《Words of Ancient Magic (LitRPG Apocalypse)》 Chapter 1: The World Ends, Slowly It was a calm afternoon. I¡¯d just finished my dinner, and I was leaving my house to go for a walk. Then, it happened.
Mana density has reached 1%. Connection to Earth restored!
Compatible creatures detected: Humans, population 8,197,828,907. Determining method of Mana distribution¡­
Method selected: Widescale role assignment, full communication.
Hello, Humans of Earth! We apologize for the delay, we¡¯re rebooting your Mana Systems now! Power will gradually be restored to the world at a rate of 1% per Earth Standard day to ensure an easier adjustment period. You may look forward to the return of all your favorite System representatives, such as Fenrir, Devourer of the Sun, and Shiva, the God of Destruction!
New Misc. Quest: Reintegration
As compensation for this little mishap, enjoy this consolatory gift. Requirements: Day 1/100 Quest Reward: +50% to all Attributes
Processing¡­
Role Assignment: Speaker for the Dead
Description: Sometimes people leave unfinished business after their deaths, and sometimes those they leave behind have unanswered questions. The Speaker for the Dead spans the bridge between life and death, allowing the user to bring back an echo of a spirit to resolve any final issues it has left behind. Main Skill: Immortal Questions Secondary Skill Choices: Fallen Talent, Eidolon¡¯s Embrace Passive: Echo Garden
Reeling from the sudden there-and-gone migraine, I almost didn¡¯t notice the sudden, distant roar. I did see the shadow encompassing me, though. Looking to the sky, I saw a huge red-scaled lizard with wings. ¡°Nope,¡± I shook my head and walked back into my house. ¡°That is not how today is going to go, thank you very much.¡± Rummaging through my cupboards and the fridge, I poured myself a bowl of sugary, berry-flavoured cereal and started crunching on it as I stared at the magic words in my vision and very willfully ignored the obvious question of what sort of lizards had wings. ¡°How am I supposed to choose one of these without knowing what any of these Skills do?¡±
Immortal Questions (Lv. 1)
Allows the user to speak a word while touching the body of a deceased creature, gaining an Echo of that creature associated with the word spoken. Each corpse may have a number of Echoes harvested from it equal to the level of Immortal Questions.
Fallen Talent (Lv. 1)
You engage a portion of one of your Echoes, temporarily gaining one of their Skills. If the level of the Skill would be higher than the level of Fallen Talent, it is instead reduced to match it.
Eidolon''s Embrace (Lv. 1)
Wrap a target in the grip of an Echo. The Echo may speak to the target freely, providing advice, encouragement, and consolement, and if you¡¯re the target it increases your Attributes by 10% of its own per level in Eidolon''s Embrace.
Echo Garden (Passive)
Any bodies that you personally bury summon simple Echoes that cannot be harvested. These Echoes gain a limited ability to interact with the environment, and constantly work to maintain and improve the area. Furthermore, the echoes passively boost your Mana recovery and will help to ward off intruders. The size of the Garden and potency of the Echoes improves with each creature buried within, with stronger creatures causing a greater impact.
Another headache flared in my head, but after letting it pass, I got to reading. Before long, I frowned, swallowing a bite of my cereal. ¡°What are Attributes?¡±
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 Mana: 5
Dexterity: 5 Mana Recovery: 5
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Immortal Questions (Lv. 1)
Quests: Reintegration (1%)
¡°So, probably the numbers. What¡¯s Human Versatility?¡±
Human Versatility (Passive)
Humans are known for their adaptability. Gain 1 free Attribute point that can be used to increase any of your stats by 1 when any of your Skills level up.
That made sense. Probably. Without any Echoes, it was hard to tell which Skill would be stronger. I could probably just go get one now? But would that help me figure out what to go with? Or would it just confuse me further? Skills seemed very potent. But how significant were Attributes? Would 10% of my current 5 be 0, .5, or 1? And would 1 more Strength make me 20% stronger? I pulled out my phone and checked for the internet, but it seemed to be down. It was a little freaky, but I¡¯d kind of already assumed something like that would happen. The internet didn¡¯t usually last long during these sorts of things. I was still stewing over my Secondary Skill choice when I heard a massive thud. Presumably, that meant the dragon had landed. Whether that was because of it getting injured I had no clue, but I¡¯d been hearing some helicopters and guns, so it was probable that they¡¯d already engaged the creature.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! I set the decision aside, as well as my now-empty bowl. Not because I''d made my choice, oh no. It was because I''d just decided what my next step should be. I''d steal an Echo from the dragon. That should be pretty strong, and might help inform my decision. I knew on some level that I should be scared, and part of me was utterly terrified, but the rest had decided that the best reaction to the situation was to go along with it. That didn''t involve running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I¡¯d played video games before: as long as I kept the same sort of mindset I¡¯d use in one of those, I¡¯d be fine. I poked my head out of my place. I was currently watching over my aunt¡¯s house while she was on vacation, so there wasn¡¯t anyone else to try to clear out. Instead, I just locked the door, scanned the skies for the helicopters for a second, and then hopped in my car. While the monster did appear to be a dragon, from the glimpse I¡¯d gotten, it wasn¡¯t really that big. More elephant size than blue whale size. Plus, the military seemed to be handling it just fine, and I hadn¡¯t seen any smoke so far, so it probably lacked any sort of ¡°fire breath.¡± I slowly drove my car towards the action, only really able to see the helicopters firing, but I made sure not to go over the speed limit. While there was a dragon, and there were likely a lot of other monsters out and about, that didn¡¯t mean that law and order had failed entirely. Maybe at some point in the next couple of months everything would turn around, but for now it was better to be safe. The government had functioned before the internet, and it would likely continue to do so after. Before long, the helicopters started flying away from the dragon, presumably to put out fires somewhere else. If a dragon had appeared in a small city in Ohio, then who¡¯s to say that something bigger might show up someplace else? In fact, there were probably a lot of monsters out and about right now. I pulled up a block away from the dragon corpse, and spent a moment observing. A couple buildings had gotten crushed, but as it was a Sunday and they were mostly just small, locally owned businesses, there hadn¡¯t been anyone inside. One house had gotten its roof torn off, and there were firefighters and paramedics on the scene trying to pull people out. To the side, there were a few cop cars, and a few men stood beside them locked in an intense discussion. Nobody seemed to be guarding the corpse. It made sense¨C who was going to try to drag the body of a five ton dragon away? I spent a moment considering my plan. They¡¯d probably get concerned if I ran for it, but they¡¯d also probably try to stop me if I got too close. I also wouldn¡¯t have the time to really think about a word for Immortal Questions, so I¡¯d need to have it ready on the tip of my tongue. After I felt ready, I started walking slowly towards the scene. As I got closer, the details of the dragon¡¯s form got clearer. It wasn¡¯t quite red¨C closer to burgundy in color, though its scales glimmered as though they¡¯d been polished, and it was adorned with a pair of majestic horns that twisted and curled atop its skull. Its wings, once long and bat-like, were now tattered, shredded through with holes by the might of the military industrial complex. Once I was within maybe twenty feet of the dragon, one of the police officers started slowly approaching me with a grim expression. That expression turned to confusion when I picked up my pace and set my hand down on the slain beast. ¡°Hey kid, what are you¨C¡± ¡°Power.¡± The world exploded into grey and purple tones, drowning out everything before fading to black. The newborn soared through the skies, inhaling the magic contained within the very air. His blood told him that it was weaker than it should have been, but it didn¡¯t matter. Not when there was prey to be hunted. His wings flapped, sending him soaring into the heavens. He followed his nose¨C there was fresh meat this way. Lots of it. A number of odd rock formations came into view. He could sense that there was meat hiding in them¨C a foolish endeavor. He would rend their walls and topple their burrows. The drake allowed himself to fall through the sky before catching himself again, soaring directly over the cravenous morsels. His blood told him that the purpose of hunting was twofold: to consume, and to instill fear. A dragon¡¯s rule was uncontested, and the deplorable meat sacks needed to know it. Then something tore through his wing. The meat sacks were fighting back? He turned his malevolent gaze upon the odd, metallic structure that flew while somehow holding itself stationary and carrying¡­ more meat? Fury pumped through the drake¡¯s stomach, and he flapped his wings, hurtling towards the insubordinate meat-things. Before he got the chance to tear into the construct, something heavy and fiery slammed against its wing, tearing it to shreds, sending the dragon into a descending spiral. He hurtled towards the ground, his back smashing against the rock formations and reducing them to rubble, his forward velocity dragging him across the earth to impact another structure, rendering it, too, to naught but debris. He roared his fury to the skies and righted himself, flailing his wings once and failing to rise. He turned to face the despicable meat sacks approaching him, pointing black sticks in his direction. Heat built up in the drake¡¯s chest, and it opened its maw wide, preparing to¨C I gasped, stumbling away from the corpse. ¡°--doing?¡± The cop increased his pace, arriving beside me. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I rose to my feet, dismissing his hand. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m alright.¡± ¡°They told us to stand guard in case the body did something weird,¡± the cop said with a frown, ¡°Sorry, I guess we should¡¯ve put up warnings or something.¡± ¡°No, no, it¡¯s fine,¡± I explained, ¡°that was on me I think. I¡¯ll be on my way now?¡± ¡°Oh, uh¡­ okay. Bye?¡± The man seemed extremely confused. Part of me wanted to explain, but I was preoccupied dealing with the Echo I¡¯d harvested. It had been like¡­ I¡¯d been me, but I didn¡¯t know I was me? Like, I¡¯d had all of my memories and my own personality, but for some reason none of them had applied to my thoughts? I¡¯d been both the drake and myself, all at once. And now I just felt weak, like I was under anaesthetics. But clearly that had been a powerful Echo. Plus¡­
Immortal Questions (Lv. 1) ¡ú (Lv. 2)
+1 Mana +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility)
That explained how Attributes worked. Right away, my weakness got just a little bit easier to deal with, which I took to mean that the feeling was some problem with my Mana. I tried to mentally command the screens to put the extra Attribute Point into Mana as well, and the feeling got even easier to deal with. I got back in my car and idled for a while. Now was time for the decision, after all. I¡¯d just gotten a particularly strong Echo, and now I needed a way to use it. Just like with the Attribute Point, I tried to will the system to give me my choice, and then I quickly tested it out, checking the screen for the changes.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+3) Mana: 7 (+4)
Dexterity: 5 (+1) Mana Recovery: 5 (+2)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Immortal Questions (Lv. 2) , Eidolon''s Embrace (Lv. 1)
Quests: Reintegration (1%)
Instantly, my body surged with power. I was faster, stronger, and that odd feeling with my Mana had completely evaporated. I was currently getting nine total stats from the drake¡¯s echo, and was left with an odd feeling somewhere between joy and inadequacy. My numbers had just gone up a lot, and they¡¯d only continue to grow as I leveled up my Embrace and got stronger Echoes. On the other hand, depending on how the system rounded, the Drake had probably possessed somewhere around one hundred total Attribute Points, compared to my twenty-two. I was left wondering how those interacted with the body, though. Was 5 the base for everything, and then there was a multiplier based on the species or body type? Or did different things start with different Attributes in the first place? I was currently leaning towards the latter option, since the drake had thought of itself as a newborn and had probably literally been born today. But in any case, I¡¯d gotten my dragon Echo and picked out a Secondary Skill, and now I needed to figure out how to level up my Skills more and get some Attributes. Hopefully things wouldn¡¯t go to complete crap before I managed to figure everything out. I stepped off the treadmill sweating like a pig. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s an hour,¡± I panted. ¡°No Attributes boosted, no level in Eidolon''s Embrace, nothing.¡± That probably disproved my theory that exercising could boost Attributes. There was always the chance that I hadn¡¯t gone as hard or as long as I should¡¯ve, but I was absolutely wrecked. I¡¯d also been hoping that leveling Eidolon''s Embrace would just be a matter of using the Attributes granted by the Echo, but it appeared that it would be a bit more complicated than that. Part of me wanted to go out and try to hunt down monsters, figuring that not everything would be as dangerous as the drake, but there wasn¡¯t that much of a purpose. Weak Echoes wouldn¡¯t do much for me, other than maybe let me use my Echo Garden Passive, but I didn¡¯t have too much of a need for that yet either. My time would likely be best spent securing reliable food and water for when things really got bad, but I didn¡¯t want to get caught up in the crowds that were already doing exactly that and was a bit more worried about the monsters that were coming. I was a bit worried that I¡¯d jumped the gun by taking Eidolon''s Embrace over Fallen Talent. The latter would have let me collect more Skills, whereas what I had now was limited to just one. There was nothing for it now, though. I had my Skills, and the only way I knew to level either of them was by touching dead things. I still didn¡¯t want to go around casually breaking laws, though. There was a graveyard nearby, but that was a bit too much. I might get desperate later on and resort to such tactics, but I wasn¡¯t at that point quite yet. Instead, the best plan I could think of was to replicate what I¡¯d already done. I¡¯d already harvested the drake, which I¡¯d had absolutely no part in killing. Why not just do that same thing again? Follow trained professionals and profit off of their hard work? It was a flawless plan, and there was absolutely no chance of it going wrong. Chapter 2: Things Going Wrong Murphy¡¯s Law states that anything that can happen, will happen. Sometimes those things happen faster than expected. In this case, instead of chasing after the army and their kaiju hunting party, I ran into a couple little green men wearing loincloths and holding spears. It was in the suburbs near the edge of the town, too, which made me wonder briefly if all monsters were naturally drawn toward concentrations of people. They were standing in the middle of the road, and I didn¡¯t want to risk damaging my car by running them over, so I unsheathed the meat cleaver I¡¯d brought along and stepped outside. Was this a stupid idea? Yes. But I wanted to test my Eidolon¡¯s Embrace and the stats I¡¯d gotten from it. The goblins noticed me straight away and shouted an unintelligible war cry at me, raising their spears high. The behavior reminded me of a monkey trying to make itself seem bigger to scare off predators, which made me hesitate for a second. Maybe these were nice goblins? Then one of them chucked a spear at me. Seriously? I¡¯m twice your size. Stupid meat. I started sprinting, surprising myself a bit with the speed. The goblins shrieked and raised their weapons at me, the one who¡¯d thrown their spear pulling a shiv out of their loincloth. Clearly, they were too simpleminded to realize that they were outmatched. I took out the shiv wielder first, maneuvering around the spear of the other and slicing into my main target¡¯s hand. It was then a simple matter to carve into its throat and leave it choking to death on its own blood. The spear wielder stood away from me with fear clear in its eyes. As it should be. I burst forwards, intent on slaying the monster before it got the chance to strike back at me, but it took the opportunity to thrust its spear directly towards me. For a second, things slowed down. My vision caught the quiver in the goblin¡¯s hands, induced by its own fear and commitment to its attack. I felt my own footing, unstable at the speeds I was moving. The glimmer of some substance on the spear glistening in the sun registered in the corner of my eye. Then something else took over. I felt my body twist, gripping the spear in my left hand and kicking the goblin in the chest, springboarding off of it and flipping completely to skid across the pavement. Then my body threw the spear forwards, and it sailed straight into the chest of the remaining goblin, piercing clean through and killing it on the spot.
Eidolon¡¯s Embrace (Lv. 1) ¡ú (Lv. 2)
+1 Mana Recovery +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility)
The sensation dissipated, leaving only a feeling of intense satisfaction and a pulsing migraine, as well as a desire to vomit that surged whenever I looked at either of the goblin¡¯s bodies. I held my head in my hands for a moment, pulling up the screens to check over the update.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+6) Mana: 7 (+8)
Dexterity: 5 (+2) Mana Recovery: 6 (+4)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Immortal Questions (Lv. 2) , Eidolon''s Embrace (Lv. 2)
Quests: Reintegration (1%)
Already, my stats were getting pretty high, especially my Mana. I dropped my point into Mana Recovery, figuring that it would probably help with my headache, but noted that I should increase my Dexterity. It had been the dragon¡¯s lowest Attribute, so it would also be mine for the foreseeable future. I¡¯d felt pretty mobile in that fight, but that was only after my Echo had started manipulating me. It felt a bit strange. On one hand, it had kept me from getting stabbed and most likely poisoned, and it was unlikely that my Echoes could or would intentionally hurt me, but at the same time, I¡¯d almost fully lost control. The next time it happened, I¡¯d have to test how much control I had over my own body while under the drake¡¯s influence. It was possible that the full manipulation was caused by the strength of the dragon compared to my own weakness. Even now, the Attributes it was giving me were almost as significant as my own. I took a long look at the corpses at my feet. I¡¯d get to collect two Echoes from each, but which words should I use for the Echoes? I¡¯d prefer to stay away from anything that might make me regret killing them, and learning something useful from them would be optimal. Kneeling down, I placed my hand on the goblin whose throat I¡¯d sliced open. ¡°Creation.¡±
There was nothing. Nothing, ever, forever. Only hunger. Then, there was sensation. Sight, sound, scent. It was overwhelming, and the creature wept uncontrollably. It wept for fear. It wept for rage. It wept for pain. But most of all, it wept for hunger. It devoured the knowledge of its body, and rose to its feet, gripping a spear, and started looking for something to hunt.
I closed my eyes and pulled away. These goblins weren¡¯t that intelligent. At least, not in a traditional sense. That was a weight off my shoulders. It also seemed that, rather than be teleported to our world, they¡¯d been pulled out of some sort of void. I put my hand back on the goblin and whispered again. ¡°Hunger.¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
It scratched at its stomach, the pain unbearable. The hunger, the endless hunger, it was agony beyond any comparison, and there was only one way to feed it. To hunt. It and its companion set forth, for every goblin knew that one was weak, but many were strong. Their numbers may have been too few, but the hunger was devouring them, threatening to send them back to the nothing. They hunted and hunted, until they found a small, weak creature, covered with soft hair-twigs and a snapped arm-flap. Its sharp tooth-mouth cried out ceaselessly, and the goblins lunged on it. With its death, the hunger reduced, but only a little. They needed larger prey. And they could smell a lot of it. The goblin pair began their travel towards the unnatural structures in the distance.
For a moment, I just stared at the dead body. They hadn¡¯t eaten the bird. They¡¯d just killed it and left it there. Not only were the goblins monsters in as literal of a sense as they could possibly be, their hunger wasn¡¯t for meat. It was for death. They¡¯d come to the city expressly to slaughter as many people as possible. I ran the same questions on the other goblin and found that their experiences were functionally identical, aside from being in different positions. The revelation that monsters were basically just murder machines from an empty void was upsetting, to say the least. The dragon had seemed different, but it had thought of itself as a newborn as well. Perhaps there was a difference between the two? The goblin echoes seemed to lack much in the way of personality, whereas the dragon had a lot of it, not to mention both types of ego. Was it a difference in strength or intelligence, or was there something else going on? I started walking back to my car, intent on continuing my journey, when I glanced at the spear goblin¡¯s body again and was reminded of my Passive, Echo Garden. I popped open the trunk and shuffled some things around to make space. The cleaners were going to have some questions for me, and I wasn¡¯t sure I¡¯d have any good answers for them.
After my encounter with the goblins, I got back to my route of trying to follow after the military, but eventually I lost them with the sun setting and them getting further and further away. Instead, I started driving around randomly, trying to locate any other dead bodies or monsters that I could reasonably handle. I did see signs of fights here and there, but no bodies, and definitely no more massive creatures. Maybe the local government had already gotten transportation set up for them? I was sure that they¡¯d sell for a pretty penny, or perhaps they¡¯d get someone to study them and figure out weaknesses, or maybe how they were being created? Once the moon had risen and the stars were out, I knew it was time to call it and go home. Luckily, my house hadn¡¯t been broken into, and I was able to transport the two goblin corpses to my backyard and start digging. Even with my Strength having more than doubled since the beginning of the day, digging a grave deep enough to make sure it wouldn¡¯t stink took a couple hours. I didn¡¯t know the exact requirements of Echo Garden, but my personal standard was that I should be able to go into my backyard and not want to die. Handling the dead bodies was gross. They were dirty and bloody and uncooperative. When you lift a living thing, like a pet or a friend, they subconsciously help you distribute the weight because they don¡¯t want to hit the ground like a sack of rocks. Dead bodies can¡¯t do that, so I was forced to awkwardly chuck them into the pit, relying entirely on my boosted strength and their own relatively small size. Once I dumped the final piece of, I felt a slight change in the area. It was like the opposite of a headache¨C my thoughts were clearer, and I had more energy. The dirt on top of the grave also started getting packed down, as though being stomped down by goblin-sized feet. ¡°Huh, that¡¯s disappointing. I thought I¡¯d be able to see them.¡± I frowned. ¡°Then again, I can¡¯t see the dragon Echo and my Skill is actively using it as a power source.¡± It looked like I wouldn¡¯t be getting visible ghosts. That was too bad. With the goblin corpses handled, it was time for a nice long sleep. After locking all the doors, I climbed into bed and closed my eyes.
My eyes opened to gaze down upon a wide, open landscape, my domain. But upon it, there were vermin. Heat built in my chest, and I ascended into the skies on my wings. The rats tried to flee, but I didn¡¯t allow that¨C my jaw unhinged and an impossibly hot flame escaped my lungs, roasting the pathetic, rotten meat to char. Satisfied, I returned to my resting place on the mountain and curled into a ball, closing my eyes and returning to one of my favorite activities¨C sleeping.
My eyes shot open to the distant sound of shattering glass. Quietly, I climbed out of bed, grabbed my cleaver, and crept out of my room, listening carefully. I¡¯m so stupid, why didn¡¯t I board the doors and windows? Monsters were almost always more active at night in fiction, so of course they would be here, too. Part of me just wanted to escape, but the rest of me knew that the best thing I could do was handle the threat¨C not only would I get more Echoes and bodies for my Garden, there was also a chance of getting progress for my Skills, and thus more ability to handle stronger monsters in the future. Instead of fleeing, I moved slowly toward where the sound had come from. There were faint hissing sounds, causing me to pause briefly. If it was some sort of giant snake, then there was a chance it was venomous, and that could be fatal if I messed up. The sounds continued, and I soon concluded that they weren¡¯t snake-like. I kept moving forwards, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever had snuck into my house. Then, just as I reached the end of the hall, I got a better read on the sounds they were making. ¡°¨Cjust some middle-aged lady, and she doesn¡¯t even live here anymore. Probably got some fancy summer home.¡± The voice was deep and quiet, but my ears caught onto what it was saying anyways. ¡°What if the neighbors heard us, though? I don¡¯t want any problems with the police, man.¡± ¡°You idiot.¡± There was a soft impact, cloth on cloth. ¡°The cops don¡¯t have time to be dealing with thieves when there are monsters on the streets. Didn¡¯t you see that dragon? Now shut up.¡± They were people. My knife trembled in my hand. Should I announce my presence, try to scare them off? Or would it be better to ambush them? They were right in what they were saying¨C the chances of cops showing up to help were low. Either I let the place get robbed, or I fight back and risk getting hurt. Not to mention, these were people, not goblins. I couldn¡¯t just kill them, but I didn¡¯t know how to safely incapacitate people. They would probably be stronger than the goblins, too, and there was a good chance they had their own Roles and Attributes to worry about. I breathed slowly, making sure to keep the sound from reaching them. I needed to handle this problem, and currently the only thing I had on my side was surprise¨C that and probably Attributes. I slowly peeked my head around the corner and saw two men, one tall with a muscular frame and one of a more average build. They were in full black, making it a bit harder to see them, but since I already knew they were there I just had to squint and focus. The big guy was carrying a gun, while the other, standing behind him, was looking around nervously and twitching. I pulled my head back and leaned over, undoing my laces and gently stepping out of my shoes. My hands were sweaty, so I wiped them on my jeans and adjusted my grip on my cleaver. Then, I moved. With seven Dexterity, it felt like my body moved half again as quickly as it should, and eleven Strength gave me the raw power to close the gap before either man got time to notice and react. I chopped into the burly man¡¯s hand, forcing him to drop his gun, and used my enhanced flexibility to quickly kick it behind me. The big guy gripped at his hand and shouted in agony, and I quickly turned and looked at the other guy, who¡¯d fallen back in surprise. Then I noticed what was in his hand, and dove to the side as fast as I could. There was a flash, and then an ear-shattering sound, and then pain. I looked down and saw a huge gash across my arm, my sleeve torn and blood splotches everywhere. Something about seeing the blood flipped a switch in my head, and I felt the Eidolon take control. Righteous fury filled me to my core. How dare these mortals injure a god? My body zipped forwards, faster than I would¡¯ve been able to manage on my own, led by my fist. The smaller man had dropped the gun and looked at me with an expression of terror and regret. As is only right. My arm hammered down, and then he was in the floor with an impression of my fist in his stomach. My body turned of its own volition to gaze at the big guy, who was left staring at his friend and putting pressure on his hand to stop the bleeding. Stop! I tried to regain control, to stop myself¨C or rather, the dragon¨C from going on a rampage. No. The voice came back smug and self-assured, and I felt my body start slowly marching towards the meat. I felt the wild grin on my face vanish as the drake played with the man like a cat would a mouse. I pulled back with as much force as I could, trying to restrain the dragon, but it refused to allow me to regain control, and I was left watching helplessly as the would-be thief turned to run and my body dashed forwards, smashing into his back and pinning him to the floor. With all the dragon¡¯s Strength, this man had no chance of resisting me, and my hands wrapped themselves around his neck and squeezed. He choked, gasping for air and failing to get it. Then he caught fire. My mouth hissed and the dragon rapidly changed courses to snap the man¡¯s neck, causing the fire to cut out and leaving my skin only a little burnt. You pathetic meat sacks and your weak skin. You didn¡¯t have to do that. He would¡¯ve left and we would¡¯ve been safe. To let prey flee is to lose your place as the predator. It is only by being ruthless that we can ensure that we never face defeat. With that, I regained control over my body and vomited onto the man that I¡¯d just killed. Chapter 3: Negotiating With A Terrorist After murdering two men in cold blood, I freaked out. Was I supposed to call the cops? Would they even come? I eventually took a step back and considered the situation. First, I wrapped my arm tight with a bandage to stop the bleeding. I was hoping that my healing had been boosted somehow with my Attributes, but I didn¡¯t know for sure, so I¡¯d need to visit the hospital later. Before that, though, I needed to handle the dead men. The first step in that was to collect their Echoes. Using the words ¡°Family,¡± and ¡°Love,¡± I figured out where their families lived and how I could get the two mens¡¯ things to them. I removed their valuables, doing my best to be respectful, and set them aside. Then I started digging graves. Rather than dump them together like I¡¯d done with the goblins, I took the extra time to dig two separate places for them, and laid stones over the graves when I was done. Like before, as soon as I¡¯d finished setting up the resting place, the dirt packed inwards and tidied itself up, like the Echoes had accepted my efforts. By the time I was done, the sun had risen, and I decided that I had to get myself treated. The wound didn¡¯t feel that bad anymore, but I didn¡¯t know if that was a sign of infection or not. First, though, I needed to look at my notifications.
Eidolon¡¯s Embrace (Lv. 2) ¡ú (Lv. 3)
+1 Mana Recovery +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility) +1 Skill Upgrade
Grip of Death or Shielding Clutch
¡°What are those?¡± I told you killing those meat sacks was worth it, didn¡¯t I? I ignored the drake.
Grip of Death (Lv. 3)
Wrap a target in the grip of an Echo. The Echo may speak to the target freely, providing advice, encouragement, and consolement, and if you¡¯re the target it increases your Attributes by 10% of its own per level in Eidolon''s Embrace. Furthermore, you may consume other harvested Echoes to gain a burst of Mana Regen equal to the consumed Echo¡¯s total stats.
Shielding Clutch (Lv. 3)
Wrap a target in the grip of an Echo. The Echo may speak to the target freely, providing advice, encouragement, and consolement, and if you¡¯re the target it increases your Attributes by 10% of its own per level in Eidolon''s Embrace. Furthermore, any physical harm the Eidolon''s target receives is blocked and redirected to your Mana pool.
