Day 15

I woke up determined to spend some of my newly acquired Towers on the environment, preventing another group build up like before. Standing up, I raised my arms and prepared to yawn. I failed

Trying to frown, I reached up and touched my jaw. The right side had healed incorrectly, locking itself in place. With a size, I rummaged along the floor of my chambers, basically consisting of a dusty bed and nothing else-

-Did the environment really need to come with a rotten bed frame? Sometimes immersion goes too far

Until I found a bone from one of the bodies I brought to bed with me for a snack. It was sizable enough that I cracked it against my face until my jaw popped free, slightly fractured again. The whole process was surprisingly a hassle; my body had become entirely too sturdy. After I had got it moving again, I carefully pushed it back into position, and then reached into my pocket for the strange sigil teleporter.

But then I hesitated. Might as well spend my mana now, if I’m going to be distracted for a while. I summoned 3 skeleton archers, totalling 300 mana, and 5 zombie scavengers, 350 mana, leaving other me 35 mana to use to practice air affinity.

The tavern area was quite deserted at this time of day, and I quickly walked up to the counter. I hadn’t gotten any paychecks with my new 300 towers salary yet, so I just had 60 left over from before, and 1000 from the bonus. I quickly opened environments and skipped past the premade ones, until I reached a message at the bottom.

For detailed adjustments or commission work, see a sales associate for details.

So typical.

A sweetly smiling girl with a purple flower in her hair walked over to me when I rapped on the counter with a knuckle and gazed around. She was the same race as whip man, with dusky blue skin that almost appeared slimy.

-Still, good birthing hips.

-Shut up, other me

“How may I help you?” Her voice was surprisingly gurgly, which threw me off a small bit, but I did my best to ignore it.

“I’d like to make some specific adjustments to my environ-”

“Oh, I see. A technician will be out to service you sometime tomorrow. Have a nice day!” She walked away without a word.

I was left standing there, annoyed. I wanted some understanding of how much it all would cost, so I could look into investing in other traps, but…

Making sure my castle was actually defensible was more important.

*****

I returned to the castle with a small amount of time to spare before the challengers would start approaching. I had a sinking feeling about how many would show up, but inwardly I hoped that the level of 64 and 32 had some more active paths, restricting the flow of challengers upward, but somehow in my heart I knew that it wouldn’t be the case.

Due to the short nature of my visit to the counter, I hadn’t recovered any mana, so I walked around looking for all of my minions. They weren’t in the castle, and only the yellow skeleton was in the courtyard, built back up to 2.5 meters in height. And where was the whip man? I ordered two Zombie Scavengers to guard him-

Thunk.

A strange noise from the back side of the castle caught my attention, and I went up the battlements and walked around towards it. There they all were, Jerry, Turnip, 7 zombie scavengers and 3 skeleton archers, staring out over the edge into the dried moat bed. Then a head popped up over the edge, apparently climbing up the wall. It was whip man.

“...is suffering, everything is suffering. Only by embracing death and accepting your own weakness giving up hope may you see the world how it truly is…”

Whip man leapt off, falling the 20 meters half down the walls, half into the dried up moat.

Thunk.

I walked over. Turnip was watching whip man’s progress with glittering eyes. Jerry was frowning.

The rest… well, they had normal, sorta stoic undead faces. And Turnip’s eyes were less glittering and more of a burning ember of hatred, but they seemed particularly excited.

Instructing the normal undead to guard the front, I finally arrived at the edge. Whip man was clambering up, continuing to speak.

“...goodness, nor evil, only truth. And truth is suffering. You did not deserve what happens to you, nor do you deserve better. You are a weak creature without hope. Accept it, embrace it, and all things become pain…”

When whip man had climbed back up to his position up here, I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. He continued to talk, ignoring me. “Without pain, this world is devoid of truth. One cannot control pain, or defeat it, only submit. And when you do…”

I grabbed one of his wizened knees, snapping it. But contrary to my expectations, this only made whip man’s eyes brighter, and he spoke much more quickly. “When you do pain becomes your world, the true world. The lies of kindness and strength and justice fall away and all that remains is pain and suffering. Once you are in this state, all hope deserts you, leaving your eyes become clear to understand how all the world is grey, and light and darkness is an illusion…” I dropped him, disgusted.

