Rushing past the orc, who looks at me with a raised eyebrow since he seems to have seen me die just randomly out of the blue.
Wait a second, the orc?
Turning back to get a look, sure enough it’s the orc who’s on guard…but he doesn’t go on guard till late evening?
Wait two seconds…is it past evening already?
Looking up into the sky, oh my lord, it’s almost sundown.
All I’ve done is run away from wolves a few times and then sat in the snow trying to make my aura twice…
“Cindy! How long did I take making my aura?” I ask fervently as I run up to her.
“Most of the day” She answers without missing a beat.
Most of the day? It felt like 5 minutes!
Ok, so don’t underestimate creating an aura; it takes hell of a time.
“So…how didn’t I freeze to death?” The second question just pops into my head because if I was sitting down in the snow for most of the day I surely must’ve frozen over…
“I made sure you didn’t freeze” Cindy produces a warm smile…
Wait a minute what does that mean?
Ah well, whatever, if she wants to keep her secrets sure, I think I’ve got slightly more pressing matters at hand.
“So…you killed me”
“Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve used my aura of terror” She rubs the back of her head apologetically.
“Aura of terror?” that sounds terrifying (no the irony of that statement is not lost on me).
“Ah, I haven’t actually explained anything have I?”
Right, why are you the teacher again!?(Seriously I feel like its math class again; me doing all the work).
“No…it would be nice if you explained to me about auras a little bit first”
“Hmm, a good a starting point as any I guess” Really what is going on in her mind? “So first things first, you understand what an aura is and how to create one?”
“I assume so since I’ve made one”
“…Fair enough…erm guess I’ll move onto how to make an aura of fear then”
“Huh? What about explaining auras and whatnot?” My hands are flying everywhere in confused gestures.
“Well you have to understand them to create them and since you’ve got the Aura manipulator talent you’re all knowledged up”
Ok…fair enough.
“So I’m assuming to make an aura of fear…using what I know I’d have to emit fear from myself and onto them?” Not quite sure how that’ll work but I’ll go with it for now.
“No” Knew it “You have to create a feeling of power that will emanate from you, causing fear”
“Right…how do I think of a feeling of power?” I’ve never been in power…ever (not even when we played master and slave…though to be honest with you being slave is way less responsibility).
“Do you remember that blizzard?”
“quite distinctly yes” Yeah that blizzard was pretty terrifying.
“Do you remember fearing it?”
“Obviously, it was a giant blizzard and I wasn’t wearing anywhere near the appropriate clothing”
“So why did you fear it?”
I feel like she’s trying to get something out of me…but what?
“Erm, because it was a giant blizzard?”
“Because it was powerful” Ah…ok true, ah that’s what she’s getting at!
“So I have to become a blizzard within my mind?”
“No” Dammit, I was close (maybe, possibly not). “You have to create a feeling of power”
Soo back to square one.
“I don’t know how to create power, I’ve never been in power”
“Oh” Cindy looks down in deep thought. I guess since she’s obviously the one in power it was a simple and understandable explanation (or she’s just terrible at explaining things).
After a short while of me running around to keep warm, she finally snaps out of her trance with one fist thumping an open palm in realization.
“I think a demonstration would be easier to understand”
Yeah, I’m not coming close to her ‘aura of terror’ like before. That was some scary stuff (pretty terrifying if I may say so myself).
“Ok? So what are you going to do and please don’t kill me!” I quickly add on the end before she releases that terrifying aura (seriously it’s hard to say it another way!).
“I’m not going to do anything, you’re going to do it” She says with an innocent smile.
…I guess she doesn’t quite understand the concept of teaching…or maybe she understands it too well…
“Right…what am I doing then?” I’m just slightly suspicious as to what she’s going to put me through.
“First, hurt yourself and gather some rage”
Taking out my axe, I cut myself till about half health, gathering a good 50 rage, though it slowly decreases due to lack of combat.
“Now look at that wolf over there” She points to a nearby wolf which paws the snow merrily “Imagine the most gruesome death for it, which you can personally give”
No problems with that thought; ripping it’s guts out and tying it with them, leaving it bound and useless as I chop it to pieces(hey I’ve been killed quite a lot of times by these guys, I’m allowed some slightly grim thoughts of revenge).
“Good, now try, as you were doing with your aura before, projecting it towards the wolf with your eyes”
Erm ok…
I’m looking at the wolf, imagining it’s gruesome death.
Come on wolfy, I can feel your life ebbing away beneath me as I chop you to bits, I imagine you whining as I tear away your fur and dig my axe deep inside you.
