Chapter 9:

Jay paced his room.

He had nothing to fear, his messages would take care of founding his first town and its surrounding villages, and he knew it would take something extremely powerful to overcome his three crystal defenses. Jay fully believed a fucker could lean on his house and not realise it was there.

No, it was Jay’s oldest nemesis that he battled with. Inaction. Boredom.

Jay stormed over to his event planner yet again, “Gah! When is my next event, how long?!”

Jay’s eye’s stopped on the text, “Ugh. Another two weeks until the slavers are in position.”

For the umptenth time, Jay thought about trying to undergo the quests in his status, but gave up on the idea again.

He instead started doing push-ups, again.

While yelling about his problems again, again.

He pushed up, “Damn Quests, I don’t know how to take over a city!”

He let himself down, “Damn myself too! Even if I have an infinite source of money, an amount of money that rivals a small kingdom, I can’t get myself to move without my cheat!”

He pushed up, “I didn’t use to be like this. If I had an infinite source of money back even 2 years ago, I’d be living it up!”

Next cycle, “... Well about as much as a 14 year old can live it up.”

Next cycle, “Actually, a 14 year old can get up to some shit in this world…”

On and on, Jay continued to sprout his grievances. Maybe people of Jay’s generation had really grown used to instant gratification.

Though if anyone said that to Jay, he’d reply, ‘Shut the fuck up’ and ‘I haven’t seriouslly talked to anyone for like 5 months, what the fuck is wrong with you!?’ He might even say, ‘Ok, boomer.’, if he was feeling particularly flippant.

Eventually, Jay overcame his cabin fever fit, and eventually, the awaited moment came.

Alt-Jay had returned, well, this Alt-Jay came back. They are by definition, different people.

Screams flowed through the flaming blue portal, and the fire spread throughout his entire home.

The heat was unbelievable, it was more than Jay had ever felt before.

Yet Jay only raised an eyebrow.

With a sound tearing paper it was all gone, and Alt-Jay was standing in front of Jay, “Hahhh, oh well, can’t get them all.”

Alt-Jay pouted as he set his wheelbarrow onto the basement floor, “I wasn’t able to find anything like a sentient sword, and you know the kinds of looks you get when you inquire about such things…”

Yes, Jay knew, he had the benifit of being a literal child last time he had seriouslly looked for a sentient whatever-the-fuck, but some people still looked down on him. Despite there being legends of such things in Divinity’s Rest, most people see the searching for such objects as a way to circumvent anti-slaverly laws, or simply a way to obtain an obedient slave in the territories that do not ban such practices.

They would try to move trustworthy people through the portal, but both Jay’s and Alt-Jay’s instincts scream at them when they think of it.

Alt-Jay smiled as he flowed towards Jay, “I did find something, however.”

He threw a leather bag at Jay, “I hope you get plenty of use out of it, I found it most enlightening.”

After the clothes of Alt-Jay fell to the floor, Jay took out a handkerchief that had the express purpose of wiping bleeding eyes. “Careful Jay, do not get carried away. Business first. Then fuck around with the gift from yourself.”

As such, Jay started his chores for the day. The grounding of the work helped stabilize Jay.

He studied the Alt-Jay Journal. He tweaked the messages he planned to send around his territory for maximum effect. He trapped a failing doctor with promises of new medical procedures and funding. He even started studying the different factions of Lando and started spitballing ideas for further alt-testing.

They were all very general ideas, but Jay had no problem imagining himself pulling off 12 of them at the same time, and claiming Lando effectively in a week. The thought of actually clearing a quest after all this time was almost enough to get Jay off. He may have a problem.

His thoughts were of things like flooding the market with low-cost food, allying with the struggling Stansa church, and pushing into the healing industry.

If Jay were honest with himself, he’d realize that basically all of his plans boiled down to providing ‘government funding’ to various infrastructures and programs until the people of Lando recognized him as a proper governing force. At which point he’d rustle up a military force and perform a supported coup.

In Jay’s mind, his deep pockets and superior crystal authority should make such a thing easy enough. Even if he didn’t have a cheat item.

All good things come to an end however, and Jay eventually ran out of actual challenging work in due time.

When that happened, “Hah, fuck all this noise, I can finish up this menial shit in due time.”

Jay retired from work with grace.

Jay went to the leather bag, “Hope this shit ain’t expireable.”

He opened what might be more accurately described as a satchel, and pulled out a letter and a marble.

The letter simply described where Alt-Jay purchased the marble.

As for the marble, Jay had his ways.

“System Scan! Description!”

Only two ways, really.

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Soul Prison

Spellwork

(Rare)

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Description:

A ancient spell used to divide the Stansa Templar Swordmaster’s soul into fifths. Can be used to spar against. Only damage to physical objects capable in the soul realm.

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Jay sat back, “As a person who is one-hundred percent certain that souls contain the whole being of a person, can I morally allow myself to gain from the enslavement of a soul…?”

Jay sat back further, “... Eh, damn if I know. I’ll just set him free if it’s really fucked up.”

Jay reread the description, “Or her… worldview Jay. Worldview.”

Jay was just about to enter the thing, when he remembered to grab a new sword. He only polishes the one on his hip, after all.