《Bloody New World》


 Prologue: Beginning

    It was a normal day on Earth, the sun was up over half the world while the other half slept under the moonlight. Some places were freezing cold, while others were blisteringly hot, some places were being showered with raindrops while other places had a clear, blue sky with a nice wind blowing. Just another normal day on Earth¡­.


    On this seemingly normal day, a man living in London found out that he could heal himself! Apparently he just cut himself with a knife and the cut healed itself within seconds! He tried again and again but no matter how deep the cut, it would heal itself quickly. a miracle!


    A woman living in Jerusalem suddenly started hearing things VERY loudly. She tried to cover her ears, but the sound somehow got through. She could hear the engines of cars running miles away, the feet of ants hitting the floor of her house, the conversations of everyone in her building. She screamed and screamed, but the sounds didn¡¯t stop¡­


    A shopping mall in Dubai suddenly erupted with the sounds of fire alarms ringing. A man had seemingly caught fire! But the strange thing was, no matter how much he burned, he seemed absolutely fine. His body was covered in flames, but he was still calmly walking around as if nothing had happened.


    People all over the world were being subjected to strange things, some were starting to fly while others were starting to move objects with their minds! There were some who could turn invisible, some who could lift cars with a single hand and some who could even control the weather!


    What had been a normal day on Earth quickly turned around to a day full of chaos. Every single human, male or female, old or newborn, rich or poor, healthy or sick¡­ every single one of them now had some kind of an ¡®ability¡¯ that allowed them to do things previously considered impossible.


    Two days later, while humans were still coming to terms with all this craziness, animals and plants started getting abilities too! Some animals could breathe fire, some sprouted wings and others grew up to an enormous size that towered over houses! Plants, not wanting to be left behind, started moving about on their roots, some started growing strange and mysterious flowers while some actually started conversing with humans!


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    People were in an uproar! Imagine yourself getting superhero-like abilities and being able to have a pet the stuff of dreams! They all were giddy with excitement! But all good things must come to an end¡­ and the end did come¡­


    Two days after the animals and plants got their abilities, they started going berserk. Pets ripped off their owners throats while they slept, wild animals with abilities started attacking any human they could see, plants started releasing toxins and poisons into the air that killed millions while trees that were previously conversing with humans started moving about and covered entire buildings with vines and crushing them!


    Humans were in chaos, but they fought back, their new abilities helping them out immensely. With their technology, mainly guns and bombs, humans killed off countless animals and plants and started getting the upper hand again¡­ Alas, this small resistance also came to an end.


    Two days after the animals and plants went berserk, the monsters arrived. The stuff of games and legends: minotaurs, goblins, imps, skeletons, zombies, dragons, giant snakes, enormous birds etc etc¡­ These monsters came and wrecked havoc everywhere. Killing anything and everything in sight, whether it be Earth animals or Earth humans, or even other monsters, they killed on sight. Survival of the fittest, kill or be killed, those were the rules now.


    Mysteriously, with the arrival of monsters all technology also collapsed. Cars shut down, mobiles and TVs refused to work, all computers went down, artificial lights went out, even guns and bombs created with technology no longer worked! Crude weapons like knives and swords and their new abilities were the only way for the humans to fight back. Without any forms of communication or their advanced weapons, naturally humans were killed in the billions.


    Many religions believed that the world was made in 7 days, and this ¡®apocalypse¡¯ felt like it was mocking our religions. 1st day people got abilities, 3rd day plants and animals got them, 5th day plants and animals went berserk and the 7th day was when hell started. In just 7 days the world as we knew it ended.


    Will humanity survive in this changed world? Only time will tell¡­

 Chapter One: Drinking blood? Sounds cool!

    There I was, browsing through the ¡®latest updates¡¯ on the Royal Road website, to see if there were any new chapters from the countless novels I read there, or if there are any new interesting looking entries. Hmmm¡­ Nothing that strikes interest... *Yawn*


    Looking at the time I saw it was 3:23am. I guess I should go to sleep now. Closing down the latest updates tab I opened up facebook, just a force of habit. I like to go through vines or funny videos for 10-15 minutes before I go to sleep, helps me relax.


    I went on facebook, no notifications, obviously, I haven¡¯t updated anything in my profile for over an year, and I don¡¯t bother with commenting on posting on others pictures/statuses¡­ Why bother? It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t have any friends, I am actually quite popular. But I just like to be alone, don¡¯t bother me and I won¡¯t bother you.


    I ignored all posts from my friends as usual, and just browsed through videos. Huh¡­ What¡¯s this? ¡°Man in Dubai Mall catches fire, but doesn¡¯t burn! Unbelievable!¡±


    When the fuck did this happen? I have visited Dubai Mall, so I opened up the video as I was interested to see what all this was about.


    ¡­¡­


    WHAT THE FUCK?!?!


    There was a man walking around casually¡­ ON FIRE! People were screaming and alarms were ringing, the sprinklers were on but they couldn¡¯t do anything about the fire covering the man! But instead of screaming his head off with the pain, or trying to get the fire out, the man in question was simply staring at his hands which were on fire with a bewildered look on his face. The 3 minute video ended with the fire simply vanishing leaving the man without a single burn on his body! As I said¡­ WHAT THE FUCK!!


    I looked through the comments and the top comment was: ¡°Like if you all love these new abilities.¡± Huh¡­?


    The second comment was, ¡°Damn I wish I had a fire ability! All I got was a useless ability that lets me observe things... pfft! Comment your abilities below!¡± Again¡­ huh??


    Third comment: ¡°Like if you still don¡¯t know what your ability is!¡±


    The hell is this shit?? Ability ability ability¡­ Everywhere I look people are talking about abilities.


    That does it¡­ when in doubt: Google!


    The next hour was¡­ crazy to say the least. I got my mind blown over and over again.


    Apparently, people all over the world somehow got one ability each, no one knows how or where the abilities come from, all anyone knows is millions and millions of people all over the world have these abilities now, with the number increasing every second. The reason why the number keeps increasing is because people keep discovering what they can do now. It seems you have to discover what your ability is yourself, and when you do your mind will tell you that you have discovered it and some information about what you can do now.


    I also somehow ended up on Youtube and watched a lot of videos of people showing off their new found abilities. Social media and the internet were going crazy. Needless to say I was going crazy too!


    First thing¡¯s first, I gotta find my own ability! With my heart pumping and excitement filling my mind, I got off my bed and opened up my bag, took out a notebook and a pen and jumped back in. My plan: to make a list of all abilities I can think of and  try to ¡®do¡¯ them one by one to see which one is mine. As for why I am using a pen and paper to list down and not just simply listing it down on my laptop or mobile, it¡¯s because I prefer paper over screens. Call me old-fashioned or whatever, but unlike everyone else in my generation I don¡¯t like technology much...


    I opened up my notebook and flipped through the pages¡­ a little too fast¡­ OUCH!! FUUUUUCCCCKKKKK!!!


    A MOTHERFUCKING PAPER CUT!! AAAAHHHHH!!!


    I am no softie, but a paper cut HURTS! It¡¯s like the paper cuts through to your very soul!


    I put my slightly bleeding finger in my mouth and sucked a bit to stop the bleeding¡­ and suddenly¡­


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    Congratulations, you have found your ability. Congratulations, you have a unique ability! Your ability is absorption. By drinking the blood of others you can absorb their powers and use them as your own. You can absorb an indefinite number of abilities, but be careful! Once you absorb an ability you can never delete it again! Good luck!


    ¡­¡­


    ¡­¡­


    ¡­..


    What¡­.?


    That was my voice I just heard¡­ in my mind! An emotionless and somehow robotic version of my voice, but nonetheless it was my voice. And what was it that ¡®I¡¯ told myself¡­? My new ability is being able to absorb the abilities of others by drinking their blood¡­? WHAT. THE. FUCK!


    This all seems too surreal¡­ I have to go back to my trusty friend: google.


    I searched ¡°How do you know what your ability is?¡± and found out that what happened to me was pretty much how it was supposed to be. You somehow have to find your ability, by accident or on purpose, and your own voice will tell you in your mind what the ability is and a little information on the ability.


    Next I searched for ¡°Unique abilities¡± and found out what I was expecting: Unique abilities are, as their name suggests, unique. Only one person in the entire world population can have a particular unique ability. So far 3 people with unique abilities have been discovered, and the 3 abilities are: Invincibility, control and morphing.


    Invincibility makes the person invincible, nothing can hurt the guy no matter what you do. Control gives the person control over everything, the elements, the weather and even control over people! Morphing makes the person able to morph into anything they desire, and they will get the abilities of whatever form they morph into. So if the person morphs into a fish, breathing underwater will be possible but staying on the land will kill you. If the person morphs into another person, they will be able to use that person¡¯s ability till they are in that form.


    TOO OP! These unique abilities are too overpowered!!


    Hmmm¡­ Now that I think about it, my absorption ability is overpowered too isn¡¯t it? Come to think of it, if I met these 3 unique ability people I could absorb their abilities too! There¡¯s just the small matter of drinking their blood¡­ Let¡¯s push that thought aside for now¡­


    But seriously, my ability is just too much. And I don¡¯t even know much about it! Will I get diseases from drinking blood or will this ability of mine stop that from happening? How much blood do I have to drink, will a drop do or do I have to drink more? My power is called absorption, does that mean I absorb the abilities of others and take it away from them or will they still be able to use their abilities even after I have ¡®absorbed¡¯ them? Do I have to drink blood from people while they are still alive or will drinking blood from dead bodies do?


    Ok¡­ the last question makes me sick. Seriously¡­ why does this ability come with me having to drink blood?!?


    Alright, calm down. Let¡¯s think about this logically. People now have abilities that basically enables them to become superheroes. People are also generally assholes, which means most of the people will try to use these new abilities for their own personal gains. There will most probably be people who band together and use their abilities to cause chaos, it¡¯s only a matter of time before this happens.


    This means that I have a much better chance of being able to avoid all the chaos compared to others, but for that I need to absorb abilities as quickly as possible. I have to take advantage of the calm right now while people are still figuring things out.


    So what if I have to drink some blood every now and then? It¡¯s at least a break from all the boring non-stop days of me going to the university, pretending to be happy among my ¡®friends¡¯, coming home and reading novels or watching TV-series etc.


    I have to drink blood to get stronger huh¡­? I think things are about to become very interesting¡­

 Chapter Two: Useful Family

    Author''s note: I really didn''t expect a rating so early, but thank you very much to AlicePandora for the rating! :) I hope you won''t have to change the rating in the future due to a lack in my writing skills.


    If anyone is wondering why I am writing this instead of my other fiction (Real life in a Virtual World) then please go to: http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=47852


    As explained there I have no intentions of dropping that fiction, I am merely taking a break till March so that I am done with my exams. Meanwhile I am writing this fiction so that I may improve my writing skills and be able to write both the stories much better. Therefore if anyone has any criticisms or suggestions, please do feel free to point them out.


    Hope you guys like this chapter.


    _________________________________________


    I looked at the time and it was 5:44am. More than two hours have passed by since I first found out about these new abilities. So much has happened in these mere 2 hours, the entire world has basically changed! And most of the people around me are still deep in sleep without even knowing what¡¯s happening!


    Speaking of people around me¡­ my family are in the house! It¡¯s the Christmas and New Year holidays, and we are all gathered in my parent¡¯s house. I had almost forgotten that I wasn¡¯t in my own tiny little apartment.


    This provides me with a great opportunity, doesn¡¯t it? My family are all deep in sleep so I can sneak around and take a bit of their blood and see what abilities I can acquire and experiment a bit. If they wake up¡­ I can pretend to be sleepwalking¡­ I guess¡­? Whatever, I¡¯ll think of something when and if that happens.


    I got out of my bed and slowly opened up the door, but then I shut it again. What am I doing? I don¡¯t know how my abilities work at all, what if I take away my own family member¡¯s abilities and they are left in this new world that is guaranteed to fall into chaos without any ability to defend themselves with?


    Hmm¡­ Experiment on family members or not¡­?


    Oh what the hell, let¡¯s just do it!


    Wait, am I really about to experiment on my own family? Doesn¡¯t that make me some kind of a monster? Let¡¯s think about this for a second...


    Logically speaking, this is the right way to go. If I am to survive the inevitable chaos that will follow, I need abilities. As such, I can¡¯t guarantee I will be able to get blood from somewhere outside without actually harming others, forcing them to give up their blood or outright killing them for the blood. I am not a person who will just go outside and harm random strangers for their abilities unless I have to. Plus, I am not going to go hack away at my family members, I¡¯m just going to prick them with a needle and see if I can get something from a drop of blood.


    Okay, I guess that makes some sense¡­ But if I¡¯m not a monster I am at least selfish as I am only thinking about myself and not others. This is always the case for me, I think with my mind and not my heart unlike most people, I don¡¯t even believe I feel emotions, or if I do, they are extremely weak almost to the point of not actually existing.


    I suddenly thought about my grandfather. My grandfather died in 2014. He was born in 1924, and he was a few months away from being 90 years old when he died. He was blind in one eye, couldn¡¯t see very well with the other, had trouble hearing, had trouble walking¡­ basically had a lot of trouble doing anything. As one would expect from a person so old¡­


    Now, he passed away extremely peacefully. He went as usual at 5pm to his bed for a nap, and simply never woke up. When we went later to wake him up for dinner, he had simply passed away in his sleep. No noise was heard, no pained expression was on his face, nothing but passing away peacefully in his sleep.


    Everyone was sad and crying at his death, and I just couldn¡¯t understand why they were sad when instead they should be happy. My grandfather was a person who liked his independence, and he couldn¡¯t bear it that he had to rely on others to move about and do daily tasks that others could do easily. He was also in pain in recent years, and he had to eat a whole bunch of medicines for this and that. He found release from all his hardships by dying without even feeling anything, such a nice way to die.


    Everyone will die eventually. No matter who you are, death will come. So why be sad when my grandfather died a death most people would pray for? They should have been happy instead that he died so peacefully. I wanted to smile at his death, but alas I couldn¡¯t. Why? Because if I did then I would be labelled as a psychopath. Therefore I simply pretended to be sad along with everyone else, it was easy. I act daily to seem ¡®normal¡¯ in front of everyone anyway.


    Snapping myself back from my memories, I forced myself to get back to the point. I have to go and drink the blood of my family¡­


    Okay that totally did sound like I am an actual psychopath¡­ whatever, don¡¯t care.


    Opening the door for the second time, I went downstairs and got a needle from my mother¡¯s sewing supplies. Moving back up, I went straight for my brother¡¯s room. He was the deepest sleeper in the family, and I am sure I can prick the guy without him waking up.


    Opening his door I found him snoring as usual, with a small lamp on to give some light. I don¡¯t know how he sleeps with a light on, I can¡¯t fall asleep even if the tiniest of lights comes through from below the crack of the door...


    I casually walked up to him, his snoring masking any noise my footsteps would have made. I slowly lifted up the covers, thankfully he doesn¡¯t sleep naked, and pricked his hand. A drop of blood appeared in the tiny hole my needle made while my brother kept on snoring. He is a seriously deep sleeper, we have to shout and shake him to actually wake him up so a tiny prick on his hand doesn¡¯t even faze him.


    Now for the disgusting part, I touched my finger on the spot with the blood and quickly put it in my mouth. Better to quickly get this over with instead of thinking about what I¡¯m doing¡­


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    The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth and I quickly swallowed before I felt like vomiting. I stood there waiting for something to happen¡­. a minute passed¡­ 2 minutes¡­ still nothing. Dammit!


    Seems like a drop doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯ll have to go back to my room and think of what to do next. I covered my snoring idiot brother again and left the room, making my way back to my own bed.


    I sat down on my bed deep in thought. If a drop doesn¡¯t work then this complicates things. Forget the part where I will now have to drink more blood to actually get abilities, I will now most probably also have to injure others to get a lot of blood or I will have to get syringes to take out blood from others. But just how much do I need to drink? Why isn¡¯t there a guide of some sort! It would have been so useful if¡­.


    Wait a second¡­ Am I being a complete idiot? I expected something to happen that signified that I have absorbed an ability, I actually expected the mind voice to appear again. But that doesn¡¯t necessarily have to be true. It might be the same as with how you have to find out yourself what kind of ability you have before the voice speaks in your mind. Will I have to go through all possible abilities trying to find out what I have absorbed? I could simply wait a bit and let others find out their own abilities and then I would know what I am absorbing. That won¡¯t always work either, sure family and friends might tell me freely what ability they have but strangers probably won¡¯t trust me at first and will probably refuse to tell me their ability.


    *Yawn*


    I think I¡¯ll sleep on it. I¡¯ll have to think of a solution tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I could find out what abilities my family have by encouraging them to try doing everything possible.


    With those thoughts, I laid on the bed and drifted off to dreamland¡­ Or I would have if not for the sudden interruption..


    Blood successfully absorbed. Drinking a larger amount of blood will make absorption process much quicker.


    Ability absorbed: flight. You can now fly. Congratulations! Be careful of air traffic.


    AWESOME!


    All my sleep suddenly vanished and I jumped off the bed. I tried picturing myself floating in the air¡­ and it worked! I AM FLYING!!!


    That lucky asshole got the ability to fly! Lucky me too I guess! WOOHOOO!


    Resisting the urge to shout at the top of my lungs and immediately go outside, I contented myself with taking a few laps around my room while floating. It was surprisingly easy to do, I just thought what I wanted to do and it happened. Like how I can move my hand without actually thinking much about it¡­? Can¡¯t really explain it but it just happened naturally¡­


    Putting the thoughts of flying aside for now, I quickly picked up the needle and went out the room again. I managed to prick both my sisters and parents without them waking up, although my parents, being the light sleepers that they are, did stir a bit. But no one woke up, thankfully. I drank the blood of everyone and quickly moved back to my bed, and then waited excitedly! I ended up getting these messages from ¡®mind-me¡¯:


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Observation. You can now observe things with much greater detail, enabling you to see things many others would miss.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Disease resistance. You will now be more resistant to diseases and the chances of you falling sick are decreased.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Pain resistance. You will now be more resistant to pain and can carry on work while ignoring more pain then before.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Stamina increase. You now have an increased stamina, allowing you to do physical tasks for much longer without having to take a break.


    Okay¡­


    Not the best of abilities that I could have asked for but it¡¯s not bad. Disease and pain resistance obviously will help. My stamina is shit, so an increase in that is always welcome. Observing things in more detail could also help me a lot by seeing things I won¡¯t normally see. All in all, not bad.


    The strange thing is that all these abilities are somehow related to my family members. My eldest sister is always more observant then others, my other sister doesn¡¯t get sick too often, my father has had pain in his back and right leg for a seriously long time, but that has never stopped him from doing any work, and finally my mother keeps on working from day to night 7 days a week, she just can¡¯t sit down.


    So if all these abilities are related to how my family members usually live¡­ what about the abilities from me and my brother? Ah¡­ My brother has had a craze with flying since he was little. Makes sense too¡­ So now what about my weird ability? What¡¯s with all this drinking blood shit? I am not a crazy guy who likes blood or fantasizes about these disgusting things¡­ so what then?


    Hmmm¡­


    Ahh fuck it. I can¡¯t be bothered right now. It¡¯s almost 7am! I have to sleep now in order to better prepare for the day ahead, which I¡¯m sure will be full of excitement. I will actually be able to fly outside! I can¡¯t wait!


    And with such thoughts, I finally drifted off to dreamland¡­

 Chapter Three: Abilities... Abilities everywhere!

    Author''s note: I edited the last chapter after I got some feedback. The changes I did were:


    1) I removed the ''MC talking with the readers'' style of writing. If you guys spot anything that I may have missed with regards to this style please point it out so I can rectify it.


    2) I also made a few minor changes. I always wanted the personality of the MC to be someone who doesn''t feel many emotions and likes to be alone. But I felt that I failed to bring that across with my writing, so I tried to bring that point across better in both the last chapter and this one.


    These changes don''t really affect the story in any way, the style is just a bit different now and the MC was always meant to have this type of personality, so not much has changed. Still I recommend skimming through chapter 2 once and see if the changes are to your liking or not.


    Also, next chapter will feature a lot more action and ''stuff'' will happen. So if anyone is thinking that nothing much has happened yet in the story, I urge you all to be just a little patient.


    I am also going to add a ''suggestions and criticism'' thread after this one, and I hope you guys will provide me with feedback so that I can improve.


    Alright, moving on to the story now. Hope you guys like this chapter.


    _________________________________________________


    ¡°WAKE UP!! WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!! BEEEENNNNNNNN!!! WAKEEEE UUUUPPPPPPP!!¡±


    ¡°Shut up! Let me sleep!¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t believe what is happening! Quickly wake up it¡¯s amazing!¡±


    ¡°Yeah yeah I know all about the abilities¡­ let me sleep!¡±


    ¡°Huh? How do you know¡­?¡±


    ¡°Saw it on the internet last night. Now let me sleep!¡±


    ¡°Oooh! What¡¯s your ability?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know Karen, get the hell out of my room and LET ME SLEEP!¡±


    ¡°Fine fine, you don¡¯t have to yell¡­¡±


    Idiot sister. Why are younger sisters so annoying...?


    ¡­..


    ¡­..


    ¡°OYE BEN! WAKE UP ASSHOLE! I CAN FLY!! I CANNN FLLLYYYYYY!!!!¡±


    ¡°Get the fuck out and let me sleep!!¡±


    ¡°I BELIEVE I CAN FFLLLLYYYY! I BELIEVE I CAN TOOOUUUCCCHHHH THE SKY!!¡±


    ¡°MARK, FUCK OFF!!¡±


    ¡°Hahahahahaha! I can fly now, your puny ass ability, whatever it may be, will never be as awesome as mine! Bye! I¡¯m off to soar in the skies!¡±


    With that the jerk finally left. I can¡¯t believe that idiot is actually my older brother...


    Damn, all these interruptions have taken away my sleep! What should I do? Hmmm¡­ Perhaps I should go downstairs, have breakfast, and then wipe the smirk off Mark¡¯s face when I tell him about my unique ability! Sounds good!


    I got off the comfortable bed that just didn¡¯t want to part with me... went to the bathroom, took care of my needs, washed up and made my way back to my room and found my elder sister, Chloe, sitting on top of my bed. She is 26 years old and is also my favorite person in the world. Favorite because, like me, she doesn¡¯t feel the need to stay in constant touch, if we don¡¯t talk with each other for 6 months it doesn¡¯t matter at all. So basically my favorite person in the world is the one I talk to the least¡­


    ¡°So, Karen told me you already know about the new abilities. What do you think about them?¡±


    ¡°The world will fall into chaos, obviously.¡± I answered.


    ¡°True. My ability lets me observe things in greater detail, know yours yet?¡±


    ¡°Sure, I have the ability to absorb abilities from other people.¡±


    ¡°Nice, how do you absorb them?¡±


    ¡°I just have to touch them and it automatically absorbs the abilities.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Sounds a bit too powerful doesn¡¯t it. How did you find out that this was your ability?¡±


    ¡°Ummm¡­ I found out about how people now had abilities last night so I went to Mark¡¯s room to wake him up and tell him all about it. As soon as I touched him my own voice told me in my mind about my ability.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm¡­ fine, get dressed and we can have a chat later. Mark, me, dad and Karen have figured out our abilities. We don¡¯t know what mom¡¯s ability is yet. I¡¯ll see you downstairs.¡±


    ¡°Alright, see ya!¡±


    Ah, that¡¯s why I like my elder sister. I can have mature conversations with her, no bullshit just to the point!


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    I decided to tell others that I just have to touch them to absorb their abilities, I can¡¯t really tell others that I have to drink blood to absorb them and that I have already had some blood from my family members! I know this may cause problems in the future when others find out that I can¡¯t actually absorb abilities simply by touching others, but I¡¯ll come up with some sort of excuse later¡­


    I was in the middle of dressing up when I realized something¡­ My family members didn''t lose their abilities! They just told me what their abilities are didn¡¯t they! So, absorbing abilities doesn¡¯t actually make others lose their own abilities!


    This could be both a good and a bad thing, good in the sense that I won¡¯t have to take away the abilities of people I know, and bad in the sense that I won¡¯t be able to take away the abilities of enemies¡­


    What am I thinking? I don¡¯t really have any enemies, sure there are a lot of people who annoy me but they can¡¯t exactly be called as enemies. I am also quite hungry right now... Let¡¯s think about serious stuff like this after I have had some breakfast.


    I went downstairs to find my whole family, minus my brother, sitting at the table discussing things excitedly.


    ¡°Morning.¡± I said.


    The next hour was spent with me discussing with my family about these new abilities. I made a show of touching everyone and pretending to concentrate and ¡®absorb¡¯ their abilities.


    I found out that Chloe, Karen and dad found out their abilities quite easily. Chloe just woke up and observed the room like usual, and that resulted in the mind voice telling her about her observation ability. Karen simply took a breathe when she woke up and that prompted to her mind voice telling her about her disease resistance ability. Apparently the breathe she took was riddled with things(bacteria, dust etc) that could cause diseases which is what prompted her mind voice to reveal the ability, which is weird, she was breathing while she was asleep too so shouldn¡¯t the mind voice have revealed her ability as soon as everyone got these abilities? Is the mind voice only ¡®active¡¯ when we are awake ourselves¡­?


    Dad discovered his ability quickly too, he woke up and got off bed, ignoring his back pain as usual and that prompted the mind voice to reveal what his ability was.


    Needless to say, they were all extremely surprised by the mind voice and my dad switching on the TV to a news station made them discover what was going on. When I pretended to absorb the abilities of everyone I also told my mom what her ability was, and she simply said, ¡°Great. Now I can¡¯t pretend to be tired and have to continue working for much longer...¡±


    As soon as Mark found out everyone had abilities, he immediately tried to fly and that¡¯s how he found out his own ability. The guy is seriously obsessed with flying, even though he is 24 years old he still acts quite immaturely when it comes to anything to do with flying.


    I then got up and headed off to my room. I don¡¯t really like to stay in the company of others for long, I much prefer to be left completely alone.


    I looked at myself in the mirror and saw the 21 year-old me with short dark-brown hair, dark-brown eyes and a nose a bit too big for my face staring back. The unkempt hair on my face, too big to be called a stubble and too small to be called a beard, showed how little I care for my own appearance. That being said, my cheeks and chin are starting to itch a bit and the moustache is getting a bit too big, time for a shave soon I think.


    I looked away and went towards the window. The sight outside was incredible! My neighbours were all out on the street experimenting with their abilities...


    There were 3 children running around a bit too quickly to be considered normal, they were practically a blur. Super speed I guess. A few houses down I saw a girl manipulating fire, and another girl manipulating water. Both sisters I think, both with opposite abilities it seems.


    I also saw a number of people in the sky, about 5 altogether. Apparently flying was a somewhat common ability¡­ But there was something that caught my eye. 3 of them were flying without anything visible, but 2 of the people had gusts of wind under their feet and they were also having much more problems controlling their flight. Going by the countless anime and novels I have seen and read, I knew that the 2 guys were manipulating wind (or air).


    There were also countless other people showing off their abilities. Manipulating earth, jumping to great heights, super strength and many others. There was also a girl who could turn invisible! Though she could only turn her body invisible, so her clothes moving about without anything in them looked like something straight out of a movie.


    Apart from all the people showing off their abilities, there was also a crowd watching them from the sidelines. Some with joy and amazement, but most of them had jealous looks on their faces. Seems like these people are either the ones that didn¡¯t get flashy abilities or they haven¡¯t figured out what their ability is yet.


    The more I looked, the more abilities I saw, and the more excited I got. All these different abilities could be mine!


    I yelled downstairs that I was going to go out and without bothering to wait for a reply I prepared to jump off the window. Time to get me some more abilities!

 Suggestions, criticisms and feedback

    This thread is for anyone that would like to inform me about any suggestions/ criticisms and any other feedback you guys may have. I will be checking this post regularly.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I hope I can improve with your help! :)

 Chapter Four: Limitations and the speedy cat!

    I jumped off my window and flew off into the sky¡­ Or I assumed that was what was going to happen, instead I sort of floated down and started hovering a few inches above ground.


    What¡¯s this? I have the ability to fly... so why can¡¯t I fly?


    Try as I might, I couldn¡¯t get more then a few inches off the ground. I looked over to the other people flying with ease in the sky and spotted the unruly jet-black hair that belonged to Mark. I dropped the few inches to the ground and kept staring at him. I absorbed the ability from him, so we should essentially be able to fly in the same manner, so why can he fly at such great heights and I can¡¯t even go above a few inches?


    Does this have to do with his obsession of flying? ¡­. No, if that were the case then the other 2 guys flying would also have some difficulties of their own. As far as I can see I¡¯m the only one among the people with the flight ability who is having problems.


    So, what then? Perhaps it has to do with this not being an original ability but an absorbed one? Are original abilities much stronger then absorbed abilities? Or is it because I only absorbed a drop of blood from everyone, which means that I only got a tiny portion of the ability? Will I have to consume a larger amount of blood for me to get the complete benefits of my absorbed abilities?


    It could just be that I have to practice harder to get to the point of the original ability holders¡­? Yeah, let¡¯s try to practice more before coming to a conclusion...


    I went to a secluded alley, everyone was out on the main streets enjoying their abilities, and started practicing.


    4 hours later, an exhausted me returned home covered in sweat and without bothering with anyone else I went up to my room and plopped down on my bed. I had managed to get to a height of a few meters, but nothing beyond that, and it was extremely tiring. Every time I tried pushing beyond the height limit of my flight I would get a splitting headache and my muscles would start becoming sore.


    I was so tired that before I knew it I was asleep.


    ______________


    I woke up to the sound of my mother screaming and shaking me up, demanding to know what¡¯s wrong with me. I had to explain to her that it was nothing, I just was tired from practicing my abilities and took a little nap. The reason she was so hysterical was because I had been sleeping away for about 7 hours, which came as a huge surprise to me. It must have been a combination of both my tiredness and the fact that I got so little sleep last night¡­


    I looked at the time and saw that it was almost midnight! No wonder mom was so worried¡­ I took a quick shower to get rid of all the sweat, went downstairs to have some food and came back to my room.


    Okay, so it seems like for some reason I don¡¯t get the same power by absorbing abilities as the original ability holders have. I can improve by practicing, but it takes too long and is too tiring. The other option I can try is to see if drinking more blood allows me to gain more power in the ability. I have a plan for getting more blood from Mark, but as my parents are still up right now I will have to wait a bit.


    I decided to do a little more research while I waited for my parents to go to sleep. I spent the next hour or so on the internet and I learned a few things.


    There seems to be a difference in the ¡®power¡¯ of all ability holders. Even though two people may have the exact same ability, it is not certain that they would be equals in terms of ability control/power. So if two people got the exact same ability, let¡¯s say ¡®water manipulation¡¯, one person might be able to control just 1 gallon of water at a time while the other might be able to control 1.5 or 2 gallons. Or, they could control the same amount, let¡¯s say 1 gallon each, but one person might be able to use the water from the water particles in the air itself while the other might not have such control and will need existing bodies of water in order to control it. This seems to apply to all abilities no matter how rare they are.


    Rarity of abilities is another thing I learned. Some abilities appear much more frequently then others. Abilities like observation, perception, increased loyalty etc were much more common then say the elemental abilities or invisibility etc. The gamers around the world had already started classifying these abilities going along the pattern of games. There were some who classified them with colours, green being the most common up to the colour purple for the extremely rare abilities or black for unique abilities. Some people went with a tier system like basic, intermediate and so on up to legendary and unique.


    I, however, preferred the simple system which went like this:


    Common: Abilities that appeared most frequently like observation, perception etc.


    Uncommon: Abilities that are a little less common but still quite a lot of people have them like pain resistance, heat and cold resistance, tougher skin etc. Flight was surprisingly listed as uncommon, apparently a lot of people could fly now.


    Rare: Fewer people had these abilities, but still the number of people with these abilities were in the hundreds of thousands. Examples included X-ray vision, heat vision, invisibility, elemental manipulations(fire, earth, water and air manipulations)  etc.


    Super-rare: Thousands of people had such abilities, but compared to the 8 billion world population it¡¯s rare enough to be called super-rare. Examples were abilities like healing, variant-element manipulations (lightning, ice, metal, weather etc), telepathy etc.


    Epic/legendary: A few hundred people had such abilities. Abilities like teleportation, telekinesis, hiding presence, regeneration, immortality etc were considered as epic/legendary.


    Unique: Only one person in the entire world had a unique ability. Control, invincibility, morphing, ability deleting, true immortality, all-elemental manipulation and my absorption were the only unique abilities I knew of.


    (Author here. The number indicated refers to people having one ability, like tens of millions of people could have the ability of observation, while only around 300-500 people would have the ability of regeneration.)


    Apparently the difference between ¡®immortality¡¯ the epic ability and ¡®true immortality¡¯ the unique ability is that ¡®immortality¡¯ just stops a person from aging but he/she can still be killed or hurt, but ¡®true immortality¡¯ makes the person completely impossible to kill. The unique ability holder was surprisingly a 63-year old woman, and she did not look happy at all with her ability. Imagine being stuck in a 63 year-old body for all eternity¡­


    From my perspective the most dangerous would have to be the ability deleter, if he were to somehow delete my absorption ability I would be rendered completely helpless. Must remember not to piss the guy off¡­


    I glanced at the time and it was nearing 1:30am. Perfect, everyone should be asleep by now. I got up and stepped into the hallway, listening for any sounds coming from any of the rooms. Apart from the distant snoring sounds of my father and Mark, there wasn¡¯t anything else I could hear.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    I crept down the stairs and into the storage closet. I rummaged through till I found what I was looking for: a syringe! Chloe is a doctor, training to be a surgeon, and she insists on keeping a few basic medical supplies at home at all times which included about 10 syringes. I picked out one and headed upstairs.


    I opened up Mark¡¯s door and found the same sight as last night, him sprawled on the bed snoring like an idiot with a small light on. With no need about being quiet, I casually walked towards him, lifted off the covers and pricked him with the syringe. I slowly drew some blood, and when the syringe was full I withdrew it and covered Mark up again. The guy hadn¡¯t even budged while his blood was being taken, seriously how deeply can a person sleep??


    I went back to my room, closed the door and emptied the blood into a glass. The glass was about a quarter or so full with blood, and frankly looked quite disgusting. I took a deep breath and gulped the whole thing down in one go.


    ¡­..


    ¡­..


    Hmmm¡­.


    Sure the taste was quite disgusting, but surprisingly I didn¡¯t feel anything from it. No feeling of disgust, no feeling of vomit coming up¡­ nothing. Does this have something to do with my ability? Blood will no longer make me feel disgusted when I swallow it? If this has got something to do with my ability, then I am very thankful for it!


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability of flight already present.


    Oooh! That was quick! Barely a minute had passed since I drank the blood and already the mind voice was triggered. Drinking more blood really does make a difference in absorption rate.


    I then jumped off my window for a second time today, but this time time I didn¡¯t float down! I was actually flying this time! I climbed up into the night sky and it was incredible! Instead of floating a few meters above the ground I could now climb up to a height of about 6 stories before feeling a slight headache indicating that it was too much for me to climb more right now.


    I spent quite a bit of time soaring through the air without a worry in the world. I now understood Mark¡¯s obsession with flying, it really is quite exhilarating!


    I finally decided to head back home after I saw the sun starting to rise in the distance, and I was also getting tired. But the night was a success as far as I''m concerned. Drinking more blood does make the absorbed ability much stronger. Although even with the extra blood absorbed flying still makes me tired, so I headed to my room and went straight to sleep.


    __________________


    Next morning, after having breakfast and doing some more idle chatting with the family, I told everyone that I was going to my apartment and will be back in a few days. I left my parent''s house with a very satisfied smile on my face, Mark had been skulking all morning because he found out what my ability was last night. Hah!


    I had decided to fly all the way to my apartment, which was situated in the city about 55 miles away. Mainly so that I could train my flight ability further, but also because I couldn¡¯t see any buses or taxis anywhere, seems like people still haven¡¯t resumed their normal lives after all the craze of the abilities.


    __________________


    Whew! Finally home!


    I found out the hard way that my flying speed was extremely, extremely slow. It took me about 4 hours to travel the 55 miles to reach my apartment. The journey was nothing special, I only saw more and more people using different kinds of abilities along the way.


    I wanted nothing more then to go straight to bed as I was tired from all the flying, but was interrupted at the entrance to my apartment by my neighbor, 58 year old neighbour Mrs. Jane, holding her cat Stella.


    ¡°Ah Ben, I¡¯m so glad you are back. Could you look after Stella for me? I want to go and visit my son, he keeps asking me to come because of all this ability business.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll look after her. Have a safe trip!¡±


    And with that she dumped Stella into my arms and hobbled off. Surprising she didn¡¯t discuss about abilities, or even ask what my ability is. She is usually extremely talkative¡­ must be in a hurry I guess.


    Me and Stella entered my tiny one-bedroom apartment, I dumped her onto the floor and immediately went off to sleep in my bed.


    ________________


    *CRASH!*


    Huh¡­? What¡­?


    I sat bolt upright and looked around for the source of the crash.


    ¡­¡­


    Damn cat! Stella had probably bumped into the lamp and had made it fall over! And she was just staring at me as if saying ¡®fuck you looking at?¡¯ Cats are such assholes.


    I glanced at the clock and it was 1:17am! Wow, had I slept through the whole day yet again? This must be a side-effect of over-exerting myself with all the flying. I must remember to not push myself too hard in the future¡­


    I got up and went to pick up the now broken lamp, but before I could Stella zoomed past me and bumped right into my bed! And when I say zoomed past me, I mean she moved at an inhumane speed! It wasn¡¯t even a blur, one moment she was there beside the lamp next she had crashed into the bed!


    Am I hallucinating? I know cats are fast but that can¡¯t be real, it looked like those kids I saw earlier moving at super speeds only much faster¡­. Wait¡­ super speed? Could Stella have an ability??


    I quickly switched on my laptop and checked online¡­. wow! Apparently all animals and even plants have an ability now! This is just insane!


    Wait¡­ Animals and plants have abilities too now¡­ this means I can get abilities off them too?


    With a menacing grin on my face, I picked up the syringe and washed it up in the bathroom. I then advanced towards Stella still with a grin on my face¡­


    ¡°Meow¡­?¡±


    ¡°Here kitty kitty kitty. Come here Stella. Good girl.¡±


    *Prick*


    ¡°MEOOOWWW!!¡±


    *Scratch!*


    *Bite!*


    ¡°OOOWWW! Stupid cat!!¡±


    _________


    Author''s note: I will probably have another chapter ready in a few hours. Would be sooner but I have to go someplace right now for a few hours... Next chapter will be where the fight between humans and animals finally begins.


    Hope you guys liked this chapter :)

 Chapter FIve: Evolution, manipulation and death

    Author''s note: My sincere apologies for not keeping my promise of releasing another chapter yesterday. To make up I have written an extra-long chapter! This one is more than twice as long as any other chapter of mine, so I hope this makes up for me not keeping to my promise...


    Anyways, hope you guys like this chapter. The suggestions and feedback thread is always present for you guys to comment on!


    Thanks a lot for reading!


    ___________________________________


    After I finished cursing the damn cat, I looked at the syringe and saw that I had somehow managed to fill almost half of it with the cat¡¯s blood. I quickly gulped it down and waited for ¡®mind me¡¯ to do his magic.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Enhanced speed. You will now be able to move much faster then before.


    Excellent, I always referred to it as super-speed but oh well, enhanced speed will also do. This could help me both in the air and on the ground, I think. If it¡¯s possible for me to use both flight and enhanced speed at the same time, my flying speed can be greatly improved.


    As I was thinking about all this, my gaze passed over the plant over at the windowsill. My mother had given it to me when I first moved to this apartment, and it was still alive only because I knew mom would kill me if I let it die due to carelessness. Plants apparently have abilities too now according to the internet, so I should be able to absorb abilities from them too shouldn¡¯t I? But plants don¡¯t have blood per say¡­ So how do I absorb abilities from plants?


    I could just eat them raw¡­.


    With that decided, I pulled off a leaf and went over to the sink to wash it, and then I put it in my mouth and started chewing. It tasted extremely bitter and it was extremely dry. I had to drink a whole glass of water to force it down.


    I waited and just a few moments later¡­


    Plant-Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Poison resistance. You now have increased resistance to weak poisons. Consuming more plants of the same species could make this ability evolve.


    So, plants do really have blood huh¡­? I wasn¡¯t aware of that¡­ Or did they somehow get blood added to their bodies with their new abilities¡­?


    Hold on¡­ Did ¡®mind me¡¯ just say the ability could evolve if I ate more plants¡­? I had no idea abilities could evolve! What does evolution of abilities even mean¡­?


    I hurriedly pulled out another leaf, washed it and ate it. If this works then this could be huge for me going forward¡­


    Plant-blood successfully absorbed. Poison resistance increased.


    This is great!


    Without waiting any further, I stripped off all the leaves of the plant (sorry mom) and washed them all up before eating them all in one go with a lot of water to help me gulp it all down.


    Plant-blood successfully absorbed. Poison resistance increased.


    No evolution yet huh¡­? Oh well, this was only a short potted plant, my parent¡¯s house has so many more of these guys, I¡¯m sure I will be able to evolve this ability later when I go visit them again.


    I looked at the now bare stem of the plant and wondered if eating the stem would help me improve the ability as well¡­? I grabbed for it and when I squeezed it to pull it out a white sort-of sticky substance came out from the stem¡­ Is this what plant-blood is supposed to be? I scooped up some of the substance, it had a strong sweet-smell, and quickly swallowed it. It tasted absolutely horrible!


    Plant-blood successfully absorbed. Poison resistance increased.


    Excellent! So this sticky white substance is supposedly plant-blood, and eating the stem will also give me improvement to my abilities!


    I quickly took out the stem, chopped it up into little bits and ate them all with A LOT of water to help me push all of it down. In the end I got the same message about my poison resistance increasing, but no messages about an evolution.


    Seeing as there were no more plants for me to experiment on right now, I decided to shift my focus onto the enhanced speed ability I gained earlier. I opened up my window and jumped off, luckily my apartment was only on the 3rd floor so I was still able to fly quite easily at this height.


    I was searching for a wide-open space for me to practice my speed ability when I thought of the football field at my university, it was perfect for practice so I headed over there.


    _____________________


    5 hours later I returned to my apartment extremely tired but also extremely pleased with myself. After the first try of almost crashing straight into the other end of the field, I had practiced non-stop in order to control my speed better. Now I could figure out what was in front of me quite easily, could make a few turns but nothing too sharp, it was more of a curve then a turn, and I could also stop anytime I wanted to.


    But the most pleasing thing for me was the fact that I could use both flight and enhanced speed at the same time! This increased my flying speed greatly and will certainly help me in the future!


    Pleased with myself, I took a quick shower and headed off to bed.


    ________________


    I woke up to the sound of my mobile ringing. I looked at the time and it was 1:04pm.


    Getting up I reached for my phone and saw that it was my ¡®best friend¡¯ James calling. He had already called about 20 times since the day the abilities came but I was either too tired or asleep to answer so I have ignored him so far.


    I sighed and answered the phone, and immediately James started yelling. I was used to it so I didn¡¯t even put my mobile anywhere near my ear, I could hear James¡¯s voice perfectly fine from a distance.


    He continued talking about why I hadn¡¯t replied so far, what ability do I have and abilities in general without giving me any time for an answer.


    I don¡¯t really like company at all, and no one except James calls or texts me regularly. I would prefer James not to do it too but the guy is oddly very clingy.


    Our friendship started about 5 years ago, I was introduced to him from one of my other friends. I did the usual polite greeting and as usual I pretended to be interested in anything James said and pretended to be interested in the same things too. I had long ago learned that I didn¡¯t like anyone¡¯s company, so I had come up with the ¡®fake interest¡¯ technique to make myself seem normal and not be a complete outcast. I was pretty good at it too, seeing how I made friends quite easily and no one ever figured out that my interest was fake.


    However I regretted using the same tactic with James almost immediately. He was in awe of ''how could anyone have the exact same interests as he did'', and that he had never had so much in common with anyone before and from now on we were ¡®bros for life.¡¯ Ever since then he has referred to me as his best friend and I can¡¯t get rid of him no matter what¡­ not that I try too hard though.


    The reason I put up with him is because I know that it is practically a guarantee that he will help me out if I am ever in need. He is extremely loyal, and it is always nice to have someone you know you can rely on if ever the need arises.


    He is also extremely gullible, so I find it easy enough to manipulate him, and my manipulating has had great effects as I have ¡®trained¡¯ him not be so clingy anymore and not bother me much.


    James had kept on speaking very loudly all this time and he finally stopped with the words, ¡°So, what is your ability? And guess what mine is!¡±


    James¡¯s ability¡­ It has to be either super-strength or increased loyalty. If my theory about abilities somehow relating to a person¡¯s personality or actions is correct then these two should be the most probable abilities he could have. He is extremely loyal, and he is also obsessed with strength, always going to the gym and training to get stronger and ¡®impress the chicks¡¯. Though with the way he is so excited, I imagine super-strength would be his ability and not loyalty¡­.


    So, I answered with ¡°Super strength?¡±


    ¡°Damn! How did you guess that? I wanted it to be a surprise!¡±


    ¡°I have a theory, I¡¯ll tell you about it later. Listen, want to meet up? We should meet with each other instead of talking over the phone, we could have lunch and discuss comfortably.¡±


    James was extremely excited and immediately agreed, and we set up a meeting point at one of our usual hangouts in about an hour.


    I got up, took a quick shower, put on some clean clothes and emptied my bag. I had some shopping to do!


    ____________


    After about 20 minutes of flying and searching around, I finally found what I was looking for, a pharmacy! Almost every shop was still closed up due to all this ability business and this was the only pharmacy I could find that was open.


    I landed and immediately entered a shop, to find a really, really old man behind the counter who was looking at me sharply. In just a moment I was able to figure out how I needed to act around him to get what I want, and I started speaking.


    ¡°Good afternoon sir. I am so thankful to you that you still have this shop running. Thank you for still doing business while everyone else has their shops closed.¡±


    ¡°Hmph. Polite one are ya? Well, you¡¯re welcome. So, what can I help you with?¡± The old guy answered.


    He still had a bit of suspicion in his eyes but it had decreased to a certain degree. I am very good at acting, after so many years of practicing I am bound to be good and I am at a stage where it comes naturally to me. I can also observe people quite well and know what kind of ¡®act¡¯ I need to put on to gain their favour.


    ¡°I needed some basic medical supplies please.¡±


    ¡°That I can do. This here is a basic medical box. Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Yes sir. I also need a few syringes.¡± This is what I basically wanted, but asking outright for syringes could have been detrimental for me with such a sharp looking man behind the counter so I had started off with asking about basic medical supplies.


    ¡°Oh? And what do you need them for, may I ask? Especially since this medical box contains 5 syringes too.¡± He was immediately suspicious again. Can¡¯t blame him, a 21-year old guy buying syringes will immediately be thought of as a drug user.


    ¡°I need them for my mom. She is diabetic so she needs them to inject insulin. I thought with the way things are going with the abilities the next few days could be crazy, so I thought it will be best if I have some stock at hand in case something bad happens and medical supplies are hard to come by. Here, I also have a prescription.¡±


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I handed him the prescription. It was actually a real prescription, but it wasn¡¯t for my mom instead it was one for James¡¯s mom. He gave it to me once long ago to help me get drugs and such, but as I never use any drugs it has so far been unused. I only remembered about it by chance after speaking to James this morning.


    ¡°This does look like a real prescription, but I can¡¯t just hand out a high number of syringes without confirming. And since I doubt the doctor who wrote this will be in his office to confirm, I don¡¯t think I will be able to give them to you. Sorry.¡±


    Hmm¡­ seems like the old man is still a little suspicious. Let¡¯s take it up a notch.


    I pretended to be downcast for about 3 seconds, then pretended to have a good idea and brightened up a bit and said ¡° That¡¯s fine, I understand. Then I¡¯ll take as many basic medical supplies you have! They have syringes too, and plus medical supplies are always useful, win-win.¡±


    The old guy was a little taken back, but quickly regained that suspicious hint in his eyes. ¡°Son, I don¡¯t know if you are telling the truth or not. You seem too nice to be real¡­ But it could just be me. I will sell you one pack of syringes that has 20 syringes in them, but that¡¯s it.¡±


    Crap. Either my acting isn¡¯t good enough or this guy just has too much life experience. Either way, I thanked him, took the syringes and the medical box and left the shop. At least I have a few syringes for now, I can always find more later. The reason for me wanting so many syringes was that I don¡¯t want to pass diseases or such from one person to another by using the same syringe over and over. I¡¯m already doing a disgusting enough thing, no need for me to make people sick at the same time too...


    With the business with the syringes done, I took off again and flew the short distance to meet up with James.


    ________________________


    The meeting with James was a great success. On top of being so gullible, he also freaks out over the smallest health issues. I simply had to tell him that Chloe was a bit suspicious about how these abilities could affect our bodies, and she had asked me to collect some blood from friends so she could run some tests. As soon as he saw the pack of syringes he figured it must be the truth and let me draw his blood quite easily. This was the real reason I asked James to meet me today, super-strength was a great asset to have after all!


