Ch. 24 Revenge Is Good

"Alright Jess so here is the plan. We have no weapons or armor, but we should have enough Mana by the time they come back to be able to fight. I'm hoping its just the shaman or just the guard, but we will have to see. What spells do you have without weapons?" She nodded and held up her hand, her fingers becoming wrapped in fire.

"Good, so we pretend we are still tied up, then when they are distracted Bella should be back and we use our most powerful spells on them. Let's hope she comes back soon enough." Jess nodded, then sighed and looked down at my naked body "You know Odellin, I don't have a lot of Mana left and it's going to take a while to recharge our Mana without food. I know you're married, but there is a way to recharge it faster."

I gave her a look and she shrugged "Figured I'd ask. I wish we had something to eat, I'm starving." I nodded "Me too, but we should be fine. I know I can fully regenerate my Mana in 45 minutes." she shook her head "I'll be at half by the time they get here." I nodded "Let's hope it's enough." We sat down and relaxed, our stomachs not wanting to let us. I kept watching Bella's timer as it ticked down, the wait killing me. A short while later we both heard faint footsteps, so we got back into our positions, waiting for the door to open. It did and the guard who usually accompanied the Shaman came in, then closed the door. I closed my eyes almost completely so I could still see, but it wouldn't look like they were closed. He grinned and walked over to Jess, undoing his pants as he did. As soon as he was close to her I jumped off the table. He turned around, shock on his fave as he saw me, then a scream came from his mouth as fire coated his back. I stabbed my hand forward towards his neck and ripped, using my mana to create claws. His screams were cut off as he slumped to the floor. Jess grabbed his throat and poured fire down his gullet, then he sagged and fell face first.

Jess searched him and grabbed his sword, then pulled off his shirt and pants, handing me the pants while she pulled the shirt on. The shirt barely fit her, but she cinched it with ropes, while I did the same with the overly large pants. Then she grabbed my shoulder "Look, I know you won't have sex with me, but we need to do something to speed up our healing and Mana regen. So as disgusting as it sounds, I have fire and he isn't human. So we cook and eat him, then kill that sadistic Shaman and everyone else here, then we can escape." I was horrified, but sighed because she was right. So be cut off smaller parts of his body, cooking them and we began to eat. Now if it wasn't for the fact I knew he was a troll, I would have easily thought I was eating bacon. Thankfully my stomach accepted the offering without throwing it back up.

It took ten minutes for us to feel full, most of his upper torso gone. We settled back for a few minutes, then I heard a chime and grinned, summoning Bella back. "Welcome back little one." I said to Bella, who responded by jumping onto me and began nuzzling my face. 'I'm so glad to be back my human. What's the plan?' we carved up more of the troll for Bella as we talked and waited for the Shaman. By the time we heard footsteps again we were both completely recovered and ready. We took up positions on either side of the door, the Shaman coming through then turning around to close it. I smiled at him as he looked at the door, which made him turn to me. It all happened in an instant.

Bella jumped up and bit his sack, Jess grabbed his throat in a choke hold, burning it and I reached out and stabbed his eyes out with Mana claws. He screamed for barely a moment before he collapsed to the ground, groaning as Jess burned the wounds so they wouldn't heal. I smiled when I picked him up, slamming him onto the table and chaining him down. Jess burned the chains and partially melted them into his skin, then grabbed more chains and melted them into him, then the slab, securing him as best she could. I ripped his lower jaw off, letting Jess burn the wound again and then plucked out his teeth one by one. Then ripped out his tongue and let Jess finish burning the wounds. Once that was done I stepped back and we both admire our handiwork. We stripped him and finished dressing ourselves.

As I went through his satchel I realized it was a dimensional bag and it held a lot. Mostly reagents and syringes full of liquid, but also a few items we could use. As we looked at the mess we had made I chuckled "I wonder how much experience we'll get from killing him?" Jess just shook her head "I don't know, but if we're going to do it we need to do it quickly." I nodded and brought the mana dagger up to his forehead, then I felt something in me stirring. "Oh for fucks sake." I said and Jess looked at me concerned.

I groaned and then I saw it, he had an orange aura around him. I felt my mana trying to work against me and push itself outward like tentacles towards his aura. Jess stood back confused, she didn't know what was going on, but I could feel something hunger in me. "Okay, Jess I don't know what's happening right now, I just need you to stay back." I was surprised with how calm she was, given the situation, but she followed my orders.

I grabbed at my mana, pulling it back to me 'Alright Mana, what are you trying to do?' I thought to myself, then I got a feeling of sucking orange juice through a blue straw. It took me less than a second to realize what it was trying to say, so I pushed it out to his aura, then began sucking it in. He began frantically bouncing on the table, trying to move any part of his body he could as I sucked in his aura, feeling rejuvenated and stronger. It took a couple of minutes, but by the time I was done he looked shriveled and withered.

He was still alive so I instructed Jess to finish him as I heard a ding, followed by four more dings. I took a look at my character sheet and almost fainted from shock.

Name: Odellin Hundai

Level: 15

Str: 24

Dex: 40

Con: 24

Int: 40

Wis: 28

Cha: 20

HP: 480

MP: 2,680

STA: 240

(20 unused stat points)

SKILLS:

Light Armor – 10

One-handed – 1

Two-handed – 1

Survival – 50

Evocation – 50

Alteration – 10

Animal Handling – 34

Ranged – 35

Meditation – 45

Stealth – 28

Mana Manipulation – 50

Necromancy – 35

Regeneration – 10

NON-COMBAT SKILLS:

Cooking – 8

Bartering – 6

Multi-Tasking – 4

SPELLS:

Force Missile

Mana Arrow

Necromantic Healing

Ball Of Light

Ray Of Frost

Fireball

Jolt

Mending

Barkskin

PERKS: Adamant, Devourer, Mana Boosted (Rift), Rift Traversal

[Progress Quest]

Train any 3 skills to level 50. Break 8 Rifts. (Overridden by Devour Feat) Devour 1 soul (Completed)

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I had gained somewhere close to 8 points in every stat and 2,000 mana to boot. I knew where the 2,000 mana had come from, it was from the Rift that I had opened forcefully to let my team escape, which was depicted in my perks. I had gained a ton of skill levels for my skills, which seemed crazy at first, but as my mind processed it, it became easier to realize the truth of it. I focused on the new perks and their descriptions came up.

