The next day started with me being woken up by three sharp slams on my cell door. "Breakfast!" Follwed by a sarcastic chuckle. The slit opened and a bowl was sat there. I took it and in the wan light there was it looked like porridge. The first taste put the lie to that assumption however. There was no spoon and I was forced to eat with my hands. It tasted like wet paper yet was somehow gritty. It smelled faintly of piss. One bite was all I tried before setting back into the slot.
"Does your lordship not fancy his morning repast?" The same gruff voice asked. "Prince Ferdin added the flavoring himself. Wanted to remind you who is in charge. Your life will end with a far sight less pain if you simply give him what he wants." The bowl disappeared and so did the guard. I'd have to make sure to kill him if the opportunity presented itself on my way out.
I had no idea how much time passed as I sat there in the dark, nothing but my own thoughts for company. I wasn't offered anymore food throughout the day and I thought they were letting me stew in my own misery. Crude but effective. I eventually fell asleep again. I regained consciousness in a flash as the door was flung open and Arns rushed in in a fury.
"Who said you could sleep rat?" Another guard followed him in and set up the lights. I was once more hauled to my feet by his immense strength and flung into the back wall. I felt something in my spine pop.
"Are you ready to answer truthfully now? Who else did you tell? Your blacksmith friend maybe? Or that little enchanter girl? We might have to question all your friends if you don't speak up soon. They can all have cells right near yours so you can hear their screams and know that their torture is your fault."
"I told no one. Not a soul, I swear it." Not that I thought that would stop him. They were obviously going to keep asking me the same question each day while slowly torturing me to death.
"We'll see." He walked over to me, still lying on the ground, and flipped me onto my back. He knelt on the center of my chest with all his weight. It immediately became a struggle to breathe. He had to weigh close to 200 kilos. He reached down and grabbed my left hand, making sure I was watching before he began. He broke each bone in every finger on my hand, one by one. Sometimes he'd let me catch my breath from the screaming before starting again.
Once he was finished he got up and wiped his hands on his trousers and sighed, like one does at the end of a job well done.
"I'll be back little rat. Sweet dreams. Haha!" They guard collected the lights and I was plunged into darkness once more. I used his skill to heal myself and once it wore off tore a stip off my other pant leg to hide my left hand.
Advancement complete. Skill level 98.
That notification was highly welcome. In 6 hours I could finish it and finally, FINALLY start acquiring new skills.
I couldn't go back to sleep now. I had so much energy running through my veins from the torture and my own excitement at being near the cap that rest was out of reach. I spent most of these next three hours thinking about Carmen. Wondering if she was okay. If she was hurt or scared. Overall just wanting to hold her again so I'd know she was safe. I was basically torturing myself.
The wait was killing me so I started walking around my small cell. When I got bored of that I started doing jumping jacks. When that got old I ran in place for a bit. I was still brimming with energy despite being very thirsty. Almost two days without a drink were taking a real toll. The healing from Paragon helped alleviate some of the thirst but not all of it. I suspected I'd be in real trouble soon without access to water.
Advancement complete. Skill level 99.
Just three more hours. I decided to gamble and try to get a guards attention and ask for some water.
"Hey! Hey! I need some water or I'll die." I pounded on my side of the door for a while and kept shouting. After about 5 minutes I got a response.
"What in all the burning hells do you think you're doing causing all this fuss?! Shut yer gob!" This was a different voice. He sounded younger.
"Please sir, I haven't had a drink in two days. I know I'll eventually die down here but the prince doesn't want me dead yet or he'd have ordered it already. Can I just have some water?" I tried to sound as pitiful as possible. It was an easy act.
"I'm not your servant boy scum. You'll get fed in a few hours and you'll get your drink then. Make any more noise and I'll come in there myself and thump ya." I heard his footsteps retreating down the hall.
Had it been an entire day since they tried to serve me piss porridge? Doing the math using my skill ups to track it, I suppose it had. I sat back against the wall and tried to quiet my racing mind and rest. Just find a place of peace and comfort in my head. My thoughts went to good times with my friends and finding my heart in Carmen. I'm sure my father would call me a fool. Most people would I imagine. I didn’t care. I knew what I felt and that it was real. I loved Carmen the instant I saw her. From the way she looked at me I knew she felt the same way.
