The next day Adam left, it was just me, Uriel and Lily at the house, I began working on improving my magic and general strength - of course, if you think I had any form of willpower you’re sorely mistaken, I created a spell that would force my body to do things automatically, for example, run or do push-ups - It still hurt but as long as I don’t have to do anything it was fine - that's not really important - but keep in mind I'm doing that while Adam is away.
I wasn’t sure how to proceed without knowing anything about the cult…more and more of the grass was turning black and weird dust was piling up everywhere…
“Do you know what this stuff it?” I asked Uriel pointing to the piles of dust outside the window.
“Spores, bacteria and other micro-organisms are dying and slowly falling down,” He explained.
I guess that made sense…
“I bet Adam’s drinking at some random bar or something…” I sighed.
“Come on, there’s no way he’d be so irresponsible!” Uriel replied in an annoyed voice.
“Have some faith in Adam!” He added.
“Exactly!” Lilly agreed walking out of Adam’s room, none of us questioned what she did there.
“I know Adam very well, I have total faith in the fact he’s either drinking or drunk right around now,” I replied with full confidence.
“Oh, for sure. But you still should have more faith in him as a general rule.” Lily explained.
Meanwhile, in a distant city…
Adam wandered around the dark streets of the city once again, “…I really should have come up with a plan…how am I supposed to go back home now and tell them…” Adam put on a high pitched voice “Sorry, lads guess the evil death cult didn’t leave flyers laying around…”
The city was composed of several districts, it was built between two large hills which have been flattened into terrace-like plateaus, each terrace supported by large stone walls and joined via a bridge to its equivalent district on the other hill, unlike the other cities, this one had little to no poverty issues, mostly based on it’s size and the fact that the city was in constant need of workers due to it’s central location as a trade hub, this essentially meant that there were no slums, and there was little to no class difference between the people living in the various levels, although the ground-level district was mostly a market and business area leaving the higher levels for housing, inns and the occasional craftsman, around the ground-level district stood a thick stone wall surrounding the city and leaving some space for the interior and exterior moat.
This meant that the four gates around the city had two drawbridges for maximum security and more importantly for the rainwater to drain without flooding the bottom levels due to the city being located below sea level.
The buildings were large and build of pale stone with proper glass windows and tiled roofs which were relatively flat, they were often built partially into the wall holding up the terrace above.
Because of this the few alleyways were short and generally used as places for craftsmen to keep their raw materials, as a result of this habit it was not uncommon for richer craftsmen to hire guards to watch over the goods, further contributing to the low unemployment and this lowering crime from the poor, it was an efficient system.
A loud scream grabbed Adam’s attention, he rushed through the alleys to a small open area filled with barrels and boxes which was the source of the scream, when he reached the source of the sound he saw a gruesome scene, blood and entrails littered the floor surrounding the corpse of a dead man and woman, the man was wearing light leather armour and the woman looked like a young mage based on the bloodied robe and staff which was snapped in half in the pool of blood, over the corpse stood a spider-like humanoid figure, it wore a dark purple jumper or hoodie with some of his dull green under-shirt sticking out from his collar area, and long black trousers that resembled sweatpants, despite the fact that these clothes seemed modern, the large number of people from earth retaining their memories in this world seemed to have impacted the fashion industry of this medieval world.
The figure itself looked like a man in his mid to late teens, with oily messy hair, it was mostly white but turned a light green towards the bottom, from his back protruded six spider-like legs four digging deep into the stone brick road and two into the corpse.
He made his way over to a box, opening it and revealing it to be filled with apples, he picked the box up with his human hands and turned around seemingly ready to flee the scene when he noticed Adam standing there looking at him, “Tsk… looks like I just can’t catch a break…” the spider-like man complained.
“You should be more considerate of the people who’ll have to clean this up tomorrow! Besides can you seriously not afford the apples in this city of all place?” Adam asked before drawing his claw weapons, “I need to catch him alive…I could try to extract some info…” he thought.
“Alright…I’ll makes sure to take you apart slowly…” the man taunted before starting to quickly scuttle towards Adam.
The creature tried to use two of its back legs like spears to penetrate Adam who quickly dodged the attack by jumping back.
“Fairy fire!” Adam called out as a blue flame erupted from beneath the creature, it clung to its legs but was unable to reach the human part of the creature which was held high by the legs.
Before the creature could retaliate Adam cast another spell “Boost” causing him to shoot forward through the fire and between the large spider legs, “BOOST!” he cast the spell again launching him up behind the spider bringing him close enough to put it in a headlock.
“Let go of me you bastard!” the creature demanded as he tried to get his head loose, he tried to reach Adam with his spider legs but couldn’t, he rammed into a building with his back.
This made Adam loosen his grip allowing the creature to shake Adam loose, dropping Adam to the floor the creature picked him up with the long, black spider legs and tossed him away towards the blue fairy fire patch before taking the corpse and scuttling away into the dark night in a rush.
“Damn…these monsters are tougher than I thought…” Adam said standing up covered in the blue dust residue from the fairy fire.
“Too bad…I wanted to keep him alive…but I can’t afford to hold back against it…” Adam made his way out of the alley and back onto one of the many big streets of the city before heading to a local inn.
When Adam entered the inn he was stunned by the pleasant smell that filled the interior.
He sat down at one of the benches in the inn, he fiddled with the candle standing on the table on a small plate.
The bored waiter walked out, he had white hair turning green towards the bottom. His skin looked pale, Adam and the waiter locked eyes for a second.
“Ehh…” an awkward smile that was most likely a poor attempt at intimidation appeared on the waiter’s face, “SHIIIIIIIIIIT, I’m dead…” he thought.
“Hey, I’ll have some stew,” Adam said never putting the candle away.
“Wait, he didn’t recognise me! He must be retarded or something…can’t believe I almost got choked to death by this little-” his thoughts were interrupted by Adam question, “Yo, are you feeling alright? Did I choke you too hard earlier?” Adam asked with a smug smile.
