Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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[DING]

Before Dale, a long list of items manifested, as if he was opening his inventory.

Divided into a dozen categories, there were so many items inside he felt he could scroll through them for hours… And this was only in a singular section, there were several more left for him to check.

'Let's see… Which of these is a good choice to pull out first?'

Somewhat confused since he didn't have much time to explore it, even in the future, he decided to narrow down things and open the Potions tab under the Green Gem.

[...

Balm Extract X1931

Recovering Extract X1902

Recovery Ointment X10

Potion of Recovery X307

...

]

'There sure are a lot of recovery items... At least it's well sorted, but come on... There are at least a few pages worth of them.'

'Anyhow, there's still a few things left to go through...'

[

...

Ripened Juju Fruit X97

Ripened Kiko Fruit x53

Ripened Faralma Fruit x19

...

Dried Lo Leaves X290

Dried Drunken Leaves X407

...

Rotten Mess X17938

]

Hundreds of items, thousands of samples. Supplies to fuel an army... Now all belonged to him.

If only they weren't half rotten...

Whenever Dale opened the description for any of the items, he would soon find out the truth about it all.

Regardless of how well preserved some of these items were, how sterile their environment was, and the coldness they were exposed to, time was a cruel and merciless lord, rendering much of everything in this section unusable.

Maybe parts of it could still be used, if not for consumption then for study purposes...

The only reason why Dale didn't just throw most of it away was because he wasn't sure if he should... Better leave this out for a profession, just as he did in the past... Future!

'Well, what to choose... I don't need to impress her, not like there's a point to it, but it would be a mood killer to just pull something unremarkable after all that build-up I did…'

Dale's eyes darted around as he looked for the right item, Erile waiting patiently, a little confused…

"Ehm… What are you doing?" She asked as she fidgeted with her fingers, trying to see what Dale was seeing as well

But his gaze was directly locked on the wall…

"Hum?... Haa… You can't see what I'm seeing can you?" He asked as he turned to face her, raising an eyebrow in the process

/Shake/

She shook her head around, her curiosity rising even further.

"Hm… That's to be expected. Given the way the items are ordered, you would need some degree of expertise in the field to unfold things."

Dale had to think a bit to come up with that lie, as it wasn't like he was using the right method either.

'For Qrubin, he can use Magic to pull things out from within, although he was likely not limited to only that, while the Commander likely had a similar method to visualize and analyze the things within, if not enough mastery of magic to do the same.'

'We do have a Stat that symbolizes that possibility, the so-called "Mental Power"...'

'But for me, I can just pull the items out through the System as this is a storage item and hence, an extension of the Inventory System, not really an issue for me.'

'Nonetheless, Is it possible to show the System Menu to an NPC character? Well… I know they aren't that but… I myself don't know what the System Menu even is.'

'Perhaps I don't need to show it… But it would make things simpler if I did find a workaround… Aha! There is…'

After thinking for a moment, Dale got an idea, but for it to work, he would need some degree of acting to be performed…

"Alright, I have an idea, raise your head a little please."

Dale spoke softly, his eyes turning gently as he turned to Erile.

"..."

Seeing his face like that caused her to grow a bit red, but she complied with his wishes.

/Grab…/

Without holding back, Dale pulled her closer to him, holding her shoulders as he moved his face closer to hers…

"!"

'CLOSE!'

Erile's face immediately turned tomato red, just as crimson as her hair, causing the floating hearts above her head to spin around frantically, as if about to explode.

For a moment, she felt about everything that could and would happen from this moment forth, and then, she thought about pushing him away, however, was that what she truly wanted?

It may be a bit sudden… But she decided to embrace his moves.

She closed her eyes and… Tried her best to prepare for what was about to happen, never having done anything similar before.

[Erile's Intimacy has risen greatly]

Her heart beat once as she saw his face.

[Erile's Intimacy has risen greatly]

Her heart beat twice once she saw his eyes.

[Erile's Intimacy has risen greatly]

Her heart beat thrice as she closed her own.

With each of Dale's moves, her intimacy increased as she grew softer, her breathing weakening as she lost her strength.

/Touch…/

Finally, they touched… With their foreheads.

"Hm?"

For a few seconds, they remained in place, their heads locked in place, heat transferring through their bodies…

Erile was left baffled, confused… Cold. As if left hanging after so much expectation.

