Chapter 204: Say We Have a Young Little Gunwitch

Phisto stretched, taking his sweet time, clearly enjoying finally having an audience for this. “Chaos isn’t really a stat. Not the way you think of it. Strength makes you stronger, more durable in some ways. Dexterity makes you faster, more precise. Barrier increases your barrier. Attunement makes your magic more powerful and increases your mana pool. Stamina allows you to last longer in all sorts of things. Luck tends to tip the scales in your favor just a bit more. Chaos, on the other hand, doesn’t make anything bigger, it doesn’t make you better, it just makes things less certain.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t help me much,” I said. “What does it make less certain?”

“Everything.” He locked his yellow eyes on mine. “Before the System, before your classes and your skills and your neat little numbers, there was Chaos. It predates the gods you know, it even predates the System. The world wasn’t built out of order, Hecate. The world was built out of Chaos. Everything exists, because of Chaos. Before it there was simply… nothing.”

He flicked his tail. “Now, the System was built to try and create order out of Chaos. A wall around reality. But you can’t keep Chaos out. You can never keep Chaos out. Because the more you try, the more certain you can be that it will slip right in. It doesn’t like to be contained. No, that’s not the right way of saying it—Chaos doesn’t like or want—it can’t be contained. It was the first, and it will be the last.”

“Right…”

“Do you know what causality is, Hecate?”

“Something happens because of something else?”

“Sort of, yes. Causality is the link between a cause and an effect. The first event makes the second event happen, and the second event depends on the first. It’s a neat little box. A wall surrounding what can and cannot happen. When A happens B will always follow. The more Chaos you invest, the thinner that wall gets. Throw a bit of Chaos in the mix and maybe the second event doesn’t happen at all, or perhaps a third event happens. It increases the chance of anomalous outcomes.”

“And why would I want that? Sounds like it could easily backfire.”

“I’m glad you asked. Say we have a young little [Gunwitch]—with great hair, by the way—say she runs into a group of eight inquisitors, all higher level than her. Perhaps in an inn of sorts. What are the odds of her making it out alive?” He grinned. “Well?”

Was he talking about that time Kasia and I ran into Bogumir’s squad? I completely crushed them. I didn’t even get a scratch. Sure, my muscles were pretty sore after, but other than that I was fine.

“Pretty good?” I asked hesitantly.

Phisto shook his head. “Do you really believe that?”

“Yeah!” I slammed my fist into the table. “I really believe that, because I was there and you weren’t. You’re just saying this shit so I will equip that stupid dagger or invest a million points into Chaos for some reason. What’s your agenda, Phisto? What do you want? Why do you care so much if I put points into Chaos or not?”

“Hecate?” Kasia asked.

“Hold on, Kasia,” I said.

“What do I want?” Phisto asked. “I want what I have always wanted. To ensure no harm may come to you. Ever.”

“Why? Why do you want that?”

“Because I promised your mother.”

“Why?”

“We are family, are we not? Family takes care of each other.” The corner of his mouth twitched as if he was trying not to smirk.

“Why, Phisto? And what’s with the evasive answers? Why can’t you just answer the damn questions?”

“But I am answering them. That you don’t like the answer is no fault of mine.” He licked his paw.

“What’s going on with you and my mother?”

“Sorry, Hecate, but I can’t answer that. But I wasn’t lying about protecting you. I made an unbreakable promise. I will protect you. Even from yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look, Hecate, your mother and I… it doesn’t matter. If you want to know more about our relationship, I suggest you ask her yourself.”

Why was he being so vague? Did she command him not to tell me anything, or was he simply afraid of her, just like everyone else?

“You’re not evil or something, are you?” I asked.

At that he laughed. “Sometimes I am, usually I am not. Just like you. Just like most people.”

“But you’re not just a cat.”

“No… not just a cat.”

I raised my palms. “And?”

“I am many things, friend to some, foe to others, sometimes a teacher or even a student. To you, a guardian, perhaps a friend.” He winked.

“Right. You sure did a lot of guarding. I haven’t seen you in a million years. Where were you when everyone was trying to kill me, huh? I could have used a lot of guarding in the past couple of months, but you were probably out somewhere licking your butt.”

He just smiled at that.

“And what’s with the tripping and stuff?”

“I told you already—I get experience from that. Gotta level up, you know? Gotta be strong.” He yawned. “I’m tired. Maybe we can continue this some other time?”

“Just like that? After all this? You’re just going to sleep?”

“Well, first I’m going to find a nice spot for it, of course. Perhaps that shelf up there.” He gestured at it with his head. “Maybe I’ll hop on the altar. And then I’ll go to sleep.”

“None of this has helped me one bit,” I exclaimed. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“I am always helping, Hecate.” He stared up at the shelf, then turned his head. “The dagger. Consider it.” He jumped onto the shelf and curled up, closing his eyes.

“Phisto?”

He didn’t respond.

“What was that?” Kasia asked.

“I’m not sure.” I rubbed my neck. “I don’t know. He said a bunch of vague things and whenever I asked a question he gave answers that can only be described as avoidant. He was very clear in that he wanted me to swap Stabigail out for Chernobog’s Parting Gift, though. Adamant, even.”

“It would give you a significant stat boost,” Vasil said.

Bogumir snorted. “Yeah. Also to Chaos. Good luck with that.”

I picked up the black dagger. “Phisto implied Chaos isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He said it just makes things less certain. He even mentioned me surviving against eight inquisitors as something that could have been influenced by Chaos. That was a positive outcome. Though I’d like to think I did that all myself.”

“How many points in Chaos did you have when you fought us?”

“Just the one… I think. So what he said didn’t make a lot of sense, unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Nothing.”

Was it possible that I had some type of hidden Chaos multiplier or something that I just couldn’t see? A lot of things that had been happening were pretty damn unlikely. Some of the outcomes of events were borderline absurd even. Then again, there had been a lot of that in my life.

Could it be that Phisto had been there and had somehow influenced the outcome? I would have seen him if he had, wouldn’t I? I also didn’t know if that was possible. And why would me having more points in Chaos be good for him? Or for me for that matter. Wouldn’t that also mean that if I was likely to beat someone the possibility of that not happening would increase? I wouldn’t want that.

I glanced up at him. He was snoring softly now, like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me. What if he said all of that just to mess with my mind? That could have been something he’d do, couldn’t it? But he had always protected me in his own way, he hadn’t lied about that. Ugh. Why couldn’t he have just answered my damn questions like a normal person? Why did he have to be so much like… him? It was infuriating and left me with more questions than I had before. I went from not knowing what was going on to super not knowing what was going on.

I spotted Vitek staring at me and gave him a nod. “What do you think about all of this?”

“About what?” he asked.

“About what Phisto said. Surely you have some type of [Omniglot] skill as well. You’re a bard-type class. Don’t tell me you didn’t hear what he told me. I saw how you reacted when I asked if you saw anything strange about him.”

“I wouldn’t want to offend the… cat.”

“Why? What’s going on?” I turned around and looked up at Phisto, then turned back to Vitek. “You can tell me. He’s sleeping. It’s not like he can hear you.”

Vitek glanced up and frowned. “I don’t think he is.”

I cast [Soul Index] on Phisto just to be sure.

[Purrveyor of Chaos]

Status: ???

Great. So he could even hide his status at will. Maybe he hid it because he knew I would check. That also meant he definitely wasn’t sleeping.

I sighed, unsure how to deal with all of this. I spun the dagger. “Maybe I should just give it a try like he said?”