《Executioner》
Prologue: When life gives you squeegees
¡°Clink clink clink¡±, removing the gas nozzle from the car a young man stuffs it back into the gas pump and closes the car¡¯s gas cap. He turns back to the screen on the gas pump while shutting the gas door behind him. As he turns he sees a woman a pump over on the other side smoking a cigarette while filling her truck with gas. A brief moment of tension fills him before he calms down, ¡®It¡¯s not like she''s going to douse herself with gasoline and dip her cigarette in¡¯.
Turning his attention back to the gas pump screen he reads, ¡°Transaction Successful! Thank You for your patronage, Akiel Don.¡± Akiel shakes his head thinking, ¡®Even the gas pumps have messages that contribute to customer service now¡¯ while waiting for his receipt. A sudden wind blows by bringing the strong scent of gasoline to him, Akiel swerves his head back to the woman he observed before only to see her clutching her chest in pain. Her gas nozzle on the ground spewing gas all over her legs and towards the underside of her car.
Akiel freezes, searching for the lady¡¯s missing cigarette. Not in her hands. Not anywhere on her. Not in the puddle of gas and not on top of the car. Finally, after moving closer he saw it had rolled behind a two-sided squeegee bucket. He sighs in relief, making his way around the bucket he bends down to pick it up. Just as his fingers are about to touch the cigarette butt a random humanitarian flies by shouting, ¡°call 911, we need an ambulance and a fire truck!¡± to no one in particular. His shoe outsole gripping the cigarette as he ran towards the woman having a heart attack in the middle of an ever-growing puddle of gas.
Akiel stands ramrod straight as the guy runs past him with a still-smoldering cigarette lodged in his shoe. The hair on the back of his neck sticking straight up and his back spasming with a sudden chill. Without thinking he picks up the squeegee from the bucket next to him and chucks at the figures head. The squeegees edge smashes into the guys head, sending him sprawling into the gas puddle and the woman. Akiel pounces on the guy''s shoe, just inches away from the encroaching puddle of gas. Not taking any time to remove the still miraculously smoldering cigarette he yanks the guy''s shoe off.
While turning over the guy yells angrily, ¡°What the hell was that for?¡± Akiel expressionlessly looks at the man for a moment as he nurses the back of his head, completely forgetting about the lady next to him having a heart attack. Akiel then grins foolishly while raising the underside of the guy''s shoes revealing the smoking cigarette. ¡°Although the chance is small, it could have started a fire,¡± Akiel replies. The man, only shocked for a moment, turns around and asks the ever-weakening lady, ¡°Are you allergic to aspirin?¡±
Relieved, Akiel gets up and turns away, walking back to his car. Without a second look, he drops the shoe in the trash and gets in his car. He sighs, ¡°Of all the things that could have happened¡ It just had to be a gas spill.¡±
After glancing at the woman surrounded by every other concerned passerby, Akiel pulls out and turns onto the main street. He continues down the road listening to the FM radio until hitting a stop sign. As he comes to a stop he pulls over towards the shoulder as a fire truck speeds by. ¡°Huh, I wonder if that lady¡¯s still alive.¡± he muses. More sirens can be heard coming from the road perpendicular to him so he stays put.
Off to the side, Akiel notices something peculiar, a Caucasian with a grey hoodie that covers most of his face walks off the sidewalk and starts leaning on Akiel¡¯s car. The man''s head cocked to the side away from him, ¡®probably looking down the street perpendicular to me where the sirens came from¡¯ Akiel thinks to himself. The stranger casually lifts his guitar case over his shoulder and rests the bulky part on his shoulder with the elongated end across my car. Using his free hand he opens a velcro flap and stuffs his hand inside. He lowers himself next to the right front tire, his hood slides back just enough for Akiel to see his face.
Not really understanding, Akiel shifts his focus to the incoming vehicles. As the ambulance and police cars turn in front of the car Akiel notices that he sweating in his short sleeve shirt. A quick glance at the car¡¯s temperature display tells him that it''s 94 degrees outside and the guy beside his car is wearing a hoodie. Looking back at the stranger he notices two things. First, the tip of the guitar case was no longer there and Akiel could see a smoothly tapered point sticking out. The other thing he noticed was that the Caucasian male had a masquerade mask tattoo covering his face. ¡®Masquerade tattoo huh? Wasn¡¯t there some kind of warning, something about a reward if we saw men with masquerade tattoos? I think it was a couple weeks ago.¡¯ Akiel thought to himself
Without giving Akiel any time to contemplate uselessly further, the tattooed man clenched the index finger on the hand jammed in the case. Almost immediately Akiel hears the sound of a firework flying off as the back of the guitar case expels a short burst of flames. Before Akiel could turn his head to follow the projectile''s path an explosion of sound and vibrations erupted. The ambulance which was halfway through its turn explodes and the police car behind it gets totaled after narrowly avoiding a full collision with the blazing ambulance and smashing into a sedan parked just off the road.
Akiel jerks his head back to the stranger next to his car only to find him standing. The terrorist nods to himself and takes out what looks like a grenade. Pulling the pin out he casually drops it under Akiel¡¯s car. Akiel hurriedly opens his door and tries to run, only to be winded by the seat belt that jolts him back into his seat. He fumbles with the belt and stumbles out of the car, into the street.
Looking back, he sees smoke coming from several places, including the bottom of his car. The street quickly becomes covered by a myriad of different colored smoke clouds. ¡®There''s no way that the stranger could have thrown all of those grenades, he must have helpers.¡¯ Akiel thinks as he rushes to the other side of the street. ¡°Why go through all this trouble? A couple smoke grenades and a well-placed getaway car would be enough. With this many helpers, something else is definitely happening.¡± Akiel murmurs to himself as he makes his way around a dark colored SUV.
Peeking through the window Akiel finds a slightly overweight man with faint yellowish skin tone. He is looking around towards the street anxiously, next to him is another guy facing away. Akiel slowly moves towards the back doors and peeks inside. Seeing it empty he slowly opens and eases his way inside. As he sneaks inside he thinks, ¡¯I really should rethink my future occupation, who needs to be a pharmacist when you can be a spy. I mean, I snuck in here and they haven¡¯t even figured that out.¡¯ Akiel squeezing himself into the foot space looks up to see a greasy face staring at him in shock. Akiel smiles awkwardly while saying, ¡°Hey there, just hiding here for now. Don''t worry, I¡¯ll leave right after the commotion.¡± ¡°Wait, do you see that? There are people running around on the street. Look, right there and there!¡± the driver shouts in agitation. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Looking out the window towards the street Akiel spots a vague outline stopping at the car just a few feet in front. It hits the bottom side of the driver door window and takes a shooting stance. The area just beyond his hands lights up a few times in quick succession and the silhouette steps closer to the vehicle, disappearing from sight.
¡°Did you see that? Did you see that? That guy just shot those people in the car right?¡± the driver screams at the passenger. The driver movers the gear shift into reverse while saying, ¡°Alex, and you in the back seat, put your seat belts on. I don¡¯t think the police will get here in time.¡± He smashes into the car behind us and changes the gear shifter to drive. Akiel, sprawled across the back seat as a result from the collision, scrambles up and straps himself in.
The driver drives up onto the sidewalk and accelerates around the corner, continuing on the sidewalk. Entering a sidestreet the car quickly exits the smokescreen, swerving onto the road. Just as Akiel relaxes, his sight starts to spin, his ears ringing and barely picking up the sound of screeching metal. His body screams in pain. Completely disoriented and badly injured, Akiel starts to lose feeling in his body.
As his sight starts to stabilize, Akiel sees something alien just before his conscious regresses into oblivion. It was a hand. A purple hand covered in black tattoos and wrapped in brown prayer beads. As it reaches into his chest and as it seemed to pull something out, Akiel¡¯s vision turns dark.
***
As if blinking, Akiel was once again able to see. Blinding light followed by several noises assaults his senses. Akiel¡¯s senses gradually acclimate to the new environment as a resonant voice announces, ¡°Sorry for the interruption, but I have to get this started. Since all of you have been sent here it just means that your soul was harvested an undefined amount of time before your actual time of death.¡±
Akiel finds himself as an incorporeal version of himself, surrounded by many others all in the same situation. Looking through the others he sees the speaker, an Asian man in a simple black suit. Next to him is a Caucasian woman in a ballroom dress quietly waiting at the side. The Asian man continues after a slight pause, ¡°Because you were retrieved at incorrect time intervals the allocated slot for your given soul was left empty and the fetus that was meant for each of you was given a premature death. To ensure that all of you return to the correct slots, all of you need to die once again.¡±
Even if Akiel could make noise he would have remained silent. This was just too much to take in. Following another slight pause, the Asian man continued, ¡°This may sound terrible, but I assure you it¡¯s actually a great opportunity. To die you obviously need to be alive and so all of you will be given bodies and be sent to a world where individuals from another world are not a foreign idea. In a fixed amount of time, all of you will be transported. So, until then, I will give you time to let all of this sink in. My colleague here will take all of your questions so please be at ease.¡±
Signaling his colleague to take over he turns to the side and disappears. Akiel, still stunned by the surreal circumstances, turns his attention to the female. ¡°Finally, he¡¯s gone. I really hate being in this form,¡± she says as she dissipates into a cloud of mist before continuing. ¡°Now listen up, all of you have been given a certain amount of credit to dictate how you will be living in the next world. It¡¯s simple! Just imagine that all of you got your paychecks and now will shop on an online website.¡±
Akiel flinches backward as an internet screen appears in front of him. He scrolls down the website as the cloud of mist somehow continues to talk. ¡°Now, before all of you go ahead and spend your credits please notice that at the very top of the page is your name. Next to your name is the number of credits you have,¡± it says. Looking at the top of his page Akiel sees his name and the number nine hundred and sixty-three next to it. ¡°The most popular item is listed near the top with prices listed to their right. Once everyone is done, I shall continue to the next step.¡± the mist cloud says lethargically before yawning and continuing. ¡°Almost done people. The most popular item is race and occupation selection which allows the purchaser to select a race and corresponding class. The catalog includes the perks of each race, their current overarching circumstances, and variations that you can go through later. I would suggest staying human since having less to adapt to makes it easier to acclimate to the new world.¡±
As the mist cloud stopped rambling an awkward silence prevails throughout the space. ¡®This is probably when it will answer our questions right?¡¯ Akiel thinks to himself as he waits patiently. After a few minutes, the cloud seems to churn and lethargic says, ¡°Yup! That''s it, that''s all I¡¯m supposed to say so bye.¡± Just like the man before the cloud seems to disappear into an invisible side door. Dissatisfied, Akiel turns his attention back to the screen. Glancing at the race and occupation his face becomes ghastly pale, the option costs way too much. It cost a full thousand points, he needs all of his credits and then some.
Slightly discouraged Akiel scrolls down the page reading each option. To his surprise, each option after the first was dirt cheap! It seems like most people have very close to a thousand credits and rarely more. ¡®There should be other options worth almost as much as the first in this list¡¯ Akiel reasons. Scrolling back to the top be changes the search criteria to most expensive first before hitting the search button.
The screen blinks blue and the options list is rearranged and to his surprise, several options are listed above the race and occupation option. Skimming his way down the list Akiel finally arrives at options he can afford. ¡®Inheritance, invisibility, tireless¡.¡¯ Akiel continues to scroll down the similarly priced options until he reaches an option called ''discerning eye'' for six hundred credits.
It¡¯s not that the other options are lackluster but to Akiel they either don¡¯t fit the type of life he wants to live or they don¡¯t seem to appeal to him as much. Discerning eye¡¯s only description is that it shows the truth, warding off all lies and illusions. ¡®With this, no one will be able to fool me. No one will tell me what to do in this life. Not only do I refuse to conform to society again, Ialso refuse to ever settle down and become complacent. Earth is one thing, this new world is true freedom. With no family, no expectations and no morals, I will live my life fulfilling any and every urge I feel!¡¯ Akiel firms his resolution and purchases discerning eyes.
Not in the mood to scroll through the rest of the options, Akiel purchases a peculiar option called ¡°Otherworld care package¡±, with the description: ¡°everything you may need to live relatively well in the other world.¡± With sixteen credits left he converts them to a flat attribute boost. Although not much he doubles his base speed.
As soon as he finishes his purchases an automated voice booms in his head, ¡°Stage three commencing! All subjects have finished the second stage. Time is synchronizing. Transportation of batch 9312 is commencing...¡± Focusing on his surroundings, Akiel manages to tune out most of the automated messages. He could see various different expressions around him, from ecstatic to gloomy, nervous to just bored. Suddenly, the feeling of being squeezed becomes apparent. Akiel''s eyes open wide as the once endless white surroundings changed to a black and white liquid consistency. It¡¯s like pouring paint through an ever-narrowing tube. Waves of inky black and viscous white ichor mingled as the sides ever so slowly came closer. Like the tide the enclosure retreats and advances but each time the extent of the advance grows.
Eventually, the voluminous liquid covers Akiel, starting from the top of his head and the bottom of his feet meeting at his hips. The sound of thousands of untuned blaring trumpets slowly increases until unbearable. Suddenly Akiel feels the feeling of freefall, almost as if being stretched he starts to feel noxious. A moment passes and everything stops. The unbearable sounds and feelings cease to exist. The familiar feeling of having a physical body returns followed by the unfamiliarity of a new body.
Akiel slowly opens his eyes only to be horrified by the sickening sight before him. All he could manage in his state of daze was a raspy screech.
1.Man to Spider to Construct
Akiel screeches as he is ejected from a crude rift in space, crashing into the ground. Skidding until he pushes something aside, Akiel''s vision gradually begins to adjust. Dark, the ground was abysmally dark, devoid of any light refraction. There was neither texture to the ground nor any end to the space he is in. Groaning to himself as he makes various clicking noises he thinks, ¡®Great! Just what I needed, another endless space where I get processed through various ingenious filters. The gods truly are thorough.¡¯ Suddenly a voice interrupts his monologue, ¡°Welcome son! We brought you here to offer a proposition.¡±
Scuttling around so he can see in every direction including upwards he finds nothing. One of Akiel¡¯s many legs pushes something away as he does something familiar to an upwards dog. Skittering backward he sees two piles of bones. ¡°Ah, you finally found us! Well now that your retarded display is over let¡¯s get down to the business son.¡± Completely confused Akiel erupts in a series of clicking and screeching all meaning, ¡®Are you the pile of bones? Also, what do you mean by son?¡¯ Taking a moment to collect himself he observes the piles of bones. Both were very dirty and well into the decomposition process. In both cases, the piles of bones were arranged identically with the skull on top and the rest underneath.
The bigger of the two sets of bones starts to move, the skull moves upwards and the mandible remained as is. ¡°Yup! We are the bone piles, and more importantly your parents. Hey Helios say something, you his mother right now.¡± ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Helios. More importantly, I¡¯m your mother. You see we thought you would be more at ease if we took the form of someone close to you.¡± said the smaller of the bone sets in a disturbingly deep and distinctly masculine voice.
Dumbfounded, Akiel goes through another series of rapid clicking and screaming all meaning, ¡®My parents are dead and seeing decomposing bones that look nothing like how I remembered them doesn¡¯t make me feel much better. Even if used their actual appearance before they died, your mismatched voices make it worse.¡¯ ¡°We¡¯re sorry, there''s a reason why we aren''t the welcoming committee but enough of that. We called you here for a proposition and before you ask why we picked you, it was like a lottery. You see every few thousand years humanoid races need a reset, they get a bit too advanced and start to harm environments they shouldn¡¯t, making us work much harder. That''s where you come in. All you have to do is exterminate each and every kingdom that houses humanoid beings. It¡¯s quite simple actually.¡±
Taking a moment to consider the proposal, the Spider Akiel jumps into another sequence of random sounds translating to, ¡°That''s great and all but I have a few questions. For one, why pick me? Also, what do I get in exchange? I wouldn¡¯t mind becoming a god too but it doesn¡¯t seem like it''s the most ideal occupation so I can settle for strongest being in the world or immortality.¡± After a moment of awkward silence, the bigger set of bones start to move again, ¡°Well, We picked you due to your lack of emotional investment in people or your disinterest in the well being of others. As for your reward, let''s just say we will grant you a wish if you finish the job successfully. On a side note, if you do accept we will also give you something amazing to help you get through the first few days alive and safe. According to statistics, a quarter of those that crossover get enslaved or killed within the first three hours.¡±
Helios suddenly says, ¡°We can also give you a humanoid body so you will be able to approach most sentient beings easier.¡± Not understanding his current state, Akiel freezes in confusion, all eight of his eyes stare off in a daze before replying with something that means, ''What do you mean more humanoid? I¡¯m a human, are humans not a thing in this world?'' Making a mirror appear Helios flatly states, ¡°This is no image, its a mirror, this is your current body. This will also be your permanent body if you reject our offer.¡± Akiel staring at the monstrosity in the mirror contemplates for several minutes, weighing the options. He could happily live as a spider, killing everything that stupidly gets caught in his web and running away from anything smart enough to avoid them. Or, he could be a humanoid that can talk and destroy most of the worlds civilization. Ending his mission will reward him one wish that can grant him any power. To live leisurely or to work for the summit.
After much deliberation, Akiel screeches the equivalent of ,¡±Hey, Helios was it? Do you like horses or rabbits?¡± Not really following Helios answers, ¡°I don¡¯t rabbits but I would prefer a horse due to its utility, why?¡± ¡°No real reason, I just hate rabbits. I¡¯ve got nothing against horses though. Also, I accept your proposal.¡± Akiel answers. ¡°Now then, since you have decided there is no return. If we determine that you are not working towards the end goal in any way, we will give you a warning followed by obliterating your soul. There is nothing else at this time s-¡± ¡°Wait!¡± Helios interrupts ¡±You forgot the spawn point. Unfortunately, we can¡¯t risk exposing our involvement with you so you will be entering the world with the others. There''s only one problem with being with the others, your status. Your status will have both our names and our goal listed so¡ you¡¯ll be instantly executed. You''re leaving in half a minute but try your best to get away from the summoning grounds.¡°
A short moment passes before helios rapidly starts talking again, ¡°Fifteen seconds! The moment you appear there will be a bright light blinding everyone. Use that to get away. All of the summoned are restrained by a spell causing pain. Due to the nature of the body we decided to give you, that specific spell will have no effect on you.¡± Pausing momentarily both voices say in unison, ¡±Good luck our champion, we dub you the executioner.¡±
That was the last thing Akiel knew before being warped back into the mass of huddling souls on a collision path to a certain summoning platform. ¡°Hey, hey Mortimer. Should we have named him something else?¡± Helios asks. ¡°Maybe. We could have named him the condemned, you know since getting out of the castle is probably not going to happen.¡± Mortimer says with a chuckle. ¡°True. Hey, hey Mortimer. Can I shift back, this tiny body is uncomfortable.
*****
With a deafening chorus of chanting, Akiel appears alongside many others. Most of them being human but some belonging to other races. As soon as Akiel gains control of his body he flexes his fingers. Confirming the humanoid body, he awkwardly charges out of the congregation of disoriented otherworlders. Letting out a pathetic warcry he stumbles into a blinded figure covered in a robe. Shoving the dumbfounded figure into the ground he stumbles past, continuing to scream. As he gets farther he feels something disturbing the surface of his waist area. Ignoring the unsettling sensations he keeps running with stiff limbs and awkward posture.
As he registers the walls coming up ahead he turns, eyesight almost acclimated to the light. ¡°Summoned on the east wall! Dispose of him quickly¡± he hears someone say. Panicking at being caught so quickly and that he already faces death, he runs away from the voice. Stumbling away from his pursuers he hears more frantic shouting, ¡°Stop it! Don''t let it near his majesty!¡± Finding the sounds of feet behind him growing distant, Akiel Drunkedly runs more confidently until he trips over his own feet. Flailing to regain balance he crashes into a part of the wall where light streamed in. Feeling a slight obstruction that quickly gave away accompanied by the sound a glass shattering, Akiel concludes he broke through a window. Feeling the wind blow against the exposed surface of his body Akiel flounders frantically to grab onto anything. In his delirium, he failed to notice he was corkscrewing head first into the ground.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Akiel abruptly stops screaming as he smashes headfirst into the carefully maintained and surprisingly soft royal palace garden. His vision spins and he feels a draft from where his neck and head should be connected. As his head stops moving, he sees a completely grey humanoid body laying beside him. As he tries to stand his point of view stays the same, but the body in front of him gets up. Doubting someone fell with him he controls his body to fumble around for his head. As he finally picks it up he hears several voices moving towards him rapidly. Controlling his body to run he sticks his head on top. ¡°There it is! Catch it! Quickly it¡¯s running again.¡± a peculiar ginger guard yells. There is nothing wrong with the guard being ginger but no matter how Akiel ran he never went the way he wanted. The guard seemed to be getting closer when he looked away but the moment he faced the guard the distance seemed to grow.
As the guard looked backward waving to his comrades and pointing to at him, he suddenly understood. His head was on backward! Snapping it back on right, he starts running towards an open door. ¡®Open ground seems to not be an option, maybe I can lose them by entering the castle again.¡¯ Akiel thinks to himself. Scrambling through the doorway and down the stairs. Akiel starts praying to his patrons that there will be a way back up inside. Jumping down the stairs, he notices that his movements are much more fluid. ¡°I guess good things do result from hitting my head.¡± Akiel chuckles. Arriving at a landing he increases his speed, running straight into a person. Stopping momentarily he looks back to see a short and chubby man on the ground with his head twisted unnaturally resting on a step. His clothes resembled those of a janitor and were stained everywhere. Everything about him was insignificant. Everything, except the thing at his waist.
He had keys! Retrieving the key ring, Akiel turns around and bolts down the passageway, passing endless torches and turns at the end of the corridor. Thankful for his amazing foresight, he arrives at a barred gate. Fumbling with the keys, he tries them one by one. Footsteps pound behind him, getting closer and closer. At this point he can make out his pursuers words, ¡°It can¡¯t get much farther, it¡¯s a dead end. Slowly around this last corner, it''s bound to be stuck here. Remember even the lowest of creatures make a desperate and potentially dangerous attempt to get away when they¡¯re backed in a corner.¡± If he could, Akiel would have been sweating by now. ¡°Coe on!¡± he mutters as the fifth key doesn¡¯t work. Jamming the sixth he closes his eyes and twists the key. Another mismatch.
¡°Stop! Don¡¯t move! C¡¯mon, make it easy on yourself. I promise I¡¯ll end your miserable little life quickly and painlessly.¡± comforts a nasally voice from behind. Grunting Akiel sticks in the seventh key while trying to use his body to hide the keys from sight. ¡°Click¡± the gate unlocks and Akiel freezes for a moment while turning his head around. Seven enemies, just meters away. Two in the back seem to be mumbling, this is a different world. One with magic, monsters, and limitless opportunities. The only torch in this stretch of the passageway was next to the gate. Also, next to Akiel.
Slowly turning around while edging his hand closer to the torch Akiel turns around. ¡°You guys need to ca- ¡± Akiel nudges the torch off its holster as he jumps backward through the gate. The front guards pause momentarily, focused on the slowly falling torch. As Akiel turns to run away he catches a glimpse of earth bulging upward in the shape of a hand where he was just standing. Dashing deeper into the seemingly endless passageway, Akiel starts to panic. The passageway seemed to be endless, but just how long should he run? After turning the next two corners, Akiel finally reaches something significant. Cells, rows upon rows of barred cells.
¡°Yes! This can work. Hello? Anyone alive?¡± Akiel yells in excitement. Approaching the first cell he peers inside. One corpse, two corpses and a barely breathing leafy thing. ¡°Hey, hey you. Come quickly.¡± a voice from the neighboring cell whispers. Giving the living tree person a last look Akiel creeps to the second cell. ¡°What do you need kid? Any and all information for the small price of freeing me from this cell.¡± whispers a rat-faced person. Feeling desperate, Akiel explains to the rat-man, ¡°I want to start a jailbreak but I¡¯m going to need some strong people to get out. There are seven guards behind me.¡± ¡°Easy! Just let me out and follow me. You need to go to the deeper layers to access the more powerful prisoners. This is just the top, where recent or minor criminals are held.¡±
Akiel quickly unlocks the rat-man¡¯s cell and pushes the door open. ¡°Stop!¡± the ratman quickly scampers out of the cell and pulls the door shut. ¡°Some inmates need to be in there. Mine is a cannibal, if he wakes up he¡¯ll probably eat us both. Give me the keys we need some others to hold your guards up.¡± Akiel hands the keys to the ratman and watches as it scampers to a cage. ¡°Stay close and don¡¯t get left behind. These guys won¡¯t eat you but they¡¯re still criminals.¡±
One after another the ratman unlocked cell doors and scampered to the next with Akiel in tow. ¡°Okay, that should be enough small fry to keep the guards busy. Let''s go!¡± Racing down the rows of cells the ratman leads Akiel past a few forks to a staircase. Five people wide the staircase descends downward into the darkness. Fiddling with the keys the ratman separates two from the ring and hands them to Akiel. ¡°Take these and go to the bottom most floor, there should only be a handful of prisoners but be careful, some of them are there by choice. The green key is for their special gates and the blue is for their shackles. I¡¯ll be heading to the other floors but keep in mind too many is also a bad thing.¡± with that the ratman disappears down the stairs.
Bounding down the stairs, only slightly slower than the ratman, Akiel passes floor after floor. Each one containing bigger and fewer cells. Finally, at the bottom of the staircase, Akiel reaches the last floor. Welcomed by an ominously luminescent green nine engraved on the landing. Akiel proceeds to the cells while sticking to the walls. Coming to the corner of the first cell he sees the inmate. Wrapped in glowing chains all originating from a core in his chest a human male is suspended in the middle of the room. Before Akiel could even call out to the man someone else started the conversation. ¡°Oh boy, it took you forever to get here didn¡¯t it. Yes, it did! Why don¡¯t you free me first. Look up why don¡¯t you. Yes, here I am. Right above you.¡± Looking up all Akiel could make out was another set of bars and complete darkness beyond. ¡°You look confused don¡¯t you. Yes, yes you do. Just throw those two keys up and out I will come.¡± the voice says again. ¡°How do I know that you won¡¯t kill me? I feel like this guy in the chains is more trustworthy.¡± Akiel refutes. ¡°Oh boy! Oh boy! You distrust me don¡¯t you. Yes. Yes, you do. Let me explain some things first. Everyone here knows your objective. We can hear all the way to the entrance of the prison, well everyone but the slug in the farthest cell. You forgot where you came didn¡¯t you. Yes. Yes, you did. Everyone here has committed the worst crimes including the man in chains.¡± The voice said with a chuckle. ¡°In fact, I believe his name is Cedric. Cedric the abandoned-¡± ¡°Shut your mouth clown!¡± Ceric yelled, pulling against the chains binding him. ¡°Yes, yes. I understand don¡¯t I. Now boy, give me the keys and I shall set those I know best free.¡± the voice from above said. ¡°Sadly the clowns right, he''s the only one here that can move any limbs in this level. But that''s only because he¡¯s the weakest.¡±
Swallowing his nonexistent saliva Akiel throws the keys upward only to hit the bars and fall back down. ¡°Oh boy. Oh boy. It seems like you think that I can grab the keys through the bars, don¡¯t you. Yes-¡± ¡°Oh my¡ Please stop talking. Kid, through the bars this time. His confinement is special, touching the bars will give him acidic burns.¡± the chained man moans. Focusing, Akiel jumps and throws the keys through the bars. He hears a raspy intake of breath and the sound of water evaporating. After a moment a subdued shriek tears through the floor transitioning into a laugh. ¡°Oh yes. Oh boy. I¡¯m free. You threw it too low didn¡¯t you. Yes. Yes, you did but I still got it.¡± A soft click followed by another and various gears shifting sound out before silence dominates the air. ¡°Hey, clown. That''s enough, isn¡¯t it? He doesn¡¯t even notice you behind him just give it up already and let me out.¡± the man in chains mutters.
Akiel felt his nonexistent hair stand up as he whipped his head around. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing there, just the landing leading back upstairs.
2. Beginning
¡°Oh dear, oh dear. I¡¯m just a bit shy, aren¡¯t I? Yes! Yes, I am. Now then boy, I don¡¯t plan on gracing you with my noble personage so don''t turn around alright? I mean even if you do it''s not like you will live long enough to see anything.¡± the clown whispers from behind Akiel. Akiel remains tense and motionless. The sound of light steps echoes in the long corridor. With a soft clicking sound and the squeak of the metal gate opening the footsteps continue. ¡°Oh my, oh my. If it isn¡¯t little Cedric. No one to remember you and no one to worry about your well being. And by now, no one willing to love you for what you are. The better man should have won right? What will you do Cedric?¡± the clown teases as he fiddles with the glowing chains. ¡°Aha, here it is, the lock keeping you down here.¡± with an abrupt change in tone the clown asks, ¡°Now, say that you will accompany me in my travels as a guard or rot in here. I¡¯ll even take you to see her on the way.¡±
Cedric grunts and says, ¡°Why should I trust you with my freedom clown? Just set me free and I¡¯ll get you out, nothing more.¡± The jingling of chains stops and the clown replies, ¡±Not good enough. You see, although I¡¯m a lower threat to his majesty, he detests me more than the sleeping slug in the back. How about this, swear that you will let me accompany you and will never sell me out and I will be content. Not even the majesty¡¯s right hand can catch me if I wish to run, only through betrayal and schemes can I be caught again.¡± After a momentary silence, Cedric agrees and swears upon his soul. With another few moments of chains shifting and grunting the sound of heavy chains hitting the ground reaches Akiel.
Still looking towards the ascending stairway Akiel slightly tilts his head trying to catch a glimpse of the cell interior when a sudden pressure assaults on his throat. Feeling around his neck, he found nothing out of the ordinary. After convincing himself that it''s just him adjusting to his body he continues to turn his head slowly. Just as he was about to see inside the cage, the gradually increasing pressure in his neck disappeared completely. For the second time that day, his vision swam as his head fell to the ground. Akiel watches his body continuing to turn around as his head settles on the ground. ¡°Oh my, oh my. The boy sure has guts. He ignored my warning and lost his head.¡± the clown murmurs as he laughs to himself. ¡°Hey clown, the kids still alive. You didn¡¯t free -¡± interrupting Cedric the clown cackles, ¡°Of course not! He can enjoy his stay in the royal latrine pit. The kid¡¯s just not a human. You¡¯ll see, he just a construct of some kind. No pain, no blood. He''s actually hollow, I checked while placing mana wires around his neck.¡±
Stunned by the clown''s words Akiel scrutinizes his new body, it looks completely human if you ignore the gray skin and cracks in the place of joints. Nothing in his groin area and his neck was severed cleanly. Akiel¡¯s head was abruptly lifted and jammed back into place. With his orientation back in alignment, he stops floundering and turns around. ¡°Follow me and don¡¯t look back, Clown, you''re letting the slug out right? You could let a few of the others out for a bigger punch.¡± Cedric suggests from beside Akiel. ¡°My dear Cedric, the slug will eat everything else regardless of how much protection it¡¯s under. Let¡¯s leave a few morsels to buy us time why don¡¯t we.¡± The clown replies.
Cedric grunts in affirmation, grabbing Akiel by the neck he bounds up the flight of stairs. In a matter of seconds, both were on the top floor. Akiel enjoying the lift thinks to himself, ¡®What a day! Enter another world, check. Get lost, check. Follow a rat, check. Free some of the most wanted criminals, check. Get carried by a criminal, check. This really is the best first day in this world.¡¯ Cedric looks around and mutters, ¡°It should be out by now.¡± Following his words, the ground trembled and the clown voice screamed by, ¡°No time, no time at all! To the barrier dear Cedric.¡± Cedric sighed and started running through the rows of cells, knocking people left and right out of his path. Using Akiel as an object he barrels through the aggregation of guards blocking the exit. Akiel squints his hollow eyes as he once again is flying through the royal lawn.
