The God of Jesters
Chapter 610 - 9.13.4 A rat again.

Chapter 610: 9.13.4 A rat again.

Every great story begins with a tragedy, that’s how Jester always looked at things and often became the very source of such tragedy, all in hopes of finding a new protagonist for his stories. Which he had done multiple times throughout his life. Even if that protagonist survived a mere minute, Jester had enjoyed that fleeting moment of victory and satisfaction.

Which Farhad finally understood. ’Even the first knight suffered under such misery, in ignorance.’ Farhad didn’t know how the First Knight escaped the clutches of that powerful Mage, how many mistakes and sacrifices it took for him to learn the truth about the world and human nature.

But what he did know was that it’s impossible to go back to who you used to be once your journey begins. ’It might have been real Warnan... the people did say the original one also used some form of flames.’ Farhad recalled the topic and the fact that with how weak the real Warnan might have been, he should have been caught by the Mage Dilbur and used in his experiments.

And the end product of that experiment is the awakened Rudhir?

That did make some sense, but it also felt a bit boring. ’I am starting to think like Jester.’ Shaking his head of distracting thoughts, Farhad looked at the little cat on his shoulder before asking. "Sir, I am looking for a man, a scholar by the name of Malidi, he should have come here far earlier than me and others. We are here looking for him. Can you please show me the path?" Farhad asked, looking hopefully toward the cat which gave him a look back, and then its paws shifted direction and pointed toward a tree where a small child was hung.

"So it is the entrance to new places." Farhad thought readying himself to touch the body, but his hand was held back by the little cat that asked Farhad to take out the blood from before. "This?" He wondered, which the cat nodded at, then it asked it to put the drop of blood on the body which seemed to have unlocked some lock of some kind, or so it sounded in Farhad’s ears.

Following this, the cat touched the boy disappearing from Farhad’s side, who also did the same soon after not intending to be left alone. Disappearing from this small world as well.

******

"It would seem, we finally have some answer," Arbood spoke, looking at the small coin in front of him.

Which was picked up by Gael.

Currently, the whole group of Dwarfs has devastated the surrounding area through sheer force, dealing with what can only be said to be the beastmen that have long gone extinct on the Brihma continent.

"This coin?" Gael of the Bastard Bears asked, putting pressure on the coin in an attempt to crush it, but he failed to do so. "It would seem your sensors are not all useless." Using the Draconic artifact given to them by their Guardian, the group of Lynx Dwarves as well as Gael were able to get into the world together, though, the moment they stepped in, two of the group lost their life because they were unable to deal with the bizarre totem that appeared on their neck, which number would have been greater if not for Gael’s timely rescue.

After this, their story mirrored the same as what others experienced, finding a corpse and out of curiosity, touching it which sent them to a world stuck in time.

Though, unlike others, due to the fact that they were in a group, the dwarves were far freer to explore the oddities around them. There was no time or reason for them to remorse over the death of their two brethren, as they were ready to die here from the start, not to mention, that most of them were already in their golden years, not too far from death beside one of them.

Making them far more focused than others and even confident enough to try what will happen if they touched the other bodies in the scenario. Which to their understanding was simply, destruction.

A huge portion of one of the Armor was turned to dust, saving the party hiding inside, but it was proof enough that you can’t simply touch and jump between new places.

Which pushed them to explore the world more, and understand the theme around it while straying far away from oddities that might pose a danger to them. Which it turned out were none.

The place they found themselves in was weak. These beast men fought each other regularly using the totems, an art dead to the time, but still holding some potential once Arbood looked at them for a bit more, finding it somewhat similar to the banned art of Spiritual Artificier of the dwarves. Well banned on the surface at least, Arbood still remembers the disaster in Bothal a decade ago when the artificial humans were discovered.

"This coin is our exit?..." Wondered Gael before throwing the count to Arbood who took it and analyzed it with some wonder. "So old that no scripts of this language even exist anymore... how did these Beastmen get their hands on it?" Looking at the coin, Arbood wondered, though he soon shook his head.

"Anyways, let’s find a body and try if it works... We still have the luxury of error due to the spare armor." Two of the dwarves had died before, leaving their armor to be used by the remaining group while experimenting with the oddities of this place, among which one had been claimed by prematurely touching one of the odd corpses.

