Skeletal feet stepped onto a burned piece of wood, crushing it underneath. It was an eerie sight, but there was no one to see them, a pair of white skeletons wandering among the burning ruins of the once great sect. Two feeble demonic existences painting the scenery of destruction into the scene of a perfect hell. Strangely, one of the skeletons wielded a broken blade with a large gem, a piece of art that would rather fit into a museum than a battlefield if whole and preserved.
However, the blade was dirty and broken, looking bleak, the same as the mood of the one residing inside its black gem.
The skeletons suddenly stopped, when they saw two fingers extending from underneath a nearby ruin, one of the fingers still twitching. The blade wielding skeleton quickly moved closer and found the neck that belonged to the pair of fingers, a neck covered with white beard. Without hesitation, the skeleton reached out and slid the throat of the unlucky survivor and Karl watched the numbers in front of him change.
He had decided to use the disaster of the Thunder God Sect to fuel his growth, as the people here were beyond saving.
They all had some sort of black energy swirling underneath their skin, Karl's guess was that it was a measure that the demonic cult had left behind to silence all witnesses and the only reason he was not affected was frankly that he was not a human, or even a living being. He had quickly decided to use the opportunity to level up his strength, however grim and inconsiderate to the dying survivors it was.
He had enough of being a decorative blade, a blade that broke when it needed to hold. He had still not found his purpose in the foreign land, but he knew for sure that he wanted to hold, not to break, the second time he needed to stand firm.
"That should be the last one." Karl looked around, but it was not of much use due to dense smoke that would cause any living and breathing existence some level of discomfort, but for Karl, it was a good camouflage.
With a sigh, he looked at his status to see what had changed during his last few victims. There was no tutorial or explanation and he was left on his own to figure out how everything worked.
Karl Gulden
Level 2 Dungeon Core
Mana Regeneration - 100/s
Spells- [Dig], [Build]
Summons- [Skeleton(Death) 5/s], [Ghost(Soul) 5/s], [Demonic Wolf(Fire) 5/s], [Vengeful Ghost(Lightning) 50/s]
[Experience 86/1000]
First, he completely ignored the new [Build] option. There was a possibility that the heavens would judge that building was not as dungeony as digging, but he decided not to gamble when there was no real need for it. Who would trust the finicky Heavens?
Definitely not him!
"Huh, the count finally moved, it stayed the same after the previous few kills." He looked at the number eighty six. the main problem was that only some of the sect members increased it. When he was still at level one, the numbers flew as if even sky was not the limit, but the pace slowed to a crawl as soon as he had hit the level two. Obviously, the experience gain was relative to his level and level ones did not count anymore.
He was carried around for a while and when he looked at his status again, he was surprised by a sudden change.
Karl Gulden
Level 2 Dungeon Core
Mana Regeneration - 100/s
Spells- [Dig], [Build]
Summons- [Skeleton(Death) 5/s], [Ghost(Soul) 5/s], [Vengeful Ghost(Lightning) 50/s], [Zombie(Ash) 50/s]
[Experience 86/1000]
"What the . . ? Do not tell me that it is not fixed!" He ordered his skeletons to walk back and the missing entry had resurfaced when he entered the area from before where a large pagoda that used to be the library was still being consumed by the flames.
"And the zombie is gone." Karl turned yet again and by running back and forth he was able to verify a simple truth. It seemed that what he was able to summon was local and was even related in some way to his immediate environment. He had even managed to find the exact corpse that kept giving him the option to summon [Zombie(Ash) 50/s].
"Whatever, I have to try out new summons, let's have a tournament!" He laughed quietly inside of his black gemstone and summoned the zombie into existence.
The corpse that was the source of the summoning option began to stir and creepily stood up when he used his [Zombie(Ash) 50/s] option. The zombie looked nothing special, except its dark complexion and bits of black ash that kept falling off of it.
It was obvious that he would not be able to summon another one, as the resource for the summoning ritual was already exhausted. Not that he was even able due to the upkeep cost of the summon. Karl considered how many opponents he should create, knowing that a summon with ten times more mana upkeep cost would surely destroy a single skeleton in seconds.
