LLch12 - 14

CH12: Fast Leveling

“Help!” A sunshine fairy yelled as a bird flew off with her in its beak. Stella straddled him while the bright pink-haired sunshine fairy was abducted. The fairy wore a dress made of sparkling reflective material, and a raven snatched her up. After watching her vanish between some trees, he was confident they wouldn’t meet again. Fortunately, it emptied one of his summoning slots.

“Well, maybe summoning more of us isn’t a good idea. What did you summon me for exactly? Do you need help returning to normal?”

Silas shook his head.

“Did you want me to use my fairy magic to transform you into something else at random?” Stella asked.

Silas shook his body. Her questions were getting irritating.

“I know, owe,” Stella yelled before yanking an ant off her ankle. “Take lasers,” Stella yelled as beams of light blasted from her eyes at a line of marching ants.

Summoner lvl2

He gained a level in summoner, and all it took was Stella blasting a few ants with her laser beam eyes.

“Scary Fairy,” his blue wasp friend said. “Want mate,” she said.

“Sorry, I know what happens when one of you is filled with eggs,” Stella said while pointing at his wasp companion.

He didn’t think it was that big of a secret, but Stella wasn’t done.

“They get fat.”

Silas sighed and moved beside his friend. Unfortunately, she was regenerating much slower than Silas’s own rate. He would have already healed completely.

He watched Stella wave her hand and lift a pebble without touching it. The only cost was Silas’s mana reserves. It wasn’t a lot, but he noticed the hit. When he leveled up, Stella’s level also increased.

“I guess you realized how summoner levels up. Killing monsters alone won’t do a thing; you need me to kill them. Since I’m a brilliant princess, I front-loaded my skills with laser eyes and telekinesis. This is going to be easy.” Silas nodded slowly.

His wasp friend didn’t pay Stella much attention; instead, she dug into the frog, ripping away its flesh a little at a time. As she fed, he could practically see her wings heal in real-time. It wouldn’t be long before she was in full health.

“Alright, if you could summon a few more of my sisters, particularly those older than me and next in line for the throne, that would be great.” Unfortunately, Silas wasn’t in the mood and glared at her with his lone eye.

“Fine, we can discuss it after you gain the summon communion trait at level 10.” Stella blinked, looked down at me, then pulled at her pigtails. “How did we gain a level from killing some ants? Only humans get summon classes, and ants shouldn’t give exp for humans. Worse, a few ants were enough to level up your class.” She looked at him, then took on a thinking pose. “I think I figured it out. You were transformed before you got your class, and rank leeches are in the extremely high experience bracket. Add a class to that and,” A big grin spread across her face. “I can kill bugs and power level you eight levels in a few minutes. Your E- rank mana is registered as a leech, but it's still E- rank with a bonus of 20% to efficiency. Let’s power you up and take advantage of your circumstances before whatever that witch did to you wears off.” Stella said.

Stella flew quickly through the grass, and he saw her blast everything she could find with laser beam eyes. Each blast dipped his mana until he gained a level.

Summoner lvl3

Mana 59 E- 120%

Charisma 49 E- 100%

Summoner lvl4

Mana 61 E- 120%

Charisma 52 E 100%

Suddenly he felt a change spread through his body. The small scars left behind from the wasp breeding slowly disappeared, and his dark exterior looked a little glossier. His body lengthened a little, and he could swear there was a shine to him. The change to E proper hadn’t done anything for his strength, but he sensed it would be easier to use charm. He might be able to use it on more creatures.

Summoner lvl5

Mana 64 E- 120%

Charisma 56 E 100%

Summoner lvl6

Mana 67 E- 120%

Charisma 60 E 100%

Summoner lvl7

Mana 70 E- 120%

Charisma 63 E 100%

Summoner lvl8

Mana 73 E- 120%

Charisma 66 E 100%

Summoner lvl9

Mana 76 E 120%

Charisma 69 E 100%

He felt his body go through another change as the mana inside of him practically doubled, showing him the disparity between stat ranks. If it was like that for stat ranks, he could barely imagine how strong a rank 2 monster was compared to himself.

