A/N: Tommorow marks the last day of daily releases since all my pre written chapters will be released with tommorows chapter. But more on that tommorow.
I also want to quickly say that the story will not be all dark all the time. The reasoning behind that mostly because if I made it only dark then it really would lose its effect. So there will be fluffy from time to time, but never forget that in the presence of light hidden darkness only deepens.
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How long has it been since I was thrust into this silent darkness? A month or a year or maybe it has been even longer? I can’t even tell anymore. I’m stupid for even thinking that counting the days using my meals as a point of reference would be easy, not with that damn demon ogre around.
The demon ogre makes sure to keep my meals as inconsistent as possible. I can get fed when I’m slightly hungry, starved half to death, or not hungry at all. It’s all a big game to that damned demon ogre. He never planned on me ever successfully dodging any attack he throws. That damn demon ogre expects me to just give up and go mad in this silent darkness.
Not that I haven’t tried to escape the darkness. At first, I thought of maybe saving the blood capsules I got. Eventually, I would have enough to heal my eyes and ears, but somehow every time I've tried to save up my meals that damned demon ogre found out. He’s somehow known every time I didn’t eat and wouldn’t feed me again until I was so starved that I had no choice. No choice, but to eat the very blood I was trying to save up.
Then there is the demon ogres so called ‘training’. All he ever does to ‘train’ me is show up and punches or kicks me once, then leaves. I’ve been forced to learn to sleep while being constantly wary of attacks from the darkness because that damn demon ogre could show up anytime. But even if I was being as wary as possible, trying to dodge an existence I can’t even perceive is useless.
Somehow that damned demon ogre has a way of hiding his scent and not only that he can also remove any wind disturbances his attacks would make, probably with magic. In the end dodging him is like trying to dodge a ghost. You know an attack is coming, but it's impossible to know exactly when or where.
How exactly am I supposed to complete this training of his? I guess that I’m not, this ‘training’ was probably set up by that damn demon ogre to break me. To form me into an empty puppet, a perfect receptacle, for being taught combat techniques.
Well, the demon ogre’s plan almost succeeded, but at some point, something changed. A completely unexpected flaw in his otherwise perfect plan. There was something else in this completely dark silent world. Something else that everyone in the world takes for granted, but for me, it was a way out.
Mana.
Everyone in this world can perceive mana if they try and some might even be able to see it with enough effort. But understanding mana remains an elusive dream, just out of reach. The people of this world know how to use the mana within their own bodies for magic, but what about the mana in the air around them? What about the mana in the bodies of others?
Some people can go from ‘Mana Perception’ to ‘Mana Sight’, but even if they can see the mana present around them what can they do with it? I was the same, I knew the mana was there, but I couldn’t interact with it. I couldn’t make use of it, but I decided to try something since I was completely entrapped by this darkness.
I wanted something, anything, to help me escape this isolation. So I decided to try using the mana around me. I wanted to try using it to fill the void formed by the loss of my senses, but that plan was ultimately futile. With that failure came a realization. I couldn’t turn the mana into a part of me because I was a part of it.
I let my senses be taken by the mana around me. Instead of forcing the mana to become my lost senses I let my senses become mana. In the end, I’m not sure how everything worked out the way it did, but now I simply feel with the mana inside me, around me, and in others. Mana has become an essential part of my being, it’s no longer just a medium with which I use to cast magic.
At first, it was quite a foreign feeling, trying to sense the world around me through the mana in it, but now I could probably live quite normally even if someone shut out all my other senses.
Becoming so intimate with mana has also had another effect. Controlling mana has become completely natural, something akin to breathing. I can only control the mana inside myself and in the air around me. I cannot directly influence the mana in someone else.
Using my newfound control over mana I manage to disable the collar around my neck, but even with the collar disabled its effects are still present. With the magic in it completely dismantled, somehow the collar’s limiting effects still remain intact.
Ever since I've gotten used to my new sense I've also been able to begin trying to clear this portion of the damn demon ogres training. At first, it was completely useless, even if I could tell where he was and what he was doing, dodging him at all was another matter entirely.
So far everything I have tried to do to try avoiding any of that damned demon ogres attacks has led to me getting to know the ground much more intimately. No matter what I try he counters without fail, but lately, I have been getting better. I almost managed to avoid the demon ogre completely the last time he came around. The next time he shows up, I have a feeling that it could be possible to finally clear this damned ‘training’ of his.
As I try to plot out the possible ways the demon ogre might attack me next time, I feel something disturb the mana around the room's only door. As usual, the only thing alerting me to the demon ogres presence is the mana in his body as he gets in range of my mana sense.
