Trying to get Knob to speak was like drawing blood from a stone. However, with much encouragement and patience Knob started to reveal some of his background. Knob spoke of his people and their plight under the rule of such a nefarious criminal organisation and the challenges and helplessness he faced growing up. If what he said was true, then this man had lived through a truly harrowing existence. Barry had been living in a self-pitying bubble for such a long time that he’d never stopped to think about the struggles of others. When one’s body is a prison, the mind can often only focus on personal struggles. Hearing this young man’s harrowing story was an eye opener for Barry, and he couldn’t help but feel ashamed and selfish. Barry at least had a loving family and had experienced many good things in his life, whereas Knob had grown up in a literal hellhole. It made Barry’s own experiences seem unremarkable; his own issues minor in comparison. This poor man had lived a life of pain and suffering, and it was no surprise that he acted hostile towards them, as this was the only sort of interaction he had ever known. Despite Knob’s words, Barry could see that Tuti remained sceptical, her frown never ceased as she listened to him speak. It was understandable, perhaps if Barry had of experienced the overwhelming helplessness from being under mind control that she had, then he might have felt the same way. But that wasn’t the case, and he couldn’t help but believe every word Knob spoke. To lie was easy, but some things just can’t be faked, like the sheer vulnerability and impotence that this man exuded, and Barry felt nothing but pity for him.

“Tell us about your abilities. What exactly did you do to Tuti, and why didn’t it affect me?” Barry asked, genuinely unsure.

Knob lifted his head that had been hanging down shamefully, and glanced at Barry as he answered.

“I have an ability that lets me form strings of light that I can direct along the ground at my will. If I manage to touch another being with the light, then I can start to alter their decisions somewhat. The more strings I can latch on to someone, or the closer I can get the light to their head, the stronger my influence and the more of their power and abilities I can utilise. I don’t need my soul item to do this, but when I utilise my staff the effects of my ability are enhanced.”

That all made sense and was pretty much what Barry had expected. It also seemed like a ridiculously overpowered ability. However, it still didn’t answer his second question.

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t use it to control me as well?” Barry quizzed.

“I tried,” Knob replied nonchalantly, “But there are a few drawbacks to my skill that meant I couldn’t control all of you. Firstly, once I choose to activate that ability, I can’t use any other ability whilst it’s active. Secondly, to control one person I have to have a manipulation level at least three times as high as the target’s willpower, but this requirement doubles with each subsequent use. So, for the second target I need to have a manipulation level six times their willpower level, and twelve times for the third target and so on. I had to target her and the ape because your willpower level was too high for me to infiltrate you,” Knob said as he pointed at Tuti and Swirly, “But luckily I got a sense that she was stronger overall anyway.”

This made Tuti smile, if only briefly, for the first time since their encounter with Knob, an expression that Barry noticed.

“So, what is your manipulation level then?” Barry asked, intrigued.

“Fourteen,” Knob revealed without any hesitation. This made Barry gasp internally, his willpower level was only five, meaning if he had just one less point in the stat then he too could have been put under Knob’s control. Barry had the sudden realisation that he was going to have to rethink his points distribution moving forward.

“Tuti, what is your willpower level? I’m surprised it’s lower than mine,” Barry said as he turned to the vixant.

Tuti glanced away sheepishly in response before confessing, “Level one, I didn’t think it was important.”

Barry nodded, he had to admit the benefits of willpower were not as obvious as some other stats, so it was easy to disregard it. But he had never forgotten the explanation that the demon Gupa had provided him during his training ground initiation.

Willpower represents one's mental defences. A high willpower protects against external manipulation and improves one’s internal thought processes, problem solving skills, and determination in challenging situations.

Barry had been sure to put a few points into willpower here and there throughout his journey as a security blanket in case he ever ran into a situation just like this, and it had finally paid off. But it was still enough of a scare to make him open his stats screen. He immediately threw his two free stat points from the recent level up straight into willpower, taking him to level seven, and making it officially his second highest skill.

Barry brought his attention back to the scene in front of him, feeling a bit bad for allowing himself to get caught up in his own levelling for a moment. Knob remained stooped in the muddy water, looking feeble and weak, having not made any attempts to run or attack since being caught. Tuti maintained her constant frown of disapproval while Barry felt his heart strings tug as he looked at the defeated man.

“Knob, what’s your plan from here?” Barry asked, forcing Knob to meet his gaze.

Knob hesitated for a moment before he replied.

“Plan? I haven’t got a plan. I was just trying to survive for as long as I could, I think I did ok.”

