[Psychokinetic] Eyeball Pulling - Chapter 114 (Patreon)

Leena stood to the side of Astrid with a black eye. She had quickly regained her professional demeanour.

Astrid recalled the fight in awe.

Bellona fought with nothing but her fists. Leena held the reach advantage with her metal lance that was capable of changing and growing, yet it didn’t matter.

Watching Bellona fight with her unusual boxing style was like witnessing a high-powered magnet that was stuck to Leena’s armour. No matter what Leena tried or attempted to shake her off, it was of no use. It didn’t seem to be a movement Skill, but it looked to be some sort of a footwork Skill instead.

They sounded similar, but they were totally different. Movement Skills were capable of closing distance or increasing speed–even Skills such as teleportation were possible. However, footwork Skills focused on the movement of one's feet in a melee and often resulted in less supernatural-like effects. Moves such as feints, and sticking to enemies were just a couple. Although they were often considered basic, much like anything when it was mastered it was capable of amazing feats.

Bellona would stick to Leena’s body and batter her body with her fists. Each attack seemed to cause Leena pain even through her armour.

Astrid thought that it may be some type of passive Skill that was capable of bypassing armour at a reduced strength. It looked like her class was good against melee users, but if she only relied on footwork then she would have troubles against mage classes.

Well, if she managed to survive until now and with Freya raising her–she obviously held some tricks up her sleeves.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. Lisa had made sure to bring some board games on the ship. Presumably she was well aware of Brett’s necessity of having something to relieve his boredom, but Astrid was the same.

After all, she could only train for so long. The monotony of changing her entire bone structure within Mind Domain was slowly grating on her mind. It wasn’t like high intensity sparring, or fights with her life on the line. It was her most hated training method. She spent hours upon hours reclining in mid-air, injecting her bone marrow with Voidbent metal–then using that to recreate her bones.

It took longer than she thought it would to complete it. But that was mainly because Astrid no longer wanted to waste her mana potions. Instead, she simply just halved her container and waited for it to fill up before repeating the process over and over again.

Of course, she would never go below the halfway point in her container in fear of a sudden attack. It would be irresponsible as a mage. She had to be ready for any situation, especially out in the open ocean.

There was still the threat of the Leviathan. She had never forgotten, nor could she. It was humanity's greatest enemy for a reason.

All she hoped was for it not to blast out of the ocean in front of her. She had doubts that Pupil and Voidmare were connected to the Leviathan’s appearance somehow. It would be idiotic of her not to put two and two together. But they had no answers, so there was no way to find out.

Astrid shook her head from the thoughts and activated Void Storage. Pulling out most of the Voidbent metal, she was confident in completing her bone structure recreation in real life this time.

She had gone over it repeatedly, even after fully forming it, she started from the beginning and did it all again. Altering her physical body without the knowledge of a skill was something only psychopaths would attempt, but with practising in her Mind Domain, it was time to complete it.

Taking a breath, she placed her hand on the cold, hard metal. Sinking her mind into the metal with Psych Domain was like second nature at this point.

The familiar feeling made her tread forward on auto-pilot as she began the process without a second thought of worry in her mind. She had done it hundreds of times. This time was no different, except for one thing. The pain.

It was bone gnawing. She grit her teeth and lowered the pain within her mind. Astrid made sure not to turn it off completely as she needed the awareness of when to take a break. After all, she might not be able to feel pain, but that didn’t mean that her body didn’t.

It was going to be a long–and agonising time.

***

Rachelle watched as Astrid closed her eyes. She could feel the intense concentration that almost radiated from her pores.

Resting her elbows on her knees and cupping her chin within her hands, she patiently watched. After all, it’s not like there was much else to do on the ship. There were only so many board games she could stomach with Brett.

The cheating bastard. She spat at the thought of his crafty fingers.

Her vexation ceased the moment Astrid furrowed her brows in pain. Her arm twitched and trembled, as if something was drilling into her bones.

Rachelle sat up straight. Just what is she doing now? Does it have something to do with that domain skill of hers?

Astrid and Leena had spent most of the time within their own little world. The only time they awakened was to eat, sleep, or go to the toilet. But this time Leena was standing by her side with her eyes open.

Rachelle couldn’t help but see the worry within Leena’s eyes as it then transferred into her own. Just what is the little witch doing now? The thought surged within her thoughts as the curiosity quickly turned to that of worry.

