Sound assaulted her ears the moment the door was open, and she took a moment to adjust as the door whumped closed behind her. I would kill for a pair of sunglasses right now… Her eyes strained to adjust as she stepped to the side, not wanting to get pegged in the back should anyone else decide to leave at that moment. Eyesight, too. Is there a skill I can steal that makes the sun hurt less? Grumbling internally, she scanned for a safe haven where she could check her messages.
Spotting a shaded alleyway, she shambled her awkward way over to it and breathed a sigh of relief, just relaxing for a moment to calm her rapidly beating heart. I can do this. I can do hard things. She tried to mentally reassure herself for a moment before pulling up her notifications.
You have touched Raphael Millis, Siphon activated. Assessing stats and experience...
Choose a stat to siphon: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Magic, Charisma, or Luck.
Choose a skill to siphon: Athletics, Diplomacy, Sword, Intimidate, or Wind Magic.
Only five again? So his last name is Millis, is it? I’ll have to remember that… Oh my gosh, he has athletics! I need to...wind magic? Raph the unnamed has wind magic? I would never have guessed… Wait, magic is a thing here? Ugh… I have to choose one. So what are the odds that magic is a super common thing? I mean, if even Raph can get it… Alright, let’s check the others first.
Glancing through the other three profiles, whom she figured were probably students of the so-called academy since Jess and Kay had told her that’s who stayed there… There were a few common themes. It seemed that she was right and most people had perception. All three of them had athletics as well, so at least she had other options. There were a bunch of combat options as well, but she figured she needed to at least learn to walk before she started throwing hypothetical punches and thus arbitrarily tossed out those options.
She had narrowed her options down by a least one on each person, trying to figure out the best combination, but again, she was only shown five options. She didn’t know if it was just arbitrarily picking five to give her or what. Either way, she’d just have to work with it apparently.
Raph: intimidate or wind magic. The dude had seriously gotten intimidating down to an art, but she knew she was going to pick wind magic. Maybe next time she’d be able to glare scarily right back at him…
Dude one: athletics, diplomacy, perception, or sleight of hand.
Dude two: athletics, perception, or unarmed combat.
Chick one: acrobatics, athletics, charm, or perception.
Based on her options, charm was out, and so was unarmed combat. Who was she kidding? There was no way she was going to charm people looking like a twig, and any unarmed combat from said twig would be utterly useless with the one percent she was going to get. At the same time, any acrobatics would likely land her flat on her back before she got her basic coordination down. Dude two seemed pretty strong, so she decided to take athletics from him. That left perception from the chick, and as for dude one… She already had diplomacy, but maybe it would be better to double down on it. She did have a lot more convincing to do...
Now that she had the skills out of the way, she went back to survey her stats again. Raph was obvious—she was taking his strength. Dude one seemed to be the sneaky type, even though she had nothing to go off of but his skills, so she’d take his dex. The girl literally had charm in her kit, so she’d try to raise her charisma there. That left the other beefcake, and since she’d already hit the other bases, she’d see if he had a decent con score.
Satisfied with her deductions, she began to mentally confirm her decisions.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Strength and Wind Magic from Raphael Millis underway.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Dexterity and Diplomacy from Steven Cooper underway.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Constitution and Athletics from Travis Wainbright underway.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Charisma and Perception from Chloe Chambers underway.
She smiled as she saw the confirmations, then had to physically stop herself from screaming as her body seemed to start itching all over. Perhaps doing so many at once hadn’t been her greatest idea ever… She clutched her face, praying silently that it would end soon.
Chapter Four – Healer
Closing her eyes, she leaned against the building in an attempt to suppress the itching heat she was feeling. It felt like there were thousands of ants trying to crawl around through her veins, and the irritation was the worst around her eyes and lips. She clutched her mouth with her hands, feeling a small comfort by touching them, even as she wanted to scratch them off.
“My goodness child, are you okay?” She heard the kindhearted voice coming from her left, but she didn’t open her eyes or turn towards it. She didn’t want to scream and scare her to death, which she was half afraid she’d do if she let go right now. Was this pain and itching honestly worth it? She didn’t think she’d even taken that much, and it already hurt this badly.
It wasn’t until she felt a cool hand on her cheek that she realized she needed to respond. She was about to do so when she realized that even though her eyes were closed, she could see a little blue dot blinking at the side of her mind’s eye. Wait, I can just access this whole thing mentally? I don’t actually have to look at it? Flabbergasted once more, she spaced, and the cool hand was trying to get her to turn.
Allowing her body to be shifted, she finally opened her eyes and let her hands drop. She wasn’t sure how long it had lasted, but the horrible burning and itching seemed to be dying down for the most part. In front of her was a plumper older woman who was observing her with concern. Her heart-shaped face held light crow’s feet on the honey-colored skin, and her hair was cut into a stylish silver bob with bangs. She was wearing a pretty purple dress and ogling Jade with concerned hazel eyes as she asked again, “There you are. Are you all right?”
Jade smiled a bit helplessly and offered quietly, “I was feeling a bit dizzy before, but I think I’m okay now. Thank you, though.” Dizziness was as good an explanation for her outer symptoms as anything else, she supposed. Plus, with her undeniably weak constitution, most people wouldn’t doubt that just standing made her dizzy. However, the woman was obviously a kindhearted busybody who wasn’t convinced. She kept regarding Jade as if she was trying to figure out what the problem was.
Unable to pinpoint what was wrong, she finally seemed to come to a decision. “I see. Well, you’d better come with me just in case. My husband is a healer, and I’ll have him take a look at you.” With that she picked up her bags, which Jade hadn’t realized she’d dropped to check up on her, and grabbed her hand, tugging her along. Bemusedly, Jade speculated to herself, am I being kidnapped right now?
She let herself be led along as she had in the past, and it was almost a comforting feeling of home as she stared wide-eyed at the people and stores they passed, occasionally brushing up against a few absently. She was fairly mesmerized by the intensity of the sun and the blue sky, feeling jittery with every wisp of the wind on her pale skin. She was OUTSIDE! For the first time that she could remember, she was actually in the open, staring up at the vast blue sky, and it wasn’t through glass! A myriad of different smells assaulted her nose, and she just breathed them in, unable to pinpoint what they were.
Completely absent-minded, she looked around and realized that in the process of towing her towards wherever they were going, she now had absolutely no idea where she’d come from or how to get back. As nice as the lady looked, however, she was going to start screaming the minute she thought something shady was going down. Maybe it would relieve the screams she hadn’t been able to let out earlier…