“We need to discuss our plans going forward,” Toby droned on.
“Uh-huh,” Norman nodded back absentmindedly. He was having issues focusing on what Toby was saying with Anna in the room. He didn’t feel that weird compulsion from earlier, but she still had a magnetic presence about her that drew attention.
In all honesty, it made Norman uneasy but he couldn’t look away. He should not be having these feelings for someone he thought of as a little sister. Not that they were related, but it still made him feel gross.
“Any ideas, Norman,” Toby asked pointedly, finally getting Norman’s attention.
“Huh?”
“I said, do you have any ideas on how to deal with this new problem involving Eugene?”
Norman shook his head. Not that he didn’t have ideas, but because he had decided not to share his plans with Toby. When Norman had first come up with the plan to escape to the south, he was planning on having Toby and Anna join him. A few weeks of self-reflection had started to change his mind about that though. Seeing what Anna had become solidified his choice.
Her single-minded fixation on getting with him was unnerving and a bit scary. It wasn’t that Norman didn’t like a woman that went after what she wanted, but this went beyond that to an unhealthy obsession. Norman had to be honest with himself. If he took her along, his will would collapse eventually and he would do something that he would come to regret. And that regret would eat at him until he spiraled back into the depression that plagued him back in Colorado. Not that he would likely live long enough to regret the choice after Toby found out.
“How about I ask the President? I’m sure he knows how to leave the territory.”
Toby frowned at that and looked over at the unconscious gron on the bed. “I would prefer that we kept our plans to ourselves, but I don’t see any other choice here. There is no telling when Eugene will return to finish what he started.”
Norman knew of a way to escape the city. Assuming he cracked the issue with keeping the ghosts away from him.
“I will keep looking around, maybe I will get lucky and stumble upon a way out.” Toby hesitated before asking his next question. “Ho- How are your tests coming?”
“Huh? Oh… um, I almost have a solution.” Norman had to refocus again, his mind wandering back toward Anna. His fixation seemed to be getting worse the longer she was here. So he needed to wrap up this little party quickly. “It will be ready in a few days. I can send you the location.”
That news finally got a slight smile out of Toby. “Good. I will start gathering supplies. Come on, Anna, we gotta go.”
The girl pouted, “aw, but I wanted to hang out with Norman some more. We haven’t seen each other in so long.”
Norman swallowed hard before replying, “we will see each other in a few days.”
“You promise?” she asked, a glint of mischief in her eyes.
Norman could only nod, afraid of saying something he would regret if he opened his mouth.
“Alright,” she finally added, popping off the bed and strolling over to Norman. “I’ll be waiting.”
She added a light peck on his cheek before sauntering out of the room. Norman just stood there, doing his best not to collapse and chase after her like some love-struck puppy.
Toby glanced at his sister who had sauntered to the end of the hallway before turning toward Norman. “Deep breaths, try to occupy your mind with other thoughts.”
“Wha? How do you do it?”
“I don’t, I’m undead and it seems like her magic does not affect me. Plus I’m her brother. But I’ve seen what she is doing to others around her.”
“You need to get some control over her,” Norman finally said.
Toby nodded, looking worriedly at his sister. “I don’t know if I can do that in a few days. Keep an eye out for Eugene. There is no telling where he will strike again.”
Norman nodded in reply.
After the pair had left, Norman took a minute to collect himself. He was immensely grateful to not be under the influence of any drugs or magic anymore. If his mind wasn’t so clear, he probably would have folded like a wet paper bag in front of Anna’s magic and newfound charisma. The girl was far too immature for the kind of power she wielded. Norman knew it would change her eventually, and probably not for the better.
But Norman couldn’t sit and dwell on what-ifs, he needed to double down on his experimenting and resolve two separate issues before their self-imposed deadline arrived.
***
Norman was barely able to keep his eyes open when the President finally bolted upright in his bed.
“Ugh, that was an awful experience. Did it work?”
Norman turned toward the man, who was trying to check his pulse.
“Well, I’ll be. Seems I’ve died,” the President chuckled.
