Broken Soul Part 1

Myst blinked as he went from sitting at his computer, editing his latest chapter to standing in a stone chamber with twenty six people, ranging in age from a sleepy looking teenage girl wearing a black-shirt to a man wearing overalls and work boots that looked in his late fifties. 'What the fuck!?'

"Congratulations, you've been summoned to help deal with a demon army," a man announced, drawing everyone's attention to the people standing outside of the shiny silver circle set into the polished stone floor. "You should have a floating window that describes your special ability, please take a second to read about your special ability while we evaluate your spiritual roots, the descriptions will only last five minutes."

"What the fuck is going on?!" a man in an expensive looking business suit demanded when a floating window appeared in front of him.

"Silence!" the man that had summoned everyone snapped. "I did not give you permission to speak, you will be silent unless asked a question."

"I'm calling the police," the business man snapped in a tone that implied that was used to getting his way.

Myst winced when the man in robes blurred as he crossed the distance in a split second and slapped the man in the business suit across his face, dropping him to the ground and causing everyone that had been summoned to shut up. 'So much for this being a twisted prank or a group of lunatics and I feel too lucid to be drugged.'

"Don't ask stupid questions," the man in robes warned them, then casually walked back out of the circle as a group of people in robes walked around the group studying the people.

'Freak out later,' Myst told himself as he glanced at the four entries on the floating page that had just appeared when the man mentioned it then focused on the top entry. 'Dubbed Translation: The summoning magic has given you the ability to understand all forms of spoken language, this does nothing for written language or the fact that people's lips don't line up with what they're saying.'

'Better than trying to learn whatever the hell they're using and I might be able to find work as a translator,' Myst mused as he looked at the second entry. 'Incompatible Soul Structure, your soul converts any ki you absorb into mana and you're incapable of increasing your realm or using most cultivation methods to increase your power.'

'So much for being a cultivator,' Myst thought as he turned his attention to the third entry, fairly sure the previous ability was going to cause trouble given the mention of spiritual roots and the fact that all of the people wearing robes looked Asian. 'Bountiful Alchemy, three percent chance to get a duplicate of any material I extract in alchemy or produce via alchemy. Three percent? That's practically worthless considering I don't have any skill in alchemy and I doubt they have any alchemy books in English.'

'World of Treasure and Pain, this ability allows the user to project a mirror of themselves into an alternate world filled with monsters that drop loot when they're killed. 'How do I…' his thought trailed off as he found himself in an empty summoning chamber without leaving the chamber with people, seeing both places at once and finding it surprisingly easy to multitask.

"Huh," the version that was in the other world muttered when he looked down and realized that he was naked. 'So much for starting with a copy of my clothes.'

"You don't have spirit roots, what abilities do you have?" a man in robes demanded as he stepped up to Myst, less than pleased that he had to deal with someone that would be useless against the demons.

"Dubbed Translation," Myst told him.

"Stop speaking nonsense!" the man snapped, finding the man's voice grating and annoying.

"It lets me understand people," Myst explained, then found himself on the ground when the man struck him faster than he could see. 'Fuck!' he complained, barely keeping from saying something that would get him hit a second time.

Myst rubbed at his jaw in the alternate world, surprised that it didn't feel tender since it felt like he'd gotten punched by a giant in the other world. 'Different bodies, that's going to take some getting used to,' he mused as he headed for the door, wanting to explore a bit so he'd have some idea where they were.

"Stop speaking in that bastard tongue, can someone translate this worthless dog's filthy language?" the man asked.

"He said he can understand you but I doubt his ability covers speaking since he was speaking English," Ron offered, glad that he had the True Speech ability so he didn't have to deal with translation issues.

"Fine, translate," the man snapped. "What abilities does he have?"

Myst glanced at the strangely familiar and yet unfamiliar blond teenager that was wearing cargo pants and a black shirt. "Translation and Bountiful Alchemy, I have a small chance to duplicate any material I extract in alchemy or produce via alchemy," he explained, leaving out the part where the ability only activated three percent of the time as he didn't want them to decide that he was completely worthless and he had a feeling that the less he said in front of the asshole the better.

Ron quickly translated what the man said, trying to avoid trouble until he could figure out how to get back home.

"Alchemist," the man in the robes muttered as he pulled a token out of his pocket and tossed it at Myst.

Myst picked up the wooden token that had bounced off his shoulder and looked at the vial with a stopper that had been carved into one side. 'Better than being used as a practice dummy.'