    He also saw me flying when I arrived so assumed that my ability was flight, and I didn¡¯t feel the need to correct him. My family doesn¡¯t live near me, but when the holidays are done I will see James everyday in classes, which is why I didn¡¯t tell him the same lie I told my family. I don¡¯t want him to find out that I can¡¯t actually absorb abilities by touch and I most certainly am not going to tell him about the deal with the blood. Letting him think my ability was flight seemed a simple enough answer for now.


    After the meeting with James was done I headed home, dropped off the medical box and the pack of syringes and took out the syringe which was full of James''s blood. With a grin on my face, I hurriedly drank all of the blood and waited¡­


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Enhanced strength. You will be much stronger now.


    Excellent! A new ability gained and a question answered.


    Except for the plant I ate, no other ability had prompted ¡®mind-me¡¯ to state that it could be evolved. Which either means that only abilities from plants can be evolved or there are only a few abilities that can be evolved and poison-resistance was one of them.


    That being said, I am going to wait till after the ability evolves before eating other plants. The reason being I want to know what evolution of abilities actually means. It would most probably evolve into something like greater poison resistance or higher poison resistance, but there is a small chance that it could be something different. What if instead of the ability evolving it is my body that evolves? I could turn into something that can inject poison to others like a snake¡­ Or my blood could become poisonous¡­ or something. It seems highly unlikely that this will happen, but with so many changes in the world recently anything is possible, and I am not taking any chances¡­


    Right, now to head out and see how much my strength has increased¡­.


    _______________


    As usual, I was lying exhausted on my bed. I had spent the last 7 hours training non-stop and I was beyond tired.


    I mainly trained my new ability of enhanced strength, but all the flying around looking for secluded spots to train in made me improve my flight ability too, and I could now go higher and a bit faster then before.


    I found out that I could now lift cars like they were nothing! But buses and large trucks took some effort. As I was sweating while lifting a bus, it suddenly dawned on me how incredible it was for me to be actually lifting a bus! A mere 4 days ago I was a lazy couch-potato doing nothing but reading novels and watching stuff on my laptop all day. Now I am flying around, drinking blood and lifting vehicles as if it¡¯s the most normal thing in the world! Incredible how much everything has changed in such a short time!


    With such thoughts I fell asleep yet again.


    ____________


    I was currently back in my parent¡¯s house sniffing the sweet scent coming from somewhere....


    I woke up today morning from my mom calling me and demanding me to get back home. It seemed she was too worked up over all the craziness lately and wanted the whole family to stay together for the time being.


    The day had been quite uneventful so far. First thing I did was look for Stella. I hadn¡¯t seen her since the night I took her blood, and if I were to move back to my parent¡¯s house I needed to find her. Luckily, I found her not too far away in an alley where she was busy rummaging through a trash bin. As she was busy, I managed to sneak up to her by floating a few inches off the ground and quickly forced her into a bag so she couldn¡¯t escape.


    I dropped her off at another neighbour¡¯s house, but not before I took some more blood from her, extra speed is always helpful.


    After dropping off Stella I made my way back to my parent¡¯s house. The journey this time was much quicker thanks to my increased speed, taking less then an hour now!


    I got home, had lunch, talked a bit with my family and went back to train some more. I call it training but actually it¡¯s just me having fun doing incredible stuff!


    Anyways¡­ It was currently 1:04am and I was smelling some kind of sweet scent. It seemed oddly familiar¡­ perhaps a perfume from one of my sisters¡­? Yeah¡­ that must be it.


    A couple minutes passed by but the smell kept getting stronger and stronger, to the point that it was starting to irritate my nose. I opened the door of my room and moved out into the hallway to see what was going on.


    The smell in the hallway was incredibly strong! I had to go back and pick up a shirt to cover up my nose  before going back out into the hallway. Even though the smell was so strong, I couldn¡¯t see anything that looked out of place. The same hallway lined with plants, the same doors and the same floor made up of¡­


    The plants! The plant in my apartment and these plants lining the hallway were the exact same species!


    A bad premonition of what this smell probably meant came over me and I rushed to my parents bedroom and immediately put my hand on my mother¡¯s neck¡­.. nothing! I put my face on her chest¡­ nothing! No sound of her heart beating, no feeling of her chest moving while taking breaths¡­ absolutely nothing!


    With a heavy heart I checked on my father and found the same thing¡­. the silence in the room was absolutely suffocating.


    I rushed off to the other bedrooms and found the same situation with Chloe, Mark and Karen. None of them were making a sound, none of them were moving, none of them were breathing.


    They were all dead.


    ¡­..


    ¡­..


    I started hearing shouts and screams from outside, and tore my gaze from Mark¡¯s lifeless body. I headed over to the window to find people screaming everywhere, a few fires in the distance and animals moving everywhere.


    The more I saw the more clearer it got. Animals and plants, for some unknown reason, were attacking and killing any human they could see. There were people being chased by bloodthirsty animals of all kinds, people getting eaten alive and trees and plants moving about crushing people with vines or by other means.


    I understood what was going on, but I couldn¡¯t care right now. I moved back into the hallway and wordlessly started eating the ones responsible for my family¡¯s death: the plants in the hallway.


    The sweet-smelling scent was some kind of poison released from these plants, and it had spread all over and killed everyone but me. My poison resistance was what had kept me alive probably...


    I was eating the plants because it would help me improve my ability, but mainly because these plants had obviously known they were going to kill everyone in the house when they released the poison, and I wanted to repay them by slowly eating them alive. I wasn¡¯t even picking off the leaves one by one, instead I was eating the plants whole from the pots themselves so that they could feel me eating them bit by bit. I wasn¡¯t sure if plants could feel or not, but I really hope they can.


    10 minutes later I had eaten every plant in the hallway, and I stood up as my gaze fell back to my parent¡¯s now lifeless bodies. As the sounds of screams, gunfire and crashes kept reaching me from outside, I couldn¡¯t help but smile at how lucky my family was.


    They had all died exactly like my grandfather did, peacefully in their sleep. Their faces didn¡¯t show any hint of pain or agony but instead looked calm and content. Such a lucky family. The only unlucky one is me, who is still alive and will have to face whatever chaos is going on outside. But still, I was glad of my family¡¯s peaceful death, and thankful to my mother who had grown all these plants.


    A sudden thought of how this would be a good opportunity for me to find out if absorbing blood from dead bodies still granted me abilities or improvements in my abilities flashed through my mind. But I immediately pushed the thought away. I know I can¡¯t feel much emotions, I know I won¡¯t be able to shed even a single tear for my family¡¯s death for it had been years and years since I last cried, but the least I can do is not defile their dead bodies. Logically speaking I should go for it and experiment right now, but for once I went with my heart instead of my brain.


    I went downstairs, took all the largest knives I could see from downstairs and went back to my room. I picked up my bag and filled it with the syringes, the knives, the medic box, some food, a water bottle and a few clothes. I then jumped off the window and soared into the sky as I saw the chaos below.


    I don¡¯t care about all these people who are suffering, I don¡¯t care about saving them, but I will make damn sure to kill as many animals and plants today as I can. Let the blood I will flow today be a sick sort of tribute for my family.


    And with such thoughts, I dived into the carnage below....

 Chapter Six: Deadly creatures and the pitiful humans

    As I was diving, I found my mind strangely clear. It was as if I could see everything in slow motion, as if I had all the time in the world to observe everything and decide what to do. I had no idea if it was because of the observation ability or if it was something else... most probably a combination of adrenaline and the observation ability.


    I saw a family getting surrounded by a group of dogs almost directly below me. Most probably the dogs used to be pets before but now they were a far cry from their former docile selves. Their teeth were bared, most of them had their faces covered with blood and they were snarling and growling as they surrounded the family.


    I had no reason to save the family, but as these dogs were the nearest animals to me, I went straight for them. I activated my speed ability and almost instantly reached the dogs. Somehow as I landed clumsily I managed to decapitate the dog nearest to me with the knife I had in my right hand. I slid across the ground because of my momentum and had stopped completely before the dogs and families realized what happened. As soon as the dogs saw one of their comrades without a head, they immediately bared their teeth and pounced on me all at the same time.


    My mind was still pretty clear, so I was somehow able to maneuver around the dogs using a combination of observation, enhanced speed and enhanced strength. Using knives on both my hands I slashed and stabbed without mercy, getting covered in blood as the 15 or so dogs fell one by one until there was just me left standing surrounded by animal corpses.


    Without a word or a glance to the family I had saved, I took off once again and searched around for more things to kill, ignoring the "WAIT!" shout I heard from someone in the family. As I took off I realized that the blood I was covered in wasn¡¯t only the dogs, but also my own. I was covered in scratches and bites, but I only knew they were there because I could see them, my pain resistance must have been helping me out right now as I could barely feel my injuries.


    I was looking around in the sky when I noticed something strange. All animals were avoiding a few houses like the plague. They would give these particular houses a wide berth, and go around them even if they had to give up on their chase of people. Some people had also noticed this and started gathering nearer to these houses, but soon after they would slump down like puppets that had their strings cut, either dead or unconscious.


    I wouldn¡¯t have guessed what was going on if not for the fact that my house was also included the list of houses the animals were avoiding. I immediately realized that it must have something to do with the poison all the plants in my house released, and apparently other houses had plants that had the same ability too. The animals, with their keen senses and instincts, knew that it was dangerous going near such houses so they completely avoided them. I went over to the roof of my house, dropped off my bag so it wouldn¡¯t get torn to bits and took off again in search for my next prey.


    ______________


    I had no idea how much time had passed by, but as I was lying on a street covered in blood and surrounded by the corpses of all types of animals, I couldn¡¯t help but smile. Sure, I was covered with countless injuries and it was almost a guarantee that I was going to die, but I had done what I set out to do in the first place.


    Over the last few hours I had continuously dove straight into the nearest pack of animals, whether the pack contained of cats, dogs, mice or any other species I didn¡¯t care, all I cared about was ending the lives of all these darned animals. And I think I did achieve my sick goal.


    I also managed to inadvertently save a lot of people, not that I cared. I did hear a lot of thanks shouted at me, and a lot of screams to not leave them behind, but I ignored everything and kept on doing what I wanted.


    I spotted a lot of people fighting back too, using a lot of different abilities or just fighting with guns or other weapons, but I didn¡¯t interact with any of them.


    I had finally been caught up in a scuffle with the largest group of animals yet, almost 50, consisting of a number of different species. I would have flown away to escape if not for the fact that the sun had risen and with that the sky was filled with birds of all kinds. This was the major factor contributing to the position I found myself in right now. I couldn¡¯t keep up with fighting all the ground animals while birds kept diving on top of me and hitting me from all sides.


    Covered with scratches, bites and injuries from beaks and talons, I kept smiling as I looked up at the birds still circling over me. With the satisfaction of killing off so many animals, and a little regret over not killing more¡­ my consciousness finally gave way as I was surrounded by darkness¡­.


    _____________________


    (Perspective change)


    Just what in the world is going on??


    Just a few hours ago I was at home peacefully preparing to sleep when the whole world just turned on it¡¯s head! Our pet dog suddenly started attacking everyone and killed my entire family! I was only able to survive because of my ability and the fact that I was able to run up to the roof to get away from him!


    I stayed at the roof the whole night, cowering in fear while the sounds of growling, screaming, burning and gunfire came to me from all around. There was a cat who climbed to the roof of my house but I beat it back with a stick when it tried to lunge at me...


    The night passed by with me cowering in fear and jumping as screams kept reaching me. The morning, however, brought me even more nightmares! When the sun rose the birds started chirping and rose into the sky, but as I watched them climb higher and higher, they suddenly started diving all over the city!


    I crept over to the side and looked at the surroundings of my roof, and I saw people getting attacked by animals and birds alike! The most frightening thing was that there were a lot of people on their roofs like me, and birds kept attacking them!


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    A shiver ran down my spine as I looked up and saw a number of pigeons circling directly overhead. Then they started diving straight towards me!


    I screamed loudly and ran straight for the door leading downstairs, as soon as I reached it and slammed the door I heard 3 distinct thuds resound against it. I had just barely escaped from the deadly birds!


    I ran downstairs to find myself face-to-face with Terry, our pet chihuahua, and the same dog who had killed my parents and younger brother. He started barking and snarling and ran straight at me! I panicked and grabbed the nearest thing, which was a lamp, and swung it with my eyes shut. The impact I felt, and the crash I heard told me that the lamp had somehow found it¡¯s target. I slowly opened my eyes to find Terry twitching as he lay across from me.


    The smell of blood all over the house, and the sight of Terry laying there in a mess was too much for me and I vomited right then and there.


    I ran towards the front door, opened it and ran outside as I couldn''t bear to stay in the house which was full of corpses of my family and my dog. In my panic I had completely forgotten all about how dangerous the streets were, and barely 5 minutes had passed by since I left my house when I found myself surrounded from all sides in an alley. I was surrounded by dogs, cats, mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs and even some snakes! Overheard I could see a lot of birds of different kinds circling too!


    I resigned myself to the death that was about to come, but before I could close my eyes a guy jumped straight in front of me!


    He was covered in blood from head to toe, but it didn¡¯t matter to him at all. He held knives in both hands and without waiting for anything he jumped straight into the group of animals at an insane speed and started slashing away with his knives!


    He moved like a blur! He was completely surrounded by animals from all sides and birds kept attacking him from overhead but he still kept on going killing animals left and right while blood sprayed everywhere!


    It was a disturbing sight, but I found myself completely engrossed in his movements even though I could barely see him move! It looked like he was a hero who was putting his life on the line to save a damsel in distress. It was weird thinking of myself as a damsel in distress¡­ but there was no question that the guy in front of me was undoubtedly a hero!


    The whole fight lasted about 10 minutes, but in the end the hero collapsed under the never-ending stream of animals. He was surrounded on all sides by the corpses of animals and birds, but I guess it was too much even for a hero to go single-handedly against all of those animals¡­


    But I could still see his chest moving! He was still alive! Making up my mind and forcing myself to remain calm, I ran up to him, slipping and sliding on all the blood, guts and corpses of the animals, and started dragging him towards a door. I barely made it in time before the birds overhead got to us! I slammed the door shut and breathed heavily, exhausted.


    After I had caught my breathe, I looked over to the hero. I crept closer and looked into his handsome face. I put my hand on his chest and started concentrating¡­ time to pay him back for saving my life!


    _________________


    (Back to MC¡¯s perspective)


    The darkness and numbness surrounding me started to fade away for some reason, and I started to be able to see a faint light in the distance. I had never been a religious guy, or even believed in a God for that matter, but I guess this must be the afterlife¡­?


    I started feeling a warmth coming from my chest area, and it started spreading all over my body. The light kept increasing and increasing, it looked oddly like sunlight¡­ Is this heaven? If so, how and why did I end up here? I¡¯m pretty sure I deserve to go to Hell. Is it because I ended up saving all those lives while I was slaughtering the animals¡­? That must be it I guess¡­


    The light had now completely enveloped me. As I prepared to see what Heaven was like, I heard a voice¡­


    ¡°Hey, are you alright? Please, please wake up! Please!¡±


    Huh¡­.?


    I groggily opened my eyes to find myself staring at a face. It was a bit too close for comfort so I backed away a bit and looked around. Apparently I was in some sort of a room, and the light I had been seeing was sunlight flitting through a crack in the curtains.


    I looked back at the person and was about to ask what was going on before I was interrupted¡­


    ¡°Thank God you¡¯re alright! I am so thankful I have the ability to heal! I failed to get to my family in time to save them, but I am so happy that I got to you in time!¡± The person kept getting closer and closer to me¡­. ¡°Thanks a lot for saving me! I owe you my life!¡±


    Okay¡­ So somehow I had saved this person in front of me, and then got dragged in here after I lost consciousness and then I got healed. That ability sure is useful, I have to be sure to absorb it somehow...


    Although I was a bit pissed off that I had to keep living in this crazy world for longer, I couldn¡¯t blame anyone. Therefore, I swallowed my anger and said, ¡°Thanks a lot for healing me.¡±


    ¡°No need to thank me! I just did what anyone would have done! You are the true hero here! I am so glad to have met you!¡±


    And without warning he jumped up and hugged me!


    I had no idea on what to do as the well over 6 feet tall, burly and full of muscles guy hugged me¡­ and is he grinding his body against mine?? What the fuck!

 Chapter Seven: Start of the apocalypse

    Author''s note: Second chapter for today! Hope you guys like it.


    I guess this marks the end of the first ''introductory'' arc...? Are 7 chapters enough to be even called an arc...? Anyways, the story has finally reached up to the point where the action really starts!


    As always, I am open to any form of criticism, suggestions or other kind of feedback. Thanks a lot for all the support so far and thanks a lot for reading!


    _________________________________________________


    I immediately pushed the large guy away and he flew over and smashed his head against the wall, then slid down. I just knocked him unconscious¡­ well he deserved it! Although I did unconsciously use a lot of my enhanced strength then was needed¡­


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Regeneration. You will now be able to regenerate lost limbs in a matter of a few hours.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Fire manipulation. You will now be able to manipulate fire and make it do what you wish.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Water manipulation. You will now be able to manipulate water and make it do what you wish.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Earth manipulation. You will now be able to manipulate Earth and make it do what you wish.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Invisibility. You can now turn your body invisible.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Night vision. You can now see much more clearly in the dark.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Heat-vision. You will now be able to see heat signatures around you.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Steel-skin. You now have skin as hard as steel, but it will still retain its flexibility and will look like normal skin.


    ¡­..


    ¡­..


    Crap! I completely forgot about all the blood I swallowed during the fights with the animals! Luckily I only took the blood from animals who had nice abilities¡­ although I have no idea how I got the heat-vision and night-vision abilities, most probably some drops of blood had entered my mouth as I fought. If I hadn''t gone after only particular abilities, I would have gotten so many abilities it would be hard to keep track of them! Which reminds me, I really should take time to list down all abilities I have absorbed so far before I start to forget about them all...


    I guess what I thought earlier about the mind voice being ¡®active¡¯ only when you are awake was right, as I drank the blood for all these abilities long ago but it only triggered the mind voice when I regained consciousness.


    It also seems like the mind voice doesn¡¯t say anything while I am ¡®in-combat¡¯. I had been drinking the blood from useful animals throughout the day but I didn¡¯t hear the mind voice even once during all that time. Only when I got unconscious and got ¡®out of combat¡¯ did the the mind voice start speaking about my newly absorbed abilities. I¡¯m not sure if this is really how it works, but if this is the case then it¡¯s good as it won¡¯t distract me while I¡¯m fighting.


    Now, before I start getting excited and start experimenting with my newly gained abilities, I have a problem to take care of. I looked at the still unconscious guy and went over to him.


    He said his ability was healing, but what I don¡¯t know is if the ability allows the ability user to only heal others or if it can heal the ability-holder too. If it can heal only others then it isn¡¯t very useful for me, but if I can heal myself with the ability too then it will be a very useful ability indeed! Well, time to find out¡­


    I took my knife, went over to the guy and nicked him¡­ the cut was a bit deeper then needed but oh well, who cares. I didn¡¯t have any syringes or such stuff so I prepared myself mentally and started sucking the blood directly from the cut with my mouth. It felt as if I was a vampire, only difference was I was sucking the blood from his palm instead of his neck¡­ The palm was the least hairy spot I could find¡­


    After drinking a sufficient amount of blood I waited for the message¡­ I didn¡¯t have to wait long before it came.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Healing. You can now heal injuries and bruises of yourself and others, however diseases cannot be healed with this ability.


    Excellent. I can heal myself too with this ability! With regeneration and healing abilities combined, coupled with my steel-skin, it could make me unstoppable! I think I am getting too powerful for my own good, must not let it get to me¡­


    Suddenly the big oaf started stirring and groaning. I immediately healed the cut on his palm, picked up my other knife and turned invisible. I checked my body and was relieved to find out that my clothes also turned invisible. I did drink a lot of blood from that invisible rat¡­ the little shit bit me so many times I think I completely sucked him dry of blood as payback!


    ¡°Huh.. what happened¡­?¡±


    Damn.. the big guy is awake. I must slip out quickly. I turned around and started making my way towards the door while floating a few inches off the ground so that I won¡¯t make any noise with footsteps¡­


    ¡°Hero? HERO! Where are you? Why did you leave?? HEEEROOOOOOO!!! NOOOOOOO!!!¡±


    What the fuck? What¡¯s this hero crap? Does he think I¡¯m some kind of a hero because I saved his sorry ass by mistake? Was that why he was looking at me with that disturbing look in his eyes¡­? Whatever, I¡¯m getting away from him!


    I opened the door and ignored the ¡°Who¡¯s there? Hero is that you?¡± comment from behind me and climbed up into the sky.


    The view I saw was something I expected, but it was still shocking to actually look at it. The whole city was practically in ruins, with smoke coming out of numerous places and many houses and buildings were now reduced to rubble. There were buildings 10 stories high which were covered completely with vines, and I could still see some moving trees in the distance thrashing about. The houses closer to me had their windows smashed up and walls covered with blood.


    The streets were filled with corpses of humans and animals. Some corpses looked fine, while others were smashed beyond recognition. Guts, organs, severed limbs, severed heads, and blood filled the streets. Some humans corpses were burned completely black, some were frozen in an ice-block while some had been impaled by spikes from below in the earth. Blood was actually flowing down the streets. It would look like a river of red-wine if not for the numerous corpses and other body parts mixed in between...


    Animals, mainly dogs, cats and rats, were feasting on the corpses hungrily. Birds kept diving from the air and flying away with bits of human flesh in their beaks. As far as I could see I was the only human still left alive in here, and the only reason I¡¯m not getting attacked right now is because of my invisibility.


    The strange thing is how am I still alive after being unconscious for so long? I could see the sun starting to sink, and when I lost consciousness the sun had just risen. Did that oaf actually manage to keep me alive for so long? ¡­. Nah, I don¡¯t think the oaf was capable of anything with the way he was acting, it must be that all the blood was masking our scents. We were right next to the whole pile of stinking animal bodies that had died by my hands after all¡­


    Tearing my eyes off a pigeon pecking at a girl¡¯s eyeball, I turned around and headed for my house. Among all the carnage, some houses stood out because of how clean they were. There were no blemishes on them, no blood splatters and their windows and doors were still intact too. They would have looked like completely normal houses, if not for the piles of seemingly sleeping humans all around them.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    These were obviously the houses which had poisonous plants in them. Somehow the sight of all the normal and intact human bodies piled up around these houses seemed a lot more eerie then the smashed up bodies out in the streets...


    My parent¡¯s house was in a similar condition. I went inside through the still open window of my room and was greeted with the same sweet-smell from before. I had eaten away all the plants in the hallway but hadn¡¯t gone around to eating the ones in the ground floor, which is why the air was still filled with poison.


    I went towards my parent¡¯s bedroom, looked at their lifeless bodies and then picked up my mother and went to our backyard carrying her. The backyard was surprisingly corpse-free, which was great for what I was about to do. I lowered my mother gently on the ground and started my work¡­


    ______________________


    30 minutes later I was standing in front of 5 gravestones. I had made graves and gravestones for all my family members by manipulating the Earth. The least I could do for my family was to properly bury them. They had after all continued to love me while I paid them minimal attention and always tried to stay alone and keep away from them...


    With my work done, I took off, went to the roof and retrieved the bag I had stashed away earlier. I had decided to keep the plants still inside the house alive for now, so that they may keep animals away from the house and not let dogs etc dig up the bodies of my family. I took off from the roof and went towards the nearest house with the clean and tidy looking appearance and intact bodies all around.


    I smashed through a window in the first floor and found myself in a room full of that same scent and the dead body of a young boy around 8-9 years old.


    Moving through the house I was able to find 5 plants that were giving off the sweet scent, but there were also some potted plants that had vines which were moving about threateningly. I ignored the vine plants, I didn¡¯t want an ability that could turn me into some kind of vine monster after all, and ate all the 5 poisonous plants.


    Unfortunately, I got the same message from before about improving my poison-resistance, and not any message relating to evolution¡­


    I continued moving from house to house until I had eaten about 40-45 plants in total, before I got what I was waiting for!


    Plant-blood absorbed. Poison resistance ability has now evolved! New ability is: Weak-poison immunity. You are now completely immune to all weak poisons. However, stronger poisons will still affect you. Consuming plants and animals with stronger poisons can evolve this ability further.


    Alright! As expected, the poison resistance evolved into poison immunity, but only for weak poisons¡­ and how exactly am I supposed to know which poisons are weak and which aren¡¯t¡­? *sigh*


    The good thing is that the ability can evolve further. This time though the message mentioned that I could consume both plants and animals to evolve the ability, if I remember correctly it only said plants before¡­


    I ate another leaf off the same plant that got me this evolution and waited¡­. 5 minutes passed by but I got no message. Alright, seems like eating anymore of these plants is completely useless¡­


    I got out of the house and went over to the next ¡®poisonous¡¯ house. As usual, I smashed straight through a window and started looking for the poisonous plants. I ate a leaf to see if this one had a stronger poison, but it didn¡¯t trigger any messages¡­


    I then proceeded to check out all the rooms till I found one with an attached bathroom, 2 windows and a comfy looking bed. The main requirement was two windows, so that I had 3 escape routes in case something happened: 2 through each window and one through the door. It looked like the master bedroom, as there was a couple lying lifeless on the bed. I opened up one of the windows, picked up the couple and threw them out, along with the sheets, pillows and covers.


    I rummaged around the cupboards, found clean sheets, pillows and covers and dumped them on the bed. Then I went downstairs to find the fridge full of food. Amazingly, the electricity was still working in the city. I had triggered quite a few burglar alarms too by smashing through windows of the numerous houses I had visited, and had to hurry up and eat the plants before moving out as animals had started to surround the house.


    I ate my fill, went back upstairs, made the bed and went to sleep. The sun had long since went down and I was too tired to do anything else¡­


    ____________


    A whole day had passed by since I started staying at this house, and I had spent the whole day coming to terms with my newly gained abilities. I figured it was much smarter to practice and perfect a few good abilities, then go on a blood sucking frenzy and end up with a whole lot of abilities but not be good in any of them.


    I had made a lot of progress in all the new abilities, and I was currently flying over the city completely invisible wearing my backpack. The reason for that was because I wanted to see what other shitstorm would take place¡­


    I realized it yesterday that there was some sort of pattern going on. One night every human got abilities, two nights later animals and plants got them and two nights later they went completely crazy and started killing off everything. I also realized that all this had happened around the 1 am mark, and it was 12:58am right now, which is why I was flying in the air so that I could see just what kind of fucked up shit happens next. If microorganisms and insects get abilities¡­ I¡¯ll just kill myself...


    My wristwatch changed from 12:59 to 1:00 and a few seconds later all the lights went out! A lot of houses had lights still on when the animals went crazy, and some light posts were still up, but now they had all turned off. I looked at my watch but it too had shut off for some reason. What¡¯s going on¡­? No more technology¡­? Is that it¡­?


    A few seconds later I found out that the lack of technology was the least of my worries. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had night-vision now, and with it I saw all manners of creatures pop up into existence!


    They just simply appeared¡­ but the alarming thing was that all creatures that appeared were certainly not from anywhere around here¡­


    I could see minotaurs, slimes, large saber-toothed lion-type creatures, chimeras, imps, goblins and a number of other monstrosities! All of these things immediately started attacking anything they could see. They attacked each other, animals from earth or simply started eating away the corpses still present on the streets.


    I stared wide-eyed at the spectacle below me, as fights between monsters vs animals, and monsters vs monsters erupted all around me! A shiver ran down my spine as I saw most of the monsters make short work of the Earth animals that I had to use a combination of abilities to fight against. Another jolt ran through my body as I saw the monsters casually entering the ¡®poisonous¡¯ houses, seemingly unaffected by the poison. I suddenly realized that all that poison really was weak¡­.


    I couldn¡¯t fathom what was going on at first, but then I remembered all that time I had spent reading novels and watching animes. Things like this happened all the time during those stories and animes, and I had wished for such an ¡®apocalypse¡¯ event happening on Earth many times as it seemed fun...


    I believe I just found out the hard way why people always said ¡°be careful what you wish for...¡±


    ______________________________________


    PS: I don''t have the time to proof-read this chapter right now. So if anyone finds any mistakes do let me know!


    PS(2): I have a list of all the abilities the MC has absorbed so far. Would you guys like me to post it as a separate ''abilities so far'' chapter? Or should I wait for a few more chapters and let the MC gain more abilities before releasing the list? Comment below and I will do what the majority of you want.

 Chapter Eight: Survive or fight back?

    I was still hovering in the air, still invisible and still in shock while I saw the gruesome battles below me, wondering how would I possibly survive here¡­


    A loud screech sounded from somewhere behind me, breaking me from my daze. I turned around quickly to look at a large number of bats flying around. They weren¡¯t those small creatures that stayed inside their caves though, these bats were massive! With a wingspan of at least 12 meters, a height of about 4 meters and fangs and claws that could rip me apart without any trouble.


    As I calmly observed them, I noticed that their eyes were completely white. It seems like they are blind¡­ but another loud screech reaching my ears and the bat closest to me suddenly rushing towards me shattered that assumption. I remembered too late that bats are usually known for sensing things with echolocation, and whether invisible or not they would still be able to ¡®see¡¯ me!


    Cursing my stupidity, I dodged, just in the nick of time as the massive bat monster rushed past me. But just as I thought I had a bit of breathing room the bat turned around quite sharply and came at me again! How in the world is this thing so agile despite its size!!


    I dodged again, and it turned around again, I dodged again, and it turned around again¡­ this was going nowhere! To make matters worse, other bats had by now heard all the screeching this darned thing was making, and I could see a lot of them flying over to get their peace of the pie, namely me.


    Seeing as things were getting a bit too out of hand, I dove low towards some house that was on fire and willed the fire to go smash right into the bat chasing me. The loud screech of pain behind me told me that it had worked, and I turned around to see the bat falling down to the ground with burns all over. That wasn¡¯t the only thing I could see though, as I saw the swarm of monstrous bats were still chasing me diligently despite the death of their comrade.


    Cursing everything I could think of, I turned around and flew as fast as I could possibly fly, while still throwing fireballs or boulders behind me whenever I could. I could hear that a lot of my blind hits had met their targets, but I could also still hear the flapping of a large number of wings and the constant screeches behind me, so I kept speeding away as quickly as I could.


    I had been staying in the suburbs of the city till now, and I finally left the suburbs to enter the side of the city which was covered with buildings. I started making my way through them, zigzagging through a number of building hoping that this would help me get away from my pursuers. I could barely make the turns at the speed I was flying at, and I could only thank myself for the amount of practice I had done beforehand, otherwise I would have crashed about 10 times by now!


    I started hearing less and less screeches and the flapping of wings also got distant, so I turned around and saw that the bats were flying around aimlessly. I could see that they could easily turn around sharply in between the buildings, perhaps even quicker then me, so how had I gotten away then...? I looked around and saw myself surrounded by buildings on all sides, and then I saw the bats still aimlessly flying around. Putting two and two together, I figured out that the buildings were somehow interfering with their echolocation.


    I spotted a window open in a building nearby and quickly went closer to it to get away from the dammed bats. I activated heat-vision and scanned the room with the window open before entering it, but there was nothing that gave off heat so I entered. I was still cautious though and still remained invisible as I checked out the room completely before I put my guard down.


    The room was actually quite nice and it looked like I was in a high-class hotel. I closed down the window and shut the curtains, then I slowly made my way across the room and opened the door, activating invisibility again. I peeked out into the hallway and saw splatters of blood and corpses everywhere, and some kind of huge creatures that looked a lot like ogres smashing doors. They were about 8 feet tall, had massive muscles that were bulging with every movement they made and had large fangs protruding from both their upper and lower lips.


    I could hear screams coming from both upstairs and downstairs, which was surprising to me. How had so many people survived all that carnage from animals? Observing the hallway I found my answer, a sign that read: no pets allowed. Alright... still it doesn¡¯t explain how no animals had entered here yet, or why these people hadn''t been killed off by plants.


    I saw that the ogres were getting closer to me, and pushing the thoughts about the surviving people aside I prepared myself... I waited till there were only two ogres left in the hallway while the rest of the ogres had entered different rooms, presumably searching for humans to kill.


    I dashed off towards the nearest ogre at top speed and swung my knife with my complete enhanced strength straight at its neck. I was honestly expecting the knife to shatter, or for it to simply bounce off, but instead it cleanly sliced straight through the ogre¡¯s neck!


    I stopped and stupidly stared as the ogre slumped and its head rolled off. I looked down at the knife and it still looked to be in the same condition as before. The other ogre roared seeing its decapitated friend, but as I was still invisible it had no idea what had done this to its friend. I flew with blinding speed to the other ogre and slashed at its neck, and got the exact same result!


    As I saw the second head roll off, I couldn¡¯t help but laugh in a weak voice¡­ I had been so completely afraid of all these monsters and how they were killing off animals from Earth that I had assumed they were a lot stronger when compared to me. I had never really thought that I stood a chance, but now I knew I could fight back. I had no idea if it was my enhanced strength, or if the combination of using both my speed and strength allowed me to decapitate these two so easily, but it didn¡¯t matter to me.


    As I saw the other ogres come rushing back into the hallway, attracted by the roaring of the second ogre, I grinned and flew right towards the nearest one!


    3 minutes later I was standing in the middle of a pile of ogre bodies with a huge grin on my face. I then went to the nearest one and started drinking the blood that was flowing from a wound on its back. I drank a lot before I let go and stood up, waiting for something to happen.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Super-strength. Ability of enhanced strength is now converted into super-strength. You will now be much more stronger then before.


    Nice! So there was an ability called super-strength after all! Furthermore, I just found out that I can drink blood and absorb abilities from dead bodies too! This will make things so much simpler for me!


    I grinned and started drinking blood from all available ogre corpses. After I finished I waited for the message to come from mind-me¡­


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability of super-strength already present.


    Hmmm¡­. So all ogres had the exact same ability¡­? Weird. Is this the case for all these otherworldly monsters that one species has only one ability or is this only a coincidence with these ogres¡­?


    Whatever the case may be, it was good for me. If one species has only one ability, then I could keep absorbing blood to improve that ability. Drinking more of Mark¡¯s blood had improved my flight ability, so continuing to drink blood from creatures that had the same ability would grant me many more benefits won¡¯t it? Though I will have to wait and see if this can actually be applied to all monster species or if it is only the case with these ogres¡­


    Thinking about monsters, I couldn¡¯t help but think of RPG games¡­.


    Wait! Games! This is exactly like those novels I used to read where game like elements came to the world¡­ and the most important game element was obviously the player¡¯s status!


    I immediately said ¡°Status!¡± and waited excitedly!


    ¡­¡­.


    ¡­¡­


    Nope, nothing. No blue window showed up¡­ I thought about it for a moment and then decided to go through all the list of commands that typically brought up the status screen.


    5 minutes later I had gone through all the words I could think of: stats, profile, character profile, character sheet, status screen, character stats, abilities, ability screen etc etc, but it was to no avail. No matter what I said nothing popped up in front of me. Either there was no convenient thing as a status screen here or I just couldn¡¯t think of the right word right now...


    I sighed heavily but my disappointment was short-lived, as my thoughts were suddenly interrupted with a seriously loud crash from upstairs! I had been completely ignoring the shouts and screams that I had been hearing all along, and only now did I pay attention again.


    There were no more sounds I could hear coming from downstairs, either the monsters had won or the people fighting them had won. However, there seemed to be a serious battle going on upstairs, judging from all the noise coming from there.


    I rushed upstairs through the stairs and found the cause for all the noise. All the noise was coming from some sort of a huge ballroom, which could easily have held a function for more then 200 people. However, it was currently filled with about a hundred or so ogres who had surrounded a group of 30 or so people. The people were fighting back with a number of different abilities, including elemental manipulations, variant elemental manipulations and telekinesis! There was a girl who was undoubtedly moving objects with her mind! She kept on sending chairs and tables and smashing them on the ogres!


    There was also a group of people behind the ones fighting who were whimpering away doing nothing. This group had about 10 people in it with 3 grown men, 4 children, 1 woman and 2 teenage girls. Probably these guys had useless abilities¡­


    I could see that the ogres were going to crush the people and kill them off sooner or later. Normally I wouldn¡¯t have cared about saving anyone, but three things attracted me towards fighting the ogres and saving the people.


    Firstly, I wanted to see how much more stronger I had gotten with the ogre blood. Plus I wanted to see if all these ogres actually had the exact same ability of super-strength or not.


    Secondly, and more importantly, the numerous cuts on the people who were fighting back, with blood flowing out of the cuts attracted me! Especially the telekinesis girl! I want that ability!


    Finally, it can¡¯t hurt for me to actually save someone for once. Even though I can¡¯t care less about their lives, for all I know these may be the last few people left alive in this city, and as much as I like to stay alone I didn¡¯t want to stay completely alone in a city filled with monsters! They can also help out with helping me survive with their abilities. If they hinder me, I can always dump them after absorbing their blood¡­


    With that decided, I readied my knives and with another huge grin on my face I dashed off into the middle of the ogres, slicing off their heads, arms and any anything else I could cut. I moved like an invisible hurricane of death, and in a number of minutes had killed off half of the ogres before the people and the other ogres noticed me.


    I could also actually feel that my strength had increased by leaps and bounds! It was exhilarating picking up the 8 foot monsters and throwing them into each other like rag dolls!


    As I moved about killing every ogre in sight with ease, I couldn¡¯t help but think about what my future would hold. With the confidence gained from fighting these ogres, I could finally stop simply surviving and could actually start killing off these monsters one by one!


    A smile came to my face as I thought about all the future bloodbaths to come, and I continued on hacking away at the dwindling number of ogres¡­

 Chapter Nine: Vampire...?

    Author''s note: Let me know of any mistakes in the chapter. I will also try to get another chapter tonight, but I make no promises! :P


    Hope you guys like this chapter.


    ___________________________________________


    (Telekinesis girl¡¯s POV)


    Just what the hell is going on? Just a few hours ago all of us were sitting around having a discussion. It was carnage outside with all the animals going crazy, but the hotel had somehow managed to stay safe due to the security guards and the heavy entrance doors blocking the entry from animals.


    My family had gone out to have fun with their abilities before the day of the animal attacks and I hadn¡¯t seen them since, I know it was wishful thinking but I still had hope that by some miracle they had managed to survive. However, I think that notion has been shattered today...


    33 of us had gathered to meet in the ballroom on the 6th floor of the hotel, so that we could discuss on what to do about our families. All 33 of us had families outside of the hotel, and we were thinking about going outside to look for them. The meeting had gone on for hours without any sort of a decision being made. Personality clashes and differing opinions made it almost impossible for an agreement to be made, and before we knew it, it was well past midnight. The little kids falling asleep suddenly finally made the group decide to postpone the discussion for now and go to sleep.


    Even though it was decided that we would have another discussion tomorrow, I knew that it would end up the same way with no decision being made. I had decided to go out and look for my family myself. The longer they stayed out there the lesser their chances of survival, and I had my ability to help me survive longer then most so I had some hope of finding them.


    We were all getting ready to leave and head on to our rooms when all of a sudden all the lights went out! I thought it was simply a power shortage, but soon we started hearing snarling and growling coming from all around us! An animal attack!


    Luckily, one of the guys had an ability that could conjure up some kind of light balls to light up the room, and he made quite a few balls of light float up high and illuminated the room. The snarling and growling were being made not by animals, but by monsters!


    I had never seen anything like them in real life, only in movies. They reminded me of shrek, but unlike shrek they were anything but cute and cuddly. They were well over 8 feet tall, had dark green skin, large fangs and claws and were hideous to look at. I don¡¯t know what to call them¡­ Trolls? Orcs? Ogres? ¡­ I think I¡¯ll just stick with monsters...


    The monsters started attacking us right away! They started surrounding us and making us back away into a corner! Not all of us had fighting abilities, but those who did started using them to their utmost, including me.


    I was frightened out of my mind, but no way was I going to let these ugly beasts take my life without giving a fight! So, I fought. I fought with everything I had! But, it wasn¡¯t enough¡­ We kept on being forced to back away further and further into a corner, and soon the whole ballroom was filled with monsters completely surrounding us!


    We had managed to kill a few, but for each one we killed ten more came forward! It was getting completely out of hand, and I knew our chances of getting out of this were next to nothing, but I won¡¯t give up! I am not one to just roll over and die! I will take out as many of these monsters as possible and take them with me as I fall!


    I started getting more ferocious, but still it was to no avail. We were going to die here¡­ It was only a matter of time.


    Suddenly, one of the monsters flew out from the back and landed right in front of us! To make matters even stranger, the monster was missing his head! Everyone stopped, monsters and humans included, and looked at the direction from where the monster had come from. What we saw was unbelievable!


    Someone, or rather something, was killing off the monsters at an incredible pace! I couldn¡¯t see what the thing was, either it was moving too fast or it was invisible, but whatever the case may be I wasn¡¯t the only one who couldn¡¯t see the thing. The monsters were growling and snarling loudly as they saw their kin fall, but they just couldn¡¯t see what it was that was doing all the killing!


    The monsters started swiping and clawing at mid-air, trying to hurt whatever the thing was, but it was to no avail. I stood there like a dumb little girl as I saw the thing slaughter the monsters like a hurricane of death! Monsters were flying everywhere, blood was spurting from countless monsters, but still the thing didn¡¯t stop! It continued on mercilessly slaughtering whatever it could touch!


    As the number of monsters started dwindling, I felt a shiver run down my spine. Whatever the thing was it was strong enough to kill off all these monsters single-handedly, so what was stopping it from targeting us next? I couldn¡¯t see whatever the thing was, for all I know it could be a bunch of invisible monsters that just liked bloodshed, but for some reason I got the feeling that it was just a single being that was killing off all the monsters.


    I alerted the others to stay on their guard and kept a watchful eye myself. Soon enough the last monster fell down into the floor covered with monster corpses and the ballroom filled with silence. For a whole minute, no sound could be heard. I could actually hear the suffocating silence all around me, and I felt fear like I had never felt before!


    All of a sudden, right in front of me another monster appeared! The thing was about 10 meters ahead of me, but I could see it clearly. It was covered in blood, to the point that blood was flowing down his clothes and falling to the ground in little streams! It looked about 6 feet high, and looked basically like a human if not for all the blood. What was this thing! It¡¯s back was turned towards me so I couldn¡¯t see it¡¯s face. What is it? A demon? A vampire?


    And then it spoke, but the words were nothing like what I had expected! ¡°Ew! Yuck! All this fucking blood! Damn! I need a bath!¡±


    My mind went blank. What did the monster just say¡­?


    It then turned around and I froze as I saw the red face! Or rather, the face was so completely covered in blood that it looked completely red! It then spoke again! ¡°Are you guys okay? I came as soon as I heard all the commotion, I hope I wasn¡¯t too late to save all of you.¡±


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    What¡­? This thing came to save us? Is this a sick kind of game that it likes to play with its victims to first save them then kill them off himself? Fucker!


    ¡°Dammit! Hold on a minute, I need to wash all this disgusting blood off me!¡± it said. Then it suddenly conjured up a whole lot of water from thin air and started splashing itself! I felt a bit weak, this thing could turn invisible, was unbelievably fast and strong and on top of all that it could use magic too!


    I suddenly remembered all the tales about vampires. They liked blood, could turn invisible, were strong and could use magic too! It fits!


    The vampire was still busy washing himself, so I picked up a broken leg of a chair with my mind and sent it straight into the vampire¡¯s heart! I watched excitedly as it flew closer to the vampire¡¯s heart, and it struck! Excellent! A wooden stake through the heart always kills vampires! But my excitement was short lived, as the stake cleanly hit his heart, and then shattered without making even a scratch on his body! To make matters worse, he hadn¡¯t even noticed! He was still busy washing himself!


    Just how strong was this thing!


    He had now finished washing himself, and shook his head like a dog then looked straight at me! He had dark brown hair, dark-brown or black eyes I couldn¡¯t tell, a tanned skin and an unkempt beard on his face. He smiled, and there were no fangs! No matter how I looked at him, he seemed like a normal guy¡­ No! I shook my head to clear my thoughts. This was clearly a trick to let down our guards!


    He then started walking towards us, and I panicked and immediately said, ¡°Stay away from us vampire!¡±


    He stopped and looked puzzled. ¡°Vampire¡­?¡± He asked, uncertainly.


    ¡°Yes, you are a vampire, clearly!¡± I said firmly. He should know that I am not falling for his petty tricks!


    ¡°Are you crazy? Why do you think I am a vampire?¡± He asked.


    I immediately responded, ¡°One, you like bloodshed, clearly! Two, you can turn invisible, are really fast and strong and can even use magic! Which means you are clearly not human as all humans only have one ability!¡± I looked around at the others beside me and could see that most of them agreed with me, though some did look doubtful.


    The vampire didn¡¯t respond for a minute, but then started laughing! He then said, ¡°Listen, the bloodshed I did was to save your asses. There was no time for me to calmly and politely kill each ogre out here as if I took my time you all would be dead. Also, I have a unique ability that allows me to use a number of different abilities, believe it or not. And if I really were a vampire, would I have washed away the blood? Won¡¯t I have swallowed it instead? Vampires are famous for drinking blood aren¡¯t they?¡±


    ¡­..


    ¡­..


    Well, good points. But for all I know he just did all that to trick us! Mirroring my thoughts, one of the guys beside me spoke up, ¡°That could all be a trick to kill us off when we least expect it!¡± I nodded. Yup, that¡¯s right!


    The vampire sighed, then said ¡°I killed off all these ogres that you guys had no chance against alone. If I wanted to kill you I could kill you anytime I want. I am much stronger then all of you combined as the proof shows.¡± He then gestured with his hand to the huge pile of monster bodies behind him. ¡°I really don¡¯t know what¡¯s up with you guys being suspicious of me after I clearly saved you, but I guess it¡¯s understandable with all the shit that¡¯s going around right now. I honestly don¡¯t care whether you guys believe me or not, as I am perfectly capable of surviving on my own. However, do let me heal your injuries before I leave, so that you guys may have a better chance at surviving.¡± He finished it up with a gentle smile on his face.


    He was speaking calmly, and he did make a lot of sense¡­ Are we over thinking things? He just said he could heal us too! Vampires aren''t supposed to have healing magic are they...? Could he really be a human like us¡­?


    __________________________


    (MC¡¯s perspective)


    What a mess!


    I completely lost control of myself earlier. I didn¡¯t even realize what was going on when all of a sudden I found myself completely covered in blood with all the ogres already dead. Somewhere along the way I had lost my knives too. I think I remember throwing them away because I wanted to crush the ogres with my bare hands¡­ or something like that¡­


    I recovered myself after I saw the horrifying look that I was getting from all the people I had ¡®saved¡¯. I could see their faces from a piece of mirror to the right of me, and from what I could see they were filled with fear.


    I put on an act of pretending to be disgusted by all the blood and washing it away, but it didn''t convince them much. The telekinesis girl even tried to kill me with a wooden stake through the heart, hilarious! I allowed the stake to hit me as I knew my steel-skin ability would keep me safe.


    I then tried to manipulate them by logic, but they didn¡¯t seem to want to budge from their vampire theory. I was honestly getting tired of it all.


    I made a big speech, trying one last time to get them to accept me. I have no idea why I am even trying to be accepted by them, but I have a feeling it has something to do with the telekinesis girl. For some reason I am attracted to her¡­


    That being said, I can¡¯t be bothered much. It¡¯s only simple attraction and it will end soon enough if she keeps thinking of me as a vampire. If they want to stick with their vampire theory I¡¯ll just knock them all out, take their blood and leave them to fend for themselves.


    Thus, I waited to see whether they will accept me and I will have to get sneaky with taking their blood, or if I will be forced to knock them all out and take their blood by force if they stick with their vampire theory.


    ''I really hope they stick with the vampire theory'', I thought to myself as I grinned inwardly looking at their faces still filled with fear and doubt...

 Chapter Ten: Searching for survivors

    Author''s note: Whew! Finally managed to complete this chapter. Although I was half-asleep as I was typing it so I''m not sure how good it is... If you guys spot any mistakes or plot-holes let me know and I''ll fix them in the morning. Thanks for reading! :)


    _______________________________________________________


    ¡°Alright. We believe you, for now. If you can really heal us, please do.¡± Said an older looking guy from among the group.


    Dammit! I was so hoping that I would get to knock these idiots out¡­ but a little part of me felt relieved to hear the decision too¡­ strange. It has to do with that girl¡­


    I pondered over what it was about the girl that was making me act unlike anything I normally do as I put on a fake ¡®relieved smile¡¯ and went towards them to start healing. I looked over at the girl. She had nice, long hair, a pair of hazel eyes and fair skin. Her face could be considered cute, but not outright beautiful. Her figure wasn¡¯t too bad, but again it was nothing special. There was nothing I could see that would make me so attracted to her¡­ but then I saw her eyes closely.


    Her hazel eyes, which were still looking at me suspiciously, were filled with life and a desire to fight. I remembered when I saw her earlier while she was fighting, and she continued on with a determined look in her eyes despite the terrible situation. Her eyes, or rather her spirit was the reason for me being attracted to her.