This time, he flies upward straight at the outer walls, energy filling every part of him. He felt as if he were indestructible, the only downside is his lack of bodily control and that he is about to smash into one of the sturdiest walls he has ever seen. Akiel smashes into the smooth purple walls head first while glowing bright blue. The loud cackling of the clown could be heard in the background, ¡°I got a joke. Oh, yes I do. Listen! Once there was a wall that all the king¡¯s horses and all the king¡¯s men couldn¡¯t break through and neither did they want to. Then, it broke¡± Just as the clown said, Akiel¡¯s body broke the wall and clashed with a transparent barrier. It flashed strongly and turned opaque as the concentration of magic increased but for a moment, a hole was formed.
Akiel limply falling outside the barrier felt a pressure on his head and heard wheezing close by. ¡°Oh my, I¡¯m free. Yes. Yes, I am. Cedric dear, refrain from throwing up here. We need to at least make it outside the outer walls first. The royal hounds will be on us the moment the slug is sealed again.¡± the clown''s voice ¡°Shut up! I know that, what about the kid?¡± Cedric wheezed from beside Akiel. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I can drop him here but I think we should show our thanks by dropping him somewhere in the forest.¡±
Akiel starts to faint while thinking, ¡®Since Cedric is next to me the clown should be holding me. The forest doesn¡¯t sound too bad. At least I¡¯ll be free from having to serve criminals for the rest of my life. There''s also the perk that the royalty will focus on them instead of me¡¯
Opening his hollow eyes, Akiel finds himself nestled between the roots of an uprooted tree. Checking his body, he finds that his chest had been split and a booklet was lying on his thigh. Picking it up, he read the title, ¡±How to kill most of the world.¡± Flipping the pages he read various titles, stopping at the title ¡°Quota¡±.
Underneath was a list of the different races in the world and how many of each need to die. Some races had specific settlements that need to be purged whereas some had specific settlements that were marked to be preserved. Under the human section, it stated that 90% needed to be eradicated and that only some of the primitive groups were allowed to live. No mage or alchemist was to live.
Flipping back to the first page Akiel reads the introduction. It said that this booklet would guide him through the process but finding the means to pull off the deed depended solely on him. To further assist him the booklets the last page is a built-in status page. Flipping to the last page he sees a neat but concise summary of his stats.
[Name: Akiel Don, Race: Construct, Material: Common Stone, Augments: None, Strength: 14, Agility: 12, Dexterity: 16, Durability: 12/15 Abilities: Eye of Truth, Mana Manipulation, Adaptive Regeneration, Remodel]
Looking at his body, Akiel mutters ¡°Adaptive regeneration should have something to do with fixing the hole in my stomach. Remodel could be changing my body shape and composition and eye of truth could be an eye adaption or skill to detect lies or something. The only mystery is mana manipulation, I don¡¯t know how or what I can do with it. Best case scenario I can use magic, making my job much easier. If I can¡¯t, I¡¯ll just have to find another way to cause mass destruction.¡± tapping on the skill names made the page change, All of the skills appeared with concise descriptions to their right. Adaptive healing had to do with fixing body durability by injecting mana into a raw source of material identical to the one used in his body. Remodel is a skill to incorporate new materials, discard unwanted materials and change the body shape. It also required mana manipulation. The Eyes of Truth kept its vague description, ¡®see through the world and all magical phenomenon.¡¯ It sounded imposing but had no instructions on how to use. Last was the mana manipulation skill that I assume all my skills depend on. Instead of some vague description, it said, ¡®proficiency: unconscious manipulation equivalent to intermediate level 1¡¯. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
After mulling it over Akiel came to the conclusion that he needs to feel his unconscious manipulation of mana and try to exert some control over it. Closing his eyes Akiel focuses on his hollow body. Why does his body move? How can I see? How is this body even alive? He tries to ask the most fundamental questions as he focuses on himself. ¡®I¡¯m a construct, I should be hollow so what causes my limbs to move?¡¯ he thinks to himself. Focusing his hands as he flexes them he starts to discern a faint feeling. Grasping the feeling, he shifts his focus to other parts of his body as he moves them systematically.
After trying for the better part of an hour Akiel stops. ¡®I¡¯m almost there! I¡¯m just missing the last push. If only I could feel denser mana I might be able to see.¡¯ Deep in thought, while leaning back on a rotting tree stump, he shifts his upper body, causing the stump to collapse. His head rolls right off his body. Quick reflexes allow him to catch his head before it rolls too far. Inspiration strikes him as he holds his head up. His head may not have many muscles that move using mana but the equivalent of his brain should still be there!
Not bothering to put his head back on he sat cross-legged and focused on his head. At first, all he felt was a slight buzzing feeling. ¡®More detailed¡¯ he thought to himself. Scrunching up his stone face he concentrated harder. Gradually he felt a pull on his consciousness. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to follow the pull. Passing dozens of metaphorical objects he felt like there really was something in his head. As he was immersed deeper and deeper into himself, he passed thousands of figurative obstacles. Finally, he was able to see inside of himself! It seemed like there was a complex system of spider webs everywhere. Transparent threads pulsed white light sporadically in all directions.
The pull didn¡¯t stop there but instead increased in strength. Faster and faster he fell into an abyss of ambiguity until finally, the familiar warping scene reappeared. This time, millions of tiny transparent threads encased him as a cacophony assaulted his senses. The intensity increased exponentially but just two long seconds after the start he was crushed into oblivion and reconstructed elsewhere.
With a loud shattering sound he shot into a familiar formless expanse of white.
*****
¡°Hey! Hey, Mortimer. I think I know this guy! He was here like a year ago or something. His name¡¯s Jason, I¡¯m sure of it!¡± Helios said confidently. ¡°Helios please, put him down. We actually saw this guy almost fourteen hours ago. Also, his name is Akiel, Jason died already.¡± Mortimer replied as Helios unceremoniously drops Akiel. ¡°Hey! Hey, Mortimer. Is this one dead too? I really don¡¯t want to do the work myself this time. Last time everyone made statues of me to burn. They even gave me the worst titles. Instead of calling me a god they called me by Satan without any respect.¡± Helios asked worriedly.
Akiel groans as he flips onto Helios¡¯s foot. With a short screech, he gets launched far away with a kick. After observing Akiel¡¯s prone figure, Mortimer sighs tiredly, ¡°Let¡¯s go to the kid.¡± Akiel slowly gets up, checking his body condition. Surprisingly nothing broke off from his body. Even his head was attached correctly. Looking around he finds two beings making their way towards him. One was an armored humanoid, at least three times taller than him. It held a robust spiked mace and had flame tattoos all over his bare torso. The other was a monster, twice the size of the armored person. Two sets of horns stacked adjacently on an Ape like face. The horns curled back and projected to the sides, almost like a sheep but they stayed pointing backward. A humanoid torso combined with a reptilian lower half. White claws adjourned the four-toed feet whereas the upper limbs were humanoid with thumbs. The most eye-catching thing was a staff on it''s back, as tall if not taller than the monster itself. It was thicker than he could wrap his body around. Completely white with ivy wrapped around it. On its apex was a translucent gemstone with some flakes of black energy fluctuating around.
¡°Hey, buddy! how¡®d you get here? If you remember, I¡¯m Mortimer.¡± the shorter being replies. ¡°So you''re the gods who made me executioner right?¡± Akiel asks hesitantly, still gaping at Helios. ¡°Yea and you¡¯re not dead Jason! I knew you would be okay!¡± Helios exclaims. Ignoring Helios, Akiel replies, ¡±I was trying to figure out how to use my skills. Through trying to sense my unconscious mana manipulation I was pulled here. At least that''s what I know about what happened.¡± ¡°I see. Well, what do you think Helios? I can only guess that he traced our divine energy back to us.¡± Mortimer askes Helios. Helios narrows his eyes, his whole attitude changed instantly, ¡°You¡¯re right for the most part. The only thing I need to add is that he traced us by delving into his mana base. Through our mana signatures that we left when we created his new body. Normally the ability to trace one¡¯s own mana base would be protected by Jenson¡¯s restriction but we created his body and there wasn¡¯t a need for us to stop him from trying to return. On the other hand, we could have just taught him how to use his abilities in the booklet.¡±
¡°True. Listen, kid. We made it simple for you. Just think to yourself that you want that particular ability to activate and your mana should respond. It¡¯s a part of you, it should just happen naturally. Lastly, don¡¯t forcefully try to do something you can''t without having mana manipulation mastered. Using mana incorrectly can damage your mana base and cripple your capability to use abilities. It¡¯s like becoming permanently handicapped, only certain gods can restore you after that. Any questions before you leave?¡± Mortimer explains.
Akiel thought for a bit before looking the duo over and asking, ¡°Nothing in particular but I do have a few questions. How should I even start the extermination when I don¡¯t have any destructive powers? Where should I start? Also, what''s with the lack of breastplate and his giant pillar?¡±
Instead of answering, both Helios and Mortimer examine Akiel in silence. After sighing, Mortimer replied, ¡°Just because you don¡¯t have powers right now doesn¡¯t mean that you can¡¯t cause destruction. For now, I suggest you make contact with a weak dungeon core. It might have just what you need. As for where to start, start small. Race should mean nothing to you as all races need to be reset for the most part. The other gods won¡¯t cry more if you kill a few million more. Just leave a few alive, they get really petty after a purge. An example is my armor, the forge god refused to finish my armor since we purged the world while he was making it. The staff on Helios is a method to constrain his power, he ascended to godhood while enraged and hasn¡¯t found a way to completely keep it calm. On good days, the excess power would only wipe a few countries off the map. On bad days, he could cause the world to implode from the massive amount of pure mana he releases. We have the god of nature to thank for it. She doesn¡¯t like us but to keep nature thriving she spent a fortune on it.¡±
Reaching over, Helios placed his hand on my head and says, ¡°Remember this feeling, it will help with mana manipulation once you grasp it.¡± One second Akiel was standing there looking at them quizzically, the next he was vaporized from the pocket dimension. A multitude of pixelated particles floated around where he was before fading out. ¡°Hey. Hey, Mortimer. I have a good feeling about this Jason.¡± Helios whispers. ¡°Why do you never remember their names? I honestly don¡¯t care if it works out. At worst, we will have to do it ourselves and be despised for a few millennia.¡± Mortimer frustratedly asks. ¡°You know why I don¡¯t bother to remember names, they never live long enough for me to care. If he can kill off ninety percent of the world I¡¯ll remember his name, happy?¡± Helios asks back. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s the first condition you¡¯ve given me in a while. Gives me something to look forward to. Anyways I have to go placate the life-loving tree huggers, I¡¯ll probably promise that they can give a few individuals representative status. Either way, I¡¯ll kill the anomalies if our chosen fails ¡± Mortimer concludes as he disappears from the pocket dimension. Helios squats on the spot, staring at the point where Akiel was vaporized.
*****
Akiel abruptly rolls forward hugging his head in the forest. Gaining his bearings, he placed his head back on. Remembering Mortimer¡¯s advice, he concentrates his thoughts and thinks ¡®eyes of truth¡¯. ¡°Wow¡¡¡± he utters in shock.
3. lighthearted genocide
¡°His Majesty has arrived!¡± A scholarly woman announced from outside of an expensively furnished room. A deep purple wooden crescent-shaped table with five matching chairs in the center, four chairs around the outside and a larger and more ornate chair on the inside. Gilded drapery fluttered from the breeze, flowing through the open balcony doors. The room overlooked the castle town sprawled below. The walls were adorned with the portraits of various beings that had once ruled over the kingdom.
The double doors slowly swung open as a man strode in confidently, his importance is emphasized by the superfluous amount of gilded apparel. ¡°Let¡¯s begin, I really do detest this kind of situation but do explain how some of the prisoners I personally sent to the prisons lowest level escaped.¡± the king said as draped his cape over the center chair and sat down.
¡°Your majesty, what happened was a series of complete coincidences. One of the summoned individuals out ran our trainee guards and happened to find someone inside the jail with knowledge of how the prison was organized. From there they probably planned to let the worst convicts out as a distraction and get out.¡± a rugged heavyset man explains. Smashing his open hand down on the table the king shouted, ¡±Eldin, I already understand that! What I want to know is why that thing even made it out of my audience chamber and how the blasted wall was broken!¡±
Shifting his eyes to the woman beside him he replied, ¡°That is best explained by Fiona your majesty.¡± taking the cue Fiona abruptly starts to explain, ¡°It seemed that the subject was either instructed on what his surroundings would be right after being summoned or was mentally unstable. The latter is easier to believe but less likely considering the events that followed. His escape process shows at least some form of intelligence if not premeditated intent on escaping.¡±
Taking a breather while letting her words sink in she continues while nervously fiddling with her staff, ¡°The wall was broken with the aid of Mr.Cedric, the previous king''s murderer. He imbued the subject which appears to be some sort of neutral attributed construct with a magic nullifying ability. The scale of the ability alone should leave Mr.Cedric weakened for weeks but with his companion, he should be quite far by now.¡±
The king furrowed his eyebrows and asked, ¡°What companion? Who¡®s accompanying him?.¡± From the side, a timid looking man fixed his posture before opening his notebook and saying, ¡°Three from the bottom level made it out with him, all from the same breach so anyone of them could be his companion. We can rule out the spy since they have never had any interaction but that leaves two he knows. One is a beastman, he originated from the wolfman tribes and had been imprisoned by the last Queen. The other is the former jester, he-¡± The king interrupts with another bang on the table as his face distorts in rage, ¡°She! The jester back then was a she.¡±
Fiona, the timid man who was just speaking and another woman wearing a crisp and well-fitting suit gulped audibly as silence prevailed the room. ¡°Catch her, go to the divination master. Find her and kill her this time! I have no time to deal with another mess. Report to me when this is over, I have many other things to accomplish yet.¡±
Quietly at first but firmly to the end, Fiona responds, ¡°I¡¯m afraid we can¡¯t do that your majesty. The divination masters, as well as their best students, have left.¡±
¡°What do you mean it can¡¯t be done? I want you to know you are here to carry out all of my whims. Not to tell me what¡¯s possible and what isn¡¯t. Explain yourself!¡±
Taking a deep breath Fiona slowly explains herself, ¡°All of the divination masters left into hiding. Reports say that they kept uttering about the end being near. They were almost identical to the doomsayers in the slums, incoherent rambling and all. Grandmaster Olsen was said to have stopped talking completely, always seen glancing over his shoulder and quickening his pace. It¡¯s as if someone or something is supposed to be hunting him. Without competent divination, we have no way to track down individuals with their strength efficiently. We can at best estimate their location by a few hundred kilometers.¡±
The merchant spoke up at this moment, ¡°Your majesty. We of the merchant¡¯s guild can help with this. Every town has our people and using the latest magic we can easily communicate information. We may not know where the jester is but tracking a hulking man with his distinctive features should be easy enough. As for the construct, I¡¯ve already had a rough sketch of him from the trainee guards description. By now, any and all towns on a conventional map have our people keeping an eye out. It can¡¯t have gone far, at most a few kilometers in a given direction by now.¡±
¡°Good, good Montrelle. I¡¯ll leave the pursuit of the convicts to you Eldin. Don¡¯t fail me, you know the consequences.¡± The king says as he gets up, pushing his chair back. ¡°One more thing, the trainee guards involved in the incident have one chance to redeem themselves. As it stands, all of them are due for a visit to the gallows. Since I¡¯m their benevolent ruler I¡¯ll give them an option. They can accept their punishment or they can stake their family on the line and hunt the construct. The only anomaly is the construct and it may have something to do with what has spooked the divination master. If they shall accomplish bringing the whole construct back then all of them live. If half of it makes it back I¡¯ll spare half of them. If it is confirmed dead I¡¯ll spare one on whimsy and if they fail those who opted to take the chance shall be hung along with their entire family. Don¡¯t let them know of this in advance, take their families as they decide and release them after finding their families. No family equates to a swift death.¡± Turning around, he happily skips out of the room leaving a dour atmosphere in the room. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
First to leave is Montrelle, the head of the merchant¡¯s guild. Next is the royal scholar, Niche followed by Eldin, a retired general serving as the king¡¯s military advisor. Fiona, the kingdom¡¯s strongest combat mage, stays behind staring into her crystal embedded in her staff. ¡°Just a bit more. Just a little bit longer. If I can help this construct, it may be able to buy me time. If only the void dragon or the chaos mage escaped instead.¡± she mutters before teleporting away with a sigh.
*****
¡°Hey! Hey Mortimer. Isn¡¯t today a festival?¡± Helios asks. ¡°No, the closest festival would be the day of beginnings, about 7 days from now. Why?¡± Mortimer replies. ¡°Nope! I¡¯m sure today¡¯s a holiday. Remember when I went around giving people gifts? It was a few hundred thousand years ago but I remember a certain Jason told me about it.¡±
Mortimer cross-legged and thinks for a while as Helios tries to display his memory through an opaque floating glass shard. ¡°Hmmm, try the elven territories during the last purge, you did personally visit them didn¡¯t you?¡±
Helios immediately adjusts his spell with his left hand and moves his right counterclockwise to see further into the past. After a few minutes of staring into the flickering shard of glass, the image stabilizes and shows Helios dressed in red. ¡°Hey! Hey, Mortimer. I got it! Its gift giving day! Remember, there was that one Jason that told me that people in his world receive gifts from a fat red guy?¡±
Mortimer walks behind helios and peaks into the glass, ¡°Yeah. Now I remember, the only problem was that you threw gifts at them and most of them didn¡¯t even see you before your gift smeared them into the ground.¡± Helios mumbles discontentedly while watching himself destroying the former elven country, ¡°I mean, there was no other way. How does one person give each and every person something personally within one night? Didn¡¯t that Jason say his world¡¯s population was around 6 billion? The red guy in his world has to be a god.¡±
¡°Well, if anything he just has the gifts appear, he probably doesn¡¯t go into every house. It might as well be the mortals making legends to explain how he does it.¡± Mortimer reasoned. Helios dismissed the glass shard and stared at Mortimer in shock, ¡°Of course! No god would be stupid enough to actually try that right? I got this, tonight I¡¯ll just have a gift appear for each and every elf.¡±
*****
¡°Happy gift day! I, bringer of calamity have decided to give each and every one of you elven a present!¡± Helios announced excitedly over every elven community. With a clap, he willed gifts into existence, exactly above each being. ¡°I don¡¯t have the time to figure out what each of you want so I made sure everyone got the same thing, half a ton of coal! My champion Jason told me that it¡¯s very useful so be grateful and worship me!¡±
¡°Hey, Helios. Did you really give everyone half a ton of coal exactly above them?¡± Mortimer asked in fear. Helios nonchalantly answers while eagerly watching the consequences of his actions, ¡°Yea, I can¡¯t let them mix up their presents right?¡± Mortimer immediately starts ripping space and dashing away, ¡°You half wit! You just killed 83% of the elven population. You wiped 13 species out completely. She''s probably already on the way here, don¡¯t you dare tell that witch I had anything to do with it!¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, all she can do is curse you. Last time she made your face disappear and It¡¯ll be back in a few thousand years. What else can she do? Turn you into a tree?¡± Helios wheezes while laughing.
Turning around, Helios notices that Mortimer was long gone and mutters, ¡°What a coward.¡± Turning back to his entertainment he continues to examine the outcome, ¡°I might have made it easier for the new Jason but depending on how the different species react to the new power vacuum, it might just make it harder in the long-¡± Suddenly feeling a tiny cold hand on his shoulder he freezes. Slowly glancing backwards he sees a tiny light blue fairy floating behind him. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to know anything about why my children are buried in coal would you, bringer of calamity,¡± it said sarcastically.
Helios awkwardly tries to look appeasing while turning his body, ¡°Diana, my favorite witch. Just who I was looking for, you know it''s time for the purge right.?¡± Hiding his hands behind his broad back, Helios frantically works on isolating the space around him. ¡°Yea, I figured that out when you dropped giant bags of coal on top of my children you retard.¡± Diana screeches raising her hand and quickly chanting away. ¡°You fat lump of slag for brains, enjoy the makeover.¡± She screams as she hurls a curse. At the same time, Helios completes the preparations and separates the space around him.
Once sealed Helios looks himself over and sighs, ¡°I still got hit huh.¡± grunting in frustration he summons Mortimer to the private pocket dimension. ¡°You ran huh? I told you it¡¯s not a good idea to mess with her creations, she went around for weeks trying to find me last time¡± Mortimer rants while trying to find Helios. ¡°Hey! Hey, Mortimer down here. Do I really look fat?¡± Helios asked.
4. Perfect smile
Marveling at the myriad of lights flowing around him, Akiel slowly stands up and looks around. Trees could be seen retrieving mana from their leaves and the roots and gathering it into a densely concentrated region right before the trunk splits into branches. The ground is almost completely aglow with small plants and flora gathering what sparse mana they can, most concentrate it just below the soil.
Focusing on the moving concentrations of mana he sees small animals, leaping throughout the treetops. All of their mana in the shape of a sphere with what look like branching veins. ¡°This is amazing. This is better than thermal or x-ray vision,¡± he mutters to himself.
Walking around he continues to marvel at the ambient mana until his vision is abruptly blocked by a surface filled with mana. Stopping to study it, Akiel realizes that the mana particles that should be flowing around are still and although sloppy, structured. Closing his eyes, Akiel focuses on deactivating the ability. Feeling the rush of heat recede from his eyes he opens them.
¡°Oh. It¡¯s just a tree,¡± he chuckles as ponders the reason for the sudden concentration of mana. Taking a step back he crouches and lunges forward punching at the tree. Punching straight at the area reinforced with mana he finds his fist stopped completely. ¡°No way. It¡¯s a defensive mechanism, the mana is for fortification!¡° he exclaims. The part of the tree he punched was completely fine, the only damage is stress fractures forming on the sides of the tree. ¡°It seems that the force isn¡¯t dispersed but blocked. It''s like a shield but the force needs to resisted by the rest of the tree.¡± he muses.
Infusing his eyes with mana, he once again examines the tree. Small clusters of mana are gathering at the cracks in the tree while the fortified mana is gone. Moving his hand closer to the tree he only gets a weak response. ¡°I guess, I expected too much from a tree. well, I guess I¡¯ll move onto the next one.¡± Turning the eyes of truth off he wanders around looking around in awe.
Walking through the forest, Akiel experiments with a flat stone. Urging his mana, he tries to transfer it to the stone. At first, there was confusion, the mana surges to his hand and lingers. Not knowing how to get it to leave his hand he imagines a connection between the stone and his hand. Fiddling with the rock, he realizes he can¡¯t tell if the rock received any mana.
Looking around he finds a large boulder sticking out of the side of a tree. Climbing on top, he checks the surroundings before augmenting his eyes again. The rock itself had no mana in it but he could see trace amounts sticking to its surface. Moving his hand over the rock he manages to push it into the rock. Encouraged by the success he urges more mana into the rock, imaging a bridge this time. Watching as a fifth of the stone is filled with mana, he stops filling it and tries to manipulate it.
Pushing the mana towards the surface he tries to form the mana to the stone, imitating the tree. Despite Akiels best efforts the mana only swirls around and spreads out. Sighing he urges the mana back into his hand. Although slow, the mana does eventually return to his body.
Throwing the stone away he takes a look at himself. ¡°Wow, this is probably almost identical to the human skeletal and muscle structure,¡± he says in amazement. Inside his body are several rods acting like supports. The joints especially resembled those of the human skeleton. Several strands of intricately woven mana lines wrapped around the bones and attached to his outer shell. The only major difference was the area between his bones, There is nothing akin to cartilage, ligaments, synovial fluid or lining. There was no cushion keeping his structural rods from the wear and tear of grinding against each other.
Raising his hand closer her examined the area between his structural rods. Even without any cushion, they stayed a fixed distance away from each other. Taking both hands he pushes his fingers together and watches as the rods slightly decrease the distance between. He stops as his outer shell starts to crack. ¡°It''s like a suspension spring,¡± he muses.
Looking closer he spots the terminal ends of the rods are covered in a sheet of mana. The sheets only differed from the fortification mana structure because of the particles that they emit at each other. ¡°Interesting. It¡¯s more like repulsion, sadly I don¡¯t think I can get mana particles to behave like that yet.¡±
Taking the guide book out he flips the pages until he finds a section labeled notes. As he flips to the first blank page a pen materializes conveniently. ¡°I love the quality of life features in this,¡± he chuckles. Picking up the pen gingerly he writes down some notes on mana behaviors before adding future endeavors he should aim for.
Flipping the pages until he found the map tab, he turns to the first page. For the most part, the first page detailed the royal castle as well as a narrow strip of the city where he presumably was carried to the forest. A small area of forest was also entailed but the rest was blank. Presumably, it would only show places he has been.
¡°Whatever, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to find someone if I walk straight in a direction. It''s not like I need food or water.¡± he shrugs.
Another quality of life feature is that the cursor on the map pointed in the direction he was facing. Adjusting his heading so he would be heading almost directly away from the kingdom he sets off towards the rising sun.
***
¡°Huh, so infusing my mana in object reduces my own movements. Makes sense, less mana to power my movements. I guess I should increase my mana limit as well as find something to use my mana on. Something other than primitive projections.¡± Mumbling to himself he throws a small stone at a nearby tree. Shattering a branch as well as part of a squirrel he smirks. ¡°Heh, finally got one, too bad this isn¡¯t a game world.¡± suddenly grunting he kicks an unearth root in frustration, ¡°I¡¯m still talking to myself, this isn¡¯t healthy! Why won¡¯t anyone appear, I¡¯ve been walking for almost a whole day!¡±
Getting more irritated by the minute he starts smacking a tree, ¡°Why. Won¡¯t. Something. Happen.¡± Grunting with exertion he topples the tree with a kick screaming, ¡°Where is everyone hiding?¡±
Two things suddenly happened at that moment, a small child screamed and a starving wolf leaps out of its cover for the child. The child that was previously hidden behind the tree was now in plain view just meters from Akiel. On the other hand, the wolf is coming from behind the child.
As the wolf got closer Akiel starts to think, ¡®She can be useful. Alive, she can bring me to more people. Alive, she can safely get me into civilization Alive, she can be my hostage.¡¯ As his thought progressed he starts to smile. Slightly at first, but increasing as his head tilts to side until his outer shell makes unsettling sounds.
Using remodel he detaches his finger and grabs it in the same hand. Infusing a negligible amount of mana into the finger, he throws it as the child cowers closer to the ground. Not waiting for the outcome he starts to run towards the child, still smiling just as wildly. The finger smacks onto the wolf''s snout, causing it to halt in annoyance before continuing.
Reaching the child, Akiel laughs, ¡°This is the key to the beggining, don¡¯t ruin this for me, please.¡± Infusing his four-fingered fist he arranges the mana in a simple sheet. With his fist fortified he lunges forward, balancing on one foot he leans forward. His empowered fist descends perfectly in time to nail the wolfs head into the ground. The wolf, motivated by days of hunger and the tantalizing view of Akiel¡¯s head being so close, meets the charge head-on. The wolf snarls, revealing rows of pearly grey, short but broad overlapping teeth. As the wolf¡¯s muzzle is just centimeters away from Akiel, the glow in his eye socket¡¯s dims.
His head, as if a separate entity move disjointly from his body. The wolf, close enough to see various stress fractures on Akiels body desperately makes a final lunge forward, aiming to bite his head off. Akiel¡¯s fist arrives in the next moment, pinning it to the ground. Holding his head in his free hand he frantically repositions himself above the wolf. Clamping his legs onto the wolf side he uses something he discovered earlier.
Removing the mana supplied to his lower body, he remodeled it to become rigid while jamming his head back on and fusing it as is. With his body anchored to the wolfs back, he redistributes the mana to his hands. Structuring the mana to fortify his arms, he bashes on the wolfs vulnerable head. The first punch is rewarded with a whimper and the sound of its skull cracking. The second punch pulverizes the muzzle, earning frantic whimpering screams. The third and fourth punches silence it as the wolfs skull gives in.
Sighing, Akiel leans forward for a moment of respite. Checking on his mana reserves, what he finds worries him. His body has a much lesser amount of mana left. If anything, he could probably only fill his upper body with enough mana to work pristinely. Noticing the wolf had a significant amount of mana still flowing through its body he sticks his hand in. Willing the mana to enter his hand, he finds that only the mana immediately around his hand responds.
Changing his approach he digs around in the wolfs head and retrieves the beast core. Although it¡¯s only the size of a slightly large marble, it was as bright as a star under his mana vision. Willing the mana to enter his hand he finds the mana stopped by a barrier. Sighing he cuts off the mana from one hand and crushes the core, absorbing what mana he could.
Redistributing his mana he shakily stands up, at best his current mana is only about 65% as much as there should normally be. Wearily make his way to the still sobbing girl, he prepares himself. Crouching lower to seem less imposing, he creeps up to the girl while putting up his best smile. ¡°Hey there kid. It¡¯s safe now, the big bad wolf can''t hurt you now,¡± he says to the girl. Looking up the little girl looks at his face, pausing just for a moment before bawling even louder.
¡°Don¡¯t worry kid. I¡¯m not here to hurt you, I just need a little help getting to the closest village. You think you can do that?¡± he reassures her. She quietens down slowly coming to a sniffle before looking at him again, ¡°Really? You won¡¯t steal my stuff?¡± Perplexed, Akiel searches the girl''s visible belongings. The little girl, barely ten years old was wearing a worn-out blue frock. No ornaments, no ribbons and no pouch full of money. All she had was a basket full of herbs.
¡°Of course not little one. I have no knowledge or interest in your plants. You see I don¡¯t even need to eat or drink. Why would I need your stuff? Here, how about this, If you help me to the nearest village I¡¯ll owe you a favor. You can ask me to do anything you want. I can¡¯t help you right away but after a nights rest, I should be back in perfect condition!¡± Akiel coaxed.
Playing with her fingers she shyly nodded. Getting up, she grunts under the effort of picking the basket up. Turning around she walks a small distance before looking back and cutely signaling him to follow.
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Chuckling he tells her to slow down, he could only hobble quickly at the moment. Drawing his mana away from his arms he focused it on his legs. No longer hobbling he quickly caught up to the girl.
***
¡°Mister, we are here! This is my village.¡± the little girl exclaims excitedly. Akiel, a little worse for wear sighs, ¡°Good job Alice! Now, if you can take me somewhere I can rest, I¡¯ll be grateful.¡±
Leading Akiel to the village entrance, Alice asks, ¡°Will you keep your promise, mister? Will you do what I tell you to?¡± Chuckling Akiel reassures her for the utmost time, ¡°Of course, but it¡¯s only a one time thing. Also, it can¡¯t be impossible.¡±
As they approach the entrance, two guards step forward. Ignoring Alice they stop and inspect Akiel. ¡°Hey, Uncle John. Hi Uncle Rick. Can you let him through? He owes me a favor,¡± Alice pleads them.
¡°Sure, just let us talk with him real quick alright? Just stand over there and let the adults talk real quick.¡± a guard persuades Alice while ruffling her hair.
As Alice walks into the village both guards stand on either side of Akiel. ¡°That girl already has too much on her plate, we would appreciate it if you leave her alone. State your purpose and where you came from if you still want to enter the town. Any wrong moves and we will skewer you.¡± one of the guards warned.
Making the best wry smile he could, Akiel appeasingly replies, ¡°I¡¯m just trying to find a dungeon. I was told there was one near here. As for where I am from, I came from the capital. A wolf found your Alice and Alice found me. As you can see sir I¡¯m not in the best condition. All I require is some information and a place to rest.¡±
Grunting the guard in front of him steps aside, ¡°Fine, just don¡¯t do anything stupid. Remember, we will check up on you and if anything is wrong we will kill you.¡± He nods in comprehension before passing them.
