Starred Tower: System Misinterpret Book One - A Post Apocalyptic Cultivation LitRPG

by Ryan DeBruyn

  “Mur butcher corpse, then cook and eat fill.” While part of me worries he will try to eat the entire Leporid, the practical side of my brain tells me that’s impossible due to the sheer size difference. I mean, the rabbit must weigh four times what the goblin does.

  Mur’s eyes light up, and he runs to the knife block and procures the largest blade from it. I shrug and then return my attention to Crash.

  “Next question. I noticed this morning that my physical stats are moving faster than my mind stats. What is the best way to increase my mind stats, Crash?”

  “Master, there are, of course, mind skills akin to your Iron Muscles and Jade Bones, but there are also applications that should help. Did you not find a skill in the journal yet?”

  I ignore its last question. The journal is tough to navigate, and I really haven’t read as much as I would like. “And those applications would be?”

  “Far too many to name, Master. However, the most efficient would be the library and the games center options.”

  “How would those help increase my mind stats?”

  “Master, the Bookshelf will have plenty of books that can be read, and if you learn the knowledge, your mind stats will certainly grow. The games center has many strategy games that will also help grow your mind.”

  Those make sense, but I make a mental note to scan the cultivation journal again for skills that it may suggest. Those two apps jump to the top of my priority list, though.

  I stand up and take the plates from breakfast to the sink to clean. I have one more theory to test today, but I need more qi to do it. So it’s time to head into the Suburb.

  “Crash, please make the mithril into coins, and also store any butchered meat Mur doesn’t eat inside the subspace. I am heading into Beach.”

  I approach the guard post and join the line there. In my palm, I balance a money pouch with sixteen mithril coins. I may have chosen to have Crash shave them a little. There is a part of me that worries it won’t work but another that rebels against owing this restitution in the first place. If the coin shaving sneaks by, it will likely be the best method to speed up paying off my debt. Or at least the cheapest.

  I reach the front of the line, and a guard waves me through without questioning. The guards are aware of my circumstances. I also wonder if my stench has something to do with their reluctance to be in my vicinity.

  The hairs on the back of my neck rise almost as soon as I cross into the sunshine. Not the usual reaction I have to the soothing warmth it provides. I look around, trying to find something out of place. Is there a cool wind?

  The goosebumps on my skin only grow in intensity as I scan the outer edges of the Suburb. I don’t find anything and chalk up the physical reaction to a strange excitement by my body to cultivate.

  A few blocks in, I pass the Star Bucks’ building. It would be so much easier if I could just use the roof again. But that isn’t prudent anymore, not after knowing that it’s a guild headquarters. The last thing I need is for them to report me. I figure I can find another place to cultivate if I walk around enough.

  For that reason, I keep scanning and am instantly glad I did. Tin appears across the street, exiting a building. He is looking right at me, and I feel my feet increase their tempo over the sidewalk as my heart beats faster.

  Tin looks both ways and then begins crossing the street. I don’t hesitate as I burst into a full run. There is no way I will let one of those murdering Ride or Die cronies catch me alone. A peek over my shoulder tells me that Tin is chasing at a full run as well. What in the Towers? I should be relatively safe from them in the Suburb, right?

  In vivid detail, my brain replays them surrounding me and frog-marching me out of the area the last time. I push a bit of qi into my legs and shoot forward, my breath coming fast. The church building slowly grows in the distance, and I dodge casual strollers left and right, making a zigzagging line toward it.

  Taking the stairs three at a time thanks to my increase in strength this morning, I get a hand on the door and pull. As I step through, I glance behind me to see an angry Tin staring daggers at my back from the bottom of the stairs. I shudder. The door can’t close fast enough as my racing heart beats a dramatic tempo.

  I stand in the entryway to the church, trying to understand. They’ve already gotten away with murder and the extortion of a large sum of money from me—what more could they want? The problem turns over in my head, lots of theories forming, but only one seems correct. They still want my subspace item . . .which I don’t even have!

