The Search for Knowledge - Chapter 11

Upon, almost literally, stumbling into the room full of empty alcohol bottles, Kara gave the two unconscious figures of her party a look of contempt. So deep, in fact, that someone with a powerful sixth sense would feel threatened, in fact. She then walked up to Rox, who was laying on his side among the empty bottles snoring, then kicked him without mercy in the stomach. His body flew a few feet until he hit the bedpost and curled into a ball, clutching where he was kicked.

"What the hell, Kara? How did you know I was faking it?!" He stood up, still holding his stomach and resisting the urge to vomit everything he drank. However, he did not seem to be injured at all, nor did he seem to be drunk. Honestly, she couldn't even be surprised about his nonsense anymore.

After a moment, Kara felt an intense pain in her foot, as if she had just kicked a coffee table. She immediately lifted her foot and grabbed it in pain, hopping around on one foot, "Ouch! What the hell is your body made of?!" She gradually calmed down as the pain subsided while Rox laughed at her.

"Flesh, same as yours. Mine is just a bit more trained, I'd say." He sat down on his bed with a glass of whiskey that he had not finished earlier. After finishing the whole thing in one go, he sighed out loudly, "So what do you want, Princess? How'd things go with Chiron?" His tone that of someone who clearly did not want to be woken up, but was now awake whether they liked it or not.

Once she had calmed down, she sat down on the chair in his room after navigating around countless bottles, jugs, and an elf girl that was lying spread-eagle on the ground snoring with a smile on her face. "Well, I originally wanted to discuss what Feera found about the Aetherous, but I'll settle for discussing what I learned of seals. I only learned a few new things, though."

Kara then explained to Rox the new information she had learned from Chiron and the library. What she had learned seemed to shed light to what she already knew . The first, possibly the most important new piece, was that the number of elements in a seal also equals the number of people involved in the sealing ritual. A single person can only put one element into a seal, so a multi-element layered barrier with seven elements would have had seven people involved in the ritual to mix their elements in. She also found out that to seal a living creature, the people involved in the ritual had to have magical power at least somewhat in the same range as the thing they were sealing when their energies are combined. So, to seal a powerful being, multiple people would be required even for a single element.

The last thing that she learned was that if someone had deciphered the seal, but could not undo the seal entirely due to the conditions, they could temporarily break it for a very brief time with large physical repercussions. Even under that condition death was guaranteed unless the seal were weakened because of other circumstances. However, she left this out, since Rox would obviously know about this already. He had already displayed this exact ability to her at the arena, although she was not quite sure about the process of how to do it. She assumed that the way it was done would change depending on the strength, type, and conditions of a seal. Even if it didn't, that particular bit of information did not concern her. However, she did want to ask him one thing.

"I understand from our earlier conversation that you have your reasons for not telling me about your seal. I won't ask you about that, but I do want to ask about something else." She paused and took a deep breath. For some reason, asking a simple question made her feel tense, it wasn't even the kind of question that should cause stress. Eventually, she spat it out. "Why did my intelligence skill level up to three when you elaborated on the source of void magic?"

For the first time since she met him, she thought she saw genuine surprise cross his face. He made no attempt to hide it, but the surprise quickly turned to something else. "Dammit." He cursed under his breath while averting his eyes, then gave an exasperated sigh as he spoke to no one in particular. "I suppose that means there are no masters of void magic around. That's not so surprising if I think about it, it's extremely rare except in my family after all." He then looked back at her and continued speaking, this time to her, "Back when I was guard captain is was rare knowledge told to those who were expected to reach the top of void magic. The knowledge is hidden from the public to prevent people from trying to access the void through other magics since it is theoretically possible with magic of similar nature. It was known to the heads of the families as well, however that doesn't seem to be true anymore."

Kara paid close attention to his words, then produced a sheet of paper out from a bag that she had on her and handed it to him. After examining it, he could see it was a magical contract similar to the one he had entered into during their first encounter. "This is a contract revision. I will not force you to sign it since it is much heavier than the old one. If you choose not to, I will tear this one in half and we shall maintain the old one. Not that I've taught you at all, or that I even could." Her tone was quite serious and her eyes looked at him with a strong will behind them. Rox was surprised that Kara was able to admit that she would be unable to teach him, showing that she had humbled herself a bit since they had met. She did not seem like the same arrogant girl from when they left the city a mere week or so ago. "It states that rather than me being the teacher, you will assume the position. You'll get a pay raise of five gold, and upon completion of our research endeavor, would become my personal bodyguard for the remainder of my life. You would essentially live as my partner."