Feeling exposed without a hostage, Akiel hurriedly walks to the girl, ¡°We¡¯re done Alice, lead on.¡± With Alice in the lead, they slowly make their way to the center of town. Most of the people ignore them but some stare while others look at them disdainfully. ¡®I guess a girl in rags and a poorly constructed doll make even villagers look better,¡± Akiel thinks to himself. Almost out of the central area, Akiel notices a merchant, in particular, watching them closely. The merchant avoided eye contact when I glanced at him but he continued to look at us and then down at something on his lap. Mentally noting to investigate the merchant he uneasily follows Alice. Taking a few turns, they reach the outskirts of the village as the sunlight wanes.
¡°Mister Don. This Is my home! You can rest in the attic but remember, you can only stay if you help out. Money doesn¡¯t just appear you know. It¡¯ll be 5 coppers a week, I¡¯ll let you stay today but tomorrow I expect you I work,¡± Alice says, trying her hardest to sound stern.
Unable to resist, Akiel salutes to her while saying,¡± Yes Ma''am!¡± Chuckling, he enters the tiny rundown house. Cobwebs and layers of dust evident in the upper half of the room while the lower half seems to have been regularly cleaned. This was probably the result of Alice being the only one cleaning.
¡°Don¡¯t be loud from here on, my mama is sleeping and needs her rest. She is in the next room, you can enter the attic through the hole in the roof outside. Just climb the ladder next to the house.¡± Alice explains.
Shaking his head Akiel replies, ¡±No need. I can just make do here, I don¡¯t really sleep I just need somewhere to sit.¡± Slowly lowering himself onto the ground, Akiel leans against the wall. ¡°I¡¯m okay now Alice, just call for me when you need me,¡± Akiel says before closing his eyes.
Relaxing his body, he turns on his eyes of truth and observes himself. Most of his body was only faintly illuminated with a sparse amount of mana threads. Focusing his sight on mana particles just outside his body he finds lazy mana particles brushing over him. Occasionally a few would enter his body. ¡®So I do regain mana unconsciously over time,¡± He thinks to himself.¡¯
Observing for a few more minutes, he ascertains that it wasn¡¯t a mistake, he did have natural mana absorption. Akiel observed calmly for another hour but grew dissatisfied. Not only is the natural absorption slow, consiously speeding it up requires immense concentration. If he could obtain another brain, he might be able to keep absorbing mana at a fast pace. Currently, he could only increase absorption for a few minutes before he felt mentally taxed. Between sessions of forced mana absorption, he gave himself at least five minutes to recover, increasing as the number of sessions grew.
Several hours later, Akiel stands up. His mana concentration high is enough to be able to work, as long as he avoided extreme physical exertion his mana concentration would remain stable. Getting up without making a sound he peaks into the back room.
It was empty except for a rotting cot and a few medicinal bottles lying on the ground. On the cot lay a woman covered with a torn and ratty blanket. The woman was fast asleep, only an occasional groan could be heard but it seemed like it took all her energy just to manage to make any sound. ¡®Shouldn¡¯t be long before she croaks,¡¯ Akiel muses. Exiting the house he looks around for Alice but fails to find her.
Shrugging he walks towards the center of the village With the sun high in the air, Akiel wandered around the edge of the market place. It wasn¡¯t anything special but it was enough. All he needed was a map and the whereabouts of the nearest dungeon if it isn¡¯t on the map. If he could find a stone large enough he could probably also remodel to fix his appearance. Walking around the far side of the market, approaching the village entrance, he spots the suspicious merchant leading two figures into his tent. One of the figures takes off their hoods, revealing a purple haired, dark skinned female. Her mouth seemed much larger than normal and her eyes seemed to have no sclera. Her ears tapper off into small points, pierced with several glowing earrings and studs. Following the first, the second figure also takes her hood off. The second female was a brunette with normal, human body proportions. The only thing peculiar on the brunette was the existence of several disjointed and elaborate lines drawn on her face.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Akiel sneaks around the tent. Crouching down and lifting the tarp, he slides into the storage area. Several crates and packages littered the room. Hiding behind a particularly prominent crate near the center he hears the merchant conversing softly. Moving closer, he creeps between the crates. Getting closer and closer, he stops when he can make out what was being said.
¡°I¡¯m telling you, it¡¯s here. I saw it, it was a little damaged but it had the same face. The construct is definitely still in the village. I have my men posted at every exit. I even have a few hunters combing the outskirts for him. Unless he jumps off the cliff, he won¡¯t be getting away.¡± the merchant explains.
¡°Fine. You better be right, my promotion could be riding on this.¡± One of the females threatens before leaving with the other. Akiel carefully maneuvers around his cover as they walk by, making his way behind the worried merchant. ¡°I¡¯m right. I¡¯m definately right. Yeah. When this is over I¡¯ll just kill her. I¡¯ll poison her and take the promotion. Then, the administrator will see me. She will notice my worth. From there, I¡¯ll be set for life.¡± the merchant mumbles while sweating.
Glad for not needing to breathe, Akiel makes it within a few centimeters of the merchant. Slowly reaching out with his hands, he raises them around the merchants head. Noticing shadows stretching above his head the merchant tries to yell but was too late. Akiel¡¯s hands smack into his temples, disorienting him. Not waiting for the merchant to recover, Akiel slams the merchants head into the desk twice. The merchant, suffering from a severe concussion, slumps to the ground unconscious. Relieved, Akiel drags him to the chair and strips him. Sorting through the items with the eyes of truth, he finds two rings an amulet and glossy tablet like item.
Putting the tablet to the side, he crudely examines the rings but finds nothing special. Moving onto the amulet, he finds that it contains a small beast core and various characters etched into its sides. Injecting a bit of mana, a small orb of fire shoots out at the unconscious merchant.
Wearing the amulet, he checks on the merchant. Although still unconscious, the ball of fire managed to burn all of his chest hair as well as a patch of skin raw. Retrieving a rope Akiel hastily ties the merchant up before waking him. Slapping the merchant into waking up, akiel stuffs his fingers into the merchant''s mouth. Baffled and afraid the merchant tried to stand up and wrench Akiel¡¯s fingers out of his mouth in vain.
¡°Listen up, I need some information. You don¡¯t have to die, just answer truthfully and I¡¯ll let you go.¡± Akiel kindly explains. Seeing the sly look in the merchant''s eyes, Akiel takes his free hand and crushes a finger off the merchant''s hand. ¡°Now you know what I¡¯ll do if I¡¯m even slightly suspicious of your answer.¡± Akiel patronizes as the merchant whimpers, grinding his teeth on Akiels stone fingers. Tears streamed down his face as blood oozes out of his gums.
Throwing the finger away, Akiel starts the interrogation, ¡°Let¡¯s start easy. Where is your most accurate map?¡± Taking his fingers out of the merchant¡¯s mouth, the merchant quickly tells him to check under his desk. Taking a nearby cloth, Akiel stuffs it into the merchant¡¯s mouth before finding the map. Checking it, he find the locations of several landmarks marked for him. Stuffing the map in his mouth he lets it settle somewhere in his abdomen before returning to the merchant.
¡°Second question, where is the closest dungeon. I prefer a small one over a large one so a relatively new dungeon if possible.¡± Akiel politely asks. Ripping the cloth out of the merchant¡¯s mouth, Akiel grabbed another finger. ¡°Wait. it¡¯s to the east. It¡¯s east. East. God help me it¡¯s in the east,¡± the merchant sobs in fear. Satisfied Akiel pushed the cloth back into his mouth.
¡°Last question, but before that lets remind you why you haven''t lied yet.¡± Akiel says with a lopsided smile as he crushes another finger off. The merchant squeals in pain. His hands chaffed from the rope tying him down. Eyes bulging, threatening to pop out. His mouth, only leak strange muffled blubbering. ¡°What¡¯s your boss¡¯s name pal?¡± Akiel asks gently.
Gingerly removing the cloth out of the merchant¡¯s mouth Akiel adds, ¡°Tell me this and I¡¯ll leave immediately.¡± Wheezing in pain and repetitively exhaling heavily he looks up, locking eyes with Akiel. The merchant''s eyes redden as tears stream out faster. He scrunches his ugly excuse for a mouth into a repulsive smile. Not long after foam starts spilling from his mouth.
Akiel sighs and turns away. Kicking the chair over, Akiel yells in frustration, ¡°Poison! Of course, it just had to be poison.¡± Taking a deep breath, Akiel gathers his thoughts. Looking around, he finds an unlit lantern. Smashing the lantern on a crate he sends a little mana to the amulet, setting it on fire. Taking one last look at the dead merchant and the rapidly spreading fire, he swiftly leaves the tent through the back.
***
Sitting next to Alice''s mother, Akiel holds her head by her chin. Once, she might have been a beautiful woman, now she¡¯s but a husk of a person. Alice, returning from a part-time job rushes over after seeing Akiel near her mother. ¡°Mister Don! What are you doing to mama?¡± she angrily yelled. ¡°Don¡¯t blame me little Alice, your mother is in pain. She¡¯s hurting. She¡¯s dying.¡± he whispers. With watery eyes, Alice shakes Akiel, ¡°No she¡¯s not. She can¡¯t. She took the medicine, she is going to be fine.¡±
Inwardly laughing, Akiel cradles her while lying, ¡°The medicine was rejected by her body, it¡¯s killing her slowly. It¡¯s cruel keeping her like this.¡± Shaking the mother, Alice starts breaking down, "Mama! Wake up, mama. Come on Mama, we can live together like always. Please, mama! Please. Please, don''t go." Sobbing, Alice pleads, ¡°Do something, please do something.¡± Beating at his chest she cries,¡±You owe me. Do something. Save her. She can¡¯t leave me. You owe me!¡±
Akiel¡¯s eyes give off a malicious gleam as he soothes Alice, ¡°It¡¯s okay. She won¡¯t leave you. In fact, you can be together soon. Do you want to see your mother laughing again? Talking again? Hugging you?¡± he whispers. Alice, caught in his enticing words, nods while burying her face in his chest.
Smiling, Akiel whispers, ¡°I can help you then. You see I am a hero, summoned by the gods. I can help you save your mother. All you have to do is close your eyes and pray. Pray to the god of life, to the god of death, and to the god of destruction. Pray to anyone that will hear you. Think about your happiest memories and convince them that your mother deserves better. Convince them that you deserve better. I¡¯ll be right here conveying every word, every thought, and every emotion.¡±
Wiping her eyes, Alice finds her resolve and closes her eyes. In his embrace, she starts to pray. She starts to plead, to beg and to appeal. Tears slowly leak out from the tear ducts. She thinks of her happiest memory. Unknowingly, she starts to speak out loud, ¡°I don¡¯t have many happy memories, but I have one that I will never forget. I was six or seven, I can¡¯t remember and my mama can¡¯t tell me. We were always alone, but plenty of people helped us back then. We were poor but we were together. I was my mama¡¯s pride and she was my joy. We went herb picking together in the mornings, and cleaned the homes of others in the afternoon. One day, my mama¡¯s employer gave her a tip. She took it and bought me a treat. It was a treat worth five whole coppers but she said my smile was worth more. She said it was worth more than the world to her.¡±
Sobbing Alice pauses before continuing ¡°I told her, I hated her smile. She started to cry and that''s when I hugged her. I told her I loved every other part of her. Her smiles always seemed sad. I remember hugging her and telling her that I didn¡¯t want to eat the treat if she wouldn¡¯t share it with me. I just wanted to see her happy too. She held me tight in her arms and told me she wasn¡¯t sad because of me. She told me that I was right and that she should be happy from then on. I didn¡¯t understand then, but I forgot about it soon after. I remember, she took some of the icy treat on a finger and applied it to my nose. Not long after, we both were laughing. I had retaliated and covered her faced with most of the treat. The only part left was a small berry. She picking it up and split it in half. She told me to swear on the mighty god of berries that I would never forget how to smile. I laughed at the berry god joke and told her to promise she will stay happy. We ended, the day on top of the newly constructed wooden walls, watching the sunset. She held me close and I hugged her back tightly. It was the happiest day I have ever had. Not long after mother got sick and couldn¡¯t get up. I never saw her happy after, only regretful and in pain. Her sad smiles came back and I stopped smiling. Please. We deserve to stay together. Please don¡¯t take mana from me.¡±
Akiel was content looking at Alice. Her face was pathetic, eyes closed, no longer crying. Mouth forming a wide but stiff smile filled with sorrow. Face scrunched up, trying not to cry.
Sometime, between the beginning and end of Alices monologue, her mother''s hand caressed her head.
Sighing, he twists his hand. Witha unsettling series of pops, the mother¡¯s head lay facing the side, having been twisted to the point where her fragile neck tore. No tears stained her face, no pain showed either. It was a face effused with relief, gratitude and immense pride.
Alice, hearing the peculiar sound, opens her eyes only to see her mother''s head facing the wrong way, her neck ripped beyond repair. Tears gush out of her eyes as she supports herself up. Staring hollowly at her mother, she stood there broken. Akiel not wasting any more time grabs her head and snaps her neck, "that really sounds familiar, it''s like when you twist the cap off a stubborn juice bottle."
Laughing, Akiel leaves the house, ¡°That was quite the comic relief. What a eerily perfect smile her mother has. On the other hand, dear Alice was just a let down.¡±
5. Capital Punishment
Looking at the sky, Akiel spots the plume of smoke rising from the burning merchant''s tent. Cautiously making his way around the market place, he finds a vantage point of the burning tent. At this point, quite a few people were working together to put the fire out. ¡°At this rate, the fire will be extinguished. Magic really is too convenient.¡± he sighs. Sneaking around the commotion, he makes his way the town gate.
Stopping behind a wagon, Akiel crouches and sneaks a peek at the gates. Both guards are still there, although a little unnerved. One continuously paces while the other nervously glances to the town center. Frustrated, he turns back heading his way back to the edge of the market square. ¡°The ideal dungeon is just a few hours away. The only thing stopping me is that the main entrance is the closest exit. The two females that are looking for me should be looking for me in the outskirts. Exiting through the back entrance of the town may lead me to them.¡± he ruminates.
Stepping aside to let guards through he weaves into a narrow alley and scales a ramshackle building. Heaving himself onto the roof, he overlooks half of the town. Walls surround the town, all manned by sparse but diligent guards. The burning merchant''s tent is just to the south of him, the outskirts slightly beyond. The opposite way housed much wealthier and sturdily made homes. Rows and rows of homes made of the finest wood and the best security. Too bad, with all the security, he would never be able to cause a distraction as he is.
Scrutinizing the alleys below he finds a beggar moving through the back alleys skillfully. As the beggar navigates through the alleys, he gets closer and closer to the building Akiel is standing on. Easing himself off the roof, Akiel waits for the beggar to walk under him before letting the roof go. Falling onto the beggar, slamming him into the ground.
Grunting, the beggar displays a surprising amount of strength, heaving Akiel off. Bewildered by the causal actions of the beggar, Akiel jumps, slamming his stony elbow down on the beggars back. Awarded with a crisp snapping sound, Akiel redoubled his efforts. He continued to slam his elbows into the beggars back, eliciting a pain filled groan.
The beggar, quickly adapting to the situation, pushes himself away with a half jump, half pouncing motion. Clutching at a crate full of rubbish, he glares at Akiel.
Astonished that the beggar was still able to move, Akiel quickly closes in. His initial punch caught in the beggar''s hand, he pulls the fist back with the beggar. Launching another punch as the beggar lurches forward uncontrollably. To Akiels surprise, the beggar manages to catch his other fist as well. Although in an unsightly position, both of Akiel¡¯s fist are held by the beggar.
No better off, the beggar pants raggedly, occasionally spraying blood as he coughs. ¡°You made a mistake picking on me boy. Just because I''m old and look impoverished doesn¡¯t mean a D class rookie can take me on.¡± he sputters spitefully.
Akiel, finally reorganizing himself, focuses his mana into his hands and forehead. ¡°I may be a rookie, but stone is harder than flesh. Unless you got more tricks, your done old man.¡± Crushing the old man''s hands back into themselves, he starts losing control of his legs. Akiel pulls the old mans hands and savagely headbutts him. Over and over until the only sound left is a faint whimpering.
Taking the old man by the head he activates his mana vision. The old man, unfortunately, had a very small amount of mana flowing through him. Faint traces can be seen around his spine, but the mana structure is dissolving at breakneck speeds. Focusing on the mana, he tries to absorb it only to meet an obstruction. The mana seems to ignore him no matter how he tries to influence it.
Taking another look, Akiel decides to try to absorb the mana after it¡¯s current host dies. With a swift punch to the throat, the beggar shudders before hanging limply from Akiel¡¯s hand. Only after a few minutes did the mana within the beggar start to leave. Not wasting any time, Akiel focuses on the mana, pushing it to enter his hand. Although most of the mana dispersed, the mana closest to the head entered Akiel.
Gratified by the success, Akiel removes the cloak from the beggar and studies his body structure. Satisfied with his observations, he activates his remodel ability. Changing his face to match that of the Beggar''s, he alters the height and shoulder with to match. Wearing the cloak he stoops over and picks up the beggar''s body and stuffs it into the crate. Folding the legs carefully he snaps the arms into place. Looking around, he makes his way back to the main entrance.
Behind a wagon and out of the sentries sight, Akiel makes his way to the front of the wagon where the horse is drinking water. Gently spilling some water onto the ground he rubs his hand coating it in the mud. Applying the mud to his face, he covers every crack and wrinkles with mud to hide his grey surface.
Slowly standing, Akiel tries to mimic the beggar''s gait, not to the point of hobbling but enough to notice a slight dependency on the right foot. After practicing behind the wagon until he is satisfied, he confidently walks to the main entrance. WIthout so much as looking at the sentries, He saunters past the guards.
As he passes, one of the guards says, ¡°Don¡¯t forget, I want a young Brandleback! You promised you would get some stock the next time you visit.¡± Managing a slight smile, Akiel holds his hand up in acknowledgment as he hastens his pace.
Not noticing much at first the guards smiles nervously until he glances at Akiel¡¯s hand. Half of it was a dirty brown, the rest was grey. Signaling his partner the guard calls out, ¡°Mr. Alif! I forgot, there was someone who mentioned you. He gave me a letter to hand over to you.¡±
Hearing the incoming guard, Akiel drops the improvised gait and breaks into a run.
Completely convinced that Akiel is an imposter, the guard starts to speed up. Gradually accelerating even faster, closing the distance faster and faster.
Ripping the fireball talisman off his neck, Akiel draws mana from his other hand and much of his torso into it. Leaving only a few strings of mana connecting to his lower extremities, the rest of the mana gathers in the talisman, causing small waves of light to undulate. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Just a arms distance away now, the guard swings his pole staff down on Akiel, ¡°Comply or die, imposter!¡±
Turning halfway stiffly, Akiel discharges the talisman. After a brief pause, a fiery explosion throws the guard away. Dismayed that the talisman was no longer operable, Akiel drops it and continues running, leaving both guards behind.
The guard sent flying wheezes while slowly getting up, ¡°Mother of Sharn! Who gives a doll a fireball amulet?¡± Passing him, his partner drops his spear, drawing a shorter and lighter dagger instead, ¡°Call for assistance, I¡¯ll follow him.¡±
Akiel speeds through the forest, trying to lose his tail. Crashing through a thorny bush, Akiel sneaks a peek backward to see a guard slowly but surely catching up. ¡®Just how much stamina do these guards have? He¡¯s clearly running at his full speed, just how long does he expect to keep going?¡¯ he thinks to himself as he focuses on keeping a steady rhythm.
Sneaking another peek he sees the guard just meters behind him. Instead of being anxious, Akiel becomes relieved instead, Although his internal mana concentration was gradually thinning, the guard is beyond any doubt, spent. His skin flushed red with exertion, veins popping. His eyes bulging, and several abrasions on his skin from thorny bushes and stray branches.
Continuing to run, Akiel keeps track of the guard, waiting for him to get closer. The guard, assessing his own situation decides to stop. Akiel slows down, turning around while slowly backing off. The guard fumbles with a strap on the lower side of his chainmail. Curious, Akiel decides to see what the guard had planned.
Pulling a cylinder out, the guard slowly raises it in Akiel¡¯s direction. Taking his free hand, he bashes the bottom of the cylinder in. Immediately, a bright yellow object shoots into the sky, leaving a trail of glowing yellow dust that blanketed everything on the ground.
¡°Oh wow, they have flairs. It¡¯s really not a medieval world.¡± Akiel mutters as he turns and runs off an angle from the yellow dust trail in the sky. After having run for quite a few minutes, Akiel slows to a walk and pulls his guidebook out after not finding the map he stole. Flipping to the map page, he finds new information added to his map. Locating the nearest dungeon, he adjusts his heading and starts running at a more moderate pace.
After an hour or so, he starts to hear sounds of pursuit from behind him. ¡°Either they have someone who can smell me, or they can see extremely well during the night,¡± he mutters in resignation. Slowing to a jog, he pulls out his guidebook and adjusts his direction to the closest body of water. As he runs, the sounds become clearer and more distinct.
Hearing the barking of dogs, Akiel congratulates himself on figuring out the mystery and forces his mana to his legs, fortifying and speeding up their movement. Despite the fortification, small fragments of stone continually fall off from the abuse.
Reaching a large river, Akiel wades in awkwardly. With his arms lacking the mana to move properly, he continues to walk in the water as it submerges him. At first, he felt a weightless sensation, but as he looks up, countless air bubbles escape from his empty eye sockets and open mouth.
Settling at the bottom, Akiel makes his way to a boulder sticking out of the water. Slowly walking through the water, he remodels himself so that his hand had an ear attached. Slowly making his way around the boulder, he raised his hand so it would lay on the surface of the water. Keeping his ear above the water, Akiel patiently waits.
Just a few minutes later, several steps approach the river bank. ¡®This is a surprisingly quiet river bank.¡¯ Akiel muses to himself. Shifting uneasily he waits while the beings above shuffle around. Finally, after an hour of hurried footsteps and grunts, a conversation is started.
¡°It is here according to the spore hounds. Unless he removed the sun spores himself, he couldn¡¯t escape their senses. Take half of the troop and circle around the river. Set the nets up and progress upstream. Deploy the aquatic tamers and find it! Remember, it has already killed innocents. Show no mercy.¡± a voice commands from above.
Taking his hand back from the surface, Akiel remodels his ear back to the side of his head. Having heard that they would start to comb the river from further down river, he unhesitantly starts walking upstream. The only problem was that he was making very little progress. Sighing internally, Akiel gets on his knees and starts clawing his way upstream.
Looking back, he had made about 13 meters of progress after battling the river current for several minutes. Shaking his head in disappointment, he turned sideways and starts crawling his way to the other river bank. ¡®Hopefully, I can get out of this before those aquatic tamers do whatever they¡¯re supposed to do¡¯ He deliberates.
Slowly progressing towards the opposing bank, Akiel checks down the river with his mana sight. Several small people were on either side down the river, casting nets and leading large, dog-like creatures around trying to pinpoint his location.
Just when things seemed terrible, they got worse. ¡®Heh, so that''s what aquatic tamers do.¡¯ he muses as several large creatures appear in the water. Some large and slow, some slimmer and faster. All deadly and making much faster progress than him. Mentally slapping himself to focus, he looks around, searching for something hidden to use. There is nothing on either bank. There is nothing in the sky or further upstream. Helpless he looks for something underneath him. Surprisingly, there is something underneath him, a large amount of pure mana. The type of mana that the gods use.
Before making a mad gamble, he tries to use remodel to remove the spores that help his enemies track him, only to feel hopeless. It was like trying to remove sticky grains of sand, one at a time. Cursing his luck, Akiel remodels his body so that most of his body becomes more compact and compressed into a disk shape, while one of his arms turns into a drill. Modifying his other arm to be like a clamp, he ends the session. With his mana reduced by a third, Akiel gets to work.
Letting the bulk of his body cover his activities, he clamps one hand down on the river bed, digging to get a better purchase. With his body being in the correct position, he retrieves all his mana and concentrates it in his drill arm. Rotating his drill, Akiel remodels the majority of his body to detach, acting like a crudely made shield. Pushing deeper, Akiel remodels two eyeballs, both on the remaining portion of his body. One looking backway at the incoming beasts and one overlooking the progress of his drilling.
Unfortunately for him, the faster creatures were just meters away from him. He, on the other hand, was a solid meter of digging away from the source of the mana. Briefly considering visiting his patron gods, he reconsiders. It¡¯s not that he couldn¡¯t, it¡¯s that he may not be able to come back. The first time he was obliterated back into the real world, this time they might just obliterate him for the real world for not being competent. It really was just a matter of life and death for him, nothing like ceasing to exist. What was really at stake is the ultimate wish.
Steeling his mind, he pushes on, ignoring the probing attacks on his outer shell. Half a meter away, the creatures rip his shell off, trying to tear it apart. Nervously continuing, Akiel gets ready to detach most of his remaining body, as long as he himself is present, the size of his body shouldn¡¯t matter. The creatures, take turns gnawing and jostling at the shell before becoming bored. The drill hand attracts their attention immediately as it sends dirt, fragments of rock and sand flying. Thankful for the temporary cover, Akiel anxiously watches as his hand drills closer to the pure mana source. Just centimeters away, one creature gets lucky, managing to get a tentacle around his clamp hand.
Decisively detaching the hand, the digging slows as the pressure applied lessens considerably. Just a centimeter away from the mana source. Akiel uses remodel to open up the upper fringes of the drill and ejects spikes. Elongating the remaining part of the drill, he pushes his reduced body with the tiny amount of mana he has left. Just millimeters from breaking through, his new body was found, this time by one of the larger creatures. Silently screaming assault, Akiel pushes with the last vestiges of his mana.
Slowly but surely, a small breach forms. Excited, Akiel celebrates when his body suddenly jerks away from the breach. The beast had dug him out.
In desperation, Akiel eyes the breach and detaches almost everything left, leaving just a small ant-sized portion and his consciousness. Slowly he drifts down, with no vision and no senses. Slowly he tumbles through his hole, getting closer to the breach. As he reaches the bottom, he teeters on the edge of a groove dug by him when he was using a bigger drill. A stray river current pushes him deeper in the hole by chance. Slowly drifting down, Akiel loses consciousness for the second time in this world. His last thought being, ¡°It¡¯s too early for capital punishment, I still want a twinkie.¡±
6. Errand Boy
¡°Hey! Kid, do something. Use the mana, and show me you¡¯re conscious. Hey man, he ain¡¯t awake. Your sensors are broken, how much do I have to do to get you to get me working sensors?¡± a voice says while walking away.
Akiel, slowly making sense of his situation, starts to absorb the ambient mana as the voice instructed. At first, he feels nothing. There was no mana in the surroundings, saying it was devoid of mana would have been correct. Thinking back to right before he was chased, he remembered seeing a dense concentration of mana. Without mana, he couldn¡¯t look at his surroundings to confirm why he isn¡¯t able to sense anything.
Concentrating again, he tries to pull mana from his surroundings into himself. ¡°Hey, last chance. The dungeon is picking up your tries to take in the ambient mana so I¡¯ll tell you right now. You can¡¯t take it in. Mana in its pure state requires certain materials and formations to trap. To use it, think about doing what you want with it and it should comply.¡± the voice says while getting closer.
Focusing on the voice¡¯s instructions, he tries to draw mana closer to his physical form. Not trying to draw it in, he instead wills it to congregate around him. Feeling small fluctuations of energy on his surface, he uses remodel and makes a small version of himself. Standing a centimeter high, Akiel looks around.
Scooping him up, another construct brings him to its eye level, ¡°That''s a nifty trick you got there. Too bad it¡¯s of no use to me or the dungeon. Just asking but are you from another world or are you a free construct from this one?¡± Using the lift, Akiel takes a look around while squeaking, ¡°I¡¯m a free construct, my dungeon no longer needed me so I left. I walked away and it didn¡¯t do anything to stop me.¡±
Chuckling, the construct says, ¡°No dungeon construct can walk away from its mana source while it exists. Just seeing how you couldn¡¯t use pure mana proves that you either were made in a hurry right before the dungeon was destroyed or you are not a dungeon construct.¡±
Looking back at the construct, Akiel notices the masculine form. Still watching him, he arrives in another room. ¡°Because of your little digging project, we collapsed the topmost rooms but we can always create more. Anyways, my dungeon has already seen your information so the question was just a test. One that you failed terribly. Not that he blames you, just won¡¯t trust you now. That¡¯s all.¡±
Sitting down in his palm, he asks the construct, ¡°Can I get some stone? Actually, can I get any type of material? I¡¯d like to fix my body.¡±
Derisively snorting, the construct replies, ¡°Yeah. Sure, lie to me and then ask for a favor. That¡¯ll work! Talk to the dungeon, I¡¯ve got other things to do.¡± Not interested in the least, he tosses him into another room and leaves.
Landing harshly on the uneven floor, Akiel gets up and looks around. Surprisingly, an intangible figure was levitating in the middle of the room, seeming to be meditating with his legs folded. The room itself was bare, only having the door he was thrown in from and a door behind the figure.
Making his way towards the figure he examines the figure with his mana sight. The ambient mana was completely grey and filled almost every direction in his vision. The only color is around the levitating figure. The colorful mana flowed from the figure to a certain point through the left wall.
Suddenly a voice starts talking in his head, ¡°What your seeing is the change from pure mana to that of mana with a purpose. Heat, light, force and many other types of commands given to pure mana give it purpose. That''s when it turns colorful in your vision.¡±
Craning his neck to look at the figure, Akiel finds it looking at him in amusement. ¡°Sir Executioner, you have no need to worry. I am not in any list of yours and therefore am not an enemy. I¡¯ve been through countless purges, have watched countless restarts. As long as I don¡¯t leave any record of my knowledge and occasionally help the champion of destruction, I can get myself on the shortlist of survival.¡±
Slightly startled that the figure seemed to know everything about him, Akiel notes to himself that dungeons are more of a danger than humans.
As if easing Akiel¡¯s tension, the dungeon continues his monologue, ¡°Not all dungeons can tell, but the older and more powerful will be able to ascertain your information through certain skills. One being appraise. On the other hand, finding you is not possible for most. I myself had help.¡±
The left wall falls away to reveal a long corridor. Just as Akiel wonders what the purpose of the corridor is, a woman walks past it. Moments later, she runs back and looks down into the room. With a sigh, she makes her way into the room. The moment she enters, she flashes forward a meter and embeds the figure into the opposite wall. ¡°How hard is it to teleport into the room? Huh? Not only does your blasted domain not allow teleportation, but it also has wards against almost every type of location detection magic.¡± she screams in frustration as her chest heaves in exertion.
Extracting itself out of the wall, the figure walks towards the woman. Noticing it walking on air, Akiel suddenly remembers his guidebook where he had written his notes on mana repulsion. Accepting the loss, he focuses on the figure''s feet. To his surprise, there is no repulsion. Not only is repulsion not being used, but the figure was also not using any thrusting force between his feet and the floor. Instead, mana had been constructed as anchors relative to him. He seemed to be able to fortify his position relative to space and not matter.
¡°Miss Archmage, you know very well why I have a restriction on every magic except that which deals with fortification. I¡¯m almost a god and every other god has to interfere with my ascent. Anyway, this is the one you wanted to see.¡± It says pointing to me.
