The next morning went much the same as the one before. Olive somehow got up before me to make breakfast, Karl and I got geared up for the day, and we set out to look for things to kill.
Karl, apparently emboldened by the return of his fire, thought that we should go on an extended hunting trip and trek through the land by foot, but I quickly countered that there wouldn’t be many monsters there since there were basically no people.
Then he suggested that we go into the woods, and I firmly disagreed, reminding him that, again, there wouldn’t be as many spawns to kill, and we’d risk burning down the entire forest with our new ability that both of us were dying to test out in a real fight.
In the end, we just started patrolling the suburbs.
With eight percent Mana Density, goblin bands were extremely easy to spot. Even if fifteen of them were hidden– which wasn’t the case anyways– just one of them with its foot poking out in the wrong place meant it’d get spotted by Karl.
That was how we caught the first group.
I’d seen absolutely nothing, but Karl had me stop in the middle of the road. It had seemed perfectly normal, at least until I noticed that the spikes behind the rose bush weren’t part of an oddly-placed decorative fence.
They were just spears.
Karl grabbed the controller and tore out of the car, already charging up a blast of dragonfire.
The goblins realized something was wrong, possibly from sensing the Mana in the air, but they weren’t fast enough to completely avoid the wall of flame that engulfed them.
With seven goblins completely taken out of the fight from the very start and a further three heavily injured, the remainder of the battle went by quickly. Six goblins was nothing to my stats and Skills, and was hardly worth noticing when you factored in Karl’s overwhelming skill at completely dismantling just about everything we came across.
Absorbing the entire group’s Echoes had netted us nothing, but I checked on my thick, juicy numbers anyways.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+29)
Mana: 18 (+35)
Dexterity: 5 (+11)
Mana Regen: 19 (+19)
Connection: 7 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 6), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 8)
Quests: Reintegration (8%), Impossible Task (5/10) (0/1)
“Oh, hey, our Connection went up again. That’s enough proof for me to put my faith in the idea that it’s based on Skill levels,” I noted, “The only question is, how do we increase the level of Devouring Phantasm if all its new ability does is buff other stuff?”
Hmmm, Karl hummed in thought, Perhaps we should take its “Connection” more seriously?
I raised an eyebrow. “You want to open up to one another? Get real intimate with it?”
He scoffed. You’ve already delved into my mind without my consent, twice unintentionally and once consciously. Why not one more time?
“And connections go two ways, so I suppose I should do the same for you?” I was a bit nervous about letting Karl into my memories, but there were more important things on the line than my anxiety. For example, saving the world from descending gods and nightmare-fueling monstrosities.
“Let’s do that when we’re in a safer place, yeah?”
Indeed, Karl agreed readily.
We quickly threw the goblin corpses into the back of my car, which was already looking a bit cramped.
That wasn’t the only troop of goblins we ran into. We ended up slaughtering several groups, in fact, but none pushed my Skills in any ways, so after stuffing my car up to the ceiling in green corpses we headed back home, where I drove around the corner and dug a hole back behind my yard, guessing that there wouldn’t be enough room within the fence line to continue expanding my Echo Garden.
Putting up new fences, further out, would be an interesting idea, but I hopefully wouldn’t have the time. In the best case scenario, Karl and I would be able to hop worlds in just a few days. Of course, that depended on the level of success we had in leveling up Devouring Phantasm.
With that in mind, I sat on the concrete of my back porch and consulted Karl on how to access each other’s minds.
It is likely possible, before, you didn’t gain anything because your intrusions were nonconsensual, he explained, sending me a violated feeling that was laced by mirth and a small amount of lingering irritation. This time, I hope that the willing, two-way mental link will provide better experience for your Skill.
I nodded, agreeing with the logic. “And how do I actually… open up?”
Do you remember what you did before? To access my memories?
“Yeah, I think so.”
Do that again. And when you feel me invading your mind, don’t fight back.
I paused for a second. “I can do that… But you promise that you won’t try to invade my mind and take over as the main host or anything?”
Karl laughed piteously. And do what? With your mind tainting my interactions, I’d be far too sensitive to human death to go on a killing spree, and I’d lack your Skills, thus halting me forever at the Attributes I currently possess. In addition, I believe our previous agreement covers this. However, I will do this for you. I swear by my name and all that I am that I will not do anything untoward to your mind while delving within.
“I, uh, swear the same? Thank you.”
Now let’s get to the actual work. You approach me first.
Doing as he asked, I focused on my connection with the draconic Echo, venturing across our connection and seeking out the dragon egg that I’d encountered before.
This time, though, it was… broken. Empty. I approached nonetheless, and was embraced by the mind of Karlisifixois the Great Devourer.
