Chapter 205: An Emotional Moment

Bogumir raised his hand. “Why are you listening to what a cat tells you to do? What’s next, taking advice from a frog?”

“Excuse me!” Vasil said. “What is wrong with taking advice from a frog?”

“You’re not really a frog though. You’re a man trapped in a frog’s body. That’s different.”

“Yeah, I’m not so sure Phisto is just a cat. He has a class and I’m not sure if cats usually have classes. Do they?”

Bogumir shrugged. “I have no idea. I’ve never heard of a cat with a class, but then again, why would anyone use identify on a cat? They’re cats.”

Vitek had been oddly quiet since arriving at the cathedral. He hadn’t been his usual outgoing self, especially around Phisto.

“Come on, Vitek!” I threw my hand up. “You know something. Tell us.”

“Sometimes a cat is just a cat,” he said. “Sometimes not.”

“Thanks for the invaluable insight. Did you go to the same school as Phisto or something? Can’t you just answer the question? This is not the Vitek I know and love!”

Vitek glanced up at the shelf. “I don’t know, Hecate. He looks so exceptionally normal right now that it makes him stand out. He… he wasn’t like this when I first saw him.”

So Vitek had seen something that we all missed. Which probably wasn’t strange, since his perception was likely far beyond all of ours. He also was very careful about what he said around Phisto, like he was scared of him or something. But why would he be scared of Phisto?

I also took a quick look at Phisto. He was still asleep, or at least pretending to be. I decided to steer the conversation in a different direction, since this was going nowhere and I didn’t want to make Vitek any more uncomfortable.

“Tell me about it. He also wasn’t like this when I first saw him. You know what. Forget about it. I’m equipping that dagger and we’ll go from there. I’m about ready to go to Prudnik as well. We’ve spent enough time holed up here.”

Bogumir looked concerned. “You sure about that dagger?”

“No, which is why I’m equipping it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

I shrugged. “Makes perfect sense to me.”

“Surely equipping it for just a few moments cannot be too harmful,” Vasil said, surprising me. “After all, Chaos is a stat anyone can invest in, though most don’t. And the dagger does not appear to have any other enhancements that would negatively impact you.”

It was really strange to me how Chaos seemed to be such a mysterious stat, while like Vasil said, anyone could invest in it. Everyone seemed to always avoid talking about it for some reason. The more I thought about it the weirder it was. Even Phisto’s explanation didn’t feel very satisfying, though maybe that was just how it was—not everything always had a satisfying answer. Still, I felt like there was probably more to it. Maybe equipping the dagger would give me some perspective.

I put my hand on Stabigail’s hilt and closed my eyes. “Here goes nothing.”

I pulled it out of its sheath and even though my eyes were closed I could see the flash of blinding white light that burst out of it. The dramatic choral note felt so much louder inside and it almost hurt my ears, but not quite. When I opened my eyes, glitter lazily drifted down all around us, covering everyone. They all looked startled and had an expression like they’d all yelped in surprise. I hadn’t heard anything, though, the choral note must have drowned it out.

“Fuck me,” Bogumir said. “I hate that thing. Phisto’s right, Chernobog’s Parting Gift is much, much better. Equip it and destroy Stabigail.”

“Yikes.” Vitek scratched his hair, glitter falling out. “A warning would have been welcome.”

“Sorry about that,” I inclined my head. “Totally forgot it did that.”

Bogumir shook his little fist at me. “No you didn’t! You closed your eyes! You knew exactly what would happen.”

“I closed my eyes to prepare for this emotional moment. Stabigail has been with me from the start. She has sentimental value. I can’t just take her off to replace her and not close my eyes. She deserves respect, especially since she has saved my life before, and I wouldn’t have all of those beautiful heads and hands without her.”

“You know, sometimes I almost forget that you’re a psycho and start to think you might have gotten better, but then you’re always quick to remind me that you will never get better. You will always be a psycho.”