Summoner lvl10

Mana 79 E 120%

Charisma 72 E 100%

New trait

Summon Communion – Communicate magically with all summoned creatures.

“Master is this thing on, I Stella, your brilliant, amazing summon who is tragically still only 9th in line for the throne. If you could do me a solid and summon my sisters, that would be great.” Stella said.

Silas sighed and looked over at his wasp friend, still gorging herself on the frog. Halfway through Stella’s rampage, she had already fully healed and was eating for energy. So there was a good chance she was about to rank up.

He sighed and felt out his magic reserves.

Lesser Summons Open 13/14

Mid-Summons Open 1/1

From what he could tell, his latest rank up from E- to E had doubled his available lesser summons. Before, at E- charisma, he could only summon 1 lesser summon for every 10 points in charisma. After ranking up, the number of lesser summons doubled to 2 for every 10 points. He could summon a small army of fairies to attack all the bugs around them to gain precious exp, but that probably wouldn’t work. Stella was a little cutthroat, and her sisters were probably just as bad. Then there was the mana cost. E mana was better than E- but that didn’t mean he could handle a lot of mobs. Stella’s laser beam eyes took up a lot of mana.

“Let’s find a safe base of operations first. I think when the wasps got me originally, I saw a stump that sounds like a great place to hide my friend while she ranks up.” Silas said.

“Are you planning to become a beast tamer for your next class? Wouldn’t you want something with a little more punch? You could take this class to tier 2 and summon me in my rank 2 form or add an offensive mage class. That way, you could summon me, and we could blast things together. What do you say?” Stella said.

“Beast tamer does sound like an interesting class. What do I need to get it?” Stella sighed.

“You need summoner and a warrior class. I don’t think that’s a good idea in your current form unless you go back to being human. If you manage to rank up, you’ll lose your increased exp.” Silas nodded and was happy he managed to derail her betrayal plans.

“What if I learned every basic mage class first?” Silas asked.

Stella blinked, then smiled. “You’re looking to get some EX-ranks for a legendary rank-up. Do it, and I heard humans can train their stats.” Silas nodded.

“Alright, I’ll help you out, but only if you help me get closer to the throne,” Stella said, and Silas cursed.

CH13: Base Of Operations

The stump was old and dug out by some warm-blooded animal. Rat feces littered the ground, and the second they approached, the animal started growling. Other small animals made themselves scarce as the owner of the stump peaked out with its beady black eyes.

While Silas charmed it, Stella didn’t waste a second and blasted the thing with her laser eyes. It froze for a second, allowing Stella to blast it again before it shook off the charm. It seemed that larger animals could shake him off even with his larger mana pool and charisma. That or it had enough charisma or mana to match him.

The monster charged out of its barrow, gnashing its yellow teeth before Stella blasted it again. Small wounds covered the monster rat’s body from her repeated attacks. The leech used charm again on the rat to give them more time before it committed to an attack.

Stella brought her hands up, and sunlight gathered between her fingers before she pushed them out. “Starburst,” Stella yelled as a glob of sunlight blasted the rat singing its hair.

The rat charged, and Silas sighed. “Go watch over, my friend. I’ll handle this like a leech should.” Silas ordered before hitting the rat again with charm before getting in close.

He made his way behind the creature and groaned when he saw rat dick and balls. Silas begrudgingly prepared to slip in through the backdoor and drain the rodent dry until it whirled around and snapped out at him. He shot forward and flew right down the rat’s windpipe. He froze as the rat struggled to breathe.

So, he waited. After a few minutes, the rat fell over and stopped moving. He listened for when the heart stopped and began the long process of shimmying himself out of the rat. Silas climbed over the rat’s tongue and lifted the roof of the monster’s mouth. It was more of a struggle than he thought, so he decided to get some reps in.

“All clear, the rat is dead,” Silas said as he struggled to lift the rat’s jaws and gently set them back down. He decided to work on strength and stamina more from then on what since he could barely open the rat’s mouth.

