Chapter 243: Unforeseen developments

It took them an entire week to reach the next town. The good news was that bandits never bothered them anymore, probably thanks to Elaine being in the group. Nothing like a Green to ward lowlifes off. Then again, Micky might have preferred to have a snack or two step forward of their own volition…

Either way, it had been a fruitful few days, despite the detour. Percy gradually filled his jar up with powder, one gemstone at a time. He now had more than enough to reforge his armour – after getting some well-deserved rest of course.

He even convinced the crow to let him play around with his ice mana for a couple hours, offering him a chance to do the same with his own affinities in return. Accessing each other’s cores from afar presented an additional layer of difficulty, on top of just familiarizing themselves with the new mana types. It was still a work in progress, but Percy hoped they could eventually learn a couple of combination spells.

‘It’ll make for quite a trump card if we can get it to work. In some ways, it’ll be like having four cores…’

The clone also returned about two days in. Percy sent three more clones since, this time ‘instructing’ each of them to help him practice his Soul Resonance spell. Sadly, the first was a complete dud in that regard. Trying to establish a connection with the main body caused him to return to Remior ahead of time by accident. It was a tricky business, as the clones had to strengthen the cord before wandering too far. Unfortunately, doing so also strengthened the force pulling them home.

Luckily, the next clone did a little better. He managed to reinforce the connection without getting dragged back in the process. He even possessed a horse-like beast on some alien world while communicating with Percy. Admittedly, it required a lot of effort from both of them to maintain the link – probably due to the extreme distances involved. Neither of them could do much else, or the cord would shrink back to its original shape without any way for them to restore it.

‘I guess we’ll just have to practice with it until it becomes second nature…’

It wouldn’t be his first spell that started off difficult to use, only to get easier with training. Either way, this was proof of concept that Soul Resonance would help him in the long run. His bloodline was the source of all his strength, so any improvements to his clones’ abilities were by far the most important.

At any rate, Percy tried something special with the third and final clone. They did manage to empower their connection at first, and he tried to take advantage of that to direct the clone to a specific place. Sadly, the connection got severed soon afterwards, probably because the clone wandered a bit too far. Percy had no idea if he’d reached his intended destination, but the clone was still out three days later, so he was confident he’d found

something

interesting, at least.

Suffice to say, the whole group was completely exhausted as they reached the town – Percy even more so than the others. He and Nesha were the first to enter the inn as they were in dire need of some shut eye. Once again, Elaine volunteered to stay in the outskirts with Micky. Percy hated that his cousin always drew the short end of the stick, but it couldn’t be helped. Her higher grade meant she could handle a lot more than them before reaching her breaking point.

***

‘Percy, wake up!’

Micky cawed through the cord.

Percy groaned, but he didn’t let his complaints leak back to his familiar. He was the one who’d asked the bird to wake him up after sleeping for a few hours, so that he could take over Elaine’s post. He knew he would have slept for over a day if left alone.

Gently lifting Nesha’s arm from his chest, he got up as slowly as he could, trying not to disturb her. His brain still throbbed rather painfully, his feet feeling like mush. He ignored all that, tossing his clothes back on. He was about to leave the room, when his girlfriend spoke.

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“Ugh… how long have we slept?” she asked in a raspy voice.

He sighed. Apparently, he’d woken her up, despite his efforts not to.

“Three hours? Maybe four?” he guessed, looking out of the window.

She remained silent for a second, letting the words sink in.

“…alright. I’ll go check out the marketplace before it closes for the night. Maybe we’ll get luckier this time.”

Percy nodded. They were already cutting it close. It had been early in the afternoon when they arrived, so she’d have to go now. That said, he didn’t really expect her to find any deattunement ingredients, as those were much rarer outside the Guild. And there was a good reason for that too.

Pacification reagents like pale carrots, moonflower petals and crystal tulips typically contained ice mana. This was how they delayed the activation rate of other ingredients. It also meant they had several uses outside alchemy, making for excellent coolants to preserve food with, or to alleviate heat during the summer. This was why Percy had found a few in his family’s warehouse and why they’d been able to buy some from the last town too.

When it came to deattunement, however, their odds weren’t great. Especially considering the sheer volume of ingredients that they required to consistently meet their elixir needs.

‘Oh well… I suppose we don’t lose much by checking…’

The two left the inn, walking to the town square together. The idea was for him to accompany Nesha there before leaving the town. Fate had other plans for them, however…

Once more, they encountered a lot of atypical commotion, much like the last town. Unlike before, they didn’t catch sight of the Divine Root’s men directly, though they did hear some curious whispers.

“Is there really a Holy Child in our town?” one of the townsfolk asked.

“He just got here, about an hour ago.” another replied.

“Are you sure you didn’t mistake a regular noble?”

“No way man! Do you think I’m an idiot? He’s a young boy – younger than your son.

At Blue.

And he has five guards from the Divine Root with him.”

“Again?! Seriously?!” Nesha asked, her features twisting into a grimace.

Percy turned to Nesha, giving her an odd look.

“I thought you said they are headed to the Thirsty Valley!”

“

They

are!

” she insisted. “We’ve heard it from multiple sources! Most of them heard it directly from them!”

Percy frowned. This made no sense whatsoever. They’d deliberately strayed off-course to avoid them. Why would anyone travelling to the Thirsty Valley pass through here? It was objectively a horrible route, adding multiple weeks to the journey.

Nesha appeared just as perplexed as him, not having a good explanation. Thinking of something, she gasped.

“Do you think they’re here for us? Maybe somebody recognized us from the posters.”

It wasn’t impossible. There was only so much a beard and a pair of glowing eyes could do to mask one’s appearance. Then again, there were several problems with this idea too.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We stood right in front of them in the previous town, but nobody moved to arrest us. One of them even glanced at me. And why would they send a Holy Child after us? Has the Divine Root run out of people?”

“Maybe the Holy Child is the only karma user they could find?” Nesha offered an explanation.

But Percy shook his head.

“I checked all their cores. He has a mud affinity. The others are all common.”

Nesha raised an eyebrow.

“Either way, this can’t be a coincidence. We intentionally steered clear of them, and here they are.”

“You’re right.” he nodded. “There’s definitely something fishy going on. Here’s what we’ll do…”

***

After explaining his plan to Nesha, he reached out to Micky and Elaine, bringing them up to speed. The idea was for them to leave quietly during the night, much like before. However, they’d do a couple of things differently this time.

They would head the opposite way to their destination. If the Holy Child chased them again, they would know for certain they were being followed. Furthermore, they wouldn’t travel together this time. The plan was to split up into two groups. They’d still meet up in Goldenfield town, but they’d approach from different directions.

Micky and Elaine would do so from the west, while Percy and Nesha would enter from the east. This way, the groups would still be able to communicate via the ethereal cord, and they could also narrow down the Holy Child’s target, depending on which group they ended up chasing.

“I could have used some sleep…” Elaine smiled wryly. In the end, she never got to rest.

Sighing, Percy handed her half a dozen healing potions from his amulet. He generally avoided wasting them unless it was an emergency, but they might help a little given the circumstances. It wasn’t perfect – her grade would greatly mute the potions’ effects. Not to mention that life mana alone couldn’t do much about her mental fatigue. Still, it might keep her going for a couple more days.

The two groups bid each other farewell, leaving in opposite directions. Perhaps this really was just one big coincidence and Percy was being paranoid.

But his gut told him they wouldn’t be this lucky…