CHAPTER 5
William.
Suu and Melody watched me like wary hunters trapped in a cage with a lion, but I tried to tune them out as I considered the knowledge I had recently gained from the air based construct that was directed to spy on us.
There were several observations I gathered, both through my implant and also my personal intuition.
The construct worked in a similar manner as my seismic-sense, in that it transmitted vibrations back to the recipient of the effect. Whether it was a spell or technique, I was unable to determine conclusively. I would need to observe a spell in progress to gain more data.
The construct was made mostly of air essence, and even though my lack of affinity prevented me from properly sensing it's structure within the construct, my implant also detected fell and dark essence types which had already been catalogued due to the robust amounts found in and around blòtvarda.
My counter to the listening device was simply to project earth essence vibrated at ultrasonic frequencies at the construct to disrupt or damage it's structure.
This, I suspect, was, and still is one of the main reasons for my progress so far on the path of cultivation.
The more I study essence, the more I believe that essence variants are merely patterns that mimic certain elements and the true nature of essence, whatever it may be, remains ever fluid and unknown.
For this reason, I believe aligned essence can be easily converted to refined essence. Essence takes the properties of various elements in its environment, but it's transient nature hints that these elemental states can change drastically under certain conditions. This may be what makes "effects" possible.
The nature of this substance, if it was even a substance to begin with, was confounding? Earth essence could project earth-like effects but behaved like a gas within its local environment, then altered its nature to be more energy based during cultivation and refinement.
Notwithstanding, no matter how many properties essence could assume, there was one thing that most matter had in common. Movement.
At certain speeds and certain frequencies, all things move. Everything vibrates at a certain speed and frequency and as essence takes on their properties, it also takes on their vibrational potential.
While I might not have an affinity for air essence, I can still affect it by transferring kinetic energy at ultrasonic frequencies through earth essence.
But what surprised me was the effect it had on the air essence construct.
I felt the construct begin to fall apart as whoever was at the other end struggled to maintain control of it.
The construct was surprisingly strong, and I had a feeling Tinuviel might have been the one directly controlling the thing. I seriously doubted there were many around here strong enough to contend with me, given my current advantages.
But despite the massive gap between my power and hers, she was still losing.
If this was a struggle of cultivation level and essence types, then I stood little chance against her, but the oscillating vibrations projected by me were causing the construct's physical structure to become unstable.
Unable to support its own form, it fell apart, dissipating into disparate essence that were promptly absorbed into me.
If only I could use such a method to connect directly to Tinuviel's core?
After my analysis of the data acquired from my struggle with the construct and a bit of rest, I turned to Melody who was still watching me warily and said.
"Again sorry about what happened to Minnie, I should have carried out more experiments before moving to human subjects. So I'm going to go out there to find some half-orcs and maybe a vampire or two to do just that. Suu can come with me to keep me company and help with whatever problems I may face along the way."
Suu sharp gaze narrowed at me, sheesh, where's the trust?
Maybe she thinks I'm about to have my way with her, or punish her for her botched assassination attempt.
He could see it on her face that she had no idea that he knew she'd actually tried to kill him.
Even if I wasn't paying attention at the time of her attack, my implant logged everything going on in and around me, and piercing pressure strong enough to decapitate a grown man was surely going to be noticed.
Thanks to the seedling core's kinetic absorption and my recent rise in cultivation rank, I gathered I could withstand an exponentially greater amount of force than that.
But the reason I chose her was that I wanted to find a way to talk to her and maybe place a crack in the wall she had around herself all the time.
To my surprise, Suu readily agreed. Maybe she wanted to keep her eyes on him, seeing as she clearly considered him a threat to the others' safety.
I turned to Melody, "we'll be back soon, maybe we can scrounge up some food from one of the staff while we're out. Minnie might need to eat a lot when she wakes up."
Melody only nodded without looking at me, clearly she still hasn't forgiven me for my earlier blunder.
Sighing in defeat, I turned to the door and walked out of the room. I did not need to look back to know that Suu was following closely behind.
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To my complete surprise, there were no guards at our prison/bedroom door.
I looked around the passageway, shrugging as I put the unusual observation out of my mind, but still, I casually scanned the area for more hidden spies or agents of Tinuviel.
I headed past the blood stained crater where I'd unleashed my kinetic detonation technique, barely giving the scene a glance.
