Day 9

After sending my three shambling minions down the road a bit to warn of any approaching challengers, I considered my abilities.

Name:PredatorLevel:11Race:Biomass:0Health Regen:x2Mana:445/445Vit:33 (+2)End:21 (+2)Str:14 (+2)Agi:11 (+2)Dex:10 (+2)Memory:225 (+2)Processing Power:258 (+2)Parallel Computations:2Wis:63 (+2)Luck:33 (+2)Timeless Perception:17 (+2)TitlesA Creature Which Named Itself PredatorRacelessSkillsLesser Air AffinityEndless StomachWeapons Mastery Lvl 1Knife Throw Lvl 9Path of the DragonAura of Dread Lvl 1Summon Lesser Dead Lvl 1

My mana had recovered from animating the corpses from yesterday, which was good sign, but I didn’t notice the rate at which it recovered, which made me a little annoyed.

I immediately toggled on Aura of Dread, a strange black light oozing from my skin, dispersing in the air around me. I looked at my hands, unimpressed. I suppose I wouldn’t really know until there was something living nearby, to see how it affected them. In the meantime, it didn’t use mana, so I just left it toggled on. I heard some shouting from the road, followed by screams of agony, so I could only assume that the minions had won against the challenger.

Sighing, I made a note to order them to bring me the bodies for Biomass in the future. Otherwise I would get another worthless growth rate.

That left the air affinity skill and Summoning skeleton drudges. I settled on the air affinity, still slightly bitter that the pig man had been so judgemental when he heard I hadn’t managed to. I closed my eyes, focusing inward. So I should just… have an affinity for air?

-Focus.

-You focus, other me.

-I am.

-Then why aren’t we-

And then I felt it, a connection with something outside of my body. Excited, I grasped spread my attention wider, feeling the the air around me, feeling every molecule, feeling how surrounded I was, how empty air truly was.

“Oh…!” I grinned, opening my eyes, I reached out with my inward senses, grabbing a handful of air. “I can feel it…. I can control it all…!”

I seized the air and pushed.

Something bigger than me pushed back.

****

I woke up with a splitting headache, to the sound of someone limping over towards me. I sat up, turning to see a wounded… cat person limping up the road towards me. He had cat ears, a tail, and was covered in yellow fur. One of my minion’s axes was stuck in his back, and his face was twisted in a grimace.

Well, it seems like they aren’t completely useless.

I stood, careful not to move too rapidly. I was still a bit light headed. The cat man saw me, and then his eyes bulged. “You… You are the master of the undead…?”

I nodded absently, thinking about what happened to me earlier. My mana was currently sitting at 260, and it seemed as if the sun moved in the sky in a manner similar to the real world. Assuming then that what happened was I attempted to move too much air at once, overdrew my mana pool, and collapsed. Well, at the very least this mean that I recovered between 10 and 20% of my mana pool in an hour. Or perhaps it is a flat rate…

“You… I do not fear you, foul demon. I have killed your minions, and I shall kill you too!”

Curious, I attempted to grab a much smaller, manageable amount of air, the equivalent of a handful. I compressed it as much as I could and threw it as hard as I could manage against the back of the cat’s head. I could hear a small poof.

The cat jumped and spun around. “What?!?!? What was that? Y-your curses won’t work on me, demon-”

Damnit, I lost my balance and tumbled to the side, falling behind the gallows. My mana had been reduced to 0 from just that small amount?!?! I could pop a balloon with more destructive force!

“I won’t fall for your tricks. You-” Abruptly the cat man stopped speaking. I rubbed my temples, wishing I had a glass of water.

“D-D-d-d-d-d-d-demon. Where d-d-d-did you g-g-go?!?!?!!” I could hear his breathing increase. I could also hear… his teeth chattering?

“I’m…. I-I’m going to...t-to…” A thump.

I took my time getting up and walking around from behind the gallows. The catman lay sprawled on the ground, sweating and trembling. Apparently he had wet himself and fainted.

*****

I planned on testing the effects of Aura of Dread on him further, so I tied the cat man up and walked down to where my minions were stations. They were still living… well, they were still conscious, but the cat man had done an admirable job hacking them to pieces. The most salvageable was a torso that was intact except for missing its left hand.

While I was shaking my head, remarking to other me how difficult it is to find good help these days, a minotaur looking creature walked down the path, full of confidence. Although his eyes went a little wide when he noticed me, he didn’t seem as debilitated by the aura of dread, and roared at me, spitting everywhere.

I flicked several knives at him, inflicting various small wounds to his torso. He roared and charged, incensed. I danced to the side and cut the achilles tendon of his left leg as he passed. Frantically twisted, he swiped at me with his long arms, but I was too quick, and smashed him in the base of the skull with the pommel of my cudgel. He fell to the ground, senseless.

Curious, I glared at the torso and pointed to the body. It dragged itself over, doing its best to both move and keep a hand on its axe. Eventually, it reached a position where it could hit the minotaur, and luckily enough beheaded it in one swing. Then it began to eat the body.

Sighing, I was about to order it to stop when I noticed that the reanimated body was… growing. Not its legs back, but a long, slimy and powerful tail, similar to a snake. Its hair fell out, its face lost its color, and its eyes grew an unhealthy shade of red.

As the minotaur body disappeared, other me cried silent tears, but I let the minion be. After it finished all of the minotaur, the snake body had swollen, and it was able to use it to lift its torso several feet off the ground. Its hands became long and spindly, ending in sharp claws.

