NOVEL NEXT 32. Mortal Lunacy
It took only a couple hours for hundreds of werewolves to die in the endless labyrinth of metal corridors. That was a lot more enemies than the previous two middle boss lairs Shen had visited, and it seemed there would be no end to it.
Even now, as he walked through yet another wide corridor, a hundred more enemies appeared in front of him.
Shen welcomed the free AP, of course. He had even upgraded his resistance to F already. But the lack of variety was unexpected and undesirable. Where were the werewolves' elites? The armored ones? The mages? Both minotaurs and goblins had had them.
He danced between them and massacred their people with ease.
His footwork was getting the most out of these battles. It wasn't created for running away or long distances, but for fighting. At most, it contained dash and pursuit moves, but they were simple and focused on speed rather than anything else. Here, against numbers, his technique improved by leaps and bounds. He could tell it was about to level up any time now.
Not for the first time, Shen felt like an actual gale, moving around and killing werewolves with ease.
Alicia's improvement was also noticeable, though not as big. She had gotten used to exploding fireballs for more significant damage now, though that decreased how many spells she could cast by about half. A reasonable tradeoff.
The werewolves died quickly, and Alicia almost sat on the ground as she was used to doing. She had stopped recently. A sign of growth.
"I can keep going," she said, surprising Shen. That was new and a sign of naivety.
"Alright," he agreed instead of pointing out she couldn't cast a single spell anymore, so she would fare poorly in the next fight despite her advances as a close-ranged fighter.
Shen had told her about finding and acknowledging her limits before, but it seemed she had forgotten it already. That wasn't a big issue, considering how much Alicia had learned and absorbed non-stop the past days. Instead, if she was too perfect, he would suspect foul play. Either way, a bad experience would teach her better than his repeated words could.
They soon reached the end of the tunnel and found themselves at yet another crossroads. They could go ahead or to the left.
They went ahead without exchanging a single word.
As Keeper of Knowledge in training, Shen had learned memorization techniques. However, instead of using them, he had used a simple method he had read in one book about exploring mystic realms. It contained a tip specifically for labyrinths: always take the rightmost or the leftmost path from where you were, and you would eventually find the exit.
Of course, that was a tip to be used only if all other qi techniques failed, but to his shame, he hadn't memorized any technique.
On they went. When the next enemies showed up, Alicia fared poorly as expected and asked for some time to rest.
Shen complied, and he was glad too, for it was time:
He would finally learn about the mortal world.
"I have no idea where to start," Alicia said.
"Give me a general overview of your history," Shen replied.
She nodded, thought for a second, then said, "Civilization started some five or ten thousand years ago, I think? Actually, I have no idea, but I knew we were supposedly all cavemen and tribes and stuff before. It's hard to believe there were superpowerful humans even earlier than that."
He shook his head slightly. "I don't know what happened either. I have no answers for you, only more questions. Please, go on."
"Alright. So, humans were all barbarians and all, living in nomadic tribes. Somewhere in Asia or the Middle East, some humans started a nation organized enough to be called civilization by today's standards. Not sure if it were the Chinese or the Egyptian or whoever. I don't remember much about it, but I think the Greeks eventually created some of the philosophies we currently value in the West, then the Romans put it on another level, and then the Christians interfered somehow, and we reached the morals and ethics we have. Not sure about Eastern morals and ethics, though I think it has something to do with Buddha."
Shen stifled a laugh. Alicia was terrible at teaching history, and it was kind of cute to see her try so hard and fail so badly.
"So the Romans and these Christians are the current rules of the Western world, and this Buddha person rules the East?" he asked.
"What? No!" Unlike his own respectful approach, she laughed at his ignorance. "We have no world rulers, only the nations we call superpowers. There's the G8, a group of the strongest eight countries. I'm from the United States of America, the strongest nation. Then there's China and Russia. I think I heard geopolitics are changing rapidly? I never studied it very much."
Shen took a few seconds to digest that. It reminded him a little about the cultivation world pre-Eternal Empire when sects and clans fought for land and supremacy. After the Immortal Emperor came, the world was divided at his will and given to the worthy. Then, most battles, political or otherwise, became for honor or protection of the world against the eventual alien invaders. Sometimes for resources, but only within the rules of the Empire.