I could feel Suu's gaze trying to burn a hole in my back, I could feel her unspoken questions regarding the crater burning into my back.
We descended the winding ever descending passageways, moving through the twisting maze and caverns until we reached the strange underground market filled with various alien races. The market was still bustling, but unlike the last time, instead of being ignored, without the collar, people began to stare at me, as if now that I was no longer collared, I could now be perceived as a person.
They must be trying to understand how Suu and I fit into the pecking order as both our clothes were nothing more than rags. Regardless, I moved with the uncaring confidence and power of a cultivator at the core formation stage.
Also those that were perceptive enough, must have been able to feel the localized essence moving somewhat rapidly towards me. It confused and terrified them a bit, and I could see some of the more perceptive of the instinctively shifting away from our passage.
I ignored the growing stares and moved through the market with Suu in tow. Nobody was going to start anything if we left quick enough, their uncertainty would keep them rooted in place, at least for now.
Suu, unable to keep her questions to herself anymore, moved close to me, till they were moving in tandem and asked.
"Where are we going, I thought you said you wanted to find a safer way to make us stronger."
I turned myself slightly to her and smiled at her, "I do, that's why I need fresh test subjects"
That shut her up real quick, and while I focused on my destination, I was unaware of the dawning look of horror that slowly crept up on her perfect face as she finally processed my words.
Soon, we reached the mine. Suu looked a little winded, but was putting up a good front, trying not to show any weakness in front of me.
I could only smile at her resolve and sheer stubbornness, they were some of the attributes that made her very appealing to me.
We stopped at the entrance, and the guards guarding the entrance looked like they were going to bar our way, their massive 8 foot frame showing no sign of giving way to them.
Suu looked somewhat uncertainly at me, her look clearly saying there was no way she was planning to tussle with monsters way above her weight class.
Unlike the people in the market, the guards at the mine were not so uncertain as to how to treat me because they had seen him enter the mine as a slave with a slave collar and also because they were half-orcs, stubborn fucking bastards.
They wore full thick leather armor, studded with bits of iron that glowed a bit in my sight with essence and they held massive spears, which they used to bar the entrance
I cracked my neck loudly in anticipation of the violence to come, it was about time I tested how much my implant and cultivation enhanced attributes had grown since my fight with Tinuviel.
My body Infusion technique which I gained by happenstance after testing my body repair technique, worked by using refined essence and materials from my body to alter my physical properties on a genetic and molecular level. And all this was possible, thanks to the medical insight stored within my neural implant.
While my greedy new semi-completed core absorbed all the passive essence I cultivated, my implant under the command of my soul had directed all the refined essence I cultivated to improving my implant and body infusion.
As I'd been mostly unconscious for the past several days, I'd been unable to cultivate actively. Regardless, the implant still got the refined essence it needed to not only repair my body, but also infuse it with more strength. It seemed that my core made allowances on its glutinous essence consumption in times of danger.
While my body infusion technique slowly made my body stronger over time, using as little essence as possible as opposed to the standard body infusion technique that lacked modern medical insight and requires all the essence at the peak of the compression stage to unlock even one "body meridian." Still, my implant still required stress tested data to make further improvements.
It also needed a way to rapidly break down my body so that it would gain access to less malleable aspects of the physical structure like bone and muscle.
This meant that in order to accelerate my infusion rate at my current cultivation level, I might have to take damage, and lots of it.
And the level of damage would have to increase exponentially over time. That is, if I wanted my body cultivation to continue to advance. Short of finding ways to physically cause myself grievous harm, I would need to find stronger opponents and higher quality essence as I advanced.
While my body Infusion had made some noticeable growth thanks to Tinuviel's heavy handedness, my seed core looked like it had barely made any progress towards its completion. After all the essence the glutton had taken, it still wasn't enough to grow past the seed level.
Soon I'll need to find higher density essence sources or my cultivation would slow to a crawl.
The guards had barely moved an inch while he deliberated with myself. Perks of having a quantum computer and your cultivation in your head.
Seeing as I had a little more time, I decided to see what changes had been made to my body and cultivation via my profile.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Biometric Profile.
Name: William Izu
Race: Human
Age: 24
Height: 6 feet 8 inches
Weight: 322 pounds
Cultivation Rank: Core formation Stage (Rank G)
Core Type: Anomalous Core (Seed level)
Essence Affinity.
