It's been several days since we cleared the dryads' forest.

We've long settled the matter with the dryads' workplace, and I successfully coerced them into cooperating with the maids of the shopping mall. Although reluctant to meet new people at first, their generous contract made them agree in a short amount of time.

Fuck me, they even got maternity leave. Try finding that in an apocalypse.

But, regardless of my initial plan, the various... circumstances in the tower are now forcing me to get stronger quickly, the few hints of celestial interference still picking at me in the back of my mind.

'Aight, next attempt.'

The energy I feel everywhere rushes through my body as I try to control it. The comforting warmth it gives offers me slight relief in this dark place where everything seems to be against me.

The voices keep coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming.

'DADDY! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME! I'M SORRY! PLEASE, I'M SORRY!'

I continue concentrating my mana outside of my body but fail once more.

Just like the last 20 times that I've tried.

Continuously, multiple scenes of people being tortured are played on repeat in my head. This specific scene is the one where I, myself, stand in front of the bloody body of a small girl.

The shrill noises from the chains she's dangling on reverberate through my ears as if I'm still standing in front of her. She's pleading for mercy, but I continue, disregarding her innocent cries for help.

The barrage of memories doesn't exactly help with my experiment, but they don't care. Their only desire is to haunt me, or rather remind me.

As the accumulated mana inside of my body starts to manifest outside, it immediately gets disturbed by something different coming from what feels like the same source.

The problem is: Even I can't identify the reason for it.

A soul that has lived far longer than stars could ever wish to can't figure out what the problem is with something as simple as mana.

I finally open my eyes and get blinded by the bright ceiling lights in my storage hall. The feeling of the sofa under my back dampens the pressure of 2 people directly sitting on top of me.

"ALRIGHT, WHAT THE FUCK?!" (Me)

Both of them jump at my sudden shout.

"HYA!" (Risa)

"FUCK ME SIDEWAYS!" (Jess)

The girls I had so much fun with these past weeks look at me, slightly stupified. I don't dare to even move a muscle, the soft touch of their legs being the only thing I want to keep as a constant in my life.

"...Was that an offer?" (Me)

"It wasn't." (Jess)

Still a bit groggy from having used my mana multiple times, I yawn once. I suck in the damp air from my base in a long sigh. For the first time in ever, something is actually bugging me.

Ignoring the whole interference from heaven thing in the tower.

"Why did you wake up so suddenly? Had a nightmare or something?" (Jess)

"Nightmare? I didn't even sleep. I was just trying some things out." (Me)

Risa stares at both of us with her childish green eyes. She looks between us repeatedly with a smile on her face, following whoever is currently speaking. I'm guessing that the normal conversation we're having, after being separated because of the dungeon for a good minute, is making her a bit happy.

Seeing that I don't intend to continue, Jess just looks at me for a few seconds.

"...How did it g-" (Jess)

"I failed." (Me)

"Figured." (Jess)

A second of silence passes where I cherish their legs once more. Jess's especially.

She's just got the volume you can't beat.

"And what did you try?" (Jess)

Since I opened my eyes now, both of the girls decide to stand up, leaving my lonely chest cold and me in heartbreak. Now I'm just lying on this green, slightly worn out couch like the desolate bitch that I am.

A tiny tear trickles down my right cheek.

"Well..." (Me)

Copying the behavior of the other two, I stand up with vigor and anticipation on what's to come.

'Even though the sadness of the loss is still strong.'

'Too strong.'

"It's time for another lesson done by me!" (Me)

I get a blackboard out from the back and roll the wooden frame of it in the middle of the room. With a quick tug, I rip the black, comfortable sweater off that I wore before and reveal the formal, white suit that I hid underneath.

"Wait, where did you just get a bloody blackboard from? And why did you have a suit hidden under your jumper?" (Jess)

Risa having gotten the signal, she follows immediately, putting two school desks in front of the blackboard before taking her own sweater off to let her own, black school uniform-

'Which I made myself by the way, from a few materials that the dryads gave us at the end.'

-come to light.

