《This Game We Call Life》


 prologue (or chapter 0) [edited]

    Prologue


    My name is Jack. I am 15 years old. I am an orphan. I grew up with a bunch of monks on a mountain, but I left due to clashing ideals. I am currently in class during brake period, and as always, I am sitting in the back of the class all alone with nothing but my hobby to keep me company, observing people. I watch my class mates talk endlessly about stuff, like how great their date went last night, the new show that aired over the weekend, or what their plans are for the break.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained <observe></td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''What the fuck.''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>reward for being the first person to obtain a skill calculating.... Title obtained (skill whore)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "..."


    "..."


    "WHAT THE FUCK."


    Everyone looks at me.


    ''Oh shit I said that out loud.''


    "..."


    "..."


    "Excuse me."


    I get up and go to the bathroom to get away from my class.


    As I get up, I notice that everyone has a name and a 1 floating over their head.


    ''Odd''


    When I get to the bathroom I see my own name and a 1 in the mirror.


    ''The 1 must mean level 1. Hmmm''


    ''<Status>''


    As I scream that one word in my head, a blue window pops up in the same way the previous two did.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>jack</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: m</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 5%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: orphan, skill whore</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 110/110</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .0005/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 100/100</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .005/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 100/100</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: .02/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 10</td><td width="25%">Agi: 12</td><td width="25%">Dex: 12</td><td width="25%">Vit: 9</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 11</td><td width="25%">Wis: 9</td><td width="25%">luc: 5</td><td width="25%">Vis: 5(10)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>observe</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available: 0></td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Hmm interesting.''


    ''Check skill observe.''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>observe</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type:active, passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description shows information about players and monsters, if used actively can give information about inadement objects as well as giving more information. Higher levels give more information, adds the vision stat +10 Vis</td></tr></tbody></table>


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.Ok, let¡¯s test this,


    ''Observe''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>item: sink. Cleanliness: 10/100 description: I wouldn''t wash my hands in there</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Ok let¡¯s calm down, breath in, breath out, Breathe in, breath out. Good just like the monks taught me.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> Skill obtained meditation </td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''I wonder what that does.''


    ''Check <skill meditation>''


    <table><tbody><tr></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>meditation</td></tr><tr><td>skill type: active</td><td>Rarity: uncommon</td></tr><tr><td>Level: 1</td><td>Exp: 6.5%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>description: double recovery while meditating, higher levels give more bonuses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Hmm, I wonder if <title skill whore> does anything''


    ''Check <title skill whore>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill whore: unique title given to the first person to obtain a skill it gives a small bonus to obtaining skills and obtaining skills gives you exp based on rarity</td></tr></tbody></table>


    After I close all the windows I start heading back to class.


    ''That was...odd''


    When I get back to class everyone was back to talking amongst themselves again.


    *ding-don*


    That was the sound that break time was over and it was to move on our next subject, PE.


    As we were heading to the changing room another announcement appeared in front of me and, by the way everyone reacted, the entire class.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>You will now be transferred to the inside of a dungeon at random locations in 5:00</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "What the hell!" (Unanimous)


    Prologue end

 chapter 1: beginings (edited)

    chapter 1


    <table><tbody><tr><td>4:30</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>4:29</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>4:28</td></tr></tbody></table>


    After watching the countdown for about 32 seconds I snap back to reality. I look around for a potential weapon, and find one, a wooden ruler.


    ''<Observe>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>wooden ruler</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>durability 1/10[/td4][td2]Damage 1-3</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>This will probably brake soon</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I look around some more for a weapon but finding nothing I start to observe my peers. most of them are staring into space, looking at the countdown most likely, some had the same idea as me to grab a weapon, and a few are really calm and collected. I walk over to one of those people subconsisly checking the countdown 3:42 left.


    "You get a message from the <system> too jack"


    "Yeah I got a skill earlier and a title, what did you get Johanna"


    Johanna is my best friend from back when we lived with the monks. She is about 4''11" and slender with brown eyes and hair. Her strength is her speed whether it''s with her fists or her legs.


    "Same a skill and a title. I was the second person to get a skill."


    "Oh really, I was the first. What skill did you get?"


    "I got <running proficiency> after being chased by a bunch of Yankees, not telling you the title I got"


    "Mine was <observe> after watching the class for about... 5 minutes was it? Anyway not telling you the title. By the way did you check your status yet?"


    "Status?"


    "Think ''status''"


    A look of surprise showed on Johanna¡¯s face as I look at the countdown 0:30.


    "Only 30 seconds left Johanna, lets meet up in there if we can"


    "Yeah, let¡¯s do that"


    About 30 seconds latter another <system> message popped up.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! You are going to have great fun in this game we call life! The dungeon your about to enter has a projected death rate of over 90%! While the dungeon is active you will gain 3 times normal exp! It is impossible to leave the dungeon while it is active! Max party size is reduced to 4! All party systems except up share up turned off! Everyone have fun!</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I don¡¯t even have time to feel fear as I am teleported into a cave like structure. I look around using <observe> on many things but finding nothing of interest. After about a minute I hear a sucking sound and in front of me is a small green thing wearing a loincloth and holding a short sword/dagger. It has the words hobgoblin scout lv 9 HP70 over its head. I use observe on the hobgoblin.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.<table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Hobgoblin scout</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>like a goblin scout only bigger, stronger, meaner, and generally more powerful</td></tr>It sees me, grins, and rushes me with its weapon aimed at my legs. I step aside instinctively and smash its head with the ruler and it breaks.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>-1HP</td></tr></tbody></table>


    The hobgoblin smirks and attacks my leg.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>-10HP</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Damn that hurt''


    I kick the scout with my good foot and it goes flying, landing on its back 2 feet away.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>-7hp</td></tr></tbody></table>


    This time I¡¯m the one who''s smirking; if a weapon doesn¡¯t work use my fists. Adapt and over come, the most basic principle drilled into me every day while I was with the monks, still I would rather use a weapon. The hobgoblin jumps back up and lashes out at my uninjured leg. I sidestep out of the way and hit the scout right in the nose with all of my strength.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>-20HP critical hit: status effect stun</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Still smirking I beat him to the ground till he was hovering at 1hp. then I picked up his weapon and used <observe> on it.


    [table]<tr><td colspan=''4''>short sword</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Damage: 9-12[/td4][td2]Stats: +1 dex +1 str</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: a poor quality short sword of hobgoblin make</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I laugh inwardly thinking it a good way to finish my first monster off, with his own weapon.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Fatality</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Reward for being 3rd to kill a monster calculating.... mana regen boost</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: kick them while their down</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: unarmed proficiency</td></tr></tbody></table>


    For now let¡¯s meditate to regain hit points and stamina


    <table><tbody><tr><td>would you like to link mana regen boost and meditate? Yes or no</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I think yes as I go into a trance. A minute or so latter I have max hp/mp/sp.


    End chapter 1

 chapter 2: in pursiut of bacon (edited)

    Chapter 2


    ''Status''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>jack</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: m</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 2</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 5%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: orphan, skill whore</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 120/120</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .001/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 110/110</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .0155/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 110/110</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: .0205/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 10</td><td width="25%">Agi: 12</td><td width="25%">Dex: 12</td><td width="25%">Vit: 9</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 11</td><td width="25%">Wis: 9</td><td width="25%">luc: 5</td><td width="25%">Vis: 5(10)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>observe, kick them while their down, mana regen boost, unarmed profitency</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available: 5</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''I wonder what my new skills do.''


    ''Check skill <mana regen boost>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>mana regen boost</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 2</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 20%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description passively increases mana regeneration, higher level increases bonus. Currently linked to meditation</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''That¡¯ll be nice.... when I can use magic that is.''


    ''Check skill <kick them while their down>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>kick them while their down</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 3</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp: 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description deals bonus damage to enemies with stun like status effects, damage bonus increases with level</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check skill <unarmed profitency>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>unarmed profitency</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp: 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description gives a small bonus while not using a wepon, bonus increases with level</td></tr></tbody></table>


    After looking at my skills my stomach growls


    ''I wonder if there is any food around or at the vary lest an edible monster''


    And with that I head out of the cave only to see that it is only a small part of a much larger cave system. I decide to sneak around so that a monster doesn''t surprise me while I¡¯m hunting for food.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: stealth</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I ignore the system message and continue looking for food and level up observe while I¡¯m at it. After about an hour I have passed several monsters all of which have either been too high level for me or looked unappetizing. As well as passing a couple corpses of former schoolmates, no one I knew thankfully, and prayed for them. Eventually I come across a monster that looks like a large ugly pig, and suddenly I want bacon. A level 12 orc.


    ''Observe''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>orc: level 12,


    hp150/150, mpNA.


    A large ugly pig that walks upright and wields a broad sword, he looks dangerous, and tasty.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I decide to kill him even though he is 6 times my level I think if I can do enough damage to start I might win. I start sneaking up behind him and take aim with the short sword I got from the hobgoblin. After meditating for a second to calm down I slash his neck as hard as I can, and cut his head off.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Critical hit: instant death</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Fatality</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: backstab</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: assassinate</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill stealth reached level 10, max level obtained, skill will now rank up to superior stealth</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Title obtained: cold hearted killer</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''That was easier than expected''


    As I try to drag the orc into a nearby cave I can¡¯t even get it to budge, so I decide to cut its arms and legs off and carry the pieces sepretly.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: butcher</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''I am really going to have to over my status after this''


    As I take all the pieces into a cave which, as luck would have it, had wood for a fire and a good strong stick that I could rotisserie the orc on. The only problem is not having anything to start a fire with, so I try one of the methods the monks tried to teach me when I was younger. after about an hour I realize that this isn''t getting me any ware so I start to get angry and I imagine the wood just spontaneously combusting. Which, to my surprise, it did.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic skill obtained: campfire</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I just stare at the fire for a couple seconds before starting to rotisserie the orc. After a little bit it starts smelling amazing, that is when I realize the smell might attract hungry monsters so I went on guard a bit but didn''t stop cooking because I was starving. After about 30 minutes the left arm is done cooking so I decide to start eating it while cooking the right leg. About this time a hungry wolf walks in. a wolf lv 5.


    ''Observe''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>wolf: level:5. Hp 10/200. Mp 50/50.


    Status effects: starving if wolf does not eat soon he will die of starvation.


    Description: the wolf is so bony that it''s pitiful</td></tr></tbody></table>


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.Seeing this I sigh and throw the right arm to the wolf. The wolf eats it vigorously, leaving behind nothing but the bone. It seems to fill out and become healthier from just that.


    ''Observe''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>wolf: level 5. Hp 200/200. Mp 50/50.


    Description: this wolf seems to be extremely fit and healthy</td></tr></tbody></table>


    The wolf just calmly comes over to me and lies down with its head in my lap.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: monster taming</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Name your new pet</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Ghost''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Confirm pet name: ghost yes or no</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Yes''


    I finish cooking the orc and eating in peace with much left over even after giving much of it to ghost. I need to think of a way to preserve the meat.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained cooking</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Status''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>jack</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: m</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 4</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: orphan, skill whore, cold hearted killer</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 140/120</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .001/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 130/110</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .0155/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 130/110</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: .0205/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 10</td><td width="25%">Agi: 12</td><td width="25%">Dex: 12</td><td width="25%">Vit: 9</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 11</td><td width="25%">Wis: 9</td><td width="25%">luc: 5</td><td width="25%">Vis: 5(10)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>observe, kick them while their down, mana regen boost, unarmed profitency, monster taming, campfire, butcher, assassinate, backstab, superior stealth, cooking</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available: 15</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td> Cold hearted killer: uncommon title, this title is given to those that kill without remorse, gives 25% reduction to fear</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''A little ominous but I¡¯ll take anything that¡¯ll help me''


    ''Check skill <monster taming>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>monster taming</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 50%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: allows you to tame beast type monsters such as wolves. The level increases with the strength of tamed monsters and with taming monsters. Higher levels allow you to tame stronger monsters as well as making your own monsters stronger</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check skill <campfire>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>campfire </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: magic, active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: mediocre</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 20%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: allows you to start a campfire it is a pretty useless spell as any other fire spell can do the same thing. Although it is good for introducing you to magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Magic huh. I am going to need to learn a lot of that''


    ''Check skill <butcher>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>butcher </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 3</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 30%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: sing this skill in combat can cause your opponent to lose a limb or cause other effects, using it on a corpse allows the user to prepare the corpse for cooking and gives bonuses against fighting creatures of the same type</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check skill <assassinate>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>assassinate </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 20%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: when a creature is unaware of your presence and you activate this skill the attack will have a chance to instantly kill the creature based on luc and dex. Failing that it deals a large amount of damage to the creature, leveling this skill up increases chance of success and damage on failure</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check skill<backstab>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>backstab </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: uncommon</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 25%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: you do double damage when the opponent is facing away from you, higher levels increases bonus</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check skill <superior stealth>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>superior stealth </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 77%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: allows you to go unnoticed, higher levels decrease chance of being noticed</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check skill <cooking>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>cooking </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 3</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 23%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this is self explanatory</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''I wonder''


    ''Check status <ghost>''


    End chapter 2


    authors note:


    i will try to upload 1 chapter every day. except friday and Saturday, i will upload 2 on friday and 0 on Saturday since i cant upload on Saturdays.

 chapter 3: expiraments

    chapter 3


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>ghost</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: f</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: divine ancestry, jack''s slave</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 200/200</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .0005/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 50/50</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .0005/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 250/250</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: .01/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 12</td><td width="25%">Agi: 14</td><td width="25%">Dex: 11</td><td width="25%">Vit: 10</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 4</td><td width="25%">Wis: 5</td><td width="25%">luc: 3</td><td width="25%">nat.def. 0(15)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>iron skin, iron fur, limited telepathy (jack), animal instincts, evolution</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available: 30</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''what the fuck is with ghost. I mean <divine ancestry>? is she some kind of god? if so whats with <jack''s slave>?''


    ''check ghost''s title <divine ansestry>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>divine ancestry: epic title. This title is given to those who descend from the gods. Those with this title have the potential to become powerful, to the point of becoming gods themselves. They also get the evolution skill.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''So not a god, yet. I think I gained an amazing pet.''


    ''Check ghost''s title <jack''s slave>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>jack''s slave: this title is given to all of jack''s slaves/pets. This particular slave/pet loves jack and is completely loyal to him, giving the skill <limited telepathy></td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check ghost''s skill <iron skin>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>[b]iorn skin </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: makes your skin as hard as iron when attacked reducing damage. Adds the natural defense stat nat.def. +10 increasing nat.def. Levels this skill up. High levels gives bigger bonus to nat.def.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''So ghost''s a tank type huh.''


    ''Iron fur''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>iorn fur</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: makes your fur as hard as iron when attacked doing damage to the attacker proportional to the nat.def. Stat. adds the nat.def. stat. nat.def. +5. Higher levels increase nat.def. Increasing nat.def. Raises level.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check ghost''s skill <limited telepathy (jack)>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Limited telepathy (jack): this skill has no levels as all it does is let you communicate with your pet mentally</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check ghost''s skill <animal instincts>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>animal instincts</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active,passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 4</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 40%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill gives its user the instinct of an animal, the high the level the more refined the instincts.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check Ghost''s skill <evolution>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>evolution</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: god like</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill is granted to those monsters that have had an audience with gods or are descended from gods. Its level is equal to the monsters level. When this skill reaches max level the monster is given choices to evolve to. After choosing one its level becomes 1 but it keeps its stats. This skill evolves along with the monster.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ''This must be how monster with divine ancestry become gods. Ghost is going to be a total badass in the future, with a little of my help''


    *yawn*


    ''Guess it¡¯s time to sleep. I wonder if meditating for long periods of time has the same effect as sleep. Lets test it''


    After meditating for about 4 hours I feel well rested, and hungry decide to cook the left leg of the orc from the other day. After lighting the fire and cooking the leg I eat about half of it giving ghost the other half, I decide to go back to where I started to grind my level on hobgoblins. To my surprise we are near the place where I spawned.


    ''I¡¯m getting a little excited for this''


    As we head over there, I put all of ghost''s stat points into nat.def. And I decide to save mine for doing an experiment later. When we get there I see a scout coming out of the cave. I hide behind a rock and wait for it to come close I sneak over and use assassinate.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Fatality</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Not even a cry he died instantly just like the orc did. About 2:00 later another scout came out and I dealt with it in the same way. I did this for a couple hours while experimenting with some of my skills and with ghost. It turns out that ghost gets 100% of the xp I get when I kill something and vise versa. At one point they started to send warriors but we dealt with them just as easily. I also obtained 4 potions of healing, 1 of mana regeneration, and 1 of stamina regeneration. I especially experimented with magic.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic skill obtained: fire magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic skill obtained: water magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic skill obtained: air magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic skill obtained: earth magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>magic skills fire magic, water magic, air magic, earth magic merging into elemental magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic skill obtained: light magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic skill obtained: darkness magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Magic skills light magic, darkness magic merging into illusion magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: bladed weapon profitency</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill meditation ranked up into superior meditation</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Ghost and I both got up to level 9. As I am starting to feel hungry we went back to the cave the orc was at only to find a goblin eating it. I ready my weapon.


    "Wait!" (???)


    "You can speak?"


    "Of course I can it''s me Johanna"(Johanna)


    End chapter 3


    authors note: @ bunsambbst thank you for reviewing my story i have added a a skill rank up system for example stealth ranked up to superior stealth and their will be many more skills will rank up in the future

 chapter 4: Johanna[edited]

    Chapter 4


    Johanna pov


    I died.


    I definitely died.


    yet here I am talking to someone who claims to be a god.


    "hello Johanna as you were the first person to die in the dungeon you get to reincarnate with your memories intact"(???)


    "who, or what, are you?" (johanna)


    "you are an interesting mortal. most are dumbstruck by my divinity"(???)


    "you''re not the first god i''ve met. answer my question please" (Johanna)


    "hmp. I am the god of death and rebirth"(annoyed god of death)


    "so you''re a minor god" (Johanna)


    "yes"(sad god of death)


    "so about me reincarnating" (johanna)


    "ah yes you get to reincarnate as a monster inside that dungeon" (god of death)


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you are the first to die in the dungeon! as a reward you can choose one of the following to become! goblin, slime, or lizardling!</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''goblin, I guess''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: monster instincts</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: evolution</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: monster language</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>title obtained: the reborn</td></tr></tbody></table>


    as I find myself in a dungeon I decide to run. because running has always seemed to calm me down.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>title obtained: freeruner</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill running proficiency reached max level 10 ranking up to superior running proficiency</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill superior running proficiency reached max level 15 ranking up to running mastery</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I keep running for hours, but I never feel tired. occasionally a monster chases me but they always get tired and fall behind. after about 8 hours of running I start to feel hungry after smelling something like bacon. I run to where the smell is coming from. and see a cooked butchered orc just lying around. I decide to eat eat it as no one is here to claim it. I decide to check out my  new skills.


    ''status''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>name: johanna</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>gender: f</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level 1</td><td colspan=''2''>exp. 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>titles: orphan, freerunner, the reborn</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>hp 100/100</td><td colspan=''2''>hp recovery 0005/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp 100/100</td><td colspan=''2''>mp recovery .001/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 200/200</td><td colspan=''2''>stamina recovery 1/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''1''>str 10</td><td colspan=''1''>agi 25 (50)</td><td colspan=''1''>dex 15(10)</td><td colspan=''1''>vit 10</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''1''>int 9</td><td colspan=''1''>wis 10</td><td colspan=''1''>luc 3</td><td colspan=''1''>empty</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skills[td4][tr]


    [tr][td4]running mastery, monster instincts, evolution, monster language</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points:0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    ''check title <orphan>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>orphan: the name is self explanatory. you have an increased will to survive</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''check title <freeruner>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>freeruner: rare title, it reduces stamina used for running by 20% and adds 20 to agi</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''check title <the reborn>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>the reborn: legendary title, you were once human, you are now a monster you gain some skill from this</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''check skill <running mastery>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>running proficiency</td>[tr]


    [tr]<td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>skill rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill level: 11</td><td colspan=''2''>exp 89%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: this skill makes running easier. 5% less stamina cost for running. +30 agi high levels gives better bonuses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''thats nice so I either use 5% or 20% of running cost depending on how it stacks''


    ''check skill <monster instincts>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>monster instincts</td>[tr]


    [tr]<td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive, passive</td><td colspan=''2''>skill rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>exp 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description:this skill gives you the instincts of a monster when used activly and increases your sences when used passivly, higher level increase bunuses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''check skill <evolution>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>evolution</td>[tr]


    [tr]<td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>skill rarity: god like</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>exp 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: this skill is granted to those monsters that have had an audience with gods or are descended from gods. its level is equal to the monsters level. when this skill reaches max level the monster is given choices to evolve to. after choosing one its level becomes 1 but it keeps its stats. this skill evolves along with the monster</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''check skill <monster language>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>monster languge</td>[tr]


    [tr]<td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>skill rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>exp 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: allows you to speak to monster, this skill doesn¡¯t rank up</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Suddenly a silver-grey wolf and a tall, about 5''10", raven haired young man come in the cave.


    ''It¡¯s jack''


    Jack prepares his dagger and the wolf bares it fangs.


    "Wait!¡± Johanna


    "You can talk?" jack


    "Of course I can. It¡¯s me Johanna"


    Chapter 4 end


    Author note: the order of rarity is as follows mediocre, common, uncommon, rare, great, legendary, epic, god-like. Unique could be any of them but only one can exist at a time.

 chapter 5: extinctionism

    Chapter 5


    "The hell happened to you?"  Jack


    Johanna recounted everything from her discussion with the god to now, which honestly was mostly a bunch of running.


    "So you have evolution?" jack


    "Yeah, how''d you know?" Johanna


    "Ghost here descends from Gods" jack


    "Aah" Johanna


    "Any way do you want me to cook that for you?" jack


    As Johanna hands the orc meat over I lights a fire with magic.


    "How did you..."


    "Magic"


    After cooking the last of the orc I start asking Johanna about her skills and telling her about my exploits in the time we were separated.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Due to her overwhelming positive emotions targeted at you, you have tamed Johanna</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "What the fuck!" jack and Johanna


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Title obtained: godling tamer</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Umm I''m sorry I didn''t do it intentionally" jack


    "No its fine... better this way actually" Johanna


    "Sorry what was that last part" jack


    "No-nothing" Johanna


    "You''re still level one right?" jack


    "Yeah why?" Johanna


    "Do you want to change that?" jack


    "Yes!" Johanna


    so jack went on to tell Johanna about a plan to take out the entire group of hobgoblins involving my assassination, Johanna¡¯s speed, and ghost''s natural armor. After going through the details jack hands Johanna his dagger.


    "I really wish I would have picked up the other daggers." jack


    ¡°Don''t worry about it just snap their neck" Johanna


    ''Status''


    <table><tbody>tr]<td colspan=''4''>jack</td>[/tr]<tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: m</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: orphan, skill whore, cold hearted killer, godling tamer</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 350/350</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .101/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 310/310</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .1155/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 400/400</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: .1205/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 10</td><td width="25%">Agi: 12</td><td width="25%">Dex: 12</td><td width="25%">Vit: 9</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 11</td><td width="25%">Wis: 9</td><td width="25%">luc: 5</td><td width="25%">Vis: 5(10)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>[b]Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>superior meditation observe, kick them while their down, mana regen boost, unarmed profitency, monster taming, butcher, assassinate, backstab, superior stealth, cooking, elemental magic, illusion magic, bladed weapon profitency</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available: 40</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Before we do this I want to experiment with something" jack


    "What?" Johanna


    "The effect of the stats" jack


    "That¡¯ll be good to know" Johanna


    I set up a target with the remainder of the wood in this sub-cave and pile up some fist sized stones. After throwing a couple I add points to strength, which allows me to throw them harder. After throwing a few more I add a couple points to agility, which allows me to throw them faster. Dex allows me to throw the stones more accurately and vision allows me to see to see the details better as well as expanding my range of vision, oddly enough. I have no idea what the others do as I didn''t experiment with them. In all I added 10 to strength, 15 to agi, 10 to dex, and 5 to vision. I also put all of ghost¡¯s skill points towards natural defense. I explained the effects to Johanna and we head out.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    "There are 10 hobgoblin scouts, 7 warriors, 4 bowmen. And one leader." jack


    "Alright I go in creating chaos and running around so they can¡¯t hit me and killing any I can while you go in invisible and assassinating hobgoblins by snapping their neck and ghost attracts hits." Johanna


    "Exactly, I¡¯ll start by assassinating the leader to cause confusion among the ranks" jack


    "Sounds good to me" Johanna


    As we head in I cast invisibility on myself, and ghost growls intimidating.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Ghost obtains skill: intimidate</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I can¡¯t even see Johanna as she runs cutting hobgoblins left and right. I stealth over to the hobgoblin leader and use assassinate while snapping his neck.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Critical hit status effect paralysis</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>10/300hp</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I quickly finish him off with kick to the chest. All the hobgoblins suddenly stop and stare at their dead leader, when three scouts die they come back to their senses. Although it¡¯s too, late in three minutes they are all dead and the kill count is as follows


    Me: 1 hobgoblin leader, 2 warrior


    Johanna: 4 bowmen, 3 warriors, 6 scouts


    Ghost: 2 warriors, 4 scouts.


    As the hobgoblins tried to change targets off of ghost he would jump in their way and use


    <intimidate> 3 hobgoblins killed themselves on her fur and she didn''t even get hurt.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Congratulations you have eliminated hobgoblins from the dungeon by killing their leader calculating reward...


    20 skill points and executioner''s short sword</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Congratulations your slave/pet ghost evolves into alpha wolf!</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave ghost gains skill: dominate beast</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Congratulations your pet/slave Johanna evolves into hobgoblin</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Chapter 5 end

 chapter 6: language

    Chapter 6


    After we finish dealing with the hobgoblins we head back to our base. Ghost looks the same as always, only bigger, a lot bigger about 2.5 times as big. When I checked his stats this is what it looked like this


    <table><tbody>tr]<td colspan=''4''>ghost</td>[/tr]<tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: f</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: divine ancestry, jack''s slave</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 500/500</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .005/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 200/200</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .01/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 700/700</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: .1/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 22</td><td width="25%">Agi: 24</td><td width="25%">Dex: 21</td><td width="25%">Vit: 15</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 4</td><td width="25%">Wis: 5</td><td width="25%">luc: 3</td><td width="25%">nat.def. 35(30)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>iron skin, iron fur, limited telepathy (jack), animal instincts, evolution 2, dominate beast</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available: 60</td></tr></tbody></table>


    All his stats, excluding int, Wis, and luc, increased and a leadership stat were added. Similarly Johanna¡¯s looked like this


    <table><tbody>tr]<td colspan=''4''>[b]johanna</td>[/tr]<tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: f</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 80%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: orphan, freerunner, the reborn</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 500/500</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .001/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 450/450</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .002/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 600/600</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: 2/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 10</td><td width="25%">Agi: 25(50)</td><td width="25%">Dex: 15(10)</td><td width="25%">Vit: 10</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 9</td><td width="25%">Wis: 10</td><td width="25%">luc: 3</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr>[td4 running mastery, monster instincts, evolution 2, monster language [/td4]</tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available: 50</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''My slaves are all getting more powerful than me''


    ''Check ghost''s skill <dominate beast>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>[b]dominate beast</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: a skill given to alpha predators. It allows them to form their own pack by dominating other beasts. Adds leadership stat.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''I¡¯m going to have to exploit that latter''


    I start to put stats into nat.def. By the time I put 15 stat points into it I got a system message, or rather several system messages.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>ghost''s skill <iron fur> ranked up to steel fur</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>ghost''s skill <iron skin> ranked up to steel skin</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>prerequisite for <magic steel skin> 1 of 2 unlocked, prerequisites remaining: int 50</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>prerequisite for <magic steel fur> 1 of 2 unlocked, prerequisites remaining: Wis 50</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Prerequisite?" jack


    "What is it?" Johanna


    "The system just showed me something interesting. Have you had a prerequisite unlock yet?" jack


    "No, what did you do for that to happen?" Johanna


    "I raised one of ghost''s stats to 50" jack


    "Hmm"


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the skill


    </tr></tbody></table>


    "Perfect running huh" Johanna


    "Hmm. try raising your dex to 50" jack


    "I don¡¯t have quite enough stat points to raise it all the way to 50 but I¡¯ll do so" Johanna


    "For now ill raise ghost''s int to 50"


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave ghost has obtained the skill magic iron skin</td></tr></tbody></table>


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.''Check ghost''s skill <magic iron skin>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>magic iorn fur</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill is an augment on steel skin, it gives the same effect as steel skin only in regards to magic.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''I wonder what would happen if I raised my vision to 50''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained perception</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>You have unlocked prerequisite 1 of 2 for <magic perception> prerequisites reaming Wis 50</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Check skill


    ''<tr><td colspan=''4''>perception </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 3</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 23%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>augment of observe you notice more details about your surroundings, when used actively provides even more information</td></tr>[/table]


    I put the rest of the points into dex and I take out the executioner¡¯s short sword.


    ''Observe <executioners short sword>''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>executioner¡¯s short sword


    this short sword is made of a shiny black material with a rather cruel looking design.


    +5 STR, +5agi +5dex +25% chance for a successful execution/assassination</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "I guess I¡¯m becoming an assassin type character" jack


    "What¡¯s that?" Johanna


    "An executioner¡¯s short sword. It increases assassination success chance" jack


    "It suits you" Johanna


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave ghost has obtained the skill language comprehension (lesser) </td></tr></tbody></table>


    "..."


    "Is something wrong?" Johanna


    "''ghost has obtained the skill language comprehension (lesser)'' is what the system just told me" jack


    "..."


    "..."


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave ghost has obtained the skill language comprehension (mid) </td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Well alright what do you say about going to get some orc" jack


    "Is that what that heavenly meat was?" Johanna


    "It really tastes good" jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave ghost has obtained the skill language comprehension (greater) </td></tr></tbody></table>


    Ghost sniffs the air and gestures with her tail to follow her. After following her for 5 minutes we come across a group of 5 orcs. All of them are lv 15. I use telepathy to communicate to Johanna and ghost.


    ''Alright let¡¯s do this the same way we dealt with the hobgoblins'' jack


    ''Perfect'' Johanna


    ''Yes master'' ghost


    ''You can talk?'' jack


    ''No sadly I don¡¯t have the proper structure to speak. But I can communicate to you through telepathy''


    As I stare in curiosity


    "What took you two so long I¡¯ve already killed them all?"


    Johanna who could not hear ghost''s telepathy went ahead and completely overwhelmed the orcs.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave ghost has obtained the skill language comprehension (perfect) </td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave ghost''s skill <limited telepathy (jack)> ranked up to telepathy</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Hello sister'' ghost


    "Sister?" Johanna


    ''You are one of master''s slaves so you are my sister'' ghost


    "Oh I see" Johanna


    ''Well there is another reason but that will come to light latter'' ghost


    "Oh, I see.¡± Johanna


    "What¡¯s that about" jack


    *laughs*"you''ll find out soon enough" Johanna


    ''Master I¡¯m hungry let¡¯s take these orcs back to base to cook the bacon'' ghost


    Chapter 6 end

 chapter 7: brothers

    Chapter 7


    After bring home the bacon we decided to rest for the night, taking turns on watch. The next day I scouted the rest of the dungeon while Johanna preserved the bacon.


    <Your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the skill preserving>


    <Skill obtained: mental mapping>


    The skill I obtained was very helpful in scouting out the dungeon. I found that there were 5 different monster types in the dungeon: goblins, orcs, Minotaurs, lizardmen, ents, of course we had already killed all the hobgoblins so these were the species that were left. I also found three groups of 2-4 people, although I didn''t talk to them. After searching for a bit I decided to fight some goblins. After quickly assassinating their leader I turned invisible burned the rest with fire. I gained 2 levels and a cloak of the illusionist. I put all the points I gained (20) to dex although it wasn''t enough to get to 50.


    "Time to get back to base" jack


    After traveling for about ten minutes I arrived back at base.


    "Give me the bacon" jack


    "What took you so long?" Johanna


    ''Welcome back master'' ghost


    "I took a detour" jack


    As I started eating some orc, ghost came over to me and laid her head on my lap.


    ''Hey master'' ghost


    ''Yes?'' jack


    ''Is it alright if I chose my own evolution next time?'' ghost


    ''Of course you can. Why do you ask?'' jack


    ''It¡¯s a secret'' ghost


    Johanna comes over and sits next to ghost petting her fur (making sure to go the right way)


    "Planning for the next extermination time" Johanna


    "Alright, alright" jack


    "First off what types of monsters are out there?" Johanna


    "Goblins, orcs, Minotaur, lizardmen, and ents although I already exterminated the goblins" jack


    "So that¡¯s what you meant by detour" Johanna


    "I found what I think to be the spawn points of all of them except the orcs" jack


    "So what do you recommend?" Johanna


    "I recommend attacking the ents" jack


    ''Why?'' ghost


    "Cause we''re running out of fire wood" jack


    After eating the three of them started along the path jack took to get to the ents. Along the way they came across a group of two whom jack hadn¡¯t seen before.


    "Hey you two!" Johanna


    "Hmm¡±??? #1 and 2


    As they walked over to us they suddenly attacked our hobgoblin who just sidestepped out of the way.


    "What do you think you¡¯re doing to my pet?" jack


    "Pet?¡±???1


    ¡°I have the skill monster tamer" jack


    "That would explain that demon and wolf standing behind you¡±???2


    "hobgoblin" jack


    As he looked at them he saw their names and their levels floating above their heads, Philip level 9 and Joe level 9.


    "Ah, right we forgot to introduce ourselves, I am Joe and this fatty is Philip" (Joe)


    "Ah I¡¯ve herd of you, football star for the senior team right?" jack


    "That¡¯s right. But who are you?" Philip


    "Names jack" jack


    "Where are you heading?" Joe


    "Why?" jack


    "Cause you look like someone with somewhere to go" Philip


    "Well if you really must know we''re heading over to the ents." Johanna


    "Why?" Philip


    "To grind up our level and get some firewood" jack


    "Level?" Joe & Philip


    "You don''t know about the system?" jack


    "What¡¯s that?" Philip


    "Think status" jack


    A look of surprise flashes on Joe¡¯s and Philip¡¯s faces, quickly followed by a look of curiosity.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel."So I¡¯m level 9" Joe


    "Same" Philip


    "I wouldn''t brag if I were you. I¡¯m lv 15" jack


    A look of admiration suddenly sprung up on Joe¡¯s and Philip¡¯s faces.


    "Hey why don''t we help you kill those ents" Joe


    "Yeah I want to raise my level" Philip


    "We won¡¯t ask for anything just let us help you kill them" Joe


    "It¡¯s dangerous you could get killed any minute in their" jack


    "I know we''ve been serving in here for the couple days after all" Philip


    "Do you have weapons?" jack


    "Course we do" Joe


    He pulls out a small hatchet while Philip starts flexing his muscles.


    "Alright then you can come with us" jack


    ''Form party'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! You have formed a party!


    Who would you like to invite? </td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Joe & Philip'' jack


    "That¡¯s.....useful" Joe


    The two had an inquisitive look on their faces.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> congratulations! You have formed a party!


    Part rules currently in effect: 50% exp share</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Oh I forgot to mention it but earlier I tried to add ghost and Johanna I got a system message.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Error: you cannot form a party with your own pets/slaves as they count as being part of you for part purposes</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Alright let¡¯s go!" Johanna


    After walking for a couple minutes we arrived at the ent''s spawn point.


    ''Observe''


    <table><tbody><tr><td>ent warrior


    level 20


    hp 300/300


    description: these trees have gained sentience. Resistances: piercing, bludgeoning</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Damn it" jack


    "What¡¯s the problem?" Joe


    "Their resistant against piercing attacks, so I can¡¯t use my assassinate effectively." jack


    "Then why don¡¯t you use your fire magic" Johanna


    "Fire magic?" Joe & Phillip


    "Yeah, magic is part of the system" jack


    "Now that you mention it I did see a bar that had mana on it." Joe


    After we decided that I would use magic to fight, I used observe to determine the enemy strength.


    4 warriors


    8 saplings


    6 elders


    3 wives


    1 leader


    For a total of 22 ents. All of them had resistance against bludgeoning and piercing. But, the leader and the wives had resistance against slashing and had magic resistance, the elders had weakness to fire, and the saplings were weak against slashing.


    "Alright Joe since you use a hatchet take out the saplings since they are weak against slashing damage." jack


    "Understood" Joe


    "Ghost you tank the ENT¡¯s attacks, make as pissed at you as possible" jack


    ''Alright!'' ghost


    Both Joe and Philip gape at ghost for a minute.


    "Philip and Johanna you just cause mayhem." jack


    *laughs* Johanna


    "Un-understood" Philip


    "Getting wet feet now, bro?" Joe


    "No I¡¯m just a little nervous" Philip


    "Brother?" jack


    "Yeah Joe and I are brothers" Philip


    End chapter 7

 sidestory

    Sidestory


    Johanna pov


    When did jack become so ..... Cool? I mean he blew up an ent with a single word!


    Jack has always been kind to me. Like when we were chased down the mountain by a wild boar, after resting for a bit jack picked me up and carried me all the way up the mountain. 5 miles! Afterwards he collapsed and wouldn¡¯t wake up for a week.


    Jack has never been strong, he would always get beaten up in elementary school and I would have to rescue him. So when he took out that hobgoblin leader I was shocked.


    Jack has always been able to adapt. It was the only lesson that he truly took to heart, adapt and overcome. He would find solutions no one else would think of, he was determined to succeed. Which didn''t always happen (as evident by him getting beaten up all the time in elementary).


    I have always liked jack. He was like a puppy that everyone loved. But now I think I¡¯m truly falling for him.


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.I think ghost likes him, but how would that work? Simple, evolution. She could evolve into some kind of wolf-girl. Jack has always been weak to that type! I¡¯m going to fall behind!


    Ghost pov


    I like master, he fed me when I was starving. Since I¡¯ve been with him I¡¯ve gotten a lot stronger.


    Jack is really strong. He blew up a tree with a snap of his fingers! He is a great cook, and an even better hunter. I can¡¯t wait to impress him with my next evolution!.


    Johanna seems to see me as her rival. I can¡¯t understand why, I mean isn''t it natural to have multiple mates?


    Also getting hit kinda feels good......


    Sidestory end


    Authors note: in my opinion all tank characters are masochistic.

 chapter 8: somthing lost

    Chapter 8


    After formulating something that might look like a plan in the right light, we go in guns blazing. Ghost leaps in and uses intimidate on all the ents, causing them to attack her and getting injured on her fur causing her to seem like even more of a threat. After making sure that everything was going to plan I start attacking the ent elder.


    "campfire" jack


    an elder burst into flames and then literally explodes, due to the excess of sap in the wood I think.


    "that... is too much of a weakness" jack


    after quickly dealing with the rest of the ent elders I looked around to get an idea of the surviving ents.


    2 warriors


    2 saplings


    3 wives


    1 leader


    I notice Philip who is struggling against an ent wife and rush over  and use butcher on one of the branches that was about to hit him, cutting it off.


    "thanks for the assist" Philip


    "no problem" jack


    Philip gets smacked in the face by one of the ents larger branches with an audible *snap*.


    "damn it broke my nose" Philip


    he quickly pulls out one of his potions and drinks it, miraculously setting his nose right.


    "try breaking the branches off" jack


    Philip nods as I sneak around to the back using invisibility and assassinate the already weakened tree.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>fatality</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I then continue to sneak around to the back of the leader and use assassinate.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>-10% hp</td></tr></tbody></table>


    how much health does this guy have even if I failed the assassination that alone would have been enough to kill the hobgoblin leader.


    as I was thinking that the leader turns around and glares at me. I quickly use butcher cutting 3 branches off, immediately after he attacked me with all of his branches. I manage to dodge to the right and use butcher on one of them, only to be hit by a stray branch.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>-30% hp</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''damn that hurt.'' jack


    I pull out one of my potions and drink up. I smile because it tastes like my favorite food, fresh bread.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>+20% hp</td></tr></tbody></table>


    as I dodge another barrage I manage to cut off a couple more branches. it continued like this for a while, with me dodging and cutting branches off and him attacking and trying to limit my movement. once he managed to hit me with a branch and I drank my last potion. after a while I managed to get close enough to stab him in the eye.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>critical hit, status effect: stun</td></tr></tbody></table>


    *laughs*


    I go around behind him and use assassinate, killing him instantly.


    *laughs* "that was fun" jack


    I look around and see what remains of the ents.


    1 warrior


    1 wife


    Philip is taking on the wife on his own and the others are dealing with the warrior. I rush over to help Philip when he takes out his last healing potion and tries to drink it. however when he tries the ent spears the potion shattering the glass and piercing through his chest. I run at the wife and assassinate it successfully.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>title obtained: avenger</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I ignore the system as everyone finishes up with the reaming warrior and rushes over to us.


    "do you resent me?" jack


    *coughs* "no, it was my own decision to fight, not yours" Philip


    *crying*"brother" Joe


    "become strong Joe, you won''t be able to rely on me"*coughs*"anymore. and don''t hate these people, it was our own decision to fight with them."


    "I will" *crying* "I will become the strongest and I will live through this" Joe


    "that¡¯s my brother" Philip


    as Philip lay dying there was nothing we could do as we had all used up all of our healing potions. for about an hour after we all just stood there in silence. this was terrifying, it was the first time I had seen someone die, and it could happen at any minute to any of us. during this time I got 30 skill points and nimble gloves. I think the system is trying to turn me into an assassin


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.after a while I came back to my senses and asked


    "so what are you planning on doing now?" jack


    startled Joe replied


    "wh-what do you mean?" Joe


    "us three are going to continue to fight our way out of here" jack


    "that¡¯s right" Johanna


    ''that¡¯s our master'' ghost


    "then I¡¯ll come with you" Joe


    "are you sure?" jack


    "my brother wanted me to become strong in this new world, the best chance for that is with you guys." Joe


    "well said" Johanna


    "alright let¡¯s get moving, everyone gather up as much wood as you can I¡¯ll go ahead and get rid of any monsters on the way. ghost, Johanna, show him the way back to base" jack


    ''you''re just trying to get out of work aren¡¯t you?'' ghost


    I laugh through my nose but no one else questions my motives as none of them could hear ghost.


    ''not that I care.¡¯ ghost


    we all get back to base without incident and I cook some of the preserved orc.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill cooking ranked up to superior cooking</td></tr></tbody></table>


    after cooking and eating some orc I decide to build a barricade in the front of the cave out of wood. I build it in a way that it can easily be moved from the inside.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: construction</td></tr></tbody></table>


    after I finished building the barricade I started carving wood with one of knives we got from the hobgoblins.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: woodworking</td></tr></tbody></table>


    after a couple hours I started to get tiered so I walked over to my usual sleeping spot and laid down, ghost comes up to me as I am falling asleep.


    <congratulations! your pet/slave ghost can evolve!


    <table><tbody><tr><td>options: lesser demon wolf, hellhound</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''chose lesser demon wolf'' ghost


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave ghost will evolve through the night</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! your pet/slave Johanna can evolve!


    options: sprite, wind variant, lesser wind elemental</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "chose wind sprite" Johanna


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna will evolve through the night</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave ghost''s skill dominate beast has changed to pack leader</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave ghost has obtained the magic skill bestial magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave ghost''s skill intimidate has merged into bestial magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave ghost has obtained the skill form change: alpha wolf</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the skill wind walk</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the magic skill superior wind magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the title the fastest thing alive</td></tr></tbody></table>


    chapter 8 end

 my cheatsheet

    authors note: i am doing this to alow you to have more information about thier skills (not to make my life easier or because the file corropted and i had to rewrite this whole thing) i will update it after every chapter. also i wont be able to update for a bit due to school.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>jack</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: m</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 24</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 50%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: orphan, skill whore, cold hearted killer, godling tamer, avenger</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 350/3500</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .101/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 310/310</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .155/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 400/400</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: .1205/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 47</td><td width="25%">Agi: 27</td><td width="25%">Dex: 50</td><td width="25%">Vit: 9</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 11</td><td width="25%">Wis: 9</td><td width="25%">luc: 5</td><td width="25%">Vis: 50(50)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>superior meditation, observe, kick them while their down, mana regen boost, unarmed profitency, monster taming, butcher, assassinate, backstab, superior stealth, superior cooking, elemental magic, illusion magic, bladed weapon profitency, mental mapping, construction, woodworking,</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available:</td></tr>[table]


    [table]<tr><td colspan=''4''>execute</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active, passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: when used against an unresisting target it kills them, higher levels gives insight on where to hit to get a crit.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>tracking</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive, active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: uncommon</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 2</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: gives you bonuses to tracking creatures, you notice tracks easier.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>keen sences</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active, passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: passivly gives all of your sences a bonus and activly alows you to transfer that bonus to other stats.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>avenger: you have killed a monster that caused the death of a companion, you gain bonuses against enemies that have hurt you or your companions</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>godling tamer: you have tamed godlings, all your pets will have an increased growth rate you also age slower.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>orphan: you were abandond as a child, you are completely apathetic to everyone except your companions, those that raised you, and people that piss you off </td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''> wood working </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: uncommon</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 8</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 90%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: gives you a bonus to working with wood.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>construction</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: uncommon</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 3</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 30%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: gives you a bonus to building structures</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>mental mapping</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 8</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 90%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: allows you to create an acuret map of places you have been in your head</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>bladed weapon proitency</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: uncommon</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 8</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 90%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: gives you a bonus to using wepons with a blade</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>illusion magic</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 99%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: allows you to control and create illusions gives you some basic spells that appear in your head when you want to cast them</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>elemental magic</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 8</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 90%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: allows you to control the elements gives you some basic spells that appear in your head when you want to cast them</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>kick them while their down</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 57%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description gives you a bonus to attacks against enemies with stun like status effects, bonus increases with level</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>kick them while their down</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type:passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity:</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 6</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 50%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description shows information about players and monsters, if used actively can give information about inademant objects as well as giving more information. Higher levels give more information, adds the vision stat +40 Vis</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>observe</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active, passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 99%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description shows information about players and monsters, if used actively can give information about inademant objects as well as giving more information. Higher levels give more information, adds the vision stat +40 Vis</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>superior meditation</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>Rarity: uncommon</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp: 6.5%[td2]</tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: 20* recovery while meditating, higher levels give more bonuses, also increases passive recovery</td></tr><table><tbody><tr><td>Skill whore: unique title given to the first person to obtain a skill it gives a small bonus to obtaining skills and obtaining skills gives you exp based on rarity</td></tr></tbody></table>


    [table]<tr><td colspan=''4''>mana regen boost</td></tr><tr>[td2]skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 99%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description passively increases mana regeneration, higher level increases bonus. Currently linked to meditation</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>unarmed profitency</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp: 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description gives a small bonus while not using a wepon, bonus increases with level</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td> Cold hearted killer: uncommon title, this title is given to those that kill without remorse, gives 25% reduction to fear</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>monster taming</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 99%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: allows you to tame beast type monsters such as wolves. The level increases with the strength of tamed monsters and with taming monsters. Higher levels allow you to tame stronger monsters as well as making your own monsters stronger</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>campfire </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: magic, active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: mediocre</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 20%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: allows you to start a campfire it is a pretty useless spell as any other fire spell can do the same thing. Although it is good for introducing you to magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>butcher </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 30%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: sing this skill in combat can cause your opponent to lose a limb or cause other effects, using it on a corpse allows the user to prepare the corpse for cooking and gives bonuses against fighting creatures of the same type</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>assassinate </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 99%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: when a creature is unaware of your presence and you activate this skill the attack will have a chance to instantly kill the creature based on luc and dex. Failing that it deals a large amount of damage to the creature, leveling this skill up increases chance of success and damage on failure</td></tr></tbody></table>


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.<table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>backstab </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: uncommon</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 99%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: you do double damage when the opponent is facing away from you, higher levels increases bonus</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>superior stealth </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 9</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 99%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: allows you to go unnoticed, higher levels decrease chance of being noticed</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>superior cooking </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 3</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 23%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this is self explanatory</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Ghost


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>ghost</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: f</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 20%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: divine ancestry, jack''s slave</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 1000/1000</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .005/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 500/500</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .01/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 1500/1500</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: .1/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 22</td><td width="25%">Agi: 24</td><td width="25%">Dex: 21</td><td width="25%">Vit: 15</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 50</td><td width="25%">Wis: 50</td><td width="25%">luc: 3</td><td width="25%">nat.def. 80(80)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>adamantium skin, adamantium fur, telepathy, animal instincts, evolution 2, pack leader, magic adamantium skin, magic adamantium fur, language comprehension (perfect), bestial magic, form change (alpha wolf)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available: 0</td></tr></tbody></table> <table><tbody><tr><td>divine ancestry: epic title. This title is given to those who descend from the gods. Those with this title have the potential to become powerful, to the point of becoming gods themselves. They also get the evolution skill.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>jack''s slave: this title is given to all of jack''s slaves/pets. This particular slave/pet loves jack and is completely loyal to him, giving the skill <limited telepathy</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>form change(alpha wolf)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: allows you to turn into an alpha wolf, with practice you can go halfway in between wolf and your original form.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>bestial magic</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: allows you to cast beastial spells such as intimidate and inspire courage.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>pack leader</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active, passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: you can dominate sentient beings weaker than yourself and add them to your pack, leadership right transferred to your master.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>magic adamantium skin </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: same as adamantium skin only in regards to magic.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>adamantium skin</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: makes your skin as hard as adamantium Stat. adds the nat.def. stat. nat.def. +20. Higher levels increase nat.def. Increasing nat.def. Raises level.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>adamantium fur</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: makes your fur as hard as adamantium when attacked doing damage to the attacker proportional to the nat.def. Stat. adds the nat.def. stat. nat.def. +10. Higher levels increase nat.def. Increasing nat.def. Raises level.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Limited telepathy (jack): this skill has no levels as all it does is let you communicate with your pet mentally</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>animal sences</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active,passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 4</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 40%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill gives a bonus to all your senses in the same way it''s counterpart keen senses only stronger.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>evolution 3</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: god like</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill is granted to those monsters that have had an audience with gods or are descended from gods. Its level is equal to the monsters level. When this skill reaches max level the monster is given choices to evolve to. After choosing one its level becomes 1 but it keeps its stats. This skill evolves along with the monster.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>magic adamantium fur</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive, active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: same effect as adamantium fur, only in regards to magic, alows you to consesly control your fur.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>johanna</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gender: f</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>level: 2</td><td colspan=''2''>EXP: 80%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles: orphan, freerunner, the reborn, fastest thing alive</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Hp: 1500/1500</td><td colspan=''2''>Hp recovery: .001/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>mp: 1450/1450</td><td colspan=''2''>Mp recovery: .002/s</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>stamina 3000/3000</td><td colspan=''2''>Stamina recovery: 5/s</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">STR: 10</td><td width="25%">Agi: 75(80)</td><td width="25%">Dex: 40(10)</td><td width="25%">Vit: 10</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">int: 9</td><td width="25%">Wis: 10</td><td width="25%">luc: 3</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>perfect running, monster instincts, windwalk, superior wind magic, evolution 3, monster language</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>skill points available:</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>teaching</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive, active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: epic</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 3</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill alows you to teach people, your students obtain skill easier, higher levels increase effectiveness.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>perfect running </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: god like</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>description: you have completely mastered the art of running, only 20 mortals have ever achived this, running uses no stamina and gain  30 agi</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>monster senses</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive, active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill gives a bonus to all your senses in the same way it''s counterparts keen senses and animal sences only stronger, this is the strongest of the three.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>windwalk</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive, active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: epic</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill allows you to move a lot faster, when used actively it gives you and your allies a bonus to speed, using this skill actively uses the same amount of stamina as if you were running for all your compainins.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>superior wind magic </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill allows you to control air, increaded control as level increases.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>monster language</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: common</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 5</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: you can understand what  monster are saying.</td></tr></tbody></table>

 chapter 9: rank up

    Chapter 9


    As I wake up I look around and I see the barricade I set up last night I find a naked girl with silver gray hair clinging on to me


    She has fur going down her back and a tail right above her butt; on the top of her head she has two wolf ears. She wakes up and looks at me with her red eyes.


    "Ghost?" jack


    "Yes master" ghost


    "Can you put cloths on?" jack


    "Why? Don¡¯t you like it?" ghost


    "Of course I like it, I just want to keep this view all to myself" jack


    I gesture over to Joe, who is still sleeping. As ghost stands up I can see that she is definitely....well endowed. After she gets dressed I look around for Johanna, who should have evolved last night as well. I see her lying down over by the smoldering fire. She looks like she did when we were about 7-8 years old, small and petite with her shoulder length brown hair. Although there are some definite differences, her ears are pointy like elves, and her skin is fairer. Compared to that ugly little green monster she was before this is an amazing improvement. When she opens her eyes I see that her eyes are different, they have turned from brown to a kind of light yellow, with no whites in her eyes. Not the sickly kind of yellow, but a yellow color that is full of life and energy.


    "Hey jack" Johanna


    "So you¡¯re the fastest thing alive huh" jack


    "That only includes mortals, but yeah I can even outrun most bullets" Johanna


    "Impressive" jack


    "Hey sis" ghost


    "So you evolved as well" Johanna


    Johanna started glaring at ghost, first at her chest, then her ears, then her tail.


    "Damn, I really have fallen behind" Johanna


    As she was saying that Joe stood up behind us and walked over to us, it was obvious that he cried himself to sleep.


    "Who are these two girls?" Joe


    "Johanna and ghost" jack


    Joe looked a little shocked but quickly recovered.


    "Should ¡®a known, so you¡¯re saying I have no chance whatsoever with them" Joe


    "Nope" Johanna


    "None" ghost


    "Ouch, that hurt my pride a little. But can''t help it, their your pets after all" Joe


    I cook some orc and we start eating. After a while the orc that I cooked is all gone and the girls are still asking for more, so I cook some more for them.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.After that we go hunting for more orc but we can''t find as many as we use too, I think someone has killed their leader. I wonder what will happen when all the leaders are dead. So I ask.


    "Maybe we get out?" Johanna


    "The next stage of this dungeon" Joe


    "I don''t care as long as I¡¯m with master" ghost


    After a while I start grinding my skills, several of which ran up to superior or master. For the rest of the day we don''t do much except grind our skills, hunt orcs, and cook.


    I managed to make a wooden practice dummy to practice with, although I had to repair it constantly.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulation! You have completed stage 1 of 3! All the species leaders are dead! The next stage will start tomorrow. If you want to survive follow your nose</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: keen senses></td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave ghost has obtained the skill keen senses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Ghost¡¯s skills beast instincts and keen senses merged to make beast senses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the skill keen senses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Johanna¡¯s skills monster instincts and keen senses merged to make monster senses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I use the new skill we obtained to sniff the air, but the only thing I could smell was the orc we cooked earlier.


    "Looks like we''re going to have company" jack


    End chapter 9


    authors note: in case you haven''t realized it yet ghost is an albino.


    also sorry today''s chapter is so short

 chapter 10: new friends, new enemies

    Chapter 10


    For about an hour I was grinding my assassinate and backstab skills on a dummy, at about 1/3 the rate of fighting monsters, when I heard a shout on the other side of the gate I built.


    "Anyone alive in their?¡±???


    "Yes, but who are you" jack


    "Selena?" Joe


    "Is that you little Joe?" Selena


    "Let her in" Joe


    "Alright, alright. If she¡¯s someone you know and trust then I¡¯ll trust her, for now" jack


    When I opened the door/gate I saw a tall, blond, slender, charming girl covered in monster blood, reminds me of an ideal big sister. I instantly realize that she''s not my type.


    "So, little Joe, can you introduce your friends here to me?" Selena


    "The guy that opened the gate for you is jack. He¡¯s the boss around here, even though he''s just a freshman." Joe


    "How¡¯d that happen?" Selena


    "We had a vote, 3 to 1 in my favor" jack


    "Wow nice" Selena


    "Just kidding, I was the one who organized the group so I¡¯m obviously the leader." jack


    "Alright moving on. The small girl over by the fire is Johanna; the albino girl with wolf ears next to her is ghost" Joe


    "She certainly looks like a ghost" Selena


    "Anyway come eat some bacon and tell us you''re story" jack


    "Before that where''s Philip?" Selena


    "He-¡±Joe


    "He¡¯s dead" jack


    As I quickly cut him off, I let it sink in. Selena just stands their crying.


    "I figured it would happen like this, this dungeon has a 90% death rate after all" Selena


    "If it makes you feel any better he was planning to propose at graduation in 1 month" Joe


    "He was such a child, but he was sweet like that" Selena


    "Philip told me to give this to you in case something were to happen to him" Joe


    Joe pulls out a ring with a small diamond on it and hand it over to the crying girl. Who just stared at the ring letting tears roll down her cheeks and land on the hand holding the ring. After a little bit of just standing there in an awkward silence, only broken by the sound of crying.


    "Tell me what type of skills you have" ghost


    *sniff*"why?"Selena


    "So I can better exploit your strengths, I mean based on the system message we are going to need allies to survive this round" ghost


    "I hadn''t thought of that" jack


    Quickly snapping out of her daze Selena volunteered her information.


    "I have healing magic as well as some attack magic" Selena


    "I guess it''s the increased int showing through" jack


    "Speaking of which we need to set our stats" ghost


    I get my dex up to 50 and my strength almost to 50.


    "As I thought getting stats up to 50 only modifies existing skills" jack


    I get ghosts Wis up to level wisdom up to 50 and put the rest into nat.def.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave has obtained the skill magic steel fur</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave''s steel skills have ranked up to adamantium</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Johanna just puts everything to agility.


    After we set our stats we decided to go to sleep as it was getting late. After everyone had gone to sleep ghost crawled over to me and laid next to me, of course I was tiered from training all day, so I couldn¡¯t even react. Not that I really care, having anthers warmth next to me helped me to relax, and ghost is extremely warm.  At one point in the night I woke up from something cool pressed to my arm, like a summer breeze, comforting. Unfortunately, I was exhausted still and just went back to sleep. I wasn''t going to do anything to them until at the very least we got out of this dungeon, plus there are other people around and no place to get alone time.


    In the morning I was greeted by a system message.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations, again, for making it this far. Now let¡¯s see how long you can last against your own class mates</td></tr></tbody></table>


    For some reason this one seemed more cruel than the others that have been sent to me.


    *yawn* "good morning" ghost


    "Oh" *snicker*"I thought it might be something like this" Selena


    "You seem a lot better than last night" Johanna


    "You were awake?" ghost


    "Sprites don''t sleep, apparently" Johanna


    "Sprite?" Selena


    "You are the only human female here" jack


    "Oh, so these girls are monsters?" Selena


    "Technically I am a beast, not a monster, but yes"*growl* ghost


    "Guess it''s time to make breakfast" jack


    "Honestly I am getting sick of orc" Johanna


    "There is nothing else to eat so do you want to starve?" jack


    "No, it tastes good. It¡¯s just that''s all we''ve eaten for days and no more orcs will be spawning in here" Johanna


    "True we need to find another food source soon or get out of here. I personally would prefer the second, I want to make sure some old friends are safe." jack


    "It¡¯s been years since we¡¯re gone to the mountain, I hope everyone''s safe" Johanna


    ""Mountain?"" ghost, Joe, Selena


    "Jack and I were raised on a mountain" Johanna


    Before anyone could respond we hear knocking on the makeshift gate.


    "Who¡¯s knocking on my front door?" jack


    "Jack! Is that you?¡±???


    "Martin? I thought for shore you would be among the first to die" Johanna


    "Alright let him in" "jack


    After opening the door I see four people holding a Varity of weapons, a spear, a sword, a bow, a shovel.


    "Heh. That was mean Johanna" martin


    "So who are these three?" jack


    "I don¡¯t know. Never met them before today" martin


    "Should we really let them all in?" Selena


    "I agree with you, martin should come in because master knows him. But the others we can''t trust" ghost


    A look of fear flashed on the threes'' faces.


    "No-now wait a minute¡±???


    "I have a better idea" jack


    Everyone turned their heads to look at me.


    "Why don''t we add them to ghost''s pack, that way they can''t harm us and we offer protection and food" jack


    "Why didn''t I think of that?" ghost


    ""Pack?""Everyone


    "A skill she has allows her to create a pack and dominate other creatures, human included, and add them into her pack" jack


    "If you intend on treating us like slaves I¡¯m out of here¡±???


    "You¡¯ll die" Joe


    I was surprised by Joe speaking, he hadn¡¯t said much since his brother¡¯s death, but I didn''t show it on my face.


    "He¡¯s right we have no idea what is about to happen" jack


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "I¡¯ll take my chances¡±???


    "Are the rest of you willing to join my pack?" ghost


    "As long as I can stick with my brother I¡¯ll do it¡±???


    "Alright, give me some food first¡±???


    I quickly re-light the fire with a spell and reheat some of the bacon.


    "I see you have been doing well Johanna" martin


    "How¡¯d you recognize me" Johanna


    "I got the observe ability, by the way jack why did you let me in? I thought you hated Me." martin


    "First, I don''t hate you. I am morally apathetic. Second, as for why I let you in, it is because of a certain, interest of yours that I feel allows me to control you to some degree. I don''t trust you" jack


    "Seconds¡±???


    The two that were quietly gorging themselves on meat suddenly spoke up.


    "Before that tell me about yourselves" Johanna


    "Silly and I are twins¡±???


    "Stop calling me that bro my name is sally not silly" silly err sally


    "We were in the middle of study hall when we were transported here, together luckily." brother


    "I haven''t caught your name yet" jack


    "it''s Jacobe" Jacobe


    "what did you do for food before this?" Johanna


    "At first we were disturbed by the corpses laying everywhere" sally


    "You ate the corpses!?!?" Joe


    "No, we took food from their backpacks after we got used to them" Jacobe


    "I suddenly feel like the world¡¯s biggest idiot" jack, under my breath


    "What was that" ghost


    "Nothing" jack


    I examine the info floating above their heads and see that they are both level five and martin is level 16.


    "So what level are you three?" jack


    "5" sally and Jacobe in unison


    "10" martin


    ''Why would he need to lie about his own strength?'' jack


    ''What do you mean?'' ghost


    ''His level is 16 not 10¡¯ jack


    ''Let¡¯s keep an eye on him'' Johanna


    "Alright let¡¯s add you to ghost''s pack" jack


    "Fine, do it" sally


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! You now have your own pack! As the one who made the pack is your pet/slave leadership position is given to you, although you can''t directly add members. Only pets/slaves with the proper ability can add member¡¯s


    current members: sally, Jacobe, martin</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "yet, master has his own pack now" ghost


    "Pervert" martin


    "What?" jack?


    "Forcing a girl to wear those ears and a tail and having her call you master, you are a huge pervert" martin


    "Don¡¯t insult master, these ears and tail are natural, not that I¡¯d ever let you touch them, and I call master master cause he is my master" ghost


    "What really their real?" sally


    "Sure you want to touch them?" ghost


    Emphasizing the *you* while pointing at sally.


    "Can I really?" sally


    "Sure since you didn''t insult master" ghost


    "Tsk" martin


    After finishing up with breakfast I ask them if they had seen anything on the way here.


    "I saw no monsters and all of the corpses were missing" sally


    "That makes sense, if we look at the system message we received then likely we will be dealing with undead" ghost


    "Well we are going to have to rush through this portion as we have enough food for 2-3 days max" jack


    "What are we all waiting for let¡¯s do this" martin


    "And what strategy would you suggest?" Johanna


    "Jack and I can go scout out the enemy" martin


    "Very well, let¡¯s get a move on. While we''re out train the twins with the dummies I built the other day"


    As we head out of the cave I notice that the corpses that were their just last night, aren¡¯t their anymore. I check around where the bodies used to be and I find tracks, shoe tracks.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: tracking</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "It looks like ghost is right, they just upped and walked away" martin


    "Lets follow the tracks in the dirt to wherever they were heading, we might find something good." jack


    After walking for about 10 minutes we find more tracks going in the same direction. I laugh through my nose and we continue to follow the tracks. Eventually we come across a bleeding corpse. No not a corpse, yet. it''s the guy that walked away from us this morning, at least I think it was morning, no way to tell time here.


    "Th-they were everywhere, I was able to fend them off at first but then..."???


    "Then what? Finish speaking" martin


    "She came couldn¡¯t hurt her even if she was already dead. How could I hurt my own sister¡±???


    "Oh" martin


    "You, you have a knife right, use it to put me out of my misery¡±???


    "Are you sure?" jack


    "I am going to die anyway, just promise me one thing. Destroy whatever it was that did this to my sister¡±???


    "Very well, but tell me one thing, what is your name" jack


    "Johnson and one more thing. I know it might be too much to ask but please dispose of my body so that I don''t become one of those things" Johnson


    "Fine" jack


    After I finish him off I burn his body with the highest level fire spell I have, fire storm, and then wash away the ashes with the water spell flood. Can¡¯t risk the ashes being used for something, if at all possible.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: execute</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Somewhere along the way I got a system message.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the skill: teaching</td></tr></tbody></table>


    After walking for an hour or so more we come across a large room filled with the walking corpses of our old schoolmates, martin looked completely undisturbed by this. Suddenly I see martin step out of the room, and a transparent wall comes up in the door way.


    "Like it, it''s the spell mana wall, nothings goanna break through this as long as it remains up. Only one problem, it¡¯s timed, it''ll only last about 30 minutes if I use all my mana. Which I did." martin


    I just glare at him silently and pull out my dagger.


    "Ho, ho, ho you¡¯ve done a good job¡±???


    "This means I can keep the girl right" martin


    "Not quite, he is still alive and so are the others¡±???


    Realizing what was happening I tried to contact ghost and Johanna via telepathy but they are too far away.


    "Kill him" martin


    End chapter 10

 chapter 11: torture

    Chapter 11


    "Kill him" martin


    At his word all the corpses started shambling towards me.


    "Oh yah I forgot to mention, I am a necromancer apprentice" martin


    I try to hit him through the mana wall with magic but the only thing that works is campfire, guess no one would bother blocking that spell. Needless to say his cloths light up and he quickly drops on the ground and rolls over.


    "You bastard I would watch your ex schoolmates instead of me if I were you" martin


    I cast campfire on him again and get a cooking level up.


    When I turn around I see that the shambling horde almost reaching me. I quickly use observe on one of them.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>zombie: level 10 hp: 500/500 mp: 0/0 sp infinity/infinity>


    Description: this is the zombie of a 17 year old girl who used to be called Rosalina, the creator was a master necromancer weaknesses: holy strengths: elemental magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I cast fire storm using three times the normal amount of mana. A couple of the zombies turn to ash but the majority of them take on average of 100 damage. If all of the corpses of students were hear that would mean that there would be close to 9,000 zombies. That¡¯s not even counting the faculty. I position myself to have my back facing the mana wall and I notice that martin had already left. I can''t win this fight.


    "Well this fucking sucks" jack


    I slash out at one of the zombies and find that it''s brittle.


    "Lucky the fire might not have done much damage but it did make them weaker" jack


    I suddenly felt a slash on my left arm; I quickly cut the zombies legs off with butcher.


    "I might not win the fight but I might be able to survive at least, damn I wish at least ghost was here, this level of attack would feel like a message to her while her fur would shred them" jack


    I started concentrating on using butcher on their arms and legs I made a small mound of them within 10 minutes, which I stood on to get higher ground. While I was fighting a thought came to me, why don''t I use butcher on their necks? With my new height would be easier than cutting off their arms and legs, and faster.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill butcher ranked up to superior butcher</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I realize that some of my mana has returned so I cast fire storm again, dealing about 30 damage each, not enough.


    After about 10 more minutes I start to get tiered. I take a grazing hit on my arm, on my thigh, on the side of my face. I get hit more as time goes by. After about 5 minutes I hear a roar and see an undead Minotaur rushing at me.


    "Shit" jack


    I brace myself for the attack as I see bodies fly in the Minotaur¡¯s wake. When it hits me I feel my back hit something hard and then that hard thing shatters, it was the mana wall. I tuck my head between my arms and roll over the soft ground, quickly recovering I run as fast as I can back to the base. The zombies slowly chase me but they quickly fall behind. I feel my legs burn and I am completely exhausted, but I ignore it and keep running.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: endurance</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: running profitency</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: ignore pain</td></tr></tbody></table>


    When I reach the cave I rest against the cave wall and I contact the girls.


    ''I knew you wouldn''t die on me'' ghost


    ''What happened?'' Johanna


    ''Martin he...'' jack


    ''Figures it was him'' Johanna


    "Hey I¡¯m going out for a minute" ghost


    "Where are you going?" martin


    "It¡¯s rude to ask a girl where she¡¯s going" ghost


    Ghost comes out and turns into her wolf form and comes over to me and starts to lick the wounds on my left arm, they seem to glow and it feels soothing.


    ''What are you doing?'' jack


    ''Healing your wounds with my bestial magic, although for some reason this spell only works while I¡¯m in wolf form'' ghost


    ''Thanks'' jack


    ''You don''t have to thank me, your my master after all, take your shirt off'' ghost


    After taking my shirt off she began on the wounds on my chest.


    ''I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t do this in demon-wolf form'' ghost


    ''No, my thoughts are going crazy as it is'' jack


    ''I know I am inside your head after all'' jack


    By that time she was done with the wounds on my chest and started on my back.


    ''This is pretty useful'' jack


    ''Yeah it is, but it''s useless in a fight'' ghost


    After about 5 minutes she was done with all of my wounds and I was up to full stamina.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>For surviving against an army all alone you are rewarded with the title veteran</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''I haven''t felt this good in forever, thanks ghost'' jack


    ''Tehe'' ghost


    "Open up please" ghost


    I cast invisibility on myself and sneak back into the cave where I see martin training with a sword against the dummy I made. I use butcher on his hand after he swings his sword.


    "ahhhhh. You, you''re still alive. How?" martin


    He looked terrified as clean the blood off on his sleeve. By now the twins were staring at me.


    "You tried to kill me, the punishment for that is nothing short of a slow death."  Jack


    "What? I don''t know what you¡¯re talking about" martin


    As he said that nervously I cut off his other hand.


    "Bluffing means nothing to me" jack


    Before he could say anything I cut his forearms off and his left leg. He tried to tackle me; I dodge to the left and cut his arm off through the shoulder.


    "Oh I know, ghost" jack


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings."Yes" ghost


    "Heal his wounds, I don''t want him to die too soon" jack


    "Why are you doing this to me?" martin


    "I told you tried to kill me" jack


    "If you had just died I could have gotten Johanna" martin


    "No, you wouldn¡¯t have. I would have fought until either I died or the thing that killed him did" Johanna


    I waited until all of his wounds had been healed and I drove my dagger into his right shoulder and twisted it, then I stabbed him in-between the legs. I wiped my dagger off on his cloths before lighting him on fire. I let him burn there screaming. Suddenly the screaming stopped. The fire continued to burn for a minute or two before it burnt out and all that remained was ash.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Skill obtained: torture</td></tr></tbody></table>


    The twins were staring at me while the brother was shielding his balls.


    "The punishment for trying to kill me or someone close to me is death, I am not going to hurt you" jack


    They both just nod silently.


    "Alright back to training" Johanna


    "How are you three so strong" Joe


    "What do you mean?" jack


    "You don''t hesitate, ever. You are completely calm when faced with death, and..." Joe


    "I¡¯m just an apathetic person, that isn''t strength" jack


    "I think something changed when I became a monster, death just feels normal to me." Johanna


    "We¡¯re strong because master has helped us be strong" ghost


    "The hell happened here" Selena


    "Oh you''re awake" Joe


    "of course I¡¯m awake, I had a horrible nightmare of being surrounded by screaming banshees trying to eat my soul and then I wake up to you covered in blood and a suspiciously shaped pile of ash, with martin no wear to be seen" Selena


    "That pile of ash is martin" sally


    "What?" Selena


    "He tried to kill me, then I killed him" jack


    "I see" Selena


    Everyone looked at me with a mixture of awe, respect, and fear (or pride for ghost).


    "What is everyone looking at we need to prepare to assault a cave filled with 1000s of zombies" jack


    "First tell us everything beginning to end" Jacobe


    So I tell them how we followed tracks of a couple zombies. How we met Johnson. How when we got to the room with all of the zombies in it. How he locked me in there, how I fought with the zombies and got thrown against the then weakened wall by a zombie Minotaur. How I ran despite my sheer exhaustion and injuries. I left out the part of me enjoying torturing my would be murder to death


    "You went through a lot, huh" Selena


    "As far as I know no one I care about has died, so if anything I¡¯m better off than you" jack


    "What are the stats on the zombies?" ghost


    "They are resistant to elemental magic and weak to holy magic" jack


    "I know holy magic" selena


    "Wait, you just killed someone" sally


    "Yeah, so" jack


    "You don''t feel anything? Regret? Remorse? Joy?" sally


    "It¡¯s strange I thought I would feel something but I don¡¯t kind of an empty feeling. Not bad but not good, just indifferent" jack


    *sigh*"well, that¡¯s good, I guess. Not the indifferent part but the part about not feeling joy after killing him. I don''t think I could follow someone who enjoys killing people." sally


    "Back to the task at hand, what about the other zombies, not the human ones but the monster ones" ghost


    "I know nothing about them except for the fact that they are much stronger than the human zombies, like comparing a match to a bonfire" jack


    "A pile of matches the size of a mountain burns brighter than the bonfire, how many normal zombies are there?" Johanna


    "I would guess around 9000 simply because that is close to the number of students that are, or rather ware, at our school." jack


    "Sally, Jacobe, what are your specialties, if any" ghost


    "I use healing magic" sally


    "I can''t use any magic, but I¡¯m good with a bow, or any ranged weapon for that matter" Jacobe


    "And I, as you''ve seen for yourself, am handy with a hatchet, or any ax type weapon" joe


    So that means its ghost in the vanguard, me, Johanna, and joe in the mudguard, and sally and selena in the rearguard.


    "Lets move out, no point in hanging around here all day" ghost


    After walking for about 30 minutes Joe came up to me and started asking me questions.


    "You said the punishment for harming someone you care about is death, right?" Joe


    "Yes" jack


    "Who are the people you care about?" Joe


    "My companions and the people who raised me" jack


    "Speaking about that, I wonder how aunty is doing" Johanna


    "Don¡¯t worry about her, she¡¯s a hard ass bitch, she could solo this dungeon in a single day" jack


    "Whose aunty?" ghost


    "She¡¯s the one who''s been taking care of us since we came down the mountain." Johanna


    "What mountain?" sally


    For the next couple hours Johanna and I tell our companions about how we were raised on a mountain by monks.


    "Remember that time a wild boar chased us all the way to the foot of the mountain?" Johanna


    "Ah I remember that, at the bottom you twisted your ankle and couldn¡¯t walk so I had to carry you back up" jack


    "After that you wouldn¡¯t wake up for three days. I thought you were dead!" Johanna


    "What about the part we threw for masters 105th birthday?" jack


    "I asked what he wanted and he told me ''I want a room full of beautiful women that I can do anything I want to''" Johanna


    "Then his wife came and tied him up and whipped him on the spot"*laughs* jack


    "I miss those guys" Johanna


    "Same, tell you what, let¡¯s have a family reunion when we get out of here" jack


    "Can I come and meat masters family?" ghost


    "Of course you can, in fact everyone¡¯s invited" jack


    "It seems interesting" sally


    "I¡¯ll follow my silly" Jacobe


    "I told you not to call me that!" sally


    "I don''t see why not" selena


    "Sweet" Joe


    Chapter 11 end

 chapter 12: principle

    Chapter 12


    When we finally made it to the large cave that housed all the zombies we took a break to strategize and to rest.


