Chapter 6: Meredith’s Pain

Jackson woke up early to the sound of a light pitter patter on his tent. He stretched took a deep breath in and yawned. 

It felt like one of those mornings when you wake up early on a Saturday after an exhausting week at school or work with some sweet time off to relax. He opened his tent slightly, there was a slight drizzle, the sun wasn't completely up but the sky had a hint of blue to it.

He zipped the tent closed and decided that yes, he was going to be that guy. He pulled out a book, his flashlight, and a bottle of water. Sadly, he had no hot cocoa or a cat to cozy up with.

It was... Nice. All pretenses of sadness were left behind yesterday. He pulled out a book of children's stories, don't judge, and had a good time. One story in particular, caught his eye.

"This is the story of the 19th queen of aeturnus, and her quest to not just save her husband, but conquer death itself."

Sounds kind of metal, I like it.

"Meredith was known as a queen of the people, she came from a poor background and sympathized with the lower class. She had only became royalty through marriage with the king, but proved her competence within the role in more ways than one. She loved her husband and people dearly, but that all changed when her husband was assassinated, and her kingdom was up in flames. She was pregnant at the time, and due to her father and husband's recent death, she was deemed unfit to rule, so the council took over for a while."

"Meredith was distraught."

That took a reeeal dark turn, is this really a kids book?

"Meredith could not accept this, so, quietly after her husbands funeral, she slipped into the night and took his corpse to her personal warehouse."

I do not believe this is a children's story.

"Meredith was a renowned sorcerer herself, and after preserving her husband with magic, she got to work. She had decided to do the impossible, and pull her husband back into her hands, even if the god of death himself didn't agree. She started slowly, experimenting on squirrels, then bodies donated for research."

Did this story happen before the system? Sorcerer's are people gifted with magic talent by the gods, but that happened less and less after the system, so... Possibly? Not much records from before the system survived though.

"One day, after countless failed attempts on restoring function to the body, Meredith had gone to bed, distraught. She had given up. But in a dream that night, she saw the smiling face of her husband, looking down at her and her newly born daughter Ayasha.

She had felt love that night."

Jackson let out a yawn, the rain stopped. He stretched and got out of his tent.

"I wanna keep reading but, *sigh* I have to be productive."

He had to purify more water, go through his routine, and finally get that rabbit. He swore, he would get that rabbit, even if he had to stay up all night... Or not, he'd try to get one at least. He went through the process of filtering water, and even thought he knew filtering it would be enough, he still boiled it just in case. His back hurt from carrying all that water around though. Sadly, now was the time for exercises. Boo.

"Alright, today should be... Triceps, chest, and back. I don't have weights do I? Shoot."

He found a way, eventually.

     

 

Jackson quieted his breath, he was about to kill something with no grudges against him, it was hard, but he'd need to get used to it. He drew back his Bowstring. He was hungry, nuts and fruits only go so far, he needed something packed with energy. The rabbit was gnawing on grass, enjoying a meal. He took a deep inhale through his nostrils, and corrected his aim, he didn't want the poor thing to suffer after all, then he fired.

A small, thunk sound could be heard; his arrow struck a tree off to the side, and did not even stick into the side of it, but clattered to the floor. Jackson fell to his knees. Grass rustling could be heard, of a rabbit skittering away. Exasperated, he set his head to the ground, the short repetitive thumps of his fist hitting the ground rang out.

"Oh. My. God!"

     

 

It took a while, but eventually he got a... Rabbit? It was a... Thing.

Good enough.

"Gosh, just let me live? Please?"

God, now I have to prepare this... Thing to be eaten. Why did I ever think this was a good idea? Cuts? Which way is the grain? The fact that I'm alive right now is astounding.

Lucky, his survival book had a very brief section on preparing a carcass and various cuts of meat. The information it gave, while not overly detailed, worked well in tandem with his knowledge on the subject, which was encompassed by the entirety of a single thirty minute video. Somehow, somehow he managed to scrape by and and procure meat for himself. He skewered and seasoned the meat with some herbs he had dried and crushed earlier, the survival book once more showing it's worth.

Hah! Self sustainable Who? Not... me... Heh... Eh, at least I got something. Anyway, now for the taste.

He took a bite.

It uh... Well it certainly tastes... It tastes.

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It was edible, if nothing else. Jackson stared into the crackling fire, which he poked with a stick, embers flew. He stared a little while longer, before pulling out his book of children's stories.

"From that day forwards, Meredith strived to be a better mother for her daughter, and to not give up. It took many years but she eventually brought something back. Not perfectly, but she had brought the first undead thrall into existence. From there on she continued, she had succeeded in restoring function but the result wasn't what she had hoped for. Unthinking servants were all that she got, husks of their former selves that listened to her beck and call. Eventually, Meredith had gained the attention of the god of death."