Come on wolfy, feel it, feel my rage and want to murder you over and over and over again.
The wolf turns towards me, shivering with a clear glint of fear in its eyes before turning tail and running.
“Perfect” Cindy gives a clap of her hands. “Since you harbor quite a bit of hate towards the wolves, looks like you won’t have that much of a problem emitting your hate towards them”
“Emitting my hate? Why didn’t you just say that before?”
“Ah, because hate and powerfulness are completely different. Hate won’t always lead to the others fearing you, yet power almost definitely will” She gives me a small studious look to see whether I comprehend.
“But right then I was emitting my hate wasn’t i?”
“You were, but you were also emitting your power, since if you were weak could you kill those wolves in such gruesome ways so easily?”
“…No?” I think I understand? (I probably understand something completely different knowing me).
“Exactly so you imagined yourself having the power to kill the wolf and emitted such feeling, giving the wolf a thought that you are more powerful than it, more able to kill it ruthlessly”.
Huh, so this is what power feels like? The ability to domineer over someone or something so much that they believe they are but worthless next to you…
Actually thinking of it that way it makes perfect sense…hell I can imagine myself feeling like the useless slave I am next to Missy when we had played, because I imagined her to have more power than me, which she obviously did but that’s apart from the point.
“However, you only directed the feeling to a single being, thus in reality you didn’t create an aura” Cindy breaks my train of thought and memories.
“Oh, so…what? I have to imagine that anything that gets within a metre of me will die a horrible death?”
“Essentially yes, however that’s the hard part” Of course it is. “Your eyes help you a lot when directing feelings and emotions to another, but to create an aura out of them you have to imagine the feeling oozing out of you, almost pulsating from your body like heat would.
So kind of like when I’m in Thalia’s an-NONo don’t think about that, don’t want to make an aura about anything closely related to that!!!
Phew, ok…so imagine the want to kill oozing out of me, feel like I’ll lash out at anything and be able to squash it like an insect if it so much as looks at me.
…
..
.
No, I can’t really think like that…to be honest it’s a bit scary thinking like that.
“Oh, seems like you were doing fine then…what happened?” Cindy looks from a short distance in peculiarity.
“Well I don’t know, feeling like I’m above everything else and able to kill them all just feels wrong”
“Hmm, that is strange indeed…guess I’m not the right teacher for this” She looks down and I swear I see the glint of a tear on her eyes.
“No no, I’m sure you’re a fine teacher for this, I’m just a horrible student!” I give her a small hug from behind trying to make her feel better (and honestly I am a terrible student).
“Poor student you may be” Wow didn’t even deny it (Harsh Cindy, harsh) “But with my teachings it won’t help you in any way”
“Why?” I’m actually curious, since she seems to be pretty damn good at auras (since I’ve been literally killed by one).
“Because as you said; you find it strange to think about killing things, to imagine all the ways in which you’ll torture them before they die. I however can easily think those things and it is the basis of my aura of fear…well terror actually”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Well no wonder! If she can actively think of ways to torture things before they die, that’s pretty terrifying just hearing it; just imagine if I got the feeling that I could be tortured in numerous different ways, all zipping through my head! That’ll probably make my heart stop (actually that’s exactly what happened).
“So since your way of making yourself feel powerful and making others feel fear is incompatible with the way I’m thinking?”
“Yes, so I can’t properly teach you” She concludes with a heavy sigh.
“But then how do I learn?”
“By yourself mostly”
Err…but I hate learning, especially by myself! Spoonfeeding is the basis of my academic life!
Plus I really just don’t enjoy magic, way too much to think about and read and understand.
But then again, auras…pretty cool nonetheless and if I can kill things with literally just a thought…it might be worth it.
“Is Aura magic?”
“Yes and no” Great one of those answers “I told you earlier to cut yourself for rage, remember? Well that’s because you can use your rage pool to aid in creating and manipulating your aura. However your aura itself is an ethereal thing created by you, yourself both physically and mentally. So in essence you do not need to use your rage pool for your auras, however it is much more difficult with some auras such as this fear aura to not use the magical enhancement from using rage”
Sounds alright as a system; so basically I can create auras naturally, but if I use rage they become ‘magic’ and thus have a bonus effect I guess…or just are easier to maintain.
BUT I AM A TRUE NORD, AND I DO NOT USE PUNY MAGICKS! I USE BUT MY AXE ARM AND MY BODY TO CRUSH THE ENEMIES BEFORE ME! I AM THE MASTER OF THE BATTLEFIELD, THE ONE WHO WAS REFORGED AND TEMPERED TO THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF A GOD AND DEVIL COMBINED. I SHALL NOT TAKE THESE AURAS AS MAGICAL THINGS BUT SIMPLY AS THE NATURAL BEING OF MY BODY, FOR ALL WHO LOOK UPON ME SHOULD BOTH LOVE AND FEAR ME. FEAR THE TRUE NORD!!!
*Ping*
Through being so full of yourself that your internal monologue is shouted to the heavens above and the hells below, you have asserted your dominance upon those around you causing them to feel a slight fear and awe towards you.
You have learnt a new Aura: Aura of Power
Aura Skill: Aura of Power [Lvl 1]
You have the ability to show yourself to be truly powerful, causing others to quake in fear and awe at your footsteps.
10% chance to give enemies bedazzled status until attacked. 2% chance to cause fear status. 10% more or less agro towards you in combat (dependent on use of aura).
Cost: none, Duration: Sustained
Due to learning a new Aura, your Aura manipulator skill has leveled up!
Talent: Aura Manipulator [Lvl 2]
Levels up due to Aura Skills
Auras are the basis of emitting your innermost feelings and emotions to the outside world.
Almost all can unconsciously create auras, though few know how to manipulate them, consciously deciding what others can feel being emitted.
Auras have a range of 2 metres, 2% effectiveness
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“Hehehe haha HAHAHA I AM TRULY A TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRD” Brimming with confidence, I stride towards a nearby wolf, watching it look up to me still as stone until I ram my axe into its face.
-22 (298/320)
Hahaha! It didn’t even move until I struck it!
Of course I quickly pounce on its back, getting my usual chokehold to knock it unconscious through asphyxiation.
Killing it with glee(because I do need some xp too, plus I’m feeling great that I’ve gotten another aura…although the description is slightly snarky).
I have exactly zero problems keeping this aura going…because I am a true nord, this is what should be oozing out of me more naturally than my own blood and breath!
“Wow, seems like you learnt something?” Cindy observes me as I gleefully stride towards her, feeling myself even pulsate due to this grand aura of mine.
“I learnt…THE AURA OF POWER!” I shout to the heavens, holding my arms into the sky and almost imagining lightning striking the distance heeding my call for awesomeness.
“Well done” She comes in for a hug and I swear she literally squeezes away my aura.
I do feel kind of deflated(probably literally) when she finally lets go…because I feel just how powerless I truly am compared to her.
BUT I DON’T CARE BECAUSE I HAVE THE AURA OF POWER WHICH A TRUE NORD TRULY DESERVES.
OH I love the warm pulsating feeling it’s giving me. God I’m never going to deactivate this skill.
“Now although the aura of power is quite strong in its own way, it does have a slight disadvantage to it” She gives me a motherly pat on the head.
“What is it?”
“Due to the nature of your aura, I’m assuming it’s going to increase agro towards you” She points behind me.
Dammit, there’s a whole pack there right?
I turn around and funnily enough I’m wrong; there are 3 packs of wolves (Lady Luck, why do you hate me so?).
Oh and it gets worse because it’s night time now…
“AAAAAAAH” I sprint away from the wolves, which is sadly towards the forest, watching them chase after me with slobbering mouths.
Cindy does nothing.
“CINDYYYYY” I cry as I skirt the sides of the woods, trying to keep to the plains and slowly making my way towards town.
“YOU CAN DO IT” She shouts oddly close behind me and I turn to see her running alongside the wolves.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?
Charging across the snow I feel nothing but pure terror as they seem to be going faster, slowly catching up.
Hell, I feel the air from one’s claws as it just barely misses me.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH I DON’T WANT TO LOSE A LEVEL!!!
-108 (2/110)
OMG THAT WAS A GLANCING BLOW!!!
THESE WOLVES SEEM A HELL OF A LOT STRONGER THAN USUAL!!! CINDYYYYYY!!!
I’m so close to town, only 100 metres away, when suddenly another pack of three wolves appear from my left blocking my way in.
Tears streaming down my pale little face, I swerve to the right, still sprinting for my life towards the northern exit.
The wolves, biting at my feet yet just inches away from them, continue to chase after me, their size growing in number till with a glance all I can see are wolves, along with Cindy in the midst.
Cindy, she’s looking at me with a smile on her face; not her usual smile, but an evil grin, almost hungry, almost joyful at watching me run in pure terror from the wolves as they try to pounce on me.
