Chapter 10

I emerged from the dungeon into the ground floor of Babel in good spirits. I looked around before deciding to head to the guild first to drop off the magic stones I have gathered from today's dive into the dungeon. I was hoping that the money would prove good enough to buy myself a decent sword to replace my broken one. 'Wait, how did my sword get so messed up in the first place?' I asked myself, suddenly feeling unsure. I couldn't remember when I had damaged it in the first place. I checked my storage, but it wasn't there.

"Odd, Great Sage, why am I so confused right now?" I asked mentally, feeling as if my trip in the dungeon was somehow someone else's doing and not my own.

[What is the last thing you remember?]

"Killing the two Frog Shooters on the sixth floor, then everything becomes hazy," I said, even more confused, "Could it be some sort of mind control or poison?" I asked with a frown.

[Negative, there are no traces of mind control or poison]

"Then what can it be?" I asked, my confusion giving way to anger and a bit of fear.

[Hmm... It seems you are unlucky. The most probable cause is that the body's inner ego is able to influence your decisions]

"Woah, woah, woah, hold up. Are you saying that this body isn't completely mine?" I said, gesturing to myself wildly.

[Not exactly, the body seems to hold on to a trace of the original's personality, but you are the only one truly in there]

The phrasing of Great Sage's reply made a new question pop into my mind, "How did I get this body?" I asked slowly, not sure I would like the answer.

[A clone was made of the original's body, but there is a chance that those with powerful egos can leave a trace of themselves in the body once it is cloned. However, that is very rare, affecting only 1 out of 100,000 reincarnators]

"What the hell, then how can I fix it," I asked, angry that something as important as this wouldn't be told to me.

[There is no way to fix it right now. However, it is recommended to fix this issue soon because eventually, the inner ego will merge with your soul if left untreated]

"WHAT," I nearly screamed out loud, feeling dread wash over me like a wave, "Can't the being that reincarnated me fix this?" I asked desperately.

[Yes, it is possible, but the chances of that being's attention being on you anytime soon are 0.00000001%]

"So, I'm just screwed?" I asked with a sigh, my anger fading and turning to determination, "No, you said there are some options to fix it. How can I do that?"

[There are three ways. The first is to suppress and destroy the inner ego with your own, but this will fail in your case. The inner ego of Khun Eduan is too powerful for you to suppress or destroy. The second is to create a ritual to exorcise the ego, but this will require you to be at level three with S-999 in your magic stat after maxing the stat at levels one and two. The third is to accept and fuse with the inner ego willingly]

"Doesn't that only give me one real option, to exorcise it at level three?" I asked sarcastically, but already thinking about how I can speedrun level three without dying horrifically.

[Option three may actually be the best option]

I wanted to get upset and yell at Great Sage that it wasn't already, but I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself, "You haven't led me wrong so far, Great Sage. Why is option three the best?"

[You are coming from a peaceful environment in your past life. The closest you got to actual violence was watching videos online. The reason you have been able to adapt so well to this world is due to Khun Eduan's inner ego influencing you. He experienced strife and death for thousands of years. Even just in the dungeon, the reason you didn't freeze when facing that first goblin was because of Khun Eduan's battle instincts ingrained into his inner ego]

"That... does make sense, but won't I become a different person if I merge with his inner ego?" I asked, honestly scared to have my personality messed with and becoming a different person. It was a primal fear of change and not being in control anymore, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake it.

[Think of it more as an evolution instead of becoming a different person. Remember, 82% of reincarnators die because they weren't mentally prepared for the violent worlds they found themselves in. They thought they could handle the gore and violence, but they ended up dying]

Everything Great Sage said made sense, but I couldn't shake my fear, "I'll think about it," I said, beginning to walk toward the guild building to exchange some magic stones.

I became lost in thought as I walked. I knew that what Great Sage said was true and that it would be more useful than not to fuse with the ego. I knew I liked to believe, like most people, that I would be fine in a violent world full of killing, death, and betrayal, but I wasn't so sure. I knew that my feelings of guilt or fear would overwhelm me in tough moments and that I would need to grow and change to survive. After asking Great Sage about how I obtained so many magic stones, I knew that I would never have dared to do any of that myself.

However, maybe what I need to do is change and become a new person for this new life. Even as I thought those words, fear gripped my heart, causing my heart to beat wildly. Before I could come to a decision, I arrived at the guild building. I took a deep breath and walked inside, heading toward the exchange counters off to one side of the lobby. I could clearly see two signs, one was a group of counters for less than 50 magic stones in total, while the other pointed to larger deals for bulk deposits of magic stones.

I walked over to the bulk deposits desk and reached into my storage, grabbing a large bag and filling it with magic stones before removing it from my storage. I waited until nobody was watching to do so. Nobody was even glancing my way, so I took out the overstuffed bag and poured it into a funnel that led behind the large desk. While I had been calling it a desk, these were more of small rooms that had a slot for the attendant inside to pass things through and a place to pour magic stones into, as well as a slot to side monster drops through. I couldn't even see the attendant through the slots, but I could hear someone going through my magic stones and drops.

"Your party must have had a really good day," A male attendant spoke to me suddenly from within the partition.

"Yeah, we worked pretty hard to get these all," I said neutrally, not really caring to engage in conversation with everything currently on my mind.

After a few minutes, a bug full of money was passed through the slot, accompanied by the attendant's voice, "That was quite a haul. It comes out to 125,000 Valis."

My eyes opened wide in surprise as I heard that, and I gave a low whistle, causing the man inside to laugh. I quickly realized how much better it was to make money going solo. If I had been in a party of five people, then I would only get a 25,000 Valis cut of this money. Of course, that is how much a group of level one adventurer can make in a day, but still. I grabbed the money and placed it into my storage subtly before wishing the attendant a good day and walking out of the guild. I half expected to be followed by a greedy or desperate adventurer, but nobody did so.

I made my way back toward Babel, lapsing back into thought about the inner ego in my body. I tried to think of a pros and cons list for reasons to and not to fuse with it. The pros were that it would make me more confident, more used to blood and conflict, and give me better battle instincts, plus I would probably level much faster. The cons were that I would become more reckless, a bit of a battle maniac, and probably lazier. Also, Khun Eduan is a bit of a douche in general, so I wasn't sure what other negative traits I might pick up.

"How would the fusion work Great Sage?" I asked, trying to get more details before committing to any singular path.