    I had long ago realized that I was attracted to a girl who could hold her own, rather then a girl who was beautiful. I learned of my preferences rather cruelly when I was around 13.


    I had a major crush on our neighbor, Samantha, who was 19 at the time. She had a smoking body, a great personality and a charming face, triple threat! I was completely smitten over her, until the day she got brutally raped¡­


    All my feelings instantly disappeared. Not because she got raped, but because how she acted afterwards. She blamed everyone instead of herself. She blamed the rapist, obviously, but then she also blamed the police, the government, the neighborhood watch, and just about anyone else while she cried and hid away inside her house.


    She couldn¡¯t see that the blame should fall on the rapist, yes, but also on herself.


    I¡¯m not like those idiots who blame rape victims because of stupid reasons like ¡®she provoked them¡¯ or ¡®she led them on¡¯ etc. I know the fault lies with the bastard guy who did the raping.


    My problem lies with the fact that most women in our society do nothing about it. They could take basic self-defense classes, learn basic fighting techniques or at the very least learn how to use basic weapons like a taser or pepper spray. But no, most women don¡¯t bother with such things, even though the news is filled daily with rapists and kidnappers. Instead they sit on their asses and pray that such things don¡¯t happen to them, or they just turn a blind eye to the realities of the world.


    I know there are probably millions of women in the world who can kick my ass up and down the street in a fight, or at least there were before all this abilities and monsters crap. But the problem is that they represent only a small part of the population of women. I had practically forced my mom and sisters to take self-defense lessons and bought them pepper sprays and tasers too, why can¡¯t other brothers or parents do the same for their sisters/daughters?


    The problem with Samantha was the same. I figured after this horrible experience she would at least get motivated to learn how to defend herself, but even after all that she still blamed others and instead asked her parents to get her a bodyguard. Thus, I lost all respect for her. I then found out I was only attracted to girls I could respect. And this telekinesis girl was one such girl.


    I had been absentmindedly healing everyone while I was thinking all this and it was now the girl''s turn to be healed. I approached her and stretched my hand towards her, but she instead pulled back and muttered ¡°I¡¯m fine¡± before moving away.


    I was going to go after her when I was interrupted by mind-me¡­


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability of super-strength has reached maximum potential. Drinking more blood of same ability holders will no longer have any effect.


    Huh¡­?


    It took a few seconds for my mind to come back to reality and then I remembered all that blood I had swallowed during the fight with the ogres.


    So, there is actually a cap of some sort with how much an ability can be grown. Is this cap just for me so that I don¡¯t keep drinking blood to get overly-powerful? Or is this cap the same for everyone, meaning there is the same limit to every ability, whether absorbed or original?


    Another thing is that I didn¡¯t really gain any other abilities from all the ogre blood I swallowed. So all of them had to have the same ability: super-strength.. Do all monsters of the same species have the exact same abilities? I know animals had different abilities. Two dogs of the same breed could have completely different abilities. But are these other-worldly monsters limited to one ability per species? Or was this the case just for the ogres?


    Speaking of ogres¡­ these guys were working together very well, but from what I had seen outside when all the monsters appeared was that the monsters were fighting each other as well. I had seen plenty of monsters of the same species fighting each other. But these ogres are co-operating and only kill humans¡­


    The bats from earlier had been working together too! So, does this have something to do with species? Like how lions are sociable creatures who live in prides but tigers like to live alone?


    Ugh.. so many questions, so few answers. I could probably figure most of these questions out by thinking about them, but it would have been so convenient if I had some sort of system help!


    ¡°Hey, mister¡­?¡±


    Hmmm¡­ me¡­?


    I turned around and saw the guy who had approved of me joining the group. I replied, ¡°Yes? Don¡¯t call me mister though, my name is Ben.¡±


    ¡°I see. My name is Hammond. We were going to go look for survivors over the hotel and were wondering if you could help us?¡±


    I groaned inwardly.


    This is why I wanted to stay alone. Why did I have to get attracted to a stupid girl?!? These guys will now drag me all over looking for survivors to rescue and save. All I wanted were their abilities¡­


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Oooh! Wait¡­ this is actually a good opportunity!


    I put on my best fake-comforting smile, and said, ¡°Why are you all going out? I should go alone. I can turn invisible and can search the whole building much more quicker. Plus, this way you guys won¡¯t have to risk your lives. I can handle myself, and even heal myself if I do get injured. I should be the one to go, not anyone of you!¡±


    I put on my most sincere expression at the end there, and it seemed to have worked. The idiot in front of me visibly relaxed and then smiled, ¡°Thank you very much Ben! We owe you a lot! I apologize for the way we all acted at the start.¡±


    ¡°Oh, no need at all. I have to admit I really did look like a monster!¡±


    He laughed and so did a few others, but I noticed the girl didn¡¯t. She¡¯s smart. These guys are believing me so easily, but I guess she can look straight through my act. Her reputation grew up a further few notches in my eyes¡­


    I put on another fake smile, and with these words I turned around and left: ¡°Take care now. I will be back as soon as possible. Don¡¯t leave this place, and if monsters come here make a lot of noise somehow and I will come back immediately if I hear the noise.¡±


    I first made my way back to the room I had landed in, checked through my bag to see if all my syringes were safe, and then left in search for the survivors. My plan was simple really, the people here would be defenseless, scared and will do just about anything I tell them to if I appear as their ¡®saviour¡¯. Which means these helpless bastards were the perfect way for me to gain abilities!


    I turned invisible and went downstairs, from where a lot of noise had been coming earlier. I passed by a lot of ogres, but I ignored them completely. There was no use in killing them, as their blood would no longer give me any benefits. On the contrary, keeping them alive means that everyone else will be reluctant to leave that ballroom, so I could easily roam this hotel in search of abilities!


    I hummed in a low voice as I activated heat-vision to see if I could spot any survivors...


    ¡­..


    5 minutes later I finally found a guy three floors lower then the one with the ballroom. He was hiding inside a room, under the bed. With such an unoriginal hiding place, it was a wonder how he had managed to stay hidden from the ogres¡­


    I approached him without my invisibility, and said in a low, tense voice, ¡°Hey, anyone there? I¡¯m here to try and find survivors.¡±


    He immediately scrambled from under the bed, came towards me and hugged me while crying! What¡¯s with all these dudes hugging me lately?!? Why couldn''t the telekinesis girl have hugged me¡­?


    I pushed him off and he said in between his sobs, ¡°Hi! *sob* I¡¯m so thankful someone came! I have been *sob* hiding in here for God knows how long!¡±


    I patted him on the back and calmly said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We can get out of here if we work together. But first, tell me your ability. We should know about each other''s powers if we are to make it out alive.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes! My ability is observation! I guess I can observe things more carefully so we can get out in a safer route...?¡±


    Ugh¡­ useless. I pretended I heard something outside and motioned for him to hide. He went back under the bed, and I half had a mind to leave him there, but then I thought of a better option. I turned invisible, crept under the bed and smacked him hard on the head, making him unconscious. I then picked him up and rushed back up to the ballroom. I would later make an excuse that he got hurt when we were ambushed while hiding in a room... or something that would explain how he got unconscious.


    I figured if I were to bring in survivors the ballroom group would become even less wary of me, making it easier for me to get their blood.


    _________________


    At the end of a few hours, I had ¡®rescued¡¯ 17 people. Unfortunately, almost all of them had useless abilities like perception, enhanced charm etc except for three useful ones, and I had gained these abilities from them:


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Air manipulation. You will now be able to manipulate air and make it do what you wish.


    With this, I had gotten all of the four basic elemental manipulations! The other 2 new abilities were:


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Heat and cold resistance. You will now be more resistant to the rise and fall of temperature.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Hiding presence. A step further then invisibility, this ability allows you to completely hide your presence from any sort of detection.


    The heat and cold resistance I figured would be useful if I found myself in a place without shelter, and hiding presence was a jackpot! With this ability, I could sneak around and take all sorts of abilities from everyone without even bothering with all this need for manipulating them first!


    I also drank blood from people who had abilities I already had, namely night-vision, enhanced speed and observation. I ended up drinking blood from the first guy because I remembered that I only had a drop of blood from Chloe, meaning this ability was too weak right now and I needed more blood to improve it. As for why I didn''t absorb all the other abilities, my reason was the same as before, I would rather have a few useful abilities then be filled up with useless ones that I would never use.


    I was happy with all the ¡®rescuing¡¯ I did today, especially because of the abilities gained but also because it did make the ballroom group drop their guard, including the telekinesis girl! This will make it so much easier for me to get their abilities and finally get away from them!


    Planning on how to best extract abilities without alerting everyone, I made my way back to the ballroom with a satisfied grin on my face.


    ___________________________


    P.S. 10 chapter done! Is it still too early for me to shamelessly ask for reviews/ratings...? :P

 Chapter Eleven: More abilities!

    Author''s note: Thanks a lot to everyone who rated my fiction! It means a lot to see all that positive feedback :)


    This chapter is a bit on the shorter side, it was meant to be the usual length but I am being forced to go out and do some chores so I decided to upload it at this length. Don''t worry, I am extremely motivated with all the ratings you guys gave me and I promise to release more chapters today.


    Hope you guys like this chapter :)


    _______________________________________


    After I had dumped all the people I ¡®rescued¡¯ back in the ballroom, everyone thanked me and showered me with praises, and I even got a smile from the telekinesis girl! I finally learned her name, which was Carmen, a rather sexy name which doesn¡¯t go with her fierce personality at all in my opinion¡­


    Half of the people in the ballroom were already asleep, with the other half on the verge of collapsing because of stress and fatigue. So, it was decided that everyone should fall asleep and get some rest, with some people keeping watch. I was pretty tired myself so I decided to fall asleep too. I fell asleep with everyone in the ballroom, making a show of how I trusted these guys enough to fall asleep with them instead of going away somewhere else. No idea if it did anything to improve my impression in their eyes or not¡­


    The whole next day was spent with me combing the entire hotel once again, checking every nook and cranny for other survivors. This time, I managed to find two people, a brother and sister who had managed to climb up into the vents to stay alive. They were both twins and surprisingly both had the same ability of telepathy. They told me that they used this ability to communicate with each other without making any noise.


    I brought them back to the ballroom without knocking them out and taking their blood. The reasons were because I didn¡¯t want to keep appearing with unconscious people who just ¡®happened¡¯ to bump their heads somehow, and I wasn¡¯t really sure if I wanted their ability or not. It is useful, certainly, but it¡¯s mainly for people who stay close to each other, whereas I like to stay alone for as long as possible. I wasn¡¯t sure if I actually needed this ability or not¡­ but just so that I won¡¯t regret it I decided to include them in the list of my ¡®victims¡¯ as well.


    I also had the duty of getting food and water for everyone, but as this was a hotel food wasn¡¯t much of an issue for now. There were a couple of bathrooms near the ballroom as well, so all our basic needs were being taken care of for now. Me and a few others had spent a few hours last night getting a lot of mattresses, blankets, pillows etc for everyone to sleep in comfortably too. All in all, everyone was feeling as relaxed as it was possible in this crazy situation, which made everyone drop their guards a bit and allowed me to make my plans for the night.


    That night I had gotten first watch along with a group of 4 others. After I carefully made sure that everyone was asleep, I hid my presence and quickly knocked all the 4 others in a matter of seconds using my speed. Then, I proceeded to take out syringes and get to work. My main goal was to get abilities from 5 of these people from the ballroom, and of course the top of my list was Carmen.


    I floated a few inches above ground to make sure I didn¡¯t make any noise with my footsteps, and carefully made my way over to Carmen. I would have had trouble reaching her if I didn¡¯t have my flight ability, as she was right in the middle of a group of about 20 women who were sleeping close to one another.


    I flew over the top of everyone extremely slowly, so that I didn¡¯t make them wake up by disturbing the air if I flew too fast. It took a good 5 minutes for me to reach her in the center of the group of women, as I was really moving too slow. But I didn''t mind the slow speed of my flight, better to to this properly and succeed rather then rushing through it and messing it up...


    After finally reaching her I slowly pricked her with a syringe on her arm and filled it up. I then healed her, waited a couple of minutes and then pricked her again with another syringe and filled it up too. Telekinesis was too valuable an ability, and I wanted to make sure that I absorbed plenty of it to make it as strong as possible for me.


    I repeated the process a third time and filled another syringe before she started to stir a bit and I decided it was time to move on to other people.


    I started to make my way slowly to another woman when I realized how stupid I was being. I had been floating just a bit above their heads all this time and thus I had been forced to move slow, but my stupid brain didn¡¯t realize that I could just go up to the top of the ballroom and thus fly from one person to another much quicker and simply drop down on the specific person when I reached him/her.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Cursing myself for wasting so much time by moving slowly unnecessarily, I quickly climbed to the roof of the ballroom and proceeded to move on to the others¡­


    _______________________


    About 20 minutes later I had done what I wanted to do, and apart from the 5 main people I took abilities from I also had taken blood from the telepathy twins. Although I had only taken three syringes full of blood from Carmen while only taking two each from everyone else apart from the telepathy twins. They both had the same ability, so I only took one from each of them to avoid making them wake up. I would have taken two from each of them but for some reason they started stirring as soon as I pricked them with the first syringe¡­ either they were light sleepers or they were still tense so they couldn¡¯t sleep too deeply¡­


    During all this time of me extracting blood I had constantly kept watch over everyone else, and thankfully no one had woken up. At the end of it all I ended up with a whole bunch of full syringes and I got the 6 abilities I had wanted after drinking all that blood:


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Telekinesis. You will now be able to move things with your mind.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Increased luck. Your luck has now been increased, as a result good things will happen more frequently for you.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Lightning manipulation. You can now manipulate lightning and make it do what you wish.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Ice manipulation. You will now be able to manipulate ice and make it do what you wish.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Improved vision. Your vision has now improved, as a result you will now be able to see much clearer and much further then before.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Telepathy. You will now be able to communicate with others using your mind, without having to make any noise.


    Needless to say, I was extremely happy with gaining all these abilities. Obviously, telekinesis made me the most excited, but the rest of them were great for me too!


    I got two variant elemental manipulations, ice and lightning, to use alongside my four basic elemental manipulations. I picked increased luck because extra luck is always good, and a lot of the games I had played always had influence from luck in one way or another. Improved vision was something that I had been wanting ever since I started to fly, because although I could see a lot from high in the air, I couldn¡¯t make out many details. I had to go closer to whatever I wanted to see, which basically ruined the advantage flight gave me. Telepathy I got on a whim basically, I don¡¯t know if it will be useful in the future or not but it seemed like a good ability to have so I got it.


    After drinking all the blood I healed the other four guards so that the bumps on their heads disappeared, and they woke up one by one soon after. They assumed they had fallen asleep while keeping watch, and didn¡¯t say anything in hopes that no one else noticed. All in all, it was a pretty successful night for me.


    The time for a shift change came soon after,  and the five of us were replaced by five others, including Carmen. I had healed everyone from whom I had taken the blood from, so there were no scars to see and thus they wouldn¡¯t know what happened during the night.


    I went to my corner of the ballroom and soon fell asleep, pleased with the way the night had gone.

 Chapter Twelve: Demons from hell...?

    I woke up feeling excited and refreshed. After having a simple breakfast, I washed up and headed out of the ballroom. I was asked where I was going and I simply made the excuse that I was going to search once again in case I missed some survivors.


    I made my way out into the hallway while I hid my presence, and climbed up to the roof. I hadn¡¯t been here so far, and I kind of wanted to see what was going on outside because all the noise of the monsters fighting had stopped for some reason last night.


    I noticed it immediately, and everyone else did too as it really was quite obvious. Since the time I entered the hotel, I could hear snarls, growls and the unmistakable sounds of monsters fighting constantly coming from outside. The noise had started to decrease gradually yesterday and it had vanished completely by last night, and I wanted to know the reason why.


    I entered the roof and found it completely deserted. All the hallways had been covered with blood with ogres walking all around, but the roof looked strangely¡­ normal. It looked just like a roof should, no corpses, no blood, no ogres¡­ just a normal roof.


    I found it a bit strange but probably it¡¯s because ogres like to stay indoors and didn¡¯t want to venture out...


    The next thing I noticed was the sky, which was a clear crystal blue without any clouds whatsoever. The lack of any sort of birds or avian creatures was immediately obvious. As soon as the animals started going crazy, the sky had always been filled with birds, and when the monsters arrived the monster bats ruled the night sky. I was certain that there had to be some sort of avian monster that were active during the day too, but as far as I could see the sky was completely devoid of any creatures.


    The abnormally normal roof I could make sense of, but the clear sky was a bit too strange. I immediately became a lot more cautious and made my way over to the edge carefully. I peered down and what I saw was even more astonishing then the clear sky!


    The roads, they were clean! No corpses, no body parts¡­ nothing! There wasn¡¯t even any blood flowing down the roads as it had been before! The only trace of all the blood that had previously filled the roads was the fact that the roads were now tinted red. That¡¯s it, nothing else to even hint at all the carnage that was there before!


    How in the world had all this changed so quickly in a mere two days?? Where had everything disappeared off to? There has to be some sort of explanation for all this¡­ Perhaps the bodies disappear after some time like in the games¡­? I don¡¯t really think that¡¯s it, I haven¡¯t had any signs that the world has somehow changed into a game-world of sorts¡­ Plus I had to drag the dead bodies of all the ogres I killed from the ballroom, and I piled them all in a number of rooms. As far as I could remember, the corpses of the dead ogres were still there and hadn''t disappeared, so what is the reason behind these clean roads...?


    Another bizarre thing was the lack of living creatures. There were no animals, plants or monsters as far as I could see. Although I was at the top of a 20 story building¡­ so perhaps I couldn¡¯t see them¡­?


    I remembered the new abilities I gained last night and immediately used my improved vision to see more clearly. Everything suddenly became much clearer, and if I focused on something it felt like I zoomed in on it. It was a strange feeling, and it felt like I was actually seeing for the first time in my life, what I could see before was nothing compared to what I could see with the ability!


    Getting used to my new sense of sight took some time, but after I did get used to it I ¡®zoomed¡¯ in on the roads and looked carefully for some kind of clue to the disappearance of every living thing.


    I scanned the roads carefully, and after a lot of searching I finally found a living thing, a rat! It was dragging what looked a lot like a human finger, only it was black in colour. It was amazing the details I could now see when I was so far away!


    I kept my focus on the rat as it was scurrying about, when suddenly the ground behind it split open and a hand three times the size of the rat came out! The hand was completely hairless, red in colour and had 4 large and very sharp claws instead of fingers. The hand shot out of the ground, grabbed the rat and pulled it back inside, and then the ground which had split open went back to as it was before without any cracks at all, leaving no traces of what just happened!


    All of this took place in barely a matter of two seconds, and I wasn¡¯t quite sure if what I saw was actually real or not...


    I shook my head and looked back at the spot where the ground had split open, but there was absolutely nothing to see. The ground was as smooth as it had been before. I still had no idea if what I saw was real or not, so I ¡®zoomed out¡¯ and started looking all over again.


    Before long, I spotted another living creature, this time it was in the sky flying around. I focused in on it and discovered that it was a hawk. It was circling over something, and then dove down. As soon as it touched the ground to pick up whatever it was that made it dive, the ground split open again, a hand came out once more and dragged the hawk down into the depths before the ground reformed itself as if nothing had happened!


    This time the hand that came out was bright yellow in colour and all this happened even more quickly then the case with rat! It barely took a second before the hawk was dragged down!


    This time I was certain that the hand and everything else was real. There were some kind of creatures underground, probably living in the sewers, who were dragging everything they could down to eat them I guess.


    The presence of these underground creatures explains the lack of any living things on the ground, though it was still quite unbelievable. Sure, the hands that came out were large, meaning that the creatures underground were of a formidable size too, but still I saw plenty of huge and powerful creatures the night all the monsters appeared. How strong were these underground creatures to so thoroughly clean out every living thing from the ground? Or was it the case of them being too numerous and they had somehow managed to outnumber the stronger monsters I saw that night¡­?


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    The lack of ground creatures is at least understandable, but what about the empty skies? Sure, I just saw a hawk getting dragged down, but that was only because it dove down to the ground. If the avian creatures stayed up in the air there was no way as far as I could tell for the underground creatures to snatch them from high up in the air. Either they had actually managed to bait all the avian creatures to come to the ground, or they had some mysterious powers that allowed them to attract avian creatures to the ground. Another possibility could be that all the avian creatures had left the area due to a lack of food on the ground¡­?


    I had no idea what to think of this new development. I had so far been concentrating on getting abilities while staying wary of the dangers from the sky and the dangers from the surface. Now I had to keep track of dangers from underground too¡­?!? Give me a damn break!


    I swept the area around me once again, but couldn¡¯t see anything else so I left the roof and headed downstairs in a sour mood. I took my frustrations out on the first few ogres I encountered by beating them to a pulp with my fists. After I was done, I stood still and thought about things a bit.


    A jolt ran through my spine as I realized something and immediately rushed downstairs at full speed. After I reached the first floor I took off and started flying while at the same time I slowed down a bit. I carefully reached the ground floor while staying near the ceiling of the floor and saw the whole floor was completely clean. This was my first time entering the ground floor, as I had never gone below the first floor, the reason being that the ground floor only had a grand lobby and nothing else. There were never any heat signatures from the ground floor, so I had never felt the need to go and snoop around the lobby.


    As I saw the completely clean lobby devoid of any corpses, I could not help but think how lucky I was to have stayed away from the ground floor. I had been becoming increasingly overconfident with my abilities lately, and sooner or later I would have strolled on down here and gotten a nasty surprise...


    I went back to the first floor, grabbed the nearest ogre I could find and picked it up without killing it. I had my steel-skin ability, plus I had my strength and I was hiding my presence as well, so there was nothing the ogre could do except snarl loudly and flail its arms around aimlessly.


    I carried it by its neck down to the ground floor and threw it on the ground while I stayed up in the air. The ogre touched the tiled floor, bounced up about 2 feet into the air and then hit the floor hard once again, cracking quite a few tiles in the process. It groggily started to get back up, but before it could the floor split apart and a red hairless hand shot forth and grabbed the ogre!


    The hand tried to drag the ogre underground, but the ogre was much stronger then a rat or a hawk so it struggled while trying to get out of the grip. The struggle continued on for a minute without either party getting the upper hand, but then everything changed in an instant!


    The floor split apart once again, and another red hand came out, though this one didn¡¯t grab the ogre. Instead, it stayed there for a second before it shot out a massive fireball straight at the ogre! The fire covered the ogre completely for about two seconds before it disappeared without a trace, leaving an entirely roasted ogre behind which was then calmly dragged into the ground. The floor once again fixed itself up, including the tiles that the ogre had broken from being thrown!


    I stared at the space where the ogre had disappeared for a good two minutes. My mind was completely blank at this point. I had no idea what to make of all this.


    These creatures could not only control the ground, but they could throw fire too if something was becoming too troublesome! And I had no idea if this fire ability was the only trick these creatures had. What if the red-skinned creatures could control fire, while the yellow-skinned from earlier had some other power? And I can¡¯t be sure if these were the only variations these creatures had. What if their species consists of tens of differently coloured creatures, all with different abilities? Or the colour could be completely irrelevant, these creatures could all have a number of different powers regardless of what their colours are!


    I had no idea what these creatures were, no idea on how powerful they were and I didn¡¯t even know if they would stay underground or start coming out if they ran out of food to drag down! I didn¡¯t even know what to call them! Only thing that ran through my mind was that they were demons. I guess demons is as good a name as any¡­


    One thing was for certain though, all my overconfidence that had built up with me constantly overpowering the ogres had been shattered completely. There was no way I was going to simply stroll underground and start fighting creatures I had almost no information on!


    Right now, these creatures seem to stay underground, and I can simply stay away from them by flying. But, I had no idea if they would stay underground. Another thing that was troubling me was the lack of avian creatures earlier, if these demons had some way of killing things in mid-air then even I wasn¡¯t safe anymore. I need a plan if I am to fight these creatures¡­.


    I trudged back upstairs dragging my feet in low spirits. Barely an hour ago I was in such high spirits with my newly gained abilities and my confidence, and now these fucking demons had ruined everything!

 Chapter Thirteen: Experimenting

    Author''s note: Funny story with this chapter. I had been ready to upload this about 30 minutes ago and had already copy-pasted this here and was proof-reading it, when my laptop shut down while I was 3 quarters done with proof-reading! I had been ignoring the low battery messages and paid the price... I immediately yelled out FUUUUCCKKKK! at the top of my voice and ended up having to endure a 15 minutes lecture from my mother lol :P


    Anyways, lame story done. Hope you guys like this chapter! I''ll try and get another one done tonight to finish off this underground monsters mini-arc...


    ____________________________________________


    I made my way back to the ballroom in low spirits. When I entered my expression must have given away my feelings because I immediately got surrounded by a lot of people who started asking me what¡¯s wrong and if everything was alright...


    At first I got annoyed and thought about going to my room to stay alone, but then I remembered that everyone here was in a much worse situation then me. I had my unique ability to help myself, but these guys only had a single ability to rely on. Plus I am more or less an unemotional bastard and I already know my family is dead, whereas most of these people constantly worry about their families outside the hotel. It would be best to tell them the truth about the whole situation, so they can be prepared for the inevitable result of finding their families dead...


    With that reasoning, I started telling them about all that I saw on the outside. As I spoke, I saw their expressions turning from shock to alarm to despair. Even Carmen had a sort of expression that said something like ¡®there goes all hope I had¡¯.


    After I finished speaking, I left the ballroom as I really didn¡¯t want to deal with all the emotional crap those guys would start talking about. I made my way back to my room and lied on the bed, trying to ponder over what to do.


    I could easily overpower the demons in terms of strength based on how the demon from earlier struggled against the ogre. The problem was the fact that it could use magic. I had only seen it use a fireball, but even that fireball was nothing to joke about! I had felt the heat of it even though I was a good distance away from it, plus it had taken just a couple of seconds to completely roast the ogre! I had the ability to manipulate fire, but that attack had been too fast and too powerful, and I¡¯m not sure if I could manipulate it before it hits me. And if it manages to hit me, I¡¯m not sure I will survive, as I don¡¯t have any sort of fire-resistance. The only ability I have is resistance to temperature, and that won¡¯t do me any good against a fire of that intensity.


    Furthermore, I have no idea if it can only use fire. Perhaps the demons can use a number of different types of magic. That is most likely true, given how they managed to wipe out so many monsters from this city. There is just too little information at hand, and it¡¯s time I got more info on these creatures!


    I got up off the bed and strode out into the hallway in search for some ogres to experiment on.


    The next few hours I spent on trying out my new abilities. Ice manipulation came easily, and I could manipulate it into a number of different shapes and sizes. I even managed to easily freeze a number of ogres completely!


    Lightning manipulation was a completely different story. At first, I couldn¡¯t even manage to produce lightning, only a few sparks from my fingers appeared from time to time. It took a lot of effort from me to finally be able to produce a bolt of lightning, but even after I managed to produce it, I couldn¡¯t control it no matter what. I had to spend a good 3-4 hours just to practice on how to control the lightning I produced. At the end, I could manage to make the lightning head into a general direction, but nothing specific like hitting a small target. Practicing with lightning also made me tired, and I had to take a nap before continuing on with the experiments...


    After my nap, I moved on to telekinesis, the ability I had been looking forward to the most. There was just something about moving things with my mind that excited me a lot!


    I started off small, trying to control small objects like pens, socks, handkerchiefs etc. It was surprisingly very easy to do, and I had absolutely no trouble at all in controlling these small objects and moving them about however I wanted.


    I then moved on to bigger objects. I tried moving lamps, pillows, chairs, tables and even beds! These objects too were extremely easy. The largest object I could find was a huge bed in the presidential suite which was made out of some kind of marble, no doubt it would weigh a lot. However, contrary to what I thought, it was once again surprisingly easy to control! I had no trouble whatsoever with moving it about.


    I was astonished to see how easy this ability was for me. I figured it had to do something with the fact that I drank a lot of Carmen¡¯s blood as compared to others. But even still, it was just too simple!


    After I had done trying to move objects, I moved on to trying to move living things! And this is where trouble started. No matter how hard I concentrated, I just couldn¡¯t move a single finger of the ogres I was experimenting on...


    I thought ogres might be a bit too much for my first try, so I made my way back to the ballroom, but this time I kept my hide presence ability active so that no one would be able to see me. I spotted Daniel, a 6 year old boy who had been here since the start. He was the smallest living thing inside the hotel, so I thought practicing on him would be easier.


    I spent the next few hours trying to move him. It took a lot of concentration, but at the end of my practice session I managed to take complete control of him! He was puzzled by the end of my experimenting, but I didn¡¯t do too much to him. I only made him trip, made his arms and legs twitch a bit and made him float a few centimeters above the ground for a second, nothing he won¡¯t get over in some time¡­


    I moved on to the next child, a girl about 8-9 years old, don¡¯t know what her name is¡­ It was easy to control her after all that practice I had done on Daniel, so I didn¡¯t spend much time controlling her...


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Instead of moving on to adults I left the ballroom and went to search for ogres. Adults are much more perceptive then kids, so they would know immediately that something was wrong when I made their limbs twitch or if I made them hover. That could lead to panic or some awkward questions, and I didn¡¯t want any part of it. Thus, I moved on to the much more safer option: ogres.


    I crept near an ogre and tried to take control of him, but it was hard. I could make his arms and legs move a bit, but it was extremely hard to lift its whole body and move it about.


    I spent a good few hours trying to lift the ogre, and at the end of the day all I could do was lift it a few inches off the ground for a few seconds before I had to put it down again.


    I moved back to the ballroom exhausted and slightly disappointed, and fell asleep almost immediately...


    _____________


    I crept around once again in the middle of the night and helped myself to some more blood from Carmen, three more syringes to be exact! Then, I went back to sleep before resuming my practicing the following day...


    I found an ogre and immediately tried to lift him, and ended up smashing the creature straight through the ceiling and into the floor above! Luckily, I was practicing on the 17th floor and it was nowhere near the ballroom which was on the 6th floor, so no one heard the noise except for the nearby ogres...


    I got over the initial shock of how easy it was to lift the ogre pretty quickly when I saw a bunch of ogres running towards me. I had no idea when I shut off my hiding presence ability, but apparently I did which was why all these ogres could see me. Instead of hiding my presence again, I decided to do a few more experiments with telekinesis...


    I was pretty confident on my steel-skin ability to keep me safe from any injuries from these ogres, so I stayed at the spot and concentrated on trying to take control of all the ogres present. There were about 15 of them running towards me, and I tried to take control of them one by one to see what my limits were.


    I stopped the charge of one ogre, then two, then three¡­ all the way to fifteen! I could completely take control of all fifteen ogres present without breaking a sweat!


    I then moved on down the hallway making a lot of noise while making the fifteen ogres follow behind me. As a result of all the noise I was making, more and more ogres started rushing towards me and I tried taking control of as many as possible.


    At the end of it all I could take control of almost 50 ogres before I started having trouble! Unbelievable! I couldn¡¯t for the life of me think why Carmen didn¡¯t do this when they were surrounded by ogres in the ballroom. She could also have taken control of me when she thought I was a vampire! A shiver ran down my spine as I thought about what could have happened if Carmen was aware of the full extent of her powers¡­


    I then decided it was finally time for me to go back to the ground floor and face the demons once again..


    _________________


    I was hovering over the ground floor with around 20 ogres beside me. They were making a lot of noise, but that was the whole point. I wanted to see if the demons from below would come out and attack the ogres while they were in mid-air¡­


    15 minutes passed by without any demons coming from the ground no matter how much noise the ogres made. I decided to drop one and see if there were even demons below or if they had gone away to someplace else¡­


    As soon as the ogre hit the ground, two red hands shot out! One of them fired a fireball immediately and roasted the ogre, and the other hand dragged it down! This all took place in a matter of seconds!


    This made me realize that the demons below weren¡¯t some stupid mindless creatures, but they learned how to quickly take care of the ogres and implemented the fireball technique after just one encounter. Which means I am dealing with intelligent creatures instead of stupid ones¡­ this just keeps getting better and better¡­.


    I then threw 5 ogres below at the same time and what happened next astonished me! 4 red hands, 2 blue, 2 green and 2 yellow hands shot forth from the ground! Two of the red hands shot fireballs while the other two dragged the two roasted ogres down, a blue hand froze an ogre while the other blue hand dragged the frozen ogre down, one green hand sliced off the ogre in half with a wind blade and then both green hands dragged both the halves down and finally one yellow hand shot spikes of earth towards the ogre and the other yellow hand then dragged the impaled ogre down! All this happened in the space of under five seconds!


    These things can use all 4 basic elements?! FUCK! It¡¯s about time I see what I¡¯m dealing with here! I was extremely frustrated and threw all the remaining ogres down at the same time and saw as a bunch of red, blue, green and yellow hands shot forth from the ground! I took control of the nearest pair of green hands with telekinesis and pulled with all my might!


    A huge hole appeared as the ground split open to reveal something straight out of someone¡¯s nightmares! I gazed dumbfoundedly at the enormous monster that I had just pulled¡­


    All I could think about was how I had been underestimating these creatures by calling them mere demons¡­.


    <hr />


    Leafyeyes stole my chapter! Grrrrr!


    Lol... no idea what''s going on with the website, but it''s all going crazy for me too. I guess I''ll hold off on anymore commenting and wait till it gets fixed lol :P

 Chapter Fourteen: What lies beneath?

    I stared at the monstrosity I had pulled out of the ground. It was unlike anything I had imagined!


    I had been imagining these creatures from below to be demons. A humanoid shape, around 10 feet tall, perhaps with fangs, wings and a tail, two horns on the head¡­. that¡¯s what I thought these underground creatures would look like. I could only laugh helplessly at how wrong I had been¡­


    The creature in front of me was HUGE! A height of about 15 feet and width of around 10 feet. It had eight arms, eight legs, eight eyes and a huge gaping circular mouth that was lined with inch-long teeth that looked extremely sharp. This was just the start of the weirdness¡­


    The legs and arms were differently coloured. Two were red, two green, two blue and two yellow. Which meant that what I had been thinking about different underground creatures having different abilities was completely wrong! I had thought there were four different kinds of creatures and each one of them could control one element, but seeing the eight differently coloured arms and legs made me realize that just one of these things could control all four elements at the same time!


    The legs weren¡¯t normal legs, but something like the tentacles an octopus or a squid has¡­ they were all flailing about and looked extremely flexible. There were no suckers on them like an octopus has, but they were covered in some kind of sticky substance that I guess helped it to either climb up surfaces or grab a victim and make it stick to its legs.


    The main body looked rigid and was black in colour, with the gaping mouth in the center and 8 crimson eyes arranged all around in a circular fashion. It honestly looked creepy as hell!


    The arms were poking out of different places from the main body, with no discernible pattern of where they were supposed to be placed. It seemed like they were placed completely at random, and they were all moving around independently.


    I observed all this in a matter of 3-4 seconds, my observation ability helping me out, and it was a good thing I didn¡¯t take long to continue gaping at it because all of a sudden all sixteen limbs pointed at me and fired a combination of elemental attacks!


    My hiding presence ability had once again been deactivated without me realizing it. It had been happening a lot lately, and I only just now realized that it required my concentration to keep it active. As soon as I lost concentration or got distracted my hiding presence ability would immediately get deactivated...


    This realization came a little too late, as I saw the bunch of elemental attacks heading straight towards me! I immediately activated steel-skin, enhanced speed and hiding presence and tried to dodge all the attacks as best as I could.


    I was too close and had spent precious few milliseconds gaping at the incoming attacks like an idiot, as a result I couldn¡¯t completely dodge all the attacks. I got hit by earth spikes, ice spears, wind-blades and fireballs. My steel-skin helped me against the spikes, spears and wind-blades, and I came off without a scratch from any of them. The problem was the fireballs.


    These fireballs had a diameter of about a foot, and were intensely hot! I tried to dodge them but in the end I got hit by one, and it was pure agony! I screamed at the top of my lungs as my mind went blank due to the pain! The fireball had hit me on my left arm and it had been completely burned to the point where I couldn¡¯t even feel it anymore! I saw my burnt flesh dropping into the floor below and I could see my bones clearly in some places as all the flesh had been completely burnt away!


    I was barely conscious as I rushed away upstairs at top speed trying to get away from the monster. Luckily, it didn¡¯t seem to be following me as I couldn¡¯t hear anything behind me. I rushed all the way to the ballroom while constantly trying to heal my arm.


    I barged into the ballroom and immediately passed out, with the last image I saw being the shocked faces of everyone and my arm still in a miserable state. The last thought going through my head was ¡®HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!¡¯ as I dropped on the floor and faded away into unconsciousness¡­


    _____________________


    (Carmen¡¯s perspective)


    (Note: she refers to the ogres as monsters. So when she says monsters think ogres and not the underground creatures¡­)


    I woke up in the morning and immediately looked around. It has become a habit of mine ever since these monsters appeared everywhere. Luckily, there were no monsters, only humans that I could see. I relaxed, got up and stretched, before wincing a little.


    My right arm hurt a bit when I stretched it. It was a weird feeling¡­ like the soreness you get after you have been given an injection¡­? It was the second time I felt this feeling in my arm, as it was the same feeling I had a couple days ago. Figuring it was just sore because I must have slept in a weird angle, I got off the bed and went to the bathroom.


    After washing up I had a simple breakfast of canned tuna while I looked around the ballroom. Ben wasn¡¯t anywhere to be seen as usual¡­


    He was a weird guy. I now know he isn¡¯t a vampire at least, because I had seen him moving about in the sunlight streaming through the windows, but I just get a weird vibe from him. It felt like he wasn¡¯t being completely honest¡­ like he was hiding something¡­


    I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it, and no one else seemed to be sharing my feelings. He had been helping out a lot, and it¡¯s safe to say that without him we wouldn¡¯t even be alive right now. Apart from saving all of us that night, he had also been the one who had gone to the kitchen on the first floor floor and secured food for us. No one else could walk through the hallways without being in danger, so Ben was the only one who left the ballroom regularly.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    This was another weird thing about him, I had seen how he took all of the monsters out that night, so he could just as easily kill off all of them and make the whole hotel free from monsters, yet he had not done this so far. He had been going out each day but as far as I could tell he would leave the monsters alone. Why would he leave them alone? Does he want to keep us all holed up in this ballroom? If so, why? What does he want with us? If that isn¡¯t the reason, then what is it that keeps him from killing all these creatures??


    I finished up the breakfast and tried to stop thinking about Ben as I walked towards a few friends I had made in the ballroom¡­


    The morning passed by as usual, with me chatting with others to stop myself from thinking about my family. They were almost certainly dead if what Ben told us about the underground creatures was true¡­


    My thoughts were interrupted by the doors of the ballroom bursting open! I immediately got on guard fearing another monster attack, but what came through the doors was Ben¡­.


    He was screaming at the top of his lungs and immediately fell down on the floor, and then stopped screaming. Did he pass out¡­?


    We all stared at his unmoving body for a few seconds before I snapped out of my daze and ran up to him. When I saw his left arm, I felt like puking¡­ it was horrible!


    His arm, or what was left of it, had flesh and blood dripping out and falling to the ground! I could even see his bones in a lot of places where the flesh had completely fallen off! I had no idea on what to do, and could only stare blankly at his horribly disfigured arm¡­


    Someone pushed me away and I saw a number of people lifting Ben up and carrying him to a spare bed, his arms, one good and the other disfigured, dangling from his sides.


    Everyone was at a loss on what to do after we had placed Ben on the bed. There were no doctors among us, and the only one with a healing ability was Ben himself. All we could do was wrap what was left of his arm in spare sheets and try and make him as comfortable as possible¡­.


    ____________________


    (MC¡¯s perspective)


    I woke up groggily and immediately felt the unbearable pain from my left arm. I tried to ignore it but it was just too much to simply ignore..


    I groaned and immediately heard someone exclaim, ¡°He¡¯s awake!¡± I opened up my eyes and saw myself surrounded by people from all sides as they gazed worriedly at me. My mind was still in a haze and my mouth was dry, so I croaked out the only thing I could think of, ¡°Water¡­¡±


    Someone immediately lifted my head gently and helped me drink a glass of water. After I was satisfied, I asked how long I had been unconscious and got the surprising answer of three days! I had been out cold for three whole days!


    I sat up straight and looked at my left arm. It was covered with sheets which were probably used as a crude type of bandage. Ignoring the exclaims of others to stop, I ripped apart my bandages while trying to ignore the fresh bout of pain and saw my left arm¡­


    It looked a lot better then I expected... The flesh was still missing from a lot of places, but at least bones weren¡¯t visible anymore¡­ I also wasn¡¯t bleeding from anywhere, which was surprising.


    Perhaps she noticed my surprised expression, because Carmen, who was also one of the people standing beside me, said, ¡°Your arm has been healing itself while you were out. Though it is nowhere near completely healed right now, and we have no idea if it can even be healed to its original state, it at least stopped the bleeding and fixed up the flesh a bit¡­¡±


    Wow! I had been healing my arm while I was out? Was it because my last desperate thought had been to heal myself¡­? That¡¯s the only thing I could think of¡­


    Then I remembered another ability I had, regeneration! I immediately focused on it and saw the surreal sight of my flesh slowly starting to come back and a fresh new skin starting to cover it! I ignored all the gasps of surprise around me, as I was pretty surprised myself!


    I used both heal and regeneration together and in a space of 10-15 minutes my arms looked completely normal again! Seems like staying awake and actually concentrating on healing is much faster then unconscious healing¡­


    Although my arm looked okay, it was still quite sore and I still felt a dull pain, though thankfully it was nothing even close to the intense pain from before.


    I knew it would take some time for my arm to completely go back to normal, so I settled back in bed and asked to be left alone for now. Everyone complied, though they were all hesitant, except for Carmen who stayed and glared at me.


    I ignored her for now, because all my concentration was in trying to come up with a plan to get revenge on that fucking abomination under the ground floor! I''ll make sure to kill the fucker slowly and then drink his blood!

 Chapter Fifteen: Actions have Consequences

    I was still pondering over how I would beat that little shit into a pulp, when Carmen started clicking her tongue and tapping her feet impatiently while still glaring at me. I tried to ignore her the best I could hoping she would get tired but she didn¡¯t budge for well over 10 minutes! Admiring her resolve and determination, I decided to break the silence.


    ¡°Yes, Carmen. What can I do for you?¡± I asked in my most normal, expressionless voice.


    ¡°Ooooh thank you for finally taking notice of me! I feel so honored that you decided to grace me by speaking to me!¡± She was clearly being sarcastic and was extremely annoyed, but I couldn¡¯t be bothered for a reply so I just raised an eyebrow and continued to stare at her.


    The impromptu staring contest lasted for just 30 seconds before Carmen stomped her foot and decided to break the silence. ¡°Urgh! You are so annoying! I wanted to know what it was that burned your arm so badly, because last time I checked the green skinned monsters here can¡¯t burn someone!¡±


    Oh, so that¡¯s it. I should have known. Obviously everyone would want to know this information. I sighed, and decided it would be best to tell everyone at once so that I won¡¯t have to repeat myself constantly. I asked Carmen to gather everyone around and once everyone was present I started to tell them about the events that unfolded on the ground floor.


    I changed the story a bit. I didn¡¯t let them know that I controlled the ogres and the abomination through telekinesis, instead I made it sound like I had simply overpowered an ogre and used it to bait the abomination. Hiding presence also became invisibility when I told them the story, as I couldn¡¯t reveal to them that I had absorbed abilities from them while they slept. They asked why I was referring to the monster as an abomination, and I simply told them that I had no other way in which to describe that thing. I described the 16-limbed creature to them, and after my description they all agreed that abomination was as good a name as any¡­


    I then left them all to discuss this new development by themselves and left the ballroom. My left arm still felt a little sore, no matter how much I tried to heal it. So I decided to wait till I was back at 100% before facing the abomination again.


    ___________________


    It took a whole week for my arm to feel 100% again. I had thought long and hard about my fight against the abomination, and a part of me felt like I only got defeated because of my surprise and inability to take action, and if I had gone with a clear mind and my full strength I would have easily won. While another part of my brain was telling me that wasn¡¯t the case and I should be extremely wary facing the abomination again. I came to the conclusion to listen to the cautious side of my brain, and so in this past week I had trained diligently. I mainly trained two aspects: concentrating on how to keep my hiding presence ability active during combat and dodging attacks.


    I controlled a bunch of ogres through telekinesis and gathered about a hundred of them in a single hallway to train. First, I kept my hiding presence active and went about running at full speed trying to avoid hitting even a single ogre in the entire hallway. It was difficult, and it took me almost three days before I could keep my hiding presence active and avoid all the ogres at the same time. This was done mainly to train my concentration to keep hiding presence active while moving at full speeds, so that I won¡¯t have to worry about unknowingly deactivating hiding presence again.


    Next, I went to the center of the hallway, and deactivated hiding presence while yelling at the top of my lungs. All ogres immediately attacked, but I didn¡¯t fight back. Instead, I tried to dodge all the attacks coming at me from all directions. I got hit multiple times in a single minute at first, but because of my steel-skin it didn¡¯t hurt me at all. I also fought naked, because I didn¡¯t want to ruin more clothes, the clothes in my backpack were quickly running out...


    I gradually got better. It started off with me not getting hit for 10 seconds, then it increased to 20 seconds, a minute, 2 minutes¡­ all the way to where I could constantly dodge attacks without getting hit even once for hours! It took me almost 5 days to get to this stage, and it was only thanks to my enhanced speed and perception that I was able to improve so quickly.


    The perception ability I got during the second day of training, as my progress was extremely slow and I thought this ability might help. I got the ability by my usual method of sneaking around in the middle of the night¡­


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Perception. You will now be more aware of your surroundings and you will be able to perceive your surroundings much better by relying on your senses.


    I could only think of myself as a complete idiot for not getting this ability earlier! I had thought of this ability as completely useless, but I couldn¡¯t have been more wrong. With my perception increased, my progress of dodging increased by leaps and bounds and I quickly went from successfully dodging for only a couple minutes to almost an hour immediately after getting the ability! I decided to not ignore abilities in the future just because I think they are useless and to actually think about all possible uses of an ability before deciding on whether to absorb it or not.


    After my week of training, I was heading towards the ground floor once again with a couple of ogres in tow. I reached the ground floor and immediately threw both the ogres on the floor without waiting, I had waited for more then a week to get my revenge and I wasn¡¯t about to delay it any further!


    I watched as the two ogres hit the tiled floor and immediately the floor split apart as two pairs of hands, one red and one blue, shot out of the ground. I immediately started pulling through telekinesis and saw as the monster emerged once again from the ground.


    I shot forward with all my speed and used all my strength to punch its main body. I was expecting the fight to be done then and there, but surprisingly the creature¡¯s skin was much tougher then I expected! If I hadn¡¯t been using steel-skin, I imagine my hand would¡¯ve broken from the impact! Instead, a few cracks appeared in the skin of the monster as it blew back and hit the wall, cracking it in the process. It was a marvel that the wall was still standing!


    The monster was in a bit of a daze and I immediately started landing blows on it again. Each blow was done with my full strength and I managed to keep the monster in a daze so it wasn¡¯t able to fight back. It released elemental attacks in all directions in a desperate attempt to hit the invisible foe, but my training paid off and I was able to dodge all attacks successfully.


    The toughness of the monster¡¯s skin surprised me, as it took me nearly ten blows at full strength to break through and get a little blood to flow from it! I kept hitting the same spot right above its mouth again and again while dodging its claws, tentacles and elemental attacks.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    It took nearly 5 minutes for me to finally kill the abomination! I smiled as I looked at the mutilated corpse lying on the stairs. All my blows had made the creature move on to the stairs leading to the first floor, and it was there that I landed next to it and started drinking it¡¯s blue coloured blood.


    The blood was oddly tasteless, which I was very thankful for! I kept drinking and drinking till I couldn¡¯t bear to drink anymore before finally stopping. The monster was huge and thus had a large reserve of blood for me to drink, and despite the large amount of blood I consumed the corpse still continued to bleed. I watched the blue blood trickle down the stairs slowly as I waited for mind-me to do his thing¡­


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Elemental control. A step further then elemental manipulation, this ability allows you to take complete control of all four basic elements and make them do what you wish on a much larger scale.


    Excellent! This would definitely make my fighting capabilities improve by leaps and bounds! I had relied on my physical attributes mainly for fighting so far because my elemental manipulations were too weak in my eyes, but now I would have an extra weapon in my arsenal!


    I wanted to immediately start experimenting with this ability, but before I could I saw the ground at the bottom of the stairs split apart! I immediately lifted off into the air and got on guard, but surprisingly nothing happened¡­


    30 seconds passed by with the hole still present in the ground, but no monster or hand appeared... I observed it closely and realized that the hole was directly in the place where the blood from the monster I had killed was dripping! A bad premonition came over me and I thought of moving the corpse away to stop the blood from dripping any further, but before I could act on this thought the air was rent apart by the most ghastly sound I had ever heard!