Trying to look his best, Akiel puffs his abdomen out and stand taller. Looking at him, the archmages face distorts, ¡°By the Blue Bane, he¡¯s useless. What am I supposed to teach this half-pint to make him useful! Taggen, what do you want me to do with it? At best, we can make it carry a bomb and blow himself up at a random bakery. It won''t be able to hurt a single guard like this!¡±
Making calming gestures, Taggen explains, ¡°He is a construct, he can grow bigger with materials and mana. All I need from you is to give him the book I told you to bring. From what the previous champions said, imagination is the greatest tool of those who come from another world. Give him the tools and he¡¯ll be able to at least distract your king''s dog right?¡±
Quietly mumbling, the woman finally calms down and hands the figure a book, ¡°Nothing more than that. You know how hard it is to control threats. The less they know, The easier it will be.¡± Turning around, she leaves through the passageway. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Turning to me, Taggen sighs and says, ¡°No offense, but your race has been experimented on and there has been no specimen that can retain more information than a monkey. Either way, she wants you to create a disturbance so she can take the throne. You probably need to destroy the kingdom. If I had half a brain, and I do, this is the best time to make a move. Destroy the kingdom while she fights for the throne. As an archmage, she should be one of your top priorities to kill.¡±
Looking at the book the archmage gave him, Taggen flips through it. ¡°This is what I want to give you, the tools to make machines, contraptions, and formations of destruction and death,¡± he comments.
Reaching out, Akiel tries to gesture for the dungeon to give it to him only see the book move further away. ¡°Not yet, nothing is free. I also have needs, as a dungeon that does not spawn monsters, record information and allow outsiders in to explore, I need to get my energy from other sources. Basically, I¡¯ll give you the material to rebuild your body and this book in exchange for a list of objects. It¡¯s like a shopping list, you swear an oath to me on your soul and I give you the tools to get the items.¡±
Slowly nodding, Akiel agrees with the proposition. After a bit of squeaking and gesticulating, both Akiel and the dungeon settle on a contract. Akiel must bring all the required items in the state written on a paper to be handed over. The dungeon, Taggen must give him the book as well as the resources to rebuild his body. If Akiel fails to bring the material in three years or dies trying, his soul will be stripped of its consciousness and will belong to the dungeon.
With an ominous ring of light enveloping both him and the dungeon, the oath was made and the strings of fate were tied.
¡°Well, here''s the book, some stone, and some information. The information will tell you how to get the items I need and where they can be found. Good luck and goodbye. I¡¯ll be here, in the same place. Only come back when you have the full list.¡± the dungeon dictates before snapping and leaving Akiel in a forest.
After a cursory look at his surroundings, Akiel sighs, ¡°Well, at least I¡¯m safe for now.¡± Making his way over to the mound of stone he sits on top while concentrating his mana. Using most of his mana he has, he uses remodel to triple his size. Opening his eyes moans in frustration, ¡°Great, all my mana for another two centimeters. It¡¯s going to take most of the day just to get to a respectable size.¡± Closing his eyes he busies himself.
***
¡®Your majesty, the trainee guards have returned. They¡¯ve come with the corpse of the construct and are parading it up to the castle¡± an elderly Chamberlain reports. ¡°Welcome them in, they can do anything they want until they enter the castle. The moment they do, shut them up. I haven¡¯t the time to deal with their trivial achievements.¡± waving the chamberlain away, the king continues to work. Flipping through a few pages, he continues to compare them. A few minutes later, the elderly chamberlain knocks on the door, ¡°It¡¯s me, your majesty, I have brought the trainee guards.¡±
Rubbing his forehead, the king stands up and walks around his desk, carrying his chair. Setting it down in front of his desk, he sits down and sighs. ¡°Let them enter, bring the proof as well as their families,¡± he announces after a bit of deliberation.
From a side door, several guards escort families into the room while the Chamberlain opens the main entrance. ¡°Hey, that''s my family. That''s my family. we killed it, let them go!¡± the first trainee starts an uproar followed by his comrades. The royal guards escorting the families swiftly disarm and subdue the trainees. Clearing his throat, the king gestures to the guards.¡°I don¡¯t think you lot understand. In front of me, there will be no questions, there will be no loud noises, and there will be no disobedience. Pull him out, pull the one who started the yelling and his family.¡±
Like an efficient machine, the guards immediately dragged a man to the king''s feet and brought his family to stand behind him.
¡°Listen up, you can be my first example. My guards will kill their own families if I tell them to. Can you? Kill your wife then your son and then your daughter. On the other hand, if your family kills you, they live. Of course, you die in that case but I¡¯ll spare them. Give him a brick and his wife a dagger. If she doesn¡¯t want her kids to die, she should be able to deal with him. My citizens will not be weak.¡±
Two guards step forward, one giving the wife a dagger while the other giving the husband an uneven brick. Trembling the husband pushes on the steps to get up. Holding the brick, he makes his way to his wife. Shaking his head and scrunching his face to stop tears from flowing out, he looks at his wife in her eyes. Letting out a low whine, he drops the brick, breaking down in tears. ¡°I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t, I love her. She¡¯s a part of me.¡± he mutters. The wife likewise drops her weapon and hugs her husband, ¡°It¡¯s okay, we can live and die as a family.¡±
Ignoring the couple, the king smiles while looking behind them. With a surprised grunt, the trainee looks down. Shocked at what he sees he looks back at his wife, only to see her in confusion. His son had stabbed him. ¡°Papa, I love you, but I refuse to die for you. I refuse to let Emy die because of your selfishness. Couldn¡¯t you just kill yourself? Emy needs mother so I need her alive, but you¡ You have served your purpose.¡±
Stabbing his father once again, the boy looks at the king and bows, ¡°Your Highness, I would like to be a citizen. I want to live. I would like to ask for mercy, for my mother and sister. I swear I will be strong enough to represent three of your citizens. So please. Please, your majesty. Let them go.¡±
Grinning, the king gets up. Strolling up to the boy, he puts his hand on his head. ¡°I can definitely do that, you did comply with my orders and I¡¯m a man of my word. There¡¯s just one problem.¡± the king whispers. Stretching his arm out, he catches an incoming brick. Crushing it beside the boys head, both he and the boy look at the recently crowned widow.
She was restrained and surrounded by grinning guards. ¡°The only problem was that you wouldn¡¯t be able to go home. If you wanted to be able to be my guard, you are required to leave your family. But that shouldn¡¯t be an issue now. Tell me, my boy, what is it that you want to be?¡± the king asks.
Looking hurt, the boy tears his gaze away from his mother. Glancing at his sister, he sees her glaring at him with teary eyes. Clenching his teeth he looks away. Deciding that it¡¯s better for him and them, he resolves himself. ¡°I want¡ I wish to be your guard. I want to be your personal guard.¡±
¡°Good! Great! Now here is someone with ambition. Join your future comrades, I still have a few matters to deal with.¡± the king chortles.
The sound of the main doors closing rings out as the Chamberlain, who had unknowingly disappeared, reappeared with a construct remains. ¡°My liege, there¡¯s no core. There¡¯s also no semblance of any leftover mana connections.¡± the elderly chamberlain announces. The king froze. Still smiling, he turns to the trainees on the ground. Stone-faced, the trainee''s struggle against those holding them down. The king''s eyes bulge making his smile seem malicious. ¡°I was going to play some games, but I¡¯m no longer in the mood. Use them to feed the new arrivals, I''d prefer to serve them well-done but it''s fine.¡±
The boy struggles to keep up with his peers. Grabbing a man by his legs, he helps drag him away. Stopping in front of a wide stairwell, half of the guards go down first. The rest of the guards kick the trainees down. Looking closer, the steps were less broad and deeper than normal. A guard bends down and whispers to the boy, ¡°Normally, this is part of the training. Going up these steps in full armor is terrible at first but on the other hand, It makes transporting bodies much easier.¡± Following the last guards down, the boy struggles to keep up as he lowers himself onto each step. Once at the bottom, he trails after his peers. The trainees, already being dragged by the first half of the guard contingent.
Moving deeper into the royal dungeons, the arrive at a vast pit. Countless sounds from the growling of beasts to the screaming of people sound out. ¡°This is the pit where we keep all the summoned. We feed them, give them water and train them. Can¡¯t have random freaks running around without a leash can we?¡± a kind looking guard places a hand on his shoulder and tells him.
Ushering him forward, the leader of the contingent urges him to step closer to an opening in the bared opening overlooking the pit. ¡°As a rite of acceptance, you can kick the trainee captain in,¡± he states while glaring at the boy.
A battered body is placed in front of him, lined up perfectly with the opening. The body barely gave any resistance as the boy kicked closer to the ledge. The captain starts beating on the bars and the other guards chant in harmony. Struggling to move the body with just his legs he grabs the bars and pulls with his arms while pushing with his feet.
Almost, the body was hanging halfway off the ledge when it starts to desperately pull at the bars. Frowning the boy puts in more effort, he kicks and shoves. He stomps and crushes, but the battered man would not let go of the bars. Just as the boy was about to push the man off, the captain pulls him back. A massive set of jaws clamps down on the man, tearing him in half. A few moments of terrifying screeches and shrieks another mouth, smaller but longer grabs the rest of the body while disappearing beyond what could be seen.
Clasping his shoulder the captain, ¡°What''s your name son?¡± Still, in awe, the boy responds, ¡±I¡¯m Madras¡± Congratulating him, the captain says, ¡°I¡¯m John, the king¡¯s left hand, and Captain of the Royal Decree. I welcome you to our folds, Madras.¡±
***
Scrambling back onto his pile, Akiel throws a dead rabbit away while muttering, ¡°Rabbits, If I see another, I swear I¡¯ll kill it before it can even flop its stupid ears at me.¡± a one-meter Akiel places his book underneath him and sits down. Closing his eyes he begins the process again.
7. Unfair
¡°I¡¯m back!¡±, using up all of the stone pile, Akiel stretches his limbs. Getting on his feet, he starts moving around, ¡°Dang, this is like arthritis. I made it as smooth as possible, why are there still issues with my joints.¡± Bending his joints forcefully, he struggles to get his limbs to work properly. Akiel starts making kicks and punches, gradually getting more fluid as time passes.
Grunting with satisfaction, he looks at himself with his mana sight. Finding nothing wrong with his mana structure, he searches his body for anomalies. Finding something attached to the inside of his shell around his abdomen area, he quickly uses remodel and ejects it.
Shooting out of his stomach is the guide book that he had lost. Picking it up he finds a message on the front. It said, ¡®Guidebooks are attached to your active being but are generated upon size requirements being met.¡¯
Smiling at the sheer convenience the little booklet provided he opens it up to the map page. ¡°Let¡¯s move away from the capital, at least until I gain some power. I¡¯d prefer a frontier town but let¡¯s see what the map has marked near here.¡± he muses to himself.
Flipping to the map page, he locates his marker. Just kilometers away from the town from before, he browses through the nearby landmarks. ¡°So, a religious landmark, a rock formation, an infested forest, and a minority settlement. Right now, I just need time to read that book and experiment. Well, that rules out everything to do with people.¡± he ruminates. Setting a course to the rock formation, he pulls out the book he was given by Taggen and starts walking to his destination. ¡°The comprehensive collection of all documented runes, enchantments, and mana structures. Great, it¡¯s an encyclopedia,¡± he mutters.
***
¡°Oh boy, oh boy! Hey Cedric, that''s your beloved, isn¡¯t it? She looks happy with her kids, a boy, and a girl! And who is that? Hugging her from behind and -¡± the clown teases before being lifted by the neck. ¡°Shut up and watch, I didn¡¯t come back to enter her life. I just want to see her from afar. Why don¡¯t you go and leave me here for a few hours?¡± Cedric says distractedly.
Sniffing in discontent, the clown adds, ¡°Dear, young Cedric has no lover, no family, and no future. Why don¡¯t you just find another?¡± Looking back at the clown, Cedric sits up from his position atop a tall stone structure overlooking a modest village. ¡°Someone else? Like who? You know that I¡¯ve only yearned for her and after acknowledging that she wouldn¡¯t be mine I still couldn¡¯t move on.¡±
Putting on a thoughtful expression, the clown quietly says, ¡°Just because you haven¡¯t gotten over her doesn¡¯t mean you never will.¡± In a slightly louder voice, she adds, ¡°I mean, I¡¯m here aren¡¯t I. I better in every aspect! I¡¯m practically perfect.¡±
Laughing, Cedric retorts, ¡°Perfect? You? That¡¯s the funniest thing I¡¯ve heard since I was accused of mass murder. Your face is disfigured to the point that I can¡¯t even look at you straight. Plus I knew your lover like a brother. It just isn¡¯t going to happen in this lifetime clown.¡±
Not disgruntled in the slightest, the clown continues to pace behind him. ¡°So what? I have to come back to this village every once in a while so you can play god and protect them? Just say the word and I¡¯ll kill the man and his spawns. All you have to do is swoop in and save her from me and act out a fight scene with me. After that, convince her to go around and travel with me. I¡¯ll even wear a disguise during the scene.¡±
Cedric looks back again, thinking it through this time. After a bit of playing with his fingers and weighing the options, he looks back at the happy family. Sighing, he says, ¡°It¡¯s okay. She¡¯s happy so I¡¯m happy. Even without her. I don¡¯t think holding her while she thinks of her dead children and former man could ever make me happy.¡±
Shrugging, the clown starts walking away. ¡°Whatever, I¡¯m going to go for a walk. We leave in two hours, make sure you stare at her until she goes up in flames.¡± she chuckles. The air suddenly distorts as Cedric appears in front of the clown, fist ready to drive her into the ground.
With a snort, the clown asks, ¡°Would you hit me? For a harlot that couldn¡¯t even wait, would you hit me, dear Cedric?¡± Veins bulging, Cedric breathes heavily. Not removing the fist from in front of her face he continues to stare. ¡°Oh dear. Oh dear. You are slow, aren¡¯t you? Yes! Yes, you are. She doesn¡¯t need you. Want you. Love you.Your just a foolish little boy that''s confused and misled.¡±
Snarling, Cedric warns her, ¡°Watch your mouth. I don¡¯t care if she doesn¡¯t want me in her life. I don¡¯t want to enter in it either. I can be happy alone. Shouldn¡¯t you focus on your own love life? Anyone you love dies. You''re the only reason he died. If you just slept with the king once, he would still be alive. At least think a little about others before you spout more nonsense.¡±Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Frowning the clown folds her arms in front of her chest. Her eyes wander around the fist before she pushes it away, ¡°Fine. Just go. Watch her. I¡¯ll be back tomorrow.¡± Fiddling with the lace covered dress, she leaves with a frigid expression on her face.
Sighing, Cedric loosens his expression. Calming his nerves, he shakes his head to clear his thoughts. Walking back to the cliff edge, he sits down. Drumming his fingers on the ground, he continues watching like before. The family plays around for a whole hour afterward before heading inside. Unknown to him, the love of his life glanced his way as she entered her home. His thoughts were elsewhere.
***
¡°Perfect, an explosive rune. Now I just need the fuel and materials to make it,¡± Akiel mutters. Pulling out the guide book and checking the map, he finds that he is still a day away. Shaking his head, he turns back to the mind-numbing task of reading an encyclopedia. ¡°Let¡¯s see, All I need is several beast cores and something to inscribe them with. I can make a tool from my hand using remodel, but the beast cores are a problem. I need something I can use right now. I need something convenient and easy to reproduce constantly so I can gather cores. As I am now, I¡¯d be lucky to gather a few without being destroyed again.¡± he says while practicing a mana manipulation exercise.
On his palm is a pebble, floating and moving in a roughly circular path. Remembering of the fireball talisman he stops his mana manipulation practice and flips to the runes section. The first page explains the mediums that are viable and the types of liquids that he can use to make engravings mana conductant. The weakest being blood. It went on to say that some species with massive mana concentrations like dragons have blood that is a better conductor than the blood of lesser species. Reading further he finds that powdered bones are next best when combined with certain substances like an ink fishes tears.
Flipping to the runes, he finds what he is looking for. The basic runes only convert mana into a weak and disorganized elemental force. Making the rune with multiple smaller versions like a connect the dots picture amplifies the effect. Sighing he settles on the basic water rune. It would release a small but controllable ball of water.
Picking up a flat-sided rock, he fuses it with his hand and remodels the rune into it. Detaching it, he tosses it a few times before storing it in his stomach area with the guide book. Focusing on the mana manipulation training again, he mutters, ¡°Now I just need some blood to work with.¡±
Rotating the stone faster in his hand he checks his mana reserves. Seeing it at a comfortable eighty percent, he continues. While practicing, he distractedly looks around for a small animal.
After hours of trekking, he comes to a well-hidden cave. Stopping his mana manipulation, he grabs a stick from the ground. Cautiously walking into the cave he finds signs of previous occupants but nothing recent. Avoiding a particularly large gathering of dung piles, he makes his way deeper into the cave.
Finding nothing, he activates his mana sight and takes another cursory look around. Finding nothing close to the entrance, he looks deeper into the cave. Seeing a few clusters of mana, he happily walks deeper. Reaching a fork, he follows the mana clusters into the left. Reaching a slightly bigger room he looks up to see the clusters behind a sheet of rock.
Knocking on the spot covering one of the creatures, he watches as the creature squirms but doesn¡¯t seem to be escaping. Realizing that it doesn¡¯t have an escape path, he strengthens his fist before smashing the thins covering of stone. Grabbing a handful, he drags the creature out. Pulling it to the entrance of the cave, he deactivates his mana sight and examines the creature.
Reeling back in disgust, he wipes his hand on some moss. Sighing, he starts smashing the frightened slug. Surprised to feel resistance, he notices a thin layer of rock had formed on the slug. Shrugging, he smashes it to death before dipping his hand in the remains and pulling it out.
Rather than blood, his hand was dripping guts and slime. Sighing, he pulls out his experimental rune. Smearing it with the slime, he supplies it with mana. Slowly tracing the existing paths he engraved, he activates the rune.
Slowly at first but faster as he supplies more mana, water coalesces above the rune. Stopping the generation of water, he focuses on using the mana to control the small ball of water. Mimicking his mana manipulation exercises, he slowly starts moving the ball in a circle.
Smiling, Akiel checks his mana reserves only to find the experiment used almost ten percent of his current maximum mana concentration. Punching the ground in frustration he opens the encyclopedia again. Flipping to the rune pages, he looks for one on mana aggregation. Skipping a rune that used the mana lines below the ground he finds a reference to a page in the mana structure section.
Flipping to the right page, he finds an explanation on the uses of beast cores. Apparently, even if the beast itself has died, the core will continue to gather mana. For this reason, beasts eat core whole if possible. Reading a bit more, Akiel finds himself liking the idea of eating the cores. If just having a bunch of cores inside me, mana wouldn¡¯t be such a problem.
Realizing that even though he might have a potential solution to his mana problem, he still was nowhere close to getting a core. His new water rune was in no way a game-changing advancement. At most he could give his foe a bath and pray for it to get a cold.
Ruminating on his next move, he quietly practices his manipulation. Not long after, sounds of movement come from just around the entrance. Abruptly standing back to the wall, Akiel gets ready. With one hand empty and the other with his water rune, he waits for whatever was moving outside to pass by.
With a thump, a furry figure falls down just meters in front of him. With long hairy limbs and beady eyes, an ape-like creature looks around.
Finding the opportune moment when the ape was facing away from him, inspecting the slug remains, Akiel pounces. Hugging the ape''s head, he digs his stony fingers into its eyes. Screeching in anger and pain, it reaches over its head and throws Akiel against the cave wall.
Immediately getting back up, Akiel attack again, this time he clamps his legs around its head. Using the water rune he generates a ball of water and seals the apes face. Faced with suffocation, the ape claws at its face, tearing several gashes along its cheeks. In desperation, it claws at Akiel after futilely trying to push the water away. Enduring the abuse, Akiel waits for minutes before the ape faints.
Releasing the ball of water, Akiel bashes the apes head against the rocky cave floor. When its skull finally cracks open Akiel relaxes. Sitting back, he chuckles.
Suddenly he hears a short shout, looking up he finds another ape in the trees just outside. Making a few more short shouts, it bounds away through the treetops howling much louder and longer now. Seconds pass and several howls answer it, all from different directions.
¡°This is just unfair,¡± Akiel mutters.
8. Stone Age
Digging through the dead ape, Akiel finds a thumb-sized murky sphere. Not bothering to clean it, he dashes away from the cave. Listening to the barks and howls, he tries to steer himself away. Counting the different tones, he hears three coming from his right, seven on his left and a couple immediately behind him. Several other apes could be heard in the distance.
Pausing, Akiel weighs his options. Judging by the increasingly loud yowling, they traveled faster than him. There is no way to outrun them in the forest. On the other hand, he could pretend to be a rock. If they pass him, he can just stroll away. If things still go wrong, he would just have to rely on his strength, muddling through things.
Dropping to the ground, he starts to writhe in the undergrowth, staining himself with dirt and vegetation. Satisfied, he digs in, face down, in the fetal position. Bringing his hands over the back of his head, he becomes still. Waiting for the apes to pass. As the apes quickly fly through the trees above, one finally travels through right above him. Without stopping it continues to the cave.
Making a conscious effort to stop his breathing, Akiel realizes that he hadn¡¯t been breathing since he became a construct. Finding himself more at ease, he muses happily about the lack of human weaknesses he possesses.
As the nearest apes pass him, he listens for the further ones. Several are coming from the right and straight ahead, but the left seems to only have a few. Convincing himself that he should wait for the few coming from the left to pass, he waits.
Unknown to him, the apes that arrived first saw the corpse. They were on their way to him, following the easily followable trail his stone body makes. Slowly they follow the tracks without making a sound. Moving through the forest, any sound they made was overshadowed by the rest of the troop. Arriving at the place where Akiel is hiding, one of the apes signals to another after seeing the tracks end.
The ape backtracks alone and climbs on to a tree. Looking around, it ascertains that no predators are waiting and lets out a series of barks and yelp. Like a planned maneuver, the troop spreads out, surrounding the area. The troop members already in the vicinity move into the left area where fewer apes were originally and the incoming ones fill in the gaps this created.
Akiel finally finds something wrong. After a series of barking and baying near the cave, the apes in the left stopped making noise. In fact, the apes that should have been passing over him were nowhere near him. The only noise came from apes that seemed to be a fixed distance away from him.
Trying to glean other bits of information using his hearing, he remembers how he was hunted. There was no way that the apes wouldn¡¯t be able to follow his tracks, he barely had any time and couldn¡¯t cover his tracks. Cursing his luck, he wonders how close they were to finding him.
Not holding him in suspense, he feels something nudging his head. At first, they were just probing pushes and pokes, but they soon became unrestrained. It started jumping and banging its hand on his back. Not sure why it hadn¡¯t just tried to pull him out, he lays in wait while thinking. The ape seems to have found him but didn¡¯t know that he was the rock.
Ruling out sight, since it should have recognized him, he reasons it must be something to do with the tracks leading up to him or that the ape he killed left something to mark him. Fighting the urge to shake his head, Akiel starts to ruminate on his next step. He should be surrounded, both closely and from afar, but the apes searching around him aren¡¯t the ones who saw him. All he needs is a distraction.
Slowly and stealthily, he points his pinky away in the right direction, detaching the top half. Not bothering to layer the detached part with fortifying mana, he builds a relatively large amount of mana and converts it to thrusting force. The apes, startled as several branches explode, rush to find the source. Akiel, not wasting a moment, gets up and starts running to the left. Rotating his head backward he sees the apes watching him. They made no effort to follow, only curiously looking for his pinky. The most unsettling part for Akiel is that all of them seemed to be grinning, they were mocking him.
Resolving himself to kill all apes and their derivatives, he crashes through the undergrowth, remodeling his head back correctly. ¡°Not today boys, not today,¡± he mutters as he jumps over a fallen log.
Continuing to run, he suddenly gets slammed into the ground. Rolling over he grabs an ape by the legs. Unable to throw it off, He clamps his mouth on its ankle and grinds away. With a mournful yowl, it wrenches Akiel off and throws him away. Not wasting a moment, Akiel darts away. Glad for the lack of disorientation, he turns slightly left to avoid a particularly thick patch of vegetation.
Keeping an eye on the tree canopy, he finds another ape about to fall on him. Rolling to the right, he springs on top and casts a ball of water. Holding tight, he suffocates the ape. Slamming it against a tree, he leaves it and continues running as another arrives. Running around a boulder, he leaps down an incline. With no worries about sprained ankles, he progresses much faster. Looking back, he finds several apes free-falling down the slope in a parabolic arc.
Hastening his efforts, he frantically avoids obstacles. Debating whether he should risk investing more mana into his legs, he remembers the beast core he harvested earlier. Glancing at it in his hand, he swallows it and uses remodel as he runs. Moving the core into his head where his brain should be, the core instantly disappears. Feeling his capacity for mana rise a bit, he shifts more mana to his feet.
Although it was only a minuscule amount, any amount of increased speed helps. Reaching the bottom of the slope, he trips and smashes through a thin tree. Stumbling, he balances himself before bounding forward as several large masses land just behind him. Slinking forward, a fist-sized stone narrowly misses his back. Using an overhanging branch, he jumps and swings over a ditch, landing on the other side running.
The apes behind similarly make it over with ease. Akiel, Looking for areas without trees finds a plume of smoke over to his left. Turning slightly, he continues to barrel through the forest, only avoiding the trees and thick patches of vegetation. As he continued on, the incline increased again. The apes, just meters away.
Deciding to thin the numbers immediately behind him, he jumps onto the top of a thin and flexible looking tree causing it to bend dangerously far below its base. Surprised at its flexibility, Akiel looks back to find one of the apes had jumped directly after him. Chuckling, he lets the tree go and continues to run. The tree smacks the ape, disorientating it and causing it to stall in the air.
¡°That''s one down, just many more to go,¡± he mutters. Approaching the plume of smoke, he sees a caravan setting up camp. It¡¯s guards already running around. As he approaches, three pikemen ward him away. ¡°Ay! Away with you, we don¡¯t need no trouble.¡± Awkwardly avoiding a jab, Akiel runs off at an angle from the pikemen. The apes, similarly follow him, ignoring the caravan.
¡°How big is their territory? Don¡¯t pack animals have territories or boundaries? I mean all I did was bash one of them, talk about anger issues.¡± he complains. Running around the fringes of the camp, he finds a way in. Dashing through the center, he sneaks around a wagon and slides under it. As the group of apes jumps over, he slides out the other side and escapes. Looking back he finds one of the apes staring at him from atop the wagon in what should be hate.
Screams and sounds of battle ring out everywhere as the ape lets out a series of short but deafeningly loud screeches. After a short pause, several apes turn back and chase him. Sighing, Akiel dashes away. Checking his ambient mana he estimates that he can only keep up the chase for another hour or so.
As he jumps over another fallen log, he hears the distinct sound of a waterfall. Overjoyed, Akiel uses the rest of his mana to boost his legs, he shortly arrives at a cliff. Directly in front of him is a small stream leading a steep and deep waterfall. Hoping that his body was waterproof, he jumps. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Not feeling weightless, he looks up only to see a hairy arm grabbing his head. Struggling, he starts to push upwards on the cliff outcroppings. Slowly at first, he starts to drag the ape down over the edge.
Suddenly another ar grabs the ape and starts pulling. Not giving up. Akiel positions his legs above him and pushes away, pulling the first ape over the ledge with him. Just when he thought he would finally fall, another three apes grab the first and pull. Frustrated, Akiel screams while anchoring himself onto the cliff face, ¡°Let go! I don¡¯t need rescuing. I¡¯m not suicidal you stupid apes.¡±
The apes, obviously ignoring him start to pull him up. Rhythmically heaving him up, centimeters at a time. Scrunching his face, Akiel times himself and pushes off the cliff as the apes relax and get ready to heave again. Gaining all the ground he previously had and more, he could now see the full body of a second ape. Clearing one of his legs away from the cliff, he starts bashing the ape holding his head.
The ape, not wanting more abuse, grabs Akies foot. Now dangling away from the cliff face, Akiel panics. A simple pull would bring him back above onto the ground. Not wanting to detach both his head and foot, Akiel brings himself close and latches onto the hand around his head. As Akiel is no longer trying to get away, the ape finds itself unable to adjust in time as Akiel closes in. Latching onto its head, Akiel bites its ear. Grinding his teeth, he pulls, tearing it off. With a mournful howl, it throws Akiel up, towards its companions.
Eyes sockets widening, Akiel spins through the air. Out of the corner of his sockets, he sees a hairy arm reaching for him. Twisting, he grabs the back of the hand and pulls. Jamming his feet into its face, he jumps off. This time, nothing could stop him from falling.
Laughing as he fell, Akiel felt relieved. He laughed until something hugged him. Enraged, he found several apes had jumped after him. Apparently, they also thought they would make the jump and live. Wrestling with the ape hugging him, he finds that he can¡¯t overcome the ape in raw strength. Glancing at the growing water surface, he suddenly spreads his legs wide. He happily grins at the ape as they start to turn in mid-air. The moment they land, the ape found itself underneath Akiel and between a stone construct and a shallow layer of water with an underlying stone bed.
As Akiel shrugs the ape¡¯s arms off, he bashes it¡¯s head in and grabs the beast core. Swallowing the beast core he turns to find several apes in similar conditions. Some managed to grab a stray branch and a few sacrificed their fingertips to latch onto the cliff face but many died from the impact. Feeling his luck had changed, he mutters, ¡°Good thing I brought a friend. Always safer with a group, right dad? Oh yeah, I forgot. You all died as a group too.¡±
Shaking his head he assimilates the swallowed beast core while wading to the bank. Not wanting to wait for the apes to recover, he makes his way farther away into the forest. Looking at the horizon to find the towering stone landmark much closer than earlier. Smiling, he starts to run as the howling start again.
¡°These things, they just won¡¯t leave,¡± he mutters as he looks around for some sizable stones. Getting caught on an unearthed root, he flies forward and crashes into the trunk of a tree. Punching the tree in frustration, Akiel gets back up. Checking his ambient mana, he sighs, ¡°Only about thirty percent left, I can¡¯t outrun them at this rate.¡±
Dusting himself off, he spots a sizable branch. Picking it up he finds a head sized stone below, ¡°Great! I¡¯m skipping to the stone age.¡± Throwing the branch away, he picks up the stone. Filling it with his mana, he molds it into two thick but short blades. One as a retractable knife under his foot and the other fixed into his right fist. Detaching the small knife in his fist, he twirls it around in satisfaction, ¡°Come at me you primitive simian wastes of space.¡±
Scaling the thickest nearby tree, Akiel waits. As the howling and hooting close in, he digs his feet into the trunk, getting ready to jump. As the first ape approaches, Akiel listens for its companions. After making sure the ape was alone, he flicks his stone knife in a reverse grip. Hanging from the tree with his feet and his left hand, he dives onto the ape as it passes. Stabbing the knife into its back, Akiel grapples with it as they fall. Bashing the apes head into the ground with his left hand as they land, he grins as it¡¯s skull gives in and his hand breaks through. Digging through, he takes the beast core and swallows it.
¡°About 32 percent juice now,¡± Akiel mutters as two more apes leap at him. Not bothering to dodge, he collides with one of them. Jabbing the knife its shoulder, he heaves his mouth onto its throat. Biting down, he tries to grind and tear into it. The ape likewise bashes the back of his head and back, creating several stress fractures. Being grabbed and pulled by the second ape, he pulls his knife out and slashes the first ape''s neck.
Learning from the first attempt, Akiel remodels his teeth at the second ape smashes him into the ground. Decreasing the amount, he increases the base thickness. He also makes all of his teeth into canines that point backward for tearing. Just as the ape tries to smash him on the ground again, he twists his body and extends the hidden knife in his foot. Jamming it into the ape''s arm, it throws him away. Retracting the knife, he bounds at the ape, ignoring all attempts to keep him away. Grabbing its arms by the biceps, he forces his mouth around its neck and tears a chunk out.
