The Sigil Of Chaos

He looked across the room toward his chair, blinked, rubbed his eyes, then confirmed there was indeed a girl sitting in the chair. After some of the remnant haze of sleep was cleared from his mind, Nadran finally managed to recall who this girl was, and why she was there.

[Actually, wait, why is she still here? I appreciate her helping me to my room, but did she actually just stay here after I fell asleep? Leaving aside for now the fact that a virtual stranger spent the night sitting in my room while I slept (which I probably shouldn"t), doesn"t she have anything better to do?]

Nadran had been injured and exhausted upon being brought back to his room, so he had quickly fallen asleep upon reaching his bed, but now that he was awake again, he learned that Rethara had never actually left. This revelation was perplexing, to say the least.

""Morning," Rethara said casually, glancing up at him as he sat up.

"Good morni- wait, no, why are you still here?"

Rethara paused, looking confused, then began to speak. "Why ca…" She quickly trailed off, however. Rather than finish her thought, she instead gave him a slight smile and said, "It"s a secret."

Seeing that he wasn"t going to get a straight answer out of her, Nadran sighed before climbing out of bed. He began getting ready for the day ahead, trying his best to ignore the uninvited guest.

Not long after, he left his room, walking out into the morning sunlight. Rethara followed a distance behind him, looking about randomly and pretending she wasn"t blatantly following him. [Have I… gained a stalker?] Nadran thought as he glanced at Rethara out of the corner of his eyes. She was now humming an upbeat tune as she walked down the street, which formed a strange contrast from her seemingly calm and emotionless exterior. [Why does that melody sound familiar…]

Nadran cleared his thoughts as he arrived at his destination: the sigil hall. Despite the impressive repertoire of sigils he had accrued over the years of sneaking into lectures, he felt that none of the sigils he had learned were perfectly compatible with his fighting style. They would function well as auxiliary sigils that aided his overall combat prowess, but for core combat sigils, he was currently only relying on the wyvern claws sigil to fight. He felt that he needed another primary sigil to complement the abilities of his claws, preferably shoring up any weaknesses that they have. Since he had a substantial amount of contribution points from the survival challenge room and the alchemy request he had completed, he figured that he could spend some of them on a new sigil.

Nadran walked into the building, which was much emptier than the last time he was there, and began browsing through the sigils. After spending some time looking around, though, he began to get frustrated. There seemed to be nothing wrong with the sigils he was looking at, but just like the sigils he had previously "acquired," they didn"t feel right. It was a strange feeling that he couldn"t describe, but whenever he imagined using the sigils as a core part of his battle strength, it seemed… wrong. The feeling was as though he was watching someone else using the techniques rather than himself, and this disconcerting feeling was stopping him from actually choosing a sigil.

"So, you"re looking for a sigil?" a calm voice spoke out from behind him, causing him to jump in surprise, spinning around to face the speaker. Nadran had gotten so immersed in examining the sigils that he had forgotten Rethara was following him.

"No, I just felt like staring at sigil descriptions for half an hour," Nadran responded sarcastically. [You ask a silly question, you get a silly answer.]

Rethara rolled her eyes at his response, then began speaking again. "I might have some sigils you"d be interested in. You want to see them?"

[When did Rethara turn into a shady shopkeeper?] Nadran questioned in his head upon seeing her strange behavior. "What, are you saying that you have a better selection than the sigil hall?" Nadran asked in exasperation.

"Yep," Rethara replied without missing a beat, causing Nadran to stumble on his way to the next sigil pedestal.

Nadran turned around, looked straight into her eyes, and said in a monotone, "You"re saying that you, by yourself, have a better a.s.sortment of sigils than the entire sigil hall of a major cultivation academy?"

"Mhm," Rethara nodded in agreement. "Let"s go back to your room so I can show them to you."

"Wait, your sigils are in MY room? How did they even get there?" Nadran asked, feeling like his head was spinning. He had so many questions, but he felt like he would go insane if he asked them all. [Someone who was a stranger before yesterday stayed in my room overnight, followed me around, and claims to have some incredible sigils that she is willing to show me for some reason… and the sigil manuals are in my room?!]

"No, the sigils aren"t in your room, they"re in here," Rethara responded calmly, tapping her forehead with her finger. "I just don"t want to be showing them off in public."

[But you"re willing to show them to me?] "Whatever, let"s go," Nadran sighed, feeling the start of a headache forming. [Is this all some kind of weird fever dream? Well, under the a.s.sumption this IS real, I don"t see the harm. She"s stronger than me, and if she had some ulterior motive, she probably wouldn"t use such a strange and complicated method to achieve it. Why would she wait until I"m recovered rather than forcing me to do something when I was injured and unable to fight back? She is probably being sincere, and I"m overthinking it because of how odd this situation is.]

Having finally convinced himself to go along with Rethara"s suggestion, he began walking back toward his room.

A short while later, Nadran was back at his room, looking at Rethara with a skeptical expression on his face. "Alright, now what?"

"Hm, let"s see," Rethara began. "What type of sigil are you looking for, exactly?"

