章 15: Inhuman
I woke up super early, a consequence of also going to sleep early.
It was five or so in the morning, still entirely pitch-black outside. I laid there, just letting myself rest, letting my mind go through the initialisation processes that go along with waking up. I knew that I didn't need to sleep anymore, logically, but sleeping was a part of my life—of everyone's life—and removing it almost felt wrong, even if I knew I had to do it.
I let myself lay there for god knows how long. I watched out the large window as the colours of day slowly mixed with night, like milk being poured into coffee. As I watched, I felt my mind grow sharp, the fog receding from my mind and clear thoughts returning to me.
I decided, then and there, that this would be the last time that I sleep in a long time. I needed to get accustomed to my new body, and fast. The only way that I know how to do that, is to push myself to my absolute limits. Though I knew that I wouldn't like it.
I sat up and slowly stretched out my body, loosening my muscles for the day to come. I wasn't enough of an idiot to think that this was going to be easy—in any sense of the word. Mayer would push me hard because he knows that my body can take it, and because it's the only way that I'm going to be able to survive here.
When I finally pulled myself out of bed it was probably around nine-ish. The sun was nice and warm, the day inviting. I didn't even need to get dressed, I still had all my clothes on from the day before. Amazingly, I had managed to get my shoes off in my sleep, allowing me to curl up in my sheets without totally destroying the clean bedsheets with my muddy shoes.
I grabbed my shoes, not bothering to put them on just yet and walked out into the hallway and then the living room. Mayer was already awake, reading a book as he was wont to do. I always try to take a look at the language on the cover of the books, but its always a different language than the book he reads the day before. He's quite the multilinguistic person it seems. We gave each other cursory nods, then I sat myself down in the chair and began to put on my shoes. They weren't the best pair of shoes ever, but they were definitely sturdy—no sign of real wear on them despite the amount of walking I have been doing the past few days.
"Food?" Mayer asked shortly. I nodded, letting Mayer cook whatever it was that he was going to cook. He cooked eggs again today. I assume that I don't really need food, but I may as well eat if given the chance. Nothing wrong with some extra energy to burn despite what seemed like an endless supply.
He used his magic—shifting, I corrected myself—to cook again this time, so it was obvious that I wouldn't be cooking any time soon. I could 'cook' back on earth, but only barely. I still needed someone to look over my shoulder while I did, just to make sure that I didn't fuck anything up. Regardless, I was pretty sure that I would be able to cook some eggs, if my life depended on it. When Mayer plated the eggs up, I ate them voraciously—not that I felt hungry, but I did so anyways.
Just about when I finished eating, Mayer quietly placed down a ceramic teacup in front of me. I hadn't been given tea by Mayer yet, so I delicately sipped on it. It was nice, though it was the kind of stuff that you have a sip of and you aren't quite sure if you like it—but a moment later, as the aftertaste hits you and the taste evolves into a warm, or even flowery experience that seemed to soothe the mouth and throat. I was never a massive fan of tea, more a hot chocolate man myself, but tea had to be the only drink that I always managed to find palatable. I could feel so nauseous that I would almost throw up just at the thought of food—but be able to take a sip of tea. Just the right mixture of water, milk and neutral pleasantness.
I stared thoughtfully down into the cup after taking my seventh sip—admiring the feeling of the warm tea slide down my throat—when there was a small, timid knock on the door that managed to echo throughout the house like a bomb had gone off.
Mayer's eyebrow furrowed. I'm not sure if anyone, ever, had dared to knock on Mayer's door—at least without Mayer knowing it was going to happen first.
I stood up from my seat, taking a quick glance at Mayer, before walking out into the hallway and towards the door. I walked up to the elegantly crafted door and placed my hand on the handle, gently opening it after a moment. Behind it—in front of the house, though standing quite a ways away—was a young boy who anxiously playing with the hem of his shirt, his clearly not sure if he was meant to be here or not.
As soon as the door opened to reveal me, the boy's eyes lit up with recognition and relief. I imagine that Rethi was worried that Mayer would open the door and the mess of trying to explain why he had done so. I smiled softly and gestured him inside without saying a word. Quick to catch on, Rethi nodded compliantly and moved into the home.
I closed the door softly, and then turned to walk back down the hallway and into the lounge area with confidence. There was a good chance right now that Mayer would be unhappy about this, but I had made a promise and I was going to abide by that promise. Plus, Mayer had never put limitations on what I could or couldn't do.