"You'll be assigned to the alchemy division. If you can't make a decent potion in a week, they'll cut you up for ingredients," the man told Myst then moved to the next person, happy to see that not everyone was useless.

'Or not,' Myst thought, doing his best to keep his scowl off his face.

"Stop crying harlot!" one of the men that were checking people's spiritual roots snapped at the red haired teenage girl wearing a t-shirt that was glaring at him.

"Can someone tell his piece of shit that they grabbed me while I was sleeping and that I'm not crying, I'm angry?" the girl asked, less than pleased about being kidnapped by a bunch of cultists.

"You're going to get in trouble," one of the other people that had gotten summoned warned her, having picked up on the fact that the assholes didn't like people speaking English.

"When my dad gets here, you're going to be sorry!" the girl warned the guy that called her a harlot.

"Shut up!" one of the cultivators wearing robes snapped.

"Go fuck yourself!" the girl snapped, tired of people with the shitheads and cranky from lack of sleep.

The man lunged forward to hit the girl, not liking her tone and found himself grabbed by the neck by a hand that wouldn't move. "Urg!"

Myst shivered as a six and a half foot tall pale skinned dark haired figure wearing a dark red business suit appeared out of thin air with his hand around the cultivator's neck, holding the man in place without any visible strain.

"Told you!" the girl said cheerfully as she saw the asshole lurch and her father appear behind the asshole. "Daddy!"

"Sweety," the man replied with a smile for his daughter then twisted the cultivator around so that he could look him in the eyes, ignoring the rest of the people in the room as his aura washed over the cultivators, making them feel like they were two inches tall and a mountain sized beast was glaring at them. "Let me get this straight, you summon my fourteen year old daughter during her nap time, then you have the nerve to call her a harlot because she's sleeping in a t-shirt and it's the middle of summer. To make matters worse, when she called you on your behavior, you proceeded to attempt to strike her in order to get her to stop speaking her native tongue, does that sound about right?"

"It's a filthy tongue," the man being held up replied before he could stop himself, his face going white when he realized what he'd said.

"That's not a no," the girl's father replied as he studied the man's soul. "You reek of arrogance and alchemy, of stolen strength and greed." He reached up and touched the man's head with his left hand and skimmed through his memories, trying to figure out why they were summoning people and what was going on. "Ah, I see, you're building an army to kill a demonic horde because they surround themselves with corruption and you're cowards."

"Some of them have corruption resistance and special talents," one of the men argued, trying to defend their actions.

"You could always try killing them from range," the man told the cultivator then focused on the man that had been about to hit his daughter. "If I let you live, are you going to try to take revenge on my daughter?"

"Yes!" the man blurted, then bit his tongue to keep from saying anything else, since some dark force was dragging the answers out of him.

"That's unfortunate," the girl's father replied as reached into the cultivator's chest with his left hand and ripped his soul out, instantly killing him and splattering several people with blood.

'Archmage? Demon Lord, god?' Myst wondered as he watched the man study the bloody marble that he'd ripped out of his chest for a second before putting it in his pocket and letting the corpse hit the ground, torn between keeping his mouth shut and hoping the man didn't notice him and asking if he could send everyone home.

"The monsters don't look particularly annoying," the man mused as he glanced at his daughter, noticing that the abilities the summoning ritual had given her needed time to settle in if she wanted to keep them. 'Subtitles and text translation and the ability to conjure weapons that can eat other weapons to get stronger, yeah, I'm going to have to leave her here for a couple of months, that's annoying.' He gave his daughter a smile. "How do you feel about summer camp?"

"It would get me out of helping grandma with the bake sale," the girl admitted.

"Excellent," the man replied, then turned to look at the most powerful cultivator in the room. "If any of you pathetic maggots hurt my daughter, I will devour your souls, destroy your sect and salt the ground so that nothing grows here for a thousand years."

"Isn't that a bit dramatic?" the girl asked.

"No, I'm explaining things Selena, there's a difference. As your aunt likes to say, a vague disclaimer is no one's friend."

"Okay," Selena admitted.

He turned to glare at the men that were frozen in terror from his aura. "If I have to come back here to do anything other than pick my daughter up once she's finished learning to kill demons with the power of her soul, I'm going to be annoyed," the man told the cultivators then walked over, leaned down and kissed his daughter on the forehead. "Be awesome."

"Always," Selena assured her father.

Myst relaxed a touch when the man vanished and that feeling of looking at a dangerous wild animal vanished. 'Hopefully, that convinces some of the idiots to be more reasonable.'

