Book 1 Chapter 30: What began to occur?
Chapter 30: What began to occur?
With the disappearance of the two before Jaeger, he quickly glanced left and right before stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. He cracked the window till it was half open and looked outside back and forth until he was sure nothing was around.
*flit*
A light came to life, its warm glow hidden behind his mingled fingers for just a second long enough to light a smoke.
"Fwhoo…"
Jaeger twirled the cigarrete between his index and middle finger as his brain put together several points of wonder.
"One…a curse was created in the past that allowed the spirits of the after life to seek vengeance…two…the spirits could be dispersed but not the curse itself leaving it to mingle throughout the ages even up to the present day…three…somehow the murder of those 5 started a chain reaction of incidents I don't know of yet… that killed or caused the student body to disappear…but where to…"
The night was still young, sick, and feeble in every regard. 9 pm.
A mist appeared and the familiar face of Frog shown forth from it as it plopped onto the ground.
"I need to go in for a bit little guy" Jaeger patted its head before his body disappeared from the spot. Frog looked around for a second before nudging its way through some thin blankets on one of the beds and hiding deep against the wall.
'Hmm…' Jaeger looked around and pulled out his revolver before flipping the top of the barrel down and looking at the current rounds inside.
'Undead would be easy to take care of…but if even 5 undead…kids…fuck I'm not much their senior…was able to take out 100's of developed children well…something isn't right here'
A desk had been nabbed from a passing shop on Jaeger's way back from learning the ten thousand fold slayer skill. From it, it had become his homebound HQ of sorts with scatters of paper and several boxes placed near its edges with varying rounds.
Although frog could warp things in, it couldn't specifically place things in certain parts and so Jaeger had personally arranged everything inside the small space within while leaving a spot in the middle of the small inner dimension for dispensed items.
As he thought, five deceased bodies didn't lay in the middle of the room, which only confirmed his conjecture further.
A small jumbled mess of metal, wood, and other miscellaneous material was heaped in a pile but Jaeger didn't have any particular urge to move it.
With a glance he found a not too dilapidated chair and brought it over to the desk. His hands moved about in a methodical manner as the revolver was pulled into separate pieces, cleaned, and put back together almost as fast. The rounds within were changed out, but Jaeger knew there was probably no difference between an iron headed round and having a paper weight below his arm pit.
'I just need a security blanket' Jaeger told himself as he puffed up his smoke and sat a little deeper in his chair.
"What does cadence have to do with any of this though? How did she die and become a resentful spirit?"
A lot of this just didn't make sense yet with how it tied into everything going on in the future. Jaeger flicked the top screen of his watch and casted it out into the air.
'Stats:'
'Strength: 28 (+15) (+30)'
'Speed: 28 (+200) (+30)'
'Endurance: 20 (+15) (+30)'
'Perception: 28 (+20) (+30)'
'Dexterity: 24 (+20) (+30)'
Int: 36 (static)
'Skills:'
'Teleport: 3 charge, each line allows 15 jumps of ten feet each or in one full jump of 150 feet. Total jump is 450.'
'Empower: Gain 30 points across the board for 5 minutes'
'Ten Thousand Fold Slayer: With each consecutive slash, damage is increased by .1%: 10 = 1.0%, 100 = 10.0%, 1000 = 100.0%'
'Inner dimension: Access a 20 by 80 inner dimension you can summon things to or yourself at will when spirit medium is present'
'Spectral Arms: Extra appendages on a separate dimension, by focusing, the limbs can move through material and materialize at will. Ethereal until manipulated.'
'Musical Prof: 100%'
'Weapon (Chain blade) 100% mastery'
'Eldritch Imbuement: imbue chain with the aspects of the self'
'Mend: Fix and mend various things.'
'Material Augment: 10%'
"Why the fuck does it look like the words always change…material augment at 10% is a surprise though, haven't checked that in a while…glad I've kept a habit of using it for random shit I walk by" Jaeger shook his head.
'Wait…the cape, did it ever add information on it?'
He had of course checked what was on the watch, but for some reason when the words rearranged themselves in the watch it meant they were making space for things.
His eyes panned down over things before widening, "Why didn't you ding me you little shit" Jaeger ground his teeth as he intently read what the watch was displaying.
'Frog: A spirit you summon, with the curse of gluttony, things that were once consumed and spat out now change the very nature of your spirit.
Current Adaptions:
'Absorb: An element or material, adding properties of it to the spirit'
'Curse of gluttony: Grow as it consumes.'
