Rise of the Devourer-Chapter 19Book 2: — A New Routine

Noah made his way back out of Old Heartilia. The security for crossing over in this direction was a lot harsher, but Noah was let through without much problems.

As he walked across the bridge separating the two halves of the city his mind remained on Snow, and everything he had seen in the Pit. If he wanted to keep his promise to the girl, he would need to find a method to break that collar and a place for her to stay. There would be no point if all he did was free her and then abandon her to fend for herself.

Given her horns, Noah wondered what he could do. In all honesty, he was also quite curious about the girl. Having a void creature inside someone was not something he’d thought he would see, given how appalled everyone was at the idea of him having Tony.

The girl also seemed more skilled at using her void fiend than he was with Tony. He could see her dazing off as her aura subtly shifted, clearly using some kind of mental method of communication with her familiar.

“I should probably figure out something like that for us too,” Noah said out loud.

Tony shivered, clearly excited by the prospect.

On his way back, Noah decided to look around for a library. After asking once or twice, it turned out libraries were considered a sacred place in celestian culture, which meant there was an abundance of them to be found here. After wandering for a short while, Noah found one and walked inside.

The library was cleanly maintained, and a woman with silver hair and blue eyes greeted him at the counter.

“Hello! Is this your first time here?”

“Yup,” Noah replied.

“Welcome then! To use this library, you need to show me an identification card.”

Noah grabbed his adventuring contract, showing it off to the woman. He watched her read through the screen, her eyes widening momentarily. Noah gave her a smile.

“Thank you, this is sufficient,” she said, before runes flared around her hand as she ran her fingers on top of a rectangular piece of thin metal. Words imprinted themselves on them.

New Heartilia Library Card

Name: Noah Brown

Access level: Tier 2

This permit is valid for 180 days.

”What does Tier 2 access mean?” Noah asked.

“Ah, there’s different floors with different access levels. Civilians only have access to the ground floor, adventurers, mage guild members and scholars all have access to the ground floor and the first floor.”

“How can someone access the higher floors then?”

“You’ll need a letter from the head of the adventurer guild, mage guild, or scholar’s guild. Or from Lord Krios,” the woman replied.

Noah gave a nod, before heading further in. Looking around, he found an elevator leading to the first floor and made his way up. Tony came out as well, flapping happily in his bat-eye form.

“Let’s start looking, shall we?” Noah said, smiling.

Tony cheered.

***

Things began to settle in a rhythm over time. For the next two weeks, Noah would get up with the sun, and go on a run around the city making his way from New Heartilia to Old Heartilia and back. Aurelia would join him, as the two ran together through the relatively empty streets as First Dawn made it’s presence known over the horizon. Noah was surprised to see just how much Aurelia had grown with her rank up. If she wanted, she could easily outpace him now, though she typically ran alongside him.

His stamina was not bad, especially if he considered that he was effectively running nearly twenty miles two ways across. But even he would be left panting by the end, while Aurelia barely seemed to break a sweat.

“Have… I told you… how unfair… this is…?” Noah rasped in a hoarse voice, panting as they stood in their training arena.

“The fact that you can keep up with me while being F ranked is what’s unfair,” Aurelia replied.

Noah tried to flash her a smile, but all he could manage was an awkward twitch of his lips. He was glad to have lifeblood, the ability working hard to recover him from his exertion. A few moments later, he was back to normal.

After their morning routine, Noah would practice his aura training with Erwest. The training setup had changed as well, now he had to use his abilities while the shackles suppressed his mana control and willpower. Noah would have to dodge pebbles while Erwest supressed his aura.

What made the training worse was that Aurelia would be doing the exact same thing, while also simultaneously balancing on awkward wooden platforms, showing the gap in their fundamentals.

After Noah was exhausted, they would switch to resistance training. Noah would spar with Aurelia and Erwest, using wooden weapons of all kinds. Spears, daggers, short swords, bows, all without allowing any abilities to come into play. Whoever lost would have to do a set of exercises, before jumping immediately into another spar.

It was a brutal training regimen, and even with all his abilities, Noah sometimes wondered if he could keep up. Yet, to his surprise, everytime he was about to give in, he managed to push just a little further, and just a little harder than he could’ve before. The rate at which his body was improving astonished even him. His muscles were far more defined, and he seemed to have lost size but the loss in size had been more than made up for in density.

Even besides the obvious improvements in his body, a bunch of improvements were invisible, if not for his Astral Script. Noah opened the menu, grinning as he looked at the improvements.

Abilities:

[Blood Drain] level 16 → 17.

[Bleed] level 15 → 17.

[Lifeblood] level 14 → 15.

[Blink] level 18 → 21.

[Dimensional Pocket] level 13 → 14.

[Starforged Arms] level 7 → 9.

[Obliterate] level 17 → 20.

[Void Hunter’s Eyes] level 26 → 27.

[Abyssal Symbiote] level 25 → 26.

Skill:

[Lightning Resistance] level 0 → 2.

[Soul Modification] level 10 → 11.

[Terror Resistance] level 3 → 4.