Even I have to admit, I did a pretty good job this time. Not only does it provide decent defense boosts and increases her mana capacity by a tiny amount, the most important aspect, the drip it offers, is an aesthetic masterpiece.

I designed it to underline Risa's cuteness as much as possible, without drawing the center of attention away from her puffy face.

A simple combo of a tiny black skirt with a black blazer, coupled with a black tie and a white shirt underneath. It leaves enough room to imagine what's underneath, but not enough to lewd the pure loli.

'I don't have a head anymore, so just imagine me nodding approvingly.'

The nice voice in my head might like the current situation, and so does the majority of the people in the room, only Jess seems to be a bit out of touch.

"Where did you get the desk from? And that uniform? How prepared were you for this?!" (Jess)

"This was completely on the fly and we didn't plan a single thing." (Me)

Risa nods with a smug smile, our secret only known to us.

'We're just gonna ignore the whole "Preparing school supplies early in the morning and making a sailor uniform exactly for this one joke" thing? Okay.'

'Shush, you.'

Both of them sit down. Jess decides to barely sit down with basic etiquette, her demeanor quite lazy and sloppy, while Risa does the contrary and sits straight up like an honors student.

"It's been quite a while since I've been to class... I'm kind of excited." (Risa)

"Please don't take his classes seriously." (Jess)

As I expected, some children here are, unfortunately, a bad influence to the other participants. It pains my heart to see the youth of today derange to such a level, but it's my duty as a teacher to shape the adults of tomorrow.

"Alright, so we've got a delinquent in this class, huh? Let's see how we'll deal with you." (Me)

"EXCEPT THAT I AM NOT?! I'll have you know that I got top grades at my school." (Jess)

She crosses her arms and looks at me smugger than Risa was before.

"I'll keep my eyes on you." (Me)

But Jess outright ignores me and instead pats Risa's head with a smile, who's fawning over how cool she is for getting top grades.

'Alright, I'm a bit hurt.'

"Classes are starting! Everyone, settle down!" (Me)

The patting stops and both of them pay their attention to me.

"Welcome to the course "Magic 101 with Nith". I'm your teacher, Nith, and I-" (Me)

"Just start already." (Jess)

I glance at Jess, who now spontaneously decided to actually play her role of the delinquent. She even went as far as to chip away a tiny fragment of metal from somewhere and use it as a toothpick.

She might not seem like it, butI know she enjoys such roleplay the most out of three of us. Just gotta get her to be a bit more honest.

"Come to my office at the end of the lesson." (Me)

"Wait, what bloody office?" (Jess)

I ignore her.

"As both of you know, I wanted to climb the tower to get stronger and use it as an EXP farm." (Me)

They nod in unison.

"Yeah... well, fuck that. The tower is slightly more difficult than I imagined, so I need to get stronger now in some other way to clear that dick." (Me)

They don't react in any way.

"Get it?" (Me)

Still silence.

"Cause the tower is a bit shaped like a d-" (Me)

"Yes, we got it." (Jess)

"...Tough crowd." (Me)

With a dry cough, I fix my black tie a bit. It's way more uncomfortable than I imagined if you compare it to the usual, casual shit that I'm wearing. Now that I think about it, a haircut would've worked nice as well. My black bangs are already directly in my vision and my slightly curly hair is looking even messier recently.

'Although I kinda like it to be honest.'

"Now that I need another way to get stronger, I tried to create a few new skills or generally use magic to get a little boost. Additionally, my attacks would get flashier and I would look way cooler. In theory, that should work, right?" (Me)

Both of them nod again.

"So that was a fucking lie." (Me)

[https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/027/528/519.jpg]

'This one?'

'Yes, thank you very much.'

"And why is that?" (Jess)

"And this is the point where I need an assistant!" (Me)

None of them move, so I just point at Jess, who is still not moving.

"Jess, move your T H I C C thighs over here." (Me)

"Can you just not point them out and ask nicely?" (Jess)

Finally, she stands up and proceeds to stand at my right side. She looks a bit out of place, since her normal clothes don't really fit in with the school style that is dominatingly present here.