    "What is the most powerful area-of-effect holy spell you know?" jack


    "Holy inferno, although I can only cast it once before running out of mana." selena


    "Hmm, let me try something" jack


    I concentrate all of my will power onto my mana pool trying to move it into selena, failing that I try to move a small amount of mana into her, it works.


    <Skill obtained: mana link>


    ''Check skill mana link'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>mana link </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: great</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 2%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill allows you to link your mana pool with another mana pool. You can store mana in metals and gemstones, some metals and gemstones are better at storing mana than others. Higher levels increase range, higher levels allows you to store more mana in metals and gemstones.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I find myself smiling like a madman as I consider the possibilities.


    "What are you smiling for" ghost


    "A skill that allows me to connect mana pools" jack


    I try connecting my mana pool to all of my companions, it doesn¡¯t seem to be limited by number of connections only range. A look of surprise registers on everyone¡¯s face when they check their statuses showing that they have a lot of extra mana flowing between all of us. I start to poor mana into my weapon; to my surprise it can contain exactly 2765 mana.


    <Skill obtained: enchanting>


    ''Lets check that skill latter'' jack


    I then use every ones mana to enchant every ones weapons, unfortunately the max mana I could fit into any of their weapons is 158.


    While filling up on mana we start to discuss strategy.


    "We fight defensively. Protect the rear guard, especially selena as she will be in charge of taking out large amounts of undead" ghost


    "Also the zombies give almost no experience, or at least the normal ones don''t" jack


    "Alright, let¡¯s do this" Johanna


    We get into formation and ghost turns into her wolf form. As soon as we enter the cave selena starts chanting. After about 20 seconds the zombies notice us. As soon as ghost uses intimidate we start attacking the nearby zombies that weren¡¯t attracted to ghost. Unfortunately for us that about half of them, all heading directly toward selena.


    ''Their angered by the magic she¡¯s leaking out'' ghost


    "Shit" jack


    More and more of the zombies are coming towards selena. After ghost uses intimidate only about half of the new zombies go toward her.


    ''These guys are soo weak. I haven¡¯t even taken a single point of damage yet'' ghost


    I laugh a little as insert my executioner''s short sword into the head of a zombie. Then I see it, a blinding white light flooding the room litterly dissolving the zombies like acid. I check my mana and notice that it is empty, along with everyone else¡¯s mana. Fortunately all of the normal zombies are dead. They were weak but had a massive advantage in numbers, like swarm type enemies in a TD game strong against strong slow attacks, but weak against area of effect damage.


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation."Ho ho ho, I¡¯m impressed. You managed to destroy all these lesser undead with just one spell."???


    "Who the hell are you? Santa?" Johanna


    ''Master, who is Santa?'' ghost


    ''I¡¯ll tell you latter. Lets deal with this guy first'' jack


    "Now now, having a telepathic conversation while I¡¯m talking to you is rude¡±???


    "How did you-" jack


    I was cut off by a wry old man in a dirt stained suit with a shoulder length grey beard.


    "Oh, the principle" jack


    "Where are the other faculty?" selena


    "Ho ho ho, their right here" principle


    As he says that a couple hundred undead come out from an unseen hole in the wall.


    ''Observe'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>greater zombie


    Hp: 1500/1500 sp: 1500/1500 mp: 0/0


    Description: this is the zombie of one of the teachers at your high school; it is much more powerful than most zombies as it was made by genius necromancer strengths: elemental magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Now, you are in for a treat. Not everyone gets to see a lich being made." principle


    "Oh, that sounds like something I want to see" jack


    A couple zombies bring the body of a girl over. The principle closes his eyes and starts a chant. I see some sort of energy going into the body of the girl, mana I assume. After a couple minutes of watching another force starts to pour energy into the body, this energy doesn''t seem to be mana; it is colder, more hostile. I realize that it''s probably whatever is going to posses the corpse causing it to turn into a lich instead of a normal zombie.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: mana sensing</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: apt student</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>through observation you have learned the basics of necromancy</td></tr></tbody></table>


    after about ten seconds the other force starts to pour mana in much faster while the principle seems to be drying up. the principle won¡¯t be able to control this one. after another minute the lich stands up. she looks at the old man and smiles, cruelly. after about 10 seconds she rips his thought, and eats it.


    "it''s been a while since I¡¯ve had a physical body" lich


    "one hundred years right?" jack


    "how did you-" lich


    "that how long ago there was a lich in this world" jack


    "oh, you''re an interesting one" lich


    as I watch the lich I realize that this is not an opponent I can win easily against. I instantly want to fight her, 1v1. suddenly she points at me and says.


    "you seem strong, I want to fight you." lich


    end chapter 12


    authors note: sorry this chapter is so short

 chapter 13: fighting

    Chapter 13


    "You seem strong, I want to fight you." lich


    "Very well, but I would like to know my challengers name" jack


    "Lucy is my name" Lucy


    "You can''t be serious?" sally


    "Its master, he loves this kind of fight" ghost


    "Don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll have these mindless keep you company¡± Lucy


    "Sounds fun" ghost


    "It would be a good chance to test to my speed" Johanna


    "Not that I can control them and fight anyway" Lucy


    "You mean we have to fight all of these greater zombies?"Selena


    "And all the other undead I¡¯m keeping at bay" Lucy


    As I approach the lich I feel a kind of aura. It doesn''t feel bad, in fact it feels pleasant.


    "How?" Lucy


    "How what?" jack


    "How are you unaffected by my death aura?" Lucy


    "Maybe it''s because I grew up close to death" jack


    "That would...make sense" Lucy


    As I approached Lucy she smiles, starts to cast a spell, and all hell breaks loose. By that I mean all of the undead start to attack everyone, luckily ghost uses intimidate and they all start to flock her.


    "Are you prepared for this?" Lucy


    As soon as she said that an orb of dark mana, very similar to the energy that was being pushed into the corpse earlier, came flying at me. I dodge at the last second but it destroys some my hair, the orb then smashes into a small group of undead killing them instantly.


    ''That was close, just a couple inches to the left and my head would have been taken off.'' jack


    I rush her before she can cast another spell. At the last second she sidesteps and I land a grazing hit on her arm. She counters by clawing my arm, doing surprisingly little damage.


    "Damn, the previous occupant of this body had a habit of biting her nails" Lucy


    I laugh a little and dodge one of her spells. I quickly counter attack with a lunge which catches her by surprise, impaling her gut.


    "I¡¯ve become sloppy over the years, must be the new body" Lucy


    Before she can recover I slice at her arm, making a thin line that doesn¡¯t bleed. She attacks with a fist clocking me on the left arm making it go limp for a couple seconds. I jump back to recover. She fires another orb of mana, I jump back and kick off of a nearby zombie using it as a springboard to propel myself up over the spell and landing in front of Lucy. Not wanting to waste this opportunity I attempt butcher on her arm. When her arm falls down I laugh through my nose and leap back barley avoiding another strike to the arm. To my surprise she was breathing heavily, but so was I.


    "Want to take a short breather before we continue?" Lucy


    As she said that she picked up her arm and reattached it.


    "Damn, this one''s going to take a bit to heal" Lucy


    "I don¡¯t see why not, I mean I want to see my companions fight a little" jack


    "As do I" Lucy


    I look back at the fight between the undead and ghost&co. currently about half of the zombies that were there at first remained, and half of those were attacking ghost. Ghost had a very interesting fighting style in my opinion, anytime she got hit by one of the zombies she would impale it with her fur, somehow magically extending. This attack had a really high damage and could even kill a zombie in a single attack, the only problem with that was she couldn¡¯t attack any of the other zombies with her fur while doing that. Johanna would run around the outside of the group and pick off stragglers.


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.<table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the skill pinpoint strike</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the skill assassinate</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I smile as I continue to observe the scene in front of me. Philip was using a skill similar to butcher, or maybe the skill butcher, as he was cutting the limbs of zombies while jacobe was finishing them off with his bow. sally was healing the wounds everyone, mainly ghost surprisingly. selena was using a spell similar to holy inferno only a scaled down version of it, disintegrating about 10 zombies every time.


    "you have some interesting companions" Lucy


    "I quite agree" jack


    I laugh silently as I look around for something. finding it I walk over to it, killing a few zombies on the way.


    "what are you doing?" Lucy


    "a test" jack


    as I reach the large pile of rocks I hold my hand out and put mana into the same way that old mana put mana into Lucy.


    "necromancy? but that¡¯s a pile of rocks not a corpse" Lucy


    "close, I¡¯m trying to make a golem" jack


    "animation magic? don''t you need a magic circle to animate a golem?" Lucy


    <table><tbody><tr><td>magic skill obtained: animation</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "nope, apparently not" jack


    I mentally tell my new golem to go Shrek the zombies, which he gladly does. well technically he is a stone cold golem without emotion or intelligence of his own.


    "lets us continue our fight from earlier now" jack


    "very well" Lucy


    as soon as she says that a mana orb grazes my right arm causing my clothes to burn up where it touches. I laugh and leap in to attack her, I manage to get a solid strike on her arm. to my despair I notice that all her previous wounds had already healed, and the one I just inflicted had begun to heal. there is no way I can  win this fight with conventional means, nor can I use magic to attack as I have almost no mana left. I start laughing, loudly. when I see her confused look I explain.


    "this is fun" jack


    I jump back cast invisibility, deaden sound, and mask presence. all three are spells from the illusion tree. at best I have ten seconds, which is more than enough time to win this fight. I get behind her and use assassinate+backstab combo, but I don¡¯t stop at that. I then use my enchanting magic to detonate all the mana in the sword. I go deaf and get blown back against a wall, much to my surprise as the closest wall was several feet away, and I black out.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: mana bomb</td></tr></tbody></table>


    end chapter 13


    authors note: i was in a writing mood today so definitely expect another chapter tomorrow (as i refuse to post more than one a day)

 side story 2

    side story 2


    Lucy pov


    arg, that last life didn''t work out to well. I was put into the body of a serial killer by a psychotic necromancer bent on world domination. unfortunately the necromancer was extremely powerful so I couldn¡¯t even lift a finger if he didn''t want me to. the first place we attacked was a small secluded village on top of a mountain. it was a 4 day fight ending with our total annihilation. the tens of thousands of undead my master had created were crushed by a village of martial arts maniacs. needless to say that life ended with my death after only 2 months.


    needless to say I decided that this time I would do it differently, not that I wouldn''t fight. but I wouldn¡¯t become an evil lich that goes about killing everything that hadn''t already died. I loved fighting, especially challenging opponents.


    as it turns out this body''s name is Lucy. I stand up in this new body turn meat the eyes of my new master. I see something similar in him as in my previous master. I rip his throat out and eat it before he can give me an order. before all the undead around me go on a rampage I take control of them.


    "it''s been a while since I¡¯ve had a physical body" Lucy


    "one hundred years right?" ???


    "how did you-" Lucy


    "that¡¯s how long ago there was a lich in this world" ???


    "oh, you''re an interesting one" Lucy


    as I look at this boy I begin to wonder if he came from that same village, which would explain how he knew when I was last alive as I was only alive for 2 months. he holds himself like someone experienced with fighting skilled opponents.


    "you seem strong, I want to fight you." Lucy


    "very well, but I would like to know my challengers name"  jack


    "Lucy is my name" Lucy


    "you can''t be serious?" sally


    "its master, he loves this kind of fight" ghost


    "don''t worry I¡¯ll have these mindless keep you company"  Lucy


    "sounds fun" ghost


    "it would be a good chance to test to my speed" Johanna


    "not that I can control them and fight anyway" Lucy


    "you mean we have to fight all of these greater zombies?" selena


    "and all the other undead I¡¯m keeping at bay" Lucy


    unfortunately, as I was still getting used to this body, I couldn¡¯t control the undead and fight.


    as he starts to approach me I activate my death aura, to my surprise he starts to smile presently. it''s not a bad smile, pleasing, I just want to look at his smiling face for some reason.


    "how?" Lucy


    "how what?" jack


    "how are you unaffected by my death aura?" Lucy


    "maybe it''s because I grew up close to death" jack


    "that would...make sense" Lucy


    his words surprised me, yes this would be a fun fight. I start to cast a spell relishing my control of the mindless undead. to my surprise the wolf eared girl transformed into an actual wolf and growled. all the undead started moving toward her.


    "are you prepared for this?" Lucy


    I cast the spell so that if he dodges it still kills some zombies.  his barley dodges and it hits the undead. before I can recover and attack again he rushes me, I barley manage to dodge but it still grazes my arm. I counter with a claw but it doesn''t seem to hurt him.


    "damn, the previous occupant of this body had a habit of biting her nails" Lucy


    I quickly cast a spell but he recovers too fast and manages to impale my gut


    "I¡¯ve become sloppy over the years, must be the new body" Lucy


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.before I can recover he slices my arm. I counter by punching him as hard as I can in the arm, making it go limp. he jumps back and I send a mana ball at him, as that is the only spell I can really use right now. he jumps off of a zombie and lands in front of me cutting my arm off. he was breathing heavy, but then again so was I. wait a second, why was I breathing? I¡¯m a lich I student be able to breathe. that old man must have been some kind of genius, I¡¯m not an undead, and I am half alive.


    "want to take a short breather before we continue?" Lucy


    as I said that I picked up my arm and reattached it.


    "damn, this one''s going to take a bit to heal" Lucy


    "I don¡¯t see why not, I mean I want to see my companions fight a little" jack


    "as do I" Lucy


    after observing his companions fight a little (I don¡¯t really want to rewrite this from her perspective) he starts to make that smile.


    "you have some interesting companions" Lucy


    "I quite agree" jack


    after saying that he starts to look around for something, having found it he starts walking towards it.


    "what are you doing?" Lucy


    "a test" jack


    when he gets to his goal, a pile of rocks, he starts doing something similar necromancy.


    "necromancy? but that¡¯s a pile of rocks not a corpse" Lucy


    "close, I¡¯m trying to make a golem" jack


    "animation magic? don''t you need a magic circle to animate a golem?" Lucy


    "nope, apparently not" jack


    as he says that a large stone golem forms out of the stones and starts hurtling toward the zombies plowing them down under its sheer weight one after another.


    "lets us continue our fight from earlier now" jack


    "very well" Lucy


    as soon as he said that I cast mana ball and sent it flying at him, it grazes his arm damaging his cloths. he laughs and manages to land a hit on my arm. he looks slightly distraught when he notices the wounds he had inflicted had healed, then he looked resolute. he starts laughing.


    "this is fun" jack


    he jumps back and disappears, completely. I can''t even feel his presence. then I feel something pierce my back and then pain. I hadn¡¯t felt pain for hundreds of years. after a couple seconds the pain stops, but it feels like hours. I lost this match.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>as you have acknowledged your defeat by jack, you have the option of becoming his pet/slave


    do you except? yes/no</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I stare at this blue box that appeared blankly for 5 minutes. then the wolf girl came over and kneeled down next to me and whispered in my ear, by the way she was still being attacked by undead.


    ''I guess you¡¯re seeing a system message for the first time, I can guess what it says as  I received a very similar one. master''s not a bad person, he lets us do whatever we want and he helps us become strong'' ghost


    as she says that I use life leach on some undead to help fix the left half of my body that was blown up in the fight. I start to contemplate on what the wolf girl said, he is definitely strong. he seems to care about his companions, otherwise why would he waste his mana on a making a golem to assist them when he still needed to fight me? Besides he won the fight, everything goes to the victor in this world, right? after some contemplation I hit yes.


    end side story 2

 chapter 14: souls

    Chapter 14


    I wake up to ghost, in wolf form, licking me.


    "What happened while I was out?" jack


    ''You¡¯re awake!'' ghost


    "Yeah I am, thanks for healing me by the way." Jack


    ''It was a combined effort of me and silly'' ghost


    "So what exactly happened?" jack


    I could clearly remember everything up till deciding to detonate the mana in my sword.


    ''well that golem you made killed tons of zombies, eventually some of the more intelligent ones decided that he was the biggest threat and brought him down, not without heavy casualties though. After that we just wiped up the few stragglers remaining.'' Ghost


    "How¡¯s everyone else?" jack


    ''Everyone is fine'' ghost


    "Good" jack


    I stand up with a grunt and look around, what I see is corpses everywhere.


    "About time you wake up" Lucy


    I just stare at her blankly.


    "What¡¯s with that look?" Lucy


    "imagine waking up after unleashing your ultimate ability which has a high chance to kill you and sacrifices your weapon only to find the person you used it on perfectly healthy without even a scratch" jack


    "if it makes you feel better I was missing my entire left half from the shoulder down until I absorbed the life energy from some of the undead which I then spent hours healing" Lucy


    "How long was I out?" jack


    "About a day and a half" Johanna


    "You don''t sound worried at all" jack


    "Of course not, damage of that level couldn¡¯t possibly kill you" Johanna


    "This is yours" Lucy


    Lucy handed me a palm sized dark blue crystal that felt cool to the touch, then warm, then cool. It kept pulsing like a heartbeat.


    ''Observe'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>soul stone. size: medium. quality: good. description: this is the soul stone of a necromancer, powerful creatures form soul stones in their chests, it can be used in necromancy as well as having other hidden uses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    for some reason I felt a strong desire to eat it.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: soul eater</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>title obtained: devourer of souls</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®check skill soul eater¡¯ jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>soul eater </td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active, passive</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: legendary</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 50%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill allows you to consume souls. When you consume a soul your base stats raise based on the quality of soul, the stats of the original owner of the soul, and the level of this skill. Higer levels increase efficiency of obtaining stats. Current efficiency: 1%</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®this is amazing¡¯ jack


    I ponder the possibilities for a second before remembering the title I received.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>devourer of souls. God-like title. You are the first person to try eating a soul stone in over a thousand years, as a result you have gained something a little extra, normally you need to eat hundreds of souls to get this, your efficiency in absorbing souls is doubled, you can eat the soul of someone even if it has completely diffused into their body</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "I¡¯ll be right back" jack


    before anyone could recover from the sock of watching me eat the soul stone I ran off back to the cave where we had been staying up till now. on the way I noticed a blue dot in the upper right hand corner of my vision. when I concentrated on it this popped up.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>stored messages:1 </td></tr></tbody></table>


    interesting, I wonder if I could send messages to other people.


    ''show stored message'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you have completed part 2/3 of this dungeon! just one part remaining, gather up all of the survivors so you can leave. survivors 9</td></tr></tbody></table>


    after doing a quick count I realized something, there was one other survivor other than me, Johanna, ghost, selena, Joe, sally, jacobe, and Lucy.


    ''urg this might be difficult'' jack


    I kept running until I reached the cave where I quickly looked for something. I took a minute but I managed to find martin''s soul stone. I eat it. I then sit down and meditate till my stamina is full. when I open my eyes I see Johannes pure yellow eyes looking back at mine.


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "ghost and I are ready to evolve again" Johanna


    "then why haven¡¯t you?" jack


    "because you¡¯re the one that needs to impute the decision for what we become" Johanna


    "makes sense" jack


    "anyway, we need to gather everyone together and find that last person so we can leave" Johanna


    "then let¡¯s get to work. you are the fastest thing alive, literally, so you can cover more ground than any of us. don''t forget to use your monster senses skill" jack


    "everyone else was looking for whoever it was that survived while we watched over you" Johanna


    "alright, enough procrastinating, if you find him/her let me know via telepathy" jack


    we spent much of the day attempting to find this person (at least I think it was a day). after hours we started to get discouraged when suddenly ghost came in with a teacher in tow.


    "I had thought the lot of you went and died, or got killed and turned into zombies by the principle" jacobe


    "what was that about the principle?" teacher


    ''he was the one that made all of those zombies you found walking around'' ghost


    "what!? really!?" teacher


    "are you really that surprised, there¡¯s been rumors about him being a necrophiliac for a long time now" jack


    "how''d you here that?"selena


    "it was pretty obvious, I mean he spent all of his free time at a graveyard" jack


    "I was not aware of that." Teacher


    "I don¡¯t think any of us were" Johanna


    everyone shook their head, except ghost, in confirmation.


    "ah, where are my manners. I haven''t introduced myself to you yet. please call me mr.smith, mage" mr.smith


    "what type of mage?" sally


    "I mostly focus on elemental magic but I can use pretty much any magic, except necromancy. I haven''t been able to figure that one out" mr.smith


    "you know animation magic right?"


    "yes. why?" mr.smith


    "how do you do animation magic? through magic circles or direct application?" jack


    "direct application. I don¡¯t understand where these questions are coming from" mr.smith


    "necromancy is animations dark twin brother" jack


    a look of revelation spread across his face as he ran to a nearby corpse and animated it with necromancy. he then came up to me and grabbed my hand, shacking it vigorously.


    "thank you so much, I¡¯ve been trying for years to figure it out. if I can help you in any why let me know Mr.?" mr.smith


    "names jack, no surname" jack


    "so how can I be of service, jack" mr.smith


    "wait, you said you''ve been practicing magic for years, how? I thought it was just recently introduced to this world" sally


    "it''s times like these that make you realize that you''re a member of the 1%" jack


    "the 1%?" sally


    "the 1% that is aware of the existence of magic among other things, although I¡¯ve never used magic till recently. didn''t see the point in using magic as several marshal arts allow you to directly destroy a person¡¯s magic" jack


    "I didn''t know that" mr.smith with a look of fear


    "anyway, now magic in this world has received a boost, a big boost. so in order to not fall behind I need to learn as much about it as possible" jack


    "you want me to teach you" mr.smith


    "bingo" jack


    "very well, it''s a fair trade. information for training" mr.smith


    "so you¡¯re saying this world has always had magic? and almost no one was aware of it?" selena


    "yes, although recently it, among other things, has received a huge boost. That thing you did with holy inferno would have taken at least 10 highly skilled mages to accomplish before." Jack


    at that point Joe came in with a refreshed look on his face.


    "so we get to leave now, huh" Joe


    as soon as he said that a system message popped up.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you have beaten your first dungeon!</td></tr></tbody></table>


    and we all start to ascend a flight of stairs that magically appeared in front of us.


    when we got to the top I look around. we are in the center of the football field, with the home team bleachers on the left of me and the challengers on the right. in front of us is a goddess, no seriously, a literal goddess.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Lucy has obtained the skill evolution</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna¡¯s title divine ancestry(sealed) has changed to divine ancestry</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "hello mother" Johanna rather coldly


    *growl*"why are you here, mother" ghost burning with anger


    end chapter 14

 chapter 15: mother

    Chapter 15


    "Hello mother" Johanna rather coldly


    *growl*"why are you here mother" ghost burning with anger


    "What brings the greater goddess of charm to meat us" mr.smith


    "For a goddess of charm you¡¯re rather ugly, your children are easily 10 times as beautiful as you" jack


    Everyone looked at me in a mixture of shock and awe, except for Johanna and ghost who were still staring at their mother


    "You tried to kill me! Your own daughter!" ghost


    "Oh, now that¡¯s some interesting information" jack


    "Why is that?" mr.smith


    "Can someone please explain the punishment for trying to kill someone I care about?" jack


    "A painful death, but are you seriously planning on killing a god? Without a weapon?" jacobe


    "Don¡¯t insult me" goddess of charm


    As soon as she said that she lunged at me.


    "Too slow" jack


    I side step and strike her in the side of the head, hard. I feel stronger, a lot stronger.


    ''Must be the result of my soul eater ability and my devourer of soul¡¯s title'' jack


    She glares at me angrily.


    "YOU DARE HIT ME!? I WILL SEND YOU TO HELL FOR YOUR TRANSG-" charm


    I shut her up with a strike to the gut. After which she tries to rip my head off, failing miserably.


    ''Speaking of soul eater I wonder if I can eat a god'' jack


    I bite her arm and rip off some of her flesh, swallowing it. She manages to hit me in chest. She didn''t hit me because I couldn¡¯t dodge, but because I was so engrossed in the taste of her flesh. It was delicious, the greatest thing I have ever tasted. Her savory meat and sweet blood, I understand why vampires love the taste of blood so much. I lick my lips, sending her into a rage.


    "You know, I¡¯ve been wondering something. Why haven¡¯t you used magic against me? Gods have extremely powerful magic right? Or maybe the only magic you can use is charm magic." jack


    By the look on her face I was right on the money.


    "That sucks for you because I¡¯m immune to charm magic, courtesy of a certain succubus" jack


    She then tried to strike me in the face. Instead of dodging I bit some of her fingers off, 3 to be exact. She lunged at my one more time; I sidestepped, grabbed her arm, twisted it behind her, and sunk my teeth into her shoulder. This time instead of ripping I decide to suck out that sweet nect- I mean blood.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: vampirism</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I felt my canines elongate and the ease of which I was sucking her blood out increased. she somehow broke free when I relaxed my grip.


    "I¡¯m retreating this time, but next time I¡¯ll kill you, I swear it by all the ancient gods" charm


    "yah, good luck with that" jack


    I suddenly feel extremely light headed and I fall to the ground, slowly loosing consciousness


    "he''ll be fine, just too much power in is body for it to handle right now" mr.smith


    <table><tbody><tr><td> title obtained: god eater</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I wake up in a black room, no not a black room as I am simply floating.


    "hello" god of death


    "if you''ve come to see me it probably means I have died, right?" jack


    "no, not at all. you are still very much alive" god of death


    "then why?" jack


    "some of the higher-ups pulled a few strings to get you a new body" god of death


    "why?" jack


    "some people, me included, have grudges against that goddess of charm. or rather that spirit of charm now." happy god of death


    "so what are my options?" jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td> congratulations! you get a new body! and thanks for showing me that hilarious scene. here are your options: imp, goblin, zombie, cat</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "these options seem kind of weak" jack


    "don''t worry about that, you are capable of evolving 3 or 4 times right now, these are just to show you the path currently available for you to go down" god of death


    "interesting, I guess I¡¯ll be a demon then. I chose the imp" jack


    "oh, most people chose goblin" god of death


    <table><tbody><tr><td> skill obtained: demonic presence</td></tr></tbody></table>


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> title obtained: the reborn</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td> congratulations! you have evolved into greater imp</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: torment</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you can evolve! chose one of the following: lesser shadowling, lesser ginger</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "why those options?" jack


    "for ginger it''s because of your soul eater ability, for shadowling it''s because of your fighting style. using shadows to hide yourself and attack your opponent from behind. although gingers are considered higher ranking demons than shadowlings" god of death


    "then I guess I chose shadowling, fits me better" jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td> congratulations! you have evolved into lesser shadowling</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: thin presence</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: silent step</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: blink</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "now you have 1 more evolution, chose wisely" god of death


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you can evolve! chose one of the following: greater shadowling, devil</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "greater shadowling of course" jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: transparency</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "so what do I go back to the world of the living now?" jack


    "no you have a little bit before you waked up" god of death


    "so what now?" jack


    "you ask me questions" god of death


    "why?" jack


    "consider it a personal favor, I don''t like that charm goddess any more than the next god or goddess" god of death


    "fair enough, so why does everyone hate her?" jack


    "different reasons. to sum it up, she is a little bitch. I don''t like her because she killed my son after he resisted her charms, of course that was hundreds of years ago" god of death


    "well then, so I¡¯m pretty popular with the gods right now, right?" jack


    "how could you not be, the only god that didn''t have a grudge against her is the absolute god, and even he hates her." god of death


    "then why hasn''t anyone done anything against her yet?" jack


    "her charm magic is extremely powerful. you could even say she¡¯s a genius, no one could go against her." god of death


    "what is a god really?"jack


    "a god is one of three things. a child of 2 gods, a non spirit type creature that got so powerful that their soul fused wittier body, or a spirit type creature that got powerful enough to create their own body." god of death


    "why has the world changed the way it has?" jack


    "for the entertainment of the gods, and the whim of the absolute god, but there will be more updates to your world." god of death


    "updates?" jack


    "their is going to be some changes to the ''system'', nice name by the way, the closest one in the future is the ability to increase stats manually, I can¡¯t tell you any of the others as they are classified beyond my right to know" god of death


    "fair enough. I don''t really have any more questions" jack


    "and it''s time for you to wake up anyway" god of death


    end chapter 15


    authors note: mother goddess got owned. also check out my first story, just one chapter.


    http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1927</a>

 chapter 16: evolving again

    Chapter 16


    "Good morning sleeping beauty" Lucy


    "I seem to have developed a habit of fainting" jack


    "So, what happened to you while you were asleep?" Johanna


    "I met the god of death and reincarnation." jack


    "Oh, you too?" Johanna


    "So how long this time?" jack


    "About two hours" Mr Smith


    "I want to check on aunty" jack


    "Fine, but let¡¯s make sure everyone else¡¯s family are safe first" Johanna


    "Are you alright?" Joe


    "Never been better. Why?" jack


    "You seem kind of, off. I can¡¯t put my finger on it" Joe


    "He¡¯s right, you seem kind of shifty, like it''s hard to look at you." sally


    "Well thanks, at least I know you think I look like a bad person" jack


    "I didn''t mean it like that" sally


    "Of course he¡¯s hard to look at; he¡¯s a shadowling for crying out loud" Mr. Smith


    "What¡¯s a shadowling?" jacobe


    "It¡¯s a demon class creator that specializes in stealth and assassination, basically the ninjas of demons." Mr. Smith


    "It suits you" Johanna


    "Thanks" jack


    "I¡¯m worried about my parents" Joe


    "I am too" sally


    "Whose house is closest?" jack


    "Ours is a block away from the school" sally


    "So yours is the closest, show us the way" Joe


    On the way I saw a lot of abandoned cars, and several wrecks. After a while I noticed something was wrong, there are no bodies.


    "It¡¯s like everyone was spirited away" sally


    "That¡¯s because that¡¯s exactly what happened, I can feel traces of a high level teleportation magic." Mr Smith


    After a couple minutes of walking the twins started running towards what I can only imagine to be their house. When we got to the door it was unlocked. Sally was visibly worried, jacobe managed to hide it pretty well but I could tell he was worried.


    "I hope their ok." sally


    Inside I saw a hallway with stairs at the end, 2 doors on the left and 3 on the right. We were guided into what I can only assume to be the kitchen, where a letter sits on the table. Sally went over and picked up the letter and started reading it with jacobe.


    "What does it say?" jack


    "That our parents are fine and that they went to a friend¡¯s house." sally


    "Where is this friend¡¯s house?" Johanna


    "On the corner of XXXXX st and XXXXX dr." jacobe


    "That¡¯s where we live!!" Johanna


    "To think, your parents knew aunty" jack


    "Yeah, she''s a really unsociable person so she doesn''t have many friends, even back home" Johanna


    <table><tbody><tr><td>stats can now be increased manually. monsters will start to spawn in the world.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "I¡¯m starving, got anything to eat?" Joe


    "yeah, I¡¯ll prepare something for you to eat" jacobe


    "I¡¯ll help you, I have the cooking skill" jack


    we made some salad because everyone, except ghost who is a carnivore, was sick of meat. everyone devoured their salad, asking for seconds and even thirds. in the end we had to make more salad, it was that good. while eating with my right hand I put my left wrist on the table then put my pinky finger on the table, picked it up and put my ring finger on the table. I did that as fast as possible with all of my fingers, never letting two fingers touch the table at any time. I ended up gaining 5 points of dex as well as unlocking the concentration stat.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.I looked outside and realized that it was too dark outside to leave. I walked around the house and found 4 bedrooms, 1 living room, and 2 bathrooms. one of the bathrooms had a bath that was huge, like one of those pointlessly large Asian style baths.


    "so where is everyone going to sleep tonight?" sally


    "I would think that everyone would stay with their people. you and your brother in one room, Joe selena in another, and mr smith on his own." jack


    "sleep with who were comfortable around, right?" sally


    "exactly" jack


    after sleeping arrangements were situated, I took the master bedroom because it had the largest bed, the girls went to take a shower.


    "don''t you dare peek on us" sally


    "master can peek on me anytime he wants" ghost


    "don''t worry I won''t peek on you, I¡¯m not interested in humans anyway. but I promise nothing for the others" jack


    "and, my entire childhood explained in 1 second" Johanna


    not even ten minutes after the girls got in the bath Joe had a completely unoriginal idea.


    "let¡¯s go peek on the girls" Joe


    "I am a selfish person, if you peek on my girls I will make you wish you were dead" jack


    jacobe went over and put his hand on Joe¡¯s shoulders, crying in terror.


    "I would join you, but I value my life" jacobe


    after that idea was successfully destroyed everyone was quiet for a couple minutes. I spoke first.


    "hey, mr smith teach us some magic" jack


    "very well, but what branch do you want to learn about?" mr smith


    "healing magic, it will be useful in emergencies" jack


    after that everyone spent hour and a half learning about healing magic. I managed to get the skill in ten minutes, the others took 3 times that. in the end my healing magic got to superior healing magic. I got 3 int from learning all of this.


    when the girls came out I was ready to go to bed. I was exhausted.


    "well good night, I¡¯m heading to bed." jack


    as I was lying in the bed I felt something warm cling on to my left side. and something that felt like a summer breeze on my right.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna can evolve. chose one:  greater wind sprite, wind elemental</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "chose the sprite" Johanna


    <table><tbody><tr><td> your pet/slave ghost can evolve. chose one: greater demon wolf, Cerberus</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''chose greater demon wolf'' ghost


    and we drift off to sleep.


    end chapter 16

 chapter 17: ghost!?

    Chapter 17


    When I wake up the first thing I see is the pale face of a certain lich hovering over mine. Not albino pale like ghosts, more like deathly pale. This makes sense as she is, technically, dead.


    "Have you been there all night?" jack


    "Yup" Lucy


    "You don''t get bored of watching me sleep?" jack


    "Compared to a hundred years in the abyss, this is extremely fascinating." Lucy


    "I guess that makes sense." jack


    I look over to Johanna who is lying next to me. She looks more like she did at the beginning of last year, taller and less childish than before. Definitely less childish. Suddenly I hear a grown from her and she picks herself up and looks at Lucy, then at me, then back at Lucy.


    "No fair, you got a head start on me" Johanna


    "I thought sprits didn''t sleep" jack


    "All creatures sleep when they evolve" Johanna


    Suddenly I hear a low moan coming from my other side. I look over at ghost and see that has a very interesting expression.


    "Ah, masters give me more. I want you to torment me more" ghost


    While ghost was sleep talking during her dream she cuts herself off with another moan. This one bigger than any of the previous ones. I feel a sticky wet spot on my leg where she¡¯s curled around me after she¡¯s done moaning.


    "Good morning master" ghost


    "Have any good dreams?" Johanna


    "One or two" ghost


    At that I smell something suspiciously similar to pancakes. The door opens and sally comes in.


    "Breakfast will be done in half an hour, after that we''re heading out so get ready." sally


    She runs out just as fast as she ran in and I hear her say the same thing to a, till that moment, still sleeping selena down the hall.


    "Well, I need to take a bath as I didn''t do so last night" jack


    I get up and grab the change of clothes that jacobe let me borrow, which, to my surprise, fit really well. As I walk to the bathroom, which is on the other side of the hall, I am followed by a mischievous wolf, sprite, and lich.


    "Oh, didn''t you three take a bath last night?" jack


    As I tease them Johanna and Lucy blush, wait I thought undead couldn''t blush, or even have a heartbeat to begin with. Now that I think about it I do hear a very faint but distinct sound of a heart beat every 30 seconds coming from Lucy. Any back on track, ghost interjects before anyone else can.


    "We all want to have a bath with you of course!" ghost


    "Well that fine I guess" jack


    It was a very eventful shower. I gained several stats points, a new stat, and three new skills. I gained the stat flexibility as well as the skills sexual prowess, triple stab, and caress. Flexibility makes me more flexible, simple as that. Sexual prowess makes me better at pleasing my partner. Triple stab, as I would find out latter, is an attack skill that allows me to attack three times for every attack when using a piercing weapon. Caress basically makes me better at petting people and animals. And the three ex-virgins and one happy man head down for breakfast.


    "Glad you could take time out of your schedule to join us for a meal" Joe


    "Gotta eat, plus I love pancakes" jack


    While we eat breakfast I decide to do an experiment with something that''s been bugging me, telepathy. Why haven''t I gained the telepathy skill yet? I think it''s because I¡¯ve only gone on premade paths when communicating with people mentally. So I try to stretch my mind out to jacobe in the same way that I stretch my mind out to ghost and Johanna when I talk telepathically with them. It takes a bit and it''s mentally straining but eventually I manage to do it.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> skill obtained: telepathy</td></tr></tbody></table>


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.''sup jacobe'' jack


    I smile as I watch him drop his fork, which was half way to his mouth and full of food.


    "whets wrong bro" sally


    jacobe just stares at the place where his fork was.


    "sup jacobe" jack


    as soon as I say that everyone looks at me, most of them have a look of confusion on their faces, but jacobe looks at me with a look of apprehension.


    "so that was you" jacobe


    "yup, just got the telepathy skill" jack


    at this mr smith dropped his fork, which was half way to his plate trying to pick up more pancake.


    "did you just say telepathy?" mr smith


    "yes, I did. it is actually pretty easy to get, assuming you have communicated with someone telepathically before." jack


    "but how?" mr smith


    "I guess it''s like flexing a muscle you weren¡¯t aware of previously, if you¡¯re aware of it is much easier to flex than if you aren¡¯t aware of it. ¡°jack


    mr smith seems to ponder this for a time. we start eating again and after a while I hear banging on the other side of the front door. no one reacts to this so I just continue eating until I hear banging on the other side of the kitchen door. when it opens up I see a scar faced man, he is pretty burly but when I check his level it is only 3. I check his stats, I figured out how to do that when observe ranked up, and notice that all of his stats are extremely low, except his strength and vitality which were well above average.


    "Joe you deal with this one" jack


    "huh, why me!" Joe


    "because I believe that you can take care of him" jack


    "you just want me to kill him, don''t you?" Joe


    "if that¡¯s what it takes" jack


    "why don''t you do it then?" Joe


    "because I¡¯m eating, besides if you don''t want him to die you want to do it yourself. I would kill him in a heartbeat, just cause he''s human filth that disturbed my meal." jack


    at the particular nasty way I said that last part everyone, even the level three bandit who until that point had been frozen in place, look at me with confusion(except ghost of course)


    "hah, little kids like you can''t touch an adult like me." bandit


    ok now he was really pissing me off, if Joe doesn¡¯t do anything I am going to butcher him alive.


    "Joe, if you want this man to live much longer you might want to knock him out" jack


    "fine" Joe


    "what can a child like you do to--" bandit


    he was cut off by having his leg cut off, with a rather heavy hatchet swing. surprisingly it doesn''t bleed, I think Joe used some healing magic on him to cauterize the wound. surprise at having his leg cut off caused him to faint.


    "impressive" jack


    he just glares at me.


    suddenly another guy comes in looks at Joe, then at the man on the ground. he then starts to shriek like a little girl while pissing himself.


    "shut him up will you" jack


    "I¡¯m not your slave." Joe


    even though he says that Joe bashes him on the head with the flat of his hatchet.


    after I finish eating I go over and search the bodies. after a minute or two I find what I¡¯m looking for, a knife. it''s poorly made and not properly balanced but it will do its job.


    "well let¡¯s head out, to your house Joe, right?" jack


    "yeah, I guess" Joe


    End chapter 17


    sory i haven''t posted in a couple days, i keep getting distracted by other stories.


    any way what do you all think of jack, is he the dashing prince of your dreams, or is he a demon who should go back to hell, or is he some were in between. tell me what you think about him in the comments

 chapter 18: brainwashing

    Chapter 18


    As we walk we come across some lesser monsters, mostly goblins. I had a lot of free time so I started to think, which if you ask Johanna is extremely dangerous. To quote "if you see jack thinking run for your life, because you might not have it in a couple minutes", harsh. Anyway, I think about applications for my skills, mostly telepathy. When we take a break to rest I go into a nearby abandoned house to use the continently clean toilet, when I start to head back to the living room when I see, or rather smell, a goblin.


    ''Perfect, I needed a test subject'' jack


    I touch my mind to its using telepathy. The goblin has a surprisingly simple mind, only thinking the word mate over and over with the occasional feed mixed in.


    ''Mate, mate, mate, mate, feed, mate, mate, mate.'' goblin


    I try to mask the sound of my thoughts and start the experiment.


    ''Feed, feed, feed, feed'' jack


    I reputedly sent the word feed to the goblin until something interesting started to happen.


    ''Mate, mate, feed, mate, mate, feed'' goblin


    He was thinking feed more often now. I continue doing this until he only thought about eating, it took about 15 minutes.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> skill obtained: brainwashing </td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®Check skill brainwashing¡¯ jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>brainwashing</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: active</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: legendary</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: this skill allows you to change someone¡¯s personality. Simpler creature takes less time. Higher levels reduce time required. If the target is aware of the brainwashing it takes significantly more time.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''now let¡¯s test something else'' jack


    I send pain to him, pure, unadultered, and pain. I notice that my mp is going down slightly, about one point every 5 seconds.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>magic skill obtained: psychological magic</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®check skill psychological magic¡¯ jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>psychological magic</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>skill type: magic</td><td colspan=''2''>rarity: legendary</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level: 1</td><td colspan=''2''>Exp, 10%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Description: any magic that has to do with the mind is here.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    for some reason I don''t hear any screaming, normally with that amount of pain you would at least scream a little. I go into the other room to check up on my test subject. I find him in the kitchen in front of an open refrigerator, dead. he died of a heart attack the instant the pain hit him. I find a necklace on his chest, likely a drop. when I use observe on it I see something pretty interesting.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> necklace of old man the glutton. this necklace was owned by an old goblin, apparently he obtained the title glutton 5 minutes before being killed by a mysterious heart attack. enchant able</td></tr></tbody></table>


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.I walk back to the living room with a big grin plastered on my face.


    "what took you so long?" jacobe


    "brainwashing a goblin" jack


    he seems to think about that for a couple seconds, likely trying to figure out if I¡¯m talking in code.


    "what do you mean by that?" jacobe


    "exactly what I said" jack


    "ok, now that everyone¡¯s ready, let¡¯s head out. only an hour till lunch and still 3 mile to cover" Joe


    the rest of the journey to Joe¡¯s house was uneventful, sure we came across a couple low level creatures, mostly monster class, but that was it. when we got to the twins house it was locked, luckily sally had a key. inside it was pretty small not much to note.


    we start looking for their parents but all we found was a spot in the yard that was a little different than before. when I used observe on it this popped up.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> beginner dungeon. level: 1, current occupants: 2, original occupants: 2 projected time till completion: 1.503 weeks, reentry: no</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "do you want the good new or the bad new first?" jack


    "um, good news, I guess" Joe


    "your parents are alive" jack


    "whets the bad news?" Joe


    "their not getting out of their dungeon for another weak and a half and we can''t go in to help them" jack


    jacobe and sally look at each other and nod, sometimes I wonder if they don''t already have telepathy.


    "we will leave them a note telling them where to go" jacobe


    after that settled jacobe cooks up something to eat and I go over to talk to Joe in the living room.


    "I was kind of an ass this morning, sorry" jack


    "no, it''s cool" Joe


    "no I really feel guilty" jack


    this line is total BS, I am not capable of guilt.


    "oh, I know how to make it up to you" jack


    before he can say anything I dive into his mind, finding what I want I use some psychological magic coupled with illusion magic. he suddenly slumps down in his seat and a couple minutes latter a wet spot appears on his pants. I know for a fact that it''s not urine, he doesn''t have those tastes, I checked. he gets up a couple minutes latter grinning ear to ear. he suddenly grabs my shoulders.


    "you are the most amazing mother fucker in the whole god damn world." Joe


    "um, thanks, I guess" jack


    what I did was dive into his memories and finds his favorite AV actress. I then put Joe into a scene where he gets to have fun with her, with the help of psychological magic and illusion magic. strangely the actress looks almost identical to selena, and he met selena first.


    "how did you do that?" Joe


    "magic" jack


    "foods ready" jacobe


    it turns out that lunch is a casserole. it was good, but I was hoping for something a little more sweet. I like sweets, especially pancakes.


    end chapter 18


    authors note: to continue from last chapter, what do you think of ghost. is she the goddess that you worship or a rabid beast that should be put down, or somewhere in between. leave your answer in the comments.


    also wow i didn''t notice what a short chapter this was, well i mostly typed this up last night when i should have been asleep.

 chapter 19: serial killer

    Chapter 19


    after I sit down to eat ghost and sally come in from behind me, I turn around to greet them when I see an albino wolf furry, standing next to sally.


    "What happened?" jack


    "Sally showed me something called the internet, it''s a wonderful thing with tons of information." ghost


    I stand up and put my hands sally''s shoulders. For some reason she gets really nervous. I give her thumbs up.


    "Good job." jack


    "This form is really useful; I can get almost all the advantages of being in wolf form while keeping the advantages of human form. The only downside is that I can only use it for at most 1 hour." ghost


    "That¡¯s fine." jack


    After that we quickly finished eating.


    "Hey Joe, you should leave a note telling your parents where we are going." Johanna


    "Sure, but what do I put on it in the event that we are already at your home town before they get out?" Joe


    "That¡¯s right, we don''t know the name of the place where you two grew up yet" jacobe


    "Now that I think about it, we haven''t told them that yet." Johanna


    "It¡¯s the village of the gods" jack


    At this everyone except for ghost, who was indifferent like usual, and Lucy, who was laughing a little, was staring at us with their mouths gaping open.


    "You mean that legendary village where the gods hold all of their important meetings?" mr smith


    "The very same. although, contrary to popular belief, the village forming was not due to the direct action of the gods, but rather a byproduct of gods frequenting the area. All the creatures in that area were significantly stronger due to them evolving. There¡¯s a lot more that I¡¯ll go into when we actually get there" Johanna


    "I honestly didn''t know that." jack


    "When was the last time you paid attention during history class?" Johanna


    "When was the last time I attended history class?" jack


    "I don''t know. What we¡¯re doing during school anyway, I never managed to figure that one out." Johanna


    "Well, half the time I was stalking my next victim, and the other half I was training in various dojos" jack


    "Wait, what do you mean by ''stalking my next victim''? Are you some kind of serial killer?" selena


    "Yes, I am. Although all of my victims are child molesters and rapists, except martin of course." jack


    "Great, our party¡¯s leader is a serial killer with a sense of justice. If it wasn''t for the whole situation I would be extremely disturbed right now." jacobe


    "I don''t have a sense of justice" jack


    ''I¡¯m not capable of something like that'' jack


    ¡°I just targeted people that most wouldn¡¯t go looking for" jack


    "Why are you telling us this now then, won''t you go to jail if this gets out?" selena


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Nope, all 11 of my kills, well 12 now with martin, are legal." jack


    "Two things. First, you realize that having that kill count makes you the most successful serial killer in living memory. Second, how exactly are they legal?" sally


    "I can explain that. In our village there are two ways to kill someone legally, the first is to not get caught for a set period of time, and this one is almost never used. The other is to challenge someone to a duel to the death. This is much more popular. Although I say it''s more popular there is still almost no one that does either one anymore" Johanna


    "The method I use is the first method. I even got a nick name for it, phantom. Although the one I used with martin was the second, as he unintentionally initiated a duel to the death when he tried to kill Me." jack


    "Out of curiosity, when did you get your first kill?" mr smith


    everyone stares at the teacher who, until just now, had remained silent.


    "when I was 5 years old, a man attempted to rape Johanna, I cut his throat out." jack


    "I think we should start moving now before it gets late" jacobe


    "yeah, better not dwell on our companions past too much, especially as he is the reason most of us are alive" Joe


    and so we started walking in silence, after a while I saw something in the distance, too far for any of the others to see.


    "hey, I¡¯m going to scout ahead a bit" jack


    "I¡¯ll join you." Johanna


    let me explain something about religion in this world. there is only one monotheistic religion, it is known simply as the church. the church makes up a vast majority of the humans that are aware of magic, among other things. they also preach human superiority and the extinction of all creatures that are not human. needless to say I fucking hate the church. this is why I smiled in glee as I watched one of their temples burn in front of me. to my surprise Johanna was making the second happiest face I had ever seen, the first being the time in the shower.


    "I think I¡¯m a bad influence on you" jack


    "maybe just a little bit" Johanna


    "what happened here" jacobe


    "I don''t know, maybe someone who managed to get out of their dungeon looted it and burned it. temples do hold a lot of valuables. or maybe other creatures got to it" Johanna


    ''I really am a bad influence on you'' jack


    ''I know :)'' Johanna


    ''did you seriously send a smiley face via telepathy?'' jack


    "I see" jacobe


    chapter 19


    authors note: if you have any questions please ask them as i want to do a q&a in a couple chapters, and i am sorely lacking in material in that regard

 chapter 20: rats

    Chapter 20


    After walking for a couple hours we come across a slightly stronger creature, a troll. Before anyone can react to it Lucy freezes it, and then smashes its skull with her fist.


    "Impressive" mr smith


    after a couple minutes of walking in silence Joe decides to break it.


    "hey mr smith, what is your favorite magic?" Joe


    "hmm, good question. I guess the one I use most would be illusion magic, the only reason for that though is to hide from the church some of my other enemies." mr smith


    "why is the church your enemy?" sally


    "I did a couple things to piss them off a while back" mr smith


    "like what, anything that you did to piss them off must be good" jack


    "I killed 50 of their high inquisitors during a raid on the capital" mr smith


    "wait, that was you 3 years ago?" jacobe


    "why would you do something like that?" sally


    "simple, the church preaches human superiority and extinction of everything else. I plan on doing much worse things to them in the future." jack


    "I did not know that" Joe


    When it starts to get dark we approach a house that seems good to spend the night in. The door is locked, by the window next to the door is wide open. After a minute of trying to unlock the door through the window we walk inside and jacobe goes to the kitchen while the rest of us enter the living room. I check out all of the rooms in one of them I find a couple people. There are three men and 2 children, one of the men looks suspiciously like a bishop.


    ¡°who are you¡± man# 1


    ¡°names jack, who are you people¡± jack


    ¡°I¡¯m cath and my brother here is Mathew, these kids are his¡± cath


    ¡°and I am father marks¡± marks


    ¡°a friend of mine is cooking downstairs, there is more than enough food for everyone here¡± jack


    ¡°is this place yours?¡± Mathew


    ¡°no it¡¯s not, just stopping here for the night leaving first thing in the morning¡± jack


    When we go downstairs I get questioned by jacobe.


    ¡°who¡¯re these people?¡± jacobe


    ¡°they were here first so it¡¯s only natural that we feed them before moving on¡± jack


    ¡°fair enough¡± jacobe


    ¡®are you really fine with that one being here?¡¯ Johanna


    As she said that she looked at marks.


    ¡®nope, but I¡¯ll deal with that later. For now I want some food¡¯ jack


    Food turned out to be sausages, Much to the delight of ghost.


    ¡°tell us your story¡± sally


    To summarize what they said shoot monster, run from big monster, and survive. It really wasn¡¯t very interesting or important.


    after eating I called out to marks.


    ¡°hey marks I want to talk to you outside for a minute.¡± Jack


    ¡°very well, I wanted to talk to you privately as well¡± marks


    When we heeded outside he turns to me with anger in his eyes.


    ¡°how are you alive, I thought we killed off the last of the shadowlings¡± marks


    ¡°interesting, you will never know¡± jack


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    As soon as I said that I killed him, mortal combat style. I ripped his heart out and crushed it with my bear hands. As soon as I did that I saw some rat type monsters. This particular type of monster likes to swarm their meal in massive numbers. I clean my hands off with some magically created water. As soon as the blood stained water hit the ground all of the rats perked up as if smelling prey, which they had. A second latter they attack me and started eating the dead man at my feet, a perfect cover up. I killed a couple rats, which got eaten by other rats, and got bit and scratched once or twice. I retreat inside while casting a spell to prevent infection.


    When I walk in Mathew approaches me.


    ¡°hey where is marks?¡± Mathew


    ¡°he was eaten, by some rat creatures¡± jack


    ¡°I, I see¡± Mathew


    ¡°he was a good man¡± cath


    ¡°what were you talking about out there?¡± Mathew


    ¡°something really boring that has to do with religion and- oh shit their coming inside¡± jack


    It was just me, the kids, Mathew, and cath in here. Everyone else was in the living room, and by the sound of it they had it worse. as the rats started pouring in through the front door the brothers took out identical handguns and started shooting the rats, the only problem was that they haven¡¯t, hit, once.


    ¡°bah, just give those to me¡± jack


    I take the guns out of their hands, much to their surprise. They start to protest but as soon as I start shooting they stop. I run forward into a melee with the rats using kicks, strikes, and the occasional shot from the gun to kill the rats.


    ¡°so how are we supposed to fight then?¡± cath


    ¡°use your fists, I guess. Just kill anything that gets past me. Also, give me your ammo.¡± Jack


    As soon as I said that a two clips of ammo appeared in front of me. I caught them and reloaded the guns faster than I ever have before. These inflated stats at work again.


    After about 15 minutes we had killed all the rats on our end. I look toward the guys and notice that cath


    is lying down, heavily injured from the fight.


    ¡°bro, tell my wife I love her¡± cath


    Where have I seen this before?


    ¡°you say that like you¡¯re going to die.¡± Jack


    ¡°I am, my health is at 10 with a heavy bleed effect¡± cath


    ¡°you¡¯re not going to die, you know why? Because of this.¡± Jack


    When I say that I snap my fingers and use some high level healing magic on him to restore his hp to about ? and remove the bleed effect. His wounds start to visibly heal.


    ¡°thanks man, I owe you my life.¡± Cath


    ¡°it was nothing, mana regenerates, lives do not¡± jack


    That line was total bullshit, I don¡¯t care if he dies, but I can use him latter because of this.


    End chapter 20


    school is out for the summer. i would normally type during school, so now i don''t type as much (blame rrl) so chapters will most likely be shorter.

 chapter 21: what youve all been waiting for

    warning: this chapter is very graphic


    Chapter 21


    When we entered the living room, where everyone else was, I saw dead rats littering the floors, chairs, table, etc.


    ¡°Where¡¯s that priest?¡± Joe


    ¡°He was eaten by some rats¡± jack


    After we clean up the rats, by carrying them outside and burning them, I check for any loot. We find a couple rat teeth and a low quality gem stone, nothing worth our time.


    After cleaning up the rats we all head off to bed, with me and the girls taking the master bedroom. In one of the doors in the master bedroom ghost finds some rope, a lot of rope. I turn my back for five minutes to get ready for the night and find her lying on the bed in bondage; she striped and tied herself up within 5 minutes. Almost immediately Johanna strips and tackles the bound ghost. Lucy just stares at the two in shock.


    ¡°Ghost is a maschocist in case you hadn¡¯t figured that out yet¡± jack


    *moan*¡±give me more¡± ghost


    ¡°Are you sure? I won¡¯t let you stop all night. After all, I don¡¯t need sleep¡± Johanna


    *moan*¡±don¡¯t¡±*moan*¡±stop¡± ghost


    Johanna starts laughing in glee. I look at her hands and see that they are literally vibrating while they grope and pleasure ghost. After watching that for a couple minutes I start to hear panting beside me, when I turn to look at Lucy I find on the floor masturbating.


    ¡®This is going to be a long, fun night¡¯ jack


    I pick Lucy up and drop her on the bed right next to Johanna and ghost.


    ¡°Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh¡± ghost


    Ghost screams in delight when Johanna starts fingering her. Lucy gets up and forces me down onto the bed and shoves her tongue down my thought while her hands start to up and down my back and chest before slowly migrating to my shaft. I stick my hand inside the lich and she finally lets me catch my breath. I look over at ghost and Johanna; ghost had passed out with a look of ecstasy on her face.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think that you can escape that easily¡± Johanna


    Johanna goes down and bites ghost on the muscle between the neck and shoulder, causing ghost to jump awake. At this point Lucy shoves her tongue into my mouth again, only this time I¡¯m prepared, I shove mine down her thought causing her to moan deeply. Lucy pulls away after a couple minutes before smiling.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to like this¡± Lucy


    Lucy creeps down the bed before putting her nice breasts around my shaft. I look over at Johanna and ghost and see that Johanna¡¯s hand is somehow missing between ghost¡¯s legs and their sharing a very passionate kiss. At that time I feel a huge build up of pressure and let it out on Lucy¡¯s face.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Oh, blew your load already?¡± Lucy


    ¡°At this rate I could keep going all night¡± jack


    ¡°Oh really? We will see about that.¡± Lucy


    Lucy then starts to caress my number with her tongue for a couple minutes before sucking on the tip. At this point ghost had fainted again only to be bit again causing ghost to moan in pleasure and wake back up.


    ¡°I told you, there is no escape.¡± Johanna


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to escape¡± ghost


    Lucy now had my entire number in her mouth and was using her tongue to wrap around it. Where did she learn to use her tongue so skillfully? I reach down and start to play with Lucy¡¯s breasts causing her to moan with delight.


    ¡°Johanna!¡± ghost


    Ghost screams her sister¡¯s name then starts panting heavily.


    ¡°Oh? You didn¡¯t faint this time, good.¡± Johanna


    <table><tbody><tr><td> your pet/slave ghost has unlocked the stat endurance</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I ignore the system message and continue to massage Lucy¡¯s hand sized breasts. Lucy starts to play with my balls with the hand that isn¡¯t busy pleasuring herself. Johanna is now grinding on the bound wolf while playing with her tongue with her hand. At this point Lucy climbs back up my body and starts to massage my member with her feet. I create a dildo out of ice and stick it in her, she cums just from that.


    It continues like that for a couple minutes before I erupt again. Lucy then starts to grind on my large member before putting it inside. While she¡¯s doing that ghost, who is still bound, and Johanna have started to eat each other out. Lucy starts to rock her hips slowly, but I take over and put her on the bottom and move back and forth at a faster speed while sucking on her breasts.


    We continue like this all night, changing things up from time to time. Ghost fainted a couple more times only to be bit again by Johanna, I think at least a couple of the times she fainted she did it on purpose just so her sister would bite her.


    End chapter 21


    authors note: so in this chapter we have incest, bestiality, necrophilia, and bondage.

 chapter 22: wepons, seals, and a god

    Chapter 22


    In the morning, when the sun came up not when I woke up as I did not sleep that night, I see ghost fell asleep and Johanna was about to wake her up again when I stopped her.


    ¡°Let her sleep, we don¡¯t want her to be exhausted latter¡± jack


    ¡°What about you, shadowlings do need sleep¡± Johanna


    ¡°I can go for as much as a week without sleep before suffering from sleep deprivation¡± jack


    ¡°What caused that?¡± Lucy


    ¡°Sometimes when I stalk my next victim I need to stay awake for long periods of time¡± jack


    At this we all get off and I rinse everyone off with some water magic and we all dry ourselves off with a towel we found in the closet.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>update: more information when receiving skills, titles, and stats.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>due to your long, exhilarating night, you and your pets/slaves have received the following bonuses:


    +5 str


    +4 dex


    + endurance stat


    +10 edr


    + flexibility stat


    + 10 flx</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®thats nice¡¯ jack


    When we all, except ghost who we let sleep, go downstairs everyone was looking at us with a mixture of amusement and annoyance.


    ¡°thanks for keeping us up all night¡± selena


    ¡°was it really that bad?¡± Johanna


    ¡°no, after 3 hours Mr. Smith cast a sound barrier around your room. But, the damage was done, everyone stayed up most the night dealing with certain issues privately¡± selena


    ¡°so where are our guests?¡± jack


    ¡°they are dead asleep in their room, they somehow managed to get the room farthest from yours as well as it being sound proof.¡± Sally


    ¡°that was planned, didn¡¯t exactly want the kids to hear that¡± jack


    ¡°fair enough¡± jacobe


    At that point our temporary guests came down from their room.


    ¡°hear what?¡± cath


    ¡°I had a little fun last night¡± jack


    ¡°in that case, thanks for giving us the recording studio¡± Mathew


    ¡°is that what that room was?¡± Lucy


    After we finish breakfast of ham and eggs we all meet up on the porch outside.


    ¡°we can get to auntie¡¯s house by lunch time today if we hurry.¡± Jack


    ¡°alright¡± Joe


    ¡°lets go¡± sally


    ¡°yes¡± jacobe


    ¡°hey can we talk to you for a bit, jack?¡± Cath


    I walk over to where they called me. I see that they have everything they need packed up and ready to go.


    ¡°hey, listen, we¡¯re not going to join you guys in your journey, we need to find our wives. But, we were wondering if there was any way we could help you out, I owe you my life after all.¡± Cath


    ¡°I want you to gather up all the survivors you can find, I¡¯m predicting a 20% survival rate. I also want you to put them through this training schedule¡± jack


    As I hand him the schedule he visibly pales. At this time Johanna comes over to us.


    ¡°what¡¯s that?¡± Johanna


    Cath hands the paper to Johanna who quickly reads over it.


    ¡°what¡¯s with this training schedule, it¡¯s so light.¡± Johanna


    ¡°it¡¯s a watered down version of mine¡± jack


    ¡°an extremely watered down version¡± Johanna


    ¡°are you crazy!? That¡¯s twice as bad as BT!¡± Cath


    ¡°then hand these out to them¡± jack


    I give him a large bag filled with bracelets that I had bought a while back. I had enchanted them to greatly improve stamina and recovery times.


    ¡°their are a couple thousand in there, each one has an enchantment that greatly improves stamina and recovery times¡± jack


    ¡°how did you get these?¡± Mathew


    ¡°simple, I made them¡± jack


    ¡°wait, are you trying to build an army?¡± Cath


    ¡°good, you catch on quickly.¡± Jack


    *sigh*¡± well at least this time I¡¯m the trainer. I¡¯ll help you with this, but only because I think you¡¯ll be successful and you saved my life. Nothing wrong with being on the winning side¡± Cath


    I just smile at this. When I start to walk away Cath¡¯s daughter grabs my pant leg and looks up into my eye.


    ¡°You did something to that creepy priest, thanks, he was always making me uncomfortable with how he looked at me¡± little girl


    I smile and nod my head a little before joining the rest of the group.


    We start to head out. it was a smooth trip not many aggressive creatures, probably because it was the middle of a city, and the gods didn¡¯t want to kill everyone off. After a while I see a familiar figure in the distance, an old friend.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°who are you?¡± ghost


    ¡°he is the minor god of war, as well as an old friend of mine¡± jack


    ¡°lesser god of war now, jack¡± war


    ¡°oh, you got a promotion? Good for you¡± jack


    ¡°hey war, long time no see¡± Johanna


    ¡°about how old is this god of war¡± Mr. Smith


    ¡°younger than you¡± jack


    ¡°how old do you think I am?¡± Mr. smith


    ¡°more than 400 years old¡± jack


    ¡°how did¡ª¡° Mr. smith


    ¡°simple, you are the immortal devil Asmodeus, the hero of the last crusade. But, let¡¯s talk about that latter, you obviously didn¡¯t come for nothing war. Let me guess, you want to show off to your old friend in a duel now that you got promoted.¡± Jack


    ¡°you know me so well¡± war


    ¡°unfortunately I don¡¯t have a proper weapon and my seal is still active until I can get the old man¡¯s wife to take it off¡± jack


    ¡°what seal?¡± selena


    ¡°when I came down here I had a seal placed on me to limit 95% of my abilities.¡± jack


    ¡°I can help with both of those problems. Here, swallow this pill, it was made by the chief¡¯s wife to get rid of the seal, unfortunately Johanna has to get hers removed when you get home¡± war


    I take the pill and swallow it quickly.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> an extremely powerful curse has been lifted off of you</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>for having a very powerful curse placed on you and then latter removed you have gained the title cursed child which helps you resist curses</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡°and here are your favorite weapons.¡± War


    ¡°how the hell did you get into my vault, greater gods struggle to get in there¡± jack


    ¡°I didn¡¯t, the chief did¡± war


    I take my twin daggers and use observe on them.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>phantom¡¯s twin daggers</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>durability: 99999/99999[/td4][td2]Damage 400-500</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>these weapons are used by the serial killer phantom. They have been infused with part of his personality, this process that would normally take generations was greatly sped up by frequently bathing in the blood of gods</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>effects: +100 all stats,


    While holding these daggers you are not affected by many emotions(i.e. compassion, fear, etc.)


    While holding these daggers you are calm regardless of the situation.


    Auto repair 99999/day</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡°those daggers are terrifying, I don¡¯t ever want to feel that again¡± war


    ¡°are you ready to start?¡± jack


    ¡°I have to warn you, I have gotten much stronger in these past 2 years¡± war


    ¡°as have I¡± jack


    War pulls a huge battle ax out of thin air and slams it down where I was the moment before. I counter by slicing at his hand, unfortunately my dagger fails to pierce the skin of this god. He yanks his ax out of the ground with ease and with a well trained swing he tries to cut my legs off, I jump over it and land on the ax head only to jump off of it and over wars head. I stab the giant man¡¯s upper back as I come falling back down, luckily this time it pierces the skin and slides. I slid down his back holding on to the daggers cutting through the mussels on either side of the spine. when I land I kick off and sidestep an ax swing that grazes my arm, unfortunately his wounds are staring to heal already. I rush him before he can recover and attempt to stab him through the heart, as that is the only way I can win this fight, only to get impaled by the spike on the tip of his spear and vanish into a puff of smoke. I then stab him in the back through the heart using back stab and assassinate for good measure. All of this took 5 seconds.


    ¡°I admit, I lost, I fell for your trap. But tell me, when the hell did you learn illusion magic?¡± war


    ¡°a couple days ago¡± jack


    ¡°that was amazing!¡± sally


    ¡°not as amazing as your breathtaking beauty¡± war


    As he says this he extends his hand to sally while bowing slightly with an award winning smile on his face. Sally starts blushing, well more like her entire face went red. I suddenly feel a swell of pride, when I first met war he was completely useless around women, now he is a total lady killer. I wonder if this is what parents feel like when they see their children becoming successful.


    End chapter 22

 charecter descriptions

    Character descriptions (thanks truth for the tables)


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>Jack</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">66 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">Black</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">Black, but burns red in rage</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">Toned but Skinny</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">15</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">Slightly Tanned</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>It is hard to keep an eye on him and pick out details on his body. He has an aura around him that makes people instinctively fear him, possibly due to his constant training, or his successful career as a serial killer. Always wears a plain grey undyed shirt, possibly enchanted</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>Johanna</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">59 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">brown</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">pure yellow, no whites</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">slender</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">15?</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">fair skinned</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>her ears are pointed like an elves and she has no whites in her eyes</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>Ghost</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">70 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">white</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">red</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">curvy, definitely curvy</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">6</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">albino white</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>she has wolf ear and fangs, she occasionally turns into a wolf</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>Lucy</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">68 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">black</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">dull grey</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">slightly curvy</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">2000</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">very pale</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>not much except her unnaturally pale skin</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>mr smith/asmodeous</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">84 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">black</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">red</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">muscular</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">400+</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">white</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>he always wears a tuxedo that miraculously stays constantly clean, possibly enchanted</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>joe</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">63 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">black</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">blue</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">skinny</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">16</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">slightly tan</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>always carries a hatchet with him, occasionally looks at selena with longing/lust</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>selena</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">72 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">blond</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">blue</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">slender</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">17</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">white</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>she is very attractive, alwase has a wedding ring on her finger</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>jacobe</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">63 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">red</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">blue</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">thin with muscular arms</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">16</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">brown</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>carries a bow around but no arrows, possibly enchanted or has a conjuring spell</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>NAME</td><td colspan=''2''>sally</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Height</td><td width="25%">63 in.</td><td width="25%">Hair Color</td><td width="25%">red</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Eye Color</td><td width="25%">blue</td><td width="25%">Build</td><td width="25%">slender</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Age</td><td width="25%">16</td><td width="25%">Skin Color</td><td width="25%">brown</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Noticeable Features</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>always carries a certain book with her</td></tr></tbody></table>


    when i introduce new important charecters i will add them here.

 chapter 23: vacations

    Chapter 23


    War decides to come with us back to the village as he has to go back their anyway.


    ¡°So why don¡¯t gods have names? All the gods we¡¯ve met didn¡¯t have a proper name.¡± Joe


    ¡°Any god lower rank than greater doesn¡¯t get a name¡± war


    ¡°Then what about charm? Does she have a name?¡± jacobe


    ¡°She does but I don¡¯t care to learn it¡± jack


    ¡°Interesting¡± selena


    ¡°Speaking of which, how¡¯s your big sister, war?¡± jack


    ¡°Yeah, how is Jackline¡± Johanna


    ¡°She is busy, very busy. With all this crap going on with the system, as you named it¡± war


    ¡°Figures, the greater goddess of wisdom and death has plenty of work to do, it never ends really¡± jack


    ¡°She said she¡¯ll be able to take a break in a weak¡± war


    ¡°Good, good¡± jack


    ¡°What the hell man, how many gods do you know?¡± jacobe


    ¡°I remember hell, top 5 vacations ever¡± jack


    ¡°Best hot springs ever¡± Johanna


    ¡°I wish I could have gone to hell instead of the abyss, you have no idea how boring that place is¡± Lucy


    ¡°Actually I do, I spent about a week there before I couldn¡¯t take it anymore. I wouldn¡¯t survive a hundred years in that place, there is nothing to do there¡± jack


    ¡°You sound like you¡¯ve been to very interesting places before¡± sally


    ¡°we¡¯ve been all over this world as well as several others, although you can¡¯t spend more than a couple weeks outside of your own world without getting really sick, unless you have an item that prevents said sickness or belong to race that travels between worlds, like many undead, such as Lucy who goes to the abyss every time she dies and has to wait till someone summons her back here.¡± Jack


    ¡°How exactly do you travel to all these places?¡± selena


    ¡°It¡¯s amazing what you can do when many of your friends and allies are gods¡± jack


    At this they all just stare at us, except ghost who was grinning.


    ¡°Master is amazing¡± ghost


    We continue to walk and I check out some of my racial skills. Thin presence causes me to be noticed less, torment causes any psychological or physical attack designed to cause suffering be more effective. Demonic presence is basically the opposite of thin presence; it causes everything to notice me and to instill fear. Silent step is a passive skill that makes we walk silently, which I already did. Blink is a short range teleportation skill, at my current level I can teleport anywhere I can see within 6 feet. Transparency is a passive skill that makes it impossible for an untrained eye to see details about my appearance, and makes it harder for a trained eye to do the same.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    ¡°I wonder how aunty and uncle are doing.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Aunty is fine, and uncle probably used the time to do an experiment with magic on the monsters.¡± Jack


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard you mention aunty before but who is uncle?¡± selena


    ¡°Auntie¡¯s husband, how that elf managed to woo an incubus I will never know.¡± Jack


    ¡°You know, I am not going to be surprised by anything say anymore¡± sally


    We kept walking for a couple hours; we were getting close to home. When we were a block away something caught my attention in the edge of my vision, which was almost directly behind me with how high my vision stat was. Unfortunately it was already too late, a dart had hit everyone except Johanna war and I. Johanna had 2 darts, war had none, and I had more than 5 in me.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> you have been poisoned by a magically enhanced sleeping poison. Its effects are tripled. Due to your resistance to poisons the effects are decreased by 80%</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I got this notification 5 times, 1 for every dart. As my consciousness was drifting off I realize who could have possibly done this, there is only one person I know who can make high quality poisons like this, and that knows about my resistance to said poisons.


    ¡®Should¡¯ve figured this would happen¡¯ jack


    End chapter 23


    authors note: i like comments. you like comments. he, she, it likes comments.

 chapter 24: torture, part 2

    Chapter 24


    When I woke up I found myself on a prison bed with my hands chained to the head board. I look around and see that there are two men, probably military or ex military by the looks of them, playing cards on a small table behind bars. No, wait; I¡¯m the one behind bars.


    ¡®To easy, she¡¯s rather lacking imagination with this test. I mean a prison break test? That¡¯s Childs play, literally.¡¯ Jack


    ¡°Oh look, the prisoner is awake¡± guard # 1


    ¡°Aw, I wanted to splash water on his face¡± guard #2


    ¡®I know a way to make this more fun. Torture, psychological torture. But before that I want food¡¯ jack


    I look over to what I assume to be the food that I¡¯m supposed to eat and see that it is some rancid grey slop.


    ¡®On second thought, I can go without food for a week; it wouldn¡¯t be the first time.¡¯ Jack


    ¡°Hey kid, do you want some of this fantastic food?¡± guard


    As he said that he spit into the bowl.


    ¡®I¡¯ll get revenge for this¡¯ jack


    ¡°Why would I want the rancid horse shit that you enjoy as a delicacy¡± jack


    ¡°Hah, their always strong in the beginning, but having nothing to do but lay down and feeling hungry and thirsty for days tends to break people.¡± Guard # 2 who will now be referred to as 2


    ¡°I think you¡¯ll find that you will be the one to break¡± jack


    They both just glare at me before going back to their card game, I think its poker. I start by meditating, after meditating for a couple minutes I activate my thin presence ability and begin to extend my mind towards the two idiots, only real back at first, their minds are filthy and scattered. Their minds are similar to their appearance, that is to say, ugly. I shudder a little in disgust before diving back into their minds. I look through their recent memories for a second just to confirm what I already know. I trigger the areas of their brains that control things like fear, paranoia, irritation, and aggression, and dull the areas that control things like cognitive thinking and trust. I wait for a couple minutes, opening my eyes to see that they are both scratching themselves, before continuing.


    ¡®This is exhausting, but also really fun. I am going to have to train this, a lot.¡¯ Jack


    I start by creating a small sound inside their mind, just a barely audible tic sound, and every 3 seconds. Every 30 seconds I make it just slightly louder. After about 10 minutes I see that they are more irritated, scratching more, standing up occasionally, only to sit back down, things like that. After 15 minutes of this they start audibly complaining.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to have to tell that hag about all of the mosquitoes down here, I¡¯ve never been so itchy in my life¡± 1


    Things along those lines. I watch as they get affected more and more by my psychological torment. After about 7 hours one of them finally snaps and starts screaming at the other one, at this point I can¡¯t make out what he¡¯s saying, his voice being affected by me and due to the fact that I¡¯m concentrating on keeping everything going. As soon as 1 starts screaming, at least I think its 1, 2 snap as well and start screaming at 1. I unfortunately still can¡¯t make out what their saying, but they haven¡¯t noticed me due to my thin presence ability. After about 10 minutes of screaming 1 reaches for his gun and shoots 2, he misses which causes 2 to reach for his gun and shoot. 2 hits 1 in the leg, arm, stomach, and ball sack, while getting shot in the arms, chest, and finally, the head. At this point I turn off my abilities allowing 1 to think clearly as well as notice me.


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°I told you that you¡¯d be the one to break¡± jack


    When I said that his face changed from a look of total confusion to one of absolute haltered. I¡¯ve seen that look on people a number of times, mostly right before I kill them.


    ¡°You did this to us! You, you monster! You demon!¡± 1


    ¡°Technically the second one is correct¡± jack


    ¡°I¡¯ve got three bullets left, not enough to kill you, but at least I can destroy the only set of keys to the door and your handcuffs.¡± 1


    He then took out a key ring with two keys on it and put a round into both of them. Then I snap the chains on my hand cuffs with my bare hands and stand up. I take a minute to slowly tare the actual cuffs off, exaggerating everything. Once they are off I feel up the bars of the door.


    ¡®Hmm, iron¡¯ jack


    After feeling around for a minute I find what I¡¯m looking for, three week spots in the metal. I raise my foot and kick tree times in those three places with just enough strength to make it vibrate just right. After 2 seconds the bars shatter, leaving behind Corse iron sand.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need the keys¡± jack


    As soon as I said that I trigger the parts of his brain that cause helplessness and sadness. He picks up his gun, which has one bullet left.


    ¡°I guess this means I¡¯m joining you early in heaven. I hope you¡¯ll forgive on old friend.¡± 1


    He shoots himself in the head and falls down in a slump. I snort, only angelic class creatures go to heaven, and certainly not when they die. It¡¯s common knowledge that your soul is reincarnated when you die.


