The Fool's Freedom

Alan carefully stalked the creature making full use of the demon’s [Soundless] skill. He felt exhausted and oddly weak. The spell for his new curse was quite draining to his low vitality, which was worrying. At least it felt that way. He couldn’t be sure, but the blood drain for the mark had left him feeling much worse and he was sure it was not due to simple blood loss.

The creature finally made it down the rocks, each step as careful as the one before it. It hadn’t looked around a single time, although even if it did the chances were it would not see anything out of place.

Alan was using the ring of Florence in addition to the demon’s skill to make sure his plan succeeds. He moved slowly as the ring did only so much to blend him in the environment and moving fast broke the illusion. He carefully dropped down and circled, observing the thing from the back. If it decided to run there was probably no chance for him to catch up and he wouldn’t even try.

However, all the creature did was dig a small hole at the base of the mountain with its thin arms. The fingers were long and sharp and the job was done quickly.

He finally caught a glimpse of the face of the thing. Instead of eyes and nose, there was a large deep hole of pitch black. It did not appear on the back of the head, only the front, as if someone had dug a space-time wormhole on its face. The first few centimeters were the same as its skin, then it was only pitch-black emptiness. Below the hole was a thin line of a mouth that slowly opened until root-like protrusions squirmed out and slowly dropped to the newly dug hole and burrowed into the ground.

“What the fuck?” Alan asked without meaning to.

“Dunno. I’m a demon, not a wildlife expert. Maybe it's looking for water? The air is a bit dry.”

Alan frowned. “How would you know what the air is like?”

“I… eh? That’s new. I can feel a breeze! Oh, bloody ghost of Sirhkadas, I can feel a breeze!”

Alan didn’t respond. While the demon’s excitement was understandable and he would love nothing more than to take part in the celebrations, now was not the time. He was too close to the thing; a few more steps and he would be within arm’s reach. Up close the thing looked much larger. It seemed like it was only thin in proportion to the rest of its body, as the gangly limbs were thicker than Alan’s and twice as long.

Alan tentatively reached with his hand and the mark appeared with a thought, pouring out of the place on his wrist he had cut to supply the spell with blood.

There was no knowledge in his mind on whether the place he placed the mark mattered, but he was going for the back of the crouching thing anyway which was probably a good spot… to stab someone or steal their life?

As soon as the mark touched the creature’s skin there was resistance which made Alan hold his breath. If those were left over from a God, then that meant they might have some divine energy… the demon was not moaning about it though. Alan didn’t understand divine energy at all but he figured if something was to resist curses it was going to be it.

However, the curse mark simply dispersed into the darkest smoke Alan had seen and enveloped the creature, making him panic for a second. Soon, it sank inside. The thing didn’t react.

Alan took a few steps backward and tried to sense what had changed. Seconds later the dark line on his wrist changed into a tiny rune, similar to the shape of the curse mark. He felt the connection form and felt the creature’s strange and twisted energy. Still, it was life all the same. There was something of a barrier stopping him from seeing more, as if he was staring at a stream from afar and there was a dirty window between him and the stream.

He could feel the cracks in the barrier and his curse awaiting his will. First, he took a small gulp, just for a taste. The energy spread all over his body all at once, with no point of origin. Instantly some of the fatigue he left over from the fighting and the curse spell dispersed, making him feel like he had taken a nap.

He took another, larger gulp of the life energy of the creature and the heat that surged through his veins and organs made him want to moan in pleasure. Thankfully the demon was preoccupied with the ‘breeze’ he felt and wasn’t paying attention. [Soundless] was still on too.

Alan barely stopped himself from taking more. The creature seemed none the wiser, although its rough barky skin was probably just a tad less colorful than before. Alan couldn’t decide if he was imagining it or not. The stream of life he felt from the creature remained strong.

Maybe I should fight it, just to gauge what it can do.

While his Vitality hadn’t risen at all, he felt that it was a possibility. He would need to drain the monster of life completely. Maybe. It was hard to gauge life force and its effects, especially when it felt so alien.

Could he technically live on the stolen life even if his Vitality reached zero?

Alan dropped the ring’s effect and took out his ritual dagger and the one enchanted with [Imbue Fire]. The shadows swirled around the blades elongating them into the wide menacing blades he had gotten used to.

He briefly considered putting in his new attribute points, but he wanted to feel the skill and the fight with his current self. Even if the change would be minute, it was still a change.

“Xil, drop [Soundless].”

There was no response.

“Xil!”

“Yes, yes. Fuck, let me work! There’s some weird dimensional hole here! Can you believe it!? After all this time. If I can widen it… I can use it to slowly crack all the bindings and finally free myself. Oh, I can’t wait.”

“That’s great, man. Now, can you drop the skill please?”

“Yeah, yeah, get off my ass.”

Damned prick.

Alan could instantly hear his breath. It felt steady and deep. The connection to the monster gave him a strange sense of calmness as if he would be alright no matter what. It was a strong and overwhelming new feeling, which also made it very dangerous. He almost loathed the idea of killing the creature just because of how addictive it felt to have that much life on reserve.

The monster still hadn’t noticed him, and Alan decided to try something else. Instead of taking a large gulp of its life, he tried to drain it in a thin, almost non-perceivable but constant stream. Alan imagined that if he had all three marks active like that, he would not need to convert mana to stamina at all. Even rest would not be needed. What about healing?

It was intoxicating.

He briefly considered leaving it alone once again, but the knowledge he would get from fighting it was too valuable.

“Hey,” he called.

It instantly jerked around, pointing the large hole that was most of its face toward him. It was like staring down a dark well that went on forever. The root-like tongue started returning to its mouth and Alan waited patiently, ready to try and cast [Monochrome Armor] if things went bad.

The creature stood up slowly, revealing its true size. It towered over Alan and started walking toward him slowly and carefully as if it were still scaling the mountainside.

Alan swung with one of his daggers and sent a single [Shadow Slash] flying to test things out. The strange thing didn’t move at all but the shadow blade fell apart into wisps as it reached the monster’s skin.

Oh boy.

Alan activated [True Edge] and sent another shadowy blade flying only to watch as it was simply canceled once it reached the creature. Again.

The darkness in the gaping hole of its face swirled almost imperceptibly and Alan looked toward the ritual dagger as the mana flowing inside and around it changed. The glow in the cat skull pommel’s eyes went out and so did the enchantment. Alan concentrated and briefly felt the mana dispersing like a cloud of dust and rejoining the environment. The creature was not sucking the mana, it was simply making it leak out of the skill and the enchantment.

It was still a bit ironic, considering Alan’s new ability.

The thing was soon within striking distance, but it just stopped, and the swirling darkness that was its face changed the direction of rotation. Alan felt pressure and a brief tingle from [First Pathfinder] and stepped back further, then lunged to the side as a small dark sphere materialized right where he had been. There was a brief gust of wind as the skill left a gaping hole in the space that seemed to suck in reality. Thankfully it was gone just as quickly.

This… was not good at all. The skill was not that hard to dodge, but one hit would probably be enough to incapacitate him and throw him into a world of trouble. If he lived through it.

The testing was not going to plan but he had to know what his skills would do.

[Synaptic Failure] went off and he felt it connect like it had many times before. The effect was much different though. The swirling darkness in the creature’s face hole slowed down and its strange skin started shedding and falling apart like weird brown crystals leaving smooth but disgusting shiny black flesh beneath.

Not tree people then. Fuck. He had hoped the things would be like ents or something similar and tree-based that lived a long while. Such creatures were bound to have large vitality pools which would be ripe for the picking.

The fallen skin which now looked like wood shavings slowly flew back in place, coating the creature in a protective layer once again.

Alan swung and sent another shadow blade at one of the unprotected regions of the body. The skill hit but didn’t cut. Instead, the flesh shattered like glass and the creature opened its mouth giving a low deep cry that bounced off the rocks and echoed everywhere around the pass.

It suddenly sped up and tried to reach Alan. The void whirlpool in its head was still and dark.

Does it have a cooldown?

It made sense. His own [Synaptic Failure] couldn’t be cast too quickly and the cost seemed to only be rising instead of staying the same which made zero sense. Maybe it depended on the level of his opponents.

Alan easily dodged the attacks and moved around the thing. It was faster than a normal human, but so was Alan even without the [Monochrome Armor] on.

He knew enough and as the creature stopped and the void in its head started spinning again, Alan squeezed on the curse mark.

A huge wave of vital power rushed into him, and at first, it felt great. He had never felt so alive and energetic, his previous existence felt almost dull in comparison. Like he had been moving around on no sleep, overdosed on caffeine, and with a chronic headache.

The creature’s protective skin became gray and fell off, and then its black and smooth body followed. Cracking and breaking as if it was being crushed by hundreds of small hammers all at once. Finally, it shattered like a glass vase into thousands of pieces, leaving behind only a single onyx-colored stone that swallowed the light.

Alan couldn’t care much about that though, as the massive amount of vital energy was threatening to consume him from the inside. It simply had nowhere to go and he screamed while Xil, whose cube was tucked into his shirt was constantly saying something in his mind.

Alan couldn’t understand a word. He felt his blood boil and pour out of his face, ears, mouth, and even pores. It steamed like it was boiling. He almost felt his flesh following.

You have gained 1 point of Vitality!

You have gained 1 point of Vitality!

You have gained 1 point of Vitality!

…

You have gained 1 point of Vitality!

The messages went on forever and Alan almost felt his body bubble.

Warning! Due to the epic trait [Limited Vitality] your Vitality cannot rise above the value of 5.

Warning! Due to the epic trait [Limited Vitality] your Vitality cannot rise above the value of 5.

I KNOW! DO SOMETHING!

Alan tried to focus on the rampaging energy in his body as he knelt on the ground. His body was simply refusing to listen to him. He felt like his teeth would break from squeezing them so hard. He roared as he swung with his hands with all his strength and cast his most well-known skill -[Shadow Slash]. However, this time he didn’t use mana that converted into shadows, instead forcing the excess life inside of him out.

The mountainside shook as rocks were crushed, melted, and sliced by the force behind the expelled energy. Little by little Alan felt himself feel better. The raging storm inside of his body lessened until finally, the excess life energy focused on healing the damage it had done.

He sat on the ground in the middle of the two mountains and took in a large breath.

This was a close one.

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill…