"Christ Keelgrave, I'm not going to kill an innocent guy just to grow stronger!" he hissed out, trying to whisper and only partially succeeding. He didn't really need to bother, considering no one else could understand English, but it still felt wrong to speak such dark thoughts aloud.
Symon prided himself on always endeavouring to think things through logically and maintain control over his emotions, but he was hardly an unfeeling robot. They'd only been attacked after they came to help Symon, and he couldn't repay their kindness by sacrificing them just to improve his own chances. He supposed he should have expected this ruthlessness from the spirit that had attempted to possess him in their very first meeting, but being told to murder this guy in cold blood seemed especially egregious.
But Symon was the one who had won the battle for possession of his body, meaning he would continue to act according to his morals. Keelgrave was just a dark passenger along for the ride.
He'd already decided that he'd work with these people, just like he'd originally offered to Keelgrave. With that in mind, he needed to figure out how to safely get more vitality for healing the injured man. As if on cue, one of the three remaining adventurers moved closer to Symon.
He maintained a safe distance -- already having been warned about the dangers of Symon's ability -- and started speaking. The words were stilted, and Keelgrave informed him that the man's accent in Common was pretty bad before translating them to English for Symon, but their genuine intent shone through across the language barrier.
"I am Serik. One thousand gratitude for save life of bond brother," the man said before pressing his fists together in front of him and bowing deeply.
"Oh, uh... no problem at all," he replied, Keelgrave supplying the words for him to use. Having to go through a translator was getting old for Symon already and he'd only just met these people; he already knew his first big goal beyond survival would be learning the language himself. It would make Keelgrave happy too, which would hopefully mean he'd complain less often.
Serik puzzled over the meaning of the words for a moment before nodding.
"You are, hmm, medicine, yes? Medicine need death for life?"
Symon returned the nod. It was a pretty accurate way of describing things.
"Hmm, medicine take little death? Or medicine take all death?"
"A little death? You mean, do I have to fully drain something or can I just take a little? If so, it's the latter." Serik stared at him blankly. Right, his grasp of Common wasn't great. Symon wasn't judging him though, considering he wouldn't have been able to understand a single word without Keelgrave.
"Medicine can take little death, yeah," Symon said sagely. With that, a massive smile grew on the other man's face.
"Good! Symon take Serik little death. Symon give little life Atabek!" he said while thrusting his hand out as if to shake Symon's. Instinctively, he took a step back to keep the man out of the dangerous area around him. Although, if he was understanding the man right, he wanted to have his vitality drained.
"Wait, wait!" he said in English, before slowing down and waiting for Keelgrave to translate what he wanted to say next. "It's very dangerous, okay? You stay still and let me make sure I don't accidentally take too much." Seemingly recognising that this wasn't something you wanted having a miscommunication during, Aslan -- with his superior Common -- held a quick conversation with Serik before turning to Symon.
"Serik understands the risks and will remain still. He kindly requests for you to take half of his life energy and give it to Atabek."
"I don't think that's a good idea, taking half will mean he won't be able to fight if the monster returns. How about I just take a little bit from everyone here, that way we're all still in fighting condition."
The group leader's eyes widened. "Truly? Your mana will not be strained?"
Was that a common problem? Symon had never encountered such a thing before, but then again he'd gotten the impression his abilities weren't considered normal -- he didn't even have mana, as far as he knew.
"No, it should be fine. I'll just take a little bit to ensure your man will recover from the wounds on his own, I think taking enough to fully fix him would take more than everyone could safely spare."
If the process of draining vitality and using it to heal was completely efficient -- which he suspected it wasn't -- he'd effectively be evenly spreading Atabek's grievous injuries between three additional people. If the razor stalker returned, it would be best that the group could front three tired but still combat-capable warriors instead of four people -- Symon wasn't including himself in these figures.
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After Aslan explained the plan to the others, he and Safiya stood guard while Serik volunteered to go first. Symon manifested the magical thread as he approached the man, the thread dancing through the air as it tried to reach out for him. He didn't react at all to the appearance of the magic, the same excited but nervous expression on his face as he maintained eye contact.
Once more, he stuck out his arm as if requesting a handshake, but this time Symon didn't step away. He allowed the thread to snap forward and attach to the man's hand, eliciting a sharp intake of breath. The vitality steadily flowed into Symon's vessel, before he stopped the process by stepping away once it had filled enough to accrue one point of vitality.
Using Aslan as an intermediary to ensure no details were lost, Serik informed him that he felt fine and was good to keep going. It was difficult to determine how much vitality Serik would normally hold, but considering a centipede was only a small fraction of the man's body weight while providing three points of vitality, taking just two should be fine.
They repeated the process, Serik once more claiming he could spare some more vitality after Symon pulled away. The man swayed slightly when he spoke but seemed otherwise fine, although Symon still decided he'd taken enough from him. It wasn't clear exactly what the side effects of having your vitality drained were, other than that you died once you lost enough, so he figured he shouldn't push it and learn about some horrific downside by using it on his new ally.