  My blood flash-freezes and then boils in a surge of volcanic anger. Haven’t they done enough?! From now on, I’ll have to be extra careful coming and going from the city. If they find out where I live, they could camp out above the Training Room. And that would cause a lot of issues. All of which would be disastrous, at least to my current plans.

  I approach the nun from the previous day and slam my coin pouch down on the counter. I try not to snarl, but my mouth won’t even form a flat line. I can feel my jaw and shoulders are clenched too tight.

  “Is everything all right, my son?” she asks, seeming to have noticed my mood. I doubt anyone could miss it! Her use of the word son sets me further on edge, though. Not exactly my favorite term, for obvious reasons.

  “Everything is fine,” I snap without thinking. Immediately I berate myself for my behavior, but this day isn’t exactly going well.

  “Young man, the only way to truly change your criminal ways is to put in some effort,” she chides. I clamp my mouth shut to avoid saying anything more as she takes the coins and puts them away. She marks on her sheet sixteen coins, and my mood buoys ever so slightly.

  Anyway, this isn’t the place to cause a scene either. If I let all of my other problems bleed into the others, then I am only going to make them all worse.

  Nodding to the woman as pleasantly as I can manage, I turn to walk deeper into the church. I can’t just leave right away, or Tin is likely to still be there. I wander among the pews and even sit down for a time, watching the clergy’s comings and goings. In my current mood, it takes a full five minutes before it hits me. The clergy are coming and going from other exits all around the building. I shake my head and then follow a group out one of the side entrances.

  The doors are similar to the ones I entered through but seem to have carvings on their surface. A glance tells me someone has carved swords onto them and there is some paper posted on a cork board beside them, but my only goal is to get out of the church and away from Ride or Die. Once I walk through the doors, I find myself in a part of the Suburb I haven’t seen before. That is ideal for the next part of my morning plans, and I just need to find a quiet place to cultivate. I stand atop the stairs and scan my immediate area before continuing down them. No member of Ride or Die is apparent, and my earlier goosebumps are gone. I shrug but keep my head moving, looking for a cultivation spot but also enemies.

  I find an older-looking high-rise first. It has old concrete bricks and large metal-frame windows extremely close to the church exit. It has a similarly accessible fire escape to the Star Bucks’ building. The staircase is made out of old steel that has been cleaned of rust by the looks of it. As I climb it, I marvel at the sturdiness of this one in comparison to the Star Bucks’. I can practically fly up the stairs since they don’t shake. Or maybe that’s my increased Strength.

  A few minutes later, I step off the stairs onto the high gravel rooftop. The fact that they reached right to the roof and there isn’t a ladder is enjoyable. Especially when a quick glance down informs me how high I am. I gulp and step hurriedly off the stairs. This must be hundreds of feet high, and I could barely make out people on the road below. The stones up here are covered in green and brown from age. I peruse the area and notice a heavy reinforced door up here, like the Star Bucks’ building. The rooftop is just much larger, and there is no gated garden to draw my eye to the small square structure. Still, its distance from the staircase has me hopeful for no interrup
tions.

  The winds this high whip my loose-fitting T-shirt and pants around, and I hurriedly sit down to block off a portion of it with the lip of the roof’s edge. Then I lie down prone to avoid the gusts entirely. Due to my new body position and strange surroundings, it takes a bit more time to begin meditating. I miss the comfort of the Star Bucks’ roof, but double down and focus.

  Finally, I enter the right headspace and begin feeling the qi filtering through my skin.

  My Dantian breaking through another blockage startles me out of my deep meditation. The Petrol artery blockage punctures through the center and then quickly erodes into dust as the gap widens. I smile as warmth floods out from the organ, seeming to tickle my internal organs with a pleasant heat. At least my bad day has turned around. I check the rest of my body to find one hundred and fifty drops of qi flowing through my channels. Crash’s cultivation sales pitches are bearing fruit, but I need to gather more qi for the rest of my day and the night.

