Chương 12: Incoming Results; A Mistake Given

"Already figured it out?"

[ No, but I have an idea, it requires some more experimentation.

Continue the previous plan, it should be obvious by the end of it.]

Ixa only nodded as he moved on with it.

Converting the headless carcass and the spilling blood, it joined the flying mass of what previously was a person, body and soul, still in the air, flying its own way back as the two separated, the bunny jumping, following the rim of the forest while the knight marches the other direction.

As he did so, he saw many sights pass by.

The surroundings of the town were mostly dry grass, turning into dirt as it met the dead forest, only plains appeared far out, outward where the town faced.

It continued to be open 'plains' for a while, only until did the rabbit made a quarter of the way around from the town did it find another.

Near identical in its structure and placement, materials, one of the only differences was that it was a way off from the forest instead of attached at the hip, and it was on top of a low hill, with taller castle-like walls.

Wood and stone houses with cobble roads, heading around the forest, one towards the previous town, and another stretching the other way, suggesting-

"More towns? Why are they separated, wouldn't it be easier together?"

A fair distance past it, a regular forest began, a dirt road stretched into it.

The knight is only halfway past his first quarterly rotation, still only seeing plainland.

Ixa continued unabated, he could try and explore it, but not only had he have enough events for today, but he still needed to be kept secret, maybe with the knight later...

The forest stretched over the vast scenery, even approaching closer, but only close enough to where it would be a short jog from a town, it began receding, replaced by a hill-less plain, with high snowy mountains on the horizon.

"Looks nice, maybe I can visit when I fix this whole 'rooted to the ground' problem."

Eventually, he was on the complete opposite side from where he started, and just like before, he found a town, this one's height was the same as the first, but the walls were seemingly reinforced, even a few baliistas sat on them, while the buildings were extra fortified, more stone than wood, as if ready for a battle.

"Definitely not visiting that one, its screaming 'Try me'."

As he continued to circle the forest, past the town toward where he was running, trees sprung up sparsely, while the ground seemed to increase in level, a road leading off into the distance, hills and a few smaller mountains to be seen.

As he was approaching the last side, the knight had made it first, and what he saw confused him.

While it was another town, it was more disheveled and older looking, worn gates, beaten-up walls, like they'd break down if attacked one more time, multiple holes and large scratches to be seen, like it had already been through fights, and there were fewer houses inside, by the looks of it, they were oddly spaced apart, some clustered, some widely apart, he even saw a few broken down, partially destroyed.

'Wonder what's up there?'

As the bunny met back with the knight, the two looked at each other before they froze, Ixa now in deep thought- ahem! -conversation.

"You said it would be obvious System; I don't notice anything different."

"Can you try running around, out of the bounds of the forest?"

Rasing a metaphorical eyebrow, he did so, both knight and rabbit moved forward, the knight marching while the rabbit jumped ahead and around, however, the moment both stepped out, that mental exhaustion before, resting and recovering, began to exacerbate once more.

"It's shooting up again?!"

[ Remarkable, your limit is somehow perfectly in line with the limits of this forest, while it is almost a perfect circle bare a few dents, which you never noticed as you stayed inside it, and instead of a gradual loss of functionality over a range, it's a firm barrier, the moment you cross, you are expending much more energy in maintaining your influence onto what you control; between the rabbit's changed body and the knight's, it would make sense the knight would be the first to fall, being untransformed and adapted to you, however, would it-]

"System, focus, what does this mean?"

[ Right, sorry, your limits are tied to your race, to where only through the advancement would you expand upon it and gain further ascendancy.]

"Ascendancy?"

[ Basically, a higher domain, authority, just, a fancy word for range.]

"Ok, and how about my problem of being rooted, I feel no ability to unroot myself?"

[ Most likely another limit of your infancy, you'll need to grow, hopefully you'll gain it on your first advancement?]

"Another thing left unpromised, guess that's just how I'm going to go, huh?"

