Chương 13: From Down To Up, Making Big Strides!

Surprisingly, things actually worked out just fine in the end. Well, I was bisected and my waist had been split down the middle, which had caused searing moments of agony for me, but look at this! I am swimming in fresh meat and steel. I can just tell that their armour and weapons are good stuff, especially the shards left of Benait's blade. These just seem like delicacies.

But before gorging on all that good stuff, I went and fetched my spread out body parts, sticking them back together in the best way that I could manage. My parents had always wanted me to be some sort of genius in one way of power or another, for some reason, so even if against my will, I had learned a lot about them when I was still a little gal. And I had heard that when using healing magic, it was far simpler to just put dismembered limbs back together than to regrow them.

Such was true for basically anything that was about recovery and healing, unless whatever you were trying to treat was gone forever or in a pulp, you should always seek to find them. It worked like a charm, or so I had heard. I figured that my regenerative abilities would work the same way, and turns out I was right.

As I feasted on my battle spoils, my body was put back together like nothing ever happened, and as a side effect, I grew a whole bunch more flesh–Oh, and also getting fixed up was somehow even more painful than getting cut up. Truly, it seemed like anything was an excuse to cause me immense pain. By the way, system, do you know why I am in constant suffering? It is simply the nature of your existence.

You would have normally only been a Steel-bound Curse, but the immense amount of negative emotions directed at you made you into a hybrid, granting you the status of Vengeful Spirit as well Why would anyone direct so much negative emotion my way? I never did anything wrong! … Are you sure? Very sure. I suppose right and wrong vary from person to person… What is that supposed to mean? I really did nothing wrong! Or if I did, it was perfectly justified! Why am I trying to argue with the system?

I should just check the upgrade options I have available. The options are as follows: Flexible Joints - Your steel joints become more flexible Hammer Head - Without damaging your balance, your steel skull grows heavier Flame Resistance (General) - Your body becomes more resistant to burning, heat, and melting, et cetera… Overall, all types of damage that fire can inflict will be reduced Only three, huh? And no returners from last time either…

Seems like I was correct not to go for the resistance ones, though those three aren't all that great.

'Flexible Joints' and 'Flame Resistance' are the same deal as those I didn't pick last time, as they would rely on reappearing multiple times in a row, and not alongside much more attractive upgrades too… But the 'Hammer Head' one? That just seemed incredibly niche. Sure, if I wanted to start headbutting or swinging by the jaw like a battleaxe, it would be nice, but it just seemed impractical when I had feet and hands, with opposable thumbs at that! I guess it would be nice if both of my arms were slashed off… Heh…

I inspected the three options whilst I continued to stuff my face, but eventually, I ran out of food, leaving the basement completely clean, just like my other crime scenes, proving that anything had happened here would be difficult. Hopefully, people didn't know that they were going to head here precisely today… I'll still have to move, though. It's too risky, if I was disturbed once, I'll be disturbed again, and I could have been taken apart by that Benait guy had the circumstances not been in my favour…

So it would be best to just avoid the chances of something like that happening again. I go on the move and crawl back into one of my tunnels, still debating which of those upgrades I should pick. None of them was very attractive. I was plenty flexible already, and although I had thought a similar thing about my toughness last time, I strongly doubt that it would have made a strong difference against that sword blow. It had cut cleanly through me. Just a little bit more resilience wouldn't have changed that outcome.

But feeling that having a heavy skull was just too niche and rather unfitting with my style, I ended up picking the resistance to fire. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. If purely for the reason that if I had to deal with some monstrous creature of steel, my first thought would be to set it on fire. In fact, I would claim that burning things was the initial go-to for basically anything that you didn't understand. Fire reduced everything to ashes.

It just seemed like the best way to make sure something was truly dead and done for. Regardless of what I picked, I made my way through the tunnel to a spot that I had not finished digging, which was supposed to be a way out into the overgrown backyard of my old house. Only a bit more dirt needs to be dug through for me to reach the surface… I had not gotten the occasion to head there since Benait had just been moving too freakishly fast…

But rather than using the stairs and taking the risk of running into potentially more guards, I decided to use this narrow tunnel to break to the surface, where I was greeted by the sprawling vegetation. There, with my head poking out of the ground like I was a most strangely shaped flower, I waited for nightfall. Confirming the four guards had truly been the only ones around, I crawled out, grabbed my clothes, and set off for the poorer areas.

