Chapter 5: Chapter 5

ife around camp wasn’t what Silver expected. It was a pseudo-militant mercenary band, but everything was divided into Tiers, instead of ranks or titles. The more personally powerful you were, the more power you had in the group. Jimmithy was the strongest, he was a Tier 4 Siphon and the lord of the Blue Gloom city. This group was his personal militia.

They marched most of the day, stopping once during noontime for meals, and a couple of hours before the evening to set up camp. Silver was under the command of Savarti, one of the four Tier 3 in the camp. She was also the beast woman that almost shoved a sword through his back. Her race was known as the Belvaun and Silver had stored that away in his brain as very important information. He loved the Belvaun. Unlike the Picton, the Belvaun were unnaturally beautiful, one and all; even the men. The other races speculated that there was some innate magic in their blood that made them aesthetically pleasing to the eyes of others.

Silver held no hard feelings towards her. He wasn’t hurt, she was doing her job, and she was beautiful. All was forgiven. Besides, as Silver’s mind reasoned it, if she poked him with her sword then he could poke her with his ‘sword.’ Possibly many times, repeatedly and passionately during the night. It was only fair after all.

Too bad she seemed annoyed by his presence.

Life wasn’t bad. The Picton didn’t try to eat him or dissect him in his sleep, the food wasn’t terrible, the Belvaun were nice to look at, and he had others to fight with him now. And he was glad. There was a ton of fighting. Who fought depended on the rank of the monsters attacking the group.

Silver’s abilities made him support for the fighters. He was the weakest person in camp, and only his stasis ability worked on Tier 2 monsters, though barely. He tried to petrify a Tier 2 one day while acting in reserve and the monster shrugged it off easily and didn’t even bother to look where the attack came from, as the stone flaked from its skin harmlessly. That took the wind out of Silver’s sails a little.

Magic also took the wind out of his sail when he learned he couldn’t use it. Apparently each race had a rare specialty. Belvaun couldn’t use magic unless you were a Black Knight. A specialty caste of warriors that could use Darkness magic to augment themselves. They were apparently the only type of warrior not inferior in a fight to a powerful Mage or Siphon.

The Picton’Mithal had Anima Magus. They were powerful Mages that never ran out of magical energy. They were partly elemental, their entire beings infused with magic. The downside being their partial elemental nature, limiting them to a single element, but allowing them to wield their element to accomplish feats impossible for other mages, no matter their Tier.

And finally Siphons. Beings of unstable nature. They are usually smaller and weaker than other humans; their genetics incomplete. If a Siphon never figures out their true nature, they will eventually contract a wasting sickness midway through life and pass away. Only by finding a monster and Siphoning it to stabilize their decaying bodies, bolstering it, but also turning them eventually into monsters in human skin, can they survive. Talking to Jim had hurt a little. Having to learn he wasn’t human anymore, but some human-adjacent monster. And by Tier 4 he would fully change into a monster capable of shapeshifting down into a weaker human form to do day-to-day tasks.

Jimmithy wasn’t human, and one day Silver wouldn’t be either. He would be a monster descended of humans. At least he was some type of nobility now. Siphons were the ruling class. Or at least the privileged class. You would need at least Tier 4 power and permission from the Human Empire to establish a colony and become a true noble. A colony you would have to carve out on your own.

At least he had cool eyes. Besides him and Jimmithy there were three other Siphons in the group. Silver was the only Tier 1 in the entire camp. Everyone else was at least mid-Tier 2. Silver didn’t really see the other Siphons often but had at least interacted with two of them. They were usually near the command tent, that Silver had only been to once when he first ‘joined’ the group. One was a Tier two woman. She had black-green scales and apparently had only Siphoned Serpent type monsters. She was what was referred to as a physique Siphon. She had no abilities, but she had the physique of a monster of the same Tier. She was fast, flexible, and had incredible durability. Silver had personally watched her get smacked by a Tier 3 Earth Elemental and jump right back into the fight. After she made it back to camp. The Elemental had launched her well over a kilometer away from camp. She couldn’t fight well above her Tier but Tier 3 monsters also had trouble injuring her.

The other two were brothers. They had helped each other siphon their monsters with the help of Jimmithy. Their parents were gang leaders under Jim and when they were born and shown to have potential to be Siphons, he had promised to help them obtain powerful monsters. Both brothers had powerful starts, starting with the powers of Tier 3 monsters from the beginning. The older brother was one of the group’s Tier 3 and a close combat specialist. He had Siphoned a Tier 3 Earth Elemental as his first monster when he was 13, gaining it’s ability to manipulate Earth. His other two siphons had been to bolster his physique apparently to prepare for the Tier 4 transformation. Silver didn’t know what they were, but he knew one gave him a powerful regenerative ability and the other allowed him to consume earth and minerals and brew magma inside of his body, and spew molten lava from his mouth. The monsters you Siphon lay the foundation for the beast you become at Tier 4. Most Siphons tried to keep some semblance of a humanoid form, but many did not.

