Chapter 8

As the Strange waggled its fingers, the Demon Lords' body glowed as a manna shield repelled whatever attack the thing had launched. "That little fucker! I will suck it dry!" The Lord pulled back his arm and made a throwing motion at the starfighter.

The spacecraft shrugged off whatever kinetic attack the Lord had thrown at it. Its armor as dense as a neutron star in places. The Lord grimaced and raised his other hand for his ultimate soul-stealing attack!

It was far too late, however. The little Strange was not in the starfighter anymore. The Demon Lord frowned as his attack failed. His head turned slowly, looking for the teleporting freak. His heart beat faster at the thought of destroying this animal and then fucking those women. He was starting to get a boner at the idea.

There was one problem. That was definitely not an erection in his pants! By the time the Lord noticed the tail poking out of his waistband, it was too late!

"Yeahhhooww!" The Strange bit off the Lord's dick, which was not protected by his manna shield. He dropped into a fetal position as blood spurted everywhere. The Strange darted back and forth and beat the demon lord with his appendage. At this moment, the soul spell preventing me from moving stopped working.

My SG66 blades slid out of my wrists, and I imbued them with Manna as I activated Agility. I plunged my blade down, and it quickly cut off the Lord's head. A searing pain caught me in the shoulder as one of his men shot me with rune cannon. My body was flung through the air, and all the flesh on my left side disappeared. Fortunately, the SG66 skeleton was impervious to damage. I flipped back up to my feet and ran at the shooter.

I dove into a roll and came up with a kung fu strike to the man's neck. The thinness of my SG66 blade made it look like I punched the man's head off; the atom-sized edge sliced through his spine before my fist arrived. Blood sprayed violently from his decapitated neck, and I coughed as I tried to get it out of my mouth.

The last couple of guards were facing off against the caravan men who had picked up their rune cannons and were aiming at them in a stalemate.

I drained the last of my Manna into charging my blades and dashed forwards. Suddenly, light glowed in the evil soldier's eyes. They turned their guns on me and pulled the trigger.

All the remaining flesh on my body disappeared. The force of the blast flung my body into the sky at tremendous velocities. Had I not blacked out from the pain, I would have seen the head cook looking at my gore-covered skeleton as it arched through the air. "Get the doctor!" She yelled.

It was not the doctor that greeted me when I awoke, however. I later learned that I had been left for dead. The doctor, Strange, and others had gone to marvel at the loot the Demon Lord had dropped. The guy had an enchanted dagger, a sack of enchanted meats, and a single beautiful immortality potion.

The Strange had immediately grabbed the sack of meats and raised a threatening paw. Everyone else backed away slowly. The Strange grinned and then took a shit on the immortality potion before teleporting away. The potion was cleaned up and taken by the master Herbalist, and the guard captain claimed the dagger.

When I finally woke up—the imperial upgrade package finished rebuilding my flesh, and my HUD was filled with notifications:

SOUL

Description

For killing a Demon Lord and his minion, you receive +2 to your spirit.

If you shoot for her, she will reward you

MANNA

Description

For killing a Demon Lord, you receive +1 Manna

Easy pickings

Red flags immediately went up in my mind. Where had I heard that phrasing before? OH, SHIT, "She" was the same terminology the adventure guild people used before they kicked me out! WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON HERE! I calmed down after running after the wagons for a while. I figured this stuff probably had to do with the SOUL and higher beings. I would have to stay alert for any more creepy business. It took me several hours to catch up to the wagons. I ran up to the chuck wagon and opened the door.

The head cook was trying to hack some tough-looking meat but turned as the door opened. "WHAT! I thought you were dead!" "Well, hello to you too, ma'am! It must have been something crazy that healed me! Did you do it?" "Hmm, no. Not even the doctor has that sort of power! It might have been that Strange. Them creatures are scary. Now that you're back come here and help me slice this!"

Later that night, I snuck over to Brea's wagon and knocked on the door. She fell into my arms with a sob and pressed her face to my chest. Her warmth threw me off guard, as we had just started being intimate, and our herbalism lessons were more of a sensual game than love. Before we fell asleep, Brea talked about how she would study with a new herbalism master. I told her I intended to find a manna and soul trainer in the city because I was interested in becoming more powerful. As I fell asleep, I failed to notice her using IDENTIFY on me before writing in a small journal.

We got an early start the following day, and excitement was in the air. We would reach the city of Dublin. As the mountains slowly faded behind us and the forests thinned out, we could see vast fields of farmland stretching to the distant city walls.

The farms grew wheat, oats, and other such grains for the most part. As we gradually got closer to the city, massive rune inscribed granite walls filled our vision. The runes no doubt conveyed some powerful manna shield to the walls. I idly wondered if my satellite AOE would be able to get through them.

I said bye to Brea and promised to come to see how she was doing at some point. I received a fair bit of coin from my pay as the cook's assistant and my share of the Rox meat sales. I paid for a room in an inn and started asking where to find a MANNA and SOUL trainer.

I rented a room at the most excellent-looking inn I could find. The room had a rune-inlayed bathtub, which gushed hot water when Manna was applied. I relished the soak as the hot Manna-powered jets massaged my body. Meditation came quickly in this state, and I tried to level my SOUL stat.

SOUL PATH ACHIEVEMENT!

Empty mind level 1 has been achieved for 15 minutes—master level 2 for cumulative effects.

I looked at the message, not understanding the whole point. Just at that moment, defying the probability of coincidence, my comm chirped. "Um, hi, can anyone hear me? This is Librarian 777."