The choice seemed pretty easy to me. Grip of Death would help me with Mana deprivation but so far the only thing that really drained me was when the dragon took over my body, in which case I''d probably want my Mana to run out faster. Plus, it would probably help a lot if I ever took another gunshot wound. I locked in my choice and felt something wrap around my skin. Looking down, there was a slight, almost-invisible shimmer across my body, reminiscent of scales if I looked closely enough. With that done, I cleaned myself up a bit to make sure I wouldn''t be walking into the hospital with blood, vomit, and dirt all over myself, and changed my bandage, then headed for the ER.
I cancelled my Shielding Clutch before getting out of the car, just to make sure nobody would notice. It was a bit paranoid of me, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. The instant feeling of weakness was staggering, but I managed to make it inside without seeming like a drunk. I made my way to the front desk, trying to portray a sense of relaxation and a lack of urgency. ¡°Hello sir, what seems to be the problem?¡± The receptionist flashed a brilliant smile my way. I smiled back, and pulled up my sleeve, where my bandage was still tie. ¡°I may have gotten shot?¡± The lady''s face paled. ¡°I know how that sounds, but it''s just a fles¨C¡± She pulled a phone off the desk and put in numbers rapidly. ¡°We have someone here who says he got shot, can you send someone out immediately?¡± ¡°...wound.¡± I finished lamely. Quickly, a man in scrubs came in and brought me into a room that seemed almost makeshift in design, set with a dozen others in the middle of a room that should''ve been filled with desks and computers. ¡°Let''s take a look here,¡± the man said as he pulled up my sleeve and snipped off my bandage. My wound started slowly bleeding, and the guy winced. ¡°Yeah, that got pretty close to your axillary nerve. Feel any pain?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Not really? Just a bit when I move it.¡± ¡°Thought so. I''m gonna run some saline over this and then we''ll see if I can get this healed, okay?¡± He stepped away to grab some supplies, and I stared at my feet for a second. When he returned, I asked, ¡°By heal, do you mean with Skills?¡± He nodded with a smile. ¡°Yeah, this Mana System might''ve sent a lot of things to crap and increased the number of patients coming in by a lot, but it seems that most people got Skills based on things they already did, or things they wanted to do. We''ve got a bunch of magic healing now, and we''re taking shifts of napping while our Mana comes back. I''ve got a bit of a headache already, so you might be my last patient before I swap out.¡± As he spoke, he gently poured some saline on my wound. I still couldn''t feel it, but he nodded like he could tell it was working. Then he closed his eyes and placed both hands on the area around my wound. Green dust seemed to leave his hands and sink into my body, slowly causing the feeling in my arm to return. My shoulder immediately started itching, and I reflexively reached for it, but the doctor caught my hand and stopped me. Now he healed with just one of his hands, his eyes open and looking at me. ¡°I''m Jonathan Price, by the way.¡± I have a pained grin. ¡°Thanks, Dr. Price. I''m Kenny.¡± He chuckled. ¡°Not technically a doctor, just a nurse who got lucky.¡± He ran his fingers over a small scar that remained where I''d been shot, then cut off the healing energy. ¡°Thanks again, sir.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± He yawned. ¡°I''m gonna go take a nap, this headache is awful. Don''t worry about paying at the front desk, treatment is free these days.¡± With that, he got up and walked away. I did the same, nonchalantly walking out of the Emergency Room as though I''d never been injured at all. As I drove home, I idly wondered how many other professions had been completely changed by the introduction of Mana. Could lumberjacks safely cut down trees in a single swing? Could firefighters summon water to extinguish burning homes? Perhaps the apocalypse wasn''t all bad after all.
I returned to my garden and sat down in front of the two graves I''d just dug. Why do you feel remorse? The dragon queries. You didn''t kill them, and they were too weak to survive the consequences of their own actions. A feeling of rage simmered inside me¨C mine, this time, not the dragon¡¯s. My inability to control you is what got them killed. How are you able to take control over me? I got the impression that the dragon was baring its fangs at me. You are weak. You lack magical potency. Mana. Your mind is incapable of fending my intrusions¨C or the intrusions of others like me¨C off. I groaned. So, until my Mana Attribute is higher than yours was in life, I won''t be able to stop you. And I''m guessing that the stats from Shielding Clutch don''t count? A toothy grin. Correct. ¡°So why should I allow you to remain as my Eidolon, then? Why shouldn''t I just switch to one of the goblins and not have to worry about you ever again?¡± Try it. I did, and felt my brain buzz as a wall of sound met my senses. Unintelligible screaming and a distinct impression of hunger overwhelmed me. I stomped the emotions down, and they quietened but didn''t quite vanish. I then checked my screens.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+0) Mana: 7 (+0)
Dexterity: 5 (+1) Mana Recovery: 7 (-1)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Immortal Questions (Lv. 2), Shielding Clutch (Lv. 3)
Quests: Reintegration (2%)
I shut down the Skill instantly upon seeing the negative Mana Recovery, and put my Attribute Point from earlier into Mana, bringing my base up to eight. Then, reluctantly, I let the dragon back in. See? You need me, boy. I started thinking. I really didn''t want to use an Echo from the people the dragon had killed, but the dragon just had way too much control right now. ¡°I''ll make a deal with you.¡± I injected as much confidence as I could into the statement. Oh? ¡°You can have free reign in combat from now on, as long as you swear that you won''t kill, maim, or torture any humans. If you can''t do that, or you break the promise, I will get rid of you. I''m not sure when I''ll next get a Skill, but I''m confident there''s something out there that can get rid of you.¡± There was a long pause. Will this deal continue even after you get the Mana to prevent me from doing whatever I want? I grimaced and thought for a moment. ¡°It''ll continue until I find something stronger than you that I can reliably control.¡± I could feel the dragon thinking for a long moment. It was an odd sensation, like it was happening in my own brain, but I couldn''t tell what was actually being thought. I accept, on the condition that you find a way to get rid of me after that. I don''t want to be held as a prisoner in your body. ¡°Then we have a deal.¡± Something seemed to twitch inside of me, like my subconscious had accepted the agreement. We will be bound by this oath¨C incapable of breaking it until the other dies. My eyes widened. ¡°Is that built into the Mana System?¡± Not quite. It''s a combination of Mana and sentient will. If either of us had been unfaithful, with intentions to break the pact or manipulate the terms, it would not have formed. ¡°If you hadn''t told me, I would have never known.¡± I frowned. It is not the role of the predator to lie. Only prey must. I am a dragon, the greatest predator of all. To deceive is not in my nature. ¡°For such a great predator, you sure got taken out pretty fast,¡± I quipped. My body was that of a infant and I still caused serious damage to your people. Do not underestimate my kind for the failings of our weakest. ¡°What about your mind? You sure don''t seem that young.¡± Dragon''s souls are eternal. Mine is the same as was before me. When a dragon dies, another is born in its place, with all of its memories intact. ¡°Infinite reincarnation, huh?¡± I thought it over. ¡°Then what are you? The System says you''re an Echo.¡± That is true. I am merely a reflection of that soul and the mind that once stored it. My true self is surely gone by now, manifesting itself as another drake elsewhere in the multiverse. ¡°So you''re like a clone? Dang, sorry about that, man.¡± I will not doubt the significance of my existence simply because I lack a soul. I am as cunning, as potent, and as meaningful as any other dragon soul. My wishes and desires are those of a dragon. Am I not, then, a dragon unto myself? The Eidolon lectured. ¡°I suppose you are. Now, then, what should be our next step?¡± I slapped my thighs and rose to my feet. Conquest, of course. You are too weak right now. You must become strong enough to be worthy of me. I mulled the thought over in my head. ¡°Makes sense. Not sure I want to risk another fight with just a cleaver, though. Let''s see if I can get my hands on a weapon.¡± There was a loud snort in my mind. Inferior tactics, but I suppose with your lack of natural weapons it''s to be expected. ¡°Quiet, you. Your ¡®natural weapons¡¯ did jack diddly squat against a few guns.¡± I allowed myself to smile at the indignant squawk the dragon made.
A bell rang as I opened the door, and the shop owner took a look at me and waved me in. ¡°Come on in, kid. Everything''s on the house.¡± I quirked an eyebrow. ¡°Really? Why''s that?¡± He chuckled. ¡°The world''s ending, kid. Do you really think I''m gonna need money for much longer? Plus, there''s no shot cops are gonna waste their time on little old me just for arming the people, right?¡± I shrugged in reply. ¡°Now, what are you looking for? Something small, or something big?¡± He leaned in, stage whispering, ¡°Please say something big.¡± I thought for a second. ¡°I need something melee and something to handle problems that I can¡¯t solve with that alone.¡± The merchant looked me over. ¡°You look a bit scrawny for it, but I suppose these days anything¡¯s possible, huh? I¡¯ve got a couple weapons of the physical variety, if you wanna take a look.¡± At my nod, he gestured to one of the aisles and stepped out from behind the counter, leading me over. ¡°Our selection of these isn¡¯t as large as it is for guns, mostly just knives and swords. If you see something you like, feel free to bring it up to the counter so I can show you how to use it.¡± As the man walked away, the dragon cut into my thoughts. That one. My eyes flickered over to where he was mentally gesturing, revealing a pair of¡­ wide knives with handlebars? ¡°What are these?¡± I muttered. Those are our new claws, the dragon proclaimed smugly. With a shrug, I carefully grabbed them both by the handles and carried them back to the register. The store owner gave me a weird look. ¡°You sure you want these, kid? They¡¯re mostly just a novelty item¨C not all that great in a real fight.¡± I shook my head, admitting, ¡°Honestly? I¡¯m not sure what I¡¯m doing. These just felt right.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Your choice. You can always come back for something a bit larger later on. These are called katars, or push daggers. It¡¯s not too complicated¨C just grab them and pretend you¡¯re punching.¡± I gripped the handles and something felt¡­ right. It had more to do with the dragon than it did me, I think, but if the dragon¡¯s fighting abilities were enhanced then so were my own chances of survival. ¡°Alright,¡± I announced, setting the blades down. ¡°Now, how about something with a bit more range?¡± The man¡¯s smile widened. ¡°Well, I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯re not very knowledgeable about this sort of thing, so I¡¯ll keep it simple¨C small or big?¡± ¡°Big.¡± The answer was instant. Weaker enemies could be dealt with in melee to help develop my Skills and give the dragon some work to do. Things that I couldn¡¯t handle but still needed to die could be handled with ordnance. The owner¡¯s grin grew almost unnaturally large. ¡°Perfect! We keep the best stuff in the back, give me just a second.¡± He disappeared behind a door for a moment, and returned carrying a case. ¡°These are all some of my favorites, but I¡¯ll let you take one if you promise not to use ¡®em on people.¡± He set the case down on the counter and gave me a look. After a moment I realized he was waiting for me to respond, and stuttered out, ¡°Uh, yeah, of course I promise.¡± ¡°Good enough.¡± He popped the case open so we could both look inside. ¡°Now, I¡¯ll explain these to you on account of being new to guns, and then I¡¯ll show you how to use ¡®em. First, though¡­¡± He gave me a look. ¡°What¡¯s your Strength?¡± I shifted uncomfortably, glancing over at my Attributes idly.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+9) Mana: 7 (+12)
Dexterity: 5 (+4) Mana Recovery: 7 (+6)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Immortal Questions (Lv. 2), Shielding Clutch (Lv. 3)
Quests: Reintegration (2%)
¡°Oh, come on. I won¡¯t tell anyone.¡± He gave me a warm look. ¡°I just wanna make sure you can handle the recoil.¡± ¡°Right, it¡¯s¡­ fourteen.¡± His eyes widened. ¡°Well dang, no wonder you wanted the katars. You¡¯ll do just fine, I think.¡± He glanced down at the guns and pulled out a pistol. ¡°You¡¯ll probably be wanting this, then. In the simplest terms I can put it, this is a Desert Eagle. We¡¯re gonna be loading it with .50 Action Express rounds, though it can take a few other types as well.¡± He flipped the gun around, showing me a switch on it. ¡°This is the safety. It¡¯s currently in the ¡®on¡¯ position. Keep it that way unless you¡¯re actively shooting. One of my buddies shot half his thigh off once because he kept holstering without making sure the safety was on.¡± The shop owner pulled a magazine out from under the counter. ¡°Same thing with these. Unless the gun is with you and you have a chance of needing it, don¡¯t leave the gun loaded. Also, for this specific type, you don¡¯t want to load it from the top, just with the mag.¡± His hand gripped the top and pulled it back. ¡°Do it just like that, okay? After that¡­¡± He looked around for a second. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t have anything to shoot at to demonstrate, but that¡¯s how you load it. And to unload¡­¡± He pressed another button that released the magazine, then pulled the slide back again, releasing the chambered bullet. ¡°Now, I wanna watch you do everything I just did. Leave the safety on.¡± I awkwardly held the gun in my hand, but did my best to replicate his maneuvers. When I¡¯d finished, he nodded at me. ¡°That¡¯s good enough. Now, one more thing¨C you don¡¯t point this at anyone, especially yourself, and if the trigger goes down but the bullet doesn¡¯t fire you set this thing down somewhere safe and don¡¯t touch it anymore. Deal?¡± ¡°Deal. I¡¯ll be careful.¡± ¡°You¡¯d better be. That thing is lethal. It won¡¯t just kill one guy, it¡¯ll go through him and kill the next one too, you understand?¡± ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°Good. Let me grab you some ammo.¡± The Southern man turned away, but I stopped him. ¡°Do you mind if I ask a couple of questions? Not about the gun, just for curiosity¡¯s sake.¡± ¡°Sure thing.¡± He turned back and leaned over the counter. ¡°What do you wanna know?¡± ¡°Why are you here? If you¡¯re saying everything in the shop is free, why don¡¯t you just leave and let people take it?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a difference between taking something that¡¯s free and theft,¡± he explained, ¡°If I weren¡¯t here, just left and let whoever take whatever, they¡¯d be stealing. Even if I put a sign on the door that said it was all free, I¡¯d have no way of enforcing boundaries, like asking you not to shoot people. Plus, things were free for you, but if someone came in and tried to take all my stock for themselves, they¡¯d definitely be stealing. It¡¯s my job to make sure good folks like you are able to get your hands on the things you need to survive¨C and to keep the bad ones from making the world a living hell for you.¡± That was¡­ noble. ¡°Has anyone tried to steal so far?¡± He nodded. ¡°Right after the screens popped up and a few people saw monsters, everyone freaked out. I fired a couple warning shots, and that scared most of them off. The rest got some birdshot to the chest. Nobody died, if you¡¯re worried about that.¡± ¡°And any monsters? Have you had to deal with those yet?¡± ¡°Just one, and it wasn¡¯t too big or anything. Little scaled thing with sharp fangs and claws, ran around on four legs but stood up when it got close. Blew the thing¡¯s head clean off and threw it in my pickup.¡± That¡¯s a kobold. Nasty rodents, even worse than goblins. They pester dragons constantly, trying to help us without even knowing how to speak. Some of my kin use them effectively, but most just eat them. You should take the body for your garden. ¡°Just one more thing, then¡­¡± I grimaced. ¡°Do you mind if I take the body?¡±
The store owner had been concerned by my request, but eventually let me take it along with a bag of ammunition and a pair of mags. It was nice to see that there were still good people out there. All the apocalypse movies always portrayed people getting all militant and aggressive. Things aren¡¯t that bad yet. When the Mana Density reaches 25%, the overall potency of monsters will be ten times worse, if not moreso. ¡°Quiet you,¡± I muttered, shoveling another pile of dirt onto the new grave. A few more and the grave was accepted by Echo Garden, providing yet another uptick in the Echoes¡¯ power and the Mana Recovery buff they provided. I hadn¡¯t really seen much in the way of benefits from my Garden yet, but deep down I knew it was one of those things that would take a lot of time and effort, but would eventually turn into one of my most powerful abilities. Are we going to hunt now? I gazed up at the sun, guessing at the time. ¡°You know what? Sure. You¡¯re in charge, tell me where to go.¡± Chapter 4: Stalking Prey Your senses are terrible. Shut up. I figured you¡¯d know what to do in a hunt, since you keep talking about being a ¡°predator.¡± I do know how to hunt, just not with such a pathetic body. I rose from my crouched position. ¡°Alright, this isn¡¯t working. I¡¯m heading back home.¡± No, you¡¯re not. ¡°Yes, I am. It¡¯s been hours and we haven¡¯t even found a single thing. The sun is starting to set, dude.¡± I am not a dude, I am a mighty and noble dragon! ¡°I¡¯m tired of calling you ¡®dragon,¡¯ if I can¡¯t use other phrases then what¡¯s your name?¡± I am Karlisifixois the Great Devourer! ¡°Karl. Got it.¡± Karlisifixois! ¡°Not calling you that. You¡¯re Karl.¡± You¨C Something whizzed past my head, and Karl took the reins over my body. ¡°I¡¯ll show you who can¡¯t hunt!¡± The growl tore itself from my throat as Karl leaned forwards and leapt towards the threat. Of course you can hunt now, something literally showed up to attack you! ¡°Hrrah!¡± Somewhere along the jump, Karl had unsheathed the katars, and now he plunged them down into a hard carapace, eviscerating the attacker before I even got a chance to register what it was. Then my body was mine once more. Giant stingbeetle. Their tails fire darts that contain potent narcotics. Without the element of surprise, they¡¯re nothing more than overly arrogant prey. ¡°Oh. Thanks?¡± Green goop dripped from the sides of the scorpion-like creature, and I grimaced. ¡°Anyone who ever sees the trunk of my car is going to have a lot of questions.¡± And you will tell them of our glorious battles and conquests. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m gonna do that, actually.¡± I knelt down and collected my Echoes, using the same keywords I''d used on the goblins. Just like them, this thing has been summoned from some sort of abyss and felt an unending desire to kill things. I hauled the corpse back to my car, which was a lot further than I¡¯d expected, doing my best to not spill much of the green goop. After dumping the body in my trunk, I hopped in the car and started driving. The sun was already going down and I was a bit nervous. ¡°Are things gonna get worse when the sun sets?¡± Yes. ¡°How bad?¡± For us? Not a problem. For normal meat sacks? Life threatening. ¡°I am a normal meat sack, Karl.¡± Not anymore you¡¯re not. He was, in a way, right. I had a literal dragon¡¯s fighting instincts, massively inflated Attributes, and even a shield that ran off my highest stat, Mana. Still, though¡­ ¡°Not against something like you. If I run into some giant monster I¡¯m dead.¡± That won¡¯t happen. ¡°How can you be so sure?¡± My presence here was a fluke. When dragons reincarnate, it¡¯s into a random place in the multiverse where Mana is present, and we provide most of the power for creating our new bodies. For Mana alone to coalesce into a creature of my might, at the current Mana Density, would stop all creatures from spawning in the entirety of your ¡°Ohio¡± for days. ¡°That¡¯s relieving. But¡­ what about in two days? We¡¯ll be at 4% mana density then. Does that halve the requirements?¡± It does. If you want to survive to see the end of this, you¡¯ll need to get much stronger, young one. I drove in silence for the rest of the ride, thinking to myself that humanity as a whole was screwed.
Burying the giant stingbeetle took longer than expected, simply because it was much wider than I¡¯d thought, forcing me to dig out a larger space than usual. The sun had been down for a couple hours by the time I¡¯d finished, and I was feeling pretty tired of digging graves with nothing but a shovel, but the boost to my Mana Recovery helped my mood significantly. I was about to head to bed for the night when Karl stopped me. Don¡¯t forget to secure your home from invasion tonight. Just thinking about it sent me back to the break in. For more than just my own sake, I needed to make sure nothing like that happened again. All I really had was cardboard boxes and furniture, but I did the best I could, duct taping everything into place and making sure it¡¯d take at least a bit of effort to get in. I also left the lights on, just to make sure prospective thieves knew someone lived here. I took a long look at the huge dent in the floor and the glass from the broken window, which I¡¯d failed to clean up. Even now, a slight draft swept into the room, shifting curtains and old papers whose purposes were long forgotten. ¡°You know, I guess one upside of the apocalypse is that I¡¯ll never have to pay taxes again.¡± Kyle scoffed. That¡¯s what you think. Just wait until an Ancient Dragon arrives here. ¡°I refuse. We¡¯re gonna get so strong that those things can¡¯t even touch us.¡± Ancient Dragons are the size of your sun and consume rebellious planets whole. That gave me pause. ¡°So¡­ that¡¯s what 100% Mana Density looks like?¡± No. That¡¯s what letting a dragon fully mature looks like. Maximum Mana Density means Divines can descend to this world without dying in seconds. ¡°...Is that better or worse?¡± What do your stories say about gods? ¡°Ah crap.¡± The thought of such powerful creatures having power over the lives of myself and everyone else was disturbing, and kept me from sleep for a time, but I eventually managed it. I woke up a bit later in the morning, and decided that it was time to figure out getting the thieves¡¯ things to their families without being detected. After collecting their things¨C mostly just phones and wallets¨C I used the memories from their Echoes to figure out who to give their stuff to. In the case of the smaller man¨C Edward had been his name¨C it was a girlfriend. He¡¯d been thinking of asking him to marry her, and wasn¡¯t very close to his family, so I figured he would¡¯ve wanted his things to go to her. For the big guy, Jakob, he was actually really close with his mom, and didn¡¯t have any other people who he had more than superficial relationships with. His toxic behaviors had pushed away pretty much everyone except for his mother and Edward. The mother was easy. I knew her address¨C which wasn¡¯t too far away¨C she wasn¡¯t home, and their mailbox wasn¡¯t locked or anything, so I just shoved his watch, wallet, and cellphone into it and drove off. Hopefully she still checked the mail, but even if she didn¡¯t it was out of my hands now. The girlfriend was harder. For some reason I only knew the building she lived in, and not the specific apartment. I couldn¡¯t access her mail, because it was locked, and not only was dropping things off at the office a risky endeavor, but they didn¡¯t appear to be open, and probably never would be again if my guess was right.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I ended up parking outside the building and waiting. Her car wasn¡¯t home, but I figured she was probably at work. It was a bit weird that some people still had to do that while other parts of the world had completely shut down, but I knew that she was a nurse at a clinic so it made some sense. Without doctors, the world would completely shut down, and there was always the chance that she had gotten some form of magical healing like Dr. Price. I did know, however, that she got a long enough lunch break to eat at home, which she consistently did to make keeping up with her diet a bit easier and avoid using the fridge at work. With that information, I parked my car in a patch of shade and waited. Luckily, she swung by right at 11:30, walked right up to one of the doors, spent a while inside, and then drove off again. Once her car was out of sight, I grabbed Edward¡¯s things, placed them in an inconspicuous paper bag, and swiftly walked back to my car. With that finished, it was time to get back to work. Slaughter? ¡°That word¡¯s a bit too strong for what I¡¯m thinking.¡± Massacre? ¡°Same problem.¡± Extermination? ¡°...You know what? Good enough.¡±
We ended up at a gas station near the heart of the city. The whole system still worked, so I paid cash for a full tank of regular and then parked just outside the store. The teen at the register looked bored out of his mind, so I ignored him and walked through the aisles, grabbing a couple snacks. You¡¯ve barely consumed anything at all in the past three days. Why is this? ¡°Just kinda forgot,¡± I muttered under my breath. ¡°Plus, it¡¯s not like I¡¯ve got infinite funds to spend on food, so I¡¯m pretty much limited to whatever¡¯s in the fridge, the pantry, and what I can buy with a hundred bucks cash.¡± With the internet out, cards weren¡¯t working. The only currency that did anything at this point was cash, and even that was probably going to start losing value rapidly in favor of bullets, gas, food, and electricity. Right now the infrastructure of everything was good enough that society, at least where I lived, was mostly functional, but that would be changing as soon as people realized that the monsters would only be getting stronger. Paying for the food again in cash, I got back to my car and popped open a bag of Spicy Triangles. What is this? Karl seemed very interested in the food. ¡°Chips.¡± I stuffed one of them into my mouth and chewed. Karl made a weird sound, then went quiet until I swallowed. We need more of these, Kenny. ¡°I mean, they¡¯re pretty good, but there¡¯s better out there.¡± If he was this excited about some Spicy Triangles, what would he think about candy? That¡¯s capsaicin, correct? ¡°Uh, yeah, why?¡± Did he like the spice? How common is this substance on your planet? ¡°Pretty common? It¡¯s in a lot of food. Humans a long time ago decided they liked how it hurt and started breeding stuff to produce more of it. It¡¯s kinda funny, to be honest.¡± Do you remember what I said about Ancient Dragons being able to eat your world? ¡°Yup, pretty hard to forget.¡± Well you can go ahead and do just that. They would never risk losing your planet like that. This place is a draconic goldmine. There is no substance more valuable to my kind than capsaicin, and it¡¯s incredibly rare. ¡°Really? That¡¯s kind of weird.¡± You don¡¯t understand. This is the most important spice in the entire multiverse. When this world reaches 100% Mana Density, the capsaicin must flow. The intensity of his thoughts had me fully convinced. ¡°So, what? Am I supposed to become a chili farmer or something? If you couldn¡¯t tell, we¡¯re only on day three, and I still have to survive the next ninety seven to profit off this, and that¡¯s only if somebody else doesn¡¯t beat me to it.¡± If there¡¯s anything you learn from me before you find a suitable replacement, Kenny, let it be that this world is more valuable than you could possibly realize. Wars will be fought over the right to farm here. ¡°Still doesn¡¯t help me, man,¡± I muttered underneath my breath. Then the window behind me cracked. I instantly lost control and took the back seat as Karl practically tore the door open and slammed a katar that I hadn¡¯t even realized he¡¯d grabbed into the chest of a goblin. I got a better look at the situation a second later, and realized that there were six goblins in total¨C thrice as many as I¡¯d encountered on the first day of the apocalypse. If the numbers kept going like this, then eventually people would be dealing with hordes of goblins in just a few weeks. While I was distracted, Karl had grabbed the other katar and executed another goblin on the spot, cleaving its head straight off with the side of the blade. He then dashed forwards and slammed one katar vertically into the neck of the closest goblin before kicking it at one of its fellows, who took the blow poorly and fell beneath it. The sheer exhilaration that flowed across my bond with Karl was overwhelming, and even with the hints of wrath and sadism that were mixed in with it, I had to admit that I started to enjoy the fighting as well. My fists flew forward at Karl¡¯s volition, stabbing two different goblins through their skulls in seconds. He then gripped the arm of the corpse he¡¯d thrown and tossed it away, then gripping the leg of the final, terrified goblin and bashing it against the ground repeatedly. Then, apparently wanting to clean up his mess, Karl popped open the car¡¯s trunk and chucked the bodies inside one by one. Then he got back in the driver''s seat, buckled himself in, ate a Spicy Triangle, and handed my body back. Like nothing ever happened. ¡°Yeah, except that I have a headache, six bodies in my trunk, and a level up notification.¡±
Eidolon¡¯s Embrace (Lv. 3) ¡ú (Lv. 4)
+2 Mana Recovery +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility)
You¡¯re welcome. I started the car and pulled out. ¡°Why¡¯d I get twice as much Mana Recovery this time?¡± Your Skills only give a single point to an Attribute at levels one through three. From four to six it will be two, and then from seven to nine you¡¯ll receive three points each. The tenth level is special, and you¡¯ll get five open Attribute Points that you can do whatever you want with. I did the math in my head. ¡°So, if I get a Skill all the way to level ten, I¡¯ll have gotten twenty three points in total?¡± Yes, but eighteen of those will go into a single predetermined Attribute. ¡°And for now I need to focus on my Mana, right?¡± That will help you properly control your Echoes, so you won¡¯t have to struggle to maintain control over your body like you do with me. ¡°And how much more do you think I need?¡± Let me take a look at your Attributes. I followed his instruction, putting my point from Versatility into Mana to top it off.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+13) Mana: 8 (+16)
Dexterity: 5 (+5) Mana Recovery: 9 (+9)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Immortal Questions (Lv. 2), Shielding Clutch (Lv. 4)
Quests: Reintegration (3%)
It¡¯s unclear to me if you absolutely need to have more Mana than your Echoes or if you simply need to cross a certain percentage threshold to possess the proper resistance, but in life my own Mana Attribute was forty one. ¡°Why that much? I don¡¯t recall you using any of it.¡± On death, we dragons lose a large amount of power, but not all of it. The more Mana the dragon has, the more Attributes it can hold onto. Consecutive deaths are the only true danger to us, and my true soul is probably furious at this moment. ¡°How much do you lose?¡± We can only hold onto a maximum amount of Attributes based on our Mana. That¡¯s why Mana is often our most potent ability. Though, that¡¯s only if executed perfectly. If done in a panicked or confused state, it¡¯s possible to lose far more than that. ¡°And do you use it for anything other than restoring your bodies?¡± Yes. I didn¡¯t get the chance to breathe fire, but the potency of our breath grows stronger with our Mana. ¡°And how do you get so much? Both in this life and the one before? Did you have a lot of Skills that give Mana?¡± No. All creatures have a Passive ability, much like your Human Versatility. For dragons, we receive three Mana a week. ¡°That seems surprisingly low.¡± Dragons do not age, and death is at best an inconvenience for the greatest of us. Many dragons simply find a safe place to sleep for a few thousand years. I did the math in my head and realized that even just a single year would net a dragon over one hundred and fifty mana. ¡°I can see the logic behind that. Those Ancient Dragons you mentioned must have a lot of Mana.¡± To be considered an Ancient, one must have survived for a least ten thousand years without dying. They are the greatest beings in the multiverse, and feared by all. Hence why you should start harvesting as much capsaicin as possible. I just rolled my eyes and focused on driving.