NEW PERK ACQUIRED: Devourer

Devourer allows the 'user' to extract the soul of a defeated opponent before it dies, gaining bonus attribute points depending on the strength of the soul siphoned in this way. Also allows for possible extraction of PERKS, SKILLS and SPELLS. (Note that this PERK is not able to be used more than once in a full day. Use of this PERK more than once a month will add a 'TAINT' bonus to the soul of the user. Once enough 'TAINT' is acquired, the 'user' will become violent towards both ally and enemies. 'TAINT' can be cleansed only by Restoration Spells or by removing a collected soul.)

That PERK sounded wonderful, but it explained why my stats raised so much. It would be useful, but I would have to be careful when I used it. Who knows how much TAINT I could acquire before I start trying to kill my friends.

NEW PERK ACQUIRED: MANA BOOSTED (RIFT)

Mana Boosted is a PERK that gives a bonus to the Maximum mana of the 'user'. This PERK can be gained by surviving being in close proximity with a Rift as it opens. (Note that this PERK is dangerous to acquire and if you advise your 'allies' to try and gain this PERK, know that they might not survive.)

That was ominous and also super helpful. I wasn't going to tell everyone about it yet, until I had a chance to speak to the Dwarven Herald.

NEW PERK ACQUIRED (CHANGED FROM RIFT MANIPULATION SPELL): RIFT TRAVERSAL

Rift Traversal is a PERK specific to Heralds. This PERK allows a Herald to open Rifts without the prerequisite use of Rune Stones. As the Herald becomes attuned to using this PERK, the Herald will be able to choose what Rifts can be opened and can remove Rifts if the Herald is strong enough.

That PERK was going to come in handy, not only for training, but for a lot of other things as well. If I could learn to control it properly, the possibilities of it would become endless.

As I looked at the Progress Quest and the fact the first one had been overridden, I saw a notification pop up in my vision.

OVERRIDE HAS BEEN INITIATED FOR 'USER' ODELLIN HUNDAI. DEVOURER TRAIT HAS BECOME PROGRESS QUEST.

It didn't give me any more details than that, but what I figured was that every time a progress quest came up that I would have to devour a certain number of souls every time one came. It would suck because I knew the system and it would make me have to devour more souls every time, so it could take 2 months or more next time I had one come up.

NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: REGENERATION

Regeneration allows the 'user' to regenerate damage at an increased rate at all times. Unlike Meditation, this skill does not require activation and is always active. Regeneration rate is CON + Skill Level per 10 minutes.

If Regeneration followed the lines of all my other Skills, as soon as it hit the next rank it would probably cut the time it took to heal me in half. I knew it would become useful at some point, but I wasn't looking forward to trying to train it.

Once I was done reading I turned to Jess and grinned. "So, I think I've become broken." She rolled her eyes "How so?" and so I explained the new Perks and Skill I had received, even Mana Boosted. "You can't tell anyone about the Mana Boosted Perk though. That one is way too dangerous for people to attempt to get." She nodded "I've seen the horror stories of people who have tried to see if they could come in contact with a Rift as it forms. It's banned by the IRBA, so we don't do it."

I chuckled and then sighed, looking down at Bella "Fuck, your sisters are dead aren't they?" she nodded "Alright, we can grieve them later. For now we need to find our stuff and try to get out of here. Bella, do you think you can find where they kept our stuff? If we are going to have any chance of beating them, we will need to get it."

Bella nodded 'Of course my human, I've caught the scent of your crossbows already.' Then she shoved the door opened, Jess and I following her out. We had to be silent and move slowly, which earned a couple of Dings. The hallway we were traversing was long, the walls made of stone bricks. Bella led us past a couple of doors that were closed, although we could hear Trolls from the other side of some. It didn't take long though for us to get to a door that Bella stopped in front of.

I listened at the door, not hearing anything 'nobody is in there Ode. Hurry though, more Trolls are coming soon.' I nodded and pushed open the door, pulling Jess inside as Bella waddled in behind her, then closed it. I turned around to see crates stacked behind us, 2 to 3 at a time and walked up to them. With my enhanced strength, moving the crates was a cinch. I opened them and was surprised to find tons of weapons and suits of armor, along with Mana Stones. I slid everything I could into the satchel from the Troll Shaman, which I could feel was getting full after all of the crates had been empty.

Then I closed my eyes and envisioned Jess and my weapons and armor, making them appear in my hand one at a time as I reached for the satchel. Once we were both equipped and ready, she nodded to the door. I heard no sounds and Bella confirmed there were no more Trolls in the vicinity, so I pushed it open and began to scan the corridors. "Bella, do you know where the exit is?" I asked and Bella nodded, leading us down a hallway.

We began moving at an even slower pace as we heard a lot more Troll voices in the corridors and in the rooms behind the wooden doors. I made a promise that I would come back here and finish everyone off myself once we were out and got another group together. It took us about 4 hours to get to where the Rift was supposed to be to lead out of here. I felt it faintly and began working it as Bella and Jess turned, ready to face anything that came at us.