Chapter 35: Searching

Keeping my ear out for any suspicious sounds, I walked backed to Simon’s base. Normally I would’ve had to make several trips in order to get all of my loot, but thanks to my ingenuity I didn’t have to. All it took was an earthen sled and some vines and I could force my reanimations to do all the heavy lifting. It wasn’t really forcing though since none of them seemed to mind. Even if they did, I would still force them to do it. I had made them after all so it was the least they could do to repay. I didn’t have Viola participate in case I needed her with me to fight an opponent. She would be hard pressed to do that if she was attacked to the sled like the rest of my reanimations.

Although the trip was going to take a while anyway, it was taken considerably longer since I had to remember just where I stored some of the loot. It wasn’t my fault though. All of the walls in the sewer looked nearly the same. Yet even though it was going slowly, I still persevered. There was no way I was going to leave some of the loot I had received get stolen by the monsters in the sewer. They didn’t deserve it for one and since humans were naturally greedy I just wanted whatever I could have. I also highly doubted that a giant rat would know how to use a health potion.

One thing that I was irritated about though was my reanimations. Although they were incredibly useful, they made my stealth virtually useless. Thanks to my high level in stealth, my steps did not make a single noise. However this didn’t matter when the reanimated rats behind me blundered all over the place. I didn’t blame them though since they couldn’t help it. Some sacrifices had to be made I guess.

After my reanimations and I walked for some time, I decided to train some of my magic while I was waiting. The reason I didn’t do it before was because it was too dangerous. Since I was deep in the rats base, there were more enemies there than normal. If I happened to run out of mana, I would be left with only my spear to fight. Although I could still probably win, most of my reanimations would die and I wouldn’t be able to reanimate more because I would still be out of mana. All in all, it just wasn’t worth the hassle.

The magic I chose to train in was water magic. Right now I only had water bullet and I wanted that to change. The reason I only had water bullet and a fire ball was because I was lacking a good supply of their elements. Making a small fire ball wasn’t worth the mana cost since there wasn’t a torch or something I could draw the fire from. Air and earth had been easy since they were all around. But now that I was in a place where certain elements seemed to be quite scarce, it was getting quite challenging to train.

I could of course just wait until I escape the sewers but I refuted that idea the moment I thought it. Not only was it not my style, but a time might come where I need a certain spell that I could’ve had but didn’t. I did not want to take that chance.

Conjuring up water from the air, I began to shape it into the form of a ball. Once that was done, I began manipulating it and changed it into a variety of shapes. Although it wouldn’t help me gain water magic immediately, it would still help. If I kept on manipulating water every time I was bored, my skill was bound to evolve. While I was doing this, Viola turned her head toward me and watched what I was doing very closely. I guess she interested in other magic than the one she normally used.

Although time didn’t go by as quickly as I would have liked, it still went faster thanks to my water manipulating. I had managed to create a few new water spells, but they were pathetically weak thanks to their low level. Still if all I had to use was water magic, I was confident that I could at least kill a giant rat. A berserker? Not so much.

After around another hour and a half of walking, I walked up to an inconspicuous looking wall. If I didn’t know what to look for, I would’ve completely missed it. But since I did, I was immediately able to spot it. Placing my hand on a section of luminescent moss, I allowed my mana to flow through it. A couple seconds later, the wall parted, revealing a passageway. I had no idea how the whole wall thing worked and I didn’t really want to find out. From the looks of the wall, I could already tell that the explanation for it would only hurt my head. And I already had enough headaches thanks to my concentration skill.

As I shuffled through the various pathways, I kept a lookout for a doorway that would lead to the armory. Even though I called it an armory, it was basically a collection of all the loot I had gathered, which had turned out to be quite a bit. If I could figure out how to smelt all the useless weapons I had received down and make an even better spear, I would be satisfied. But since Simon didn’t have a forge and I didn’t know how to smith, the likely hood of that idea becoming reality was slim.

A few minutes later I managed to find my way to my armory. Leading all of my reanimations inside, I began dismantling my earthen sled. I also removed all of the vines on my reanimations while I was at it. With Viola at my side, it only took fifteen minutes for me to reorganize everything. Once everything was done, I took a step back to appreciate my work.

On the left side of the clearing were my weapons. Earthen shelves helped display intriguing weapons while earthen chests held weapons that would probably never see the light of day. Although I said the earthen shelves displayed intriguing weapons, I didn’t really have any at the moment. But once I got some that I wasn’t going to use, I would put them on display.

My earthen chest however was getting pretty full. You’ll be surprised how many rats drop daggers at their loot. Maybe if I used daggers in my fighting style it would be helpful. But since I didn’t, I just had it collecting dust. I did however always keep one dagger on me. This was so I would still have a weapon in case something happened to my spear. A small dagger was way better than fighting unarmed.

Besides daggers, there were weapons such as axes, flails, a spiked whip, and some type of spiked stick. I didn’t really know what the point of the spiked stick was since there were spikes all over it. And when I say all over it, I mean all over it. There was nowhere for me to grab it without getting pricked. The name of it didn’t give me any ideas of what it was so I just decided to toss it in with the loot. The more loot I got, the odder they started to become.

All the way on the right side was where I kept my pieces of armor I received. I only had a few pieces because armor drops seemed to be rarer than weapon drops. I didn’t know if it was because my enemies were rats or if that was how it was supposed to be. Once I started fighting different monsters, my question would be answered.

None of the armor I received even compared to the ones Simon gave me. I had even gotten a helmet that had only one durability. I was only able to wear it for a couple of minutes before it crumbled into dust. Unbelievable. I also got some armor that looked like it could fit rats or some type of four legged animal. I ended up putting the one half-finished set I had on my formidable rat so it would be able to sustain some more damage.

