(TPOR) Chapter 177: The Snake Part (Patreon)

Bent over a dead mana beast, Zed let out a deep breath.

It had been two days since they’d found the Devil lance and things had been going steady ever since. They’d left the town with the snog and no one had been the wiser.

They’d been on the road for a few days since, making the occasional stops to hunt any mana beast they could find. Festus played the part of overseer, never really involving himself in any skirmish. And while Zed understood the necessity of the fights, he never really cared much for them.

They were currently on the side of the road where they’d had the favor of facing off against a group of monsters that looked like lions with the heads of giraffes.

Oliver walked up to him.

“You good?” he asked.

Zed looked over his shoulder at him. “Yea.”

He wasn’t necessarily ‘good’. He was hoping for more powerful monsters. Monsters that would help increase his Exp.

Staring at his Exp, these weren’t worth much. And he couldn’t blame them. There was only so much category 1 Beta mana beasts could give him.

· Exp to category 1 Rukh: 1112/5000

It was too small.

“Don’t rush it,” a female voice said from behind them.

They looked back to find Jennifer walking up to them.

After the incident in the small town with Babajide, they’d finally found her waiting for them at the entrance to the town. She’d seemed impatient, and worried. But all of that was gone now. Two days, left behind in the wind.

“Your face reminds me of someone who’s been experiencing growth for years only to realize that they are done growing,” she said when she got to them.

Zed didn’t want to respond to that. She was right, he’d been hung up on the fact tat he could literally see his growth, calculate it. Now that growth was stagnating. No. Stagnating wasn’t the word, it had merely slowed down.

Right now he required more to get stronger, yet the monsters gave him less. Just yesterday a blob had given him barely fifty Exp.

“It’s too slow,” he muttered to himself. “If it’s like this I’ll never get past Bishop.”

Jennifer snorted. “Most people never get past Rukh, though.”

Zed nodded. He wasn’t most people, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. No matter how much time they’d spent together, heading back to civilization in the last two days, he wasn’t ready to give them everything.

They already know about conqueror’s touch, there’s no need to let them know everything.

With a resigned shrug, he placed his hand on the monster in front of him.

· Would you like to use [Conqueror’s touch] on [Dancing Willow]?

Yes,

The creature with it’s body of a lion and head of a giraffe burst into colorful smoke. It filled the air and he watched some of it flow into him before the rest dissipated.

He wondered if there would ever be a time when all of it would flow into him. Could all of it even flow into him? Maybe it wasn’t all Exp. Maybe there was more to it.

· You have used [Conqueror’s touch] on [Dancing Willow]?

· You have gained +59 Exp.

· [Mana-blessed] does not take effect.

· Exp to category 1 Rukh: 1171/5000

“Too little,” he muttered.

Behind him, Jennifer stared in awe.

“I’ve seen it before but it still gets me every time,” she said, enamored. “And it makes you stronger?”

Zed got up and stretched like a man just waking up. Before leaving Babajide’s town, they’d gotten a new set of clothes that fit him well so he wouldn’t continue walking around technically half naked all the time.

“Not stronger,” he lied to her. “It helps top up my healing factor.”

He turned one way, then the next.

Around them, there were other monsters that had been beaten down but not killed. Chris ad said the [Dancing Willows] tended to move in packs, and she’d been right.

Zed counted at least eight of them. In the wider scale of things it wasn’t so large. But it was already rare enough to find beasts of the same kind running together, so eight was a big number in that department.

Chris looked over at him from where she stood with a foot on one of the creatures.

“Hurry up, bloodbath,” she called out. “I hate seeing a creature I’m supposed to kill alive.”

Zed nodded.

They were ready to test an experiment they should’ve tried long ago. When the Olympians had spotted the monster’s group they’d been up for continuing on their way. According to them, an unnecessary constant battle with monsters didn’t necessarily do them much good, unlike what it did for regular mages.

Attribute mages, it turned out, grew differently. How? Nobody had told him yet.

Regardless, Oliver had pitched the idea of seeing if [Conqueror’s touch] could work under video game rules. So Zed had pitched the idea to Festus and they’d stopped to test it.

Zed reached down and took [Titan’s Axe] by the handle. He lifted it and rested its haft on his shoulder. It weighed him down greatly.

When he equipped it, he felt none of its weight. But he didn’t equip it now, didn’t have to. There was no threat around him—no threat around them.

“Alright then,” he muttered, walking over to Chris. “Let’s see what we can get out of this.”

“Hopefully a weapon for her,” Oliver answered. “She’s still kind off hung up about forgetting her club in the ship.”

Zed chuckled as they made their way over to her, Jennifer following behind them.

“I’m glad to see that she truly misses having the symbol of our friendship.”

“It’s more about the weapon itself,” Oliver said. “And less about the symbolization you’re giving it.”

Zed smirked at him. “You’re just jealous because both of you don’t have one of your own.”

He’d been teasing Oliver about him and Chris having some kind of advanced friendship for the past two days, and true to form, Oliver opened his mouth to protest, only to close it back without a word.

“If you like her, just go for her,” Jennifer said.

Zed was quick to interrupt. “I wouldn’t take advice from a woman who leaves our nineteen-year-old daughter with a walking testosterone infused guy.”

