chapter 7

Sweat dripped down my brow as I swung the Katana at the practice target. My plans of using the crossbow had went out the window with the awakening of my ability. Though awakening seemed to be a poor term. Through the memory I experienced I had always had the ability. At least in my previous world I had. Though it was not as powerful as it was now, and it had little chance to grow.

That's right I was then, am now, and always will be a vampire or sorts. I do not need to absorb essence through blood I can directly absorb it with my ability. Devouring Aura. It allowed me to absorb the essence of those within a certain distance to recover my essence and heal my wounds. The aura was still weak at this point. It only had a radius of a meter around me, and the essence I could absorb was just enough to keep me from starving. But it was enough.

I began cultivating with the girls, which involved drinking the fresh blood of hunted demonic beasts, and bathing in a mixture of blood and herbs. The location of the later was in the courtyard in the covered tub.

The blood baths caused incredible pain to the girls, and it was explained to me that if a person did not have at least a minor in constitution then they would die from the pain. As a vampire this did not effect me. I found the baths to be quite pleasant, the essence feeding my heart, causing its besting to grow stronger and more vibrant.

This bath was actually how I had recovers from my near death so fast. The essence in the blood bath combined with my aura and vampiric essence had me recovered in only a couple of days.

After hearing about my ability, Lotus did not seem surprised, but forced me to start training with the Katana. After all killing enemies from a distance would provide me with no benefit. The training was hard, in the beginning I struggled to swing the blade more than a few times, but as I cultivated I eventually leveled up a week ago, making the training slightly easier. Lotus taught me how to check my stats, it was actually a simple process because I had by then reached a small success in my telekinesis. Inside my inner world was a screen, what it showed was as follows

Dark

Esper (Vampiric essence)

Str 2

DeX 3

Con 1

Mind 9

Abilities

1) beginner telekinesis (small success)

2)devouring aura (lvl 1)

According to Lotus a person starts off with 1 in all of their stats, plus their major and minor. With each level increase they gain stats based on their cultivation method and major minor. The increase for the undying legions cultivation method was +1 strength +2 dex +1 mind. I gained an addition point in mind per level due to my vampiric cultivation. Each ten levels was a bottle neck. The increases afterwords would grant an ability and the stats at each level would greatly increase. She for example was currently level 15. Which was pretty high for a small sect such as ours. The highest level a person could gain was currently unknown, but the highest she had heard of was 39.

The stats were pretty self explanatory, strength is how much a person can carry, how much power they force out of their limbs, ect. It is an essence stat for melee type fights. It is also one of the easier methods to raise.

Dexterity is a person's speed and reaction speed. Their hand eye coordination, those type of things. It makes for a faster fighter with more finesse, it is useful, but neglected for most fighters.

Constitution is a person's health. Resistance to poisons and sickness, and their ability to recover. It is one of the harder stats to raise just like mind.

Mind is a person's essence. It is especially useful for espers as their abilities require essence. It also enhances a person's senses, memory, and over all thinking ability.

My mind stat was far above my other stats, with dexterity my second highest at only one third of my mind stat. Which was ok, my ability to notice an enemies attacks and react were far higher than others of my level, for example Lily. Lily's strength and speed were at the same level as mine but she could no longer land a successful blow on me. However her recovery ability and bodies toughness made most of the attacks that managed to get through null and void. But that was ok, it gave a sense of balance to the world. I could only hope with my meager physical abilities to exploit the gaps I noticed in an opponent's defences.

This was the reason Lotus had me train with a katana, it was not an overly heavy weapon, and the speed it could reach was quite high. Because of my high mind score and low physical scores it would be the most practical. Of course a dagger would have worked better, but I just couldn't bring myself to use one. That method seemed to lack honor. My years of experience as a soldier just wouldn't let me go that way.

Of course I wouldn't completely abandon ranged attacks. As I trained my telekinesis I realized just how much potential it had. Currently it was hard to even lift a pound, but that was still rather amazing. After all beginner telekinesis was all about setting up a foundation for further advancement. While I struggled to lift a pound, things that weighed less were rather simple, and I was currently working on my finesse with them.

As I sung my katana again at the target, two small rocks could be seen floating in the air. One was rotating clockwise and the other counterclockwise. The sight might sound simple, but it was rather difficult to perform, which was the real reason for the sweat on my brow. Performing telekinesis while moving was something that I was able to do only after I had leveled up. As I leveled up my increased mind stat would make this process easier and the weight I could lift higher. Only when my beginner telekinesis reached perfection could I choose a path for development. As I had long since finished the book I knew the path I would take.

The path was called mind bullets, it was compatible with my devouring aura and would allow the mind bullets to use a bit of the aura to absorb essence from those who were hit by the mind bullets. But this was a goal for the future, I had a long time before I could reach perfection. Plus my aura had to level up to level 2, meaning I had to be at least level 10..

