Chapter Seventy Seven.

Chapter Seventy Seven: Tied…

Greg had been expecting to be out for a month or two after Morpheus's intervention. As such, he was pleasantly surprised when he woke up to find that only three days had passed according to the healer. It had been a bit jarring to wake up and find himself several feet up in the air with the land rushing past him below. Greg, however, had quickly acclimated as he figured out that they were on top of the tier-two flying vessel that was shaped like an arrowhead. It was this vessel that they had used to ascend the mountain and were now using to return after the wild chase. This vessel barely had a fiftieth of the speed of the tier-three horizon chaser wings. The distance covered by the wings in an hour, had taken this tier-two vessel three days of sixteen hours flying to cover. Looking off in the distance, Greg could see that it would take another hour or two before they reached the foot of the mountain.

Greg couldn't help the bit of regret he felt at having missed almost all of the return trip. He would have loved to see more of this world other than the mountain, even if it was just in passing. However, just rising into a sitting position had been a struggle for him. If his teacher hadn't helped, he would have probably still been on his back. As such, far from being ungrateful, Greg knew that he was lucky to regain consciousness so quickly. Unsurprisingly, letting a literal deity take him over, even if it was for less than a minute, wasn't without a price. Luckily for him, it wasn't anything permanent. According to the healer, both his body and mana pathways had been strained badly. Consequently, he would be in a weakened state for three to four weeks, but with sufficient rest, he would make a full recovery.

It was just Greg and his teacher on the flying vessel. Most of the mana crystals his teacher had were used up in the fight against the abyssal creature. What little had remained, she had given to Olivia to power the horizon chaser wings. His familiar had gone ahead of them back in the direction of the town. After all, in preparation for any kind of danger, Greg had instructed his familiar to place his family under a trance and take them to his teacher's cave where they would be put to sleep. Things had developed unexpectedly, but now that they were resolved, his family had needed to be tended to lest they be left in a magically induced sleep for three days straight. No food for three days is survivable, but the same is not true for water. Three days without water would be lethal to most people and even in those that somehow survived, severe dehydration with all its attendant problems was guaranteed. That they'd had a way of getting to his family before anything happened to them came as an immense relief to Greg. Unfortunately, they'd only had enough mana crystals for one person to make a one-way trip. With his teacher healing him from the worst effects of letting Morpheus take over, Olivia had been the only option.

"You haven't said much since you woke up. What's on your mind?" The silence was broken by his teacher. She should have been at the front of the flying vessel controlling it. At least, that's how Olivia had controlled the vessel while they were ascending the mountain. Yet, somehow, the healer was seated beside him, remotely controlling the thing right from where she sat. Greg suspected that this was the same technique as when her clones drew items from the healer's storage rings without her having to hand them over to them. Turning to regard her, Greg could see clear concern for his well-being in his teacher's eyes. Something that warmed his heart.

With a sigh, Greg didn't hide anything "I need to learn how to kill giants," he stated enigmatically. His teacher arched an eyebrow at him, the unspoken question on her face. "My uncle was a tier-zero mage. The obsidian earthmover was a tier-three creature. And now, an abyssal creature that would have wiped the floor with us if not for the intervention of the being that took me over. It's becoming clear to me that, fairness is a mirage I've been clinging to. There is no rule or reason why the enemies I face will be equal in power to me or weaker. In fact," Greg continued in a darkly amused tone of voice. "Weaker enemies are more likely to try and avoid me. It's the more powerful enemies that will come at me directly. I need to find ways to be able to fight above my tier," he voiced the very thing that had been weighing on his mind since the fight with the abyssal creature.

"You just crushed a tier-five abyssal creature like it was a bug in your hands just days after ascending to the first tier. I don't think you can complain about being unable to take on giants," His teacher countered with an amused smile.

"That's not a feat I can repeat often if I want to live long," Greg replied with a weak smile.

His teacher's brows rose at the declaration before a contemplative look crossed her face. "Tier zero," She muttered.

