Mash P.O.V

“Just try and use it like your other skills?”

Red held out her hand to Jill, her fingers pointed toward the ground. She had probably done it unintentionally, but Mash couldn’t help but smile at the overly proper gesture. Jill took it step, bowing deeply before grabbing her hand.

“Of course, my lady. I will do my very best.”

Jill lightly kissed Red’s fingers, causing her some genuine discomfort. She was probably embarrassed but it was hard to tell with her grey skin. Jill seemed to enjoy it though. A second later Jill’s hand glowed vaguely purple before the color seemed to transfer over to Jill. Within his domain, Mash was able to see how it melted beneath her skin much like Luke’s abilities. Jill paused, probably checking her status before speaking.

“Well, it looked like it worked. Give me a second to recover some mana, then we can go.”

Mash was glad to see that they were relaxed enough to joke, but he was still worried about Luke. He kept his thoughts to himself, wanting to let them recover a bit. While he felt bad about the people that he had killed, his experience didn’t compare to theirs. Jill was literally tortured, and Red was just not in a good state of mind. In her recollection of the past few days, he could tell that she had been spiraling downwards. Those things wouldn’t vanish. He knew just how long an action or decision could cling to someone.

He sat and waited for Jill to recover. It felt like he had been waiting for hours though it was at most half an hour. His anxiety just wouldn’t let him stop thinking about what kind of situation Luke would find himself in.

______________________________________________________________________________

Luke P.O.V

Luke stretched his back out. His palms placed against the middle of his back as he arched it as far as he could. He considered just healing things like soreness but had come to enjoy the feeling of the work. The steady work had let him build a refreshing sheen of sweat, and he had even built up some muscle. After spending so many days in constant fighting, he forgot that consistently training could still improve the body in other ways. Things like muscle definition and physical appearance could be changed without the need of gaining stats. Mash was actually a good example of this. He had spent years exercising constantly, and his body was weirdly muscular despite not having the same bulk that someone with his stats might have.

In these past months of working as a farmer, he had built the kinds of muscles that were visible. Now he seemed much more like some of the adventurers he had encountered before. Even Mash’s brother was bulkier than he was lean.

This trial was extremely strange. It had him working as a farmer during most of his time here. There had only been a handful of monsters and nothing that was particularly dangerous. The hardest thing about the dungeon was figuring out what it meant by expanding his territory. At first, he thought he would need to build things, but found that farming worked just as well. Plus, it was easier to just plant random seeds around the main building, rather than trying to build something complex. He had even found some seeds within the building itself.

The fields outside of his mansion were large and open, and it had taken him months to properly set it up for farming. Plus, finding a source of water had been annoying and he had wasted a week just looking for that. He had kept track of time to the best of his ability, but it was hard after the third month had passed. He looked over his progress, heading to the outskirts of his land as he felt something approaching from the distance.

The plants were finally growing, and he looked over them as he moved. It was a weirdly thorny plant that sprouted two red flowers that were opposite from one another. The stems were completely grey too. It was the first time he had seen or smelled a plant like this. They smelled amazing, like the sweetest fruit imaginable, and he wondered if they would eventually produce fruit themselves. He had tried eating one before, but it didn’t really have any flavor. It had also stained his fingers and lips red. The color stuck for over a week, and he had felt like he was wearing makeup. He had been careful about collecting more seeds after that day.

As he approached the edge of the farm, he looked into the distance. The monsters always came from within the forest outside of the grassy plains, and they seemed to target the flowers. There had been a few varieties to the monsters that had shown up, though they only ever came alone. Last time had been some kind of wolf, which he had managed to kill easily. He looked into the forest as a batlike monster charged from the cover of the trees. It was easily as big as he was, and its wingspan made it seem a lot bigger. Its body was strangely proportioned, where its legs were bigger than normal. Each clawed talon was half the size of its wing. He had fought one of these before and knew how to beat it.

It rushed him quickly, moving faster than he would normally be able to keep up with. He didn’t worry about it too much, letting his buffs boost his stats. After which, he further increased his defenses by using soul manifestation around his whole body. A golden spectral body superimposed upon his own. The monster’s clawed feet crashed into the manifestation digging into it as it thrashed around. The monster didn’t have eyes but had a large mouth that screamed continuously. Luke didn’t know why they continuously screamed as they did, but the sound was loud enough to damage his ears. He wondered how the creature wasn’t harming itself considering the large circular ears it had.