“A psycho? Really?” I scoffed. “I have just embraced my skills. What would you suggest? That I cry every time I have to chop off some heads or liberate some unhinged mass murderers from their hands? I’m not going to apologize for my class. Or are you going to apologize for your creepy crawly spider-hands as well?”

“What the fuck? If you hadn’t told me your stats I wouldn’t believe you only have 28 points in Chaos. I’d assume all of your points were in it. In fact, if you had told me your class was [Chaos] I’d believe it. Actually, I’d still believe that.”

I rolled my eyes. “Clearly you haven’t been listening to what Chaos actually does.”

“And you think I’m going to believe what a dumb cat says about anything?” Bogumir said, scowling. “Look at that dumb thing! All he does is lick his own ass and sleep.”

“A beautiful life,” Vitek said, nodding sagely.

“What? Is that what they do in Kowczyn? That’s where you said you grew up, right?”

“We are more connected to nature than you city-lovers. We appreciate the finer things in life.”

Bogumir walked up to Vasil and shook him. “Please tell me something sane.” He looked up at Kasia. “Or you. Kasia, tell me you’re still normal.”

Kasia gave him an apologetic look. “Phisto is a cat. It’s what they do.”

“Yeah, but Phisto talks. Apparently. To me he just sounds like a cat. Maybe Hecate is imagining that too.”

“All animals talk,” Vitek said.

“Anyway,” I said. “Enough of that. I’m going to do it.”

I put Stabigail on the table, then picked up Chernobog’s Parting Gift. As soon as I equipped it, it was like a ripple of something pulsed out of me into the world. The Dexterity boost was monstrous and I could swear time had slowed down somewhat. I wiggled my fingers and they felt faster and more nimble than ever. What was that ripple, though? Was that the Chaos taking effect?

“You guys see that?” I asked.

“See what?” Kasia replied.

“That ripple or something. I don’t know. Do I look different?”

She shook her head. “Not much. Your mana has slightly changed color, and it seems to flow slightly faster, but it’s really not that big of a change.”

“Hmm. Guess that dagger isn’t so bad after all, eh?”

Chaos made certain things less certain, right? So what if I…?

I rummaged around in my satchel until I found what I was looking for—the fingertip I found after I saved all those people—who were now part of my Order—from the strzygi. I pulled it out, blew on it, then tossed it at Bogumir.

He jumped to the side, dodging it, and threw his hands up. “Hey! What the hell? Why did you do that?”

“I don’t know. I was just trying to see if something uncertain would happen.”

I squinted at the fingertip, but nothing happened. Maybe Chaos didn’t do anything at all and that was why no one ever put any points into it or talked about it. Maybe Phisto was messing with me and was now laughing his butt off (on the inside, since he was pretending to sleep) that I fell for it.

On the other hand, that chaos seed definitely had done something to that tree, and as an offering it was pretty great as well. Should I put some points into it just to see what would happen? No. If I were to coincidentally happen upon some Chaos-infused items I might give them a spin, but investing points into something that I really had no idea what it actually did seemed pretty damn stupid. Besides, my points were better invested elsewhere, like Strength, because the shockwave from my [Push] bullets was still messing with my balance. Some points in Strength would likely make me more resistant.

I put the six stat points I gained from leveling up into Strength, taking it to 25, and I felt pretty good about that. Now none of my stats felt neglected anymore, except maybe barrier, but since I was using [Mana Shield] it would benefit more from Attunement than Barrier anyway.

I glanced at the fingertip again, but it didn’t move. I left it on the table. 100 Dexterity from a single item was ridiculous. Especially an item that I barely even used. Nice. After the tournament I would definitely check the door room again to see if any more would open. If all of them contained loot this good I would be a goddess in no time—a real one, this time.

I pushed Stabigail toward Kasia. “Here. You can have her. She will serve you well, I’m sure of it.”

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“Yeah. I think I’ll keep using Chernobog’s Parting Gift for now.”

I rubbed my hands. “Alright, everyone, I think we’ve spent enough time at the cathedral. It’s time to say hello to our old friend Melchior. I bet he missed me terribly.”