The Jester of Apocalypse
Chapter 91: Strings

The average strength of someone on a step on the path wasn’t a particularly valuable statistic.

It could be compared to the average number of testicles people had. Yes, statistically speaking, people, on average, had one testicle. In reality, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, it was either none or two.

That was kind of how the average strength of a step worked. True, one would know the answer if one took all the people on a step, measured their physical strength, and found the mean. It was a statistic that had already been measured. However, using that number to realistically approximate someone’s strength was idiotic.

Most people would be either much weaker or much stronger than average, especially with spirit powers and potential coming into play. What if someone was weak but fast? Or overwhelmingly strong and fast but had poor mastery over their weapon?

However, as previously mentioned, the average strength was indeed a known thing, and he already knew the numbers, as well as the more nuanced analysis of the possible ranges.

Thus, after measuring his physical strength, he concluded that he was about as strong as someone on the third step of the bronze path. However, his strength was considerably high for that step, so he placed it somewhere between the bronze path's third and the silver path's first step.

It wasn't impossible to outmuscle weaker cultivators on the first step of the silver path.

This was considerably more than he had anticipated. Having this much strength in the foundation realm was plainly absurd. But that had been back when he had first measured it.

By the thousandth time, he firmly held the power of someone on the second step of the silver path.

Grinning like a lunatic, he dropped the weights, and they struck the ground violently.

Neave made more of the hyper-heavy metal to make some proper weights, just to make his exercise more efficient. Done with measuring his strength inside the spirit realm, he again left and picked up the weights outside, preparing for another workout session.

That was right. Whether due to the impact of the tons of flesh he had consumed, the changes his spirit powers created in his body, or some other factor, he still had room to grow.

The chamber he exercised in had a finely polished obsidian floor, with lovely chiseled stone walls surrounding the inside area. Racks upon racks of dumbells and weights lined the room's edges, and cracks visibly spread through the ground beneath them.

His muscles bulged as he lifted a ridiculously heavy barbell off the ground and then above his head. His body was beginning to look genuinely ridiculous. If he didn’t have his shapeshifting power, he would be facing a similar problem to the one Hunter met, where the sheer mass of his muscle would reduce his mobility.

Having a body of slithery rubber pretty much entirely removed that problem. Even in the spirit realm, he didn't find his body too unmaneuverable, surprisingly so. Another pleasant surprise he accepted without questioning it too much.

He put the heavy weights down, accidentally smashing the floor again. No matter how many times he recreated it and made it more robust, it kept accidentally breaking under the absurd mass of his workout equipment.

"Shit, more maintenance,” he said, pausing. “Hmmm?" That was the first time he had spoken out loud in a while, and he could swear that his voice was deeper than usual.

It was time to feed the plant again, so he postponed fixing the floor. A more thorough strengthening would be necessary once he did, though. Neave left the training room and ran back to the shrub. On his way there, he passed countless knee-high glass bushes, and many more were already growing considerably bigger than that.

Some of the old obsidian shrubs were beginning to fall apart. When he inspected the reason why, he realized that the glass shrub, the big one that he still hadn’t named, was spreading its roots and pushing them into the obsidian shrubs.

"Damn, Shruby, that shit is hardcore!"

Cannibalize the old to empower the new! That was how life was meant to be lived.

Once back at the location of the shrub, he fed it more life force. It could take quite a bit more now. Recently, the shrub had progressed to the first step of the iron path. This seemed to have increased the range of its roots considerably.

The area still wasn’t that big, around the size of a small forest back in the real world, but because it spread three-dimensionally, given that it had all of this underground space to fill, the radius mattered many times more.

Once he was done feeding the plant, he pondered his muscles. They were shiny and bulging, much more prominent now than when he first started.

That was likely it; that was the key! Now that he had more muscle, he had a bigger vessel to contain all the power!

Probably… It was somewhat frustrating that he couldn't confidently pinpoint what exactly allowed his growth. If he could puzzle out what was responsible, there was a possibility that he could work on extending that ceiling further.

