Now, you might think it would have been hard getting in here—this tower.
Surprise, it wasn't, minus the numerous stares and shit-talking I heard as I walked in carelessly.
I didn't care about the weak-minded, though. I literally have a plethora of unique situations and skills at hand. The only place to practice with minimal trace should be this tower, if you use common sense. I'm sure there's some saying like, "What happens in the tower stays in the tower," or something like that.
First things first...
'Dismantle.' I swiped my right index finger with a neutral expression. Even though I was just on the first floor, monsters were already swarming me. Their attacks were slow and completely mindless, so they made for the perfect test dummies.
The monsters in question looked like Kobolds, short, hunched creatures with dark red skin stretched taut over lean, wiry muscles. Their wolf-like faces twisted into snarls, sharp yellow eyes flickering with animalistic instinct. They had no armor, no weapons—just jagged claws that flexed hungrily as they crept forward on all fours, their movements twitchy and quick.
Perfect test dummies.
I raised my hand with casual indifference, cursed energy humming against my skin like static before a storm.
'Dismantle!'
Their bodies split cleanly in two. There was no cry, no warning just a wet, loud schlick as the energy carved through them. Their torsos slid apart at the waist, collapsing onto the stone floor with a pair of dull, meaty thuds.
The three creatures didn't even know what hit them.
[-60 Cursed Energy]
'I see... so weak creatures like that require 20 C.E. each. No, could it scale based on the number of enemies as well?'
I refused to believe that Dismantle would cost such a big amount for such weak creatures. Moving forward, I found another trio of Kobolds and tried using Dismantle on just two. Once again, those two were perfectly split after some quick maneuvering to separate the third.
[-20 C.E]
'Hm. Then that means...' Looking at the last one, I used Dismantle once again.
[-10 C.E]
'Okay, so it multiplies by the number of enemies.' It was good I found this out early on. I already knew that it scaled based on the strength of the target, but I didn't know it also scaled per enemy. A simple practice already saved me from making a huge mistake—practice really does make perfect!
Coming out of my analysis, I watched the bodies disperse into thin air, leaving behind a strange stone.
"This must be the drop item that pink-haired lady told me about." Picking up the stone, I put it in my pocket and grabbed the other two. That's when it hit me, I didn't grab the other stones from before. Someone probably already picked them up.
"Hah~" I sighed, the sound thin and exasperated in the stale air. Wasting money like that was regrettable, but not worth brooding over. Thankfully, I was learning now instead of later.
I put the past behind me and went to continue my journey, but I was forced to stop. A huge bundle of negative emotions was running toward me!
Focusing on the path ahead, I quickly spotted a white-haired kid that looked vaguely familiar. He was the source of this negativity. He ran past me, his red eyes wide and terrified, his whole-body quivering.
My face twitched.
'Is there some strong enemy or something?'
I didn't want to call him a pussy, but seriously, running like that was disgraceful.
Well, I guess if I'm being fair, I did come from Earth, so I'm technically speaking with no real threatening experience, especially coming from a first-world country. If I were face to face with a monster I'd never seen before, I might feel fear too.
Silence echoed in my mind before I burst out laughing.
"Hahaha~ Who am I kidding!" Shaking my head, yesterday's events came to mind.
I literally just killed humans for the first time yesterday and felt nothing. Sure, it was probably a byproduct of cursed energy or maybe I was just naturally a lunatic.
Shrugging my shoulders, I decided to turn around and leave. I was ill-equipped for the storage of drop items. With the plenty of energy I had left, I could easily continue, but I didn't want to waste any more money!
A light jog and in a mere 10 minutes, I was back outside, the sun still gleaming down with its warm radiance. It felt strange that even as something with cursed energy, I enjoyed the sun. There was nowhere stated that I couldn't enjoy the sun, but you know, evil and cold typically go together.
"God, that kid is pathetic."
"I'm serious, he shouldn't try if he's that weak."
A group of adventurers walked past me, some of their conversation entering my ears. Hearing their insults, I kind of wanted to kill them right here. Sure, whoever that kid was ran very pathetically, but to insult him was not something I liked.
'Does this make me a hypocrite?' My thoughts from earlier resurfaced. I insulted him as well, but I kept it to myself. Hmm, so strange, I really don't understand myself.
I put the thought of killing them behind me. I just continued back to the inn and kept thinking about myself. My wants, bottom lines, and really what I stood for.
Sukuna had his motivations. While I'll be honest, I didn't really care because he was simply badass, I felt that I should really understand the characters now that I had access to their paths. Not fully, but to a certain degree.
'W-Wait, why the hell am I getting this deep over a kid's actions?'
It felt strange that I suddenly cared this deeply. I felt like I was just guided by some strange force or something. The way I got to my thought process felt unnatural.
'Did I just imagine it though?' I felt normal and everything so maybe I really did just naturally think about this stuff.
Shrugging my shoulders, I just decided not to give a fuck and move on. If something really was affecting me what the hell was, I supposed to do if I could even notice it.