by Noam Oswin
“…now thaw.”
Two words and the ice melted away. Vanishing and dripping off with inexplicable quickness. I found myself, ignoring the notification that my negative effects had been mitigated, all in lieu of staring up at the name and titles that appeared on this being’s head.
Slim
[The Benign Horror]
[The Last Wendigo]
[Fort Zvyar Lieutenant]
Wendigo Lord
Lv. ?
“You saw what he did. He attacked me –”
“And you provoked him with insults,” Slim rasped.
“And that justifies his attack?”
“Would you sit by idly if one were to insult Erzili before you?”
“Of course not!” she protested hotly.
“Then anticipate the same reaction should you so choose to carelessly insult others.”
Onna seemed ready to protest more. Yet, a single glance at the tall, terrifying figure that was Slim, and she averted her gaze, quieting down, and settling for leaving me with a positively frigid stare.
I ignored her stare, focusing on my savior, on the newcomer. There was something… off about Slim. His smile was eerily unnatural. His rasping voice was like a dying man speaking through an oxygen mask. His off-kilter walk and body proportions were jarring to see. His movements were unnaturally smooth despite their lack of speed, and it made him unpredictable. Every single bone in my skeletal body screamed runrunrunrunrun while I was in his presence. Yet, despite that, he seemed, paradoxically, to be the least threatening person present.
The Wendigo Lord stretched out a long, horrifyingly thin arm and landed it on Arol’s head. Slowly, he patted the poltergeist’s head. “It’s good to see you back safely Arol. I hope Wunder did not do anything untoward.”
Wunder groaned underneath his breath. “It was one time. Just one time –”
Arol seemed conflicted on how to act. The mask of properness and seriousness she had placed in front of Erzili was cracking, her usual expression trying to break free from within.
“Darlings,” Erzili spoke.
At once, everywhere went silent. No one moved. No one spoke. Arol and Wunder and Onna seemed to almost be holding their breaths. Slim was still present, and he appeared to be the most relaxed amongst the nightmares of Fort Zyvar. It made me wonder. It made me question. How powerful was Erzili, to command this roster of dangerous individuals?
“The sun will soon come up darlings,” Erzili said. “Now, Erzili knows we all have our differences, but it would make Erzili very happy for you all to get along.”
Erzili turned to me at that. “Now, Janus darling, Erzili has a rule. Janus-darling doesn’t know the rule, so Erzili will be clear…”
The silence stretched. Erzili’s smile was etched onto her face. Then, I felt it. My ankles, shaking. My knees, trembling. Then – all at once –
[Warning!]
You have attained the Negative Effect: [Liquefaction]
Everyone was suddenly larger. Everything was suddenly bigger. I had no arms. I had no legs. I had no mouth. No bones. Nothing solid. There was nothing solid. Why is nothing solid –
[Skill {Insanity Resistance} has gained a Level.]
Calm down, calm down – you can still escape this – you have another timeline where you can feel your body –
And I could. I could still feel myself, in another timeline, sitting underneath a tree and idly training up my [Lesser Acid Secretion] skill. I was still safe. I still had a solid form. In that timeline, my body wasn’t dripping unto the earth. Parts of me weren’t bubbling and spreading away, out of my control. I still had my legs, my arms, my hands – I could still talk, I was not –
A liquid blob.
That was it. That was Erzili’s power? To turn people into sentient pools of muck that could neither speak nor hear, see nor touch? To entrap the consciousness and thought of a living being into a puddle of liquid that they could not control, a puddle of liquid that struggled and screamed to stay together –
[Skill {Insanity Resistance} has gained a Level.]
CALM. CALM. You can endure this, you can handle this –
“Do not ever attack Erzili’s darlings.”
[Skill {Insanity Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Insanity Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Insanity Resistance} has gained a Level.]
I screamed.
Chapter 8: Gatekeeper
[You are now in the True Path]
[The title [Retaliator] has come into effect.]
The sensations reset. The world clicked back into place. I was standing, I was standing. I could feel my body again. Whole. Proportionate. Head, shoulders, arm, legs, hands, feet and tail – I was complete. Complete.
Complete. My body was complete.
I was not a blob.
I was complete. Complete.
I drank in my surroundings. The forest was devoid of noise. The rabbit I had left to roast over the open flames had long been chewed and spat unto the empty earth. My golem remained on standby mode, unbothered by anything and anyone. The clearing was still as I remembered it, untouched by battle, unscarred by the heavy swings of Arol’s macuahuitl, and as far as the world knew, I had never met the individuals known as Arol and Wunder. I had never followed them, eccentricities and all. Never watched as they massacred a small army of kobolds. Never found myself frustrated trying to understand them. Never accompanied them to Fort Zyvar, and never met Erzili.
Wunder and I were supposed to spar in a week and see the victor. Arol was supposed to give me that necklace of kobold dicks, which I could not tell if she was serious about. Now, those events, those stillborn promises, they existed only in my mind. Moments only I would remember.
I rested my back against the tree, my gaze turning upwards to the sky. The sun was slowly peeking out over the horizon, and the darkness of the sky was morphing into a warmer shade of blue.