    The closest thing to the sound I had heard would be a banshee¡¯s scream in a game I had played long ago. But this was on a much more higher level then that game! It felt like my eardrums would explode from the sheer intensity of the ungodly sound! I covered my ears as best I could, but it did little to help. Thankfully, the noise died down a few seconds later¡­


    I breathed a sigh of relief as I took my hands off my ears, which were still ringing. As the ringing gradually decreased, a new sound started to reach my ears. A distant rumbling. It was low at first but it continued to increase with each passing second. It felt like it was coming from deep, deep underground¡­


    Suddenly, the whole floor started shaking! Gently as first, but then the shaking continued to increase in intensity while at the same time the rumbling sound grew louder and louder and seemed to be coming closer to the surface. The shaking got to a point where all the lights started to fall off the ceiling and the tiles continued to fall off the walls! It seemed like a earthquake, but something felt off¡­ It felt unnatural¡­


    The shaking got to a point where I knew it was stupid to continue to stay where I was, so I sped up the stairs into the first floor, entered the first room and broke through the window to head outside. I soared up high into the air and looked around trying to see what was going on¡­


    The sight I saw was completely surreal! The whole city was shaking! All the buildings I could see were shaking violently as glass shattered and ledges broke off and dropped into the ground below! But what happened next was something I never thought would be possible!


    The ground below the hotel completely split apart and the whole building started to sink below! But that wasn¡¯t all! All the roads as far as I could see split apart too and from below emerged hundreds, no, thousands of the abominations!


    They came out in hoards and soon the roads were filled with the creatures, but still they kept on coming from underground! Our hotel wasn¡¯t the only one sinking now, as a lot of other buildings started sinking as well with no ground below them to provide support!


    The monsters then wailed loudly, and then moved as one towards a specific direction: our hotel! I watched with disbelief as thousands and thousands of the monsters started climbing the sides of the sinking hotel and smashed through the windows and entered the hotel!


    Did all this happen because of me? Did these creatures have a sort of hive mentality and they came out because I killed one of their own? Were they out for revenge¡­?


    A severe chill ran through my whole body as the realization of why they were all moving towards the hotel hit me! The hotel had sunken into the ground up to the second floor, and the building was completely surrounded by monsters from all sides! They were all going in to kill whoever it was that killed one of their own! But I was up in the air, and the only living things inside the hotel were the ogres and the guys in the ballroom!


    This was all done because of my foolish act of revenge, and now I had doomed everyone inside that ballroom! But was it too late for them? I could perhaps rush in and save a couple of them.. maybe I could get the two kids out, or Carmen, or one of the guys I had gotten acquainted with¡­


    But why should I go to save them? I would only be risking my life, and I had only entered the ballroom with the sole intention of getting more abilities from them.. there¡¯s no reason for me to save them¡­ is there¡­?


    I was in two minds as I saw more and more monsters coming from underground and moving towards the hotel from all directions. Their number would be in the hundreds of thousands now! One thing was certain, the longer I stayed here without making a decision the more danger both me and the people in the ballroom would be in! I need to make a decision immediately!


    Try and save the others or flee and save my own life¡­.? I quickly weighed the pros and cons and made my decision to¡­.


    _____________________________________


    Author''s note:


    Sorry about the cliffhanger! I''ll try and get the next chapter later tonight or early tomorrow morning :P


    A few people were commenting about how stupid the MC was to not get perception, and I didn''t reply because this is what I had planned from the start. Everyone makes mistakes, and the MC is no different as he underestimated such a useful ability. I didn''t want to create an MC that does everything right and doesn''t make any mistakes...


    Anyways, thanks for all the support and thank you very much for reading! Let me know what you thought about the chapter... :)

 Chapter Sixteen: Flight for survival

    Author''s note: Sorry it took long, I got sick yesterday and wasn''t feeling good. That being said, hope you enjoy this chapter. Read the note at the end after you have finished reading this chapter please...


    ________________________________________


    (Carmen¡¯s perspective)


    What in the world is this ungodly sound?!


    It sounds unlike anything that I¡¯ve heard before! Everyone in the ballroom is covering their ears but it does nothing to stop the horrible sound! It sounds as if it is coming from somewhere below¡­


    The sound then stopped as abruptly as it started. Thank God! But soon after everything started shaking! ¡°EARTHQUAKE! GET SHELTER!¡± someone shouted.


    We all scurried about, some of us standing under door arches while some of us hid under tables. I was among the ones hiding under tables.


    Instead of getting weaker, the shaking kept on increasing in intensity! Windows started shattering and the fake ceiling fell hitting a lot of people who had still not taken shelter yet, rendering them either unconscious or dead! I felt bile rising at the sight but I forced it down, no time to get sick I have to stay clear-headed!


    All of a sudden, the ballroom doors burst open and a bunch of those green-skinned monsters entered! I immediately went on guard, got out from under the table and prepared myself to fight. A lot of us in the ballroom had been secretly training, even though Ben didn¡¯t want us to train. But how long were we going to sit on our asses and rely on one person? Thus, we had been training for a few weeks now, we especially started training harder ever since Ben got his arm burned¡­


    The few of us who had offensive abilities and were still in a calm state of mind despite the earthquake stood up and prepared to fight; however, instead of the monsters fighting us they simply ran past us and hit the end of the ballroom! There were about 20 or so monsters, but they didn¡¯t seem to want to fight, instead it looked like they were running away from something¡­?


    Before I could process all this, a sudden jerk went through the building and I fell down, and then the building started sinking into the ground! The only way I could tell it was sinking was because I could see the adjacent buildings rising slowly through the windows!


    The earthquake seems to be seriously strong! I racked my brains trying to think of a possible way to get out of this, but I could think of nothing at all! And then, I started hearing something out of the ordinary¡­ it sounded like a large crowd was moving on the roads below¡­ and does it sound like this crowd is moving in this direction¡­?


    I saw as the green-skinned monsters left the ballroom because they couldn¡¯t find another exit and ran away as fast as they could, and a bad premonition came to me. First, this massive earthquake, and second, something was making these green-skinned monsters scared to the point that they had to run away¡­


    I suddenly thought of the creatures Ben had told us about from underground and a severe chill ran through my whole body! As if answering my thoughts, the sounds of something climbing the sides of the windows came to me and then they arrived!


    They were horrible! I now knew why Ben called these things abominations! They came from all over and their numbers never stopped! They rushed in through the windows, they came in from the ballroom entrance and some even came straight through the ground!


    In just a few moments we were all surrounded! We tried our best at fighting back, but despite all our recent training we couldn¡¯t do anything! I threw anything sharp I could see but everything just bounced off their skin harmlessly!


    Then, they started attacking back! I couldn¡¯t even realize what happened before all around me people were dead by either being burned alive, or impaled by earth or ice spikes or cut apart by wind attacks!


    The few of us left kept trying to fight back but it was to no avail. These abominations didn¡¯t even finish things off quickly and let our attacks hit them, as if mocking us! They then slowly started picking us off one by one, some of the lucky ones got killed quickly by getting their heads cut off while the unlucky ones were eaten alive right in front of me!


    Soon, I was the only one left alive! Everyone else had been killed off in less then two minutes! I backed away into a corner and my only hopes were on Ben¡­


    He had saved me once before, he could do it again somehow right? I didn¡¯t trust him, but he had kept us safe all this time hadn¡¯t he? He had taken care of a similar situation before when we were all surrounded by the green-skinned monsters, he could do it again!


    In my desperation I screamed ¡°BEEEENNNNNN!¡± at the top of my voice and shut my eyes hoping for a miracle¡­ but there was no reply¡­ the only sounds I could hear were the abominations coming closer and closer¡­


    _____________________________


    (MC¡¯s perspective)


    I had decided to try and save them.


    Logically speaking, there was no reason for me to save anyone at all. I had taken all abilities from them already and they would all be dead-weight anyways, slowing me down. Despite all reasoning screaming at me to abandon them all and just escape while I still can, there was one thing that made me decide to save them¡­


    This was all my fault. I had been driven by revenge over my burned arm and didn¡¯t think of any consequences at all. I didn¡¯t study whether these creatures were like the ogres who would not bat an eye over their dead comrades or if they had some sort of pack-mentality. Even after I killed the abomination, I was too focused on drinking its blood for my own gains instead of thinking about stopping it from dripping onto the floor. It was definitely the blood of their own that had started this uprising¡­


    That being said, I won¡¯t risk my own life trying to save them. First priority was my own survival after all. If they were in a hopeless situation I would leave them and escape. If they were already dead¡­ too bad for them. Hopefully they got a quick, painless death¡­


    I dove down into the carnage below quickly. The building had already sunk far enough that the sixth floor which had the ballroom was now just two stories above ground. I could see the place crawling with the abominations who had most probably already killed everyone off, but I could at least check and confirm if there were any survivors.


    I entered through a broken window and saw the ballroom completely covered with the abominations! There were a few people still left fighting over in a corner, including Carmen, but they were quickly going down. I saw as in a space of five seconds, ten of the others were killed off in a number of different ways, the best being a quick beheading while the worst being eaten alive! I cringed as I saw two of the guys screaming at the top of their lungs while they were eaten alive¡­ the abominations even started eating them from their legs, prolonging their torture!


    Soon enough only Carmen was left as she backed away further into a corner. She was completely surrounded by the abominations on all sides and would soon be dead. I felt a bit sad, but there was nothing I could do without putting myself in danger. I was still using my hiding presence, so I could easily sneak off and fly away. Sure, I had a few feelings for Carmen, but it wasn¡¯t love, just simple attraction, I would feel a bit sad over her and then be able to move on..


    I turned around to fly away, but before I could I heard a shout from behind me¡­


    ¡°BEEEEENNNNNNN!¡±


    My heart sank. The desperation in that single shout moved my emotionless heart, and before I knew it I rushed at top speed over to Carmen! My brain was screaming at me to turn around and not bother with her, and while I knew that was the smarter thing to do I couldn¡¯t just leave her behind after I heard her desperate shout!


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I reached her in a split second and lifted her straight through the ceiling while covering her body with mine! I continued rising through ceilings for four more floors while Carmen screamed in my arms. I then shouted at her to shut up and that it was me, and then I moved through the floor at top speed and smashed straight through the end of the hallway and out of the building. I had no time to use windows and the building was doomed anyways, so smashing through the walls using my steel-skin and super-strength seemed like the smartest idea to quickly get out of the building.


    However, it felt like I had stepped out of the frying pan and straight into the fire after smashing through the building¡¯s wall! I was completely invisible through hiding presence, but Carmen was not. She was completely visible for all monsters to see in the broad daylight, and to make matters worse I had smashed through the wall, alerting every single monster in the vicinity to look up.


    It took barely a second before a number of elemental attacks headed straight for us! I flew at top speed and avoided them, but soon more and more attacks came. They were actually targeting the area in front of us with their elemental attacks and their aims were pretty accurate! This is how they must have shot down all avian monsters in the area¡­


    Shaking my head to get rid of such useless thoughts, I concentrated everything I had on dodging, but it was just too difficult! There were just too many of them! Plus, they were attacking from every direction and covering a large area with their attacks! I hugged Carmen as close as possible while I felt wind-blades, earth spikes and ice spears hit my body. I used my newly gained ability of elemental control to try and stop attacks from reaching us, but there were just too many attacks! Therefore, I simply concentrated on the most dangerous of them all, the fireballs. I concentrated as much as I could on stopping any fireball from reaching us, and so far none of them had hit us thankfully.


    There was another problem though, I couldn¡¯t fly at a high enough altitude to clear the rooftops of these high-rise buildings, therefore I had to maneuver my way through all of them, making my progress slower. On top of it all, the ground was still shaking and as a result a lot of buildings were still dropping shards of glass and huge stones, forcing me to dodge them at the same time as I dodged the attacks from below.


    I cursed myself for getting in this predicament, and the thought of dropping Carmen below and escaping ran through my mind more then once, but I preserved. I didn¡¯t feel many emotions, but I wasn¡¯t someone to drop a person to their death just because it was inconvenient for me! So, I dodged, weaved, concentrated and did just about anything I could to try and make sure both of us survive.


    Soon, we cleared the buildings and reached the suburbs! The lack of buildings made the monsters below spot us more easily, but at the same time I could move a lot faster and didn¡¯t have to worry about the falling debris from the buildings.


    I kept flying at top speed in a zigzag pattern to avoid getting hit from their surprisingly accurate elemental attacks. It took a few minutes for me to get out of the city, but even here the ground was covered with the abominations! Thus I continued flying and dodging¡­


    ___________________


    It took what felt like hours, but in reality must have been around 20 or so minutes, before the ground below finally got abomination-free!


    We were well out of the city now and I could see the ground below was no longer completely lifeless as the city had been. There were a few animals here and there, and I could see birds and avian monsters in the distance¡­ it seemed like we were finally away from the area of the abominations!


    I slowed down as I didn¡¯t want to attract the attention of the avian creatures in the distance and start another battle, and dropped down to a height of about 4 meters above ground. I didn¡¯t want to land on the ground just yet for the risk of abominations still present underground was in my mind¡­


    ¡°Hey Carmen, we are finally away. We survived!¡± I exclaimed happily and turned off my hiding presence ability as I pulled Carmen away from my body to look at her face. She had been surprisingly quiet throughout the time I was flying, which was strange as it couldn¡¯t have been easy for her getting to terms with flying at such heights supported by seemingly nothing as I was completely invisible to her.


    She didn¡¯t answer though, and I examined her face and saw that her eyes were closed completely. Was she perhaps still terrified, or had she gone unconscious while I flew at such high speeds¡­?


    I shook her and called her name again, but there was still no answer. I felt a shiver run throughout my entire body and I started examining her closely. Her chest wasn¡¯t rising up and down at all! I put my hand on her neck to feel a pulse¡­ but nothing!


    My mind went blank! What¡¯s going on? How can she be dead¡­? I looked at her body, but couldn¡¯t see anything¡­ I turned her around and then I saw it. The end of an earth spike was sticking out of her lower back. It had most probably severed her spine¡­


    After all that¡­ I couldn¡¯t even save her. Why did I even bother¡­? I felt my eyes tear up and I almost dropped Carmen¡¯s lifeless body down in shock! I hadn¡¯t cried for over 12 years, I hadn¡¯t shed a tear when my entire family was killed¡­ why was I crying over someone I barely knew¡­?


    And then I realized the answer. It was because I had basically killed her¡­ First I made the abominations rise up due to selfish reasons, then I almost left her for dead and finally when I did try and save her I didn¡¯t think about her much. I only concentrated on stopping the fireballs which could hurt me, but I let the other elemental attacks hit me because I knew they couldn¡¯t hurt me because of my abilities. I didn¡¯t even think about how they could still hurt Carmen¡­


    I hovered 4 meters in the air, and for the first time in a dozen years I actually cried. Not because someone had died, but because for the first time in my life I had practically killed someone...


    _____________________________


    Author''s note (2): I put this at the end here so that you guys could finish reading the chapter first. I have a few things to discuss:


    1) I was surprised by the concerns last chapter about me creating a world filled with these monsters from underground. Obviously I won''t do that! It would make the story completely monotonous! Think of it as a sort of monster area like in RPG games, where a particular area is filled with a particular type of monster. This city the MC was in just happened to be the underground monsters domain... He left their domain at the end of the chapter, and thus in the future a lot of different types of creatures will enter the story.


    2) I can already feel some of you will not like the fact that the MC tried to save them. The MC is logical, yes, and has a dampened emotional state, but that doesn''t make him completely inhumane! That being said, I did try to make his thought-process reflect his logical side... hope I succeeded...?


    3) Carmen''s death. It was planned to happen from the start... everyone in the ballroom was supposed to die. That''s why I didn''t develop their characters much and didn''t even name a lot of them! This was done to develop the MC''s character a bit. The development will be revealed in the next few chapters, but one thing I guarantee is that he won''t suddenly become emotional and try and save everyone or something like that...


    4) I have just killed off everyone except the MC, does this mean I am not going to add more characters? The answer is no, more characters will come soon and this time they will be permanent characters with more character development. For those of you wanting a romantic relationship, you guys will have to wait... sorry! I just don''t see the possibility of romance blooming in a hurry when the first thing running through everyone''s mind is how to survive. That being said, the female lead will also enter soon, though remember this fiction doesn''t have the harem tag and never will!


    Those were some things I thought I should say after this chapter to reveal a bit of my thought process and to address any concerns you guys might have. Let me know what you thought of this chapter, and of the fiction so far!


    As always, thank you very much for reading! :)

 Chapter Seventeen: Fresh start

    Author''s note: BIG NEWS!


    First of all my novel has now crossed 100 pages! Yay! :P


    The bigger news however is related to the weekly top 50! I was looking through it expecting my novel to be somewhere in the hundreds, but to my surprise I found my novel at number 27! That was seriously a shock to me! I can''t thank you guys enough! Only thing left is for me to get a good advanced review and then I can die happy... :P


    I now feel bad releasing this chapter, that has no action at all. Only some character development... But this chapter had to be done! I don''t have time during weekdays to release multiple chapters, so even though I am seriously excited and thankful to you all I can''t write any more today. That being said, I will make sure to write as many chapters as possible during this weekend!


    Once again, thank you all so much for all the support! :) Hope you guys like this chapter...


    ____________________________________________________


    It didn¡¯t take long for me to stop crying. I cried for less then two minutes, but even that was something of an eternity for someone who hasn¡¯t shed a single tear for a dozen years. I was still holding onto Carmen¡¯s dead body, and a lot of ¡®what if¡¯ scenarios were running through my mind. I shook my head to get rid of such useless thoughts, what¡¯s done is done. It¡¯s time to move on.


    I flew for a while longer until I found a nice, clean patch of Earth. I dug a grave for Carmen in a few seconds using Earth manipulation and lowered her gently through telekinesis. I then covered her up gently and flew away.


    My mind was in turmoil. I had been responsible for killing another person, and not just a single person but about the 30 or so people in the ballroom all died because of me. Probably there were other survivors in the city who died as a result of my actions too. My mind, however, wasn¡¯t in turmoil because of how all this was affecting me, but because of how little all this was affecting me!


    I was completely fine now. I had shed a few tears and buried Carmen properly. It was all done. My brain was telling me that it doesn¡¯t matter whether these people were killed because of me or not, what matters is that I was still alive and well. And that was the entire problem.


    I had long ago realized that I wasn¡¯t normal when it came to caring about other¡¯s lives. I had been around 8 years old when I came across a stray cat that had presumably been run over by someone¡¯s car. The cat had still been alive when I came across it, and it was twitching and struggling to breathe. Instead of doing the normal thing of trying to help it, or doing the kind thing of killing it quickly and ending its misery, I simply stood there and watched. Why? Because it was interesting. It was the first time for the 8-year old me to see something die, and I was interested to see how everything would go.


    So, I sat down on the curb and watched the cat struggle. It kept on twitching and breathing haggardly for a good 5 minutes before it finally succumbed to its injuries and died. Seeing as how the show was over, I stood up and started to leave but a sound from behind me made me stop and look back.


    Someone else had been driving on the deserted road, and had stopped their car when they saw the dead body of the cat. I saw as a woman got out of the car and looked sadly at the cat. She then called someone on the phone, waited beside the dead cat and directed any other cars to go around it and stayed there till some men in uniforms, probably animal services, came and picked up the dead body of the cat.


    It was surprising to me to see someone go to such lengths for a dead animal, so I went home and asked my parents and siblings what they would have done in that situation. They all said they would have taken the cat to a vet and tried to save it. It was then I had realized I didn¡¯t think of other¡¯s lives like everyone else, and it was also the time when I started to learn how to act on how to appear ¡®normal¡¯ in front of others.


    A few years later, when I was around 11-12, I had made myself a few principles that I absolutely had to follow. I had found out that people like me who didn¡¯t feel many emotions usually ended up as criminals or serial killers, so I had made a few rules for myself which included me never hurting animals or the weaker kids and always helping out when someone else was in trouble. It was all done in an effort to stop me from going down the wrong path...


    Over the years I had stopped caring about helping someone else when I saw them in trouble, as I found out there was always someone other then me who would arrive and start to help the person in trouble. Why bother myself when someone else can help too? However, I had never broken my principle of never hurting the weak unnecessarily. And now, here I was today having killed a lot of people¡­


    Sure, it was done unintentionally and I never meant for anyone to get hurt. But still, anyone else in my position would have felt terrible if so many people died because of their actions; however, I was totally indifferent. I was feeling no remorse or regrets at all, and honestly, it was worrying me.


    The only thing I had ever been scared of in my entire life was me turning into a murderer and not caring about it. Deep down, I had always known that I would be able to kill someone else if I wanted to, but I never thought it would actually happen! Now, my worst fear had become a reality: I had killed someone, albeit unintentionally, and after feeling bad for a couple of minutes I no longer cared at all over what I had done!


    Thoughts about how this is actually a good thing and it will help me in the future to survive were running through my mind, but I ignored it all. It was just too much to think about. Should I simply accept the fact that people died because of my actions and move on, or should I take some steps to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again?


    I shook my head once again and then started flying at top speed. I had been travelling towards the direction of the city with my apartment, and I continued onward at full speed ignoring everything else. Soon enough I arrived in the city with the sun already set and the moon out, I reached my apartment, flew in through the window and immediately laid down on my bed.


    I was just too tired, both physically and mentally, and there was nothing else I wanted more then to sleep right now. So, without checking my surroundings for anything dangerous, I simply fell asleep¡­


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.___________________________________


    I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and with my mind no longer in turmoil. That was the best thing about sleep for me, no matter what I would always wake up with a clear head. Even with all that had happened the day before, sleep still did its job of making my mind clear.


    I smiled thinking about how thankful I am for sleep¡­ before jumping out of bed with a frown on my face. I couldn¡¯t believe how stupid I had been last night! I had firsthand seen the dangers that could spring up at any moment, and yet I had gone to sleep without checking anything! All because I had too many thoughts running through my mind?? Fucking stupid Ben!!


    I immediately checked my apartment and found out I no longer had a door. It had been smashed apart by something. The halls outside were covered by blood, corpses, limbs and guts. I could even see the head of Stella lying on top of someone else¡¯s body. Great. Something was definitely out there and I had been soundly asleep without even a fucking front door!


    It was a miracle I had not been killed off in my sleep! Hmmm¡­ Or was it because of my increased luck ability¡­? Did my increased luck help me out by not allowing anything to come near me¡­?


    Whatever, the point is that I survived. I¡¯ll never let something as stupid as feelings get in the way of my sanity ever again!


    I sighed, created a new door out of Earth and blew some air to get the stench of death out. I hadn¡¯t even smelled such a strong stench last night! Just how crazy does a person get because of feelings?? Is this why most women always act so crazy??


    I sighed yet again before my stomach grumbled. I remembered I hadn¡¯t eaten anything at all since yesterday morning when I had my breakfast. Then I looked at my clothes and saw them all ripped apart, almost falling to pieces. I had allowed a lot of Earth, water and air attacks to hit me last night, and while my steel-skin ability allowed my body to stay safe, my clothes were in absolute shatters.


    I took off my clothes and stepped into the shower as I had decided to get clean first before eating something.. I turned the shower on and nothing came out. Wow, I am getting seriously stupid, there has been no running water since the monsters arrived after all! Why did I even bother to turn on the shower?? Wasn¡¯t my mind supposed to be clear after my long night¡¯s sleep?


    I slapped myself and shook my head yet again, before I got a glance at myself in the mirror. My facial hair had grown to a point where it could be called a full-fledged beard, though it was anything but nice to look at. All sorts of stuff were sticking out of there and it was completely unruly.


    I think it¡¯s time to shave. Better yet, I think it¡¯s time to change everything up a bit. A fresh start might help me get out of this messed up mindset¡­.


    ___________________________


    30 minutes later I was staring at myself in the mirror again, though this time things were a bit different. I had completely shaved off my beard and trimmed my hair a bit using scissors. I had always had a double chin but now that I was clean shaved again I was pleased to see that I no longer had a double chin. I had also grown muscles, and my previous belly-fat was now replaced by rippling abs. Surprising, considering I had not absorbed any ability that should affect my appearance¡­ I could only put it to my super-strength ability¡­


    My eyes were the biggest change though. They had been dark brown before and had to be looked at closely to realize that they were not black but dark brown in colour. Now they were a different colour¡­ a sort of dark reddish-brown. I only noticed it when I got my face up close to the mirror when I was shaving. They still looked dark brown or black from far away, but if looked at closely they now had a sort of reddish tint to them.


    At first I was alarmed, thinking that it could be some sort of disease or infection, but I then calmed down after I tried healing them and didn¡¯t get any result. Thinking about the changed colour a bit, I came to the conclusion that perhaps all the blood I had been drinking was somehow affecting my eye colour. If they turned completely red in the future I really would look like a vampire or a demon!


    Just to be sure, I checked my teeth and examined them carefully. To my relief, I didn¡¯t see any fangs growing¡­ I put the idea of me possibly looking like a vampire to the back of my mind for now...


    I had taken a shower using water manipulation and dried myself off with air manipulation. I found three bags of crisps in my cabinet and munched all of them down and I had also found new clothes to wear. My backpack had been left in the ballroom and was now probably underground, so I would have to find a new bag to carry necessities with me.


    I looked out of the window and took a deep breathe. I really was feeling a lot better mentally after my shower. I guess getting clean really does help in clearing out the mess in your mind¡­


    I jumped off the window and soared into the city, my aim was to get a backpack, some more syringes, some non-perishable food etc etc¡­


    I soared off into the sky and the first thing I saw from that height was a tiger prowling around the streets. It looked quite similar to the tiger that had been the attraction of the local zoo. The only glaring difference was its size¡­


    The tiger was now 5 stories high and more then twice as long!


    I groaned.


    Of all the things to get super-sized, it just had to be a fucking tiger!


    .......


    Hmmm¡­ I wonder what ability I will get from that guy...

 Chapter Eighteen: Hunting

    Author''s note:


    Animal= Animals from Earth.


    Monsters/creatures= refers to the mythical creatures that appeared.


    Hope you guys like the chapter. Let me know if there are any mistakes as I am extremely, extremely sleepy right now and have no idea on how this chapter turned out!


    ______________________________________________


    I decided against drinking the blood from that massive tiger, as I could clearly see that its ability of increased size wasn¡¯t something I wanted. What if I got as big as a giant and couldn¡¯t go back to my original size? I would be a huge target wherever I went!


    Instead, I turned around and left the tiger alone for now. I would have fought against it and experimented a bit but it was a better idea to go for smaller creatures right now. I could easily overpower ogres, but it took me about 5 minutes to kill off a single of that abomination creature, which meant that I was probably still far too weak to take on this huge tiger. I would certainly come back to the tiger later¡­


    For now, I headed off to the closest department store to get myself a backpack. Along the way I could see a lot of different creatures, both in the sky and on the ground.


    The avian creatures looked more or less like birds, but they weren¡¯t any species I had seen or heard of before. Most of them were much larger in size then normal birds that had been present on Earth before, the largest of them having a wingspan of well over 20 feet while the smallest of them had a wingspan of around 8 feet or so. There were a lot of different species too, some with brightly coloured feathers on their body while others had scales instead of feathers. However, they all looked similar to birds, and I couldn¡¯t see any dragons or wyverns or those sort of creatures¡­ I guess they would stay away from cities and live near mountains like in the stories¡­? Let¡¯s hope that¡¯s the case because I am sure if a dragon were to show up in this city I would become its meal in a heartbeat!


    The roads below were now covered in a thick layer of dried blood. There were a few corpses and body parts lying around here and there but mostly the roads were devoid of dead bodies. The animals and monsters were probably responsible for ¡®cleaning¡¯ up the roads¡­


    The animals themselves were too few to see, only a few stray dogs, cats and rats here and there. These animals were probably the ones smart enough or had strong enough abilities to have survived for so long because the roads were ruled by monsters.


    The most common monsters I could see were things I could only refer to as trolls. They were around 12-15 feet in height with huge round bellies and dull-gray skin. Their arms though were normal for their body, not like how stories usually depict trolls as having long arms that drag along the floor. They had seriously small heads for their massive bodies, and were extremely ugly to look at. They were walking around completely naked, though their large bellies thankfully prevented me from the view of their private parts. I dropped lower for a closer look and immediately had to rise back up again because of the disgusting smell! It was seriously horrible! To the point where I would gladly smell a mixture of poop, rotten eggs and vomit instead of their smell!


    I flew as high as I could and breathed the clean air deeply for a few minutes before calming down. I then flew in the direction of the department store once again.


    ___________________________


    About 40 minutes later I was once again up in the sky, this time with four large backpacks full of canned food, a few clothes and syringes I got from a pharmacy. I tried to take more backpacks through telekinesis but they were spotted by the avian creatures who started attacking them and ripping them to shreds. Thus, I resolved myself to carrying four backpacks only, one on my back, one on my stomach and one in each hand. My super-strength ability made it quite easy to carry all this weight around and as I was wearing or holding all these things I could use my hide-presence over them to turn them invisible so they won¡¯t be attacked by the avian creatures.


    For some unknown reason, when I tried to use hiding presence on Carmen earlier when I was holding her it didn¡¯t work. Perhaps it only works with non-living things¡­? I¡¯ll experiment on it a bit later¡­


    It had taken me longer then expected to find canned food as most of the stores I went to had been stripped clean of all food, indicating that there were probably survivors in the city. Either that or the monsters here really liked food from Earth and had eaten it all¡­ Though with the ever-present food supply of dead bodies I don¡¯t think it was the monsters who had taken food from the stores¡­


    I was soaring up in the sky and looking at the different monsters around the roads, some fighting with each other while others were simply ignoring everything else, when suddenly I saw a bunch of trolls running in one direction excitedly. Curious to see what was going on, I followed after them.


    There were about 30 or so trolls who were running towards a food store. At first I was about to turn around because I thought they were just going after food, but then a guy came out of the store carrying a few bags. He saw all the trolls running towards him and panicked, dropping all the bags.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I kept on watching calmly. If the guy had some sort of useful ability, I would try and help him out, if he doesn¡¯t then too bad, he is an idiot for coming out here for food alone anyways. Weird¡­ I thought after the whole ordeal with Carmen and the others I would grow a heart, but instead I was going to let the strength of a person¡¯s ability decide if I wanted to save him or not¡­ Same old heartless me¡­ *sigh*


    The guy was now fumbling around trying to pick his dropped bags. He really is an idiot, trying to secure food first instead of running away with his life! The trolls were almost on him when suddenly he vanished!


    I blinked, shook my head and looked again, but the guy really wasn¡¯t there anymore! Some type of ability that lets him turn invisible....? The trolls were now snarling angrily and started to fight among each other trying to find the guy, but he was nowhere to be found.


    I observed all my surroundings and found the guy hiding on top of the roof of the store! How did he get there so fast? Perhaps he moved at a fast enough speed and I lost track of him¡­?


    Suddenly the guy vanished from the rooftop once again, appeared in front of the trolls, picked up the remaining bags quickly and vanished once again! This all happened in around 3 seconds! The guy wasn¡¯t turning invisible, or moving too fast¡­ he was teleporting! There can¡¯t be any other explanation!


    The reason why he was all alone and tried to secure the food before running away dawned on me. He was probably sent here by a bunch of survivors to gather food, and he knew he could always teleport out before the trolls got too close to him!


    I looked all around me, using my improved eyesight and observation abilities to their fullest, but couldn¡¯t find any sign of the guy. I tried using heat-vision to maybe pick him out, but there were just too many creatures all around giving off their heat signatures, making it extremely difficult for me to pinpoint where the guy was.


    One thing was for certain though, I want that ability! No matter what I have to get it! It is such a useful ability to have! Any time I find myself in a tough spot I can immediately teleport out!


    The problem was that I had no idea where the guy went. I couldn¡¯t even be sure if he was still in the city! For all I know, his teleportation had no limitations on distance travelled and he could have come from another city, or even another country just to get some food! Though the most probable thing would be for him to still be in the city, as it would be logical for him to first get food from nearby his surroundings instead of travelling to different cities. I just have to find him¡­


    I looked all around once again but couldn¡¯t find him anywhere. My stomach was grumbling again so I headed for my apartment to have something to eat and think about what to do.


    _____________________________


    I was once again soaring in the sky. I had something to eat and had come up with a plan. The guy was searching for food, and I had seen a lot of stores stripped clean of food and there was a high chance that most, if not all, of the stores had been picked clean by either the teleporting guy or their group of survivors. There could always be the possibility of him not having to do anything with the other stores, but for now this was a good starting point. My plan was to see if I could spot some type of pattern in the stores picked clean of food.


    Human nature would have made it so that the guy would always try to get food from the nearest place possible so he could feel safer by being closer to his base, therefore it is highly likely that his base would be somewhere close to the stores which have been cleared of food. Based on this assumption, I¡¯ll try and narrow down an area where all the stores have been completely cleaned out and start my search from there. Hopefully this will work, otherwise I¡¯ll have to think of some other method to track him down¡­


    I started my work. I went from store to store and tried to make a pattern which could show which stores were picked clean and which weren¡¯t. It was slow going, and it took me the whole day to finally figure out that there was a particular area where all the stores had been completely picked clean of food. Some stores were only missing food, while others also had missing clothes, cutlery and miscellaneous other stuff like toilet paper, toothpastes, blankets, pillows etc.


    The stores missing the most stuff would naturally be the stores which were closest to the survivors, though if those survivors would include the teleporting guy or not I couldn¡¯t be sure¡­


    It was getting late at night so I decided to search the area I had pinpointed tomorrow. The area which I had narrowed down was still quite large in size, spanning nearly 8 square blocks, and would take a considerable amount of time for me to go through.


    I ate, took another shower with water manipulation and went to bed, excited with the possibility of gaining such a useful ability!


    ______________________________________


    P.S. Sorry for another chapter without much action. Lots of action starting from next chapter I promise!

 Chapter Nineteen: Negotiating for abilities

    I woke up the next morning, had breakfast and immediately flew off out of the window. I had taken a couple of extra precautions last night, surrounding myself with an earth wall while I slept and I also used hide-presence when I went to sleep hoping that it would remain active while I slept too, though I have no way of knowing if I really stayed hidden during the night or not. The healing ability had stayed active while I was unconscious so hopefully this one would have stayed active too...


    I immediately went to the area I had narrowed down and started searching. I first circled around it going from store to store quickly, seeing which stores had the most stuff missing from them. It was difficult to judge a pattern, but I pushed through. Soon I had more or less figured out an area of about 2 blocks from the original 8 blocks, where the possibility of the survivors staying was highest.


    I tried flying all over the place using heat-vision and improved vision at the same time, but it was to no avail. Only thing I could see were the trolls and a few other creatures roaming about here and there. Either the survivors weren¡¯t in this area or they were someplace in the area but I just couldn¡¯t see them even with heat-vision¡­


    I still thought that the possibility of the survivors staying somewhere nearby was high, so I stayed in the area and decided to try and get a few more abilities under my belt!


    As the trolls were the most numerous creatures I could see, I decided to start with them. Trolls generally have regenerative abilities in stories, and I was hoping it would be the case here too. I searched around for a troll who was somewhat secluded from others, and after finding one I immediately lifted him up with telekinesis and landed on a nearby house¡¯s roof along with it.


    I didn¡¯t waste time and quickly killed him by taking off its head with a new knife I had picked up from one of the stores. The blood was gushing out and smelled absolutely disgusting! I tentatively dipped a finger in the blood and put the droplet into my mouth.


    If the smell was disgusting, it couldn¡¯t even be compared to the taste! It was like nothing even close to something I had ever tasted! It actually filled up my whole mouth with that disgusting smell and I nearly puked out my entire stomach¡¯s contents! I swallowed it quickly and shuddered, thinking the horrible part was over and done with. And then I puked¡­


    After I had vomited everything up, I got farther away from the disgusting and smelly troll corpse and waited for the voice of mind-me. I had to wait for about 10 minutes, during which I puked once more! It really was the most disgusting thing that I had ever put in my mouth, and my mouth was still filled with the after-taste!


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Enlarged stomach. Your stomach capacity has permanently increased, allowing you to eat more of your favourite foods!


    ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­..


    ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­..


    What. The. Fuck.


    I lifted up my shirt and found out that my new abs were now less pronounced and there was just a little fat that could be seen.


    So after all that shitty experience with the disgusting smelling blood, I actually got this fucked up ability?! Give me a fucking break! What kind of ability is that? And it sounded a lot like mind-me was being sarcastic as well! I tried ¡®switching off¡¯ the ability but it didn¡¯t work. Mind-me did say that my stomach capacity had permanently been increased¡­ so does this mean that all the good abilities can be activated and deactivated whenever you like but once you get a shitty ability you are permanently stuck with it?? WHAT THE FUCK!


    That¡¯s it! Time to kill off these disgusting, smelly, no good, ugly, obese jerks and wipe them out of this city!


    So, I spent the next couple of hours wiping out every single troll I could see. I found a neat way to kill them off without having any of that disgusting blood fall on me. I simply flew in the air and used telekinesis to twist their necks and that¡¯s it! It was fast, effective and clean. It wasn¡¯t as satisfying as perhaps repeatedly punching them and beating them to a pulp would have been, but it was a compromise that let me stay away from smelling worse then shit, so I gladly obliged.


    I was continuing my ¡®clean¡¯ massacre, when I spotted a person! It was a brawny looking guy who was standing in the window of one of the buildings, staring wide-eyed at all the bodies of the dead trolls down below.


    I was using hiding presence as usual, so he could only see the dead bodies of the trolls. I had no idea how long he had been standing there, but I can imagine how weird it must have looked for trolls to seemingly twist their own necks and then slump to the ground, dead.


    Nevertheless, I finally found a living person, or more importantly, I finally found survivors who could lead me to the teleporting guy and perhaps some more useful abilities too!


    I flew up close to the guy, who was still staring wide-eyed at the spectacle below. He stood there with his eyes large and his mouth hanging open for a good 5 minutes or so before I got impatient and threw a tiny pebble into his open mouth. He choked, coughed a bit and then looked around in alarm. Seeing nothing close, he shook his head and with one last glance at the dead troll bodies he turned around and walked inside the building. Seems like my pebble worked on getting him moving again!


    I followed after him by floating a few inches off the ground. He exited the room with the window he was using to stare outside and started descending the stairs. He had been on the third floor, and he now went all the way down to the underground car parking. He descended all the way down to the last floor of the car park, which was a bit unnerving for me as the images of the abominations was still engraved in my mind. Still, I preserved and continued to follow. The car park was filled with a variety cars that had a thick layer of dirt and dust on them, completely useless because cars also no longer seemed to work ever since the monsters arrived.


    At the west end of the last floor of the car park was a small room. Presumably it had been used by the guards stationed at the car parks to stay during the night shifts. The guy knocked on the door of the room thrice, paused, then knocked two times again. The door immediately opened and the guy I was following immediately exclaimed in a loud voice, ¡°You guys won¡¯t believe what I just saw!¡±


    His voice echoed throughout the car park and immediately a voice from inside reprimanded the idiot who I had been following. I quickly slipped past the door before it closed up and saw the inside of the room, or what previously had been a room.


    From outside it looked like a small room that could barely manage to fit in two people at once, but the inside of the room was extremely spacious. It looked as though the back wall had been smashed apart by something or someone, and someone had probably used Earth manipulation to make the room larger. I wouldn¡¯t have done something like that, the risk of the whole building caving on top of me was too great! Either the guy using the Earth manipulation was an idiot who didn¡¯t think things through or he was some sort of architect or engineer and had actual knowledge on how to expand the room safely...


    There were also a few shelves situated on the walls made out of Earth which were filled with canned food, water bottles and a lot of other stuff that they had taken from the stores. A whole side of the room was taken up by two double beds and a single bed, and there were two couches and a dining table in the room too. The ¡®original¡¯ side of the room, the one which hadn¡¯t been made using Earth manipulation, had a door which probably led to a small bathroom. Though the lack of running water and living so deep underground left me puzzled as to why there was no lingering smell coming from the bathroom...


    I was perplexed as to why these people would choose someplace so deep underground to stay in. They were in the last floor of the underground car park and were in a corner, making it extremely easy for a group of monsters to surround them! Though them being so deep underground did make it impossible for my heat-vision to see them, were they perhaps hiding from a type of monster that could also use heat-vision¡­?


    The room contained a total of 7 people, 4 women and 3 men. There were two girls who looked like they were in their teens, a middle-aged woman that looked to be in her late twenties to early thirties and another older woman who looked to be in her forties.  There was the brawny idiot who I had been following from the room, another scrawny looking older man presumably in his 40s and the teleporting guy! I had found my main target!


    I was slightly disappointed in there being only 7 people, and by extension only 7 possible abilities for me to absorb, but the presence of the teleporting guy made it completely worth it! I ignored their chatter about the brawny idiot recounting what he saw outside and thought about what to do now.


    I certainly wasn¡¯t going to go through all the trouble I went through in the ballroom, by pretending to be their friend and sneaking around absorbing their abilities. I just couldn¡¯t be bothered to go through all that acting once again. I wanted a much more direct and quick approach this time.


    I could just knock them all out and absorb their abilities, but the recent experience of the shitty ability from the troll stopped me from gathering unknown abilities again. I needed some way for them to reveal their abilities so I could know which ones to absorb and which ones to leave alone. I didn¡¯t want to wait around to see when they revealed their abilities, as that could take forever and not all abilities will be revealed that way. For example I wouldn¡¯t know when someone was using abilities like observation as there is nothing that indicates when it is being used.


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    They were all starting to get ready to leave so I immediately thought of something and decided to go with it. I rushed to the teleporting guy and knocked him out. I already knew what his ability was and he didn¡¯t need to stay awake for me to know I wanted his blood! Before the others could relax, I took control of them through telekinesis and froze them all in place.


    I ignored all their surprised and alarmed shouts and stayed attentive. I wasn¡¯t sure if controlling them through telekinesis would make them unable to use their abilities or not, so I waited to see if they fought back¡­


    ¡­..


    A couple minutes passed by and they were still panicking. There were no signs of them using any ability so I decided to start with the next phase of the plan.


    ¡°Humansss¡­.¡±


    I whispered in a raspy sort of voice. I couldn¡¯t use my own voice, because I needed my voice to scare them and my own voice was a bit nasally and sounded anything but scary. So, I decided to play a sort of ghost or phantom type creature and try to scare them by whispering¡­


    They all went silent and looked around in fright. I was enjoying all of this!


    ¡°Humans. Don¡¯t fear. I have not come to hurt you. All I want from you is for you to reveal your abilities to me¡­¡±


    I wanted to do the whole evil maniacal laugh but decided against it. This was all too corny already¡­


    ¡°Wha¡­ What do you mean you want us to reveal our abilities! What are you?! Show yourself!¡±


    One of the teenage girls spoke out. Good, she was frightened. Being afraid will make her think less logically and makes it easier for me to get them to do what they want.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to know what I am! All you need to know is I can kill you all off easily. You all can¡¯t even move right now because I am in complete control of your bodies!¡±


    I lifted them up in the air and moved them about a bit to show I wasn¡¯t lying. Everyone screamed. I think I am enjoying all this a bit too much¡­


    ¡°Why should we tell you our abilities you monster!¡± The brawny idiot spoke up.


    ¡°I want to see if your abilities are worth it for me to absorb! Don¡¯t worry, even if I absorb your abilities you humans won¡¯t lose them. Now, quickly reveal your abilities to me or dieeee!¡±


    ¡°And how exactly will you absorb our abilities¡­?¡± The middle-aged woman spoke up. She was a lot calmer then the others, which could either be beneficial for me or it could ruin my whole plan.


    ¡°Why¡­ by drinking your blood obviously!¡±


    I decided to tell them the truth. It would make it seem like I really was a monster who wanted their blood and not a human pretending to be a monster. It would also make them more afraid, and I could already see paler faces.


    ¡°Go fuck yourself!¡± This was the brawny idiot.


    I sighed. I really wanted to avoid doing this, but I guess this would make things a lot more quicker and I could get out of this hole sooner. That decided, I used telekinesis to break off the brawny idiot¡¯s right wrist. He screamed extremely loudly and everyone was looking alarmed at his wrist now hanging loosely. I then quickly healed him back him and the idiot stopped screaming.


    ¡°That¡¯s what you get for insulting me you fool! Know your position! I can hurt you and heal you back up repeatedly! We can either do this the easy way or the hard way! Make your choice stupid humans!¡±  Let¡¯s hope this works¡­


    The calmer middle aged woman spoke up, ¡°I already know this thing is telling the truth guys. He actually has the ability of absorbing abilities by drinking blood.¡±


    Huh¡­? How did this woman know of my ability¡­?


    ¡°Mr... ghost¡­? I have the ability that allows me to know what the abilities of others are, so I already know of your ability. If you want to find out the ability of these guys just take my blood and use my ability to find out what you want. Just don¡¯t hurt the others!¡±


    ¡­¡­


    ¡­..


    This beautiful, beautiful woman! If she is speaking the truth then all I need is her ability and I will no longer need to risk getting shitty abilities ever again! This ability is even better then the teleporting ability! It is like it has been perfectly made for me!


    The others were shouting at the woman saying she was crazy and not to trust the ghost etc etc, so I quickly knocked them all unconscious by hitting them all on the back of their heads.


    I proceeded to jump around in joy for a minute before calming down. I had been flying around with a bag full of syringes all this time just in case I ran into the survivor group, and now I proceeded to take all the blood these guys were so generously giving me!


    ________________________________


    At the end of 30 minutes I was standing in the middle of the still unconscious bodies of the 7 people with a huge grin on my face. Turns out the beautiful woman was telling the truth about her ability!


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Ability-identification. You will now be able to identify the abilities of others, humans or nonhumans alike.


    Using her amazing ability I found out the ability of the others. I just had to think ¡®ability-identification¡¯ and mind-me informed me of all the abilities in my surroundings, or I could focus in on one person and use the ability to find out what ability that one person had. They had Earth manipulation, water manipulation and enhanced strength, all these three abilities I didn¡¯t need. The other three had X-ray vision, metal manipulation and teleportation which I already knew about, these three were great additions for me!


    If I could use X-ray vision along with night-vision, heat-vision and improved vision, I could practically see everything! Metal manipulation would also be useful in some cases, for example I could now make a sort of ¡®base¡¯ out of metal which would be much more sturdier then the earth wall I had erected in place of the door of my apartment. And teleportation was obviously useful as well!


    I proceeded to help myself to multiple syringes full of blood from them, which is why I was grinning like an idiot¡­


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: X-ray vision. You will now be able to see through most surfaces.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Metal-manipulation. You will now be able to manipulate metals and make them do what you wish.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Teleportation. You will now be able to teleport from one place to another instantly. However, you can only teleport to places you can see or to places you have visited previously.


    I was too excited to try experimenting with these new abilities, so I healed them all up and they woke up a few minutes later. I whispered a ¡°Thank you humans¡± to them, though I was basically thanking the middle-aged woman, and got out of there!


    I couldn¡¯t believe how good this day had been!


    ________________________________________


    Author''s note: Yesterday was a crazy day for me and I couldn''t find time to write at all! So, this is a longer chapter for you guys. I will also try to get a few more chapters released today!


    In case you are wondering if his new identification ability will basically make everything easier for him, then you are wrong. Sure, it will make a lot of things easier, but he will still face a few hardships.


    I asked a few chapters ago if you guys wanted me to release an ''abilities so far'' chapter, and not many of you responded :P Now the MC has 30+ abilities, so I was thinking it would be best if I asked you guys again. Let me know and I will release it either later today or tomorrow if you guys want me to... That chapter will also explain a few more things about abilities. I have been getting a few questions so I thought I would clear things up in that chapter.


    Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Thanks a lot for the continued support and thank you very much for reading! :D

 Chapter Twenty: Start of the Journey

    Author''s note: Sorry this chapter is on the shorter side. No, it isn''t because the previous chapter was longer, but because the story calls for this chapter to be cut here. The next two chapters I plan on being long and intense, so hopefully that will make it up for this shorter chapter.


    ______________________________________


    As soon as I left the building where the generous survivors were staying, I thought of my apartment and activated the teleporting ability¡­ and it worked! I instantly moved from outside the building to the middle of my apartment! Woohoo!


    I then spent the next few hours experimenting with my teleportation ability.. The most fun I had with teleporting was when I teleported to the clouds! I just focused on the clouds and teleported, and there I was high up in the sky near the clouds! It was much, much higher then the maximum height I could fly at, and actually touching and feeling the fluffy clouds was exhilarating! I would then free-fall from the clouds for a good while before I used my ability of flight close to the ground to slow down again! I had always wanted to try sky-diving, and it was well worth the wait! I repeated the whole process of teleporting to the clouds and free-falling a number of times! I really felt like a little kid for a while before I actually got serious trying out a few things


    For instance, I couldn¡¯t teleport to places I could see in pictures. I either had to actually be seeing the place I wanted to teleport to, or I had to have visited the place beforehand. I would have tried teleporting to my parent¡¯s house for an experiment, but that place still probably had abominations crawling all over so I refrained from trying to go there. Instead, I tried moving across the entire city, from one end to the other, and found no difficulties at all. However, I could only move to places on the other side of the city I had been to. I could move to one building because I had been there, but I couldn¡¯t move to the building next to it because neither could I see it from the other end of the city nor had I visited it before. Apparently ¡®visiting¡¯ means actually setting foot on the place, and not just being near it¡­


    Next, I tried teleporting while using hiding presence. At first, I had a few problems as I kept losing hiding presence when I teleported. I tried again and again, trying to increase my concentration on keeping hiding presence active each time. It took about an hour but I finally managed to teleport and keep hiding presence active at the same time. This was a crucial thing for me, as I didn¡¯t want to teleport to someplace right in the middle of monsters without hiding presence active.