Actually, it was likely that monster meat could regain some of its use again since he had more muscle to feed.

Stretching, he got up and walked to a corner of the room where he had created a large mirror. He flexed and posed, observing his absurd musculature.

Once he was done analyzing his progress, he blew some air out, and his muscles shrunk a bit.

He could compress his body a little without losing power. Also, the Falken sect robes, the light blue clothes he still wore, were starting to strain under his ever-increasing size.

Now, given that he was hitting a plateau in his growth and given that he had made substantial progress with the plant, it was time.

…

Well, it was time to do something, he felt. However… Nothing specific came to mind.

Experimenting on monsters wasn’t wise, as he had to first allow the glass shrubs to spread as far as possible, lest they be thoroughly devoured. The monsters had all been sealed in obsidian chambers, which were completely isolated from the outside so that they wouldn't run around and cause problems before the plants could finish establishing their ecosystem.

Not much point in making more weapons, either. There was little immediate use in doing that.

Finally, although he wanted to help the shrub grow as fast as possible, little intervention was required. There was always the possibility of forcing the damn thing to spread faster, but yet again, he felt it would be unwise to make an enemy out of the plant.

"Oh, crap… What do I do?"

There were the others… Although he fed them, he wasn’t yet willing to return to their lives.

Mainly since he believed in a hands-off approach in the beginning. It was best to let them adapt to this place without the certainty and comfort his presence provided. Yes, his presence was far too comforting, Neave felt. His fantastic humor, excellent cooking, and superb company were far too cozy to help them develop the necessary discipline.

That was why he threw them the occasional monster meat, processed, of course, and ran away before they could spot him.

It broke his heart to be tough on them, but he knew it was necessary for their own good. What a champion of responsibility he was, indeed.

Now, what was he thinking about again?

Oh, right, something to do.

Well… There was always the option of getting more powerful, of course. The training had gotten incredibly dull, though.

"Hmmmmmmmm…" Neave hummed as he summoned Violet Avatar.

The tiny, ethereal figure appeared on the floor before him.

He shrugged. Evolving it to gold rank wasn’t risky at all. Furthermore, evolving it again would likely create a platinum-rank threat, but Neave wasn’t scared. He was drastically more powerful even in the spirit trial now, so what was the point of dilly-dallying?

Yet, he still hesitated.

He took a deep breath. It didn’t matter that much if this power turned out to be a dud. However, he would be devastated. Especially now, after creating a weapon and honing his body, he could think of endless possibilities with this little guy.

The violet avatar spirit power worked in peculiar ways.

Sadly, the creature was static in strength, which meant it couldn’t physically train and grow. It could be stored within a small dimensional space, and anything it held in its hands, as long as it could lift it off the ground, would also be stored.

Now, the avatar itself could be destroyed and resummoned. If it suffered damage, there was no way to repair it otherwise. The summoning demanded life force, which made him rather thankful that he had such vast reserves. Ordinary cultivators couldn't be so careless with it.

There was also the possibility of modifying the avatar. Its body was translucent and felt floaty to the touch, but it still acted as if it were made of solid matter.

If he wanted to, he could tear an arm off and replace it with a metal spike or something.

Now, there was a catch. If he removed any part of its body located in the same place a muscle would be, the usual functions of that muscle would be lost.

So, if he removed an arm, he couldn’t simply create a metallic arm with two segments and have it behave like a part of its body.

Actually, perhaps he could if he had more knowledge or experience with golem creation. However, there wasn’t much point in modifying its body. None he could see yet.

It was easy enough to equip it with armor and give it a weapon.

There were a lot of upgrades he wanted the avatar to receive after an evolution. Namely, he wanted it to acquire an extraordinary power, like one of those the dragon’s puppets had.

he didn’t want, however, for one of those powers to be in the vein of that crystal-manipulating puppet, or rather, he didn’t want it to get a power that would be completely useless. If it could manipulate the purple crystal, that would be utterly pointless here because there was none of that material anywhere.