"Let's start with a warmup, three level one skeletons versus one level two zombie." There was no doubt in Karl's mind that the zombie would win, as it was fifty mana against fifteen. Based on that same logic he immediately considered the zombie a level higher than the skeletons.
Slowly, three skeletons emerged from the ground. It was off that they did not seem to consume any resources, they were probably so low tier that there was no need to consume any resource as long as there was a place with a thick aura of death.
"Skeletons against a zombie. Contestants, get ready!" Karl shouted inside of his black gem, imagining a colosseum-like arena around them with a cheering mob that thirsted for blood. Well, only ash and bones in this case.
"Fight!" Karl gave them a mental order simultaneously and watched the three skeletons swiftly creaking towards the zombie that was moaning forward.
"My skellies will be owned so hard, I need to show them support. You can do it! Use your swords! Go for the head!" He began rooting for the skeletons and watched with bated breath as the competitors got into each others melee range.
The skeletons used their rusty swords. The first leading one swung its sword and scored a precise hit into the zombie's head. However, its weapon got stuck. The second skeleton managed to penetrate the zombie's stomach, but the zombie failed to notice it and continued attacking. The third skeleton had been pushed to the side by the second, but refused to cancel its attack, skewering the zombies thigh. It was not discouraged by the detail that its sword skewered the thigh though the rib cage of the second skeleton, that became stuck.
The zombie nonchalantly slapped the first skeleton's skull and two teeth flew out of its jaw. The skeleton soon suffered a second hit that was even harder and its jaw broke. As if angered, the skeleton with broken jaw gripped its rusty sword with both hands and began to shake it violently in an urge to do something. At that point, the zombie gave the first skeleton a third slap and its jaw flew away.
The first skeleton's eyes flickered and the urgency of its pulls intensified. Interestingly and disgustingly, that fact turned the second skeleton's sword into a saw that moved constantly back and forth and had already turned the zombie's stomach into a mush due to the repeated movement.
Karl watched in awe when the zombie probably used its ability and suddenly vomited a cloud of ash at its three adversaries that did absolutely nothing aside from turning them pitch black. As if enraged due to its ability not doing a thing, the zombie slapped mightily and the skull of the first skeleton finally flew off and its bones collapsed onto the second and third skeleton that were slightly below it, still working on the stomach. Due to the weight of the three skeletons that were collapsing in a pile of bones, while two of them were still functioning, the force acting on the rusty sword going through the zombie's stomach reached a critical point and something snapped.
"What in the world?" Karl watched in terror as the zombie had its spine damaged and collapsed along with the skeletons, unable to move its legs anymore.
"They are continuing on the ground! It's like an MMA fight!" He immediately expected some of the fighters try to use jiu-jitsu, but what was used instead was the insidious skeleton rib cage shield technique where the third skeleton unscrupulously continued to stab the zombie's head and body, not even bothering to take its sword out of the rib cage of the second one that kept receiving the retaliating strikes of the crippled zombie.
Teeth, bones and jaws flew, bodily liquid's squelched and when everything ended, there was only the third skeleton alive in the pile of disgusting remains.
"Skeletons win? What?! Why is the zombie this useless? Expensive and useless!" Karl could not believe that the team skeletons won.
He repeated the tournament multiple times with other corpses suitable for zombie summoning, but the zombie won only once when it had managed to score a lucky hit at the start. In all the other cases, the trio of skeletons was victorious. Karl Gulden felt like after digesting a pill without any water to wash it down his throat. It was clear that he would not be able to follow the path of finding the most expensive summon and steamrolling everything with it.
"Was it because of the attributes, types, or what those things in brackets are? Does (Ash) suck against (Death) ?" He had no idea, but as he walked around to try his luck with a rare summon, there was suddenly an option that made him stop the skeleton that carried him and stare in despair, stupefied what he read in his status information.
Karl Gulden
Level 2 Dungeon Core
Mana Regeneration - 100/s
Spells- [Dig], [Build]
Summons- [Skeleton(Death) 5/s], [Ghost(Soul) 5/s], [Skeleton(Melancholy) 5/s], [Ghost(Brick) 5/s]
[Experience 86/1000]
"No, what screwed up cultivation world is this?! What is the attribute (Brick) supposed to mean? And (Melancholy) is not much better!" Karl was devastated. He thought that he was starting to see a pattern and would be able to decipher the local cultivation system, but something seemed to had gone terribly wrong in here.