Earth (35%)
Fell (5%)
Dark (0.5%)
Air (0.1%)
Unknown essence types combined total (0.03%)
Qi identity: Conscious (Primal)
Essence density
Base density: Air (Maximum Density: Wood )
Attributes.
Strength: 2000
Dexterity: 1540
Agility: 1190
Perception: 2000 +(250)
Reflex: 1520
Resistance: 650 (+3000)
Regeneration: 750 (+ 3000)
Constitution: 900 + (Variable based on available refined essence)
Intelligence: ?
Charisma: ?
Skills.
Utility
Improvisation
Combat.
Hand to hand Combat (Basic)
Melee weapon proficiency: Sword (Basic)
Melee weapon proficiency: Knife (Basic)
Melee weapon proficiency: Pickaxe (Basic)
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Magic.
Essence Manipulation
Energy Manipulation
Essence Shaping
Essence Control
Essence Infusion
Cellular Alteration
Matter Alternation
Resonance
Professions.
Mechanic
Engineer(Computer, Electrical)
Programmer (game developer)
Essence Manipular
Essence Techniques.
Seismic-sense (Utility)
Ultrasonic cutting technique (Offensive)
Earth pulse technique (Utility)
Kinetic Blast (Geokinetics: Offensive)
Kinetic Detonation (Geokinetics: AOE)
Cultivation Techniques.
Vibration Refinement Technique
Body Infusion Technique
Abilities.
Passive Abilities.
Mental Firewall
Body Repair
Passive Cultivation
Missions.
Escape Blòtvarda (ongoing)
Gain Power (ongoing)
Objectives
Get rid of slave collar (completed)
Learn more about cultivation (ongoing)
Find the other enslaved humans (ongoing)
Protect Zalla. (Pending)
Get the fuck out of Zomyr (Pending)
Optional Objectives
Kill Avery (Pending)
Kill Ivelina (Pending)
Kill Astrel “slowly and painfully” (Pending)
Kill Tinuviel (Pending)
Destroy blòtvarda (Pending)
Save Suu, Melody and Minnie (ongoing)
Inventory.
1 Ripped woven shirt (Poor Quality)
1 Ripped woven trousers (Poor Quality)
Currency.
Points: Undetermined
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"WTF," I exclaimed to myself in shock, looking at my stats in amazement. Some of them had tripled or even quadrupled, and I had a feeling that my gains were due to my brief but extremely harrowing tussle with Tinuviel. What was going on, how was any of this possible. No wonder Suu's assassination attempt failed.
With stats like these, I could tank a dynamite blast and walk away with only some bruises and minor smoke inhalation.
But what happened to cause such a drastic change in growth and why did I not feel any different. If I was really three to four times stronger or healthier, I felt that the changes to my body should have been obvious. But save for my recent weight gain, and a bit of tightness all over, I felt no different than the last time I perused my profile..
Trying to rein in my confusion, I decided to query my implant for a more detailed explanation of these changes to my profile..
While my height hasn't changed, and I’d even lost mass, I’d also somehow gained weight. This is mostly due to all the reorganizing my implant was doing to my body. I was becoming physically denser as all my mass was being adjusted to strengthen my body’s internal structure. These improvements shocked me, and reminded me that if I wanted to maintain this rate of physical advancement, I needed access to quality eating or I might just waste away from malnutrition.
My core rank did not change, no surprise there and it's type was still listed as "Anomalous" by my implant, the freaky bastard.
To my actual surprise, my essence affinity rank had made rapid progress across almost all types, with earth affinity to no surprise taking the lead. After querying my implant for a bit of info on how this came to be, I remembered that my body infusion technique was leagues above the ones used by the locals. While they basically pumped their body with essence during body Infusion, with little or no medical insight and hoped it stuck, I was basically using refined essence laced with trace amounts of the various affinities to alter my body's physical structure with the aid of the 21st century medical insight from my implant.
I assumed that because of my vibration refinement technique and the unusual nature of my core, that I must be directly absorbing the properties of almost all essence types during refinement. I had a feeling that as my affinity level increases, It would become easier to absorb essence types other than earth. And to do that, I needed to source for greater quantities of essence that would be difficult to find inside this hell hole of a place, like light or forge essence.
My qi identity, which is actually my soul's rate of growth, hadn't changed. I assumed that on some level, the soul played a fundamental role in everything I did. From managing the implant, to my mental and physical health, to cultivation progress. So the lack of growth on that front was somewhat troubling. I still had no idea what a soul was, much less how to advance one.
