— Elena and Krax were breaking down the entire camp, taking care not to damage the equipment. Elsewhere, Kaelen was preparing a few rations; the journey would take eight to nine days. The road was long, and danger could lurk everywhere. They would have to leave their positions—assigned by Elena—as little as possible, especially with an injured person among them. Amid all this, while everyone was getting ready, each doing their own task, Obi was still lying on the ground, his only task being to finish the dishes Elena was preparing for him —
I can't believe it—what kind of doctor would feed… THIS to their patient?
"Am I really obligated to do this? Isn't there anything else?"
I said, glancing over at Elena, who seemed quite busy.
"Even though you've finally woken up and gained a little color, your metabolism is still quite weak"
"But eating larvae?"
"You have to eat living creatures to boost your Malice reserves, even if just a little, and well, they have to fit in your mouth for that"
"Even if you put it that way…"
— With distaste, Obi began to bitterly eat the bowl full of some kind of larva soup he held in his hand; every bite he took elicited a grimace in response, and just swallowing it was a struggle —
"Why do I have to go through this again?"
— He continued forcing himself to take bites, passing the time until everyone finished their tasks.
Obi tossed the plate aside, showing that he had finished his task. —
"Well, everyone's done, so let's get moving"
— Elena said, taking charge of leading the group. Meanwhile, Kaelen carried almost all the backpacks on his back, leaving one for Krax and keeping four for himself.
Inside the forest, nothing had changed; it remained as green as it was dense. The group relied on Kaelen's keen senses as a danger detector; if an animal approached them, they could sense it from at least ten meters away, which significantly reduced the group's stress.
There was a moment of silence, until Krax decided to speak first —
"So you managed to transcend?"
— Obi, upon hearing someone speak to him, slightly increased his pace to walk side by side with Krax, who did the opposite to argue —
"Yes, it's a bit… strange, but the thrill of finally understanding what I've been trying to do from the start is rewarding"
"Do you realize how impressive what you did is?"
"Really?"
I said, somewhat confused. It took me weeks to understand a single piece of the puzzle, but I hadn't compared myself to anyone else, so I was pretty lost in terms of how quickly I was grasping things.
"You seem confused, but I'm telling the truth. The fact that you've progressed so quickly is truly remarkable. Considering how little time you've been here, it's quite a short time to master the tenth rank."
"You flatter me too much. I must say I went through plenty of trial and error that only led to frustration. Your sword was the turning point that finally made me realize the practicality of Malice."
— Krax drew his sword as we walked, scanning the area as if searching for something specific, looking at him skeptically —
"Really?"
"Of course. I noticed that your sword had changed color slightly, which made me realize that the dark hue was a material embedded within your sword, granting you the first ability bestowed by Malice: refinement. It's also worth noting that the first time I saw you, I thought the sword was made entirely of Malice."
"Impressive—with so few details, you were able to grasp the first rank"
— Elena said, leaving Kaelen behind as a guide to go down and talk with Obi; the conversation had piqued her curiosity, and she wanted to know more about the —
"Of course, I didn't know all the details yet, and that's why I ended up on the ground from overexertion"
"You should have deduced that too, since you already knew that Malice is rooted in vitality."
"It's a little hard to think about all the details when your body already has several fractures and you're fighting wolves."
"Even so, you're lucky to have figured it out that way."
¿Lucky?, ¿after everything I went through?, I thought. Still, those words not only annoyed me but also piqued my curiosity
"Why do you say that?"
I saw Elena smiling at me cheekily, as if demonstrating her superiority through knowledge; she was indirectly sending me a message: I was the dumb kid of the group.
"Malice, as you've discovered for yourselves, is a substance that represents the life force of every being—it's what makes every living thing, big or small, what it is.
At first, no one knew why it was in our bodies. The first people to arrive at the tower had to discover its purpose the hard way—through murder. It was the first murder committed in the tower by the first killer, the Tower Butcher."
At that moment, my eyes locked onto Elena's. That information had surprised me, but it wasn't entirely unexpected either. Even so, Elena was capturing my full attention, making me almost forget the pain with every step I took.
"It was at that moment that the true malleability of Malice was revealed. It was a time of horror, especially since that assassin was, in addition to everything I mentioned earlier,the first to reach the eighth stage of assimilation—the first Hod-rank in history."
— At that moment, Obi could no longer contain the interest in his expression; the information Elena had just revealed was like a bomb going off in his head. 'Two ranks above mine,' he thought. He was about to speak but noticed that Elena hadn't finished yet, so he took the time to listen carefully —
"Faced with that situation, the other beings in the tower had to band together and share their knowledge to rise in rank as quickly as possible and stop the tower's butcher. Such was the power of that being that it was able to wipe out a quarter of the people who ambushed it, but in the end, it died in a forest without even being given a grave"
"But how did she obtain that knowledge? How did she manage to reach the Hod rank?"
"Information on Malice is quite scarce, Obi, but thanks to that event, we know the bare minimum of what must be done in the first three assimilations—well, that only applies to those who are well-informed"
At that moment, I understood where he was going with all this, why he'd told me that whole story. That smug smile directed solely at me was meant to get me to sign a contract.
Even so, I controlled my emotions, relaxing my facial muscles to adopt a more neutral expression and a calmer voice.
"What do you want? What are you looking for from me?"
"Haha, if you don't have anything—at least not yet—I like to invest in people, so I'll give you some additional information as a bonus: in the tower, knowledge prevails over strength."