The Fool's Freedom

The giant stood on the sides frowning. He was eyeing the large skeletal monster and it seemed like something about it was giving him a pause. He knelt on one knee and stabbed the sword in the ground. Steam started rising out of the many segments of his ornate armor and he closed his eyes before mumbling something.

Is he resting? Recharging?

Alan had no time to consider the giant’s actions further as a grimy and bony hand dropped on his shoulder. He jumped up and took a step back. The shadows around him remained inert, unmoving, doing nothing to stop the offending action.

Bonez was squinting, his eyes roaming up and down Alan’s body as if he were evaluating the price of each individual part.

“You’ve changed, friend. I noticed, yes, noticed when I saw you, but forgot. Can’t say it’s for the better. The Lord might not like it. Ah, he will take it out on pitiful ol’ me,” the creepy man lamented.

“I don’t think it matters to me whether your patrons like it or not.” Alan shot back. Some voice in the back of his mind called him ungrateful. Bonez had helped him a lot and saved him from a world of hurt. However, Alan decided that it didn’t matter. He was no product to be offered to creepy Bone bastards. He quickly strangled the feeling and met Bonez’s bloodshot eyes.

“Pitiful, pitiful. I don’t sense a pact. Believe me, I’d sense a pact. Don’t lie. You can be redeemed, I can still contact you with lord and all of those nasty shadows will be gone! Yes! You won’t have to start over, I assure you. We will find the bones for you.”

Alan opened his mouth to tell the bastard [Warlock] to fuck off when an explosion sent a shower of bone fragments in their direction.

Two of the limbs of the bone velociraptor monster were broken and the tail that had been wrapping around the doll was in pieces, like a shattered spine.

The doll sent what remained of the construct toward the ground with one last punch and looked at Alan and Bonez.

Alan braced himself while Bonez simply frowned and stepped forward.

“See, I value what was given to me,” he said. “I may be weird for it and it may have been extremely painful, but I value it nonetheless. It made me a better [Warlock]. And I got two wives now, you know? Hehe. They’re a bit thin, though, cold.”

Alan shuddered imagining the fate of the woman married to that guy.

The doll rushed with a burst of speed and rammed into Bonez, sending both of them flying into a wall. They crashed with a bang and the earth shook. As the dust dissipated Alan’s mouth dropped open. The doll’s hands were clasped in steel grips. Bonez’s hands were missing most of the skin covering them. His skeletal hands were unnaturally thick, white as snow, and apparently strong enough to stop the strange doll from moving.

“See, having a great patron is like having a teacher. Take you for example.” Bonez's voice drifted over, free and uncaring.

Alan felt something move behind him and saw the construct gathering the broken-off pieces of itself as if it was picking berries in the forest.

“You’re directionless, messy in your choices, weak,” Bonez said. The words made something inside of Alan ignite again and he took a deep breath. The darkness around him shuddered, but not in reflection of his anger. It was different. The shadows almost looked to be joyful, mocking. At least that’s the sense he got from them.

It lessened his bubbling anger and grounded him. Why would he feel inferior to the creepy guy? Whispers once again sounded in his ear – unintelligible words in languages he could not describe even if he wanted to. They were cheery, free, uncaring.

“I, on the other hand, have the directions of my Lord. I pick skills and I mold traits with my future in mind. I don’t want to always be a small little [Warlock] you know? I might start a cult, or marry a third wife, but this time a living one.” Bonez continued, smacking his lips.

That startled Alan. Living one?!

The doll finally slipped from his grasp and Bonez let it. He backhanded it with such speed and power that it crashed and sank into the ground.

“Choices matter, boyo! That’s why we have recipes, cookbooks, and all that other bullshit! Do you know? None of my wives have ever cooked for me. No sir. It’s a hobby of mine, you should try my bone broth sometime, hehe. It’s to die for!”

The doll shot out of the hole its body had created and punched Bonez in the stomach. He took a step back and grinned. The skin on his face had mostly recovered, but his hands remained white skeletal things. He returned the punch with laughter and the doll once again flew.

“Of course, winging it is fine sometimes. I mean, innovation requires taking chances. But we’re just ants at this level! Why not learn from the guidance of those more powerful? Is it wrong? And who better than one of the oldest patrons around? He’s certified by the thrones, y’know? I don’t know if he has it in writing, to be fair, but he’s kinda on good terms with them. Some. I think. He will tell ya!”

Alan summoned his staff again and decided to assist with ending the fight. The more he listened to his fellow [Warlock] the worse he felt. Only the whispers of the shadows around him were stopping him from telling the bastard to shut up. What were they and what did they want?

“I’m saying, take a chance! You can always give up! Well, no. That was a lie. Can’t simply refuse a patron! That’s insanity! Ha!” Bonez turned toward Alan once again as if the doll was of no consequence.

The bone velociraptor appeared behind the doll. It looked even more ridiculous than before. Its missing parts were roughly meshed together with no rhyme or reason as if superglued by a three-year-old. The different parts still somehow moved and functioned though. It was a strange mess of a monster straight out of the mind of a sociopathic toddler, and it was going toe to toe with one of the stronger opponents Alan had faced. It made him feel… deflated. Not disappointed or bitter. Its ridiculous appearance simply took away something from the fight.