Barry looked deeply into the man’s eyes as he spoke, searching for any hint of deceit or chicanery, but he saw none of these. Knob had just accepted the fact that he had been defeated and caught, and whatever happened to him from this point onwards was out of his control. With that, Barry made up his mind and trusted his gut, and his gut told him that Knob was a good person at heart despite his recent actions.

“That’s fine, you don’t need a plan because I have one. You are coming with us,” Barry declared.

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Knob just lowered his head again at the comment, “Not as a prisoner, but as a member of our team,” Barry continued.

Knob snapped his head back up at Barry in disbelief and Barry smiled as he caught a glimpse of hope in the man’s eyes before they returned to their usual sad baseline. Tuti started to argue and Swirly screeched, but Barry just held up a hand to quieten them down.

“Knob is not a bad person, he’s just been through bad things,” Barry announced whilst reaching down grasping Knob’s hand to help him to his feet. “I want you to have hope Knob, I believe you can do great things. Plus, everybody deserves at least one second chance.”

The odd group of four plodded through the swamp slowly but surely. Well, three of them plodded along and the fourth, Swirly, sat on the shoulders of Tuti, well out of the grotty water. Barry led the group, pushing through the reeds to create a path. Next was Knob, head low, waddling along in a near daze behind Barry, still not entirely sure how he’d ended up in this situation. Lastly was the duo of Tuti and Swirly, who kept their eyes laser focussed on Knob, frowns on their faces. As they travelled onwards through the swamp Barry tried to get more information out of Knob, but the man preferred to stay quiet for the most part and didn’t ask any questions in return, making the conversation feel forced and awkward. After a couple of hours of walking the height of the water gradually lessened, to the point where they believed they had finally exited the swamp. The reeds had also receded by this point and in their place emerged a series of thick, dark brown roots that extended above the ground and outwards in all directions, becoming a woody jumble. Each of these roots originated from one of many increasingly prevalent mangrove-like trees. A quick inspection from Barry confirmed they were in fact mangrove trees, ‘mud mangrove trees’ to be exact. He also cursed himself again for not utilising his inspection skill more often as he realised he could have just done this for the big oak-like trees earlier in the forest that a caught his curiosity. The mud mangroves themselves were not overly large, usually being around five metres in height and two metres in diameter at their widest point. The trees were bulbous shaped at the base of their trunks but quickly narrowed and divided until they formed a thin, lime green, leafy canopy. It was hard to believe that so many large roots could be formed by such unassuming trees. The image of the trees and roots reminded barry of the body and tentacles of an octopus, if an octopus could have hundreds of tentacles that stretched out in all directions. It didn’t take long for the soft, muddy ground to be completely overrun with the seemingly infinite, intertwining roots. Now instead of slowly walking along the earth, they were forced to start to climb and balance atop the roots to keep progressing.

“Thank the gods for these trees!” Tuti exclaimed as she sat on a large branch and stretched out her legs and toes before dusting off the freshly dried mud from her fur whilst muttering to herself, “So gross.”

After a quick clean she leant back and lay down on the root, her shoulders snuggling nicely between further roots that ran parallel to her own. She closed her eyes to rest, and Swirly came over and sat on her chest, partly to keep her warm and partly to keep an eye on Knob. Barry also took this opportunity to sit down on a root around a metre above the ground and used his time to clean the mud off his hiking boots using some fallen leaves and small branches as well as wipe down his still bare chest. Unfortunately, he didn’t have anything to he could use to clean the specks of mud from his new trousers, so they remained a speckled brown and green mess.

Knob sat down on one of the lower roots in a slumped position, and Barry could see that his chest was rising and falling rapidly.

“Did the hiking in the mud take it out of you Knob?” Barry asked after seeing the panting breaths.

Knob turned to face Barry with a flustered expression on his face, “I don’t have a very good stamina level, and that walking was nearly too much for me.”

Barry heard Tuti huff sarcastically from where she lay but he ignored her as he replied.

“No worries, this seems as good a spot as any for a rest, and I’m getting hungry anyway. I’m going to go and find us some food, you two get some rest.”

Tuti pepped up at this comment, “You’re not seriously leaving me with him, are you?” she snapped. Barry thought for a moment and realised the reason for her complaint.

“No, you’re right. I’m sorry Knob you’ll have to rest later, I just can’t leave you with Tuti until you’ve proved your trustworthy. You’ll have to come with me,” Barry explained.

