10 Breakdown!

I breathed in a large amount of air to stop myself from laughing, and sat there thinking about the past couple of days. Going into a fit of rage I realized there were things I was ignoring, things I was keeping bottled up and acting as if they didn't matter.

I died, both me and Nikolai could relate in this aspect and I was both of us in a sense, but I died and I lost everything. Even if it wasn't much, my father who used to praise me whenever I made a new invention, my mother's grave that I put flowers on each year. These are things I can't get back, these are things that will forever be lost to me.

Wanting to ignore these feelings I instead let them fester, let them eat at me while I ignored the pain again and again. To be honest, I just wanted to sit down with my father and watch him read the newspaper as he mistakenly thinks Captain Crunch is still my favorite breakfast.

Was I still hoping that I'd wake from this? Yes, I was. I was afraid that not feeling pain, feeling comfort would mean I really died because of how much pain my disease caused. If I let myself rest for even one moment wouldn't that be giving up on my life?

My goals? Trash!

What do I really want? I don't want to die again, I don't want to lose those things around me.

'Emotions stabilized, resuming functions.

Strong feelings from the category destruction! Recipe for blacksmith acquired.

Strong feelings from the category love! Recipe for Love Shack acquired!

Strong feelings from the category regret! Recipe for Alchemy Lab acquired!

Strong feelings from the category protection! Recipes for foundation, walls, gate, and towers acquired!

Demonic spell learned, used, and influence resisted! New spell, Flesh Golem acquired!

Lessening effectiveness to get rid of influence, Flesh Golem downgraded to Corpse Golem!

Reminder: What is a castle without the intent to protect those treasures we hold dear?

Skill acquired Castle walls: Bring into the world one of your castle walls to protect against attack for 1 second.

Castle System has recognized you as it's user. Opening up all menus.'

A flash came, but I was too exhausted mentally to be curious about it as I was helped up by Jade. I knew I had to get stronger so I was using mana for the leg technique to stay steady.

It was tiring, and my mana was dropping making me feel almost empty inside my arm over Jade's shoulder. With a heavy heart, I let myself be guided to my room collapsing on my bed. This time it wasn't physical injuries that made me lay there though the ones that I had did hurt. Mana still swept through my legs and arms, and I forced it into my ribs trying to force the feeling of the healing that the mages did on me.

There was a forceful crack from my ribs, as I felt the little bit of fat on my body start to burn away for fuel into this spell and I quickly stopped it. I wasn't sure what I had done to myself but I felt as if a sharp knife had grazed across my rib cage. I would not be trying to heal myself in the future unless I found a book on the technique.

'Forceful evolution failed. Added to repair menu.' A notification came up like one would on your phone. Clicking it out of habit, a screen popped up.

'Cartilage Mesh Weave (5): Some beasts have developed spiderwebs of shock absorbing cartilage around their bones. Though incomplete inside the user, repairing the incomplete pieces will provide a layer of protection against blunt force, and piercing attacks.'

"How did this happen?"

'Your intent was to repair and improve your body when you used your creation magic. Repairing is impossible at your current energy levels so the spell used your knowledge of nanofiber technology to create a very thin weave of cartilage.'

"Wow, you responded. Why did I acquire the castle system?" Silence followed my question, for about an hour later I found out very little. The system would now answer questions about its function, and about information already visible in the system itself.

Now the tabs were listed as Gene, Build, Abilities, Recipes, Mutations, Management, Resources. Clicking on gene it had two subtabs, Self and Stored. The human one held the same info, repair and advance, the other held Use, Advance, and Fuse. Without any other genes but my own I expected them to be blank but I found two under the use section.

Enhanced Cognition: Remember things more clearly, and be able to organize thoughts better making it easier to learn.

Fresh Breath: Your breath has a light minty fragrance to it, and your mouth stays unusually clean.

Staring at the two options, I rubbed my head a bit, "How did I get these?"

'User killed two people, their death provided two genes that the system thought were useful for you.'

"Apparently one of them was a genius in the making." Selecting both of them I used them, feeling a slight tingling in my throat and forehead.

'Warning, only human genes can be freely purchased.'

I nodded at this expecting as much, going onto the next tab. Advance and fuse were both empty, with little surprise, next came build. It listed out the buildings and other things I had acquired for buildings not too long ago.

Mutations was an interesting tab, it had three boxes sitting there with each listing a cost of 100, 1,000, and 1,000,000 each. The descriptions of each was a basic gacha game, where you selected a gene and was guaranteed a positive mutation of increasing rarity for that rarity based on what you selected. All the costs were in gold, which made almost cough up blood.

Management opened up an area showing my current pigmen, which now was a staggering four. It seemed anytime I killed a human I would be granted a worker for my castle, certain beasts could cause this as well. It seemed that beasts didn't come as the standard pigmen though, so the system suggested to save coin I would need to hunt powerful beasts.

Resources had inside of it a single iron, but also several hundred pounds of stone to use. This could be used to create the foundation as most of the castle basics only required stone to make. Converting the gold I had taken as spoils, my coins shot up to 20, my life had been surprisingly cheap.

I evened out the two new pigmen as now labeled level one pigmen. Leveling them both together they gave high fives to each other and jumped bumping bellies. They then began to talk to one another, I watched as they tried to communicate trying not to laugh.

"Bro?" The pigman looked to the other pigman seriously.

The other nodded, "Bro!" Flexing his arm he patted it as if showing it off.

"Bro." The first shook his head in disappointment then flexed both of his arms. "Bro!"

At first I thought they were just stupid, but I noticed that they were having various conversations while just saying the word bro to each other in different tones. I truly hoped that this would correct itself in future upgrades, which made me click on the pigman I upgraded him to level 6.

Once the 6th upgrade started the pigman walked into the hut, before coming out now with an afro, a coat thrown over its shoulders, and sunglasses. Two jars hung at its side as they slouched around with liquid. "Sup Bros!"

'Lame Orc evolved to Dude Orc!'