He immediately decided to uncover the mystery of this Ghost of Bricks, but after trying it out, it looked and behaved the same as the other ghost with the more mainstream attribute. He was about to fall into a serious melancholic state himself, when he lost his faculties because the skeleton that carried him was obliterated, the broken sword in its hand flying into the forest, making Karl want to puke.
* * * *
"You have said that you reached an enlightenment and needed to cultivate immediately. It does not look like it." An old man with a white beard was looking at a young man in front of him that was breathing in an unusual posture. It reminded Karl of his dog that was once too horny and decided that a simple tuft of grass would do the trick.
"I-I thought. . .I am confused teacher. At this point, I do not think that I understand what the enlightenment even is and what it is for!" The youth breathed in quick and shallow breaths, as the posture prevented any other kinds of breathing, complaining to the elderly man about his lack of understanding.
An understanding that he should possess based on the older man's stern face.
Karl that was stuck in the ground nearby had to forcefully push the image of his dog out of his mind, as the breathing only served to remind him more of its deed.
"I still do not get it, why are we doing this? Why should I even try to trap my soul inside, if it is already in me! It makes no sense." The youth broke his meditative posture and gazed up, giving up the strange exercise.
"It does. Look, It is very simple, as simple as this water." His teacher stood up and looked into the pond next to them, waving his hand slowly.
"Have you seen the man waving at you?" The old man smirked at his student.
"You mean you?" The confused student frowned and folded his arms on his chest.
"No, the man in the pond waved at you, alright?"
"But that is you!" The youth threw up his arms, not the wiser about the sudden antics of his mentor.
"I am standing right here, or am I in the pond?" He suddenly gestured rudely at the pond and his reflection in turn repeated the gesture, directing it at the young man next to him.
"Hey!"
"See? For your eyes there is no difference between me and the reflection in the pond, but you can search the pond however you like and you will never find me there, because I am not there!"
"It is the same with souls. Your body is just the water surface. The soul is not inside, even though it manifests through you. Death is just a state where the water surface is muddy and is no longer able to reflect the picture and thus, the soul has to find another clear water surface to manifest. " The man threw a handful of grass into the pond disturbing the water surface along with the reflected image on it.
"To reach true immortality, you have to build a vessel for your soul and trap it inside your body, that is the core idea of our cultivation." He furrowed his brows for a second, mumbling hastily under his breath. "Well there was another approach, to create a permanent water surface, an eternal body without any soul, but that path never led to anything meaningless. The source of eternity is the soul, no other substance can withstand infinity."
"Where I was? Ah . . with Mojo Condensation, you have to find all the aspects needed to build the vessel, a true body for the soul. You can imagine it as if you were searching for materials to construct my body to replace its reflection."
"Then, in Mojo Purification stage, you have to refine what you found, to make a brick out of clay and fire."
"Those who succeed can finally build the vessel in the Mojo Crystallization stage and use it to lure and trap the soul inside during the Soul Binding stage. "
"Heck, what am I talking about, you will never reach that stage anyway."
"Is that the final stage or. . .?"
"Almost, but it has nothing to do with you, at least yet. You are still a seedling Mojo Condensation Stage cultivator." The old man stated and looked at his student who did not appeared to be amused by the just explained process.
"Perhaps, is there a quicker path to follow?" The young man asked with hesitation, it was in the human nature to follow the easiest path.
"Of course there is the demonic path, but you surely do not want to be taught that path to immortality, do you?" The teacher asked and his question felt like a sharp blade being drawn. His disciple began shaking his head vigorously, his breath taken away by the sudden, extreme reaction of his otherwise calm teacher.
"The demonic path requires massacres by definition and you would do wise not to follow it, as I would have to personally kill you then." He added and looked at the horizon, as if briefly remembering something that happened a long time ago.
"Enough talk, lets go have something to eat." The whole lesson was concluded and both men were moving away in the direction where the forest was not as dense.
However, the teacher's peace was interrupted for the last time before their voices got out of reach and Karl managed to catch the last interesting piece of the debate.