If I falter for but a quarter of a second, we both know that I’ll be ripped to shreds, but Cindy’s face shows that she doesn’t care, in the slightest.
Rather I’d think she’d enjoy that!(JUST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!).
Finally I reach the other side, feeling a small glimmer of hope, until another pack appears in front of me, still not passing the gates, but making their way towards me and soon will block me from safety.
NO! I CAN’T MAKE THAT HAPPEN!
It’s not hope, nor desire to live that drives me, rather it’s simply fear; pure unadultered fear that I’ll be ripped to shreds by a mountain of wolves.
But what also helped drive that fear were Cindy’s eyes boring into my back; I could almost feel that this was just a game for her, to see me run and cry and finally be ripped to pieces.
For she knows I’m immortal, that she can continue to play this game with me over and over again!
I DON’T’ WANT THAT. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Suddenly I see the village gates to my left and I DIVE through them, hearing the angry howling of wolves as I suddenly enter the safe zone
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..
.
Is it over? I hear four pings resound in my head…subsiding the furious beating of my heart somewhat, and relieving the large build up of stress pulsating painfully in my mind.
Taking my head out of the snow, I see Cindy waltzing up to me as the mass of wolves disperse, suddenly not caring about me whatsoever.
“Hahaha, good job” Cindy gives a merry little laugh before picking me up like a doll, her eyes and face not showing a single sliver of that dark, maniacal, death-loving incarnate that I glimpsed during my sprint of survival.
What happened to loving mother Cindy? This new one’s scary (Though for some strange reason, I feel like the loving mother is the mask, not the scary one…)
While she carries me towards our house in a leisurely stroll, cooing me and gently stroking my hair (it’s helping…slightly), I check what the three pings were.
Speedy has leveled up! It is now Level 6
You have run so much that not only your feet have become faster but your entire being has sped up. +30% movement speed +10% attack speed +150% satiety consumption rate
Wow I’m fast now, 130% movement speed! Plus all that attack speed. That’s so broken!!!(Going to forget that I’ve literally been running around non-stop since the start and now that my consumption rate is 150%...I’m eating a loaf of bread every twenty minutes or so…since quite literally I’ll be losing 100 satiety an hour…
But that’s not the end of my pings:
Due to extreme stress forcing brain into abnormal state of fear your body becomes affected by it
STATUS: Fear
50% penalty to attack speed and damage. Beasts and other monsters willing to target the weak have 50% more agro towards you.
Through constant internal screaming, waterfalls of tears and the feeling of pure unadultered fear gripping both soul and heart, you have learned a new Personal Aura: Fear-Driven
Personal Aura Skill: Fear-Driven[Lvl 3]
Fear is the key to giving oneself a burst of energy and adrenaline to keep them alive in the direst of situations. This skill is a personal aura, never being able to affect anyone but yourself.
Gives a 6% speed increase, 3% increase to AGI and increase reaction time by 0.03 seconds
Cost: none, Duration: Sustained, Prerequisite: Single state of mind and Fear Status
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..
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YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!
SERIOUSLY CINDY, SERIOUSLY! YOU WERE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE(I’M ACTUALLY GLAD SHE’S NOT SOME PSYCHOPATHIC PERSON BUT STILL JESUS I DID NOT LIKE IT AT ALL!).
APPARENTLY AURAS CAN BE PERSONAL, I HAD NO IDEA. BUT NOW I HAVE BECAUSE SOMEONE FORCED ME TO RUN SCREAMING FROM A HORDE OF WOLVES FROM ONE END OF THE VILLAGE TO THE OTHER ON THE VERGE OF DEATH!
ALSO I HAVE THIS PREREQUISITE, SO I NEED TO BE LITERALLY PEEING MYSELF IF I WANT TO HAVE THE BONUS OF BEING ABLE TO RUN AWAY FASTER. WELL GREAT! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED (IF YOU HAVEN’T FIGURED OUT MY GINORMOUS AMOUNT OF SARCASM, PLEASE DO!)!
I’M LITERALLY TERRIFIED THAT SHE DID THIS TO ME, TO GET A SKILL!!!
I WONDER IF THERE’S ONE CALLED TERROR DRIVEN…NEVERMIND THERE PROBABLY IS.
“CINDY” I shout in her face, almost causing her to drop me, but she expected it somewhat.
“Sorry about that, but I wanted you to get a very important and lifesaving skill”
“Is there such one as terror driven?” I ask, slightly calmer, noticing that I may have gotten a bit of attention from a few or more passerbyers…OH YEAH, I’M IN MY BOXERS!!!