“Fuck.”
I spoke to my golem. It was not a sentient creature. It was a thing programmed idly with a preset set of instructions and commands that activated under certain conditions. A machine, it was.
“All because she called me a worm…” I chuckled. “All because of that. I attacked her… and now… now here I am.”
I loathed that word. I loathed the creature. Oblivion had said that he did not make me into a worm, but my state of mind when I died did. What a load of bull.
As if I would accept that. As if I would believe that. Not that it mattered now, at this point. The only thing left to do was to figure out what my next move would be and how to approach it. I could attempt to reach out to the other names on my Monster Link, and meet the Kobold King –
“Is… this the appropriate reaction to have?”
Something was off. You were just tortured. Turned into a literal slobbering paste of sentient goo. Moments ago I felt my sanity unravel from the horrifying body dysmorphia of being turned into liquid, and now, now my first thought after the incident was to move on. Move on as if there was nothing to do about it. As if it had not happened. As if the event was an afternote.
“Should I be angry…?”
Was I supposed to feel anger at being tortured for attacking a person who I had no chance of beating? Should I be sad that all the interactions I had with Arol and Wunder were gone now and I was once more a stranger to them? Should I feel upset at the lack of progress on my search for knowledge? Should I be frustrated at my weakness? Should I feel depressed that I did not know what to feel?
Like Sisyphus trapped in Tartarus, pushing the boulder up the mountain for all eternity, had I become so accustomed to my own suffering that I felt it was inevitable?
“There had better be a pleasure in this world worth all this…” I laughed. “If not…”
The golem did not answer. Winds rustled the trees and the crickets continued their song, the flames continued to crackle with its embers, and the world continued to on, with its eternal indifference.
Except for one spry creature, appearing with its familiar white feathers, its unnatural gaze that belayed cunning and intelligence. The albino vulture perched on a tree above me, eyes locked upon my form with an unwavering gaze.
“You again. I do hope you’re not planning on following me everywhere. That would be terribly cliché.”
For several seconds, the creature did nothing, simply watching me, observing me, causing me to grow irritated with each passing second.
“I get it,” I said, dusting my cloak as I stood. “I’m not giving up. I’ve not given up. I do not find it my imperative to quit.”
I stretched my arms. “As much as I hate falling prey to Sunk Cost Fallacy, I’ve invested far too much in this second life now to jump off a cliff with a noose around my neck.” I laughed. “This world is so brilliantly horrid that I do not believe there is in any way, any single thing I can do can make it worse. In that case, I suppose it would not hurt to try.”
I formed a rock in my right hand and lobbed it. The vulture took to the air, dodging the rock, flapping its wings twice, before ascending to the sky and beyond. I took in what I believed to be a deep breath. Without lungs, it was mostly just going through motions.
“Alright Janus. You’re a reasonably brilliant young man from the 21st century, tossed into another world where beings can routinely disobey the governing laws of physics and chemistry. Your task is to acquire as much power as possible by killing as many powerful individuals as possible, which grants you more power to kill even more powerful individuals, and so forth.”
“So, first question, what major invention from the 21st century can kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible?”
The answer was obvious.
“Can you recreate that invention with your current skill set?”
The answer to that question, was also, similarly obvious.
I stared down at myself, my gauntlets, my cloak, my shoes, and I knew where the problem lay. I had been thinking like someone from a medieval era. Deceived into placing arbitrary limits on what I could and could not do.
Now, there was no reason for me to think in that manner any further.
“I’m going to kill Erzili.”
It was personal, and at the same time it wasn’t. Erzili had displayed the ability to shapeshift. The ability to change into any man or woman of choice. There was also the likelihood of changing into monsters, animals and birds – the potential appeared limitless.
The skill was too valuable to overlook. It was a skill that would not only finally allow me to cast away my skeletal form, but it was one that would guarantee my ability to blend into human settlements and cities. It was a skill that would guarantee the possibility of a peaceful life in the future, as long as I was capable of acting the role of a human well enough to escape suspicion, and if I failed in that task, I would merely take upon another form and another name and begin a different life elsewhere.
Erzili was also valuable alive, considering the knowledge and power the Slithercreep possessed. My solution was simple. I needed to split timelines and kill Erzili in one timeline to attain the power to shapeshift, then spare Erzili in another timeline and attain information. In a sense, I would not truly be killing anyone.
However, to kill Erzili would mean to have to fight my way through the entirety of the nightmares of Fort Zyvar. To fight my way through Arol, Wunder, Onna and Slim.
“I’m going to need to prepare.”
I knew Arol’s weakness. I knew Wunder could be felled with poison. Onna, I was unsure of, but I was going to take a gamble and say that fire would be an effective means of eliminating her, once I found a suitable material that would be hard enough to freeze. Slim was the complete wildcard, as what I knew of Wendigos were limited, but I would wager either fire or poison would do the job.
Though, I’m not sure what can kill Erzili…
Erzili seemed to be a slime. Or at least, an evolved subspecies of tentacle-slime called a Slithercreep. I was going to assume that it meant immunity to physical attacks. There was the possibility of an immunity to elemental attacks as well, though to what extent I was unsure. The most surefire way to eliminate a slime would be complete and utter disintegration – which was a tall task considering Erzili could turn me into a liquid blob at a distance.
