It was late, sometime past midnight. Aiden strolled through the streets of the town. There was barely anyone outside. The street vendors had since called it a night. There was neither inn nor tavern with lights on. It was a quiet town, a boring town. It was interesting how on Earth Aiden had liked such a thing. Now, he did not. This level of silence never sat well with him.
What are you, an animal? he thought as he walked.
Only animals truly feared the silence of the night, the absence of life. Why? Because from what he knew, if the world was dead silent, it was because the things alive were concealing the fact that they were alive. Such actions only happened when there was something around that would ensure that they did not remain alive if it found out.
Hands in his coat pocket, he strolled into the compound of the inn they currently occupied. There were a good number of jepats to his left, resting comfortably in the stables. A few looked at him, their attention locking onto him as if seeking out the secrets of his mind. He ignored them, strolling into the inn.
The inn opened first into a tavern. There were empty tables and empty chairs. The entire space was void of the smell of alcohol, vomit and poorly cooked meal that was usually the way with such places.
He ignored the chair with a broken leg just waiting for the wrong person to sit on it so that it could just kil over and drop them on their ass. He ignored the blood stain at the edge of one of the tables were a scuffle he’d witnessed yesterday had led to a man cracking a woman’s skull before he’d been escorted out by two burly men. It reminded him of something interesting that differentiated the genders here that was different from earth.
Humans here were perfectly the same as they were on earth. In the early teen years, sometimes before, humans hit puberty and everything began. Boys got broader shoulders, deeper voices, growing and active groins. Girls got slimmer waists and periods, growing busts and more defined shapes. And each gender lived through their puberty until they unlocked their first skill at eighteen.
For men, nothing really changed when they unlocked their first skill. For women, their periods slowly began its decline. In his past life he had learnt that women loved it. No pain, no bleeding, no hormonal chaos of any kind. By level ten, upon receiving a class, periods became a thing of the past for every woman.
So how did it govern pregnancy, he had asked one of the Order doctors once. The answer had been simple, so simple that he had considered himself not as bright as he had always thought.
“The eggs do not have to be flushed out,” the woman had said. “They have eggs that are forever fertile and ready to be fertilized. The same way you always have sperm ready to be used.”
And, in the event that some of the eggs end up with any kind of issue, which was rare, then the body would just recreate more. Hormonally speaking, women became a close equivalent of men by the time they had their class, and that was in the case of mood swings and the likes.
But here was a new problem, psychologically speaking, some things changed within the first few years of getting a class. It was recorded that some women, suddenly finding themselves physically powerful, mentally focused, and still capable of feminine charms, did not handle it so innocently. They resorted to violence quite easily, never having been forced to experience its allure and use in their earlier years. A lot of men suffered under the weight of their new found strength, some of the women deciding that it was time to pay the male gender back for the physical dominance imposed upon the women during the early years of puberty.
It was not right, but Aiden would be lying if he said it was not understandable. But the beauty of reality is that there existed nothing in the way of behavior that could not be learnt. For some of these women, a few years indulging in their newfound strength would eventually lead to dealing with those with strength beyond theirs. Eventually, they learnt as the intelligent should, that not all fights should be picked, and just because you were stronger and annoyed, it did not mean you had to fight. After all, while uncommon, people did kill others levels above them. If they did not, there would be titles unheard of.
Still, at level fifty, the genders became the same. Level fifty was the beginning of the death of the libido. The urge to procreate still remained, but it was not a biological driving force. It became psychological. A game of power and love, one might say. A gender would appreciate the beauty of another without the drive to take her to bed. Some still had the drive, but a lot of polymaths argued that the drive was behavioral and not biological. It did not mean that a gender could not be turned on, it only meant that to be turned on, a gender would have to allow themselves to be turned on.
Thinking about it, he found it funny how despite the beauty of mana that makes life easier, pregnancy still took nine months. More interesting was the fact that all pregnancy symptoms and chaos remained. Cravings and the likes did not change. It was even worse here than it was on earth. Once, he had witnessed a king send his soldiers out to hunt a dangerous monster because his queen in her pregnancy was craving that specific monster meat. There were also the mandatory two levels that went missing during pregnancy only to return when the child was born.
Shaking his head, he chuckled lightly at how biology always tried to get its lick back. At least on Nastild gaining a class and passing level fifty eliminated fears like being loved only for your body or being loved for your money. Well… the money part wasn’t exactly completely eliminated.
Someone made a choking sound and Aiden turned his head. There was a boy sitting behind the counter with his legs raised, crossed and settled on the counter. He had just choked in his sleep, forcing. It brought Aiden back to reality and he found himself looking down at the edge of the table, a finger gentle on the dried bloodstain.