I made a concerted effort to put that out of my mind, no use focusing on things I couldn't fix, at least for now. Besides, my soul was awake and I had a feeling that not everyone got the special cheat I’d received from the old man in the form of a self aware soul.
My maximum essence density hadn't changed in any significant way, but I could feel some growth in that regard, it just wasn't enough for the implant to justify altering my profile.
A unique property of my seed-core was its ability to manipulate essence and alter its density and volume. I truly believed that this trait was special as I’d noticed that all the cultivator's I’d encountered so far, even Tinuviel, had their essence constantly at the highest density of their current cultivation rank.
They could reduce the flow of essence and change the direction or effect they want to apply to their essence. But so far, I had seen no evidence that they could alter its density.
My core allowed me to use essence as efficiently as possible. Why use a grenade to kill a fly? I had budding ideas for this unique core trait as it would allow me to regulate my essence output in different situations and prevent the wastage I'd seen prevalent among the local cultivator's so far.
Still, I feared that without a higher density essence source, my cultivation would come to a crawl. I needed to get access to better essence sources, maybe visit those dungeons that Zalla warned me about. With my new upgrades, how hard could they possibly be?
I continued to scan the massive amount of biometric and cultivation data, looking for clues as to the reason for my massive attribute boost, and little by little, I was able to discern the cause.
The biggest contributor to my steep growth was my passive body infusion. To summarize the massive influx of data analyzed by my implant, each time I took damage and didn't die, I basically grew stronger as the implant would fix any damage better than before and use the data gained to improve other parts of my body while at the same time, passively infusing my body with essence on a cellular level. All my physical stats made a huge leap thanks to Tinuviel, especially my resistance, regeneration and constitution as they were tied to the body's repair processes. Soon, I noted that my regeneration, resistance and constitution would surpass my strength stat, especially my new constitution stat which basically had no real limit as long as I had available refined essence to continue fixing my body.
My not so physical attributes like dexterity, agility, reflex and perception, made great leaps. While most RPG enthusiasts would assume that dexterity, agility and reflex would count as physical attributes, the fact of the matter was that they were all dependent on the mind’s ability to process information. While some of the huge boosts to these attributes could be linked to my body infusion technique, the rest was mostly due to the slowly growing core in my head. As the core advanced, so also would it’s location in my brain, and all attributes linked to it.
My analysis of the implant’s data also gave me access to information that was not available to me on my heavily summarized profile. Looking through these previously unseen changes, I reminded myself to make more queries like this in the future, instead of relying on the game-like interface I had set up for myself. There were a lot of changes I would have missed without a more detailed inquiry. Some of which were vital to my continued progress.
First, my implant informed me that as a protective measure, most gains will be restricted unless in emergency situations until related notifications and updates have been accessed. This meant that until I acknowledged a change in my cultivation by being aware of it, I would not have access to any gains accrued.
I felt my anger flare, incensed that the implant could take such a unilateral decision without my consent, and was about to give it a piece of my mind, when it informed me that complaints regarding command decisions needed to be forwarded to the administrator for further resolution.
For a minute, I was stunned as I tried to process the new information, then I burst out laughing, hoping against hope that the machine was joking. “Haha, very funny,”I thought to myself, hoping that last statement was simply a prank on the part of the infuriating machine.
Because as far as I could discern, the implant considered my soul its 'administrator,' meaning I would basically be complaining to myself. Not for the first time, I worried about what it meant to have a self aware soul. What is a soul? What does it really do? Was it really a part of me or something else?
Resigned, I was forced to focus on the other parts of the queried results. I simply had no headspace to deal with a soul administrator making command decisions in my life and without any input from me. God, I missed the days when the fucker was silent and unobtrusive.
The second reason for the boost in my attributes were due to my ongoing body enhancement and Infusion, which was constantly increasing my body's density, essence conductivity, essence capacity, strain level.
This world would be a dream come true to any bioengineer molecular biologist. Using essence and the largest medical database known to humans back on my Earth, the implant was making changes to my body that would not have been viable back on earth with centuries of breakthroughs in medical science or even at all.
My body was far denser and stronger than average, and as the body is a container for essence, the better the body, the greater the volume and quality of essence. Because I was also using essence to make these changes, my body's essence conductivity had skyrocketed.
Like the half-orc guards barring our path, stronger body means bigger strain capacity, I could now channel more essence into my already considerable base attributes which had long past left the realm of peak human.
