by Philip Read
The quiet one with the daemon within him resonates with the death ether. And Sachihiro, the one who is the most all-round evenly Awakened human I have ever set my eye on resonates a little with everything; but most noticeably with the pool of water still deep within the ground under the Tree.
They stay there the entire day talking, sparing unarmed, showing each other little tricks they can now do that confirms for me that they are all recently Awakened. I wasn’t sure looking at that Om, there is prestigious age within him and he has the age presence of a thousand year old tree.
They stay the entire night and dawn there and by the time they are ready to leave there is a tunnel spiraling down a few meters from the tree. Two of them follow it, Volvox and Sachihiro while the rest remain at the top not wanting to leave as even without challenging a dungeon they can feel the benefits of just being there within themselves.
The two slowly go down and reach an underground pond in the complete and utter darkness of the dungeon tunnel deep underneath the Elder Tree’s roots. Sachihiro immediately strips down and wades into the dark murky water while the other one just looks around before going back up.
The others didn’t comes down because they can’t see in the dark I realise, interesting. They stay at the top discussing possible dungeon development plans with Daewon leaving the swimmer in the dark to his own devices and the man seems content to be in the water.
He stays under a lot of the time and seems to have no trouble maneuvering around obstacles even under the stygian water. He is at the very edge of my clairvoyantvision but I see him cast his water magic in the ether reach pool and he plays as he swims, exhausting his meager mana reserves twice before he is satisfied.
He leaves the water completely naked with a sigh of either longing or contentment as he steps onto the moist underground rock of the bank. The man is a specimen of captivating development and I would love to get my hands on him, to study him and the experiments I could conduct on him and his divided soul.
He walks up to his clothes and weapons and grabs that uncanny living weapon that is an extension of his soul allowed to live and grow in a different body. He does something and all of a sudden he is as dry as though he never went into the water, and then he gets redressed and armed.
The young man has Awakened to so many things in such a balanced way that its as though he were being directed by an Elder being or being advised by a diviner through the process. There is very little taken for granted and in my eye he is almost a perfect physical specimen. Though he may not seem powerful now I can see the potential in his current build and though confused by the water mana, the rest is just extraordinarily balanced.
His entire body is firmly founded in Awakening Mana not at an organ level as most sapient creatures like to focus. Not even at a tissue or cellular level as those of us with more insight direct our Awakening. This one has built a foundation at a genetic level which will eventually take much much longer for the benefits to manifest in comparison but end up being much more potent.
Instead of improving himself as a human being this Sachihiro has chosen to evolve. Eventually his entire cellular system and his entire tissue and organ systems will be replaced by the new one coded into his DNA through his Awakening. How he knew to modify what I am very eager to find out, because as a Flesh Mage I have dabbled in changing the very code of a living creature but it never goes well. You need a map in order to maneuver your way around the genetic code of even the simplest of creatures. A map no one who has taken the steps to make one likes to share.
Even his children will benefit from what this Sachihiro has done as most of the code within him is inheritable to offspring.
And judging but how extensive his other Awakened areas are it only took a miniscule amount of Awakening Mana to change his genetic codes the way he has. I wish I could keep this one with me a while longer, maybe have one of the other humans seduce him so as to produce a youngling.
Maybe Talia will be interested in the suggestion, though she seems eager to head back to the Red now that she has improved herself through my teachings. I watch them eventually leave the Dungeon Forest and head back towards me. It’s only a few dozen hours and by the zenith of the night they get back within the confines of my little territory.
*
I use true sight and insightful sight to watch them all. Sachihiro eventually comes to visit me in my second story resting room and I thoroughly watch him as he approaches. He is a stud, with my third eye I can see the power and mana circling in his loins. It isn’t much but its enough to be noticeable, most martial creatures consider it a waste but it is essential for any creature that wants to produce powerful offspring to Awaken it’s seed and loins.
Its the amazing sex that’s the side benefit not the savant progeny. He also has some mental benefits, his mind is clear and fortified and it seems he may be at the casp of a divided mind state. I’m sure little Gorr has seen all these things as well, his sight is almost as good as mine and will only get better with time.
We seat and discuss body modifications and interesting natural adaptations. I don’t know why he finds the manipulation of flesh so fascinating but I enjoy having someone to talk to. Looking at him I even entertain the thought of taking my humanoid form for a night, but that is just the wishful thinking of the old.
Chapter 95
Sachihiro
We left Volvox in the forest along with Gorr and Fenrir. Why anyone would volunteer to become a dungeon creature I don’t know but that’s what Volvox has chosen to become both he and Gorr. When Dee brought it up trying to recruit us for the job I will admit that there seems to be a lot of benefits, not just from the accumulation of power from being within a dungeon all the time but actual benefits and modifications that the dungeon does to increase your efficiency and power.