"I take it they go to war constantly?" Shen asked. That's how the chaotic ancient world of cultivation was.
To his surprise, Alicia shook her head. "We kind of had a lot of wars, but they mostly stopped after the World Wars. I'm not sure why. I think it has to do about them being expensive, or just a cultural change. And the atomic bombs, probably. They ended World War II."
"Atomic bombs? World War?"
Alicia struggled, but she kept explaining things to him.
The world was divided into nations that kept each other in check through peer pressure, economic war, the threat of violence, or posturing. Somehow, the world was also divided into West and East, and then again into right and left ideologies about the best political approach to social and economic issues. And atomic bombs were about as strong as he expected his father's disinterested backhand slap to be, though at the behest of mortals.
The little she explained politics sounded like a lot of division and too little honor.
And the little she explained of atomic bombs was terrifying.
Cultivators grew in both offensive and defensive power. A martial artist might not have the best defense, but they could certainly use their attacks to redirect enemy strikes. Atomic bombs, however, were an unstoppable force among mortals. If one of them exploded, no other bomb could divert their destruction.
Only devastation and death were left behind.
Shen was left with a lot to think about as they resumed their labyrinth exploration. The atomic bomb was especially shocking. Mortals controlling such power felt... unnatural.
He used his qi more than he needed in the ensuing fight against a few extra hundred werewolves. It felt right to feel the vital energy coursing through his veins. That was true, reliable, worthy power. He had worked hard for it. What right did mortal bureaucrats have to possess greater strength than him?
Shen detected the arrogance as soon as it came, yet he couldn't quench it.
So he took it out on the werewolves.
That day passed with new tales of strangeness.
Democracy was lunacy. How could people of doubtful honor vote for those who would decide everyone's fates? How could prisoners vote? How could anyone become a candidate without proving their honor first? What kind of society would that create over time? It at least helped explain some of the divisions her early teachings had exposed.
Equality under the law was the stuff of nightmares. Not all people were equal; that was obvious at a single glance. Thus, not everyone deserved the same treatment either. There was an issue when the difference in treatment came from arbitrary reasons, like skin color or how many coins one had. However, a strong warrior who had killed hundreds of enemies for the clan was obviously different from a random trainee who had never done anything for the family. They both had rights and duties, but they were obviously different, even if some baselines were similar. Not only was the warrior given more, but more was expected of him too.
And weekends were the most stupid thing he had ever heard about. How could one rest for one or two days every week? How could a nation progress like that? How could one improve themselves? Vacations were one thing; a short vacation every week would only brew laziness.
Oh, Shen could see how those things were good from a mortal's perspective, but that was the issue. They had short lives, and their society was built as such. It was no surprise their empires fell within a few hundred or thousand years, and political revolutions were so commonplace.
At least things like technology were great. To instantly have access to infinite information was outstanding. And to use no qi to travel the skies? Incredible.
Shen really wanted a smartphone and to get into an airplane.
| Mutated Werewolf (F) | 10,277 → 10,287 AP
As the last werewolf around died, he finally had enough AP to buy the upgrades he wanted.
He had chosen to save for both strength and agility together because then he wouldn't have to get used to one then the other. Time to buy them.
'Purchase F+ strength and agility,' he thought, but nothing happened.
That was a theory of his. If the system could push information into his mind, and probably read it too, couldn't he use the system with thoughts? Clearly not. Either it wasn't reading his mind, or it was pretending not to.
"Purchase F+ strength and agility," he said, and it worked this time.
| Purchased: Strength Up (F+) | -5,000 AP
| Purchased: Agility Up (F+) | -5,000 AP
| Remaining AP: 287
The system made him float and go through the process of expanding and shrinking his muscles again. This time, it went for much, much longer than before. At least half an hour, probably more. Even some bones in his spine changed position, fortunately painlessly.
His newly grown hair fell again though. That was getting old real fast.
When it was done, Shen took a few swings with his spear and was very satisfied with his new might. Knowing it would improve as he got more used to the enhanced stats made him even happier.
"Congrats," Alicia said.
"Thanks," Shen replied, already training to get used to his stats.
It was only on the next day that they continued their exploration, and at last, after killing only a few hundred werewolves more, they reached a new place with new enemies.
"Finally," Shen muttered and prepared himself.