One week to literally cut off all ties to Greto, as if Evelyn or any other members of their city would agree to that. Evelyn wouldn't just give up everything she had earned through hard work, just to continue a boring life with nothing else to do than eat the goop Valeria offered to her citizens. Evelyn had been so sure everyone else would've agreed, but she had been dearly disappointed. Most of the city and the guild had gathered together to discuss the matter and throw their various opinions around. Though a majority were of the opinion that they should give up. They'd had a good run, but no point in opposing the larger city. And once they got rid of the tattoos, they could supposedly enter Valessa again.

The guild was the main group opposing the idea. "And all of you are sure you want Valeria to heal your limbs? From what you told us, the healed things will feel different, be different. Absolutely void of any mana and sensations. That's not something I want for an entire arm." One helper had said. It was the reason why asking Valeria to bring someone back from the dead was rarely done, it was more living death than anything. An arm like that would be essentially no different from Audrey's stone leg.

The discussion quickly evolved to exchanging ideas on how to best remove the tattoos, but even then, everyone wasn't happy. Everyone in the city had enjoyed the benefits of the tattoos, thanks to the runes, life was easier. Conjuring boiling water, healing small cuts, enjoying a large variety of various meats and plants from the tower were all possible thanks to Greto. It was better than walking to Valessa every day.

It didn't take long to realize the tattoos could be removed by scraping the tattoo away with a knife. It'd still be painful, and leave a numb spot on the palm once Valeria healed the injuries, but it was better than removing the entire hand. Though Audrey and Jaron, the kid who'd lost his arm, would have a much more painful experience.

Evelyn too came to a realization. She would never get rid of her tattoo. She was a cleric of Greto, a climber, and she loved it. Sure, a handful of people had died because of the god, Audrey had lost his leg, but they had all known the risk. Like Evelyn, they had willingly risked their lives in turn for the rewards. And the higher they'd climbed, the better the rewards had been.

Evelyn had only recently cleared the eighth floor, and the rewards from that alone had already set her for life. She had money, a new better house, clothes and shoes from the tower that would keep her warm even in the harshest of winters, items that kept her house heated, and not to mention the excitement of climbing the tower. Learning and using new runes was fun, fighting the various golems and monsters was fun, and feeling herself become better, become able to climb higher was fun. That was all that mattered to her, though sometimes Evelyn did dare to hope that by the time she'd reach the top of the tower, if there even was a top, she'd be capable of fulfilling any wish she desired.

Just like that, Evelyn knew what she had to do. Seven days. Evelyn would stay that long inside the tower, and when the time came, she would fight back. The priests of Valeria had a goddess on their side, well so did Evelyn. She would tell Michelle and Audrey, but other than that, Evelyn could only hope more people would choose the same.

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Kerto was frustrated, furious even. Two weeks ago, he had left the city of Gressa, and headed to the nearby Helpers city. He had met with the Master of goods, Denrek, and the Chief hand, Kerto's direct superior. After a long report of the various items, foods, runes, runedust, and the other goods available in the tower, a few examples of what one could do with a rune tattoo, Kerto had managed to convince that the benefits were worth the effort of making rune tattoos available for all helpers.

After some more time spent convincing the chief hand that affiliating themselves with a god wouldn't tie themselves to a smaller operation area, and wouldn't cause political issues, and explaining how the city of Gressa came to be, Kerto finally managed to convince them that the city around the tower should be expanded on. With some consideration, they came to the conclusion of bringing five hundred helpers to Gressa, along with their families, and a support system to keep them fed and sheltered while their new houses were being built, and to bring goods from the tower to the guild city. After that, more helpers would be free to move to Gressa as higher floors of the tower were reached.

From that, it had taken the majority of the past two weeks to find five hundred volunteers willing to move to Gressa, and some time preparing for the move. Eventually, it was decided that Kerto should head back to Gressa before the others, so that the citizens of Gressa would be informed in time.

And now, when Kerto had made the journey back to Gressa, he was promptly informed that a day prior, a chancellor of Valessa had informed that Gressa wasn't recognized by the other nearby cities. Apparently the clerics were considered to be a cult, and everyone affiliated with Greto in six days would be executed by the clerics of Valeria. Quite a few citizens had already gone to Valessa to get their bleeding hands to be healed, though most had decided to wait till the end of the time limit before removing theirs.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Kerto had five hundred Helpers, their families, and a large support network moving to Gressa in a few days, so that they can make runedust available for the entirety of the helpers guild. Now, Valessa had decided to start a war with them because of it. And Kerto had in his naivety told the chief hand that politics wouldn't be an issue. Damn the goddess.

