Unable to think of anything better, he recklessly lunged forward with a powerful push of [Bolting Motion], forcing the caretaker to take a series of tight steps back into the middle of the room.
She deflected the thrust he paired with his lunge, her rapier cutting through his right hand, the limb falling to the ground together with his sword.
Without hesitation, he activated [Bolting Motion] again, the muscles in his legs rupturing as he stepped past his opponent, striking into her mind again with [Filial Deathshroud]. His will sapped by the lightning-infused skill, he still rallied every sliver of focus he could bring to bear with [Mana Shroud] on seeping the rich ambient Mana into him, evenly into his physical Attributes so he can move fast enough, and mental ones to reinforce his soul attack.
The caretaker was ready for the soul attack this time, however, and the syrupy thickness around her soul was now bitter and acidic, tearing into his own in retribution for his attack even as it thickened further. His usual attack clearly wouldn't be enough to paralyze her for a moment again, but he simply focused further on the attack, the electric surge of [Bolting Motion] seeping into his soul's strike, [Mana Shroud] taking the Skill's lightning and infusing his Attributes.
Axl's mind was filled with the surging purity of unyielding clarity, for barely a moment, his every sense and body and Mana bending to his will, and he willed an equilibrium. His movement towards the bust at the corner of the room was quick yet centered, his soul attack piercing and effective, his vitality and endurance maintaining his many wounds in check as his body pushed forward.
The caretaker's soul surged in fury and power, her wooden face twisted in anger as she resisted, but her strike was delayed, Axl reaching out to the bust, his fingers barely wrapping around the pendant hanging from the figure's neck.
A rapier tore through his chest as he immediately accepted the prompt that appeared, without reading it. His heart was pierced, his blood seeping into his organs and from either side of his chest-wound with alarming speed, and he fell to his knees, desperately willing his flailing vitality and activating the remaining F-Grade healing potion in his [Alchemical Cauldron].
His lightning-infused empowerment ended, his focus on [Mana Shroud] crumbled as his attention wavered. The blood loss was too severe, and he had too many injuries, but he held on, trying to force every stitch of healing to his heart and stab wound. The rapier wasn't there anymore, somehow, and slowly, an additional source of vitality—no, it was something else—entered his body, building on the effect of his potion.
With a trembling hand, he willed another potion to his remaining hand, but he dropped it before being able to bring it to his lips. Then it was suddenly there, the liquid flowing down his throat.
Axl vaguely recognized that the caretaker was kneeling in front of him, one hand on his chest, infusing some healing into him, the other feeding him the potion. Her mouth moved to speak, but he couldn’t hear any words, unable to focus on anything more than rallying to take care of his flailing body.
Another potion was raised to his lips, and he drank, this one yet another form of healing. The potion's liquid grabbed hold of his blood and willed it to move, forming a circuit between his lungs and the rest of his body, bypassing the need for a heart altogether, and his attention slowly returned, letting him further help with the frantically monstrous amount of healing his body still needed to stabilize.
"Let Moxlin and Aria in," he muttered, not wanting them to wait outside anymore. "A small spider and purple-eyed elf just outside the barrier. Protect them."
The caretaker's left eye twitched slightly. "As you wish, young master. I will send for them."
He then returned to work, ignoring his lightning-singed legs and severed right hand to focus on his chest wound and torn heart. At least the rapier strike didn't sever his spine, he thought with a shudder, that would've made his arm fail to grab the pendant and just have him die trying to reach out for it. It was also convenient that the caretaker came with the mansion, it seemed, or else he might just have claimed it to die right after.
Soon, he felt triage talismans being placed on his arm and chest, seeing Moxlin scuttle around frantically from the corner of his eye, bringing a smile to his face. He even felt Aria's hands on his shoulders, which somehow soothed him to the very soul, an effect he couldn't understand or detect the source of, but very much welcomed.
He was fed yet another potion by the caretaker, one that felt like a more potent version of his own F-Grade healing potion, but which specialized in knitting together torn cardiac muscle, and soon the organ started beating again.
Axl felt he was largely in the clear now, but still kept actively boosting his Vitality with [Mana Shroud] and the lingering effects of the various potions still helping his body. The caretaker even attached his severed hand back. It was interesting to see, the bone she stapled together with a pair of fang-like nails held together by thin sinew, their presence seeping in a trickle of healing Mana into the fracture site. Once the bone was set in place, she used a fine string that dissolved into the flesh, knitting it together as seamless skin and muscle. It still needed a lot of work to heal entirely, but this was much better than growing the entire hand from scratch.