“Wait so you knew it was me?!” the man asked.
“...was I not meant to? It’s not like you’re wearing a disguise…” Adam explained.
Beads of sweat appeared on the man’s face as he began thinking of a plan, could he afford to try getting a hostage…or should he run for it?
“Don’t worry I’m not going to fight you in here, innocent people could get hurt, ya’ know,” Adam said waving his hand reassuringly.
The man sat down on the bench opposite Adam, “So, why did you come here?” he asked.
“This is an inn...are you stupid? I wanted stew…and a room…” Adam seemed slightly annoyed at this point.
“Wait, so let me get this straight…you’re not here to kill me?” he asked.
“Nope, I mean if you go around killing people here I won’t have a choice, but I just came to get some stew,” Adam explained, his stomach grumbling.
The man was still uncertain but he felt a little safer.
“But, since you’re here…” Adam said reaching down into his pocket.
The man jumped back ready to attack only to realise what Adam pulled out of his pocket were a notepad and pencil.
“Dude, relax. I just want to get some info off ya’. I can pay you if you want.” Adam explained.
“Pay me you say…I’m interested…” he replied, “But first, get me my stew, I starving…” Adam pleaded.
The man sighed, “That’ll be three copper…”
Adam handed him the money and soon the man returned with the wooden bowl of stew.
“Here.” the man grunted pushing the bowl towards Adam.
“Thanks, man, you’re a lifesaver!…well…and taker, but let's focus on the positives!” Adam quickly wolfed down the entire bowl.
“Now, as for my question…” Adam opened the notebook.
“Just to be clear, I am getting paid for this, like you said?” he asked.
“Yeah, man. As long as you can answer a question I’ll pay you for it.” Adam replied.
“Alright, first give me your name.” Adam began.
“Ark…” he replied.
“Alright, family name?”
“Nope.”
“Any living relatives?”
“Pass”
“Age?”
“Nineteen.”
“Where you born with the spider leg ability?”
“No”
“If you were to have relatives, would they have the ability too?”
“Pass”
“Pineapple on pizza?”
“What? What’s a pineapple?”
“Where did you acquire your ability?”
“A favour from some passing wizard.”
“Why did you kill that woman?”
“Pass”
“What is the square root of two?”
“The what of two?”
“Do you know anything else about the passing wizard?”
“He said he was looking for people with certain traits so that he could conduct experiments on them.”
“And you agreed to be a test subject?”
“If it meant I’d get this much power, yeah.”
“Are you able to walk in the sun?”
“Yeah…but it does feel weird.”
“Do you recall a green substance or ball being involved in the process of giving you the ability?”
“Yeah, …what was that?”
“A soul.”
“Wait, I had a soul implanted into my body?!” Ark asked patting his torso as if he was checking for a soul.
“I’m reasonably sure whoever the man was, he’s planning to stir up chaos in this world and every other world for that matter,” Adam explained fiddling around with the wooden spoon he was given for the stew.
“Wait… are you saying I have two souls inside of me?” he asked.
“I guess so, and if the last cast of this happening is right, then you could be commanded by this so-called passing wizard in the future to do anything,” Adam warned.
“So…I screwed myself over…” Ark sounded defeated.
“Yeah, pretty much. But I know a certain person who can pull the soul out of you, granted that’d come at the cost of your spider leg powers.” Adam explained.
“How much do you want for it?” Ark asked.
“Good question…” Adam replied - he scratched his chin.
“I don’t have much…that’s why I’m working in this shit hole,” Ark complained.
“Well, I guess I could cut you a deal. If you join my party up until we kill whoever is messing with the souls of everything around here.” Adam proposed.
“What, no. I’ll pay with money, I’ll just take on a few extra jobs!” Ark offered.
“No-can-do, I need a relatively normal human in my party,” Adam replied.
“Can’t you just ask that mage you said can remove souls?” Ark asked.
“I said a normal human,” Adam replied matter-of-factly
Ark sighed a deep breath, “Tsk...fine.”
“Great, we’ll head there tomorrow,” Adam exclaimed, as he got off the bench.
“Hey, what about my money!?” Ark demanded turning to face Adam.
“That’s right, here,” Adam said handing the man a golden coin.
“I don’t have any change for gold man,” Ark replied.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m secretly loaded. Can’t tell the others thought.” Adam replied with a grin and a finger over his lips before heading upstairs to the room he rented a few days back.
After a few more hours of serving food and a while of cleaning Ark was done with work and headed out of the inn and made his way home.
He walked through the short dark alleys, the trash piled up against the walls of the buildings serving as a home for the dozens of rats.
Eventually, Ark reached the small door built into the side of some building, he walked inside revealing the room was empty say for a wooden stool, a pile of straw serving as a bed and a pile of rolled-up cloth that sometimes served as a pillow and sometimes as a blanket depending on the time of year.
“Nice place…” the figure standing behind Ark said, it was the same hooded figure who Issac talked to earlier.
Ark spun around in an instant unleashing his six spider legs.
“Is that any way to greet a co-worker?” the cloaked figure asked.
“Why are you here?!” Ark demanded, he didn’t recognise this person but they gave him a bad vibe.
“Oh, Ark. That’s not important because I’m here with a message from our boss, he said he’s very satisfied with your actions, and as thanks, he sent you a gift.” the figure took out a small black box from within the cloak, upon hearing this Ark’s face lit up.
At first, Ark was hesitant, “What’s wrong, Ark? You don’t have to accept it.” the figure explained retracting the box slightly.
“Wait, no. It’s just that…I heard that-” Ark was interrupted.
“Don’t listen to silly rumours like that Ark, how could there be two souls in one person…if that was the case, we could just force you to take this box, right Ark?” the figure asked.
“...you’re right.” Ark took the box and opened it revealing a small vial of black liquid, it looked cloudy.