He blinked at that, surprised to find himself just standing at a spot of blood thinking about periods and mana’s effect on biology.
Just be glad it’s human biology, he told himself as he shook the thought off and stepped away from the table.
On the other side of Nastild, there were species with more than two genders required for procreation, but that was not a subject he wanted to think about as he climbed the stairs to his room.
Rometo had gotten a room for himself as week as a jepat of his own, all with his own money, of course. Aiden passed the man’s room without giving it a glance. He ignored all the other rooms until he got to his own. He unlocked it with his key then walked in, locking the door behind him.
He paused in the darkness and looked at the person sitting at the window, facing the door.
“Aida,” Ted said casually.
“Teddy,” Aiden replied.
“Why did you miss your curfew?” Ted asked.
Aiden folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. “I don’t remember having a curfew.”
Ted sighed. “Are you talking back to me?”
“That’s how conversations work, brother. One person talks and the other talks back.” Shaking the whole conversation from his mind, he sighed. “What do we need, Teddy.”
Ted reached to his side, to the table there, and turned on the table lamp, illuminating the room in a soft yellow glow. “How about we start with some love and affection, Aida,” he said in a broken voice. “Is that too much to ask?”
Aiden cocked a brow. “And if it is?”
“Are you saying you don’t love me anymore?”
Aiden sighed very deeply. It was all he could do to hold onto his composure. “Teddy,” he said carefully, “Did you have another milkshake recently?”
He watched Ted’s memory of his first milkshake on Nastild flood his mind. His brother went through a full body shiver of disgust.
“No,” he said pointing a warning finger att him. “You do not get to bring up my past trauma. Not when you were the one who traumatized me.”
Aiden broke into his first chuckle of the night. “Oh, come on. It was just a drink, and it was sweet. Admit it. Besides, you got me back for it. Try sleeping in a broom closet.”
“It is not about the taste. It’s about the principle. Remember when Charles brought roasted maggots to school?”
How could Aiden forget. The boy said it was a delicacy from back home, and people had made wagers on who could eat it. Ted hadn’t touched the thing or gone anywhere near it.
“The maggots were sweet,” Ted continued, “but everybody still went around gagging and puking that day.”
Aiden nodded. “Uhuh.”
Saying nothing else, he walked over to his bed, sat down on it and started taking his shoes off. He made sure it was a slow process. Once his shoes were free, he laid back on the bed.
“Don’t you miss socks?” Ted asked.
Aiden thought about it and shook his head. “Not really.”
“Because the shoes are nice or because you’ve gone very long without them?”
“The latter,” Aiden answered, staring up at the ceiling.
Ted was quiet for a while. They basked in the silence even though it was clearly pregnant with the baby of a question unasked. Ted chose to deliver said baby before long.
“What’s next, Aida?” he asked.
Aiden looked at him. They needed to get to the library of living truth, but they had somewhere to go before they went there.
“You know Romeo is very curious about what you plan on doing with the crystal and the heart,” Ted said.
“I know,” Aiden confirmed.
“Are you going to tell him?”
“Not sure.”
“Then how are you going to keep it a secret when the time comes?”
“Shuffle him off somewhere. Him and Zen and Feira.”
“He’ll know,” Ted said. “You send him off suddenly and he’ll know you’re hiding something.”
Aiden chuckled. “Ted, I’m going to tell him that I’m shuffling him off because there is something that I don’t want him to know.”
“And he’ll just listen?”
“I have an agreement with his boss, so he doesn’t have a choice.” Aiden sat up and started taking off his jacket. The floating enchantment from his skill [First Support] hovered just at the edge of his vision. “One does not simply disobey the orders of the master.”
“And what if he does?” Ted asked. “What if he finds out what you don’t want him to and he talks?”
“Then the master will end his life and forbid everybody in the Order from acting on the information given.”
“And what if they all try to?”
Aiden was already shaking his head. “They won’t all try to. Some fanatics might, but not all of them.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” Aiden placed his coat beside him and laid back down, “this secret is important only to the master.”
Ted stroked his jaw in contemplation. “I see. So he’s not going to follow us to our next destination.”
“Only a distance there,” Aiden confirmed. “It’s about a month’s journey by jepat.”
“What of teleportation?”
“Maybe a week.”
“But we can’t teleport because it will draw too much attention to us?”
Aiden nodded. “Yep.”
“I see,” Ted mused, “a month. That’s a long time.”
“Long enough to get you to level one hundred and fifty, I’m hoping.” With Ted present, Aiden allowed his body to relax, his muscles to soften, his senses to dull just a little. “Then Valdan past level one hundred and Zen and the others to at least level fifty.”
“Do we need that level of strength for the journey?”
Aiden paused, frowned a little. “Not for the path I’ve chosen. But we’ll definitely need it for the destination.”
