He could think back to the Lomenkkar game and everything else. He was finally free to get to the many, many things he needed to get to, but his mind kept reeling in guilt and loss.
He opened his mouth to continue the idle banter and get back to business when he felt a strong grip on his arm.
"No," Aria said. "That decision will only end poorly, both to yourself and your greater goals."
He quickly turned to her, eyes narrow in reflexive anger and suspicion. What the slit does this elf really know? Is this some trick to get Terrania exposed and get them to lose the war?
She held his gaze, responding with only calm neutrality. She didn't even need to say the obvious—Axl was holding back for none of those reasons, his people didn't give a shit about Terrania or his people's war. He was afraid he'd get them killed too, just like he failed Cas Kaltan, his brother, Lilly, and even Alifren.
What was he thinking, getting Moxlin to follow him in the caves near Nox's domain? Or letting this weird elf girl keep following him around? It would just end with another corpse dead at his hand.
He took a deep breath, the recentering act stopped midway, too tired to care. To keep up the pointless charade any longer. If Moxlin were to keep following him around, she should know what’s really going on. And to a lesser extent, the elf girl, too.
"I'm not an elf," he started, looking between Aria and Moxlin, even the servitor standing politely beyond the door. "I'm a human from another planet, or maybe even firmament, and was placed inside this body barely a month ago. My people are being invaded by the Vikam elves, and I need to establish a sub-system within two years. Well, ideally, far before that, since when I left the war wasn't going so well, since we don’t have nearly as much Mana as here, not to mention no access to the Deep System. That’s why I need the void treasure the metal dryad at Treeheart is sitting on, why I need to hurry to match that peak F-Grade monster's absurd power."
It felt so insubstantial, summarizing it so much like that. Somehow, Axl felt it would've taken much longer, but there it was.
Moxlin and Aria looked at each other, then back at Axl.
"Wow," Moxlin started. "That's just crazy. But I guess it makes sense."
Aria nodded. "Indeed, a more fanciful origin than I would've guessed, but it certainly explains some oddities about your soul."
"No," Axl looked down. "You two don't get it. I'm on a death march here, and if you stick around, you will only get killed, too. This inevitably happens to the people around me. It’s not just me exaggerating, the risks I have to take will do this."
Moxlin retreated from his neck. "I… I'm sorry, I'm too weak to keep up. The first time I try something big and you have to save me. It's pathetic, I know."
Axl stared at her in shock, the guilt finding an entirely new surface area to stab at him from. He wanted to start listing all the times her talismans saved his ass, but the words were stuck in his throat, the enormity of the wrongness too big.
"Let me help," Aria politely raised her hand, then gestured to Moxlin. "If you hadn't joined him, he would have been dead between four and eight times. And if you died in here, his death in the near future would also be a near certainty. He knows this to be true as well. I don't even need to use any of my gifts to see this from him."
Axl took out an activating talisman for the illusion array Moxlin made for him. "Fighting that poisonous centipede. Sneaking into Treeheart's inner walls undetected. Not triggering this manor's defenses. And that's all just from the illusion talisman."
The servitor took a step forward. "I can confirm that without that array, the esteemed master's approach would have been detected, and he would have had to fight me and other guardian puppets at the garden periphery. He would not have survived."
Axl's breath caught at that realization, thinking it was just an advantage when first attacking the servitor, not that it was so important to his even getting to that room in the first place.
Moxlin didn't seem so convinced, but seeing her insecurity strangely made Axl feel better about his own guilt, and he realized that he hadn't thought of Cas Kaltan's death since his focus shifted to Moxlin. Even now, as he thought of the pained memory, it seemed less cutting and absolute. He still wanted to crawl into a hole and die, but at least some crawling was back in the picture. He really wished there were some Vikam around to kill, this would all be much less of an issue if he could fight his actual enemy.
Axl turned to Aria, and she rolled her eyes. "I will spare you the embarrassment of being worried over me, struggler. In my firmament, there is a reason my clan is thought to be celestial, to the point of even early-tier immortality. Not to mention that I would rather die in your employ than suffer the unsavory plans Venva has for me if she ascends. It would be a shame to waste a cycle of rebirth only in the F-Grade, but it would not be an insurmountable setback for my cultivation."
