Chapter 3

The voice had given me a simple command, all I needed to do was to feed and become stronger for when the time came. I had begun to desire something more filling than small game. I also wanted to test my new ability to consume knowledge, I wanted to know if I could steal unique abilities that some people had, if I could do that I could become insanely powerful. Although as I was I needed to use traps to obtain my meals as I wasn’t physically up to the stronger meals yet, my magic would help to bridge the gap but it wouldn’t do it entirely. I needed more information on offense magic, but first I was going to look for something more substantial to fill my stomach.

The incident that had caused the sentry to be distracted and leave his post came to mind, was it just a wild beast on the hunt or was it bandits looking for an easy pay day. I decided to go and find out, I stalked through the undergrowth of the forest, navigating expertly through the area I had claimed as my own. The inner darkness of the forest was slowly beat back as sunlight streamed through the treetops, the leaves not as densely packed. I had traveled at a brisk pace for several hours not even breaking a sweat with my newly enhanced form, when I finally came across the entrance to the valley. The smoke that was there before was still drifting softly in the air, carried on invisible current, swaying and eddying like water.

I crouched low hiding in the tall grass which brushed past my face tickling it and attempting to lift my hood from my head. One hand pulling down the hood the other gripping my knife, I hadn’t any real idea how to fight with a sword yet even with the information I had eaten, so I decided to stick with what was most comfortable. I made my way west, slowly edging my way towards the campfire, once I got close enough and the smell of roasting meat and the sound of chatter filled my senses I lay down on the soft grass and edge my way slowly up the hill towards the dip where the camp was positioned. As I crested the hill on all hands and knees the campsite came into focus, three tents were positioned in a circular pattern around the fire. One looked as if it had seen extensive use, its outside a patchwork of hides and leather held up by sturdy sticks, one of the others was a dull green in color, slightly larger than the first but dwarfed by the third. The third and final tent in the clearing was a vibrant red in color, it had golden thread around the edges and looked to have been in used by a noble of some sort. Around the campfire was an assorted group of six men and one woman, each of men looked gruff and battle hardened, soldiers perhaps, if it weren’t for the what they were talking about.

The men were all large and strong looking, broad in shoulder and tall. Yet all were dwarfed by the woman that sat on the grass next to them, she had dirty brunette hair tied back in a braid and was easily a head or two taller than the rest of the men. She had an unpleasant face and and a crooked nose that seemed too large for how small her eyes were, she peered around the camp with her face screwed up in concentration. On the ground next to her was a large two handed great sword, the blade had a few obvious runes on it and was nearly as tall as she was. While she didn’t seem to take any part in the conversation the others were having, the other men talked jovially about how they were going to spend their ill gotten gains. One spoke of a particular lady of the night that he wished to spend time with while the rest talked of thing best not heard in polite company. The sun was high in the sky and the light reflected dangerously off the assorted weaponry these people had, each one had at least a shortsword and a knife, while most had an assortment of blades secured on their person. They were obviously not just for show.

The sight of such powerful morsels set my stomach to rumbling, but I knew I had no chance to take them on without using sneak attacks and setting traps. While it didn’t seem any had a Core to cast magic, I didn’t know if this was because I didn’t have a Core now so I couldn’t sense others or if they truly were magicless, that didn’t mean they had no power. While the Core allows mana to be absorbed from the environment and infused into your blood, most people who practiced dealing death in a more mundane fashion found themselves relying more on their physical strength, speed, and skill. After becoming strong enough, or practicing specific skills these warriors could obtain something similar to a Core in function but not execution, they would create their Center. While a Core allowed for magic to be take from the environment and bent to your will, a Center would allow you to use the energy inside a living thing to create similar phenomenon on a more physical scale. Allowing greater speed, strength, or even special techniques like sending your strikes further using the wind. Something only those born with a Core could normally do, while it is extremely difficult to create your Center, most serious adventurers or in this case soldiers turned bandit, would spend long hours doing so.

While the six men may not have one the giant of a woman most certainly did, she gave off a palpable sense of danger, it may be what magic I had left or my new instinct like knowledge but I could feel the hair on my arms stand up when I looked at her. I would have to kill her first.

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Night had long since fallen, leaving the whole area feeling dangerous. The bright flowers and herbs nowhere to be seen, the inviting beautiful forest now a haunting and dark place. The bird song had ceased and been replaced with the occasional wolf howl or cough from the sentry of the camp, he sat at the camp fire peering around occasionally into the darkness. His choice of position was an amateur one leaving the fire to damage his night vision, making it easier to sneak into camp. During the night I had set about recreating my body modification runes to help with this night's slaughter, the strength glyph on my arm had faded so I set about meticulously and carefully replacing it with an identical glyph on each of my limbs. I had a strength glyph on each of my legs and arms, under each eye I also carved the glyph for dark sight, enhancing my already strengthened vision. Blood dripped slowly down my limbs and face as I crept my way towards the bored guard. When they had settled in for the night the scary woman had gone into the red tent alone, leaving two to each of the others. Silence followed in my wake, and soon blood would too.

