"Akira, what happened. Please explain. I don't have the [shared vision] skill. Can not see the situation myself". Begged Kornelius.
"There was this demon man with the spider on his neck. He was having sex in the middle of the park, and the people.. the people kept pretending that nothing is wrong"
"That should be the demon larva. Are you safe now?"
"Yes, I knocked the bastard down. I doubt he will be thinking about sex in near future. I should probably kill him now?! A well placed kick on the spider would probably waste them both, Right? ( akira )
"Well yes, that should work but I think we need to think the situation from all angles"
"Well firstly killing it won't benefit as much. It better be exorcised to get maximum reward. And ideally, before that you should drain as much power as allowed"
"What do you mean?"
Well check at your status first.
Name: Akira Ryo; Age 16 ;Sex: Female; Soul Type: B- (soul gestalt);Blood line : please select ⇑
Level: 1; Class: Exorcist; Class Rank : Hero Class Type : Unique/UNREGISTERED/
Affiliation: None; Sponsor: Kornelius /dual link/; [unified system]: Not registered.
Attributes: Strength: 4 ; Swiftness : 5 (4); Vitality: 4 ; Intelligence: 8; Soul: 10 (7)
Class spells/Skills
True sight (passive)(RARE)
Soul Fortress (passive) (RARE)
Consume (active) (UNIQUE)
Exorcise (active) (UNIQUE)
/empty slot/
General Spells/Skills
Mundane engineering; Mundane Science
HP: 40/40; Mana:100/100 ;Soul defence : 100
Available attribute points: 0 ; Balance: 30 SU
"My strength is up to 5??!" Akira immediately noticed
"That is the consume spell doing. You stole a demon's essence and converted it to soul essence resulting to an attribute gain. This means that you can raise your attributes like this in addition of level up free points." Kornelius explained
Akira thought for a while. The potential of this was staggering - unlimited growth!
"That is cheating!" laughed Akira
"You see, you finally realised how groundbreaking is The exorcist class".
"I have to agree, you are a genius, partner"
"heeheehee I am starting to believe that now too" Kornelius
"So do you suggest I hit him with a 1000 consume and become a superman, Cough I mean supergirl?"
"unfortunately it is not that simple, Demons have finite essence. It is quantified by their level that matches in a term a mortal's equivalent"
"Can you explain in details"
"Ok, all classes except "hero", receive 5 attribute points per level up. A level 5 sword-master should have received 25 points. A demon of the same level has similar equivalent of demonic essence lets call it demonic points"
"So level 5 demon has 25 demonic points" Akira
"The spell consume has a 20% conversion rate. So in order to get one attribute point you steal 5 demonic ones."
"So simply said I have as many casts as the demon's level" Akira concluded
"Correct" "Larvae demons vary from lvl 1 to 23."
"What level was the monster last night?"
"It was level 24 rabid mantis"
"The fucker looked strong"
"Well once the larvae evolve to a lesser demon at lvl 24, it completely consumes its host body and soul. Its body becomes stronger to fully utilise the power of lvl 24 is representing"
"So the spider demon man I caught is not that strong?"
"Yes, until lvl 23 the larvae powers are limited to its host body strengths to an extent. It has some way to empower the host body, but not to a maximum extent."
"So how strong is actually a lvl 20 spider man?"
"HMM I believe it will be as close as a lvl 10 human"
Akira looked down and pondered about the level of the demon.
"Right, the identify spell"
[identify (basic): allows a user to determine targets level up to 15 levels higher than user's. Reveals basic information about the target. Can be obscured by different spells, skills, artefacts. Cost 10 mana. Cast time instant]
Akira focused on the spider thingy and willed the spell to happen. Almost immediately got a result
Demon larvae lvl 3
(weakened)
"Its a lvl 3 larvae" said Akira
"Yes, I can see that too. I receive all your system related data"
"So do you think I should wait for the consume cool down and try again? I've 50 mana left" Akira asked
"let see you have 2 hours and 43 minutes. Your mana regeneration should be... A second please. Ok considering your current soul at 10 and a local mana density being low it will 1 mana per minute."
"So the mana won't be an issue then. How did you calculate this anyway?" Akira
"It is a complex algorithm. You just need to know that in Terra you will get +1 mana per minute with every 10 points added on soul, for example 20 soul will yield 2 man/ min and 30Soul 3 mana/minute"
"Rodger, lets keep it simple then"
[Kornelius added mana regeneration rate in your status window]
mana regen : 1mana/ min. (+1 mana/ minute per 10 soul)
"Thanks, that should be handy"
"No need, that is a peace of cake for me. Don't forget that I am a [system architect]"
"Some day you should tell me what is you job, what do you do for living?"
