Day 41

There was silence in my head, for the first time in a long time. The sun began to rise to the east, and I once more restrained myself, maintaining my mental tranquility. It was surprisingly how much meaningless noise could be generated just by having two versions of yourself cooped up in a single head. But we both agreed to try something different for this night of meditation.

Surprisingly, a skill did level up, but it wasn’t the one that I was expecting.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Absolute Control: Self Lvl 2”.

Perhaps the most shocking part of this level up was the fact that it wasn’t accompanied by any explanation. Where I would usually see some of the concrete details of how a skill improved, this time, it was bare.

All the while maintaining the inner tranquility, I dismissed the notification and closed my eyes. If this was also utilizing my control skill, all for the better. I wasn’t sure if I would make any breakthroughs in terms of meditation through this method, but some benefits would keep me at least committed to trying it for the night.

I wanted to consider more closely how the skill worked, and why it had been in use, but the more I thought, the more likely I would lose the balance I currently had. When I started, I had a feeling that this sort of training type was cumulative, and I didn’t want to lose my current progress. So I continued to let the thoughts fall away, leaving my mind completely calm.

In a way, I received another award.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Absolute Control: Self Lvl 3”.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Iron Will Lvl 2”. All stats now receive an extremely small bonus for the value of your Willpower. You can remained focused for a longer time. Distractions are less effective on you.

...I continued to level skills that had to do with self-discipline. It was almost as if the system of The Great Tower was mocking me for doing such a tortuous method of training. But wasn’t torture what training was? Wasn’t pain…

The edges of my mouth began to twitch towards a smile, like a freshly killed body shuddering into rigor mortis. So I stopped thinking about pain before I couldn’t control the strange glee it always gave me. I really must be growing bored. Sure, training was all well and good, but I want…

Frowning, I pressed down with my will somehow, smothering the thoughts. This was not the way. I needed peace, I needed-

-Hey, I had a thought.

My eye began to twitch. But I supposed it was to be expected. Other me was still me. If I was losing control over my thoughts, he would be to. Still, this timing…

-What is it? Can’t it wait?

-No, I think I know why it’s not working. You focus on yourself too much.

-...who else am I supposed to focus on?

-Not who, what. Mana.

-....Isn’t that what I’m doing…?

-Urgh, no, its hard to explain. You don’t focus on mana. Mana is the focus. It’s the focusing on the skills.

-You need to try again. I’m not following.

-Mana is… mana is not something you have, really. It’s a liaison. It’s-

At the same time he was about to say it, it snapped into place. Why sitting still wouldn’t help. Why trying to massage mana wouldn’t help. Because mana wasn’t the focus, it was what was beyond the mana.

“It’s a relationship,” I breathed.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Arcane Mastery Lvl 2”. Ability to manipulate mana has slightly increased. The chance of controlling more than one spell at once has slightly increased. Skills will level up slightly more quickly. Addition to maximum mana increased to 2.25%.

Other me seemed quite pleased with himself. Standing proudly in my mind even while saying he barely knew anything.

-Right. The one problem is then I don’t really get why different elements would have different skill levels, or how to meditate at all.

But now I could see it. It grew inside of me, a strange pattern by which the world was governed.

-Elements are just activities… pursuits done with the relationship. Because what you are growing closer to is the world. Or existence. Or maybe it’s some weird Tower system.

-A natural law maybe. Or a god.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Arcane Mastery Lvl 3”. Mana regeneration has increased an extremely small amount. By witnessing a skill a large amount of times, you have a small chance of gaining insight into it. Addition to maximum mana increased to 3.75%.

Now I didn’t bother to control the grin that was spreading across my face. This was it, the right path. If I could push forward, what I wanted awaited me.

Power. So much that no one could threaten my ability to survive.

So that I did not need to hide to live freely.

I could practically hear the smash and reverberation of battle. The scent of blood and the hooks of pain. Battlefields covered with dancing murlocs and marching skeletons. And I-

“Hey, Predator. Did a glutton like you really forget about breakfast?”

Ashni walked towards me, her face and tone cool, even for her. I turned to face her, annoyed, but also excited to continue my training in Thunder Stance.

Power came in many forms, and I wanted it all.