Enacting my Immortal Questions on each of the goblins was a bit draining, but in my Echo Garden, the feeling didn¡¯t last long. It also netted me a level in the aforementioned Skill.
Immortal Questions (Lv. 2) ¡ú (Lv. 3)
+1 Mana +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility) +1 Skill Upgrade
Ghastly Banquet or Perpetual Curiosity
Ghastly Banquet (Lv. 3)
Allows the user to speak a word while touching the body of a deceased creature, gaining an Echo of that creature associated with the word spoken. Each corpse may have a number of Echoes harvested from it equal to the level of Ghostly Banquet. Alternatively, the user may have one of their Echoes consume the energy that would be harvested from a corpse, instead using it to strengthen themselves by a percentage of the corpse¡¯s Attributes equal to the level of Ghastly Banquet.
Perpetual Curiosity (Lv. 3)
Allows the user to speak a word while touching the body of a deceased creature, gaining an Echo of that creature associated with the word spoken. Each corpse may have a number of Echoes harvested from it equal to the level of Immortal Perpetual. Alternatively, the user may collect the essence of a single Echo that may later be separated into a number of Echoes equal to the level of Perpetual Curiosity.
¡°Karl?¡± Kenny. ¡°I think we might have to change the terms of our agreement.¡± Agreed. Chapter Five: Karl: Eternal You must understand that most Echoes won''t even have enough power for me to gain Attributes with Ghastly Banquet, correct? ¡°Yeah, so? It''s not like I''d get anything out of them anyways. This way, if we find something that''s strong, we''ll get something out of it. Plus, what about when this Skill gets to a super high level?¡± I explained my thought process. I believe I already mentioned that Skills only go to level ten, and even that will take a lot of effort. ¡°Nice argument. Unfortunately¨C¡± I mentally selected Ghastly Banquet. Instantly, I felt all of my Echoes, including Karl, change. An image of the aforementioned dragon popped into my eyes, his mouth replaced with long, sharp fangs. Agh, that was strange. I popped my point into Mana and started digging. ¡°So, about changing our deal? I¡¯m thinking it¡¯s you and me, forever. Makes it a lot less awkward. You¡¯re sometimes a bit more hostile than I¡¯d like, but you¡¯re a known entity and intelligent enough to actually negotiate with. All the monster Echoes that I¡¯ve peeked at so far have been insane.¡± ¡­True. ¡°So, do we have a deal?¡± We do. ¡°Good. Now let¡¯s finish with these bodies and then go eat some Spicy Chips.¡± We both were contemplatively silent for the rest of the night. At least, until I started snacking. Then Karl was hungrily silent.
The next morning, I got up a bit early, rising with the sun. ¡°Four percent today. That¡¯s two more goblins,¡± I joked. And no more Attributes. For either of us. ¡°True, we¡¯re going to start having to look for larger prey.¡± I took a quick, cold shower before donning a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. ¡°Though, to be honest, goblins probably weren¡¯t that scary for us since the second I slotted you into Eidolon¡¯s Embrace. We haven¡¯t even gotten hit to make use of Shielding Clutch.¡± I am a dragon, Karl stated as though it were a clear and obvious answer to my comment. Still, saying something like that out loud invites misfortune. ¡°Oh well.¡± I strapped on my katars and deagle, using a holster that the gun shop owner¨C whose name I probably should have gotten¨C had put in the ammo bag for the latter. I loaded it, but made sure the safety was on before slipping it on over my leg. While I made myself breakfast¨C eggs and toast¨C I questioned in a low tone, ¡°Alright, Karl, where are we headed today? My schedule is wide open.¡± It appears that most prey are drawn to the suburbs. ¡°True, and those are the ones that need to be killed the most.¡± In agreement, I finished up my meal and headed out. My aunt¡¯s home was near the suburbs but not technically a part of it, and she had a lot more yard space because of it. Otherwise I wouldn¡¯t have been able to bury so many bodies without worrying about the neighbors. We started driving around aimlessly, on the lookout for things to kill. Karl assured me that monsters would be drawn to the sounds of the car, but I drove carefully and kept an eye out anyways. It was a good thing I did, too, otherwise I wouldn''t have noticed the light pouring out of an open door. ¡°I''m gonna check on this. Could be nothing, but I might need you for this.¡± Prepared to rend flesh and snap bone. ¡°Gotcha.¡± I crept careful through the open door, listening carefully for any disturbances. I shouldn''t have bothered, though, since the sound of shattering glass, followed by a child''s muffled scream, felt deafening in the otherwise silent environment. I rushed towards the sounds, stomped up a set of stairs, and was met with a bloodbath. Karl instantly possessed me and began combat as my brain failed to grasp the scene. It was goblins, as it always seemed to be. With my hugely inflated stats, they weren''t a problem for me, even if there were eight of them now. The same couldn''t be said for the two children that had been left unattended. If I''d been in control of my own body, I would have vomited. The walls were painted in blood, and their bodies themselves were too desecrated to describe. I did my best to purge my mind of the image and focus instead on the battle, where Karl was assaulting the goblins with even more sadistic rage than was normal for him. So engulfed in the assault was he that a few of the goblins landed hits against my skin, which reflected off my Shielding Clutch skill but drained a significant chunk of my Mana. My head pounding, I gave Karl a slight mental nudge to remind him that he should hurry it up. It only took a few moments for the draconic Echo to shred the rest of the monsters to pieces, after which he stood over his bloody handiwork, panting not from exertion, but from fury. Are you okay? I heard my own voice speak in a scratchy, raw tone. ¡°I informed you that dragons reincarnate, yes? The number of dragon souls in existence is a constant, but there is a way for dragons to face a true death. It is extremely rare, but should a dragon be reduced to a single point of Mana and die, their soul dissipates, and the universe coalesces another elsewhere in the form of an egg. ¡°Dragon eggs are highly sought after by all races, but especially by our own kind. The first dragon to come across an egg is the fated parent of it, and no dragon would ever dare contest that right. For this reason, few dragons ever receive the honor of parenthood, even the Ancients. But it does happen. And to kill a drakeling? That is an offense for which there is no worthy punishment other than utter planetary annihilation.¡± With that, my body was returned to me. ¡°But these aren''t drakelings?¡± And I am not in a dragon''s body. I am stored within your mind. My thoughts are influenced by your own perception. I stared down at the goblins'' bodies, refusing to turn around and look at the massacre behind me. I did, however, glance at the window. ¡°Can you use Ghastly Banquet on these? I want to see if you get anything out of it.¡± Gladly. I felt a wave of weakness pass over me, and a ghostly maw opened above the corpses, sucking purple energy from them before zipping back into me, returning the stats from Karl.
Ghastly Banquet (Lv. 3) ¡ú (Lv. 4)
+2 Mana +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility)
¡°It gives good experience, at least.¡± I feel different, perhaps a slightly more metaphysically dense than before, but I see no alteration in my Attributes. I checked my own status to see if things were the same on my end, dropping my extra point into Mana while I was at it.
Name: Kenny BertIf you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+13) Mana: 13 (+16)
Dexterity: 5 (+5) Mana Recovery: 9 (+9)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Ghastly Banquet (Lv. 4), Shielding Clutch (Lv. 4)
Quests: Reintegration (4%)
¡°Yup, no unexpected changed to my stats yet. Any clue why that level came so fast?¡± Skills will typically level faster as you make use of their new capabilities, akin to how they grew when you first obtained them. I thought of that for a second. ¡°Yeah, that checks out. Immortal Questions leveled straight away when I used it on you, and while I doubt that these guys were even remotely that potent, there were also a bunch of them.¡± Of course using your Skill on me would cause it to level. I am a dragon. ¡°Of course. You are the great, the grand, the mighty,¡± I paused to let his self-satisfied excitement build, ¡°Karl!¡± His mood died instantly. I give up. Just throw those goblin corpses out the window. I did as he asked, but commented as I was working, ¡°Should we do something about¡­ you know.¡± I tried not to ignore the overpowering scent of rot, from the goblins, and iron, from the human blood soaking the carpets and walls. Karl thought for a moment. It wouldn''t be right to deprive the family of the chance to mourn in their own way, but it would also be wrong to let this be the first thing the family saw of their children. I grimaced. ¡°I don''t know if I can handle looking at them again, much less make them look presentable.¡± Karl was quiet until I finished moving the goblins out the window. Lend me control. I almost questioned him, but let him take over. He turned towards the slain children, and I immediately tried to shut my eyes. My body wasn''t currently under my own control, but luckily it seemed that I shut off my senses while Karl did his work. Time passed as though in a void, with only faint impressions of what was happening in the real world reaching me. Then, suddenly, like a light had switched on, I was gripping my steering wheel. I handled it. If the family returns home, they will find them sleeping peacefully in bed, with no clear signs of a skirmish at first glance. I stayed silent for a moment. Even thinking of what had happened in that home caused my stomach to riot. ¡°Thank you, Karl.¡± Don''t mention it. Looking to the sky, I found that a few hours had passed, speaking to Karl''s meticulous efforts at making the disturbing scene presentable. I shook my head in irritation. ¡°Why is it always goblins?¡± Spontaneous manifestation is rare outside of integration events, which may break the rules a bit, but normally monsters spawn according to a theme. Giant rats in basements, mimics in abandoned dungeons, kobolds near dragon lairs, and goblins in forests, especially near villages such as your own. ¡°So basically we''re getting screwed over by the terrain.¡± I ran a hand through my hair with a sigh. ¡°Any chance we can just burn the forest down?¡± That would solve the goblins problem, but would also force dozens if not hundreds of monsters out of the forest all at once. Then a different type of monster would be one dominant, likely something with an attunement to fire due to the large amounts of fire, ash, and smoke in the area. ¡°Ugh, nevermind.¡± I put my foot on the gas and started driving back home. ¡°Let''s go dump these bodies and see if we have time to go scavenger for food or something.¡± More Spicy Triangles? ¡°Sure, buddy.¡±
¡°You know, I really think I''m getting better at this. That was a lot quicker than I was when I''d just started.¡± I admired my handiwork idly, looking out at my growing Echo Garden. By now, the Mana Regen buffing effects spread into my front lawn, and it was noticeably tidier. The grass had even clipped itself, though I hadn''t been able to see it happening for myself. Of course you are, more of my stats are passed off to you every day. Just wait until you have to bury a giant, or something of my size. Karl chuckled in my mind and a self-deprecating smile spread across my face. ¡°I''m definitely not looking forward to that. For now, though, we should go see if there''s anything at the grocery store. It''s probably all been cleared out, but it''s a good place to start. If there''s nothing, we can always go to the food bank later.¡± I felt Karl give the mental equivalent of a shrug. You''re the one with mortal needs. As long as you grab some more capsaicin I''ll be satisfied. With that I grabbed a quick glass of water, internally appreciating that the power was still running and the water was still clean¨C allowing me to enjoy modern conveniences such as warm showers and microwaves food¨C and drove off in the direction of the nearest BarrierStand. Both Karl and I kept a careful eye out for any disturbances in the streets. Luckily, nothing really popped out. The streets were eerily quiet. I was aware that a lot of people probably stopped going to work, schools had shut down, and folks had probably skipped town to go find family, but it was still unsettling. On the bright side, traffic was practically non-existent, and I arrived at my destination sooner than expected. Cars were parked outside the grocery store haphazardly, most right at the front rather than in the parking lot. Being capable of self governance, I parked in the middle of the lot, where cars were sparse and I''d be able to quickly find my own ride. As I approached, I realized that there were actually far fewer vehicles than I''d expected, and many were outright abandoned. I approached one of the ones that was properly parked had a passenger inside, and I quickly tapped on the window. In response, I got a paranoid look, and the scruffy-looking man slowly reversed away from me, pulling into a different spot a few rows away. What a weirdo, I mentioned to Karl. His response didn''t seem that strange to me, he replied. I shrugged and kept moving towards the front door. When I got to the automatic doors, though, they didn''t open. Reading the instructions that every self-opening door seemed to have, I popped it open manually and stepped inside. I was immediately faced with a wave of body odor. Sprawled out inside the welcoming area of the store was a small camp city full of dirty and paranoid-looking people. One older man even gripped a rifle that was by his side when he saw me enter. ¡°If you''re looking for food, you won''t have much luck here,¡± a woman who would''ve gone in the Guinness World Record for the worst bedhead commented from across the room. I frowned. ¡°Then why are you here?¡± The armed man spoke up. ¡°Nowhere else to go, for some, and others are willing to take their chances in here with us rather than out there.¡± ¡°So, you lost your homes? To monsters, I assume?¡± If that was the case, then things were worse than I''d thought. ¡°That still doesn''t really explain why here, though. Of all the places to set up camp, this seems a bit odd. Why not further into the store? It would certainly be warmer.¡± The woman from before laughed¨C almost cackled¨C at the suggestion. ¡°In there? If we wanted to end things quick, then sure.¡± That doesn''t sound good, Karl noted. Agreed. ¡°What do you mean?¡± The old man slapped his thigh, drawing my attention to his leg. It was torn off at the knee and bandaged at the bottom half. I''d previously assumed it had been hidden in the suitcase he sat stop, but that had clearly been incorrect. ¡°Big old green thing in there. Like those little ones that a lot of people lost their homes to, except bigger, lankier, and a whole heck of a lot dumber. Plus half the food in there''s trying to eat you right back! I''d reccomend you turn around before you end up like me, kiddo. Maybe they''ve got those fancy witchy doctors now, but there ain''t no something like this.¡± Karl? A bit of help here? My Eidolon provided the intel I was looking for. The big one is probably a troll. It could be a Goblin Lord, by there''s almost no chance one of those would show up at this Mana Density, and they''re very intelligent. The food is probably mimics, which I mentioned earlier. The name should make it obvious, but they''re effectively chunks of living flesh with shapeshifting abilities. The ones inside are almost certainly very small, and of little threat to us. Thanks, man. ¡°Are you looking for someone to kill the¡­ green thing? Couldn''t it just open up the doors and massacre all of you?¡± A few tired chuckles sounded from around me, but other gazes met me lifelessly. ¡°There''s no killing something like that, boy,¡± the old man deadpanned bitterly, ¡°Even a round straight through the head did nothin but put it down for a few moments. Best we can do is sneak in for supplies and hope we make it back whole. As for the doors, it''s too stupid to figure out that it needs to pull, not push, and it was only able to put a few cracks in it before it got bored and went back to stuffing its face with everything in the store.¡± Trolls have a strong natural physical regen, Karl helpfully informed, to eliminate one, you need to destroy its heart, where its Mana is stored. They''re strong and tough, though, which makes actually getting to the heart a challenging endeavor. ¡°I can do it,¡± I claimed, folding my arms. ¡°Just watch.¡± I strode straight through the broken automatic doors, ignoring the old guy''s muttered comments. ¡­That was foolish. ¡°What? We were just talking about looking for bigger prey, and here we are,¡± I whispered back. I could mentally project my voice to him, but talking out loud always felt more stable, like my thoughts were more real. Yes, and it''s likely that we''ll be able to handle this, but you didn''t know that. ¡°You''re saying I should''ve asked you? You''re probably right, my bad. I just got caught up in the moment.¡± It is fine. We will make this work. Be quiet for now, and I''ll guide you. Sir yes sir, I shot back. Just try not to make any sound, and stay away from the shelves. With luck, we''ll be able to get the jump on the troll. They''re not very smart, so there''s some room for error, but if you get caught by one of the mimics it''ll almost certainly come running. Don''t screw this up. I bent slightly to reduce my profile and carefully stepped forwards, watching my feet to make sure I didn''t create too much sound as I walked. How am I meant to find it? I didn''t exactly have much in the way of tracking experience. You don''t have much trouble. Trolls are tall, loud, and more pungent than a goblin¡¯s unspeakables. When you''re near it, you''ll know. Taking his word for it, I slowly crept my way through the labyrinth of shelves, eyeing each and every cereal box and soap bottle, just waiting for something to jump out at me. Chapter 6: We Do A Little Trolling The only sound in the building was the quiet humming of the lights and appliances, masking the quiet tapping of my shoes against the ground. As I ventured further into the large building, a slight pungence filled the air, growing stronger and stronger as I travelled. Is that the troll? I queried Karl, almost retching in disgust. Yes. I told you you¡¯d know when you were getting close. I refocused on the problem at hand and resumed my slow march, pulling my shirt over my nose to mask the rancid smell. A few minutes passed, and I was just starting to get impatient, when a loud crunch came from a few aisles over. Cautiously, I approached the source of the noise, and heard a series of similar, if quieter, sounds. After listening from outside the aisle for a second, I deciphered the familiar queues. Something was chewing. Sounds like bone. That¡¯s probably our troll, Karl helpfully informed me. I peeked into the aisle that a sign above helpfully identified as meat. The doors to the refrigerators were shattered, scattering glass all across the floor. Crouching in front of them was a large, green humanoid, similar to the goblins in some ways but not in others. Its nose and ears were excessively large, and its face was far more flat than a normal human¡¯s would be. On the sides of its face, tusk-like bone structures reached out, curling into circles on the ends like a ram¡¯s horns. Currently, the eight-foot beast was hunched over a bag of chicken legs, tearing them out and shoving them sloppily into its mouth before crunching into them with sharp, yellowed teeth. I pulled back quickly, hiding myself behind the row divider. Karl, I really don¡¯t think I can handle that thing. I kept my breathing slow, steady, and quiet, trying not to draw any attention. That monster could tear me in half, bite my head off, and call it a light snack. Relax, kid, Karl said with a deep breath. It¡¯s not just you fighting this thing. It¡¯s us. Let me handle this, alright? I swallowed. Yeah, yeah. You¡¯re right. Just be careful, okay? Karl took over. As always, he moved fast. He used my stats, and he didn¡¯t have access to anything that I didn¡¯t, but he was just somehow better at using everything that I possessed. Before it could react, the troll was getting torn into. Katars moved in a storm of steel, and I was certain that the fight would be over in seconds. Then it hit me. The troll¡¯s hand, that is. If not for my Shielding Clutch, I would¡¯ve probably died on the spot. As it was, I felt most of my Manavanish into thin air, and the sheer force of the backhand sent me flying into a refrigerator, taking yet another hit to my Manaas shards of glass plinked off my body before I was ¡°cushioned¡± by a wall of beef. Even Karl seemed stunned for a second, but he quickly recovered and hopped back up before diving out of the way of a fist that went straight through the wall my body had just been positioned in front of. Their only weak spot is their heart, Karl reminded me, one clean hit and this fight is over. I just need to get deep enough to fully destroy its center. Karl sheathed his left katar and drew the deagle, clicking off the safety and firing a round into one of the troll¡¯s eyes while it tried to extricate itself from the shelving it¡¯d broken into on the other side of the wall. Flesh rippled and turned into chunks of gore, exposing the beast¡¯s brain to the air. It slumped over, and if not for Karl¡¯s comment, I would¡¯ve cheered in victory. As it stood, though, I just grimaced internally and watched the monster¡¯s brain start to writhe and tie itself back together. Karl moved, closing in on the troll rapidly while it was recovering, moving to punch through its back with his katar. The troll¡¯s body suddenly stiffened, causing Karl¡¯s attack to instead plink against the back of its ribcage, missing the spot he¡¯d been aiming for. Then I lost track of the fight as my world turned into a blur, settling a second later with the troll facing Karl, who was now missing one of his blades. My Manahad taken yet another hit, though this one was much more manageable, leading me to conclude that Karl had, at most, been clipped by the troll¡¯s sudden movements. The monster raised a fist above Karl¡¯s head, but my companion quickly fired a shot into its skull and another into its chest, then quickly drew out the sheathed katar and slammed it into the exposed flesh, tearing sideways to carve a huge line through it. Noticing that the thing¡¯s flesh was still wriggling, he bent down and flipped it over by the shoulder, sheathing the gun to recover his lost katar and plunge both blades into the troll¡¯s back again and again until it was clear that the monster had stopped healing. Then my body was mine again, and I quickly stumbled away from the terrible stench that emanated from the troll¡¯s body. Can you handle the echo? I really don¡¯t want to get any closer. Without responding, Karl exited my body as a smoke-like apparition that resembled the body he¡¯d once inhabited, delving into the body of the troll to use Ghastly Apparition.
