Chapter 97 (2/2)

A notification popped up.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the Path of Wonder 0/10. Although it is a strange path, your feet itch, and in your heart, you know there lies your destiny.

Of course, that figure was Randidly.

Over the course of the next day, Sam had taught them what little they had learned about skills from Randidly, and Lyra had gone off in the woods and practiced endlessly, getting the Physical Fitness, Dancing, Singing, and Acting skills high enough that she could finish off the Path with her PP. Then she received another notification.

Congratulations! You have completed the the Path of Wonder! Although your eyes see, more than that, your heart yearns. As you continue to climb higher, following your path, you only find more wonders that lure you deeper. You walk quickly into the deepening night, unafraid of its mysteries. You have learned the skill Eyes of Wonder Lvl 1. Mana +50, Mana Regeneration +5. Wisdom +10.

Eyes of Wonder Lvl 1: See the truth and beauty in all things. As Skill Level rises, your gaze shall grow more discerning.

Lyra went back to the camp, and noticed that she could now see auras around people. Soft colors about them. Sam’s was a deep purple, Vivian was a mustard yellow, Kal pink, Ellaine a mauve.

Then she sought out Randidly once more, and as she watched him produce large orbs that exploded with force, she opened her Eyes of Wonder. For a long time she had hesitated, afraid of what she would see, but she shouldn't have. He burned emerald in her vision, a deep green of the forest. The aura around him pulsed, shrinking visibly as he used his magic, but seemed to grow more intense at its core all the while.

It was forest green, with flashes of light green, the color of warm grass in summer, and golden too, like the gaze of a wild beast. It pulsed evenly like a heartbeat, and it seemed to come alive under her vision. As she looked more directly at him, she saw the dozens of strange formations within the aura, strange shapes that the energy flowed. The were mesmerizing and complex, but Lyra couldn’t get enough of them. For whatever reason, she felt very strongly that these shapes were him, told in dozens of simple truths about himself.

They flowed together, continuous and multifarious and endless, smoothly transitioning into the next.

It was… beautiful. It took her breath away.

Although the youth was rather plain by Hollywood standards, his gaze was direct and strong, and he blazed with an aura that kept Lyra enthralled all night.

The next day, when he had surprised her by coming to their camp to speak to Sam, she had dumbly blurted out the first thing that had come to her mind.

“...it looked like fireworks.”

“Huh?” The man who would be Ghosthound, glanced at her, seemingly shocked to find her there.

Lyra gestured awkwardly, for the first time in her life, tongue tied. After all, she wasn’t sure at all what sort of mask she should wear around this strange man who burned emerald in her vision.

“Fireworks. You were doing magic earlier, right?” Lyra said, pictured the way his aura would gather and burst to produce the spells he made. Then she looked down at her own hands. She had worn herself ragged finishing the Newbie Path, and earned the skill Mana Bolt, but her own aura was colorless, to her eyes. And exceedingly small.  “Mine don’t look like that at all.”

To demonstrate, Lyra shot her own pathetic Mana Bolt, hitting a nearby tree.

“Your skill level is just low. As you raise it, and your Intelligence, it will get stronger and brighter.” Randidly responded, his voice brusque. Lyra nodded, doing her best to hide her embarrassed blush in the shadow of her hood.

This asshole…!

****

In the present, Lyra opened her eyes. Gathering her energy, she began to condense her strongest move, using the volatile violent energy in her chest, scraping the well of her body clean.

Their relationship continued like that, Lyra struggling every waking hour to impress this beautiful emerald man, Randidly gazing at her with mild eyes, like everything she managed, every spell and trick she learned to practiced incessantly with, was only just enough for him to acknowledge her.

Even after she realized those shapes she saw were the skills he could use, and she began to try and imitate them, creating her own, resulting in some fascinating results, she didn’t know how to bring it up with him. His gaze stopped her dead, filling her with anxiety.

She quickly learned that mild gaze was just how he dealt with people, but that only drove Lyra more insane, and she made up snide nicknames, and poked at him, and mocked him, wishing for something. Some change in that mild look, some proof that she wasn’t working so tirelessly, every day, every night, for nothing.

Wishing for some indication he viewed her differently than everyone else.

For some indication that she was….

Shaking her head with an uncharacteristically sad smile, Lyra pictured Randidly the day he had left. As he grew stronger, so did the dominance of his aura, growing larger and more multifarious, taking aspects of all of his choices, paths, and skills.

And also, Randidly had obtained the beautiful, pulsing heart of violet energy, from his battle with the sphinx. It was similar to the strange veins of energy that others would get when obtaining a class, but his was different, in a way that Lyra couldn’t quite discern. Whereas others had small tributaries flowing through them, polluted somehow, Randidly had a pure spring.

Opening her eyes, Lyra looked at her strongest skill.

A man, 7 inches taller than her, made of mana, stood their, holding a spear. The mana construct was gazing at her. Lyra, who, barely able to stand, simply nodded.

The figure turned and thrust forward with his spear.

The world seemed to explode in a wave of concussive force, but standing behind the figure, Lyra felt nothing. The barrier around Kim-Lath shattered, the spear barely slowed. It rushed forward, Kim-Lath’s eyes widening with shock, and the spear sank into the flesh of its body, blowing a huge hole in the tribulation.

Before her very eyes, it seemed to deflate, energy seeping out of it.

The spearman raised his spear once more, but then dissipated, the power inside of Lyra all spent. She raised a mana potion to her lips, but she couldn’t maintain her strength, and the bottle fell to the ground, shattering.

She allowed herself a small smile; Randidly would be so pissy. For a man, he was oddly protective of his glassware. Then she too fell, no strength remaining in her body.

It’s not like the potion would have done anything, the resource Lyra had expended was much more vital than mana. It was that violet energy that Randidly seemed to be swimming in. But unlike him, Lyra did not have a spring within her chest. She only had the small amount she could slowly gather over time.

As she collapsed, she wished, deeply, that she would have the chance to see Randidly again. She had told the truth to Kim-Lath: she was ready to die, to protect the village nurtured by Randidly. And she was afraid, that even then, she would never know what face he would make when he found out.

Would that mild, if intense, gaze finally waver….?

Yearning, Lyra opened her Eyes of Wonder, gazing forward.

Then her gaze sharpened, her eyes glittering.

Then she began to crawl forward, her body slowly dying.

****

Nul sat up, some of his color returning. “She… she really did it. The tribulation is dying! Now, I can-

But that Nul squawked, and rolled over on his side, writhing back and forth, as if in the midst of a seizure.

Sam just looked down, his mouth wide open.

What the fuck was going on?!?!