Since he is leisurely walking towards me I tense my body in preparation and hopefully, I’m ready for anything. Once the demon ogre is standing right behind where I’m sitting, he proceeds to do nothing. He just stands there and waits.
I have to be ready for anything, I just have to not get hit and my life living in this darkness can come to an end. Living in silent darkness constantly wary of assault from the unknown. Constantly wary of attacks that remain undodgeable even when they are seen. I could change this life by just not getting hit, I can change it. I will change it.
Almost like he was simply waiting for me to make my convictions, I feel the mana in the demon ogre’s arm condense. Then like someone letting go of a compressed spring his arm shoots out towards my head. Dodging the arm speeding towards me I then vault my body into the air to avoid the leg I can feel flying towards my torso. When I feel the mana in his other arm condensing and there is only one way for me to dodge while stranded in the air.
I feed mana into my wings to release them and as fast as possible I unfurl my wings to full span. Once my wings are three fourths open I flap them once as hard as I can to try and outdistance the arm currently hurtling towards me. I assume my tactic worked since there isn’t any impact like there would be if I was hit. Landing on the ground I start trying to find that damned demon ogres current position to properly ready myself for his next attack.
Where is he? There is no blind spot in my mana sense for him to hide in. The only way he could evade my mana sense would be if ... but how could he possibly suppress all the mana in his body? If he could do this from the start, then, this whole thing has been a farce. If he can avoid my only possible method left of detecting him then I can’t ever complete this ‘training’.
All of a sudden I feel something get shoved into my mouth and I’m made to forcibly to swallow something. After a brief moment of panic, I realize what I am currently being forced to swallow, blood. I obediently finish drinking the blood and once I finish drinking my eyes and ears start to repair themselves.
By the time my ears stop ringing, my new eyes have adjusted themselves to the light and I can see the demon ogre waving his hand in my face. I nod to him to confirm that my sight has returned and he stops waving.
“Good, good, man that dodging of yours really surprised me this time. Almost brings a tear to my eye that our little game of cat and mouse has to end, but I did say all you had to do to win was dodge me once. Man, I so was sure that last punch was gonna hit too. Really was a surprise to me that you have wings. So how well do these work anyways?” as the demon ogre asks his question he grabs one of my wings.
I quickly retract my wings because I don’t want him getting any funny ideas. Looking a little dejected the demon ogre pulls his hand back from where my wing was and goes back to examining me.
After examining me for a bit the demon ogre finally starts talking again, “Really can’t figure out how you managed to find me, but since you couldn’t dodge the blood vial. Then there is the possibility that you were probably tracking my mana. Though, I can’t say I know how you would ever manage that. Oh, by the way, nice parlor trick with the whole disappearing wings thing.
Enough of that, from here on we can start the real training. The whelps are pretty mad that I wasted a year and a half with our little game, but I think it was worth it in the end. I mean it was fun for me and it didn’t even break you! Which means we can do whatever I want when it comes to combat training. I am so looking forwards to this little monster.
First order of business, however, is figuring out what you want to use as a weapon. honestly, what weapon you prefer means absolutely nothing. You're going to be picking up a variety of weapons anyways, but I thought it might be nice to let you pick what I beat into you first. Then again seeing as you are a little monster. Yea, you know what forget choosing. Monsters have to fight with tooth and claw, so it shall be unarmed combat first.
Oh right, almost forgot, apparently I have to give you three straight hours to practice magic once a week or something. But that's boring so, you can practice magic during your daily ten minute breaks. Anyways you’ve got ten minutes or so to readjust to seeing and stuff.”
Finished with his explanation the demon ogre walks away, leaving me to confirm how my new mana sense works in conjunction with my old ones. After a bit of testing, I find that my new mana sense does not interfere with my sight and hearing at all. It is simply a sixth sense added to the already present five. If anything my eyesight and hearing are better than before I lost them. Having confirmed that there is nothing wrong with my new parts I sit down and start to think about what the demon ogre just said.
So I am finally going to learn to protect myself, huh. But knowing that damn demon ogre this ‘training’ is going to turn into another excuse to torture me. Torture or training the end result speaks for itself I guess. So far I have always gotten something out of his ‘training’, but he is still a psychopath. I can’t even begin to imagine what he has in store for combat ‘training’. Actually, I can only imagine it’s probably going to be one sided fights to near death. With me being on the near death side of things every time.
Getting up I search the room for the demon ogre. Since my last dodge, I haven't been able to sense the mana inside of him at all, so I am forced to locate him with my eyes.