"He had admiration for the determination of Meredith but recognized her as someone who interfered with his job. He gave her an ultimatum. To either join him in the underworld to work under him, while being able to be with her husband. Or to stay with her daughter in the mortal plane like life was before, but stopping her experiments with undeath."

"Meredith was stricken with indecision, and felt terribly guilty once she had made her decision. At the dead of night, she visited her daughters room, and shook her awake."

     

Meredith entered Ayasha's room, distraught and full of hate for herself. She walked up to her lovely daughters bed. And gently shook her awake.

"Ayasha, wake up sweetie." 

Her beautiful daughter opened her bright, curious eyes. Eyes that Meredith wanted to dote on for the rest of her life.

"Momma? Why are you waking me up? It's still too dark out to wake up?"

Meredith looked into her daughter's eyes. Oh how she loved her. How she would miss her.

"I-"

Meredith gulped down, and steeled herself.

"I just wanted to tell you how much I love you, and that... Mommy has a surprise for you in the morning! I just couldn't wait to tell you, we are going to... Adopt a puppy! You can pick out whichever dog you would like!"

Ayasha's face brightened up, she was so delighted to hear that, after some convincing, she got Ayasha to go back to bed.

Meredith walked out of her daughter's room and had barely made it ten steps from the room when a sound of steel clattering against the floor rang out, and she fell to her knees, sobbing. The knife had fallen out of her pocket.

"Inferis... The deal is off."

A tall man with dark purple skin, sharp claws and long horns stepped out from the shadows. He was wearing a devilish grin on his face.

"Very well, such a shame."

That was all he said before he left Meredith there on the floor.

She could never leave her daughter, nor do that to Ayasha; it would betray her own title of a mother.

Never.

     

"After Meredith said her goodbyes to her daughter, she departed for the underworld with infernis. When Meredith arrived, she saw her Husband's smiling face, and embraced him once more, for the first time in years. From there onwards she grew in power, while studying under the god of death himself. As she slowly grew into godhood, the history books would begin to sing her praise."

That was... Rather anti-climatic. She just went into her daughter's room, said goodbye, and became a god? or at least the servant of one? Eh, what am I expecting from a children's book. Jackson looked into the slowly dimming fire and let out a sigh. Ok magic time. how 'bout something more rewarding this time?

Jackson slowly called a stream of Mana to his finger, condensing it into a small bead, which was frankly a bit tiring. it was more so being winded for a short while, but mentally; he would be fine though, as he was used to it. He tried to manipulate the bead while pushing more Mana into it.

Mana is strange, he could go on about it forever, It could have essentially any property and could essentially transmute itself into other thing for a short period of time. Back to the matter at hand, Jackson tried to harden his Mana while making it hollow. He was hoping to make it stable enough that it would withstand a good amount of force.

As you may have guessed, Jackson was trying to learn Mana Shield with a few minor difficulties. Well, a lot of minor difficulties. He had hollowed out the pebble and used the mana he hollowed out to condense the shield's outer layers just fine. The problem was just that, well... it was stuck to him.

He couldn't detach his bubble from himself; he expected this, but it was a little disheartening. Sometimes, people have a really hard time getting their spells past skin layer, in some cases, people completely give up on leaning spells past the skin's surface. he had to calm his breath down. Nobody gets it on their first try. Something to note was that while he could possibly support a construct with strings of mana, they could very easily be cut. So he kept pushing for it to detach. After a short while, a tiny popping sound could be heard and Jackson jumped up out of surprise.

"Did... did that work?!?" 

He looked at his hand, but the mana pebble was still there. Jackson tilted his head. where did that come from? he looked from side to side but saw nothing.

He heard more popping sounds and then sizzling. all of a sudden, in the light of his campfire, he noticed a path of grass leading from the brush of the forest to his campfire. All of a sudden something brushed against his leg. It was wet and slimy... but started to slightly burn. He looked down towards his leg, and lo and behold, there was a slime. An acidic one by the looks and well, feel of it. Jackson winced and tried to jump away but the slime was stuck to his leg, and started to climb. it wasn't the most acidic slime that existed, but it still fricking hurt. 

"Getoffgetoffgetoff!"

he tried to rip it off his leg, grabbing at it and tearing, but it's slime just reattached and burned his hands. It was moving slowly but he still had to hurry. He was hyperventilating, he didn't know what to do, he held his hands up to his face only to feel a something bump into his head, his Mana bead! He had an idea. He pushed his Mana towards his leg, then pushed it past his skin, slowly wrapping up the slime. he took a deep breath and fell on his butt. He was tired, and out of his limited Mana capacity, he was nearly empty. He needed to eat, and sleep. But first of all he had acid burns...

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