“What is this?” Ark asked.
“It’s…liquid power, go ahead and drink it, naturally you can choose to drink it later…but I don’t know if it’ll spoil.” the figure explained, “Also, the boss said that if you keep helping him out, he’ll be able to dedicate a little more time to that project.”
“Alright…I understand.” Ark replied resolutely.
“Great, I’ll make sure to let the boss know.” the figure said as it melted into a cloud of black smoke.
The next day…
Adam walked out of the inn only to see Ark already standing outside, pressed against the stone wall of the inn.
“Good morning spidey,” Adam said stretching and yawning.
“Don’t call me spidey.” Ark pleaded.
“Sure thing spidey, ” Adam replied as he gestured Ark to follow him.
The two walked through the city, eventually reaching the front gates of the city where they saw a large collection of carts and wooden barricades along with several armed guards.
Adam walked past the carts and began climbing the barricade.
“What are you doing?! The city is on lock-down, you’re not allowed to leave or enter!” one of the guards said as he rushed over to Adam,
“Wait, is that you, Adam?” the guard asked curiously, immediately changing his tone.
“Victor?” Adam asked the guard removed his helmet revealing a bearded man, he had tanned skin and black hair.
“ADAM!” the guard exclaimed as he picked Adam with one arm and called out to the other guards, “Lads, it’s Adam! He’s back!” the man called out and very soon a small crowd grew around Adam.
Ark looked on in confusion, “Is Adam some sort of noble? Maybe he was a guard….” he thought.
Ark noticed that all the men had one thing in common, they were absolutely massive, as if they were made of pure muscle, in comparison Adam looked like a stuffed toy.
“What brings you to Rennel?” one of the men asked,
“I was looking for some evil cult thing,” Adam replied casually,
The men all looked one in amazement, “A-and did you find it?” one of the other guards asked.
“No, but I found a lead!” Adam pointed at Arc, “That man there had been possessed by an awful curse!” Adam exclaimed as all the guards moved their attention to Arc who was just standing a good bit away.
“What kind of curse?!” another guard asked.
“The curse transforms him into a feral beast which seeks to consume human flesh!” Adam exclaimed.
Suddenly a few of the men drew their blades, “It’s a monster!” one man cried.
“We should slay him!” another exclaimed.
Ark shot Adam a worried look, he was starting to think of an escape plan.
“Fear not friends, I have single-handedly subdued the beast and now I am on my way home so that I may free him of this foul curse!” Adam exclaimed as the guards applauded his bravery.
The guard called Victor put a hand on Adam’s shoulder, “I guess we can make an exception for Adam.” he said as he gestured some men to move the barricades out of the way granting Adam and Ark safe passage.
“Thanks, guys! I’ll let you know next time I’m in town!” Adam said waving back to the man.
Adam and Ark walked out of the city, outside stood several carts and dozens of people.
“Hey, what are all you people doing here?” Adam asked an elderly man sitting next to a horse, at his side a bag of what looked like furs.
“What’s it look like? The city’s closed…” the man replied.
“Do you know why?” Adam asked.
“How should I know?!” The old man barked.
Adam took out a silver coin from his pocket.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that. Why is the city closed?” Adam asked.
“Oh, that’s right, all cities are closed, the nobles fear the cities will starve if all the peasants from the countryside buy all the food in preparation for the famine.” the old man replied snatching the coin from Adam’s hand.
“That’s a fair concern…” Adam replied before walking away.
“Why didn’t you just ask the guards back in the city, about the cities being closed?” Ark asked he followed Adam at a distance with his arms behind his head.
“They were probably ordered to stay quiet, I didn’t want them to get in trouble just because they feel obligated to help me out,” Adam replied with a shrug.
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“Aren’t you considerate…” Ark scoffed.
“I wouldn’t say considerate, but what’s the point of being a bigger dick than necessary,” Adam replied.
“Convenience, plus what would you do if there were no people outside the gate.” Ark pointed out,
“It was a risk I was willing to take,” Adam replied with a laugh.
Ark didn’t reply.
“So, why exactly did the guard react like that?” Ark asked thinking back to the crowd surrounding Adam.
“Well, I helped a few of the men out a while back,” Adam replied scratching the back of his head.
“Help out how?” Ark asked he was thinking about all sorts of unsavoury favours the guards could use from a person like Adam.
“I invented a disease,” Adam replied.
“They’re thankful for you starting a disease?!” Ark asked in shock.
“No, not starting, inventing, it was a fake,” Adam replied.
“...elaborate,” Ark said plainly.
“Basically a few of the men had a problem because their wives would give out about them going off drinking with other guys, so I came up with a disease, ‘The Stone Flue’.Basically I told the man to build some muscle as ‘proof’ that they’re turning to stone, and that the doctor (me) prescribed an experimental treatment which only he could administer for fear of it being stolen, and for the sake of convenience he’d hand out the medicine at the pub, plus the medicine had to be taken dissolved in alcohol.” Adam explained, he seemed pretty satisfied with the story, meanwhile, Ark lost what little respect he had for Adam.
“Naturally, they had to stay at the pub until the doctor - that being me - decided it was safe to go home since no symptoms appeared,” Adam added.
“That explains how muscular they were…” Ark sighed.
“Yep, I’d say except for their liver I improved their health!”Adam replied.
“What do you mean, except for the livers,” Ark asked confused.
“Oh yeah, I guess they don’t really know that here.” Adam laughed.
“Are you saying exercise causes liver problems?” Ark asked confused, the knowledge in this world was not only limited but also horribly unevenly dispersed.
“No, alcohol does,” Adam replied simply.
“I thought alcohol kills diseases?” Ark replied,
“Yeah, but it’s not a disease that damages your liver when drinking, as a general rule of thumb just drink water while drinking, at the very least that’ll help dehydration,” Adam explained.