I started obsessing over Carmen's wellbeing again and had to stop myself. The adrenaline finally wore off and I began to doze off.
Advancement complete. Skill level 100. Perk available.
The notification woke me with a start. This was everything I had been waiting for. I pulled open the skill tree, more like a stick with only a single option, and selected the capstone perk.
Steady Advance: Advance skill to next level immediately. No cooldown.
Yes! I opend my status and quickly spent my stat points before looking it all over.
Personal Status
Level 6
Str: 24
Dex: 18
Con: 21
Wis: 10
Int: 11
Cha: 12
Blessings
Blessing of Rekf
Skills
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*Advancement 100
Mimic 1
There was a little star next to Advancement now indicating it was capped. Also the torture had apparently upped my Con by 1. I moved on to Mimic's perk tree. Prolong was still useless but Boost was a must have. Even If it was temporary I couldn't help but try to pick the most helpful perks. I'd tak the final perk from the Efficiency tree.
I selected Mimic and began upping it. I intended to shoot it straight to level 100 but it stopped at level 24.
Warning! Perk must be chosen before skill can increase in level.
That was good to know. So I went about selecting perks and upping Mimic in turn.
Boost: Increase the strength of targeted skill by 75%.
Boost: Increase the strength of targeted skill by 100%
Boost: Increase the strength of targeted skill by 200%
Efficiency: Reduces the cost, if any, of targeted skill by 25%.
With that I had five more levels putting me at level 10 with eight more stat points to spend. I spent 4 a piece on Str and Dex, not wanting to let Dex fall too far behind and become too slow.
That done I was still exhausted, so it was easy to go back to sleep. Especially knowing that the next time I saw Arns would hopefully be the last time I saw his evil face again. Food came a few hours later as promised.
"Breakfast!" Again a bowl appeared and a little cup of water with it. I went for the water first and it was the sweetest rank brown water I'd ever tasted. It was foul but I needed it. I went to sniff the porridge next and detected not trace of urine. It still tasted foul but it was food. I put the bowl and cup back into the slot and it disappeared. The cup was actually snatched out of my hand.
Mimic activated. Choose one of Ranas's skills to target. Enduring Form, Poison Resistance, Drinking, Cooking, Fishing, Blunt Weapons, or Dancing.
I'd brushed fingers with the guard when he snatched my cup. It was the same guard with the gruff voice that served the piss porridge from yesterday. He actually had skills I was looking for, though the number he had was a bit low. Drinking being there pointed to poor life decisions. I selected Enduring Form and looked at the perk tree.
Boost: Increase Constitution by 25%
Peak Health: Reduce healing time, need for food, need for water, and need for sleep by 25%
Athelete: Improve aerobic functions by 25%
All those were great. Even better old Ranas had already selected the first three tiers of Boost for the skill. My current situation dictated I pick Peak Health other three selections. Or maybe two Peak Health and one Athelete. I weighed the options versus my situation for a bit before deciding to go with the two and one option. I wouldn't be here much longer.
Boost: Increase Constitution by 100%
Boost: Increase Constitution by 200%
Peak Health: Reduce healing time, need for food, need for water, and need for sleep by 25%.
Peak Health: Reduce healing time, need for foor, need for water, and need for sleep by 50%.
Athelete: Improve aerobic functions by 25%.
My body felt better immediately. I felt healthier, my skin felt tighter and smoother, and I was far less thirsty than I had been. I was excited to open my status and see the changes.
Personal Status
Level 15
Str: 32
Dex: 28
Con: 189
Wis: 10
Int: 11
Cha: 12
Whoa! That didn't look right. Everything but Con was correct as I'd added my points already but Con should be a third of what it was. Enduring Form should have only taken Con to 63. Still a big jump but not this! I looked through my skills and my eyes stopped at Mimic. It now tripled the strength of the skill it targeted. Did that mean.... I gained triple from Mimic then Enduring Form tripled it again? The math worked and it's the only answer that made sense. This was Huge!
I couldn't wait for Arns to come back now despite the pain I knew would come with his visit. I spent all day expecting his visit. I never knew what time he'd come so the wait was agonizing. Finally night came, which I only knew because the guards changed shifts. Still no big ugly monster man. He was probably going to wait until I was asleep again and surprise me with some midnight torture. Fun for the whole family. That made going to sleep less than fun.
