CH47

Day 50

Spring 711, 11M 495Y

Rasputin Territory

Walker Farm

Heavy metal played in the background as vampires danced on a screen and on a projector. The Fang Sisters were gaining in popularity in North Weston, especially among young men and strangely middle aged women. Their languid movements combined with throaty singing followed by their powerful vocals made the creation of a skill more epic than drawing in a 3d image maker. I spun the skill repeatedly, condensed it to the size of a crystal, and compared it to Meng Bao's scans. Veronica gave me a cup of coffee and I smacked her feathered behind as she walked away. The side eye she gave me was more than worth it.

I sipped the bitter drink and let it soothe my soul. Speakers blasted sound against my telekinetic wall, a practice I had begun days ago to eke out some levels, but they didn't do the job. High-ranking skills needed items to level and feats, not practice. If I killed a vampire a rank above me with Sky Fiend Apotheosis, then I would gain levels after draining its blood.

Maybe that's why I wanted to go West to Bavilim.

I kicked my chair out from the center of the room and let it roll under my desk. Old papers fluttered, covered in my ideas, visions, and algorithms.

The skill I made for Meng Bao was a thing of beauty and completely sidestepped the problem of destroyed meridians. By turning Meng Bao into one meridian among many, in a sense his body would be strengthened through cultivation. Only he couldn't do it alone. His cultivation once he took on the skill was his entire army. Numbers, resources, and levels would determine his cultivation rate.

Through several leaders, dominion, All, One, and other skill types, I managed to cobble together something that worked. It hadn't taken decades because I had a plan from the outset. Fix Meng Bao's cultivation and make his cultivation based on something he enjoyed. Maybe I was a frog hungering for swan flesh, as the saying goes, but I had it.

Maybe I wasn't ever going to be a good army, leader, farmer, or tamer, but skills were something I enjoyed they made me feel good. When I finished Meng Bao's skill, I felt complete. This was what I was meant to do.

I clicked a button on the remote, cutting off the music, and gave the skill shard a final look over. The enchanters had managed to dig out a cave, and after distilling some mana, it was perfect for crafting a skill. While it wouldn't have the vast pure mana of a dungeon, it would be far less chaotic. From what I could tell the difference was a rank.

I hoped that wasn't a deal breaker. Meng Bao and Far Ming had become reliable people, if not friends.

"Welcome to our home. Please make yourself at home. The meeting will begin shortly. Would you like me to bring you anything while you wait?" Veronica asked.

"Young miss, don't trouble yourself. Atom is doing me a favor, after all." Meng Bao said.

Far Ming, even covered by my fabric walls didn't seem to trust I wasn't listening in. To be fair, the music was off, and I could feel the sound waves and make them out as words by replicating them in my ears. PK was a power with unlimited uses.

"It has been less than a fortnight, and already he presents us with results to a problem we have spent your fortune trying to solve. Forgive me, young master, if I am skeptical." Far Ming said.

"Not to be rude, but you don't know what you're talking about. Atom has dropped everything and given his all to create a skill to solve your problems. If he says he has a solution, then I believe him." Veronica said.

"I see," Far Ming said.

"Let's hear him out before deciding. This may be an over-enthusiastic progress update. While he said he solved my problem, it may be he only crossed one of many bottlenecks." Meng Bao said.

"I will bring him to the meeting," Veronica said.

I waited as Veronica crossed the winding halls within our tent and came to me. "How are they? Is Meng Bao excited?"

"They are a little overwhelmed. Maybe be gentle with them. They've been burned before." Veronica said.

"Was that a pun?" I asked.

"Not until rank 3," Veronica said.

"I will wait then," I said.

Meng Bao looked healthier than ever after partaking in the good food of the farm. While his body couldn't process chi, mana was another matter. The shakes he had suffered before coming here were a thing of the past, and the gators, chickens, and rabbits loved him. Our little army of rough riders had come along quickly, thanks to him. His black hair was tied up to keep it out of his eyes while riding.

Far Ming remained masked but let her fair flow out from her mask and over her shoulders. The silky dark hair shined in the lamplight within the tent. She looked half-ready to attack and kept her body small as if expecting me to attack them. It was kind of cute.

I pulled out my tablet and uploaded the current iteration of Meng Bao's skill.

"Meridian March is its name after the vitality-based skills needed to make it work. You could call it a passive and active skill. I understand this must look like nonsense to you, so let me take you through it step by step."

5 hours of complicated jargon later, they were well and truly dead. Far Ming finally lost her patients.