“Are you some sort of doctor?” Ark asked.
“Nah, but a while back I had to study biology, I guess I still remember something,” Adam replied.
“He must be pretty rich to be able to attend a school like that…” Ark thought.
“So, where exactly are we going?” Ark asked realising that for all he knew, Adam was just taking him away from anyone he could use as a hostage.
“I live near the central mountain, it’s a day on foot,” Adam explained, he was able to pay for a carriage to get to the town, but with the cities being closed it looks like this type of transport has stopped at least for now.
“Let’s hope we don’t run into any bandits on the way…” Ark sighed, “Although I’d be able to deal with them…” he added as a sinister grin spread across his ace.
“Great, in that case, I have nothing to worry about!” Adam exclaimed half sarcastically.
“That’s not what I- …Tsk, you know what I meant…” Ark scoffed.
“Yes, yes. I understand. Don’t worry I’ll protect both of us.” Adam replied causing Ark to go blood red with rage, “FINE, NEXT BANDIT I SEE I GETTING GUTTER SLOWLY JUST TO PROVE MY POINT!” Ark cried in frustration.
“I don’t think that counts as proving a point, in fact, I’d say that’s just unnecessary, but in all fairness, they most likely killed more people than you,” Adam replied with a careless shrug.
“I bet I killed more people than anyone in that city…” Ark said with a slight grin.
“If you don’t stop that you could cut somebody with all that edge,” Adam replied uncomfortably.
“Just shut up, I bet you never even killed a person before.” Ark scoffed.
“Even if I did, I wouldn’t be bragging about it…” Adam replied in a sombre tone.
“Thought so…” Ark laughed to himself, seeing Adam as a nothing more than a poser.
Out of nowhere, the blue sky turned to a depressing grey.
“We’d better find some shelter before it starts raining.” Adam sighed disappointedly at the idea of making their already long journey longer.
Soon the relative silence of the road cutting through an evergreen forest turned to the sound of rain, Adam and Ark kept walking in hopes of finding a shack or even a small overhang of earth and roots.
There was no point of trying to hide under the trees since by now their needle-like leaves have completely fallen.
As they walked Adam spotted the wooden bridge he passed over on his way to the city, under it ran a quiet stream and hopefully the rain wouldn’t change that too much, he ran up and under the bridge sitting down on the small beach of pebbles under the old-looking wooden bridge, Ark followed him seemingly in less of a rush.
“This place is surprisingly conveniently located,” Ark said almost as if he was complaining.
“These things happen.” Adam shrugged avoiding further questioning regarding the convenient placement of the bridge.
“Right…” Ark replied uncertainly, his eyes wandered over to the stream which turned a muddy brown from all the water which entered it from the wet soil, ”Gross…jellyfish.” Ark sighed looking into the water.
“Jellyfish are salt-water creatures, plus they’d be torn apart by the water…” Adam replied looking into the water for the supposed jellyfish.
“Then what do you call that thing?!” Ark asked pointing at a slimy brown blob laying tangled up in the rocks the edge of the stream.
“That’s a slime,” Adam replied.
“A what?” Ark asked.
“Sorry, an ooze.” Adam corrected himself, surprisingly none in this word refers to these creatures as slimes…
Ark picked a stick off the ground and started to poke the slime.
The amorphous mass rippled as it shot up landing on top of Ark causing him to fall over, “What the hell!” he exclaimed as he started pounding his hands onto the creature with his hands.
The slime retaliated by creating two appendages which it used to pummel Ark with, creating a distinct wet slapping noise.
Ark turned to Adam while struggling to get the slime off him, “Do something you bastard!” Ark demanded,
“I dunno, I think it likes you…” Adam replied.
The creature shot up vertically creating a long line of itself, it then shifted its weight up the pillar of slime and fell down essentially performing an elbow drop directly to Ark with one of it’s newly created appendages.
“YOU CALL THAT LIKING SOMEONE!?” Ark cried as the creature loosened its grasp allowing him to crawl away slightly before being dragged by the slime again.
“Wait, WAIT, TIME OUT!” Ark cried causing the creature to let go of his leg.
“Wait…it understood me?!” Ark was surprised by this, but what surprised him more was that Adam was now standing beside the slime giving it a pep-talk while having his two hands on the creature’s “shoulders”… “Alright, you’re going grab him by the leg and toss him over your shoulder, then finish him off with another one of those elbow drops, right?” Adam talked like a coach in the middle of a boxing match, the slime replied with a nod of the top of its body, presumably that was supposed to represent the head.
“WHY ARE YOU ON IT’S SIDE?!” Ark was caught off guard by the situation, “WHAT WHY ARE YOU DOING ANY OF THIS?!” he added before summoning his six spider legs.
“No weapons on the ring!“ Adam pointed out but before anyone responded the slime shot towards Ark, grabbing him by his leg and tossing him over its gelatinous frame.
“Wait, it did what Adam told it to do, now’s my chance!” Ark thought as he pointed his spider legs up pointy side up in anticipation of the slime’s elbow drop.
The slime fell directly onto the blade-like legs piercing its membrane and making it spill out like water onto the grinning Ark.
“Thanks for the help, asshole.” Ark said with a scowl looking at Adam who was at on his knees next to the puddle of slime, “NO, SLIME!”
“DON’T GIVE UP, SLIME! THINK ABOUT YOUR KIDS! THINK ABOUT YOUR DREAM TO BE THE NUMBER ONE WRESTLER IN THE WORLD!” Adam cried.
“Are you done?” Ark asked.
“Yeah.” Adam replied with a chuckle, “You think I could star in a boxing movie?” Adam laughed.
“A what?” Ark asked.
“Never mind…” Adam sighed,
“Now my clothes are covered in the weird ooze…” Ark complained touching his clothes only to feel the wet slimy texture.
“Well, if you took care of the slime - ooze in a less messy way it wouldn’t be a problem,” Adam replied.