    I walk over to the table they were playing cards on and grab the money on it, About 200 Jaers (pronounced jars, it is the most common form of currency in that world. 1 Jaer=3.57 USD).


    ¡®Yay, pocket change¡¯ jack


    I walk up to the big steel door and turn the handle.


    End chapter 24


    authors note: for some reason i really enjoyed writing this chapter.

 chapter 25: uncle

    Chapter 25


    When I open the door I see a rather empty room with nothing but a fire place on one wall, a couch that look like it had been recently moved to face the door, and an incubus reading on said couch.


    ¡°Hey uncle¡± jack


    ¡°About damn time you got out of there¡± uncle


    ¡°I had to make it a little more interesting, so where is everyone else?¡± jack


    ¡°Their all dead asleep, it¡¯s the middle of the night¡± uncle


    ¡°The guys that attacked us were your golem¡¯s right?¡± jack


    ¡°Who else could get a hold of that poison? Char literally begged me to make some last night, just for you¡± uncle


    Char, or rather charlotte, is my aunt¡¯s first name.


    ¡°So how¡¯d the experiment go, I heard you finished it the day this all happened¡± jack


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. I said I would tell you about it when I finished it.¡± Uncle


    ¡°All I know is that it had something to do with our neighbors, the guy with the wife and three kids¡± jack


    ¡°You know how incubi and succubi specialize in dream magic right?¡± uncle


    ¡°Yes, of course I know. I¡¯ve had some experience with it myself.¡± Jack


    ¡°Well, I would send a dream to the man every night.¡± Uncle


    ¡°What type of dream?¡± jack


    ¡°One where he kills his wife and his oldest two kids only to be killed by his youngest.¡± Uncle


    ¡°So what happened?¡± jack


    ¡°Well every night I would make the people look slightly less human every night.¡± Uncle


    ¡°Interesting¡± jack


    ¡°Then the day the system came online he woke up and killed his family with a baseball that he was planning on giving to his son for his birthday, the same way I had him kill his family in the dream.¡± Uncle (if you get this reference you are the most amazing person in the entire world, and ghost will visit you in your dreams tonight)


    ¡°With the way you did that of course it would turn out that way, well I should probably get too bed¡± jack


    ¡°Oh come on, keep an old man company¡± uncle


    ¡°You still look to be in your late 20s early 30s¡± jack


    ¡°I¡¯m 212 already, my wife is almost half my age¡± uncle


    ¡°Well aunty is 85 this year¡± jack


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell me about your resent adventure, It sounded pretty exciting, especially in the bedroom¡± uncle


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.¡°What else would I expect to hear from an incubus¡± jack


    At that he just smiles.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like I need sleep anyway.¡± Jack


    And so I spend the night recounting my adventure, with uncle begging for more details about certain parts, and listening to uncle¡¯s trip to their dungeon. It turns out that there was only one type creature in it, trolls, which are really irritating due to their insane regeneration. He ended up making a poison out of their blood and some magic to counter their regeneration. All in all it took about 8 hours for them to complete it.


    ¡°So I saw Johanna became a sprite¡± uncle


    ¡°Yeah, so¡± jack


    ¡°Theirs no way you didn¡¯t have fun with that¡± uncle


    Oh yeah, uncle is a closet pervert.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>update: you can now pull up race statistics</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®hmm, I wonder¡¯ jack


    ¡®check race statistics¡¯ jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race Name</td><td width="25%">greater shadowling</td></tr><tr><td width="25%"># alive</td><td width="25%">3</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®So were not entirely extinct.¡¯ Jack


    ¡®check Johanna¡¯s race statistics¡¯ jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race Name</td><td width="25%">greater wind sprite</td></tr><tr><td width="25%"># alive</td><td width="25%">53,757</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®nothing surprising there¡¯ jack


    ¡®check ghost¡¯s race statistics¡¯ jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race Name</td><td width="25%">greater demon wolf</td></tr><tr><td width="25%"># alive</td><td width="25%">36,782</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®check Lucy¡¯s race statistics¡¯ jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race Name</td><td width="25%">half-lich</td></tr><tr><td width="25%"># undead</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡°what the fuck is a half-lich¡± jack


    End chapter 25


    Authors note: sorry it was so short didn¡¯t really have time to write something longer

 chapter 26: pancakes

    Chapter 26


    "Where did you hear that name?" uncle


    "Lucy¡¯s racial statistics, you know the update that just occurred, said she was a half lich" jack


    "I knew something was special about her from the start, but I couldn''t tell what" uncle


    "So, tell me what a half lich is" jack


    "You know what the difference between a ghoul and a skeleton is, right?" uncle


    "Yes, a skeleton is physically strong and has infinite stamina but isn''t very intelligent and a ghoul is much more intelligent and some can even use magic, which is extremely rare for undead, but are physically weaker and don''t have the infinite stamina that skeletons have." jack


    "Very good, the difference between a half-lich and a lich is very similar. liche''s have extraordinary strength and boundless stamina and are much more intelligent than ghouls, most can use magic although it is very weak, except for necromancy, most liches are good at necromancy. Of course that is mostly due the fact that most liches were originally necromancers. A half lich on the other hand is extremely intelligent with powerful magic, exceeding the vast majority of other races, but they fall behind in terms of physical strength and stamina, although their stamina is much higher than any humans." uncle


    "So why are they all gone, and how do you know this if they are extinct." jack


    "They are extinct because of the church, they were one of the first to be destroyed during their rise to power about a thousand years ago. As for how I know about them, a dragon told me" uncle


    I notice that the sun was shining through the window, which means any minute now...


    "Jack!" ???


    A small girl at around 4''7" jumps from off the stairs on the other side of the room and gives me, or rather my face, a hug.


    "Ok, ok I get it, your happy to see me aunty. Now let me breath." jack


    "No, this is your punishment for leaving me alone for so long." aunty


    It is hard to believe that this small little girl, or loli as it is often called, specializes in great axes. I mean huge pole arm length great axes, which weigh hundreds of pounds.


    "Wasn¡¯t the really unimaginative test you put me through punishment enough?" jack


    "Silly, that wasn''t punishment for you, that was punishment for the two guys guarding you for constantly hitting on Johanna and I." aunty


    "Figures" jack


    "Johanna!" aunty


    At that moment Johanna was coming down stairs followed by an exhausted wolf that looked extremely happy. Aunty kicked off of my face, which hurt quite a bit, and jumped across the room over to the stairs where Johanna was standing, only to be smacked aside by the much faster Johanna.


    "Please try to control yourself aunty" Johanna


    "Based on ghosts condition I can safely assume that the poison wore off hours ago for both of you and were having some private fun time." jack


    "Yes! Lucy even joined us after an hour, master" ghost


    "Then where is she right now?" jack


    "Getting everyone else up" Johanna


    "Can you make some of your amazing pancakes for breakfast?" aunty


    "Of course" jack


    I walk into the kitchen followed by uncle.


    "It''s amazing how much she changes between night and day." uncle


    "My room is right next to yours, I know how big that change is" jack


    At this he give a huge grin.


    We spent about 5 minute making the batter, with uncle gathering the materials and me mixing it. After that I heated up the grill and cooked the batter. after the batter was all cooked and put on a plate I go into the dinning room.


    "Look who''s up early." Selena


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    "I haven¡¯t slept" jack


    "Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!" aunty


    "Alright here you go" uncle


    As uncle hands a plate with pancakes on it to her, I hand out some to the rest of them.


    "Delicious!" sally


    "You can say that again." Jacobe


    "Delicious!" sally


    "I didn''t mean that literally" Jacobe


    "So, where''s your aunt?" Joe


    "I''m right here silly" aunty


    Everyone, except Johanna, ghost, and I, were staring at her slack jawed.


    "Her sent makes it obvious who she is." ghost


    "You, you¡¯re a demon wolf right?" aunty


    "Technically greater wolf demon" jack


    "Right, and you are a greater Shadowling, and Johanna is a greater wind sprite" aunty


    "Correct" Johanna


    "And you are a lich? No something¡¯s off, but I can''t put my finger on it" aunty


    "She''s a half lich" jack


    "What¡¯s a half lich?" aunty


    "Ask your husband" jack


    At this point Lucy dropped her pancake-laden fork onto her plate.


    "Did you say half lich?" Lucy


    "Yeah, so?" jack


    "I haven''t been a half lich in 5 incarnations, I thought they were extinct" Lucy


    "They were, until you" jack


    After a couple minutes of the silent consumption of pancakes sally asks a question.


    "So how did you two meet?" Sally


    "I was visiting an old friend, her older brother, when she snuck into my bed and proceded to rape me." uncle


    At this everyone was either staring at uncle or aunty, except Johanna, ghost, and I of course.


    "I don''t see what the big deal is, animals rape each other all the time." ghost


    "And you married her?" Selena


    "Well incubi and sucubi have a tradition where we marry someone that can outlast us in sex, unless that person is a succubus or incubus respectively, which she did, by a long shot. I woke up in the morning and she was still riding me" uncle


    "You¡¯re emberacing me!" aunty


    "What¡¯s the difference between a succubus and an incubus, you know other than gender." Joe


    "Why" Johanna


    "Well, you all talk about them like they are two different species" Joe


    "Well, there is no Difference between a succubus and an incubus, besides their gender, including the fact that the only creatures that they can¡¯t breed with are succubi or incubi respectively" jack


    "And here I thought that you knew next to nothing about anything other than fighting and cooking." Johanna


    "Hey, rude. Besides I¡¯ve had some experience with succubi" jack


    "Boy, do I know it" Johanna


    "If I Remember correctly, You''ve had some experience with succubi as well" jack


    "Hey, that¡¯s..." Johanna


    "Don¡¯t try to deny it, everyone here knows your bi by now" jack


    At this everyone was nodding.


    "Johanna!!!" Jacobe


    When Jacobe makes a poorly done impersonation of ghost everyone giggles, except Johanna.


    "Police, open up!" police officer? at the front door.


    End chapter 26


    authors note: i have started posting chapters of this story on wattpad here:


    http://www.wattpad.com/story/44153813-this-game-we-call-life</a>


    i hope that you will all suport me over there as well


    <hr />


    for those wondering the refrence in the last chapter was to my first story: the death of a man, which can be found here:http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/1927


    also if anyone has a recomendation for something ghost can evolve into please comment it, i already have somthing for the others.

 chapter 27: a lich and a half

    chapter 27


    "dad? is that you?" sally


    "sally?! are you OK? where''s your brother? open this door!" the twins father


    "were safe, although i cant say the same for the vast majority of the other students" jacobe


    while he''s saying that i go open the door for his father.


    "officer George" jack


    "jack, here i was hoping you had died" George


    "no, instead i was keeping your kids alive. show some gratitude to the one who has not only saved your life but your children''s as well" jack


    after i say that i notice a woman standing behind George.


    "good to see you again, Cathrin" jack


    to this she smiles and bows.


    "how do you know our parents" Jacobe


    "i saved your fathers life" jack


    "he killed the man who was stalking your mom" George


    "oh, i remember you saying something about that, it happened last year right?" sally


    "but why do you hate him, dad?" Jacobe


    "he, he''s so infuriating" George


    "his pointless sense of justice makes him hate me and his morals makes it so he can''t do anything against me, after all he owes me a debt" jack


    "my sense of justice is not pointless!!" George


    "your right, it''s pointlessly stupid" jack


    "so, whats up with your mom?" joe


    "she''s mute" sally bluntly


    "why don''t you two join us for breakfast" uncle


    we all go back to the table and finish off the Delicious pancakes.


    "so, where is war and smith" jack


    "your talking about that devil, right? he''s still asleep, used a little two much poison" uncle


    "and war was caught trying to dodge working and was forcefully brought back" aunty


    "sounds like something he would do" jack


    "master! I''m sorry i took so long, but mr smith wouldn''t wake up" ghost


    "it''s fine" jack


    "now you two come over here and eat breakfast" aunty


    "yes mam" mr smith


    "I''m curious, how did you know i was Asmodeus, my human disguise was perfect" mr smith


    "a combination of intuition and your sent"  jack


    "well, there''s nothing like a marshal artists intuition, i know from experience" mr smith


    we finish eating with out any other meaningful conversations happening except for the twins catching their parents up on recent events.


    "i want to get another evolution before we go home" Johanna


    "so do i" jack


    "well you can use the dungeon out back to train" aunty


    "don''t the dungeons close once they are cleared?" Selena


    "this is a different dungeon, a repeatable dungeon. it''s the only reason i built this house here" aunty


    "I''ve been wondering, whats the difference between a creature in a dungeon and other creatures?" Joe


    "creatures from a dungeon are existences known as damned souls, or souls our bound to a place. in this instance they are ''damned'' to the dungeon, forever being reborn in the same form only to be a slave. their are also damned souls that are bound to the abyss, like Lucy here, who are summoned to be a slave to their summoner, usually becoming undead. usually these creatures end up going insane knowing nothing other than killing." Johanna


    "why the fuck did i ever sign that contract 2,000 years ago" Lucy


    "what contract?" jack


    "some damned soul offer me power in exchange for replacing him, at least it let me stall the rise of the church by about 100 years" Lucy


    "enough talking, i want to clear the dungeon at least once today" jack


    "clear? don''t the creature just reappear?" Selena


    "if you kill the leader then their is a period of time where no creatures are reborn" Johanna


    we spent the entire day inside the dungeon, which was undead centered. Lucy really had a field day with it, apparently liches have a racial ability that allows them to dominate weaker undead, this was the reason the church feared them so much, as undead were easily created in bulk. the last room contained one non-half lich, with about 9 highly ranked undead. i was kindly asked to stay out of this fight as i had already gotten to the point where i can evolve. Lucy tried to dominate the 9 undead, but couldn''t due to the tight grip the other lich had on them. after killing about 4 of them the boss reanimated them, much to the glee of everyone as the minions provided a huge amount of xp. after killing them a total of about 30 times they stopped being reanimated, probably due to the lich controlling them running out of mp. they had a little bit of trouble with the boss lich as lich''es, like most undead, have great physical prowess. this one duel-wielded bastard swords. in short, while he was strong enough to wield them, his footwork was slopy and he had no coordination. he would alwase focus on one weapon while completely ignoring the other one. come on man, if you''re going to do that just use one weapon. i trained for years to use two weapons simultaneously properly. ghost organized everyone in a rather simple, but effective, strategy.  she turned into her wolf-furry form to tank and had everyone else hit the boss, hard. it was down to half health after 30 seconds, but they were all tiered after the consecutive fighting. fortunately Johanna had managed to cut of a limb or two, specifically his right arm and leg. making the rest of the fight easy as all he could do was cast a ball of energy every 30 seconds, which i assume is the amount of time it takes for him to recharge his mana. the fight ended with a longsword between the eye, oh yeah i forgot to mention that Johanna specializes in all types of swords, and i specialize in duel wielding, even weapons that were not intended to duel wield. although i refuse to wield two weapons that aren''t of similar quality, it feels unbalanced and awkward.


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    "get anything good?" jack


    "nah, just this crappy rusted sword that we dozens of already" Johanna


    "shame, i was hoping for one of the rarer drops" jack


    when we take a peaceful walk out of the dungeon, as we had already re killed all but one of the undead inside it, we are greeted by a setting sun and a barbeque. it was right then that the adrenaline wore off and everyone realized just how hungry they were, with a large growl coming from 5 stomachs. Johanna and i can go for 24 hours without eating without side effects and undead don''t need to eat, they just like the sensation of eating.


    "about time you got back" aunty


    "they wouldn''t let me help with litty" jack


    "litty?" sally


    "our pet name for that lich" uncle


    "who wants a burger?" mr smith


    "Where''d you get the meat. when i checked this morning we didn''t have any, and i highly doubt any of the super markets are open" jack


    "i went to hell and butchered a couple demon boars" mr smith


    "oh yeah, that''s right. high level demons can go to hell with minimal preparation" Johanna


    "and I''m one of the highest" mr smith


    "now, who wants some burgers?" George


    as soon as he said this his wife Cathrin holds out her plate with a shy smile on her face.


    after we ate the stakes from hell, everyone went through the showers, which were single person. then we all retired for the night, unfortunately everyone was exhausted and fell asleep almost immediately.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you can evolve! chose one: wraith, shade</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''if i remember correctly a wraith is insubstantial, a spiritual type demon. and a shade can go between physical and spiritual.'' jack


    ''you are correct'' Johanna


    ''shade'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulation! your pet/slave Lucy can evolve! chose one: greater half-lich</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''well that doesn''t leave much of a choice, greater half-lich'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! your pet/slave ghost can evolve! chose one: werewolf, lycan</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''werewolves lack self control in their beast form, but lycans don''t'' Johanna


    ''i would probably just end up assaulting master every time i go into beast form then'' ghost


    ''lycan'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! your pet/slave Johanna can evolve! chose one: wind nymph, air elemental</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''i don''t want to be an elemental'' Johanna


    ''wind nymph it is then'' jack


    and then we drift off to sleep.


    end chapter 27


    authors note: i wrote what i think to be an infinity better description for this game we call life, check it out.

 chapter 28: home

    Chapter 28


    <table><tbody><tr><td> you have obtained the skill darkness form</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave has obtained the skill magic amplification</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave ghost has obtained the form half-beast (wolf)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet/slave Johanna has obtained the skill wind form</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I wake up in the middle of the night and look at the moon, everyone else is still asleep. I¡¯ve always loved the moon, it appears to be peaceful and calm while causing changes all over the world, from natural disasters, to the tides. All of which is controlled by the moon. The moon also has effects on every creature in the world, the amount of influence changing by race as well as several other factors. For example, most of the beasts are strongly affected by the moon.


    ''Three days till full moon, huh'' jack


    I look over at an icon hovering in the lower right hand corner of my vision telling me that I have some system messages.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> your previous actions are being taken into account, your stats will update within the next 3 years. The higher your stats were before the system booted up the longer it will take to calculate. You will not be able to view your status screen in this time, you will still be able to pull up information on your skills, level up, and increase your stats during this time. The more you demonstrate your abilities the shorter it will take to calculate your stats </td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Well, fuck'' jack


    I then check the next message which was more interesting.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>update! The blessings bar has been unlocked. However, due to the fact that you cannot accesses your status screen it will become a separate screen until that is fixed</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I decide to pull up the blessings tab even though I already know what it will say.


    ''Check blessings'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>blessings:


    Blessing of a greater succubus (permanent)


    Blessing of the east fairy tribe (permanent)


    Curse of pointlessness (temporary)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Ok, I really am surprised. What the fuck is with that curse?! Seriously?! Pointlessness?! Anyway, I decide to check that one first, just in case.


    ''Check curse of pointlessness''


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>curse of pointlessness</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>curse rank:</td><td colspan=''2''>pointless</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>this curse does absolutely nothing. It is just a reminder for you to come visit me. This curse will be lifted when you talk to the one who cursed you


    Signed: Jackeline


    Greater goddess of wisdom and death</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''What an eccentric goddess'' jack


    ''Check blessing of a greater succubus'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>blessing of a greater succubus</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>blessing rank:</td><td colspan=''2''>greater</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>this blessing is awarded to those who have either impressed a succubus or managed to get her to owe you a debt, like saving her life. This blessing improves vitality and makes you immune to charm magic. Due to an unavoidable side effect of this blessing you go into heat every full moon. The effects of this blessing are amplified due to the succubus that blessed you being a greater succubus</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Johanna also has this blessing as well as the fairy blessing, and I am assuming she has the pointless curse. Jackeline is rather fond of Johanna


    ''Check blessing of the east fairy tribe'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>blessing of the east fairy tribe</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>blessing rank:</td><td colspan=''2''>legendary</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>this blessing is awarded to those the largest fairy tribe, east tribe, deem worthy, which almost never happens. you are one of the three people alive with this blessing. Any fairy you meet will instantly trust you and be friendly with you. You learn and improve magic oriented skills faster. Pixies instinctually hate you</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Ah, I had almost forgotten about the angelic/demon rivalries. while Angelics as a hole don''t hate the demons, in fact they are on extremely friendly terms and vice versa, every angelic race has a demon counterpart, and vice versa. These counter parts, quite literally mirror images of each other, hate the other side of the pair. The reason for this is unknown. Some examples are devils/angels, pixies/fairies, shadowlings/lightlings. This just means I have to avoid interacting with any light bringers, the opposite of shades.


    I get to work on ransacking my room, first getting my interdimensional backpack. As soon as I grab it I receive a system message.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> congratulations! You have gained an inventory item! Available slots 453/1000. Would you like to absorb this item into your permanent inventory? None of the items will be lost.


    Yes or no</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''Yes, why not''


    I pull up my inventory and check through it, seeing various magic items, instruments, weapons, potions, etc. I pull out a flute and put it too my lips. I begin to play, I am pretty good at several instruments, but I can''t sing for shit. Johanna is the opposite, she has an amazing singing voice, but can¡¯t play any instrument. I sit and play a tune, mostly just whatever comes to mind. By the smiles of the sleeping girls I am doing a pretty good job. after a couple hours it is right before day break and I gain two skills, wind instrument proficiency and lung capacity, which are both self-explanatory. I begin to look around the room and realize what I originally got up to do, packing. I pick up various items, mostly with weak enchantments and place them in my inventory. Which is brought up the same way anything else is. After completely ransacking my room, I move on to my closet to get cloths. When inside the walk-in closet I start pulling pants, sweaters, socks, underwear, etc. off of hangers and out of doors. There was not a single shirt however, and why would I need a shirt other than the one I¡¯m wearing? After all it is self-cleaning, self-repairing, grows with me, and is incredibly comfortable.


    ''I really don''t want to spend another day here. I miss home.'' jack


    After sitting in a chair next to my bed for a couple hours playing my flute Lucy wakes up, about 10 minutes before sun up.


    "Pretty melody you''ve got going, jack" Lucy


    "Thanks, it took me awhile to be able to do this" jack


    "So, should I wake the others?" Lucy


    "Nah, let them sleep. I¡¯m going to make breakfast, any requests?" jack


    "Biscuits and gravy!" Lucy


    I smile a little at her whispered exclamation and head down stairs for the kitchen, passing aunty and uncle''s room, where I hear a lot of heavy breathing, grunts, and moans.


    ''I wish they would at least cast a silencing spell at night, is that too much to ask?'' jack


    When I enter the kitchen I look though the fridge and find the ingredients for biscuits and gravy and get to work. To my surprise Lucy helps me out.


    "When did you learn to cook?" jack


    "2nd incarnation? I think. anyway, you''d be surprised at how many necromancers summon a lich just to have a partner, slave, toy, etc. weather due to loneliness or because their a necrophiliac." Lucy


    "Not really, I¡¯ve met a couple necromancers in my time, 2 thirds turned out to be necrophiliacs, and 3 of them tried to kill me and turn me into a lich so I would be their slave." jack


    "Being a slave doesn¡¯t suite you" Lucy


    "Agreed" jack


    "By what is your aunt? She¡¯s obviously not human" Lucy


    "She¡¯s a Halfling, although she looks young for her age. Probably due to her husband¡¯s influence" jack


    "Halfling huh, reminds me of the end of my last incarnation" Lucy


    I just smile, ignoring that as she said it under her breath, obviously not intending for it to be heard.


    "Now go wake everyone up, tell them breakfast is done" jack


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    After about ten minutes every one came down stairs, aunty and uncle obviously freshly showered.


    "Would it kill you two put up a silence spell at night, I know for a fact the you are capable of it uncle" jack


    "Good morning to you to" uncle


    "Good morning!" aunty


    *sigh*"anyway, come eat. I want to get a head start today" jack


    "Alright!" aunty


    "It¡¯s been awhile since I talked to my brother in law¡± uncle


    "I miss the old man" jack


    "I do too" Johanna


    "Anyway, Johanna don''t forget to pack up. You don¡¯t want to forget anything" jack


    "Alright." Johanna


    I leave Johanna pouting and get 4 rings out of my inventory. Rings of regeneration, they increase all of the regeneration values by 1/sec.


    "I want you four to have these" jack


    "Proposing to all of us? How bold" Selena


    "Sorry to dash all of your hopes and dreams but I¡¯m not interested in humans. It¡¯s actually to the point of ED regarding humans." jack


    "Then what¡¯s with the rings?" sally


    "They are enchanted, figure out the enchantment yourself" jack


    "ok, but why give them to us?" Jacobe


    "Why not? Anyway hurry and eat so we can leave¡± jack


    "Where are we going?" Joe


    "Home, my home." Johanna


    "I thought this was your home" Joe


    "Nah, it''s more like a vacation house" jack


    "What, is your family rich or something? Having a vacation house this nice, they''ve gotta be rich." Jacobe


    After eating, which was accompanied by the usual meal time banter, Johanna packed her interdimensional bag, which turned into her inventory.


    "So how long is the trip up to the mountain?" Mr. Smith


    "Three days on foot, a day if we use a train" jack


    "Like a train would be working at a time like this." Joe


    "What are you guys talking about? I can get us there in 8 hours." Johanna


    "Oh, I forgot about that. You have the wind step ability" jack


    "And, due to some of my other skills and titles I can keep it up as long as I don''t need to sleep, eat, or use the bathroom." Johanna


    "That¡¯s, really impressive. I¡¯m jelly" sally


    Ghost comes out of the other room where she was talking to Selena and walks over to aunty, sniffing her. After a minute or two of sniffing her, ghost bends down to put her hand on aunties stomach, smiling.


    "Um, ghost? What are you doing?" aunty


    "I knew it! You¡¯re pregnant!" ghost


    At this everyone was startled. Uncle quickly cast a spell while touching auntie¡¯s stomach.


    "It¡¯s true, you are one third of the way through your pregnancy with our son" uncle


    "Based on how long pregnancies last for the children of incubi, you have 3 weeks pregnant!" Johanna


    "So, a nine week pregnancy?" Joe


    "Yup, it means we have to get home soon. And uncle, you''re going to want to carry aunty, don¡¯t want anything happening to her." Johanna


    "Hey, I¡¯m not fragile!" aunty


    "No but your unborn son is" Johanna


    She mutters a grumpy ''fine'' and uncle picks her up with ease.


    "This is the first time I¡¯ve actually carried you, most the time you''re carrying me" uncle


    "True" aunty


    "It¡¯s amazing how fast the incubi/sucubi family grows" Mr. Smith


    When he says that I see a tear in the corner of his eye, and not a happy one. I ignore this for now.


    "Alright! Let¡¯s go" Johanna


    As soon as she says that she uses her wind step ability, and I feel like I can out run a wind god. Although in actuality it wouldn''t be a contest. Like a snail racing a human sprinter, no chance of winning. We all start running and after about ten minutes Johanna has to slow down in order for us to keep up with her. Honestly it is an amazing experience, it feels like running on, well, the wind. I don¡¯t even feel the impact on my feet, or the rest of my body for that matter.


    "This is the second greatest thing I have ever felt!" Joe


    I know what he means, this sensation is addicting. To be able to move this fast with your own body is, is, it''s like trying to explain enlightenment to the unenlightened.


    After running for about 6 hours everyone starts to get hungry so we stop running. I stop by rolling into a tree, although I don''t really get hurt by it because I¡¯m too busy laughing from pure mirth.


    "Hey Johanna, what was that thing you did while you were running, it looked like you dissolved into the wind a couple times." Mr. Smith


    Leave it to an immortal to notice something I didn''t.


    "Oh, that was my wind form ability I got for evolving into a nymph. It allows me to concentrate easier, which I diffidently needed at times." Johanna


    I pulled out a couple food bars out of my inventory and handed them out.


    "How¡¯d you do that?" Joe


    "I got ahold of an inventory item and the system gave me an inventory." jack


    "I want one too" Joe


    After our quick rest stop, which was more for Johanna¡¯s mental endurance than anything, we get back to running. About an hour out I get a message telling that Johanna unlocked the stat mental endurance and got pulse 50 mental endurance.


    When we get to the base of the mountain we stop and let the first timers gaze up at our magnificent village that only the truly worthy, meaning those with money, skill, or connections, get to enter.


    We start to walk, not run, up the winding trail to the village.


    "I love the view on this trail" jack


    "It is beautiful" Selena


    "I could just sit here and watch the forest for days" Joe


    After walking for a couple minutes I start to hear girlish laughter coming from all around us.


    "who''s laughing?" Jacobe


    "Forest sprites, nymphs, dryads, and a couple other creatures native to this forest" jack


    "We are cutey" forest nymph


    "I¡¯m sorry to disappoint you ladies, but we have to get up to the village.¡± jack


    I notice Jacobe blushing, even though he is standing behind me, due to my extremely high vision stat which is to the point of allowing perfect 350 degree vision, even with my eyes shut, with the other 10 degrees being periphery.


    "We could take you there, after all you have helped us in the past" dryad


    "I would rather walk and enjoy the beauty of the forest, it''s been a while sence I¡¯ve been home" jack


    At this the girls starts blushing and giggling.


    "Well then, let us accompany you" dryad


    I nod and concentrate on where Johanna is and see a bunch of nymphs dancing around her.


    "Yay, Johanna¡¯s one of our sisters!" nymph 1


    "You¡¯ll have to come have some fun with us latter" nymph 2


    "We missed you soooooooo much" nymph 3


    "Don¡¯t leave us for so long again" nymph 4


    "Don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll come hang out with you girls latter" Johanna


    "Yay" nymphs


    "You make sure to come along too, jack" nymph 1


    "Of course this cutey can come any time he wants" forest sprite


    The sprite from earlier gets really close to Jacobe, who''s face has gone as red as beet.


    We walk up to the village accompanied by the girls, who leave us as soon as we exit the forest.


    "Well, well, well. Look who finally showed up" old man


    We are greeted at the gate by the old man who took me in after my parents burned in that fire.


    "Good to see you, master" Johanna


    "Bah, no need to be so formal to this small old man" old man


    "Brother!" aunty


    As she was saying that she ran to her older brother''s arms.


    "Are you sick or something? Normally you would jump and tackle me" old man


    "Oh, I¡¯m pregnant. Don¡¯t want to hurt the baby" aunty


    "So, I¡¯m finally going to be an uncle and you didn''t tell me till now?" old man


    "I just found out today, apparently ghosty here could tell that I was pregnant" aunty


    "Ah, the Lycian right?" old man


    "Yup, by the way. How¡¯d you know?" jack


    "Oh, it was a combination of her sent and magic" ghost


    "Is there anything your bestial magic can''t do?" jack


    "No, not really. Bestial magic is extremely versatile and can do anything any other branch of magic can do, except for elemental magic¡¯s, except weaker, and with other actions required to use it. It can even do some low level necromancy" Mr. Smith


    "That¡¯s actually really impressive" jack


    "Who¡¯s that behind you, master?" Johanna


    "Meet my new apprentice, Rostwood" old man


    "Nice to meet you, I am the old man''s previous apprentices" jack


    ¡°Certainly not the most obedient¡± old man


    "You¡¯re jack right?" rostwood


    "Yes, I am" jack


    "I¡¯ve heard stories about you, that you are extremely strong" rostwood


    "And they are probably mostly true" jack


    "That¡¯s why I want to challenge you to a duel" rostwood


    End chapter 28.

 chapter 29: lilith

    chapter 29


    "when and where" jack


    "in the center of the village, tomorrow at noon" Rostwood


    "fine" jack


    "idiot! what do you think you''re doing, challenging someone much stronger than you to a duel." old man


    "you can''t interfere zain, jack has already accepted the conditions. the only way to stop it is if both parties agree" ???


    i look at the dark elf that came up from behind the old man. she has dark skin, white hair, and black fingernails, marionette syndrome i think. this dark elf is none other than zain hibachi''s wife mary hibachi.


    "good to see you again mary" jack


    "i see war got that pill to you alright, where is he anyway?" mary


    "he got caught dodging out of work and got forcefully dragged back" uncle


    "i see you''re doing well, brother." mary


    "i am" uncle


    "Rostwood, you might want to go train a little, this isn''t some friendly spar you challenged jack to." johanna


    "alright, see you tomorrow, jack." rostwood


    "can we go inside, we''ve been running all day and i''m tired" joe


    "it''s not like you did anything, johanna did all the work" selena


    "true..." johanna


    the old man just looks at johanna with curiosity before taking us into the village and up to the biggest house in it. we received several welcome backs as well as some sparring requests, all of which i politely declined. the 6 humans get  taunts from various people.


    "welcome to my home, please come inside" old man


    i then gave them the grand tour, which wasn''t much. a couple bedrooms, two bathrooms,a ''private'' one person bath and a ''public'' bath, the kitchen, and the living room. we end in the living room where everyone sits on a large 25 seater couch.


    "so, tell this old man about some of your adventures. how about you, a damned soul like you must have some good stories to tell" old man


    "a few" Lucy


    "what about when you stalled the rise of the church? i remember you saying something like that." mr smith


    "well, in that was the last incarnation where i was a half-lich, i ''lived'' to be about 450 and reached the rank of arc-half-lich. i was almost powerful enough to be a god. and my name was joshua thatcher." lucy


    as soon as he heard this asmodeus''s jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide with admiration. i could have sworn that they started to sparkle.


    "seriously!? you''re my idol, everything i wanted to be in my life. i grew up listening to your story! although, unfortunately the concrete information about you was rather limited, just that you mastered every form of magic and was killed by the church during there come to power." mr smith


    "while it is true that at one point i had mastered every form of magic, that was a really long time ago and i have gotten rusty and forgotten much of what i used to know.


    "in that incarnation i was brought to life by a necromancer that wanted to save his brother, who had just died. his brother''s soul didn''t return to his body, so, instead i took over the body. i had a good master during that incarnation, i was rather fond of him. we would train in magic together for years, and when he had an accident i turned him into a half-lich before he died.


    "we countined to practice magic, eventually reaching the rank of arc-half-lich, and build a standing in the world, eventually becoming a powerful lord in a contental country, unfortunently that country no longer exsists.


    "400 years past with us ammasing our power and influence in that country, we even managed to take over most of that content, unfortunently before we could my master was asassinated by a member of the church, wich was just begining to gain power, for openly opposing the church.at the time he was the right hand man to the king, and had been for many generations. he was loved by all the citizens in the country, even the humans.


    "unfortunately the church had gained a huge following, and an even greater number of slaves, all of which were highly trained in either swordsmanship or magic, sometimes both. they organized a coop immediately after my masters assassination killing all the lords and replacing them with their own lords. immediately after, every creature that wasn''t human was either enslaved or driven out of the country.


    "i, who was also very well liked by the people, got all the civilians to safety before getting together all of the mages to do mass summonings of undead. after three years of this i gathered up the soldiers and all of the undead we managed to create and started a march on the country, capturing city after city with very minimal loss.


    "then we reached the capital. we lost half the undead and 1 third of the soldiers in the first day, the second day we fared much better, taking the outer ring of the city. after that they couldn''t kill my undead faster than i could create them, and they had several battalions of damned soul''d humans that were tied to a dungeon beneath the castle, neither side could do any significant damage to the other.after several months of this stalemate they got restless and cast a spell that blew up half the city, along with a large chunk of my soldiers, both undead and not.


    "at that point my rage had been boiling for years, over the death of my master and friend and over being driven from my home. i told all of men to go home and sacrificed all the remaining undead, turning them all into mana. i then started to burn the stone city, my pure unadulterated rage strengthening my fire magic. i killed almost every human within the wall of the city, in addition to the walls, streets, and buildings, almost every human. unfortunately the pope nick johnson(yes you human supremacist, necromancer hating bastard i named the pope after you) and the rest of the top brass escaped while i ended up burning myself up with the city. the only ones that remained in that city were the damned soul''d humans." lucy


    Stolen story; please report.


    "the ashen city" jack


    "correct, the humans have since turned into something much more feral, although they are still there" asmodeus


    "that was a very interesting story. now, i have a duel to prepare for" jack


    "do you really need preparation for that duel, i mean he definitely isn''t as strong as you." johanna


    "true, it''s mostly a force of habit to get every detail possible before a fight" jack


    i get up and move over to a window to watch over the training grounds where rostwood is punching a training dummy.


    ''a cloth specialist huh, it''s been awhile sense i''ve fought one'' jack


    let me clarify. a cloth specialist is someones that uses their hands to fight. that doesn''t mean that they don''t use weapons, as the cloth they wrap around their hands is a very real weapon. the way the cloth is made and the materials used allow it to become stronger with use, basicly a progressive enchantment. the downside to this is that you can''t use anyone else''s cloth and if you lose yours you have to build up another one. the type of properties it obtains varies based on the personality and needs of the wielder.


    i continue to observe his every movement, to completely map his fighting style, for about ten minutes before he starts sparring with some others. nothing too different from how he strikes the dummy. after observing him for a couple more minutes i begin to notice something, he gets nervous when he feints, his heart skips a beat. of course the only reason i noticed it was my extremely powerful eyesight.


    satisfied i head off to the bar, i haven''t had a drink in weeks. it''s like i can get drunk unless i drink enough to kill a horse, but i like the taste of the local beverages, which is something similar to wine made from a type of fruit that only grows in areas of large magical activity. a village that is frequented by gods definitely fits the bill. i jump out of third story window and start to walk over to the bar, making note of the surprised gasps.


    "does he do that a lot?" joe


    "afraid so, it really gets on my nerves" mary


    "let kids be kids" zain


    "um, can you release the curse you put on me, mary?" johanna


    i didn''t hear anything more as i was entering the bar. i quickly went up to the stool, my favorite seat.


    "oi, godslayer, it''s been forever since i''ve seen you in my bar" bar man


    "i haven''t heard that nickname in a long time" jack


    "HA HA HA! you''ve been living as a ''normal person'' for the past two years, of course you haven''t. so how was it?" bar man


    i got that nickname due to my skill in defeating gods, which is child''s play once you figure out their weakness. it''s quite simple really, if you can counter what they represent they are powerless towards you. for example, if you pacify a god of war he is powerless, if you enrage a god of peace he is powerless. i''m just surprised no one else has figured that out.


    "it was rather boring, this place is much more interesting. the usual please" jack


    "HA HA HA. of course it is. here you go" bar man


    i spend an hour drinking and talking to the other patrons before going to a familiar house, only slightly tipsy. when i get to the house, which is a small one on the edge of the village. i knock on the door and wait a couple minutes before a familiar face greets me at the door.


    "yo, lilith" jack


    "about damn time you come visit me, johanna was here an hour ago" lilith


    that''s when i notice johanna standing behind lilith in just her lingerie.


    "you''ve got to stop seducing johanna the moment you see her. she might be immune to your magical charm, but she is weak to you''re more natural charm" jack


    and she definitely has natural charm, with her perfectly proportioned body and her above average height, which complements her perfectly. her perfectly smooth skin is the wonderful shade of dark chocolate, complementing her light brown hair. of course any self respecting succubus would take perfect care over their body. she was wearing some rather revealing underwear accentuating all of her strong points, which was everything. on a side note, this amazones loves bastard swords and bows.


    "i can''t help it, i was starving. i haven''t eaten in weeks, and you know what happens when my kind don''t eat. although women don''t give us as much as men, it still helps us stave our hunger." lilith


    "why don''t you join us jack. the full moon isn''t that far away, surely you''re already feeling the effects of the blessing." johanna


    "come on jack, by succubus culture you are technically my husband. and johanna isn''t a human anymore" lilith


    i look over at the horizon and see the top of the moon.


    "well, it looks like night is almost upon us, lets go inside." jack


    end chapter 29


    author''s note: if you like this story please rate it, preferably with a 5 star rating

 chapter 30: old soul

    Chapter 30


    somewhere during the night ghost tracked us down through smell, with Lucy following her. At that point it got difficult to hold on to my physical form, I didn''t even realize I was making an subconscious effort to hold on to it. I never thought I would do the equivalent of tentacle play for shadows. After a while we all get tiered and fall asleep, after all, I haven''t slept in days.


    I am standing in the middle of a city square. There is a mansion in front of me, a temple behind me, and on either side there are stores and shops that look like they belong to wealthy merchants. All are burning. The red glow that is cast on every surface is very beautiful. I hear screams from men,women,and children on all sides while they try fruitlessly to escape the infernos grasp, all except for me. I just stand there watching everything burn.


    Been a while since I''ve had a dream like that'' jack


    The location in that dream does not exists in this world, I''ve checked. I''m what is commonly referred to as an old soul, which are rather common. Basically it''s someone who retains some of there memories from there previous life. Around 80% of people retain at least some memories from their previous life, 40% of that 80 can remember details from their previous life, 10% have memories from a different world, 1% can perfectly remember their previous life. The last one is easily spotted during childhood due to their unnatural determination. I belong to the 10%.


    I look over at the succubus next to me and smile. I owe this girl so much, if it weren''t for her I would probably be training myself to death, literally.


    I get up and notice Johanna playing with her sister, causing ghost to have a very wet dream based on the moans.


    "hey" jack


    "you had one of those dreams, didn''t you?" Johanna


    "yeah, I did. How could you tell?" jack


    "your eyes, they glaze over slightly after waking up from one of those dreams, what was it like?" Johanna


    "it was beautiful" Lilith


    "So, you watched my dreams last night." jack


    "of course, I always watch your dreams" Lilith


    "so what happened?" Johanna


    "fire" Lilith


    Johanna just looked at Lithe funny before returning her attention to ghost, who had woken up. Ghost leans up and whispers something in Johanna''s ear, which I can''t hear. They both look at me with a dangerous glint in their eyes. Suddenly ghost starts howling and I start to feel very, aroused.noticing this, as sucubi always notice when men are aroused, Lithe casts a spell.this particular spell prevents pregnancy, ghost has a similar one that has to be applied orally.


    Then the four of them tackle me and we spend the next couple hours the same way we spent last night. Who knew tentacle play could be so much fun?


    An hour before noon we finally stop only for my duel. An hour later I am standing in the center of town opposite rostwood, their are a lot of spectators and I see money changing hands,a lot. I try to listen into what they are saying.


    "10 seconds"


    "1 minute 30"


    "death"


    "slavery"


    "15 seconds"


    it sounds like they are betting on both how long the fight will last as well as the punishment for the loser.


    "are you ready?" rostwood


    "yes I am. The question is, are you?" jack


    "sure" rostwood


    "start!" announcer


    As soon as he said that I cast invisibility on myself and ran up behind him, surprising him. I put my daggers up against his neck.


    "you cheated" rostwood


    "how?" jack


    "you used magic" rostwood


    As soon as he says that I give a huge grin.


    "I cheated? No, you never said that magic wasn''t allowed. When you start a duel you have to specify every detail of the rules, including the punishment for the loser. In the case you don''t specify anything you can do anything. Meaning the only things that were absolute with this duel was that it would start in the center of the village at noon. I can do or take anything I want from you, your free will, your life." jack


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    I can feel him shake in fear as I said this.


    "you obviously haven''t studied the laws here to any length" jack


    "what if I don''t admit defeat?" rostwood


    "I''ll kill you" jack


    "I coincide" rostwood


    "louder, so everyone can hear you." jack


    "I ADMIT DEFEAT!" rostwood


    "good" jack


    I hear snickers from all around.


    "total length. 1 minute 30 seconds. Now, what is the losers punishment?" announcer


    "his free will, he is now my slave" jack


    ''I didn''t realize you swung that way.'' Lucy


    ''I don''t, you are a pet. He is a slave'' jack


    ''Ah'' Lucy


    <table><tbody><tr><td> rostwood is now your slave</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I hear some over excited ''yes''''s and some various curse words from the spectator.


    I walk back to the old mans place, who,in case you haven''t relied yet, is the village chief.


    "I saw the fight, not much of a fight if you ask me." zain


    "true, it was rather boring" jack


    "so when are you going to let me retire?" zain


    "soon" jack


    I walk into the dining room where the 6 humans are finishing their lunch.


    "you six follow me" jack


    When I say that they all get up and follow me quietly. I start leading them to one of the largest buildings in the village. I open the door and see a training dojo run by a personal friend of mine.


    "ah, jack. I heard you''re back in town." trainer


    "I bring gifts" jack


    When I say this his eyes grow wide and sparkle as he looks over the humans I have in tow.


    "fresh meat?" trainer


    "give them hell." jack


    As soon as I saw that the six turn to me surprised.


    "traitor!" jacobe


    "I trusted you" Joe


    "why!?" sally


    "should have seen this coming" Selena


    The other two just sigh, realizing why I was dropping them off here.


    I smile and walk away, ignoring the pleading of the humans I left behind.


    "oh yeah, I almost forgot. Give them each one of these." jack


    I turn around and toss a bag with six bracelets over to the trainer. They are a more powerful version


    of the ones I made before.


    I then meet up my new slave. As soon as I see him I cast blind on him. He falls to the ground clutching his eyes.


    "why?" rostwood


    "you rely on your eyes to much" jack


    I walk away leaving him to ponder on what I said. I get back to the house and go into a certain room. This room has maps, all kinds of maps. I find one in particular, a map of the world. This world has twelve continents, none of them are connected by more than a narrow land bridge. Each continent has several countries, with one being the most powerful on each continent, the so called continental countries. No country has ever conquered an entire continent, or expanded off of their continent for that matter. Currently the church is in control of the countries on 4 continents, with a foothold in 2 more. This content is one of the 4. The church disconnect the population from the rest of the world, trying to keep them ignorant of magic. So that only 1% of the population, other than upper ranking church members, have knowledge of magic. It''s a dark age yet at the same time an age of technological development. In these last couple years things like guns and cars and some other things have been developed the humans on these continents. (things like radar and satellites don''t exist, the current internet was made by the church using magic. Not that anyone but them know


    that)


    satisfied I jump out of the window and head over to the hotsprings for a relaxing dip.


    End chapter 30


    here is another chapter for you to enjoy, leave a comment

 chapter 31: training

    Chapter 31


    as I walk over to the hot springs I notice Lucy and ghost accompanying Joe, sally, Jacobs, selena, and the twins parents. All of the walking toward the hot springs. All of them are hot and sweaty.


    "I see you''ve been training." jack


    "that''s right, you bastard. why''d you leave us with him?" Jacobs


    As he says that he rushes me and strikes at me as hard and fast as he can, I jump and land on two fingers on top of his head, upside down. Then Joe takes a swing at me from behind, not that it makes much of difference as I can see 360 degrees anyway, I spring off of his head causing Jacobs to collapse and lightly bring my feet over joe''s head, knocking him down in the process. All the while ghost and Lucy were laughing.


    "next time you attack me like that I won''t go so easy on you, I will expect a good fight. After all, the only thing I respect is strength." jack


    "I''m not going to forgive you for what you put us through" Jacobs


    "the girls are too exhausted to speak!" Joe


    "I''m surprised you have the energy stand, much less attack me." jack


    "who the hell came up with this regime?" Jacobs


    "I did" jack


    "were you trying to kill someone!?" Joe


    "yes, I was." jack


    That seamed to shut everyone up. After a short pause ghost was the first to speak.


    "lets go to the hot springs I''ve heard about." ghost


    "is there mixed bathing?" Joe


    "why would there be anything but?" jack


    At this everyone looked at me funny.


    "oh yeah, I forgot. The church preaches that being naked in the presence of a member of the


    opposite gender is a sin. And that reflects on the culture of their territories." jack


    Now, instead of looking at me funny, they were just surprised.


    "although at this time of night everyone is at home in bed, especially since it''s close to the full moon, so we should be the only ones there" jack


    "now that you mention it I did notice a coupe people without cloths on, I just assumed that they were prostitutes doing some advertising." Joe


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    "fuck it, I want a bath. I don''t care  if jack or any one else sees my naked body anymore" selena


    "sorry, but you''re not my type" jack


    As soon as she says that Joe gets a mischievous glint in his eyes. At about this time we reach the hot spring, where lilith and Johanna were waiting. It was a rather uneventful, although we had a couple


    interesting conversations


    "so, you''re some kind of big shot hear, huh" Jacobs


    "I am the third most influential person here, after the chief and his wife. The fourth is aunty." jack


    "how the hell did you manage that at 15?" George


    "depression and suicidal tendencies" jack


    When I say that everyone goes quite and Johanna puts on a rather rueful smile.


    "oh, by the way don''t expect much help from me anymore, fight your own fights" jack


    When we get out I walk with the girls back to the house and the humans go back to the training


    center, after all they are going to be training first thing in the morning.


    After a bit of fun time I fall asleep, only to see a familiar goddess.


    "hello jackline" jack


    "hello jack" jackline


    "I''m assuming this is business, not pleasure" jack


    "it is, how could you tell?" jackline


    "I don''t see Johanna around" jack


    "true" jackline


    "anyway, what''s up?" jack


    "someone wants to talk to you" jackline


    "based on the fact that you are a goddess of death I can assume that it''s a dead person that has yet


    to reincarnate, but who would want to talk to me? My parents? They died a long time ago their already reincarnated by now, right?" jack


    "actually" jackline


    "seriously?" jack


    "you''re mother wants to talk before moving on" jackline


    Chapter 31


    sorry the chapter is so short

 chapter 32: mother

    Chapter 32


    when I was three years old there was a huge storm, lightning and torrential rain starting and putting out fires left and right. When lightning struck our house it lit a fire inside, where it was dry. My parents wrapped me up in slightly burnt blanket, I didn''t know it at the time but it was enchanted to be resistant to fire and had seen some use, then they left me in the crib. From my position I could easily watch them burn to death, they didn''t even try to save themselves. Watching my parents burn to death was my earliest memory. After that I was taken up to my current home, but that''s a story for another time.


    "let me get this straight, my mother has waited to reincarnate for 12 years just to talk to me?" jack


    "yes" jackline


    "why haven''t you told me this?" jack


    "she asked me not to." jackline


    "fine, where is she?" jack


    "right here" jackline


    When she says that a rather pretty woman in her late twenties appears from the surrounding blackness. She is tall with


    flowing black hair and brown eyes. She has a motherly face that isn''t smiling.


    "looking into those cold, unfeeling eyes. Do you care about anything in the world? Or is it all just an irritation to you?"


    mother


    "there are things in the world that I love, things that I enjoy, things that I care about. But they are few and far between"


    jack


    "you have become extraordinarily strong in your life, but, I''m disappointed in you." mother


    "what?" jack


    "you have done great thing, yes, but you are a cold, emotionless man. When you were born I had hoped you would become a great, loving man, like your father." mother


    "where is he anyway" jack


    "he decided to reincarnate years ago, saying that he could watch his son become such a horrible monster. I agree, even if you''ve done many great, and good, things you are a dark, evil man." mother


    "am I truly evil?" jack


    "I just said so didn''t I?" mother


    "the correct answer is no. Good and evil are both abstract concepts that have no place outside of fantasy, light isn''t good


    and dark isn''t evil, they both simply exist" jack


    "I disagree, you are still-"mother


    "shut up." jack


    "excuse me?" mother


    "I said, shut up. I don''t care about your opinion of me. 8 years ago I would have. If you want to chat and have a good time,


    go ahead! But if you want to ridicule me for being a failure of a son, your words will fall on deaf ears. I don''t care about you, or what you have to say. If you''re done you can leave." jack


    At this she just stares, eyes wide with shock.


    "if your not going to leave, then I will. See you, well probably not but you get it." jack


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    She continues to stare at me before muttering.


    "he had the right idea of leaving after all." mother


    When she said that she just vanished.


    "what happened to her?" jack


    "she reincarnated, into an elf" jackline


    "will she retain any memories?" jack


    "very little, with no details" jackline


    "that''s fine" jack


    "it''s about time for you to wake up" jackline


    "one moment. lilith! I know your there! I can smell you!" jack


    "aww, I''ve been caught. So, how do I smell" lilith


    "sweet" jack


    "you have about 2 seconds till you wake up" jackline


    When I wake up, which is around 2 am, I find Johanna grinding against my left arm and Lucy on my right, which isn''t all that surprising as the full moon is tomorrow. I use my psychological magic to make both of them respond to pleasure more and start to play with them with my hands, much to their delight. lililth is the next to wake up and she gets onto a mounted position, only to be pushed off by a wolf who takes the spot for herself. I expand the magic to all of them, much to the delight of everyone. lilith then gives me a hot, deep kiss. Interesting fact about succubus saliva, when swallowed it acts as an aphodisiac as well as boosting vitality and stamina. Part of the way through I figure out a way to make


    everyone feel what everyone else is feeling, in addition to what they feel, I even got a skill out of it.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>hive mind</td></tr><tr><td>skill type: active, passive</td><td>rarity: legendary</td></tr><tr><td>lv: 1</td><td>exp: 40%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>this skill allows you to create a hive mind with 2 or more people.people in a hive mind can hear eachothers thoughts, see what eachother sees, feel what each other feels, etc. higher levels increase the number of people possible in a hive mind. You do not need to be part of the hive mind.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    we spend a couple hours having some fun time till sun up.


    I get up and go meet up with asmodeus, who agreed to teach me magic. I ask Johanna and lilith to train ghost.


    "so, what all do you want to learn?" asmodeus


    "everything you can teach me." jack


    "great" asmodeus


    I spend the entire day improving my magic skills, with satisfactory results. One problem, he didn''t teach me anything about psychological magic. When I brought it up he said this.


    "psychological magic? Stop making things up boy." asmodeus


    End chapter 32


    so what do you guys think about mother?

 chapter 33: a little bit of history

    chapter 33


    "alright, what''s the difference between archaic and arcane spells?" asmodeus


    "archaic, also known as primal, spells are simpler, meaning they are easier and faster to cast, they also have a much greater potential for power while also being much more dangerous for the caster. arcane has many safeguards preventing the caster from getting injured, but that makes it more complex, relying more on arias, magic circles, and tools, causing them to take more time and be weaker." jack


    "excellent. although it is called archaic, any development in magic that isn''t creating a new aria, magic circle, or magic tool is archaic magic. now what type of magic am i going to be teaching you?" asmodeus


    "primal" jack


    "why?" asmodeus


    "because it offers much more freedom when casting" jack


    "correct. why bother memorising all of those stupid arias when you can make fire dance around your hands with a thought, or create thousands of undead just by willing them to serve you?" asmodeus


    "i honestly don''t know" jack


    "neither do i. a true mage is someone who takes risks for the sake of learning any little thing they can, i once met a mage that intentionally killed themselves several times just to improve resurrection magic." asmodeus


    "wow, i don''t know how to respond to that." jack


    "i didn''t know how to respond either, i kept begging my sister to stop but she keep saying that she was on the verge of a breakthrough. it fucking terrified me."asmodeus


    at that moment lilith bust through the door, crying.


    "ghost and johanna told me everything! why haven''t you made me into one of your pets yet?!" lilith


    at that moment asmodeus turns around, and just stares, shocked. after a couple seconds he starts crying. lilith is equally shocked when she sees asmodeus''s face.


    "you look just like my dead wife" asmodeus


    "great-grandpa?" lillith


    "my wife, lilith, she died during an assault on the capital during the last great crusade. i had one child before  she died. i-" asmodeus


    "your rambling" jack


    "sorry." asmodeus


    "are you asmodeus? you look just like the paintings i had seen in my grandmother''s house, she thought you were dead."


    lilith


    "does the name lilith run in the family or something?" jack


    "it is customary for my family to give their eldest the name lilith." lilith


    "yes, i''m asmodeus. your great grandpa." asmodeus


    "this has been a lovely, touching family reunion." jack


    "i''m sorry, i forgot that you had a less than desirable reunion with your mother." lilith


    "it''s fine, i just said that to advance the story that otherwise would have just stayed at you two staring at each other for a


    long time" jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: breaking the fourth wall</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''the fuck?'' jack


    "you wanted me to tame you, right?" jack


    "yes!" lilith


    "alright" jack


    ''tame'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>are you sure you want to attempt to tame lilith the greater succubus? bonus from taming related skills= 15%


    bonus from luck= 1.5% total chance of taming, including the emotions of the target= 100% chance of success. if you fail the target may turn hostile.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''thats new, probably part of a recent update. yes'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td> congratulations! you have tamed lilith, the greater succubus. total # of creatures tamed= 4</td></tr></tbody></table>


    i assume lilith got a similar notice as she starts to blush.


    "reading this is really erotic" lilith


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    yup, it is the day before the night of the full moon alright.


    "oh yeah, was it your wolf that howled the other night?" asmodeus


    "yeah, why?" jack


    "i got gang raped by a pack of wolves because of it." asmodeus


    "ah, the silver triplets. quite a formidable opponent, their team work is amazing, their individual skill rivals that of most people here." jack


    "and they are quite tasty." lilith


    after a couple seconds of silence lilith speaks up again.


    "what?! a girls gotta eat, and you weren''t exactly close so i had to settle for what was available." lilith


    at around that time the other 3 walk in the room silently, unnoticed by the other 2.


    "why didn''t you go with your husband then?" asmodeus


    "how could you tell jack was my husband?" lilith


    "i just put the pieces together, after all there is only one way that i know of to be completely immune to charm magic. i


    approve by the way, jack is a great man. anyway, answer the question." asmodeus


    "apparently not everyone agrees with you about jack. i got put under something similar to house arrest for 6 years." lilith


    "when does that end, i forgot" johanna


    "next month, then i will be free to explore the world with you." lilith


    "i can''t believe it''s almost been 6 years since that time." jack


    "what did you do?" asmodeus


    "it''s not something i feel comfortable telling my great grandpa" lilith


    he snorts before responding with ''fine''.


    "how long have we been studying?" jack


    "a couple hours?" asmodeus


    "it''s lunch time." lucy


    "lets go eat then." jack


    we make our way to the dining room where mary was laying out food, i can''t help but look sadly at her black fingernails and white hair. if only i''d been a little faster that day then i might have been able to prevented that whole situation.


    "foods ready, it''s chicken sandwiches." mary


    we eat mostly in silence. at least on the surface, inside me and my pets are talking via telepathy.


    ''so, what happened for you to get stuck in this place for 6 years?'' lucy


    ''tell us.'' ghost


    ''during my rite of passage i raped the chief''s heir'' lilith


    ''ahh.'' lucy


    ''right of passage?'' ghost


    ''when a succubus or incubus reaches sexual maturity they have to prove to their parent that they can get food on their own without help, before that they drink from their mothers breasts'' johanna


    ''oh, so who is the chief''s heir, he sounds like someone really strong to be able to inherit this place'' ghost


    ''of course i''m strong'' jack


    when lilith and i first met, i was about about 9 years old and, as succubi grow about 3-4 times as fast as humans till they reach sexual maturity, she was three. i didn''t even try to resist because i was really confused, i didn''t realise what was happening  till after it was over. that event led to a lot of changes in my life, including a succubus wife. the other changes i''m not going to into at this time. immediately afterward she was caught and her punishment was not being able to leave the village boundaries for 6 years. i explain the story to both lucy and ghost with some help from lilith.


    ''i''ll be honest, at first i didn''t like lilith very much.'' johanna


    ''that''s an understatement, you hated me, i''ve never seen someone so jelas in my life.'' lilith


    ''but that was before i realized i was bi.''johanna


    "you four all seem deep in thought." mary


    at around that time lunch was over, so i decided to go experiment with psychological magic outside on passing


    pedestrians.


    end chapter 33


    i need help thinking of a good name for a female snake, if you have a suggestion put it in the comments.


    also, what does everyone think about lilith

 chapter 34: lynda

    chapter 34


    honestly, playing around with psychological magic is one of the most fun things I''ve ever done. i can manipulate emotions, use their senses, take a look at peoples memories, alter, delete, or create memories, even physically control someones body! although with the last one I''m not very good at it, the most i can do is some sporadic twitching. all in all i broke up 12  couples, got 13 couples together, caused 3 murders, possible caused up to 6 children, made a guy forget his own name, create a scene where a guy gets a horrible rash in his memory, and altered a memory of a little girl so her dogs death wasn''t as brutal so she wouldn''t cry as much. i have the feeling that I''m not even scratching the surface with what I''ve figured out so far.


    ''this magic is really scary, if someone else had it. better make sure no one else learns it.'' jack


    i notice that my mana had dropped almost completely and decide to walk through the village. after walking for about 10 minutes i see Johanna running, as she rarely walks anymore, up to me.


    ''so what did you run off to do earlier?'' Johanna


    "why telepathy?" jack


    "oops, sorry. forgot to move my mouth." Johanna


    "training one of my skills." jack


    "ah, sounds fun." Johanna


    "it really was." jack


    ''have you picked your next target yet?'' Johanna


    ''i have a couple people I''m thinking about. why?'' jack


    ''cause i want to help with it this time.'' Johanna


    ''i certainly wasn''t expecting that answer'' jack


    ''I''ve watched and herd stories about your kills for most of our life, i want to finally take part in this.'' Johanna


    i start smiling, i didn''t realize that Johanna wanted to help me kill someone so badly.


    ''I''m not doing anything like that anytime soon, so you''ll have to wait'' jack


    ''thats fine with me'' Johanna


    "oh, Lynda! long time no see. oh, wait. shit." Johanna


    "who''s Lynda?" jack


    when she says that a black lamia comes from out behind a wall behind me. she has a petite body, with black hair and dark skin.(imagine master nemesis from to love Ru as a lamia). she is about 13 feet long, so around 15, 16 years old.


    "Johanna you meanie." Lynda


    when i look at her face i notice that shes blushing, when she looks at my face she blushes harder and turns away.


    "you look familiar." jack


    "I''m sorry Lynda i completely forgot. you didn''t want to be seen, sorry." Johanna


    "its fine. it had to happen eventually." Lynda


    she was still blushing, a lot, but she started to seem a little more composed.


    "do i know you, you look familiar." jack


    "she''s your personal stalker. and, based on your reaction now, she was really good at it." Johanna


    "wah, Johanna you meanie.don''t tell him that." Lynda


    any composer Lynda managed to obtain went away with that statement.


    "wait, i think i know where i recognize you from. one of my victims was obsessed with snakes and attempted to rape you, until i killed him."  jack


    "yay, you remember me." Lynda


    "shes been a good friend of mine for a couple years." Johanna


    "Johanna." jack


    "yes?" Johanna


    "at this point you have a bigger harem than i do." jack


    "true, but you''ll always be my favorite. and i don''t really need any of the other girls anymore now that I''m not human." Johanna


    at this point i could feel Johanna using telepathy on Lynda, i couldn''t ''hear'' what she was saying though. it''s a strange sensation, probably due to my psychological magic. after a couple minutes Lynda speaks up, blushing furiously.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    "i-i want you to tame me." Lynda


    "i think you should do it, shes rather fun, and powerful." Johanna


    "what''s your specialty?" jack


    "r-rope and chain type weapons." Lynda


    "thats a hard one to master, but it is really fun once you get it down." jack


    "it is, but its really fun to use in forests and indoors. ahh." Lynda


    she gets a little excited when talking about her weapon of choice before remembering the situation and starts to blush even more.


    ''she seams rather docile.'' jack


    ''you should see her in a fight, even i struggle against her while indoors or in a forest.'' Johanna


    ''you''re not going to want me to tame all of your little friends are you?'' jack


    ''no, only the ones i really like. like Lilith, or Lynda here'' Johanna


    "alright, I''ll tame you" jack


    "yay!" Lynda


    ''tame'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>are you sure you want to attempt to tame Lynda the greater lamia? bonus from taming related skills= 15%


    bonus from luck= 1.5% total chance of taming, including the emotions of the target= 100% chance of success. if you fail the target may turn hostile.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''yes'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you have tamed the greater lamia Lynda!</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Lynda reads what i assume to be the same message Lilith got earlier and her already massive blush spreads to the rest of her face and neck.


    "lets see exactly how good you are in a fight." jack


    "i  love a good fight as much as the next person. so, where should our sparring match be?" Lynda.


    "in the forest, meet at the gate in an hour."jack


    "but wouldn''t that put me at an advantage? i want to fight on as even ground as possible." Lynda


    "no, i am also able to more fully able to use my abilities in that type of environment." jack


    "sounds fun, i want to watch." Johanna


    "fine by me." jack


    i head off back to the big house to get an item back from the chief. after running for about 24 seconds i reach the house. when i open the door i see the old man in the entryway walking toward the door.


    "oi, old man. i need my key back please." jack


    "i was just heading out to give it to you." zain


    he tosses me an old brass key, like the big old style ones. i quickly grab it and start running out.


    "thanks" jack


    "no problem" zain


    when I''m outside i circle around to the back and find an old cellar door. i open the door and head down a small hallway, at the end of the hallway i find a large stone door. i put the key into the lock and turn, opening the stone door. inside i see several weapons on a couple weapons racks. there are a pair of chains, some gauntlets, pair of crossbows, pair of longsword and short swords as well as several other weapons. i place my daggers on their rack and grab the short


    swords.


    i head over to the front gate and wait for a certain lamia to get here, it''s been awhile since I''ve had a good fight.


    end chapter 34


    thanks to exseen for the name (sorry Zabitan i would have done zurina but ghost is already an albino)

 chapter 35: the fight

    chapter 35


    i sit down with my blades on my lap waiting for Lynda. i pull out some poison that i swiped from uncle, who is widely proclaimed to be the best alchemist currently alive, and start applying the poison, a fast acting paralytic, to the short swords. after a light application of the poison i put it back in my inventory  so no one would see it. after about 30 minutes Johanna shows up.


    "yo, you''re here early." Johanna


    "wanted to give her enough time to prepare herself" jack


    "i assume that isn''t all you''ve been doing." Johanna


    "maybe" jack


    after about 5 more minutes Lynda finally show up.


    "ready?" Lynda


    all traces of the previous docile, blushing little snake are gone and replaced with excitement for a fight. not that i can blame her, if Johanna''s to be believed then she''s really strong so I''m getting excited as well.


    "you will walk out into the forest at random directions for 5 minutes, after that the fight will begin. the first person to be go below 50% or be rendered unable to fight loses. no offensive magic, support magic is allowed. is that alright with both parties?" Johanna


    "yes, it is." jack


    "of course" Lynda


    "ALl right then. start!" Johanna


    i see Lynda slither off into the forest, twisting her body expertly around the trees, then she just disappears.


    ''magic, huh. two can play at that game.'' jack


    i enhance my speed with wind magic, which also has the sided effect of muffling sounds. and run through the forest and up a tree, where i keep running for about 4 minutes before stopping to take a look around and rejuvenate my mana through meditation, both things i can do at the same time thanks to the fact that i can see with my eyes closed. i see, or


    rather feel, traces of illusion magic around several trees nearby.


    ''smart, using magic on other trees to confuse me.'' jack


    i jump to the left as a chain comes up from behind me missing me by a hairs breadth and lodging itself into a nearby tree. i jump onto the chain and run along it, hoping to find to one that though it. the chain is pulled out of the tree and another chain flies at my head from the side. i jump down and grab onto a vine, swinging up into the leaves of a tree. i sit for a second while weaving a spell, half way through the spell a chain comes from below and i have deflect it with my short swords.


    ''strong'' jack


    i lost 50 hit points just from deflecting that chain. i finish weaving the spell, which is a combination of illusion magic and psychological magic. i created six illusionary versions of myself that can act on its own but still allows me to control it. me and my six non-existent clones jump out from the hiding places just as both chains come from either side of us, unfortunately one of them gets destroyed in the process.


    ''ha ha ha ha ha, this is fun.'' jack


    i jump onto the nearest tree with magic surrounding it while another illusion gets destroyed. i mentally grip the mana and absorb it to fill my own mana pool, the first thing asmodeus taught me to do.


    ''damn it, not here.'' jack


    i send a quick burst of wind behind me as i jump knocking an oncoming chain back and sending me up above the forest where i quickly scanned for the most likely hiding spots. as i start to fall a chain comes up from under me, i twist my body with the help of wind magic and start running down the chain before jumping up and landing on the second chain which came from the side, i start to run Down the second chain before reaching the most likely hiding spot, which is surrounded with illusion magic. i quickly break down the spell and absorb the ambient mana while dodging 2 chains that lodged themselves in the tree.


    ''damn, not here either. it''s not like i can just follow the chains, it would take too long.'' jack


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    i swing on a vine over to the next tree with illusion magic surrounding it, only three after this one. after absorbing the mana i realize another blast of wind to throw myself through the air at the 4th tree, at this point my stamina is starting to drop but my mana is just fine due to the mana I''ve been absorbing from the spells, so this time i turn the mana into stamina, which was the second thing asmodeus taught me to do. this time there was a snake, but it was the wrong snake. the branch i was on brakes just in time for two chains to hit the tree and bounce out.


    "thats cheating" Jack


    "sorry, i couldn''t help it." nymph # 2


    "fine, but don''t do it again." jack


    "fine." nymph # 2


    i jump up out of the way of a chain and fall only to grab a vine and swing onto another tree. this tree has no magic surrounding it. i deflect a chain and take 50 damage. i attempt to grab the chain but fail because it gets pulled back too fast.


    ''damn it'' jack


    i launch myself to another tree, the 2nd to last one with mana surrounding it. after absorbing the mana i jump up to the top of the tree to dodge the 2nd chain. i grab a vine and wrap it around the hilt of my short sword. i grab one end of the vine and enchant it to be extra durable and throw the sword at the last tree using the sword as an intermediary to absorb the mana.


    ''damn it. where is she? it must be natural camouflage and not magical.'' jack


    i remove the vine and jump up in the air in the same motion, narrowly dodging a chain. i keep myself in the air with magic for a couple seconds while i scan the surroundings.


    ''there'' jack


    i see the tail end of an obviously large black snake. i propel myself toward it using mana, by this point I''m down to about


    50% mana, flying takes up a lot of mana. i land on the mid section of the snake and hear a gasp before slicing at the body of the snake with my poisoned short swords. 5 seconds later i can feel the snake stiffen up around the tree and i get a system message.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> your pet/slave Lynda has been paralyzed</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "so...you...applied...poison...too?" Lynda


    she is speaking in grunts due to the fact that she is mostly paralyzed.


    "of course i did." jack


    just then Johanna literally ran up the tree we were sitting in.


    "and the winner is jack." Johanna


    as soon as she says that i give her the antidote to the poison.


    "if i had gotten just one scratch in i would have won." Lynda


    "the last person to give me that much trouble in a fight was Johanna." jack


    "sorry." Lynda


    and now she''s back to her docile blushing self.


    "the last time i had so much fun in a fight was the last time i fought with Johanna." jack


    at this she perks up.


    "it''s about time we start heading back, it''s almost dark." jack


    "awww" nymph # 2


    "why don''t we spend the night in the forest, ghost, Lucy and Lilith are all already here. they just can''t climb as fast as i


    can." Johanna


    "alright. fine, it''s really hard to say no to you, Johanna." jack


    "you remember it, Lilith may have taken my place as first wife but i always get what i want in the end." Johanna


    end chapter 35


    i had a lot of fun writing this chapter.


    so, i saw that this game we call life is in the top weekly list, lets keep it there. hopefully we can get this story into the top active list as well.


    so what does everyone think of lynda so far?

 chapter 36: full moon

    chapter 36


    i see ghost, Lucy, and Lilith climbing the tree by the time they are half way up.


    "Lynda, can i borrow one of your chains?" jack


    Lynda timidly hands me one of the chains in her hands. it''s the first time i get to look at it closely, i notice an elongated cube with a point on one end. i rub It a little before licking my fingers.


    ''hmm, a pretty potent paralytic. not as potent as the stuff uncle makes but i would have been in trouble if this had scratched me, it would have made those split second dodges impossible.'' jack


    i lower the chain down for the girls to grab on too, Lilith and ghost grab onto it and i pull them up with a solid tug, sending them flying over our location.


    "catch them" Johanna


    "on it" dryad


    "when did you get here?" jack


    "right when you lowered that chain down" dryad


    before the girls fall past us several branches interlock to create a mat bellow them, effectively breaking their fall. at the same time Lucy launched herself off of the tree with wind magic, she then wall jumped off of a different tree sending her


    up to us.


    "how did your talk with asmodeus go?" Johanna


    "we just shared some old war stories. did you know that he took down an entire  battalion of the churches paladins with a single spell? he almost killed himself doing it though." Lucy


    "impressive." jack


    "i love watching the sunset from up here." nymph # 1


    "it is beautiful." Lucy


    i look around and see the branches of this tree and two others start to interweave creating a living wood floor, i also notice all 4 of the nymphs that greeted us when we got to the mountain up here.


    "you know, in my thousands of years you are the second best at pleasuring women that i have had the pleasure of meeting." dryad


    i look at her face and notice that instead of the normal leafy green hue it is bright red.


    "who was the first?" jack


    "Johanna." dryad


    "i won''t deny it." Lilith


    "big sis is really good with her hands." ghost


    i notice that ghost is drooling slightly just from that thought.


    "i know right!" nymph #3


    "i don''t know, jack is pretty good." nymph #2


    the full moon effect all creatures in the same way, increasing physical strength, stamina, and making them aroused, the only difference is how much they are affected. creatures that are more attuned to nature are more affected than other creatures, examples are all sprites, nymphs, dryads, beasts, and succubi/incubbi, meaning that i am surrounded by really horny girls. the only two people up here that aren''t affected very much due to race are me and Lucy, undead are hardly affected at all, and most demons aren''t affected very strongly, and i have a blessing intensifying the effects of the moon, a lot.


    "ahh, huh." Johanna


    when i hear Johanna gasping and moaning i look over and see her face is red as a ripe tomato and she''s taking her cloths off.


    ''ahh, that would make sense, the blessing would compound with her race change.'' jack


    seeing this the other girls striped as well. when i tried to Lilith stopped me.


    "when I''m here I''m the one that takes your cloths off." Lilith


    when she finishes she turns me around to show the other girls, like she''s showing off that she is the first wife.


    "i-it''s mu-much bigger in per-person" Lynda


    as she says that i feel her tail wrap around my waist and pull me forward, i store my weapons in my inventory. the 5


    nymphs are the first to act, tackling me. Lucy casts a spell to provide a soft light to keep us from falling off.


    "no fair" Lynda


    "gotta be quicker next time." Johanna


    as soon as she says that Lynda''s tail wraps around my torso knocking off the nymphs.


    "no fair" nymph#1


    "gotta be quicker next time" Lynda


    i suddenly know what the last doll in toy shop feels like.


    "are you all just going to play tug of war with me or is something actually going to happen?" jack


    at this the dryad, Lilith, and Lucy all laugh, while the others start to blush even harder. i feel Lilith cast an anti-pregnancy spell. Lynda pulls me through the air even closer to her while wrapping me up even more in her tail, now a good half of my body is covered. she attempts to mount me when Lilith pulls me out from her tail.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "ignorant, you know he''s much better when he can actually move." Lilith


    at this she starts to pout, she seems to be gaining a bit of confidence, either that or shes drunk on the moon.


    "honestly, i thought draconics we''re supposed to be the smartest class" Lilith


    "that''s upper ranks, Lynda is still a low ranking lamina." Johanna


    i stand up and one of the forest nymphs starts giving me a blow job while rubbing her breasts. ghost comes over and the


    two knock me down before licking up and down my shaft. i start to sit up only for Johanna to sit  on my chest and start grinding on it. i use my left hand to play with her small, supple chest while using my right to help her with her grinding.


    the dryad comes up in between my legs and starts to massage the flesh between my balls and ass, which is surprisingly sensitive. the other nymphs 3 nymphs and Lilith all stick their tongues in my mouth at the same time, which is actually quite pleasant, nymphs have long tongues, and so do succubi, pretty much everyone here except Lucy and i have long tongues. ghost moves her hands underneath the wind nymph that is currently on my chest and shoves her whole hand inside, much to the delight and surprise of Johanna.


    "so thats how you want to play." Johanna


    as soon as she says that she begins to hang ghost with some rope she had in her inventory, Johanna has always been more organized than me. after shes done everyone gets up to give ghost some love, and by that i mean torture her mercilessly. first Lilith practically force feeds ghost some of her saliva, making her even more aroused. Lynda wraps the end of her tail around ghost''s waist and playing with her belly button, Lilith is still playing with her tung, the dryad is stroking the upper thighs, the forest nymphs are all playing with breasts, Johanna is tickling her armpits with a large feather taken from Phoenix, Lucy is dragging the back of her nails all over ghost''s body, me? well i am spanking her. i use hive mind, although the sensory detail is severely diminished due to the number of people i still feel a wave of pleasure when i add ghost to the hive mind. everyone stops for a second from the shock but then ghost uses telepathy.