“I’m happy for you,” Norman said tiredly. “But if you don’t mind. I need to get some sleep. I also sent you a text.”
“Of course. And I will look at it as soon as I can. You did a fine thing for the gron people, I won’t soon forget that.” The President hopped off the bed and stumbled a bit. “Well, that will take a little getting used to. But I suppose that is a minor thing when you consider the advantages I now have.”
Norman slid a bottle of his potion over. He was starting to run low. And while most of the ingredients to make more were easy to come by, he realized clover didn’t exist in this area. He was going to have to source some before he left or figure out an alternative ingredient.
“This will keep your body in top shape. As I explained to Grobert, you might be able to use regular healing potions, but make sure you test a tiny amount before you try it.”
“Thank you again, Norman. Now, I will be off and let you get some rest.” He looked at the text Norman sent him. “Oh. We can discuss this matter tomorrow. Good night.”
And with that, the President left, leaving Norman alone. He wandered over to the bed and collapsed on top of it, falling asleep almost immediately as his head hit the pillow.
Morning came far too early for Norman as he jerked awake and reached for his phone to shut off the damnable alarm he had set.
It meant he needed to get ready for work, but he ignored that and went over to his bathroom to have a nice hot shower to help him wake up.
Three hours of sleep just wasn’t enough but Norman had work to do. After showering, Norman put on the only clean clothes he had at the moment, which turned out to be his favorite shorts and black T-shirt. Then he threw his clear work apron over the top of it and headed toward the kitchen.
His stomach growled but he ignored that too as he reached into the cabinet and pulled out the cage holding a very angry rodent. The spray had worn off overnight and the creature was back to its irritated self.
Norman set the cage on the counter and stared at the thing as it quietly growled back at him. Then Norman took his pocket knife out and stabbed himself in the arm. He gritted his teeth against the sharp pain but the smile on his face couldn’t be dimmed.
The creature squealed in pain, a tiny cut appearing on its front leg. Norman couldn’t help laughing hysterically. His spell worked. He took out his bottle of healing potion and drank a sip, letting it fix his wound. The same thing happened to the rodent. Not ideal, but it was fine.
With his armor activated, Norman reached into the cage, grabbing the now terrified creature. It did manage to bite him in the finger, but that only caused the creature to injure itself. Norman’s wound quickly healed as the potion still worked its way through his body.
Norman pressed the angry thing down on the table. It struggled to try and free itself but Norman held it firmly. He took his knife and sliced a thin cut against the rodent's backside. It squealed and twisted, bitting Norman again, but Norman was able to keep it from escaping. Norman didn’t take any damage from the cut to the animal. The damage was a one-way process as he had hoped when he designed the spell. He spilled a drop of diluted potion on the rodent's wound and shoved it back into the cage. The creature healed up and didn’t explode, so that answered another question that Norman had wondered about.
He would have liked to release the rodent but Norman had some more spells he needed to test. Spells that were better tested on pests than people.
Since Norman had to wait for the effects of the potion to wear off, he readied a few things for his next experiment.
He had to leave his apartment to retrieve some of the items first, however. When he returned, Norman set some things on his counter he never thought he would need again. One of those was a bottle of healing potion made from jorik powder. The other was the original bottle of Gail’s poison. He could have used the poison that the President had given him but he wanted to rule out as many factors as possible for this test.
He diluted both items significantly, not wanting to overwhelm the small creature’s body with a full dose. Then he filled the syringes and force-fed the first one to the rodent. The thing was understandably upset about being manhandled again and almost managed to escape from Norman this time. Norman managed to corner the creature in his room when it slowed as the poison started taking effect.
Back in hand, Norman set the animal back in the cage and waited the remaining time before feeding it the diluted potion.
It took only a few more hours for the creature to fall still, then start to twitch. When it finally rose again, it fixated on Norman, following his every move as he slowly made his way around the table. It did try to gnaw its way out of the cage to get at him, but Norman ignored those attempts.
It proved his hypothesis right when he figured the feral zombies ignored him because they were created using his blood. Since he used the jorik blood for this test, there was no buffer against the creature's madness. It seemed to fixate on him no matter where he moved. Norman extracted another dead rodent from his storage and pushed it toward the cage.