Adam and Ark waited under the bridge until the rain stopped.
“Well, ready to keep going?” Adam asked.
Ark got up off the rocks without saying anything.
Adam interpreted the action as a “yes” and kept going, crossing the bridge in the process.
“So, do you have any plans for what to do after you’ll be back to normal?” Adam asked.
“Tsk, why do you care?” Ark asked.
“I dunno, finding that out is slightly better than walking in silence,” Adam replied in an uncertain voice.
“I beg to differ,” Ark replied in a snarky tone.
“Fair enough, fair enough,” Adam replied not wanting to piss Ark off any more than he already has.
“What am I going to do after…I’ll do what I did up until now…” Ark thought.
“But what exactly is that?… I guess I’d have to give up on my hobby of stealing and selling stuff since I won’t be able to take on the guards anymore.” he continued thinking.
“I do have a goal, that’s right, but I can’t do it without the boss…then shouldn’t I refuse the soul removal? In fact…what if he’s lying… I have that present from the boss…if I drink it…I could beat Adam…I’m sure I could…the boss would be happy about that…and if he leads me to their base I can take him out along with this mage that can reverse the bosses work…yes…that’s the plan.” Ark decided - feeling around his pocket for the small vial to make sure it was still there, it was.
“At this rate, we’ll be home just before it gets dark,” Adam said looking up at the sky, it cleared up slightly.
Meanwhile back at Adam’s house.
I was laying on the grass looking at the clouds that were headed in the opposite direction of the mountain we were on.
“Hey, nameless child!” A voice called out, I guess that’s my name now…
I wasn’t bothered to sit up so I just kept looking up at the clouds, “Yeah, what’s up?” I asked.
“Come look at something!” the voice I now recognised as Al, the youngest dryad was calling over to me.
“I can’t, I’m busy…” I replied.
“...I see…and when you’re not busy will you come and see?” the dryad asked disappointed.
I let out a tired sigh.
“If you remind me…” I said reluctantly before closing my eyes ready to take a short nap.
There was actually not that much to do unless I wanted to mess around with magic, but that’s a bit risky since I almost died messing with the teleportation bullets…plus it’d permanently decrease my mana pool.
For some reason, I couldn’t sleep…I couldn’t quite explain it…it’s like I was being observed, I rolled over to my side and upon realising I still can’t sleep I opened my eyes only to see the dryad’s face inches away from me - staring me right in the eyes.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m waiting until you’re not busy…” He replied matter-of-factly.
I let a long draw out sigh, so long I almost ran out of air in my lungs and stood up.
“Fine, what do you want to show me?” I asked defeated.
“You have to come to the forest!” Al explained.
For the sake of my oxygen level I couldn’t afford to sigh anymore so I just stayed silent for the duration of an average sigh before relenting and walking down to the forest, Al quickly cut in front of me to lead me to the oh-so-important thing.
Soon we reached a large tree with a hole carved into it, it was located in the middle of a clearing in the forest.
“...So did you want to show me this tree? I mean I guess it’s pretty weird…” I replied not wanting to upset the dryad.
“No, it’s not that!” Al said as he pointed to a big pile of moss laying next to a tree.
“I mean…that’s one cool pile of moss…” I said, I was desperate not to sound like an asshole now, but seriously…it’s just a pile of moss….what am I supposed to say about it?!
“Just sit down and watch!” Al commanded pointing to a tree stump located behind me.
I reluctantly went over and sat down, I was somewhat afraid that the dryads would make me literally watch grass - I mean moss, grow.
From behind a tree, walked out Cloe with what looked like a cape made out of some form of plant material.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” Cloe began, she looked super excited, on her head she wore a had made from a small tree’s bark…basically, she dressed up as a magician.
“I the great Cloe will show you a real magic trick!” Cloe exclaimed.
That’s not much of an achievement in this world…
In a single movement of the hand a vibrant light appeared in Cloe’s palm, it was a ball of churning, coiling lights, specifically green and purple light.
Cloe placed her hand on the pile of moss causing it to shake and take shape, eventually it began to look almost humanoid, by the end of the process it looked like a big moss torso with massive arms and legs, it didn’t have a head or a mouth though.
Cloe looked over to me and so did Al, I began to clap my hands uncertainly much to both of their relief.
“And now, for the second part of the show!” Cloe continued, the smug look on her face only describable as a bet-you-thought-that-was-it look.
Cloe began to move her hands causing it to move around, much like a puppeteer moving a puppet around.
They paused again and looked over to me, I knew what to do this time and just began to clap my hand again.
“And now for the third and final part of today’s show…” Cloe put her hands to her sides, keeping completely still. Then the golem began moving on its own, it walked around, and after performing a bit of an improvised dance it bowed down and later so did Cloe.
I clapped my hands before they started to stare at me again.
“Thank you, you were a brilliant audience!” Cloe exclaimed as she walked back behind the tree, emerging hat and cape free on the other side in an instant.
Cloe ran up to me.
“So, how did you like the show?” Cloe asked I think she’d have a mental breakdown if I was to say it was bad so I replied with an “It was great, you should show it to Adam when he’s back.”
“You really liked it?” Al asked.
“Yeah, …it was great.” I replied standing up, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the two copper coins I keep handy in case I forget my wallet-bag-thing and handed one to Cloe and the other to Al, “If you set up a paid show, I’m sure you would make a tonne of money at the monster hunter’s camp.” I replied sensing an opportunity to leave.
“That’s an awesome idea!” Al said as he looked over to Cloe for confirmation, “Yeah, let’s go! Thanks for the idea, nameless child!” Cloe yelled back as he was already making her way to the camp with Al.
I waved back before heading back towards the house, on my way I found Lily standing next to a tree.
“Yo, what’s up?” I asked.
“Oh, nameless child, I’m just trying to figure out which one of these mushrooms is the poisonous one…” Lily replied.