Axl shook his head, having a hard time believing the elf's insane advantages, but it was a relief.
"Will you now tell us your name, as well?" Aria continued. "It's unhealthy to live so long under an unsuitable one, after all."
Axl's eyes widened in surprise, realizing how much he really did want that. "Yeah. Roken is just the name of the elf body I woke up in. My name is… I'm Xel-389b. Axl, in short."
"Axl," Aria nodded. "I see. It feels true to your dreams as well."
"Okay!" Moxlin replied, giving a thumbs up with a foreleg.
The servitor bowed deeply at the doorway. "This guardian puppet greets her esteemed master Xel-389b and Axl."
Axl had noticed the servitor called him that earlier too, changing from the somewhat contempt-filled young master to esteemed master, and the sheer respect in her gesture reinforced the change the stark change in her demeanor towards him.
This was a big relief, since he was quite on edge about having somebody who could quite easily kill him being the head of his place. It was a problem he'd set aside for dealing with later, and was glad it solved itself.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
After this, Axl cut the conversation short, and they broke off, Aria to sleep as usual, but Moxlin was actually quite energized about using her newly acquired F-Grade Lineage, and nearly stumbled over her legs on the way to her crafting room.
Axl retreated to the bedroom on the first floor he claimed as his own, the smallest one he could find, since sleeping in an open space put him a bit on edge. He even had the walls shortened a bit so it would feel small enough, the servitor easily able to make that small modification with a gesture.
Physically and mentally, he was at a peak, but he felt wrung-out, and he lay in bed for a few moments before realizing he literally couldn't sleep, and instead asked the servitor if she could play a game of Lomenkkar with him, to which she politely accepted. She didn't know the game, but she learned quickly enough, and Axl handicapped himself in their first few games with a minor subset of pieces, the idle distraction helping.
A few hours of this, and he was greatly refreshed, no longer haunted by the repeating imagery of Cas Kaltan's dead body and the fitful pangs of guilt, even if the memory was still painful to recall. He also still worried about Moxlin and what drove her to the risky attempt at improving her Lineage, knowing that her issues weren't fully resolved. He’d have to talk to her more about this, soon.
Still, he turned to his notifications, eager to see the results of his tempering. He was expecting damn good stuff, and he was pleasantly surprised by what he saw.
>>Bodyplan improvement obtained:
>>Metal-hewn body of Grand Profundity:
>>Resulting from intense metal-based body tempering, every organ is now metal-seeped and aligned to all metallic facets of reality, from Mana to Dao to material. Metal touches all aspects of reality with unyielding will, from the pliant to the rigid, improving flesh, mind, and soul with the force of the material with the strongest potential. Body resistant to all attacks from metal, better able to channel all aspects of metal. All Attributes +50.
This first notification was the direct result of the tempering itself, what he was aiming for with basing the practice with the absolute strongest metals he had on him. He was hoping for that bit on being more attuned to metal, the resistance to metals being quite an added bonus, since most weapons were made of metal.
He was absolutely not expecting the large addition to his Attributes, by far his biggest gain, over double the number given by his Lineage, even. However, as he looked at his body, he felt that he wasn't quite as off-kilter as he had been before when obtaining a boost in Attributes, and with a flick of movement, confirmed he could move his hand faster than before, in a way consistent with his gains. Perhaps the result of that boost came from a tempering that aligned his mind, body, and soul to the changes, making the adaptation seamless.
The next notification confirmed a speculation he was very glad about.
>>Lineage improvement: Meridians have obtained drastically improved conductivity to Metal-attuned Mana and material. Lineage-related Meridians obtained 20% of their potential (+10% to all Attributes).
It seemed like body cultivation also improved his Meridians, basically for free. Not only that, but apparently improving Meridians added a percentage gain to one's Attributes. This was excellent, and in fact reinforced that he made the right call when deciding for Alchemical Vessel in the High Elf over Stormstrike Elf of the twilight Zazen, that later Lineage offering 20% boost in Attributes being particularly tempting, even now. It seemed like the Rare Lineage he chose instead had a way of clawing up that percentage gain with improving Meridians.