Within seconds, he had gleefully flung himself off of the edge once more. I turned to Jerry.

Thunk.

“What’s up with him?”

Jerry shrugged helplessly. “All my skill can tell me that the combination of the backlash from the forbidden blood magic and his corpse becoming reanimated as crystallized his soul within his body, and he is therefore practically immortal. He’s just… coping with the news.”

Turnip rolled his eyes. “Cha, you just, like, hate people you can’t control. Is it so unbelievable that there is something out there bigger than yourself!??!” Then Turnip stepped up and jumped off the edge, arms wide and skeletal wings open.

Thunk.

-...I think our dependable minion was just brainwashed and joined a cult.

*****

Luckily, the absolute loyalty from undead prevented them disobeying direct commands. I ordered Whip man to go wait in the courtyard, and Turnip to stand above the gate and kill anything that wasn’t me or undead if they tried to go through it.

He just rolled his eyes. “Obviously I wouldn’t kill something undead; it wouldn’t even work, dumbass.”

-...maybe he just needs more friends his age? Perhaps yellow skeleton will evolve into something intelligent soon.

-Except the intelligence was from Unholy Bestowal. Cheers to waiting another week. And where the fuck is he learning this language?

-Undoubtedly the cult, corrupting our youth.

I then organized the remaining undead into teams. Yellow Skeleton had a skeleton archer backing him up, Jerry had a zombie scavenger, and the last two groups were three zombie scavengers and 1 skeleton archer. I would patrol as needed.

I was looking forward to a restive day after yesterday’s assault on the castle, hopefully involving improving Weapon’s Mastery, or Knife Throw, or if I was extremely lucky, Air Affinity. My use in blocking off whip man’s flow of air, even if only briefly, really gave me some ideas for interesting applications.

*****

Of course, it was not to be. By lunch, of the 7 zombie scavengers and 3 Skeleton archers, 2 scavengers and 1 archer remained. The problem was that too many challengers were arriving at once. By the time that the patrols of my undead came across challengers, they had gathered in groups of 8-10. Zombie scavengers were quick and sneaky, but they could only wound a few before being cut down. Skeleton archers  were much more effective at killing, on the other hand, but they were swiftly charged and slaughtered when they were alone.

There was, however, good news. Yellow Skeleton and his archer companion had wrecked havoc among several large groups, and Yellow Skeleton had quickly absorbed the bones from over 25 corpses, swelling to just under 4 meters. His bone plate armor that he had for the fight against tiger man had reformed, and a weird mutation had caused 4 skulls to sit atop his increasingly broad shoulders, all with glowing eyes, peering in different directions.

When he returned to the castle to show off, his size was such that the planks we had laid across the spot of the disintegrated drawbridge couldn’t support his weight, and I was forced to walk out to inspect him.

As I told him that he had done a good job, he scraped his foot along the ground in a bashful manner until I gave in. Feeling ridiculous, I grabbed on some of the bones of his torso and clambered up to eye level with him. Then I rubbed the top of each of his four skulls in term. His entire bone body vibrated in pleasure.

After hopping down, he took off in a mad dash, eager to kill more. Sighing, I used all of the mana I had recovered to summon 3 skeleton archers and told them to follow him. They hurried after him, their puny normal sized legs unable to keep up with his 2 meter strides.

*****

I was arguing pointlessly with whip man, who simply ignored me and continued to extol the virtues of suffering when Jen poofed into existence. She was once more forming her body into something resembling a human. Her features were more reasonable this time, and I could tell that she had found a model to base her transformation.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The most notable change is that she was now a tube like blob, with a normal seeming neck, and then a wiggly head. “Oh, hey, fancy seeing you here…”

Her voice was very high pitched and nervous, but I frowned at her. “Where else would I be? I always wait for you to bring me lunch.”