Leaving it to bleed out, he goes back to the ape he killed just seconds before. Rummaging around for the beast core, he swallows it and repairs himself using nearby stones, ¡°The maximum capacity increased but repairs brought the level down to about 25 percent. Without some time to work out the math and limit test, I can¡¯t accurately predict how much longer I can keep going.¡±
Trudging back to the still breathing ape, he stomps on its head. Not smashing the head immediately, he stomps another three times. Swallowing its core, he sighs exhaustion. Even if his stamina is directly linked to his mana concentration, his mental strength is quite normal if not above average.
Hearing more howls he stomps on the corpse in frustration. Lifting his foot, he tries to wipe the skin sticking to it away when he gets an idea. Walking back to the most intact corpse, he infuses mana into and remodels the fur and the disfigured face to adhere to his stone surface. Rubbing some dirt over his body, he covers up the signs of fatal injuries as best he can. Measuring his ambient mana concentration he finds it at a healthy 23 percent. Hiding the remains in a dense patch of shrubs, he slowly climbs back into the canopy. His body, now covered in fur, still isn¡¯t made for tree climbing.
Debating on whether he should take the time to emulate an ape body, he decides not to waste his time. Making his way back into an ambush point above the two remaining dead bodies, he waits. Several apes pass him from the distance, but none of them had found their dead kin. After a few stressful moments of waiting and biding his time, an ape appears. Gently landing on the ground, inspects the farther corpse before making its way to the other.
Akiel patiently observes the ape, not because of it being another easy prey, but because it is twice as tall as the others. ¡®Of course, I wait for a common ape and find its bodybuilding cousin. ¡¯ Just as he decides to not fight this one, it looks up at him. Sighing, Akiel gestures like an ape to fool it. Thumping his chest and jumping on the spot he points in the direction the other apes fled in.
Chuckling, the larger ape points at him and points at the ground. Complying, Akiel lowers himself into the shadow of a large tree, trying to act himself off as an ape. Outright laughing, the larger ape in a guttural tone says, ¡°Foolish being, you can¡¯t trick this king. Your beast core doesn¡¯t respond to mine and neither does your behavior resemble that of our race.¡±
Shocked, Akiel gestures for the ape to give him a minute. To his surprise, it sits down and waits. Taking out his guidebook, he flips to a previously unused page, search. ¡°Hey, what race are you?¡± he asks the ape. ¡°Gently thumping its chest, it replies, ¡°I am King Totong of the brown striped apes. Anything else? I also have some questions and punishment to deal.¡±
Entering the name he finds that they count as a subrace to the ape beastmen. Upon further investigation he finds them to also be up for extermination. They were marked as an optional target for him and the reward was a kilogram of iron. Sighing, he decides that iron or not, extermination was impossible as it is.
¡°How about this, I challenge you for a favor. My unconditional release if I win and servitude if I lose¡± Akiel offers. The ape scrunches its face and says, ¡°I¡¯ll agree if we make a soul pact and it entails that you will be the one under my servitude.¡±
Getting a chance to escape was all he needed. If he beat the thing, the others would let him go. If he was about to lose, he could just escape and continue another day. Making the deal from afar and swearing on his soul, both enter a soul contract. ¡°Hey, how do I initiate on oath. You know, for curiosity.¡± Akiel asks as he readies himself.
Snorting, the ape says, ¡°serve me, then I¡¯ll tell you.¡± before charging at him. Not fazed in the slightest, Akiel jumps back while getting a feel for the foes strengths. Its speed isn¡¯t much faster than the other apes, but power is much higher. Just by charging at him it left large depressions in the ground. Avoiding several wide sweeps, Akiel weaves between the trees to wear it down as much as possible while looking for a window.
Avoiding another ground shaking fist, he steps next to a fallen corpse. Getting an idea, he picks it up and flees farther to gain some distance. Gathering some dirt he starts to shove it down the corpse. The ape king, confused as to if Akiel ran away follows the corpses drag marks. As the king finally spots him, he finishes stuffing dirt down the corses gullet. Awkwardly slinging it over his shoulder, Akiel gets ready to fight. As the king slowly approaches, its eyes redden as it finds the defiled corpse over his shoulder.
Not losing reason, it slowly approaches him. Sending a punch it gets shocked when Akiel swings the corpse at him. The corses arms smack its face. Angry he throws another punch but stops in time to grab the corpse. It grips both of the corpse''s arms and rips the body in half in a shower of dirt. Just as it throws the corpse away, Akiel leaps at its face, stabbing its eye with his stone knife. Not wasting a moment as the ape king reaches to grab him while bellowing, he bites onto the ape kings tongue and tears a chunk off.
The ape king shrieks in rage more than pain and throws Akiel into several trees. After breaking two trees and ricocheting off several others, Akiel observes his body condition. Several large cracks filled his body and most of his right shoulder and lower back were nowhere to be seen. Grunting, he uses remodel to change his body. Shedding much of his body, he leaves a narrow torso, four knife-like limbs and a smaller, more compact, and angular version of a head.
¡°I can get mad too you over-sized dumpster. Eat my trash.¡± he enunciates as he starts to cartwheel, his limbs spinning like a fan. A fan with sharp fins meant to slice and sever. Not even hearing Akiel, the ape king also charges at Akiel. At the last moment, Akiel prepares the majority of his mana in the middle of his limbs. Widening the gap between his limbs just slightly and bending his torso, he gets his body to flip into the air. Dodging the apes, fists, he shoots both of his upper limbs into the ape king¡¯s abdomen and chest, pushing himself just out of the ape kings reach as it tried to grab him. Still spinning, he aims and shoots one of his lower limbs into the ape''s throat
Landing with his remaining limb digging deep into the ground, he declares himself the winner.
9. Flying
Stuck in the ground, Akiel stares at his now dead opponent. Seconds pass and a gentle breeze sweeps through the forest, bringing the pungent scent of blood away. Minutes pass as several apes gather around the spot, waiting for movement. Angry and mournful of their king''s death they stare, waiting for him to move.
Akiel continues to stare, not moving. Not a single sign of life could be seen in the devastated battleground. As the minutes pass the apes start to get impatient. Finally, as an hour passes, one of the apes descend from the trees. It circles around the clearing, observing the stone blade embedded into the ground and then its king¡¯s body.
Akiel remains still, there was no real way of knowing if the contract was still valid. The king is dead and there was no way for it to have told its followers about it. Unless the vermin somehow already know, the contract should have been nullified the moment he killed the lug.
Unsure of his next move, Akiel couldn¡¯t bring himself to move. With his only remaining limb stuck deep into the ground, he had no way to move without remodeling himself into a smaller and more fragile version. With the situation as it is, the chance of him breaking away in his smaller form seems slim.
As he ruminates, one of the apes pulls him out of the ground by his head. Staying as still as possible, the ape swings him around like a sword. Finally convinced, the ape walks to the king in rapid movements, taking Akiel with it.
Noticing the ape moves in sets of three steps before pausing, Akiel grows increasingly annoyed by the nonsensical behavior. At the height of his restraint, the ape reaches the king''s body. Is examines the wounds and stone blades before making its way to the head.
Grabbing Akiel, it smashes the head open. Rummaging around, it spills the brain matter and several chunks of bone before finding a fist-sized orb. The beast core belonging to the former king. Picking it up, the ape pops it in its mouth.
Realizing what was happening, Akiel starts to squirm in the ape''s hand. Startled by the sudden movement. The ape drops Akiel but forgets soon after. Intense pain assaults it as its body starts to warp. Its lanky form starts to swell. Starting from its chest, everything starts to bulk up. Bending over in pain, it starts to screech and bawl. Slamming its growing fists into the ground, it sends Akiel flying through the air.
Akiel, waiting for the opportune moment, remodels his body to be able to detach the head and upper chest portions and builds a sizable amount of mana between his body and the detachable parts. To be able to launch his blade limb in mid-air, the majority of his mass needed to be used to counter the force. Waiting as he rotates above the writhing ape, he ejects himself and plunges into the growing apes wide back. Using remodel, he divides his slender body into several delicate limbs meant for digging. With a whir of mechanical movement, he shreds his way into the ape¡¯s left lung.
Feeling the struggling airflow, Akiel grinds the surrounding flesh and proceeds to rip through its insides. Using his limbs like disposables he navigates around bones and slowly digs through the softer flesh into the neck. The neck itself hadn¡¯t enlarged to the point where akiel could fit inside so he popped out just beneath the jaw.
Happy about his location, Akiel jabs his limbs into the soft skin under the jawline and pulls it apart. No longer rushing to reach the beast core, Akiel waits as the ape finishes assimilating the core and forming its own.
As it is, there is no way to know if the former beast core has already been absorbed and the body is just undergoing changes or the ape was siphoning the power from the former beast core. It was best to just grab the finished product. Waiting patiently as the ape¡¯s struggles slow down and it bled out, Akiel slowly crawls into its oral cavity. Sticking one of his remaining limbs into its tongue, he flips the rest of his limbs to face the upper back of the throat. Waiting until it stopped trying to scream, he remodels the remaining limbs into more compact and durable versions.
Without an accurate look at ape anatomy, he could only guess where the relevant bones were. Right above him should be the equivalent to the hard palate and where he was aiming is the soft palate. If he could accurately see, he might even be able to shimmy up the spinal cord but all his mana sight shows him is an influx of mana flowing continuously in every direction. Biding his time, Akiel starts to count the number of moans the ape makes before croaking.
It really is different, being inside something dying. Feeling the heartbeat, it erratically thumps at a quick pace. As the ape lessens its moans and starts to softly whine, the heartbeat starts to calm down. It slows until he has to wait five seconds between each beat. Feeling like it was time, Akiel gores through the remaining bones and flesh, roughly jabbing the beast core. Thankfully, it was much more sturdy when compared to the smaller ones. Wrapping his mangled limbs around it, he imagines absorbing the core.
Immediately, large amounts of mana course through his body, quickly overloading it. As cracks begin to appear on his body, he quickly infuses the excess mana into the ape''s body. Reclaiming its bones he moves onto its muscles. Without a living body, it would be hard to make the body move, but he could just emulate the mana structure in his original body and layer it over the musculature. He didn¡¯t need the body to move for him. He just needed something to call a body.
With most of the excess mana invested, he sighs as the rest had already dispersed. Flexing the limbs, he feels some of the flesh from his mouth fall off. Without any way to communicate, he decides that he just needs to escape. Accessing the ape''s eyes through emulation of his previous vision structures, he finds hundreds of apes staring at him.
There was no way that he could have fought this many even in his original body. Regretting his actions, Akiel starts to reluctantly gesture in the direction he wanted to go and starts to awkwardly shuffle sideways. It may seem simple, but walking like an ape is complicated. Not only do you have to place your hands firmly on the ground, but your back legs also need a synchronous rhythm to move correctly. The arms are longer and the muscles are made for the awkward motion.
Reaching the edge of the clearing, Akiel watches the primates above him. A few lower themselves to ground and approach him. Gesturing to the sides he points to then and the gestures to himself and forward. As if understanding his intentions, most of the apes move away. As he trudges forward, one of the apes approaches him. It motions to itself and then him. It seemed to want to follow him. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Having an idea, he showers it in blood instead of chuckling. Noticing his lack of a neck, Akiel abruptly stops. He signals for the ape to come forward. Trying his best to smile, he tenses his large arms for movement. As it approaches, he gets lower to the ground. Almost face to face, the ape waits for him to do something. Amused, Akiel grabs the ape and chucks it at the canopy, causing several other to drop.
Heaving himself forward, Akiel adapts to the new method of locomotion. As he breaks through the encirclement, he jumps and latches onto a sturdy looking branch. Swinging on it, he propels himself over the treetops. Spotting the stone landmark he lands on top of another tree. Looking down, he gingerly reaches out. Letting himself fall, he grabs onto a branch and continues to swing through the forest.
An hour later, he reaches the edge of the forest, opening up to a rocky plain. Stopping, he checks his mana levels. Not able to talk to himself, he just happily beats his chest. His ambient mana is at a healthy 56%. Deciding that this is a good time to regain a proper body. He drags a few boulders over and starts to infuse them with mana. With the recent monkey business, he decided a bigger body was probably a great idea. Using the given template, he forms his body to stand at 3 meters high. Shaping a spear into one hand, he overlooks his new template.
The size would help him in many ways, but the spear might not. As long as he could maintain his distance, the spear is an excellent choice. On the other hand, if the enemy gets too close, his spear would be close to useless. Ruminating on the problem, he settles with some arm bracers and knuckle spikes. As an extra precaution, he adds retractable knives to his feet.
Using remodel, he ditches the ape carcass and forms his new body. With only 21% ambient mana left, he sighs in comfort. Getting up, he stretches his limbs, similar to new shoes, new bodies also have to broken in. Sending punches and kicks at imaginary foes, he slowly acclimates to his new size. Grabbing the ape carcass, he flings it away. He stops to admire his throw before turning around and heading to the rock formation.
Hours pass as he walks through barren, rocky outcroppings and scattered sand dunes. Sitting on a particularly tall stack of stone, Akiel tries to measure the remaining distance, ¡°This thing keeps on getting bigger. It¡¯s like I can keep walking forever and I¡¯ll still never make it.¡±
Dusting his thighs, he gets up and starts running, determined to reach the landmark by nightfall. Another two hours pass until he runs into the tall stack, ¡±Arrgh. This thing is ridiculously fine-grained. I thought I was far away and just now seeing the finer details.¡±
Looking to the side all he finds is an endlessly long rocky wall, ¡°This thing is probably as big as a major city.¡± As he marvels at the monstrosity, something suddenly smashes its way up the stack. Making his way to where it launched from, he finds a peculiar looking bird. Mostly dark grey with glowing red streams of liquid coming off of it.
¡°This might be my distant cousin,¡± he muses as he approaches. The bird watches him but doesn¡¯t move, determined to squat on its spot. Just as he makes it within touching distance, the thing blasts into the sky, exposing a gaping hole in the ground. Examining the hole, he finds the inner walls glowing with heat. The ledges show signs of claws scraping the undersides and he could see magma at the base.
Figuring out how his cousins were climbing the stack, he decides to follow them. Using remodel, he forms a shield like object to sit on and waits. His first attempt is met with him flying 2 meters upward and them settling back down. Forming hooks on the bottom of the shield, he causes the pressure to build until the edges of the hole crumble. Shooting upwards, he reaches three-quarters of the way up before his momentum runs out.
Watching in horror as the shield falls away and he plummets downward, he hurriedly remodels his hands into sturdy spike-like anchors. Stabbing the rockface, he manages to slow his descent just enough to avoid destruction. Looking for his shield, he complains, ¡°Who said villains get the easy job. Heroes get beaten up on screen before winning, but what about the villain? The poor villain probably dies several times before enacting his plan.¡±
Finding his shield pulverized, he reforms it and checks his mana. With only 15% left, Akiel decides to try one more time before resting to recover his mana. Placing his shield on the hole, he steps on only to feel the ground give away. The ledges holding the shield up couldn¡¯t hold his weight.
As he fell, he noticed that the hole itself was just a slight bit bigger than the ledges had been on top. His circular shield is almost a perfect fit. Aas his descent slows with the building pressure underneath, Akiel notices several vents leading away. ¡°They probably lead to other surface openings. I wonder if this will be enough pressure to launch me to the top?¡± he muses as his freefall starts to slow down. Slowly he started to feel the shield pushing back as he continued to descend. He passes several vents and the shield below him starts to deteriorate as the inconsistent rock walls grind against it. Thankfully, before it shatters, the falling sensation stops. An intense gravitational force is followed by him stalling near the bottom of the hole. Guessing that he would soon start to rise, he clamps his hands onto the side of the hole to build more pressure.
If this fails, there is a good chance that he will not be trying again. As his hands start to lose traction and he starts to rise, he feels the shield crack beneath him. Looking down, he finds the stone shield to be glowing red, not only did a massive crack through the center appear, but his lower body was also starting to heat up.
Letting go, he hugs his knees and tucks legs in. With the immense force ejecting him out of the hole, he shoots out into the surface rapidly. Rotating like a projectile he clears the top of the stack easily. Just when he starts to relax, he notices that his shield had disappeared. Not panicking, he tries to see where he would be landing. He could possibly try to counteract the motion by eject a portion of his mass again.
Reaching the peak of his parabola, he spreads his limbs wide. Slowing the spiral motion he was exhibiting, he finds himself approaching the edge of the stack. He would clear the whole monument! Panicking, he gets ready to eject a small part of himself when his momentum abruptly stops.
¡°Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Look who I found Cedric, it''s the Rocky!¡± an excited voice says. Frowning, Akiel tries to see around the glove holding his face but fails to even move his head. ¡°Clown, that''s the construct we dropped in the forest. If you remember, Rocky was the old cat we found dead and rotting in my house just yesterday.¡±
Realizing who caught him, Akiel dangles from the clown''s hand while waiting for their next course of action. ¡°Oh, yeah. I remember it now. You¡¯re the one trying to kill all the people in the world right? Oh boy, this is getting exciting, isn¡¯t it.? This calls for a party!¡± the clown screams over his ear. Thankful for his lack of eardrums, he continues to quietly wait. He could try to escape, but the clown doesn¡¯t seem like someone he could possibly outrun, much less the massive warrior companion prodding his foot.
¡°Not happening. I agreed to babysit you, not some half baked construct. I say we crush him. I wouldn¡¯t want my house to fall due to one of his attacks.¡± Cedric denies. Akiel steadily builds his mana up in his core. Relying on his prior experience, he was planning on exploding and hiding in a small fragment to avoid destruction.
¡°Dear me. Little Cedric¡¯s worried his little wifey will die. Oh, I forgot she¡¯s not yours. Remember why we were supposed to leave this morning? Because she has another man! You are supposed to accompany me!¡± the clown teases maliciously. Getting a bit of information, Akiel hurriedly tries to offer a deal, ¡°I won¡¯t touch this village! If you help, I won¡¯t touch anyone close to your wife!¡±
¡°Suppose I agree, what would you have us do? We won¡¯t work for you longer than a day, I¡¯ll tell you right now.¡± Cedric growls.
As if given a ticket to heaven, Akiel excitedly says, ¡°I just need help toppling the kingdom. Not right now, but when I have made my preparations. I just need you to take down a few of the strongest knights and mages. I¡¯ll deal with the rest of the capital.¡±
SS Akiel in Wonderland part 1
Opening his eyes for the fifth time, Akiel finds his height has increased to that of a dog. A regular unadulterated, huggable dog. Stretching his limbs, he sighs in exhaustion. Although he didn¡¯t get tired or need any sleep, his mental capacity did seem to reach a point where he needed to take short breaks.
Walking around the stone pile, he looks for his encyclopedia. If not during his breaks, he would probably never find the time to leisurely read. Finding the book corner sticking out from behind a sizeable stone he reaches for it.
Just when he is about to touch it, it jerks away. Confused, he hastily grabs at it again only for it to jerk just out of range again. Not believing that the book is avoiding him, Akiel hastily runs around the stone and grabs the book. Pulling on the book he manages to move it 2 centimeters before something tugs it out of his hands. Falling backward, he stares as a rabbit comes out from behind the book and watches him.
Turning back to his book it jumps on it and pushes it into a burrow. ¡°Hey! Hey, wait. That¡¯s my book.¡± Akiel frantically shouts as the rabbit hurriedly pushes the book deeper into the burrow. Akiel scrambles to the rabbit and tries to grab it when both the rabbit and the book disappear into the borrow.
Screaming in frustration, a half meter tall Akiel pounds the ground. Looking into the burrow, all he saw is an endlessly deep pit. Several exposed roots could be seen from the entrance but there is no sign of the rabbit or his book.
Sighing in regret, he jumps into the pit. Not even a meter in, his foot gets caught by several intertwined roots. Dangling upside down, he struggles to bend his short body and free his foot. Using the pit walls, he leverages himself closer. With one hand, he digs into the walls and heaves himself higher. His other hand roughly grabs onto one of the roots. Letting go of the wall, he grabs the roots with his other hand.
Pulling his foot out gingerly, he now dangles right-side-up by his hands. Glancing down and seeing the numerous obstructions left, he sighs. Heaving his body upward, he scrunches his body into a ball. Reducing his chances of getting caught on an obstacle, he barrels down the pit.
With a juicy plop, he flattens on the muddy floor. Getting up, he swats off as much mud as he can and looks around. It was surprisingly clean for a pit with a muddy floor. Ignoring the mud that splashed on the furniture because of him, it was a well lit and furnished room. On the left is two couches lined up along a wooden wall. To his right is a modern kitchen as well as a small dining table with a glass chandelier hanging above. Behind him were two doors and a hallway that turned left. Lastly in front of him was something impossible for this world an old cathode ray tube tv.
Even if this world had tv¡¯s there was no way that they would look exactly like the ones that came out first in the 1960s. Stepping backward, he turns and examines the doors. There is one door on each side of the hallway, exactly the same distance away. The left door was large and rotting while the right one was smaller and pristine. Looking closer, he could see footprints leading through the door. Turning the knob he opens the small door and peers inside. Adjusting to the bright light he finds himself just outside a pristine white castle. Getting cold sweats, he slams the door closed. Glancing at the rotting door, he decides to explore the hallway before opening it. Going down the hallway, he finds himself in a large room with a detailed topographical map.
Examining it, he finds the map divided by an obvious shift in the territory. On one side is a well ordered and neatly organized land highlighted by the very same castle he saw through the tiny door. The other side was full of unclaimed land, devastated towns, and uncontrolled forest. This side also had a castle, fully purple and not a single symmetrical feature about it. If anything, the castle was made by several architects that all seemed to disagree.Stolen novel; please report.
Going by the topographical map, the white side seemed to be at an advantage as it encompassed more land. Looking closer, you could see that the uncontrolled forests seemed to form a natural barrier to keep the white forces from advancing further.
Throwing a cursory glance at some of the landmarks and extra illustrations, he finds the word door written just outside the white castle. Getting excited, he finds another door in the middle of the overgrown forests. ¡°Although I¡¯d like to just ask for my book again, I refuse to enter a castle again. Once you''re in it¡¯s too hard to get out. On the other hand, the other door opens in the middle of nowhere. Just where I¡¯m at home.¡± he muses to himself. Stroking his chin, he frowns at the lack of facial hair.
Throwing one last look around the map, he walks back to the rotting door. Grabbing the doorknob, he turns it around and pulls the door open. With a grating squeak, the door opens to reveal the ruins of a building. Stepping through, he looks back to find the door gone, ¡°Talk about no refund. Well, this is better than being chased from the beginning.¡± Examining his surroundings, he finds that the building should have been some sort of mansion. He could see the ruins of red walls and decor for quite a distance.
Deciding that finding his whereabouts and the location of both castles first would take priority, he climbs onto one of the ruined walls. While the walls were in disarray and crumbling, stone walls tend to be structurally sound no matter how much you batter them with. Standing on the highest stack of stone bricks, he spots the start of a dense jungle ahead. Looking back, he finds plains with lush overgrown grass.
¡°Clearly, the forest leads to the purple castle and the plains leads to the white. For now, let''s get some information. I¡¯d rather not run around clueless.¡± He mutters before leisurely walking towards the plains.
*******
¡°Hey! Hey, Mortimer.¡± Helios whispers while staring into space. ¡°What Helios. What could you have possibly found now? Is it an extinct species? A two-headed elf? Those are rare now that most elves are dead.¡± Mortimer replies in annoyance.
¡°Not even close, it¡¯s a time rabbit! It came to our world and left. It was here, it broke the pact. It stayed on the world for a whole 3 minutes. You know what that means right?¡± Helios excitedly says. ¡°A time rabbit huh? Are you sure? If it is then we get to declare war on their little dimension.¡± Mortimer says while examining his nails.
¡°Yup! Look at this beauty. 13.5 pounds and time dilation strength of at least 7 minutes and 23 seconds. That''s an elder! A few more centuries and it¡¯ll hit godhood naturally. Just look at the striations on its ears! They¡®re grey and there¡¯s thirteen of them.¡± Helios passionately points out.
Slightly more interested, Mortimer asks, ¡°What does that mean? You know I don¡¯t care about wildlife, you kill it and move on. It¡¯s why I never kept a pet, it¡¯s just a waste of resources and time.¡± not discouraged by Mortimer¡¯s lack of understanding, Helios says, ¡°It means that it¡¯s been tamed and by someone pretty important. In this rabbits case, it should be one of the two currently reigning monarchs or something of equal importance.¡±
After thinking about it, Mortimer lazily asks, ¡°So what did it do? Take a carrot? Do time rabbits eat carrots?¡± Interest waning, Helios replies, ¡°If you used your time looking at the other worlds and dimensions, maybe you would know that time rabbits don¡¯t need to eat. This one appears to have stolen a book. Get this! It took our Akiel¡¯s book. The one about basic mana structures and runes.¡± After a silence, Mortimer looks up from his nails, ¡°And? What did our little champion do about it?¡±
Remaining silent, Helios turns his pink stag body around, ¡°He went into the transfer gate. He followed the rabbit to the other dimension.¡± Frowning, Mortimer asks, ¡°Is he still there? Is he still alive?¡± Visibly bubbling with happiness, Helios says, ¡°Yea. He picked an abandoned area to enter the dimension. What a smart guy, he avoided instant death by disintegration.¡±
Unable to keep his laughter back, Mortimer chortles, ¡°Perfect! Call the other gods. We have a rescue and annihilate situation on our hands. It¡¯s finally time to obliterate that annoying little dimension, how dare they make me work more.¡± This time Helios does his best to frown. ¡°Helios, don''t look at me, please. You look ridiculous. I know what you want to say. It¡¯s up to him if he wants to live. The best we can do is send an army of random beasts over, he just has to survive and ride the wave. As for his book, I would advise him to leave it. There is no way he can retrieve it from that witches hands.¡±
10. Make Over
¡°So, is that a yes?¡± Akiel asks uncertainly. Not only is he still suspended in air by his head, but the two criminals also have yet to make their decision. ¡°No my boy, of course not! We can¡¯t be returning to the infernal place we came from. The journey''s just starting, there is no going back!¡± the clown quips. ¡°Clown, either we help him or kill him. You decide. I will not be leaving loose ends around here.¡± Cedric growls.
¡°I told you, Cedric. As long as your little mousy doesn¡¯t leave her home, nothing short of a dragon with ill intent can make it through that formation. I had to pull quite a few favors for that one. Just let fate do its work. Please remember, she¡¯s not yours anymore.¡± the clown says exasperatedly. Still hanging, Akiel asks tiredly, ¡°Can you let me down anytime soon? You can forget I even passed by. Just leave me on top of this monument.¡±
The clown and Cedric had been debating for an hour and neither seemed to be conceding. ¡°I will not change my schedule! We will be in the beastman plains by next week and tour the underwater city of merfolk after we finish there. That''s at least a year, after that we need to cross to the next continent, this one doesn¡¯t have much to see besides those places anyway.¡± the Clown aggressively shouts.
Being ignored by the clown, Akiel addresses Cedric, ¡°Then a year later, when you have toured both places. I¡¯ll even promise that I won¡¯t touch your beloved.¡± The Clown¡¯s grip strengthens on his head as several cracks start to form. Using remodel, he prepares to discard his head and eject as far as possible in a smaller mass. ¡°One year, Clown. It¡¯s perfect, we can destroy the kingdom if his plan seems feasible and destroy him if it isn¡¯t. I swear, nothing will hinder your traveling plans in the future. Just let me make an adjustment this once.¡±
Relenting, the clown replies sourly, ¡°Just this once, but I never want to hear about that wench again. You understand?¡± Not even bothering to get upset, Cedric happily assents. Lowering Akiel to the ground, the clown steps on his head. With his vision blocked, Akiel waits for an indication of what was to come. As far as he is concerned, the deal is sealed for a year later. Glancing to the side with his peripherals, he catches a glimpse of laces and ruffles. ¡®Is the Clown wearing a dress?¡¯ he thinks to himself.
¡°Listen up, construct. I¡¯m going to set up a link between dear Cedric and you. It¡¯s like a contract, but more personal. Both parties will feel when the other side does actions that counteract their side of the agreement. All I need is your full name.¡± The clown shifts her foot and lets Akiel look over the side of the stack. Impatiently waiting for them to leave him, he answers quickly, ¡°Akiel Don, my name is Akiel Don.¡±
After waiting a few minutes, he feels something stab into his head and the pressure lessen on his head. ¡°One year from now, 415 days. We will come back. Your side of the agreement is to prepare and protect the wench from harm. Only the wench mind you, the toadstool of a man can rot for all I care,¡± the Clown whispers into his ear. With a small tingle, in his head, he relaxed.
After waiting a few moments, still ready to eject a small mass of himself away, he gets up. No sign of the duo except a few pairs of footsteps. Sighing, he gets up and remodels his body to fix the stress fractures. ¡°One year. In one year, I have to construct the means necessary to siege the kingdom and annihilate everything in my path.¡± Clenching his fist, he stares at the sunset.
¡°My first mark on this world. Let''s make it unforgettable,¡± he mutters. Smiling in anticipation, he lowers his gaze to the ground below. A village sprawls out below. Remembering his task as a babysitter, he turns on his mana sight. Everything but one of the farthest homes near the fringes look normal. Not only was it glowing bright with mana motes, but it also seemed to draw mana from the surroundings.
Babysitting wouldn¡¯t be too hard but being close to them would hinder his progress. With the regeneration of mana already being a problem, He would never be able to do anything if the mana in his immediate environment was being taken away. Deciding to visit their home to study how the mana is being gathered, he examines the area further out into the forest. Being in the part of the region where the desert meets forest, the forests near the desert line seemed sparse.
Picking a point just outside the villager''s eyesight, he walks to the edge of the stack. Whether people actually come up here or it being a natural rock formation, a large amount of uneven and varying sized steps lead to the village. Smiling at the convenience, he starts the much easier way down. Halfway down the stack, he finds some of the round-bottomed birds that showed him how to fly. They were roosting in a large cave-like cavity on the rock face. Several signs of human or sentient involvement could be seen. From the empty bowls to the piles of fresh fruit. Shaking his head, he continues his way down. He would find out eventually when he mingled with the villagers.
Reaching the bottom, he ducks behind a boulder, evading a feathered person taking a bowl full of liquid up the monument. Besides the obvious, the head also seems to be more angular than that of a human. His legs are thinner and his arms fray out into feathered appendages. Sneaking around the rock, he slowly creeps out of the person¡¯s sight. Making sure the thing couldn¡¯t see him, even from afar, he waits a few moments until it is well out of sight. Cursing his new body size, Akiel resolves himself to get better materials to build his body.
Skirting around the village, he finds the house of the woman he is supposed to keep safe. Throwing a cursory glance around, he finds that no one is around. The fields were empty and so is the area immediately around the house. Slowly making his way around the house, he approaches the back.
Reaching the rear wall, he turns his mana sight on. Ignoring the moving masses of mana he focuses on the flow of mana. It really isn¡¯t too difficult, until a certain point, the flow of mana is three dimensional, it flows as if being pulled to a point. Tracing the mana from that point shows that the mana follows a series of circuit-like patterns leading to different runes and formations.
The main takeaway is at the point where mana changes nature is a cluster of symbols. Pulling out his guidebook, he flips to a previously discovered tab. Bound, holding up to 7 slots, he can bind items to his guidebook. In the case of the item being destroyed, the slot would too be destroyed. Taking the first slot is the encyclopedia. Tapping on it causes it to materialize in front of him. Storing the guidebook away, he references each symbol until he finds something similar. Tracing the symbol in the book, he finds the one used on the house wall to be several times more intricate. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Smiling he mutters, ¡°So it¡¯s the encyclopedia of the basics.¡± Taking out his guide book again, he flips to the notes page and scrawls the rune down. Giddy with excitement, he slinks off into the darkness. After realizing the moonlight wasn¡¯t sufficient in the forest, he walks to the dessert partition. Opening the encyclopedia, he finds a rune for emitting light. Carving it into a stone, he injects some mana. Suddenly, blinding light pours out of the rune before the stone cracks. Frowning he tries again, injecting less mana this time. Given less mana, the rune glows dimmer than before but still manages to light up the ground a few meters away.