    I then did a few more experiments. I tried to check whether I could teleport to only the places I could see normally or if I could use one of my vision abilities to teleport further. I used improved vision and ¡®zoomed¡¯ in as much as I could, and then I teleported, and it worked! This would increase the possible distance to be teleported immensely! I then tried using X-ray vision to see if I could teleport from inside a building to the outside and vice-versa, and it worked too! I tried using X-ray to completely see through a building to see if I could teleport on the other side and that worked too!


    The only thing that didn¡¯t work was when I tried using it with heat-vision. For some reason when I used heat-vision to see I couldn¡¯t teleport near a heat-signature. This was a strange thing, if X-ray could make me teleport through buildings why couldn¡¯t heat-vision make me teleport near to a heat-signature? I kept trying to succeed in using heat-vision in conjunction with teleportation but no matter what I tried it never worked.


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    Next, I approached one of the few still alive cats, picked it up and tried to see if I could teleport living things along with me. The cat was still alive and well after the teleportation, and by increasing the number of animals and creatures I found out I could teleport at most 20 different living things at a time. However, the catch was that everything had to be connected with me, either directly or indirectly. I tried using telekinesis in controlling a few creatures to come along with me but it didn¡¯t work. The only way for me to teleport someone else was if I was physically in touch with them¡­


    I also experimented a bit with metal manipulation and X-ray vision and was satisfied with how easy everything was working out to be.


    The biggest disappointment for me was ability-identification. When I used it on the trolls, they only had the stupid stomach ability and an even stupider ¡®decreased sense of smell¡¯ ability, which probably explained why they didn¡¯t seem to be bothered by their own disgusting smells! Even though I could also use the decreased sense of smell ability to get rid of their disgusting smell, I saw no reason to because I wasn¡¯t planning on staying in the city for long anyways.


    One reason I decided to leave the city was because of the disappointing results of the ability-identification. No matter how much I used it on the different type of creatures present, I couldn¡¯t see any ability I wanted. I could see good abilities like enhanced speed, elemental manipulations, hardened skin, enhanced strength etc etc, but all of these abilities I already had! The other abilities I saw were along the lines of the terrible abilities of the trolls and I didn¡¯t want them! Even the big-ass tiger only had one ability of increased-size!


    The biggest reason for my decision to leave the city was because I saw a lot of my friends while I was experimenting with X-ray vision, including my ¡®best friend¡¯ James! They had all decided to hole up in the university, and altogether they were probably more than a hundred in number! The number was far too large for me to control them all through telekinesis and do the same thing to get their abilities like I did with the 7 others. If I did try to pull off some stunt to get their abilities I could get in serious trouble with a fight against the whole lot of them.


    I would never do the manipulating game I did with the guys in the ballroom, as if I showed myself the ever clingy James would never leave my side! He and a few of my friends would assumes that I would stay with them and I just didn¡¯t want to do that! If I could, I wanted to stay as alone as possible for as long as possible!


    Therefore, I decided to leave the city. There were no useful abilities that I could get here, the whole city smelled worse then shit because of the trolls and worst of all this city contained clingy friends!


    With that decided, I woke up bright and early in the morning and set off out of the city in search of useful abilities and such!


    _________________________________


    P.S. I mentioned James and the group of survivors because they will have a role to play in the future, though that future is distant.


    P.S. (2) 20 chapters done! I''m hoping I can get my first advanced review soon! Would love to know in detail what you guys think of my work and if you guys have any suggestions for improvement :)

 Chapter Twenty One: Lonely Travels

    Author''s note: An extra-long chapter, as promised. Wanted to write the next one today as well but it is extremely late for me and I am very sleepy. Hope you like the chapter! Starts off a bit slow but it picks up, bear with it :P A few time jumps happen in the chapter, all needed to move the plot along.


    _________________________________________________________


    The first direction I headed to was to go back to abomination city. I wanted to see what became of the city. I wanted to see the state of the city, and if there was anything that I could take back from my parent¡¯s house. I was readying myself to head out last night and realized that I had absolutely no pictures of my family. I had never been one to keep sentimental things like pictures on frames and display them around my apartment, so I had no photos at all. Sure, I had quite a lot of them on my laptop or on my mobile, but these things weren¡¯t working anymore so the photos in them were pretty much gone.


    I like being alone, and I don¡¯t feel much for anyone, but I had known my family since I was born so obviously the strongest feelings I had in the entire world was for them. Also, I had no idea how long I would stay alive for, who knows I might get the immortality ability one day and live forever, and it would be a shame if I was to forget the faces of my family in the future!


    As I got closer to the city, I was constantly scanning every single creature and plant I could see for a useful ability, but couldn¡¯t find anything useful. The creatures both in the sky and on the ground kept decreasing in number the closer I got, and soon there wasn¡¯t any creature in sight. I could see the city in the distance now, or what was left of the city¡­


    The city was no more. It was only a pile of ruins. There was no building left standing as far as I could see, and the tallest structure visible in the city was a ruin that reached about 3 stories in height. It looked extremely eerie, to the point where the sight of a completely dead and silent ruined city gave me a few chills.


    I flew closer to the suburb area and found the same result of houses in ruins. There was not even a single house in sight that still had a wall left standing! Did the earthquake created by those abominations do all this or did they actually smash everything up themselves when they all came above ground¡­?


    I flew closer to the sight of the ruined house that had belonged to my parents. There were a few pieces of recognizable furniture I could see tattered here and there but overall it was just as smashed as everything else.


    I flew closer together and used both my improved vision and X-ray vision at the same time in hopes of finding a somewhat intact picture. It took me a while, but I finally found one that looked more or less okay. Its corners were messed up and there were two folds that ruined the picture a bit, but given the state of the house even this picture in this condition was a miracle!


    I lifted a few pieces of rocks, bricks and stone up a few inches, slowly, taking care not to smash anything on the ground. After the way was clear, I took control of the picture through telekinesis and carefully led it towards my hand. I looked at it and was pleased to see that the picture was in a good enough condition. It was a picture taken two years ago of the whole family when we all visited London and it was a good and memorable time. A perfect picture to save!


    I carefully put it away in an inside pocket of my jacket and then lifted off into the air. I checked once again to see if there were any other salvageable pictures, but found none. I then picked up as much rubble as I could through telekinesis and then smashed it all down on the ground! Immediately the Earth split apart, but nothing came out of it. It felt like the abominations were waiting to see if whatever had thrown the rocks would show themselves¡­


    I wasn¡¯t strong enough yet to face the whole lot of them, but I will be one day, and when I am I will be sure to come back here and kill every single one of these fucking things!


    With that decided, I tried to think of where to go next. The picture came to mind immediately, and with a smile I thought as hard as I could about the place we had taken the picture in, and teleported off to London!


    I instantly arrived at the place in front of Buckingham palace where we had taken the picture. It was a bit nostalgic for me, but I remained on guard against any threats even though I was using my hiding presence ability.


    ¡­..


    Hmmm¡­. Nothing¡­ Strange.


    I could see the roads filled with dried blood, plenty of corpses and body parts lying around, but there was nothing alive in sight. It was different from the case of the abominations as they had cleaned up the roads completely and hadn¡¯t left any corpses or body parts behind. Just to make sure, I lifted up the body of a large wolf-type creature that had two heads and dropped it on the ground. I waited for something to happen¡­ but nothing did. Good, no abominations here at least!


    I then lifted up higher into the air and looked around, but there was nothing alive in sight. It was all too silent. I tried using heat-vision but couldn¡¯t find anything at all even when I used it with improved vision! This was a city which was completely dead as far as I could see.


    I had just experienced the chills I felt at the sight of a dead city in ruins, but somehow the sight of a seemingly intact city which was completely dead and completely silent gave me major chills throughout my body! It was extremely creepy!


    There had to be a group of strong monsters here that were ruling this city like those abominations were, but I couldn¡¯t see any signs of such creatures anywhere at all! My instincts were screaming at me to leave the creepy dead city and leave for someplace else, and I felt obliged to listen. I was thinking about where to go next when suddenly..


    BOOM!


    The whole ground shook!


    What was that?!? An explosion??


    BOOM!


    Another one! What is this??


    BOOM!


    It sounds like it¡¯s coming from behind me¡­


    BOOM!


    I turned around slowly¡­ I could feel chills running up and down my spine¡­


    BOOM!


    I had completely turned around, and almost fainted at the sight! About 50 meters in front of me was a huge dinosaur! And not just any dinosaur, a Tyrannosaurus Rex! And not just any T-rex, this thing was more than a 100 feet tall! Weren¡¯t T-rex¡¯s supposed to be around 40-50 feet at most?


    HOLY SHIT!


    Is that thing looking at me!


    I checked but I still had my hiding presence ability active, how was this huge dino looking at me! I lifted off into the air to see if it was just a coincidence that the T-rex just happened to be looking in my direction, but no it was following me with its huge, menacing golden eyes! What the fuck! Why isn¡¯t this ability hiding me!


    The T-rex had presumably gotten tired of looking at me, because it then charged straight at me with incredible speed! It took two huge steps, accompanied by another two BOOMs, and it closed the 50 meter gap between us to just under 10 meters!


    I immediately thought of my apartment, which was the first thing I could think of, and teleported, just as I saw the T-rex¡¯s massive jaws closing in on me!


    I then found myself inside my apartment, and fell down on my knees weakly. I had never been more scared in my entire life! I checked and found I hadn¡¯t pissed myself. I was actually proud of myself for not pissing in spite of the jaws of death closing in on me like that!


    It took a good 5 minutes for me to calm down and to get my heartbeat back to normal again¡­ All motivation of travelling to new places gone, I erected an Earth wall all around my bed, reinforced it with a bit of metal, and fell asleep.


    _______________________


    It had been two weeks since the dinosaur incident, and I had stayed well clear of London during all this time. I had no idea if there was just one huge T-rex there, or if there was a whole family of huge T-rexes running around, but I had no reason to find out. I still didn¡¯t know how the dinosaur had been able to see me despite my hiding presence activity!


    Currently, I was in Dubai. I had visited this city a few years ago with my family, so I was able to teleport here without any difficulties. I had teleported myself to the top of Burj-Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and was enjoying the view. We hadn¡¯t had the chance of seeing the view when we visited, and I had to say it was a missed opportunity as the view from up here was incredible! Not as good as when I teleport to the clouds and free-fall, but still pretty good.


    I used my improved vision ability and could see a number of different creatures walking in the streets far below. I had gained a couple of new abilities over the past two weeks, though they were gained through animals and monsters only as I had stayed far away from any human contact, and I was eager to gain more! I jumped off the top of the tallest tower in the world and dove down to see if there were any other useful abilities down there!


    _______________________


    Two more weeks had passed since I was in Dubai. I was currently in Tokyo, Japan. I hadn¡¯t visited this place before, but had always wanted to. I had to perform a series of teleportations over other countries to get here, but it was well worth it! The sights were incredible! I had been all over Japan before reaching Tokyo, and it was a country unlike any other! Truly incredible!


    I teleported to Beijing airport, where we had a stay-over once due to some difficulties in out flight. I exited the airport to explore a new country and new sights, while still staying completely alone!


    ________________________


    Another week had passed by, and I had stayed all alone during all this time. Sometimes I wished someone else was here with me to talk to or to share all the sights, but then I would remember how annoying most people were and the feeling would go away.


    Right now I was at the top of Mt. Everest! I had to repeatedly teleport myself to the top, as the peak was too far up for me to see at once! I could see the clouds stretching below and the view was absolutely breathtaking! Even with my heat and cold resistance ability active and the multiple layers of clothes I was wearing, I was still shivering from head to toe. I knew I couldn¡¯t stay for long, but just a few more minutes of this incredible view wouldn¡¯t hurt!


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    Suddenly I heard a loud roar from below me! Snow and ice actually fell and started an avalanche below on the mountain side! I immediately got on guard and prepared myself to teleport out of here.


    I used heat-vision but couldn¡¯t see anything at all. Another loud roar, this time from my right side! I looked over there and saw the legendary creature: A dragon! An ice dragon to be exact! Glaring at me with clear-blue eyes, its huge crystalline body rose up the mountainside rapidly with the help of two massive crystal-blue wings!


    I froze.


    I was completely terrified of the constantly growing body. I tried to teleport but I found out I couldn¡¯t! What¡¯s going on?


    Then it dawned on me! Dragon¡¯s fear! In most games or novels dragons always had a certain pressure that made their targets freeze up! I had always thought of it as nonsense but here I was completely frozen in fear because of a dragon!


    I closed my eyes and concentrated as hard as I could on teleporting¡­ A few seconds later I could feel the sharp drop in temperatures! I opened my eyes and found myself in the fields of Tibet from where the highest peak of the world was visible in the distance.


    I breathed a sigh of relief. First London and now Mount Everest, two locations on the fuck-no list!


    ________________________


    6 more weeks had passed by. I had been travelling for almost three months now! I had been all alone all this time, and frankly I was starting to get a little lonely. I had never realized just how much humans crave for social interaction! It had taken me about 3 months, but I was sure most normal humans wouldn¡¯t have lasted this long all alone.


    I had travelled all over the world, apart from the North and South poles, and the continent of Antarctica. It had been a most wonderful experience, but I did wish I could have shared it with someone else too¡­


    It had also been most profitable for me. I had gained 11 new great abilities, and improved a few of my existing abilities too! I could have gained more but I concentrated more on the new sights then on gaining abilities. That being said, all things considered, it had been the best experience of my life!


    I was currently back in my home country of America, in New York city to be exact. And for the first time in 3 months I was actually ignoring the creatures down on the streets and instead looking for survivors! Incredible how much human interaction I was now craving because of a mere 3 months of travelling alone! Wasn¡¯t I supposed to love staying alone¡­? *sigh*


    I had no idea if I would find survivors, as it had been close to 5 months now since the monsters first appeared. Or had it been six? Keeping track of days was getting hard too¡­ Speaking of which, my 22nd birthday should be coming soon too¡­ hmmm¡­ doesn¡¯t really matter though...


    I was searching for survivors just so I could get a bit of human interaction, share a few conversations, hopefully get a few more abilities and then leave. I was craving for human interaction, but I was still a loner at heart! And thus I was only planning on staying with any survivor group I found for at most 2-3 days. More if the survivors aren¡¯t annoying, but I find everyone annoying so that has a really low chance of happening¡­


    I searched using improved vision, X-ray vision and heat vision all at the same time, and soon found a lot of humans gathered at a penthouse of a building. I flew up to the top, as my flight ability was one of the abilities I had improved during my travels, enabling me to fly for longer and fly at much higher altitudes!


    I looked through the window and saw a large gathering of people all in a massive room. There would be around 40 people altogether I believe. This looks like a fun group, most of them are laughing about and the mood seems to be generally good.


    I teleported inside but was still using my hiding-presence. I didn¡¯t bother with identifying their abilities yet, as I would have plenty of time afterwards if I stayed here. I was here for a bit of human interaction and not for gaining abilities anyways¡­


    I was going to reveal myself but then I stopped. The atmosphere seemed a bit¡­ strange¡­ for some reason it felt like there was something wrong. I observed closely and noted that there was an older woman, would be in her late forties or early fifties, sitting in a large comfortable looking chair right in the center of the East wall. It looked to me as if she was sitting on a sort of make-shift throne¡­


    I looked around at everyone in the room and most of them seemed happy. Correction, all the men seemed happy. They were happily chatting about and laughing with each other, but all the women, apart from the older woman on her ¡®throne¡¯, were looking anything but happy. They had blank expressions on their faces and were looking into the distance with dead eyes. I could guess why this was the case, but before I could figure out if my guess was correct or not the older woman started speaking.


    ¡°Attention everyone! It¡¯s time once again. You all know what to do.¡±


    After her words, everyone got up and started heading towards the older woman. The men started piling things like canned food, water bottles or general goods in front of her while she noted what each of them brought, while the women filed up behind the older woman and stood there silently with blank expressions.


    After all the men had piled everything up, the woman looked up and started speaking once again.


    ¡°The rules are the same. Whoever gets us the most number of goods or the most useful goods gets first choice. Judgement of who does best will remain with me. As usual, the grand prize will be my daughter. Bring her here.¡±


    With that, two of the women went away, opened another door and disappeared inside. A few minutes later they brought along with them an extremely beautiful girl. She had the perfect figure, green eyes, red hair and snow white skin without a blemish on her at all. Though her image was ruined by her being bound by chains and gagged with a cloth in her mouth, though she was still struggling and trying to scream as loud as possible. I noticed all men immediately had looks filled with lust.


    ¡°I will remind you once again. You guys can do whatever you want with your prizes, but don¡¯t injure them so severely that they can¡¯t be healed back up by our healers. Once you are done with them, take them to any one of the healers to heal them back up. No one has to hold back with my daughter as you all are well aware of her ability.¡±


    .......


    This was disgusting! My guess was proved right after all. Actually, I never guessed that this woman would be the one in charge of all this, and I certainly didn¡¯t imagine her to be using her own daughter like this! So it was much worse in reality then what I had guessed!


    I was seething with rage!


    These guys could have been fighting with each other and I would have ignored it, they could have been executing someone and I would have ignored even that, but there was one thing I could absolutely not tolerate: rape.


    Ever since Samantha had gotten raped, I had been disgusted by all rapists no matter who they were or why they did this despicable act. I had seen Samantha¡¯s injuries, I had seen how she looked at me and even her own father with fear, and worse of all the rapist had made me lose all respect for her.


    Raping someone was an unforgivable act in my eyes, and it was the only case where I would actively help someone. And this¡­ this was something much worse than raping!


    These people were using these 9 girls as sex slaves! The woman¡¯s words also implied that these men were using the women as ways to release all their agitation, and they were beating them and healing them daily!


    I saw as a man advanced forward to the chained girl with lust clearly written on his face.


    I stopped him with telekinesis. There were around 27-30 men, 8 girls, the chained girl and the older woman in the room. Controlling all the men and the older woman with telekinesis was an easy feat for me.


    I advanced forward, took control of all the men and the older woman and deactivated my hiding presence ability. The older woman saw me and exclaimed with wide eyes, ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡±


    I threw the disgusting piece of trash as hard as I could against the wall using telekinesis, but made sure that she still remained conscious. I wouldn¡¯t want her to lose consciousness too soon¡­


    ¡°The name¡¯s Ben. I just found out what¡¯s going on over here. I thought I might come over and kill all you bastards as none of you deserve to live anyways.¡±


    With that, I threw everyone through telekinesis against the walls.


    I had already killed a lot of innocents unintentionally, looks like I might add a few intentional murders under my belt today.


    _______________________________


    Author''s note (2):


    Firstly, all abilities he gained will be revealed later. Why later? Because I thought you guys could chip in and throw some suggestions in as to what new abilities he should have gained. I already got a few suggestions through comments earlier, and thought it would be a nice idea if you guys threw in some abilities you want to see the MC have. Please don''t list down any unique abilities previously mentioned, as he couldn''t have gained them because he only got abilities from animals and creatures during his travels, as mentioned in the chapter. He would have needed to get abilities from humans if he wanted the unique abilities...


    Secondly, for all those wanting a heroine, she has arrived! For all those NOT wanting a heroine, or more specifically not wanting cliche settings, please give me till next chapter to show you how I will develop the relationship in a manner that isn''t cliche. Although the setting above with their meeting is frankly a bit cliche, the future of their relationship won''t be. I won''t be focusing on the relationship much anyways, which is why the fiction doesn''t even have a romance tag yet.


    Thirdly, I would like to apologize for not replying to a lot of comments made today. I haven''t had the chance to read all of them yet. I will do so when I wake up tomorrow morning and reply then.


    Let me know what you guys thought of the chapter! And also comment below if you guys want to see a particular ability for the MC :)


    Thanks for reading!

 Explanations, concerns and new abilities! (Not a chapter)

    First of all my apologies for this not being a chapter, but I wanted to release this before the next chapter. You can skip the first part of this if you want, it only contains explanations about abilities, but please read from the ''Addressing concerns'' heading.


    Abilities gained so far:


    <ol type="$type"></li>


    <li>Absorption.</li>


    <li>Flight.</li>


    <li>Observation.</li>


    <li>Pain resistance.</li>


    <li>Disease resistance.</li>


    <li>Stamina increase.</li>


    <li>Enhanced speed.</li>


    <li>Poison-resistance¡­ Evolved into Weak-poison Immunity.</li>


    <li>Enhanced strength¡­. Upgraded to Super-strength. </li>


    <li>Regeneration.</li>


    <li>Fire-manipulation.</li>


    <li>Water-manipulation.</li>


    <li>Earth-manipulation.</li>


    <li>Invisibility.</li>


    <li>Night-vision.</li>


    <li>Heat-vision.</li>


    <li>Steel-skin.</li>


    <li>Healing.</li>


    <li>Air-manipulation.</li>


    <li>Heat and cold resistance.</li>


    <li>Hiding presence.</li>


    <li>Telekinesis. </li>


    <li>Increased luck.</li>


    <li>Lightning-manipulation.</li>


    <li>Ice manipulation.</li>


    <li>Improved vision.</li>


    <li>Telepathy.</li>


    <li>Perception.</li>


    <li>Elemental Control.</li>


    <li>Teleportation.</li>


    <li>Ability-Identification</li>


    <li>Metal-manipulation</li>


    <li>X-ray Vision</li>


    <li>Enlarged Stomach


    </li></ol>


    I think I got all the abilities so far (Not counting the ones from chapter 21) but if anyone spots an ability that is missing from this list let me know and I¡¯ll update it.


    Before we go to the details of the abilities he gained last chapter from his travels, I¡¯d like to explain my thought process of abilities a bit further.


    1) Physical abilities (Eg: speed, strength, agility, dexterity etc) are abilities which have three basic tiers:


    <ol type="$type"></li>


    <li>Enhanced: This is the first and weakest tier. This tier enhances your physical ability to the maximum possible limit for a human. This tier will use every possible cell in your body for a specific purpose, so enhanced speed will make use of everything possible in your body to make you go as fast as possible. (Normal people only having one ability will be much slower than MC, as MC uses enhanced speed usually when he is flying which makes him much faster than others with the same ability as he doesn¡¯t have to move his legs to take actual running steps) That being said, even normal ability users with enhanced speed will be fast enough to only be seen as blurs. </li>


    <li>Super: Second tier for physical abilities. This tier will make your physical ability go above and beyond the limits of humanity. So for example if a person with enhanced strength can lift a 16-wheeler truck with a single hand, a person with super-strength will be able to lift a Boeing 747 airplane with a single hand. This is just to give you an example of the difference between the two tiers. However, there will still be a limit to this tier. </li>


    <li>Ultimate: Third and strongest tier for physical abilities, and also the rarest (obviously). This tier has no limits, so if you get this tier for your ability you may be strong enough to punch through a planet, or you may just be a bit stronger than the super tier. This tier will always be stronger than the ¡®super¡¯ tier, but exactly how much stronger is up to luck and a few other factors (which will be revealed later on.) For the MC, the limit will be defined by how much blood he drinks from a person/monster with this tier, though he will need A LOT of blood to be able to punch through planets :P


    </li></ol>


    2) Elemental and variant abilities (Eg: 4 basic elements and their variants, does not include stuff like blood, space, time etc) These abilities also have 3 basic tiers:


    <ol type="$type"></li>


    <li>Manipulation: Weakest and most common tier. It requires the element or the variant element to be present in your surroundings to be able to manipulate it. Degree of how much you can control varies. I believe I explained it in the initial chapters so won¡¯t repeat it here. </li>


    <li>Control: Stronger then ¡®manipulation¡¯, but this tier also requires the element or variant to be present in your surroundings to be able to control it. However, degree of control is much stronger than the previous tier, and this tier also makes it easier for you to control elemental attacks aimed at you from others. Eg: If the MC had absorbed more blood with this ability when the abominations rose up, he would have been able to easily control all attacks and avoid them, and not just the fireballs, and Carmen would have had a higher chance of surviving. </li>


    <li>Creation: Strongest tier, it gives the strongest degree of control over elements and their variants and also allows you to create them without the need for them to be present in your surroundings. Eg: In the previous two tiers you would have been able to control fire anywhere on Earth because of the combustion of oxygen which is present in the air, but you wouldn¡¯t have been able to use fire in a vacuum because of the lack of oxygen. The ¡®creation¡¯ tier will allow you to create fire even in a vacuum and thus you will be able to control it. As with the previous ¡®ultimate¡¯ tier of physical abilities, the degree of how much power this tier will grant you varies greatly. You may be able to control and create water larger than the size of Earth, or you may only be able to create and control water the size of half an ocean. Variation depends on luck and some other factors.


    </li></ol>


    3) Evolvable abilities: These abilities are extremely rare, and they can be evolved to make them stronger. MC only knows about one ability that can be evolved: poison resistance which can be evolved into poison immunity. However, not all abilities with the word ¡®resistance¡¯ in them can be evolved, as is evident because of the fact that MC has abilities like disease-resistance, pain resistance etc, but he didn¡¯t get a message regarding their evolution when he received them. I have a few more abilities that can be evolved in mind, which will be revealed later on down the road. :P


    4) Abilities with undefined power-levels: (Eg: flight, telekinesis, vision-abilities, hearing-abilities etc) These are abilities that do not have any defined power levels. For normal people or monsters, they are stuck with whatever they got through luck. For example two people have the flight ability, one of them can fly to a height of 15 stories while the other can only fly to a height of 10 stories. There is no way for normal people to improve these abilities. However, the MC is a bit different because of his unique ability, which makes it possible for him to gain limitless potential with these abilities. For example if he can find other humans with telekinesis, he can absorb all their blood and be able to control every single living thing on the planet with his mind, but to do that he will first need to find living things with these abilities and have to drink a seriously huge amount of blood to get this powerful. Think thousands and thousands and thousands of liters worth of blood!


    5) Restricted abilities (Eg: teleportation, all unique abilities) Basically all these abilities have pre-existing restrictions on them which can¡¯t be overcome no matter what. Teleportation, for example, has a restriction on being able to only teleport to places you have visited or to places you can see, but you can¡¯t see a picture of a place and teleport there as that is restricted. Even if MC drinks all the blood in the world he won¡¯t be able to get over this restriction. A bit of a spoiler here, be WARNED. Nothing major though¡­ All unique abilities are also restricted in one way or the other, including MC¡¯s absorption ability. The restriction with MC¡¯s ability will be revealed later, and the restriction with a lot of other unique abilities will be revealed later on down the road.


    6) Healing abilities (eg: healing, regeneration, curing) These abilities also have three tiers:


    <ol type="$type"></li>


    <li>Basic: Just basic abilities, allowing you to heal minor injuries and regenerate lost body parts. However, this ability will be the slowest healing ability of the lot. If MC didn¡¯t have regeneration when his arm got burned, it would still have taken him a few weeks to get his arm healed up again, but because regeneration only had to regenerate flesh and skin, and not bones, it quickened the healing of his arm considerably. </li>


    <li>Rapid: Much faster than the previous tier. This tier will enable you to regenerate, heal or cure diseases at a rapid pace. For instance, if it takes 4 hours to regenerate a leg in the previous tier, the ¡®rapid¡¯ tier ability will be able to regenerate the leg in less than 30 minutes. This tier also enables you to cure more serious diseases quicker, or heal more serious injuries quickly. </li>


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!<li>Instant: Heals, regenerates or cures instantly. The lines between regeneration and healing gets a bit blurred here actually, as if you have a strong enough ¡®instant healing¡¯ ability, you will also be able to re-attach lost limbs or even re-attach if your head gets cuts off! However, regeneration will allow you to regenerate a new limb or a head, while instant healing will require you to actually have the limb or head in order to re-attach it. This tier also allows you to instantly cure almost any disease, including curses! Degree of how much you can cure, or heal, or regenerate will depend as always on luck and a few other factors, and for MC it will depend on how much blood he can absorb.


    </li></ol>


    7) Other abilities (Observation, perception etc) Explanations were getting a bit long so let¡¯s just end it here. Throw in any ability you can think of in this category. :P If you have a particular ability on which you are unclear, feel free to comment below and ask me about it and I¡¯ll explain it in the best way I can.


    ______________________________________________


    Addressing a few concerns:


    1) Biggest concern I have been receiving recently has been about how MC is supposed to be smart, but still does mistakes. This is evident with the ending of the previous chapter, which was done ON PURPOSE! I hate, I repeat, I HATE MCs who are portrayed as so smart that they never make any mistakes at all! The MC will continue on making mistakes. Yes, he is smart, but that doesn¡¯t mean he is perfect and won¡¯t make any mistakes. I am trying to portray a character who is as ¡®real¡¯ as possible, and in the real world there is absolutely no one who is perfect and absolutely no one who never makes any mistakes. That being said, he is definitely portrayed as smart, so he will make fewer mistakes than most, and if he does make mistakes he will learn from them quickly.


    2) Next concern is about how he is supposed to be logical and emotionless, but he still sometimes lets emotions get the better of him, as is again evident by the ending of the previous chapter. Yes, he is logical, but again he isn¡¯t perfectly logical! Yes, he has dampened emotions, but he isn¡¯t completely emotionless! Plus, another glaring fact that almost everyone seems to be missing is BIOLOGY! A human has hormones, and no matter what the MC does he can¡¯t control them. He went into a rage at the end of last chapter, which caused his blood to pump, which cause his hormones to go crazy and which resulted in him not thinking with his head for a bit and making a stupid decision. Someone also commented that he should have used ability-identification on the T-rex and the dragon, but seriously when you have a huge-ass T-rex running at you or you are instilled with ¡®dragon¡¯s fear¡¯, your brain isn¡¯t thinking straight! The MC was scared shitless, and all his brain was thinking at those moments was how to escape with his life, and NOT on standing there using his ability-identification on those monstrosities! This does NOT mean that he will get emotional, it only means that on very, very rare occasions emotions may get the better of him for a short amount of time. This won¡¯t happen a lot, maybe once every 20-30 chapters..? Maybe even less¡­


    Seriously, if you guys want a perfect MC who doesn¡¯t make any mistakes at all and is perfect in every way possible, this isn¡¯t the fiction for you. My aim is to create a character that is smarter than others, more logical than others and less emotional than others, but at the same time he is still a human and will still be imperfect and make mistakes. That being said, if you see me make the MC do a seriously stupid thing without any justification then please do let me know, and I will rectify it. The ending of the last chapter does not count, as he was in complete rage at the moment. The start of the next chapter will make him realize his mistakes and he will immediately rectify them. Now, sorry for the rant above, let¡¯s calm down now¡­ :P


    3) Concerns about how MC will fall in love because he is supposed to have dampened emotions. Yes, I get it, but just because I have entered a female lead into the story, it doesn¡¯t mean both of them will fall in love immediately and live happily ever after. The character of the MC will stay the same, and it will take a LONG time for BOTH the MC and the heroine to actually develop feelings for each other. Again, I¡¯m trying to portray ¡®real¡¯ characters, and you don¡¯t just fall in love immediately in real life in usual cases.


    ___________________________________________


    New Abilities:


    This must be what you all have been waiting for, so let¡¯s get straight to it. These are the abilities which he improved and the new abilities he gained from the last chapter:


    Improved abilities:


    <ol type="$type"></li>


    <li>Enhanced speed has been upgraded to super-speed.</li>


    <li>Weak-poison immunity has evolved into moderate-poison immunity. </li>


    <li>Regeneration has improved to rapid-regeneration.</li>


    <li>Steel-skin has improved to diamond-skin (Thanks to Hyoudo for this idea, his comment actually was extremely similar in terms of abilities to be improved to what I was thinking!) </li>


    <li>Absorbed more blood to improve the following: Flight, pain resistance, stamina increase, heat and cold resistance, night-vision and heat-vision.


    </li></ol>


    Newly gained abilities:


    These are all mainly ideas taken from your comments. As mentioned in the last chapter, MC only gained 11 new abilities so obviously I was unable to add all abilities that everyone mentioned, but thank you all so much for all comments! You all had so many great ideas that I really had a hard time choosing only 11! If what you said isn¡¯t mentioned below, I apologize, but I will try to get them into the story later on. One ability that a few of you mentioned was blood-manipulation, and although I agree it fits very nicely, I have a plan for him to get this ability later on. So, he won¡¯t be getting this ability right now, sorry! Another popular ability was multi-language, but the probabilities of him gaining a language ability from creatures/monsters was low, especially since he can¡¯t fight against monsters that are intelligent enough to speak like dragons etc. Mostly I picked abilities that had multiple comments. The abilities he gained last chapter are:


    <ol type="$type"></li>


    <li>Pocket dimension/inventory. Allows him to get a small pocket dimension that is able to store things. Time is frozen in this pocket dimension, so food stored here will stay as fresh when taken out as it was when it was put into this dimension. </li>


    <li>Metabolism control. Allows him to control metabolism in his body, which makes him need much less food and water. Though he will still need to eat and drink from time to time. </li>


    <li>Summoning. (Will be explained in detail a bit later, maybe in two chapters from now. Always wanted him to gain a summoning ability, so when I read so many comments for it I HAD to add this) </li>


    <li>Intimidation. Allows him to intimidate others, though it won¡¯t work on someone or something much stronger than him. </li>


    <li>Voice-manipulation. Allows him to changes his voice, and ¡®throw¡¯ his voice so it appears that he is speaking from somewhere where his body isn¡¯t present. </li>


    <li>Acid control. (different from the ¡®control¡¯ tier mentioned above.) Allows him to throw acid or cover weapons with acid. </li>


    <li>Poison control. (Again, different from the ¡®control¡¯ tier) Allows him to throw poison or cover surfaces with poison. </li>


    <li>Mental fortitude. Makes him resistant to mental attacks. </li>


    <li>True sight. Allows hims to see through lies, deceptions and invisibility. (Thanks Mackoy)</li>


    <li>Improved sense of direction. Allows him to know which direction is which, making it easier for him to navigate. </li>


    <li>Appearance manipulation. Allows hims to manipulate his appearance and change it to some degree. (Won¡¯t allow him to change gender, not a fan of gender-benders)


    </li></ol>


    Alright, that¡¯s it! Mainly picked abilities which were more popular. The abilities not mentioned above will either be gained later on down the road, or a few of them won¡¯t be gained at all. Some of you mentioned overly powerful abilities, but again he isn¡¯t strong enough to beat such overly powerful creatures yet so please wait till he gets stronger.


    Let me know of anything else you wish to know, and what do you think about my choices above for the abilities? I didn¡¯t want him to get too powerful too quick. Also, do you guys want me to justify how he got all the above abilities, and actually mention in the story exactly how and from which animal/creature he got them, or do you want to just get on with the story and assume ''he must have gotten them somehow during his travels''... I honestly don''t mind either way, will just do what the majority of you want.


    Thank you very much for all the suggestions last chapter! Will probably have another chapter ready for you guys tomorrow, once again sorry for no chapter today :P

 Chapter Twenty Two: What now...?

    Author''s note:


    First of all my apologies for not releasing any chapters during the last 2-3 days. The reason is because my elder sister is getting married on the 6th of February. How does this affect me? Well, I am the youngest sibling, plus I no longer have classes due to holidays of a few days, these two facts combined make it so that I am constantly being politely asked (forced) to do A LOT of work! Last few days I barely had any time to relax, let alone write! Thus, I should inform you all not to expect any sort of a release schedule till the 6th. This does not mean I am on a hiatus, it just means that I have no idea if I will be able to write till then, I could get a free day and write 3-4 chapters in a single day, or I could get no free time at all and have no chapters released till the 6th, I just have no idea! That being said, regular chapter release schedule will return from the 7th or 8th of February.


    Once again my apologies. Blame it all on my sister!


    Let me know of any mistakes in this chapter, as I wrote it in a rush... Hope you like it.


    __________________________________


    First thing I did immediately after throwing everyone to the walls was realize how utterly stupid I had been! I had exposed myself in front of everyone on a whim without even checking to see what I was up against!


    Cursing myself, I immediately reactivated hiding presence, flew far away from the place I was standing and started floating in mid-air.


    Thinking clearly now, first order of business would be to check and see what I was up against. Even if I seriously detest rape and this sex slave stuff, I can¡¯t let it cloud over my judgement again! If these people have powerful abilities I will teleport out of here immediately, and either think of some plan to kill these bastards or if they are too strong then I¡¯ll just have to leave them alone for now.


    With that decided, I immediately activated my ability-identification ability and focused it on the boss-woman. She was presumable the one in charge from what I had seen, and there had to be a reason for it. The probability of her having a strong ability is high, so I had to check her first. It took only a couple of seconds for mind-me to start speaking...


    Target ability identified. Target has the unique ability: ability-deletion. This ability allows the target to delete the abilities of others permanently by touching them.


    ¡­¡­


    HOLY SHIT!


    Ben you are a fucking idiot! If you ever let stupid things like feelings get in the way of doing the smart thing again, I¡¯ll fucking kill you!


    I scolded myself a bit more before finally calming down a bit. I then immediately knocked the boss-woman against the wall once again, this time making sure that she was unconscious! If I had stayed stupid for just a bit longer, the woman could have deleted my ability! Without my ability I would have been as good as dead!


    I immediately checked out the abilities of the rest of the men, but they all had the usual abilities like elemental manipulations, healing, enhanced speed etc, but I did spot a guy with telekinesis! I immediately knocked him out too. The only other person with this ability had been Carmen, and I hadn¡¯t absorbed a lot of her blood. This guy though I can suck completely dry!


    All the other men posed no threat to me, and they were all under my control through telekinesis, so I turned around and checked the abilities of the women. I may have ¡®saved¡¯ them, but if they had good abilities I would obviously have to take them for myself!


    I focused in on the girls, who were still standing with blank looks on their faces, and waited for mind-me¡¯s message to come.


    Ability identification failed. No ability found.


    Huh¡­?


    I tried it on another girl but got the same message, all 8 of the girls all had no abilities. The boss-woman bitch must have taken away their abilities! Hmmm¡­. But the boss-bitch did mention something about her daughter¡¯s ability¡­


    I focused in on the red-haired girl who was still bound and gagged and activated the identification ability¡­


    Target ability identified. Target has the unique ability: Absolute healing. This ability allows the target to heal, cure or regenerate anything instantly. No matter how serious the injury is, or how deadly the disease is, this ability can heal or cure them.


    WOW!!


    That is a seriously good ability! It makes my rapid-regeneration and healing abilities look stupid in comparison! I want it!!!


    ¡­.


    ¡­.


    I calmed down and wiped the drool off my face. Now is not the time to be going on a blood-sucking frenzy on the person you are trying to rescue Ben! Let¡¯s rescue her first and then the absorption can start¡­


    I looked around at all the douchebags still lying around and groaning, and realized something...


    Why hadn¡¯t the boss-bitch deleted her ability too? All the other girls had their abilities presumably deleted, so why was this red-haired girl spared? Was the boss-bitch unable to delete unique abilities¡­? Or did she simply not delete her ability so the men no longer had to hold back¡­?


    I felt my blood boil again at the second possibility, but calmed myself down once more. I approached the red-haired girl and removed her chains and gags and immediately spoke before she had a chance to do anything¡­


    ¡°First of all, calm down. All the men here are under my control, so there is no reason to be afraid. I¡¯m the same guy who appeared a few minutes ago, but I am just invisible right now. I wanted to ask a few questions from you if that¡¯s okay¡­?¡±


    I was using my new voice-manipulation ability to throw my voice so that I appeared to be speaking from right next to her. Although I was trying to save her, I obviously couldn¡¯t trust her enough to reveal myself to her or to stand too closely to her. Therefore, I was hovering up in the air a few meters away from her and ¡®throwing¡¯ my voice in order to speak with her.


    She nodded and gestured with her face to ask the questions. Surprisingly, she still had fire in her eyes, and right now all she was doing was glaring angrily at the unconscious body of the boss-bitch.


    ¡°I wanted to ask you about your mother¡¯s abili¡­¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s NOT my mother!¡± she exclaimed angrily.


    ......


    Hmm¡­ so this is the age-old plot of the evil stepmother¡­ Well, it is at least better than the possibility of her own mother doing this to her.


    ¡°Stepmother it is th¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll say this once only. She isn¡¯t my step-mother, she isn¡¯t my mother, she used to be my mother but she isn¡¯t anymore. I suggest you stop thinking that she is related to me in any way, because as far as I am concerned my mother is no more!¡±


    She once again interrupted me, and she was now glaring at the place where my voice was coming from. Well, the boss-bitch actually is her mother huh¡­? That is just sick what she did to her own daughter! I think even I won¡¯t do something as horrible if I had a daughter of my own¡­ well, at least I hope I wouldn¡¯t do something like this¡­


    I continued talking to the red-haired girl while I kept control of all the men in the room. I learned her name was Ariel, apparently she had red hair since birth and her dad immediately though of the Little Mermaid when he looked at her, which led to her being named Ariel.


    The main points I asked her about was whether boss-bitch could delete unique abilities, whether she could delete in ways other then touching the person and how come a woman was in charge of all the men here. The last point was puzzling, even though boss-bitch had a seriously destructive ability, she could still be overpowered extremely easily by all these men using a combination of their own abilities.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    She answered that she didn¡¯t know whether boss-bitch could delete unique abilities or not as she never bothered to delete her own ability. Boss-bitch could only delete abilities through touch and the reason she was in charge was because she had a group of 12 men who were extremely loyal to her since before the ¡®apocalypse¡¯, something about how boss-bitch had saved their lives in some way or another¡­ Boss-bitch used these 12 men and her own ability to stay in charge of everyone here.


    Again, this was extremely puzzling to me. Why would ANYONE stay loyal to someone in such circumstances? There was no law and order anymore, and just a feeling of loyalty was in no way strong enough to keep someone safely in charge! I guess the woman must have done other things to ensure she stays in charge, or perhaps she was just the ¡®face¡¯ in charge and one of the 12 men were actually in control¡­? Oh well¡­ who cares¡­


    I also asked Ariel if there was anyone else other then these people in the room, but she answered no. This was something of a gathering done every night and everyone was always present. She then asked me how she knew about boss-bitch¡¯s ability, but I simply told her ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later¡± and proceeded towards the men¡­


    _______________________


    About 5 hours later I was standing in the middle of a pile of seriously mutilated dead bodies, with the only survivors being the 9 girls, the boss-bitch and the telekinesis guy. I had absorbed some blood from others, especially the people who had elemental manipulations, to improve my own abilities but had kept the telekinesis guy and boss-bitch alive as I wanted a lot of their blood!


    The last few hours had been¡­ interesting. I started off by slowly burning all the men to death, but Ariel and the other girls stopped me from killing them. They then proceeded to torture every single man in a number of different ways. Skinning them, peeling off their flesh, piercing their eyeballs, cutting off their manhoods, cutting off their ears and nose etc etc¡­


    Ariel was the most surprising and the most brutal of them all! Her ability allowed not only her to heal herself, but also allowed her to heal others. She would cut off all four limbs, ask me to burn them alive to the point of where they were almost dead, or cut open their chest in front of their eyes and stick knives straight into their organs¡­ but she would NEVER allow them to die. She would always heal them up if they showed signs of dying or going unconscious.


    She spent almost three hours on boss-bitch alone, though she asked me to control her to make her still so she wouldn¡¯t accidentally touch her and have her ability deleted. I also helped her by controlling knives or blunt objects to cut or hit boss-bitch through telekinesis. Ariel healed her so many times from the brink of death that boss-bitch had gone insane at the end! Apparently she could dish out torture to other girls but couldn¡¯t handle it herself...


    Ariel was disappointed that she lasted only for a few hours, and regretted not going more slowly on her.


    Frankly, it was all very entertaining for me. I got to enjoy seeing these bastards get what they deserved, and I also learned quite a few valuable lessons on how to hurt someone really badly. All in all, I enjoyed the last few hours of helping out the girls while also drinking some blood from some useful ability holders.


    Right now all the girls were lying in a group, exhausted from their ¡®work¡¯, but they all also had a sort of satisfied expression on their faces. They had only spared the telekinesis guy and boss-bitch because I asked them to. Although both of them had also suffered their share of the torture, and were alive only thanks to Ariel¡¯s ability.


    It was quite a shock to see how powerful Ariel¡¯s ability really was. Even after my regeneration had upgraded to ¡®rapid regeneration¡¯, it still took me about 10-15 minutes to regrow a lost hand. I know, I tested it out by cutting my own hand earlier during my travels¡­ But Ariel could regrow other¡¯s limbs in an instant! One second a man would be bleeding to death with all four limbs cut, and the next second he would have all four limbs back! The sight was all the more shocking because the previously cut limbs were still lying around the man¡¯s body¡­ Ariel had actually used this ability to regrow a lot of penises and forced boss-bitch to eat a lot of them in her torture¡­


    Right now though, I was more focused on getting the ability from the telekinesis guy and the boss-bitch. The first thing I did was to drink a lot of blood from the telekinesis guy. The girls were all busy in a corner in their own world, and I was still using hiding presence, so they couldn¡¯t see what I was doing. I kept on drinking his blood from a cut on his neck before I felt him passing out due to blood loss.


    I stopped and immediately forced him to drink a bit of blood from the boss-bitch. I wanted to see if drinking her blood would delete his ability. I wasn¡¯t going to take any chances when there was a possibility of me losing my own ability¡­


    I made him swallow a bit of blood from boss-bitch and waited¡­


    ¡­..


    ¡­..


    ¡­..


    A good 20 minutes had passed by and I had been constantly using my ability identification on the telekinesis guy to see if he lost his abilities or not. After all this time he still showed that he had his ability, which was a relief for me.


    I then tentatively used a knife to cut boss-bitch once again, taking care not to touch her at all, and drank a drop of her blood. I then waited¡­


    Blood absorption unsuccessful. Unique abilities cannot be absorbed.


    WHAT!!!


    Fuck this shit!


    I drank another few drops of boss bitch¡¯s blood but got the same result again! I tried again and again but got the exact same failure message every single time! DAMMIT! I can¡¯t absorb unique abilities?? What¡¯s with this shit! This seriously seriously affects all my plans! I now can¡¯t even absorb Ariel¡¯s abilities¡­? FUCK!


    In my anger, I started to slowly, very slowly, roast both the telekinesis guy and the boss-bitch using fire-manipulation. Their screams made the girls look up, but all they did was make an approving smile.


    I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. Just recently I had learned not to let stupid things like emotions get the better of me...


    Hmmm¡­ let¡¯s think about this. Sure, the fact that I can¡¯t seem to absorb unique abilities seriously hinders my growth potential, but it isn¡¯t all bad. I still have a lot of other abilities I can use to stay strong, and perhaps I could find some sort of creature or animal or plant who had powerful abilities and absorb their blood..? The dragon and the T-rex came to my mind¡­ Dragons make me paralyzed due to some ability of theirs so it would still be a bit too dangerous for me to face them, but perhaps I could absorb a bit of the T-rex¡¯s blood¡­? I know I can¡¯t kill that thing right now, but I could make a small cut and try to get a good ability from the dino if it has a good ability¡­


    ¡°Ummm¡­ mister¡­?¡±


    My thought process was interrupted by the voice of one of the girls. I looked around me once again, ensured that every single guy and the boss-bitch were dead and then finally revealed myself by deactivating my hiding-presence. Apart from Ariel, no one alive in the room had any ability, and Ariel¡¯s ability can¡¯t hurt me so I was no longer in any danger.


    I asked, ¡°yes?¡± while wondering what to do now. Sure, Ariel could be a bit useful with her ability, she could heal me out of some tough spots, but I had just rescued 8 girls who were completely and utterly useless. What do I do with them¡­?


    I could dump them all in some place and leave them be, but that would probably kill them all as they obviously can¡¯t survive on their own. I certainly don¡¯t want to bring them all along with me, neither do I care about them nor do I want all of them slowing me down and potentially putting me in danger. I could dump them all along with some other survivors¡­? But I don¡¯t know if they would want such useless baggage in their group or even if these girls would want to stay with some strangers¡­


    Once again, my thought process was interrupted by the same girl.


    ¡°Umm¡­ If you don¡¯t mind, could you kill us all too..? We don¡¯t want to stay alive any more as we know it will only be a matter of time before we get killed. We aren¡¯t strong enough to kill each other quickly, so we were hoping if you could possibly kill us all in a way that won¡¯t hurt¡­?¡±


    .......


    Well¡­ that certainly simplifies things¡­

 Chapter Twenty Three: A new companion

    Author''s note: Alright folks, sorry for the wait but I''m back now. Thanks for being patient! :)


    I read a few comments last chapter about how he hadn''t tried drinking blood from dead bodies yet, but that isn''t true. He killed ogres, trolls and the abomination before drinking their blood from the dead bodies and he was able to absorb abilities from all of them! I do realize though that I hadn''t made this clear enough so I''m going to go back to the time he killed off his first ogre and emphasize that he can absorb blood from dead bodies too.


