“Apologies, but we should sacrifice the weakest so that the rest of us can escape, and, no offense,” she says turning to me, and I know I’m about to be offended. “You don’t look healthy enough to keep up. All that extra weight. You understand.”
She attempts to look concerned, but she’s sarcastically pouting too hard. Pretty sure she’s trying to hide her smirk, and the fact that this is her go to...?
“My tits won’t slow me down if I’m going to move, and what makes you think you’re pampered ass can keep up? Are you a cultivator?” I lean forward, all excited suspense and watch as her expression drops into a glare. “Don’t want to frown. Wrinkles.”
“And this is why women aren’t at the town meetings,” the spearman shakes his head, and I can’t even be mad.
Village might fall, but I’m pretty sure I’m about to snatch blondie to find out if her roots match. That hair style is probably to save on dye.
“We need a system. Lookouts. Scouts. Message runners,” the spearman who definitely is shit at pretending to be common, says, speaking forcefully with unfocused eyes. He’s picturing this shit out without looking at what they have, because LARPing?
“A bell with a system of rings to indicate direction and a frantic ring for when we’re under attack,” I offer, raising my hand and lowering it when he looks at me. “Is there a watchtower or does one have to be built?”
“Will this work?” someone asks, dusting off a hand bell. When he rings it it’s very clear and sharp.
These bishes are playing war games. Why would commoners have well crafted bells? Like not even cheap, dinky cowbells, but some well crafted, probably walnut or something handle, bell. It’s not even rusted or patchy or cloudy. Shit is pristine.
So we’re playing like that huh?
I stand up, holding my hand out for the bell.
[Piercing Shot Successful]
[-30 Qi]
[-5 Karma]
[Ghost Pot: +100/-0]
[Resentment: +510960/-161088]
[Max Will: 9579451]
[HP: 9579451]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1831238/24273503][Current Qi: 1905490/957945100]
I shoot a thread through the tip of the bell handle, blocking the other end with my hand, I snap the thread to make a little tie around a rough silk belt I produce, tying the belt around my waist with the bell tied behind me.
“You tied it on backwards,” Shivering Moon says, mouth twisted, her face screwed up in a smug smirk.
“This means we’re under attack,” I say, arms up, twerking fast and hard, the bell sounding loudly, drowning out her indignant scream quite nicely. I lean forward hands on my knees and bounce the bell off one cheek. “That’s one direction.” From one cheek to the other. “This means a different direction.” I stop then bounce the bell from one cheek to the other once, repeating it again so they note the change. “Different direction.” Left, right, center bounce, rapid shake. “Different direction. Now then,” I pause making sure they’re all watching, some with more interest than amusement, and run down the list again. “We just have to pick the direction. Unless someone has a better idea?”
“Hold it in your hand,” the woman snaps, all red cheeks, and pale sweaty forehead.
“Let’s test that,” I suggest before someone else hands her a bell. They’ve got more? “Shall we pick a scenario and test those arms of yours?”
“I --!” she stops. Did she literally just realize I volunteered her, the others were okay with it, and she accepted? Oops?
“Let’s keep it simple. Alarm is urgent, even and slow is North, one is East, two is South, three is West. Agreed?” Spearman looks around, most people agreeing while a monk frowns as he scans the faces of those present.
The monks are actually trying to purify the town, and that costs a lot for them. It’s why they were pooling their resources. Why the fuck are the monks here? Or are they not in on it?
“Come on then, noodle arms,” I point out, distracted from the monk with another look at prissy stink face, bending my knees as I swing my hips, swinging the bell around in circles behind me.
“Alright! First test! Attack from the north!” Spearman shouts raising his spear. Does it have a pick on the back end?
I stare at the weird tool while rapidly shimmying for a 3 count, swirl to make it ring once, then shaking it again. I manage to keep my rhythm while trying to figure out why the dude has a pick with a shaft his height.
“Attack! West!” Spearman shouts, raising his spear again.
Shimmy. Bounce bounce bounce. Shimmy. Bounce bounce bounce.
Spearman calls out a few more, -- ‘cause we have time for this, -- and I’m just grooving. Dinner Party only lasted three alarms before she dropped out, -- said her hand was cramping. Bet if she was shaking off a rich lord that hand wouldn’t bother her. Different motions, I suppose... -- and I’m the official bell ringer. Not the lookout. They might be playing pretend, but at least they know I don’t have that kind of attention span.