    ''don''t stop, please don''t ever stop.'' ghost


    as soon as she thinks that everyone starts again, only this time intensified. suddenly the dryad sticks her hand inside instead of teasing the outside. ghost gasps in pleasure only to have it cut short by Lilith giving her a hot steamy kiss.


    ''i could probably replicate this feeling with my psychological magic.'' jack


    the forest nymphs started to suckle on ghost, two to a breast. i notice some liquid overflowing from their mouths. after about 30 minutes of torturing ghost, who blacked out one or three times, she is let down. unfortunately she just collapses, although this is remedied with a spell and kiss from Lilith.


    "so, who''s next?" Johanna


    after a couple seconds everyone looks at me.


    "what?" jack


    "you can''t escape" dryad


    as she says that more branches weave together to create a perfect, unbroken dome. with the only light being from the light that Lucy made. i am quickly overpowered and hung in the same way ghost did.


    "don''t worry master, I''ll make you feel just as good as you made me feel." ghost


    "thanks for the meal." dryad


    "this''ll be fun." Johanna


    "i h-hope I''m g-good enough." Lynda


    the night proceeded in same way, with every 30 minutes another person being hung and their body played with by


    everyone else. i got hung the least, 4 times, with ghost getting hung the most, with no one being able to keep track. hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and needing to go to the bathroom were all dealt with by magic. the only reason we stopped was the fact that everyone ran out of mana, which is surprising because a dryad as old as this one always have gargantuan mana supplies, often rivaling greater gods of magic.


    when the branches making up the dome disappear i can see the sun high in the sky.


    "well that was a great way to spend two and a half days" dryad.


    end chapter 36


    ghost is so cute, i just want to torture her endlessly :yaeh_am_not_durnk:

 chapter 37:the past

    chapter 37


    <table><tbody><tr><td>do to your stunning display over the last 2 and a half days you and your pets/slaves have gained the following


    stamina increases by 300


    health increases by 300


    all physical stats increase by 20


    flexibility increases by an additional 50


    vitality increases by an additional 100


    you have gained the endurance stat


    endurance increases by an additional 60


    in addition the following things happen:


    the number of young in this forest will rapidly increase for the next year


    plants will grow faster for the next year


    after this time is up the forest will become much more dangerous for intruders</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "well i really lost track of time." jack


    "so did the rest of us, not that I''m complaining." Johanna


    "i haven''t had an orgy like that in years" dryad


    "well, see you next full moon. we need to be getting back."  Lilith


    "your leaving already?" nymph # 3


    "unfortunately, we have things we need to do." Johanna


    i look around for ghost, who is laying down next to one of the nymphs. the nymph is still playing with the completely exhausted wolf. Lucy is leaning against the tree, supported by Lynda''s tail, who is sleeping in the branches above her.


    "it''s time to go." jack


    "alright" Lucy


    "wha-" Lynda


    as Lynda rubs the sleep out of her eyes she sits up, when she looks at me she starts blush again. i put my cloths back on and head over towards ghost. the nymph that was molesting ghost muttered a complaint and got up. i shake ghost awake to tell her it''s time to leave.


    "fine." ghost


    ten minutes later we walk back into the village. i tell the girls that I''m going to check up on our human friends and walk in the direction of the dojo i left them at, with the girls in tow.


    "again!" trainer


    "yes sir!"


    i watch as they all go through basic forms immaculately. except for Joe that is, he misstepped and tripped, earning him a hit on the head from a large stick the trainer caries.


    "i see you are all progressing smoothly." jack


    "they are, although that is mostly due to the enchanted bracelets you gave them." trainer


    "good" jack


    "i think they should be good for today." trainer


    "perfect, i was going to take them to the bar."  jack


    "i would love to come, but i have other trainees." trainer


    "ah, don''t let me forget to come meet them letter." jack


    "alright, dismissed!" trainer


    as soon as he says that everyone relates and comes up to us.


    "whats this i hear about a bar?" George


    "you should try the local specialty." jack


    "I''m not sure i want my children going to a bar." George


    at this Jacobe and sally droop their heads a little.


    "not like you get any say in that, they are technical adults here." jack


    "and what is an adult here." George


    "anyone that can fight their own duels, or is older than 15." jack


    "when in Rome do as the Romans do, right?" Jacobe


    "right." sally


    a couple minutes latter we are siting at a table in the bar and a waitress comes over.


    "the usual, jack?" waitress


    "yes, and get one for all of my friends here too." jack


    "I''ll be right back." waitress


    after she walks away Joe speaks up.


    "somethings been bugging me, how are you going to have children if all of your lovers are different species? you know,


    other than the succubus over here." Joe


    "one word, power." Johanna


    "care to elaborate?" Joe


    "if there is enough power between two creatures, as long as it is physical possible, they can have children. although that


    still can''t allow you to have a child with someone of the same gender." Johanna


    "in order, the ones most lily able to have a child with me, due to power and racial things, are as follows. Lilith, Johanna, Lynda, ghost, Lucy. the reason Lucy is last is because lich''s can''t have children till they reach arc-lich rank, no matter what." jack


    "for half-lich''s it is only grand rank." Lucy


    "interesting" Johanna


    "here are your drinks." waitress


    the waitress hands out the drinks and the humans, ghost, and Lucy all look at me.


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "what, just drink it. although it might be a little much for those who have never had alcohol before so you might want to


    sip it." jack


    they all start sipping their drinks. Johanna is already half done with her first glass, she''s almost as resistant to toxins and


    poisons as i am. as soon as i put the drink to my lips a dwarf comes and sits down in front of me, right next to sally and Selena, making them obviously uncomfortable.


    "oi, godslayer, it''s been forever sense we had a drinking competition." drunk dwarf


    "if i remember correctly the score is 5 to 2 with me winning" jack


    "aie, you are the only human i know of to out drink a dwarf." drunk dwarf


    "I''m not human anymore." jack


    "what are you doing hanging out with this lot of lightweights then? no offense Johanna" drunk dwarf


    "none taken." Johanna


    "I''m introducing them to the greatest drink in the world. and I''ve tried several from all around this world and others." jack


    "that it is my boy, that it is." drunk dwarf


    "so you know this, dwarf?" Selena


    "oh yeah, he was one of my rivals for inheritance, till i beat him mercilessly in a duel. hes a good friend and rival, being the


    best mace specialist in the village" jack


    "so when will we get to specialize in a weapon?" Jacobe


    "if your lucky, in four years. most do it in 5 or 6. although that was before the system got implemented, now everything


    has gotten a boost so there''s no telling when you''ll be ready to receive a specialization." jack


    "when do people normally start training." Joe


    "at the age of 6." jack


    "when did you start training" George


    "at the age of 3" jack


    it''s true, after my parents died i got really depressed. as a relatively high ranking old soul i was more mature than most kids my age, which translates into me being suicidal. for the first couple months i didn''t do much, but one day i looked outside and saw some of the young trainees out in the Field, and decided that i wanted to kill myself by working my body to death.


    i asked the old man to let me participate in training, which he responded to delightedly. after a couple weeks i realized that just training like that wasn''t enough to kill me, so i decided to do extra training on the side, i would go until i passed out every single day.


    after a couple months of this Johanna noticed this, she had also started training early, though not as early as me. when Johanna noticed she asked to participate in the extra training sessions, she didn''t do quite as much as i did, but she did do quite a lot. after a couple more months the trainers started to take note of my unnatural growth speed, and encouraged me to work harder.


    after a year or two i figured that just physical training wasn''t enough, so in addition to adding gravity magic enchanted bracelets to the training scheme, i started to add poisons and toxins into the mix, in order to develop immunities to them. of course Johanna didn''t start with the poisons till a year or two latter but she did use gravity magic. every day i was increasing the load that i had to do, by the time i was 6 i could defeat some of the younger members of the village with ease.


    i continued like this for a total of six years till Lilith raped me and i ''woke up'' from my depressive daze. of course by that time permanent damage had already been caused, mostly to my Psyche and my hight, i should be about 2 feet taller than i am, my parents were giants. i also developed a cold personality during that time, i am practically emotionless unless the situation involves the people i care about, whom number few.


    "what happened to you, you dazed out for a little there" Johanna


    "thinking about the past." jack


    "ahh, we had some fun times." Johanna


    "we did, mostly after Lilith though." jack


    "i had a lot of fun before we met Lilith, but i guess that would have been hard for you." Johanna


    "what are you two talking about over there, the next round of drinks are here." Lilith


    "the past. anyway pass me the big one." jack


    we spend a couple hours in the bar before i have to help carry 6 humans, 1 dwarf, a wolf, and a half lich home, where Mary serves rolls, to soak up the alcohol. she then leaves claiming that the old man hasn''t had enough of a beating today.


    end chapter 37


    next time we will get the past from johanna''s point of veiw.

 johanna pov

    Johanna pov


    i am a middle ranked old soul. i have several memories from my past life, but very few concrete details. i think i was a half elf in my past life, but i am not sure.


    when i was young, too young to remember, i was dropped off at inside a forest on a mountain. no one knows why i was dropped off there or who did it, but the fact remains that i, an infant human child, was left alone inside a dangerous forest.


    luckily some nymphs found me before one of the many dangerous lesser beasts, draconics, undead, monsters, etc. found me. they took me in for a while before giving me over too an old halfling that lived on top of the mountain, of course i still regularly went to play with the nymphs that lived in the forest, my oldest memory is of playing with a certain dryad in the forest.


    after about 2 years of living in that village a boy came to the house we were living at, he had a far away look in his eyes, like he was looking at everything, yet seeing nothing, if that makes any sense. after about a week he started to join some of the older kids while they were training, i didn''t really think about it at the time, but after a while i started to become curious.


    after around 5-6 months i decided to join them. after a couple days i got used to the training and began to notice that the boy was disappearing every day after training, so, naturally, i got curious and started to follow him. i would watch as he continued training every day until he passed out, when he did so i would carry him back to the house and let him rest.


    one day i decided to join in on this extra training, i found it to straining on my body so i lessened the load too make it more bearable. after some time passed i noticed that i was getting really strong, although i was still far behind the boy, evidently the trainers also noticed this and encouraged us, it was around that time i noticed that i enjoyed training with the boy.


    one night, after training, we were chased down the mountain by a wild boar at night, it also happened to be the night of the full moon so we didn''t get help from my nymph friends. after the boar left us alone i tripped and sprained my ankle. the boy didn''t hesitate to pick me up and carry me on his shoulders even though he was already exhausted. he got us back into the house where we both lived by morning. there my adopted mother, Mary, healed my ankle and helped me place the boy, who had fallen down, on his bed.


    he didn''t wake up for a week, i cried for the first time in my life, other than when i was born, during that week. i thought that the boy was going to die, i didn''t leave his side at all during that week, i didn''t go to training, any meal i ate was brought up to me, i even slept on mat by his bed. when he finally woke up i hugged him and cried, this time tears of relief.


    after a couple years of constantly accelerating training the boy pulled out some poison and a couple bracelets. he put the bracelets on and rarely took them off, only when he gave them to Mary who did something to them before giving them back to him. he also took a small amount of poison everyday, with the amount become larger every day.


    ''is this boy trying to kill himself?'' Johanna


    i remember thinking to myself several times when he would intentionally poison himself. eventually i asked the strangely silent boy that i had come to admire why he was doing it, and what the bracelets were. he told me that he building his immunity to poisons and that the bracelets had gravity magic. i didn''t start using the poisons for about a year, but i would use the gravity bracelets.


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    a little while latter, on a full moon, while i was heading home from the extra training i was attacked by a wolf man i had never seen before, he was rather strong and easily overpowered me. after subduing me he started to take his pants off before i heard the sound of a really sharp object slicing through flesh and bone. the blood spraying from his neck covered me and the boy as the head fell forward, barely attached to the rest of his body.


    after that he picked up the body and started to drag it off into the forest, so i decided to help him out. after a while we came across a bears cave, where we through the body into. i could hear the sounds of flesh being riped apart and eaten while i continued to follow the boy to a river. he took his cloths off and started to wash the blood off of them while instructing me to do the same.


    after we both finished cleaning the blood off of ourselves he went back to the same location only to find a pack of wild dogs licking the blood up, so we went back home and went to sleep. that was the moment i realized what i truly felt for the boy, i didn''t even know his name yet and i still fell in love with him. i don''t think anyone really knew his name, he rarely talked and no one refereed to him by his name.


    a little while after that he started challenging some of the older trainees to duels, winning almost every time. a little while later i decided to do the same. after a little while i noticed that he would disappear several times every week, so, naturally, one time i followed him.


    i found him stalking a guy i hadn''t seen before. he continued doing that for a long time, keeping notes of him. after a while the man went into a back alley and the boy snuck up on him and sliced through his vocal cords and snapping his neck, there was very little blood. he went on to carry the body to the same cave he carried the guy who attacked me too before.


    after washing his clothes of the small amount of blood that dripped on them he went home and fell asleep. the next day i acted as if nothing had happened, it wasn''t that surprising to me for some reason. i would continue to follow him every time he disappeared like that, it was strangely exhilarating and addicting, watching as he plots out various murders. that bear is now known as the king of the forest and has a voracious appetite for the residents of the village, however he has never attacked the boy or i, even acting docile around us.


    we continued like that for several years, with me trying to get him to fall in love with me the entire time, before some fucking bitch raped the boy. the next day instead of the dead eyes he had had for as long as i had known him, they had a touch of warmth in them when he looked at me. it made me feel happy, safe.


    "i just realized that i don''t know your name yet." boy


    i was shocked, that was the first time i had ever heard him talk at any time other than when he was answering a question.


    "it''s Johanna" Johanna


    "I''m jack, i know it''s kind of late to say this but, it''s nice to meet you." jack


    "yeah, it is kinda late." Johanna


    i was more happy than i have ever been in my life at that moment, the boy, jack, finally started to open up to me. the rest of the story? now thats for another time.


    end Johanna pov


    i really liked writing this pov.


    so what do you guys think of jack''s and johanna''s past?

 chapter 38: a new target

    chapter 38


    everyone woke up with a heavy hang over, which is easily cured with some of uncles hang-over. i don''t envy them, that stuff tastes terrible, like grape medicine and your grandmas cough syrup had a mutant baby. 30 minutes later  everyone was bright and perky, and sitting around a breakfast of pancakes that Johanna requested from me. the old man, who has rope burns all over his body, spoke up.


    "let me retire already, I''m getting old." zain


    "i told you, I''ll let you retire soon." jack


    "when?" zain


    ''one more kill'' jack


    to my surprise the old man just starts grinning instead of being shocked at the telepathy. now that i


    think about it, he already is Marys pet so it wouldn''t be all that surprising if she tamed him.


    ''that''ll take a while.'' zain


    ''deal with it'' jack


    ''fine'' zain


    "so what do you guys sell in this village? i haven''t seen many craftsmen and there are a lot of


    imported things." jacobe


    "gee, i wonder. what could a village full of some of the worlds strongest Marshal artists possibly


    sell." Johanna


    "mercenaries?" jacobe


    "bingo. our customers come from every Continent in the world. of course everyone here has certain


    specialties when it comes to mercenary work. 93% of everyone here is either a mercenary or a retired mercenary." Johanna


    Johanna and i are somewhat famous assassins around the world. Johanna having learned stealth


    from me. we have never failed a job. my kills as an assassin, which do not have anything to do with my kills as a serial killer, number 10. i only really do it for pocket change


    after breakfast Johanna and i go out, leaving the others behind.


    ''thats him, Nicolas. he''s a pedophile. he is our target.'' jack


    ''cool, i can see why he would resort to pedophilia, he''s ugly. really ugly.'' Johanna


    ''no, he just doesn''t like women older than 10.'' jack


    ''i see that you''ve done some preliminary scouting already.'' Johanna


    ''of course, i like to know everything i can about my victims.'' jack


    ''which is the main difference between your assassinations and your serial kills right?'' Johanna


    ''yup. hes moving, lets go.'' jack


    we spend the next two hours following Nicolas, keeping note on his behavior. Johanna has to take


    physical notes, but i can keep all the information in my head, I''ve been doing it for years.


    after we stalk the man for a couple hours, about 4 total all the time i am practicing psychological magic on random people, we head home to meet back up with the other three. on my way back i notice someone entering the village. specifically a god, the god of humans. he is a major god, which is above greater god, and also the one the church worships. i walk up to him, and stab him in the chest. he steps left a second before my attack landed, so i only scratched his arm.


    ''perfect'' jack


    "my, my, aren''t you a feisty one." god of humans


    "go fuck yourself, you are banned from entering this village." jack


    "what can you, a shade, do against the god of humans?" god of humans


    racial gods work a little different than other gods. where other gods are weakened by things that aren''t part of their element, racial gods are hard to hurt by anything not in their element. meaning that a Human can easily hurt the god of humans but anything else will find it hard to do so. racial deities also gain power in proportion to the influence their race has. of course the test i just performed proves that someone that used to be human can harm the god of humans.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "i managed to slice your arm up pretty badly." jack


    as soon as i say that i leap forward to stab the bastard in the heart. i also reach out with my


    psychological magic to see what i can do to a god, which is a lot actually. i just suppress everything, reactions, emotions, thoughts, etc. i then bull rush him and throw him out of the boundaries of the village.


    "you are  banned from this village. never come back. i will kill you next time i meet you, and I''m not the only one that hates you here, every single minor and lesser god that reside in this area hates you. and many of the other residents of this village hates you." jack


    "how do you expect to kill me?" god of humans


    when he says that i bite his arm and rip out some flesh before swallowing it and repeating the process on the other arm. all the while he is screaming in agony. after the third bite he sends a blast of pure mana at me, i absorb a large amount of it but i still get thrown back through the gate.


    "like that" jack


    i say as i wipe some of his blood off of my face. the flesh of a god, delicious. that reminds me, i have


    some unfinished business with charm.


    the god of humans just stares at me with a mildly horrified face, before snapping into a rage.


    "how dare you! how dare you do that to the m-" god of humans


    he is cut off by his his throat getting cut out.


    "I''ll eat more right now if you want. after all the flesh of gods is one of my favorite delicacies." jack


    after i say that i eat his throat and lick his blood off of my hands. as he is no longer able to speak for now he just teleports away, which is the only good thing about being a god, a free, extremely powerful, teleportation skill. other than that i would rather be a titan, which reminds me of something i need to ask asmodeus.


    suddenly Johanna come up to me and licks my cheek.


    "mum, tasty. it is really is good, i can feel strength flowing into me, although only a small amount." Johanna


    she continues to lick up the rest of the blood on my face and hands. after a minute i hear a cough


    sound coming from behind us.


    "sorry didn''t notice you their jackline" Johanna


    "it''s fine, you looked like you were having lots of fun" jackline


    "good to see the higher ups finally let you out." jack


    "never mind about that, did you really mean that our flesh is like a delicacy to you?" jackline


    "of course, it''s really tasty. and the power contained in it is an added bonus." jack


    "well then, would you like to eat mine?" jackline


    "sure, but i have more important things to talk about." jack


    end chapter 38

 chapter 39: jackline

    chapter 39


    "so, what did you want to talk about?" jackline


    "a couple things, mostly two things." jack


    "and what are these two things." jackline


    "you know the city i have been living in for the last 2 yeas?" jack


    "of course." jackline


    "i want you to give everyone there a race change." jack


    "that will be easy. what''s the other thing?" jackline


    "i want the ability to give people race changes." jack


    at this she stares at me slack jawed in shock.


    "you do realize that that is a gods power right?" jackline


    "yeah, so?" jack


    "normal people can''t survive that much power flowing into them, even if it is only temporary."


    jackline


    "you know as well as i do that jack is no normal person." Johanna


    "true, but the cost of that one will be huge." jackline


    "the cost is simply something that benefits you, not something that necessarily hurts me right?" jack


    "correct, and i know just what i want for that one." jackline


    i can see an ecstatic grin on her face. i know shes planning something, something that i will probably


    like.


    "it will have to wait though, about a month. i still have to sort some things out with the system


    before i can make any big actions, although the first thing you mentioned will be easy." jackline


    "alright, i need to make a call really quick." jack


    "that fine." jackline


    i look through my inventory till i find my cell phone and punch in a certain number.


    boss? is that you


    a little bit ago i got involved in an oriental style mafia. and now they respect me, alot. i am currently


    talking to their leader.


    "yes, how did you guys fare in your dungeon?" jack


    we only had one casualty, little johnny got killed by a giant boar. it''s thanks to boss''s teachings


    that no one else got killed.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "good, I''m sending a gift your way, you should get it when you go to sleep." jack


    a gift from the boss! what is it?


    "you''ll know when you get it, i expect everyone to accept it." jack


    there is no way we would dream about refusing a gift from you.


    "good" jack


    how is the mistress doing? we haven''t seen either of you too long


    "she''s fine, now i have to go." jack


    alright boss


    after i hang up i look at the goddess of death and wisdom and the wind nymph in front of me.


    "lets go find the others, I''m sure they''ll be ecstatic to meet you jackline." jack


    at this jackline laughs a little.


    "yes, I''m sure they will." jackline


    meanwhile in a certain house in a certain city


    *panting*"freedom!" man


    *panting*"finally, i can see the beautifully blue sky" woman


    "oh my god, what happened here" man


    the married couple looks at half eaten body lying just outside of there house. they also see several


    half eaten rat corpses.


    "looks like a fight occurred" woman


    they then walk into the house, only to be greeted by more rat corpses.


    "this is going to be a pain to clean up." man


    "looks like some other survivors used our kitchen." woman


    the man follows his wife into the kitchen where he finds dirty dishes in the sink that weren''t there


    before.


    "well at least they had the decency to put the food away. i want to go to sleep in a real bed." man


    "i do too." woman


    they then walk upstairs into there room.


    "OH MY FUCKING GOD! WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO IN OUR BED!?" man+woman


    end chapter 39


    sorry this chapter is short than the normal chapter

 chapter 40: an unforeseen event

    chapter 40


    on our way over to the big house Johanna runs ahead, leaving us quite literaly in her dust. after that jackline asks me a question.


    "how much do you know about your species?" jackline


    "not much. except that i can turn into a mass of darkness." jack


    "let me help you unlock one of your racial abilities." jackline


    "OK, how?" jack


    "did you know that shades are all technically gender neutral, they just take the physical form of a man or woman for


    convenience." jackline


    "so, you mean i can change my gender?" jack


    "yes, but you can''t change what you look like as a girl any more than as a guy." jackline


    "alright, lets try it out. so am i just supposed to will myself to be a girl or something?" jack


    "yup." jackline


    as soon as she says that i begin to will myself to become a girl. i feel myself shrink about a foot, my hair gets longer, and


    i become more slender, less muscular. the whole process takes about 30 seconds and doesn''t feel unpleasant. i stretch a


    little bit and find that i have as much control over this body as i have as a male.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>title obtained: it without gender</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "soooo cute!" jackline


    i real in shock as a rather tall goddess bends over and gives me a bear hug.


    "jackline, whats wrong?" jack


    "oh, sorry. you were just so cute. here, look at yourself."  jackline


    when she says that she pulls out a mirror and shows it to me. i have waist length silky black hair, small mounds on my


    chest, and an overall petite figure.


    "I''m a fucking loli." jack


    "i know!" jackline


    "Johanna''s going to flip" jack


    "i know" jackline


    ''check title it without gender.'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td> it without gender: this title is awarded to those who manage to change their gender, it allows you to change


    your gender once a day.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''well, shit. i cant even change back till tomarrow''jack


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "lets go get this over with." jack


    "alright!" jackline


    *sigh*jack


    "here, suck on this." jackline


    as she says that she gives me a lollipop, which i stick in my mouth. i love sweets, i always have and always will.


    after about 10 minutes of walking, it took longer than normal due to my shorter legs, we arrive back at the big house. i


    walk inside and go into the living room, where everyone stares at me. eventually ghost comes up and sniffs me.


    ''master?'' ghost


    i reach up to try to pet her, only to find that my arm is too short.


    "sit" jack


    i point to the ground and ghost happily sits on her knees. i reach my arm up again to pet her behind the ears, much to her


    delight.


    "jack?" Johanna


    "yo." jack


    i feel something wrap around me and pull me off to the side, only to be embraced by a snake.


    "so cute, i just want to hold you forever." Lynda


    "I''m not doing this again" jack


    i twist my way out of her grasp, this form is surprisingly flexible.


    "i don''t want to be rag doll again." jack


    "fine" Johanna


    i could see Johanna blinking off a tear when i say that, like her hopes and dreams have been crushed.


    "anyway, what are we going to call you, you know, for while you are female." Lucy


    "jack is fine." jack


    "no,no it is not! you have to have a different name, something like jackline, only jackline is taken so we have to think of


    something else." Johanna


    "why not Jacky?" Lynda


    Lynda seems to be a lot more confident after getting drunk with everyone, thats good.


    "i like it, but lets change it up a little. how about Jackie.?" Johanna


    "um, guys, do i get a say in this?" jack/Jacky/Jackie


    "no!" everyone


    "i like Jackie, it has a nice ring to it." Lilith


    "e tu Brutus?" jack


    "lets go with Jackie." jackline


    resined to my fate, i sit back and suck on my lollipop while the girls argue over me.


    end chapter 40


    this chapter is for all of you that wanted a loli in the harem, now you have one.

 chapter 41: chased

    chapter 41


    i am currently being held by the girls, i can''t escape, I''ve tried. this body is physical weaker than my male body, although it is easier too run, as demonstrated by me fruitlessly running from Johanna. i am currently petting ghost, who is resting her head in my lap, while being brushed and pet by the others. i feel like their pet. I''m not a pet! they are my pets!


    "awww, your pouty face is sooo cute!" Lucy


    the part about being in a female body I''m fine with, it''s not like it''s the first time. there was that one thing with Johanna. its just that i don''t like being treated like a pet.


    "I just want to eat you up." Lilith


    "i get it! I''m cute! now let me go!" Jackie


    "aww, you''re even cute when you''re angry." jackline


    "where did Lynda go?" Jackie


    the girls just smile at me for a minute before then Lynda comes back in, with a ton of makeup.


    "i got what you asked for Johanna." Lynda


    ''fuck'' Jackie


    i spend the next hour getting dressed up like a doll and having makeup applied and stripped from my face before i remember something. i turn into my shadow form and almost escape, only to be dragged back by Johanna in her wind form.


    "shit." Jackie


    "no escaping" Johanna


    "unlike the last person you told that too, i actually want to escape." Jackie


    ten minutes latter i use my ability blink and teleport into the woods, only to make it to the gate and be forced to run the rest of the way. i barley make it into the cover of the trees before the girls come looking for me. i continue to run, slipping into shadow form to be harder to track. i run around for a while before going up a tree to hide, at this point the girls are searching the forest for me.


    "what are you doing here jack? oh, you look different." nymph 1


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road."i need to hide, can you help with that?" Jackie


    "sure, we Can hide you for a time, but we will require payment." nymph 3


    "its better than being a dress up doll." Jackie


    "that explains the dress" nymph 2


    i am currently wearing a Gothic Lolita dress that Johanna had in her inventory.


    "alright, you won''t be found for at least a couple hours." nymph 4


    "thanks. i owe you." Jackie


    "yes you do, and i intend to collect." nymph 2


    as she says that she licks her lips. out of pan, and into the fire as the saying goes. at least this time i won''t be treated like a dress up doll, probably.


    "you''re really cute as a girl, jack" nymph 1


    "thanks, i guess. it''s not even the full moon, whats up with you girls?" Jackie


    they are all approaching me flushed faces and a hungry look in their eyes.


    "they were drugged with an aphrodisiac by a fairy that was accompanying an elf that recently came to these woods." dryad


    ah. faeries and pixies are the ultimate tricksters. although the pranks are mostly non-malicious, unless you get on their bad side. pixies and fairies have a natural dislike of each other, so they go out of their way to pull pranks on the other, although even then the pranks are non-malicious. for example, once when Johanna and i were spending time with the east fairy tribe, a couple pixies switched Johanna''s body and mine. it was the day before the night of the full moon. i had no idea faeries could do that, i mean why would you crawl in there. it was a very, interesting, experience.


    "that, doesn''t surprise me in the least." Jackie


    "yeah, you''ve had some experience with fairies haven''t you?" dryad


    before i get a chance to respond the nymphs tackle me and begin to strip my dress off.


    end chapter 41

 chapter 42: imortality

    chapter 42


    i get attacked by the nymphs for about 3 and a half hours before the others find the tree and climb up it, where ghost


    and Lilith both use an aphrodisiac spell. i don''t get a break for 6 hours.


    after i finally get up i leave the girls behind with the nymphs, who are still having some fun with each other. i head over


    to the village, where i look for a specific devil. i find him behind the big house, where i walk up behind him.


    "hey jack." asmodeus


    "yo" Jackie


    "you''re voice sounds different" asmodeus


    when he says that he turns around and looks at me.


    "you look different." asmodeus.


    "never mind that, i have a serious question for you." Jackie


    "what type of question?" asmodeus


    "one a certain group of people doesn''t want getting known." Jackie


    "i was wondering when you''d some ask. do you have a place where we won''t be overheard?" asmodeus


    "yes." Jackie


    10 minutes later we are standing in my vault with the door locked.


    "if you steal anything i will personally hunt you down." Jackie


    "i wouldn''t dare steal a weapon that has almost gained sentience. pulse they affects are terrifying, these weapons will


    be the next generation of cursed tools, i would help you hunt down the thief just to keep these out of the hands of bad


    people." asmodeus


    "good, now lets get down to business. how did you become an immortal." Jackie


    "i rejected godhood" asmodeus


    the reason why the knowledge that comes from this is feared by the gods is that they don''t want any titans, the ''old'' gods, around. immortals when they rank up they become minor titans. titans have none of the bindings that come with


    being a god, or the boosts that come with the bindings. by pure power level a minor/lesser/greater/major titan and god,


    a god is stronger. but in certain circumstances gods lose the majority of their power, titans do not. it is believed that the


    absolute ''god'' that made the world and everything in it is actually a titan. it is unknown how and why gods came into


    being but they are run like a huge corporation where the world is the business, with everyone but the top, major gods,


    working their asses off to manage it.


    "it''s so simple, why hasn''t anyone tried it before?" Jackie


    "i don''t know, it''s not that often that a person reaches immortal level. but as soon as they do a god is there to offer them


    power. that and any ''born'' gods have what ever it is they do to them done at birth, so they never get a choice." asmodeus


    "that makes sense." Jackie


    "any other questions?" asmodeus


    "why?" Jackie


    "why what?" asmodeus


    "why didn''t you want to become a god?" Jackie


    "because after that siege where my wife died, i just wanted to die. i had thought my daughter to be dead and i watched


    my wife and most of my friends and allies die. i didn''t want to live on, obviously i didn''t die because I''m here right now."


    asmodeus


    "i bet your close to becoming a minor titan now." Jackie


    "if i had spent every moment of my time actively gathering power i would be a minor titan 300 years ago, but yes you are


    right." asmodeus


    "lets go then, i need to meet with one of my old instructors." Jackie


    we leave my vault after i change my short swords out for a pair of gauntlets with spiked knuckles. we then go our


    separate ways, with me heading over to the training Fields and asmodeus gos of to do whatever the hell he''s doing,


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.practicing with necromancy most likely.


    "yo, I''m here to meet with the new trainees, like i do every year." Jackie


    "ah, jack, I''ve been waiting for you. you look a little different, oh yeah you recently became a shade." instructor


    "so, where are the trainees?" Jackie


    "they are currently running laps up and down the mountain. with the guardian keeping the creatures of the forest off of


    them." instructor


    "ah, how many laps are they up to?" Jackie


    "30. some of the more promising trainees are almost finished." instructor


    "how long till you let miss dryad release the creatures of the forest?" Jackie


    "a month, and it still pisses me off how little respect you speak about the guardian with" instructor


    (sorry if that sentence didn''t make sense, i don''t know how to say that better.)


    "i have nothing but my up most respect for the goddess of this forest." Jackie


    "yeah, yeah. anyway, the one I''m really pissed at is that damned phantom, he made a new king of the forest that just


    loves to eat any one of us he can get his claws on. because of him the death rate for trainees has almost doubled."


    instructor


    "here they come." Jackie


    about 5 of the 50 trainees make it up the mountain, with one running back down to finish his laps. the ones that


    remained are 3 girls and one boy.


    "this is Susan and Silic, identical twins, and the best of the current trainees. this is jack, the most powerful man i have


    ever had the honor of training." instructor


    "thats obviously a girl" Susan and Silic


    "I''m a shade, i technically don''t have a gender." Jackie


    "we haven''t started studying demon ecology yet, we are currently studying beasts" boy


    "how great can she be, i am only 5 and am already the top of this group." Susan and Silic


    "i started training when i was three years old, by the time i was your age i was running a hundred laps with all sorts of


    creatures hunting me for a warm up. i trained my body every spare second i had, only stopping when i was physically


    unable to move." Jackie


    the girls look to the instructor for conformation, who nods in agreement. in response to this the girls open their eyes


    wide in shock, it actually pretty creepy how they are perfectly mirroring each other.


    "stop giving themselves ideas, their going to get themselves killed if they act like that" instructor


    "i didn''t get myself killed." Jackie


    "the only reason for that is because Johanna made sure you didn''t die every time you fainted, and these girls won''t be


    able to do even that, they faint at exactly the same time in the same posses, its really creepy hoe they do that!"


    instructor


    "anyway, I''m going home. it''s getting pretty late." jack


    "alright." instructor


    honestly, i don''t care that its getting late, but i can see the girls running toward the village, and i really don''t want to be a


    dress up doll again. i use blink, which gets me to the door of the big house. i go upstairs to my bed room and go to sleep.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you can evolve! choose one: greater shade, black devil</td></tr></tbody></table>


    end chapter 42


    authors note: the main reason why i work on this story now is due to the fact the i like reading the coments.

 chapter 43: a candle

    chapter 43


    ''i know what a greater shade is but what is a black devil?'' Jackie


    <table><tbody><tr><td>a black devil is a devil with shadow affiliation</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''what? who are you?'' Jackie


    <table><tbody><tr><td>i am an AI designed to answer questions, i was implemented in the last update</td></tr></tbody></table>


    looking at the edge of my vision i do notice mail icon with a 1 on it. I''ll check that out in the morning.


    ''I''ll go with greater shade, i rather like being a shade'' Jackie


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your skill shadow form has changed, now you can manifest only part of your body if


    desired.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    they say that those that burn bright burn up fast. i disagree, i believe that there are two types of


    people that burn bright, those that collect fuel to burn, and those that simply burn through the


    supply they have.


    i drift off to sleep. i wake up feeling that something is off, the girls aren''t around me. i look down at


    myself and see that I''m in my male form, evolving probably reverted me to it.


    "anyone there?" jack


    after a minute i hadn''t received an answer so i walk down to the kitchen, noticing no one there i take


    a walk outside, i don''t feel like cooking today. after walking for a little bit i hear signs of intense


    fighting, feeling curious i start to walk toward the source, putting on my gauntlets.


    when i get there i see something shocking. there is a huge troll standing in the middle of a clearing, around him are everyone i care about, plus a couple humans. i see jacobe, sally, their parents, Joe, and Selena all spread out around the clearing in pools of their own blood, but they are not the ones i care about. i see a large snake tail on one side of the clearing with Lynda''s torso spilling its guts on the other, with Lucy''s mangled up twice dead corpse lying next to it.


    i watch in stunned silence while a silver wolf attempts to tear the face off of the giant troll, who punches her in the side. i hear an audible snap as her ribs brake and puncture her internal organs, causing her to die on the spot. Johanna jumps in front of another fist that was going to hit Mary, taking it to the head and having her brain matter spray over our adoptive mother.


    the troll dashes at aunty, who is defended by uncle using some kind of mana shield to block the blow, only to have it shatter and hit him square in the chest, fortunately not killing him, or maybe not as he watches his unborn son get ripped out of his wife''s womb by it''s head.


    i find myself paralyzed with shock and fear as i realize that there is no mortal or god that could do this, this troll is a titan. the old man flies into a rage and strikes at the trolls jaw with his cloth, breaking it off. the troll takes advantage of the opening the old man made and crushes his head, at


    this time i start to get angry and recover from my shock induced paralysis.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    before i can do anything Mary is killed with a heavy swing from the troll, his jaw already healed. i


    start charging the troll, my body bursts into flames.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>skill obtained: cloak of flames</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''i guess we''ll find out whether i have been collecting fuel or just burning through my stock'' jack


    before i can make it to the troll he charges Lilith, who is on her ass staring at everything in shock.


    only to be defended by asmodeus using a magic shield.


    "like hell I''m letting you touch my granddaughter you bitch" asmodeus


    i get to the troll just in time for asmodeus to faint due to mana exhaustion. i smash his forehead in,


    stunning him for a second while i continue to attack his body, only to jump out of the way when his


    forehead heals and does a double handed swing down over my head. after what felt like hours


    fighting, but was closer to 1 minute and 30 seconds, i start to feel out of touch with my body, i can


    still feel my pure anger and hatred for this titan troll but it feels distant, like I''m watching this scene


    in first person rather than actually living it. i look around and notice a distinct lack of people around,


    in the entire village.


    ''the troll must have scared them off'' jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td>title obtained: one with two minds</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''fuck with his mind'' ???


    ''who''s there? never mind, it doesn''t matter.'' jack


    i start to probe his mind using psychological magic. his mind is unexpectedly well defended, i can''t


    break through, but i do notice his reactions begin to slow down a bit, not enough though. i start to


    feel a little pain and use healing magic on myself before hitting him with psychological magic, this


    time i manage to gain a little headway, in the form of seeing his mana stores, which are truly


    massive.


    ''blow this bastard up'' ???


    thats a good idea. i attack his mind even harder in order to see his mana supplies again, as soon as i


    do i don''t hesitate. i activate mana bomb and blow all of his mana up.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>title obtained: titan slayer</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>you have died</td></tr></tbody></table>


    i look up, as that is the only direction i can look, and see Lilith''s tearing up face. i try to smile to


    show her that everything is OK, but i can''t, i can''t move anything. I''m just a head.


    ''well, i at least saved one. i guess i have just been burning. i wonder what my next life will have in


    store for me.'' jack


    ''it will be an adventure, that''s for sure'' ???


    i see a light and i begin to move towards it and find.....


    chapter 43 end


    i will see all of you in two to three days

 chapter 44: a dream

    chapter 44


    i see a light and i begin to move towards it and find..... the sun rising through a window to my left.


    I''m back in my room, surrounded by the girls that i have grown to love. i sit up and look around,


    nothing is out of place. Lilith sits up next to me, she''s crying. i have never seen her cry before,


    except for during that dream, no nightmare. i feel something moist on my cheek, i reach a hand up


    and touch it, before liking my finger. it''s tears, i have never cried before. i have never been in enough


    pain to cry before, but i don''t feel pain. am i sad? i have never felt sorrow before so i wouldn''t know,


    but i think that''s what this emotion is called.


    suddenly Lilith embraces me while continuing to cry. i stroke her head to sooth her.


    "it''s all OK, it was just a dream" Jackie


    i notice that i am still in my female form. thinking back on it everything points to it being a dream.


    first, when i woke up no one was around, in that kind of situation someone would have been sent to


    get me up. second, it was midmorning in the dream, i never sleep that late. third, there was no one


    in the village, the people here are in no way cowards, they are mercenaries for crying out loud.


    fourth, there was no one fighting the troll other than the people i care about, the people here have a


    lot of pride, they would gladly face death to protect their pride. fifth, those humans were there,


    they would have run for their lives in that kind of situation, unless they were among the first


    casualties, in which case there would be others lying dead there.


    "don''t you dare die before me." Lilith


    "i can''t promise that." Jackie


    at that she starts to laugh nervously, to which i also start to laugh.


    "worst dream ever. i much prefer it when I''m in control of your dreams." Lilith


    "agreed." jack


    "whats up girls?" Johanna


    "just a really, really bad dream" Jackie


    "anyway, want to help feed your wife?" Johanna


    "I''m not hungry, especially after seeing that." Lilith


    "wow, it must have been a horrible dream, you''re always hungry." Johanna


    *snort*"you''re right, I''m always hungry, but that''s cause you can never fill me up." Lilith


    "so?" Johanna


    "not now, maybe later" Lilith


    "awww." Johanna


    i check the notifications that i missed and see that their are 2 now.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>update! some skill descriptions changed. an AI installed</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''cool, can''t wait till they finish updating my status though.'' Jackie


    <table><tbody><tr><td> you have kept some bonuses from your incredibly vivid dream. the following skills, titles,


    and stats carry over: cloak of flames, one with two minds, +3 vitality.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''ugh, that was all a dream huh.'' ???


    ''who are you?'' Jackie


    ''i am you'' ???


    ''elaborate on that, what do you mean by you are me?'' Jackie


    ''i mean exactly that, i am your more ancient and emotional part of your, our mind.'' ???


    ''why come out now then?'' Jackie


    ''a lot of things have happened recently to shock me awake, the last of which being the intense


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.anger you, we felt during that dream.'' ???


    after talking to the voice for a little while i learned a bit about it. apparently during times with a lot


    of emotional duress, he can split from my main mind. otherwise we are loosely joined, so i would


    still be able to feel emotion. during the time it splits from my mind either one of us can take control


    of the body, depending on the situation. for example, if a level head is required while dealing with a light bringer he will go sulk angrily in the back of my mind, essentially making me unable to feel emotion. it also has a different fighting style than me, more of a berserker than an assassin. as i am the logical part of us, i control most magic, with elemental magics being controlled by it. it represents not only emotion but primal desire as well, like lust, hunger, and blood lust. there are also several unknown factors with it.


    ''so, what should i call you?'' Jackie


    ''as i am part of you, you can call me whatever you want'' ???


    ''emotion i guess, I''m not very creative with names.'' Jackie


    ''that''s fine with me, or rather us'' emotion


    during our, or rather my, conversation, which lasted about 3 minutes. i was stroking Lilith''s hair as


    she clung to my self cleaning gray shirt. all the while a still small voice whispers in my head.


    ''fuck her'' emotion


    ''now''s not the time'' Jackie


    ''come on, i know you want to, because you are me, and i want to'' emotion


    ''can''t you feel the vibe?'' Jackie


    ''no, i don''t do logical things like that, thats your job.'' emotion


    ''and I''m telling you to shut up'' Jackie


    ''OK'' emotion


    at around this time the others begin to get up. i think Lucy was just faking sleeping, like Johanna has


    started to do. ghost, who is still half asleep, grabs me and starts licking my arm. i stand up, causing


    ghost to wake up, and walk down stairs. when i get to the kitchen i start to cook, breakfast burritos.


    "morning jack, have a good night?" Mary


    "not in the slightest" Jackie


    at this she looks at me curiously before realizing that I''m not going to reveal anything. i hand her a


    plate with a warmed tortilla shell.


    "dish some food." Jackie


    "thanks" Mary


    "where''s the old man?" Jackie


    "hanging from the ceiling in our room, with vibrating anal beads stuck in his ass." Mary


    ''eeww'' emotion


    "i don''t want to know that much about my adoptive parents sex life." Jackie


    "i don''t either." Johanna


    i sit down to eat while checking my new skill and title.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> one with two minds: you have two consciousness in your head. due to this you gain 50 int.


    and   50 wis.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>cloak of flames</td></tr><tr><td>skill type: passive</td><td>rarity: legendary</td></tr><tr><td>lv: 1</td><td>exp: 0%</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>let them burn.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    end chapter 44


    i was planning to use the events of last chapter as sort of an april fools day prank, but seeing as


    april is really far away i just said fuck it and posted it.

 chapter 45: fight between close friends

    chapter 45


    Johanna and i are currently stalking Nicolas. more as a sort of ritual than anything, i already know more about him than


    he knows about himself, so it is meaningless for me. after a brief discussion earlier we decided to kill him in two days.


    Johanna has two days to plan his murder and the subsequent disposal of his body. after an hour of stalking him we


    leave, satisfied.


    ''I''m getting excited, this is Johanna''s first serious kill. all those assassination jobs she helped us on don''t mean much


    compared to this.'' emotion


    ''i can tell that I''m excited, you don''t have to remind me.'' jack


    ''i know logic, but still.'' emotion


    logic, that is what emotion has taken to calling me. it fits, i guess. while we continue to walk around we come across one


    of the sparring grounds, where we find a certain someone fighting with 5 other people. he''s doing really well at


    anticipating an opponent''s attack, and he has stopped being nervous when he attacks. after watching till the end of the


    fight i call out to him.


    "oi, rostwood, get over here." Jackie


    as the guy, who goes up to about eye level on me in this form, walks up to me i put my hands on his eyes and cast a spell,


    to undo the one i did earlier.


    "you did good, remember to not rely on your eyes so much." Jackie


    "yes. you look different, potion gone wrong?" rostwood


    "no, racial. anyway, keep training." Jackie


    "OK, you''re actually kinda cu-" rostwood


    i punch him in the side of the head sending him flying into a nearby training dummy.


    "not interested in the slightest. you are my slave, learn your position." Jackie


    "yes!" rostwood


    he gives a sort of stumbling salute before running off and challenging another group of people.


    "I''m sick of random young boys confessing their eternal love for me. they should all fuck off, i can''t wait till the cool


    down is up." Jackie


    "i don''t, it''s hilarious watching their reactions, especially that time you just started kissing me, that kids expression was


    hilarious." Johanna


    "Ha, yeah that was pretty funny. it''s just getting a little irritating. and it gets a little creepy when some of the older guys


    start to hit on me. the younger ones i understand, i look about their age, but the older ones are just creepy." Jackie


    "yeah, true." Johanna


    "spar with me a little Johanna." Jackie


    "fine, but can you move properly in that body?" Johanna


    "i guess we''ll find out, now won''t we." Jackie


    "what weapons?" Johanna


    "our own bodies, nothing more" Jackie


    "alright, been awhile since i got to spar with you." Johanna


    we walk over to a sparing ring and, noticing this, someone came over to be an announcer for the match. that is an


    oddity, but Johanna and i are known to be pretty strong, although no one would recognize me like this. Johanna and i


    walk to opposite sides of the circle and bow to each other. as soon as we bow the announcer says ''start'' and we almost


    literally fly at each other. i take a swing at Johanna''s gut, she sidesteps and tries hit me over the head with the heel of


    her foot, we had both taken our shoes as they can count as weapons. i slightly move her foot out of the path of my head


    with my palm, i still get clipped on the shoulder, however.


    i attempt to uppercut her only to receive a gut shot, which


    doesn''t hurt all that bad when you know proper techniques, and are desensitized to pain. my uppercut hits her in the


    cheek bones. she knees me in the groin, which actually feels pretty good when you don''t feel much pain from anything. i


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.land a strike on her beneath her left breast, and feel a snap, her rib broke, and my finger, nothing that can''t be easily


    healed with magic. i receive a strike to my shoulder immediately after breaking her rib. i kick her in the waist which she


    deflect, causing my leg to off shoot up by about 2 feet. she then tries to trip me with a swipe of her foot, succeeding. i


    quickly recover by springing backward off of my hands. Johanna charges at me, and i at her. when i get close to her i duck


    down and spread my arms, effectively gong beneath her and tripping her. before she can react i pin her arms behind her


    back and sit on her.


    "if you wanted to be on top you should have just said so." Johanna


    around the circle that had developed around us during our fight i hear a variety of clapping, cat calls, and money being


    passed around.


    i help Johanna up and cast a healing spell on the both of us.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your pet Lynda has gained the title warphiliac</td></tr></tbody></table>


    i look around and notice an albino wolf sitting next to a certain snake.


    "that was a great fight, a lot more physical the our fight." Lynda


    "i want to be able to fight like that, Johanna has been teaching how to fight like you guys" ghost


    "you probably will never reach our level, that requires a lot more than what you are capable of, but you are really


    talented. i can''t wait to see what kinds of weapons you will specialize in." Johanna


    "and I''m the age most people here start training, right?" ghost


    "how old are you?" Lynda


    "i have seen 6 summers." ghost


    this seems to shock the giant snake.


    "until recently she was just a wolf, 6 is around the age wolves become sexually mature." Jackie


    when she hears that she calms down a bit. i take this opportunity to check her new title.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>warphiliac. you get aroused while during or while watching a fight. you gain bonuses to all regenerations to


    commemorate the fact that you are a pervert</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''so, that means she''s aroused right now, we should fuck her.'' emotion


    ''i wonder why none of the others have gotten that title yet, including me. i guess Lynda is just a bigger pervert?'' Jackie


    ''who cares if she''s a pervert, in fact it''s even better that way.'' emotion


    i can feel the tip of Lynda''s tail, which is exceptionally sensitive, like all lamia, crawl up the back of my shirt, out of


    everyones sight. i can feel her wrap her tail around two small mounds on my chest and repeatedly flex her lithe muscles.


    out of reflex i release a soft moan, which doesn''t go unnoticed. ghost, with her great hearing, notices it and upon seeing


    Lynda''s tail slips her furry tail down my shorts. I''m being molested by tails, it would be funny if i wasn''t the one it was


    happening too.


    "why don''t we go somewhere a little more, private." Jackie


    "I''d like that." ghost


    she growls softly before retracting her tail, which is a little wet on the end.


    we end up at Lilith''s place, where she, Lucy, and Jacklin were. after a couple hours of fun we take a break, lets just say


    that i now know why Johanna is so popular with the girls. she has very dexterous hands.


    end chapter 45


    if anyone wants to write a fic based on the everyone dying end go ahead, just give me credit.

 chapter 46: murder

    chapter 46


    i was walking down the street when a strange man approached me.


    "hey Missy, if you come with me I''ll let you play with my cat, and give you some candy." Nicolas


    ''perfect'' Jackie


    "sounds fun mister!" Jackie


    i look over my shoulder and notice Johanna, who is using a combination of the stealth skills she has developed over the


    years and an invisibility spell of my creation. interesting fact about invisibility spells, if two people are under the effects


    of the same person''s spell they are not invisible to each other, the same goes for the caster of the spell.


    "alright Missy come with me." Nicolas


    i could smell the arousal coming off of him, it''s disgusting. smells akin to rotten pig shit. i much prefer the sent of my


    girls. i have to struggle to keep the disgust off of my face when he looks behind to make sure I''m following.


    "we''re getting close Missy, my cat would love to play with you." Nicolas


    we''re walking into an alley, closely followed by a certain sprite, when we come across a door. Nicolas opens the door


    and on the inside i hear a meow. Nicolas beckons me inside.


    "my cat is waiting inside for you Missy." Nicolas


    when i go inside, with Johanna following close behind, i sit on a chair a tabby cat jumps up on my lap. after Nicolas goes


    into the kitchen he comes back a minute latter with a box of chocolates.


    ''observe'' Jackie


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>cupids chocolates</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>these chocolates have a strong aphrodisiac effect</td></tr></tbody></table>


    i take a one and pop it into my mouth. they are actually pretty good. i sit there petting the cat and occasionally eating a


    chocolate while making idle conversation with Nicolas, waiting for the perfect time for Johanna to strike.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>you have been drugged with an aphrodisiac. effects reduced by 80% due to your resistance</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "how old are you little Missy?" Nicolas


    "7!" Jackie


    this is so embarrassing, i have to grin through my chocolate covering my face. all the while Johanna is chocking back


    laughter.


    "i don''t think I''ve seen you around, are you one of the foreign trainees?" Nicolas


    "yup!" Jackie


    we continue like this for about ten minutes before Nicolas stands up, scaring the cat away, and walks up to me.


    "whats up mister? you scared the cat away." Jackie


    without saying anything he grabs my arms and pins me down, Johanna come right up behind him.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "game over. you''re phantom''s now" Jackie


    he literaly pisses himself as a look of total terror flashes on his face, partly due to my influence, partly due to the wight


    of that name, before his neck snaps, killing him instantly.


    "let me clean that face up for you latter." Johanna


    ''still sulking emotion?'' jack


    ''i know you need a clear head for this, but did you have to eat the chocolates? I''m finding it almost impossible to remain


    quite with all this lust.'' emotion


    ''yes i did.'' Jackie


    i quickly switch to my male form before casting invisibility on the three of us, i notice Johanna taking a couple boxes of chocolates out of the kitchen. Johanna puts the boxes in her inventory before picking up the corpse, it''s her kill after all. i take a step outside and look around, there is hardly anyone out this night. i walk back in side to see Johanna trying to put the body into her inventory, only for it to be blocked at the shoulders.


    "smart. let me see him." jack


    i snap his shoulders and twist them around onto his back. then Johanna shoves him rather forcefully into her inventory.


    "it''s a nice night for a walk through the woods" Johanna


    "it is a really beautiful night." jack


    we walk towards the gate and out into the woods. we spend roughly 30 minute searching before finding what we''re


    looking for, a large cave housing the king of the forest. smelling us the giant 15 foot tall, battle scared bear comes


    outside and lays down in front of me, belly up. i start rubbing his belly like a dog while Johanna takes the body out. when


    the bear sees the body i see drool running out of the side of his mouth, obviously looking forward to the treat. he licks


    my face, cleaning off the chocolate, not that it would do much do to his size.


    "aww, i wanted to do that." Johanna


    i grin slightly while scratching behind his ears.


    "i think we should leave teddy to his snack." jack


    "lets go." Johanna


    we turn around and walk away through the forest, i see behind me the rather gruesome end to Nicolas. after walking for a bit some vines pluck Johanna off the ground, some nymphs probably wanted some all girls fun time. i walk peacefully


    through the forest, enjoying the quiet night. the creatures of this forest don''t dare touch me, not someone favored by


    their goddess. for those that did attack me in the past i simply beat them into submission, acting as a further warning


    the others to avoid me.


    after roughly an hour of aimless walking i stumble across an elf accompanied by a fairy.


    end chapter 46


    anyone have any good name for the two at the end?

 chapter 47: elf and a fairy

    chapter 47


    "I''ve found you, after all these years I''ve finally found you" elf


    "really?! this is the guy you''ve been looking for laura? he''s quite handsome, and Titania blessed as well, from our tribe no less." fairy


    "hold on, what''s happening?" jack


    ''WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT WHAT''S HAPPENING, JUST FUCK THEM, FUCK THEM HARD, AND FUCK THEM NOW!'' EMOTION


    emotion came out of his hiding place upon seeing the rather attractive pair, which caused me to suddenly feel the full force of the aphrodisiac. making my body reek of arousal, which does not go unnoticed.


    "oh? so you got that excited to see us. well that might be fun." fairy


    "sorry, i was drugged with a lot of aphrodisiac earlier, just now feeling the effects." jack


    "ah, sorry about that. names aria by the way." aria


    "it wasn''t you, it was some one else." jack


    during our conversation laura is rambling about finally being able to repay a debt or something like that?


    "whats up with her?" jack


    "in order to understand that you need to know two things about laura. one: she is an ancient" aria


    "awesome, I''ve never met an ancient before, I''m simply an elder" jack


    an ancient is someone with perfect memories from their previous life, where an elder, like me, has more memories and more detailed memories than most other people.


    "she also has a soul based ability that allows her to see someones soul, she never forgets a soul, or so she says" aria


    a soul based ability is quite litterly an ability that resides within the soul, they are extremely rare and exclusively belong to high ranking elders and ancients, they persist through reincarnation. it is unknown how the form, but being able to see souls might help figure that out.


    "OK then, what does that have to do with the way she''s acting? i don''t remember her, not that i would recognize her." jack


    "I''m sure she wants to explain that one. but right now i can''t bare it anymore, your sent is making me too aroused." aria


    the look in her eyes suddenly resembles that of a  beast during the full moon, kind of scary when you know exactly what a fairy can do. i suddenly feel mana being used and a large hand grabbing me, holding me in place. suddenly she whispers something in laura''s ears she then says something about relieving of desire and casts a spell, which causes the vines to bend to her will tying me up, like a fucking rag doll, again. I''m sick of being a rag doll. i rip the vines  off and break the hold of the magic hand.


    "if you wanted to fuck me just say so." jack?


    I''m starting to lose control of my body, emotion is taking control. well thats fine. i begin to lose consciousness while emotion has some fun with the pair i wake up some time latter with absolutely no memory of what happened, it''s like a hangover only without the headache.


    ''what happened?'' jack


    ''BEST NIGHT OF MY CONSCIOUSNESS LOGIC!'' emotion


    ''great, but why are these two lying unconscious next to me?'' jack


    ''they couldn''t keep up with me logic. surprisingly the elf was a virgin'' emotion


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.i get up and just sit there meditating for about ten minutes when the laura got up.


    "hello master, that was a fun night we had." laura


    ''there might be something I''m not telling you logic.'' emotion


    i check my stored messages and find two of them.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you have tamed the high elf laura</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>congratulations! you have tamed the greater fairy airia</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''must have been one hell of a night'' jack


    ''it was'' emotion


    "so what''s your story?" jack


    "thats a long story master." laura


    "i have time." jack


    her story goes like this, when she was young in her last life she was found to be able to see souls. this was considered an extremely valuable ability as it had never been seen before in that world. the 6 year old girl was deemed a saint by the major church in that world and overnight her family was wealthy. that was the start of her problems, the tests done by that Church weren''t bad, but her father had started coming home drunk every night and he was a bad drunk. he would beat her mother when he came home. by the time she was 8 years old her mother had had enough and left the house. now instead of beating his wife he would attack her older sister. she was beaten and raped everyday for years, being blamed for the mothers disappearance. but he would never touch her, not the daughter that allowed him to become wealthy beyond his wildest beliefs, the church would throw a fit. one day her big sister got killed during one of her fathers beatings, not that that stopped him from using the body. he used some magic to keep it from rotting and continued to violate it for about a week before i showed up. i just torched the entire city, by that time she was 16 years old. when the fire caught their house the father was using the corpse of the big sister. he was in a room unaware of what was happening outside, till his daughter came in and started beating him with a burning piece of wood, the alcohol covering his entire body quickly ignited, burning him to death. she then looked out a window and saw me, whom she vowed to repay for the chance of revenge. she felt disappointed when she died as she wouldn''t be able to repay me. but was relived when she found out that this was a hot spot for reincarnation, meaning i would eventually show up in this world. she was raised in the east fairy tribe where she met aria, who quickly became good friends with her, they are childhood friends. over the years the desire to repay turned into an obsession.


    "meaning I''ll do anything you could possibly want me to do. you want to never see m again? I''ll bury myself alive so you don''t see the body. you want me to become your personal toilet? I''ll do it gladly" laura


    end chapter 47

 chapter 48: the nymphs new elf slave

    chapter 48


    "oh, now this is an interesting development. who might you to be" Johanna


    my childhood friend drops out of a tree and smiles happily, like she just had something really good happen to her.


    "master? who is this girl?" laura


    "oh? master is it? you''re the new addition to the party. finally i have one of every class." Johanna


    "this is Johanna, my childhood friend, she''s also bisexually and probably going to try to seduce you relatively soon." jack


    *yawn* "what a wild night, oh, who is this?" aria


    "so how much did you hear?" laura


    "only the part about a personal toilet, i highly doubt that will happen. more likely to be tortured by the rest of us."


    Johanna


    "torture laura? i don''t care about the rest but sign me up for that!" aria


    ''I''m guessing that you had something to do with laura''s obsession of me'' jack


    ''how''d you figure that one out?'' aria


    ''logic'' jack


    ''yes, i thought it would be interesting to see what would happen, it turned out completely different than i expected it to,


    not that I''m unhappy with the results. don''t be mad?'' aria


    ''i like this girl already'' emotion


    ''why would i be angry? their are very few things in this world that can get me angry, one of them are light bringers.'' jack


    when i say, or rather think, this she starts smiling, in a mischievous kind of way.


    "master? is it true that I''m going to end up as a toy for your other girls?" laura


    ''i have no problems whatsoever with this, as long as I''m one of them'' aria


    it seems like Johanna has been telling the elf some interesting things, not that i mind.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "i would be more surprised if you didn''t." jack


    "of course we''re all jack''s toys. and he loves to play with us." Johanna


    ''no one fucks with my toys, except my toys, and me, and maybe a nymph or dryad or two.'' emotion


    when Johanna said that laura''s face got determined and excited at the same time. its an interesting display of clashing


    emotions.


    "if thats the case i will do my best to be the perfect toy for you master." laura


    her voice sounds really excited, and i think i can smell arousal from her.


    "if thats the case then come with me, i want to practice my techniques on an elf" Johanna


    "ooh, let me help you." aria


    "just be back before noon, the old man retires at 1." jack


    "will do." Johanna


    "your leaving me? already? with her?" laura


    "i thought you said you wanted to become the perfect toy?" jack


    a look of revelation spreads across laura''s face as she gets up to follow Johanna.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> your pet/slave laura has obtained the title masochist</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>your Pet/slave laura has obtained the title pervert</td></tr></tbody></table>


    i feel aria use some force magic to suspend laura so they can play with her body. as i walk back to the village i can hear


    moans of pleasure coming from a certain elf, as well as what sounds like begging.


    end chapter 48


    sorry for the really short chapter

 chapter 49: chief

    chapter 49


    a couple hours after the event with laura and aria i was standing in the sparring Field with everyone currently in the village, which isn''t surprising considering the fact that the event being held today is only seen once every generation. i have to fight the old man for the right to be the chief of the village, and he has to defend his position.


    earlier i had taken my daggers out of my vault, after all I''m going to need more speed than strength in order to beat him, play against an old mans weakness. i also transform into a girl, which doesn''t surprise many as it isn''t rare for creatures to have that ability.


    "the rules are as follows. the fight ends when one or both parties are no longer able to continue, no offensive magic allowed, no healing magic, other support magic is allowed, the winner takes the right to be the chief. is this clear to both parties?" announcer


    "yes" Jackie


    "yes" zain


    "start." announcer


    i make a dash forward, as an illusion. while casting invisibility, silent step, and speed on myself.


    "like that''ll distract me." zain


    he slashes at me with his longsword, nicking my left arm.


    "i can still smell you." zain


    "let me fix that." Jackie


    i will not use psychological magic in this fight, it would be disrespectful. instead i break his nose, by twisting around his still outstretched longsword with my incredibly limber body, and smashing it in with the back of my hand before blinking out of range of his longsword.


    "you''ve gotten slow with your old age, old man. i fully intend to use it against you." jack


    "thats fine, nothing done in accordance to the rules of a duel is dishonorable." zain


    he sounds like he just got his nose broken, oh, wait. anyway, i dash again and zain rushes to meet me, before he gets in range i blink behind him only to get elbowed in the gut, effectively dropping me. i get up quickly by doing a move that would break a normal persons back, as well as being impossible to my male self, i move my feet over the back of my head, i fell face first, and into zain''s thighs. zain jumps forward just barley out of reach by the time i get up and slash my daggers in front of me.


    "impressive gymnastics, but will that be enough?" zain


    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site."of course not, but enough talk." Jackie


    the old halfling gracefully closes the distance between us before attempting to cut my head off. i duck down and attack his left hand with my dagger, slicing off three fingers. a couple strands of hair float down in front of me as i blink away. his fingers squirt blood over the blade of his sword.


    the fight lasts similarly for about 30 minutes with various cuts, broken bones, missing body parts, bruises etc. the old man is starting to get tiered, weather due to blood loss from his missing left hand or his old age i don''t know. a quick observe on him tells me that he is close to death, and so am i. also, WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THOSE STATS!  THERE ALL IN THE THOUSANDS! AND I CAN''T EVEN SEE MY STATS! i decide to finish this before either of us die. i rush forward and blink behind him as he swipes his sword through the after image. it''s a weird feeling, having something pass through your ethereal body, not unpleasant, just weird. knock his legs out from under him and pin him with my daggers at his neck.


    "i guess this means the student has surpassed the teacher." zain


    "and the winner is jack, Er Jackie!" announcer


    he quickly corrects himself after being corrected by Johanna.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> title obtained: chief</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "now someone please get these guys a healer." announcer


    "I''m on it" asmodeus


    i am missing my nose, my right ear, 5 fingers, and my big toe. the old man is missing his left hand, his left ear, and 2 more fingers. unfortunately i can''t regrow body parts yet.


    i watch asmodeus use a high level healing spell on the old man, and miraculously he starts to return to normal. he then turns and uses the same spell on me, all i can remember is a second of soothing followed by indescribable pain as body parts regrow.


    i help the old, tired man up and walk him to the big house. apparently he was running on adrenalin at the end, he really has gotten old.


    end chapter 49


    and thus ends the village arc. we will dive into the chief arc next release.

 chapter 50: a feast

    chapter 50


    after dropping the old man off in his bed i left Mary to take care of him, it''s time for a feast in my honor. after all it''s tradition to hold a feast with the entire village upon a change in leadership. some chefs are already preparing food outside over some open flames, i would join them but who would i impress with my shabby cooking. i head out and meet up with my pets, who are all together, except Lucy who is lighting the bonfire. such a tedious task that is.


    "i see your harem is now complete, having one girl of every class. I''m proud of you." Lilith


    "you''re just saying that because you want to play with some new toys." jack


    "true intentions revealed" Lilith


    currently aria is petting ghost using magic to basically pet her soul, which seems to feel really good. i wonder if i could do the same with the mind? something to check out in the future.


    "interesting skill you have there."jack


    "i kind of picked it up from laura after watching her use some of her special soul magic. it''s really usefully." aria


    "i bet, think you can teach me?" jack


    "sure, but latter. it''s kind of tricky." aria


    "that''s fine."  jack


    Lynda slithers over to me blushing, as always.


    "that was a fierce fight, I''ve never seen something like that" Lynda


    "it wasn''t the hardest or the most desperate fight I''ve been in, or anything like that, but it is definitely a memorable one." jack


    in the corner of my eyes i notice a certain elf getting molested by a certain nymph, in many senses of the word. Johanna


    notices me and stops molesting laura, who starts complaining till she sees me.


    "how''s our adoptive father?" Johanna


    "wait, you two are siblings? adopted siblings?" laura


    "yeah, we were both adopted by the same people, but we don''t really think about that." jack


    "i see." laura


    at around this time Lucy starts to walk over hear after completing the daunting task of getting that damn bon fire lit. as


    soon as laura sees Lucy she stops and stares, mouth slack.


    "what''s up with her?" Lucy


    "i know your soul! you were our maid!" laura


    "well i do have a vague memory of being a used as a maid two incarnations ago, it kind of passed by in a blur, not really


    interesting. although i do remember burning to death in a city wide fire though." Lucy


    "your soul seems injured, like it was shredded and put back together multiple times, something i had only seen once


    before coming to this world. but here there are things like you every-wear, especially in dungeons." laura


    "what an accurate description of what it feels like to become a damned soul."  Lucy


    "i am so glad that i didn''t have to lite the bon fire this time, who volunteered you to do it?" jack


    "Johanna, that damned wood was magically enchanted to be fire proof! it''s like it was found in a dungeon or something!"


    Lucy


    "that''s because it was, miss dryad is the dungeon master of the dungeon known as the Valium forest." jack


    "what is her name anyway? i haven''t managed to overhear it yet." Lucy


    "i don''t know, when i asked her about it i was answered with ''it''s been so long that even i can''t remember''" jack


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    we all sit down at a table, where we are joined by rostwood, the twins, Joe, Selena, and the twins parents.


    "any word on from your parents?" Lucy


    "my mom called me, she received the letter and is heading here now, should get here around the same time your aunt


    gives birth." Joe


    "my parents were in another city when everything happened. my dad wasn''t exactly in shape, chance of him surviving is


    next to 0, but my mom is a martial artist that only married my dad for money. so, yeah. my dad''s pork roast and my mom


    is probably already safe." Selena


    "I''ve gotten really good at fighting multiple people thanks to your training." rostwood


    "good, although all i did was blind you that''s good. remember that there always will be someone stronger than you and


    to never stop improving" jack


    "yes" rostwood


    i notice aunty and uncle coming up to our table, we have exactly 2 seats left available.


    "how''s my baby cousin coming?" Johanna


    "coming along nice and healthy" aunty


    "i can''t wait to meet my baby boy" uncle


    i begin to wonder what an infant''s mind is like, so i mentally reach out to it. at first i feel it recede from my touch, which


    surprised me, no one has ever noticed my touch before. i then send happy thoughts, thoughts of safety and contentment


    to him, like what it would normally have from his mother. after accepting my mind''s touch i notice how simple yet complex his mind is. after ''looking'' around for a bit i notice something. i notice one slight change that i could make to make the mind more efficient, a lot more. and the child is at the perfect stage to do this without any harmful side effects, i think. anyway after making a small change i feel the mind that I''m touching speed up. his thoughts are moving at about twice the speed they were before, so around 1/4 a normal humans or around 1/8 of mine. my own thoughts having speed up through use of psychological magic.


    "you kind of spaced out there, is everything alright?" Johanna


    "yeah I''m fine, i can''t wait to meet my cousin." jack


    the day went by with eating, drinking, and dancing. you should see a giant drunk orc trying to waltz, it''s hilarious. after


    dancing with everyone multiple times, i found watching the traditional dances of various races to be rather interesting.


    we decided to retire for the night. we all went to sleep on my giant bed, by we i meant me and my pets, after a little


    having a little fun of course. tomorrow i Will have to officially take charge, and i have some great ideas for changes.


    i find myself drifting off to sleep when i hear something


    "finally the bastard fell asleep, now i can take my revenge." ???


    i feel something take control of my dream, similar to how Lilith does it but more malicious. it doesn''t matter, dreams are


    my territory.


    end chapter 50


    sorry for taking so long to post this chapter, i have a good reason. i am getting ready to put up this game we call life for sale! i am hopeing to be able to sell it within the week so wish me luck.

 chapter 51: in two

    chapter 51


    it''s amazing how people who regularly have their dreams controlled frequently learn to be able to control dreams themselves, similar to how people who frequently have telepathy used on them develop the ability to use telepathy. i watch for a minute to see the kind of dream they prepared for me. turns out to be a typical nightmare, it''s like they weren''t even trying to be creative.  i easily dispel the dream and create a forested environment similar to the forest surrounding the village, making sure to hide Lilith behind some bushes. i also add a certain touch to the dream.


    "oh, impressive. to be able to manipulate your dreams to this degree of control and accuracy you


    must have played with your dreams regularly." ???


    i look over at the speaker who turns out to be the god of humans.


    "of course, it makes one feel like the absolute god, creating tangible world with just your thoughts"


    jack


    ''it is rather fun, not as fun as sex though.'' emotion


    am i really that much of a male nympho? it''s really surprising how much lust the emotional part of


    me has.


    "i can''t deny that" god of humans


    "i have a feeling that the only reason I''m in control right now is due this being my dream." jack


    "i can''t deny that either. unfortunately for you i have prepared something special for this occasion."


    god of humans


    he begins to cast a spell like none i have ever seen, it isn''t destructive, that much i can tell from the


    shape of the mana. but the problem is i can''t figure out the point of the spell, what it''s purpose is,


    this type of spell has yet to be demonstrated by asmodeus.


    while i was trying to figure the spell out, he finished it. suddenly i feel pain rack my body like I''m


    being split in two.


    "now, lets see if you can still hurt me in your true form" god of humans


    [window]congratulations! you are one of the very few to come across your true form! even though


    it''s a dream it is still an incredible accomplishment. you will experience some changes to your body


    because of this , that is not necessarily a good thing.[window/]


    i don''t just feel like I''m being ripped in two, i am being ripped in two. after a couple seconds of this


    rather mild pain, it''s nothing compared to some of the poisons I''ve taken while improving my poison


    resistance, i look down and notice that I''m in my female form.


    ''odd, so I''m really a girl on the inside?'' Jackie?


    after a second i don''t hear a response from emotion, i don''t feel him inside me. it''s the first time my


    mind has been truly calm.


    "i would totally fuck me"???


    i look over at where the voice came from and see myself, my male self to be exact.


    "sorry but I''m not into men" logic


    "technically thats masturbation." emotion


    "i have never masturbated in my life, i never had to, so why start now?" logic


    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "true. anyway, want to beat the shit out of this puny god?"emotion


    "why not? the taste is rather divine." logic


    the puny god in question is stuttering while staring at me in shock. emotion picks up a rock and


    throws it at his face, surprisingly it hits, unsurprisingly it doesn''t do any damage. it is however


    enough to shock him. not wasting a second i dodge off to the side, hiding myself in the trees with a


    combination of nature, or as natural as dreams get, and magic.


    "go ahead use your magic tricks, I''ll use the fun stuff" emotion


    emotion wraps himself in lighting, different from the cloak of flames skill, which i still have no idea


    how to activate or it''s effects, it is not a skill but a spell. the electricity affects his nerves and


    muscles and nerves in a way that makes them more efficient and able to use more of them. the cost


    is a small amount of damage done with every movement, meaning if your perfectly still you don''t


    get hurt, but if you move a lot you''re going to feel pain.


    the god recovers enough to pull out a sword and swing at emotion, who ducks underneath it and


    swings at him with his own sword. each of us has only one of the swords, and i don''t have the


    ability to recreate such a powerful artifact. i blink up behind him, with a little help from altering the


    dream scape, not that i can do it much as he is trying his damnedest to keep it from changing, an


    impressive feat in for someone else''s dream when they have control. i use assassinate and back


    stab at the same time to attack him, before blinking away again.


    ''i love this skill, it''s fucking amazing.'' logic


    "what do you know, my true form is still human enough to hurt you." logic


    i lick the delicious blood off of my sword. i can feel Lilith shaking from watching me lick the blood


    off of the sword, she must have gotten excited. it also served to distract the god of humans and  open him up to emotions attack, which severs a hand. luckily he used fire magic to cauterize the


    wound so it doesn''t waste any of the blood, and by that i mean on the hand, not the arm, the arm is bleeding out.


    i start to feel something off.


    "shit." logic


    "what is it?" emotion


    "something much more powerful than any god I''ve ever met has taken control of this dream, not


    someone we can fight against and even hope to win" logic


    at this even the god of humans goes pale. after a sudden surge of power everything  goes white,


    not like we were blinded but like we were put into a white room.


    "or-oracle, wh-what are you do-doing he-here" god of humans


    he looks like he''s ready to shit himself, not that emotion looks any better. i feel fine, probably


    because fear is an emotion, and logic is incapable of emotion, just as emotion is incapable of logic.


    end chapter 51

 chapter 52: end of the dream

    chapter 52


    "and who might you be?" logic


    as i speak with a perfectly level tone the one that the god of humans called oracle looks at me, first with shock, then


    with curiosity, and finally with acknowledgment.


    "ah, so you''re one of those. second one I''ve seen this generation, quite impressive. what''s even more impressive is that i


    didn''t predict this happening." oracle


    "that still doesn''t answer my question, who and what are you?" logic


    "how rude of me, to trespass on your dream and not introduce myself is rude. i am commonly called oracle, due to my


    ability to accurately predict the future. and i am a greater titan." oracle


    "is it a good idea to be telling me your strengths?" logic


    "it doesn''t matter, you won''t be able to use it against me anyway." oracle


    "fine, but why are you here? i can''t see anything that you could stand to gain from visiting me." logic


    "i was curious, i knew there was something about you that was different but i couldn''t figure it out, it''s not like i can read


    minds like you can. by the way please stop, it''s getting a little annoying, and you''ll never get inside anyway. you''re not the


    first mind mage I''ve met." oracle


    i withdraw my mind from the barrage of attacks against his mind, it''s become  habit by now to just slip into someone''s


    mind.


    "can you elaborate on that?" logic


    "no, just know that while you are certainly not the first, but you are the only one still alive, the ones that figure it out tend


    to be secretive to the level of obsession, something you no doubt understand perfectly" oracle


    at this time i start smelling something nasty coming from the gods pants.