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Designing Oliver's human body had been great. Together, we had gone through various body shapes, faces, hair colors and everything that Oliver liked, it was like customizing a character in a video game. When Oliver was happy with its looks, I started the more experimental side of the character creation.

So far, I had made various creatures by modifying the scale of an already existing animal structure, and giving them non-organic parts that nevertheless were connected to their souls, and aided many of their movements with my mana. This way, I had for example created a snake formed from stone segments connected with thin pieces of flesh. This was mostly because of the limitations on how quickly the soul gets used to a new body. Giving a snake legs for example, wouldn't make the snake walk, it'd continue slithering and ignore its legs completely.

This time, I wasn't limited by that, as I was dealing with an intelligent soul that had gotten used to flying as a crow after it'd been human. I would make Oliver's body into something more.

I started simply by giving the human body intricate flowing carbon dust tattoos around its body. I thought they looked cool, and would also be useful for Oliver. But after that I thought of what to add next. I briefly entertained the idea of giving the body wings, but I doubted they could fly very well if at all, and Oliver could already fly as a crow. Then I thought of adding a tail, just for the giggles of Oliver trying to hide it.

In the end, I couldn't come up with anything smart to add to his body. But I really wanted to add a new limb or something, to see how learning to use a limb the body's brain hasn't evolved to use, would work. I just needed to come up with something that wouldn't impede the rest of the body too much. Then I had a simple idea, I could add more fingers. I could start with that, and experiment more with Oliver's multiple future crow bodies.

Once I had given the cells their life, connected the new muscles to nerves that connected them to the brain, and made sure the body was alive, the body was ready for a soul to inhabit its brain. Only Oliver's soul was in his crow brain, protected by his mana. Well, what he doesn't know, won't hurt him.

'Are you ready?' I wrote to Oliver. He nodded in response, and closed his eyes.

I formed a bunch of carbon spheres, and used them to push a tiny hole for my domain to reach inside his skull, just to the edge where his brain was. Once Oliver's soul moved to that portion of the brain, I moved the soul to the human brain, where I connected them together, and removed the carbon spheres going to Oliver's crow brain. The whole operation took merely a fraction of a second, and the effect was immediate. In the next fraction of a second, I made sure the soul was moving through both brains, and sure enough, it was. Oliver's soul was haphazardly jumping from one brain to another.

Soon enough, both bodies, both Oliver's, opened their eyes. "This… feels… weird," Oliver said through his human mouth, with his crow body moving its beak between the words. But I didn't care about that, I had a single question instead.

'Can you get used to it?' I wrote in the air in front of Oliver's human eyes. It took a moment, but Oliver eventually closed his crow eyes, leaving the human eyes open, before nodding.

I had created a hivemind! Sure, the hive part of that might be just two bodies, but it worked. I didn't yet know the limits of a hivemind, but the potential was limitless. I had access to dozens of human souls that could learn to live with any kind of body. I hadn't used them since turning Oliver into a crow—except for the pile of sentient rocks—because I wasn't sure if I wanted to force humans into foreign bodies just because.

With this, a functional hivemind of a human and animal, I could have the humans also be various creatures inside my tower. I could even ask what kind of a creature the human wanted to be, and give them a luxurious life inside my tower while they are essentially playing a videogame with a second body. If I refined the idea, I could do the same thing for everyone who dies in my tower. Give them human bodies, and come to an agreement of their employment in my tower. The employment wouldn't have to even be permanent, and the humans could very well live outside the tower if they so wished.

If a person were to die in my tower, I would get all their mana, revive and come to an agreement with them on their employment, before sending their human body on their merry way. It's a win win, not to mention more people would come to my tower knowing death isn't permanent.

But that would have to wait for a moment. I still would have to make sure Oliver could function with two bodies, observe how it'll affect his actions and abilities, make Oliver the penthouse I promised him, and test the limit of bodies a single soul can handle. And I still wanted to figure out how to make wormholes. If I could do that, I could become global overnight.