There has to be a range for that power…
The range for Erzili’s ability to turn me into a sentient mass of goo could be anything from a few feet to the entirety of the Fort, considering the entire Fort was Erzili’s domain.
Speaking of the Fort there’s also Sniffles to worry about…
The guardian of the Fort seemed to be another enemy that I would need to properly prepare myself for. The odds were already ridiculously stacked against me, and the only saving grace I possessed was my ability to continuously wage war against them without them being the wiser. I had an infinite number of ‘retries’ granted by [Duality], and that was enough to tip the scales slightly in my favor.
“Let’s see if there’s anything in my Titles that can tip the scales a bit more.”
Title(s): [Reincarnated] [User] [Gorger] [Larvae Slayer] [Jonah] [Parasite] [David] [Agkistrodon Slayer] [Genocidal] [Retaliator] [Phoenix] [Merciless] [Demiurge] [Sage Slayer]
One by one, I combed through the list.
Title: [Reincarnated]
Details: A unique title. As a reincarnated being, you are granted access to select skills, memories and knowledge of your past life.
The knowledge and memories except for those relating to names of people and places, and dates of anything personal or concrete. The name I had in my past life was forever lost to me, as was my birthday. I would need to choose a new day to celebrate my ‘birth’ in Alamir, whenever I discovered what calendars and dating system it used. According to Oblivion, I would lose all my memories if I let the nightmares invading the earth succeed. Did that mean I would lose this title too? I did not know.
Title: [User]
Details: A unique title. Grants the ability to attain the specialties of any being or object the “User” has conquered, dominated and/or consumed.
What this failed to tell me was that I could only attain the specialties of creatures I defeated after my evolution. I could not kill a random bat and the next minute gain the power to use its echolocation. I needed to reach the maximum level for my species, which came with its own set of requirements before I could gain the powers.
I almost swiped to the next title when something caught my eye. I looked at the title [User] again, slowly, and I read over the words. Again, I read. A third time, I read it. One word stuck to me: the ability to attain the specialties of any being or object.
“It can’t be that simple.”
Objects.
My gaze turned to my immediate surroundings and rapidly opened my World Map. I could find them, tiny sparkling objects on the map that I dismissed earlier, consumable items. Thick bushes rife with thorns and leaves were before me, and I noticed a small dark-yellow fruit hanging from them. I lunged for the fruit like a man possessed, plucking a handful of them within my skeletal fingers.
Loot Obtained!
Ingredient: [Alaberry]
You may view more information about Ingredients in the Crafting Menu.
I did not hesitate in searching for more information.
Ingredient: [Alaberry]
Class: Very Common Item
Quality: Poor
Details: The Alaberry is a small bitter-sour berry that is famous for being found in nearly every forest region of Alamir, but incredibly scarce in deserts and tundra. It is known for possessing minor analgesic properties and is an ingredient in many homemade alchemical tonics and potions, particularly, the homemade healing potion.
Effects: Cures 0.01% of HP
I held the Alaberry in my right hand. It was soft, soft enough that the tiniest application of pressure would burst it open. The very possibility that it was unripe did not escape me, but there was no time
to care.
You have unequipped [Mask of Janus] as your head apparel.
Removing my two-faced mask, the Alaberry found itself in my jaws. My teeth bit down and I knew not the taste, but I chewed slowly on every single bit of it, focusing, focusing –
[As a creature lacking a digestive system, you cannot use restorative items]
It was worth a shot.
You have equipped [Mask of Janus] as your head apparel.
I sighed and moved on to the next one.
Title: [Gorger]
Details: An uncommon title. Grants the ability to stockpile food in the form of reserve health. Eating twice the user’s body weight provides 10% of their total HP as reserve health. Consuming four times the user’s body weight provides 20% and consuming eight times the user’s body weight provides a maximum of 50% as reserve health.
A title that was rather useless as a skeleton. I could not “store food.”
Title: [Larvae Slayer]
Details: An uncommon title. Grants +25% Damage to larvae and infantile opponents while granting +30% Damage Reduction from larvae and infantile opponents.
The baby-slayer title. It would be easier to just say: “this title makes it easier to kill babies and young children.”
Title: [Jonah]
Details: A rare title. The bearer can survive within the stomach of any living being without being digested. Staying for three days within the stomach of any living being grants +30% Damage Dealt to all beings of that type in the future. Staying for three weeks grants +60% Damage Dealt and +30% Damage Reduction. Staying for three months grants +90% Damage Dealt and +90% Damage Reduction.
This still possessed merits, assuming I was swallowed by a dragon or some other extremely large beast. I wondered if Alamir possessed Kaiju-sized monsters. It would honestly not surprise me.
Title: [Parasite]
Details: An uncommon title. Constantly absorb 10% of a host’s health and magic and have it added to yours. Lingering on the host increases the percentage absorbed by 0.5% every twenty-four hours, for a total maximum of 99%.