Luke managed to take the brunt of the blow and didn’t hesitate to reach within the creature. He felt his hands grip something within, and he pulled out the monster’s soul. The power filled his body, but he didn’t hold it for long, releasing it and providing salvation. He took a deep breath, releasing his skills as the monster’s body went motionless. He would bury it properly later, but for now, just needed to gather himself.

At first, he had tried fighting the monsters without targeting or removing their souls, but they seemed to resist all other types of attacks. He simply couldn’t produce enough power to damage them without taking their souls, and he come to accept his role. While stealing a person’s soul was problematic, he had come to understand what the value of his skills was. He could kill things and then free their souls. The death he provided was true, and he was slowly accepting the idea of ferrying souls to their next destination.

He wasn’t hoarding them for power, and the stats he gained from doing this weighed on his mind. Even if he wasn’t holding the souls, he still felt bad about stealing some of the stats that they had worked to achieve. It was too easy and compared to the work he did on the farm, left him very unsatisfied. He hadn’t gained any new skills or abilities. The dungeon had been going on for a while, and he wasn’t really sure about how to finish it.

He wondered what the others were up to. He kept thinking about them, but his habit of searching for one of them had passed. It wasn’t that he stopped caring but spending months away from them had let him think about a lot of things. He had become dependent on them to the point that it was probably unhealthy. He couldn’t really remember when he last pushed for something that he really wanted to do. Ever since Krall, he had felt like his decisions would lead to disaster. Even now just remembering Leah would bring up some bad memories.

As his thoughts were drifting, he felt the approach of another creature. It was a strange feeling like something was alerting him. It wasn’t like Mash’s domain where he could see the creature, but instead, he had a feeling of its approach. It was like the house was warning him. He didn’t let it bother him, accepting that the house was somehow alive. He walked over to the opposite end of town, surprised to see Jeffry standing there. After he had claimed the house, he had met this man.

The faceless monster he had seen by the house’s entrance turned out to be a ghostly servant to the building. Luke had decided upon his name and had set him to help with some easy work. Despite having a personality and some intelligence, Jeffrey felt like a puppet. Something like Mash’s wooden versions of Priscilla. This man seemed to be like that, though one made of flesh. Just like all of the monsters he had seen thus far, Jeffrey didn’t have any eyes. His face was just a mass of smoothed skin, the only opening was for a mouth. The strange being had many extra teeth, and he had a very unnatural smile. Luke focused on Jeffrey’s otherwise human body, as looking at his head was freaky.

“Why are you out here?”

Luke asked the question, speaking with a familiar tone. Spending months with a completely obedient creature would do that.

“Good afternoon, Sir. I have come to inform you that this next opponent will be the end of your trial. It has been lovely to work with you, and I wish you the best of luck.”

After saying his piece, he bowed and started walking back toward the house. Luke didn’t know how to feel about the exchange. On one hand, he was glad to be done with the trial, but on the other, he heard the strange somberness in Jeffrey’s voice. It sounded like a final farewell, and Luke couldn’t help but wonder if that was because Jeffrey thought that he would succeed or fail. After spending so much time on his own, Luke regained some of his confidence and took a few deep breaths as he waited for the monster to approach.

His heartbeat quickened, and he could some tension in his shoulders. Despite how easily he handled the previous monster, he felt some fear as he waited. He hated these creatures, not because of their strength but because of their disturbing appearances. Living beings should really have eyes, and he had several nightmares about losing his own. He really hoped that something like that never came to pass. He shivered a little, and briefly considered his plan. He would probably try another attack like he did with the bat.

The monster that came out of the woods was different from the previous one. It had eyes, which would have been relieving if not for the fact that the monster had no skin. It looked like a skeleton, with human eyes jammed into its sockets. At that moment, he decided he would’ve preferred a creature without any eyes.

“Who do you think you are to encroach on my domain?”

The skeleton’s mouth didn’t actually move, but the voice was obviously coming from it. It was loud too as if the creature was shouting. The fire behind its words revealed its anger. Luke was busy trying to process the fact that it could talk.

“I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean. I am here for my trial, it told me to expand my territory.”

The being paused then used its hand to adjust its eyes to look at Luke. It was strange seeing a skeleton’s boney fingers turn its own eyes. Even without moving, Luke could somehow read the change in its expression. It had shifted from being openly hostile to gaining a curious glance.

“Oh, a new lich and one to climb so high. It has been a long time since another lich had been born. Let alone get to the level 100 trial. Tell me, boy, how you avoided the gaze of the king. He had been quite active in his hunt of our kind.”