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Chapter 145: Rejection
🕑 Added 2022-01-28 20:39:11 +0000 UTCTanafyam teleports back to the snake Pyramid and runs straight to the second floor, lighting the monster ablaze as he passes them; the bosses won't respawn until next week. Descending down the stairs, Tana takes a small break, so he is fully ready for the next speed run.
Since this is the second floor, the monsters will be stronger, and he is definitely going to need a break or two to get through it. However, he won't let that deter him. The more he levels his Bond, the more powerful he will become, and the best way to do that is to embrace the life-sustaining and destructive properties of fire.
"What do you think fire is?" Tana flashes back o a conversation he had with Alysara when he was younger. At the time, he didn't understand her words, but now he does.
"It's a chemical reaction." Alysara turns her head toward him and smiles softly. "Fire needs air to live, right? It uses the air just like we do. The air combines with what's burning, and that produces heat which then makes the fire hotter. In a way, we use similar processes we eat food which nourishes us, although it's not the exact same process"
In other words, fire isn't just about the flame; it is... something else... a process that happens, it consumes, but how it works can either nourish or destroy.
After resting, Tana Stands back up, bracing himself on the sandstone walls, the flickering of torches lighting the way forward.
The 'flame' inside me gives me energy, and with this energy, I should be able to run faster and for longer.
It's not just about healing, it should also give him the energy needed to run through this without a break. He'll need to replace a Bond skill, so he'll need to think of which one is least helpful but being able to rejuvenate his stamina will be a better ability to have.
Tana charges forward lighting ablaze as he activates his skills. Vitality is consumed to fuel the flames, but his generation far exceeds his consumption. Barreling through room after room, he sends blade-like waves of flame slashing to the surprised and confused monsters, the flames spreading and burning, feeding off the vitality of the monsters.
Tana Runs into the first boss room and, without stopping immediately, attacks, launching several fire waves at it that cut deeply into its hide. Tana dodges, ducks, and flips over attack, trying his best to avoid getting hit with as close a margin as possible. He successfully manages to counterattack, cutting the tail and side of the head as it attacks.
The fight lasts longer than the ones on the previous floor, and he gets hit more, not timing his dodges as well against the slightly faster foe. Venom burns his veins like his flames burns the monster's vitality.
Poison and venom is like fire; perhaps I can use this, make the vitality drain of my flames faster.
Instead of just burning the outside of the monster what if his flames can seep into the wounds and burn the insides? But fire needs air; how can it do that without air?
There's air in the body; we breathe it in, right? So there has toi be air in the body too. Tana realized.
Gathering his willpower Tana sweeps his hand over the flat of his sword infusing the flames with more potency, the potency of venom.
Ting! Your Bond skill, Vitality Burn, has evolved into Vitality Venom Flames!
Purple flames coat his sword, and he launches another wave of fire with a swing of his sword. Purple fire cut into the snake as it tries to dodge but the corner of the wave knicked its skin, but that is all it needed for the flames to spread and infest its numerous wounds. Now it's only a matter of time before it dies.
* * *
Tana stands before the slain floor boss, his arm regrowing, his clothes are tattered, but he brought a spare. He obtained a stamina regenerating skill, which let him keep up despite his marathon, he had not realized how much exhaustion lowered his fighting capabilities but not that won't be an issue.
Tana gathr the monster materials, going back to the previously slain bosses and harvesting their materials as well before replacing his clothes. Tana sells the materials with the other materials he gains during the den dives with Esofy and the others to not give hints that he is gaining materials on his own.
It's not prohibited to fight by oneself but it is frowned upon and Esofy will definitely not be happy. Tana teleports back to his secret waystone that came with the key; however, When he appears in his hidden location out in the forest, there is a beautiful girl standing in front of him, arms crossed with a dissaproving frown.
"Where were you?" Alysara asks. She isn't accusatory but says it more as a question.
"I, uh..." He doesn't know what to say; she must have seen him teleport out of the village and found this waystone.
"You were out fighting monster by yourself; I know that much," Alysara says, her tails swaying side to side.
"Y-you do too..." Tana tries to defend himself.
