Tizi's Tale

We burst through the door, heavy laden. We walked to the plethora of chests in our base and deposited all of our resources there. I looked in each chest and quickly started to withdraw all of the items needed to make the upper floor. 

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Crafting stream is finished, you have made 32 stone walls, 16 stone roofs, 1 stone ceiling and hatch-frame, and 1 wooden ladder. You have received 25,000/50,000 experience. 

You have 124,000/400,000 experience needed for level 16.

*WARNING! Your health is decreasing because you are overweight. If you do not shed weight your arteries will explode, and you will die when your health reaches zero.*

*Health → 61/110*. Stamina → 112/190. Speed → 100. *Weight → 9,684.9/340*. Strength → 250. Combat Sense → 100. Mana capacity → 35/35. Mana sense → 14.

Inventory: Soulstone, mana map, 4 bolas, combat knife, 1 Makeshift set, 1 laced arrow, compound bow, 18 metal arrows, metal pickaxe, metal hatchet, 32 stone walls, 16 stone roofs, 1 stone ceiling and hatch-frame, and 1 wooden ladder. 

Skills: Ascendant → Soul Flayer.

Soulbound items: Magic → Ring of the Training Maniac.

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Yeah, I was fucking dying. I felt like the bastard in myths who held the world on his shoulder. Except my back was popping, and my knees were wiggling and creaking.

I took every available ounce of mana that I had, and I walked over to the corner where I demolished a roof tile and placed the stone hatch-frame in its place. I then put the ladder on the hatch frame and quickly walked up the ladder. My mana was depleting fast.

I quickly placed all thirty two walls two walls high on every edge. I then moved to the roofs and snapped them in place quickly. With all of the structures weight off me and the base fully enclosed again, I sighed and walked back towards the ladder. 

After I climbed down the ladder, I dropped off my metal hatchet and pickaxe. I didn't need to farm anymore. I would leave the harvesting of resources to my soul slaves and Font, who doesn't have much of a brain. Maybe I should make Font a soul slave?

I shook my head and opened my status screen. 

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Status screen:

Health → 61/110 +. Stamina → 101/190. Speed → 100. Weight → 174.8/340. Strength → 250. Combat Sense → 100. Mana capacity → 10/35 +. Mana sense → 14.

Inventory: Soulstone, mana map, 4 bolas, combat knife, 1 Makeshift set, 1 laced arrow, compound bow, and 18 metal arrows. 

Skills: Ascendant → Soul Flayer.

Soulbound items: Magic → Ring of the Training Maniac.

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I turned my head around. "Well, now we can make rooms inside there. I'm not doing it because I almost got an aneurysm just now."

She nodded and told me that I did a good job, pretty much.

As we all went to eat dinner around the table, I looked at Tizi. "Well, usually we have newbies introduce themselves around this point in the night. So tell us, did you live on earth or Tridon, what year did you die, and what did you do in life?"

She looked up from the piece of meat she had practically been inhaling. "Well, I lived in Triton. It was the year 109 ADA. I was a very famous assassin."

"What is ADA?"

Isot looked at me. "It stands for After Dungeon Openings. That was when our world changed entirely. I died in 179 ADA."

Isot turned to Tizi. "What kingdom did you serve?"

"I was a freelancer. I chose my work. What about you? What did you do?"

"I was a dungeon hunter. I achieved five circles and was a mana swordsman."

She nodded. "Impressive. I personally don't like this new way of controlling mana. Instead of compressing mana and then expanding it into circles, the system does something similar for you. It's too easy."

My eyes widened. "Do you have a medium soulstone?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing. It's just that once I got to 25 mana capacity, my soulstone expanded in size and mana passages formed. I can use mana to enhance any part of my body. Any part."

I winked at the last sentence. Her eyes widened and then she laughed. "You're funny, but more importantly, how the hell do you have that much mana?"

"I'm level 15, but I have absorbed a lot of soulstones and I supplemented the rest with my ascendant skill."

She sighed. "I see, I want to get there."

I nodded. "And you will if you follow me. I want to go hunting deeper into the mountains tomorrow. I want to spend the night near the volcano and hunt as many as possible."

She nodded. "I'll do that, but are we going to split the experience between just me and you, or everyone?"

I smiled. "We could do an 8-2 split between me and you. If you do more work than me, we can change that. I want you to tell me a story about your past. Something interesting or funny."

She nodded. "That sounds fair. Okay, I will. 

There was once a day when I was offered a contract to kill a noble because he was just too fucking lazy, and his parents hated him. I took the contract because I also hate lazy people. 

So I went to the academy room that he was staying in. I entered the room at the dead of night. I made no sound. As I lay my eyes on the bed, it was empty. A sword was put across my throat. The boy told me then: 'Kill my parents and I will forgive you. If you do not, I will kill you.'

See, the problem was that I hated being told what to do if there wasn't anything in it for me. I activated my skill and killed him. He was certainly not lazy and so I was angry at my contractors for providing me with false information.

I traveled to their mansion for the promised payment. The husband and wife of the boy personally thanked me. I traded his head for a bag of gold. At that point, I formed a blade from mana and killed them all.

Something like that would usually hurt a person's reputation, but it was passed down the grapevine that they had provided false information to me. 

You might be wondering: 'Tizi, why the fuck didn't the kingdom hounds hunt you down, cut your head off, and stick it on the end of a pike for killing a noble?'

Well, that is because all of my dealings were through the black market which altogether has as much power as its own kingdom and there were rules to protect contractors and the contracted names from getting leaked. And that was true no matter what. 

So, that little incident only gave me a reputation. They called me the 'Red haired bitch with an attitude.' 

I liked that nickname honestly.

Just know, don't cross me. I don't like people who lie or who are two faced."

I nodded. "Good story."

We all were pretty much tired and so we went to bed after her story pretty fast.