"Teacher, please one last question!" The voice jumped a pitch, as if the student had stumbled upon the most intriguing problem in the universe.
"Mmm, but the last one." The calm teacher's voice responded with resignation.
"It is all wrong! The true immortality should be at the beginning when the soul never dies, it cannot be damaged when it just projects itself in the pond, like the reflection of your body!" Karl's eyes widened and he began to suspect that the student was actually smarter than him, which was ridiculous, as he would have probably never asked such a question.
"You are a piece of work!" The old man laughed and his white beard and hair fluttered in the wind. "The thing is, when you reach true equilibrium power is meaningless, cultivation is meaningless, you do not need to even start."
"Then why we . . .?!" The youth was startled and Karl's brain wanted to explode.
"Will." The old man interrupted him. "Want or not to want? The path you describe is the path of those who do not want, who do not will, who will merge with the environment into oblivion with no identity. The path to nothingness that leads to becoming nothing and thus everything. " The elderly person took a breath before continuing.
"Those on the path to nothingness will not be seen on this world much, as it is their goal not to be. Those on the path of stagnant mortality will be forever lowly mortals, as it is their goal to be the stagnant mortals and those on the path of cultivation that want to grab their soul, its reality determining power in their hands, will grab it as it is their goal. Three paths that all are immortality, you have to choose which one suits you the best." A sagely silence followed, being interrupted only by the wheels of Karl's brain turning rapidly.
"And now be quiet brat, my head hurts from your yapping." The old man's voice barked and that were the last words Karl heard.
A bewildered broken sword stuck in the ground watched the pair of cultivators running away through the forest until they disappeared for good. They were probably the same ones that had destroyed his skeleton sword bearer.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Karl though about what the elder said, but determined that he certainly did not want to became nothing, or eternally pathetic and he probably would not be able to become a cultivator either. The only logical option was to forge his own path of immortality, as the old man said, all the paths were immortality anyways.
"Holy Molly! I have submerged myself into this spiritual nonsense too much! Let's keep my feet on the ground!" Karl would have shook his head if he had one, trying to clear his thoughts
"Screw immortality, all I want is to make this a good, non-pathetic experience." Karl clearly formulated his goal and it seemed quite reasonable.
"So POWER is my answer! Non-pathetic means power!" He elaborated more, but for some reason it did not feel that reasonable anymore.
However, the logic held and he refused to change his conclusion.
"That means no zombies. Wait! Do I have a clue about those bracketed attributes?!" He thought about it and arrived at the conclusion that it might be the Mojo they talked about.
"Mojo is probably the stuff the vessel is made of and a soul can be imprisoned with it. Ash Mojo can create a vessel for Ash souls and so forth. It is weird, I need to see more application to verify it."
He concluded that the most important for him was information and he needed people to gather it. However, as ageless it was definitely wise to take it slow and not storm into the first mob he encountered.
* * * *
"Lilgendrienbombiel, the purple flowers of death that always grew on the graves of my ancestors now grow on the grave of my son." A whisper escaped the lips of a women veiled in black silk that stared at her ancestral tomb. It was a magnificent structure with multiple graves inside and a row of detailed statues in front of it. One of the statues was equipped by the hilt of a sword with a black gem that was sheathed in a beautifully decorated scabbard. The statues were not just a simple stone, but were decorated, armed and colored and looked almost like a lifelike copy of the ancestors entombed underground. The women wore a purple robe underneath the black silk. However, Karl could sense an unnatural tension in her movements, not fitting her mourning image.
"Herrmause will pay for this, this I swear on the Heav. . .. " A robust hand covered the woman's mouth, interrupting her words.
"Don't be silly Yen, throwing around promises to Heavens will bring us only misfortune!" A man that stood next to the veiled woman scolded his wife even during her time of mourning.
"They will pay! They will! You act as if you were not even his father, but we both know that Herrmause family sold everyone, sabotaging all formations right before the attack!" The woman whispered with venom on her tongue and hate in her eyes.
"You don't know that and you certainly cannot prove it! Why would they sabotage their own family? Be silent, silly woman, internal strife is the last thing we need!" The man tried to scold her again, but she just coldly turned her head to look at him and he nearly stepped back away from her when he saw the murder in her eyes.
