Chapter 121: The abnormal trained by the anomaly (2)
- Moirai-
" What a heroic speech, I felt my nonexistent blood boiling." said the voice inside of my head mocking me for giving such a lukewarm speech to these players about what it means to be a soldier.
In a society where religion plays such a prevalent role in everyone lives, I will have to choose my words and the intent behind it quite carefully, otherwise, my heartfelt advice might become heresy in the blink of an eye. Telling them to find something to believe in, is certainly still agreeable with their world view. Luckily I do not plan on nailing 95 theses onto the Church door. I am sure they would not take too kindly on something like that.
" Not even addressing my compliment I see how it is" continued the voice inside of my head, while I clearly tried my best to ignore it for the sake of both of us. I had spent enough time pointlessly arguing back and forth to conclude, that we could not see eye to eye with one another.
That is what I would like to say, but the only reason preventing me from arguing back was the fact, that I currently had a task that required my full attention. So that left me with no choice than to temporarily endure the detestable voice of the tenant and to try to pretend that he did not even exist.
The task at hand, that needed my entire concentration was not the training of the soldier candidates or the production of weapons, it was all about the oppurturnity that was currently presenting itself to me.
The reason I had taken this demonstration level to this extent was not only to showcase them different strategies and the resolve they need to become a soldier. I could barely contain myself and not cut the body open right here, because I would be finally able to see one the inside of their bodies.
In front of me lies a woman without clothes lasciviously moving her body, the tastiest fruit of the world in all its splendour, an oasis amidst the desert and yet these people still stared at me with big eyes preventing me from accessing my object of desire.
I had the desire to yell at them and ask them what had been so difficult about finding their own personal motivation. Why did the birdbrain have so many difficulties following even the simplest orders?
Was it too much to ask you to use your brain? Do I really have to offer everything in small bites just so you imbeciles can understand? Do you expect me to solve all of your issues for yourself?
How can I get these idiots off my back and keep them busy as long as possible? I just want to do this one thing in peace, afterwards, they can annoy me as much as they want. Finding an activity that keeps them preoccupied is easier said than done. Telling them to do as many push-ups as possible would not work unless I kept staring at them.
They were just like dogs seeking constant reaffirmation for everything they did. Sadly I could not use a leash to tie them somewhere. Their heavy grunting and exhausted moans were not making it any easier for me to come up with any valid strategy.
Just running away and stealing their comrade is too childish and would not work at all. Cutting the corpse open in front of them, will not work without a really good explanation and what good explanation might there be for something like this?
I would rather give up on it entirely, then ruining my chances with Tom and this group of players.
Even if they had blind faith in me, the same could not be said about Tom. If I show people like him.something too.strange who knows what might happen.
Cutting open a corpse-like avocado is not something any NPC would willingly do. If you saw someone doing stuff like that, some questions would inevitably come up. Even these weirdos would not leave this matter uncommented.
Not to mention Tom, I have to be very careful and avoid that he gets wind of what I have in mind at all cost. A motivating speech is unfortunately not enough to convince him completely. A tear-jerking sob story would only earn me his laughter.
But getting rid of him can be done with ease. While I do need to find a legitimate way to keep the players at bay, I will just have to sprinkle some half-truths at Tom, that would explain my sudden change in behaviour to him. Afterwards, I will just have to give him an important task, that only he can do and he is out of the picture.
He will still feel important, that I have confined him in my secret plan and he will most likely not question everything else, if it is in accordance to the story I will come up. Figuring out a motive is also not that hard to figure out. Given the unique natural disposition of my group of fanboys, I can deduce that they are something really special.
Who would willingly learn to use their body in a fight against monsters, when magic can be used from a safe distance. Well, it just means, that they either lack the talent to wield magic in such a manner or that this sort of arrangement has some sort of benefit I have yet to figure out. Their status can not below, otherwise, they would have been never allowed to set a foot into this world.
Strangely there are faint traces of contempt in the eyes of Tom whenever he takes a look at them. I can tell because he is showing the same kind of eyes to me. The feeling of superiority seems to be inborn and only gets amplified the more the social status rises. Even the weakest of the weakest I have encountered looked at me as if I was less then dirt, simply for being an NPC.
" So what do you think about those crazy fools currently training under you?"
They are an odd bunch, quite different from the usual player I have encountered so far. They neither discriminate nor have treated me any different the moment we met. This alone is enough to elevate them from the general masses. On top of that, they are capable of transferring the force of my punches into their own attacks.
In general, it is very unusual to see people who mix magic with their body, as this kind of mixture is frowned upon by nearly everyone I had met in this world. What is even more interesting, that despite this kind of magical usage their general body is weak and just barely stronger than the average player.
So how can their bodies be that empowered with magic and so weak without it? What difference does their body have compared to a normal player? I can not wait to see what it is inside of them.
Sadly this naive bunch of people is too pure for this world. They would gladly throw their lives away for people who would not even remember them for a second. Even if I have to corrode them a little, I do not want them to get taken advantage out of. I know its a bit silly coming from me, but it is just something I want to do after I saw their pure behaviour and motivation.
" Something like that is not strange, every being has some sort of drive. But your prior made me wonder, whether you truly had one. At rare occurrences like this, I am reminded that you still a human, despite your apparent lack of the good characteristics one would associate with humans."