Satisfied, Akiel carves a total of five light runes and walks back into the forest. Finding a clearing, he embeds the light runes into the surrounding trees and injects mana into the stones. Making sure none of them break, he lights up the clearing. ¡®First thing I need in a survival situation is food and water,¡¯ he thinks to himself. Looking around, he nods to himself, ¡®Mana is present and there seem to be plenty of living things for me to ease my boredom on¡¯
Turning to the trees he contemplates making an axe before realizing his weight should be enough for breaking these thin trees. Lowering his center of gravity, he charges at the tree and smashes his shoulder into it. Snapping the thin tree, he drags it back into the clearing. ¡°That¡¯s one. Just a bunch more to go. Excess is always better than a shortage.¡± Akiel utters.
Gathering several tree trunks, he imbues mana into them. Remodeling them into planks, he finds himself in a dilemma. Most of the planks had bark on them. They also didn¡¯t seem strong. More than the stiff and reliable planks he should be using, these seemed a bit too flexible. Giving up, he decides that construction isn¡¯t his specialty. ¡®I might be able to hire a few villagers to make me a building.
Sighing, he pushes the pile of wood to the edge of the clearing. Grabbing one of the light runes, he wanders into the forest and drags back several large stones, checking his mana levels, he decides it¡¯s time to change into a more friendly size. ¡°With a larger body, I could deal with many larger and stronger things, but my mana consumption also increases drastically. Now that I¡¯m trying to settle down, I should be able to spend my mana as fast if not faster than my mana regens right now.¡± he ruminates.
Remodeling himself into his original form, he shakes off the extra stone, Walking over to the stone pile he just added to, he infuses it with mana and forms a flat slab on the ground. With the ground being a mix of dirt and sand, he didn¡¯t see any way to possibly engrave mana gathering runes. Taking out his sketch of the improved mana gathering rune, he uses remodel and slowly traces each line. Standing up, he marvels at the square meter sized rune.
Turning his mana sight on, he watches as massive amounts of mana rush to his rune. He smiles as the slab starts glowing with mana. Deactivating his mana sight, he could still see it faintly glowing. The amount of mana had reached the point where it became visible! Just when he thought it couldn¡¯t get better, the stone slab cracked. ¡°Oh yeah. I forgot that stone has a limit to the amount of mana it can hold.¡± Bending down, he reaches for the slab and tries to take in the mana gathered. Stopping just short of filling his current bodies capacity, he laughs. ¡°Now this is what turbo charging is called. Now, If I can just limit the amount of mana drawn, I should be able to continue using stone for now.¡±
With his body fully charged with mana, he stares in the darkness. The light runes had run out of mana. ¡°Well¡ Where did I put them again?¡± Fumbling around in the darkness, he looks for the light runes.
*****
¡°Hey! Hey Mortimer!¡± Helios excitedly calls. ¡°Hey! Hey, Mortimer. Check this out. The new Jason, Akiel is building a base!¡± Lazily getting up from his seemingly invisible seat, walks over to Helios, ¡°Just turn the mirror on so I can see.¡°
Helios enthusiastically waves his ever-growing horns. With a flash, a small rip in space forms showing Akiel¡¯s current base. ¡°Whoa, that¡¯s not a base. It¡¯s a ticking bomb. You know that too many runes would cause the mana structures in the area to distort and implode right? Should we warn him?¡± Mortimer asks mortified. After thinking about it Helios says, ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. If you look closer, he seems to have figured out that part. Each of his runes seems to be on a different medium. I love the way he has designed the battery though. It has no defensive measures, but just the slightest obstructions in his premade mana pathways and several cubic meters of matter will evaporate in a mana baptism! I mean just look at the surroundings, you can see that it probably blew up several times already.¡±
Giddy with excitement, Helios closely examines the structure. Still mortified, Mortimer walks back to his chair and flops onto it. Shaking his head, he says, ¡°Tell me when the nutjob blows himself up, I¡¯ll bring the next one,¡± before falling asleep. Nodding his head, Helios continues to watch with interest, ¡°Just why would he need such a big battery?¡±
*****
¡°Back to work!¡± Akiel says to himself. Walking around his previous base, he examines it with his mana sight. It was supposed to be his base, but after a few explosions, he realized that storing mana in the form of batteries isn¡¯t simple. It¡¯s like trying to harness nuclear power without any of the proper fail-safes. In the past month, not only was his base blown apart but he himself was caught in an explosion twice before learning better.
Using an insulation rune on a few of the top and bottom layers, he managed to keep the mana between the thin plates but dissipation through the sides was still a problem. After blowing the battery up a few times on a miniature scale he figured out he could insulate most of the battery and keep two openings. One larger and uninsulated to let the mana in. The current of mana entering the battery alone should suffice to keep mana from dissipating too much. On the other end is a smaller plate, with a small and weak insulation rune. When the mana capacity is close to the limit, the mana levels would inundate the weak rune and allow excess mana to flow out. This way, It would be less likely to overload.
The battery seemed to be working perfectly. The mana continuously ran through a loop through the dozens of layers of stone he used. With the help of a few villagers, he had set up two braces that hold the layers apart. Not only did the mana seem to retain itself in the stone, but he was also able to take from it while it recharged. The only problem is to decrease the size.
Just a few weeks ago, after examining the house¡¯s formation again, he found out that the gathering rune is supposed to be used to feed mana to another set of runes. Immediately implementing this, he made long-lasting light runes. The only problem is that stone degrades over time. After attempting to make runes a few different ways, he concluded that stone can only support the constant use of a rune for about a week.
To remedy this problem, he asked the villagers about other materials. Until now, he had offered to do miscellaneous work in exchange for currency which he used to hire villagers to make his second base. Eventually, he was told to check an old mine to the west. The only problem is that he can¡¯t leave the battery alone, he has to disperse the mana before leaving. The amount it holds is enough to level two city blocks. The problem isn''t that it would destroy the forest, but that if a villager stopped existing because of him, he wouldn''t be as welcome. That itself wasn''t a problem but to babysit Cedric''s love, he had to stay close. Now just wasn''t the time to draw attention.
Touching the battery, he uses his body as a conduit to transfer mana back into the environment. Once done, He leaves it as is and returns to his new base, located a kilometer away from the village. With a proper wooden structure, courtesy of the villagers, he was able to remodel stone slabs to be the walls and left the ceiling with a checkered pattern to let light in.
Apparently, this area didn¡¯t get much rain if any. Grabbing some of the newer runes he had engraved, he stored them inside his body and got ready to leave. To make a rune, he needed a liquid substance to conduct mana. he found some in the village, but due to the lack of supplies for that particular product, it costed much more than what Akiel wanted to spend time earning money for.
Grabbing his stone spear, he heads out. Remodeling the base door to assimilate with the rest of the bases. ¡°Now, no one can enter,¡± he mutters. Swinging the spear around, he heads to the west. Going in the direct opposite direction of the stone stack, he hums a crude bar song that seems to have gotten stuck in his head. ¡°Let¡¯s get a makeover,¡± he chuckles to himself.
11. Squeaky Squeaky
Waving his stone spear around, Akiel hacks at the tall, dry shrubs around him aimlessly. Sighing, he mutters, ¡°This really is far, I really need a faster method of travel.¡± Looking around, he could see very little other than the long-dead shrubs. Even his mana sight couldn¡¯t find anything to occupy himself with. With nothing else to do but press onward and play with his spear, he started to practice using a spear. He isn¡¯t good by any standard, but he can now manage to get it to do some damage.
Hours pass as he trudges onward, checking his map he says, ¡°Just a few more minutes, It should have old mining facilities outside.¡± Slowly and carefully making his way forward, Akiel looks for anything that could have been a mining facility. After just minutes he finds his first sign of inhabitants, bones. Part of a humanoid skeleton was strewn on the ground. Crouching down he examines the bones. Starting from the pelvic area that seems to have been shattered, he finds a Ventral arch, something only human females have. Moving down he finds that the leg had three bones. Tracing the feet, the corpse was three-toed and the feet were easily as long as half the leg. Examining the foot structure closer, it seemed to stand on the tips and not on the whole length. This made it not as suitable for jumping but more likely to accelerate rapidly in linear directions.
Injecting mana into the skeleton, he stores a template of the feet in his guidebook. Satisfied, he inspects the surroundings. With a cursory glance, all we could see is more wasteland. There really wasn¡¯t anything out of the ordinary. Whatever killed the female didn¡¯t seem to have stepped in the area. Her corpse was either flung away or dropped from the air.
Scrunching his eyebrow regions up, he checks the sky. Seeing nothing, he uses his mana vision. Trying his best not to run, he finds a massive bird above him. Acting oblivious, he inspects it casually. ¡°It definitely looks like a giant bat with the head of an alligator,¡± he mutters. Casually shielding his eyes from the sun, he watches as the beast circles around him once before leaving to the west. Continuing to walk forward, he glances to the west. Seeing the silhouette growing smaller, he sighs in relief. ¡°Another benefit to being made of stone, you taste like nothing appetizing ever did.¡± he laughs. Checking the sky for more predators he starts to job towards his destination when he finds the sky clear.
Finally spotting the ramshackle remains of a building, he passes it find many more. Following the general outline of the buildings, he walks further into the abandoned mining settlement. ¡°I guess that thing scared the miners away,¡± he muses. Checking the more intact ruins, he finds several more remains as well as broken tools laying around. Grabbing a decent pick left behind, he makes his way to the cave entrance in the far side of the settlement. Stumbling on a wooden plaque, he picks it up and dusts it off. Several numbers were written on it and all of them were crossed out. It started at a number of just over two thousand and rose to about seven thousand before dropping drastically. At first, only a thousand seemed to have been subtracted but the latter numbers progressed much quicker. Five thousand. Three thousand. Seven hundred. Two hundred. Fifty-five. Twenty-nine.
After twenty-nine, the numbers changed to names. One by one, most of them were crossed out. At the very bottom, an intact name is still written, Joy. Smirking, he utters, ¡°Well, I think I found Joy boys! Let¡¯s get to work.¡± Shaking his head, he throws the plaque away and continues to the cave. Spotting some intact signs next to the cave, he heads over to read them. The first is a plaque detailing the rules of excavation. Skipping it, he reads the next one. It details the dangers inside. Skimming the list, he stops at a creature name, man-eating scorpions. Playing with his stoney lips, he imagines a giant orange scorpion trying to stab him.
Chuckling he strides into the cave with confidence. Passing several areas where the valuable stone seems to have been exhausted, he heads deeper. Holding his spear as a walking stick and his new pick held steadily at waist height he swaggers into the dimly lit cave. Supplying a light rune on his head with mana, he lights up the tunnel. Spotting the corpse of a dog-sized scorpion, he walks closer to examine it. Poking it, he realizes it¡¯s just a shell. Frowning, he continues to look for a suitable mining spot. Finding a different colored streak in the wall, he sets his spear aside and starts swinging his pick. At first, the pick barely seemed to make the rock crumble but after AKiel starts to use mana fortification into it, slag and small amounts of the distinctly different material chip off.
Stopping to examine the new material, he picks a piece up. Pushing his mana into it, he remodels it into a pure marble of the new material. The impurities fall away. Pushing his mana into it once again, this time more carefully. He feels a distinct rejection of his mana. Shaking his head, he throws the marble away. Heading deeper into the cave system he looks around much more urgently. He might not have to run constantly anymore, but he only has a year to show results. A year to just develop his means of destruction. A year to plan the downfall of his first kingdom.
Checking his mana reserves, he finds them at a healthy eighty-nine percent. Ever since he started constantly experimenting with mana according to the book, he found he could accurately tell how much his mana concentration is at. Holding his pick over his shoulder, he continues to explore. Using his spear to poke around rubble as he passes, he catches a hint of green as one of the rocks rolls. Picking it up, he smiles in satisfaction. It¡¯s another completely different material. Testing it with his mana first, he finds it much better. It held twice as much of his mana than stone would.
Looking around excitedly, Akiel finds several small pieces of the material leading further into the cave. Gathering a few small pieces, he remodels them into a sizable marble. Sighing at the truly pitiful amount he has, he ignores the small chunks and follows the increasingly abundant signs of the material.
Just as he turns a corner, he hears a hiss. Reducing the mana supply to the light rune, he slowly peeks around the corner. Not expecting an attack, a stinger suddenly smacks into his face. Reeling back in shock, he watches as a scorpion scuttles around the corner and tries to find him. Noticing the lack of response as his light shines on the scorpion''s eyes, he allows his mana to flow into the rune freely. Even with the light shining down in full force, the thing didn¡¯t seem to notice. Grabbing a stone, he drops it an arms distance away. As soon as the rock hits the ground, it¡¯s stinger smashes into the ground next to him. Grabbing the stinger as the scorpion retracts it, he tackles it. Staying away from the pedipalps, Akiel starts to bash his fists on its carapace. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
Not finding any purchase, he moves onto the stinger still in his hand. Putting his foot on the base of the stinger, He stands up while on it and pulls. With a sickening crack, the base of the stinger breaks. Still pulling, Akiel stomps down on the scorpion, causing the last pieces of flesh and carapace holding the stinger attached to snap. With the annoying stinger out, Akiel focuses on the scorpion. Although a spear might be helpful if he could hit a soft spot, the scorpion had a very small weak point. ¡®I should have made a giant hammer instead, like a maul,¡± he thinks to himself over the painful screeching of the scorpion. Ignoring the ichor pouring out of its damaged abdomen, Akiel jumps in again. Grappling with one of its Pedipalps, he bites onto another. Remodeling his teeth to better resemble a blunt crushing tool, he infuses mana into his jaw and crunches down. Comparing it to trying to bite into a lobster, he infuses greater amounts of mana. Blinded by pain and rage, the scorpion smashes into walls and struggles to move its other pedipalp. Grinding away, Akiel starts to enjoy himself, It¡¯s not every day you think about how giant man-eating scorpion would taste compared to lobster.
Finally biting one limb off, Akiel straddles the head, holding the remaining claw off with one of his hands. Infusing his fist with mana, He bashes the head over and over. Slipping when he gorges the eyes, he finally cracks the head open. Ending its agony, he scrambles its head. Consuming the mana core, he notices something besides ichor came out of its abdomen side. Picking it up and wiping it off on the ground, he smiles. It¡¯s a significantly larger piece of the green material. ¡°I guess I¡¯m looking for scorpion excrement,¡± Akiel darkly laughs.
Making his way back to his belongings, he progresses onward, carefully listening for scuttling. Creeping through the tunnels, he encounters two more of the scorpions before entering a much larger chamber. Listening, he could hear several scorpions running around. Not daring to make a sound, he creeps towards the center of the cavern. Looking around, he quietly celebrates. Heaps of the green material were just lying around. ¡°I guess this is their latrine pit,¡± he muses. Thinking about his next course of action, he spots a scorpion running with a blue crystal between its claws. It single-mindedly moves past him and enters another tunnel. Curious, Akiel couldn¡¯t help but wonder what these scorpions ate to excrete material that is rich in mana capacity.
Following it down another tunnel, he finds himself surrounded by many more scorpions. All of them transporting a blue crystal. Quietly walking among them, he tries to avoid stepping on one of the smaller ones. The last thing he needs is to be chased by several scorpions in the dark and winding underground tunnels. Following the brain dead scorpions down a few more passages and through a couple of rooms he reaches a richly adorned grotto. A small lake dominated the center while hundreds of fist-sized chunks of the blue crystal were stacked along the walls.
The most shocking thing is that scorpions bigger than a bus were spitting over them. Their saliva seemed to melt the crystals and the solution seeped into the aquifer. Following the smaller scorpions closely, I watch them dump their load along the walls and make their way towards the aquifer. Each takes a small drink and returns the way they came from. Deciding to stay, Akiel bends down and also takes a sip of the water. Examining his mana concentration, he finds it completely refilled. Marveling at the aquifer, he turns his mana sight on. Tracing the mana back to the crystals, he concludes that the crystals are the mana source. The question is why melt the mana into the water? What use is the mana infused water? Following the flow of water through the cave system with his sight, he traces it to what seems like a much larger collection of mana. It looked like a wad of glow in the dark bubble wrap.
Not able to resist, Akiel slowly lowers himself into the water. Walking on the bottom of the lake, he finds a passage underwater that leads to the glowing bubble wrap. Cautiously making his way into the passage, he finds a scorpion hidden under a rocky shelf, waiting to ambush him. Hugging the wall, he slowly approaches the scorpion. It¡¯s the same size as the ones he fought before, but none of the ones he fought were under water. Getting just close enough to reach it, He bashes it as best he can into the rock shelf. Pulling it down by its limbs he mashes it again. Over and over, he smashes the scorpion against the rock shelf. Seeing air bubbles as well as the clouds of blood filling the water, he pulls it down and sits on it. Nothing can hold it¡¯s breath with leaking lungs. Waiting for it to stop struggling, he casually sits on it while checking for its friends.
So far, nothing seems to have noticed him, but there is a good chance that it won¡¯t be much longer. Trying to sigh underwater, he panics as water floods his mouth. Calming down after noticing that the water doesn¡¯t seem to enter his body further than his throat. Digging the green material out of the scorpion and consuming its mana core, he moves on.
Emerging in a seemingly endless room, he shines his light around. At first, all he sees is lumps of dirt. Endless amounts of lumps as well as a dark crevice at the far end. Getting closer to the edge of the pool, he scrambles up onto the land. Looking closer at the lumps he claws off a bit of dirt to find a pearly white surface. Shocked, he whispers, ¡°Scorpions don¡¯t come from eggs. Just who¡¯s are these?¡± Turning his mana sight on he looks into the eggs and finds a fetus, none of its features are developed to the point where he can determine its identity.
Giving up, he turns his attention to the dark crevice. Whatever is hiding in there has the answer to his questions, At worst what could happen? He would be hiding underground for a few days? That''s easy with this mana water readily available. Remodeling his stone spear to buckler and a rapier, he climbs on top of the eggs and carefully crawls to the crevice. Shining his light inside he couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at what he saw. Not only is there a large collection of the green material, but there is a significantly smaller amount of a darker green material. Checking the rest of the crevice, he spots something unusual. It looked like a moving wall. Crawling on his knees and elbows, he makes his way closer. Whatever it was, it was blocking part of the crevice. Crawling around it to get a better visual, he finds an opening. Shining his light through the opening, something immediately moves into view. A massive head with opaque white eyes stares back at him. Slowly turning his light off, he backs away. ¡®Maybe It¡¯s not a good idea to poke a sleeping bear¡¯ Akiel thinks to himself. Slowly creeping away in a dim light towards the darker green material, he listens for the colossus moving.
Several painful minutes pass when he finally hears something like snoring. Looking back in disbelief, he finds the beast staring at him while heavily breathing. Not sure what to make of it, he stares back at it. Just when he starts to get impatient, the beast moves away in disinterest settling somewhere deeper in the crevice. Not caring about it anymore, Akiel hurriedly claws his way to the dark green material. Tapping it, he hears a metallic ring echo in the crevice. Wincing, he starts to pour his mana in the metal. Filling a fist-sized piece, he remodels it into a sphere and inspects it. Giving it a squeeze, he watches as his hand starts to crack. Letting the sphere go, he inspects it for damage. Surprisingly, it is just as pristine as it was. Next, he tests its mana capacity. Reaching about three times as much as stone, he concludes that the dark green metal must be the green material in a more condensed form.
Satisfied in every way possible, Akiel pours about eighty percent of his mana into the metal and remodels it into a new body.shifting the stone body and detaching it, he tries moving his new body. First a finger. Wiggling it up and down, horrible squeaking tears through the underground room followed by a deafening roar. ¡®Why do I sound like a rusty door?¡¯ Akiel asks himself.
SS Akiel in Wonderland part 2
Walking into a bar, Akiel looks around. Several drunkards line the walls, while the center is dominated by merrymaking and laughter. Checking on the bartender, Akiel finds the guy watching him. Cleaning a beer glass and setting it down, he reaches for another while slowly nodding at me. Clearly misunderstood, I walk over. Sitting down at the counter, the bartender asks, ¡°What can I get you?¡±
Leaning closer, Akiel asks, ¡°I¡¯d like some information. I¡¯ve been sleeping for quite some time, could you tell me where I am?¡± The bartender relaxes his posture and says, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it old timer, there are plenty of people like you. Just Head to the small room over there. There should be a general history tome somewhere.¡± Curious he asks, ¡°So who were you? Which side did you take during the time war?¡± Confused, Akiel just says, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t think I was in it.¡± Getting up, he walks into the far room. Ignoring the bartender, he disappears around the corner.
Walking into a cluttered room with several books lying around, he takes one of the vacant seats. Checking the others in the room, he finds them all to be wearing intricate pieces of dilapidated armor. ¡®I guess this is what the time war survivors look like¡¯ he muses. Dusting some of the smaller books, he finds one titled, ¡®History for Young and Developing minds¡¯. Picking it up he opens it up to find a picture book with graphic images. Slightly smiling, Akiel flips through the pages slowly. The first few pages show two kingdoms, One red and the other white. The red kingdom symbolized a tyrant that dominated the western half of the continent. The white represented a puppet monarchy that dominated the east. Both seemed to deprive their citizens of their rights, but the white side just seemed to be better at making it look bearable.
Using the Red Queen, the White Queen gained the support of her people and waged war. In the end, it came down to the queens and their guardian animals. The red side had a red tiger whereas the white side had a white lion. The red tiger succeeded in killing the white lion, but when it looked back, it lost all will to fight. The white queen had skewered the red queen''s neck on an icicle. Retreating, the red army was gradually eliminated and the red castle, destroyed. The tiger was never seen after. Flipping to the next page, Akiel finds the color scheme turn completely white. The white queen ruled the continent, but there was unrest. A portion of the citizens voiced their dissatisfaction and were exiled to the edges of the continent.
Flipping the page, he finds a small purple splotch in the white theme. The exiled set up a kingdom. One for freedom and justice. One to oppose the White Queen and to call out to the oppressed. At first, it was easy going, people flocked to the new kingdom. Tales of the lax laws and kind government spread like wildfire. This continued until an official from the White castle tried to escape to the new kingdom. He was hung, and war was declared once again.
This time, the outcome was drastically different. Without a warrior or sorcerer to face the White Queen, the purple army was defeated devastatingly. Fewer than twenty percent returned alive from each battle. One of the first people exiled suggested that they hide in the former redwood forest. Legends say that no violence can ever be committed in the woods or judgment would be dealt by the continent itself. The White Queen, fearing the continents backlash, stated that war shall be postponed until further notice. Until then, the purple kingdom has hidden within the woods. Waiting for the day that it will strike back. Grooming its own queen, to battle with the White Queen.
Flipping the page, Akiel finds a burnt blank page. Realizing it is the end of the picture book he shakes his head. ¡®I don¡¯t even remember looking at the pictures,¡¯ Akiel thinks to himself, Bewildered. Tapping his shoulder, one of the warriors asks, ¡°I also picked that one up just a few hours ago. When I read it, the pages were blank. I couldn¡¯t help but check when I saw you flipping through it. Can I read it if you¡¯re done?¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Surprised at the revelation, Akiel casually hands the book over. Watching for the warrior''s reaction, Akiel tries to fit the previously mentioned time wars into the history he knew. ¡°The time wars definitely had something to do with the war between the red and white queens, but the picture book left somethings out,¡± he muses. Seeing that the warrior was flipping through the pages quickly, he asks, ¡°See anything?¡± Sighing, the warrior says no. ¡°I have a question, what were the time wars? I can¡¯t figure out when they happened either.¡±
Looking at me skeptically, he says, ¡°That¡¯s impossible, the time wars are the reason we wake up hundreds of years later. The time rabbits employed by the White Queen put thousands of people in a state of stasis, perfectly isolated from time. It was supposed to target the dogs of the red army, but they couldn¡¯t tell the difference. Time rabbits are color blind. You¡¯re not recently awakened, are you? I¡¯m telling you right now, I won¡¯t hesitate to turn you in if you¡¯re part of the purple kingdom.¡±
Raising his hands, Akiel hurriedly says, ¡°Calm down, I¡¯m not of the purple kingdom. I just woke up with no memories.¡± Visibly relaxing, the warrior apologizes, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry. Just last week, one of those purple spies tried to gather information here. He killed several people before getting away. The purple kingdom can¡¯t fight the White queen so instead, they¡¯ve been causing the White kingdom to rot instead.¡±
¡°No worries, I would be wary if I encountered a possible spy as well. What do you mean by rot? How can such a weak kingdom mess with the White Queen?¡± Akiel asks. ¡°How you ask¡ There are many ways but the most deadly and effective ones have to do with dominating the shadows. The White Queen may be strong, but behind every lace, behind every ruffle is a shadow she cannot see. The Purple Kingdom specializes in drug manufacturing as well as spreading corruption. They give an official some money and give another a stable drug supply. They assassinate the most troublesome officials and reward the most corrupt. Through drugs, they control the masses into speaking out against the queen and causing mass purges. It¡¯s just isn¡¯t the same anymore. You can¡¯t just line up and fight a war.¡± the warrior says sadly.
Thanking the warrior, he looks through the books for a local map. According to the continental map he saw before, the forest he landed next to should lead to the Purple Kingdom. The White Queen should already know of my existence and should have ownership of the book, so I need a queen to fight her. If she wasn¡¯t my enemy, there should have been another way to get my attention. The problem is, where to enter the forest from and what I need o get through. Finding another thin book with the title ¡®Redwood Forest, the Bane of the White Kingdom¡¯. Flipping to the first page, he finds a surprising line starting the introduction. ¡®Because of the title of this book, I am to be hanged in a day. If anyone is reading this, don¡¯t get caught. Just reading my work is heresy.¡¯ Chuckling, Akiels mutters, ¡°This guy sure thinks a lot of himself. If the book were dangerous, wouldn''t it have been burned by now?¡±
Reading on, he finds out that nothing is particularly required to enter the forest, but there must be no enmity between the traveler and the inhabitants. Any enmity seemed to lead to a mysterious disappearance or disembowelment. Nothing has been documented to be the cause of this phenomenon. Flipping through the rest of the pages he finds an inaccurate drawing of the land and the most common entrance to the forest. Comparing the map in his memory to the one in the book, he pinpoints his general location before tracing it to the nearest well-known entrance. Tracing his finger along the forest edge, he taps just off of the entrance. ¡°They¡¯re probably waiting for me at the entrances. I just need to get in. If anything, the ambush is least likely to be at any point that isn¡¯t an entrance.¡±
Getting up, he stretches his limbs. Deciding that the first thing he would do is regain his original size, he leaves the bar. ¡°Hopefully I¡¯m just being paranoid. It would be a real pain if my precautions aren¡¯t enough,¡± he whispers to himself.
*****
Getting up slowly, the warrior walks into the bar portion. Glancing around, he quickly takes the seat in front of a dog-faced man. ¡°That was him. He wasn¡¯t as tall as the rabbit reported but he looks just like the description. Plain and made of stone with seemingly no intention to do harm. He¡¯s even bald.¡±
12. Teeth
Tumbling down the pile of eggs, Akiel scrambles away from the giant serpentine body lunging for him. Silently regretting how he took his curiosity too far, Akiel accidentally puts too much weight on one of the eggs. His right foot plunges in and he awkwardly dodges the beast by hugging the egg closer. Tucking himself inside the egg, Akiel finds himself face to jaw with a miniature version of the beast outside. Wrestling it into submission, he gets an idea. Digging his new squeaky fingers into the creature¡¯s body, he pulls out some of the inactivated runes. Smearing one of the runes with a mixture of blood and embryonic fluid, he channels his mana through it. Seeing the rune glow a rusty red, he patiently waits for the beast to find him.
Turning his attention to his new body, he winces as every movement causes grating sounds. ¡°I guess, I¡¯ll have to use a softer material for the joints. This really is unbearable.¡± he mouths to himself silently. Feeling the eggshell shudder, Akiel looks up to find the beast¡¯s massive glowing eyeball staring back at him. Getting ready, he quietly sinks lower into the fluid. Seeing the dead offspring at the top, the beast bites the entire eggshell and lobs it into its crevice.
Tumbling out of the shell, Akiel looks around. Finding a bigger space than imagined, He raises the ridge above his right eye. Hearing a small squeak, he sighs. ¡°First order of business is getting better material for my joints. The second will be getting some hair. It¡¯s hard enough not being able to raise my eyebrows, now I can¡¯t even rub my chin properly.¡± Backing into the side of the massive chamber, he remodels himself into a more battle-ready form.
Mimicking the form he used on the ape king, he leaves his hands intact but splits the metal in his lower legs into four blades. Two serve as his legs and the other two fall off clean. Picking them up in his hands, He tests their weight, ¡°I¡¯m no swordsman, but I should be able to make quite a few cuts with these.¡± Taking his newly activated rune, he murmurs, ¡°This should hold for another couple minutes. I just hope I can use it before it goes through with the sequence.¡± Flipping the rune, he traces a second rune on its back. Only half of the second rune had lit up, but every second caused more of it to glow.
Hearing the rumbling of debris shifting, he sees the massive serpent enter the chamber. ¡°This just might just be the hardest or easiest fight I will ever have,¡± he muses. Starting his charge, he runs along the perimeter of the walls. Estimating that his legs would only get enough traction on the walls for two, maybe three quick steps, he hugs it closely. Running closer, Akiel finds it peculiar that it could see him. Living down here, It really shouldn¡¯t have much need for sight. ¡°Maybe, the monster in the sky scared this one underground,¡± he ponders as he gets closer.
The beast continues to watch Akiel as he grows in speed, only bringing more of its body in. finding it strange, Akiel increases the distance between him and the wall when he approaches the crevice. Just when he thought that it was waiting for him to get closer, a massive section of the serpent collapses at him. Running farther towards the center, he narrowly dodges the falling mass. Stabbing the swords in his hands down, he flips on top of the serpent. With his momentum all but gone, Akiel inspects the damage his swords had done. They penetrated great, but it drew very little blood. Estimating the girth of the serpent, Akiel sighs, ¡°At least thirty of me need to link hands to wrap around it.¡±
Staring at the beast¡¯s eyes, Akiel checks his new rune again. ¡°You''re my last hope. Seventy-five percent charged, let''s hope I make it in time.¡± Starting off jogging, he quickly speeds up to a sprint. Running the full length of the body, He gets to the point where it starts to slope upwards when it attacks. Akiel, waiting for this moment, jumps straight upward. Flipping and digging his legs into its head, he quickly jumps again as the serpent smashes the rock wall. Falling freely, He wields his swords in a backward grip and hacks into its soft underside.
Using the swords to climb, Akiel slowly makes it higher up its body. Reaching the point where he could hear its heartbeat. Counting, he could tell that it was around 51 beats per minute. Climbing just a bit higher, Akiel stops. Taking out his new rune, he examines the flip side. The rusty red color had turned into a bright red and the flipside had started to glow blue. ¡°Just a minute more!¡± he exclaims.
Checking on the beasts head, Akiel finds it charging something in its mouth. Too late to dodge, he gets as close to its body as he can. Taking the full force of the blast, he tumbles away through the air. Leaving his swords still in its body, he grasps the rune as tightly as he can. Falling onto a stalagmite, he smashes through it and rolls for a considerable distance. Sitting up, he finds that much of his body is starting to flake off. It isn¡¯t hot, nor is it melting or dissolving. It¡¯s just flaking off. Remodeling the outer most layer off, he back away as the rest flakes off into oblivion. Staring up at the beast, he finds his swords also flaking off. The remainder being in the beast itself.