The zombie rodent wasted no time sinking its fangs into the dead rodent's corpse. Norman tossed the second rodent into another cage and waited.
The process seemed to take the same amount of time as it took to convert the first rodent. The second rodent awoke and acted in the same manner as the first. Norman repeated the test, using the second rodent as a vector to infect a third but the undead creature completely ignored the corpse, instead trying to bite at Norman. He was forced to fool the feral creature into biting down on the new corpse.
The test resulted in nothing happening. The third corpse never so much as moved or twitched. This told Norman that only the originator could spread the infection.
That was good. It meant if the original feral zombie was killed, the infection would stop spreading. Norman didn’t want to accidentally unleash a world-ending plague that could grow exponentially.
With those tests complete, Norman focused on his final test for today. He drew the prepared magic circle on the back of his hand. It was a bit difficult but Norman eventually got it right.
The circle was rather simple in design, and Norman had come up with it shortly after he discovered what was waiting in the south beyond the gron lands. As soon as the spell activated, the feral zombies stopped trying to escape their cages, instead content to mill about aimlessly.
That ended an hour later when the light of the spell circle suddenly flickered and died. The feral zombies quickly noticed Norman’s presence and started biting at the cage again.
Norman wasn’t exactly happy with the result, sure it worked, but he would have to constantly refresh the circle. He also needed to test it against ghosts, since zombies were quite a bit different.
Before he killed off the zombies, Norman cut himself again, ensuring the effect was still active on the rodent, even in its new undead state. It was.
A quick summoning of a gron ghost with Soul Communion showed that the ghost was unable to even see Norman with the new spell active. It just floated there, looking around in confusion until Norman dismissed it.
He would have loved to ask the spirit some questions but he just didn’t have the time.
With that issue resolved, Norman only had one more problem to figure out. He could just simply not do anything about it, but fixing the problem would bring about more benefits to him, than leaving the problem as it was.
“We need to discuss our plans going forward,” Toby droned on.
“Uh-huh,” Norman nodded back absentmindedly. He was having issues focusing on what Toby was saying with Anna in the room. He didn’t feel that weird compulsion from earlier, but she still had a magnetic presence about her that drew attention.
In all honesty, it made Norman uneasy but he couldn’t look away. He should not be having these feelings for someone he thought of as a little sister. Not that they were related, but it still made him feel gross.
“Any ideas, Norman,” Toby asked pointedly, finally getting Norman’s attention.
“Huh?”
“I said, do you have any ideas on how to deal with this new problem involving Eugene?”
Norman shook his head. Not that he didn’t have ideas, but because he had decided not to share his plans with Toby. When Norman had first come up with the plan to escape to the south, he was planning on having Toby and Anna join him. A few weeks of self-reflection had started to change his mind about that though. Seeing what Anna had become solidified his choice.
Her single-minded fixation on getting with him was unnerving and a bit scary. It wasn’t that Norman didn’t like a woman that went after what she wanted, but this went beyond that to an unhealthy obsession. Norman had to be honest with himself. If he took her along, his will would collapse eventually and he would do something that he would come to regret. And that regret would eat at him until he spiraled back into the depression that plagued him back in Colorado. Not that he would likely live long enough to regret the choice after Toby found out.
“How about I ask the President? I’m sure he knows how to leave the territory.”
Toby frowned at that and looked over at the unconscious gron on the bed. “I would prefer that we kept our plans to ourselves, but I don’t see any other choice here. There is no telling when Eugene will return to finish what he started.”
Norman knew of a way to escape the city. Assuming he cracked the issue with keeping the ghosts away from him.
“I will keep looking around, maybe I will get lucky and stumble upon a way out.” Toby hesitated before asking his next question. “Ho- How are your tests coming?”
“Huh? Oh… um, I almost have a solution.” Norman had to refocus again, his mind wandering back toward Anna. His fixation seemed to be getting worse the longer she was here. So he needed to wrap up this little party quickly. “It will be ready in a few days. I can send you the location.”