Shielding Clutch (Lv. 4) ¡ú (Lv. 5)
+2 Mana Regen +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility)
I quickly dumped the new point into Mana before inspecting my new, updated status.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+16) Mana: 14 (+20)
Dexterity: 5 (+7) Mana Recovery: 11 (+11)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Ghastly Banquet (Lv. 4), Shielding Clutch (Lv. 5)
Quests: Reintegration (4%)
I did some quick math which told me I hadn¡¯t gotten anything from the death of the troll, then consulted Karl. Once again, I feel that something about me is greater, but I do not believe that my strength has increased in any way. Mana typically prefers to discard excess numbers or store them elsewhere rather than put them somewhere they would be rounded, but it is unclear to me where this potency is going if not into statistics. Another mystery with the system, I supposed. ¡°Whelp,¡± I commented, stretching my back, ¡°I guess now we can load up on groceries.¡± Should we not first go inform the survivors that we¡¯ve slain the troll? ¡°Nah. You know, for a dragon, you¡¯re surprisingly soft.¡± I started walking towards the camping isle in the distance. ¡°I¡¯m gonna grab stuff first, then let them know it¡¯s safe in here. I¡¯d rather not have competition for what I¡¯m looking for.¡± ¡­Callous, but fair enough. When I reached my destination, I grabbed a camping backpack and started stuffing it with ¡°camping rations¡± and MREs, stopping when I felt I had enough to live a couple weeks. Luckily, they were pretty compact, so I was able to fit that much easily.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Once I¡¯d gathered that, I also started gathering some of those heavy duty water filters and grabbed a tent and sleeping bag pack. While I wasn¡¯t planning on leaving my house, it wasn¡¯t a certainty that I¡¯d be able to avoid it, and if the area around my house became too dangerous to safely live in I¡¯d regret not having basic supplies like these. Afterwards, I navigated to the more agricultural parts of the store, picking up seeds. Lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and radishes went into the bag, as well as some potatoes to cut up into seeds. The former options would grow fast enough to be ready by the time food completely dried up, and potatoes were hardy, renewable plants that could produce a lot out of just a little. While they most likely wouldn¡¯t produce enough to be useful in the short term, having them at the ready after Reintegration would be extremely useful. It was at roughly that point that my luck ran out and a mimic disguised as arugula tried to grab me, pink tentacles suddenly sprouting from the plant and lashing around my arm. Just as I started to panic, though, Karl jumped in and tore the thing in half, splashing purple blood all over the aisle. I took a few moments to calm down, then set out to continue my shopping spree, now with a bit more caution. A couple of first aid kits got chucked into the bag after I thought about it and realized that I might not always be able to get magic doctors to kiss my booboos, as well as an axe and some lighters of both the butane and flint varieties from back in the camping section. There were also a couple of general ¡°survival kits¡± that I grabbed, with everything from duct tape to safety goggles. I needed to get a second bag at that point, and after redistributing to make sure the weight wasn¡¯t too unbalanced I decided that I was pretty much set. I nabbed some microwave foods and a few different bags of chips for Karl to try, and then I set out, not stopping at the little camp in the entryway and just waving my bags at the old man to let him know that I¡¯d accomplished my goal. Eventually my car came into view, and I quickly unloaded everything into the back seats. ¡°So, Karl,¡± I queried, clearing my throat, ¡°What do you think about all that?¡± You got a lot of the same stuff multiple times, he pointed out, you got an axe but most of those kits you grabbed also had axes. I don¡¯t see the point. Why do you need so many axes? Shovels, too, I¡¯m pretty confident you already had one of those. I shrugged. ¡°Efficiency is nice and all, but in delicate situations redundancy is king. If one of the axes breaks, I¡¯ll have a backup. If one of the shovels breaks, I¡¯ll have a backup. Same thing with the backpacks, honestly, even though I wasn¡¯t really thinking of it at the moment. Nothing lasts forever, so it¡¯s better to have too much stuff than not enough.¡± For you, that¡¯s rather wise. ¡°That feels like an insult.¡± It¡¯s called a backhanded compliment. ¡°I¡¯m aware.¡± Shocking. ¡°I¡¯m not giving you any chips now.¡± Wait, no! I take it back! ¡°Too late. Suffer.¡±
It was only once I got back home and popped some burritos in the microwave that I realized that I hadn¡¯t taken the troll¡¯s corpse with me. I was beating myself up over the blunder when Karl reminded me, It probably wouldn¡¯t have fit in your car anyways. I sat down to eat my burritos and idly checked my phone to see the time. I mostly left it at home these days, since the main uses I¡¯d have for it vanished with the lack of internet. I almost dropped my phone when it started buzzing like crazy in my hand. Dozens of notifications came rolling in all at once, and I checked the time on them. Apparently, sometime within the last ten hours, the Internet had been restored. There wasn¡¯t any WiFi, but data was better than nothing. I checked for any messages from my aunt, but there was nothing. I didn¡¯t let myself despair over that, though¨C the connection was spotty where she was, so it was rare that I got a message from her anyways. She might not have even realized the connection went out in the first place, to be honest. The national news was going crazy, and a couple classmates from High School had put up a ton of posts on SwiftGram and ClickTalk, trying to figure out if anyone was still alive. I quickly responded to a couple of them, inserting in my location and general status¨C that is, having basic amenities, supplies to last, and enough personal strength to keep myself alive for the moment. It may have been a mistake to put all that out there, since anyone who saw it might decide that my home was a ¡°safe spot¡± for them to hide out in, but I wasn¡¯t too worried. Most of the people who would even see my comment were too far away to do anything to me and my personal strength was probably great enough to scare off anyone who wanted to force me to give up my property or supplies. Kenny, Karl butted into my thoughts. ¡°Yes?¡± I begrudgingly pulled my attention away from my phone. Are there any well-known mythological figures in your world? Ones from your history? His question seemed innocent enough, but the contents of it were confusing. ¡°Uh, yeah, lots. Why do you ask?¡± You¡¯re aware of how your powers work, yes? My thoughts jumped to where he was. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re thinking of¨C well, that probably wouldn¡¯t work anyways. Myths are just that: myths.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯d have to put in a ton of effort to find any actual bodies from historical legends, and even then I probably wouldn¡¯t get much out of it.¡± Karl was silent for a moment. Kenny, what is the title of your current quest? ¡°Reinte¨C ohhhh.¡± I realized what he was thinking. ¡°You think those people really were, like¡­ wizards and stuff?¡± Indeed. ¡°Well, the system helper person said that all those creatures were being brought back to the world. They wouldn¡¯t even be here anymore, would they? Like, their bodies would¡¯ve been taken with all the other magic?¡± No. Creatures that are inherent to the world would have remained, but the loss of Manawould have caused them to wane in power and eventually die off, he explained. My first thought was King Arthur. A quick search on the internet later, I realized that Glastonbury Abbey was theoretically an accessible location¡­ The problem was that it was in England, and I had no way of getting there. Instead, I changed my search to ¡°Mythological Figures Buried In Ohio.¡± It wasn¡¯t very clever, but I figured it was good enough to get the job done. The first result I found was of the ¡°Griffin Warrior,¡± an ancient tomb dating back over three thousand years, but the actual burial site was in Greece, not Ohio. No clue why it popped up and raised my hopes like that. Some digging revealed that there were a few mummies in Toledo, which was only a couple hours away. Still, there wasn¡¯t too much going on there. I doubted the mummies had too much in the way of power, and I wasn¡¯t going to spend over five hours and break into a museum to potentially get nothing. The truth was that I just didn¡¯t know enough about mythological figures to know where to find their bodies. ¡°Maybe someday we¡¯ll get around to that, but right now it¡¯s all a continent away, and¡­¡± I quickly checked to see if the Cleveland airport was still functional. ¡°Yup, no flights right now. Maybe if you still had wings we could get there.¡± I chuckled slightly. Being grounded is terrible, I don¡¯t know how you land dwellers stand it. I shrugged. ¡°I have our own ways of touching the skies.¡± I did a bit more scrolling and poking around on the internet before deciding to return to productivity. It was starting to get dark, but I took a moment to plant all the seeds I¡¯d gotten, following the instructions on the bags. For the most part, they just wanted me to dig to a certain depth and water them a certain amount every day. The potatoes needed to be cut up, which having the internet back helped with, since I otherwise wouldn¡¯t have known the right size to make them, or to make sure they had buds on them. When I started watering the plants with the hose, I noticed that the water was sinking into the soil better than I¡¯d expected, and figured that my Echo Garden was actually helping me, well, garden. Nifty. ¡°Do passives upgrade? I¡¯m pretty happy with the way Echo Garden works, but the dopamine of all these other boosts is getting to me.¡± It was a bit greedy, most likely, but if everything else was getting better than why not this? Karl hummed in my mind. You will eventually be able to alter your Role and gain new Skills and Passives. At this point, what you currently have will be enhanced to suit your new theme. ¡°Oh? When is eventually? Do I need to hit a certain Skill or Ability threshold?¡± Your Skills will reach their peak at level 10, at which point you¡¯ll gain options for your new Role. I would recommend waiting until both reach their maximum level, as they will only be able to influence your options at that point. ¡°Really? With the simplicity of everything, I sort of figured stuff like that wouldn¡¯t exist.¡± The Mana System is designed to scale forever¨C as you are, you¡¯ve barely scratched the surface of what it¡¯s capable of. I thought about that for a second. ¡°You know, that would almost be a bit comforting, but that also means that monsters are going to scale infinitely, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Indeed. ¡°So those ¡®Gods of Destruction¡¯ and such that were mentioned when the Reintegration quest got sent out?¡± They are likely entities powerful enough to bring total ruin to your realm. They were grand enough to escape this plane when it lost its connection to Mana, which means their own potency was likely at this realm¡¯s prior peak. ¡°Its peak?¡± I queried, ¡°Is there a maximum level or something for planets?¡± Not quite, Karl elaborated, It¡¯s more that, past a certain level, you cannot gain any more from a place. They were mighty enough that their own potency could not be enhanced by the ambient energy present here. ¡°So the only way to get stronger would be to leave? And that¡¯s exactly what they did?¡± That is correct. ¡°So are you saying that, when they return to Earth, they¡¯ll be more powerful than anything on Earth could ever become?¡± Karl was quiet for a moment. That is also quite likely correct. I grimaced. ¡°Great. So it doesn¡¯t really matter what anyone does, we¡¯re all just screwed in the end.¡± My tone was more bitter than I¡¯d expected, but I didn¡¯t regret it. Learning that everything I¡¯d ever known was completely screwed and there was nothing I could do about it wasn¡¯t exactly conducive to improving my attitude. Karl was still hesitant, but when he finally spoke, his tone seemed to have a sort of questioning hope in it. Like he wasn¡¯t quite sure about what he was saying, but wanted to believe it anyway. That may not be the case. Ignoring my heartless scoff, he continued, If it is possible for them to leave this realm to gain might, why should it not be possible for one of this Earth to do so as well? I frowned, catching his implication. ¡°You¡¯re saying that I should find a way off the planet and go grind Skills somewhere else? Karl, even if I do that, they¡¯ve been at this for centuries at least, probably millenia. I¡¯m not going to catch up to them in ninety five days.¡± I sighed and started getting myself ready for bed. Karl was silent, but I could feel his thoughts running wildly somewhere near my subconscious, like a light tickle in my brain. Just as I was tucking myself into bed, he finally spoke his mind. Get some rest, child. I may have a strategy, but we can discuss it in the morning. You¡¯ll need to be at your best tomorrow. I took his advice and nodded off in spite of the complex emotions and thoughts tracing a web through my mind. I dreamt of green gelatin and pistachio ice cream. Chapter 7: Trust Me, I Have A Plan In the morning, I took a quick shower and threw on some light clothes, just shorts and a t-shirt. I quickly gobbled down a microwave meal and then watered my Echo Garden, taking a few deep breaths to appreciate the Mana Regen buff I received while within my own ¡°territory.¡± I then checked out my phone and was relieved to find that the internet was still up. A news article on the front page of my search engine mentioned that, apparently, some sort of monster had taken down a few critically important power lines, which had shut off a large swath of America¡¯s power supply, including that of a majority of data service providers. It didn¡¯t really make sense to me so I just skimmed the article and was satisfied when I read that they¡¯d posted guards in those vulnerable locations to prevent the internet from going out again. Some more articles revealed that California was on fire¨C again¨C and that some of the larger cities were going through mass panic, with more people dying at the hands of other humans than to the monsters. I was glad that the place I lived in wasn¡¯t that crazy, but I knew that it was probably just a matter of time. The restoration of the internet would have slowed the degradation of society, but it wouldn¡¯t have completely halted it. Plus, it was inevitable that it would go out again at some point¨C likely permanently. After I¡¯d gone through my morning rituals, Karl started telling me what he¡¯d thought up last night. We have two goals here, he explained, the first being to keep you alive and the second being to ensure the rest of humanity¡¯s survival. That second one is more of a stretch goal than anything, but I get the feeling that you¡¯d be upset if we failed in accomplishing that one. ¡°I would be very upset if some monstrosity managed to destroy my entire planet and race, yes.¡± I bit my lip. ¡°You still haven¡¯t explained how we¡¯d go about accomplishing either of those goals, though.¡± Well, keeping you alive is much easier than saving everyone else. That isn¡¯t to say that it¡¯s easy, just a lot less improbable. He paused for a second, as if thinking. You¡¯re about halfway to the second threshold at this point. Your growth has been going fast so far, but it¡¯s going to start slowing down. You need to get out of this realm before it grinds to a complete halt. The sooner you leave, the faster you¡¯ll grow. I squinted, unsure. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that creatures can only leave once they¡¯ve reached the peak of growth on their planet? If that¡¯s the case, how am I supposed to get there before reaching that point?¡± I didn¡¯t explain that quite well enough. It isn¡¯t the peak of Skill growth that you must reach, it¡¯s the peak of Attribute growth. There will come a point at which the realm is incapable of providing you with enough Mana to fuel any more expansion. The Mana requirement for stat growth increases at a flat rate, so it¡¯s based entirely upon the grade of the planet, usually meaning you need hundreds of attributes to scale upwards. ¡°Wait, so¡­ Hhhhh,¡± I sighed, ¡°Karl, I can¡¯t drain the entire world of Mana. That¡¯s impossible, no matter how much I wish I could stop all the monsters from spawning.¡± There are two types of ambient Mana, Kenny. The first is used for manifesting the System¡¯s magical constructs, and the second is used for enhancing both natural and spawned creatures and materials. You wouldn¡¯t be draining the world of all its Mana¨C just the Mana from slain monsters. In other words, your growth would need to exceed the rate at which monsters are being slain. I threw my hands up in the air with a scoff. ¡°Like I said, that¡¯s completely impossible.¡± Not quite. The lowered Mana Density on your planet means that you have a better chance of it than someone at your strength would have on almost any other plane, you just need to move rapidly. Additionally, it¡¯s based on how much mana it takes to fuel your growth in a single instant My eyes widened, then I looked down at the table in front of me. ¡°I get what you¡¯re saying, Karl, but that still seems unreasonable. How many points would I even need for that?¡± There is a simple way to measure a realm¡¯s limit based on monster spawning, he noted almost idly, Most planets work on a scale from A to F, with exceptional ones being given the honorary rank of S. Each grade has double the Density of the last, with the exception of S grade planes, which are at least ten times stronger. Simply put, if you can find a pack of monsters and measure their own Mana Density in comparison to the world¡¯s Mana Density, so long as you know one or the other, you¡¯ll be able to place the unknown onto the scale. Goblins are F grade creatures, and two spawn in each group for each percentage of Mana Density. Usually you wouldn¡¯t see them spawn in groups larger than two here, but the Mana in your world has yet to settle, and is most likely being drawn towards summonings and widening the holes in the plane, letting even more come through. ¡°Can you get to your point?¡± I clicked my tongue. While it was interesting to learn how this stuff worked, I was a bit more focused on finding out how to save the world. Ah, yes, my apologies. He sounded a bit sheepish. I was once a bit of a scholar among dragons, though that was several lives ago. My point is that your world is most likely E grade, though without the ability to directly observe Mana as it summons a creature I cannot precisely confirm that. Similarly to Mana Density, the requirements of a world roughly double at each grade increase, making the limit for your world five thousand points into a single Attribute. That¡¯s currently reduced to two hundred and fifty, but with each day that passes it will increase by a further fifty. My expression tightened. ¡°Karl. That¡¯s not happening. I can¡¯t make fifty Attribute Points in a day, much less fifty.¡± But that¡¯s the thing¨C you don¡¯t need to get that many points. Not only is that number highly variable on the amount of monsters that die, meaning that it might be, at most, a few hundred points lower than that, your Ability Points from being a Human mean you can stock up on your points and spend them all at once. Rather than spending one point to reach one hundred, you could spend¡­ allow me to think a moment. Karl was silent for a while, clearly doing math in his head. The next point you place into Mana would require thirty five ¡°points¡± of Mana from the world. After that, thirty six, then thirty seven, and so on. It would currently take seven simultaneously placed Attribute Points to cause the Mana System to send you into a higher realm. Possibly less if your Mana increases between now and then. ¡°...Just seven?¡± That was much lower than I¡¯d thought. But then, based on how he was explaining it, it was a bit like triangle numbers. If you started from zero and added one, then added two, then three, and so on, forever increasing the amount you added, the total would quickly scale out of control. For now. That amount is subject to significant change, however. Increasing your Mana through other methods will increase the amount of strain each Attribute Point puts on the Mana System, and you¡¯ll most likely need at least one additional point for each day that passes. ¡°So I¡¯m racing a clock.¡± I started thinking more fervently about this crazy idea. Maximizing the level of Ghastly Banquet and gaining one level in Shielding Clutch would get you there as well, though that¡¯s only if you reach that point today. I pulled up my Status to help with some mental math.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+16) Mana: 14 (+20)
Dexterity: 5 (+7) Mana Recovery: 11 (+11)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Ghastly Banquet (Lv. 4), Shielding Clutch (Lv. 5)
Quests: Reintegration (5%)
In the past four days, I¡¯d gained seven total Skill levels¨C in other words, I was getting more than one Attribute Point a day. At the current rate, I¡¯d be there in nine days, possibly less when taking into account the Mana growth from Ghastly Banquet. To be conservative, I ignored that variable, instead locking in on the requirement of fifteen Attribute Points. That was fifteen skill levels¨C more than I could get out of my current Skills. I grunted. Things weren¡¯t nearly as predictable or consistent as I would¡¯ve liked. ¡°This is going to take a while.¡± Grand tasks always do. They also require a great amount of commitment and will. Are you willing to bind yourself to the completion of this task? To leave this world, grow mighty enough to defeat that which threatens it, and return a hero? The way he said it made tingles run down my spine. ¡°I will be able to get back here in time to stop the end, right?¡± If I could only get back after everything was already gone, it would be a complete waste of time. Yes. Many worlds possess dimensional mages that can connect to lower realms. The lack of Mana Density here will increase the difficulty, but your connection should prove a sufficient link to force the issue. ¡°Then yeah.¡± I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡±
New Grand Quest: Impossible Task
You¡¯ve agreed to do the impossible to save your world from the impending apocalypse. Requirements: Attribute Points (0/7?), Ascension (0/1) Quest Reward: +1 Level to All Skills Quest Series Reward: Primary Skill Selection
I was momentarily surprised by the new quest, but then figured that it made sense. How else would the System grant quests? Looks like the Mana acknowledged you. Perhaps this is possible after all.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°It¡¯s literally calling it an Impossible Task, Karl.¡± Yet, it wouldn¡¯t give you the quest at all if you couldn¡¯t do it, would it? The name is likely sourced from your own subconscious. You should stop doubting yourself so much. I scanned the screen again. ¡°What does it mean by ¡®Primary Skill Selection?¡¯ That seems a bit mediocre compared to the other reward.¡± Karl scoffed voicelessly. A new Primary Skill? Boy, when you advance to your next Role, you¡¯ll upgrade your current Skills and gain a new Secondary, but you¡¯ll still only have one Primary. Depending on what it offers you, it could seriously alter the course of your advancement. ¡°So getting another Primary Skill is a good thing?¡± Very good. Probably one of the best things it could have offered you. ¡°Oh. That¡¯s good then.¡± If I was going to spend weeks of my life grinding and risk my life in another world, I¡¯d better get some sort of reward. ¡°We should probably go hunting now, then. We¡¯re up to five percent Density, and each day that passes means we¡¯ll need another Attribute Point.¡± Wise choice. Are you aware of any large gathering places, like the grocery store from yesterday? I pursed my lips in thought. ¡°You know, I just might.¡±
Just as I¡¯d hoped, the library was completely abandoned. On one hand, it was a bit sad to see a place of learning and fulfillment treated in such a way, but on the other¡­ ¡°Abandoned probably means monsters,¡± I said with a firm nod. ¡°Any clue what might be in a library?¡± Karl hummed noncommittally. Unclear. There are a number of beasts that may claim such a location, but I¡¯m unsure if any of them would have spawned here. We will have to see. Accepting his answer, I carefully made my way through the doors, wincing when a bell rang above the door at my entry. ¡°That¡¯s not a great start,¡± I muttered to myself. ¡°Now anything inside knows we¡¯re here.¡± There was no way around that. We will handle the added difficulty, Karl provided stoically. Nodding, I gave up on some of my stealth and gripped the katars at my side, readying for Karl to take over at a moment¡¯s notice. Most of the library was obscured by a bookshelf to the left of the entryway, and to my right was the checkout station, where the librarians would have been. This meant I had to walk a good fifteen feet to get a good look at the rest of the building. As soon as I did, though, an iridescent flying gecko tried to bite my nose off. Bookwyrms, Karl growled, possessing my body in an instant and swiping a blade through the tiny thing. Wait, what¡¯s a bookworm? I questioned from my body¡¯s passenger seat. ¡°Little abominations pretending to be dragons,¡± Karl spoke in my voice, though deeper and scratchier, and filled with far more indignation than I¡¯d anticipated. ¡°They¡¯re not even related to us, just lizards that like to collect books.¡± That one was pretty small. They must not be that big of a deal, then, I commented. Karl carefully gazed around the room, though. ¡°Their power is directly proportional to the amount of knowledge they physically possess¨C that one was small because its territory was limited and we seem to be in a section of children¡¯s fiction. There¡¯s likely at least one more, and they¡¯re probably bigger too.¡± I shut up and let the ex-dragon go to work, carefully inspecting the room. ¡°They¡¯re adept magic users,¡± he idly commented, ¡°there¡¯s every chance that one of them developed illusion magic and is hiding in plain sight at this very moment.¡± I perked up at that, carefully looking around to make sure that we weren¡¯t caught off guard. I wasn¡¯t as good at this stuff as Karl, but hey, every eye counted. My excitement gradually waned as the minutes passed, though. It really seemed like there weren¡¯t any other bookwyrms in the library. Karl persisted, though, slowly making his way between the shelves and carefully inspecting each and every piece of furniture. I was starting to get seriously bored when a couch turned into a pony-sized lizard and tried to eat me. My reaction was to jump back and probably trip over myself, but luckily I wasn¡¯t the one with the steering wheel right now. Karl, far more prepared for this sort of thing, swung a fist at the bookwyrm¡¯s head. For a second, the katar only skidded across hard rainbow-colored scales, but then it caught against the beast¡¯s neck and dug in, causing the beast to screech in pain and move to the side right before it would¡¯ve snapped its jaws down around my face. Karl kicked the stunned beast, hard. It got sent a few feet away, and my Mana took a small hit. That would¡¯ve probably broken my toe if not for Shielding Grasp, Karl! ¡°Get over it,¡± he grumbled, falling onto the opposing creature with a violent intent. Clearly, Karl knew at least a bit about this thing¡¯s weaknesses, as his katars managed to find chinks in its scaly armor around the shoulders and armpits, effectively neutering two of its limbs in moments. Then he dodged backwards at a wall of purple filled my vision. The ceiling above cracked, causing a handful of broken panels to drop to the ground. Karl frowned at the disabled opponent as it tried to right itself but repeatedly fell due to its injuries, then moved in as a soft green light emanated from the beast. My guess? The thing was trying to heal, and Karl was going to take advantage of its distraction. My Echo companion tackled the bookwyrm, flipping it onto its back and stabbing at its neck repeatedly. Fire encompassed my vision for a moment, but deflected off my barrier as it was, it only seemed to make Karl angrier, as the katars rained down with even more force and speed. It proved too much for the lizard, whose scales cracked and fell away to reveal battered and bleeding flesh beneath. Karl plunged a blade straight into the exposed flesh, chopping straight into its neck with ease and killing it on the spot. I stumbled away as Karl handed the controls back over and then exited my body to consume the spirit of the fallen beast, as well as the one from earlier.
Ghastly Banquet (Lv. 4) ¡ú (Lv. 5)
+2 Mana +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility)
Nothing on my end, my Eidolon muttered as he returned to me. ¡°My stats went up, but not from the bookwyrm,¡± I commented with a touch of disappointment. ¡°Come on, we¡¯ve got to get at least one more level today. Would you prefer to keep hunting or try to see if we can level Shielding Clutch some other way?¡± May I check the rest of the library to ensure that no more bookwyrms remain? Karl seemed a bit disappointed at the notion of leaving before he¡¯d fully cleansed the place. ¡°Uh, sure, just be quick about it?¡± I felt a bit rude for phrasing it that way, but I really didn¡¯t feel like stalking through a library for half an hour looking for something that might not even be there. Karl took over again and nodded with my head, then took off at a much faster pace. By the time he¡¯d called it good enough, he¡¯d cut down three more of the spawns, none larger than the size of a book but none smaller than the first we¡¯d encountered by the door. With no more levels having presented themselves, we decided to try out another location, and I quickly drove us to a nearby playground. When we couldn¡¯t find any monsters within a good fifteen minutes of searching, we called it and headed to the nearby water park, where a much more interesting sight presented itself. ¡°What are those?¡± I queried, half to myself and half to Karl. Water slimes. He seemed entirely unconcerned. They¡¯re a type of elemental. Very weak, at least when they¡¯re not in water. If they are, though, they gradually increase in size and quickly heal. I stared at them for a moment. ¡°Karl, the water¡¯s on. They¡¯re in water right now. Is that a problem?¡± He was quiet for a second. You wanted to level Shielding Embrace, yes? I grimaced. ¡°...Yeah?¡± This is a good time to do that, then. He explained his plan to me and nudged me towards the elemental spawns. In a move I was certain I¡¯d regret, I followed his suggestion and walked into the field of slimes.
¡°This feels disgusting, Karl.¡± It¡¯s draining your mana though, yes? ¡°...Yeah.¡± Then stop whining. He was right. The main requirement for leveling Shielding Clutch seemed to be blocking ¡°damage¡± with my Mana barrier, and this method was slow, safe, and only required me to endure some slight discomfort. Karl¡¯s idea had been to let the slimes crawl on me. Apparently, their main form of attack was to just crawl on their enemies and squeeze, but they were so weak that the only way they could kill anyone other than a small child was by accidentally getting in their mouths. They weren¡¯t even smart enough to do it on purpose, so the water slimes were just sort of¡­ there. Thinking of all the many times I¡¯d killed slimes in video games, I just sighed and sat back, ignoring the feeling of gelatin trying to give me a massage and the way my sopping clothes clung to my body. I laid back and started to relax, trying to enjoy the feeling of the sun. I idly pulled my phone out, making sure to keep it away from the slimes so they couldn¡¯t ruin it. A lot of the same news was circulating, except there was one new tidbit¨C apparently, the president had been picked up by some giant eagle and carried off, and his body had been found a few miles out. The vice president had been elevated to the position of president, and was being kept indoors and carefully guarded at all times. I grumbled unintelligibly. I didn¡¯t really care about who was president anymore, but the news would probably only make things worse. People were already losing their minds in the big cities¨C how long would it take until that started to reach out here? My home had already been broken into, how much worse would things get until the countdown hit zero? I was eventually pulled out of my doomscrolling by a notification. Not one on my phone, but one from the System.
Shielding Clutch (Lv. 5) ¡ú (Lv. 6)
+3 Mana Recovery +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility) +1 Skill Upgrade
Dying Manifestation or Avatar Reinforcement
Dying Manifestation (Lv. 6)
Wrap a target in the grip of an Echo. The Echo may speak to the target freely, providing advice, encouragement, and consolement, and if you¡¯re the target it increases your Attributes by 10% of its own per level in Dying Manifestation. Furthermore, any physical harm the Eidolon''s target receives is blocked and redirected to your Mana pool. While under the effects of Dying Manifestation, further Echoes may be channeled through the Eidolon and spent to temporarily conjure physical items, which gain traits associated to the spent Echoes.
Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 6)
Wrap a target in the grip of an Echo. The Echo may speak to the target freely, providing advice, encouragement, and consolement, and if you¡¯re the target it increases your Attributes by 10% of its own per level in Avatar Reinforcement. Furthermore, the target and any objects they are touching are cloaked in the Avatar of your Eidolon, redirecting all damage received to your Mana pool and granting them certain attributes that the Eidolon had in life.
