Demarcus tossed the green ball of lightning into the air and caught it. William wondered why Demarcus wasn’t being shocked. He had a strong suspicion that the new black gloves he wore had something to do with it.
“So that ball,” William said. “Why is it green?”
“Because it carries the same color as grass?” Demarcus said.
“I meant, why is the electricity,” William said, using the new word he’d learned, which seemed to be a more controlled and weaker type of lightning, “coming from the light bulb yellow, but that green?” And more importantly, why is mine blue?
“I’m not your teacher,” Demarcus said. “And with that said, freeze.”
Demarcus stood up and approached William who could do nothing except sit still.
“My friend made this for me,” Demarcus said. “It’ll shock you, but without the heat. Now open your mouth.”
Oh no, William thought, knowing where this was heading. Despite his resistance, his mouth opened as casually as ever. He needed to find some sort of way to counteract this forced hypnosis.
Demarcus shoved the ball into his mouth with one swift action, his fingers pressing against the top of William’s nose, and the base of his hands against William’s chin. Almost immediately, William’s hair shot outwards, racing to get away from the electricity. His eyes began shaking, tiny but quick movements left and right.
“Close your mouth,” Demarcus said and even though his entire body shook, his mouth closed. “Alright then, this’ll be it for this session. I’m not really in the mood to watch you shake, so I’ll be gone. This’ll continue for at least an hour.”
Even though Demarcus stated the temperature of the ball had been limited, it sure as hell didn’t feel like that. It burned, a searing expression up against the top of his mouth, against his tongue, on the inside of his cheeks.
But the shock was worse. He thought he knew what spasming was. Not after this. His body quickly clenched and stretched its muscles in rapid succession, making him act like a fish out of water.
The lightning inside of him wasn’t like this. He felt his thought freeze, and halt, but he still felt curiosity as to why. He knew the energy inside of him was lightning. The rat he electrocuted would surely agree to that, but there must have been a difference between the lightning ravaging his body, and the blue lightning he was able to create.
***
[The skill Lesser Shock Resistance has reached level 10]
[The skil Lesser Shock Resistance has evolved into Shock Resistance.
[The skill Shock Resistance has reached level 4]
[The skill Lesser Mental Resistance has reached level 6]
[The skill Lesser Lightning Manipulation has reached level 6]
[The skill Greater Pain Resistance has reached level 4]
[The skill Lesser Heat Tolerance has been gained.]
His face had frozen in an expression of pain, the face muscles contorting as much as they could. The pain had been constant. He thought that after a while his tolerance ot it would grow, but that wasn’t the case at all. Instead, it grew worse, little by little.
He couldn't’t spit it out. It seemed only death could remove the orders placed on him by Demarcus. He didn’t swallow it either. He feared that his heart would be impacted if he did that.
Somehow, his lightning manipulation went up a level. The number ticking from 5 to 6, a definite change, but it sure as hell didn’t feel definite. He knew not what the improvements were, or why this had improved his ability at all. He guessed that dumping a bunch of electricity into his body would result in his own electricity being strengthened.
He hadn’t been able to impact the ball in any way. It felt different from the light bulb, almost another thing entirely. He could sense it, an alien force within his own body. He’d tried many times to absorb it, but nothing worked.
The biggest gain was in his shock resistance. If he did this again, he would probably gain greater shock resistance. Also, his body was more or less in one whole piece. That’s not to say that there were no repercussions. Occasionally, even though the ball of lightning had more or less dissipated, his body would uncontrollably break into a spasm.
He could deal with that though. Certainly better than having a ruined back. He decided that he was going to ask for the lightning ball once more.
He stood up and pushed the table and chairs to the side of the room, making space for himself. His number one priority was to train his lightning manipulation, but that didn’t mean he couldn't strengthen his body whilst his mind was exhausted.
He and brought the lighting out of his left palm like before. The small bolts of lightning reached longer, and were brighter than before. But, it wasn’t enough. Whilst he was down in the cave, his number one problem was the lack of sight.
He looked up at the lightbulb. Somehow, by forcing a lot of electricity into one spot, it became lighter. Lighting was the same, flashing white into the eyes of anybody nearby. A large amount of electricity forced into one spot resulted with a large amount of light. That was the statement echoing through his mind.
But how can I do something similar?
He looked at his hand. Maybe if he forced a bunch of electricity into it, he could produce light. But there was something he was missing, a piece scratching at the edge of his mind. Another quality of the lightbulb.
Right! It was hot.
He would essentially be burning and melting his hands by forcing so much electricity into them. But then that also meant that if he gripped something, he would not only be shocking it but also burning them. He could make his hands extremely dangerous weapons.