"What does it mean for my young master? Will he be able to cultivate?" Far Ming asked.

"No, and yes, he will be the primary meridian node that receives the effects of cultivation. He won't be the only one. His entire army will each by minor nodes in his meridians. Think of the army as replacement nodes and the chain of command as the flow of chi. You will cultivate, and so will your troops that chi will travel through all of you minorly strengthening everyone while the majority goes to Meng Bao. Do you understand what this means?" I asked.

"This is a solution." Meng Bao said.

"No, it isn't. The Meng clan will never accept it. Your cultivation speed will be based not on your own talent but the power of your army, no worse, the power of his army."

Meng Bao gave me a look, then looked back at Far Ming. "I am happy here." Meng Bao said.

"You are the one who will rise above all others and become empress."

"What," Meng Bao looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Did young master throw you off. Bao is a popular name for young ladies in Easton."

I stepped back.

"Let Wang Ling have the prince I was set aside when my meridians were destroyed."

I walked to the side and sat down. "So, I have no male friends," I said.

"Pretty sure Scout and Martin are guys." Meng Bao said.

"So what do you want to do then?" I asked.

The two looked at me and then at the skill hologram floating in the air. I didn't know how much of it they understood. Using the skill would make Meng Bao into a living army. Through cultivation, they would become like one body, strengthening her physical body through the cultivation and refinement of chi. I worked long and hard to get the skill right.

"I would like to use this skill and regain my cultivation. Leading my gator girls, maneaters, and Dire Hyenas has made me proud."

Meng Bao had a type, it seemed, and she had taken to expressing it further. Our relationship status greatly increased from offering her the ticket to regaining her cultivation. Really, this was all good. Which meant we were about to ride into a feces storm.

Days later, the skill creation cave was finished, and I entered it. The cave itself felt like mana well. So much filled the cave, and more was pumped in thanks to the runic enchantments surrounding the walls and the massive rune stone in the center of the room. A single chair made of wood rested next to the stone covered in seals. It was exactly what I needed.

Skill creation itself took a week, and there was no time to stop. Only my superhuman body allowed me to get away with it. My mere stage 4 in cultivation helped me survive to from a glowing green gem. It was a skill shard but not something dungeon-made. I recalled the colorless skill shards made by the few living skill crafters but they didn't compare.

From the dimensions to the size and color, my skill shard was a superior product.

Greater Skill Shard 

Army Encompassing Sutra Of Warfare (L) lvl1

Rank:4

Description: An edict that the army is the general and the general is the army manifested at the conceptual level. Cultivation is based on the average of the army, allowing even the most talentless or crippled cultivators to continue reaching for the heavens. Through trust and faith all can become one fused into a perfect cultivator with limitless potential at the highest levels.

If that wasn't a scary skill I didn't know what was. When the skill was finished, I spat out a wad of blood and left the cave. I tossed the skill to Meng Bao, who was waiting outside, and got Kate ready for a ride.

…

It was the early morning when we left. Lighting struck in the distance, and we all wore rain jackets. Going into vampire territory was always going to be a bad idea. Still, under the cover of a rainstorm, we had a chance. I sucked a breath and let it out. We had to do this. The monsters were getting wise, and we had mouths to feed. If we could grab some pigs and goats while we were at it, maybe it would be worth it.

I was so close to the last experience I needed I could almost taste it. If more attribute fruit ripened, I would be golden to max out and leave the farmer class behind. Druid or something more battle oriented seemed like the perfect class to me. I wanted to fight and it felt like that's what we were heading into. I kicked Kat and we headed out ahead of the storm aimed for Bavilim.

All we had to do was hit a small farming town and buy some of their cattle. Easy, really, if we didn't run into any vampires. After learning about Meng Bao I realized she might be in more danger than I thought. Vampires were known for raping young virgins and could smell them from vast distances.

It had only been a few days so Meng Bao was still struggling to rise through the stages of the first rank. While she hadn't hit a snag like me, she wasn't exactly speed-running the stages.

I hoped the storm would cover our scent and the sound of our movements. The rain would be feces to work in, but hopefully, it would be safe.

…

Rain pelted us for two days of travel and riding hard down an underdeveloped road. Heads of bandits attached to my saddle slapped my knee. I hoped for a little payday when we reached a town. If someone official was nearby, they could verify and send payment to my account. That would at least increase morale. Meng Bao rode beside me on a white charger, galloping through washed-out roads as our column galloped behind us. Most of our gear was in special bags, so we didn't have much of a baggage train.