    "you might want to   off the pressure, i can''t feel it but that god of there is literally shitting himself" logic


    "that really stinks, i meant to lay off just before he shit himself but i was a little late apparently." oracle


    he lowers the pressure a bit and the god seems a little relieved and my other half starts being able to move, he quickly


    runs beside me.


    "what should i do? i have no idea what to do in this type of scenario." emotion


    fear evident in his voice, but so is something else. excitement? it would make sense, i do love fighting opponents


    stronger than myself, well jack does. that would probably explain why emotion can still move, he is more used to


    overwhelming pressure than the god with brown underwear.


    "hmm, not enough." oracle


    "just wait." logic


    oracle lowers the pressure a little bit lower, and our other guest is no longer paralyzed.


    "i have never seen a stupider greater god before, not that i didn''t predict it." oracle


    "wh-what do you me-mean?"god of humans


    "you not only choose to attack someone who specializes in fighting gods, but also gave him as many advantages as you


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.could think of. first you attacked him in a dream, his dream. this allowed him to change the terrain to suit his needs, in


    addition to impeding you with the same method. next you brought out his true form, didn''t anyone ever tell you that


    someone''s true form brings out their greatest strengths? it also bring out their weaknesses, but he doesn''t have any that


    you could successfully exploit. then you had your little observer just sit on the sidelines when she could have helped


    you, sealing your failure." oracle


    "true, and now she will die because of you. HEAR THAT CHARM, YOU WILL DIE SOON." logic


    emotion seems to get excited, probably wants to get revenge for what she did to her own daughters, and taste that


    sweet sweet flesh. i mostly want the power that comes with the sweet flesh. i remove all the trees, leaving the brush. i


    see a rather average looking woman standing off to my right, paralyzed with a tear streaked face.


    "we should probably give you some alone time now, I''ll take this one and leave. I''ll see you in the not too distant future,


    jack." oracle


    after he is gone i walk over to where Lilith has been hiding the whole time, under some of the brush. after Lilith gets up


    she looks at emotion and me for a second.


    "which one of you is jack?" Lilith


    "i would say logic here is the greater part of jack." emotion


    "neither of us are jack, together we are jack. he is emotion, and i am logic." logic


    "that''s a little confusing, but OK. who is she?" Lilith


    "a lesser charm goddess, or rather used to be a lesser charm goddess." logic


    "used to?" Lilith


    "i kind of ate her, in a completely non-sexual way." logic


    at this she looks a little shocked.


    "emotion if you would." logic


    "yes!" emotion


    "don''t forget to cauterize the wound, don''t want to waste any of that power soaked blood." logic


    "alright!" emotion


    hearing that charm recovers and starts to run, screaming for help. this doesn''t stop emotion as he is much fast than charm. emotion catches up to charm and take a bite out of her left arm, breaking through the bone, before burning the


    wound shut. charm falls to the ground shrieking in agony, it starts to get annoying so i mute her with the wonderful


    power of dreams.


    "it doesn''t taste as good as before, still tasty, just not as good." emotion


    "might as well save it for latter, wouldn''t want the girls to miss the show." logic


    "won''t she escape?" Lilith


    "nah, no one can get in or out of this dream without my consent, or enough power to override that." logic


    "lets wake up then." emotion


    chapter 52 end


    exciting news! this game we call life is now on amazon! check it out and leave a review. also we get a special chapter next time.

 sidestory-emotions birth

    side story


    emotion pov


    for a time i was at peace, calm and easy life with nothing to worry about. then great fear, something horrible had


    happened, i don''t know what. after that i didn''t feel anything for a long time. the next thing i felt was shock, and then pleasure. after that i started to feel things again, though not to the level i had before. i felt fear and pain, happiness and sadness, ecstasy and excitement, and many other things, just a little muted. then i felt sadness, more than i had ever felt, that sadness broke through to anger, pure rage. at that time i started to wake up, and what i saw made me even more angry. i saw people, both dead and dying, surrounding a massive creature. i don''t know why i cared about the dead and dying people, but i knew instinctively that they were all important to me somehow. after a moment i start to run forward and attack the creature, but I''m not in control. after realizing that i take control of my body and vent my rage onto the creature.


    after a second of fighting it i realize that I''m losing, i don''t know how i know, or how i know about what i did next.


    ''fuck with his mind'' emotion


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    ''who''s there? never mind, it doesn''t matter.'' logic


    i continue to fight the creature, and i feel his movements slow down, but not nearly enough. i end up getting hurt and


    then i feel a soothing sensation that repairs the injuries. after that i feel, for just a moment, a massive energy storage.


    ''blow this bastard up'' emotion


    after a couple seconds of fighting i feel that energy source again, and then it is gone. it just exploded. i feel myself fly up


    and land on the lap of a girl. seeing her crying, but safe, face makes me happy, so i try to smile. i can''t smile, i can''t move


    anything, after all I''m just a head


    ''well, i at least saved one. i guess i have just been burning. i wonder what my next life will have in store for me.'' logic


    ''it''ll be an adventure, that''s for sure.'' emotion


    i then see a light and start to move towards it...


    only to find the light of the sun peaking through the window, this will be an interesting life.


    side story


    sorry the chapter is so short, but this is the best i could do right now, i should do the rest soonish.

 chapter 53: for the love of god (flesh)

    chapter 53


    i wake up and see myself staring back at me.


    "oops" emotion


    suddenly my male form kisses me and disappears into my body in a flash of light. i decide not to think about that and get on with the task at hand. i pick up a throwing dagger that is just lying on my nightstand and throw it at charm''s right hand, pinning it to the wall. she starts to let off a shriek but i silence her with magic before she can make any noise.


    "oi, get up" jack


    "was happening?" Johanna


    "morning already?" Lynda


    *yawn*morning" ghost


    "where''s charm" Lilith


    the rest just grumbled.


    "oi, get up and dressed quickly please." jack


    at this time charm was crying and screaming, trying desperately to pull out the dagger,


    unfortunately for her with every passing second that was getting harder and harder as that dagger


    was poisoned with only the finest of paralytics made by mine own uncle.


    "who is she?" aria


    "ghost''s and Johanna''s mother" jack


    "why is she, you know, stuck to the wall with a knife?" aria


    "you''ll see, Lucy can you help me carry her?" jack


    "sure, where do you want her?" Lucy


    "in the dungeon downstairs" jack


    roughly five minutes later all of us are standing around a goddess with her hands tied to the ceiling


    and her feet to the floor.


    "Johanna, ghost, the two of you will decide what happens to her, but before that lets here her side


    of the story." jack


    as soon as i say that charm starts to look at her two daughters with pleading eyes.


    "you might want to remove the curse of silence you have on her first." Lucy


    "ah, right, forgot about that." jack


    after lifting the spell all i can hear is silent sobbing.


    "now, tell us your story. why were you trying to kill ghost here?" jack


    "so that''s what you named that damn mutt, it fits." charm


    as soon as she spits that out i activate her pain receptors in her brain, causing her to arc her back in


    pain and scream.


    "now now, screaming won''t get you out of this, the walls are perfectly soundproofed with magic."


    jack


    even though i said that i was enjoying her screams of agony, when someone trys to hurt someone i


    care about, no just in general i think i enjoy torturing people.


    "continue the story." jack


    "alright, alright, i get it. one full moon i was wondering though the forest for no reason in particular


    when i met, or rather saw a silver wolf. i watched it in fascination for the color of it''s fur was


    something very pleasing to my eyes. then it attacked me with it''s full moon driven lust, obviously


    being more than just a common animal have become a low ranking beast due to absorbing mana. it


    raped and impregnated me before running off while i was unconscious, i think i hit my head on a


    rock. a little while latter i gave birth to a silver pup, its existence angered me. unfortunately i


    couldn''t kill the damn beast. ahhhh!" charm


    i sent another wave of pain to rack her body and can''t help but notice the expressions of the girls.


    ghost and laura held expressions that were a mix of arousal and a small amount of jealousy? Lilith,


    Lynda and aria are more or less indifferent. Lucy looks at me with curiosity and lastly Johanna is


    engrossed in watching her mothers pain, she always has been a little sadistic. unfortunately


    jackline is still hard at work with the system otherwise she would probably be here as well.


    "ghost" jack


    "tss. unfortunately i couldn''t kill Ghost due to a certain law prohibiting gods from hurting their


    offspring. i watched her for nearly 6 years in anger while she built a pack, before realizing that the


    law didn''t prohibit me from indirectly causing her death, so i had prey flee whenever her pack got


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.near. but that wasn''t enough, they still managed to catch food, albeit much less than before with


    much more energy involved in hunting. they were slowly starving, but it wasn''t enough for me so i


    had instilled dissent among the pack using my specialty magic. at night all of the wolves in her pack


    attacked her, but she held them off, severely wounding all of them before they would stop, while


    barely being hurt herself. fortunately they all died so she had much more difficulty getting food,


    causing her to starve a little faster." charm


    at this point ghost no longer had lust in her eyes, instead she held back tears. likely recalling


    something that must seem like another life to her.


    she was practically skin and bones when she was teleported into that dungeon, but before she was


    i gave a certain man a gift, a necromancy grimory and moved ghost to his school telling him to kill


    everything in the school. he gladly did so and quickly mastered the content of the book before


    burning it. he did his job pretty well, but then you showed up and saved the damn...."charm


    she let out a shriek as i basically massaged her pain receptors.


    "and saved ghost by feeding her. then you had to beat that damn dungeon so i came to finish the job


    with some untraceable poison when i saw my other daughter, it shocked me, what was she doing


    here? before all i saw was just some goblin that you managed to tame. and that shock caused me


    stay and get beaten by you instead of poisoning her." charm


    "and let me guess, you wanted revenge on me for that so you came with the god of humans..." jack


    "Dylan, and yes." charm


    "alright, what is your verdict?" jack


    charm stared whimpering at Johanna and ghost. i feel a little bit of magic extend toward them,


    which i destroy.


    "just so you know if even one of them wants you to live, not being indifferent but wanting you to


    live, you will go free." jack


    of course i said that so only charm could hear me. i look over to ghost who had anger in her eyes,


    and the rest of her face.


    "kill this whore! she caused the death of everyone i cared about in an attempt to kill me, she


    deserves to die!" ghost


    i look over to Johanna who looked like she had a deep emotional conflict before she just turned


    indifferent." Johanna


    "i just don''t care, sure you gave birth to me and gave me to some great people but other than that


    you did literally nothing for me, ms dryad was a better mother than you ever have been, and she''s one of my lovers. so I''m as indifferent to you as i would be to a random person on the street."


    Johanna


    as soon as she says that i lick my lips, inspiring great fear in charm.


    "looks like the vote has been cast, and the results are not in your favor" jack


    i take a good look at the creature hanging from the ceiling. around 5''9", decent body, rather plain face, not ugly but certainly not pretty. she is someone you would would forget about unless you


    had a reason to remember her, her magic was definitely the cause of her children''s beauty not her


    genes.


    "well it is time to enact the punishment, stay if you want but i would rather have some privacy." jack


    in the end the only ones to stay were ghost and Johanna, the others going back up to the bed, not


    necessarily to sleep. i start to get to work cutting her up. i heal the wounds i make as i cut her


    fingers and toes off before eating them in full view of her, i then apply a huge dose of paralytic


    which makes he unable to move anything below the neck. i cut off her legs one joint at a time before


    eating them and proceed to eat until i can''t eat anymore and she is nothing but a bloodstain on the ground.


    end chapter 53

 i dont really know what to call this

    a/n: i wanted to write more for charm''s death scene, but i thought that it would be a little much for one chapter. looking


    back on it i feel unsatisfied with it. so here is a rewrite of it.


    in the end the only ones to stay were ghost and Johanna, the others going back up to the bed, not necessarily to sleep. i


    start to get to work cutting her up. i heal the wounds i make as i cut her fingers and toes off before eating them in full


    view of her, i then apply a huge dose of paralytic which makes he unable to move anything below the neck. i cut chunks


    out of her left leg and eat a couple of them.


    "mmmm, tasty. the flesh of gods has an absolutely divine flavor, not only that but it gives a huge power boost" jack


    i give her my best bloodstained smile, scaring the shit out of her, literally.


    "damn it, i can''t have you soiling the meat." jack


    i use some water magic and wash her, making sure she is completely clean before stooping. i can feel the fear leaking off


    of her mind. i cut the rest of her left leg off below the knee.


    "i wonder what it would taste like cooked." jack


    i use some fire to sear the leg, causing the bone to become brittle and snap in places, the hair to all burn off, and, after


    the sent of burning hair disappears, lets off a mouthwatering sent. i take a bite and it tastes much different than it did


    when raw, instead of sweet it tastes savory. the crunch of the bone is softer, less like hard Candy and more like a saltine


    cracker.


    "hmm, definitely a different flavor, it still tastes divine, but it is savory instead of sweet." jack


    now in addition to fear i can feel a twinge of sorrow. i cut of the right leg below the knee and eat it the same way as the


    first. the only problem with cooking it is the blood, there isn''t enough of it. i eat the upper legs raw, leaving her with


    nothing below the waist. naturally i close up the wounds with a little magic.


    i then use force magic to carefully remove her pelvic bone with out letting her bleed out, took a full 10 minutes and was


    mentally exhausting. i turned into my shadow form and tried to eat the bone that way, it was a rather interesting


    experience. imagine tasting something absolutely delicious from every part of your body. i actually got an erection due


    to the pleasure, fortunately it went away after i yelled at my emotions.


    when i turned back Into my physical form i create a ball of magic with a particular function. i also make sure that it will


    last for 24 hours, not that i will need it for that long. i then stick the hand holding the ball of magic into her chest and pull


    out her heart, leaving the ball. the magic i inserted into her chest will function as a heart for around 24 hours before


    disappearing.


    "I''m stumped, should i eat your heart cooked or raw?" jack


    after a moment of silence broken only by pained whimpering i realize that she can''t speak due to the spell i cast on her


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.earlier.


    "well, i don''t think you can respond anyway" jack


    i shove the whole heart in my mouth, leaving more blood on my mouth. the heart is easily the most delicious part of the


    body that i have eaten thus far. i lose myself for what feels like a minute and find myself in front of a legless, armless


    goddess. i then quickly heal her to prevent blood loss. i take out a dissection knife i brought for this time and make an


    incision in her stomach and Begin to remove her organs one by one, or i would if she hadn''t fainted. i wake her up with


    some rejuvenation magic.


    "bad girl, i can''t have you falling asleep" jack


    i start to remove her organs one by one, eating them while remaking the vital ones the same way as i did with the heart.


    of course i didn''t eat the intestines, something about shit seems unappetizing. i then begin to remove her vertebrae one


    by one, snacking on them like chips, they have a similar texture. after I''m done with the vertebrae i remove her tail bone, and then her ribs, now the only bone in her body is her skull, and I''m not so sure that i can remove it without killing her so


    I''ll save that for last.


    i look down at the saggy lump of flesh that used to be a divine creature and decide what part to eat next. i decide to start


    at the bottom, i cut chunks out of her and pop them in my mouth for about an hour before she is nothing but a head that I''m keeping alive through pure magic, i had to drink a couple mana potions and borrow from Johanna''s rather small mana


    pool.


    i lift the spell i had on her voice and form vocal cords for the head as i pick it up.


    "any last words?" jack


    as soon as i say that she starts crying, loudly, for about twelve seconds. after that she just stops. roughly a minute latter


    she speaks.


    "end it, please just end it" charm


    "fine" jack


    i was going to keep the head for some psychological experimentation if she had said anything other than pleading for me


    to end her life, but i realized that it would be to mana intensive to keep it alive for much longer than a day, mabey i could


    get a slave.


    i throw the head into the air and keep it afloat with magic as i turn into my shadow form and eat it that way. and all that


    remains of the goddess is a bloodstain on the floor and some intestines, oh there''s also a bladder.


    "let''s go get some breakfast" jack


    "aren''t you full after, you know" Johanna


    "of course i am, breakfast is for you" jack


    "alright! let''s go! i heard Mary is making bacon this morning!" ghost


    as i follow them upstairs i read their minds for any hint of disgust, and find none. instead there''s not much for ghost, eat


    prey to get stronger is normal in nature, and a twinge of excitement for Johanna, blood lust, not lust.


    and there it is folks, you don''t get a chapter this time though. please tell me what you think about this.

 chapter 54: mt. bacon

    chapter 54


    I follow ghost and Johanna upstairs where everyone else is surrounding a massive pile of bacon, no,


    wait, thats the table.


    "that''s a lot of bacon, are you sure you''ll need that much?" jack


    "I''m worried i might not have enough" Mary


    i look at my adoptive mother curiously for a second before hearing a booming voice, satisfying my


    curiosity.


    "where in the abyss have you been jack? i got here hours ago." war


    "why would i ever want to go to the abyss? it is the most boring thing i have ever experienced." jack


    "imagine being there for hundreds of years, i was almost tempted to sign another contract with a


    dungeon" Lucy


    i sit down and grab a couple pieces of bacon.


    "what''s wrong jack? normally you would grab at least ten times that to eat." Mary


    "i ate quite a bit earlier, so I''m not very hungry" jack


    i walk around to the other side of the bacon mountain, which had already lost a bit of mass due to


    the two carnivores known as ghost and war. to my surprise i see a certain goddess, with her face


    full of meat.


    "hello jackline." jack


    she looks at me then swallows.


    "you missed a spot of blood on your left cheek, let me help you with it." jackline


    "ah, thanks." jack


    she comes up to me and licks it up.


    ''divine blood huh. suddenly it all falls into place.'' jackline


    ''what are you talking about?'' jack


    ''you realize I''m a death incarnate right, the second most powerful in this world right now?'' jackline


    ''yeah so.'' jack


    ''i am rather sensitive to when souls depart, and i felt charms soul depart earlier this morning, ten


    minute ago in fact, from underground here.'' jackline


    i sit down next to jackline and auntie, who has started to show more of a rounded stomach.


    ''i can smell the chaotic power inside your body, there''s a decent amount there, almost enough for


    an evolution. the problem is it hasn''t settled down, it should finish settling down when you sleep.''


    jackline


    ''cool, any idea about the effects?'' jack


    ''you should become more attractive? if only a little bit, it was a goddess of charm you ate after all.


    other than that i have no idea.'' jackline


    ''alright'' jack


    ''my little mortal has become a god eater, this is so exciting. i wonder if i will be eaten later?'' jackline


    ''maybe, if you behave.'' jack


    ''JUST FUCK HER RIGHT NOW!'' emotion


    ''whats up with you?'' logic(I''m going to start referring to him as logic or emotion when they are


    separate and/or talking to each other as they are technically the same person)


    ''I''M SO FULL OF ENERGY RIGHT NOW I FEEL LIKE I''M GOING TO EXPLODE IF I DON''T EXPLODE ALL


    OVER SOMEONE!'' emotion


    ''I''ll deal with that latter'' jack


    "does anyone know what the most common fetish in the world is?" Joe


    "isn''t it necrophilia?" aria


    "no it''s a foot fetish, right?" Joe


    "nope that''s the second most common, the most common is definitely necrophilia." laura


    "that''s true, with how common undead are and the characteristics of most undead a lot of people


    would turn to corpses to satisfy their carnal desires."Lucy


    "what? can you elaborate on that?" Selena


    "undead are culturally and economically important for every country in this world not under the


    churches control, as they have an irrational fear of undead. they, we, are the slave class. we are


    slaves because it is easy to enslave us due to most of use not having even a shred of self


    awareness and due to the fact that the vast majority of us are damned,the number of natural


    undead now days is very few. undead are used to supplement nations armies, when you sign up for


    a military it is pretty much agreed that if you fall in battle your body will be donated to that country


    and they will make an undead out of it, not with your soul though. if you die not in battle and your


    family has some money you will be taken to a local necromancer to be turned into an undead,


    higher rank undead typically reserved for the wealthy who can afforded to take their deceased to


    higher quality necromancers. now, liches are a little bit unique, we have to bond with something,


    we can survive for a short period of time without bonding, and that time grows as we grow in


    power. we have to stay close to the thing we bond to or we die, the distance and the duration that we can be away increases with our power. the plus side of this bond is that if i die while the item is intact i will resurrected within a short period of time, again depending on my power. the only problem is that it doesn''t work both ways." Lucy


    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site."what is this object that you are bonded to?" jack


    "it''s not really an object, after all it is you, jack" Lucy


    a couple minute latter i decide to check my notifications.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>you have 4 notifications</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>update! the nature of HP has changed!</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>you have obtained your true form! many changes occur because of this, for example a


    physical bond has been weakened while a mental one has been strengthened</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>the period of accelerated growth is over, you''ll keep all the power you have obtained


    during this period</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td>you have (almost) completely eaten a god, you have absorbed this gods power. their will


    be effects from this. be careful who you let know this, some might not take kindly to it.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    latter that afternoon i am standing with Lilith''s grand father in a field just outside the village.


    "congratulations! you have learned everything i can teach you, everything else will need to find a


    different teacher or do experimentation on your own. maybe you''ll even find some of the more rare


    magic systems like time magic and soul magic, although i have heard reports of people going


    insane and talking to their emotions or something like that after prolonged use of those types of


    magic systems" asmodeus


    "thank you" jack


    i had discovered something interesting about magic a little bit ago logic could not use elemental


    magics. while emotion could not use anything else.


    "why did you ever pursue Marshal arts, you are a genius mage, a Solomon incarnate. well actually


    Lucy is the incarnation of Solomon and you use Marshal arts so a Lucifer incarnate? anyway, it


    doesn''t matter. what does matter is the fact that you are a genius." asmodeus


    after departing from asmodeus i wonder off in search of someone, i have an idea of how to learn


    soul magic. i find aria a couple minutes latter.


    "any idea where laura went to?" jack


    "last i saw her Johanna was taking her for a walk with ghost, they went into the forest." aria


    "alright, thanks." jack


    i run off towards the forest where i stumble upon jacobe.


    "what are you doing here?" jack


    "oh, just meeting up with someone." jacobe


    after realizing he was found jacobe gets a red flushed face, after checking his recent memory''s i see


    that he is coming to meet up with a certain forest nymph.


    "ah, i know what your doing, i had some fun with her myself in the past. just a little warning, she is


    slightly sadistic and will leave while your asleep, just to get off on your reaction, among other


    things. I recommend giving her one if you want to have some fun with her again." jack


    "thanks, I''ll keep that in mind."  jacobe


    after searching for her for about 5 more minutes i find the tree we used during the full moon and


    hear gasping and panting, my nymph is such a nympho. after jumping up i see a torture seen, ghost


    and laura are embracing with very intimate kissing and groping with collars around their necks that are tied to leashes. ghosts is being held by Johanna and laura is being held by ms dryad. there is a gang of nymphs ''torturing'' the two of them in any way they can imagine.


    "excuse me" jack


    "oh, jack, come join us." dryad


    "actu-"


    ''FUCK THIS, I''M TAKING CONTROL.'' emotion


    i feel a twinge of pain in my head for a second before i feel myself being pushed to the back while


    emotion takes control of the body.


    "that sounds like a great idea" jack


    after a 2 hours of ropes, sex and the occasional nymph falling off the tree only to be put back on by


    the tree, logic get control again.


    ''hey, laura'' jack


    ''yes master, how can this humble slave service you further today?'' laura


    ''i want you to teach my soul magic'' jack


    she thinks about that for a couple seconds before arriving at a conclusion.


    ''i need a corpse, the fresher and the less damage the corpse has taken the better.'' laura


    ''give me two hours'' jack


    end chapter 54

 chapter 55: souls

    chapter 55


    ten minutes latter i find a party that is getting attacked by the bear king of the forest. this group is painfully obviously not native to this area, by how poorly they are doing against him, the bear king is basically playing with them. the party consists of 5 people, two warriors 1 male one female, a healer, a mage, and a rouge type, most likely a thief the only non-human in the group was the mage, who was some sort of elf. i watch for a couple minutes before ''accidentally'' stumbling on them.


    "oh, look what we have hear." jack


    "can''t talk, please help." female warrior


    "why should i? what do i get out of it?" jack


    "name your price, just get us out of this. i can tell you have the strength to do so, so just help us." female warrior


    the female warrior, who was obviously the leader of the group, was basically in tears while she was begging me.


    "i need a corpse, a fresh, humanoid corpse that i kill myself." jack


    a startled look spreads across everyone face. at that moment a killing blow was struck against the thief.


    "why-why don''t you use him?" female warrior


    "to mutilated, i need a clean corpse." jack


    after a couple seconds of emotional conflict, help along by a certain ''mind mage'' as oracle called it, she came to a


    decision.


    "there is nothing else you want, is there? not money, not anything else?" female warrior


    "nope, all i want is a corpse."  jack


    "fine" female warrior


    "if you back out on this deal I''ll kill all of you." jack


    i blink forward and pat my friends belly, just a light pat. i tell him to leave this group alone but he can take the thief.


    "hey! he''s taking our friend, stop him!" elf mage


    "why? what are you going to do with that corpse? turn him into an undead?" jack


    "no! i wanted to give him a proper funeral!" elf mage


    "that is a proper funeral the world around, only your kind that follows the church practices the abomination of placing a


    body in the ground to do little more than rot. where a soul goes after the body dies has nothing to do with how its body


    was taken care of after death, so might as well make them usefully." jack


    "then why do you want a corpse?" elf mage


    "for magical experimentation, nothing more." jack


    "lets just get this over with so we can mourn." elf mage


    "so who''s volunteering to become a corpse?" jack


    the male warrior was going to volunteer but before he could the female warrior volunteered.


    "I''ll do it, just make sure my companions are safe" female warrior


    "certainly." jack


    i use some healing magic to heal any and all wounds she received from fighting.


    "whats this?" female warrior


    "i want the corpse to be in perfect condition" jack


    i lean in close and whisper into her ear.


    "tell them jack sent you, you''ll be placed somewhere nice." jack


    i then use another spell, one from my personal domain. i sever her mind from her body, causing a quick, painless death.


    of course this kind of magic is rather draining, using up to half my mana for more intelligent creatures.


    "what did you do to her?" male warrior


    "i killed her, quickly and painlessly" jack


    "well, thanks for that much, i guess" male warrior


    "one hundred feet east you will find a trail, take it uphill and you will eventually reach a village at the top. it has been a


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.pleasure doing business with you." jack


    "i wish i could say the same" male warrior


    i gentle pick up the corpse of the female warrior and blink away to a nearby tree.


    "well, we should probably go to that village" male warrior


    i could feel the sadness in the air, i felt like i could grab it and play with it in my hands, which i actually could do. i jumped


    away through the trees, carrying the corpse, a skill i mastered as a child.


    a couple minutes latter i was with laura again, standing in the same tree i left her in. after putting the corpse down laura


    inspects it.


    "who the hell did you kill her? i don''t see any damage at all, it''s almost like the soul was just split from the body." laura


    "something similar happened." jack


    "first I''m going to teach you how to make a soul tether. basically exactly like it sounds like, tethering a soul to a body. in


    this case your own soul. it will help you get used to manipulating souls." laura


    "so am i just going to tether my soul to her body?" jack


    "fuck no, an inexperienced person would just kill themselves trying to manipulate their own soul in any way" laura


    "so what will we do? what soul will i use?" jack


    "first, in order to get used to the feeling of souls" laura


    suddenly i feel something inside of me moving, it feels powerful, and familiar. it feels similar to the mind, not identical,


    just similar. it gives me some ideas for experimentation with the relationship between the mind and the soul. i try to


    move this energy around inside my body.


    "good, as long as you don''t pull it out of your body there is next to zero chance to screw up and accidentally kill yourself,


    but the rate of improvement would be at a snails pace." jack


    "alright, so what am i going to do?" jack


    "you are going to tether this rabbits soul to this girl. help me take her cloths off, they can make this process harder,


    exponentially so if you are new to it." laura


    after about ten minutes of striping her laura grabs the rabbit.


    "alright, try to feel this rabbits soul." laura


    that part wasn''t that hard, i had been sensing the minds of people for a while now, and the soul isn''t all that much


    different.


    "alright, got it." jack


    "well, that was quite fast. it normally takes people as much as an hour to do it. you did it in minutes." laura


    "so what next?" jack


    "grab a piece of the soul and move it into the corpse." laura


    it takes a couple tries but i managed to grab a piece of the soul, although perhaps a little to big of a piece, and put it in


    the corpse.


    "good, a little sloppy but good for your first time." laura


    laura snaps the neck of the rabbit and something interesting happened, i felt the soul move from the rabbit into the


    corpse, and i also felt the mind move as well. the mind felt damaged, like it had gone through a vicious fight for it''s life,


    which it probably had.


    "good, really good. half the time the creature simply dies, and almost always when moving bodies the creature becomes less intelligent." laura


    like that we spent the rest of the day and a good portion of the next. during that time i learned many things about the


    soul, and the mind.


    end chapter 55

 chapter 56: a racist

    chapter 56


    a week has passed since laura taught me about soul magic. in that week i have made a couple changes to the place the


    biggest one being the addition of a mages tower. with the help of asmodeus, Lucy, and laura, and a few other mages, we


    built the tower practically overnight with magically fortified bricks. the few mages that live here will teach there when


    they are not on a job, we are still mercenaries after all. and as mercenaries being More powerful is one of the best ways


    to make your services more valuable, so adding a mages tower makes sense.


    i am currently experimenting with soul and mind magic on a wild goblin i kidnapped from the forest, and the results are


    pretty interesting, although i am going to need more test subjects, preferably better than wild goblins. i have determined


    that the mind is very similar to the soul, and connected to the soul.  have a feeling that i might be able to separate the


    two, and i have tried many times but i always make a mistake and the goblin dies. goblins are too weak to survive that,


    and i can''t just kidnap my own people, it would get to suspicious with the number of people i might need.


    "damn it!" jack


    staring at a now lifeless body i get angry and burn the pile of corpses to ash in roughly 5 seconds.


    "why the fuck did you do that?" logic


    "these shitty goblins are really getting on my nerves, I''ve never been so irritated in my entire consciousness. how can


    any creature be so weak" emotion


    "OK, i get it, just calm down. we''ll have some fun with everyone in the forest latter, alright?" logic


    "fine, I''ll try to stay calm." emotion


    i head out of the dungeon and head outside, I''m itching for a fight. i head down to the training Field and on my way i pass


    by the gate, and i see some familiar people coming out of the forest.


    "look who we have here, i thought you''d get here sooner than that, i basically told you were to go and made sure you


    would arrive safely. what took you guys so long?" jack


    it was the group of humans and one elf that was getting attacked by the king of the forest a week ago. the group was led


    by the male warrior.


    "none of your business" male warrior


    as soon as he says that he is smacked in the back of the head by the elf mage.


    "don''t be childish, this man saved our lives, be grateful." elf mage


    "but he killed Sarah, and let Justine die." male warrior


    "he could have let all of us die! if you don''t get over this I..." elf mage


    "you''ll what? ground me? you aren''t mom Clarice, you can never be her." male warrior


    "she''s not wrong, i could have let you all die. in fact i was debating weather or not i should let you all die, i don''t care


    much for humans." jack


    while the elf mage, Clarice, was trying to put her supposed brother into a sleeper hold the healer spoke up.


    "ignore these two, they have been fighting ever sense Sarah and Justine died. thank you for offering us a chance to


    survive, even if the cost was steep. billy just got it into his mind that you are some kind of horrible demon that needs to


    be erased for the good of humanity" healer


    "i am a demon, fucking racist" jack


    "no, it wasn''t me, it was billy who said that" healer


    i look over to billy and Clarice, who had managed to get billy into a sleeper hold.


    "billy right?" jack


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.at that moment Clarice just shrugged and dropped him. saying he deserved whatever was coming to him.


    "what do you want, you demon." billy


    "i would be careful what you say around here, that kind of racism tends to piss people off. oh look, you already managed


    to piss off 6 highly skilled mercenaries, all of whom are literal demons, including myself." jack


    a look of fear briefly passes thorough his face before he goes back to his previous demeanor.


    "why should i care about some damned demons, you will all go to hell anyway." billy


    "been there, it''s a rather fun place. and i hate how some people are so ignorant that they don''t even realize that you get


    reincarnated when you die, i mean the evidence is everywhere. surly one of you have some memories from a past life?"


    jack


    "yes actually, but i thought i was unique. i had never heard of another like me." healer


    "we''ll talk latter." jack


    "you piss me off, i doubt you can even fight. much less kill me." billy


    "put your money where your mouth is, I''ve been itching for a fight all morning." jack


    "now, now. can you lease stop riling up my brother?" Clarice


    "nope, i want so bad to teach this bastard a lesson he will never forget." jack


    "fine, I''ll even let you make the first move, attack me." billy


    "here? no way. there are designated areas to spar. follow me."  jack


    a couple minutes later we are standing in a fighting pit, something i had built just the other day.


    "here are the rules of this match. no magic, any weapon allowed, and it ends when one of us is either dead or gives up, or


    is otherwise incapable of continuing. the prize for the winner is 3000 jaers, are these terms acceptable?" jack


    "sure, whatever. just wait till i beat you." billy


    "what!? 3000 jaers?! we don''t have that much across all three of us!" Clarice


    (3000 jaers is equal to 10,710 usd. 1 jaer = 3.57 usd)


    as soon as the fight began i blinked forward and punched him in the gut using my gauntlets. he tried to swing his sword


    at me, rather sloppily i might add, and went straight through me.i had recently mastered the ability to only turn part of my body into shadows, that coupled with illusion magic made it look like things could just pass straight through me. the


    downside is i lose a lot of the weight behind by attacks. it takes about 3 minutes but i manage to pummel him to the


    ground, i keep pummeling him, even though if i would let up he would coincide, probably at least. at one point his soul


    starts to leave his body, i forcefully grab it and put it back in his body, tethering it. he''ll probably lode several points of int


    but i don''t care. after a couple minutes of this i stop and let some medics come and fix him up, they wont be able to fix


    the damage his mind received though.


    "give me the money within the month." jack


    i pass his other party members with out another word from anyone and run off into the forest to capture another goblin,


    i finally got an idea for how to separate the mind from the soul without killing the creature. on my way there emotion


    takes control and we end up at the dryads place, along with laura, ghost and Johanna. we have a wild night, after a while


    some nymphs show up along with the rest of Johanna''s harem, even the silver sisters and a couple others. I''m still the


    only guy though.


    end chapter 56

 chapter 57: goblin butler

    chapter 57


    i get up and look around. a second latter i see Johanna getting up.


    "so, mind telling me why you keep doing this a lot. sure, it''s fun. but why?" jack


    "it''s the best training method currently available to us. just straight physical training doesn''t give as many stat points.


    just with that i went over 150 points in flexibility, i can now eat myself out." Johanna


    "that''s actually really impressive." jack


    "you should join us more often, i get boosts to more than just flexibility. strength, vitality, and a couple other too."


    Johanna


    "maybe i will, but right now i have to go kidnap a goblin from the woods, I''ll join you all latter." jack


    "why a goblin?" Johanna


    "it would be start to get suspicious if i start to kidnap something else." jack


    "OK, but why do you need a goblin?" Johanna


    "while you''ve been training stats, I''ve been training skills." jack


    "oh, what skills?" Johanna


    "magic mostly, i got laura to teach me how to use soul magic and I''ve been experimenting with that. anyway see you


    later." jack


    "by" Johanna


    after going over to the goblin cave i knock out 5 goblins and stuff them in my inventory. it turns out that i can keep a


    creature of their level in my inventory for as long a half an hour before they die.


    20 minutes later i am dumping their still unconscious bodies in a cell in the dungeon/old man''s play room. after the first


    one wakes up i get to work trying to untangle it''s mind from it''s soul, it dies within 5 minutes. the second one i try to


    untangle individual strands, it works a little better but after a while the strands just join together again. i manage to


    untangle them faster than they are joining together again, but their are so many strands to do that i get tired of the


    monotonous task and slip up, killing the goblin. the third one i tether the soul to another dead goblin and kill it. the goblin


    it was tethered to dies again almost instantly. the fourth one i try tethering both the mind and the body to another


    goblin, this time it works, with no noticeable mental damage. it dies while i try to separate it''s mind from the soul. the


    last one i tether the mind to one body and the soul to another body.


    "YES! IT FUCKING WORKED!" jack


    the two goblin bodies that i tethered the first goblin to got up


    "what worked might i ask?" goblin mind


    "grrr" goblin soul


    i just stare at the goblin talk, i have never heard a goblin sound intelligent in any way. at best they could speak very basic


    language.


    "are you going to answer my question or just stand there?" goblin mind


    "so that''s what it is." jack


    "that''s what what is? how come no one ever tells me anything?" goblin mind


    "grrr" goblin soul


    "the relationship between the soul and the mind, i was sure i would be able to figure it out if i separated the two but i had


    no idea it would be this." jack


    "i don''t follow, and this one is looking at me funny." goblin mind


    "the soul houses the emotions, the primal instincts. the mind houses logic, the intelligent thought. i wonder, does the


    mind or the soul have an effect on stats?" jack


    "while i agree that this is all very fascinating but can you please get me out of here. i think i know what i believe to be the


    thing housing my soul is planning on doing to me. oh Yula help me!" goblin mind


    Yula, the god of goblins.


    the goblin that houses the soul prepare to pounce on the goblin mind. speaking of which the soul is in a female body and


    the mind in a male body.


    "here take this, if you kill it I''ll let you live." jack


    i toss the crude iron dagger i have been using to kill the goblins before into the cell, which was clumsily dropped by the


    goblin mind, while the goblin soul just ignored it.


    "you want me to kill my own soul?" goblin mind


    "is now really the time for it? and yes." jack


    after all, i really want to know what happens to the mind when the soul departs, and vice versa.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    in the span of one second the goblin mind picked up the dagger, the goblin soul pounced on the goblin mind, and the


    goblin mind put a dagger through the goblin soul''s temple killing it.


    after a couple seconds the goblin mind squirmed out from under the goblin soul.


    "feel anything strange?" jack


    "no, other than the fact that i just killed half of myself I''m doing just fine" goblin mind


    "good, then you''ll need a name" jack


    "i was refereed to with two low grunts and a high grunt before but i don''t think that will work right now." goblin mind


    "how about Alfred" jack


    "what ever works with you, i owe my intelligence to you right? let me repay that." Alfred


    "thats not how logic would react, i should know. what do you really want?" jack


    "fine, I''m really interested in what your doing in here. i want to learn about all this, I''m already fascinated with what little


    you have told me" Alfred


    "I''m fine with that, on one condition, if you tell anyone about what I''m doing here i will kill you." jack


    "that is fine with me." Alfred


    i take out a piece of paper from my inventory, a blood seal. i did a little research on blood seals over the last week, it


    turns out that they affect the body, not the mind or the soul.


    i set the ''settings'' on the blood seal, it comes up in a window similar to when i use observe on an object. after handing


    the completed seal to the goblin i hand it tom him.


    "put your blood on the seal, whip the blade off first." jack


    "why? what will this do?" Alfred


    "two things, it says that i will allow you to help me with my experiments, in exchange if you so much as try to tell anyone


    about what you learn with me during these experiments without my express permission you will die." jack


    Alfred did not hesitate in whipping the knife off and slicing his palm, dripping his blood onto the seal. it burned up


    causing a a glowing tattoo to appear around both Alfred''s and my necks before disappearing.


    "now, i need to go eat, I''m hungry." jack


    "speaking of which, i need food as well." Alfred


    "follow me then." jack


    i let him out of the cell and guide him upstairs. in the kitchen i find Mary preparing to cook lunch, or is it dinner? i don''t


    really know what time it is.


    "who''s the goblin?" Mary


    "i am called Alfred." Alfred


    "he will be our new butler, i was hoping you could teach him some things so he could help you out around here." jack


    "who is this?" Alfred


    "my mother, Mary" jack


    "sure, i could teach him a thing or two. i know i could use the help." Mary


    "great, let me help with dinner, i haven''t cooked in a while." jack


    3 days latter a certain goblin in a tux is carrying breakfast on a literal silver platter. after passing it out we start to eat.


    over the last several days we have done several experiments involving the soul and the mind. and Alfred hasn''t said


    anything about it, although some questions were raised when laura saw that Alfred did not have a soul, apparently her


    sight is limited to the soul so she can not see the mind.


    halfway through dinner a dwarf burst through the door, the same one we had to carry home after he passed out drunk.


    my friend Joseph, but we just call him Jojo


    "jack, i need to talk to you, privately." Jojo


    "about what." jack


    "that thing you asked me to look into." Jojo


    "a job?" jack


    "a big one, jack i found him." Jojo


    "where is he." jack


    "half way across the world,  in the alfalm Continent in a city called new gate. he''s a big time  lord or


    something like that, here are the details." Jojo


    this man, I don''t even know his name, will pay for what he did to my mother. now that i know where he is, i will never let


    him get away.


    end chapter 57

 chapter 58: the mafia

    chapter 58


    I look over the piece of paper Jojo gave me. pretty standard stuff, race, name, family, close friends and acquaintances. typical information you receive when getting an assassination request. his name is elandrel, a lion beast kin. his wife died young and he has cut off relations with his family, no kids. 52 years old, middle aged for his species.


    this man did something horrible to my family, I''ll make him pay for it. I''m tiered of waiting for this, I''m going to leave immediately. well, almost immediately. i ask everyone to meet up in the living room of the big house in an hour while i prepare to leave. i grab money, roughly 10,000 jaers, and a couple weapons out of my vault.


    when i get to the living room an hour latter i am greeted by all the girls and my family members.


    "so, I just got a big job. and I''m going to leave soon, latter today actually." jack


    "are we coming with you, or what?" aria


    "it is an assassination type job, the only ones here that are trained for an assassination other than me are Johanna,


    Lynda, and laura, and laura is more of a jack-of-all-trades, and where I''m going would be very limiting for chain and rope


    type weapons" jack


    "so the only one your giving the option to come with you to Johanna, as the rest of us are not properly trained this mission" Lynda


    "yes, that sounds about right." jack


    "and a powerful mage that can flatten cities in under a day won''t be useful because?" Lucy


    "i need the body, preferably without being completely decimated. you''ll be fine with me being far away for as long as 2


    month right?" jack


    "yeah, of course. I''ll be fine for about a year before i start to get negative effects as i am now." Lucy


    "good. so, what do you say Johanna?" jack


    "i am pretty sure i know what this particular job is about, you could do it much more effectively than me, you have more


    experience after all. just make sure he dies painfully for me alright." Johanna


    "i planned to do that from the beginning." jack


    "before you leave i would like to talk to you sir." alfread


    "fine, I''m leaving in an hour. i would like a movement speed buff if you could Lucy." jack


    "of course." Lucy


    <table><tbody><tr><td> you have been affected with a movement speed buff. +100% movement speed for 3 days</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Lucy casts an air elemental spell infusing my limbs with the shaped mana, buffs are one of the few spell types that i


    really struggle with.


    "oh yeah, old man, I''m appointing you as my main adviser" jack


    "i just retired! i don''t want to go back to work so soon!" old man


    "you are the person i trust most, naturally I put you in that position" jack


    "fine, I''ll do it." old man


    while the old man was grumbling i go back to the dungeon with alfread.


    "what would you like me to do while you are gone?" alfread


    "continue experimenting on other goblins, record your observations in the notebook i gave you after you learned to read


    and write." jack


    I had taught him enough about psychological and soul magic for him to carry out experiments on his own two days ago.


    "yes sir." alfread


    "also, I''ve been meaning to ask something. have you noticed anything about yourself that is different than other


    goblins?" jack


    "hmmm, i guess i have very little sex drive, and i don''t  need much sleep guess. i will record my future observations"


    alfread


    "good" jack


    "if I may ask sir, why haven''t you kept any of the other like me?" alfread


    "none of them have displayed the same curiosity as you, always having a lot of instinct remaing. which makes me


    question my earlier idea about what the soul and the mind really are." jack


    "very well, if i may ask, can we have a duel before you have to go. I''m starting to get a lot better at it." alfread


    the duel he is referring to is one of the mind, basically we attack each others minds until one of us, always me, gets


    through to the others mind. it has an effect of increasing stats, primarily mental ones. I''ll have to look into that part


    when i get back.


    "sure, let''s see what you''ve got" jack


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.i through my mind at him viciously while he goes into defense, pushing back at me. he makes a little bit of head way


    before i push him back farther. it continued like that for around 10 minutes where he would push me back a little a i


    would push him back a little farther before i finally managed to break into his mind, once there it is insanely hard to get


    pushed out. this is actually an improvement for him, last time it only took me 9 minutes.


    "you''re getting better" jack


    "you''re till holding back, sir." alfread


    "naturally, I would kill you if I went full strength." jack


    50 minutes latter i am saying my goodbyes before i start to run back to the city, maybe the railroads are back up and


    running, it would save me a lot of time, and i want to finish this quickly.


    the buff Lucy gave me will cut the travel time from the village to the nearest city from 3 days to 1 and a half. the buff that


    Johanna could give is significantly more than that but it requires me to be close to her.


    after running for several hours it gets close to nightfall, i have been running for about half a day, and i stop to rest. i


    haven''t slept in the last 3 days after all. i make an area of soft ground for me to sleep on using some earth magic and lay


    down, falling to sleep instantly. only to be awoken 5 hours latter by growls all around me, I''m circled by a pack of wolves.


    that in itself is strange as last time i was in this area their were no wolves, this pack is new.


    i growl a bit while showing, through psychological magic, that i am not a threat to them. i quickly leave as 5 hours of


    sleep is long enough for me. i have very few interruptions for the next day of my journey. finally making it to the outside


    of the city i sit down and observe it.


    there seems to be three factions, one based in the east, one in the south west, and one in the north. each of them seem


    to take up one third of the city. i know the mafia has most of its territory in the north so that''s the one I''m going to go to first.


    when i arrive at the base of operations i find several low ranking creatures running around but when they realized i was here they all stopped and looked at me for a moment before chatting excitedly amongst themselves, I''m pretty famous amongst these people after all.


    "someone take him to the boss, NOW!" manager


    soon some fox came up to me and beckoned me to follow it. after following it for  a couple minutes i am lead to a door.


    after opening the door i am met with a booming voice.


    "WHO DARES oh, what a pleasant surprise." mafia leader


    "it''s been a while" jack


    "that it has, so what do i owe the pleasure?" mafia leader


    "I''m just passing through, thought I''d check up on the city, seems to be developing nicely" jack


    "if you call this developing, the damn place has fallen into chaos." mafia leader


    "i want you to call a truce with the faction run by the old military brothers, their personal friends of mine. they owe me


    their lives and their children''s lives." jack


    "you mean the one my boys have named the army? you are the one their working for? this is the best! HAHAHA. you see


    we''ve been in a three way tie between us, the army, and whatever is controlling the creatures spawned from the


    dungeons that popped up in and around this city." mafia leader


    "why the army?" jack


    "because of their military like training and organization" mafia leader


    "likely my fault, i gave them an effective training schedule which likely lead to them being more powerful, which is a plus


    in the long run." jack


    "ah, so that''s what you''re doing. building an army now aren''t you." mafia leader


    after talking for a couple hours i take my leave for the faction in the southwest, as that is apparently where ''the army'' is


    taking residence.


    end chapter 58


    so, the reason I added alfread to the story was because I wanted jack to have a partner in his magical experiments, and I thought the only two types of people that he would trust with something like that are either someone who is absolutely bound to secrecy about it or a child of his that is also an ancient, and even then he would closely monitor him/her. as jack is far from having children right now, I went with the first one.

 chapter 59: the army

    chapter 59


    on my way over to ''the army'' a wild troll appears. from the way his soul and mind feel I can that he is a damned, probably bound to one of the new dungeons around here. I silently run up behind him and jump up onto him, wrapping my legs around his neck in a headlock. I then proceed to use my bodyweight to direct the struggling troll towards the armys'' territory. after about ten minutes of this the troll collapses unconscious on some spikes on top of a barrier that was built at the edge of the armys'' territory. it dies after bleeding out for 2 minutes. trolls are surprisingly durable.


    "what the fuck is this?" army dude


    "oi, arrest this guy, he damaged the barrier." army girl


    "sorry about that, let me fix it." jack


    I grow a barrier made of stone using earth magic. adorned with massive spikes on top and in front of it.


    "we''re still going to arrest you, you mafia guys have gotten stupid if you think we''ll let a scout through our borders. and, I


    mean a troll? you are a horrible scout." army girl


    in front of me is about 4 men and two women, all wearing military-like uniforms, with the girl that told the others to


    arrest me having a more decorated uniform. probably a captain of some sort.


    "first off, I''m not one of the mafia guys, as you said, they are all much lower in the evolution ladder than me. and you''ll have to catch me first." jack


    as soon as I say that I use some more earth magic to throw myself into the air and use air magic to propel myself over


    them. when I land I start to run.


    "GET HIM! don''t let him escape, who knows what this rouge element could do if he got to something important like the


    residential district." army girl


    I feel a blade of wind heading towards my back, a very powerful one. much better than I could do, which isn''t saying


    much as I have next to no practice with wind blades. anyway, I''m not too worried about the wind blade because there is a


    textbook method to deal with them. you need to use a gust of wind that is faster than the air in the wind blade, of course,


    this is much harder than it sounds as with anyone who is significantly skilled could make it go faster than a normal mage


    could react.


    I use a gust of wind at my back to propel myself forward and to disrupt the wind blade.


    "fuck, get that bitch you cur or you won''t get any extra rations for a week!" military girl


    I just laugh while I run away from them. they could never catch me, well mabey the wind mage in the party could, likely


    the captain, but they would be so exhausted from the chase that they wouldn''t be able to do anything to me.


    they quickly lose track of me as I run through the winding streets. I have a pretty good idea of where the center of


    operations is located.


    several minutes later I am standing outside of a small mansion that has been boarded up (I imagine a Victorian style


    mansion but as that time period never happened in this world I cant exactly have jack say that) it used to house the


    mayor of this city. the original builder was an elder who was an architect in his last life, apparently he got inspiration


    from that.


    looking around I notice a lack of guards, sure there are a couple, but they are few and far between. likely all of them are


    either training, resting, or guarding the perimeter. I find a window that hasn''t been boarded up, as the front door is


    guarded, and climb inside it. I''ve done at two assassinations in this building, on two consecutive nights, so I know my way


    around pretty well.


    I search through three different rooms where Cath and his brother Mathew could be before finally finding them in the


    fourth one, used to be the mayors bedroom, now it''s repurposed into some kind of military strategy room.


    "private rose making my report." rose


    suddenly the military officer girl who was chasing me earlier appeared through the door.


    "make your report" Cath


    "north border mostly quite except for a lone scout that managed to outrun my boys." rose


    "can you describe this scout?" Mathew


    I jump down from my vantage point on one of the rooms broken upper windows that I was standing in.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    "no need, I''m right here." jack


    "you!" rose


    I feel a wind blade fly at me, aimed for my neck. if I did nothing it would easily decapitate me, but as it is I cancel it out


    easily.


    "rather impressive wind blades, must have taken you a lot of training to get that far." jack


    "you''re no scout, you''re an assassin! you''re here to kill the generals aren''t you?" rose


    she rushed at me with a rather well-made sword slashing and stabbing at me with a surprising amount of skill, all the


    while Cath and Mathew are just silently laughing.


    "you are surprisingly good with a blade." jack


    I avoid each slash or stab through either redirection or narrowly avoiding it.


    "you got one part right, I am an assassin. I''m just not here to kill these two." jack


    in one swift movement I disarm her and level the sword at her chest.


    "alright, that''s enough, jack. I''d prefer it if you didn''t run my wife through with a sword." Cath


    "impressive, she''s rather skilled. any combat time before this whole thing?" jack


    as soon as my name is mentioned by Cath several emotions flashed through rose''s face, shock, confusion,


    embarrassment, etc. it was actually pretty interesting to watch, especially as I was watching from the inside.


    "speak, I know you have something to say" jack


    suddenly she snaps to attention, saluting me.


    "private rose reporting for duty, sir!" rose


    "only a private? I would have thought that she would be a higher rank than that, she''s your wife after all." jack


    "she refuses all forms of favoritism, except in bed." Cath


    "at ease, you''re among friends and family here." jack


    as rose takes a seat at the table in the middle of the room, which has a map of the city on it. I sit down after her.


    "so your jack, huh. I thought you''d be more..." rose


    "tall? older? human?" jack


    "yeah, all of those things. and wait, you''re not human? you sure look like one." rose


    "no, I''m not. watch." jack


    I turn into my shadow form and float through the table before rising above it and solidifying in human form. much to the


    surprise of rose.


    "see?" jack


    "amazing." rose


    I sit back down in my chair before Mathew speaks up.


    "so, what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?" Mathew


    "just passing through, i thought i would take the next step towards my goal while i was here." jack


    "which is?" Cath


    "i want you to make a truce with the mafia, the faction to the north" jack


    "i know who they are, and every attempt of a treaty between us has failed." Mathew


    "let me guess, one side tried to dominate and control the other every time? and with both sides being about equal in


    strength and very prideful refuse to do anything else." jack


    "yup, pretty much sums it up. so what make you think we can strike a deal this time?" Cath


    "simple, I''m here." jack


    "how would that make a difference?" rose


    "you''d be surprised by how much control i have over the mafia, and i caused this group to be formed, along with the people in charge owing me not only their lives but their children''s lives as well. i think I''m good" jack


    "so when will these negotiations happen" Mathew


    "central park, noon today.  so in about 6 hours, I''ll be mediating the negotiations" jack


    "why today and not tomorrow?" Cath


    "I''m leaving tomorrow, i have urgent business to take care of. i basically stopped here to say hello." jack


    we started talking for the next couple hours, during which the brothers had prepared for people to accompany them to


    the negotiations. i left at ten, saying that their was one more thing i had to do before the negotiations started. time to


    make my final preparations.


    end chapter 59


    AN: there are two times that I write a chapter and upload it. the first is when I get a burst of inspiration, the second is when the last chapter of this story is no longer on my reading list or close to the bottom.

 chapter 60: the damned

    chapter 60


    i start heading east, towards the damned faction. i don''t particularly want to recruit them, most of them are probably completely insane anyway, i have a different goal in mind. it takes me about 10 minutes to reach their boarders, which is  surprisingly unguarded. it comes to my mind that aunty''s vacation home is in this area, this section is almost entirely residential so it would be the most defensible location, especially as the very foundation is protected against damage by magic. i start to head towards the house, making a huge commotion and killing or maiming every creature i come across. eventually somewhat organized groups begin to form to attack me, which is amazing considering the fact that most dungeon bound damned end up running on almost entirely instinct, such as follow the most powerful creature, and obey the dungeon.


    when i get to the house i find a bunch of mid to high ranking creatures, all of which appear to be guarding the building. peering through the window i see a very familiar face, someone i have killed countless times, litty. he appears to be in charge of the place, and appears to have gained a Fair amount of int and Wis as well as an evolution. in spite of his recent power bonuses i could still easily kill him, even with his undead. he has a respawn rate of 2 hours, just enough time for this to work.


    i run in, slitting the throats of a couple dozen creatures along the way. i open the doors, nicely as i don''t want to damage aunty''s house more than it already is, and kill everything in the room with some well placed water spears before moving to the room where litty is and cutting his limbs off one by one, making sure he sees my face and knows whats happening.


    "if you want revenge, come get me at central park when you revive." jack


    I cut his head off and watch it roll across the floor, of course he''d attack, i made sure of that. being able to manipulate emotions has its perks.


    i run back to the meeting place for the peace talks, it had only been about 25 minutes from start to finish for that whole attack, perfect for me. that gives me 25 minutes to manipulate the negotiations the way i need to.


    seeing as i got here early i begin to meditate, it''s been quite a while since i meditated last, although anytime i enter someone else''s mind could be considered a form of meditation, just not as restful as just meditating. while meditating i observe my own mind and soul, what i find is rather interesting, the bounds that combine the mind and soul are much fewer in number, 100s instead of 1000s, but they are much stronger and more elastic. it seems like it would take a lot of work to break even one of these bonds, and it would explain how I''m able to separate into two different bodies without any negative effects.


    while i was meditating time went by and noon came, everyone was here and ready to begin negotiations. i stand up and take my seat between two opposing tables with representatives on either side, for the army it is the generals and a few high ranking officers, for the mafia it is the boss, his second wife, who is amazing at negotiations, and a few other high ranking men and women.


    "well, let us begin" jack


    I''ll spare you the details, it was rather boring. who gets what and other meaningless crap, like two people filing for a divorce. a couple times I had to deescalate the situation. getting close to the 25-minute mark the negotiation where heating up again, this time I let it. after it devolves into full-blown screaming contest I step in.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story."shut up all of you. I think that both sides should embrace what they, or at least the leaders, already know, that the one that''s really in charge is me." jack


    this is met with two very different responses, from the mafia it is met with cheers, much to the surprise of the army people who meet it with obvious anger.


    "who the fuck do you think you are? showing up out of who knows where and claiming that you own us." burly army guy


    "I don''t own you, your not slaves, I''m just the man that owns the army your a part of, or would you like to stand up here and prove me wrong?" jack


    "I''ll do just that." burly army man


    the man stands up and pulls out a wood chopping ax, and he seems to know how to use it pretty well.


    "wait." jack


    "what''s wrong? chickening out?" burly army man


    "shh, just listen." jack


    "I''m not going to fall for that one." burly army man


    "just listen." jack


    after a second of silence the man, and everyone else here, hears the footsteps of the approaching army.


    "better idea, instead of beating you up why don''t I take out the entire opposing faction right now to prove how much better I am than you." jack


    "with what? your bear hand? I''d like to watch you die fruitlessly in the attempt." burly army man


    "among other things, although I''ll probably be relying mostly on these." jack


    I pull out my win daggers and begin running up to the mass of tangled bodies that vaguely represents an army. to sum it up in few words, it was a blood bath, every swish of the wrist, every time I attacked with the dagger, at least a dozen fell. they are pretty weak after all, if they were more organized they could pose a threat but as they are now they are nothing to me. in a matter of 15 minutes they were all dead.


    "any complaints?" jack


    when no one spoke up the boss and the generals started laughing.


    "so this was what you were after! you wanted to show everyone who was in charge with out any doubt." cath


    "looks like I picked wisely, I knew you were intelligent." jack


    "so what now?" boss


    "I expect a full integration of both factions by the time I return from a rather personal trip" jack


    of course no one questions this as I don''t want them to. they all just accept that I''m in charge.


    "how are we supposed to do that?" Mathew


    "simple, defeat dungeons together. They''re all weekend because of that little show just now so you should be able to destroy them easy enough." jack


    "won''t they just respawn?" cath


    "not if you take the core out, it''s always located in the last boss room of a dungeon." jack


    "that could work actually, no better form of bonding than through war." Mathew


    "naturally I''ll expect daily updates from you about how development is progressing" jack


    "will do" boss


    "the train wouldn''t be running yet, would it?" jack


    "actually a couple of my boys fixed the station up just the other day, a train should be coming to town in about an hour actually" boss


    "perfect I''m going to need a ride as far east as possible" jack


    "that can be arranged" boss


    "then without further ado." jack


    end chapter 60


    I bet none of you were expecting litty to come back, don''t worry you might just see a little more of him.

 chapter 61: train ride

    chapter 61


    an hour and 30 minutes later I am sitting on a moving train. it is rather empty, the only people here are me and some other guy. the train will take four days till it reaches its east most stop, some city in one of the churches core continents. there I will attempt to get transportation to a nearby port town where I will hire a ship to take me to the Alfalm Continent, at least if everything goes according to plan.


    I spend the first 3 days meditating while playing with my mind and soul inside and outside my body. when I awoke from my trance I was greeted by a system window.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>due to your actions over the last 3 days you have gained the following.


    +5 all stats</td></tr></tbody></table>


    after closing the window the other passenger, who is  a lightling, came up to me. he was rather young.


    "beta?" lightling


    "who?" jack


    "never mind, I was wondering if you could tell me about this world?" lightling


    "what? were you born yesterday?" jack


    "pretty damn close to yesterday, I was born three weeks ago." lightling


    "evolution?" jack


    "yeah, was born a fairy. I was one till pretty recently actually." lightling


    "can I get a name? I can''t keep thinking of you as lightling." jack


    "call me Gabriel. what''s yours?" Gabriel


    "jack, tell me your story." jack


    "there''s not much to tell, when the system came on-line I was teleported to a dungeon just like everyone else. my parents died in the dungeon and when I managed to get out I ran for the hills." Gabriel


    "fine, ask any question you want. and before you ask, no I will not teach you any useful skills or magic." jack


    "bah, figures. what can you tell me about this world''s gods?" Gabriel


    "not as powerful and omniscient as they make themselves out to be. I should know, I''ve fought several. every god has a domain they rule over, along with many other that share their domain. the domains can be literally anything." jack


    "you''ve fought gods!? any tips for beating gods?" Gabriel


    "run, live another day. as you are now even the weakest god of peace can kill you." jack


    "oh, OK. what about politics? what is the city were  going to like?" Gabriel


    "all I really know about it is the church is in power there so expect a lot of racial discrimination for not being human." jack


    "then why are you heading there?" Gabriel


    "just passing through, no I will not elaborate on that." jack


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation."I wasn''t going to ask you to. do you know any good places to learn to fight?" Gabriel


    "you''re going the wrong direction, you would want to stay on this train and head back. past that I''ll give you one clue, village of the gods. if you manage to get there then you will be given training." jack


    "well fuck" Gabriel


    I reach out and begin to study his soul, expecting him to be at the very least an elder. what I find is truly surprising, he is damned. I know there is a difference between a dungeon damned and a void damned soul, but I don''t know enough about damned to tell the difference.


    "you, your a damned aren''t you? like the creatures in dungeons." jack


    "two things, one I have no idea how dungeons work so I can''t answer you there. and two, I have no idea what a damned is." Gabriel


    I spend the next 2 hours explaining to him how dungeons work and the common knowledge regarding the soul.


    "are you sure you should be telling me this stuff? I mean it all sounds pretty secretive information." Gabriel


    "Nah, everything I''ve told you is common knowledge. I have yet to, and will not, tell you anything that is more secretive." jack


    "so what does being damned mean for me?" Gabriel


    "that your soul will go to the void when you die, and you will either re-spawn in a dungeon or be used to fill a corpse in necromancy or a construct in animation magic." jack


    "how did you figure out I was a so-called ''damned''?" Gabriel


    "I used magic, the existence of soul magic is common knowledge, but the methods to obtain it are not." jack


    we spent the rest of the ride with him asking questions about this world, I guess I really am soft on children, except when their training. then I''ve been likened to the churches description of demons, cruel, ruthless, unforgiving. after we reach my destination I get off and Gabriel stays on board, claiming to want to get to that village I mentioned.


    "one last word of advice, young lightling. don''t become a Lightbringer even if you get the choice." jack


    "why? do they have some horrible detriment or something?" Gabriel


    "I''ll want nothing more than to extinguish your light every time I see your face, I''m a shade after all." jack


    "I''ll keep that in mind." Gabriel


    end chapter 61


    sorry, the chapter is a little short this time.


    I wonder if anyone will figure out what Gabriel is just from this, probably not.


    please leave me a review, I need more people to review this story.

 back ground chapter: lilith

    background chapter: Lilith


    Lilith''s pov


    I was born in a mansion, more a manor than a mansion really. I am an oddity in this world, I have no


    memories of my past life. my mother was a greater succubus, the owner of the mansion, and my


    father was some foreign lord, I can''t remember his name. something unique about us succubi is that


    they are born self-aware, even when they aren''t ancients.


    I spent the first three years of my life learning. I learned about language, history, and mathematics


    in the morning, magic and self-defense in the evening, and at night, I would learn the most


    important art for succubi with my mother, seduction.


    succubi age at an accelerated rate while they are young. roughly triple the speed of a human. after


    that are aging process significantly decreases, unless we can''t get get any life energy from other


    people then it returns to the normal aging rate.


    on my third birthday, which is when succubi begin to go through puberty and stop being able to


    gather life energy from their mother''s milk, I was brought to a village to find food for myself. I look


    around for suitable food. eventually, I find one, watching him train so hard every day makes me curious about him.


    I watch him for, waiting for a chance for me to get close to him without anyone else around. when


    he goes off into the forest on his own on the second day I follow him, when he finally stops I


    approach him. he takes up a fighting stance but lowers it with a confused look on his face a couple


    seconds later.


    ''he probably thought I was going to attack him, well I am, but not in a way he is expecting.'' Lilith


    as I think that I approach him and slightly sloppily rape him, surprisingly he outlasts me my a full 3


    minutes.


    ''fuck, failed on my first time. now I have to stay with him for the rest of my, or his, life. well, it might


    not all be bad, he is attractive. with his toned muscles despite a young age.'' Lilith


    I get hit in the back of the head a second later and wake up facing an extremal pissed off dryad. I


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.don''t really remember what she said, but I remember her cursing me to have to stay within the


    bounds of the forest for the next six years.


    the next day some girl runs up and starts attacking me, screaming about who knows what. I


    manage to run away, but not after receiving some nasty wounds, and dishing out a couple. I got to


    get my wounds treated at the healers house and meet that girl there. the healer had to hold her


    back from attacking me again.


    the next day that boy comes in and tells us to get along, with the girl grudgingly agreeing to. over


    the years I manage to get the girl to like me more, a lot more. taking her to bed with me frequently, still with the same passion we first met with. she and the boy frequently run off on one adventure or another, and I would love to hear tales of them. but when they leave I get sad and lonely, and hungry. so very hungry. I would often have to eat others, always female, as succubi are very loyal to their husband, it an instinctual thing.


    the dryad eventually forgives me but claims that to undo the curse she placed on me would take a very large amount of energy, leaving the forest weakened for a long time.


    towards the end of my sentence, the boy and the girl say good by, claim to be leaving on an adventure. the usual things, this time wanting to experience a more normal life. They''re gone for two years, during which I would sometimes get insatiably hungry, feeding off of the some of the girls favorites, sometimes willingly, sometimes not so willingly.


    in the end, they return, and the rest, as they say, is history.


    end background chapter: Lilith


    sorry for the delay, I had school, and got distracted by a game a friend of mine got me to play


    (corruption of champions if any of you has heard of it) anyway I will be doing a lot more of these background chapters. at least one for every major character, this will not interrupt the actual story, instead by spaced out with the story. also dont forget to rate and reveiw this story, it would mean a lot to me.

 chapter 62: figgins wine

    chapter 62


    when I get off of the train I start to look around for transportation, luckily I find one pretty quickly


    before any Church leader spots me, it would be annoying to have to deal with one right now. after


    asking some questions, it seems as though there is a merchant caravan heading to the port town


    I''m going to, dropping off cloth and picking up fish. I head over to the merchant in charge of the


    caravan for a little talk.


    "good day sir, I was wondering if I could bargain with you a little." jack


    "oh, now this isn''t something you see around here every day, a demon walking in the light of day.


    state your offer, you have no enemies here." merchant


    "I desire transportation, to a port city on you route. I could run it alone but being caught in this area alone by the church would be a hassle. one that I would rather avoid." jack


    "what do I get in turn?" merchant


    "a true businessman, an extra sword couldn''t hurt during these times" jack


    "protection for transport, I''ll take you up on your offer, what''s your name kid?" merchant


    "jack, no surname. what''s yours?" jack


    "ah, sorry to hear that. names Brian echo" Brian


    in this world orphans, like me, do not get surnames. it was a way to distinguish between different


    ranks in society a couple hundred years ago.


    "when do we leave?" jack


    "5 minutes, good thing you got here when you did" Brian


    "AI, it is a good thing. I hope for a quite road." jack


    "a quite road would be nice for once, too many bandit attacks recently." Brian


    "that''s what I''m here for" jack


    the ride should take 2 days, the first of which I spent doing the same thing I did on the train,


    meditating. got a whole 2 points in every stat from it. the second I was interrupted 3 times by a


    bandit attack. I killed all the bandits, not a single one escaped, much to the delight of Brian.


    after a slightly tearful good-bye on the part of Brian, who begged me to stay and be his personal


    bodyguard, I went over to the docks. I repeated the process I did when I tried to find transport to the


    port city, trying to find someone heading to the alfalm continent. after hours of searching, i was


    unable to find anyone willing to bring me to the alfalm continent, some superstitious bullshit


    spread by the church about demons being unlucky on the open sea, and most sailors have


    interacted with all sorts of creatures so they know exactly what I am.


    I stop looking when the sun goes down and find an inn to spend the night in, just a cheap one


    frequented by rougher folk. after checking in I go to the bar, I really want some of my favorite drink,


    figgins wine, named after the fruit, which was named after the guy that first documented it. the


    fruit, as I have said earlier, grows really well near places with a lot of built up mana, such as areas


    that gods frequently visit as they leak mana into the environment.


    I look around for an empty table and find none, so instead I find a place to sit with a group of what


    looks like soldiers.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "is this seat taken?" jack


    "no, sit where ever." man with ax


    after I sit down a waitress comes up and asks me what I want, after telling her she runs off.


    "expensive taste, are you rich or something?" man with ax


    the group I''m sitting with consists of three men and a woman. one man with an ax, more bear than


    man relay, has thick black fur like hair covering every exposed inch of skin. another man with a


    rapier, stereotypical pretty boy. the third man was carrying a mage''s staff, he was kind of gangly


    looking, like a teenager that hasn''t quite grown into their height. the girl had cloths and was rather


    curvy.


    "are you kidding, the kid probably has no idea what hes ordering, probably never felt a woman


    either." pretty boy


    "I''ve been with plenty women, and figgins wine is a local specialty where I live." jack


    "oh yeah, prove it." pretty boy


    "ever heard of Juliet Roberts?" jack


    "that erotica author?yeah I''ve read her work" pretty boy


    Juliet Roberts is one of the nymphs that regularly join in on my nights out in the forest, she is also a


    very successful erotica author, yes those two things are linked.


    "all her stories are things that actually happened, and I''m one of the characters. the dark one I think


    I was called." jack


    "what? seriously?! I''ve always dreamed of having orgies like the ones you have, I am so jealous."


    pretty boy


    the pretty boy broke down into a cross between being star struck and jealousy.


    "Jonas is a huge fan of Juliet Roberts, not that I can blame him, I am too" bear man


    "I can tell" jack


    "I would thank you for making this idiot less of an ass but you just made him a different kind of


    annoying" girl


    at this point, my drink came along.


    ''this is definitely one of the worst I''ve ever had.'' jack


    "what line of work are you in?" bear man


    "mercenary, you?" jack


    "same, were all old war buddies, saved each others lives more times than I can count." bear man


    "you look familiar, does the battle of nonarin plane remind you of anything?" mage


    "biggest job I''ve ever received, best paying too." jack


    "I knew it! you were the assassin that was killing the generals which led to our loss! we still got paid


    just not as much as we could have gotten" mage


    "teach me, master!"Jonas


    while we were talking Jonas was having a monolog about how great I was and how jealous he was


    of me.


    "no" jack


    "please?" Jonas


    he starts to make a sad puppy dog face.


    "no" jack


    and now he''s pseudo-crying


    "still no" jack


    "wow, I''ve never seen anyone reject Jonas that hard before, I''m impressed. names Jane by the way"


    Jane


    "jack" jack


    for a few hours we talked, sharing old war stories mostly. till I decided to go upstairs for some real


    sleep, meditation is fine but it can''t beat the comfort of real sleep.


    end chapter 62


    please leave a comment and reveiw.

 background chapter: Jackline

    background chapter: Jackline


    I was born to a god of wisdom and a goddess of war. I was originally just a goddess of wisdom. throat my life I have done many things, great things, terrible things, things that I have been praised for by the masses, things that left no one alive to scorn me.


    one day I was pretty young my  parents had to leave me alone for about a week, I don''t remember why, probably dealing with some of the assholes up top who think that their all high and mighty because they are ''major gods'' and, therefore, better than the rest of us. anyway, as I was saying, my parents had to leave me alone for a  couple months. some king my parents managed to piss off somehow got wind of this. he assembled an army and assaulted our home trying to kidnap or kill me to hurt my parents. they quickly and easily destroyed all the defences surrounding the building before heading inside. lucky for me our home was built like a giant maze and the army had to disperse inside of it in order to find me, whom they perceived to be a helpless child. as it was nighttime I was asleep when 2 soldiers happened to find their way to my room. when they tried to take me I bite one of their throats out with me teeth and through dirt from a potted plant, I keep next to my bed in the eyes of the other. before he could recover I took a knife from a sheath on the dead man and stabbed the blinded man in the heart with it.


    being the goddess of wisdom I am I quickly realized what was happening. using a bit of magic to help me, I carry the bodies to a large storage room and put them in the center of it before sealing off the room so they wouldn''t find the bodies too soon. I then proceed to systematically hunt down small groups of 2-3 soldiers and store the corpses in the room, creating a sizeable pile of corpses. halfway through I started to wish I had paid attention to fathers necromancy lessons. I continued to hunt down the soldiers for what must have been days, possibly even weeks, I lost track of time and didn''t sleep much. I was found by some close friends that my parents sent to check on me. when they entered the house they saw blood stains on the walls and the floor which caused them to worry. they searched the house frantically till they found the door to the storage room, still sealed, and unsealed it. they found my childish frame sitting on a mountain of corpses, laughing.


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    the next thing I knew I was sitting in my bed with my parents next to me, I had slept for a month.


    when they heard what had happened and that I was safe the first thing they did was go to this king''s palace, my mother destroyed it before torturing the king to death. then my father used necromancy on the corpse before the soul could leave, turning him into a lich. while a lich doesn''t feel as much pain as whatever he was before, think it was some kind of angelic, they are much more durable. my parents tortured my would-be murderer for days before his body finally gave up and he died, permanently this time.


    as a result of this event, I became known by the title death incarnate, and I added death onto my realms of control. but that was centuries ago, I was a mere child then. had it been now I would have mearly caused all of their souls to depart, effectively killing them all more recently I have met a boy that piqued my interest, day after day he would wish for death but day after day he was denied deaths cold, sweet embrace. I watched him develop and grow. when he finally stopped wishing for death I showed myself to him, trying to befriend him, much to the ire of certain human girl, who I ended up befriending later.


    end background chapter: jackline


    urg, I was hoping for one of them that didn''t have hundreds+ years of memories, she deserves a story just as long, if not much longer than this one.


    the reason this chapter is late is because next week is finals so I had to study for my classes, expect the next one to be delayed as well.


    don''t forget to rate and review

 chapter 63: krawfish

    chapter 62


    I woke up on the floor, much more comfortable than the stiff old straw beds they have here, and head downstairs, where a male bartender greets me


    "did you enjoy your night sir?"


    "no, not particularly" jack


    "oh, why not? any suggestions for improvement?"


    "why do you want to know? it''s not like anything will change." jack


    "because the old man died recently and I just took over, trying to make the place better."


    "start with getting actual mattresses, futons if you want. next flood your cellar with mana, it''ll help the alcohol become richer. now goodbye, and best of luck." jack


    "thank you"


    and I start the wild goose chase of finding a ride of this damned continent again. I search for four hours with the same response.


    "I''ll not have any demons on my ship now scram scum."


    I spent an additional hour dodging members of the church, while my existence here is allowed, I don''t legally exist in this area. what that means is the church is free to do whatever they want to me with absolutely no legal retaliation, as well as any other assholes who feel like hurting me. of course the same doesn''t apply to me, any minor offence will result in the death penalty, as I am not legally alive to begin with, and the church is in charge of the government here.


    eventually, I managed to find a lead, telling me to go some dark building in a back alley and ask for mr. krawfish. the building turns out to be a black market, I had, at least, three people try to kidnap me and one try to mug me. after asking around, I finally found mr. krawfish, a gangly looking male human with lightly tanned skin.


    "I heard you could get me a ride to the alfalm continent." jack


    "I can. I can. now why would a young demon want to go there? I should ask." mr. krawfish


    "for a job, how soon can you leave" jack


    "payment. payment is required." mr. krawfish


    "how much?" jack


    "100 jaers" mr. krawfish


    mr krawfish breaks into a huge grin when I hand him the money, almost like a child reciveing candy.