I raised my eyebrows at the options, quickly shaking off all the slimes trying to get at me. ¡°Any thoughts from you, big guy?¡± Hmm, Karl hummed, Dying Manifestation would prove to be a good use for Echoes other than feeding them to me, but Avatar Reinforcement might allow you to tap into some of my old abilities. Both seem quite good in their own ways. Would you prefer to have yet another use for Echoes, or further enhance my influence on your capabilities? ¡°Nice way to deflect,¡± I commented, getting the impression that Karl was sending a smirk my way. ¡°Honestly, I think it¡¯s gotta be Avatar Reinforcement. Dying Manifestation sounds really cool, but any Echoes that are worth using with it would probably be better spent getting fed to you, even if we haven¡¯t really seen any results from that yet.¡± I concur, Karl sent with a chuckle. I rolled my eyes and locked in the choice, then checked my stats.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+19) Mana: 16 (+24)
Dexterity: 5 (+8) Mana Recovery: 14 (+13)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Ghastly Banquet (Lv. 5), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 6)
Quests: Reintegration (5%), Impossible Task (2/7) (0/1)
I nodded to myself, resisting the urge to use my Attribute Points right away. ¡°We¡¯re ahead of schedule for now.¡± I looked off into the slowly setting sun while I headed to the water park¡¯s control shack to shut off the water. ¡°Let¡¯s test Avatar Reinforcement out and then head home, shall we?¡± We shall, Karl answered viciously. A couple minutes later, the poor, innocent slimes were descended on by an energetic Karl and a pair of flaming katars. Chapter 8: Smoking Hot The next morning¡¯s chores were handled quickly. Yesterday¡¯s slimes hadn¡¯t left any bodies, and I¡¯d once again forgotten bodies somewhere, so my first task of the day was to go clean up the library. When I got there, I noticed that a few cars were parked outside, and I went in to investigate. Right at the register was a cute brunette with glasses who welcomed me in. ¡°Hi there! Sorry if you tried to come by in the past few days and we weren¡¯t open¨C we had a bit of a¡­ pest problem?¡± Her smile looked a bit pained. ¡°If you¡¯re looking for a certain book, I could help you find it?¡± ¡°Uh, no thank you, I¡¯m actually here to clean up the bodies? Did you¡­ happen to move them?¡± I gave her a nervous smirk as her face went pale. You¡¯re great with the ladies, Kenny. Shut up, I bit back. ¡°Uh, n-no, I didn¡¯t touch them.¡± She seriously looked sick. I almost asked if she was okay, but figured that the sight of dead bodies, even if they were just monsters, was probably still shocking for most people. I lugged all the corpses out of the library and chucked them into the back of my car before heading back into the library out of curiosity. The desk girl gave me a nervous smile as I leaned over the desk. ¡°Say, why are you here? Surely you¡¯d rather be at home right now? Y¡¯know, where it¡¯s safer?¡± She tapped the desk rapidly¨C some sort of tic, probably. ¡°It¡¯s my job, and I feel¡­ safe, here.¡± She laughed. ¡°It probably doesn¡¯t make any sense, there were monsters in here just yesterday, but the library has always been¡­ my safe place. That¡¯s why I took the job in the first place.¡± I nodded idly, grabbing a sticky note off the desk and quickly writing my phone number in it. I held it at eye level in front of her face. ¡°If you¡¯re ever in trouble, call this number. I¡¯ll do what I can to help you out.¡± Her expression seemed frozen, like she didn¡¯t know quite how to respond. ¡°Uh, thank you?¡± ¡°No problem. By the way, what¡¯s your name?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Olive,¡± she responded, her smile seeming a bit more real now. ¡°Kenny. Good to meet you, Olive.¡± I headed out of the library with a smile and a casual wave. I stand corrected. Maybe you actually are good with the ladies. ¡°Once again, shut up,¡± I muttered. Hauling the bodies back home and burying them all took a couple hours, but the task¡¯s completion brought with it a wave of relieving Mana Regen and a further improvement in the power of my Garden, which showed itself as I watered my plants and found that every single stream seemed to flow straight and evenly to the plants they were intended for. That actually gave me an idea, and I placed the hose between all the plants before going and turning the pressure way down. Just like I¡¯d been hoping, the tiny water streams defied gravity to flow to every plant evenly. Patting myself on the back for that idea, I got back in my car and started driving. Where are we headed today? Karl queried, having not been let in on my plans yet. ¡°I want to go check on the gun shop and the gas station. Gotta make sure the old man¡¯s okay, and we ran into some goblins the other day at the station, so it¡¯s possible that¡¯ll happen again. After that, I might want to go visit the park and see if anything¡¯s afoot there.¡± Understood. Karl and I locked in on the tasks of the day and stopped by the shop first. Another window was smashed, which wasn¡¯t a good sign. The owner, though, was completely fine, and even had four more kobold corpses for us to nab. I finally caught his name, too¨C Bob. It fit him well. ¡°Why do you think it is that he keeps finding kobolds? I haven¡¯t seen a single one yet and he¡¯s killed five.¡± Kobolds search for dragons and, in their absence, hoards. It¡¯s likely that all those weapons are considered a ¡°hoard.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± I nodded gently. ¡°Wait, but then why was there a troll in the grocery store? And mimics?¡± Trolls are found near swamps or large amounts of food. They¡¯re distantly related to pigs, after all. The mimics likely spawned due to the large amount of items, being drawn to ¡°loot,¡± things that mortals would desire. They would normally only spawn in places that aren¡¯t frequently travelled, but the Mana System likely decided the place was abandoned since people were staying away in fear of the troll. ¡°That¡¯s kind of messed up. It was just a couple days.¡± And most of the Mana System¡¯s presence in this world, Karl reminded me. I grunted and refocused on driving. Before long, we got to the gas station, where I got in for a quick refill and started investigating. Luckily¨C or perhaps unluckily¨C there was nothing to kill, so Karl and I moved on. The park was a little bit away, so I snacked on some Fire Clubs while I drove, Karl practically going crazy over the capsaicin in the back of my mind. ¡°Why do you even like it that much?¡± I asked as I pulled into the park¡¯s driveway. You¡¯re aware that dragons breathe fire, yes? ¡°Yeah.¡± That¡¯s a natural part of our bodies, not a Skill or Passive. It uses Mana, yes, but it¡¯s not a traditional form of magic. As such, there is no way to empower it like one would with a Skill. I raised my eyebrows, cutting in, ¡°But capsaicin does something, I¡¯m guessing?¡± Indeed. Capsaicin has a transformative effect on the glands that produce our flames, stimulating them and reprogramming them. It causes our fire to burn hotter and hotter. Even an Ancient Dragon¡¯s breath, large and endless though it may be, will be no hotter than that of a drakeling without access to this glorious drug. ¡°I guess I can see why it¡¯s valuable, then.¡± I stepped out of the car and straightened my shirt. ¡°You ready to kill some¡­ I dunno, something?¡± Always. I stepped into the grass and started marching, trusting Karl to keep an eye out for danger. I wasn¡¯t exactly a nature guy, but I had been to the park a few times, and my eyes noted all the familiar features. At the center was a fountain where the kids would make wishes and toss in pennies. Behind that was a jungle gym-style playset for the kids to play around on. All around were lush trees, the one that I¡¯d sprained my arm falling out of when my family was visiting my aunt as a kid, the one the kids would always play tag around, the one that was staring at me, the one¨C huh? I locked eyes with the tree. Something in my brain told me there wasn¡¯t anything to look at, but clearly there was an eye on this tree. ¡°Karl?¡± Yeah, that¡¯s a fae ent, I¡¯ll handle this. My body moved of its own volition to grab the two katars by my sides, which caught flame the second they were unsheathed. Translucent scales flickered along my otherwise-invisible Avatar Reinforcement barrier. Karl rushed into the fray, slicing at the monstrous tree''s eye as vines sprouted from the earth and tried to bind him in place. The plants were too slow, and a sound like a tree falling echoed through the clearing¨C or at least, what I imagined that would sound like. The tree had sprouted a vicious, blade-toothed mouth with which to scream as Karl''s blade burned through its eye, reducing it to globs of white and pink slime as the humor that made up the bulk of the eye was melted and dripped down the ent¡¯s oddly fleshy bark. More vines sprouted all around my body, thrashing violently, but they burned on contact with Avatar Reinforcement, courtesy of Karl. I was glad to note that the barrier now extended to my clothes, meaning my stuff wouldn''t be getting ruined every time I got hit. While the monster was distracted, Karl began cutting at it with his katars, not chopping into it with the punch daggers but gracefully slicing just past the bark. Pink sap started to well up wherever his blade glided, then quickly caught flame and started popping against the tree. A few bits of sap tried to stick to me, but it, too, glanced off my barrier, doing far less damage than I''d expected. At this point, Karl was practically torturing the monster, and I was honestly starting to feel a bit bad for it. The abomination soon fully caught fire, at which point Karl backed off to watch it burn. Dude, that was¡­ disturbing. ¡°Fae ents use suggestion magic to draw in easy prey, their favorites being mortal young and animals seeking shelter, and hide themselves from consequence,¡± Karl growled, ¡°They are malicious and cowardly creatures. No other death would suit such a being.¡± I silently watched the burning monster scream out sounds of creaking wood and rustling branches. Even in death, it seemed, it was programmed to deceive. Karl and I ended up doing a quick patrol of the rest of the property, but found no other monsters. How long do you think this thing was here? Would it have had time to¡­ you know? Karl shook my head. ¡°It''s unlikely that the fae ent was here more than a day or two. It''s possible that it may have killed someone in that time, but I prefer to imagine that we struck it down before it harmed anyone.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Eventually, the burning stopped. Luckily, the grass itself didn''t catch fire, otherwise we would''ve had a problem on our hands. Karl gave me the reins and briefly abandoned me to absorb the ent¡¯s Echo, leaving me with only my base stats for a good second. The temporary weakness reminded me of how little I was without him.
Ghastly Banquet (Lv. 5) ¡ú (Lv. 6)
+2 Mana +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility) +1 Skill Upgrade
Devouring Phantasm or Souldrain Spirits
I have received a point of Mana! Karl''s voice boomed inside my head. I quickly checked to see if that had carried over to me. ¡°If my memory''s right, I think I got that too.¡± Karl hummed happily. I pulled up my Skill Upgrade choices.
Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 6)
Allows the user to speak a word while touching the body of a deceased creature, gaining an Echo of that creature associated with the word spoken. Each corpse may have a number of Echoes harvested from it equal to the level of Devouring Phantasm. Alternatively, the user may have one of their Echoes consume the energy that would be harvested from a corpse, instead using it to strengthen themselves by a percentage of the corpse¡¯s Attributes equal to the level of Devouring Phantasm. The user and their Echoes will additionally gain access to a hidden ¡°Connection¡± Attribute, which improves the potency of all other other Skills and Passives that rely on Echoes.
Souldrain Spirits (Lv. 6)
Allows the user to speak a word while touching the body of a deceased creature, gaining an Echo of that creature associated with the word spoken. Each corpse may have a number of Echoes harvested from it equal to the level of Souldrain Spirits. Alternatively, the user may send out Echoes in their possession to temporarily drain Attribute points from nearby foes. The amount of Attributes gained and lost from each targeted creature is based on the power of the Echoes, as is the radius of Souldrain Spirits.
¡°I think the choice here is pretty clear.¡± Losing out on Karl¡¯s ability to gain stats would be silly, especially right after we¡¯d both just gotten a new point to our Mana and had plans to get tons more mileage out of it. Plus, that Connection thing sounded strong. It was a bit sad passing up Souldrain Spirits, just because it sounded really cool and would probably let me use powerful Echoes to simultaneously weaken my enemies and strengthen myself, but I preferred the permanent scaling for now. I locked in my
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+19) Mana: 18 (+26)
Dexterity: 5 (+8) Mana Recovery: 13 (+13)
Connection: 5 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 6), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 6)
Quests: Reintegration (6%), Impossible Task (3/8) (0/1)
¡°My Mana went up again? I guess that¡¯s probably an effect of Connection. I bet it¡¯s a percentage boost to what¡¯s already there based on the raw Connection stat. I wonder if I can put points into it to raise it, or if it uses some other sort of growth?¡± It specifies that the Connection is with me. It¡¯s likely that each individual Echo would receive its own Connection Attribute, but then what is it based on? Five cannot be the base, else your goblin Echoes would be listed at the same level. ¡°Huh. We¡¯ll have to figure it out together, I suppose.¡± I quickly checked the time on my phone. ¡°It¡¯s only midday. We¡¯ve still got plenty of time if you want to check out some other spots.¡± Of course. Where are we headed? ¡°Well, since we¡¯re sticking to places people tend to hang out around, I was thinking the high school here would be a good spot. I doubt classes are still in session¨C maybe they were at the start of this mess, but if the schools are still running on a Monday, in the apocalypse? I¡¯d eat my shoes.¡± I will hold you to that bet. ¡°I guess we should go check if I¡¯m right, then.¡±
My dinner would not consist of rubber, much to Karl¡¯s disappointment. The school was completely abandoned¨C and it¡¯d been done in a hurry, too. Papers were scattered all around, bags had been dropped in a hurry, and lockers were left open. Yet, there were no immediately obvious threats. No bodies, no blood, no claw marks or anything. There was, however, an odd stickiness to the floor, like how a kid¡¯s hands get after they eat candy. It wasn¡¯t impeding my movement at all, but it was off putting. ¡°Any clue what this is from?¡± Hmm. Karl considered the environment. I¡¯m unsure. Creatures that would naturally spawn in places of learning aren¡¯t too common, and I don¡¯t know of any that would do something like this. Perhaps a form of mutated honey bee, but they would have needed to wander in from a field of flowers, and I didn¡¯t see anything suitable as we approached. ¡°I guess we¡¯ll just have to figure it out, then,¡± I commented with a slight shrug of my shoulders. I started moving through the halls, hunting for the source of the floor¡¯s condition. It didn¡¯t take too long before we ran into something. In the second classroom we checked, there was a huge, hairy wolf-man, but not quite like a werewolf. Its eyes and ears were too large, and its fur seemed way too fluffy and colorful, mostly white with spots of light brown interspersed. The disturbing sight set me back for a moment, and Karl took over as it pounced, plunging a katar straight through the thing¡¯s heart and setting it alight. ¡°What the heck was that?¡± I questioned as he devoured the spirit of the¡­ thing. Looks like a werewolf or beastkin, but neither is quite so¡­ extreme, and the latter aren¡¯t spawned as monsters. Different cultures tend to affect the appearance and abilities of monsters, would that have anything to do with this? I thought for a long second, then facepalmed. ¡°It¡¯s a furry.¡± A what? ¡°It¡¯s¨C¡± I sighed, hating the words that were coming out of my mouth. ¡°It¡¯s a person who pretends to be part animal. Usually. Sometimes they do other stuff too.¡± ¡­Is this a normal behavior for humans, or is it a mental illness? ¡°I think some of them are normal enough, but a handful of them are problematic and give the rest a bad reputation,¡± I explained, ¡°I imagine it¡¯s just like¡­ roleplay. Like, there are some people who get together and pretend to be knights or wizards or soldiers and do mock battles or play games and stuff. It¡¯s probably usually just like that, but like I said, some of them take things too far and it gets a lot of publicity. Like, barking at people in public and stuff.¡± I imagine barking at one another is not a normal behavior for humans? ¡°Absolutely not.¡± I shook my head at the ridiculousness of the situation. ¡°Can we move on from this topic? I don¡¯t think this¡­ werewolf was the cause of the problem in the hallway.¡± Of course. We started checking the other classrooms one by one, having to chop up a couple more ¡°werewolves¡± while we were at it. The gains weren¡¯t too good, but some progress was better than none at all. Eventually, we ran out of classrooms and checked out the cafeteria. That¡¯s where it was. A giant snail. Kind of. It was a bit too long, and had long tentacles on its face that reminded me of an octopus. Carloch, Karl explained, taking over. This shouldn¡¯t take long. The carloch was slow, so Karl just moved in and got to work, not worrying about its small tentacles slowly moving towards him. Karl¡¯s katars punched into the unarmored bits of the beast, cauterizing the wounds they caused in the same instant they created them. Then one of the tentacles brushed against my body. For a second, we were airborne. Then everything came to a brutal halt as my body shattered the wall above the cafeteria¡¯s doorways. My Avatar Reinforcement held, but just barely, and an awful migraine pulsed in the back of my head, purging all thoughts from my mind and rendering me a complete mess. I felt my barrier give way as Karl landed gracefully upon the ground, causing the flame on the katars to putter out and my bones to ache. Luckily, I hadn¡¯t completely lost Karl¡¯s stats or his control, else I would¡¯ve struggled to just get away, and finishing the fight wouldn¡¯t have even been a consideration. ¡°That was completely uncharacteristic,¡± Karl noted with a scowl. ¡°Its Dexterity is lower than it should be, but its Strength more than compensates for that.¡± My screaming mind latched onto the idea of the Immortal Snail¨C an incredibly slow enemy that could never die but would kill you if it so much as touched you. ¡°Oh great,¡± Karl growled, ¡°Of course your people would come up with something like that.¡± My brain was completely empty, which made it easy to focus on Karl whipping out the deagle and pumping a shot straight into the carloch¡¯s face. Disappointingly, the monster did not die, instead healing around the injury like the troll had done. ¡°Regeneration,¡± Karl bitterly commented. ¡°I hate this even more now. And, of course, its core is going to be inside that shell which is undoubtedly impossible to crack.¡± My companion turned and started walking away. ¡°Sorry, kid, but I¡¯m not dealing with that crap right now. We can come back later when your Mana has recovered some and I can use the fire to get around its healing.¡± Mentally agreeing with his decision, I shut out my senses and took a little ¡°nap¡± inside my own mind. By the time Karl nudged me awake by swapping spots with me, we were home and a trio of holes had been dug up, with the ¡°werewolf¡± bodies set to the side. My Mana was completely recovered, and a bag of Fire Clubs sat at my side, dust from the snack coating my fingertips and my tongue burning slightly. I figured that was enough time. You want to bury these things and head back out? I looked up at the sun, which was maybe a couple hours from setting. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s probably a good idea.¡± I didn¡¯t want to lose any ground on my quest, and I¡¯d effectively just gotten a huge nap so my brain was feeling healthy enough to keep going. Realizing that I¡¯d gotten better at burying bodies was always a weird thought. My improved stats and experience meant that I was indeed faster at digging makeshift graves, but it still felt a bit too serial killer-ish to put it like that. The assistance of my Echo Garden made things go even faster, as once my intentions were clear, small piles of dirt started dropping themselves into the holes as well, which was new. Previously, my Passive had just made the graves a bit neater, but it seemed that they could actually help with the rest of the process as well. I soaked in the extra Mana Regen, enjoying the contrast between it and the deprivation-induced migraine from before. I went inside and heated up a quick meal in the oven, setting up at the table and scrolling through social media as I ate. Some info on different sorts of monsters was popping up¨C apparently some giant, man-eating moth had caused a bunch of destruction in a small Mexican town before someone got in close enough with a shotgun and knocked it out of the sky. The damage wasn¡¯t too heavy, but it wasn¡¯t anything to scoff at. At least two dozen people had died, some from meeting the moth skull to proboscis and others from being caught in the rubble of any of the seven buildings it had wrecked trying to get at the hiding meat. That was one of the worst cases of monsters causing mass destruction, but this was only the sixth day. If this were just a week later, there would have been two of those moths, which likely would have created more than twice the death and devastation. I shook my head, swallowing a bite of pizza. Just then, a call came to my phone from an unknown number. I hesitated for a second, then picked up. ¡°Yes?¡± I spoke into the device¡¯s speaker. ¡°Kenny? Is that you?¡± The voice was quiet, and was shaking so badly that I barely even recognized the speaker. ¡°Olive? Is that you?¡± I quickly got to my feet, making my way to the door. I¡¯d told the young librarian to call me if she was in danger, so if she was on the phone¡­ ¡°Where are you?¡± I heard a muffled voice and something banging in the background. ¡°I-I¡¯m at home. Please, it¡¯s my¨C¡± The voice from before grew louder and angrier. ¡°Two forty one South Bancroft, please be quick.¡± The line went dead as Olive hung up on me. I slipped my phone into my pocket and started running. Chapter 9: Mortal Vessel, Draconic Power South Bancroft wasn¡¯t far, so rather than getting in my car I booked it on foot. With Karl¡¯s stats added to my own, I was faster than anyone on Earth before Reintegration started, and I could keep it up for an unreasonable amount of time as well. A few minutes and half a dozen blocks later, I slowed, scanning the street numbers carefully until¨C there. I quickly crossed the street and tried to enter the house, but the door was locked. Frustrated and in a panic, I kicked the obstacle in, snapping it clean off its hinges and cracking the door frame. I heard muffled sobbing a short distance away, and steps coming towards me, and something resonated in my spirit. It wasn¡¯t just me. It wasn¡¯t just Karl. It was both of us. We were angry. My body and clothing caught flame, burning the air with dragon fire while protected fully from the heat by my barrier. A man stepped out of an adjacent hallway, and we advanced on him. ¡°Hey man, I don¡¯t know who you think you are, but¨C urgk!¡± I¨C we¨C lifted the man off his feet and examined him as he flailed against our unyielding grip, helplessly trying to pull it away from his throat and get some breathing room, fearful as all insects should be. He was blonde with brown eyes, totally average build for a man of his totally average height. A few small tattoos littered his face, a rose here and a pair of birds there¨C things that my brain overanalyzed as things people would find ¡°soft¡± and ¡°interesting,¡± rather than intimidating or a red flag. He reeked of alcohol, with small, fresh stains marking his white shirt and brown jacket. We¡¯d seen enough, and promptly threw the jerk¨C worthless meat¨C aside. I made my way into the hallway and stopped at a door, behind which Olive was quietly sobbing. I quickly rapped on the door to make my presence known. ¡°Olive, I¡¯m here. Are you alright?¡± There was a pitiful gasp from the other side of the door. ¡°Is he gone?¡± Her voice quivered. ¡°Not yet. Do you want me to make him go away?¡± It was quiet for a long moment. ¡°Yes,¡± she answered in a whisper. I turned back to the sack of trash I¡¯d put aside and cracked my knuckles. It was just starting to recover, and threw a bolt of some kind of purple energy at me, but it fizzled against my scaled barrier, and then I was¨C we were¨C upon him. Fire. Blood. A dragon¡¯s vindictive glee. Soon, there was a pile of bloodsoaked ashes on the ground.
Avatar Reinforceme¨C
Avatar Reinforcement leveled, but I completely ignored it kept my focus on Olive. Most of my Mana was drained from all the fire we¡¯d put out, but Karl and I had done as was asked of us¨C we¡¯d removed the problem. Karl continued to rage within the confines of my mind, reaching out to devour the Echo of the monster we¡¯d just slain to fully scrub its influence from the world. ¡°Olive? Are you alright?¡± I crouched on the other side of the doorway, listening to her quiet sobbing. It took a second before she was composed enough to answer, but I could afford to be patient. She sniffled a bit before talking, her voice coming out slightly nasally and shaking wildly. ¡°Jean¡¯s gone now?¡± ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s gone. He won¡¯t bother you anymore.¡± I heard her blow her nose. ¡°Thank you.¡± I itched to ask questions, but I shoved that aside. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re tired. Do you wanna stay here? I can take you back to my place if you¡¯d feel safer.¡± I gave her a moment to think, and then she slowly opened the door and stepped out. I inspected her in spite of her averted gaze, and felt my blood boil as I noticed multiple bruises. ¡°I¡¯ll go with you,¡± Olive whispered. I gave her a quick nod and gestured that she follow me. Part of me wanted to comfort her, but I wasn¡¯t sure what would help. My response would have been physical contact¨C give her a hug, tell her she was safe, that sort of thing, but it might¡¯ve done more harm than good. I kept my pace slow and grabbed a blanket off her couch as I stepped out into the evening air, pausing to wrap it around her while doing my best to keep some distance. I continued to walk slowly and silently back to my home while keeping an eye on her to make sure she was following. It took much longer than the way to her house had been, but that was to be expected. I had time, and she needed some of it right now. I idly wondered how many people had faced situations similar to these since the end had begun. How many people had lost it and taken it out on the people who loved them? How many people had been hurt or died because of the extreme reactions of the ones they trusted? Eventually we got back to my home, and I guided Olive to my aunt¡¯s old room. It was a bit dusty, but much more comfortable than the guest room. ¡°Can I get you something? Food, water?¡± My question received no response, even after a few minutes of waiting, so I moved to leave the room, but that elicited a vocal burst of fear, and my feet were suddenly grounded. Shrugging, I pulled a chair to one of the walls and got comfortable, figuring that I¡¯d need to spend a few minutes waiting for her to fall asleep before I could head to my own room. Before I knew it, though, I¡¯d entered the world of dreams.
My wings spread wide across my realm, an odd feeling of paternal protectiveness spreading across my being. It was all so very small. From where my broad wings stretched into the endless void, the pair of worlds within my domain that could host life seemed almost like toys. Compared to the sun shining along the back of my world-sized wings, it truly felt as though I could reach out and pluck the planets from the sky and use them as game marbles. Even though I could wreak total destruction upon this entire system in a mere instant, it seemed so¡­ important. And, perhaps some of that was due to one tiny egg sequestered deep within a cave on the nearer of the two worlds. It was so, so delicate, and yet nothing in the multiverse could have mattered more to me. These worlds were more than just places. No, these were the kingdom I would one day gift to Xinasinfixois. This was where Xina¡¯s wings would first spread and claim the sky¨C where, one day, she would accidentally torch her first kingdom and set off a war, like I had done in my own youth. I chuckled gently. She wasn¡¯t even born yet, but my spirit burned with love for my charge. Finally, I understood what all the other Ancient Dragons had spoken about¨C truly, there was no greater joy than parenthood. I brushed my mind against that of Jinasinglith, who was currently wrapped warmly around the soon-to-be hatchling. As an Ancient Dragon, it was nearly impossible for me to perform the standard duties that a dragon tasked with the care of an egg would be, but the standard procedure was for one parent to act as a mighty guardian and protector, and for them to select another to serve as the primary caretaker for the newly-hatched drakeling. I was to be a defender and a role model¨C Jinsingli would serve as Xina¡¯s primary helper and provider to help her one day reach her greatest potential. For all my might and all my years, I knew one thing more than I¡¯d ever known anything: I would do anything for my dear Xina.