Greg couldn't help but marvel at how sharp his teacher's mind was. Presented with a vague statement, she had still worked out the crux of the issue almost immediately. "Tier zero," Greg confirmed with a nod. "Every time 'he' takes over, I am burning my life away in exchange for power," he explained.

"How did you even manage to convince such a being to help you?" His teacher asked, clear curiosity in her voice. It was the same question that she had asked Olivia's true self, just framed another way. To garner the attention of one such being as Olivia's true self was already beyond improbable. To have a second even more powerful being not only take notice of you, but actively choose to help you. That was something that left the realm of possibility, and crossed over into fantasy world, and yet, it had actually happened. Her curiosity was understandable.

"If you are asking whether there was a set of steps I undertook to have the being turn their attention to me, the answer is no. I have zero idea why I find myself in the situation I am in. I just know that I am in the unique position of being able to offer assistance that 'he' can get from nowhere else, and in return, he will help me preserve my life until such a time as I am able to offer that help," Greg replied. It was only half true. Greg was aware that the only reason he was in this world to begin with was because of Morpheus's mother. But while this proximally answered the question, it still didn't give any answer as to why he, out of the billions that could have been selected, was the one here.

There was a sigh from his teacher and Greg could tell by the way her shoulders slumped slightly that she had chosen to give up that line of questioning. "You won't like what I'm about to say." Greg couldn't help but stiffen up a little as the last time he'd heard those words, it'd been Olivia asking him to run and leave his teacher to die. Still, he listened. "But there are no shortcuts to power. Every time I have come across those who thought that they'd somehow found one, their path always led to a dead end. Either they'd rushed past setting a firm foundation in pursuit of power, or they'd compromised their bodies, minds or souls by doing something that gave them power now by draining their future potential or some other shortsighted idea."

"You are already far more powerful than probably any first-tier mage that has ever been. To begin with, you are using a new, never-before-seen awakening method that will leave you with the mana capacity of a third-tier mage when we are done in a few months. Secondly, you are a walking armory. Tell me, Roka, how many first-tier mages do you think can pull out tier-three items at the snap of their fingers?" She asked. Greg had unconsciously winced when she said that the awakening method was never before seen remembering Morpheus's words about the ascension method being one that was used in the higher planes. Still, the larger point that his teacher was trying to make wasn't lost on him. "And if nothing else, even if it burns your life away, the option to call down a deity whenever the danger rises too high is one that no other first-tier mage would even dream of having. After all, bad as it may be, a shorter life is worlds apart from dead immediately," She relayed. "It may not feel like it after the last fight, but you are already very powerful, Roka."

"The only flaw in all this is that, apart from the fact that you'll have the mana capacity of a third-tier mage by the time you are done with your awakening, the rest of it is external power. Items are useful, no doubt, but they aren't you Roka. The deity is an indispensable ally to you, but again, the being's power is not yours. Even your mana capacity, big as it will be, won't translate to much if you don't focus on the fundamentals. Mana weaving and control. These are the two things you should focus most of your attention on while you are still in the first tier. Deepening your knowledge of magic is also another aspect of this. What are its principles, and what laws govern the behavior and distribution of mana? What advantages do your school of magic and your particular element enjoy and how can you maximize those? What weaknesses do you have and how can you minimize them? How deep is your understanding of the Arcane tongue and how well can you use it to come up with personal spells?" She listed out.

"In short Roka, just like I started by saying, there are no shortcuts to power. You are going to have to put in every bit of effort that you can into making sure that you have the firmest foundation in magic that you can have before ascending to the next tier. Do this at every tier and eventually, the advantages you amass over time will be enough to crush anyone that stands in your way. But as for a way to cross tiers and fight those at a higher tier than you currently are at, if you find a method that allows you to fight more than one tier above you, then let me know cause I want it as well," She explained, adding the last bit in jest.

