Chapter 23: Growing a Pair of Arms… as a Rock?! (Patreon)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Growing a Pair of Arms… as a Rock?!

Alice stared with numb disbelief at the notification.

Requirements for evolution have been met.

Would you like to evolve? [Y/N]

She waited only long enough to read the text twice.

"Yes!" she shouted, praying that this newest evolution would give her some skill that could keep Urd safe from the approaching violence.

Just like back at the pond, the cavern filled with a sudden flash of light. The shouts of the cultists grew even louder as the blinding brightness swallowed the world and transformed it into an empty whitescape.

Alice had not felt herself transform the first time, but as she fell deeper and deeper into the endless white, a horrible ache tickled her otherwise numb body. A fire burned beneath nonexistent skin as it was stretched taut and inelastic. She could feel herself breaking, but not even a single crack was allowed to form across her rock body.

She did not notice immediately as the phantom aches faded into oblivion. The endless white chipped away like old paint to reveal the cavern lit by its wavering flames. Sound leaked back into existence, though none of the chaotic frenzy from before returned. The eight cultists had stopped fighting, their weapons held loosely, whatever powers had shimmered in the air dispersed.

Everyone stared at Alice the Rock.

But she was not the same Alice the Rock anymore.

Congratulations on your evolution!

Race: Grudge Stone > Grudgeheart

"I don't think Urd will be able to carry me around anymore," Alice said dumbly as she studied her new form.

She had transformed from a simple rock into what almost looked like a sculpture. She was not round anymore. She rose three feet tall like a small sapling. In place of branches, however, she had two creeping stalagmite arms. The stony appendages splintered at their ends as if to give the illusion of two hands reaching forward, though Alice could not make the rocky fingers wiggle even an inch.

"A grudgeheart," Alice said to herself, recalling the text that had flashed across her eyes.

The name was certainly deserved.

At the very core of the three-foot stone was a mass of bumpy knots, not at all dissimilar to a human heart. Whether it was [Glamour] or the grudgeheart itself, a ruby mineral ran across the stone knots like crystallized blood.

A notification interrupted Alice's inspection of her new body.

New Skill Unlocked: Malevolent Heartbeat I

Malevolent Heartbeat (Rank I): The very air seeps with the misery of mortal kind and their travails. You consume this miasma as if it were a potion, constantly replenishing your cursed energy.

Alice little more than glanced at [Malevolent Heartbeat]'s description. She could see a second new skill, and it demanded her full attention. Despite everything that had happened, she could not help but smile.

New Skill Unlocked: Soul Steal I

Soul Steal (Rank I): The mortal soul should return to The Fates upon death, but They won't mind if it lingers for a little while in your care. You can capture the souls of the recently departed and trap them within yourself.

"That... That sounds twisted," Alice muttered to herself with an unusual excitement. The ability to steal souls... and the skill's description made no guesswork as to what that meant. "It sounds as if I'm keeping people from reaching this world's heaven!"

Alice fought the urge to laugh. [Soul Steal] may have been an absurd skill, but it would do her little good against a group of angry, and very much alive, cultists.

"They all seem pretty stunned for the time being, though," Alice said, biting her nonexistent lip. None of the cultists looked as though they were about to kill one another anymore. They simply stared wordlessly at Alice the Rock. "But who knows how long that will last..."

Her focus shifted anxiously onto Urd.

The Girl lay on the ground in a puddle of blood. None of it belonged to her, but the sight still filled Alice with a flash of anxiety. She did not want Urd to wake up covered in gore. It was a silly thought, but she did not want Urd's clothes to get wet either.

As if summoned by the thought, the pool of crimson started to ripple. Alice watched, dumbstruck, as a river of red rolled from Bram's opened throat to the base of the New and Improved Alice the Rock.

"O-Oh!"

The blood did not puddle around Alice the Rock, however.

"What the...?!"

The blood disappeared inside Alice the Rock.

"This... This tastes goooooood!"

Alice's nonexistent eyes rolled into the back of her nonexistent head as, for the first time in more than a decade, she had a meal. While it was true she had felt Urd nibble on a little bread with [Divine Communion], that was nothing compared to the explosion of flavor that accompanied the taste of Bram's blood.

"It's like a never-ending Gusher!" Alice cooed in delight, thinking fondly of the fruit candy she had craved so much when she was still in middle school.

Acquired Blood: Human Banker (common)

Alice saw the notification flash across her CCTV vision, but she did not care. This had to be related to [Bloodthirsty], but all she wanted was to experience more of this ooey-gooey culinary treat!

Bram's corpse shivered as still more red juice was pumped from his throat. Alice was too distracted by her rapture to notice the man's skin start to deflate. She did not notice the color drain from his flesh, leaving his corpse even more lifeless.

"Just another sip! Just a little bit more!"

