Chapter 57 – Depression and the call
When Noah found Paula at the guild it was already afternoon. Traveling to the Labyrinth and walking leisurely through the low level layer of hunting ground took a lot of time. It was an early evening when they reached the wall. By the time Noah was given some "test rides" inside the wall with a few breaks to gather his mind together in between, the sun already started to move toward the horizon.
When Paula took his limp body out of the imaginary wall, her teammates had made a camp nearby, putting up a camp and making fire to grill meat.
Noah's body was out of energy to struggle yet his mind refused to yield in front if his desire to sleep. He watched ahead with heavy eyes in silence, while carried like rug doll.
"Well then. I think this would be enough for today." Said Paula, carrying him with one hand toward the blanket on the grass near the tent and put him there. She sat near him and took out her bottle of booze from the pocket ring to take a swing. "Don't struggle. You should sleep. We will continue tomorrow early in the morning. You'll need your rest for tomorrow."
"Hungry." Muttered Noah, surprising Paula. She looked at her teammates that looked at her and Noah with strange looks and then laughed. "See? What did I tell you?" She said to her teammates.
Noah lay there in hopelessness accepting his fate. There was no escaping this crazy woman. He could only struggle through it. Surprisingly every time he thought of struggling he regained his spirit, without even realizing where this spirit raising power came from.
"Good. Feeling hungry is good. Wait a bit, it will be done soon." Said Paula patting his shoulder with her rough pats that sent pain through his limply laying body.
*****
After the dinner, the sun crawled almost below the horizon, totally unseen through the forest, making the area around them only slightly lit by the orange sky and a fire they kept going.
Barely regaining strength to sit leaning on a piece of fallen tree and munch, Noah ate the porridge that the ranger girl has made for them. After that he was picked up by Paula and carried to the tent.
After she left, closing up the flap behind herself, Noah finally closed his eyes and went to his mind realm in his sleeping mode.
Paula walked away from the fire and the camp, walking through the forest for a few moments.
"So?" She asked into the empty forest. "What the hell you all came here for?"
"As I said before we have no business with you rude woman."
"Then why did more of your sisters come here? Whatever you want from him he is under my protection so beat it forest sluts I am not in the mood to play with you."
"We are not here to do anything old wench. It is just a precaution."
"Against a boy? Six of you? This is an overkill for a precaution. Anyway he is asleep so you can back off now."
"It is not when he is awake that we are most worried. It is when he is asleep that we are on guard of, that's why others came." Said the voice from the trees.
Paula looked with a questioning look in silence but dryads did not say anything more. She turned around and walked away while in thoughts.
Boy struggles to train his magic sense and mana control. Dryads on guard while he is asleep. Is it a skill? Skill he can not control well. Skill they are afraid he might use within their territory if he loses consciousness? Why are they not attacking him then if they consider him a threat? How do they know of his skill anyway?
"Raimond. What are you hiding from me?" Muttered Paula with a serious face while she sat at the fire where her companions sat chatting.
*******
"I investigated the North hunting ground today. It seems the boy is not as easy as he seem to be. It was quite a shocking scene I would say. Looks like we found our prime suspect." Said the shadow woman exiting the shadow inside the dimly lit hotel room.
"In that case we have problem." Said the second woman.
"What do you mean?"
"A-class adventurer, Paula of The Stormbringer team."
"Huh? That old crone still did not hit the bucket? What is she ninety?"
"I think she is in her sixty's or seventy's."
"Anyway she is old as mammoth shit. What trouble she may pose."
"I remember her, because Trish once said she had a fight with her a few years back. And she said it was not going pretty for her by far."
"Trish said that?"
"Mhhm."
"Tsk. That would indeed be a trouble, then. What is she his nanny now?"
"Took him as a disciple or some shit."
"If Trish was troubled by her we must avoid direct confrontation with her at all cost. Especially when she probably knows a lot of our tricks."
"What do we do?"
"I need to think. There's many things we need to consider. The words of Holy Lady trouble me too. She spoke of city of fire and undead army. But we saw nothing of the sort here. Until he resurrected the wolf I thought it to be some mistake. But it could very well be, not. Divination is strong and unexplored magic. What if what she saw was the future of this town?" Said the shadow woman taking off her mask and sitting down to eat an already cold dinner that her companion brought for her from the canteen a few hours ago.
