2.21

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The writings carved into the Word Wall were incomprehensible to me, but I wasn't here to read it in the first place. I actually had done so, actually. On the Internet.

Here lies the guardian

Keeper of Dragonstone

And a force of unending

Rage and darkness

At least, if it's the same as in the game, then that's what it said. And that fucker definitively was a force of unrelenting.

Sitting down in front of the stone, I put my hand on it as I entered into a communion with the Force, hoping to decipher the wall's secrets.

Just standing in front of it, I could already feel it was not ordinary, and now that I was touching it, and focusing on the Force, I felt it.

The wall was exerting influence over the world, over the Force, and embodied a concept.

To push.

However, while I could feel it, I also quickly understood that I wouldn't be able to learn shouts without having an Elder Scrolls bloodline.

The wall wasn't as useless as I thought it would be though, as I felt insight on the Force.

Shouts and Force Abilities may not seem to have much in common, but both were actually about manipulating the forces of the universe. When one uses a Shout, they command the world to act a certain way, which is similar to the way a Sith used the Force.

Yet, at the same time, it wasn't just about forcing the world, it was also pushing it in a certain direction. To shout, one needs to truly understand the meaning behind a concept, and materialize it through the shout. Just shooting FUS-ROH-DAH wouldn't do anything if one didn't understand the concept behind it, or have the correct physiology for that matter.

It was a little strange, but those were powers from two completely different universes, so having anything in common was rare enough already.

I meditated on the insights from the wall for about a dozen minutes, before stopping. I had already gotten what I was.

I could feel that my Force Push had gotten stronger, probably the progress I would have made in a month or two. It was impressive enough, considering it had only taken me ten minutes to comprehend it.

Unfortunately, this was the only Word Wall related to the Unrelenting Shout within the game, and probably within this Skyrim, so I wouldn't be able to learn more for Force Push through Word Walls.

Overall, I had managed to get everything I had come here for, and some more. Now, all I needed was to find my sword back.

Silver lining is, I'm sure it hasn't clipped through the map this time.

However, as I looked through the room, I was surprised to find a severed head leaning against a rock. It was slightly disfigured, but after a moment I looked down, and realized it was Loraine's head!

It hadn't just been my sword that had been sent flying by that Shout from the Draugr, Loraine's head had also been sent flying. Luckily, it wasn't too disfigured, so his face was still recognizable.

Tying it back to my hip using a tendril from the ruined Leather Boots, I didn't take long to find my sword, and was finally ready to leave. I had picked up the Dragonstone, too, tying it to my back as it was a little too big to get in my bags.

I wish I had the game's inventory.

Speaking of the game, I was glad to see there was a hidden shortcut leading out, and so after a small room in which I picked some more gold, I was finally out!

Walking out of the dungeon, I found myself at the side of the mountain, facing the White River. Now, all I had to do was to follow the White River downstream, and I would be able to return to Riverwood, and finally be done with this.

However, my body was currently wracked with pain. I was holding on, but it was really uncomfortable, and I wanted to rest.

Moreover, it was night, and heading to Riverwood now would be useless. Moreover, there happened to be something that would be useful to me nearby.

Climbing down the mountain, I followed the river, but upstream instead of downstream, and I quickly found what I was looking for.

I had reached the lake that was the source of the White River, and although I couldn't remember the name of it, what I was interested in was the small island in the middle of it.

Diving into the lake, I swam towards the island, despite the pain the effort inflicted me with.

Halfway through there though, I felt a pain coming from my leg, and looking I saw a giant fish with a set of razor teeth clamping on my leg, drawing blood.

I… had forgotten about the slaughterfish.

Well, they weren't really that much of a danger, they were more of a bother than anything else. Be it in the game or in real life, they looked really dangerous, but they weren't actually that strong. Their bite was painful, but that was it.

For them to represent any real danger, they would need to be in a large group, and even then they were so large, only so many would be able to attack at the same time.

Grabbing it, I crushed it to death, before continuing to swim towards the island. It wasn't really difficult, even if I didn't have the boost of the gauntlets I would have been able to do it, so now it was a piece of cake.

By the time I reached it, I had been attacked by two more slaughterfishs, but as I was looking out for them, I killed them with a Force Choke before they could reach me.

Walking to the Lady Stone, I placed my hand on it, and used the Force.

[Blessing of the Mage Stone removed.]

[You have received the blessing of the Lady Stone! +25% to Health and Stamina regeneration speed.]

That's why I wanted to come here. In the game, I found this stone to be pretty useless, because the other stones were simply better, but since I was next to it and needed to heal, I decided to use it.

Here, however, it would save me plenty of time.

Sitting against the stone, I decided to start using Self-Healing here, as no one would come bothering me here.

The Super Soldier Physique already increased my healing speed by quite a bit. Using Self-Healing boosted that by quite a bit, and the addition of the Lady Stone only made it even better.

By dawn, my injuries had completely healed, and I could be said to have made a full recovery. Most injuries did not even leave scars behind, although I still had faint traces on my chest and my legs.

Now that the sun had risen, and I had made a full recovery, it was time to return to Riverwood. Before that, however, I made a stop at the Guardian Stones. There, I got the Mage Stone Blessing back, discarding the Lady Stone Blessing.

It was good, but in the end the Mage Stone was more useful to me overall. I was here to train first and foremost, after all.

However, as I was on my way back to Riverwood, I made a surprising encounter.

A group of three men, dressed in Hide armors, walking like zombies. But the moment they saw me, their faces paled, before one of them muttered, "H-he followed us here! Run!"

But as they started running the opposite way, I simply tilted my head in confusion. After a moment though, I was reminded that before all those Draugrs, I did fight the bandits, and some escaped.

What a coincidence, meeting them here.

I did not run after them however. There were thousands of low level bandits like them, and there were only three of them. These probably weren't even all the bandits who had escaped from the battle. Besides, I doubt they will dare show their faces for a long time.