+1 Strength

Strength 21: F+

+2 Stamina

Stamina 20 F

“I don’t see why you care so much about a wasp about to rank up. You know they are total monsters in their later ranks, right. I know they are mostly called monsters anyway, but intelligent wasps are terrors. Those with human appearances are the deadliest; they are fast enough to kill high-ranking adventurers before they can react. Do you even know what she’s going to rank into?”

After feeling their larvae burst from his body, Silas thought they were monsters at any rank.

“No, Stella, what will rank into?” Silas asked.

“A moonlight pixie from what I can sense, so I should kill her; it will be better for all of us.”

“Better for you, maybe, but she’s been my ally longer than you.”

“You don’t understand they look like us, but a wasp will always be a wasp. They like to stick their ovipositors in fairies and fill us with eggs. Then they hatch, and we must overeat to keep our regeneration up, and when they leave us, we get fat. Some keep getting impregnated by them to keep their figure. I mean, have you ever heard of a fat fairy? No, because no one likes fat fairies.” Stella said.

“So, fairies can’t get the gluttony skill then.” Stella froze at his words and gave Silas a dangerous look.

“You bitch, how did you get the gluttony skill? That means you can eat anything you want and never get fat. It's literally having your cake and eating it too. My sister managed to get it, and that bitch is so smug.” Stella said.

Silas looked bag through his system logs until he found the message. “How do I show you my logs?”

“Will them visible, and that should be enough,” Stella said with a huff.

She quickly pushed against him to see his logs and groaned. “It's so easy. I just need to nab another skill, and it will drop automatically. Once I get that skill, I’m going to eat a big cake right in front of Ramona, the smug blue-haired cunt. Oh, I only eat salads like a cow.” Stella said, and Silas was sure his fairy summon was insane.

“What’s wrong with Ramona?” Silas asked.

“Nothing, she’s my best friend; I just want to mess with her and make her jealous,” Stella said.

A few hours went by, and Silas was getting bored. “Stella, is there any way I can use magic to fortify this place?”

“At Summoner lvl25, you’ll get to choose a profession. That can be a warder, enchanter, smith, alchemist, or really any profession you have the stats to qualify for. I wouldn’t recommend smith leeches don’t do well with fire or a lot of salt for that matter.” Stella said back to being productive.

Silas didn’t want to hear that. He wanted an easy way to fortify the stump with mana and hopefully gain some stat points while doing something productive. Silas felt his easy stat gain was also because of his leech body. Once he ranked up, his extreme experience gain would go away or at least decrease. This was his best chance to set himself up with the best foundation possible. For instance, he planned to get every class he possibly could.

“Well, you should have enough mana to try something simple. Some skills only need the right stats and action. For example, you have E-rank mana, so you should be able to use the spell fortify. All you have to do is pour mana into something and fill in empty spaces. That or you could try lifting things with your mana. Both are great skills to have.” Stella said.

He was about to try something when a message popped up.

Human: Beginner 100% Rank Up

Yes/No

Silas stared at the skill that had been slow to level until he gained a class. After that, human skyrocketed, constantly increasing it’s acceleration towards 100% with every level in summoner. So it was a pleasant surprise that it finally reached 100%.

Silas turned his body for the first time in a week until he formed a smile, pressed yes, and his world went black.

CH14: Disparity of Strength

What was human? Despite losing his human body, he gained a class, the human skill, and could raise stats through hard work like a human. However, the soul was something he was still skeptical of, even after being reduced to one after his first death. And despite his reincarnation in another world, he was cursed to maintain his human mind. Silas was sure his bitch of an ex-wife wanted him to wax and wane about losing his human body. However, events wouldn’t give him such a luxury even if he wanted to. He was a leech with a human mind bent on survival and taking advantage of the rules the new world played by. He had the qualifications to get a class, but his body remained that of a leech. Then his human skill ranked up, and things changed.

Light slowly filtered in through his eye as he struggled. He moved his arm to grab something to notice a lack of bones in his fingers. Silas felt his body sag in on himself as the world finally came back into perspective.

He was still a leech, but his human skill ranked up. Silas bent down to look at himself, seeing two spindly legs and his boneless arms. He waved his appendages around, but they had no bones, only thickly packed muscles.

