A Destroyed City

As Luke was experimenting with his new mana control, he couldn't fight a biting sensation that he was forgetting something. What that something occurred to him just as he was about to leave the Evergarden once again, to explore more of the castle.

The veil. Now that Luke could feel the mana inside him, he could also feel a sort of emptiness in the veil itself. Curious, he pushed some of his mana into the veil the same way he'd done with his chains. Doing so proved to be harder than when he'd done the same thing with his chains. Where his chains accepted the mana without issue, the fabric of the veil had to be coached into doing so. Only after Luke flooded a good portion of his mana into it did he realize what the purpose of doing so was.

As he pushed the mana inside, he found the perspective of his omniscience shifting. Instead of growing wider, it began to grow narrower and more centered around one point. The result was that Luke could essentially narrow his "vision" to see into the distance. More than that, while pushing his mana into the veil always started his vision from the cloth he could move it around at will.

Luke was immensely pleased with this discovery and felt a new appreciation for the gift Aerin had given him. The perspective change wasn't perfect by any means, as the further he saw into the distance the harder it became to comprehend the information being directed to him. On top of that it consumed a massive amount of the magic he poured into the veil, meaning he could only keep the perspective change active for a few seconds if he didn't want to burn a big portion of his magic. Yet despite all the issues, Luke couldn't help but feel a sense of hope.

All he would need to do was find a window and activate the veil and he would finally be able to see the outside world. In the end the veil was now his best chance of finding a way out of the castle, it also meant that if he entered a wide-open space again, he wouldn't be completely blind as he had been before.

All around, as far as usefulness this function of the veil would be invaluable until he got the use of his old eyes back.

Luke couldn't help but grin as he left the Evergarden to continue his search of the castle.

Luke continued to explore the ruined castle, taking a new path he hadn't taken before. The path led up a wide set of stairs and into another hallway, one filled with multiple doors that led to individual rooms with ruined furniture.

None of these rooms had any windows, and more disappointingly no husks. It seemed the Rock Panther had cleared this area of any of the soulless creatures. That frustrated Luke slightly, as he had been looking forward to testing out his knew abilities.

As he continued through the castle, taking every set of stairs leading upward that he could, he found himself growing more and more uneasy at the lack of any enemies. Throughout his entire exploration of the castle up to that point he hadn't been able to go more than thirty meters without finding something that wanted to kill him. Now he had been walking for several minutes, and hadn't found anything, not even a spider.

Eventually he came upon a great set of double wood doors, with two looped handles. Surprisingly, rusted metal also snaked up both sides of each door, each depicting a series of flowery curved designs.

Curious, Luke opened the door and stepped inside the room. The interior appeared to have been a library, as there were several brown papers of faded black lying flat all across the floor. Where large bookshelves had stood tall, they were now collapsed on their own weight. The room was large, with his veil he could see that it was closer to the side of a gym from his old world than any library he'd ever seen. The roof was curved and made of stone, while there were several broken tables, and desks meant for studying. Yet the most important aspect of the room, and the thing that filled Luke with a sense of excitement. Was the back wall of the library, which was lined with several windows looking out at the world.

Trusting his omniscience to warn him of any attacks, Luke abandoned caution in his excitement. Only when he reached the closest window did he push the mana into his veil once more to view the outside world.

Immediately his excitement turned to shock, and then to horror. As the library was on what Luke guessed to be the second story, he found himself able to make out much of the castle.

Outside the castle sat the remains of an ancient, mostly destroyed city. At the center of which lay a massive crater the size of a football stadium, both inside and around the crater the ground had gone as black as charcoal. The buildings closest to the crater were nothing but scorched remains, while those furthest away were still standing, almost all of them had chunks missing from them or looked to have been crushed by falling rubble. In the distance stood a great wall of black stone, the section of the wall closest to the crater had been completely blown outwards. Leaving a massive open space in the great structure. The scene looked almost as if someone had dropped a massive bomb right in the middle of the city.

Though the harrowing state of the city was concerning, that was not the reason Luke was feeling horror. Rather it was the thousands upon thousands of husks that moved throughout the deserted city. Luke's veil didn't allow him to study the things too closely, but he could make out the ones closes to the castle. Almost all of them appeared in worse shape than the husks inside the castle, each missing massive chunks or limb, with multiple having black charred skin or deformed flesh from burn scars. The scene of all those creatures shambling through the city underneath the night sky was one he didn't think he would ever be able to forget.

