Roland's brows furrowed. He stomped forward quickly before the chubby boy was given a chance to run away. He popped up from the left side and swiftly blocked the youth from escaping. Leurgh looked as though he had seen a ghost, Stammering in audible things while drenched in sweat, as Roland imagined he would be.
"Listen, Lurg or Lardo, whatever you said your name was."
Roland gathered the boy's collar and pressed his back against the wall.
"Who the hell scared you enough into trapping me in a dungeon with a damn dragon? Go on! Spit it out!"
He raised his voice and caught the attention of the few bystanders. The chubby lad darted his eyes all over the place, trying to find the words choked in his throat.
"Pl-pl-please…forgive me-forgive me I had no choice."
"Everyone has choices. Now try again. I just need a name. I won't even care to tell them I got my answers from you? "Roland insisted
The chubby boy could only contain so much and was half sputtering nonsense between forming some form of coherent sentences.
"I…I didn't…Ahem…L-lord G-g-gove-goven."
'Goven, who the hell is that...Omega?'
{Goven Cloud – son of Lord Almos, the son of Patriarch Soma.} The ai chip resounded in his mind.
Roland nodded with a knowing look of clarity appearing across his soft features.
'Ah another cousin of mine.'
He had already forgotten about the other two boys he was yet to meet. But sending someone to a dungeon to meet your dragon as a greeting was up there with the poison attempt and Alyssa Cloud freezing half of his arm.
A sinister cold wind blew through his mind. The sheer audacity of it all was becoming difficult to ignore.
"And so yet another enemy has appeared." He felt Leurgh shiver uncomfortably beneath his hold.
"Is…everything o-o-ok? Sir?" The frail boy asked him
'Sir?'
Roland woke up from his cold daze and smiled away the dark light from his eyes.
"Where can I find Goven Cloud?" He demanded with a smile.
"Ehh…gulps. He should be at the main hall, b-by now."
Roland shook his head and released the anxiety-riddled boy. He patted his clothes down and creased a boyish smile.
"Good, that's all. Remember, next time you try this again, I'll personally beat you within an inch of your life. You're free to go." He stepped aside, parting the way for Leurgh to scurry away on his heels.
Roland watched the boy zigzagging with an impressive spryness between the herds of people.
.
"He's faster than he looks."
Roland quickly resumed his awareness. He felt somewhat light around his heels, and his brow quickly raced upwards once he realised. Ah, the tabby cat was gone.
"Hm? Omega, where did little furry tail go?"
{Host wasn't aware. The irregular, agile creature escaped your attention quite a while ago}
Roland felt disappointed hearing that; surprisingly, he looked forward to spending time with the little furry feline.
'It sure beats the boring and perhaps dangerous features planned for today,' he thought. Still, Roland wasn't looking forward to anything planned for the rest of the day.
Instead, he almost instinctively followed the ascending red steps and noticed a fussy white tail brushing past the crowds. Roland flinched as a breath of elation welled through him, forcing him into swiftly darting up the staircase in chase.
Once he reached the top floor, he scanned the wide hallway again in wonder. Catching no more signs of the nimble feline.
'Tsk! Looks like he got away again!'
It was a miracle he even spotted the thing; finding a cat in this ruckus wouldn't be easy. Roland rubbed his chin in deep thought, and then an idea appeared in his ever-flowing mind.
With the vast improvements in his mental capacity and his iron-ranked body, there was room to perform things he couldn't usually do before. With all the books he had consumed and studied these past few weeks. Roland discovered a prevalent theme with learning abilities and what this world called. Natural Learned Abilities.
The idea that over-learning a specific skill would naturally lead to its mastery wasn't new, since Roland considered learning most skills to have a similar framework behind them. But the second way of learning skills he recalled, opened an intriguing space of possibilities. The idea that a Natural learned ability can occur by the need of a dire situation.
Roland closed his eyes and focused his breathing. Just like the Willow had taught him, there was a way to breathe that benefited the body. He mentally practised this several times but only felt ready to perform the test now.
Roland's breathing continued flowing in steady steps. A warm current appeared beneath his skin. He could actively feel several warm veins crawling around his body. He didn't hate the feeling. It fell in line with the peaceful state he drowned his body in. Roland could feel the fragile wisps of Ki struggling to keep the several splints of fire alive. His sight was his main point of focus. So he carefully drew some Ki to the very back of his eyes.
Roland exhaled a cool breath and envisioned a world where his awareness had evolved—a world where clarity and silence melted into one. Since he had achieved an iron-ranked body, his senses had gradually changed. He gently opened his eyes, and a soft gasp broke free as he awoke into a world of luminous colours and dancing bright particles.
The majority of his view was filled with blue and grey particles, with smoky hues of violet and gold floating in areas. Roland couldn't say anything; he simply stared and observed in awe.
{Host has attained a heightened state of awareness. As one's body grows and becomes stronger. It's attuned to accomplishing such feats. Using pure Ki, your organs will adapt and evolve to accommodate changes. This temporary view is one of the great examples of this phenomenon}
Roland heckled with childish laughter. All he ever wanted to do in his entire life was make world-changing discoveries like this. There was always a unique pleasure he derived from watching his mind bend the world to his will. Compared to the rigid world he knew before, this world seemed to suit his tastes, which narrow-minded people had tried to keep contained in a box.
