11%!
Thanks to Hei Yu's big mouth, panic, and fear, I was able to perform a surface scan of his mind and, with a bit of deduction, pinpoint the skill required to examine myself for the Spirit Body conversion progress. It was all going well.
I was advancing at tremendous speed. Around 1% every few months to half a year. That was dozens of times faster than a common man. Still, I felt it was not fast enough. The technique to step onto the path of godhood required that I complete the Spirit Body Cultivation method. At least I thought so. And I was still a long way from completion. I could hardly wait.
***
Time passed, and winter was over, replaced by spring, though admittedly, the desert weather didn't change much, so you couldn't really tell. Then again, even if it did, I probably wouldn't have noticed as I was busy meditating deep underground, sitting on a throne of Dragon's blood.
Two dozen or so of my copies were busy working around me as I trained, repurposing a cache of beast cores and turning them into Seeds. Seeds of Freedom. The Spirit Realm golem cores. I had so many, and they served a single purpose.
To kill.
They took over the task of fighting for a simple reason. I was bored.
Fighting was just not fun anymore. Everyone attacking our tower-turned-fortress was weak. Mentally and physically. I absorbed so many Souls, but the quality was trash, so I was still yet to reach the Sixth Level despite killing thousands.
The Souls were split among all of us Soul Eaters, so that hindered me a bit, too. John, meanwhile, reached Level Nine, Alexandra was the same as me at Level Five, and Adam advanced to Level Three of the Spirit Realm.
Olivia and Onyx remained the same.
Anyway, defending our base became a chore instead of a fun event. The various monsters, Drow warriors, and even corrupted humans attacked us, but their assaults were quick, sporadic, and above all, weak.
They would attack at random times, often in the middle of the night, and I got tired of getting my training sessions disrupted by their screams. That's why I expanded my army, leaving a hundred or so golems to roam around the base and kill anything that moved. They were simple constructs, only capable of using a single energy beam as an attack. But, even weak as they were, and though they needed a long time to recharge in the sparse Qi environment, to keep our base safe, it was enough.
The three Clans and the Drow entered a sort of stalemate, only launching small, probing attacks at each other, not committing any real power to the assault. I suspected they were worried the other would bring out a trump card if they overextended, and it was common knowledge that attacking Cultivators on their home turf was a bad idea. So, they both sat back, sending simple pawns to probe each other and fight it out.
We were unfortunately wrapped in the conflict, but we were on the edge of that territory, so it wasn't that bad. The worst that happened was a clueless human team belonging to the City that tried to attack us. It took a lot of restraint and a few threats on our part to convince them we were not the enemy. Having Olivia in our midst did not help the situation. Well, neither did Thlaza, but we managed.
***
There was a knock on the door, and a person stepped inside.
"Gerald?" It was Adam. "We have a, uh... a situation."
[What is it?]
He pointed back with his thumb. "I think it's best if you come see it for yourself."
I sighed and stood up, following him to Thener's lab. The doctor, I decided to call him that, had a large hall dedicated to his research, and he was there with John and Bram, surrounding some kind of monster.
I stared at the abomination chained to the far wall. It was decently large, about five meters tall if I had to guess, but its freakishly long limbs were broken, and it was bloodied all over. It was clear that whatever that was, it used to be human. The unmistakable human face was twisted into something animalistic and nightmarish, and it growled, thrashing around in its constraints.
It was not the first one we met, but it was the first one we captured.
[What did you do to it?] I asked John who was standing there, looking at it with crossed arms.
"Nothing yet. Well, except for putting it in chains, of course."
[It looks like Swiss cheese.] I pointed out the many bleeding holes dotting the monster's body. [What happened?]
"Your golems happened. They shot it so many times, they ran out of energy." John smirked but then turned serious again.
[And yet it's still alive. Interesting...] I went closer to the beast, examining it. [What can you tell me, Doc?] I asked Thener.
"Not much, unfortunately. This is way out of my area of expertise, Master."
"Yep, that's why we called you." John added. "We couldn't make sense of this thing. What do you think?"
[Hmm…] I pinched off a piece of flesh from the creature and rolled it between my fingers. I then smelled and even licked it. It tasted rancid and bitter.
[Remarkable toughness of the flesh. Among the best I have seen. It's also very toxic, don't touch it.] I warned, watching as my fingers began turning black from the acid and the toxins in its blood. A quick pulse of concentrated flames fixed that.
