The guard was right. It did indeed take Ray no time at all to find the Infected. He followed his flying eyeball for maybe fifteen minutes at most, which was a drastically short time compared to their journey to the forest, when the flying Scouring Eye spotted the first supposed zombie.

He didn’t really act like a zombie. Sure, the infected man had the sores and pustules of Growth Mana Ray had spotted on the corpses in the infirmary. Half the man’s face was taken over by the glistening, slightly-pulsing growths, his shoulders and upper arms also padded by the same. Though he walked with a stoop-shouldered gait, he did so with purpose.

Definitely not zombielike.

Ray got close enough to use Primordial Gauge on the man. At least this wasn’t a trap. The spell hadn’t alerted him to anyone else sneaking up on him.

[Primordial Gauge]

Adrian Altin [Denizen]

Class: Farmer [Common] [Tier 1] at Level 12

This Denizen’s skills are locked due to affliction: Growth Mana Infection.

Alright, damn. Even Primordial Gauge said these people were infected. To the point they even no longer had access to their skills. That was wild. He supposed that only added fuel to the healthy people’s fire of getting rid of these Infected.

Ray stood straight. He made sure he was visible. His heart started thudding a little, but he had already decided he was going to accost these Infected and decide for himself.

“Hey!” he said loudly.

The man turned around with surprising adroitness. Acute consciousness floated in his eyes, as well as a present intelligence. He definitely didn’t give the vibe of someone who had lost their mental faculties like a brain-eating ghoul.

Nevertheless, the man immediately assumed an attacking stance. All he had was his bare fists and all he wore were some dirty rags. Still, he faced Ray with a determined expression, ready to fight for his life.

After all, why would a seemingly healthy person appear here if not to exterminate the Infected.

“I want to talk,” Ray said. “Can you understand me?”

“Of course, I can.” The man’s words came out thick and congealed, like he had something stuffed down his throat and was forced to speak around it. Ray grimaced as his imagination spat out delightful pictures of those tumorous growths lodged inside a windpipe.

“Good, then we can talk.”

“Why would you want to talk with me? Aren’t you here to kill us all?”

“That depends on the talk, actually.”

“I don’t trust you.”

Ray sighed. “Look, I don’t want to kill anyone unless I have to. Does it really hurt to at least give this a shot? What have you really got to lose?”

The man grumbled something under his breath, but then relaxed just a tiny bit. “Fine. What do you want?”

“Let me explain the context. I’m not one of you. As in, I’m not a citizen of your Everstead kingdom.”

“Neither am I.”

Ray paused. Well, he was right. A kingdom wouldn’t kill its own citizens. “Point is, I’m a Denizen. Long story short, I’ve been tasked to kill you because as a Denizen, I’m immune to your illness.”

At that, the man’s face fell. He even cursed out loud.

“Were you… really hoping I was getting infected since I’m close enough?” Ray asked.

“So what if I was?”

Ray sighed again. “I’m trying to be friendly here, pal. I understand you’ve got every reason to be hostile and defensive, but please, for the love of… I don’t know, whatever is important to you, just give me a chance, will you?”

The man hesitated. For the first time, he actually relaxed, dropping his hostile stance. “What’s your intention here?”

“To figure out the full context of the situation, because I think there are missing pieces I haven’t been told.”

Ray hadn’t dismissed his eyeball. In fact, he now had two out, both of them keeping a watch over the area to alert him in case the guard dropped in.

“What have you been told?” the man asked.

Ray told him.

“Huh.” The man—no, Adrian, as Ray decided to refer to him—sat down. Maybe it was difficult to keep standing for long in that infected state. “Of course. Why would they tell you we’re still alive and breathing, not actually monsters. They want you to kill us, after all.”

“How did this all start?” Ray asked.

There were other questions he could have asked. He wondered how many of them there were in the forest and how they had all gathered here. Was there anyone helping them, besides Ray? Surely not every single healthy person in the kingdom believed them to be savage monsters. What about their family members and close friends? What had happened to them?

But he held himself back. Those questions didn’t need to be answered just then.

In fact, if Ray thought about it, just the truth that the man before him was sane and sensible, if sick, was enough for him.

“We were cursed,” Adrian said.

Ray frowned. “Cursed? By whom?”

