Peak summoned its status. The stone hadn’t taken a look at it for a while and wanted to see what had changed. Of course, “See” being figurative.

 

Peak overlooked the changes to its stats. The Stonebound Soul had improved, but from what Emmeth had told the rock, the numbers didn’t actually mean that much. They mostly seemed to dictate the highest level your skills could reach. 

With that understood, Peak pulled up its skill list.

 

Well. It was numbers. Not much else to think about there.

What Peak was looking for though, was a direction it should be trying to improve in, an idea for a skill it could have.

The first idea was for the vibration section. If there was an entire category dedicated to vibration, Peak was probably able to gain more skills in that area. Unfortunately, just like with earth manipulation, Peak wasn’t sure about how to go about doing that. Peak had a skill for sensing earth and a conceptualization skill, so it wasn’t sure where to go from there. It had also previously created vibrations using rocks, but it hadn’t been enough to gain any sort of skill for it.

So, Peak was going to use the power of (sigh) pseudoscience bullshit. 

The problem was, Peak wasn’t sure what it should even be focusing on. Should it be taking vibrations that already exist and somehow magnifying them? Should it be trying to create new vibrations from nothing? Maybe it should be trying to create vibrations in the air as well?

Or maybe, just maybe, Peak was being stupid and there was no “vibration manipulation” skill. 

Unfortunately, Peak knew that was probably the correct answer, but it couldn’t help but hope… 

“Do you know about any vibration skills?” the stone asked Emmeth. They had yet to leave the shed, both looking over their skills for ideas on how they could each improve.

“I do.” Emmeth said before beginning a lecture. “The most well known skills that qualify as vibration based skills would be the perception skill, the silent steps technique, the muffle technique, and the voice modification skills and techniques. However, I did hear there was a…” Emmeth hesitated a moment before continuing. “confidant with the ability to send vibrations into the bodies of those she was… comforting in order to relax their muscles.”

“So, like a massage?”

“I am unsure, but that is a reasonable interpretation.”

“Hmmm. Well, that’s something…” Peak mused. “Yep, definitely something. What a shame that I have no idea what to do with that knowledge.”

“Do you have vibration as a skill category?”

“Yeah. You got any advice for how to gain skills for that?”

“... Vibrations are not usually very specific in how they work. Perhaps it’s best to start out with trying very little to a lot instead of doing a lot to very little.”

“... What the fuck does that even mean?”

“Instead of trying to send vibrations through one rock, try and send weak vibrations through everything.”

“I… Okay, but how the hell do I create vibrations?”

Emmeth shrugged.

“God fucking damnit. Fine, I’ll figure it out. Do you need any help with anything?”

“... I don’t believe it would be likely for you to know of any skills that would allow me to repair my body.”

“Well, maybe you just need your own manipulation skill.”

“Flesh manipulation is well known as only working on living tissue and those that have it are either killed or hired by the kingdom.”

Peak took a moment to process that. “Well, maybe you should figure out some bone manipulation or work some undead magic.”

“... it would probably be for the best if I did not experiment on myself with such things.”

“Oh yeah, totally. Where are we going to find some corpses though?”

“You had previously stated that there are rodents living beneath this shed, correct?”

“No. Bad Emmeth. Don’t kill the innocent animals.”

Emmeth frowned. “Why not?” 

“What did they do to you?”

Emmeth considered what Peak said for a moment. “Rodents living in a field are pests. I’ve destroyed many rat nests that have appeared within my fields before. If the farmer owning these lands found the nest, he most likely would destroy it as well.”

“Yeah, but your reason for doing it is different! You wanna kill them to experiment with their corpses, not to help the farmer!”

“Does it make a difference?”

“Well, yeah! Yeah it does.”

“How so?” 

“... Give me a second to come up with a good comparison.”

Peak thought it over for a little bit before finding an apt enough metaphor. “Alright, it’s like… there’s a man and he’s really poor. He and his daughter are starving, so he’s desperate for food. He decides to steal some bread from a bakery. It’s not right, but he’s got a good reason to do so. On the other hand, if someone were to rob a bakery not because they were starving but because they wanted to reverse engineer the recipe for the bread, that would be much worse.”

