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Since he had reached sixth tier, Barrett decided it was safe enough to leave the area around Stredo. Before that, he would have been somewhat unsure about people being sent to assassinate him. Some of the factions more displeased with how Stredo had changed might be interested in him as a target, and if they could kill him far away from Stredo, it would be quite hard to investigate- and prove who did it. Grandmasters were watched carefully enough that they shouldn’t be a problem, and unless people wanted to sacrifice all of their masters to possibly kill Barrett, he thought he would be alright. He wasn’t worried about the Majestic Invoker’s Circle or any of the others attempting revenge… since they had been dealt with properly. At the very least, all of their grandmasters had been captured and executed- after complete but not particularly long trials. Many of the lower tier members were deemed uninvolved or not important enough to put in the effort to convict… and they weren’t just summarily executed. Even so, there had to be quite a few people left with grudges against Barrett.
Even so, with Nilima with him, Barrett wasn’t worried. “Why are we going to Ogloni again?” Nilima asked.
“You have a problem with going there?” Barrett looked at her but her eyes just shifted away suspiciously. Then he held up a talisman, “It’s about these. I can make them function pretty well by putting in a few week’s worth of my magic, but it would be better to reach a higher skill level. I’m not that good at magic though so I need some advice. It’s taken me a decade and a half to just almost go from third to fourth tier in magic.”
“That’s slow,” Nilima commented. “It shouldn’t even take half that time with your overall cultivation level.”
“Yeah I already know that. But…” Barrett pointed at Nilima, “Do you think you have any right to sound arrogant like that, miss I-only-cultivate-energy?”
She turned her head away, “I just never needed to cultivate magic.”
“Ah, makes sense,” Barrett nodded, but he wasn’t done teasing her yet, “You know your heartbeat gets real loud when you lie?”
“What?” Nilima turned towards him in shock, “You can hear that even with my energy concealing it?”
Barrett laughed, “Nah. I just thought it was suspicious that you were hiding it.” Barrett had to quickly bring up his arm to block her palm attack. Energy poured into his arm and violently tried to tear it apart. However, after a few moments it dissipated on its own. If Nilima really wanted to hurt him she could have done a lot worse… but it still hurt a bit. “Hmm, but seriously if you want to hide your emotions you have to not look like you’re hiding them.”
“What about you?”
“I’m in complete control of my body… but most of the time it’s better not to hide it. While I don’t need to control berserk energy, staying true to my emotions in general is still pretty important. But I can fake it if I need to. I still have to be prepared though.” They walked on for a few more minutes without anything being said- though at their speed it might not normally be called walking. Then Barrett continued the conversation, “But seriously are there any people in Ogloni that have grudges with you? I need to know who to watch out for.”
“Umm… not really…” Nilima tilted her head to the side in thought, “Just the Disciples of Death,” she tallied off on her fingers, “The Soul Stabbers, the Order of Skin, the Night Watchers, some group of archers,” Nilima switched hands, “Some kind of Tome or Book or Scroll dudes… and some old dude who thinks I tried to kill his unicorn. Not like… that many people. Most of them probably don’t remember me or don’t really matter.”
“Wait what was that about the man with the unicorn?” Barrett recalled a certain old man from near Ogloni, and described him. “Did he look something like that?”
“Well, yeah.”
“… and he’s angry at you?”
Nilima shrugged, “It was like, a decade ago. He accused me of trying to kill his unicorn, but I ran away and everything was fine.”
“Hmm… he didn’t freeze you in place with his glare?”
“He did for a moment… but then he stopped. Maybe he got tired? Or he just realized he had the wrong person.”
“Hopefully that second one.” Barrett couldn’t say exactly how strong the man was having met him when he was much weaker himself, but he seemed to be at least at the grandmaster level. “And all those others?”
“Eh, like I said most of them don’t really matter. They’re weak. It’s probably fine.”
—–
“Master Barrett,” Crenthor gestured inside his shop. “Do come in.”
“Ugh, do I have to call you Master Crenthor? I don’t wanna.” Barrett shook his head. “Though that fake master of yours never existed so you’ve sort of always been the ‘master’ of this business.”
Crenthor shrugged, “I guess not. Who is this? Wait… she was there last time we met, right?”
“I think so.” When they last met was when Crenthor had helped him settle back into his body.
Crenthor turned to Nilima, “I don’t believe we ever got properly introduced. My name is Crenthor, Master of Souls,” he bowed.
“Nilima.” She nodded her head briefly.
