"Rituals?" asked the knowledge hungry, Living Ghoul.
Cirrha nodded as Odd ran his fingers through her hair, "Yup, Sophia was telling me about them, said these daggers are perfect to enhance if you can afford it. She said people use Power Stones as fuel for rituals. The humans lifted the center of Australia in the air for their capital city! Pretty much anything can be made with the stones."
Odd knew about Power Stones already of course, it was a part of his instinctual knowledge base. The small, mini-marble sized blue orbs always form after the Gobs and Slimes are brought to a new planet. It had something to do with mana saturation or the Connection.
However, Odd was only aware that you could eat them and they filled a monster up for a few days. The whole Gob, Enlightened, human disparity kept popping up again and again. Ugh, feelings and philosophy. He decided to do what he always did in situations like this when he had a Cirrha nearby.
Copious amounts of yin lightning on her erogenous zones.
-Odd and Cirrha, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, 2109 FE.
****************************************************
"Kill the anomaly!"
"Charge!"
"Scalp the flesh and eat the brains!"
Yea, they were always like this. Odd had also learned today that the Hobgoblins didn't like him. He was beginning to think it was an order or something. Time to take a page from the Dark Lady of Myriad Storm's book and perform some torture and interrogation.
But first...
Relying on his [Nimble Fingers] perk that was useful for way more than fingering, Odd coated one of his Shell-blades in yin lighting before he threw it directly at the Hobgoblin that called him an anomaly. He deserved it.
As the frenzied charge came closer, a giant hole appeared its head and speared though another two Goblins behind him. The Shell-blades were perfect.
[Mana] 20/22
Quickly reinforcing his legs, he ran forward, coalesced a sheen of water around his foot and across his back, slid across the surface, bisecting several combatants with his black energy coated blade. Sure, he took a few stab wounds and claw marks, but he got what he was aiming for when he slid by them.
[Water Affinity] rose from 1.2 to 1.4
[Speed Affinity] rose from 1.3 to 1.4
Internally, Odd thought he deserved a higher increase to his water affinity for that move.
A quick use of [Vital Points] during his slide, however, and he was now holding the beating heart of one of the Hobgoblins in his free hand.
"You missing something there, friend?"
More roars and stabs as the cluster of Goblins attacked Odd. What pissed him off most was the little Proto-Gobs that chewed on his limbs, but in the end, devouring their bodies healed him, so it wasn't the complete worst thing that could happen. But the most infuriating part of the whole ordeal? They kept on coming anyway in a manner that was clearly leading to them losing the battle and reachin an early grave.
Odd wouldn't be so overconfident if they weren't so stupid.
It took some liberal uses of his [Canopy Grace] before he was able to recover his thrown dagger. He was also getting good at shifting his foot into its ghoulish, clawlike figure, if the missing eyeballs on one of the Hobgoblins suggested.
[Body] minor bottleneck passed. Rose from 1.9 to 2.0
He actually felt that one. Minor raises were like a twitch through his system, but breaking through whole numbers sent a wonderful buzz through his body. He never noticed it before because the only bottlenecks he broke was right before or during his evolution to a Living Ghoul.
"Why'd you all stop? Can we talk now, Gob to Gob?"
[Mana] 9/22
[Mana Capacity] rose from 22 to 23
They charged again and Odd focused on parrying strikes. He could really use a skill or perk for it, because he kept getting stabbed when he meant to divert the strikes.
"I wonder how I could learn a skill like that during sex?" he wondered aloud as he disemboweled a Goblin before biting the head off a Proto-Gob. He swallowed and felt the thick biomass slide down his throat. When he wasn't in a rush to heal his wounds, he found that he really didn't like how it felt to eat the little, albino buggers. They tasted bland on top of that strange texture they had to them.
"I guess I should have asked Cirrha last time about parrying her roots while I bend her over or something? I just didn't think of it then..."
He wondered about his feelings for the tree again. In the end, he didn't think too much on it as everyone near him was dead except for one last Hobgoblin that was clutching a bleeding stump where an arm used to be.
"Okaaaay," he inspected the crippled Hobgoblin with his [Eyes of Providence]. "Hic? You know, they were going to name me that one, actually, so that makes this encounter fated. And the two of us? We're practically brothers! So let me help you with that arm there."
Odd found some rags from the recently deceased, tied them around the stump and staunched the bleeding.
"Look here, I just wanted to talk and this is the reception I get, I was born here, we're neighbors, so can't you just be more neighborly?"
He received growls and virulent curses.
"Alright, Hic. I guess if you want to play it that way," Odd sighed and rested a finger on the Hobgoblin's heart. "Before I started this mission, my mother told me that this was the fastest way to get information from simple creatures, so hopefully I have enough mana left for the operation."
Yin lighting streamed from Odd's fingertip that was embedded in a shallow cut above Hic's heart. The Hobgoblin started screaming and blood dripped from his mouth as he coughed with everything he had. Odd concentrated hard as his mana rose and dropped, absorbing energy directly, until Hic's weak heart fell to a complete stop.
Odd took a deep breath and noticed his [Mana] was sitting at 4/23.
Hic was dead.
He waited two seconds before he made the commitment. As the guy woke up, he would get some mana back, so it'd be fine.
Palm flat on Hic's chest, several quick pulses of nerve-burning, torturous charges were released until the Hobgoblin lurched up in the air and was taking rapid, shallow breaths.
"The light! I saw the light! I died! The pain, help me, stop it, please!" the Hobgoblin cried out.
Odd planted a helpful hand on his shoulder, he was quite happy as his [Mana] showed 0.9/23 after he succeeded in reviving the idiot. Now, he was safe from passing out.
His [Legendary Endurance] perk was to blame for his current state, he concluded. He couldn't even remember what being tired felt like, if he's even been tired before. Now the perk might be his second favorite thing that his Connection listed other than his yin lightning. He still felt like that he could run a marathon, even without mana!
"Brother! Of course I'll help you, Hic. Just tell me first, does your small boss have any keys to Connection Shearing Chains here?"
"No, nooo," he slurred, looking bloodshot and drugged. This method only worked on extremely weak minds. They die for a moment and forget everything from who they trust and how they should act to who they actually are. "Just ritual for the slime. Noth'n else. In caaaaave."
"Hmm, interesting," Odd rested his hand on his chin. "What's the ritual for?"
Hic hiccuped loudly, "Empower weapon for small boss, steal slime magic." The Hobgoblin started to slump towards the ground. He wasn't in the position to say anything else.
"Definitely interesting. Well, thanks Hic," he told the unconscious body. "I'm not anywhere near strong enough to use Yin Lighting of Mercy, but I won't leave you here to wake up brain damaged and crippled, soooooo, goodbye."
He drew a line across Hic's throat, wiped his beautiful blades clean, picked up a still-burning torch, and swaggered down the tunnel.
"Is this the legendary save the Slimegirl so she joins my harem, or an opportunity to make my badass blades more badass?" he wondered aloud as he traveled deeper underground.