"Alright, Jess, would you please try to move only your mana around inside of your body?" (Me)

"Hm? Sure." (Me)

She closes her eyes and concentrates. As her face relaxes, I get a better look at it than any other time recently.

Her beauty has skyrocketed in the last few months of the apocalypse. Her shoulder length, silver hair shines vibrantly, even more so as her mana starts to get more active. Her beautiful skin looks tender as fuck, which only accentuates the gentle face that she got from her mother.

"What now?" (Jess)

"Now try to get it outside and shape it into a sphere or something." (Me)

She does exactly that. The ethereal, blue substance floats out of her right hand and accumulates into a spheric shape. Risa is quite fascinated by it, but I've seen it more than enough times.

"This is something that should work for anyone, who can use mana to some extent." (Me)

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I try to do the exact same thing, but the result is the same as every other attempt that I've done.

The bubble doesn't even manage to form. The mana just disperses violently as it leaves my body.

"But for me, it does fuck all." (Me)

I make several attempts at it, but there's always something that gets in my way.

"To understand what's happening here, I have made a theory." (Me)

Crudely, I draw the human body on the blackboard with several veins going through it. You can roughly compare it to the normal blood vessel map of the human body, but with fewer branches.

"Who can answer what this is?" (Me)

'Still need to keep my teacher image up.'

Risa raises her hand quickly and I pick her.

"The mana veins flowing through your body!" (Risa)

"Correct!" (Me)

I look at Jess with a disappointed gaze.

"What? I knew that too!" (Jess)

The delinquent tries to justify herself, once more. Youth recently really has become worse.

"Before the merging happened, humanity didn't have this shit. That's why you couldn't use magic in any way. Only after you merged with your counterpart, you gained the ability to handle mana and all of the properties of your counterpart." (Me)

Both of them look at me interested. The lack of knowledge of this whole situation was probably on their mind for a long time now, and now I'm the source of information they craved for.

'You just like being the center of attention.'

'Maybe?'

I blush a bit.

"But all that only works if you have one dominant mana circle. It regulates everything inside of your body, strengthening it and enabling you to use magic and shit." (Me)

I make a dramatic pause.

They're waiting for me to continue.

"Lemme just bathe in attention for a second." (Me)

"Just continue, you bellend." (Jess)

The delinquent starts to rebel again. As a teacher, it is my duty to serve her knowledge, even if it kills me.

"But in my case, my mana circle acts up." (Me)

I take a deep look inside me.

'Sounds kinda kinky.'

"As soon as I try to use my mana outside of my body, another source of energy activates, which interferes with it. That means, that there's most likely..." (Me)

Dramatic pause again. I take a glass of water from the table in the corner of the room and refresh myself.

Jess is contemplating her life choices.

Risa is excited about what's coming next.

"...another mana circle inside me, which is just as strong as mine." (Me)

'I'm nItH. i'M sPecIaL. i hAvE aNOtHeR cHrOMosOmE.'

'Alright. Fuck you. You get a timeout.'

'Wait, what?'

I send Trick back into a corner of my mind, where sarcastic shits belong.

"And why do you have 2?" (Jess)

Jess genuinely asks me that, with concern written on her face. It seems like me, not being able to use mana outside of my body is worrying her a bit.

"Well... fucked if I know." (Me)

Shrugging my shoulders, I show that I really don't have a clue.

'This is my first time merging after all.'

"There could be multiple reasons. Maybe something went wrong with the merging process, or maybe there already was a mana circle in this body beforehand." (Me)

At this point, I just put a big, fat cross over the mana circle I drew on the blackboard.

"So I just decided: Fuck that. I don't need any spells." (Me)

"You do. You're just sad that you can't use them." (Jess)

I wipe away the tear on my cheek.

"I'm not! I can still use my body strengthening skills and I can also use mana inside of my body! I'm content with that! See?!" (Me)

I make my mana move rapidly, letting it seep into my muscles and strengthening them immensely. The pure mana tenses them up to no end, rejuvenating them. This feeling of invincibility is indistinguishable from the "Orc's strength" buff.