[ Sorry Ixa.]

"It's no issue, let's just continue learning."

As the two continued their conversation, the moon began to escape the midst of the sky, and the two puppets stepped into the shadows of the trees, back into the dead forest, lost from the vision of a few malnourished pairs of eyes.

"..."

• • • • •

"Why have you called me?"

"Something has been spotted sir, in the forest."

"...Is it our neighbors?"

From the first village Ixa had walked across, the first village head had begun their meeting, called by the scouts on the walls who saw something bursting past and stopped to watch them from the edges of the crooked trees.

• • • • •

"A malformed rabbit you say?"

A sturdy man spoke in the comfort of his home, which housed the other warriors that defended the castle-like second town.

His scar tingled across his back, on hearing of something that shouldn't be living inside that decrepit forest, nothing should.

• • • • •

Inside an old church, resided a single person, kneeling in front of a tall statue, nearly reaching the ceiling, it being a figure in vast wraps of robes befitting a scholar, of indeterminate sex.

Stripes of the drapes fell, made of a brown stone, as she spread her arms as if to welcome many, in one hand it held flowers, in the other, a red liquid flowed out from their cloak, escaping in-between her fingers into a small pond to the side, raised to where one could easily cup their hands and drink.

The statue was kept in remarkably good condition, well, from where those of human hand can reach, which was barely up to its thighs at most, its imbalanced of the clean and dirt of the statue matched the dust and discoloration of the decrepit building, in some places falling apart, along with what laid behind it, a open and bare stone coffin standing upward, as tall as the statue, as if ready to welcome it, matching in its disparity.

The kneeling man's flimsy arms remained raised above his head as he stood, legs willowy, yet a calm and pious face remained.

"Oh blessed Meruerora~ grant us your wisdom in memories of those passed, from far before us to aid us ahead, our plight of deplorable conditions is consuming us, I'll see to it my life given in dedication to your belief for our people to prosper."

Ignoring the opening of the church doors as a small group of children entered, also rather scrawny, mouths dry, coming to parch themselves and to bear strange news to the only one who stepped up to lead them, to hold the responsibility of caring for what remains, the remnant of their home that not even the other villages pay dues to, which they'll come to regret.

• • • • •

As the night went by and what happened last night was disseminated across the villages, Ixa went over what he had learned in his short existence, and what he could do to further his knowledge.

Nothing else seemed to come forward within himself so he had no more abilities to learn of, and System still was digging into the Necrosiatic Rabbit's abilities.

Wanting to keep busy, he had the two options of exploring the forest, to find anything of note, or think of something else to occupy himself with.

'What to do, what to do...'

His efforts to seek something of interest collapsed for a moment in mental exhaustion.

'Boredom is the absolute worse.'

The knight dropped a rock it picked up as Ixa decided on the route he wanted to take with it regarding the change he inflicts onto every corpse.

'I still need to associate with others, I'm going to need a medium to where they won't feel weirded out with when I talk to them, and who knows when I'll get another human body.'

Completely ignorant what the thought he just had entails, he took the same routine he did with the rabbit with the armored man.

Forgetting the rabbit was still running around as it fell on its face, which he, embarrassed, ignored.

Upon the insensitive core he had floating being interacted with, the same different kind of black encroached all of his lack of vision, this time much smoother than before, noting how he's handling this better, and already, once again his body was here, seeing it outwardly from a 3rd person, and he also spotted the core in the distance.

Much smaller than the rabbit's, it was very similar to a dot, he had very little time where he didn't control the corpse, he needs to leave the corpse alone for it to grow quickly, at least when he doesn't try to directly make that choice of transformation for the body.

His root body was the same work of art it became before, red transitioning to a pink with grey flecks overtaking them both by the start of his four sharp spikes.

Focusing on the new core, he wished for it to revert, he needed this body as normal as it was before as possible.

The little liquid ember of white, which never got to turn grey within the hollow black of the core dimmed before perishing, the white outline fading into the endless dark.

