Chapter 58 – Exposure Therapy

Jack grimaced as he felt a sharp pain in the side of his ribs. He shot open one eye to see the hulking Taskmaster towering over him.

“You’ve had enough rest. Get up. Now.”

“I still have at least an hour left, asshole.” Jack said, rolling over on his dirt bed and cradling his pickaxe as he tried to get a few more minutes of sleep. He didn’t actually know if he had an hour left. He had no way of telling time in this hellhole, but he’d never seen the taskmaster wear a watch, so it might work.

That earned him another kick in the back.

“I command you to start mining. Now.”

Jack groaned as he felt the fire of the manacle’s flair to life throughout his body. He pushed himself off the ground, rubbing at the spots the Taskmaster had just kicked, and gave a few tentative stretches as he walked into the long downward sloping tunnel he had been digging for the past week. Three enormous draugr were already hammering and picking rock in the cave. Jack tapped on one of their shoulders, taking his spot in the middle as he started his repetitive mining job.

Life in the mines sucked.

Onem had been true to his word. Every time he didn’t move the most rock, the Taskmaster got to beat the shit out of him. Anytime he did get first place, he got to fight Onem. Which was just a roundabout way of saying Onem got to beat the shit out of him as well. At the very least, he had been earning a few bonus points in Endurance and Vitality. It’s the small things, really.

At least he got to fight back against Onem.

His fights against his jailer went about how you might expect. The suppression manacles would be taken off and Jack’s untethered bloodlust and urge to kill would came rushing back. Then Onem would toy with him for an hour or so before slapping the manacles back on, suppressing Jack’s urges, and sending him off.

He glanced down at the manacles in another attempt to inspect them.

[Error]

He really wanted to know just what it was these manacles did, because he was honestly starting to enjoy them. Aside from the burning pain and the fact that it forced him to follow orders, it had given him a gift he never had before.

The power of reflection and introspection.

It had seemingly broken him into two people. With the manacles on he could think, process, observe. With them off he devolved into a berserker state that only wanted to kill. When he finally flipped the switch and let the maniac out of the box, it wouldn’t go back in, but the manacles seemed to somehow control it. He was Jekyll and Hyde.

It was an interesting power, being able to look back on the things you’ve done and think deeply about them.

After his fights with Onem, once the manacles were put back on and his bloodlust suppressed all over again, he would think about the fight. Replay it in his mind to see where he went wrong and how he could beat Onem next time.

He’d come to the conclusion that he’d been a mess ever since entering the dungeon. He didn’t remember ever being this sloppy of a killer, sure he often got lost in his urge to fight and kill. But during the peak of his days under Rodeo he was a more perfected killing machine. That’s the guy Hannah wanted him to be. What she got was a reckless, bloodthirsty berserker.

Jack had been sloppy.

He had to wonder if it was some effect of the Tower. Why would he suddenly have zero control over his urges when he let them out? Or was it really just the fact that he had suppressed them for so long he had forgotten how to manage the beast within.

Whatever the reason, every time those manacles were put back on after his duels with Onem, it put a tight lid on his urges to kill. That was helpful because it allowed him to truly think clearly and reflect on the fight.

Reflect on everything, really.

Then the next day, provided he mined enough to earn the chance at another duel, he would go into the fight with a clear mind and a strategy. The problem came when the manacles got removed and he’d turn into a beast of pure killing instinct.

Eventually, something started to change within Jack. It started as a whisper in the back of his head and as he fought and then focused and then fought again, the whisper grew into a voice which grew into a ghost of an image, which eventually grew into a whole damn person. It was like an out-of-body experience, almost. There was the killer, Jack, and then the other Jack. The Jack who just wanted to be happy.

More than once Jack wonderded if he had just fuckin’ lost it from all the pressures of the dungeon.

He was two people. Not really, but also, exactly that. He could experience two sets of thoughts, two sets of emotions, two sets of actions. Every time he put the manacles on then off, it solidified his two selves.

Happy Jack was in the back of his mind now, making sure Killer Jack didn’t fuck things up for him. He couldn’t just be one or the other. He needed both to make it out of the dungeon alive.