    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!"I should thank the young demon." mr. krawfish


    "can you answer my earlier question? when will we leave?" jack


    "patience, patience" mr. krawfish


    "we''re leaving in about three minutes" deckhand


    "three minutes? we''re nowhere near the shore." jack


    "through the sky, shall we sail. no ship for me, no no no." mr. krawfish


    "I''m having a hard time beliveing he is the captain." jack


    after three minutes I am flying through the sky on a hot air balloon with a rather large basket, enough to fit 60 humans with ease. I meditate for 3 days, gaining a total of 6 stat points in everything like before, only to be woken by the roar of a high ranking draconic, some form of wyvern it looks like.


    "the end, it''s the end for me." mr krawfish


    I just transform into my shadow form and rush out to meet the assailant, who reaches out to me telepathically.


    ''i didn''t expect to find a demon on this human sky ship, I hope your strong, I''m itching to test my claws'' wyvern


    ''i''ll fight you, but if I win you have to carry me to the alfalm continent. what happens if I lose is up to you.'' jack


    ''you already have a ride, don''t you?'' wyvern


    ''it''s slow'' jack


    without responding the wyvern attacks. I condense my body to a more suitable form for fighting and retaliate with a chokehold that sends him diving into the water, it doesn''t affect me much as I have an incorporeal body right now. several minutes of thrashing about under the water ends abruptly.


    ''i conceed, I''ll take you to a port on the alfalm continent'' wyvern


    ''great'' jack.


    end chapter 62


    I would like to pretend 2 things never happened. 1: only creatures that have seen gods have the skill evolution. 2: people on the church controlled continents are almost completely ignorant of magic. the reason I would like to pretend these things never happened is because I can''t come up with a logical reason as to why. for the part about evolution, there wouldn''t be much difference as the gods are really active, so most creatures would have seen a god at least once in their life. also don''t forget to rate and review.

 background chapter: dryad

    background chapter: dryad


    i born a forest sprite in some minor grove without a name. i don''t know how long ago, i stopped counting the years at around 1000. i know i had a name, but it''s been so long since i used it that i can''t remember it. i believe i am an old soul, but as time goes by memories from a past life blend with memories from this life to the point that they are indistinguishable.


    one thing i can still somewhat remember was when i was young. i had parents that loved me and i enjoyed living in that small grove. i don''t remember exactly what happened but there was an attack or some kind of disaster or something like that, the grove was distroid and i ran away. after a long time of me running i began to grow weak and realized that if i didn''t find a place to settle down i would die. i found a lone mountain and i started a small grove, eventually some other sprites started to move in and i remembered the catastrophe that happened before. i started to grow the forest more, by this time i had become a nymph, i enlisted the help of the sprites, who were happy to help. we began to grow more trees, as well as many other plants. several animals and even some low ranking creatures, mostly beasts began to migrate into the budding forest. it was around this time that a sensation overtook me, i realized that my young forest had become a dungeon, and unlike natural dungeons that form their own consciousness, i became the lord of the dungeon. this both increased my freedom and limited it. i gained a huge amount of control over the forest and all it''s inhabitants, but i can''t leave the forest or it would be crippled for until it could develop it''s own consciousness, i would permanently give up being the lord of the dungeon. i believe around that time i began to keep a detailed account of my life, although the books i kept the records in have somehow ended up in a library somewhere.


    i continued to develop my forest throughout the years, eventually i became a dryad, i would have become a dryad much faster if i had concentrated on my own power instead of my forest. eventually some gods noticed the high quality mana that is found in my forest and requested to have a meeting hall built at the top of the mountain, in exchange for mana, new plants and new creatures to add to the ecosystem, and many other things. i accepted as few plants would grow at the top of the mountain anyway. i asked some of the new sprites and a couple nymphs to grow a building at the top.


    with the influx of mana and new plants my forest grew exponentially for the next few decades. brave men and women of all ages and species came to try to profit inside my forest, most of them died, but the ones that didn''t became wealthy beyond belief. eventually a mercenary company got news of me, they came and tried to conquer my forest. they put up a great fight, a constant struggle for several years. eventually they became a central part of the ecosystem and i couldn''t easily let them leave. it ended in a standstill, both sides wary from the fight. eventually we came to an agreement, they would stay and live in this forest, setting up a sizable village at the peek of the mountain surrounding the meeting hall the gods already had. not long after that event i obtained godhood, further binding me to this forest.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.despite being only a minor god, i can defeat even major gods inside my forest at this point. my power is unparalleled by the vast majority of gods and even titans, but should i leave this forest i would be severally weakened to the point that even a mortal would be able to kill me. so naturally i continue to expand my forest, increase the area in which i have power.


    a couple centuries later i begin to get to the border between minor and lesser god, the most powerful of my nymphs have begun to evolve again, most into lesser dryads, a few into ents, and one into a nagual, a type of shape shifting creature. at this time i have 100s of mile of cave systems, several sky nests, 1000s of species of creatures spanning every possible classification, all encompassed in 100s of square miles of forest, some places having very few trees to other areas with an amazing amount of plant life. i finally extend to my birthplace and find a great city where it was. i got angry, i assaulted the mile high walls. but i do not break them. i turn to the dwellers, the mercenary group that joined me in this forest centuries ago. they have gained fame throughout the world as some of the strongest, they are led by a family of halflings known for one thing, vengefulness. i personally have helped them get revenge on many people, now it is their turn to help me with my revenge.


    they organized everyone they had, the rage inside me inspiring every inhabitant to join arms and crush my enemies. the people that would desecrate the place of my birth. i doubt that they were aware of it but in my blind rage i didn''t care, i just wanted to demolish them.


    the leaders of the city had called for reinforcements and were cutting down trees at the edge of the forest with a fever. the initial ambush killed over a hundred of their men. it had been a year since i had first strike their walls, enough time for them to form a sizable defense. our assault lasted for a year, ending with nothing but ruins in the place of the city. hundreds of thousands had died during this short war, but i was satisfied.


    a couple decades latter i find a baby girl at the base of the mountain i originally started my forest at and took her to one of my many dwellings. their i raised her till she was old enough for the chief of the mercenary company to take her, but i continued to watch out for her throughout her life. and the rest, as they say, is history.


    authors note: i love dryad, she is one of my favorite characters, right after ghost cause who doesn''t like ghost. dryad is easily one of the oldest creatures in the whole world, competing with oracle. she was born before the age of gods while the titans were still in charge, not that she would know, she hardly cares for events outside of her forest or that doesn''t directly impact the forest. she is also extremely powerful, but that power is extremely limited. leaving the bounds of her forest will cause her to lose practically all of it permanently, hence why she is still a minor god and not a higher ranked god.

 chapter 64: damned

    Chapter 64


    After a day of flying, much shorter than it would have taken either by ship or by blimp, I get dropped off on the alfalm continent. After asking around I find that I am in the wrong port city, the one I¡¯m looking for is on the other side of the continent, a democracy, a republic, and a kingdom away. I¡¯m sick of hitching rides so I begin to walk on my own, the wildlife here either is too weak to be a threat or strong enough to be an interesting challenge. After alternating between walking and running for two and a half days I come across a band of young, low ranking monsters. They were creatures that normally had nothing to do with each other than fighting each other. They all also seemed to be much smarter than others of their kind, which would explain there collaboration.


    I followed them for about an hour before showing myself, they were heading in the same direction I was. I listened to their conversations; they seemed to know each other in another life, talking about things that are very obviously from another world. Like nuclear bombs, I know what a bomb is but I¡¯ve never heard of a nuclear one. After looking at their souls I realize that they are damned, like the lightling from the train. When I finally showed myself they reacted excitedly.


    ¡°Hey, this guy looks like he¡¯s got some nice gear.¡± hobgoblin


    ¡°Lets take it, maybe we will find an interdementional bag, and I remember reading about them. I would love to get an actual inventory.¡± Orc


    ¡°The kids probably some noble, we can take him.¡± Troll


    Four of the group of five attacked at once, with the fifth being something like a healer. The orc wielded a large rusty sword that was almost as wide as he was; it looked like it used to be a pretty nice blade before it was abandoned. The hobgoblin used two daggers, pretty good quality, a mithral steel alloy, probably took it off of a dead merchant or young noble who wanted to start adventuring. The troll wielded a wooden bow. The last one was a mage, it was a greater slime. The healer was a pink slime.


    I spent about ten minutes observing how they fought, and I was surprised. They were very proficient for their age, as well as being extremely well organized. They even managed to get a couple of hits on me when I wasn¡¯t paying attention to dodging or blocking.


    ¡°I¡¯m impressed, for ones so young you are rather skilled with your chosen weapons.¡± Jack


    ¡°Tch. This guy¡¯s strong, switch to plan B.¡± troll


    Suddenly the hobgoblin teleported behind me and attacked my arm rapidly, faster than he should have been able to, likely used a skill. I wasn¡¯t expecting that to happen, at all. With the combination of the decent quality daggers and a skill he probably trained to death my right arm was removed, right at the shoulder. I quickly seal the open wound with fire magic before taking out a hand and a half sword, I quickly kill the obviously exhausted hobgoblin.


    ¡°I apologize for going easy on opponents like you, my mistake.¡± Jack


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.I decide to end this fight quickly. I decapitate the troll, which would easily bypass their pesky regeneration. I kill off all the others in similar fashion before all that was left was the healer.


    ¡°If you guys want your gear back you¡¯re going to have to come back here, I¡¯ll give you a day before I just take it for myself. Tell your friends, I have some questions I want you to answer.¡±  Jack


    I then stab the pink slime through the core, basically the brain, only for slimes. I am pretty sure they will come back, they are damned after all, and I am pretty sure they aren¡¯t undead or construct. And they have some decent gear, nothing compared what I have, but it would be lucrative to come back and get it.


    I decide to start trying to heal my amputated arm, I am not skilled enough in healing magic to reattach my arm, but I could regrow it, it would take me weeks to fully grow it but I could start. I begin to meditate, this time focusing on the movement of my mana instead of my mind or soul. There are tons of things you can focus on when you meditate; you just have to be aware of them in your body. I move my mana around my body so that it rejuvenates it, I really don¡¯t know exactly what is happening, just how to do it. Flooding my body with mana patterned to regenerate and heal, and circulating it around my body, letting it linger around the stump of my right arm, causing growth there, or at least that¡¯s what I was instructed to do. Various cuts and other wounds around my body begin to itch and slowly close up, my arm stump itches the most and if I wasn¡¯t meditating I would struggle to not scratch it.


    ¡®Heh, they were pretty good. If they had more stat points we might have been in trouble.¡¯ Emotion


    ¡®I might be able to recruit them to our army, and if I¡¯m right there are many more like them and that lightling. If so they probably have a way of communicating with each other. We could profit a lot from this.¡¯ Logic


    ¡®All I understand from that is that there will be more powerful people to fight sounds fun¡¯ emotion


    After about 19 hours of meditation I get hungry so I take a break to eat.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> as a result of your meditation session you have gained +5 mana capacity, +.01% magic efficiency </td></tr></tbody></table>


    I got out some dried boar jerky and started to eat. After I was done eating I started to meditate again, at the 22 hour mark the monsters finally showed up again, wearing little more than leaves.


    End chapter 64


    sorry for the long delay, i have had many things on my plate. which i know isn''t much of an excusse, i''ve had the time to write but i just didn''t want to. don''t worry the only three things that could get me to end this story is my death, a lot of money, and getting to the actual end i have planed for it, it just might take a while to get there.

 background chapter: ghost

    Background chapter: ghost


    I don¡¯t remember much from when I was born, or anything from before then, except that an old lone wolf found me shivering by a river, as he would later tell me. This older wolf taught me how to hunt and survive, luckily I was born as a beast and not just an animal, meaning, among other things, I could digest meat from birth and did not require milk. In my second snow, as the older wolf described it, he became I¡¯ll. With me being as young as I was, I could do nothing to help him, except watch as he miserably suffered and ultimately died.


    After his death I was forced to take care of myself a lot more, I no longer had his help when it came to hunting, or anything else for that matter. One day, while the flowers were in bloom, I wondered onto the territory of another lone wolf, as I had no territory of my own I disregarded it. The other wolf didn¡¯t feel the same way; she attacked me, trying to drive me off her territory. After a long fight I had come out as victorious. After that day the lone wolf became submissive to me, and would even help me in hunting. With her help we were both able to eat more. One night, while the leaves were falling, she talked about how grateful she was to me, that she wouldn¡¯t be able to eat this much on her own. She is great partner; I remember thinking to myself that night.


    The next morning we came across a male wolf, around 4 years old, while I was 3 at the time, who had recently been kicked out of his pack and was searching for a new pack to join. After a brief conflict he was settled at the bottom of the pack, and with this I had officially become the leader of my own pack.


    Two snows latter my pack numbered 7 with the first litter of cubs being expected when the flowers bloom next from the first two that had joined my pack. It was an average day in the middle of the snow season, trying to find the few animals, and occasional beast or other creature; we could to scrape by till all the hibernating animals and creatures woke up. But on this day something unexpected happened, a bear like creature attacked us. It stood on its hind paws and swiped hard at one of my pack. He managed to narrowly dodge the swipe before looking to me. I growled a response and all 7 of us started to circle the beast. After a hard fought battle we managed to kill it, ensuring our survival this snow, but not without loses, our oldest member, in his ninth snow, took a claw to the side. It was wound he would not be able to recover from, and he knew that. He charged at the beast with reckless abandon and viciously attacked it without care for the wounds he received, he knew he was going to die anyway, the only question was when. This allowed the rest of us to kill the beast while it was preoccupied. We feasted on its meat for the rest of the snow.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The cubs were born without a hitch, and my pack, my family, was happy. We hunted our fill, challenging stronger beasts as they tasted better. We could finally stop thinking about surviving, and start thinking about thriving. We had a couple run-ins with other packs, but those went over smoothly and for the most part without incident, for my pack at least.


    Unfortunately it didn¡¯t last. One night, after the leaves fell from the trees twice since the first cubs were born, my pack was resting after hunting a group of green skinned creatures that walked on two paws. I was sleepy from eating my fill when the rest of my pack got to their paws; naturally I got to my paws as well thinking that the others noticed something I didn¡¯t. Then they attacked me, at first I thought they just wanted to play around, but then I realized that they had their claws out. I tried to avoid killing them, but when I wounded them they only attacked me harder, my only solace was that they would also wound each other while going berserk. In the end I obtained several small scratches, enough to be an annoyance during hunting. I look around for the young, finding them all dead, having died in the fighting.


    I was a lone wolf again, I thought back to the vague memory of the one who taught me how to hunt with certain sadness. Prey started being easily spooked, making harder for me to get an easy meal, and preventing me from eating some days, which would only make it harder to get food the next day. And with the snow rapidly approaching prey was getting harder and harder to find. I was slowly starving, come mid snow I could barely walk, much less run. A creature appeared in front of me; they walked on their hind paws and had a strange colorful fur, which made me think that they are poisonous. They talked on about how they tried to kill me by depriving of food and were now going to send me into a dungeon where I would surly die. Luckily I managed to get some food from a creature that looks similar to the one that tried to kill me, after that I decided to follow him for a while, and I saw that he was strong, able to hunt creatures I needed my whole pack to hunt on his own. It was then that I decided to really become part of his pack.


    End background chapter ghost


    i am sorry for taking so long for this update, i was depressed and didn''t want to do anything. i''m fine now you might see me write a bit more.

 Chapter 65: another world

    Chapter 65


    ¡°Finally, you¡¯ve arrived.¡± Jack


    ¡°Can we get our gear back? These leaves are a little breezy.¡± Troll


    I notice that the leafs the troll is using to cover himself is a little inadequate.


    ¡°Of course, but you have to answer my questions or I will kill you again.¡± Jack


    The Orc snorts at this.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. Whatever, if you really wanted to kill us I doubt you would waste time like this.¡± Orc


    ¡°Seems someone has a high int.¡± jack


    ¡°Lets get this over with, what questions could you possibly have for us?¡± hobgoblin


    After observing them for I bit I realize that they don¡¯t have any true leader, they all seem to trust each others strengths enough to rely on them without a leader, which in itself is strength.


    ¡°Do you remember a life before this one? Or maybe a life that runs parallel to this one?¡± jack


    ¡°How did you...¡± Orc


    ¡°Old souls, rather common in this world, is it safe to assume that you all came from the same world? Possibly even go back when you die?¡± jack


    ¡°Yeah, that is right, we can go back to our old life¡± pink slime


    Her response elicits a glare from some of her party members.


    ¡°What? It¡¯s not like there is any point to lying to him¡± pink slime


    That is true; I already know all the answers, having dug them out from their memories. I was rather intrigued by the nuclear bomb, seems wasteful, why destroy land that you were trying to take? Anyway it seems they came from another world and can go back there at will, there are supposedly hundreds or more creatures just like them, soon to be more, a lot more, all connected to a very powerful communication network. At least that is what I got from their memories, I only really looked at the stuff that is important right now, and it would take too long for everything else.


    The questions are just a formality, to lead the conversation in a certain direction. things like this aren''t unheard of, especially for gods and titans, who travel around different worlds a lot, and with me being friends with several I''ve heard of it.


    ¡°Do you possibly have a way of communicating with a large number of creatures like yourselves there?¡± jack


    ¡°We do¡± slime


    ¡°Great, I want you to send a message to everyone you can.¡± Jack


    I spent the next half an hour describing not only the message, which was basically advertisement to sign up for my army, but also the benefits of putting the advertisement up. The payment for new recruits would receive necessities like food, water, and shelter, and would be given training and good gear. This party would receive monetary benefits for every person referred by them as well as start with a decent standing in my army if they chose to join it.


    ¡°This sounds like a wonderful opportunity; I think we should take it.¡± Troll


    Stolen novel; please report.After a round of agreement I let them leave, a couple of them disappearing completely in front of me, even their souls and minds were instantly transported.


    I decided to continue to walk, while doing something similar to what I was doing earlier while meditating, only to a lesser extent. My arm doesn¡¯t feel nearly as itchy this way, and I can continue to move towards my target, albeit a little slower due to the missing limb.


    After walking for a day and a half I decide to start running, which makes it harder to concentrate on moving the mana around my body. But this should be good training, I¡¯ve heard of creatures who practice something called dynamic meditation becoming incredibly powerful, unfortunately never having the pleasure of fighting one, the biggest downside is it is extremely difficult to figure out how to do, and much more difficult to figure out how to do well.


    As I run all other creatures avoid me as I am getting close to a city, more intelligent creatures gather at cities and drive away the strongest of the unintelligent ones making cities an ideal place to live. As I am starting to get tiered I stop by an inn to sleep, I am not hungry as food is easy to obtain while traveling if you¡¯re fast enough to catch it.


    I leave the city mostly without incident, a merchant tried to accuse me of theft, he never realized his mistake, nor will he continue to live for much longer after what I did to his mind and soul. I hope the guards don¡¯t have too much trouble putting him down, mostly because it is a nice town and I wouldn¡¯t want it to be destroyed because their public security is so weak.


    The country I am currently in is a democracy, it also is rather chaotic with the government not having much power, and how can a democracy have the power to rule it¡¯s people if the people don¡¯t give it that power? I don¡¯t think it will remain a democracy for more than 5 years.


    This country is also rather small, I could go from one end to the other in a week if I wanted to, and I¡¯m cutting though it at the skinniest part, so about 3 days. It passes pretty uneventfully, if you call getting ambushed by bandits every 4 hours to be uneventful, which I do, as they were weak.


    end chapter 65


    it''s been a while, regretfully. i don''t know when the next chapter will be, hopefully by the end of this month but maybe not. that chapter will feature lucy. i am kind of reminded of how i was at the begining of this story, excited to write a chapter and get it out every day, if i had kept up with that pace i would have been done with the whole story by now, anyone still here from that time, back when i first started this story?

 Side Story: another side

    Side story


    My name is Philip Jones; I live on planet Laers, a small, around half the size of the earth, earthlike planet that was colonized by my parent¡¯s generation. The population of this backwater paradise is still only less than five thousand, while the estimated population it is capable of supporting is closer to 20 billion with today¡¯s technology. Today I am waiting for a games server to come online, a game called Life, I was ecstatic when I heard that was going to one of only one thousand people in the galaxy, not that humans have expanded to any other galaxy, yet, to get into the beta test for this game. This game is supposed to be the greatest fantasy game of the next generation, with only one server spanning the entire galaxy. The world, of which there is only one, has to be at least the size of a mid-sized black hole to be able to accommodate all the players based on the hype that the game is already receiving.


    And not just that but 4 of my closest friends also got a copy. I haven¡¯t met them in real life yet, only really in games, which is pretty normal in today¡¯s galaxy. Space flight isn¡¯t really expensive but it still takes a while.


    I climb into the capsule that was already shipped to my home and lay down waiting to be linked to the net. When I finally get in notice two things, the grayed out cover art of Life with the word offline on the lower right hand corner and a text box alerting me of new messages in our group chat.


    Arbiter: hey! Yips is finally online.


    Revenant: Yips! Yips! Yips! We¡¯ve been waiting for you man.


    I chuckle softly as I recall my tag for almost every game we have played together. It was to result of a stupid bet, I knew I couldn¡¯t last ten seconds against a dragon at level one in legendary swords online, but I had to try anyway.


    Yips: hey guys, miss me?


    Pbj: Why would I miss your human ass? Laovos are much better.


    Arbiter: guilty as charged.


    As it turns out I am the only true human in my group of friends, two are half humans, pbj and revenant, neither one told me what the other half is despite my asking over the years, one laovos, arbiter, who pbj has had a crush on for years, which supposedly evolved from humans a couple hundred thousand years back, they are on average about 3 feet tall with a thin build, and insanely intelligent. the last member of our group goes by titan, he is a Levi, basically a large muscular species, they look like big stupid brutes that would mug you in the streets, but they are actually more like gentle giants, about as intelligent as a human while being extremely docile until you piss them off, then don¡¯t bother running, instead shoot yourself in the head, it would be less painful.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.Titan: can you believe that we will be some of the first people to play GGG¡¯s second masterpiece?


    GGG, or Gods Gaming Group released a game called Death a while ago, it was based in a post apocalyptic world and it had a player base exceeding 100 billion, which was virtually unheard of at the time.


    Yips: ikr, out of the how many trillions of people in the galaxy us 5 managed to all get access to the beta.


    Arbiter: so we all agreed to become monsters and start on the alfalm continent right? It¡¯s going to be a pain in the ass to find each other still though.


    Pbj: yeah, I¡¯m going to start off as a slime, I think it¡¯ll be fun.


    Titan: the servers are open.


    titan has left


    Yips: I¡¯m going to go too


    ¡®Well, here goes nothing. ¡®


    I step towards the previously grey cover art and touch it; a soft light envelops me, making me instinctualy close my eyes. When I open them I see a blue box floating in front of me.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> welcome to this game we call life, you are going to have great fun here </td></tr></tbody></table>


    End side story


    i know i promised the background chapter for lucy, but i was having a bit of mental blockage with that one so here is this instead. for those of you wondering, yes the main world is a real world, not just some video game.

 Background chapter Lucy

    Background chapter Lucy


    I don¡¯t remember much of my first life as a damned; the little things I do remember are, for the most part, simple. I remember things like the name of my best friend, shandra, or shany among friends, my race, I was a gnome, and my favorite food, a type of meat pie the local baker sold. I can¡¯t remember things like my name, my family, or my favorite color. There is, however, one memory that burns strong to this day, the day I signed that damned contract.


    Shany and I had stopped at the bakery to pick up dinner for a little get together among our friends on our way back from magic practice, shany was incredibly talented at it while I was rather mediocre, I didn¡¯t care much as I enjoyed learning magic.  What happened next was a blur to me, something attacked my small town, I think it was bombed, and the next thing I remember was lying face down looking at the corpse of my best friend, while I myself lay dying. Then he came, I never got a good look at him but I can still remember his voice, he had a weak oriental accent and deep voice, giving him the impression of being much bigger than he actually was. He made me an offer, the ability to become powerful in another life. Naturally I accepted, I thought that it couldn¡¯t hurt, but I didn¡¯t realize till two days later when I finally died how wrong I was.


    I then spent what felt close to three eternities, which was actually closer to three decades, in the most boring place ever conceived, the void. When I finally got out I found myself possessing the body an old man, it was strange because I had some memories from that man, bits and pieces, nothing too important, but one thing was certain, this wasn¡¯t the same world I was from.


    As I latter found out I was in the body of the recently deceased head of an aristocratic family in a small country known as  fish port, who¡¯s chief export was, you guessed it, fish. It was one of five countries at the time on the Rosiare continent, one of twelve in this world. This life was rather boring, I was basically a butler, and the only really interesting part was my death. A raid on the family¡¯s manor a century after I was raised.


    The next life was a little more interesting, I had become something known as a half lich and I was the servant of a woman who was absolutely obsessed with discovering the inner workings of magic, I was one of ten successful half-liche¡¯s. In that life I learned many secrets about magic, only to have it all stolen away from me at the end. The woman made a breakthrough and something began to happen, it was hard to explain but it looked like she had started to de-evolve, and apparently she was some sort of monster as she stopped at a goblin, all the while ranting about something called origin and about some great magic. At this moment my life force, along with the life force of the other half-liche¡¯s. She then began to de-evolve again, only to have what I can only describe as the world fight back against it. Eventually she couldn¡¯t remain stable and started to evolve into another creature, something that looks like a small fungus, only to have her resist even stronger resulting in an explosion, killing me and I assume everyone else. By the time I woke up in the abyss I realize that I had forgotten almost everything I had learned about magic.


    Stolen story; please report.The next life was rather short; I don¡¯t remember much of anything from it.


    My fourth life is one you already know about.


    After a century in the abyss after that one I decided to sign a temporary contract with a dungeon, just a short one lasting twelve years. It was interesting, I put some of the magic skills I learned in my last life to use and had fun with myself, I was almost sad when it was over, almost, the dungeons personality was an asshole. So I decide to sign a slightly longer one with a different dungeon, big mistake. I ended up literally working myself to the bones constantly for thirty years.


    The next life I worked as a maid for a well off family, only to burn to death at the end.


    In the most recent, and shortest, life I was the servant of a mad man who was bent on world domination. He failed miserably.


    And the rest, as they say, is history.


    end background chapter


    the reason i took so long on this one was it was hard to get inspired. also for a side note i think this world needs a name, i cant think of a good one that would suit this world. if i see an idea i like i just might use it.


    <hr />


    also check out the reveiw i did of this story, tell me what you think of it

 Chapter 66: New Gate

    today i have an important announcement, so i am putting it at the top. i started a patreon account!


    https://www.patreon.com/user?u=3786951</a>


    I''m not expecting to make much money off of this but what it means is that i will have a chapter out every calendar week, until someone sponsors a chapter, and i will be putting more effort in to every chapter. until now i  have had an average of 1000 words per chapter, from now on the minimum will be 1250. tell me your thoughts in the comments.


    Chapter 66


    It has been a full week since I landed on the alfalm continent, with little to no noteworthy events. This left me with a lot of time to think, about the world, about magic, about myself. One of the things that struck me as odd is how weak everything that has attacked me has been, I haven¡¯t really faced a threat on my life in several years. I am by no means a strong person on this world when you take everything into account, I am just not weak. When you look at my age group, yeah, I¡¯m one of the strongest. But look at cultivators, all of the ones that accomplish anything are immortal, they can live for thousands of years, hell there are some cultivators on this planet that predate it. I met one of them, briefly, had I been in his presence for much longer I would have suffocated to death. Anyway, thinking about that made me think about qi, or chi, or whatever you want to call it. It is very similar to mana, but the way it functions is different. While mana is used primarily for external manipulation with relatively weak ability to reinforce the body, qi is the opposite. Once upon a time I tried to cultivate qi, and failed miserably. After 2 months of secluded meditation I hadn¡¯t even reached the first stage. The average person would reach that stage in half the time with casual meditation, half that time with secluded meditation. Although I did profit from that with my skill to meditate, definitely comes in help now.


    I pause from my thoughts for a minute to recollect myself, there are so many rabbit holes to explore with qi, and I don¡¯t want to get distracted.


    Mana is commonly referred to as the energy of the world by many mages, while qi is called the energy of the self. The reason being is that mana is abundant in the world; it is extremely hard to find an area that naturally has no mana in it, although not impossible. With qi it is created in the body, and is impossible to find in nature. Even when a cultivator dies the qi doesn¡¯t stay for very long, it entirely fades away in at most a week. Of course there is a third energy source that I am still learning how to control, energy of the soul, which is found in the soul and the mind.  My guess is that qi is actually formed from mana that the cultivator takes in and processes through the soul, now there have been several people who have tried to turn mana directly into qi, all of them have failed. And there have been many people in the position to test my theory, look at any soul mage, but either they aren¡¯t talking or they didn¡¯t care enough to figure it out. If I am correct then that means that I might be able to turn mana into soul energy, which will open up many opportunities for me.


    The first step is to find a cultivator I can observe meditating. Finding a cultivator shouldn¡¯t be too hard; it is a rather popular way to gain power. The hard part will be convincing one to let me watch them meditate, for most it is a very private occasion, me asking them to watch would be like asking to watch them fuck their spouse.


    And that was just one of the rabbit holes my thoughts wandered into during those seven days, the most significant one. I constantly find myself wishing I could go into secluded meditation just to sort out all the ideas I have. But unfortunately, I don¡¯t have the luxury of time, I need to get back home quickly, I have a war to prepare for.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.At the end of the seventh day I finally make it to new gate, and I am dead tired. I haven¡¯t slept in the entire week I have been here. I quickly make my way to a middle class inn that caters to tourists, I book a room for a night and as soon as I hit the bed I was asleep, and I stayed that way for nine hours. It was a nice, dreamless sleep, there were no titans trying to kill everyone, nor any succubi trying to seduce me.


    When I woke up it was mid morning. I gathered my things and silently left the establishment. I decide to head up to elandrels mansion to do some scouting, apparently he has guided tours go through every hour. I decide to wait around for the next one along with a couple other people, and I manage to hear some interesting gossip about the local lord, a lot of what I hear is that he isn¡¯t a terrible lord, but neither is he a good one. Of the crowd waiting for a tour only one person dislikes him, most people want him to continue being the lord, not that I care. Of course the entire time no one tries to talk to me or even look at me, like I am invisible, because I am, at least to them, they are incapable of perceiving me. It is straining to do this kind of thing to so many people so I can¡¯t keep it up indefinitely, six hours at most. It is still more than enough time for a scouting mission.


    When the tour guide comes and unlocks the gate I slip away, making sure no one sees me. I run into the currently unoccupied servant¡¯s kitchen and mentally map out the locations of everyone within my range of perception.  I then proceed to map out the mansion by walking around it, making sure to stay away from everyone. After around half an hour I manage to find the room where they organize the guards in the mansion, there is only one person inside at the moment and it doesn¡¯t take too much effort to put them into a trance where they are completely unaware of their surroundings. I slip in and after a quick look at the guard¡¯s recent memories I find what I¡¯m looking for, a complete map of the grounds and a schedule for all guards for the next week.


    I then leave the room, making sure the guard remembers nothing, and leave the building. Now is time to prepare for tonight.


    I decide to walk around the city while I plan. And I come across something interesting, The Library. Not just any Library, but the first library. It is also a dungeon, the lord being the founder of The Library. It is special in many ways, for one it is never in the same place for very long, occasionally teleporting to other places in the world, anywhere in this world, heaven, or hell. It is the dream of every scholar to write a book deemed worthy of entering its shelves. And unlike many libraries it does not loan out books, in fact the books are incapable of leaving the premises, right before they do they teleport back to the shelves. Even more envied than writing a book that is accepted by the library is being a librarian, it isn¡¯t a very well payed job, if you ignore the bribes, but it does come with many benefits. So long as you don¡¯t try to damage anything in the library you will never be fired, but you can quit any time you want, and it is usually easy to get hired again after you quit. You also can¡¯t be harmed while inside the library, and even when you¡¯re outside the library no one would dare harm you, for fear of the wrath of many powerful mages.


    The hiring procedure is rather simple, first you have to want to be a librarian, not as easy as it sounds, and most people want the benefits of being a librarian, not the job itself. Next you have to be accepted by the lord of the dungeon that is the library, which is actually the easy part. If you manage to do those two things then congratulations, you are a librarian.


    I walk inside and notice someone I know sitting at the front desk.


    ¡°Hello jack¡± oracle


    end chapter 66

 Aria/Laura back story

    Aria/Laura back story


    My name Is Laura, I am an ancient who was a human girl in my past life, I died in a fire after killing my father. When I was born I had a strong desire to repay the person who indirectly helped me kill my father, but that desire faded by the time I was three years old. Nothing of note happened between my third and fifth birthday, except the death of my uncle, but I did not know him so it did not affect me. On my fifth birthday I received a present that I would remember for the rest of my life, an egg, a fairy egg specifically. When the egg hatched a week latter a female fairy came out, she was about half the size of a fully grown fairy, about normal for a newborn, and was otherwise fully developed physically, but not mentally, she still had much to learn about the world, and so did i.


    I decided to name her aria, and for many years we would learn together, about the inner workings of the world, about magic, about politics. One of the most valuable things I learned during this time was soul magic, I could feel myself growing stronger when I practiced it. Aria attempted to learn soul magic as well, but only managed to succeed at something that looks like stroking the soul, but it feels amazing, so I didn¡¯t mind. It was during this time that I told aria about my previous life, which arguably was a mistake, as she wouldn¡¯t shut up about the guy that burned the city down.


    By the time I was 25 Aria and I was exploring the world, we spent a year among the fairy west fair tribe. While we were there we met aria¡¯s parents, it seemed they gave her away when they met a traveler who saved their lives and lived among them for a time, they gave her away with the hope that she would be able to better see the world.


    We traveled to many other places, we even served as librarians for several years, it was during this time that I started feeling the desire to thank that man growing stronger. I left the library in order to find him with instructions from a librarian named oracle to spend time in the east fairy tribe and that I might find him eventually. I did and we spent the better part of a decade with the east fairy tribe, by this point I was fifty years old. We left at aria¡¯s persistent nagging; eventually she promised that we would return every five years to see if he had shown up yet.


    We continued to explore the world and eventually found ourselves living with an underwater tribe of various sea folk, from mermaids and mermen, to sirens, to giant mammalian octopi, and everything in between. It was an interesting experience, but I started to get sick of sushi around month six. I almost cried the first time I had a Minotaur steak once we got back to the surface.


    It was around this time that we got attacked by a group of bandits eyeing aria, fairy wings are valuable when practicing certain types of magic, it wasn¡¯t my first fight, there had been many others before, but it was more memorable than the others, it was at this time that I evolved from an elf into a high elf, an exciting time for anyone, as your lucky if you get more than two evolutions in your life. Too my surprise aria evolved that same night, from a fairy into a greater fairy, one person evolving in a night was not uncommon, but two people in the same party evolving in the same night is rare, not unheard of, but rare.


    Within the year aria and I found ourselves amongst a tribe of cultivating kobolds, they were astonishingly intelligent for a group that does not interact with greater society. While there I learned much about the soul, but I did not manage to watch one cultivating. We stayed with them for two years before aria and I decided to explore hell.


    Actually getting into hell was a hassle, in the end we had to bribe an imp that was in charge of one of the hell gates, and even then it was days before we could actually get in, with aria complaining about bureaucracy all the way. Once we got in it was beautiful, the place we entered was in a volcanic area, there were geysers and hot springs everywhere, you would have to close your eyes in order to not see a geyser shooting its boiling hot water into the air. Roughly a mile away was a small town with a population mostly of demons, although there were a surprising number of angelics. The pixies were a pain in the ass, with them constantly playing malicious pranks on aria, and her returning the favor a hundred fold.


    The next area in hell we visited was a tundra, it was beautiful in its deadly cold, ice coated everything, and plants coated the ice, it gave the whole scene the feeling of a pastel painting of blue and green made even better by the biting cold that caressed any exposed portion of my skin.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Aria would sleep wrapped up in my hair for most the day, and would only leave my hair when we went inside for a meal. The only real downside to living here was terrible food; everything was pickled and jarred, my two least favorite ways to have food.


    It was with mixed feelings that I continued my nomadic journey around the world. This time I followed the wind, quite literally, and I ended up in a small farming village on a platoe in a mountain range. I spent three years here farming a plant known as devil grass, which is primarily used in making mead and a drug known as angel¡¯s sin which only effects angelics, and is quite popular among recreational drug users.


    It was satisfying, watching plants grow under my guidance. But my wanderlust eventually became too much too bear and I set off again; it was on this particular stretch of my journey where aria asked me something I had never thought of before.


    ¡°When are you going to settle down, traveling the world with you is fun, but I¡¯m curious. What would cause you to settle down and what would you do when you do settle down?¡± aria


    It was five days before I was able to give her an answer that satisfied both of us.


    ¡°I will settle down when I want too, as for what I will do, I will likely go back to the library, I enjoyed working there, and we saw many places while there.¡± Laura


    ¡°Why am I not surprised. Well, I¡¯ll be with you to the end, you can count on that.¡± Aria


    I continued to travel around hell until I was one hundred and five years old, this time I went back home. I wanted to see how my family has been getting on through these years. One hundred years is a decent chunk of time for elves, while we are long lived, the oldest will only live twelve centuries without evolving, fourteen for greater elves.


    While I was away my parents had three children, two boys and a girl. The oldest, a boy, was two decades younger than me, and did not share my wanderlust. He became a soldier for a nearby kingdom, and was adapt with the sword. I spared with him on his request, and was impressed by his skill. My second sibling, a girl, did not share my wanderlust either, she was five decades younger than me and was very talented in magic, becoming adept in many fields of magic, her favorite was by far healing magic. I tried teaching her soul magic but she declined saying that she had tried to learn in the past and did not find it enjoyable.


    The youngest, who was only a fifteen, shared my wanderlust. I would entertain him with stories from all over the world, of peoples and cultures that he had never even heard of, much to the agony of my parents as they ¡®didn¡¯t want to lose another one to wanderlust¡¯, I just laughed it off telling them that it would be better to prepare him for the world than to discourage him from seeking it, that would only cause unneeded heartbreak.


    I left two years later and went to a continent mostly dominated by a forest, aria and I decided to wander the forest and we met many interesting creatures, some that I had never seen before. A year into our journey through the forest a screen popped up in front of me, and we were teleported into a dungeon. I had a fair amount of experience with dungeonereing and so it was easy to clear it. when I got out we walked through the forest some more, and at one point aria got a hold of a fungus that puffs out aphrodisiac spores, she would let a puff of it out at passing groups of nymphs and watch laughing as they were overcame by their own desires. All the while I just laughed along, I had long since gotten used to aria¡¯s pranks.


    It was around this time that I came across someone, someone with a soul I would recognize anywhere. And, well, you know the rest of the story.


    end backstory


    i am sorry this chapter is so late, i could make excuses about how i got sick and then had a sudden move but i am not, instead i will get another chapter out either tomorrow or the next day and two chapters next week.


    personally i am glad that i took a bit of extra time to write this chapter, it turned out much better than i thought it would. it turned out to have 1,599 words.

 Chapter 67: a gift

    Chapter 67


    ¡°Hello jack¡± oracle


    It¡¯s been a while, oracle.¡± Jack


    ¡°Has it really? From my perspective it is like a blink of an eye, no time at all.¡± Oracle


    ¡°Well, why are you here then? With what little I have been able to piece together about you, there has to be a reason.¡± Jack


    ¡°I simply enjoy it here, no further reason. But I have been expecting your arrival, either today or this afternoon.¡± oracle


    ¡°Well, enough pleasantry. I would like to ask you a favor.¡± Jack


    ¡°I already know what you are going to ask, but go ahead.¡± Oracle


    ¡°I want you to teleport me, and some luggage, back home.¡± Jack


    ¡°Something like that would be a triviality for me, but still, what makes you think I would help. Last time it was at the request of an old friend, the greater god in charge of the god of humans.¡± Oracle


    ¡°You seem to think that I am valuable for some reason, so I decided to take a risk. Plus getting transport is a bitch.¡± Jack


    ¡°It¡¯s amazing how the most developed part of this world gets the most complaints for being under-developed; you know people in other worlds would do anything to get a hold of the transportation technology of this world? Anyway, I would be willing to help for a fee.¡± Oracle


    ¡°What fee?¡± Jack


    ¡°500 jaers, enough to buy enough mana restoratives too cover two teleportation¡¯s.¡± Oracle


    ¡°Sounds fair.¡± Jack


    I handed the money over to oracle and began to explore the library. There were a number of other people here, none of which were interested in the exchange between myself and oracle. I have been here once before, but not for long. It had showed up in the middle of my hometown when I was 6 years old, I didn¡¯t know how to read at the time and so I didn¡¯t care about the wealth of knowledge here.


    I walk towards a nearby shelf and pull out and ancient looking book and flip open the cover, too my surprise I can¡¯t understand a word.


    ¡°ahh, lithian, one of the killed languages. I¡¯m surprised to find that volume on the first floor, usually killed languages stay around the fourth floor.¡± ???


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but who are you?¡± jack


    ¡°I apologize for my rudeness, I should have introduced myself earlier. My name is jaspers, I am a librarian.¡± Jaspers


    Jaspers appeared to be 5¡¯7¡± with dirty brown hair and earthy cloths, like what you would expect a farmer to wear. If I had to guess I would say that jaspers is a deity in humanoid form, an evolution high on the monster ladder.


    ¡°what are killed languages?¡± jack


    ¡°the world around uses one language, with different names in different areas, here it is known as dalect.¡± Jaspers


    ¡°of course, it is easier that way.¡± Jack


    ¡°but have you ever stopped to ask yourself how it came to be that way?¡± jaspers


    ¡°the thought never came up¡± jack


    ¡°a little more than a millennia ago a large group of powerful countries came together to discuss things. One of the many things they discussed was language, all of them agreed that having one universal language would make life easier. After several years they managed to agree upon a language to make universal. Almost immediately the countries leaders instigated a policy where all written works had to be translated into this language and all people had to know it and speak it in society. After nearly a century of this they began a purge, any books not written in this language were destroyed after being translated, and any people who did not speak it were killed. Many wars were started and ended overnight for this goal. The result, everyone now speaks the same language.¡± Jaspers


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°What about here? Why didn¡¯t the destroy the books here?¡± jack


    ¡°oh they tried, they entered and started to try to destroy books, very few of them were successful at even putting a scratch on them, and it would take something on the level of a chaotic mana storm to do any significant damage. Of the thousands that entered, none left, all of the, were killed by the defenders.¡± Jaspers


    ¡°why did you tell me this story?¡± jack


    ¡°to get my story telling skill up of course.¡± Jaspers


    And with that the deity walked away, presumably to tell another guest a story. I put the book back and find something else to read, going up a floor in the process. I eventually settle on a thin book titled an epic of magic, which turned out to be a story of a wandering mage taking on powerful opponents, he took on everything from hords of goblins to a near mythical nine tailed fox and even managed to pull off a raid on some military outpost that belonged to someone who pissed him off, All In all an interesting read, taking me two hours to finish.


    After placing the book back where I found it, I left the building, deciding to walk around the city for a time before it¡¯s time to make my move. While walking in a back alley an orphan boy, likely a kobold from the look of him, attempts to mug me with a rather impressive knife, which he no doubt stole earlier. I quickly put him on his ass before demonstrating a proper stance and having him imitate it, I had time to kill, and he wasn¡¯t a threat to me.


    I spent an hour teaching the boy on how to properly wield a knife, something that was easy for me to teach, I had done it several times in the past, but could possibly be the opportunity of a lifetime for the orphan. The boy said his thanks and offered me a bird trinket, nothing special about it, just pretty to look at. By that time I had two hours left till sundown, which I decided to spend meditating.


    At sun down I stand up, no blue box appearing this time, and don a silver mask. It was a gift from Mary when I started mercenary work, she had used it during her time as a mercenary and had it artificially enchanted to make anyone who saw it fear death.


    I run across the rooftops of the silent city, nothing moved save for a few drunkards who stayed at the bar till closing time and the occasional scholar, this city has no night life. I enter the manor and easily make my way to elandrel¡¯s bed chambers, only to find it empty. Unfazed I move to his study and slip under the door in my shadow form. There I find him reading by magelight.


    ¡°I thought I told the servants that I do not wish to be disturbed today¡± elandrel


    ¡°I¡¯m not a servant, lion of the raiders, what a stupid name.¡± jack


    At the mention of his old title the fur of his mane stands on end.


    ¡°how do you know that name?¡± elandrel


    ¡°you¡¯ll learn soon enough, that you don¡¯t make enemies you can¡¯t destroy.¡± Jack


    Before he gets another chance to speak I plunge a syringe through his chest into his heart and cut off his ability to scream through his mind. The syringe is full of a long lasting anesthetic I had uncle make for me, it should keep him under for days.


    I pick up his limp body and head out, I need to bring a certain someone their early birthday gift.


    end chapter 67


    a little late, still working on catching up.

 Background chapter: mary

    Background chapter: Mary


    I am an ancient, which isn¡¯t saying much because I was a goblin in my last life, didn¡¯t even make it to my fifth birthday before I was killed after stumbling into a fight between two dragons, either that or it was a mating ritual, hard to tell the difference with dragons.


    I was born an elf, and have since evolved into a dark elf. It was a pleasant experience, evolving, for which I am lucky, to some it is the most excruciating thing in the world, to others, extremely pleasant. There was a sparkle of light, and then I felt my body restructure itself, an odd, yet pleasant sensation.


    I joined a mercenary party when I was 40. There were three other members of the party, a Halfling named zain, whom I would latter marry, an ogre who had the unfortunate name of stinky, apparently he was born a goblin, and an aloof naiad who went by lisa. Life as a mercenary was fun, nonstop excitement and adventure, sometimes when we couldn¡¯t find a job we wanted we go dungeon diving, or dungeon crawling depending on the part of the world you live in. it was during one of these dungeon dives that a ring turned up, zain got really excited for some reason that I couldn¡¯t understand, the ring wasn¡¯t even enchanted. I was surprised a moment latter when he proposed to me over the corpse of the massive, fire breathing bear he had looted the ring off.


    I said yes.


    The wedding was conducted a month latter, with stinky being the one to officially marry us, as he was easily the most eloquent and well read of us, he was our mage after all. the wedding was a blast, my family showed up and my little brother challenged zain to a duel over my hand, much to the bemusement of all the attending guests. Needless to say my brother, a professional farmer, didn¡¯t last more than 2 minutes with zain, and even that was because he was being played with.


    The wedding went on for a day and a half, and resulted in three other couples getting married, as weddings like this often do. My favorite time was when someone (me) spiked the punch with a potent, fast acting psychedelic I bought from a local alchemist, who just so happened to be in attendance. That was when the party really got started, with spontaneous singing contests and lots of dancing. More than one person in the corner vomiting out their liver only to go eat and drink more. At one point a skeleton in attendance dismantled themselves and people started passing around his bones, I found the skull in my hand at one point and had a delightful talk about the weather in heaven this time of year. Eventually some people nearby got annoyed by the noise and asked the city guard to break up the party, what ended up happening was they drank the punch and joined the party. after that I don¡¯t remember much of what happened.


    I woke up in a pile of unconscious bodies and had to pay the people we rented the land from extra to clean it. looking around everything was a mess, trash, body fluids, and unconscious people were everywhere, the skeleton from before had put himself mostly together and was shivering in a corner without his head. Seeing that it was still in my hand I gave it back to him.


    After a couple years we went back to zain''s home town. While we were there he challenged the town chief, his uncle, to a duel. The result of that duel led to him becoming the new town chief. We kind of settled down after that, occasionally we would take jobs if the pay was good, but ultimately our party was retired.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.The two of us would train younglings in our spare time it was rewarding watching pupils you have trained go out and become successful in their life. Many famous adventurers and mercenaries have been trained by me, at least three have become gods.


    it was during this time that zain and I tried to have a child, but, unfortunately, we are not powerful enough to have a child of our own, our biology is just too different. years latter we decided to adopt two young humans who were left with us, a boy and a girl. The girl is relatively normal but the boy seems off somehow. It kind of creeped me out at first but I quickly got used to it when he started training, I had only seen such amazing growth from a trainee once before, and they had become a god.


    Several years latter the town was attacked by a group of bandits, they were fought off easily, as I was latter told, but that didn¡¯t stop them from getting what they wanted, me. Apparently the leader of the bandits had taken a liking to me. The next week was hell, when I wasn¡¯t being tortured I was fearing for the next time I would be. I was only given food twice, but was forced to drink healing potions every day or they would be injected into my stomach with a dull, rusted, syringe.


    Help finally arrived in the form old friends and allies. Stink, lisa, and zain spearheaded an assault on the bandit camp. It wasn¡¯t until latter that we realized that the leader of the bandits had ran away using a teleportation spell as soon as the fighting began. We spent months looking for him, we would have looked longer but we had duties to perform back home. We didn¡¯t have much to go by in the way of searching, I had never heard his name, only his title, lion of the raiders.


    When I got home I looked in the mirror for the first time in over a month, and was surprised at what I saw. My nails had turned black, and previously milk chocolate hair had turned white.


    After that event the boy decided that he wanted to travel the world, and the girl wanted to join him. After discussing this with zain we decided that they were ready to do so. They went off to explore this world, occasionally bringing back stories that would make me remember the days when we could travel the world the same way, it a sort of melancholy feeling. While I was proud of the children I had raised, I missed the adventuring and mercenary life, but by now the Halfling is starting to get old, he wouldn¡¯t be able to survive if we went adventuring again unless he manages to get an evolution that significantly extends his age or if we get an age reversal potion, but those are rare and expensive. There is no way we would be able to afford one without a lucky break, and forget trying to steal one. It would be quicker to just dig the grave yourself and lie in it while you wait for death.


    But I¡¯m happy, I get to spend my time with the man I love, while my children visit every once in a while bringing with them amazing stories.


    End background chapter: Mary


    i know i am pretty behind, i will try to write a chapter a day till i am caught up, but lets see how that works out.


    this chapter should give you guys a better idea as to why jack is on his current mission.


    next background chapter will feature asmodous

 Chapter 68: progress report

    Chapter 68


    I pack the body into my inventory and use magic to allow him to breathe. He should be able to survive a week in there if I periodically replace the air, or around 2 days if I don¡¯t. That should be more than enough time for transport. It takes me roughly half an hour to casually walk to the library, which never closes so you can find people, particularly scholars, coming and going there at all hours.


    When I got to the end of the rather uneventful trip I entered the door to the library and was greeted by the sight of oracle sitting at the counter.


    ¡°Follow me¡± oracle


    With a silent nod I follow him to a lower level, much to my surprise as I was unaware that the library had lower levels.


    ¡°Why are you so surprised? We librarians have to live somewhere, and we rather like our privacy. The only way to get in here is to be invited, or become a librarian yourself. And even if you¡¯re a librarian the only way to get into someone else¡¯s room is to be invited.¡± Oracle


    ¡°How did you...¡± jack


    I wasn¡¯t able to finish that sentence as he cut me off.


    ¡°The look on your face says it all; I see that look almost every time I invite someone down here. Note that if you try to steal anything that the punishment is much worse that the library above, the dungeon lord that governs the library will capture and then torture you till you willingly sign a damned contract with it and become another one of its mindless defenders.¡± Oracle


    Hearing that I subconsciously swallow, that is a horrible punishment.


    ¡°Anyway, I believe that you have a birthday present to deliver right? Follow me.¡± Oracle


    He leads me into a room with nothing but a giant spell circle, one that I recognize, a teleportation circle.


    ¡°Why do you have something like this here?¡± jack


    ¡°As much as I¡¯m sure you would be fascinated by the inner workings of the library, I am not going to go into them with you, as I am needed in about five minutes. Now, let¡¯s get on with things shall we?¡± oracle


    I step into the center of the portal and wait for oracle to finish his preparations.


    ¡°I am going to send you to the circle closest to your hometown, normally you would need someone on the other side to accept the teleport, but here we have a unique bypass.¡± Oracle


    I do not get a chance to comment on that as I feel my body, mind, and soul being sucked away to a distant location, not an unfamiliar feeling, but also not a pleasant one. The first time I used one of these I vomited, which is pretty normal.


    I awake what feels like a moment latter, but can¡¯t be shorter than thirty seconds, feeling noxious. Roughly a minute latter my vision clears up and I see Cath, just standing there.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to get back so quickly, although being able to teleport here likely helped. How did you manage that by the way, I thought that there had to be someone on this end to receive you.¡± Cath


    ¡°That can be bypassed if you know the right people.¡± Jack


    ¡°We will, we can discuss that latter. For now I have a report of our recent activities ready back at HQ.¡± Cath


    ¡°What are we waiting for then?¡± jack


    ¡°You, actually.¡± Cath


    We head over to HQ, which turns out to be the ex mayor¡¯s house. Who has actually been dead for months, I killed him and the rest of the government covered it up.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I am lead into the room I snuck into last time I was here, where I find Mathew, rose, and a number of other high ranking officers, along with several important members of the mafia, including the boss.


    ¡°Now that everyone is finally here I would like to formally start the meeting¡± Mathew


    ¡°Ahh, yes. The report of our recent activities.¡± Unnamed officer


    ¡°The integration of our two factions went astonishingly smoothly, there were very few complaints from anyone, I believe your display of power earlier was a great help.¡± Cath


    ¡°Good, good. And the dungeon subjugation?¡± jack


    ¡°We have conquered 85 of the dungeons; the total number known is around 300 and increasing every day. Most are small and weak, but it is difficult to find the core, making progress more difficult than we would like.¡± Unnamed officer #2


    ¡°And what have you done with the cores once you have removed them?¡± jack


    ¡°We have stored them in the treasury, which is guarded constantly by my best men.¡± Boss


    ¡°Good, although it would be better used if you used them to store mana for your mages, as they make excellent batteries. Only give them to mages you can trust though, as they are a very valuable resource.¡± Jack


    ¡°That isn¡¯t all to report about the dungeons; a few of the dungeons, 7 so far, have offered to work with us in exchange for their lives and relative freedom. We have taken them up on this offer as we see no reason to turn down a source of resources that is not actively trying to kill us.¡± Unnamed officer


    ¡°So many? I¡¯m surprised, dungeons tend to value their freedom only slightly less than their lives. The vast majority wouldn¡¯t even consider something like that. From now on do not destroy any dungeon that has a particularly valuable resource in it, even in small quantities, unless absolutely necessary. How is the treasury doing?¡± jack


    ¡°We have roughly three hundred thousand jaers in liquid assets, and closer to the tens of millions in resources, dungeon diving is surprisingly lucrative.¡± Cath


    ¡°No, it¡¯s just the scale that is lucrative; it is hard to get by as a small party in this business.¡± Jack


    ¡°That is everything major to report, there are a couple other minor things of interest to report. For example the immigration of several groups from your home town, the most prominent of which being a group calling themselves ¡®the silver sisters¡¯.¡± Mathew


    ¡°I am satisfied by your results. Although I have one more question, what is the current state of combat ready people?¡± jack


    ¡°Lower than I would like, but satisfactory given the circumstances. The total number of combat ready men and women is hovering around one thousand, with many more going through training programs to get them ready for combat.¡± Cath


    ¡°I want you to allow everyone who is ready for combat to sign up for optional training. You will pick the most promising among the volunteers and from them I will pick one hundred people to undergo this optional training. I will leave in two days with the selected people.¡± Jack


    ¡°That can be arranged, although the slackers will have to pick up the pace a little we shouldn¡¯t have too many problems.¡± Unnamed officer # 2


    ¡°One last question for Mathew, how are your kids?¡± jack


    ¡°Good, they are doing good.¡± Mathew


    End Chapter 68

 Background chapter: asmodeus

    Background chapter: asmodeus


    I was born a greater imp, and managed to get lucky enough during my life for two evolutions, into a greater devil. I was a chef in my last life, that¡¯s all I remember about it. I was born too two wild greater imps, and was captured to be used as a slave when I was only a week old, it was while I was a slave that I evolved into a devil.


    My first week of this life was pretty standard, kill things to eat. That was pretty much it. it was while I was out hunting with some other imps of my generation that we got ambushed by a group of slavers. After that I never saw the other imps again.


    After a month of training in the basics of reading, magic, and household chores I was sold to an old nekotar who wanted some help around the house. After a few months in her service she discovered my talent with magic, and took up educating me in many forms of magic. I was fascinated by magic, desireing to learn as much about it as I could.


    During this time I evolved into a devil, which greatly excited me. I could feel mana pulsing through me where as an imp it was a best a trickle. Naturally I did something stupid, I tried to cast a spell using as much mana as I could, and it backfired, I lost consentraion and so I lost control of the mana which them exploaded out at various points of my body. Luckily I had managed to move most of the mana to my skin so the damage wasn¡¯t life threatening, but having all of your skin and some of the muscle underneath ripped of of your body all at once is increadibly exrutaiting. The old nekotar, after hearing the explosion, found me lying still in a puddle of my own blood, I had fainted due to the pain.


    A week of treatment latter and I was back on my feet, although now I was no longer allowed to practice magic on my own.


    As the years went by I could tell that my master was getting older, she started to lose track of things and had trouble seeing. Eventually she was completely bedridden, no magic she could get a hold of could cure old age. The average nekotar lives around 150 years old, she was approaching the end of her second century. A week after her two hundred and first birthday the slave colar around my neck shattered, which only happens when the master dies, or sets a slave free. At that moment I sat down and cried.


    The next morning I found her dead in her bed, with a smile on her face. What she was think as she approached the end of her life I will never know, but I burned her body, along with her house. It was what she asked me to do only a month before.


    I decided to start working as a freelance mage, basicly people pay me to do things with magic that they either can¡¯t do or don¡¯t want to do. It wasn¡¯t the most stable or enjoyable work, but it allowed me to eat and occasionally do something fun. One day I was just fed up with this type of life and decided to join the military.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    The first couple months were difficult, to say the least. I had never worked so hard in my life, at night I barely made it to my bunk before I would pass out, every morning I woke up all of my muscles ached until I streached them out, when I got a day off I I didn¡¯t even wake up. After a while I got used to It however, the exercises that before were agony distilled were now a comfortable warm up.


    After three months I saw my first battle, a small dungeon dive. The necromancer in charge of support got himself killed on the second floor, and the captain in charge of our group of recruits wouldn¡¯t let us retreat, so we had to press forward. The dungeon only had five floors, it was a young one that had been tamed only a month before, so it shouldn¡¯t have been too difficult, assuming we had a necromancer.


    Almost as soon as the necromancer died most of the undead he was supporting started to die off, but the ones that didn¡¯t got more powerful. At the time I didn¡¯t understand what was going on but now I do, when a necromancer dies one of two things happen to his undead, they rot or they don¡¯t. when they rot all of the mana that supports their life leaves their body, the necromancer is no longer present to seal it in and replace it. when they don¡¯t rot they can absorb the mana being released from the other undead very easily, it is something natural undead do to stay alive but because of where it comes from these undead can absorb it much easier. But enough of that tanget.


    We had to fight off both the powered up undead and the dungeon¡¯s creatures, we didn¡¯t have many casualties but we did have many injuries. Roughly a third were uncapable of fighting, but they couldn¡¯t leave. We had to either beat the dungeon or die, if we left early we would be chased off of this continent.


    The dive that was supposed to take us all of two days took us two weeks, and we lost a little more than half of our numbers, a total of fifty people died. When the man in charge of training recruits recived the report, he just sighed. We had all passed the test, with flying colors in fact.


    That night no one was celebrating, everyone had lost a friends, some reletives, one man even lost his twin sister, he killed himself within the week. The next day I was transferred over to the front lines to do grunt work, the same stuff all new recruits do before they prove themselves.


    We were currently at war with our neighboring country, had been for decades. I had to take part in semi-frequent raids on our neighbor, as well as defend against their attacks. During this time I met the love of my life, a succubus named Lilith.


    We fought together, side by side. We had a sort of competition going on between the two of us, who could kill more during a raid, the loser bought the winner drinks. On our days off we would meet up and go dungeon diving or go out to dinner at a local restraint.


    I truly enjoyed the time I spent with her, but as you know it didn¡¯t last. I won¡¯t go into how she died, you already know what I know, but that is enough for now, perhaps you¡¯ll hear the rest of the story latter, perhaps not.


    Background chapter: asmodeus

 Chapter 69: unrelated title

    Chapter 69


    The first thing I did was find the craftsmen and instruct them to start turning the dungeon cores into various forms of jewelry, smaller ones were turned into rings, and midsized ones were turned into bracelets and chokers, while the largest were turned into pendants.


    After I was done with that I decided to check out the treasury, to get a better understanding of the resources that was contained within. I found everything was well organized, everything organized into a couple of difrent groups, with each group further separated. The largest groups were metals and parts of creatures, another mentionable group was gemstones. There were a lot of weapons but most of them were almost completely useless, it is possible to process this stuff to make some great gear, but we currently don¡¯t have someone with the necessary skills to do so, a problem that will have to be amended if we want to continue to profit from dungeon diving.


    After a brief glance of the resources it seems that cath¡¯s estimate on the value of everything here is pretty accurate. While I was passing the gemstones I noticed something that caught my eye, a sizable pile of soul stones, reaching up to my waste. Normally they are useless unless you are either an enchanter, soul mage, or mind mage, of course you can eat them, but that is a huge waste of money as I recently found out, the amount money that you can get for selling one can be used for other, much more effective methods to increase your power. seeing so many in one place is a rarity, of course most of them are very small, about the size of my pinky nail. There are a couple of larger sizes but not many. I turn towards the guard that was instructed to escort me, useless for defense as I am significantly stronger than him but he is a good source of information.


    ¡°How did you get a hold of so many soul stones, they aren¡¯t exactly common.¡± Jack


    ¡°We usually get at least one from every full dive, regardless of if we take out the core or not. Usually get more when we also get the core.¡± Guard


    ¡°Can you call either Mathew or cath, either one will do.¡± Jack


    ¡°Certainly¡± guard


    I only have to wait for roughly ten minutes before Mathew shows up. He sends the guard away before looking too me.


    ¡°So you called for me?¡± Mathew


    ¡°I am willing to help you dispose of your collection of soul stones.¡± Jack


    ¡°And how would you do that¡± Mathew


    ¡°I am willing to reach into my personal finances to purchase them in bulk, I can¡¯t offer as much as if you were to sell them individually but I doubt there will be another buyer for a while.¡± Jack


    ¡°they¡¯re not doing much just sitting here, so take them.¡± Mathew


    I pull out several decent quality weapons and armors that I have collected through the years as well as several thousand jaers, a total value of about two thirds of retail value of the soul stones.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    ¡°this is an acceptable trade, definitely much more useful, if that is all I will be leaving.¡± Mathew


    ¡°yeah, if you get ahold of any more I will buy them for personal use.¡± Jack


    I collect my soul stones as Mathew leaves and head to the room that was provided to me. I have some ideas for how to use them.


    The first thing I do is sit down and observe one of the smaller stones, I feel like something is off with them. I continue to observe them for several hours only to be interrupted by a maid calling me too dinner. I feel like I have made a small amount of progress, but not quite enough.


    I go down to dinner where Mathew, his wife and kids, and Cath are already gathered.


    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, if we hit that group of dungeons we will be open for an attack, just like last time, we should take out a few more dungeons first.¡± Mathew


    ¡°I agree, but these four dungeons should be a priority target, they are the biggest threat to us.¡± Cath


    ¡°Which would make them the ones that have to greatest potential to benefit us.¡± Jack


    ¡°Ah, Jack, I wasn¡¯t sure if you would be joining us, so we started without you.¡± Mathew¡¯s wife


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, as I was saying, with dungeons, as you no doubt know already, the strong they are the more profit you can gain from them. If those four dungeons are the strongest around here then you should keep them alive, don¡¯t leave them alone, instead use them as a training ground for more elite soldiers. That should keep them suppressed enough so they are not a threat.¡± Jack


    The two brothers give me a thoughtful look before nodding to each other.


    ¡°That should work.¡± Mathew


    I sit down and as a maid places a dish, something that looks suspiciously like kraken soup.


    ¡°Is this kraken?¡± jack


    ¡°Yes, it was a floor boss of a water themed dungeon that was cleared the other day.¡± Maid


    ¡°Not bad, this is quite the delicacy in many places.¡± Jack


    ¡°we have plenty of food to go around, and there is no way we would be able to sell this stuff before it could spoil, and preserving it takes more resources than we could get from selling it, so might as well eat it ourselves. The team that brought it back got their due reward.¡± Cath


    The oldest child, who until then had been talking with the other kids, turned to me to ask a question.


    ¡°Can you show us some magic?¡± oldest


    At this the other children¡¯s eyes light up.


    ¡°Please, please, please.¡± Younger children


    ¡°they have been wanting to see some magic for a while now, when they heard you were here they last time they begged me to let them see you so they could beg to see some magic but you had already left.¡± Mathew


    ¡°Alright, alright. I guess I can show you a few tricks¡± jack


    ¡°yay!¡± all children


    For the remainder of the meal I show the children some simple magic, and even managed to teach them a few, namely basic healing and creating small lights. Mathew and his wife were happy with the chance to take a break for themselves, not that I blame them, between kids and work they must not have much free time.


    When they kids went to bed, around 6, I decided to retire to my room myself. Once in my room I pulled out a different, small soul stone. This time I decided to compare it to my own soul. On the surface it appeared pretty normal, yes there were differences, but not to the level that it was surprising, all souls have some differences when compared to each other. It wasn¡¯t until I looked deeper into the soul that I started to notice something, I feel like the difference is right under my nose. It wasn¡¯t until around midnight that I managed to figure it out, the soul stone had no core, while my mind and soul both had a core, upon further observation of those cores they seemed to be linked in a way that would be impossible to break. I decide to avoid experimenting on myself with this core as I have no idea what could happen if I do something stupid with it. I put the soul stone back in my inventory and decide to get some sleep, it has been a couple days since I have slept after all.


    End chapter 69

 chapter 70: A rabbit

    Chapter 70


    I woke up in the morning and headed out to the forest, I needed a creature to experiment with. It only took me about five minutes before I came across a den of horned rabbits, a rather weak beast. I flushed them out of the den by instilling an immense sense of fear in them. As they came running out I captured them using a net, most of them got away, but that¡¯s fine, the twenty I successfully captured will do.


    I put the rabbits to sleep and put them in a bag, unfortunately most are so weak that they would die within five minutes in my inventory so I have to carry them in another way. The bag I¡¯m carrying attracts a few eyes on my way back, but no one says anything.


    I move to the privacy of the room I was provided and pull a rabbit out of the bag. I keep it asleep while I try to feel the core of his soul, it doesn¡¯t take too long to find as I know what I am looking for. When I start to move it around, which surprisingly causes the rabbit to stir. I pause and put the rabbit to sleep again. This time I try to remove the core from the rest of the soul, this time the rabbit immediately wakes up and starts to struggle, violently, to the point of self harm. I have to break it¡¯s neck before I can finish.


    It takes me three full minutes in order to successfully remove the core from the soul, with the rabbit fighting me every step of the way, which is surprising, I¡¯m not used to creatures this weak being able to struggle against me. When the core leaves the soul the rabbit stops resisting, and finishes dying. At that point I can no longer sense the core, like it has completely disappeared. In all likelihood it has already entered the cycle of reincarnation, leaving the rest of the soul behind.


    I try to sense the rest of the soul, and to my joy I find it, crystallized into a soul stone. The soul stone is tiny, smaller than the smallest soul stone that I had purchased from the treasury, but that is not important, what is important is that I now know how to make soul stones without relying on random chance.


    I decide to experiment with the rest of the rabbits before they die, which is only around 3 hours. The majority of the experiments are a failure, but one produces some interesting results. I took two of the rabbits and tried to force their souls together, it worked, at first. They reacted violently too each other. Both of them woke up and started attacking each other, I did nothing to stop them, while they clash their souls are also attacking each other. I feel no anger coming from either of them; I feel fear, and desperation. Eventually one dies, and its souls core is expelled from the soul, leave only the victors.


    The rabbit looks at me with a level of intelligence that one wouldn¡¯t expect of such a weak beast. Too my surprise I can feel it touch my soul, and then pull away. Smiling, I pull out one of the last five rabbits and wake it up before placing it in front of the other rabbit.


    The rabbit from before glances at me for a moment before looking at the rabbit I just put down. After a moment I can feel its soul attack the rabbit. This time the fight doesn¡¯t even last a minute, the weaker rabbit dies and has its souls absorbed. I get an expectant look from the rabbit, and I get a sense of hunger from him. I put down the last four rabbits and wake them up. The fighting starts almost immediately, and the stronger rabbit struggles against the other four, until it impales one of the four with it¡¯s horn, after that the other three die very quickly.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The last remaining rabbit lays down and goes to sleep, It slowly begins to change, it grows larger and it¡¯s fur slowly gets darker. I watch it for a couple minutes before pulling out a soul stone, I try to absorb it and succeed after a couple minutes. The experience is painful, I can feel my soul being expanded slightly.


    I smile as I pull out another soul stone and absorb it. I continually absorb soul stones for several hours, stopping briefly to send a maid away when she calls me too lunch, stating that I was busy and did not want to be disturbed. I stopped absorbing soul stones after six hours because the rabbit had woken up, by this time I had absorbed roughly twenty percent of my soul stones. The rabbit stood up and looked at me with a cool intelligence, as if he was appraising me.


    When his soul reaches out to touch mine he is shocked, my soul has grown stronger since he went to sleep. As he does not understand language he speaks to me telepathically using a stream of ideas. He wants me to help him become stronger, in exchange for his service. I agree and have him follow me.


    On our way out Mathew stops to talk with me for a moment and I have to tell the rabbit not too attack anyone until I say so.


    ¡°I heard what sounded like a rabbit fight coming from your room, a sport I personally enjoyed playing with my brother when we were younger.¡± Mathew


    ¡°I was testing out a couple theories of mine, and this was the result.¡± Jack


    I gesture to the rabbit


    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a rabbit quite like it, maybe you¡¯ll enter it into the competition this afternoon?¡± Mathew


    ¡°What competition?¡± jack


    ¡°you don¡¯t know? I thought for sure that Cath would have told you.¡± Mathew


    ¡°I had asked not to be disturbed today.¡± Jack


    ¡°ah, that explains it, anyway people are capturing low ranking creatures from the dungeons and the forests around here and having them fight, it has become a particularly popular event around here recently. Anyway, the entry fee is three hundred jaers and the first place prize is eighty percent of the total entries ten percent for second, with the last ten percent going towards the treasury.¡± Mathew


    I ask the rabbit if he wants to participate, after a moment of explanation he agrees. I take out three hundred jaers and hand them over.


    ¡°Sign me up.¡± Jack


    ¡°I will see too it¡± Mathew


    After we say our goodbyes I take the rabbit back out to the forest, to the same burrow where I got him from, after a brief explanation I let him loose, he enters the burrow and proceeds to absorb the soul¡¯s of every rabbit he can. In less than an hour he has killed almost all of the rabbits in the burrow, a few managed to escape, but not many.


    I praise the rabbit and we go out to find other creatures for him to hunt, in the end he hunts a couple deer, a slime, a small party of goblins, a boar, a monkey, and even a couple wolves. He showed some basic skill in stalking and ambush hunting, able to use his soul to mask his own presence, something I didn¡¯t even consider.


    On our way back I tame him and ask if he has a name, he thinks for a moment before referring to himself as a hunter, so I¡¯m just going to call him hunter. It turns out he is a species known as horned soul eater rabbit.


    All in all we spent three hours hunting before returning, we have roughly an hour before the fight tonight and tomorrow is a busy day, so I decide to get some rest.


    End chapter 70

 chapter 71: home again

    Chapter 71


    The fight was, underwhelming, to say the least. The only creature that could survive more than a minute of hunter toying with them was the one that came in second place, some sort of giant hell hog that sprayed acid out it¡¯s rear end. The fight was mildly interesting, the smell however was awful.


    After the fight I receive 25920 jaers, as there were one hundred and eight participants, in addition to many offers to purchase him, all such offers I declined.


    Hunter offered his gratitude for the feast that had been laid out, which doesn¡¯t surprise me as he had managed to consume the souls of every creature that died. He didn¡¯t grow in strength much but every little bit counts. With that thought I tried offering him a soul stone but he rejected it with the image of rotten meat and watched with a look of disgust as I absorbed it.


    With a brief exchange with Mathew and cath I retired to my room for the night, I wanted to spend more time absorbing soul stones, and hunter needs sleep. The night went by rather quickly for me, very little of note happened. for one i have absorbed roughly half of the soul stones I had purchased, and I feel like I am on the verge of some form of breakthrough, like I only need a small push in order achive something, I don¡¯t know what.


    Unfortunently morning came too soon, and I have duties to attend too today, Namely chosing the one hundred people that will undergo training on the mountain. I head to the dinning room at the request of a maid and eat breakfast quickly as, according to Mathew, cath has everything prepared for me already.


    It doesn¡¯t take long to find the location Mathew described, mostly because I had been there before many times, it was a makeshift training center that used to be a public gym. Apon entry I saw cath drilling some three hundred people. The moment that he saw me he ordered the men and women to stand at attention.


    ¡°so these are the ones you have chosen, I¡¯m impressed by their disiplin. But that is not nearly enough.¡± Jack


    ¡°of course not, that¡¯s why we train.¡± Cath


    Smiling, I proced to walk down the rows of people, with hunter at my tail. I carfully look over them and anyone who particularly caught my eye I would instruct them to stand behind cath. By the end one hundred people were standing behind cath, and two hundred were standing in front of cath.


    Gestering towards the two hundred I speak.


    ¡°you lot can leave, take the day off.¡± Jack


    This is met with a combination of relief and disappointment from them. As well as a rising sense of anxiety from the one hundred people I chose.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°as for you, you are all coming with me. Pack your bags and be back here in three hours or you will be demoted.¡± Jack


    They scurry off in a hurry, within half a minute cath and I are alone.


    ¡°so about how many people volunteered?¡± jack


    ¡°fifty percent, give or take a few.¡± Cath


    ¡°not bad, fancy a spar while we wait, I promise not to use any magic.¡± Jack


    Without a word he unsheaths his rapier, which is obviously enchanted, and not naturally either. I take out a similar rapier, this one naturally enchanted.


    He lunges at me without giving me a moment to ready myself, with a deft flick of the wrist deflect and swing my left fist straight into his face.


    ¡°fighting dirty already, jack?¡± cath


    ¡°fighting clean is no fun¡± jack


    ¡°I completely agree¡± cath


    At that he throws a handful of sand at my face and lunges again. I turn my head, causeing the sand to miss my eyes, which leaves me open for attack. I grab the oncoming blade with my left hand, causing it to start bleeding, and thrust my rapier straight to the heart, only to have it hit something much more solid. Cath smirks and pulls a medal out of his breast pocket, with a fresh dent in it.


    ¡°first blood too me.¡± Cath


    I disengage and whip my now bloodied palm off, the wound already starting to heal.


    ¡°I guess it is time to get serious.¡± Jack


    This time I take the initiative and blink behind him, followed by a short thrust to the back, stopping just after piercing the skin


    ¡°you said no magic.¡± Cath


    ¡°that wasn¡¯t magic, it¡¯s an inherent racial ability, doesn¡¯t even use up mana.¡± Jack


    We continued to spar like that for around one and a half hours, which is how long it took for the slowest person to get back. He managed to win one in every three matches, from sparing with him I can tell that he is a hardened war veteran, obviously more accustomed to large fights with many participants, as opposed to smaller one on one fights. I can honestly say that I was impressed by his skill with a blade. After healing our small injuries I say my farewells to both cath and Mathew, who had shown up earlier.