As I walked into the lounge and sat down in the chair I had been sitting in, and started to drink my tea again, Rethi moved in beside me and stood straight and silently next to the chair that I was in.
Mayer had a brief look of recognition in his expression, before his face fell back to neutrality. He looked at Rethi, then at me, then back to Rethi. Not in a confused way, but analytically and methodically. I sat and pretended to be totally unperturbed, which I was most definitely not. Though I was less worried than I thought I would be.
Rethi, however, was absolutely quaking in his boots. His surprisingly clean boots, by the way. It seems that Rethi had a new set of clothing, or maybe a slightly newer set of clothing. The clothes weren't frayed and worn, but freshly stitched and clean. Rethi himself was clean as well. You could have sworn that in this moment the boy was a shopkeeper's son. But to me, those clothes represented the weight of the promise that I had made them. Those clothes no doubt had been an extremely expensive investment for their family—probably worth a meal or two at least—and it was up to me to make the clothes worth that investment.
Mayer looked at me, not turning his gaze away until I met his eyes. In my eyes, I tried to push in as much resolute honesty as I possibly could. We held each other's gaze for a moment, only a tiny spark of tension between us before our gazes fell away, and Mayer's switched to the kid. I internally sighed in relief—it seems like he wasn't all that annoyed over it.
He looked the boy dead in the eye, Rethi's anxiousness just about doubled until Mayer said the magic words that any kid as poor as Rethi dreams to hear.
"Food?"
---
Rethi ate a lot. Mayer stopped cooking food for him after five whole eggs. Three times what I ate. When Mayer did finally cut him off, he looked somewhat dismayed, but quickly adjusted his attitude when he saw me with my eyebrow raised. He looked down, almost ashamed and I just laughed a little and waved my hand.
"Let's get going." Mayer said, his voice quiet but commanding. I got up and Rethi followed me out the door, standing for a moment before Mayer came out and closed the door gently behind himself and started to walk. Halfway through our walk, Rethi seemed to realise where it was that we were going, but when he went to tell me I just brushed it off before he spoke. There was no real reason to talk before we got there—plus Mayer appreciates the quiet.
We walked pretty far out getting close to where I had first entered the town on my first night. Small farms replaced houses, most of the crop growing well, but as we moved out, we saw the farm that we were going to be working on today. It was a large farm, a few times bigger than the others in the area, but the crop on it was almost entirely destroyed. Torn and scattered about, most of the crop had been eaten or was just rotting. I don't know what did this, but I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was monsters.
Mayer began to ungracefully walk directly through the fields, and we followed suit. I guess the crop was already destroyed, but it still didn't feel good for whatever reason—like we were breaking a rule of sorts. As we moved closer to a small house on the far side of the property, you could hear the 'thunk'ing of a hammer hitting a fencepost into the ground. It was pretty obvious from then on what we were going to be doing today.
When we finally reached the source of the sound, we were met with the tired face of a man in his forties. He looked a great deal older, but that was more likely to do with the sun rather than his actual age. The man looked towards Mayer and an immediate look of respect spread on his face. There was maybe a hint of embarrassment in his expression too, but the man hid it as best as he could.
"Good morning, Herai." Mayer spoke, his voice quiet still. Herai nodded deeply in a bow almost, before speaking.
"Mornin' Master Mayer. It seems that you want me to take on a few lads for ye?" The man looked at me, and then to Rethi. His face grew a little stony when he caught Rethi's eye but made no word of it and definitely didn't let Mayer see.
"Yes. These boys are here to learn how to put up a fence for you. They will work hard, but they are beginners so I cannot guarantee that they will be the best." Herai gave a small, dry chuckle before looking at the sledgehammer in his hands that he had been using to drive a large pole of wood into the ground. There was a small shovel that laid by the side of the large pole, but it seems like you could only dig so far down without having to use the sledge hammer to push the pole deeper into the earth.
"Erm, I dunno if I have tools for the lads to use." Herai said, his hands grasping each other nervously, obviously not too happy to be turning Mayer down. Mayer, however, just shook his head and procured two shovels out what seemed like thin air. They were new and look as if they hadn't ever been used. Though it was probably shifting fuckery.
"No need to worry, we have all the tools to do what we need." Mayer said. I looked at the two shovels and saw a distinct lack of sledgehammers. Looks like I'll be using my god damn hammer today.
Herai looked at the tools, adequately confused, before I decided to summon my hammer from nowhere.