There was silence on the flying vessel for a long while as Greg seriously took in what his teacher had just said. On the one hand, it was simple common sense, pay attention to the basics, don't go for quick power cause it might come easy but at a price that he probably wouldn't be willing to pay. Put in the work, and eventually, it'll pay off. In essence, Greg didn't disagree with any of what she'd just said. His only fear was, would fate allow him the time to grow? While he was taking time to ensure he dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's, what would fate send his way next? This time, Greg managed to scrape by, by the skin of his teeth, what about the next time? And the time after that? It reminded him of something he'd heard once in his previous life. To survive, a prey animal has to win every single chase. A predator only has to win once and the game is over for the prey animal. That's what it felt like for Greg. He could win any number of times, but so long as he lost once, it was game over…

***

Greg had been surprised when they neared the town only to see that several more defenses had been put up than had been there during winter. It's only when he saw an armored bear with sharp spikes growing out of it and several tentacles, get decapitated by Olivia, that he understood. Now that there wasn't a source of abyssal mana to keep them attracted to the higher regions of the mountain, the corrupted beasts had spread out and away. Greg had hoped that the explosion had eliminated every single one of them but was clearly not the case. Whatever the abyssal mana had done to the surviving few creatures, it had made them some tough sons of bitches.

Greg had expected that they would land somewhere hidden in town, after all, Olivia was wearing his face while she killed the corrupted bear. It would be rather awkward if a second Roka appeared right at the scene. Heck, it wouldn't be odd if he was taken for a shape-shifter and attacked directly. To his surprise, however, the healer waved her hand causing a haze to appear around the flying vessel even as they continued to ascend the mountain. It didn't take long for Greg to realize that it was an invisibility cloak of some kind as even when some of the townspeople looked up for whatever reason, there was no surprise or recognition in their eyes. They would just continue to go about their day as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Voicing his confusion, Greg had asked why they weren't landing.

His teacher's answer had been simple, "We're still on a dying mountain, Roka. The death of the abyssal creature hasn't changed that."

Greg's eyes had gone wide as he was reminded of the very thing that had started this whole debacle. It was unknown to them just how long the convergence had been open before they discovered it. In all that time, however, it had been pouring out an astronomical amount of abyssal mana into the area around it. Mana that had seeped into and damn near soaked the mountain through. Mana that was also killing the mountain. In another year or two, the whole thing would be a wasteland incapable of supporting life. And what was worse was that it wouldn't just stop at the mountain. Whatever the abyssal mana had done to the mountain had turned it into a diseased thing that would spread out further and further if it wasn't stopped. And so rising past the town, they had flown another three hours to where the site of the convergence had been.

Greg had expected to find a massive crater as a result of the explosion that had greeted the abyssal creature as soon as it crossed over to this side. But while there seemed to indeed be a crater, what Greg hadn't expected was to find it filled almost to the brim with a black, tar-like, oily liquid. Greg looked at his own reflection in the mirror-black surface of the lake. Given how high up the mountain they were and the absence of trees around them, Greg could feel a cold breeze blowing. Yet somehow, there was zero disturbance on the surface of the lake which remained flat and smooth as a mirror. In fact, the only reason they even knew that the black substance was liquid, was because his teacher had tossed a pebble in and they'd watched as it sunk into the lake without producing so much as a ripple on the surface. Some curious part of Greg wanted to reach out and touch the liquid, just to see how it would feel. He, however, didn't need telling to know that it was probably a colossally stupid thing to do. Whatever this liquid was, he was willing to bet an arm and let that it wasn't anything good.

Sending mana to his eyes, Greg was about to activate the appraisal ability. It wasn't that he was that interested in figuring out if the black liquid was worth anything, instead, he was curious to see if the eyes would recognize what it was he was looking at. After all, it would be impossible for the eyes to assign a value to something they'd never encountered before. But as soon as mana reached his eyes, Greg heard Morpheus speak in his mind. 'It's not often that one problem so perfectly solves another,' he said, sounding amused.

