Chapter 11:

Jay fell into a rhythm. Despite all he’s accomplished, it’s only now he feels that he’s really doing something.

It’s a nice break for Jay, who hasn’t had a sense of agency until about two weeks into his journey here.

Every morning he’d wake up, grab a duplicate sword, and jump into the marble.

He’d then spend until Alt-Jay came back being shown how it really feels to be a low-level scrub.

The first time the portal opened in the marble was quite a surprise.

…

Jay rolled out of the way of Ghouly, “Ha, y- Oh fuck!”

Jay hastily blocked Ghouly’s slash, showing Jay that his roll didn’t put enough distance between him and his opponent to be worth it.

Ghouly then kindly showed Jay that his block was weak to someone shoving his sword away and how easy it is to shoulder check someone in that position.

Ghouly was about to demonstrate that Jay was extremely weak to someone wildly hacking at him while he’s on the ground, when essence exploded into life inside of Jay.

Ghouly immediately jumped back into a guard stance. Frankly, it surprised Jay with it’s reaction speed. Jay noticed Ghoul backing up before he noticed the essence.

But when he noticed the essence, “Oh holy fuck, what the hell?!”

Boy, he noticed the essence.

Jay was panicked for all of 2 seconds before he noticed that the essence was forming a swirling blue fire portal.

Alt-Jay stepped out of the portal with weirdly colored essence flowing around him and a shit eating grin on his face.

That grin fell off his face when he realised where he was, “Huh, always wondered what would happen in this situation…”

Alt-Jay was about to continue when Jay had to get his two cents in, “No you didn’t.”

The ring that was emitting essence broke, “Shut up. I started wondering the day the button was pressed. Technical ass motherfucker.”

Alt Jay grinned, “What I’m really curious is what’s about to happen next. ...Too bad, I guess.”

Just as Jay was about to ask what he meant, Alt-Jay started to dissolve into fire.

That was when Jay realised that Alt-Jay didn’t have his own aura of soulfire. Though the answer of why that was was readily apparent as Alt-Jay was absorbed. Jay’s flames surged as it happened. Forgein essence in Jay’s soul flowed out of his eyes, though Jay didn’t know if that was part of the process or if it was purifying his soul.

One might expect Jay to be happy, he’d gained both the answer of what happened to Alt-Jays and the medical reason his eyes were bleeding.

However, all Jay could say was, “One more butterfly for the fucking pile, huh?”

Jay ignored the blade bouncing off of his head, “...If people find out that my very soul is different while using my cheat, I imagine some spell/curse/charm/whatever could be put into place easily enough.”

Jay ignored the sword viciously bouncing off his head until it stopped.

And it stopped because there was another rush of essence as the leather bag in Alt-Jay’s clothes started to float.

Before his very eyes, two Ghoulies appeared with a sharp cracking sound.

Before Jay had time to even think about doing something, the three ghouls rushed each other. Jay could hardly even see them.

But it was apparent that the three struck each other at the same time, as when Jay watched them merge together, two had swords in, or on, each other, and one had it’s fist in the face of another.

After the dramatic scene of them merging into themselves, Ghouly held out it’s sword at Jay, seemingly challenging him for the first time.

Jay was ecstatic at seeing the new ghouly, even though the only real visual difference was the pale imitation of Jay’s fire aura.

Jay pointed his sword in return, “Hell yeah, motherfucker! LET’S DO THIS!”

One thorough ass-kicking and broken sword later, Jay’s good mood wasn’t gone just yet.

He stood there, with his hands on his knees, and panting with a stupidly pleased face. “Hah… now to get this shit into the right place… Hah, and get back to work.”

…

Yes, the first day’s training had been more eventful than the others, but Jay settled into his rhythm all the same.

After breaking swords with Ghouly until Alt-Jay came back, Jay would start with his ‘fantasy ruling for dummies’ plan.

After grinding his fair share of money, Jay would set about using his notes to do things like, deal with would-be problems, poach valuable people, and bribe and blackmail people so his actions remain largely unnoticed. You know, things any egomaniac with infinite money and fantasy internet would do.

Eventually, Alt-Jays started reporting leads and quests that lead to more pieces of Ghouly’s soul. Jay allowed his Alts to send notes on the matter without him interfering, as he didn’t really fear a ‘clone revolt’ type scenario.

The merging of two extra Ghouly’s each day eventually gave the soul piece a flame that rivaled Jay’s. The fact that two of the ghouls were always stronger than the other didn’t seem to be much of a factor.

And slowly, Jay’s next major event approached. That massive slave raider party wouldn’t know what hit it.

It was also the first time one of Jay’s political opponents would be shown what superiority really means.