If I could move without changing my breathing, I could meditate. Stock up on some Resentment. I snort, rolling my eyes as a watchtower, made from tree trunks, appears out of nowhere. I’m getting pissed off for the monks. A lot of them are dropping trying to purify the place.
[Vengeful Ghost Sect Breathing Technique II]
[3 -Resentment Gained]
[-5 Karma]
[Last Rites II Successful]
[-100 HP]
[Karma +100 Gained]
[100 +Resentment Gained]
[Ghost Pot (+100/0)]
[3 x218 -Resentment Gained]
[Karma +5 x0 Gained]
[20 x100 +Resentment Gained]
[Karma +50 x100 Gained]
[Resentment: +511160/-161530]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,579,375]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,273,550]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,094,202/107,275,977]
I’m vibing while just swinging the bell in circles in the tower when I hear a commotion below me. The lookout doesn’t tell me to sound the alarm, looking over the edge as someone shouts for our attention.
“What’s the retreat sound?” the lookout asks and I just bounce out left right with no breaks. “That’s the retreat sound,” he shouts down before turning back to me. “They got it, thanks.”
“Who’s going to signal you to signal the retreat?” I ask. I’m betting Dinner Party is behind this bullshit.
“Good point,” he says before leaning over and shouting down.
[Vengeful Ghost Sect Breathing Technique II]
[3 -Resentment Gained]
[-5 Karma]
[Last Rites II Successful]
[-100 HP]
[Karma +100 Gained]
[100 +Resentment Gained]
[Ghost Pot (+100/0)]
[3 x218 -Resentment Gained]
[Karma +5 x0 Gained]
[20 x100 +Resentment Gained]
[Karma +50 x100 Gained]
[Resentment: +511360/-161972]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,579,375]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,273,598]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,094,392/107,275,977]
“Attack, East,” the lookout says, tapping me on the shoulder.
Shimmy. Bounce. Shimmy. Shimmy. Bounce. Shimmy.
I repeat the pattern, hopping to move around the watchtower in an effort to catch what the lookout saw. I probably should have figured out the directions, and the roof, -- these fuckers had time to put a roof on the tower, -- blocks out the sky. I doubt I even actually know directions, so this is a good indicator of where to start.
“I’m here to take over your shift,” Dinner Party says, climbing up the ladder and dusting her hands off. She turns to me, palm out, and waits.
“Ooh, a break? Can’t imagine you lasting longer than a quick snack,” I shrug, handing over the bell after getting rid of all of my silk.
Want a belt? Get your own, ya snarky bish!
The glare keeps me warm as the lookout tries not to laugh.
I bounce my ass through the town, -- the rhythm’s in my soul! -- nodding at people who bow to me as I go. Guess I’m winning the fake fight?
“It’s called shapely,” one man says as I pass, curving his hands through the air to outline my figure.
“I like my women people sized. You’re not getting turned on by the woman, you just want to bed your mattress,” one man scoffs, shuddering as he turns away.
Bish.
I look for a spot to bed down so I can purify the area again and notice that there’s a cool breeze and blue LEDs coming from the Altar area. There’s a ton of smoke rising to the sky, and the alarms aren’t being sounded.
-Oh, fuck off,- I say, racing to help the monks.
There’s literally a blue Ghost Flame being held back at the edge of the altar, someone in dark robes grinning distractedly as they watch the flame slowly ease towards the monks who are chanting in an effort to hold it back.
Assholes!
[Vengeful Ghost Sect Breathing Technique II]
[3 -Resentment Gained]
[-5 Karma]
[Last Rites II Successful]
[-100 HP]
[Karma +100 Gained]
[100 +Resentment Gained]
[Ghost Pot (+100/0)]
[3 x218 -Resentment Gained]
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
[Karma +5 x0 Gained]
[20 x100 +Resentment Gained]
[Karma +50 x100 Gained]
[Resentment: +511460/-162193]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,579,375]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,273,621]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,094,487/107,275,977]
Too slow! The flames shrink, the other disciple frowns, but they’re still there. I storm over, trying to center myself, and say fack it. I collect Resentment, do I? I try to collect and bank the flames the way I’d collect and bank essence, the flames going out, and my fingers tingle.
Okay, at least I have a target.
I charge at the disciple who looks at me with wet eyes, looking hurt and shocked as he backpedals. Not concerned, not afraid, just like I told him he can’t have dessert because he didn’t eat his veggies. He turns around, darting between corpses and I glare after him.