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I yawned, guard duty always was boring, nothing had happened since we stumbled upon this small party of what seemed to be hunters. Though why they had such an expensive tent was a mystery, the only ones that had been there for four whole days were a man and a woman. They were both decent fighters but stood no chance when Breni came down upon them, her giant great sword tearing apart their bodies along with the earth they stood upon. I remembered the look on the woman’s face when her companion was ripped down the middle, and her face after we had taken turns with her. It was pretty funny in hindsight, considering how similar the expression were. I sighed and leaned back on the stump I had turned into a makeshift stool, nearly losing my balance from the liquor we found in the red tent. I pinwheeled my arms and chuckled, I opened my mouth wide to yawn again but all that came was blood, it poured down the front of my tunic and pooled between my legs, viscous and shifting like a living thing. My vision dimmed as I heard a strange slurping noise, like the sound of a dog lapping at water.

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The first kill had been easy, he seemed too unfocused to have made any sense as a sentry. Especially considering he hadn’t even been able to cry out when my knife carved a red smile onto his throat. While he seemed useless in life, in death his blood was quite sweet, it had a bitter tang to it afterwards but it was overall enjoyable. I stalked from tent to tent starting at the patchwork on on the outer edge, the first tent went without a hitch as I slit two throats and came back out, my hand covered in blood. I realised I needed a backup plan that wasn’t just slit sleeping throats, so I went back to the stump the sentry had been sitting on and carved several pieces out of it. I took the wood and carved simple glyphs onto each, the first was a simple sound glyph like I had used to fake the avalanche so long ago, the second was a glyph which when used on a low Core or Center level creature would cause disorientation, and the last made a simple bright flash of light, potentially blinding onlookers. With these three glyphs secured in my cloak I stalked towards the green tent, this tent was much closer to the red than the patchwork, there was no reason to attempt to fight the giant woman. So as long as my plan worked I wouldn’t be need the glyphs at all, but I had a nagging sense otherwise.

I pulled back the tent flap and made my way in, the tent opened noiselessly and I padded carefully next to the man on the left, his chest rose and fell in even patterns. His face was pocked with small scars and his brow was furrowed with countless lines. I raised my blade to his throat and slashed, the blade met scant resistance as its sharpened edge cut cleanly through skin and flesh. His wiry frame held more strength than I accounted from and when his eyes flew open and he began struggling I wasn’t able to hold him down like the previous two. His arms flailed wildly and strange gurgling noises took the place of words as he struggled to survive, though he didn’t know it, he was already dead. The light in his eyes faded and his mouth stopped flapping, the first one dead I turned to the second, expecting a peacefully sleeping target, but what I got instead was a broad shouldered man with close cut hair rolling to the side and grabbing a sharp looking blade. He raised it in a practiced motion and leapt at me, a roar on his lips. I scrambled back, not expecting a fighting opponent as I made my way out of the tent. He followed me and shouted to the red tent.

“Breni! Wake up now!” he nearly screamed.

“What d’you want you half brained pig sticker!?”

The giant woman barreled out of the red tent and straight into the clearing, the campfire flickering dangerously on her greatsword. She gaped for a moment at the blood strewn about the area, the man on the stump laid back blank eyed against the ground. She glared about before laying her focus on me, a strange pressure weighing down on my limbs. “Who in tha nine hells d’ya think you are!?” she roared “Boyle go get th’men so we can slaughter this fool!”

The man trotted off to the patchwork tent know his sleepmate was dead, I turned to follow after him when a sudden movement caught my eyes. The woman who had been standing nearly ten feet away had traversed the distance instantly, her blade arcing down quicker than should be possible with such a massive weapon. With a mad noise she crashed the blade down and I rolled for all I was worth to avoid it. The weapon slammed into my left arm with a horrible wrenching noise, black blood spattering the ground around me. Her eyes widened at the sight, surprise evident on her face as she glared at the blood on her blade. Taking the opportunity of her confusion I reached my hand into my cloak and took out the three glyphs, each one glowed a brilliant red before I threw them together at the woman’s face. She closed her eyes and flinched back at the throw, saving her from the bright light but not the loud bang and the confusion glyph. She opened her eyes dazed and began swinging her sword lazily, tearing furrows out of the ground with each strike. I scurried away further from the terrible blade, it’s edge still wet with my blood, dirt and grass flew up in a mad dance as she spun around, dazed. Even in her weakened state, deafened and confused, she quickly regained control of herself, eyes sharpening and strikes becoming more sure.