It was just as majestic as the first time I had summoned the thing. The liquid metal quickly formed into the shape of a hammer, and I quickly positioned the half-formed hammer head to be flat on the ground. The rest of the hammer head formed, and the weight of the thing made the soft dirt under the hammer head to compress a few centimetres.
Rethi and Herai looked on with shocked expressions as Mayer and I purposely looked as if there was absolutely nothing amiss. Both of them quickly caught on and pointedly looked away from the hammer to stop themselves from gawking.
Herai looked towards us and nodded slowly before saying, "That should be good," and nodded towards Mayer. Mayer promptly walked off, leaving us behind with two shovels, a massive hammer, and a whole lot of work to do.
Turns out, fencing an entire property with massive poles is really, really difficult. It has been three or four hours so far, Rethi and I were only just getting into a rhythm now. First of all, you have to dig out a few metres of dirt to get to the point where you can put the pole into the ground—which is hard not only because the pole is heavy but also because after you put the thing into the ground, it is just a little bit too tall for you to hit it with a hammer comfortably. Which make it doubly as hard, because you have to swing a massive god damn hammer really high to be able to hit the poles end. Thankfully, it only takes a few swings before it is at an acceptable height, and then it becomes a little bit easier. But it still continues to be difficult because repetitively swinging the damn thing makes your arms about ready to fall off, though by that point you are already digging yet another hole to then put another pole in—then hammer that down a good length, then do it all again.
There was very little rest, at least for me. As the hours ticked on, I let Rethi take a 5 minute break every hour, but none for me. No, I was going to be restlessly doing this work, no breaks, no moments of dazing off, not at all.
5 hours in, and my hands were bleeding, the wood and metal of the shovel slowly began to eat away at my skin. But every time that I would get around to using my hammer, and Rethi was taking a quick breather, the hammer's hilt on my wounds was like a cool stream of water on a sunburn—then when I moved back to the shovel, my hands would be ever so slightly healed. After hours and hours more of this, my hands started to produce blisters that would painfully pop themselves until I would then grab the hammer and my skin would heal over. Though soon I realised that I was always healing, and the regeneration was only getting faster and more comprehensive as I continued
Over time the pain in my hands and in my back went from being torturous, to becoming a deafening howl in the back of my mind—letting me think of absolutely nothing else. So, to compensate I worked harder, and harder—until my mind wasn't communicating with my body anymore. It didn't even bother to compute the creaking of my bones and the searing pain of my skin.
It was hell, my hands and the handle of the shovel were covered in my blood. It was horrifying, to a certain portion of my mind—but the rest of my mind told it to shut up, and it did. I continued to work until I realised that it was well and truly dark outside. Rethi was trying his absolute best to stay awake but his hands trembled, and his legs quaked underneath his own weight. His hands were also raw with blisters, but not like mine. His were going to be sore tomorrow for sure, but not anywhere near as bad as mine were at the moment. Though of course my own wounds would heal within minutes. Without taking even a moment to stop I glanced at the young boy, meeting his weary eyes.
"Go sleep."
The boy looked at me for a moment, too tired to even reply, before he slowly trudged towards the home that was now hundreds of meters away, rather than the tens at the start of the day. At this pace, to surround the entire property was going to take about a week of work. A massive investment of time and money when you weren't making any, due to the crops that were just destroyed by what was likely to be monsters.
But what if someone were to work without sleeping, without rest, without so much as stopping for lunch?
As Rethi slowly walked back to the house, I picked up my hammer, and swung it with all the might I had, again and again, driving the wooden pole into the earth with ferocity and unrelenting power that I never knew that I had.
That was one benefit of all of this, I learnt very quickly where my limits where, which is to say that I have effectively none. I couldn't lift the hammer very well, or swing it well either, but I could swing it over and over again. Over and over and over and over again.
Again and again my hammer pushed the pole into the earth, over and over my hands bled as I dug the earth with the shovel, over and over again I repeated it, healing faster and faster all the while.
I don't know how much time passed, but before long I heard the quiet footsteps that I immediately recognised as Rethi's. I didn't even look up and I continued to work. I didn't even think that something may be wrong, at the time anyways.
More and more time passed, and I gradually got better and better at this. Not stronger, but the kind of mastery that only comes with doing something a thousand, two thousand times. I could swing my hammer about as well and a child can swing a baseball bat now, which was far better than what I could manage before, which was pitiful to say the least. As the hours passed though, what I learnt wasn't how to swing the ludicrously large hammer, but how to use force correctly.