It would force him to come close. That meant the opponent, or opponents would have it easier to retaliate. There were also certain enemies he didn’t think he could approach. If they were airborne or could stick to walls and ceilings, he couldn’t do much about it. He’d need to learn a ranged way of attacking.
He began his training by slowly pushing the lighting through his arm. Not having the fury to back it up, he couldn’t do it all in one fell swoop. Instead he pushed in a certain rhythm, like a log banging up against a gate, slowly pushing his electricity through his arm until it reached his palms where it could go outside.
Frustration bit at the corner of his mind. It was a lot more annoying then the pain he felt from the process. He wondered if the pain was lessened by his abilities. If that was the case he paled at the sensations he would be feeling without it.
The thing with frustration was that it wasn’t dangerous, just highly uncomfortable and unpleasant. He knew that it was a good sign though. Nothing good came easy, and pushing his lighting through his right arm was highly mentally draining.
[The skill Lesser Lightning Manipulation has reached level 7]
An hour had passed when he was finished with that. His mind felt weak, like a shell of what it was before he started training. He got the distinct impression, from somewhere, that pushing further wasn’t going to end well.
Shaking with the occasional spasm, his body came into focus. William got down on four and began doing pushups. He could do twenty five at max, but he only did ten before switching to another muscle group, figuring it would stretch out his training session.
[Strength has gone up by 0.1]
As he did his situps, which were by far the most comfortable exercise until his stomach started hurting when it became the least comfortable exercise, he noticed that the general sense that his muscles were tiring came before the sharp, jagged pain as if broken glass stabbed into his gut.
This must be a side effect of greater pain resistance. I can push myself way further than I thought I could before.
Wanting to see exactly how far he could go, he kept pushing, reaching 93, before the pain became too much. When he tried to get up, his stomach wasn’t capable of bending. He was at the point where he could exhaust his body fully.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
[Strength has gone up by 0.3]
***
[Strength has gone up by 0.7
[Stamina has gone up by 0.3]
[Endurance has gone up by 0.4]
William decided to stop training a little bit before he thought Demarcus would appear. He really was just working of feeling. Could be a couple hours off, or he could hear his steps coming now. Either way, his body was beaten, but it was still functional enough to explore the space below.
He had a plan. It involved him dying, which usually meant that it was a bad plan, but if Demarcus allowed him to keep his body after death, then it could work. However, last time, Demarcus had already disposed his body by the time he woke up.
To prevent that from happening, he scratched a message into his arm. Please leave my body here. I want to use it as a cushion. I’ll tell you what I find down there in return.
He banked on his torturer’s want to hold conversations. He didn’t know what else he could offer.
With that done, he pushed all of his electricity to the center of his chest. He felt it straining against him, as if a warning him not to go further, and when he pushed past that sensation, his chest blew up.
***
“So you wanted to keep your corpse?” Demarcus said.
“Did you let me keep it?” William eagerly asked, and glanced behind him, but he found nothing there.
“Of course not,” Demarcus said. “You keep forgetting I’m your torturer. You need to think things through more clearly.”
“Aren’t you curious what’s down there?” William said. “I could tell you if I just get some sort of way to get down there without the fall breaking my legs.”
Demarcus grinned predatorily. “Now that we can work on.”
***
[The skill Rough Skin has reached level 9.]
[The skill Demarcus’s Torture Technique has reached level 5.]
[The skill Greater Pain Resistance has reached level 5]
[Due to repeated damage on the bones, the skill Tough Bones has been gained.]
“You’re welcome to tell me what other wishes you have,” Demarcus said as he closed the door.
William lied on the floor gasping. Phrasing. I’ve gotta improve my phrasing.
For once Demarcus hadn’t frozen him during their session. Instead, he approached William and beat and broke William’s legs. Didn’t matter how much William struggled. It really beat into him just how powerless he was. He needed more strength. That was the only way he could protect himself.
Each one of Demarcus’s strikes felt like a warhammer driving into his skin at full force. His strength was scary on just a conceptual level. And what was even more horrifying was the fact that Demarcus said he feared some of the creature’s down there in the hole.
With his legs broken in a hundred different places, there wasn’t much physical training he could think of doing. Although perhaps there was a blessing in all of this. William eyed the new skill he’d gained.
Tough Bones might just be the ability that could help him deal with the fall. If he strengthened his bones, they could handle the high amount of force. That meant breaking them over and over again.
That’ll work. I’m certain that’ll work.
He grabbed the metal chair and began banging into his legs. He’d realized that there was no avoiding pain, and also, he’d kind of grown to like it.
