Bearing Fruits I
"Hands up…"
"Such vile event has…"
"The law will…"
"It's alright, my child..."
He awoke to the sound of grunting.
As his consciousness regained his senses, he soon felt the faint repeated pumps against his chest that were soon overtaken by the drum beating against his head.
He had expected migraines, but not a full marching band jumping up and down the inside of his skull.
Even pushing his eyes open was a chore. He figured that moving would be beyond his current capabilities. The light shone down on his sensitive eyes, further amplifying the agony in his head.
Fortunately, whoever was pushing against his chest noticed his eye movements and stopped their actions, covered his eyes, turned off the lights and drew the curtains to a close.
Words, wobbly and undecipherable, then bubbled up around his ears, his regeneration working at its limit to reactivate his faint senses.
"Are… yet?"
"Mistress... Don't… is…"
"Bastard...to a morgue?"
"Please don't joke about…"
Their conversations seem to regard him, but from what he had heard, one voice deemed him as incurable.
"Ella…" He croaked, surprising the voice. "Bastard."
He could barely see her figure, but she seemed to hold a hand on her chest as she replied. "Oh, thank god! I thought you needed to go to a hospital."
He tried to chuckle, but only a series of coughs came up. "You… said morgue."
She tilted her head. "Well, most morgues are in the basements of hospitals. We'll just wheel you down the stairs."
She helped him up to rest his head on a nearby wall. He shuddered as he felt the cold wood, earning his irk as he felt powerless in the aftermath of the spell.
He looked at the other person in the room, his eyes still adjusting. "Andy, don't call her mistress, alright? She doesn't need that kind of ammunition over me."
"Uh, that's not Andy, Dick." Ella corrected, as she rubbed her palms over his hair.
He was confused and decided to use what was little left of his magik to adjust his eyesight, revealing the much less hostile form of Charlotte looking at him with a concerned look.
Charlotte smiled, the dark bags under her eyes contrasting with the hopeful look in her eyes. "It's alright, master. You just need to rest for a little while."
His eyes widened and hitched out a breath as his reflexes acted up before a sense of calmness overtook his instincts. He had an inkling of familiarity leaping off of her sight and a deeper sense of responsibility as he guided his sight to her entire form.
"T-that collar must be painful." He whispered.
Charlotte gave a sad smile as she lightly caressed the witchcatcher. "It's alright, master. I know I was… I had angered you before. Make you not trust me, but those days are over. I would like to apologize."
"No, that's… we're cool." Irwin couldn't believe what he was hearing. It took all his common sense not to laugh at the sight of such a prideful witch nearly bowing down in subservience. "Would you like me to remove it?"
Charlotte seems to contemplate the matter, before answering a few moments later. "I would like to hold on for a few days. Just until everyone is, well, until they're comfortable with the new me, I suppose."
Ella was deeply confused with the conversation, evident by the quick movement of her head and cracked-open mouth.
"Uh, mind filling in the blanks?" She asked.
"Later. First, let me rest." Irwin decided not to answer for now. Half of the reason being that he didn't know the extent of the spell's effect, but the other half was that his head was being ravaged by a rock concert.
With the help of Charlotte and Ella, he was transferred to Charlotte's bed, now bereft of the magical enchantment that prevented her from moving past the circle barrier.
As soon as his head rested upon the bed's dirt-stained pillow, a swell of relief intruded upon his migraine and allowed him a brief reprieve from the massive headache.
"Can't believe you've been sleeping in a bed full of bedbugs." Irwin muttered, much to Charlotte's shame as evident by the blush on her face.
"Well, I-I get by," she mumbled.
Ella huffed with bewilderment, earning both of their attention. "What the fuck is happening?"
"Just… let me rest, alright? I'll come back down when I'm rested." Irwin gave her a deep look, which she took seriously, putting her hands up in defeat. He gave a soft smile of gratitude before turning to the witch. "Charlotte, why don't you accompany me for a while? Will that be alright?"
Charlotte smiled. "Of course."
As Ella left the room, Irwin paid Charlotte no heed as she settled down in the room, his attention on his system.
[ Character(!) | Skill(!) | Supernatural Record(!) | Status(!) | Quest | Trade Store ]
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Skills
Magik
Recipes
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Personal Skill
▪︎ Marksmanship (Lvl 03)
▪︎ Alcohol Tolerance
▪︎ Natural Order (Lvl MAX)
▪︎ Unarmed Combat (Lvl 03)
▪︎ Swordsmanship (Lvl 03)
▪︎ Krousurgy (Lvl 01 -> 03)
▪︎ Pain Tolerance (Lvl 01) (New!)
Job Skill
▪︎ Human Magic (Lvl 04)
▪︎ Arcane Resistance (Lvl 06)
▪︎ Potioneering (Lvl 01)
System Skill
▪︎ Natural Immunity (Lvl MAX)
▪︎ Enhanced Physique (Lvl 02 -> 03)
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Personal Magik
▪︎ Mind Guardian (Lvl 03) (Human)
▪︎ Flame Whip (Lvl 06 -> 07) (Human)
▪︎ Blood Scry (Lvl 05) (Fairy)
▪︎ Blight Hex (Lvl 01) (Human)
System Magik
▪︎ Ward Of Obviation (Lvl 01) (Pagan)
▪︎ Age Transfiguration (Lvl 01) (Pagan)
▪︎ Energy Shield (Lvl 01 -> 03) (Human)
▪︎ Vessel Immobilization (Lvl 01) (Human)
▪︎ Solitary Immolation (Lvl 01) (Human)
▪︎ Summon Wildling (Lvl 01) (Fairy)
▪︎ Will Domination (Lvl MAX) (Natural Order)
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▪︎Pain Tolerance▪︎
Level: 01
Type: Personal Skill
Classification: Defense; System Granted
Activation: Passive
Range: Self
Effect: User have a higher threshold for pain. Has a [Minor] Resistance, including but not limited to physical, psychological, and metaphysical pain.
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It took all his willpower not to break into a fit of laughter as he scanned his skill list, a few of which had leveled up from the encounter in Charlotte's mental realm. In fact, he had acquired a whole new personal skill, which he attributed to the painful pinhole game he played with her jagged shards.
It was a strange sight for another personal skill to appear on his skill sheet; he had, more often than not, expected either a system or job given skill whenever an exclamation mark appeared on his menu.
Still, he was more than delighted to have a skill that lowered the intensity of the agony he would soon endure at the hands of his many enemies, whether they know it by now or not.
What was more peculiar to him was his Character sub-system. Given that he had recently leveled up by killing the Elder Vampire and the Pagan god, he would be surprised if his level went up by one. After all, it took many monsters just to get him from level 1 to 2.
'Character sheet!'
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Name: Irwin Bellios / Richard Greythorne IV
Age: 23
Race: Baneblood (Human)
Blood Type: O Negative
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Level: 03
Job: Wiccan Apprentice
Last Hunt: ERROR
ERROR
ERROR
ERROR
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Due to the acquisition of the will of another creature, the current version of the [Character] sub-system will be updated.
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Update In Progress…
Update Done!
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Congratulations! The sub-system [Character] has been overhauled and renamed based on the user's suggestion: [Character Sheet]. A brief introduction will be uploaded momentarily.
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[Sebastian Archibald Richard Greythorne IV]
▪︎ Alias: Irwin Bellios; Lazlo Cravensworth; Aaron Hotchner…
▪︎ Age: 23
▪︎ Race: Baneblood (Human)
▪︎ Blood Type: O Negative
▪︎ Job: Wiccan Apprentice [Lvl 03]
▪︎ Experience: 5%
▪︎ Hunts: Elder Vampire; Adult Vampire; Neophyte Vampire; Adult Vampire…
…
[Charlotte Patricia Barbaro-Pamphili]
▪︎ Known Alias: ???
▪︎ Age: ???
▪︎ Race: Human
▪︎ Blood Type: AB Positive
▪︎ Profession: Witch
▪︎ Hunts: Human; Human; Human; Troll; Human…
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It was certainly a surprise to Irwin. A welcome one, he supposed.
He turned his head on the pillow as he gazed softly at Charlotte. She was nearby, cleaning the discarded makeshift ritual circle. It seemed that the Will Domination spell had brought more than a docile yet powerful ally under his command.
If his system had deemed her non-antagonistic enough to include her on his sub-system, then he supposed that he could trust her enough not to kill him out of revenge.
Still, he had to check whether what was written was the truth. He could not blindly follow whatever was in front of him. He did that once and all he got was herpes.
"Charlotte," He called out, earning her attention. She looked back at him and smiled, her lithe footsteps ringing out against the wooden floorboards as she drew near him. "Can I ask you something?"
"Anything." She replied.
"Your mother. What happened to her?" He asked, mouth ready to command her collar in case she attacked him. Of course, he knew Ella wasn't dumb enough to command her to speak freely, but a lion in a cage is still a lion until the day it dies.
She bit her lips in response to his question. For a moment, unable to bring herself to speak, but forced herself to do so. "I… I killed her under your command, master."
"I see." He tried to sense any feeling of hostility or even anything that might suggest her otherwise mournful appearance, but, apparently, three years of being an assistant to a psychologist amounted to nothing in this life as he had glanced at nothing unusual from her expression. Just plain old sorrow and guilt.
Or maybe it's because his concentration was dulled to a point, as his head was still pounding. Either way, he needed to do something before the exhaustion drags him back to sleep.
"Do you hate me, Charlotte?" He tried to be straightforward, noting the heaviness in his eyes.
She looked at him as if he had said something preposterous before shrugging her shoulders. "I suppose, before this day… I had thoughts of killing you, dragging you from your sleep, and stabbing you with a knife."
"And now?" He asked her to continue when he saw the hesitation in her voice.
"I was wrong. You… you were just trying to give me a life. A normal life, one nor born out of murder and evilness. Just… that's all I wanted, and I just had this… epiphany. This-this idea in my head, a great one."
He was more than confused, but still listened intently. The effects of the Will Domination showing its full course. "What was the epiphany, Charlotte?"
She smiled a dazzling smile. "I should forget the past because you… you are my savior!"