The Jester of Apocalypse
Chapter 84: Darkness

How could he have been so inconsiderate?

Neave was angry at himself for his thoughtlessness. Why of course, he was comfortable here, but his allies were strangers to such a place.

Of course.

How silly of him.

His allies had come all the way to this nightmare realm. They had been allowed into his world. Nay, they had desired to enter.

Of course!

It was only correct he showed them the utmost hospitality and welcome.

With great effort and much help from his best buddy, Glass Shrub, whom he hadn’t named yet, he created a few beautiful pieces of furniture out of some of the inferior glass shrubs—may they rest in peace.

To cast away the cave's darkness, he formed a chandelier with candles fueled by alchemically-modified slime. Then, he shaped lovely chairs out of fine glass and even made a massive dinner table.

With much effort and, once more, a lot of help from Bushy—temporary name—he shaped the glass into dishes, creating plates and fancy glasses to drink from.

He needed some help from Dukean to collect metal particles from the soil to make some utensils, but that was promptly sorted. He could have made the utensils out of glass, but given how nasty that substance was, there was too much risk that somebody would lose a finger or a tongue or crack a tooth or something—no need to risk such accidents.

After a quick discussion, they decided to eat quite a bit further away. Namely, to put some distance from the glass puppet, which freaked everyone out with its shifty suspicion and pointed threats, and to find them a place to settle at, far away enough from experiments that may or may not put their lives at risk.

And now, after much preparation, their meal had finally arrived.

A glistening, shiny roast (?) was placed on the table before them. This wasn’t a meal suited for mere kings, no, no, not even the emperor deserved to taste this delicacy.

Subjected to numerous steps designed to remove toxic qi and ultimately bathed in liquid spirit, this was likely the best-prepared monster meat one could get anywhere in the entire realm.

The crowd, however, wasn’t excited to dine.

He didn’t let that get to him, and he unceasingly pushed with his hospitality.

As fine as the food might have been, the water was nastier than piss. It tasted like rust and had an odd, floaty feel, which gave everyone a stomachache. A sour aftertaste also kicked in a mysteriously long dozen-or-so seconds after drinking it.

Neave, as always, tackled the issue with a solution-oriented mindset. Slime was one of the most elementary substances used in alchemy, yet its intricacies, especially at a master level, allowed for much diversity in its use.

A specific set of procedures could be used on slime to transform it into a sweet syrup. Granted, it had less than zeronutritional value since it took more energy to digest than it granted one’s body, and it was utterly void of any substance, but it wasn’t toxic or anything! Well… not that toxic. They were cultivators; they could handle it!

Except for Hunter and Gabrias. Yeah, they’d probably shit themselves later.

Blood slime also wasn’t… the best ingredient for this purpose, but Neave was sure it would be fine! The water already tasted metallic anyway.

His allies stared at the pile of unusually and deceitfully appealing meat and the… faintly golden-brown water in the pitcher, which resembled piss less than it could have, had Neave not toned it down, with little excitement in their expression.

Ungrateful pricks, Neave thought, with a polite smile on his face.

Marven broke the awkward atmosphere by reaching for the ‘water.’ He poured himself a full glass and gulped it down with gusto.

However, with every gulp, less and less went down his throat, and more and more ended up in his ever-bulging cheeks. How peculiar.

Marven swallowed the rest of the water, forcing it so hard that his face turned a shade redder, and his eyelid twitched slightly. He smiled at the others shakily, shrugged, and said, "It was fine."

Harel squinted at him and nodded severely, slowly reaching for the pitcher and pouring herself a slightly less full glass. She gulped it down and almost immediately spat it out, splurting the water over the table.

She coughed and wheezed, and for the first time Neave heard her do it, she swore, "Fuck me, that tasted like bloody snot!"

"Hey!” Marven protested. “It really wasn’t that bad!"

"Oh please, Marv, you looked like you were swallowing swamp water!"

This got a few muffled chuckles from Gabrias and Neave, which earned them a scornful glare from Harel.

The old cultivator took a deep breath and gathered his willpower as he reached for the roast. He forced himself to take a bite and—his eyebrows jumped in surprise. "Alright, wow, this is actually good… no, I’d even call it superb," he said with a look of severe uncertainty. Then he whispered into his chin, “Why do I feel that makes it worse?”

His reaction emboldened Dukean and Gabrias to take a piece. After they confirmed that it wasn’t at all unappealing, and both made a face that clearly showcased their inner conflict about that, Hunter and Harel also joined them in taking a few pieces themselves.

After everyone finally succumbed to thirst and gave the water a shot, it was unanimously agreed that the unaltered version was superior.

Neave had no idea what they were talking about, as he found both the basic and the sweetened versions just fine. Well, he regularly ate far nastier shit than they could imagine, so his indifference wasn’t that surprising.