Killer Jack was listening to the voice of happy Jack more and more as his duels with Onem continued and it was starting to have an effect.

It was making him more focused. The Happy Jack in the back of his head had a clarity that the Killer Jack really lacked. Despite the fact he had two competing voices in his head, the more he got them to work together, the more focused he became.

The more dangerous he got.

It was slow going. But each time Onem took off the suppression manacles, and then subsequently put back on, he gained a little more control of himself. He mined away at the wall, thinking back to his last fight with Onem, and let out a small smile.

“You look to be in good form today. I’m glad. I was starting to grow bored with you.” Onem said, a cruel smile on his face as Jack approached him.

He snapped his fingers, and the manacles dropped from Jack’s legs.

Jack felt goosebumps as a storm of killing intent flowed out of him. It raged throughout his body, and he shivered in pleasure as the smile on his face grew menacing. It was different this time, though. Jack was in the raging storm, but he had a lighthouse now. There was a new addition at the storm’s center. It was an island of clarity that Happy Jack was posted up at, relaxing in a hammock, sipping on something out of a coconut.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Don’t lose control. Stick to the plan.” Was all he said before sliding his arms back behind his head, taking an even more relaxed position.

Jack focused on that as he took slow, tentative steps towards Onem.

His core had finally fully recovered, the cracks all healed up, and he could use his shockwaves again.

Onem didn’t know that. Jack thought it would be a fun little surprise for the guy.

He charged in, falling deep into storm stance as he lashed out with his daggers. Onem deflected him with ease, but that didn’t matter – Jack was already following up with another half a dozen strikes, all aimed at completely random locations.

Lightning didn’t care where it struck.

Each duel had taught him something new about his Storm Stance. Since he was now taking the time to focus on his fights, Jack had sussed out that it only really cared about three things. The first was the unrelenting destruction of everything in sight. Jack had no problem at least trying to give it that as he lashed out with his daggers, ducking and weaving between Onem’s powerful blows.

The second was mana – which helped to fuel priority number one – destruction. That, unfortunately, he couldn’t provide. His shockwave ability helped, but it was more a stop gap if anything.

The third thing the stance craved was speed. Jack had that in spades.

It seemed like the faster he pushed himself, the more he moved, the more he struck out, the easier the stance became to use. It wanted... No… It demanded he be as fast as lightning.

Jack would oblige.

He was panting hard and drenched in sweat. His arms felt like jelly as he sent another dozen stabs towards Onem’s back. The man shrugged them off, swinging around with his staff. Jack ducked low, striking out at the man’s tendons.

Faster, Killer Jack urged, the storm now raging inside of him. Jack could barely see the Happy Jack swinging in his Hammock in the center of the storm, not a care in the world.

“Wait for it, you’re almost there, just a little more…” was the only thing he said from his relaxed position.

Wait…. was he eating a crab leg? Some part of Jack thought.

Jack gripped his daggers tighter and strained against his screaming muscles as he willed his body to move faster and faster.

Mastery upgrade:

Dexterity

Apprentice-High 🡪 Adept-Low

About fucking time.

Jack felt the upgrade wash over his body. This was one of his favorite parts of coming to this God forsaken Tower. It was like he unlocked some sort of secret on how to move. He became more agile, more flexible, but also, he instinctively knew how to move his body to achieve greater impact. Jack shifted his center of gravity and directed his momentum to strike in a perfect crescendo of deadly movement.

He felt the world open up around him.

He could sense his Storm Stance cry out as if in happiness as Jack’s options became more varied. For the first time, he felt like he could truly strike from anywhere, just like the Storm Stance wanted.

Onem was swinging at Jack’s position seconds after he had already moved and was working over a second part of the draugr body, delivering small cuts and stabs in a dozen places in an instant.

The storm stilled inside Jack for a brief second, and a voice rang out from deep in his soul.

“Now!” Happy Jack said while cheering him on with his coconut drink

Jack released the two drops of mana. They went berserk inside of his core.

Before, it had felt like he had to drop all of his concentration on the Drops of mana in order to match up his attacks with the shockwaves. Now he understood that rapid movement inside his core. He could predict when they would crash into each other. He would be in the perfect position to strike out in a devastating blow precisely when the drops crashed against each other, because now every position was the perfect position to attack from.