That news finally got a slight smile out of Toby. “Good. I will start gathering supplies. Come on, Anna, we gotta go.”
The girl pouted, “aw, but I wanted to hang out with Norman some more. We haven’t seen each other in so long.”
Norman swallowed hard before replying, “we will see each other in a few days.”
“You promise?” she asked, a glint of mischief in her eyes.
Norman could only nod, afraid of saying something he would regret if he opened his mouth.
“Alright,” she finally added, popping off the bed and strolling over to Norman. “I’ll be waiting.”
She added a light peck on his cheek before sauntering out of the room. Norman just stood there, doing his best not to collapse and chase after her like some love-struck puppy.
Toby glanced at his sister who had sauntered to the end of the hallway before turning toward Norman. “Deep breaths, try to occupy your mind with other thoughts.”
“Wha? How do you do it?”
“I don’t, I’m undead and it seems like her magic does not affect me. Plus I’m her brother. But I’ve seen what she is doing to others around her.”
“You need to get some control over her,” Norman finally said.
Toby nodded, looking worriedly at his sister. “I don’t know if I can do that in a few days. Keep an eye out for Eugene. There is no telling where he will strike again.”
Norman nodded in reply.
After the pair had left, Norman took a minute to collect himself. He was immensely grateful to not be under the influence of any drugs or magic anymore. If his mind wasn’t so clear, he probably would have folded like a wet paper bag in front of Anna’s magic and newfound charisma. The girl was far too immature for the kind of power she wielded. Norman knew it would change her eventually, and probably not for the better.
But Norman couldn’t sit and dwell on what-ifs, he needed to double down on his experimenting and resolve two separate issues before their self-imposed deadline arrived.
***
Norman was barely able to keep his eyes open when the President finally bolted upright in his bed.
“Ugh, that was an awful experience. Did it work?”
Norman turned toward the man, who was trying to check his pulse.
“Well, I’ll be. Seems I’ve died,” the President chuckled.
“I’m happy for you,” Norman said tiredly. “But if you don’t mind. I need to get some sleep. I also sent you a text.”
“Of course. And I will look at it as soon as I can. You did a fine thing for the gron people, I won’t soon forget that.” The President hopped off the bed and stumbled a bit. “Well, that will take a little getting used to. But I suppose that is a minor thing when you consider the advantages I now have.”
Norman slid a bottle of his potion over. He was starting to run low. And while most of the ingredients to make more were easy to come by, he realized clover didn’t exist in this area. He was going to have to source some before he left or figure out an alternative ingredient.
“This will keep your body in top shape. As I explained to Grobert, you might be able to use regular healing potions, but make sure you test a tiny amount before you try it.”
“Thank you again, Norman. Now, I will be off and let you get some rest.” He looked at the text Norman sent him. “Oh. We can discuss this matter tomorrow. Good night.”
And with that, the President left, leaving Norman alone. He wandered over to the bed and collapsed on top of it, falling asleep almost immediately as his head hit the pillow.
Morning came far too early for Norman as he jerked awake and reached for his phone to shut off the damnable alarm he had set.
It meant he needed to get ready for work, but he ignored that and went over to his bathroom to have a nice hot shower to help him wake up.
Three hours of sleep just wasn’t enough but Norman had work to do. After showering, Norman put on the only clean clothes he had at the moment, which turned out to be his favorite shorts and black T-shirt. Then he threw his clear work apron over the top of it and headed toward the kitchen.
His stomach growled but he ignored that too as he reached into the cabinet and pulled out the cage holding a very angry rodent. The spray had worn off overnight and the creature was back to its irritated self.
Norman set the cage on the counter and stared at the thing as it quietly growled back at him. Then Norman took his pocket knife out and stabbed himself in the arm. He gritted his teeth against the sharp pain but the smile on his face couldn’t be dimmed.
The creature squealed in pain, a tiny cut appearing on its front leg. Norman couldn’t help laughing hysterically. His spell worked. He took out his bottle of healing potion and drank a sip, letting it fix his wound. The same thing happened to the rodent. Not ideal, but it was fine.
