Okay.
Okay.
Looks like his spirit wasn’t lying. [Bind] was far, far more powerful than he’d thought. By leaps and miles. But what had happened?
He looked over toward the ground. If he looked closely, he could still see the thread connecting to the dirt and what used to be the tree. The ground itself looked strange. It had an unusual, rough texture that Ezra wouldn’t have associated with dirt. He reached forward and touched it, and noted that it felt firm and hard. He tried to pick up a scoop of dirt, but couldn’t. He moved his hand to the left. The dirt there was soft and pliable, not at all like the other one.
Ezra was beginning to understand the power of [Bind]. So this was why his spirit was so pissed at him.
He glanced at his cooldown for the skill.
1 minute, 10 seconds
Ezra waited. His brain raced with possibilities. He needed to confirm that his skill worked the way it did.
A minute passed.
“[Bind].”
He passed his needle through a rock and tree. The glow disappeared, making the threads nearly invisible. Ezra, this time, focused particularly on the stone and its properties of rigidness. Not like the more pliable wood. This time, he didn’t bother to think about the wood itself, instead focusing more on the stone.
There was a soft glow to both the tree and the rock as their textures changed. He reached over toward the tree and knocked on the bark, the sound and roughness told him that it was functionally the same as stone now. Ezra looked over at the stone and tapped it. Nothing. The stone was still just stone.
He was starting to figure it out. [Bind] bound different objects together in a way that Ezra hadn’t understood. The two objects—in the ways that Ezra determined with his mind—became one.
That was powerful, the potential was enormous. The big question was how far out the ability extended. For example, could he bind humans?
He looked down at his empty left hand.
“This is a terrible idea,” he said. “I will do it anyway. For science.”
Ezra passed his needle through his hand—he felt a cold chill but took no damage—then through a rock.
“[Bind].”
Immediately, a blue pop-up appeared in his vision.
[You cannot use Bind on this object. Bind must be at least Lv. 75.]
Damn, so human genome editing was still off.
Ezra idly wondered if he could affect his genes with this skill. If that was the case, did that mean that any children he had would inherit the genes—?
He stopped that line of thought then and there. Just because something was possible didn’t mean it was a good idea. Jurassic Park had more than proved that.
Ezra focused instead on what he did know. He had a skill with potential—he knew that much. But he needed practical uses for it—
An idea entered his mind. Ezra sucked in a breath.
No.
This wouldn’t work.
It was so stupid.
[Bind] activated with a whisper from him. He passed his needle through the air and a stone, the thread began to slowly fall to the ground.
Ezra thought of the hardness of the stone and the fact that the air was… well… air.
The thread stopped in midair, suspended by some invisible force.
Ezra reached out and touched it. To his surprise, his hand came to a sudden stop. It was as if he was pressing into a solid object—as if he was pressing into a rock. The air had a slight shimmer like glass if he looked close enough. Ezra stepped away and watched the thin thread. After a few moments, the thread continued to stay there as if nothing happened.
There was an internal click. At the top right of his vision, a little pop-up warned him that he’d hit the end of his mana bar. The thread floated gently to the ground. Ezra reached out and tapped his finger. Nothing was there, it was as if the air had always been air.
“Well, isn’t that all sorts of interesting.” Ezra grinned. “What else can I use you for?”
Ezra held out his fist, needle grasped. “[Bind].”
Once again, he passed his needle through the air and the ground. Ezra watched it, and then the stone simply vanished. It was as if it’d never been there.
Okay.
Now he had to do the logical continuation and figure out the outer limits of his abilities. He waited for his mana to fill back up, then activated bind on a rock and the air.
He focused as hard as he could to make it as thin as possible.
The air responded to his call, creating a thin shield of stone in front of him. He reached out and tapped it. A moment later, he punched it.
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The rock suspended in the air broke off, then instantly disappeared.
Ezra nodded. That kind of made sense. It was no longer connected to the thread—the thing that seemed to be making all of this possible. Of course the magic would wear off. Not only that, but he’d figured out that it wasn’t complete cheat bullshit. Rock was still rock—even if it had been magically created from air. He continued experimenting for some time. His power was certainly interesting, but not invincible. For one, he could only make so much of a volume of change. No matter how hard he tried, it seemed to cap out at about a cubic foot of mass. This was a lot to work with at the moment, but later on, Ezra was sure he would run into issues.
Secondly, it was severely limited. For now, at least. He’d tried attaching leaves to stone and focusing on the property of life. Nothing except a box stating that he would have to be level 100 in the skill.
Nonetheless, it was clearly versatile. Ezra had the feeling he hadn’t even scratched the surface of what was possible with this ability.
Things were finally looking up.
He glanced back at his allies.
It was such a shame that he’d probably leave them before he ever had the chance to show off the true extent of his abilities.
----------------------------------------
“Alright, I want us to get some grinding in,” Ezra said.
Yuki grunted. “Why’s that?”
“Because we’ll need the extra levels if we want to save Dorian.”
Pete’s eyes widened and his head snapped toward Ezra. Yuki blinked and looked at Ezra,
“Wait, what?” she said. “You just changed your mind all of a sudden?”
“Yup. I had a… let’s call it a spiritual experience.”
“And… that made you want to save Dorian?”
Ezra nodded. “It was a really good spiritual experience.”
Pete marched up to Ezra and nodded. “Right! Let’s get going! Maybe if I get some more levels, I’ll be able to get an ability that will somehow help me!”
Ezra nodded after a moment’s hesitation. “Yeah. Right. Totally.”
Pete grinned. “Glad to see you’re on my side, Ezra.”
Yuki rolled her eyes.
