Chapter 427: Knight

Chapter 427: Knight

“So what can Noodle do? You spend the most time with him,” I ask Izzy.

Meanwhile, said white snake is coiled around the shard of bone I gave him from Veil Ignition Station no. 2. He straight-up ignores the second one from the Bone Fortress. So far, he hasn’t eaten or absorbed it. He just keeps flicking his tongue towards it and touching it with his scaly body. He is emitting a small amount of mana though, and I observe the process, even activating my trait to do so.

Izzy watches as well. “Noodle can eat mana from the air. He can also perfectly store and digest until he can’t be felt at all.”

That seems somewhat similar to Biscuit’s primordial energy and a tiny bit to my black mana. The difference is that Biscuit seems to be able to... well, who the hell knows. He just does a bunch of weird stuff that scares some people a lot.

My black mana is an extremely dense form of mana that tries to absorb and dominate any mana in reach. Meanwhile, Noodle actively eats it, and then it... it disappears or gets used for something.

“Can Noodle grow bigger or make use of that mana?” I ask.

“He...” Izzy hesitates as if there is something she is hiding. Her eyes glance at me, Biscuit, and Noodle. “He can grow bigger if he wants to. And I think he needs a lot of time to slowly digest that mana and use it to become stronger. He can absorb a lot, but then it takes even longer.”

So he pretty much has his own reservoir where he can store absorbed mana, changing and transforming it into something he can use.

From my own testing, I know that using mana you’ve taken from someone else is extremely difficult. Each person has a slightly different kind of mana. Part of that can be mitigated by changing the frequencies, but it’s not quite as simple as that. It’s very difficult, and the results of using someone else’s mana can turn out catastrophic. Of course, that’s assuming you aren’t a monster like Lissandra.

That’s one of the reasons I want to improve my [Resonance] and master my eyes more. My skill set and [Mana Manipulation] should help me pull it off. Maybe not now, but sometime in the future. I have a very situational and extremely powerful build in mind.

A set of skills I believe should mess up anyone trying to use mana in the presence of my Pride enhanced domain.

Oh boy, this is going to be scary in a year or two.

“Noodle also seems to be registered as Isabella’s pet or something,” Sophie adds, lifting her head from the construct she is working on. “His growth is being influenced by Isabella’s, and we think some of his abilities might transfer over to her at some point. Noodle can even resist her flames now, they don’t even damage him anymore, and he seems to have a knack for reading people, not unlike Izzy.”

At that point, the three of us turn to the snake, who continues to ignore us. I’m absolutely sure he heard and probably understood what we were talking about.

Yet he pretends not to hear and continues to snuggle up to the bone.

“This one’s for free, but you’ll have to work for the others,” I tell the snake, before grabbing Biscuit and standing with him in my arms.

Noodle looks at me and then moves his head just a tiny bit, in a tiny imitation of a nod.

There are still some things I want to examine about his skill, and a few pieces of bone aren’t exactly a high price to pay.

Lily’s already got a few for the purpose of researching new ways to modify our bodies.

Later that day, I meet with Maya, as she returns from her hunt with Tess and Lily. She is holding Bloodthirst. I’ve decided to let her borrow the weapon and examine its effects while I work on other stuff. She agreed readily, unable to contain her excitement at getting to try out a new weapon.

“So?” I ask. “How was it?”

Not wanting to deal with it now, I don’t reject her, but push it into the future, “It doesn’t sound too unreasonable.”

“Got it, my Lord,” she says courteously before bowing gracefully. Then, with a wave of her hand and a cheeky smile that breaks the immersion, leaves, heading for the area she uses for her sparring matches with Lily.

I Boost myself to the top of the tower our group has taken for our new headquarters, I stare down at the fort stretched out below me. It’s the former secondary base of the Black Tower after their HQ was mostly destroyed, but it’s still somewhat impressive.

I watch mana moving in the air as it powers the web stretching across the area containing our base and its surroundings. It’s an improvement on a system the former owners already had in place, courtesy of Sophie. She is getting quite good at it too, she’s visibly improving as I watch the changes.

As for the prisoners, there are a few dozen of them, mostly using this place as a safe haven against the monsters. There is power in numbers, as they say. They are mostly brutes, not unlike those I’ve already met. It’s not even like all of them are powerful. In this place and other “rural” areas, they tend to be weaker than our group.

It seems like the closer one gets to the “central” area, the better the prospects are, with the prisoners there even managing to create something like normal cities if you want to call it that. Or maybe they truly are.

This moon seems to have been used as a prison for hundreds of years, maybe even longer. With the way people at higher levels tend to live for centuries, some of them have more than enough time to set something up for themselves.

There are rumors about multiple Champion candidates; there are even rumors that most people think of as more of a legend, whispers that an Absolute candidate may have been thrown in here, wounded, and left to die, betrayed by the people of his planet.

Information tends to be very sparse and hard to come by, most of these people are fully occupied with their survival, deprived of the luxury of caring about things like this. There have already been a few attempts to kill our members when they went out to hunt. One group tried to kidnap Sophie, another tried to force Min-Jae into betraying us, and more besides.

All of these people were dealt with quickly, cleanly, and with prejudice, showing the others that we are not to be messed with, because that’s the only thing people in this place seem to understand.

Joining me at the top of the tower is Izzy. She’s come alone this time and doesn’t bother trying to connect to my emotions, sitting next to me instead and joining me in admiring the view.

I still remember the way she was when we appeared on the 3rd floor when she was still under Sophie’s [Geas]. The current Izzy seems more mature. She’s still only 11 years old, a young girl who's been forced to spend the next 4 years here in this tutorial. Forced to kill to survive, forced to make hard decisions. She might be childish at times, but sometimes she feels like the most mature of all of us. So I have to wonder if she’s not allowing herself to be childish from time to time as a method of coping with everything she’s been forced to go through.

“Sophie decided to go to Beyond,” she says, looking at me with her green eyes. “She’s strong, so she will do well, but she can be dumb sometimes, so will you help her? For me?”

In response, I poke her side, “We’re in the same group, so I will. Why so serious?”

“You can be hard to read sometimes, so I want to be sure.”

With a sigh, I allow her to connect to my emotions, and she does so very gently. Lately, she seems to be getting nervous whenever she finds herself unable to sense the emotions of those around her as if she had grown overdependent. I wonder if it's anything like my overreliance on [Focus].

“You aren’t using that skill to block your emotions anymore,” she states, sounding happy to say it.

“It had to happen somehow,” I shrug.

“Maybe you aren’t as dumb as I thought,” she declares.

At that, I decide to stay quiet, and Isabella giggles quietly, sensing my emotions.