"You know as well as I do that is a poor excuse; I fight the monsters, they don't fight me, there's a difference"
An awkward silence falls between them, only broken by the chirping of birds.
"...I can handle myself," Tana says defiantly, staring at Alysara. She remains silent for a minute.
"... I know, otherwise you wouldn't be here," Alysara finally says. "But, you have not seen some of the monsters in this dungeon. Not all are weak, some have very strange abilities that can really endanger you, and some are vastly more powerful than any other monsters in their area. You need to be careful; being in a group with a proper scout is best for your safety, and only go into places that are confirmed to not have dangerous monsters inside!"
Being next to her, in front of this beautiful girl, makes his heart race and pang. He doesn't her to worry about him, he needs to show her that he can protect her, that she doesn't need to take the weight of the world onto herself anymore.
"L-Let me show you!" Tana forces himself to say. "Let me show you w-what I can do!"
"Tana..." Alysara pauses for a moment before continuing. "What will you do if you encounter an exalted tier monster, one that is over level one thousand and has three Classes? They are in this dungeon, Tana, there's nothing I nor anyone else can do about them and they are in some places you won't expect to find them."
Level one thousand, Exalted tier? Alysara must be worried about that. If that's the case then...
"I'll get stronger! If they are Exalted tier, then I'll become Legendary! If they are level one thousand then I'll get to level two thousand!" Tana boasts.
Alysara sighs and shakes her head incredulously.
"That isn't something you can just do Tana..." Alysara says.
"But it has happened before right?" Tana says with a reassuring smile. "T-The world messages prove it! I-I'l become legendary tier, Alysara. But in o-order to do that I need to be able to fight on my own! I need to prove to the world that I can take on anything!"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I'm conflicted. On one hand, I don't want to see my friend be hurt but on the other how can I deny him his desire to be stronger? I am doing the exact same thing, even at my own peril. I take equally dangerous risks, if not even more so, every day when scouting the Lunaley islands and this dungeon. He has a third more Class levels on me; his Bond level has even jumped up significantly.
I'm in quite a difficult position. One, I Can't exactly tell Tana not to do this without being at least a little bit of a hypocrite, but on the other, I promised Esofy I'd look into this, and I shouldn't lie to her about what's really happening.
"I'm going to have to tell Esofy" I say, gagueing Tana's expression.
"Please don't, I need this to get stronger" Tana pleads.
"What do you want me to do? I'm not going to lie to Esofy, and she asked me to investigate what you are doing." I say.
"Let me prove to you that I can do this!" Tana takes a step closer, desperation in his eyes.
"You don't need to prove anything to me" I retort "You do, however, need to prove to Esofy"
"She won't listen"
"That's... not my problem" Tana takes a step back, looking hurt. "Tana, you are my friend and I don't want to see you get hurt. I don't care if that makes me a hypocrite or whatever, but Esofy knows best; if she agrees that you are fine acting on your own, then I'll trust her judgment; if she disagrees, then that is the best for you. You are not even thirteen years old, you have plenty of time to get strong."
"I-I'm doing this for you! So you don't have to worry about me or anyone else." Tana sounds desperate, almost begging.
"Tana, you need to live your life for yourself, not for me. Ever since we were kids you've been learning how to fight, but why? I was good at my Bond, and suddenly you wanted to learn how to fight. You always compare yourself to me right?" I say, looking at his expressions to try and see what he is thinking.
"Even now, after all of this time, it's still always about me." I continue, "You are so singularily focused on me that you are ignoring everything else. Tana, you need to find something you want to do for yourself."
"I want to help you! This is what I want to do!" Tana raises his voice.
"Tana" I shake my head. "You can't just live for other people"
"Isn't that exactly what you are doing?! How can you tell me that when you are doing exactly the same thing?!"
"But I do other things that only interest me!" I almost shout back "Yes, I help the village. Yes, I sacrafice for our people but in those cases, it was either fight the glass eels, the Aydomr, and the super storm, or we all die! But what else? I study for myself, I learned tailoring for myself, I learned music for myself! What have you done for yourself?!"