I gasped as I awoke, shaking off the strange dream. My eyes darted around at my unfamiliar surroundings, though I relaxed as I realized I was just in my aunt¡¯s room. I panicked once more, though, when I realized that Olive was nowhere to be seen. Panicking, I started racing through the house to find any signs of her. Following a trail of smoke that caused me to momentary flip out, I found her in the kitchen. With an apron. Cooking bacon from the freezer. Olive¡¯s eyes met mine with fear, but she relaxed at the same time that I did, realizing that there was nothing to be worried about. ¡°Sorry if I woke you,¡± she apologized, seeming much better than she¡¯d been the previous night, ¡°Breakfast is almost ready.¡± I cautiously approached the counter and sat facing her. ¡°Are you¡­ okay?¡±A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. She flinched, and I instantly regretted my words. She froze for a second, blinking rapidly, then continued moving, opening my fridge and cracking open some eggs, which she expertly cooked over-medium. ¡°Sorry if you don¡¯t like your eggs like this,¡± she spoke, seemingly ignoring my question. ¡°This is all I know how to do other than scrambled.¡± She threw some seasonings on, then dished them onto two plates, similarly pulling the bacon off the pan she¡¯d been grilling it in and setting it on another plate with a paper towel over it. Olive moved gracefully towards me and set a plate of eggs and the bacon in front of me before bringing her own plate over and handing me a set of utensils. ¡°To answer your question,¡± she belatedly replied after shoving a bite of egg in her mouth, ¡°No. But I¡¯m trying to ignore that and I hope you will too.¡± I tried to look anywhere other than at her face, found a convenient distraction, and started stuffing my face, only realizing halfway through that I hadn¡¯t thanked her. I gave her a guilty smile, my face full of food. ¡°Thanks?¡± She laughed, but there was no heart in it. ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± I kept eating, staying silent for the remainder of the meal, even though her eyes were locked on me the whole time I ate. It was a bit uncomfortable, but I wasn¡¯t about to ask her to stop. ¡°Seriously.¡± I ran my tongue along my teeth, making sure every scrap of egg and bacon found its way into my stomach. ¡°Nobody¡¯s cooked for me in a while, and that was great.¡± Olive smirked. ¡°I figured, what with all those frozen meals in there. Thought you might want something a bit nicer.¡± I nodded, then started thinking. ¡°Oh, uh¡­ I¡¯m going to be out for most of the day. Is that alright? Would you like me to drop you off at the library?¡± She furrowed her eyebrows. ¡°Why? More monster hunting?¡± She seemed skeptical. ¡°Something like that, yeah.¡± I wondered for a second if I should tell her about my quest, but decided against it. I didn¡¯t know her that well, and it wasn¡¯t even a certainty that she¡¯d stick around long enough to need the information. ¡°Just trying to get stronger, do my best to survive and all that.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Her posture relaxed. ¡°You¡¯ve got one of those Roles that make you fight. That¡¯s bad luck, I¡¯m sorry.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s been doing well for me so far. What¡¯d you get?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just about reading. Nothing too special. The main Skill makes me read faster, got it to level three and now it actually slows things down a bit while I think. The other one helps me find things.¡± Feeling a bit pressured, I offered up my own information. ¡°My Skills were originally set around the theme of being a sort of medium. Get information from dead people, get these ghost things called Echoes from them, and use those in different ways. I upgraded my Skills a bit and now¡­¡± I trailed off, thinking of how best to explain what I could do. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got one main Echo that I use for everything, and I can make him stronger which makes me stronger as a byproduct. Also, because of what that Echo was in life, I get some minor fire abilities. For the most part, that¡¯s limited to just setting things I touch on fire, though.¡± Olive stared at me blankly. Admittedly, it didn¡¯t sound very fair now that I thought about it. Without Karl I wouldn¡¯t be nearly as strong as I currently was, but I¡¯d started with an extra level of Attribute scaling in the form of Eidolon¡¯s Embrace, then gained another with Ghastly Banquet, and gotten yet another with the upgrade to Devouring Phantasm. Admittedly, a lot of that bonus power came from leveling my abilities more than Olive had, but the sheer number of things I had going for me wasn¡¯t exactly fair. Your initial Skill choice synergized with your plans, your actions showed the system how you wished to use them, and your further choices in Skill Upgrades proved to it that you were going to use them to fight whether it liked it or not. All Roles are given combat capabilities if you wish to lean into them, even those of Olive. Slowing time to think in the middle of combat is powerful, Kenny. You may not need it because you have me, but that was all you truly ¡°lucked into.¡± The rest was a natural consequence of your choices. Still, I responded to Karl nonverbally, her Primary Skill¡¯s base effect seems completely useless for fighting, and her Secondary also seems pretty ineffectual. Your Primary does nothing but facilitate your other abilities, Karl argued, And being able to find things is better than you might expect. She might be able to use that to find monsters in her surroundings, and it may evolve to let her spot weak points, break through stealth abilities, or maybe even read portions of others¡¯ statuses. Feeling simultaneously proven wrong and vindicated, I leaned back in my seat a bit and met Olive¡¯s eye. ¡°You know, you¡¯re a pretty odd guy,¡± she said between bites of her food. ¡°Uh, thank you?¡± I wasn¡¯t quite sure how to respond to that. Was it an insult or a compliment? ¡°It really seemed like you were having a whole conversation with yourself there,¡± she commented with a smirk. ¡°I can see why you went the combat route, though. Your Skills seem much more geared for it, even if you¡¯re ¡®just a medium.¡¯¡± I smiled back, then realized. ¡°Oh, by the way, probably don¡¯t go in the backyard if you can avoid it? I¡¯m growing some plants in there and there¡¯s uhh¡­¡± My brain froze as I tried to find a way to not sound like a serial killer. ¡°Sorry, I kind of bury bodies back there? Monster bodies. Well¨C¡± I winced¨C ¡±Yeah, monster bodies. It¡¯s part of my Passive. The garden basically handles itself, but you might see me out back digging a hole or something. Probably just¡­ try to avoid investigating back there, alright?¡± Well that was convincing, Karl voice with a scoff, If you were trying to make yourself sound suspicious, I think you succeeded. Contrary to Karl¡¯s words, though, Olive readily agreed. ¡°Sure, it¡¯s the least I can do.¡± I clapped my hands together and rubbed them. ¡°I¡¯m gonna go get ready for the day, you should do the same if you¡¯re wanting to go work at the library today. You can use the bathroom attached to my aunt¡¯s bedroom, I think there¡¯s towels in one of the drawers, and her clothes might be a bit big on you but I think you¡¯ll fit well enough.¡± She stared off into the distance. ¡°I think I¡¯m fine for now. Thank you, though.¡± ¡°Alright, your choice.¡± I shrugged and went to take a shower. Kenny, Karl spoke in a serious voice, I know I give you a bit of a hard time here and there, but you¡¯ve been doing well. I was briefly stunned. ¡°Thank you? Where¡¯s this sudden vote of confidence coming from?¡± I muttered quietly enough that Olive wouldn¡¯t be able to hear. Explaining the existence of Karl and that my Echoes could be intelligent would be a bit overwhelming at the moment. Like I told you earlier, your choices and behaviors are what has led to your¨C or, rather, our current prowess and potential. I may not be the original Karlisifixois, just a copy of what he once was, but I¡¯ve come to terms with that. The power that you borrow from me? In truth, it is all simply your own. Another sort of man may have forgone interacting with me entirely, but you treated me with respect and honor. You saw past my bloodlust and sought to make a deal with me¨C right after I puppetted your body into slaying two of your own race. In short, Kenny, I find that you are a good man, not just in deed but in heart. I paused for a second, trying to think of a response as I threw together some clothes so I wouldn¡¯t have to walk out of the bathroom with just a towel on in front of Olive. ¡°I¡¯m not sure I agree with you, Karl.¡± I frowned, thinking of my own actions. ¡°I haven¡¯t been doing quite as much as I could be. Heck, back at the grocery store I took my time with gathering supplies before going back to those people who¡¯d already been through so much. I don¡¯t think a good person would act like that. I¡¯ve consistently done less than I could be doing. I should be spending more time roaming the streets to make sure defenceless families aren¡¯t getting slaughtered by goblins. I should have invited those homeless people to stay at my home.¡± I shook my head. ¡°I feel like someone who¡¯s really a good person would be doing more.¡± Karl chuckled. Kenny, that thought process right there? That¡¯s part of what makes you qualify as a good human. I frowned. ¡°What do you mean?¡± In my experience, both mortals and dragons alike have different bars for what they consider ¡°just¡± or ¡°good.¡± The simplest way to find where they lie on the scale is by their own behaviors and their bar for what a good person is. You have consistently done what you could in the moment to help others. Offering Olive your number in case she ran into danger? Good. Clearing out monsters you find in public places, and intentionally seeking out more each and every day? Good. In spite of that, you claim that you are not a good person. That is a demonstration of your humility more than anything¨C another trait that is common among good people. ¡°Most of that was done selfishly, though,¡± I argued. ¡°I get Echoes and Skill levels from those monsters, and for all you know I was just trying to give a cute girl my phone number.¡± I am literally inside your spirit and mind, my companion reminded me. Personal gain may be one of your motivators, but it¡¯s not the only one. If you truly only wished to survive, you would create a shelter in the middle of nowhere, hunt daily to add to your Echo Garden, and build up defenses against the greater threats you know approach. Instead, you¡¯ve committed yourself to a quest that will bring you to safety, then force you to enter the most dangerous warzone this realm has ever seen in order to save as many lives as you can. ¡°Interesting points, but unfortunately I still disagree,¡± I rebutted as I stripped and stepped into the hot water of my shower. That is fine. You will come to know yourself someday. Karl seemed smug, but not in the normal proud, self-assured way. It was a mix between the feeling of an impending ¡°I told you so¡± and fatherly pride. I pushed the feelings away and pulled up my status.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+24) Mana: 18 (+30)
Dexterity: 5 (+9) Mana Recovery: 16 (+16)
Connection: 6 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 6), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 7)
Quests: Reintegration (7%), Impossible Task (4/9) (0/1)
¡°Huh, would you look at that, our Connection went up.¡± Curious. Was that part of Avatar Reinforcement¡¯s level up? ¡°Uhh, let me check.¡± I opened a log of my notifications and found that, yes, Connection was included in the update. ¡°Yeah, plus three Mana Regen, plus one Attribute Point, and plus one Connection with you specifically. It¡¯s probably connected to my Skills, then. Devouring Phantasm probably improves my Connection based on gaining Skill levels using Echoes. If it¡¯s at a flat rate, then we¡¯ll see that number steadily improve over time.¡± Marvelous. I felt Karl peering intently at my Attributes. It appears that it does, indeed, apply to the boost you receive from Avatar Reinforcement. Seventy percent of my own Attributes rounded down would be one point lower on both Strength and Mana. I grinned. ¡°Good to know. Just another endlessly growing multiplier for us.¡± Karl rolled his eyes. At least, that¡¯s what it felt like. Kind of hard to do things like that when you¡¯re a disembodied ghost. I seriously doubt that you can place points into our Connection, so it¡¯s not quite as unbalanced as it would otherwise be. Still, once Avatar Reinforcement reaches its maximum level, Connection may allow us to add another bonus on top of that, if that¡¯s how it functions. If not, it¡¯ll simply improve all our other capabilities. I gave a quick nod and then refocused on getting ready, quickly toweling off and throwing on jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. I put a fresh mag in the deagle and strapped on the sheathes for my katars, then stepped back out into the living room. Olive was¡­ sweeping. Part of me was confused, another part was embarrassed at how messy I¡¯d gotten the place, and the final bit was telling the others to shut up. ¡°Hey, Olive, do you know how to handle a gun?¡± The girl in question glanced up and saw the weapon in my hand. ¡°Yeah, my dad spent a lot of time at the gun range back home and I went with him every so often.¡± I carefully approached and handed her the gun. ¡°Be careful with this thing,¡± I warned. ¡°Keep the safety off and aim it at a wall or something.¡± ¡°I know,¡± she said with a smirk. ¡°Thank you. Are you sure you don¡¯t need this?¡± I gave her a nod. ¡°Yeah, I should be able to handle most things without too much worry. Please keep yourself safe while I¡¯m gone.¡± ¡°I will.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± I gave her a warm smile. ¡°I¡¯ll see you later, then.¡± ¡°You too, Kenny.¡± I left her to clean her heart out. Chapter 10: Chipping Away The first task on my list for the day was to get back at that dang snail. Now that Karl knew the trick, he was confident he could handle the thing, and I wasn¡¯t about to argue against that. If he thought he could take it, then chances were he could. After not too long, Karl and I arrived at the same high school from before. We did another quick sweep of the building, but all we found were some cruddy goblins that Karl quickly massacred and shoved roughly into the back of my car¨C fourteen this time, as expected. Since it was just goblins, we gained nothing from the encounter other than that feeling Karl always got when he fed on Echoes. Once that had been handled, it was time to move onto the snail. I stepped into the cafeteria and stared down at the snail, about twenty feet away and almost up to eye level with me. Luckily, the thing hadn¡¯t moved too far¨C without any people to harass, it probably just stayed in the one room. Excruciatingly slowly, the carloch started closing in towards us. Then Karl took over and slowly moved towards it as well. The giant snail¡¯s face tentacles stretched out towards us, but Karl casually cut them all off, the cauterization halting any physical regeneration it might¡¯ve had. ¡°You caught me off guard last time, I¡¯ll give you that,¡± my voice growled out, ¡°But you¡¯re still nothing. Having a different weakness than I thought just means you still have a weakness.¡± Karl punched repeatedly at the carloch, burning scar after scar into its weird jelly-like flesh before eventually slicing a flaming katar along the cuts he¡¯d already made, then repeating the motion at a slightly different angle. The carloch¡¯s head fell off. Dang, you were right. That wasn¡¯t too bad. ¡°Just because you fail once doesn¡¯t mean you shouldn¡¯t get back up and try again,¡± Karl suggested. ¡°In this case, I lacked some critical information, but we survived and returned smarter. Now, let me actually kill this thing. Beasts with regenerative properties are the worst.¡± You already cut off its head, though. Shouldn¡¯t it be dead? ¡°Eh, not quite. That works on most things since they can¡¯t heal and their soul is connected to their body through their brains, but much like the troll, the carloch doesn¡¯t have that problem. The brain is the most common place, and the heart is a close second. I¡¯ll have to destroy the heart of this thing to kill it permanently.¡± An image flashed into my mind: a snail¡¯s anatomy shining onto the teacher¡¯s projector screen. The part I¡¯d been most interested in at the time was how the snails literally defecated onto their own heads, but I remembered the vague location of the heart. Looking at the size of the carloch, I grimaced in preemptive disgust. ¡°Yup,¡± Karl noted with a smirk, ¡°All the way in the back of the shell. Don¡¯t worry too much, though. I¡¯m gonna try to pull the shell off first.¡± Relieved, I sent a wave of appreciation to Karl, who quickly got to work pulling and twisting on the shell. Being an integral part of its body, it wasn¡¯t exactly easy to cleanly remove the shell, but after a few minutes, Karl managed, only needing to give the exposed body a slight prick to permanently end the carloch. We elected not to lug the body back to the car, both because it smelled really bad and because it was a bit large for that. Karl did gain two points of Strength, though, one of which transferred over to me. We searched the high school a bit more, breaking into back rooms and checking storage closets, but found nothing, so we decided to move on. ¡°There¡¯s a Suncash in town,¡± I mentioned to Karl, ¡°That might be a good spot to check. Should be pretty easy to tell if they¡¯re having problems¨C that place is always busy. Even on doomsday, people will still be ordering coffee.¡± Turns out, the Suncash was thriving. I stopped to ask a few questions and apparently some monsters had spawned there, cats with barbed tails or something, but the people had ganged up on the beasts, refusing to let the apocalypse stop them from getting their steamy brown ambrosia. Personally, I didn¡¯t get it, but then again I¡¯d only had coffee once and then didn¡¯t touch it again after that, so who was I to judge? I figured that a nearby hotel was a good enough place to take a look at as any, and found that the management had locked down an entire section of the building because someone had died there. I offered to handle the problem, but the guy at the front desk just laughed at me. Then I handed him a twenty and he raised the gate briefly so I could slip through. People were weird. Twenty dollars is all it takes for you to let me kill myself? I mean, nah, I¡¯d win, but still, he clearly didn¡¯t think I could handle a newborn kitten, much less a man-slaying beast. ¡°Alright Karl, any idea what we might find here?¡± I walked through the hallway slowly, listening carefully for any sounds that might give away my prey¡¯s position. What sorts of people normally stay at this sort of establishment? ¡°Uh, basically just travellers and people having one-night stands or cheating on their spouses, probably more of the former than the latter. Sometimes people might stay at a hotel while they¡¯re visiting family or looking at a job in the area, but that sort of falls under the traveller category.¡± I assumed as much. We¡¯ll most likely be looking at something related to the idea of travel¨C think flying creatures or humanoids. There¡¯s also a chance of there being an association with the demonic. Unlikely, but plausible. ¡°Okay, so probably some sort of bird.¡± I shrugged. ¡°We should be able to handle that.¡± I¡¯m not so sure, Karl commented with a hum, This location isn¡¯t very open and has no air access, so birds are less likely. It¡¯s probably a giant bug or bloodsucking bat, or something along those lines. ¡°Greaaat, now I¡¯m dealing with a vampire. If I get bit and turn into one of them, you¡¯re coming with me.¡± Improbable. Vampires are considered sentient, and aren¡¯t typically summoned. Additionally, they cannot actually turn into bats, most just like the aesthetic. If it¡¯s actually a batlike humanoid you¡¯re looking for, then a camazotz is far more likely. ¡°Can you just¡­ stop? Let me know what it is when we find it and stop making me panic with thoughts of what it could be.¡± Fine, fine. With that, I started checking doors. Most of them were open to some degree or another, seemingly lacking the automated closing mechanisms that most hotels seemed to have. Most likely, people had left their rooms in a rush when they learned about¨C or possibly heard¨C the hotel¡¯s monster killing someone. I couldn¡¯t exactly blame them. ¡°You know, I probably should¡¯ve asked the guy at the front desk for details on the monster,¡± I realized a bit too late. He seemed rude. I doubt he would have given you much information, if he knows anything at all. ¡°Eh, maybe you¡¯re right.¡± Not like I''d wanted to interact with him any more than necessary. It didn''t take too long to locate the spawned creature, the visage of which was surprising to say the least. I have to be honest, I wasn''t expecting it to be a carnivorous horse. True to Karl''s words, inside the room was a giant jet-black horse, bent over a dead body. The angle wasn''t great, positioned directly behind the monster as we were, but peeking beneath the beast revealed that the corpse was half eaten and half ridden with flies. Any ideas? I queried Karl silently. Try to stab it where its torso meets its hind legs. That should disable some of its mobility. Wait, what? You want me to do that? Just try. I''ll jump in right after, Karl assured me. Carefully and slowly, I unsheathed both katars and moved forward. It raised its head and sniffed, sounding more like a dog than a horse, and I almost froze, but a mental nudge from Karl had me lunge forward, punching with all my strength into the horse¡¯s legs. Punching out with both arms at the same time had been a mistake, and I started to lose my balance as the horse tilted and fell onto its rear, but Karl swapped with me and quickly recovered. ¡°Good job,¡± he praised with a grunt, ¡°Next time, though, go one arm at a time. Lets you react faster and won''t delay you much, what with all our Dexterity.¡± I silently watched Karl completely dismantle the horse in seconds, chopping into critical points with precision and force that I wouldn''t have been able to replicate if the thing had been completely still, much less with it bucking and writhing against me like Karl was doing. You know, for a dragon, you''re much better at using a human body to fight than I''d expect, I commented as Karl finished up the fight by jabbing a Katar through the horse¡¯s neck and into its skull. Karl handed my body back over, then replied, It''s less about combat experience and more about mixing instinct with knowledge. Human fighters train themselves for decades to align their instincts with efficient, deady movement. I have much less experience with your body than they might, but I do have more knowledge and overall battle intelligence. I shrugged as he ventured out of my body to absorb the soul of the weird horse thing. Now that I got a better look at it, the ears and eyes were both facing forwards, and its mouth was slimmer and sharper than it had any right to be. ¡°I just mean I figured you''d probably mostly respond with overwhelming force and literal firepower, rather than all the careful precision you show with my body.¡± A dragon''s body is large and unwieldy. For us, at least as we grow to the size of mountains, precision means not accidentally flapping our wings hard enough to flatten kingdoms.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I thought about that for a second. ¡°So, it''s like resistance training, kind of? You''ve been doing things the hard way for so long that now, with a smaller, more fluidly moving body, you''re already an expert?¡± There''s a bit more to it than that but yes. Your own knowledge of your body also assists me. You are capable of many of the same things that I am, you simply doubt your movements, exhibit far too much caution for fear of hurting yourself, and most of all, need more experience. I grimaced. ¡°Yeah, I''d really rather just let you do all the fighting, if that''s okay.¡± Karl laughed uproariously. You may not always have that choice, boy, but for now I''ll let it slide. Dragging the well-beaten horse through the hallway was a bit annoying. No matter how I tried to carry it, it kept bumping into the walls. Eventually, though, I got it to the gate, where the guy at the register was staring in shock. ¡°Mind letting me through?¡± I raised an eyebrow. He continued to stare for a second, then quickly rushed over to unlock and raise the gate for me, staring in awe as I dragged the huge beast behind me. We exchanged no words past that. He was too busy gawking and I was too busy not caring what he had to say. Karl and I then faced an interesting conundrum. There was no way this thing was going to fit in the trunk. You could chop it into several pieces and arrange them to make better use of the space, Karl helpfully suggested. ¡°No thanks.¡± I instead started digging around beneath the goblins corpses and, to my relief, found rope. Putting the thing on top of the car would probably cause the roof to cave in, even if I was gentle. I could, however¡­ ¡°You know, they say there''s no point in beating a dead horse, but I wonder what they''d say about dragging one across several miles of asphalt?¡± I chuckled to myself. It stopped being funny the second I got in my car and realized how slowly I''d need to take the turns and how garbage my acceleration was. It continued to be unfunny when I stopped driving and was left having to carry the thing¡¯s half flayed body to the back yard. Figuring that I''d make things easier on myself, I first went back and started digging a mass grave. At this point, I was nearly out of room in my backyard and would have to expand. I did, however, possess the space to bury the beefcake of a horse and the goblins Karl had slain earlier. The process only grew smoother and smoother as time passed, the Garden working with me to fuel their own growth. I hosed some blood off my upper body so as not to scare Olive and headed inside. Karl and I weren''t quite done with the day, but we''d had to unload anyways so I figured making a pit stop wouldn''t hurt. Olive was sitting on the couch, watching something on her phone. ¡°Doomscrolling?¡± I guessed. ¡°No, actually.¡± She turned her phone around, showing some anime characters. ¡°I figure now''s as good a time as any to start catching up on Second Part.¡± I blinked at her. ¡°Isn''t that over a thousand episodes long?¡± ¡°Yup!¡± She grinned. ¡°I''ve never been able to get enough time to binge it¨C three hundred and sixty hours is a hard ask¨C but the end of the world as we know it is a wonderful excuse!¡± She seemed surprisingly¡­ cheerful. ¡°Alright,¡± I said with a resigned tone, ¡°Just make sure you eat, sleep, and drink enough. I don''t want to have to bury you out back.¡± Her face paled a bit, but the smile remained plastered on her face. ¡°You got it, boss man.¡± I furrowed my eyebrows at her. ¡°There''s some ice cream in the freezer if yo¨C¡± Before I even finished the sentence, Olive dashed into the kitchen and started rummaging around in the freezer. I followed, grabbing a microwave burrito and quickly shoving it in. Then a thought came to my mind. ¡°Hey, what are you going to do if the Internet goes out again?¡± Olive paused from her gremlin-esque I''ve cream hunt¨C apparently I''d done a poor job at putting things away in a reasonable fashion¨C and stared into the distance. ¡°I''ll download the series, just to be sure,¡± she said with far less energy than before. Then she ripped the tub of ice cream out of the freezer, popped it open, and took a big lick. ¡°Mine, you no touchy!¡± She kicked the freezer shut and practically threw herself across the room and onto the couch. I just stared. ¡°Forgetting something?¡± I pulled a spoon out of the utensils drawer. ¡°Nope!¡± She took another lick straight from the carton. This is an odd one, Captain Karl Obvious interjected. ¡°Alright, I''m gonna head back out.¡± I took a big bite of my burrito and threw a quick wave in her direction. Seconds later, I was standing outside staring at my car. Where to next? ¡°To be honest? Not sure. We haven''t gotten a single Skill up today, which puts us a bit behind schedule. Any ideas to better use our newer stuff?¡± I was, of course, referring to Devouring Phantasm and Avatar Reinforcement¡¯s new additions. One seemed entirely passive, and the other let me set stuff on fire. ¡­I may have a thought. ¡°Well, let''s hear it. Better than sitting here thinking instead of doing.¡± We''ll see about that.
It was, in fact, not better than thinking up a new plan. I''d been immediately suspicious when Karl asked me to grab all the chip bags and google the nearest apiary. My suspicions were confirmed when he had me kick one of the hives. I swatted my limbs around wildly like¡­ well, like I was getting mobbed by bees. Relax. They''re not making it through the barrier, and they catch fire and die the second they touch it. He metaphysically grabbed my body and forced me to stay still, instantly halting my ¡°Oh no there''s bees here¡± dance and slowing down my heart rate. Now sit down. Criss cross. I quickly moved to follow his instructions, like I was in a yoga class and the teacher was moving way too fast. Close your eyes. ¡°But the¨C¡± one of the bees flew into my mouth, forcing me to spit out a charred bee husk. Your Skill mentioned that it grants you an aspect of whatever Echo you utilize as your Avatar. You possess the aspect of a dragon, boy. Not just any dragon, either, but my aspect. Now act like it! My mouth snapped shut, my eyelids flicked down, and I did my utmost to immerse myself in the idea of a dragon. They were big. They had scales. They breathed fire. They could fl¨C Not like that, you idiot. You must think like a dragon! The bees buzzed and hummed all around me. It was more than just one colony, too. The others had flown over to join the assault when, in my panic to escape the first army, I''d accidentally knocked over an entire row of them. What was Karl trying to teach me? What would a dragon even think here? I focused on a point deep within my mind, the place where Karl¡¯s Echo spoke from, the place where his ethereal being interacted with my physical mind. I approached it, and it appeared in the shape of an egg¨C small and vulnerable, everything that Karl was not¨C and tapped into that. I had once wondered why Karl''s mind seemed so intact. My Skill only promised to draw in memories related to the word I spoke, after all. Power. I''d been trying to extract as much strength from the dead dragon as I could at the time, but I couldn''t have possibly grasped how perfectly suited it was. Power was all Karl had ever known. From the moment he hatched, he had seen it¨C true, unstoppable power. Unending fire, unyielding scales, claws that could rend the heavens themselves. He had known instantly that his fate led in only one direction. From that moment on, his entire existence was devoted to the singular pursuit of might. He died a few times, but that was to be expected. Perfection cannot not be achieved without torching a few villages, as the saying went. Many dragons spent their time napping to passively accumulate power without risk. Karl was not one of those dragons. Every moment was spent hunting, perfecting his technique, gathering resources, making connections with dragons in high places. And then it happened. Eventually, he achieved the mantle of an Ancient Dragon, a being capable of rivalling the gods thems¨C What are you doing in there?! A shockwave sent me back to myself. ¡°I, uhh¨C¡± Nevermind, just concentrate, Karl commanded with a note of anger. I tapped into the feelings I''d just read from Karl''s past. Power of all kinds. Lethality. Invulnerability. That last one stuck out especially. Insects like these could never harm a dragon, not if they were given a million years and a million hives. And yet these mere thousands thought they could hurt me? My eyes flicked open and I watched a wave of flame roll out in all directions, torching the grass and reducing the entire swarm to crisps in an instant.
Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 7) ¡ú (Lv. 8)
+3 Mana Recovery +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility)
Now that¡¯s some dragonfire! I blinked, returning to myself. ¡°What was that?¡± Clearly, you burned everything in our surroundings, Karl pointed out helpfully. ¡°No duh,¡± I retorted, ¡°What actually happened?¡± My aspect doesn¡¯t just ¡°set things on fire.¡± The dragon scoffed. That would be far too simple for one such as I. ¡°Can you just get to the point and tell me what happened?¡± Fine. Your ability is closer to actual dragonfire than we¡¯d thought, though with some differences. For one, it can emanate from any part of you, but it¡¯s not quite as hot as it would be from a true dragon. ¡°So, I¡¯m hearing that my fire magic is a bit better than it was before. I have range now?¡± That could be useful, especially now that Olive had the gun. Karl harrumphed. That is a drastic oversimplification of what just happened. ¡°But is it wrong?¡± Factually? No. But if words could be harmed, those would be dragged straight to the abyss by yours truly. I raised a hand to one of the beehives that hadn¡¯t been destroyed by the initial blast and willed fire to exit my hand. Nothing happened. I frowned. ¡°Am I doing something wrong?¡± I felt Karl¡¯s eyes roll. What were you doing the first time you conjured the flames? How did that influence it? ¡°Ohh, okay.¡± I sunk into my mind and tried to conjure that vicious self-assurance from before. It was harder this time. Maybe because my heart wasn¡¯t really in it. Was that all it was? The heart? ¡°Karl, which organ produces dragonfire?¡± Technically, dragonfire is produced by a gland in the throat, it¡¯s a liquid until it interacts with oxygen, which causes it to undergo a powerful thermal reaction. The pressure that causes the dragonfire to escape the gland, however, is a matter of blood pressure rather than muscle. That¡¯s why it usually takes a moment to charge¨C the heart needs to pump powerfully enough to cause it to escape with velocity. We dragons can alter our own blood pressure and heart rate at will, though. TL;DR, yes. It was the heart. I focused on the intact beehive once more, taking deep breaths and pouring all of my will into the action, imagining it reduced to a crisp before me. A few seconds passed, but I held to my conviction, trusting that Avatar Reinforcement would do its job. It did. A blast of fire flew from my hand¨C smaller than I¡¯d been hoping, but it did happen, which was a win in my books. The hive didn¡¯t instantly reduce to ashes like I¡¯d wanted, but it did catch fire and burn to the ground over a few minutes. My Mana had drained significantly just from that one wimpy fireball, but I would get better with time. Karl and I watched the flames with satisfaction. It will be good to have true dragonfire in my arsenal once again, he commented wistfully. ¡°I¡¯m sure it will, man.¡± I stretched out, hearing something in my back pop as I did. ¡°I think that¡¯s good enough for today. We didn¡¯t pull ahead of the counter, but we kept pace and that¡¯s good enough for me.¡± I got the impression of a nod from my Eidolon, and soon we were driving home with little in the way of progress, but much in the way of hope. Chapter 11: Father/Son Bonding The next morning went much the same as the one before. Olive somehow got up before me to make breakfast, Karl and I got geared up for the day, and we set out to look for things to kill. Karl, apparently emboldened by the return of his fire, thought that we should go on an extended hunting trip and trek through the land by foot, but I quickly countered that there wouldn¡¯t be many monsters there since there were basically no people. Then he suggested that we go into the woods, and I firmly disagreed, reminding him that, again, there wouldn¡¯t be as many spawns to kill, and we¡¯d risk burning down the entire forest with our new ability that both of us were dying to test out in a real fight. In the end, we just started patrolling the suburbs. With eight percent Mana Density, goblin bands were extremely easy to spot. Even if fifteen of them were hidden¨C which wasn¡¯t the case anyways¨C just one of them with its foot poking out in the wrong place meant it¡¯d get spotted by Karl. That was how we caught the first group. I¡¯d seen absolutely nothing, but Karl had me stop in the middle of the road. It had seemed perfectly normal, at least until I noticed that the spikes behind the rose bush weren¡¯t part of an oddly-placed decorative fence. They were just spears. Karl grabbed the controller and tore out of the car, already charging up a blast of dragonfire. The goblins realized something was wrong, possibly from sensing the Mana in the air, but they weren¡¯t fast enough to completely avoid the wall of flame that engulfed them. With seven goblins completely taken out of the fight from the very start and a further three heavily injured, the remainder of the battle went by quickly. Six goblins was nothing to my stats and Skills, and was hardly worth noticing when you factored in Karl¡¯s overwhelming skill at completely dismantling just about everything we came across. Absorbing the entire group¡¯s Echoes had netted us nothing, but I checked on my thick, juicy numbers anyways.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+29) Mana: 18 (+35)
Dexterity: 5 (+11) Mana Regen: 19 (+19)
Connection: 7 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 6), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 8)
Quests: Reintegration (8%), Impossible Task (5/10) (0/1)
¡°Oh, hey, our Connection went up again. That¡¯s enough proof for me to put my faith in the idea that it¡¯s based on Skill levels,¡± I noted, ¡°The only question is, how do we increase the level of Devouring Phantasm if all its new ability does is buff other stuff?¡± Hmmm, Karl hummed in thought, Perhaps we should take its ¡°Connection¡± more seriously? I raised an eyebrow. ¡°You want to open up to one another? Get real intimate with it?¡± He scoffed. You¡¯ve already delved into my mind without my consent, twice unintentionally and once consciously. Why not one more time? ¡°And connections go two ways, so I suppose I should do the same for you?¡± I was a bit nervous about letting Karl into my memories, but there were more important things on the line than my anxiety. For example, saving the world from descending gods and nightmare-fueling monstrosities. ¡°Let¡¯s do that when we¡¯re in a safer place, yeah?¡± Indeed, Karl agreed readily. We quickly threw the goblin corpses into the back of my car, which was already looking a bit cramped. That wasn¡¯t the only troop of goblins we ran into. We ended up slaughtering several groups, in fact, but none pushed my Skills in any ways, so after stuffing my car up to the ceiling in green corpses we headed back home, where I drove around the corner and dug a hole back behind my yard, guessing that there wouldn¡¯t be enough room within the fence line to continue expanding my Echo Garden. Putting up new fences, further out, would be an interesting idea, but I hopefully wouldn¡¯t have the time. In the best case scenario, Karl and I would be able to hop worlds in just a few days. Of course, that depended on the level of success we had in leveling up Devouring Phantasm. With that in mind, I sat on the concrete of my back porch and consulted Karl on how to access each other¡¯s minds. It is likely possible, before, you didn¡¯t gain anything because your intrusions were nonconsensual, he explained, sending me a violated feeling that was laced by mirth and a small amount of lingering irritation. This time, I hope that the willing, two-way mental link will provide better experience for your Skill. I nodded, agreeing with the logic. ¡°And how do I actually¡­ open up?¡± Do you remember what you did before? To access my memories? ¡°Yeah, I think so.¡± Do that again. And when you feel me invading your mind, don¡¯t fight back. I paused for a second. ¡°I can do that¡­ But you promise that you won¡¯t try to invade my mind and take over as the main host or anything?¡± Karl laughed piteously. And do what? With your mind tainting my interactions, I¡¯d be far too sensitive to human death to go on a killing spree, and I¡¯d lack your Skills, thus halting me forever at the Attributes I currently possess. In addition, I believe our previous agreement covers this. However, I will do this for you. I swear by my name and all that I am that I will not do anything untoward to your mind while delving within. ¡°I, uh, swear the same? Thank you.¡± Now let¡¯s get to the actual work. You approach me first. Doing as he asked, I focused on my connection with the draconic Echo, venturing across our connection and seeking out the dragon egg that I¡¯d encountered before. This time, though, it was¡­ broken. Empty. I approached nonetheless, and was embraced by the mind of Karlisifixois the Great Devourer. But for just a moment, things¡­ paused. My delve into Karl¡¯s mind was paused by none other than Karl himself. I felt him within my own brain, and my immediate reaction was a hostile rejection of the invasion. I quickly stopped myself from rejecting the connection entirely, slowly and painfully opening the gates of who I was to the Echo. It felt wrong. It felt disgusting. It was as though I was willingly walking in front of a firing squad. But I did it. And then the connection truly began.
