Chapter 394 The Missing Piece (2/2)
Surprise flashed across the Lord's face ”Not even a Ranger? And already you're hunting Reavers?” He frowned, but then, he gave a slow nod ”Good I ih”
”Then can you tell ain ”What the Desolation does?”
By now, he understood that the Desolation had secrets he had yet to learn Frohtspawn, likely weakening theave a firer, you will understand” Before Arran could object, he went on, ”But noe must make haste If fortune is on our side, we may yet catch the creature you found”
He esture with his hand, and iroup readied themselves to move From the smoothness of their reaction, it was clear that the ether
The Lord handed the two Reavers' amulets back to Arran ”What's your name?”
”My name is Arran But—”
”Should we catch the creature, you will be rewarded” The Lord motioned to his companions, and as they set in motion, he cast a final look at Arran ”You should return to Knight's Watch without delay These lands are unsafe, even for one with your talent”
As the Lords and Knights set off, nowin the direction from which Arran had come, Arran could not help but frown in frustration Not only had the Lord treated him as little more than a child, the man had also completely refused to answer his questions And he had many of those
Yet as the patrol disappeared in the distance, Arran's frustration faded as well Even if his questions had gone unanswered, he had still learned much from the encounter
He no for a fact that the hostile stranger had been a type of Blightspawn, and one far stronger than the creatures Arran had faced so far
More important still hat the Lord's words about the Desolation had suggested, even if he hadn't said it outright — that facing Blightspawn inside the Desolation was so the creatures outside of it
The thought caused Arran sohtspawn the Wolfsblood Coer than they expected, and why the Iers to face the Blight
But for all the things it explained, it raised at least as lanced in the direction where the patrol had gone, then let out a weary sigh There was no point in speculating What he needed were answers, not suspicions And the only way to get ansas to climb the Darians' ranks
He resu his questions about the Desolation to the back of his h the wilderness, he turned his thoughts to the Forrow stronger Only that would allow hioals — to learn the Darians' secrets, to win their treasures, and to escape with his life after doing both those things And to grow stronger, he had no better path than the Forh he'd achieved far h that had increased his strength several ti
The first of these was practice He'd , but he had yet to properly temper his newfound coiven some small help, but those few h to truly hts, or thousands if he could find them
Still, he wasn't too concerned about this Given time, he had little doubt that he would find all the enemies he needed — and probably sooner rather than later, at that
The second er problem
Arran's comprehension was built around the Forms, atop a foundation laid by the techniques he'd learned froh this path was, the results had far exceeded Arran's expectations, and the insights from the Forms worked alic
Almost — and therein lay the problehts, but as Arran's understanding grew, it becahts within the Forms only represented a small sliver of reality
This was to be expected, of course Elder Nikias certainly hadn't comprehended all of existence, and even if he had, the entirety of his knowledge wouldn't have been contained in a single ave to a student Rather, what the hts he thought most suitable for his apprentices
Yet all of the Elder's students had been es of the Shadowflaly certain that the insights within them were those the Elder had deeic
That was likely the reason Arran's Shadow ic had benefited so much from his comprehension of the Foric had benefited sie, that was an inco
But Arran wasn't just a Shadowflae — possibly even more so And the more familiar he became with the For in insights related to physical combat
The solution to that was as obvious as it was simple All he had to do was find a proper teacher A skilled Knight, or better, a Lord With that, his progress should be nothing short of phenoun to fuse his insights, which was far hts And with the knowledge he'd gained frohts, he could advance far faster than most
But as simple as that solution was, it was useless to Arran Neither Knights nor Lords were likely to take hied himself to them, and he had no desire to enter the service of some Darian Lord
Which meant he had to find another way
Arran pondered the question while he traveled, a thoughtful frown on his face even as he ran through the rough terrain of the wilderness Yet for all his ruminations on the matter, the answer to his problem continued to elude hi little attention to the landscape around hihts were occupied elsewhere But he wasn't so careless as to ignore his Sense, and halfway through the day, he discovered a large group of Dariansslowly toward the Desolation
Arran approached the group cautiously, h that he could observe theroup, he could not help but frown in surprise
He'd Sensed that the group was large, but what he saw exceeded his expectations Along a broad dirt road in the wilderness walked a colu, headed by what looked to be over a hundred Rangers
There were no Knights aht was forroup counted well over three thousand soldiers, and not a one of the in weapons or armor
Arran realized at once that it was one of the Darian groups headed into the Desolation — a proper arhtspawn And while they er that had attacked Arran — the Warlock — he had little doubt that their coht could easily ht crossed Arran's mind, he suddenly furrowed his brohen an idea came to him — an idea on how to approach his probleht he needed a teacher with a vast trove of knowledge, whose insights he could study and learn for hi the dirt road in the distance, he realized that together, they should hold nuhts as well
Each of the soldiers would have his own talents and his own budding insights, and while they e would not be negligible
Moreover, there were the Rangers Most of the every day froress hadn't been as fast as Arran's, that still represented a wealth of knowledge and experience
By theht have little to teach Arran But together, they should know at least as ht
A smile crossed Arran's lips as he reached a decision If he couldn't have a single teacher, then he would have a thousand teachers, instead
Of course, the group before hi But if Kaleesh's efforts had been even half as successful as he suspected, then another arht's Watch
He cast a final glance at the Darian army, then quickly turned around and set off If he traveled through the night, he should reach Knight's Watch by in his final step toward unlocking the full potential of the Forms