    Without further ado, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.


    _____________________________________________


    As I stared at the women in front of me, I could see they really were determined to die. I could only appreciate their decision, as it is the smartest thing to do and more importantly it makes things a lot simpler for me.


    I didn¡¯t want to ask them ¡°are you sure?¡± or something along those lines, as I was afraid that their minds would start working overtime, their hormones would take over and they could very well decide that they wanted to stay alive instead of wanting to die. Then, I would be stuck with them, and who would want that?


    Thus, I simply said, ¡°Alright. Say your goodbyes, this will be over quick.¡± While keeping my face solemn and my voice breaking as if I could start crying at any moment. Obviously, I wasn¡¯t going to cry, but I hadn¡¯t acted in front of anyone for a long time and I missed fooling others with my expressions! Plus, it would be nice for the women to think someone cared for them in their last moments, so it¡¯s a win-win, I think¡­.


    Anyways, I took out my newly acquired sword from my pocket dimension space and readied to kill them. I had taken the sword when I visited Japan as the knives I had been using so far were not really suitable for fighting monsters. I had no idea what the proper name for the sword was, and no idea if it was any good or not, but it did its job and that¡¯s all that matters. It was a simple double-edged straight sword with a simple hilt, nothing special.


    They were all crying and hugging each other and saying their goodbyes, but I didn¡¯t want to give them too long in case someone changed their mind. It takes just one person and then the whole group follows like sheep! I noticed Ariel had quickly said goodbye to everyone and then gone off to sit in a chair by the corner¡­ I ignored her for now and prepared to behead them, as that would be the quickest and least painful death I could think of for them.


    I yelled ¡°It¡¯s time!¡± and without giving anyone a chance to get alarmed I activated super-speed and used all my strength to behead everyone in a split second!


    I stopped after slicing through Ariel¡¯s neck and turned around to see the results.


    Everyone had the same expressions they had before my yell, some were still hugging each other while some were wiping the tears off their eyes. I saw as their heads slid off ever so slowly and dropped to the ground without their faces changing their expressions once. Well, at least I did give them their wish of a quick, painless death. I¡¯m such a nice guy.


    Everyone was dead, so I turned around and made my way towards boss-bitch¡¯s body. I wanted to see if I could absorb her ability now that she was dead. Logic dictates that she is dead which means her unique ability should be up for grabs, let¡¯s hope this is the case...


    I almost reached the body of boss-bitch when I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat from behind me! I immediately used hiding presence and teleported away from the place I was standing in.


    I turned around and saw Ariel still calmly sitting in the chair she was on! I sliced through her neck too didn¡¯t I..? How the hell is she still alive then?!


    .....


    Oh crap! You idiot Ben! Her ability!


    Voicing my thoughts, Ariel said, ¡° Sorry to alarm you. But you should know that it isn¡¯t that easy to kill me. If it were I would have killed myself long ago.¡±


    Her neck must have healed instantly as I couldn¡¯t even see a drop of her blood! How had I missed this! But wait¡­ something doesn¡¯t fit¡­


    I deactivated hiding presence and teleported nearer to her and asked, ¡°So why don¡¯t you just deactivate your ability and then let me kill you? Everyone can turn off their abilities after all.¡± If she wanted to die she should have deactivated her ability and let me kill her. I assumed this to be the case, hence I didn¡¯t think about how she could still be alive. I was actually planning on absorbing her blood later after I was done with boss-bitch¡¯s corpse...


    ¡°Not everyone. As far as I know unique ability holders can¡¯t deactivate their abilities. That bitch over there couldn¡¯t turn her ability off either. Whenever someone touched her they would get their ability deleted immediately whether she wanted to delete their ability or not.¡±


    What?!


    That can¡¯t be true!


    I can easily use all the different abilities and activate and deactivate them as I please. She must be mistaken¡­


    Hmmm¡­


    My ability isn¡¯t using different abilities, but absorbing blood, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯ve never really tried to drink blood but not absorb the ability...Hmmm¡­ I need to confirm this.


    I told Ariel to wait and used hiding presence once again. I moved over to the telekinesis guy and drank a bit of his blood from his burned corpse. I immediately got the prompt from mind-me that I had absorbed the blood. Then, I concentrated on ¡®switching off¡¯ my ability and drank some blood again and waited¡­


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability of telekinesis already present.


    Damn. Didn¡¯t work!


    I concentrated harder and drank more blood, but got the same prompt again and again. Turns out I really can¡¯t turn my ability off! Hmmm¡­


    This must be why the old lady with the ¡®true immortality¡¯ ability was so pissed off! She couldn¡¯t turn off her ability either! But what about the other unique ability holders like the girl with the absolute control ability or the shapeshifting unique ability¡­? How can they live if their abilities are always active¡­? Hmmm¡­


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Oh well, who cares about them. What matters is that I can¡¯t turn off my ability either. The good thing is that it won¡¯t affect my life, at all! The bad thing now is that I have to be careful when I go crazy fighting a bunch of monsters, I can no longer afford to swallow blood unknowingly and end up with a shitty ability.


    Now, back to the matter at hand. I wanted to see if I can absorb unique abilities after their previous ¡®owner¡¯ has died. Boss-bitch¡¯s ability could potentially make it impossible for me to touch someone without taking their ability away, but I¡¯m not too big on touching others anyways so it doesn¡¯t really matter. Plus, if I can absorb it I could delete abilities easily and make fighting the stronger monsters much easier! The pros far outweigh the cons in this case.


    I still didn¡¯t want to touch boss-bitch, so I controlled a syringe taken out from my pocket-dimension and used it to take out some of her blood. I proceeded to drink it and waited¡­


    Blood absorption unsuccessful. Unique abilities cannot be absorbed.


    Dammit! Why doesn¡¯t it work?!


    She is dead! She can¡¯t even use her so called ¡®unique ability¡¯ now! It should work!


    .......


    Alas, no matter how many times I tried it still didn¡¯t work. This is so frustrating!


    Before I could go on a rant I was interrupted by Ariel once again clearing her throat loudly and pointedly. Annoying bitch.


    I sighed, deactivated hiding presence and spoke one word to her, ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if you realize it or not, but we are kind of surrounded by dead bodies on all sides. Could we please leave now?¡±


    Well¡­ she does have a point, I thought as I looked at the pile of body parts, corpses and the blood flowing in the room. The smell was starting to spread too and I didn¡¯t particularly want to stay here either.


    But, it does annoy me how she automatically assumed that I would be taking her with me! Though her ability sure is useful, and it could prove to be helpful in fights against stronger opponents. Okay, let¡¯s take her with me then¡­ Though she should know her place!


    ¡°Sure, we can leave. But, if you want to stay with me I am going to need you to do something for me from time to time.¡±


    She immediately glared at me and snarled rather then asked ¡°What do you want me to do?¡±


    Oh right, she did spend what I assume to be a long time getting used as a sex slave by a number of men so she must have immediately thought I wanted those ¡®favours¡¯ too. I really should have worded the question a bit differently¡­ oh well¡­


    ¡°Calm down. I¡¯m not a bastard like those others. I merely meant that you would need to use your ability if I ever get hurt. You might also need to come with me if I ever decide to fight someone or something, so I can rely on your healing powers. What do you say? Deal?¡±


    She looked surprised for a bit before she calmed down and smiled a little. ¡°Deal. And thank you.¡±


    I simply nodded in answer. I then moved towards her, asked her to give me her hand, which she hesitatingly extended, and I immediately teleported us out of there. I moved to a building close by which I had been to previously and let go of her hand while she looked surprised and looked all around at the changed surroundings.


    ¡°We just teleported. Don¡¯t look so surprised.¡± I said as Ariel still had an alarmed expression on her face.


    It seems I am stuck with her for the time being. I would prefer to be alone but her ability really is useful. But, if she turns out to be an annoying bitch I¡¯ll just dump her ass and move on. I can¡¯t be bothered with babysitting bitches¡­


    ¡°Oh, right... I thought you had simply been moving extremely fast all this time. I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you, what exactly is your ability? You showed a lot of different abilities over at the room, and now you can teleport too! Shouldn¡¯t everyone have just a single ability?¡±


    Hmm¡­ I was expecting this question. Time for her first ''test''¡­


    ¡°My ability is unique. It allows me to use the abilities of others if I drink their blood.¡± I answered seriously while looking straight into her eyes. She looked shocked, so I continued with the planned ''test''...


    I sighed, and turned my expression into a dark one while saying in a low voice, ¡°I know it¡¯s disgusting, but I had to do what I had to do in order to survive.¡± I took another glance at her and saw her expression was softening. Time to make my ¡®exit¡¯. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.¡± I said in a low voice and immediately used hiding presence.


    I concentrated on Ariel¡¯s facial expressions and saw that she was deeply troubled. She was probably thinking that it was stupid of her to ask about my ability, and how I was haunted by the ramifications of my own ability. She then murmured, ¡°Stupid Ariel. You just had to drive away the guy that just saved you from that hellhole!¡±


    I felt I was going to lose it right then and there and immediately teleported to the roof of the building before I started to laugh!


    She simply asked me a basic question, which wasn¡¯t even wrong of her to ask, but me acting like I was troubled with her question led her to believe she did something wrong! She can be manipulated easily! Which means she passed my little ''test'' with flying colours! I really did miss having no one around to manipulate during my time travelling!


    I guess having a new companion isn¡¯t too bad after all, I thought as I wiped the tears of laughter off my face.


    __________________


    P.S. My novel has now crossed 50k words! Woohooo! :D

 Chapter Twenty Four: This new world is so boring!

    After I had finished laughing and composed myself, I teleported back downstairs and saw Ariel still with a troubled expression on her face. Resisting the urge to break out in laughter once again, I stopped her before she could speak and told her to not worry.


    I wanted to know more details about her ability, and as she was feeling guilty about asking about mine this was the perfect opportunity for me to get some answers.


    ¡°So I was wondering, if even beheading can¡¯t kill you, what are the extents of your healing abilities?¡± I asked the question rather bluntly, beating about the bush would take too long and her mindset right now would make it more likely for her to answer straightforward questions.


    ¡°Ummm¡­ honestly I have no idea. I tried a lot of things back there to end it all but nothing seemed to work. I even jumped off the twentieth story and smashed into the ground, but my body healed up immediately after. Then I got attacked by a number of different creatures who started eating me alive, but as soon as they would bite a chunk of flesh off me it would get healed again, so they had a lot of food to go around I guess. The creatures even used all manners of abilities against me, but I got healed back up as soon as something hit me. It hurt like hell. My ability doesn¡¯t stop me from feeling pain after all. The bastards allowed the creatures to feast on me for hours before they finally decided it was time for them to ¡®save¡¯ me. They claimed that it was my punishment for trying to get away, and then they chained me up and gagged me so I wouldn¡¯t do it again.¡±


    ¡­..


    ¡­.


    Wow.


    This¡­. wow¡­.


    I¡¯m speechless.


    I have no idea how she is still sane. A normal person would have lost their mind after all that...


    Wait a minute¡­ A normal person WOULD certainly have lost their mind after that!


    ¡°I really have no words to respond to that. However, I do have one question if you don¡¯t mind, how are you still sane? I mean, anyone else would have lost their mind after going through what you just described and then being gagged and bound on top of it for so long¡­ All the other women had no sense of sanity left as far as I could see. Even when they were saying goodbye to each other it all felt very¡­ weird¡­?¡±


    Good job Ben. Asking her how the hell isn¡¯t she cuckoo yet will certainly make a great impression!


    ¡°Apparently my ability doesn¡¯t even allow me to get insane. It sees insanity as a disease and cures it as soon as it happens. You have no idea how many times I have heard my mind voice inform me that I have been cured of insanity.¡±


    Hmm¡­ Well that explains it. It also explains how she remained so calm all throughout the torture session and how she is so calmly replying to my questions right now too. Though it¡¯s strange she didn¡¯t use her ability to its full potential in that torture session¡­


    ¡°Okay, that explains it. But I do have to ask, if your ability can also cure insanity, why didn¡¯t you use it on that bitch back there when she went insane? You could have cured her and continued on, couldn¡¯t you?¡±


    Her eyes immediately went wide and for a moment she stared blankly at me, then she screamed ¡°FUCK! Why didn¡¯t I think of that!¡± and started mumbling and grumbling about what she should and shouldn¡¯t have done.


    I enjoyed her tantrum for a bit before I stopped her and asked her another question that sprung in my mind.


    ¡°Does your ability also make it so that you think more from your head instead of with emotions like normal people do?¡±


    Bit of a weird question but whatever. I was hoping she would answer yes, so I won¡¯t have to deal with an emotional person. If her ability can cure insanity, then it should also cure the disease that is thinking with your emotions! I also would prefer it if someone who I am going to stay with can make quick decisions with her head instead of taking forever because of conflicting emotions.


    ¡°No, why would it? Emotions are what makes a human, human. There¡¯s no reason why my ability would cure my emotional state.¡±


    Ah crap. The old ¡®emotions are what makes humans, humans¡¯ crap. Give me a break. I thought I would stop hearing this fucking phrase after 90+% of the humans died but nope, it¡¯s still around!


    It was enough talking for one day so I told her that we should probably find a place to crash for the night. It was getting late and the room we were in wasn¡¯t suitable for sleeping.


    20 minutes later we had found two adjacent rooms which were suitable for us and I bid her goodnight and went to lie down on my bed. I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about how it must have felt for Ariel to go through all that shit. I think I should refrain from manipulating her from now on. Poor girl has been through enough!


    ¡­..


    Naah¡­ Manipulating is too fun¡­ I¡¯ll just make sure no other bastards get their hands on her ever again. Yea, that should be good enough¡­ With that decided, I drifted off to sleep.


    ___________________________________


    The next two days passed by with nothing major happening. Ariel was surprisingly good company! She didn¡¯t bother me, she didn¡¯t annoy me with stupid crap like talking about her feelings, she didn¡¯t even talk to me! I was afraid that it was going to be hell for me and I would have to dump her somewhere after her ¡®emotions are what makes us human¡¯ crap earlier but luckily that wasn¡¯t the case.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    I did enjoy her not talking to me, but I did find myself wanting to speak to her from time to time. This came as a shock to me as it completely against my loner mentality! At first I thought it was just because I had been alone for far too long and I had been wanting some company lately, but I soon found out that wasn¡¯t the case.


    The simple reason why I had started to feel lonely during my travels and why I had started to speak to Ariel was boredom. I was utterly bored. It was so boring that I couldn¡¯t even come up with entertaining thoughts to keep me going through the day!


    The boredom came from the fact that there was just nothing for me to do anymore. I had no goals, I had no priorities, I basically had no reason to live! Sounds seriously depressing, but it¡¯s the truth!


    The world before was flawed, yes, but at least there was always something to do. A goal to achieve. You had to study to get a job, you had to get a job to pay for necessities, you then got married and had children and then got busy with your family. Even if I never got bothered to marry and have a family, I would have been busy running a business probably.


    It had always been a bit of a dream of mine to run a business. To be the boss of people, to have no one else to tell me what to do. Also, the aspect of running a business and making money always excited me for some reason. It was also why I had been studying Chartered Accountancy. It certainly wasn¡¯t because I wanted to become an accountant, it was so that I could understand all the numbers and technical aspects of running a business before practically running one myself. I also had jotted down a few ideas on what kind of businesses I could run¡­


    But now, there was nothing to do. I had nothing to achieve. I could continue getting more abilities, but what was the point? What¡¯s the point of getting stronger on a planet filled with monsters? To survive? I can survive fine right now, there aren¡¯t many normal creatures out there who can kill me. Sure, there are things like the T-rex or the dragons, but I can simply stay away from them.


    What do I even have to survive for? I have no family, no one I care about. I can easily drop Ariel off somewhere and then go back to the dragon and let it have me for lunch. No one would care.


    I don¡¯t think this is some sort of depression kicking in, I seriously have nothing to do! I have travelled most of the world, I have taken steps to ensure my survival, now what? It would have been so much more interesting if there had been no monsters, and only humans had been given abilities. That way I could have at least had some interesting things to do from time to time.


    Alright Ben, stop this self pitying crap. It¡¯s just boredom, there must be plenty of stuff to do to get rid of it! Let¡¯s see now¡­


    I could start playing the hero, using my abilities to rescue people in distress and setting up a sort of ¡®community¡¯ or safe haven for them all to stay at¡­. Nope, pass!


    I could go to the university and hang out with my friends. They are all an entertaining bunch, and worst-case scenario they annoy me by being too clingy and I leave. Much better than the first option, but let¡¯s think of something else for now¡­


    I could search for another group of survivors and stay with them if they turn out to be a fun bunch. But I would probably end up being the guy who does everything because of my ability, while the rest of them would just laze about and do nothing¡­


    I could continue hunting monsters for abilities. Maybe give fighting the T-rex a shot now that Ariel can heal me up quickly. But again, no point in getting stronger¡­


    I could get something to kill me. End of story. *sigh*


    Come on Ben! Think of something, or pick one of these options and stick with it! There has to be something to do!


    So far the option to go to the university seems like the best out of the bunch. I¡¯m just not sure though¡­


    I absentmindedly took out the piece of paper where I had listed up all of my abilities and went through the list.


    ¡­.


    Wait!


    There¡¯s one ability I haven¡¯t tried yet!


    I had been postponing it as I wanted to try it out once I was done travelling, and completely forgot all about it! How could I have forgotten something so incredible! This will certainly help me in getting rid of my boredom!


    It¡¯s about damn time I tried my summoning ability!


    __________________________________


    Author''s note: Sorry for another long delay. Real life issues and what not. I also ended up reading a few chapters of Re: monster for the first time because someone had said in a comment how similar my story was to it. I found out that it really is EXTREMELY similar regarding the abilities etc, both MCs even have the same name for their abilities!


    This naturally got me worried and I spent the last 2 days planning out everything from here on out for the story. I haven''t read a lot of Re: monster yet but I do apologize if there are other similarities in the future. That being said, I have planned out about 4-5 arcs which I am very excited about!


    Anyways, let me know of any mistakes. Any feedback is always welcome! Hope you like this chapter.


    P.S. I know nothing much happens this chapter and it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I am writing the next chapter right now so give me some time and I''ll have it uploaded shortly. :)

 Chapter Twenty Five: Welcome to Summoning 101

    Right, my summoning ability.


    So far I have only encountered one creature with this ability. I had been killing off massive brightly coloured snakes somewhere in a forest in Brazil, as they had two abilities I wanted: Poison manipulation and moderate-poison immunity. I already knew that even if one species had multiple abilities, I would get just a single ability from drinking blood from one creature. So, even though all snakes had both abilities, I would sometimes get poison manipulation and sometimes I would get an increase in my poison immunity.


    I had been happily killing snakes left and right deep in the forest and drinking their blood, when I came across a huge brown King Cobra that had three heads! It was most definitely more than 50 feet in length and was wide enough to swallow an elephant easily! It looked like some kind of mini-boss monster that appeared in games. It was like I had walked through the whole ¡®snake zone¡¯ and ended up at the ¡®boss snake¡¯ at the deepest part of the zone. Sometimes this whole world feels a lot similar to a game¡­


    I checked out the snake for abilities and found out that apart from poison manipulation and moderate poison immunity it also had a third ability: Summoning! I got extremely excited and killed it off quickly. It wasn¡¯t hard, I simply kept hiding presence active, used elemental control to come up with numerous earth spikes, fireballs, water balls and wind blades and struck it. Earth spikes did the most damage, so I continued using earth spikes and even added ice spikes to the mix. It didn¡¯t even get a chance of using its summoning ability before I killed it. Too boring.


    I knew I could only get one ability from the snake, so I activated my luck ability and wished to get the summoning ability before drinking as much blood as possible from the huge king cobra. I¡¯m still not sure if it was my luck ability or it was simple chance but I ended up getting the message from mind-me that I desired!


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Summoning. You will now be able to summon one creature. Drinking more blood from creatures with this ability will enable you to summon more creatures at a time. Be warned, summoned creatures could be hostile towards you!


    I was overjoyed at getting the ability, but the ominous warning was the reason I ended up postponing trying out the ability. I didn¡¯t want to summon something that could turn on me in an area already infested with monsters! Thus, I decided to wait until I reached a safe area before summoning something. I chose to go to Mount Everest next on my travels and facing the dragon made me forget all about the ability until now!


    I was at my room where I had been staying the past two days, and it was obviously not a place for me to summon something. I teleported to the roof of the building and looked around. The roof was devoid of anything, and any aerial creatures were few and far between in the surrounding area. I scanned the aerial creatures for their abilities but thankfully none of them had anything powerful that could prove to be troublesome.


    The sun was shining, the sky was clear and I had an empty roof, perfect time and place to summon something!


    Even though this ability excited me, I was still a bit hesitant in using it. I had no idea how it worked! Did the ability summon something randomly, or did it summon a creature I was thinking about? How powerful a creature could I end up summoning? Do I really want a powerful creature that could turn hostile and end up killing me, or would a weak creature that won¡¯t be of much help be better as it was safer? What kind of creature would I summon? What species? Would I be able to ¡®unsummon¡¯ it as I wish or would the creature summoned stay with me permanently?


    So many questions! Why can¡¯t I get some sort of a help menu?!


    *Sigh* Let¡¯s just do this...


    I don¡¯t know if thinking about a kind of creature will affect summoning in any way or not, but I think I¡¯ll try and keep my mind blank just in case. A random summoning would be so much more exciting!


    I cleared my mind the best I could and activated my summoning ability! As soon as I activated it I immediately teleported a fair distance away and used hiding presence, I didn¡¯t want to take any chances with summoning something hostile that could harm me!


    I looked carefully at the roof but couldn¡¯t find anything¡­ Did the summoning fail¡­?


    I flew a bit closer to the roof and used all my vision abilities, but still couldn¡¯t spot a thing. Strange.


    I deactivated summoning and activated it once again, but still there was nothing! I looked all around as carefully as I could but there was nothing as far as I could see. Did the summoning only work in a specific location¡­? Or did it work only on a specific time of the day¡­? Hmmm¡­


    This is getting frustrating! I am so tired of absolutely no information at all! In my frustration, I ended up repeatedly activating and deactivating summoning countless times to see if something would happen before¡­


    ¡°Can you fucking stop that already! It¡¯s making my head hurt!¡±


    Huh¡­? Who said that!


    I looked all around me but couldn¡¯t spot anything at all. Could it be someone using hiding presence like me? But wait¡­ the voice was inside my head, like mind-me, only this voice sounded a bit childish. Telepathy¡­?


    ¡°Over here in the shadows you dumb fuck.¡±


    Well, this is getting a bit rude. And annoying.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked, throwing my voice as I was still on guard.


    ¡°You have to name me idiot. You are the one who summoned me after all! Damn, why did I have to get stuck with a stupid-ass pansy like you!¡± Replied the voice.


    Well, it appears as if the summoning was successful in summoning an asshole. Though I still don¡¯t know where this asshole is.


    ¡°Where are you?¡± I was still being cordial as I wasn¡¯t sure how strong this ¡®thing¡¯ was and if it could harm me or not.


    ¡°I told you already didn¡¯t I? Don¡¯t tell me you have short term memory problems on top of being a world-class idiot? Fuck me! I¡¯m in the shadows on the roof dumbass!¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Okay, seriously, what¡¯s with this shitty attitude?! Is this what the warning about summoned creatures being hostile meant? Fucking hell!


    I took a deep breath and swallowed my anger. I still had no idea on how strong this thing was so I had to remain calm for now. I flew to the roof still with hiding presence active and searched through the shadows as the voice said. At first I was unable to see anything but I soon spotted an irregularity¡­


    It looked¡­ like a blob¡­? A small, spherical, gray¡­ something¡­ was hovering two inches off the rooftop staying in the shadows. It barely had a diameter of 4 inches, and that¡¯s it. It was a 4 inch gray ball.


    Is this the thing I summoned? This ball is the one who has been pissing me off?! Still, it could be an illusion of some sort¡­ Stay polite for now Ben¡­


    ¡°Is that you? The small, round¡­ thingie¡­?¡± I asked.


    ¡°A round of applause for the dimwit for finally figuring out where I am!¡±


    Damn this thing is annoying! I conjured up a small half-inch fireball and flung it towards ¡®Gray¡¯, and was extremely pleased to hear his painful screams.


    I let out a satisfied sigh and spoke, ¡°There¡¯s plenty more where that came from. Speak to me politely or it won¡¯t end well for you.¡± I was still using hiding presence and I was still throwing my voice, but I don¡¯t think a 4 inch ball can do anything to me anyways. I even scanned it using ability identifier but it had no abilities at all!


    A few seconds passed by but there were no words from ¡®Gray¡¯. I took its silence in a positive light and decided to get moving with the conversation.


    ¡°So, now that we have speaking manners out of the way, could I know what the hell exactly you are supposed to be? All I can see is a small ball!¡±


    ¡°I am a shadow elemental.¡± This time, the voice sounded a lot meeker than before. Good.


    ¡°Elaborate please.¡± I think I know what it means by being a shadow elemental, but let¡¯s just confirm my theories.


    ¡°Summoners can summon beings from the elemental world or the spiritual world usually. I am from the elemental world. I am a newborn shadow elemental. I can travel through the shadows during the day or move anywhere during the night, but any form of light harms me, so please no more fire attacks! Fire releases light too you know! It¡¯s fucking painful!¡±


    ¡°Language!¡± I said.


    ¡°Sorry¡­¡± Gray replied. I was enjoying it much more now that the conversation was flowing on my terms.


    So, this thing is an elemental. Neat! Though it is seriously weak looking, and it is basically useless in any place with light, but it is a newborn so hopefully it can grow stronger¡­ Though it has a serious mouth for being a newborn!


    I asked it a series of questions and I learned quite a few important things.


    Summoned creatures get ¡®downloaded¡¯ with the language and a bit of knowledge about the world that they are summoned in, which explains how Gray knew English. Though I still have no idea how he learned that way of speaking...


    More importantly, the ¡®elemental world¡¯ where it comes from has all sorts of elementals present, fire elementals, water elementals, air, earth, lightning, ice, light, dark etc. Gray here is a sort of sub-species of the dark elementals called a shadow elemental.


    Shadow elementals are basically most useful in recon missions or for surprise attacks. I can do plenty of surprise attacks with my hiding presence but recon is something quite useful for me. If I had Gray here when I was travelling I could have sent it ahead and avoided those confrontations with the T-rex or the dragon. Hell, if I had him earlier I could have done a lot of information gathering on those underground abominations too!


    However, the most exciting piece of information I got was regarding our ¡®bond¡¯. Apparently we had some kind of bond that comes from summoning, which allows us to communicate telepathically and it also allows one other pretty exciting thing!


    ¡°This bond also allows us to share abilities with each other. I have no ability right now so I can¡¯t share anything with you, but you can share whatever you want with me. Right now I can only use one shared ability at a time, but as I grow that number will increase. This is only available because I belong to the Dark elementals. Each elemental species has their own special ¡®bond-ability¡¯, like fire elementals grant you more attack power, earth elementals give you an increase in defense, light elementals increase your regeneration etc. Dark elementals have the bond-ability that allows us to share abilities with our summoners.¡±


    It was pretty strange for something ¡®dark¡¯ giving the ability to share things, but that¡¯s beside the point. The fact of the matter is that this little gray ball here went from being a nuisance to being extremely useful in a matter of seconds! I could already see so many uses of this little shadow if I could share my abilities with it!


    ¡°Me and you are going to have a lot of fun, Gray!¡± I told him with a big grin!


    ________________________


    Author''s note: So, what do you think? No OP legendary creature summoned that can tear worlds apart. I kept it simple, it''s his first summoning! Anyways, more information on summoning will keep on coming as the story progresses.


    As always, any feedback is always welcome. That being said, I will reply to any comments on this post or the comments in the previous chapter in the morning, as I am so sleepy it''s not even funny!


    Thanks a lot for reading! :)


    P.S. 25 chapters done. Could I once again shamelessly ask for reviews? :P I really would like to get some advance reviews to see where I am lacking, so far there''s only one and I have been trying to improve on the faults that the review pointed out. I would like more people to let me know what they think and where I lack so I can improve on it. Thanks!

 Interlude

    (Third person¡¯s perspective)


    In an undisclosed location, a large abandoned warehouse is currently been used as a sort of meeting room for a group of 30 or so people. They have even set up a large, round wooden table with chairs all around complete with refreshments in case anyone gets hungry or thirsty.


    On looks alone, no one will be able to spot any unifying factor between all these people. Both males and females present range from teenagers to the elderly and they look to be from all around the world. Their skins range from the palest of white to the darkest black, with everything in between being represented by one person or more. European, Asian, Caucasian, African¡­ It seems like an international conference of some sort.


    Though there may be nothing in common in their looks, they do have a very important thing in common that was the factor in all of them being gathered in one place. They all possess powerful unique abilities!


    ¡°Alright, now that everyone is here, we can officially begin the first ever meeting of our council!¡± Said a burly looking bald guy who looked like he had more muscles then he had hair.


    Everyone looked excited and nervous at the same time as they anticipated the start of their first ever meeting.


    ¡°Ahem¡­ My name is Anna, and I have been elected as the chief of this council for some reason I don¡¯t understand¡­¡± Said an elderly looking woman with a dissatisfied expression.


    ¡°You have true immortality! And you are the one with the most life experience, obviously you had to be the chief!¡± exclaimed an Indian girl as everyone else around the table agreed.


    ¡°Whatever.¡± Continued Anna. ¡°We are all here today to think of ways to better the lives of people from all around the world. Thanks to Amir¡¯s ¡®Unrestricted Teleportation¡¯ unique ability,¡± She paused and pointed to an Arab guy with long, shoulder length hair and a broad jawline, ¡°we have been able to gather more than a thousand people so far from all around the world! Using our abilities, we can help them all and protect them for the survival of the human race!¡±


    Cheers and applause erupted from all around as everyone was happy with the progress made so far.


    ¡°It has been less than a month since we started this project to search for survivors and bring them all here, and so far it has been going quite well indeed!¡± Anna said with a small smile. ¡°Now, let¡¯s move on to important stuff. With the addition of Daniel and his ¡®Detailed Search¡¯ ability, this process will be able to be sped up by leaps and bounds!¡±


    Another round of polite applause as Daniel, an African-American young man with curly hair and black eyes that looked to be around 20 years of age stood up and bowed politely.


    ¡°So, Daniel, could you explain your ability once again so that those who aren¡¯t aware of it yet could understand it better?¡± Asked Anna.


    ¡°Of course Ma¡¯am.¡± Daniel spoke with a surprisingly deep voice. ¡°My ability allows me to search for anything basically. I set up a sort of search base and the results spring up with whatever I have searched, including ability holders. So, if I ¡®search¡¯ for humans with unique abilities in a let¡¯s say 50-mile radius, then the exact real-time locations of all the humans in that area with unique abilities will be revealed to me. I can then sort of ¡®select¡¯ a particular ability and extensive details about said ability will be then revealed to me as well.¡±


    Everyone nodded in understanding and though there were a few questions, Daniel answered them all swiftly to get rid of any confusions. After the Q/A session ended, Anna started speaking again.


    ¡°As you can all imagine, we can use this ability to pinpoint locations for unique ability holders that could be our allies, or we can use it to search for survivors by just setting the ¡®search parameters¡¯ to simply ¡®humans¡¯, or we can even use it to detect if any creature with a strong enough ability is coming closer to us so we can be prepared for attacks. The possibilities are endless and we all thank Daniel once again to agreeing with our offer of joining the Council. Now, Daniel, anything particular catch your interest?¡±


    Everyone leaned a bit forward as they paid attention to Daniel once again.


    ¡°As a matter of fact, I found two unique ability holders when I searched in a 500-mile radius earlier that caught my attention. Both of these have the potential to be our greatest allies or our most fearsome foes. Their unique abilities give them the potential of becoming much more powerful than all us combined!¡±


    Some people around the table looked shocked and fearful while some just looked at Daniel as if he were crazy. The burly man in particular looked at Daniel as if he had lost his mind, and spoke up with a sneer, ¡°Oh come on. You think someone can become powerful enough to defeat me with my invincibility? Give me a break!¡± he finished with a hearty laugh as some of the people around joined in.


    Daniel scowled but remained calm as he continued, ¡°As I was saying, these two really are extremely powerful. One of them has the ability called ¡®Steal¡¯, while the other has the ability called ¡®Absorption¡¯. I¡¯ll explain how these two abilities work so you guys know just how serious of an asset or a threat they can become.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    As the name suggests, ¡®Steal¡¯ gives the ability holder the power to steal other¡¯s abilities and use it as his own. He can steal as many abilities as he likes as there is no limit, though he can only ¡®steal¡¯ abilities from humans and no other living thing, and on top of that the person whose ability has been ¡®stolen¡¯ actually loses his/her ability! And as I ¡®searched¡¯ for more details, I found out that he can even steal unique abilities!¡±


    This time when Daniel finished everyone looked around in alarm and they had tense expressions on their faces. Although before anyone could interrupt Daniel continued on¡­


    ¡°The next guy is similar, but in some ways his ability is better while in others his ability is seriously disturbing. His ability, ¡®Absorption¡¯, works pretty similarly to ¡®Steal¡¯ as it also allows him to ¡®absorb¡¯ abilities from others and use as many of them as he likes, however the plus points are that the person whose ability has been ¡®absorbed¡¯ doesn¡¯t lose their ability and he can¡¯t absorb unique abilities.¡± A lot of sighs of relief went around at this revelation.


    ¡°That being said, he can actually absorb abilities from all living things, whether it be animals, monsters, plants or humans, which gives him a broader range of abilities to choose from.  The disturbing thing though is how he ¡®absorbs¡¯ these abilities. While ¡®Steal¡¯ merely needs the person to touch the other person in order to steal their ability, ¡®Absorption¡¯ requires the person to actually drink blood in order to absorb the ability!¡± Daniel finished with a disgusted look.


    Everyone immediately started speaking and voicing out their thoughts. Some were of the opinion that ¡®Steal¡¯ is a much more powerful and dangerous ability while others thought that ¡®Absorption¡¯ got the edge as it wasn¡¯t restricted in terms of living things whose abilities could be absorbed. Some just couldn''t get over the fact that there was actually someone out there drinking human blood! The discussions heated up before Anna stood up and spoke loudly once again.


    ¡°Calm down everyone. Don¡¯t get so alarmed! Remember, these two are humans, so no matter how dangerous or disturbing their abilities are, they could very well end up being our allies! Even the ¡®Steal¡¯ guy! We have all found out how disgusting some humans have turned out to be now that there are no laws anymore, and he could be used to steal away their abilities as punishment! There are many unknown questions for now and we should wait and confirm things before jumping to conclusions.¡± She glared at everyone present as they all quietened down.


    ¡°I actually also was able to get a list of all abilities these two have ¡®stolen¡¯ or ¡®absorbed¡¯ so far, and I have listed them all down for you guys to have a look at. We can look through the list to plan what to do next.¡± Daniel spoke up while handing two pieces of paper to Anna.


    Anna passed around the two lists as everyone started discussing and planning on what to do about these two powerful unique ability holders. Some wanted to follow them around to see what they were like first, some wanted to meet them in person to see how they were like while some simply thought that it would be best to kill the both of them and be done.


    The revelation from Daniel that there was another unique ability holder with the ability of ''Absolute Healing'' in close proximity to the ''absorption'' guy made everyone decide that the ''absorption'' guy should be dealt with first, as the Council was lacking a person with a powerful healing ability.


    As to what they meant by ''dealing with the absorption guy'', only time will tell...


    ________________________________


    Author''s note: A small interlude that sets up the stage for things to come. What do you guys think?


    I already expect questions about how come ''Steal'' allows the person to get unique abilities but the MC can''t get unique abilities. Don''t worry, all things shall be explained in due time. :P Give me a few chapters to explain how this all works, so if anyone asks question about this subject I won''t be able to answer them right now as that could spoil a bit of the plot.


    Think of Daniel''s ability as the ''Advanced Search'' option in Google I guess, basically he can search for anything and get all details related to whatever he searched. So he would be able to know more about an ability than even the ability holder! Feel free to ask questions about his ability, I don''t know if I did a well enough job of explaining it.


    OH!! I just got a 0.5 star review a few minutes ago. I know reviews are subjective so I don''t really mind if anyone gives me such a low score, but I would appreciate it if the person voting could reveal to me what he/she didn''t like about the story so that I could improve on it. If you don''t want to reveal it in comments or in the review section, feel free to PM me. Thanks!


    And thank you very much to all of you for reading! :)


    (Will answer to your comments on the last two chapters now...Give me a few minutes)

 Chapter Twenty Six: The pros and cons of the idiot I summoned

    The second ability I tried to share with Gray was my own unique ability.


    I shared invisibility first to learn how it works. Invisibility was completely useless to me because I had hiding presence, so it made for the perfect experimental tool for me. I wanted to know if I would still be able to use the ¡®shared¡¯ ability while I was ¡®sharing¡¯ them with Gray, and also I wanted to see if I could stop sharing them whenever I wanted to. Both questions were answered in the affirmative so I moved on to sharing ¡®absorption¡¯ next.


    I wasn¡¯t sure if unique abilities could be shared, but I really hoped that they could! If I could share mine it would get me a powerful ally and who knows, maybe the rules are different for an elemental and he could absorb unique abilities too! I ¡®shared¡¯ my ability with Gray and waited with bathed breath¡­


    Ability sharing successful. Current ability being shared: Absorption.


    YES!


    It worked! This opens up so many possibilities! My face lit up with a huge smile as I thought of all things I could do now with delight. First thing I asked Gray was if he only got ¡®absorption¡¯ or if he got all the abilities that I had already absorbed, he answered that he only got absorption which was a bit disheartening but no worries, I can still get him to drink blood on my behalf and do...


    ¡°Yeaaaaa¡­.. Sorry to burst your happy bubble there but this won¡¯t work.¡± Gray said, interrupting my joy. Bastard.


    ¡°What do you mean? I already got the confirmation that the sharing worked.¡±


    ¡°Oh, why am I stuck with such an idiot. Someone save this poor soul and heal his stupidity!¡± Hmm¡­ how big of a fireball should I throw at him this time¡­?


    ¡°Have you taken a look at me? Do I have a mouth? Do I have a corporeal form even? I am a shadow! The most I can do is condense my body enough that I appear like a ball, that¡¯s it! Just how do you expect me to drink blood when I don¡¯t have any way of ACTUALLY DRINKING BLOOD???¡±


    ¡­..


    The 2-inch fireball I had summoned to hit his ass with flickered away and died down as I thought about his words. If this doesn¡¯t work then it would ruin all the things I had planned to get rid of my boredom!


    Time to test things out.


    I teleported both Gray and myself down to the road while I activated hiding presence and I picked out the nearest living thing to test on. The creature I picked was a deceptively cute and cuddly small bear-type creature which had a height of 2 feet and had soft, light brown fur covering it. It also looked like it always had a smile on its face. For all intents and purposes it looked like a teddy bear, but the deception was that this little fucker lured you in and then opened its mouth to bite anything in sight with its sharp pointy teeth! Its mouth opened up too much to be considered normal, it even had ¡®enlarged mouth¡¯ as an ability!


    Anyways, ignoring the cute appearance of little teddy, I ripped apart its head and then proceeded to drag its headless corpse to where Gray was lurking around in the shadows away from the sunlight. I controlled Gray through telekinesis and dipped the ball straight into the hole where Teddy¡¯s head was previously situated. Needless to say Gray complained, a lot.


    Ignoring all the profane language coming out of my newborn summoned elemental¡¯s mouth, I waited till Gray got away from the headless corpse and impatiently asked, ¡°Well, did it work?¡±


    ¡°NO YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE IT DIDN¡¯T WORK! WHAT KIND OF A SICK BASTARD¡­.¡±


    I used my ¡®True Sight¡¯ ability on him to see if he was telling the truth or not, it showed that he was actually speaking truthfully so I unsummoned him to make him disappear. I couldn¡¯t be bothered dealing with him right now. It was extremely disappointing that my idiotic summon was useless! Maybe I should kill him and see if I can summon some other dark elemental that could actually drink blood¡­?


    Killing him is one option but even if I did kill him it¡¯s not a guarantee that I would summon another ¡®dark¡¯ elemental. Even if I did manage to summon another ¡®dark¡¯ elemental that I could share my ability with, there is still the chance that it could once again end up being a ghost or a shadow or something without a corporeal body with which to swallow blood. Dammit, this sucks!


    Let¡¯s think Ben¡­


    ¡­.


    Oooh! That could work!


    I summoned Gray again and ignoring his comments once again I stopped sharing my absorption ability and shared my summoning ability. I could share this ability with him and he could summon something else and if the thing he has summoned is once again a dark elemental then it could summon something else and so on and so forth¡­ hehehehe


    Ability sharing unsuccessful. Summoning ability cannot be shared.


    FUUUCCKKK!!


    Gray was just laughing at this point and calling me stupid that I even thought that this would work! I of course threw a fireball at him but he disappeared! He turned completely into a shadow and I couldn¡¯t find him anywhere at all no matter how hard I looked. Even using my vision abilities didn¡¯t work!


    It was impressive. It would have been much more impressive if Gray didn¡¯t keep on taunting me¡­ I unsummoned him so I could think in peace once again.


    Right, so there goes plan A and plan B. Absorption can¡¯t be shared right now, I¡¯m hoping that he will be able to turn solid once he grows more powerful so that he could drink blood. Until then, I¡¯ll have to think of something else.


    His own innate ability to turn into a shadow is pretty useful though. I couldn¡¯t spot where the little guy was no matter what I tried! I guess what he said earlier about shadow elementals being mainly used for recon work was true. Maybe I could try using him for some recon as well¡­?


    Hmmm¡­..


    Not a bad idea!


    ______________________________


    Me and Gray were currently hovering over the ruined ¡®abomination city¡¯. It was night time right now as I had waited until Gray was able to move freely about before teleporting here.


    I had been wanting to kill off these things before, but I thought I would travel and get stronger first before taking them all on and then I got immensely bored and ¡®revenge¡¯ against an entire species of monsters just seemed like too much work.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    It couldn¡¯t even be called revenge could it? I killed one of their own and all they did was retaliate¡­


    Whatever¡­


    I had always been curious about their ¡®underground system¡¯ and how it all worked but I really didn¡¯t want to risk my life by going underground into a den full of monsters just to explore. Which is why sending Gray was the smarter choice!


    I was currently sharing my ¡®ability identification¡¯ ability with Gray, I wanted to see just how many abilities these abominations had.


    Convincing Gray to go was surprisingly easy. He was actually excited about going on his first recon mission. Though I did ¡®forget¡¯ to mention that the monsters down below could also manipulate fire¡­


    I had instructed Gray to go as deep as possible and to identify abilities of any new monster he came across. Truth be told I could easily control one abomination through telekinesis and check out its abilities, but why would I do that when I have such a good summoned elemental to do it for me without me getting in harm''s way? So, I sent the little ball underground through a sewer and waited.


    ¡°Wow! These things are hideous!¡± Gray¡¯s voice came to me in my mind. Our summoner¡¯s bond allowed us to communicate through telepathy.


    ¡°Check out their abilities Gray, not their looks!¡±


    ¡°Yeah yeah¡­ So these ugly things have elemental control, hardened skin, unity and precision.¡±


    Four abilities huh? Elemental control I was already aware of, hardened skin I had some idea as it took me a long time indeed to break the skin of the abomination I fought all that time ago. Precision I guess is something that made it possible for them to be so scarily accurate with all their elemental attacks, but what¡¯s this unity ability?


    ¡°Tell me the details of the Unity ability Gray.¡±


    ¡°Well, it says: Ability allows target to be united in every sense of the word with their own kind. Target and others of the same species with this ability think of each other as family and move as one when they find out one of their own is in trouble.¡±


    ......


    Such a friggin troublesome ability! This must be the reason why they all came up when I killed one of these assholes. This ability doesn¡¯t even have a purpose apart from making it super-annoying to kill them! I will have to figure some way to fight smartly against them. It will have to be done in such a way that quickly and efficiently removes all traces of their bodies¡­


    I asked Gray to continue on down the tunnels but after about an hour of him describing seeing nothing but dark tunnels full of the same abominations we both got tired and decided to call it quits.


    I was still fuming over the annoying ¡®unity¡¯ ability when something came to my mind! Two seriously strong monsters which I still have no hopes of winning against are the T-rex and the ice dragon! I could use Gray to scope out their abilities too! I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to fight against them anytime soon but it will certainly be interesting to see what those strong existences are packing!


    I will have to teleport Gray there myself, as even if I share my teleportation ability it won¡¯t work as he won¡¯t be able to teleport there. Gray has never been to either London where the T-rex is or to Mount Everest where the dragon is, so the teleportation obviously won¡¯t work. I guess I¡¯ll simply teleport there with Gray and immediately teleport back here to safety, it shouldn¡¯t be much of a problem.


    Let¡¯s see, London first or Mount Everest?


    ¡­..


    I think Mount Everest! A dragon¡¯s abilities will be much more exciting than a dinosaur¡¯s!


    I unsummoned Gray and summoned him back again, so he ended up beside me instead of being God knows where in the network of underground tunnels. I told him we were going to another place and without waiting for a response I immediately readied myself to teleport to the top of Mount Everest. I took out some warm clothes from my pocket dimension first and put them on before I teleported with Gray.


    Immediately icy cold winds attacked my body even with all the extra clothes I was wearing! I didn''t even wait for more than a second before I left Gray and teleported back to where I came from¡­ or I tried to¡­ it wasn¡¯t working! I tried to teleport once again but it still didn¡¯t work! What¡¯s going on?!?


    Suddenly ice started creeping up over my feet and started covering my whole body! I found that I couldn¡¯t even move a single muscle! I couldn¡¯t be frozen so soon! I activated my heat and cold resistance ability to see if it helps but I didn¡¯t feel any different at all!


    I tried using fire manipulation to make a fire but it didn¡¯t work either! I tried using a number of different abilities but nothing worked! None of my abilities were working! What¡¯s going on!


    I could only move around my eyes, and as I looked around everywhere a sight to my immediate right side made me feel true fear! Fear as I have never felt before!


    ¡°Welcome back, human. How nice of you to drop by again! You know, you are the only human to ever see me and then escape alive? That¡¯s not very nice now is it! What would anyone say when they find out I let a human escape unscratched?? I actually was going to come hunt you down when the weather of this planet turned more favourable for me to save my dignity but I¡¯m so glad you came by to visit all by yourself!¡±


    I felt despair down to my very soul as I stared into the huge blue eyes of the ice dragon sitting calmly on my right side¡­


    ________________________________


    Author''s note: If you have concerns, feel free to comment. If anyone is wondering where Ariel has disappeared off to don''t worry, I will develop her character more and she will actually start having a more important role rather than being just ''there''.


    What am I doing?? I introduced some OP unique abilities last chapter and now all of a sudden an ice dragon captures the MC?! It''s not random, it''s all planned, you''ll see.


    Thanks for all the reviews/ratings recently! You guys are the best! :)


    Hope you like the chapter, sorry for the cliffhanger!

 Chapter Twenty Seven: Fiora, the Ice Dragon!

    ¡°I¡¯m Fiora, strongest ice dragon around. How do I know I¡¯m the strongest ice dragon? I killed all the rest, hehe¡­¡±


    ¡­..


    ¡°Oh, my bad. I forgot the effect dragons have on weaker creatures, silly me!¡±


    Suddenly I felt as if the immense pressure I had been feeling disappeared. I had been unable to even think due to the crippling fear I was feeling, but now I could at least use my mind again. Though I have no idea what to even think about¡­


    ¡°Now now, this is rude. I introduced myself and even made you relax, and yet you still haven¡¯t even given me your name yet! I guess I should just kill you and be done with it¡­¡±


    ¡°No! Don¡¯t¡­ I mean, my name is Ben, I¡¯m a human¡­ that¡¯s it I guess. Pleasure to meet you¡­?¡± I honestly had no idea what to do, none of my abilities seemed to be working and I was having a conversation with a mighty dragon of all things!


    ¡°Now that wasn¡¯t too difficult was it? Ben huh¡­ and the pleasure is all mine.¡±


    The dragon made a bow as she greeted me. She was definitely toying with me and mocking me, but what could I do about it? My mind was racing with how I could escape from here but I could see no way out. My only choice for now was to keep speaking to her, maybe I could delay the conversation enough for me to get an idea? Or maybe I could distract her with my words long enough that she stopped using whatever it is she was using to keep me from using my abilities¡­?


    The dragon raised her head once again and I became mesmerized by the majestic and terrifying sight in front of me. Previously when I saw her all those weeks ago she had been some distance away but now that I was up close I could see every individual detail about her.


    She towered above me, at this close a range it was impossible for me to accurately say how large she was. Her face was a good 20 feet up in the air and this wasn¡¯t even close to being her full height, as she was laying down on the ground currently. Her body was covered with light, icy blue scales that honestly looked quite beautiful as they shone under the moonlight. I remember thinking that her body was made out of crystals before, but I guess it just looked that way when the scales were reflecting the sunlight.


    Her face looked extremely fierce, with a long jaw filled with teeth much larger than me which looked like they could instantly shred me to pieces with the smallest bite. Her nostrils were actually large enough that I could fit comfortably inside, and her whole face spanned a good 30 feet or so! Just her face was 30 feet long, just how large is this dragon!


    As I looked into the massive blue eyes of hers, I could only see indifference and a hint of amusement in them as they stared down at the small fry that had been foolish enough to intentionally come to her home. I had to say I agreed with her, why did I think it was a smart choice to come here?!?


    ¡°So tell me Ben, what brings you to my mountain?¡±


    Her voice was really fierce and loud, but also contained a bit of femininity to it. It was actually the only reason why I even knew the dragon was a female. That and her name I guess...


    Now, how do I answer this? I would like to come up with some sort of a story but I¡¯m afraid she might be able to spot it if I lie. I guess it¡¯s best to stick with the truth¡­


    ¡°I was extremely bored and thought it would be fun to come here and see what kind of abilities you have. I was just curious to see how powerful you were¡­¡±


    The dragon stared at me as if this was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. I have to admit, it sounds extremely stupid to me too. What kind of an idiot would think to get rid of his boredom by going near a DRAGON?!?


    The dragon was still staring at me, and as the seconds ticked by I started to get afraid once again thinking she might just end me right here and now. Though the next second she actually started laughing! Her loud laughter seemed to fill up the entire mountain top as it caused snow to fall and ice to crack! I wanted to cover up my ears but I still couldn''t move anything except my eyes and my mouth, so I had to stand there and endure the laughter ringing in my ears.


    It took a couple of minutes for her to stop laughing.


    ¡°I must say I haven''t laughed like that for a long time. I thought you were just being a smart-ass at first but you were actually speaking the truth!¡±


    Oh, so she does have an ability to see if I¡¯m speaking the truth or not, good thing I didn¡¯t lie¡­


    ¡°I have to say though, any other human I have come across either piss in their pants at the sight of me or when I speak to them, or they stammer like fools while speaking to me. Most of them actually pass out¡­ But you seem to be speaking quite normally to me, how?¡±


    She suddenly fixed me with a sort of piercing stare and the pressure started to grow around me once again! I barely managed to croak out ¡°I actually have no idea¡­¡± before the pressure eased up again and I breathed easily once again.


    I really did have no idea how I was so calm. There was a huge dragon in front of me who had said she was going to kill me, and I was completely helpless in front of her, and yet I was speaking quite normally..? Weird. I have no idea how or why I am so calm¡­


    ¡°Let me see here¡­.¡±


    Suddenly my head felt as if it had split apart as I felt the most unimaginable pain possible throughout my head! It felt like someone was repeatedly bashing my head in with something as the pain kept growing stronger and stronger¡­.


    ¡­¡­


    ¡­¡­


    I opened my eyes to find the dragon glaring at me with such a stare I felt my time had come. It seemed as if I had passed out from the pain as I was now lying on the ground. I tried to get up and to my surprise I found out I could move my muscles again! I immediately tried teleporting out but it didn¡¯t work¡­ abilities were still not working I guess¡­


    ¡°Now, human, explain to me in detail about your ability. Leave nothing out. Know that your life depends on the answer you give.¡±


    This time Fiora spoke with a snarl as her voice sent out a shock-wave that made me fall over on my ass once again! What is she talking about? Why the sudden hostility?


    Never mind that Ben, just answer her damn question!


    I explained how I had a unique ability that allowed me to absorb abilities by drinking blood. I let her know everything from start to finish about how I had discovered it and all the pros and cons of the ability, including the fact that I couldn¡¯t absorb unique abilities from other humans.


    After I had done explaining I waited with bathed breath as Fiora kept staring at me with her piercing glare. I was desperately trying to teleport again and again but it just wasn¡¯t working at all!


    ¡°Change of plans human, I¡¯m not going to kill you. Instead you are going to do something for me.¡±


    Huh¡­? She isn¡¯t going to kill me? Whew¡­ I don¡¯t care what she wants me to do I¡¯ll do it as long as I can get the fuck out of here!


    ¡°Thank you so much. What is it that you want me to do? I¡¯ll do anything!¡±


    ¡°Good. I want you to kill someone for me. It¡¯s a dragon. It is about 10 times as strong as me, so I obviously can¡¯t kill him. So I want your help.¡±


    ¡­..


    Ummm¡­.


    What?


    ¡°Did you just say you want me to kill something which is 10 times stronger than you are¡­?¡± I obviously misheard this¡­


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡­.


    Apparently not.


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    How is it even possible for me to kill a dragon?! And on top of that a dragon so much more powerful than the massive dragon currently in front of me!


    ¡°I see you are panicking, calm down. First of all I know you can¡¯t defeat him right now, heck even if I disabled my ¡®domain control¡¯ ability right now to give you back all your powers you still won¡¯t even be able to put a scratch on me. Which is why I don¡¯t want you to go hunt him right now, but later when you get stronger.


    As to why I need you, it¡¯s simple, because of your ability. Do you realize how much potential you have? You foolishly think you can¡¯t absorb unique abilities from humans, yet you do not realize that these so called ¡®unique¡¯ abilities are only ¡®unique¡¯ to humans! Your own so called ¡®unique¡¯ ability isn¡¯t as unique as you think it is, there¡¯s a whole species called ¡°The Blood Worms¡± who have the same ¡®absorption¡¯ ability as you do.


    Stupid humans as always think of themselves as the center of the universe as if everything revolves around them. Have you ever thought about how vast this universe is? Heck I¡¯m sure you don¡¯t even realize what is happening to your planet! You think all of us creatures that clearly do not belong on this world came out of nowhere without any purpose or goals?! You think your planet will remain in the same state as it is now indefinitely?


    I don¡¯t want to bother myself with explaining everything to you. Go and find the information yourself.


    The fact is you can grow to the point where you could become powerful enough to treat me as a mere insect, which is why I want to grab this opportunity to bring you to my side and have you help me. So, what will it be?


    Agree to help me and live, or refuse and die.¡±


    ¡­..


    Okay¡­


    Few things the dragon said there. So unique abilities are only ¡®unique¡¯ for humans? So only one human can have said ability but it doesn¡¯t apply to monsters? Doesn¡¯t this mean that I can absorb said ¡®unique¡¯ abilities by drinking blood from monsters that have them? If this is the case then I will have to find those monsters ASAP!


    I¡¯ll think about what she said regarding the universe and this planet later, the more pressing matter is the ¡®choice¡¯ she has given me. Honestly it¡¯s not much of a choice is it? She called the ability she is using to suppress my abilities ¡®Domain Control¡¯ I think. I guess it allows her to have absolute control over an area? But if that¡¯s the case then why can¡¯t she go and control the area near the fucking dragon she wants me to kill?! Perhaps this only works on this mountain? Or perhaps it won¡¯t work on that dragon..?


    Nevertheless, I¡¯ll simply have to agree. The problem is I can¡¯t lie and say that I will agree to simply get away from here, as she will know whether I am lying or not. *Sigh* Okay Ben, prepare yourself to go and kill a dragon I guess¡­


    ¡°It¡¯s not like I have any choice. I obviously agree to help you.¡±


    ¡°Good. I¡¯ll bestow my mark on you now.¡±


    ¡°Wait! What mark? You didn¡¯t say anything about a mark!¡±


    ¡°If you really think I am going to let you get so powerful without having some way to save myself if you decide to betray me when you are more powerful than me then you are crazy.¡± She said fixing another one of her piercing glares on me.


    Okay... That makes sense I guess...


    ¡°Right¡­ err¡­ what does this ¡®mark¡¯ do exactly?¡±


    ¡°Simple. It allows me to keep track of wherever you are, and should you ever try to harm me I can kill you instantly no matter what kind of healing ability you have.¡±


    Damn. This does not sound good at all! Why did I have to come here?!


    ¡°So, does it have any benefit for me¡­?¡± I was hoping it would be some kind of cool ¡®dragon¡¯s mark¡¯ that would give me some percentage of her powers or something like that. At least there would be SOMETHING good for me in that case!


    ¡°No, it does not.¡±


    Well¡­ shit.


    ¡°Prepare yourself, this is going to hurt.¡±


    Without giving me even a second to actually brace myself, she breathed an icy breath straight at me and I felt a burning sensation on my chest. It hurt like hell! It was even worse than whatever it was she did earlier to my head! It felt as if my chest was on fire! Every inch of my chest felt as if a million burning hot needles were piercing it!


    ¡­.


    ¡­.


    ________________________________________


    (Dragon¡¯s POV)


    Hmph. The human fainted again, pitifully weak creatures.


    The human doesn¡¯t realize what this mark truly means. Though it¡¯s fine for me. Even if this kid dies I will have no problems. I have waited thousands of years to kill that fucking dragon, I can wait for some more years!


    Though I do hope this kid becomes powerful enough to help me. If he does manage to succeed in killing him, I¡¯ll obviously use the mark to kill little Ben here. I don¡¯t want anyone more powerful than me walking around after all. That mark is dangerous, though the human is probably too stupid to figure out how it works.


    Oh look, the kid has woken up. Let¡¯s give him back his abilities.


    ¡°There, everything is done. Go and get stronger. I will keep track of you through the mark and once you are powerful enough I will call for you. You have your powers back so you can get out of my home now!¡±


    He said something I didn¡¯t care about and left, probably used his teleportation. I scanned his memories earlier and found out all of his abilities after all, though I did ask him about them to see if he would tell me the truth.


    Now, I¡¯ll wait until the time I kill both him and Ben here. *Yawn*


    Time for a nap I think.


    ___________________________________


    Author''s Note: Let me know what you guys think of this chapter.


    Originally I had planned on Ben discovering about how ''unique'' abilities aren''t exactly 100% unique on his own instead of having this dragon conveniently telling him. But, the never-ending comments over the last two chapters about how you guys think the MC is too weak made me do it this way.


    Basically he can absorb any ability he can find from a monster, though that being said such monsters having powerful abilities will be few and far between and will obviously be hard to find. Also, they will be powerful so he will have to actually work hard on getting them.


    Now do you guys still think Steal is much too OP compared to absorption? I hope you don''t. Though Steal is still dangerous enough at this point of time.


    Stuff with the dragon will take place in the future, now the story will move on towards MC''s interactions with the Council and other people, as I have received comments about how there needs to be more interactions with other characters.


    As always, thank you so much for reading! Comments/questions welcome :)


    P.S. I have the feeling that people will either like this chapter or absolutely hate it. I hope it''s the former! *Fingers crossed*

 Interlude-2

    (Third person¡¯s perspective)


    Eight people were gathered around in an abandoned warehouse getting ready to head out. They had all spent the last few days coming up with a plan and were now prepared to take action.


    These eight had been chosen by the Council to go ahead and establish first contact with someone. The eight had a number of different abilities that should enable them to handle said person easily in case things took a turn for the worse.


    Daniel, who was among the eight, activated his ability and ¡®searched¡¯ for the person having the ¡®absorption¡¯ ability. He found his location and forwarded the co-ordinates to Amir, who then prepared to use his own ability to teleport all of them.


    Amir¡¯s ability was ¡®unrestricted teleportation¡¯, which allowed him to teleport a limitless number of people anywhere he pleases. He didn¡¯t need to follow the restrictions placed on other teleportation abilities, for example he didn¡¯t need to have visited some place before he could teleport there instead he could easily teleport to unknown places. Therefore when Daniel passed him co-ordinates to a place he hadn¡¯t visited before, it wasn¡¯t a problem for him.


    Everyone prepared themselves, and after Deepika, an Indian girl with the unique ability of ¡®Presence Control¡¯, had hidden everyone¡¯s presence they all teleported away to the specific location.


    They arrived and barely got a glimpse of a ruined city with a person wearing oddly warm clothes hovering in the air before that person disappeared and the ground beneath them split apart!


    Demonic hands came from underneath as the eight people panicked and started getting dragged down by those hands! With some quick thinking from Carla, a Mexican woman with the ¡®Force¡¯ unique ability, they were able to escape from the clutches of the demonic hands as Carla¡¯s force-field pushed them away.


    Though soon more and more hands started coming from underground and they even started hitting them with elemental attacks! Carla¡¯s force-field protected them long enough for Amir to come to his senses and teleport them all away back to the warehouse they came from!


    Everyone collapsed to the floors in relief and everyone started speaking as one in loud voices. Shouts about ¡°What the fuck just happened?¡± and ¡°Just what were those things?¡± were heard before Daniel spoke in a loud voice to calm everyone down.


    ¡°I think those were just some sort of underground creatures. Remember we saw a person in mid-air for a second before he disappeared? I think he was that ¡®absorption guy'', and he clearly knew about those creatures which is why he was staying in the air.¡±


    Everyone started to calm down once they heard Daniel¡¯s words. That was probably what happened and they all just felt foolish to have been caught by surprise by something so simple. Which is true, if all of these eight had been aware of the presence of those underground creatures then fighting them would have been a piece of cake for these guys.


    Daniel then spoke up once again, ¡°I think that ''absorption guy'' was probably there to drink some blood from these monsters. He must have finished his work and gone someplace else as soon as we arrived, which is lucky for us otherwise we would have been caught up between those underground things and a possible human enemy. We know he teleported somewhere else, because if he had simply used his hiding presence to turn invisible we would have been able to see him because of Deepika¡¯s ability.¡±


    Another round of agreement came up with the sound reasoning of Daniel¡¯s words. He then continued¡­


    ¡°I¡¯ll search for him once again and see where he went. This time we should prepare ourselves better instead of rushing in blindly, so take a few minutes to get ready while I search for him.¡±


    Everyone started mentally preparing themselves as Daniel concentrated on finding out the person once again. To his extreme surprise he found out that the ¡®absorption guy'' was currently located on the top of Mount Everest! What in the world was he doing up there?!


    Daniel decided to search the mountain for any creatures first so that what transpired with those underground monsters won¡¯t happen again. He ¡®searched¡¯ the entire mountain for creatures and found a few Yetis, Ice trolls, Snow leopards etc but the most surprising thing was a Dragon right at the top of the mountain beside the absorption guy!!


    What would a person be doing in front of a dragon?!


    Daniel tried to search what kind of abilities the dragon had but to his dismay he found out that he couldn¡¯t see the abilities! His own ability had never failed to give him detailed answers, yet here it had completely failed him in giving him details about the dragon¡¯s abilities!


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    He decided he should share his findings with the group, and the next 10-15 minutes passed by in a flash as heated discussions took place among them all.


    The discussions revealed two major theories:


    <ol type="$type"></li>


    <li>The ¡®absorption guy'' was there trying to fight the dragon and drink its blood.</li>


    <li>The dragon was somehow a companion of the ¡®absorption guy'' and he had gone to visit it for some reason.


    </li></ol>


    Though these theories seem absurd, they were not presented without supporting reasons. The major reason for these theories was the fact that the ¡®absorption guy'' did not possess the ¡®unrestricted teleportation¡¯ ability, which meant that the only way he could have instantly gone from that ruined city to the top of Mount Everest was if he had previously visited there.


    This meant that he had probably known about the dragon¡¯s existence before teleporting there but he still went anyway. Of course, the chance that this was the first time the Dragon was at the top of Mount Everest was a possibility, but somehow it felt unlikely. Though there were other theories mentioned, the two mentioned above were the ones that most of them thought could be possible.


    This could mean that either the ¡®absorption guy'' was much more powerful than they originally thought he was, or he had a seriously powerful monster as his friend/companion! A couple of the people present also thought that the guy was just extremely stupid and had gone to fight the dragon with delusions of grandeur, but this theory was shot down as no one else thought that someone could be that stupid.


    Daniel realised something alarming during these discussions. Even though he could tell all the abilities that the person had ¡®absorbed¡¯, he couldn¡¯t find out exactly how powerful these ¡®absorbed¡¯ abilities were! He knew through his ability that the more blood the person will drink the more powerful the ability will get, but so far he had not been thinking about the extent of his ¡®absorbed¡¯ abilities. Daniel felt a bit stupid admitting this fact to the group, and the group decided that it was best to wait and see what happens for now.


    _______________________


    A little over an hour later Daniel exclaimed, ¡°He moved!¡±


    Daniel had been keeping track of the ¡®absorption guy¡¯ all this time and just now his ability told him that the person was no longer at Mount Everest. Though Daniel checked and found to his amazement that the dragon was still alive and well at the mountain top!


    The group of eight were extremely surprised to hear this, and they immediately teleported to New York City where the ¡®absorption guy¡¯ was currently at, this time being extra-careful. The sight of the person unscratched shocked them and without doing anything else they all came back to the warehouse!


    They all sat silently contemplating what to do next. The dragon was still alive according to Daniel, and the person was completely unharmed. This could only mean that the dragon was a companion/friend/pet of the ¡®absorption guy¡¯. Either that or this person had actually fought with a dragon and come out alive and well, though this seemed unlikely due to the fact that they couldn¡¯t spot any injuries whatsoever, even the guy¡¯s clothes were still impeccable!


    The uncomfortable silence was broken once again by Daniel, ¡°I don¡¯t think just the eight of us are enough. We need to talk to Anna and the others about this and I think we will need more people before we think about even speaking to this guy.¡±


    Everyone agreed as they all moved to contact the other members of the Council¡­


    _______________________


    Author''s Note: Another short interlude to show what is happening ''behind-the-scenes''. No more interludes for the foreseeable future I think... and the next chapter which shows what happened after MC got back from the mountain should be released by tonight.


    Do let me know if you spot any errors/mistakes. Thanks a lot for reading! :)

 Chapter Twenty Eight: Future Plans

    I teleported back to my room and breathed a massive sigh of relief.


    The only thing I had done after the dragon had lifted the restriction on my abilities was use my ability identifier on her. I thought with all the mess that had taken place the least I could do was find out what kind of abilities the dragon had! But the only thing I managed to do was get a failure message¡­


    Ability Identification failed.


    After the failed attempt I immediately teleported out of there as soon as I could. I moved across the room to the full-length mirror and took off all my upper clothes to see what this ¡®mark¡¯ was.


    The mark was much smaller than I anticipated. With the way my whole chest had felt like it was burning up I had thought it would entirely be covered, but the mark was only about 3 inches in height and 4 inches in width, though the location was worrying. It was situated exactly over my heart. I guess it makes sense regarding what the dragon said about how this mark could be used to kill me instantly.


    If not for the ominous way with which the mark could be used, I would actually have really liked it. It looked absolutely beautiful! Exactly over my heart was the shape of a dragon in some sort of light-blue ink¡­? I know it wasn¡¯t ink but I had no idea on how else to describe it, maybe my skin had changed colour¡­?


    Anyways, the light-blue dragon had two majestic wings open as it stood proudly on its four sturdy legs and seemed to be roaring with its fierce mouth open facing upwards. The tail was about half the length of the rest of the body and had spikes sticking out of it on the top. The details of the mark astounded me. The closer I looked the more details I could see, the sharpness of the white teeth, the flared nostrils, the smooth scales, the individual spikes on the tail, the fierce look in the eyes¡­ I think any tattoo artist would have died happy if he had successfully made a tattoo with this much detail!


    Tearing my eyes off the beautiful deathly mark, I used appearance manipulation to cover the mark up. Although it was quite cool to see, I didn¡¯t want anyone else to know about my mark, so covering it up would be best, even though I don¡¯t think I would be going topless in front of anyone else anytime soon, still it doesn¡¯t hurt to be careful.


    Careful¡­ yeah¡­.


    I had been so utterly stupid lately. I think it was my overconfidence getting to me. I had been having such an easy time dealing with both humans and most of the monsters that I encountered that I felt as if I was the strongest thing on the planet and nothing could hurt me. How utterly foolish of me!


    The unfortunate meeting with the dragon at least brought me back down to Earth. Another good thing to come out of the meeting was the information. The fact that I could get ¡®unique¡¯ abilities from monsters was exciting, though it was not as exciting as the other things the dragon mentioned!


    She said something about this world and how it won¡¯t remain as it is now, and she also mentioned that it was foolish to think the otherworldly monsters have no purpose here. These things mentioned by the dragon excited me a lot!


    The world could be merging with another world, Earth could be evolving, powerful beings could be at work changing our planet, some sort of inter-dimensional gate could have opened up on Earth¡­ The numerous novels I had read and the countless animes I had watched were all coming back to me as I thought about all that could happen in the future!


    As the inner nerd in me thought of all the exciting things that could happen here, I suddenly remembered about Gray. He had been with me when I teleported to the mountain, but the overbearing presence of the dragon made me completely forget about him until now!


    I used the summoning ability at once and saw to my relief that Gray actually appeared. Questioning him I found out that he had been unsummoned as soon as we reached the mountaintop, which made sense since all of my abilities had immediately been disabled.


    I then thought about how Gray was from a different place and asked him if he knew anything about what was going on with the planet with high hopes. However, to my disappointment he simply answered that he knew nothing since he was born just some time ago. I then unsummoned him with instructions to ask around his own world if anyone there knew anything.


    Thinking once again back to the conversation with the dragon, I got frustrated at myself. If I hadn¡¯t been an idiot and gone there I won¡¯t have had to basically be a sort of captive for the dragon to do with me whatever she liked. This mark she gave me was basically a death sentence. I wasn¡¯t foolish enough to believe that she was going to let me live after I had done what she wanted me to do. She herself said she killed off every single other ice dragon so that she was the only one remaining, which shows that she is ruthless when it comes to dealing with anyone or anything that could be a threat to her.


    As such, I needed to find a way to get rid of this mark. I would need to do two things in order for me to have a chance at achieving this goal¡­


    Firstly, I need to stop lazing about and instead start actively hunting monsters once again. I remember I used to be so diligent in training any new ability I got earlier, but recently I had been slacking off and basically doing nothing productive. This needs to change, right now! Apart from training and being pro-active, I obviously need to start drinking A LOT of blood once again...


    Secondly, I can no longer be alone wherever I go. I need companions. No matter how much I hate being with people, the situation I am in requires me to suck it up and get allies, and the first person I need to ¡®recruit¡¯ would be Ariel. Her ability will help me a lot when fighting against monsters, and also when fighting against the dragon. I also need to start paying more attention to the growth of Gray, if I can make him stronger I could gain another useful ally.


    I still don¡¯t want too many people around me, but I think I will need more, especially in the inevitable fight against the dragon I have to kill. Although I know the potential I have of getting powerful may be enough, I still would like a few people I can trust backing me up. I guess I could rely on James and my other friends for help¡­? I don¡¯t know how strong their abilities are apart from James, but I could always go and find out.


    So uncharacteristic of me to think about having people constantly around me, but my back is against the wall right now! Desperate times call for desperate measures as they say¡­


    I really am desperate right now. Although the dragon didn¡¯t say it, I think she probably won¡¯t give me much time for me to get stronger. I can¡¯t get strong at a leisurely pace, I need to go about this quickly.


    As soon as it is morning I think I am going to go and speak to Ariel.


    I laid on my bed and drifted off to an uneasy sleep¡­


    __________________________________


    Next morning I greeted Ariel and immediately after we had breakfast I asked her to sit down for a chat.


    ¡°Ariel, I need your help.¡±


    ¡°With what?¡± She immediately asked back with narrow eyes.


    ¡°Why so suspicious? Don¡¯t you trust me?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Oh¡­.


    She didn¡¯t even hesitate before answering! Usually when I use the ¡®don¡¯t you trust me¡¯ line on people they get guilty looks and answer awkwardly in return, and I get whatever I want from them capitalizing on their discomfort. Some people take a bit of extra persuasion but in the end with some manipulation everyone comes around eventually.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Now though, as I looked into Ariel¡¯s eyes, I could see that no amount of manipulation would get me the permanent reliable ally I need. It makes sense, considering what she had been put through all those months at the hands of her mother and those men. She obviously will have a hard time trusting anyone now.


    *Sigh* It looks like I¡¯m going to have to tell her the truth.


    ¡°I need to inform a few things to you and to ask for your help. Please listen carefully.¡± I said before I started explaining all the events that transpired between me and the dragon. I left nothing out, and in the end I even showed her the mark by cancelling the effects of Appearance manipulation that I had used to cover it up.


    ¡°Hmmm¡­ You want me to try and heal you to see if the mark would disappear?¡± She asked when she looked at the mark.


    ¡°No! Don¡¯t do that, not yet.¡± She looked a bit surprised at my answer so I explained my thoughts. ¡°Let¡¯s say you use your ability, two things can happen: either the mark disappears or it doesn¡¯t. There is no third option.


    Let¡¯s say the mark disappears and I am free from the dragon¡¯s hold over me, what would be the result? Fiora would obviously realise the mark disappeared since she told me she can keep track of me using it, and then we could have a mighty dragon hunting us down to kill us. She wouldn¡¯t just let me walk away if I found a way to deal with the mark, trust me on that one!


    Now, the second option is even worse. Your healing ability doesn¡¯t work in removing the mark and Fiora finds out that someone tried to tamper with it, she gets angry and instantly kills me. Poof, done and dusted.¡±


    I could see Ariel starting to nod slowly as she agreed with me.


    ¡°So, I think we should wait till I get stronger than Fiora. If I am stronger, then if the healing works I will at least be able to protect myself. That¡¯s at least one possibility where the outcome is favourable for us.  This also gives us time, so we can find other ways of getting rid of the mark rather then relying on your healing powers alone.¡±


    ¡°Alright, sounds good. Though I have to ask, how will you know when you are stronger than Fiora when you don¡¯t even know what kind of abilities she has?¡±


    ¡­..


    Good question. Ummm¡­ How would I know again¡­?


    ¡­.


    Can¡¯t think of anything actually.


    ¡°I guess we could wait till Fiora herself calls for me. She said she would call for me when I get powerful enough, so we could wait till then¡­?¡±


    Ariel nodded hesitatingly. I had to agree that this wasn¡¯t the best option but I could think of nothing else as of this moment. Perhaps we could brainstorm for ideas later¡­


    ¡°So, will you help me get stronger¡­?¡± I asked Ariel.


    Though I could probably do it alone, Ariel¡¯s help would be a huge asset in reducing the time it would take for me to do everything by myself. Especially against stronger monsters, where I could rely on her healing abilities in case shit hits the fan.


    ¡°Sure, I have nothing else to do. And you did save me after all, so I guess this way I can pay you back.¡±


    Whew¡­ one ally gained. Wasn''t as difficult as I thought it would be...


    I think I will just work with Gray and Ariel for now. Being near these two is already a step forward for me in terms of staying in close proximity with other living things. I can delay on getting more allies for now¡­


    The rest of the day me and Ariel spent on strategizing on what to do next and where we should head to. I immediately shot down her idea of going after the T-Rex! I just faced an encounter where I barely survived against a dragon, I was NOT going to do something stupid once again by heading straight to London!


    Sure, the dragon was probably stronger than the T-Rex, but I wasn¡¯t taking any chances! Not until I get stronger at least¡­


    We both went to sleep in our rooms at night, thinking about the days to come¡­.


    _________________________________


    Next morning after some breakfast we were both on the roof of the building, ready to teleport to our first location. We were only on the roof because Ariel wanted to see the view of New York City one last time before heading out¡­


    I was just readying myself to start the journey when suddenly out of nowhere a group of people appeared! They were all around us! Then just as suddenly as they arrived they all vanished once again, leaving an elderly lady standing alone! I tried using all my vision abilities but I couldn¡¯t spot even a single one of the people who had just been visible a few seconds ago!


    The elderly lady stepped forward and spoke up, ¡°No need to get alarmed. We are simply here to talk.¡±


    Yeah right! As if old lady! You don¡¯t surround two people with whom you just want to have a chat with!


    I wanted to retort to her but I kept my mouth shut, mainly because I had just used ability identifier in a wide range and found out that every single person surrounding us had unique abilities! Some of them were ridiculously overpowered! I was completely outmatched over here!


    I immediately used telepathy and informed Ariel of the circumstances so she would keep her mouth shut and not say something stupid which could anger this group. We need to stay calm and see what they want for now...


    ¡°We are simply a group of people wanting to help humanity, and we were wondering if the both of you could join us too?¡± The old lady continued. I had the feeling I had seen her somewhere before, and when I identified her ability I realised that she was the lady with the true immortality power I had seen all those months ago on my laptop!


    A group of people that want to help humanity huh¡­? Sounds like a load of crap to me. But I have to stay smart here, I need to figure out some way to get out of here unscathed! I can¡¯t simply teleport because I know they can find me again¡­


    Oooh! Maybe that could work!


    _______________________________


    Author''s note:


    In case there is some confusion over his ability identification, let me remind you of how he had been using hiding presence at the time when he got this ability. The woman he got this from was still able to tell what kind of ability he had even though she couldn''t see him. It can either work on identifying one specific person/creature, or it can be used in a wide area to find out all of the abilities that living things have in the area.


    Anyways, council and MC finally meet! Thoughts about the chapter? Let me know! Also, point out any mistakes that you spot, thanks!


    As always, thanks a lot for reading! :)

 Chapter Twenty Nine: An honest conversation

    ¡°Great! We would LOVE to join with you!¡±


    I had already told Ariel to just go with what I¡¯m doing for now through telepathy. I obviously had no intentions to join this group of people, and they obviously had no intentions for letting us simply join. If they ¡®just wanted to talk¡¯ then a small group of people would have approached us normally instead of a group of unique ability holders surrounding us while staying invisible.


    This all felt like ¡®if you are not with us, you are against us¡¯.


    The plan I came up with for now was to reduce the stress levels in the vicinity. If they relaxed a bit and lowered their guards I would have a much easier time getting away from this unscathed, which is why I acted like an idiot and immediately agreed to join.


    I knew from experience that the best way to lower another person''s guard is to make them believe that they are smarter than you. That being said, you can¡¯t appear too stupid otherwise they will just think you are acting and the other party will remain suspicious of you as a result. It¡¯s a fine line between maintaining that the other person is smarter than you and making them suspicious of your unnatural stupidity.


    I ignored the dumbfounded expression on the old lady in front of me as she certainly wasn¡¯t expecting me to agree to join them, and continued as if nothing was wrong, ¡°Though why are you guys surrounding the both of us like this? And why are the rest of your group staying invisible?¡± I asked while looking confused as I stared at my surroundings.


    Those two questions showed that while I was stupid, I wasn¡¯t so dense that I couldn¡¯t pick up on the uncomfortable environment me and Ariel were currently in. At the same time I was idiotic enough to not comprehend the meaning behind their actions. I think this should be a good start for my ¡®stupid-but-not-so-stupid¡¯ act.


    The old lady in front of me got over her initial surprise and smiled kindly, then spoke up, ¡°Excellent! We welcome you to our group! But before that I do have a few questions if you don¡¯t mind my asking them?¡±


    She ignored my question about why they were invisible and surrounding us and spoke as if she were speaking to a small child. Crap, did I overdo my idiotic act? Will have to dial it down a notch...


    ¡°Of course! Please, feel free to ask whatever you want.¡±


    ¡°Firstly, you should know that we have an ability user who can tell if you are lying or not. So it would be best if you speak the truth.¡±


    Damn, why didn¡¯t I check this beforehand? I tried searching for who had an ability similar to my ¡®True Sight¡¯ ability through ability identification but I came up with nothing. All around me the unique ability users mainly had abilities that would allow them to fight me.


    Did she just call a bluff? Or is there something else going on here? Do they perhaps have someone who can tell all the abilities I have ¡®absorbed¡¯, and thus they are testing me if I will use my identification or True sight abilities or not? Hmmm¡­. this is worrying¡­


    ¡°Really? But you should know I have an ability called ¡®ability Identification¡¯ that allows me to see what kind of abilities you all have, but I don¡¯t seem to be able to see anyone with an ability to tell if I am lying or not¡­¡± I tilted my head in puzzlement and did my best to show that I really was perplexed by all this.


    The probability of them having someone who can also use some kind of identification ability is high. How else could it be explained why a group who only had people with unique abilities in it would suddenly appear on a rooftop which just so happened to have two unique ability holders? They already must know about the abilities of me and Ariel, which is why they are here trying to ¡®recruit¡¯ us.


    Though I can¡¯t be sure whether they only know about my ¡®absorption¡¯ ability or if they know every single one of the abilities I have absorbed so far. If they know all the details then this is seriously disturbing! The possibility of them knowing about the details of my absorbed abilities is high, which is why I decided to reveal about my identification ability.


    This will again serve as a means of lowering their guards. I revealed one of my abilities without any prompting from their side, which means that I am an idiot who doesn¡¯t realise that I should probably keep my abilities hidden. It will also give me a chance to learn if they know details about my absorbed abilities or not.


    The expressions of the woman in front of me changed into a knowing-kind of smile, and I immediately knew that she was already aware of all my abilities from her expression! She then lifted her head and gave a nod, and instantly a group of 5 appeared beside the woman!


    I immediately used ability identification on the 5 new arrivals and saw to my dismay the thing I was dreading.


    Target ability identified. Target has the unique ability: Detailed Search. This ability allows the person to get detailed information of anything he searches for.


    I had to work hard on not changing my expressions into one of dread or anger, instead I changed my expression to one of worry. I was worried as it is, and the presence of the nerdy Japanese guy standing next to the old woman who I found out had the ability of:


    Target ability identified. Target has the ability: lie-detector. This allows the target to detect all lies.


    made my worry spike even more. Even though this wasn¡¯t a unique ability, it will still make this conversation difficult for me. ¡®Time to take your acting to the next gear, Ben¡¯ I thought.


    ¡°Oh, so you guys know about my ability. I see why all of you have surrounded us. You all must think of me as a horrible person.¡± I said as I hung my head in fake-shame. I was counting on the fact that the Japanese guy could only spot lies, and not deception. There are plenty of ways to deceive someone without actually lying to them, so I would just have to bend the truth a little to make the conversation go my way. If the Japanese guy can spot deception as well, then this is getting more and more impossible by the second!


    ¡°Yes, we do know all about your abilities. Which is why we have to ask a few questions regarding the disturbing nature of your ability.¡± The old lady said.


    I made a show of clenching my fists and said in a deeply troubled voice, ¡°I know everyone thinks it is disgusting, I did at first too! But I did what I had to do to survive! Can you really blame me for that?!¡±


    The gazes of the people first shifted to the Japanese guy, and he nodded and then they all shifted back towards me again, though there was less hostility in their eyes now. Seems like the Japanese guy can¡¯t spot deception! And my act of ¡®being troubled with my own ability¡¯ worked as well!


    But, I still need to be careful. I can¡¯t get careless as I still have to make sure I speak the truth while also making sure that the conversation goes where I intend it to go!


    ¡°Fine, we don¡¯t blame you. The abilities were all randomly given after all.¡± Random? I think they haven¡¯t yet realised that the abilities have some sort of connection to the person¡¯s personality. I made a show of relaxing my face and breathing a sigh of relief as the old woman gave me a smile and continued, ¡°But we do have to know if you have ever killed a human!¡±


    Before I could get a word out Ariel spoke up from beside me!


    ¡°Yes, he has. I spent a good few months as a captive before Ben here came and saved me. He got too angry at what he saw and he couldn¡¯t help but kill some of them! He only did it to save me and a few other girls! I killed some too when I got free! The things they did to me¡­ Let¡¯s just say I have not lost a single second of sleep over killing them and I never will!¡±


    Wow, Ariel! Damn girl! Good going!


    I have no idea if she is acting but if she is then I have to give her props on how her eyes are glaring and how her voice was so determined it left no room for doubt! I quickly followed by making a dark expression as if the memory of that day still haunted me.


    ¡°And can those of you who are invisible please become visible again! It is pissing me off that you guys are treating us as some sort of criminals! And the fact that you are invisible is simply creeping me out! If you want to surround us go ahead, but just become visible again!¡± Ariel continued on.


    I scanned the looks of the crowd as everyone was taken aback by the sudden outburst from the girl whom they had thought was just some sort of background character. It felt as if I was someone who was following Ariel around, and not the other way around, as so far I had acted meek and idiotic while Ariel, being Ariel, was full of fire and determination.


    The old lady got over her surprise, made sure by asking us not to attack anyone and confirming it with the Japanese lie-detector when we said we won¡¯t and finally gestured with her hand. Everyone surrounding us became visible again as they slowly walked past while giving me glares and came to a stop around the old lady, keeping her in the center.


    ¡°Finally, we need to ask you about your meeting with a dragon two days ago.¡± The old lady said fixing me with a glare.


    Damn! They even know about Fiora?! Were they following me? This is too creepy!


    ¡­¡­


    Wait a minute¡­. this is actually good! I can use this to get rid of these scumbags while at the same time gaining their help!


    I started off by telling them about my meeting with Fiora. I obviously didn¡¯t reveal all my thoughts but just gave them the overview, while also making sure that nothing I was saying was a lie.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I didn''t mention anything about the revelation that I could potentially absorb unique abilities from monsters or what Fiora said about the world changing. When I got to the point about the mark I made an expression as if I had suddenly realised something and paused my explanation¡­


    ¡­.


    ¡°What? What¡¯s wrong?¡± Asked the old lady as I was still pretending to have realised something incredible and alarming.


    I made a show of pretending to be disturbed and hesitating before I finally ¡®made up my mind¡¯ and started telling them about the mark.


    Ignoring their looks of shock about the implications of me being branded with a ¡®death mark¡¯, I finished off by saying:


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it will be a smart idea for me to join up with you guys after all. The mark allows the dragon to keep track of my whereabouts at all times, which means that there is a possibility of people near me being in danger in case the dragon ever comes near me! I¡¯m sorry but I think it¡¯s best if we stay apart for now, at least for as long as the dragon is still out there.¡± I finished up by looking crestfallen and sad.


    The best thing about starting off anything with ¡®there¡¯s a possibility¡¯ is that apart from impossible things, there is ALWAYS a possibility of something happening. I¡¯m sure Fiora won¡¯t come down near me, if she wants to harm me she will just kill me with the mark and if she wants to speak with me she will make me go to her instead of coming near me herself. But, is there a possibility that she could decide to come here? Yes, absolutely! Which makes the words I have spoken to be the truth!


    All of the group started discussing in low voices about what to do or not to do before a burly man spoke up in a loud voice, ¡°You think we care about you? Just give us the girl. Her ability is what we want the most! You can do whatever else you want!¡±


    I quickly used identification and found out that he had ¡®invincibility¡¯ as an ability. I thanked him in my mind for his utter stupidity before I made a look of incredulous anger and spoke up with as much anger as I could fake in my voice¡­


    ¡°Listen here! She isn¡¯t some property of mine that I can just ¡®give away¡¯! She is a human being! If she wants to go with you it is her decision and I won¡¯t stop her, but if you think for even one second that I am going to let you to force her to go then we are going to have a fight on our hands!¡±


    I proceeded to stand up in front of Ariel and glared at the burly idiot.


    Obviously, I had no intentions of fighting against them. If they did want to force her to go, I would let them take her. Sure, she is useful for her ability but is she worth enough for me to risk my life by fighting against these unique ability assholes? No¡­ Not yet anyway¡­


    But, I did have to capitalize on such a gift the burly man threw towards me. This show of me being protective of Ariel will make her hopefully trust me more, and at the same time it will show these idiots that I am not some disturbed psycho who goes around drinking blood to gain abilities but instead I actually care about my fellow companions! It will also make them think that they can use her against me in the future, which will make them more confident and thus increasing the chances of them leaving me alone.


    I heard Ariel say from behind me, ¡°I¡¯m staying with him!¡± This was obviously going to be her answer. The way the burly idiot had spoken would obviously bring back past memories for her and she would never decide to go with such people. There was also that whole ¡®I saved her and she feels obliged to pay me back¡¯ thingie.


    The invincible idiot made a step forward as if he actually was going to fight me for Ariel before the others stopped him and the old lady spoke up again, ¡°Sorry about him, please don¡¯t think we mean to imply that your companion is some sort of asset or anything. I apologize on behalf of this idiot, I really do! We won¡¯t force either you or her to come join us, so please don¡¯t be worried and there is absolutely no need to fight!¡±


    It worked! Thank you, invincible idiot!


    ¡°I think we should leave now. We will try and keep in touch. Good luck on your mission!¡± said the old lady and they prepared to leave.


    Not so fast, not on my watch!


    ¡°Wait!¡± I exclaimed as I pretended to struggle as if I wasn¡¯t sure if I should ask what I wanted to ask or not. ¡°Ummm¡­ If you don¡¯t mind, could you guys help me out by pointing me towards strong monsters¡­? I could kill them which would help humans by removing strong threats and at the same time I could gain a few strong abilities¡­¡± I fidgeted around as if I was nervous in asking this question.


    The old lady immediately said, ¡°Of course, we will be happy to help you! We will get someone to tell you through telepathy if we spot a powerful monster.¡± She smiled but I could see plenty of others behind her that didn¡¯t agree with what she just said.


    She bid farewell and they all vanished. I used ability identification in a wide area to make sure none of them were remaining, but it seemed as if they all really had teleported away.


    I was glad that they were idiotic enough to agree to help me out, though I will have to change a few things in my plans. Firstly, I think if I ever come across a monster with a ¡®unique¡¯ ability I should store the blood in my pocket dimension somehow and keep it there to drink later. The guy who can know all details about my abilities is worrying and I need to keep the fact that I can absorb unique abilities a secret for now. I think I will keep storing the blood until I have collected a number of powerful abilities and then drink all of it at once when I am at a point where I can stand up to this group alone.


    Secondly, I think I will have to go after James and my group of friends after all. If I am to face a mighty dragon while also keeping this group of assholes off my back I will need to have a few people I can trust to watch my back.


    Yep, I think these changes will have to be done. For now this should be enough, but I will have to continuously keep thinking about other ways to keep this group away from me.


    I turned around to face Ariel and she made a small smile towards me.


    ¡­..


    She looked quite beautiful to be honest smiling like that under the sun on a rooftop¡­


    ¡­.


    Get a hold of yourself idiot! This isn¡¯t the time! Focus on what you need to do! There¡¯s a lot to think about!


    I tore my gaze away from Ariel¡¯s face and thought about whether I should head straight towards the university where my friends are or if I should do some hunting first¡­


    ___________________________________________________


    (Third person¡¯s perspective)


    A group of people appeared out of thin air inside a previously abandoned warehouse. The warehouse was now starting to look more and more like a place where people were actively staying as it was now cleaner, had furniture like couches, coffee tables etc about and the huge round table at the center had a bunch of pages strewn across its surface.


    As soon as the people arrived they all turned towards Anna and started asking questions or simply shouting at her. Most people wanted to know why she agreed to leave both the man and the woman alone, and on top of that even agreed to help the guy!


    Silencing them all with a shout, Anna started speaking in a voice that suggested she was speaking to a bunch of stupid kids instead of grown up seemingly smart adults. She sighed before she spoke, ¡°Don¡¯t you all realise the benefits of our little ¡®deal¡¯? You all saw how, contrary to expectations, the guy wasn¡¯t some kind of evil genius creep but instead he was a gullible and sensitive idiot! Which means we can use him!


    We are all aware that the person with ¡®steal¡¯ is more powerful than this ¡®absorption guy¡¯ right now, on top of that the ¡®steal¡¯ ability is harmful for us whereas ¡®absorption¡¯ isn¡¯t! This is the reason why I agreed to help that guy out instead of forcing him to join us.


    We can help him get stronger and as a result he will think that he owes us. We can then use him when he is stronger and ask him to go and see this ¡®steal¡¯ person. If he refuses we can use the girl against him, you all saw how deeply he cared about her didn¡¯t you? I¡¯m sure there is something going on there!


    We gain a useful idiotic ally and at the same time we don¡¯t have to risk losing our own abilities by going after the ¡®steal¡¯ person!¡±


    There was a moment of silence as everyone contemplated over Anna¡¯s words. They all came to realise that what she said was true and in fact this way was so much better than what they had originally planned!


    The discussions about today¡¯s conversation carried on well into the night as they gleefully discussed about how they were so smart in manipulating a person to do their bidding while the said person was completely unaware of it all!


    _____________________________


    Author''s note:


    What did you guys think about the first interaction between Ben and the Council? Obviously there couldn''t be a flashy all out battle at this point as the MC would have lost BADLY. Instead I tried to make it a sort of mental battle... Don''t know how well I pulled it off though to be honest.


    Let me know if anyone spots any mistakes!


    Thank you very much for reading! :)

 Chapter Thirty: Why are they still staying here?

    (Ariel¡¯s perspective)


    I¡¯m not sure what to think anymore.


    I had been starting to finally relax a little and let my guard down near Ben but after what just transpired I think I should stay vigilant. I still owe him for getting me out of that place but after helping him out a bit I think I should leave.


    He turned around and looked at me and I didn¡¯t know what to do so I just gave him a small, awkward smile. He stared at me for a few seconds before shaking his head and looked beyond the rooftop. He seemed to be deep in thought.


    He is always like this, quiet and in his thoughts. He seems to constantly be thinking about something or the other and apart from when we first met I have never seen him show any sort of emotion. It makes what he did just now worrying.


    He told me through telepathy to just go with what he was doing, so I knew that he was acting but it all felt so natural! His body language, the changes in his voice, the look in his eyes and his facial expressions were all a bit too perfect to be artificial. He even drew me in and I ended up blurting out about how he had killed people just to save me and the rest of the girls.


    His act of stepping in front of me and trying to protect me charmed me at the time, and I felt safe beside him which is why I said that I wanted to stay by him. Everything was okay in my opinion until the whole group of people left and I saw a smirk on Ben¡¯s face for a brief second.


    The smirk was there just for a moment, but it was enough to jolt me and I remembered that it had all been an act so far. Ben had been acting the whole time!


    He was acting when he stepped in front of me, when he pretended to be angry at them, when he made himself out to be stupid and when he showed that he was disturbed about his ability. I didn¡¯t mind anything else, after all he was acting just to get rid of them, but the way he reacted about his ability was troubling.


    I remember when I first asked him about his ability¡­ didn¡¯t he react in the same way? He made a troubled expression, he sighed and he even said something similar to what he said today! Was it all an act that day as well?


    I don¡¯t think any normal human would be fine with having an ability that makes them drink blood! Ben does have a lot of powers, but at what cost? He has to drink the blood of not just humans, which is disturbing enough, but also from disgusting and horrible monsters!


    What kind of human would be fine by that?


    I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. ¡®Let¡¯s think about this Ariel¡­¡¯


    Oh! The group of people did mention that they had a person who was able to detect lies didn¡¯t they? So that means Ben wasn¡¯t lying about anything today!


    Hmm¡­ But then what was that smirk at the end¡­? Did he find some way to deceive them whilst saying the truth? After all back when things were normal people could fool lie detectors couldn¡¯t they...?


    I¡¯m so confused!


    Ben is a good guy I think¡­. The best thing about him is that he doesn¡¯t look at me that way. Almost every other male I¡¯ve come across since my body developed when I was 14 years old has always just had my looks in their mind. But Ben isn¡¯t like that¡­ He barely even glances at me! I¡¯ve spent so much time getting unwanted attention by males that Ben¡¯s lack of attention is like a breath of fresh air.


    Hmmm¡­ Is he gay¡­? Is that why I have never even seen him sneak a glance at me¡­?


    ¡­.


    I shook my head to clear my thoughts. This was going nowhere, I¡¯m getting sidetracked!


    The important question is whether I can trust him or not! Now, I was thinking about whether he lied to me about how his ability made him feel or not. If he isn¡¯t disturbed about it then that¡¯s creepy! And if he did lie to me then I don¡¯t know if I can trust him or not. I never lie, so how can I trust someone who lies?


    ¡­¡­


    I still can¡¯t make up my mind! Was he lying or wasn¡¯t he?!


    Urgh¡­ this is so frustrating!


    Let¡¯s just ask him!


    ¡°Ben.¡±


    ¡°hmmm¡­?¡± He didn¡¯t expect me to interrupt his thought process I think¡­ ¡°Yeah what is it?¡±


    ¡°Are you ga¡­. I mean¡­ Are you really disturbed about your ability or was that just an act¡­?¡± It¡¯s good I caught myself before I asked him something else entirely!


    ¡®Concentrate Ariel!¡¯


    "I never lie myself, so I hope you can answer honestly..."


    I looked straight into his eyes to see if he would lie or not. I think I can judge when someone is lying to me¡­ At least I hope I can..


    He hesitated a bit as if thinking about what to say before answering, ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m not sure. It disturbed me at first but now it somehow doesn¡¯t¡­? I hate to admit it but I think I am getting used to this disturbing life¡­¡±


    Oh¡­


    At least he was honest about his feelings¡­ I guess that¡¯s a good thing¡­?


    _________________________________


    (Ben¡¯s perspective)


    Let¡¯s see, what else? Oh yeah they also had¡­


    ¡°Ben.¡±


    ¡°hmmm¡­?¡± Ariel just called me I think. What does she want now? ¡°Yeah what is it?¡±


    ¡°Are you ga¡­. I mean¡­ Are you really disturbed about your ability or was that just an act¡­?¡±


    What was that first thing she changed¡­?


    "I never lie myself, so I hope you can answer honestly..."


    Nevermind. What a load of crap! You never lie...? Please.


    Everybody lies.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    No matter who you are, no matter what you do, you will lie sooner or later. The only people who don''t lie are the ones who can''t. Like infants, toddlers, unconscious people, mentally-challenged persons, those who are dead.


    It''s not our fault, it''s the fault of our society... well the society which was there before all this shit took place. We actually started believing that some lies weren''t actually counted as lies. It''s okay for parents to lie to their kids about Santa Claus or the Easter bunny, it''s fine to reply "I''m okay." when someone asks for your health when in fact you aren''t ''okay'', everything''s good if you pretend to give a crap about people''s lives because if you don''t you won''t be considered ''normal''...


    Our generation grew up around lies. We actually don''t realise how much we lie in our daily lives!


    .....


    Wait... what am I thinking about here...? Oh right, Ariel asked me a stupid question and then made some idiotic remarks.


    Why is she asking this question all of a sudden? Is it because of all the acting that I just did? Does she have doubts over my honesty?


    Well, cry me a river! No one is honest in our generation! *sigh*


    I could see it in her eyes that either answer of yes or no won¡¯t suffice. If I say yes she will still have her doubts and if I answer no then she will think of me as a disturbing psycho. One choice left: Say you¡¯re not sure!


    ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m not sure. It disturbed me at first but now it somehow doesn¡¯t¡­? I hate to admit it but I think I am getting used to this disturbing life¡­¡±


    She simply nodded back in answer but I could see she was still conflicted.


    Oh I just can¡¯t be bothered with this right now. Let her think whatever she wants, I have other things on my mind!


    ¡®Let¡¯s see, where was I¡­?¡¯


    I was making a mental note of all the unique abilities they had! This list will give me an idea of what I can expect to gain from monsters and also allow me to prepare for any possible confrontation with that group of idiots in the future.


    Let¡¯s see¡­ there was ¡®force¡¯ which basically made the person a jedi who can also use force-fields, ¡®all-elemental manipulation¡¯... useless for me as I can gain all elements individually anyways, ¡®adaptability¡¯ allows the person to adapt to anything (underwater, outer-space, inside an active volcano etc)...


    ....


    Dammit, Ariel is still looking at me in curiosity. It¡¯s times like these I truly realise the benefits of being alone!


    Urgh, let¡¯s leave making this list aside for now. It¡¯s uncomfortable having someone stare at you continuously. I should probably distract her to stop her from overthinking things and forcing me to talk more about feelings and other crap.


    ¡°Shall we head over to find my friends now?¡± I asked normally as if there wasn¡¯t a weird atmosphere surrounding us.


    She replied yes and I immediately prepared to teleport. Ariel could still be uncomfortable with me touching her but I need to do it in order to teleport so tough luck. Besides, she just made me uncomfortable too¡­


    I grabbed her shoulder, activated hiding presence over both me and her and teleported straight to a rooftop that overlooked my university. I let go of her shoulder and, ignoring her accusing stare, I checked out our surroundings for any threats. Finding none, I moved my gaze to the university.


    Ah, the University of California, such memories. Mostly of boring lectures and annoying people but some good ones mixed in there.


    I used my vision abilities to search for my friends. I had absolutely no idea whether they would still be here or not, or if they were still alive, but this is where I last saw them so this is where the search will begin.


    I looked around and saw a large number of heat signatures all around the university, both human and non-human. Weird. Last time there weren¡¯t so many monsters were there¡­? The whole university was basically crawling with them!


    It looks like the largest group of people is located in the East Auditorium. Using X-ray vision I saw James and my other friends there as well. Good, I found them. Though I have no idea why they are still in this monster-infested university, surely there must be some other place nearby that was safer!


    I grabbed Ariel by the shoulder again, ignored her stare, activated hiding presence once again and teleported inside the university near the East Auditorium where there were no people and no monsters. As soon as we arrived¡­


    Warning! You have entered into the lair of an unknown entity. This whole area is under its control, and the only way to leave this area is to kill this entity.


    I saw the dumbfounded expression of Ariel from the corner of my eye and confirmed that I wasn¡¯t the only one to get this message. I tried teleporting out but¡­


    Teleportation to target location not possible.


    So, the reason all my friends are still here is because they are trapped. And me and Ariel are trapped now too.


    ¡®Well, this is new¡­¡¯


    ¡­..


    I should probably be worried right now but all I could think about was how this ¡®entity¡¯ probably has a few good abilities for me to absorb¡­.


    ______________________________________


    Author''s note: Wrote this in a rush, so apologies in advance in case of lack of quality/mistakes. If you spot an error, please point it out!


    Also, this isn''t a dungeon, although it is pretty similar to one. Actual dungeons may or may not come later on... I''m not certain about this fact. Opinions?


    Thank you for all the support! 50+ reviews and 4000+ average views! Wow! You guys are the best! :D


    Thanks a lot for reading!

 Chapter Thirty One: The University (Part One)

    (Third person¡¯s perspective)


    Daniel rushed in to Anna¡¯s room without bothering to knock, surprising the old lady. She got angry and was about to say something before noticing how the usually calm Daniel had a look of anguish as he stopped to catch his breath. Deciding it must be something important she held off on berating Daniel about manners and instead waited for him to speak.


    ¡°Sorry to barge in like this, but there has been a terrible development!¡± Daniel spoke in urgency.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Anna asked still annoyed but wondering what this emergency could be.


    ¡°You asked me to keep tabs on that absorption man, and he just went to the one place we didn¡¯t want him to go! All of our carefully made plans regarding him have already gone down the gutter!¡±


    ¡°Just explain the situation to me already and stop beating about the bush!¡±


    ¡­¡­


    After learning the reason for Daniel¡¯s distress Anna immediately asked him to gather the Council for an immediate meeting! After Daniel left she got off the bed with a sour mood. Yesterday had gone so well after meeting with the guy on the rooftop and making detailed plans with the Council and today everything had been ruined!


    ¡®Why did that idiot have to go there of all places?!¡¯ she thought as she made her way to the warehouse for the emergency meeting.


    ________________________________


    (Ben¡¯s perspective - A day earlier)


    I could see Ariel was about to freak out so I immediately spoke telepathically to calm her down. Freaking out would be counter-productive and could even give away our location to monsters and/or people.


    Right now we were in a lecture hall. The hall was big enough to hold lectures for close to 250 students and the whole room looked quite clean. The room which was lit up by sunlight streaming in through the high windows was in the exact same state as it always had been. The rows of seats, the teacher¡¯s desk and the large blackboard were noticeably clean. Apart from a thick layer of dust nothing seemed out of place.


    This was actually the first normal location I had seen in months. I had gotten so used to seeing corpses of different species everywhere in various degrees of decomposition that this hall looked extremely odd. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary apart from the cleanliness of the hall I asked Ariel to wait quietly for now and decided to run a few tests. I started activating all of my abilities in turn to see if all of them worked or not.


    ¡­..


    Five minutes later I was pleased to see that everything worked. I could even teleport anywhere inside the hall, it seemed the only restriction was in going outside the building itself. Next, I summoned Gray and told him to stay with Ariel and to immediately communicate in case anything enters the hall. I also shared my hiding presence ability with Gray so he could hide Ariel on the off-chance that I was occupied elsewhere.


    I told Ariel to stay here and ignoring her protests I activated hiding presence and proceeded to move outside.


    I used a combination of my vision abilities and wide-area ability identification to confirm that there was nothing immediately outside the door of the room before opening it. I proceed down the familiar hallways until I came across the first living thing¡­ or first non-living thing¡­?


    It was a group of... ghosts? Or phantoms? Or Spirits? Or something¡­ They were incorporeal dark-purple beings of average human height floating a few inches off the ground. They looked more or less like humans, apart from the obvious ghost-vibe¡­ I used ability Identification on them and saw an astonishing result!


    Target ability identified. Target has the ability: Possession. This ability allows the target to possess those weaker then themselves and gain complete control over them.


    Target ability identified. Target has the ability: Double life. Works only when target has used ¡®possession¡¯ on someone, this ability allows target to leave the possessed host if it dies and return to its original form to live once again.


    Now that¡¯s¡­. Just too much!


    These things can not only possess something but even when the ¡®possessed being¡¯ dies they can return to their incorporeal forms to find something else to possess?! That¡¯s just fucked up! And the worst part is they are incorporeal! I¡¯m sure they don¡¯t have any blood for me to drink to absorb their abilities! Fuck me.


    I¡¯ll try to find something which is being possessed and drink its blood to see it that works¡­


    For now, I left them alone and quietly slipped past them. They have no blood for me to drink so no use killing them, plus I¡¯m a bit hesitant in killing anything right now. This building, or perhaps the whole university, is under control of something, and these things are probably its minions or something similar. If that ¡®entity¡¯ can trap everyone here, he might also be able to tell if I kill something! It may be a far-fetched possibility but I¡¯m taking no chances until I get more information.


    I travelled through the hallways ignoring all creatures I could see. There was no discernible pattern to where something was¡­ a single hallway contained a few of those ghosts, some yellow lizard-type creatures, a small number of black felines that were about twice the size of lions and brightly coloured flying insects that were about the size of an eagle. The insects looked like fireflies as they had different coloured lights shining out of their asses.


    Everything moved about as they pleased and I couldn¡¯t find anything that connected them all together apart from the fact that they were all monsters. I identified their abilities but didn¡¯t find anything useful. The lizards had regeneration, the felines had enhanced strength and enhanced speed and the insects had ¡®illumination¡¯ which basically gave them the ass-torch and ¡®sleeping powder¡¯ which gave them the ability to throw sleep-inducing powder.


    On second thought, the sleeping powder could be useful. But I¡¯ll still wait to get more information before hunting anything. I checked with Gray through telepathy if everything was alright on their side and found that it was. A thought flashed through my mind about how I could try and summon Gray outside the building to see if it work, but I put it aside for now to try it later.


    As I got closer to the East Auditorium I could start seeing less and less monsters. Soon they altogether stopped in front of a barricade made out of doors, chairs, tables and papers pushed in between any gaps between the furniture. I had to question the usefulness of the barricade against those ghosts, but proceeded through by teleporting to the other side nevertheless. I had used X-ray vision to see if there was anything on the other side before teleporting though.


    The other side was again a barren hallway with another barricade at the end before the doorway to the auditorium. The barricade was so thoroughly made that I had to question how the people on the other side would leave in case of an emergency. It looked to me as if they had simply trapped themselves inside¡­ I could only hope that the door on the other side was not so foolishly closed off as well.


    As I teleported to the other side of the door I saw the entire auditorium packed with people of all ages. There must have been at least a hundred and fifty of them here! The most noticeable thing though was the silence permeating throughout. The impact of such a huge group of people making no noise whatsoever was much larger than I thought it would have been. The silence was suffocating.


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    All around I could see blank, hopeless expressions on malnourished, sunken faces and a defeated air hung about. Some were sitting against the walls with their heads down, some were just lying on the floor while others stood silently in corners. There were those that had their eyes closed but most of them were staring at something only they could see¡­ The atmosphere was extremely unsettling and I decided that I wasn¡¯t going to stay here any longer then I needed to.


    I resisted the temptation of identifying the abilities of everyone and taking advantage of their lifeless selves to drink some blood, putting it off for later. For now I needed to get some information and the best person to get it from would be James.


    Even though talking to James would have its drawbacks, and I would probably have to reveal my ability to him which could get awkward, I knew James¡¯s loyalty was unquestionable. Even though all this shit happened and we hadn¡¯t seen each other for months, I was certain James would still get over the disturbing facts about me and help me out.


    It took me a few minutes before I spotted James lying down in a corner with his eyes closed seemingly asleep. The risk of me waking him up and him exclaiming loudly enough for everyone to hear in this silent hall was too high. I could use telekinesis to shut his mouth so that he won¡¯t make any noise but in the end there was still some risk involved.


    I decided to do something crazy. I made sure that everyone around was looking elsewhere and not on James before I moved to his side and used hiding presence on him. I waited a couple minutes to see if anyone would notice his absence but luckily no one did.


    I then touched him lightly, taking care not to wake him up, and teleported both of us back to the hallway in between the two barricades. The classrooms here were completely empty and it was a perfect place for me to get some answers undisturbed. The chances of someone discovering about James¡¯s disappearance were low due to the general defeated ¡®I don¡¯t care anymore¡¯ air everyone seemed to have, so teleporting him out while he was still sleeping seemed like a good enough idea.


    I controlled James¡¯s sleeping body through telekinesis and took him to a nearby empty classroom before I dumped him straight on the floor. He woke up with a start as I deactivated hiding presence and yelled ¡°Surprise! Miss me?¡±


    He looked at me dumbfounded for a few seconds before doing something I did not expect, he attacked me! He jumped straight at me and threw a punch right at my face as I barely avoided it using my speed and stared daggers at him.


    ¡°How did you know about Ben? Don¡¯t think you can fool me monster!¡± He yelled while trying to attack me again.


    Huh¡­? This seems weird¡­


    I took control of him once again and shut off his mouth so he could make no noise. The most probable guess I could make from his words was that there was some kind of mimic or doppelganger type creature and he was thinking that this creature was here mimicking me.


    I decided the best way to get over his suspicion would be to reveal secrets about him that only I knew, so I spent a good few minutes doing just that. In the end I could see him getting calmer and his eyes getting rounder as he realised that I was really here. I gave him back control over his body and he immediately ran over and hugged me with tears in his eyes! ¡°Ben! I missed you so much!¡±


    ¡­..


    ¡®Ben, you really should have expected something like this buddy. Your fault.¡¯ I said to myself as I awkwardly patted the bawling James on his back while he tried to squeeze me to death.


    ¡­..


    It had long since passed my 3-second rule of hugging so I pushed him away as he reluctantly let go. He wiped the tears off his eyes as he awkwardly laughed. I knew many questions about where I had been what I was doing here how could I do what I just did blah blah were coming my way so before that happened I decided to speak up on my own.


    ¡°Listen, we can catch up later as we are all stuck here anyways. I know you must have a lot of questions but please wait. Right now I need you to tell me everything important about this place. Leave nothing out, especially details about monsters and whatever this ¡®entity¡¯ is.¡±


    He looked reluctant so I took it up a notch. ¡°Buddy I am excited to see you too, believe me I am, but I have another friend I mistakenly brought here with me and I need to know how much in danger she is in ASAP!¡±


    His eyes went wide at the mention of someone else being with me, that too a girl! He had always been the type to be protective of girls and I knew this revelation would push his buttons. It worked, as he immediately started speaking¡­


    ¡°Oh boy! Okay okay, let¡¯s see. Oh! You won¡¯t believe the shit we are in right now Ben! You remember Perry don¡¯t you?¡± I nodded, Perry was a friend of ours, though I had no idea why he would start off his explanation of ¡®everything dangerous¡¯ with the mention of that guy.


    ¡°It¡¯s terrible man! We all got the message of how we were stuck in here and we couldn¡¯t decide on what to do. In the end we came to a decision to send Perry to fight off the ¡®entity¡¯ by using his unique ability! He was the most powerful one of us all after all. But it all got messed up! The ¡®entity¡¯ had some sort of hypnosis ability and ¡®it¡¯ took control of Perry! We all barely escaped both ¡®it¡¯ and Perry and we have been in a terrible state ever since!¡±


    ¡­..


    Okay¡­ A whole lot of speaking but not a lot of information. Typical James. I¡¯m going to have to break it down myself to extract information from him¡­ The most pressing questions on my mind were descriptions about this ¡®entity¡¯ and Perry¡¯s unique ability. I decided to ask about Perry¡¯s ability first¡­


    ¡°What was Perry¡¯s ability that you guys made him fight this ¡®entity¡¯ all by himself?¡± It had to have been a powerful ability after all.


    ¡°No, he wasn¡¯t fighting all alone! A lot of us gave our abilities to him while the rest of us, me included, fought alongside him! But ¡®it¡¯ still has control over Perry and so many of us lost our abilities in the process too!¡±


    Again¡­ no useful information. Dammit, this whole conversation is going to take a while. And what¡¯s this about them ¡®giving¡¯ their abilities to him¡­?


    ¡°His ability James, what is his ability?!¡±


    ¡°Oh, right. It is a unique ability called ¡®Steal¡¯....¡±


    ____________________________


    Author''s note:


    Oh, that has to be unexpected (I hope...)


    In case anyone is thinking ''this sucks I wanted a super-evil villain with steal not a friend which the MC will now have to save''... I''ll just remind you of Ben''s personality and ask you to think again....


    Please do point out any mistakes you see, thanks!


    Also, thank you SO MUCH for all the support so far! It has been incredible to see 750+ followers and 180+ favourites! I simply cannot thank you enough for all your support! :)

 Chapter Thirty Two: The University (Part Two)

    These people are so stupid it actually hurts.


    Perry has a unique ability that basically lets him steal other¡¯s abilities, though it only works on humans and not on the monsters in here. He only has to touch another person and within five to ten minutes he can ''steal'' the person''s ability. His ability is so unfair compared to mine! But that''s something I''ll think about later...


    When this ¡®entity¡¯ came here and trapped everyone, they all had the extremely bright idea to escape by giving Perry their abilities and asking him to go and confront said entity. I mean who gives away their one shot at survival to another person?!


    Oh, but this is where the fun just begins.


    Now that there were several useless idiots without their abilities, no one thought about how it would be smarter if they sent these dead-weight idiots to go confront the ¡®entity¡¯. This would make them at least slightly useful in providing valuable information about its abilities. But, as if proving how dumb everyone here is, they all instead decided that they would now protect the ability-less useless people for their ¡®selfless sacrifice¡¯.


    As if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, no one even thought about using any sacrificial people! James told me that there were many who had given up on life and simply wanted to die, and one would think that if these people wanted to die they would at least make their deaths useful by facing the ¡®entity¡¯ and giving everyone else information. But no. Everyone decided that they were just ¡®overwhelmed¡¯ and ¡®in stress¡¯ and that once Perry fucked the ¡®entity¡¯ over they would all be fine again. Which is how it was decided that everyone would ¡®support¡¯ these suicidal dumb fucks and send Perry instead.


    ¡®Urgh¡­ My head hurts¡­¡¯


    Perry, accompanied by 15 others, went and faced this entity without any prior information. They all thought that as Perry had a lot of abilities he would obviously be awesome enough to one-hit kill everything and the entity would just shit itself and give up.


    Contrary to popular belief, the entity didn¡¯t shit itself, instead it used an ability to make Perry an underling and Perry has since been terrorizing everyone!


    There were so many better ways in which to go about things, why in the world did these guys choose to go this route?! When asked, James simply answered, ¡°It was a tense time man. No one was thinking straight and this was the quickest way to get things done.¡±


    This can¡¯t be right! I refuse to believe that in a gathering of more than a hundred people no one realised how stupid their plan was. There just has to be some other explanation!


    *sigh* Let¡¯s leave this aside for now¡­ I still have to ask which abilities these idiots gave to Perry but I¡¯ll ask it later.


    ¡°Alright, enough about Perry. Tell me everything you know about this entity.¡±  I asked exasperated.


    ¡°Well, we didn¡¯t actually see it exactly¡­ so we don¡¯t know much¡­¡± James answered tentatively.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±  *eyebrow twitch*


    ¡°All we saw was a large amount of darkness, and from within a chilly voice spoke saying a cliche ¡®welcome humans, welcome to your deaths¡¯ before suddenly Perry went crazy and started attacking us! We all fled, but sadly Perry managed to kill some before we got away¡­¡±


    ......


    ¡®Someone kill me now. I don¡¯t think I can live with anymore stupidity on this planet.¡¯


    I ended the conversation right then and there. James wanted details about me but I made an excuse about how I needed to check up on Ariel. There was a lot more information I wanted to get from James but this conversation I just had was too stupid for me to go anymore! I asked James to keep my presence here a secret for now and teleported James back to where everyone was and left. I could trust James to keep his mouth shut about me, his loyalty was really unquestionable.


    He did make me promise to meet him up later and I agreed. I need more information anyways¡­


    I moved along the halls with hiding presence active, deep in thought before I came across a bathroom. I went inside and after confirming that there was nothing around I deactivated hiding presence and looked at my reflection on the mirror. I currently looked exactly the same as I did before all this happened. I stopped using appearance manipulation and saw the changes happen in front of me¡­


    My eyes immediately turned into crimson red. They were bright enough to easily be spotted in a dark room. My light brown skin turned pale white as my hair started losing colour as well. In a span of a few seconds I went from looking like a normal person to looking like a humanoid monster.


    The eyes I could get used to, but it was my pale-white skin and hair that got me worried. I was eating despite my metabolism ability, and blood wasn¡¯t the only thing in my diet, so why was my skin and hair losing colour? I had repeatedly tried using healing on it to see if it would revert back but nothing worked. It wasn¡¯t my physical appearance that I was most worried about though, it was the possibility of how else could drinking blood affect me that got my mind racing.


    Thinking back to the conversation I just had with James, there was no relief from my side seeing my friend, no thoughts about how I could help him or anything, the only thing that I was constantly thinking about was how stupid everyone else was and how I needed to save my own skin. I had never been one to think much about saving people, but this felt a little too extreme.


    Recently, I was more than willing to let anyone die if it meant that I got a new ability in the end or if I survived. It wasn¡¯t like me to think this way. I knew that I would never have gone out of my way to save anyone, but just a few minutes ago I was thinking about how it would be smarter to use human beings as sacrificial lambs to give information. Would I have been able to think this way before I got this absorption ability? I¡¯m not too sure¡­


    There¡¯s a difference between not saving people by leaving them to their own fate and actually using people by sending them to their deaths. Sure, it was the smarter thing to do, but would I have always thought this way or was this ability changing more than just my physical appearance?


    These weren¡¯t just some random people, these were people I actually knew. We had shared a long time together, and yet I felt nothing. I don¡¯t think I was always this emotionally dead inside¡­ was I¡­? I had even started ignoring Ariel and only saw her as a ¡®healing aid¡¯ rather than an actual person.


    I decided to discuss things with her and see the conclusions she came up with. She was smart, so she may have good ideas, and I also needed someone human to get a different perspective. If she could come up with something that could save others while also being a smart idea, then why not? There is no reason not to save these people and get out with them all. I would obviously leave everyone apart from my friends on their own once we exited this university, but I have no problems of helping them all out a bit in here.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    That being said, if there is no other way then I would obviously put my own skin ahead and sacrifice them all in a heartbeat!


    ¡­.


    I think I have to become careful. I must not forget the principles I had set for myself all those years ago¡­


    I reverted back to my original appearance and with conflicting thoughts still racing through my mind I exited the bathroom, activating hiding presence as I stepped out. The hallways were still filled with monsters, so I used identification in a wide-range to see if there was something of interest that could get my mind occupied.


    Ability identification successfully used. The following abilities have been identified:


    As I heard mind-me tell me of all the abilities, I could find nothing of interest before right at the end when I heard something very interesting!


    Mimic. This ability allows the target to mimic everything about the living thing physically closest to it.


    I remembered James mentioning something about a mimic, and this seemed to be exactly what he mentioned before!


    I immediately started searching for something different in the area. The downside of using identification in a wide area was that it only informed me of the abilities in the area, but not where these abilities actually were exactly. So, I had to search individually.


    I looked for any monster that looked different but after ten minutes I could not see anything other than the usual felines and brightly coloured insects that were in this hallway. I once again used identification in a wide area and got the same result of mimic being here. It was probably mimicking something right now, which meant I would have to use identification on every single thing before I could see which one was the mimic. *Sigh*


    ¡­..


    ¡­..


    It took me about twenty minutes before I finally found the ¡®feline¡¯ creature that had the mimic ability. The risk of me going near it and it mimicking me made me stop and think of something other than barging in and fighting it head on. Mind-me said that it would mimic everything about the closest living thing, meaning it would be able to mimic all of my absorbed abilities making it a dangerous opponent to face. I would NOT like to face ¡®me¡¯.


    I looked around and saw all the brightly lit insects, and immediately thought of a good idea. I grabbed the one closest to me and teleported to the empty classroom me and James were in before. I killed the insect before it had the chance to do anything and started drinking the disgusting blood.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability gained: Sleeping-powder. You will now be able to throw out a powder that induces sleep. Warning! Using too much powder on one target could be harmful!


    I ignored the warning and continued to go back and forth between the hallway and the classroom, teleporting insects one by one. Soon I had drank enough blood to be confident and went back to the hallway. I used the powder on a normal feline to see if it works and it went down in a matter of seconds!


    I hovered in the air and spread out the powder as far as I could by using air-manipulation and saw everyone dropping to the floor and falling asleep. I had to take care not to get too close to the mimic as I spread the powder to avoid the mimic turning into me. I waited until I saw the mimic feline go down as well before going near it.


    As soon as I got close the mimic immediately turned into me. I was expecting a sort of gradual change but this mimic changed in a split second! One moment it was a large, black feline and the next I could see ''myself'' sleeping on the floor. I teleported both me and ¡®myself¡¯ back to the empty classroom and saw the bizarre sight of seeing myself in front of me.


    The mimic was in my ¡®real¡¯ appearance, with pale-white skin and almost colourless hair. I ignored the appearance and weirdness of it all and immediately used a syringe to take some blood and drink it.


    Blood successfully absorbed. Ability of telekinesis already present.


    ¡­.


    What?! Why telekinesis?


    I drew some more blood and drank it but got the same message. Why isn¡¯t it giving me the mimic ability? Does the mimic have to be in its original appearance for me to get it?


    I teleported the mimic back to the hallway where everything was still asleep and distanced myself from it so that it took the appearance of a feline. I controlled the syringe through telekinesis and drew some blood to drink but all I got was the enhanced speed ability!


    Hmmm¡­.


    I approached the mimic back again and took it back to the classroom so I could think in peace. I tried drinking more blood from the mimic which was now in my appearance but I once again got the telekinesis ability. Telekinesis is not a bad ability, but I really wanted mimic! How do I get mimic¡­?


    I continued thinking before suddenly I thought of something amazing! I immediately teleported the mimic back to where Ariel was while also keeping hiding presence active on both of us. I saw as Ariel was pacing around the room in a worried way but I remained hidden for now.


    As I had used hiding presence on the mimic myself, I could still see it while others couldn¡¯t. I used this to my advantage as I controlled the mimic to go near Ariel, and saw as the mimic changed into Ariel! I gleefully controlled a syringe to take some blood from the mimic and, still keeping everything hidden, I controlled the syringe to come back to where I was standing.


    If drinking the mimic¡¯s blood doesn¡¯t grant me the ¡®mimic¡¯ ability, but instead gives me abilities of whatever it was ¡®mimicking¡¯, then couldn¡¯t I use this thing to go near unique ability holders and get their abilities? It should work! I wasn¡¯t drinking blood from humans, I was technically drinking blood from a monster! This should definitely work!


    I was beside myself as I saw the syringe getting closer and closer to me, but just before drinking it I stopped. I was suddenly reminded of the Council and their ability holder that could see all the abilities I had absorbed. If I drank this blood and got Ariel¡¯s unique ability the whole Council would immediately know about it. Dammit!


    I stashed away the syringe full of blood into my pocket dimension regretfully. There was no way I could confirm whether this works or not. If it does, then I have just found the answer to a lot of my troubles! I¡¯ll just have to wait for now before trying to drink any blood this way.


    For now, I need to find a way to keep this mimic alive and to also keep it a secret!


    _______________________________________________


    Author''s Note: Sorry for disappearing for the past few days. I have exams from the 8th-12th of March, which is the reason why I haven''t been uploading chapters. After this one there will probably be no more chapters till the 13th/14th.


    Let me know of your thoughts about this chapter. I wrote this in bits and pieces over the past few days instead of taking a couple hours and writing it in a go, so the possibilities of mistakes are high. Please do point out if you see any!


    I have also asked for some advice and I will be editing the start of this novel. Will let you guys know of the changes, though the changes will not affect the actual plot in any way. The edit will mostly be grammatical changes etc. If anyone has any thoughts on how to improve the novel I have written so far, please do let me know! Thanks!


    Thank you for reading and for your continued support!


    Also, my novel has now crossed 200 pages! Woohoo! :D

 Chapter Thirty Three: The University (Part Three)

    Author''s Note:


    My sincere apologies to everyone for disappearing for so long. I had absolutely no intentions of going away but real life came and dealt a seriously bad hand to me and my family. It has been a rough couple of weeks for us but thankfully everything is more or less okay now. No matter what I did there was no way I could have had the time to write anything as I absolutely had to give time to my family. I do apologize for not informing anyone for the reason for my disappearance, as it was rather personal in nature.


    Let''s move on to the story. I originally had the intention of releasing a number of chapters in one go on my return, but it has taken me the last two weeks to write two chapters! My intention was to release about 8-10 chapters as a way to apologize but I am still extremely busy with the family so it would have taken too long, so I am releasing two chapters today. I will have one day soon where I release multiple chapters to make up for the lost time, that''s a promise!


    Finally, I would like to ask for some help from you. I have been out of the loop from this story for a long time, so if you do spot any plotholes in the upcoming chapters, please do point them out to me so I can fix them! Thank you in advance!


    Once again my apologies for the disappearing, but please do know that I have no intentions of dropping this story and I will finish this sooner or later!


    _________________________________


    There were a few ways I could keep this mimic hidden. I could keep a small insect or a relatively harmless monster close to it but the risk that the mimic could become accidentally closer to me is not one I am willing to take. I could keep it near a plant and keep the plant hidden away but again there is a risk of something other than the plant being closer to it and I could lose the mimic as a result.


    There was something I could do but I had no idea if it would work or not, so I teleported back to the hallway, taking the mimic with me. I took care of keeping the mimic, which was now mimicking me, asleep with constant use of the sleeping powder.


    The mimic and me arrived back into the monster infested hallways as I made sure that hiding presence was active. I spotted a feline monster nearby which was perfect for my experiment.


    I needed to see if a living thing could go inside my pocket dimension and stay alive or not. I don¡¯t remember it being specifically mentioned from ¡®mind-me¡¯ that living things couldn¡¯t go inside but if this works it will solve my problem. Time doesn¡¯t pass in my pocket dimension so if I put the mimic to sleep and put it in the pocket dimension then it will still be alive and asleep when I take it out. Theoretically, this should work.


    I simply grabbed the feline near me and quickly pushed it into my pocket dimension, before I moved on to a nearby empty classroom located in an area more or less devoid of monsters.


    I waited for about twenty or so minutes before taking the feline monster out of my pocket dimension. It was still alive! At least that confirms the fact that living things can survive inside the dimension! Next, I released a small amount of sleeping powder on the feline and after making sure that it was asleep I put it back into the dimension.


    I also went back into the hallway and got an insect monster and put it inside the dimension too, just to make sure that the feline didn¡¯t have some innate ability that lets it stay alive in another dimension. With the world gone crazy with these monsters and abilities, I can never be too sure of anything!


    I waited about forty minutes this time before taking the insect out first. It was still alive, so I killed it and moved on to the feline. After making sure that the mimic was still asleep, I took out the feline and found that it was also fast asleep! This is great! I can keep the mimic hidden away and use it to get all the abilities from the council!


    I gave the mimic another dose of sleeping powder before taking out a syringe and drinking as much blood from ¡®myself¡¯ as I could in one go. Telekinesis was an amazingly powerful ability, and I just had an unlimited source of blood for it now! I need to take advantage of this lucky situation as often as I can to make myself more powerful. This will give me a rise in my power and at the same time the Council will be unaware of this. It¡¯s a win-win situation for me!


    After drinking as much blood as I could I got the confirmation from ¡®mind-me¡¯ that I had absorbed telekinesis. I gave the mimic another dose of the sleeping powder and put it inside my pocket dimension. I was feeling quite pleased so I decided to let the feline live, it had helped me out after all! Maybe I should have kept the insect alive as well¡­? Oh well, too late now.


    I had a couple of other things to experiment with the mimic, particularly I wanted to see if I could get the mimic ability somehow. One thing I could try to do was to take the mimic near one of the people who had their abilities stolen and see what happens if I drink the blood from the mimic this way. Another thing I could do was to try and get the mimic near an insect and drink its blood then. Insects don¡¯t have any abilities so that could work too.


    But, that will all have to wait. I have left Ariel alone in that room for a few hours and I need to go back to her. With that decided, I teleported back to the room with Ariel and deactivated hiding presence.


    Immediately a snarl of ¡°Where the FUCK have you been?¡± assaulted my ears as Ariel stood right in front of me with a menacing glare fixed in her eyes.


    ¡®Has it been THAT long? Hmmm¡­¡¯


    I know I was a bit at fault here, but I didn¡¯t have the time or the patience to deal with an angry woman right now. Thinking quickly, I said, ¡°I would rather you see where I was for yourself.¡± I said it with a bit of a defeated look and a sigh, and I could see that it surprised Ariel a bit as she was expecting something else.


    I grabbed her hand, activated hiding presence and teleported us both to the hall where everyone was present. The forlorn and silent atmosphere of the room was pressing at us from all sides as the miserable expressions of everyone became visible.


    Ariel let out a gasp from my side and I immediately communicated telepathically to not make a sound. I didn¡¯t want anyone to be aware of our presence here, yet.


    This sight would make Ariel forget all her anger towards me and instead she would probably focus more on helping everyone, which is exactly what I wanted. It may also have made her remember past memories of her situation before I came to rescue her, which I didn¡¯t like, but that can¡¯t be helped.


    About a minute had passed since I got Ariel here, which is more than enough time for now I think. I teleported myself and Ariel back to our room so that we could discuss things.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry it took so long but as you could¡­¡±


    My pretend apology was interrupted by Ariel as she held up a hand and said, ¡°I understand.¡±


    I pretended to sigh with relief then started to explain all that I had learned thus far from James. I obviously kept the existence of the mimic a secret.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ______________________________


    After my explanations ended Ariel kept quiet, deep in thought. I had told her all about Perry and the ¡®entity¡¯, and of the fact that many of the people in the auditorium no longer had any abilities.


    A few minutes passed by in silence before I decided to break it.


    ¡°So, what do you suppose we should do now?¡±


    ¡°Help them.¡± She immediately answered without any hesitation whatsoever.


    She had a determined look in her eyes which I have only seen once during the time she was torturing the bastards in that penthouse. At that time I knew that nothing I said would make her change her mind about inflicting as much pain as possible on the men, and right now I knew nothing would change her mind from helping everyone in the university.


    I¡¯m not against helping them, I actually would prefer to save James and a few of my friends. But, I still need to keep my best interests in my mind. I don¡¯t want to be some sort of hero figure that everyone looks up to and expects to always be there to save them from everything. That being said, there would be no swaying Ariel so I should at least hear what she has to say. If she can come up with something feasible to save everyone I would absolutely go for it.


    ¡°Obviously.¡± I said. ¡°The question is how?¡±


    ¡°Well, for one we need to give them food. You have a lot of it don¡¯t you? We could give it to them to eat.¡±


    I froze.


    My pocket dimension was full of food. Both perishable and non-perishable. I had stuffed it full of anything and everything edible that I could find ever since I got the ability. There was probably enough food in there to last me and Ariel a few years comfortably.


    But what if I started feeding two hundred or so people? Three meals a day times two hundred? That food would run out in weeks!


    I got the food for myself. I don¡¯t mind sharing it with Ariel. If James were here I wouldn¡¯t mind sharing it with him either. Perhaps at most I could share it with ten people daily. But two hundred? Nope. Not a chance.


    I need to communicate this to Ariel without sounding as if I am unwilling to give food to starving people. Hmmm¡­.


    ¡°Yeah I thought of that. I have no problems giving them food and water, but my pocket dimension can only hold so much. There¡¯s not enough to go around for long. What we need to do is find a food source which won¡¯t run out quickly. I was thinking of seeing if the monsters here are edible, or if there are any other food sources here. I thought it would be best if I took a few of them along with me to search or hunt, it will give them something to do and also give them a sense of achievement which will help them mentally as well.¡±


    It was a load of crap that I just thought of at the spot, hopefully this will make some sort of sense to Ariel.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ Sounds better than just handing out food I think¡­. Yeah, let¡¯s go with your idea!¡±


    Wow. She bought it. Either I¡¯m too good or she¡¯s not thinking straight.


    I resisted the grin that was threatening to form on my face and decided to go further with the discussions.


    ¡°Right. Food situation is decided. Water is easy enough to get through water manipulation. Ultimate goal is to get out of here obviously but how are we going to do it?¡±


    This is the main reason I wanted to speak to Ariel. My ideas were basically to use the useless people from the group as ¡®information gatherers¡¯ against the entity and kill Perry. Sounds good to me but I know others won¡¯t find it acceptable, and I needed to keep them close to me in order to get their help in the future. Especially Ariel, whose ability will be useful against stronger opponents for now. If the mimic thing works and I get her ability then I might have to rethink a few things¡­


    ¡°We need more information. There¡¯s no proof that Perry is actually being controlled by this ¡®entity¡¯. I know for a fact how society has changed now and Perry could be doing all of this just for some twisted sort of fun. We need to glean as much information as possible from everyone here, and then perhaps you could investigate with Gray on the abilities of the ¡®entity¡¯ and the true nature of Perry.


    After providing them with a way to get food, we should also look to get them some sort of comfort. If people are relaxed and well fed they will get more motivated to do something and we can go attack the ¡®entity¡¯ and Perry with a large group instead of you going there alone to fight them both. It will be safer and we could have the numbers advantage.


    You took a lot of mattresses, clothes, sheets etc. from various places too didn¡¯t you? We could give those to the people, especially the old, the young and the sick. That should help their mental health by a lot and get them motivated.


    I think that should be enough for a start. We can decide what to do further when we know more.¡±


    ......


    I had completely forgotten about all the things in my pocket dimension! I basically became a hoarder and took a LOT of things, including mattresses and clothes. After Ariel joined me I even went and got a lot of clothes for women.


    I have a lot of things I took just because of convenience. I used to sleep on a mattress when I was travelling around the world even though I knew I could simply teleport back to my apartment in a split second. I liked sleeping outdoors during that time, but that did mean that any mattress I used would get dirty or covered with bugs after a single night so I usually only used a mattress once or twice, which is why I have about fifty or so mattresses in my pocket dimension.


    Same type of situation with clothes. I can¡¯t be bothered washing clothes, so I simply discard the clothes covered in blood and gore and wear something new. There were eight billion people here on Earth and many times that number of clothes, and this abundant supply of clothes is what I took advantage of.


    I only have clothes more or less in my or Ariel¡¯s size but that should be good enough. This pocket dimension sure is useful! I have so much in there and I still haven¡¯t found out the total capacity of the dimension!


    ¡°Sounds like a plan.¡± I said to Ariel with a smile.


    I can always get more clothes or other things, so disposing of them won¡¯t be a problem. Hopefully we can find some source of food because I DO NOT want to give all this food away!


    P.S. Next chapter should be up in a few minutes. Just need time to proofread. Let me know of any mistakes in this chapter, thanks.

 Chapter Thirty Four: The University (Part Four)

    I was at the auditorium looking at everyone and thinking about the plans me and Ariel had set.


    We had decided that I would go ahead and meet with everyone alone first. Ariel said a familiar face would be better received so she would stay away for now, but I think the real reason was because she still had a few misgivings about coming into contact with a large crowd.


    I prepared to get into the ¡®cheerful, lovable and social Ben¡¯ character which I usually used to deal with people. It¡¯s the ¡®Ben¡¯ that is one of the most popular people in the university, so it should be able to uplift these people somewhat.


    It was night but the place was lit with a few people using light manipulation to conjure up balls of light. I went closer to James and the group of people I was closest to and took a deep breathe.


    Apart from James, there were eight others sitting in a circle. I went to the center and deactivated hiding presence before saying, ¡°Hey guys! Why all the long faces?¡±


    I looked around with a grin on my face to all the different reactions. James just had a stupid smile, while the others simply looked shocked or alarmed. Gradually those expressions started to change.


    Emily was the first one to give an excited shriek and leapt up to hug me tightly. I figured she would be the most excited, she was the closest female friend I had. Michael, Adam, Paul, Selena and Jennifer soon followed in the group hug. Jake and Christina stayed behind and looked wary at first, but James assured them that it really was me and soon I was surrounded by everyone in a tight group hug.


    This response was understandable. Even if the whole apocalypse scenario and mental stress is discarded, my arrival would still have this sort of response. I was one of the most popular people for a reason, and I was especially popular among these nine.


    I knew I was different from a very young age, but I always kept my real self hidden from everyone around me, including my family and best friends. I always thought of myself as a bit of a coward for this, which is why I admired the people who were always themselves no matter what. The geeks, the nerds, the gays, the weirdly eccentric, the oddballs etc. I admired their courage of being themselves in a society which shunned anything ¡®abnormal¡¯.


    When I got to high school I actively went against anyone and everyone who bullied these outcasts. I had a large number of friends already from middle school who had my back, and with their help I largely got rid of bullying which got me popularity for all the right reasons. It was the one good thing I have done in my life and the one thing that I am actually proud of.


    Apart from James, Adam and Selena, everyone else in this group had been bullied at some point and had been ¡®saved¡¯ by me, which is probably the reason for their reaction.


    I was known throughout high school and in the university as ¡®the cheerful and lovable guy who was amazingly open-minded and stood up against any wrong-doings¡¯. My popularity was especially high not just because of the anti-bullying, but because I actually took the time to get to know almost everyone I came across, including the outcasts.


    The ¡®Ben¡¯ character was friends with everyone and an enemy of no one. This was largely due to the principles which I had set for myself, one of which was ¡®always be friendly when in public and make as many friends as possible.¡¯ This principle was there as one of the steps to keep me from becoming an actual sociopath, as I had read that most sociopaths turned to become murderers or criminals because they kept to themselves and were always alone. Thus I kept to myself when I was at home but socialized as much as possible when I was at school/university.


    I was still a child when I made these principles and I have thought about how childish they are on more than one occasion. But I still followed them diligently as they seemed to work somehow.


    Obviously, I threw most of these principles out of the window ever since this ¡®apocalypse¡¯ happened, but to the people here at the university I was still that friendly ¡®Ben¡¯ from before.


    _____________________________________


    I lost track of time as I kept getting greeted by everyone around. They all wanted to know where I had been and what I had done so I had to tell my story up to this point while omitting many things.


    Jake had the ¡®ability-identification¡¯ ability so I had to reveal my ability to the group of nine. My act of being disgusted with my own ability and the dialogue of ¡®I had to do whatever it took to survive¡¯ made the revelation go much better than I had expected it to go. James was shocked and had a look of betrayal when I revealed my real ability but I convinced him that I was simply too ashamed to tell anyone my ¡®disgusting, horrible, revolting ability.¡¯ It took some time but he understood soon enough.


    I asked each of them not to tell anyone else about my ability as I was too ¡®disgusted and ashamed by it¡¯ and they all agreed, and even comforted me by saying things like ¡®it wasn¡¯t your choice to get this ability after all¡¯! Even if they do inform others about my ability, I have no problems with it. I can hold my own against anyone here after all. Besides, the Council already knows my ability so I would have had to tell these guys sooner or later if I am to ¡®rescue¡¯ them from here.


    They all wanted to keep chatting away but I stopped them and started speaking.


    ¡°Look, we are all stuck here so we have all the time in the world to chat away. I need to know a few things, and the most important is where do you guys get food from?¡±


    I asked about food first because it went along with my character which always cared for others instead of myself. I also wanted to see how they had been living so far so I could keep my own stash of food safe!


    Everyone looked a bit uncomfortable before James spoke, ¡°Have you seen those black panthers around?¡± He must be talking about the felines, so I nodded. ¡°We have been eating them. They are surprisingly tasty, but they are hard to catch so it hasn¡¯t been easy ever since Perry¡­¡±


    Oh, well that should be easy then. I breathed a sigh of relief as my food stash would be safe now. I looked around the malnourished faces and decided to get some food right away. I could provide them with some food right now and when they are a bit well fed I could take a few of them to hunt with me.


    ¡°Sounds good. Wait a minute, I¡¯ll be right back.¡± I said before teleporting back into the hallway.


    It took less than a minute for me to kill twenty or so felines by twisting their necks through telekinesis. I grabbed as many as I could before teleporting back and dumping them, then going back to grab more. This continued on until I had collected about fifty felines in the auditorium as the faces turned from shock to amazement to delight each time I came back with more.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The crowd of people all had one expression: hunger. So I got out of the way and brushed away all the thank yous. They all set about to divide the task of cooking amongst themselves while I quietly teleported away. I telepathically told James that I was going to roam about for a bit in search of more food so they don¡¯t get alarmed from my disappearance.


    I took a deep breathe of relief after getting away from all of them. I had forgotten how taxing it was to stay ¡®in character¡¯ for so long. I wouldn¡¯t have bothered with all of this if I didn¡¯t think I would need their help in the future. *Sigh*


    I still needed to perform the experiment with the mimic on the people who had lost their abilities. It''s been a long day though, I guess I could simply do it tomorrow. I need some time to relax a bit.


    I hadn¡¯t really explored much of the university yet. So far I had only stayed in the Eastern Wing, so I decided to head over to the other buildings to see if there were any monsters with good abilities anywhere on campus.


    I started wandering around the buildings aimlessly just to pass the time. I had maybe around an hour or so before the fire manipulators managed to cook enough food for everyone and I had to get back to pass around mattresses and clothes.


    The East Wing had nothing new to offer. The same monsters everywhere. But, as soon as I got to the South Wing the monsters changed.


    This Wing had large, black bears all over the place which had the super strength and super speed abilities. Both abilities I already had maxed out so they were useless for me, but I couldn¡¯t help but think about how the others had crossed this Wing as the ¡®entity¡¯ was located at the West Wing. They must have crossed the North Wing when they went with Perry to fight the entity because I don¡¯t think they could have made it across this bear-infested Wing alive.


    I crossed over to the North Wing to see if I was right and as it turns out my hypothesis was correct. This Wing had Giant rats which only had enhanced strength as their ability, along with large bats which had enhanced speed. Thankfully, these weren¡¯t the bats that chased me around on the first night the monsters arrived.


    I was curious to go and see what kind of creatures the West Wing would have apart from the ¡®entity¡¯ when suddenly I froze. At the end of the hallway I was currently at I could see Perry walking towards me!


    No monster seemed to attack him at all even though he wasn¡¯t using any sort of invisibility, which means that the ¡®entity¡¯ really must have made him into his minion somehow.


    I was still using hiding-presence so he hadn¡¯t noticed me yet. I used ability-identification on him but it only revealed that he had the ability of ¡®Steal¡¯.


    I decided to try and use the sleeping-powder against him while I still had the surprise factor. I could use telekinesis to snap his neck or smash his head against the wall but I was hesitant to do that as he could have some sort of healing ability that could render it ineffective. I know for a fact that rapid healing and rapid regeneration would make almost all kinds of physical attacks useless.


    I used air manipulation to get the powder close to Perry and waited. A few seconds passed before he stopped his walk and looked bewildered. He then looked at the hallway¡­ No! He looked straight at me!


    ¡°Ah Ben. Long time no see. How have you been dear friend? Oh, and just so you know, this sleeping powder won¡¯t work on me.¡± He had a mocking smile as he stared straight into my eyes!


    How could he see me even though I had hiding presence on?! Some kind of vision ability like my True-Sight? Shit!


    ¡°I¡¯ve been good, and how about you?¡± I answered while my mind went into overdrive.


    ¡°Oh I have been well. I see you have an interesting ability. I might have to get serious.¡±


    He has ability-identification too?!


    He then suddenly vanished! I immediately reacted by teleporting a bit of distance away while I activated True-Sight and saw that he was now standing right where I had been a second ago!


    I remembered that he only needed to touch me and I would start to lose my ability! I tried telekinesis but no matter what I couldn''t control him despite trying as hard as I could!


    ¡°Interesting. Your ability is almost the same as mine is, a bit more on the disturbing side though. Why don¡¯t you join me and my lord? He has provided me with so much more power than I had previously. He could show you true power too! What do you say?¡± He held out his hand with a gentle smile which didn¡¯t reach his eyes.


    So this ¡®entity¡¯ had provided him with some powers? Damn! He might be more troublesome than I thought. Is that why telekinesis isn¡¯t working? Ahh¡­ I have to get out of here!


    I teleported back to the East Wing with my heart thumping loudly. I frantically looked all round me using all vision abilities I had while constantly using ability-identification in a wide range.


    Five minutes passed and my heart and mind had calmed down somewhat.


    How did he nullify my telekinesis? What powers had he gained from his ¡®lord¡¯? Why did he seem so much stronger than me? Was it because of his lord or was it simply because I had never faced such an opponent?


    No that I think about it, I actually never did face such an opponent. I usually overpower my opponents through my strength or use telekinesis on them. Rarely do I use any of my other abilities. Perry is an opponent whom I can¡¯t physically touch and I can¡¯t seem to control him with telekinesis. On top of that I am sure he would have elemental manipulations too which makes them useless as well. Furthermore he must surely have healing abilities!


    The biggest advantage he has though is that he only has to touch me for a few minutes and he wins!


    Just what have I gotten myself into this time...?


    _________________________________


    Next Chapter should be up in a few days. No more extra long breaks hopefully. Let me know of any mistakes this chapter.