Kenny¡¯s mind was wild and untamable, confusion lacing every thought as he¨C wait, no. That¡¯s wrong. I¡¯m Kenny. Am I? Who even is Kenny? That¡¯s ME. For a moment, the thought felt firm and unshakeable, but then a mountain of memories crashed into him. Jumbled into a wild mess, first came Kenny¡¯s hatching, followed quickly by Karl¡¯s trouble at school. Then, Karl¡¯s first true flight¨C when he managed to lift himself fully from the ground. Kenny¡¯s father, larger than any hill or mountain he¡¯d ever laid eyes on, leaned in and whispered lovingly, ¡°You are more important than your problems.¡± Karl reeled momentarily. His parents had never been that soft! Nor were they covered in scales! Their skin had been pink and fleshy, like that of the other weak, mortal meat. Their wings had been¡­ they¡¯d been¡­ Feathers? No, that wasn¡¯t right. Purple threads, with golden hearts hanging from the ends? It was all wrong. What was this insignificant bug within his consciousness, and why couldn''t he crush it into paste? It contained his magic, but it was¡­ wrong. Reduced. A mere Echo of what it once was, further tainted by the influence of another¨C of the bug. He raised his fist up high, preparing to smash the little scales thing¡­ wait, no. No, no no. No? Yes. The world quivered and shifted, and I found my arms wrapped tightly around a warm, hard rock. It was my rock. One day, it would grow into the greatest of all rocks! Karlisifixois threw a fist at the boy for daring to mock him. He leapt onto the child, tearing at his eyes, biting into his flesh, slaughtering and devouring the livestock, as it deserved. Then he was in the car with his father, whose eyes shifted from blue to red, over and over and over, and I couldn''t tell which was right and which was wrong or why my father''s claws weren''t slicing the puny car wheel into ribbons. I was cuddled up with Mom, her warm fire breath warming my back and reducing me to ash. I gasped, clutching my head in agony as my mountain dropped on my house and transformed into my cave, within which I hid my pride and joy, my sweet girl¨C no. What was her name? What was Xina¡¯s name, and why couldn''t I remember it? Was it Emily? No, no, that was his mother''s name. Kenny the Great Devourer¡¯s mother. She looked¡­ she looked like¡­ she was tall, with big blue eyes and a small nose and horns the size of the front door and a tail made of golden hair and¨C Stop, I begged in agony. Stop, he confirmed. MORE, the dice insisted. Massive hands reached out and grabbed me, lifting my into the air before roughly setting me back down, breaking my legs. He wanted to scream, to cry, to just move, but he was petrified. I would move no more. The dice came, bowling into his statuesque self and shattering him into a thousand pieces before I flew off the table and everything went black. Then purple. Then blue.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Then red. And back to black. He turned, and it was the sun. He was suffocating. He didn''t need to breathe anymore, that was beneath a mighty Ancient¡­ Ancient what? He froze solid and his lungs exploded. ¡­You promise..? ¡°I swear by my name and all that I am¡­¡± I¨C the same swear, I do. The dragon was short, green, and wore a tan robe. He spoke only in riddles, but held great wisdom and knowledge that he would do well to learn from. The dragon¡¯s name was¡­ it was¡­ Karl. Karl¡­ there was something else. What was it? Bert? Karl Bert? No, no. That was wrong. ¡°Bert Kenny, the green man spoke,¡± the green man spoke. Bert Kenny¡­ ¡°That''s me!¡± I exclaimed. And you''re Karl. When they ask you if you can fix it, you say ¡°Yes We Can!¡± The dragon frowned in shame and I drowned in flame. Then I shot the dragon seventeen times in the chest with my special wand. The wand shop owner had called it a gun and promised that it could cast any spells I wanted it to, but so far the only one''s I''d managed were the instant kill and the suggestion curses. Then he was a rock. No, he was inside one. He wiggled inside his comfy, warm rock, and then horror dawned upon him. His cave collapsed around him, and his comfy rock was no more. He wept. I wept. The two spider-brain-things wept. Then they exploded, killing both of us with bolts of lightning through the skulls.
His eyes hurt. Wait, no. My eyes hurt. I was¡­ Kenny. Kenny Bert. I pulled up the magic papers to prove it.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+29) Mana: 21 (+35)
Dexterity: 5 (+11) Mana Regen: 19 (+19)
Connection: 7 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 7), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 8)
Quests: Reintegration (8%), Impossible Task (6/10) (0/1)
I was going to clap, but then I felt something in my head wiggle and forgot why. Before I figured out how to spin my eyes around and investigate the inside of my skull, a woman slammed open a door and screamed. It hurts. That hurts. I''m glad we''re in agreement, voice in my head. Me too. We''re going to be the best of friends. ¡°Kenny, are you alright??¡± The woman rushed towards me. She reminded me of a fruit, but I couldn''t tell which one. Or was it even a fruit? Yes, olives were a fruit. Oh! ¡°Olive?¡± I jerked my head backwards into the concrete, having forgotten how his voice sounded. Wasn''t it supposed to be deeper? Scratchier? ¡°No, that''s my voice,¡± My own mouth whispered. True to its words, it was deeper. And scratchier. ¡°Kenny, are you alright?¡± I stared at her in confusion. ¡°No? I''m Kenny. Did you forget my name in the middle of your sentence?¡± She ran a hand through the rat on her head. Wait, no. That was fur. Really, really long fur. I touched my own head and was relieved to find that my head fur was much shorter. That mattered, for some reason. ¡°I''m bringing you inside, I think you have a concussion.¡± I looked around wildly. ¡°Where is it?? I''ll kill it!¡± She bent down and picked me up. I tried to resist, but for some reason my body wouldn''t react. Wait, was I just a brain spider? No, I''d touched my head with my hand and felt my hair¨C oh, that was the word. Hair. And I had eyes. And a mouth. Wait, what was a brain spider again? I couldn''t remember. Then I felt tired. Sleepy time.
Why does everything hurt? I asked the giant dragon in front of me. Because everything got hurt, it answered simply. I squinted, and felt a powerful urge to call it Captain Karl Obvious, but I knew that wasn''t his name so I resisted. You''re Karl. And you''re Kenny. We are¡­ One.
I woke up to a screen in my face.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+29) Mana: 24 (+35)
Dexterity: 5 (+11) Mana Regen: 19 (+19)
Connection: 7 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 8), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 8)
Quests: Reintegration (9%), Impossible Task (7/11) (0/1)
¡°Oh, hey, look. It worked,¡± I told Karl, turning to find that Karl was, in fact, not there. I''m only in your head, Kenny. Sorry, I forgot. Olive stared at me with a strange mix of worry and fear. ¡°Are you¡­ okay?¡± She asked carefully. I rolled out of bed and popped up into my feet. ¡°Sure, why do you ask?¡± She hesitated. ¡°The last time you woke up¡­ you tried to throw a fireball at me.¡± I frowned and crossed my arms. ¡°I don''t remember that.¡± She pointed at the closet, where a charred hole gave me a good view into the darkness beyond. ¡°I had to run around the entire house to find a fire extinguisher, Kenny.¡± Huh, maybe I did do that. ¡°Guess that was pretty concerning, huh?¡± She glared at me. ¡°I thought you''d had an aneurysm.¡± I scratched the back of my neck. ¡°Honestly? I might''ve. Don''t really know for sure. Just kind of went crazy for a bit there.¡± ¡°Well don''t do it again!¡± She crossed her arms and pouted at me. ¡°No promises. Anyways, I''ve gotta go get some more levels, so I''ll see you¨C¡± She grabbed my collar and pulled back, choking me lightly and preventing me from moving forward. ¡°You are going to get back in bed and heal.¡± ¡°Sorry ma''am, no can do, monsters to kill, levels to gain, and worlds to save.¡± She rolled her eyes. ¡°The job of saving the world doesn''t land on your shoulders. Let the government fix it or something.¡± I felt something in me go cold. ¡°Oh yeah? Which one? Tell me which government can kill a God. Go ahead, I''ll wait.¡± She sputtered, ¡°Well, I-I mean, we don''t know that they''re really¨C¡± ¡°Do we know they''re not?¡± I interjected. ¡°I don''t know if you''ve personally seen any monsters or gotten into any fights with them yet, but I''ve been doing it a lot. I''m sure you''ve at least seen about the goblins on the Internet. ¡°On day one, two spawned in each group. With each day that passes, that number goes up by another two. By the time this is over, a single spawning of goblins will pull an army of two hundred through. The military¡¯s fully engaged in a war against monsters spawning in our own country, and it''s a losing battle. Our men, our bullets, our bombs, they''ll all run out eventually. You know what won''t?¡± By this point, I was in Olive¡¯s face, my pure frustration at the situation being vented in her. I backed off. ¡°My point is, someone needs to master this stuff, the magic and all. Someone needs to use and abuse this System until they''re able to make this chaos stop for good. It might as well be me.¡± She stood there awkwardly, shaking a little. ¡°I''m so¨C¡± ¡°Nope, don''t finish that,¡± I ordered. ¡°Go chill on the couch, watch Second Part, and eat your ice cream, or whatever else you can find. This is my task. System gave me a quest for it and everything,¡± I revealed. ¡°I''m going to go grind now. I''ll see you later.¡± I turned and matched away, heading out back since that was where I''d left the car. That was harsh of you. ¡°Now you speak up,¡± I chuckled to myself. ¡°Did you notice that we got two levels from all that?¡± I did indeed. Very interesting. Do you recall that, when you woke the first time, it was only one level? I paused. ¡°Actually I''d completely forgotten about that until now. That''s¡­ odd.¡± The first experience shattered our minds completely and mashed them together, leaving us to pick up the pieces and put them back together like a puzzle. I believe the only reason we avoided being thrown out of that strange space early and losing pieces of ourselves was the barrier from Avatar Reinforcement. It protected your physical brain, where both our spirits are tied. In that shared dream, after our minds were smashed together like a child¡¯s toys, we were able to resort our minds back into their proper orientations. ¡°So, if we tried that without the barrier, or perhaps at a lower level than it is now¡­¡± I trailed off. We probably would have lost much more than a bit of sanity. I shuddered. ¡°Are you missing any obvious memories? I do not believe so, the dragon said ponderously, tell me what you remember from my memories and we''ll see if one of us got some of the wrong pieces. ¡°If I''m understanding things right, you had a¡­ kid? An egg, at least. Xina, I think? That might be wrong.¡± Karl didn''t speak for a long, long moment. Yes, yes. I had a daughter coming, once. The mountain collapsed on her and her mother. ¡°I''m sorry, big guy. Some things make more sense now.¡± It has been a millennia, but the wound remains sore. I believe it will never heal. After her death, the other Ancient Dragons blamed me. She was under my charge, and I let her die. That is why I am so¡­ weak, now. All my life I sought power, and when I finally found a reason for all that strength, it proved insufficient. ¡°The other dragons killed you?¡± Repeatedly. I am in ¡°exile,¡± or at least a form of it. If my location becomes known to the Ancients, I will die. I shut up and let him have a moment, sitting in the driver''s seat of the car and just thinking. I hadn''t expected him to have such a rough backstory, but I supposed it made sense. He was old. Possibly older than everyone who had ever lived on Earth combined. I remember your father. And your mother. I didn''t respond, the words failing me. I know you had trouble expressing yourself, and that you didn''t have many friends as a child. ¡°...Yeah.¡± I am sorry that you had to face that. ¡°It''s fine.¡± You cannot lie to me, Kenny Bert. I took a deep breath. ¡°I still needed him, y''know?¡± My voice cracked slightly, and I hated myself for it. ¡°My dad. He was¡­ everything. My only friend. The only teacher who knew how to listen to me. I just¡­ I wish I could see him again.¡± I felt something between the two of us churn, and then¡­
Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 8) ¡ú (Lv. 9)
+3 Mana +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility) +1 Skill Realignment
Strength or Dexterity or Mana or Mana Regen
¡°Really? Now?¡± I wiped at my nose with my arm. Karl laughed wetly. ¡°What even is this?¡± I glared at the window as if to make it disappear. ¡°Skill Realignment?¡± It''s a bit of a gamble. Whatever Attribute you pick is what it will focus around when you upgrade your Role, and it will make said Role lean further in the direction of that Attribute. Additionally, at level ten, in the Skill, you will receive five of the selected Attribute, rather than ¡°Does it do anything¡­ now?¡± It sounded a bit worthless for the near future. No, but when your role is upgraded the Skill will have a similar effect but with a different use case. For example, a fireball Skill realigned to Strength may become something more like a ¡°Fire Fist.¡± Or something else. It truly depends on the Role you select. ¡°Any suggestions?¡± The safest bet is to leave it as it is, but I fear that your current route may lead you down a path dedicated to necromancy or occultism. Such Roles are hunted openly in many realms. I stared down my choices, considering the effects each might have. ¡°What''s the difference between Mana and Mana Regen here?¡± Both will lean into a more mystical path, but Mana will be more likely to produce instant spells or Skills with high costs, whereas Mana Regen is more likely to create constant spells or magical effects that last over time. ¡°So, both of my Skills are pretty good examples of what Realignment looks like. What if I go Strength or Dexterity?¡± Both will increase the likelihood of the Skill becoming more physical in nature. Strength often represents raw physicality, bloodlust, and great power. Spell-type Skills Realigned to Strength are more likely to empower physical blows or defences. On the other hand, Dexterity is grace, lethality, and a dagger in the dark. If you were to switch one of your current abilities to Dexterity, you would most likely see them transform into movement-based abilities or kill triggers, that is, things that happen only when you kill creatures while the Skill is active. I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Is that last option common?¡± I believe it would be the most likely for your own Skills, considering their link to death. ¡°One last question, then. Would changing Devouring Phantasm mean losing you?¡± I felt a shake in the negative. Unlikely. Your Echoes are bound to you specifically, not your Skill. You may lose the ability to interact with me as you do now should you select a new Role, but if you choose well your next Role should allow it. I selected Dexterity. Nothing happened. Wise choice. I would have done the same, Karl praised. I started the car. ¡°Karl?¡± Yes? ¡°You''re not a bad guy.¡± Thank you, Kenny. Chapter 12: Just Three More Levels To achieve the most optimal Role Advancement you can, you will need one more level in Devouring Phantasm and two more in Avatar Reinforcement. It is my recommendation that we tackle Avatar Reinforcement first. ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± I queried. I do not know what we will have to do to meet Devouring Phantasm¡¯s next requirement, but we would have lost ourselves in our Connection if not for the time granted to us by your barrier, he explained. ¡°That¡¯s fair. Any specific type of training you¡¯d like to try out, or just go punch some monsters?¡± Yes and yes. ¡°Huh? That¡¯s not very descriptive.¡± You, and I do mean you, will punch monsters, yes, but not with your fists. I frowned. ¡°Karl, I¡¯m not as good at using the katars as you are, I¨C¡± You will punch them with fire, Karl finished. ¡°...You have my attention.¡± I wish to test the extent of my aspect¡¯s effects on you. As we grow, dragons become capable of more and more magic. The production of dragonfire¡¯s catalyst is fueled by Mana, though it is a biological trait inherent within us dragons. We have a natural affinity to all magic, but especially fire magic. I want to watch you manipulate fire. ¡°...I really don¡¯t think I can do that, man.¡± Summoning dragonfire had been hard enough, and that was something dragons could do from, what, birth? Karl¡¯s presence within my mind suddenly gained a certain weight to it. Are you aware of what summoning dragonfire as a mortal means? ¡°Uh¡­¡± Was it something special that only dragons were supposed to do? ¡°No.¡± You replicated something inherent within us dragons with pure Mana. Kenny, I cannot do that. All dragons use dragonfire in one way and one way only¨C they fire it out as a breath attack. A bit of cold sweat dripped down my back. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not that impressive, it¡¯s just the Skill, y¡¯know?¡± I felt my Echo friend glare at me. No. Setting objects you touch alight was ¡°just the Skill,¡± with only a bit of encouragement and instruction from me¨C which, by the way, was all made up in the moment¨C you bound your mindset, Mana, and heartbeat together to produce true dragonfire. ¡°You must think like a dragon!¡± Did you really think that meant anything at all? I had no expectations that you¡¯d succeed, I only hoped you would gain a level in the Skill. ¡°So¡­ now you¡¯re going to try to shove magic down my throat as well?¡± Any other mortal would be overjoyed at the opportunity to receive tutelage from a dragon as experienced as I! ¡°Give me a list,¡± I told him with my blandest tone possible. Excuse me? ¡°I want a list of the magic you can teach me, and then I want to pick.¡± ¡­Fine. During my time as an Ancient Dragon, I was renowned for my mastery in a number of manipulation Skills, including Fire, Sin, Hellfire, Light, Divine Fire, Space, Dimensional, and Oblivion manipulation. I grinned. ¡°That¡¯s actually a great selection. Which one would you say is the coolest?¡± Karl grumbled. By your standards? Most likely Oblivion. ¡°Then I pick that one,¡± I said with a grin. Are you sure? Karl asked. It¡¯s the most difficult to master by far. ¡°Absolutely, gimme.¡± A second passed. Then another. And then Karl started laughing. ¡°What?¡± I asked with a frown. ¡°Did I do something wrong?¡± You walked right into my trap is what you did. What knowledge do you think is required to learn Oblivion manipulation? ¡°Oh no.¡± The first and easiest of the prerequisites? Fire manipulation. I scowled. ¡°You were gonna teach me that first no matter what, weren¡¯t you?¡± It is the one dragons have the easiest time with, and it is the least dangerous to fail with. Of course I would test your aptitude with a dragon¡¯s bread and butter first. ¡°This is abuse.¡± No one will ever believe you, Karl informed me with a supervillain-esque tone. For all they know, I¡¯m just a figment of your imagination, and you¡¯re out of your mind. ¡°Fine, whatever, just teach me the magic already.¡± He¡¯d already had me head to a nearby pond for what were now obvious reasons. If I somehow set myself on fire through my barrier, I¡¯d be able to douse the flames before they could cause any real damage. Criss cross, he instructed. ¡°You already told me that everything you said was garbage, I¡¯m not doing that.¡± That part wasn¡¯t. It helps you focus, and aligns your Mana Veins. ¡°I seriously doubt that, and I don¡¯t even know what those are.¡± You will find out soon, Karl said mysteriously. I dropped into a seated position in the grass. ¡°Happy now?¡± Very. Now stretch your arms straight in front of you with your palms forward. And before you start questioning if I know what I¡¯m doing, don¡¯t forget that in addition to my vast wealth of personal experience with magic, I was once a scholar specializing in magical research, including that of the human body. I grumbled under my breath, but did as he asked anyway. Now close your eyes and picture your heart. Using your heart as a focus for your casting worked with dragonfire, so it should work. I imagined the heart within my chest, beating at a steady rhythm. Now, picture a flame hidden within your heart. Imagine that, with each pulse of your heart, it grows larger and larger. I did as he asked, and felt a sudden case of literal heartburn. Do not lose focus, Karl commanded. I pushed all my focus onto the flame within my heart, rapidly growing to fill all the available space. ¡°It¡¯s¨C too much,¡± I grunted. It is critical that you do not release it! Imagine your arteries and veins¨C push the flame through them. Not all at once, but slowly. It should follow through the stream of your blood. I did as he asked, and the pain immediately reduced, warmth rapidly spreading through my entire body. Imagine it gathering within your hands, right in front of your palms, and clasp them around the flame loosely. You don¡¯t want to smother it, but you don¡¯t want it to escape. I moved my palms into a ball, trying my best to follow along with the instructions. The heat from my body slowly reduced and gathered at a single point¨C my hands. Then, even that was reduced, but I still felt it tingling gently against my skin. Now open your eyes, Karl instructed with a smug voice. Within my hands was a ball of flame, hovering in midair. It didn¡¯t burn me, and it didn¡¯t go out either. It was¡­ Eye-opening, isn¡¯t it? ¡°Lame. I can already shoot fire out of my fists. Hate to break it to ya, bud, but dragonfire is way cooler than this.¡± Karl spluttered in disbelief. What?! No. You don¡¯t get to disrespect real magic like this. You¡¯re going to hold that ball in your hands and walk into the lake. ¡°Uhh, no thanks? I¡¯d rather not get wet.¡± My legs suddenly started moving of their own volition, and I scowled at them. ¡°Traitors.¡± Step after step. Every time I thought Karl was about to stop walking, he just took another step. Then I was chest-deep in water and my flame had completely extinguished. ¡°Very cool, man. Now I¡¯m wet and there¡¯s no fire magic. Quite possibly the most mature reaction I¡¯ve ever laid eyes upon.¡± I¡¯m trying to teach you a lesson, Karl sighed. What if I told you that there¡¯s a way to keep that fire burning under the water? I raised an eyebrow. ¡°I think I¡¯d probably say I don¡¯t believe you.¡± It¡¯s true. Would you like to try it? ¡°...Fine, but if you¡¯re lying to me I¡¯m just not going to do the whole magic thing.¡± No lies, but it may take a few tries. ¡°Even the flies, with a burger and fries?¡± What? ¡°Nothing.¡±Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Just get out of the water already. ¡°Oh, right.¡± I hurriedly shuffled back to shore, then lit myself on fire with Avatar Reinforcement to quickly dry off. That ability is a cheat and when you lose it you will be crying if you don¡¯t have magic to fall back on. I furrowed my eyebrows. ¡°If you¡¯re expecting me to lose the ability, but you want me to practice magic with it anyways? That sounds like it¡¯s going to screw me even more.¡± You will possess the theoretical and practical knowledge to perform all of the spells I teach you even after the loss of Avatar Reinforcement, you will simply need to practice more afterwards to regain your skill. ¡°Will I still be able to conjure dragonfire?¡± Most likely not. ¡°That¡¯s lame.¡± That¡¯s life, boy. Sometimes obtaining power means abandoning that which you know in favor of that which possesses far more potential, Karl warned. ¡°You know, I¡¯ve never had a girlfriend, but if I did and she said that to me I¡¯d leave her on the spot.¡± Loyalty to people is worth something, loyalty to a tool is not, he advised. ¡°You really do just spit out quotes, don¡¯t you?¡± It was getting to be a bit much, honestly. I¡¯ve had a lot of time to think of them, and you¡¯re the first person who had to listen to me. ¡°I mean, I could always just kick you out of Avatar Reinforcement,¡± I jokingly threatened. You would never. You¡¯d lose almost all of your stats, your barrier, my dragonfire, practically all of your Skills would become useless¡­ Need I continue? ¡°Jeez, man, it was just a joke,¡± I rubbed the back of my neck. I am aware, now shut up and listen. Karl proceeded to explain the exact method to produce water-ignoring flames. When he¡¯d started with ¡°Now imagine the fire as white, and empty,¡± I¡¯d almost completely dismissed the thought that this might even work, but he then instructed me to keep the flame building even as I stole power away from it. Neither of those things were that hard, but keeping all of that going while I stood up and walked around? That was where the challenge came from. Karl said that I was doing well, but I doubted it. Every time I stood up, it felt like the little white ball of fire would slowly start fading away, eventually completely winking out. But, eventually¡­ I did it. Then my dragon instructor had me walk directly into the water to test the flames out. To absolutely everyone¡¯s surprise, Karl excluded, the flames¡­ held. I walked out of the water and then dipped the little fire back in, just to make sure. It still refused to be doused. ¡°Okay, you¡¯ve gotta explain this right now.¡± A little fire like this perpetually burning beneath water was absolutely absurd, at least in these conditions. Karl was very smug. Once you¡¯ve learned the basics of manipulation magics, you can begin to replicate their effects with pure mana. What you¡¯re holding now? That is not fire. It is magic pretending to be fire. I squinted. ¡°So¡­ just changing the color of the fire does that?¡± Yes, but do not try it with any other kinds of Mana. The heart may work well as a visualization for fire, but that is due to their metaphysical compatibility in addition to your personal view of magic. That is why starting with fire was a good idea¨C there¡¯s much less difference between dragonfire and fire verses dragonfire and space. ¡°I¡­ guess that makes sense?¡± We will now continue to practice fire magic until either the sun sets or you gain a level in Avatar Reinforcement for your efforts. ¡°It¡¯s not even noon yet!¡± Oh, I am fully aware. Prepare to suffer.
Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 8) ¡ú (Lv. 9)
+3 Mana Recovery +1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility) +1 Skill Realignment
Strength or Dexterity or Mana or Mana Regen
Ah, finally, Karl celebrated the notification as I collapsed into the sand beneath my feet. I hadn¡¯t expected ¡°fire magic practice¡± to involve much in the way of physically exhausting activities, but boy was I wrong. Karl had wanted me to run across the beach again and again with different objects conjured purely from flame and held together by raw focus. To my knowledge, there wasn¡¯t even a point to the practice. Every time I¡¯d asked to know why he was having me do it, he just said, You might need it someday. That¡¯s like getting a degree in World History when your career is Construction Site Manager. Y¡¯know. Just in case. So, what do you think you¡¯ll be going with here? Karl idly gazed at the options, thinking for himself which might be best. ¡°Strength sounds nice, but I don¡¯t want a fully physical build. I¡¯m just gonna keep it as Mana Regen.¡± I mentally selected the choice. Likely a wise decision. Now, you should check your status. Not bothering to question him, I pulled up the screen.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+24) Mana: 27 (+39)
Dexterity: 5 (+12) Mana Regen: 22 (+21)
Connection: 8 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 9), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 9)
Quests: Reintegration (9%), Impossible Task (9/11) (0/1)
I nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Those are some good stats. Was there something specific you wanted me to see?¡± Yes. Please select the Impossible Task quest. ¡°Uhh¡­ alright.¡± I did as he asked.
