As soon as I stepped outside, all eyes were on me. Before I had made my sudden entrance, they were marching down the street, but now. The centipedes were frozen in place. Watching me with their blood thirsty eyes. This was almost like that nightmare I had back in Chikū.

A quick scan with my Qi sight told me there were at least six of them in front of me, and several more down the street. I wasted no time. Using the confusion, I fired off the two low powered fireball spells, I had previously conjured into reality.

The two novas were aimed at the farther two of the bugs. One fireball instantly landed and as a result, expanded in a hungry blaze. While the other red nova was easily avoided. That centipede seemed to show a bit more intelligence than the on that got hit.

The nearest three lunged at me in hopes of pinching me with their mandates and injecting their poisonous stingers into my body. There attempts failed, when I jumped over them resulting in the demons slamming their chitin covered heads into the building behind me. Thus causing the wall and roof to collapse over their heads, creating a dust cloud in the process.

As soon as one of my feet touched the ground, I pivoted on my heel and dashed forward, swinging my blade while closing the distance between me and the closest mob. With my Qi sight I was able to spot their weak points easily. With their tiny souls one good hit was enough to turn them into dust.

My sword bit down into the monsters red belly as the blades aura elongated causing the cut to expand deep into the bugs mass. During its last moments, The centipede had released a cloud of poison, but that wasn’t a problem thanks to the wind aspects in my aura, providing me with my own circulation of air.

It's body turned to dust as it’s purple cloud of poison expanded like a terrible grunge band, with a fog machine on their first gig at the old folks home.

I used the gas to my advantage and hid within it. From there I moved around the street cutting one centipede down after the other, until the only ones I could see were a few blocks away.

Feeling warmed up, I hopped up onto one of the buildings to get a better look around. My Qi sight helped tremendously as it pointed out the monsters perfectly.

It was still hard to see most stuff, but with a bit of focus it was doable, especially since that miasma couldn’t cling to me with my aura active.

It wasn’t hard to tell the bugs apart from people. Their souls were tiny and were made of antessence. There were also people down that way, and the giant bug was in the opposite direction.

It looked like there was some magic shielding set up. There were several of them linked together forming a wall around the area. That was smart. In-game we would do something similar to contain the fighting in a single area.

This kept a lot of our buildings from being destroyed and even helped us set up traps and the like. After all, attacking a wall of retaliation fire would only cause the durability of your gear to go down. Damage over time was the worst for durability.

The odd thing was that that type of shield had no way of retaliation. What was that about? Did shadow and Luca think of a different way to take Squirmy out or was this just bad planning?

The only benefit I could think of was that that type of shield did have a lot more durability. It could be upgraded into a damaging shield, but the options weren't great.

The people down there were fighting off the invading mobs. Their team work was pretty good. Where did they even come from? There souls are odd. That’s no mortal rank soul. What the hell did that mean?

Were Cosmo’s people already here? They were kind of weak though. I wonder, are they NPCs? Cosmo said their system was designed for stronger souls. That would also explain why NPC levels were so much more OP than player levels.

Where did a group like that come from though? That was when I remembered the soldiers I’d summoned a week ago… or was that last night? Time isn’t real.

They were already mobilized and working in perfect sync. If the system was the same as in game then a night of stat training probably gave them several points in their physical stats. That was good.

Was that why the shields were like that? Oh, I get it now! The mobs aren’t the real threat! It’s the boss! While Shadow and Luca could easily take down the mobs themselves. It made more sense to farm the exp. Because when it came time to fight the boss. They were gonna need a raid party.

My guild mates did a great job while I was gone. I’m so happy I don’t have to deal with this stuff by myself. I’m an idiot. The weight of the world wasn’t on my shoulders. It was on everyone’s. In that case I just need to do my part.

I glanced over towards the Boss. It was huge, but I bet it’s weak to fire. If I can light it, it’ll slowly burn to death. It’s not like Squirmy had a spell that could put out flames.

The only body of water capable of putting them out is on the other side of the city. That sort of travel wouldn’t work with the quarantine wall.

“Considering how big the soul is, that has to be the main body.” I said aloud.

There was no way it was in the lower spirit ranks. Squirmy’s soul was bigger than Cain’s. How was that… oh, right. Squirmy was eating human souls. How many did he go through to get that strong!

The thought made me very angry. Squirmy had already assimilated so many people. I couldn’t save them anymore. They were already gone. All that was left to do was to save the people that were still around and hope that my friends were still alive.

I’ll attack the main body first. Maybe I can end this quickly before he has time to get any stronger. Even if I cant kill that thing, at the very least I might be able to figure out a strategy and pass it along to the raid party. Attack patterns, abilities, weaknesses, weak spots. Whatever it takes.

My feet erupted as they exploded with Qi pulses. My strength and speed were on a whole other level, as I dashed towards my target. As much as I wanted to find everyone and make sure they were okay. It was better to gather information first. The most dangerous part was the main body after all.