*******
Lina lay in her bed with a gloomy face. She was turning around from side to side but could not get any sleep. When Paula and Noah did not return she felt as if sitting on pins the whole evening. Now she lay in the bed still unable to calm down in her worry.
*Huuuuh. She breathed out what seemed like a hundredth time, while looking into the ceiling.
"Why am I so worried about him anyway? He asked her to train him on his own. Why can't I calm down this feeling?"
That old bat? She definitely meant something ill toward Noah. She thought. Lina saw her actions hundreds of time and more or less knew her character, after the years she worked in the guild.
It was obvious they were going to camp in the labyrinth when they went there so late in the day. But that only made her worry more about Paula's intentions.
What were you thinking, Noah.
Be safe you idiot! Don't you dare to die after one date. You hear me, Noah McDaniels!? She screamed in her mind.
********
After the torture that the crazy woman put him through Noah felt dead inside. System brought him to the mind realm but he was just sitting there sinking in the darkness of his mind realm in silence without even thoughts in his head.
System tried to make a conversation a few times but did not get a single reply. Then an idea came to it. It looked at the CS screen with different conversations and then at Noah that was brooding in the darkness of his empty mind.
/What to do if you feel empty inside?/ Posted system in the comment section from Noah's name.
Depends. Answered one of the commenters
/Depends on what?/ Asked system in a reply.
Depends on whether it's post nut clarity or story end depression.
System analyzed this choice and did not understand these terms, feeling that it was lacking the information for its deciphering.
/If you were hurt badly and now feel empty inside./ Added system clarification.
Then it's the same as story end depression. I usually listen to sad music.
Lol. Replied next person posting a picture of a man with hollow eyes and sad face taking headphones with a word 'sad music' written above them and with big words written above the picture: 'me doing shit that makes me depressed when I already feel depressed'
Reading a slice of life might help. Answered someone else.
Better read tragedy. A reply came from another person.
Filter it to slice of life + drama + tragedy ??. Answered another person.
The hell people do you want him to jump off the building or something? Maybe he should start with something lighter like vodka and hard drugs? Replied some worried person.
System analyzed the information coming from the people and came to an answer that: sad music, alcohol and drugs were out of reach. Then it turned to a search function and filtered the stories to the suggestion of these people.
*Beginning story* Said system but did not get any reply.
*******
Noah watched the world of his mind change with emotionless eyes. The usual darkness of the mind realm brightened and was changed to a sunny day, bringing him warmth.
Light breeze brought with a wind from the noisy ocean, as if balancing out the warmth of the sun rays with its chillness gave him the feeling of comfort and pleasure.
He watched a village on the shores of an ocean appear in front of him with people with calm and leisure going about their business with no worry in their life.
A few moments later Noah saw a young man meet a girl in this village. These were the main characters of the story it seemed. Noah watched them with disinterest and chill eyes empty of any emotions. These people lived happy lives while he was struggling through hell. Why would he be interested in their daily life?
Time moved on and Noah watched these two people interact with each other with many strange meetings full of awkward and funny situations. Many times making him feel that the girl was really strange. But slowly their day to day interactions brought a smile to his face. He took a liking to this strange couple that felt pulled toward each other. It started to become apparent that the young man is very attracted to the girl and she was attracted to the boy too. Noah watched their budding love starting to bloom with a slight sense of trepidation.
However their story had no good end to it. The girl was sick. She knew that she would not live long and did not want the boy to suffer after her death. The boy however did not give up. After the girl died he lived on carrying the feelings of that summer that he met the girl for the rest of his life.
When the story ended, Noah cried to the sky from a feeling of frustration. Why did she have to die? What would become of the boy now? Would he ever feel happy again?
System watched Noah with satisfaction. The advice of the CS yet again proved to be very useful. User seems to have partly regained his senses. Let's continue the healing process.
*Beginning a new story.* Said system.
"No wait!" Said Noah but the system was adamant and soon the darkness of the mind realm once again changed the landscape.
The sound of kids' laughter and the noise of screaming children sounded all around him. He was in the building with large windows that he already saw once in the story. It was a school.
Kid's ran around until a bell sounded in the hall calling them to enter the classes. Once the kids entered class and sat on their seats to wait for the teacher to begin the class, Noah saw two kids that were standing out from the main mass of children. These two were a lot younger than all the other children.