Unable to keep his distance vision up for long, Luke allowed the mana in the blindfold to disappear. Instantly the range of his omniscience surrounded him, now twelve meters in diameter after he'd become a Novice.

'Damn it, am I gonna have to fight my way through the city to escape. And then what? What if there are more husks beyond the wall?', Luke questioned internally, his teeth gritted.

Luke had been so sure that he was one step from escaping the castle, only to find the path blocked by thousands of monsters. Even if he was stronger now than he'd been when he first woke, there was absolutely no way he could make it through all those husks alive.

'Now what do I do?', Luke wondered, feeling lost as he remembered all the shambling corpse-like monsters.

It was possible he could find an underground passage to lead him out of the city, even more so if he somehow got Aerin's help. Yet it was just as likely that there was no passage, or if there was that there were husks outside the city as well as inside. It was possible that he could find some secluded passage throughout the city, but considering he only had the ability to gaze at the city for seconds at a time he didn't think that would work either. No matter what route he mentally took he couldn't see himself getting out of the city without fighting a massive number of husks.

'I have to get stronger if I even want a chance of escaping the city alive', Luke realized.

In a way there was simplicity in that, he had food and water in endless amounts, even if said food was unpleasant. More than that he had already grown in leaps and bounds after only two days in this world, so there was every possibility he would reach the strength to escape the castle relatively quickly.

Luke smiled, now that he didn't have to worry about finding a window, food, or water. All he had to do now was explore the castle, kill all the husks he could find until he reached the adept or elite rank and then he would worry about how to escape. Not only that, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of hunger at the thought of how strong he could become. How powerful would he be when he finally was ready to leave the castle, how much greater of a fighter would constant battle make him.

At that thought a sound stirred him out of his daze, it was the first sound he'd heard since entering the library, aside from his own breathing and footsteps. The sound was a distant thud, that came from a door to his left.

Turning his head in curiosity, Luke approached the door already preparing himself to be attacked.

As he reached the old wooden door, he found it had gone completely silent on the other side as if the sound had never been there. Opening the door after sensing nothing on the other side, he found a long hallway that ended with a set of stairs leading downwards.

Curious, Luke crossed the hallway and began to descend the steps without any hesitation.

***

The thudding sound came three more times before Luke reached the bottom of the stairs. At the base was a much smaller door than the one from before, small enough to be the entrance to a broom closet or a storage area.

On the other side of the door he could feel a surprisingly open space, one that was filled with similar bookshelves as the ones in the library.

Opening the door, Luke stepped inside the quiet room and began to step forwards.

He was only three steps into the room before he heard the sound of multiple feet thudding against the cold stone.

Three husks entered his omniscience, one clad in rusty plate armor with an old red helm. While the other two wore nothing but old worn clothing, with one clad in a fine vest and the other in an old jacket, both of which had lost their color to time.

Taking a step back, Luke raised his right arm and summoned his chain, it came instantly already moving as he swung it at the first attacker. It hit the husk's old rusty helmet with more force than Luke had used on any other creature in the castle. The husk was rocked to the side, thrown off its feet as its deteriorated helmet practically exploded in red dusty shards.

The second husk was now the closest and moving far faster than the third with its arms stretched towards him, black claws aimed for his chest.

Luke's second chain hit the creature's head before it came within a meter of where he stood. Brains and rotted gore splattered the stone as the soulless creature was decapitated.

The third husk was almost two and a half meters away, but with his chain's new length that was no issue. Luke swung his right chain upwards, catching the creature diagonally across its torso and easily splitting its skin. The creature was thrown back, just as the armored husk rose to its feet and charged him with fury.

Luke's chain was already in the air from his last strike, leading to Luke using a simple back swing to take the creatures head off. The third husk faired no better, with Luke striking its neck and finally head with two more swings.

The fight was over after only a minute or two of its start. Leaving Luke feeling both proud and powerful, as well as a little disappointed at the lack of a challenge. Still, he was more than happy to collect the soul points for killing the three creatures.

"Congratulations, you have slain the human husk of an adept. Your soul is being tempered.

Soul tempering until next rank: [10/1000]

Congratulations, you have slain a human husk of an adept. Your soul is being tempered.

Soul tempering until next rank: [20/1000]

Congratulations, you have slain the human husk of an elite. Your soul is being tempered.

Soul tempering until next rank: [35/1000]

Luke smiled as the notifications appeared, though it was obvious that the husks were shells of their former strengths. It felt good knowing he had slain three beasts above his rank without taking any injuries. Pleased, Luke continued through another door into the next room in search of prey.