Chapter 36 - Battle Arts.
Sometime later...
Levi was seen sitting on the balcony, enjoying the calm breeze of spring with a cup of old traditional Moroccan tea.
While many countries had declined after the fall of civilization and the establishment of the new world system, some cultures remained strong.
Right now, he was waiting for night to fall and Ash'Kral to make an appearence while thinking deeply about everything he had learned a while ago about his seeds.
On the other side of the apartment, Arthur was locked shut in his room, cramming everything he had skipped in school about totems, natural treasures, and such important knowledge.
Levi knew that his brother genuinely had difficulties with studying. So, he hooked him up with simple books such as Solar Totems for Dummies to not overwhelm him.
'I heard you almost got killed in the Harrowing Forest. Kekeke, that's what you get for acting tough in the wastelands.'
'Give the kid a break. He can't see, so he might have waddled outside, and he had no clue about it.'
'Kakakak, good one.'
While it seemed to everyone else that Levi was taking a relaxing tea break, in reality, he was being disturbed by a group of nightcrawlers.
Levi had interacted with them before. They had tried too many times to seduce him, but to no avail. For nightcrawlers, such failure was quite humiliating. Thus, occasionally, some of them would hang around Levi to annoy him as payback.
But Levi didn't even give them an ounce of attention. He kept sipping the hot mint tea while brooding over the topic of his non-human bloodline.
'I always knew that my parents' origin isn't precisely Northern African, but I assumed it would be European or Western.' Levi rubbed his chin thoughtfully, 'But non-human? Was he implying that I might possess a bloodline from a different dimensional race like Nightcrawlers or those behind Solar Aegis Sanctuary?'
With the limited access he had to knowledge, Levi knew that no matter how hard he pondered on the subject, his findings were inconclusive. He could only shake his head and be patient, awaiting Ash'Kral's arrival.
Sometime later, as Levi was being annoyed by the nightcrawlers on the balcony, Ash'Kral's terrifying cold voice resounded in the area.
'Trash, haven't I warned you not to show your faces here again? Scram before I erase your existence!'
'Sh*t, he is here!'
The instant the nightcrawlers picked up on his bone-chilling order, their expressions turned grim, and they swiftly exited the bridge of darkness.
They didn't even wait to see Ash'Kral as they had witnessed what he was capable of and heard much worse rumors.
After the area around Levi was cleared, he lifted his head to see Ash'Kral appearing from a distance, flapping his tiny wings, barely able to lift himself.
'...' Levi stared at him with quivering lips.
If the nightcrawlers stayed behind and saw what the demon had turned to, his authority and reputation would be thrown down the gutter in a second.
'What? You never saw a handsome bat before?' Ash'Kral sneered as he sat on top of Levi's shoulder.
'Nothing, I just want to let you know that we might be watched. So, it's best that we communicate telepathically from today onward until the Assembly.' Levi warned sternly.
'You failed to drop the suspicion on you?'
Ash'Kral frowned as he swiftly disappeared, maintaining a telepathic conversation. Then, a few moments later, he reappeared and told him that no one was watching them.
'How did you know?' Levi raised an eyebrow in surprise.
'I have my ways. Now, speak. What happened?'
'I was interrogated by Sir Feng Ling. Lying to him is nearly impossible without showing any sign. I tried my best to avoid getting implicated in the massacre, but my connection with you, not so much.'
'Useless.'
Levi's eyebrows twitched, 'You are the one putting us in this situation. You just had to show off and let the others see you. If you got rid of the spiders and the goatee nightcrawler while staying in the shadows, no one will suspect me of anything.'
Indeed, the smartest thing to do would have been to act from the shadows, which wouldn't have put Levi in the situation to lie. But Ash'Kral just had to show off his powers to him.
'Don't be naive.' Ash'Kral clarified calmly, 'You thought I made an appearence just to show off? It was to protect us.'
'Protect us?' Levi frowned, 'Are you trying to gaslight me?'
'When have I ever lied to you?'
'...'
'That's what I thought.' Ash'Kral carried on, taking Levi's speechlessness for agreement, 'If I haven't shown myself, your stomach wound will have no explanation except you becoming a Sleepwalker or a Daywalker. A hole was blown in your guts, you think civilians can survive it?'
'No...'
Levi recognized that Ash'Kral was making a ton of sense. A hole was pierced through him. This was enough to kill any civilian in less than ten seconds at most. One could argue that the Solar dome and recovery totems might have delayed his death, but no one would believe he came out of it without a single scratch.
'While they might suspect you of having a relation to me, they won't have much proof to make a move. In the worst possible scenario, all you should do is tell them that I have forced you to not snitch on me.'
'True.' Levi nodded in understanding.
Levi knew that from other people's perspectives, he was a helpless, blind kid who survived the Harrowing Forest Massacre purely through a miracle. In other words, their first assumption would never lead to him signing a contract with Ash'Kral, a Tier 7+ monster.