As the meal proceeded, the roast shrank, and eventually, the gang found themselves full and, dare they say, vaguely relaxed… Almost. This was about as good as their life would get for a long time, and they knew it.

So, it was finally the time to ask the big question—thought Marven—then turned and looked at his son as he asked, "So, what should we do now?"

Neave shrugged, "I don’t fucking know. Why are you asking me?"

Silence.

The old cultivator was utterly flabbergasted by Neave’s response, and Harel jumped in before he could think of another question. “What are you going to do?”

"It is an absolute priority that I get the terraforming underway,” he responded instantly. “I’m not sure how much time we have here, but I’d like to get things going before any of you die."

That did nothing to ease the tension. Marven finally landed on a question. "Shouldn’t we help you with that?"

He shot his father a mocking glare. "Maybe calling you a hindrance would be an exaggeration. If you tried helping me, you’d be more likely to just become monster feed."

His father’s gaze dropped in shame. "What do you recommend we do in the meantime?"

Neave looked thoughtful at that, "Get up to some unpleasant activities, I say.” The subtle shift in his allies’ gazes told him that they didn’t appreciate jokes at a time like this, so he decided to elaborate before they got all pissy about it. “Aight, look, before you go all ‘wah, wah, not funny, Neave,’ just hear me out, ok? This place sucks.”

That was something they could all agree on, it seemed.

"So I say you should indulge in that suckiness. Train your willpower, sleep on glass shards, or something, I don’t know. But whatever you do…" Neave stared at them individually, briefly locking eyes with every one of them, "… do not go far from this cave. Monsters are one thing, and corrupt demons are another. If they appear and get their spiky, toothy, eyebally tentacles on you, those scars will persist even in reality. I mean it. Some ways to die are far worse than others."

Somehow, that appeared to have made them even more uncomfortable than they had already been.

Neave began walking off but turned to them after a few steps, "Oh, and I won’t be that far away. I will spend most of my time at or near the cave with the glass shrub. So, if you need help with something, send someone to pick me up, preferably Dukean or Marven." Just as he was about to continue walking away, he turned again, "Oh, and uh…” he turned around, awkwardly shifting in place and touching his fingers together. “If anything nasty comes from where I’m at… sorry in advance!"

Then, with a salute, he disappeared.

***

There was no way to track the passage of time in the cave, so all they could rely on was an unreliable guesstimate. However, rather quickly, they deduced that even that was pointless.

If time couldn’t be tracked accurately, there was no point in doing so in the first place.

After Neave left, everyone sat awkwardly in the glass chairs.

Suddenly, Neave appeared out of nowhere again, "Oh, and one last thing! I will be dropping by periodically to feed you! If I forget, then, again, just send someone over! Bye for real this time!"

Something about the way he had phrased that left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouths. Did he perceive them as pets? Dogs he should throw a bone to occasionally?

The odds of any of them starving to death were exceptionally slim. Neave had already created a lot of water, so they could easily last for months. Cultivators could live a long time without food as well.

Almost immediately, Marven assumed the role of the de facto leader. Dukean seemed a bit miffed at that; his noble lineage screamed in protest at being suborned to some no-name cultivator.

But, in this realm, Marven was his superior in every conceivable way. At that point, there was no point in trying to take his position over. They needed a direction and something to work toward, or it wouldn’t be long before everyone lost their damn minds.

He tasked Gabrias with looking for an appropriate cave for a base. Underground construction was tricky business, and Gabrias was a rare case of someone adequately educated on how to do it.

However, according to Gabrias, anywhere seemed fine. Usually, one had to pay attention to many minor details when building underground. Many of those details became thoroughly irrelevant in this world, it seemed.

There was no ice that could thaw in the walls; structural integrity was already excellent, and obsidian roots held everything together. In fact, he’d have killed for construction material like this stone back in the real world.

It had no qi signature whatsoever, yet it still rivaled at least gold-ranked material, if not platinum-ranked in some ways.

So, they found a nearby dead end and chose to make that their temporary base. Everyone found a few solid branches and began digging, except for Marven, who used minor techniques to carve chunks of the wall.

Only Dukean and Marven could make real progress, and even then, Marven was at least ten times more productive.

The others felt like their help wasn’t much use, but Marven didn’t allow them to slack off. It wasn’t a matter of efficiency. It was a matter of occupation.

Relatively soon, a neat room was carved out of the cave walls. Next up, Marven decided it was time to dig into the walls to create an individual space for everyone.

That was just an excuse to make a room for Harel as soon as possible. To him, she was like a daughter. It was hard to see her as an object of… desire, but that didn’t change the reality of the situation. She was the only girl in that entire realm. Dukean and Hunter were both teenage boys. And Gabrias was too much of a stranger for Marven to make a solid judgment of his character.

Their sanity and mental health hung by a thread, and that thread also happened to be holding the integrity of their group. Anything at all that could even theoretically become a cause for conflict between them had to be eliminated immediately.