Now that he thought about it, he realised he didn't actually know much about vitality. He understood it as some sort of metaphysical life force, but that didn't clear things up much. For Symon specifically, it was easy to simply picture it as the way he powered his healing magic, but what did vitality do for those without his unique magic? Was it simply a representation of someone's overall health, or was it something the body normally used to heal itself, akin to a far weaker version of Symon's magic?
He had no idea, and it seemed the others knew even less than him; it was just something they accepted was part of them and never thought about, like how you would never consciously think about what your kidneys were doing unless you felt something wrong.
What he did discover was that the amount of vitality someone had was at least partially linked to their Constitution attribute. He'd realised this after everyone donated differing amounts of vitality -- Safiya had the lowest constitution of the bunch and could only spare a single point of vitality before calling it quits, while Aslan had the highest and could give two without only very minor side effects. At first he thought it was purely because of the difference in body size, but the two men were of similar height yet could safely provide different amounts.
He wished he had a proper way of seeing how much vitality someone had -- Keelgraves ability to sense the living wasn't that precise. If he could work out how much vitality he could safely extract from volunteers, perhaps he'd be able to work out some ways to securely maintain his vitality reserves. It was a potential solution to his problems that he'd have to investigate further once he was somewhere safe.
With five points of vitality in his vessel, Atabek's chances of long-term survival had shot way up. Without wasting any time, he moved back to the unconscious man's side and placed his hands over the injuries. Once again, his thread shot out and was promptly redirected to the scarce amount of vitality remaining in the freshly cut grass at his feet. It wouldn't last long before being emptied, but Symon already knew what he needed to do.
All of his gathered vitality shot out of his hands and entered the wounds, so Symon stepped back and allowed the vital energy to do its thing. All of his external wounds sealed over by the time a minute had passed, leaving pink skin that stood out from his brown skin in their wake. Judging by how Symon's injuries had healed, they'd eventually return to their normal colour without leaving a scar.
Atabek still didn't look great, nasty bruises covered half his torso and his breathing didn't sound very relaxed, but he no longer had the open wounds. The fact that he hadn't died already had meant the first round of healing must have at least partially helped with the internal injuries, with this extra dose of healing making Symon confident that the man would eventually recover even without any further healing magic.
There were smiles all around after he informed the group of Atabek's positive prognosis, but Symon found it difficult to get too happy after saving someone's life knowing the monster that caused the injuries in the first place was still out there. No one had seen a single trace of it since then, not even Keelgrave with his life sense.
At the very least, his Ledger had made some improvements, although he doubted it would make much of a difference against something that seemed so powerful.
[ Status:
Name: Symon
Class: Cursed Healer
Strength: 0.78 {+0.01}
Constitution: 0.99 {+0.01}
Acuity: 0.8 {+0.02}
Intelligence: 0.78 {+0.04}
Will: 1.01 {+0.01}
Vessel (Vitality): 0/8
[ Abilities:
Idealise (4) {+1}: Consumes Vitality to return a living target to its peak state. This ability automatically applies to the wielder and cannot be disabled.
Seize (6): Absorbs Vitality from a target and stores it in the wielder's Vessel. This ability automatically applies to valid targets and cannot be disabled.
Essence Bond (4) {+2}: Permanently bind your essence to that of a spirit's.
Passives:
Pain Resistance (0)
Poison Resistance (0)
Running (4) {+4}]
It had been a while since he'd checked out his Ledger, so it was hard to pinpoint exactly where the gains had come from. Most interestingly, both his Essence Bond and intelligence had increased far beyond their usual speed. What had he been doing that would result in the Ledger recognising such a large intelligence enhancement? He had to admit that he hadn't done anything amazingly smart recently.
Similarly, he wasn't sure why his bond with Keelgrave had levelled up so much, or even what the upgrades were actually improving. Intelligence would allegedly increase his ability to learn and retain information, as well as apply this knowledge, but neither he nor Keelgrave noticed anything different about their connection via Symon's vessel.
He was happy he'd made progress, but it paled in comparison with the threat of the razor stalker. They'd have to do something to eliminate the monster, ideally as soon as possible. Everyone had been very vigilant, but even magically enhanced human beings weren't perfect. Nightfall was fast approaching and they would soon need to sleep, especially the adventurers who had donated vitality.
They needed to kill or at least permanently drive off the stalker before night; the need to sleep in shifts would mean there'd only be two combat-capable people standing guard. All it would take was the slightest lapse the monster could cut through them all.
It just wasn't feasible to remain on the defensive for so long. The stress would wear them down until they eventually slipped up. Symon already had a pit in his stomach, knowing he was being watched but not from where. The others were all eager to get revenge for their wounded companion, but charging off into the grass would get them all killed, not to mention what would happen if they left the still-recovering Atabek behind.
They didn't have a proper plan yet, but one thing was obvious.
It was time to go on the aggressive. Instead of being hunted by the stalker, they had to be the predator.