Due to having reached a milestone in the "Orc's strength skill" by yourself, an immense experience gain has been acquired!

Orc's strength became Lvl 25!

Buff increased to 135%!

Due to making your body more sensitive to your own mana, "Regeneration" is more effective!

Regeneration became Lvl 15!

Time needed, until the whole body is healed, is reduced to 22 hours and 15 minutes! Cooldown is reduced to 1 hour and 43 minutes!

Another feature has been unlocked!

Regeneration can now cure you of lesser diseases and curses!

"Huh..." (Me)

'Why do you sound so unsurprised?'

I look at the sudden increase in skills that I just got.

'I completely forgot that external factors could raise your skill levels too... teehee'

I bonk my head with my head, quite cutely.

'YOU FORGOT?! FSOLWFNOLWNFWPIOFENW'

For a second, I think about the various possibilities now open to me. Just the fact that I can still rely on those kinds of things is way more reassuring than just having to grind all of them up to a certain level.

'And ooohhhh boy, can I think up of one or two then.'

"Yeah, I got it. So? What's your plan then? Lemme guess. It's t-" (Jess)

Explosively, I put my hand on Jess's mouth, stopping her from talking any further, and point at the endless sky... or... ceiling for that matter.

"TOOLS AND SHIT! CORRECT! Don't ruin this reveal for me, Jess. Please." (Me)

In her seat, Risa starts to clap at my dramatic presentation. She's visibly impressed, while Jess just looks at me like always.

A disappointment.

Risa raises her hand urgingly.

"Yes! Risa!" (Me)

She stands up with a stern look.

"Teacher! Where are we going to get those tools?!" (Risa)

This time, I sprint to the rusty door and slide it open, quite crudely and with exaggerated movements. The chilly autumn wind jumps in my face, as I point to the south-east.

"We will start at the sea!" (Me)

Then, I proceed to rip the previously mentioned door out of its hinges and throw it on the cold, hard floor like a fucking madman.

'Cause you are one.'

"The hell?" (Jess)

Jess and Risa approach me with slight care, wondering why I ripped the door out for no apparent reason.

"What?" (Me)

"Didn't you need that door?" (Jess)

Risa just looks at the door with an empty gaze.

'Maybe she's thinking that I gave up on the base she named?'

"Well, we need a ride, right?" (Me)

I signal both of them to go on the metal plate, which they follow. For a few seconds, they stand on the metal plate completely lost. Just as Risa wants to ask for an explanation, Jess's confusion clears up and she points at me with a huge smile on her face.

"I'M SUPPOSED TO PLAY TAXI!" (Jess)

"EXACTLY!" (Me)

She's proud of herself, as if understanding my way of thinking is something for a Nobel price. Well, I literally destroyed the entrance of my main base for a bad joke, so it's at least a bit understandable.

'Hey, Narrator, you're making me sound like a lunatic.'

'Did I stutter when I said "Cause you are one"?'

'You can both fuck yourselves.'

As I continue to argue with the imaginary voices inside of my head, I mount the DIY-taxi with the other two. Jess's mana spreads out and the door starts to levitate pretty well.

"NO WAIT! I STILL NEED SOMETHING!" (Me)

I jump off and go back inside. My armor is lying in the corner, with one other thing I have prepared, which is even more important.

I wrap the armor up in a cloth-

'Since I don't want to take off the suit yet.'

-and put the rolled up piece of fabric on my shoulder.

"Why... why do you have a carpet on your shoulder?" (Jess)

"Shoo." (Me)

Waving them off the metal plate again, I spread the carpet on the door. The artificial, red fabric looks way more inviting than the rusty door, so Jess and Risa look quite happy with it.

"...That was actually pretty thoughtful of you." (Jess)

"Fu fu, quite a fitting ride, for someone as great as me." (Risa)

'...it's just a carpet on a door tho.'

'Maybe she's just not a spoiled brat, like a certain cunt inside of my head?'