“But these are rodents and I need to find a way to heal myself. I would consider my well being worth more than the lives of these pests.”

“Yeah, I know, but it’s…” Peak tried to think of a counter to what Emmeth said but came up short. “AGHH! I don’t know! Just, don’t do it.”

Emmeth didn’t say anything for a while before attempting to convince Peak a different way. “Peak. Please. I need to heal myself. I don’t know if I’ll survive the next fight we get into with how I am right now.”

Peak was speechless at that. The earnestness of the request and the seemingly desperate way it was said finally made the stone realize just how serious the situation was for Emmeth. “You…”

A window with a level up notification came up, but Emmeth ignored it.

“I’m sorry.” Peak finally said. “I should… I should have paid more attention. You’re obviously in a more difficult position than me and I’m just… Okay. Fine. I won’t stop you.”

“Thank you.” Emmeth said before observing the window. 

Emmeth dismissed it. 

Meanwhile, Peak was mulling over a way to try and get Emmeth a corpse in a less morally dubious manner but couldn’t think of anything worthwhile. There was the obvious plan of traveling back and finding the remains of some of their band of zombies, but that was also the stupidest plan and Peak was unwilling to act on it. They could go hunting for monsters, but Peak doubted they would be able to fight anything even halfway decently. They might be able to find a village full of dead people, but it could also be full of live people or people who might be easily able to kill Emmeth. Honestly, not a lot of good ideas.

“... Would you dig up the rodents for me?” Emmeth asked.

“Yeah, just… Okay. Go outside first. I’m not unearthing them inside.”

[ ) ( ] [ ) ( ] [ ) ( ]

Surrounding the shed was an empty patch of earth, devoid of any growth whatsoever. It was larger than what Emmeth would have had surrounding a shed; after all, larger empty patches means fewer crops to harvest. However, this wasn’t his field and he had nor right to tell a farmer how to grow their crop.

While Emmeth was thinking about farming stuff, Peak had decided, after some deliberation, to take only one of the rodents out of the nest. The nest was a foot underground and not just below right below the floor of the shed. There were several entrances which Peak closed off. Then, Peak hardened the dirt around it to make sure none of them would escape.

After that, Peak dug a small cavity beneath the nest before dropping one of the rodents in. Peak then buried the rodent and suffocated it before transporting it upwards to Emmeth.

Honestly, the whole situation was horrifying to Peak. Watching all the little guys running around in their nest, panicking and digging at the walls was not something the stone was going to forget for a while. Even worse was suffocating the one underground. Peak could literally feel the life leave its body, feel the way it struggled and swallowed dirt in an effort to breathe.

Peak didn’t save it though. The stone watched wordlessly, disturbed by the grisliness of the scene. When it was finally motionless, Peak watched the small thing’s soul gutter out. 

“Here.” Was all it said as it dragged the corpse out of the ground and laid it at Emmeth’s feet. 

Emmeth crouched down and held the body in his hands. It turned out that the rodents Peak had been describing were just some rats. Emmeth did not know why Peak seemed so squeamish about the situation, but he would do his best not to pressure him too much.

He closed his eyes and tried to… feel the corpse somehow, hoping that gaining a skill would come to him instinctually.

His hopes were dashed when, as was to be expected, nothing happened. 

Emmeth opened his eyes and began to examine the fresh body more closely. It was a brown rat approximately half a foot in length, not including the tail. That brought it to a full foot. 

Holding it in one hand, Emmeth gently stroked the corpse, hoping that touching it more would give him some secrets.

Nothing. Disappointing.

Emmeth proceeded to rip off the thing’s head and peer inside.

Peak watched this in silence, unable to discern what exactly Emmeth was doing to the corpse since it no longer held a soul, but able to understand that it was probably something disgusting by the way he seemed to be pulling at something.

Oh, and what was most likely blood was dripping onto the ground now too. Great.

To try to get his mind off the gruesomeness, Peak attempted to make conversation. “So… find anything… interesting?” 

Emmeth didn’t stop studying the rat as he responded. “I have made no discoveries, nor have I developed any new skills.”

Peak decided to give him his go-to answer for all problems. “Maybe you’re not magicking it hard enough.”