“Oh, I...errr, I just was told that… you…. Um… hey, is that a Tellite?” Her tentacle, with five little tentacles twirling at the end, pointed at whip man.

Whip man stopped his crazy muttering, seemingly surprised. “You… you know the people of Tellus?”

“Of course. Not only are they similar in appearance to...errr… humans… But! But also my hero, the mystifying slime Oomla traveled with a Tellite past the point of ascension! I think they made it to the 66th floor of the Tower before they were cast down.”

“Why is looking like a human like a human important?” I wondered aloud.

Whip man now looked at Jen disdainfully. “Hmph. You must be mistake. If any Tellite from the 4 schools of Tellus had succeeded in Ascension, I would have heard about it.”

A tired but smug seeming Jerry walked in, only one wounded and stumbling Zombie scavenger trailing after him. I checked my mana pool, but wouldn’t have enough to summon him another for a bit. I gestured for him to wait.

I could tell how annoyed Jen was getting by the way her ears were sliding down her face again. “No, of course not! I’m positive. I don’t know the exact floor they made it to, but I know they Ascended, and I know Oomla sacrificed her life to protect a Tellite named Kairuu!”

Then she sniffed disdainfully. “And it makes sense that you have never heard from it, because he wasn’t from one of the four cardinal schools, he was from a general academy!”

Whip man looked at Jen, flummoxed. Gathering enough mana, I summoned a zombie scavenger but gestured for Jerry to join me for lunch. He looked at the larva I was stuffing in my mouth with a bit of apprehension, but his expression grew bright after he tried one.

Whip man continued to sit still with a dazed expression. Jen oozed her way back over to me, her features righting themselves. “And, um, looking like a human is important… because...uh I want...well.. I have a lot of human… friends… I want to… to get closer to! Like… you…” She trailed off, her human looking head rotating 360 degrees.

I finished my handful of larva and coughed. “I’m not a human.”

“Eh?” Jen’s appearance fell away, her body pooling on the ground. “Then… then what are you? You look like a human…And the timing...”

I nodded. “Yea, I think I look like one too. But I don’t have a race.”

“EEEHhhhhhh!?!” Even whip man looked at me, shocked from his daydream.

-He was probably dreaming about whips.

-And chains… wait… you don’t think this talk of suffering is just him discovering his sexuality?!?!

-I think what’s more disturbing is that dependable Turnip is buying into it…

“That’s… that’s not possible. Everybody has a race.” Jen said anxiously. I shrugged.

“No, he’s telling the truth. My skill, Absolute Identity, has been used by Kiefharts to discover the races and weaknesses of opponents since before The Great Tower was built atop the leypoint. He really doesn’t have a race.” Jerry spoke around a mouthful of larva. I frowned at the amount of my Biomass that he was eating.

-Thankless subordinates are the bane of anxiety-free living.

“...I’d hate to interrupt ANOTHER party I wasn’t invited to…” Turnip’s voice drifted down from above the gate. “But a group of about 30 people are walking up the road towards the gate.”

Sighing, I straightened. Jen was still considering my racelessness as she left, and didn’t even say goodbye. Whipman continued to frown at the ground.

*****

***POV Change***

Zindaloo sat next to the sleeping path boss, considering.

His master standing over him. “Who…. who are you?” That light smile, that impossible strength for a general academy instructor.

“You may call me Ruu.”

The path boss snored loudly, and Zindaloo made a decision. He had been given explicit instructions not to harm the path boss, but…

Zindaloo began tickling the boss’s feet. Within seconds, the boss had come awake, roaring. Then he glared around, sleepily. His eyes finally fell on Zindaloo, and Zindaloo could see gears clicking away behind those yellow eyes. The path boss said nothing, considering him.

Finally, Zindaloo opened his mouth. “Let me out of the castle. There is something in the marsh I wish to find.”

