Chapter 102 - From One Frying Pan To The Other

Me and Sondar stood there for a few seconds just staring at eachother until he finally opened his mouth.

"Ummmm.... I mean the prospect sounds good but are we not going to talk about you just breaking my entire body with a punch?" 

"No."

"Oh.... Well ok then I guess at a later date we can go over that..... But as for now ya I think that'd be a good idea, Kitsoma has been going on and on about a renewable source of food and income so this would be on the right track, and if you say it can heal us than Sylvania and Shorunt will be grateful aswell."

And there it was, My right hand man may be mad at me but when it comes to the others he can switch modes like a machine.

I walked up to him and raised my hand. He ofcourse flinched away but after a few seconds he opened his eyes and saw that I was still just holding my hand out to him.

"I want to shake your hand Sondar, You have been a better leader than I could ever be. Back in the cave when I was gone for a year, when I run off to explore new things and when my attention gets dragged away by something new and shiny, I know you have been the one to take on my responsibilities, I want to apologize formally for what you've done for me."

He took a second to let it sink in and when it did he smiled and grabbed my hand. That's when I took the chance to infuse my power into him. I knew he would always care about the others and I wasn't always going to be around to help, either because I know how much of a pathetic bastard I am when it comes to actually staying on track.... Or maybe because our future enemies will get the better of me.

Either way I wanted someone who could completely take my place and have the power to back it up.

I tried something new.... I pushed all of my mana through where gluttony branded me, I wanted to see if maybe I could increase the power of his brand and actually give him the same level of brand that I have.

Happily the brand was actually a physical thing on my body aswell as a magical one, as the mana seemed to swim through through the brand it changed from a pure blue into the same color of Gluttony. Like a magnet it took my intention and raced towards Sondar's, as it made contact he screamed bloody murder as pain racked his body.

"WHYYYYY!!!!" He screamed and I saw as Kitsoma and Howy were already running towards us. I raised my hand to stop them as I continued to flow the magic through me and into Sondar. 

After a few minutes of pumping mana into him my magic finally ran out and I let go with a gasp and fell onto the ground. 

*Good Idea Vexsus, I can see you completely trust this man, I'll take it from here.*

I smiled as the voice of Gluttony whispered in my ear. I rasied my head and looked towards Sondar to see a bright green light appear from within his chest. 

(User has gained the Titles [Magic Brand], [Running on Empty], and [Interacting with the Void])

A pop up appeared telling me of 3 different titles I got. The first 2 I can guess, but the last one was a bit confusing. I went ahead and gave them a quick look and was a bit surprised by what they said.

But pushing that to the side I raised up and walked over to the still standing Sondar.

"Sondar? Are you ok? I know that hurt but I wanted to give you more power for the next time you took over for me." 

"That... HURT YOU ASSHOLE! That felt more intense than when I got completely charred by that explosion back in the cave, but instead of me being able to pass out I had to endure it all. What the hell did you just do?" He yelled at first but was soon smiling as he looked at me.

"I poured all of my magic through my own brand from gluttony and then transferred that power to you. What you felt was a combination of me enlarging your brand but also the full brunt of my power, I didn't know how much to transfer so I just used it all... I'm extremely tired but I think it was worth it don't you?"

"Well gotta admit that I feel stronger than I've ever been but man I am fucking hungry."

"Check your abilities man, You should have gained the same powers as me."

After nodding I saw his eyes dull a little and a few seconds later his eyes sharpened and he nodded.

"It says I gained the full brand of gluttony, along with 5 skills. Devour, Assimilation, Chimera, Abyssal Stomach and Abyssal Consumption. I'm guessing these are the same powers you have?"

"Yea, and now you can eat till your hearts content and save up all those nutrients to use for later. Usually I just save it up for when I need more mana but its uses are limitless. If you use it correctly you could become insanely strong."

About that time Kitsoma and Howy saw that it was all clear and walked up.

"What happened Vexsus? What did you do to Sondar? I saw a flash of green light." Kitsoma said as she walked over to me and started examining my body for anything out of the ordinary. 

"I transferred alot of my power to Sondar to enhance the brand he received from Gluttony. He now has the same power as me for when he has to take my place. But right now I need to get back to base and talk with everybody again. Some things have recently became clear to me and it needs to be spoken about. I also need to get some seeds from this tree and hopefully grow it back at base. I would just take the whole damn tree but right now I don't have the strength for that."

"Got it boss." Howy spoke as he jumped and climbed the tree to grab as many of the fruits growing as possible. I took one that he threw down and popped it open down the middle and saw that it was surprisingly like a blue soft skinned peach. I sniffed it and it smelled kind of like a cross between a peach and an plum. I analyzed it afterwards just to make sure it wasn't poisonous. 

[Fruit of Silence]

[Fruit grown from the Tree of Silence, has the effect of blocking any magic flow after consumption up to 12 hours.]

Hmm well technically it's not poisonous but it does stop practically all of my power. Maybe if we cook it or do something else it'll have some other effects like what happened with the sap. 

"THIS IS GREAT HOWY GRAB AS MANY AS YOU CAN!" I yelled up at him as he was still gathering and tossing em down for us to catch. I was tempted to go ahead and try and uproot it but that would cost me alot of strength or even possibly having to use Wrath.... Hell no this tree isn't worth it.

"I think it's time we start heading back, the others should be done fixing up the wounded and we have other problems that need to be looked at." Sondar said with an armfull of fruit.

I agreed and after Howy hopped down we started back towards the others.

It was going to take us awhile to get back to the others and by then the fruit would probably have rotted so I created a space mine but instead of packing it with explosive power I just enlarged it to resemble more of a round bubble that was atleast half my body and just chucked the fruit inside. It surprisingly worked as the fruit just sort of sat there floating in a space bubble that followed me. I had to keep supplying it with mana but the amount was negligible at best.

(User has created the skill [Space bubble])

I was surprised at the creation of a new skill but was happy either way. This allowed me to basically have a pocket to stash things in. I just needed to refine it and maybe I could create a spatial item like I read about. OOOOH that would be so sweet to have.

After what seemed like forever we finally came back to the others and boy were they not happy with me. Sylvania came up and slapped me, Shorunt refused to talk to me but I saw worry in his eyes. The others that came along were also refusing to acknowledge me but I don't blame them. I hurt them in my rage and instead I ran away. 

Sylvania started yelling at me and cursing me out for being pathetic and a coward for running away. I wanted to explain that if I stayed I would have likely just killed them all but the look in her eyes told me I'd better just save that for later.

She was a master at yelling and stabbing every spot I had to make me feel even guiltier by the second. I saw as she started to tear up but that didn't stop her from making sure I knew how badly I messed up.

I sent a mental message to Sondar. *Out of the frying pan into another.*

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[Magic Brand] - You have discovered how to brand another person and as such you have gained the ability to mark people with your own brand. 

[Running on Empty] - You have successfully exhausted a near endless supply of mana, Your body will now passively store mana within it's cells for use the next time this is to occur.

[Interacting with the Void] - You have come into contact with the space outside of the universe. You are now being watched.

[Space Bubble] Lvl 1 - Creates a bubble of space that can contain various objects depending on size of bubble.