After what felt like a few hours of further work, Axl had done all he could, his will and attention sorely overdrafted, and he let himself fall asleep.
He woke up still in the floor of the herbal fermentation annex. The first thing he noticed was the violent itching coursing through his entire body, especially in his reattached arm, legs, and chest. A pounding headache soon joined in the fun, doing a fantastic job at competing for his attention.
Aria put her hands on his forehead, and the headache subsiding considerably. Moxlin stood on a small stepping stool next to his body and the caretaker also knelt next to him, her wooden face unreadable.
"No need to speak," said Aria. "Rest, rest."
Axl nodded, but still briefly checked his gains from the frantic struggle, the first of which was [Mana Shroud] and [Bolting Motion] both increasing two steps.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Skills: Mana Shroud (Rare, Proficiency G.8), Mind-Soul Bulwark (Rare, Proficiency G.4), Attuned Drill Strike (Rare, Proficiency G.2), Bolting Motion (Rare, Proficiency G.2), Mental Map of Irialith (Common)
This was a gain he particularly welcomed, since he could now feel like he could use the movement skill more often and with less damage to his body, and apparently join it together with [Mana Shroud] for an even more potent empowerment. Later, he'd have to ask Moxlin and Aria if there was any tribulation that came with his use of lightning, but he felt there wasn't, and that it only added to his buildup on that front like the normal use of the skill, so more than worth it.
Axl then turned to his quest reward.
>>Quest: Claim the Elder Alchemical Manor
>>Update: Quest Complete
>>Geas of the Weak triggered: Maximal F-Grade trial result obtained while in the G-Grade.
>>Reward: All Elder Alchemical Manor G-Grade facilities unlocked, choice of three F-Grade facilities unlockable.
>>Accept: Yes/No?
There it was. He'd upgraded from a hallway allotment in Ost smaller than Roken's bedroom to a big-ass Alchemist's mansion in deep space. Not bad at all for a jumped-up miner. He accepted.
The caretaker frowned slightly. "I see you have access to many of the rooms now. I will have them prepared for your inspection and usage, young master."
Axl turned to her. "Aria should also get a room of her choosing, should I unlock that one?"
"I got it unlocked as part of my own reward," Aria said. "You won't be able to go in, however, since it's an F-Grade room."
"I do all the work and you get an F-Grade room for free?" Axl chuckled, then regretted it as it felt like stabbing himself in the chest. "I can choose three of the F-Grade ones to unlock as well, so at least it's good I don't have to use yours as one of mine."
The caretaker stared at him, her fury flaring again. "Very well, would you like a list of the available F-Grade facilities?"
Axl shook his head. "Later, I'm afraid that if I see what I can access, I'll want to go there immediately, and I really should finish healing. I'm already too tempted by the idea of the library alone."
"The library is not merely an F-Grade facility." The caretaker's voice was even and cold.
Axl's eyes widened, his mind burning at the idea of having access to an E-Grade library.
"No!" Moxlin pointed at him. "I know that dopey look, you're thinking of doing something dumb. Don't go wandering into areas you shouldn't, you'll trigger some deranged Deep System quest and do this all over again."
Aria laughed behind an upraised hand. "You chide, but those are strong karmic paths. It's like the heavens love you dearly and want you killed at the same time."
"Fine," Axl rolled his eyes. "I'll rest up here just in case. Moxlin, you look around the rooms and see if you want one too—um, what do I call you, lady swords mistress?"
The caretaker took a moment to realize Axl was talking to her. "You do not need to refer to me by name, young master. I am but a lowly servitor of this manor, and may be called as such. To command for me, simply call for a servitor, and I will come."
"Whatever you prefer," he said, nodding to the wooden woman. "Alright, everybody out, I'll have lady servitor here get you all when I'm done recovering."
Axl thought he'd have a hard time sleeping after that, yearning to check out his new place, but his body overruled his curiosity, and he slept like a rock for a dozen hours. It was nearly noon the next day when he got up from his bedroll, stretching his sore body. There was still healing to be done in the details, but he was good enough to walk around and check things out.
He left the herbal fermentation annex, noticing the bust and the bouquet of flowers lovingly placed next to it were gone. Not that he'd bring it up to the servitor, as it was none of his damn business what she did on her own time.