Onem swung out with a deadly punch in an attempt to take Jack’s head off. A subtle head tilt was all he needed to avoid it. He felt like he was staring at Onem move in slow motion as he leveled his daggers at the man’s shoulder.

The drops of mana crashed into each other.

Jack lashed out and Onem’s arm fell to the ground.

That wasn’t enough. Killer Jack was having a field day and knew how to play this game. He kept up his unrelenting assault, moving faster than he thought possible as the painful shockwaves of mana raged throughout his body.

A second shockwave and he tore through Onem’s ribs.

A third shockwave and he carved a giant X into the draugr’s back.

A fourth-

Onem exploded in power. An eruption of black shadowy mana sprung out from Onem’s core, launching Jack back and slamming him into the side of the mountain. Jack's fourth shockwave imploded inside him caught off guard by the attack.

Jack groaned in pain as he fell to the ground, trying desperately to bring his two drops of mana under control. He thought it might be hard at the moment, but they were locked under his control with surprising speed. That was odd. Was it his imagination or was Happy Jack helping him focus on the mana inside him?

He looked up at Onem, who was walking towards him unfazed by his injuries. Black tendrils of mana leaked from the stump at his shoulder as it grabbed onto his severed arm, pulling it back and reattaching itself in suture like threads.

“You didn’t tell me we were using mana now. Clever trick.” Was all Onem said, dropping a health potion in front of Jack alongside his manacles.

That had been Jack’s last fight with Onem.. It wasn’t that he wasn’t getting first place anymore. He had been excited, even, to push himself harder against Onem, so he was actively trying his hardest in the mines.

Apparently, there was something more important than beating a puny human. They were getting closer to whatever it was Onem was having them dig towards. It was an all-hands-on deck 24/7 mining operation now – and Jack was their primary work horse. The taskmaster made sure of that.

In addition to a strongly guarded mineshaft, the Taskmaster was now his personal babysitter making sure Jack was as efficient as possible. If he slowed down for even a second, he earned himself a lashing across his back.

Jack fell deep into his thoughts in the week since his last fight with Onem as he put his body to the task of mining. It was his only escape really, and with his new power of “introspection” he had plenty of things to think about.

Namely, the Tower.

He’d been following the threads, trying to chase his way back to how he ended up in the mines, getting constantly tortured. They all lead back to the same place. Sure, one might argue that Jack's decisions were what led him here. But that required more maturity than Jack felt he was capable of. Instead, he decided to blame all of his problems on the one who started it all.

The Tower.

He had been so close to the perfect life back on Earth. Everything had been truly good for the first time ever, and then the Tower came in and ruined it all.

He hated the Tower.

This past week inside the mines had only served to grow that hatred. Each swing of his pickaxe, each beating he had to suffer strengthened the hatred he felt for the Tower. He had come to a conclusion in his newfound clarity and self-awareness. He had found a new goal for himself.

He was going to bring down the Tower.

Yes, he was going to kill Gideon. But he was doing that more because he had to. Not because he wanted to. He didn’t give a shit about climbing the Tower. It simply didn’t interest him. If he was doing it, it was so he could be with Sam, Hannah, and Sarah.

He didn’t care how long it took him. Brick by brick he was going to tear this Tower down. He was going to sow such seeds of chaos throughout each floor that the Tower or the Gods that controlled it would have no choice but to burn it all to the ground to stop him.

That was his goal now.

Jack was so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t noticed the hollow thuds that rang out each time he swung his pickaxe.

He looked up, the stones had given way to a large wooden door. Red magical writing flared to life across its ancient wooden slats.

Only one may enter here.

One whose worth lies-

Jack rolled his eyes as the magical writing warning message bullshit that started to appear, and swung his pickaxe straight through it.

He tore through the doorway, and it gave way, falling apart to reveal a large cavern. Dead stale air rushed out and washed over everyone in the hall. Jack stared into the cavern, eyes going wide at the telltale twinkling of treasure.

It was more wealth than he had ever seen in his entire life.