When I see the demon ogre in the middle of the room our eyes meet and he shouts, “Well if you're looking for me then your breaks over. Right then let's get this started, attack me however you like. No magic mind you, any of that and I’ll have to get some extra teaching in. On second thought, use magic all you want and then I can have some fun disci- … teaching you.”
Okay, note to self no magic, but what the heck does he want me to do? I have no idea how to go about attacking a giant mountain of meat and muscle. Even then what is unarmed combat even supposed to be? Do I just go up and punch him and what about kicking? I know grapples exist. What kind of silly teaching method is “attack me however you like”. Then again given his prior offenses, it’s better than before.
“Are you going to attack? Or, maybe you want me to show you how it’s done first? C'mon you're a little monster, let your instincts take over and attack me. You better do something before I lose my patience. Unless, maybe you're trying to make me lose my patience? That would make you one brave little monster now wouldn’t it,” the demon ogre goads me from his position at the center of the room.
Since I don’t want the demon ogre to rile himself up any more than he already has I quickly run over and try to throw a punch at him. But the demon ogre simply steps out of the way, which results in me tumbling to the floor in a rather grand fashion.
“What the hell was that supposed to be? Not only was it slow, but it was also completely predictable. Do you know why I am telling you to rely on your instincts? Well, I’ll tell you why! It’s because when you came at me when that side effect kicked in … well, frankly it was wonderful. Like a wild beast untamed and unpredictable. So get the hell up, try to tap into that mindset and come at me before I come at you!” I hear the demon ogre shout from above me.
Tap into that mindset he says. I don’t even remember that day! How am I supposed to understand something without memory of it? Well if I keep mulling over it this damn demon ogre is probably going to make this harder than it already is.
Getting back to my feet I try to attack the demon ogre with a kick this time, but he catches my leg. He then proceeds to lift me into the air and dangles me upside down. After leaving me dangling for a while the demon ogre seems to make up his mind and transfers his hold to my arm instead.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
He lifts me until we are eye to eye and says, “Alright you don’t seem to understand the situation here. So, I am going to make this very simple, every time you fail to hit me I am going to bend something the wrong way. Then you are going to keep trying to land hits, bends and all. Once you are immobile from all the bending you will be fed blood and once you're all fixed up, we will start again.
Luckily since you are, really, bad at this you are going to be ingesting a lot of blood. Which means we are going to see that wonderful little side effect again. Hopefully, after it happens enough, you might start to remember the feeling and learn to Gods damn fight!” after finishing his explanation the demon ogre grabs my arm with his other hand and as promised he breaks it before dropping me to the floor.
I don’t feel any pain from the broken arm, but getting up is more difficult without its use. After I manage to get myself up I try to attack the demon ogre again. My attack once again fails and this time, he breaks a finger on my good arm.
Like the demon ogre promised, the cycle of attack and break continues until I am unable to move. Seeing me immobile the demon ogre forces blood down my throat and the cycle starts again.
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“Man am I glad these whelps have gotten really good at fixing this kind of thing. I take it easy for just a moment and a little monster with only three hundred strength and dexterity takes my arm. Guess that means I can’t keep calling you a little monster anymore. Alright, then you have graduated to simply being a monster! Congratulations monster, you don’t need my training anymore.
Ah, it's been an enjoyable five years. Who knew it could be so much fun to break something that can be fixed perfectly over and over again. Now don’t go getting too excited, you’re not rid of me just yet. Those whelps want me to take you on your test run.
The test is pretty simple too. We walk into the first town we see, I deactivate the collar and you destroy everything in sight. Fun right? Oh, don’t even think about trying to attack me when I deactivate the collar because it can be turned back on just as quick. Anyways you got two hours to get ready. One of the whelps should show up to take you to your room and until I come get you for your test run, you can do whatever you like in there,” finishing his sentence the demon ogre then turns and walks for the door with his right arm in hand, severed at the elbow.
Finally, I’m finally done with that damn torturous demon ogres ‘training’. Though, I do have to admit that the gains were quite immense. I am now proficient with a lot of weapons, immune to poison, paralysis, mental attacks, burning, cold, mana poisoning and I also have my mana sense now.
But today is finally my chance, I get to escape and kill that damn demon ogre. I thought getting a chance to kill him would be difficult. When my training was over I half expected him to take his money and leave. If he did that, then I would have to try to hunt him down after escaping this place. Instead, the demon ogre is the one that has to guide me out of this facility. So I can finally kill him and once he is dead my escape is guaranteed.
Before I start planning though I should confirm my status again. I have been checking it a lot recently so there shouldn’t be anything new, but since today is an important day it's better to be sure so {Status}.