We ran up a bluff and saw a large farm town filled with fields of dead cows. Night was falling, and I could sense people, even if they weren't the kind willing to come out and greet us. A look at our map marked this place as Reed's Town, a small farming community established only a decade ago.

Cattle were the main trade until they were slaughtered in the field. We stopped still an hour's ride from the town, and one of the gators flipped a cow carcass over.

"Captain, it doesn't have the bruising from blood settling in the body." A gator reported to Big Don.

We heard it but let the captain conduct the investigation. I technically wasn't a part of the army and was considered a special asset. That was interesting like how monsters with skills were far more receptive to chi than humans.

A hyena girl took a look, took off her helmet, and rubbed her spotted neck below a mane of curly red hair. "Dead for 4 days," she pointed to another body, "dead for 2 days." She kicked over a bull easily, weighing 4 tons. "Dead 1 day." She said.

Something wiggled inside the bull as the sun continued its long crawl. Fell-type monsters, or as some called them, dark type, lit up to my senses. When they had been dormant in the corpses, I hadn't sensed them at all, but once they started kicking, I could feel them easily.

One enterprising soldier raised a rifle and put a bullet through the bull, and the thing moved. A shriek echoed through the pasture and I heard tearing and then digging. Flames lit from the exit wound in the bull as whatever monster was inside caught fire in the fading light of day.

"Ghouls," Scout said.

The tamer shivered and backed away from the large rotting corpse crawling toward him.

"I think she likes you," I said.

Scout shivered. "Doesn't this freak you out?"

I raised an eyebrow and ripped the skin off the ghoul. PK had many uses.

Fire lit up within the cow and cooked the rotting remains as the ghoul burned. Ghouls came in different shapes and sizes, from what I remembered, and could be made from human bodies. Those that burst into flames were from humans who didn't receive enough blood to turn before they died. They were too weak to resist even the barest amount of sunlight.

I ripped open numerous rotten cow hides, exposing the ghouls to the fading light until the last of the light crept behind the horizon.

From the ground, hands reached out as the mindless ghouls clawed their way to the surface. They were all rank 1 monsters despite their humanoid appearance. While they were deadly to cows bred to stand still and graze all day to a trained army, they were no match.

Gator girls were massive 8ft tall mountains of muscle, armored scales, and hate for the enemy ripped, so it was unsurprising when they tore the ghouls apart with abandon. There was no concern about safety. This was a chore. After all, the real enemy wasn't on the ground. They were already in the village. Meng Bao joined me along with an elite unit of her men to clear out the vampires in the village.

"I heard a strange rumor." Meng Bao said.

"Oh, I like rumors," I said.

"More the tactical than gossip, I'm afraid." Meng Bao said.

"Feces, I still want to hear it," I said.

"The soldiers of Bavilim are forbidden to kill female vampires because they are all victims. Male humans who are raped by them are considered lucky and killed viciously when they, in turn, rape and turn virgin girls." I blinked my eyes slowly under the constant bombardment of rain. "Is this something you believe in? Should we spare the female vampires and only kill the males?"

For the first time since becoming superhuman, I felt physically ill.

"If a monster tries to take a bite out of you, kill it and ask questions never. Don't ever follow stupid orders like that. Someone is getting my chainsword up their bunghole. Suppose this rumor turns out to be true. In that case, an edict from the governor of the territory or Bavilim's city mayor will pay. I don't care if they are rank 4; I will tear them down from their ivory towers." I threw my blade, and a vampire shrieked as it pierced the monster to the hilt and churned their guts into putty. The barrier it put up shattered like wet paper.

I raised my hand.

Who needs to control the vampire when I controlled my chainsword. My blade ripped down, cutting through the vampire's crotch. Blood drained into my skill, and I felt it rise.

Sky Fiend Apotheosis (O) lvl11

A spear made of fell energy appeared over my hand before launching before the vampire could recover, piercing its head.

Soldiers raised their guns and fired in volleys as we traveled into the farmland, where I sensed the strongest vampire was taking refuge. Kate trotted forward as pleased as could be by the sounds of violence. Her Nightmare form in her next rank was assured by her malevolent nature.

The door to the manor opened, and the vampire held a girl up with his teeth at her neck.

"Anyone move, and I will tear her throat out." The vampire said.

I took a peak at his available status out of curiosity. As it turned out, he was still connected to the Weston System.

Clouse Vanraven lvl190

Rank: 3

Nosferatu: lvl25

Vampire lvl100

Class: Courtier lvl65