Jay’s destination was the second pyramid, however he first had to walk past Sedulus's pyramid, along with the two massive pillars which sat in front of the first pyramid.
Jay remembered that last time he was here, there were two sword statues and one spear statue in between these pillars of the pyramid; the spear statue had a black helmet that he was forced to knock off before he could end the fight quickly.
For a moment he considered commanding the skeletons, but after seeing what Blue did previously, he decided to let Blue maintain his commander role - for now anyway.
Walking along, Jay decided to open his exp notification.
[240 Exp]
He closed it with a slight smile. Usually he would say “Nice” to himself, but something else was weighing on his conscience - The last few days had felt repetitive to him.
“It feels like I’m moving in circles… heading back to the marsh, realising I am weak and have not come very far, doing this dungeon multiple times… what am I even doing here?”
He walked a little more slowly, feeling like he was getting nowhere.
“Hmm… it feels like a waste of time…” he pursed his lips, and took a deep breath before exhaling slowly “But I have a reason to keep going.”
“I could live a peaceful, quiet life.” he stopped walking.
Taking a moment, he looked around the ruined landscape as he went deep into his thoughts.
It was quiet and dark. A dead land. Barren. Every building in ruin, never to be built up again.
“No. A quiet, peaceful life can only come about when I am all powerful… this world wont allow peace for the weak.” he looked at the ruins around him.
“It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war after all.”
“Otherwise, I may end up like this city.”
With a nod, he kept walking.
“This is not a meaningless walk.” he now walked a little faster, having encouraged himself.
Suddenly, Jay got a notification.
[Immortality Research 4%]
“Huh, another page.” he thought, looking for somewhere to stop.
Ahead, there were two stone statues, so he decided he would read the new page while the skeletons fought.
As he read, the skeletons prepared for battle.
Once again, the three skeletons stood in front of Jay, while Blue stood at Jay’s side like a personal body guard.
Jay smiled and shook his head, seeing that the strategy was the same as before.
“If it works, it works” he shrugged, taking out his book.
Jay read it as the fight went on, then read it again, trying to take it in and understand it.
“Huh…” Jay felt weird after reading the new page of the immortal book, but he soon felt normal again while watching the last statue crumble before him; another victim of his skeletons.
He continued walking across the dungeon, fighting a few more groups of the statues as they marched towards the pillars.
Finally, the small band came to the three stone statues in between the pillars.
Two swordsmen and one spearman.
“Should be an interesting fight.” Jay thought as they approached.
Finally, the skeletons stepped forward, though this time Blue was with them.
“You’re gonna help huh?” Jay said to Blue who finally entered the fight.
Blue didn’t look back to its master, being wholly focused on the enemies.
The skeletons then ran off, each to their own targets.
“I’ll step in if I need to.” Jay thought.
Blue went to help fight the spearman.
The spearman statue still had the black helmet on, so Jay wondered if Blue would try to knock it off to do critical hits or simply attack the rest of the statue’s body to slowly kill it.
It didn't take long for Jay to get his answer.
As the fight progressed, Blue and Red slowly killed the spearman statue without successfully knocking off the black helmet.
“I guess their skill level isn’t quite there yet.” he pursed his lips.
It didn’t take long before Red and Blue killed the spearman statue.
[35 Exp]
“Hmm, I wonder why the spearmen statues give more exp even though they are the same level? The swordsmen statues only give 30 exp each.”
“I guess I can ask Sedulus. I might as well drop off some crystals to her too.”
Blue and Red each went to fight one of the last two swordsmen statues; destroying them took no time at all.
[60 Exp]
The small party continued on their journey to meet Sedulus. Now all Jay had to do was walk around the side of the huge pyramid, which took some time because of its sheer size - yet this was the smallest pyramid out of all of them.
Two more statues hampered their journey, though they were quickly ended, and finally Jay made it to the back.
“Now, the entrance...”
Jay walked until he found the gap in the back of the black pyramid wall. It was hard to see at a distance because the whole pyramid was black, and it was a gloomy dungeon.