One of the cultivators that had his shit together a bit more than the rest, despite needing to change his pants, spoke up, "Finish the testing then show them to the guest wing, they can start work in the morning," he ordered, managing to sound calm and collected, something he was very much not. He turned and left the room, intent on changing his clothes before someone realized that he'd pissed himself in fear.

0o0o0

"I need to figure out how to set people on fire with my mind," Ron complained as he studied the four by seven foot room that he'd been assigned, not sure how to feel about getting the second worst room.

"At least you're a teenager," Myst muttered, less than amused by the idea of 'sleeping' on what amounted to a thin reed mat tossed on a stone floor. "I don't suppose anyone wants to trade?" he asked hopefully as he glanced around at the group.

"Not a chance," the man with the expensive suit that had gotten hit for daring to talk said as he walked into his room, relieved that it had an actual bed.

"Sorry, not sorry," Selena said as she walked into the nicest room and shut the door, wanting to get back to her nap.

"Figures," Myst muttered as he walked into the closet that they'd assigned him and closed the door, more than a touch annoyed that the lock looked like it could be picked by a five year old with a piece of wire. 'At least it has a lock,' he told himself as he sat down on the uncomfortable and lumpy mat, trying to look on the bright side since the summoning ritual had given him a couple of magical abilities.

He shifted around until he found a spot that was less uncomfortable then focused on the treasure world that his other half was exploring, hoping that he could find something that would let him survive.

'This would be a hell of a lot easier if I actually had a system,' Myst mused as he made his way down the hallway, in the direction one of the cultivator's had mentioned the cafeteria was located. He stopped at the doorway of the cafeteria when he saw six wooden mannequins scattered around the cafeteria wearing white martial arts belts around their waists. 'Okay, that looks like a good way to get mobbed.'

Myst glanced around, looking for something he could use as a weapon like a mop or a forgotten practice weapon and smiled when he noticed a solid looking wooden table near one of the mannequins that had empty plates and dirty silverware on it. 'No mops or brooms but the table legs look solid enough to use as weapons, assuming I can break the table.'

He dashed into the cafeteria and sprinted toward the table, not surprised when the nearest mannequin turned to look at him and stepped forward. He placed his hands on the table and shoved, transferring a decent chunk of his forward momentum to the table and slamming it into the mannequin which sent the construct sprawling. He flipped the table up then pushed it onto the mannequin, grabbed one of the chair legs and leaned on the table. He winced when the table hit the ground and he hit the wood, reminding him that he was out of shape. He glanced over and sighed in relief when he realized the rest of the mannequins were ignoring them.

'At least they don't attack as a group,' Myst thought as he rolled over and grabbed a solid pewter mug from where it had fallen off the table. He twisted around so that he was half on the table and half off the table so that he had a better position and started bashing the mannequin on the head with the mug, glad that it was sticking out from beneath the table.

'This could take a while,' Myst admitted when a health bar appeared over the mannequin's head showing a tiny sliver of missing health from the mug. He spent the next five minutes beating the mannequin to death as it ineffectively struggled to move the table. He sighed in relief and wiggled his fingers when the mannequin lost the last sliver of health and vanished, leaving behind a small red crystal that pulsed with a gentle light, a book and a pair of boxers, all of which had floating windows above them. 'Weak Ki stone, Alchemy Secrets, Boxers of Kung Fu?'

'This would be easier if I had an actual weapon,' Myst thought as he picked the boxers up and skimmed the description. 'I need a manual, I'm not sure if a single extra point of damage is fantastic or next to nothing to get excited about.'

'Better than nothing,' Myst thought as he pulled the boxes on, figuring any extra damage would help at this point. 'At least they fit, is that because of the magic, luck or the fact that they dropped for me?' He glanced over at the nearest mannequin, glad that it hadn't started walking in his direction yet.

'This would be so much easier if I had an inventory or a backpack. I can try to figure out how to hand the book to the version that is sitting on an uncomfortable mat or I can try to open it and fry my brain.'

'Screw it, no one blinked an eye at Selena's father having supernatural powers.' He opened the book and winced when a flash of magic burned at least a hundred and twenty hours of alchemy instruction into his mind, along with knowledge of how to cast two spells, making him feel like he'd just crammed for a test and drank some seriously suspect alcohol while he was at it.

He blinked the tears out of his eyes then focused on the alchemy book he was holding, surprised that using it hadn't destroyed it. 'Used book: You can read it as normal but you shouldn't expect it to dump knowledge in your head, this isn't a video game.'