He was sure the Epic Lineage also had access to other compounding advantages, but he also felt those would not be easy to get. That he could do without, since he almost died getting his Meridian improvement, and that only brought them up to a fifth of their potential. Axl couldn't imagine what nonsense he'd have to survive to upgrade the lightning-based Lineage.
The next notification was a neat Achievement he got from surviving this deranged tempering, and he was quite excited for these rewards.
>>Achievement Obtained (consumable):
>>17-fold Metal-Forged Meridian Base:
>> Survive a peak, system-untethered F-Grade body tempering while still in the G-Grade.
>>Reward: Choice of soul-attuned item
>>Accept? Yes/No
He held off on accepting, however, since he first wanted to establish his fief and stabilize himself a bit more, as well as deciding if he wanted to do this before or after revisiting his Dao vision, or even after getting his cultivator's core. He'd been a bit worried about how long he could wait on accepting a quest or achievement reward, and according to Oocile's annotations, it could be within the tier, unless otherwise noted, and would automatically be accepted when ascending grades, if one didn't accept them beforehand. There were an infinity of factors in considering when to accept these, but no huge downside in waiting, so Axl decided to take his time on these.
The next reward was for the quest itself, and that one also didn't disappoint.
>>Quest: Body tempering to metal
>>Update: Tempering complete (16/17 steps).
>>Geas of the Weak triggered: Improved trial rewards.
>>Reward: Alchemical Forging Impartment
>>Accept? Yes/No
Not having every step listed as complete annoyed him, but it was better than dying, and hopefully Moxlin got some boost from getting one step of tempering herself, at least. The reward was the best he could've hoped for, help in getting his metal forging situation sorted to find the best possible fit for his cultivator's core. The vale administrator promised to give him access to a tutor on that from an artisan rift challenge reward, but this was likely to be much better, since it was given out by the Deep System itself.
Still, Axl didn’t accept this one right away, since he wanted to practice a bit more with his own metal transmutation function of [Gastric Cauldron] and maybe even normal alchemy to maximize the potential gains from this impartment.
Even if he'd only taken half the rewards from the tempering, Axl opened his status sheet and basked in his drastic Attribute improvement.
Name: Xel-389b (Roken)
Level: 18
Grade: G
Class: Usurpation of Balance (Rare)
Core: (none)
Spiritual Organs: Gastric Cauldron (branch G)
Lineage: Alchemical Vessel in the High Elf (root F)
Meridians: 20% refined (Metal-attuned)
Bodyplan: Gills (removed), poison-clearing larynx (damaged), Metal-hewn body of Grand Profundity
Attribute points: 260 (base: 131, flat modifiers: 68, percentage modifiers (30.5%): 61)
Attributes (12): Strength, Endurance, Vitality, Agility, Bilesong, Mentality, Perception, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Limerence, Luck
He went from having 180 Attributes to a nearly 50% boost in that number, all due to a 50-point addition to his base attribute points from the bodyplan improvement and a 10% boost from his Meridians. And that his body felt oddly attuned despite the huge increase, he wondered how well he would fare in a battle against Sulliana and Soffal now, not to mention the servitor. For sure, their skills were superior to his, but he likely had a solid Attribute advantage that could bridge that gap.
Axl also added a section to his status screen listing the extent of his Meridian refinement, since that seemed like a key part of his Lineage, as well as his bodyplan improvements. It was unfortunate that the poison-clearing larynx he got from his last body tempering expedition was damaged, as he'd definitely take a hit in dealing with poisons and toxins from that, but it was to be expected from how that was so tightly associated with his gills, which were now listed as removed and unable to be healed. A minor mess-up, but more than worth it for what he gained, not to mention he felt he could at least fix the larynx at some point.
The missing gills he missed even less, since he wasn't a water-elf anymore, and the metallic heft and solidity of his body felt like a far greater benefit than the minor inborn advantage underwater. Anyhow, the [Selsin Clan Glyphic Compendium]had a bunch of talisman and potion designs that would allow for some version of underwater breathing, so no big loss. Slit, he half expected to be able to use the floor space in his body for something better down the line anyhow, with how he was regularly stapling random goodies to himself.
Taking another moment to re-center his breath, Axl went to the central atrium and prepared to make one final decision for the day: should he set up his fief now or train some more?