She kept looking at two patches of mushrooms, both were white with large caps, but one had a concentric pattern of black dots on top while the other had a few dots littering its entire cap.
“I wouldn’t know much about mushrooms now…actually, I do know a trick.” I replied pulling my dagger out, “I saw this on TV once,” I picked out one of the mushrooms and cut it in half, in seconds the previously white flesh of the mushroom turned a mould-blue.
“This one is poisonous,” I replied satisfied with my discovery.
“What a useful trick!” Lily replied as she picked all the poisonous mushrooms into a bag leaving the safe ones behind.
“Wait, those are the poisonous ones!” I said thinking that Lily was just confused or maybe the brain damage from that one ice-block incident was more serious than expected.
“Oh, I know. I need them for poison.” Lily explained with an innocent smile.
“Why would you need poison…did you finally decided to pull the old’ Romeo and Juliet on Adam?!” I asked.
“The what?” Lily asked.
“You know, the famous work of art back in our world, where the two lovers die, I think one got poisoned…the man stabbed himself or something.” I explained, giving Lily enough context to piece together what I was talking about without admitting to not actually being from earth.
“...ah yes…the one…on TV…” Replied uncertainly.
“I guess…there has to be a TV adaptation…” I replied.
Lily stayed quiet for a bit.
“What was earth like...?” Lily asked in a defeated voice.
I faked a shocked voice, but I made sure it was obvious enough for her to tell I was being sarcastic, “What do you mean? Could it be that you are not in fact from earth?!”
Lily didn’t say anything.
“Man, don’t get all serious on me now…” I complained scratching the back of my head…what the hell am I supposed to do now…
“Basically, for Adam and I - it’s like travelling back in time, but all the stories you hear about as kids are true, for example, magic.” I didn’t feel like explaining stuff like electricity and biology to Lily so I just gave her the basic run down.
“So…there’s no magic where you’re from?” Lily asked seemingly shocked by the idea,
“Yeah, no magic, wizards, ghosts, dragons, unicorns.” I listed off the things that don’t exist on earth.
“How did you survive back there?!” Lily asked.
“Well, actually I died…in my mid-thirties…but that’s not the standard.” I replied.
“We have technology that surpasses most magic…I guess teleportation it out of the question, but when it comes to medicine and that kind of stuff we’re better off than you guys. Most of the world sucks…I mean starvation, bad climate, but for a considerable potion it’s actually alright compared with this world…” I replied.
“What does it look like?” Lily asked.
“The world? That’s a bit of a vague question…” I replied.
“What about where you were from?” Lily asked.
“Well... most places on land were linked with roads made of asphalt, basically it’s like black rock that’s made from a liquid you pour onto the ground, on the roads you’d travel by car, something most people had, imagine a carriage without a horse, and the person steering the carriage is also inside…plus it’s a lot faster.” I explained.
“What about the houses?” Lily asked excited, I’m surprised she never asked Adam these questions.
“Most houses where I’m from resemble Adam’s house…I guess we have more technology like television which lets you watch stuff…but I ended up living in an apartment…basically, imagine a massive tower, but make each floor big enough for dozens of rooms, each had massive glass windows…except for my one which had crappy small ones…” I explained.
“Do you miss it?” Lily asked.
“My windows? I guess there is some nostalgia in them but generally, I prefer our ones.” I explained.
Lily laughed a little, “No, I mean your old world…”
“Nope,” I replied quickly.
“Really? You don’t miss your family, friends, pets…maybe this technology?” Lily asked.
“It’s a bit dumb, but I didn’t have any of those things…I guess I had the technology…” I replied.
“So…weren’t you lonely?” Lily asked.
“Nope…” I replied.
“How come?” Lily asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked back,
“I mean…didn’t you wish you could meet with friends and have a family?” Lily asked.
“No…I just went to work…ate and went to sleep…” I replied.
Now that I think about it…that life was pretty boring…
“That sound pretty horrible…” Lily said, she looked kind of sad, “Are you sad about your secret getting out? Everybody knew already.” I replied with a shrug.
Lily shook her head, “No, I mean earth…it sounds great at first…but how can you exist as you did…” she said.
“Damn, if you keep talking like that I’ll think you feel bad for me,” I replied with an uncomfortable laugh.
“Do you think Adam lived like that too?” Lily asked.
“I doubt it, he mentioned how he had a decent education, I bet he had a good relationship with his parents…besides look at him, he’s always so happy, I only saw him angry once and in all fairness, it was a misunderstanding.” I explained thinking back to the dryad situation.
“He hasn’t always been like that,” Lily replied.
I was taken aback by this statement… “What do you mean?” I asked.
“He used to look even colder than you, even since Abby died, he isolated himself in these mountains, the house was always dirty and all Adam did was just sit around, eat, sleep and go for supplies,” Lily explained.
I guess Abby was his wife’s name.
“I used to feel so bad for him…after he helped me out in the past…” Lily mumbled the last part to herself.
“Yeah, he explained how you two met already,” I replied, I don’t think either of us wants to listen to the sad back-story again…
“Oh…well…I just felt so bad after Adam left the monster hunters…in the end, it was just him and Abby and by the end…he was left alone.” Lily explained, she started to look sadder and sadder with every sentence.
“I decided that the least I could do was to go with him, and when he started to fall too deep in the depths of his depression I’d say something about marrying him or other stuff like that just to get him feeling some emotion, even if it was just anger,” Lily explained.
“Wait, hold on…are you saying you aren’t like…super into Adam?!” This was a legitimate shock.
“Of course not! How could any woman hope to settle down with someone who chooses to live out in the mountains with a couple of plant kids instead of talking things out with his family…that being the monster hunters, besides he keeps going off randomly just to wander around and on top of that he didn’t even bother to reject my staged advances lightly!” Lily was more pissed off than sad by the end.
“Then why would you keep doing this?!” I asked.
