“Manipulation? Not again. How can you be so sure?” queried Barry.

“I could sense it. I don’t know how to explain it, but I could feel the ability in use,” remarked Knob.

“Now that you mention it, I did feel a strange sensation in that village, even stronger in the central hut. But I was distracted with the whole creepy orc on the throne situation, and I didn’t stop to think about it at the time,” Barry confessed, “But I didn’t see anything at all that would be considered truly unusual. There were no tendrils, nothing like when you use your ability.”

“I don’t think it works the same as my ability. It was less direct. The energy was all around. The air was thick with it. Simply breathing was enough for it to affect you,” Knob quavered.

Barry shook his head in disbelief at Knob’s comments. To think that someone can influence people’s minds without any real way of detecting the attack is frightening. Once again Barry was thankful for his recent investment in willpower as it must have protected him from the likely heinous mental assault.

“Wait, Knob what is your willpower level?” Barry inquired.

“Only level one,” Knob said.

“What, that can’t be right. How did you avoid being controlled then?” asked Barry.

“Like I said, I could feel the manipulation magic attempting to influence me. I think because my own manipulation is comparatively high, I was able to use my soul magic skills to overpower the external manipulation. It felt like an invisible battle was going on within my mind, and I won,” Knob explained.

“Ok I guess that makes some sense. God I’m so annoyed that Tuti didn’t train her willpower at all even after what happened with… you know… you,” Barry huffed.

Knob reddened at the comments but didn’t say a thing.

“Well, dammit, now that we know Tuti was controlled again we are going to have to go and save her, aren’t we?” Barry sighed.

“Is that what we should do?” asked Knob awkwardly.

Barry just looked at him questioningly before remembering that Knob had never had a friend before. He’d never had anyone he could depend on or that cared about him.

“Yes Knob, that is what we should do. I’m sure Tuti and I would have done the same for you if the situation was reversed, it is what friends do.”

Knob was stunned by the comments and Barry watched the cogs turning over in the man’s mind for a few moments before he returned to the conversation.

“Do you think the whole village is under the influence of whoever that mystery manipulation specialist is? Barry asked.

“I think it’s very possible,” Knob conceded.

Sighing, Barry kicked some dirt with his foot as his mind swirled trying to understand what exactly was going on in that weird village and what he could do about it.

“I just don’t get it. How could someone have such a strong ability that it can take over the minds of so many people at once? It just seems impossible. But it must be true, Tuti had that same dumb blank look in her eyes as the others did, that can’t be a coincidence,” Barry wondered out loud.

“I don’t understand it either, but I think there has to be some trick going on,” Knob agreed, “Even I don’t believe that manipulation is that overpowered.”

“This is a god damn pickle. We are massively outnumbered. We still don’t know who the true leader of this village is, I don’t for a second believe it’s that weak mana specialist. It’s likely that the true leader has an extremely high manipulation level and some sort of crazy invisible mind-bending ability. To make matters worse, even if we do manage to get in there and locate Tuti without being caught, she is more likely to attack us than she is to come with us whilst under that mind control spell,” Barry complained.

Knob frowned as he took in Barry’s words.

“Well, any ideas?” Barry asked as his mind blanked with what to do. Knob shuffled and tilted his head down whilst mumbling incoherently.

“I can’t understand you Knob, you need to speak up,” Barry complained.

Knob took a deep breath before focussing and speaking up. “I did have one thought, but it probably won’t work,” he muttered.

“Spit it out then!” Barry shouted impatiently, instantly regretting his outburst as Knob took an anxious step back.

“I’m sorry Knob, I’m just a bit worried about Tuti and Swirly.

Knob paused and took a big breath in before he finally broke the silence, “Well, I just figured that given my own manipulation skill was enough to overpower the other one in my own mind, then maybe it would be strong enough to also snap others out of the spell?”

“Knob, you clever son of a gun. That is brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?” Barry exclaimed, “Now we just need to come up with a plan of attack.”

“Yeldrim, off my throne this instance,” Peltra demanded as he stepped out from behind the oversized chair.

The very air around the orc seemed to swirl and sparkle as if to signify his importance and his voiced boomed with authority.

“Yes, of course sir,” Yeldrim said as he methodically stepped off and away from the chair before taking his regular spot to the side, all the while his expression remained unchanged.