[Vengeful Ghost Sect Breathing Technique II]
[3 -Resentment Gained]
[-5 Karma]
[Last Rites II Successful]
[-100 HP]
[Karma +100 Gained]
[100 +Resentment Gained]
[Ghost Pot (+100/0)]
[3 x218 -Resentment Gained]
[Karma +5 x0 Gained]
[20 x100 +Resentment Gained]
[Karma +50 x100 Gained]
[Resentment: +511560/-162850]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,579,375]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,273,645]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,094,582/107,275,977]
The monks behind me take a collective breath before two bastards scare the shit outta me by leaping to either side of me while spinning incense burners. The smoke pushes the corpses back a step, which is interesting.
[Vengeful Ghost Sect Breathing Technique II]
[3 -Resentment Gained]
[-5 Karma]
[Last Rites II Enhanced]
[-100 x10 HP]
[Karma +100 x10 Gained]
[100 x10 +Resentment Gained]
[Ghost Pot (+100/0)]
[3 x218 -Resentment Gained]
[Karma +5 x0 Gained]
[20 x100 +Resentment Gained]
[Karma +50 x100 Gained]
[Resentment: +512560/-163071]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,578,475]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,273,894]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,095,577/107,275,977]
-Oh, shit! Really?- I look back at the monks to see they’re all looking straight ahead, chanting like we’re about to stomp the yard. What got into them? -Let’s go!-
[Vengeful Ghost Sect Breathing Technique II]
[3 -Resentment Gained]
[-5 Karma]
[Last Rites II Enhanced]
[-100 x10 HP]
[Karma +100 x10 Gained]
[100 x10 +Resentment Gained]
[Ghost Pot (+100/0)]
[3 x218 -Resentment Gained]
[Karma +5 x0 Gained]
[20 x100 +Resentment Gained]
[Karma +50 x100 Gained]
[Resentment: +513560/-163292]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,577,985]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,274,143]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,096,572/107,275,977]
-Let’s fuck ‘em up!- I cheer, my incense honor guard taking a quick shuffle step forward for every step I take, looking like they’re going to dome someone while swinging their soul lassos. The corpses fall, I bank them, then notice Fashionista glaring at me from in front of the next line. -Oh, shit!-
He reaches one hand up, and one hand down, I clench and bite down on telling the monks to run, -- I think I need their incense if I want to not take that hit, and I doubt they can get away in time, -- and then he quickly swaps hands, the down up and the up down, the world going blue as I reach out and try to collect his bullshit.
And we’re fine...?
“Whoo!” I shout, pelvic thrusting in victory. Logs say...! Chains of Heavens and Hells for 100 -Resentment! “We got this!” I shout back at the monks, turning back to Fashionista. “I owe you, don’t I?”
“Tch,” Fashionista rolls his eyes and disappears, all that’s left is a crumbling tower of stones, his marker as the stones roll away.
“Ah! Bish! Tch!” I shake my head before turning back to the army ahead of us as the monks keep swinging their incense. “You guys okay?”
“We’re doing better as long as we stay inside the smoke from the incense,” one of my honor guard says, face still set in a stony glare. He could probably order his favorite meal and keep that same expression.
“You guys mind staying here? I’ve got some unfinished business to attend to,” I say while narrowing my eyes at the marker. I’m part of the same sect, and it works like a transfer circle, so I should have access through my void ability or ghost ability, right? “Go back to the village or leave. Things here aren’t very simple. I’m not sure why you’re being sacrificed or how they convinced you to give your lives, but those commoners in the village aren’t common.”
“We’ll regroup and try to leave,” one of the monks nods. “We’ve noticed that we’ve lost more priests than villagers, and the villagers that fell looked like thralls, not peasants. Thank you for helping us,” stony glare says, eyebrows still knit in rage as he pours his heart out to me before giving a quick nod. He turns away, both monks going back to back to stay in the incense and somehow not crossing chains.
- ? Hope this works ? ,- I bounce on my heals before reaching out to the fallen marker. I try to sense something, anything, and feel it as I get tackled by a corpse soldier. -Bish!-
[Vengeful Ghost Sect Breathing Technique II]
[3 -Resentment Gained]
[-5 Karma]
[Last Rites II Enhanced]
[-100 x10 HP]
[Karma +100 x10 Gained]
[100 x10 +Resentment Gained]
[Ghost Pot (+100/0)]
[3 x218 -Resentment Gained]
[Karma +5 x0 Gained]
[20 x100 +Resentment Gained]
[Karma +50 x100 Gained]
[Resentment: +512560/-163071]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,578,475]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,273,894]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,095,577/107,275,977]
-You wanted this smoke!- I cackle as the soldier disappears. -Ooh! That smoke goes pretty far. Nice!- I bank the other fallen, turn back to the marker, and try to store Resentment into it. -Please work so I don’t look like an idiot...-
Ghost Road
Achievement +100
I’m treated to a map, a list of dots scattered in an uneasy void. So markers are paths through one of the hells? Or... What’s going on? Am I just feeling the Resentment used to make them?