'Great, my power is trolling me,' Myst complained as he 'handed' the book and the ki stone to the version that was sitting on the lumpy mat. 'At least I can stash things here so I don't have to carry them.'

'I can probably use Extract Quality to turn crap into potions and Conjure Recipe to get something any alchemist can use to make the special potions,' Myst thought as he got to his feet, looking forward to casting his first spell.

'What are the chances that I get an alchemy book off the first mob that I kill? Was it random chance or does the power just give me useful things?' he mused as he headed into the kitchen, curious if he could find a halfway decent knife or tenderizing hammer.

A quick search of the kitchen revealed several knives, a meat hammer and the fact that he couldn't take objects out of the treasure world if they weren't loot. He pulled a nickel out of his pocket and handed it to his other half, proving that he could move real objects back and forth.

'Probably for the best,' he told himself as he started going through the drawers, surprised at the sheer number of spices he was finding since spices should be expensive. 'Maybe they grow them in the garden or the local village.'

He spent a couple of minutes moving the bottles of spice to his other half then grabbed the meat hammer and headed for the back door that seemed to lead to a courtyard. He stopped when he saw two dozen chickens scattered around the walled courtyard, several of which had glowing red eyes or metal claws.

'Great, I'm going to get killed by chickens,' he thought as he studied the chickens, trying to figure out if one of them looked like something he could kill or at least fight without getting swarmed. His eyes jumped to the silver chest that was being used as a perch by a silver clawed rooster with red eyes and a large health bar over its head. 'Considering the rest of the chickens don't have a health bar, that's probably the boss.'

'At least it's name isn't Di Be,' he told himself as he glanced up at the stone stairs that led up to the wall. 'Assuming the chickens don't attack when I'm walking by, I can probably drop something on the boss, that's probably the only way I'm going to kill it without magic or decent equipment.'

He glanced at the hay filled wagon that was about eight feet from the wall on the opposite side of the courtyard from the stairs. 'Okay, if I shove the wagon a bit closer, I can jump down if the chickens charge up the stairs, assuming they can't just fly up and kill me,' Myst thought, hoping they couldn't fly any better than real chickens.

He made his way over to the wagon, ready to bolt for the kitchen if too many of the damned monsters swarmed him. He swung his meat hammer when one of the chickens lurched forward to peck him, caving in the beast's skull with a wild swing. He ignored the package of loot that appeared when another chicken charged him, proving that they didn't have any brains. He sent the chicken flying then hit the next one when it jumped at him, knocking off a good chunk of its health.

He turned and bolted for the kitchen door then slammed it shut as several chickens lunged at him. He opened it enough that one of them could get their head and neck in then slammed it shut on its neck. "Die!" he shouted as he slammed the meat tenderizing hammer into its head, killing it after two hits. He opened the heavy wooden door enough to swing at one of the chickens, wanting to kill the damned thing before the loot vanished.

He spent a couple of minutes using the door to control how much could attack him at once and to crush their heads when he got lucky. He spent a couple more minutes sorting through the ki stones, random loot and packages of raw chicken that dropped once the chickens that had been attacking were dead. 'At least it only pulled half a dozen of the little monsters.'

Myst finished handing the collection of ki stones to his other half then focused on the description for the glow in the dark martial arts belt that had dropped off a green chicken. 'Increases damage by twenty percent unless there are two belts being worn within a hundred meters of each other at which point the curse drops your damage and skill by fifty percent per extra belt in the area, yeah that fits, conservation of ninjutsu.'

He quickly put the belt on, a touch surprised that he could still remember how to tie the belt after more than twenty years of never touching his belt. He glanced at the pony keg of ale one of the chickens dropped then made his way over to the wagon and pushed it closer to the wall, wanting to make sure he could make the jump without hurting himself if he had to bail.

He took a step back towards the kitchen door so he could start on the next group of chickens that he had to clear when he stopped. 'Yeah, no,' he thought as he turned around and checked the wagon to make sure it was safe. He wasn't sure if he should be amused or annoyed by the small collection of farming implements that were sticking up in the straw, ready to kill anyone that jumped into the wagon. 'At least I have a weapon.'

He handed his other self the two pitchforks then made his way back over to the pony keg and picked it up. He made his way over to the stairs then walked around to where the boss was, lined up his shot as best he could and dropped the keg on the boss chicken then handed himself one of the pitchforks and got ready to run. He was slightly disappointed but mostly relieved when the keg crushed the boss, leaving a glowing key and a small pile of loot next to the silver chest. 'That works.'