing against his head. It took him a second to shake the blur from his eyes, as he rose up. “I don’t like how this is becoming a thing,” he murmured, shaking the sheet resting on him off.

Rising to his feet, Noah looked around. The sun — or rather suns — were still high up in the sky, so most likely he hadn’t been unconscious for a very long time. Or I was knocked out for an entire day.

Trying not to dwell on the possibility, Noah reached out to his Astral script. A sharp pain formed in his head as he did, and he let the command go. Best to leave that alone for now.

Walking outside his room, Noah looked around for a bit, before making his way to Aurelia’s room. After a quick knock, the door opened.

“Finally awake?” Aurelia asked. She wore a light armour, and pants, with her belts strapped around her.

“It would seem so, unless this entire thing has been a dream. Then no, not yet,” Noah replied.

Aurelia turned sideways at the door, gesturing for him to come in, and Noah walked into the chamber.

The inside of Aurelia’s room looked a lot neater than his, and he wasn’t even particularly messy. The sheets were folded, and neatly tucked in, the plates were set on a side table and were cleaned enough to reflect his face, and the floor was practically shining in her room. All of this only made the single section of disorganisation in her room stand out even more.

Maps were scattered across her table, markers and pointers charting places in a disorganised mess that seemed to connect into one another.

“Sorry about the mess,” Aurelia said, quickly rushing past Noah to her table, as she began to sort the sheets of parchment.

“You’ve been working on something?” Noah asked.

“Trying to chart a path from here, make a best guess where the team that betrayed me might go, and where to go from there if I don’t find them in Windrest,” Aurelia replied.

“Sounds like you’ve been working hard.”

“Well, one of us has to.”

“Touché,” Noah replied. “Anyway, if you had a little time to spare, would you mind if I ask you some questions? About the sub-attributes.”

“I figured you would, so go ahead,” Aurelia replied, as she finished sorting all the maps into a neat pile, and placed them on the table.

“What are sub attributes? Unlike regular ones, they had no numbers, or anything. But… letters and ranks?”

“Right. We’ve not had a proper discussion on this, so I suppose this is about time. Do you know what your attributes are?”

“They’re stat points, right? I kill monsters, I gain levels and stat points, and thus become stronger?” Noah said.

“Stat points? I don’t know what that is, but no. Not quite. Attributes are a reflection of your current potential maximum in the four attributes of your Astral soul. Power, Constitution, Agility and Mystic. These are the four attributes that define your soul, and when you strengthen these attributes, you strengthen the capacity of your soul.”

“How’s that different from what I said?” Noah asked.

“Because strengthening attributes does not mean you immediately grow stronger. Imagine your soul has an ability to grow. It defines the potential you have, so when you strengthen an attribute, you’re increased that part of your soul,” Aurelia said, before taking out a sheet of parchment as she began to draw a diagram, before she showed it to Noah.

“Is that a rotten apple?” Noah asked with a frown.

“This is you,” Aurelia said with a frown. She then pointed to a circle around him. “And this is your soul.”

“Why’s my soul bigger than my body?” Noah asked.

“Because it is. Your soul is almost always larger than your body, that’s what your aura is. But your body is not capable of utilising all the potential inside your soul. It holds your soul back. Now, when you train, you increase your sub attributes, and the vessel size increases a little. So now your soul has more room to fill,” Aurelia said, before she began to list down some of the sub attributes.

“Each attribute has four sub attributes. And the more you train each one, the more you get out of each primary attribute you have. There are some things that are easy to train, Strength is a major one. A D ranker with a lot of Power attributes may still be weaker than you, if you are extremely bulky, have a lot of muscle, and can utilise all your power attributes to their maximum capability. This is why training is so important, and people who grow too fast struggle with a lot of problems. It’s called being oversouled. When your soul grows too big for your body. That’s something we’ll discuss later.”

Noah nodded, trying to memorise everything.

“Now, there are some sub-attributes that’re harder to train. It’s difficult to train processing speed, as it defines the actual speed of processing information for your brain. Reflex is another one that’s hard to train without magically upgrading your body. There are certain limits that simply cannot be crossed so easily. That said, there are other sub-attributes that can be trained very easily. Any kind of damage, resistance with your actual resistance skills, movement speed, aura strength, mana capacity, and so on. All of these can be trained, and there have been known instances of humans achieving S ranks in these sub-attributes. But that is extremely rare,” Aurelia said.

“Has there been any SS or SSS rank sub attribute people?” Noah asked.

“Not publicly. But some famous adventurers were suspected to have had them. Sub attributes are extremely private, and the guild takes an oath when it evaluates you to not divulge this information with anyone. So if someone wants to share, they have to choose to do so on their own,” Aurelia said, putting away her diagram. “Now, that leaves the final sub-attributes type. Special sub-attributes. Honestly, it’s not something you need to think or worry about. These sub-attributes… they don’t reflect any primary attribute that you can change. They’re tied to your fate and animus, and simply reflect the nature of your soul. There are items that can temporarily change your luck, charisma, and even growth, but they’re rare.”

“Luck and Charisma are obvious enough to me, but what does Growth mean?”

Aurelia hummed in thought. “The specifics are really complicated, but it essentially means how fast your body and soul can grow. People with a higher growth sub-attribute just grow faster. The why and how is not something I could explain to you, but most B ranker have B or A growth attributes ranks,” Aurelia replied.

Noah hummed in thought. Growth was his only S rank attribute, and he wasn’t entirely sure if it was the [Devourer] aspect or something else. But given the benefits of the 5% attribute point increase, and with the increased experience gain, it made sense it would affect his growth attribute.