It seems to be an easy way to gain power quickly to the point that you go past the treshold between the first and second tier of Awakening quickly. Volvox contracted away the next 50 years of his life at as a dungeon boss with the agreement that the dungeon will do it’s utmost to preserve his life. Gorr has specifically contracted himself away until he is ready to reach the second tier with the same promise of his life being preserved by the dungeon. How long that will take no one can say, but I think he negotiated better than Volvox did.
But to be under another creature’s control like that is just something I’m not ever willing to do. I noticed the way Dee thinks is different from when we were growing up together and it’s a concern for me that his connection to that thing may be fundamentally changing his personality. But I won’t lie, being in that things presence and swimming in that pool was a very euphoric experience.
But more than anything I’m glad I finally saw my brother after so many years and I got to warn him of the coming calamity. Though now that I think about it Dee seems more prepared for a confrontation than I am, and Om apparently lost two of the three sparing matches they had. I may consider going there for safety if I didn’t know how dangerous a dungeon can be and not have already made actionable plans for my family.
The trip isn’t as perilous through the forest with an escort of two dire wolves and an apparent scent or mark on us depicting us as the guests of an Ancient. It doesn’t take us as long to pass through the forest and we again run at high speeds when we leave the forest proper but this time we all run at da’s top speed. It isn’t too many days before we reach the still growing woodlands planted a ways from the city, then see the city itself.
We get into the city and separate without much ceremony, each going their own way in preparation for the departure. Already we have stayed in Paradisum longer than I would have advised but I think it was necessary for me to get a hand on my new abilities and cram as much of this spy shit as possible into my repertoire.
I’m also very grateful for the gift in teaching Elentril gave me. She taught me to better hide my power, something I have actually been wondering about since I can feel some Awakened but not all.
Da says I feel the same to him and so does Kuyoki but Om says he would mistake me for a powerful mundane if he didn’t know better. It’s not easy masking my power this way, its comparable to a fat person trying to suck their tummy in and hold it I imagine, but I’m getting the hang of it.
Kuyoki and I head home and everything is already packed when we get there. The list of people we are sure are leaving has been finalised and it has 212 names on it, some not even tribesmen. This trip is the first that includes other peoples that have made Paradisum their home.
Orces, Highlanders, two fae young men, several dozen dwarves and even residents that are from Sandoria but have been bled and tested through their challenges and earned a spot sleeping on the floor of the longhouse. We spread the word that we will be leaving in two days at dawn with the expectation that our numbers will swell on the day itself. Everything is different in Paradisum, the prospect of another fight and dying in battle has lit a fire under the asses of every warrior.
There is that spark again that was there during the War With The South, that excitement and urgency. Even the children have picked up on it and are growing up with the aura of progress and anticipation for life within their city, shaping their growing personalities for the better.
Aurora is over a year old, Didi almost 9, Saya is 12, Iki is still only a few months going on a year and so is Hannah. I’ve also come back to the confirmation that yes, Ingwe is indeed with child again and this many young children worries me somewhat. Wagner agree to lead the trip south though so I am grateful to have that off my shoulders though I will have to be the second in command as the instigator of this trip.
Hara has given me everything necessary for the Conclave leadership to help me in my own goals outside the goals of my mission. I was surprised at how easily she consented before fully realising how long I will be away from my family while fulfilling this mission. But coming to the realisation that this is a long term post for me, it makes sense that the Conclave will help me in developing the Eldritch Alderman Foothills and build a home for my family there.
At least a home away from the one I hope we will make in the Den. Plus they will also be furthering their own goals by helping the Alderman survive the budern of the prophecy laid upon them. It could all be one and the same professor though, not just a prophesied end of the Aldermen, but an end of the entire world as we know it.
* *
Shadow
My heart is beating rapidly both in nervousness and excitement to be finally moving another step forward in accomplishing my mission. I have been in Paradisum 2 years now and am known by most of the residents that frequented the Arena my first year here. I am also known by the counter insurgency people of the Tundra but after that initial meeting where I was made aware that I was being watched nothing out of the ordinary has happened.
I have worked hard to try and earn the respect of these people by being there in all their work crews, being there in the public training rings, there in the fist fights, there at the hunts I can get myself invited to, and there in the Arena for a holmgang death match the time I was challenged.
I have fucked the tribeswoman that wanted me and fought them when they thought me pliable enough to be a second or third mate in their harems. In only two years I have earned myself a coth sleeping on the floor of the Jotnar district long-house and a Viking woman I fuck on a semi regular basis.
I haven’t been challenged to a fight in over 5 months and if it’s possible for a foreigner to become a citizen of the city without the need for marriage I’m certain I will be along that group that receives that honour if ever it happens. I have earned a lot of the respect of the Paradisians I’ve associated with and as they get ready to head south for whatever it is they are heading south for I’m also getting ready.
No one says anything to me or tells me I can’t come as I collect my sleeping cot, buy camping gear, traveling boots, and say my fare-wells to the drudging friendships I’ve made in my short time here. We don’t usually make friends in my business because of all the lies we have to tell, but the fact that the Tundra higher ups knew I am a spy sort of freed me from the burden of lying to the extent that I have to disappear without a trace when I complete my mission.
