[Psychokinetic] Eyeball Pulling - Chapter 82 (Patreon)

As they neared the illusions at a blinding pace, Astrid shot the needles forward at the perfect timing. From the physical impact, the illusions vanished like a mirage.

The monsters weren’t able to react in time, despite their ability to move in mid-air. The needles sunk into their fine scaly flesh and disappeared without a trace. Their bodies fell simultaneously to the card, hold ground. It was only after a moment that blood seeped from the tiny, obscured newly created holes within their chests.

Despite her victory, she wasn’t given time to rest. Her Psych Domain picked up more matter travelling through the hallway of the door. Astrid racked her mind for an idea. She was confident in the amount of mana potions she had brought with her, thanks to the help of everyone else. But she needed to find a way to relieve it.

Her brows raised and sent a [Crash] to the back of her barrier. Astrid flew through the air, and stopped in front of the large, opened dark wooden doors. She tried moving it with Psychokinesis, but it didn’t budge.

Whether it was due to the trial blocking it, she didn’t know. She then attempted to sculpt it to her desire, but that didn’t work either.

Next up was Psych Warp.

Astrid sent multiple explosions down the hall as the monsters quickly approached. They dashed back, avoiding the mass of matter being created. Astrid made sure to keep it there, as they refused to go past it. But she couldn’t control it forever. Controlling so much matter was quickly exhausting her mana container, she had to do something.

Although she had never done it before, she started to create a wall from Psych Warp while controlling the matter ahead. She strained her mind, and groaned in pain.

Doing two things at once normally wasn’t a problem, like grabbing hold of three or more objects at a time. But creating something, from nothing, while also holding off the blindingly fast monsters from tearing her apart was difficult.

Blood dripped from her nose at the heightened concentration as the wall of metal formed. Not being able to focus only on the wall made it jagged in areas, and some places were thinner or thicker than others. She just hoped that it would be able to stop them.

However, she was never one to focus on defence. She left a hole in the middle of the wall, it was difficult working around it and she had to expend more mana, but she had something planned.

She let go of the matter and without a moment's hesitation, the mini fish-like humanoids pounced toward the hole in the wall. The moment they were about to pass through the hole, razor-sharp spikes shot out from the hole.

Their bodies rammed into the spikes, but they were moving so fast that they continued without much resistance. They moved at the same speed, there wasn’t a change in their movement, yet they were already dead.

The monster’s corpses splatted and slid against the black tiles. Dark liquid and guts rolled along the floor, until they eventually stopped.

Astrid didn’t bother checking their corpses, she was already paying attention to the tunnel. She tapped her foot on the floor. It was as she had thought. They doubled once more. She hoped it wouldn’t continue for long, but she had a strong suspicion she would be here for a while.

***

How long had it been? Astrid wasn’t sure. She sat with her back against the wall as she rifled through her backpack for a stock taking.

She gazed at the empty bottles that were laying on the floor. Half of her entire supply was gone, and she was sure it had been at least two days since the trial had started.

Astrid rubbed her stomach. She was in agony from her over exerted mana container. For two entire days, or longer, she was using the mana non-stop. If she halted it, then she would be ejected from the palace, where that may be. And she wasn’t sure if she would be allowed back in.

Or maybe she would just die? The Trial had said that she couldn’t leave and that the only way was death. She didn’t want to find out, so a little pain was nothing to fuss over.

At first, she used the high agility and unpredictable nature of the monsters to train her senses and reaction time. After all, it was difficult to practise on real moving targets with a crafty nature–humans. And if she did she would be constantly worried of accidentally taking their life.

At least this way she could train with no remorse at peak efficiency. She was getting used to reading the matter at high movements and predicting where it would come from.

Astrid had even resorted to thinning out her Mind Barrier, and using the extra mana to fight with her knives. It was strange and difficult at first, but she attempted to replicate the Sinwen sword fighting style with the knives. The only difference was that she wasn’t actually holding a weapon. iInstead, they danced in the air and moved to her command.

She replicated the sword movements. Thrust, strike, swipe, step, slash. It was difficult at first, but once one truly learns something, it remains in the brain for a lifetime. All it needed was some warming up.

During that time she had experimented with her trap making. Once the monsters reached the sixties, her previous strategy of the hole in the wall with small spikes no longer worked. Instead, she had to get creative.

The sound of heavy objects moving filled the entirety of the hallway next to her.

The entire floor rumbled, and an intense sound of footsteps filled the entire hall. The next couple of minutes were filled with gut wrenching cries and screams. Well, it sounded more like an intense mixture of clicking, clacking, and hissing than anything.

Something hard cutting into flesh and bone filled the hallway, then only silence remained. Astrid gazed at the countless number of notifications within her mind, they just kept on going, quickly reaching past the hundreds.

She got into the habit of just skipping past everything and moving straight onto the more important parts of the System. The level ups, six in total to be exact, and that also meant that she had finally reached the five-hundred intelligence mark. A great upgrade awaited her.