“For one of Barrett’s friends, I would have expected no less.” Then he turned to Barrett, “What do you need? Nobody dying this time, I hope? No curses?” His eyes flicked back and forth between the two.
Barrett shook his head, “Right now, everything is fine. It’s just that I’ve been getting close to master tier in magic, mostly focused on talisman related stuff. I wanted to get some advice.”
“Got money?” Crenthor grinned. “Or you can pay in services. Though first I need you to go into detail on your troubles first. I can’t help with everything.” Crenthor’s senses swept over Barrett, “Wait, did you reach sixth tier in Pure Body Tempering?”
Barrett shrugged, “Yeah. Is that so surprising?”
“Surprising? Not overall… except you were dead for five years. Or something like it. I would have expected you to fall behind.”
“I caught back up,” Barrett shrugged.
“That…” Crenthor frowned, “You don’t feel unstable, like you rushed… but you can’t just ‘catch back up’ in cultivation.”
“I was still getting experience, and I had some insights. Nothing related to magic, sadly. Anyway, about that…” Barrett began explaining his issues with advancing his magic. “… and I can’t help but feel my total magic power is holding me back, but that can’t be all.”
Crenthor nodded, “Let me see a talisman.” Barrett handed one, and Crenthor turned around the thin carved jade in his hands. “No issues with the structure. Have you tried out different materials?”
Barrett nodded, “I tried out a number of things, but stone and gems seem the best. Maybe because I first trained earth magic. Well, I also carved some metal plates. Writing with magic inks onto various parchements wasn’t that great though, I kept breaking them. Too much power, maybe? But I tried to use less and it just didn’t function.”
Crenthor stroked his chin, “I see, I see.”
“So, do you know how to help? What do you need?”
“Ah, well…” Crenthor shrugged, “I have no idea. I never had trouble where you were, so I can’t give you any advice. Sorry. I think it’s just… a difference of ways of thinking.” Crenthor tapped his foot awkwardly. “Oh! Since you came all the way here, you should see Caprica! I’m sure she’d be happy to meet you again. I bet you’d be surprised to see how much she changed.”
“… Sure.”
—–
In a way, Barrett was surprised. After all, he’d expected Caprica to feel… different. Instead, she still felt like a third tier necromancer. But… that wasn’t right, was it? Hadn’t she wanted to…
Caprica grinned, and as Barrett watched she went from being a third tier necromancer to… being a sort of mini-Crenthor. A master tier soul magic cultivator, but only fourth tier instead of sixth- Crenthor had managed to keep ahead of Barrett, though that wasn’t unexpected. “So, what do you think?”
“Hmm, not bad. I can definitely tell you worked hard.”
Caprica shifted to a different stance, “That’s not all.” Suddenly she displayed the aura of a master tier energy cultivator, and Barrett got a strong feeling of sharpness from her. Then Caprica looked towards Nilima. “Hey, no need to be so on guard.” Caprica held up her hands, “Either one of you are way stronger than me.”
Instead of backing down, Nilima reached towards the whip at her side. “Whose souls did you steal?”
Caprica tilted her head, then laughed, “I think you have the wrong idea. These…” she shifted herself back to the soul magic cultivator, “Are.” Necromancy, “All…” second tier fire magic. “My own.” Caprica felt almost like a non-cultivator, maybe a first tier body temperer. “It’s a lot of work to cultivate with different parts of your own soul, okay?”
“… You can do that?” Nilima asked, looking from Caprica to Barrett.
Barrett shrugged, “It should be possible, but I don’t know how. Crenthor had some idea.” Barrett turned towards Caprica. “Just one question, didn’t you give up necromancy?”
“I did but… well, some of the things are just so useful, so I relearned them.” She shifted and displayed her aura, “I should feel different, right?”
Barrett took in the feeling, then nodded. Instead of like horrible rotting and death, she felt more like… the sadness of visiting a grave and the peace of those long dead. And, interestingly enough, like new life. “Still very necromantic though. About that other one… do you have an uncultivated part or…?”
Caprica shook her head, “I was trying to see if I could do body tempering, but it’s… so hard.” She held up her arm and flexed her bicep, “I have functional muscles now, but that’s about it.”
“You… want to try out Pure Body Tempering? You might actually be able to do it right even with all the rest of you.”
“… I’d certainly like to try,” Caprica nodded. “Having multiple sources of power to call upon can be quite useful.”
Nilima stood nearby, and even without looking Barrett could tell she wanted to say something, but didn’t. Well, he could ask her later when they were alone.