The Crack In Heaven [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy] Chapter 21: Chapter 21: No One Knows Who I Truly Am

Read chapter 21 of The Crack In Heaven [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy] by Adamus_Auguste on NovelPedia.

Chapter 21: No One Knows Who I Truly Am With a heavy sigh, Kael gripped the supply bag. He munched the little meat on the half-gnawed chicken carcasses. Had he ever tasted chicken? Not that he could remember. This one's dryness made it bland, the trash from the thugs, but it was good meat, at least not from rats, cats, or dogs. He washed the cardboard-like taste down with fresh water from a canteen, his mind already reviewing options. Help Tonio. He wanted to keep his promise, really, but the entire slum would chase him if he left the sewers in the company of someone looking more rat than man. Staying here was out of the question. It didn't mean he had to give up on Tonio, though. All he needed was to move him somewhere that aligned with his own plans. Hide him in a rented place? Only if I earn enough. Even then, he'd never stay inside. No, it has to be somewhere isolated, or near a sewer entrance, so he can vanish if needed. Later. First, Riccardo. He'll break his anchor... I'm not convinced... He needed more clues to make truth mutation safer, and Riccardo needed a miracle. Kael shut his eyes. Guilt wouldn't change the outcome. Even without him, Riccardo would do it if it meant increasing Tonio's chances of recovery. He leaned back against the wall, elbows against his knees, dark hair jutting between the fingers clenching his head harder than he wanted to. A round frame pressed against the back of his arm. He pulled the glasses he stole from the facility out of his chest pocket. The dark frame was cold against his palm, and the unblemished glass reflected the torchlight in brighter tints. He brushed the temple, his fingers finding engravings. Relic 78. He glanced at the ledger hovering beside him. So, the special items he retrieved in the submerged temple were relics as well. Garrick scammed him beyond everything he could have imagined. He crossed his arms with a click of his tongue. Still, he got the ledger. It hovered beside him silently, and he grabbed it. Perhaps, just perhaps, it had entries about relics. Even if it didn't, powers had prices. So did relics. The image of the corpse that wore the glasses flashed in his mind. Its skin clung to its bones, but it was whole, except for its empty eye sockets. Must be the price. I need to understand if wearing them will damage my eyes or if I can avoid side effects by using them correctly. He flipped the ledger open, skipped the first page on which entries about his truth of endurance sparkled faintly in the torchlight. He bit his lip when he reached those about Giovanni's anchor-ghast transformation, and finally found a half-filled page amidst the blank ones. ✦ Silent Frame ✦ ──────────────────────────── Automated echo of the truth of concealment: "No one knows who I truly am." Primary Function: Obscures a truth bearer from relic-based detection and truth-seeking abilities. ──────────────────────────── Risk of Breaking: Medium. Side effects: Slowly rots the wearer's eyes if worn too long. ──────────────────────────── Kael's finger stilled on the risk of breaking. Why did it look as if someone's truth had been trapped in those glasses, and how did they do it? One answer, many more questions... At least Giovanni had been right. He could hide from the priests at the next harvest festival. With a deep exhale, he put the glasses on. His vision didn't change; they felt like normal glasses. A veil of fog filtered from the frame, neither warm nor cold. Not as much as what the eyeless corpse generated, but enough to shroud his features and likely cover him from detection. He kept them on, expecting his eyes to sting while imagining how he'd appear to others. No sting after a couple of minutes. If it could last for hours, it'd be a veritable treasure. Not the time for dangerous tests. He stowed them back in his pocket, hoping the fog wouldn't draw attention instead of concealing him. *** Thirty minutes earlier, before Kael's discussion with Riccardo, someone hunted what refused to be se