Stealing Beasts

What Magnus wanted was simple: one of the beasts he had fled from. Together with his earlier test on whether or not Master of the Hivemind worked on non-humans, Magnus was now relatively sure that he could assimilate anything with a mind into it.

Thus, if he had to write the full profile of Master of the Hivemind, it would look like the following,

{=[ Master of the Hivemind ]=}

- (NEW!) When invoked, allows one to either assimilate a new being into the Hivemind or summon and unsummon one of the members of the Hivemind. Having more than one member active at a time will drain energy according to the number of members active.

Invocation:

"I am the master and maker of the Hivemind,

The mind behind minds,

The one who stands above humanity,

And the one civilizations despise."

{=[=o=o=o=o=]=}

As for his Vow of the Lonely,

{=[ Vow of the Lonely ]=}

- (NEW!) Requires one to advance alone, without subordinates and superiors. Cooperating with others makes you weaker. Too many subordinates, superiors, or comrades, and death will come.

Verses:

"Advance as One, alien soul.

You are an existence unwanted by the world.

Your glory shall be yours and yours alone.

No man is an island, but you have no choice but to be greater than man if you seek existence."

{=[=o=o=o=o=]=}

He took over Klaris' body and unsummoned his original one. He then invoked Mirror World Thief and appeared at a familiar location.

He saw another version of himself passed out on the ground, just in front of a cave.

It was currently nighttime. The bright portion of the night.

And Magnus could vaguely sense the approach of two beasts just as his past self stirred into awakening.

"Damn," He heard himself say, as the growls of the beasts echoed in his ears.

A battle soon commenced, and he watched as two blurs circled around his past self as they fought with fangs and claws.

This time, Magnus could now keep track of them with his eyes, even if only barely. Compared to before where he couldn't spot a thing, it was a massive improvement. It was all thanks to this different point of view.

He witnessed the moments of collision;

The moments when the two beasts would pause as they struck each other in full force.

The battle progressed as per his memories, and he watched himself run out in full stride. His past self disappeared into the forest, not caring for wounds or pain.

The two beasts howled in indignance at the sight of their prey running away. But they did not give chase, no.

They hated their opponent to the core. In fact, that human with a capacity for a large amount of Spirit Energy wasn't as appetizing as the beast opposite of themselves.

Past Magnus' reserves weren't full. If it was, then he would've been in for a treat.

Thus, the beasts focused on each other. The winner would be the one to feast and grow!

Magnus watched as they once more turned into blurs of movement he could barely catch. At least now though, due to their pause, he was able to catch a glimpse of what they looked like.

One was akin to a leopard, while the other looked like a Doberman. Both had a gust of wind always following them around. Their elemental affinities were clear to see.

The wind element made them fast. As fast as a tennis ball which had just been served.

The fight lasted for a while, and Magnus was there for the entirety of it. There were times when the battlefield moved, though, and he had to sprint there as fast as he could. Luckily, Klaris' body was stronger than his or he wouldn't have lasted.

It was then when things were nearing their end did Magnus act.

"Hup!"

He held the ground with his hands and allowed Spirit Energy to flow. He put his all into this action, draining as much Spirit Energy as possible.

Two boat chains sprung out from the earth, looking as hard and tough as metal. They wrapped around both beasts as they stood there, dazed and exhausted from the equal fight. They could not react despite their previous speeds, as they were now just as fast as a regular human.

They could not escape the incoming enslavement.

Magnus walked up to the leopard and gently laid his hand on its struggling body.

He then invoked Mirror World Thief.

"I am the thief of mirrored creation. The cloned child. The descendant of greens. And the walker of reflections."

And then the two of them vanished before the Doberman's terrified eyes.

.

.

.

Back in reality, Klaris and Magnus were standing with the leopard and comparing their heights.

"This guy is huge..." Klaris said as he climbed on top of the leopard's back, "He's the size of a car!"

"Be careful, this body is wounded," Magnus chided him, "We need time to heal him up, so our meals will be cut down a bit."

"Cut down?" Klaris bit his lips, "...Alright..."

He looked sad.

But Magnus couldn't do anything about that. The monsters he could hunt each time were limited, and he has been killing monsters for quite a long time now. He had put in his all every day for more than a week.

If he needed a larger population, he had to move somewhere else.

To another region of the underground catacombs.

And that entailed risking his face being seen by Asphell. It was a risk he was not going to take until the leopard—which he named Javelin—was fully healed.