Walking down the luxurious hallway felt strange, like he was still an intruder, not really able to internalize that this was all his. But the ownership was more than tangible, it was etched into his actual soulspace, a sensation of it as concrete as how he could access his two dimensional rings and pouch. The [Keystone pendant of Pelitrel's legacy] wasn’t in any of those storage devices, however, but in its own specific dimensional pocket, and he felt he could take it out if he wanted, but he certainly wouldn't tempt fate that way.
Soon, he wandered into the large atrium just beyond the orange door, a tasteful seating area with rounded couches facing a large table, a statue of some complex abstracted shape hovering over it. A circular skylight far above let the daylight shine in, giving the place a very aerie feeling—even if it was odd, since there should be two stories above the room. The walls all had paintings of alchemists at work, hunched over a bubbling cauldron, meditating within a cave, reaching down to herbs growing at the base of a tree, and various other scenes of the craft. A particularly disturbing one had an alchemist lying on barren rock, his entrails and organs strewn out of their body from intricate little cuts, a puzzling smile on his face.
"Servitor?" he called out, uncertain if he was doing it right, but the caretaker appeared from the hallway barely a second later.
She stepped to the side of the entrance, then stood perfectly still and silent, hands politely folded in front of her, her immaculate form, refined dress, and gentle smile barely masking the deep fury Axl could feel roiling from her with his Charisma. He wondered if he should address this, but if she didn't even want to give him her name, he doubted she wanted to talk about this either. Maybe Moxlin and Aria would have some ideas on how to deal with this situation.
He asked her to bring the other two to the atrium, if they weren't busy with something, and she nodded and left, all three of them soon sitting around the odd sculpture.
"Oh! That was a glyph of binding!" Moxlin jumped on the table and pointed at the shifting art piece. "It was there on the corner for just a second!"
Axl nodded, also realizing there was a lot of glyphic stuff popping up in the otherwise random shapes the sculpture created, but he tried not to get too lost examining it, since he had other priorities to get to.
"It's very distracting and sharp, it makes the room feel very hostile," said Aria. "I like the pretty paintings more."
Axl looked at the disembowelment one, then back at her, but she just smiled, with apparently nothing more to add.
"Anyhow," Axl looked to the caretaker standing to the side. "Can we have a brief overview of the available rooms? Both the ones in the G-Grade I have access to and the ones in the F-Grade that I can unlock?"
The servitor bowed politely. "Yes, young master. In the G-Grade, you have all the hallways and entrances on the ground floor, including this atrium. Most of the gardens outside as well, only three of the groves are F-Grade, one specialized for nature-attuned fruits, another for light-attuned plants, the last dedicated to severed maltree roots, a potent narcotic that is the key ingredient in making Lovely Imbliss. The previous young master focused a good deal on producing its production."
Axl nodded, recognizing the contempt veiled behind her even tone. Maybe she just hated all the owners of the place since the first one?
"Within the ground floor, the various simple herb processing and harvesting facilities at the periphery of the manse are also in the G-Grade, of which there are twelve rooms. An additional four rooms are used for gardener puppet storage and maintenance. Within the servitor corridors, all rooms are in the G-Grade, including various stores for dried and processed herbal and other components, a tannery, a weavery, a kitchen, three pantries, and an infirmary. Within the manse proper are a conference room, a main ballroom, a main dining room, and an accessory ballroom and dining room. There are also three rooms dedicated to various aspects of alchemy, three to ingredient preparation and refinement, and a smithy."
Axl looked around in surprise. "All that in the first floor? That sounds like a lot."
"There is a fivefold spatial expansion in place," the servitor said. "Some rooms with a larger compression, like the main ballroom."
Axl's eyes widened, not really believing he actually had a bigger place than what it looked like—by a substantial margin.
"That's a lovely compression!" Aria said. "Very considerate of us at the lower grades."
Axl shook his head, then just indicated for the servitor to continue.
LitRPG Dark Humor Overpowered MCAI Companion
HEAVEN HAS A HACKER PROBLEM
Bash died doing what he loved: exploiting the system.
Now he's in the Shard, a gamified afterlife where the rich play god and the dead grind dungeons.
Armed with a pure INT build and really bad jokes, he's ready to BASH it all down.
"A lot of stories claim their MC is a 'glitch' or a 'hacker,' but Bash actually acts like one."
— RR Reader
"It may not have crazy aliens but it has the same kind of energy as Dungeon Crawler Carl."
— RR Reader
?? Every Monday and Thursday