Chapter 64: Punishment

Chapter 64: Punishment

The first thing Neave did after leaving Marven and the gang alone was run off to get a few things done. He took a quick detour to eliminate some snakes to gather a few of the nicer monster cores.

Many vendors were bidding for snake cores, mainly because of how unique the powers inside were. Neave planned on gathering enough to sell for a large dimension ring. Whenever he gained a new ring, he would put the old one inside the new one.

Naturally, having an infinite chain of dimension rings within dimension rings was impossible. When one placed a dimension ring inside of another dimension ring, that would transfer all of the contents of the first to the second, and the ring itself would just float in there inertly until taken back out.

Which meant that Neave lost all of his dimension rings.

It wasn’t long until he gathered well over a hundred cores. Rather than selling all of them, he separated only seventeen or so.

He subtly rounded these up just enough that the transparent spirit didn’t stand out but sufficient to multiply their value exponentially.

Among the ones he left for himself, quite a few had peculiar powers he wanted to potentially acquire. There was one among them that interested him greatly.

Avatar.

It was a relatively weak variation of the power the dragon had displayed with the puppets. But there were a few peculiar details about it that the dragon's power either didn’t possess or the dragon didn’t utilize them.

This ability held a pseudo-pocket dimension where the power would store the avatar. This meant that Neave could potentially alter the avatar itself. He could equip them with powerful gear or even directly modify them if he had those puppets.

But he wouldn’t take the power, not quite yet.

His first order of business was donning the Bob disguise again and visiting his good friend Kalen.

Upon arriving on the top of the tower, Neave found a small crowd of cultivators already bidding for the merchant's attention. Many of them scoffed upon seeing Neave, or rather, Bob.

“What the hell is this fatass doing here?” One of the cultivators present called out.

Kalen winced, hoping the man left it at that.

Neave looked over to this man and laughed merrily.

“What is this small man speaking? Is he stupid!? Hahahaha.”

The haughty cultivator did not take the provocation lightly. He stepped up to Neave threateningly, clearly attempting to intimidate him. This didn’t last very long as Neave grabbed his head and squeezed it so hard the man’s skull almost shattered.

The others cleared the way for ‘Bob,’ and he made his transaction with the apologetic Kalen.

Neave traded the seventeen cores for a dimension ring with massive capacity and a whole load of supplies for his experiments. It was far less material than he had gained from either of his prior purchases, totaling only a bit over fifty million platinum coins, but that was still mighty impressive.

After he was done with the selling, he transformed into his worm form and went to his underground laboratory. The precious stone lining the walls and the high-quality equipment entered his new dimension ring.

Neave spent the next few days slaughtering monsters away from the empire's capital.

There were more important things to do. There were things he needed to do. But the most important thing for him was to not think about those.

He needed not to think about anything.

Marven would have to put developing the style on hold for now.

***

It didn’t take long for Neave to have another laboratory. This time it was much larger. He created four rooms, one dedicated to golem construction, another to alchemy, and the third to forging. The fourth room was a large reinforced chamber that would be used for testing his experiments.

After decorating everything and ensuring it was all in place, he took a moment to rest.

The moment quickly turned to hours. He couldn’t move. Neave was out of things to distract him. Now it was finally time to face the issue at hand.

What the fuck is manipulating my mind?

Neave had long ago come to terms with his being a little kooky, but insanity was one thing. Mind manipulation was another.

Insane thoughts were still his, no matter how irrational they may sometimes be. It was still himself who made those conclusions and decisions, he who forged those opinions and thoughts.

Getting his mind manipulated, however, was something he could never come to terms with.

Perhaps he... ÞÞÞÞ

He screamed. Neave grabbed his hair and pulled it out of his scalp.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” It was that same feeling again. He was about to have a thought, not of his own.

How often did this...

He paused. Was that the same feeling again? He couldn’t tell. He felt a distinct foreignness to some thoughts now. Perhaps due to his perception spirit power? But what about before he acquired it?

For how long had he been having his mind manipulated? Since he left the loop?

No... Before he left it?

He combed over every thought and every decision he had made since he left the loop. He questioned his motives behind everything he did back then. Would he have chosen to slaughter the elders? Or was that a byproduct of the manipulation?

Would he have made the idiotic decisions that had him chased down like a dog, or was that also a consequence of being led down a specific path? He remembered the moments before he encountered Marven and Harel.

Demons.

Demons everywhere.

But those weren’t demons. Those were people. How close was he back then to indiscriminately slaughtering innocents?

Neave went through all of his thoughts rapidly, especially with the help of his enhanced cognitive abilities—which meant that he had days to agonizingly overthink every single thing about everything.

Neave sat in the corner of his underground laboratory, blood pooling around him. Every time he thought he felt the mind manipulation, he punished himself. He would exterminate the foreign influence, no matter what it took. But soon enough, every single thought he had felt like it came from someone else.

And every single thought he had...

Had to be punished.