“I still don’t see why I should stay hidden when it’s unlikely anyone down here is bound to care one way or another,” Ivory grumbled from within the inner folds of his robes.

‘They’ll have seen us together,’ Jun thought back.

‘It’s just not a risk we should be willing to take. There’s bound to be someone who knows to associate a particularly ebullient lady Cthulle with a certain young lord. Even if it was only for a day, something that bizarre would have lodged itself in more than a few heads. Once back on the surface, it’s quite possible one of them,’ he gestured at the group of teenagers.

‘Might let slip that they saw such an unlikely pair still kicking. It’s not as if the element of surprise is integral to the plan, but I’d rather we not risk involving the city lord prematurely when we don’t have to. Knowing that spiteful man, if he knew I was alive, he’d only make things all the more difficult.’

“I suppose…” she said begrudgingly. “Though I must say, it’s much too stuffy in here. And, anyway, why keep secrets at all when we can simply leave them be? Just ignore them and we can go about our day, can we not? Surely that’s more important than aiding these smelly, dirty humans? Are we not pressed for time? Do we really have the luxury to be coddling these… these strangers?”

’Hey! Wasn’t too long ago that I was a smelly dirty human. Still not too far off, actually. Also, I still fail to see why the rush. And, yeah, I’ll grant you it might be a bit of a hassle, but I still want to bring them along with us if we can.’

“But whatever for?!” Ivory whined.

‘Well, for starters, because it’s the right thing to do. Also, if it were me trapped down here, powerless and afraid, I’d want someone else to do the same.’

Ivory grumbled a bit at this, but she didn’t argue any further.

In truth, he probably could have acquiesced, at least to her initial request. It was a reasonable expectation and, if anything, he was the one being unreasonable by refusing. But the vision she’d imparted to him had thrown him on so many levels.

To the point that, quite honestly, he wasn’t entirely sure he was ready to face her just yet.

Setting all that aside, however, Jun surveyed the five rat-kin as they stood frozen in place. They were terrified, that much was obvious. Personally, it’d taken him quite some time to notice all the little quirks that came with being of a higher resonance tier.

Apparently, they’d picked up on it far faster than he had. To his mind, either the effects had been so subtle up until now as to be basically indistinguishable, or the transition from Aged Stone to Traveled Copper meant a qualitative increase to his resonance.

If the last line of the rather ominous description was of any indication, he found the latter entirely too possible.

In any case, something had very clearly changed, and it wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting. It’d been little things at first. Light crystals flickering on and off as he ran past, more dust than seemed warranted kicked up in his wake.

Then, when he’d been administering medicine to those that’d needed it most, he’d seen it.

Odd ripples in the pools of blood where they had absolutely no right to be. Large disturbances in the puddles, like an invisible stone being dropped in repeatedly, followed by a series of smaller ripples like dozens of tiny little divots rapidly carved into the surface.

Each effect seemed to throb in time with his heartbeat, swapping back and forth with even regularity. Until every so often, both would happen at once in a frothing, overly excited display.

He didn’t know what this meant for him exactly, now or moving forward, but, if he extrapolated blindly, it would seem that the further along his resonance became, the more he’d affect the world around him simply by existing. He wasn’t sure what other affects might follow, but he could already see more than a few problems that might crop up as a result.

All that to say, he thought he understood why the rat-kin were so reticent to start something, though why they seemed so paralyzed with terror, he didn’t entirely understand.

Jun took a step forward, and every one of the spirit beasts flinched back. The one with the neck injury doing so rather sluggishly. It was honestly somewhat of a miracle that it was still conscious at all, let alone still standing.

As he watched, the creature swayed on its feet, though its beady little eyes never left him.

Jun thought back onto the scene he’d been presented with upon his arrival. As this beast in particular seemed to take great pleasure in butchering helpless kids so far from home. He decided in that moment that this one would be the first to go.

He’d refrained from using his crushing concept until now—not for any particular reason, other than he’d lacked the time—and was curious to see how it would fair in a real-world environment. And so, without further ado, Jun felt for the tether connecting him to the patron ideal at large and pulled.

A blinding flash of white-hot pain lanced through his mind like a jagged bolt of lightning.

More intense than anything he’d ever experienced, yet so brief, that, by the time it was over, he was left questioning whether it’d happened at all. Meanwhile in its aftermath, he felt no worse for wear.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He felt quite good, in fact.

Great, even.

“Fucking fantastic! Whoo! Saints above, that hits like a mother! Like I just mainlined a triple dose of paternal approval, and fuck if that’s not the high that keeps on giving. I swear, I feel like I’m a brand-new man! And- fuck me, would you get an eyeful of these bad boys. Are you seeing what I’m seeing? ‘Cause, I mean, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me, right?!”

Jun scrutinized his hands closely with a childlike sense of awe, turning them this way and that. Clenching them and unclenching them. Balling them into fists until the tendons were clearly visible.