'Magical Affinity: Neutral. Energy intake, crystals on its back absorb various energy types of the surroundings that it currently resides in'
'Cape of the Traveler: A strange appendage of the body that moves at the will of the mind and changes on the journey of what is acquired, choices affect the cape in what aspects it chooses to take into itself'
Current Adaptions:
'Cryscarbonite: A structuralized crystal skeleton that can be imbued with that in which the users' natural ability allows as well as blessings and energy'
'Cape is currently assimilating other skills into itself…'
"Wait…wait hold on what was that last part…" Jaeger felt something boiling up inside him after consciously being aware of some 'process' going on.
*ding*
"Oh what now…" Jaeger scrolled back up and his eyes panned over the skills from before only to find several missing, "What the fuck!"
He quickly scrolled back down to the 'Cape of the traveler'.
'Cape of the Traveler: A strange appendage of the body that moves at the will of the mind and changes on the journey of what is acquired, choices affect the cape in what aspects it chooses to take into itself'
"Yeah yeah I know…" His eyes moved further down as his finger hesitated to scroll farther on the illusionary display screen in front of him.
'Current attributes:'
"What the fuck I was litterly just looking at it…" He couldn't stop himself as he finger moved the screen and soon he gasped.
'Natural ability to improve speed, maneuverability and movement'
'Imbue: With the skills, buffs, powers of the user and elements'
'Reinforced: The cape will slowly become even more durable as the skill Material Augment grows, as well as changes the elements it is temporarily imbued with'
'Self-repair: in the event of damage, cape repairs itself'
'Current Skills:'
'Teleport: The cape is the medium to manipulate space, and will naturally pull in the energy to do so,
3 Marks: 1 mark is equal to 15 jumps of ten feet, or 150 in full. Using all 3 marks will move you 450 feet.'
"So it's taking skills I use…I mean…if its apart of me of course it got my power…my bones are made up of the teleportation magic and thus now that it has a skeleton its incorporalizing it…and since it is 'incorporalizing' it decided to take other things?" I guess that makes sense.
However, the very last one was what spooked Jaeger the most as his eyes gazed down at his feet only to find they were bare.
'Limit Breaker: Stops speed from harming the user, at max speed it doubles movement speed'
"It absorbed the item?!" Jaegers jaw dropped.
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The shop keeper watched the screen intently, "Fuck…I may have fucked up a little bit…"
6 people turned their heads to him before bowing their heads repeatedly, "Thank you oh giving great one!" They chanted repeatedly over and over.
The shop keeper sighed, "At this rate…his cape wings will become a legendary item…yet its apart of his body…oh my…the property of that cape was always quite…powerful but combined with his same nature…its adapting too fast"
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Jaeger twitched his neck, it felt like someone was talking about him again.
It would seem the spectral arms were the same, as in his guess the cape didn't find it to be a property or skill because it like itself were other appendages.
'What about…no…I would never do that to the lyre…besides, I don't know what that would…turn into' What if he had lyres for wings, or dangling strings? No.
However, this really peaked Jaegers interest in what he could add to the wings. A devious glint flew over his eyes as he remembered the crystal sphere had had absorbed into the wings, as well as the items he thought would be of no use.
For safe measure the people outside from the mage school had given him a wide assortment of items to give to the team, or use incase of happenstance…but now…heh.
Jaeger grabbed a sheet of paper on the table and pen and walked around the little dimension he called home.
'Mana crystals for ito, kito, drek, and bjor…'
'Various materials from steel, iron, tin to wood, earth, a basin of water…'
'Items…'
'Holy material for the priest…material for the abjurationist…some armor bits for Bjor…some light robes for drek the cryomancer…ito seemed to have the least things…'
'I guess most of this doesn't even have any properties, ill feed the mana crystals to Frog though'
A burlap potato sack was found amongst the materials and soon was packed with whatever crystal Jaeger could find without regard to purity or size.
*vwhoosh*
Jaeger appeared in the dark dorm again, almost having forgot he was still in the middle of this fiasco.
"Hey frog…I decided to give you some snacks, let's make you a big boy okay? Well…it is an experiment…you see…"
Frog hopped out from under some sheets and looked at the burlap sack in Jaegers arms. With a tilt the contents of the sack spilled out onto the bed and let off various glows of different colors.
With a glance back and forth from the bed to Jaeger, frog slowly made its way over to the pile and looked around at the crystals but didn't seem to be in the mood to consume them.
"What is it?"
Frog pushed some of the crystals around with its feet until it found a crimson colored one and then gobbled it down. Soon, the crystals on its back began to glow red like the crystal that was consumed, they lit up the surrounding bed with a light glow like a flickering flame.
*belch*
Frog opened its mouth momentarily and from it a plume of flame shot out into the air.
"Oh…you may have changed, but that doesn't mean eating crystals makes you bigger…it's just like the material before except that now you can well….ohm that one line makes sense now, you have neutral energy and can absorb various energies into the crystals."