Even if it did not seem like the exact location of their death was known at the moment, there was no doubt in my mind that a swordsman of Benait's skill wouldn't be able to just vanish without people noticing. And since my safety was of high importance, I decided to go where no form of law enforcement could reach me–Where the bizarre people sometimes referred to as the 'middle-class' dwelled and reproduced like rabbits.

Tonight was not an especially dark night, however, the moon shone down brightly, making my shadowy silhouette especially suspicious, but it was fine. My features remained mostly concealed from prying eyes, and suspicious people were far more common in such areas than elsewhere, being pretty much part of the culture. Also, the people here worked arduous manual jobs for the most part, so they were already out cold by this hour, allowing me to look around.

One other thing that differed compared to the neighbourhood I used to live in is that this isn't purely a residential area. When you were a bit richer, the place where you lived and the place where you went to buy things were in completely different areas. This was not the case here. Shops and the like existed alongside private homes. Often, the two were one and the same.

The front would be the business that whatever family owning the place would have had for a few generations, and the back would be where they lived and… Multiplied. Or, there would be a small, narrow upstairs where they dwelled, whilst the more spacious ground floor was reserved for selling whatever they specialised in.

I had a bit of experience with the unwashed masses, after all, Harvey's Diner had been a place targeting said masses as customers with low prices and the opportunity to keep the kids busy and off the back of their parents for a little while. It had been a bit of a surprise to me at first. I had not thought that they would have access to places like restaurants or bars, but it seems that you could lower your standards for your products low enough to sell them at prices that the commoners could afford regularly.

In general, commoners were actually much less poor than I had imagined at first. I suppose that my past self had conflated commoners with peasants and serfs, as it turns out, whilst similarly unpleasant to be around, they were quite different from one another. Peasants and commoners actually had a chance to pull themselves upward, a privilege serfs basically lacked entirely–Unless they were born with some high affinity for magic or something like that, then they would be scooped up by their lord.

In any case, this was reminding me that there might be things of interest around. So I spent some time observing my surroundings, using the moonlight to read the signs hanging above doors. Blacksmiths, bakeries, breweries, tailors, fishmongers, butchers, cobblers, carpenters, chandlers, barbers, apothecaries… There were really a whole bunch of different shops, and oftentimes, there would be many different places selling the same things.

So clearly, business must be good for so many people to be able to offer the same goods so close to one another… However, I ended up stopping in front of a place that claimed to be able to forge the best weapons. Clearly an exaggeration, if that were true, they wouldn't be stuck here, of all places, but the shop itself did seem better off than the other smithing establishment. I can feel some fine steel calling to me behind these doors!

Looking left and right, up and down–Just in case one of those winged beastfolks decided to go for a walk… A fly? Anyway, once I feel that there is no one around, I grab the door handle and give it a good squeeze. After some twisting and bending, the door magically opens up, giving me free rein upon the goods that were still exposed on racks, though the smith must be popular because there wasn't much left lying about at the front of the store.

Only a handful of common weapon types were left, such as spears and daggers. For a blacksmith, they were basically the cheapest thing they could make, as far as I was aware, so for some stock to be left shouldn't be surprising. I quickly gobbled up one dagger, confirming that the steel was indeed of good quality, at least to my refined palate. I was about to just go ahead and devour everything available, but a thought occurred in my head, leading me to go ahead and explore further into the shop.

Beyond a door behind the counter, and beyond what was clearly the smithing area, I started hearing heavy snoring. I didn't peek into any other room after getting past the room where the blacksmith did his work, not wanting to alert anyone to my presence. What I was looking for was something else. From the outside, I noticed that this shop, despite being in a much better state compared to others, lacked a proper second floor, seemingly only possessing an attic.

My idea was simple: I needed a place to stay, and I might as well take residence somewhere I could source some snacks from, so to the attic it was… I just needed to find it. It took me a while to figure out how dark everything was, but I eventually found a hatch in the ceiling tucked in a corner of the smithing room. This is making me wish that I had picked the 'Forward Shine' upgrade the first time, but such a thought does not linger for long. How could some light possibly amount to my beloved music box?

In any case, once the attic was found, the hatch was opened and closed after I made it up there, quickly moving about, until I found a nice corner for me to lie against. W here I entered a state of dormancy until the sun rose again, no one should be able to find me hiding here. I hope.