Stepping up to the chair and sitting down, Peltra began to pick out some meat from a recent meal from his large protruding bottom tooth using his massive battle-axe. His shining green skin had an unusual reddish tinge to it. He was pissed off. When he’d first heard there were three more strong, potential recruits who had just wandered into his community he was thrilled. The simple smoke signal was all he needed to attract initiates to his village. It was so simple. But somehow, he was only able to influence one of the newcomers. He was doubly upset given the fact that two of them newcomers were human, which meant they had the inspection skill, which meant he had to hide away whilst that fool Yeldrim acted as leader. He’d learned the hard way before that humans liked to spam that ability and they were easily scared in the presence of manipulation specialists, often fleeing immediately after inspecting him. He didn’t like lurking around in the shadows whilst that idiot sat on his throne and took all his glory, it was humiliating. But it had to be done. To grow his community Peltra knew he had to put up with these annoyances. But it would all pay off in the end, he was determined to succeed in this new world. No not just succeed, he wanted to rule.

Peltra’s skill dragoon had been improving by the day. Initially, it had a relatively small sphere of effect, but now he could start to influence people up to fifty metres away, enough for him to cover the entire radius of his village and some. It even now had the added effect of lasting a few minutes after someone exited his zone of effect. When the training grounds first started, he had planned on evenly distributing his skill points across all soul stats to ensure he was sufficiently well rounded. But as he progressed, he began to appreciate the true power of the manipulation skill and its synergy with his air affinity and dragoon skill. Initially, the effects were subtle. The first initiate he’d met, a lizard man with a temper had initially been stand-offish and aggressive towards him. Peltra was prepared to battle the man, but after activating his dragoon skill he found resorting to combat was unnecessary. He could simply flood the lizard man’s mind with positive, calming emotions. The lizard man wasn’t an evil person, he had hopes, dreams and wanted to survive like everyone else. Peltra’s skill drew upon these desires and brought them to the surface, turning the lizard man from foe to friend. But the lizard man also had an ego, he wanted to be respected and heroic. So when Peltra made a mistake mid-battle against that half lion half rhinoceros beast he was able to sway the lizard man to step in front of the fatal attack in Peltra’s place. The man had acted like a hero, and yet it was Peltra who had swayed him to make that choice. That was the first time Peltra had truly understood the potential of his manipulation skill and from then on he doubled down on his investment in the stat.

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As he got stronger and his manipulation skill advanced so too did Peltra’s abilities. He could start to influence more and more people at the same time and sway their mind to follow his requests with greater accuracy. He couldn’t force anyone to do something they truly didn’t want to do, that wasn’t how it worked. But if the individual had certain beliefs, no matter how deeply those beliefs and desires were buried away in their mind, Peltra could find them and draw them out to sway someone’s actions to achieve his own goals. By now he could influence dozens of people at once, as well as keep the effects active at all times. He had recruited many to his growing community, it had started to seem like such a simple process. Most people just wanted to survive, to be secure and safe in this scary new world, and Peltra was able to draw upon these desires and provide the solution to these concerns through lodgings and safety in numbers. Peltra exuded confidence and his followers lapped up his every word, revering him as their saviour. His methods were equally simple and effective, and only grew more efficacious as his levels increased. Now his goal was to grow his community, to not just survive within this training grounds but to dominate, whilst at the same time continue being worshipped by his subjects. The only complications to his plan were the humans with their pesky inspection skill and flighty natures, or people with sufficiently high willpower levels. But those annoyances he could deal with. What really pissed him off was the discovery of another manipulation specialist who he was unable to influence. That was something he could not tolerate.

“Tuti was it?” Peltra asked as he turned his attention to the young vixant before him.

“Yes, I’m Tuti and this is Swirly,” she replied with blank gaze.

Peltra smiled, impressed that he had been able to sway such a high levelled initiate. Level eight was a personal best for him so far.

“Welcome to you both, I am so pleased that you decided to stay within the safety of our community here. I’m sorry about deceiving you before with Yeldrim, but we only recruit those to our community who have good hearts and I didn’t want you to be intimidated by me and my level,” Peltra grinned.

“What level are you?” Tuti asked innocently. Peltra frowned momentarily at that comment, “Level nine,” he declared proudly.

“Oh, cool,” Tuti replied.

Peltra felt deflated by the lack of interest from the girl but he let it slide, she was level eight herself after all.