Everytime Astrid’s brows knit in pain, or her arm twitched. Rachelle felt something within her throat. Like a solid object had lodged itself into her gullet. It only became exemplified when blood started seeping from her eyes and ears.

Rachelle stood up in panic. “What is happening?”

At her worried words, everyone rushed over to see what was happening.

“My lady is undergoing practice,” Leena said. “Please don’t disturb her.”

Despite her words, Leena nibbled on her own lips.

“What kind of practice results in that?” Rachelle exclaimed.

The blood from her eyes was only the beginning. From Astrid’s arm, it popped, crackled, and snapped. The bone was visibly moving underneath her skin. Astrid's face was twisted in agony.

“I can’t watch this,” Rachelle said. Yet she couldn’t look away. All she saw in her mind was images of the smiling girl with golden hair. She would always have the time of her life as she exploded monsters with her psychic power.

Seeing this side of her… It reminded Rachelle of the time in the dungeon. She had risked breaking down her body to protect them.

She was used to never ending betrayal. Whether it was Wayfarers; Seafarers, Humanity Corps soldiers, Adventurers. So when a girl that hadn’t been with them for very long, the daughter of the most powerful man on Rebirth, Rachelle didn’t expect her to risk her life for them.

It was then that she truly admitted Astrid as one of their own. A part of the family–and now she was in pain…

It went on for hours. Now and then Leena would pat the blood away with a towel.

Then, Rachelle stood up once more as Astrid’s weary eyes opened.

***

Astrid opened her eyes. Exhaustion had taken hold of her entire body as a thrumming pain throbbed throughout its entirety. Despite that, she was elated.

Not just from the fact that she had completed the restructuring of her skeleton–a grand feat that not many in the world were capable of achieving. But because of the System message that followed it.

You have gained an Epic Psychokinetic Skill - Matter Absorption: Through great trial and error, you have learnt how to alter your very being with the materials of the world and beyond. You can now absorb any material depending on its Level and Rarity.

This Skill is added onto Psychokinesis.

Astrid tilted her head at the added information and with a thought, the System made it clear.

Psychokinesis.
| Omni-Kinesis.
| Matter Absorption.

So they are like pathways! Astrid nodded. She had heard about the uniqueness of legendary skills, and this was one of them. Usually, a Skill wasn’t capable of adding on to the older Skill like Matter Absorption had done.

Epic Skills and below would need their own slot within the class. It was another huge boon to the noble classes, or in this case, a black blob.

I should really name it something proper. But I’m always so bad at naming things. Astrid lamented at the thought. She was still struggling with her adventure name. Something to inspire fear and awe at the same time… or maybe just fear?

Astrid pinched her chin, only to realise that she was drenched in her own blood.

Everyone was looking at her as if she was insane, but she just grinned. Her teeth were stained red and blood covered the entirety of her lower face. There was no doubt that she looked like a blood crazed demon.

“Judging by that smile, you’ve done something worthy of celebration?” Daniel puffed a cigarette as if they infinitely spawned.

“That depends on the celebration.” Astrid squinted her eyes in suspicion.

“Ah, I have just the thing,” Daniel said, “Wait just here.”

“It’s not like she can go anywhere.” Bellona added from the side with a deadpan expression on her face.

“Hey, you don’t know Astrid as well as us,” Brett said. “One moment she could be right next to you, then she’s up and flying, getting herself swooped up in a solo dungeon the next.”

“That’s right!” Daniel ran off and entered the building area of the ship.

Astrid took the time to wave her arms around in the air as she felt the extra weight in her limbs. Then, she spent a couple minutes jumping up and down. The extra weight caused her to thump onto the decking as if she weighed forty extra kilograms.

Wait, that means… Astrid furrowed her brows as she used Levitation. The extra weight was immediately apparent as she had to pull herself to keep up with the boat.

The extra weight cost her almost double the amount of mana, but the durability her new skeleton provided should save her a limb if things went awry.

By the time she landed, Daniel had already returned with a brown bottle in hand. Even with walking, there was no room for the liquid to slosh side-to-side. It was clearly a new, unopened bottle.

“How about some Pirate Sunset Express?” Daniel said with an elated smile.

Why does it look like he just wanted an excuse to open it? Astrid thought to herself, yet she was caught up in his happiness.

If it was alcohol, she wanted a sip.