Inside the monastery.
Charles embraced Ekta, one hand caressing her red long hair. As soon as he closed his eyes, his vision turned to a swirling, sand-colored landscape.
He was instantly on guard, frowning, wanting to move, only to discover his consciousness seemed severed from his body, slipping into a deep Dream.
"My child, do not resist. Otherwise, I will not be able to maintain this connection with you."
A warm yet slightly unfamiliar woman's voice echoed. Charles was momentarily confused, then recalled whose voice it was. "Galleon?"
At once, there was a trace of joy in that voice. "I'm glad you still remember my name."
As she spoke, a vast curtain of yellow sand appeared before him. Quickly, the sand gathered into the form of a colossal crocodile, nearly five meters tall and over twenty meters long.
Upon its head grew a pair of thick, curved dragon horns—exactly as Charles had seen Galleon's body at Rockseeker Camp.
Only, that day, he had faced her in a state of madness, and she had seemed terrifying and overwhelming. But now, having recovered her mind, she gazed calmly and kindly at him, her voice gentle and beautiful...
For some reason, Charles suddenly found the giant crocodile's features possessed a strange grace—a certain maternal gentleness.
Ahem. Composure, Charles! He couldn't let himself get carried away!
He pinched himself in secret, fiercely warning his heart: Your sense of beauty is normal—human women are beautiful, you cannot let this wretched fantasy world skew you until you're falling for dragons!
He cautioned himself thus, and ahead, the enormous Earth Dragon Galleon spoke again: "I have come this time to thank you for the help you gave me previously."
As she spoke, she lifted a massive claw. Countless grains of yellow sand swirled up, reforming beneath her claw into an earth-colored glass bead the size of a fist.
"This is my gift of gratitude. Hm… using the terms of your material world, you could call it a 'Supernatural Gift.'" Galleon continued. "As thanks for pulling me back from madness, I hope you will accept it."
As she spoke, the glass bead floated toward him. Charles did not resist, reaching out to touch it—yet in the next instant, the bead melted into a streak of yellow light, which flashed along his fingertip and vanished into his body.
Seeing this, a hint of a smile appeared in Galleon's eyes. "Fortunately, your affinity with it is quite good. In that case, I haven't given you the wrong thing."
Charles clenched his fist; he could vaguely feel an unseen layer of protection around his body. From now on, his resistance to ordinary physical attacks would be greatly increased.
Thinking of this, he looked up and said sincerely to Galleon, "Thank you."
He paused, then continued, "Actually, I have some questions I hoped you could answer for me."
"About the Chthonians beneath the mountains—how much do you know? What is their current state? How should I prepare myself?"
He poured out all his concerns in one breath. Upon hearing this, Galleon's expression grew grave, all gentle smile vanished.
"The Chthonians are mired in deep madness," she said. "Shudde M'ell has already awakened, and is rampaging through the mountains. Your homeland, even the entire material world, is facing destruction."
"I am no longer in the material world, so the only warning I can give you is to mind the earthquakes."
"The time should be in the next few days."
Charles tried to speak, realizing the worst was arriving so soon. He couldn't help but sigh, then pulled himself together and spoke to Galleon from his heart: "Thank you. I'll be careful."
He said the words, but honestly, when facing a rampaging Great Old One, what could a mere mortal do, no matter how careful?
He could only hide within the city and hope the Lady of Blackstaff and Laeral Silverhand herself would work wonders.
"Mhm." Galleon's massive head nodded gently, then her body began to fade. "My strength is already stretched to the limit, child. I hope we meet again in the future."
As she spoke, her form turned nearly fully transparent. The world around began to lose color, and soon, Charles too lost consciousness, sinking into deep Dream.
The next morning.
Charles woke early. As he gazed at the sleeping girl beside him, fragments of last night's Dream slowly returned to his mind.
He hurriedly opened his system, flipped to the attributes page, and saw, sure enough—
Supernatural Gift
You have received the magical blessing of the Earth Elemental Genie named Galleon, gaining the following benefits:
Your Constitution score increases by 1, up to a maximum of 20.
You have learned the spell Hunter's Mark and may cast it freely.
You take reduced damage from nonmagical piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning attacks—damage reduction scaling with your Charisma score.
Seeing this, Charles was thrilled.
Stronger than expected!
A boost to Constitution needs no explanation. Freely casting Hunter's Mark means he would almost never fear magical traps again; as for the last effect, the damage reduction only applies to nonmagical weapons, but magical weapons aren't exactly commonplace anyway!
What's more, the strength scales with Charisma—a stat in which he excelled. With this, Charles would no longer need to fear wild beasts, or even the claws of a hezrou!
Nice!
Delighted, he woke Ekta, then got up to wash and have breakfast.
Yet as he sat in the kitchen, eating slowly, the earth beneath him began to tremble faintly.
The tremor was not severe, but it was enough to make Charles nervous. After all, just last night Galleon had warned him to beware earthquakes.
Fortunately, the shaking soon subsided, lasting less than a minute. Forcing himself to stay calm, Charles finished eating, then stepped outside to see what was happening.
He quickly found that in Liberl Port, news traveled faster than the wind. After just a few steps along the nearby streets, gossip flooded his ears from every direction:
"Did you hear those districts up north had an earthquake? Was this just an aftershock reaching us?"
"Good! Why didn't it shake Mithral District to bits and send those nobles sky-high?"
"Karma—this is all karma! The heavens have eyes—may they crush those rotten bureaucrats and old lords!"
"Sigh, will the aftershocks get worse—destroy our houses, too?"
"I don't care, I don't own a house."
"Hahaha, those who took out loans for their homes are doomed. Looks like there's no future for anyone now!"
...
The residents' conversations were full of biting resentment—a sign that, in this era, all that talk of nobles being "chosen by the gods," of "noble bloodline" coursing through their veins, had basically been worn away.
Listening to the heated debates of those around him, Charles felt a shadow sweep over his heart.
Others might not know the truth, but he'd long understood—the source of this earthquake was the Chthonians!
Shudde M'ell had awakened, its power enough to topple the world. Time had already run out for Blackstaff Tower—and for Laeral Silverhand…
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