“By the first true ruler of this whole Tower thing we were brought into.”

“True ruler… You mean the Tower Lord? Or wait no, the Floor Lord? Why would the Floor Lord curse you?”

“I can’t say. Rumours abound that the original one who used to control all the matters on this Floor of yours disagreed with the king, to the point that he decided to curse everyone in the kingdom with this affliction. Afterwards, there was mass chaos as the kingdom did its best to curb the spread of the affliction.”

The information jolted Ray a bit. Why had the Floor Lord brought in this kingdom from some other world only to have a huge row with the ruler and curse everybody in it? How had the Floor Lord cursed everyone? No skill could be that powerful, right? If it was, then how strong was the Lord of the Second Floor?

It begged the question of the Lord’s location too, but Ray was already floundering a bit with the implications.

What would that Holdstar auditor make of this information? Nothing the trio had said had hinted they knew about this major disagreement.

Ray blinked. “Hold on…”

“What is it?” Adrian asked.

“Never mind, I was just thinking out loud.”

He put his thoughts to action.

Ray: Mary, I’ve just learned something REALLY vital. Get back to me asap.

She didn’t reply, of course, so Ray carried on with the conversation.

“That’s a pretty big revelation,” he said. “Nobody in the kingdom told me about this.”

He didn’t doubt the information because he was pretty sure it was correct. After all, that Growth Mana spire had exhibited the exact same kind of pustules and tumours within it, just upscaled enormously.

“Not surprising, is it?” Adrian asked.

Ray shook his head.

The man started returning to his original stance, the tension returning to his form. “That enough for you, or do you need more?”

“Enough to be going on with, definitely. But I still need to kill you, so to speak.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“What?”

“I’m guessing there’s a lot more of you in these forests, yes? You don’t need to tell me how many or where, but what you do need to do is get yourself and the rest of your… fellows out of dodge. You understand?”

“What will you be doing?”

Ray summoned his mimic construct, ordering it to take the form of one of the corpses they had seen in the infirmary. Adrian gasped. “I’ll be doing that, but on a bigger scale. I need to convince the guards that you’re dead, so they’ll leave this place alone and you can return and stay here in peace.”

There was a strange look on Adrian’s face. An almost scared expression, fixed on the Imitator construct and what it had turned into.

“I know you guys have a thing against these Imitators,” Ray said. It wasn’t that he couldn’t see why they’d have a problem with mimics. After all, if a mimic grew strong enough, there was the potential the monsters would start upending society by pretending to be actual people. “But this one’s just a summon, so don’t worry about it.”

“As you say.” With a clearly forceful jerk of his head, the man turned to face Ray. “We will do as you say. But I’d like to ask—why did you decide to assist us? Wouldn’t it be simpler for you to kill us altogether?”

“I don’t know if going around and making sure every single member of a group is killed would be simple.” Ray knew he was stronger, so actually killing them wouldn’t be a chore. It was finding every last one of them that would have been a pain. And he missed the Essence gain, that was for sure. “But I don’t make a habit of going around and killing people undeservedly.”

Adrian slowly nodded. “I can respect that.”

“Oh, here’s one more thing.”

Ray divvied up some of the tinctures the old man had given him—free of charge, he reminded himself with a withheld grin—and gave them to Adrian.

The Infected accepted it with a surprised look. “Surely you didn’t purchase these for us?”

“No, but I think I have enough. You and your friends might have more need of them.”

“I… appreciate your kindness.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Ray could have asked more questions to Adrian, was genuinely curious if they were holding up or simply biding time till their infections grew worse and killed them. But there was no time. The guard would be wondering where Ray had gone.

So instead, Ray smiled and waved farewell. “Let’s get to work.”

----------------------------------------

It took about half an hour or so before Adrian returned to the spot he had met Ray and assured that everyone was finally out of the forest. Ray nodded, then sent out his mimic construct to get to work.

In the middle of the forest, it turned itself into a similar pile of bodies to that of the infirmary. Interestingly, it didn’t react when Ray attacked it. He had to make the bodies look like they had been killed personally by him, so Ray called up a flying Greater Windbane Maw and torched the bodies all at once.

“Sorry,” he told his Imitator construct. “You’re always the butt of this kind of stuff, but I swear it’s not on purpose!”