  Nearly four hours later, I feel the slight strain of my spiritual circulatory system and snap my eyes open. The pressure is a bad thing, according to my very first lesson, and so I cut off my cultivation immediately. Two hundred and ninety-three drops vibrate along my arteries and back through my veins. I can feel that this is the very edge of my limit and smile as the power floods through me.

  Taking a deep breath, I remember just how awful I smell. Luckily, I prepared as best I could this time and strip off my clothes before pulling a rag and water bottle from the subspace. The rag is black in minutes, and I pull out the towel to rip into additional strips. After about fifteen minutes, I deem my slightly-less-disgusting self finished and use the remaining half of the towel to dry off what I can. It isn’t like I plan to stop anywhere else on the way home.

  I climb down the building and attempt to ignore the looks of disgust I garner as I hastily retreat to a better-known area of the Suburb. Something becomes quickly apparent. Every building in this zone seems older and the vehicles more lavish. I would’ve stood out before my cultivation, and now stinking of fetid sewage water and wearing the black slime, I draw every eye.

  This area even has a few guards patrolling, and three of them stop me with raised hands. I don’t miss the guards’ other hands going to rest on pistols strapped to their hips.

  “What are you doing in the Sabres Guild compound?” the guard questions. Those swords on the doors! Internally I curse my stupidity for not realizing it sooner, but outwardly I am fighting to keep control of my face. I scratch my head sheepishly, turning my gaze down to the ground. Embarrassment isn’t hard to fake.

  “I was cleaning a clogged sewer,” I slur toward the ground and then hold my arms out to the sides so they can take in my rather disgusting state. “I fell in and wasn’t able to clean off all the slime. I am headed home.” The first guard blinks at me and takes a single step back.

  “As you were then,” he says, dismissing me. I don’t even start to move before the other guard holds up a hand again.

  “Wait—where is your pass?” he asks pointedly, and I watch as all three guards put hands to the pistols on their hips again.

  I stare back at them with wide eyes and open my mouth. Then I shut it. More lying is likely not going to get me out of this, and I am not sure what type of pass they are looking for. Undoubtedly, the Sabres hire workers outside of the guild, right? Then the static in my brain clears. Workers from outside the guild must carry passes to identify themselves, and I have an easy excuse. I pat my sternum, where a pass might hang, and then groan.

  “I changed clothes after, and I must have left it with the other set.” My actual panic goes a long way to sell the lie, and they remove their hands from the weapons.

  “When you return, make sure you pick up a spare. We will escort you.”

  “I don’t want to smell him the whole way. Just point him in the right direction,” another one of the guards grumbles, and the other two take only a moment to nod in agreement.

  “Closest edge is a hundred meters that way. Hope that all scrubs out,” the first guard says as he points in a direction.

  I lope off and feel their gazes on my back until I am out of sight. That was far too close, and I will definitely be avoiding this area in the future. There goes a second rooftop with easy access.

  Almost as soon as I approach the guard post that I usually enter through, I feel the same chill from earlier in the day. This time, there definitely isn’t wind, and after Tin chased me through the Suburb, I don’t ignore the feeling. Someone is watching me, and my guess? Ride or Die.

  I continue running down the pathway, and the feeling doesn’t fade as I get farther away. There is a high chance that they are following me, and I can’t imagine that they have good intentions. I have given the money to the church already and now have confirmation they are still after the item. What would one more disappearance of an adventurer be to them?

  My best chance is also the riskiest. If I can make it into the Training Room portal, I will be safe, but if they see me enter the house, they will know where I live. The steady pulse of energy running through my veins makes me bold, and I come up with—something.

  The timing needs to be just right, though, or they will likely increase their speed when I do. I prepare my circulating qi and sprint past the corner of my house. As soon as I round the bend, I infuse ten drops of qi into both legs and put on an extreme burst of speed, doubling then even tripling my pace from a moment before.