[Spear Proficiency] level 17 → 18.

[Aura Control] level 4 → 9.

[Bow Proficiency] level 0 → 4.

[Sword Proficiency] level 0 → 7.

[Shield Proficiency] level 0 → 5.

[Gauntlet Proficiency] level 0 → 8.

Sub attributes:

Power: D5 → C1.

Agility: C1 → C4.

Vitality: C8 → C9.

Mystic: D8 → C0.

He’d gained a bunch of skills related to his training, and Erwest had told him that if he got everything to intermediate, he should be able to fuse them into [Weapon Mastery]. A higher grade of skill.

His sub--attributes as well had been progressing rapidly, both Mystic and Power raeching into the C grade overall. Noah had felt the change as well. He had better control over his abilities, and the damage they did was higher even though his overall attributes had not changed at all.

Noah expanded on the menu, noticing something strange as well.

Charisma: D5 → D6.

He wasn’t sure what had caused the change, but he wasn’t going to complain about it. As his training came to an end, Noah made his way out of the Lord’s castle. The three of them had tried to move out to an inn, but Lord Krios had insisted that they stay for as long as they remained in the city.

Noah did not mind the stay either, with the food being as good as it was, he was more than happy to indulge a little.

Walking through the street, he made his way to the library, before greeting Aila. Noah had become pretty familiar with the Celestian receptionist with his near daily visits, though more than him, she’d taken to Tony. The symbiote came out upon seeing Aila, circling above her head happily.

“Hi Tony!” Aila waved, and Tony bobbled up and down, waving his wings in a greeting Noah had taught him.

“I’ll be on the first floor, as usual,” Noah said, raising his hand as he signaled Tony to return.

“Ah, actually. I got something for you,” Aila said, as she bent to take something out from the drawer behind her desk. A moment later, she pulled out a book for him.

“I know that you’re trying to learn more about Erandir’s history, specifically their ties to Slavery. I won’t pry why, but here’s a really good book explaining things if you want,” Aila said.

Noah picked up the book. There was nothing written on the cover, just a leather cover that looked like it had seen better days.

“Thanks,” Noah said, making his way to the first floor.

Taking his usual spot, Noah let Tony wander around to read as he’d like, before opening the book. Going through the content, Noah flipped through the pages detailing the history of the various empires, trade, and the role that Slavery played. There were arguments about slavery being vital for the economy from certain sections of the empire back in the day, and the author had not taken kindly to their claims, tearing them apart one by one. Reading the passages both angered and pleased Noah, to see that even in this world there were people who could see sense and understand why a practice like this was wrong.

For the current day, slavery was abolished in the allied countries, but there were caveats present even in this.

Cultists could be turned into slaves without issue. Some species and races descending from monsters were still not part of any allied race, and thus could be turned into a slave.

In certain states, people could effectively sell their kids into slavery. The lack of Astral Script access before awakening made any kid especially vulnerable, and thus an easy target for loopholes. Given the nature of the world, and the many laws that existed together combining the laws of the churches, guilds and the state made the rights given to a child varied. Vix was using precisely that gap, alongside Snow’s status as an uncertain member of the allied races because of the Void Fiend in her to keep her enslaved.

Everything about this made Noah clench his fists in anger. From the start, he’d found that it was always the kids who suffered. Whether it be due to the cult, or due to laws that failed to account for children who were lacking the strength an Awakened adult would possess.

What a shitty system.

Flipping ahead through the book he started to see some solutions.

The adventurers guild could buy any slaves and free them. As an entity, the adventurers guild did not practice or condone slavery and was likely to free any children who had been captured.

The other option was to have a ruling entity annul the slave status that may have been applied on an individual. Both options had their own caveats as well, but they were things Noah planned to look more into.

As Noah kept reading, he found something more specifically related to his own interests as well. The magical aspect. All of slavery was inflicted by the use of Paths, which connected to a shackle or collar imbued with orders and commands that a slave had to follow. Like an Oath, but far more powerful. Not following an Oath or trying to break it would inflict pain upon a Slave, before ultimately killing them.

But there were ways to remove these restrictions. Mind magic, for one, was a method. If the Oath or order could be removed from a slave’s mind, the magic will not take effect. Soul magic was another method. Anyone with a powerful enough soul had the ability to directly resist the Oath put upon them.

But so long as the Slave Path remained, the person in question could not obtain any other Path, or use them if they had some from before. It was a system that ensured no one could obtain abilities that could resist the slavery inflicted upon them, and just the thought of being in that position made Noah sick to his stomach.

Making his way through to read ahead, Noah found one last method. If the owner of any slave could be killed, the slave can be taken by anyone who is nearby and freed if they so desire.

Noah let out a breath, as he closed the book. His mind ran through scenarios. If things worked in his favor, he would be able to convince Nae to free Snow and provide her with a home while cutting a deal with Vix. He did not like the idea, but it was better for Snow and less risky.

But if things didn’t work out… Noah closed his eyes, deciding on his choice.

He would have to be ready to kill Vix.

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