Its basic shape shouldn't change too much, either. If it transformed into something wildly inhuman, there could be problems with equipping it. Well, something like four arms or wings wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

The more Neave thought about it, the more possible problems he could predict. What if the evolution increased the number of puppets without altering anything else? The dragon had three. True, those were all different in power and nature, and Neave wouldn't mind having puppets like that. But if they remained the same… even if he had fifty of these little guys, they wouldn’t be very useful…

Or would they?

A weapon didn’t need to be big to be powerful, especially with what Neave could do.

What if he created a bunch of ridiculous daggers and sent an army of nasty little guys to battle?

Actually, wait, that wouldn’t be useful at all, given that he would still have to manually control the body of the individual avatars. Or would he? Which was better? Naturally, if he could manually control the avatar, he would get the most use out of it, but if it gained independent function… how skilled would it be? Was there a way to assuage a lack of performance? Could he train them?

He sighed in frustration. This was stupid. At this point, he would rather have a plain, man-shaped pupped. If it turned into something simple and practical, he didn’t even have to risk upgrading it into a platinum-ranked spirit power.

So… it was finally time. Enough with the brainstorming. It was useless as it was anyway, so he couldn’t avoid an upgrade. He would just have to grit his teeth and pray. Neave grabbed the little purple fella off the ground, kissed it on the forehead, and unsummoned it.

It was time for it to get an upgrade.

Within seconds, Neave was inside a spirit trial.

The moment he did, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

So he grabbed a random book off a shelf, plopped his body on the comfy, emperor-sized bed, and yawned. He scratched his ass a bit as he shifted to the other side, and his loose, silky hair flowed over his face. With a slight swing of his head, he blew it out of the way and focused his vivid-blue eyes on the text.

There was much information stored in his brain that he hadn’t fully processed, and reading it in book form like this helped him digest it better.

Tremors vibrated through the floor beneath him, and blood-curdling screams echoed distantly. Nothing flew up to him, at least, so he had enough peace to read without distraction.

The back of his head sank into the cloudy, white pillow, and he pulled the thick, plush blanket over his body. Not because he was cold, but just to add to the comfort.

This was how he used to read back when—he sighed and shifted his pose again, suddenly feeling too distracted to continue. The book plopped softly on the sheets beside him, and he stared up into the fake sky, wondering what lay beyond his spirit realm's borders.

He felt so relaxed that he nearly fell asleep. Being unconscious inside the spirit realm was impossible, but he could still feel drowsy. That reminded him—how long had it been since he had slept in the outside world?

His spirit powers seemed to at least partially remove the need for sleep, but as he lay there without their presence, he knew just how much he needed it.

…

Was it actually impossible to fall asleep in a trial? He had just assumed that it was, but he hadn’t proven it.

After all, it would be one hell of a thing to brag about if he could say that he had beaten a spirit trial while asleep.

Rather than accept at face value that it was impossible, he attempted to bend reality to his will to force his manifestation into a state of simulated sleep. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how any of this worked, so he failed.

Initially, at least. Eventually, his sheer stubbornness allowed him to shut his thoughts off, leaving his mind in a completely blank state. Combined with closed eyes, that was right about as close to sleep as one could get.

Since he was the only judge on this matter, he decreed that it counted. He spent the rest of the time in the spirit trial, eyes closed and mind void of thoughts.

Appearing back outside broke him out of his state, and he almost forgot about what he was doing in the first place. Once he remembered, he panicked momentarily as he examined the changes in his spirit power.

And as he did… his mouth dropped.

Violet mist appeared before him, swirling in a small vortex, as Neave summoned the violet avatar—a tiny, ethereal puppet that hadn’t changed one bit.

Neither inwardly nor outwardly did the avatar change in any way.

Yet, he wasn’t upset. Instead, he was grinning like a lunatic.

"Now that’s an unexpected upgrade I’m willing to take."

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