Merchant Of Yliaster

Nesha stared at Maxwell curiously as the man entered the exclusive room, as always, but proceeded to an empty suite without actually acknowledging them. His movements looked the same as always, but Nesha couldn't help but feel a bit weird looking at the man.

While the movements looked the same as always, they had an uncanny quality she couldn't place. The man looked like a talented actor enacting a play as he walked towards the door.

As always, Nesha couldn't discern anything from him telepathically, but she was almost completely sure that there was something wrong.

"Zeyn, did you sense anything out of the ordinary about him?" she sent one of the undercover guards. While their concealment was only a formality before, as any regular client would notice them eventually, the new clients were quite oblivious to the guards around them.

A feminine-looking man to the side of the room locked eyes with Nesha covertly, not showing any noticeable reaction to the message. Being an accomplished bodyguard even before the initiation, the man was trained beyond reason.

"Apart from making my sense of danger scream even worse, there is nothing out of the ordinary. Young miss, are you sure we shouldn't speak to your father about this? Having such a person in the establishment is dangerous beyond measure." The man sent back to her through the established mental connection.

"If he is as dangerous as we believe, causing him problems would only make things worse. My father doesn't understand that the world has changed. He would just try to boss him around, and I can't imagine how wrong that can go. Devon knows, and that's enough. I had a feeling that he was moving weirdly, but I guess he is just tired." Nesha sent back.

Zeyn didn't reply, but it was apparent that the man was wary of the subject of the matter. No bodyguard would be thrilled to have someone overly strong around the person they were protecting, and since the initiation, things were becoming more and more chaotic.

Nesha watched as Felix ran towards the now-closing doors to the living quarters, following his master. She supposed the dog would be better than her, so she chose to forget about this for now.

Maxwell opened his eyes to see Felix sitting on his chest, looking at his face curiously. It was a wholesome sight to open your eyes to, but the throbbing in his head made the scene twist and turn in his perception.

The feeling was similar to a particularly bad hangover, sprinkled with some deep soul pain. Before taking in the real world, he closed his eyes and dove back to his soul space.

The state of the place was better than he expected; he found, as he opened his eyes to the green space, that there were certainly changes. The walls' green glow was visibly dimmer, and the place had a general aura of dimness.

Not everything was negative, though. To his surprise, the size of the space now stood at 400 meters in every direction, doubling since its first expansion. Considering it was a sphere, the actual increase was much more than 2 times.

Drakhabgar's figure still stood to the side, wearing his mask, but Maxwell was pretty sure that the cracks on the vestige's body were fewer compared to before. Still, the god had a long time to heal. It didn't help that Maxwell was not very keen on feeding it.

The compendium was as breathtaking as ever, now coupled by the even more impressive-looking Records Of Curiosity. Maxwell was still very excited about trying out that skill, but the universe seemed to disagree with him on the subject.

He opened his eyes to the real world, once more getting face to face with Felix. The dog was panting, his tail wagging as he stared at him. Maxwell was pretty sure he was hungry, but he couldn't prove it.

He could feel Blueberry at a distance, but the distance was getting smaller and smaller at a visible rate. A few seconds later, the bird entered the room through the wall, landing on his head.

"Chirp! Chirp? Chirp!" she chirped, worried.

"I'm fine, I just have a headache. The shop was closed?" Maxwell said as he grimaced. Even the mental messages from the bird were enough to exacerbate his migraine. However, the healthy state of Blueberry before him was too relieving for him to care about the headache.

"I'm glad you are okay," He said, petting the bird with his finger. He sometimes wished the bird had a more huggable form, but this was good, too. "What were you even doing in the middle of nowhere? Was Great Phyr not enough of a hint that there were strong things around?" He asked the bird, but even he could sense the hypocrisy of his words as he said them.

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He couldn't really blame the bird, as he would probably do the same in her shoes, or wings. In the end, everything ended well, but Maxwell ended up having even more questions.

Events after the initial activation of the Etherium Soul had been completely unexpected. Maxwell was pretty sure that he should have considered more before letting himself get taken over by a foreign presence, but the presence felt anything but foreign at that moment. Also, he was not unhappy about his decision, as it was the sole reason he still had Blueberry.