Alan was sure he heard a faint ‘What the fuck?’ coming from somewhere behind, where the giant still sat kneeling. Alan nodded in agreement, more to himself than anyone else. It was indeed a ‘what the fuck’ situation.

The bone construct attacked the doll again, but this time the monster didn’t meet it head-on. It dodged backward and Alan felt the tingling seconds before the skill came. A giant green eye blinked the space apart where the construct was standing and when it closed, Bonez screamed.

In a flash and jingle of bones, he appeared kneeling next to the remains of his creation.

“What did you do you bastard monster doll? It took me a whole night! A NIGHT! DO YOU KNOW HOW FEW FREE NIGHTS I HAVE?! I GOT TWO WIVES AND A LORD! Fuck—”

The doll didn’t respond, instead looking at Bonez with a tilted head as a deluge of curses escaped the man’s spitting lips. Actual large tears dropped from the [Warlock’s] eyes and Alan turned away in a confused and strange sense of panic. Things were getting out of hand.

He met the giant’s eyes and the two shared a moment, before the large man stood up and approached, steam still rising out of his armor and sword.

“Want to end this farce, shadow guy?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Alan nodded. He wanted nothing more than to get away from his fellow [Warlock]. The doll was secondary.

“You did good. Just restrain it again, if you can. I will end it. If I fail, let’s hope someone… less like him, comes to our aid.”

Alan agreed. He channeled his new skill. As he had yet to check his system messages and accept one of the advancements, if there were more than one, he still had to guide the process manually.

The dark blobs appeared one by one until four floated around the doll. It was getting tough to control that many, but Alan had more in his tank. Hopefully, once the skill was well defined, he would be able to delegate most of the heavy lifting to it. The doll tried to flee but the shadow tendrils were so fast they looked almost as if they had materialized around it and anchored themselves to the blobs, rather than shoot out. It was a good change as it didn’t give the doll a chance to dodge, however it took a large chunk of Alan’s remaining mana.

Once again, his intuition flared and he pulled at the curse connection slightly, infusing the skill with a trace amount of the large parasite’s life force. He hoped he would manage to curse a few more hard-to-find creatures before his time on the fractal ended. With the proper skills, he could turn the curse into another source of energy. Of course, if the constant drain wasn’t harming him in some way – something which had a high possibility of proving true.

The feeling of nausea didn’t come this time as the life energy of the parasite was not meant to flow into his own. However, it felt different from what he was used to and it made his bones ache. Was something wrong with the parasite? Or was its life tied to the void element, permeating the atmosphere of the fractal? The idea of infusing his whole skeleton with the void energy once again floated in his head, but he didn’t know if it was possible or a good idea. Bonez would be the expert, but asking for help from the creepy guy was similar to jumping off a bridge into a busy highway.

I’ll figure it out later as I always do.

The shadows stirred around him, but he paid them no heed. They were doing that often now, acting as if the skill had its own will. If it was even his skill, to begin with. A brief memory of the vision he had passed through his mind and the blobs of shadows moved once again.

They elongated until four featureless humanoid figures of darkness stood in a circle around the monster holding onto the ropes binding it. They dug their feet into the ground and for the third time, a system message sounded in Alan’s head. He could feel them and was sure they were not living beings. However, they had a purpose given to them by his will and a life given by the curse.

Shadows, fulfilling a simple task. It looked impressive from the sidelines.

The doll struggled and tore the shadows around it yet again, but they held and mended themselves without input from Alan. However, each time the shadowy silhouettes would become just a bit more translucent, just a bit less solid.

This is amazing. Far cry from [Mana Zap]. Does this even count as an advancement?

Bonez was still crying over the remains of his monstrous creation, blind to the world around him. A large roar split the skies and Alan turned. The giant was up in the sky. He hadn’t seen him get there and briefly imagined the giant flying with a pair of small angel wings. It was much more probable that the man had simply jumped.

The jagged sword was steaming and hot. The air around it seemed to ignite for a brief moment.

The giant fell on the doll like an asteroid. Alan’s shadow silhouettes dissipated with a puff as the berserk energy reached them but he didn’t care. The skill was already his. The sound of breaking trees and a burst of green akin to the giant eye opening in space shrouded the giant and the doll, but another System message brought him down to earth.

The fight was over and he breathed a sigh of relief. He felt tension and exhaustion leave his body, somewhat. There was still the problem of his fellow [Warlock]. The giant walked out of the crater he had created with a smile.

Alan smiled back and finally turned his mind toward the system messages. There were a few concerning his skills and more about all the monsters he had killed. He ignored the latter and prepared to explore the changes that had come for skills. The one for the doll caught his eye though, as it was quite different than what he had expected.

You have slain: The Void Tree Temple Doll of Srida Hoxledu [High Acolyte] (104)

Isn’t that above tier one? Shouldn’t we all be dead?