The small girl sitting at the front of the class room turned around and looked at another kid that was as young as her. The boy she looked at sat with leisure and disinterest on his face watching outside the window not noticing the girl's gaze on him. Girl voiced a silent 'humpf' and turned back to look at the teacher.
Noah noticed a strange sense of maturity that the boy's gaze was giving off while looking at the world outside.
While watching these two kids' daily lives in school, Noah soon realized why both of them were in the class with kids whose ages were far above theirs. This pair of boy and girl, both of them were geniuses.
Whatever task their teachers in school gave them, they completed almost perfectly. Whatever materials they were studying at the end of the course these two would be at the top of their class, even though they were younger than others.
There was however one peculiarity to them. The girl was always slightly behind the boy in all of her achievements. It was obvious she felt angry and jealous. So she studied hard just to beat the boy in her result. But no matter how much she studied she seemed to be always lagging behind. With time their daily interactions turned to friendship however competitiveness of the girl has not ceased. Every day she studied hard to win over him at least once. However in comparison the boy she struggled to defeat did not put any effort into his studies at all. Just skimming over the materials seemed enough for him to be above her.
Time passed and kids moved from class to class becoming older. At some point Noah noticed that although the girl studied as hard as always, the boy started to put in more and more time into his studies as if starting to be pressured by the girl.
At some point Noah finally saw that the boy had changed his approach to the studies completely. Instead of learning material that was given in class, he found material years and years ahead of his class and started to intensely study them.
Years passed and the funny competitive couple was becoming closer to each other. Many people knew of these two geniuses and their eternal competition. Noah soon noticed that the result of two kids becoming identical. And soon the boy started to lose his studies to the girl. The more years passed the less of a challenge he has started to be to the girl.
When they grew up into young people the boy did not seem like a genius anymore at all. Shadowed by the girls shining in front. But their feelings for each other have not weathered. After a while they got married and the girl was pregnant. She was a well renowned scientist hailed by the world's academics. The boy however was just a regular man with not a shred of his genius that he possessed in young age.
Soon the boy was diagnosed with cancer. And after a hard struggle he passes away. Leaving the young woman alone with their small child.
After the funeral, a young woman found a notebook left by her husband that shocked her.
It was a message left to her. He said that in truth he was not a genius. He lived the same life twice. In his first life he was just a regular boy that happened to be with her in junior school class, but after a time she skipped a year and went to study ahead. Since then they have never met. However, when he grew up and found out he had cancer at a young age, he once came across a newspaper article of a genius that broke under the weight of society and wasted her talent, never achieving anything in life.
It was an article about a girl that struggled alone in a world of people that were always older than her and never respected her. She had no friends and no one to rely on. After a time her brilliantly shining mind broke under the pressure and she ended up in a mental hospital without any achievements. It was an article about her.
Strangely before his death he thought how sad it was and how lonely she must have been. He thought that if he had a chance he would have liked to help her. Funny heavens seemed to hear his thoughts and gave him a second chance. He lived his new life with memories of his previous life. He never was a genius that she competed against; he was just a regular man that already knew it all.
However when they became older the difference between them became apparent so he struggled as he could to not be left behind and keep her company to give her a person she could rely on. However his disease was inevitable. Just as he died at a young age he would die again.
He asked her not to be sad. He lived a longer life than her and was thankful to her for the wonderful life she gave him. After years, a young woman sat at home telling her child stories of her dad and what a wonderful man he was. On the wall of their house there were photos of her and the young man that was her husband. There was also a photo of her receiving a prestigious scientific award.
Tears streamed from Noah's eyes when the story ended, making him bowel loudly.
"Why are you doing this to me, system? You son of a bitch."
*It looks like you have finally regained your senses. Would you like to read another story?*
"NO! You asshole!" Screamed Noah.
"Noah." Suddenly a woman's voice sounded in his realm, startling both him and the system.
"Huh? System?"
*I think this was an effect of the skill 'He who hears the call'. Someone is calling you.*
"Do you hear, Noah McDaniel?!" Sounded very familiar voice.
"Lina?" Asked Noah and suddenly the world around him changed as if he moved through darkness at the speed of light the mind real and screens disappeared behind him in a moment bringing him no one knew where.