***
Blinking Her eyes open, Achlys blankly stared down at Xenos.
She did so for a while, a multitude of thoughts going through her head.
Only after a few minutes had passed did something happen.
A shift was felt.
His Soul…
Ding!
It had changed.
—
╔═════════════════╗
║New Soul Glyph Acquired!║
╚═════════════════╝
[Dealer]
[Description: You are Hephaestus's heir... each Rune could be your Joker. A Dealer, a Deck Builder, a Jester, who can do what all cannot, changing the very makeup of your Runes, better synergizing them with your truth.]
[Requirements: Receive Achlys's... Favor.]
[You Have Stepped Closer To Divinity.]
—
Xenos bowed slowly.
"Thank you, Goddess Achlys."
She stayed silent for a few moments longer, before something of Her death suddenly enveloped him.
"Don't come here ever again."
He, in a mere fraction, found himself out of the valley and by the Acheron River once more.
Xenos touched his neck, making sure that it was intact, and then nodded a few times.
'I'd better stop taking advantage of Gods.'
Yeah, that'd be a smart idea... yeah.
Too bad he wasn't going to stick to it, something that Eris knew full well.
She didn't know what Achlys saw in his memories, but She was sure of one thing.
No way She would ask... She knew better than to, and besides, She respected his privacy, happy enough with what was revealed.
So for now, Eris stayed out of it, allowing Xenos to focus on where he was going to go next, as that was what all of this had led to.
Soon, Xenos was going to be making his debut in the Pluto Academy, so he needed to be prepared.
All he currently had was Luck after all, and that didn't do much when faced with a ball of fire... or ten.
That meant that he had to get some muscle on his bones...
He had to GRIND!
And sure enough, he knew exactly the best place for that:
A lush jungle filled with Cercopes, or in other words, monkeys!
Thankfully, it wasn't far, so it wouldn't take long for him to get there.
What was going to be difficult, however, was getting in, as it was a land belonging to another of their vassal Houses.
Of course, he could just reveal himself and demand entry, but that would just get him caught, as his father had undoubtedly sent out word for his capture to every Main House and Lower House in the area.
So Xenos would have to somehow sneak past the patrols and cut his way into the jungle; only then would he be safe...
Well, safe from other Runebearers, the monkeys were dangerous, though mostly annoying, as they always knew how to kite players.
To kill them effectively, one had to follow a certain strategy, and so, on the way there, he repeated this 'strategy' over and over.
A step forward, a stab to feint, then another step forward and an actual, fully extended stab, ingraining it into his body.
Repetition was muscle memory's love language.
HE WOULD NOT MESS UP AGAIN.
...
Hours later, Xenos, still by the river, had his eyes on something else.
Up ahead, past the treeline, was a wide clearing, a large field of grass stretching out.
Far, far beyond that, he could see the faint shadow of walls and rooftops... a manor.
'Ha… nailed it.'
He scratched his chin, satisfied.
Though his memory wasn't all that great, he still managed to find himself in the right place from familiarity alone, but of course, the moment he thought so, he heard it...
Crunch.
Feet crushing the grass off to the left.
His smile returned, and his heart began to drum quickly.
Without hesitation, he dropped flat into the bushes, chest pressed to the earth, letting the branches and dirt cover him.
A patrol came into view, and with it came the jangle of steel.
Yeah, these were the guards he was expecting.
Xenos could not have them spot him.
So he stayed there, dug in, watching them go past.
His chest pounded hard, yes, though that wasn't nervousness but enjoyment.
When they were gone, Xenos rose slowly, brushing a leaf off his cheek.
Stepping forward a little, he crouched by the path they'd left behind and squinted at the ground.
The prints in the mud gave their rotation away.
"Fifteen…"
He counted, lips moving silently.
"Maybe more."
His grin tilted further up as he scanned his immediate surroundings.
If each patrol had about five Runebearers, that meant at least there were three patrols for this stretch alone, and from the looks of it, one group remained before him in the forest.
"Alright… good to know."
Xenos nodded once at the mud, like it had given him advice, and slipped back into the green.
He kept himself low, walking carefully, feet kissing the earth with barely any sound.
Each step was slow, his focus on his ears, hunting for the smallest noise.
Rushing here was a death sentence; patience here was survival.
Minutes dragged by until finally—
Crunch, crunch, crunch...
He heard footsteps again, now off to his right, thirty meters or so, just past a row of trees.
Unfortunately, they were getting closer, and that meant they'd take the path next to him.
'I would've gone off if I just knew my way around...'
Grumbling, Xenos dropped flat again, smearing mud all over his dark clothes.
He blended into the ground and slowed his breathing until even he had trouble believing he was there, becoming part of the dirt.
Oblivious to his presence, the guards walked right past, and though one man's boot sank close, so close Xenos could have reached out and grabbed his ankle, he still wasn't detected—
Thud!
'Ah...'
A satchel slipped from a guard's belt...
It hit the ground right next to him.
"Fuckin—got to get a new one."
The guard cursed under his breath, bending down to pick it up.
Xenos froze, heart hammering more than ever, watching the man kneel so near that they almost met eyes for the briefest of heartbeats.
In that 'heartbeat' Xenos could see the man's face: tired, alert, that small, human tilt of a person who's seen enough to be careful and not enough to be suspicious of a mud pile pretending to be noble trash.
Hand on his sword, Xenos's muscles flexed, preparing himself to lunge, believing that this was it.
"I'm too old for this shit."
But then, thankfully, the man stood back up, turned, and walked away.
Yeah... he didn't notice, unknowingly escaping a stab to the neck.
Xenos might've been weak, but he wasn't going to get captured.
He knew full well what end awaited him then.
And yes, he didn't mind blood on his hands.
...It wasn't like it was going to be a first.
Xenos stayed still until the sound of boots faded; only then did he breathe.
'Eris almost screwed me over with that one.'
He held no doubt that Calamity was what nearly did him over... still, he didn't blame Her; this was what he signed up for.
***
Eris, who, of course, watched what happened, lowered Her head.
Xenos was right. She was the reason that happened and would be the reason for many more unlucky events like it, worse events, much, much worse...
That was how Her Runebearers lived, under constant Calamity, and she could do nothing about it; that was just what She was, the Goddess of strife and discord.
'I'm sorry.'
***
'I'm sorry.'
Letting out a small chuckle, Xenos shook his head, then pushed himself back up again.
'Don't worry about it... I knew what I was getting into when I kneeled to you.'
She said nothing more after that, nor did he, focusing on the now, knowing that he'd get used to this sooner rather than later.
"Alright… that's enough sneaking."
He dusted his hands and picked up his pace.
"Slow means death."
Sure, there could still be more patrols ahead, but the patrols behind him would be circling back soon, and if he kept crawling, they'd just walk straight into him again.
It was better to risk it and cut quickly through.
So he, after demudding himself, moved faster, slipping through the trees, ducking under branches, and weaving through the thick green.
His body flowed surprisingly easily, perhaps due to the adrenaline pumping in his veins; his mind locked on the only goal: get inside.
And before he realized it, he was there...
The inner sector of the jungle.
Almost immediately, his eyes caught movement.
Up in the branches, stretched out lazily as if it owned the place, sat a Cercopes.
A large monkey, its tail swaying like it was waving hello, mocking him.
Xenos stopped and planted his feet.
He raised his blade with both hands, settling into a stance, his gray eyes becoming alive.
"I'll have you go extinct~."