4 Leaps And Bounds

When I first got the technique, I thought I could immediately use it on my parents. Then I thought about it a bit and realized I should probably test it on other things first. I don't want to be found with two shrivelled husks at the dinner table.

I decide it's no big deal, and test the technique on the grass. No dice. The blade of grass I'm focusing on shrivels and blackens almost instantly. Not only is that way too noticable, I'm pretty sure that I can only target one blade at a time.

I try to find something bigger. A snail. It lasts a second before it dies and starts to shrivel up. Now we're getting somewhere. Bigger creatures last longer, and, I realize as I offhandedly check my cultivation, provide alot more vitality and Magic.

I haven't mentioned how I use the technique yet. There's no incantation or stance I need to get into, all I need is line of sight, and to be within 5 meters of the target, and I can absorb the magic and vitality of my target as much as I want.

When I reach higher cultivation levels, my range will increase and I'll be able to absorb more and more energy. Once I reach a certain cultivation level, I won't even need line of sight.

Back to the matter at hand. After searching around for literally anything else and not finding anything, I decided to try to absorb energy from ants.

This worked surprisingly well. The ants lasted half a second each, and if I couldn't find anymore crawling around near an anthill that I found, all I needed to do was pole the anthill with a stick. My cultivation speed with this method was around four times as fast as cultivating normally. Nobody would really question the dead ants, because not only do ants die all the time, their corpses will get eaten by other ants, or brought back to the anthill to be eaten there.

Despite this being the fastest I had ever cultivated, I knew that I wasn't reaching the full potential of my technique. I could do better. I decided to do one last test before the main thing.

I managed to sneak up on a squirrel, and keep it in my range for 11 seconds before the quick creature escaped. I used the technique on it the entire time, at maximum strength, and I saw no visible effects on it. Not only that, but I'm led to believe that if I could've consumed all of the squirrel's vitality and Magic, I would have reached the next cultivation level.

A couple minutes later, and my mother calls me inside for dinner. I eat my food as quickly as possible, continuing a nonsensical dinner conversation with my parents as I sit there, staring at them.

I'm using the technique on them, mostly my father right now, as he has a much better physique and could probably survive much longer than my mother.

I continue until I reach the eighth level of cultivation, at which point I stop absorbing. Neither of my parents look remotely bothered. I thank them for the food as I leave the table.

This repeats at each family mealtime for the next nine days, except I don't reach another level of cultivation until the third day.

By the fifth day, my parents are pale, and occasionally breathing heavy. They're convinced it's just a cold and it'll pass.

By the seventh day, they have much less fat on them, I'm pretty sure that if I checked, I'd be able to see the outline of their ribs on their skin. They're not really thinking well enough to make an appointment with a doctor. I've reached the tenth level of cultivation.

On the ninth day, they're really fatigued, with Dad having called in sick for. the last two days. It's at this point that I decide it's time for the last bit of my, admittedly, not well thought out plan.

"Hey, mom, dad, can we go to the park?" I ask with a childish innocence, as if I haven't noticed how fatigued they seem.

"Sure, kiddo" Father replies "Some fresh air won't hurt." Mother seems to want to argue, but father whispers something in her ear and she smiles, deciding to go with it.

A few minutes of travel and short conversation later, and we're at the park.

"Your mother and I will be sitting *haah* here" Father pants, gesturing to a bench. "Just tell us if you *haah* need something or want to go back." I nod, and go over to the playground.

Despite being an adult in a child's body, swings are still fun.

My range has increased enough that I can affect something that's on the bench all the way from the swings, which are ten meters away.

I absorb the last bit of life from my parent's bodies, reaching the eleventh cultivation level.

Despite all of their vitality being stolen, they're not really shrivelled husks, but they look really old for their age. Not that it really matters anymore.

I play around on the playground for another ten minutes before enacting the last bit of my dumb plan.

I walk up to where my parents are sitting.

"Dad, mom? I want to go home." No response. "Dad, mom?" I put in more volume. No response. "Dad! Mom!" I shake them a bit at this point. No response. This shouting attracts the attention of a young woman.

"What seems to be the problem, kid?" She smiles at me.

"It's mom and dad! They won't wake up!"