Name: Race: Chimera Sub-races: Vampire, Succubus, Dragon Age: 10 Sex: Female Level: 1 Job: Error Health: 134068/238050 Mana: 4500/5000 (limted) (634819Max) Str: 300 (limited) (33215Max) Int: 300 (limited) (27221Max) Dex: 300 (limited) (35658Max) Wis: 300 (limited) (24769Max) End: 47610 Charm: 2000 Titles: Skills: Chimeric Being Informational Sponge Passives: Racial Passives: Actives: Racial Actives: Genius Programmer Follower of Logic Photograhpic Memory LvL - Draconic Language LvL - Complete Mana Control LvL - (evolved) Charm LvL 1 Chosen of Change and Balance Organic Clock Mana Sense LvL - (evolved) Blood Mana LvL - Programming Magic LvL - Spells + Flight LvL 4 Scientific Genius Modified Instinctual Clock LvL - Draconic Scales LvL- (fully limited)
Chantless Invocation LvL -
Partial dragonification LvL - Immune Limited Pain Immunity LvL - (evolved) Succubus's Allure LvL - Limiter LvL - --- Combat Genius
Fear of Muscle (fully Limited)
Mana Immunity LvL - (evolved) Enhanced Dynamic Vision LvL - Over Limit LvL - --- --- --- Mental Immunity LvL - (evolved)
Charm Aura LvL -
(fully limited)
--- --- --- --- Paralysis Immunity LvL - (evolved) Prehensile Tail LvL - (fully limited) --- --- --- --- Posion Immunity LvL - (evolved) Bloody Regeneration LvL - --- --- --- ---
Cold Immunity LvL - (evolved) (fully limited) Cold Resistance LvL 8 (20% limited)
Draconic Aura LvL - (fully limited) --- --- --- ---
Heat Immunity LvL - (evolved) (fully limited) Heat Resistance LvL 8 (20% limited)
Blood Rage LvL - --- --- --- --- Enhanced Senses LvL - --- --- ---
Looking at my status everything’s the same as the last time I checked with the exception of my stats having gone up a bit more. Since I already examined everything new over the last few times I checked there shouldn’t be any need to do it again. Browsing over all my skills one last time I start thinking.
Really, though, if it wasn’t for this ‘Limiter’ skill I am sure that damned demon ogre would have already caught onto my plan. Honestly, it’s hard to believe a skill like this even exists. Wouldn’t most people die before ever gaining this skill?
Deciding to examine ‘Limiter’ again I focus on it and cast {Status Examine}. Immediately a blue screen appears above my status.
Limiter
My goodness, you are living with some crazy people. How did they ever let things get so bad that this skill shows up?
Okay so to get this a person has to spend several years training with their stats severely limited and it's not just any training either. To get this skill you have to be pushing your poor limited body as far as it can go and if for any reason you unlimit your stats before getting this skill, poof all that effort has gone to waste. Most people who knowingly try to get this skill either have to give up or their bodies break before the skill is gained.
Now I bet you’re thinking “well if it's so hard to get, then isn’t it good?”. Little one, the simple answer to that question is no, for the most part. All this skill does is let you limit things in your status.
So let's say you have a title you don’t really fancy the effect of. You can use this skill to either fully or partially inhibit that effect and that limiting ability works for anything in your status. It works on stats, titles, and even skills, but other than sealing up a really pesky title I’m not sure why anyone would actually want this skill.
An interesting fact about this skill, though, is that limiting an evolved version of a skill completely will force the system to use the previous iteration of that skill.
This explanation brought to you by the one and only Goddess of Change and Balance
After reading the skill description again and confirming my stat gains I close my status. Since the researcher tasked with bringing me back to my room should get here soon I decide to just wait. After five minutes I hear and feel someone opening the door to the room. Looking over I see a researcher I don’t recognize enter the room.
After looking over and seeing me he shouts, “Follow me, I’m here to take you back to your room!”
Following the researcher it takes us a few minutes to arrive at a room I haven’t seen in five years, the room I use to live in. After dropping me off the researcher turns and leaves me to my own devices. I see the old mirror still resting in the corner so I decide to walk over to it and what I see is quite a surprise.
Rebecca said once that my body was supposed to mature quickly and having succubus blood in me I was expecting to cut a pretty good figure. But I never imagined...
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A/N: A quick note to say that later there will also be another skill description page containing our little mc's new skills because it is implied that she has already examined them all on her own time. I thought of updating the old skill page, but I decided that making a new one marked with its relevent chapter was a slightly cleaner method.