The thought frightened me a bit as I was forced to consider the possibility that the path I walked was making me something other than human. How long before his upgrades turned me into a human variant of the half-orcs or something worse.
I mentally shuddered at the thought, as a list of monstrous possibilities flashed through my mind.
Third, because of my heightened physical attributes, the location of my core, my implant and the enhancement of my brain during the infusion process, my mental attributes had kept up with his physical attributes.
Then the implant dropped another shocking surprise on me. I wasn't making use of the implant's simulated space. My mental attributes were so high that I was currently thinking fast enough to perceive time as extremely dilated.
That one threw me for a loop. Did I need to review clockspeed numbers for my brain in order to keep track of my mental processing speed?
One suddenly appeared at the right hand corner of my vision, my implant reacting to my unspoken need, but after staring at the terrifyingly high numbers for a bit, I waved it off. Things weren't that bad yet.
The next result from my query noted that Anomalous core had an unusually robust strain limit that would allow me to channel even more essence to my attributes in unexpected situations, but that field tested data was needed to properly quantify channelling output.
The alien device kept throwing more and more surprises my way, I really hoped that one of these days, it didn't throw me one that finally puts me on my ass for good.
Grudgingly, I had to admit to a bit of satisfaction to the result of my query, even with all the unexpected curve balls thrown my way. I turned my attention to the other changes made to my profile.
For skills, improvisation hadn't changed, and I didn't expect it to, as it was too vague a skill to define, and also provided little to no perceivable benefit in my opinion. I decided to leave it as is.
Mycombat skills hadn't really improved, despite the beating I’d received. I had to constantly remind myself that although I had chosen to express my biometric and cultivation data in a RPG format, this was not a video game or one of my favorite LITRPG tropes. If I wanted to improve his combat skills, I would have to spend more time gaining actual combat knowledge and honing muscle memory in battle, and although it may be a lot easier with my new mental attributes and advantages, I still had to put in the work. Another alternative was to find someone with actual combat experience to teach me.
Now that Iwas thinking in that direction, I remembered Tinuviel made some nebulous promises regarding training. I would have to look into that after I was done here.
Via my implant, I had access to every martial and fighting style known to humanity. Maybe I would take advantage of this knowledge if I ever found some free time.
But my biggest surprise so far was that I had acquired a new set of skills simply called magic. Wow my soul really did know me. A simple skill name, no muss, no fuss.
Under magic, all my essence based skills had been collated by the implant, and they were surprising more than I thought I had.
I queried the implant for more data on the skills under the magic skill set, but for the first time, the implant was unable to provide conclusive data on all of my new skills. I suspected some soul administrator shenanigans at play.
Essence manipulation for my ability to actively direct essence around me. Most Cultivators to an extent have access to this one, but the fact that it was noted as one of my skills meant that this would most likely be a touch above the rest.
Essence Shaping allowed me to not only manipulate essence but shape it into complex or higher effects. For example using earth essence to create ultrasonic pulses. It is the ability to control what essence can be. Like my essence manipulation, it was most likely a level better than what the standard cultivator could achieve.
Essence control was one of the attributes my implant couldn't completely make heads or tails of. It was mostly tied to the Anomalous core and it's weird ability to command essence. This went beyond normal manipulation. It almost felt as if my core could direct essence around me. I was very interested to see how this skill developed.
I had assumed Essence Infusion involved simply placing essence into a material or substance to alter its attributes, like I did when I infused my weapon with an ultrasonic effect. But after querying my implant for data on this skill, I discovered that it was more involved than that. Essence Infusion involves making permanent changes to a material through the infusion of essence.
By that definition, I had no skill with essence infusion. Then I remembered that my body Infusion technique was basically doing just that, altering and making permanent changes to my body’s physical structure, and not just layering over an effect. Could this be applied to other materials other than myself? The possibilities pulled my mind in many far reaching tangents.
Matter Alteration was another skill I was unaware I’d acquired, but clearly my implant and soul disagreed as my body Infusion was also altering me using essence on a molecular level. There were hints that with the proper insight, this could be applied to materials other than myself.
So many experiments to carry, so few willing test subjects. I rubbed my imaginary hands together and cackled internally with glee.
"Snap out of it William," I said to myself, trying to get back on track.