The mimic construct remained admirably composed.

“Perfect,” he said, when it was all done. His handiwork looked genuine. Now, all that was left was to hope Adrian and his people actually had hidden smartly somewhere else.

Back outside the forest, Ray found the guard waiting at exactly the spot he had left the man. It was as though he hadn’t moved even an inch in the whole hour Ray had been gone. He was starting to get the feeling that his chaperone was a tiny bit cooked in the head.

“All done,” Ray said.

The guard raised an eyebrow. “That was quick.”

“Really? It’s been like, over an hour, at least?”

The guard only grunted, then marched into the forest. Ray didn’t follow. He trusted in his Imitator construct’s ability and was happy enough to let the fellow come to his own conclusion.

It took less than twenty minutes for the guard to return and find Ray leaning against a tree.

“Excellent work,” he said briskly.

“Great!” Ray clapped his hands. “That means we can get started on my side of the bargain, yes?”

The guard nodded. “Yes. We can begin.”

----------------------------------------

Ray would have liked to verify that the Infected actually were alright before leaving, but he couldn’t find a good enough excuse to get away from the guard. Plus, the speed with which they were leaving meant he couldn’t let his eyeball roam and locate the Infected either.

Ah, well. He just had to hope they were alright. Ray wasn’t truly concerned about them. His goal was simply to not be the one to kill them all. While he didn’t want them to die after what he had seen and heard, he also knew he was in no position to champion their cause and defend them against an entire kingdom who wanted them dead.

Speaking of which, Ray was trying to figure out how he could wheedle some more information that might confirm what the Infected man, Adrian, had said.

“What’s your king like?” Ray asked.

“He is great and magnanimous,” the guard said, almost automatically. “May his reign last an age.”

“That tells me everything,” Ray muttered. He raised his voice. “Has he always been the king in your lifetime, or is he recently ascended?”

“He is an old king. He was the ruler during my father’s time as well.”

Considering the guard didn’t look young at all, this king had to be an old codger by now. Ray asked some more questions about the Everstead monarch. Things like what some of his biggest policies were, if he had gone to wars, how he was compared to the previous ruler, and so on.

The guard’s answer was always taciturn and, well, guarded. It was like he had figured out Ray wanted to ferret out something through the questioning. His curiosity was just a veil.

All Ray learned was that the ruler was great, liked food more than diplomacy or wars, was great, had built a big palace in the capital, and had he mentioned great? Useless info. Ray would need to discover what actually happened with the Sylvan Floor Lord some other way.

But even that told Ray something. All the talk of greatness suggested someone of strong ego, someone who thought highly of themselves. It was easy to see how such a person could get into arguments, even with important, powerful people like the Floor Lord.

“We’ve arrived,” the guard said

The dungeon before them was situated in a very out-of-the-way corner of Cliff Three. The building was tall and wide, bigger even than the manor of Lord Caleb, though it didn’t cover as much ground.

It was also vastly run down. The stench from within was already burning Ray’s sinuses a little.

“Thanks for leading me here,” Ray said.

“Remember to grab the files,” the guard said. “If they haven’t been corrupted already.”

Ray nodded. “And you’ve got the other stuff?”

The guard handed him a folded page. “There’s the map to the points of interest you want. All the monsters and such you may wish to face that we know about.”

“Excellent. Thank you.”

“You said it may take you a few days to clear everything?”

Ray got off the raptor. He patted its reptilian snout and for once, the dinosaur didn’t look at him like a snack. “Yeah. I think you should take your mount with you. I’ll be sad to say goodbye, but I can move faster on my own.”

The guard took the reins, and after a nod of farewell, began leading it away along with his own mount. Ostensibly, he was supposed to be heading back to his Lord’s place. Ray would return there after taking care of all of his advancement here on Cliff Three. He had his doubts, though.

After all, the guard had clearly been assigned to Ray to keep an eye on him at all times. It wouldn’t be surprising if the man even sneaked into the dungeon behind Ray.

Nevertheless, the guard did disappear from Ray’s view. Time to focus on the dungeon.