Tara, the serpent Siphon, wanted to become a colossal serpentine monstrosity when she became Tier 4. Silver worried about what he would eventually become. His foundation was a giant eye monster of unknown strength.

The younger brother was only Tier 2 but had not enhanced his physique at all and did not plan to. He wanted to be an ability Siphon. So far, he had Siphoned the Ability to control fire from a Tier 3 Fire Elemental with the help of Jim and his older brother, before stepping backwards and siphoning a Tier 2 Royal Elk King for its potential. It had the ability to control monsters of a lower Tier than it; sometimes some weaker willed Tier 2 monsters would join its ranks as well. It made it a difficult monster to fight for low level fighters, as it’d send waves of controlled monsters to slow you down before either running away if you were too strong or stepping in to overpower you for the kill if it felt like you were weak. The Elk never evolved beyond Tier 2, but Siphons could, meaning he’d grow to control more and more powerful monsters as he advanced. The ability came from its golden antlers that wove themselves into an intricate crown atop its head. A crown he now wore.

He was similar to Silver. They were both technically ability Siphons currently, having stolen a piece of a beast’s physique for an ability. It was common for ability Siphons to try to gain advantageous physiques this way to keep up with their physical counterparts by stealing core pieces of monster’s physiques that harbored powerful abilities.

Silver had never talked to the older brother, Gervase, but he had had a few interactions with Edwin, the younger brother, and learned a lot of things from him. They weren’t exactly friends yet, but they weren’t strangers. He had also spoken to Tara a few times. She was obsessed with his eyes. She wanted to know what monster he got them from, wanting the ability for her eventual snake form. She was Tier 2. She was willing to skip out on a serpentine beast for her third siphon if it meant being more powerful. She could always finalize with a powerful Tier 4 snake monster for her fourth. Maybe a higher Tier if she could get help.

She even offered to help him get his second siphon when they got back to Blue Gloom. He had told her he’d consider it.

She did help him by telling him about how to know when he had reached the threshold for the next rank. For Siphons, you had to wait for you new body to acclimatize and finish evolving. This could be sped up with drugs, meditation, or constant use of abilities, but some Siphons would just wait. It didn’t take more than a month for the first evolution to finish, depending on the rank of your first monster, and Silver was already nearing that. He had asked her about the drugs, but she told him she didn’t have any or she’d have used them herself. He was directed to ask Jimmithy, since everyone knew his situation was special.

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“Thanks Tara,” He offered.

“No problem,” She flashed him a toothy smile from where she was sitting, her sharp, metallic teeth flashing as they caught the light from the fire between them. Silver had managed to pull her aside during the night’s meal to talk. “You need to get stronger soon anyway, or you won’t last much longer out here. Especially once we make it to the village.”

This ‘village’ was the destination the group was heading towards. A frontier town recently started by one of Jimmithy’s friends had gone silent month’s ago, and Jim petitioned the Kingdom to allow him to be the one to investigate.

“I know. Plus, I won’t be a cub anymore. People will start treating me with more respect,” he said, accepting a bowl of stew from an approaching Kobold. This Kobold was given to him by Jimmithy on the first day. Apparently they were a type of monster intelligent enough to serve the more enlightened races, but were still too bestial and tribal to be accepted among them. They were pretty dim, but served as the perfect servants for Siphons. Their bestial nature making them acknowledge the more powerful Siphons as their pack leaders.

Silver was told he’d have to acquire his own retinue when they returned to the city. He was also told not to try to control an alpha until he was Tier 3. Kobolds were useless to siphon, but that didn’t make them weak. An alpha could contest against some Tier 2 Siphons and Warriors, and were difficult to control.

“So did you call me over just to talk tonight, or did you have something more in mind?” She smirked, giving Silver a sultry look. Her reptilian eyes squinting playfully in the firelight.

Silver’s mind blanked. He hadn’t even considered that. He couldn’t lie, he did find her attractive. She was no Belvaun, and definitely not Savarti, but she was willing to talk to him and the attraction at least seemed mutual.

He considered saying yes, but memories started surfacing from the recesses of his mind. His fiancé. Her betrayal had broken him. His piece of shit father acting like it was no big deal and telling him to stop being such a baby. The thought of going through that again terrified him.

Silver looked down and gave a wry smile before looking back up at her. By now she had read the atmosphere and was just waiting for his response.

“Sorry, I can’t.” He looked away, not wanting to see the look on her face. “I don’t think I’m ready for anything like that right now. I went through a bad betrayal before and no matter how much time passes I haven’t been able to recover from it.”

There was silence in the air for a moment before he heard movement, presumably Tara getting up to walk away.

“I understand, and I’m sorry for springing that up on you. Goodnight Silver.”

“Night Tara.”

He listened to her walk away before dropping his head into his arms on top of his knees. He really hoped he got to fight tomorrow.

Silver made up his mind. His next Siphon would be for a better physique. He wanted to hit something. These eyes didn’t cut it. Even if he had to give up on a humanoid body, he wanted the best for himself.

He wanted to be powerful enough to never lose control of his life. He would not be the one to suffer through humiliation again.

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