If not for the fact that Greg was used to Olivia speaking to him through their mental connection, his reaction wouldn't have been so calm. Now, however, Morpheus was just listed as another voice in his head. Unlike was the case with Olivia who could speak to him at any time, with Morpheus, Greg would first have to send mana to the eyes to open a channel of communication. After all, the seals placed on the eyes by Morpheus's mother were such that they couldn't do anything without Greg's say so. Those same seals had transferred over to Morpheus himself even after he'd been reawakened. If Greg didn't direct mana to his eyes, then Morpheus would just remain quiet, lest the seals activate and punish him.

'What do you mean?' Greg questioned, curiosity evident even in his mental voice.

'What you are looking at isn't a liquid of some kind, it's a living creature,' Morpheus answered him, causing Greg's eyes to go wide even as he took several steps back from the edge of the terrifying lake. They'd just barely beaten one abyssal creature, Greg doubted they'd live through facing another so soon after.

"What is it?" the healer, who'd noticed his strange reaction, asked.

"It… It's alive," Greg stated before relaying to his teacher what Morpheus had told him.

"Do we need to retreat?" His teacher immediately asked. Like him, she seemed to be cognizant of the fact that they weren't capable of fighting another abyssal creature. Winning the first time had been nothing short of a miracle. They wouldn't be able to repeat the feat.

'No,' Morpheus replied in Greg's head before he could answer his teacher. Greg could almost hear the eye roll in the being's tone of voice. 'What you are looking at is a rare abyssal creature known as an abyssal ooze. It's a sedentary creature found in areas of high concentration of abyssal mana. It survives purely off abyssal mana, which is why I said that it's a problem that solves another. You are on a mountain soaked through with abyssal mana and here you have an abyssal creature that needs that very mana to survive. It's like throwing a dry sponge into a puddle of water you wish to clean up. All you have to do is create a containment seal around this creature and leave it be. Over a year or two, it'll soak up all the abyssal mana in this mountain, and if the containment measures put in place are formidable enough, the creature will slowly starve to death thereafter," He laid out.

Greg repeated everything he'd just heard to his teacher. "Abyssal ooze… the name sounds familiar, " The healer muttered under her breath, her gaze turning thoughtful for a second. Whatever it was she knew, or thought she knew, didn't seem to come to mind quickly enough as she turned to him and raised another issue. "Even if it doesn't present an immediate threat, where did it come from?" she asked. Greg immediately understood her concern. Even more frightening than an abyssal creature, was the idea that there was some hidden way for them to cross over from the abyssal realm to this one. After all, they had everything they could to close the convergence precisely to prevent the ingress of abyssal creatures into this realm. If another path had opened up, it needed to be dealt with immediately.

'You quite literally watched it come into existence when the formation was activated,' Morpheus answered the healer's question without waiting for Greg to repeat it. Greg's brow furrowed as he went over his memories. After the formation meant to close the convergence was activated, a wave of abyssal mana had washed over them, causing a wave of terrifying mutations to take place in the already corrupted creatures around them. Ninety percent of the creatures didn't survive the corrupting influence of the abyssal mana. The runaway mutations drained most of them reducing them to husks even as tentacles and other growths grew endlessly out of them. Other creatures, had the growths on their bodies swell till, in a burst of gore, they exploded and spilled their internal organs everywhere. One creature even directly turned into a puddle of black goo…

Greg's eyes went wide as he remembered. Greg had indeed seen the birth of this Abyssal ooze. But just because he could remember its inception, didn't lessen any of his fear. The puddle of black good Greg saw at that time wouldn't have been enough to fill your average bucket, and now, a crater almost a hundred feet in diameter was full of that same creature. Not only had all this happened just three days prior, but the creature had even been at the epicenter of the explosion! Forget not dying, this thing had somehow grown exponentially in an incredibly short amount of time!

An amused chuckle sounded in Greg's head. 'Yes, trust me, you are no match for this creature. If either you are your teacher directly attack it, it'll be the last thing you do in this life,' Morpheus informed him. 'Like I said, make sure the containment seal is very strong,' he added.