"I..." Tana looks defeated, lowering his gaze and drooping his hears.
My stomach turns in knots, I don't like arguing with my friend but this is what he needs, not what he wants. Perhaps it's best we part ways until he can find himself.
"Tana," I say with a tone of finality. "I think we need to reconsider our friendship" saying those words is like biting into the bitterest and sourest thing in the world, but I need to do this for him, as hypocritically as it is for me to do.
Tana looks up, tears welling in his eyes.
"Don't look at me like that, Tana" I harden my heart for my next words. "Were we really friends at all? The way you think about me is not how a friend thinks."
"Why are you saying this to me?" Tana says, on the verge of tears.
"So you can live your own life," I say and fly away, leaving Tana there.
I tell Esofy what happened and air out my feelings.
"You did the right thing," Esofy says, sitting next to me and patting my head. "Tana needs to move on, just as you said. Don't worry about her, I'll take care of her.
With Esofy's task and my scouting done I can focus on grinding some levels, it'll be tedious but at least now there are enough dens to visit that the change in scenery will help.
Comments
Pawzom Lz
Rather than breaking their friendship, it would have been better if she helped him find a profession he could actually develop an interest for. [Alchemy[ would be a very good fit due to his fire Bond/Lifeflame, and the way to get him interested would be to explain the benefits of health/vitality potions(to himself and others), mana potions(for herself and other casters), temporary stat elixirs and permanent stat elixirs would have for him as a combatant. Maybe Tana, being Tana ends up finding a way to directly use [Alchemy] in battle, draining the vitality of monsters into potions and elixirs during the fight? And through Tana we could be introduced to this worlds [Alchemy] in some chapters focusing on him, and maybe Aly also as she observes him turning monster materials into potions/elixirs, which could have useful breakthroughs? Is there still dragon flesh after the cursed being fight? Who knows how long dragon materials last? Especially Erandur who was a fire one, with the nexus being a place in so hot bacteria cant form, there could be some lying around that monsters have not found like on top of a mountain? He has got dancing as an Art and Monster Slayer is an accepted job now, so I don't quite understand why things took the drastic turn they they did. To just break their friendship like that seems excessive. Personally I would have preferred it if the 2 of them just realised they are perfect teammates, with Alysara being able to scout out dangers Tana cant handle and guide him around it as his scout, while she simultaneously gains more bond levels because she is finally fighting with a teammate, so there's now some risk involved. While I do to agree that he is a little young for this, people are different and some are capable of doing things at an earlier age than others. Except for the fact that he seems to be almost worshipping Alysara, I don't have to much of a problem with what he's doing, he seems to be extremely well suited for it. If anything, Esofy is the one that is bothering me the most. In chapter 86: "You've got such a talented child, and yet you reject her. Come here, Tana, be the person you want to be, not what someone else demands of you." "Be the person you want to be, Tana... don't let anyone tell you otherwise." "Come with me, Tana, letβs get stronger, letβs prove to the world how strong the Runalymo can become." After saying this, she's seriously gonna give him a hard time like this and even say Aly did the right thing by ruining their friendship and genuinely hurting him when he's doing EXACTLY what she said he should be doing all along? For those who think him taking a waystone key is stealing, it is not. For it to be stealing he would have to take it from another Runalymo, not a dungeon that places it there for people to find. It belongs to the dungeon up until the point it is picked up by someone else. If that someone is Tana, its his. Kayafe mentioned treants being useful in elixirs, and Alysara have also specifically saved materials for that purpose, which could eventually find some use if someone picked up [Alchemy].
HighterDK
Tana is suffering from a combination of puppy love, idolization children have for older (more accomplished) acquaintances, and abandonment issues from her parents. All aimed at a single person.
Venalitor
For the best. Tana was sounding more insane and possessive than anything. Well. . . maybe not 'possessive' per se, but somehow impure. I also don't get the impression that Aly is particularly overburdened either. Especially with all her minds. It's more that Tana sees all she does and thinks: 'how can she handle all that?' As if she only had one mind like him. Poison and venom are like a lot of things. Fire is just one of those things. Distantly.