“You didn’t get it?”
…
..
.
WAIT YOU ACTUALLY WANTED ME TO GET IT??? WHAAAAAT?
“Oh…no just fear-driven” I calmly say it, even though my internal mind is screaming at the point of bursting, because I’m well and truly terrified on the being called Cindy who’s carrying me.
If this is what she does to give me a ‘life-saving’ skill…just what else is she going to have me do for sake of saving me?
Will she be throwing me into Lava to help lava resistance (actually I don’t doubt she’ll do that for a second. How I know, just an EXTREMELY STRONG BLOODY FEELING WHICH MAY HAVE TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT SHE WATCHED ME ALMOST DIE TO A HORDE OF WOLVES WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE).
Phoo…calm down, relax…I got a skill, which in hindsight is pretty useful. So I guess she’s at least teaching me things.
I don’t exactly enjoy the way I’m being taught, but it’s something…I guess.
We make it inside and she gently places me on my usual fur bed, cooing and stroking my hair for a bit while I just lie there seething on the inside.
After a short while, she cooks dinner and I go to the dinner table, silently eating.
“Oh please, don’t be angry with me Kal, it’s useful for you” She looks at me with puppy eyes.
I’m not affected for I suspect the bloodthirst behind.
“I’m angry because it was terrifying, even if it did help”
“Well that was the point, though terror-driven is much better” She looks wistfully to the sky, probably wondering what she could of done better (or worse, depends how you look at it).
…
..
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“I forgive you...” I finally sigh out, because I can’t really stay mad at someone who’s trying to help me (in her own twisted way may I try forget). “On the condition that you tell me how you were controlling those wolves”.
“Oho, so you noticed” She smiles, and I swear I briefly see a glint of darkness in her eyes (how darkness glints, don’t ask I’m not an expert at colours).
“Oh so you did control them? Through everything?”
“Only in the last run, the rest of the time I simply made sure you were not affected by my aura”
I should ask how, but it’s probably got something to do with the fact that she’s super good at aura manipulation, hence the 25 metre range…
“So how did you control them?”
“I didn’t control them, I influenced them”
I raise my thin eyebrow, gesturing for more.
“I used my Aura of Desire, causing them to desire you” She shrugged her shoulders simply
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Aura of Desire…*SHIVER* Right I am NEVER learning that, EVER.
It’s bad enough with this Radiating Char-
…
..
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Oh…Does that count as an Aura of desire?
Closing my eyes, I think of myself as I remember from my reflection; I remember my still puffy eyes, petite body with a nice hip to waist ratio. The perfect, shoulder length hair along with the soft, round face, ambiguous to either gender.
She’s actually quite cute, I’m quite cute.
I imagine, as hard as it is, that I want to hug myself, cuddle myself, make sure I’m kept warm and happy. I want it, I desire it.
*ping*
You have failed to create an Aura of Desire due to Radiating Charm
Radiating Charm permanently overpowers Aura of Desire
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..
.
Guess I’m spot on (for once)…my Radiating Charm is technically an Aura…
Wait, so does that mean that it was actually simpler for me to become an Aura Manipulator?
No…I guess not since Radiating Charm doesn’t require anything but activation…or does it?
Huffing I wonder deeply as to what I need to sustain radiating charm.
*Drip*
Breaking my concentration, I look at Cindy, who’s watching me with a slight bit of drool sliding from her bottom lip.
“Uh Cindy” I snap my fingers to de-entrance her.
“Huh?” She snaps out of it “Sorry, you just looked so cute right then.
So I accidentally activated Radiating Charm (of course) but it was sustained through…
…
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Omg, my actions!
Thinking about it, I look at my huffing, thoughtful expression on my axe’s reflection and sure enough I look pretty damn cute, extremely so.
SO all I need to do to sustain it is…well be me, or just be…That’s a terrifyingly low prerequisite to sustainment…makes it super easy to sustain I guess?
Anyways, now that that’s sort of off my mind, I finish the rest of my soup (mmm delicious) and head off to bed, telling Cindy we’ll continue tomorrow.
“Nope” She drags me out of my bed, rather mercilessly. “We are going to continue through the night”
Right…there goes my plan to pay off Thalia’s debt…phew I guess?
But I’ve traded one demon for another…not quite sure what to think of that…
For a village in the snow, this sure seems to be quite like the pits of fiery hell to me.
Holding back tears, I ready myself for whatever she’s going to throw at me next.