Though, even now, he was taking a risk every day. For all he knew, Alice and her bunch might have reported his whereabouts upon learning of who he was.

His trail was easy to follow, and yet nobody was following it.

It baffled him to no end.

Magnus wondered just what was happening in the city above.

.

.

.

In Gatter.

Turmoil lay beneath the calm waters of appearances. Asphell, the former guardian of the city had been booted off of her position due to a variety of reasons.

The people didn't know of the specifics, but they could guess. No matter how far off their guesses were.

Some thought that it was because of the earlier incident with Magnus and the Spirit Beast. Others thought it was due to some secretive mistake and that none of them were worthy of knowing.

Some thought that there was a scandalous relationship that had been discovered while others proclaimed that Asphell was plotting treason.

There were a variety of rumours that had gone around full cycle over the time Magnus spent grinding. And those rumours kept growing with every day that Asphell kept herself locked in her quarters.

She was like a princess in her tower, not wishing to come out and, according to some, not being permitted to do so.

"Should we really report him to the knights? It might make things worse for Miss Asphell, you know." Haille gently said, looking at her old friend's back.

"I need to. Perhaps Miss Asphell can find someone to push all the blame to if they do. I cannot be sure, but my gut is telling me that this will be the right move." Alice was persistent.

With her knowing of Magnus' character and that awful aura he was able to exude, she gambled on the gears of the world turning out in Gatter's favour.

What if Magnus had been a villain lying in wait?

An enemy for all of Gatter?

Or even...

What if he was Asphell's friend, just painted bad by those rumours?

With how unreliable information was, all Alice could trust was her own gut feel. She knew that it was rarely wrong when it was compelling her this hard.

"Come on," Alice dragged her friends along with her to Gatter's knights.

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.

.

Magnus was still busy grinding. After a couple more days of grinding out the catacombs, he decided that he had to move.

The monster population in the area he was in had dropped so much that he could barely have a meal per day.

Moreover, his physique had grown. He was now at about half of Klaris' optimal strength. All done in the span of a few days.

Magnus nodded to himself. It felt like a decent amount of growth when he started pretty late on the ladder.

"At least I am able to fend for myself now."

He was happiest about that fact. Being in Thare made him feel helpless. He had nothing he could use to live reliably. It was thrilling to live day to day, but the helplessness was not something he liked.

"I can try out a few different plans as well, with Javelin over here,"

Magnus smiled.

Those 'plans' of his, included violence.

He needed a destructive Blessing, and this was probably the only opportunity to get one for his original body.

If he could not achieve it now, then he would have to throw away his original appearance to make room for more offensive characters. Javelin would decrease in usefulness once he returns to Thare, after all.

Criiiiieeee!

The squeal of a clawed gremlin scratched at his ears. Magnus pulled out his dulled blade and grunted. His sword skills weren't faring so well, and thus, his blade had dulled from all the times he parried claws and struck monster bone.

Knicks and cracks were present on some parts of the blade as well.

"At least I can do this," Magnus smiled as an orange glow erupted from his palm.

A fireball the size of an exercise ball enveloped the clawed goblin, causing it to writhe in pain until he began smelling like baked chicken.

"I'm also getting sick of this taste," Magnus sat down and took a messy bite out of his food. He used the monster's claws as a table knife to cut up the meat.

Although it was getting old, Magnus still enjoyed it enough not to throw up. Klaris and Javelin who just got summoned felt the same.

Though Klaris seemed to not care about variety, and instead, put his focus on quantity. Which was why he was still rather sad at the fact that his portions weren't as abundant as before.

"You'll have more soon," Magnus consoled. "We should be arriving at another region of the underground."

After the catacombs, Magnus opted for an area with a little more... heat. He wanted to train his water element skills on monsters that were likely of the fire attribute.

Such a decision required him to dig towards what was likely an active volcano.

"This should be the end of the catacombs," Magnus looked up from his long walk and saw an altar of some fire god. A mural was carved onto the walls of the room, depicting the fire god rewarding humans with fire whenever they offered dried objects.

After a short moment of adoration though, Magnus left. His goals did not beseech him to look at beautiful things. He could do it for leisure, sure, but not for long.

Thus, after a few more steps, Magnus was met with a sight that brought more magma, less rock. It was all hiding just behind the altar of the fire god.

Magnus had to walk under its giant throne to arrive where he was currently at.

"...It really is hot here."