A Sinner’s Chance

With our experiments done and the data collected, Arya and I felt confident that I hadn't actually used my new tool. We doubted that anyone would be unable to remember something the size of that entering, let alone having one of the eggs inside of them. Of course, there was still a small chance that I had, since we couldn't really be sure of how the eggs interacted with an intelligent creature capable of sexual reproduction. But we had done the best we could for now, and if we learned I had left a child or thirty, we'd obviously have to come back.

There was only one more thing I wanted to do while we were still away from the village. Absorb the token I'd received from Gabriel. If I managed to capture the cat monster the hunter had mentioned, Steria would no longer be a part of me, which meant she'd be unable to help purify any curse that might come along with the Skill.

As such I had Arya move outside the range of the Skill, and summoned Steria from her hiding place in my mana pool. As was typical when I used the Skill, white fire burst forth from my body leaving wounds and burns that would be fatal for most people, before it coalesced into the anthropomorphic lioness I knew as Steria. "Greetings Master." she said while bowing lightly. "Since there is no danger, I assume you have made a decision about the Token? Or is is this about my Vessel?"

"What I can't summon you just because I wanted to see your pretty face." I teased, which only caused Steria to give me a deadpan look. "You're right, it's about both actually." I took some time to describe the situation before producing the token. Steria was excited about potentially getting a Vessel, one that might even match her expectations. I had much control of my mana now, and if Arya were to help, I should be able to keep it from even attempting to devour Steria and the token.

Arya walked over and gripped my hand as Steria took the token and returned to my mana pool. Unlike the last time she didn't disappear and hide, but let the white mana she was made from remain out like a beacon, however, none of my Yin mana reacted as I focused on keeping it still. It wasn't long before the token began to melt away and I could feel the power of divinity flowing from it and into my body.

I was quite surprised how quickly and effortlessly the process went, and I even felt a little silly involving Arya and Steria since it seemed that they had been unneeded. I made sure that I had absorbed all the divinity before opening my Status. I saw the new Aspect Skill Hathor's Venom, not too surprising for an assassin, though there was actually another new Aspect Skill, Amun-Re's Eye, something I vaguely recalled Steria mentioning when I'd first asked about the Token.

'Hathor's Venom: A fragment of the Divine Assassin Hathor. Allows a user to produce and inject venom. Medium increase to Agility growth correction. Major influence increase among serpents. Divinity Breaker is unable to break the seal.'

'Amun-Re's Eye: A unique Skill that only exists when the five Aspects of the Eye of Re are in a single place. It is a representation of violence, pestilence, judgement, and vengeance. Increases the efficiency of all of its Aspects original strength. Divinity Breaker is unable to break the seal.'

The Skills were quite good, though I wasn't sure of how effective they actually were without testing them, but we'd already spent so much time in the village that it was probably about time we set off for the Forest of Darkness. As such, we simply enjoyed a few more days in the Yin-Yang Village as we prepared to part ways with Arya's parents and the rest of the villagers. We planned to visit again after resolving my issues with Alcrem, but before that we needed to get to the center of the Forest of Darkness. Though we were planning on taking a more scenic and indirect route as I wanted to stop by the open land the hunter mentioned seeing the big cat-like monster.

The day of our departure soon arrived and we bid farewell as I hooked up the undead horses to the carriage. We'd cleaned the carriage yesterday as it had been sitting for quite some time and had become filthy since I'd totally neglected it after coming back from the Well of Balance.

The air was crisp as Arya and I set off from the village, the signs of Autumn becoming more prevalent as we moved away from the village. It felt so strange to be out of the village and its magically regulated weather, but the feeling of the cool wind wasn't all that bad. Unlike when we'd made our way to the village, we didn't rush as we leisurely made our way to the place our quarry was. Had I wanted to, we likely could have arrived before noon the next day, but sometimes it was nice to just take some time and enjoy the journey and the accompanying scenery.

I hadn't thought we'd run into anyone since we weren't really on a main road, but there was actually quite a large amount of caravans heading through the area, both in the direction we were heading and the way we had left. Occasionally a group would come and ask to share our fire, or if we had any extra food. 

There was of course those with bad intentions, such as slave trader who tried to capture me and Arya, but he wasn't even that strong, so it was no surprise that his carriage didn't actually hold any slaves. We had several other encounters both on the path and off the path while we camped. Though probably the best part of the trip was being able to have sex with Arya anywhere we liked since we no longer had to worry about her killing off anyone who so much glanced in our direction while we went at it.

That said, most of the time we still just did it in the carriage as neither of us were exhibitionists, though I would be surprised if either of us developed the Skill as our outfits were quite revealing. Arya's because the more skin she had exposed to sunlight the better and longer she could function, while mine was simply that normal clothes were uncomfortable, and I disliked having to make new ones whenever we got into a fight with the rest of my armor on.

It was nice to be on the move again, but it didn't last long as the two of us finally reached the plains next to the mountain that the hunter had shown me on the map, now it was only a matter of finding and subduing the beast with out killing it, something I could only hope that we would manage to accomplish.