Eventually I must have drifted off because I woke up hearing "Breakfast!" and my meal for the day arrived. They fed me just enough to keep me alive for now but that was fine. With my new skill perks I'd be just fine, other than the taste. Odd that I hadn't gotten a visit from mister Nope at all yesterday. Then again he was the personal bodyguard to the crown prince, and the crown prince was a busy man. He had balls to go to, the military to inspect, court to attend, and people to murder for their skills. Lot's to do.
As my cup and bowl were taken I managed to brush against Ranas again and took Blunt Weapons this time. I chose perks that increased the total damage by 200% and ignored 75% of the target's armor. Sadly Ranas only had the first two tiers of Boost for this one but that was okay. Still better than I'd had before. I bumped my Str to 36 and my Dex to 32. Again I waited for big fugly to appear and again he was a no show.
I spent the next week like this, waiting for more torture as well as my chance to escape. I'd started talking to myself on day four of my imprisonment. By day seven I was hearing things, only keeping what wits I had by focusing on Carmen. She needed me to rescue her from her wicked family and by all the gods I'd do it. I missed brushing against Ranas to snag a skill twice during the week but I still ended up getting all his skills, even Dancing. I wouldn't have expected that one from the gruff sounding fellow. I was now level 45 with 9 capped skills. My Str was 61 and Dex was 57. It was insane.
"Breakfast!" Ranas shouted. He was punctual I'll give him that. I walked over to the door and reached for the cup and bowl when it slammed open, sending me sprawling with my ears ringing where the door had bashed my head.
"Miss me little rat?" He stepped into the now clear doorway.
Oh joy. At least this would be the last time.
"I'm a little surprised you're still alive with the injuries I gave you. You actually look pretty healthy. Why is that little rat?"
"Clean living I guess. I didn't tell anyone. I swear it."
"Oh we know. We questioned your little friends and I doubt you'd tell anyone at the church. They'd hand you over themselves to keep from going to war with the crown. No, this is just for fun at this point. Today I'm going to break every bone in your left leg. Tomorrow the right one. An arm the day after that. Assuming you keep breathing I'll keep going until you're dead. You're my little experiment. Isn't that fun?!"
He bellowed a malicious laugh then stomped on my knee. I screamed as it shattered. I tried to squirm out of the way until he kicked me in the side of the head. I was barely conscious as he continued ruining my leg. All I could do was scream and moan as he had a grand time crushing my leg into a bloody noodle.
"Tomorrow is another leg day rat. Try not to die too soon. I want to see how long you can last." He turned to leave and I panicked. I hadn't actually made contact with anything but his boot. I needed to touch him.
I summoned all my willpower and tried to lunge at his leg to grab it but missed. "Wait!"
"What's this? The little rat wants more already?" He'd turned back to look down at me.
"My friends. Did you hurt them?" I asked while trying to crawl my way to him. If I could just touch his leg!
He bent down and grabbed me by the throat to look me in the eye. "Oh I wouldn't concern myself with them. You have more than enough problems of your own. Not for too long though. Hahahah!" He flung me backward and my leg flopped causing fresh agony to bloom.
I nearly lost consciousness from the pain but had managed to make contact. It was enough.
Mimic activated. Choose one of Arns's skills to target. Paragon, Warrior's Might, Blunt Weapons, Pugilism, Endurance, Running, Resilience, Swimming, Baking, Athletics, Intimidation, Writing, Climbing, or Tattoing.
I selected Paragon and felt relief wash through me again. It was much stronger this time as I began upping the skill. At the cap it should have given me +16 to each stat but gave +48 instead because of Mimic's perks. Con gained a whopping 144 points. I just laid there for a minute breathing and gathering my thoughts before I pulled up my status again just to see the changes.
Personal Status
Level 50
Str: 109
Dex: 105
Con: 333
Wis: 58
Int: 59
Cha: 60
I was floored by what I saw. I was even bigger than Arns now at at least 240 centimeters tall and I had the stats of someone around level 320. My clothes were absolutely ruined with my trousers barely hanging on enough to cover my manhood. I always wanted to be strong and powerful but I'd never hoped for something like this in my wildest dreams. All I had to do now was wait for ole monster boy to be far enough away, then I could smash through that door and find Carmen.