Especially, when those monsters were kings and Queens of nests, massive enough that they were called Kingdoms and Empires on Earth.
Who would believe a terror of such caliber would dare sign a Daywalker contract with a blind kid and reverse all the hard work and pain he went through to reach such a stage? Even if Levi were to tell people of it, they would laugh in his face.
It was counterintuitive since nightcrawlers signed such contracts with humans for the sake of evolving to upper Tiers (7, 8, 9).
That's why most nightcrawlers taking this path were Tier 4 or Tier 3, since it required their previous evolution to reverse until the shadowlife tree returned to a seed.
Levi and Ash'Kral's situation was simply too unique; no one would dare believe them unless they saw the awakening personally.
Thus, Ash'Kral was right in a sense.
His appearence pulled some attention on Levi from Sir Feng Ling, but it was enough to give him a legit excuse for his stomach hole.
'I guess I was wrong.' Levi owned up to his lack of foresight without being embarrassed.
He was taught by his mother that the staircase of knowledge was climbed two steps forward and one step behind to ensure that nothing was lost.
'Good, now, let's see if I am right again.' Ash'Kral shared solemnly, 'Go sit in the living room and wait for the holy pillar's light to descend. It's time to learn about your origins.'
Taking a deep breath, Levi stood up from the balcony and walked towards the living room, guiding himself with a hand on the wall.
After reaching the center, he sat on the cold floor and removed his upper shirt, exposing his well-toned muscles.
"Astra, what time is it?" Levi asked.
"It's 6:26, Sir."
"Thank you." Levi murmured, "The sun should be setting any moment now."
As he waited, Levi couldn't help but wonder about the watering process for his seeds and if it was any different than what he read about.
He had already memorized the entire Daywalker cultivation system, making him understand that each Shadowlife seed required from the host a constant supply of sunlight to grow until the body hit a plateau.
The plateau was always reached once the seeds fulfilled 15% of their needed resources from a total of 100%.
The 15% was further split into three mini checkpoints, each at 5%.
Using this information, the Daywalkers' cultivation system was born as the humans separated each plateau into a named rank, like Pathfinder Daywalker, Warden Daywalker, Solarbound Daywalker, etc.
Since each 15% was split into three mini checkpoints, they were named as the first stage, the second stage, and the third stage.
For example, a rookie Daywalker at the third stage implied that he was at 15% completion, while a Warden Daywalker at the third stage entailed a 75% completion.
Each 5% fulfilled, the Shadowlife seed rewarded its host with unlocking a random innate ability that the nightcrawler had mastered before his evolution was reversed, or a unique power-up.
It was like the Shadowlife seed stored all the data of the previous evolution and used it as a reward system to keep motivating and strengthening its hosts.
This was the quickest and easiest way to obtain prepared abilities. In reality, the nightcrawlers had to work their asses off to create those abilities from scratch.
The Daywalkers also needed to do the same to create the so-called learned techniques based on the evolutionary traits of their partners.
Combining those innate abilities and learned techniques gave birth to the so-called Battle Arts since each Daywalker could create their unique fighting style separated from the crowd.
Even if another Daywalker shared the same Nightcrawler's species and powers, both would have different fighting styles.
For example, Shia created a new technique called the Blood Ring of Damnation that was reliant on her crescent-bladed glaive.
Another Daywalker with the same nightcrawler might be using a spear, a bow, or even a gun. This allowed him to create Blood Battle Bow arts, Spear arts, or Gun arts. But he wouldn't be able to replicate her technique unless he possessed a similar weapon.
In the case of Levi? He had three seeds, three evolutionary paths, three different skill trees, and nine weapon variations at his peak.
Yet, Levi didn't seem overwhelmed at all. He was blind since childhood, which taught him the great skill of locking his focus on one issue at a time and drowning out the rest of the noise.
When one had his visionary simulation taken away, his mind was bound to be sharpened into focusing on specific tasks at a time.
At this moment, Levi's focus switched immediately from wondering about his peculiar cultivation system to his origins the moment he felt the warm embrace of the Holy Pillar's light.
"It's here." Levi murmured as he lifted his head, bathing half-nude under the shower of gentle divine light falling from the heavens.
Fortunately, their apartment was on the topmost floor, allowing them direct access to the Holy Light due to the glass roof, unlike the rest of the apartments under them. After all, no way would anyone dare live in a full-glass building internally and externally.
The divine light filled every nook and corner of Larson's apartment bit by bit.
It was like a living creature, moving with a will of its own to light up all the dark corners, even if it wasn't on its path. This was happening across the entire Tamara settlement and Holy Heliodor's region.
Just like a guardian totem was placed on the region, not a single nightcrawler would dare step inside the light unless it wanted to turn into ashes.
Only Sleepwalkers, Daywalkers, or Nightcrawlers chained by the divine light could survive being inside the Holy regions.
'Try to harness the divine light into the Sun Seed.' Ash'Kral said calmly.
'Huh? You think I am...' Levi was left stunned.