“Master, no offense, but you look uncanny. I’ll use dispel to ensure I’m not caught in an amateur’s illusion.”

Human: Initiate 0.012%

Maintain human intelligence and memories no matter the form.

Forms gain more human characteristics the higher they level.

Silas helplessly waved his pitifully boneless appendages and moved deeper into the shadows of the stump’s burrow. He felt like someone who had gotten so obese that his arms and legs atrophied. Yet, even being in the most uncomfortable places in his life wasn’t as traumatizing as noodle arms.

“I would understand if you don’t want to be seen anymore. I can tell the moonlight pixie you died once she wakes up.”

He thought about it for a second before shaking his head. This wasn’t something that could beat him. It was a heavy shot to his morale more than pain had been, but if he leveled up some more, he would be more human. After a while, he convinced himself it was just his ugly adolescent phase. While he was an ugly duckling, he would be a beautiful swan.

“Master, even by leech standards, I think you would be considered ugly,” Stella said, and Silas rolled over.

“So, to fortify, all I have to do is put my mana into the walls and try to fill in spaces,” Silas said.

“That’s the idea; it's pretty easy; it's like the first thing beginner mages are taught. It's not like your buffing warriors with iron defense or summoning a fireball.”

“Wait, I can summon fire.”

“That’s a lvl35 skill called conjuration, but unlike Elementalist, Pyromancer, or any other offensive magic classes, it will just be a ball of fire dependent on the skill conjuration. Balls of fire don’t go very far, and unlike with dedicated offensive classes, they don’t explode. They take a lot of mana, and you don’t have much more than E-grade right now. Wait until you’re a D-grade to try.” Stella said.

Silas moved his hand, and it bent back and forth like a pendulum as he tried to touch the nearby wall. His limbs were masses of tightly packed muscles with no bones. They felt like their engineer was drunk when he designed them.

Touching the wall was more a matter of random chance than skill. He used his E-grade mana to fortify the wall. As in, he pushed his mana into the stump and tried to find empty spots in it. The process was like pouring water into the ground that he could feel and hoping it hit an empty pocket like a sinkhole.

“Will it be harder to train my mana since I have a class that rewards mana for every level?” Silas asked.

“With E-grade mana, you need to make E-grade plays. It will be about six times harder to get stat points, but not impossible. Big players make big plays, so use your mana like its E-grade instead of F.” Stella said.

He poured more of his mana into the stump until he noticed the dip. His mind stretched to keep up with all the directions his mana traveled until it nearly reached its limit, and he had to stop. Fortunately, regeneration worked not only on his health but his mana and stamina too. He was topped off enough in less than three hours to try again. Each time he tried, his mind was filled with endless data while he tried to find the space within the stump. Silas continued his practice until he passed out.

…

+1 Mana

Mana 80 E 120%

He saw the prompt and immediately tried again until he heard something. Silas turned over when he felt the ground rumble and heard some voices. “It’s over here. I think the blue one is going through a rank-up.”

“I don’t know about this, Chuck; you just got the beastmaster class.”

“Shut up, Marci; you don’t know anything. If a monster is ranking up, it's at its weakest this is my chance to get a strong familiar.” Chuck said before he tossed a cube into the stump that suddenly gave off light. The boy looked inside, and his pupils shrank when he saw the blue wasp’s still transforming body. The teen’s grubby hands latched out, and he grabbed for the wasp monster.

“What do you want me to do? I can attack, but if that boy is a human and has a tier 2 class? He would swat me like a fly.”

“Attack, shoot him in the eye.” Stella grinned, shot off, and blasted the boy with her laser beam eyes. The boy lurched up and hit his head on the ceiling of the stump. The boy ripped the old stump out of the ground with a mighty crack. He waved the heavy stump like a club before the girl stopped him.

“Don’t kill a fairy; it's bad luck. Do you want to go hunting goblins and get attacked by an ogre?” Marci asked.

The boy glared down and kicked sand at the two of them. Stella fell back, and Silas saw his health take a hard dip. The disparity in stats, rank, and species was too much for him.

Silas watched the boy leave with his friend; all he could do was watch.