Astrid sighed and stood up. It was meant to be a great reward, but it felt unearned. She gazed through the whole and looked at her wondrous creation of death.

At the end of the tunnel, enormous circular blades of metal rotated. They spun at a speed capable of severing entire limbs off of whatever monster ran into its war-path.

Just in front of the blades, metal plates lay flat against the wall and were embedded with pointed spikes that crashed against each other repeatedly. Then, just ahead two similar plates both crashed down from the ceiling, and above from the floor. It didn’t matter how the monsters evaded, they would be sliced apart or crushed to death.

But that wasn’t all. Astrid had created a narrow funnel, so that the monsters could only move through a narrow passageway. It was the final defensive line if they even managed to cross the death passage.

If they managed to get past the traps, thousands of hardened needles were stuck into the walls, ready to be fired from Psychokinesis at a moment's notice.

The stench of blood was so thick that she could practically taste the iron. Corpses lay in the hundreds and piled up high. With any newcomers, the old bodies would either be sliced into fragments or crushed into a mulch to accommodate the new arrivals.

With the noises gone, she clenched her hands. Will she finally gain some peace?

Two minutes passed, and the screeching continued. Astrid sighed, placed her back against the wall and slid down until the cold tiles pressed against her butt.

The cries continued, until they stopped. Then silence remained. She was hopeful once more.

It was time to look at her System.

Name: Astrid Sinwen
Title: Blade Thrower!
Title: Child of the Void

Class 1:

Medium Class: Psychokinetic level 81
Upper Class: [ Level locked: ??? ]

Active: Psychokinesis  level 10 max
Active: [ Stage 2 ] Crash level 13
Active: [ Stage 2 ] Mind Barrier level 15
Active: [ Stage 2 ] Levitation level 6
Active: Psych Warp Level 9
Passive: [ Stage 2 ] Psychic’s Power level 13
Passive: [ Stage 2 ] Psych Domain level 13
Passive: Overpower level 8
Passive:
Passive:

Class 2:  Illusionist level 81
Upper Class: [ Level locked: ??? ]

Active: [ Stage 2 ] Minor illusion level 9
Active: [ Stage 2 ] Illusionary armour level 5
Active: [ Stage 2 ] Mind Domain level 6
Active:
Active:
Passive: [ Stage 2 ] Mental Warfare level 6
Passive: [ Stage 2 ] Illusion detection level 1
Passive: [ Stage 2 ] Anti-Disabling Field level 5
Passive:
Passive:

General Skills:

Etiquette - level 1
Clothes Making - level 3
Clothes Repair - level 2
Identify - level 3
Mana Conduit  [ Stage 1 ]
Mental Resistance - level 1
Lung Capacity - level 1
Mana Veins [ Stage 2 ]
Enhanced Vision [ Stage 2 ]
Swordsmanship - level 4

Status:

Unallocated stat points: 0

Strength: 60
Dexterity: 60
Constitution: 100
Intelligence: 500
Wisdom: 164

She had placed the ten leftover points from intelligence and put it into Wisdom. The lack of range was started to impede her strong psychic powers.

Astrid had been focused purely on medium range effectiveness of her [Crash], but it was now time to increase her range. It would not only help her offensive capabilities, but also her ability to scout. She was confident that with her matter control and Psych Domain, she would easily be able to compare with the other main Scouts.

She still hadn’t met the requirements to evolve Psychokinesis, which not only surprised her, but a pit formed in her already painful stomach. It meant that the requirements were even greater than she had anticipated.

Milestone reached: 500 intelligence!

Conditions met, Mana Veins evolving to Stage 3.

Tier 3 upgrades:

The Rekindling Mage: Instantly restore up to 100% of your mana once a day. The second mana pool has 15% increased damage until emptied.

Avatar of Mana: Regenerate mana 20% faster. Mana control is increased by 5%

Magic Golem Skin: +25% increased magic defence. Reflects 20% damage back to melee attackers.

Disaster Veins: Mana expense is increased by 15% but increase damage by 25%

Astrid pinched her chin. Everything was good, but Disaster Veins was a double edged sword. She could go down that path, but it would be too focused on just using [Crash]. It would dwindle her usefulness with other spells quite a lot.

If she picked it, then she wasn’t confident in having the mana to clear the palace. She was already down to half of her supply.

She contemplated for a while, before shaking her head. The damage increase was insane, but it wasn’t worth the downside of having less mana overall. If [Crash] was her only ability, then the upgrade was obvious, but it wasn’t.

After fighting with the others, she rested on Avatar of Mana. The permanent increased mana regeneration was just too strong to give up. The extra 5% mana control was just the icing on top.

Mana Conduit -> Avatar of Mana [ Stage 3 ]

Astrid’s mind twitched. Not because of Psych Domain detecting any movement, but it was the lack thereof. Five minutes had already passed, yet there was no sign of more monsters.

The third trial of the Void Progenitor has begun.

You can not escape, nor back out.

The trial ends when you have won, or have died.

Astrid watched as the door to the right of the hall opened.