Nadran began explaining the specifics of what he was looking for. "Oh yeah," he added after describing his ideal sigil for a moment. "Maybe something with some sort of… dragon-type attribute would help, to complement my cultivation technique and claws."

Rethara"s eyes shone unexpectedly upon hearing this last part, and she remarked "Dragon, huh?" She smiled, and a look of contemplation crossed her face.

"…Yes?" Nadran responded, confused. [Why did she only focus on that?]

After a brief moment of silence, Rethara nodded and said "Alright, I think I have a good sigil that meets your requirements. Let me show you its layout."

"Wait," Nadran spoke up uncertainly. "Are you really just… giving it to me?"

"Yeah, I am." She responded. "Do you not want it?"

"It"s not that I don"t want it. It"s just that…" [Didn"t we just meet for the first time yesterday? Unless…] "…Have we… met before? Before yesterday, I mean."

Rethara"s eyes widened upon hearing this, and he saw her eyes fill with pain and sadness before she smiled self-deprecatingly and responded, "No. Yesterday was the first time you ever met me."

Nadran was confused upon seeing such strong emotions flashing across Rethara"s normally calm face, but he tried to ignore it and continued on. "Then… are you hoping to get something from me in return? I can"t imagine you would give something valuable to a virtual stranger for free."

Rethara looked surprised, then responded with a faint smile, "Well, there are a couple things I was hoping you could help with in the future. If you want, you could think of it as a sort of repayment for the sigil. Of course, it"s up to you to decide what you want to do. It"s not like giving you this sigil costs me anything, in the first place."

[A favor, then? Well, she basically said I can turn down any requests that seem excessive, so I guess it"s fine.] "Sure, that can work, but I reserve the right to refuse anything I think is overboard."

"Alright," Rethara responded. "This is a sigil that is centered around mobility. It is called the wyvern wings sigil, and I believe it is part of a set alongside the wyvern claw sigil you use. While it is called wyvern wings, it does not actually allow you to fly. Its applications are more limited to gliding and enhancing your jumping ability, but it is still very useful… well, as long as you can use it properly."

Nadran nodded seriously, then began tracing the sigil in the air, looking back to the example Rethara had made for reference. After about twenty seconds, he completed the sigil, causing a pair of translucent purple wings to form behind his back. They felt real, like they were a part of his body, and he could even feel the cool breeze blowing against them.

"This is a sigil that most people are unable to properly utilize. It basically requires learning to control a new set of limbs in tandem, and it can take years to learn to move them as well as your arms and legs, so it usually isn"t worth the time investment. For you, however…" Rethara trailed off with a mysterious smile.

Nadran, however, was too focused on his new wings, and didn"t catch what Rethara said. The wings felt familiar, like he had always had them, and he quickly flapped them, causing the surrounding air to get blown around. He leaped up into the air, then fully extended his wings before slowly drifting back down to the ground. The sensation of near weightlessness was exhilarating for him, and he couldn"t help but smile as he touched down once again. While it wasn"t true flight, it was still something exciting and fun to experience, and it almost made Nadran feel like he was a kid again.

He resisted the urge to mess around with the wings more and turned back to Rethara. "Thanks, this seems great. This should help me deal with the range disadvantage of my claws."

"I"m glad you like it," Rethara responded lightly. "Oh yeah, have you ever considered using any other weapons, aside from your claws?" Rethara leaned forward and spoke with a slight smile. "For example… a chain scythe?"

"That… is a very specific example," Nadran commented, giving Rethara a strange look. "Well, I"m still not completely decided on what weapons I"ll use in the future. I honestly only started using the wyvern claws because it synergizes with my cultivation manual. As for a chain scythe specifically… I don"t know, I"ve never even seen one in person before. Maybe it could be a good weapon for me, but I"d have to try it out first."

"Interesting," Rethara replied calmly. "Well, unfortunately, I have some things that I need to do, so I"m going to head out for now. I"ll see you later."

And with that, she left, leaving behind a speechless Nadran. [I really cannot understand her thought process,] he complained in his mind with a sigh. After a short period, however, Nadran managed to get his thoughts back in order and continued training his new wings.

Nadran activated his wyvern claws alongside his wyvern wings, then began leaping into the air before plummeting down to the ground while swiping the air with his claws. After spending hours familiarizing himself with the things his wings allowed him to do, he finally stopped, wiping the sweat off his forehead and taking a long sip of water to cool his throat.

After his training session, he spent some time cultivating, trying to advance toward the mid slate sigil realm. While he did not reach it in the hours he spent on the task, he still felt that he had made significant progress, and his internal energy pool was notably larger than before.

[I spent the last 21 years of my life unable to even reach the low slate sigil realm, but now I"ve made such incredible progress in just a few days. Having a good, compatible cultivation manual really does make a world of difference.]

Suddenly, Nadran felt his stomach growling, and he realized that the sun was already beginning to set. He hadn"t eaten for the whole day, and had instead spent hours training. He quickly got up and began heading toward the dining hall, quietly humming a tune despite the fact that he couldn"t quite remember where he"d heard it before.