  The broken timbers and siding of the house whip by, and I reach out a hand to latch on to a still standing pillar. The fulcrum spins me around the far side of the house, and I take a few heavy steps, dumping as much of my speed as I can. Listening acutely, I take the back entrance into the ruins and weave my way to the staircase and down into the basement. The floor and stairs creak, but I hope they will go unheard.

  I leap into the portal and take a quick stock of my current situation. As I suspect, if someone was following me, they will hopefully believe I went deeper into the ruins. They may check this house as well, but once they find it empty, that should clarify that no one was here. . .

  “What Jeff doing?” Mur calls from down below, sounding strangely muffled. Almost like he has—

  A quick glance shows that Mur indeed has a mouth full of Leporid meat and a large chunk of bloody flesh in one of his hands. Blinking, I peek at the carcass and find that almost all of it is consumed. Has he been eating this entire time and hasn’t cooked it at all?

  His stomach even has a small bulge in it. Like he is carrying a food baby. Note to self: never let Mur butcher meat again.

  “Mur—” I begin but am cut off by the floor above the basement creaking. My lungs feel like stuck bellows, and anything I was going to say is forgotten as I direct curses internally. I’m an idiot. I shouldn’t have come down here. They are going to know.

  It takes several seconds before my mind’s logical side points out that this was part of my plan and that I don’t need to worry. Once I finally get a thought in edgewise, I wait silently on the top landing.

  “There is a basement here! He could be down below!”

  It’s tough to tell, but the shout has a bit of a feminine tinge to it, and I think it could be Esmerelda. Sure enough the muscular, dour woman walks into sight above the portal, and a moment later, thudding footsteps descend the stairs.

  “Anything down dere?” Jamie calls, and I can even hear the man spit somewhere out of view.

  “Not that I can see,” Esmerelda says while looking over her shoulder. “It doesn’t look lived in at all. I think Markus and Tin were right, and he kept going deeper.”

  “It’s always great to hear a lady tell me I’m right, but let’s take a look around. Maybe there is a false wall or something,” Tin says as he walks into view, revealing a third member of Ride or Die.

  “Why we even chasing him?” Jamie asks, sounding upset. “We could easily have cleared anudder three dungeons by now. And it’s not like da brat is goin
g anywhere. . .”

  “We tried that, and all the marked F dungeons are already run by other groups,” Tin counters before pointing at Esmerelda and Jamie. “That kid is finding a way to earn money and even sold a hundred and fifty pounds of Leporid meat in the market yesterday. Boyle and I think he knows the location of a good hunting ground. Plus, there is that subspace item.”

  “You know he could’ve just joined a guild, right?” Esmerelda says rhetorically.

  “Nah way,” Jamie instantly responds. “What guild is goin’ take on a kid with a record? Like us, he’s too weak to join da Adventurer’s Guild, and they’re the only option. Still, I say we just go rob anudder group exiting a marked dungeon.”

  “Way too risky, dumbass,” Tin says and accompanies it with a cuff to the head. “First, if we are implicated in another group’s death, they will seriously start looking into us. Secondly, we were already silly lucky to have run into a group that wasn’t affiliated the first time.

  “Now, let’s get out of here and join Markus and Boyle searching the ruins. The brat has to live around here somewhere—it’s the same direction he indicated that first day, remember?”

  The group marches out of the basement with a few grumbles from Jamie and Esmerelda.

  I finally release my held breath and hunch over, placing my hands on my knees as I pant. At least I know why they are chasing me now. Still, it doesn’t give me much. They believe I have some sort of secret they want, which admittedly I do, but not the one they think. Regardless, they aren’t going to stop coming. And I can’t provide proof of the lack of those secrets—or can I?

  No matter what, I have a full month to repay the debt, right? What if I stop making small payments to the church? Shoot—then I lose access to sunlight and can’t regain my qi losses from the night before.

  “Want some?” Mur grunt-growls up to me while proffering his bloody hand with a new piece of meat in it.