“I’m sure you will be happy here Tuti, and you too Swirly,” Peltra added after gathering himself.

“It’s s just nice to actually feel safe. I’m just so tired of the constant fighting and worrying about all the dangers around every corner of this forest,” Tuti replied.

“It can be a frightening place this training grounds, but you will be much safer here with us than out there I can guarantee you that. I just wish your friends felt the same way,” Peltra replied, feigning a sorrowful look to mask his burning frustration. “What were your friends names again, I’ve forgotten?”

“Barry and Knob,” Tuti replied. “Ahh yes, and Barry was the leader of your little trio I gather given his higher level?” Peltra continued.

“No! What do you mean higher level? Swirly and I are much stronger!” Tuti snapped, showing real emotion for the first time since being influenced by his magic.

“She didn’t even realise he was level nine? How peculiar. Note to self, this one’s strength appears to be a touchy subject,” Peltra thought, somewhat startled by the vixants sudden clarity of thought. “I do apologise, it must have been my mistake. Moving on from that, you don’t happen to know what your friends were planning on doing next do you?” he asked.

“No not really, all I know is Barry is heading towards the purple light as quickly as he can, and Knob just seems to follow him along,” Tuti replied as the haze returned to her eyes.

“Very well, and what of their abilities?” Peltra added.

“All I know is that Barry has some very strong defensive abilities and can make illusions. Whereas Knob has this terrible ability to take over someone’s mind with his manipulation skill,” Tuti replied.

Smirking internally Peltra fought back the urge to giggle at the irony of the vixants comments, “Great, thank you for that Tuti, that will be all for now. Why don’t I get one of my assistants to show you around the village and we can find a fitting job to get you started here,” Peltra said and he signalled to one of the lizard men.

“Thank you sir,” Tuti replied as she followed the lizard man out of the room.

“Illusion, that’s a new one,” thought Peltra as he stroked the stubble on his chin. Turning his attention to Breya he spoke again, “Breya, are you sure of the levels of their group?”

Breya stepped forward and bowed her head, “Yes sir, I inspected them myself, it is as it was in the message I sent you via the scout. The vixant girl Tuti is level eight and specialises in strength. The one called Barry is level nine and specialises in vitality. The one called Knob is level six and specialises in manipulation.”

“Very well, thank you for your work. You may go. In fact, please all leave me here to think,” Peltra demanded as he waved his hand causing the group of watchers on to all up and leave. A moment later he sat alone on his throne in the centre of the hut. "Such high levels for such unassuming looking people,” Peltra thought as he continued to scratch his chin.

He himself had only recently reached a power level of nine, and the next strongest in their community was level six, prior to the addition of Tuti that was. This means that the human Barry was almost certainly a ranker, and not someone to be taken lightly.

“I will have to keep my wits about me, I doubt he will be thrilled to have lost a member of his group so easily,” he thought.

At that moment Peltra reddened as he recalled the interaction with the other human, Knob. Peltra had tried to influence his mind, but it felt like he was trying to win a game of tug-o-war against a building. No matter how hard he tugged at the man’s mind he just kept getting knocked back. It wasn’t like when he tried to influence someone with high willpower, that just felt like there was a barrier blocking his attempts. No, this was different. He could feel his skill battling with the man’s own, and Peltra had lost convincingly.

“How did he do that, he can’t possibly have a better manipulation level than myself, I’m rank one in the skill after all!”

After he calmed himself down Peltra focussed his thoughts. He activated his newest skill ‘contact’, allowing him to mentally send a message to someone under his influence. He’d received this skill when his manipulation reached level ten, and although he’d initially been disappointed with its basic effect, he had come to appreciate its usefulness. He sent a message to Breya requesting her to return to his hut. From Breya’s perspective she had received a sudden urge to go back to the leader’s hut that she couldn’t explain. It was like she had left something behind, and she felt obliged to go and retrieve it. A moment later and she appeared through the doorway and met eyes with the smiling Peltra.

“I’m sorry sir, I… I’m not sure why I’m here. Please forgive me,” she confessed.

“It’s quite alright Breya, you are always welcome here,” Peltra said, hiding his sarcasm. “Actually, given you are here, I think we should double the patrols tonight, I’ve had a bad feeling that I can’t explain,” he added.

