Chapter 475 - The First Whisper

Chapter 475: 475 - The First Whisper

They went back to running shortly after, at a calmer pace, and Lohan used that time to make a decision that had already been forming for a while.

From the emergency biomass stockpile he kept, spending points on those skills cost almost nothing. It was forty for Mental Voice, sixty for Abyssal Clarity, thirty for Mental Perception, and he had thousands of Biomass stored away precisely waiting for a goal like that.

Even so, he didn’t spend it all, because he knew he needed to keep a reserve, so he invested only in Mental Voice and Abyssal Clarity, leaving Mental Perception at the first level for now.

[Mental Voice Lv 1 → Lv 11]

[Range extended to 35 meters. The user becomes able to project thoughts to multiple targets at the same time, and the projections become clearer and carry emotion beyond words.]

[Abyssal Clarity Lv 1 → Lv 11]

[Processing speed increases even further, and the user becomes able to perfectly isolate parts of their own mind.]

Although this seemed to have the same effect as high level parallel processing, the concept behind the two was slightly different. While one made the main mind able to work on different things at the same time, the other could perfectly isolate parts of the mind without them interfering with one another.

The change came like a wide, gentle wave, and Lohan had the impression that the room of his mind, which already seemed immense, was gaining a few more walls that moved farther apart, a few more windows that opened.

He decided to test it in the most demanding way possible.

First, he opened the Synaptic Sync and let all the information from the scattered clones arrive at once, the ones accompanying the guild groups hunting across the map, the ones watching the entrance, and even the fragments he had left in the volcano cave to finish digesting what was left.

Before that, he could only handle that flow for a few hours with the amount of incoming information extremely limited, and afterward he would feel his brain heat up and lock, as if it were about to fry inside the helmet.

Now the flow arrived whole and organized, every piece of information taking its place, and he still had room to spare.

At the same time, he watched the forest, listened to the rhythm of Lisa’s strides and, in a separate corner of his mind, let the memory of the bluish valley open again, with the light coming out of the rock and the voice singing in the distance.

They were three different things, and he held all of them without any getting in the way of the others, like someone who had spent their whole life using only one hand and suddenly discovered they’d always had two.

’I didn’t even feel like I was limited,’ he thought, with an astonished laugh. ’I only realized now that I was.’

It was in the third hour of the trip that Mental Perception began to show what it really did, and Lohan realized that it was a new way of seeing the world. The forest, which had always been a dark mass of sounds and smells, was full of tiny lights.

He saw one of them at the top of a tree, warm and quick, which he instinctively knew was a hungry owl, and another crawling among the roots, cold and slow, focused on something small and vulnerable.

All of them pulsed with simple, raw feelings, hunger, fear, tiredness, curiosity, everything reduced to the essentials. It left him quiet for a good while, because he had never stopped to think that the monsters he killed every day also felt something, and he remembered the hum of the offspring, which he now understood as a kind of raw emotional language.

He didn’t stay stuck in that guilt, because he knew it wouldn’t help, but he kept it as a lesson, promising himself he would no longer kill anything without at least acknowledging what he was taking.

Around the fifth hour, he noticed a light much closer, and recognized it right away, because he knew that warmth. It was steady and constant, with a golden glow that oscillated slightly with the rhythm of the run, and he felt in it the tiredness, the determination and a small, persistent tenderness that seemed to turn toward him, and which he didn’t dare examine.

’You’re tired,’ he said over the link, changing the subject before she noticed he had picked up on more. ’Let’s stop for a bit.’

"I’m fine," Lisa answered, too out of breath to be convincing.

’Your tiredness is really visible to me now, you know?’

"Are you reading my mind?" she asked, amused and suspicious at the same time. "Because if you are, I’ll rip you off my back."

’Just the general state, I promise. I can sense traces of tiredness, hunger, your mood, but none of your thoughts.’

"Good," she said, but she slowed down anyway. "Just ten minutes."

They stopped near a stream, and while Lisa drank water, Lohan took the chance to test Mental Pressure for the first time, releasing a small wave toward a bush where he sensed a hidden creature.

The bush shook, and a hare bolted out, running desperately away, its light blazing with pure panic.

’Sorry, buddy,’ he thought. ’It was just a test.’

"You just scared a rabbit with your mind," Lisa commented, laughing. "That’s very heroic, Halon."

’First field test. Success rate: one hundred percent.’

When they resumed the trip, the sky was already starting to brighten, painting the treetops pink and gold, and the road there was already wide and well worn, with wheel marks that showed frequent travelers passing through.

It was at a bend, as the sun was just appearing between the trees, that he sensed a new light approaching, calm, old, a little tired, with a soft worry pulsing in the background like a melody, and he knew right away it was a complete mind, a real person.

Soon after came the sound of wheels and hooves, and a simple cart appeared around the bend, pulled by a stubborn looking mule and driven by an elderly man in a straw hat and gray beard, humming an off key tune.

Lisa slowed by instinct, and Lohan felt his heart, or the equivalent of it, speed up.

’Lisa,’ he said, quietly. ’I want to try talking to him.’

"To him?" she asked. "He’s just an old man, Halon, he doesn’t know what we are."

’That’s exactly why.’

When the cart got close enough, he chose his tone carefully, since it was his first contact with someone he had never seen, and sent a soft, clear thought toward the old man’s mind.

’Good morning, sir.’

The man pulled the reins so hard that the mule let out a grumble of protest, and he stayed there looking around, until his frightened eyes fixed on the two tailed white fox and the blue slime on her back.

"By the gods," he murmured, slowly taking off his hat. "A... a talking slime? Am I hearing right, or did the sun cook my head?"

’You’re hearing right, sir,’ Lohan said, and even through thought he felt his own voice smile. ’I apologize for the scare. This is the first time I’ve been able to communicate this way, and I couldn’t resist trying it with someone.’

The old man blinked, and then a hoarse laugh began to rise from his throat, growing into a guffaw that made the mule snort again.

"I’ve lived on this road for sixty years," he said, wiping his eyes. "I’ve seen witches, I’ve seen bandits, I even saw a small dragon once, from far away. But a polite slime wishing me good morning, I’d never seen. Good morning to you too, my friend."

Lohan felt an enormous warmth spread through him, different from all the others, and realized that, without meaning to, he had started to vibrate with pure joy.

’Thank you,’ he said. ’That means more than you can imagine.’

The conversation lasted only a few minutes, but it was enough for him to learn that the man was named Torvald, that he was taking vegetables to the market in the nearest village, and that the mule was named Acorn and was "more stubborn than a wizard’s mother in law."

Lohan listened to it all with great attention, and before they said goodbye, Torvald held out a red apple toward Lisa.

"For the fox," he said, with a smile. "A creature that carries a talking slime on her back deserves a treat."

Lisa took the apple carefully, and spoke in a voice laughing at the situation.

"Thank you very much."

Hearing the female voice in his own mind, the old man was even more shocked now, unable to believe that both creatures could speak!

Lohan and Lisa didn’t wait for anything more and left, satisfied.

’I did it,’ Lohan said, finally, his voice choked, even though it was only a thought. ’I talked to someone. On my own.’

"I know," Lisa replied, biting into the apple, with a joy so genuine she didn’t even try to hide it. "I saw. I’m very proud of you, Halon."

He felt her golden light, small, warm and steady, glow a little brighter, and this time he didn’t look away.

’Thank you for being by my side when I still couldn’t,’ he said, sincerely.

Lisa didn’t answer, only leaned her head lightly against him, and the two of them moved on, with the morning sun rising behind them and the silhouette of the Astralis Requiem’s fossilized tree already appearing, big and familiar, on the distant horizon.