287 New ego, who dis? (1)

<You are Jade's alter ego. You are the product of a skill and she's still the main ego within the body so the status shows her name. Do you see the blood/alter skill? That's your name right there.>

But I am the one doing everything! She's just hiding!

<Technically, she is letting you do everything. She's still in control and simply chooses not to exercise it.>

Well, screw her!

What now? Can I go back to killing things?

<No, previously you killed a lot of monsters inside the dungeon called dragon nest. Killing monsters affiliated to a dungeon is forbidden unless you are specifically authorized to do so. The only reason you got away with it, is that Jade did the dungeon a large service before she had her… accident. In consideration of that contribution, the dungeon allowed you to wreak havoc. It also helped that you brutalized any adventurers you met.>

Adventurers?

<Sentient, humanoid creatures not affiliated with the dungeon. They come in groups and use equipment.>

Ah, the pests. Yeah, I got rid of those whenever I saw them. Was that good?

<Very good, one of your jobs is to defend dungeons from those adventurers. The other job, I know this sounds contradictory, is to train those adventurers while you are here.>

So I can't kill them.

<While you are here, absolutely not. Once you enter a dungeon and are allowed to, I'll let you know.>

Can I just go back to the dungeon then?

<Unfortunately, no. Jade had a… client, Kent Bloodborne, whom she was helping to level up his sanguine boost skill. She's been gone for a while and he insists on seeing her.>

Bloodborne… that name makes every fiber of my being want to go on a killing spree. The other one stirs and I feel that darned boost activate without my consent. Stop that!

<Note to self, don't mention Jade's teacher. Blood, your sanguine boost is active, can you stop it?>

I'm trying, but the other one is interfering! I force down the urge to kill something, anything, and suppress that horrid skill with everything I have. Finally I succeed and the other one calms down enough for me to stop the skill.

<You seem to have some unexplained dislike towards the sanguine boost skill. Why is that?>

The dreams! Those horrible dreams where something controls my body and kills everything…

<Don't you want to kill?>

I do, but that's not me! It's also not the other one. It feels uncomfortable!

<Well, it's necessary for your skill to level up. Wait, when is the last time you slept?>

I don't need sleep!

<You really do. Not sleeping will cause your concentration to wane and your aggressive to spike. Relying on your constitution stat and enhanced stamina skill to stay awake is bad for you!>

I don't care! That dream is way worse! And I repeats every night!

<That's because you keep losing! If you win the last fight, the skill will level up and you'll be free from that dream until your skill can level up again!>

Really? If I let the dream finish I get to sleep in peace?

<If you win the last fight. Should you lose, the dream comes again.>

Hmm, I never let it get that far before breaking out of the dream. I guess I'll try. Do you know what I'll be fighting at the end?

<We can't be sure. Last time, it was a crimson bear. We've done some investigating since then and found records of multiple animals whose evolutions have been influenced by different aspects of the color red. But these are records so far from the past that they aren't exactly credible. They are more like legends.>

And that crimson bear was among them?

<A massive beast of crimson with a maw of liquid fire. It is the child of the great one above, so fear its rays of molten glory. Flee away and pray it tires, for only slumber is its fury's master.>

Very vague.

<That's all we have to go on. But it fits most things Jade witnessed. It's color should be crimson, there was lava flowing from its mouth, Jade mentioned that the sun's heat was especially noticeable and it went berserk after getting hurt. Also, bears hibernate so that would fit the mention of slumber.>

So you think the opponent I'll face will be different?

<There are multiple beasts like this in the legends we found. My current hypothesis is that these fight are some sort of memory inheritance trial. To get the skill to a higher level, you need to face the same opponent as your predecessor faced in its time. These final opponents before every advancement were probably it's most memorable fights. It would make sense that it fought more than one memorable opponent, right?>

I guess. Then, what are my possible opponents?

<We've found two other mentions of creatures associated with red beside the one I told you about and the one we believe to be your ancestor. One is a sailor's account of a creature flashing red lights at them in the sea. He was the only survivor and the tale is generally believed to be an old kraken sighting. However, the description doesn't match a kraken. It allegedly used flashing red lights to lure the sailors of course, even prompting some to jump into the water. Then, it climbed onto the ship and attacked the remaining sailors. The account is very insistent that its attacks always hit their targets despite appearing quite slow.>

Some kind of sea horror? An attack that always hits, sounds like a pain to deal with.

<That's one, the other is a tree. Legends describe it as a demonic tree that has one red leaf. Any who approached the tree died mysteriously. The symptoms that were described match those of a serious allergic reaction. Allegedly, a living god descended in those times and the entire tree was felled. All the leaves slowly withered but the red one was never found.>

What is this, a creepy horror story collection? Living god, pah, who'd believe that?