Something about it was just so intoxicating.
Hah I feel like I’m growing crazy. He giggled to himself. Nonsense.
***
[The skill Tough Bones has reached level 3]
[The skill Rough Skin has reached level 10.]
[The skil Rough Skin has evolved into Leather Skin]
When he’d heard Demarcus approaching he crawled over to the hole and dove in head first. It was always a trippy experience to go from dying to sitting up straight completely healthy. William didn’t think he could grow used to it .
“Hey,” William said. “Mind if I ask you a question?”
“Depends on the question,” Demarcus said.
“It’s just… I can’t figure out why somebody as strong as you would ever work as a torturer. Couldn’t you be a king?”
“A certain somebody forced me to do this. That’s all I’ll say on this topic.”
Who could have forced him? Who’s strong enough to do that? Father? No. Even father wouldn’t be able to force something like this onto Demarcus.
William wanted to press forward on that question, but he knew Demarcus wouldn’t give anymore. Another question and it was torture time. He decided to switch topics, and try something else.
“The thought of staying here for the rest of my life is a disturbing one you know,” William said.
“It should be.”
Should?
William frowned.
“I’ve already told you that I don’t deserve this,” he said. “I haven’t done anything worthy of this. I haven’t…”
“Is this all it’s going to be?” Demarcus said.
“Bah,” William leaned back in his chair. “There’s no getting through to you is there. Isn’t there something you want other than causing me harm?”
Demarcus opened his mouth as if he thought to say it, but then changed his mind and shook his head. What does that mean?
“So, want me to break your legs again,” Demarcus said
William sighed.
***
[The skill Greater Pain Resistance has reached level 6]
[The skill Leather Skin has reached level 2]
[The skill Tough Bones has reached level 6]
Whoever said all pain was alike, was a fucking moron. The pain Demarcus inflicted was of a higher tier, as if it had ascended, and William was chock full of it. He lied down on the ground moaning in agony. This was the worst one yet. What got into him?
William’s head hurt. So much to think about. At least he had time, or did he? All time should be spent on how to escape out of this scenario. That meant training, or thinking of ways to gain strength.
Also means not to philosophize on what I should spend my time on.
Leveling up had certainly netted him the largest boon. Perhaps he’d get another boon the next time he leveled up, although he doubted it. But it would probably come with some sort of gain.
He figured he could probably kill another rat before dying. That probably wouldn’t level him up, but it would bring him closer to his goal. But there was no need to rush, he still had quite a lot of time until his next torture session.
His goal was to improve his lightning manipulation. He had a feeling that he’d experience a large growth in skill when he crossed level ten so he wanted to do that. He also wanted to create a mechanism like the lightbulb.
When he thought about it, he should be fully able to do it. The thing emitted electricity and that was something he could create, but no matter how quickly he moved the lightning through his body, it didn’t produce any light, and if he grouped a bunch of it together, he simply exploded, his body incapable of handling the energy.
He was missing something.
He looked at the light, his eyelids squeezing, and noticed that there were more pieces, namely metal. Was that the thing he was missing? Metal.
He looked down at the chair he sat on. That was metal. He wondered what might happen if he charged electricity through the chair. Maybe that could produce light?
Either way, it would improve his lightning manipulation, so he decided to do it.
Grabbing the chair by its two forelegs, he began streaming lightning through it. But something strange happened. It resisted him. So he pushed harder. The resistance only grew.
Biting the inside of his cheeks, he pushed all he could. Nothing happened, and he heaved exhausted. I must be going about this in the wrong way. Maybe pumping it full of electricity from two different locations wouldn’t work.
He tried only doing it from one angle. Didn’t work. He tried doing it with only one finger. Nope. He tried doing it without touching the metal, just streaming electricity to the edge of his fingers. He saw a lightning connection form, and thought he succeeded, but after a couple of minutes, when nothing changed about the chair, he realized something was off.
His electricity was clearly coming into the chair, but there must be something else to it. It wasn’t just pumping it full of lightning. That wasn’t how the heat was produced. He looked up at the light once more, trying to find any clues.
Why is it connected to a wire?
If it really was only as simple as filling a metal with electricity then there would be no need to keep it connected. No, the wire must be continuously supplying the metal with electricity. But when he tried to do it, the metal wouldn’t take any more electricity.
Could it be that I have to remove electricity simultaneously?
He’d never done anything like it before, but he grabbed the chair, and willed the lightning within it go back into him. It quickly complied. Now, with his left hand, he pumped the chair with lightning. Then, he pulled it out.
I can feel it heating up.
[The skill Lesser Lightning Manipulation has reached level 8]