“Tell me these aren’t a couple of straight killers I dare ya! Gods gift to man, that’s what they are. Show me a pair of matching money wranglers that even compare, and I’ll show you a lying sack of shite—strike my stepmother down if I tell a lie. So what are we thinkin’, Mini V? Figure names are the first order of business, but it’s which names that’s givin’ me pause. ‘Cause me personally? I’d say I’m rather fond of Balthazar the Conqueror and Five Knuckle Skull Duster, though I’m open to suggestions if you’ve got anything better.”

“J-Jun? Are you quite alright?”

“Hah! Of all the-?! ‘Am I alright?’ she says! Darlin’ I’m a damn sight better than alright! I’m a fucking god! Haven’t you been payin’ attention?”

“That-! You… are you sure? Because you really don’t sound okay.”

“You worry too much! I’m telling ya, I’ve never been better! Matter of fact, I’m damn near perfect! Besides, if I wasn’t ‘alright,’ could I do this?”

Jun pulsed out a massive wave of crushing aura, funneled it all into his raised right fist, until the skin there had turned a metallic hue, then brought it down hard in a streaking silver blur. His fist met marble with a thunderous report, detonating the spot in an explosion of marble shards, and causing the entire hall to shift ominously on its foundations.

Jun ignored the screams of terror or pain which emanated from behind him, far too busy grinning maniacally at what utter ruin ‘The Conqueror’ was capable of dishing out on very short notice. Ivory, for her part, took her sweet time in responding, but that was fine.

If she needed another demonstration, Skull Duster was more than eager for a chance to upstage his brother.

“You know? I think you’ve made your point.”

Skull Crusher couldn’t help but feel disappointed at that. Jun couldn’t help but empathize with the poor guy.

“Are you sure? ‘Cause I could show you again. You know, in case you’re needin’ a visual aid or somethin’. No skin off my back.”

“No! No, I think I’ve seen enough. I think we’ve all seen enough,” Jun’s left fist slumped over in disappointment. “B-but, hey! What do you say we take care of those mean old beasts before they can hurt anyone else, huh? Does that sound like a good idea? I’m sure your, ah, your Mr. Crusher there should be very pleased with that. No?”

Scull Crusher brightened. Blimey! She was right! He’d nearly forgotten about the creepy little rat fuckers!

“Well, I’ll be damned! That he would, Mini V! And here I’d thought I was the clever one in this relationship!”

And with that—a billowing cloud of silvery aura wreathing his body—Jun turned to face the aforementioned enemy. An enemy who looked, if anything, even more terrified now than they had been before.

image [https://i.ibb.co/rw6tMBB/IMG-2711.png]

Jun pulled his foot gingerly from the sucking wet slop; the thick skull of a particularly sturdy rat-kin. Or, at the very least, what was left of it. Grimacing, he tried to flick away whatever grisly bits still clung to his shoes. And when that didn’t work, resorted to scraping them across the scant few islands of unsullied tile that were left, amidst a sea of crimson gore.

It was somewhat undignified—something he needed to actually think about now that he was no longer alone down here—but so was trailing grey goo everywhere he went. It was just plain nasty, not to mention embarrassing.

Well, gross factor aside at least that settles one thing for sure, he thought.

He couldn’t just punch things with his brand-new mantra. He could kick things too. Though he still wasn’t entirely certain what had possessed him to do so. In fact, the whole of the fight was a bit of a blur now that he thought about it.

Chalking it up to some sort of strange battle haze, he turned his mind to more important matters.

Getting back to the matter of his fellow humans, Jun turned to see that they were already on their feet. Even the feisty one with the auburn hair—the lacerations on her face already in the process of knitting back together. He still didn’t know why she’d felt the need to, quite literally, spit his gift of generosity back into his face, but, oh well, it was her choice, ultimately.

And… yep. There they were. All standing there, huddled together as if for warmth.

And just… well… staring… at him.

And very intensely he might add.

For a moment the swirling mixture of nerves and anticipation he’d carried with him ever since realizing there were actually other people down here faltered.

Why were they looking at him like that? Did he have something on his face? Oddly enough the only one that appeared to watch him with something other than outright fear or hostility was the pill spitter, her large brown eyes staring at him with a startling intensity.

Somewhat lost as to what he could say to break the inexplicable tension, he just up and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“That first beast. It was practically half dead by the time I got here. Your handy work I’m guessing?” he said, already cringing internally.

Terrific.

The first words out of his mouth and already centered around violence.

What would they think of him now?

Would they peg him as some bloody-minded combat junky?

Or worse… an actual cultivator!

Jun shivered at the thought. Not because it wasn’t true, necessarily, but because, in all honesty, he hadn’t really expected his big debut to happen so soon.

He found himself sorely unprepared.