Jake's Story, ch 15

A new chapter!  Sorry for the wait.  This is always a tough time of year for me.

Thank you for your patience.

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Jake wasn’t sure how long he took to process all of his monster cores.  He built his meridians, cycling his energy, built the puddle of energy in his dantian into a pool, and then, finally, pushed for evolution.  The entire process felt like an extremely long, vivid dream.  Jake’s mind split during the process, and part of his consciousness watched as the information The Morrigan had gifted him actually changed.  For this reason, he knew exactly what he was evolving into.

Because of his old master in cultivation, Jake understood how at higher levels of orthodox cultivation, the body, and in some cases, the mind or spirit, would reject impurities.  But in Jake’s case, he actually felt his body suck up various elements and impurities from the mud puddle he was lying in.  Motor oil mingled with his flesh.  Traces of asphalt strengthened his bone.

His senses probed the lazily swirling water around his body and he felt the incredible soup of elements that were making his current evolution possible.  He suddenly knew things now, like the fact that Tifton, GA had been established in the late 1800’s.

The puddle he was lying in hadn’t existed in its current form for very long compared to the entire history of the city, but it’d been there a while.  Blood from accidents, dead animals, saliva from the innocent--and from murderers, cigarettes that had been thrown out of windows, trace of all of it had settled in this retention pond over time.

Finally, when Jake knew the process was finished, he slowly sat up in the water and saw the world for the first time out of new eyes.  It was night time, but he could see perfectly, all the colors vivid, the shadows warm and inviting.

Jake was no longer a zombie.  Now he was a shadow ghoul, and for all he knew, he was the first of his kind.  No other entries of “shadow ghoul” existed in the data that The Morrigan had given him.

As a monster, Jake instinctively knew his abilities and some of his limitations.  He was a bit smaller than a normal ghoul, about the same size he’d been as a human.  As a shadow ghoul, he was not quite as strong as the standard variety.  Jake was still much stronger than a human being now, though.  He had much better sight than a standard ghoul, which meant that he had close to standard human vision during the day.

Unlike a normal ghoul, he could not regenerate his body nearly as quickly.

But now he could smell better, hear better, and even taste the air.  His senses were far, far better than the average ghoul, and he could “phase.”  For about two seconds every couple minutes, Jake could actually move...sideways...between dimensions.

Jake could move fast, and even supply himself energy by eating.

He hadn’t seen himself in a mirror yet, but knew how he’d look, though.  Regular ghouls were frightening looking, demonic, but Jake was downright disturbing now.  His body gave off a thin black smoke.  Curling horns grew from his head, sweeping backward like a parody of slicked back hair.  His teeth and claws were silver.  Blue eyes glowed in deep-set sockets.

His claws were going to be a problem.  They were probably great for ripping and tearing, but not so good for opening a door knob...or holding a pistol.

He scanned the area and didn’t see anyone around, no monsters either other than a couple of zombies in the distance.  They ignored him, just like when he’d been a zombie himself.

Jake left the retention pond, his wet clothing weeping filthy water once he was up on the bank.  He moved experimentally and mentally shook his head.  His body wasn’t packed with massive, solid muscles like a normal ghoul, but he still had a lot of power.  Air whistled around his claws as he took practice swings.

He walked forward, moving with pantherine grace.  A flash step later and he was right behind one of the nearby zombies.  He dropped forward onto one bend knee, his arm flashing in a crane’s wing strike that he’d practiced thousands of times in his first life, but this time with claws.

The zombie’s head flew off before it’d even registered Jake’s presence.  He smile, and could only imagine what he looked like.  If his old team had seen what he looked like now, Landry might have pissed himself.

He held up one hand, experimentally wiggling his claws.  They truly were excellent weapons, but he was right that they’d get in the way later on.  Maybe he could do something about it, though.

Jake took off at an easy run, moving faster than a normal human could sprint.  He didn’t feel tired.  The only way he could tell that he was exerting himself was a sudden need to actually breathe, and a feeling like he was losing energy.  If he kept up this sort of pace, he would eventually need to eat.

There were a few things to do now, like find a workshop to modify his claws, but Jake was feeling good.  He was no longer all but defenseless.  In fact, through some good fortune he’d manage to jump up in power quite a bit.  Sure, he looked demonic now, and he still couldn’t speak very well, his mouth wasn’t really made for it, but he was now individually more powerful than he ever had been in his past life.

And it felt great not to be a zombie anymore.

He wasn’t exactly sure where he’d fit power level-wise, at least as he understood them from his previous life.

He’d been in Copper body refinement before he’d died...maybe.  Something strange had happened in the demon world he’d been trapped in, now that he thought about it.  Maybe he’d actually reached a Reforged body, but so strangely he hadn’t noticed.

Normally in orthodox cultivation, an immortal would progress through Dao Expert, which was basically just forming a dantian and creating strong meridians, then starting the long journey of Body Refinement.  Ten stages of Copper, Silver, and Gold Body Refinement were the steps necessary before reaching a reforged body.  After that, an immortal practitioner would begin working on their foundation pillars, crystallizing the chi sea in their dantian.

From Body Refinement Silver 1, to a full reforged body was around adventurer rank seven to rank ten, as best as Jake figured.  This was also around the power level of a C rank monster.

Jake was definitely a C rank monster now, there was no doubt.  He felt like he was probably somewhere in the mid Silver stage of Body Refinement.  Maybe he wasn’t stronger than he had been in his first life.  He kept forgetting, or maybe intentionally not figuring all the time he’d survived in Ahriman’s hell world.