In the middle of my weapons and armor was where I stored my miscellaneous items. Some of the items I had gotten included books, binoculars, a feather, and a sun dial watch. I was a little irritated with the last two loots because there was literally no point in having them. The one single feather that I had gotten could be used for absolutely nothing. Maybe I could make an arrow with it, but I only had one feather. What could was one arrow going to do me?

As for the sun dial, I shouldn’t even need to explain. I hadn’t seen the sun in weeks and I probably wasn’t going to for a couple more. So just like the feather, it was useless. Hopefully I would get better loot in the future. But from what I had already seen, it didn’t seem that likely.

After I finished looking over my armory, I headed toward the hot lake to bathe. It did wonders for my sore aching muscles and I couldn’t wait to get in. If you didn’t give your body the relaxation that it needed, it would eventually shut off. That was something I didn’t want happening so I made sure to get a good soak in.

Once I was done bathing, I walked over to the main small clearing where I had trained with Simon. Off to the left was a small patch of moss that was soft to touch. The reason this was there was because I wanted something soft to sit on while I meditated. Sitting on cold hard earth got old after a while and quite frankly I was tired of it. But now, thanks to the moss, I didn’t have to worry about being uncomfortable.

As my reanimations played around the clearing, I sat down and closed my eyes. Blocking out any distractions I pulled my consciousness deep into the depths of my mind. I felt myself sinking deeper and deeper until I finally opened my eyes to a glaring sun. Covering my eyes quickly, I looked around. It seemed that I was standing on the driveway near my house. Huh, interesting.

The reason I could go inside my mind was thanks to my advanced meditation skill. I had gotten this skill by training my meditation skill up to level 10. The first time I had gone inside my mind, I had been quite shocked to say the least. I didn’t really know what to expect from the skill, but this wasn’t it.

I had only been to my mind a few times since then, but I had learned a lot from each experience. One thing that I learned was that while I was in my mind, my body naturally restored my health, mana, and stamina without me having to do anything. That was a plus in my book. The second thing that I learned was that there were a couple restrictions set up inside my mind. For one I couldn’t go wherever I pleased. The farthest I could go from my house was two houses down in any direction. If I tried to go any farther, I would lose all the strength in my body and I would be forced to stop. I could get my strength back however by going back from where I came.

Another restriction was that I couldn’t forcibly change my surroundings. I had assumed that since this was my mind, I could do anything. I soon found out that that was certainly not the case. All of these restriction left me confused. I had no idea why they were in place and it didn’t seem that I would find out why anytime soon. I would just have to keeping on thinking until the answered just popped into my head. I was in my mind after all.

Shaking my head, I began to walk toward my house. I had actually never been in here before so I wondered what it was like. Placing my hand on the knob of my front door, I pushed. But nothing happened. Feeling a vein beginning to pulse in my head, I pushed again only for the same results to happen. You’ve got to be kidding me. The damn door was locked. Shoving my hands in my pocket, I headed toward the back door. This one had better be unlocked.

Thankfully when I reached my back door, it was unlocked. Sticking my head through the door, I noticed the eerie silence that perpetuated through the house. Yah, that was pretty creepy. Walking as quietly as I could, I took a glance in my parent’s room to see if there was anyone there. There wasn’t. I spent the next few minutes checking all of the other rooms in the house and shouting my parents’ names. No one answered.

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen anyone since I came here. The reason for this was probably because it was my mind after all. So it made sense for there to be only me here. I just assumed it was more like a dream where people come to and fro. I guess not.

Opening my cabinet in the kitchen, I grabbed a chocolate bar that was hidden behind all of the food cans. Tearing the wrapper open, I took a big bite. My eyes widened in excitement as the sweet flavor of the candy filled my mouth. I had no idea that I would be able to eat in my mind. I probably still needed to eat when I finished meditating, but doing this would probably help my hunger when I was starving.

Once I finished devouring all of the snacks in my kitchen, I headed towards my room. Eating the snacks in the kitchen had given me an idea that I wanted to try. Walking past my open door, I walked over to my desktop and turned it on. Could I still go on the internet? I waited in anticipation as my computer took its sweet time turning on. Moving my mouse to the taskbar, I clicked the Wi-Fi symbol. Hopefully this would work.

After fiddling with my computer for a few minutes, I turned my head away in disappointment. Man, I wish I could’ve gone on the internet. It was a shame, but I wasn’t all that disappointed. Even though I couldn’t get on the internet, I could still play some games that were downloaded on my computer. And that it exactly what I did. Now I know I should’ve been experimenting with my mind more, but an opportunity like this didn’t come by often. I hadn’t played a game in weeks. All I had been doing was training and killing. I needed to take a break from it all, and playing games did exactly that.

Around three hours later I woke up from my meditative state. Although it didn’t feel as good as a good night’s sleep, it did the job. My headache from earlier was gone and my mind was at ease. Before I left, I grabbed me something to eat. Even though I wasn’t that hungry, I still forced down some of the rat meat. I rather eat right now when I didn’t have an appetite rather than not being able to eat when I did.

Normally I would’ve said goodbye to Simon before I left, but I had no idea where he was. Oh well, I would see him later. Turning my back towards the clearing, I headed back from where I came. Right now I was just looking for the rat boss. I would need some type of strategy to beat him, but none of that mattered if I couldn’t even find him. So until then I would just have to keep looking. I would find him eventually. The sewer was endless after all.

AN: Thanks for reading!