Return of the Woodcutter

"I'd advise you to let him live," Ogoro said, pointing at the bald unconscious man underneath Aito. "If the Chosens learn you killed him, you will have hundreds of people hunting you down."

"And what guarantees me they won't do it, anyway?" Aito asked, ready to break the man's neck. "So far, they don't seem to be reasonable people."

"No one can guarantee they won't, that's for certain," Ogoro said. "But what's certain, however, is their sect leader will chase you to the end of the Tower after you kill his strongest pawn."

'Shit…' Aito cursed internally. Only nasty shit would happen if he dealt with this bald guy right away. If he didn't, he might still have to deal with nasty shit, but fewer.

He could deal with a few people, but hundreds were hardly manageable in such an unfamiliar place. Aito lacked information about them. Acting on anger and, for the sake of vengeance for attacking him without thinking about the consequences he would have to deal with, was plain foolish. If he had somewhat of an advantage over them, he would kill Sam without batting an eye, however, that wasn't the case.

Also, he knew from his brief experience in prison, and life in general, that vengeance could drive people to such extremes they wouldn't care about laws, even more in what seemed to be a lawless environment like the Tower.

Moderators existed to keep the Tower in order, but they would rarely intervene in the living quarters during CDs. Also, they were in charge of other floors, and their surveillance wasn't absolute. Apart from the first and second floor, they were only one per floor and couldn't manage anything if dozens of problems occurred at the same time—which often happened considering their numbers. Roan had been pretty clear on that point.

So if Aito let Sam live, he would probably have to deal with fewer problems. He would certainly have issues with the sect, but less. Although he'd prefer to follow his own logic, and kill him right now, Ogoro might be right. According to him, the sect had hundreds of members, if not more.

'Damn you, Roan, couldn't you have talked to me about that kind of important information?' He thought, cursing the merchant. 'Now I'm stuck between a stupid choice and even stupider choice. So whatever I make, it'll be stupid, anyway.'

"Fuck," he said, standing up. "I hope I won't regret this."

"Hard, but wise decision," Ogoro said, walking towards him.

"Wise?" Aito snorted, "Not so sure about that."

"In my previous line of work, I've come to understand that taking a life is easier than to spare one," Ogoro said while taking Sam's pulse to see if he was truly alive. "I've done many bad things. I've taken a lot from others. But in this life, instead of taking, I would like to give. Not to everyone, of course, just those I want to, haha. That's why I think it's a wise decision."

"Hum, giving instead of taking," Aito said, looking at Sam's armor.

Seeing Aito undressing the bald man, Ogoro asked. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, I'm just 'giving' him what he deserves."

***

After grabbing Sam's armor for himself, and attaching him naked to the fountain, Aito went back to the Square, followed by Ogoro. The latter offered to go to his room for a drink, but Aito refused. Ogoro then told him to come by anytime during CDs and went back to his room in the red corner.

Aito barely knew the giant and didn't want to risk getting into a possible trap, even more now, since he knew Ogoro had some kind of connection with Kai.

Also, at that point, he just wanted to finally rest. He entered his room, dropped his equipment and bags next to his bed, and, too tired to take a bath, he let himself fall on his bedsheets.

Aito had slept countless times covered in dirt; he wasn't about to care about cleanness, although a hot bath would do him good, he left it for tomorrow morning.

There was, however, one thing he wanted to do before sleeping. He took out his candle and used it to pry open the red memory bead's secrets.

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[Memory bead]

Type: Knowledge Transfer

Description: A bead made using a solidified soul fragment as the container for memories. Gives access to the knowledge and/or power of the bead's maker. As the purity isn't perfect, the host will need to train in order to entirely grasp the knowledge. A part of the knowledge might be lost during the transfer and/or overtime due to a lack of training. The host will also be subject to minor after-effects such as headaches that will last an hour.

Application: Activation upon consumption

Purity: 80% (The host will have one month's time to gain as much knowledge as possible.)

Restriction: None

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'A headache and one-month time… hum.' He thought, wondering what it was about. The last memory bead he had consumed hadn't had that kind of after-effects. It also hadn't required training to gain the skills.

He then remembered his conversation with Roan, who had said that most bravers—who were made using memory beads—were pale copies of the originals. This meant that memory beads didn't necessarily impart all the knowledge or skills to the users, probably depending on their purity. Following that train of thought, it meant that "perfect purity" was extremely rare.

'Makes sense I suppose,' he thought, storing the candle back into his pocket.

He then ate the bead, thinking that it was better to have a headache now in a safe location than tomorrow when he visited the third floor. Nothing happened at first upon consumption, then, progressively, flashes of memories invaded his mind like a virus.

Ogoro's knowledge flowed through his brain. Various weapons usage such as daggers, rifles, swords, guns, started to feel more familiar to him, yet distant. Joined with it was knowledge about human anatomy, martial arts, and also how to better torture someone or simply kill him.

'Fuck… my head!' He thought, enduring the pain. It felt like someone was poking at his brain from the inside. If that were the pain from an 80% purity memory bead, he didn't want to imagine what a lower purity would do to someone.

The headache prevented him to sleep, forcing him to endure it for an entire hour. With time, it progressively died down while a considerable amount of foreign knowledge in his head accumulated.

'Damn… this guy… did he spend every minute of his life training…' He thought before falling asleep from exhaustion.