How to plant your feet, how to use your limbs, how to efficiently use the force that your muscles can create and using the force of other objects. These things came almost naturally in a way. Very little thinking went into how I was moving my body, but more went into how every swing, every movement felt.
As the hours went on, this feeling became more and more important to me. Every time I would fix something that felt bad, something else became apparent. In a way it felt like wack-a-mole. For a while, I was becoming more and more frustrated with the unrelenting stream of 'bad' feelings, more and more would come every time that I fixed one, another and another. It became frustrating, and the more frustrated that I got, the more bad feelings would unearth themselves, like an incorrect note being played in a symphony. The noises became louder and louder, until they completely overwhelmed all the good parts and ruined everything.
Only, then for the first time did I stop, and as soon as I did, a rush of freezing cold came over me. I realised how cold it was outside, freezing in the night. I closed my eyes, letting the cold surround me like a blanket of ice, cooling off my frustrations. Maybe five minutes, that is all that I allowed myself. Those five minutes I could have been working, maybe have dug a metre deeper into the soil, but I allowed myself this much time, just so that I could truly recognise my fault.
Frustration was not something I was particularly prone to, but I was human, and in being human I was able to be frustrated. But now, I was inhuman. I might feel emotion like a normal human, might act like a normal human, but I was very clearly no longer human. My body was inexhaustible, my mind unsleeping. This was only something that could come from training, from magic, but I had no training and I couldn't do this world's magic.
So, I was inhuman. And as someone who is inhuman, I must hold myself to more than falling into emotions. I did not have time for frustration, frustration is something that will only hinder me in my progress, in this task.
So, I got rid of it, for just this task.
Every time I felt even a hint of frustration, I would quell it with all of my might. Hours and hours of repetitive and downright boring work, but I didn't allow myself to feel a lick frustrated. I pushed myself harder, and no matter how many times my hammer slipped from the pole and I had to lift it all the way back up, or when I didn't quite dig in the right direction, and I had to re-dig part of my hole, I didn't allow myself to feel frustrated.
Hours passed and Rethi re-joined me, he began to help me by digging a hole ahead of mine. We didn't speak, which probably made the process even more boring than it already was for Rethi, but I was too focused to even notice.
He wasn't too fast at digging, to the point where I was constantly catching up to him, but it was obvious, even when I was totally concentrated, that he was trying his absolute hardest.
We continued on for what felt like minutes to me, but the day passed again, and Rethi had made himself scarce for a little while, before coming back somewhat shamefaced, but holding some food. I don't remember if he offered me some, but if he did, I didn't answer him.
---
Rethi panted heavily. He had been going at this for almost two days now, and he was absolutely exhausted. One thing that he'd learned over the past few days was that Master Maximilian was not at all human. There was no way, no possible way, that a person could achieve what Master Maximilian was doing. Rethi had seen hardworking men in his life, but Master Maximilian was in another league entirely. If he had any doubts before, now he knew for sure that he was related to Master Mayer. There were rumours that Master Mayer was a significant general at some point, but anyone that could have actually confirmed that was either on Orisis or may as well be, so it was just rumour.
But now he was thinking it was a whole lot more truth than fiction. Who else but a part of Master Mayer's own family would be able to do this? Rethi watched Master Maximilian work for a while, before sighing and noticing the gnawing feeling his stomach. He was hungry.
Rethi broke out in a cold sweat. He'd have to go ask for food. Ask for food from them.
He procrastinated for a short moment, but the pain coming from his stomach had slowly become unbearable over the past few hours. It was well and truly night now, but he had been putting off going to the little farmhouse, delaying the inevitable.
Rethi placed down his shovel and quickly said that he was going to get food to Master Maximilian but received no reply. He started to walk towards that dreaded farmhouse. He was absolutely starving, the hard work burning away anything that Rethi had put inside his body. But even so, he'd only had one meal, and a rather unfulfilling one at that.
They had given him bread, knowing full well that it wasn't nearly enough to feed him, but that was what they offered, so he took it. But even with lack of food, Rethi carried on. He had to, it was the only way that he could ever make enough money to support his Mother and himself. Even if Master Maximilian only gave him a pittance, only a small portion of what he'd promised, then it would be better than he was getting before.
Rethi needed to carry on, but he also needed food.
As he approached the house, Rethi heard the laughing of two boys as they roughhoused around the corner of the house. He stopped and stood absolutely still for a moment, fear shooting through his spine, but he closed his eyes and pushed on, deciding that he needed food more that his pride.