He doubted that he would be able to make the system change its verdict without the influence of the mysterious persona. He instinctively knew to call the collective persona The Guide, but apart from that, his mind was blank about the subject.

The Guide came, fixed his problems, and left immediately when they were sure that the problem was gone. His mind was clear that the persona was more than one person, as his mind felt strangely crowded as he was controlled by it, but deciphering its true nature was way beyond his capabilities for now.

He had some guesses about what the persona was, but he didn't dare to assume for now. It was apparent that the people of Zephyr had some semblance of continuity in his soul. He really wanted to think that The Guide was just an end product of that phenomenon, but he felt that there was something more to it.

He really doubted that you could create a persona by just piling millions of souls. Whatever they were, it would come to the surface soon. He could feel that there was almost no way for him to summon them again anyway. He could feel in his soul that the Etherium Soul was drained by the events.

What happened to the areas I shrunk, I wonder? Maxwell thought. He was not very optimistic about the fate of the landscape he traversed through in his emotionless state. At least, the guide was better than he was when it came to controlling the scale of the rune activation, so the destruction would at least be confined to a small strip of land. Still, a couple of kilometers of land suddenly getting destroyed would be bound to be noticed by someone.

He didn't really care about the other side of the rift, but the effects there would be much worse, he was sure. While he traversed through a couple of kilometers here, he wasn't even sure of the distance back to the other world. Blueberry probably took a long time to turn back from there. This, though, made him remember something.

Ugh, I need to go see Neivor, don't I, he thought, tiredly. The sun was already going down, and Maxwell didn't want to fuck up Drakhabgars reputation immediately by not showing up on a job.

He got up, Felix jumping on the ground, and summoned his notifications. There were no kill or level notifications, as anything he had done under the influence of The Guider apparently didn't count for the system. Maxwell found that stupid, as he definitely felt the skills being used, but it was what it was.

There were still some titles to go through, though. He glanced at them, curious to see what he gained.

Title "Professional Heretic" Updated.

Professional Heretic → The Mortal Beyond Divine Authority

The Mortal Beyond Divine Authority:

You are mortal, yet what you house is greater than what you are.

The divine authority of weak gods has no bearing on you, as your soul space is shielded by a presence greater than your own.

I wouldn't say I'm completely beyond, but thanks. Maxwell commented. The "weak gods" part was a bit thought-inducing, but he doubted that a really strong god would suddenly try to influence him in a meaningful way. Shergoth was probably a special case, being the literal sun of the planet. Still, Maxwell doubted that it was a very strong god in the grand scheme of things.

From what he glimpsed so far, the gods were beyond this plane. Drakhabgar having a myth in Zephyr wouldn't really make sense otherwise. Also, it was quite apparent that the God of the Heavenly Kingdom also operated outside this universe. Shergoth, being a simple sun of a star system, would be a weak god compared to such beings if logic applied to the gods.

Still, it would be better not to enter that rift in the future. While he was immune to the presence of the god, he didn't want anything bad to happen to Blueberry or Felix. He proceeded to the next notification.

Title "Slaughterer" Updated.

Slaughterer→ Walking Death

The Walking Death:

A single step of yours covered miles upon miles, yet none who stood between you and your destination survived. You have no regret, no sadness, but the soul remembers.

That's not cryptic at all. Maxwell wouldn't suddenly turn regretful after seeing such a thing. While he would certainly choose not to kill the creatures in between if he had any other way, he hadn't. Blueberry was much more important to him than some random fish creatures in a desert.

The kill toll wouldn't really impact the greater whole anyway, if there were such a thing. The last sentence of the explanation suggested that there was.

That was it with the titles, too, and Maxwell walked out of his room, Felix walking happily beside him. This last event was a wake-up call for Maxwell. From now on, he wouldn't just leave his companions alone.

He was also sure that both could hide themselves, Felix covering his body, and Blueberry in his soul, so there was no problem bringing them along, even when he was playing Drakhabgar.

He smiled at Nesha, seeing that the woman was gazing at him weirdly, but he didn't initiate a conversation for now. She was probably looking at him like that because of his previous behaviour while he was under the Blueberry's control. Considering what the bird had said to Bob before, he really hoped that she chose to be silent this time.

Now, he had some priests to protect, and probably some others to remove from the world. He really wished there were painkillers in this world.