'SPOILED?! I'M ACCEPTING TO LIVE INSIDE OF A HEAD! I THINK I'M QUITE MODEST, YOU-'

Jumping back on the artificial flying taxi, we finally depart, with Trick still complaining inside of my head.

It only takes a few seconds before we reach a few hundred meters in height, since Jess's ability has grown immensely since the start of the apocalypse. She couldn't even use her power for more than a few seconds when I met her, and now she's playing chauffeur for us on an extended adventure.

'They're growing so quickly...'

"Why are you crying again?" (Jess)

"I'm a very emotional guy..." (Me)

From the front of the flying door, Jess looks at me with a confused expression on her face. Her silver hair flutters in the strong winds, as my tears fly opposite to our direction.

"Please don't leave too quickly. I still want to see your growth..." (Me)

'Lol.'

"..." (Jess)

She turns back around. Even though she definitely tries not to react to any of my approaches as much as possible, since she knows that most of the time I'm just fucking around, this time she hides her embarrassment with red ears and crossed arms.

Meanwhile, Risa is having the time of her life behind me. Her cheeks are shaking loosely in the currents of the wind, as she throws her head back in laughter.

'Both of them are just too precious.'

With both of these girls at my side, a strange wave of nostalgia washes over me. With nothing on my mind, I find one of the rare moments where I can relax a little. But these moments are also what I'm afraid of the most.

The voices start to hammer against the insides of my head again. The replaying scene from before comes up again. I try to resist it once more, but my mind gets bombed with returning screams of people, who died because of me, in this one, relaxed moment.

My heart rate increases and for the first time in a few thousand years, I feel something which can be categorized as a painful headache.

It's not something like physical, but rather a mental thing that can't be stopped with my "Pain resistance" skill. The dark thoughts continue to spread in my head, as I start to sweat profusely.

Mind Corruption has started! 1% corrupted!

'Fuck.'

'BITCH WHAT?! WHAT'S THAT?!'

'Oh, that? Nothing important. Just a little something that comes with my package. You know, the whole "lunatic from hell" thing.'

'That sounds a bit more severe than that.'

'It'll go away if I drink a nice tea and eat some fruit.'

'I'm sure it won't.'

"Nith? Are you alright? You're sweating buckets..." (Jess)

Suddenly, I realize that Jess came extremely close while I was a bit busy with the voices. Worried, she gets out a handkerchief and wipes my forehead with it.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm just... you know..." (Me)

Visibly, she doesn't understand.

"How should I say this... Puberty?" (Me)

"What?" (Jess)

She still doesn't understand.

"Alright. I have a massive erection, which I'm trying to hide. There you have it." (Me)

For a split second, I see her glancing down to my crotch and checking it out, before going back to looking at my face quickly. I see her start to sweat a bit as well, hoping that I didn't notice it.

'But I did.'

"Hmmmm~? Where were you just looking?" (Me)

She turns back around, fleeing from me. That would've been fine and all, if there wasn't a missile-like monster shooting at her at incredible speeds from the right.

And no, she is not noticing it.

'Whoop de doo, here comes the saveroo.'

Immediately, I jump over to her and push her down to the ground. The flying vehicle on which we're standing shakes a bit since her concentration plummets for a second, but that only helps in dodging that monster.

I land on her and we both face each other. She's surprised at first, but when she sees the monster flying over our heads, she gets the gist of the situation.

We exchange looks.

"Soooo... you come here often?" (Me)

She doesn't answer. The fact that I'm pretty much lying on her, is apparently enough to get the rare blush out of her, which I'm always longing to see.

"Bollocks. I'm not blushing." (Jess)

Still on the ground, she turns around, revealing her backside. A bit provocative, but it seems like hiding her blushing face and keeping her pride is more important for her.

But that's not where I stop. I take her arm and stand up, pulling her close to me.

"Come on.~ Be a little more honest with yourself." (Me)

The distance between us is less than ever before. She still averts her gaze and looks at the ground, trying to hide the blush, but, to be honest, that does fuck all.