With an almost crazed glare into the distance, Roland observed how much power he could hold in this frighteningly bizarre world. His feet moved on instinct, and he cautiously navigated himself through the world of colours.
All these human bodies walking around were vessels filled with light and stars. It was a strange attraction for him, a love of life he had once thought was all lost.
'When did I stop dreaming of things?' He wondered.
Roland slipped soundly through the bodies. Voices passing were like smoke to his ears amongst the blue and grey. Roland caught a lone violet mist rising between the sea of blue velveteen smoke. His eyes honed straight for the thread of violet standing alone. The fog moved like a fairy against the waves, almost taunting Roland to catch it. His feet shuffled quickly, and his body shimmered like a ghost expertly moving through the crowd.
If Roland had been in his full sense of mind, he might have realised he had perfected the same foot technique his death knight had used to beat him up on several occasions.
The wisp zipped left suddenly, and Roland unconsciously tailed it. He arrived at the face of a closed wooden door. Barring any light through it. He slowly twisted the handle and entered. The skies were cloudy grey, but he shifted his gaze to the source of the violet light.
"Ah, found you."
The little tabby cat turned around and meowed softly. Roland closed his eyes again; once they reopened, his view returned to normal, and the colours were all gone.
This room was likely one of the rooms the servants slept in. It was a lot smaller than his own. His eyes fell against the table stand, where he met thin scrolls and a black dagger with a strange golden talent etched against the metals. Roland couldn't stop staring at the talent for some odd reason. Why was that? A deep frown began to slowly crease between his brows. Fragments of memories poured into his mind, and he replayed a certain evening when a dagger was plunged into his body repeatedly.
'But what's that doing here?' It answered one of his questions, and the second one slowly unveiled itself.
"Meow?"
Roland looked down to find the cat pulling him by the end of his loose laces. He followed its movements, and it ended up at a large trunk sealed in the corner. Roland moved towards it, and after briefly inspecting the trunk, he carefully pried it open.
The heavy trunk lid fell backwards, revealing a strange sight within.
"Whoah" Roland exclaimed, scanning over the horde of thick blue crystals pilled into the trunk. Roland needed a moment to make sure he was seeing this. He curiously picked one up and held it before his eyes to see. Its smooth glassed surface shimmered like water. It felt strange, but he felt this wasn't simply a beautiful crystal.
Roland hadn't paid any attention, but the cat had climbed into the trunk and began doing something Roland hadn't expected it to do.
*Crunch-Crunch* "Nom-nom-nom-nom-gulp" "nyash-" *crunch*
"Nom-nom-gulp-nom-nom-nom."
"You're eating…the crystals?" He said bemusingly as he watched on idly.
Roland could only fold his arms when he arrived at the conclusion that this was no ordinary cat.
He was still lost in awe of the entire spectacle. But maybe this was a win for him…somehow.
"First, we should give you a name."
His words seemed to have been heard. The cat immediately stopped what it was doing and cocked a single brow towards him.
Roland snapped his fingers as he thought of something.
"How about…Crystal belly? Or hard tooth? No- no, that sounds lame…err-golden b-b-boy." He uttered unconvincing to himself.
When he looked towards the cat for its approval, it visibly shook its head with a mild look of disgust drawn against it.
Roland heard the floorboards creek suddenly behind him. Before he could turn around to explain himself. A loud voice erupted ringing his eardrums.
"Where the hell have you been Sir Mynx! Huuuh-is that…are-are-are... you eating-grrr." The little lady in blue twisted towards a stunned Roland and aggressively pointed between his eyes.
She wore a tall wizard hat, dark robes, and a skirt. Roland was a lot taller than her, but he had this weird feeling he was staring at an aunt.
"You scoundrel! Sir Mynx a lot isn't supposed to be eating hard foods right now. Look at him, he's going to ruin his teeth."
Roland looked curiously at what was obviously not a normal cat. The feline was sprawled lazily on top of the pile of blue crystals, eating them away without a care in the world.
With each effortless chomp into the hard exterior he could hear the girl whimpering.
"I'd say him swallowing that many shards can't be good for his stomach, no?" Roland chimed in, smoothing his chin.
The girl's ire had drifted away; she suddenly looked more tired than anything.
"Sigh, it's actually the best food for someone like Sir Mynx a lot. The natural energy resource from a blue-grade crystal is good for mana. Which is what Sir Mynx a lot is 60% made out of…"
Roland blinked a few times and was left flabbergasted at that bizarre news share.
'Crystals filled with mana? And wait…Sir Mynx a what?'
{Sir Mynx a lot, my Host} corrected Omega in his thoughts.
"Since when did you start correcting me?" Roland said out loud.
"Huh-correcting you? What are you talking about?" The shirt girl replied with a questioning look.
Swiftly understanding what had just been done, Roland awkwardly scratched the back of his head and laughed it off.
"Apologies, I talk to myself sometimes. Perfectly normal. Everyone does it sometimes. I even heard in a recent study that 96% of people do it, and many psychologists consider self-talk to be a very normal function of human behaviour …he-heh…y-you know."
She stared deep into his eyes with an expressionless look. Once she turned away, she addressed the cat whilst pulling out what Roland noticed was a slender wand.
'Crap not this again.' He cursed, taking a step away from her.