"Chris..."
"Chris!"
Aston shouted as he shook my shoulders. This somehow felt familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. I opened my eyes and turned to looked at him. Before I could actually get up or open my mouth, he grabbed me for a magnificent bear hug.
"Thank god that you're alright Chris! I was so worried that you will never wake up again. Are you feeling alright? Do you feel weird in any places? Do you remember what happened?"
I couldn't answer his bombardment of questions, so I took my time and asked one of my own,
"Calm down, let me first ask you; Why are you naked?"
My question caught Aston by surprise. He became slightly flustered before deciding to ignore my question and made me answer his first.
"You don't remember what happened?"
Just before my voice could escape my throat, I heard a voice in my head,
"Here is a little parting gift. Enjoy."
I couldn't understand what the voice was talking about. What gift could it be? Instead of obtaining an answer to my question, a terrible headache was what I got.
"Huh? Wha- Argh!? My head!?"
Aston kept me from falling back to the ground as I tried to stand up. He had became more worried as compared to before. The headache eased when the memories of what happened stopped flowing in. Tears flowed down my face as I turned to Aston and said,
"I'm sorry. I remembered what happened now. Everything happened because of me and you had to suffer so much for it. You even risked your life for me."
Aston’s expression softened and he replied,
"You did the same for me too."
I hugged him as I cried, my gratitude towards him overflowing the bounds of my heart. After I cried my heart out, I helped him to re-equip his armor and started discussion of our next step.
"He just up and left after torturing you and telling you 'the nightmare has only just begun'? Does that mean that he will appear again?"
"Highly probable. I was blindfolded most of the time after being bonded. I don't have a clear idea on what happened. Could you look back at the memories that was given to you for any clues?"
"He seemed to be using us for his experiments and had succeeded in it. Could it have something to do with his body since you killed it?"
I inferred and my theory was accepted by Aston. We decided to continue with our extermination request and redecide our plans once it was completed. The only preventive measure we had was to look out for each others, hoping to not fall into his control again.
-----
From the viewpoint of the MC:
I released my control of the elf after I was satisfied with my experiments. Now that I'm no longer in control of a single body, I could not make use of my [Spores Emission] skill anymore.
Other than the [Spores Emission] skill, all my other skills within the tree remained usable. My spores creature limit was lifted as there were neither intelligence to reduce nor wisdom to increase in this state.
StatusName:???Title:???Race:ParasiteGender:???Level:2Experience:23%Stats Point:5Class:Spores MasterHealth:NILMana:NILHealth regen:NILMana regen:NILStrength:NILIntelligence:NILDexterity:NILWisdom:NILVitality:NILWillpower:NILAttack:NILDefence:NIL
Skills
Class Trees
Spores Controlling [lvl 23]
-Spores Emission(Active)
-Spores Detection(Toggle/Passive)
-Spores Identification(Passive)
Other Skills
Unique Passive Information Processing(Passive)[2793]
For the continued usage of spores controlling skills, you have gained a level in [Spores Controller]. [Spores Controller] is now at level 22.
You have gained a level, giving you 5 stats points to spend.
For the continued usage of spores controlling skills, you have gained a level in [Spores Controller]. [Spores Controller] is now at level 23.
I didn’t noticed that I had leveled up. That could have been due to the contamination of Aston. It seemed the most reasonable for that to increase my skill level by two. There was also stats point gained through levelling up, but there wasn’t an options to make use of them. I noticed that my race had changed its display from ‘???’ to ‘Parasite’. I could’ve made a good guess that that was the case since I figured out how my spores worked.
"What should I do now? I guess I could make use of all my spores to have a better view of the world."
I spent half of the day doing that and found out interesting information regarding what was going on within the forest.
There was a party of 3 to the north of Chris and Aston, heading in the same direction as them. They would meet soon after as Chris and Aston were moving faster than the party. Since I wasn't able to use [Spores Identification] to confirm, I could only guess what they were from their looks. One of them wore leather clothing with daggers on his belt. The second one don heavy armor and held a long sword. The last one was totally covered from head to toe with a black robe. From what I had seen, they seemed to be Human.
To the far south of the forest, a short distance from the cities, there were a group of lumberjacks. They seemed to need the wood urgently considering how fast they were cutting the trees down.
I set my point of interest onto these 3 areas, closing off my senses to spores creatures in other areas. I decided that it was about time for me to possess a body again, so I focused my attention back onto the party of 2. They were continuing their journey undaunted, unknowing to the fact that their every movement were being watched by me.
My target to possess was Chris since I had taken over him once and could get used to his body better. While concentrating on possessing him, a message popped up,
As the willpower of the target is stronger than your intelligence could handle, you are unable to successfully possess him.
I stared at the message in shock for a few moments before trying again. I had not succeeded even after ten minutes had passed. Every single attempt failed and the same message appeared each time. I turned my attention to Aston, whom I believed would be harder to possess due to his racial passive. I didn't manage to take control of him either.
"Shit! The nightmare that I spoke of was for myself! Argh, how do I get a body when I had only contaminated those two and I couldn’t even take control of them!?"
"Damn, maybe I have to wait until they are feeling weak mentally. Maybe it would be easier when they are asleep?"
That was my only idea on a possible reduction in willpower from them. Night was only 3 hours away so I bid my time and gathered more information with my spores creatures.
By the time they were asleep, I had already ran out of patience. I tried to possess Chris before turning to Aston. Like before, it didn't work. Before I broke down into frustration once more, I noticed something abnormal happening at the party of 3’s campsite.