Each Qi pulse caused the roof of the building I was on to collapse. As long as my guild stood, the city could be rebuilt. As I went, I gathered up aspects feeding heat, wind, momentum, earth, and water into my aura. While working to build up it’s layers.

Each layer grew in somewhat messy. It took time to break it down and reform it, but once it had that solid steel texture, I could move on to the next layer. Each layer was annoying to build and was progressively harder to make with each stack.

I needed to prepare my attack for Squirmy, so I began building a fireball spell. Not just any fireball, but an advanced magic fireball. One night while I was studying after dinner. Right after Lorie and Zubu did the dishes. Lorie caught me looking at a type of magic I shouldn’t have.

-A few days ago-

To my frustration Lorie pulled my book away. “Child, you are far to young to be playing with this level of magic. Besides without a mana lens it would be nearly impossible to control a spell like that. Where did you even find this?”

I stretched my arms and legs while yawning, then put my head down on the table like a child coming back to their desk, after playing outside during a hot hour of recess.

The cold table felt good on my throbbing head. “Lorie, can you at least tell me what it is?” I asked feeling tired after a long day of playing with Zubu.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Lorie sighed. “Well, since you've already read it, I'd rather clear it up so your not confused. This is called advanced magic. It’s like going from a calculator to a computer. The main difference being the double circle and the amount of runes put into it.” She explained.

Even though I was tired I immediately shot up with interest. “Wow! So its more complicated magic then?”

“Not necessarily. Think of it like this. You can create a more powerful fireball by injecting more aspects and void into the spell, but this puts strain on the spell. The runes aren’t capable of holding that much power, so the spell can break. You were close to doing that when you made that yellow fireball. At that point you were at the limit of how much you can put in.” She explained.

“I see. So the CPU can’t handle the information load.” I worded it in a way that made the most sense to me. “Then how do you get around it? Do you add more connectors and containment runes? I could also make the spell circle much bigger.” I asked.

“Your not wrong. It can help with spell stability, but it can also mess up the flow of power within the spell. Let me show you what advanced magic does.” Lorie showed me an example by creating a fireball magic circle. It was big with bold lines, so I would be able to see it better.

Containment, connector, wind, connector, amplification, delay connector, heat, connector, amplification. Delay connector, momentum, connector, amplification, end connector.

“Watch closely child” She began adding heat, wind and amplification runes with connectors between them. This made the spell circle grow in size. The other runes just kept shrinking to make room. The spell powered up only for the runes to destroy the outer ring of the spell causing the whole thing to erupt into violent flame aspects.

Lorie with all her knowledge, skill, and control managed to contain the backlash within the palm of her hand. The small explosion frightened me, causing me to jump in my seat and nearly fall over.

As soon as I got over it my curiosity took hold of me. “What happened?” I asked, somewhat disappointed.

“The power of the runes over powered the magic container. When making spells one needs to account for the power of the runes. In such cases you need to add a third layer to the containment circle.” She began to recreate the spell, but this one had another circle added to the outer ring. Within that circle was even more runes.

Oddly enough. Instead of the first circle ending in a end connector rune. It had a connector that was ‘T’ shaped. As she poured power into the spell the runes lit up one after another. She was powering it slowly, so I could see the flow of magic.

When the power reached the T’ connector. It went into the second circle connecting directly into a second Containment rune. The power continued until it hit the final end rune. With that a fat red nova appeared in the center.

To my surprise, It was so stable. So big, yet it felt like it was only in the first stage of its power. While it didn't rage out violently, this one seemed to have so much more stability than a normal fireball.

If a normal fireball was just called a fire ball, then this one could be called a greater fireball. Maybe I could poor a lot more power into this one. Something above a Solarball.

“Just so you know a cultivator like yourself should never try this kind of magic, at least not until your control over essence gets twice as good. Promise me you won’t mess with it. It could go horribly wrong.” She warned.

“I promise on my bastard of a brother’s life.” I sincerely swore.

“Good girl.” She patted my head causing a wave of gleeful joy to rush through me. “Wait, I thought you hated your brother. Well, I’m sure you don’t wish his death.”

-Present-

It wasn’t my fault. I made it pretty clear how I felt about my brother, but Lorie seemed to think I was a good person. In reality I think I was around neutral. It’s almost like she wanted me to play with dangerous magic.

That's probably what it was. She just didn't want to seem irresponsible. How was I supposed to know she was being serious. According to my stat sheet I was just a little girl, so how would I know. Worst case scenario I melt my belly button shut. I’m okay with that since I shouldn’t have one to begin with.

The first magic circle took little time to form. It was the second one that felt very forced. Once I got the extra runes in, the spell seemed to lock in place. The magic itself was slow at building up. The lack of aspects made it burn like an idle cigarette.

The spell didn’t need to be made right away. I still had time before I reached that asshole. I suspended the spell allowing it to linger in the background. Then began making my way by jumping over the roof tops.