Entering it, he walked down some steps before finding the same room that he left Sedulus in.
There the statue sat, silent in the darkness, a whole head higher than any other statues Jay had encountered so far.
The war spear was still lying on the large table, as if it was an ornament or an artefact designed to be looked at.
“Sedulus?”
The statue didn’t move or respond.
“I have some of the crystals?” Jay felt a little awkward because of the silence.
After a moment, the statue finally spoke - yet it didn’t move.
“Thank you, little one.” Sedulus sounded tired to Jay.
A notification appeared before Jay’s eyes.
[Deposit Soul stones?]
[Yes/No?]
“Yes” Jay thought, as he watched the soul stones disappear from his inventory.
“Thank you, child. Good progress” the statue encouraged Jay.
Jay then checked the progress of his secret quest.
<[Hidden Quest - Soul Liberation]>
[Gather soul stones and bring them to Sedulus]
[Progress]
- Soul stone: 215/500
- Large Soul stone: 0/2
- Greater Soul stone: 0/3
[Rewards]
- 3 Skills: Mind, Mark, Host.
- Weapon: Sedulus’s war spear.
Jay finally had a chance to ask his question.
“Sedulus, why do the spearmen give me more experience than the swordsmen?”
“...”
It was quiet for a moment before Sedulus replied.
Clearly, Sedulus was quite old so answering such questions would take time - though after waiting patiently, she answered.
“Once men of great might and strength. They weren’t all the same level when they were in the flesh, but the vessels they turned into became similar…”
“The spearmen of Helvetia were more skilful than the swordsmen… while they are similar in strength now, they were once unmatched. Worlds apart.”
“Of course, greater quality soul stones resulted in higher levels; more skills and memories could be maintained. The spearmen weren't afforded such stones as there were too few of them.”
Jay became quite interested in these seemingly useless soul stones.
“So… if you have a perfect soul stone, you can create a perfect statue with a permanent mind?”
Sedulus understood what Jay was asking, but knew this would only turn out to be a curse.
“Little one… these things are not for you to know… I will not let our mistakes be repeated.”
“I see. Thanks anyway.” Jay nodded with a solemn smile.
“I can still just come here and gather them for myself after the quest. Who's gunna stop me?” Jay thought, but he stopped himself from making a cunning expression. He wasn’t sure if Sedulus could see his facial expressions after all.
After looking at the beautiful war spear once more, Jay left, leaving the statue in peace.
“Hopefully I can get a large soul stone today… but they will be higher level statues to fight. Good thing I have about 60 teeth spells; I’ll probably run out of mana first though.”
Jay had completely forgotten that the statues were magic immune.
When using a tooth spell, the damage was mostly superficial, but there was still some. The explosive force of tooth would cause tiny bits of it to fly off at high speeds due to the [Propagative Stress Rupturing] part of the spell, which would cause minor physical damage.
Still, it was a waste of both a tooth and the 10 mana required for the spell.
Jay looked towards the second pyramid; It was much larger, and much more imposing.
Its grand size alone somehow resulted in a sense of beauty and majesty.
Thankfully, there was a large wide path connecting the pyramids; a highway of sorts.
The gigantic pillars that were out the front of the first pyramid were now lining each side of the highway.
Jay began his journey to the second pyramid along this black stone road.
It was still quite far in the distance, and many stone soldier statues made up military checkpoints along the highway.
“Hmm, I wonder what the point of these pillars are… just to look cool maybe?” He thought as he walked along.
It wasn't long before he approached the first group of statues.
Three of them - all spearmen.
“Thankfully, they are all still level three. I wonder if they can work together.”
“Hmm, three is probably not enough to form a phalanx.”
Jay remembered the guards when he approached Losla, there was about five of them all with spears. Even then, they did not look very dangerous.
As he approached, the four skeletons finally jumped into action.
*** Sorry there was no chapter yesterday, the next parts of the story have been quite hard to piece together (I try to do at least one chapter per day); there was also another page of the immortal book. It’s also my birthday. ***