“And what,” Emmeth ripped off a limb, “would ‘magicking’ entail?”

Peak tried very hard not to think of what the motion Emmeth just made might have been. “... Using the powers hidden deep within your soul? Fuck if I know.”

“I will take your advice,” another leg, “under consideration.”

Peak, not knowing what else to do, mulls over its own abilities. It can move the earth around, but it’s not exactly something Peak can easily weaponize. Dirt does not seem to want to be turned into things like spears, and it also doesn’t like getting packed together too quickly, so even when Peak does create a spear, it’s a flimsy piece of shit that would crumble easily. Sod doesn’t make good weaponry. Who would have thought? Not all those fucking stupid isekai writers, that’s who. 

Peak was getting off track. It needed to find a way to weaponize dirt. The only time the stone managed to do anything effective with earth was when it stabbed the giant tree monster thing with a sharp stone. As much as Peak would love being able to carry around sharp stones wherever it was going, it’s not like…

Wait, why couldn’t it just figure out a way to carry around sharp stone wherever it was going? Then all it would have to do is throw them at the enemy!

Which Peak couldn’t do. Throw things, that is. It was pretty detrimental to Peak’s ideas of stabbing people.

‘Maybe if I were to create some sort of gun…’ Peak was pondering before something flickered in its senses. 

Peak focused on the oddity trying to figure out what it was before comprehension dawned on the stone.

“I-- WAIT, NO!” Peak ripped open one of the closed off entrances to the rat’s nest and dragged the rats out of the hole, but it was too late. When Peak had closed off the entrances to their nest, the stone had forgotten to leave breathing holes. Peak hadn’t noticed as it had been too busy distracting itself. 

None of the rats remaining in the hole had survived.

“No…” Peak said, new horror dawning on it. “I… I-I don’t… NO! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! NO! GOD FUCKING DAMNIT FUCK! WHY THE FUCK DID I…!? RRRAAAAGH!!!”

The earth around Peak churned slightly as the stone attempted to deal with its rage and anguish.

Emmeth remained silent, unsure of how to comfort Peak while the stone was in this state. Emmeth was certain that anything he would say at this point would just make Peak angrier.; and it wasn’t as though he was opposed to this outcome either. More corpses meant more bodies to work with.

“THIS… I… just…”

Peak didn’t say anything for a minute. Emmeth took this as his time to speak.

“Peak--”

“No, shut up. Don’t you fucking say…  a single word about how this was okay. I don’t need your fucking comfort right now, you son of a bitch. You don’t care. I know you don’t fucking care, so don’t act like you fucking do!”

Emmeth was incensed by this. It wasn’t his fault that Peak had accidentally killed the pests. Why should he be insulted when he’s just trying to help? 

However, Emmeth did not let his emotions get the best of him. He took a moment to collect himself before trying again, his tone level. “I know I--”

“I said, SHUT UP!” Peak screamed. The air shook as Peak’s scream took corporeal form, a pulse knocking Emmeth backwards. The earth around the stone exploded outwards, showering Emmeth in dirt. 

 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--” Peak continued to howl as dirt flew and the air shook. 

Emmeth laid on the ground for a few seconds while the screeching continued, generally upset and annoyed at this whole situation. Why the hell was Peak throwing a tantrum? It was just a bunch of rats. They were probably going to have to kill more to help Emmeth discover a skill, so what the hell was the idiot doing?

Suddenly, Emmeth realized how loud the idiot was being. 

Emmeth got to his feet, roaring, “PEAK! SHUT UP!”

Abruptly, the screaming stopped. The earth stilled. Everything was silent.

Emmeth walked forward to the small crater left behind by Peak’s outburst. Within the bowl, Peak was mumbling, almost chanting to itself, “...erted, preoccupied, absent-minded, inattentive, self-engrossed, oblivious, distrait,  self-absorbed…” an endless stream of self-derision. 

Emmeth was forced to ignore the state the rock was in for the moment, forced to worry for their safety instead. He grabbed the stone and scanned his surroundings before rushing into the fields, hoping no one heard the outburst. 

Not before snatching the rats too, of course. Best not to let them go to waste.