Energy Manipulation was an easy one to figure out, it was simply an aspect of my geokinetic abilities. When I transferred kinetic energy from the earth into my body and projected it with my will, I manipulated not just essence but the energy around me. This skill showed promise and the geokinetics school hinted at transference of more than just kinetic energy.
Resonance was a complete blank for both me and the implant, neither of us could suss out what the skill did and any query to my awakened soul for an explanation was simply ignored. The skill felt tied to the new core, most likely something similar to essence control. I decided that I would have to figure that one out on the go.
I decided to place no qualifiers on the magical skills as further data was needed to quantify their level and uses.
My essence techniques had also changed, but for more data, I was referred to his various pending notifications. My excitement at seeing my cumulative gains had made me skip my notifications without first glancing through them, but I was still pissed off by the directives from 'management.'
I still had the same cultivation techniques, but I could feel a qualitative improvement in their strength and efficiency as my core grew in power.
Under abilities, while there were some improvements to mind firewall and body repair (I would need to refer to query my implant for more information), I had gained a new ability called passive cultivation. Unlike Tinuviel, I had no idea how to passively control essence by myself, hence the reason it was listed as an ability instead of a technique. The ability was most likely a result of my implant and seedcore working in tandem. Sadly, the new ability did not increase my cultivation as almost all the absorbed essence was dragged into my gluttonous core.
I turned to my missions and objectives, focusing on the number of pending objectives was really depressing. Also, seeing as I was flat broke and had no resources, I saw no need to glance at my inventory or non-existent cash balance.
More than satisfied with my current level of growth, I turned my attention back to the present. Time immediately snapped back into focus as I slowed down my racing thought process in order to normalize time. There was a massive headache brewing at the back of my head, but I guessed it must be what happens when I don't rely on the implant's simulated processes but instead on my own fallible, and organic cognitive functions.
Even as the migraine pulsed in strength, it faded under the overwhelming weight of his massive constitution, regeneration and implant directed healing factor. A healthy body really was a healthy mind.
The two guards resumed glaring at both Suu and I in real time.
"Stop slaves," the monster on the right said in a guttural voice, "why are you not collared? Who do you belong to" The other guard tensed in anticipation for combat. Clearly they could feel my new cultivation level, and it put them on edge, but because they still saw me as a puny human, they still thought they could take me.
That's the thing about half-orcs I’d observed during my short time in Blòtvarda. A human guard might have called for backup and sent the issue up the chain of command.
But not a half-orc. They were more likely to consider the act of calling for aid weakness. Only when they were lying half dismembered in a pool of their own blood would they consider calling for help.
My mind cycled through various lines I could have thrown at them in response. Maybe something filled with bravado and panache, meant to strike fear into their starwalt hearts.
But even at 6 foot 8 inches, I still looked like a small child against the over 8 foot half-orc goliaths. Not for the first time, I wondered how massive a full-blooded orc would be if these were only half-orcs.
Besides, these guys don't cut and run in the face of intimidation. So the only option was a possibly lethal show and tell. I decided to forgo words entirely and just go through them. Time to test out some of my new abilities.
My mind went through all my skills, techniques and abilities as I considered which ones to use. As much as I was excited to test out my new abilities, I decided to go with his bare fists, and test out my new and improved strength stat.
The guards were barking words at me, but their voices felt so far away as I considered my options.
With my overwhelming physical attributes and my robust strain capacity, the problem was not whether Icould kill them, but whether or not I could rein my strength and not kill them.
After all, I still needed test subjects.
With an evil glint in my eyes and a mischievous grin on my face, I decided to address the yelling guards. Time to fuck with these assholes, and give the winged head-bitch in charge something to worry about.
Clearing my throat, I finally replied to their aggressive demands, "I'm here because I need test subjects for my experiments so that questions I have regarding essence and cultivation can be answered in an expeditious manner. To preserve the physical integrity of my subjects, please do not resist. Take off all your armor and kindly wait by the gate while I step inside the mine to add to my test group.
I knew the guards could understand me clearly as I’d spoken every word in common. But Suu looked around confused, I would have to see about getting her and the others a clean mind bridge to use. Understanding the language of their captors would be crucial to any escape plan.
But the guards were still looking at me like I was crazy and then the guard on the left burst out in laughter and stepped forward to casually swat me aside.
But that was the last thing he did as his left arm was stopped cold by my right, and pulled out of its socket by my comparatively smaller left hand, showering the half-orc next to him in gore.