Jaeger waved at the crystals and Frog placed them back into the interdimensional space.
'Still… with enough of them, that might become quite useful…I'll have to get creative and see the potential, just like I did with my power'
*pat* *pat* *pat* *pat*
Rain continued to fall from the sky, strangely Jaeger still didn't feel too much at ease as it did because for once he needed as much vision as possible of the outside. The windows' countless streaks didn't allow much vision to the ground outside for one, and for two he would have to purposely look outside when needed to.
"Oh…dispense me a pair of boots, I think the extra clothes for ito were my size as well as his old boots" Jaeger looked at the bed as an old worn out pair of boots appeared, the pair Ito had threw away but Jaeger thankfully kept.
The shoes fit, so for now he'd just have to put up with it.
A squeaky sound let out from the floor as Jaeger's eyes followed the ground to find water on the floor.
'Did I track these in?' He looked at them intently, but soon found that they were the steps of a foot and not shoes. They went halfway into the room, turned around and then led towards the classroom adjacent to Jaeger.
"Let's go frog…" Jaeger whispered as he picked him up and gently put him on his shoulder.
A long arrow shaped dagger appeared in Jaegers hands before unfurling a foot into the chain blade.
A gun slipped into his left hand, and with the security blanket securely bound by his death like grip, Jaeger pulled it up and pointed it at the door way before slowly moving forward at an angle to look out into the hallway without stepping through the door.
He moved to the left and repeated the motion as his eyes stably focused on any abnormal movements or scenes. With nothing in view of the acute angle he was looking out through door with, he moved to a more obtuse angle as he moved closer to the door and peered out. With nothing across standing in the classroom, Jaeger took a glance to the right and then left quickly.
He then more confidently kept his gaze on the right and looked for anything down the way, and then looked left in the same way to size up any activity.
However, nothing could be seen nearby or far away and thus Jaeger stepped out with his gun still raised and crossed the hallway over to the classroom.
He slowly turned the nob with the hand that had the chain blade in it and poked the revolver through slowly as his gaze scanned the room from the left corner to his far right.
Nothing was amiss thankfully, but that didn't mean the revolver lowered in the slightest. He slowly closed the door behind his back, and then following the right wall kept his gun pointed down each row of desk and chairs until he reached the far upper left corner of the room that met with the window that panned across to the back side of the room.
His gaze flittered around the beautiful courtyard covered in countless puddles of rain that drained away towards ravines set into the ground.
A fountain was in the middle of the courtyard with a small cupid pointing its arrow at the water below it. From the chest of the cupid was a light bulb surrounded by a glass like cage, its light cascaded against the cupid and sent its shadow afar on the ground while the rest of the light was absorbed by the surrounding feet of the garden.
"Hmm…" Jaeger found a small latch mechanism at the base of one of the window panels and unhooked it before letting the window slowly slide outside on a rail at its base. The sound of rain poured into the classroom, letting off little dancing echoes.
Jaeger looked back and forth in the courtyard, taking note of a 4 trees in each corner, two bushes at each end of the courtyard as well as a door on each side of the ends of the U shaped building.
Most likely a hallway connected to the bottom floors main wing hallways of the ground floor.
Apart from the trees and bushes were assortments of flowers, some even looked like the ones from the botany house.
The light around the cupids chest flickered for a second, the second Jaeger's eyes panned over to it he saw the shadow of 4 people sitting on its edge with the postures of talking. It could be a clue, but Jaeger didn't stop his eyes from looking up from them and through each of the windows on the upper floors and any window he could see at this angle from his vantage point towards the bottom floors.
With a silent creak, the window was shut again.
Jaeger tip toed towards the door and with the same motions panned back and forth before stepping out into the hallway and following it towards the stairs. He let his eyes drift down the hallway even as his head slowly lowered from the second floor.
He was really on edge right now.
That 6th sense of his was tingling nonstop, as if his brain had an itch he couldn't scratch.
Any shadow could hold a fiend; any entrance to a room could hold a demon beyond its precipice knife edge door. Something didn't feel right, and that something was worse than when he was back in the fort with the others.
*KEYyuhurrt*
Jaeger whipped his arm to the left as fast as the swing of a sword and aimed down the sights.
Nothing was there.
He could've swore he heard the sound of a creaky door opening, or a locker being jostled but nothing was before him in the silent dark hallway. His eyes wandered back and forth, and he didn't forget to look behind him constantly, but that strange weighted marble feeling in his gut was getting heavier.
Something wasn't right!
But there the fuck was it coming from!