"I will prove it." She turned while tearing her hand from his arm, the unusual sight attracting the attention of other visitors of the family tomb. The veiled woman was quickly walking out of the graveyard, but did not forget to glare at a man in a green robe when she was passing by him.
Karl watched it all and started to suspect that his idea to easily mingle into society by replacing the sheathed sword of a tomb statue with himself was not the greatest. Although the big family tomb in the center of a city graveyard was quite a frequented place, the mood was starting to get on his nerves.
"I will prove mother right. I will show everyone that Mu Gon von Herrmause was the traitor that caused the raid on brother's sect to succeed!" Another whisper of a young man in a purple robe sounded and Karl was the only one who heard it. The teeth grinding man was staring at the person dressed in green the woman called Yen had just glared at before exiting the graveyard.
"Oh my, this world is starting to get really nuts." Karl shook in his scabbard a little and looked around again, finding out numerous lightning motives present on the tomb. "Is this guy related to the one I know? It certainly looks like it, Mu Gon and Wu Gon sound similar." Still, it was possible Karl was mistaken, confused by the unfamiliar names around him.
Although listening to the family turmoil was inconsequential, as he was just a simple sword and the mourning mob would go away and another day would greet him with pieces of conversations, information that he would be able to puzzle together into a whole picture one day.
"Hey, where are you going? What are you doing man? Do not touch me! Sexual harassment! He is touching my rod, eh, hilt! Help!" Karl was surprised when the man who had just whispered under his breath stepped closer to the statue he was a part of and placed the palm of his hand on the pommel of his broken self.
"Grandfather, by your own blade, I will spill blood of the one who conspired to kill my brother, your grandchild. " The man took off his hood and from under its purple hem emerged eyes and hair of the same color. Karl was starting to suspect that it was no accident and the color themes were in some way related to the attributes that he had just discovered.
"I swear to the highest ruler of the Heavens that by this blade, I will slay the one, the plots and schemes of whom led to the death of my only brother! I will not rest until my vengeance is complete and this sword drinks blood in full! " He uttered seriously and Karl could see that a thin web of lightning flashed above them briefly, as if to acknowledge the promise.
The man stood there, looking into the eyes of the statue of his ancestor and when the last mourners were leaving, with their eyes averted from the tomb, he gripped the hilt harder and drew the sword that hung at the waist of his grandfather's statue, only to stumble a few steps back in shock.
"It is broken! It cannot be!" Dumbfounded, the cultivator stared at the broken sword and his face distorted with rage.
"It is a counterfeit! Someone stole the grandfather's sword!" He wanted to throw the sword away, but stopped himself when a thick ominous aura descended onto the graveyard and Karl felt as if they were gazed upon by a peeping pervert. A peeping pervert that happened to possess divine powers.
"Damn! Alright, let it be that way! It will be only fitting for the murderer to die by this cheap, broken counterfeit!" The vengeful family member realized how wise his father's words were. Throwing away the broken sword would mean directly offending those he could absolutely not afford to offend. He should have thought about it more before giving the oath.
"No matter, he will perish. I, Zhan Gon von Kotzchen will spill his blood tonight!" He flickered his sleeve and the short blade vanished, hidden beneath his cloak.
* * * *
Mu Gon swiftly followed the road, constantly looking back, trying to ensure that no one was following him. Although he was dressed as a mourning person, he had to strain his muscles to suppress laughter. His facial muscles were tense and his green eyes were sparkling gleefully.
His hated brother, Wu Gon, was dead and he was about to get paid for his grim job.
"Are you still the favorite of the elders even in hell, dear brother? I do not think so." He muttered, remembering all the shame he had to suffer because of his kin. Wu Gon was the firstborn, always ahead of him, always the best. It was to the point he had been sent away from the sect to study alchemy, as his performance in tournaments and progress in cultivation was extremely underwhelming compared to his brother.
He hated them all, his Gon von Herrmause main branch family was a bunch of hypocrites. He had not hesitated for long when an opportunity presented itself to sell them all. With all the gold he would receive as a bonus to the initial payment, he would be able to leave the backwater region and buy himself the most expensive elixirs to boost his cultivation and strengthen his body.
