Zarek stood in silence for a long while over a location, a single corpse laying out before him. It was none other than Victor.
There was nothing special about the corpse. It was deader than dead. He also hadn't come here for any particular reason either.
If there was anything to point out, it was what was missing, not what was present.
The kid's corpse was gone, and there was certainly no one here who could have taken it. At the same time, Zarek wouldn't have made the mistake of accidentally letting someone live either.
"Hey, Pri."
"Mm?" Priya looked up from a small distance away. She seemed livelier than before, having already adjusted. Though, she held up a handkerchief to her nose to block out the scent of death that hung around everywhere.
"Do you notice anything weird?"
"Weird?"
Priya looked over toward Zarek, then down at Victor, then back to her boyfriend before shaking her head.
Zarek nodded slowly.
His own attention to detail was honed through decades of life and death experience. In fact, it was well over a century of it by now with ease.
Priya's, however, came naturally. She had always been sharp. Something like a corpse that had been there disappearing wouldn't have escaped her attention. Especially since it had been the corpse of the kid following them around.
'That answers the question.'
There were only two answers to what was happening here. Either Tamaron had a rare immortality type Talent, or…
'A Rebirther.'
This was the obvious answer. This was why Zarek could recall him, but Priya could not.
That was unexpected. Normally, Zarek would sense a Rebirther instantly. But there was an exception to this rule…
That being if this was the Rebirther's first life. If it was, then the bounds of time had yet to warp around them and Zarek's sensitivity to it would be worthless.
How the timelines worked, clashed, and intertwined with one another was something that Zarek had still yet to figure out. Why was he on his fourth and final life, while Tamaron had only just finished his first?
But there was something else that really left Zarek on edge.
If Tamaron knew that he was a Rebirther, then why take the risk of offending him at all? From Tamaron's perspective, Zarek would seem to know a lot and would be worth following. If his Rebirth Talent was real, then once he died, he would have a host of information to take advantage of.
Sure, there would be a lot that Tamaron didn't know or understand about the details of it all, but he should be able to see his own status screen—.
Zarek stopped.
That was it.
Tamaron couldn't see his own status screen. There were limited pillars in the waiting area, only a few would have gotten one. This meant that he had yet to establish his connection with the system. He wouldn't have known.
"… Let's go," Zarek finally said.
"We're finished."
"Mm. We've already wasted three days here, things outside should have settled down a bit as well."
Priya nodded then hurried to catch up.
The two vanished into the portal.
…
Zarek pulled Priya's hand as they stepped out of a broken statue. A familiar compound bow was in his free hand, the quiver filled with the bloodied tips he had pulled out of himself.
He wasn't a fan of ranged weapons, but he could use them. This would do in a pinch, but he would be aiming for a more decent weapon.
"Follow behind me and observe. When the situation is right, I will let you fight, too."
Priya nodded in affirmation.
Zarek's words had only just echoed when a creature appeared. Having its head rotted away as though a pot of boiling water had fallen onto it, a single broken leg dragged from its hip as it took one step after another.
One might feel the need to physically cringe every time they saw it step onto its own fractured bone, making the festering wound ooze with pus and blood.
"This is a Low F Turned. It's the equivalent of an F Warrior I told you about. Right now, campus is probably loaded with them. They seem to be moving very slow, but…"
When the Turned got into range, it suddenly leapt in a deceptively fast maneuver, opening its maw and biting at Zarek's neck.
Zarek kicked out, his foot landing solidly on its chest.
The Turned stumbled back, accidentally putting too much weight on its broken leg. It finally snapped, and the sickening sound of the back of its skull slamming against concrete echoed.
"They can be deceptively quick with their acceleration and are more durable than they look. We've already stepped into E and become E Warriors, and that was a decent kick, but it's still alive and kicking."
Zarek stepped forward and drove his heel through the head of the Turned.
"The only way to make sure it's dead is not by taking its head, but by cutting off the Godsfall Source within it. Turned appear because their bodies can't process Godsfall. Instead, it ends up accumulating into a Source. The strongest of them solidify this Source and it can even enter crystalline forms, allowing them to mutate further into stronger, more intelligent creatures.
"But those Godsfall Crystals are actually quite valuable, too."
Zarek weaved through the campus with Priya in tow. This time he wasn't babying her as much, letting her follow him under her own power.
He talked about the danger of swarms, how getting bitten when you had high Godsfall resistance wasn't all bad, but you shouldn't make a habit of it. He also talked about the darker side of things as well…
He hid nothing of this from her.
…
"Mm… it is in the same location, but as expected, there's a heavy swarm ahead."
This was the price he paid for using up those three days. But by the same token, becoming an E Warrior so early on held a great amount of weight.
There were only a few things that could make Turned swarm like this, and he happened to know exactly what this one was.
It was a Godsfall Skill Hub.
Not all Godsfall Tears led to secret realms and dungeons. Some of them granted rewards simply by getting to them.
This one--located on school grounds--had the scouting skill he wanted.