Lily didn’t reply for a bit, “At this point, I have nothing else to do…I still consider Adam a close friend, even is he doesn’t think of me as one, and even if I have to play this embarrassing character every time, it’s still something.” Lily explained.
“You should really get that cleared up, Adam might not hate you as much…” I replied.
“I doubt he’d listen…but it’s alright…I’m used to things as they are.” Lily said trying to sound happy.
“Well, suit yourself. I’ll be heading back home.” I replied.
When I reached the house I saw Uriel cooking something, he went down to the village earlier this morning, it seems like the people were happy to give him whatever he wanted as long as he didn’t sing, he still paid of course.
Based on the prices he told me, the price of vegetables tripled since last week.
“Hey, cat. I’m hungry. Feed the hungry child.” I taunted him, he hated being rushed while cooking.
“Shut up! Cooking is a delicate process that requires constant attention and adequate time!” Uriel replied in an angry tone, he was stirring something in a big metal pot.
“Hey, cat,” I called out to Uriel.
“What do you want?” He asked irritated.
“Do you think we have a chance to take care of the whole world dying thing?” I asked seriously.
“...Beats me, but dwelling on it won’t help.” Uriel replied.
“I guess you’re right for once…” I sighed laying down on the couch and staring out the window.
“Hey, cat…” I called out to Uriel again.
“What do you want now?” He asked again.
“Didn’t you say that there is a god…?” I asked.
“Yeah, of course. Who do you think created all these worlds?” Uriel asked rhetorically.
“And you said he’s stuck...that he locked himself in somewhere…?” I asked.
“Yeah…what about it?” Uriel asked.
“Do you think…we could get him out?” I asked.
A silence filled the room.
“If there was a way…It would have been done already…” Uriel replied in a sombre tone.
More silence…
“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” I said that, but I’m still not convinced…I think it’s worth investigating…
Uriel placed a plate before me, it was a plate of pasta, on it was fried onion and fried sausage, both diced into small bits, over that Uriel crumbled some cottage cheese.
“What is this?” I asked looking at the abomination.
“It’s a dish from Earth,” Uriel replied.
“That’s cool, but what about the food,” I asked.
“Just shut up and eat it,” Uriel complained.
I tried some and it turned out really good, a bit salty, but I like salt…
“Damn, it’s actually really good…” I said in a surprised yet unphased tone.
“Told you,” Uriel said with a smug smile.
Just then Lily entered the house, “Just in time, dinner’s ready.” Uriel said, going over to get Lily a bowl.
“Thanks, Uriel. I’ll go wash my hands first.“ Lily walked off into the bathroom.
“At least someone here has some sort of understanding of hygiene…” Uriel sighed looking at me.
“Hey, this body is still a child, I’m building my immunity,” I replied.
“That’s not at all how that works,” Adam said from behind me.
“Look who’s back,” I said with a relatively genuine smile.
I looked over to Ark, he was standing behind Adam, “Hey, who’s the edgy looking guy.” I asked.
“That is Ark. He is also possessed with a second soul.” Adam explained.
“Who’re you calling edgy?!” Ark demanded clutching his fists.
“...I dunno…he seems like an asshole…but not possessed.” I replied.
“What the hell are you-” Ark was cut off by Adam, “I’ve been travelling with him for a while now, and I can assure you he’s both,” Adam explained.
“Screw both of you…” Ark hissed.
“Tsk…whatever…take me to this mage that can remove souls…” Ark demanded looking at Adam.
Adam’s face contorted to a grin as he looked to Ark and then to me.
Ark followed Adam’s gaze back to me, “You have got to be shitting me, there is no way in hell this bitch is the great wizard.” Ark complained.
“Right, he’s on his own,” I replied going back to eating my food.
“Don’t be like that! Both you, stop acting like kids!” Adam said in a disappointed tone.
“Adam, he’s clearly the bad guy…” I replied.
“What do you mean?” Adam asked confused, he turned to look at Ark and the back to me, “I dunno, he looks normal…his hair is kind of greasy…” Adam replied.
“Leave him alone!” Uriel demanded.
I let out a sigh and went back to eating my dinner.
“Come one, take his second soul out!” Adam pleaded.
“Fine…” I stood up and walked over to Ark.
I placed a hand on his torso and closed my eyes, I imagined the silhouette of Ark’s frame and imagine a white light representing his should, it was pretty small, next I imagined the other soul, I noticed that the two souls were tangled up, specifically his soul was holding onto the green soul.
I imagined the white soul letting go of the green soul, but it didn’t…back on earth I had very poor control over my imagination, if you told me to imagine an apple, I’d imagine a hundred different apples, never being able to focus on one before it shifts until it’s not even an apple, this was kind of similar, it was like I snapped out of magic-imagination-mode back to normal-imagination-mode.
“Is everything alright?” Adam asked noticing the process it taking a while.
“I’m not sure…there is something weird about this one…it’s like it doesn’t want to untangle.” I explained.
“That’s weird…I guess even your magic has limits.” Adam pointed out.
“I’m not giving up just yet…” I replied.
Going back in magic-imagination-mode I imagined a third soul, a bright yellow one, I made it force it’s way in between the green and white soul, next I tried to make it push the two souls apart but I snapped back to normal-imagination-mode, guess that’s a sign of me not being able to magic something…
“Well, it’s a bit mixed up, but essentially the good soul is tangled up with the bad one, so I popped another soul in just to even things out,” I explained.
“Makes sense…” Adam replied seemingly satisfied.
“The hell it does, you made it worse!” Ark complained.
“No, only one-third is bad and two-thirds are good, I improved your stats man,” I replied going back to my food.
A silence came across the room, “I see how it is…so you couldn’t fix it…” Ark sounded pissed off.
“Relax, man,” Adam said walking up to Ark.
“You wanted in on fucking my life over…didn’t you?” Ark summoned his six spider legs and escaped out into the woods, as the sun began to set.