Greg took the time to explain to his teacher how the creature came into being and just how prodigious its growth was. Smart as she was, the healer didn't need much urging before she understood why they needed to place strong containment measures around it. "A seal of the size and strength we need will take several weeks if we wish to get it right. I'll need to set up a teleportation point close by," she informed him. "That, however, can wait. If this creature is dealing with the abyssal mana in the mountain and doesn't plan on going anywhere soon, then we should head back to town. I'm not in any condition to start on such a large project and even more than myself, you need to rest as well," she asserted.

Greg had no objections. It was easy to forget seeing as she had dealt with the most superficial of injuries, but his teacher was the one who had engaged the abyssal creature in direct combat, and she hadn't come out of it unscathed. And as if that wasn't bad enough, most of her mana afterward had probably gone to taking care of him instead of dealing with her own injuries. This, Greg suspected, was the only reason he'd regained consciousness just three days later instead of months later. She may have been conscious and moving, but she was right, they both needed time to rest and recover…

***

Unfortunately for Greg, there wasn't much rest to be found back in town.

A lot had happened in town in the three days that he had been away. In a way, it was a lucky thing that the explosion that provoked the abyssal creature was so big and loud. Back in town, everyone had heard it and seen the massive plume of dust that resulted from it. With their attention on it, They also got to see the massive abyssal creature that emerged from it. As it turns out, the madness evoked by looking at the creature grows weaker the further away and more indistinct the abyssal creature is. Otherwise, everyone in town would have probably gone insane. Mercifully, the worst those in town experienced was a few migraines and nightmares.

To Greg, it felt like it lasted much longer, but in reality, the entirety of his encounter with the abyssal creature lasted barely an hour and fifteen minutes. An hour of chase, ten minutes in which he was being healed and arguing with his familiar over abandoning his teacher, and the final minute or two in which Morpheus took over and dispatched the abyssal creature like it was some bug. Even if Olivia hung around for another hour to ensure that Greg was okay before flying back to town, it would be a gap of less than four hours between the explosion and her return to town wearing his face. This, as it turns out, was the single reason that the town was still standing.

Given the fact that a few hours of sleep wouldn't have caused Roka's family to come to any harm, Olivia had chosen to first fly over the site where the convergence had been, just to ensure that it was indeed closed. That's how she had discovered that many of the beasts that had been enhanced by the abyssal mana hadn't been killed by the explosion. The few that had been badly injured, she had finished off but from the look of things, most had gotten away. She immediately shot towards the town at maximum speed. With Roka's face, Olivia had landed in the Town-head's compound and told him that a hoard of monsters was headed their way. It was a bit of an exaggeration seeing as there was no way of knowing where the creatures would end up in the final analysis. But if ever there was a situation where erring on the side of caution was warranted, this was it.

To his credit, the Town-head didn't argue with Olivia. Whether it was because he was afraid of Greg's teacher, the healer, or because he saw the wisdom of caution, especially after seeing an abyssal creature, Greg didn't know. The man, however, called every able-bodied man to action. There was some grumbling and annoyance from the men of the town, but after the explosion and the monster they saw, many of them still complied with the Town-head's wishes. With winter having passed less than two weeks before, most of the town's defenses were still up. In less than half a day, the parts that had fallen into disrepair were fixed and men were assigned to stand guard in shifts on the wall.

The first attack came at night. As it turns out, Olivia's guess had been right on the money. Whether it was some instinct that drew them or simple bad luck, most of the corrupted beasts had found their way to the town. The fight was bloody. There weren't the usual normal animals that these hunters were used to. Strange forms and abilities that had been enhanced by abyssal mana twice over left most of the townspeople at a serious disadvantage. The three families stepped up to hold the line against this never-before-seen threat to the town. However, even with them doing their best, it was almost certain that they too would have eventually been overwhelmed. The town never would have seen the light of morning if not for the emergence of an unexpected warrior… Roka!

Wearing his face, Olivia had spent the night in one battle after another doing her best to keep the town from being overwhelmed. With the town being attacked from all sides, she couldn't stay in one position. She kept moving from one part of the wall to the next taking out the biggest threats that would have otherwise overwhelmed the men who were already giving their all to fend off the corrupted beasts. The unintended consequence of this was that, by the end of the night, almost every man on the wall had gotten to see the incredible warrior that was Roka. From the common men of the town to the warriors of the three families, Olivia inspired fear, awe, and respect, only it was all directed at Roka.