Rox was dumbfounded. He could not fathom what made her ask something so extreme of a man she had just met, let alone had kept so much hidden from her. Not to mention he would not even tell her what he was hiding, even when she had found out about aspects of his life he had kept secret. This went far beyond being short-sighted, this was an insane thing to ask someone she barely knew. He spoke with a raised voice as if questioning her sanity, "Are you serious right now? Do you have any idea how irresponsible this is? You know nothing about me!"

"I know that you are inherently a decent person. I also know that you are far more powerful than most people that I, the successor of the Aqua Family, have met in my life. I have met every head of every family, including your own, and several barrier mages. I am confident that you would trounce nearly all of them with the exception of only a few, such as the barrier mage of Hyperia. You are far more capable than Sheeron will ever be, simply put, I want your talent and abilities to be used as my knight so I can fulfill my ambitions." She spoke unerringly, making it clear that she was serious and had given this quite a bit of thought. Rox suspected that she had probably had some of these ideas using her newly leveled ability and wondered just how much she had calculated. Perhaps this was not as short-sighted as he had first thought. A single level in a skill for magic skills has a tangible difference, however, one level difference for a physical ability was a large leap. A level two strength could rarely ever defeat a level three in a head-on fight and would never win in outright power output, no matter how strong the person's base level was.

Rox mulled over her offer a bit, stroking his chin despite having no facial hair to speak of. "What's in it for me? I know you said I would get a pay raise of five gold, but that is paltry compared to dedicating myself to you for the rest of your lifespan. It's not worth it. Besides, I don't even know what your ambitions are. I'm not going to support them blindly." He spoke pessimistically to her, but not outright rejecting her offer yet.

She pondered for a moment, then pressed her index finger to the top of the contract. The letters of the contract projected into the air for a moment as she edited the writing for a few seconds, then took her finger off. She then looked him in the eyes once more and began to try once again convincing him. "You're right. Per the contract, once our research is over and you become my knight you will get a pay raise. Right now, with the new contract, you would be making one-hundred-fifteen gold. However, once you take over as my sole protector and partner, your pay would rise to two-hundred gold pieces." She took his hands in hers, getting caught up in her own passion for trying to convince him, and held them up while squeezing. "As for my ambitions, there are two. I want to find a way for the mortal races to be able to defend ourselves from the gods. Without having to rely on the mediator gods." Kara seemed to realize that she was holding his hands while speaking and hurriedly put them down, averting her eyes while hiding a blush. "The second ambition, I'll keep to myself. It's more of a personal goal than an ambition. You won't need to help me with that." She said sheepishly, which was quite unlike the strong-willed woman he had seen until this moment. For a moment, he saw her as the young girl she was.

For the first time, Rox gave the proposal legitimate consideration. Yes, they had just met. However, in the short time he had known her, the only aspect he disliked about her was her arrogance. Which, since they had met, had already decreased enough for her to respect him as an equal, if not a superior. He was not concerned much about the money, although this offer would set him up for life by the end of the contract. That much money would be difficult to spend even during the long life of an elf. The most important part though, was her main ambition. It was a noble endeavor, and she certainly had the potential to fulfill it. Her research into the Aetherous and sealing magic now made sense. Sealing magic was the only way, known to mortals, to stop rampaging gods or other powerful creatures beyond their combat capability. Not to mention that the Aetherous are the only beings known to have ever opposed the gods with any kind of success, even to the point of killing some of the gods permanently.

Rox hesitated to respond. He was caught, honestly, the offer was not a bad one and he genuinely wanted to help such a hopeful ambition come to fruition. However, he could not get over that they had only met roughly a week ago. Something about signing away seventy to ninety years of his life to this kind-hearted half-elf after only a week felt wrong.

After what seemed like ages he finally spoke, "I will not say no." he said indecisively. "However, I would like more time to think about it. Let us complete our research together first, then I will answer you."

His answer was reasonable, and not a definitive rejection. Despite that, Kara still looked crestfallen upon hearing it. She rolled up the contract carefully, as if trying to avoid damaging it, and put it back into her pack. "I understand." She said like a child denied candy, "I will endeavor to show you that putting faith in me would not be a waste of time."

It seemed that she still did not actually understand. However, he didn't feel like explaining his intent any further. She was able to accept that he would answer her later, that was what mattered. "I feel like every time you talk to me, you just end up trying to get information out of me. Why can't it ever just be, 'Hey Rox, how are you today? Boy, you sure are handsome.'" He said in a lighthearted tone.

Unexpectedly, Kara blushed and cutely tried to hide her face. For a moment, Rox thought he had found a way to tease her for some good reactions. That she might just be a socially awkward girl or something to that effect. That idea was dashed as she looked at him with an intense look of contempt for the second time that night. "If I didn't know I would break my hand punching you, I'd do it." She stated with open hostility dripping from her very words.

"Yeah," He said with a wry smile, "I would expect no less from you."