Alice could not be satisfied with just one juice box after a sixteen-year fast, after all. The red juice tasted amazing, but it was more than that. For the first time since she had entered this rock body, Alice could feel. This was not Urd's borrowed senses. This was all Alice.

She did not notice the black miasma that rose from Bram's corpse as she continued to squeeze more and more life from his ruined throat. She scarcely even noticed as the black mist was drawn to her rock body like a vacuum.

But she certainly felt it.

"Oooo!"

If the blood had tasted like Gushers, this new sensation was like a slice of chocolate cake thrown into a blender and served as a milkshake.

Acquired Soul

Owner: Bram Staaf

Owner's Level: 17

Owner's Class: Banker

New soul essence available for use.

"S-Soul?!" Alice snapped free from her euphoria as she realized what had just happened. "Did I just... eat someone's soul?"

And Alice suddenly remembered that she was in a room cramped full of cultists. Alice also realized that they would have been watching her both drink the blood and consume the soul of their fallen friend.

"Oh fuck," Alice blurted. She was supposed to protect Urd, not have an all-you-can-eat buffet! "Will they... attack me...?"

But the cultists did not attack Alice the Rock.

"Eh?"

One by one, the black-robed bodies fell to the cavern floor.

An unbeliever has been converted.

Received experience!

Received faith!

"O-Ooo!" Alice shivered with delight as faith filled her new rock body. "Drinking blood converted someone?! What sort of sicko- "

An unbeliever has been converted.

Received experience!

Received faith!

"Eh? Another one?!" Alice could hardly believe her nonexistent eyes. "Did they not like the guy or some- "

But Alice's thoughts were interrupted by still more flashes of black text.

An unbeliever has been converted.

Received experience!

Received faith!

The blood had tasted like Gushers. The soul had tasted like a chocolate cake milkshake. But the endless rush of faith as more and more cultists pressed their hooded faces against the floor felt like a needle full of pixie dust.

"I-I can't...!" Alice's CCTV vision actually swam in front of her as the notifications continued to flicker and flash, as the rush of ecstasy continued to build with an almost obscene pleasure.

Achievement Unlocked: Starting to Look Like a Cult!

Requirements for [Divine Advancement] have been met.

Rank: Infant Divine > Lesser Divine

[Divine Communion] has reached Rank II.

[Divine Traits] have been unlocked in [Divine Development].

An unbeliever has been converted.

Received experience!

Received faith!

Received bonus faith!

Starting to Look Like a Cult!

Congratulations! You have reached Level 10!

Level: 10

VIT: +23

END: +31

PER: +21

INT: +29

WIL: +31

Alice's head felt as though it was going to burst. She wanted to roll over and vomit onto the cavern floor.

But Urd was already on the floor. Her oversized gown was soaked in blood, and the sight sobered Alice like a bucket of cold water.

"I need... Ugh..." Alice forced herself to focus on Urd's misery. "Calm... Calm down... Need to... calm down..."

Her focus drifted from Urd's inert form over to Kuonrat's bushy beard. Like the other cultists, he was trembling like a leaf, his face pressed against the earthen floor.

"Need... Need to take care of Urd..." Alice mumbled. She forced herself to speak the thought aloud, to anchor herself to reality while the world continued to spin around her.

Tickling the [Priest]'s ear, Alice used [Malevolent Whispers].

"Take Urd..." Alice whispered, and the Priest almost leapt off the floor like Frogger. "Take her... Take care of her. Upstairs. I need... I need solitude?"

She needed to be alone. The throbbing cocktail of faith, soul, blood, and a dozen different notifications had begun to ebb, but she did not trust herself to speak with anyone right now.

Kuonrat did not move, however. He remained prostrate and trembling, which made Alice want to rip out her nonexistent hair. She really needed a moment to catch her breath!

"OBEY ME!" Alice shouted with [Serpent's Whisper], sliding the desire into the Priest's mind. "Take everyone away and come back tomorrow!"

"M-Master Merry Weather has spoken to me!" Kuonrat sputtered immediately, his body vibrating with a mixture of awe and terror.

Some of the other cultists lifted their faces off the floor as Kuonrat conveyed Alice's Divine Decree in hysterical hiccups. One by one, they rose from their prayer. What was revealed of their faces was rapturous as well as fearful.

My followers. My new followers.

Alice could hardly believe what had just happened. They had watched Alice drink blood and devour a man's soul... and then bowed down in prayer.

"They're crazy!" Alice hooted drunkenly with a sudden spring of unheard laughter.

The cavern was empty but for the corpse crumpled before her new form.

Bram. The man's name was Bram Staaf, and he was making the most confused expression, as if he believed it to be the height of rudeness to have had his throat hacked open.