But for just a moment, things… paused. My delve into Karl’s mind was paused by none other than Karl himself. I felt him within my own brain, and my immediate reaction was a hostile rejection of the invasion.
I quickly stopped myself from rejecting the connection entirely, slowly and painfully opening the gates of who I was to the Echo.
It felt wrong. It felt disgusting. It was as though I was willingly walking in front of a firing squad.
But I did it.
And then the connection truly began.
----------------------------------------
Kenny’s mind was wild and untamable, confusion lacing every thought as he– wait, no. That’s wrong. I’m Kenny.
Am I? Who even is Kenny?
That’s ME.
For a moment, the thought felt firm and unshakeable, but then a mountain of memories crashed into him. Jumbled into a wild mess, first came Kenny’s hatching, followed quickly by Karl’s trouble at school. Then, Karl’s first true flight– when he managed to lift himself fully from the ground. Kenny’s father, larger than any hill or mountain he’d ever laid eyes on, leaned in and whispered lovingly, “You are more important than your problems.”
Karl reeled momentarily. His parents had never been that soft! Nor were they covered in scales! Their skin had been pink and fleshy, like that of the other weak, mortal meat. Their wings had been… they’d been… Feathers? No, that wasn’t right. Purple threads, with golden hearts hanging from the ends?
It was all wrong.
What was this insignificant bug within his consciousness, and why couldn't he crush it into paste? It contained his magic, but it was… wrong. Reduced. A mere Echo of what it once was, further tainted by the influence of another– of the bug.
He raised his fist up high, preparing to smash the little scales thing… wait, no. No, no no. No?
Yes.
The world quivered and shifted, and I found my arms wrapped tightly around a warm, hard rock. It was my rock. One day, it would grow into the greatest of all rocks!
Karlisifixois threw a fist at the boy for daring to mock him. He leapt onto the child, tearing at his eyes, biting into his flesh, slaughtering and devouring the livestock, as it deserved.
Then he was in the car with his father, whose eyes shifted from blue to red, over and over and over, and I couldn't tell which was right and which was wrong or why my father's claws weren't slicing the puny car wheel into ribbons.
I was cuddled up with Mom, her warm fire breath warming my back and reducing me to ash.
I gasped, clutching my head in agony as my mountain dropped on my house and transformed into my cave, within which I hid my pride and joy, my sweet girl– no. What was her name? What was Xina’s name, and why couldn't I remember it?
Was it Emily? No, no, that was his mother's name. Kenny the Great Devourer’s mother. She looked… she looked like… she was tall, with big blue eyes and a small nose and horns the size of the front door and a tail made of golden hair and–
Stop, I begged in agony.
Stop, he confirmed.
MORE, the dice insisted.
Massive hands reached out and grabbed me, lifting my into the air before roughly setting me back down, breaking my legs.
He wanted to scream, to cry, to just move, but he was petrified.
I would move no more.
The dice came, bowling into his statuesque self and shattering him into a thousand pieces before I flew off the table and everything went black.
Then purple.
Then blue.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Then red.
And back to black.
He turned, and it was the sun. He was suffocating. He didn't need to breathe anymore, that was beneath a mighty Ancient… Ancient what?
He froze solid and his lungs exploded.
…You promise..?
“I swear by my name and all that I am…”
I– the same swear, I do.
The dragon was short, green, and wore a tan robe. He spoke only in riddles, but held great wisdom and knowledge that he would do well to learn from.
The dragon’s name was… it was… Karl.
Karl… there was something else. What was it? Bert? Karl Bert? No, no. That was wrong.
“Bert Kenny, the green man spoke,” the green man spoke.
Bert Kenny… “That's me!” I exclaimed. And you're Karl. When they ask you if you can fix it, you say “Yes We Can!”
The dragon frowned in shame and I drowned in flame.
Then I shot the dragon seventeen times in the chest with my special wand. The wand shop owner had called it a gun and promised that it could cast any spells I wanted it to, but so far the only one's I'd managed were the instant kill and the suggestion curses.
Then he was a rock. No, he was inside one. He wiggled inside his comfy, warm rock, and then horror dawned upon him.
His cave collapsed around him, and his comfy rock was no more.
He wept.
I wept.
The two spider-brain-things wept. Then they exploded, killing both of us with bolts of lightning through the skulls.
----------------------------------------
His eyes hurt.
Wait, no. My eyes hurt.
I was… Kenny. Kenny Bert.
I pulled up the magic papers to prove it.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+29)
Mana: 21 (+35)
Dexterity: 5 (+11)
Mana Regen: 19 (+19)
Connection: 7 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 7), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 8)
Quests: Reintegration (8%), Impossible Task (6/10) (0/1)
I was going to clap, but then I felt something in my head wiggle and forgot why.
Before I figured out how to spin my eyes around and investigate the inside of my skull, a woman slammed open a door and screamed.