This new form of cultivation was strange, but he was not complaining.  He’d jumped ahead, making incredible gains in power, but he had a feeling that an explosive advancement like this wouldn’t happen again.

He wiggled his claws in appreciation.  Maybe if he’d had this body in his first life, all his friends wouldn’t have died.

After a firm shake of his head, Jake dismissed that thought.  “What ifs” and “might have beens” could lead to madness, or worse, weakness.  At the end of the day, strength was not the only thing that mattered in this world, but it was definitely one of the top three.

***

Jake headed north in general for a while, and went out of his way to avoid any groups of people, or signs of violence, or any fires he saw.  Being able to smell people on the wind now was a bit strange, but helped with stealth, and stealth would keep his undead ass alive.  He looked like a monster in the middle of the apocalypse.  There was no way he could expect a group of survivors not to try destroying him on sight.

And Jake really didn’t want to kill any innocent people, not if he could help it.

The rate he could move now was far faster than a human could manage short of having a car or a motorcycle.  He’d left the city behind some time ago.

He found the type of workshop he’d been searching for after traveling for a couple of hours.

The shop was an outbuilding a stone’s throw from a new-construction house on a rural lot.  Jake had noticed the house and the outbuilding while ghosting through the woods.  His travel had been slowed since he was avoiding major roads.  Luckily, all the roaming monsters continued to ignore him.

The house was a modular construction place, tastefully done with the first hints of landscaping around the perimeter.  Whoever had lived at this place or might still be hunkering down had definitely loved the place.  Jake spotted a zombie wandering through the woods a couple hundred yards away, but didn’t see any other monsters.

He crept up and peaked into the window.  His breathing was heavy, but under control.  Ghouls were still undead, so normally he wouldn’t have to breathe.  He wasn’t really alive, so he wasn’t sure why he had to breathe if he exerted himself.  It was just the reality of his new existence.

Through the glass, the inside of the shop was dark, but it wasn’t a problem for his enhanced vision.  He slowly smiled as he finally found some of what he was looking for.  During his run from Tifton he’d scoped out a few other places, but they hadn’t had exactly what he’d needed....at least he hadn’t thought so.  He hadn’t been able to ransack random locations--he was in a hurry.

He still didn’t know how long he’d been lying in the puddle back in Tifton while he’d changed.  His goal was still to make it to Macon in time to save his family, and he planned to haul ass northwards until he found out how much time he actually had left.  The possibility he might already be too late was not productive to think about.

Jake had made peace with his previous decisions, there was no way he could have made it to Macon in time while he’d still been a zombie...but there’d definitely been a price to pay.  All he could do now was hope and keep moving.  He was going to explore this workshop first, though.

With a quick slash of his claws and a supernatural application of force, Jake was through the door and into the workshop.  He hadn’t checked the house for people and didn’t have any desire to.  He might have to choose between an innocent person’s life or his own at some point in the future, but he wanted to avoid it now.

If anyone came out of the house, he’d hear it.

In the shop he grabbed what he’d been looking for--heavy duty bolt cutters.  When he’d first begun looking into shops, he’d considered using a hacksaw.  He had talked himself out of it.  Using a hacksaw on his claws would be loud, might not work, and might end up hurting himself.  The bolt cutters were easy...especially since Jake was so strong now.

It only took a few minutes to cut most of his claws off.  They were tough, like iron, but Jake managed.  When he was done, he was only left with a claw on both pinkies fingers.  As a human or a zombie, the fingers had been extremely weak.  But as a ghoul he had a lot of strength in just that one finger...sort of..  He could also lock his fingers while using his claws as weapons.

As an experiment, Jake drew one of his swords from his storage ring.  With only one claw left, he was able to handle the weapon without a problem.  He even took a couple experimental swings before moving smoothly through a few forms.

It was a pity that he looked like a nightmare now, but at least he could move like greased lightning!  That thought reminded him that he hadn’t actually seen himself yet, he just knew what he should look like based on the info in his head.  Jake went outside, found a relatively clean window on the side of the shop where the moon was shining, and took a look at himself in the reflection.

He hissed.  Damn.  Yeah, I definitely can’t see people like this, he thought.  It was lucky he didn’t have to actually try talking to his family to save them.

Jake went back into the shop to throw some things into his storage ring that might come in handy later.  That done, he left and began running northward again.

Staying off of any roads was still best for his continued survival, but he figured it would still be easy to find his way to Macon.

Maybe I’m already too late, he thought, but angrily shook his head.  Thoughts like that weren’t helpful at all.  The entire situation was frustrating, though.  As a cultivator, an “immortal practitioner,” he should be able to keep track of time perfectly regardless of his mental state.  Evolving had messed something up.  It felt like a mental rope had slipped out of his grasp or something.  He was confident that once he got a handle on the day and time again he could recalibrate himself, but for now, he could only judge the passage of time from the moment he’d woken up again.

“Damn,” he tried to say.  The word came out as a growl.

Jake’s mood got worse an hour later when the sun began to rise.  He wanted to keep moving, but he wouldn’t be able to save his family if someone shot him in the head.  Sure, he was tough now, and might even be able to generate some sort of monster shield, but he didn’t know how yet and shouldn’t take chances.

He very briefly thought about finding another car to steal but decided against it.  In some ways that might make him even more vulnerable.

With a frustrated heart, Jake crawled into a culvert to wait for nightfall, and to think.