Save your breath I can imagine what you are implying. And yes I am aware, that you do not need to breathe as well. Human beings are a flawed existence but being one is truly enjoyable. I do not need any magic to be able to enjoy myself. Of course, the strength you provide is a good way to amuse me.
" Humans would have never survived if not for the interference of those gods. What is the fun in being weak, if you can not even save yourself.?"
Humans are weak without any doubt. Surviving in this world was not something the humans would have accomplished without the help of the Gods. Presumably, that is the reason why the act so entitled. Strictly speaking, all they ever did was being chosen by someone else.
Why they even settled for humans in the first place is a mystery in itself. Knowing the history of mankind in my former world I doubt it was made because of their good morals. Correct me if I am wrong in that regard, I doubt the humans of this world are any better then the ones I accustomed to.
" Humans? I never truly paid attention to them, they did not have any redeeming quality and after they were able to wield magic it was too late for me."
Whether it spoke the truth to me, mattered little to me. Nothing would change whether he knew about humans or not. Just as my understanding of the "new" humans of this world, its understanding of the humans in my world was shallow at best.
Nobody of us would give away their secrets willingly without any benefits and I was not willing to give away more knowledge of mine, for something that does not serve me any use.
" As stingy as always. By the way, should I remind you, that you are still in debt? You own me 10 favour points"
10? For what? If you want to make me pay for my treatment then you are welcome to search for another body more suitable to your liking. Healing this body of mine is mutual interest, so I advise you not destroy the feeble trust we have to one another for something so minuscule.
"Now I can understand, where your sentiment about the humans is coming from. What did they see in you guys?"
Exactly.
" HAVE I ALLOWED YOU TO USE MAGIC YOU DUNCE?" after a quick kick to the head his head found itself on the way to a sudden embrace with the ground. After I had taken care of the person trying to cheat, I had to make sure that the others would not do the same.
" If I find another one of you guys cheating I am going to make an example out of him. Stop with the Push-ups, now give me squats. If you guys cheat you are only betraying your future self. So stop your whining and give me squads."
After a quick demonstration showcasing how to do squads without mana I heard them suffering loudly while trying to follow through with my training. What lovable idiots. What are you doing? This is not a squad, this is just dry humping the floor. For the love of God, did you even ask for Mother Nature's consent before shoving your genitalia into her face?
After watching in horror as the ground got desecrated by the abomination of their attempt at squatting I was forced to get involved once more.
" What the fuck are you guys doing? Apologize to the ground, for allowing you to still stand on it."
Afterwards, I had them grovel on the floor and apologize for being such a failure. Since their desire to apologize was not that earnest, I had to teach them a little humility by stepping on their heads. Contrary to the objection of the voice in my mind, I had not lost it and just continued to watch over these people as they struggled to follow my instructions.
This unreasonable actions of mine that have to be done for several reasons. First and foremost these people need to be able to endure humiliation and do not lose their resolve regardless of circumstances, training like this is a good start.
My biggest advantage out of this little play of mine is that any unreasonable actions in the future will not raise as much attention from Tom If I play my cards correctly. I just have to remind him, that I am still a dumb NPC, that can not be compared to the likes of him. Sadly, I do not think he will fall my act and just wonder what I am planning by the way I am acting and I turn to grow even more suspicious.
At most I will just have to tell him my plan to strengthen their resolve and conviction by letting them overcome shame and humiliation. While that may not be a perfect explanation for all of my actions at least it is somewhat feasible.
Thirdly I could strengthen them by using more and more strength after they got used to it. If they can take punches from me, normal magicians will not mean anything to them. But this will take quite some time, so I am just going to do it until they are strong enough to fight with their bare bodies against monsters to save me a lot of work.
There were a lot of minor benefits, like being able to vent my frustrations on them or the change to try out different attacks on them and I might make into killing machines. So just some minor advantages.
But seriously those people have not even shown one ounce of resisting my attempts at humiliating them. I do not know whether I should be impressed by their acts or the sheer unworldliness required to not understand the implications of my actions.
These people are so focussed on their honour, but why does it not show any effect whatsoever on this idiots? Seriously, what am I doing wrong here? Regardless of what I try to do, the people of this world always react in a different manner than I had not anticipated is my world view that different than theirs, that I am incapable of deducting their behaviour?
It is so vexing to think, that I might come closer to understand them only to find out everything I do is useless. I am as close to understanding them as I had been at the start of this world. The only thing I know about the zeitgeist of this world is the high importance placed on honour.
The fact, that I was unable to understand something I loudly proclaimed to be one of my strengths was not easy to digest especially by the constant mocking laugh in my head, that made fun about me and my foolishness.
But since I was unable to use words against them all that was left for me, was to bond them with them in a way that transcends the common sense of both worlds.
I walked straight to them as they still did squads and just joined in without saying a word. Although an exercise of this level was normally a waste of time, I still did it to join them on their way to become strong.
Although no words were spoken and only grunts were exchanged, it was still fascinating to see how they are reacting to taking part in training like that. I refrained from putting a monster corpse to increasing the weight and just casually did the repetition without breaking a sweat.
I looked forward to training with them and making them stronger, as for the people who had been beaten to a pulp he was knocked out cold. Although the itch to cut him open never truly went away, I prefer to train these guys.
But just, as usual, this nice atmosphere was not meant to last. It was not like I had anticipated anything else, but what happened next was even a first for me.
A visitor came into the ghost town looking eerily similar to me.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone