Under the candlelight, Ark ate in silence, hungrily devouring the meat as his body gave in to the seemingly insatiable hunger.
From opposite ends of the table, the baroness and her knight Welkin, both looking on in silence as they focused on Ark who paid them no mind despite coming out of his room to join them.
Ark didn't intend to be rude, rather he was preoccupied by the meal and the see-through screen in front of his face.
Is it just me or are these stats very low? Ark lamented, focused on his stats.
[EXP: 0.2/100]
-[HP: 25/25]
[Phoenix Points: 0]
[Stats]
-[STR: 7]
-[DEX: 5]
-[VIT: 5]
-[WILL: 18]
-[SENS: 7]
“This is a representation of your current form. Your host is weak ergo, so are you.”
Ark's eyes drifted to the experience.
So even eating can gain me experience? Ark sent to Soliloquy as he quickly realized he was gaining experience for every chicken drum he finished.
“The tapestry of time is interwoven of all things. Consuming another is the most efficient method of taking their time, the fresher the prey, the more ‘exp’ you can obtain if you eat them instead of perversely playing with your food.”
Ark paused, sensing a hint of disgust from the Phoenix.
You think cooking is us playing with our food? Ark replied through their mind link.
“Is it not? Only humanoids take the time to pretty up and desecrate corpses with other corpses.”
Ark frowned, a sudden image of himself gorging on a corpse.
How does this work if your my familiar? Don't you need to eat?
“Phoenix physiology is sustained by the chronology of other species. As your familiar, I subsume from the essence of time you collect, so I need not hunt myself.”
So… you're a parasite…
“Symbiote. You are the tether that binds my consciousness to this plane and I, your talons. You would do well to correct your tone with me monkey, I find it… wearisome. Do not mistake my patience for weakness.”
Ark sighed, setting down his utensils. He didn't want to admit it, but he was being intentionally rude. After five years of hunting the beast, he was still wrapping his mind around everything that had transpired.
You're right. Still getting over the fact that we're not trying to kill each other… Ark sent back, his thoughts turning to the years of conflict shared between the two.
“The feeling is mutual. But for this relationship to prosper, we must be at the very least amicable to one another.”
“Master Loyd.”
Ark looked up, turning his attention to the maid girl waiting patiently beside him.
Vermel, a slave who was in charge of food preparation for House Fey. An oddity Ark found curious but didn't comment on as to not elicit unwanted attention.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
At five six, Vermel was a young woman with thick black curly hair and a slim figure. Not very noticeable at a distance but she had a bookish charm about her which, mixed with her thick rim glasses made Ark look twice.
“Would you like more?” The woman asked in a refined and polite manner. If not for the brand she had around her neck, Ark would have thought she was a simple servant.
“Yes please,” Ark said, sending the girl away with his empty plate, his eyes tracking the woman who was both skilled in cooking and etiquette.
How is it House Fey can afford high quality servants but live in squalor? Ark wondered.
“It's good to see your appetite is back,” Lady Fey said, a soft smile on her pale face.
“Just very hungry is all…” Ark replied as Vermil returned with a plate of food. “Is it fine if I eat in my room?”
“By all means,” The baroness said with Ark rising as Welkin moved to help the woman from her chair.
“Thank you for the meal,” Ark said to Vermil whose ears seemed to twitch in response.
Leaving the trio behind, Ark quickly asconded to his room, leaving the plate on a nearby dresser as he surveyed his filthy dwelling with a chicken drum in his mouth.
“I dislike the odor in here.”
“Trust me, the feeling is mutual,” Ark said, kicking a moldy object of unknown origin away. “Might as well get some exercise in.”
Ark moved, picking up various clothes, pushing trash into a pillowcase, and stacking books until he came to a textbook labeled Ki 101.
A feeling of scorn and forelonging bubbled up in Ark as his hand subconsciously tightened around the moldy cover of the book.
“Princess Winterfell huh…” Ark muttered before eyeing himself in a nearby mirror and the uniform he still wore.
“I can sense your scheming monkey.”
“Because I am… I think I have my way to get at Roland,” Ark said, the expression on his face insidious in nature. “Fortunately this host is a noble. If I ascend the ranks, I can get close and kill him.”
“You make it seem so simple,” Soliloquy chirped, materializing atop a desk where she began pecking and dragging pieces of paper into a pile.
“It won't be,” Ark said as he stood in front of the mirror and examined his scrawny body. He made a fist, his shaking hand a far cry from a symbol of strength. “Whoever Loyd Fey was, he's gone. And he has to become Ark Light. Both in mind and in body. I'll use House Fey as my stepping stone and infiltrate the noble circles, rebuild this fallen House and use it as a front for my operations.”
“I see…” Soliloquy said, sitting upon a nest made of discarded paper. “However a too grandiose show of things may attract unwanted attention.”
“That's why I'll work in secret, learn everything I need to know about Loyd and live his life. Fortunately a near death experience is just the excuse needed to justify such drastic changes,” Ark said as he took a break from cleaning and began undressing until he was naked.
“Huh… not bad,” Ark said, looking at his naked form. Although he was scrawny, he had the bones to build something better.
Turning away from his emaciated appearance, Ark closed his eyes, sitting in silence as he turned his attention inward and began circulating his ki through all forty-one of his body's arteries.
With his circuits fried and necrotic from poison and neglect, if Ark wanted to use ki he was left with little choice than to purge his body of the impurities and rewrite his internal circuitry.
A feat that would take time and concentrated effort.
Fortunately his body wasn't completely ineffective at welding ki, but it was sluggish, and unwieldy. However, what energy that answered his call was just enough to scrub away at the stagnant magicil particles that lay dormant within him.
Ark winced, feeling the pain of his nerves reacting to the flush of ki and dead cells reawakening.
Fire spread through Ark’s body, his heart beat rising as his toes clenched and his body locked up.
“Shit… I forgot how much doing this hurts!” Ark hissed as Soliloquy chirped, the tiny chicken nestled in her nest and shaking violently in reaction to Ark’s pain.
The last time Ark had done this was when he had been summoned to this world and taught to clear his pathways by Jasper.
As a human from earth, his entire body had been clogged by impurities brought on by living in a modern world of micro plastics and pollution.
In order to fulfill his duty as a hero, Ark had been taught to purge these impurities before he was collared and branded, shackled before he could become more of a threat.
But this time… this time he had no restrictions.
Ark groaned, his body heating up with sweat rapidly coating his nude body.
Mastery of external magicil known as mana labeled a person a magician while the utilization of internal magicil known as ki made one a knight. The combination of both, while rare, labeled the few gifted with such an ability as magic knights.
In Ark’s previous life, he was a knight, a powerful one at that but magic had always eluded him. But with Soliloquy's help, If Ark was going to get justice, he would do so in this life as a magic knight.
Suddenly the pain began to drastically fade, his muscles contracting as acidic black slime oozed from Ark’s pours.
The impurities slid down Ark's skin like tar, running down and collecting in the bed sheet where it stained them black.
Ark opened his eyes, his breathing clearer, body lighter, and vision feeling better as he eyed his system screen that he quickly learned he could close and open at will.
[Stats]
-[STR: 8]
-[DEX: 6]
-[VIT: 8]
-[WILL: 18]
-[SENS: 8]
Ark eyed the increase in his stats, a tangible reward for shedding the poison clogging his body.
“Nice…” Ark muttered, sensing the faint hum of ki coursing through his body before his shoulders slumped and his eyes closed from the exertion.