I watched amazed still at the way she could swing a sword weighing at the least 70 pounds of metal around like a dagger. She began to move towards me with controlled slashes and thrusts, corralling me back towards the way her companion ran, knowing I had little time as I desperately rolled and dodged, a desperate play seemed my only option. Focusing my mind down to a knife’s edge my arms and legs flashed a familiar blood red before I exploded towards the woman, my left arm outstretched sending waves of pain through the wounded limb. I flew through the air before grabbing onto the blade and pushing with all my strength to the side, I almost lost control over the runes, feeling the familiar drain upon my reserves. While my increased strength was not enough to directly combat the monster of a woman, it was enough to force the blade slightly out of position, allowing me to blow past her defenses and stick my knife into her abdomen.

She clutched her stomach in shock and stared at my mangled hand, she raised her great sword above her head, arm shaking, to bring it down once again, but before it could begin its earthbound fall I ripped the blade once to the left and right opening a wide gash in which her guts spilt loose, joining her blood on the ground. Her hand released its grip and the blade fell with a thud, her knees buckled and gave out at almost the same time she lost consciousness, never to wake again.

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I had left at the order of Breni to go and get Cerl and Yoin to join in tormenting the poor bastard who attempted to kill me in my sleep, it was a shame my bedmate died. I sighed and shouted out their names waiting for a response from the small patchwork tent. I waited for a while before grunting and thrusting aside the flap to reveal a grisly sight, the men bot had ragged slits along their neck, blood pooled like a halo. Cerl had a strange looking tear on his chest, like a beast had taken a bite. My eyes widened as I took in the scene, I backed out of the tent slowly before making my way in shock back to the campfire. The sound of ground smashing letting me know that our leader was having her fun with the invader, serves him right. It was hard to believe that he had killed our two trained woodsmen and my bedmate without them waking, then again I doubted I would have been awoken by it if I hadn’t already been awake taking care of some natural urges. I came into view of the campfire and smiled as I watched the fight, the idiot was rolling around like a mad thing, barely dodging each strike and getting torn up by the earth style abilities that Breni used. Then his arms and legs flashed red and he flew forward impossibly fast, his entire body a blur as a torrent of blood flew from his hand, mangled beyond recognition when it parried the great sword.

His other hand however, plunged into Breni’s stomach along with the blade, bringing forth a flood of blood and guts. My leader staggered to her knees before collapsing, I watched in utter shock as the figure that had killed Breni stooped down bringing his mouth to her stomach before distending his, no… its jaw to an impossible degree. It took a wide bit out of her, devouring guts whole barely waiting to chew. Its teeth were sharp as daggers and it shivered with glee as it feasted, I stood, frozen in abject terror as the thing devour the insides of my leader, the strongest of us, there was no way she could be dead. I stood hidden behind my green tent, watching, only able to move my legs to run when my eyes fell upon its mangled hand. The torn flap of flesh fell away, and pure white bone branched out of the arm like a tree taking root, flesh seemed to bloom like flowers and skin appeared out of nowhere. The once mangled limb come back to full form in but a moment, my legs no longer locked up I turn and ran back towards Arlute City. A strangled scream resting in my throat.

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The meal was satisfying to the extreme, after a week of small game the soft flesh and tough bone along with the indescribable flavor sent waves of pleasure through me. My mind flashed white like the first time I had eaten like this and knowledge flooded in, I knew the way it felt to have your Center form a solid wall of stone, of the feeling that you could break stone with your fist and I knew that to form a Center you needed to had an affinity with an element. I hadn’t known anything about Centers before this night besides in the general sense of what they were. But now I knew details that were in none of the books I had read, nor did I know that the best way to use a greatsword was to let gravity do most of the work for you if you couldn’t swing it like this woman had. After the white light had faded I looked around at the six carcasses around me, I looked down at myself and noticed my clothes were drenched and stained. Sighing I stood up to search through the tents for some clean clothes, after searching the patchwork tent I found a cloak similar to the one I had, and in the green tent I had found a set of tunic and trousers that fit snugly. Looking down at myself while I dressed, I noticed the lean muscle I had built, and it was with a satisfied smile that I put the clean clothes on. The red tent held a large mirror that I inspected myself in, having not done so since so long ago.

I looked very different, besides the aforementioned changed my skin was paler, my eyes were darker than before with and extremely large iris and pupil almost entirely engulfing the white. My tongue was long and I had extreme control over it, along with my sharp teeth and ability to distend my jaw I looked decidedly non-human. I walked back out to the field of corpses and saw something glint in the moonlight, it was on the corpse of the huge woman. I walked over to it and reached down to the strange silvery light, it had no specific shape I could tell and my hand slid through it like it wasn’t there at all. When my hand passed through it my skin formed goosebumps, and my mouth began watering again despite having just eaten. Focusing my will like when I had used magic before I grabbed at the light, but this time my hand came into contact with something, and when it did my eyes rolled into the back of my head and I heard the voice chuckling. Well done, you have taken the second step upon the path, free me and eternal power will be only the first thing I shall grant you.