Oliver paused. “Wasn’t your daughter supposed to be thirteen?”

Jennifer looked at Zed. “He’s got a point.”

Zed shrugged. “Let’s just call it a time skip. It’s been six years and our marriage is still going steady and rocky. But that’s how we like it: toxic.”

“And Devonte?” she asked.

Zed shook his fist at the air dramatically. “Still a hunk of a man eyeing my woman.”

Jennifer chuckled lightly and Oliver shook his head.

When they got to Chris, Zed let [Titan’s Axe] hang loose. Chris frowned behind her at the snog they’d collected from the shed.

It stared up at her, tog hanging from its mouth. It was the most controversially cute thing Zed had ever met, unless he’d met something more controversial in one of the memories he was yet to unravel.

“Darned mutt won’t leave me alone,” Chris complained. “And I shot it twice at the shed.”

“Maybe it’s drawn to power,” Jennifer suggested. “I’ve met a few tamers, and they usually say that one of the steps to taming a mana beast is to establish dominance. Maybe shooting it was establishing dominance.”

“That,” Zed said. “Or maybe it’s met its kind and just doesn’t want to let go.”

He swung [Titan’s Axe] down on the mana beast at Chris’ feet and took its head off in one swing. Blood splattered all over the grassy side walk.

“I take offense at being called a dog,” Chris said, emphatically.

Zed smiled impishly. “I was talking about the snake part of the thing.”

Then he squatted down so that he was at the level of the dead monster.

Chris took a step towards him only for Oliver to place a hand on her shoulder, halting her.

“Don’t let him rile you up,” he told her. “He’s been trying to get to me, too. Just let him be.”

Chris turned her scowl on him, but it was short-lived.

“I don’t understand why that will be getting to you,” she muttered.

Zed looked up at the both of them evenly but said nothing. He liked to tease Oliver about how there was a possibility that they both liked each other. But if he was being honest, he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

This wasn’t some young adult romance story where the nice guy ended up with the mean girl and they’ll live happily ever after. Usually because the mean girl would change her ways for him. This was real life, and the world was too harsh a place to expect people to change just like that.

That’s a dark way of thinking, he told himself, placing his hand on the creature.

“You sure there won’t be a problem with its head being severed like that?” Jennifer asked.

Of all the Olympians she was the one most enamored by the skill. It seemed to hold almost all her attention.

Zed could still remember how low her jaw had dropped when she’d seen him first use the skill. Since he was now travelling with them, it was stupid to keep the skill a secret. He wasn't just going to stop growing simply because they were present.

The Olympians had all just stood there in confusion for a while. He'd expected more, a little bit of extra awe and confusion, like when people find out a protagonist is somehow unique in fantasy stories.

He would never admit it but he was a bit disappointed when Daniel had broken the silence by pointing out that he was surprised to find someone with a Crafting skill out here. Apparently, the skill wasn't extremely rare. People had it, and while it didn't give them finished products, it always gave them ingredients needed to create items.

That Zed's didn't always give him anything was a down-side to the skill.

As for Jennifer's question about the severed head, Zed thought of the monsters he’d fought when he’d gained [Bloodwrath]. The wolf with the missing head and the torn up monsters.

He shrugged. “Let’s find out. We don’t even know if this will work.”

“Imagine if it was actually making you stronger,” she said. “Like in the video games. Because, I’m not calling you a liar or anything, but it’s just hard to believe it just heals you better.”

“It is,” Zed muttered under his breath.

· Would you like to use [Conqueror’s touch] on [Dancing Willow]?

“Here goes nothing.”

He agreed and a new notification popped up.

· You have used [Conqueror’s Touch] on [Dancing Willow]

The creature exploded in a burst of smoke, and Chris instinctually stepped away from it. Just above the body, the giraffe head turned into smoke as well.

Zed looked up at Oliver. He couldn’t help the smile that touched his lips.

“I guess we have the answer to that,” he said.

Oliver was smiling too, nodding. “That gives us a lot of options.”

He sounded pleased.

“What options?” Jennifer asked.

[Mana-blessed] was yet to kick in, so in the last two days, none of the creatures he’d used [Conqueror’s touch] on had given them any item.

“Nothing you should worry yourself with just yet,” he told her, reading the new notification.

· You have gained +48 Exp.

· Exp to category 1 Rukh: 1223/5000

· [Mana-blessed] does not take effect.

The growth was still slow, but with this, Zed wasn’t so worried anymore. [Conqueror’s touch] had just informed him that he worked under the rules of almost any online game. He could steal kills to grow. Or he could allow others beat the monsters down so he could take the final swing.

All that was left was for his notifications to inform him of a party system that allowed him gain Exp from having someone else kill monsters and he could finally conclude that his magic, whatever it was, was broken.

He got to his feet and looked at Oliver. Beside Oliver, Chris was hissing at the snog. But while the puppy cowered away like a dog that was being scolded by its owner, the snake tail hissed back.

Zed looked at Oliver.

“I can’t be the only one confused about how to feel about its cuteness, right?” he said.

Oliver nodded. “You’re not alone.”

“Good. Now let’s go find your sister and see if we can be lucky with the others.”