Lvl Up: [Poison Body] lvl 5
CONST 1
VIT 1
TA (END) 1
Lvl Up: [Sense of sll] lvl 9
DEXT 1
Every hundred ters or so, side galleries opened onto the main tunnel. At each junction, Priam stuck his nose to the ground, trying to catch the scent of the spider. Inevitably, it was coming from the front. The tunnel went deeper and deeper into the darkness.
Finally, after so twenty minutes, he reached the end. Before him lay a dark well. For a spider, the path simply continued vertically. Priam leaned over the edge and peered down. To the naked eye, almost nothing was visible. The lines of luminescent mushrooms continued, but giant webs quickly obscured the light.
"Shall we burn them?" asked Sphinx.
Priam thought for a second before shaking his head. "No. I'd rather not warn Anatole of our arrival. If he dominates the spiders, he knows an intruder is coming, but he has no way of knowing it's ."
"Except by divination," says Sphinx.
"Yes, except by..."
Priam suddenly stopped. It had been several hours since he had received a level-up from his divination resistance. The climax of the Reunion was approaching, so it was more than strange: it was suspicious.
"Sphinx, protect for a few minutes, please," he asked.
Sphinx nodded as she leaped from his shoulder and grew to almost four ters tall. In these narrow tunnels, she could defend one side against hundreds of spiders.
Priam sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes. Activating [Focus] and [ditation], he reviewed his mory. He was pretty sure there was a problem. [Eidetic mory] obeyed, and Priam slowly went back in ti, scrutinizing his mories.
The fight against the spiders, the descent into the tunnels, the discussion with Blueberry and Sphinx, the questions to his clones and...
The questions!
Answer: Ask about Anatole Aely'Samael's plan, position and weaknesses.
Where's Anatole Aely'Samael and what's his plan?" he had asked.
Priam gritted his teeth. His clones left nothing to chance, yet he hadn't listened to them: he hadn't asked for Anatole's weakness. He hadn't even thought about it, despite his inhuman mory.
There was only one possible explanation: he had been briefly manipulated. It was undoubtedly one of the only tis as Priam's Titles, Trees of rit and Talent synergized to increase his resistances. Trying to control him was a very complex undertaking, and he doubted any human had the strength and finesse to do it.
"Unless it's not a human," Priam murmured. He closed his eyes and invoked [Mirror of the Soul]. His reflection looked back at him, a mocking smile on its lips. It took you long enough... he seed to say.
Priam winced as he saw the chain that crowned his head. It was attached to a jar. Or rather, an urn. The chain was a taphor, symbolizing Anatole's power over Priam. Gritting his teeth in rage, the Viscount activated the purifying power of his Talent. The pond that held his reflection flickered for a mont, and the water receded a bit. The chain linking him to the urn shattered into a thousand pieces.
POT -8
Lvl Up: [Manipulation Resistance] lvl 6,7
WILL 6
Lvl Up: [Divination Resistance] lvl 12,13
TA (AFFI) 6
Priam was torn between anger and relief. Had it not been for Sphinx's intervention and his clones' phrase, he might have walked into a trap. According to [Eidetic mory], the urn - or Anatole - had been very thrifty. To prevent Priam from resisting manipulation, they had only manipulated him twice. The first ti, so he wouldn't question Anatole's weakness. The second, so that he wouldn't notice the increase in his resistance.
"I would have realized it straight away if I dived into [Mirror of the Soul]! From now on, I'll be checking my reflection at least once an hour," Priam swore to himself. His Talent was mighty, but it couldn't shine in the hands of an idiot.
Taking the urn between his fingers, the Viscount admonished himself. What kind of fool would pick up a cursed item carelessly? Gollum had thought he'd outsmarted the ring and paid the price. Fortunately for Priam, he was more powerful than Gollum.
Before anything else, Priam obeyed his clones.
What's Anatole's weakness?
Answer: Anatole seeks to resurrect his wife and their daughter Rose.
