The eyes of the figure turned directly towards Argent as if it was looking at him truly for the first time. No longer just going through the motions of the task it was forced to repeat over and over again.
"I see you are walking with both the sun and the moon, light and shadow. Neither can exist without the other, and both are a part of your soul. Just like...no. You only have one qualification. Even though you are yet to be tainted by the Unnamed One, there is a limit to what you can know..."
"The Unnamed One? The god who brought us here to fight? The one that wants us to reach the Apex or whatever?" Argent asked, confused at the bits and pieces he was getting.
"Yes, once you revive in his temple, you will truly be a part of this world. My job is to give you humans a fighting chance and let you gain your element. Seeing that you awakened yours on your own is shocking even to me."
"It seems you can't tell me much, even if you wanted to. To be honest, for all I know, it would all be lies anyway, no offense."
The figure stood up tall, looking right at Argent still, "Good, question this world, question everything. You have taken the first steps. Now you must take the rest."
Before Argent could say another word, the figure disappeared, and the white space grew brighter and brighter till he had to shut his eyes.
When he opened them again, the world was stone and dust.
Rows of carved slabs stretched before him, twenty in all, leading up to a towering statue of a hooded figure. Its face was hidden, its hands raised in silent blessing.
He sat up, gasping for air; his body was whole, his clothes were back to the state they were in when he got here. No tears, no blood, no dirt.
'So this is what coming back feels like, this must be the temple of the Unnamed one.'
A door creaked in the back. A robed man shuffled out, muttering to himself, carrying a bundle of scrolls.
"Ah! Another new face. Yes, yes, first time, I see." He gestured absently toward the statue. "Touch the Unnamed One, yes. That's how you log merits, check your… ah, what do the young ones call it, your score. Yes yes, quite simple."
The man wandered to the back of the room, already back to being lost in thought in whatever he was doing before.
Argent stood up and headed towards the statue. Something felt off about this, but he had no other choice but to reach out and touch it, and that's exactly what he did. As his hand met marble, blue light reached out and enveloped him. Words entered his mind.
[Power: Calculating]
[Previous Score: 10]
[Natural Gains: 13]
[New Trait: Mark of the Giant's: 10]
[New Total: 33]
[Merits: Calculating]
[Previous: 0]
[Giant kill: 225 | Contribution Split: 100%]
[Giant kill: 336 | Contribution Split: 100%]
[Summary]
[Name: $*^#@!]
[Error]
[Name: Argent]
[Death Count: 1]
[Element Power: 13]
[Physical Power: 33]
[Merits: 561]
[Traits:]
[Mark of the Giant's]
[Qualification of the Giants]
The words came fast in his mind, everything he had done up to this point that mattered to this god. Then came the burning throughout his body. His muscles ached as they grew, then retracted, becoming more dense than before.
Words Mugwort had said the day before rang in his head, "Touch the statue when you die, the Unnamed One, the tall, gloomy fellow carved from rock far prettier than he is or ever was. It drinks your deeds, you see. Slurps them right up like good stew. Every swing, every scream, every brave little scramble for survival. All tallied somewhere where it's quiet. Then when you pop back out, you're a touch stronger, a touch sharper. Merits aren't the only thing you earn. Fight harder, get stronger. Fight sloppy, get crumbs. Simple math, if math were done by ghosts who never speak."
'So this is what he meant, my power went up to thirty-three from ten, so that must mean I'm over three times stronger than I was. Ha. So in this world, every little thing you do adds up; everything is for something. Nothing is wasted. I like that,' Argent thought to himself.
***
As Argent walked up, Mugwort stood over his massive iron pot, muttering to himself as he moved his large wooden spoon in tight circles.
"Ah! the ghost who's not a ghost returns!" Moving to sniff Argent's chest, "You smell better than yesterday, just a little bit though, not a lot a bit."
"You know what, Mugwort, it is good to see you this evening," Argent remarked as he looked over the group of people sitting around the fire and smiled.
"It's good to see Mugwort at any time of day, you know. I always smell good, don't touch the stew now! Not yet! It still bites! May take your hand!" Mugwort snaps down his mouth in a biting motion.
Argent just shrugged him off as he continued to look over the group. Ferric, Ward, the twins, Rime, Ember...
"Wait, guys, where's Ryn? She not back yet?"
Ward looked up and then around, "I saw her die before me. I tried to get to her, but I couldn't make it in time. That means she should have been back by now."
"I have a bad feeling," Argent spoke softly, "Can't hurt to be cautious, I'm going to go look for her."
Rime stood up, "You mean we all will go look for her. She's one of us."
"Pairs, pairs so it's safer, and we can still spread out," Ferric said as he stood up, setting down his drink.
"Alright, you all do that, I'll be the odd man out and go alone. Spread out, find her fast,"
***
The further Argent got into the outskirts, the quieter it got. Laughter and celebration of the day's fights faded into the night's cold air.
'Think, think, where could she be. She wasn't at the temple; she wasn't at the tavern. Raff hadn't seen her.'
Then he remembered earlier in the day at the weapon pile. Ryn said she was familiar with a bow, but she was struggling to find decent arrows.
'Maybe she went back to get a head start on the next fight.'
He changed direction towards the weapon pile on the edge of the outskirts, jogging now.
When he reached the edge of camp, the moonlight caught movement ahead. Four figures surrounded Ryn, cornering her against a half-collapsed stone wall. Their clothes bore a symbol he hadn't seen before, a pyramid encircled by a bright red flame.
Argent's gut tightened. He approached fast.