Alice did not know why, but the more she looked at his startled face, the harder it was to keep from laughing. The man's throat had been torn open. In movies and television, slitting throats was always clean. Just a line of red.

Kuonrat's knife had ruined the man's throat. Alice was surprised she did not want to retch, and somehow the morbid realization just made her feel even giddier.

"Dead!" Alice hooted, though no sound answered her delirious shout. She had earned her first bit of experience with Erik's death and now an evolution from this man's. "M-Maybe I should ask for more human sacrifices."

The thought earned her another unheard laugh.

The euphoria she had felt...

The rush of faith...

The taste of the man's death...

And all that from just one human sacrifice. She wondered idly what a hundred human sacrifices would feel like. Hadn't a notification even mentioned she would unlock a new skill after ten?

"I'm being silly," Alice said at once, giggling. A hundred human sacrifices. Her mind would likely collapse from the pleasure, to say nothing of the damage to her soul.

So much had happened in the last hour that she had no idea what to do now that she was alone. She opened [Divine Development] in half a daze.

Divine Development

Title: Alice of the Merry Weather

Rank: Lesser Divine

Caretaker: F̶͍́a̶̖͗v̷̻̚o̶̢͛r̷̛͙ș̷́ ̴̭̿O̸̺͐n̸̲̓ë̶͉́ ̴̠͠T̸͕̽a̸̗͘s̴̡̉k̸̖̄

# of Believers: 11

Total Faith Accumulated: 413

Divine Miracles

Acquire additional [Divine Traits] to unlock new [Divine Miracles]

Divine Traits

Perform acts of divinity to unlock [Divine Traits]

Divine Alignment

Acquire (50) unique believers to unlock [Divine Alignment]

Divine Conclave

Reach [Mature Divine] to access [Divine Conclave]

"There's Mister Favors One Task," Alice said, studying the glitched name. She did not linger long on the text, however. There was so much more to think about.

"Eleven followers..." She still could not believe that Eva had become this cult's Dark Mother. "Whatever that means. It doesn't seem like she's their god. Must be some kind of... prophet?"

The problem was Alice still had no idea what [Witches] actually were or what made them so frightening. Sorin had told Mittica that Eva was the first [Witch] to appear in over a hundred years, so it did not sound like [Witches] were a garden-variety nuisance.

I'll need to figure out a way to ask Urd and Kuonrat without being too suspicious...

With each passing minute, her faith-addled thoughts steadied, and [Geological Memory] replayed more of the notifications that had left her so debilitated with delight. She was not sure if it was the number of followers or the total accumulated faith, but she had managed to rank up her divinity.

"Whatever that means," Alice muttered, the phrase quickly becoming a catchphrase. "I wish I could get more excited about [Divine Traits], but..."

Divine Traits

Perform acts of divinity to unlock [Divine Traits]

"Perform acts of divinity..." Alice read and reread the text. "I guess... I guess I'll just have to wait and see. It's a good thing I didn't have this unlocked earlier or that human sacrifice may have given me a really weird trait!"

She hadn't really thought about it before, but it seemed unusual now that this world's standard system did not have traits. There were more skills than she could stomach, but outside of [Divine Development], she had not seen one mention of traits.

"I still need to ask Urd if she knows about The System..." Alice mumbled to herself, but that was the least of her questions.

Her thoughts darkened as she considered the litany of mysteries that remained unresolved.

Because what were The Fates? How were they different from gods?

Kuonrat had shouted deliriously about how Eva had finally succeeded, as if their Dark Mother was responsible for Alice the Merry Weather, a god free from The Fates.

"But what does any of that mean?"

What were [Witches]? And what were [Magi] for that matter? It was hard not to think of them as the Bad Guys and the Good Guys, especially with a bloodless corpse at Alice's nonexistent feet. [Geological Memory] would not let her forget that when she had first unlocked [Divine Development], the notification had said a [Magi] would review her request for godhood.

And if that wasn't enough to think about, there was Urd's dragonblood and even the female cultist that had flashed sharp claws at Kuonrat.

"I still don't know if Urd is human," Alice said with a nonexistent sigh. Everyone Alice had seen before now seemed human enough, but that woman... Somehow Alice knew she was something else.

There was just so much that Alice did not know and could not know. Beyond worries about the outside world, her own body contained several mysteries that demanded experimentation, too. New skills kept popping up before she could even catch her breath.

But I'll just take it slow, Alice thought to herself, forcing the mad tenor of her thoughts to calm. I spent three years blowing bubbles in a pond before all of this. There is no need to rush.

Alice could never have known that less than thirty miles away, sharp swords and merciless men had begun to gather.

She could never have known that within two weeks, fire and death would consume the valley like disease.

Alice really turned into a heartthrob!

And it almost sounds like the Inquisition is about to descend on the valley. I sure do hope we don't have a chapter about that tomorrow.

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