Concerned, Breya agreed to do as he requested whilst adding, “Is it beasts? Do you think we are in danger?”

“I don’t know dear Breya, but I wouldn’t want to risk seeing you get hurt,” Peltra declared.

This made Breya blush and she turned to leave, hiding her embarrassment. Smiling again, Peltra internally praised his own brilliance as he recalled the other benefit of his skill. Endless access to women. They only needed to have the slightest hint of attraction for towards him and he would be able to draw upon these desires to persuade them to bed him. A perk of his skill he had been taking full advantage of.

Barry paced backwards and forwards through the dirt between two pine trees whilst Knob watched on, anxiously tapping his fingers together.

“We need to try and lure one of the villagers away from the town without being seen, so you can test out your manipulation theory. But how do we do that? Clearly, they are better at detecting us than we are at sneaking up on them with how easily they discovered us the first time. How can we get closer to them without risking getting caught?” Barry quizzed. It was at that moment that he slapped himself on the forehead at his own stupidity, “My illusions, of course!” Turning to Knob Barry explained his plan, as shonky as it was. “We will creep back towards the village at sunset. Once we get close enough, I’ll activate my clone and send it forwards in an attempt to distract one of the villagers and draw them towards us. Then you step forward and use your ability to take over their mind and we will walk them away from the village until we are sure we are safe. At that point I want you to see if you can free them of both mental bonds. It’s simple really.”

Knob gulped at the casual explanation, clearly sceptical about the simplicity of the plan.

Soon the sun began to set, and the familiar evening orange glow illuminated the sky above the trees. This same glow sent shadows stretching out along the undergrowth providing useful cover for Barry and Knob as they snuck forward towards the village. Not wanting to push his luck Barry decided to summon his clone well before they caught sight of the village wall. Meanwhile, Knob took up position within earshot of Barry whilst remaining hidden by the large tree in front of him. Barry sent his clone forward carefully and used the eyesight of the clone to direct it forward. An unexpected benefit of advancing his willpower level was that splitting his attention between the clone and his own vision had become a much simpler task. The other benefit of using his clone for scouting was that given the clone was intangible, it could walk forward without making any noise. It didn’t take long for Barry to spot some movement ahead through the vision of his clone. A group of two orc initiates, both level four, were walking circles around the edge of the village, patrolling the area. He also spotted some other initiates standing guard just inside the growing wall of the village looking out towards the forest in all directions. The whole set up felt weirdly regimented, like looking at a prison rather than a township. Although Barry’s mana stores had grown, and his usage of his clone skill had become less draining, he still didn’t want to waste any more mana than he had to and he moved his clone quickly to a space where it was out of sight of the guards but was near enough to the patrolling orcs. Not having any better ideas he let out a poor excuse for whistle, instantly alerting the orcs who grasped their soul items, a hammer and short sword, and then moved forward towards his clones location at a careful pace.

Barry kept getting his clone to send out intermittent whistles whilst hiding behind one of the larger pines as the orcs crept closer. At the same time Barry spoke to Knob and the pair of them snuck forward at an equally cautious pace. Barry then instructed Knob on the approximate whereabouts of the two orc men. Barry had taken a guess that the orcs mustn’t have had a high willpower level given his previous inspection had shown one of them to be a mana specialist and the other a strength specialist. He also figured if they were able to be controlled by the mysterious leader of the village, than Knob would likely also have a sufficiently high manipulation level to do the same. Using Barry’s instructions Knob sent forward two tendrils of light in the direction of the clone. Just as the orcs were about to turn the corner of the tree and discover Barry’s clone Knob’s tendrils sought them out and hooked onto the orcs feet. Barry instructed his clone to step out from behind the tree and he watched in real time as their eyes went from unfocussed, to glazed and lifeless, letting Barry know that Knob had taken control of their minds. “Lets get them away from here as quickly as possible,” Barry whispered. Knob nodded and the pair scurried off back into the pine forest away from the village, closely followed by the mind controlled orc minions.

Peltra was startled out of his thoughts as an unexpected feeling of loss rushed over him. It was as if a small piece of his grand puzzle had just been removed from the picture. Despite the unfamiliar feeling, he instinctually knew what it meant. Someone had stolen two followers from him, and it didn’t take a genius to work out who it must be.

“How dare those humans interfere with my people. This will not be tolerated.”