Just as I jumped to the next building an alley lurking centipede launched itself up onto the roof from the other side. As soon as it spotted me it lurched forward for a cobra strike. I gathered up the aspects for a platform and managed to block its path.

Its body crumpled against the platform creating spider web-like cracks on its surface. Using the confusion, I dashed forward slashing at its body and reducing it to ash. It's cries attracted other mobs nearby. They tripped over themselves trying to get up onto the roof.

I readied my blade as the first two mobs climbed onto the roof. Working in tangent they released a spray of green acid. I used a weakened version of my caterpillar aura to weave in and out of the green liquid. It hit the tiles melting them on contact.

Wasting no time I moved in for a killing strike. My aura coated blade cut through chitin reducing the demon into dust. I quickly turned to the other centipede only to see it lunge at me stinger first.

Unleashing a Qi pulse under my foot, I launched my body into a backflip landing a kick to what looked like the centipedes throat. It was a light tap to throw off his attack. This caused it’s momentum and head to fly upwards, opening it’s belly for attack. I wasted no time and slashed at it’s stomach just as my feet touched the stone tiles.

It’s weak shell of a body gave up turning to ash. This was too easy. I mean sure their attacks could be very deadly if they landed, but even a low level player could take them out if they got a good hit in.

Their chitin was durable, but blunt force could easily get through by causing internal damage. Their tummies were the softer part of their bodies making them ideal for slash attacks. The only real challenge here was the big guy.

These buggy foot soldiers were only meant to kill civilians not fight off actual warriors. I eyed the remaining centipede on the ground. They looked to be fighting each other for a chance to get at me.

That was odd, why were only some of them working together? It also felt like there were some that were smarter. I wonder… I tried to focus in on them.

To read them. In order to do that, I needed to empty my mind and open it up to them. Surely enough I managed to connect. It was so much easier now that I knew apathy was the key.

I saw sparks of memories. There wasn't much there. It looked like a tiny insignificant thought. A sliver of what once was. The memory of waking up in the morning next to a wife and eating breakfast with the kids.

There was something else. Woven into the fabric of thought was a thread of darkness. Almost as if the soul itself had been badly burned or marked. Like a scar or tattoo. An ugly stain. I tried to make it out, only to find something else. Something terrible.

I felt disgust rise inside me as the memory of years of torture flashed before my mind. I saw a dark room and my brother holding a knife. Carving my flesh.

The memory only lasted a second, but it was enough to disgust me. I threw up. Off the side of the roof. That vision was so nauseating that I almost fell off the building.

I… no it wasn’t me… he was screaming, begging to make it stop, but Cain… not Cain, Squirmy just kept cutting and finally after months of this. The monster disguised as my brother offered a deal.

“Sell me your soul and the pain will end.”

The victim agreed and I watched as their soul was cut into a million pieces and scattered among several different monsters. The other centipede. The one fighting it’s brother for a chance to eat me, was a soul fragment from a different person.

There was a promise. A way back to a humanoid body. It was vague and fleeting, but there. It echoed in the monsters simple mind. Again and again. I could hear it. Understand it. Feel that powerful desire.

“GoOoOOOo BAaaaAcK!”

All these people were tortured and torn apart. Twisted into these things. I could feel their agony. The desire to ascend and go back to being a person. To be whole once more. They were promised a way back, but they needed to eat souls in order to ascend.

Before I knew it I felt tears running down the sides of my face. This was my fault. “I'm so sorry.” I mumbled before dropping down for an attack.

Swinging my blade it elongated into a cutting whip. I landed between them as their bodies fell in two. I couldn't let them continue living. I had to kill them all. Screw the EXP.

Turning towards Squirmy’s main body, I saw the line of hundreds of monsters. They all needed to die. Each and every last one of them. I dashed forward towards my next target, and one by one I dismantled them.

My Qi was burning, so I began draining aspects from my attackers. There was quintessence and poison aspects coming off of them, but I was able to cycle them down into null Qi by mixing in trace amounts of ambient essence.

Half of that Qi was the fed into my spark slightly increasing it’s re-gen. While the rest was braided and weaved into my star pattern, to keep my aura satiated.

While killing these monsters was easy. It was still tiring. Every time I took one down another showed up. It didn’t cost Squirmy much to make them either.

They were also attached to the system somehow. I guess Aku wasn’t the only one that learned to enchant. He was manipulating the world system.

I scissor kicked a centipede to one side only to be met with a wall of acid. My platform activated forming a wall between me and them. I took that chance to put a little distance between us. Then fired a spray of Manabolts.

The bolts slammed into the wall of acid, turning bug into ash. A normal person would probably think they were all dead, but my Qi sight showed me that there was one still alive. It lunged out of the gas stinger first.

I swung my aura coated blade in a diagonal swing, slicing off its head. The rest of it collapsed in a cloud of dust. I apologized to it then turned to the main body. With my caterpillar aura, I zoomed across the street with little to no Qi wastage. Squirmy would pay.