No! He hated cultivation anyway, it would be better to just buy a mansion and live off the gold for the rest of his life, surrounded by women and luxury. No more grueling exercises and needless pursuits of immortality that he would not reach anyway, as the chance to became a true immortal was extremely low. He had enough hard work for ten lifetimes, with no reward but spit for it.
"They say that hard work pays off, but that applies only for the free people, not ones embedded in a system based on exploitation." He snorted while taking the last turn before reaching his small house with no servants, the level he had fallen to due to his underwhelming performance in cultivation. He was still at the start of the Mojo Condensation Stage, with no clue about what he needed for his vessel.
The problem with the first stage was, that the base material for the vessel could be anything, literally anything.
Mu Gon barged into his home and glanced briefly at the corner, where a bucket full of water stood. Water was his only clue for his ascension. The usual process for beginner cultivators was to search for Idols, objects, places or even people that were connected to their Mojo. Gathering all the idols meant the end of the Mojo Condensation phase and the start of the Mojo Purification stage, where the Idols were further scrutinized by the cultivator to find out in what way they contained their Mojo.
Every Idol represented a riddle that needed to be solved to finish the Mojo Purification stage and enter the Mojo Crystallization stage, where the cultivator used the Purified Idols to build the vessel for his soul out of them. The number of Idols needed was not fixed and depended on the specific soul itself.
Naturally, this was a textbook approach, some cultivators began the purification process without all the Idols and some even tried to build the vessel with some missing, the most crazy ones proceeded with building their soul vessels with incomplete impure Idols and the peak of all madness was to try and bind souls to such vessels. The most crazy demonic cultivators were using random impure Idols to trap the souls of others in incomplete vessels, usually creating immortal Abominations.
In general, all paths that involved using souls of other people were called demonic paths and were widely despised in all civilized world, as the demonic paths led to multiple serious problems that directly caused the collapse of society. Skipping stages and incomplete cultivation was frowned upon as well, as it was considered just a step away from continuing with more shortcuts that ultimately led to the demonic path.
"Enough nonsense, let's wait for the meeting." Mu Gon averted his gaze from the bucket, seated himself behind a simple wooden table and waited for his contact from the cult to arrive with his bonus. The next morning, he would be far away, the cultivation world forgotten and not needed anymore as he would have enough gold to start a new life of a mortal businessman or a noble.
And soon, the door really opened and a figure veiled in dark robe entered his simple house.
"I began to think that your organization might go back on its word. It is good to see you." Mu Gon smiled while watching the person in front of him close the door that led to the dark city streets. Without uttering a single word, the dark silhouette moved closer to the table and reached into the hem of the black robe. The hand in leather glove appeared again, holding a big leather purse tightened at its top with a string. Still without a single word, the person untied the string a reached above the table in Mu Gon's direction.
Mu Gon held his breath, as he expected the hand to turn over and empty the gold inside onto the table, the payment he had waited for half a day had finally been delivered to him.
"Your payment." A strangely familiar voice sounded and before Mu Gon could do anything, the hand quickly moved in his direction, emptying the contents of the purse. A could of sickly green dust enveloped Mu Gon before he was able to react and send him falling to the ground, convulsing and coughing after inhaling the poisonous substance.
"Mu Gon von Herrmause, our family always pays debts in full." The black robe fell to the floor, revealing the purple robe underneath and a broken sword appeared in the assassin's hand. The victim attempted to stand up and defend his life, but it was of no use. Soon, a deep, thin line appeared across Mu Gon's throat and in addition to the poisonous gas, he began to choke on his own blood.
"This is for my brother, as promised." The assassin looked at the stained blade and glanced at the ceiling, as if trying to peer at the blocked sky above.
"Rest in peace." The assassin's head bent down again to look at the still convulsing body that was quickly losing all life and chuckled. "Not you, you shall suffer some more."
Zhan Gon von Kotzchen sat slowly on the chair near him and observed the last moments of the rat that caused the fall of the main family. He was a little bit happy that his Gon von Kotzchen branch was now the main family, but the turmoil had still cost his brother his life, as he had been studying with the Herrmause family at that time, becoming a collateral damage to the Mu Gon's spiteful plot.