She thought she would experience a romantic hug and… Just what was she thinking?!

At that moment of passion, she lost all of her composure and rationale…

Dale could feel her emotions, or rather, it was evident, he wasn't that dense…

Honestly, he didn't know what was going on with him either, ever since he began being Dale, the courageous wielder of Caladbolg, he kind of began being boulder with women in general while also becoming a tease.

In truth, all of this was completely unnecessary, he only did it because… He liked seeing the crimson heart spin around… Yeah, he was a jerk.

But he would be lying if he said he felt nothing.

Right now, he knew that if he just hugged her… He may even be able to… Steal a Kiss.

Yet… Was that the right choice? The right moment?

In the end… He didn't know what he wanted to pursue himself.

/Step back/

Dale stepped back as he smiled gently at her, although his face told otherwise, it was a bit red as well.

Even so, he tried to maintain his professionalism, trying not to break his already shattered persona.

"G-Great, the Spell's in place now, it should've worked… Hm?"

However, as he said that, Dale realized Erile was completely out of this world, her face somewhat lost as she looked past Dale…

'... I think I teased her too much… Is this bad? I won't receive Divine punishment for my misdeeds will I?…'

"A-Ahem… Did I injure you perchance?" He asked formally as he tried to get her attention by waving his hands in front of her face

"Eh?... No! I-I-I mean… Mnn… C-Can we just move on?"

After so much embarrassment, Erile, the most teasable girl of them all, was completely broken and exhausted.

She only wanted to go to bed and scream at her pillow.

"That's what I wanted to hear."

When he said that, he turned to look at the Heart above her head, realizing that there were now three Crimson Heats spinning atop her head.

Exhaling slightly, he prompted Erile to get closer.

"Okay, can you see it now?" Dale asked as he moved the inventory tab around

"Hm?... Yes?... It's a bit faint… I… I can't quite read it. What's it saying? What did you do?"

"!"

This revelation greatly surprised Dale.

With this experiment, he realized it was indeed possible for the Villagers to see the System! It was a real thing and not just an immaterial construct of their minds.

Better put, it was something that existed within their world, they just couldn't see it!

Or to better conform with his previous theories, they were being made oblivious of its existence!

However, by doing this, was he actively bypassing the restrictions? What consequences would there be for his actions?

At best, nothing, at worse, Erile may have an identity crisis, or even worse... He didn't even want to think about it.

After all... He could be impacted by this as well.

If he was deemed as a bug to be fixed, would he be deleted by the powers above?

What a horrifying thought to cultivate.

"In short, I connected my vision with yours through Magic, I thought this would suffice and it did."

'I just didn't expect she would actually be able to see it…'

'She can't read it though… I didn't think this far.'

'How to solve this… Wait, there is a way.'

Dale opened the Configuration Menu, too occupied by his own thoughts to realize Erile was seeing it all, albeit it was too faint for her to see it all properly.

He changed the menu language from English to Palamaleta, the first tongue of the Empire, in the blink of an eye. Erile barely had the time to process the change.

Immediately after, the whole System changed, and most of the things became quite difficult for him to read, but he could still recognize most of them.

Without wasting any time, he immediately closed the configurations and showed Erile the Inventory of the item he was holding.

She didn't have the time to read any of the changes, however, she could process them enough to know Dale had done something, and she felt that somehow, it wasn't connected to the storage item.

If so... What was that she had just seen?

"What about now?"

"I can read it… But… What was all of that…"

"Here, take a look at them." Dale said as he interrupted Erile, causing her to frown slightly

She felt something was missing, but she felt it was okay for Dale to hide some things, even if bothered her somewhat.

Meanwhile, Dale was still lost in his own thoughts, excited about his new discovery and what it could imply about his search.

Eventually, they went through the items together. Until Dale left, continuing with his journey.

After helping Erile sate her curiosity, they decided it would be for the best to share their news with the Elders before doing anything else with the item, all for the sake of not raising complaints, although none would surface anyway.

With everything settled, Dale left David behind, going on with his journey. This time, to gather the Elders and reveal to them his plans for the future.

And once all of that was done... He would begin his preparations for his next major adventure.

The Karkavan awaited his return, a new challenge on the horizon, beyond the fallen Wall, written in the skies...

A prophecy left to be fulfilled.

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Notes