Spinning silver rims, large mud tires, and a grill built for ramming stood out on the vehicle they were taking to Port Tar. It looked like a cross between a camper and a monster truck. Two train cars with the same tires and etched in long silver runes followed the vehicle. Hob Goblins wearing clothes instead of the wild beasts he fought in the cage moved like ants filling the two train cars with luggage. A tall goblin with a red cap on its head got in the vehicle's cab after the luggage was packed and turned the key to the ignition. The sudden rumble of the ignition slowly settled into the purr of idle.
Elizabeth pulled on his arm, and he followed her inside the cabin of the first car. He tugged at the itchy silver collar around his neck as he looked for a place to sit down. Zacharia was already seated and smoking from a pipe as he looked through volumes of research notes. The alchemist hardly paid him attention as he found a seat before the vehicle jerked forward.
"Get comfortable; it will be a week before we reach Port Tar. We're a bit further away than most farms."
Silas tapped his foot against the fuzzy red-furred carpet as his tail wagged back and forth. "Stop, you're making me nervous," Zacharia said. "You'll need to find something to keep yourself entertained."
He turned to Elizabeth, who was already snoring. He would rather run than ride cooped up with his captors for a week. While Elizabeth was hotter than hell, wearing a crop top showing off her rocking abs and leading up to an impressive bust, talking with her made his head hurt. Zacharia was a fount of knowledge but was smug about his craft, making him insufferable. He thought about anything to take his mind off sitting with them and decided to grind and look at his stats.
Health: 460 C
Mana: 225 D+ 127%
Stamina: 160 D-
Constitution: 130 D- 156%
Regeneration: 80 E+
Strength: 475 C
Speed: 100 E+
Charisma: 190 D 107%
Skills: 130 D-
A week of training with Elizabeth had grinded him out steady improvements in his stats. Even his mana went up to D+ and would make C- at 325. From what he learned, he would reach B- when a stat hit 1000 points and increase to B when it hit 1500 points. At 2000 it would be B+ and A- at 10,000. To get higher, the points needed between ranks increased exponentially. Getting his points up to those levels would require items to help him along or more epic skills. Lust and Gluttony finally reached initiate rank, and he was surprised by what he got.
Gluttony: Initiate 3%
After the user is full extra mass is converted to Health stacking until 25 times the user's health pool.
Increase Health Potential by 1 and increase potential by 1 for every 1000 points in Health
Apprentice Threshold – Consume Buffet Titan
Lust: Initiate 3%
Gain instances of Unicorn every time a sex-based skill is active.
Increase Charisma potential by 1 and increase potential by 1 for every 1000 points in Charisma
Apprentice Threshold – Survive sex with a succubus
Each epic skill increased his potential in one stat with the promise of further potential increases. If he could combine the other epic skills in a skill tree, that would be epic. Maybe for the initiate stage, the tree would give him 1 to all his potential stats. Add in some effectiveness, and he would be beyond powerful, maybe even strong enough to jump ranks.
Rank disparity was a thing, and while he was getting stronger, those in rank 2 had almost all initiate skills with numerous abilities. Every level gave them 20 stat points to play around with, and their stats improved an already powerful body. Silas could be considered a pseudo-rank 2 with the growth hormone increasing his size. Unfortunately, his stats were only half effective compared to if he had ranked up naturally.
In a sense, he was strong for his rank but not the top dog. So, he had to focus on what he could while they were on the road.
He took out a small stone, held it in his hand, and lifted it. The stone wobbled into the air but not through a geyser of mana like before. Thanks to the mana manipulation skill, he could lift it with mana by covering the object in a bubble. In a sense, he permeated the object with mana and then lifted it. Compared to his barbaric geyser method before, he had evolved considerably. All he had to do was grind away at mana manipulation and increase his mana even further.
"Are you intentionally wasting mana to give me a migraine?" Zacharia asked.
"Would you rather I tap my foot for a week?" Silas asked.
"Who taught you the telekinesis spell?" Zacharia asked.
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to smack them for their incompetence. The leech line is full of eldritch psychic abominations. Using mana to lift objects instead of your mind is wasteful and scratches at my mana detection."
Silas knew Stella wouldn't teach him wrong, and her people had a lot of knowledge. It was more likely she didn't know how to teach a psychic how to be psychic and taught what she knew. That did raise a question if his mana didn't lift the stone, then what did.
"Push the mana into your mind and will the stone to rise. Your future progress will thank you. But don't use telekinesis in the arena; it's against the owner's sensibilities."
"What lifts the stone?"
"Ask Selene; she has a temple at the port. The harvest moon is still celebrated even in this day and age." The alchemist smirked. "I might be a genius alchemist and adept at nearly everything, but psionic power never interested me."
Silas stared at the stone hovering over his hand. He didn't like his situation and would do horrible things to his captors if given a chance, but if this gave him another avenue to power, he would try to tone down his rage.
He let the stone drop in his hand and slowly pushed the mana into his head instead of out of his body. It felt like pouring water on parched ground. While it had occurred to him to push mana into his mind to see what had happened, he resisted the urge. If he broke something, that would be it for him. Regeneration or not, he was sure he would die if his mind broke. So, he was careful about feeding mana into his brain.
The more mana he fed into his mind, the more it hungered for more. Minutes flew by while he slowly drip-fed mana into his hungry brain, hoping he didn't screw anything up. After hours, his hungry mind stopped drinking in mana, and Silas opened his eyes. He felt dizzy, like he could fall over at any moment. Thoughts raced faster and faster through his head.
What if he had caused himself to stroke out, and the thoughts were the last of his memories disappearing? He felt blood seep from his ear holes and down the two holes he used to smell. Even his three eyes bled a black sludge while he felt vertigo. Everything shifted and changed before sliding into focus greater than he had ever experienced. Mana flowed slowly into his mind from his pool in a steady trickle.
Trait Gained
Eldritch – Your psychic nature grants you access to psionic skills, classes, and rank-up choices. +50% psionic skill increase rate.
For the rest of the day and well into the night, he tried to lift the stone with his mind alone. The power was there in his mind; he could feel something being produced as more of his mana filtered into his head. Mana went into a tiny pocket, and a glowing purple node lit like a furnace's pilot light in his mind's eye. Finally, he threw the stone on the ground and thought about sleeping when he felt something.
It wasn't sound or a feeling in his gut but a shift in the airflow outside. Something big was coming, and it froze the air around it.
As a leech, he had many senses humans didn't have and could feel things well beyond his body. To his senses, something big was flying. It was big enough that it should have made a noise, but as it drew closer, he couldn't hear anything, only feel a formless shape.
Rank-3, he realized as he felt the mana, threw himself to the ground, and covered his head. "Get down," he yelled only after he was sure the monster had other prey to target.
He heard an explosion, and half the vehicle sagged to the side before they stopped.
Elizabeth had snapped awake and rolled into the floor, ears already flat on the sides of her head. "Are we under attack?"
At her words, a pair of talons cut through the side of the train car, ripping through metal like butter before exposing them to the cold, humid night air. The moon overhead stared at them, large enough to cover the night sky. Shining over them, their attacker glared down at them with shining golden eyes and feathers that clinked like steel. The smells of rot and wiggling life kin even blasted him as worms crawled through one of the owl's eyes. They were scavengers and puppeteers.
Silas hit it with charm, activating an instance of unfathomable stunning the creature even as his charm failed. Fortunately, that brief instance was all he needed to raise his hands and activate conjuration. Even at the initiate rank, Silas could only make simple things with the skill. With that in mind, he conjured a thick fog, quickly filling the cart and obscuring them. The owl lunged, and they struggled like mice between its talons.