***POV Ketlia***

Ketlia calmed her mind, letting the “other” world that was only a thin layer of existence away press closer, grinding against her mental senses. Gritting her teeth, she took several short breaths to handle the pain, then spread her senses farther, gathering another layer and pulling it closer, where it hummed its dissatisfaction at being so closely pressed to another layer of reality, let alone two.

Then Ketlia grabbed another, and another.

With the five layers of existence pressing down in the area around her, Ketlia could barely stay conscious. This was her limit.

It was almost a release when Ketlia twisted with her mind, no longer bothering to hold them close, but allowing the strange powers that these layers of reality possessed to crash into each other rush outward.

BOOOOM!

It was as if an extremely localized explosion occurred in the area around Ketlia. The grass beneath her feet was shredded, and then the dirt underneath that disintegrated. The ground beneath that bucked and shuddered like a dying racehorse.

A extremely dense turtle that had been placed nearby shrieked briefly, then still, as the chaotic dimensional energies tore through it.

All the while, Ketlia maintained a tight mental discipline, preventing the energy from injuring herself.

After the aftershocks ceased, Ketlia heard a soft tut-ting that made her turn around.

“Impressive, but slow. You need to train more. Based on this…”

Kettle, looking extremely professional in a blue striped pants suit, walked up to the turtle and knocked on its shell. “You have more than enough power to injure Predator, but no ability to hit him.”

Ketlia’s face didn’t even twitch when Kettle mentioned Predator. Recently, since Gillette had turned over their training to Kettle, that was all she heard. Methods to defeat Predator. Ways to overcome Predator. Why Predator was weak.

Ketlia hated all of it. She was tired of being reminded of him.

“On the flipside…” Kettle made a note on the clipboard. “Your quick version of this ability has barely enough damage to slow him down. I’ve brought mana potions. Choose one and train it, I care not which. You seem smart enough to intuit which will arrive more quickly. Further control and speed on the 5 fold, or power on the 2 fold.”

Seemingly satisfied, Kettle turned around and left.

Ketlia stood extremely still until the other woman had left eyesight or earshot, and then spit on the ground. Then she scolded herself inwardly because she knew Kettle was recording their training sessions and would see her small act of defiance later.

What pissed her off the most was that Kettle’s response would likely just be clicking her tongue at the terminal screen in annoyance, then moving on to the next order of business in the grand plan to kill Predator.

Whopdie-fucking-doo.

***POV Predator***

“I was distracted. I’ll go eat now before we start.” Although I wanted to get as much training done today as I could, especially after doing practically nothing yesterday, I still wanted biomass. When I leveled with all this stockpiled biomass…

But Ashni just waved her hand. “Don’t even bother.”

Frowning, I asked. “What do you mean?”

“No cooks. All the murlocs went down to their village for the war games. So you are scavenging for yourself, around her?” Ashni waved her hand airily at the ruined fort and the surrounding marsh.

-Supremely unappetizing.

-But that’s a good reminder

I summoned more Skeleton Bears, as requested by Jerry before he left that shitty-

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A vein in my forehead began to throb.

That shitty note, without even asking for my opinion, taking all of the murlocs and skeletons with him, not even bothering to leave that insufferable bone shaman-

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Who, while annoying, would at least have been able to maintain the mana regen formation, enabling me to train my mana skills faster while working on the Thunder Stance. I couldn’t even believe that I wanted the Bone Shaman here, because he, contrary to Jerry’s assurances, most definitely could NOT speak-

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Honestly, this all started with that fucking-

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Tim, a skeleton that I wasn’t even positive existed, taking away all their respect for me and making them pointlessly uncooperative characters-

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And now they had the nerve to go off, leaving me to summon monsters

-Hehe, I have an idea. You know what we haven’t done lately?

Smiling, I nodded; I knew exactly what he was thinking.

Sitting down to wait, I pondered what the most effective method would be. But given how excited Jerry had been about “talking” to the Bone Shaman, and how much the Bone Shamans hated each other, I figured the simplest plan was the easiest one. I make a Bone Shaman. One powerful enough that when the other returned from wherever they went off too, it would be crushed to dust.

It took five more minutes before I had enough mana to summon a Bone Shaman, but still I wasted. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes.

Ashni wandered off, telling me to find her whenever I was ready. Meanwhile, I slowly watched my mana. Finally, it reached an appropriate point.

I summoned a Bone Shaman, then ignored its wild hopping, jumping, and cackling as I walked up and put my hand upon its head.

