6 Levelling Up Through Agony

"Appraise," Kai commanded, looking at the City Lord.

*A human has been appraised*

*The stats are as follows*

STR : 2

DEX : 4

INT : 17

CON : 14

FATE : 3

"Appraise what?" Lloyd asked, but he was met by the shocked face of Kai who seemed to be looking into the void.

"How the hell are you that much tougher than me? I'm a god damn skeleton!"

"It's not what you are that gives you power," Lloyd chuckled. Although he was a bit troubled as to how this failed experiment in front of him was so sure his defence was high, but he paid it no mind presently.

"How funny," Alexandra chuckled and added with a smile, "It seems you were fated to come here."

"Furthermore," Lloyd interjected. "I have decided to help you, even though you have taken something very precious from my daughter."

"Huh?" Kai asked in confusion and looked at Alexandra, who suddenly seemed to be hanging her head down.

"We hope you'll take responsibility for it, too," Lloyd added with a grin.

"But… how can that be?! I don't even have a-"

"Enough!" Lloyd yelled as Alexandra left for her room with an innocent smile. She had also noticed where his confusion could come from due to her father's wording.

"Rid yourself of the ropes and follow me," Lloyd said in a solemn tone.

"I would have, if I could have!" Kai complained. The ungodly amount of ropes were already bad enough, but Gort had also reinforced them with a spell just in case, unknown to Kai.

Lloyd glanced at him as he walked and before Kai realised what was happening, the ropes were shredded. Granted, he wasn't focusing too hard on the City Lord, but still, if it wasn't for the pieces of ropes on the floor, he would believe it to be an illusion.

"Follow me, then," Lloyd commanded as he walked, "to my laboratory."

Kai gazed at his surroundings and was amazed as he walked. First of all, the entire mansion seemed spotless, but he didn't see any maids around. Also, there seemed to be too few guards protecting the mansion of the leader of this city. He saw barely 10 guards in total, and excluding the gatekeepers, all of them seemed to be stationed around where Alexandra went.

"Do you wonder at the lack of personnel?" Lloyd suddenly asked and broke the tension. "They are all protecting the city that you live in."

"But not you?" Kai mused.

Lloyd suddenly stopped and turned to face Kai's tall stature and his purple-glowing eyes, "Do you think I would need protection?"

"No!" Kai suddenly shrieked similar to a little girl. He replied with a normal tone after he composed himself, "No."

Lloyd had a smirk on his face as he made a left and opened a door leading to descending stairs. Soon after, Kai saw that the place lit up as they went down the stairs and they finally reached the laboratory.

Lloyd's laboratory had a myriad of glassware all filled with odd liquids and some jars with very large bugs inside them. This place was also spotless as the rest of the mansion, as expected of a lab, Kai thought.

"Welcome to my laboratory!" Lloyd turned and said with a smile. He then reached on the table to get a beaker full of pitch-black liquid, handing it to Kai. "Pour some of it down over your head."

Kai took the beaker and was in a dilemma as to what to do. He surely didn't have any other options, but could he really choose not to question and be a lab rat? Yes, he could. Kai only had a day to live even if he chose to escape here. As he looked into the eyes of the City Lord, he felt that Lloyd wasn't such a bad guy.

"Do it, or I'm taking one of your arms," Lloyd commented with a scoff. "I can't wait for your inner monologue every single time."

Kai held his breath with his non-existent lungs and poured the entire beaker over his head.

"Now what?" Kai asked, drenched in the black liquid which seemed to be somewhat moving on its own, almost creating a skin on his bones.

"This is a liquid I synthesised from the blood of a demon. It can be used to refine weapons. We'll see how it affects you."

"You mean you don't know?!" Kai stumbled back and tried to get the black ooze out, but it almost seemed that Kai always had black bones.

After a brief instance of freaking out, Kai calmed down and realised he didn't actually feel any changes. He turned to Lloyd, "I don't feel any diff-"

Kai's words were cut short by the immense pain he experienced. How could he feel pain?! He had never felt any before.

"Ah, as I figured," Lloyd calmly said as Kai started screaming in pain.

Kai was angry, seeing Lloyd so calm when he was in such pain. He walked toward Lloyd as he yelled, "Fix this!"

Lloyd didn't move, neither did he prepare to defend or attack. There were no Claws of Darkness popping out from anywhere, either.

"Behave yourself," Lloyd said and sent a casual slap when Kai got too close, knocking him down on the ground and almost killing him. "This is for your own good, I'll be back in an hour."

It was too painful. Kai felt as if it would have been better to be hit in the nuts a thousand times over instead of this. It wasn't that he felt pain, it was that it was all he could feel and think. An hour later, he heard yet another voice:

*Synthesised Demon Blood is integrated*

*Skeleton Level 3 has been achieved*

*+2 stat points rewarded for the player's use*

The pain was suddenly gone, and his bones had turned white again. Kai felt like crying, but there were no tears, no real outlet. But the fact that the pain had suddenly gone away made him feel great at the same time, especially when he checked his remaining time.

*47:59:50*

"Let's see what these stats do, then," said Kai, finally composing himself after hours of agony.

"Character Page."