Fitlh Manipulation and the Guinea Pig

Dusk, 33rd Day

Actaea

Kai was sitting on the floor of the captain's cabin in a deep meditative state. The entire cabin smelled of rotten fish, spiced wine, a dead, musty odor, and of Item-M, who was on the captain's bed, staring at him in breath-taking awe.

In front of Kai, in a pot, was the rotten flesh and blood of Gyarados, its stench welling up a nauseating feeling. Not in Kai. There were dozens of protrusions on his face, thin streams of pale gas leaking out of them, coiling in the air like smoke. On his chin was a skull and crossed-bones tattoo, and his body would have been steaming hot vapor if it wasn't for the cooling sensation pulsating within him.

Suddenly, his hard-pressed lips softened, the corners of his mouth arching into a triumphed smile. As he snapped open his eyes, he canceled the Koffing's blood essence, returning to his original self. But something about him had changed, and that something he had just snatched out of vanishing blood essence permanently.

"Do it," he commanded her. "Now."

Item-M's expression changed, becoming solemn. She took out Jet Wing and nocked an Easy-graded arrow, its magical steel-tip shimmering with pale blue and red sparkles.

The twang was as sonorous as Kai had found it his first time.

With Kai's Defense, it was almost impossible for this single arrow to kill him if targeted anything but the vital parts of his body. The arrow left the bow, and in the next moment, lodged itself in his left shoulder, the steel tip barely kissing the bone underneath. Kai winced, furrowed his brows, and then looked at the wound, dark blood gushing out like a spilled wine.

The arrow's shaft dangled because of its weight, and with every undulation, a heat coursed through his shoulder. If not done anything, his HP regeneration rate would close up the wound, he knew. But not before the festering of the wound because of infection, worsening the injury.

Such was the Easy-graded arrow's nature.

Kai held the shaft, took a deep breath, and then jerked it out of his flesh in one smooth motion. Tiny drops of blood showered out, a few of them falling into the darkened pot. Even now Kai could feel his wound healing, but its rate was highly diminished.

His eyes landed on the pot, and his smile became a grin. His right hand reached for it, but instead of going for the rotten content within it, it stopped just above it. Kai's eyes seemed to narrow as he concentrated, remembering some obscure feeling from deep down. Then, like an unscientific, inexplicable phenomenon, from the dark, putrid combination of flesh and blood an even darker but ethereal, foul mist seeped out, becoming a pea-sized ball.

It hovered above his forefinger, almost glistening like black marble, but lacking substance to prove its existence.

Kai brought the finger closer and then pushed the ball of black smoke into his bleeding wound. All things happened simultaneously after this. The smoky ball burst, and the foul spread all over, licking his blood and flesh alike. His HP bar, which had lost 20 HP points because of the arrow, and a drop of 5% in the HP regeneration rate, now shot up. Points after points were getting added to it, Kai saw. He also observed that this wasn't an increased HP regeneration rate, but actual HP.

The little ball gave him 10 HP, before enhancing his regeneration rate, Kai reflected. Only when his wound had healed, leaving no scar, did he laugh.

Elementary Filth Manipulation had finally upgraded.

Now it was Advance Filth Manipulation, and it was at this moment Kai realized the difference between getting an Advance Ability directly and slowly increasing an Elementary Ability's Proficiency. The former couldn't even be compared with the latter in the same breath.

'No repercussions, no odd feelings, and no wastage of time in adjusting to it,' Kai thought, standing up. 'Finally! After so much time, and after eating so much filth, I finally have an Advance Ability without its own mystery about it.'

"The pot! Master, look." Item-M's hurried voice reached his ears, and Kai looked down. The entire black-red rotten contents of the pot had gained a flaky and grainy texture as if someone had sucked out something quintessential about them. Kai crouched and touched it.

The indistinguishable layer of flesh crumbled like a castle of sand, making his eyes widen in curiosity. There was no retching odor coming out anymore, either, he noticed, taking a whiff. With Advance Filth Manipulation, he could easily control his sense of smell, turning on and off the magic that had been making all the foul smells odorless while using Koffing's blood essence.