Jaeger wanted to scream, but his mouth was held shut with his tightly clutched cheeks. Irritation soon washed away into unbridled anxiety, and then acceptance before returning to subconscious fear. Jaeger breathed out silently and continued around the corner and down the right wings lower hall.
No shadows flickered into view, no creature came spiraling through the ceiling but the air became colder.
Damper, more Sinister.
Rounding the corner, down about 50 feet was the entrance into the courtyard. Light shone from the outside like it was bright day, while the dark night layed at the back of Jaeger. He could see the light fighting to stay in the hallway as if some unseen force was fighting a war of attrition.
'Why is my mind thinking this?'
Jaeger stepped forward towards the light, and swung the door open gently as each step out weighed what felt like a thousand pounds.
"Uhhuhh…" Jaeger breathed the air that seemed clearer, but was just his imagination. He soaked in the false warmth that touched his skin, and closed his eyes to look up to the rays of the sun that had no source.
His eyes opened after a while and his gaze went to where the students sat before, because he was on the other side of the fountain he couldn't see them but adding to the fact he could still interact with each scene displayed to him he decided it was the best this way.
*shhrck* *shhrck*
His steps only every once in a while stepped upon the gravel that made up the main pathway to the fountain, while the rest was filled with the silent rustle of the grass on either side he used as footholds.
"What are we going to do?" A quivering voice spoke out at a whisper, this must be serenity.
"Its okay…we still have time to stop whatever this is, okay babe? I promise it will be okay" This confident and noble voice sounded like the boyfriend.
"Tom shh…keep your voice down…" So the boyfriends name was tom? Who was this masculine voice, the bestfriend of tom?
"Sorry Brent" Tom spoke slower this time. Brent was the masculine voices name then.
A slap rang out with Becca's voice soon accompanying it, "Don't pester him…you're the one with the voice of a bear"
Brent seemed to sulk through his voice but only muttered, "Sheesh…"
Tom spoke to the three, calming them down as best he could before he took a second of silence to pull together his thoughts.
"Nighttime…the students of the dorms…the school compound…the well…all of these are tied together." Nobody seemed to speak up so Tom continued, "It began with the strange sightings from friends of seeing something out in the field at night but only for a second…and each night it seemingly got closer and closer…until the sounds came from within the hallways themselves…even Brent and Becca said they saw it…them…?...you guys said it was different each time, and in fact that it didn't look like the hoodlums from before but how could this make sense?"
Becca seemed to be mulling over thoughts before she replied, Jaeger stepped onto the edge of the fountain and leaned towards the back of the cupid to get closer to hear them over the running water.
"In some cultures around the after life…when a person dies near a spirit of great resentment and hate, they do not come back but become sustenance for that in which layed dormant…it isn't any different then the stories of old counts receiving blood after being a mummy for ages…only to look anew the next day to haunt the living." Becca made a good point.
"That's true…but that only means we let loose something far darker…and if it's of greater power we may very well lose the ability to stop it…" Brent spoke up matter of factly, but with his bear voice it seemed intent on battle.
Serenity who had kept silent this whole time finally spoke up, "If what you say is true Becca…and what Tom said…then it can't leave the compound, and since the teachers seem unaffected it seems to be scoping out the students of the dorm…as the other students leave each day before nightfall whereas we stay…now, as for its goal I don't have many guesses…but it could be to fulfill what it failed to."
Nobody spoke up in retort, and seemed to take a moment to mull over the discussion.
"We should take shifts on each wing for a night or two to follow who it is scoping out…" Brent spoke up with apprehension.
"That isn't a bad idea, with the girls and boys split up on each wing that gives a team of two to keep an eye out…we should also discreetly lay some talismans around each entrance of the building, and if they are broken we will know the ghosts level is above that of the talisman…then, we shall get better ones until we can conclude how powerful it is…" Tom idea was joined back with a cacophony of 'Good idea…' or 'Damn…I wish I thought of that…'
"Should we give offering to the well?" Serenity said.
Becca was the first to answer, "One…that would have to be at night when it isn't dormant, and two it would be right at the well in its dominion…what if we get enchanted? Dragged inside?"
Brent scoffed, "If we fear it, then it has greater power" Becca didn't retort this. Funny enough, there were classes in this world all around the afterlife and one of the main points being that 'If you fear it, it holds your fear…if you have desire, it leads you astray'
It was one of the main lines of study.
"Then what will be our first step?" Serenity asked to the group.
"We will see its intention…and save the lives that we owe now to save" Tom spoke up solemnly.
Light vanished from the surroundings like a receding tide, leaving only a slim glimmer of a ray before disappearing from above the fountain all together. Jaeger held his gun up and scanned around to the shadows that stood in the corners of the courtyard.
Darkness, my old enemy, and with it an old friend...a downpour.