"Bah, sure but it boring one"
The demon man stirred and Akira jumped back and squeaked
"kyaaa" Akira
Luckily he was still unconscious. Akira looked around. The area was shielded by dense vegetation. He looked at the deserted building. It looked like a good place to store the unconscious spider man for several hours. There would be a situation when it wakes up, thou.
"Kornelius, how much stronger will be lvl 3 spider man compared to standard adult?
"ohh, probably the same, negligent increase of powers"
Akira looked again at the spider man. He saw his sturdy leather belt. A plan started to form. He bent down and without effort took it out"
"My first loot" giggled Akira. "Ohoo there could be more.."
The pocket search revealed a nice bunch of paper money and few coins, a folding knife and a small bag with pills.
"So the fucker is either a dealer or addict" Akira thought in disgust.
He then focused on the man's Jacket. It was actually quite stylish, thin black leather. A red clawed hand painted on the back. Many pockets in which a person could store a folding knife for example?
He then looked at his totally ruined shirt and said:
"Nice Jacket, I'll take it!"
After some huffing and puffing he managed to strip the jacket off. He was getting used with the feeling of revulsion that the demon spider was emitting. Still not pleasant though! Next he used the belt to bind the legs, and his backpack straps for the hands. For the mouth piece Akira cut a piece of the mans t-Shirt and stuck it in his mouth. Then used his shoe laces to bind it with the head.
After several checks and re-checks. Akira felt secure enough to sit down and take a breaths. A rustle in the bushes scared Akira.
"Phew just a squirrel" exclaimed Akira
"Hey Kornelius, Do you think there are many rabbit mantis or similar nearby?"
"Hmm the rabbit variation is quite rare. It is like a mad demon, a defective one you can say. The demons usually kill them on spot as they fail to obey commands. So no, you were extremely unlucky to meet that kind of demon"
Akira looked down over his slender body and thought that he indeed might be the unluckiest person ever.
He sighed, stretched few times and got to work.
After 30 minutes of struggles and several breaks he managed to drag the body inside the building. He slumped on his butt and pressed his back on the wall.
"haaagh, 5 strength is not much right"
"The average well trained and fit adult male should be around 10" clarified Kornelius.
"Remember you have just started less than a day ago. Power and progress don't come easy, but you have to work for it hard" wisely explained Kornelius
"You are correct again Sage Kornelius" - smiled Akira. If Kornelius wasn't with him at the moment, he would have gone mad already.
"It was nice to have someone talk to in a difficult times" thought Akira
Akira listened the wind and leaves rustling peacefully. It was relaxing, like the nature did not care about evil rapist spider men on mutated giant insects. His eyes closed and he fell asleep.
Akira was on a road. It was dark and raining heavy. A lightening blasted and he saw he was back as Tom. His old body was back. He proceeded forward on the sidewalk. The surrounding was eerie, only the sound of the heavy rain drops present. Another lightening blasted, he saw his house in the distance. I am home! He increased his pace. Suddenly a hand grabbed hist wet shirt. He turned and saw it.
A woman, no a girl in Akira's clothes. Her face was missing. Her body partly disfigured. A missing arm, a hole in the shoulder. Tom jumped back in horror. He quickly run towards his house. The monster was chasing him maintaining his running speed. Another Lightening revealed another one of the same type across the road. It also joined the chase. Leave me alone! Tom shouted and increased his speed. A quick glance revealed about 8 of the monsters chasing him in a pack. His house was just around the corner. With a great deal of willpower he pushed and reached his house front door. The door wasn't locked. He opened, entered and pushed back the door with all his might. The monsters were pushing on the other side. Finally the door shut and he locked it. Then dropped, his back pushing the door.
"Let us in, Tom" a girl voice came behind the door.
No!
"Let us, Let us..." several voices came though.
No NO!
"Let us in Tom, Please!
NO go away! screamed Tom
Akira jolted awake, ayes wide open, face distorted in stress.
" Go away" squeaked Akira
"Ah it was just a nightmare, It was just a nightmare..!" repeated Akira
How much time has past? He willed the consume spell details
[consume 0h:09 min]
So more than 2 hours. He was getting very thirsty. His tongue was dry.He was also hungry, his stomach reported gurgling.
"Did you say something Akira?" Kornelius
"No just a nightmare"
"I have heard nightmares are frequent in stress situations" Kornelius
"Yea I believe so, but this one felt very different"
"How so?"
"It was livid. Everything felt so real. I remember every bit of it. The Running, The thunderstorm, The Akira girl monster chasing me?"
"You have been chased by the late Akira Ryu?"
"Yes and they kept begging me to let them in. Quite nuts huh?"
"Hmm,, Hmm.." Kornelius
"What? Say something"
"Well this thing sounds very familiar like I've heard about it sometime in the past, but I just can't recall about" Kornelius
The spider man demon stirred and groaned...
Akira jumped behind him, away from its sight. It started kicking and struggling with the restrains. But they hold tight. It was futile.