“You take us to all the fancy places, don’t you,” Ted joked.
Aiden smiled, almost laughed. “I try my best.”
“I have another question,” Ted said.
Aiden cracked an eye open and looked at him. “Can it wait until day break?”
“It can.”
“Thank you,” Aiden said, grateful. “I just need to get some shut eyes. I haven’t really slept in a long time, and it might be taking a mental toll on my brain.”
Ted gave him a worried look. “How so?”
“I found myself downstairs standing and thinking about the effects of mana on periods in women and libido.” Aiden shook his head. “That was definitely the sign that I needed to sleep.”
“Oh.” Ted paused. “It can wait until tomorrow.”
Aiden closed his eyes back and relaxed some more. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. So, I heard what happened the other day. Why didn’t you fight Rometo when he offered?”
Aiden’s eyes shot open. “I thought you said it could wait until daybreak?”
“I did.”
“And this is the question?”
“It is.”
“This is definitely something that can wait until daybreak.”
“It is.”
“So why?” Aiden groaned.
Ted grinned maniacally. “Because I can. I’m the older brother, and I can.”
Aiden paused. He sighed. “I hate you.”
“That’s not the answer to my question, baby brother.”
Aiden stared up at the ceiling as if wondering why he had refused Rometo’s offer of combat. He wondered if Valdan and Zen and Fjord wondered why he had said no. Chances were that Valdan wondered why while the others feared that he didn’t want to lose to someone over level two hundred.
He’d seen it in the man’s eyes when he’d refused. Rometo was wondering too. He did not think it was because Aiden knew that he was stronger. In the end, it boiled down to one answer.
“Gain,” he said.
Ted sighed. “Aiden.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t be stupid. Giving one word that explains nothing does not make you sound cool. So, let’s try again. Why didn’t you accept the offer?”
Aiden rolled his eyes. Then he answered with more words. “Because there was no gain in it.”
“How so?”
“Rometo is not skilled enough that I would learn something new from fighting him. And I am neither strong enough nor skilled enough that he would learn something new from fighting me.” Aiden paused. It was not entirely true. This Rometo was over six years younger than the version he knew before regressing. So maybe he was skilled enough to teach the man a few things. But he was definitely not strong enough, so maybe he was right. “And we’re both too strong and too skilled for anyone that was present to learn anything from watching us fight.”
“What of fighting for the fun of it?” Ted asked.
Aiden shook his head immediately. “If I was to fight for the fun of it, then I would reveal too many secrets that I am not supposed to reveal.”
Ted pursed his lips in thought then nodded in acceptance not agreement. “And when you were outside. What were you doing that you came back so late?”
Aiden just wanted to sleep. Is that too much to ask for?
“I was gathering intel,” he answered.
“On?”
“The path I have chosen for us to take,” he said. “There are other paths, and I’ll present them to the group. But the path I have chosen sounds best to me.”
“And what’s the intel on that path?”
Aiden opened his eyes, coming to the decision that he would not be sleeping anytime soon. “The path I want us to take is along a border being fought over by two nomadic tribes. I needed to confirm the combat state of both tribes as well as the war potential of both tribes.”
“It would help decide if we’ll take the path?”
“Not really, I was just calculating risks. It’s still the safest regardless of war or not.”
“But?”
Aiden looked at Ted. “No buts.”
“Usually there are buts,” Ted argued.
“There are none tonight.”
“Alright, then tell me what happens. What’s the difference between them being at war and not being at war.”
Aiden shrugged. “War means we’ll kill people and level up faster. No war means we won’t kill people and level up normally.”
“That’s dark.”
Aiden shrugged. Maybe it was. He ran a hand down his face. He paused, looking at it. It was his blackened arm. A moment ago, Ted had talked about teleporting. Apart from blink, Aiden had confirmed that any other type of teleportation would send him to the world with the [Spatial Crack]s roaming about. He had also confirmed that the last time he had gone through said space, the [Spatial Crack]s had been wary of him.
Why remained the question plaguing him. What had been so different?
And each time he asked the question, he had only one answer.
The merchant of Nosrath. Alobam.
Whatever enchantment the man had put in his arm, perhaps it was what they were scared of.
There’s also the [Fragment of Nastild], he reminded himself. It had entered the same arm. The creatures could be scared of that, too.
The problem was that he did not know.
And Aiden hated not knowing.
“Show me the map,” Ted instructed, assuring Aiden of no sleep. “I want to see this path you want us to take. There’s no harm in having a devil’s advocate right now before you pitch it to the others.”
Aiden sighed and pushed himself up from the bed, summoning the map from his storage space. Ted was right, there was no harm.
Still, all he wanted to do was sleep.