Prince of The Abyss
Chapter 331: Antler of Promise
Aether used Voidpiercer to skin the beast. He wasn’t the best at it, after all; he hadn’t done it before, but he didn’t have any experience with something like this. Back in Frozen Crown, just that time, it was a human, not an animal, and he hadn’t just skinned him. He had done worse.
’Not the best memories.’ But no bad memory could ruin his mood.
He had really killed the beast with the bow. Sure, it wasn’t in the end such a powerful being, but still, with a mundane bow, he was able to kill something. It at least told him that Voidpiercer wasn’t the only reason he was able to kill things.
It did make him wonder, though, what would happen to the pack it had used to lead. After all, before, they followed it, but now, what were they going to do without their smart leader, whom they had trusted so much?
Even now, he didn’t understand how their relationship was possible, built on only trust, after all, even he had manipulated his rebellion to become what it had been. Though... he had to say, both had the same ending, actually, in his rebellion, they stood to the end together.
The pack it used to lead without and anyone to challenge its authority left the moment their leader needed help.
’How pathetic... You should have had a better end, rather than dying like any other animal, cornered and finished off.’ But in life, it was hard to get exactly what you wanted. If he had to say, it was almost impossible for every single thing to go according to plan in a longer lenght plan.
It made him wonder if the deer expected this to have happened, if it knew that one day someone was going to kill it. But if it knew why, did it continue, did it think that maybe its people were going to try and help?
Did it think it was going to die together with its pack, rather than alone?
’How cruel... You couldn’t even get that wish.’ Aether set up, putting the fur he had gotten from the animal in his bag. Also, with the meat he had gotten, which was enough to last him a while, he wrapped it with strings to keep it together, and so that he would have a way to carry it more easily.
But as he was about to leave, he noticed that its antler had broken off. Kneeling down, he didn’t expect to hear the following voice.
[You have gained a relic]
Aether blinked twice.
’Huh?’ That broken antler was a relic?
[Antler of Promise]-Broken of the head of a majestic beast whose promise allowed for it to get a massive following, the antlers still hold a remnant of its master. Allow it to be made into something greater in good hands.
Category–Material
Class-Seeker
’Oh, of course, a material. Makes sense.’
It was the first time he had gotten a relic like this one, but it wasn’t unheard of; it was actually quite common, though, not in the Withered, but rather in the Blue Rose and the other kingdoms.
Relic materials were relics that could be used later, together or alone, to craft a relic, though it usually had to be done with someone with great knowledge of how relics worked and how to create them. Materials don’t have a knowledge rank because they didn’t have any abilities; they had no power.
Though it was a Seeker class, interesting knowing the beast he had taken from it, was a Reader class, but at the same time, is it that big of a thing, it actually was possible. It could have been a Harbiger relic, and still, it would be something that could happen.
Because of the materials, the class was for the potential relic it could make, their power; it was a material that could be used with other Seekers or lower classes to form a relic.
If you were to use one with a higher class, it would usually break, but only if you wanted to get a relic related to the material that was the lower class. If you used it to just merge it with the higher class and get something from that relic material, then it was fine.
It was interesting that he had gotten it, but he really didn’t have anything to do with it. After all, he had no idea how to make relics, and that wasn’t a skill that could just be learned alone, and in a small time, it takes a long, long time.
Time he didn’t want to waste.
He was going to have to see what he could do with it if he ever went to the Blue Rose, or any other Kingdom.
Though... something he noted was that the rock, the Sovereign rock he had gotten in the Tides, back when he first faced Denial, it was not a material; he had seen that before, but he had thought that this was just how they looked, since he had only heard of materials and their theory, never had one.
He didn’t believe the rock was a material because it had an ability, but at the same time, he never let the idea out of his mind, only because he really had no idea what to do with the damn rock.
But now it had been confirmed, so he couldn’t even lie to himself anymore.
Dissipating the relic and letting it go back into his core. Aether cleaned the dust of his mantle, even if it never got dirty, and threw the bow over his shoulder... he was going to have to figure out a better way of carrying his bow, but for now, this would do.
This was also another thing bad about mundane weapons that awakened seem to forget, having to carry them with you, which was no problem for relics, since they can be summoned and let back into the core any time.
Voidpiercer was even easier, since it could come and go back into his arm in just a second.
Looking in the distance, sighing.
He had already spent a long time working in the Lowlands, far more than he had wanted, and all that just to learn how to shoot the bow. Though it was worth it, he had not only gotten experience, but also meat, fur, and a relic material. Which, for the future, was going to be interesting. But the meat was the main point; it was enough to survive.
...
Still, he was going to have to figure out a way to get to the Highlands soon, and by figure, he was just going to follow his compass and hope it led him to a path to them. After all, the compass, even if it showed him the direction he had to go to get to the shard, never said that in that direction, there was actually a way to get to it. If it didn’t, he was going to actually have to look around for a way up.
He did hope that the Highlands were a lot different from the Lowlands, after all, he hated this place quite a lot; its infrastructure was confusing, it even got him a bit dizzy sometimes, going up and down over and over again, plus, it was hard to see in this place, the mist and the tall grass.
And the constant fighting was the worst; he couldn’t do anything without being attacked by a group of bandits. It just goes to show how many had decided to take the dark path whenever the world came to an end, when the Tides appeared, and the beast attacked the real world.
And now, that number had only risen, and the number of those with hope and a fire burning hot for a way to help and change the world kept lowering. After all, the weapon styles were a prime example, even if it had been mostly caused by the loss of the war.
Before many learned them, in hopes of getting stronger, but now they were forgotten.
...If you thought about it, this war had helped, but also doomed the world.
Rivalry makes people try to exhale, so not only was there a lot more motivation inside the war, but more people wanted to learn, and those with Will wanted to know how to use theirs. But in the end, when a war ends, it leaves only ruin, so what used to be a world where people wanted to get stronger was now a world in which only a few still saw a fraction of hope. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
And really, he had a theory that if the City of the Drowned inside the Tides were to fall in the attacks it was undergoing right now, even those that still have hope were going to lose it. After all, they had lost their only way of living beyond death and having a chance of getting back. You were not getting towards the tower in a city ruined and filled with beasts.
Which was why he had to get the shard and join the battle.
That way, he could prevent that from happening.