Realizing that it was immune to collateral damage, he dashes over to the closest part of the beast. Rushing madly as the beast charges another shot, he checks on the rune. Just a few seconds left! Reaching its coils, he slices into them with his legs and reaches inside. Widening the cut with brute force, he smears the creature¡¯s blood all over himself and waits. The blinding beam of energy finally finishes charging when Akeil notices the numerous tiny runes forming a ring inside its mouth. Sighing in regret, he says, ¡°If only I could copy them all down. Then I could just fire random beams of destruction.¡±
Covering his head, He faces the beam. Sliding back as he gets baptized, he smiles. Nothing is flaking off! Ending the burst of magic, the serpent stares at Akiel in intrigue. Finally noticing its own blood on him, it bellows in anger. Striking down at breakneck speeds, it swallows him whole.
Akiel, not even given the time to adjust, quickly slides down its esophagus. In his disorientation, he tumbles past the point where its heartbeat loudest and down into a dark pit of stomach fluid. Trying to sigh, he uses a light rune. Finding the lower extremities of his body dissolving, he widens his eyes. Checking the new rune, he finds it just seconds away from progressing into the second rune. Smiling, he remodels his arms into ice picks. Climbing up the stomach walls, he desperately hacks harder. Estimating, he counts down, ¡°seven seconds!¡± Clawing closer to the top of the stomach, he mutters, ¡°five seconds!¡± prying open the walls of muscle pushing him downward, he heaves himself higher. Suddenly feeling the loss of direction, he continues down the contracting muscles towards the heart. Feeling snake tossing and turning, he sputters as the gastric juices wash over him, ¡°two!¡± Fighting through one last muscle contraction, he throws the rune as far as possible. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Starting to lose integrity, Akiel remodels more mass to his icepicks and claws towards the beating heart when the rune explodes in a discharge of electricity. Watching hopefully, Akiel slowly makes his way closer as the snake writhes harder than ever. Thanks to the tight hugging walls of muscle, Akiel stays in one orientation throughout the snake''s tantrum, but with the electrical shock, the walls all relaxed for just a moment before constricting harder than ever.
Without any way to move, he hopes that the shock is enough. Counting the heart beats changing at erratic rates, he waits as his body starts to fold in on itself. The heartbeat seems to speed up for several seconds while Akiel struggles to keep himself from being compacted into a ball. Just when his ice picks folded into his chest, the heartbeat runs flat. Whistling awkwardly, Akiel sighs. Remodeling himself into a smaller but complete form as the walls loosen their grip. Chucking, he crawls up the toned walls of flesh.
Breaking out in full-blown laughter, he tumbles out of its mouth, right into a smashed eggshell. Getting up, he whistles at the destruction. Several stalagmites had fallen, and practically all of the eggs seemed broken. Looking back at the giant serpent, Akiel shakes his head and clambers back to the spot where the darker green metal was. Taking the rest of the metal and a good amount of the lighter material, he remodels his body. Keeping the lighter and more pliable material for his joints, he keeps the rest as it was. Flexing his finger first, he exhales in relief.
Now back to his normal size, he carefully hikes down to the serpent''s mouth. Dragging a fallen stalagmite over, he props the enormous head open. Removing the many banana sized hooked teeth, he sets them aside. Stepping into the mouth, he grabs ahold of one of the many bleeding gums and hauls himself up onto the top of the snakes head. Reaching the eyeball, he exhales slowly before lunging at it. Remodeling his fingers to be more like claws meant for digging, Burrows his way into the head. Slowly digging around, he finally finds the mana core. Checking his mana capacity, he finds that his current mana concentration when full is just shy of a quarter compared to what his body can hold.
Excavation the head-sized monster core, he stares at it. ¡°Just how do I eat this?¡± he murmurs. Getting an idea, he tries to siphon the mana out of it. Quickly hitting his cap, he withdraws his hand in a panic. The core, still a quarter full, cracks and dims. Sighing in frustration, I climb out of the head. ¡°At least I¡¯m topped off. I¡¯ll just raise my capacity next time,¡± he mutters. Jumping off the head, he looks over the pile of teeth. He counts eighteen in all. Bringing out another one of his unactivated runes, he sets it down. Breaking off a small part of a tooth, he remodels his hands into a pestle and mortar. Grinding it down to dust, he mixes some of its blood to make a paste. Remodeling his hands back, he applies the paste to the rune, carefully tracing the rune.
When he finishes, he giddily wipes the excess paste on the broken tooth. Channeling his mana through the room, it glows a fiery red. Satisfied, he points it away from the serpent corpse and injects a considerable amount of mana into it. The rune, pulsing once as if signaling it is full, spews an enormous amount of fire before dimming. Checking the damage, Akiel smiles when he finds out he cleaned up half of the room. There are no eggshells nor are there any signs of there ever being any. The ground glows orange with spots of luminescent green. Looking closer he could see the lighter green material that seemed to almost be metallic was almost unaffected. It only glowed brighter in response.
Sitting down, he fuses the run into his palm when the opposing wall breaks open. Hissing, a giant scorpion peers through the embers and dust. Seeing the serpent''s body it steps forward only to reel back. Grappling with the wall, It makes its way across the charred region. Skittering over the serpent''s head, It spots Akiel watching it. Watching it tiredly, Akiel crosses his fingers. ¡°Not again. Please, just ignore me and my teeth,¡± he mutters.
Looking around, the scorpion looks for other signs of life before turning back to Akiel. Putting some distance between them, it motions with its claws at Akiel and then at the new entrance. Nodding his head, Akiel glares at the Scorpion in confusion. Rearing back, it screeches, signaling hundreds of scorpions to enter the chamber. Forming a path, the scorpions positioned themselves around the charred region. Clicking their claws in unison, they sway back and forth. Watching in astonishment, Akiel turns to the giant scorpion and gestures to the pile of teeth and then to himself.
Rubbing its claw on its head as if thinking, the scorpion hisses and clicks a few times gesturing to the teeth. Not understanding, Akiel just away when several smaller scorpions grab the teeth and scuttle away. Turning to the giant scorpion, it waves its claw at Akiel and then at the smaller scorpions carrying his teeth away. Shaking his head, he reluctantly follows the smaller scorpions out of the chamber.
Passing through several tunnels, he spots another chunk, albeit smaller, of the dark green metal. Stopping, he stomps on the ground to get the smaller scorpions¡¯ attention. Walking over to the chunk, he pours mana into it, remodeling it into a backpack. ¡°The way things are going, It won¡¯t be long before I need to repair my body. Might as well take some extra while I can,¡± he utters to himself. Motioning to move on, the scorpions continue their mindless scuttling.
Arriving at the cave entrance just an hour later, Akiel blinks in disbelief. ¡°No revenge? No complications? Is this really happening?¡± Stepping out of the cave, Akiel looks back at the pile of teeth. Sighing, He looks around in the abandoned buildings for some kind of rope. Not finding any rope, Akiel gathers the rotting sheets left behind and makes a bundle to hold the teeth. Breaking off one of the wooden planks, he hacks at it with his hand making a crude stick and sticks it through the top of the bundle. Resting it on his shoulder he starts his trek back home.
Walking through the barren land, Akiel freezes as a massive shadow flies by overhead. Easily dwarfing the serpent, It flew in a circle, watching him. ¡°Not even hiding this time. I knew it was too good to be true,¡± Akiel chuckles. Cursing his luck, he continues to walk with his eyes on the sky. Noticing it isn¡¯t the one he saw before, he quickens his pace. It¡¯s still possible to get away from one, but two would make it almost impossible. Annoyed, Akiel walks faster in silence, waiting for it to pass over again. The moment, the shadow covers him, he dashes away at an angle. As long as he can make it to some trees, it should be easier to lose it.
Seeing the thing make a loop and turning around, Akiel starts supplying greater and greater amounts of mana to his feet, sending clouds of dust flying into the air as he accelerates. Smiling slightly at the exhilaration of running as fast as a car, he suddenly burst forward as his feet touch solid land. Leaving behind the sandy dunes, his speed easily starts to become uncontrollable. Not wanting to slow down, Akiel tries to maintain his current speed when he hears a shriek behind him. Passing him in just a moment, the creature slams into the ground in front of him, causing him to collide, spilling the teeth everywhere.
Sitting up, Akiel remodels his body back into pristine shape before looking up. Squatting several hundred meters high, the creature lets out a weird whimper before it starts shrinking. Rapidly changing sizes, It slows its changes once it becomes 2 meters high. Instead of becoming shorter, it gets thinner. The wings start to recede and the bones that frame the wing shrink in length. Eventually, what stands in front of Akiel is a moderately sized humanoid with the head of a falcon and raptorial feet.
Gesturing with its almost wingless appendage to the scattered teeth, ¡°My good sir slash ma¡¯am slash them, did you bring these for me? If you did, this lord will be very pleased. Yes! Yes, I will be!¡±
SS Akiel in Wonderland part 3
Stretching his limbs, he checks the surroundings quietly. Perching on top of a sturdy branch, Akiel had remodeled himself into his normal size. Making a basic body frame out of the stone he had, he covered it in wood and bark. Not opting to waste much more time, he turned to materials much easier to use. Scraping together the moss and lichen on the rocks around the ruins, he made himself some makeshift hair as well as eyebrows.
Pondering on how to further disguise himself, he trips over a ratty red banner. Suddenly getting an idea, he scavenges around the ruins for all the strips of cloth he can find. Infusing his mana into the cloth, he remodels the worst strips into an undershirt. With neat ruffles, he opts for leaving it sleeveless. Using the best cloth, he adds another layer of cloth on top of his torso. Covering his arms, he makes it look like an overcoat. Examining his clothing, he remodels even more of the cloth to make pants. Standing about a meter and a half tall, he remodels his hand into a comb and combs his moss back.
Smiling, he cuts a branch off of a nearby tree and remodels it into a walking stick. Cutting a much smaller and more pliable branch off, he remodels it into the frame of a top hat. Using the rest of the scrap pieces, he remodels it to finish off the top hat. Detaching both the top hat and the walking stick, he fiddles around with the walking stick. Grabbing some of the smaller stones lying around, he remodels the fringes of the top hat into a ring of sturdy and sharp stone. Taking the remaining stone, he adds a slit at the bottom of the walking stick and inserts a blade of stone.
Smirking, he sighs when he looks down. Tapping his bare feet on the ground, he shakes his head. There isn¡¯t a need to make socks since the pants cover most of his legs but his feet still need to be covered. Walking around, he gives up. Having already wasted an hour, he opts for stone shoes. Remodeling even more stone into dress shoes, he makes sure to end the tips in sharp points, that way he can use them to deal some damage when needed.
Nodding in satisfaction, Akiel starts to jog in the direction of the forest. Keeping well away from the Beaten path, he trudges onward to the forest perimeter. Quickly arriving at the dense perimeter, he stares in disbelief. ¡°This isn¡¯t a forest fringe, this is a freaking wall of bark and leaves,¡± he mutters. It is as if someone compressed several square meters of the dense jungle into one. Chuckling in derision, he whispers underneath his breath, ¡°No wonder there are marked entrances, you just can¡¯t enter the forest through any other way.¡± Sighing, he starts to cautiously walk along the perimeter, towards the closest marked entrance.
*****
¡°Sniff him out Azazel! Find him and you¡¯re bound to get a promotion,¡± a nasally voice incites. Growling in annoyance, a dog-faced person, grunts and stoops lower to the ground. Sniffing around, he starts to crawl surprisingly quickly for a bipedal creature on all fours. Quickly reaching the outskirts of the small village, Azazel circles around a tree trunk. Seeing the scratches on the bark and the obvious marks of destruction, he follows the trail away from the tree. Picking up a mixed scent, he shakes his head. ¡°Roy! The scent is weakening, it¡¯s hard enough following a moving rock. He seems to have wood on him now. He blends in with almost everything around us,¡± Azazel barks exasperatedly.
Turning serious, Roy asks concerned, ¡°Can you still find him? I¡¯ll deal with him if he attacks so don¡¯t worry about being too careful. Just remember, if we can¡¯t find him, by tomorrow, no one will be able to find us either.¡± Frowning, Azazel says, ¡°Finding him shouldn¡¯t be hard. He seems to be under the assumption that getting to his destination will save him. You can see the path he took clearly. Just follow it.¡± Shrugging Toy follows Azazel while saying, ¡°You know that I can¡¯t track a dragon. Last time I went to track the missing red tiger. I ended up on an ice flow, far away from where it lives.¡±
Ignoring Roy, Azazel straightens up and follows the signs of depressed foliage and heavy footfalls. Reaching the old Red Castle Ruins, Azazel stops. Surveying the surroundings, he moves along the edge of the ruins. Walking around the edge, he smiles when he spots footsteps. Bending down, he turns to Roy saying, ¡°Looks like the real calamity started here.¡± Looking confused, Roy also bends over. ¡°These footsteps, they¡¯re much bigger. Was the previous stone man a fake?¡± he asks. Azazel shrugs while following the new trail, ¡°I would assume, but he could have also just changed his body size right? Remember, we know next to nothing about the walking calamity.¡±
Stopping abruptly, Roy bumps into Azazel. Bending lower, Azazel traces his clawed paw over the footprint. Widening his eyes, he says, ¡°He did come to the inn in person! You see this, his footprint changed shape,¡± Exhaling in disbelief, Roy says, ¡°the only thing in this direction is the forest. Unless he can make it through the boundary, he¡¯s bound to head towards the checkpoints right?¡± Affirming Roy¡¯s deduction, Azazel adds, ¡°If he is the walking calamity, I don¡¯t think the checkpoint will keep him long. Let¡¯s go, Roy! I¡¯ll go to the closest and warn them. You run the other way and try to intercept him if he''s going the other way,¡± Lowering himself on all fours, Azazel transforms into a bloodhound. Patting his head, Roy mutters, ¡±Don¡¯t die,¡± before running off. Howling, Azazel bounds off in the opposite direction.
*****
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Checking out the fortification, Akiel tilts his head. ¡°Just how do I get past that? It¡¯s like a fort,¡± he questions himself. Rubbing his new coat, he pumps himself up. No one in this place knows what he looks like. All he needs is a window. Walking closer to the beaten road just out of the sentries sight. He spots a white carriage rumbling down the road. Smiling, he makes his way further down the road. Hiding behind a bush, he starts running out as the carriage rolls past him. Grabbing the door handle, he quickly seats himself opposite to a well-dressed gentleman. Before he could even scream, Akiel holds the rim of his hat to his neck. Chuckling, Akiel says, ¡°Shh. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m only here for a few minutes. Make any wrong moves, and you¡¯ll find yourself without a head.¡±
Smiling in his own mirth, the man says, ¡°You think that I¡¯m scared of you? Kill me! We¡¯re just seconds from the fort. You¡¯ll never get away.¡± Sighing in depression, he thinks to himself, ¡®How did I get stuck with this guy? Why can¡¯t people just be scared?¡¯ Taking out the blade in his walking stick, he points it at the man''s crotch. Glaring, he says, ¡±How about this, I¡¯ll take this off first, and then, I¡¯ll hold you hostage? How''s that for you?¡±
Paling, the gentleman sputters, ¡°D-Don¡¯t! Don¡¯t you know who I am? They call me big Baldwin! Just kill me, don¡¯t touch my equipment you heathen!¡± Smiling in satisfaction, Akiel props his foot next to Baldwin¡¯s head, ¡°Are you okay with crushing? It¡¯ll be there when you die as well¡± Shaking his head with sweat pouring off of his head, he stays quiet. Abruptly stopping, Akiel eyes the man saying, ¡°Just take me inside and don¡¯t get in my way. Do me that favor and I¡¯ll let you and your equipment go.¡± Nodding his head, he wipes his sweat on his sleeve. Retracting his foot, Akiel watches as the guy sticks his head out of the slot in the door and exchanges pleasantries with the guard. Applying pressure to his loins with his walking stick, he waits until the gentleman taps the inside of the carriage.
Removing the walking stick, he watches as Baldwin sits back, watching him in fear. Smiling, he puts the top hat back onto his head and retracts the knife into his walking stick. Sighing in relief, Baldwin sinks lower into his seat. Just when the atmosphere relaxes inside the carriage, Akiel grabs the man''s head and drags his body closer. Grateful for Baldwin being on the lighter side, he stuffs one hand over his mouth. Taking a breath through his nose, Baldwin suddenly finds himself looking towards the carriage roof.
Letting Baldwin slump to the ground, Akiel waits patiently inside. Feeling the carriage come to a stop and hearing the coachman coming around, he positions himself at the door. Just as the coachman opens the door, Akiel¡¯s hand clamps onto his face, preventing any screaming, and pulls him in. Ending his life just as easily, Akiel leaves the carriage. Checking the surroundings, he confidently walks towards the walkways. Throwing a cursory look around the courtyard, he maps his route to freedom.
Ascending the stairs leading to the wall, he mutters, ¡°Up the wall and around the barracks. Into the main stronghold, and out the rear entrance. Into the woods.¡± Passing a guard, he tips his hat, leaving behind a confused guard. Smiling, he shakes his head at the ease of infiltration. ¡°The best camouflage is confidence,¡± he mutters. Casually walking downstairs he greets another group of guards before entering the main stronghold. Trying to keep his stone shoes from making too much noise, he swaggers through the hallway and turns a corner. Finding a fork, he pauses before turning right.
Passing a dog-faced man, Akiel says a greeting to him as well before continuing. Hearing the sound of sniffing behind him, he sighs. Smirking at the breathability of his new body, he walks fast. Akiel suddenly breaks into a sprint when the dog-faced man screams, ¡°Hey, you! Stop!¡± Turning left, he encounters a guard in little to no armor running at him while sweating. Tipping his hat, he passes the confused guard. No longer keeping his stone soles from making noise, he runs past several rooms. Just when he thinks that he is out, several fully armored guards start chasing him. The screaming only brings out more. Grabbing one of the guards that pops out from in front of him, he slams his head into the stone walls. Continuing, he stops to tip over a bookcase. Turning around to find two enemies in front of him, Akiel takes off his hat and throws it.
Running at them, he bowls one over with his shoulder while grabbing his hat from the ground. Putting it back on his head, he leans backward to dodge a sword strike. Hopping backward, he jabs the walking stick at the enemy while ejecting the blade running the guard through, he continues to run away, the mass of guards now much closer. Checking his mana, he finds it still full. Experimenting, he distributes some mana to his feet, causing his speed to increase. Watching his mana concentration decrease before suddenly filling back up, he grins. ¡°This world has so much more mana,¡± he screams in exhilaration.
Shoulder tackling another guard, he abruptly backs off and kicks at him. Sending the guard sprawling, he remodels his walking stick to adhere to his back. Grabbing the fallen guards sword, he runs him through. Glancing behind him, he finds the mob quickly catching up. Reaching a staircase, he decides to go up. Passing another group of guards, he barrels them out of the way. Faltering during the turn, he grabs the railing and heaves himself higher. Finding himself on the roof, he glances around. Four guards, one on each side. Finding the forest entrance, just three stories down and across an extensive no man''s land, he smirks. Running at the nearest guard, he takes his hat off and fills the rim with mana. Flicking it at the man, he watches as the hat shears through the helmet as well as part of the head.
Jumping, Akiel uses the falling body as a stepping stone. Infusing mana into his feet, he launches off of the body, splattering it on the roof. Grabbing his hat while falling, he remodels it to adhere to his head. Slamming down onto the ground, his feet splinter and split. Sighing, he remodels them back together. Finding several guards running after him as well as quite a few blocking his way, he dashes to the entrance.
Infusing massive amounts of mana in his feet, he waits as they crack and peel. Taking another step, he watches as the guards group together. Taking another step, he glances behind him. Finding several bursts of mana heading towards him. Deciding it is time, he shoots off the ground at a 25-degree angle. Quickly reaching the guard formation, he grabs onto the first guards head. Using the momentum, he flips into the ground, slamming the guard into his fellow compatriots. Sloppily running over the fallen guards, he runs to the entrance. Just a few meters off, he activates his mana sight, seeing a barrier in front of him. Infusing his whole body in mana, he bounds closer. His body fracturing even faster than the ground he pounds on.
Smashing through the barrier, he tumbles onto the ground. Sighing, he tries to get up, only to have his arms snap off. Glancing back, he watches as the guards crowd the barrier, but don¡¯t dare to step forward. Grinning, he takes his time and remodels his body back into pristine shape. Fixing the layers of clothing and the pulverized walking stick, he gets up. Waving to the guards, he steps into the forest. Muttering his breath, he smiles contently, ¡°This world is like a playground. Almost limitless mana and instantaneous mana regeneration. Just what any villain would need!¡±
13. Bald Henchmen
Warily looking at the creature, Akiel tiredly looks around. All the packed teeth had scattered. Scrunching his eye ridges, he glances at the creature. Sighing, he says, ¡±Of course my lord, I was just unable to recognize you.¡± Getting on his knees, he says, ¡°I was going to prepare them into consumable items to present to you, but if your eminence wants raw materials, they are yours for the taking.¡±
Looking at his nails, the creature says, ¡°Yes, I knew that. I do require the teeth as raw materials. They make for the perfect delicacies in my off time. If you can fetch some more, I would even be inclined to reward you with something of value.¡± Quirking an eyebrow, Akiel silently pulls out the dungeon Taggen¡¯s list. Glossing down the list, he asks, ¡°Can you tell me where I can find the lungs of a nether worm?¡±
Scratching what should be its chin, it says, ¡°Nether worm huh? Also a delicacy, but for another reason. They only come up for a few seconds a month. I can tell you, but first, you must get me something that I want.¡± Motioning it to continue, Akiel lowers his head, not wanting to make eye contact. ¡°I want you to get me the heart of an archdemon. My father has forbidden me from eating any more, but he can¡¯t stop me from eating a dead one. Head to the ruins to the west of here and you¡¯ll find a way to it in the bottom-most layer.¡±
Hesitating, Akiel says, ¡°Consider it done. Just one question. What am I to call you and forgive my insolence, but what manner of being are you?¡± Chuckling, it says, ¡±All you need to know is that you are talking to a royal wyvern. You also have no need to know who I am, I will be waiting. I will be watching, anticipating the beating heart of an archdemon.¡± checking the last item on his list, Akiel smiles while facing the ground. Not getting a response, the creature says, ¡°I¡¯ll give you a year. I want you to kill it exactly a year from today. You can keep the teeth, they don¡¯t really taste that good.¡±
Waiting a few moments in silence, Akiel looks up. Not finding anything, he quietly turns his mana sight back on. Casually sweeping his surroundings, he finds the thing still standing right in front of him. Pretending like he found nothing, he gathers the teeth and constructs the bundle again. Running just past the creature, he smirks. ¡°Trouble just seems to find me. At least it came to me on a silver platter, all that¡¯s left is to gather the ingredients.¡±
Accelerating to terrifying speeds, Akiel easily makes it through the sparse forest. Making his way to his base, he stops to observe the village from atop of a hill. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he continues to his base. Entering, he places the pile of bones on the central counter. Since he didn¡¯t need to relax or cook, the base only had workspaces. Quickly bringing out a large pestle and mortar, he starts to grind one of the teeth. Pulverizing one of the bones down, he empties the mortar into a container on the side. Counting on his fingers, he decides to grind the rest of the teeth first.
Finishing after a couple of hours, he looks at the container satisfied. The bones hadn¡¯t dried yet, so the marrow and moisture still inside had contributed to making it into a paste. Sifting through the container, he frowns. Muttering to himself, he says, ¡°It¡¯s not the right consistency. I need more fluid.¡± Walking downstairs, he enters the collection room while looking at his collectors. Hanging from the ceiling were animals of all types, slowly bleeding out. All the blood collected in a large bucket shaped containers underneath. Pacing through the specimen, he stops next to a stone bird. It¡¯s the very same species that the village worships. Apparently, they keep pests away from their vulnerable crops. The only thing special about their blood is the lack of impurities that can obstruct mana flow.
The only use they have for the blood is to lubricate their joints and to prevent wear and tear. It¡¯s secreted out of their pores and occasionally coats their body in a protective film. Dipping his finger in the pitch black blood, he nods in satisfaction. Carefully hauling the bucket up the stairs, he places it down next to the container full of moist bone powder. Grabbing a large spoon from the walk-in tool closet, he tips the blood into the container. Leaving the majority of the blood still in the bucket, Akiel furiously starts stirring the paste in with the blood. With his new body, he easily churned the mixture and beat it into uniformity.
Smirking, he quickly places the bucket of blood underneath the slowly dripping stone bird. Looking around, he says, ¡°I¡¯ll need a bit more room to accommodate for larger species I hunt in the future.¡± Walking back upstairs, he pulls out his unactivated runes. One for heat, one for ice and one for energy repulsion. Finally, he pulls out two of the timed electric discharge runes. By using a time rune to regulate the timing, he paired it with the electrical discharge rune. The book had detailed another way to use it, but at the time his mana pool was nowhere near big enough to support the ejection of continuous lightning. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
First activating his heat rune, he places it in a previously made rack. Placing it directly above a mana line he constructed using a massive battery deep underground, he watches as it lights up with a dull orange and starts emitting heat. Next, he applies the timed electric discharge runes. Not infusing his mana in them, he puts them directly into the new drying rack. Finally, he activates the last two. Remodeling them into his body, he replaces the stone and only keeps the rune circuits. Placing the ice rune on his left hand, he shifts his old fire rune into his right hand. Putting the energy repulsion rune on his chest, he pulls out his first water rune. Staring at it, he decides to deal with it later.
Walking over to his desk, he checks the list of things to do and taps the second point. Muttering under his breath he looks through the square-shaped gaps in the ceiling, ¡°Scout the city.¡± Stroking his chin a few more times, he places the list down and looks over his other plans. Setting aside his schematics for other runes and the list of places he needed to visit, he pulls out a partial map of the capital and reads over a few of the notes. Apparently, quite a few of the villagers go to the capitol in the course of a year. Among the information, he bought off of them is the detailed map of the slums as well as the market zone. None of them have made it farther, but his own map gave some insights into that portion.
Whispering to himself, he says, ¡°The slums start here. If I want to meet with the underground organizations, I¡¯m going to have to get their attention, but avoid the kingdom¡¯s.¡° Tracing a few other routes and committing some miscellaneous details to memory, he pulls out his guide book and flips to the maps page. Scrolling up to the kingdom capital, he zooms into the slums area and examines the differences. Sighing, he rubs his head. The guide book map only detailed the names of roads and common names for certain areas. Nothing like the gang territories or the secret passages was included. Shrugging, he puts it away and grabs the hand-drawn map.
Walking into the storage room, he brings all of the rags and drapes he collected through happenstance. Depositing them roughly onto the main crafting table, he suddenly remembers his weak water rune was on the table. Shrugging helplessly, he starts to sort through the fabric. Although a full black leather outfit would have been a great fit for a meeting between the underground boss¡¯s, the only leather he has is poorly made and flashy yellow in color. Thinking of his last disguise, he shakes his head. He¡¯s not meeting anyone that important. He needs to be intimidating as well as generic. The kingdom can¡¯t be notified about his whereabouts just yet.
Choosing a drab piece of cotton, I pick a few other dull colored fabric. Using remodel, he fuses the fabrics together into a what most closely resembles a cloak made completely of different dull colored patches. There is no indicator of what the original fabric was. Smirking, Akiel fashions the rest of the dull colored pieces of cloth similarly. Covering the yellow leather in dull-colored cloth, he remodels it into a leather jacket with no zipper. Tilting his head, he says to himself, ¡°Maybe if I have time later, I¡¯ll make a proper leather jacket. For now, this should be good.¡±
Making a thin undershirt and a pair of pants using two layers of cloth, he tries the clothes on. Feeling the leather jacket restraining his arms from fully bending, he remodels it further. Sighing, he rolls his shoulders and adjusts his clothing. Nodding in satisfaction, he turns the heat rune off and pockets the timed electric discharge runes. Picking up the fabrics, he notices that the water rune no longer had the engraved rune. Frowning, he flips the fabric pile to find a smooth piece of fabric with the water rune on it.
Raising his eyebrow, he drops the fabric pile back onto the table and rummages around for similar fabric. Finding three more pieces, he carries the rest back to the storage room. Rushing back, he picks up the piece of fabric with the water rune on it. Stepping out of the base, he channels some mana into it. Watching a head-sized ball of water fly out, he inspects the rune. Looking closer, he finds signs of degradation. Creasing his eye ridges together, he points it away and infuses much greater amounts of mana into it. Spraying water out at high speeds the cloth starts to dampen before the creation of water abruptly halts.
Halting his infusion of mana, Akiel closely inspects the cloth to find the rune gone. Scratching his perfect head, he ruminates over the discovery, ¡°At most, at this stage, I can use the cloth as additional mediums. I could probably make something like a battery in the future but with the degradation of the rune as mana flows through, I¡¯ll just blow myself up right now. At most, I can use it as a medium for disposable runes.¡±
Sighing, he goes back to my crafting table. Leaving the fabrics on the table, Akiel makes his way to the encyclopedia. Flipping to some of the simpler runes, he decides on a smoke rune. Bringing the encyclopedia to the crafting table, he picks up the former water rune. The engraving is still there but the blood used to activate it is gone. Remodeling it to resemble the smoke rune, he lays it down and gingerly applies the paste. Covering it with the fabric, he turns it over and waits. Waiting a few more minutes for good measure, he lifts the smoke rune and finds the paste perfectly transferred to the fabric. Smiling, he repeats this step for the other pieces.
When done, he finally takes a seat on the only chair in the base. Staring at his own reflection, he says, ¡°I need at least the minimum amount of facial hair now. Some eyebrows and some hair should do. I could go bald, but the only intimidating bald guys are henchmen.¡±
14. Dark mana
Hesitating, Akiel repetitively remodels his green metallic hair. Finally settling on a medium length but curly and swept back hairstyle, he covers it with his cloak. Flexing his fingers, he grabs some extra cloth and makes some gloves. Looking himself over, he sighs and looks around for something to make shoes from. Digging through the miscellaneous pile of materials he had gathered, Akiel shakes his head. Remodeling his feet into segmented shoes instead of feet, he covers the top with some stone. Remodeling the last bits of leather in his collection into a backpack, he stuffs the smoke runes on cloth in as well as a small supply of dark green metal. Smiling at the neatly arranged ingots of metal, he seals the pack.
Satisfied, he steps out of the base. Making sure to properly seal the entrance, he casually walks around the village. Making his way to Josephine¡¯s house, he sighs. ¡°Probably the easiest babysitting I¡¯ve ever done,¡± he mutters. Skirting around the edges, he directly avoids the large monument of rock and heads deeper into the sparse forest. Pulling out his map, he confirms his heading before putting it away. Remodeling his feet into ones that resemble the corpse he found in the desert, he starts to fly across the ground. With his feet elongated, the stone covering barely served to dampen the shiny green color.
Carefully watching his step, he dodges through trees and boulders. Easily hopping over a fallen log, he chuckles, ¡°At least it beats running. Normally my expenditure would be around five percent an hour not including my natural regeneration. Now, the expenditure is down to three percent.¡± Compensating for a particularly thick root snagging his foot, he jumps forward hard. Landing, he looks back to see his take-off point several meters behind him. Cocking his head sideways, he bends down and tries to hop with both of his feet. Flying through the air, he thrusts his feet out immediately as he lands, launching himself even further than before.