Of all the agents sent up here from the Ministry of Information I think I am the one that has settled in most successfully and that is mostly because I believed them when they said they were watching me. So I just decided, ‘fuck it’ and I lived my life as though this were a sort of vacation. Maybe even a new life where I can be the person I imagine my true personality might be.
It helped that my mission was nothing nefarious like sabotage, information gathering, theft or an assassination. And I thank the gods for that because I wouldn’t have survived had I attempted an assassination here; besides, I’m getting too slow and long in the tooth to be sneaking like I used to in my younger days.
My mission to Paradisum was just to find out where the groups of tribesmen that head south every few years are going and how they get there without building ships that can survive a voyage past the Undine Straits. Some of the magus and magistered at the Ministry of Information and Ministry of Trade are sure that we are being sold products from a continent called Pangaea that the Barbarians have somehow gained access to without the use of expensive magical ships.
Enchanted items like jugs of water that slowly refill themselves, clothes that keep you cool even during a heat wave or warm even during winter. Sap for wood that prevents fire damage, plants that grow along the sides of walls and onto roofs reinforcing buildings to the extent that not even Awakened Warriors can easily demolish them. Daggers and swords made of Damascus steel, amulets of protection that need no mana from the wearer and many other magical and technological wonders.
It is the prevailing theory that their association with the fae has given them access to the fae modes of travel, but the few Highlanders that call Sandoria home are adiment that only the fae and druids can use those means without official permission from the Sidhe Courts. Regardless my mission is to find my way into or follow one of these expeditions, expeditions all other agents can’t seem to follow after a certain point in the mists before the unclaimed Forest of Erebus.
As everyone is packed and ready so am I. I get a few looks from people as I walk to the meeting spot outside the gates even amongst such a diverse group of people. I’m not yet sure how the tribesmen know a foreigner from a resident but they know, and I feel exposed forcing myself into their secrets this way but again no one says a word as I walk amoungst the other south bound travelers.
We reach the meeting place outside the city proper and there are a lot of us, close to 300 people are gathered here and I try to siddle in amongst them so as not to stand out so much. How I even stand out at all amongst such tall people I don’t even know but they all seem to keep looking at me.
I make small talk with the people around me but we don’t have to wait long before the leaders of this expedition move forward to talk to us. We are divided into 12 groups of 25 people each with its own leader and a second chosen from the 25. The leader and second then move to were the other leaders are meeting for planning out the route or whatever else they are doing. I look around at the crowds, cataloguing who is making the trip, speculating where we might be going and why.
My group consists of a family of orcs, six of the huge muscular people covered in tribal tattoos. Even the two women in the group are big, none shorter than 6 feet tall and both with rounded muscular shoulders though retaining their womanly shapes. But again nothing is so different from all the Barbarians with broad shoulders and wide chests that are all over the place, i decide as I bring my mind back from wondering. The other groups are also diverse, some even including young children but predominantly this is clearly a Barbarian experdition.
The talk doesn’t take long and before I know it I’m jogging with my group at a fairy sedate pace as the sun rises for the dawn and the moon Selene sets with a blue haze in the horizon. My heart is
glad with that familiar excitment I get after having accomplished a mission, but strangely now it’s caused by the excitment of delving the unknown with these people.
* * *
Albert
She sits there with her back to me, head to me and her fat ass exposed and and on display for my perusement. Her cheeks are flush red from embarrassment and other confusing emotions whirling away within her mind, though the most prevalent is fear, followed closely by disgust. I like them this exact age, old enough to understand that this is wrong but young enough not to fully understand why it feels so good yet leaves them feeling so dirty.
The grim they accumulate on their souls as I make them enjoy it more and more until they are whores to my every whim or glance, exposing themselves even amongst guests in hopes of being rewarded with my seed. There are many advantages to Awakening to Sorcery Spirit Summoning and one of them is the ability to manipulate the pleasure and pain of the spirit-being of every person.
Damian has once before expressed his displeasure at my habit of making my toys learn to love what I do them to the extent that they are good for being nothing but whores even after years of frequent visits to the Brothels. I admit I do take pleasure in breaking them in, especially these Barbarian boys who still pretend to look at me in disgust even as they exposes themselves further for deeper penetration by the time I am nearly done with them.
This new batch unfortunately only had a single barbarian and it is a girl child of 10 years old. It will be good to break her in properly, first I need to break in this one as a matter of pride though.
This little girl exposing herself to me is the daughter of one of the people that’s been acting against me. A noble of these lands that also has a thing for children, the one who seems to be fighting for children born into slavery not be considered the property of the owner. A preposterous proposal but she apparently has a lot of influence, and had forgotten that she has grandchildren of her own. ‘Children’s right’ for shit, I’ll show her the price of meddling.