If this was all, while still a headache, Greg could have dealt with it. That, however, wasn't the end of the debacle. Seeing the threat that had come down on the town, the Town-head simply couldn't stand idly by and do nothing. Both the man's pride and position as leader wouldn't have allowed him to not participate in the fight. And so he took 'the last stand'. The green potion that Greg had presented to him as an option to restore his peak power for about eight to twelve hours. During that first night, second to Olivia, no one fought harder than the Town-head. But just like Greg had warned the man, after the potion had run its course, he would enter a weakened state. And so, towards the dawn, the potion lost efficacy at the worst possible moment, in the middle of a fight. If Olivia hadn't been close to the man at that critical time, the Town-head would have fallen in the defense of the town.

But while the man got to keep his life, the injuries he suffered were serious enough that everyone who saw the man knew that his days as leader of the town were probably over. It wasn't ingratitude on the part of the townspeople but the harsh reality of their situation. They led hard lives, and whoever was at the helm needed to be strong enough to face the dangers and threats that they encountered, not only during winter but even at other times such as the present. The Town-head, simply wouldn't be able to keep leading the town, except perhaps as an elder and advisor to whoever the next leader would be. And so, naturally, the three families immediately started trying to position themselves as the ones that would take over. In their shortsightedness, they even started to pull back from the defense of the town trying to amass their forces and consolidate whatever claim they thought they had to power.

Unfortunately for them, there was this little stumbling block called Olivia. After a night of fighting and defending the town in the sight of all the men of the town, Olivia, who was wearing his face, had earned enough recognition from the town's men that when he called for a meeting before the Town-head's house, the whole town, including the three families attended. With the rising of the sun, they'd gotten a bit of a reprieve from the constant attacks by the corrupted beasts and so only a skeleton crew of their best warriors had been left manning the walls.

Standing in front of the man's home, Olivia had begun by praising the bravery of the Town-head. With both her words and her ability to manipulate the emotions of her audience, she lionized the man in the hearts of the townspeople. From Olivia's speech and the fact that the men had watched him fight just as hard if not harder than the Town-head, most of those present had been expecting the Roka before them to announce himself the next chief of the town. Even without his teacher, the abilities he'd demonstrated throughout the night, would have been enough to lend credence to his claim. And with how many lives Olivia had saved, the townspeople would probably have accepted his claim and recognized him as Town-head right there and then. So it came as a surprise to them when the Roka standing before them announced that he wouldn't be taking over as Town-head.

But while he wouldn't be taking up the position of Town-head, Olivia made an even more shocking announcement. In the guise of Roka, she declared that she would be the one choosing who the next Town-head would be. And while glaring at the three groups in the crowd that represented the three families, she declared that anyone who hoped to take over after the former Town-head would have to follow in his footsteps. Anyone who thought they were going to become Town-head without first being willing to sacrifice and place the town above their own selfish needs was dreaming. If you want to be a leader, you will have to prove yourself to those you wish to lead by being the first to confront danger and protect the town, just like the former Town-head. Olivia had so masterfully laid out the case that, by the time she was done laying out her conditions for who would be the next Town-head, even those who had been unhappy with her unilaterally choosing to appoint the next Town-head, had been won over to her view of things.

The challenge Olivia had presented to anyone who wished to become Town-head was simple. The family or individual with the most kills of the monsters that were attacking the town would be granted the mantle of leadership. By using this as the challenge, the defense of the town was once again bolstered as the three families went all out, going after the prize of leadership. In principle, this should have been a rather simple and straightforward way of showing who was most willing and capable of fighting for the town. Unfortunately for Greg, at the time of his return, two of the families were tied in the lead and after three days of fighting, all the corrupted beasts that had come for the town had been killed. The bear that he saw Olivia kill while they flew over, was the last of them. And so, he somehow had to pick out of the two families, who the next Town-head would be…