“Idiots.”
Ezra glanced around. The forest was empty at the current moment, nothing much around could be seen. Charles was up ahead, most likely.
“We need more levels,” Ezra said. “We’ll have to work fast, and then we’ll need to beat Charles to Dorian. That’ll be interesting.”
Yuki nodded. “Where do we start?”
Ezra looked around. There was something in the distance. He approached it slowly. A moment later, Pete and Yuki turned toward each other, shrugged, then started following.
“Deer”
Lv. 20
For a second, Ezra’s heart shot up through his throat and he was back in the darkenss, nothing to protect him, nothing at all—
Pete had already fired a shot into the Skinwalker. The arrow cleaved into the creature and it let out a startled gasp.
[Calm] kicked in and all the fear disappeared.
Ezra dashed forward and jumped into the air.
“[Air Attack]!”
There was a flash of light and Ezra went flying down into the creature like a meteor. His needle pierced through the Skinwalker before it had a chance to scream. Ezra stood up straight, then pulled his needle out of the corpse. Pete shot out another arrow, and it slumped over. A moment later, the ashes began to disperse and spread into Pete and Yuki’s weapons.
There was a noise to the left and right. Footsteps. Padded feet—hooves?
Two other Skinwalkers had appeared. They weren’t bothering to keep up the disguise, instead allowing their mouths to open sideways as they growled at him. Off to the side, Yuki and Pete were being cornered by another group of Skinwalkers.
“[Bind].”
Ezra ran his needle through his leather armor.
They jumped at him.
He twirled his needle around in a circle around him. In an instant, the air took on the properties of leather. The creatures slammed against it and bounced off.
Ezra dismissed the ability and stabbed into the body of one that had fallen to his left, critting it and killing it instantly.
He moved to face the other one, but it had already gotten up. It charged him, its jaws opening wide.
“[Restrain].”
The skinwalker was forced to the ground. It screamed, moving back and forth in an attempt to escape. Ezra strode forward, then stabbed his needle through the head of the one. He kicked it for good measure. A moment afterward, they both turned to ash. He looked to the left to see that Pete and Yuki were panting with exhaustion.
[Bind has leveled up!]
[Needle Mastery has leveled up!]
“Great,” Ezra said. “That works out well, and I’m getting EXP.”
Yuki reached up and took the sweat off her forehead.
“Are we… hah… are we done?” she said, breathlessly.
Ezra gave her an innocent smile.
“Oh, Yuki,” he said. “We’re just getting started.”
Yuki gulped. Pete gave a half-hearted cheer.
[You have leveled up!]
By the end of the day, he’d managed to obtain a single level-up and had gotten [Bind] up to level 5. Not bad for a day’s work. In the process, he’d managed to explore some the… many things [Bind] was capable of.
“Right then,” he said. “I think it’s about time we catch up with Charles, eh?”
----------------------------------------
“What are we doing?”
Ezra grinned.
“Simple. We’re going to throw off Charles and get him chasing loose ends. From there, we’re jumping ahead of him to save Dorian.”
The three of them were watching Charles from the distance through a bundle of trees. They’d managed to catch up by dashing and using Yuki’s buffs to their full advantage. Charles, to his credit, seemed firmer than he was before. There was a look in his eyes that had impressed Ezra for a split-second before Ezra realized how stupid that was.
Ezra focused on his allies.
Yuki was frowning sharply.
“We’re just going to up and leave?” she said. “Wouldn’t it be better if we all worked together to help Dorian?”
Ezra waved her off.
“We’ll do fine. I promise,” he said.
“What’s got you so confident?” Yuki shook her head. “Look, how will you even get them on the wrong trail? They’ve got the information crystal. They’ll just cross-reference it and realize what’s going on.”
Ezra shook his head and stuck his hands in his jacket pockets.
“Nah, I don’t think so. Charles is strong and he’s fast, but he’s not smart. He doesn’t think twice about things like this. Trust me, I know.”
Yuki bit her bottom lip. “Okay, if you say so.”
Pete shrugged. “I guess it sounds like as good an idea as anything else.”
“Perfect. Alright then, here’s the plan.”
Ezra spoke with the two and explained. After that was done, he dashed up ahead to lay his trap.
Charles would be approaching soon, so he didn’t have a lot of time. He quickly grabbed his needle and whispered under his breath.
“[Bind].”
He passed his needle through the air, then to a nearby tree. He repeated this process several more times, up and down the path. With that done, he waited behind a bush, focusing on maintaining the connection. Minutes passed, and then he heard the sound of footsteps
He raised his eyes to watch ahead.
Charles was coming down the road.
Ezra was quiet… until—
He activated [Bind].
Pieces of wood seemingly appeared out of the sky, dropping down onto his classmates.
“What the hell!?” someone screamed.
“Shit, it’s the rock tornado all over again!” One person covered her head.
Charles sliced through a piece of wood about to fall on him. He glanced from side to side, a frantic expression on his face.
“Where the hell are you!?” he shouted. “I’ll find you! Whatever you are, I’ll kill you!”
Ezra began to dash off, hidden by the trees and by the shouting and screaming of the students.
In moments, he was back with Pete and Yuki. He nodded to both of them, a smirk on his face.
“Well, I think that works out quite well, doesn’t it?
Pete nodded, a grin on his face. “This works out great! They’ll be looking for Dorian and the monster for ages. Now we just head straight for the boss, right?”
Yuki glanced from side to side, her eyes searching the trees. “I feel like we missed something.”
“I have the location,” he said. “It won’t be an issue whatsoever—“
“Really?” a familiar voice said.
Ezra froze.
“Shit,” he said.