Grand Quest: Impossible Task Requirements Updating¡­
New Grand Quest: Impossible Task
You¡¯ve agreed to do the impossible to save your world from the impending apocalypse. Requirements: Attribute Points (9/7), Ascension (0/1) Quest Reward: +1 Level to All Skills Quest Series Reward: Primary Skill Selection
My jaw dropped. ¡°Wait, what happened??¡± Had something changed such that I could get offworld¡­ early? Had the amount of ¡°Mana points¡± I needed decreased? Quests only update their requirements when you open them. I ran the math the other night. You¡¯re currently over requirements because of how much our Mana attribute has increased. The System was increasing the requirement at a rate of one Attribute Point a day, but that stopped being applicable with how high our Mana reached. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say anything? We could already be powerleveling in another world!¡± I felt Karl smirk. I didn¡¯t want you to lose motivation, and I also didn¡¯t want you to be stuck on your first Role in the next world. Now, I assume you¡¯ll want to go pick up some supplies and let Olive know that you¡¯ll be leaving? A pang of guilt went through me. I¡¯d been a complete jerk in the morning, and now I was just going to leave her for the wolves? It just didn¡¯t feel right. You¡¯re saving your world, Karl reminded me. Some sacrifices must be made. I pursed my lips and gave a quick nod. There were still a few hours before sunset, but I¡¯d prefer to get things going as soon as possible, so I immediately hopped in the car and sped off back home. There weren¡¯t any bodies nor supplies to bury or deposit, so I just quickly rushed into the house and started throwing my things together. Multiple packs of supplies, a tent, a sleeping bag, my trusty shovel, and all my weapons save the deagle, which I¡¯d be leaving with Olive. Then I stopped to chat with her. She¡¯d been hiding in my aunt¡¯s old room, so she hadn¡¯t watched me stampede through the entire house to load myself up like an abused camel, but she¡¯d certainly heard it, evidenced by her peeking out through the door just as I arrived. ¡°Kenny? Is something wrong?¡± ¡°I told you this morning I had a quest to save the world, right?¡± She blinked at me. Twice. ¡°Yeah? Did you want to give me some details on that or something?¡± I grinned. ¡°Sort of. Basically, the quest involves going to another planet¨C another realm, whatever that means. It¡¯ll help me get stronger faster, and it means I won¡¯t be restricted by the growth limit that Earth¡¯s going to be dealing with. Pretty much, I¡¯m just getting an early start on the higher scaling of a world above our tier.¡± She blinked at me three times now. That probably wasn¡¯t a good sign. ¡°I have no idea what you just said.¡± I thought for a second, then came up with a good example for her. ¡°You know those isekai stories where the protagonist ends up in another world?¡± Her eyes lit up. ¡°Oohhhh, you¡¯re getting summoned to be a hero in another world? That¡¯s sick as a brick my dude. Do you know when you¡¯re coming back? And can you take people with you?¡± ¡°Uhh,¡± my brain short-circuited. ¡°Not exactly summoned by them, more summoning myself to them. I¡¯m doing it on purpose. And then, when I¡¯m strong enough, I¡¯ll be isekai¡¯ing myself back to Earth, and then I¡¯ll actually be a hero. In theory. Does that make sense?¡± She nodded vigorously. ¡°Yup, I get it. Keep talking.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be back sometime before the Reintegration quest ends. I¡¯m not sure on the exact date, but I plan to be back before things get really bad. As for bringing people along¡­¡± Karl shook his head. ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how it works.¡± Her shoulders slumped a bit. ¡°Aw dang, I was hoping I could come along. Oh well, I hope you have fun. Do you want me to watch the house?¡± Now it was my turn to blink at her. ¡°You¡¯re awfully accepting of this.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve been reading books and watching shows with these sorts of ¡®Systems¡¯ for years. When one actually became real? Things don¡¯t really surprise me anymore.¡± ¡°Oh. That¡¯s¡­ LitRPG, yeah?¡± ¡°Yup! Loved it for a while, stopped reading for a while, but all this stuff got me reading a bit more of it before¡­ uh, y¡¯know.¡± Her smile turned a bit uncomfortable. ¡°Alright, I don¡¯t really know how this works but I¡¯m probably going to go to my¡­ garden. Yeah, my garden to do this. Wanna watch?¡± She did a little hop. ¡°You bet I do!¡± I led her out back and spent a moment pointing out where my plants were, just in case she ended up sticking around at my place for long enough to harvest them. Then, with a quick goodbye¡­ I hit the button. ¡°Nine points into Mana, please.¡±
Notice: Your Stat growth has exceeded this Realm¡¯s limit. You will now be transported to a suitable E Grade Realm.
New Grand Quest: Impossible Task
You¡¯ve agreed to do the impossible to save your world from the impending apocalypse. Requirements: Attribute Points (9/7), Ascension (0/1) Quest Reward: +1 Level to All Skills Quest Series Reward: Primary Skill Selection
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead*
Strength: 5 (+24) Mana: 27 (+39) +9 Pending
Dexterity: 5 (+12) Mana Regen: 22 (+21)
Connection: 9 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden*
Skills: Devouring Phantasm* (Lv. 10), Avatar Reinforcement* (Lv. 10)
Quests: Reintegration (9%)
Notice: You have reached the maximum level in one of your Skills. You may evolve your Role at any time, or you may wait for your other Skills to reach the maximum level to improve the quality of your Role evolution choices.
Notice: You have reached the maximum level in all of your Skills. You may evolve your Role at any time for higher quality Role evolution choices.
And then everything flashed white, and the world vanished. Chapter 13: Kenny Is Evolving!

Chapter 13: Kenny Is Evolving!

Karl and I were alone in an endless, pitch-black void where nothing happened and nothing ever changed. Karl guaranteed me that we were moving, but I had my doubts. The only thing I had to do was stare at my new Role options.
A: Ancient¡¯s Razor: All that is unclean within His sight shall be expunged.
B: Hexsoul Swordmaster: Your soul is marked, and your blade marks others in turn.
B: Recurring Deathblade: Death is a mere echo of life, and you herald its ring ever closer.
I had no clue what any of that meant. Luckily, I had a very close friend who knew¡­ basically everything. The letter to the left is the Role¡¯s Grade. You did pretty well for your first evolution: exceptional stats, left your home planet, maxed out all of your Skills, and killed a lot of things for what¡¯s intended to be a noncombat Roles. Plus, you did all of that in less than ten days. Because of this, it¡¯s offering you some Roles you normally wouldn¡¯t get offered to you until the second or third evolution. ¡°Okay, but what are these actually about?¡± I can guess from the names, but you¡¯d be better off just asking the System itself. Alright. ¡°What¡¯s an Ancient¡¯s Razor?¡±
Role Evolution: Ancient¡¯s Razor
Description: You have bound yourself to a being older than planets, stars, galaxies, and perhaps even universes. Its desires, whether those be obvious or unclear, are yours to fulfill. Its wishes, your commands. Eliminate all that stands within your God¡¯s way. Main Skill Upgrade: Might of Eternal Worship Secondary Skill Upgrade: Sacrificial Descent Secondary Skill Choices: Venerate Through Blood, Sacrifice of Viscera Passive Upgrade: Altar of Undying Reverence Passive: Thine Favor
Nope. That is not happening. I¡¯d say I like this one, but it¡¯s a bit¡­ creepy. Even for me. ¡°Yeah, sorry, but I¡¯m not taking this Role. Ever. I don¡¯t even need to look into the Skills.¡± Fair enough.
Role Evolution: Hexsoul Swordmaster
Description: Your soul is cursed in some irrevocable way, but rather than despair, you have found reason to rejoice. Your deep experience with curse and soul magics allow you to shave off pieces of your own hexed soul to inflict your own pain upon others. Main Skill Upgrade: Curse of the Fleeing Spirit Secondary Skill Upgrade: Anathemic Potency Secondary Skill Choices: Soul Slicing Blade, Curse of Spiritual Failure Passive Upgrade: Hexbloom Curse Passive: Shared Agony
I grimaced at the Role option. It was a bit¡­ Edgy. At least read through its abilities before you dismiss it entirely. ¡°Fine, fine.¡±
Curse of the Fleeing Spirit (Lv. 1)
Enemies inflicted with this curse will have their resistance to Fear-inducing effects reduced by 10% per Skill level and will be inflicted with a minor Fear effect. Furthermore, after the death of the target, its spirit will continue to flee from you, spreading Fear to all creatures it passes by.
Anathemic Potency (Lv. 1)
You can transform that which burdens you into a powerful blessing. Gain a bonus 10% to all Attributes for each soul-altering effect placed on you. Afterwards, all Attributes are reduced by 100% minus 10% per Skill level.
Soul Slicing Blade (Lv. 1)
Channel your tainted Mana into your weapon, causing it to deal damage directly to an opponent¡¯s soul, bypassing all physical and mental resistances to curses and other status effects. Additionally increase the range of each attack by 20% per Skill level.
Curse of Spiritual Failure (Lv. 1)
Enemies inflicted with this curse will have all of their Attributes reduced by 10%. This curse may stack a number of times equal to its level. Foes with 0 in all Attributes instantly die.
Hexbloom Curse (Passive)
Enemies you slay leave a sliver of their souls behind within their body, blossoming into Hexbloom flowers. While near these flowers, your Skills act as though they were one level higher, and your enemies lose 50% of their resistance to Curse effects.
Shared Agony (Passive)
Enemies inflicted with curses from Skills you own are dealt 10% of the damage you receive as direct soul damage.
¡°Y¡¯know, maybe I spoke too harshly about this one. It¡¯s¡­ strong.¡± I do not like being referred to as a curse, and it does not appear to have any features that would allow me to aid you. I do not know if our Connection is powerful enough to allow us to communicate freely without having another mindmeld incident. ¡°That¡¯s true, if a bit unfortunate.¡± I gazed at the Role with an amount of longing. While it lacked a lot of the scaling and buffs that my current Role granted me, it had high amounts of synergy with itself and just seemed strong. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s check out the last one, I guess.¡± Knowing that it would probably be the best choice before even seeing it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
Role Evolution: Recurring Deathblade
Description: Your attacks slice between the boundaries of life and death, each half echoing within the other. Your gaze has witnessed the end of all things, but your blade refuses to forget. Each strike carries the weight of the strike before it, dividing all things equally. Main Skill Upgrade: Blade of the Death Knell Secondary Skill Upgrade: Undying Infusion Secondary Skill Choices: Wake the Dead, Echoing Parry Passive Upgrade: Field of Death Passive: Eternally Echoing
I quickly pulled up the Skill options.
Blade of the Death Knell (Lv. 1)
Your attacks carry with them the ultimate reminder of death. With each fatal swing of your blade, the bell tolls, carrying with it necrotic damage that spreads to all enemies that can hear it, dealing 10% of the original strike¡¯s damage per level and inflicting a moderate Fear effect.
Undying Infusion (Lv. 1)
You have claimed many souls, a number of them ancient and powerful in equal measure. You may lay claim to their power, binding them to your weapons, armor, or even self. Any target may only have a single infused soul at a time, and gains 10% of the soul¡¯s Attributes per Skill level, as well as certain aspects of their nature. The Deathblade¡¯s infused soul grows with them, though souls infused into items do not.
Wake the Dead (Lv. 1)
Create a ringing echo which causes all nearby souls capable of hearing the sound to return to their bodies and continue on in a facsimile of life until the sound can no longer be heard. The echo lasts 25% longer per Skill level.
Echoing Parry (Lv. 1)
When you block an attack, you may cause your blade to echo that strike. Echoed attacks lose all momentum and have 10% of their previous momentum reversed per level. This also works on spells.
Field of Death (Passive)
When standing within a short radius of a recently dead body, you may cause them to rapidly decay and sink into the earth. Enemies standing atop soil altered in this way receive doubled necrotic damage, and allies standing atop it receive none.
Eternally Echoing (Passive)
You claim the souls of those you kill and may sever their lingering bonds to this life to fuel Skills instead of paying their Mana costs yourself.
¡°Y¡¯know, this one also seems a bit edgy, but at least it¡¯s got the stuff we¡¯re looking for, right?¡± It appears very death knight, which is getting a bit close to necromancy. We¡¯ll have to carefully aim our Skill Upgrades away from this point from now on. ¡°Fair enough. I can live with that if it means keeping you with me.¡± I¡¯m touched. ¡°Hi touched, I¡¯m dad.¡± And now you¡¯ve ruined it. ¡°That¡¯s sort of my role in this relationship, if you hadn¡¯t noticed.¡± I grinned and selected the Recurring Deathblade. ¡°Alright Karl, what are we thinking with these Secondary Skills?¡± Steer away from the obvious necromancy as much as possible. ¡°Understood. I¡¯m picking Echoing Parry, then.¡±
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Recurring Deathblade
Strength: 5Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Mana: 27 +9 Pending
Dexterity: 5 Mana Regen: 22
Connection: 9 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Field of Death, Eternally Echoing
Skills: Blade of the Death Knell (Lv. 1), Undying Infusion (Lv. 1), Echoing Parry (Lv. 1)
Quests: Reintegration (10%)
I had a little headache and then¡­ gone. ¡°Yo Karl, you still there?¡± Silence. ¡°Guess not, then. Let¡¯s try to see how this Undying Infusion works¡­¡± I thought about Karl as hard as I could, then tried¡­ targeting myself. Didn¡¯t work. Then I had another idea, pulled out a katar, and stabbed myself. It. Hurt. Between my barrier and massively inflated stats, I hadn¡¯t gotten seriously hurt in a while. Now, though, without all those buffs backing me up? I felt vulnerable. I focused on the incision as hard as I could and willed Karl to merge with my body. I pulled on our Connection as hard as I could, but for a long moment, there was nothing. Then a rush of power flooded into me.
Undying Infusion (Lv. 1) ¡ú (Lv. 2)
+1 Mana Regen +1 Attribute Point
Miss me? I blinked away the tears in my eyes. ¡°These are from the cut. I doubt anyone would cry from not having to deal with you anymore.¡± The dragon snickered. After all that work getting your old, piddly Eidolon Embrace Skill up to level ten, now you¡¯re stuck back at only getting ten percent of my glorious Attributes. I rolled my eyes. ¡°They¡¯re not that glorious. Also, little point of panic here, apparently it¡¯s day ten of Earth¡¯s reintegration and we still haven¡¯t arrived at our destination. I know it was late in the day when we left, but that still feels a bit fast.¡± Your people have discovered relativity, haven¡¯t you? ¡°...How fast are we moving again?¡± In which dimension? ¡°I dunno, all of them? I mean, there¡¯s only three to choose from, right?¡± ¡­ ¡°Right?¡± ¡­ ¡°We¡¯re not going in any direction I¡¯d have a name for, are we?¡± Nope. Technically, we¡¯re not going that fast, we¡¯re just going in a direction that will lead outside of your realm much faster than lightspeed would in your standard three dimensions. ¡°Wonderful. Wait, are you a fourth dimensional being? Like, capable of moving in these directions on your own?¡± There are no such creatures. The fourth dimension is accessible only by advanced magical craft that can simultaneously move nowhere and everywhere at the same time. ¡°I have no idea what that means.¡± I didn¡¯t expect you to. ¡°Hmph. I¡¯m putting my point into Dexterity. Sounds good to you?¡± Go ahead. The point went through like normal. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t the System give me my nine Mana while I¡¯m waiting in here?¡± Diverting extra Mana through a four dimensional space isn¡¯t practical, it likely just sent along enough to make sure your Role selection went through properly. ¡°Huh. This is kind of giving me sci-fi vibes now, with the 4D Interstellar stuff.¡± I have not seen that movie and likely never will. ¡°Nahhh, we¡¯re totally gonna get you to see Interstellar. You won¡¯t regret it. After the whole Reintegration dealio is dealt with, we¡¯ll make it happen. At least, as long as it still exists. I¡¯m not sure where they store those, is it satellites? Or is it data servers?¡± I tapped my chin. It doesn¡¯t matter where it¡¯s stored, it¡¯s going to be destroyed. ¡°You¡¯re such a Debbie Downer, this is why I don¡¯t ever invite you anywhere.¡± I go literally everywhere with you. ¡°Yeah, uninvited, you stalker! I should get a restraining order.¡± Again I say, no one would ever believe you. ¡°My other personality would! Heck, he¡¯s a dragon, he¡¯d totally rip you to pieces!¡± ¡­That is just me. ¡°Oh, right. Nevermind that, then. When are we gonna be let out of here?¡± Sometimes, life has a way of making things funny, like by providing us with accidental perfect timing, an instant ask and ye shall receive, only given to extra good boys and girls who Lady Fortuna smiled upon. Unfortunately, I was not one of those people, and this was not one of those times. By the time Karl and I arrived on the planet we¡¯d fought so hard to reach, the Reintegration quest had reached 12%.
¡°GRASS, oh my precious beautiful gorgeous grass, I never want to leave you ever again!¡± I fell facefirst into nature¡¯s green carpet and rubbed my face all over it. I have seen you intentionally avoid touching grass for several days longer than we were in that shuttle. ¡°Hey, you didn¡¯t see that, I saw that and you watched it through my memories! Wait, no, that still means you saw it. But you don¡¯t have to hold something I did when I was fourteen against me, I¡¯ve changed since then, matured.¡± I crossed my arms indignantly. I truly do not think you have. I grinned. ¡°You¡¯re totally right, growing up is for losers.¡± I hopped up to my feet and gazed out into the horizon, looking for any landmarks or disturbances that would tell me that there were people here. Nothing. ¡°Any clues on how we could find civilization, Bluey?¡± What are you referencing? ¡°No clue, honestly. I didn¡¯t really watch TV growing up, but practically everyone else in my generation did so I¡¯m the only one who has no idea who Bluey is or why he has clues.¡± I think you talk too much. ¡°I think you take yourself too seriously. Also, duck.¡± What? ¡°Duck,¡± I repeated, pointing my finger out into the distance. ¡°Big duck, actually. Wanna go check it out?¡± You¡¯re going to go over there whether I want you to or not, so sure. ¡°Epic, I¡¯m glad we¡¯re both on the same page. Let¡¯s go see if he wants any grapes.¡± ¡­Why do I put up with you, again? ¡°Honestly? No clue.¡±
Just a quick sprint absolutely gassed me. I wasn¡¯t used to having such low Attributes¨C now I had to live like the pleb I¡¯d been before the world started ending. Kind of funny how the collapse of society improved my life more than it detrimented it. Life had been easy (except for the few times I almost dropkicked the bucket with my forehead), I got a couple new hobbies (letting my hypothetical fire-breathing attack lizard kill monsters and stealing from grocery stores), and even met a cute girl (who I was not romantically attracted to). Things wouldn¡¯t be so easy here, I suspected. Part of the reason for that was that the literal first living thing I saw when entering the world was a kaiju-sized duck. The even crazier part? It was domesticated. Why domesticate a giant duck, you might ask? Why, to pull your giant mobile castle, of course. What. Luckily, the duck didn¡¯t seem to be particularly hostile. Sure, it felt like the ground was shaking when we passed by it, but it didn¡¯t try to step on us intentionally, at least. Once I got close enough, I started shouting and waving my arms, trying to get someone¡¯s attention. Luckily, the castle pulled over their mobile castle nearby when they noticed my presence. A number of crossbows were promptly aimed at my face from guards up on the castle¡¯s ramparts.. Someone shouted something, but they were too far away for me to hear them, so I tried to step in closer, only to have a crossbow bolt impact the ground a few inches from my foot. I glared up at them and crossed my arms, just kind of waiting for them to realize that I couldn¡¯t tell what they were saying. They shouted down twice more, then shot another crossbow at me, so I opened my mouth wide and yelled back, ¡°I! CAN¡¯T! HEAR! YOU!¡± They just sort of stood there for a second, then started scrambling. A small squadron of armored me soon approached me at high speed. Once they were finally at a reasonable distance, one of them at the front called out, ¡°Who dares approach the Royal Fortress?? We demand identification at once!¡± ¡°Uh, Karl? I could use some help here. What do I say?¡± I got the impression of a mental shrug. Most realms are friendly to ascenders, but most realms don¡¯t have giant ducks tugging castles on wheels. This place is almost as out of whack as you are. With nothing else to say, I just spat out, ¡°Hi there, I¡¯m Kenny, I just got here!¡± The guards folded in to discuss something, then turned back to me. ¡°We have not heard this name before! Whermst?¡± I froze. ¡°Karl,¡± I muttered, ¡°I¡¯ve heard that word before but only in memes. What does it actually mean?¡± Whermst is a combination of what, where, why, and who. Basically, they¡¯re asking what¡¯s happening, where you came from, why you¡¯re here, and who you are. Probably. It could also mean something completely different here, Karl the Helpful answered. ¡°Thanks,¡± I muttered, before continuing out loud, ¡°I just arrived here from another planet, it¡¯s called Earth, I¡¯m here because my planet is in danger and I need to gather the power to defend it, and my name is Kenny Bert.¡± The guards huddled in close like a football team again, then the tallest among them turned and spoke directly to me, ¡°We will permit you entry to the Royal Fortress so you can meet our Lord, but you will need to put any weapons from your person into our custody and prepare an offering for our Lord!¡± ¡°Uh, sure, but what kind of offering? And I will be getting my stuff back, right?¡± This was getting stranger by the second. ¡°The Lord will judge you based on the quality of your offering! And yes.¡± I shrugged and started approaching them. ¡°Good enough for me.¡± I followed them back to their castle on wheels and the duck started walking again. Part of me wondered how they could keep such a large creature under control, but the answer was probably just ¡°magic¡± so I didn¡¯t bother asking. Giving up my weapons was a bit annoying. I ended up just handing my packs over to the guards so I didn¡¯t need to dig through everything. Before I did, though¡­ ¡°Hey, what sort of food do you guys eat here?¡± If my knowledge of history matched up with this place, then I might just have the perfect offering. ¡°Only the finest pottage, of course, and on occasion some truly fine gruel!¡± I grinned like a madman and started pulling MREs from my pack.
Apparently part of meeting with the ¡°Lord¡± was waiting for two hours in a poorly-furnished waiting room while everyone else just breezed straight through like the room didn¡¯t even exist. I¡¯d almost convinced myself it wasn¡¯t worth it and I could just leave, in spite of Karl¡¯s protestations, when a tubby man dressed in a red tunic that seemed far finer than what I¡¯d seen other people wearing marched straight up to me, looked me up and down, sneered, and gestured to have me follow him. Not wanting to wait any longer, I did as he¡¯d motioned and carried after him. Finally, I¡¯d made it into the throne room. The walls were littered with golden inlay and murals, eight pillars made of glass lined the main walkway, the throne was made of pure silver, and atop it sat¡­ Another duck. What the¨C ¡°Presenting his Royal Highness, Lord Donald Waddlington the Third!¡± The man who¡¯d led me into the room announced, bowing deeply. Following his lead, I dipped low, trying to smoothen out my shocked face while no one could see it. What was going on here?? ¡°Quack,¡± the sound was deep and oddly¡­ graceful? For a duck, at least. ¡°Yes, your majesty,¡± the rotund man spoke earnestly, turning back to look at me. ¡°Please, present your offering to our Lord.¡± Still reeling, I slowly approached the literal duck and set three MREs before his throne. ¡°What are these,¡± the man questioned with a doubtful look. ¡°They¡¯re, uhh¨C¡± I paused for a second to gather my thoughts, ¡°Meals Ready to Eat. They have instructions and labels on how to eat them. Where I¡¯m from, they¡¯re given to soldiers¨C not because they don¡¯t taste good or they¡¯re cheap,¡± I elaborated at the man¡¯s unhappy look, ¡°Just because they contain a lot of¡­ energy and last for a really long time.¡± The man bent over and lifted one of the MREs, lifting it up to his nose and sniffing it while the duck¡­ king?? Watched on. ¡°Show me how to eat this,¡± the man demanded. Shrugging, I tore off the top, sat down on the floor, and did my best not to look at the duck. I pulled out each part of the MRE, explaining them in turn. ¡°This is a pouch for water, it makes it taste better and adds some more good stuff¡­ This is a heating pack, you¡¯re meant to¡­ here,¡± I unwrapped the plastic bag as well as the meal box and set it all together. ¡°If you add water to this, just up to the line here, it¡¯ll heat up and cook itself, you just need to give it a bit of time.¡± ¡°This is, uh¡­¡± I looked at the duck, then quickly averted my gaze. ¡°This is peanut butter? I apologize, I would not recommend feeding this to the d¨C the Lord,¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°Probably keep this as a reward for servants, or something?¡± The red-tunicked man squinted at me, as though trying to discern some evil intent where there was none. He took the peanut butter and slipped it into his back pocket. Well, I hope that means I won¡¯t be accidentally poisoning this place¡¯s ruler. I distinctly recalled visiting a duck pond with my mom and trying to feed them some of my peanut butter jelly sandwich. My mom had freaked out a little bit¨C not enough to scare me or anything, but enough to make sure I remembered not to feed ducks peanut butter. The next piece was¡­ oh. ¡°And this is a tortilla!¡± The duck¡¯s eyes seemed to bulge. ¡°Trust me on this, he¡¯s gonna love these.¡± The duck¡¯s servant tore a tiny piece off the tortilla and ate it, presumably to test it for poison, and the duck lord immediately quacked at him in anger. The servant gave a deep bow, then carefully tore off a chunk of the tortilla and gently held it out to the duck, who snapped it up in an instant. The duck¡¯s eyes opened wider, then wider, and wider. He quacked at the servant, who continued to feed the duck lord more and more snips of tortilla. Once the entire thing had vanished, the servant turned back to me. ¡°He says¡­ you are worthy.¡± He looked incredibly conflicted. ¡°Thank you?¡± I had no idea what that meant, but I assumed it was a good thing? He huffed in annoyance. ¡°That means that you may search the treasury for an item of your choice.¡± I blinked. ¡°...What if I don¡¯t have an item in mind?¡± ¡°Just¨C¡± the big guy huffed, ¡°Just go grab something. Doesn¡¯t matter what it is. Give this to the guards, they¡¯ll know where to bring you.¡± He handed over a gold coin with a webbed foot on it. I slowly turned and walked out of the throne room. Nobody said anything at all to me. The fat guy cracked open another MRE and whipped out a tortilla, much to the excitement of the small, royal duck. The guards were waiting for me just outside, and they absolutely freaked out when they saw the coin. They were too quiet for me to listen in, but it was clearly a big deal. One of the guards bowed to me and gestured to his side. ¡°We will guide you to your destination, Honored Bert.¡± ¡°...Please don¡¯t call me that ever again. I am Kenny.¡± I gave him a strange look. Seriously, who calls someone Honored Bert?? I¡¯ll help you find a valuable item, don¡¯t worry. Okay, thanks, I¡¯d have absolutely no clue what to get in there. I doubt they have anything good anyway. Maybe not by your standards, but for me? I dunno, I need things, man. Perhaps. The guards inserted keys into four separate slots of the vault door, then turned them all at once and inserted the gold coin into the center, where it dropped through. The door slowly creaked open and revealed¡­ I was wrong, Kenny. This was absolutely worth the absurdity. I walked into the vault, eying several marble stands arranged in a circle. On the first was a bag. On the second, a helmet. On the third, a knife. The fourth, a¡­ chair? The fifth was a bag of perfectly normal bread. On the sixth and final pillar, however, was a¡­ What¡¯s that, Karl? Why does it look familiar? The dragon didn¡¯t answer for a long, long moment, seeming completely entranced by the object on the pedestal. That, my young friend? That is a dragon egg.