“Keep in mind, all of this means nothing if you’re weak. You could have SSS in everything, and still die simply because your level wasn’t high enough, or you made a mistake. All sub attributes do is define how well you’re utilizing your soul’s potential.”

Noah nodded. “Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.”

“I would suggest not to worry too much about you sub-attributes right now. There’s a lot you have to learn about, well, everything really, and it’s part of why I had decided to leave all of this till you got registered. The guild explains all of this to everyone new when they do the evaluation.”

“Is the evaluation necessary?” Noah asked. “Like, what if I want to keep my sub-attributes hidden?”

“You can. But for most people it doesn’t make sense to. Unlike you, most people don’t directly modify their Astral script interface. It’s a bit ludicrous to even try to do that. The standard interface is a certain way because it’s the easiest manifestation of your astral soul, and allows you parse information simply. So if you want to know your sub attribute, typically going to the guild is your only option.”

Noah hummed in thought. “Well, since I can check mine on my own, I could just refuse.”

“You could. But keep in mind, rank adjustments will also happen accordingly. Level isn’t everything, so your sub-attributes also play a part in what rank the guild allocates to you. If there is some specific sub attribute you do not want to share, you can hide that from them. It depends on you. For stronger people, or someone with more renown, they can replace the evaluation with a direct combat test for ranking, but the guild doesn’t have infinite resources, or people sitting just for you. They wouldn’t waste their time if they don’t think you are worth it.”

“Makes sense. I’ll give it some thought on our way there,” Noah replied.

“Alright, now come here. You should know the path we’re taking,” Aurelia said, taking out a map from her stack of maps, which she unfurled on the table. Pointing a finger, she pressed her hand on the bottom left corner. “We’re here right now, south west end of Melior republic,” she said, and Noah saw the fairly small kingdom at the edge of the continent. “Behind us, those are the lost woods,” she said, dragging her finger down to a large expanse of green that covered the entire southern section of the continent.

“What’s that?” Noah asked, pointing further below, at a circle made in the sea.

“The former southern Abyss, and the kingdom of Nyxis. My home,” Aurelia said.

Noah looked up at Aurelia, but the woman didn’t dwell on the revelation. “There’s two ways to Windrest here. One that cuts through the forest section, and one that goes around it. The forest path takes two days if we stop to rest through the night, one day if we travel continuously. The path that goes around takes a week.”

“We’ll be taking the shorter path, then?” Noah asked.

“If you’re in a rush to die, then yes. I’m not, so I’ll be taking the longer path. The way cuts through a valley with a well-established trading route. Most we’ll have to worry about are bandits and wolves. Maybe a couple of dire-wolves, but that’s all. If we manage to find a caravan, we could offer to protect them in return for travelling with them as well,” Aurelia replied.

“We’ll get to Windrest in a week, and then I’ll go look for the team that betrayed me. You should go get registered. Tell them that you’re an outer-worlder, they’ll get someone to help you out regarding paperwork. But don’t spread the news around, obviously. Once you’re registered and evaluated, you can start taking quests. We’ll put in an official quest in for the Iron Fist, and gain information from the guild. In the meantime, you should go explore the city and try to get as many tomes as you can,” Aurelia replied.

“What about after that?” Noah asked.

“Well, if we find the Iron Fist, we get them locked up, I get my compensation, I split it with you, and then we go our separate ways,” Aurelia said, glancing at Noah. “Or you could come with me. I was planning to head to Heartilia. There’s some people I know there, good folks, I’ll get some money saved up, do some quests, before seeing where things take me beyond that.”

Noah nodded. “Aye aye captain! Whatever you think is best,” he said. Then a chime interrupted him.

New Quest obtained!

Quest: The City of Winds!

Reach Windrest with your adventuring companion safely.

Difficulty: Medium

Reward: Experience points.

A marker showed up on Noah’s mini map, pointing at Windrest in the distance. “And I’ve got a quest for it too, so this just made the trip official.”

“Good. We’ll leave in an hour then. The Mayor got us the horses while you took your nap, and I’ve made the preparations. Pack your… I guess you don’t have anything.”

“Yup. Empty handed, with an inventory full of junk and ready to leave,” Noah said.

“Let’s head out then,” Aurelia said, packing her things, and Noah followed along.

***

Their exit was almost as abrupt as their visit. They got their horses and mounted them, Noah taking a few minutes to adjust to the animal that didn’t seem very fond of him. Quite a few townsfolk had come to say thanks to the two of them for clearing out the mines, and more than a couple of them had been pointing at Noah’s obsidian colored arm peeking through his bandages. Noah saw the innkeeper, Lorian, in the distance as well and gave the man a wave before he noticed the woman whose son’s necklace he had. She stood with her daughter, looking at him.

Reaching out to his neck, Noah grabbed the necklace, displaying it to the woman. He mouthed the words “I’ll cherish it,” and the woman dipped her head in gratitude.

“We are just a small town, but the two of you have been a great help. Please, feel free to visit if your paths ever bring you this way. We’d be more than happy to welcome you,” the Mayor said.

Aurelia nodded and then tapped her horse. With a jerk, the horse began to move, and Noah’s horse followed as well.

“What a strange visit,” Noah said, glancing at his new hand, where Tony slept peacefully.

“It’s only just the beginning,” Aurelia said with a smile.

Noah nodded, feeling excited about his journey ahead. Indeed, this was only just the beginning.

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