--- Day 6 ---
thump thump thump
"GAAAAH, gods My head!" Roland exclaimed
I awoke to a throbbing headache, like someone put a siphon drake* in my room before I slept and I barely managed to break out of my room to get the dormkeeper to dispel the beastie.
(*A magical construct used to drain energy from another for several purposes.)
Breaking open my eyes I saw the sun again, and I felt Something distinctly wrong.
A pull so to speak, the first time I felt the energy that I could control.
I quickly pulled against this siphon, the weak pull meekly surrendering under my... Influence?
I didn't know How I did it, it simply was, no major discovery, no fanfare of the awakening my colleges had.
Mere acceptance that this was how to pull, so I did just that, I allowed the energy to be pulled out of my body and I let it pool outside of myself.
After this I took this large glob of energy and tried to push it into the bucket.
Brickwall... again.
'fuck' I thought, moving the bucket into the place where the pool resided but the bucket didn't take any in.
It was just floating there, at the edge of my pull, I Knew I could pull it in anytime, but it seems unable to do anything but exist In its current state.
Ignoring the exhaustion that was building through the awful siphon of this- MY energy.
I pulled the energy back into myself and kept it there.
A rush of power flooded me, clarity, purity and Strength!
It disappeared as soon as it arrived, the rush died down, the feeling dwindled, Until my usual mundanity consumed my mind.
my thoughts swam,
Curious, I allowed more energy to leave and pool before stuffing it back in my frame.
Again the dopamine hit of power fuelled my mind as I was dropped on my ass.
Very strange.
The push and pull of energy flowing out and in was very strange, especially the mental effects it applied.
My body began to ache if I let too much out at once.
Eventually I had reached a limit to my effective control, Around what seemed to be 3-4x my natural limit, as I was frankly send sprawling as my nerves fired over and over once I tried to absorb around half of the... siphoned mana?
the terrifying euphoria sending my burnt nerves into paroxysms of ecstasy, Sweaty and covered in unmentionable fluids at this point, I decided that doing that again would be a bad idea.
As I removed my charred garb, I saw to my surprise.
"the fuck?!"
There was half formed flesh clawing back at the patches of blackened flesh.
well ain't this a turn I think in hindsight may have been engineered.
Of course I spend the next few hours continuing the process, allowing it to be drawn out before collapsing it back into myself, within the morning, all of my flesh had regrown to proper complexion and shape.
After this the energy siphon intensified for some reason, but not on my energy, but me.
I began to be drag into the monstrous forest against my will.
I, of course resisted, but the pull dragged my body further and further.
The pull became stronger and stronger as the tether between me and my captor, until I was pulled into a small warren.
Pulled through many small rooms, with several unnatural creatures.
Eventually I found myself in front of a chromatic red sphere.
a bright red and lively tendril squirmed out into the dimly lit pocket.
It slithered up to me as I was restrained by several of the creatures, Sliding into my head from the base of my spine, my reaction dulled by something and a voice filled my head.
-Ah fleshbag, you indeed repaired your body as I expected, Your energy is aberrant, Explain immediately!-
"What?" I sad dumbly which a flaring pain in the back of my head rectified.
-Do not try to audibly speak, I cannot hear you, you must think for me to listen, but do not test my patience I have plenty of options to use your corpse instead.-
-Wow wow wow, please, no, I honestly don't know, from what I heard I was meant to have a monstrous talent for magic, however I only found that my blood can activate magic runes that I make.-
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the thoughts(?) went silent for a few moments, irritation crawling up the tendril sitting in my skull.
-so... Your energy circulates your body through your blood?- I could almost hear the silent smile in those words.
With an ominous feeling coming from the core I gulped and answered -Yes? I-I think?-
The creatures over me seemed to wriggle and writhe on me.
the tendril pulled itself out of my head with a chilling and wet fwop I hoped whatever this core decided to do was not going to kill me.
an additional three tendrils emerged from the core, as I was flopped on my back, the tendrils Imbedded themselves into my limbs, the pain turned off from the same sensation as I felt my veins pump with thickened consistency, the sphere of red slowly shrunk as the tendrils pumped a red ichor into me My veins flooded with first a flaring sensation, like I was an overly full sack of blood.
Second came a profound sense of longing, like there was something missing, my-or now the core's blood I suppose, circulated, warped and deformed.
as this happened the animals nearby began to shake and peel apart, turning into a pale blue mist that began to sink into my body, like I was a sponge.
the blood sped up even faster, as the blood began to abandon my limbs, I felt a hardening of my heart, in a more literal sense.
It was painful, really painful, Like if It was anywhere else It probably would have exploded from internal pressure.
Unfortunately for me, or perhaps fortunately for me, the process was forced to happen without explosive decompression, I slowly lost more and more feeling in my chest.
then I passed out.
------- core's perspective -------
-this damned humanoid!!! IT TRICKED ME!!!!!-
Unfortunately for the scarlet core, whom wished so bad to consume Roland's pathetic mind.
Only for that one accursed question to become it's undoing.
-so... Your energy circulates your body through your blood?- I had asked with barely hidden joy.
Blood was the easiest to manipulate, It was probably why I could manipulate his energy so easily.
As he replied this across the mindlink, I withdrew the mindlink and began the merging process with the humanoid.
Piercing him at strategic points, I poured my gem into his pathetic mortal body, completely undeserving of the pure mana fluid My body was made of.
that is where everything when wrong.
The mana in his body was unrefined and naturally flowing like he had no control at the slightest.
Then It hit me, he didn't, and his childish whimpers about his blood 'probably' circulating his power were just that, conjectures he had from the experience of powering magical effects directly with blood.
Painted even harder when I made the tug to his mana.
he genuinely believed that his blood contained his mana, but had no idea how to use it in this state.
worst of all for me at this moment, I had put myself into his body and since he had no knowledge to stop the movement of his mana, his natural and independent mana, discovering the abnormality decided to force it's convergence into the heart of his body.
probably since it could roughly tell that purging wasn't going to work.
------------------------- Later
I awoke to a dull pain in my chest as all of the creature the mana core generated had vanished the core itself has vanished!
I reach out my hands happily unbound
My blood feels thicker than usual but that may just the repair of my skin and the seeming way my body overcame the excess of energy.
Once again I tried to pull or tease out any vestige of the energy that the core pulled out of my body so easily, but nothing.
Of course, this was to be expected, the actual effect that was applied to me was an energy drain to incentivise my attempts at manipulation and with the natural properties of the energy heal myself.
Everything after that was a mystery.
I assume the mana sphere wanted to incarnate with my body, but why I csn move without impairment confuses and concerns me.
For the moment I didn't worry about it, crawling out of the burrow and tracing my path which I made in panic.
By the time I was back at my hole I was tired hungery and thirsty.
------ day 7 ------ of 730 ------