The path boss nodded slowly and gestured. “Lead on.”

******

Zindaloo watched with a bitter expression as they came across a group of 12 challengers who had decided to camp out, waiting for the path to rise on its own. Zindaloo would probably have come to a similar conclusion, if that yellow skeleton had rampaged around while he was here. It had grown too large for physical damage to do anything to it.

It was frustrating, watching the path boss’s speed and grace. And any blows that landed were worthless: Zindaloo suspected that the path boss’s most monstrous stat was vitality, perhaps even higher than the yellow skeleton’s. Zindaloo had stolen similar strength, but the path boss had earned it on his own. And without a race? He grew dizzy just trying to puzzle it out.

Finally, they moved on, approaching the camp where Zindaloo and the tiger beast man had gathered survivors. He had buried something here when he resigned himself to using the forbidden magic again, hiding his shame. With trembling hands, Zindaloo brushed the dirt off the small locked chest.

The key was a language code, practically impossible to break if one didn’t have a clue. But Zindaloo had spent several years under his master. And if Ruu, really was more than he seemed...

The porch, and the falling rain. His master with two cups of sake. One he poured into the garden, the other he drank. “Who was that for?”

The same steady smile, tinged at the edges with sadness. “An old friend.”

Zindaloo inputted the word Oomla. The lock popped open.

There were 5 things inside. Zindaloo scanned the first 4 in seconds, his hands trembling. These… these were improvements made upon the styles of the 4 cardinal schools. His master had always implied that if he was patient, he would learn more, but…

Excited he turned to the final item, a beaten up leather diary. Pinned to the front was a short essay, which he skimmed.

In order to grow strong, the people of Tellus imitated the elements. We became the sound and the fury, striking out and challenging the entire multiverse. And in a way, we succeeded. We established Tellus as a force in the greater system around us, both an economic one and cultural one. 

And yet… I cannot help but be aware of our own people’s limitations. We are weak. That weakness pushed us to seek understanding, and from that we gained power. But what happens when we encounter another with similar understanding, and a superior physique? 

Today, 10 years ago, a friend died. She died protecting me. It was only then that I realized how much her own strength had outstripped my own. At that moment, I had two choices. I could succumb to the bitterness, or I could use the insufficiency of my strength, just like my ancestors did, and use it to find understanding.

For 10 years I have sparred against the greatest schools Tellus has to offer. Then I journeyed to distant worlds, to experience elements more fierce than our Tellus could provide. Based on these, included with this are my versions of Wind, Water, Earth, and Thunder, and more advanced combinations, Storm, Ice, Magma, and Void. I leave these to any citizen of Tellus who finds them.

Please. Teach those who profit from this tower to fear Tellus. Make them pay.

Zindaloo wiped away tears and turned to the path boss, who was lounged on his side, chewing on the flesh from some of the group they defeated.

“Please…” Zindaloo began, surprised by how hoarse and weak his voice sounded. “I need your body.”

The path boss blinked, then crossed his arms in an X. “I apologize. I’m unwilling to cultivate an exclusively sexual relationship with you at this time.”

“No you imbecile!” Zindaloo stamped his foot. “It’s… you need to learn… I need to teach…” His own body crumpled to the ground. 

Sobs rose unbidden from within him, 1000 memories of time spent with his master. And then the shock on his master’s face when he stabbed him. And then the soft forgiveness in his gaze.

Zindaloo thrust out the essay to the path boss, who took it, bemused. “This body of mine has been cursed. I can survive almost anything but… it has no strength. You must inherit my master’s will. You are not a Tellite… but there is no one else. You must teach those of this Tower to fear. Please.”

The path boss looked at the essay for a long time. Then he looked up at Zindaloo, eyes smoldering. “This will make me stronger?”

Zindaloo nodded, almost unwilling. The path boss smiled.

****Author's Note****

Studying is terrible and I hate it! Luckily for y'all, I cope with studying stress by writing fantasy nonsense.

Such is my existence~