Lotus's voice could be heard calling for us to stop. I let the rocks fall, the katana pointing to the ground. My eyes feasted on the scene around me that had grown all to familiar. The girls around me, in various stages of undress had likewise stopped their training. Lotus walked up, with a middle aged woman with short blond hair and pointed ears.

A chorus of famine voices greeted the two as the girls bowed. "Good morning sect master!"

The sect masters voice greeted us "rise, it is time for your undying legion to get to work, we have a situation "

The girls who were normally rather chatty immediately quieted. The eerie calm that went over the courtyard was quite ominous as if foreshadowing an unspeakable destiny. Or maybe I was just over reacting.

The sect masters voice echoed through the courtyard "The Undying Legion, in conjunction with the knights unit will investigate the current unrest in the undead surrounding the sect. There have been an increase in attacks on the civilians that are attempting to travel between here and the city of Taryln. These civilians are a key source of income for the sect as you know, and without the labor they provide we would not be able to cultivate as freely as we do now. "

"A group of 3 of your ranks will be joining a group of 2 from the knights to make a squad. This squad will be led by a lvl 10 knight. The undead are low rank, and as such this will be a good chance for the newer members of the two groups to gain experience. Will the names I call please step forward. Dark, Lily, and Aster. The rest of you return to your training. "

I was familiar with the other two, Lily of course came to this world with me. She sparred with me every day, and made it a point to bathe with me every day, no matter when it was. I of course had no issue with this, and even looked forward to it every day.

Aster I was less familiar with, but I had sparred with me a couple of times. She was a constitution major (as all the girls here were) and a speed minor. Her speed was a notch above mine and she was level 2 to boot.

This sort of task was a low level task, not worthy of bringing the sect masters attention. So, why was she here? There had to be more to it than just this simple exercise. I was soon proven right.

"This operation will be the beginning of a series of operations. We are looking at forming a permanent squad out of the 6 of you. Dark in particular will be essential for this team. Espers are simply to rare, there is only one other in the entire sect, and the old fogey is always locked in his training, and only agreed to help train you if this condition was met. For the sake of the future of this sect we must abide by his wishes. "

"If you have not already guessed, this man is the leader of the knights, a fire esper by the name of Mcquire. He is a local, who woke up a major in mind. He had a few fortunate encounters and was lucky enough to evolve into an esper when reaching level 10. He is a little welll.. hot tempered. This mission is his test for you. The leader of the group is his vary own daughter. She gained his major and is a mind major as well, though she unfortunately did not have is luck and evolve into an esper."

"You three are to gather at the entrance to the sect in an hour, you two newbies will notice a familiar face there, fate want to keep this group together it seems."

With that the Sect leader left. We had little time to prepare. An hour wasnt much. Luckily I had already received a belt and sheath for my katana, and strapped it to my side. After some thought I grabbed a hand crossbow and two quivers of bolts as well. My gift might not be effective with it, but i felt a lot safer with it strapped trapped to my other hip.

Lily did not need to grab much, as she fought with her hands and feet. Only grabbing a backpack for each of us with some supplies. There was no food or water of course, and only the fresh blood of demonic beasts could feed us anyways.

Aster likewise did not take long, she used a bow, and had grabbed several quivers to bring with. I had to say I felt a lot safer knowing that a decent archer had my back.

An hour passed quickly and we arrived at the entrance a few minutes before the designated time. The other party was already waiting. Knight gave off the vibe of a predictor ready to strike at any moment. The man that was standing next to her appeared to by about my age. He was about a foot taller than me and had an arrogant look on his face. A woman who appeared to be in her late teens stood in front of the two, with her hands behind her back and legs spread apart. It was very similar to the parade rest used in the army. Her hair was brown, and reached the middle of her back. I could not see her face as she was currently facing the two others. She was speaking in a low voice, obviously not something I was supposed to hear, but how was she to know my mind stat was already at 9? That my senses had already been greatly enhanced.

"Remember my father wants us to test the boy, do not go out of your way to do anything for him. If one of those undead attack him, let him deal with it. If he is incapable of protecting himself then he is not worth our effort. As for the two girls, if their lives are in danger protect them. Their deaths are not worth provoking Miss Lotus's ire."

It was only after I let out a purposeful cough did she notice our presence, what was even more surprising was that neither knight or the man she was with had noticed us either, even though they were directly in front of us. Well whatever, the entrance was busy, and not everyone had my mind stat.

Introductions were quickly made. The arrogant young man was a level 3 knight who had arrived 6 months before us. He majored in strength and minored in the same. He carried a large bastard sword on his back. He was called Brutus, I'm sure it had much to do with the word brute. Though he was a knight, he followed the brute cultivation path. Knight still carried her spear, and had kept the code name knight. They must have thought as we did that the name just fit her.

The woman in charge had a rapier on her waist. It was obvious that she used quick precise strikes to attack. She introduced herself as Skye. For the next however long these people would be my companions.