Squirtle
He took life sense with help from Ulrou(I think thats how its spelled)
Maury
err... I think Aly's mom has the right idea. I don't remember precisely what she said but to live a fulfilling life requires some mix of things I forgot including community. anyways his problem seems to be just lacks moderation. he likes fighting and alysara. it's unclear whether his feelings for alysara are love, teenage horni, or idolizatio (or all of the above). while love/horni are probably fine. imo idolization should be reserved for gods. it's unbeneficial to have these feelings for mortals in general or else people be willing blind to their faults. as for the fighting in secret. I don't necessarily think that he's doing anything wrong just by fighting. it's clearly his passion. i guess an argument can be made that it's causing him to get estranged from the other individuals in his community and losing his touch. but I think the part where he's really fucking up is that he's doing it alone and in secret. the problem with this approach is that he's really playing with chances. im under the assumption that he's raiding places that have already been explored. so he already knows roughly what's going to respawn and where. the problem is the extremely low but never zero probability that he gets extremely unlucky and runs into a monster with a class that he has no effective way to defend himself against. we already know about mind mages, shifting between layers of space, and soul assassins. who says that he won't run into any of those or something equally worse. we also know that wandering bosses are a thing. there's that one woke monster that got [sense life]. π and any number of other things that could go wrong. and the biggest point against tana is that a lot these are just plain unnecessary risks. risks that would go down substantially if he would: -at least let people know where he was going or had at least one other person with him or -took up some kind of perception skill; which he insists on not doing because of a short-sighted temporary perceived loss in combat potential
Jacqui Andronicos
I was referring to his hunting at that stage, not the friendship, though that has got to hurt still.
j0ntsa
Reconsider does not mean termination... Or atleast i hope it does not
Jacqui Andronicos
Poor Tana, I think that Aly is missing that he loves doing this as well, it isn't just for her. It is also for her, but that isn't his only motivation, he loves the thrill, excitement etc. Problem being he is still 13, and obviously safety should be considered, however, I don't think blanket banning, or shutting him down hard is the way to go. A more medium approach would be better, like he would solo hunt in dungeons that Aly has confirmed doesn't have any absurd beings, strange ability holders etc. Then, Tana doesn't have to know the specifics, but there is the safety net of not being insta gibbed.
Robert Mullins
He's a 13 year old who is lieing, stealing, throwing himself recklessly into the unknown. Alysara definitely takes risks but her risks are planned and taken with the best knowledge she can acquire as guidance. If Tana actually tried to explain his circumstances and argue for the right to go solo I'd respect it a lot more. For Alysara, all of her risk taking in recent memory has been done with either the approval or oversight of others.
DANTE
Ironically I think Tana has the healthiest mindset of all of them and Aly and the others could really learn from him
DANTE
well that was a disappointing conclusion Tana enjoys fighting and by the looks of it he was the happier one out of all of them they are turning out to be safety freaks and ironically I think they are moving in the direction of tyranny that Aly despise so much Aly is being a real hypocrite there, rules for him but not for her, worst of all she dismisses him and simply does athe spy for Esofy
Tjark
One of the best things about this situation is that the outcome is unpredictable. At least to me, as I can see a lot different outcomes from this (although I certainly prefer some over the others). Tana could overextend himself and die. Tana could reach for too much and become a cursed being (perhaps with his cursed skill). Tana could end up resenting Alysara and become an antagonist without being a cursed being. Tana could break ties with them/her and go his own way for a long time. Tana could see the error in his ways and get a healthier mind set. And probably a few others still. ps: I like the mini flashback to the fire bond explaining about What do you think fire is?. I'd probably answer an exchange of energy.
Robert Mullins
Alysara doesn't place herself on a pedestal and doesn't look down on others or try to rise above them. If anything she goes a long ways to lift them up. Tana thinks Aly is better than others and wants to be the same. Dude is going to fuckup or go astray. Its only a matter of if it's a recoverable mistake or not.
Nematrec
π Tana
Olivier Pascal
Thank you for the chapter!! Also, is it just me or is this a prelude to Tana becoming a cursed being in order to prove that he is an equal to Aly??
