From the outside, this action seemed very normal. However, for Kane this action sent him to a place that was unfamiliar to him.
"Where... where am I?"
He stood on the surface of a boundless ocean. Endless waves washed over him.
"Agh!" He coughed as he was knocked down.
Sitting on the floor, he was forced to turn his head by an unknown force. In the direction he now faced, was a ship peacefully sailing.
However, as he looked at it, a feeling of familiarity emerged.
"That ship... it's the ship from the statue."
The longer he stared, the more it felt like something strange was going to happen.
Eventually, after what felt like hours, the water started to rumble.
"What... the..."
Five colossal tentacles rose from the water, wrapping the ship. To Kane's horror, that wasn't the end of the rumbling. From behind him, the rumbling intensified.
Forcefully having his head turned once more, Kane saw it. Beneath the surface of the water, an eye, the size of three story building, opened. The pupil, which seemed to contain a starry night, slowly moved towards him. Once it had locked on to him, he felt an incredible pressure weigh down on his shoulders. Struggling, Kane closed his eyes.
After what felt like an eternity, the eye slowly closed as the ship was drawn into the sea. As the eye receded, an earth shattering sound came from from the water.
In Kane's closed eyes, a series of symbols appeared in front of him. To Kane's surprise, he could not only understand the symbols, but the sound as well.
When translated to human language, the sound said only "Interesting."
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No longer hearing nor feeling waves, Kane opened his eyes once more.
"Ah!" He exclaimed as he touched his fingers to his ears. Pulling his fingers in front of him, he realized that his ears were bleeding.
"Those symbols... it just meant tentacles. But what language is it?"
Saying the meaning out loud, and thinking of the symbols, a change happened in the statue.
The tentacles wrapped around Kane's arm, but quickly fused with him, slowly dragging the ship into his body.
At the moment that the statue fully went into Kane's body, the silver screen appeared once again.
"The event is over? What about the skill and coins?"
The content on the screen changed.
<(Tentacles- This skill allows the skill owner to create and conjure tentacles and further allows the control of them through the use and knowledge of the Eldritch Word. The amount and strength of the tentacles is based off of the strength of the skill owner.)>
"Well that settles the skill." He mumbled, attempting to use the bandit leader's clothes to clean the blood from his ears. "But what about the coins?"
As the words left his mouth, he found a small pouch of coins on the bandit leader's body.
"..." He was left speechless.
At that moment, he realized that he needed to help the guards that were still alive.
He then ran to inform the villagers that the battle was over.
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After helping the villagers to gather all of the injured guards, Kane ended up being made to lie down as he too had participated in the fight.
Laying on a bed in the villages medical building, Kane thought about his experience after touching the statue.
"I could understand the symbols, and the voice. Although I suppose calling it a voice is going too far... Is it because of (Eldritch Brain)? That's the only explanation I have." He muttered to himself.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the wall.
Looking over, he saw Lindsey.
"Talking to yourself? You didn't go crazy after the fight did you?"
With a slightly embarrassed look, Kane shook his head.
"No, my apologies. I was simply thinking to myself."
Lindsey smiled.
"You did good out there. Was that your first time killing a person?"
Kane nodded.
"You seemed to get into a sort of zone while you were fighting. Didn't seem like it was a new experience to you." She said with a suspicious look on her face.
"I don't fully understand it either... It was my first time having to kill someone... I thought I would get nauseous or something along those lines. But once I told myself that it was them or me... it was so easy."
Lindsey stared at him for a few seconds before opening her mouth.
"Well... Maybe you were born to be a fighter. From what I saw when I got there, you aren't necessarily strong, but you're quick. You looked like everything was under your control."
Kane sighed.
"Maybe so... maybe so..." He said, gradually growing quieter as he drifted off into thought.
Lindsey cleared her throat, drawing Kane's attention once more.
"Well, I just want to thank you. If you didn't warn us, we probably wouldn't have won. They would've caught us by surprise. Plus, I heard you helped to bring the injured guards back. Really I can't thank you enough. I'm sure a lot of the village knows already since the guards have been talking about it."
"Oh? What have they been saying?"
"Things like you being a cold calculated killer on the battlefield. That even if your bones are broken, you'll crawl to kill the enemy."
Kane chuckled.
"Hopefully I can live up to the expectations. It was my first time with any weapon after all."
Lindsey's eyes widened a little at this statement.
"Really? You seemed pretty familiar with everything you picked up."
"I'm simply gifted mentally. Learning the most basic part of using different weapons isn't too hard, and from there everything else is momentum and angles."
"I suppose that can explain it. But we're getting off topic. I came to ask if there's anything you want as thanks. You can ask for the coins that were on the bandits. Of course what you got off the bandit leader is yours. After all, if you didn't take him down, I don't think we could have beaten him."
Kane closed his eyes for ten seconds. Opening them, he looked back at Lindsey.
"Can you guys help me get stronger? I don't mind joining the guards or hunting for the village for a while, but if you have any exercises or combat techniques that can help me get more familiar with fighting and make me stronger, then that's enough for me."
Lindsey showed a wide smile.
"Of course. We'd be happy to have you join the guards for however long. And who knows, you might surprise yourself and teach us a few things."
Kane chuckled.
"Maybe so."
"Well then, I'll let you get back to your rest. Lord knows I need mine."
"Wait!" Kane exclaimed.
"Hm?"
"Do you think you could help me convince them to let me head to my inn?"
Smirking, Lindsey nodded her head.
"Thank you."
Waving her hand as she limped away, Lindsey headed to go and convince them.
"Once I get to the inn I can check out what I gained from this whole... event."
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With Lindsey's persuasion and Kane's explanation of him being physically tougher and having a pretty good healing speed due to his adventures, Kane managed to get back to his inn.
As he walked to his room, he noticed that, compared to earlier, all of the villagers seemed to look at him with a hint of admiration in their eyes.
Soon, Kane managed to get his room.
Flopping on the bed, he let out a large sigh.
"Life and death struggles are exhausting."
With his hand over his eyes, he mumbled to himself.
"Well now I have a few things to think about. One, (Eldritch Brain) gave me the ability to understand Eldritch Words. I don't fully understand it, but if knowing one gives me a power, then knowing more than one might give me more powers. Possibly the ability to mix them. Like if I learn the word for flaming or fire, then the tentacles will be on fire."
He imagined the scene of him waving his hand to crush his enemies with flaming tentacles.
"Then that brings me to the next part. How exactly do the skills work? I understood traits since it's a part of my body, but the skills are a little different. Maybe it's just the tool's way of showing what I can do? I need more skills so I can test that theory."
Sighing, he sat up.
"Then I also need to see how exactly the ability works. I should probably wait till I get to the forest again for that though..."
Scratching his head, he opened the silver screen.
"Then that leaves one more thing... I need to see what the stat points do."
"Plus signs... I'm assuming that's how I add the points."
He glanced over his stats again.
"Well I suppose stamina is a good place to start." He said as he touched the plus.
*groan*
As soon as he touched the button, he felt a warmth all over his body and fell backwards onto the bed. It felt like it was massaging his muscles from the inside.
After two minutes, Kane was covered in sweat.
"So it isn't entirely magical." *panting* "It basically speeds through the process of getting stronger through what feels like a massage."
He then looked at the four points that he had left.
"Now how shall I distribute the rest?"