Church of Isekai -2. Борис Беленький

she melts away. Yes, it’s a girl – quick and deadly when she needs to be. But the Drows aren’t our only shields – thank you Guards for working hard on leveling-up. Believe me, when the time comes, your Levels will be the key to the survival of the entire Camp. Thank you, Lab Chiefs and the entire Lab Staff. I’ve seen them work today and I am impressed. Thank you Paladin Level-10 for taking your part at being a trainer and thanks to your students. I don’t know much about your skills but maybe for a few classes you can join with the Guards? I don’t mean to interfere with your lesson plan but if it’s feasible – please feel free as we’ll all benefit from cross-training. If you are a part of the Gatherers thank you for being a Gatherer. We need the ingredients and we’ll try rotate to get you trained in something else. If you can develop Crafting or Tailoring skills, please see the Labs. We will build better housing, we will learn to fight off the Monsters without the loss of life on our side, we will become one family, one big Team of Friends and we will not allow the PAST to ruin our FUTURE! To the FUTURE! May the PAST burn!

      I wanted a clapping response but I didn’t get it so I’ve sent a happy burst through my Zombie-ties and the crowd exploded in Cheers. I’ve telepathically ordered our Dragon to burn the Gallows and she set them aflame. Utter silence fell over the crowd and I’ve reached out to someone with a Bard specialty and told her to sing. And she sang in utter silence. And the rest of the crowd cried – every single individual.

      They grabbed me from my home and land

      And brought me to this place

      Where I have faced an evil band

      They dragged me their base

      They didn’t let us mourn our friends

      And say our last Good-Bye

      To those who’ve met their early ends

      A trip that I’ve survived

      I suffered pain, I suffered shame

      A lowly crying slave

      And in my cries forgot my name

      A plaything for the Knave

      I silently have dropped my tear

      As in my bunk I’d lie

      I begged of anyone who’d hear

      That by sunrise I’d die

      And all of us have survived in fear

      Just rolling down the slope

      We died by hands of our peer

      In Death we found NEW HOPE

      I have been crying without trying to hide it as I walked to the singer and hugged her. I thanked her most sincerely and she carefully hugged me back, probably trying to see if she can trust her emotions again. I went back to the center and said that this is the most emotional I’ve been in a long, long time. Thank you very much. NOW. I want us to be silent for a minute and remember. And then I want anybody who can sing – SING! I want anybody who can dance – DANCE! I want anybody who can play any musical instrument and perchance can get one – PLAY! Today we mark the end of the PAST and the beginning of the FUTURE! Will there be hardships? YES. The World Masters will throw every Monster they have at us, just for their Entertainment and we WILL PREVAIL! We will raise our Levels, we will use our ingenuity to develop untold wonders and to even penetrate the Shimmering Veil and get even more wonders from there! I have already gone there and I’ll tell you more about it but when there’s more to tell. And now please, enjoy the night! TO THE FUTURE!

      It took a while but the dancing did start and the singing was there and someone brought out all of the Camp food stores and Victoria brought a few more logs to keep it lighted and festive.

      With all the emotions, my Mana Inner store were filled to the brim and by sipping some more I’ve initialized the most uneventful quick upgrade to Level-11. Then indeed I got an offer to go to 13, 17 or 19 and went all-in. As usually happens with my reckless moves, I went through by an entire hairbreadth… Maybe a half of it… Yes the entire dancing crowd felt really tired but they’ve blamed it on their excitement and just went to the Barracks or houses for a quick laying down. I’ve emptied two of my Level-20 Energy Stores and by end end Dr Kate, with two Holy Maidens walked over to me pumping all of their Mana into me. All of the time they were very vocal about some utterly irresponsible Group Leaders who don’t account for all possibilities and overestimate their capacity. What would they do without me? Have I thought about it? No, no I haven’t. Why? Because I’m a self-absorbed little kid who’s still playing with his toys accept now those toys a people’s lives including my own and… I hugged Kate and kissed her on the forehead. All of her steam went out and she just stood there. A beautiful slender young woman in the hands of a young man. It was so sudden yet here we are. Just kids a few days ago, full grown-ups today. I don’t think I love her and I don’t know what she feels toward me. However we are bound to live side-by-side and care for each other. We don’t have to call it love but we both know we’d give our lives for each other. Thank you Kate. Thank you Doctor Nectar. Thank you, my sister-in-arms. Thank you Dear Maidens. I’d like to congratulate you – your leader just gained Level-19. CLICK!

      Then I heard a voice in my head I’ve expected to hear anytime now. The Old Boss spoke out from his dead Brownie body that I carry on me now next to all of the Energy Crystals. Why? Because being an independent Necro-Creature he has his own Energy Capacity and I can drain him at will. A self-charging Energy Store. An angry sneaky plotting Energy Store who had already tried to overtake my body. Let me install some new restrictions on him before I forget, now that I’m almost his Level. There. Why? Because “Don’t. Anger. Your. Necromancer.” that’s why. He told me, “You’ve suffered from this human filth no less than I did. Why do you care about them? Or is it that you only care about playing your game with these dolls and soldiers?” I replied, “You have gathered so much Knowledge but you forgot that that’s not Science. Science expects you to doubt your outcomes and you never doubted yourself. ‘I read this, therefore it’s True’. We know plenty of bloody tyrants who wrote tomes upon tomes, tractates upon tractates and usually committed atrocities wiping out those who didn’t fit their printed vision of the World. You failed to understand that you are limited, and the World isn’t, therefore you must adjust to the World instead of adjusting your dataset. We call it ‘Confirmation Bias’ or ‘Model Overfitting’. This is why you didn’t just fail – you’d adjusted if you just failed. This is why people are dancing at the sight of your corpse being incinerated. And don’t tell me about my mind control – you had your potions that did basically the same. You thought yourself an Infallible God and this is why you failed. Maybe one day I’ll let you join me and try to partially atone by advising me OR maybe you can be my self-charging energy store. Now, instead of being angry at your schoolmates, you’ll be angry at me until a day comes when I disperse your soul. You are too dangerous to keep around. Now, Good Night,” and I’ve drained him again.

      Back in the Cave Part 5

      The first thing I need to do while the Old Boss is de-energized is to finish reading his soul, looking for his secret stashes and learning from his experiences. I had to make frequent breaks to make sure he stays perfectly empty and by the end, I really wanted to burn him as fast as possible as well as several items in his office after I saw the way he used them. Just as we have suspected, he didn’t have any special ways to communicate with the World Masters who actually run this place. He learned about them fast enough but then basically set into an “evil psychopath” routine. Somehow he even learned that the Masters are happy with him – I suspect there were enough viewers interested in this perverted “show”. If my understanding is correct, the bigger the viewership, the bigger they make the World. Ours is rather small – Fizz the Sprite told us, when we’ve just arrived, that he can fly across our “corral” in less than a half an hour. In fact now, that the Old Boss’ soul spoke to me, I got his map added to mine and indeed we’re a rather small place. They told him about our sneaking away and hiding on the Day 1 by announcing a “Special Mission” to eliminate our hideout at a specific location. That’s when the Drow Team visited