It hurts.
That hurts.
I'm glad we're in agreement, voice in my head.
Me too.
We're going to be the best of friends.
“Kenny, are you alright??” The woman rushed towards me. She reminded me of a fruit, but I couldn't tell which one. Or was it even a fruit? Yes, olives were a fruit. Oh!
“Olive?” I jerked my head backwards into the concrete, having forgotten how his voice sounded. Wasn't it supposed to be deeper? Scratchier?
“No, that's my voice,” My own mouth whispered. True to its words, it was deeper. And scratchier.
“Kenny, are you alright?”
I stared at her in confusion. “No? I'm Kenny. Did you forget my name in the middle of your sentence?”
She ran a hand through the rat on her head.
Wait, no. That was fur. Really, really long fur.
I touched my own head and was relieved to find that my head fur was much shorter. That mattered, for some reason.
“I'm bringing you inside, I think you have a concussion.”
I looked around wildly. “Where is it?? I'll kill it!”
She bent down and picked me up. I tried to resist, but for some reason my body wouldn't react.
Wait, was I just a brain spider?
No, I'd touched my head with my hand and felt my hair– oh, that was the word. Hair.
And I had eyes. And a mouth.
Wait, what was a brain spider again?
I couldn't remember.
Then I felt tired.
Sleepy time.
----------------------------------------
Why does everything hurt? I asked the giant dragon in front of me.
Because everything got hurt, it answered simply.
I squinted, and felt a powerful urge to call it Captain Karl Obvious, but I knew that wasn't his name so I resisted.
You're Karl.
And you're Kenny.
We are… One.
----------------------------------------
I woke up to a screen in my face.
Name: Kenny Bert
Race: Human (Earth)
Role: Speaker for the Dead
Strength: 5 (+29)
Mana: 24 (+35)
Dexterity: 5 (+11)
Mana Regen: 19 (+19)
Connection: 7 (Karl)
Passives: Human Versatility, Echo Garden
Skills: Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 8), Avatar Reinforcement (Lv. 8)
Quests: Reintegration (9%), Impossible Task (7/11) (0/1)
“Oh, hey, look. It worked,” I told Karl, turning to find that Karl was, in fact, not there.
I'm only in your head, Kenny.
Sorry, I forgot.
Olive stared at me with a strange mix of worry and fear.
“Are you… okay?” She asked carefully.
I rolled out of bed and popped up into my feet. “Sure, why do you ask?”
She hesitated. “The last time you woke up… you tried to throw a fireball at me.”
I frowned and crossed my arms. “I don't remember that.”
She pointed at the closet, where a charred hole gave me a good view into the darkness beyond. “I had to run around the entire house to find a fire extinguisher, Kenny.”
Huh, maybe I did do that.
“Guess that was pretty concerning, huh?”
She glared at me. “I thought you'd had an aneurysm.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “Honestly? I might've. Don't really know for sure. Just kind of went crazy for a bit there.”
“Well don't do it again!” She crossed her arms and pouted at me.
“No promises. Anyways, I've gotta go get some more levels, so I'll see you–”
She grabbed my collar and pulled back, choking me lightly and preventing me from moving forward.
“You are going to get back in bed and heal.”
“Sorry ma'am, no can do, monsters to kill, levels to gain, and worlds to save.”
She rolled her eyes. “The job of saving the world doesn't land on your shoulders. Let the government fix it or something.”
I felt something in me go cold. “Oh yeah? Which one? Tell me which government can kill a God. Go ahead, I'll wait.”
She sputtered, “Well, I-I mean, we don't know that they're really–”
“Do we know they're not?” I interjected. “I don't know if you've personally seen any monsters or gotten into any fights with them yet, but I've been doing it a lot. I'm sure you've at least seen about the goblins on the Internet.
“On day one, two spawned in each group. With each day that passes, that number goes up by another two. By the time this is over, a single spawning of goblins will pull an army of two hundred through. The military’s fully engaged in a war against monsters spawning in our own country, and it's a losing battle. Our men, our bullets, our bombs, they'll all run out eventually. You know what won't?” By this point, I was in Olive’s face, my pure frustration at the situation being vented in her.
I backed off. “My point is, someone needs to master this stuff, the magic and all. Someone needs to use and abuse this System until they're able to make this chaos stop for good. It might as well be me.”
She stood there awkwardly, shaking a little. “I'm so–”
“Nope, don't finish that,” I ordered. “Go chill on the couch, watch Second Part, and eat your ice cream, or whatever else you can find. This is my task. System gave me a quest for it and everything,” I revealed. “I'm going to go grind now. I'll see you later.”
I turned and matched away, heading out back since that was where I'd left the car.
That was harsh of you.
“Now you speak up,” I chuckled to myself. “Did you notice that we got two levels from all that?”
