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Chapter 407: Death after Death - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2025-06-26 05:19:20 +0000 UTCAs my father, Anise and I sat at the edge of my mother’s bed, she gently stroked my head.
“Miria… I think this is it for your old mom,” she said. Her eyes were murky, and her fox ears and tail drooped at the side. Her skeleton was withered and shrunken - nothing like the lively, proud, energetic mother from most of my time in this world.
Unaware of my thoughts, my mother reached out her withered hand again, this time towards Anise. “Anise… I’m glad that both of you are here with me. The last few decades have been a blessing. No chaos, no overwork… just the four of us, spending time together. The way it always should have been.”
My eyesight grew blurry as Anise gently buried her head into mother’s arms. “We’re glad that we’re here too, mom,” she said.
I nodded. My throat hurt, and I couldn’t form words properly, so I settled for hugging my mother instead. My mother gently stroked my back a few times, before she laughed. It was a dry, raspy sound - but one that still carried mirth and happiness, despite the ravages of time.
“Anise… your big sister is a big softie. Look after her when I’m gone, will you?” My mother said. Her dull, lifeless eyes locked onto mine, and she smiled again. “Miria… Anise… I’m so proud of both of you. You two helped so many people. You created hope in a world that had none. I… I wish I had seen the two of you settle down and have families of your own. But the two of you never found someone that caught your eye.” My mother cackled, and the dry, raspy sound echoed through her room. “I guess there just isn’t anyone in this world good enough for my daughters.”
I swallowed back a choked laugh of my own, and held my mother’s hand more tightly.
“Forget it. As long as you two are happy, that’s all I wanted. I was blessed to have such a wonderful family. In my next life, I hope that I can see the three of you again. Stay safe without me. I love you. All of you. See you in the next life, dearest. I hope we can be together again in the next life, and every life afterwards.” My mother’s eyes fixated on father for another moment, as if she was drinking in the sight of him one last time. Her eyes met his, and my father swallowed. I saw a hint of the exact same passion that they had every other time we saw them - as if, in their eyes, they had never stopped being the young, beautiful couple that loved each other more than anything else in the world.
Then, the moment passed. The light in mother’s eyes gradually dimmed, and I tried to inject another round of healing magic into her body. But I could feel that the magic wasn’t taking properly anymore. The connection between my mother’s soul and her body was collapsing.
Soon, I saw a soul tear free from my mother’s body, before it made its way towards the ocean of souls.
That night, Anise and I cried in the same room we had grown up in.
I spent the rest of the week a total wreck. Anise was much the same, so Sallia and Felix spent a great deal of time helping out around the house, spending time with my father, and checking up on us. I appreciated it. It was nice to know that I wasn’t alone in the world - that my friends were always by my side, and they always would be.
A week later, my father passed away. It was as if mother’s presence had been something vital to his existence, like soil and water to a plant. My healing spells became less and less effective as I tried to keep his body intact - but it was a hopeless endeavor. My spells just weren’t keeping him alive anymore. His final words were that he loved us and he hoped to meet us again, someday in our future lives. Then, his soul also returned to the ocean of souls.
I hoped that mother and father found each other again in their next lives.
After that, Anise and I held on to our parent’s bakery. I had never loved baking very much - it had never held the meaning for me that other people, such as our parents in this world and Old Mo in our last. Still, selling the bakery or leaving it to rot felt wrong. Anise started to make a bit of bread every morning for customers, and I healed anyone that came. We ran the bakery as a strange hybrid of a clinic and a little cafe. Anise’s bread wasn’t great at first, but she turned out to be adept at picking it up. In time, we came to be at least halfway decent at running the bakery and making customers happy.
Of course, that was when old age started to catch up to Anise and I, as well. Soon, we turned 470, and I was starting to remember why I hated being old so much. In this world, almost all of my time had been spent in the body of someone in her early twenties. I had loved the fluidity and grace that came from having a younger, stronger body. My singing voice had been wonderful, especially after I spent centuries practicing with exactly the same vocal chords. Now, as I grew older, my throat started to wear out. Songs that I had practiced for decades no longer sounded the same. My limbs didn’t move the way they used to.
I did my best to ignore it. I had already gotten old once before. It was a miserable experience. Sadly, it was simply a part of life - though a part of me truly hated this process. I hoped that at some point in the future, I could use my healing spells to remove problems like old age. Still, that was far beyond my current abilities.
As I grew older, I continued to heal people, in hopes of snagging a final few bits of Achievement or some sort of final reward for this world - but sadly, year after year came and went, and nothing much happened. I briefly debated the idea of heading to the front lines and fighting off a few raids, in order to grab a few last bits of slaughter Achievement - but I decided not to. The miniscule amount of Slaughter Achievement wasn’t likely to be very meaningful, and with how fragile and weary my body was becoming, I might not achieve anything at all during my final moments. Compared to that, I valued my state of mind more. Spending a few more decades with my friends, relaxing and making plans for the future, was simply a more meaningful use of my time compared to snatching a few hundred more Achievement. Besides, if I died, I would lose any last chances to snag some influence Achievement from healing people
Sadly, I didn’t hit the next threshold before old age came for me. Soon after, I died in bed of simple old age - just like my parents. It was time to return to the Market.