Kai noted these strange findings in the back of his mind and pushed the pot away to a corner.

"Set the table," he ordered. "Call Andrik. He will have supper with me today."

"He will?" Item-M asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You did say we need a guinea pig, didn't you?" Kai said, sneering. "We will reach Pentos by dawn tomorrow. Let's deal with the ugly business, then. No need to delay anymore."

Most of the last week Kai had spent gobbling down as much filth as he could, increasing his Elementary Filth Manipulation's Proficiency. When he was not eating, Kai had been practicing his Advance Abilities, trying to figure out some ingenious way to increase their Proficiencies, but other than his Advance Telekinesis, he still did not know how to proceed further on these unknown paths.

Another little, but even more important, thing he had done was to tell Item-M about his theory of the Yellow Sign being a key and the minor-epithets a way to access the doors to his Inventory. Her expressions had bordered on blasphemy at that time, Kai remembered. But soon, she too had flung herself deep into figuring out the mystery of his Cosmic Authority.

'I think you are right, master,' she had told him one night. 'Though I am still skeptical and against using HIS sign in combination with your minor-epithets, we can still use a guinea pig to test it out. The thing that puzzles me is what's the use of the Sacrifice then?'

It had taken the combined efforts of Kai, Item-M, Petyr, and even Cersei to scribble down a theory regarding this doubt, after brooding over it for three days.

If epithets establish a channel, which was Kai's Inventory, and the Yellow Sign could be used as a key to unlock the door at the other end, then the only thing left was to pry open those doors. A sacrificial object did nothing but supply the force to open the door using its magical property, supernaturalness, or uniqueness.

This was the closest they had come to solve the problem, but as Kai had mentioned later to the rest of the group, it had a monstrous flaw. That flaw lay with Kai himself.

'If the quality of the sacrificial object dictates the door's opening,' Kai had asked, 'then why, despite there being a ridiculous difference between our sacrifices, did I and Item-M get almost the same response from HIM?'

The answer to his question had popped into his mind instantaneously, like lighting a match. But Kai couldn't bring himself to let others know, hoping to let them come to some other result, different from his.

'Parseltongue!' He had thought of this word as if a gasp had escaped after being stabbed. Kai remembered he had used Parseltongue to chant the epithets, unlike Item-M, who had chanted the same in a common tongue.

When Kai came out of his reverie, he found himself sweating, and Andrik barging the doors behind him. Spitting out his thoughts, Kai took a seat and observed the future of his Pirate Crew in this Timeline. Andrik had dressed for the occasion, it seemed to him. The giant was wearing a patched green doublet, trying hard to cover his upper body, and freshly washed sandy breeches. His long brown hair and dark brown eyes glowed in contrast to his clothing. And Kai felt amused as he noticed Andrik had even trimmed his long beard, leaving behind a healthy fistful of it under his chin.

"What is dead may never die!" Andrik saluted, bending his knee.

"Indeed," Kai nodded. "Rise. Sup with me."

"Yes, captain."

After Andrik had managed to sit clumsily opposite Kai, Item-M staggered near them, and poured the wine. Kai knew some of the crew, especially Andrik, must have found Petyr's presence outside the cabin, and absence within, abnormal. But Kai had an explanation regarding this as well. Priestess Shae once was a Faceless Men, he would say if questioned. He had taken extra measures to make sure that Item-M and Petyr had never been seen together for the same reason.

Nevertheless, none had dared to ask anything of him after the events related to the red galley, and the huge fire that had seemed to burn blue from afar to the seamen, as Kai had found out later.

'A bit of fear and awe go a long way,' Kai thought, chuckling.

********

AN: Volume 2 will end in seven days. 15 chapters ahead of the Novel will be available on Patre0n from now at the same price, if any reader is considering to become a Patron and support me.

Enjoy!!!