With his armor activated, Norman reached into the cage, grabbing the now terrified creature. It did manage to bite him in the finger, but that only caused the creature to injure itself. Norman’s wound quickly healed as the potion still worked its way through his body.
Norman pressed the angry thing down on the table. It struggled to try and free itself but Norman held it firmly. He took his knife and sliced a thin cut against the rodent's backside. It squealed and twisted, bitting Norman again, but Norman was able to keep it from escaping. Norman didn’t take any damage from the cut to the animal. The damage was a one-way process as he had hoped when he designed the spell. He spilled a drop of diluted potion on the rodent's wound and shoved it back into the cage. The creature healed up and didn’t explode, so that answered another question that Norman had wondered about.
He would have liked to release the rodent but Norman had some more spells he needed to test. Spells that were better tested on pests than people.
Since Norman had to wait for the effects of the potion to wear off, he readied a few things for his next experiment.
He had to leave his apartment to retrieve some of the items first, however. When he returned, Norman set some things on his counter he never thought he would need again. One of those was a bottle of healing potion made from jorik powder. The other was the original bottle of Gail’s poison. He could have used the poison that the President had given him but he wanted to rule out as many factors as possible for this test.
He diluted both items significantly, not wanting to overwhelm the small creature’s body with a full dose. Then he filled the syringes and force-fed the first one to the rodent. The thing was understandably upset about being manhandled again and almost managed to escape from Norman this time. Norman managed to corner the creature in his room when it slowed as the poison started taking effect.
Back in hand, Norman set the animal back in the cage and waited the remaining time before feeding it the diluted potion.
It took only a few more hours for the creature to fall still, then start to twitch. When it finally rose again, it fixated on Norman, following his every move as he slowly made his way around the table. It did try to gnaw its way out of the cage to get at him, but Norman ignored those attempts.
It proved his hypothesis right when he figured the feral zombies ignored him because they were created using his blood. Since he used the jorik blood for this test, there was no buffer against the creature's madness. It seemed to fixate on him no matter where he moved. Norman extracted another dead rodent from his storage and pushed it toward the cage.
The zombie rodent wasted no time sinking its fangs into the dead rodent's corpse. Norman tossed the second rodent into another cage and waited.
The process seemed to take the same amount of time as it took to convert the first rodent. The second rodent awoke and acted in the same manner as the first. Norman repeated the test, using the second rodent as a vector to infect a third but the undead creature completely ignored the corpse, instead trying to bite at Norman. He was forced to fool the feral creature into biting down on the new corpse.
The test resulted in nothing happening. The third corpse never so much as moved or twitched. This told Norman that only the originator could spread the infection.
That was good. It meant if the original feral zombie was killed, the infection would stop spreading. Norman didn’t want to accidentally unleash a world-ending plague that could grow exponentially.
With those tests complete, Norman focused on his final test for today. He drew the prepared magic circle on the back of his hand. It was a bit difficult but Norman eventually got it right.
The circle was rather simple in design, and Norman had come up with it shortly after he discovered what was waiting in the south beyond the gron lands. As soon as the spell activated, the feral zombies stopped trying to escape their cages, instead content to mill about aimlessly.
That ended an hour later when the light of the spell circle suddenly flickered and died. The feral zombies quickly noticed Norman’s presence and started biting at the cage again.
Norman wasn’t exactly happy with the result, sure it worked, but he would have to constantly refresh the circle. He also needed to test it against ghosts, since zombies were quite a bit different.
Before he killed off the zombies, Norman cut himself again, ensuring the effect was still active on the rodent, even in its new undead state. It was.
A quick summoning of a gron ghost with Soul Communion showed that the ghost was unable to even see Norman with the new spell active. It just floated there, looking around in confusion until Norman dismissed it.
He would have loved to ask the spirit some questions but he just didn’t have the time.
With that issue resolved, Norman only had one more problem to figure out. He could just simply not do anything about it, but fixing the problem would bring about more benefits to him, than leaving the problem as it was.
