15 Chaotic Tempering

"As if there was any doubt."

With a scoff, Riku was about to sheathe his knife back in its holster when his weapon began to glow a dark hue. He could feel his knife getting stronger somehow. Not by a lot, but there was definitely something different in it now than what it was before.

[CHAOTIC TEMPERING: +0.5 Damage]

'Oh, so that's how it works,' he thought to himself as he read the prompt that popped up in front of him. 'It's not much, but it's something.'

Sheathing his knife once more, the former assassin shrugged before taking a proper look at where he was once more. As he already noticed earlier, he was still in the first Depth of the whole Deep Blue. Or at least, that was what he assumed based on what he knew about the game. He was on a silver road leading to who knows where with buildings and pillars made of marble and gold everywhere he looked. There was no indication on where he was supposed to go, and there was nobody else in his immediate vicinity other than, well, more golden wisps of aura and power that seemed to live in this Depth.

"This is concerning," he mumbled to himself. "Where do I go..."

/There's only one direction to go and that is down,/ Nyx chimed in, returning in his mind with her usual cheery tone. /Is there any doubt about that?/

"There isn't," Riku sighed. "The problem here is that I have no idea where to go."

With nothing in terms of landmarks or anything else to follow other than the silver road he was currently on, there was little the former assassin could do other than to walk forward and see where the road would lead him. With each step, his surroundings seemed to blend together as the constant scenery of marble and gold just felt static and unmoving. The way the road never deviated from its straight path also made him feel like he was walking on a treadmill with little progress being done. Each of the streets he saw almost looked the same, and despite straining his eyes to find even the slightest difference he could use to tell where he was going, everything was just too perfect for him to get a proper read on his surroundings.

In short, he was lost in every sense of the word.

"Nyx?"

/Yes, my Champion?/

"Can you at least help me find my way?" Riku accusingly asked.

/Oh? Didn't you say earlier that I should let you work?/ his goddess smugly teased. /I respect your skills enough to trust you to know what you're doing./

Riku rolled his eyes. Of course now would be the time when Nyx would sway toward the petty aspect of her personality. Then again, he didn't even know the being petty was in one of her many personality switches.

"I know when I have no idea what I'm doing, Nyx," he halfway admitted with an apologetic tone. "Look, do you want me to win or not?"

/Well, I want you to win, but I want you to say sorry,/ the goddess audibly pouted from wherever she was at the moment. /That, and I want sushi./

Riku paused in his step, two thoughts suddenly running parallel in his mind as he both considered his patron goddess's request and the sudden slow footsteps that he just heard from behind some of the buildings. On one hand, he couldn't help but feel smug at the prospect of having something to cook, and the other, he was being cautious at having to face yet another one of these supposed Lion Guards. He remembered Nyx telling him that they were capable of light attacks, which probably meant that they could fire at him from range and he would have no way of attacking back without forewarning.

'First off, where and what am I supposed to serve you here? There are no ingredients to be found here,' he mentally told her even as his eyes honed in on the location where the sound was coming from. 'And second, you're not even here. And on top of that, I'm currently busy playing this game of yours.'

/Huh? What do you mean?/ Nyx confusedly asked back. A half beat then passed before she added, /Oh right, you should know that every creature in the Deep Blue should be edible. That's one of the few rules the God Father had us follow when making our Realms./

The former assassin blinked as he mentally filed that small tidbit of information in the back of his mind. Whether or not it was true remained to be seen, but for now, he had a lion to kill.

"ROAAGHHHR!"

His ears perking up, Riku immediately crouched low on the ground and lunged straight at the Lion Guard that even dared to try and attack him. This time, however, he was force to dodge to the side as a beam of golden light suddenly erupted from the beast's mouth.

"What the hell..." he couldn't help but mutter to himself, the heat of the beam faintly burning his right arm as he dashed forward. "That could've killed me."

Ignoring the feeling of certain death brushing past him, Riku went and repeated the same exact thing he did for the last lion he killed. Aiming for the stomach, he dashed once to deliver a swift strike. The lion tried to swipe at him with its claws, but he deftly dodge backward before lunging forward and finally delivering the killing blow right at the lion's chest.

With the ease of pulling a hot fork from butter, Riku flicked away what little motes of light remained on his knife before sheathing it once more, satisfied with a job well done.

"That's more like it," he complimented himself with a smirk. "Now, for whatever it was that I got from this thing..."

Blinking, Riku anticipated yet another prompt telling him that the [Chaotic Tempering] had made his weapon stronger. It was a random stat boost, so perhaps it could add to his speed instead of giving him a minor power boost like last time. That would be more ideal in his opinion based on how he fought, after all.

And so he waited... only for nothing to happen.