But now, with the coin in hand and connected through the Draconic artifact, they touched the corpse chosen beforehand, and this time, there was no destructive reaction, instead one by one, they disappeared from the world and then reappeared in a new one, sadly, this one only had sea below their feet.

"Brace yourself.’ Splash and ten the sudden descent towards the seabed, the armors were just too heavy. However, this happened only for a little bit as floats exploded hidden beside the armor’s defensive plates, bloating into balloons, which helped them float on the water.

"I expected this considering the state of the corpse, but never to this extent." The corpse they found seemed to be bloated with the smell of seawater around them. "This is a shipwreck, there should be because of the shipwreck close by." The reason they chose this corpse was simple.

It’s the clothes on the individual being a bit modern which made them choose this one.

It was never too good to go into the past, as although the individual strength of Mortals was far lower, it was also the time of Gods and Monsters, and they didn’t know if this place could summon such powerful beings in a scenario. So picking a safer choice is always appropriate. Not to mention, considering Malidi is a smart scholar, he won’t pick any dangerous scenarios. Anyone of his background would research the body(door), properly before making his way into it.

That is if he is still alive.

"Find the cause, deal with the scenario, and let’s keep moving forward."

*******

"The hill of flowers gets smaller as the further we move, it won’t be long before I meet some friends in one of these words... But I wonder if they can compare to my speed." Another break of the scenario and another new time.

There were too many scenarios in this place, the garden on the hill contained thousands of worlds inside it, and most would probably be lost in which direction to move. But for me, I knew that I had to reach the top, for Malidi a man far more knowledgeable than me should also know where the exit lies.

’But why can’t he leave this place?’ I wondered for a bit, before looking around the area that was left devastated under my strength.

It’s so simple for a Curse Master as long as you let go of your morals with no actual competition or struggle in the face of your strength. So easy in fact that only corpses were left in my wake and then instability.

This world, this place kept giving me roles whenever I touched a corpse. Sometimes the lover of a dead woman, sometimes the daughter of a raided merchant captain. Which felt random at times.

Why these people, this place, and this time specifically? Well, I reached the answer not long after finding a scenario where I saw the death of a god, which directly cut away my life to a mere day at this point.

"I am at an end, huh." This kept a record of important events throughout history. Events that might appear small on the surface, but they ended up changing the very world itself. Meaning, that all these events held so much history in them, and for certain spiritualists, this was truly heaven in a certain way. But for me at this moment, each of these places was nothing more than hell.

Truly, putting such a scrumptious meal in front of me, while I can’t touch any of it. Hah, if I can send the memory of these experiences to my true body, how wonderful it would be.

"Found it, new path, new world." I kept moving forward, jumping from one world to another in under an hour. And on my fifty-fourth world, I felt it.

"I can’t control a human corpse." It’s impossible to do at this point, my body, my spirit were truly reaching their limits. It won’t be long till I achieve oblivion.

"Move, faster than everyone," I spoke to myself while destroying all the lives I came across and then exiting the world in a matter of minutes. My body changed from human to dog, and after a while, I was forced to constrain myself to the size of a cat.

In the sixty-sixth world, I was forced to abandon the form of the cat, including countless memories, experiences, and knowledge. All this was done to retain the bare minimum details that would help me further on my mission.

"It’s too much, a bird won’t be able to sustain me for long." I looked around, finding something that felt familiar. "Was it called a rat?" I wondered, before taking over its body along with the curse of Pain that seemed to be weakening with my soul.

"It won’t be long... I will get there." I spoke to myself, as I kept moving forward.

But this time, when I entered a new world filled with humans, I noticed someone familiar. "Familiar, I find him." A man carrying what appeared to be a bigger me on his shoulder... bigger me, a mouse? No, a cat. I caught it.

"Another one, earlier than me?" I wondered. And it would seem the man wondered the same as he looked at me with some curiosity before his eyes bulged up. "What has happened to you." He spoke, coming towards me, and under the curious glances of the crowd, he picked me up and looked me straight in the eyes. "Your body, it will die off soon." He spoke with some worry in his voice.

A worry that made me happy.