Knob sighed, having finally caught his breath he stood to his feet once more, still looking completely exhausted.

“I can go by myself, I’ll bring us something back to eat,” Knob muttered softly.

Before Barry could argue Tuti swiftly chimed in, “Great, see you when you get back!”

Barry wanted to argue, but he thought better of it after hearing the sharpness in her voice. Knob took Barry’s silence as agreeance and started slowly heading deeper into the mangrove forest alone.

As Barry watched Knob climbing awkwardly through the tangled roots until he disappeared, he could feel the daggers in the back of his head from Tuti who was resting behind him. Barry took a deep breath before turning his head and facing the vixant.

“How could you possibly invite that guy to join our group? Did you forget that he took over my mind, and made me try to kill you, literally only a few hours ago?” I almost hope he did something to your brain too because this is utterly insane!” chastised Tuti, with bloodshot eyes.

Barry had been dreading this conversation, and to be honest he thought it would have come much sooner, clearly Tuti possessed more restraint than he had given her credit for.

“I know, I get it. I’m sorry, but I truly don’t think he is a bad person, and if we don’t give him a chance then who will?” Barry reasoned.

“He took over my fucking mind Barry!” Tuti fumed, “How can we ever trust him?”

“I know, I know. But his powers are quite amazing, and if we can get him on our side, he could be a valuable asset,” appealed Barry.

“Don’t give me that rubbish, it has nothing to do with his powers, you’re just a big softy who feels sorry for his sob story. Which by the way is just as likely to be one big lie as it is to be true,” Tuti protested.

“That’s where you’re wrong Tuti, it’s true, I just know it. This guy has only ever known pain, and I just want to give him some hope,” Barry said. At that moment Knob appeared back into view, heading back in their direction.

“I still don’t like it,” hissed Tuti, as an empty-handed Knob closed in.

“So what happened to finding us something to eat?” bleated Tuti, not even trying to hide her sarcasm.

“Oh, yeah about that,” Knob muttered, not meeting her gaze. Tuti glanced a, I told you so, look at Barry as she sat with her hands on her hips.

“What about it, did you even try to find something?” she quizzed.

It seemed even Knob was able to appreciate the snarky tone behind her comments as he just hung his head in silence and stood awkwardly in response. Tuti was about to treat Barry to another smart-arse comment when they were all distracted by a strange slithering sound. Both Barry and Tuti looked on in horror as a large snake wound its way around one of the roots towards them. After reflexively inspecting the creature Barry discovered it was a level four, stamina specialising, brush adder infant. The creature had caramel scales, and when the light hit it just right it appeared to blend in perfectly with the brown roots. It must have been over three metres long with a diameter of fifteen centimetres. Its mouth hung permanently open, showing off two huge, curving fangs that protruded from the top front section of its mouth. On each side of its mouth was a strange slit where a blue forked tongue poked out intermittently both left and right disconcertingly. Its forehead was marred by an odd indentation that ran from the tip of its snout, centrally to the back of its head.

Tuti sprang to her feet and Swirly leapt up to the top of the mangrove tree and started screeching away at the sight of the serpent. “I told you he couldn’t be trusted!” she screamed as she clenched her fists. Knob looked back at her in confusion and Barry jumped between him and Tuti before she could ready a strike.

“Stop Tuti, look at its eyes,” Barry implored.

Tuti narrowed her vision and glanced at the glazed eyes of the snake.

“I can see he’s controlling it Barry, it’s obvious he’s about to send it to attack,” she yelled.

“I don’t think so. Yes, he’s controlling it, but I don’t think it’s for that purpose. You or I would have just killed it and carried its body back here, but I’m guessing Knob isn’t blessed in the strength department, so his only option was to control it and force it to come here by that method. Isn’t that right Knob?” Barry added with about seventy percent certainty.

Knob smiled meekly and replied, “I’m not that weak, this is just easier.”

Barry let out an internal sigh of relief and smiled back, this was the most emotion Knob had shown since they’d met, he’d almost made a joke, not a very funny one but something at least, and that made Barry happy. To celebrate he stepped forward, summoned his aura chain, and slammed it down at the head of the snake causing a significant indentation. After a second strike the beast was dead, and not too long later the group was chomping down on snake steaks. A bit later they settled in for the night, with Barry and Tuti taking turns being on the lookout for any potential dangers as Tuti still didn’t trust Knob with this task. The night passed uneventfully, and the morning brought with it a welcome message in each of their minds.

Delta galaxy training ground day 7 progress update…