Seeing it done, he returned to the physical world.

Having his sense run over the knight's body, he found nothing different, besides a subtle feeling he couldn't quite understand, and maybe...a little heavier.

Controlling it felt the same, maybe a little easier, but that was all.

'Feels physically heftier, but in a different way, light?'

It along with the rabbit continued its search till daytime, Ixa growing more restless by the hour.

By the break of dawn, they had searched everything, but nothing was found besides more dirt, dead trees, abandoned nests, little holes in the ground where previous animals probably resided, and leaves blowing in the cool morning breeze which he barely felt, besides through the rabbit.

"I cannot just sit here."

[ Find something new to possess?]

"We both know there's nothing in this forest System, what are you getting at?]

"Just because you feel more exhaustion from going out of the forest doesn't mean you shouldn't leave it, does it?"

"...fair point."

He sped through the forest with the rabbit, towards the only place he could think of to where he would find anything of possession.

Towards the first village.

• • • • •

~Yaaaaaawnn~

With light stretching into his eyes, Dua got up, looking up in his simple and small room, he saw his window letting in the first break of daylight.

Getting up from his bed, the sheets shifted, not just from his movement, but someone else.

"Even with everything that happened last night, you're still getting up this early? A savior deserves his rest."

Smiling at him, a young woman dressed in pajamas sat in bad, shifting around, her eyes drowsy yet held a certain sharpness about them.

"Xander still wishes to talk with me, regarding what we do moving forward, and I need to open the shop for the day, people still need their meat after all."

As he spoke, he got up, slipped on new clothes, a dull but simple black shirt with beige pants, he combed his short spiky hair and did the rest of his preparations for the day.

As he was wrapping up, the woman got up and begun to prepare for her day.

"You just won't stay asleep no matter how many times I tell you can continue sleeping despite me getting up?"

"Better for the both of us, and we don't want to leave little Jamie without breakfast, do we?"

He smiled, "Alright then."

They proceeded with the beginning of the day like normal, opening the door and going downstairs to a open living room, they decided between who to make the meal for the day, which was her, so she headed off to the side where the kitchen was, while he went around the house and cleaned anything he saw out of place, which was only a toy here and there, dust, and a cobweb near the window.

"Food is almost ready, can you wake her up?"

Nodding, he walked across the living room, chair in the corner, carpet spread across the middle of the room with a lamp in the corner behind a bigger and wider wooden table laid with 6 chairs across them.

Opening the door at the end of the room, he turned off the oil lamp, stepped over the toys that littered the ground, and he opened the curtain.

~Whish~

Light trickled in with pale brown walls, an open toybox with wooden contraptions and other playthings, a desk with papers, a closet, and a bed, in it a girl groaning from the assault of brightness in his eyes, already beginning to sit up.

"Breakfast is ready.", seeing her get up, he walked over to help ease her out of bed.

Around 10 years old, her uncertain voice, annoyed, commented, "Why can't I sleep in, there isn't even any school today?"

Smiling wider, he said, "Mom made breakfast."

Suddenly, she was already in front of the closet changing.

She was ready in a moment, blue dress with a little pattern in the middle, made up of multiple snowflakes.

She ran ahead, past him the room.

"Good morning Mom!"

As she set the last plate, the mother smiled.

"Good morning Jamie."

• • • • •

Standing at the edge of the forest, between the two villages with altered walls.

Hesitating for a moment, remembering that exhaustion with an acuity he'd rather forget; the exhaustion from that night was already gone, but he'd rather not experience it again...

But what was motivating him wasn't just the fact of having more bodies.

As Ixa stepped outside the forest, suddenly having a weight attached to his mind, he fought through it to move as far as he can, hopping forward with haste.

Inside his split vision, the void of his actual body and now the rabbit, laid a red screen, in it a particular line sat in the middle.

3. - Collect enough <Necrotic Essence Material> for Advancement (8/100).