Chapter 272: Day 543 (2) – A Cursed Injury
That was the worst request he could have asked of me. I considered it carefully though. “And what would you have me do, if you can tell me?” I asked.
“I can easily tell you, so you can weigh the risk. To charge straight into a level 4 zone and believe you can win an impossible fight. Then win it without any help or guidance,” the Astrologer said.
“That sounds stupid and pointless, but clearly there is a reason, again, one you don’t want to tell me, because of reasons you don’t want to explain since explaining will hurt me in some way,” I replied.
“Knowledge can both be a blessing and a curse as I have discovered. If I could unlearn things, I would. But that is not the case. Instead, you must trust me and go beyond.” I shook my head and the Astrologer let out a sigh. “If you will not sacrifice, then why should I? The harder and longer path is your choice, but so be it.”
“Tell me, Michael trusts me, and I can make the determination if he should know or not,” Clarissa said, and I considered the offer. The Astrologer’s hooded head turned towards me.
“It is possible, but knowing what I know, will ruin you, Clarissa. Perhaps you will find the strength to overcome the setback you will suffer, but even my Valkyries, were never able to overcome the knowledge once known,” the Astrologer said.
“I...Michael, what do you think?” Clarissa asked me and I wasn’t sure.
“What is wrong with Naran?” I asked another question since I needed to think about this issue with forbidden knowledge some more. “You mentioned the wound is cursed and you can fix it. Why can’t I fix it using crafting crystals? What exactly is a curse?” The Astrologer appeared content with going along with my change in topic.The roots of this story extend from novell bìn origin.
“A free lesson then. Consider it a sign of my sincerity that I will answer these questions that are quite valuable. Energy is thought given form. Or form given thought. The difference between the two is interchangeable. Not all thoughts are tangible, just like not all physical forms are tangible. There exists at least two separate layers of this world that we reside in currently.”
“Those void zones are physical gaps between layers. I can’t say what would constitute a higher or lower layer, probably the amount of energy, with the lower layers having more. A human cannot cross this boundary and live. The Ritualist used a technique of forcing his tethers into the higher layer to avoid the basic sensing and disruption techniques. The City Shield draws from the lower layer, flooding the area with a certain form of static. This is what disrupts normal tethers, but struggles to impact higher level tethers, and only impacts their entry points in and out of this layer of energy that we physically are in.”
“For a human being, our energy represents us on this plane of reality. Our physical form and our mind, both conscious and subconscious shapes the energy within us, and the energy within us provides context to various abilities, stats, and skills. This is how a restoration works. It takes the idealized version of ourselves, that has been shaped by our concepts and creates a template.”
“I know you are wondering about pre-existing conditions and why a blind person can regain sight. Or cancer is healed. The simple answer is that the System or Almighty System as you call it, gives a nudge at the start. It has a very good idea of how a human body should work and all restorations initially target this ideal. After that, there is no further help or direction provided.”
“That is why mental illnesses aren’t touched in the slightest beyond fixing the brain tissue itself. The System doesn’t want to limit the range of mental criteria it screens for. I don’t know its end purpose, but it clearly wants a wide range of people here.”
“Now back to what a curse is. If you lose an arm, your energy that makes up you, knows you should have an arm. If someone got a restoration, then lived in the Systemic Lands for over a thousand days after having lost an arm with no further restoration, it would not restore properly. Their energy would slowly shift over time to match their physical reality, with no outside guidance from the System.”
The second option was to have the Astrologer answer my questions and explain everything in detail. But he would not help Naran, and this Divine Empress would have a good chance of acting before I completed whatever plan the Astrologer had cooked up to free himself.
“What about fleeing? To the East Bastion? To escape the Divine Empress?” I asked. The Astrologer shook his head.
“She knows of its existence. You don’t seem to understand. She has only been stopped once. The rebels in her territory amuse her. Some even speculate that the rebellion is led by one of her people to draw out anyone with rebellious thoughts.” That was going full Emperor Palpatine right there.
“A combination of factors keeps her in check, but something will give. Either she will decide to really test me. Fix the cursed damage I did to her. Or advance to a point where her power allows her to ignore any threat. It isn’t a question of if, but when. Back to fleeing, she would sweep across the land once she took control.”
“We could hide in the wilderness and sneak back into the cities?” I suggested.
“That is possible. But she has diviners which will be carefully watching. You would have to live in level 3 or level 4 zones to truly remain hidden. Or a dungeon. All of these things would be discovered in time as she accumulates more and more power.”
“The only counter to her is my main body. Even then it would be a difficult fight that I might not even win. Since there are no more Valkyries to aid me and her power will have only grown.” I frowned at this. It seemed we were in a no-win situation. I didn’t like how the Astrologer was pressuring me to make a choice.
“Now you understand my frustration and exhaustion. I have no more good options. I have only you. To come here and beg while trying to make you understand the scope of the problem that now descends upon us.”
“What about a bomb, or an assassination attempt? I mean we gather up all the crafting crystals we can and just bombard her, if she shows up?” I asked. The Astrologer bent his head down and placed it into both his palms.
“The stupidity. Oh, please help me, the sheer stupidity I must deal with,” he muttered loudly. I looked at Clarissa who shrugged. The Astrologer kept his head buried in his palms as he elaborated on his answer to my idea of bombing this Divine Empress to death.
“You haven’t experienced a true high-level fight. You saw my play fighting with the Ritualist and your fight with him was just kids fooling about. A true high-level fight is a terrifying thing. This is something that cannot be explained right now,” the Astrologer replied, throwing up another roadblock to getting the answers I wanted.
“What about hybrids and drowning her in numbers?” Clarissa asked.
“Again, it is pointless at that level of combat. She fights at a high level 4 if I had to estimate from our last confrontation. Michael here fights at a high level 3. The jump from level 3 to a level 4 fight is not simple. I would estimate that she is now a low level 5 fighter or getting very close to that point. Me, right now, I would consider myself a low level 4 fighter with this projection.” I noticed he didn’t rank his main body.
“But I killed the Ritualist, and you didn’t,” I countered. Why was he looking down on me so much?
“Killed him? You wore him down and trapped him due to his own hubris. Pathetic! Weak! Ignorant! The gap between level 3 and level 4 is greater than you can imagine.” The Astrologer brought his head up and swiped a hand to the side. “Bah! Words are wind. High level combat is more than smacking people and don’t ask.” This again.
