“Ah, yes, the Potion of Pure Mind. I almost forgot about your expertise in Alchemy.” Slim rasped. “Perhaps you could attempt some of your more famous brews and use it to ensure the Demiurge does not one day awaken and decide to kill us all?”
“Lord Janus has shown to be a more… agreeable, sort. Any betrayal or deception on our part will only end with our eradication.”
There was a loud scoff. “How strong can he possibly be? If we all ganged up against him –”
“Enough Onna!” Erzili’s voice was sharp. The reprimand, harsh. “Listen, darlings, do not attempt to raise his ire. Erzili has already seen it. He was weaker than he was now, a thousand times weaker. Yet, he stormed Fort Zyvar by his lonesome and slaughtered all of you. Slim surrendered, and out of chivalry or kindness, he let him leave. But the rest of you, all of you… none of you stood a candle to him. None of you managed to touch him. He slaughtered all of you without so much as a dent in his armor or a scratch on his person. So, darlings, believe, when Erzili tells you – Lord Janus is your better in every conceivable way.”
“…he… killed all of us?” Onna’s voice was lower. Softer.
“Do whatever it takes to ensure Lord Janus is content darlings. Ensure he is satisfied. Always have it at the back of your mind, darlings, that he could destroy you in an instant if you displease him. Despite how he seems, Lord Janus is still a Demiurge.”
I stopped listening as their conversation went into the logistics of the oncoming battle.
‘Ooh la la, my, my Janny, we’ve struck gold.’
Have we?
‘Didn’t you listen? Demiurges are nightmares who can use languages from earth, read them, understand them, but have the downside of going loco. Or at least… appear loco.’
“What if… Demiurges are people like us, sent from earth to this world?”
‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If we’re to believe that, then it means we’ve got to accept that this whole transmigration to another world thing isn’t as rare as we believed, and Oblivion doesn’t have the monopoly on it. Right now, we’ve got nothing but conjecture – so go crack some books and find more.’
I ran my hand through my hair, muttering underneath my breath. The more answers I found, the more questions I had. At least, a part of me grew comfortable in understanding that Erzili had no immediate plans to betray me.
‘She has no immediate plans to betray us… yet.’ Sunny added. ‘The Yuki-Onna, on the other hand, that’s a different matter. She’s the entire reason we had to slaughter our way through Fort Zyvar the first time around because she called us the W-word. We can’t just let that sit idly now can we? Gonna need to do something about her.’
Rising from the bed, I grimaced from the slight sensation of discomfort. While it was, a bed, and it was, the first real bed I had the pleasure of sleeping on in my second life, it was sorely lacking in finer comforts. A lot of things, truly, about Fort Zyvar were lacking in the finer comforts. The walls were old, damaged, worn. The watchtowers were broken. The place looked to be on the verge of collapse.
We’re also going to need to do something about this Fort.
‘Agreed. We’re going to need stronger beds for all the fucking we’re going to be doing.’
You are afflicted by the negative status [Blood Parched]
–50% MP Regen Rate for as long as you remain [Blood Parched].
You are afflicted by the negative status [Flesh Famished]
You have [6] More Days Left Before You Die of Starvation.
My stomach growled, rumbling uncomfortably. I also need to get rid of this hunger…
‘That’ll be a tricky one. The closest sign of human life we’ve seen was that blood on the Chameleon Panther’s fangs. We’ll have to track it and see where it leads us.’
Daily Task:
Gain a minimum of 400,000 EXPGain at least four new Weapons/Armor/Skills/Minions
Gain at least 10 Levels in four different skills.
Rewards:
Triple EXP Gain for 48 Hours. (Stackable) [(2) Currently Active]
Summon Two Random Item Chests Once a Day. (Quality Increases with daily summon.)
All Skills Can be Used Twice a Day with Zero Mana Cost. (Does Not Stack)
Penalty:
–100% Experience Gain for 24 Hours. (Stackable)
Randomly Forfeit Four of Your Skills/Weapons/Armor.
Four of your Highest Leveled Skills are Reset to Lv. 1
Time Limit: 23h41m22s
And we also have the daily task to complete…
I had a lot of things to do.
“Let’s split the chores. You take A, I’ll take B.”
Ah, that was right. I didn’t have to do any of it alone. “[Duality].”
You have split Paths
You are now in Path A
/∞/
You have split Paths
You are now in Path B
Finally!
I stretched my legs out, winding up the ol’ arm and flexing the muscles, allowing a large grin to appear on my face. “Damn Janny boy, you’re stiff. That hunger debuff is a major bitch.”
I clicked my tongue. “Once we’re nice and done with our tasks, we’ll decide which path we’re selecting and which path we’re going to discard. I’m going to handle the Yuki-Onna situation, grind a bit, complete the Daily Task and get us some grub and take care of renovations. You handle getting information about the Antediluvian Hieroglyphs, the Night Emperors, Demiurges and learning how to read.”
“Wait, if that’s the case, doesn’t it mean it’s my timeline we’ll end up discarding?”
“It’s better that way.” I cracked my knuckles. “We need the information, but at the same time, we need to make sure no one knows how much we know. The less Erzili knows we know, the better.”
“Lord Janus, you’ve awakened.”
Erzili stepped into the room, sexy as ever. She’d taken a different form again, not that