I did indeed. Very interesting. Do you recall that, when you woke the first time, it was only one level?
I paused. “Actually I'd completely forgotten about that until now. That's… odd.”
The first experience shattered our minds completely and mashed them together, leaving us to pick up the pieces and put them back together like a puzzle. I believe the only reason we avoided being thrown out of that strange space early and losing pieces of ourselves was the barrier from Avatar Reinforcement. It protected your physical brain, where both our spirits are tied. In that shared dream, after our minds were smashed together like a child’s toys, we were able to resort our minds back into their proper orientations.
“So, if we tried that without the barrier, or perhaps at a lower level than it is now…” I trailed off.
We probably would have lost much more than a bit of sanity.
I shuddered. “Are you missing any obvious memories?
I do not believe so, the dragon said ponderously, tell me what you remember from my memories and we'll see if one of us got some of the wrong pieces.
“If I'm understanding things right, you had a… kid? An egg, at least. Xina, I think? That might be wrong.”
Karl didn't speak for a long, long moment. Yes, yes. I had a daughter coming, once. The mountain collapsed on her and her mother.
“I'm sorry, big guy. Some things make more sense now.”
It has been a millennia, but the wound remains sore. I believe it will never heal. After her death, the other Ancient Dragons blamed me. She was under my charge, and I let her die. That is why I am so… weak, now. All my life I sought power, and when I finally found a reason for all that strength, it proved insufficient.
“The other dragons killed you?”
Repeatedly. I am in “exile,” or at least a form of it. If my location becomes known to the Ancients, I will die.
I shut up and let him have a moment, sitting in the driver's seat of the car and just thinking.
I hadn't expected him to have such a rough backstory, but I supposed it made sense. He was old. Possibly older than everyone who had ever lived on Earth combined.
I remember your father. And your mother.
I didn't respond, the words failing me.
I know you had trouble expressing yourself, and that you didn't have many friends as a child.
“...Yeah.”
I am sorry that you had to face that.
“It's fine.”
You cannot lie to me, Kenny Bert.
I took a deep breath. “I still needed him, y'know?” My voice cracked slightly, and I hated myself for it. “My dad. He was… everything. My only friend. The only teacher who knew how to listen to me. I just… I wish I could see him again.”
I felt something between the two of us churn, and then…
Devouring Phantasm (Lv. 8) → (Lv. 9)
+3 Mana
+1 Attribute Point (Human Versatility)
+1 Skill Realignment
Strength or Dexterity or Mana or Mana Regen
“Really? Now?” I wiped at my nose with my arm.
Karl laughed wetly.
“What even is this?” I glared at the window as if to make it disappear. “Skill Realignment?”
It's a bit of a gamble. Whatever Attribute you pick is what it will focus around when you upgrade your Role, and it will make said Role lean further in the direction of that Attribute. Additionally, at level ten, in the Skill, you will receive five of the selected Attribute, rather than
“Does it do anything… now?” It sounded a bit worthless for the near future.
No, but when your role is upgraded the Skill will have a similar effect but with a different use case. For example, a fireball Skill realigned to Strength may become something more like a “Fire Fist.” Or something else. It truly depends on the Role you select.
“Any suggestions?”
The safest bet is to leave it as it is, but I fear that your current route may lead you down a path dedicated to necromancy or occultism. Such Roles are hunted openly in many realms.
I stared down my choices, considering the effects each might have. “What's the difference between Mana and Mana Regen here?”
Both will lean into a more mystical path, but Mana will be more likely to produce instant spells or Skills with high costs, whereas Mana Regen is more likely to create constant spells or magical effects that last over time.
“So, both of my Skills are pretty good examples of what Realignment looks like. What if I go Strength or Dexterity?”
Both will increase the likelihood of the Skill becoming more physical in nature. Strength often represents raw physicality, bloodlust, and great power. Spell-type Skills Realigned to Strength are more likely to empower physical blows or defences.
On the other hand, Dexterity is grace, lethality, and a dagger in the dark. If you were to switch one of your current abilities to Dexterity, you would most likely see them transform into movement-based abilities or kill triggers, that is, things that happen only when you kill creatures while the Skill is active.
I raised an eyebrow. “Is that last option common?”
I believe it would be the most likely for your own Skills, considering their link to death.
“One last question, then. Would changing Devouring Phantasm mean losing you?”
I felt a shake in the negative. Unlikely. Your Echoes are bound to you specifically, not your Skill. You may lose the ability to interact with me as you do now should you select a new Role, but if you choose well your next Role should allow it.
I selected Dexterity.
Nothing happened.
Wise choice. I would have done the same, Karl praised.
I started the car.
“Karl?”
Yes?
“You're not a bad guy.”
Thank you, Kenny.