Rethi yelled out to the door of the little farmhouse, "Hello Mr Herai. If you could spare some food, it would be much appreciated." He called, but there was no answer.
No answer but theirs.
"It's the beggar." said one of the boys. They came around the corner with smiles like wolves painted on their faces. They were full of malice, their well-built bodies from year of good nutrition and hard work, and in contrast, Rethi. The scrawny starveling.
"You come 'ere to beg 'ave ya?" The shorter of the two asked, distaste seeping into his voice. The taller one snorted and moved closer to Rethi, way to close.
"No, I'm not here to beg, I'm…" the taller boy grabbed my arm and pulled Rethi forward, putting him off balance and throwing him to the floor. Rethi��s chin hit the dirt, ripping the skin and making his head jerk wildly. Rethi felt a sharp crack in his neck, not a bone breaking, but his neck moving in a way it wasn't happy with. As his chest hit the dirt, all the air left it in an odd sounding grunt, then he felt a large weight pressing on his back.
The shorter of the two was now sitting on Rethi's back, grabbing his sandy blonde hair and pushing his face even further into the dirt.
The two boys were laughing and taunting him, but he didn't hear anything.
Nothing at all.
Shame overwhelmed Rethi, he could do nothing. Nothing but lay here, being humiliated, being taunted. And Rethi was the supposed scum. Him.
What a fucking joke. He thought as he opened his mouth to yell—but was cut off by the sound of the door slamming open. Out of the top of his eye, Rethi saw a woman appear in the doorway. She was a horrible looking woman, not in beauty but in the way that her face was adorned with a disgusting scowl. Aimed right at Rethi.
"Get off of him." She commanded. The boys did as she said, and Rethi got up to his feet unsteadily. He looked at her with as much rage as I could possibly muster before walking off without saying anything. Empty handed.
---
I hit the post hard and fast. I could see where we had started a few days before, not twenty posts distance between where I was and the end point. Another day had passed, and it was the middle of the night. I didn't even feel tired anymore, if anything I felt sharp as a blade, as if I had just woken up and hour ago. It was an interesting feeling. I don't think I have been sweating for at least the past day either, which was interesting. My muscles don't feel tired or sore anymore. I'm not sure what caused the change, but it seems that my body has effectively got unlimited stamina, which is all sorts of crazy when you think about it. It sure as hell makes swinging around this hammer easier, before it only took three or four swings to make my arms feel like spaghetti, but now, I could swing the thing around all day and not feel even a little tired. It didn't make the actual swinging part any easier, I still wasn't all that strong.
But when you can supplement with boundless stamina, strength almost didn't matter. I would be excellent at running away from things, even horses wouldn't be able to catch me—eventually succumbing to their stamina. They would all burn out after a day, and I would be able to continue for tens of hours without a single bit of rest, running at full pelt.
Before I knew it, I was hammering in the last pole. Each hammer blow spelt finality, and when the final blow hit, a feeling of absolute euphoria flowed over me.
[Inhuman: You are no measly human. What you are, is more. Your body is inexhaustible, overflowing with energy. Now you need power to match. +10 Might.]
Ten whole points in Might was three times more than what I had received previously. I had certainly done something far out of the ordinary. I now had a whole twenty-five strength. Now I could feel the strength of my body change, it made everything just that much easier, lifting my hammer was still difficult, but just a smidgen easier. My muscles felt more solid, able to bear more weight. I could sustain forever already, or at least for so long that it almost didn't matter, what I now had was some more raw strength. Even if the screen was stupid, at least it gave a decent payout.
I looked around all, a smile on my face and found Rethi lying on the ground near me. I happily went over and placed a hand on his shoulder and shaking him ever so slightly. The young boy screamed, pushing against me wildly.
Grabbed onto the boy's shoulders, my newfound strength really helping. The boy was weak, weaker than he should be.
"Rethi." I said, my voice as calm as could be. The boy's face snapped towards mine, his eyes going wide, before looking away shame written on his face. I grabbed his chin and got a good look at his face his chin was covered in dry blood, the rest of his face was a little bruised as well.
I felt my expression darken. But I hid it from the boy.
"Let's get you home." The boy nodded weakly at my words, and I put him on my back, unsummoned my hammer and started to walk towards Rethi's home.
Don't get me wrong, I was going to be back in one way or another.
Certainly.
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