Chronicles of the True Wizard

Chapter 194 - Book 11

Once the sun started rising again, Felix headed out to the Adventurer's Guild where he signed himself up for a simple extermination job. It wouldn't pay him much and were he not hunting as many souls as he could possibly find, he wouldn't have bothered with this job. The job itself was recommended for low D grades but unfortunately, everything else that matched his requirements were too high level to be efficient.

He brought the portal coordinates to the teleportation hub and walked through onto a barren and desolate planet. He cast his air bubble spell to keep the dust out of his mouth and fought with the wind as he approached the canyon ahead of him.

The assignment was to clear out a the monster nest within the canyon because they kept climbing out and disturbing the re

"Where to?"

Thezan looked at Rathos and squinted a little, "Nanskift?"

She shook her head, "Jozusto. Client's creds, right?"

Thezan snorted then turned back to the attendant, "Jozusto."

The attendant nodded and the portal behind them reopened, this time revealing a room with all black walls and a single desk in the middle. Behind the desk there was a human man wearing a completely black set of formal looking robes.

The man smiled as they approached, "Reservation?"

Thezan shook his head, "The Enchantment please."

The man nodded then led them to a door behind him, "Right this way please."

Felix followed Thezan and Rathos into another, completely black room that was a cube a hundred meters to a side.

Right in the middle of the room was the only thing in the room, a large circular table with three chairs around it.

They all walked over and sat down. Just a second after they sat down, a masked individual appeared exactly a meter to all of their lefts and placed a glass in front of each of them then the three of them disappeared.

Felix reached forwards and lifted the glass as Thezan and Rathos did the same. Rathos immediately threw the glass' contents down her throat while Thezan just sipped at it.

The glass itself was not made of glass but rather some kind of ceramic or porcelain he guessed. He wasn't entirely sure though. He decided Thezan was probably the better example to follow so he too took just a small sip.

As soon as the odorless liquid hit his tongue, his body was filled with an overwhelming sense of calm and peace. He felt memories flash through his mind, experiences fill him, anything in his past that represented peace and calm came to him.

He saw Thezan pointedly not drinking more while Rathos downed another glass as soon as it was refilled. Shortly afterwards, a dish was served to all of them at once by similarly disappearing servers.

The dish was a plate holding a single deep blue rectangular prism with a small looking cheese knife as the only utensil. Following Thezan's lead again, instead of Rathos who scooped the whole thing into her mouth at once, Felix took a small corner and placed it onto his tongue.

The dish was soft and cold but none of that mattered. As soon as it touched his tongue, he was filled with deep sense of sadness. Memories of learning about his parents death, pets dying, his friend David being sick, dying, flashed before his eyes. Looking up, he saw Rathos smiling wickedly while tears streamed out of her eyes and drenched her face.

Thezan looked sad but he wasn't crying. Felix took a sip of the drink and all the sadness was gone again, he was filled simply with peace and tranquility.

He took a bigger bite this time, half of the entire dish and it was enough to cause him to shed a single tear. The next half though, was not. It seemed he was either too used to the effect or only had a single tear in him.

He wiped away the tear and noticed that Thezan was pointedly not drinking from his glass yet so Felix copied him. Both Thezan and Rathos held their eyes shut, not that it made much of a difference in the almost entirely black room.

As soon as they had each finished the first dish, it was replaced with a bright orange and yellow dish. This one was served as two cubes rather than a single rectangle. Felix reached for his glass but Thezan caught him and shook his head lightly. Felix shrugged and took half of the second dish into his mouth and immediately understood what Thezan had been trying to show him.

The second dish filled Felix with a sense of warmth and happiness. It was joy and fun all bundled up into a small like rectangle. He saw memories from his childhood, ones he didn't even know he still had. He also saw the highlights of some of his fights over the last couple years since integrating.

On top of that, the new feelings didn't override or wash out the sadness from the previous dish, rather they melded together and took him on a ride. It was like watching a carefully crafted movie where he was intended to feel sadness then have that sadness slowly give way to joy. In a way, it made everything more impactful and meaningful.

He followed Thezan's lead and finally washed away the emotions with a sip then ate the second cube on the plate. He was filled with the same feelings as before but with no undertone of overcoming sadness, just pure joy and fun.

The plate was quickly replaced with another, once again served in two cubes and Felix was starting to get the idea. He ate one cube and felt his joy and fun meld together with feelings of worry and fear.

This process continued for hours, with dishes designed to complement each-other and create a progression of emotions. Felix had no trouble with any of the dishes and was thoroughly enjoying himself, even through the negative emotions until got a dish that comprised of two black cubes with dark purple swirls in them. Putting the first half into his mouth, he immediately spit it out and downed three subsequent glasses of calm and tranquility.

Neither Thezan nor Rathos were having issues with the dish but he just couldn't do it.

As soon as it had touched his tongue, his soul freaked out and the memories and experiences that flashed before him were entirely incomprehensible. He felt nothingness everywhere and at the same time, an immense pressure all around. It was pushing him, trying to dig into him, trying to eat him, consume him. He fought back and held strong but the, not really memory but experience, seemed to be endless.

It was an endless fight where neither side made any progress, where the burden was no easier to bear over time. The fight wasn't something he ever grew accustomed to, but it was everything. It filled every sense of his and he didn't think or know anything but the fight.

Luckily the glass of calm helped out immensely and seemed to completely wash away the experience entirely. He didn't bother finishing that dish and simply let the masked servers replace it with the next one.

That was the only dish he had to skip out of what had felt like hundreds. There were a few repeats but in the context of the other dishes around them, they felt completely new to him.

He also briefly spent some time trying to figure out how the effect worked but it didn't take him long to dissect. Each dish was filled with anima that was almost vibrating with the particular emotion. There were no actual experiences though so when it interacted with his soul, his soul filled in the blanks with his own experiences.

Due simply to the nature of the meal, not a single word passed between the three of them. They did however laugh, some cried, they groaned and they wallowed together. Though they were each experiencing flashbacks to their own lives, they were together and the experience was shared.

Ironically, it was the closest Felix had felt to anyone in a long time. The meal, or rather The Enchantment, had caused Felix to grow fond of Thezan and Rathos as if they were long time close friends. They weren't on the same level as David had been to him, but David was the only point of reference he had.

They finished their meals and by the end, Felix was actually surprised to find he felt invigorated physically. His soul felt at peace in a way, like it had been cleansed through hardship and emotion. His body though, it seemed as though the food itself wasn't just a way to transport the anima, it was filled with nutritional value and it was by far the most efficient food Felix had eaten. All of it had almost immediately burst into energy within his body.

Once his body was completely filled with energy, the rest sat in his stomach which resulted in actually feeling full and satisfied. Something he hadn't felt in years, since shortly after he had gone through his first evolution.

Thezan paid the eye watering 0.15 A bill and they all exited the building into a lobby area.

Rathos stretched out her body and rubbed her face while Thezan looked like he was finally completely relaxed.

"Ah, that really hit the spot." Rathos said as she contorted her body.

Thezan nodded, "Yeah. Enjoy it, we probably won't be eating anywhere like this for a long time now that this job is pretty much over."

Felix nodded, "So that's it then? There's nothing else to do?"

Thezan sighed, "As much as I hate Malrok, he's not an idiot. I'll report back to Dogran and we'll see if there are any follow up jobs but at this point, it seems like the next step is to track down whoever Malrok sold to. That person is more than likely a god so, not much we can do about that."

Felix frowned, "You think an actual god has it?"

Thezan shrugged, "Probably a minor one holding and transporting it for a bigger player. Malrok said 'the only person he'd trust' not sure who that is but if he isn't exaggerating, I have to assume it's one of the big three or another god around their level."

"Rhonan, Holy Mother and Edras are the big three?"

Rathos stood back up and nodded in Felix's direction, "Yup."

Felix looked to both of them then nodded, "Well, it's been a pleasure working with you guys. I appreciate you taking on someone much lower level than you and being patient with my lack of knowledge."

Thezan smiled and offered his hand, "I'm sure we'll get you in on some missions in the future. If you keep leveling as fast as you are too, you could become a regular in a couple epochs."

Felix took Thezan's hand and shook it, "Well, just let me know."

Thezan nodded, "We will."

Rathos immediately pulled Felix out of the hand shake as soon as Thezan finished speaking and hugged him up off the ground. She squeezed him and shook side to side, "We're gonna miss you sooooooooooooooo much kid."

While Felix could feel her squeezing progressively harder, he didn't actually feel the need to stop her. She held the hug clearly longer than she had expected to and continued to squeeze harder until eventually she just gave up and dropped him.

She regarded him with an equally impressed and confused expression but he just ignored her.

Thezan shook his head at Rathos' actions, "Just make sure you say farewell to Elric and Aros. I'm sure Elric will stop by with more poisons. Aros might go with him then, I know he had been meaning to get some things enchanted so maybe he'll finally do so."

Felix nodded, "Sounds good. Oh and thank you for dinner."

Thezan smiled, "Of course. I'll stop by with the rest of the payment later or leave it with the guild if I suddenly get too busy."

"Sure, thanks."

Thezan and Rathos headed down to ground level while Felix flew out the open door in the room.

He flew for almost an hour through the portal spires back to Inscripticae, practicing his mana control the entire way.

It had been a long time since he had slept and for some reason, Felix was actually feeling tired so when he got there, he headed straight for the storage closet and slept in his Pocket Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .