Broken Soul Part 13 (Patreon)

Akari studied the chair that Myst was cutting apart as she walked over with a hotdog for him. "Is there a reason you're abusing that poor chair?"

Myst glanced up at Akari, rather happy that she hadn't gotten dressed after she'd hopped in the shower with Ron. "I'm trying to figure out the best way to make a shelter that doesn't involve using a bunch of leaves that we have to keep replacing."

Akari handed him the hotdog. "Have you considered summoning chairs that you can stack, like bunk beds with a shade on one side or something to make the wall?"

"No," Myst replied as he glanced over at where Taylor was dancing around while juggling golf ball sized balls of fire, "I've been a bit distracted."

"I'd be offended if you weren't," Akari teased as she glanced over at Taylor, enjoying the way the cheerleading skirt was flipping up as she danced around. "We don't need to use the second bunk, just the framework and the wall."

"Give me a minute to finish my hotdog and I'll give it a try," Myst replied then started eating his hot dog.

"Speaking of hotdogs, where did you get the buns and the ketchup?" Akari asked.

Myst finished chewing his second bite then swallowed. "Off the goblins. Apparently, their loot table changes a bit when you summon them on a tropical island."

"Cool, hotdogs aren't nearly as good without the buns and ketchup," Akari replied as Amy walked over looking a bit annoyed. "Did you manage to fix his breasts?"

"I moved the extra mass to his muscles and gave him a general upgrade using Peter's biology as a template," Amy explained.

"How much of a boost do you think he'll get?" Akari asked thoughtfully.

"I wasn't able to copy most of Peter's improvements without risking Ron's health, but he should be able to lift a couple of hundred pounds without hurting himself. Give him six months in a gym and he's probably looking at being able to lift a thousand pounds with one hand."

Myst glanced over at where Ron was scarfing down a hotdog by the fire. "That's a hell of an upgrade."

Amy glanced at Akari. "It's nothing compared to Akari and the spiders or an actual brute, but it's a pretty solid base and physical abilities should increase the more he practices with his ki."

"Are you planning on doing the same for Taylor?" Akari asked, looking forward to seeing how much stronger she'd get by everyone else improving.

"That's the plan," Amy agreed as she glanced at Taylor who had stopped dancing and was currently flirting with Peter and Gwen. "Have you found any other questionable techniques?"

"Nothing I'd want to use," Myst admitted as his avatar handed him the scroll that Amy might get some use out of. He handed the scroll to Amy and took another bite of his hotdog.

"What is it?" Amy asked as she studied the ancient looking scroll that was tied shut using a black ribbon.

Myst finished his bite and swallowed. "It teaches you a spell to flay your flesh and decrease your maximum mana in exchange for increasing your magic stat."

Amy stared at the scroll like it was going to bite her. "Let's ignore the insanity of flaying your skin for a second, what's the point of increasing your magic if you don't have the fuel to cast anything?"

"Your spells would hit like a truck," Myst replied, then worked on finishing the rest of his hotdog before it got cold.

"The people that designed the spell probably had ways to increase their mana pools," Akari suggested.

"Or they used external methods to pay for their spells," Selena offered as she walked over, finding the conversation about magic more interesting than Taylor's clumsy attempts at flirting.

Akari nodded. "Or it could have been a failed technique that was discarded because it wasn't worth using."

"I don't have enough mana to make it worth it," Amy argued, not particularly interested in using a spell that would rip her flesh off if she wouldn't get anything out of it beyond increasing her magical power while decreasing the mana needed to use it.

"Demon dust," Selena suggested. "If you learned the spell and put the coconut bikini on, you'd have enough mana to make it worth it, especially if you chain the doses together."

Amy glanced between Akari and Selena. "What happens if I turn into a demon or end up an addict?"

"The dust is less addictive than coffee and you probably only have a five percent chance of turning into a demon. Even if you turn into a demon, being a demon isn't a bad thing," Selena argued.

Amy rubbed the bridge of her nose as she tried to come up with more reasons not to use the technique, fairly sure she'd lost her mind since the idea of using the spell in a 'controlled' setting to increase her durability, resistances, and magic actually made sense. "We should probably test this on someone that isn’t the group's only healer."

"Ron," Myst suggested once he swallowed the last bite of his hotdog.

"Why Ron?" Amy asked.

"I'd rather not have Peter and Gwen turn into spider demons. Their transformations have a magical connection which probably skews the five percent. Taylor is still under the influence of the outfit and I doubt Selena wants to screw her mana up unless we have a way to fix it," Myst explained.

"Nope," Selena agreed, her attention jumping back to Taylor as she started doing a strip show for Ron, starting with her panties. "I'll be back in a minute."

"And Myst and I can't use the demon dust so that leaves Ron," Akari pointed out as she turned her head to watch Taylor.

"Ron, do you want a chance to boost your magic?" Amy called out.

"What do I have to do?" Ron asked, not taking his eyes off of Taylor.

"Use some demon dust and a spell to permanently boost your magic while you're wearing the regeneration necklace," Amy replied.

"Sounds good, we can try it later," Ron replied, eyes glued to Taylor as she pulled her skirt up, giving him a nice view as she spun around and smacked her own ass.

"What are the chances that you can reverse things if he ends up turning into a demon girl?" Akari asked thoughtfully.

"Back to human? Slim to none," Amy admitted she watched Taylor pull her skirt off, leaving her in just her top. "Back to being male? Almost certainly."

"We can test things in the morning once people have had a chance to get their heads on straight," Myst suggested, watching as Taylor pulled her top off then leaned up against Selena and gave Ron a wicked smile as she started grinding her back against Selena. 'Yeah, I can't see this ending well when the outfit's influence fades. Then again, she's already had sex with Akari and she didn't break down.'

"You should be playing with her breasts," Akari told Selena.

Taylor smirked as she moved one of Selena's hands up to her breasts and her other down to her crotch.

'Just as well Taylor doesn't have bug control,' Myst mused as they watched the show.

0o0o0

"How are you doing?" Myst asked as Taylor walked over to where he was working on assembling the bunk beds that he'd conjured into some type of structure, a touch surprised that she hadn't gotten dressed.

"Not sure," Taylor admitted as she sat down on an empty chair.

"That's fair," Myst replied as he continued tying the bamboo poles together, figuring he'd take care of the roof in the morning when the light was better.

"I'm a bit disturbed that I'm not more disturbed about stripping and having sex with Selena and Ron in front of everyone," Taylor admitted.

"You're on a tropical island and you've spent the last couple of years dealing with a bunch of sadistic bitches, you're allowed to blow off steam," Myst replied as he finished tying the poles together.

"That's it?" Taylor asked, half expecting a lecture.

Myst turned to look at Taylor. "I'm not a priest or your father. Last I checked, you can't get pregnant from a blowjob or from letting a girl finger fuck you. None of the people here are the type to take advantage of people, so yeah, if you're expecting a lecture, you're not getting it. As your friend, congratulations, Selena is smoking hot and Ron seems like a decent guy, you could certainly do worse."

"Thanks, I think," Taylor replied, muttering the last part.

Myst laughed. "Welcome to being a vaguely functional member of society."

"Now you're just being an ass," Taylor complained, trying not to laugh.

"Is it helping?" Myst asked, glad that she wasn't going to fall apart.

"Strangely, yes," Taylor admitted.

"Cool," Myst replied with amusement, glad that he'd managed to help, even if only a little bit.

"How are you planning on waterproofing it?" Taylor asked as she glanced around the rectangular room that was basically cobbled together out of fourteen sets of bunk beds, a dozen raised chairs that he'd hacked apart for pieces, a couple of dozen lawn chairs that had been cannibalized for the bamboo sheets and a hell of a lot of twine.

Myst glanced up at the ceiling, glad that the various mana stones he'd scattered around the room kept everything from being too dark. "The angle should be enough to keep the rain flowing down it and I double layered the bamboo mats which should keep the worst of it off. If it doesn't, we can look into coating the roof with latex, assuming the island has rubber trees like the show."

"Do you remember what a rubber tree looks like?" Taylor asked.

"Vaguely," Myst admitted. "Selena's magnifying glass should let us identify everything, if we find any, great. If we can't, we'll figure something out. We don't need it perfect, we just need it good enough."

Taylor glanced at the places where Myst had bound everything together. "I don't think it's going to survive a tropical storm."

"I'd be amazed," Myst agreed. "I don't need it to survive a tropical storm, I just need it to survive the next couple of days while we do some scouting and figure out if the caves are filled with toxic gasses or radiation."

"Seems a bit of a waste," Selena said as she walked in with the mattress she'd stolen from her room in the sect floating behind her.

Myst glanced at the naked teenager with wet hair. "That's cheating."

"I don't care," Selena replied with amusement as she floated the mattress over to one of the beds. "Just because we're on a deserted island, doesn't mean we have to live like savages."

"That's fair," Myst agreed with a smile as Amy followed Selena in. "How is Ron doing?"

"Better and worse than I was expecting," Amy admitted as she glanced around the inside of the 'cabin' they'd be using for the next couple of weeks. "The demon dust seems to be perfectly safe while the cursed wounds need to be cut out before they'll heal properly, even with the regeneration necklace."

"No luck with the remedy?" Myst asked.

Amy shook her head. "No, it's worse than useless because the curse feeds on the magic and spreads."

"Lovely," Myst muttered. "So much for doing things the easy way."

"It would have been nice," Amy agreed. "I'm going to need someone to cut the cursed scars out when I learn the spell, have you found another scroll?"

"Not yet…" Myst trailed off as another scroll dropped off the latest group of goblins to die via electrocution. "Let me check, they just dropped a scroll."

"Are you still farming goblins?" Taylor asked.

"It was easier than trying to find pirates or killing the adventurers," Myst replied as his avatar checked the scroll. "Ugh, that's a fucked up technique," he complained with a shudder as he realized he'd have to use the technique a couple of times.

"What does it do?" Taylor asked.

Myst's avatar used the scroll, giving him the technique and giving him a bunch of memories that he didn't really want that involved a lot of trips to a magical infirmary. "It basically lets you conjure a spellbook filled with the spells and techniques you know."

"What's wrong with that?" Selena asked, curious why Myst looked a bit green.

"Nothing, it's the next part that sucks," Myst complained. "You can, if you're feeling particularly masochistic, use the book to print one of your spells or techniques on your flesh. The book will then rip it off and convert the bloody section of flesh into a scroll that will teach people the technique or spell."

Selena winced. "Could be worse, at least you have the tiara and the necklace of regeneration."

"Doesn't make it less creepy," Myst grumbled. "Give me a couple of minutes to grab the tiara and the necklace from Ron then I'll make a couple of scrolls so we can start sharing techniques."

"Sounds fun," Amy lied, not particularly interested in having her flesh ripped off, even if it would grow back without leaving a scar.

"Yep," Myst replied as he left the cabin and headed over to where Ron was roasting a couple of hotdogs over the fire.

Taylor shook her head, fairly sure Myst wasn't all there. "We need a better way to improve our mana."

Selena shook her head. "Time and practice are the best ways of increasing your magic, unless you have a talent that lets you cheat like Myst and Akari."

"Is there a way to share talents?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"Unless we get lucky with a scroll or technique you'd probably need a wish and most wishes get monkey pawed," Selena mused. "Myst might be able to give us something similar with a corrupted crystal, but I wouldn't hold my breath."

"What if he upgraded something that looked promising?" Taylor asked.

"Maybe?" Selena admitted. "Mom mentioned a warlock that used to fill witches with dark magic, we might be able to find something like that and purify it."

"What if we gave the crystal to Akari and she used it?" Amy asked thoughtfully. "Even if it cost her a decent amount of magic to give someone magic, she'd probably get most of it back."

"Especially if they were wearing the bikini. We should probably talk Myst into upgrading it with one of the cursed tokens," Taylor suggested.

"It's worth a shot," Selena agreed. "Or it's worth a shot once we've done a bit of training in case we break it."

Taylor nodded, not seeing a point in risking it until everyone had a decent amount of mana.

0o0o0

"And you're good," Amy told Myst when his toes finished regenerating.

"Thanks," Myst replied as he pulled the helm of blinding speed off, giving him back the ability to see. He glanced down at his feet and wiggled them to make sure they were intact. "That's a bit disconcerting, I can move them but I can't feel them."

"It should wear off in a couple of minutes," Amy assured him.

"Thanks," Myst replied, glad that she'd been able to numb his feet so that he didn't have to deal with the fact that he couldn't wear the tiara and the speed boosting helm at the same time. He smiled as his avatar flew up into the air and headed towards the beach, wanting a bit of practice before he showed off his new talent in the real world.

"Can you upgrade the flesh scrolls with cursed tiles?" Ron asked.

"Worth a shot," Myst replied as he pulled a cursed upgrade tile out of his pocket and used it on one of the scrolls that were made out of a section of skin from his back, causing it to glow and change. "Can you take a look?"

"Sure," Selena replied as she pulled her magnifying glass out of her pocket and looked at the cursed scroll. "Using the cursed scroll is going to rip your leg apart because of the curse but you'll have a bit more control over your cursed crystals."

Myst used his purifying technique on the cursed scroll. "Did that work?"

"Looks like it," Selena replied after double checking the scroll with the magnifying glass.

Myst used the scroll, giving him another twenty hours of memories of working with a nameless cultist on refining the technique. "That gave me another twenty hours worth of memories tweaking the crystal technique."

"Does that mean you can give us some halfway decent talents?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"I doubt we'll get lucky, but I'll make a bunch of crystals before I crash for the night," Myst replied, knowing that a night's sleep would completely refill his mana so he might as well use it.

"Can I get a copy of the dragon blood technique when you have a chance?" Amy asked. "Taylor reminded me that her panties increase her ki when she kills things and I need to work on my durability so I don't have to worry about the goblin horde."

"I'll trade you, I need someone to cut out some curse scars and you're probably the best person to help since you can tell where to cut and make sure I can't feel it," Myst replied as he grabbed the tiara and put it on, wanting to be immune to pain for the next part.

"Or we could just let you rip your legs apart then cut them off," Selena suggested.

"I doubt I have the control to keep the scars to one part of my body," Myst admitted as he focused on his technique that let him summon a spellbook and summoned his spellbook, causing an ethereal spellbook filled with his spells and techniques to appear in front of him.

"Point," Selena admitted, making a note to get a copy of the spell so she could get her aunt to make a better version that didn't rip your back apart.

Myst looked through the book until he found the dragon blood technique then used the book to copy the technique to his back causing the words to carve themselves into his flesh before a page of skin ripped itself free of his back, splattering the bamboo wall with blood.

"You should probably be careful about leaving the scrolls lying around, they're a link," Selena warned him as she used a cantrip to clean the wall of blood.

"I wasn't planning on leaving them lying around," Myst assured her as he handed the newly created scroll to Amy. "Give me a couple of minutes to make sure my back is healed then I'll give you the tiara and the necklace and you can work on your resistances."

"Thanks," Amy replied.

"Doesn't that feel weird?" Taylor asked as Amy used the scroll, causing it to vanish.

"Like stuff crawling over your skin but you get used to it," Myst replied with a smile, doing his best not to think about what it would feel like without the tiara that kept him from feeling pain.

"Can I borrow your staff?" Amy asked, wanting to make sure she had enough regeneration.

"Sure," Myst replied as his avatar handed him the staff. "Just don't kill anyone while you're holding it."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Amy replied as she reached out and touched Myst's arm so that she could check his back.

"Are we good?" Myst asked.

"You're good," Amy assured him and pulled her hand back.

Myst took the tiara and then the necklace off when he didn't feel any pain coming from his back and handed them to Amy along with the staff. "You should probably walk outside and grab a chair, it's going to be messy and your blood is going to be caustic."

"Good point," Amy admitted. "Do you have a couple of potions?"

"In the chest, help yourself," Myst told Amy, wanting to make sure she survived using the technique.

"Thanks," Amy replied as she headed for the door.

"I'd help but I can't feel my feet," Myst admitted, wanting to avoid falling on his face or flying until he got a handle on it as his avatar was still having a bit of trouble controlling his flight.

"I'll make sure she doesn't die," Selena assured the group then followed Amy.

"Thanks," Myst replied as he focused on his creation technique and started creating corrupted crystals on the table they'd stolen from the sect.

'Here's hoping we can find something that lets us share techniques,' Taylor mused as she shifted the pillow she was using as a backrest and tried to get comfortable, fairly sure she wouldn't be sleeping until they figured out what all of the crystals did.