    I begin my trek towards my home, followed by one hundred individuals. We make excellent time as we spend twelve hours a day in a march, too tired to even complain by the end. As there is no cook and I don¡¯t want to cook everyone eats standard rations.


    While normally a trip on foot could take as long as a week, we make it there in less than 4, during this time I have tried to absorb soul stones, but I found it getting increasingly difficult, so much so that I only manage to absorb ten percent of the original amount more during this time.


    Everything stayed clear of us as we marched, and hunter managed to do a lot of hunting as a result. Something about creatures running away instead of hiding makes it easier to find them, and he is definitely faster than most of the creatures around here.


    I am greeted by the usual sprites and nymphs when we approach the mountain. To my surprise jacobe is with them, accompanied by a particular sprite. He has evolved into a high human, and is significantly stronger than when I left.


    ¡°hey, it¡¯s been a while.¡± Jacobe


    ¡°damn boy, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen her like someone so much.¡± Jack


    When I say this the sprite sticks her toung out at me and giggles.


    ¡°I took your advice, and it worked. I won jasmine over alright.¡± Jacobe


    ¡°I¡¯ll say¡± jasmine


    After that brief exchange I decide to leave the two to their flirting and take new trainees up the mountain. It isn¡¯t long before we arrive at the gates.


    ¡°well, here we are. Welcome to my home.¡± Jack


    end chapter 71

 Chapter 72: god father

    Chapter 72


    The first thing I do is take the trainees to the place where they will be sleeping for a while, and then head home, where I am greeted by Johanna.


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming it went well? Well, except for that¡± Johanna


    I touch the stump of my missing arm, now significantly closer to being fully healed.


    ¡°Yeah, I didn¡¯t take a fight serious enough and some kid got a lucky shot.¡± Jack


    ¡°Well, I was going to challenge you to a dual, but with that arm it would hardly feel fair¡± Johanna


    ¡°I¡¯ll get someone to patch it up, by the way how is aunty?¡± jack


    ¡°She is actually just about to go into labor; Mary kicked everyone out of the room so she could work.¡± Johanna


    ¡°In what room?¡± jack


    ¡°Aunties bedroom, but I doubt she¡¯ll let you in, it¡¯s not like you¡¯ve ever delivered a baby before.¡± Johanna


    Ignoring the second part I run upstairs to aunties room, while it is true that I have know nothing of delivering babies I do know something else, soul magic. I was planning on helping both auntie and the baby keep calm and reduce pain.


    I get to the room just in time; she went into labor just a moment before. I don¡¯t go inside; instead I sit beside the door, right next to uncle, who is too busy gnawing on his fingers to notice me, while expanding my influence to cover both the mother and the child, who has a surprisingly powerful soul, much more powerful than it did before. Luckily the father is an incubus, which is known for their quick pregnancies, which includes labor.


    I use my influence to keep them calm and get rid of as much pain as possible, all in all just trying to make it a smother process for everyone. With my current abilities it would be impossible to reduce the pain too significantly without damaging something, so the amount I can do in that aspect is limited. This usually isn¡¯t a problem.


    It only takes an hour, a very stressful hour for me yes, but it was still only an hour. During that time something I found surprising happened, the child reached his soul out and touched mine, it felt like they were trying to comfort and assist me; unfortunately I didn¡¯t have the focus to attempt to communicate.


    After it is over I just sit there, recovering, I have never attempted such systemic changes while making absolutely sure that there would be no negative side effects, while I am not expending any soul energy to do so, and the mana I expend is neglible, it is mentally straining. After a couple minutes Mary comes out with blood on her apron and a smile on her face, she barley even registers my presence.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°You can come in now¡± Mary


    I enter the room after uncle, who also barley even registers my presence. I see aunty nursing a baby boy, my baby cousin. Unsurprisingly I can feel his soul brush against mine, portraying a sense of gratitude. Uncle looks at the two of them and laughs a laugh of pure joy before embracing his wife and new son.


    After a moment I notice the child touch his parents¡¯ souls, after a moment they both look at him, and then too me.


    ¡°So, you somehow helped out, I don¡¯t know how, but thanks.¡± Uncle


    ¡°Soul magic, it can be used to suppress pain more efficiently than arcane magic, although I can¡¯t take all the credit, this little one did help me out¡± Jack


    After a brief discussion they both turn to me, this time it is aunty that talks.


    ¡°We want you to be little Nathan¡¯s god father.¡± Aunty


    ¡°of course, why would I decline? I should probably leave you two alone for now, I need to prepare Mary¡¯s birthday gift for tomorrow.¡± Jack


    As I step out the door I see Johanna and the old man coming down the hall, with mary close behind, They pass me by without even a nod of recognition. I head towards the dungeon with hunter in tow, I had forgotten he was even here.


    In the dungeon I am greeted by Alfred, who has changed a little, he has started to grow small horns, something goblins don¡¯t do, and his skin has gotten darker. He has obviously evolved.


    ¡°Ah jack, I am excited to share my discoveries with you, although the local goblins have started to notice that something is wrong.¡± Alfred


    Before I can speak he hands me a notebook, the first thing I notice about it is that it is not the same notebook I gave him before, the second thing I notice is that it is almost completely full.


    ¡°I managed to completely fill up the previous notebook you gave me, I have it in the other room if you will give me a moment.¡± Alfred


    As he runs into the other room hunter asks me who the diseased creature is, that elicits a chuckle from me. I explain that he isn¡¯t diseased, only that he doesn¡¯t have a soul, and that he is my servant. At this point Alfred comes back into the room carrying another notebook, which he hands too me.


    ¡°So, you evolved huh, I was curious about whether it was possible for you to evolve.¡± Jack


    ¡°Actually no, I haven¡¯t evolved, these changes are more similar to the changes natural constructs undergo as they get stronger, only without replacing any parts. I have recorded all my observations in the notebooks as you have instructed.¡± Alfred


    ¡°I will look over your notes later, for now I need to prepare Mary¡¯s birthday gift. Go grab me some chains.¡± Jack


    ¡°Gladly¡± Alfred


    I open up an unused cell and bring Elandrel out of my inventory, putting him on a raised platform. Alfred comes in and hands me the chains, which were enchanted through arcane magic too be significantly more durable, expensive, but worth it when you have to keep people who could easily break normal chains restrained.


    I chain him to the platform so he can¡¯t move and put a collar on him. The collar was also enchanted, this one to drain his mana and prevent him from taking in any more. After I have him fully restrained I take out the antidote to the poison that was keeping him unconscious and make him breathe in the fumes. Within five minutes he is wide awake, and screaming. I cut off his ability to speak with soul magic, effectively silencing him.


    ¡°I wonder, how long will you last?¡± jack


    He responds with little more than a look of terror.


    End chapter 72

 chapter 73: gramps

    Chapter 73


    While everyone is upstairs with the new parents I decide to get my arm fixed, there are many skilled healers in the village, they are in high demand after all. I visit one I have visited a couple times before and pay him to regenerate my arm, it costs around 100 jaers, a pretty standard procedure around here. He gives me a potion designed to boost the effects of healing magic and gets to work on my arm, it takes around ten minutes for the healer to finish, but it will still take a couple days for a full recovery, it would have been hours if I had managed to keep the old arm.


    I blink back home, mostly because I don¡¯t feel like walking, and sit on the couch in the living room. I pull out the first of two notebooks that Alfred kept as well as a couple soul stones, I begin to absorb the soul stones as I read the notebooks, with emotion focusing on absorbing the soul stones while logic reads. I start with the thing that is on my mind the most, his pseudo evolution. After not finding anything about it in the first notebook I put it away and pull out the second one, which has information about it on the first page.


    Supposedly the first thing he noticed was the horns, which are now a full three inches long each, followed by his skin slowly starting to turn a darker shade of green, then he started to grow a tail. The tail is an odd one, instead of being controlled by muscles in the tail and around the base it is controlled by soul energy and can even be used to directly attack someone¡¯s soul, and even siphon soul energy from them in a similar fashion as you would drink from a straw. He has also noted that his mind has undergone many changes in the absence of his soul, the most obvious of which being that it is bigger, a less obvious change is that it has become more complicated, more structured, in order to get more concrete information about that I would have to observe his mind directly.


    I wasn¡¯t able to read any further as Johanna interrupted me. She glances at my new arm before speaking.


    ¡°Your being summoned upstairs¡± Johanna


    I put the notbook away, but continue to absorb soul stones, it has gotten easier to do, requiring less concentration, but it is going increasingly slowly.


    ¡°lets spar a little after this, ok?¡± Johanna


    ¡°sure, let¡¯s go¡± jack


    I stand up, startling hunter, who had fallen to sleep beside me, and follow Johanna upstairs. When I get to auntie¡¯s room I find the new parents and their child, mary, the old man, and an Anchient Halfling I have never met before.


    ¡°there he is, Nathan¡¯s god father¡± uncle


    ¡°that must mean you are my grandson, Jack, I have heard much about you¡± Anchient Halfling


    ¡°and yet I have never heard of you, I had assumed you were dead, of old age if not that or killed in a battle.¡± Jack


    ¡°why so guarded? Call me gramps. As for my long life I was lucky enough in my youth to obtain a number of life extending medicins, although I have no way of obtaining any more any time soon. That coupled with my cultivation has given me an unnaturally long life, although if I don¡¯t get a breakthrough soon I will be dead before the decade is up.¡± GrampsSupport creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    ¡°my father has been in secluded meditation for the majority of your life, only even comeing out to communicate with my sister and I.¡± old man


    ¡°when I heard my little girl had given me a grandchild I just had to come and see him.¡± Gramps


    ¡°does this mean¡ª¡° uncle


    ¡°no, I still think my little girl should have married a true warrior, not some apocathary like you.¡± Gramps


    ¡°I AM AN ALCHIMEST, AND ONE OF THE BEST DAMNED ALCHIMESTS IN THE WORLD!¡± Uncle


    This makes everyone go silent, I have never heard my uncle yell before. Gramps ultimately breaks the silence.


    ¡°what¡¯s the difrence?¡± gramps


    Uncle is visably holding back his rage, up until Nathan touches his mind in an attempt to calm him down.


    ¡°anyway, thank you for coming out to see us dad, it means a lot to us.¡± Auntie


    I chose this time to observe gramps¡¯s soul, to my surprise it was rather powerful, even when you take into account his age. to further my surprise, he notices me observing his soul.


    ¡®you know it¡¯s rude to look at someone¡¯s soul without telling them¡¯ gramps


    ¡®well, you¡¯re the first to care, not that anyone ever notices¡¯ jack


    ¡®with how obvious you are, I¡¯m truly surprised. So you¡¯re a soul mage huh, definitely not a cultivator.¡¯ Gramps


    ¡®thank you, you have confirmed one of my suspicions.¡¯ Jack


    ¡®and what would that be?¡¯ gramps


    ¡®that cultivation has something to do with the soul¡¯ jack


    ¡®you are only partially correct, some methods of cultivation do use the soul as a medium to turn mana into qi, but it is far from necessary¡¯ gramps


    ¡°Everyone out, it is time to give the poor girl some time to rest.¡± Mary


    Johanna motions for me to follow her and five minutes later we are standing in an arena.


    ¡°This sparring match will be two out of three, first one to be knocked to the ground loses. Feel free to use any form of magic, even your soul magic.¡± Johanna


    Without waiting for me to reply she rushes at me, ducking low. I attempt to jump to the side to avoid her, but she reacts too quickly. She jumps and grabs my shoulders with her hands before swinging around to kick me in the back of the knees, knocking me into the dirt, she recovers by pushing off the ground with her hands and landing flawlessly on her feet.


    ¡°first point too me¡± Johanna


    With a smirk I stand up, she has definitely improved significantly, but I have also gotten stronger. I dust myself off and get ready again. Before she can react I blink behind her and swipe at her legs, she jumps up over my swipe and kicks me in the side of the face. I disengage by using wind magic to push us away from each other. She lands on her feet and starts rushing me again, this time I use earth magic to make her trip, and when she moves her hands to recover I tie them up with a bit of stone, effectevly making her fall over.


    ¡°second point to me¡± jack


    She breaks the stone cuffs easily and jumps back up, brushing herself off. She grins and charges me again, this time dodgeing the rocks I put in her path to trip her up, so instead I decide to slow her reaction speed, this makes it almost too easy to trip her.


    ¡°Third point to me¡± jack


    When I say this she stands up and glares at me accusingly.


    ¡°what, you did say I could use soul magic.¡± Jack


    ¡°I know, but it still feels like a cheap trick¡± Johanna


    ¡°doing something like that is a lot more difficult than you think it is, you have to concentrate on several things at once which can be very straining.¡± Jack


    ¡°whatever¡± Johanna


    ¡°I think that you should try cultivation, I know I¡¯m useless at it but I think you could be good at it.¡± jack


    ¡°maybe¡± Johanna


    ¡°ask gramps for advice, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll help you get started¡± jack


    She seems to ponder it for a minute before speaking again.


    ¡°so you have mary¡¯s present for tomorrow in the dungeon right? That goblin you brought in has been keeping us out of certain areas of it, says he is using them for ¡®research¡¯ or something, saying you gave him permission to use them¡± Johanna


    ¡°yeah, I have Alfred doing some experiments for me.¡± Jack


    ¡°well, whatever, I¡¯ll see you latter¡± Johanna


    ¡°see you¡± jack


    I head back home and go too my room, it is starting to get dark and I want to continue absorbing soul stone, I feel like something interesting will happen soon, maybe even tonight.


    end chapter 73

 chapter 74: a colapse

    Chapter 74


    It started with a slight twitch in my soul, I tried to stop absorbing soul stones to investigate what happened but I found that I could not. The twitching sensation began to grow and eventually started to hurt, a dull aching feeling, it was then that I noticed something, my soul was shrinking. I tried to move but I found that I was completely paralyzed, unable to do anything but continue to absorb soul stones, so that¡¯s what I did. as the minutes ticked by the dull ache got sharper, an eventually the only thing stopping me from screaming was the fact that I couldn¡¯t move my mouth, by this point my soul had lost a quarter of it¡¯s volume, and I was voraciously consuming soul stones faster than ever. The pain only continued to grow as my soul got smaller and smaller, and the soul stones continued to disappear, but I also noticed something as I was fighting through the pain, my soul was getting denser, substancially so, almost like it was imploding in on itself.


    Shortly after I made that observation I blacked out, waking up with the sun. I had no idea how long I was out. I subconsciously notice the complete absence of soul stones, every single one was absorbed by me.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> congratulations, your soul has collapsed, let¡¯s see what you do with this breakthrough </td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡®I feel different, more powerful, it feels good.¡¯ Emotion


    ¡®It seems like something is surrounding the core, a crystalline structure, I wonder what it¡¯s purpose is.¡¯ Logic


    ¡®heh, check this out¡¯ emotion


    A stream of soul energy comes out of my soul before wrapping around a nearby desk and crushing it.


    ¡®Holy shit¡¯ logic


    ¡®Awesome¡¯ emotion


    ¡®Do you know what this means?¡¯ logic


    ¡®That we can do more varied types of magic with soul energy?¡¯ emotion


    ¡®That¡¯s exactly what this means! Think of the possibilities! Things that are next to impossible using mana we might be able to do using soul energy¡¯ logic


    ¡®Calm down, we need to figure out our limits first so we don¡¯t get ourselves killed¡¯ emotion


    With the time I had till the party I decide to experiment with this new ability. On my way down to the basement I ran into Johanna, who was heading out to help prepare for it. Once in the basement Alfred stops what he was doing, meditating I think, and takes out a relatively fresh notebook to take notes with. After a brief nod to him I sit down and begin to meditate myself.


    I first try to spread out my soul energy as much as possible, with underwhelming results. I then take the soul energy I had spread out and condense it around myself, before using it to attempt to crush myself again to underwhelming results, it feels like the kind of like being submerged in a bath. I increase the amount of energy I use until it feels closer to being at the bottom of a lake.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    I realize a moment latter that the soul energy was slowly being degraded into mana, and ambient mana was being taken into my soul and turned into soul energy, I watch the process for several minutes before attempting to replicate it with my internal mana pool, instead of the ambient mana. This takes me a couple minutes to get right, but once I do it¡¯s easy, and too my surprise my internal mana pool begins to fill up with ambient mana at the same rate it normally does, and the rate that my soul energy is replenishing doesn¡¯t change.


    I try to match the rate at which I turn mana into soul energy at the rate which mana refills my mana pool, which is pretty easy as all the mana I use in that process is either wasted and added to the ambient mana, or turned into soul energy. Next I try to match the rate that soul energy is being created to the rate it is being turned back into mana, which is significantly more difficult as it is nowhere near as direct, I not only have two very different sources of soul energy coming in, but not all the soul energy I use is consumed upon use. It takes around an hour and a half to get it right, only for me to faulter after ten minutes due to something I have dubbed soul exhaustion. This takes me around an hour to recover from during which time I think about the implications of what I¡¯m doing.


    First it helps me to improve both the rate at which I recover mana and the size of my mana pool, second it would help me to increase the efficiency at which I turn mana into soul energy, which is abysmal currently, I would put it somewhere close to five percent, third it would improve the overall quality and quantity of my soul energy, fourth it would help me improve my control of soul energy, fifth it would provide benefits to my physical body due to the constant strain. All of these things work in tandem, the stronger one aspect is the slower it improves but the faster everything else improves and vice versa, allowing me to grow all of those aspects at around the same rate after they have had some time to level out.


    This does come with some downsides however, in the short term it will weaken me as I will have to spend resources there that I would normally be keeping in reserve. And it will begin to exhaust me in many ways, especially mentally; I will need to sleep a lot more in the short term until I get use to it. but my soul and my mana pool with also both become exhausted, making it less efficient to use them after a while, but this aspect comes with an upside, that duration will steadily increase. Where my physical body currently is this won¡¯t have very much of an impact on it for a while. Also, it would require some time and practice till this actually became a viable training tool, as I can¡¯t currently do it for very long, and for now while I¡¯m doing it it will require all of my concentration.


    ¡°if you don¡¯t mind me asking, what happened?¡± Alfred


    ¡°my soul collapsed, forming a crystalline structure around the core. As a result some interesting things happened.¡± jack


    I spent the remainder of the time before the party switching from discussing soul magic with alfread and practicing this new training method. We shared many of our observations, some of his that I hadn¡¯t noticed myself, the most notable of which had to do with my own soul.


    ¡°I noticed how the bands between your mind and soul have begun to get bigger and stronger, and fewer in number, like your mind and soul are somehow merging together.¡± Alfred


    After he mentioned that I took a look at those very bands, and noticed the same thing he did, roughly seven percent of them are gone, and the ones that are left are stronger. I find myself again desiring nothing more than to seal myself off for several years and focusing on improving myself. But unfortunately I have much to accomplish and I can¡¯t stop until I have completed it.


    Eventually I bid Alfred goodbye, as he has no desire to participate in the party, and go out to take part in said party.

 Chapter 75: celebration

    Chapter 75


    Half an hour latter I am outside, helping with the finishing touches, specifically setting up a stand full of wooden weapons. While I am doing this I am attempting to use the training method I developed earlier, with an unsurprising lack of success. After ten minutes I had finished my task and just in time too, as the food was starting to be set out, signaling the start of the party.


    Within seconds the several food tables have been surrounded, Mary¡¯s birthday is a local holiday if only due to the celebrations that accompany it. very few people are willing to miss it, there was even a report of someone killing themselves because they forgot it was coming up and accepted a two week long contract, of course they were turned into an undead almost immediately after.


    Every year the party goes pretty much the same way, almost like clockwork. The first several hours is accompanied by great food and even better booze, with the occasional spontaneous brawl. At dusk the last set of food is brought out, mostly because the chef¡¯s would rather be part of the party than cook. This food is always their best, and this is the only day they make it, I¡¯ve seen blood feuds start over this food. Luckily I don¡¯t have to worry about that as I get my own plate before most other people, being related to the birthday girl has its perks. After the food is all gone the gifts are brought out, too be honest it is little more than a giant dick measuring contest, everyone competing to have the best gift. I¡¯ve seen everything from bizarre sex toys to armies of goblin slaves, last year someone convinced an elder dragon to show up as his gift. Shortly after that it devolves into a giant brawl, several years ago we had a problem with the number of casualties resulting from this, but now everyone leaves their weapons home and uses the wooden weapons that are set up before hand.


    At around this point we usual retire to the house too hand out our own presents, usual not as grand as an elder dragon though. Usually we just give little trinkets we find on our travels.


    The part goes pretty much as expected, only one person died. A couple people challenged me and I got involved with a couple brawls, over all it was pretty fun. The food this year was some kind of giant crab, a mindless beast that some of the trainees stumbled upon during training, they killed it and brought it back, hoping to eat it, only for the chefs to confiscate it. Of course those trainees got their own plate of food without having to compete for it, Mary saw to that.


    I saw the girls and the humans during a couple brawls, I didn¡¯t manage to get a good look at them but most of the humans evolved into high humans. Although something feels, different, about them, I can¡¯t put my finger on it though. Well whatever, a mystery for another day.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    As for gifts I saw many interesting ones. There was a wand made by a sylph turned lich enchanter that was made from dragon ivory and a wood from a tree that was naturally struck by lightning no less than three hundred and seven times. Another noteworthy item was a cup full of a low grade healing potion, what was really noteworthy about it was what happened it was emptied completely, it filled up to the brim with more healing potion. It would be useful for refining high quality potions.


    The gift that got the biggest reaction was something called an age reversal potion; Mary went up and personally thanked the man who brought it, something I had never seen happen before. Needless to say that gift was the winner. I found out later that there are a total of three people in the world that knew how to make them, and they only made twelve of them a year.


    After all the gifts had been given we retired to our house. The presents we give aren¡¯t nearly as grand but that doesn¡¯t matter. Johanna got some chocolates from hell, aunty and uncle got her a blanket that was enchanted to be however hot or cold you wanted. The old man got her a hair tie the keeps your hair clean and looking like it was freshly brushed, apparently she had asked for something similar.


    When it was my turn to give my gift I asked everyone to follow me into the dungeon, where I presented my ¡®gift¡¯. At first a look of shock and terror flashed on her face, but only briefly, it quickly changed to a look of glee and expectation. She asked me for a knife and kicked everyone out, including Alfred, who was in the other room.


    The next several hours were filled with the screams of a tortured beast, in her rush Mary forgot to raise the sound barrier, and no one wanted to interrupt her. I decided to spend my time talking with Alfred. One of the first things he mentions is the fact that he found an interesting specimen today while he was hunting for test subjects. A goblin that can create fire, which isn¡¯t all the impressive, except it wasn¡¯t created through magic. Apparently the goblin has a weak soul based ability, technically magic, yes, but it functions more similarly to a blessing than normal magic. It won¡¯t improve through use, instead requiring some other things to trigger it to grow, and in some cases won¡¯t ever improve. In order to figure out anything else I would need to directly observe the goblin¡¯s soul, which will be rather difficult as it is in the dungeon


    After some further discussion I sit down and start to meditate, focusing on the training method I had come up with earlier. This time I manage to enter a trance, I don¡¯t even register anything I¡¯m doing, I just sort of do it. I end up losing track of time going through the same cycle over and over.


    I wake up from my trance a while latter, still in the same spot on the couch I was when I started. I felt completely and utterly sore in both my soul and my mana pool, I couldn¡¯t cast even the simplest spell with how worn out I was. My physical body was even a little sore.


    Instead of getting up too see how long I was out, I decide to just lay down right there and go to sleep.


    End chapter 75

 Chapter 76: Patron

    Chapter 76


    I wake up too my stomach growling for food, must have been at least a day that I was out, probably closer to a day and a half. I get up and head over towards the kitchen too make myself some breakfast, although looking at the sky it is closer to lunch time by now.


    It doesn¡¯t take long to prepare a sandwich with meat and cheese. With sandwich in hand I head out towards the forest, making a mental note of how quite the village is today. This isn¡¯t too surprising as everyone is probably still recuperating from the celebrations the other day.


    When I get to the forest I walk around alone for a little while until I happen upon a forest sprite, who casually greets me.


    ¡°Excuse me, but do you know where I could find dryad?¡± Jack


    To this she replies almost flirtatiously.


    ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll take you to her.¡±


    She gestures for me to follow her, and I oblige. It only takes five minutes before she stops at the base of a particularly large tree.


    ¡°She¡¯s up there.¡±


    After a brief word of thanks I start to climb the tree. A little bit of magic makes it almost effortless and soon I am standing on a platform in front of a small house. Dryad is sitting on a chair overlooking the forest. I walk up and sit in the chair next to her, looking out over the forest. We sit there for a time, in silence before she speaks up.


    ¡°It is all so beautiful, this domain of mine.¡± Dryad


    ¡°Yeah, it is¡± Jack


    ¡°And yet, it will all disappear if I leave.¡± Dryad


    ¡°True, but that makes this all the more beautiful. You have put so much work into this forest, watched it grow from a single tree into the amzing place it is today.¡± Jack


    To this she smiles a little.


    ¡°Yes, I have haven¡¯t I, and I don¡¯t regret a day of it. If I had the chance to do it again I would, but recently I have grown bored, I don¡¯t know what to do from here, I don¡¯t know what I want.¡± DryadIf you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°and we reach the purpose for my visit.¡± Jack


    ¡°I figured you wanted something, out with it then, what do you want me to do?¡± Dryad


    ¡°I want you to be the patreon goddess of my country.¡± Jack


    At this she bursts out into a round of jubilant laughter, only stopping to catch her breath a full minute latter.


    ¡°I apologize, I just wasn¡¯t expecting that. Why me though? I¡¯m sure you have many gods among your allies too choose from.¡± Dryad


    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I choose you? I can¡¯t think of a single god that would be a better fit for the role.¡± Jack


    ¡°Why though? I¡¯m not that special.¡± Dryad


    ¡°You underestimate yourself. You are one of the most powerful creatures in the world, there is a reason no one messes with your domain anymore.¡± Jack


    ¡°A definite positive but there is no way that was the only reason for your choice.¡± Dryad


    ¡°True, my family and my people also has a history with you, which extends far beyond my life, this would just be the logical next step.¡± Jack


    ¡°Another positive¡± Dryad


    ¡°Finally you are closely bound to your domain, unlike most gods who are free to travel. Your domain is this forest, becoming the patron goddess will extend that domain too include this new country.¡± Jack


    After a moment of thought she starts grinning.


    ¡°Now the question is what¡¯s in it for me?¡± Dryad


    ¡°Well for starters, I would be more than willing to name it in your honor. Every citizen would make small offerings too you. And we would be significantly more dedicated to you than we already are.¡± Jack


    ¡°All nice things, but what¡¯s in it for you?¡± Dryad


    ¡°I already mentioned how your domain would extend to this country, the benefits from that alone are substantial.¡± Jack


    ¡°But any god can offer you that.¡± Dryad


    ¡°True, but not in the way you can, you are already deeply rooted to this land in a way no other god could possibly be.¡± Jack


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll consider it¡± Dryad


    ¡°That¡¯s not even the biggest thing¡± Jack


    ¡°Oh, then what is?¡± Dryad


    ¡°Your name¡± Jack


    ¡°what?¡± Dryad


    ¡°Even the absolute god fears you¡± Jack


    ¡°Yeah right¡± Dryad


    ¡°Remember the greater god of death, Thantos?¡± Jack


    ¡°Somewhat, why?¡± Dryad


    ¡°My family, which was widely recognized as being the best mercenaries in the world, died in the dozens to him, trying to drag him back here. Only for you to rip him too pieces over the course of a day.¡± Jack


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t me that was the forest¡± Dryad


    ¡°Which is an extension of yourself, as much a part of you as your arm is.¡± Jack


    ¡°What does this have to do with my name?¡± Dryad


    ¡°That event didn¡¯t go unnoticed, and it is not the only one like it. People that mess with you don¡¯t live long. You being our patron would deter all but the most reckless from attacking us on our own land.¡± Jack


    ¡°You have given me much to think about, give me a little time to consider it.¡± Dryad


    ¡°Let me know when you come to a conclusion¡± Jack


    ¡°I will¡± Dryad


    With that I left, as much as I would love too I can¡¯t sit around all day, I have other matters to attend too.


    End chapter 76

 chapter 77: hero

    Chapter 77


    The second stop for this day is the new trainees; need to show them around a bit. Introduce them to the various people that will be taking care of training them and whatnot.


    It doesn¡¯t take long for me to find them in one of the smaller mess halls, all clustered together awkwardly like they don¡¯t know what to do. There are a few that are a little more sociable, but most of them aren¡¯t. It doesn¡¯t take very long for them to notice me and look in my direction, like they want me to tell them what to do.


    I gesture for them to follow me, and they do, quite quickly in fact. I spend roughly two hours showing them around, pointing out various locations like my favorite bar and my favorite restraint. Neither of which any of them could afford. I also order them to stay clear of the red light district, under the threat of completely removing any allowance they manage to earn while here.


    When it comes time to bring them to one of the larger training grounds I decide to spar with them for a bit, unfortunately none of them really put up much of a fight. This seems to incense them into a desire to improve, which is part of the reason I chose this lot.


    Towards the end of the last fight a certain group shows up, Joe¡¯s group. As soon as the fight ends they attack me. Joe leads the charge with a short spear leveled at my heart, with Selena backing him up with a buff that I believe increases strength. I sidestep his stab and deflect the spear with a swipe of my short sword. Joe jumps back and the twins take his place, Jacob wielding a long sword, sally holding a tower shield beside him. I step into Jacob¡¯s guard and thrust at him, only to have it deflected by sally, who then uses the opening to shove me backwards, out of Jacobs guard. Jacob by this time had recovered and prepared to strike. This one connected in a glancing blow across one of my ribs. I blink a short distance away, only for Joe too turn and throw his spear straight at me. I let go of my short sword with one hand and use it to catch the spear, which has a surprising amount of force behind it, obviously enchanted.


    The spear vanishes a moment latter and reappears in Joe¡¯s hand as he rushes me, this time with a different buff from Selena, this one increasing speed. I take a dart out of my inventory and link again before Joe can reach me, this time next too Selena, only to have something explode in my face, blinding me. However I still manage to stab her in the chest with the dart, which contains a potent paralytic, similar to the one I used on Elandrel, effectively removing her from the fight.


    Upon seeing Selena collapse Joe throws his spear at me again, this time I just barley dodge, recovering from my blindness. The twins move up on me again, this time I target sally, fainting at Jacob first before stabbing sally in the wrist, removing her from the fight as well. I take another glancing blow from Jacob¡¯s long sword before Joe flanks me.


    Jacob and Joe thrust at me at the same time, and I take both hits head on before breaking Jacobs hand with my hilt in the opening. I blink away and use some healing magic on myself to repair the worst of the wounds before facing Joe again, this time one on one. Joe doesn¡¯t give me much time to recover as he charges me; I avoid the charge only to get smacked in the side by the shaft of the spear. This time I completely drop my sword and grab his arm, bolstered with soul magic I squeeze it, shattering the bone. Too my surprise Joe simply switches to his left hand, while he is obviously impaired he can still fight.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    I smile at him before speaking up.


    ¡°You pass¡± Jack


    When I say that everyone visibly relaxes, and a small team of medic show up and fix everyone¡¯s injuries quickly. After a moment the new trainees burst out in a round of applause.


    ¡°Come on you guys, I¡¯ll buy you drinks. I believe we have a lot to talk about.¡± Jack


    ¡°First can you wake Selena up?¡± Joe


    ¡°Give her a minute; this particular poison doesn¡¯t last very long.¡± Jack


    Within five minutes we are sitting at a bar with drinks on their way.


    ¡°So, about that spear.¡± Jack


    ¡°It is a sentient weapon; it grows through use, although the occasional soul stone doesn¡¯t hurt.¡± Joe


    ¡°And I doubt it is the most interesting thing about you.¡± Jack


    To this Joe smiles uncertainly.


    ¡°And I see all of you have chosen specialties, Selena, I had you pegged for a support role since I met you. And you two certainly work well together.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, that means something coming from someone of your status.¡± Sally


    A quiet nod is all I got from Jacob.


    ¡°And I see all of you evolved into high humans, congratulations. Well, all of you except Joe.¡± Jack


    At this Joe audibly swallows.


    ¡°You¡¯ve improved quite a bit; it is surprising that you haven¡¯t evolved. There is a reason for this, no?¡± Jack


    He just chuckles nervously.


    ¡°Tell me, you¡¯re a hero, are you not?¡± Jack


    With a small sigh, Joe responds


    ¡°Yeah, didn¡¯t think that would get passed you¡± Joe


    ¡°ha ha ha ha ha, this makes everything better. Joe, I will be training you personally. Make sure we take full advantage of your gifts¡± Jack


    ¡°I don¡¯t even know what It means, the title hero of humans just showed up one day on my status screen, and since then I¡¯ve managed to get stronger faster.¡± Joe


    ¡°it means you get to kill a god, and take his place¡± Jack


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do that¡± Joe


    ¡°of course you can¡¯t, you nowhere near strong enough yet, but you won¡¯t be doing it on your own, you¡¯ll have these guys backing me up, as well as me, albeit more indirectly than them. You just have to remember who helped you get there.¡± Jack


    Our drinks finally arrive at this point.


    ¡°How did you get that spear anyway?¡± jack


    ¡°We found a new dungeon a little ways away from here and were the first to clear it; we got this as a result of being the first to clear it. As everyone else couldn¡¯t use a spear it was given to me.¡± Joe


    ¡°And Selena, what was that spell you used against me.¡± Jack


    ¡°An over clocked flash spell, basically I just consumed as much mana as I could to make light. Didn¡¯t seem to be very effective though.¡± Selena


    ¡°No, it was effective, your technique was lacking, but it was effective.¡± Jack


    The rest of the day passes with us drinking together, trading stories and just having a good time. I instruct Joe to go to sleep early, as he is going to want to be well rested for tomorrow and I head back to my house, sitting down in my room to meditate for the evening, to my surprise I find ghost asleep in my bed, with hunter in her arms like she was petting him. I let them sleep undisturbed as I meditate.


    End chapter 77

 Chapter 78: training start

    Chapter 78


    I come out of my meditative trance to find a rabbit asleep on my lap, and a wolf asleep beside me. Seems like they woke up during the night and moved over.


    ¡°Alright you two, I have things to do today¡± Jack


    This is met with ghost wrapping her arms around me. Chuckling a bit, I pat her head.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got to go, I promise I¡¯ll play with you latter.¡± Jack


    ¡°Fine, but I¡¯m coming with you today.¡± Ghost


    Followed by Ghost and Hunter I head over to the training grounds, where Joe is already waiting for me. He is sparring with the twins and hasn¡¯t noticed me yet. I grab a short spear from a rack of training weapons and throw it at him, for him to deflect it with his own spear; Jacob takes advantage of that moment to slash him with his long sword, right across the chest. As he was using a training weapon the injury isn¡¯t lethal, all of them were enchanted to not kill, but it hurts much more than a similar weapon would.


    He handles the pain surprisingly well, using the opening it presented too stab Jacob in the shoulder with his own spear, only for Sally to smash the spear with her shield after it is stuck in. this effectively brings an end to the match. A medic casually walks onto the field to heal them. When they¡¯re done I call Joe over to me.


    ¡°The training regime I am going to use on you can¡¯t be done with anyone else because of your particular abilities as a hero.¡± Jack


    ¡°Such as what?¡± Joe


    ¡°Well, for one, your inability to turn into any species other than human.¡± Jack


    ¡°Seriously? I haven¡¯t heard of that. So can I not even turn into undead or anything likes that?¡± Joe


    ¡°Yeah, magic that would normally turn you into an undead would just heal or resurrect you. And if you replace a limb with a construct it will turn into a human limb, over the course of about a week. Pretty useful if you ask me.¡± Jack


    ¡°But why?¡± Joe


    ¡°Because the god you will challenge is the god of humans, you will be his replacement if you kill him, Can¡¯t exactly have a god of humans that isn¡¯t human.¡± Jack


    ¡°Is there a way other than killing him?¡± Joe


    ¡°Yeah, but why would you bother, he is weak as far as god¡¯s go, with my help it won¡¯t be too difficult to kill him. Plus it¡¯s a bigger risk than just fighting him; if you fail at that you will become his slave.¡± Jack


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s stick with murder, that sounds like a good plan. So what is the first step in my training?¡± JoeLove this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    ¡°Due to our circumstances resistances would be the most effective, but it will be painful. Even more so than the wounds these training weapons inflict.¡± Jack


    ¡°Do I get a choice?¡± Joe


    ¡°Nope¡± Jack


    ¡°Ugh, let¡¯s do this¡± Joe


    ¡°The first step is to make you incapable of death.¡± Jack


    ¡°What? Is that even possible?¡± Joe


    ¡°Yes, I can bind your soul to your body in a way that makes it incredibly difficult to separate from your body.¡± Jack


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming there is a reason that isn¡¯t very common¡± Joe


    ¡°It turns you into an undead after you sustain injuries that would normally kill you¡± Jack


    ¡°And because I can¡¯t turn into undead that drawback doesn¡¯t affect me, right?¡± Joe


    ¡°Yup¡± Jack


    ¡°Let¡¯s do this then¡± Joe


    ¡°Excellent¡± Jack


    I have him sit down and relax while I begin to meditate. Over the course of several hours I manipulate his soul, shaping it and binding it too his body. It will make it difficult for Joe to practice soul magic, but he has no talent with it to begin with, and it wouldn¡¯t prevent him from improving his soul, just make it difficult to manipulate it. this also has the added benefit of making him extremely resistant to soul magic of anyone other than me or someone much more powerful than me.


    After I am done I stand up, seeing that Joe had fallen asleep I wake him up.


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t as bad as I thought it would be¡± Joe


    ¡°This is just the beginning¡± Jack


    ¡°So what resistance will I be training first?¡± Joe


    ¡°Poison¡± Jack


    ¡°Let¡¯s get started then.¡± Joe


    ¡°First I want you to begin meditating on your body, when the poison is introduced I want you to actively fight against it.¡± Jack


    ¡°How?¡± Joe


    ¡°You¡¯ll figure it out.¡± Jack


    He sits down with his legs crossed and begins to meditate, after a moment I produce a poison, one I got from uncle a while ago. This particular poison causes gas, it was used for a school wide prank when I was going to the school in the city. I pour the poison down his throat and he gags a little before swallowing it.


    I turn to ghost who is sitting next to me.


    ¡°I think we should leave him alone for now. Come spar with me.¡± Jack


    In response she turns into her wolf form, which is significantly bigger than it was before, and charges me. I blink over to a stand with weapons and grab a dagger. When she leaps at me, preparing to claw my face I sidestep and stab her with the dagger, only to have it bounce off and for her hair to scratch up my hand. Taking advantage of my surprise she claws my side, knocking me down, before pinning me down by lying on top of me.


    ¡°Wow, I¡¯m impressed, you¡¯re incredibly durable, I would be hard pressed to hurt you.¡± Jack


    Turning back into her humanoid form, she lets me up.


    ¡°You¡¯ve gotten stronger.¡± Jack


    ¡°I¡¯ve been training a lot.¡± Ghost


    ¡°Good¡± Jack


    At that moment Joe begins to shudder, his skin begins to heat up to the point his cloths catch fire and thick black ooze pours out of his pores, only to be burned into ash and fall away. This continues for about ten minutes before slowing to a stop, at which point Joe comes out of his trance.


    ¡°How do you feel?¡± Jack


    ¡°Refreshed, completely refreshed, I haven¡¯t felt this good in a long time. Oh, I got a skill.¡± Joe


    ¡°What skill?¡± Jack


    ¡°It¡¯s called Toxin Purge; it allows me to actively purge my body of toxins, venoms, and poisons.¡± Joe


    ¡°That would explain the black ooze. Here put this on.¡± Jack


    I pull out a change of clothes and toss them to Joe, who doesn¡¯t hesitate to change into them from his charred cloths


    ¡°Thanks, man I liked this shirt.¡± Joe


    ¡°Your skill gives me an idea.¡± Jack


    ¡°Explain¡± Joe


    ¡°The ideal area to train that skill would be a place where the very air is poison, and there just so happens to be such a place nearby, a dungeon.¡± Jack


    ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡± Joe


    ¡°hold on, you¡¯re going to want a shower first.¡± Jack


    end chapter 78

 Chapter 79: dungeon farming

    Chapter 79


    Half an hour latter Joe and I find ourselves at the entrance to a dungeon, A gnarled old door the size of an adult human male. Openening the door causes a viscus cloud of green smoke to flow out, vanishing a foot from the entrence.


    ¡°Follow me, concentrate on your expulsion skill, you will need it. This will be painful, a normal person of your abilities would die very quickly. But there is very little risk of your body being completely destroyed, well at least as long as I am here.¡± Jack


    ¡°thanks for the vote of confidence¡± Joe


    ¡°anytime¡± Jack


    Joe follows me inside, obviously trying to hold his breath. After accidentally taking a whiff of the air he lurches to a stop and curls up into a ball, clutching his chest. I take care of any creatures that approach, they are rather weak but are enough to finish someone off after they have been incapacitated by the air.


    Eventually he recovers enough to move on, with some green bile slowly oozing from his pours before burning away. Unable to concentrate on talking he nods to me to continue moving forward.


    As this dungeon is rather short and I am familiar with it we reach the bottom rather quickly, only taking an hour and a half. The boss is weak as far as dungeons go but he responds very quickly, fast enough that if you just barely beat him before collapsing he would be able to respawn before you recovered.


    ¡°sit over there in the corner and focus on expelling the poison, I will take care of any creatures that spawn.¡± Jack


    With a grimace and a hand clutching his stomach he vomits, which actually impresses me as most people can¡¯t hold it in that long. Even I am starting to feel some ill effects, but I have trained in this dungeon enough to be almost immune to the poison. Although I will be attempting to purge myself of toxins similar to what Joe is doing, I had never thought about it before he showed me it was possible.


    Once he finally sits down to meditate in the corner the boss spawns, a type of monster. It has a face and wings where the ears would usually be, it sucks in the poison before spitting out a highly condensed form of it at you as its main attack, it also has an ear splitting screech which summons other dungeon creatures. It is the weakest of three possible bosses, not very durable, I can crush its soft flesh with my soul alone, which I do.


    I sit down and begin to meditate, with roughly five minutes before the next one spawns. It doesn¡¯t take long to discover some toxins in my body, there are tons of them, probably accumulated through years of training myself to resist poison. I have no idea how Joe is going about removing them but I am going to use my soul.


    Before I manage to make any headway in that endeavor the next boss spawns, a type of vulture beast. It similarly dies quickly and I return to meditation. I manage to figure out several ways not to remove toxins and discover that I don¡¯t have the brute force necessary to do it without skill before the next one spawns a dracolich.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    This one seems different than usual, its eyes glow with an unusual amount of intelligence.


    ¡®Excellent, the dungeon lord decides to make an appearance.¡¯ Jack


    I bow to my opponent and the dracolich doe the same. The dungeon spawns corpses and the dracolich animates them, organizing them surprisingly well against me. This isn¡¯t the first time we have fought and it may not be the last.


    The corpses do not contain souls, rather they are animated through pure mana, much more taxing to do but offers you much greater control. This also makes killing them a little more difficult for me as I can¡¯t just make the souls release the bodies and he can easily repair them if they get damaged, but the number he can control is harshly limited.


    A quick count reveals twelve enemies, including the dracolich. He makes all of the undead charge me with weapons raised, attempting to block off my spaces of movement, likely a distraction for a more powerful spell. I blink towards him before decapitating him with a sword. As the bodies turn back into mana I sit back down to meditate, this time it will take much longer for the dungeon to form a new boss, taking control like that drains it.


    Before the dungeon manages to create a new boss I make a breakthrough, removing some simpler toxins from my body. The abilities of a hero are incredibly impressive; they can improve much faster than the rest of us. If Joe had gone through the same training regime I had as a child he would be truly capable of fighting gods at full strength. He might not be able to win, but they would hesitate to attack him.


    I look over at Joe and see that he is doing incredibly well, managing to remove toxins faster than he takes them in. I walk over to him and get him to stand up.


    ¡°what¡¯s going on?¡± Joe


    ¡°you are going to fight the next one.¡± Jack


    ¡°wait what?¡± Joe


    ¡°better get ready, he¡¯ll be here soon¡± Jack


    Joe draws his spear just as the vulture spawns. A brief but intense exchange occurs in which Joe pierces the vulture in the heart and takes a beak to the jugular.


    ¡°that looks like it hurts.¡± Jack


    Unable to speak, he just flips me off.


    ¡°come on, stand up, losing all the blood in your body isn¡¯t going to kill you.¡± Jack


    He just glares at me hatefully.


    ¡°burn it, a little bit of fire magic will take care of the bleeding much faster than healing magic, scars can be taken care of latter.¡± Jack


    Gritting his teeth, he seals his wound with some rather inefficient fire magic. Obviously he hasn¡¯t put much effort into it.


    ¡°Ouch¡± Joe


    ¡°I told you this would be painful, this is just the start.¡± Jack


    I take out a couple healing potions and hand them over to Joe, who puts them in his own inventory before looking at me questioningly.


    ¡°These should patch you up if you get too beaten up, don¡¯t take them all at once though, they have diminishing effects¡± Jack


    ¡°Ok, I get that but why?¡± Joe


    ¡°Resistances are useless if you can¡¯t use them in a fight.¡± Jack


    ¡°Why am I not surprised?¡± Joe


    With a grin I sit down to meditate. I manage to make decent progress, at this rate it will take a month the flush everything out, but my body will be come much stronger as a result. No, not so much stronger as it is I would be able to access more of my bodies¡¯ strength, there would be less holding it back. Another positive is my poison tolerance will go way up, who cares about getting drunk when you can take poison made by gods specializing in poison and live. I should thank Joe sometime, I never would have thought of this on my own without a lucky break.


    I spend the next several hours refining my technique before I am interrupted by a desperate gurgle from Joe, who is currently in three major pieces, over a fading dracolich. Surprisingly his soul is still attached to all three pieces, which undeniably is causing him agonizing pain.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry; I can¡¯t help you with that, a mild burn or cut maybe, but not that.¡± Jack


    A pleading look is all I get from him.


    ¡°alright, alright, I¡¯ll take you to the best healer I know.¡±


    I take a large cloth sack and gather up all the pieces of Joe before heading out unimpeded from the dungeon. Time to pay dryad a visit.


    end chapter 79

 Chapter 80: king

    Chapter 80


    Finding dryad was easy, she was still in the same place as earlier, lost in thought. Coming up behind her I make my presence known.


    ¡°Jack huh, surprised you are back so soon.¡± Dryad


    ¡°I need to ask you a favor.¡± Jack


    ¡°Ask away.¡± Dryad


    Throwing down the sack I ask.


    ¡°Can you heal him?¡± Jack


    ¡°Why is this child in pieces, and how is he alive?¡± Dryad


    ¡°He got mauled by a dungeon boss, and I bound his soul to his body.¡± Jack


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll do it, but it won¡¯t be pretty.¡± Dryad


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Jack


    Pretty it was not, I will spare the details but it reminded me of watching tree roots grow, only really fast. In just under an hour he was put back together, albeit pretty disoriented now that he was no longer in emergency mode.


    Speaking to a nearby sprite, a maid of dryad¡¯s, I ask for some tea for the three of us. In no time at all fresh tea is brought, made from a local plant that is good for concentration.


    ¡°So about your offer.¡± Dryad


    ¡°You have time to think.¡± Jack


    ¡°I accept, but I get to choose the name.¡± Dryad


    ¡°Done, I suck at choosing names anyway.¡± Jack


    ¡°Greica, after an old friend of mine, one of the most loyal servants I ever had.¡± Dryad


    <table><tbody><tr><td> Congratulations! You have founded the country of Greica, a militaristic nation. While small, it has the potential for great things. The title of ¡®king¡¯ has been bestowed </td></tr></tbody></table>


    The look of shock on dryad¡¯s face gives away the announcement in front of her.


    ¡°It¡¯s official then¡± Dryad


    ¡°I wonder, what are the requirements for founding a country, according to the system.¡± Jack


    <table><tbody><tr><td> the requirements for founding a country are leading an organized group, holding at least two cities, an internal economy, and a name. </td></tr></tbody></table>


    Quickly checking my new title it seems it grants access to the system information of Greica, and allows me to issue quests to people. I pull up the information and look it over.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>Greica</td></tr><tr><td>King:</td><td>Jack</td></tr><tr><td>Treasury:</td><td>~55,000,000 Jaers</td></tr><tr><td>Patron deity:</td><td>Dryad</td></tr><tr><td>Standing army:</td><td>~9.000,000 basic soldiersThis text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ~1,000,000 ex-mercenaries</td></tr><tr><td>tax rate:</td><td>NA</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>more info will be added as it is relevant</td></tr></tbody></table>


    It seems there is also an option for investing money in different areas of the country, among other things, on another window.


    Overall there is nothing too surprising, except for the ex-mercenary part, but that was going to happen sooner or later anyway. I also have the ability to appoint people to certain roles, which grant certain abilities and other bonuses, like a lord being able to collect money from the people under them.


    Joe manages to fully regain lucidity at around this time. I have more pressing concerns than musing over the system information. Dismissing the window I turn to joe.


    ¡°So how was it.¡± Jack


    ¡°Painful.¡± Joe


    I take a moment to examine his soul, and it has grown.


    ¡°excellent, it seems your soul has grown stronger, my theory was correct.¡± Jack


    ¡°What theory?¡± Joe


    ¡°That your soul would grow as you use any enchantments formed out of it.¡± Jack


    Joe only responds with a confused and questioning look.


    ¡°The thing keeping you from dying is literally an enchantment on your soul, I set it up in a way to allow future improvements as your soul grew in case I was correct that using these enchantments would strengthen your soul.¡± Jack


    ¡°Ok, but why bother, my talent for the soul is miserable, it will improve at a snail¡¯s pace.¡± Joe


    ¡°That would be the case if you were a normal person, but you are a hero, and heroes improve much more rapidly than anyone else.¡± Jack


    ¡°What does this mean for me?¡± Joe


    ¡°It means I can further enchant your soul, any way you wish, I can improve your strength, your intelligence, your life span, your regenerative abilities, even possibly give you certain abilities that you can use actively.¡± Jack


    ¡°What¡¯s the catch?¡± Joe


    ¡°Your soul has to develop enough to withstand these enchantments, and the only way currently feasible for you to do that is by using these enchantments.¡± Jack


    ¡°Meaning I need to get ripped in half more often, or at least take mortal injuries.¡± Joe


    ¡°Pretty much, at least for now.¡± Jack


    ¡°Can I chose at least?¡± Joe


    ¡°Of course, but I maintain veto power if I think it is stupid.¡± Jack


    ¡°Please improve my regeneration.¡± Joe


    ¡°There isn¡¯t much to work with right now, so the change won¡¯t be very big¡± Jack


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, just being able to reattach an arm will come in handy.¡± Joe


    ¡°It will take just a moment.¡± Jack


    Less than a minute later I am done.


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel much different¡± Joe


    ¡°Not surprising, it isn¡¯t very powerful right now. Come see me every couple days to improve it, also focus on your resistances, currently those will be the fastest way for you to get stronger.¡± Jack


    ¡°Can you point me to a good place to train then?¡± Joe


    ¡°There is a fire themed dungeon about a mile south of here that just opened up.¡± Dryad


    With a nod he is gone, jumped off of the tree, a moment latter I hear a loud crack as his legs break. He swallows a potion and starts heading south.


    ¡°Fucking asshole, how does he even afford to spend money on potions like that? And that definitely wasn¡¯t one I gave him¡± Jack


    A brief moment of silence passes before I speak up again.


    ¡°Well, I have things to attend to, and likely you do as well. I shall be going now.¡± Jack


    ¡°Tell Johanna I said to come visit me more.¡± Dryad


    ¡°Of course¡± Jack


    I similarly jump off of the tree, but I am much more durable, and can teleport, negating most of the force. I begin the trek home at a walking pace, focusing on removing toxins from my body. This isn¡¯t a part of the forest I am very familiar with. Along the way I find a dungeon I had never seen before, and I decide to a quick dungeon dive to blow off a little steam. It¡¯s been a while since I have done one purely for my own enjoyment.


    The dungeon seems to have incorporeal type demons, phantoms, shades, and the like. Although not very many of them, meaning it is either a very young dungeon, or a dead dungeon. I move through the six floors rapidly, proving to me that it is in fact a dead dungeon; no young dungeon would have six floors.


    This is pretty disappointing to me; I was looking forward to a good fight. When I enter the boss room on the sixth floor I see nothing but an empty room, not even a corpse. That is until I look again.


    I find a giant, dead, shade.


    end chapter 80

 Chapter 81: goblin

    Chapter 81


    I don¡¯t spend much time in my shadow form for one reason, it is weak. It does have some utility, being able to move through walls is definitely useful, but it is slow and easily injured. Yeah weapons that are not enchanted can¡¯t hurt me in that form, but good luck finding one. Hell I would die just from being in direct sunlight in that form.


    But that is all about to change. Luckily this shade died recently, meaning I can absorb it and use it to enhance my own shadow form, the idea that this is cannibalism did cross my mind, quickly followed by a brief chuckle. I sit down in the center of the room and try different methods to absorb it into my body. It doesn¡¯t take long until I figure it out. What I end up doing is entering my shadow form and sucking it into myself. It is remarkably similar to absorbing a soul stone, meaning it is pretty easy for me. I predict roughly half a day too fully absorb the shade.


    Nothing out of the ordinary happened in that half a day. After I was done I decided to see the new extent of my abilities as a shade. I wasn¡¯t surprised that my blink ability was more powerful, but I was surprised that it was triple to previous strength, meaning the split second it takes was cut in thirds and the possible distance tripled. In addition my normal movement speed in this form is now around my normal walking speed, and light doesn¡¯t affect me as much.


    I was surprised that I was able to remove toxins much faster; I think it has to do with the fluidity of the body, allowing me to move the insides around easier. What would have taken a month before will now take days, unfortunately I don¡¯t have days to spend like that yet.


    ¡®I had better get going¡¯


    It doesn¡¯t take long to get back to the village. By the time I get there it is about noon and everything is business as usual. I decide to go see aunty, uncle, and my godson, Nathan.


    Entering the big house I find uncle sitting in the living room with Nathan on his lap. Both of them light up when they see me. Uncle picks Nathan up and walks over to me, handing the little boy to me.


    ¡°here, take care of your godson for a little while.¡± Uncle


    Before I can say anything I am holding him and uncle is nowhere to be seen. Nathan touches my soul portraying a sense of excitement, and a hint of thirst for knowledge. At this point I am completely convinced Nathan is an ancient.


    After examining his soul a little I see that he has great potential in soul magic, likely my fault. Nathan notices as asks me to teach him about soul magic. I make him swear not to use soul magic without my direct supervision. When he agrees I drill into him just how dangerous it is, as an ancient I believe him capable of understanding the value of his own soul.


    Before I do anything I put a minor easily revisable enchantment on him as a failsafe in case something goes terribly wrong nothing too bad will happen. Yes it will slow his growth slightly, but better safe than sorry. And if he is anything like his parents then that will be a very real risk.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    After teaching him some basic exercises, which he figures out pretty quickly, I pick him up and go down to the basement to talk to talk to Alfred, I want to examine the goblin he found with a soul based ability.


    I find Alfred doing, something, to the mind of a nearby goblin, it looks like a more advanced form of my own soul enchanting. He quickly finishes up what he was doing, which I believe is making the goblin¡¯s strength higher. Once he is done Alfred turn to me and smiles.


    ¡°What do I owe the pleasure of your visit today, your majesty¡± Alfred


    He finishes the sentence with a slight bow that feels almost mocking, which I ignore.


    ¡°I want to examine the goblin you were telling me about, the one with a soul based ability.


    ¡°ah yes, I was actually experimenting with what I have learned from that specimen. Observe.¡± Alfred


    We watch as the goblin stands up and punches the wall, leaving a goblin fist sized dent in it, before doing it again, only for his bones to snap. Alfred puts him down before he can scream.


    ¡°Dumb brute wasn¡¯t able to control his strength and couldn¡¯t withstand it. Need to improve endurance or intelligence as well next time.¡± Alfred


    He writes his notes into a third notebook before turning to me.


    ¡°one moment please¡± Alfred


    It takes almost exactly a minute for him to return, with a red skinned goblin.


    ¡°The red skin has nothing to do with his gift; it¡¯s the tribe I took him from. They all had red skin.¡± Alfred


    I look into his soul for a little bit, stimulating different areas until I find what I¡¯m looking for, close to the emotional centers is the little bit that allows him to create fire, looks like emotion is the main trigger for his gift.


    After think for a moment I decide to see if I can improve it, make it more powerful and easier to control. For power it is pretty easy, all I need to do is refine it and expand it, something I have some experience with. Control is much more difficult, there are a number of things I can try. The first thing that comes to mind is separating it completely from the emotional centers, which backfires; the goblin isn¡¯t able to create fire at all after that. I instead decide to tie it to a part of the mind, which works. It takes the goblin several minutes to figure it out, but once he does he has much more control over it than he did before. After that I spend around an hour growing and refining his ability till eventually the process become so slow that it isn¡¯t worth the time.


    Almost as soon as I am done the goblin lies down, and takes a nap. During the nap the goblin rapidly changes, an evolution. His red skin starts to darken, becoming a much deeper red, he grows horns, becomes much taller, as well as several other things.


    ¡°a variant hobgoblin, impressive. I guess I¡¯ve found my body guard, now I just need to train him.¡± Alfred


    ¡°body guard?¡± Jack


    ¡°I¡¯m weak, and I have very little potential to grow stronger, yes my mind is strong, by my soul is missing, which cripples me in many ways. I don¡¯t regret it, but I need something to protect myself. You don¡¯t have to worry about him attacking me, for the more, interesting ones, the ones I want to keep around for a while I have developed a way to brainwash them.¡± Alfred


    ¡°I¡¯ll let you handle it then¡± Jack


    ¡°you know, I found my soul.¡± Alfred


    ¡°oh, really? Tell me more.¡± Jack


    ¡°it was weak and miserable, I want it, I want to possess my soul. I want to control it, to consume it. But, my mind is not strong enough yet. Can you help me with that?¡± Alfred


    ¡°I can arrange for some soul stones to be sent to you in a couple days, absorbing them should give you a pretty big boost, probably not enough for what you want to achieve, but definitely something.¡± Jack


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Alfred


    ¡°I want to see you succeed, my curiosity has been piqued and I won¡¯t be satisfied till I know what happens. Besides, your strength is part of my own strength. Grow so I can profit from your success.¡± Jack


    We discuss many things about the soul, trading knowledge and running some experiments until aunty comes down for Nathan, who had fallen to sleep in my arms.


    End chapter 81

 chapter 82: tables

    Chapter 82


    Shortly after Nathan is taken from me I get an idea. After getting Alfred to bring me a sedated goblin I get to work. First I try to overwhelm his soul by rapidly adding and removing vast amounts of soul energy, but it turns out to be surprisingly resilient. I make some progress but it is slow, and ultimately the goblin¡¯s body dies, making it useless. I refine the soul into a soul stone and ask for a new goblin. This time I try to attack the structure of the soul itself, try to break it down into little more than energy. But a similar problem happens; the goblin forgets how to breathe and suffocates, among other things.


    It seems I don¡¯t understand the soul enough to reprogram someone from the base up. But this experiment demonstrated that the soul can be deconstructed and potentially rebuilt, I just need to learn more. I again find myself longing for total seclusion in order to improve myself.


    I decide to take a break and head up stairs for some breakfast. To my surprise I find jackline at the dining room table, eating something she had a chef make. I sit down across from her and we have a pleasant conversation, around ten minutes into the conversation she brings up levels.


    ¡°I hit level 90 yesterday, now only ten levels till 100. Hey jack, what¡¯s your level?¡± Jackline


    ¡°I have no idea. I don¡¯t have access to my status screen¡± Jack


    ¡°The only way that¡¯s possible is if you have broken the laws of the world, like your rabbit and goblin, but I know for a fact that you have yet to break any of those laws.¡± Jackline


    ¡°It said a while ago that it was under construction and would be for around a year.¡± Jack


    ¡°oh, I know what¡¯s going on here. Excuse me while I go commit deicide.¡± Jackline


    Before I can react she teleports away. I decide to finish my food, some kind of sandwich, and begin to meditate. About half an hour latter I get an announcement.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> your status screen has been restored</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I pull it up and just stare at it, I have no idea where to even start figuring out what I am looking at. Less than a minute latter Jackline teleports back.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to want to change the settings first, change what shows up, the scale of your stats, things like that


    It took me about ten seconds to find the settings option. With jackline talking me through it I edit my status window till I am satisfied with what I see.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Jack: Level 36</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Active Title: King</td></tr><tr><td>Health: 100/100</td><td>Stamina: 86/86</td><td>Mana: 22/22</td></tr><tr><td>Ki: .00001/.00001</td><td>Soul Energy: 77/77</td><td>unknown: .0000001/.0000001</td></tr><tr><td>Strenght: 75.3 (60%)</td><td>vitality: 100 (20%)</td><td>Spirit: 52.9 (89%)</td></tr><tr><td>Constitution: 60.7 (55%)</td><td>Dexterity: 89.3 (65%)</td><td>Self Control 45 (89%)</td></tr><tr><td>Wisdom: 45.1 (79%)</td><td>Insight: 37 (98%)</td><td>Sight: 20.3 (70%)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Stat points: 100</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Titles</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Racial data</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Settings</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Log</td></tr></tbody></table>The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The stats here are far from all of them, these are simply the nine highest stats I have, with them scaled at the highest one being equal too 100, same with the resources. I decided to round all of the numbers too the tenth to make it easier on myself. I noticed a couple of interesting stats, most of these top nine are self explanatory, but for the ones like spirit and self control, significantly less so. It turns out that if I focus on one stat a description of it would pop up. Spirit apparently represents my skill in controlling the soul, while self control is much more than reigning in desires, it is control of all aspects of the self. If you get it high enough you can control things like your heart beat and other otherwise uncontrollable aspects of yourself, if you get it really high, like in the thousands compared to where I am at, you can change your species at will, assuming you¡¯re powerful enough to maintain the species.


    It seems the percentage beside the number is how much of that stat you are using at the moment, and can be influence by pretty much anything, especially, in my case, poison lingering in my body.


    Focusing on skills brings up a list of all of my skills, and I mean all of them, everything from walking, to knife fighting, to dragon riding. It is impossible to scale these skills, meaning level 5 in a skill is the same for everyone. Similar to stats if you get a skill high enough you can do some amazing things, like walk around the world in minutes.


    Titles is just a list of all the titles I have collect in my life and their effects, useful yes, but this is easily the most underwhelming part.


    Racial data I have already seen.


    Settings just let me change around the status screen and decide what notification I want to see. I set it too show me when I level up, obtain a new title, or have a whole number increase in a stat.


    Log is interesting. It is a log of everything I have ever done that has had an effect on my status. I don¡¯t read over it for very long, I have more important things to do than reminisce.


    Now, stats points are what I am most interested in. I have 100 of them that I can allocate to almost any stat. I decide that I want to use them to improve my power over the soul, so either self control or spirit. Self control would only improve my power over my own soul, and not other people¡¯s. I look over other more minor stats and I don¡¯t find anything that would be more effective for what I want than spirit, so I allocate all 100 points to spirit and receive the following notification.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> due to the massive increase in one stat caused by stat points the increase in stat points will happen over the course of a day, this is for your own safety</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I guess this means that I can¡¯t use stat points in the future to gain a large boost of power in the middle of a fight.


    I decide to spend the majority of that time meditating, using my soul to remove toxins from my body. I feel the power come to me in waves, as soon as I get use to the increase in power it come again. Attempting to observe how the changes occur leads me to believe that it is a type of blessing, meaning the only way to improve it is to level up allocate the stat points.


    Everything runs smoothly during this period, no one gets to a point that they need me and nothing happens that requires my attention, it ends up being a rare calm day, something I likely won¡¯t get again for a very long time.


    End chapter 82

 Chapter 83: hunting

    Chapter 83


    I wake up from my day long trance feeling groggy, it isn¡¯t very often I can meditate for a day straight. My head is quickly cleared with some light exercise, and I feel amazing, I can feel power pulsing through my body like I never have before. A quick inspection of my surroundings reveals the reason, a pitch black bile covering my skin and a puddle of the stuff where I was meditating. My clothes nowhere to be seen, likely destroyed by the purged poison as it was leaving my body. I start to gather up the bile into flasks to give to uncle, no idea what he could do with it, but knowing him it will be useful somehow.


    I spend a moment to investigate my body and soul, with clarity that I have never experienced before, it seems that all but the most complicated poisons have been purged from my body, and while my soul hasn¡¯t grown much, my control of it is much higher than it ever has been before. As a result I notice things I have never seen before, many aspects of the soul that confirm or disprove theories of mine. Overall it hasn¡¯t unlocked any new abilities, but it has certainly made the ones I have much more powerful.


    Before I get up to take a shower something catches my attention, a part of my soul I never noticed before. It seems to be a soul based ability, but what it does or how to activate it will require time to figure out, the one thing I always seem to be in short supply of.


    After a quick shower and a new set of clothes I look for uncle, it doesn¡¯t take long for me to find him in his laboratory, finishing up a potion.


    ¡°Ah, jack. One moment please.¡± Uncle


    While I let uncle finish up his potion I review my status page.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Jack: Level 36</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Active Title: King</td></tr><tr><td>Health: 170/170</td><td>Stamina: 125/125</td><td>Mana: 24/24</td></tr><tr><td>Ki: .00001/.00001</td><td>Soul Energy: 79/79</td><td>unknown: .0000001/.0000001</td></tr><tr><td>Strenght: 75.3 (80%)</td><td>vitality: 100 (90%)</td><td>Spirit: 142.9 (87%)</td></tr><tr><td>Constitution: 60.7 (75%)</td><td>Dexterity: 89.3 (75%)</td><td>Self Control 45 (91%)</td></tr><tr><td>Wisdom: 45.1 (79%)</td><td>Insight: 37 (98%)</td><td>Sight: 20.3 (85%)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Stat points: 0</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Titles</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Skills</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Racial data</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Settings</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Log</td></tr></tbody></table>


    The changes to spirit are completely expected, but the substantial increase in efficiency in all of the physical stats is surprising, especially vitality. I knew it would increase, but not by that much, and the increase in health. I mean damn.


    ¡°Alright, finished, this thing will fetch me a nice profit. So, what did you need?¡± Uncle


    ¡°I just came to drop something off; I think you will find it useful.¡± JackA case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    I pull out the bile filled flasks and hand them over to uncle, who after testing one gets excited.


    ¡°How the hell did you get this? And can you get more?¡± Uncle


    ¡°No, I will not be able to get more, likely ever.¡± Jack


    ¡°Well, whatever, this should be enough.¡± Uncle


    ¡°What are you planning on using it for?¡± Jack


    ¡°This is an incredibly potent poison; if I can refine it I can make some amazing things, anything from universal anti-venom to one of the most potent psychedelics in the world. Of course the problem lies in refining it; it will be long and tedious to refine something this raw and full of impurities into something useful, usually not worth the effort.¡± Uncle


    ¡°I¡¯ll leave you too it then.¡± Jack


    As I leave uncle is gathering up tool and materials, with some pretty interesting things, like a fire breathing flower.


    Almost as soon as I leave the workshop Joe finds me, accompanied by his party.


    ¡°So, can you upgrade the enchantments on me?¡± Joe


    ¡°Fine, it will only take a moment, what do you want?¡± Jack


    ¡°Improved regeneration again, been using it a lot.¡± Joe


    This is accompanied by some grumbling from Selena, something about him refusing to be healed.


    A quick inspection of his soul reveals a surprising amount to work with, he definitely has been exercising his soul quite a bit. It takes me less than a minute to upgrade the already existing regeneration enchantment.


    After I send the group on their way I decide to visit the new trainees. I find them in one of the larger training grounds, running drills. There is some improvement, about what I expected. At this time there is no one that really stands out, no diamonds in the rough yet.


    Hunter happens to be sitting around in the area and hops over to me, sending me thought of hunting with him. Chuckling a bit I agree, telling him we should find a dungeon to invade. In response he has me follow him.


    We head out into the forest, occasionally stopping to kill something. Along the way we find something much more interesting than a dungeon, a ghost. This one resisting reincarnation through brute force instead of surrounds itself in mana or Ki. This means this is the ghost of a soul mage, the rarest form of ghost. Unfortunately this one is more or less feral, it has lost its ability for intelligent thought in its attempt to resist reincarnation. Why it has tried to resist reincarnation will never be known, but there is very little I can gain from its soul, it¡¯s memories are too damaged for me to gain anything I didn¡¯t know already. I could refine a rather large soul stone from it, but most of it would be lost due to how unstable it is.


    Ultimately I decide to have hunter kill and consume it, it will be a massive boon for him. As soon as he attacks the soul I attempt to restrain it and overwhelm it so it can¡¯t resist as hard against hunter¡¯s onslaught.


    Too my surprise hunter leaps at the ghost and impales it with his horn, which causes actual damage to the soul. He takes a second to recover and leaps again, hurting the ghost. Over the course of half an hour hunter completely shreds and consumes the ghost, and he falls asleep to process what he has absorbed.


    I pick him up and put him in pack that I strap to my back. I begin to walk back to the village when I come across a clearing, deciding to stop for lunch I sit down and make myself a roast using meat from some of the creatures we killed.


    When the roast gets close to finished I hear popping sounds and feel the area flood with mana. Creatures flee the area and some plants visibly retreat underground, cursing I blink as far as I can into the forest, just in time too as immediately after a building appears, right on top of my roast.


    I move forward to get a better look at the building and grin.


    It¡¯s The Library.


    End chapter 83

 Chapter 84: Anchient History And The Far Future

    Chapter 84


    I walk up the steps of the library too its large wooden double doors. Opening it I see a stranger sitting at the front desk.


    ¡°Hello Jack¡± Oracle


    Turning to my right I see Oracle sitting at a table.


    ¡°Come, sit¡± Oracle


    I walk up and pull out a chair from the table, sitting in it.


    ¡°You should let the rabbit out of the bag, you might see something interesting.¡± Oracle


    I do just that, taking hunter out of the sack and setting his sleeping frame on the table. He has changed, his previously white fur has turned ashy grey, he is a little smaller, and his horn has a certain quality about it, like it is incorporeal while at the same time being physical. His soul is slightly smaller, and much denser.


    ¡°It is always interesting to see how being unaffected by the world¡¯s laws can affect a creature, they can¡¯t evolve, not in the traditional sense at least. But their bodies do improve in different ways¡± Oracle


    ¡°What do you mean by the world¡¯s laws?¡± Jack


    ¡°I mean the laws that control the world, like evolution and, more recently, The System. Most of the laws tie back all the way to Origin, which decided to tie many of the laws to the soul, hence why goblin and your rabbit are unaffected by them, having violated them.¡± Oracle


    ¡°ok, but what is Origin, I have heard the term a couple times before, but never what it is.¡± Jack


    ¡°Not it, but they. Origin is the origin of all life, at least in this world; they formed by chance while the world was still in its infantile state. At the time there was roughly one percent the ambient mana there is today, they formed from that mana and managed to obtain souls. They had near perfect manipulation of mana and made many things from it, more of their own kind, moved millions of collections of islands into thirteen continents, including heaven and hell which was once one continent, and eventually will be again. They even made the suns and the moons, though not all of them, some have died and been replaced since then.¡± Oracle


    ¡°Suns and moons? Plural? I thought there was just one of each.¡± Jack


    ¡°There are roughly twenty four of each, the absolute god got pissed at the fact that one day a day could be twelve hours and the next three, so he got the gods to make it what it is today. Anyway, back to origin. Their greatest achievement however is the creation of life. All living things in this world are either descendant of the creatures they created or were created by the descendants of the creatures they created.¡± Oracle


    ¡°What about creatures from other worlds, can¡¯t they come to this one?¡± Jack


    ¡°Technically yes, but none currently exist that would be capable of surviving in this world. For one the sheer amount of mana in this world is toxic to anyone that isn¡¯t already use to it, and the gravity of the world is so high that non native creatures would be crushed to death almost instantly. Ironically it¡¯s the combination of those two things that allow creatures on this world to survive; mana is used in literally everything your body does, well unless you¡¯re a troll.¡± OracleIf you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°And trolls are special because?¡± Jack


    ¡°They were one of oracle¡¯s first creations, while there was still very little mana in the environment. Almost all of their abilities are purely biological, no mana involved. As a result trolls are mostly incapable of magic, and are almost immune to all forms of magic. There are troll mages, and they are some of the greatest mages in the world when they appear, being immune to magic and having almost perfect control of mana makes for a very powerful mage killer. Of course it is because of this that trolls were hunted near extinction by the gods and titans, one of the few times they have worked together. Now it is almost impossible to find a troll that isn¡¯t a god, a titan, or in a dungeon. They do exist, but are very rare now.¡± Oracle


    ¡°How do you exterminate a race of creatures that can regenerate from any injury that doesn¡¯t outright kill them and is immune to magic?¡± Jack


    ¡°Simple, trolls bane. It is a poison made from the blood of trolls that suppresses their regerative abilities; your uncle has made some in the past. But enough of ancient history, let¡¯s get to what you really want to talk about.¡± Oracle


    ¡°Why me? Why do you care about me in the slightest? There is nothing I can offer you that you couldn¡¯t get with ease and I doubt you would be entertained by watching my life unfold, you probably already know exactly what is going to happen.¡± Jack


    ¡°Let me show you something.¡± Oracle


    Suddenly the world shifts, and I find myself floating in space, looking down on the world. I instantly realize I am in a dream. I attempt to manipulate it, and fail.


    ¡°Your dream weaving powers are impressive, but they are nowhere near a match for mine. Take a closer look at the world¡± Oracle


    I do just that, and I see many differences. The most obvious is a thirteenth continent; I assume it is heaven and hell. Meaning this is either the past or the future. As I look I notice more differences, it seems the climate in different areas have changed and so have many landmarks, some I have never seen or heard of before and many I have, meaning this is likely the future.


    ¡°Look over at that area¡± Oracle


    I look toward where oracle is pointing and I see a battle begining. It is obvious that many powerful creatures are present in the battle, some of them I recognize. Dryad seems to be leading one side; several people are beside and behind her, including a lich that has the soul I know as Lucy. Among the fighters on their side I see war on the front lines and Jackline using guerilla tactics, spreading death everywhere she strikes. I see several other people I vaguely recognize, but can¡¯t put a name too.


    ¡°Erica Kron, the one you know as Dryad, she starts this war of conquest. This is the final battle of it. Fitting name if you ask me, Erica means ruling forever, and kron means crown. She was born to rule. Watch the battle for a while¡± Oracle


    I watch the battle for what feels like months, and probably was. Dryad, sorry, Erica, seems to have pushed the opposition to the edge, they are fighting with desperation, like this is their last ditch effort. I watch as Erica masterfully micromanages her entire army, with help from the ones behind her. I note that she is nowhere near her forest, and she is much more powerful than she is during my time, she must have vastly extended her territory and tied herself too it even more.


    I spare a glance at Oracle and see a look of longing in his eyes, not at anything or anyone in particular, but at the whole world.


    Looking back at the battle I see it is reaching a climax, both sides have been worn down and now the strongest of both sides are preparing to face each other directly. I can¡¯t really follow what happens in the fight, but during the battle something unusual happens, the world starts to shudder, like it was under some immense force. At the end of it the world cracks, turning into several much smaller pieces. Erica takes advantage of this and finishes off her opposition before preventing more damage to the world in a rather impressive display.


    From there the dream begins to unravel and I am back in the library again.


    ¡°So, what did you think?¡± Oracle


    end chapter 84

 Chapter 85: Plans

    Chapter 85


    ¡°Why show me that?¡± Jack


    ¡°I want to see that event happen, in person.¡± Oracle


    ¡°That still doesn¡¯t answer my question, why me?¡± Jack


    ¡°You have a small hand in bringing that about, you are not important, but your legacy is.¡± Oracle


    ¡°My legacy?¡± Jack


    ¡°Yes, the things you leave behind and the impact you have on the important people are important¡± Oracle


    ¡°And what is my legacy?¡± Jack


    ¡°Perhaps I¡¯ll explain when you die.¡± Oracle


    ¡°Speaking of my death, what is my ending?¡± Jack


    ¡°There are many different possibilities still; I can¡¯t go over them yet. At least not in a way you would understand.¡± Oracle


    I find myself silent for a while, thinking. Thinking about what I have seen and heard.


    ¡°I assume you have a reason to tell me all this.¡± Jack


    ¡°More like there is no reason not to, this won¡¯t impact your actions in a way that I care about.¡± Oracle


    After a moment of thought I get an idea, I pull out Alfred¡¯s journals and put them on the table.


    ¡°Would these qualify to be part of the library?¡± Jack


    In response to that oracle waves his hand over the books, and there are two copies of each. Picking them up I look them over, finding that they are completely identical.


    ¡°yes, they do.¡± Oracle


    <table><tbody><tr><td> you have made a contribution to The Library that has been accepted. +500 contribution points with The Library </td></tr></tbody></table>


    I put the originals away and oracle sends the copies to the front desk, likely to be sorted latter.


    The discussion turns to the soul and I learn much, going so far as getting a two point increase to spirit through the conversation. I find myself wanting to be able to just reflect on what I have learned, without any responsibilities, again.


    ¡°I want to be a librarian¡± Jack


    ¡°No you don¡¯t¡± Oracle


    ¡°What?¡± Jack


    ¡°The Library wants you, but you don¡¯t truly want it. You still want to rule, to finish what you have started.¡± Oracle


    ¡°Is there any ending where I do become a librarian?¡± Jack


    ¡°Yes, there is.¡± Oracle


    ¡°One last thing, what is Cloak of Flames?¡± Jack


    ¡°You think I know everything don¡¯t you?¡± Oracle


    ¡°Don¡¯t you know everything? I mean with your abilities you could figure literally anything out, I have to assume that the only reason you don¡¯t rule the world is because you don¡¯t want too.¡± JackThis tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°You¡¯re not wrong. Anyway, Cloak of Flames is a soul based ability that you have.¡± Oracle


    ¡°That confirms one theory of mine¡± Jack


    ¡°Let me finish, it only activates when you are fighting a creature you ordinarily would never be able to beat, meaning it is pretty much useless for anything other than spiting someone much stronger than you. It has several different effects, not the least of which being almost completely removing any defenses your opponent has. It also boosts all of your physical stats while also causing you damage while it¡¯s active, meaning even if you win using this skill your liable to die. The same damage also applies to your opponent, truly a very spiteful ability.¡± Oracle


    ¡°I see, well I really must go. Things to do, wars to plan. I¡¯ll see you around.¡± Jack


    ¡°Yes, you will.¡± Oracle


    I pick up hunter, who has begun to stir, and leave the library. It is halfway between noon and sunset. I head back home and on the way I think about the things I have learned during these last couple hours. Watching that dream of the future has actually been incredibly enlightening on military strategy, even with that there are many people under my control that are better than I can hope to be. I have never liked large scale battles, preferring the simplicity of an assassination or a duel.


    When I make it to the big house I see Johanna in the living room. I turn to her to speak.


    ¡°Hey, can you gather up all the leadership in the village, I think it is time to start planning some things.¡± Jack


    ¡°What type of plans?¡± Johanna


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe we can conquer a city or two.¡± Jack


    A spark ignites in her eyes and she runs off, grinning. It doesn¡¯t take long several people to have gathered in a room we dubbed the war room a while ago. There are roughly ten people present, myself, Johanna, uncle, The head Trainer, Dryad, or Erica Kron, Asmodeus, and Four other very well respected members of the community. Also the military brothers are using a phone to listen in and talk. The old man and merry didn¡¯t join us because ¡®we were serious when we said we were retiring, if one of you gets kidnapped or dies then maybe, but not till then¡¯.


    We are all standing around a table with a map of our continent on it.


    ¡°Why were we gathered here today?¡±


    I look at the speaker, a dragoon that is a veteran of hundreds of wars and thousands of battles.


    ¡°I figure it¡¯s about time we get this show on the road, I¡¯ve grown restless with this relentless training, and I¡¯m sure you all have too.¡± Jack


    There is a murmuring of agreements around the room.


    ¡°But that doesn¡¯t explain what we¡¯re doing here¡± Dragoon


    Ignoring him I point to the map.


    ¡°This is where we are, and this is the closest city too us.¡±


    I move my hand to hover over the city the military brothers took over under my directions.


    ¡°It is already in our control. This city over here is in a perfect position for a pincer attack from our two cities.¡± Jack


    I move my hand again to hover over another city, this one between the two cities and a little ways east. At this point everyone¡¯s eyes light up, apparently realizing what I was suggesting.


    ¡°I have been in this city, studied it. I¡¯m sure many of us have. Their army is skilled but it relies very heavily on a strict chain of command to function properly. Without it their discipline falls considerably. In addition it is incredibly easy to get a small number of people into the city, it only costs ten jaers for a week long pass in and out after all.¡± Jack


    ¡°I think I see where you¡¯re going with this. We can¡¯t get an army in easily because the influx of immigrants would be very suspicious, but we could get a couple assassins in and take out anyone they can in a leadership position. Then we can siege the city from two different sides, further disorienting the soldiers. We could take the city within the week.¡± Head trainer


    ¡°Exactly, and we¡¯re already prepared, we could move out tomorrow if we wanted. Cath and Mathew have been keeping their men and women in marching condition, correct?¡± Jack


    ¡°Affirmative¡± Cath


    ¡°And we are always prepared for a fight¡± Jack


    ¡°No arguments there. Now the question is, who should we send to assassinate the leadership. I estimate around ten of our best assassins for the job, there are a lot of people to remove in a beurocracy, even one that has a king at the top with the final say on everything.¡± Dragoon


    There is a rather lengthy discussion after which everyone agrees on who to send. I am on that list, while not the best assassin in the village, I am definitely in the top ten. In addition to me is Lynda, because her skill with chains is particularly useful in a city, Lucy, her skill with magic is second to none here, Uncle, it is amazing how many people you can kill with some well placed poisons, Asmodeus, because who is going to argue with a prince of hell. The last five consist of people that have made a name for themselves are very successful assassins, one of them is already in this room.


    All of the chosen assassins are brought to this room, if they weren¡¯t here already, and briefed. There is only one question.


    ¡°When do we leave?¡±


    ¡°Tomorrow¡± Jack


    End Chapter

 Chapter 86: Assassinations

    Chapter 86


    we set off in the morning, with a rather potent blessing curtsey of dryad. The trip there was uneventful, I had to focus on not triping over my rapidly moving feet that I couldn¡¯t really do much else. We stop a mile out from the walls of the city in a forested area to review our plans.


    ¡°Uncle, you need to take out the necromancy corp, yours is arguably the most important job. Without those necromancers there army will be cut down by a little more than half.¡± Jack


    Next I point to three of the five assassins that have managed to distinguish themselves.


    ¡°You three will be taking out the small fry, the guys that actually lead the troops in the battlefield.¡±


    Lucy is the next one I pick out.


    ¡°There is a particular character in this city, an incredibly powerful elementalist, if you can¡¯t take him out then try to cripple him.¡± Jack


    Lydia perks up as I look at her.


    ¡°Here is a list of targets along with their place of residence, kill as many of them as you can.¡± Jack


    Handing her the letter I turn to asmodeus.


    ¡°Do whatever it is your doing, just make sure not to blow our cover.¡± Jack


    I turn to the last two, handing them both letters similar to Lydia¡¯s


    ¡°You two, these are your targets.¡± Jack


    Nodding, they accept the letters.


    ¡°what will you be doing¡± Uncle


    ¡°I will be going for the head, the king.¡± Jack


    Uncle shows a face halfway between worry and pride, before finally settling on pride.


    ¡°If we can pull this off we can take this city with next to zero casualties, on our side at least.¡± Jack


    ¡°And if we don¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°Worst case scenario, we all die, but then again that¡¯s almost always the case, isn¡¯t it.¡± Jack


    As there are 4 entrances, corresponding with the four cardinal directions, we decide to split into four groups for entry, with everyone handling their own entry fee. We all agree to meet up here once our assignments are complete; if any of us gets caught they are to run away in the opposite direction.


    I enter with uncle and we part ways after paying the toll. I go for a stroll down the streets in the direction of the keep in the center of the city, picking people¡¯s minds a bit for recent memories of the king. What I find is pretty interesting; it seems the king is sick. He has called in many professionals but no one was able to identify the disease.


    It takes me a while but eventually I walk by someone that knows a little more about what is going on with the king, one of his butlers getting food for tonight¡¯s dinner. It seems the disease is not arcane in nature but rather spiritual; it is a disease of the soul. They managed to find a soul mage who is supposed to help with it; no one seems to know more than that.


    This worries me a little; an unknown soul mage could be a serious threat to me, I¡¯m still going to kill the king, but there is an increased chance for risk, and profit.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    By the time I am halfway to the keep I feel a very powerful soul in the direction of the keep, stronger than mine. I pause for a moment before continuing, it seems it has not noticed me, but I attempt to mask myself and my soul anyway.


    It seems to work as it doesn¡¯t notice me even as I am entering the keep grounds. It doesn¡¯t take long to find a place I can move through the wall in my shadow form without being spotted. Taking a physical form again I try to hide myself in every way as well as I can, and honestly I did a pretty good job at it.


    At one point I pass by a room with a sleeping fiend in it, out of reflex I search through its recent memories. It seems the creature is a general, why he¡¯s here I don¡¯t care. Separating his soul from his body I quickly refine it into a soul stone and put it into my inventory.


    Continuing on I manage to avoid detection by everyone, eventually making it to a room containing the king, the soul I noticed earlier, and several high ranking personal. All of whom are on the kill list. Observing the soul from this close tells me a couple things, most obvious is that he doesn¡¯t have very good control of his soul, second is that he has next to no experience as a soul mage, he got to his current power by absorbing soul stones provided by the king, third is that there is a massive treasury full of the things underground.


    Before entering the room I take a magical device from my inventory, this one is designed to prevent anything from escaping a bubble of influence; things can enter, but not leave. Also is almost impossible to move while it is on, and can only be turned off when someone puts the right pattern of mana into it, or it runs out of mana. This should keep any servants from raising alarms.


    I blink into the center of the room, activate the device, rip the souls out of everyone except the king and the soul mage, let them all go as I don¡¯t have time to refine them, and stab the king in the heart before any of them can react. I would have ripped his soul out but I¡¯m worried his disease might have been contagious.


    ¡°Y y you ri ri ripped out their so souls.¡± Soul mage


    The soul mage is paralyzed from the neck down in fear for a moment before realizing that his soul is stronger than mine and tries to attack me with it. Smirking I ignore his attack, he obviously has no idea what he is doing. Without a word I work on removing his soul, which is significantly more difficult than most people¡¯s as he can actually manipulate the soul. He quickly realizes that he has no chance to avoid his soul being ripped out so he launches an all out attack on mine, actually leaving his body due to a combination of the weakened links to it and the force behind his attack.


    His attack actually does some damage, nothing permanent but is still hurt like a bitch. The attack leaves his soul wide open and I manage to ensnare it, trapping his recently formed ghost I begin to refine it. to my surprise it begins to scream, something I¡¯ve never seen a soul do before. The scream even manages to damage my soul slightly, albeit not by much. It also takes a very long time to refine his soul, two hours compared to the usual almost instant refining for almost everything else. During this time I try to listen to the screams, to see if there is anything I learn from them.


    I gain no insight to the screams till an hour into the refining process, they are emotional. I believe I have discovered the emotional side of soul magic, what I have been doing before doesn¡¯t rely on emotion at all, but with this new possibilities will open up, at least I think, I have no way of knowing till I do some more studying.


    Once I am done I am left holding the largest soul stone I have ever seen, the thing is as large as my head and denser than any other soul stone I have ever seen. Putting it into my inventory I notice a notification in the corner of my vision.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> spirit has increased to 145 </td></tr></tbody></table>


    Not bad, 2.1 point increase to the stat over two hours. Opening up my status I review the detailed layout of my level and I am pretty close to a level up there as well, I should get one within the week.


    Now, I happen to know, through virtue of digging through other people¡¯s memories, that the king has a single living relative, the heir to the crown. He is a twelve year old boy and is currently begging the chef to give him treats. Unfortunately I have to kill him, I never did like killing children but I don¡¯t want him coming back seeking revenge in the future, that is how most successful assassins die.


    I disable the device before blinking too the kitchen, which is two floors down and a little to my right, definitely within range. The chef had just left the room and the boy is busy trying to steal some pastries. Before he can react I plunge my dagger into his heart, killing him painlessly thanks to the sedatives on the blade. Grabbing him I blink back up to the room his father was in, and set his corpse on his father¡¯s lap. leaving a pastry on his lap.


    End chapter 86

 Chapter 87: Money

    Chapter 87


    I have taken care of my target, so now it¡¯s time for some good old fashioned looting. Specifically what I want is the massive quantity of soul stones located somewhere in the keep, underground according to everyone that knows about it.


    I blink down a couple floors and end up in the basement, where I can feel a large number of very weak souls coming from a room down the hall. I walk down the hall till I get to the point closest to them, and there is door, or if there is it is hidden very well.


    Blinking into the room I see countless soul stones, tiny and incredibly low quality, but there are tons of them, so many that I couldn¡¯t possibly carry them all in my inventory. This gets me thinking, can I refine soul stones into bigger soul stones? I had never considered it before mostly because I didn¡¯t have a need to do so.


    I attempt to do it the same way I would refine a normal soul into a soul stone. It works out pretty well until the stone gets to about the size of my fist, and then the process slows down significantly. Instead of trying to make the soul stone bigger I decide to refine more stones. The process is actually very fast, I can refine the tiny stones into one the size of my fist in roughly thirty seconds.


    It doesn¡¯t take long for me to fill up my inventory with the fist sized stones, and the pile of tiny ones is reduced by half. At this time I decide to get back to work, the armies should arrive in roughly twelve hours, the more commanders we can kill in that time the better.


    A couple rapid blinks latter and I am outside the walls of the keep. I head towards the wealthy district of the city, most of the high ranking officials live in this area. Walking down the slightly crowded streets I rip the souls out of anyone that could be considered an authority figure for the military, not exactly subtle but at this point I don¡¯t care, there are no soul mages other than myself in the city anymore, no one will know what happened to them or who did it till the city has fallen into my hands.


    At one point I walk past a building when I feel many people die at the same time, when I observe it a little closer I realize uncle is in the building, seems he poisoned some necromancers successfully. I reach out to him with telepathy.


    ¡®You ready to go?¡¯ Jack


    ¡®Oh, Jack, yeah, this was the last batch of them; all military necromancers in the city are dead¡¯ Uncle


    ¡®Let¡¯s get the meet up location then¡¯ Jack


    A moment later uncle is leaving the building wearing a chef¡¯s outfit. We walk towards the gate, a different one from where we entered. By the time we get to the gate people are starting to panic, no rioting yet but everyone is starting to realize that the leadership are dropping like flies. There is no one guarding the gate anymore so we easily slip out undetected.


    It doesn¡¯t take long for us to meet up with the couple people that have manage to complete their tasks, and over the course of the next three hours almost everyone makes it back, only one person doesn¡¯t, one of the people that were chosen based on merit. He was captured and executed by one of his targets.


    We watch from afar while the city falls into chaos, at one point the wealthy district bursts into flames. As expected the military is useless without their leaders, they try to help but with no organization they just make the problems worse.


    At one point a young man runs from the city in our direction, carrying an arm load of valuables. I blink up behind him and slit his throat, offering the valuables to the other assassins.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    We wait for several more hours before the two armies show up, from opposite direction. One led by Cath, the other by Johanna. When they see the armies many of the soldiers rush out and try to attack our armies, only to be annihilated. Seeing this most of them surrender, before dawn comes we have successfully taken hold of most of the city. The total casualties on our side were less than one hundred.


    I enter the city from the nearest gate; the soldiers at the gate salute me and return to their duties. I head towards the keep, where Johanna and Cath are already present.


    ¡°Hey, you guys did pretty good work; it made our job a breeze.¡± Johanna


    ¡°My part was pretty easy too, the king was sick, made him really easy to kill.¡± Jack


    ¡°I figured that was your work.¡± Johanna


    ¡°We should have all resistance in this city cleared up within the hour¡± Cath


    ¡°Good work, have someone bring some booze out from the cellars, once the city officially falls into our hands let¡¯s give them out as a reward to our soldiers¡± Jack


    ¡°Good idea, that will boost the moral even higher after this¡± Cath


    Roughly an hour later a notification appears in my vision.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> Congratulations! You have successfully captured the city of Itita, a flawless victory </td></tr></tbody></table>


    Behind that there is another notification.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> You are now level 37. +4.03 stat points </td></tr></tbody></table>


    I pull up my status and put those points into spirit. I then pull up the control panel for the city and look it over, the settings are the same as they were before I conquered it. the tax system was needlessly complicated, why tax the person buying and the person selling? Wouldn¡¯t it be better for everyone if the taxes are simple and easy to understand, like just having a ten percent tax on all money spent in the city? Which is exactly what I put it to; it actually lowers the taxes for most people. I then look over more of the management options, some of what it tells me I already know, the people in the city have always loved the arts, they have some excellent training programs for their soldiers, and it is currently in a state of discontent. The last one should be resolved pretty quickly now that we have taken the city.


    The next thing I look at is spending, where the taxes are spent. The old king had twenty five percent of the taxes going to paying the leadership; I set it down to ten percent. The next part I look at is infrastructure; it was set to five percent, which is actually enough to maintain the current infrastructure due to the work of a previous ruler. I bring that up to twenty five percent, I want to not just maintain it but significantly improve it, as well as build roads between my cities. The military spending is set at twenty percent, I leave that alone. The part that previously had the biggest spending was on the arts, at thirty percent, I reduce it to twenty percent. Ten percent went towards research and development of all sorts, I set that to twenty percent. The last ten percent went towards miscellaneous things, anything that might come up that needs financial attention, I set that to five percent.


    Next I have Cath order the soldiers to gather half of the wealth of the old leadership, leaving the other half for their families. Of the wealth gathered I divide a quarter of it amongst the soldiers based on merit. With the next quarter I divide it amongst the citizens, giving all of them approximately one thousand jaers, for the wealthy this won¡¯t affect them much if at all, but it should be very effective for winning over the loyalty of the poor and the working class. It also has a side effect of calming down the populace. For the third quarter I put it straight into the cities treasury, while the last quarter goes towards a different treasury reserved for emergencies.


    As for how this money is distributed is actually pretty simple. The system does it; apparently there is something similar to an inventory for a countries fund, apparently businesses have something similar. Basically this means that all citizens got a notification that they have been paid and then they can accept the money any time they want, it has already been removed from the treasury. Taxes are similarly automatically collected. A ruler can¡¯t use this to store their own personal funds because of certain risks that come with it, namely it is likely to all be spent.


    With some support from our highly organized military the city is back to functioning normally before noon. As I haven¡¯t slept in a couple days I am starting to feel tired, I look for a bedroom to lie down and sleep in. finding one I curl up and drift off to sleep.


    End chapter 87

 Chapter 88: a Rematch

    Chapter 88


    I am sitting on the crest of a small hill, staring at a tomb stone, I can vaguely make out words on it but I can¡¯t read them through my tear blurred vision. The person buried here is someone important to me, but I don¡¯t know who exactly, was it a mother? A lover? A friend? I don¡¯t know, I can¡¯t remember that much.


    When I wake up I am crying softly, it¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve had a dream of my past life. I sit there silently for a while, contemplating my previous life and everything I have managed to piece together of it during this life. I know that my younger years were peaceful; I grew up on a farm. Some tragedy happened, it¡¯s not too clear what but I believe it had to do with my parents being murdered. I then somehow became that world¡¯s equivalent to a hero, obviously with different rules but the same premise of a creature losing something in exchange for the ability to grow quickly is still there. And up through the memories I have seen so far I slaughtered my way through something, I don¡¯t know what or why, but I did.


    After several minutes I get up, I can¡¯t spend all day trying to piece together memories from another world entirely. I head towards the makeshift command room, where I find Johanna sitting in a meditative pose.


    ¡°I took your advice.¡± Johanna


    ¡°You started cultivation?¡± Jack


    ¡°Yeah, and I¡¯m good at it, really good. I did what takes the average person months in an afternoon.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Of course you did, you¡¯re a genius after all. The only way I have managed to stay ahead of you in recent years was by working myself to the bone, sometimes literally.¡± Jack


    ¡°It seems you¡¯ve managed to find your talent as well.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Yeah, it seems I was born to be a mage, I¡¯ve only gotten good at fighting though hard work and suicidal tendencies.¡± Jack


    ¡°I¡¯d love a rematch; I¡¯ve grown much stronger recently. I don¡¯t think you can affect me as heavily with your mind-fuck magic now.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Soul magic, the mind is only one part of it. But I digress. I would love a rematch; I believe there is a coliseum in this city.¡± Jack


    She gets up with an unnatural grace that I would be hard pressed to mimic.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡± Johanna


    It doesn¡¯t take long as the keep is very close to the coliseum, as we pass many soldiers stop to salute us, several heading in the same direction. Seems not even a hostile takeover can prevent the people from seeking violent entertainment.


    Upon our arrival we see a fight between two human gladiators¡¯ conclusion, with one of them being decapitated, followed by screams of approval from the audience. We make our way to the person overseeing today¡¯s events and explain to him what we want to do; the local man says that he would love to facilitate a fight between the two of us, as long as we can promise a spectacle.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Minutes later we are standing at opposite ends of the arena, with the announcer describing what is about to unfold to the audience.


    As soon as the beginning of the fight is announced we both dash forward, clashing in the center of the arena. Our initial clash consists of light blows while we size each other up, neither of us are going all out yet.


    I blink away and drop a soulstone into my pocket so I can absorb it in case I need more energy. To my surprise Johanna vanishes, appearing behind me a moment latter leveling her dagger at my heart. I twist out of the way, swinging my short sword at her neck in the same motion. She ducks and teleports away. We meet each other¡¯s eyes from across the arena, at this point we are seriously trying to kill each other, anything less would be disrespectful.


    We move towards each other, clashing in the center again, every blow designed to maim and kill. She backhands my right arm, sending a wave of KI through it, weakening it while I begin to suppress her soul. I find an unprecedented level of difficulty with interfering with her soul, seems her cultivation is countering it somehow.


    Deflecting a blow to the head with my short sword I light her on fire using mana, only for it to be put out just as quickly. I avoid a stab to the chest only to be hit with a dagger in my right forearm, I twist the arm to disarm her of the dagger, but in the process the bones snap. I blink away and seal my bones together with some healing magic and begin to strengthen it with my soul, however in my moment of distraction she teleports in front of me and punches my chest, sending that same KI through my body, shattering several ribs and making me cough up blood. I manage to chop halfway into her left wrist, her body is much more durable than before.


    The open wound on her wrist ignites for a moment before sealing shut; she probably used some cultivation spell to cauterize it. I deflect a dagger with my sword before punching her in the shoulder, enhancing my strength with my soul. i feel the shoulder crack slightly before I move my leg out of the way of an incoming dagger, a shallow cut forming along my thigh.


    Johanna teleports away, leaving behind a small round object, which promptly explodes in my face, blinding me temporarily. Relying on my soul for detection I pull out two potions, both made by uncle, a healing potion and a strengthening potion. Within moments I am feeling the effects, my ribs stitch themselves together, my right arm fully patches itself up and my internal organs recover from the minor damage. I trade out my short sword for a mace and my vision recovers enough to dodge a flying dagger, aimed at my gut.


    I blink towards her, swinging my mace towards her right arm, attempting to shatter the bones. She manages to get her arm out of the way, but a quick change of direction on my part crushes her hand, making her drop her dagger, while I am unbalanced she strikes my left shoulder with her fist, using her KI to shatter it.


    My left arm falls limp while my right swings the heavy club towards her shins, missing the left and shattering the right, this throws me off balance again. She lashes out with a short sword that appears in her hand and cuts clean through my shattered shoulder, letting it fall to the floor. She appears to struggle under the strain on her left leg for a moment, before she stitches it together with KI, which obviously taxes her.


    Grinning I use some fire to cauterize the stump. Now that I no longer need to focus on reinforcing my right arm I reach out with my soul and try to squeeze Johanna, with puts constant strain on both of us.


    She bridges the short gap between us, noticeably slower, and swings her sword at my side. I step back and the blade cuts through my shirt and leaves a shallow cut across my abdomen, but it hurts much more than it should, and her blade cuts through it too easily. Seems like she¡¯s started infusing her weapons with KI, or at least more KI.


    she moves to strike me again and I try to block, only for it to turn out to be a feint. While I recover she teleports behind me and cuts the tendons in my knees with a burst of power, thoroughly draining her. I fall on my knees and she rests her short sword¡¯s blade on my right shoulder.


    ¡°I concede¡± Jack


    End chapter 88

 Not a chapter: short hiatus

    as you can probably tell it has been more than 2 weeks since i have uploaded a chapter. i''m running low on creative energies, i could force myself to write a new chapter anyway, and i have done so in the past, but i would not be satisfied with it, and at this point the main reason i''m still writing this story is because i know i will regret it for the rest of my life if i don¡¯t finish it. Well that and improving my writing. I know what i want to do overall with the story, but i don¡¯t know what to do to get to those points. I mean i could do time skips, but i absolutely hate time skips, especially ones longer than maybe a day. There is just no satisfaction for either the reader or the writer. Hell even by posting this i am breaking one of my rules, i have never before posted an announcement without a chapter to go along with it. Anyway, i don¡¯t know how long this hiatus will last, i have the drive to write but not the creativity.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    tldr: I am going on a short hiatus becuase i can''t write good right now.

 Chapter 89: A Damned

    chapter 89


    accompanied by the sounds of roaring spectators Johanna and I take our leave, making sure to pick up my severed arm on the way out. leaning on johanna for support as my tendons heal we make our way to the medical facilities to get patched up. due to our extensive injuries we are there for the better part of an hour, during which we have time to talk.


    "what do you want?" Jack


    "what do you mean?" Johanna


    "I mean long term, what do you want out of life? or this life at least" Jack


    "I don''t know, I guess I have always really followed you. maybe i''ll travel, get strong enough that I can survive off the planet indefinitely and explore other planets" Johanna


    "is that even possible?" Jack


    "yeah, with cultivation it is, and I believe with soul magic as well, but it''s harder. no idea why though. What do you want?" Johanna


    "I want to make a lasting impact to the world, one that will be remembered for countless generations, I figure creating a country would be the best way for me to do that. I want to create something as great as I can before I inevitably die." Jack


    "your ambition will be your downfall." Johanna


    "and your lack of ambition will be yours." Jack


    "probably, but who''s really to say?" Johanna


    "I know one person that could give a definite answer, but I doubt they''d say" Jack


    "I heard about him, oracle right? isn''t he a librarian?" Johanna


    "yeah, he has told me quite a bit, some of it I think will be useful to me, most not so much" Jack


    "isn''t that the same with most things?" Johanna


    ¡°Yeah, it is¡± Jack


    At the end of the hour a soldier bursts in, the sweat on his elven face makes it obvious he ran all the way hear. Between ragged panting he manages to tell us that something happened in the keep, he doesn¡¯t know exactly what but it is important and our presence is required immediately.


    We get there quickly, having all but fully recovered, and are greeted by Cath who quickly ushers us inside before taking us to the dungeon under the keep, staying silent until we reach there.


    When we reach there I feel a vaguely familiar soul and I hear the cries of a child for their parent, seeing Cath¡¯s stone cold face tells me it is not a child.


    He leads us to a cell where we find a human child, the one I killed just the day before. Observing his soul I am left convinced, he is a damned, the same type of damned that I fought while getting ahold of mary¡¯s birthday present. One thing that strikes me as odd about him however is that he is significantly older than the others, and I know they were among the first wave to come


    ¡°What is your name,boy?¡± Johanna


    ¡°Where am I?! My father will have all of you executed!¡± Boy


    ¡°Stop screaming or I will kill you again. Now answer her question¡± Jack


    This seems to silence him for a moment, during which Johanna uses telepathy with me.


    ¡®What do you mean again? Why is this child so important?¡¯ Johanna


    ¡®He is a damned, like the ones I lost an arm too, only he is different somehow, older.¡¯ Jack


    Before she can respond to that he speaks up.


    ¡°Is my father dead?¡± boy


    ¡°Yes, I killed him, quickly and painlessly¡± Jack


    ¡°That''s, good I guess. He was dying anyway, slowly and painfully, at least this way he suffered less. I¡¯ll miss him though.¡± boy


    ¡°You still haven¡¯t told us your name¡± Johanna


    ¡°I¡®m Leflan¡± Leflan


    ¡°If you promise to answer some questions of mine I will let you out of here, free to go where ever you want as long you do not antagonize me or my people. I am even willing to make a binding contract if you want, though it won¡¯t mean much.¡± Jack


    Leflan takes a moment to think, obviously conflicted. I nudge his thoughts in a subtle way for a positive answer.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°That would be acceptable, though I don¡¯t believe the contract would be necessary, too easily broken without proper preparations.¡± Leflan


    In several minutes the two of us are sitting in a spare room, the others having lost interest once things were resolved.


    ¡°So what do you want to know?¡± Leflan


    ¡°First and foremost, why are you so old?¡± Jack


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Leflan


    ¡°The others of your kind are all apparently a couple months old at most, you are at least seven years, well at least this body is.¡± Jack


    ¡°Now I am confused, what are you talking about.¡± Leflan


    ¡°I know when you¡¯re lying boy, I can literally read your mind. You know exactly what i¡¯m talking about¡± Jack


    ¡°Fine, I underestimated you, I will admit that. This is not my first life¡± Leflan


    ¡°And this isn¡¯t mine, that''s not exactly a surprise, most people in this world have some memories of previous lives. But you aren¡¯t an old soul, you are a damned, claiming to be an ancient will only work when the person you''re talking to knows little of the soul, or of dungeons¡± Jack


    ¡°Fine, what do you know, i¡¯ll work from there¡± Leflan


    ¡°I know that you come from another world, using some device that allows your soul to travel between this world and your original world using the void as an intermediary. And I know that in the world your people are very adept at using the laws of the world to create great things, despite or possibly because of the lack of magic. I also know that the first wave of your people coming to this world came here approximately three months ago, or at least I thought they did.¡± Jack


    Leflan is stunned silent again for a moment before responding.


    ¡°I am assuming you are an adept soul mage then, much stronger than the one my father hired¡± Leflan


    ¡°For our purposes yes, but it seems I am answering more of your questions than you of mine¡± Jack


    ¡°Sorry, sorry. I am so old for one main reason, I was part of the group that helped create the device used to transport souls here from my world, and so I was part of the group to test it first. Though I will admit that I had no idea what I was building when I was building it, the concept of a soul is foreign to my people, something we dropped with religion centuries ago.¡± Leflan


    ¡°What did you think you were building?¡± Jack


    ¡°A gaming console, I originally thought this world was just a game, but now I realise that it is so much more than that, it is truly a world of it¡¯s own, not just lines of code¡± Leflan


    ¡°Do you know why it was built? What are the gods trying to achieve bringing you all here?¡± Jack


    ¡°I have no idea, at first I thought it was about money, but now i¡¯m not so sure.¡± Leflan


    ¡°I can tell you spend a lot of time here, why?¡± Jack


    Leflan answers almost immediately, this is obviously something he has considered before.


    ¡°Because I love it here, in this world. I have very little of my own in my original world, no family, no friends, nothing to tie me there. I received enough money from building the machine we talked about earlier to sustain me comfortably for the rest of my life when added with what I had before. The longest I had spent there since entering this world for the first time was just a couple minutes to eat and clean myself, at least till you killed me.¡± Leflan


    ¡°Interesting, so you¡¯re a loner in your home world, you wouldn¡¯t care much for any power you manage to obtain there would you?¡± Jack


    ¡°No, I wouldn¡¯t.¡± Leflan


    ¡°What do you want from this life?¡± Jack


    ¡°I want to learn everything I can, that has always been a desire of mine¡± Leflan


    ¡°Have you ever been to The Library?¡± Jack


    ¡°I have been to many libraries, but i¡¯m assuming you¡¯re referring to a special library¡± Leflan


    ¡°It is the first and easily the best library in the world.¡± Jack


    ¡°Oh, is it close?¡± Leflan


    ¡°I could probably get there within a day if I sprint, if you go there you could gain more than you could possibly imagine, especially if you become a librarian.¡± Jack


    ¡°And what does that take?¡± Leflan


    ¡°Is your desire for knowledge your greatest desire, nothing above it?¡± Jack


    ¡°Yes, I believe so.¡± Leflan


    ¡°Then you just have to ask. If your desire truly is honest you should have no problems¡± Jack


    ¡°And if it isn¡¯t?¡± Leflan


    ¡°Then nothing, I asked, I was rejected because I desire to rule more than to learn.¡± Jack


    ¡°I guess that will be a good first step as any.¡± Leflan


    ¡°Tell me more about your world, do you know anything that might be of use to me?¡± Jack


    ¡°I¡¯m sure i do, have you ever heard of the printing press?¡± Leflan


    ¡°Of course i have, it¡¯s useless, a novelty at best. It cuts out the most crucial part of writing, leaving most written works incredibly difficult to learn from.¡± Jack


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Leflan


    ¡°It takes the writer out of the equation, a skilled writer can produce a book significantly better than an unskilled one, even when they are copying the same book word for word. It has to do with mana and how it is used in the process of writing, the intent behind it i believe. A non sentient machine like a printing press can¡¯t manipulate mana like that. Plus a skilled mage could mass produce books much faster than a printing press could.¡± Jack


    Leflan looks at me with shock for a moment before steeling himself.


    ¡°Ok, what about a gun?¡± Leflan


    I pull out one of my own, a revolver, almost never used.


    ¡°Useless to those more powerful than the gun maker, it can be a significant boon to a weak soldier, or adventurer, but are an incredible hindrance for long term growth unless you are the gun maker. I only use them when i am in a significantly weakened state.¡± Jack


    With some sign of desperation on his face he tries again.


    ¡°What about nukes, surely you don¡¯t have them¡± Leflan


    ¡°Nope, for a good reason, why destroy land you want to claim, that is stupid, and frankly pretty risky as a skilled mage could just teleport it back to you before it exploded, it would devolve into a dangerous game of hot potato. And an even more powerful mage could just contain the blast keeping the damage to next to nothing.¡± Jack


    Exasperated, leflan hangs his head in defeat.


    ¡°This world is a melting pot of ideas from other worlds, if you recall, people come here with memories from other worlds, occasionally some new tech is introduced, this has been going on for millenia, i figured it was a slim chance that you would know of something unknown or at least rare in this world, giving me some kind of edge. But in order to find something like that i would need to delve deep into your memories, but more than a cursory glance is almost impossible because of something that i am assuming the gods did to your soul, making it much more resistant to soul magic.¡± Jack


    ¡°So the knowledge i have gained in the past will prove mostly useless in this world huh.¡± Leflan


    ¡°Not necessarily, you just have to find a use for it. But for now i must be going, you are free to leave. Here is a letter that you can give to any soldier, they will take you to the library upon reading it, should you chose to go that way. But for now i have things to do, and i have no time to waste¡± Jack


    Leaving him with the letter i return to my duties, i¡¯ve got things to attend to, sieges to plan, a country to rule.


    End chapter 89

 Chapter 90: a potion

    Chapter 90


    I move to a room in the castle, one the various leaders had decided to prior to meet up and plan out our next siege. I am the last to arrive, everyone else has apparently been waiting for a couple minutes. Most people from the last meeting are present, with the exception of the head trainer.


    ¡°Took you long enough, did you at least figure out something useful?¡± Cath


    ¡°Yes, but not immediately useful.¡± Jack


    ¡°Better than nothing I suppose.¡± Cath


    ¡°If the two of you are done blabbering we can get down to business.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Right, the next city i propose we take is Melin, though it is less a city and more a stronghold.¡± Jack


    ¡°Why? After our recent victory Melin will be on high alert, the same tactics won¡¯t work again.¡± Dragoon


    ¡°Melin is always on alert, it is a military stronghold built to be a safe haven for local nobility, assassinating the leadership wouldn¡¯t work well anyway. It will definitely be more difficult this time, while the average individual strength of the soldiers is a bit lower, the organization is much better, too the point that even if all that was left was the grunts they could organise themselves well enough to put up a decent fight.¡± Jack


    ¡°Again, why? Why don¡¯t we just take another city first?¡± Dragoon


    ¡°A couple reasons, one is they probably aren¡¯t expecting us to strike them first, another is that it will provide an excellent place to siege the nearby cities. Of course it is entirely likely that those same cities will just give up without a fight if we capture it, avoiding pointless losses.¡± Jack


    This seems to satisfy everyone in the room.


    ¡°So how exactly should we go about taking the city?¡± Asmodeus


    ¡°Simple siege tactics is what i would do, we would take too many losses if we had to directly fight them, so let''s starve them out.¡± Cath


    ¡°They are no doubt well prepared for a siege, they probably have years worth of rations fit for nobles, so decades for a common soldier.¡± Uncle


    ¡°Nothing we can¡¯t remove from the equation with various means. I¡¯m sure you have some bottled plague somewhere, and i do believe explosives would be useful in this endeavour.¡± Cath


    ¡°I have plenty of both those things, any alchemist worth their salt, both figuratively and literally has some of those laying around.¡± Uncle


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°And that''s not all, manipulating the weather would make many of their men just miserable, in addition to destroying some supplies.¡± Cath


    ¡°Ok, but how do you propose we deal with their mages just conjuring food and other essentials?¡± Jack


    ¡°I can make the whole city into a dead zone, they won¡¯t have enough mana to make many supplies, though i won¡¯t be available for much of anything while i do that.¡± Asmodeus


    ¡°That, is actually extremely helpful, though it will make manipulating the weather a lot harder it is more than worth that. What do you need arranged to do that?¡± Cath


    ¡°Gems, the more the better, i can¡¯t store that much mana in my body so i am going to need something to store the overflow in.¡± Asmodeus


    ¡°Would dead dungeon cores work?¡± Cath


    ¡°You''re asking me if the single best mana battery i know of would ¡®work¡¯ as a place to store excess mana.¡± Asmodeus


    ¡°Sorry, stupid question¡± Cath


    We continue to plan and banter back and forth for most the rest of the day, and we manage to develop a rather impressive plan if i do say so myself.


    That evening Johanna and i sneak off to an unused room, and have some alone time together, with both of us leaving satisfied in the morning


    During breakfast uncle showed up, handing me a potion before rambling on about something, i¡¯m assuming the potion, went perfectly. It took me about ten minutes to calm him down enough to explain what exactly he was talking about.


    ¡°The stuff you gave me earlier, i made a potion out of it, well a batch of potions¡± Uncle


    ¡°I am assuming this is one of them.¡± Jack


    ¡°Yes, it damned well is. I have never made a finer batch of potions. Everything that could have gone right did, regardless of if it was due to chance or my own skill, everything went right.¡± Uncle


    ¡°Ok, but what does it do? It has to do something good.¡± Jack


    ¡°Yes, it does something amazing, it permanently increases a single random stat by a pretty significant amount.¡± Uncle


    ¡°By how much?¡± Jack


    ¡°How the fuck am i supposed to know how you scale your stats? Identify it yourself. For me that one would increase a stat by about five.¡± Uncle


    It took me a couple attempts but eventually i manage to identify it through the system.


    <table width="378">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Potion of stat enchancing</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>permenently increases one random stat by 10.2 points</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    seems i don''t have the skills or stats required to get an idea about it''s history from the system.


    "This is actually really amazing, you made this with the toxins i gave you?" Jack


    "yes, actually made a batch of ten potions, i could have made more but the effects would have droped sharply." Uncle


    "I''m assuming this is one of the better made ones" Jack


    "second best actually, saving the best for my son when he is strong enough to drink it without accidentily killing himself, i mean i could ask for your help with that but i would like to avoid turning him into an undead against his will." Uncle


    "i would do the same myself" Jack


    "of course my lovely wife and i drank the third and fourth most potent, which had barly any difrence between them. I have no idea what to do with the other six yet" Uncle


    "personally i would give them too my closest friends, family, and allies, you could get a lot of money for them, but no where near what their worth, and money is obtained easily enough for an alchemist of your calliber." Jack


    "yes, but who? you have some opinion on that, right?" Uncle


    "i do, but i think you should make that choice yourself, if i remeber you correctly, this is one of your greatest achivements as an alchemist right?" Jack


    "even if i had all the same materials i couldn''t replicate this, potions that provide a perment boost like this are always an accident. yeah a skilled alchemist can improve the chances but at most to ten percent, and even then they aren''t this great." Uncle


    "then chose for yourself, you have certainly earned it" Jack


    "so, can you at least tell me how you got that stuff, i know you can''t get more but maybe i can." Uncle


    "sure, i made it, inside my body. basicly just a bunch of gunk left over from increasing my posion resistence that was left to refine inside my body for years." Jack


    "that is, i think i can work with that. hmm, undead won''t work, i could probably get some easily made if i use some local gobins, but it will be low quality at best. hmm, using stronger creatures would be best, maybe gladitorial slaves? yes i think i''ll go with that. tell me, how did you get it out of your body?" Uncle


    "while meditating i tried to force it out of my body, afterwards i woke up covered in the stuff. Also my clothes burned up somewhere during that, no idea what happened with that." Jack


    "that would explain many of the impurities i found while refining it. this makes things a little more difficult, i''ll definitly have to use gladatorial slaves then, goblins won''t cut it." Uncle


    i leave Uncle to his planning before finally drinking the potion myself.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>You have gained 10.2 points in book smarts.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ''i was hoping for somthing more useful, but this could come in handy i guess.'' Jack


    checking my stats i now have 12.3 points in book smarts. taking a deep breath i meet up with some of the leadership, it''s time to work out some details of our planned assult.


    end chapter 90

 Chapter 91: some loose ends

    Chapter 91


    Deciding to take advantage of my new book smarts i read the notebooks Alfred kept on his studies. I managed to read them cover to cover in under an hour, with a much higher level of understanding than i had before. There is a lot in there, but it mostly focused on one thing, creating an artificial soul. Why? No idea, probably just caught the guys interest.


    I put what i just read into practice, trying to make a soul using my soul energy. It fails the first several times before i realize what I¡¯m doing wrong, i need a container to store it in, just creating one out in the open will cause the ambient mana to just degrade the soul energy into mana.


    i t doesn¡¯t take long for me to get ahold of a usable body, i just take one of the people i killed in this castle. They are stronger than most so the body should be able to last for several experiments. I could use a gem, but that won¡¯t let me see the results nearly as well. At least not with my current level of skill.


    I don¡¯t fare too well in creating an artificial soul, pouring soul energy into a body is easy, and accomplishes less than nothing as i am just wasting energy. It needs to form patterns in order to stick, like a spell. The problem is i don¡¯t know what i am looking for. My own soul isn¡¯t a very good example of a simple soul for me because of the fact that i am capable of trying to create an artificial soul. But it is good enough for my purposes, it would take more time to find a soul simple enough for me to copy than it would for me to brute force my understanding of what keeps a soul going, and though i don¡¯t have much success on that front i do have a large improvement of understanding of what each part of the soul does. As a result of this i feel i can manipulate people better, possibly even cause slight changes to their personality.


    I also notice something else, the strands the keep my mind and soul connected are numbering in the lower hundreds now, around two fifty if i were to guess. I still can¡¯t manipulate them but i feel that as they become fewer and stronger my ability to manipulate the soul, especially my own improves, with each giving more than the last.


    I am interrupted from my thoughts by a knock on the door and Johanna entering.


    ¡°So it is about time to head out¡± Johanna


    ¡°I¡¯ll be ready in a moment¡± Jack


    As i make to stand up she speaks up again, this time a little nervous.


    ¡°About that, i think you should sit this one out.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Why?¡± Jack


    ¡°A couple reasons. A big part is that your particular talents won¡¯t be very helpful here. Plus you¡¯ve never been very good at large scale conflicts, amazing at covert operations and small conflicts, but not so much large ones.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Are those the only reasons?¡± Jack


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°No, i also want a chance to prove myself as a competent tactician.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Go ahead, take control of this siege, people already see you as my second in command, might as well make it official.¡± Jack


    ¡°Great, and if i may make a recommendation. There is a dungeon nearby, the lord of it is a powerful soul mage, perhaps you could learn a thing or two from them.¡± Johanna


    ¡°I¡¯ll see about it, still have some loose ends to tie up first.¡± Jack


    ¡°See you around¡± Johanna


    She leaves without giving me a chance to respond. I decide to go meet up with a couple people before i left to find this dungeon Johanna had talked about.


    The first person i found was Erica. I had meant to tell her that i managed to learn her name for a while, i just never got the chance.


    ¡°Hey jack, what¡¯s up?¡± Erica


    ¡°Do you remember telling me how you had forgotten your name?¡± Jack


    ¡°I could i forget what i have forgotten?¡± Erica


    ¡°Well i managed to learn your name, your diaries ended up in The Library, which has recently been moved to this continent.¡± Jack


    ¡°Those old things? I can hardly remember that decade. I believe it was when i first started creating this forest, i believe I met Parius around that time too. I wonder what he¡¯s been up too haven¡¯t seen him in years. So, out with it, what is the name that i have forgotten?¡± Erica


    ¡°Erica Kron¡± Jack


    ¡°Yes, that does sound right. Where is this library you mentioned? I want to see what i have forgotten from my youth.¡± Erica


    ¡°It is near the mountain i grew up on, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find it easily.¡± Jack


    ¡°Thank you for this.¡± Erica


    Like Johanna did before she left without giving me a chance to respond.


    The next person, or rather people, i went looking for was Laura and Aria, i had heard they came to this city along with most of the other girls with Johanna.


    It took me a little while to find them, so i had time for a moment of inflection. A while back my logical and emotional sides had some type of split, but it seems that split has almost entirely healed by now. I feel stronger for it, like i gained some type of resistance to something, I¡¯m not sure what. But there has been a definite improvement.


    Eventually i find Laura walking in a private garden of a now deceased noble, with aria flying around her head. It seems that aria managed to get an evolution recently, seems distance kept me from interfering with it. She is now a Greater Fairy, basically just an overall power boost from normal Fairy.


    ¡°Hey laura, it¡¯s been a little while.¡± Jack


    ¡°It has, you¡¯re right. Please try to take care of your harem a bit better, we satisfy each other pretty well but it¡¯s not the same.¡± Laura


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind her, she¡¯s just jealous you got johanna all to yourself last night.¡± Aria


    Laura pouts a little at Aria¡¯s teasing before trying to tease her back, with a large fluffy feather. I watch for a couple minutes amused at the little Fairies cries of laughter before doing what i came here to do.


    I reach into her mind, bypassing the soul. Feeling it she puts up a surprisingly potent barrier around her soul, but not the mind. It seems my theory was correct, her power lets her see a physical representation of the soul, but not the mind. Add on the fact that she was entirely self taught and it makes many my discoveries make more sense. Before she can react i enter her soul through her mind, searching for the part that governs her ability to see souls. I find it rather easily. Once i have it i manipulate it, making it stronger, effectively unlocking her ability to see the mind as well as the soul.


    Laura just sits there for a while staring at me, well not me exactly, more my mind, which based on the memories i saw while in her soul is something she had only guessed at the existence of.


    ¡°Laura what''s wrong? Why did you stop? It was just getting good.¡± Aria


    ¡°Do you have any soul stones?¡± Laura


    Laura looked at me with a blank look in her eyes, no not blank, out of focus. I nodded and handed her several of the biggest ones i had, more than enough for her soul to collapse.


    She absorbed them incredibly quickly, finishing the largest one in minutes before moving on. Watching her it seemed she moved energy from the stone, to her soul, to her mind. There was quite a bit of waste but i collected it before most of it could be degraded into mana, turning it into a soulstone again for her to absorb.


    This process went on for hours, she absorbed almost all of the stones when she froze up. A quick observation of her soul confirmed what was happening, her soul had started to collapse.


    End chapter 91

 Chapter 92

    Chapter 92


    Laura¡¯s soul has started to collapse. As of this moment I am incapable of interfering with her soul without causing a great deal of harm to myself.


    ¡°Whats going on?!¡± Aria


    ¡°Relax, though it is painful this is normal. Her soul is reshaping itself, for lack of a better word, into a much more stable form. This will make her much more powerful.¡± Jack


    ¡°Can¡¯t you help ease the pain, please i don¡¯t want her to hurt so much.¡± Aria


    ¡°Not without doing more harm than good to both of us, please bear with it, i know she is¡± Jack


    Aria was quiet after that, though she was still nervous.


    It lasted for ten minutes, almost exactly. Laura regained clarity several minutes after that.


    ¡°How do you feel?¡± Jack


    ¡°I feel, powerful. Like i have more energy at my disposal than ever before. I feel like i could go against an army of dragons, and win. Though i know i can¡¯t, it¡¯s still an intoxicating feeling.¡± Laura


    I can feel her power as well. She has been beating against a bottleneck for much longer than I have been alive, and it shows. Her soul is easily four times the size of mine, and six times as dense. As of this moment my advantages against her are control and knowledge, and that''s only because i have had more energy readily availble for me to consume. This advantage won¡¯t last long.


    ¡°I guess i really do owe you, huh. Thanks, if there is anything you need just ask. I haven¡¯t been able to develop my soul properly for decades, though i feel like I am at the edge of a bottleneck again.¡± Laura


    ¡°There is one thing. I¡¯m planning on going on a dungeon dive soon, the boss is supposed to be a soul mage. I was hoping to learn a thing or two from them, want to come along?¡± Jack


    ¡°That sounds enlightening. I¡¯m in.¡± Laura


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    ¡°Oh, i¡¯ll go too!¡± Aria


    ¡°There is just one more person i want to meet up with before we head out.¡± Jack


    ¡°Is it your goblin butler that you had doing soul experiments?¡± Laura


    ¡°Yeah, he is somewhere in the castle i believe.¡± Jack


    ¡°No he isn¡¯t. follow me, I know exactly where he is.¡± Laura


    Ten minutes later we are at a small bar in the working class district. Alfred is sitting at the counter nursing a mug of beer. He obviously hasn¡¯t been here long as he isn¡¯t yet tipsy. It didn¡¯t take much for me to convince him to come along, just an explanation.


    As we head out of the city we pick the minds of passerbyers for information regarding the dungeon we are heading for, sharing what we learned through a mental link. The dungeon is inside a mountain, with the base being the entrance and the peak being the exit. The dungeon has gone out of it¡¯s way to cram as many floors as it can into as little actual space as it can, clocking in at well over five hundred floors. In order to achieve this the dungeon expanded space as much as it possibly could with what it had at its disposal. It is also a very old dungeon, around a thousand years old or so. No one has managed to get to the peak within the last decade, or at least no one weaker than a god. The first hundred floors are perfectly mapped out, with the next three hundred only having rudimentary maps that we could make out, the rest are unknown. It isn¡¯t a very popular dungeon as the material rewards are on the low side compared to it¡¯s difficulty, though as a result it attracts the kind of people that want to challenge themselves.. Each ten or so floors is it¡¯s own biome, pretty standard for older dungeons. We will be able to join a team going into the dungeon at it¡¯s entrance pretty easily. And most importantly it is five miles to the south. We could get there with ease.


    We departed from the south gate, I carried the much physically weaker Alfred as we sprinted towards the dungeon. And it was about as difficult as we expected it to be, we even passed by a couple people on our way, and a couple of them passed by us. When we got there we saw a small shanty town, temporary shacks everywhere with a couple more permanent and rather impressive buildings for merchants, banks, and hotels, along with a couple other establishments. Overall it is pretty small for a dungeon village, especially for a dungeon of this size. The low popularity along with a major city being close by are the likely candidates for that.


    The three of us get to work scanning the crowds trying to find a group that would be able to take us to the peak of the dungeon while Aria sits on Luara¡¯s head a hums a little. It takes awhile to find a group that has been too the peak, or at least close, and would be willing to party up with us. We could try it on our own be we would most likely fail. After around an hour and a half we come across a group of three that are both planning a dive this afternoon and have been to the top floor, though they didn¡¯t beat the boss.


    After deciding i would be the one to speak we approached them. There is an orc with a large war axe, a She-Devil mage, based on her gear she specializes in healing, and a high human wearing full plate armour and carrying a tower shield and a an equally large hammer. Finding out their names was just as easy, the Orc was named Grat, the She-Devil is Riki, and the High Human is Thomas.


    ¡°Hello , I was wondering whether you would consider allowing me and my friends here to accompany you on your dive this evening.¡± Jack


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re soul mages, who else would not only want to single us out but know who to single out. Assuming you¡¯re wanting to go to the peak that is.¡± Grat


    ¡°Do you get this kind of proposition often?¡± Jack


    ¡°From time to time. Soul mages aren¡¯t exactly common. There is a negotiable fee for our services. And i have to tell you that we have never actually beaten the boss, though you probably already knew that.¡± Grat


    After conferring with the others for a moment i make an offer.


    ¡°We¡¯ll pay for the supplies.¡± Jack


    ¡°Fine, but don¡¯t even try to be cheap with it.¡± Grat


    The She-Devil guides us to a shop that carries most of the supplies before handing us a list of the absolute minimum supplies we are required to get, along with a slightly longer list of recommended supplies.


    End chapter 92

 Chapter 93

    At the top of the list for supplies was explosives, I have a few defective prototypes that uncle made, but I doubt it¡¯ll be enough. So naturally we found a place that sells them, it¡¯s a pretty popular commodity around here apparently, likely pretty useful somewhere in the dungeon.


    The explosives here turned out to be pretty cheap, with all the materials for them coming from the dungeon, and well made, with the people making them having worked with the materials available near constantly for years. Currently I have more than enough cash on me for getting the entire recommended list of supplies with it only leaving a small dent, so naturally, I tripled the number of explosives, as well as going with the best-made ones we could find. Money isn¡¯t nearly as big of a deal as getting to the top of this dungeon.


    It happened the same way with almost everything on the list, with the exception of most potions. For potions I am supplied by uncle, and have more than enough for this dive, though I¡¯ve never been good at drinking a potion during a fight.


    The sheer excess at which I¡¯m buying materials shocked both Riki the She-Devil and the people selling the materials.


    All in all, it took around an hour and a half to get everything. Now we have to meet back up with the rest of the party and start the dive, apparently, we are going to meeting up by the entrance, and it doesn¡¯t take long to get there.


    ¡°Got the materials needed.¡± Jack


    ¡°I hope the three of you didn¡¯t cheap out on us, if one of us dies because of you being cheap, it will be one of the three of you.¡± Thomas


    ¡°They definitely didn¡¯t cheap out on that, he bought more than we might be able to use actually, except for potions which I thought was odd.¡± RikiThe tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°A relative of mine is one of the best alchemists on this continent, if not the world, at least of his generation.¡± Jack


    ¡°We¡¯ll take your word for it.¡± Grat


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming you already know how the first hundred or so floors work, yes?¡± Riki


    ¡°That is right.¡± Jack


    ¡°Well, the rest of the dungeon plays out in much the same way. Every ten floors there is a miniboss with every hundred having a big boss. The first big boss is particularly painful, not difficult to fight, just a pain in the ass. Tell me, how much do the three of you know of arias.¡± Riki


    After a moment of conferring with the others, I replied.


    ¡°Less than what we imagine most do. didn''t exactly come up when we were studying the magic of any sort.¡± Jack


    ¡°A shame. anyway, time to get going.¡± Riki


    With a nod, we followed into the cave. The first several floors were really just us walking towards the exit. Creatures this low were pathetically weak, I guess enough of them could kill a novice diver, but we are way above that. Also, the loot that dropped was not worth the amount of time it took to bend over and pick it up. The miniboss on level twenty managed to survive a backhand from Grat didn¡¯t survive the second one though. The short sword he dropped could probably sell for around twenty jaers, twenty-five if you¡¯re lucky.


    It took till floor fifty before common fodder were taking a hit without dying. Even then it wasn¡¯t much. I could see how this would trouble many weaker people, and the loot for everything but the minibosses is trash. But this is still the lower floors. And, in my experience at least, this rate of progression in difficulty for a dungeon is pretty extreme, so I¡¯m looking forward to a good fight at the upper floors.


    The sixth miniboss actually managed to land a hit on Thomas, it didn¡¯t seem to faze him, but that doesn¡¯t make it any less impressive. At this rate, it should start to be a challenge to us by floor two fifty, three hundred at the latest.


    The floor eighty miniboss dropped a piece of candy. It wasn¡¯t more magical than anything else really, it was just a piece of candy. It started one of the worst instances of internal fighting among a party that I have ever seen. I thought for sure someone was going to die. The only thing that managed to make them stop was it almost being crushed. Ultimately the candy went to Riki and based on the blissed out expression on her face for the next couple minutes, the candy was really good. Now I¡¯m a little disappointed that I didn¡¯t get to try it.


    Overall it was a pretty typical power dive. Though that is certain to change pretty quickly.


    When we finally got to the first big boss we expected to find a defense focused mage, because of what Riki said before we entered the dungeon. Instead, we heard the choir start to sing.

 Chapter 94

    Chapter 94


    The floor one hundred boss was actually several hundred apparently weak creatures singing like a choir together. When the noticed us the song seemed to shift and the professional divers immediately scattered, so we did the same. It turned out the change in the song was actually an aria for a simple fireball spell, which when combined several hundred times resulted in a massive explosion.


    ¡°I can see how this would be a pain in the ass to kill¡± Jack


    ¡°Yeah, hold on a moment, and ready some explosives.¡± Thomas


    Doing as asked I ready a couple. After some sort of queue happens, or at least I believe it did as I didn¡¯t notice anything different, Thomas gestures for me to hand him a couple of the explosives. He threw them pretty well, injuring almost all of the singers at once and outright killing a handful. The rest however quickly healed back up to perfect condition with a change of the song.


    At that point Riki basically shouted at us to fill our ears with wax. And we did without a moment to spare as the choir started screeching at us, from that point on in the fight we had to rely solely on telepathy for communication, though i was still the chosen intermediary.


    ¡®We need to take them out one at a time with massive hits or try to damage all of the at once in a hope to whittle down their mana to make them easier to kill. Either way the longer it goes the easier it gets for us. Any of you specialize in assassinations?¡¯ Grat


    ¡®I do¡¯ Jack


    ¡®Great, they won¡¯t react much to your presence so no need to sneak up on them. Though once you start killing them they may start targeting you with spells. We will try to draw their fire and damage them as much as we can so you can work. Unless your companions also specialize in assassinations or know some large AOE spells they had better stay out of this one.¡¯ Grat


    ¡®No they don¡¯t¡¯ Jack


    ¡®Then get to work¡¯ Grat


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Almost as soon as we finished talking the Choir finished an aria for a lighting spell, this one much more powerful than the fireball from earlier. Instead of dodging it, Thomas used a combination of magic and his tower shield to block it, effectively neutralizing it.


    I stopped wasting time and ran up to the nearest singer with a blade drawn. It cut through their flesh rather easily, even the bone was cut though like warm lard, but it healed faster than i could cut normally. The most disconcerting part however was that it didn¡¯t flinch, it didn¡¯t even seem to acknowledge my existence. It took me a little while but i eventually managed to kill it by pushing my speed as high as i could with magic so that my damage would outpace it¡¯s healing.


    The for the second one i tried cutting the limbs off, but they reattached too quickly. I had to remove the severed limbs from the body in order actually remove them. It took me a couple tries but i eventually pulled it off with both legs, causing it to fall over. From there i stomped the head into a paste, effectively killing it.


    That was when i got hit by a lightning bolt. It wasn¡¯t a direct hit however, as Thomas hand managed to imperfectly block it. Overall it didn¡¯t do much damage, but it was shocking, pun intended. It really showed how much weaker this boss was than us, we just really aren¡¯t optimized for it. Any powerful AOE abilities would be really effective here, they aren¡¯t very durable so a single powerful enough spell could wipe all of them out, but they heal incredibly well. Which means we have to do this the long boring way.


    After about a dozen of them, I figured out a pretty quick way to kill them, which in hindsight was pretty obvious. They obviously need their head to live, but if it is just removed they will either grow a new body or reattach it. So what i ended up doing was cutting off the head and stomping it a couple times.


    After about fifty of them I was wishing I learned how to use warhammers, I just didn¡¯t have the right body type for it apparently, so my trainers had me focus on lighter weapons.


    Eventually i felt the necks become pretty strong, making it more difficult to cut through with my sword. Probably a way to make novices stay creative. It wasn¡¯t so bad that i couldn¡¯t cut through it, i just needed to use a little extra force.


    I inevitably got bored of the monotony, slicing off the head, stomping the head, occasionally having a spell thrown at me that is more surprising than anything else, so my gaze started to wonder. Grat and Thomas seemed to be double teaming small groups at a time, doing slightly better than me, while Riki was using some AOE spells and was ahead of the rest of us in terms of kills, though not by much as the spell she is using seems to have a high cast time.


    At this point, we were about a third of the way done. The healing started to slow down, allowing Grat and Thomas to kill them faster, and the spells got weaker, though it was hardly noticeable.


    The rest of the fight went over much the same way. The dropped item was actually pretty cool, and according to Riki, one of the rarer drops


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Necklace of clear voice</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">improves various aspects of your voice</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">causes your voice to have a minor charm effect</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">durability 6/6</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">This necklace is dropped by The One Of Many Voices</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    In the village at the base of this mountain, it would go for about four hundred Jaers, but it could go for in the thousands if you managed to find the right buyer.


    There was no victory celebration, why would there be. Yeah, it was pretty tedious, but it was hardly difficult. After a short meeting, we decided to push for floor one fifty before stopping for the night.


    End chapter 94

 Chapter 95

    Johana pov


    I didn¡¯t waste much time after jack was gone to organize the troops that were not necessary to keep this city. A combination of bribing the more greedy, and silencing the more loyal, of this city¡¯s old army to give me and the other military leaders enough confidence to be sure that a revolt would not happen.


    Overall it took us two hours to organize everything necessary, though we did end up enlisting some of the locals with skills that would be useful in the upcoming conflict, a feat that would not have been possible had we been forced to lay siege to this city in a more traditional manner. Something we can¡¯t avoid with our assault on the city of Melnin.


    Our march was easy, nothing and no one tried to oppose us during it. Overall it took four hours for the walls to be in view, and half an hour after that for us to be just outside of the reach of their longest range practical attacks, but not so far that their mages couldn¡¯t hit us with some extra wasted mana. Here is where we started to dig in and set up camp, much to the discomfort of the men on the walls.


    A group of riders from the city approached us as we were setting up our siege engines, obviously sent here to negotiate with us. It would be great if they would peacefully give up the city, but I doubt that will happen.


    Cath met with them briefly while i was organizing our soldiers, we¡¯re not really here to negotiate anyway. Cath relays the deal to me, they are offering food in exchange for us leaving peacefully, they seem to think were some kind of simple raiding company, they don¡¯t realize that it¡¯s the city itself we want. Coming up with an idea i decide to meet with them, after arranging to get something from uncle of course.


    I meet the men in the command tent we set up and pour myself and the four men a glass of wine, the same stuff my brother loves so much, whatever it¡¯s called. The wine itself carries a disease uncle developed for occasions like this, and with me having ingested the cure a couple minute beforehand i can drink it without risk. The messengers however will return to the city and spread it amongst their ranks. It¡¯s nothing too serious, just a headache, constant stomach pains, and cramps randomly occurring every once in awhile, but it is incredibly difficult to get rid of without the cure, and one of the few diseases that are virile enough to pass from person to person with casual contact.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Anyway, we talk, nothing come out of it except some nervous insults and they are sent back to the city after drinking their glasses. As soon as they are in the gate I give the order to start using the longer ranged weaponry we have, most of it won¡¯t do a lot of damage, but it could get a lucky shot. More importantly it keeps the pressure upon them.


    I also have our archers and mages start taking potshots at the men on the walls, telling them to keep their mana pools above seventy percent and their arrow counts above one hundred. Luckily conjuring arrows isn¡¯t too difficult.


    Shortly after that order is made Asmodeus approaches me.


    ¡°I can¡¯t start draining the area of mana until i can get quite a bit closer¡± Asmodeus


    ¡°Building up our walls and moving them closer to the city is our next priority, we should be able to do that with minor disturbance for the next hour or so. Hopefully that should be enough.¡± Johanna


    ¡°Hopefully, for now i¡¯ll help the builders then, the closer we can safely move the wall the better.¡± Asmodeus


    With that conversation finished i start organizing our building crews, which are admittedly a little inexperienced so they need a closer eye than most. I find several group leaders and give them their orders before being on my way.


    For now the ¡®high command¡¯ as we have been dubbed by the troops are able to personally give out orders as the situation evolves, that will change as the conflict heats up and more than thing will require our attention at any one time. Then we will have to retreat to the command center to give out orders, but for now it¡¯s faster like this.


    Currently high command consists of me, cath, and one other person, an old veteran mercenary that specialized in siege warfare named Griek, an ogre. With the rest of the leadership taking care of thing elsewhere, like setting up supply lines, and governing our other cities.


    As i turn around to find our cartographers and receive a live map of the area that they are no doubt done with by now i hear an explosion behind me. A mage managed to strike our wall hard enough to crack it. It¡¯s going to be a long day.

 Chapter 96

    Johanna Pov


    Sitting in the command over a live map of the area i can see the movements of both my troops, and theirs.


    Currently they have pulled back most of their mages, presumably to recover mana. We¡¯ve sucked up most of the mana in the area, effectively turning it into a dead zone, so how are they recovering mana so quickly? They must have a large supply of filled mana batteries.


    This siege has gone on for six days now, and has fallen into a predictable pattern, one that is benefiting me at the moment. They alternate their mages and their archers on the wall to pepper us with attacks constantly, though we are well prepared for that tactic. The number of casualties on both sides rarely goes over the one hundred mark every day. While this goes on the city is draining its resources while we have a stable supply line bringing us more constantly, the longer this keeps up the better for us.


    The thing that has me worried is that there is no obvious plan for them to upset the current status quo. I¡¯d wager on some sort of large enchantment is being powered up, it wouldn¡¯t show on the map, and if it is well made, no one would be able to detect it.


    Of course i might just be paranoid and they just suck at this.


    I doubt it though.


    ¡°General, the healers are reporting fleshrot from mana of the arrow wounds¡±


    I look over to the soldier, a thin, wiry hobgoblin. Likely one of the couriers.


    ¡°How bad is it, and how many have been inflicted?¡± Johanna


    ¡°Twenty-one have succumbed to it, and at least one-hundred are inflicted, with even slight scrapes being able to cause it.¡±


    Not too bad then, certainly not big enough to upset the current status quo, it¡¯s probably just a couple of their elites decided to get in on the action.


    ¡°For the ones that can¡¯t be quickly healed remove the afflicted limb, better to regrow it than lose a soldier, or exhausted a healer.¡±  Johanna


    With a salute the courier sprints away to the medical tents, and i¡¯m left alone again.


    Seems like the mages are coming back, and my field commanders have noticed. It must be incredibly expensive for them to use that many mana batteries. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Hmm, are there any noxious or poisonous gases we could through over the walls? Nah, to much of a risk right now.


    Unless.


    Our siege weaponry has been all but useless. We want to keep the walls more or less intact and they aren¡¯t very good as anti-personnel weapons, but we could use them to throw some volatile compounds over the wall.


    Why didn¡¯t i think of it before? Uncle and his trainees haven¡¯t been busy much at all recently, i expected there to be more injuries but their efforts have been mostly wasted making healing potions.


    Calling out to the guards outside my tent i order them to bring me the head engineer and alchemist.


    Within minutes uncle and a man I have grown somewhat familiar with over the last week are standing in front of me.


    ¡°Do you have any potion bottles that would survive being thrown from a trebuchet or catapult  and shatter upon impact?¡± Johanna


    ¡°Of course, in several sizes too¡± Uncle


    ¡°Good, good. I want you and your alchemists to focus on creating noxious and poisonous volatile compounds. We¡¯re going to throw them over the wall. Work with the engineers to get everything working right, this should gives us enough of an edge to claim the city before whatever it is their planning comes to fruition.¡± Johanna


    With a salute the two of them leave me to look over the battlefield again.


    I spend the next several hours watching over it, trying to figure out anything in their troops movements that could give me a clue.


    I think i finally found something.


    On the east side, all the mages cycle through a particular clump of buildings, that must be where they are refilling their mana. If we could take that out it would be a sure victory.


    Standing up i head outside to tell the guards to bring me the head engineer, only to find the sun long set and the moon high in the sky. The lazy bastard is almost certainly asleep by now. His second should work just fine, however.


    Within minutes his second is standing in front of me. A lovely young girl, a couple years older than me. The head engineer''s daughter i believe. I explain the situation to her and ask for her input on how we can go about destroying that area.


    ¡°That area over there is new, all stone and clay buildings. Firebombing it will do nothin, explosives might, but with your alchemists working on yer posinin idea and don¡¯t have time for making what we need. Large stones should work the best, if ya had an enchanter we could do some real damage to em. Only reason we  havent yet is ya want this city intact.¡±


    I get the guards to send someone through the ranks of mages to see if anyone knows even the basics of enchanting. I doubt it, artificial enchanting is pretty difficult to learn, a mere soldier usually wouldn¡¯t, at least not without being promoted to a non-combat role.


    Less than an hour later i received word that a pair of mages that are adept with enchanting have discovered in the ranks and have met up with the engineer. Whatever she¡¯s doing i hope she does it quickly, the majority of the mages will be in there in a couple hours, that would be the ideal time to strike.


    I feel an explosion several hours later, and see a large section of the eastern wall crumble on the map. Bah, i wanted to avoid rebuilding as much as i could.


    Whatever, it¡¯s more important that we take the city than we preserve it.


    Seems many soldiers have started to desert, now that there is a large, convenient escape path. They¡¯re less disciplined than i thought.


    It won¡¯t be long now before they surrender, with their mages out of commission and an easy entry point if i want to take the city street by street they don¡¯t have much of a chance of winning. At least not so long as they didn¡¯t finish whatever it is their planning.


    The poisonous gases won¡¯t be as effective now that there isn¡¯t a large wall preventing them from dissipating, but they should work well enough to drive soldiers into deserting. I should make a show of being merciful to the ones that desert the city, i¡¯d never hire them, but they can be useful here.


    It was three more days before the city fell. Though it would be more accurate to say that we realized there were more soldiers outside the city than inside, by a lot. We just walked in and claimed the city street by street with no real opposition until we reached the keep, where we lost a couple dozen putting down the last of their forces.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>you have conquered the city of Melnin for the kingdom of Greica. you have gained the following titles: General, Conquerer.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 97

    Chapter 97


    It was obvious the pro divers knew the ins and outs of this dungeon with how quickly we cleared all the floors up to eight hundred. That was when we really needed to get hands-on, not so much so it was beatable, but more so to speed things up. The biggest difficulty hike, however, was the last boss on floor one thousand. Not only did it incorporate all the other bosses, both full bosses, and minibosses, but they worked together astonishingly well. But that was just part of it, the actual boss of floor one thousand was incredibly powerful on Its own, a Lich king that spewed hoards of high leveled undead at us while coordinating everything with the skill of a general of a thousand battles.


    The fight was costly, no one died but everyone suffered life-threatening injuries frequently. My potion stores were whittled down to a handful of mid-tier healing potions a couple miscellaneous potions. The drop was a set of bonemold armor titled the bones of rak-sheer, It was stunningly beautiful and gave bonuses to leadership abilities and necromancy, in addition to being pretty great armor in its own right. Potentially worth tens of millions of Jaers.


    But that¡¯s not what we¡¯re after. The whole goal of this dungeon dive was for the three of us to meet the lord in charge of the dungeon, and that we did.


    I felt a powerful soul brush against mine for a moment before pulling away, but, in that small space of time, I know it managed to examine my soul from all possible angles. It knew me better than I could possibly know myself.


    ¡°Impressive, truly impressive. Yours is the first group to conquer this dungeon in almost seven hundred years. And I know what your thinking, no this dungeon is not a trifling thousand years old like most believe, it is far more ancient than that. I am far more ancient than that. Call me Fromir¡± Fromir


    With a spark of light a troll appeared before us. Almost seven feet tall with dark blue skin and arms that hung to his knees. His posture spoke of confidence and his eyes spoke of intelligence.


    Before anyone had the chance to respond Fromir spoke up again.


    ¡°I know what it is all of you want, and you shall have it. Pretty simple requests honestly. In a moment the hired hands will have what they want and will be on their way, then the rest of us may talk.¡± FromirThis text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Before anyone could so much as take a breath the troll waved his hand and worked some magic, very obviously soul magic, and the pro divers seemed different somehow. They bowed their heads and made towards the exit that had appeared at the death of the final boss. Fromir then turned to Alfred.


    ¡°You¡¯re an odd one, a soul split in two, crippling it. And yet you persist, attaining a level of control far beyond what a creature of your strength should have on your soul. For the sake of conversation, tell me what it is you want.¡± Fromir


    ¡°I want the other half of my soul, Sir. I want to consume it, make it mine in a way it shouldn¡¯t be, and I want to do it under my own power.¡± Alfred


    ¡°Marvelous, you desire power, but not just power, you desire enough power to accomplish a certain task. It will be difficult, grueling even, especially so for someone who¡¯s growth is crippled such as you. You almost have the control necessary to accomplish such a feat, but you have nowhere near the power required.¡± Fromir


    ¡°It is as I had feared than¡± Alfred


    I wanted to speak up, but I found that I couldn¡¯t so much move my mouth. Fromir must be suppressing us in some way, and I¡¯m powerless to resist it.


    ¡°And the fairy. You don¡¯t want for much, do you? There is something, however, that I can give you that you want. What is it, pray tell.¡± Fromir


    ¡°I want to explore the world forever with Laura, without having to worry about dying. Not just land either, but the seas and the skies as well.¡± Aria


    ¡°Easy. Immortality, limitless flight, water breathing, and immunity to pressure variations. I could do it in my sleep, I have done it in my sleep.¡± Fromir


    With another wave of the troll¡¯s hand Aria and Laura changed, but not in any way that was immediately noticeable.


    ¡°Next would be the Elf then, Laura. You want much the same as what this young man thinks he wants, right? Tell me, what is it?¡± Fromir


    What does he mean, what I think I want?


    ¡°I want to learn, to grow. I want to know everything there is to know about the soul.¡± Laura


    ¡°Power in its purest form. Power for the sake of power. I won¡¯t teach you everything because then there would be nothing left to learn, plus it would take entirely too long to go over all the nuances, I¡¯m talking in the centuries, but I will teach you.¡± Fromir


    I came here seeking knowledge and power, is that not what I want?


    ¡°And the centerpiece of many a scheme, most beyond your ability to comprehend. Tell me, do you truly trust those you rely on, or rather, should you? Tell me, what is it you think you want?¡± Fromir


    ¡°I want power. Like what Laura said, I want to learn everything there is to know about the soul.¡± Jack


    My answer was immediate, not requiring any thought on my part. It felt like me speaking, but at the same time, it felt alien.


    ¡°Only half right. You desire power, but in the way you describe it. You don¡¯t want to learn the secrets of the soul, you want to rule as a king. You have to ask yourself, is that desire really your own, or is what someone else wants for you? You will get what you asked for.¡± Fromir


    I have never been more confused.


    End chapter 97