Unfortunately, it kept falling over. Apparently just growing a snake body didn’t mean it learned how to use it. But by flailing and slithering, it managed to make it to its compatriots rotting body, and its own lower half of dubious origin. Even I felt a glimmer of distaste as it devoured them. After it finished, it turned to me and inclined its head respectfully.

Congratulations! After reaching level 6 and consuming the Minotaur Foal, the reanimated corpse has evolved into a “Hunger Ghoul”. This rare variant possesses a vitality and hardiness that belies its skeletal appearance. Due to the evolution, the growth rates of your minion have improved! Would you like to give your minion a name?

I paused for a moment. Perhaps something classical?

-Like what, Henry?

-Or Arnauld.

-Seems overdone.

-Perhaps, simple is often best.

“Dead Snake”

Congratulations! Dead Snake has been named. Due to your high Processing Power, Dead Snake has developed a small amount of magical aptitude. Race adjusted to “Hunger Ghoul of the Lich.” Growth rates have been improved. Learning new racial skills is possible. Due to your high Processing Power, Dead Snake had developed sentience. He will be able to lead lesser undead in battle. He will gain a small portion of the experience from their kills.

I looked at Dead Snake, who was rolling around, attempting to figure out how to keep his balance while holding an axe, and wondered why I was so cursed with inept subordinates. I ordered him to follow me when he could and walked back to the cat man.

I considered the prone form, his brow once more tightened in fear. Should I feed him to Dead Snake? Or-

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has improved to “Aura of Dread Lvl 2”. Aura 5% more effective. This bonus is doubled against creatures of a significantly lower level. Symptoms from prolonged exposure worsen.

I looked down at cat man with something like pity. But it would be remiss of me not to take this chance to experiment with the effects

I set other me to controlling the exact amount of air molecules that would cost the amount of mana I was passively recovering constantly, so I remained around 260. Summoning skeleton drudges were 60 each, so I created 4 and gave them to Dead Snake.

Other than having small wisps of cloth stuck to some of their bones, they were basically skeletons. Dead Snake had managed to remain standing for several minutes now, and looked over his new recruits with an evaluative eye. Then he shook his head, seemingly as unimpressed by his minions as I was with him.

I shrugged. We all do what we must.

After they departed for lower on the road, I waited for the cat man to wake up while practicing throwing knives. But the next visitor was not what I was expecting.

With a pop and a puff of smoke, a trolley with food on it appeared next to the gallows. And next to the trolley was a large green slime with tentacles, wearing… a frilly pink apron?

The green slime trembled as I walked over to it.

“Hell-lo. A-are you the… the guardian of…. Of this path…?” The voice was surprisingly feminine, and seemingly quite afraid.

“Yea, I guess so. Who are you?” I leaned closer, realizing that the slime was was semi translucent. A few of the slimes tentacles surreptitiously adjusted its apron. “I’m… uh, sorry to bother you, I’m..”

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has improved to “Aura of Dread Lvl 3”. Aura 7.5% more effective. This bonus is doubled against creatures of a significantly lower level. Symptoms from prolonged exposure worsen.

Oh? A level again so soon? Ah, perhaps because it’s affecting two of them? But does that mean that I only gain proficiency when someone is under its influence….

-Kukuku. And thus the cat man was never heard from again.

-Shush, other me. Its for the sake of science. He would undoubtedly have made the same choice, if given it under normal circumstances.

“I… Ah….” The slime’s voice cracked. The trembling was getting worse. The entirety of its body jiggled in an amusing manner, like jello. “I work…. I’m employed by the tower. I bring… lunch… I’ll just… leave…”

Whoops, I swiftly toggled off the Aura of Dread, before the slime creature imploded. “Oh, sorry. I thought you were a challenger.”

Feeling the aura leave, the slime’s voice brightened immediately. “Oh! No that’s my fault. You are new right? I’m Jen. I bring around lunches to a lot of the guardians of the path! Well, only to ones on the first level, because none of the people who I bring food to have moved up…. Maybe I’m bad luck…”

I smiled immediately at the mention of food and walked to the trolley. Up front was a bowl filled with wriggling worms. I stared at it dubiously.

Apparently having recovered from her brief bout of darkness, Jen said, “Skree larva, just like you requested.” She noticed my look and then continued. “...But if these aren’t to your taste, other meals are available. But they will deduct the extra cost from your salary…”

I reached into the bowl and grabbed a handful, casually tossing them into my mouth. I immediately smiled. Apparently food is food.

And more importantly…

+1 Biomass!

I turned back to Jen. “Did you say I could order more food.”

The slime jiggled, in a way I guessed must be affirmatively.

“Okay, then I’d like more of these, everyday for lunch.”

“How much?”

“However much I can afford on my salary. Use it all to bring me these.”

*****

Dead Snake and the Skeleton Drudges were apparently sufficient to handle the rest of the challengers, although two of the Drudges were destroyed in the process. More pleasingly, I finally had a small breakthrough that I had been waiting all day for.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has improved to “Lesser Air Affinity Lvl 2”. Mana cost for manipulating air has decreased. Degree of control has improved.

Laying back next to a still moaning cat man, who now had large grey bags under his eyes, I ordered Dead Snake to make sure cat man didn’t escape and promptly fell asleep.