John hummed, frowning. "Yeah, we have noticed. The damn bastard is ruining my floor. This shit was expensive." He pointed out. The puddle of blood beneath the monster was sizzling and bubbling, slowly eating through the reinforced and enchanted stone.
I examined the monster more closely, even trying to access its memories. The results were… unclear.
[Well, I have good news and bad news.] I announced.
"Shoot."
[Good news, this thing is already dead.] I happily said. At the same time, the beast roared, trying to bite at my hand pointing at it.
John lifted an eyebrow. "It doesn't look dead."
[Well, it has no Soul, therefore it's dead.] I shrugged. [Why it's still moving, that's another thing entirely.]
"Okay…? I thought it was just difficult to detect, but… Well, whatever. What's the bad news?" John demanded.
[I'm afraid this thing was meant to be captured.] I sighed. [It's been sending a signal through the subspace for a while now. It's very faint, but it's definitely there. Bringing it inside was a mistake.]
"Fuck!" John groaned and then kicked the monster in frustration. The beast responded by spitting some blood at him, which he dodged without effort.
"So this thing is a beacon?" Adam asked.
[Of some sort, yes. The Drow probably sent it to find out where our base is.] I said. [Think about it. For the last three or four months, every creature that tried to attack us died. That's a 100% death rate. Even worse than attacking The City, I reckon. If I were in their shoes, I would also want to know what was going on.]
"So, how do we destroy it?" John asked. "It doesn't seem to… well, die."
[That's a problem, isn't it? I would advise against burning it, its blood seems to produce some really nasty compounds.] I spoke from experience. [Perhaps if we atomized it....]
"Uh, guys?" Adam raised his voice with concern. "What's happening?"
I turned and saw the thrashing monster slowly expanding. It was not growing, but its lanky limbs were inflating like a balloon. Its dead eyes seemed to completely lose focus, and I detected an echo of something that sounded like a distant signal.
The beast froze in an instant, and its flesh suddenly inflated far beyond what I thought possible.
[Everyone! Get down!] I shouted and rapidly formed a spherical barrier around the dead prisoner. I then compressed the shell around it and made it disappear.
"Wha-"
An explosion shook the tower and the secret underground facility with it. Dust fell from the ceiling as the tremors settled.
"What the hell happened?! Where did it go?!" John shouted.
[Relax, I teleported it outside.] I said, shaking my head. [And not a moment too soon, it seems.]
We heard the sound of footsteps and soon Olivia and Thalza burst into the lab.
"What's happening? We felt an explosion! Are we under attack?" The larger woman asked.
"No, we just-"
[Yes.]
John and I exchanged glances.
"Yes?" He asked.
[That was clearly meant to take us out. It was an attack.]
"Okay, fine, yes. But it's…"
[You are not convinced. This base is reinforced, right? Yet we still felt the power of that explosion. How about we go and take a look?] I suggested.
"Where did you put it? Was it close?" Adam wondered.
[Well, yes, relatively speaking. I didn't have much time to act.]
We went to the top of the tower to the observation deck, where the rest of the team was already waiting. We looked over the desiccated landscape.
"Woah… How far did you send it?!"
"That crater must be at least a kilometer across, right? I remember those hills… what's left of them anyway."
"I had that in my lab?!"
As the people discussed the destruction the monster brought, I was focused on the toxic plume of smoke spreading across the landscape. The miasma was heavier than air and kept close to the ground, and as I watched it slowly expand from the crater, it didn't appear to be thinning out.
"Uh, Gerald? Is it just me, or does that thing still keep expanding?" John echoed my concerns.
[Stay here.] I said and flew over to the field of toxic gas. As expected, right in the middle of the crater was a tiny crack in space out of which kept pouring the poisonous fumes. I sent a disruptive pulse of Qi, and the portal immediately collapsed, stopping the outpouring of miasma.
Well, it stopped expanding, but the kilometer-wide crater was still full of it.
Somehow, the Drow found a way to reanimate a corpse and use it to smuggle a bomb into our base. That was bad, very bad. A Trojan horse. Or a Trojan corpse. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if that thing exploded inside our tower. Or worse, inside The City.
Well, I didn't have to imagine because that's exactly what happened. We just didn't get the news until a few days later.