[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon]

Ruptured Philosophers’ Hole [Tier 10]

Dangerous experimentation is part and parcel of an avid natural philosopher’s life. Sometimes, this danger grows out of hand. Literally. Discover the truth behind the experimentation and avoid succumbing to their numbing, corrupting effects.

Huh. That sounded like a dungeon born from the experiments of mad scientists. Well, it was a Tier 10, so Ray was going to go in anyway, even if it hadn’t already intrigued him with all of its truth-finding and whatnot.

The stench intensified as soon as he got in. Corrupting effects… Ray’s stomach roiled. Just the smell itself made him feel as though his innards were being decayed somehow.

It looked just as bad—maybe worse—than it smelled too. The first corridor Ray entered was splattered with blood, draped with curtains of rotting, sickly intestines, and dotted with bits of what had to be flesh here and there too.

Ray did his best not to gag. He could deal with this. He had seen worse.

It took no time at all for Ray to come across the first Dungeon Obstacle. Very prompt, compared to his last dungeon run. He appreciated that.

[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]

Living Flesh

Mana is not to be tampered with. Especially not Growth Mana. Such tampering can lead to unforeseen abominations, which you will need to bypass before you are absorbed.

Absorbed? The hell was that supposed to mean?

Ray hurried on a little farther, hackles raised to the ceiling. He rounded a corner and came to a large room. There, he stopped and stared for a few moments.

Living Flesh was certainly an apt way of describing what Ray was seeing. Chunks of bloodless flesh were literally moving about the room as though they had been imbued with a life of their own. Ray had no idea what animal or creature they might have come from, but it was unmistakeably meat from something.

Some were lean cuts, others were torso-sized slabs, and yet others were no bigger than his fingers. All of them sported some kind of sense organ too. Mouth with sharp teeth, beady little eyes, what looked like nostrils.

There were a few that even had little arms and legs, tipped with claws. Wild.

A quick look with Primordial Gauge informed him that they were Flesh Elementals. That perked Ray up. Hey, if he was completing his Objectives while fighting weird monsters, why shouldn’t he be happy?

[Primordial Gauge]

Flesh Elemental [Monster] [Tier 7] [Level 18]

Unrestrained use of Growth Mana led to corrupted creations imbued with a mockery of life. Difficult to tame or direct, these creatures exist purely out of spite for everything else that lives.

Skills:

Flesh Surge [Tier 6]: Force your flesh to grow in the moment before an attack, enhancing the damage dealt. At Tier 6, damage is enhanced by 12%.

Flesh Corruption [Tier 4]: Lave a bit of your body on anything you attack. This piece then proceeds to corrupt. At Tier 4, corruption occurs at 8% per minute.

Corrupt Bloodspill [Tier 5]: Throw out a storm of blood that burns acidly. At Tier 5, the radius of this skill is 15 meters.

Consume [Tier 6]: Eat a portion of your foe’s body to restore your Recovery and Mana. At Tier 6, this skill returns 12% of Recovery and Mana.

For a little bit of time, Ray considered whether or not he ought to just fly through. But then he wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to claim more Elemental kills.

So, he summoned up a couple of the Greater Windbane Maw constructs and fired them off. He had been distant enough that the monsters hadn’t sensed him. He was free to act as he saw fit. Which let his constructs take care of most of the Elementals with no trouble at all.

Of course, some escaped the blasts of lasering fire, immediately retaliating towards Ray.

He was prepared for that. Primal Spiritcraft had another spectral maw grafted to his arm, which allowed him to spray the entrance of the room with chaotic fire. That took care of the rest of the Elementals charging towards him. They died with throaty, warbling cries, their fleshy bodies splitting and bursting, popping meaty chunks and splattering blood everywhere.

[Enemy Defeated—Flesh Elemental]

Tier 7 Monster: Flesh Elemental [Level 18] x13

Essence: +16,380

Knowledge: +39

True Mana Restored: +2,340

Essence to Level 25: 31,960/37,500

Knowledge to next Threshold: 741/800

Ah, good. He’d be hitting level 25 soon enough at this rate.

Ray walked into the chamber the Flesh Elementals had been in. The locations within the dungeon were so covered in grime and gore, it was hard to make sense of what actually formed the dungeon’s structure. But now, for the first time, Ray paid actual attention.

He discovered just what sort of experiments they had been doing in this dungeon.