He ran past the woods and towards the village of Derfal where the festival took place not too long ago, he crawled into one of the buildings towards the outskirts of the city finding only an elderly man sitting in an old rocking chair, before the man could react Ark pierced his heart with his spider leg and shut the door with another.
Ark took out the bottle from his pocket and chugged down the entire vial.
As soon as he swallowed it he felt like a flame appeared in his stomach as if his stomach acid became lava.
His spider legs twitched uncontrollably, a sharp pain appeared in his head causing him to stumble onto the dead man’s bed and pass out only to wake up later in the night.
Ark opened his eyes, he saw everything clearly despite the complete darkness, he patted his face confirming that he did still resemble a human, but when he tried to summon his spider legs, they erupted not only faster but they were notably stronger, he felt his entire body get stronger, he walked up to the dead man sitting in the rocking chair and grabbed a hold of his hand, with a weak flick of the wrist he snapped his entire hand off, not only breaking the bone but separating it completely.
This was when Ark smelt it, the savoury, sweet smell of the blood…he had an unexplainable urge to devour the flesh of the man, his mouth began to water and as it did a drop fell onto the man’s skin, immediately turning it black as the veins burst right out of the skin as the rest of the body turned a purple colour.
The flesh of the corpse fell apart quickly, revealing a horrible odour even Ark couldn’t take.
Then hid his spider legs and walked outside where he was met by a figure, “Ark,” the voice said almost like a greeting, it was the hooded figure from before, her voice colder than before.
“It would seem that you let someone tinker with the bosses work…” the figure said with a disappointed sigh.
“Y-yeah, but they didn’t break anything. Everything works fine!” Ark replied.
“I’m sorry Ark, we don’t need someone like you. The boss is very disappointed.” the figure sighed, turning to leave but before she got a chance to turn to smoke her hand was grabbed by Ark.
“That wasn’t the deal…what about-” Ark’s question was cut off by the figure, “Don’t you get it, the deals off.” the figure replied, in an instant Ark drew his spider legs in hopes of tearing the cloaked figure in half, but she jumped back in time, tearing only the cloak off, it was a girl, she had light pink hair and a frilly black dress down to her ankles.
“How rude!” she exclaimed with a grin as she reached into her pocket pulling out what looked like a wand.
She pointed it at Ark and with a single flick the house behind Ark exploded in a bright purple flame, “Damn, I missed.” She laughed.
“This isn’t fair! We had a deal! You were meant to help me find my sister!” Ark cried.
“Oh…about that, we did, but she’s dead…She died of some unsavoury disease…” the girl’s face contorted to a grin, “It was pretty common in her line of work, it’s such a shame too, she was so young…” the figure taunted,
Ark rushed in performing slashing blow after blow, trying to get a single hit on the girl, she must have been a demon, “Y’know, I’ve met a lot of people stronger than you…for example, you know the general of the human country? Oh, of course, you don’t, Well, let’s just say he’s taken care of.” she said with a giggle.
“Shut up you bitch!” Ark cried, his pale face became flushed with red from rage, for any normal person the speed of Ark’s attacks would have been too extreme to catch up with but the girl just playfully moved around them.
In the light of the moon, the fight continued, “Well, it’s time for me to go, this was fun, not really.” The girl said before drawing a dagger and planting it into Ark’s abdomen, Ark gasped from the shock and pain recoiling slightly but the girl just stepped in closer to bury the blade deeper inside, from Ark’s mouth blood began to pool, ever-increasing amounts of blood, he let out a cough covering the pink-haired figure in a crimson blood, “Ugh, have you no manners?! Spitting blood on a lady?!” She looked up at Ark who was grinning widely, the figure froze for a second before she realised what happened, the blood leaving Ark’s mouth turned a sickly black colour as it began to bubble up.
The figure dropped the dagger and started to make her way out before feeling something thug on her leg, she looked back only to see a black web tied around her leg, the same web Ark used as a bandage to stop the bleeding from his abdomen, still with that same grin he dragged the hysterical figure into the forest, with every second the poison spread further around her circulatory system, although it seemed to have worked faster or already dead bodies.
“LET GO OF ME!” The girl was no acting more like the age she looked, flailing hysterically trying to claw at the earth until her fingers began to fall apart.
“STOP! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” The figure cried, she tried to claw at the web to get it loose but to pain from her already damaged fingers was too great.
“Stohohop…I don’t…want to die…” the girl wailed placing her bloodied hands over her face, the skin around her arms was already taking on a bluish-purple hue.
Without reacting Ark dragged the figure deeper into the woods making sure to savour every moment she felt the pain she must have inflicted on dozens of others.
“SHUT UP! OR I’LL RIP YOUR TONGUE OUT!” Ark said in a shaky voice, it was a mix of rage and hysteria.
The figure’s protests became unintelligibly wails and eventually as the poison reached most of the body, it turned to silence.
“Don’t tell me you’re dead already…” Ark said placing his hand over the girl’s mouth in hopes of sensing her breath.
“Good, we can’t end this just yet…too bad I can’t cancel out the poison…for what you did to me…I’d break every bone in your body and drag to the nearest whorehouse to rot away…but you won’t last that long…I guess you can thank your boss for this mercy since it’s his power after all…” Ark laughed a maniacal laugh.
Ark picked up a pile of rocks, placing them one on top of the other and later placing the girl on top of the rocks, attaching a noose of web from her neck the tree branch above.
“Go ahead and stand until your legs go numb…” Ark said with a wide grin as he sat down on the ground enjoying the sickening show.
Through the tears, the girl forced a smile “Hey Ark…”
“See you in hell.” She said before kicking one of the rocks from under her away.
The grin disappeared from Ark’s face…”I hoped she’d drag it on a bit longer…” he complained before standing up leaving the hanging corpse of the girl for the wildlife to take care of.