"I mean, I could show you a whole new world." (Me)

Her eyebrow twitches at my sudden, weird remark. It seems to be a bit out of place for her, but perfectly fine for me.

She observes the carpet I spread on the door and looks back at me with squinting eyes. Back to the carpet and back at me. She looks around us. We're flying in the sky.

"No fucking way." (Jess)

"YES WAY!" (Me)

I jump to the utmost front of the door and start singing without a worry in the world.

"I CAN SHOW YOU THE WOOOOOORLD!" (Me)

"YOU BLOODY MORON!" (Jess)

The flight continues without real problems. A few monsters here and there, which were quickly taken care of and a few breaks for Jess to regenerate her mana.

"We're nearly there." (Me)

The salty smell of the coast lingers in my nose, as we get closer to the place, where once the white cliffs of Dover were.

'But fuck, we really didn't see anyone while flying.'

What the voice in my head said is true. The apocalypse had way more impact than I anticipated, eradicating a huge share of humanity. Nearly every single town we took a break in was completely abandoned, without even corpses to look at. The monsters ate them all.

Everyone who couldn't adapt fast enough, was bound to die in this world.

Finally, we land. The cliffs still look the same, being all white and shit. The ocean is now way clearer for some reason, making it shine like a sea of sapphires. The strong winds of autumn are now even heavier near the coast, which makes the other two girls shiver a bit.

"So? What are we doing here?" (Jess)

"Well..." (Me)

I poke the ground for a bit. The "chalk" cliffs seem normal for the naked eye, but they now consist of a completely different element.

"Originally, I wanted to use a special bait that I have prepared to lure a special kind of monster over here, which you can only find at the coast. BUT that plan has changed a bit." (Me)

I turn around and point in the distance.

"Because of that!" (Me)

Both of them follow my finger and look in the direction where I'm pointing at. About a few hundred meters away is something that looks like a fortified base, even more secure than ours.

'Which is not very difficult by the way. I'll get to improving my base some time in the future.'

The fortress is surrounded by heavy metal plates, which look to be made of metal from the other world. Around it are several other defensive structures, like pitfalls, beartraps or other shit.

With one quick movement, I take both of the girls under my arms and jump in front of their door in one fell swoop.

"How did you even see this? I couldn't see fuck all this far away. Could you, Risa?" (Jess)

"Fu fu, of course I could! Nothing in this world escapes the demon's eyes!" (Risa)

Knowing just as well as I do, that that meant "No", Jess looks at me intrigued.

"Oh, didn't you know? Physical stats like strength or endurance also improve your senses." (Me)

I put both of them down and clear my throat. The huge door towers above me, intimidatingly, but I couldn't give less of a fuck.

*Knock Knock*

A commotion starts inside of the refugee camp, since it should be uncommon for another person to knock on their doors.

'Are we just gonna ignore the fact that a base of humans appeared, just as I pointed at the lack of humans here?'

Once more, I clear my throat and do a few vocal practices. I wanna make sure that they all can hear me well.

"Excuse me, kind sirs?" (Me)

The commotion inside comes to a halt, as I start talking. They're listening to me very carefully. Quickly, I brush off my dusty suit to make myself appear a bit more clean.

'First impressions are important after all.'

"Have you heard of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?" (Me)

'You should come up with a few new lines for cases like this.'

'You think so too? It's actually pretty difficult to come up with jokes on the fly, you know?'

From inside, I hear calm footsteps approaching the door. They hold no doubts, opposite to the panicky chaos from before.

"Oh my..." (???)

The gate slowly opens with creaking hinges. Normally, it would take quite a bit of power to open such a door-

'Although easy for me.'

-so there's definitely someone inside, who has some kind of strength related power.

As the interior gets revealed, the calm person greets us with a smile on his face.

"Coincidentally, we actually have heard of him." (???)

In front of me is one of the people, who I hate the most.

"You can call me father Pete." (Pete)

"Ah, of course there is at least one religious cunt who I have to meet." (Me)

The feeling of regret spreads inside me, wondering why I brushed off my suit for some shit like this.