The dagger and sword wielding men had fallen asleep. The man in robe was kneeling beside the roguelike equipped man. From within his robe, a single dagger that shined like black jewel was produced. He raised it high above the sleeping figure before stabbing it down, through the guts of the sleeping man. For unknown reasons, the stabbing motion produced no sound. The other man continued his sleep, unaware of the murder that was committed. After ensuring that the rogue had no chance for survival, the robed man did the same for the warrior. It wasn't difficult to kill him when he had no chance of retaliation.
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The weirdest part to all this was that he just up and left, taking nothing other than himself and the obsidian dagger he produced from his robe. For what reason would he have killed his companions? He was an element of danger and needed to be taken note of. I responded accordingly and changed the target of observation from the party of 3 to the robed man as he was the only one left alive.
I ignored him temporarily and continued seeking for success in the possession. It never worked thus far but the action gave experience, increasing the level of [Spores Controlling] to 24. I noticed shortly after the level up that the robed man was walking towards where the elf and dwarf were. He had a clear purpose in his directions.
I worried for what could happen. If he were to kill the two just as he did his companions, would I never be able to obtain a body forever? I didn't want to take that risk and so I strived harder than before for the succession of possessing Chris. I thought that it was already too late when he walked out of the treelines, towards Chris. My possession finally worked when he was towering above Chris.
You have succeeded in possession of your target. As this was not the first time you possessed the target, your stats penalty have been reduced to 10% from 20%.
StatusName:Chris Bleufost(???)Title:None(???)Race:Elf(Parasite)Gender:Male(???)Level:7(2)Experience:37.8%(23%)Stats Point:0(5)Class:Swordman(Spores Master)Health:110/110Mana:110/110Health regen:1.1/sMana regen:1.1/sStrength:24(21)Intelligence:12(10)Dexterity:16(14)Wisdom:13(11)Vitality:13(11)Willpower:12(10)Attack:11-25Defence:15
Skills
Class Trees
Swordsmanship[Level 13](locked)
-Sword Mastery[Passive]
-Slash[Active]
-Stab[Active]
-Parry[Active/Passive]
Racial Skills
One with Nature[Passive](locked)
Effect
Infected(Indefinite)
Possessed(5 hours 39 minutes)
I waited while acting asleep and observed the robed man with my spores creature’s eyes. Just as he was starting his stabbing motion, multiple actions was done. I used my left palm to stop his hand holding the dagger, right hand to grab the sword next to me, and toggled on [Spores Emission] for the moment.
He jumped away after I slashed at him with the sword in my right hand. The attack was dodged but the spores I released earlier succeeded in infiltrating his body. My slash hit the dirt as I put in too much strength, producing enough noise to wake Aston up.
I looked at the status of the robed man while he was planning his next move.
StatusName:Cliff BlakeshTitle:SandmanRace:HumanGender:MaleLevel:10Experience:97%Class:ShadowHealth:140/140Mana:120/120Health regen:1.4/sMana regen:1.2/sStrength:20Intelligence:18Dexterity:39Wisdom:12Vitality:14Willpower:17Attack:31-31Defence:15
Skills
Class Tree
Assassination[Level 27]
-Backstab[Passive]
-Gouge[Active]
-Sneak[Passive]
Shadow Manipulation[Level 3]
-Blend In[Passive]
It seemed that the reason for him to step back held more meaning than to gain distances. He wanted to make use of [Blend In]'s effect, which I could easily guess. It didn't work on me as I was able to sense his location with my spores.
By now, Aston could roughly figure out what was happening. He quickly don his armor and picked up his axe. He couldn’t spot the assaulter due to the effect of [Blend In]. I shouted to Aston my plans,
"Just stand still. Move when I shout!"
He nodded. The assaulter did not know of my abilities, but he was wary of me. Deciding that the dwarf would be the easier target, he dashed silently to the dwarf's right while remaining in the shadows.
I acted like I was unaware and continued staring at the spot he was in.
"Right!"
In response to my command, Aston swung his axe towards his right.
Due to inertia, he couldn’t stop in time to avoid the axe. He used his dagger in an attempt to parry only to get knocked back. Knowing that that would happen, I ran towards where he was getting knocked back to before it could even happen. I reached him and did my best to pin him down.
I had some difficulty in keeping him pinned as he struggled till Aston arrived. His struggles had became pointless. Two people who were stronger than him individually were more than enough to kept him from moving.
"Hold him there Aston, I'll infect him. Then it would be over."
"Infect? Wait, you're-! Never mind. We'll talk when this is over."
I proceeded to concentrate spores into the assaulter's body. He went from anger, to shock, then fear; All in the short moments it took for him to choke on my spores. I didn't stop forcing spores into him even after he was infected. I kept on feeding it to him until his health reached zero. And then a message popped up.
For exposing an infected target with spores until death, you are able to take over the body.
Ecstasy colored my face as i concentrated hard on taking over his body. I succeeded in barely a second with Chris waking up in his own body.
"Unhand me Aston"
I commanded with my deep rumbling voice. Seemly shocked by the changed situation, it took him a moment to comply. Chris had fully woken up by then and did the same. Letting go of the arms that now belonged to me.
-----
Author’s Notes: Thanks for reading another chapter :D. Does the chapter answered some of your questions? If anything needs clarification, please do ask(I’ll try to avoid spoiler though). The next chapter will be up either by next Monday or Tuesday.
Constructive criticism will be appreciated.