Soulless Soul

Chapter 67: The Night Watch

Now it was Vesper’s turn to share.

After the pause she opened her mouth to speak.

"My Attributes have an affinity with divinity and holy energy, as well as a certain resistance to various effects." She paused.

"I have three Active Attributes: a chain..."

He was careful to keep his breathing measured so as to not give away his inspection.

But she was not telling them everything.

The omissions hung in the air like the heavy dampness of the cavern. And judging by how much effort the blind girl was making in trying to hide her feelings, the secret hidden among Crazy Hope’s Attributes was not something small. It was intricately woven between her carefully measured words, a carefully guarded boundary that she had no intention of crossing.

Interesting. Everyone had ghosts. Some just kept theirs on a shorter leash.

"...and a sword made by Chloe. The last one is Holy Prayer, which you’ve seen me use during the floor raids."

Vesper continued on, her tone remaining flat and unreadable; it was the cadence of a trained speaker, one who had recited the passage dozens of time. It reminded Sky of something of an old military manual.

"The chain is extremely sturdy and can increase my defense. The sword is very sharp and can protect its wielder against soul attacks to a certain extent."

It grew more oppressive.

"My Passive Attribute..."

Vesper’s gray eyes narrowed slightly, a ghost of ghostly glint reflected from the dying embers.

"...is an all-rounder."

"Huh?"

Sky blinked.

He was sure Vesper would not reveal all of her cards, just like him. It would be foolish to do otherwise in a place where even a single misplaced piece of information could be bartered for. However, an All-Rounder Passive Attribute was exceptionally rare. With most of the survivors pigeonholed into certain specializations-tanks, damage dealers, scouts-it was unheard of for anyone to have a Passive Attribute that augmented every facet of one’s physical and spiritual being.

Then again, she was Crazy Hope-one of the few people in history to get a Titled Name during her Dungeon Run, and that alone set her apart from the standard template of the Awakened.

I wonder what her Soul Rank is? If her passive was truly an all-rounder, her spiritual foundation was required to be exceptionally dense in order to support it, lest her conflicting energies collapsed upon themselves.

"That’s pretty amazing."

Chloe nodded, excitedly bobbing her head and smiling.

"Vesp is also an amazing fighter! You should have seen her dealing with the Savage Beasts during our walk through the forest. She didn’t hesitate when the pack swarmed us."

"Well... I didn’t actually see it."

Chloe gave an embarassed, self-deprecatory smile, scratching the back of her neck as her sightless eyes drifted off into the distance.

"But it sounded very scary. The thumping, the slicing, the roaring... I just stood behind her and tried not to get stepped on."

Sky didn’t need anyone to tell him how formidable Vesper was. He didn’t need Chloe’s secondhand acoustic accounts to know the danger radiating from the girl across from him. He had already seen her fight with his own eyes.

Or, technically, with the eyes of his soul clones.

Whatever they have for eyes. Using that bizarre, detached perspective, he had watched Crazy Hope move with a terrifying, lethal economy of motion that left no room for error.

Meanwhile, Chloe sighed, the light heartedness fading away.

And even if it was, Sky had no intention of ever revealing his deepest secret to anyone.

Vesper appeared to have plenty of secrets of her own, sealed behind the steely gaze of her gray eyes. They were three anomalies huddling together for warmth, waiting for the other to show a weakness.

Sky spoke, easing it up with a casual shrug.

"Good. That’s good."

He glanced at the two girls, taking note of the worn leather of their armor and the faint scuff marks from their recent battles. We aren’t walking into the next zone all blind."

He stretched, the joints popping with a series of dull clicks that reverberated from the stone walls. His muscles ached from hours of hyper-vigilance, and the cool night air was beginning to seep through the cracks in their barricade.

"I guess it’s time to sleep?"

In the darkness, Vesper tilted her head, listening to his words with a distant, unreadable expression. The shadows seemed to pool beneath her chin, enhancing her features into sharp lines, and for a few seconds neither of the girls answered.

"Someone needs to keep watch."

Sky immediately looked away, staring at an interesting patch of moss.

"Don’t look at me."

"You’re keeping watch."

Sky turned and stared at her, his eyebrows knitting together.

"...Excuse me?"Your clones don’t sleep," Chloe said, reminding him of the obvious with a cheerfulness that seemed entirely unearned. She leaned back against her pack, tucking away a small whetstone she had been idling with.

Sky looked between the two girls, his jaw dropping slightly.

"So that’s how this works?"

"Because my clones can stay awake, I get to be on night duty? No rotation? No drawing straws?" She was clearly enjoying the flawless logic of her argument.

"Of course you’d say that."

Vesper calmly sat down, pulling her knees tightly to her chest and resting her chin upon them, apparently satisfied. The matter was closed in regards to her.

Sky pointed at her, his indignation flaring up.

"Wait. You’re going to sleep? Just like that?"

"Yes."

"And you’re leaving me here to watch for monsters in a high-danger zone?"

"You’ll have your clones." Her voice didn’t even lift at the end of the sentence, it was a statement of absolute, unshakable fact.

Sky opened his mouth to launch into a full defense of his labor rights as a summoner, then closed it again.

His soul clones didn’t suffer from metabolic fatigue, nor did they require REM sleep to function. They could stand guard until the environment decayed around them. Still, something about it was extremely unfair.

"So you two get to sleep while I sit here guarding the camp like a glorified security system?"

Chloe smiled softly, "Think of it as your contribution to the team."

"My contribution?" in case you forgot."

The two of them presented a united front, and Sky knew he had to accept it.

"Fine. I’ll keep watch."

With a flick of his wrist and a subtle pull of his spiritual reserve, he summoned one of his Soul Clones. The shadow, ethereal figure materialized seamlessly from his shadow, its form shifting slightly before stabilizing into a perfect form.

"Wake me up immediately if you see anything suspicious," Sky muttered to the clone, though the command was conveyed far more clearly through their shared mental link.

The clone nodded once, a silent gesture of compliance, before vanishing entirely into the oppressive darkness beyond the threshold of their camp. Its presence was gone from sight, though Sky could still feel its sensory anchor tethered to his mind.

Sky then plopped down against the cold, uneven stone wall and crossed his arms, pulling his cloak tightly around his shoulders to stave off the chill.

Chloe quietly settled herself next to Vesper, the two of them sharing the limited heat of the small alcove.

"Goodnight, Sky."

"Yeah."

He watched the two girls close their eyes, their breathing slowing down almost instantly as they surrendered to their exhaustion.

A few seconds passed.

The fire had completely died down now, leaving only the dull, crimson glow of dying coals.

They’re really going to sleep. Like that. No tossing, no turning.

He looked around at the dark and dangerous wilderness surrounding them, listening to the strange, unnatural whistling of the wind through the crags.

In a place like this? Where the flora was predatory and the fauna were nightmarish?

And they call this beauty sleep?

Sky shook his head, a mix of exasperation and disbelief curling up inside him.

"Beauty sleep..."

"These two have lost their minds."

A distant, blood-curdling roar suddenly echoed through the darkness.

Sky froze.

His eyes slowly widened, his muscles instantly locking into a state of high alert. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as the acoustic resonance of the cry died down, leaving an even more terrifying silence in its wake.

"...Please tell me that was far away."

Sky’s expression turned serious. His hand drifted instinctively towards the hilt of his weapon, his casual annoyance evaporating into cold, focus.

Of course.

Why did I have to say anything?

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