The desperate noises of his victim were less and less audible, drowning the room in an eerie feeling of death.
"I do not need this junk anymore, the oath is void now." He smirked, looking at the dead man in front of him and threw the broken sword at top of the corpse.
However, to his horror the ominous presence from before descended again and he was forced to jump up and retrieve the sword as fast as he could, as he felt a serious Heavenly Tribulation on its way to tell him what the Heavens thought about his oath being fulfilled.
"What?! But I have killed the perpetrator! I.. . " Zhan stood there with the bloodied hilt in hand again, confused. He frantically started to recall the exact wording of his oath.
"By this blade, I will slay the one, the plots and schemes of whom led to the death of my only brother. I will not rest until my vengeance is complete and this sword drinks blood in full." He worded the oath again and dread gripped his heart.
"Impossible! Stupid! Stupid!" He covered his face in his hands when he realized his grave error. Mu Gon was naturally only a pawn, the plots and schemes that led to his brother's death probably originated from the leader of The Cult of Mezzaiel, someone he could not hope to defeat.
He had sworn to kill such a person with a fancy broken blade.
Shaken by the bleak future he had brought upon himself by his foolishness, Zhan Gon ignored the gurgling corpse that struggled for air with its last vestiges of life and tumbled out of the door. He was not interested in the pathetic sounds of his brother's murderer, as the sweetness of his victory soured thought and thought due to his grave mistake.
* * * *
"Pffff" Karl Gulden tried to blew with all his lung capacity, thus zero, as he watched a drop of blood traveling slowly along his surface that was about to drop to to the ground, but ended up dried on his surface instead, blocking his vision.
"Go down! Gravity powers activate! Get out of my face! Stupid droplet!" He raged while trying to suppress his urge to clear his eyes with the finger he obviously no longer had. It was infuriating.
"My skellies, assemble!" He urged his trusted servants into existence, but it did not work. He continued to lie near the side of a sleeping man without anything happening. He swiftly opened his status and found out the reason his skeletons were not listening to him was that he was unable to summon them, his current bearer was most likely resting at an unusually peaceful place.
"Fine! This one will have to do." He willed a ball of fluffy white into existence that his system titled [White Rabbit(Fur) 5/s]. It was certainly a useless fighter, but it should be able to clear his vision.
The furry ball hopped closer to him and on his command, began eagerly rub his surface with its head and paws.
"Aaaaagh. That is it! More to the side buddy, work for that mana upkeep, rub me some more, rub me. . .eh."
"Ehm, that sounded weird." Karl paused while enduring the fluffiness of his summon and started thinking about what he had found out in recent days. He got some limited insight into the cultivation process, but failed to see anything from the city they had been in, because his owner kept him under his clothes all the time, as he was technically a stolen item.
"I need to see that city to deduce more about this world. This poor guy is heading to his doom anyway, I should help him out a bit and prolong his life."
The air near him distorted and an unimpressive stray dog, code named [Dog(Wood) 5/s], appeared next to him. The dog was mediocre by all standards and had black and brown fur with unusually long tongue that was hanging out of his mouth. It sneaked closer to Karl and grabbed his hilt with its teeth gently and before the sleeping man on the ground could wake up due to the disturbance, he had already vanished in the forest surrounding the city.
It was morning when Karl saw the city gates. He rested in his dog's maw, disguised as a piece of wood, a process that took his skellies a whole hour to finish. After all, skeletons could be summoned almost anywhere and the places where he could not summon them were rare. Still, the black gem of the sword had to be visible and Karl did not plan to go promenading at a main square.
"Let's unleash the power of observation!" Karl Gulden chuckled inwardly, it was pleasant to feel no pain, hunger, thirst or other discomfort other than tons of saliva being smeared everywhere on his surface. He had all the time in the world and he planned to use it.
With this mindset, Karl loitered near the main road leading into the city, observing what was happening on the toad. It was a cobblestone road that had some traffic since early rays of the Sun fell on its moist surface. There were people in carriages, on foot, merchants ferrying goods and some small squad of soldiers marching somewhere. It looked like an outskirts of a prosperous city during middle ages before guns were invented if he ignored the robed cultivators that were mixed in randomly into the populace.