Priam sighed. As usual, love was the cause of great sacrifice. A man like him, capable of creating chiras by rging people, loves his family? The idea seed ridiculous, but if Pablo Escobar could burn thousands of bank bills to warm his daughter, then anything was possible.
The urn in his hands glowed darkly and Priam wondered for a mont if Anatole had always been mad. If a well-known ring could corrupt its wearer, why not the urn?
Observing the corrupted object from every angle, Priam refocused. Now was not the ti for guesswork but for action. He began by raising Anatole's danger level in his mind. The man was an outstanding manipulator, but above all, he was an incredible magician. Watching and manipulating soone from kiloters away was impressive. But perhaps he could be caught at his own ga?
Priam closed his eyes, keeping the urn in his hand. He projected himself back into [Mirror of the Soul] and invoked the image of his jar. If Anatole had been able to monitor and manipulate Priam through the urn, perhaps it wasn't just a receiver. The Grand Master of the Revenants certainly had to check regularly that Priam remained a good puppet.
If that was the case, if the urn could communicate with Anatole, it had to be able to find him...
Connecting to his Potential, Priam observed his reflection. Using [Eidetic mory] to recall the shape of the chains, he visualized them. The Potential invaded his ntal space and he materialized the chains again, crowning his reflection. They were projections, but their power was real. Priam nearly forgot the danger represented by Anatole. Only a surge of willpower prevented him from innocently continuing on his way.
POT -15
Priam wished to continue observing the chains without succumbing to their power. Looking at his reflection, he had an idea. His Potential vibrated, and the mirror image trembled for a mont. A weight lifted from Priam's shoulders. The chains still existed, but they now exclusively chained his reflection.
The reflection and Priam were temporarily disconnected. The disadvantage was that if an enemy manipulated him again, his image would not be chained. Thus, [Mirror of the Soul] would no longer warn him when his freedom was hindered. It was a dangerous decision, but Priam had to take risks to deceive Anatole.
However, it did have one considerable advantage. [Mirror of the Soul] was powerful because it did not concern itself with the link between cause and effect. In practical terms, the reflection was chained by the urn, and thus under Anatole's yoke. By restoring the chains, Priam had restored Anatole's skills, so he would see no change. He would manipulate the mory of Priam's reflection - thus increasing his resistance - without affecting the real one. But it gets even better...
Back in the real world, Priam analyzed the cursed urn. By channeling his Potential into [Aether Perception], the jar revealed a kind of thread, so fine it was almost invisible.
Lvl Up: [Aether Perception] lvl 11
TA (PERC) 3
POT -3
The wire was taut, disappearing into the ground and connecting the urn to another point below Priam. Moving the urn from left to right, he watched the immaterial thread follow the movents.
"Bingo."
Lvl Up: [Aether Perception] lvl 12
TA (PERC) 3
POT -4
"Sphinx, no need to be discreet after all. I've found our friend."
"Is Blueberry here?"
"... No, I'm sorry. I an I found Anatole. He's our enemy, but I call him friend ironically."
"Why?" asked Sphinx. For a mont, Priam was tempted to tell her to forget their conversation, but he rembered that she was very young. Sphinx had no parents to explain such things to her, and if he wanted to be a good friend, he had to help her.
"Well, it was ironic. Simply put, we humans love to laugh, as it makes us happy. There are several chanisms for making soone laugh. One of them is to say the opposite of what you think. It marks a contrast between reality and what you're saying. When it's done on a subject that's not very funny in the first place, it's often ironic," he explained. "Get it?"
"Not at all, you're explaining extrely badly," Sphinx replied in a neutral voice.
"Ah. Uh... Then I'll find an example," Priam said, scratching his head.
Suddenly, Sphinx burst out laughing and Priam looked at her, dumbfounded, before understanding.
"Okay. That was pretty good," he laughs. "It wasn't really irony, but it was funny. I must be an excellent teacher."
Sphinx laughed harder and Priam smiled before squinting. "Wait, that wasn't ironic, though!"
Sphinx's laughter echoed through the tunnel.
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