Once they carved five rooms, he briefly wondered whether they should make one for Neave. The group thought it futile, but Marven disagreed and decided to add another room. Even if he wouldn’t be around them, he wanted to send a message—he belonged right beside them.

Soon enough, the rooms were done. While Neave might have had a point about ‘indulging in the discomfort,’ his perspective might be a bit… skewed, to say the least.

Certainly, torturing oneself to insanity was an efficient way to get used to terrible circumstances, but… yeah. No wonder Neave couldn’t see anything wrong with what he had said.

The other thing Neave had said, however, Marven felt, was a bit of an understatement. According to Dukean, who had seen one of these ‘corrupt demons’ in action, they weren’t a force to be trifled with. From what he had witnessed, one possibly held as much power as a Master!

This made their next task straightforward—blocking any unnecessary entrances to their cave.

Marven tasked Gabrias with designing a decent blockade for the cave openings while he tasked the others with removing as many black obsidian bushes as possible. In the meantime, he went to check their surroundings to ensure they wouldn’t miss anything.

The cavern Neave had left them at was close to the large room holding the glass brushes. Marven could reach that cave in approximately ten minutes, give or take a few. Three paths started from close to their base and connected into the way Neave brought them there. Two were major cave openings, and one required a squeeze through a tight passage. There had to be other ways, but it would likely be a trek through a long, complex maze of caves they weren’t familiar with.

Marven decided that they should wall off the large passages and only leave the tiny one. This was by far the most easily defensible option, and Marven doubted Neave would have much trouble reaching them even if they completely walled themselves off.

Other than that, many passages branched into countless others. Some could be blocked off in bulk, leaving two rather large walls that had to be constructed and seven minor blockades.

There was another little room, one that held their water reserve. Neave had created a glass cistern and filled it with water with help from Dukean. There wasn’t much to do here, not by necessity, but Marven thought it would be a good idea to clean the room up and turn it into a proper storage facility.

Neave had explained why his plan was essential, and Marven had to agree. However, that left them in an awkward position since Neave was the only one with solutions to their current problems.

He didn’t want to disturb his son, partially due to the danger, but also because he wanted him to finish his work as soon as possible.

A reliable source of light would have to wait until then.

Marven returned to Gabrias, who suggested a simple method for constructing the walls. He suggested finding a section they wanted to expand and having Marven excavate it.

Specifically, it should be excavated by carving large stone blocks. They should then cut holes into the blocks and polish a few of the bigger obsidian branches. Once they had holes on the top of one block, they should insert the polished branches, preferably shaped into a perfectly straight stick, and then lower another block on top of those branches, one with a few holes drilled in the bottom.

Although large walls, especially ones with massive blocks, could stand perfectly fine if simply stacked, Gabrias wanted to use an adhesive. They had no glue available, so he would settle for a proper joint to hold everything together.

Perhaps they could locate some of the black liquid, but Gabrias wasn’t confident about its properties, and venturing into the caves wasn’t a good idea. So, this makeshift alternative would have to work.

They would first have to use a different strategy to create the frame since they needed to make a roughly square, or at least angular, edge before constructing the wall. Otherwise, they would have empty spaces separating the walls from the side of the cave.

Gabrias devised a special brace that would reinforce the inevitable weak points this method would create.

Marven suggested a slight change in the design. Specifically, he suggested they make the walls much thicker than Gabrias wanted. After all, they weren’t in a rush per se, and there was no reason to cut corners with the construction of the walls.

Also, Marven wanted to keep everyone busy as long as possible.

There was another benefit to this strategy. It would allow them to hollow out bigger rooms, which they would be doing a lot of. Mainly, Marven wanted a space for training and a room for storage.

According to Neave, no matter how much they cultivated inside the nightmare realm, it wouldn’t translate to their cultivation outside. However, if they could learn enough about potential, it would make realizing it a breeze once they were back out.

Not to mention that training was the perfect way to keep everyone busy and their minds off their terrifying circumstances.

Marven went over to check on the others and see how they were doing. Dukean did his work just fine and many times faster than the other two.

Far too many times faster.

Marven observed the way Hunter and Harel worked. Hunter was doing his best and working as fast as he could, but Harel seemed to be… He didn’t want to say slacking. However, she was slow, and it was clear from a mile away that she was thoroughly distracted.

Hunter noticed her picking up a few sharp branches and walked over to her, "You need some help?"

"No," she rejected him instantly and picked up the branch.

"I can help you with that,” he insisted, “you’re not supposed to hold the branch like…"

Harel shot Hunter a death glare. "I said no. Piss off, Hunter."

"Come on, let me just…" Hunter ignored her refusal as he reached for the branch.

Oh, boy, was the only thought Marven had the time to think as Harel gripped one of the smaller branches—

And stabbed Hunter in the chest.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.