My voice was low and calm. “Unholy Bestowal.”

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Unholy Bestowal Lvl 3”. Due to experience, Unholy Bestowal can now be used every 6 days. Slightly more of your current stats are included in the blessing. There is now a slightly larger chance the blessed undead will gain traits of your race.

Unholy Bestowal used! This nameless Bone Shaman has received a great blessing based on the race “CTZ-103 Hunter-Seeker Model”. Due to incompatibility between races, some random variance added. The Bone Shama has evolved into “Architect of Bone”. Endurance Wisdom, Willpower, and Ingenuity of the architect have vastly increased. Growth rates for Wis, and Ing are increased. Growth rates of End, Int, WP, and Perception are moderately increased. Learned skill “Assemble of Bone: Mass Production”: The Architect can create, through constructs of living and dead matter, furnaces that produce relatively weak Bone-based constructs. Learned skill “Assemblage of Bone: Overseer”: The Architect can create, through constructs of living and dead matter, workshops that rarely produce Bone Overseers that control relatively weak Bone-based constructs. Learned skill “Assemblage of Bone: Masterwork”: The effect of this skill is unknown. Likelihood of occurrence increases as the Bone Architect has higher Ing.

The Bone Shaman hunched over and seemed to shrivel, its bone’s twisting and locking into new formation. Scratching my chin, I decided that I liked what had occurred. Hopefully this Bone Architect could create undead even when I wasn’t there to spend mana, maintaining the status of the path, and bolstering its strength for when I returned.

-Well, you say that…

The Bone Architect curled up into a ball, and then laid its head down. Then it began to audibly snore.

-What the fuck? Do skeletons even sleep.

-What have we learned? We are surrounded by uncooperative characters. Leave him alone and hopefully he will kill the other Bone Shaman when he returns. Why even try and talk with him? He likely will just cackle. A waste of time. Let’s just go practice Thunder Stance.

-...that’s surprisingly reasonable. But I have another idea before that.

So I turned away from the sleeping (?) Bone Architect and focused on another thing I had forgotten about for a long while: Essence.

Luckily, due to the improvements I made in summon lesser dead, the amount of mana it took to create ghouls had decreased to 27. Just 1 less than my current total essence.

So I focused, summoning a ghoul only with essence, throwing the extra 1 essence in there to boost its power.

All essence expended! Max Essence +1

Much to my chagrin, an extremely ordinary looking ghoul rose from the ground.

-That was… anticlimactic.

-Usually essence expenditures result in an explosion..

Almost seeming bored, the ghoul wandered over towards the pile of bones that were what remained of Yellow Bones body.

-Whatever.

-Yea, at least it increased max essence. Let’s go work on Thunder Stance.

But before I could make it very far, I heard a new, gravelly voice behind me.

“Ehehe, I suppose you are wondering why I’m sleeping, youngster.”

I paused, then continued to walk as he continued to speak.

“Well it just so happens that I am more an artist that a scientist. I need to feel something before I can create an assemblage of bone. I need to dream it alive, more than constructing it- er, wait, where are you going.”

-Totally an uncooperative character.

-Ignore him. That’s what they can’t stand.

“Heh, typical corporate master. You think it’ that easy to create life? You think just because you created the awe inspiring me that it is something you can do consistently, on a schedule? There is a beauty in perverting the sanctity of life, and- no but really kid, give me a moment to explain.-”

Instead of turning around, I began to walk faster.

“FINE, IF THAT’S THE WAY YOU WANT IT, I’LL SHOW YOU MY MIGHT.” The gravelly voice rose up to a huge roar, and my acute perception instantly picked up several strange movements of mana behind me. But my legs moved faster and faster, and soon I was leaving the ruined fort and the roaring monologu-er and approaching Ashni.

Feeling extremely refreshed after my run in with the Architect, I said jokingly to Ashni, “You, know, sometimes I feel like skipping out on training here and just moving up the tower. I probably would too, if Whipman ever had the nerve to hang around you. I’m tired of these path-dwellers.”

Ashni gave me a long look. Then slowly, her lip curled up in a strange smile.

“She did not tell you? The slime.” Ashni said curiously. “Whipman has gone on ahead. He wishes to train alone. Your master has abandoned you, and I am left to pick up the pieces...What a coward.”

I looked at her, dumbfounded.

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“He-”

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“Did-”

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“WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT?!?!?”