Some of the markers pulse slightly, just brighten and dim, a path that leads somewhere, and I wonder if this is the path to the Sect or the Graveyards or if the spirits are trying to tell me something. I shrug, risk it for the biscuit, and get pulled through darkness and flame.
[Used Stone Marker]
[-10 -Resentment]
[-50 Karma]
[Ghost Pot: +100/-0]
[Resentment: +513560/-163382]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,579,451]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,273,894]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,095,577/107,275,977]
And I’m standing in a hollow in the middle of tall grass with a stone marker a short distance away.
-Wait, so how much does it cost to take other people through? Is it like when I transfer --. Nevermind.- If it only costs 10 no matter group size, those transporters are making a mint!
[Used Stone Marker]
[-10 -Resentment]
[-50 Karma]
[Ghost Pot: +100/-0]
[Resentment: +513560/-163382]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[HP: 9,579,451]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,238/24,273,894]
[Current Qi: 1,905,490/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 97,095,577/107,275,977]
Six more jumps and I’m in what looks like a food court with stone benches, park style seating. I look around and see Fashionista with a sour expression drinking tea at a table with several other people before someone walks into me.
“If you’re new, don’t stand in the same spot as your Void Walk!” an older man who looks like a lecturer with his strange tall boxy hat, and brightly colored blue on black trimmed long robes with his tangerine colored loose robe pants wags his finger at me, shaking his head as he walks around me and towards the closest stall with its hot pans.
I walk forward slowly while looking around, trying to get a feel for where I am. There’s the weird pocked black rock everywhere, but this place is brightly lit and clean. And people are wearing good clothes.
I duck into my void, washing up and changing quickly, snacking on dumplings and stuffed buns while I do, -- don’t want to get distracted while stomping someone’s ass. Probably should have gotten some of that incense from the monks before I left, -- and then I walk back into the food court to see Fashionista sitting and glaring at me while the people with him are standing around.
I walk up to Fashionista, don’t sit down, -- because I’m not that big of a dumbass, -- and look for any signs of nervousness. He “hmphs” with a small smile, the cup still raised to mouth height although he doesn’t drink from it, and turns to look forward. Oh, so he’s removing me from his sight, hmm?
“It would appear that the Catastrophe of the Rising Sun Empire is only so so,” he says, eyebrow quirking.
One, how’d he know who I was? And Two, bish says what?
“I’m a silk producer,” I remind him. “I collect trash and produce silk. If you can’t withstand me I’d love to see how you fare against an actual tailor! Those spider Monarchs are dangerous customers,” I scoff. He shatters the cup in his hand, looking at the light mess he made before pulling out a handkerchief. “I’m not even a fighter. And you attacked me. I suppose the cultivators in the demonic sects of the Golden Sun Empire are only so so.”
Bish.
Say something.
I fookin’ dare you!
“And you ran from me, didn’t you?” I say slowly before looking at him with my brows knit. “I had to follow you here. I had to figure out how to use your techniques to track you so that I could find out why you keep attacking me. Once in the Graveyards, again in a village. Are you trying to get devoured?”
He stiffens, sitting just a little straighter and the people talking behind him are suddenly whispering behind their hands and moving away.
Say something!
“Now, I may not be much of a fighter, but I am very good at storing. I’m going to go back and cultivate more Resentment. I’m sure I’ll find a use for it,” I bow to him, turning away before turning back. “Although I should thank you for your contribution of ghost soldiers. They have been very enlightening. And tasty! Cured meat, you know,” I nod my head, wagging a finger with my other arm behind me in a calmer, friendlier version of the bullshit the elder pulled on me.
I walk back to the marker, Silent Howl reassuring me that the known points on the Ghost Road are stored away in my Library, and then I head back to LARP village.
I’m supposed to farm Resentment? I can farm Resentment. Let’s see what else I learn.
All these people wanting me to Get Gud? See if I don’t!