"That is weird. The cultivators do not seem to have that much of a status." Karl noticed that ordinary people were stepping aside when they saw a cultivator, but it was not to the point he had seen in the sect. It appeared as if the cultivators were minding their business, not daring to cause trouble, a complete opposite to what he had seen in the Thunder God Sect.
When he peeked through the windows of some passing carriages, he had occasionally seen a robed cultivator, but it was not always, some of the occupants were clearly ordinary mortals and their carriages looked no less opulent than the ones cultivators possessed.
"This is really strange, I will have to look into this deeper later on." Karl mused while ordering his dog to carry him towards the city gate, as there was nothing more that he could gain by observing the busy road.
"Farms! This is perfect!" Karl saw that the forest gave way to fields that had farmers laboring on them from the first light. "Let's investigate!"
"Run, run doggy, let's see what those farmers are about!" He eagerly looked at everything around him after they had entered the fields, but failed to notice that they were being followed as soon as they left the road. It was too late, when a large dog jumped from around the corner of a barn and began to do what all dogs naturally do when they meet.
Sniffing.
"What are you doing?! I do not need that kind of view, stupid dog!" His dog naturally followed his instincts and the both dogs ended up with their snouts stuck where their genitals were.
"Ugh, it is a male! Drop me immediately!" Karl's dog let him fall into the dirt without paying him further attention and continued socializing with the other dog that began to growl.
Karl heard steps from behind the barn and quickly judged that his stray dog had no chance of outrunning the bigger wolf-like beast and decide to unsummon the creature before the human entered into view. His stray dog companion abruptly vanished in a spark of brown energy and the human emerged from behind the corner, looking at the startled dog that was confused, looking left and right.
Unfortunately, the dog ceased his confused behavior and began to circle around Karl while barking furiously, as he was the only thing that remained after the intruder's disappearance.
"What is it Bibi? Give it to me!" The young woman picked up Karl and stared at the broken sword's blade for a second before starting to panic.
"It is dried blood!" A daughter of a farmer would have not panicked at the sight of blood, but the fact that the dried blood was on a sword was giving some hints about its origin. Karl observed the woman's panic, when her eyes briefly darted to a nearby well.
"Oh come on!" His worry was not baseless, as his sight blurred soon and he flew in the direction of an old well that seemed to be used only sparsely or not at all.
After a wild ride of ringing against the stone walls of the well, Karl punched through the water surface and slowly drifted to the bottom of the well, where he touched the mud at the bottom. He waited for a while, trying to see through the circular hole at the top if the woman would go and see what she did, but it appeared that she did not care and had simply ran off, no longer paying attention to him.
"These teenagers and their smartphones, their attention span is too short!" He started cursing the woman, but realized that he was in the wrong world for his criticism to be even remotely valid.
"Easy, take it easy, my skellies can simply throw me out of the well." Karl Gulden kept his cool and summoned his trusted skeletons to realize his escape plan.
"Just swim to the surface and throw me out, no problem." He ordered and the skeletons began to swim up vigorously, but not moving up one inch. Karl observed it and understood that his plan had a big problem.
Skeletons could not swim.
He changed his approach and ordered them to climb using the well's wall, but the wall was extremely slippery and the skeletons were completely unable to hold onto it and were stuck underwater at the bottom of the well along with him.
"Status." He barked, but was disappointed when he saw that the only other summon available to him aside from the skeletons were some kind of small fish that were too small to do anything.
"Damn, I am stuck here for eternity." Karl's mood tanked as a sword thrown into a well.
He continued to gaze at his status screen, staring longingly at the word [Dig] in the Spells category. It was possible that the heavenly lightning would not reach him deep down in the water. Was lightning even a concern given he was a gemstone embedded in a sword?
"I am an idiot!" Karl could not believe his stupidity.
"I cannot do it, but they can. Dig skellies! Use your swords and dig!" Karl wanted to laugh, there was no reason why he needed to dig with a spell when he had summons to do it for him.
He observed his bony servants scratching at the well's bottom with their rusty swords, increasing the depth of the well inch by inch while turning its clear water to mud.
It was time to return to where a dungeon core should be, underground.