Power:
[Basic] Grade attunement
+ 5 Achievement
[Intermediate] Grade attunement
+ 1000 Achievement
[Advanced] Grade Attunement
+ 1500 Achievement
[Expert] Grade Attunement
+ 2000 Achievement
[Master] Grade Attunement
+ 2500 Achievement
First Rune:
+ 300 Achievement
Second Rune:
+ 600 Achievement
Third Rune:
+ 900 Achievement
Fourth Rune:
+ 1200 Achievement
Fifth Rune:
+ 1500 Achievement
Sixth Rune:
+ 1800 Achievement
Seventh Rune:
+ 2100 Achievement
Eighth Rune:
+ 2400 Achievement
Ninth Rune:
+ 2700 Achievement
Tenth Rune:
+ 3000 Achievement
Consume Essence Mushrooms, permanently enhancing your body (X8)
+ 320 Achievement
Take a bath and improve your essence capacity
+ 300 Achievement
Skill:
Death Magic has reached [Basic] Grade proficiency:
+ 2,000 Achievement
Curse Magic has reached [Basic] Grade proficiency
+ 5,000 Achievement
Slaughter
Kill a Formless Stage 2 - Grasping Hands Variant for the first time
+1,000 Achievement
Kill a Hungry Building for the First time
+ 50 Achievement
Assist in Killing a Servant of Hunger and Rage for the first time
+ 800 Achievement
Kill a Warped Wings for the first time
+ 100 Achievement
Kill a Warped Wings for the tenth time
+ 500 Achievement
Kill a Warped Wings for the Hundredth time
+ 700 Achievement
Kill a Relay of the Great Mind for the first time
+ 2,000 Achievement
Assist in killing a Relay of the Great Mind for the first time
+ 500 Achievement
Assist in killing a Relay of the Great Mind for the fifth time
+ 700 Achievement
Kill an Outer Centipede for the first time
+ 2,000 Achievement
Kill an Outer Centipede (baby) for the first time
+ 350 Achievement
Kill an Outer Centipede (baby) for the tenth time
+ 2,000 Achievement
Kill a Sentinel of Stone for the first time
+500 Achievement
Kill a Chimera of DIstorted Growths for the first time
+ 4,000 Achievement
Assist in Killing an Extension of the Great Hive for the first time
+ 5,000 Achievement
Influence
Defend the Sanctuary (X1)
+ 30 Achievement
Heal 10 Permanent, debilitating Injuries
+ 400 Achievement
Defend the Sanctuary (X3)
+ 4,600 Achievement
Contribute to defending the Sanctuary (X103)
+ 18,200 Achievement
Contribute to defending the Sanctuary (X2)
+ 620 Achievement
Create Hope in a Dying World
+ 30,000 Achievement
Play a Major role in a dangerous raid
+ 2,000 Achievement
Play a Major role in a dangerous raid (X6)
+ 7,800 Achievement
Defend the Sanctuary against a Ten Bell raid
+ 5,000 Achievement
Contribute to defending the Sanctuary (X162)
+ 47,630 Achievement
Change the Fate of a Dying World
+ 150,000 Achievement
Heal 50 Permanent, debilitating Injuries
+ 1,000 Achievement
Heal 200 Permanent, debilitating Injuries
+ 2,000 Achievement
Heal 1000 Permanent, debilitating Injuries
+ 3,500 Achievement
Wealth
Own a Life core
+ 400 Achievement
Crafting
Exploration
Family/Disciples
Misc:
First time Achievements:
Total at start of the world: 10,698.46.
Maintenance: 177 Achievement
Taxes: N/A (Error - no tax skill detected. Please consult with your local city administrator for further details. Tax evasion is a capital offense, and trying to avoid paying may result in execution!)
New Total: 325,453
Author’s Note:
Join my Discord! (I’m at least sometimes active there, while I admit that I don’t generally check the comments section. I’m not very active anywhere, though - writers are antisocial people, okay!)
Comments
Rodmin
I am also a bit sad how rushed everything was since the creation of the sun. In the end I hoped they would maybe make a last push into the source of the monsters on the planet. Say goodbye to all the people and just go down there killing some monsters and maybe even find something interesting before the monsters would overwhelm them. After the 10 bell raid they now lived over 400 years which is a majority of all the time they lived but it feels like it was pretty boring all that time, they only trained and trained for centuries.
swordmaster savage
Where’d the keeping runes after death experiments go? I feel like you just gave up on Felix
Alivaril
The last few chapters have felt — a bit lifeless? Wanting to get the world over and done with. There are a number of plot threads from earlier that were kind of just dropped, like the existence of other sanctuaries, potential politics surrounding heroes, etc. I can understand that being the case when your life is stressful and you're still financially forced to output chapters instead of pausing, though. I hope you feel better.
Jsar
You don't need to fix the math. You need to fix that teaching and recreating a school of magic gave her nothing. If anything she had too few points.
Barkeep
Why did she not get disciple achievements? She literally trained the whole starting generations of new/old magic. So any one using that system would be trained by her or someone she trained.
Natalie
Tbh when Miria does her "taking me from X to Y" part I just kinda gloss over it. I don't need her to be a chartered accountant simulator as the reader. And I think it's those lines that might actually be causing your confusion as the author. We only need "Thanks to all the recent Achievement gains I now had Y Achievement saved up." You can then sanity check that one number with the number in whatever spreadsheet you're using to track Mirias Achievement without worrying about accidentally checking the incorrect value.
Daniel
Couldn't you correct it by adding in some extra achivements instead of having to fix every single number?
Natalie
Definitely. I think this is missing half a chapter. Where's the afterlogue where they hang out in the afterlife waiting for their residuals to taper off to basically nothing before deciding to peel away from the world fully and returning to the market?
Dax
Miria had disciples. She should get achievement for their successes too.
Anthony Britton
Tftc first