Smiling, he applies a slightly larger amount of mana and concentrates on controlling how he lands and his trajectory. Continuing for a few minutes, he abruptly stops halfway through a tree. Groaning as he shoves the top portion of the tree away, he remodels his clothes back into pristine form and sighs. ¡°Sure is fun, but they will take a bit of getting used to before I can efficiently use them,¡± he mutters to himself. Taping his feet on the ground, he starts bouncing in place before bursting forward.
*****
Staring nostalgically up at the cliff, he starts to climb up. Leveraging his now normal feet into crevices and outcroppings, he claws his way up by remodeling his fingers into hook-like claws. Heaving himself up the slope, he glances around. Vigilantly watching the tree line, he scales the cliff as quickly as possible. Scrambling to the top, he heaves himself over the ledge and rolls away. Quickly pulling his gloves out and remodeling his fingers back to normal, he hesitates. Nervously looking around the treetops, he roughly returns the gloves to his backpack.
Swiftly moving through the jungle, he remodels his feet back into elongated paws. Lightly treading through the undergrowth, he closely watches his surroundings. Passing a particularly large tree, he stops to trace the scratch marks gorged into the trunk. Sighing, he says, ¡°Looks like theirs yet another king in the troop.¡± Continuing on with depression written on his face, he starts moving faster.
Stepping over a large fallen tree, he suddenly jumps. Grabbing onto the hanging apes head, he pulls himself up while holding the ape''s mouth shut. Reaching for the branch, he misses and watches as it grows smaller and farther away. Realizing the ape let go, he grapples with it and uses it as a cushion. Frowning, he stomps it''s head open and reaches inside. Digging around while watching the surroundings, he stops when he finds nothing. Cocking his head sideways, he peers inside the head and finds a partially decomposed brain sludge. Shaking his head in disbelief, he stabs his hands into its chest, he first tears a vertical line in its skin. Reaching in, he leverages his mass and pry¡¯s the ribcage apart with a wet splintering sound.
Staring at the insides, he takes in a deep breath before chuckling, ¡°Sometimes, it really is difficult to forget to breathe. Either way, it looks like the new boss isn¡¯t an ordinary ape. The best outcome, it¡¯s not an ape and I don¡¯t deal with it. The worst outcome, it¡¯s an undead ape king with an undying army.¡± Pushing some of the rotting organs around, he grimaces at the sight. Turning his mana sight on, he finds a dark-colored chaotic mana flow swirling around its body. Grabbing one of its ribs, he lightly moves it around until he could clearly see how flexible it is. Shaking his head, he looks around the treetops to find several similar apes just hanging from the trees.
Walking underneath the closest one, he looks up to see it motionlessly hanging without any expression. Pulling it down, he finds it also lacking a beast core. Once again checking his surroundings, he finds no mana at all. Even the trees seemed to be devoid of any mana. Finding the complete darkness unnerving, he presses on. No longer carelessly smiling, Akiel cuts almost all supply of mana from his limbs and slowly moves away. Hoping to avoid calamity, he keeps his mana-sight on while trying to find the edge of the mana void. Moving slowly, he does his best to avoid making excessive noises. Cutting left along the cliff edge, he continues to find more apes. All of which hollowly stare out into the abyss.
Looking over the cliff, he could see the mana perfectly well, but the moment he turned around, his sight lost almost all meaning. Shaking his head, he presses on. Going down a slope, he pauses when he spots movement. Checking again, he finds a dark mass moving parallel to him, just beyond normal eyesight. Pausing with him, the creature slowly moves farther away. Shaking his head at his new stalker, Akiel pretends to keep searching. Shrugging his shoulders, he walks faster than before. Watching the thing stalking him, he struggles to find an explanation for the lack of mana. Not only is it a complete dead zone for mana, but even the existing mana particles also flowed away from it.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Breaking into a job, Akiel coldly watches his stalker easily keep up. Trying to determine it''s shape, he quickly gives up as the mana near it only stays long enough to give him a very rudimentary characteristic. Its height should easily be twice his while it¡¯s length is completely unknown. Judging from its movement pattern, it uses four limbs alternatingly. Growing increasingly anxious, Akiel supplies much more mana than normal and accelerates away at groundbreaking speeds. Checking to his left, he finds the beast loping after him. Watching a moment longer, he finds it catching up. Leaning forward, he supplies even more mana to his feet. At this rate, a quarter of his mana would burn up in just an hour.
Reaching the bank of a river, he leaps across, frantically trying to accelerate faster than his new friend. Taking his backpack off his back, he awkwardly wears it forwards while continuing to run. Checking the jungle, he widens his eyes. He had already exited the mana void, but the thing is still following him! Looking at it harder, he makes out what looks like a leopard. Rummaging through his backpack, he pulls out one of the smoke runes and brings one of his timed electric discharge runes out. Wrapping the fabric around the timed electric discharge rune, he nervously shifts the backpack onto his back. Seeing the beast still catching up, he stops.
Coming to a stop with him, it just watches him silently. Remodeling the extra metal in his backpack into a thin spear and packing the rune away, he slowly walks back into the jungle. Mimicking him, the beast also starts to leisurely make it¡¯s way to him. Breathing out deeply, he empties the air inside his body only to breathe an equal amount back in. Rolling his shoulders, Akiel positions his spear in front of him. Seeing it is just meters away, he turns his mana sight off and waits. Catching a glimpse of something moving around the trees, he waits patiently. Moving his feet to match the creature''s direction, he silently remodels his feet back to normal.
Finally seeing a paw emerge from behind a tree, he watches as a glossy and moist-skinned creature comes out. With four thick limbs, each with potentially three claws retracted within, and a horrific head, it let out a low and quiet growl. Finding himself comparing it to a muscle car, Akiel shakes his head. The creature also imitating him shakes his head. Examining the four tulip-like ears structures as well as the awkward jawline. Not only did the jaw not seem to be directly attached to the skull, but it also seemed to be a separate body part. The skin retracted underneath its snout and seemed to go pretty deep before it came back to cover the mouth.
Backing up a bit, Akiel searches his memories for something similar. He¡¯s sure that he saw this structure somewhere, but can¡¯t quite remember. Shrugging, he slowly bends his knees and picks up a small stone. Mimicking him, the beast also crouches lower, but as it did, it also moved forward. Flicking his wrist slightly, he chucks the stone at the beasts face. Carefully observing its reaction, he groans when it ignores the stone. Deciding to see if it will let him go, he steps backward. Instead of following suit, the beast steps towards him. Tilting his head sideways, Akiel watches as the beast no longer copies him. Sighing, he observes it one last time. The possibility of claws is still present, but what seems unusual is the teeth. Large, hooked backward, and very few of them. It definitely doesn¡¯t chew or tear its food. They seem more suited to holding in place.
Making up his mind, he tries to circle around, trying to get at a better angle. The thing not only beats him in speed, but it also has a nasty looking maw. The only way to beat it is to get close and attack it far from its mouth or to directly throw his timed electric discharge rune in its mouth. Complying, the monster also circles him, but it gets closer with each step. Just a few meters away now, its ear organs bloom like a peacock and it lets out a hissing noise from its snout. Ignoring the visual display, Akiel focuses on the monster¡¯s limbs. Waiting for the small dip before it jumps, he continues to let it get closer. Just two meters away, Akiel starts to panic, muttering, ¡°Is it really just circling around with me?¡±
Just when is attention is about to shift, he sees it. The beast dips slightly before lunging forward. Rolling forward, he jumps to his feet just in time to see its jaw distend away from its skull and clamp shut around the area where his head had been. Huffing, he jabs the beast''s neck before diverting a paw swipe with the spear. Trying to roll under another swipe, Akiel finds himself looking at a barbed tail. Gritting his teeth, he hugs the tail as it slams into him, Swinging around on its tail, he smashes into the ground. Desperately holding on, the creature whips him at a tree, breaking both the tree and his grip. Tumbling quite a distance away, Akiel gets up and dusts his clothes off. Looking around, he finds the spear gone. Sighing, he glares at the monstrosity. Remodeling his fingers into claws, he dashes at the beast. Infusing mana into his legs, he accelerates to the beast.
In response, the beast smacks it¡¯s tail into the ground and whips it around like before. Grunting, Akiel slides at the last moment and remodels his feet into spikes. Digging into the ground, he infuses his arms with massive amounts of mana and grabs ahold of its tail. Taking a step away, he yanks on the tail and lifts the beast into the air, smacking it down hard. Scrambling towards the best, Akiel lunges at it only to be swatted away by a paw. Getting back up, he madly dashes to the beast''s body. Punching a paw aside, he jumps onto its sleek back and digs his hand in. Mounting it¡¯s back, he clamps his thighs around it and digs in his backpack. Grabbing the rune, he stuffs the smoke rune fabric back and throws the backpack away. Snapping at him, the beast distends it¡¯s jaw in rapid succession trying to grab onto him.
Waiting for the best opportunity, he sticks his hand out. Immediately clamping onto his hand, the creature drags him off it¡¯s back and thrashes him around. Activating the rune, he lets go of it inside of its mouth. Smiling, he latches onto it with his other hand and holds the mouth shut with his body. Curling around the lower jaw, he waits as the thing gets increasingly angry. All of a sudden, the beast stops thrashing. Lowering Akiel to the ground, massive amounts of mana build up in its jaw. Desperate, Akiel tries to remove his hand from its mouth, but the teeth were clamping down so hard that his metal arms had grooves etched into them. Throwing him up, the calamity releases a burst of dark mana sweeping him away. Sighing, his vision swims as he falls back down. Just as the beast is about to jump, lighting erupts from inside of it. Convulsing on the ground, it weakly moans.
Capitalizing on the opportunity, Akiel tries to remodel his hands together into a large stake but finds his mana levels abysmally low. Frowning, he settles for modifying them into shovel like claws and his teeth into jaws meant for tearing. Free Falling back on top of the beast, he wastes no time. Wrestling with the convulsing beast, he latches onto the area just below its jaw. Clawing into the muscular jaw, Akiel bites in and tears the muscles used for extending the jaw out. Spiting the chunk of flesh out he jabs his fist against the inner mouth. Clawing through the flesh and bone, he starts smashing his fist against the equivalent of a hard palate. Abruptly getting up, the creature screeches and holds Akiel down with a paw. Ripping his hand out of its mouth, it staggers away.
Hobbling a few meters away, it turns around to glare at him. Tiredly examining the loosely hanging jaw, he stares back. Splitting its head open, the creature gives one last guttural hiss before hobbling out of sight. Turning over onto his back, Akiel sighs, ¡°Great, the stupid head is just a mass of tentacles.¡± Lamenting over the wasted time, he slowly lets his mana recover, ¡°Now would be a great time to have a portable battery.¡±
SS Akiel in Wonderland part 4
Walking between the thick walls of foliage and trees, Akiel stops to read a intricately carved gravestone. Bending over, he scrapes the grime and muck off of the writing and reads it, ¡°Beware, all trespassers will be judged just meters further. Clear your heart and mind of all malice and you will make it to the other side. Fail to do so, and you will disappear.¡±
Smirking, he gets up and smacks his hands together, shaking off all of the dirt. Confidently walking down the path, he muses to himself, ¡°For one, I have no heart. Secondly, I really didn¡¯t come here to fight. I just want my book back.¡± Swaggering down the trail, he does his best to seem harmless. Eyeing the peculiar roots that swayed back and forth, he continues on by, looking for anything to hint at existing civilization. Stopping when he spots the walls of foliage and tree trunk open up, he frowns. Almost nothing but prairie stretches out in front of him.
Touching the rough dark tree bark, he slowly enters the prairie. Looking around, he sighs. Nothing but grassland is visible from his point of view. Gazing at the purple brick road in front of him, he shakes his head and starts treading along it. Glancing at the yellow sun above, he shields his eyes and scans the horizon line as he starts jogging forward. ¡°At least it looks like the I¡¯ve made it past the jungle. Let¡¯s not waste time here either.¡±
After hours of constant traveling, finds a farmhouse just off the road. Standing on the edge of the purple brick road, he ruminates on the thought of it being a trap. Tapping the near spotless brick road with his feet, he shrugs and steps off. Cutting through the tall grass, he quickly approaches the house. The moment he enters the fenced-in area, he hears a dog barking inside the house. Grabbing one of the fence outposts, Akiel pulls it out and holds it like a club. Approaching the door, he checks the rest of the fenced-in area before entering the house.
Following the barking sounds, he passes a stairwell and stops in front of a door. Slowly turning the doorknob, Akiel surprisingly finds a light switch just off the door frame. Flicking it on, he descends the steps slowly. Reaching the bottom, he finds himself at the entrance of two rooms. One looks like a common room, while the other looks like a storeroom. Stopping, he listens and compares the barking sound from both rooms. The common room seems to have the louder barking, but the storage room seems to echo the barking even before the barking starts to come from the common room.
Frowning, he decides to avoid the common room and turns into the storage room. Several cardboard boxes, as well as furniture, occupy the perimeter. Moving past an obscenely large mirror, he pauses. Lightly shaking his head, he turns his head to look at the mirror. Seeing nothing but himself, he sighs and continues. Moving around an old tower clock, he approaches the entrance of yet another room. Edging into the open door frame, he finds the reflection of a Cairn Terrier in a much smaller but well-positioned mirror. Pausing, he traces the mirror angle to another mirror on the ceiling.
Tracing the angle of the mirror on the ceiling, he finds that it points to just around the door next to him. Adjusting his grip on the make-shift club, he peeks around the door. Inhaling deeply, he finds the remains of what once could have been a dog. Chained and bare to the bones, only a few patches of what could be fur remain. Checking the mirror, he finds the dog alive and well. Shaking his head, he turns around and smashes the dogs remains. Suddenly finding the barking gone, he backs out of the room.
Walking quickly back into the storage room, he glances at the mirror and finds the dog following him. Looking back, he finds nothing there. Checking the mirror, he finds it nudging his foot. Approaching the mirror, he cautiously watches as the dog starts to silently bark at him. Walking back to it, it nudges him in the direction of the stairs. Getting curious, he cautiously walks towards the mirror. Examining the frame, he finds several small scripts engraved in n unknown language. Switching his attention to the mirror, he examines every bit of the room behind him.
Stopping near the farthest end of the mirror, he spots a certain cloth cover fluttering. Looking backward, he finds the cloth covering, but it¡¯s completely still. Checking again, he confirms the anomaly and steps away from the mirror. Slowly walking up to the cloth covering, he finds that the shadows seem to get much longer in this part of the storage room. Narrowing his eyes, he frowns. Checking on the dog, he finds it nowhere to be found. Shrugging, he slowly walks over to the cloth covering and grabs a corner. Hesitating, he looks back at the mirror. Raising his eyebrows, he watches as the cloth covering furiously flaps in an imaginary wind. Pulling the cloth off, he stares the painting behind.
It depicted a beautiful woman with blond hair. High cheekbones and a moderate nose. Shaped eyebrows as well as long eyelashes. The only thing that he finds off is that her eyes seem to be completely black and the malicious smile plastered on her face. Stroking the picture, he feels the air shift around him. Turning back to the mirror, he finds a ghastly phantom standing behind him. Frowning, he turns around and once again finds nothing. Glancing at the picture, he backs up. It no longer has a woman on it. It no longer depicts anything. All that is left in the picture is the bleached white background.
Bringing the picture frame to the mirror, he finds it empty in the mirror as well. Dropping the picture frame, he watches the phantom walk around the room. Suddenly turning to him, it walks up to him and puts a hand on his shoulder. Watching it inspect him, Akiel calmly waits. Muttering to himself, he says, ¡°What¡¯s the worst that can happen? I¡¯ll just stop looking at mirrors in the future.¡± Finding something, the phantom retracts it¡¯s hand and circles around to in front of him. Seeing the back of the phantom, Akiel wonders what the phantom actually looks like face to face. As if enraged, he watches as the phantom dashes away out of the room. Blinking, Akiel lifts the club and shatters the mirror, ¡°Whatever, that was just weird.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Looking out of the small windows letting light in, he finds the sky darkening. Seeing some lightning in the distance, Akiel decides to continue exploring the house. Stepping into the common room, he finds a suit of armor lounging on the couch. Poking it with his club, he confirms it to be empty. Turning the headpiece around, he abruptly lets it go when he finds a realistic face. Reluctantly touching the face, he finds it warped in shock. Slapping it just to make sure it''s fake, he looks around. Finding nothing out of the ordinary gloomy atmosphere, he lifts his club and bashes the headpiece. Making sure nothing starts to come out, he finishes the job by completely bashing its headpiece in.
Holding his head in confusion, he whispers, ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I¡¯m starting to become paranoid.¡± Looking back to the suit of armor, he says, ¡°It¡¯s just a hollow, heartless suit.¡± Quickly leaving the dark basement, he ascends the stairs. Closing the door behind him, he passes the door and finds himself in a kitchen. Looking through the cabinets, he comes across a shoe box. Taking it out, he turns around and places it on the counter when the cabinet slams shut behind him. Picking his club up, he wildly swings it behind him. Missing everything and anything, he looks around confused.
Turning back to the shoebox, he glances around before opening it. Raising an eyebrow, he takes out a singular ruby slipper. Putting it down on the counter, he reaches for his club. Hesitating, he muses to himself, ¡°Do I smash it or not? I could just leave it, but if the basement is any indicator, this place is a freak show.¡± Gently tossing the club just centimeters up before catching it, he glares at the slippers. Suddenly seeing a shadow flash across the slippers, he glances around and raises his club. Smashing the slippers, he gathers the broken shards and puts them back into the box. Placing the box back into the cabinets, he closes it and warily looks around.
Going back to the entrance, he goes up the first set of stairs and finds himself in a hallway. Gripping his battered club tightly, he shuffles closer to the first door. Turning the doorknob, he finds an empty room. Listening, he hears the sound of running water. Slowly walking to what seems like a bathroom door, he grabs the handle. Pushing the slightly ajar door open, he finds a monkey in the bathroom. Smiling, he confidently steps inside and bashes the thing off the counter. Grabbing it by its tail, he smashes it down on the counter, breaking the cheap looking material. Whimpering weakly, the monkey seems to plead Akiel for its life.
Ignoring it''s pleading, he drags it out of the room while smirking, ¡°Finally, some noise that I can understand.¡± Looking around for any strange shadows, he approaches the second door. Grabbing the doorknob, he opens the door to find a singular coffin in the room. Stepping inside, he finds a thick layer of dust in the room as well as recent scuff marks and footprints. Following the footprints through another door, he finds himself in another bathroom. Following the footprints up a wall, he finds a broken vent on the ceiling. Backing away, he hurriedly drags the monkey out of the room. Closing the door, he looks around for any vents in the hallway.
Breathing out in relief, he silences the monkey for good, ¡°I really am not alone in this house.¡± Slowly approaching the third and last door, he hears a gentle tick. Grabbing the handle, he finds the sound to be distinctively familiar. Thinking back to the grandfather clocks in the basement, he guesses that he¡¯ll find a particularly large one in the room. Getting louder, the ticks ease his nerves as he turns the handle. Pushing the door open, he finds a small lion cub sleeping on a small pillow. Entering the room, he finds a large vent right next to the door he just opened. Crouching down, careful not to wake the cub, he peers into the vent. Finding nothing, he slowly makes his way to the lion cub. Reaching out, he grabs the cub by the muzzle. Clamping down hard, he suffocates it silently as it wines and whimpers, ¡°Sorry buddy. I¡¯ve got no time to babysit you. If you make a single sound and that thing finds me, then we¡¯ll both probably die.¡±
Letting go as it loses its heartbeat, Akiel slowly makes his way around the room. Finding nothing, he glances back at the vent. Closing his eyes, he motivates himself to finish the exploration and does a small hop. Curling his fists and throwing out a few punches, he opens his eyes. Ripping off the vent cover, he crawls in, ¡°Might as well do it. If I find that thing, I will just run the other way.¡±
Comforting himself, he rapidly crawls through the vents with no regard to noise. Speeding up and crawling more recklessly, he anxiously claws his way through the vents. Finally hitting an end, he peers through the vent cover. Seeing the kitchen, he backtracks and goes down another tunnel. Finding yet another ending, he peers through and finds himself in some kind of indoor garden. Shoving the cover off, he jumps out. Quickly exploring the rows of plants, he finds the corner of a trapdoor under a particularly large tomato plant. Pushing the plant away, he opens the trap door to see a shallow compartment with a single box as well as a note.
Opening the note, he reads it, ¡°Use it to transport a being or object to your location.¡± Putting the note aside, he reaches for the box when something shoves him out of the way. Clenching his teeth, AKiel anxiously looks around to find a rabbit. Sighing in relief, he lunges at the rabbit, catching its paw. Taking a kick to the face, he scrambles after the rabbit. Trying his best not to lose it, he chases it between several plant pots. Diving at the rabbit, Akiel misses as the rabbit turns back and runs off to the side towards him. Jumping up onto the vent entrance, it smirks before a hand comes out and grabs its neck.
Coming out of the vent is the phantom. Dropping the box, the rabbit struggles against the hand but fails to even budge it. Looking closer, he could still see the remnants of the pretty lady in the painting. The only difference being she is now pale as well as frightening. Biting onto the rabbit''s neck, she tears a good-sized chunk out, Immediately killing it. Grabbing the box, Akiel Infuses a large amount of mana and breaks out of the house straight through the wall. Not even looking back, he screams while running away, Seeing the purple brick road, he smiles giddily.
Just meters away, a hand stops him in his tracks. Seeing the pale hand on his shoulder, he panics. Turning him around, the phantom opens it¡¯s mouth and seems to suck in the air around him. Confused, he watches in horror as the phantom visible starts to suck the mana out of him. Gathering mana from the surroundings, he infuses his fist in mana and punches the phantom away. Dashing right back, the phantom reaches for him, reluctant to lose its meal.
Madly dashing to the purple brick road, he jumps the last meter, suddenly feeling the phantom''s hand impact his back. Rolling onto his back, he stares up at the dark sky. Turning his head, he could see the edge of the road just centimeters away. He could also see the phantom''s face almost as close as the edge of the road. Exhaustedly distancing himself from the edge, he watches as the phantom patiently waits at the edge.
15. Butcher Shop
Groaning, Akiel makes a makeshift mana gathering rune on the ground. Reaching for the beast¡¯s blood, he realizes that it didn¡¯t bleed during the fight. Other than the damage to the surroundings, nothing could prove the beast was ever here. Visibly startled, Akiel grabs one of the chunks of flesh he bit off earlier and tries to squeeze some blood out. Crushing it in his fist, he watches as it slips out of his hand and splits into two blobs. Smashing his fist down on one of the blobs, he angrily punches the blob again and again.
Checking his mana concentration, he abruptly stops. At only five percent mana, his current balance might not even allow him to walk to the capital. Sighing, he gets up and slowly walks around the dying portion of the forest. Keeping his eyes on the forest canopy, Akiel smirks when he spots a small monkey. Grabbing a stone, he infuses a bit of mana and flings it. Smacking the tree branch, the stone breaks clean through and disappears through the canopy. By chance, the monkey jumps away only to be dragged down by the falling branch.
Jumping on it, he quickly ends it¡¯s suffering. Drawing the mana gathering rune on the ground, he smears the blood over it and quickly infuses a bit of mana into it. Resting his back against a tree, he quietly absorbs the mana gathering next to him. Although the rune is the improved version, with the crude method of creation as well as the inferior binding materials, the time required to fill his mana capacity would still amount to a day. Deciding to fill up for a few hours before moving on, he diligently starts drawing in mana.
Hours pass as the sunlight fades behind a distant mountain range. Akiel, opening his eyes, stretches his body out of habit. Getting up, he remodels his clothes back into acceptable condition. The beam of dark mana the creature blasted him with seems to have also taken parts of his outer cloth layer. Sighing in frustration, he looks at this tattered cloak. Shrugging, he hurriedly looks around the battlefield for his spear. Finding it embedded flat into the ground, he gets on his knees and frantically digs around the spear and pries it out.
Remodeling it back into a compact chunk, he stuffs it inside his backpack. Checking his map, he adjusts his heading before starting to jog again. Turning his feet into the more travel efficient versions, he quickly bounds through the forest. Watching his mana level, he makes sure to watch for any mana dead zones. Carefully steering around them, he eventually makes it to a familiar river. Sighing in relief, Akiel activates his mana-sight and looks for something to hunt. Ignoring the creatures smaller than himself, he continues along the river bank. Finally spotting something twice his size, he bounds towards it. Jumping high and grabbing onto a branch, he swings himself even higher and perches himself on a few crisscrossing branches.
Testing the branches, he smirks when they only creak under his weight. Waiting, he eventually spots a bear meandering around beneath him. Stopping to eat some berries from a bush, Akiel remodels his hands into claws and heaves himself off the branches. Hearing the branches sway back into place, the bear glances upward and finds Akiel falling towards it. Rearing up on its legs, it snarls and tries to slap him out of the air. Taking the swat without blinking, he grapples with the paw. Digging his claws into the thick layer of fur and skin, he swiftly climbs up the meaty arm and onto its back. Heaving himself up to its head, he easily mounts its neck. Infusing his fist with mana, he easily penetrates its neck and tears out a sizable chunk. Aiming for its jugular, Akiel rips its neck to ribbons before heavily landing on the ground. Watching the bear struggle to breathe before falling over dead, he walks over to its head. Smashing the skull in, he digs around and fishes the core out. Swallowing it, he finds his mana back to 60 percent now. Nodding in satisfaction, he turns to the river and starts crossing.
*****
Hesitating, Akiel leaves the dog alone, ¡°Next time you punk. I will come back for you.¡± Dragging the merchant''s body into the forest, he lightly covers it in some foliage before quickly leaving the unattended carriage behind. Remodeling the coin pouch to be attached to his belt, he approaches the first checkpoint outside the capital. Keeping the warm hood over his face, he lightly nods his head and hands over the correct coinage. For the last three hours, Akiel had been observing the checkpoints and their habits. Just when he couldn¡¯t find a way in without identification, he spotted one of the guards looking around before accepting a much larger sum of money.
Mimicking the previous guy, he handed over a gold piece rather than silver. Not really understanding the value of the currency, Akiel just shrugged when he checked the rest of his newly found wealth. If he needed more, he would simply get more. Casually walking past the first checkpoint, he steps into line for the second. Resisting the urge to grab his chin, he checks on the state of the dried mud on his face. Although his hands and feet are covered, his face is still metallic green. Even though he can probably pass off as someone slightly unusual, he doesn¡¯t really need any attention before he¡¯s ready to leave.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Listlessly looking around, he eavesdrops on the conversation in front of him. ¡°Hey, Jerry. Can you see my ears?¡± One figure says to the other. Replying back, Jerry furiously whispers, ¡±No! How many times do I have to tell you, don¡¯t mention your ears!¡± Still unsure, the other figure says, ¡°You know how much is riding on this delivery, without it, Darien won¡¯t give her back to us. That man will eat her alive Jerry!¡± Struggling to keep his voice low, he anxiously says, ¡°Shut up! Nothing of the sort will happen! Everything will be alright, just stop talking.¡±
No longer interested in their conversation, Akiel watches the line ahead of him. Finally watching the couple enter the small building, he hangs his head lower and watches his feet. Trying not to gain the attention of the on-duty guards, he turns around and looks at the people waiting behind him. Waiting for the door to open again, he swiftly enters the building before anything could go wrong. Glancing at the leaving couple, he notes that they turn left as the door closes behind them.
Looking up at the bored screening officer, he takes his hood off. Raising his eyebrows at Akiel faint green but caked in mud skin, he casually asks for a name and purpose. Relaxing, Akiel says, ¡°Don, just Don, and my purpose is to get a nice bath as well as some work. Got into some trouble near the woods about a day away.¡± Nodding, the officer casually says, ¡°Yea, some of the folks earlier also said things like a giant earth dragon or something and petrified corpses. You probably got lucky getting out. Go on, try the Wanderers Inn. It ain¡¯t anything special but tell the owner John sent you and he¡¯ll discount a few pieces off the base rate.¡± Thanking him briefly, Akiel leaves the small building without looking back and quickly walks to left.
Glancing at his surroundings, he finds the buildings only get more and more shoddy as he continues. Looking around discreetly, he turns into an alley and passes a few beggars before stopping. Checking behind him once more, he remodels his legs. Jumping up, he grabs onto a ledge and heaves himself up. Stably standing on the window ledge, he jumps again, this time to a ledge on the opposite wall. Easily landing on it with his feet. He quickly repeats the maneuver to the top of the building.
Wondering how the structures stand so high up without modern technologies, Akiel walks to the edge overlooking the main bazaar. Scanning the rooftops for any other people, he quickly finds someone on the neighboring roof staring at him in shock. Tilting his head a little, Akiel shows him a singular finger and jumps onto the next roof. Backing away, the figure pulls his hood lower and pulls some small knives out. Holding one knife in a backward grip and a couple of smaller and thinner knives between his other hand''s fingers. Putting his hands up, Akiel motions for him to calm down.
Slowly sitting down to show him he meant no harm, Akiel says, ¡°Calm down buddy. I just want to talk.¡± Still holding his knives defensively, the figure says, ¡°I have nothing to say to you. Begone or I¡¯ll call for help from the thunder thieves clan!¡± Shrugging, Akiel pulls out another gold coin. Offering it to the lookout, he says, ¡°I just need to know how I can meet certain people. All you have to do is give me some information and the gold coin is yours.¡± Hesitating, the figure finally gives in and nods. Reaching his hand out, he says, ¡°Pay me first. If you create any trouble, I¡¯ll have to get out of here soon after.¡±
Throwing the gold coin over, Akiel says, ¡°I need to know the leaders of the capitals underground as well as where I can find them. I prefer leaders who can actually resist the royal army for at least a few hours.¡± Coughing, the figure says, ¡°That¡¯s easy! All you need to do is go to the mages guild and whisper down with the bloody king. If they feel like you¡¯re interesting enough, they¡¯ll take you into their base. On the other hand, they might also capture you and use you like a lab rat.¡±
Smirking, Akiel motions for him to continue. Mumbling to himself, the figure lowers his guard temporarily. He thinks for a few moments before saying, ¡°You could also try the librarian in the slums as well as the butcher just across the street. They¡¯re almost as powerful as the mages guild. They just have more illegal activities and wanted criminals in their midst. Your choice really, but just be careful before entering. They all have their distinguishing characteristics. A singular red article of clothing relates you to the butcher. A specific mana rune relates you to the guild and a teardrop tattoo under the left eye connects you to the librarian.¡±
Throwing another gold coin at him, Akiel asks, ¡°Now, if I want to gather all of them together, how should I go about that?¡± Startled, the figure shakes his head slightly and says, ¡±Sorry, what did you say? Gather all of them together? You¡¯re crazy, leave me out of this.¡± Urging him, Akiel says, ¡°Hypothetically, how would someone get all of them together?¡± Glancing at the gold coin briefly, he says, ¡°You need something from the butcher. You take what he gives you to the librarian and she will call the underground together. You have to get the butcher to acknowledge you first though.¡±
Flipping the coin at the figure, he says, ¡°Thanks.¡± Hurriedly catching the gold coin, the figure suddenly jerks upward. Dangling just a few centimeters off the ground, he struggles while looking at Akiel. Strangling him in the air, Akiel grabs the red bandana tied around his arm. Jerking the figures neck backward, he easily ends the bottom feeder¡¯s life. Stepping off the roof, Akiel looks around before stepping into the main street. Traveling against the traffic, he pushes his way to the butcher''s shop. Stopping just outside, he marvels at the simple exterior. The only thing denoting the shop''s service is a cleaver shaped brand above the doorless entrance. Murmuring to himself, he says, ¡°Now I just have to get the butcher¡¯s attention.¡± Tying the bandana around his arm, he casually enters the shop, ¡°Boss! I¡¯m vegetarian so no meat for me today.¡±